PreTrip Report - Some Canadians on our 1st cruise and WDW! Sept 9th-17th
- Thread starter CrystalS
- Start date
So, who are we?
My family:
Me- 24yr old Disney fan, dreaming of this trip for 5 years
DH - 27yr old Disney newbie, finally agreed to go to WDW/DCL for me
DS- 2.5 yrs old, excited to be going on "mickey's boat" and getting to meet the mouse
Also along for the ride:
My mom - Lets just say "in her 40's", lol. Has been to DL 5 times, just as excited as I am!
My brother - 20yr old, been to DL 4 times, excited but in a laid back "cool" way, lol.
So thats us
Up next, How will we be getting there?
My family:
Me- 24yr old Disney fan, dreaming of this trip for 5 years
DH - 27yr old Disney newbie, finally agreed to go to WDW/DCL for me
DS- 2.5 yrs old, excited to be going on "mickey's boat" and getting to meet the mouse
Also along for the ride:
My mom - Lets just say "in her 40's", lol. Has been to DL 5 times, just as excited as I am!
My brother - 20yr old, been to DL 4 times, excited but in a laid back "cool" way, lol.
So thats us
Up next, How will we be getting there?
How are we getting from BC, Canada to Florida?
We live in the interior of BC, Canada. We looked into flying out of Vancouver (about a 3 hour drive from where we live) but the prices were just too high for us. We are on a budget for this trip, so every bit we can save, the better!
I found that we could drive across the border and over to Seattle and fly out of Sea-Tac for about $270 each (roundtrip). I think we might have been able to fly AirTran for maybe $20 less each, but I've heard some not so nice things about them (changing flights/times constantly) so we went with United and US Airways for our trip.
So we will be driving
about 5-6hrs (plus bathroom breaks) to Seattle Airport on Sept 9th, then catching a flight with United sometime after 8pm (I can't remember the actual time at the moment).
We fly into Charlotte, NC, with a 1.5hr layover, and then we're off for a short flight to Orlando International. Getting in at about 9:15am on Sept 10th.
We finally decided on using DCL Transfers from MCO to Port Canaveral. We were going to use a Free Avis rental that I was going to get with my Save-On-More Points, but it turns out I didn't have enough points after all.
So to save on stress of getting a rental car and trying to find our way to Port and returning the car, we figured we'd splurge on the DCL transfers, so we could start relaxing right away.
Then we will be on our first cruise!!!!
Up next, cruise plans.....
We live in the interior of BC, Canada. We looked into flying out of Vancouver (about a 3 hour drive from where we live) but the prices were just too high for us. We are on a budget for this trip, so every bit we can save, the better!
I found that we could drive across the border and over to Seattle and fly out of Sea-Tac for about $270 each (roundtrip). I think we might have been able to fly AirTran for maybe $20 less each, but I've heard some not so nice things about them (changing flights/times constantly) so we went with United and US Airways for our trip.
So we will be driving
about 5-6hrs (plus bathroom breaks) to Seattle Airport on Sept 9th, then catching a flight with United sometime after 8pm (I can't remember the actual time at the moment).We fly into Charlotte, NC, with a 1.5hr layover, and then we're off for a short flight to Orlando International. Getting in at about 9:15am on Sept 10th.
We finally decided on using DCL Transfers from MCO to Port Canaveral. We were going to use a Free Avis rental that I was going to get with my Save-On-More Points, but it turns out I didn't have enough points after all.
So to save on stress of getting a rental car and trying to find our way to Port and returning the car, we figured we'd splurge on the DCL transfers, so we could start relaxing right away.
Then we will be on our first cruise!!!!
Up next, cruise plans.....
Staterooms:
I booked two of the last available Cat 12 GTY rooms (at the time anyways).
At about 40 days out my TA told me that DCL was offering us cat 9 rooms for and additional $150 PER room. The coudn't give actual rooms numbers though, so we decided to turn it down. We didn't want to pay extra and end up with the two-porthole rooms down on deck 1, or somewhere on deck 2.
At least with our cat12 gty rooms, if we end up on deck 2 we are paying the lower price for them, lol. Did I mention we are on a budget? We'd rather use that $150 towards an excursion or something
At about 35 days out, we got our room assignments.
We were assigned to 6633 and 6635, those are Cat 11 rooms on deck 6!
Still inside rooms, but we are now up on deck 6!!! We're really happy with the location, seems to be close to everything, and its aft, only 1 deck away from the deck 7 secret verandah
From the room reviews, it seems they are nice quiet rooms near the aft elevators, so all in all, quite happy
I might still ask about an update at the port though just for fun.... ya never know right? 
Nassau Day
No real plans here yet.
Wanted to do Atlantis but its a little pricey
Would like to do the Blackbeards Cay and Stingray Adventure but to book through Disney it says 3yrs+ and I have a 2.5 yr old. The Blackbeard site says that under 3 is free, I wonder it Disney will let me bring him then if I just book for the 4 adults.... I guess I need to call.
Castaway Cay Day
Plan to just relax on the beach, get in some hammock time and take some great photos. I can't wait to see Jacob play in the sand and the water
Looking forward to some yummy cookies bbq lunch too!
Other Cruise stuff
I REALLY want to get my hair braided on the ship at some point. I've read of a few other adults having it done so I don't feel silly for wanting to, lol. I just figure that having my hair back in a few cornrows will keep my hair out of my face for the rest of our trip on the cruise and at WDW. Plus I've always wanted to try getting cornrows
Up Next, Getting to WDW, and our accomodations there...
Now how do we get to WDW?
In order to keep things a little more affordable, we are using my Wyndham Rewards points to get a free Budget rental car at the port.
I'm hoping to get off the Wonder fairly early so that we can hit the road and get to WDW since this will be our first day to go to the parks (we only have 1 day per park before we have to leave).
I was thinking that we could stop somewhere to pick up breakfast/snack items for in the room, but I still have to find out where the closest/best place to stop would be....
But where will we sleep?
Since we are taking advantage of the FREE DINNING offer we will of course be staying at a Disney Resort
I was originally thinking of staying at Pop Century, but then I read that when schools/group stay at Disney, they often stay at POP, so I figured we'd try one of the other value resorts to try to avoid the possibility of running into large, loud groups, lol.
We decided on AllStar Movies, I figured my son would be able to relate a bit better to Movies than music or sports, lol.
I hope we get a room in a quieter area, I will be needing my sleep after 4 long days I'm sure! lol.
Up next, our 4 day WDW plan of attack, and Advanced Dining reservations...
In order to keep things a little more affordable, we are using my Wyndham Rewards points to get a free Budget rental car at the port.
I'm hoping to get off the Wonder fairly early so that we can hit the road and get to WDW since this will be our first day to go to the parks (we only have 1 day per park before we have to leave).
I was thinking that we could stop somewhere to pick up breakfast/snack items for in the room, but I still have to find out where the closest/best place to stop would be....
But where will we sleep?
Since we are taking advantage of the FREE DINNING offer we will of course be staying at a Disney Resort
I was originally thinking of staying at Pop Century, but then I read that when schools/group stay at Disney, they often stay at POP, so I figured we'd try one of the other value resorts to try to avoid the possibility of running into large, loud groups, lol.
We decided on AllStar Movies, I figured my son would be able to relate a bit better to Movies than music or sports, lol.
I hope we get a room in a quieter area, I will be needing my sleep after 4 long days I'm sure! lol.
Up next, our 4 day WDW plan of attack, and Advanced Dining reservations...
nokidz
thanks Mickey, now I am an addict!!
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2006
At about 35 days out, we got our room assignments.
We were assigned to 6633 and 6635, those are Cat 11 rooms on deck 6!
Congrats on the upgrade...you will like these rooms. we have been in them a few times as we prefer deck 6 aft. Close to all that is important.
I managed to get our 1st choices for our ADR's!
(Thanks to our wonderful TA from DreamsUnlimited! Thanks Sue Ellen)
Here is what we have:
Day One - Magin Kingdom Day - Crystal Palace at 5:05pm
Day Two - Hollywood Studios Day - Whispering Canyon at 5:05pm
Day Three - Epcot Day - Le Cellier at 4:35pm
Day Four - Animal Kingdom Day - Donalds Safari Breakfast at Tusker House at 9:20am
I'm very excited about all of these
So as you can see from the above, we have 1 day per park. We do have a little bit of time on the 17th to go to one of the parks or to Downtown Disney or something like that, but we have a 3:30pm flight, so we will have to be back at the resort and ready to catch the ME around noon or so. So only enough time to do a couple of quick things. I'm not going to plan anything for that last morning until we see how the first 4 days go, we might just want to hang at the pool on the last morning, lol.
Order of the parks will be:
Magic Kingdom - We get off the Wonder this morning and will drive to WDW as early as we can, also has magic hours in the evening!
Hollywood Studios - Evening Magic Hours
Epcot- Morning Magic Hours
Animal Kingdom - Evening Magic Hours
More on the actual Park Attack Plans comming tomorrow
(Thanks to our wonderful TA from DreamsUnlimited! Thanks Sue Ellen)
Here is what we have:
Day One - Magin Kingdom Day - Crystal Palace at 5:05pm
Day Two - Hollywood Studios Day - Whispering Canyon at 5:05pm
Day Three - Epcot Day - Le Cellier at 4:35pm
Day Four - Animal Kingdom Day - Donalds Safari Breakfast at Tusker House at 9:20am
I'm very excited about all of these
So as you can see from the above, we have 1 day per park. We do have a little bit of time on the 17th to go to one of the parks or to Downtown Disney or something like that, but we have a 3:30pm flight, so we will have to be back at the resort and ready to catch the ME around noon or so. So only enough time to do a couple of quick things. I'm not going to plan anything for that last morning until we see how the first 4 days go, we might just want to hang at the pool on the last morning, lol.
Order of the parks will be:
Magic Kingdom - We get off the Wonder this morning and will drive to WDW as early as we can, also has magic hours in the evening!
Hollywood Studios - Evening Magic Hours
Epcot- Morning Magic Hours
Animal Kingdom - Evening Magic Hours
More on the actual Park Attack Plans comming tomorrow
Ok, so scrap the park attack plans, lol.
I've decided to just print out the park maps with the locations of the stuff we WANT to do, then when we get there, we're just going to wing it.
I figured with 4 adults and a 2yr old it would be pointless to make an actual schedule for doing/seeing things because some might not feel like doing something, or we may need to stop for the bathroom or snacks etc.
So 1 day per park with no "real" plans, lol. It might get hectic, but we all know that we won't be able to see and do everything. We're just going to get a taste of it I guess, lol.
(better plan a 2nd trip, lol)
So we leave in about 11 days!!!!!
How exciting is that!?!
Now I'm just trying to figure out what last things we need to do/get before we leave. We also have new tenants moving into our trailer (well they moved in early already) for Sept, so now I need to find someone to be our "emergency contact" should they have any problems while we are gone....
I feel so busy lately with things going on that I feel like 11 days is too soon, I know I've got most of everything ready other than a FE for my son and our packing, but I'm just worried I'm going to miss something. I want this to go as smoothly as possible for everyone with us.
I've decided to just print out the park maps with the locations of the stuff we WANT to do, then when we get there, we're just going to wing it.
I figured with 4 adults and a 2yr old it would be pointless to make an actual schedule for doing/seeing things because some might not feel like doing something, or we may need to stop for the bathroom or snacks etc.
So 1 day per park with no "real" plans, lol. It might get hectic, but we all know that we won't be able to see and do everything. We're just going to get a taste of it I guess, lol.
(better plan a 2nd trip, lol)
So we leave in about 11 days!!!!!
How exciting is that!?!
Now I'm just trying to figure out what last things we need to do/get before we leave. We also have new tenants moving into our trailer (well they moved in early already) for Sept, so now I need to find someone to be our "emergency contact" should they have any problems while we are gone....
I feel so busy lately with things going on that I feel like 11 days is too soon, I know I've got most of everything ready other than a FE for my son and our packing, but I'm just worried I'm going to miss something. I want this to go as smoothly as possible for everyone with us.
tow-mater-1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
Just found your pre-trip report. I'm sure your family will have a great time. I had to laugh when I read about your continuous hinting at a Disney trip. It reminded me of when my husband and I were first married and I had never been but always wanted to go and he had no interest. Finally my husband agreed to go and we went with our 3 kids at that time. Within 2 days my husband said "hun, we have to come back here without the kids sometime!" Since then we've been back with our now 5 kids and last Oct. for our anniversary without the kids! He's ready to pack up and move there
We too are going on our first cruise with the whole family in January and my husband today just said "should we try and fit a few days in at Disney after the cruise?" So here I go pricing it out. Look what I've created
So just wait and see, your trip may have the same effect on your hubby!
. I'm sure your family will have a great time. I had to laugh when I read about your continuous hinting at a Disney trip. It reminded me of when my husband and I were first married and I had never been but always wanted to go and he had no interest. Finally my husband agreed to go and we went with our 3 kids at that time. Within 2 days my husband said "hun, we have to come back here without the kids sometime!" Since then we've been back with our now 5 kids and last Oct. for our anniversary without the kids! He's ready to pack up and move there We too are going on our first cruise with the whole family in January and my husband today just said "should we try and fit a few days in at Disney after the cruise?" So here I go pricing it out. Look what I've created So just wait and see, your trip may have the same effect on your hubby!Just found your pre-trip report
I sure hope our trip has the same effect I know we will not have enough time at WDW to see/do everything this time. And I already KNOW that a 3-night cruise will not be near long enough, lol.
Thanks for reading, I hope to have more to post later today (photos of our matching shirts, lol)
Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay in posting more, my Oma died on the 29th and I have to go out of town for her funeral service
On the plus side though, we are leaving for Florida in ONE WEEK!
No photos of the shirt since mom and brother have theirs already, so I can't get photos of them all But if your on the ship you will see us in the terminal with our matching shirts, lol. Or if you stick arould for the Post trip report I'm sure you'll see a few photos of them
I'm getting all our things together now. I'm going to start packing DS's things first since he has the most clothing of us all, he will still have plenty left to wear for the next week even if I pack up his trip clothes, lol.
I'm going to start on mine and DH's stuff next, but I'll leave out anything that we might be wearing this week, and the toothbrushes and stuff, lol.
Oh and I can get the carry-ons ready too for the most part. I need to get a few "new" things to occupy DS while on the plane and the drive and stuff so that he doesn't get bored or have a melt down, lol. I was thinking that one of those Magna Doodle things would be good because that way he can draw but there are no crayons or pens that he can use to color on other things like the car or the plane, haha!
I wonder if we can get away with only one checked bag...?
Might need two, but we will see. I need to double check the carry on sizes for each airline. We get a carry on and a personal item EACH, so thats 3 carryons and 3 personal items!
My personal item would be my purse, DH can carry the laptop bag, and DS can have his diaper bag, and whatever we can stuff in them. And then we each get a carry on, so maybe having only 1 checked bag could actually be doable....
More tomorrow
Sorry for the delay in posting more, my Oma died on the 29th and I have to go out of town for her funeral service
On the plus side though, we are leaving for Florida in ONE WEEK!
No photos of the shirt since mom and brother have theirs already, so I can't get photos of them all
But if your on the ship you will see us in the terminal with our matching shirts, lol. Or if you stick arould for the Post trip report I'm sure you'll see a few photos of them I'm getting all our things together now. I'm going to start packing DS's things first since he has the most clothing of us all, he will still have plenty left to wear for the next week even if I pack up his trip clothes, lol.
I'm going to start on mine and DH's stuff next, but I'll leave out anything that we might be wearing this week, and the toothbrushes and stuff, lol.
Oh and I can get the carry-ons ready too for the most part. I need to get a few "new" things to occupy DS while on the plane and the drive and stuff so that he doesn't get bored or have a melt down, lol. I was thinking that one of those Magna Doodle things would be good because that way he can draw but there are no crayons or pens that he can use to color on other things like the car or the plane, haha!
I wonder if we can get away with only one checked bag...?
Might need two, but we will see. I need to double check the carry on sizes for each airline. We get a carry on and a personal item EACH, so thats 3 carryons and 3 personal items!
My personal item would be my purse, DH can carry the laptop bag, and DS can have his diaper bag, and whatever we can stuff in them. And then we each get a carry on, so maybe having only 1 checked bag could actually be doable....
More tomorrow
tow-mater-1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
Hey Crystal, sorry to hear about your Oma.
You'll that much more appreciate a nice vacation. Less than a week before you leave . I'm excited for you. We just booked our flights home today which makes it seem closer, but I sure wish ours was just a week away. I forgot to mention in my last post that I'm a fellow Canadian, we're in Ontario. Anyway happy packing, I'm sure you'll have a great trip!
You'll that much more appreciate a nice vacation. Less than a week before you leave . I'm excited for you. We just booked our flights home today which makes it seem closer, but I sure wish ours was just a week away. I forgot to mention in my last post that I'm a fellow Canadian, we're in Ontario. Anyway happy packing, I'm sure you'll have a great trip!Ok, a little bit of a shirt catastrophe, but I'll be redoing those Monday night. I also would like to redo our FE, since my makeshift one looks pretty bad, lol.
Jacob's things are packed and ready to go for the most part, just need a few things for the carry on for him to do.
Organizing my and DH's things tonight and tomorrow and then Tuesday will be the day I see how much I can fit into one suitcase without going over the weight limit, might have to take two checked bags....
Then organize what is going into the carryons.
Its almost time! 3 days until we leave!!
Jacob's things are packed and ready to go for the most part, just need a few things for the carry on for him to do.
Organizing my and DH's things tonight and tomorrow and then Tuesday will be the day I see how much I can fit into one suitcase without going over the weight limit, might have to take two checked bags....
Then organize what is going into the carryons.
Its almost time! 3 days until we leave!!
cakesnjammom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
good luck with your shirts! it will not be long now!
Well tonight is the night that I stay up late checking and re-checking to make sure I have everything we need.
DH is working night shift tonight so he will be sleeping in as late as possible and won't be up to help me in the morning until the last minute.
We are planning to leave at about 10am. We have a 5 hour drive (plus gas/bathroom/food stops) from BC to Seattle where we will be catching our flight to North Carolina and then on to Florida! I just hope that the border crossing doesn't take too long! We alotted about 10 hours to get down there, have dinner, and be at the airport 2 hrs before our flight time, we may have a lot of waiting to do when we get there, but I would reather be early than late!
Keep us in your thoughts that we have safe travels and that there are no delays
I look forward to starting my Post Trip Report when we get home!
See you then!
DH is working night shift tonight so he will be sleeping in as late as possible and won't be up to help me in the morning until the last minute.
We are planning to leave at about 10am. We have a 5 hour drive (plus gas/bathroom/food stops) from BC to Seattle where we will be catching our flight to North Carolina and then on to Florida! I just hope that the border crossing doesn't take too long! We alotted about 10 hours to get down there, have dinner, and be at the airport 2 hrs before our flight time, we may have a lot of waiting to do when we get there, but I would reather be early than late!
Keep us in your thoughts that we have safe travels and that there are no delays
I look forward to starting my Post Trip Report when we get home!
See you then!
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