Planning for this trip began two days before we left for our honeymoon, when my parents informed Sarah and me that their wedding gift to us would be a trip with them to Walt Disney World at Christmas. Sarah and I had already figured we’d take a short trip down in early December, so this gave us the perfect excuse to make it official--and longer.
For those unfamiliar with us, we got engaged during Christmas Wishes! on the Beach of the Polynesian in 2007 and [url=”http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=616344”] went on our “Disneymoon” this summer following our wedding.[/url]. Between our engagement and Disneymoon, we took four additional trips to WDW in August 2008,
November/December 2008, August 2009 and October 2009. Since our Disneymoon, we took our [url=http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=647439] first trip to Disneyland![/url]
Phew, that’s a lot of trips.
The planning began almost immediately after we returned from that Disneymoon trip (actually, some of it was before we returned, as we began thinking about the Christmas trip on our last day to soften the blow of leaving).
Christmas is our favorite time of the year at Disney, and we hadn’t been at Christmas since 2008. I know that’s only one Christmas season missed, but it feels like forever ago. Here is a photo of us there from Christmas 2008:
I don’t have any recent photos of my parents at Disney, so this will have to suffice. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled if/when they see these:
Shortly after getting back from the Disneymoon, we made our ADRs. After eating far too many table service meals for our liking on the Disneymoon trip, we decided that we would not be doing the Disney Dining Plan. I think ultimately the Tables in Wonderland card will work better for us anyway, as it will allow us to eat what we want without regard to attempting to get as much value for our money as possible. While I love food, the DDP was just too much, and too expensive.
The next question was where would we stay? My father is a retired CW4/Blackhawk instructor pilot, so Shades of Green was the obvious first option. It has been a long time since I stayed there, but I remember it being incredibly nice and having a great location. I’ve heard it has since been renovated, so hopefully it’s even nicer. My mom also experienced an interest in Fort Wilderness Cabins, but I couldn’t find a good AP rate on those, so Shades of Green it would be.
Sarah and I were excited to stay in this resort, but were a little disappointed not to be able to take Disney’s Magical Express from the airport. We also would not be participating in little of WDWToday Reunion since it’s a family trip, so we began thinking of adding a day. When we found discount that gave us a room in a Value for ~$50, that sealed the deal. Given shuttle costs, it would have been foolish not to book the extra day for the two of us, right?!
Then, we discovered that D23’s Magic & Merriment would be occurring while we were down there. I remembered hearing accounts of this last year, and being incredibly jealous. However, I saw that we would have to add an extra day to the rear end of our trip to accommodate doing this event. Since tickets sold out instantaneously last year, I didn’t hold out much stock in getting them, figuring we’d make the change to our flight if we somehow got them.
However, the next day, when Sarah called DME to add our flight information, she discovered something. We booked our flights such that we were departing Orlando for Indianapolis, and then returning from Indianapolis to Orlando. I have no idea how we booked our flight like this, but we did. What’s even worse, after reviewing the flight multiple times on TripIt, neither of us had caught the mistake. That’s taking incompetence to the next level, right there!
To add insult to injury, when I attempted to rebook on Southwest so that, you know, we’d actually arrive in Orlando and not our hometown, the price for the return flight was double what we had originally paid. I knew I had to rebook to avoid running the risk of the flight increasing further, but I didn’t want to pay that price only to get a refund in credit (that I may or may not eventually receive, as our next flight will be free and there are time limits on using the credit), so I took a look at the Monday flights. The flight we’d want on Monday was significantly cheaper. Although I’m not superstitious, part of me didn’t want to book it for some odd reason. For lack of a more logical reason, I didn’t want to “jinx” it. Logic won out, and booking the more expensive day with the prospect of not being able to use the credit just didn’t make sense, so I booked Monday. We’d know in a week whether we’d have to book Sunday instead, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.
The rest of the week and the first part of the following week went by slowly as we anticipated 1 p.m. on Tuesday. For those unfamiliar with what this event entails, and why we were so excited, here’s the event page. Quite the slate of events. Sarah and I had a plan and strategy ready, and we both took our lunches at work so that we would not be interrupted when attempting to purchase the tickets. At 12:50 p.m., we both started constantly refreshing the on which the link to purchase tickets would appear. The link appeared for me about 20 seconds before it appeared for Sarah, and I sped through the purchase-process. By the time the link appeared for Sarah and she clicked it, she received an “Event Sold Out” message. I was able to complete the checkout, and just sat there in half shock.
I honestly never expected to get the tickets after hearing accounts of how quickly other D23 events sell out. I reviewed my email receipt information multiple times, making sure I hadn’t made any mistakes that would cause my order to fail, printed off multiple copies of the receipt and order confirmation screen, saved the screen-caps, etc. At $235 per ticket, this event will be our Christmas gift to one another. Even with the steep price, and our normally frugal nature, there was no hesitation in purchasing these tickets. While we are keen on purchasing a house in the near future, making the most of our time together before having children is actually more important to us. I don’t anticipate the housing market making a comeback in the near future, whereas these years are fleeting. At least, that’s how we justify it to ourselves.
The bad part about booking this additional day was that we had already booked that other additional day on the front end of the trip (and I was reluctant to even do this), and now the trip had bloated to 12 days. Given that I had just started working full time (although I worked summers and part time at the same location through law school), after the California trip, these additional days were a lot to seek in just five months of full-time employment on the year. C’est la vie, I suppose. It’s tough to look at the downside of additional days at Disney. Especially during the Christmas season.
With the tickets purchased, we became really pumped for the trip. We decided to make our countdown calendar when we returned home, which is always a milestone as it indicates that the trip is actually upon us! Here is the end result:
Next step was booking another night at the end of our trip. Thanks to a Cast Member friend of ours, we were able to secure a night in a Value for a good price. Due to this, we’ll be staying in three different resorts for the trip: a former Deluxe (back when it was the Disney Inn/Golf Resort) in Shades of Green bookended by two different Values. Should be interesting. I’m not looking forward to those resort changes, but it should be worth it. (By the way, anyone know if Disney and/or Shades of Green will move our luggage for us? I know Disney does going from Disney resort to Disney resort, but will they in this circumstance?)
With these additional details set, we decided it was time to go online and cancel a good number of our dining reservations as we had made too many, not knowing our schedule. Much to our shock and dismay, all but three of our ADRs had already been canceled! Apparently, sometimes CMs go in and flag double-booked ADRs and will cancel them. The majority of these were not double-booked, yet they were canceled anyway. A little irritating, as we always cancel these ourselves and, so far as I know, there is no policy against doing this nor is there warning that the reservations will be canceled by Disney (just warning that you’re double booked, and a request that you cancel yourself). As this is a contentious issue, I’m sure many of you think we got what was coming to us, but that’s how we book our dining. We cancel the unnecessary reservations far before our trip, so it’s not as if there are any “empty” tables because of us. Anyway, moral discussion of Disney reservations aside, we rebooked some of the ADRs that we wanted without issue (luckily we didn’t have any “good” ADRs otherwise I would have been extremely agitated). I plan on consulting our schedule further on Monday and rebooking additional reservations as necessary. (I’ll also post the dining plans and daily schedule then.)
That’s where we stand thus far. Next weekend we’ll probably begin decorating for Christmas (yeah, I know, I know, but we love Christmas and won’t be around to enjoy the decorations for as long so we’re starting a tad early). Once we get those up, I’ll post some photos. I
For those unfamiliar with us, we got engaged during Christmas Wishes! on the Beach of the Polynesian in 2007 and [url=”http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=616344”] went on our “Disneymoon” this summer following our wedding.[/url]. Between our engagement and Disneymoon, we took four additional trips to WDW in August 2008,
November/December 2008, August 2009 and October 2009. Since our Disneymoon, we took our [url=http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=647439] first trip to Disneyland![/url]
Phew, that’s a lot of trips.
The planning began almost immediately after we returned from that Disneymoon trip (actually, some of it was before we returned, as we began thinking about the Christmas trip on our last day to soften the blow of leaving).
Christmas is our favorite time of the year at Disney, and we hadn’t been at Christmas since 2008. I know that’s only one Christmas season missed, but it feels like forever ago. Here is a photo of us there from Christmas 2008:
I don’t have any recent photos of my parents at Disney, so this will have to suffice. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled if/when they see these:
Shortly after getting back from the Disneymoon, we made our ADRs. After eating far too many table service meals for our liking on the Disneymoon trip, we decided that we would not be doing the Disney Dining Plan. I think ultimately the Tables in Wonderland card will work better for us anyway, as it will allow us to eat what we want without regard to attempting to get as much value for our money as possible. While I love food, the DDP was just too much, and too expensive.
The next question was where would we stay? My father is a retired CW4/Blackhawk instructor pilot, so Shades of Green was the obvious first option. It has been a long time since I stayed there, but I remember it being incredibly nice and having a great location. I’ve heard it has since been renovated, so hopefully it’s even nicer. My mom also experienced an interest in Fort Wilderness Cabins, but I couldn’t find a good AP rate on those, so Shades of Green it would be.
Sarah and I were excited to stay in this resort, but were a little disappointed not to be able to take Disney’s Magical Express from the airport. We also would not be participating in little of WDWToday Reunion since it’s a family trip, so we began thinking of adding a day. When we found discount that gave us a room in a Value for ~$50, that sealed the deal. Given shuttle costs, it would have been foolish not to book the extra day for the two of us, right?!
Then, we discovered that D23’s Magic & Merriment would be occurring while we were down there. I remembered hearing accounts of this last year, and being incredibly jealous. However, I saw that we would have to add an extra day to the rear end of our trip to accommodate doing this event. Since tickets sold out instantaneously last year, I didn’t hold out much stock in getting them, figuring we’d make the change to our flight if we somehow got them.
However, the next day, when Sarah called DME to add our flight information, she discovered something. We booked our flights such that we were departing Orlando for Indianapolis, and then returning from Indianapolis to Orlando. I have no idea how we booked our flight like this, but we did. What’s even worse, after reviewing the flight multiple times on TripIt, neither of us had caught the mistake. That’s taking incompetence to the next level, right there!
To add insult to injury, when I attempted to rebook on Southwest so that, you know, we’d actually arrive in Orlando and not our hometown, the price for the return flight was double what we had originally paid. I knew I had to rebook to avoid running the risk of the flight increasing further, but I didn’t want to pay that price only to get a refund in credit (that I may or may not eventually receive, as our next flight will be free and there are time limits on using the credit), so I took a look at the Monday flights. The flight we’d want on Monday was significantly cheaper. Although I’m not superstitious, part of me didn’t want to book it for some odd reason. For lack of a more logical reason, I didn’t want to “jinx” it. Logic won out, and booking the more expensive day with the prospect of not being able to use the credit just didn’t make sense, so I booked Monday. We’d know in a week whether we’d have to book Sunday instead, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.
The rest of the week and the first part of the following week went by slowly as we anticipated 1 p.m. on Tuesday. For those unfamiliar with what this event entails, and why we were so excited, here’s the event page. Quite the slate of events. Sarah and I had a plan and strategy ready, and we both took our lunches at work so that we would not be interrupted when attempting to purchase the tickets. At 12:50 p.m., we both started constantly refreshing the on which the link to purchase tickets would appear. The link appeared for me about 20 seconds before it appeared for Sarah, and I sped through the purchase-process. By the time the link appeared for Sarah and she clicked it, she received an “Event Sold Out” message. I was able to complete the checkout, and just sat there in half shock.
I honestly never expected to get the tickets after hearing accounts of how quickly other D23 events sell out. I reviewed my email receipt information multiple times, making sure I hadn’t made any mistakes that would cause my order to fail, printed off multiple copies of the receipt and order confirmation screen, saved the screen-caps, etc. At $235 per ticket, this event will be our Christmas gift to one another. Even with the steep price, and our normally frugal nature, there was no hesitation in purchasing these tickets. While we are keen on purchasing a house in the near future, making the most of our time together before having children is actually more important to us. I don’t anticipate the housing market making a comeback in the near future, whereas these years are fleeting. At least, that’s how we justify it to ourselves.
The bad part about booking this additional day was that we had already booked that other additional day on the front end of the trip (and I was reluctant to even do this), and now the trip had bloated to 12 days. Given that I had just started working full time (although I worked summers and part time at the same location through law school), after the California trip, these additional days were a lot to seek in just five months of full-time employment on the year. C’est la vie, I suppose. It’s tough to look at the downside of additional days at Disney. Especially during the Christmas season.
With the tickets purchased, we became really pumped for the trip. We decided to make our countdown calendar when we returned home, which is always a milestone as it indicates that the trip is actually upon us! Here is the end result:
Next step was booking another night at the end of our trip. Thanks to a Cast Member friend of ours, we were able to secure a night in a Value for a good price. Due to this, we’ll be staying in three different resorts for the trip: a former Deluxe (back when it was the Disney Inn/Golf Resort) in Shades of Green bookended by two different Values. Should be interesting. I’m not looking forward to those resort changes, but it should be worth it. (By the way, anyone know if Disney and/or Shades of Green will move our luggage for us? I know Disney does going from Disney resort to Disney resort, but will they in this circumstance?)
With these additional details set, we decided it was time to go online and cancel a good number of our dining reservations as we had made too many, not knowing our schedule. Much to our shock and dismay, all but three of our ADRs had already been canceled! Apparently, sometimes CMs go in and flag double-booked ADRs and will cancel them. The majority of these were not double-booked, yet they were canceled anyway. A little irritating, as we always cancel these ourselves and, so far as I know, there is no policy against doing this nor is there warning that the reservations will be canceled by Disney (just warning that you’re double booked, and a request that you cancel yourself). As this is a contentious issue, I’m sure many of you think we got what was coming to us, but that’s how we book our dining. We cancel the unnecessary reservations far before our trip, so it’s not as if there are any “empty” tables because of us. Anyway, moral discussion of Disney reservations aside, we rebooked some of the ADRs that we wanted without issue (luckily we didn’t have any “good” ADRs otherwise I would have been extremely agitated). I plan on consulting our schedule further on Monday and rebooking additional reservations as necessary. (I’ll also post the dining plans and daily schedule then.)
That’s where we stand thus far. Next weekend we’ll probably begin decorating for Christmas (yeah, I know, I know, but we love Christmas and won’t be around to enjoy the decorations for as long so we’re starting a tad early). Once we get those up, I’ll post some photos. I
