Last week we returned from our summer Disney fix so it’s time again for another monster trip report!! This one is sure to dwarf my previous reports in sheer size alone considering it was a 9 night/10 day stay at WDW and all our past trips have ranged from 3-5 night stays. I must say it’s a bit daunting, but I took detailed notes and am ready to relive our adventures (and possibly bore you with all the details)!!
The cast includes myself, Holly; the birthday boy, Brett; his parents, Kathy and Danny; and brother, Derek. Here’s one of the few pictures I have of us all from our December 2008 trip:
The planning stages of this trip went through many variations. So let’s start at the beginning… ever since the “Celebrate” theme was released I wanted to plan a trip for Brett’s birthday. We started putting it into action sometime in early April and not long after we settled on dates and made reservations, Brett’s parents invited us to join them on their summer trip to the Wilderness Lodge Villas. It just so happened to be close to the dates we were already looking at, so we talked about it and decided if we budgeted right we could do a super trip. Woohoo for super trips :sohappy:.
We changed our dates slightly to line up with theirs, and then I cancelled our ADRs and made some new ones. Since we were on a budget we decided a value resort was a must (and we should forego signature dining)… no ifs, ands or buts about it. Or at least that’s what Brett thought… I, however, had other plans! I got it into my head that it would be so cool to surprise him with a deluxe resort so we wouldn’t, you know, be slumming when we left the WL :lol:. Once I had my mind set I practically took up a vigil waiting for the AP resort rates to be released. And when they were I snagged a pool view room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our four night stay! Oh yeah… and we couldn’t possibly celebrate his birthday without some wine and signature dining so I made reservations for Jiko!
To make a long story even longer, Brett called me at work one day and told me his parents had to make a slight change to their dates, which meant we would either have to do the same or lose some days of “our” trip. I was freaking out (and couldn’t tell him) because I just knew the AP rate would no longer be available… and it wasn’t. So I started calling once or twice a day, every day. I can still recite the confirmation number! I was in luck though, because after three weeks of calling the AP rate magically reappeared!!! I guess I’m sharing all this basically to say sometimes it pays to be persistent. Let me just tell you… keeping this secret nearly killed me, but it was totally worth it!
Okay, so now that we've gotten all of that out of the way… let us finally begin.
The cast includes myself, Holly; the birthday boy, Brett; his parents, Kathy and Danny; and brother, Derek. Here’s one of the few pictures I have of us all from our December 2008 trip:
The planning stages of this trip went through many variations. So let’s start at the beginning… ever since the “Celebrate” theme was released I wanted to plan a trip for Brett’s birthday. We started putting it into action sometime in early April and not long after we settled on dates and made reservations, Brett’s parents invited us to join them on their summer trip to the Wilderness Lodge Villas. It just so happened to be close to the dates we were already looking at, so we talked about it and decided if we budgeted right we could do a super trip. Woohoo for super trips :sohappy:.
We changed our dates slightly to line up with theirs, and then I cancelled our ADRs and made some new ones. Since we were on a budget we decided a value resort was a must (and we should forego signature dining)… no ifs, ands or buts about it. Or at least that’s what Brett thought… I, however, had other plans! I got it into my head that it would be so cool to surprise him with a deluxe resort so we wouldn’t, you know, be slumming when we left the WL :lol:. Once I had my mind set I practically took up a vigil waiting for the AP resort rates to be released. And when they were I snagged a pool view room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our four night stay! Oh yeah… and we couldn’t possibly celebrate his birthday without some wine and signature dining so I made reservations for Jiko!
To make a long story even longer, Brett called me at work one day and told me his parents had to make a slight change to their dates, which meant we would either have to do the same or lose some days of “our” trip. I was freaking out (and couldn’t tell him) because I just knew the AP rate would no longer be available… and it wasn’t. So I started calling once or twice a day, every day. I can still recite the confirmation number! I was in luck though, because after three weeks of calling the AP rate magically reappeared!!! I guess I’m sharing all this basically to say sometimes it pays to be persistent. Let me just tell you… keeping this secret nearly killed me, but it was totally worth it!
Okay, so now that we've gotten all of that out of the way… let us finally begin.
