Once upon a time there was a good man named Clark Griswald who used to drag... take his family to WDW year after year after year. Then the evil Ellen (his wife) decided that they should try to expand the children's horizons and go somewhere other than central florida. How mean!!!! So since we have been (in no particular order) los angeles, san diego, universal (oops, that's in orlando though), fort walton beach(5x), chicago twice, D.C., gatlinburg twice(is that expanding your horizons)(how much lazer tag and mini-golf can you play)(oops, i chose gatlinburg)(i really like parenthesis), st. louis, keystone to ski, and copper mtn to ski...
but every once in awhile clark would daydream, especially when his evil bro-in-law took his sis and nephews to the Mouse without him last year. The hankering began. (remember the school house rock where the cowboy blob used to hanker for a hunk of cheese?). So every once awhile he would get on orbitz, travelocity, expedia and see why kind of flight rates he could get.
By the way, did I tell we are a family of seven. Rusty I (13), Audrey (11), Rusty II (9), Rusty III (3), and Rusty IV (1). We live about 14 hours away and I have driven it a few times over the past twenty years. I will not do that again. Too tiring and you can't enjoy the first and last days. So obviously the cost of the plane flight is important. Well, one special day Clark put in his data and pressed searched, and low and behold if he didn't get a $125 w/tax r/t flight from MEM to MCO during our fall break in mid-October.
Now the bargaining/begging began with Ellen. She realized she had been holding out on Clark for several years, and I guess with the two young ones she could see a new angle. So with her blessing, baby I booked it in a flash. I'd also like to introduce my parents at this time, who shall be called Cousin Eddie and Aunt Edna. These perennial snowbirds (for 2 months) head down south in jan and feb. to the fabulous resort destination of Eustis Florida for their annual pilgramage. Realize Eustis is like any 13,000 populated city except it has some palm trees and lighted shuffleboard courts. And to top it off, they have been to a Disney theme park approximately uuummmmmmm ONCE since they have began hibernating in florida. SHameful! We went a couple of times as kids (day trip from Eustis) as kids but we were older and I wanted them to experience the Mouse through little bitty kids eyes.
Rooms: since we were going as nine people our choices were one 2 Bedroom villa, 2 studios or 2 hotel rooms. I really wanted to stay at the Beach Club. I first looked at renting DVC points and talked to many people (thanks to this board
)but could not swing enough days in a row to rent. It would have cost me about $400+ dollars more to do the DVC route than a value hotel room but anywhere from $700 to 1300 less than if i would have gone through Disney directly..Wow!! Everyone with ownership kept telling me how busy October was with the Food and Wine festival and I was a little surprised. Our visit in '99 was in October and the crowds were very reasonable and the festival did not seem to make Epcot all that crowded. silly me, how things change.
I ended up deciding on Pop Century from the cheap (value) resorts after much investigation. They all seemed to be like Disney HoJo's and a little kitschy but fun. I guess I am a snob. I've always stayed in moderates and was a little disappointed on having to stay there because of money , but ok. I checked the boards frequently and signed up to "tourguide mike" for alerts on any possible "deals" and waited...and waited...and waited.....and waited...Finally, one day i got an alert from tourguide mike..called Disney and got Dixie Landings (ok, maybe they call it Port Orleans Riverside but it is still dixie to me. i still can't understand that. do you know why?) for $100 dollars cheaper for the same six nights...YIIPPPPEEE!!!! I was one happy Clark.
Disney Dining Plan: I will discuss how I feel about this plan later but several people I trust justified it so I signed up for it. My first mistake with this plan was not making reservations for my intended dining experiences from the day after i booked my flight. I began making ressies (how come no one uses that term as much anymore) how about 3 months in advance and quickly realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore (by the way, i am not from Kansas)(not that there is anything wrong with it, my dad's from Kansas)(actually not, but it is such a great line from Seinfeld I had to use it)(again, sorry about the prolific use of parenthesis)...I could not get what I wanted, when I wanted....They did not even have a dinner time ressie for Le Cellier!! aarrgghhh!!! Seven years ago, even in july, I was making ressies the week before at some locations....
Magic Your Way: did the package with the water parks and such..of course i am stupid and thought that meant you had unlimited usage of BB, TL, DisneyQuest, etc but I realized later that you had "options" or something to that effect and you could use them up..i guess it was worth the $200 per person more but i don't want to think about it or i might get mad...Even though the last day was like $10 on the new graduated ticket prices, I remember paying about the same amount for a premium annual pass in 1999. disney is definitely more expensive than the good ole days(are you reading something into this?).
TourGuideMike: after reading some positive views about this website, a friend and i signed up and shared the information ...I'M JUST KIDDING MIKE!!..we are actually honorable christian people and signed up seperately...my only complaint with the site is the navigation. If you had never been before like my friend hadn't, all the reviews and recommendations were wonderful and I tended to agree with MIke. For me, the coup de gras was the itinerary planning. He could obviously just use the same formula week after week after week, but obviously with hour changes/EMH/special events he has gone the extra mile to calculate this info into his decisions. DEFINITELY WORTH $20
Boards: I guess I started using this board around 1997 or 98 (i think). It used to seem a little more intimate as you would see the same names over and over and your questions, no matter how inane would more easily get answered. I probably didn't post as many questions for this trip as in previous trips b/c of this(feel free to search my posts)...however, it is still far the best forum and i have gotten many questions solved non-disney over the years thanks to my fellow DIS-kateers!
History: both the wife and I went a couple times to Disney growing up. My wife actually worked there for 9 months before professional school. my sis-in-law worked there for about 10 years so we would mooch trips to see her and the mouse all throughout professional schools. Our first visit with our kids was in 1995 and we went every year until, again, she stopped the madness after a hot, humid, never again in July trip in 2000.
Excitement: I wore Rusty IV down so much asking him if he was excited about going to disneyworld that he started saying he had already been. ha!
I was most excited about Expedition Everest and Mission Space and finally having someone to ride the thrill rides with (rusty II). I was also excited about Philharmagic and monster's laugh floor. I also was told by my friend how great the turtle talk was.
Itinerary: I planned hour by hour as usual. I fought having breaks during the day but still planned them...being there for six nights I had us three nights at a firework show and three nights open. I had us doing three early EMH's but that ended up being four. More on EMH later.
Apologies: first, my grammer is awful and don't even get me started on dangling participles. i have unmedicated ADD so i tend to ramble and use parenthesis when i have to type something quickly so i don't forget it later.
Instead of going day by day, I think i will break this down into subjects like Dining, Each park, water park, disneyquest and pleasure island, transportation, and final analysis.
At any time i make ask a question or opinion..please feel free to opine, even if you disagree with me. i love to be disagreed with (that's why i am married)
but every once in awhile clark would daydream, especially when his evil bro-in-law took his sis and nephews to the Mouse without him last year. The hankering began. (remember the school house rock where the cowboy blob used to hanker for a hunk of cheese?). So every once awhile he would get on orbitz, travelocity, expedia and see why kind of flight rates he could get.
By the way, did I tell we are a family of seven. Rusty I (13), Audrey (11), Rusty II (9), Rusty III (3), and Rusty IV (1). We live about 14 hours away and I have driven it a few times over the past twenty years. I will not do that again. Too tiring and you can't enjoy the first and last days. So obviously the cost of the plane flight is important. Well, one special day Clark put in his data and pressed searched, and low and behold if he didn't get a $125 w/tax r/t flight from MEM to MCO during our fall break in mid-October.
Now the bargaining/begging began with Ellen. She realized she had been holding out on Clark for several years, and I guess with the two young ones she could see a new angle. So with her blessing, baby I booked it in a flash. I'd also like to introduce my parents at this time, who shall be called Cousin Eddie and Aunt Edna. These perennial snowbirds (for 2 months) head down south in jan and feb. to the fabulous resort destination of Eustis Florida for their annual pilgramage. Realize Eustis is like any 13,000 populated city except it has some palm trees and lighted shuffleboard courts. And to top it off, they have been to a Disney theme park approximately uuummmmmmm ONCE since they have began hibernating in florida. SHameful! We went a couple of times as kids (day trip from Eustis) as kids but we were older and I wanted them to experience the Mouse through little bitty kids eyes.
Rooms: since we were going as nine people our choices were one 2 Bedroom villa, 2 studios or 2 hotel rooms. I really wanted to stay at the Beach Club. I first looked at renting DVC points and talked to many people (thanks to this board
)but could not swing enough days in a row to rent. It would have cost me about $400+ dollars more to do the DVC route than a value hotel room but anywhere from $700 to 1300 less than if i would have gone through Disney directly..Wow!! Everyone with ownership kept telling me how busy October was with the Food and Wine festival and I was a little surprised. Our visit in '99 was in October and the crowds were very reasonable and the festival did not seem to make Epcot all that crowded. silly me, how things change. I ended up deciding on Pop Century from the cheap (value) resorts after much investigation. They all seemed to be like Disney HoJo's and a little kitschy but fun. I guess I am a snob. I've always stayed in moderates and was a little disappointed on having to stay there because of money , but ok. I checked the boards frequently and signed up to "tourguide mike" for alerts on any possible "deals" and waited...and waited...and waited.....and waited...Finally, one day i got an alert from tourguide mike..called Disney and got Dixie Landings (ok, maybe they call it Port Orleans Riverside but it is still dixie to me. i still can't understand that. do you know why?) for $100 dollars cheaper for the same six nights...YIIPPPPEEE!!!! I was one happy Clark.
Disney Dining Plan: I will discuss how I feel about this plan later but several people I trust justified it so I signed up for it. My first mistake with this plan was not making reservations for my intended dining experiences from the day after i booked my flight. I began making ressies (how come no one uses that term as much anymore) how about 3 months in advance and quickly realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore (by the way, i am not from Kansas)(not that there is anything wrong with it, my dad's from Kansas)(actually not, but it is such a great line from Seinfeld I had to use it)(again, sorry about the prolific use of parenthesis)...I could not get what I wanted, when I wanted....They did not even have a dinner time ressie for Le Cellier!! aarrgghhh!!! Seven years ago, even in july, I was making ressies the week before at some locations....
Magic Your Way: did the package with the water parks and such..of course i am stupid and thought that meant you had unlimited usage of BB, TL, DisneyQuest, etc but I realized later that you had "options" or something to that effect and you could use them up..i guess it was worth the $200 per person more but i don't want to think about it or i might get mad...Even though the last day was like $10 on the new graduated ticket prices, I remember paying about the same amount for a premium annual pass in 1999. disney is definitely more expensive than the good ole days(are you reading something into this?).
TourGuideMike: after reading some positive views about this website, a friend and i signed up and shared the information ...I'M JUST KIDDING MIKE!!..we are actually honorable christian people and signed up seperately...my only complaint with the site is the navigation. If you had never been before like my friend hadn't, all the reviews and recommendations were wonderful and I tended to agree with MIke. For me, the coup de gras was the itinerary planning. He could obviously just use the same formula week after week after week, but obviously with hour changes/EMH/special events he has gone the extra mile to calculate this info into his decisions. DEFINITELY WORTH $20
Boards: I guess I started using this board around 1997 or 98 (i think). It used to seem a little more intimate as you would see the same names over and over and your questions, no matter how inane would more easily get answered. I probably didn't post as many questions for this trip as in previous trips b/c of this(feel free to search my posts)...however, it is still far the best forum and i have gotten many questions solved non-disney over the years thanks to my fellow DIS-kateers!
History: both the wife and I went a couple times to Disney growing up. My wife actually worked there for 9 months before professional school. my sis-in-law worked there for about 10 years so we would mooch trips to see her and the mouse all throughout professional schools. Our first visit with our kids was in 1995 and we went every year until, again, she stopped the madness after a hot, humid, never again in July trip in 2000.
Excitement: I wore Rusty IV down so much asking him if he was excited about going to disneyworld that he started saying he had already been. ha!
I was most excited about Expedition Everest and Mission Space and finally having someone to ride the thrill rides with (rusty II). I was also excited about Philharmagic and monster's laugh floor. I also was told by my friend how great the turtle talk was.
Itinerary: I planned hour by hour as usual. I fought having breaks during the day but still planned them...being there for six nights I had us three nights at a firework show and three nights open. I had us doing three early EMH's but that ended up being four. More on EMH later.
Apologies: first, my grammer is awful and don't even get me started on dangling participles. i have unmedicated ADD so i tend to ramble and use parenthesis when i have to type something quickly so i don't forget it later.
Instead of going day by day, I think i will break this down into subjects like Dining, Each park, water park, disneyquest and pleasure island, transportation, and final analysis.
At any time i make ask a question or opinion..please feel free to opine, even if you disagree with me. i love to be disagreed with (that's why i am married)
