Booked next Disneyland trip!!

[DLovinFam]

I know it's still so far away, but it's always exciting to book a Disney trip! It feels more "real". I booked for next June. We are leaving the day after the kids get out of school. They don't/won't know we are going. Keeping it a surprise is going to be fun and challenging. lol

Just had to share my excitement!

 

[disneylandfreak]

Congrats!, I know how hard it is to keep a trip a secret, we went last year for ds 10th birthday and we kept it from him for months. He didn't know we were going until we pulled up to hotel. We live about 10 hours away and we left right after his last baseball game of the season (they lost) so he was really down. We told him my brother called during the game and was getting married down in San Diego (big fib). Then when we got down to Anaheim dh said "let's pull in and look at the DH" well we pulled up and said Happy Birthday we are here for 7 days. He was so suprised he actually teared up it was awesome. I hope you can keep your secret, it's well worth it.
Jen

 

[PigletGurl]

im going about the same time as you are!

 

[nemesis]

I WANNA GO!!! I need to go back and get the "Magic"!

 

[DLovinFam]

Thanks! I am VERY excited about keeping it a secret from the kids! My kids, next june, will be 16, almost 13 and 6. We are going to do our best to keep it from them. I think I am just as excited about surprising them as I am about where we are going! It just adds a different element to this trip as they have never been surprised before. As it is, they think the soonest we will be able to go to DL again is when my oldest graduates highschool in 3 years.

I bet your son was SO excited about his surprise!! How fun!!

 

[PirateFish989]

You are going to have sooooo much fun!!! I'm so jealous!

I've never been suprised with a trip so I'm always in on the planning end. I know how hard it is to wait for the day to come when you leave!

 

[Danauk]

Congrats, I hope you have a great trip! We are counting down the weeks until we can book our 1st DL trip (we have to book at 11 months due to DVC points). My ticker started 2 years ago and I have the tripped planned already!! I can't wait to book things. DH and I went to Disneyland Paris for our Honeymoon, WDW for out 5th anniversary so are going to DL to celebtate our 10th!!

 

[DLovinFam]

Cool that you will be there the same time we are! My oldest dd is just a bit younger than you. She's almost 16.

 

[DLovinFam]

I've never been surprised either. My parents took us to Disneyland a few times as a kid, but we always knew about it ahead of time. This will actually make it easier for my kids NOT to know. I always book 10 or 11 months in advance and, like me, they have a hard time waiting that long. This way they will only have to wait one day from the time they know we are going. lol

 

[DLovinFam]

How fun! Well, we can count down together now since we are going close to the same time! I would love to go to some of the other Disney resorts, but have only been to DL so far. One day I'd love to go to Disneyworld. I don't know if I'll ever make it to DLP, but ya never know!

 

[kelmac284]

That's awesome! I know how you feel. We just got back this past Sunday from our trip and I already have a trip scheduled for Oct that I had planned before we even left for this one and I just finished booking our February trip!!! I am SO excited. Now my NEXT big plan is our trip to DW which is in Nov of 08. We are AP's for DL so we go 2 or 3 times a year but we only get to the "world' once every 3 or 4 years. Last time we were there was in 05 so we are SO excited to go next year!!

I envy you being able to do a surprise trip. I have NO patience to keep a secret! I wish I did LOL. That would be so cool!

 

[DLovinFam]

Wow! I would LOVE to be able to go to Disneyland a few times a year and DW every few year!! As it it, we only make it to DL once every 3 to 5 years. I should really talk to dh and see if we can plan a DW trip down the road.

 

[kelmac284]

Yeah before I had kids I used to only go to DL every 3 or 4 years but once I had the kids and moved back to CA (I used to live in WA) we made an effort to try and go at least once a year. We live in Northern CA so it is an hour flight or a 7 hour drive. Last year we bought an annual pass so now we try to go at least twice in a year to make it worthwhile. With driving and staying in discounted hotels we can do it fairly cheap. I agree if we lived farther away and had to fly every time we wouldn't be going as much. In fact that is why we only go to DW every 3 or 4. In fact I didn't go to DW until I was in my 30's.

I didn't know if I would EVER be able to go but if you look into it you would be surprised how affordable it really can be. It costs us basically 200 round trip to fly from Sac to LA and you can get a fare almost that cheap round trip to Orlando. Then my husband was in the army the first time we went so we got WAY discounted rooms the first time and last time we used my mom's timeshare. This time we are checking into staying at the allstars and doing the dinning plan. Comparing if it is cheaper than our timeshare and renting a car.

It CAN be done on a budget. We used to always fly down but now that we drive it saves quite a bit. We also don't really go to many other places unfortunately. This is the cheapest vacation we can do. We would like to go other places but everything else costs SO much with a family of 5 with airfare, hotels etc that Disney is the cheapest thing we can do believe it or not.

 

[Danauk]

So now that you have booked will you be planning obsessively like I am? Even though our trip is a year away I have already decided where we will eat, what we will do each day, what tours we will do etc!! I see you have been to DL a few times, what are your favourite bits of the parks? I'm really looking forward to our 1st trip. I love WDW as there is so much to do there (plus we do other Orlando things too) but I also love the Disneyland park at DLP, actually that is probably my favourite Disney park out of the ones I have visited so far. I guess I will be comparing DL to DLP as opposed to WDW which is totally different. I am looking forward to eating at Blue Bayou the most, we ate at the equivalent restaurant in DLP and loved it.

 

[DLovinFam]

I planned obsessively our last trip in 2005. That is the trip we went "all out". If it wasn't for this board I wouldn't have known about balcony seating for Fantasmic!....Which we were able to do and had front row seats. It was amazing and a once in a life time thing for us. I'm glad we were able to experience that now that they aren't offering it anymore. We stayed on-site and I had reservations for several meals....character meals and Blue Bayou (which, like you, we just LOVE) So I can totally relate to the obsessive planning! LOL

This trip is our economy trip. We will be staying off site at BWPPI. I don't think I will be making any ressies this time (Maybe Blue Bayou though). I am very excited to surprise the kids this time. That adds a new element for us as we have never surprised them before! Plus we will be adding in Sea World and the San Diego Zoo, so we had to change it up a bit this time.

I hope you will love Disneyland as much as we do. We have nothing to compare it to. I grew up going to DL and it will always be special to me. When we get a chance to go to WDW though, I would love to get some tips from you!! I truly would love to go there some day!

Oh, and for my favorite bits of the park....New Orleans Square, Downtown Disney at night, going on Grizzly River Run at night, Going on Big Thunder Mountain during the fireworks show, .....come to think of it these are some good reasons why we are going during the busy season. I would miss some of this stuff otherwise. LOL

It will be fun counting down with you and everyone else!!