Background: You can skip this if you want
A little background to let you know where I am coming from. I have always loved Disney. Grew up watching Sunday night Wonderful World Of Disney. I wanted to go to
Disneyland my entire life. Finally when I was 16, my Grandparents told me they were going to Long Beach to see the Spruce Goose. I said, hey, that is near to Disneyland. Can I come and can we go? Please! And bless their hearts, they took me! We only had one day at the park, and I had a fever and was sick as a dog, but the memories of that day are forever etched in my mind, and were really the start of a love affair with Disney.
I did have the opportunity to go to Disneyland several more times as a young adult, and eventually even to Disney World 3 times on my own. But, my greatest joy occurred when I had my own kids and was able to start taking them. I had several one day Mommy and me trips with my oldest when we traveled to San Diego to visit my brother, but our family odyssey began in 2005 with our first family trip. We scheduled 3 nights at Paradise Pier and paid through the nose and showed up. It was a trip full of magical moments and the wonder of Disney without any expectations. Thank goodness it was off season because we had no plan at all! When we booked it, I convinced my husband to splurge because it was going to be a once in a lifetime trip. LOL That obviously wasnt true! I found the disboards at some point after that trip and the planning began! We managed a 5 day trip in 2007, and then in 2009, we got an amazing deal on annual passes and that year we had a 9 day trip with what ended up being 14 people, and I had 4 other trips that year, my oldest went twice, my youngest went 3 times. What a year! Then in 2010 we took my Mom and had a 5 day trip and stayed concierge at Paradise Pier. What a wonderful time. My youngest and I managed a 3 day trip in summer of 2011. Now we have sworn off of Disneyland until 2014. Not bad for a family from the Pacific Northwest area. Two of those trips were driving trips and allowed us to see and do a few other things along the way.
In the meanwhile
.my last trip to Disney World was in 2007 when I had gone to a work conference at The Grand Floridian. It was during October and pre disboards for me, so I didnt really do any planning or know anything at all. I actually flew a red eye down and then went into the parks for one day, which was the only day I had free. I was so tired I was almost non-functional. At any rate it was about 90 degrees out and was at nearly 90 percent humidity. The one thing I remember after having to walk back and forth in my work clothes and nearly dying from the heat was that I swore I would never go to Orlando again unless it was December or January. Certainly August would be out of the question!
And this is where I must say, I have home school envy! Oh, the joy of setting your own calendar! I know that for me the negatives would out weigh the benefits, but that is one benefit that I would love to have. Because our schools here are pretty darn strict and if you miss 11 days in one semester you do not get your credits. With this in mind, I knew that we would need to plan our trip to DW on a school break. I really wanted to do a Christmas trip to tell you the truth, but other things prevailed.
How we got our dates:
My husband is by nature a very conservative person. He never really had a vacation until he met me. He just didnt go that. He has been somewhat supportive, but I usually have to do a little convincing. For this trip, I knew it was going to be expensive, so I had started saving airline miles years ago. I had the miles we would need if I could get the flights at the super saver fare. Sadly, most of the school holiday times did not seem to offer this level. But I checked every now and again, and one day in November, I saw the flights at the award levels I needed. In addition to that, hubby had received a free cruise voucher from Norwegian Cruise line, and the free airfare would allow us to use that too. All of this was on my mind, but my husband was out of town for a week. Then I found out that one of my friends sons was diagnosed with Cancer. He was my oldest sons age. And that was it, it tipped me over the edge. I booked the airfare and I sent my husband a note that we were going and what the dates were. I have to say, he took it pretty well considering it was a 3 week vacation. But
the darn flights were in August!
And that's how we ended up with:
Aug 14th- Arrive Orlando
August 27th-Drive to Miami for cruise
Sept. 1st- Fly Home from Miami
That leaves us 13 days in at DW. Will it be long enough??? I really wanted built in downtime so that we could relax and adjust to the humidity and not go 100 miles per hour to try to see everything.
Up next....where are we staying, when will we know? Who all is coming? What will we eat, etc...
We're going in December....our first time to WDW......so love reading other peoples plans & gathering what ever tips & information I can!!!
