20th Anniversary... of WHAT, you ask?

[jodyb]

December 9, 2019 will be the 20th anniversary of our first Mom/Daughter WDW trip!! In December 1999 DD was 8 years old, we were living in the Middle East, and I took her out of school for two weeks and brought her to the States for our FIRST trip to the "world". It was my third trip. My first was in 1984, when my two sons were 3 and 1!! My second was in 1996, when DD was 5, but I went with just my sister - an adult "drink around the World Showcase" sort of trip, kidless. Then in 1999, when as I said, my DD was 8 (the boys were by then 16 and 18 and had absolutely NO desire to go to WDW... weird) I decided it was time for the first mother - daughter trip. I want to swear I wrote a trip report on that one, twenty years ago, right here on the DIS, but I can't find it... does anyone know how to search the deep archives (if those even exist?) I know I joined the DIS right at the beginning, but can't remember exactly what year that was... But anyway, I do remember planning like crazy. it was different of course, WAY before My Disney Experience, Magic Bands, and OMG way before a lot of things! But I planned and planned and was excited... and the trip was a huge success. I'll never forget that first ride on BTMR with my 8 year old yelling "I want to get off!!" at the beginning as we slowly chugged up the first hill, and then yelling "I want to go again!" as we got off the ride!! Since then she's my coaster girl...
Anyway, after that first trip in 1999, I took her out of school every single winter at least once, for a Disney trip. Some were to WDW and others were to the more-affordable-for-us-because-of-distance Disneyland Paris. We had amazing times, year after year, sometimes more than once a year. Then... well... she grew up. She was in the military (Israeli army) from age 18 to 20, and then started studying, got a job, and well... quite a few years went by that we didn't get to Disney together. Then in 2014, we did go! We had a blast and vowed to go back every year together... but... now it's 2019 and we are finally going again, AND it happens that we are going on the 20th anniversary of the first trip. So I am beyond excited. So happy to be going back with my now 28 year old daughter and best friend. My eldest son is married now and has two children. My granddaughter is turning 5 in December and I SO wanted to include her in the trip, but... my daughter-in-law has put the kabosh on that. Sigh... She says she is "too young". So now I am hoping and praying to include her when she, like my daughter was her first trip, turns 8! Anyway, so it's adults only this time. There is so much new just since 2014, and she loves Star Wars (I don't know anything about Star Wars but of course I'm planning stuff around it for her), and we both adore Toy Story... so for the first time in a long time we're really excited about the Studios (I had been lukewarm on it after our 10th time seeing Fantasmic and the demise of the Drew Carey movie... but I digress.

So... plans so far:

Dates: December 9 - 14, 2020

Lodging: Staying off-site at the Fairfield Inn and Suites Lake Buena Vista. This was a hard decision. We love being on-site and we've stayed in all categories from the GF and Contemporary (deluxe) to Port Orleans Riverside (moderate) to ALL of the All Stars each more than once... and a few times off-site as well. I decided this time to do the Fairfield because it's a Marriott and I can use and/or get points with my Gold membership there, which gives us free upgrade and late checkout. Also, I'm going to rent a car because we decided last time that the Disney transportation is great, but can be crowded and exhausting, especially at the end of a long park day, and having a car waiting in the parking lot just seems so much more relaxing... so this means we don't need ME...

Flights: So, my daughter now lives in Boulder, CO, and I am living right now in Vermont! So this time we are descending on Orlando from two far flung US locations, rather than starting with a long haul flight over the Atlantic. In fact, WDW is now IN MY TIMEZONE!! I'm psyched about that.. jet-lag always made the whole thing seem even more surreal than it is anyway LOL... So DD got Frontier airlines Denver to Orlando for only $140 round trip!! And I am flying American Airlines from Burlington, VT - not as cheap, but I took the $280 round trip because to make it cheaper by going Jet Blue or Frontier I would have to leave at the crack of dawn, which would kind of cancel out the no-jet-lag benefit, if you know what I mean. My 66 year old bones need their sleep! Luckily both of our flights arrive around noon, and assuming we both get there on time, we should be able to grab the rental car and get to our hotel by no later than 2 PM if not sooner. We will both have only carry-on luggage so no waiting around at the carousels either!

Tickets: After much consternation and concentrated decision making (OMG), I finally purchased us each 3-day base tickets, plus tickets to MVMCP for Dec. 10. I am still considering whether or not to add DAH tickets for our arrival day, since if we don't - we'll land at noon on Monday and only go into MK on Tuesday at 4 PM... then Wednesday: Epcot, Thursday: AK, and Friday: Studios (OR, we'll skip AK and do yet another MK or Epcot day...) So as you can see, the decision making is far from over!! Any advice would be much appreciated!! I will say that AK is not our favorite park. If not for the new Avatar attraction that opened after our last visit, we would not even consider going back... is it worth using one of our ticket days to see? Or adding a hopper?

So... as you can see, I'm super-excited and also super-confused as to the best planning strategy. Since we will be off-site our FP window doesn't open for a couple of weeks, but I want to be prepared with exactly what we want. I can start getting ADRs now of course, but that too requires that I at least know what park what day!

Thanks for reading this and please jump in if you have any suggestions, especially for the first 24 hours before MVMCP....

 

[rdkeim]

Sounds like a fun trip! And, lots of mother/daughter memories. I usually end up getting hopper tickets just in case we do want to switch parks. For whatever reason. But, I think they can be upgraded if you do change your mind. Until the party, you can spend time in Disney Springs, miniature golf or just eat and resort hop. Sometimes that's fun. Anyway, I'll watch for updates!