michellem1118
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2008
- Messages
- 1,067
If youve clicked on my pre-trip report, youre probably curious about how we came to be planning three trips in 9 months. Let me take you back to our honeymoon to explain
You see, on our honeymoon, we spent 3 days in WDW, and then 4 on a Disney Cruise Line vacation. While on board the cruise ship, we attended the DVC member celebration, and they had great offers for adding on to your contract. By the end of the cruise, wed been suckered in
and added to our contract. As a thank-you, we were given a free 100 developer points, which expire one year after issue in July 2009.
Oh, wait I need to back up even further to the week before the wedding! While my MIL was in town for the wedding (DHs whole family is in the NYC area, DH & I, plus my whole family, are in the Dallas area), we got to talking about the difficulties in dividing holidays between families who are so far apart and the expenses related to holiday travel. I made the suggestion that we should plan Christmases in new places, where everyone would have to travel, and everyone in both families would have the option of coming along. MIL loved the idea, and DH & I both immediately suggested Disney for Christmas 2009, and thus, trip #1 (uh, or #3 chronologically) was born.
OK, now, back to the developer points at first, we thought wed be able to use them for the Christmas trip, but quickly realized they expire too soon, so that wasnt an option. Well, thats not a big deal we missed out on a lot of things we wanted to do on the honeymoon since we were only in WDW for 3 days, so well just plan a weekend trip in there somewhere, no worries. I started looking at the calendar to try to pick a weekend (a difficult challenge b/c Im a teacher, and its very difficult to get random Fridays & Mondays off). One day, soon after the return from the honeymoon, I was chatting with a good friend, and he mentioned that he & his wife were planning a trip to Disney in May 2009, to take their two-year-old son for the first time. It took me less than 30 seconds to decide wed go that same weekend so we could see them for at least part of the trip, and I was on the phone with DVC member services to book a room at the first opportunity. I asked them to book the room using developer points, the CM repeated that request, put me on hold, and came back with a confirmation number. I assumed all was well, and thus, we had a 2nd trip planned in 2009.
As is often the case with assumptions, it turned out I was wrong. About a month or so after booking the room for May, I realized that the points were taken out of our regular DVC allotment, not our developer points, and began the multiple phone calls needed to get this straightened out. After weeks of calling and reaching CMs who had no idea what was going on, I finally, just yesterday, reached a CM who could explain what was going on & why I couldnt use the developer points in May unless I changed our resort reservation! So now what? Well, on a whim, I asked her to check about resort availability at the ONE DVC resort where I was allowed to use the developer points, for the week Im off for spring break in March. Imagine my surprise when she came back to the phone and told me that both studios and one-bedroom accommodations were available that week, just 4.5 months out! I went ahead and booked the 1-bedroom villa, and as of yesterday evening, we suddenly have three trips in a 9 month span!
Details, details
Trip #1 March 16-20, 2009
(Actually, well be leaving Dallas early in the morning of March 15, and driving on this trip. Airfare for spring break week is WAY too high to justify flying. We might even leave late on Saturday March 14, and spend one night off property to take advantage of our first full day of Disney magic)
Cast: Right now, just me & DH, although my co-worker & her husband have expressed an interest in going along
Resort: Saratoga Springs, 1-bedroom Villa
Plans & ADRs: none yet and I need to get on this quick, since Im well within the 180-day ADR window wed like to try a character meal for lunch or dinner, and well probably try for Le Cellier, but were not really sure what else were going to try to get. Suggestions???
Trip #2 May 14-18, 2009
Cast: me & DH, plus well be joining my friends Josh & Melissa, and their son Joey for part of the weekend
Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village savanna view studio
Plans & ADRs: none yet here, either Im starting to feel behind!
Trip #3, our Grand Gathering experience December 22-29, 2009
Cast: me & DH, MIL, BIL, & my parents for sure, which is a bit short of Grand Gathering size well probably also be joined by DHs aunt, uncle, & 3 cousins, and DHs other uncle & his fiancée will probably drive in from Tampa for at least part of the week.
Resorts: Saratoga Springs & Animal Kingdom Lodge, the two resorts we have DVC points at well be trying to book the rooms in January at the 11-month mark, so our dates might need to change a bit
So, those are our three trips. Were now debating the benefits of purchasing Annual Passes when we were only planning two trips, we were just going to go with no-expiration park hoppers but now that seems to be unreasonably expensive. And, were debating the DDP our last three trips, weve used DDP, but were just not sure itll be worth it on at least trip #2, and maybe not on the other trips, either Does anyone have a spreadsheet to calculate meal costs vs. DDP costs that I could steal???
Ill introduce our cast in more details in a later post I need to get some cleaning done before DH gets home from work, and maybe finish up my TR from the honeymoon (link in siggy if youre interested in reading)
Hopefully, Ill have some readers when I return!
You see, on our honeymoon, we spent 3 days in WDW, and then 4 on a Disney Cruise Line vacation. While on board the cruise ship, we attended the DVC member celebration, and they had great offers for adding on to your contract. By the end of the cruise, wed been suckered in
and added to our contract. As a thank-you, we were given a free 100 developer points, which expire one year after issue in July 2009.Oh, wait I need to back up even further to the week before the wedding! While my MIL was in town for the wedding (DHs whole family is in the NYC area, DH & I, plus my whole family, are in the Dallas area), we got to talking about the difficulties in dividing holidays between families who are so far apart and the expenses related to holiday travel. I made the suggestion that we should plan Christmases in new places, where everyone would have to travel, and everyone in both families would have the option of coming along. MIL loved the idea, and DH & I both immediately suggested Disney for Christmas 2009, and thus, trip #1 (uh, or #3 chronologically) was born.
OK, now, back to the developer points at first, we thought wed be able to use them for the Christmas trip, but quickly realized they expire too soon, so that wasnt an option. Well, thats not a big deal we missed out on a lot of things we wanted to do on the honeymoon since we were only in WDW for 3 days, so well just plan a weekend trip in there somewhere, no worries. I started looking at the calendar to try to pick a weekend (a difficult challenge b/c Im a teacher, and its very difficult to get random Fridays & Mondays off). One day, soon after the return from the honeymoon, I was chatting with a good friend, and he mentioned that he & his wife were planning a trip to Disney in May 2009, to take their two-year-old son for the first time. It took me less than 30 seconds to decide wed go that same weekend so we could see them for at least part of the trip, and I was on the phone with DVC member services to book a room at the first opportunity. I asked them to book the room using developer points, the CM repeated that request, put me on hold, and came back with a confirmation number. I assumed all was well, and thus, we had a 2nd trip planned in 2009.
As is often the case with assumptions, it turned out I was wrong. About a month or so after booking the room for May, I realized that the points were taken out of our regular DVC allotment, not our developer points, and began the multiple phone calls needed to get this straightened out. After weeks of calling and reaching CMs who had no idea what was going on, I finally, just yesterday, reached a CM who could explain what was going on & why I couldnt use the developer points in May unless I changed our resort reservation! So now what? Well, on a whim, I asked her to check about resort availability at the ONE DVC resort where I was allowed to use the developer points, for the week Im off for spring break in March. Imagine my surprise when she came back to the phone and told me that both studios and one-bedroom accommodations were available that week, just 4.5 months out! I went ahead and booked the 1-bedroom villa, and as of yesterday evening, we suddenly have three trips in a 9 month span!
Details, details
Trip #1 March 16-20, 2009
(Actually, well be leaving Dallas early in the morning of March 15, and driving on this trip. Airfare for spring break week is WAY too high to justify flying. We might even leave late on Saturday March 14, and spend one night off property to take advantage of our first full day of Disney magic)
Cast: Right now, just me & DH, although my co-worker & her husband have expressed an interest in going along
Resort: Saratoga Springs, 1-bedroom Villa
Plans & ADRs: none yet and I need to get on this quick, since Im well within the 180-day ADR window wed like to try a character meal for lunch or dinner, and well probably try for Le Cellier, but were not really sure what else were going to try to get. Suggestions???
Trip #2 May 14-18, 2009
Cast: me & DH, plus well be joining my friends Josh & Melissa, and their son Joey for part of the weekend
Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village savanna view studio
Plans & ADRs: none yet here, either Im starting to feel behind!
Trip #3, our Grand Gathering experience December 22-29, 2009
Cast: me & DH, MIL, BIL, & my parents for sure, which is a bit short of Grand Gathering size well probably also be joined by DHs aunt, uncle, & 3 cousins, and DHs other uncle & his fiancée will probably drive in from Tampa for at least part of the week.
Resorts: Saratoga Springs & Animal Kingdom Lodge, the two resorts we have DVC points at well be trying to book the rooms in January at the 11-month mark, so our dates might need to change a bit
So, those are our three trips. Were now debating the benefits of purchasing Annual Passes when we were only planning two trips, we were just going to go with no-expiration park hoppers but now that seems to be unreasonably expensive. And, were debating the DDP our last three trips, weve used DDP, but were just not sure itll be worth it on at least trip #2, and maybe not on the other trips, either Does anyone have a spreadsheet to calculate meal costs vs. DDP costs that I could steal???
Ill introduce our cast in more details in a later post I need to get some cleaning done before DH gets home from work, and maybe finish up my TR from the honeymoon (link in siggy if youre interested in reading)
Hopefully, Ill have some readers when I return!
. I'll be 30 in just over 2 weeks, and I'm not exactly thrilled about it. 
. He's 26 (yep, I robbed the cradle! 
) and also a huge Disney fan. In fact, his Disney movie collection rivaled mine, and we had very few overlapping titles... I took it as a sign that we were meant to be together! If only he knew I married him for his Disney movies.... 
DH had been to Disney once or twice before we went together. His favorite characters are the fab 5, I think.
so now DH & I need to decide whether to take the trip at all. 
Of course, I'm leaning towards yes (especially since my days off from work were already approved 
We'll probably hit one of the parks in the morning - whichever one we feel like we need more time in - and then head to DTD for some last-minute souvenir shopping before we head home. We'll probably have lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express, and then start the drive back to Dallas.
and then I can print and mail (or hand-deliver to my parents).
trip... that I can't reserve until Jan. 27.... 
). And, the info folders I made went in the mail yesterday, so hopefully they'll reach the destinations tomorrow!
