Disneyland Local's First Trip to Florida [Planning]

[shannonkay]

Soundsational Parade, Disneyland CA​

Preface: I was born and grew up in Orange County, CA where I continue to live. I am an annual passholder and a former Disneyland CM. I've never been to Disney World (or Florida at all). We didn't really take vacations growing up. It was mostly day trips, the few long trips we took were visiting family in the midwest. I've never really planned a big vacation before. The closest thing would be our honeymoon, in September 2008 which we took in Plymouth, MA(because I'd never been to the East Coast and I wanted to experience "fall").

Who?
Me(Shannon), My Husband (Jerrod), and our daughter Guinevere.

Here we are at Disneyland a few weeks ago.

What
A trip to Disney World in Florida! I'd also like to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal's Islands of Adventure.

When
Tentative - but I'm thinking of January 2014. Jerrod went to college in Orlando and he hates the heat and humidity, so I'm trying to go for the coolest off-peak time possible. This will also be a few months before our daughter's third birthday, so she'll still be free.

Why?
Check out my TR - A Night at the Grand Californian, to see why my eyes were opened to how great an on-site "Disney Vacation" could be. I love Disneyland, and the idea of someday visiting Disney World has been a passing notion but one I didn't care too much about. I thought I'd enjoy epcot, but I didn't care too much to be in Florida. After our one night stay at the Grand Californian the idea of staying on Disney property immediately sounded like such a fun idea that I wanted to plan a trip to Disney World right away.


How?
My first plan is to upgrade our Disneyland Annual Passes to Premier passes which are good for the Florida parks as well. I think that'll be by far the cheapest thing as far as park admission since we'd already be paying for our Disneyland passes anyway, it's comparatively little more investment. As far as everything else... Maybe we can start a special savings account. Is that what people do?


Table of Contents
My Disneyland Cast Member History

 

[emmysmommy]

Awww... you have an adorable family. Your DD is precious - I love the toothy grin.

You are a former CM - which park? What attraction? You have me so curious (ok, nosey) now!!!

How exciting to be planning this fabulous trip. The Grand Californian is a great way to suck you in. I love that hotel which is so similar to the Wilderness Lodge.

Whe we upgraded to Premier passes we already factored in that we only needed to spend like $300 on park tickets to come out even (that was a couple years ago, I know prices recently increased about $100 for the Premiers) But if you plan to do a lot of TS (table service) dining, you can purchase a Tables in Wonderland (TiW) card that will save you 20% on many restaurants at WDW. (It does automatically add an 18% gratuity for TS restaurants but it still give significant savings.)

Take care and I look forward to seeing all your plans and updates.

 

[shannonkay]

Awww... you have an adorable family. Your DD is precious - I love the toothy grin.

You are a former CM - which park? What attraction? You have me so curious (ok, nosey) now!!!

How exciting to be planning this fabulous trip. The Grand Californian is a great way to suck you in. I love that hotel which is so similar to the Wilderness Lodge.

Whe we upgraded to Premier passes we already factored in that we only needed to spend like $300 on park tickets to come out even (that was a couple years ago, I know prices recently increased about $100 for the Premiers) But if you plan to do a lot of TS (table service) dining, you can purchase a Tables in Wonderland (TiW) card that will save you 20% on many restaurants at WDW. (It does automatically add an 18% gratuity for TS restaurants but it still give significant savings.)

Take care and I look forward to seeing all your plans and updates.

I was an Entertainment Host in the character department for a few years. Those are the people with the yellow "ask me about characters" buttons that walk around with the characters. I hired in the summer of 2002, and worked mostly summers and holidays while I was in college(theatre major). I worked in both parks, but mostly in Disneyland. I did a lot of Mickey's house and Winnie the Pooh but there are lots of locations with characters and I did most of them at least once. I always wanted to audition for face characters but I had braces at the time and by the time they were off, I was done working at the park.

My younger sister is a current cast member, she's a face painter.


Thanks so much for the tips! I'm still trying to figure out half of this board lingo as well as "vacation" terms.

 

[emmysmommy]

What a great job to be an Entertainment Host! (Is that an aka for character handler?) I'm sure you have some stories to tell of interesting interactions.

BTW: Abbreviations can be confusing so here's a link that you may find useful.

Happy planning for your trip. The anticipation is so wonderful!

 

[shannonkay]

What a great job to be an Entertainment Host! (Is that an aka for character handler?) I'm sure you have some stories to tell of interesting interactions.

BTW: Abbreviations can be confusing so here's a link that you may find useful.

Happy planning for your trip. The anticipation is so wonderful!

Thanks! Usually every forum has its glossary but I hadn't found it yet.