This is my first pre-trip report. :sohappy: Since I have most of my planning saved on my computer anyways, I figured why not post it here?
Anyways, our May trip is only hopefully a reality because for the first time my boyfriend and I are paying for it, as we're going just the two of us without our parents (which is completely fine I can't wait to go with him!)
A little about us:
My name is Brittany, I'm 19 and a college student and a part time sales associate at Staples. Of course I love everything Disney and am sooooo excited to be able to go and do all kinds of couple-y thing. Charlie is 22, he's a jeweler at the moment, and he's getting his real estate license in September. He's also way more into Disneyland than WDW. In all fairness though, the last time he went to WDW was this July, and he only had one day in the parks (he was with his parents who only went for a few days for business things). In one day he went to Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and MK. This was the only time he'd been to WDW since he was 8 years old, so I think he's well overdue for a week long trip... preferably with me. :lookaroun
So we decided on May because if at all possible I'd rather not go in the summer. The last couple of times I've been to WDW have been either the 4th of July or the week after, and as much as I love WDW both of us would rather spend the 4th at home, and we think July as a whole is a little too hot and crowded for us. August I'm usually busy with working, (its the only time I get the hours I want at Staples because it's busier for Back to School season). My spring break is also another opportunity for me to hopefully get some more hours at work so I would ideally not choose that week to go away either. I know, what college student works during spring break? This one does apparently. :hammer: I'm already going to WDW with my family in December, and that would be way to close for us to come up with the money, so that is also out of the question. The busy time's for Charlie's job are mainly Christmas and Valentine's Day, May can be a little tough because of mother's day but not nearly as bad as the others. We basically want to be home for the busy times at work so we can make more money for the trip. Also, May is when I come home from school, (I go to school in NH and live in MA for the summer). I work at a Staples at school as well as at home, but when I'm home it's much harder to get hours, especially the first week or two that I'm home. I don't know what it is, I've asked for more hours numerous times, the problem comes down to the fact that there's too many people working there part time so there isn't much they can do I guess.
The dates we're planning on are May 13th to 18th. As of right now, we're planning on staying at All Star Movies, though in the event that we save more money we'll try Pop Century, and if we save more than that Port Orleans, and if we save more than that (which I highly doubt we will) we'd LOVE to stay at Wilderness Lodge. The hotel really doesn't matter much to us, because we figure we won't be in the rooms anyways, and we love the themes of all the hotels either way.
We have a rough idea of what the trip is going to cost, which is what we're going by to figure out how much to save for it. We'd be going for 5 nights and 6 days, and we'd be flying down from Boston. Ideally we'll have a morning flight on the 13th and an evening flight on the 18th so we can still have those two days.
We are definitely going to have a 6 day park hopper, but we're a little bit unsure if we should get the dining plan or not. I feel like we should in one sense, because I think it'd be better to have our food already paid for in advance, just because this is our first time paying for everything ourselves. So I'd feel better knowing that everything except tips/shopping for the most part is already paid for. But on the other hand, I don't know how much we'd actually eat. I know for a fact there will be times where we'll be hungry but I probably won't finish a whole meal on my own, so I would like to just share some quick services, but the idea of having it paid for with the dining plan and sticking to that puts me a little bit more at ease I guess.
We figured out that to stay at All Star Movies for those dates with airfare, park hoppers and the dining plan, for 2 people it would be around $2245, which really isn't bad thats basically $1122 a person. We were going to wait until we had two thirds of the money saved up before we book it just to be safe, but at the (surprising) rate we're going saving it, we might just book it when we get half way there. Instead of just saving up $1122 each, we've both been saving money but combining it, we're not really keeping track of whose paying what, it will probably be about even anyways. So far we have $945 saved up, so we'll hopefully be booking it soon!
Next post-- The Crazy Ways We're Saving Money & Getting My Parents Approval to Go with Just Charlie
Anyways, our May trip is only hopefully a reality because for the first time my boyfriend and I are paying for it, as we're going just the two of us without our parents (which is completely fine I can't wait to go with him!)
A little about us:
My name is Brittany, I'm 19 and a college student and a part time sales associate at Staples. Of course I love everything Disney and am sooooo excited to be able to go and do all kinds of couple-y thing. Charlie is 22, he's a jeweler at the moment, and he's getting his real estate license in September. He's also way more into Disneyland than WDW. In all fairness though, the last time he went to WDW was this July, and he only had one day in the parks (he was with his parents who only went for a few days for business things). In one day he went to Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and MK. This was the only time he'd been to WDW since he was 8 years old, so I think he's well overdue for a week long trip... preferably with me. :lookaroun
So we decided on May because if at all possible I'd rather not go in the summer. The last couple of times I've been to WDW have been either the 4th of July or the week after, and as much as I love WDW both of us would rather spend the 4th at home, and we think July as a whole is a little too hot and crowded for us. August I'm usually busy with working, (its the only time I get the hours I want at Staples because it's busier for Back to School season). My spring break is also another opportunity for me to hopefully get some more hours at work so I would ideally not choose that week to go away either. I know, what college student works during spring break? This one does apparently. :hammer: I'm already going to WDW with my family in December, and that would be way to close for us to come up with the money, so that is also out of the question. The busy time's for Charlie's job are mainly Christmas and Valentine's Day, May can be a little tough because of mother's day but not nearly as bad as the others. We basically want to be home for the busy times at work so we can make more money for the trip. Also, May is when I come home from school, (I go to school in NH and live in MA for the summer). I work at a Staples at school as well as at home, but when I'm home it's much harder to get hours, especially the first week or two that I'm home. I don't know what it is, I've asked for more hours numerous times, the problem comes down to the fact that there's too many people working there part time so there isn't much they can do I guess.
The dates we're planning on are May 13th to 18th. As of right now, we're planning on staying at All Star Movies, though in the event that we save more money we'll try Pop Century, and if we save more than that Port Orleans, and if we save more than that (which I highly doubt we will) we'd LOVE to stay at Wilderness Lodge. The hotel really doesn't matter much to us, because we figure we won't be in the rooms anyways, and we love the themes of all the hotels either way.
We have a rough idea of what the trip is going to cost, which is what we're going by to figure out how much to save for it. We'd be going for 5 nights and 6 days, and we'd be flying down from Boston. Ideally we'll have a morning flight on the 13th and an evening flight on the 18th so we can still have those two days.
We are definitely going to have a 6 day park hopper, but we're a little bit unsure if we should get the dining plan or not. I feel like we should in one sense, because I think it'd be better to have our food already paid for in advance, just because this is our first time paying for everything ourselves. So I'd feel better knowing that everything except tips/shopping for the most part is already paid for. But on the other hand, I don't know how much we'd actually eat. I know for a fact there will be times where we'll be hungry but I probably won't finish a whole meal on my own, so I would like to just share some quick services, but the idea of having it paid for with the dining plan and sticking to that puts me a little bit more at ease I guess.
We figured out that to stay at All Star Movies for those dates with airfare, park hoppers and the dining plan, for 2 people it would be around $2245, which really isn't bad thats basically $1122 a person. We were going to wait until we had two thirds of the money saved up before we book it just to be safe, but at the (surprising) rate we're going saving it, we might just book it when we get half way there. Instead of just saving up $1122 each, we've both been saving money but combining it, we're not really keeping track of whose paying what, it will probably be about even anyways. So far we have $945 saved up, so we'll hopefully be booking it soon!
Next post-- The Crazy Ways We're Saving Money & Getting My Parents Approval to Go with Just Charlie
