The "How Much Can We Do in Four Days?" trip report - September 20 - 24, 2007 About This Page:

[pamcarey]

Hi everyone! I've been an avid reader of Passporter trip reports for the past several years, although I was mostly a lurker until I recently started posting a bit. I wanted to write a pre-trip report for my recent trip, but I never quite got around to it what with all the back-to-school madness going on, so I'm going to jump right in with my trip report. I have to warn you that I didn't take notes , so I'll have to wing it by memory and with my pictures. So with no further ado...

Who:
Myself, Pam, 40 years old, 7th trip to WDW
DH, Dan, 40 years old, 5th trip to WDW
DS, Brian, 12, 3rd trip to WDW
DD, Amy, 7, 3rd trip to WDW

Here's a picture of us in Epcot in April 2006...



When:
September 20 - 24, 2007

Deciding on the when was a bit tricky. Last fall I was watching the Southwest Ding fares, just for kicks, and I kept seeing $39 one way fares to Orlando (from Manchester, NH). I kept saying to my DH that we should take advantage of fares like that, so I was hoping that the same time this year would have similar fares. Then I knew that I wanted to go to MNSSHP, having never been to one of the parties, and having read so many good things in everyone's TRs. I also wanted to try and go to the Food & Wine Festival. Then I started thinking about free dining and hoping that offer would come out again this year. And my last factor was that Brian could not miss more than a day or two of school. (On our last trip, he was in 5th grade, and it was a nightmare catching up on his schoolwork. Well now he's in 7th grade, so I knew it would be that much harder.) So we were hoping for Columbus Day weekend, but that didn't work with the free dining. So I decided that Brian could miss two days of school, and that I would forgo the Food & Wine Festival this year so that we could take advantage of the free dining offer.

Where:
All Star Sports

The only way that we could go again so soon after our last trip was to stay at a value resort. I had stayed one night at All Star Movies before while I was on a business trip, so I knew that a value would suit our needs just fine. On the day that free dining came out, I was on the phone bright and early trying to get in on it. I did score free dining , but I was unable to get my first or second choice of Pop Century or All Star Movies. So I decided to give Sports a try. We weren't going to be spending much time at our resort anyways on a whirlwind trip like this. We ended up liking Sports just fine, although we were disappointed that the main pool (Surfboard Bay) was closed for refurbishment. That was an up-and-down thing during my planning. When I first booked, it was only supposed to be closed through September 13th, which was fine since we weren't getting there until the 20th. Then a few months before my trip, AllEars reported that it was going to be closed until October 4th, and I got one of those "For Your Future Enjoyment" letters from Disney stating the same thing . Okay, so that was a bit of a bummer, but we figured that we weren't going to be swimming much on a quickie trip anyways, so we'd make do with the other pool (Homerun). THEN, just two days before my trip, I got my AllEars newsletter, and it had an update that the Surfboard Bay pool was only going to be closed through September 20th... WOOHOO!!! That was perfect timing for my trip since we wanted to swim on the 21st!!! Well, lo and behold, when we got there it was still closed , and remained closed throughout our stay, so that must have been some faulty info in the AllEars newsletter (and the next newsletter went back to saying it was closed through October 4th). (Wow, that was a long explanation of an uninteresting detail... sorry .)

Special Events and ADRs:
9/21 - MNSSHP
9/21 - LTT (courtesy of DyanKJ130, who was good enough to give me her ADR when she cancelled her trip... thanks again, Dyan!! )
9/22 - Restaurant Marrakesh (I gave my DH the choice of 3 or 4 restaurants in Epcot, and he picked the one with the belly dancer... hmmmm...)
9/23 - Boma (breakfast) and Ohana (dinner)

That's about it for the pre-trip info, I think. One other thing is that I decided to keep this trip a secret from my kids. At first it was because I wasn't sure if we were really going to do it, and then it just became fun to think about how surprised they would be when they found out. In my next update, I'll let you know just how we ended up telling them.

[SouthernBelle]

Pam,

Great start to your very first trip report Hurry back can't wait to hear how you tell the kids that they are going to DISNEY WORLD WAHOOOOO Plus I want to hear about the F&W Festival since I am going in 11 Days
WAHOOOOOO

Love the pic of the kids and Minnie Mouse

So hurry back

[snoozin]

Love the start! Can't wait to hear about how you surprised them.

[Brettchief]

Sounds great so far!

[061706]

Great start, cannot wait to hear more.

[disneygramma]

Great start, I sure am looking forward to reading more soon!

[mcc0313]

Great start...so glad that you kept it a secret, I have always wanted to do that (I'm not good at keeping secrets... )...

Can't wait to hear more of your whirlwind adventure...

[disneydani]

You're off to a great start! I am betting you can get lots done in your 4 day surprise fall fest!

danielle

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Pam Can't wait to hear the details

[Starla4436]

More! cant wait to hear how you surprised them.!

[tammyd_rn]

Great start. Love your signature picture.

[pamcarey]

I thought about waiting until the morning of the trip (or even on the ride to the airport) to tell the kids about the trip. But I decided that due to needing to give them instructions about what to bring when they we picked them up from school, we should tell them the night before. I set up one of the Enchanted Phone Calls that you can order at disney.com. I ordered the call from Mickey where he says something about going on a trip. (It was actually a "good morning" call, but I had to make do with the closest one that fit my needs.) Brian had a Boy Scout meeting until 9:00, so I set up the phone call for 9:15. Brian came home from Boy Scouts and was asking me why he wasn't going on the camping trip that weekend. I just played dumb. He kept asking me what we were doing that weekend, and I kept saying I didn't know. It was pretty funny. I was totally on edge as 9:15 came and went with no phone call. Finally at 9:18 the phone rang. I had Brian pick up one phone, and I handed the other handset to Amy. I tried to hear what Mickey said, but I couldn't really hear. The kids were amazed that Mickey was calling them. When they got off the phone, they kept saying, "that was so cool! Why did Mickey call us?". And I asked them "What did Mickey say?". And they said "He said we're going on a trip. He said something about going fishing with Goofy and on a picnic with Minnie." DH and I kept saying, "Gee, Mickey called and he said you're going on a trip... what do you think that means??". They were smiling, but they kept guessing silly things. We kept going for a minute, but finally DH and I couldn't keep it in any longer. We said "We're going to Disney World... TOMORROW!!!". Brian and Amy just could not believe it!! Everyone was jumping up and down and laughing and smiling! Amy must have asked me 10 times if I was sure... LOL!!! They had so many questions. How long had I known about it, where were we staying, did their relatives know that we were going... It was really fun!! (However, now that I've surprised them once, I probably won't do that again, as it did make it really hard when it came to packing and getting our MNSSHP costumes ready and things like that.) Finally, we got the kids to bed, and I got back to my packing. We had a really big day the next day!

[x2qwk2cx]

That's great!! I would love to go on our second trip during the MNSSHP (yeah, haven't even been once and I already and to go again!! ) I would love to do it the same way you did. Can't wait to hear all about your trip when you return!! Hope you have a safe trip and a great time!!!

[bsblady01]

more please

[lablady]

I just LOVE surprise trips!! I surprised my DD a couple years ago, and it was sooooo hard to wait, but such a great memory for both of us! Can't wait to hear more about your trip!