Prelude: Might As Well Face It, We're Addicted To Dub (-ble-you dee dubble-you)
We weren't supposed to go to Disney World this time.
The BF and I went TWICE in 2014. Once in January, which was his first time ever and my first time after a 15-year absence. Needless to say, enough Mickey-minded magic and merriment was made to inspire a second trip in November. Just as fun, if not quite as magical. Because absence makes the heart grow fond, we solemnly vowed not to return to Disney World until a bunch of new stuff opened up. At the time, we meant something big, like the opening of Pandora - The World of Avatar. Yet, as the Disney withdrawal ravaged our system, we knew we'd settle for the opening of Scar's Mitten Kiosk.
But no! We stayed strong. We stayed out of alleys littered with shady characters peddling Magic Your Way tickets. We gobbled up Big Hero 6 and Tangled on Blu-Ray like they were methadone. We were going to stay away. If not from Orlando, at least from Disney World proper. I mean, Universal Orlando was still fair game...right?
I got a dream job this year. So many pluses: a great salary, a high-profile project, a huge boost in exposure for my career. But there's one critical minus: I'm basically confined to New York City for an entire year. Which means that this summer was my last hurrah, travel-wise, for quite a while. So we booked a bunch of trips! We were invited to a friend's wedding in Ohio in mid-September, right before the new job started. Which was cool! But a quick search turned up only ridiculously expensive flights with multiple layovers! Which was significantly less cool! I had an idea.
What if we flew from New York to, say, oh, I don't know...ORLANDO, booked...hm...just spitballing here...a three-day trip to Universal, THEN flew to Ohio, and THEN flew back to New York? We'd be paying $50 less on airfare apiece, that's what! Plus, if we arrived the day after Labor Day, we'd be getting the lowest hotel rates of the year, not to mention the lowest crowd levels. BF was into it. So we booked the first flight to Orlando on September 8th, three nights at Cabana Bay through Orbitz (those promo codes and Orbucks really come in handy), and a three-day park-to-park ticket through Undercover Tourist. We were going to Orlando! And we were honoring our pact to not go to Disney World!
What fools we were.
Weeks after booking the trip, we got an email from Delta. Which is never good news. Delta never emails me to tell me I grossly overpaid for my flight, or that my low-carb diet really seems to be paying off. Nope, the email said they were canceling our flight to Orlando and putting us on a new flight hours later. Well, that simply wouldn't do. We'd only be at Universal for three days, and losing a chunk of one of those days wasn't acceptable. Minutes later, almost as though Central Florida was conspiring to bilk more money out of me and force me to break my no-Disney promise, I got an email from Disney Rewards Visa. In addition to mentioning how trim I looked in my new jeans (thanks, DRV!), they offered a ridiculous discount on studios at Polynesian Village. My wheels started to turn. What if we left a day early? Took the first Delta flight out on Labor Day and did a day at Magic Kingdom and a night in a beautiful DVC studio? Again, BF was on board, so I called up Delta to see if our flight could be moved to the previous day. It could. Then I called Disney to see if we could get a discounted Poly studio on Labor Day. We sure could.
Though it was just for one glorious day, we were returning to Walt Disney World. Promises schmomises.
Next: Making FastPass Our You-Know-What
We weren't supposed to go to Disney World this time.
The BF and I went TWICE in 2014. Once in January, which was his first time ever and my first time after a 15-year absence. Needless to say, enough Mickey-minded magic and merriment was made to inspire a second trip in November. Just as fun, if not quite as magical. Because absence makes the heart grow fond, we solemnly vowed not to return to Disney World until a bunch of new stuff opened up. At the time, we meant something big, like the opening of Pandora - The World of Avatar. Yet, as the Disney withdrawal ravaged our system, we knew we'd settle for the opening of Scar's Mitten Kiosk.
But no! We stayed strong. We stayed out of alleys littered with shady characters peddling Magic Your Way tickets. We gobbled up Big Hero 6 and Tangled on Blu-Ray like they were methadone. We were going to stay away. If not from Orlando, at least from Disney World proper. I mean, Universal Orlando was still fair game...right?
I got a dream job this year. So many pluses: a great salary, a high-profile project, a huge boost in exposure for my career. But there's one critical minus: I'm basically confined to New York City for an entire year. Which means that this summer was my last hurrah, travel-wise, for quite a while. So we booked a bunch of trips! We were invited to a friend's wedding in Ohio in mid-September, right before the new job started. Which was cool! But a quick search turned up only ridiculously expensive flights with multiple layovers! Which was significantly less cool! I had an idea.
What if we flew from New York to, say, oh, I don't know...ORLANDO, booked...hm...just spitballing here...a three-day trip to Universal, THEN flew to Ohio, and THEN flew back to New York? We'd be paying $50 less on airfare apiece, that's what! Plus, if we arrived the day after Labor Day, we'd be getting the lowest hotel rates of the year, not to mention the lowest crowd levels. BF was into it. So we booked the first flight to Orlando on September 8th, three nights at Cabana Bay through Orbitz (those promo codes and Orbucks really come in handy), and a three-day park-to-park ticket through Undercover Tourist. We were going to Orlando! And we were honoring our pact to not go to Disney World!
What fools we were.
Weeks after booking the trip, we got an email from Delta. Which is never good news. Delta never emails me to tell me I grossly overpaid for my flight, or that my low-carb diet really seems to be paying off. Nope, the email said they were canceling our flight to Orlando and putting us on a new flight hours later. Well, that simply wouldn't do. We'd only be at Universal for three days, and losing a chunk of one of those days wasn't acceptable. Minutes later, almost as though Central Florida was conspiring to bilk more money out of me and force me to break my no-Disney promise, I got an email from Disney Rewards Visa. In addition to mentioning how trim I looked in my new jeans (thanks, DRV!), they offered a ridiculous discount on studios at Polynesian Village. My wheels started to turn. What if we left a day early? Took the first Delta flight out on Labor Day and did a day at Magic Kingdom and a night in a beautiful DVC studio? Again, BF was on board, so I called up Delta to see if our flight could be moved to the previous day. It could. Then I called Disney to see if we could get a discounted Poly studio on Labor Day. We sure could.
Though it was just for one glorious day, we were returning to Walt Disney World. Promises schmomises.
Next: Making FastPass Our You-Know-What
