I'm currently stuck in the muddy field of "There isn't anything else I can POSSIBLY do to plan this trip to Disney until we actually sit down and get this sucker booked." I've spoken to friends and family who've planned Disney trips, I've read the Unofficial Guide cover to cover, I've looked up menus, I've combed forums, I've... you get the point. I've now hit a point where forward progress is impossible, but I have to do SOMETHING. So here I am, to share my Disney planning squee with those who can appreciate it.
The Idea Takes Hold
I am not happy unless I am planning a trip. Most recently, volunteering to help my alma mater plan its trip to World Youth Day in Spain next August was supposed to fit this bill. It's going to be an AMAZING trip, I know, but there's very little I actually get to plan. But as a single 27-year-old, it's not like I get to work on the family vacation or my friends' spring break, and traveling solo isn't my thing, so I'll take what I can get, right?
And then the phone rang one innocuous and drippy September evening. My last big trip was to the UK for New Year's '09, and my caller was my travel buddy from said European adventure (in fact, let's call him Buddy - and yes, in case you're wondering, it is possible for men and women to be friends and to travel together without it turning into either a horror movie or a chick flick).
"So we had fun in London, right?" said he.
"Of course," said I.
[Insert exceedingly long explanation of how Buddy got himself a free flight to anywhere in the continental US here. Now, I'm sure you've noticed by now - because I know, since you are wise enough to be a fellow Disney fan, you must have every possible virtue, and are therefore highly observant - that I am also prone to exceedingly long explanations. But this is my story. Only I get wordy excess in my story.]
"Okay...," said I, beginning to understand where this was going.
"So hypothetically, where would you want to go for Christmas break?" said he, going exactly where I thought this was going, and not hypothetically at all.
"To see my sister?" said I, thinking it would be very silly of me indeed to have moved back home(ish) to be around friends and family, only to abandon them for the holidays.
"What about Disney?" said he, having been only twice as a child, having always wanted to go back, and knowing my Achilles heel(s) rather well.
"Ooooh," said I.
Well anyone frequenting these particular forums will not be surprised by the persuasive power of the word "Disney."
A Trip is Born, and so Gets a Birthday
Realistically, my wallet, temperament, and family make a Christmas/New Years Disney trip a bad idea. For various and sundry reasons, Christmas/New Years and summer are our only two options, so summer it has to be. Buddy has prior travel arrangements which take June out of the running, and I nixed July-1st 1/2 of August due to the plethora of people and the dearth of summer season Disney deals.
This is the part where you will know, if you haven't already guessed already, that I am thoroughly and unreservedly insane. Remember the part where I mentioned that I'm going to World Youth Day in Spain? Well, that's in August. Don't know what on earth WYD is? Lemme splain. No, that'll take too long. Lemme sum up. It is a week-long event that involves more walking, just as much heat, and less air conditioning than WDW. It ends in a 1-2 mile hike with all your gear out to a field were there's mass with the Pope the next morning, and then hiking back afterward.
So my group flies from Spain back to the US on the 22nd. In order to get the length of stay we want and not run into September (a necessity), we have to fly to Orlando on the 23rd. Flights come in three varieties: reasonably priced 6am departure, unreasonably priced mid afternoon departure, and reasonably priced 11pm arrival. (Buddy has free airfare; I don't.) Obviously the late arrival is out, because who'd choose to spend LESS time in the World, duh?
Buddy, who lives in a neighboring city, has very kindly agreed to fly out of my airport instead of his. This does not make him as nice as it sounds. Mostly, he's looking forward to laughing at my jet-lagged lack of mental capacity as I attempt to unpack, do laundry, re-pack, and wake up at 4am on the 23rd to catch our flight.
Many people have eager countdowns to their departure day. Mine is going to be....
...well, Buddy will have an eager countdown, anyway.
Negotiations, or, Breaking the Promise I Made to My 13-Year-Old Self That I'd Never Have to Eat at Akershus Again (Again)
When Buddy and I went to the UK, he officially dubbed me Queen Bee in Charge of All Planning Decisions. His only trip outside the US had lasted a grand total of a half an hour, to one of our North American neighbors. I, on the other hand, had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of England at the end of my semester abroad. (And then there was that time where I had a connecting flight in Heathrow and had 20 min to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 in 20 min, actually made it onto the plane, and then the control tower computers crashed and I waited on the ground for an hour. My beloved England was RIGHT THERE and I was on a stupid plane. It wasn't pretty.) I was to book it all, and if I dared ask for his input, I'd find myself with my head bitten off.
Buddy and I occasionally fail at the whole communication thing, and those first few conversations when we decided all this was actually going to happen, we missed the sharing of planning responsibilities conversation. Ooops. Oh well, I told myself, I'll just become a walking guidebook, plan out all the options that can work for us, and we can sort it out later.
It was planning HEAVEN.
I hit full-blown ex-English major research mode and read everything I could get my hands on. I made a list of all the decisions we'd have to make, and all the options we'd have to choose from to make those decisions. I made a chart of restaurants, locations, short descriptions, and a rating system of how interested I am in going there. I made a mini guidebook to take to the parks with us, based on the planning sheets and cheat sheets from www.tourinplans.com. It has a monthly to-do list, a shopping list, a packing list (divided up by what bag everything is going in), pages for flight, ground transportation, and Disney reservation dates, times, phone numbers, and confirmation numbers; an emergency/contingency phone number list, my favorite park touring tips, a daily budget, and a page per day for an itinerary (just park hours and ADR's, though - I like to have the theories of park touring thoroughly researched so I can be spontaneous and do what I want without being disappointed by stupid moves like hitting Splash Mountain at 1pm w/out FP's).
And then it turns out that Buddy DOES in fact want to be actively involved in the planning process - UK was an uknown, but Disney he feels comfortable with. Have all my hours of research and preparation gone to waste? Oh, no! If there's one thing I love more than planning, it should be obvious to you by now that it's TALKING about planning! So, length of stay and dates firmly in place, that left us to debate resort, restaurants, and whether or not to hit up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (no).
Staying on-site was a no-brainer for us. So value resort with a QS plan, or moderate with the full DDP? The reason Buddy and I can travel together without killing each other is that we think alike on the right topics. We're foodies who like some creature comforts, so we easily agreed on a moderate. And then I used my superior knowledge of Disney to manipulate him into agreeing that the Port Orleans sisters are the best moderates. :goodnevil I also got my way in picking FQ, my favorite Disney resort, when he preferred Riverside.
But I got my way at a heavy, heavy cost. Like I said, we think alike. So we quickly agreed Le Cellier (if we can get it), Brown Derby, Chefs de France, Kona Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe, and The Wave. But we don't exactly share the same brain - I'm told by science types that this defies the laws of physics or something - so there was bound to be one difference of opinion around here somewhere.
I was in WDW the year Akershus opened. I was in my early teens but got along uncommonly well with my parents, so the fact that I never got to bring a friend and my siblings were all off on their own didn't have much of an impact on the trip. A new restaurant in the World was fascinating, and we decided to be adventurous and try Akershus. It turned out to be the only thing (since I was two and afraid of the fireworks) in WDW that I absolutely HATE (ok, that and the exterior of the Dolphin and the Swan). We then quickly agreed, upon actually eating the food, that we'd never go back. It was a comforting thought: my parents wouldn't make me go back next time, and I would certainly never choose to go there as an adult myself. Well, then I went with my sister's family in '07. My niece is a Disney princess-aholic. Guess which restaurant, offering the largest number of princesses at a character dining experience, is always a must-do for them? D'OH!! Ok, well fine, I figured...once more in my life won't kill me.
Buddy's only trip with his family was around the same time as my first trip to Akershus. That, and his trip with a friend's family are both so very long ago that he remembers very little beyond loving it and wanting to go back. So we think alike, great! And I have superior Disney knowledge that I can use to manipulate him - double great! No Akershus this time, right? Of course right!
Well guess what restaurant is the ONE thing that sticks out in Buddy's mind as being this amazing part of WDW that he's always wanted to go back and do again?
Doomed am I to receive these visits from the ghost of Akershus past.
To Be Continued
Still with me, eh? Nice of you to stick it through till the end. Now I have nothing left to plan until we can actually sit down and commit to booking it all...and then I have a long, long, long time to wait until the 180-mark for our ADR's. So sad! I guess I'll be posting again....in a year.
The Idea Takes Hold
I am not happy unless I am planning a trip. Most recently, volunteering to help my alma mater plan its trip to World Youth Day in Spain next August was supposed to fit this bill. It's going to be an AMAZING trip, I know, but there's very little I actually get to plan. But as a single 27-year-old, it's not like I get to work on the family vacation or my friends' spring break, and traveling solo isn't my thing, so I'll take what I can get, right?
And then the phone rang one innocuous and drippy September evening. My last big trip was to the UK for New Year's '09, and my caller was my travel buddy from said European adventure (in fact, let's call him Buddy - and yes, in case you're wondering, it is possible for men and women to be friends and to travel together without it turning into either a horror movie or a chick flick).
"So we had fun in London, right?" said he.
"Of course," said I.
[Insert exceedingly long explanation of how Buddy got himself a free flight to anywhere in the continental US here. Now, I'm sure you've noticed by now - because I know, since you are wise enough to be a fellow Disney fan, you must have every possible virtue, and are therefore highly observant - that I am also prone to exceedingly long explanations. But this is my story. Only I get wordy excess in my story.]
"Okay...," said I, beginning to understand where this was going.
"So hypothetically, where would you want to go for Christmas break?" said he, going exactly where I thought this was going, and not hypothetically at all.
"To see my sister?" said I, thinking it would be very silly of me indeed to have moved back home(ish) to be around friends and family, only to abandon them for the holidays.
"What about Disney?" said he, having been only twice as a child, having always wanted to go back, and knowing my Achilles heel(s) rather well.
"Ooooh," said I.
Well anyone frequenting these particular forums will not be surprised by the persuasive power of the word "Disney."
A Trip is Born, and so Gets a Birthday
Realistically, my wallet, temperament, and family make a Christmas/New Years Disney trip a bad idea. For various and sundry reasons, Christmas/New Years and summer are our only two options, so summer it has to be. Buddy has prior travel arrangements which take June out of the running, and I nixed July-1st 1/2 of August due to the plethora of people and the dearth of summer season Disney deals.
This is the part where you will know, if you haven't already guessed already, that I am thoroughly and unreservedly insane. Remember the part where I mentioned that I'm going to World Youth Day in Spain? Well, that's in August. Don't know what on earth WYD is? Lemme splain. No, that'll take too long. Lemme sum up. It is a week-long event that involves more walking, just as much heat, and less air conditioning than WDW. It ends in a 1-2 mile hike with all your gear out to a field were there's mass with the Pope the next morning, and then hiking back afterward.
So my group flies from Spain back to the US on the 22nd. In order to get the length of stay we want and not run into September (a necessity), we have to fly to Orlando on the 23rd. Flights come in three varieties: reasonably priced 6am departure, unreasonably priced mid afternoon departure, and reasonably priced 11pm arrival. (Buddy has free airfare; I don't.) Obviously the late arrival is out, because who'd choose to spend LESS time in the World, duh?
Buddy, who lives in a neighboring city, has very kindly agreed to fly out of my airport instead of his. This does not make him as nice as it sounds. Mostly, he's looking forward to laughing at my jet-lagged lack of mental capacity as I attempt to unpack, do laundry, re-pack, and wake up at 4am on the 23rd to catch our flight.
Many people have eager countdowns to their departure day. Mine is going to be....
...well, Buddy will have an eager countdown, anyway.
Negotiations, or, Breaking the Promise I Made to My 13-Year-Old Self That I'd Never Have to Eat at Akershus Again (Again)
When Buddy and I went to the UK, he officially dubbed me Queen Bee in Charge of All Planning Decisions. His only trip outside the US had lasted a grand total of a half an hour, to one of our North American neighbors. I, on the other hand, had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of England at the end of my semester abroad. (And then there was that time where I had a connecting flight in Heathrow and had 20 min to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 in 20 min, actually made it onto the plane, and then the control tower computers crashed and I waited on the ground for an hour. My beloved England was RIGHT THERE and I was on a stupid plane. It wasn't pretty.) I was to book it all, and if I dared ask for his input, I'd find myself with my head bitten off.
Buddy and I occasionally fail at the whole communication thing, and those first few conversations when we decided all this was actually going to happen, we missed the sharing of planning responsibilities conversation. Ooops. Oh well, I told myself, I'll just become a walking guidebook, plan out all the options that can work for us, and we can sort it out later.
It was planning HEAVEN.
I hit full-blown ex-English major research mode and read everything I could get my hands on. I made a list of all the decisions we'd have to make, and all the options we'd have to choose from to make those decisions. I made a chart of restaurants, locations, short descriptions, and a rating system of how interested I am in going there. I made a mini guidebook to take to the parks with us, based on the planning sheets and cheat sheets from www.tourinplans.com. It has a monthly to-do list, a shopping list, a packing list (divided up by what bag everything is going in), pages for flight, ground transportation, and Disney reservation dates, times, phone numbers, and confirmation numbers; an emergency/contingency phone number list, my favorite park touring tips, a daily budget, and a page per day for an itinerary (just park hours and ADR's, though - I like to have the theories of park touring thoroughly researched so I can be spontaneous and do what I want without being disappointed by stupid moves like hitting Splash Mountain at 1pm w/out FP's).
And then it turns out that Buddy DOES in fact want to be actively involved in the planning process - UK was an uknown, but Disney he feels comfortable with. Have all my hours of research and preparation gone to waste? Oh, no! If there's one thing I love more than planning, it should be obvious to you by now that it's TALKING about planning! So, length of stay and dates firmly in place, that left us to debate resort, restaurants, and whether or not to hit up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (no).
Staying on-site was a no-brainer for us. So value resort with a QS plan, or moderate with the full DDP? The reason Buddy and I can travel together without killing each other is that we think alike on the right topics. We're foodies who like some creature comforts, so we easily agreed on a moderate. And then I used my superior knowledge of Disney to manipulate him into agreeing that the Port Orleans sisters are the best moderates. :goodnevil I also got my way in picking FQ, my favorite Disney resort, when he preferred Riverside.
But I got my way at a heavy, heavy cost. Like I said, we think alike. So we quickly agreed Le Cellier (if we can get it), Brown Derby, Chefs de France, Kona Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe, and The Wave. But we don't exactly share the same brain - I'm told by science types that this defies the laws of physics or something - so there was bound to be one difference of opinion around here somewhere.
I was in WDW the year Akershus opened. I was in my early teens but got along uncommonly well with my parents, so the fact that I never got to bring a friend and my siblings were all off on their own didn't have much of an impact on the trip. A new restaurant in the World was fascinating, and we decided to be adventurous and try Akershus. It turned out to be the only thing (since I was two and afraid of the fireworks) in WDW that I absolutely HATE (ok, that and the exterior of the Dolphin and the Swan). We then quickly agreed, upon actually eating the food, that we'd never go back. It was a comforting thought: my parents wouldn't make me go back next time, and I would certainly never choose to go there as an adult myself. Well, then I went with my sister's family in '07. My niece is a Disney princess-aholic. Guess which restaurant, offering the largest number of princesses at a character dining experience, is always a must-do for them? D'OH!! Ok, well fine, I figured...once more in my life won't kill me.
Buddy's only trip with his family was around the same time as my first trip to Akershus. That, and his trip with a friend's family are both so very long ago that he remembers very little beyond loving it and wanting to go back. So we think alike, great! And I have superior Disney knowledge that I can use to manipulate him - double great! No Akershus this time, right? Of course right!
Well guess what restaurant is the ONE thing that sticks out in Buddy's mind as being this amazing part of WDW that he's always wanted to go back and do again?
Doomed am I to receive these visits from the ghost of Akershus past.
To Be Continued
Still with me, eh? Nice of you to stick it through till the end. Now I have nothing left to plan until we can actually sit down and commit to booking it all...and then I have a long, long, long time to wait until the 180-mark for our ADR's. So sad! I guess I'll be posting again....in a year.
