A trip to capture the magical moments of my kids b4 they outgrow Disney-nov/dec 12

[longing4disney]

A WDW trip for us is always a major decision. Not only do we need to travel half way round the globe, it is going to cost us a fortune!

We are a family of 5. DH, myself, DS15, DS13 and DD6, our little princess. The last time we went to WDW was is 2007, but it was without DD who was 1 1/2 then. We didn't think she'll be able to make the more than 24 hour flying time. Honestly, DH and I wanted to relive the magic of Disney as we were at DL in 96 for our honeymoon. If we had taken DD then, we doubt we could have enjoyed ourselves on all the rides with our boys.

So now, 5 years later, I was itching for Disney again. We are Harry Potter fans, so I try to reason that a trip to Orlandonwas justifiable just so we can go to WWoHP at Universal...hehehe

I need to justify to DH why we need to make the trip again. I had promised that the last trip in 07 was the trip of a lifetime, the one and only

Deep down in me I really wanted to enjoy a vacation with my kids where we can be in a world of make belief and donthings together as a family. I know my boys are outgrowing Disney, especially DS15. He is only looking forward to the trip because of WWoHP. At least now, I hope we can still do things together as a family. With DD being so much younger then the boys, it's going to be harder to organize something that suits everyone.

The most expensive item is always the airfare. I needed to redeem my air tickets to save cost. Next, hotel accommodation. We like staying onsite. I had to try to second guess when I can get free dining to make staying onsite more worth it. All these need to be done by Feb for our Nov/Dec trip so that we can get our ticket redemption!

 

[longing4disney]

Yes, we need to be that early...sigh

Our frequent flyer miles are with Singapore airlines. They have only 6 saver redemption tickets (the cheapest) for each flight. With 5 of us, if we don't make our redemption early, it is near impossible to get it. It is even more complicated for us as we needed to secure seats on both the Singapore Airlines Singapore to Houston sector as well as the continental flight from Houston to Orlando.

I have been saving our miles. For 5 tickets from Singapore to Orlando, we needed 400,000 miles at the minimum and we had just enough

Next before booking the flights, i need to decide when o go. We can only go from mid Nov and we like to come home to celebrate Christmas with the extended family. We were sure we wanted to avoid the Thanksgiing crowd. I also wanted to get a period that would give me free dining! yes yes, I want everything ...hehe

I searched DIS for the past year dates for free dining. Found out of Disney UK site that they were offering UK guest free dining from end Nov, but not first week Dec. So I decided that it would be saver to arrive in end Nov rather then 1st week of Dec

Dates decided, I called the Singapore Airlines and was able to get flights out on 27 Nov and back on 13 Dec from Singapore to Orlando... Yippee!!! I was not the first to book as some other dates were already not available then...whew!!!!

2 days later, the airline called.......