The Dolleys Do Disney...June 20-27 - UPDATED 7/1 About This Page:

[5SOXFNZ]

Hi! I’m Lois and this is my first attempt at a pre-trip report.

OUR PARTY:
Me: Lois, age 38. I grew up in a Disney family. Our first trip in 1974 was via an Amtrak train from Boston. Very memorable trip. We went as a family every couple of years. I went with my youth group every year in high school and continued to drag my friends throughout college. I have previously stayed on site at the Contemporary in 1976, the POFQ in 1995 and The Dolphin in 2000. In 2003, I took my first trip as a Mom and cried as my DS and I approached the castle to see Cinderella on stage singing “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, the song I sang to him every night before bed. He put up his hands for me to pick him up, put his head on my shoulder and sang to me with a huge smile on his face!!

DH: Kevin, age 39 (Will be turning 40 nine days before our trip!). He had never been to Disney before he met me. 6 months after we were married my parents and I took Kevin to Disney World and introduced him to the Magic! He was hooked! We returned with his whole family in December of 2003.

DS: Jacob, age 7 (turning 8 fourteen days before our trip). Jacob has been to Disney World once, when he was 2.5. He loved it and still brings up things that we did on the trip. He is SUPER excited about this trip. Jacob is an insane Star Wars fan (We are a little sad we will miss Star Wars Weekend by a couple of weeks but Star Tours and Tatouin Traders will still send him into a tizzy!) He will be finishing up 2nd grade the day before our trip starts.

DD: Meghan, age 5. This is Meg’s first trip and she can not wait to see everything. She has taken on her mother’s habits and is planning and researching (Via her Birbaum’s Kids Guide) about all the things she wants to do and see! Meghan will be starting Kindergarten in the fall.

DS: Ian, age 2 (In April). He’s our Imp! He is so different from the other two and so funny to watch. He LOVES Mickey Mouse and jumps up and downs and squeals every time he sees a picture of him. He will be so much fun in the World!


OUR TRIP:
We will be going June 20-27, 2009 staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort thanks to the Buy 4 get 7 promo! We have the Disney Basic Dining Plan and 7 day Magic Your Way Base Tickets. We will be getting to Orlando via plane (If Southwest would drop their fares!!)

OUR CELEBRATIONS:
We have a lot this trip…As mentioned above, DH and DS will be celebrating birthdays just a little before our trip. Also, June 10th is DH & My 9th Wedding Anniversary. And, of course, Meghan and Ian’s First Visit Celebrations!


BACKGROUND:
This trip has been a long time coming. DH & I had decided to take this trip in 2006. We were going to go in 2007. Well, nature had another plan and I found out I was pregnant with our third. He was born in April of 2007. We set our sites on December 2008. Plans were in the works and we had my parents timeshare booked (At the Sheraton Vistana) then the economy started to turn and I lost my job unexpectedly. We waited as long as we could to make a decision but in the end decided to postpone to June. I watched and waited to see what would come available for the timeshare (Now we had banked the week and it was slim pickings or what we could get in Orlando for June.) We had even been saving up Disney Gift Cards and had accumulated $225 worth from various incentive program’s at DH’s company!

Enter Disney’s Buy 4 get 7 Promo. I had seen an ad on TV and decided to pop onto the Disney site and give it a look. It was a reenactment from the Disney commercial…me on the computer at night, the kids in bed. I price out the trip, call DH over to the computer and say “We can do this!” LOL! He agreed and we booked it. We used gift cards or our deposit!

[cburke]

great start and hope you have a magical trip

[MisplacedTraveler]

Have a great trip! Remember to stop and enjoy the moment.

[I live with a 'Stitch'!]

Great Start, Lois! You guys are going to have so much fun--glad you still get to go despite your setbacks. Cute kiddos!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Lois!!

[Lorraine515]

Great start to a magical vacation! Hope we can meet up, we'll be going the 20th-29th

[elisa1006]

GREAT start!!! We too had an unexpected third child in March 2007, too had booked for dec 2008 then had to move to June 2009. Our similarities are becoming more and more frequent. haha.

[5SOXFNZ]

Originally Posted by elisa1006

GREAT start!!! We too had an unexpected third child in March 2007, too had booked for dec 2008 then had to move to June 2009. Our similarities are becoming more and more frequent. haha.

Ever heard people of your unrelated twin???? I think that refers to you and I!!

[MickeyMAC]

Great start Lois, hope you have a super magical time.

[KMB733]

Great Start! Can't wait to read more!

[bsblady01]

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

[DyanKJ130]

Great start!! Looking forward to more

[5SOXFNZ]

So, we booked the Buy 4 get 7 deal at the All Star Movie Resort in a preferred room. We decided that the savings on the room and tickets enabled us to go with the Dining Plan and have it all paid for up front. The last time we went to Disney we were on a bit of a budget and didn’t get to try a whole lot of the places we would have liked. We stayed off-property and did a lot of meals in the condo. So, we figured this time, with the kids a little older, let’s “really” experience all of Disney!

The first think I did was start searching the internet for good planning resources. I found Passporter and was hooked. I ordered the Deluxe version almost immediately and then joined the Passporter Club and started downloading interactive worksheets!! I LOVE interactive worksheets!!!

Next task was to get on my ADR’s, because after all, I could make them in December, but didn’t know what or where we wanted to eat! But wait, that meant deciding where we were going to be each day…we didn’t get Parkhoppers! At this point, Kevin thinks I’m insane….it’s November and I’m already trying to figure out which park we will be in on June 22nd!!! He let me run with it though, I’m a planner and he knew I would not be happy until I had it set.

So, we made those decisions and on December 22nd I was on the phone to make my ADR’s for at least Chef Mickey’s where we decided to do breakfast. (Enter Screeching sound here) Insert Disney Monkey Wrench! Turns out December 22nd is the day the go to 90 day ADR’s…no lie, my check in is June 20th, they are only accepting 180 day ADR”S until June 19th….my luck! Now I have to wait until March!

Oh well, gives me more time to obsess, rearrange and make sure we get just what we want!! Oh, and it also gives me more time to reassess our resort choice.

I want a refrigerator since we will have breakfast in the room most days. Hmmm… $10 a day $70 plus tax for the week. I also was a little concerned with the room size since there will be 5 of us. Okay. Then I start re-pricing the trip and find out that we can say at a mod for $245 more, take the cost of the fridge into that and it’s a steal. Around this time I was working on our tax returns and realized we were getting a much bigger refund then expected! WHOA HOO!! Kevin and I decided that the bigger room, nicer pools and other amenities were worth the upgrade (Thanks to my PP’r friends for the info about the pool bars, that really brought him over to my side!! LOL! He enjoys an FAB as much as the next guy!! ) I called Disney Reservations and upgraded to the Caribbean Beach Resort in a standard room.

So, now I think we have our parks picked out, unless anything drastically changes when the park hours come out next week….here’s our tentative schedule:

Saturday: Arrive, settle in, DTD, dinner at Raglan Road
Sunday: MK, dinner at LTT
Monday: Epcot (FW), dinner at Garden Grill
Tuesday: AK, lunch at Tusker House (hopefully preferred seating for Nemo)
Wednesday: pool time in am, lunch, Epcot (WS), dinner at Akershus
Thursday: DHS, dinner at Sci-Fi
Friday: Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s, MK, possibly DTD time in evening
Saturday: MK, lunch at CP, travel home

Well, I’m feeling quite proud of myself….(insert screeching brake sound…again) Oh, hehe, we haven’t figured out how we are getting there yet!?!?

UP NEXT…Southwest why do you toy with my emotions so????

[belle0517]

That plan looks great. My friend and I are going the end of May and I'm a total planner also.

[vfair]

Looks great! Can't wait to hear more.