Boo To You and The Castle Suite Too! – A September 2013 TR

[littlenellbell]

Introductions: Hello and welcome to my 1st trip report. I’'m Kristy and here is a picture of me and my family during our fabulous trip to Walt Disney World September 22 – 27th, 2013. (And yes we are standing inside Cinderella’s Castle Suite!) My family consists of my husband Brandon, son Carson who is 8 and daughter Alexa who is 5.




Although DH and I have been to Disney prior to getting married, this was our 4th Disney vacation together as a family. Our first trip was in February 2010, a 4 night Disney Cruise plus one day at the Magic Kingdom and a night at Port Orleans French Quarter. A cruise and park combo is the perfect introduction to Disney that got us totally hooked!



Our 2nd trip was in May 2011 to Walt Disney World and we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort.



Our 3rd trip was just this February 2013. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside in a Royal Room! We also took a few days to explore Cocoa Beach.



All of our Disney Vacations have been wonderful; however our most recent one takes the cake!! You see, we WON this trip and were able to stay at a deluxe resort for the first time – The Yacht Club, Cinderella’s Castle Suite for a night and attended Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!!! It was an unbelievable dream come true and a once in a lifetime experience!! I hesitated to write this report because I’m a little shy and not the best writer. However, I really enjoy reading other trip reports and thought I might have something to say that may be somewhat interesting to others. So after going back and forth deciding over it, I took the advice of my Disney Travel Agent Jen (jenseib) who said Dis people love Disney and would like to hear the details of this dream trip! Hope you will join along.

 

[littlenellbell]

Table of Contents

Pre-Trip Info
Introductions
How I Won!
Our Plans

Sunday, 9/22/13
Travel Day

Monday, 9/23/13
Our extra magical Magical Express ride to the Yacht Club
Epcot Morning Part 1
Epcot Morning Part 2
Mid-day break
Dinner at the Boardwalk
Hollywood Studios Part 1
Hollywood Studios Part 2
Hollywood Studios Part 3

Tuesday, 9/24/13
Animal Kingdom Part 1
Animal Kingdom Part 2 and Castle Suite pick up
Magic Kingdom Part 1 - Castle Suite experience begins here!
Magic Kingdom Part 2 - Checking out the Suite
Magic Kingdom Part 3 - Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Magic Kingdom Part 4 - Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Magic Kingdom Part 5 - Hanging out in the Suite
Magic Kingdom Part 6 - Hanging out in the Suite continued
MNSSHP Part 1
MNSSHP Part 2
MNSSHP Part 3
MNSSHP Part 4
Sweet Dreams from Cinderella's Castle Suite

Wednesday, 9/25/13
Waking up inside Cinderella's Castle
Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table Part 1
Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table Part 2
Magic Kingdom Part 1
Magic Kingdom Part 2
Magic Kingdom Part 3
Magic Kingdom Part 4
Magic Kingdom Part 5
Dinner at Epcot and Pool Time

Thursday, 9/26/13
Hollywood Studios Part 1
Hollywood Studios Part 2
Pool Break and Epcot Part 1
Epcot Part 2

Friday, 9/27/13
Magic Kingom Part 1
Magic Kingdom Part 2
Magic Kingdom Part 3, Pool Time, and travel home

Final Thoughts

February 2013 Mini Photo Report
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

 

[courtneybelle]

I am definitely on board! Congrats on winning, the Yacht Club plus the Cinderella Castle Suite sounds like a dream come true!!! I love that your daughter wore her Cinderella dress in the suite, that is so adorable.

 

[MsHershey]

Can't wait to read more about your magical trip!

 

[Disneychix]

HOw amazing! Can't wait to hear about it!

 

[Lauren0505]

Awesome!!! Can't wait to read your report. I love entering sweepstakes and it is fun to read about a trip someone else won. Congratulations!!!!
My biggest win was a Fantasy Preview cruise in 2012. Hoping I can win another Disney vacation soon!

 

[jedijill]

Wow! What a great trip to win!!!! I'm glad Jen convinced you to write a report. Can't wait to hear all the details!

Jill in CO

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[littlenellbell]

I am definitely on board! Congrats on winning, the Yacht Club plus the Cinderella Castle Suite sounds like a dream come true!!! I love that your daughter wore her Cinderella dress in the suite, that is so adorable.

Thanks for coming on board! Yes, my daughter had so much fun twirling around pretending to be Cinderella in that dress! I thought it would have been cute for my son to dress up as Prince Charming, but there was no talking him into that!

Can't wait to read more about your magical trip!

Welcome!

HOw amazing! Can't wait to hear about it!

Thanks for joining in!

Awesome!!! Can't wait to read your report. I love entering sweepstakes and it is fun to read about a trip someone else won. Congratulations!!!!
My biggest win was a Fantasy Preview cruise in 2012. Hoping I can win another Disney vacation soon!

Wow! How cool you won a cruise! I haven't entered too many sweepstakes because I basically thought it was something I'd never win....but now I've changed my tune. Real people do win! And if you don't enter, you will never win. Thanks for joining in my trip report!

Wow! What a great trip to win!!!! I'm glad Jen convinced you to write a report. Can't wait to hear all the details!

Jill in CO

Hopefully Jen was right! It's a little crazy to open yourself up to the internet world, but I think I will enjoy retelling this trip to everyone.

Following along!

Welcome!

 

[katt789]

I'm in!! Looks like this was definitely an epic adventure!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Can't wait to hear all the details. We won a trip in 2011 and stayed at the Poly. No castle for us though. I bet it was amazing!

 

[littlenellbell]

I'm in!! Looks like this was definitely an epic adventure!

Yes, it was EPIC! Thanks for joining!

Can't wait to hear all the details. We won a trip in 2011 and stayed at the Poly. No castle for us though. I bet it was amazing!

How awesome you won a trip and got to stay at the Poly!! Yes, the castle was so amazing but we were just so excited to be able to go back to Disney in general. I'd love to be able stay at the Poly sometime....I better get to entering more sweepstakes LOL!

 

[littlenellbell]

Hang with me while I go back and explain how it all started. In August of last year DH and I went to Cancun for our 10th Anniversary. We booked our trip through Delta Vacations because we were flying Delta and I could get more sky miles if I booked the resort and flight through them together.
Here we are enjoying our 10th Anniversary and 1st vacation without our kids. Although we were traveling the day a hurricane was hitting just south of Cancun, the rest of the vacation was amazing and relaxing!



So what does our trip to Cancun have to do with this trip? Well, booking Cancun through Delta Vacations is what landed me on their email mailing list. Earlier this spring, I received an email from them that was advertising “Disney Week” and promoting vacation packages to Disney World. As part of this they were giving away a trip to Disney World including a stay in Cinderella’s Castle Suite. So like any Disney fan would do, I followed the link and entered my name and never gave it a second thought because the odds of actually winning something like this are slim to none.
Fast forward to April 29th, I was at work and I get an email from someone at Delta Vacations stating that I have won a trip to Disney and I needed to contact them to accept the prize. At this point I barely remembered that I entered this. I text my DH and tell him that I think we won a trip but it could be a scam so I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Because I was at work, I didn’t have time to respond back or do anything about it. It was killing me!! I remember sitting in a meeting at work, and being in this daze my mind just spinning wondering if it could be true. When I got home, there was a voicemail on our home phone also saying I won. So I quickly did a little research on the internet and found the page for the Delta Vacations Cinderella Castle Sweepstakes. The dates of the contest ending and the prize matched up and it was quickly sinking in that this could really be real!
The official prize was roundtrip airfare to Orlando, accommodations at select Deluxe Disney hotel the nights of September 23 and 25, 1 night stay on September 24 in Cinderella’s Castle and 4-day park hopper tickets for up to 4 people.
After a week or 2 of sending notarized paperwork and tax forms, it was official! We were going back to Disney. Delta Vacations posted this picture on their Facebook page and now it was really real!!!!!



They just so happened to be showing a bunch of Disney Documentaries on the Travel Channel that week. I DVR’d them and the next night we sat down with the kids to watch them. The one documentary (I can’t remember the name of it?) shows the Castle Suite and how/why they made it. As we were watching it, we asked the kids if they would like to stay there??? At first they thought we were joking and it took a lot of explaining to an 8 and 5 year old. But after it started to sink in they were sooo excited!! I of course was just so happy to be planning another trip.

 

[jedijill]

How exciting!

Jill in CO

 

[jojosam]

What an awesome opportunity! I can't wait to read more!!

 

[geckodani]

That's amazing that you won the trip! I can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[acurry417]

How awesome! Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[LimeCordial]

Totally amazing!!! Thanks for sharing your trip report

 

[khertz]

Okay, your story of how this trip came to be has me hooked!! I can't wait to read the rest.

 

[saintstickets]

So YOU'RE the one that won that package! I entered that contest numerous times. I am so glad I get to hear about your trip!! Congrats and I'm looking forward to reading all about it!