Budget Trip? We don't need no stinkin' budget trip - PTR

[TifffanyD]

Hi everyone,

I have never written a trip report before (although I meant to) and definitely not a pretrip report. This vacation has evolved so much that I wanted to have it documented.

Cast of characters:

Me - 27 years old. I have been steadily becoming more and more obsessed with WDW and all things Disney since my New Year's trip in 2007. I went twice as a child, but barely remember it, and once to Eurodisney in Paris when I was there on foreign exchange.

DF - 28 years old. His first trip to WDW (and on a plane!) was my surprise NYE trip for us for 2006/2007. Since then he has grown obsessed right along with me. He reads the disboards almost as much as I do, but lately most of his postings have been under my name. He may end up contributing here as well.

After our first trip over New Year's we ended up going again for free dining in September 2007. On our first day there, DBF became DF in the MK in front of the castle. I have pictures on the photopass from it but don't have them stored online anywhere so I can't post them now.

So when the Disney Visa discount codes came out a couple of days before Halloween, touting a great deal at 4 nights for around $300ish or so a person, we snapped that up.

On 10/30/2007 we booked 7 nights at Pop Century (where we stayed last time) from 2/2 - 2/9. Of course this was more than the $300ish per person because it was more days, but it still only ran about $1000 with 5 day park tickets. We were planning on using our MNSSHP rainout tickets for one day and buying P&PP tickets for another day. So we already spent more than we thought, but we were being very economical.

Then, we decided to add the dining plan so that bumped our "deal" up to around $1500ish. When we finally added an additional day on, planning to stay until 2/10, we were around $1640 ... way more than we planned, but what the heck. We still had to buy airfare, which I waited on and snagged when it went down to $79 each way (total, around $370 after fees). Yikes! The only thing left to do was make dining plans and buy P&PP tickets. Dining plans went so smoothly, we got everything we wanted:

2/2 - Dinner at 1900 Park Faire
2/3 - Dinner at Coral Reef (we tried so hard to snag this in Sept)
2/4 - Dinner at Raglan Road (we loved this place on our last trip)
2/5 - Lunch at WCC (before the P&PP!)
2/6 - Fantasmic Dinner Package at H&V
2/7 - Dinner at Cap'n Jack's
2/8 - Dinner at Chef Mickey's
2/9 - Dinner at Biergarten

Everything was set, except for buying the P&PP tickets. We waited on that because DF has been applying for jobs and we weren't sure if a possible new job would conflict with our trip. While the trip would be refundable up to 45 days and the airfare could be rebooked, this would be lost money. Of course, that didn't stop me from starting to sew costumes (I got a pirate vest for him done). So we were set and counting down the days til the trip (and til we had to finish paying). Disney world... here we come!!!

Up next: Plans Change

 

[TifffanyD]

So we were all set to wait and count down for our trip, but of course that couldn't happen quite so easily. In early December, DF got word on the job he was waiting to hear about. After a testing and one set of interviews he had been invited back for more interviews, so it was seeming like a real possibility. Of course the job starts before we leave (Jan 14th) and has several weeks of training, so this would be a major conflict. I knew we wouldn't find out about it before our magic 45-day date came up (Dec 19th) so I was trying to decide between cancelling now or possibility cancelling later and paying the late cancel penalty. Ugh, both choices are so depressing, I couldn't stand it. So, last week I scrambled and on Wednesday I talked to my manager and asked if I could possibly be out the week before his job (Jan 7-11). She said it was ok, but I was still tentative on changing all the plans.

After a little bit of research, I saw that flights were cheaper (only $49 each way - woo) and easy to change. So I told DF that if he rebooked all of our dining and we got decent places, we might rebook. Here is what we came up with:

1/5 - Dinner at 1900 Park Faire
1/6 - Dinner at Biergarten
1/7 - Dinner at Raglan Road
1/8 - open
1/9 - Fantasmic dinner package at H&V
1/10 - Dinner at Cap'n Jack's
1/11 - Dinner at WCC

We weren't able to snag a Chef Mickey's or Coral Reef dinner this time but it was pretty close to our original plan. So Thursday, at work, I searched and searched and the only thing I could find on the disneyworld website with availability was All Star Music preferred or AKL standard. Argh, either somewhere we didn't really want to stay or somewhere we did but was way pricey. Also, both were only available from 1/5-1/12, so we'd only be staying 7 nights instead of 8. Oh well. Somehow we decided to book AKL, even tho it was way more expensive than our previous trip ($2400+ with DDP ). One small problem, I didn't have enough credit on my card to book it, argh. So I submitted for a limit increase, got it within a couple hours, and booked that baby before it went away. Then I quickly changed the flights (saving us $120 in southwest credit to use on a future trip) and scrambled off to a meeting just in time.

YAY! We had a trip rebooked, and we were GOING (no way to cancel this baby outside of 45 days). With only 24 days til our trip, we were booked and had most things ready. Since we are now staying at AKL, we added a breakfast ressie at Boma for our last day there (1/12)... before our flight out at 3ish (assuming Magical Express will pick us up noonish). We've wanted to stay at AKL someday but I didn't think it would be so SOON!

Anyone have any info/tips on this resort? I've looked up some things online and on the boards, but I'm sure I am missing some things. I requested a King bed (know it's not guarantee) and we booked a standard view room.

Up next: How can we spend more money?

 

[Ladysunflr]

at night on the savannah behind AKL there is a CM there with night vision goggles so you can see all the animals in the dark - this is WAY cool!

 

[TifffanyD]

at night on the savannah behind AKL there is a CM there with night vision goggles so you can see all the animals in the dark - this is WAY cool!

Wow, that DOES sound cool! I've never used night vision glasses before - thanks for the heads up!!!!

 

[TifffanyD]

So, we thought we had a good plan going, but then I found out that during the original trip DF was going to surprise me with a Keys to the Kingdom tour. Hold up!!! That sounds like fun, so we book that for our last day there! At least I got the 20% Visa Discount - so for 5 hours and lunch it's <$100, not bad!

We also decided that since we are staying at a resort with sit down restaurants we want to take advantage of it, so we have 2 breakfast ressies at Boma (putting us one over the dining plan, figure we'll pay for the 2nd OOP if we like the first). Add that to the fact that we are planning on upgrade to AP's while we are there since we want to Disneymoon within a year, and the bill has really skyrocketed . Here is our most up to date daily itinerary (color coded for my benefit):

1/5 - Travel day. Land at MCO around 1:30, hopefully get to AKL by 3pm. Check out our room and possibly grab a CS lunch at The Mara before heading to the Magic Kingdom! Play for awhile then head to The Grand Floridian for dinner at 1900 Park Faire at 7:15 pm. We are picky eaters (me moreso than DF as I don't eat beef or pork) and the menu looked quite diverse here. Also, seeing the wicked stepmother and sisters sounds like so much fun! Head back to MK after dinner, possibly catching Spectro and Wishes before heading back to the hotel. Not sure how long we will last this day.

1/6 - We're thinking of heading to MGM in the morning until we get hungry or feel like we did enough there for the day. If it's before lunch, we will head directly to Epcot to grab a CS lunch, or else just head there to play around for a bit. We have dinner scheduled at Cape May Cafe for 7:40pm, and Epcot closes at and shows Iluminations at 9pm. I'm a bit worried about missing closing time this day and not being able to get a bus back from Epcot (in which case we'd have to travel to DTD to connect). But after watching the Disney Food special on Food Network we were drooling over the crab legs and other seafood so we booked this instead of Biergarten and it's the earliest we could get.

1/7 - 8:30 breakfast at Boma!! I thought this would get us in the mood to head to AK for the day. I love Dinosaur, Everest, and the Safari so these are must-do's. I'd also like to see The Festival of the Lion King as we never have. Once we are done here (or tired, as is usually the case), we will head back to the resort to relax a bit. Might grab CS lunch at The Mara or grab something downtown if we head there early enough. This is the night we are having dinner at Raglan Road, which is the only meal we are repeating from our last trip. We loved this place last time and can't wait to go back! I've read some bad reviews but our experience was awesome! If we do eat downtown I might like to try Wolfgang Puck Express. We grabbed a meal at Cooke's of Dublin last trip but I don't see it on the dining plan this time around. Oh well. We'll probably go to the Adventurer's Club afterwards, as we love this place! And I think I read somewhere that if we have bought our AP's by then we will get in PI for half price?

1/8 - No meals scheduled this day. Of course that means Epcot!! I plan to eat 2 CS's and spend the whole day in Epcot this day. My possible places of attack are Japan(loved it last time), UK(didn't try it but love Fish & Chips. The lack of a fancy dessert might dissuade me tho), China (mmm Orange Chicken. I read something bad about the Ginger Ice Cream tho and good dessert is important), or The Land Pavillion (yum!). DF is considering China, Morocco, and maybe France for the patries. Might stay for illuminations or, if we're tired, go back to the resort to relax and enjoy.

1/9 - We have this day slated for MGM! This is the only day we are eating in a park - a Fantasmic Package at Hollywood & Vine. I have read mixed reviews of the food here but I hope it's good for us both. We are eating kind of early, 4:50pm, so we'll probably have a CS at MGM as well (maybe pizza? Or chicken fingers if I haven't had a ton). We'll be staying here late since we are seeing Fantasmic so not sure how early we will get here.

1/10 - We're planning on heading back to AK this day. Once again, not sure how early. We'll either eat in the park or, if we can avoid that, eat at The Mara after we get back. Or, once again, possibly downtown if we head out there early, as we have 8:05pm dinner ressies at Cap'n Jack's. I'm really ready for that lobster - it'll be a nice change! I'm trying to pick places so that I'm not eating the same thing (chicken) every day.

1/11 - Wake up early for Keys to the Kingdom Tour at the Magic Kingdom ! We booked the 9am as that was the latest they had, so hopefully we will be able to make it . I think this is going to be a ton of fun and really interesting. Going to try to make sure I am well rested for this. Also, we really dig Columbia Harbor House so we are looking forward to this bonus meal. I know you get to pick what you get - does anyone know if dessert is included? We'll then play around the MK until our dinner ressies at Whispering Canyon Cafe. DF is eyeing up the skillet there (and probably the bottomless milkshakes) and it seems like fun to me too. Our dinner is at 6:50pm so not sure if we will be able to get back towards the MK to grab a bus or not (closes at 8pm that night), but we'll figure that out later.

1/12 - Breakfast at Boma at 9:30am before we get picked up by the Magical Express. I already want to go back!

What do you think? Would you change anything? Any suggestions for different CS or for yummy snacks? Or how easy will it be to walk from MGM to Epcot for the day we are planning on splitting?

 

[HopingToGetEngaged]

Ok... I have to post this, because I've been thinking about it for while- pretty much since the first time I saw one of your posts. I think that we graduated high school together. But, I could be totally wrong... in a class as large as I graduated with, you don't know everyone!

 

[TifffanyD]

Ok... I have to post this, because I've been thinking about it for while- pretty much since the first time I saw one of your posts. I think that we graduated high school together. But, I could be totally wrong... in a class as large as I graduated with, you don't know everyone!

Oooooh we might have! My class was definitely large. Mentor High - class of 98! (since I already have my location and age posted I figured that was OK to post too)

 

[HopingToGetEngaged]

That is so funny. Me too! Some people can't wrap their head around the fact that we didn't know everyone in our (HUGE) class!

Congrats on getting engaged!

 

[TifffanyD]

That is so funny. Me too! Some people can't wrap their head around the fact that we didn't know everyone in our (HUGE) class!

Congrats on getting engaged!

That's awesome! Thank you... Good luck to you getting engaged too!

 

[HopingToGetEngaged]

That's awesome! Thank you... Good luck to you getting engaged too!

Yeah.. we aren't together anymore. I just didn't want to change the name!

 

[TifffanyD]

Yeah.. we aren't together anymore. I just didn't want to change the name!

Oh no!!! Kinda funny too tho

 

[TifffanyD]

Today I came home and what had arrived... my Magical Express tags!!! Now it feels like it is really almost here... they say AKL and everything. Can't wait... only 19 days!

In honor of this, DF & I went to the mall today and plumped up our Disney gift cards. I had bought us $50 ones each with a $100 Visa gift card we got when we signed out lease. Since we both did the max number of shared reviews (not all approved yet but we are getting there), I added $150 to each of our cards to account for that. Wooo... $200 spending money each that is basically "free" money.

I also got the "Adventures by Disney" book yesterday that I requested. Those trips seem pretty darn cool and well thought out - I hope we can do one some day!

 

[Ladysunflr]

Today I came home and what had arrived... my Magical Express tags!!! Now it feels like it is really almost here... they say AKL and everything. Can't wait... only 19 days!

In honor of this, DF & I went to the mall today and plumped up our Disney gift cards. I had bought us $50 ones each with a $100 Visa gift card we got when we signed out lease. Since we both did the max number of shared reviews (not all approved yet but we are getting there), I added $150 to each of our cards to account for that. Wooo... $200 spending money each that is basically "free" money.

I also got the "Adventures by Disney" book yesterday that I requested. Those trips seem pretty darn cool and well thought out - I hope we can do one some day!

I am soooo excited for you.. I love when the ME package comes.... however, I never use the tags, because i'd rather pick up my luggage and tag it along with me on the bus so we all arrive at the same time... even more souvies for me!!!

 

[TifffanyD]

I am soooo excited for you.. I love when the ME package comes.... however, I never use the tags, because i'd rather pick up my luggage and tag it along with me on the bus so we all arrive at the same time... even more souvies for me!!!

Hahah I am way too lazy and impatient to wait for my bags, I love having it show up in room! Of course, I haven't had any issues with that yet (knock on wood). We usually bring a larger carryon for the plan with our smaller parks bag inside... works well for us.

I am SOOOOOOO excited too! I've looked at tons of pics of AKL online but we only stayed in ASMo and Pop and we thought both of those were nice, so I am sure we will be blown away!!!

 

[Ladysunflr]

Hahah I am way too lazy and impatient to wait for my bags, I love having it show up in room! Of course, I haven't had any issues with that yet (knock on wood). We usually bring a larger carryon for the plan with our smaller parks bag inside... works well for us.

I am SOOOOOOO excited too! I've looked at tons of pics of AKL online but we only stayed in ASMo and Pop and we thought both of those were nice, so I am sure we will be blown away!!!

AKL is sooo beautiful inside... I've never stayed there, but i've eaten dinner at boma's several times and then gone out back to see the animals with the night vision stuff ( giraffes look cool with a green glow to them! ) Its made by the same company who made wilderness lodge, so if you go there at all, you'll feel right at home... just HUGE...

 

[schimj]

Hi All!!!

Ok, so here it goes...here are my two cents on the pre-trip report. I'm new at the whole pre-trip report thing, so please be patient.

As you may have read, originally we were planning on going in Feb, and we started planning that trip in late October and booked it on or really close to Halloween, no less than 6 weeks after we got back from our free dining trip to POP Century. My obsession with all things Disney started approximately a year ago. My first trip to WDW was a surprise from my now-fiancee for New Year's Eve 2006 to 2007, and up until that time I was somewhat skeptical of how much fun it would be for us, two people in our late 20's, with no kids. I then realized that Disney is so much fun, and have fallen in love with alllllllll the things to do in WDW.

Shortly before our trip in September, I moved from Pittsburgh, PA to Willoughby, OH, which is in the suburbs of Cleveland. Since I've moved here, I've been actively searching for employment, but I hadn't been having much luck. About a week before Thanksgiving, I received a call from a prospective employer to schedule pre-employment testing for the first Monday in December. Apparently, I had the correct answers for the questions asked, because after the testing I had a phone interview scheduled. After that, I had a series of two face-to-face interviews scheduled, and my fiancee, who works for the company for which I've been testing/interviewing works for as well, was taking that as a good sign. During one of the interviews, I found out that the job would start on Jan 14th, and it would have a five to seven week training class. Our trip was scheduled for Feb 2-10, so if I get the job, I would have been in Disney during the training. At that point, we...well, mainly she...decided to push our trip up to a time where even if I do get the job, the training would not be interfered with.

So now our 9 day, 8 night at POP (since we enjoyed that so much in Sept) became 8 day, 7 night at AKL (we tried for other resorts, but AKL and Wilderness Lodge were our only choices), so we figured go big or don't go at all. What was once a trip that would be about $1000 (originally we were going one less day and no dining) has snowballed into about $2500 and then some (we might be doing one breakfast at Boma OOP, we also have a KttK tour planned, and we will more than likely upgrade to APs since we're planning on DisMooning late fall/winter '08). Even before we rebooked the trip so we wouldn't face a penalty for canceling the Feb trip, I was starting to get very excited about going (mainly because I'd found several things on Travel Channel and Food Network about Disney during the Holidays), and now our trip is only 15 days away.

Stay tuned for my 2nd part: Park and Dining Itinerary

 

[schimj]

Welcome Back, Constant Reader!

So here's part 2 of my pre-trip report for our upcoming trip to the most magical place on Earth. Here is a brief recap of the cast of characters involved:

Me (28)
DF (27)

That's it...just the two of us. And so far, we've really enjoyed this arrangement for our trips...with only two people (who have roughly the same tastes), we get an awful lot done and are pretty much dead to the world when we get back to our room, sleep fast (or duck down to DTD or the resort bar), and repeat the process the next day. Now, on to the pre-trip report, part 2. Here is our itinerary, or at least what we have penciled in thus far...our plans can be quite fluid at times.

Day One (Sat Jan 5th)

Take off from Cleveland to Orlando (non-stop) at 10:50 am, scheduled to land 1:30 pm. From there we hop on the ME (just got our luggage tags in the mail yesterday!!!! OUR TRIP IS REALLY ALMOST HERE!!!!), get to AKL, check in, etc. Depending on what time we get through with check in and how hungry we are, we might go straight to MK or possibly grab a quick meal at The Mara. We plan on spending all the time we can (on the first day) in MK, even though we have an ADR for 1900 Park Fare at 7:15 pm. We'll take the monorail to GF, and then we'll eat and maybe take in the sights for a bit. After we're done with dinner, we'll take the monorail back to MK, and stay there until we are too tired to continue walking around the park, or until it closes for the night.

Day Two

On our first full day, we plan on starting out at what will by then be Disney's Hollywood Studios, riding both Tower of Terror and Rock'N'Rollercoaster (which was closed for rehab when we were there last), and possibly catching a show or two. If we want to, we might walk over to EPCOT (any one know if/how this is possible? We're pretty sure this is possible, but not quite sure of how it's done.) Then we'll walk from either the Studios or Epcot to our dinner at Cape May, and return to Epcot for Illuminations.

Day Three

We have an ADR for breakfast at Boma, then go over to AK and do all of our musts for it (namely EE, Dinosaur, the Safari, and possibly Kali, if I can talk DF into it), as well as see all the wonderful sights. We might try to grab a CS in AK, probably the one near Y&Y. We'll probably stick around AK until close to closing time, then go back to our room, freshen up and go to DTD for our dinner at Raglan Road, which is the only meal we have that is a repeat from our last trip. Another one of our favorite things to do while we are downtown is going to The Adventure's Club.

Day Four

This day is a strange one dining-wise compared to other days: we have no ADRs and we plan to just do CSs in Epcot, where we intend to spend the whole day. Although we do like the food court in The Land, we are currently thinking that on that day we will probably each have two CS meals in the International Gateway. I think my current front-runners for meals that day are the CS in Morocco and the CS in Japan or possibly the one in China. DF is looking forward to the CS in Japan or China as well as the on in the UK (she's a somewhat picky eater, no beef or pork, so any time something is available that isn't chicken, she's excited).

Day Five

This day, we plan on spending the whole day at MGM, taking in whatever shows we didn't have a chance to on Sunday. We do have an ADR for the Fantasmic Package at Hollywood & Vine.

Day Six

We plan on going to AK for ropedrop this day, and staying there for a large part of the time it is open, then heading down to DTD, and possibly grabbing lunch at a CS down there. My current vote is for the Wolfgang Puck CS, or we might go to Planet Hollywood or somewhere else. We have an ADR for a late dinner at Cap'n Jacks, and will probably skip Pleasure Island that night and go back early, but that is all subject to change.

Day Seven

If it is possible to look forward to any one day more than most on a given trip, this might be that day for me. We are going to go on the KttK Tour that starts at 9 am, and we'll be on that for a large part of the morning (4.5 to 5 hours, according to www.wdwinfo.com), and we get lunch provided from Columbia Harbor House, which is one of the CS's we wanted to get the most last time, but missed it last time due to scheduling too many sit down meals when we were in MK. We also have an ADR for dinner at Whispering Canyon, and that happens to be one of the meals I am looking forward to the most.

Day Eight

If there is a day I look forward to the least, it would be the day that we need to go home, and that's what we have to look forward to on day eight. We wake up, get packed, and have a breakfast ADR at Boma for 9:30 am, then check out and wander around the grounds until ME takes us to the airport, probably around noon for a 3 pm flight out of Orlando back to Cleveland, touching down around 5:30 pm.

We're looking forward to our trip, and for all the money we're "spending" on it, not too much of it is out of pocket. Most of the trip is being funded by ExpoTV payments (DF's been doing the max since July, and I have been doing the max # of vids since September after a shaky start) and our spending money is from a rent.com giftcard (for saying that we found our apartment on their site) we transferred into Disney giftcards, as well as each doing the max # of sharedreviews, we now each have $200 to blow on pins and what have you.

Unless other stuff jumps to mind in the coming days, this will probably be the last segment of my pre-trip report. Stay tuned for what I think will be an entertaining trip report, which we plan on doing in a "He Said/She Said" format, each posting at the same time without seeing what the other is typing. We might also be doing a detailed dining report from this trip, since we'll be taking the digital camera this time, and have lots of space for pictures of our various foods!

 

[Crazy4disknee]

Wow, that sounds like a great plan. I love the he said/she said method of review. I can't wait to read more.

 

[TifffanyD]

Wow, that sounds like a great plan. I love the he said/she said method of review. I can't wait to read more.

Thanks! We definitely plan on doing the report - it's fun to relive our vacays!

 

[Kristina]

Yay great plans! I would love to stay at AKL one day too. We had dinner at Boma during our last visit to the World and the resort was just amazing! I'd also love to do the KTTK tour, hopefully one day! Regarding if you can walk from Epcot to MGM, I've never tried it but I think you can boat it? Otherwise if no one else chimes in here a tip would be to have a look at Google Earth and see if you can find a path. We missed the Boardwalk 2 years in a row until I did this, and saw how close it actually was !