Footnotegirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2004
- Messages
- 480
Though I've done a few Disney World trips and a handful of DCL trips, this is the first time I'm attempting a trip report, so bear with me! We're just returned, but I'll do three posts, our pre-trip info, then the trip itself, and final thoughts.
Pre Trip Info:
I'm always keeping an eye out for a chance to go to WDW, especially when we're having a terrible winter like this one (you know it's bad when the Governor of your northern, reputation for snow state closes all the schools because the weather is just that bad, and it hasn't even snowed!). The day before Christmas, I got an email advertising $999 for 2 days/3 nights + DDP. Oh my that looked good, but still a little rich for us right then what with getting windows replaced and such this past year.
And then my mother decided she didn't want to do Christmas shopping, so the day after we got a card in the mail from her with a sizable chunk of cash for each of us to do what we wanted to. Later that evening I realized... that would be a sizable chunk of that trip... maybe we can do it anyway!
So we got a price quote, and because we could go spur of the moment during the week, and our daughter was under 3, we got an even better deal! Less than $850 for 3 nights at ASM, +DDP, +tickets. We were booked and paid up on Dec. 30.
Which was good, because on the morning of Dec. 31 on the way to work, my car hit a patch of ice followed in swift and brutal succession by 2 cement barriers and a 5 foot high snow drift.
Now I REALLY needed this trip!
I'd read some of the hullabaloo about FP+ and Magic Bands, but I like pre-planning and I'm a late night internet addict ANYWAY so as soon as I could link our trip up to MDE and download the apps, I started making reservations. DH got daily updates about which reservations were working ("Great lunch time at Crystal Palace, hon!") and which were being more... difficult ("Rassin' Frassin' Be Our Guest... OH HAY LOOK I GOT A RESERVATION... though 9 p.m. might be a bit late for dinner with a 2 year old..."). In the end, due to the magic of a) regularly being up at 2 a.m. and b) people sharing links on the disboards, we ended up getting the much prized FP+ for BOG lunch. Everything else fell into place including being able to set up our fastpasses for times that would work with BOTH our meals and our daughters best happy, awake, and fed times. I also managed to get our color and personalization requests in just under the wire, so we had the band colors we wanted.
All of this while working + taking care of toddler + dealing with insurance + finding/test driving/purchasing new car once the insurance agency agreed it was totalled. We picked up my new car just 2 days before our trip! It still only has the paper license on it!
Now we had one last thing to worry about: Our toddler (aka Destroyer of Schedules, Chaos Agent, Mistress of Cute-Fu) loves Ariel, and Winnie the Pooh, and Mickey Mouse, and Nemo. But whenever we asked her if she wanted to meet these brilliant luminaries she had one, and only one answer.
"No! Meet Ponies!"
(Someone could make a MINT if they started a My Little Pony theme park, just from our family alone.)
Pre Trip Info:
I'm always keeping an eye out for a chance to go to WDW, especially when we're having a terrible winter like this one (you know it's bad when the Governor of your northern, reputation for snow state closes all the schools because the weather is just that bad, and it hasn't even snowed!). The day before Christmas, I got an email advertising $999 for 2 days/3 nights + DDP. Oh my that looked good, but still a little rich for us right then what with getting windows replaced and such this past year.
And then my mother decided she didn't want to do Christmas shopping, so the day after we got a card in the mail from her with a sizable chunk of cash for each of us to do what we wanted to. Later that evening I realized... that would be a sizable chunk of that trip... maybe we can do it anyway!
So we got a price quote, and because we could go spur of the moment during the week, and our daughter was under 3, we got an even better deal! Less than $850 for 3 nights at ASM, +DDP, +tickets. We were booked and paid up on Dec. 30.
Which was good, because on the morning of Dec. 31 on the way to work, my car hit a patch of ice followed in swift and brutal succession by 2 cement barriers and a 5 foot high snow drift.
Now I REALLY needed this trip!
I'd read some of the hullabaloo about FP+ and Magic Bands, but I like pre-planning and I'm a late night internet addict ANYWAY so as soon as I could link our trip up to MDE and download the apps, I started making reservations. DH got daily updates about which reservations were working ("Great lunch time at Crystal Palace, hon!") and which were being more... difficult ("Rassin' Frassin' Be Our Guest... OH HAY LOOK I GOT A RESERVATION... though 9 p.m. might be a bit late for dinner with a 2 year old..."). In the end, due to the magic of a) regularly being up at 2 a.m. and b) people sharing links on the disboards, we ended up getting the much prized FP+ for BOG lunch. Everything else fell into place including being able to set up our fastpasses for times that would work with BOTH our meals and our daughters best happy, awake, and fed times. I also managed to get our color and personalization requests in just under the wire, so we had the band colors we wanted.
All of this while working + taking care of toddler + dealing with insurance + finding/test driving/purchasing new car once the insurance agency agreed it was totalled. We picked up my new car just 2 days before our trip! It still only has the paper license on it!
Now we had one last thing to worry about: Our toddler (aka Destroyer of Schedules, Chaos Agent, Mistress of Cute-Fu) loves Ariel, and Winnie the Pooh, and Mickey Mouse, and Nemo. But whenever we asked her if she wanted to meet these brilliant luminaries she had one, and only one answer.
"No! Meet Ponies!"
(Someone could make a MINT if they started a My Little Pony theme park, just from our family alone.)