As I sit here at my desk and carry on my daily work I find myself pondering all the fun my family and I will have in 423 days when we finally get to check into the our hotel at WDW. So how should I go about trying to waste away the 423 days that I will have to endure before our family trip?:veryconfu
Of course, write a PTR on this awesome website.
Now a little bit about my family, however, not too much because there are stalkers out there. I am happily married to a wonderful wife of almost 7 years and have two wonderful sons ages 4 and 2. I work full time, go to school full time (attempting to finish my undergrad) all while trying to raise my family.
Growing up I remember living in Orlando and my mom working as a Cast Member. Those were the good old days when CMs could basically take their immediately families into the park just about every weekend. As a 3 and 4 year old we used to have the best weekends. However, just like most good things, it didn’t last. Prior to me turning 5, we moved away. Say it ain’t so.
Growing up, my family and I would go back and forth to Florida every few years and sometimes make a brief stopover in the “Land of Mouse.” My wife wasn’t so lucky; she only got to go to visit the “Mouse” only once as a child, oh the humanity.
An important piece of information…even though I got to go to visit MK and Epcot as a child I never had the opportunity to stay on site. Quite frankly, both of my parents were immigrants and I was the first generation born in the US. Needless to say we were a lower middle income family on a tight budget and my parents did the best that they could.
Fast forward to me getting married and having my own family. 2 years ago, the wonderful folks at Disney sponsored “Give a Day Get a Day.” I have heard a lot of grumbling on this site about this program, but let me tell you my wife and I appreciated the program and fully participated. We took part in an MLK community project and about 2 weeks later took a trip to Florida with vouchers in hand. While in Florida we took our oldest son, at the time just turning 2, and had the greatest day ever. I had finally completed one of my goals in life, which was to take my child to the “Happiest Place on Earth.” While there we took our one day pass and upgraded to 10-day no expiration tickets. We had the money so why not. And because we had the vouchers, they basically gave us a $160 discount (he shoots he scores). Although we would only be at MK for one day, we would be back.
Earlier this year I finally go to accomplish one of my other goals in life, stay onsite for an extended period at a WDW resort. By the way, I do have other goals in life other than Disney related ones. In February, Disney hosted a convention that was directly related to my occupation. If you are wondering, I am a Construction Project Manager. My employer was going to pay for me to attend the convention, I would receive a per diem, and my mileage down to Florida would be reimbursed. Not only that, the convention had secured special rates; if you stayed prior to and past the convention it was $104/night. So my wife and I planned another trip without telling my oldest son. It was horrible keeping the secret from him for 8 months.
On a Friday afternoon in the latter part of February, we picked up both of my sons from the babysitter and made our way down south. We checked into CSR late Friday night and started our week long vacation. I did have to attend the conference for the first 4 days but after that we spent time together in the parks.
What a great week! We thought we were going to have a hard time with our youngest son, he still wasn’t quite 2, but he was such a champ and had the best time. He wasn’t afraid of the Meet and Greets with the characters and most of the time got an “aaawwwwww” from everyone else standing in line. I’m a proud father, what can I say!
Coloring with the Chip & Dale
Please Don’t Eat Me!
So our week came to an end and we had to leave the “happiest place on earth,” what a bummer. Just so you know, prior to the trip my wife was excited about the vacation but didn’t understand what made staying onsite such a big deal. My wife is the pessimist and I am the optimist. After a week of staying onsite I can now say that my wife is a convert and couldn’t see anyway of visiting the “Land of Mouse” other than staying onsite. Can I get a high-five? :wave:
Now the question is, when do we go again? Late in the spring I started talking to my wife about going back. Although I would love to go to WDW every year, that is not a necessity and frankly we can’t afford it. Champagne taste, beer wallet. However, my wife’s b-day is in December and she loves Christmas, so much so that it looks as if our house threw-up Christmas every year. With this in mind I began to plan our next trip for the week after Thanksgiving in 2012. I have a cousin in Florida who is planning on getting married the weekend of Thanksgiving so the timing would be perfect.
As much as we loved staying at CSR, both my wife and I agreed that we would like to stay at another resort. For the time being we decided to try another Moderate. I did some research and decided on PO Riverside. I also decided that we would use Kingdom Konsultants. At this point I am going make a sales pitch for Richard. He has been awesome and helped me with everything. If you are going to plan a trip to WDW why wouldn’t you use Kingdom Konsultants? I contacted Richard, gave him some dates, and he got me some initial pricing. As much as I would have loved to make my reservations in late May, I had to wait until 2012 pricing came out in August, so that I did. August finally arrived and I made my reservation for November 25 through December 1, 2012. 440 days from today.
The reason for my PTR is to pass the time and get some advice on various things. The first one, should I stay at PO Riverside or should I switch over to POFQ. I have been doing some research and I am starting to lean towards POFQ. They are the same price and are right next to one-another. However, it appears as though the rooms and POFQ were recently refurbished and are closer in comparison to the rooms at CSR, as far as newness. Also, POFQ only has one bus stop for the parks and I read that PO Riverside does sometime experience issues because the resorts share buses. So to simplify, do I stay at PO Riverside or move to POFQ?
As time passes on I’ll be sure to share more, such as what we have to do to be able to pay for the trip and not max out the credit cards, and I’ll look for suggestions. I already have three or four more questions lined up but I need to pace myself. Thanks for reading and I look forward to getting some responses.
Of course, write a PTR on this awesome website.
Now a little bit about my family, however, not too much because there are stalkers out there. I am happily married to a wonderful wife of almost 7 years and have two wonderful sons ages 4 and 2. I work full time, go to school full time (attempting to finish my undergrad) all while trying to raise my family.
Growing up I remember living in Orlando and my mom working as a Cast Member. Those were the good old days when CMs could basically take their immediately families into the park just about every weekend. As a 3 and 4 year old we used to have the best weekends. However, just like most good things, it didn’t last. Prior to me turning 5, we moved away. Say it ain’t so.
Growing up, my family and I would go back and forth to Florida every few years and sometimes make a brief stopover in the “Land of Mouse.” My wife wasn’t so lucky; she only got to go to visit the “Mouse” only once as a child, oh the humanity.
An important piece of information…even though I got to go to visit MK and Epcot as a child I never had the opportunity to stay on site. Quite frankly, both of my parents were immigrants and I was the first generation born in the US. Needless to say we were a lower middle income family on a tight budget and my parents did the best that they could.
Fast forward to me getting married and having my own family. 2 years ago, the wonderful folks at Disney sponsored “Give a Day Get a Day.” I have heard a lot of grumbling on this site about this program, but let me tell you my wife and I appreciated the program and fully participated. We took part in an MLK community project and about 2 weeks later took a trip to Florida with vouchers in hand. While in Florida we took our oldest son, at the time just turning 2, and had the greatest day ever. I had finally completed one of my goals in life, which was to take my child to the “Happiest Place on Earth.” While there we took our one day pass and upgraded to 10-day no expiration tickets. We had the money so why not. And because we had the vouchers, they basically gave us a $160 discount (he shoots he scores). Although we would only be at MK for one day, we would be back.
Earlier this year I finally go to accomplish one of my other goals in life, stay onsite for an extended period at a WDW resort. By the way, I do have other goals in life other than Disney related ones. In February, Disney hosted a convention that was directly related to my occupation. If you are wondering, I am a Construction Project Manager. My employer was going to pay for me to attend the convention, I would receive a per diem, and my mileage down to Florida would be reimbursed. Not only that, the convention had secured special rates; if you stayed prior to and past the convention it was $104/night. So my wife and I planned another trip without telling my oldest son. It was horrible keeping the secret from him for 8 months.
On a Friday afternoon in the latter part of February, we picked up both of my sons from the babysitter and made our way down south. We checked into CSR late Friday night and started our week long vacation. I did have to attend the conference for the first 4 days but after that we spent time together in the parks.
What a great week! We thought we were going to have a hard time with our youngest son, he still wasn’t quite 2, but he was such a champ and had the best time. He wasn’t afraid of the Meet and Greets with the characters and most of the time got an “aaawwwwww” from everyone else standing in line. I’m a proud father, what can I say!
Coloring with the Chip & Dale
Please Don’t Eat Me!
So our week came to an end and we had to leave the “happiest place on earth,” what a bummer. Just so you know, prior to the trip my wife was excited about the vacation but didn’t understand what made staying onsite such a big deal. My wife is the pessimist and I am the optimist. After a week of staying onsite I can now say that my wife is a convert and couldn’t see anyway of visiting the “Land of Mouse” other than staying onsite. Can I get a high-five? :wave:
Now the question is, when do we go again? Late in the spring I started talking to my wife about going back. Although I would love to go to WDW every year, that is not a necessity and frankly we can’t afford it. Champagne taste, beer wallet. However, my wife’s b-day is in December and she loves Christmas, so much so that it looks as if our house threw-up Christmas every year. With this in mind I began to plan our next trip for the week after Thanksgiving in 2012. I have a cousin in Florida who is planning on getting married the weekend of Thanksgiving so the timing would be perfect.
As much as we loved staying at CSR, both my wife and I agreed that we would like to stay at another resort. For the time being we decided to try another Moderate. I did some research and decided on PO Riverside. I also decided that we would use Kingdom Konsultants. At this point I am going make a sales pitch for Richard. He has been awesome and helped me with everything. If you are going to plan a trip to WDW why wouldn’t you use Kingdom Konsultants? I contacted Richard, gave him some dates, and he got me some initial pricing. As much as I would have loved to make my reservations in late May, I had to wait until 2012 pricing came out in August, so that I did. August finally arrived and I made my reservation for November 25 through December 1, 2012. 440 days from today.
The reason for my PTR is to pass the time and get some advice on various things. The first one, should I stay at PO Riverside or should I switch over to POFQ. I have been doing some research and I am starting to lean towards POFQ. They are the same price and are right next to one-another. However, it appears as though the rooms and POFQ were recently refurbished and are closer in comparison to the rooms at CSR, as far as newness. Also, POFQ only has one bus stop for the parks and I read that PO Riverside does sometime experience issues because the resorts share buses. So to simplify, do I stay at PO Riverside or move to POFQ?
As time passes on I’ll be sure to share more, such as what we have to do to be able to pay for the trip and not max out the credit cards, and I’ll look for suggestions. I already have three or four more questions lined up but I need to pace myself. Thanks for reading and I look forward to getting some responses.