lulu2121
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
Saturday May 4 to Saturday May 11
This trip was planned “last minute” for us. I say that because we usually plan over a year ahead of time, but this trip came together a little less than a month out. We were planning a vacation for this week, but it originally did not involve WDW. Until about four months prior, it didn’t even involve Florida. I am a schemer though, and I can always make the Disney math look good to DH. He knows this and is a more than willing participant every time! We’ve made 20+ trips, with at least half of these without our now grown kids.
Who’s the us? Me (Christie) and my DH Doug.
Why? Because we needed it. The last few months have been stressful. Where? Split stay between a value studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House on rented points for 3 nights and the remaining 4 nights at Coronado Springs. Well, that was the plan anyway. Let’s wait to see what happens!
We bought annual passes a couple of weeks before the trip. We were planning to buy them for a September trip, but I persuaded (schemed) Doug into agreeing to buy them for this trip. We’ll use them again in September, February, and April/May. We’ve already planned and scheduled September and February, and were planning for September 2025. I pointed out we’d use the APs for the same amount of weeks but would just go in April/May 2025 instead of September. Doug jumped onboard quickly.
Day 0 – The Day Before We Left
This was Friday, May 3. We live outside of Louisville, KY and work in the city so this was a half day holiday for me as it was Oaks Day (the Kentucky Derby was the next day). My office closed at noon, and I finished up my last minute things and got out of there about 12:15. I decided to treat myself with a pedicure on my way home. It had been a busy week with long work days, appointments, and a few Derby week festivities. Doug is off on Fridays anyway so he did some things at home this day – maybe worked in his garden and finished mowing the grass.
We had met some friends at a restaurant on the Ohio River for the Great Steamboat Race on Wednesday evening. One of our favorite local bands was playing, and we had a great time. The Balloon Glow was cancelled the Saturday prior due to wind, so a few ballons took off during the race which was pretty neat.
I had pre-packed earlier in the week, so most of our things were in packing cubes or gathered up to go.
Once I got home around three, I figured out which suitcases would hold all of our stuff. I was hoping for one large bag and one small bag, but we ended up with two large bags. I always feel that it’s too much luggage for just the two us, but then we get to the airport and inevitably someone else has like 14 bags and I feel better.
We headed out around 6:30 to grab dinner at our local pizza spot. I think we were back home and in bed by 8:30. I went to sleep pretty easily by 9:30. And then I was wide awake by 1:30 a.m. Uugghhh. I finally gave in and grabbed my phone. I checked out the DIS, probably looked at Amazon, and decided to check WDW’s site just to see if there was any different room/resort availability at the AP rate for the CSR portion of our stay. I had been doing this and had already changed our reservation for the second half of our stay a few times. We started out at ASMovies, then CSR in a water view room (it’s only $300 more), and then I changed it to CSR in a king room (it’s only $150 more). Well, there was a resort view room at Wilderness Lodge for what I deemed to be a fairly reasonable rate. I tried to change my CSR reservation, but the WDW website has been a little wonky lately on my phone when I’ve tried to modify a reservation. I wasn’t unpacking my laptop at 2:30 in the morning while Doug was snoring so I let it go. I tried to sleep but was fully awake until my alarm went off at 3:45 a.m.
This trip was planned “last minute” for us. I say that because we usually plan over a year ahead of time, but this trip came together a little less than a month out. We were planning a vacation for this week, but it originally did not involve WDW. Until about four months prior, it didn’t even involve Florida. I am a schemer though, and I can always make the Disney math look good to DH. He knows this and is a more than willing participant every time! We’ve made 20+ trips, with at least half of these without our now grown kids.
Who’s the us? Me (Christie) and my DH Doug.
Why? Because we needed it. The last few months have been stressful. Where? Split stay between a value studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House on rented points for 3 nights and the remaining 4 nights at Coronado Springs. Well, that was the plan anyway. Let’s wait to see what happens!
We bought annual passes a couple of weeks before the trip. We were planning to buy them for a September trip, but I persuaded (schemed) Doug into agreeing to buy them for this trip. We’ll use them again in September, February, and April/May. We’ve already planned and scheduled September and February, and were planning for September 2025. I pointed out we’d use the APs for the same amount of weeks but would just go in April/May 2025 instead of September. Doug jumped onboard quickly.
Day 0 – The Day Before We Left
This was Friday, May 3. We live outside of Louisville, KY and work in the city so this was a half day holiday for me as it was Oaks Day (the Kentucky Derby was the next day). My office closed at noon, and I finished up my last minute things and got out of there about 12:15. I decided to treat myself with a pedicure on my way home. It had been a busy week with long work days, appointments, and a few Derby week festivities. Doug is off on Fridays anyway so he did some things at home this day – maybe worked in his garden and finished mowing the grass.
We had met some friends at a restaurant on the Ohio River for the Great Steamboat Race on Wednesday evening. One of our favorite local bands was playing, and we had a great time. The Balloon Glow was cancelled the Saturday prior due to wind, so a few ballons took off during the race which was pretty neat.
I had pre-packed earlier in the week, so most of our things were in packing cubes or gathered up to go.
Once I got home around three, I figured out which suitcases would hold all of our stuff. I was hoping for one large bag and one small bag, but we ended up with two large bags. I always feel that it’s too much luggage for just the two us, but then we get to the airport and inevitably someone else has like 14 bags and I feel better.
We headed out around 6:30 to grab dinner at our local pizza spot. I think we were back home and in bed by 8:30. I went to sleep pretty easily by 9:30. And then I was wide awake by 1:30 a.m. Uugghhh. I finally gave in and grabbed my phone. I checked out the DIS, probably looked at Amazon, and decided to check WDW’s site just to see if there was any different room/resort availability at the AP rate for the CSR portion of our stay. I had been doing this and had already changed our reservation for the second half of our stay a few times. We started out at ASMovies, then CSR in a water view room (it’s only $300 more), and then I changed it to CSR in a king room (it’s only $150 more). Well, there was a resort view room at Wilderness Lodge for what I deemed to be a fairly reasonable rate. I tried to change my CSR reservation, but the WDW website has been a little wonky lately on my phone when I’ve tried to modify a reservation. I wasn’t unpacking my laptop at 2:30 in the morning while Doug was snoring so I let it go. I tried to sleep but was fully awake until my alarm went off at 3:45 a.m.