Disney Withdrawal Survival Guide: An Oct 2013 PTR - Soundtrack Included- Updated 5/25

[OrangeJuice]

Soundtrack: Promises

Welcome to
the Disney Withdrawal Survival Guide


See Ya Real Soon! by Tom.Bricker, on Flickr

Who hasn't experienced the crushing desperation that overcomes you just as you start the walk of shame luggage in hand towards the "Magical" Express heading back to the Orlando International Airport? This is the earliest and most recognized sign of Disney Withdrawal Syndrome (DWS).

Other Signs and symptoms may include:

Uncontrollable crying on non-magical forms of public transit
Feeling of emptiness when waking up to a regular alarm clock
Endless channel surfing in search of "Stacy"
unexplainable habit of cutting all food in the shape of a mouse
Excessive anger when someone says that Disney is over-rated
Asking about Extra Magic Hours at your local quick service restaurant (who don't accept DDP by the way!).

You may also recognize the 6 stages of Disney Withdrawal

1. Denial: "Let's just stay here forever" or "I'm sure I wont miss this place" or in the most severe cases "I'm glad to be heading home"

2. Anger:"I SHOULD OF BOOKED LONGER" or "WHY DIDNT I BUY MORE MICKEY SHAPED RICE KRISPIES!!"

3. Bargaining: This often takes place with a partner: "We could afford to return if we slept in the car and only ate PB&J sandwhiches" or
"If we don't use toilet paper for one year we could cover half the price of a value resort"

4. Depression: During this phase the DWS sufferer tends to avoid all cues and reminders about WDW. They don't see the point of thinking about Disney if they aren't there.

5. Acceptance: In this phase, the DWS patient convinces themselves that everything will be ok and that they can wait a couple more years before returning to WDW. This also marks the point where the DWS patient returns to their normal Disney routine, visiting such sites as Disboards, Disneyfoodblog and the official WDW website.

6. Reality: The DWS patient finally comes to terms with the fact that life without WDW is not possible and books another trip to WDW within the year. Obsessive behaviours returns and the patient is finally able to fully appreciate the Disney culture.

Here are our two test subjects in the early phase of Disney Withdrawal Syndrome:

Test Subject #1

OrangeJuice: Author of this trip report. I am a medical student getting through an infinite amount of years of study (But loving every second of it). Disney is my addiction and happy place. Despite trying Disneyholics anonymous and Disney Watchers I am still struggling with severe Disney Withdrawal Syndrome.

Test Subject #2

TheKeeper: TS#2 is my wife. She is also a student. Her addiction is more recent then mine and it's origin can probably be traced back to 2011 when she first visited the World of Walt (and got herself a nice diamond ring in the process). Although she claims to be less of an addict then I am, I never have any difficulty convincing her to do anything Disney related.

Soundtrack: Fantasmic Intro

Don't despair DWS sufferers! There is a cure. All the symptoms of DWS suddenly disappear when you step foot on a Disney Property; which is what we will be doing in October 2013.

Please join us as we deal with our Disney Withdrawal Syndrome and prepare for our Food & Wine, Beach Club Villa Eat-yourself-silly Disney World Extravaganza.

[OrangeJuice]

Introduction (I've got a dream)
Lesson Number One: Booking a Disney Vacation
Lesson Number Two: How to get from Point A to Point B
Lesson Number Three: Change your Mind
Tip Number One: Bring Disney Home
Lesson Number Four: Change your Mind Again?
Lesson Number Five: Decide what you'll want to eat in 180 days from today
Lesson Number Six: Brag About ADRs
Tip Number Two: Making Memories Earlier
Lesson Number Seven: Put Some alcohol on it?
Tip Number Three: Escape with a drink
Lesson Number Eight: learn how to use your camera

[Sugarlumples]

Joining!

I am dying over the 6 Stages. So very true.

[teekathepony]

I'm in! I'm in! Fun, funny and true intro.

[RadGirl]

Im so in! Squeee!!

[OrangeJuice]

Originally Posted by Sugarlumples

Joining!

I am dying over the 6 Stages. So very true.

Thanks for joining in

Originally Posted by teekathepony

I'm in! I'm in! Fun, funny and true intro.

Welcome back

Originally Posted by RadGirl

Im so in! Squeee!!

THanks for joining in

[OrangeJuice]

Soundtrack: Let's get to know each other by sharing our dreams

Let's start by meeting our two test subjects who are currently suffering from Disney Withdrawal syndrome.

Test Subject #1:

Name: Orange Juice
Number of visits to WDW: 4
If you could only visit one attraction: Splash Mountain
If you could only visit one restaurant: Kona Café
If you could only meet one character: Donald Duck
If you could stay at any resort: Beach Club Resort
If you could only eat one snack: Citrus swirl
If you could only have one drink: Pina Colava
I know I'm a Disney addict because: I would gladly volunteer to help plan anyone's trip in exchange for Mickey shaped Rice Krispy treats.

Test Subject #2:

Name: Thekeeper
Number of visits to WDW: 2
If you could only visit one attraction: Tower of Terror
If youcould only visit one restaurant: Kona Café
If you could only meet one character: Belle
If you could stay at any resort: The Polynesian
If you could only eat one snack: Sweet creme cheese pretzel
If you could have one drink: Grey Goose Slushie (with avocado marguarita close second:
I know I'm a Disney addict because: Wishes soundtrack makes me cry (and I listen to it most nights before bed) and I get giddy whenever I see someone wearing disney clothing in "real life".

Your turn! Please introduce yourself by answering our mini quiz

[thekeeper]

Ouff I dont like my hairdo there.. Dear rain.. you ruin my hair.. again

[teekathepony]

Ok, I'll play!

Name: teekathepony/Wendy
Number of visits to WDW: 6
If you could only visit one attraction: Haunted Mansion
If you could only visit one restaurant: Be Our Guest (even though I haven't tried it yet!)
If you could only meet one character: Sully
If you could stay at any resort: Toss up. AKL or Boardwalk
If you could only eat one snack: Sweet creme cheese pretzel (Good choice, I'll stick with that)
If you could have one drink: Rootbeer float (does that count? )
I know I'm a Disney addict because: Epcot area music makes me cry. Also I designed my kitchen to match Mickey Mouse.

[Lmartheleur]

This sounds like fun! I'll play

Name : Leanne
Number of visits to WDW : 3 but hoping to go back soon
If you could visit one attraction : Haunted Mansion
If you could visit one restaurant: California Grill!
If you could only meet one character: I love Mickey
If you could stay at any resort: Beach Club but I do love Riverside and Saratoga Springs
If you could only eat one snack: chip and dales trail mix or any cupcake from starring rolls
If you could have one drink: Piña Colava
I know I'm a Disney addict because : I spend a lot of my free time on here reading about trips, planning my own trips, and I am always on the lookout for someone who wants to talk disney!

[Sugarlumples]

Name: Anne
Number of visits to WDW: 10
If you could only visit one attraction: Splash Mountain
If you could only visit one restaurant: Boma
If you could only meet one character: Minnie Mouse
If you could stay at any resort: Poly
If you could only eat one snack: Dole Whip float
If you could only have one drink: Welsh Dragon
I know I'm a Disney addict because: We are going to move to the Orlando area to be closer to Disney!

[OrangeJuice]

Originally Posted by Sugarlumples

Name: Anne
Number of visits to WDW: 10
If you could only visit one attraction: Splash Mountain
If you could only visit one restaurant: Boma
If you could only meet one character: Minnie Mouse
If you could stay at any resort: Poly
If you could only eat one snack: Dole Whip float
If you could only have one drink: Welsh Dragon
I know I'm a Disney addict because: We are going to move to the Orlando area to be closer to Disney!

You are moving to Orlando :O That is like my dream. I don't think I could work in the states but I will definitely love to retire there someday.

Originally Posted by Lmartheleur

This sounds like fun! I'll play

Name : Leanne
Number of visits to WDW : 3 but hoping to go back soon
If you could visit one attraction : Haunted Mansion
If you could visit one restaurant: California Grill!
If you could only meet one character: I love Mickey
If you could stay at any resort: Beach Club but I do love Riverside and Saratoga Springs
If you could only eat one snack: chip and dales trail mix or any cupcake from starring rolls
If you could have one drink: Piña Colava
I know I'm a Disney addict because : I spend a lot of my free time on here reading about trips, planning my own trips, and I am always on the lookout for someone who wants to talk disney!

I can talk Disney anytime That Pina Colava is amazing. I will have one as soon as we check in.

Originally Posted by teekathepony

Ok, I'll play!

Name: teekathepony/Wendy
Number of visits to WDW: 6
If you could only visit one attraction: Haunted Mansion
If you could only visit one restaurant: Be Our Guest (even though I haven't tried it yet!)
If you could only meet one character: Sully
If you could stay at any resort: Toss up. AKL or Boardwalk
If you could only eat one snack: Sweet creme cheese pretzel (Good choice, I'll stick with that)
If you could have one drink: Rootbeer float (does that count? )
I know I'm a Disney addict because: Epcot area music makes me cry. Also I designed my kitchen to match Mickey Mouse.

BOG is on our must try list for October, I hope its good.
Do I remember correctly that you posted pics of your kitchen in your PTR last year?

[teekathepony]

Originally Posted by OrangeJuice

Do I remember correctly that you posted pics of your kitchen in your PTR last year?

It's very possible... I am pretty sure I did. I have another that I plan to post at the end of my current TR, in my souvie post!

[OrangeJuice]

Originally Posted by teekathepony

It's very possible... I am pretty sure I did. I have another that I plan to post at the end of my current TR, in my souvie post!

I can't wait to see

[OrangeJuice]

Soundtrack: Lesson Number One from Mulan 2

Lesson Number One: Book a vacation

The most effective way of controlling the symptoms of Disney Withdrawal Syndrome is quite simple, booking a return trip to a Disney Park. Some people may try to substitute another theme park instead.

This is not as effective.

Freak Out by Obelix_22, on Flickr
Especially when you suffer from serious motion sickness.

I have found that nothing compares to booking a return trip to the world.

Majestic by Obelix_22, on Flickr


Sunshine Breakfast by Obelix_22, on Flickr


Mad by Obelix_22, on Flickr

The first step of booking a vacation is to figure out when you will go. Many factors come into play for this: Vacation time, school session, park crowd levels, special events and many more. For us it was straight forward, my only remaining vacation week is at the end of October. I scheduled it so that it corresponded with Jess's study break. Because of the timing we knew that we couldn't go for a very long trip so originally we had planned for a 4 night stay Oct 21-25. This was even awesomer (I know this is not a word) because it fell right into Food and Wine time + MK would be decorated for Halloween. BONUS: Crowd Levels are predicted to be lower than our usual August visits and I'm sure it's gonna be a lot less HOT!

Maybe I'll be able to eat my dole whip float before it drowns.

Once you know when you will go, it is important to figure out where you will stay. We had been debating for some time IF we where really going to go. One night we decided ok lets make this official, lets book a resort and if we change our mind we can always cancel. So off I went to the Disney Parks website to book.

I started by pricing a four night stay at Art of Animation Little Mermaid Room.

Sounds reasonable

However, since I knew that we where going for Food & Wine, this would mean that we would be doing lots of travelling to and from Epcot and that we would be exhausted. This trip is in the middle of a challenging year for me so I was looking into relaxing a bit. So I though HEY! maybe a EPCOT area resort would be better?

Ok NO! Outside of my price range for sure. Even Disney math can't justify that for me.

So what's next? How can I make this a relaxing vacation without breaking the bank? That's when I discovered DVC Rental. I first heard about DVC rental about 2 years ago but I was in need of a bit of convincing. Since then I've read up on it and heard a lot of positives about Dave's DVC Rental. So I decided to check it out.

So for Boardwalk Villa 40pts x 13$ / 4 nights = 130$ / Night

Same price as AoA!!! So with that I set up on convincing Jess to take a shot at DVC rental. She agreed and we where all set to book ....

BUT! I noticed something else. Beach Club Villa 60 points = 195$ a night. For an extra 65$ a night we could stay at our dream resort and have access to Storm Along Bay. (We fell in love with the beach club on our last trip). Even though it was more expensive, we would be able to relax by this amazing pool, be right next to EPCOT AND stay in a DVC studio. So we booked!

We had a bit of problems at the start because Dave's didn't have enough points available to book the room but they settled that within a week and we received our confirmation number. The customer service from Dave's was great! I logged onto the Disney web site and VOILA! the room was in my name.

So with that we had a Disney vacation booked, a shiny new countdown and a whole lot of trip planning left to do. I was Happy .

That's it for Lesson #1. Have you booked a trip recently? Anyone else there during MNSSHP/Food and Wine season?