10 for 10 in 2010 – Our Joyous January Journey Pre-Trip Report - UPDATED 11/1 About This Page:

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Hello and welcome to the pre-trip report for our January 2010 adventure. I’ll start out with a little background about how this trip came to be.

We had a wonderful 10-day trip to WDW earlier this year (end of April/beginning of May). For the first time in a few trips we came home without plans for a next trip, which, I have to be honest, was kind of a bummer.

Over the summer we started mulling over vacation ideas for 2010. Our 10th wedding anniversary is in 2010 and DH and I have been saying for quite a few years that we want to go away alone to celebrate (it would be our first vacation without DD). We threw around a number of ideas for adults-only trips, like Vegas, the Caribbean and even WDW for the F&WF. But something kept nagging at me – if we did a trip with just DH and I there most likely wouldn’t be money or vacation time in the budget to do a family trip to WDW in 2010. That thought made me sad – especially since DD is starting Kindergarten next fall so this is our last chance for a while to go for a long stretch during an off-peak time.

After much deliberation back and forth and forth and back I realized that there will be plenty of time to go away alone in the future and we were going for the family trip to WDW!!! Originally we wanted to go in late April again but when we started looking at rates for 2010 the value season rates looked mighty tempting, as did the low crowds. So we decided to mix things up and travel in late January. An added bonus, we’ll be there on DH’s birthday.

So then the waiting began. We knew a couple of things: we wanted to go for 10 days again and we wanted to stay at a deluxe (we were positively spoiled by the Poly earlier this year). In order to make that happen we needed a deal on par with the by 4 get 3 free that we’d been lucky enough to take advantage of this year. I knew from last year’s experience that we may be in for a long wait (last year it wasn’t released until November). So in the meantime I tried not to be distracted by all the other great offers going on for this year. Man was it tempting to book a quick stay for free dining in October (really want to get to the F&WF and MNSSHP one of these days) or a do-over of our ill-fated 2008 holiday trip. But no, I had to keep my eyes on the prize for a longer trip next year.

Finally this week the announcement I’d been waiting for came out!!!! Wooohoooo, 7 for 4 was back and the dates we wanted were included. Let the planning begin!

Coming up: cast of characters, our plans so far and how many celebrations can we cram into one vacation?

[B.M.]

Great start!

[KMB733]

Great Start!!

[wayneava81]

Great start!

[aurora_ca]

great start.

[goofysdtr]

Yay! You're going back. Lucky!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!

[debrabrown]

I've witnesses your trip be born on various threads keep it comin'.

[chezp]

Great start!

[Meggera]

Great start! I can't wait to read more.

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Originally Posted by B.M.

Great start!

Originally Posted by KMB733

Great Start!!

Originally Posted by wayneava81

Great start!

Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by aurora_ca

great start.

Thanks! I see we have the same ticker photos (PO/GF) - cool!

Originally Posted by goofysdtr

Yay! You're going back. Lucky!

Thanks! I know, I feel so lucky that we're able to do another trip next year.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great start!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by debrabrown

I've witnesses your trip be born on various threads keep it comin'.

Hehe, I know I've been nosing around doing some pre-planning for a while.

Originally Posted by chezp

Great start!

Originally Posted by Meggera

Great start! I can't wait to read more.

Thanks for reading! I hope to be back with another installment later today.

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Here's our little cast of characters for this trip:

Me!!! -- this will be my 16th trip to WDW. In fact, this trip will mark the 25th anniversary of my very first trip to WDW back in February of 1985. I'm the planner in the group, which I don't mind. Luckily the rest of the gang is pretty go with the flow and happy to leave it to me to decide our schedule and ADRs.

DH -- I'm not sure what number trip this is for DH--we should do the math some day. I think he's a few trips shy of my total. DH will be celebrating his birthday while we're there. He's a huge PotC and HM fan so I'm trying to somehow work that into his birthday celebration. Not sure how yet but I'm working on it!

DD -- She is 4 1/2 and this will be her 7th trip to the World (so I guess between her and me we have sweet 16 and lucky 7 trips!). She loves any and all things PRINCESS.

Our plans so far:

We have booked 8 nights in a garden view room at GF. On our last trip we did 8 nights at Poly and at the last minute decided to add an extra night to the start of the trip. We couldn't get Poly so we picked SSR and spent our arrival day visiting DTD and relaxing by the pool. It was really perfect, especially since once we're up in Monorail-land we usually don't end up venturing back to DTD. Since the bonus night idea worked out so well last time we're doing it again! I haven't booked the extra night yet but we're planning on POFQ because that is where DH and I stayed on our first trip to WDW together back in January of 1999 (another anniversary--are we sensing a theme??).

I've also booked our airfare already -- SWA out of BDL. When SWA announced the new early-bird check-in it really rubbed me the wrong way and I was thinking that we'd opt for JetBlue this time around. But then I started thinking things through and realized that we've gotten really spoiled by SWA's no-fee change policy (last time around we changed our flights three times) so we decided to stick with SWA. I don't think I got the best deal on the price, but it was a price I could live with and I'm too much of a worry wart to wait it out to see if the fares will drop.

I've already touched on our various and sundry celebrations a little bit! The main one will be DH's birthday because it's been a long time since we've been at WDW for his birthday (we usually go in April/May, which hits my and dd's birthdays). I'm also going to plan something special for our anniversary, which is actually later in the year but we'll be celebrating early--I'm tossing around few ideas like a private dinner at the GF or a fireworks cruise (will it be too cold for that?) or a tour so stay tuned! I also think it would be cute to somehow unofficially celebrate the 25th anniversary of my first trip to WDW. Not sure what that will be -- maybe recreating a photo-op from back then or a pilgrimage to the Days Inn on I-Drive where we stayed that first time.

Coming up: What to eat? What to eat?

[mcc0313]

Whata great start and cast of characters. Can't wait to hear more of your plans.

[bsblady01]

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

[Meggera]

Nice intros. Can't wait to hear about your dining plans.