Hey Everyone! This is my first trip report, so hopefully i'll be able to get the photo posting right. I really enjoy reading everyone elses TRs, so I'm hoping mine can help someone pass the time until their next trip home!! Here goes...
Who: Me (26, graduate student) and Austin (25, teacher)
When: December 17-23
Where: Pop Century
How? By car…. Over 15 hours of car..
Both of us have been to Disney as kids (Austin three times, and me once) but neither of us had ever stayed onsite! Plus, it had been over 10 years since the last time we went. First trip as adults!! Needless to say, we were VERY excited about this trip!
I’m the type of person who feels like they need to know as much as possible about anything they do! So when we started planning this trip back in May, of course I started reading these wonderful boards and learning lots and lots and lots about Disney! Thanks to everyone :wave:
Planning: We were bound to our dates by our school schedules, but we also LOVE Christmas, so we were excited to visit at that time of year. We also are planning on moving to Philadelphia during 2012, so we wanted to try to go to Disney once before the big move.
I have LOVED spending hours and hours researching, reading the forums, reading trip reports, and planning out our magical vacation. There are so many decisions, so many choices!!
I really wanted to upgrade to a moderate or deluxe, but we honestly just couldn’t afford it! I’m so glad we didn’t this time though, because we were in our room so rarely!! I do, however, look forward to trying many other resorts in the future!!
We chose Pop Century from the other values mainly because of it having it’s own bus. I also just thought it looked cool ☺
We chose not to get park hopper passes, just to save money. Worked out well for us on this trip!
We also got free quick service dining, and I’m so glad we did! Almost every time we sat down to eat, my husband said “Thank you so much for doing research and getting us free dining! I love not having to worry about spending money!” I know the pros and cons of free dining have been discussed to death, but it was the right discount for us for this trip!
Despite having free quick service dining, I also made us a few ADRs:
Dinner at Le Cellier!!! And Breakfast at Kona Café on our last day. I think for our first trip as adults, this was a perfect amount of ADRs. In the future we may book more, but we just wanted to play all the time, not spend an hour on a meal!!
Ok, onto the trip….. some of these pictures will be from my phone, some from our digital camera, then some from my sister’s DSLR that I borrowed, and then some from my brand new DSLR that I got on this trip!! ☺ enough cameras for ya?
December 16th – 17th:
I was already out of school, so I packed up the car and had everything ready to go by the time Austin got off work… I may have rushed him just a bit ☺
We loaded up our pups….
and took them to my mom’s house for the week. Then, we were on the road!!
We left at 4 pm and drove all night! Stopping only for bathroom breaks or snacks… such as this one:
We don’t have DD around us and we love it!!
As we got closer and closer the anticipation just kept building! Every sign made me shriek!!
And then……
We’re finally here!!! I must admit… I cried a little. Months of planning and reading, and booking and rebooking and obsessing… and we’re finally here!!
Who: Me (26, graduate student) and Austin (25, teacher)
When: December 17-23
Where: Pop Century
How? By car…. Over 15 hours of car..
Both of us have been to Disney as kids (Austin three times, and me once) but neither of us had ever stayed onsite! Plus, it had been over 10 years since the last time we went. First trip as adults!! Needless to say, we were VERY excited about this trip!
I’m the type of person who feels like they need to know as much as possible about anything they do! So when we started planning this trip back in May, of course I started reading these wonderful boards and learning lots and lots and lots about Disney! Thanks to everyone :wave:
Planning: We were bound to our dates by our school schedules, but we also LOVE Christmas, so we were excited to visit at that time of year. We also are planning on moving to Philadelphia during 2012, so we wanted to try to go to Disney once before the big move.
I have LOVED spending hours and hours researching, reading the forums, reading trip reports, and planning out our magical vacation. There are so many decisions, so many choices!!
I really wanted to upgrade to a moderate or deluxe, but we honestly just couldn’t afford it! I’m so glad we didn’t this time though, because we were in our room so rarely!! I do, however, look forward to trying many other resorts in the future!!
We chose Pop Century from the other values mainly because of it having it’s own bus. I also just thought it looked cool ☺
We chose not to get park hopper passes, just to save money. Worked out well for us on this trip!
We also got free quick service dining, and I’m so glad we did! Almost every time we sat down to eat, my husband said “Thank you so much for doing research and getting us free dining! I love not having to worry about spending money!” I know the pros and cons of free dining have been discussed to death, but it was the right discount for us for this trip!
Despite having free quick service dining, I also made us a few ADRs:
Dinner at Le Cellier!!! And Breakfast at Kona Café on our last day. I think for our first trip as adults, this was a perfect amount of ADRs. In the future we may book more, but we just wanted to play all the time, not spend an hour on a meal!!
Ok, onto the trip….. some of these pictures will be from my phone, some from our digital camera, then some from my sister’s DSLR that I borrowed, and then some from my brand new DSLR that I got on this trip!! ☺ enough cameras for ya?
December 16th – 17th:
I was already out of school, so I packed up the car and had everything ready to go by the time Austin got off work… I may have rushed him just a bit ☺
We loaded up our pups….
and took them to my mom’s house for the week. Then, we were on the road!!
We left at 4 pm and drove all night! Stopping only for bathroom breaks or snacks… such as this one:
We don’t have DD around us and we love it!!
As we got closer and closer the anticipation just kept building! Every sign made me shriek!!
And then……
We’re finally here!!! I must admit… I cried a little. Months of planning and reading, and booking and rebooking and obsessing… and we’re finally here!!