Hello, hello!
Well, Disney sucked me in again and we are heading back to the World! Its funny how it started off with just my Mom and I being addicted and now the bug has hit my whole family
I usually break my introductions down into little sections, but planning this trip was so chaotic I think it deserves to be told as a whole story Put your seatbelt on, this is going to be a long ride!
Way back when in March (before our last trip) I was picking my vacations and decided to pick my time off to match the time of the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. Jill and I always wanted to do that race so thought during my residency would be the best time to do it. So, the day came for sign ups and we both decided hey why not register? We can always defer a year if it doesn't work out
I raced home from work and before heading to my afternoon clinic spent a stressful 20 minutes registering for the half. This screen is so stressful! (Also, it says 9:03 am but I believe it was at 12).
We knew my Mom would want to do it too so we signed her up, without telling her (aka the root of my stress, registering on 3 different computers for 2 spots haha). Jill and I fought over who had to tell her in case she would be mad (not sure why we thought that haha) and Jill lost so she told her and my Mom was thrilled! Woohoo this was going to be a great trip! We had so many options of where to stay and we planned on getting Annual Passes in May when we went so we would be all set!
Ok, fast forward a little bit and my sister Betta (Elizabeth is her real name) decided she could not miss another trip and she wanted to bring my nephew along too, but did not think her fiancé Ron could come. Yay! The baby is coming (oh and Betta too haha). For several reasons I wont get into we decided we would all stay in the same room and my Dad would join us.
Before telling my Dad the plan my Mom and I were in the car talking about how we would stay anywhere that was NOT Art of Animation. We just didn’t like that hotel for some reason. We were racking our brains where we could stay as a party of 6 and my Mom came up with Fort Wilderness. Great idea! This hotel holds sentimental value for us as it is the place we stayed for all of our early trips in the 90’s. Everyone was happy. So, we sat my Dad down at dinner and told him our plan and we may or may not have pushed him into saying yes
Here we are in the Fort Wilderness Pool in 1992
And outside our cabin in 1997
Then one night I was thinking about it and I realized Fort Wilderness doesn't have an actual food court for us to eat breakfast/lunch at and we won’t have a car. We considered maybe getting a grocery drop off or a golf cart but this didn’t make sense to us. I reluctantly suggested Art of Animation because this would mean two bathrooms, a food court and it was a bit cheaper. Everyone agreed to that so I canceled Fort Wilderness and booked Art of Animation. Everything was set! We went on our last trip, I booked the dining reservations during the trip (for 5 adults and an infant) and everything was great. Then, like two weeks after we got home my sister lets me know her fiancé is coming…..
Ok well, major change in plans, but its OK I can handle it! The first step was finding a hotel for four of us (Jill, my Mom, my Dad and me). The one problem was it’s a race weekend and there was barely anything available. Betta, Ron and Max decided to come down Monday and skip the race weekend. They found a reservation at POFQ starting Monday so I looked and I found one as well. I made sure my Dad wanted to come on the trip since we kind of forced his hand originally and he said of course he did not want to miss a vacation! So I booked POFQ from Monday November 7-Saturday November 12.
Heres a throwback picture of us visiting POFQ in 1997 Found it when I was looking through the old pictures (thats my cousin Jenny in the back, with Betta and I).
I searched and searched the website for something race weekend and everything was so expensive I didn’t know what to do. Finally I found a semi-decent price on Orbitz for a hotel that my Mom suggested and Jill really wanted to stay at: The Polynesian!!!! It will only be from Saturday November 5th – Monday the 7th but it’s a dream come true for us!
Here we are at the Polynesian in 1997
Everything seemed great until I started looking at flights. They were insanely expensive to fly out on Saturday but Jill has to work on Friday no exceptions so we couldn’t leave earlier. I am, however, on vacation the whole week before and my Mom is off on the Thursday and Friday before so we checked out flights and the vacation creep hit us hard…haha. It was actually cheaper for my Mom and I to fly out Friday and stay at a value resort than to fly on Saturday. I looked again and it was still cheaper to fly out Thursday and stay at a value so we added two extra days. We picked All Star Sports since it was the cheapest. We have stayed at the All Stars (Movies) before but not since the early 2000’s!
Here are some All Star Movies throwback pictures
2002
and 2005
For everyone who tells me I look like I'm 17 thats what I actually looked like at 17
Well, there you have it! I got a total of 5 booklets in the mail from Disney...sorry Disney haha
Next up: a summary of the blurb above
Well, Disney sucked me in again and we are heading back to the World! Its funny how it started off with just my Mom and I being addicted and now the bug has hit my whole family
I usually break my introductions down into little sections, but planning this trip was so chaotic I think it deserves to be told as a whole story
Put your seatbelt on, this is going to be a long ride!Way back when in March (before our last trip) I was picking my vacations and decided to pick my time off to match the time of the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. Jill and I always wanted to do that race so thought during my residency would be the best time to do it. So, the day came for sign ups and we both decided hey why not register? We can always defer a year if it doesn't work out
I raced home from work and before heading to my afternoon clinic spent a stressful 20 minutes registering for the half. This screen is so stressful! (Also, it says 9:03 am but I believe it was at 12).
We knew my Mom would want to do it too so we signed her up, without telling her (aka the root of my stress, registering on 3 different computers for 2 spots haha). Jill and I fought over who had to tell her in case she would be mad (not sure why we thought that haha) and Jill lost so she told her and my Mom was thrilled! Woohoo this was going to be a great trip! We had so many options of where to stay and we planned on getting Annual Passes in May when we went so we would be all set!
Ok, fast forward a little bit and my sister Betta (Elizabeth is her real name) decided she could not miss another trip and she wanted to bring my nephew along too, but did not think her fiancé Ron could come. Yay! The baby is coming (oh and Betta too haha). For several reasons I wont get into we decided we would all stay in the same room and my Dad would join us.
Before telling my Dad the plan my Mom and I were in the car talking about how we would stay anywhere that was NOT Art of Animation. We just didn’t like that hotel for some reason. We were racking our brains where we could stay as a party of 6 and my Mom came up with Fort Wilderness. Great idea! This hotel holds sentimental value for us as it is the place we stayed for all of our early trips in the 90’s. Everyone was happy. So, we sat my Dad down at dinner and told him our plan and we may or may not have pushed him into saying yes
Here we are in the Fort Wilderness Pool in 1992
And outside our cabin in 1997
Then one night I was thinking about it and I realized Fort Wilderness doesn't have an actual food court for us to eat breakfast/lunch at and we won’t have a car. We considered maybe getting a grocery drop off or a golf cart but this didn’t make sense to us. I reluctantly suggested Art of Animation because this would mean two bathrooms, a food court and it was a bit cheaper. Everyone agreed to that so I canceled Fort Wilderness and booked Art of Animation. Everything was set! We went on our last trip, I booked the dining reservations during the trip (for 5 adults and an infant) and everything was great. Then, like two weeks after we got home my sister lets me know her fiancé is coming…..
Ok well, major change in plans, but its OK I can handle it! The first step was finding a hotel for four of us (Jill, my Mom, my Dad and me). The one problem was it’s a race weekend and there was barely anything available. Betta, Ron and Max decided to come down Monday and skip the race weekend. They found a reservation at POFQ starting Monday so I looked and I found one as well. I made sure my Dad wanted to come on the trip since we kind of forced his hand originally and he said of course he did not want to miss a vacation! So I booked POFQ from Monday November 7-Saturday November 12.
Heres a throwback picture of us visiting POFQ in 1997
Found it when I was looking through the old pictures (thats my cousin Jenny in the back, with Betta and I).I searched and searched the website for something race weekend and everything was so expensive I didn’t know what to do. Finally I found a semi-decent price on Orbitz for a hotel that my Mom suggested and Jill really wanted to stay at: The Polynesian!!!! It will only be from Saturday November 5th – Monday the 7th but it’s a dream come true for us!
Here we are at the Polynesian in 1997
Everything seemed great until I started looking at flights. They were insanely expensive to fly out on Saturday but Jill has to work on Friday no exceptions so we couldn’t leave earlier. I am, however, on vacation the whole week before and my Mom is off on the Thursday and Friday before so we checked out flights and the vacation creep hit us hard…haha. It was actually cheaper for my Mom and I to fly out Friday and stay at a value resort than to fly on Saturday. I looked again and it was still cheaper to fly out Thursday and stay at a value so we added two extra days. We picked All Star Sports since it was the cheapest. We have stayed at the All Stars (Movies) before but not since the early 2000’s!
Here are some All Star Movies throwback pictures
2002
and 2005
For everyone who tells me I look like I'm 17 thats what I actually looked like at 17
Well, there you have it! I got a total of 5 booklets in the mail from Disney...sorry Disney haha
Next up: a summary of the blurb above
Last edited:
. Although I managed to find $60 tickets for January and scooped those up...not going to get lower than that. I still look at all the other months often just to see if I find more cheapos.
Thanks 
