The Walt Disney World/Disneyland Double Dip Trip!! *COMPLETED!* 7/11 About This Page:

[PrincessSharon]

The Walt Disney World/Disneyland Double Dip Trip
February 17 – March 4, 2007

Hmm … where shall I begin? This is a vacation in two parts. I’ll start with the WDW portion.

Walt Disney World in February is an annual trip for me. My parents have a timeshare at Mystic Dunes in Kissimmee that they use every year at this time. They always invite me to come along, which I appreciate very much. I always do all the planning for it, which they appreciate very much. My DB and his family live in Tampa and they usually drop in for at least a portion of the trip. That’s really all there is to say about that.

Here’s the roster for the WDW portion:

Me, PrincessSharon
DF Ed
DM Mable
DB Eric and DSIL Jackie, who live in Tampa, will make a brief appearance
DN Brooke, 15, will be around a bit longer
DN Erica, who will be turning 19 during the trip, will make a special appearance

So where does Disneyland fit in? Well, just before my April 2006 solo trip, I was searching the Backyard board for meets and stumbled upon loobyoxlip’s post about a possible girls trip to Disneyland. Well, it didn’t take long for me to decide I wanted in! When the dates were set, it was official: I would be hitting both U.S. Disney parks in one long trip!

The PassPorter Girls Disneyland Trip officially begins on February 27. Look for a lot of action on these boards very soon (Terri has already started her TR)! And let me say right now that the final roster is loaded with a bunch of awesome TR writers! I’m excited just to read the TRs.

The Official PassPorter Girl Trippers are

Tina (loobyoxlip)
Dawn (DawnDenise)
Janine (FanOfMickey)
Terri (DrDolphin)
Sarah (DopeyGirl) and her DD Emilie
Crystal (crystalloubear) and her DH Doug (who may or may not be wearing a dress )
Robin (RobinKay6573)
Cindy (Lumieregirl)
Liz (EmpressLizBunny)
Eileen (Caldercup)
Karen (zacksmom_1993)
and yours truly

Sounds like fun, huh? I have NO doubt that it will be! As much as I love my family, I vacation with them a lot, so I’m looking forward to the DL part a bit more. OK, a lot more. I’ll probably come back with a sore face and split sides from laughing so much.

Up Next: Making Plans

[PrincessSharon]

The Disneyland portion of the TR will be here. Here's a link to the WDW portion of the TR (which, at the moment, is the same as this one!)

[TroianRae]

Can't wait to read ALL about it!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start

[lauren-roxy]

This is one trip report I will anxiously awaiting!!!

[crystalloubear]

Originally Posted by PrincessSharon

Crystal (crystalloubear) and her DH Doug (who may or may not be wearing a dress )
I’ll probably come back with a sore face and split sides from laughing so much.

He'll wear a dress, carry our bags and he will like it

You can bet for sure that we'll all have sore faces and split sides from all the laughing!!!

[PrincessSharon]

Originally Posted by crystalloubear

He'll wear a dress, carry our bags and he will like it

You can bet for sure that we'll all have sore faces and split sides from all the laughing!!!

Did you warn him about the PassPorter Papparazi? He may change his tune!

[DyanKJ130]

It's a Sharon TR!!! I can't wait for all the and your TR bring me!!

[WDWfan]

TR #2 from the girl's trip. I am so excited and I'm not even going. I can't wait for all of the fun to begin!

[loobyoxlip]

This trip is going to be awesome! And lucky you, Sharon! 2 trips in a month!!!

[DawnDenise]

TR number 2 has begun! I am so excited about this trip!!!

[DrDolphin]

Oh I can not wait!!!

[RobinKay6573]

almost here!!

[PrincessSharon]

Making Plans

If you think there’s a lot to do when planning a trip to Walt Disney World, try planning for both Walt Disney World and Disneyland at once. Throw San Diego in the mix and it gets even more complicated! I decided that since there was a bit of a gap between the end of my WDW stay and the start of the Girls Trip, I would squeeze in a trip to San Diego, a city I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time.

Planning for the WDW part was easy. I had my resort taken care of (Mystic Dunes, thanks to the parents), and I have an AP (though it would have to be renewed halfway through the week). My DDE card is good through the end of May, so no worries there. I didn’t have to do much research because I already know most everything about WDW. (Boy did that sound conceited – I didn’t mean it to!) I did have to find out park hours (off property, so no EMH), plan out which park on which days, then make my ADRs.

When I learned about the new Pirate and Princess Party, I got a ticket for that. I still haven’t decided whether I want to be a or a , but I’ve got my “Pirate Princess” Mickey ears. I’ve heard good things about the Party, so I’m looking forward to it.

Because we’re staying off property, we’ll need a rental car, so I took care of that. When it was time to book airfare, I got that done without much trouble. I had free tickets to use on Southwest (thanks in large part to my BOGO trip in April), so that one was easy (on the wallet anyway). I had to book three separate one way tickets for myself, and two round trip tickets for the parents. DM converted her AMEX rewards points and they got free flights too.

I needed to book a hotel in San Diego. That one was easy too. I get an employee discount at Loews Coronado Bay Resort, which is in Coronado (obviously). I just had to wait until 90 days ahead to see if there was availability. When the 90-day mark arrived, I booked it and that was set.

I definitely wanted to see the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, and the Maritime Museum, and I wanted to do a Harbor Cruise, so I did a lot of research and ended up getting a San Diego Passport. The Passport has a ticket for either Old Town Trolley Tours or SEAL Tour, admission to the San Diego Zoo, admission to the San Diego Museum of Art, admission to the Maritime Museum, a one or two hour Hornblower Cruise on two consecutive days, $10 off at San Diego Wild Animal Park, $2 off a whale watching cruise, $6 off admission to Legoland (and a free child admission) as well as some other restaurant discounts. So my itinerary will revolve around the stuff in the Passport.

I’ll be having dinner on Saturday with fellow Girl Trippers Terri, Sarah and Emilie, and Crystal and Doug since they are visiting San Diego (and Los Angeles) before DL. Our time in San Diego overlaps, so we’re meeting up.

Planning the Disneyland portion was somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. I’d been to Disneyland recently, so there wasn’t as much research involved. Having the Disneyland PassPorter for this trip helped a lot too. (By the way, I wish I could get a double-wide PassPorter Deluxe binder.)

Because I plan to drive to Anaheim from San Diego, I rented a car. I’ll return the car once I get to Disneyland and use the airport shuttle to get back. Many of the Girl Trippers wanted to stay at the Grand Californian. I’d stayed there before and loved it, so that was good for me. Karen and Eileen invited me to room with them and it took a lot of arm twisting and begging to convince me.

I considered getting an AP until I learned of an amazing deal for a 5-day park hopper and got that instead (Everyone plays for the kid’s price). It was only $159 for a 5-day Park Hopper Bonus Ticket. (The AP is $229 with blackout dates.) The ticket came with a coupon for 20% off a purchase of $100 or more (which I’ll have no trouble meeting) at many DL gift shops, including WOD, where I’m planning to use it. We made some plans for meals together as a group, and most of us are taking the Walk in Walt’s Footsteps tour. Tina and Karen took care of making the phone calls. ladies! I was disappointed to learn that quite a few attractions will be down for refurbishment, but that’s one of the drawbacks of the off-season.

Up Next: The Itinerary

[Colexis Mom]

More please