First Timers on their way to the World! (April 2009)

[Melknor]

So I've been lurking on these boards for some time now and love the wealth of information and everyone's experiences. I've decided to post in hopes to put my thoughts and ramblings down in writing and to get your feedback on our plans and any suggestions anyone may have to offer. DH will listen but you know HOW they listen.........."yes dear, sounds good..........whatever you want to do will be great..........." No pressure on ME since I'm trying to plan a wonderful family vacation to the happiest place on earth!

When I say plan, I'm obsessively planning, to the point of scary. I have an excel spreadsheet and I keep adding notes and tabs and all kinds of info to. I subscribed to the unoffical guide online, books from the library, talked to friends that have gone and read the DIS boards faithfully.

Only you who have gone before me understand..............I never would have guessed that WDW needed such planning, but for the best possible vacation, I really do think it is necessary. After all, this is our first family vacation to the World.............and with prices of everything these days, who knows when we will get back there again.

I will say that my spreadsheet planning obsession did not start with this trip, but on our recent cruise out of Port Canaveral. See, I never used planning spreadsheets before, but since the cruise was our first big trip with two little ones out of the country, I had to make sure I had everything that could be needed. Hence my love with spreadsheets and lists (and lists of lists). At least we had everything we needed and was well organized

Anyway enough of my rambling...............here is the who, when and where:

Me (34) - works full time from home in the insurance industry. Definately in need of vacation
DH (39) - Active military (hopefully won't get deployed before this trip) (If so, Grandma just won herself a free trip to WDW!)
DS8 - 3rd grader, loves sports, action figures and video games
DS2 - 2 going on 8..........wants to do everything that DS8 does

When - April 25 - May 2nd.

We will all be a year older except DS8. If I had been thinking and planned a little better, should have gone before DS2 turns 3 this fall.........Oh well. Being almost 3 1/2 at the time of the trip, I'm hoping he will enjoy it a little more. And hopefully potty trained completely before we go. I better make sure to have backup outfits just in case of an accident. (better add that to my list)

Where - Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa (don't ask why there........we bought into a week of a timeshare 2 years ago and our time to use it is almost up). After reading these boards, I REALLY wished we were staying on-site. Oh well, always next time!

Anyway, here are some pics of us..............ok, so I can't post pics yet until I have 10 posts on the board. Maybe I can add them back in later.

As I stated earlier, we haven't been to WDW before. I thought this would be a wonderful "First" for our family. DH had to spoil this by stating that yeah, he had been there in the past. Didn't I remember that had lived in Florida for awhile???...............Ok, so I remember the florida part, but didn't think it involved WDW. Oh well, that was so long ago that I won't count it, plus I'm sure so much has changed since then! (I feel better to think this will be the first for all of us)

 

[Melknor]

So the lodging is all booked and paid for Last night I was surfing airfares as I seem to do every day. We are from Iowa. Iowa to Orlando is 24 hours of driving. That is either driving straight through trading off, or taking 2 days to make the drive. It would have to be 2 days each way as I don't do well driving at night and I can't sleep in a car very well. So 2 days of driving would normally mean 2 nights of hotel, but Mom lives in TN, which would be a half-way point for us. Free sleeping...............however, I really don't want to be stuck in a car for 24 hours, even if we split it up to two days, two VERY L o n g days! Plus 2 very long days at the end of the trip too. Of course it would probably be cheaper to drive and the airfares I had been finding, I was not able to justify the cost of flying since I was coming up with $2,000 for the four of us.

I searched all possible airport combinations: Des Moines to Orlando; Des Moines to Tampa; Minneapolis to Orlando; Minneapolis to Tamp...........why Minenapolis you are asking? Well it is a much larger airport, but mostly because DH is getting transferred to MN and me and the boys are staying here for the time being (we are gonna miss him ) So I check airfare constantly cuz I really want to fly. But then flying also involves a rental car, car seat, all that good stuff! Anyway, I happened to be checking last night (labor day) and came upon the best deal I've seen to date and it seemed to have everything we needed with just one little catch..............

We would leave from Des Moines late morning and arrive in Tampa around 4:30. Tampa is good.......only 1 1/2 hours drive and for the savings, no big deal. The return flight is early afternoon (good because we won't have to be there at the crack of dawn or drive over the previous night). Here comes the catch..................we fly from Tampa to Houston and have a 4, yes 4 hour layover!!!!! This of course makes me a little nervous with a 3 year old that likes to go-go-go. DH said take it. For the cost savings, plus we don't have to drive, we will survive a layover! He didn't have to tell me twice! I booked that thing as quickly as I could! How much you ask? $1,012 for 4 of us!!!! That was half of what I had been seeing before!

So now that we are flying, we of course need a rental car since we are staying off-site. When I was researching our cruise, I found cruise critic which has tons of helpful info. Someone had posted rental car discount codes. I was able to score an intermediate car for the week for $136 incl taxes!

Now that the major items are in place, it is on to planning out the park days and meals. What about your tickets you say? Well, I had researched the price of tickets from various sites and they are listed (of course) in a spreadsheet. We will get tickets once we arrive from Shades of Green since DH is military. They were definately cheapest and no tax! Of course I would rather have tickets in hand before we go, but to save $$ I will survive..........Now to figure out when to get there to get them.........any suggestions??? Our flight arrives at 4:30 in Tampa. I figured we would get to Orlando around 7:30??? (get luggage, rental car, traffic, etc) Anyone know how late SOG ticket office is open???