longing4disney
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2007
- Messages
- 378
After reading all the trip reports in this board for the past 9 months, I have decided to write my own! My pre-trip report for our trip to Orlando from 28 Nov to 13 Dec 2007.
The cast:
DH41
: the jaded traveller who flies around regularly for his work, and is doing this trip for me and the boys. DH is out of town regularly, going to places in South East Asia, China, Japan and Europe. He has even been to Brazil, but I doubt he sees much of these places except the airport, the hotel and the office, well, that's what he says! He doesn't plan anything and when he is home, other then getting the boys to do their homework (they never listens to me, only their dad, the disciplinarian), he is in front of the Tv
or has the newspapers in front of him. He doesn't understand why I am surfing the net daily reading the DIS Boards!
Me37
: a working mother with 3 kids who sometimes feels like a single parent because DH is away at least 1 week a month. I am a complusive planner who has been longing to visit WDW for the last 11 years after our honeymoon to CA in 1996 when we visited Disneyland. I had a great time in Disneyland 11 years ago and really is hoping to re-live it with my boys this time round. Work has been really stressful lately, and the only thing that is sustaining me is this coming trip!
DS10
: A stitch fan who watches Lilo and Stitch, the Series on Disney Channel everymorning once he wakes up. If only he is so attentive with his school work. After our vacation to Gold Coast, Australia last year, where we visited Movie World, Seaworld, and Dreamworld, he is hooked on team parks! So DS10 is really looking forward to his first trip to a Disney park. He doesn't know what to expect, but I can't wait to see the surprise and joy on his face when he gets to WDW! Only worry for me is the 18 hours flight to Newark from Singapore. DS10 gets sick on the plane, so I am getting ready the airsick meds and hope that he'll have a pleasant flight.
DS8
: Another Stitch fan! He has been asking to go to Hongkong Disneyland after his friends from school rave about their trip their last year. He was really disappointed when I told him that we are not going to Hong Kong Disneyland, but are going to WDW!
I have been telling him that WDW is thousand times better than HK Disney, and he is finally convinced! He is now counting down the days before we depart. Actually DS8 is only 7 and will only be eight on Christmas Eve. I am still deciding if we should celebrate his birthday 2 weeks earlier when we are in WDW.
The missing Cast :
DD1
: Unfortunately, DD1 will not be coming with us on this trip
. We are worried that she may not take the long journey well, and my mum has kindly offerred to baby sit her for the 2 1/2 weeks that we are away. Bless her! 
Last year was a great year for me at work and I received a good bonus in February. Also, the birth of DD1 last year allowed me to sell my company's shares which I had purchased under the company's Discounted Share Purchase Plan, before the end of the moratorium period for the shares. The birth of a 3rd child is a special release event for the shares. I was able to sell my shares at a good price just a few months after I purchased them!
. These 2 "win fall" really meant that my dream vacation to WDW is finally possible!
We set a budget of about $15K for this trip and hope to get as much out of it as possible. Frankly, a trip to WDW is a very costly affair for us. We won't be able to go back again anytime soon after this trip. So frankly, I am feeling very guilty towards DD1 because I don't know if we can afford to bring to to WDW when she is older. But we really don't want to wait for her to be older before we make the trip because DS10 and DS8 are at the age where they will enjoy themselves best. To wait for DD1 to get older, the boys will be in their late teens and we know that they will no longer be as innocent or spontanous as they are now. This trip is also really for DH and I to spend more time with the boys. Since DD1 was born last year, we have had less time to spend with the boys and I miss that too.
The first thing we know we had to get was air tickets. We checked around and found out that the cheapest tickets from Singapore to MCO was on Northwest and that will cost us a total of around $3,400 including taxes. But taking Northwest will mean that we need to take 2 stops along the way, one in Japan and one in the US before we get to MCO. Total flying time was close to 24 hours (excluding the transit time in the airports). We weren't sure if our boys could take the long journey.
The alternative was to take Singapore Airlines ("SQ") which has a direct flight from Singapore to Newark which takes slightly less than 18 hours. Then its less then 3 hours from Newark to MCO. This is definitely a more costly route but definitely more comfortable because of the extensive inflight entertainment on SQ (100 channels of on demand movie, TV, music and nitendo games meaning that we do not need to entertain the boys
) The cost for 4 is $5,200 (including taxes) to Newark, then its another $500 from Newark to MCO on Continental. Fortunately, DH has miles with SQ but it was still insufficient to redeem 4 free tickets. We had sufficient miles for 3 tickets only. We knew that we had to make our redemption early because the Singapore Newark sector is one of the most popular flights and are frequently fully booked. We put in our redemption requests in March to fly on Nov 28 and return of Dec 13. We manged to redeem 2 confirm tickets only. The return leg of the 3rd ticket was on waitlist. We were advised that the likelihood of getting a confirmed seat on the waitlisted ticket was close to nil because mid Nov to end Dec is the school holidays in Singapore. So we decided to bite the bullet and bought 2 tickets. The total cost of the 2 tickets that we bought, the taxes for the 4 of us, added to around $2,750. Including the tickets for the continental flight from Newark to MCO, our total airfare came up to $3,100 which is close to the amount we would have paid if we bought 4 tickets on Northwest.
Balance to spend : $11,900.
The cast:
DH41



Me37

DS10

DS8


The missing Cast :
DD1



Last year was a great year for me at work and I received a good bonus in February. Also, the birth of DD1 last year allowed me to sell my company's shares which I had purchased under the company's Discounted Share Purchase Plan, before the end of the moratorium period for the shares. The birth of a 3rd child is a special release event for the shares. I was able to sell my shares at a good price just a few months after I purchased them!


We set a budget of about $15K for this trip and hope to get as much out of it as possible. Frankly, a trip to WDW is a very costly affair for us. We won't be able to go back again anytime soon after this trip. So frankly, I am feeling very guilty towards DD1 because I don't know if we can afford to bring to to WDW when she is older. But we really don't want to wait for her to be older before we make the trip because DS10 and DS8 are at the age where they will enjoy themselves best. To wait for DD1 to get older, the boys will be in their late teens and we know that they will no longer be as innocent or spontanous as they are now. This trip is also really for DH and I to spend more time with the boys. Since DD1 was born last year, we have had less time to spend with the boys and I miss that too.
The first thing we know we had to get was air tickets. We checked around and found out that the cheapest tickets from Singapore to MCO was on Northwest and that will cost us a total of around $3,400 including taxes. But taking Northwest will mean that we need to take 2 stops along the way, one in Japan and one in the US before we get to MCO. Total flying time was close to 24 hours (excluding the transit time in the airports). We weren't sure if our boys could take the long journey.
The alternative was to take Singapore Airlines ("SQ") which has a direct flight from Singapore to Newark which takes slightly less than 18 hours. Then its less then 3 hours from Newark to MCO. This is definitely a more costly route but definitely more comfortable because of the extensive inflight entertainment on SQ (100 channels of on demand movie, TV, music and nitendo games meaning that we do not need to entertain the boys

Balance to spend : $11,900.