Planning on booking...so here's my story

Planning on booking...&....yeah..it's BOOKED! With free QSDP!

To put it bluntly: I LOVE DISNEY WORLD! Yes I need to attend a group for my addiction. So here is my story about my 2010 trip (maybe). Call this my pre-booking our trip Pre trip report!

Here is the background story on this trip. First I should introduce myself and my lovely family.

My name is Rose...i am 26. I have been a Disney lover since i was about 6 and my mom took me to see Little Mermaid! =D This became my favorite movie. I always loved all the Disney movies, characters. This led me to even work for Disney for about 4 years. I am married to Mike...wonderful hubby! Is more into Japanese culture and Anime however....I got him to LOVE Disney on our first trip! =D We have been together for 4 1/2 years, Married for 3 and have a beautiful son Mikey Jr who is almost 2 1/2. He is the most amazing boy! He is funny and goofy and hard headed and strong! & he LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Now I have been to Disney 5 times. The first time when I was 15 back in 99. I don't remember too much about that trip, it was a short weekend in the middle of summer. All i know is that it was Hot! lol. I then went in 2005 with my younger sister who was 15 at the time her best friend and our cousin. We went for about 5 days...again smack in the middle of summer. Lines were long, it was too hot but over all we had a pretty good time. The 3rd time happened to be my hubby's FIRST time to Disney World! We went for a quick weekend. Spent about 3 days there, and had a blast! He fell in love with everything Disney! Fast forward to 2009! I got an email announcing Disney pay 4 get 3 free deal & a $200 gift card! Our son was 1 1/2 and I started crunching numbers and figuring out how much it would cost us and our first Family trip to Disney was booked! We stayed from March 1 - March 7, did every park twice with the exception of AK. My son LOVED it. We loved that he loved it. I cried when he saw Mickey for the first time...actually I cried with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, goofy and Pluto!! lol. It was so great to see him hug and kiss his favorite characters! Then again I cried when three Princesses kissed him and called him their Prince!:king I am a sap! but can you blame me!) We had a blast & he behaved better then expected! Overall this trip was a complete Success! Minus being puked on :hurl: by my son the plane. Thank goodness it wasn't that bad...and he got a lot of it in a bag! lol So of course we started thinking about our next trip and when should we go! =D

Months passed THEN i heard about FREE DINING!!! OMG! So i started once again crunching numbers, trying to see where we'd stay, how long, & when we would go. My son's birthday is in October and I thought what better thing to celebrate at Disney then your birthday! Especially when turning 2! however I didn't want to spend his actual birthday there so we went a week before his birthday. & my younger sister came with us (not the same as before...this is my other younger sister Sheyla). Well with free dining we got to try out many different places. We ate at Le Cellier =D, 50's Prime Time, Sci Fi Drive In, Chef Mickeys, Tutto Italia & Crystal Palace. Over all our experience with Free dining was great! The only downside to this was the weather!! WOW was it hot! I honestly was not anticipating it to be as hot as it was. However on the plus side we enjoyed the pool a lot! And again this trip was another huge success! The only really bad thing was he puked on me on the plane!:hurl: & a lot! (& yes...AGAIN!!) & this time was so much worse than the first time!! So needless to day I smelled a bit funky all the way to the hotel! Ew!

Well this gets me to the dilema i'm in right now I am dying to go again. now quite frankly I don't care about the people that tell me..."YOU'RE GOING AGAIN"! My vacation my money! lol. However my dilemma arises in whether I should do something else or not. I drive, but don't have a car...& I haven't had much practice driving in a while. Where if we go to Disney I don't have to worry about any of that! They take care of everything for me! Plus...hello!! It's DISNEY! how can you NOT like it! Right now I'm leaning more towards yes...I am at 75% yes 25% no. Hubby is dying to go! He's the one pushing me! Can you believe that!! So then my next problem is when, where and what promo!! April/May or try the end of October & wiat for free dining again. April/May i can take advantage of either the Gift card or the room discount and after doing the math I'm going with the 35% of a moderate..it makes more sense for me. So what moderate do you recommend? I'm either going april 24 - may 2 or may 1 - 9, and planning on staying at either CBR or either of the Port Orleans. What do you guys recommend?

Now if I wait for october, my son will be 3, and will pay for park tickets which is fine, however if they are having free dining that'll be a huge plus since he'll have points for dining as well. However I already went and did MNSSHP & saw MK with Halloween Decoration so I don't want to go in fall again. So then I thought CHRISTMAS...however Mikey is still really young and doesn't really get the whole Christmas thing yet...so I want to wait for him to get a bit older & really understand Christmas....so Christmas is out until maybe next year!

So back to my first plan which is end of April beginnng of May. How are the crowds? I've seen a few threads and it's actually recommended. Now i'm a bit obssessed and went on the boards and got the schedule for the park and came up with an Itinerary already! :lookaroun However I don't have it on me at the moment. But i'll update with it later!

So there you have it folks! My plans for my maybe vacation. What do you think? Anything I should know? Change?

 

[GastonAndOn]

Well Rose, it's actually a bit eerie how similar our cicumstances are. My wife and I have been married for 4.5 years, and we also have a 2 1/2 year old (daughter). We have been to Disney 3 times together, and are decidedly a "Disney Family". A couple of days ago we booked our DD's first trip.
:sohappy:
Now, as I do not think my opinion would be as valuable as other more experienced Disney-philes, I would like to offer my input as just that, input:
We too were sifting through the promotion offers that apply to spring/summer travel. Ultimately, we decided on a mid-September trip (14-21 Sept.). We decided on September mostly for the less-crowded (value) time of the year, but it will still be warm enough for the water parks. Also, our DD will be 3 in November, so we would be able to get away with at least 1 trip on the cheap.
We stayed at CBR the last time we went (in 2007), and we were quite satisfied - though they did not have the pirate themes rooms yet. I can't really give an opinion on other Moderate resorts as I have not stayed at any of them. However, if the decor and theming of CBR is any indicator (it actually smells like coconuts when you walk into Old Port Royale), you too will be satisfied with the quality. It's a step up from the Value resorts.

If you do book for this spring I'd be really interested to hear your trip report. Also, are you looking at any particular restaurants yet? We are in the process of putting together a list of the places we would like to eat, so we can make ADR at the 180 day mark.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Welcome aboard :wave:

 

[EnchantedRose]

So yay I have 2 comments! :sohappy::sohappy:


So I’m about 99.9% sure we are going in May…for 2 reasons. I want to go during a somewhat slow time of the year & I don’t want to roast in the sun. My 2nd reason being is that my aunt and uncle are going to PR for a week in September. My mom is going as well and my sister, so hubby and I would love to go and it’ll be great to take our son with us of course since my mom will be there and she’ll watch him a few nights so hubby & I can enjoy ourselves & by this time Mikey will be almost 3 so he’ll be old enough to enjoy some stuff. So if we do our family vacation early in the year we have all summer to save up to go to PR…not to mention I think my Aunt and uncle may rent like a apartment like suite..So we may not have to pay for hotel!



We have made some changes….I really wanted to try a Moderate resort, but I checked the cost of staying at Pop Century is the best deal. Granted for about $200 or so more we can do Moderate…but I’d rather save that $200 and spend it on something else (Spa for me on Mother’s day =P or the QSDP ) & the whole Gift Card really doesn’t save that much…in the end if you do the math you really aren’t getting the card for “free”. We don’t spend too much time in the room & it’s only 3 of us…so for now we’ll stick to a value resort! Plus we loved Pop the first time we went! We had no issues at all, room was always clean, noise was very minimal…we heard the usual door being slammed or toilet flush, or a kid crying here and there, but nothing that bothered us. Not to mention my son did his fair share of crying. So now the only thing left is to see how airfare is. So far for either whether it’s May 1 – 8 or May 8 -16 it ends up costing about the same…however the hours of the flight is a big deciding factor. As of right now the 8-16 have more options. We want to leave the 8th as early as possible…so we most likely will leave at 7:30am…which I know we’d have to get up really early, but we’ll be going to Disney & we’ve done that before…plus since we’ll have to wake up our son early he may sleep the entire flight(Cross my fingers!) I do NOT want to get puked on again! & our plans are to get there, check in & then take it slow. Find somewhere to have lunch, then go and explore a few of the other resorts then we’ll go spend the night at Magic Kingdom. I have an itinerary made up already for the 8-16th. Since this time of the year isn’t as crazy as other times of the year, we are going to take advantage of EMH. Yes I know a lot of people say avoid them…however previous experiences with EMH have been great! I never see it getting THAT crazy on EMH nights. So here is what my itinerary looks like at the moment:
5/8 – Arrive (as early as possible), maybe take a nap depending on our son. Have lunch, do some exploring & go to MK for a little bit.
5/9 - MK
5/10 - DHS
5/11 – EPCOT – Enjoy the Flower festival!
5/12 - AK
5/13 - DHS
5/14 - EPCOT
5/15 - MK
5/16 – Try to get an early afternoon flight so we can take it easy in the morning. The last time we had to be at the ME at 8am!! Eeek!

I know you don’t really NEED two days at DHS, however we love TSM, so for that alone it’s worth it! =D Plus I doubt we’ll spend the entire day at any park, we want to enjoy the pool if weather permits, and I do want to go visit other parts of the World we've never been too, like the Boardwalk! (Kitchen Sink anyone?). Now we did free dining last trip and LOVED it, however when paying out of pocket meals do start to add up to a lot of money. We really don’t mind eating CS meals, they are not all that bad! Lol. We do plan on making a few reservations. We enjoyed doing Character Breakfasts more than dinner. One reason, our son is more UP and tended to enjoy it more. Last trip we did character dinners and by that time our son was tired, cranky and on once instance NAPPING in his stroller! Lol. We will do the Tusker House breakfast; we’ve done it on every trip with our son….I want to make this a little tradition, just like Making MK our first park! We may have dinner at Tutto Italia again, we really enjoyed it. & maybe try a few other places we’ve never done before. However seeing as how we are only two months out, that really doesn’t give me much time to make reservations and most spots may be taken, but we’ll see how that goes, see what ressies i can get...if not, no big deal.


I still haven’t officially booked the trip, but planning on booking it this weekend. I just want to get a few things figured out before we do so. I’m looking into the Quick Service DP….wondering if it’s worth it. I did some math and it does save us at least $241 and that’s not including snacks…so we may pay the extra to get the plan…And not have to worry about how much we are spending every time we get something to eat. We’ll take cash only for misc stuff, and souvenirs. & if we plan it out right we really won’t have to spend to much on any other food. CS meals can be pretty big…and we aren’t big lunch eaters, so you figure we share lunches here and there, and our CS points should last the entire trip. I mean we’ll have 16 CS points and 16 snacks. Does anybody have any comments or thoughts on the QSDP? I would really love input of people that have used it. Is it worth it?

Well I’ll stop blabbing now! :zipit:

 

[harveyt0206]

I just returned from an impromptu trip at the beginning of March with my mom. We opted for the Quick Service meal plan and found it to be a good value. We would have paid approximately $30-$45 for each meal out of pocket, plus we would never have paid for so many snacks. In the end I did enjoy it. Plus, you don't have to worry about table reservations on the QS plan. The one downside is that after a few days, I was itching for something a little more "traditional" in terms of a meal. Meaning I really wanted to relax and order from a menu and have a sit down experience. In that instance my mom and I just opted to pay for our meal out of pocket.

I have never stayed at POP but have heard a lot of great things about it. We stayed at Coronado during this last trip. It was my first time at a moderate and I really loved the resort. Our transportation service was perfect. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus.

Good luck in making your final decisions. I think the planning is a huge part of the fun on a Disney trip.

 

[LovingDisney]

Hello- I teared up reading how you teared up at your son meeting the characters for the first time.
We went to Disney last year at pretty much the exact dates you are going. Our daughter was 26 months at the time. We went to MK on Mothers Day and every mother got a carnation- it was so sweet.
I thought the weather was great- only had one afternoon of rain and it was short. Then a beautiful rainbow came out over the savannah at AKL. Was so pretty.
From what I can remember the lines were not that bad.
I hope you have a great time. :wave:

 

[EnchantedRose]

harveyt0206 - Thanks for you review on the DP. I was doing some math trying to see how much we would spend...and I really think that paying for the plan is best way to go. Our son is only 2 years old...and while we really enjoyed all the TS Restaurants we ate in...eating with a 2 year old in a nice fancy restaurant like Tutto Italia isn't the best thing in the world sometimes. Of course since it was free we took full advantage of it, however If I'm paying for it, it's a different story. If he has a breakdown and i'm in the middle of having dinner at Le Cellier...it's quite a hassle to have everything put to go with a screaming 2 year old...however with CS it's so easy to eat when we want, and are hungry and if he has a breakdown or wants to walk around or anything...all we have to do is pick up and go.

YES! Planning is half the fun! Our last two trips were so much fun to plan. I enjoyed every second of it. I don't plan every single little detail of the trip, but I do like to wake up each morning knowing where we're going & have somewhat of a plan...but then again with a 2.5 year old..only so much you can plan! lol

LovingDisney - I still tear up thinking about it...or when I see his very first picture with Mickey!! Aww that is so sweet!! Isn't it great seeing Disney through your kids eyes! I teared up more than once on that trip! I'm such a dork! I cried with the fireworks too! It's so touching & moving! Our last trip...I cried during the opening show of MK! My little sister went with us..and she made so much fun of me! But it's such a great exp to see your child see his/her favorite character for the first time! That little twinkle in their eyes, their smile! I love it!

 

[me_stitch]

go in late November/early December. your son may not get the whole christmas thing yet but he'll love the lights and decorations. the Osborne's light spectacle is worth the whole trip. you won't regret it. plus, it's not as hot and the crowds aren't to bad.

 

[EnchantedRose]

I'm booked! =d

Yup as about 2 hours ago we have officially booked our third family vacation to Disney World!!:ROFLOL::ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I am so excited!!! We booked Pop Century from May 8 -16 with QSDP & an 8 day basic ticket! Made 3 reservation...Cape May Cafe for breakfast on May 9th (Mother's Day), Rain forest Cafe for breakfast on may 12 & May 15 breakfast at Crystal Palace. We also plan on going to Bongos for dinner on the night we arrive. The last time I ate there was about 5 years ago...& i enjoyed it. Reason for booking breakfasts as sit downs is that last trip my son did fall asleep a few times around the time we had reservations....and since he was a bit off his normal routine and schedule....his naps were at all hours. So i would really like him to be up and enjoy himself...and breakfast is the way to go!

Now the only thing left is to book our flights. However I seem to have run into an issue...they have no 7am flights unless we do a layover somewhere....and that is something I am NOT doing...unless it's absolutely necessary. Reasons being are that my husband does NOT like to fly so to have to take off and land twice..not a good idea, second reason being that if you read my first post...my sweet son threw up on me both times flying to Disney!:hurl: Not fun, not fun at all!! So i'd like to not be thrown up twice! So right now my only concern is trying to find flights! I did find one that leaves NYC at 11:48 gets to orlando around 3....but I would like to try to find something earlier. So we'll see how my hunt goes.

Now comes the fun part...getting stuff ready. I have to see if i'm going to ship a box of stuff to the resort, or if i'll take stuff with us and just check in a bag. Since my son pays for his airline ticket...that means I he can have his carryons so we'll see what we do. Now I have to start shopping in a few weeks for stuff. All his summer clothes from last year no longer fit so we have to go and get a few things for him....as well as I'd like to customize a few t-shirts for us, just for fun!

So that's it for now!!!

 

[ksr99]

Awesome that your trip is booked! I think the quick service is a great way to go for a dining plan. For one thing its paid for so you dont have to shell out cash during the trip for food, and you know you wont starve while down there. Its smart to have a few sit down meals as well, it breaks up the quick service dining. If you get a chance I would recommend grabbing lunch or dinner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian...its just a nice laid back dining option.
Pop Century is a great place to crash too. If your not going to be in the room a lot, then its a bargain to stay there. Plus the pools are nice and kids always seem to love it. I use to stay there when I did quick weekend trips or when I felt like adding more days to the trip. Another thing I think you would enjoy when you are not in the parks is hotel hopping. Checking out what the other resorts themes are. The Magic Kingdom loop is a great one to start with. The Poly/Grand have great views at night of the water light parade, and theming is gorgeous. The Epcot "walking distance" resorts are another great option too. I have always hotel hopped, I find it very relaxing and fun. Plus it will give you a great chance to see hotels you may want to stay at first hand as well as restaurants you may want to eat at.
By the way do you live on long island? I live on the east end and when you were mentioning flight times(730) and then NYC I was thinking you fly out of islip a lot? Worse case, if you cant get an early flight I would rather just go a little later, but def no layover. I hate those with a passion. Im not sure if you have dont the magical express from the airport, but that is def worth it as well. I hope this has helped and let me know if you have any other questions. I've been going for 25 years(since I as six) so Ive almost have done it all. I also was a kiliminjaro safaris driver when I worked there too!!!:sohappy:

 

[EnchantedRose]

YES!! Our air travel is booked! & we got an awesome price! to the Previous Poster... I live in Queens. Whenever I fly i try to go out of LaGuardia. We're like 10 minutes away. I'm a former CM as well! =D We got an awesome deal...i'm still in a bit of shock! lol. I was going to book them last night at $208 each ticket...which is pretty high & then on top to pay to check in a bag! ugh! Well this morning i get an email from Orbitz. I checked it out and I ended up finding a great flight! We will leave at 7:20 from LGA get to Orlando at around 10:00...& the return flight leaves at 7 from Orlando. I know...it's way early especially since we are using the ME....but we get home early enough and prepare for work on Monday! =( but best of all each ticket was $172!! Which saves us over $100 which is good because the money we saved will be put towards checking in our bags.

now my plans for the day are simple. If we are able to get our room once we check in, then we'll rest up and freshen up & have some lunch If the weather permits we may take a dip in the pool. Afterward will get ready and go to MK for a bit...we're gonna take it easy. Enjoy the scenery...get on whatever rides aren't that long of a wait. Then we're gonna hop on the monorail and take it to whichever resort it's heading too & hop on the bus to DTD and have dinner at Bongos & head back to the room...unpack get the room ready and head to bed as early as we can since our first full day will start very early!!

Our first full day at Disney just so happens to be Mother's Day! =D So of course I had to make a reservation for moi! =D I wanted something that our son would enjoy so we chose Cape May. We've never been, it's a simple buffet style breakfast which is great & then of course the Characters! What better way to start your trip then with Mickey & the gang! Then after this we are heading to Magic Kingdom. On this day they do have EMH at night...so they are open till 1am! Our ressies for breakfast are at 8:45....you figure by the time we are done eating it should be around 10. We are then going to take a walk along the boardwalk since we have NEVER been to it before then we'll head to MK. We'll enjoy as much as we can and probably head back to our room around 3 or 4 for a nice nap! We will fit in lunch somewhere in here! lol Mikey tends to nap for anywhere between 2 - 3 hours. So hopefully he'll nap and so will we and then once we're up and rested we'll either pick up dinner in the food court or at the park....depends on how hungry we are..then head back to MK and stay till our son says so! lol Once he get's cranky that's our cue to leave.

Those are the only two days I have planned so far. I can't wait! I love and hate this feeling of anxiousness after you book your Disney Trip!! However i'm so glad that i have less than two months to go!

 

[EnchantedRose]

Amazing update!!!!

I just got off the phone and added FREE Quick Service Dining to our reservation!! & it saved us $372!!!:sohappy::sohappy: AMAZING! I am so happy that I got the pin!!! So we are no longer booked using the %off discount. However I am amazed that the difference ended up being almost $400!! With the money we saved with our airfare and now with the Dining we saved over $500 on this vacation already....which is a great thing because now I can plan a few little extras. So happy. I've already started buying things here and there. I just ordered the PassPorters 2010 Guide...I've read that it's a great Disney guide...whether it's your first time or not. Does anyone have any reviews on this book? I'd like to see what everyone thinks about it. I'm also going to order some tshirts from Disney Store for Mikey. I've been doing some reading on comfy shoes. Now i'm a flip flop girl once the weather gets warm. I do not like sneakers all that much!! So i'm looking into getting a pair of Teva flip flips. I already have a pair of Croc flip flops! So i should be good with those two. Well that's I have for now.

 

[Agent1964fem]

booking trip

Aww how awesome is the deals everyone is getting my family and I won't be makeing it back...this year so everyone post trip reports !!!


Wilderness Lodge 1998
Carribbean Beach 2003
Port Orleans - Riverside 2005
Wilderness Lodge - 2007
Polynesian 2009
Contemporary - 2011

 

[EnchantedRose]

almost at 45 days!

So tomorrow is my 45 day mark! I'll be paying off the trip! Since i was waiting to see if I got a pin and I did...now I can pay off the trip! Once that is done and we're officially on our 45 day mark...it'll feel more real!

BTW I figured I'd actually show everyone pics of us...

That is my adorable son, using our coasters as Mickey ears...and he came up with that one all on his own!!
& here is one of hubby, Mikey and myself in front of the Castle!

During that trip it was ridiculously hard to get our son to look at the Camera!

I went to the Disney store this past weekend and got myself and DS some awesome t-shirts on sale! hubby has a few from last vacation and really doesn't want anymore! Where me and DS will wear them other times...hubby wont! lol. I'm starting to get a few things here and there as I see things on sale. I got some very nice coloring books with stickers in the dollar section of target! I tend to pack at least a week before we go..since we are leaving early on a Saturday morning...& i work mon-fri...I don't have all the time in the world to pack the day before....& before I know it....May 8 will be here and i'll be freaking out. I have a bit of dilemma...I don't know if I should ship stuff out myself, order through Garden grocer or another site? What do you recommend? I mean garden grocer is a bit pricey for some the stuff that they sell. What do you all recommend? I've been looking at menus and stuff on Allears and Wdwmagic to get an idea of what CS to eat at...since some offer more of a variety then others...& this way we don't waste time at the park trying to see where we'll eat. I am so excited & cannot wait to head down to the world!!

 

[EnchantedRose]

passporters guide to Disney World!

I just received my Passporters WDW 2010 guide! So happy:sohappy:I was able to flip through it a bit at work...& i love it! So glad I go it! I had seen it before our last trip at Borders but for $25 decided against it...and a few days ago I was looking on Amazon and they had the 2010 edition for $15...so of course I ordered it! So I can't wait to get into the book when I get home and start filling it all out. & from the looks of it, it's going to make a great scrapbook of our trip!