A September 2012 Pre Trip Report

We are the Miller family from Ohio. Our family consists of myself, my husband and our sweet daughter, age 10. DH and I had both been to Disney during college for brief visits. I had gone with my parents and sister and he had gone with his college marching band several times. Neither of us had ever been for a lengthy trip staying on property prior to 2009. However, we had become quite close with dh's aunt and uncle who were Disney veterans and were anxious to share their love and knowledge with the three of us.

After losing my mom to an infection following surgery for breast cancer in March of 2009, we realized life is too short to not do the things you dream of doing and we booked a 7 day trip with his aunt and uncle and stayed at All-Star Movies and took advantage of free dining in September 2009. We had a blast and couldn't wait to go back.

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During that trip, we both developed a true love for the magic of Disney and knew that we would be returning sooner rather than later. Life kind of got in the way and we didn't get another trip booked until Fall of 2010 with plans to travel in September 2011 with aunt and uncle again. DH couldn't take the wait and suprised me with a long weekend, adults-only, trip for January 2011 to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We stayed at Pop Century and visited only two parks, but it was a magical 3 day whirlwind trip.

In the Spring of 2011, I entered a contest through Downtown Disney for A+ Teachers. Our daughter has some significant special needs and her teacher (who also happens to be our friend with a love for Disney) had managed to accomplish some pretty amazing things with her in the 3 years she had her. I wrote a brief essay explaining her signficance in our life and the impact she had on our dd and low and behold....we WON!!! We were one of 10 families selected to receive a Disney package including one day park tickets, flights and hotel accomodations for our family as well as our dd teacher's family! We decided on the first week of December for that trip. We spent a wonderful 3 days celebrating her teacher. Our 16th anniversary happened to fall during our day at Epcot, and her teacher was kind enough to take her for a few hours so we could have dinner alone. So sweet. We also celebrated dd's birthday since it was only 2 weeks away. Needless to say, we were treated like celebreties the entire time and had the most magical trip ever!

So now, it had been 16 months since we had been to our favorite place on earth and now we had taken 3 trips 12 months. It was an amazing year with 3 amazing trips!!

Returing home in December was kind of a buzz-kill. By Spring of this year, dh couldn't take it anymore and started researching the possiblity of a Fall trip again this year. I was honestly ready for something different. Maybe a beach vacation or sight-seeing elsewhere, but dh had his heart set on Disney and it didn't take long to convince me. Free dining was offered again so here we are counting down to a September 2012 trip staying at All Star Music. We will be travelling alone this time, just the three of us, with the hopes of meeting with some online friends who live in Orlando that adopted at the same time that we brought our dd home from China in 2002. We will have to wait and see how that turns out.

Dining reservations are made, countdown is hanging on the fridge, and flights are booked. September cannot get here soon enough!! :sohappy:

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SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So here is our general plan:

Sept 2: Up and at 'em early to catch our 7:30 AM Flight. It is a non-stop flight so we will be in Orlando by 9:45 and on the ME! We will spend the rest of the day in Downtown Disney or swimming at the resort. (The thing our daughter is most looking forward to!). That is unless DH decides he can't stand the wait and we head to a park instead! ;) We have reservations at Whispering Canyon at 6:45. That will be a first for us and we can't wait!

Sept 3: Hollywood Studios. There are so many things in this park that we haven't done yet. We have 8:05 breakfast reservations at Hollywood and Vine as our daughter is still very much into the Playhouse Disney characters. She will love it. We can't wait to get some pictures inside the park before it opens!! Last time we did this we ended up being the first family of day at Hollywood and Vine. It was a magical moment! Personally, I am looking forward to a cupcake from Starring Rolls! :slurp:

Sept 4: This will be our Epcot day with dinner reservations at Akershus. This will be another first for us. DD loved the dinner at CRT last year, so I think this will be a hit as well. Karmel Kuche is definitely in my plan.:slurp:

Sept 5: The only thing planned for this day is our breakfast at Chef Mickey's. This will probably be another Downtown Disney day and more time at the pools. That is, unless we decide to add an extra day to our park tickets and hit Animal Kingdom. Time will tell.

Sept 6: The much anticipated day at Magic Kingdom. We have dinner reservations at Tony's Town Square and are looking forward to trying this for the first time as well. I am more excited about a Dole Whip Float!:slurp:

Sept 7: Our final day and plans are still up in the air. One thing is for sure, we will be eating light during the day to save room for our favorite dinner in the world....O' Hana! My mouth is watering just thinking about it:slurp:

Sept 8: We make the long trek North with sadness in our hearts. :(
Only 105 days to go!
 

dave&di

Well-Known Member
Sounds great! You're there the same week me and my OH are! We also have an ADR for Chef Mickeys on the 5th! Spooky! Enjoy :wave:
 

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Have fun and enjoy the magic!:sohappy:
I can't wait until we go Sept 23-29 to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary!:sohappy:

Are you going alone or with the kids. We thoroughly enjoyed our time alone in the parks. We missed our daughter terribly, but it was great to be able to experience some things that we couldn't do with her.

Enjoy every minute and Happy Early Anniversary!:sohappy:
 

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Flights are booked!! We didn't get amazing rates, but good enough to justify not driving 15 hours one way at almost $4.00 a gallon. And, I called Air Tran and if we find the same flight cheaper over the next 103 days, they will credit us the difference. Fingers crossed! Called Disney and added our flights to our package so we can take advantage of Magical Express. Can the next 103 days go faster, please??!!!:veryconfu
 

sam_disney

Active Member
aww i really enjoyed reading your past trip highlights and news of your upcoming trip :)

You look like a wonderful family- wish you all to have the best trip yet!!

Sounds like a great plan.

Whispering Canyon is awesome- make sure you ask for ketchup and a straw !!!
 

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks! We can hardly wait now that everything is booked! I don't want to wish away the summer, but......come on September!!!!:sohappy:
 

foreverbelle

Well-Known Member
You guys are going to have an amazing time. My nephew absolutely loved Whispering Canyon, I think that was probably his favorite when we took him.

Will dif have to come back to check out the full report come September. Until then have fun doing all the pre-vacation prep....

ENJOY
 

rani8600

Active Member
My family is going that same week :) Im counting down the days...3 1/2 months never seemed so long before...

i know what you mean about not wanting to wish the summer away, but its so haarrrd :brick:
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
In the Spring of 2011, I entered a contest through Downtown Disney for A+ Teachers. Our daughter has some significant special needs and her teacher (who also happens to be our friend with a love for Disney) had managed to accomplish some pretty amazing things with her in the 3 years she had her. I wrote a brief essay explaining her signficance in our life and the impact she had on our dd and low and behold....we WON!!! We were one of 10 families selected to receive a Disney package including one day park tickets, flights and hotel accomodations for our family as well as our dd teacher's family! We decided on the first week of December for that trip. We spent a wonderful 3 days celebrating her teacher. Our 16th anniversary happened to fall during our day at Epcot, and her teacher was kind enough to take her for a few hours so we could have dinner alone. So sweet. We also celebrated dd's birthday since it was only 2 weeks away. Needless to say, we were treated like celebreties the entire time and had the most magical trip ever!

Awesome story! I've always wanted to go in September and also have wanted to try Whispering Canyon. Sounds like a great trip!
 

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday we will be doing the 70's dance! With all this dancing over the next 2 1/2 months, we should be fit and trim for our trip, right??!!:D
 

DisneyDebNJ

Well-Known Member
Your plans definately sound like a trip to make memories by!!! We love Disney in Sept-Oct. Based on your plans, I am sure you will have an awesome trip!!!! Have fun!!!!
 

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I made a couple of adjustments to our itinerary. We changed our Hollywood and Vine reservations to 8:05 for breakfast since we are flying rather than driving! :D We are also still debating whether to add a day or two to our park tickets. After those 3 day tickets, the cost certainly justifies itself, but I think we will just wait and see how tired everyone is. We can always make that decision once we are there. Something tells me we will probably end up in a park every day. 80 days!!!!
 

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