Awitelin's "My DH Has Never Been To Disney?!?!" Pre-Trip Report! Sept 3-10 About This Page:

[awitelin]

Disclaimer: I'm a newbie to the boards, and more-or-less a newbie to WDW, so don't laugh at me for my pre-trip excited craziness! You are all Disney crazies too... whoops! I mean, you were all Disney crazies once too. Actually, both apply.

ANYWAY. on to the PRE-TRIP REPORT!

--Quick Facts--
Going: Myself, 22 and DH, 25
Dates: September 3-10, 2007
Flying: DFW -> MCO and back on American Airlines
Staying: All Star Sports
Dining: Free DDP!

Quick Links:
Pre-Trip Part 1: About Us (In This Post)
Pre-Trip Part 2: Trip Planning
Pre-Trip Part 3: Trip Worries

--Pre-Trip Part 1: About Us--

My name's Rachel, I'm 22 years old, and I'm becoming a Disney fanatic. (everyone respond: "Hi Rachel")



That's me! Except I'm really a human, not a bunny. I don't remember exactly what was going on when that picture was taken... but it must have been fun!

I've been to Disney once before, when I was 10 in October 1994. My dad planned and paid for that trip. Although we weren't a poor family, my dad was always very cheap about our trips! We drove two days each way (gas was a lot cheaper then, LOL!), stayed quite a distance away for the World (a 30+ minute drive to avoid Orlando Disney-inflation), ate our lunchmeat sandwiches in the parking lot, and split our 5 days of time between Disney and other attractions, like Sea World. My dad had planned the vacation with the idea of it being my sister (aged 6 at the time) and I's only trip to Florida, so he could say he'd been a good father and taken his kids to WDW once in their lives, and so my sister and I could make the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage for our own kids in a few decades.

So! Needless to say, it wasn't exactly an immersive experience! There were no pictures taken and no souvenirs, so all I've got left to go on was my slightly shifty memories of life at 10 years old. Not much to go on now, but What I do remember from the trip was pretty darned cool. I remember riding on the Monorail, going inside Spaceship Earth, riding Maelstrom, the Backlot Tour, and most importantly... the Tower of Terror! I LOVED that ride! I made my poor grandma ride that with me about 4 times in a row just as Studios opened!

Not a whole lot to go on I guess, but like I said, I was 10, and that was twelve years ago. Guess my memory's getting bad in my old age!

Anyway, this is the summer before my very last semester at university - in December I'll be gradjumakated with a degree in Business Administration. I spent the summer working for a GINORMOUS COMPANY which gave out GINORMOUS PAYCHECKS, even to us interns! Okay, maybe they just seemed big to me, but working minimum wage will do that to you! So obviously I spent the money wisely... paid down some debt (wise!), bought some stuff (not as wise, but I needed it! well, some of it), and decided to take my poor husband, who had been left back at home while I was off on my internship in another city, on a celebratory trip once I got back home!

Speaking of husbands...



This is my DH. He's 25 and does computery stuffs for a living. He's very smart and very sweet. He's perfect

I married him in Vegas this past March. I KNOW, I know, it's a huge shock! We look so nice and wholesome, but apparently we're really such rebels! Really, we planned it that way. Another couple in our family was getting married that same spring and after seeing all the crazy planning that went into their wedding (cake-tasting weekends? 10 bridesmaids? OMG!) we decided that it wasn't for us. So we turned what was once just a vacation in Vegas into a destination wedding, flew out our parents, and culminated a short trip to Vegas at a little chapel on the strip. Without Elvis, if you must know.

Anyway, poor husband got stuck taking care of the house and our furry, autonomous cat children for the summer while I took this internship in another city. It was hard on me, but it was probably much harder on him! I wanted to reward him for being such a great sport, letting me do this to enhance my career options after graduation, so I asked him if he wanted to go on a trip. You know, something small, but fun between the end of the trip and the hardcore job-searching I'd need to do come the fall.

So he said, can we go to Disney World?

Come to find out... HE'S NEVER BEEN!
I didn't know that! His family wasn't a big vacation family... so sad!

Well, although I hadn't exactly planned to fly halfway across the country, spend a week in expensive resort hotels, and run around like a madwoman in the end-of-summer heat... now we just HAD to do it! Especially since there was free dining. That really sealed the deal for us.

Also, since our destination wedding in Vegas lacked a honeymoon of sorts - it's kind of a long story for another time, but suffice it to say that our family was always around, and our wedding night got us stranded in Denver in a hotel room at 1am with my mother - this is also our honeymoon, take two! A bit delayed, but good nonetheless. I bought us some bride-and-groom Mickey Mouse ears to wear. DH doesn't think they're very cute but he WILL WEAR THEM BRIDEZILLA RAWR

Ahem. So that's the story of us. More intro and planning to come.

[DrDolphin]

Great start! I will be looking forward to this TR!! Hurry back!

[PrincessSharon]

Great start, and to the boards! I look forward to reading about your trip!

[Shadowfax]

Great pre-trip so far! More please!

[disneydani]

You are doing great so far! Keep it coming!

danielle

[SouthernBelle]

Rachel,

Great start to a Fabulous much deserved trip to the boards

Hurry Back can't wait to read more

[AnnF]

I can't wait to read more,

Have a Great Honeymoon,

[Princess_Wantabe]

Great start so far! I'm looking forward to more

[awitelin]

Thanks for the responses guys! You really know how to encourage a verbose newbie!

Anyway, on to: part deux!

-- Part 2: Travel Planning --

When we found out about the free dining via MouseSavers was the final push over the edge to take this trip. I didn't know much about planning a Disney trip at the time, and had no idea about a lot of it, having never stayed in a resort or eaten in at a nice restaurant in a park, but I was determined that we would get it done. Time was ticking, too - did I mention that this part of the story starts in June, a mere three months before the trip? I thought that would be plenty of time. Little did I know...

I give myself this much credit - I was at least marginally aware of my ignorance on this subject. I've made tour plans for myself for places like San Francisco, Venice, and Las Vegas before, but I am also a theme park fiend, and so I knew there was strategy afoot. Except that I didn't know any of it.

I'll admit it, I'm a control freak about my vacations. Not that I want to know where I'll be at 8:00, 8:01, 8:02, etc - but I am just very hands-on. I like to double and triple check. I like to try out five billion different combinations of plans until I get something that seems JUST RIGHT. But because I knew I didn't know enough to plan/book my trip, and wasn't likely to know enough by the time the dining promotion ended, I knew I was gonna need help.

So I bit the bullet and contacted a travel agent. SO out of character for me, but I wasn't sure what else to do. I'm shy on the phone to strangers, so I limited myself to online-contact agencies that had clean records with the Better Business Bureau. I sent off a few inquiries but the agency that responded first was Mouseketrips, so I started working with them.

It is SO IMPORTANT to me that TAs be quick responders via email. I just think of things at random times, like in the bathroom, but I'm not going to call someone from atop my porcelain throne! I need to be able to shoot an email before I forget and know that I'm going to get a concise and prompt response. Mouseketrips has been that for me, and SO PATIENT. Which is good, because despite my resolution to let the TA handle it for me, I couldn't keep it.

I must've sent a billion emails (actually, 48, but who's counting? not me!) back and forth within the span of a week asking questions, changing my mind, and getting new estimates. What was once a short 5 day trip exploded into an 8 day trip. I toyed with water park options and resort classes. I checked airline prices from OKC and DFW and MCI. I often found the answer I was looking for approximately the same time a response landed in my email! I just can't do these things hands-off, can I?

When the dust settled, the cost was more than I wanted , but not more than I could afford (in cash! no monthly payments on the credit card for this trip!), and I was too in-love and satisfied with my final decisions to change it all up again.

Final Decisions looked like so:

Dates: September 3-10.

Our arrival day is Labor Day. I read conflicting reports on how busy the parks will be on that day (once we finally get checked in and ready to go), some saying it is one of the least busiest holidays and some saying it's a monster!! Reports about the week following, though, are unanimous in crowning it "One of the Quietest Weeks at Disney World!", as school's in session (I'm pulling myself out for the week. Don't tell my professors) and it's before the MNSSHP weekends start.

This also means there's quite a few famous attractions that will be down during our trip, such as Spaceship Earth (I was really sad, because I actually remember that one!), Haunted Mansion, and Rock'n Roller Coaster (rumored, but unofficially confirmed). A tough trade-off to be sure, but I figure neither DH or I are really aware of what we're missing.

Resort Choice: All Star Sports.

This was the only real option on the value resorts for free dining at the time we booked (late!), though my later research indicated that this is the worst of the 4. Still, I can't beat the price. I seriously considered bumping us up to a moderate, but we would have probably dropped a day or two from the trip and DH didn't want to do that. So a-value-ing we will go on this trip.

I am terrified that we will run into obnoxious large groups of dubiously chaperoned children/teenagers. The stories about the Brazilian tourists in particular worry me. Hopefully those sorts of groups will have gone home for the summer by the time we arrive.

Resorts will be a serious point to think about for future trips. I would really like to stay at the Deluxe ones some day - I've never even seen them, except in pictures! Another one that I am DYING to stay in is the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I love animals SO MUCH. We have the opportunity to look around at a few resorts because of our ADRs, but I'll get to those later.

Airline: DFW -> MCO on American Airlines.

After the getting-stranded-in-Denver debacle that was our trip home after our wedding, we vowed NEVER to fly United again, and to always fly non-stop if there's an option! Obviously United wasn't a worry for the eastern half of the US, so that was a non-issue.

There were no nonstops from Oklahoma City, our home airport, so the next-best option was Dallas. Our nonstop options were AA or Southwest. Though a few of the airlines had slightly cheaper flights, many of them required us stop over in places like the Carolinas before finishing in Orlando. Not that I have anything against the Carolinas! I just couldn't bear the thought of having a cancelled leg of our flight again and having to fly standby. That is so nerve-racking, hoping you'll get where you wanted to go without the promise of a reserved seat! I hope I don't have to do that again for awhile.

We ended up going with American. Southwest and I have very pleasant history, and I honestly would have preferred them, but AA was slightly cheaper and the travel agent seemed to prefer we work with AA for reasons unknown. I was not about to argue on this point, so AA it is.


Next time... ADRs and park plans?

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I'm having fun writing this... I'm in my last few days of work, and my projects have already been turned over to the people who will continue them, so it's rather slow without giving myself a project like this one.

[dsnyscrapper]

I'm totally loving your TR. I can't wait for more. I stayed at the All-Star Sports Thanksgiving Week 2006 because of some promo (that also was the only resort available for the promo when I called), and I was very nervous for some of the same reasons you are, but I was pleasantly surprised. We had a room in the Surf's Up building #6.

[TheThomasFam]

Great Pre-Trip Report and . . . Welcome to the Boards-a place where you'll never get bored!! (I know, that was bad)

[mattnkatsmum]

Welcome to the Boards and thanks for starting your trip report.

Your plans sound wonderful and your trip much deserved.

[ArielsMomto2]

Great start. Hurry back with more.

[RobDVC]

We've stayed at the All-Star Sports and they'll do the trick for you!
The Brazilian tour groups are usually there in July, so you should be safe in September, and as for the kid groups - they're all in school! Great start so far, hurry back with more!

[bsblady01]

more please. I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world.