My husband (and fellow board member lostpro9het) asked me if I was going to write a pre-trip report. I mulled it over and decided to add it to the long list of things I already need to do, however, this would be something fun.
We took our first (married) trip in 2000. I had been with the band in high school before. My husband had gone as a kid. He had a lot more memories of WDW than I did. As a teenager, I wasn’t impressed with my first trip. Fast forward to 2009. We surprised our daughter with a Disney trip on Dec. 26 – 30. We had a FANTASTIC time! It was then I became hooked. For that trip, the only planning we did was for which park and what restaurant (we had TS dining plan). After that trip was over, I really wanted to go back. We saved and went again in December 2010 (20th- 26th). Almost every single thing we did beforehand was planned. We waited in line no more than 30 minutes for super headliners and hardly had any waits for dining. I loved going during that time. The crowds are huge, but it’s all part of the fun. We are hoping to go back for Christmas 2012.
My husband and I will celebrate our 13th anniversary in October. Our usual destination is the mountains in the Carolinas. We had a really bad experience last year at our usual place, so this year, we decided to go to Disney instead. We could go three days to WDW for about the same price as going to our usual place. We decided this was what we wanted to do, so we started saving and planning. We had a few obstacles. Our daughter isn’t going, so we had to plan in secret and not talk about it. We both work full time, I’m a grad student, and my husband is a wrestling coach. We had to make sure there would be no conflict. I feel a little bad that we’re not taking her, but I don’t want her to miss school, plus we are going again in June.
I went into full planning mode. We were going to make the most out of our three days at WDW. Our tentative dates were (and we flip-flopped between September and October) Sept. 24 – 26ish. We were going to MK, Epcot, and HS. Well, lo and behold, Disney releases free dining. This gave us an excuse (like we needed one) to stay extra days. We compared the price of discounted rooms vs. free meal plan and the meal plan was the better deal plus we like the convenience. So, we booked our trip from Sept. 16 – 22 @ Pop with the QS dining plan. We thought about table service, but honestly, I’m not there to eat the food.
So, now we are in the final planning stages. We’re leaving on the 16th after we drop our daughter off at school. We’ll arrive at Pop around 3pm-ish. I want to walk around the resort and maybe swim. EPCOT has EMH till midnight so we are going to head over there afterwards and grab some supper. We’ve planned our days to coincide with EMH.
16th – Epcot
17th – Epcot
18th – MK
19th – HS
20th – Epcot
21st – MK
We’ve listed all the QS restaurants we want to try and we are going to attempt drinking around the world. With a child, it’s almost impossible to take your time and look at everything, so this time, we are going to take our time and fully experience the magic that is Disney.
We took our first (married) trip in 2000. I had been with the band in high school before. My husband had gone as a kid. He had a lot more memories of WDW than I did. As a teenager, I wasn’t impressed with my first trip. Fast forward to 2009. We surprised our daughter with a Disney trip on Dec. 26 – 30. We had a FANTASTIC time! It was then I became hooked. For that trip, the only planning we did was for which park and what restaurant (we had TS dining plan). After that trip was over, I really wanted to go back. We saved and went again in December 2010 (20th- 26th). Almost every single thing we did beforehand was planned. We waited in line no more than 30 minutes for super headliners and hardly had any waits for dining. I loved going during that time. The crowds are huge, but it’s all part of the fun. We are hoping to go back for Christmas 2012.
My husband and I will celebrate our 13th anniversary in October. Our usual destination is the mountains in the Carolinas. We had a really bad experience last year at our usual place, so this year, we decided to go to Disney instead. We could go three days to WDW for about the same price as going to our usual place. We decided this was what we wanted to do, so we started saving and planning. We had a few obstacles. Our daughter isn’t going, so we had to plan in secret and not talk about it. We both work full time, I’m a grad student, and my husband is a wrestling coach. We had to make sure there would be no conflict. I feel a little bad that we’re not taking her, but I don’t want her to miss school, plus we are going again in June.
I went into full planning mode. We were going to make the most out of our three days at WDW. Our tentative dates were (and we flip-flopped between September and October) Sept. 24 – 26ish. We were going to MK, Epcot, and HS. Well, lo and behold, Disney releases free dining. This gave us an excuse (like we needed one) to stay extra days. We compared the price of discounted rooms vs. free meal plan and the meal plan was the better deal plus we like the convenience. So, we booked our trip from Sept. 16 – 22 @ Pop with the QS dining plan. We thought about table service, but honestly, I’m not there to eat the food.
So, now we are in the final planning stages. We’re leaving on the 16th after we drop our daughter off at school. We’ll arrive at Pop around 3pm-ish. I want to walk around the resort and maybe swim. EPCOT has EMH till midnight so we are going to head over there afterwards and grab some supper. We’ve planned our days to coincide with EMH.
16th – Epcot
17th – Epcot
18th – MK
19th – HS
20th – Epcot
21st – MK
We’ve listed all the QS restaurants we want to try and we are going to attempt drinking around the world. With a child, it’s almost impossible to take your time and look at everything, so this time, we are going to take our time and fully experience the magic that is Disney.
But like us Disney addicts need an excuse to stay longer, right?
