Hitting the Disney trifecta! a Nov 2013 PTR-and then some!(2/21-Trip #3 return!)

[PrincessInOz]

Breathe and have fun!


I bet you've got everything sorted and haven't forgotten a thing! Besides, it's not like you're leaving the country. If you have forgotten something, you can always pick it up in SoCal.

 

[Tinker326]

Yee Haw!! 4 days! So exciting!!!! I can not wait to hear all about it!

It's gonna be a blast!!

And Happy Anniversary!!!!!! You guys are one year ahead of us. We celebrated 13 on May 13th. Of 2013. It was our true 'golden' anniversary this year!

If there's no chatter before, HAVE A GREAT, WONDERFUL, AWESOME TRIP!!!!!

 

[skier_pete]

Yee Haw!! 4 days! So exciting!!!! I can not wait to hear all about it!

It's gonna be a blast!!

And Happy Anniversary!!!!!! You guys are one year ahead of us. We celebrated 13 on May 13th. Of 2013. It was our true 'golden' anniversary this year!

If there's no chatter before, HAVE A GREAT, WONDERFUL, AWESOME TRIP!!!!!

Happy Belated anniversary and thank you.

This is the last thing I am doing before I leave the office. We leave in just over 18 hours (and hopefully 4 or 5 of those will be sleeping hours).

Still Waitlisted for Jimmy Kimmel, but otherwise raring to go. I will try to give the occasional update on the trip.

Thanks for following along! Next post will be from lala land!

Pete


P.S. That picture you see in my signature is my inner kermit!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Pete - Have fun. I'm so envious! I hope you and DW have a great trip. We'll be here......waiting to live vicariously.

 

[skier_pete]

We made it to pheonix. Just 90 minutes to LA.

 

[PrincessInOz]

We made it to pheonix. Just 90 minutes to LA.

By the time you get to Phoenix......


Hope you're all comfy in LA now.

 

[skier_pete]

First day was a sucess. Heading to WB studios this morning. Then farmers market before check in.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Glad you're having a good time. hope WB and Farmer's Market went well.

 

[skier_pete]

Finally got wi-fi here at the Grand Californian, so I thought I would provide a quick update. The first night was neat meeting everyone, but not really much happened. The first full day (day 2) was fun as well, but there was not a lot of WOW to it.

Yesterday completely made up for that fact. While I cannot possibly go into specifics here - I totally agree with Kevin that there is no way we should describe what we saw in a public forum - I will say there were FOUR separate experiences that could be considered "highlights of a lifetime" any one of them, and if forced to I could not possibly rank which was the best. (Though one was slightly lower than the other three.) What was interesting is we did NOT get to see any kind of "sneak peak" of the future, which is I guess what I was thinking we would see. But, nonetheless we were still completely and utterly blown away. Let's just say there were lots of tears from a big bunch of Disney fans, and the cost of this trip was worth the money right here!

We then went over to the studios where we got to see some pretty awesome stuff as well.

Once we got to Disneyland, we got a real treat. They had us meet one of the Disney Ambassadors (look it up for a history) and as she was leaving, some of our group ran into Bob Gurr - an ex-Imagineer and a Disney Legend. This was NOT planned, as apparently he was here for a dinner at Club 33 for Tony Baxter - and if you don't know who THAT is, well - shame on you.

Anyways, he stopped to take pictures with all of us.



Gotta get going for day two its 6 AM as I finish typing this, and there no sleep for the weary.

 

[khertz]

I'm glad y'all are having such an amazing time!! Hopefully one of these days DH and I can take that trip.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Glad you got WiFi!

Sounds like you are having fun.

 

[skier_pete]

We are back from our first trip, and the word I keep coming back to when describing this trip is "AMAZING". It really is unlike any other kind of Disney trip. For anyone that is into the history of the Walt Disney company and the behind the scenes operations of how things work, it really is a dream come true.

The trip was far from perfect, and the pace is not for everyone. (A LOT of people were getting rundown - I think we were fine through the trip, and only on the last day - Saturday - were we really showing signs of fatigue.)

I am still compiling my notes from the trip, so it will be a week or so before I can really get into the Trip Report. However, here's a few pictures to tide you over.

 

[Tinker326]

Wait, what kind of teaser is that? I saw those pictures already!!

Seriously, your trip sounded like it was so much fun! I can't wait to get the 'full trip' report. I would LOVE to take a trip like that someday! Fun, Fun, Fun stuff!

Now really, do you REALLY need to work? I think you should just start the TR now. Oh wait.. you got a Dis Trip and Cruise to pay for - yup better do work!!!!

Welcome back to reality! Only 144 more days till your next trip. Or so says my trip counter on my phone!

 

[skier_pete]

Wait, what kind of teaser is that? I saw those pictures already!!

Seriously, your trip sounded like it was so much fun! I can't wait to get the 'full trip' report. I would LOVE to take a trip like that someday! Fun, Fun, Fun stuff!

Now really, do you REALLY need to work? I think you should just start the TR now. Oh wait.. you got a Dis Trip and Cruise to pay for - yup better do work!!!!

Welcome back to reality! Only 144 more days till your next trip. Or so says my trip counter on my phone!

Not ALL those pictures! Well, maybe. You gotta give me time to type out all the notes for the trip and then upload all the pictures to photobucket. I took almost 1000 pictures, plus ABD ones which I need to download - though not sure if I will be able to post those. It's kind of amazing I have so many, because about 1/2 the time we weren't allowed to take pictures.

Yup, gotta work to give Disney my money! The good news is the WDW and Cruise trips will probably cost less combined than the ABD trip did!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Waiting......waiting......

 

[khertz]

I am REALLY looking forward to reading about your ABD experience! I'm sure there will probably be some things you can't write about, but I'm still anxiously awaiting your report.

 

[skier_pete]

Seriously, your trip sounded like it was so much fun! I can't wait to get the 'full trip' report. I would LOVE to take a trip like that someday! Fun, Fun, Fun stuff!

Waiting......waiting......

I am REALLY looking forward to reading about your ABD experience! I'm sure there will probably be some things you can't write about, but I'm still anxiously awaiting your report.

My dad always taught me you never keep a lovely lady waiting, so that goes triple in this case:

Trip Report started over on the DL boards:

A Fistful of Fastpasses: Disneyland with the DIS and ABD!

 

[Tinker326]

Yhea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trip report!!!!!!!!!

 

[skier_pete]

A reminder to everyone about the first TR being in progress - updated just yesterday!

Also - I haven't written much about Trip #3, the cruise in February 2014. And we haven't been 100% sure on this trip. It was really DDs idea originally, and then she seemed to be waffling about it when I would tell her that a cruise in 2014 means no DisneyWorld in 2014. The decision date is coming up (sort of) because the SWA flight booking dates will be opening July 22nd, and if the prices are right I would likely want to book right away. (Damn Canadians booking up all the good flights!)

However, last night they had a special on the Travel Channel (or something) about Disney Cruise Line. She didn't want to watch it at first, but when we started it, it took her about 15 seconds to say "I WANNA GO ON A DISNEY CRUISE!"

As we were talking about it, I realized another (potential) problem. I budget our vacations on an annual basis...X dollars per year out of our annual budget go towards our vacations. However, I am just realizing that the WDW and the DCL vacations are only 3 months apart. Likewise, the money for those are due only about 2 months apart - with the WDW trip due late-September (45 days prior to the trip) and the DCL due December 1st (75 days prior). While neither package is THAT much individually ($2,176 on the WDW package, and I think arond $1,700 on the DCL cruise) the two combine for a hefty smack in a short timeframe.

One option is to charge Trip #3 to the Disney Visa and take advantage of the 6-month interest free. We like charging everything to our Southwest card for the free flights - the only way we can keep vacationing the way we do - but the Disney Visa would still give us some Disney dollars at least. (Return is 1.6 % on SWA Visa, versus 1 % on Disney Visa)

Anyways, the short version of this is - it looks like DCL is a definite go!

 

[khertz]

I don't know anyone who could watch those DCL specials on TV and NOT immediately want to go book a Disney cruise!!! I know I sure do! But it's not in the cards for now. I'm glad your DD is so excited about it though.