DisDon
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2005
- Messages
- 367
Hi everyone! been reading lots of great info here, thought i'd go ahead and join. I'm 38 yrs old, dreamed of WDW since I was a little kid, but with all the costs, far travel from Utah to Fla, thought I might never make it, but now we're planning a trip for this December 2-9 (or 10, or 11, or... ). My wife is semi-excited about the trip, but the kids are pretty excited. We have 5:
12, boy, big boy, but scared of coasters
9, girl, not scared of coasters
7, girl, not scared of coasters
4, boy, not scared of anything!
9mo, girl, just happy to be here!
Two things happened to make this a reality. First, a couple years ago we bought into (or got sucked into) the new Westgate at the Canyons property, here in Park City, Utah. A big selling point was the ability to exchange into an Orlando Westgate property (of which there are many!).
The second thing was my wife getting a job with JetBlue! This enables us to fly standby anywhere JetBlue flies, including Orlando! Very exciting!
So, we started planning, and came up with early December, mainly because we didn't want summer, and needed to wait until after 12 yr old's football season. Lo and behold, as i start researching, I find that this is a PRIME time to go to WDW, with very low crowds and all the holiday stuff! Funny thing is, when we went to try and exchange our 1Bdrm Grand, which sleeps 6, all the orlando 1 bdrm properties only allowed 4 people. Solution was to exchange thru Interval International, which got us a 2 Bdrm condo at the LIKI TIKI!! As i began to research Liki Tiki, i was seeing mixed reviews, so I came up with a plan. Wife and I needed a getaway, so we took a whirlwind trip to New York and Orlando a couple of weeks ago. Flying is free! but staying somewhere is not so cheap, plus time off from work is limited, so we flew into NYC on a Thursday morning, took the subway (gross) into manhattan, saw a few sights, then back to JFK and on to orlando. Got a package for a nice Monte Carlo from Budget and a night at Westgate Lakes for $100 thru Hotwire, funny, our first time staying in a Westgate room, even though we've owned for 3 years now. Ate at the 9.99 Steak place, because everyone was out of Prime Rib at 8:30pm
. Next day went to check out Liki Tiki, tight security, but got a security guard to let us see the models and the waterpark, looks nice, but sounds like we need to make sure we get the newer towers. Took some pictures, if anyone wants to see them let me know. Orlando was beautiful, green, not too hot (my biggest fear, don't get much humidity in Utah). Flew home on Friday afternoon, slept most of the weekend recovering!
Got the Official WDW DVD in the mail last week, enjoyed that, tho Erin's uber-perkiness is getting on my nerves. Checked a bunch of books out of the library, The Unofficial Guide is my favorite, but the library only has the 2004 version. Looks like their 2006 version comes out in Sept or so, so I'm waiting for that to buy it. Also sucking down Mousesavers and Allearsnet. I'm a little obsessed i guess.
Thanks for all the great info!!
12, boy, big boy, but scared of coasters
9, girl, not scared of coasters
7, girl, not scared of coasters
4, boy, not scared of anything!
9mo, girl, just happy to be here!
Two things happened to make this a reality. First, a couple years ago we bought into (or got sucked into) the new Westgate at the Canyons property, here in Park City, Utah. A big selling point was the ability to exchange into an Orlando Westgate property (of which there are many!).
The second thing was my wife getting a job with JetBlue! This enables us to fly standby anywhere JetBlue flies, including Orlando! Very exciting!
So, we started planning, and came up with early December, mainly because we didn't want summer, and needed to wait until after 12 yr old's football season. Lo and behold, as i start researching, I find that this is a PRIME time to go to WDW, with very low crowds and all the holiday stuff! Funny thing is, when we went to try and exchange our 1Bdrm Grand, which sleeps 6, all the orlando 1 bdrm properties only allowed 4 people. Solution was to exchange thru Interval International, which got us a 2 Bdrm condo at the LIKI TIKI!! As i began to research Liki Tiki, i was seeing mixed reviews, so I came up with a plan. Wife and I needed a getaway, so we took a whirlwind trip to New York and Orlando a couple of weeks ago. Flying is free! but staying somewhere is not so cheap, plus time off from work is limited, so we flew into NYC on a Thursday morning, took the subway (gross) into manhattan, saw a few sights, then back to JFK and on to orlando. Got a package for a nice Monte Carlo from Budget and a night at Westgate Lakes for $100 thru Hotwire, funny, our first time staying in a Westgate room, even though we've owned for 3 years now. Ate at the 9.99 Steak place, because everyone was out of Prime Rib at 8:30pm
. Next day went to check out Liki Tiki, tight security, but got a security guard to let us see the models and the waterpark, looks nice, but sounds like we need to make sure we get the newer towers. Took some pictures, if anyone wants to see them let me know. Orlando was beautiful, green, not too hot (my biggest fear, don't get much humidity in Utah). Flew home on Friday afternoon, slept most of the weekend recovering!Got the Official WDW DVD in the mail last week, enjoyed that, tho Erin's uber-perkiness is getting on my nerves. Checked a bunch of books out of the library, The Unofficial Guide is my favorite, but the library only has the 2004 version. Looks like their 2006 version comes out in Sept or so, so I'm waiting for that to buy it. Also sucking down Mousesavers and Allearsnet. I'm a little obsessed i guess.
Thanks for all the great info!!
Sounds like you have a pretty good plan, I wish you luck! You are going at my fav time of yr, have fun. Oh, and WELCOME to the Dis 
A warm welcome to you, DisDon!
) 
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Welcome to the DIS.So glad you're here,and that you and your family are planning a trip to the magical world of Disney.Have a wonderful time! 
