First trip to Disney as parents! PTR

[hmwinter85]

Hi Everyone!
I’ve never done a trip report before but I love reading them. We are planning a trip to DLR in Aug or Sept of 2015 and I’m super excited. My family is getting a little tired of hearing detail about a trip that’s over a year away so I thought this would be the perfect way to share all of my planning fun.

Our cast of characters:
Me (Holly): I love everything Disney and am an avid pin collector, some people like to tell me I have a problem, lol. My absolute favorite character is Ariel. I’m also a super planner. I like to have as much information as possible before I go on a trip so that when I get there I can relax because I already know everything that’s going on.

Husband (Mike): He’s also a big Disney fan and pin collector. Though I feel like a lot of that is because of me. He is a very laid back go with the flow kind of guy. His loves anything Star Wars.

Son (Owen) 5 months: Our little Disney fan in training. He will be around a year and half when we go. Favorite character too soon to tell.

The In Laws (Dave and Linda): I get along great with my in laws most of the time. We have taken trips with them before so I’m not really worried. They can’t wait to see their first grandkid experience Disney for the first time. I’m sure they will also take him a night or two so Mike and I can enjoy some time on our own too.

Brother in Law (Craig): It’s still a little up in the air as to whether or not he will be able to go. He is currently working as a Sous Chef in a restaurant just outside of Chicago and has a crazy schedule. He hasn’t been able to take a vacation in years so we are hopeful he can work it out so he can go.

 

[hmwinter85]

Let’s start with a little history lesson first, shall we.

In 2010 my DH and I moved from Michigan to CA for my job. We moved a few months before our wedding so it was a crazy hectic time in our lives. At that point we both enjoyed Disney movies, but neither of has had been to the parks since we were kids. We had talked about wanted to go to WDW before we had kids, but hadn’t really given it any more thought then that. We also hadn’t really ever considered going to DLR even though we were now living in CA.

I had used all of my vacation time to fly back to MI for our wedding so we didn’t plan on having a honeymoon that year. Just after our wedding I had a business meeting in Anaheim. We stayed at the Double Tree down the street from the park and had a business dinner in DTD. I could feel the parks calling to me. As soon as I got home I convince my DH that we should plan mini honeymoon weekend to DLR. He was all for it and 2 weeks later we were there.

We both assumed that it would be a onetime trip. Boy were we wrong. We both fell in love with the parks. Two months after our first trip we were back and this time we bought Premier Annual Passes. From that point one we were spending at least one weekend a month at the parks. I was working at 4/10 schedule so I had every Friday off. We would drive down from Fresno as soon as I got off of work on Thursday and spend the weekend at the happiest place on earth. We got heavy into pin trading. We would do a few rides in the morning then spend the rest of the day trading pin at the table set up in frontier land or tomorrow land. We renewed our passed for 2011/2012. People gave us a hard time about going so often and but we didn’t care we loved it. We were even able to swing a couple of stays at the DLH.

Then in 2012 I got a job back home in Michigan. It was the right move for us as a family (my sister was about the have her first baby and we wanted to be there for that), but we knew we would miss our monthly trips to DLR. Our last trip was opening weekend of Cars Land. We tried to plan a trip out to DLR in 2013 but we couldn’t swing it. Then I got pregnant so we decided it would be best to wait a little while until DS was a tiny bit older. Needless to say I’ve been suffering from some serious Disney withdrawals. I’m hoping this PTR will help ease some of my symptoms.

 

[paisleymoo]

Hi Everyone!
I’ve never done a trip report before but I love reading them. We are planning a trip to DLR in Aug or Sept of 2015 and I’m super excited. My family is getting a little tired of hearing detail about a trip that’s over a year away so I thought this would be the perfect way to share all of my planning fun.

Hi! This is what brought me to begin my first trip report as well! So glad you're going to be able to get back to Disney! Looking forward to the planning and keep those details comin'!

 

[hmwinter85]

So as of right now I really don’t have a solid plan for this trip, but here is what I know so far.

Dates: Late August/Early September 2015. Unfortunately we can’t pick exact dates for this trip yet. My husband is a teacher and has been working long term subbing jobs for the past several years while trying to find a permanent position. Right now he is looking for permanent teaching jobs as well as non-teaching jobs. When we go will depend on his job situation since the rest of us can take vacation time whenever. All I do know is that we would like to avoid Labor Day weekend if possible.

Length: I know we will do a least a week. I would like to fly into CA early on a Saturday and fly home to MI the following Saturday. This will give us one day home to recover from our vacation.

Accommodations: Right now I’m looking at several different options, onsite hotel, offsite hotel, or rental home. I’ll get into this in another post.
Tickets: I know I want to get a 5 day park hopper for DH and me. I don’t think everyone else will want to go the parks that many days but that’s their problem, lol.

Rental Car: I keep going back and forth on this on too. I think it will depend on where we are staying.

Beach Day?: I think everyone else would enjoy a non-disney day, but I haven’t done any planning or research on this yet.

Anything else I’m forgetting?

 

[hmwinter85]

So when I got home from work yesterday I found a Disney planning DVD in the mail. I had forgotten I had requested one. It was great to go through it and see all the footage from the park.

 

[hmwinter85]

Hi! This is what brought me to begin my first trip report as well! So glad you're going to be able to get back to Disney! Looking forward to the planning and keep those details comin'!

I'm not sure how I missed your post, but thanks for dropping in! Hope you enjoy my planning fun.

 

[hmwinter85]

One of my main reasons for wanting to write a trip report is to keep track of my savings goal. I really like to go all out on vacation without worrying too much about money. So here’s my savings plan, I don’t really know if I can call it a budget. In all honesty I don’t think our trip will cost us this much but there’s nothing wrong with saving a little extra if we can. Besides whatever is left over will just jumpstart our saving goal for our next vacation.


Disneyland Sept. 2015
7 nights (Sat-Sat) 2 adults 1 baby

Item Approx Cost
Lodging 2000
Airfare 1800
Rental Car 500
Tickets 650
Food 1000
Other 550
Total $6500


Let’s break it down:

Lodging: Depending on where we stay I know this could be significantly less. Right now we are leaning towards renting a house and splitting the cost with the in-laws. If we do this we are looking at spending between $1000-$1500 per family. I’ve also looked into staying at the embassy suites. What I really want is to be able to put Owen in a separate bedroom to nap and still have enough space to comfortably relax without waking the baby. It would also be nice to have a kitchen so we can make a few of our meals, if we decide to do that. DH would really like to do at least one night in the Disneyland Hotel. I’m not sure this will happen since I doubt anyone else going with us will want to fork out the money for that but we will see.

Airfare: We don’t fly very often but when we do I find the cheapest flights possible which can sometimes mean a few stops and red eye flights. Since this will be the first time we fly with Owen I’m not sure exactly what kind of flights we will want. I’m hoping I can find the right tickets for much less then what I budgeted but who knows with the way airfares are these days. We will need 3 seats, even though Owen will still be young enough to be a lap child I think it will be easier and safer for everyone if he has his own seat. We will be flying from Detroit (DET) to either LAX or SNA.

Rental Car: I have next to no experience renting a car so I just checked out a bunch of companies and rounded up to make my budget. We would probably want to rent a mini-van or something similar so that all 6 of us could fit comfortably. I’m also hoping the in-laws will be willing to spilt the cost but I haven’t brought it up to them yet so as of now I’m just budgeting to cover the whole cost. I keep going back and forth on whether to even rent a car or not. If we end up renting a house to stay in for the week we will probably need the car, if we end up staying at a hotel we might not. If we don’t rent a car I will need to make sure whatever transportation we end up using will have a car seat for Owen.

Tickets: I’ve budgeted for 2 adult 5 day park hoppers plush a little more since I fully expect ticket prices to go up. We might end up only getting 4 day park hoppers, but we will see who wins that battle later.

Food: I know I’ve budgeted a lot for food, but this is the one category where I don’t feel like there is a lot of overages planned for. There are a lot of restaurants we really miss since we moved back to MI and I really want to hit as many of them as possible while we are there. I know off the top of my head that we will want to do the dinner buffet at Storytellers, dinner at Steakhouse 55, dinner at Catal, lunch at Carthy Circle, Lunch at Napels. I’m also considering doing lunch at Big Thunder Ranch, and maybe doing a character breakfast. If we rent a house I’m sure we will cook a few meals there and probably breakfast before we go to the parks, but for the most part I don’t really want to cook while I’m on vacation.

Other: I really want to get photo pass+ since I’m awful at remembering to take pictures. DH and I are both big into pin trading so I know we will spend more than we should on pins. The rest will be spent on other souvenirs.

Is there anything I’m missing?

 

[hmwinter85]

Now that I have my saving goal set, here’s a couple of my idea on how to reach it.

-Any money DH or I get as gifts (birthday, Christmas, ect) goes into the vacation fund.

-Extra spending money. Most weekend my DH will take some cash out of the bank to spend on fun things that weekend. Whatever is left goes in the vacation envelop in our safe at the end of the weekend.

-Change Jar. There is a vase on my night stand that’s pretty full at the moment. As soon as I get a chance I’ll cash that in and all of that money will go towards vacation.

-Bottle returns. In Michigan there is a $0.10 deposit on all pop, beer, and other carbonated beverage bottles. When you return the bottles to the store you get your deposit back. We, or I should say I, drink a lot of pop so this can add up fast.

-Tax return. I’m working hard this year to increase my charitable donations to help increase our tax return. Whatever money we get back will go straight into the vacation fund.

-I want to have a big garage sale next summer, I ran out of time this year, and whatever we make from that will go into the vacation fund.

-I plan on opening a separate savings account strictly for vacation savings. This way I’ll be able to set aside any extra money we have and won’t be tempted to spend it.

-Swagbuck. I just started using Swagbucks and in less than 2 weeks I have enough points for $20 in gift cards. I plan on cashing them out in $50 increments for Walmart/Sams Club gift card and using those to buy Disney gift cards. My goal is to earn enough to cover the cost of our tickets.

-I’m considering opening a Disney Visa card and using that for every day purchases and paying it off every month to earn point, but I haven’t pulled the tiger on that yet. I’ve gotten promos in the mail before to get $100 or $200 in gift cards after you spend so much and I’m just hoping to get another one before I sign up for it.

Here is where I stand now:
Cash savings: $400
Disney gift cards: $20 (from Disney movie rewards points)
Swagbuck points: 2175 (1 point =$0.01)

What are your tips for saving for your Disney Vacations?

 

[crystal1313]

Hi! How exciting =) Taking little ones is SO MUCH FUN!!!

Just a tip on taking littles, make sure to check out the baby care centers! They are total life savers. Padded changing tables! Since you are going when it's hot, they will have the AC on. They are SO much nicer than the changing tables in the restrooms. There is one baby center on Main street in DL and one in Pacific Wharf area of DCA. When you enter you just tell the nice CM's you need to change DS diaper and they will make sure there is clear changing table for you. It's great! They also have high chairs you can use and a microwave too. And they sell baby items in case you forget or lose something.

 

[hmwinter85]

Hi! How exciting =) Taking little ones is SO MUCH FUN!!!

Just a tip on taking littles, make sure to check out the baby care centers! They are total life savers. Padded changing tables! Since you are going when it's hot, they will have the AC on. They are SO much nicer than the changing tables in the restrooms. There is one baby center on Main street in DL and one in Pacific Wharf area of DCA. When you enter you just tell the nice CM's you need to change DS diaper and they will make sure there is clear changing table for you. It's great! They also have high chairs you can use and a microwave too. And they sell baby items in case you forget or lose something.

Thank crystal1313! I can't wait to take DS. I found out about the baby care centers from these boards. In all the years we spent going to DL I never noticed them. Guess you don't notice what you don't need.

 

[LadyFaire88]

Definitely subscribing. I'm planning our first trip as parents for next year as well, although we're planning for December 2015.

 

[hmwinter85]

Definitely subscribing. I'm planning our first trip as parents for next year as well, although we're planning for December 2015.

Thanks for subscribing! How old is your little one?

 

[hmwinter85]

I've never posted pictures before so here is my first attempt. Hope it works.

My DH and I at DLR a few years ago.


A recent pic of DS

 

[hmwinter85]

I wanted to pop on here to post a savings update. I'm going to try to do this once a week to help keep me on track with our savings goal.

Savings goal: $6500


Here is where I stand now:
Cash savings: $469
Disney gift cards: $20
Swagbuck points: 2850

Left to save: $6011

 

[hmwinter85]

Savings goal: $6500


Here is where I stand now:
Cash savings: $582
Disney gift cards: $20
Swagbuck points: 3,891

Left to save: $5898

This week I cashed out a full change jar for $48 which was a lot more then I was expecting to be in there. I also received the Disney Visa Promotion I was waiting for, so I signed up and should have a $200 gift card coming in the next few months.

I was talking to my MIL this weekend about the trip and mentioned that we are going to try to save enough to spend the first night at the Disneyland Hotel. MIL told me they wanted to help cover some of the costs for us and BIL by either paying for our tickets or the night at the DLH which would be awesome, but totally unnecessary. When I told her that she gave me her usual response "It's my money and I can use it how I want."

We are getting closer to setting the dates for this trip. DH just got a new full time job and will only have 4 vacation days next year so we are thinking of going the week of labor day 2015. We had originally wanted to avoid this week because of the crowds but what can you do. The In-Laws are leaving this week for a 2 week trip to Singapore so once they get back we will all sit down and pick firm dates so I can really start planning. I can't wait.

 

[hmwinter85]

Wasn't able to put as much away this week as I wanted to, but every little bit helps. Here's where we stand:

Savings goal: $6500


Here is where I stand now:
Cash savings: $593
Disney gift cards: $20
Swagbuck points: 4551

Left to save: $5887

I'm getting close having enough swagbucks to cash out for a $50 gift card. I'm going to try to reach that by the end of the week.

My DH started his new job today and I found out my interview to make my job permanent instead of just a 6 month contract is scheduled for next Monday. I can't wait to all this job stuff shorted out and a little stability back in our lives.

We have pretty much decided that we are going to stay at the Disneyland Hotel the first night of our trip and then move to a rental house after that. DH and I were talking last night and I think we are going to try to rent a cabana for our arrival day. I wouldn't haven even know this was possible if it wasn't for these boards. I think it might be fun to surprise the In-Laws with the cabana when we get there.

I've also been looking at rental houses and I have my top three picked out. The main thing I was looking for was a private pool and relative closeness to the park. I can't wait until we set firm dates and I can finally start booking things.

 

[hmwinter85]

So it's been a crazy busy week, but we were able to put some money away. Here is where we stand as of Sunday.

Here is where I stand now:
Cash savings: $637
Disney gift cards: $20
Swagbuck points: 5068

Left to save: $5843

I earned enought swagbucks to cash our for my first $50 gift card! Once it's credited to my account I'll add it to my total. We also signed up for a Disney Visa with the spend $500 get a $200 gift card offer. We've put more then the $500 on it (paying it off as we go) and I'm just waiting for my $200 gift card to get here so I can add that in as well.

We decided at the last minute to go see my BIL in Chicago over the holiday weekend. So now I'm scrambling to find some extra money for that trip. It shouldn't cost a lot since we are staying with BIL and we are getting a free dinner at his resturant one night, but the money still has to come from somewhere. BIL hasn't seen our son since he moved there 2 months ago and his pretty homesick (it's his first time living more then 30 mins away from family) so I felt it was important to get out there and see him. I'm really hoping I won't have to pull money from the Disney fund to cover it.

This will also be the longest trip we have taken since Owen was born. It will be a good test run to packing with a baby. I just have to get it all done by Friday.