Going north, south, east and west! BACK HOME 11/2 About This Page:

[chezp]

Dates: Thursday 16 October – Sunday 1 November
Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (35) and DH Mark (43)
Itinerary:
Thursday 16 – Friday 17 October:
New York (Express by Holiday Inn, Madison Square Garden)
Friday 17 – Friday 24 October:
WDW (Beach Club Villas and BoardWalk Villas)
Friday 24 – Sunday 26 October:
Chicago (Express by Holiday Inn, Magnificent Mile)
Sunday 26 – Wednesday 29 October:
Disneyland (Grand Californian)
Wednesday 29 October – Sunday 1 November:
Las Vegas (Bellagio)
Meets: Lots at our various destinations with various PassPorters!
Celebration:
Touring the States – returning to some of our favourite destinations and taking in one new one!

Pre-trip report – part one: you’re going where in two weeks?
I guess the first thing I should do is introduce ourselves. I tend to forget that bit when it comes to trip reports, which really is a bit rude, so I’m going to rectify that this time around.

I’m Cheryl and I live for travelling – especially if it involves Disney in some way. There’s a standing joke at work that, whenever I announce where I’m going – Hong Kong and Japan spring to mind – our Chief Executive will say to me “is there a Disney park there?” and I usually nod and smile. How well they know me there! For me, travelling gives me something to look forward to and to work towards, especially as my job can be a little stressful at times, shall we say. It’s good to know there’s something on the horizon, waiting to take me away from all of it.

I’ve been married to Mark for almost nine years now (we’ll celebrate our anniversary in November) and I’m lucky enough that he shares my love of Disney. We went to Disney World – and Washington DC and New York – on our honeymoon and we both loved it there. We particularly fell in love with the Beach Club, which we visited during our stay, and then, when the Disney Vacation Club built villas there, we were sold and bought in. That was the start of our very regular trips over the pond – much more regular than I could’ve ever anticipated.

So here we are together on our most recent escapade over to Spain to visit Mark’s parents at their villa. You can read about that trip report here.



So that’s us – I’m very much the planner and Mark pretty much leaves it all to me to get on with. To be honest, I wouldn’t want it any other way, as to me, the planning of a vacation is at least half the fun – that way, you can live it out for months beforehand and with this trip, that was certainly the case, as it definitely took a lot of planning.

If you’ve read any of my previous trip reports (and if you haven’t, don’t worry – I won’t put you through that torture), then you may already know that not only do I love to travel, I also love to cram in as many destinations in a break as I possibly can. I didn’t start out with the intention of going to five different places in 16 days when I originally started to plan this – honest! So how did this start out? Well, let’s back up a bit – two and a half years to be precise.

It was after our 2006 trip to California and Vegas that I realised that we needed to go back to both Disneyland and Vegas, as there were so many things that I felt we’d missed in both places. Now we always go to Walt Disney World whenever we head to the States, as I need my regular dose of Disney – and I can’t get enough of Epcot. So, the idea was sewn that perhaps on our 2008 trip, we could do a double dip of Disney parks.

We decided quite early on that we wanted to go back in October, as we had really enjoyed the Food and Wine Festival and the Halloween Party in 2006 – much more than we thought we would. It’s now become one of the three main times of the year for us to visit WDW, along with Christmas and May time for the Flower and Garden Festival.

For some time, I’d been thinking that it would be a good idea to see Chicago – it was one of the few big cities in America that I really wanted to see that we hadn’t made it to yet and I figured that we could always head up on there on the way to the west coast. After all, October would be a perfect time to visit. It wouldn’t be too cold and there would still be a lot of seasonal things – like harbour cruises - still operating then. So why not add Chicago in? Fine, set.

So how on earth did New York end up in the itinerary as well? That had something to do with an airline called MaxJet, which offered business class only travel. It operated into New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the prices were coming out at about the same price as it would be to fly Premium Economy with Virgin Atlantic, so I figured we’d give it a go and connect from New York down to Orlando. I mentioned this to a few people on our Christmas trip and the agreement was made that we’d have a PassPorter meet in New York.

About a week later, news seeped out while we were still in Disney that MaxJet had gone into administration, so obviously we wouldn’t be flying with them. Now what? I was quite taken with the idea of spending a day in New York and meeting up with friends, especially as some of them couldn’t make it down to Disney in October to see us. So I decided that I’d stick with our plans and we’d just fly with Virgin. And besides, we hadn’t been back to New York since our honeymoon nine years ago and I figured it was about time we paid it a return visit.

All our destinations were finally set. It took a lot of working out to ensure that we could get between each and had enough time in each place – and even now, I know that six days isn’t long in Disney. I really don’t know how you guys do such short trips there. It’s been a revelation trying to work everything out. We are literally allowing one day per park, plus a day to visit the Kennedy Space Centre and a day at Typhoon Lagoon. As a result of our shortened time at Disney, I’ve abandoned plans to re-run our balloon ride in October, instead figuring we’d save that for Christmas 2009, as that’s when we hope to return and we hope it will again be a lengthy stay... potentially up to three weeks and with a road trip to Miami, although that will be dependent on the economic situation for us over the next few months...

The end plan was as follows:

New York
Fly in, arriving one afternoon and then fly down to Orlando the next night, giving us about a day and a half there.
Walt Disney World
Arrive late at night, so stay at the airport, then head for Disney early the next day. Six days on Disney property, then off to the airport early to head for Chicago.
Chicago
Arrive mid morning and then stay for essentially two more days, flying out in the evening of the third day.
Disneyland
Arrive late in the evening, then have two full days there and a full morning, before driving to Vegas, leaving early in the afternoon.
Las Vegas
Arrive in Vegas early in the evening, then have two full days to see the Grand Canyon and Death Valley and a full morning, before heading to the airport for our afternoon flight.

So that’s how the itinerary came about. The next challenge was changing it from a dream to a reality – and at a price that wouldn’t bust the bank completely!

I started to actively look for airfares when we got home from Disney at the end of December and I wasn’t too impressed by what I saw. It seemed that airfares had gone up stupidly since I’d last booked any around a year ago. Suddenly I was getting prices for Premium Economy of around £900 each (about $1500), whereas 12 months earlier, I’d been getting £750 each (about $1320). It wasn’t what I wanted to see. I waited and I waited and then I waited a bit more, just to see if the prices would go down at all. Sadly they didn’t, so I decided to bite the bullet and purchase – and it’s just as well I did, as they shot up to over £1,000 each (about $1750) not long after I did.

With the remaining money in our holiday savings account (not as much I’d hoped due to the high airfare), I then booked us in for one night at the Express by Holiday Inn in Madison Square Garden (not Gardens, because I’ve been informed only tourists say that – and I wouldn’t want to think I was a tourist! ) and three nights at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. We had adored this hotel the last time we visited and had said that we would stay there on our next visit and would ensure we had a view of the fountains, so that’s exactly what I went for.

Soon it was time to make Disney bookings, as the 11 month window opened up for DVC points, allowing me too book most of our stay at the Beach Club Villas in a studio. I was hoping to swap to a one bedroom villa at the seven month mark, using some of my Saratoga Springs points, but there was nothing I could do about that until March... I also booked us at the Grand Californian at Disneyland, something I was really looking forward to. I was so excited to finally be staying there, as we’d desperately wanted to stay there on our last visit to Disneyland, but sadly there was no room at the inn. Fortunately, there was this time and I went for a theme park view. I know, it’s probably an extravagance, but having seen other people’s photos of this view, it looked stunning and something worth paying the extra points for.

Next: what do you mean, we’re not booked there?

[Lumieregirl]

How exciting! Your TRs are so much fun, Cheryl You've got a lot packed into 2 weeks' time! Looking forward to the rest ...

[revral]

We're going to miss each other by 1 day. You're arriving on the 26th and I'm leaving on the 25th. Great start.

[wyomom]

Sounds like you know how to vacation! Can't wait to read more!

[tkd lisa]

So glad to see the details. I was wondering if I had just missed the pre-trip report when you mentioned your dates at Disneyland.

Do you have any meets set up for your Saturday at WDW? We'll still be there from our long weekend trip and I'd love to at least get to say hi to you.

[disneydani]

Sounds like another great trip in the making! Can't wait to read all about it and see all your beautiful pics!

danielle

[debsta922]

Sounds like another fabulous trip in the works... can't wait to read all about it!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by revral

We're going to miss each other by 1 day. You're arriving on the 26th and I'm leaving on the 25th. Great start.

What a shame.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by tkd lisa

So glad to see the details. I was wondering if I had just missed the pre-trip report when you mentioned your dates at Disneyland.

Do you have any meets set up for your Saturday at WDW? We'll still be there from our long weekend trip and I'd love to at least get to say hi to you.

I can't think of any. : We'll be at the Studios first thing, then heading over to Epcot later. I hope we get to see you guys!

[Minnie Lor]

Yeah! You started. I've been anxiously waiting for you to start this PTR. Looking forward to more.

[Luvsun]

Wow! It all sounds wonderful Cheryl!
I really hope I can get up to Chicago for the Chicago Passporter meet!

[Griffin]

That sounds like alot of fun Cheryl!! Hope you two have a blast

[mcc0313]

Sounds like it is going to be a whirlwind trip...the plans sound great. So amny different adventures all wrapped up into one...

[MickeyMAC]

So glad to find your pre-trip report. I was searching for it yesterday, thinking I must have missed it. I really enjoy your writing and your pictures.

[duck addict]

Hope you are taking a laptop and going to give us live mini-reports (Please )