Honey, I can get cheap airfare, want to go to WDW with our toddlers? Oct 2009 PTR

[jagmom]

This is my first PTR on this board. I did one for my Disney Cruise on another board. I really enjoy reading all the trip reports. Unfortunately my enjoyment reading the trip reports has got in the way of actually planning most of my own trip. So, I am going to start my own PTR to help focus my energies on making the rest of my plans.

First, let me introduce the cast:

Me (jagmom): 29, and will be holding there come August, which will be the one year anniversary of my 29th birthday. I am a CPA working as a Sr. Financial Analyst for a manufacturing company. I love Disney movies and I have been to WDW twice, Disneyland once, DCA once and on a Disney cruise. I love to travel and throughout my childhood have visited over half the states. I hope to visit the rest before I die. I also enjoy scrapbooking, hanging out with my family, cooking, reading and messing around on Facebook.

Dh: 32, fire sprinkler system drafter/designer. He has been to WDW once for our honeymoon, DCA once and on a Disney cruise. We have been married for 9.5 years. He loves muscle cars, doing home improvement projects, fishing and is learning to love to travel.

Ds: 3, lover of the movie Cars and many other Disney movies. Right now, he wants to watch The Fox and the Hound everyday. He is a very active child and loves to ride rides at the local county fair, which is in August every year. He is already 40 inches tall, so I am hoping he can get on some of the big rides. He is pretty fearless so I think he will enjoy them.

Dd: will turn 2 the day we arrive at WDW. She is also very active and loves to pick on her brother. She is a bit of a drama queen already.

Our trip: October 4 through October 9, 2009

How it all got started: The first week in June, I was checking my email at work (shhh, don’t tell!) and I happened to receive one of those emails from Travelocity, touting cheap airfare. Usually when you go to look at dates and rates, none of the flights are actually as cheap as they said. I figured I would play around anyway and see if anything cheap popped up.

So I clicked the link and started checking flights and rates. First I thought, why not go Las Vegas in September as a late birthday present. So I fiddled around and found I could get a direct flight for $100, roundtrip. Then I started thinking, “You know, I would really like to take the kids to WDW.” So I check flights for Orlando. Sure enough, I can get a direct flight on NWA for $100, roundtrip. I get all the way through the booking process and then I pause.

Can I do it? Can I convince dh that now is the perfect time to take the kids to WDW? Do I want to take the kids to WDW at their ages?

I quickly send dh a text message, “Would you want to take the kids to Orlando? I can get flights for only $100, roundtrip!”

Surprisingly, he says yes. So I hit the button and the tickets are purchased. OMG! I can’t believe I just did that. Usually I like to plan a little more than that.

Basically, I spend the rest of the day researching and trying to figure out the rest of the plans. On property or off? Rental car or not? Dining plan or not? Which parks and when? Park hopper or not? Decisions, decisions….to be continued…

 

[jagmom]

On or off? Where to stay?

So, we are flying out Sunday morning at 7 a.m. We are set to arrive in Orlando around 11 a.m. or so. We are leaving on Friday at 1:15 p.m., although this will end up changing to 12:45 p.m.. So that is 5 nights. Should we stay on or off property. On our last trip to the World for our honeymoon, we stayed at a Howard Johnson on International Drive. It wasn’t the nicest motel I have ever been in. This was in 2000. At the time, I didn’t even consider staying on-property because I thought it would be too much money. This time I would really like to stay on-property, but I am still not sure we can afford. Looking back, I am not sure I even knew what the on-property hotels would cost. I know I did a bit of research, but I don’t think it was nearly as extensive as this time.

So, I pull out my guidebooks, open up several websites and start researching.

Ds and dd still take naps (most days!) so I would like to be close to the World so that we can go back to the room for naps. I am guessing they are going to need the break. Being on property would probably be good for that, but then we will only have one room. I guess dh and I will be napping too. Could we rent a vacation home?

After checking into vacation homes, it seems like too much money. Plus, I am going to be on vacation, so I don’t plan on making meals, so that wouldn’t save us any money there. Although I am all for saving money, I really like to just go out for meals and things on trips. Its part of the fun.

Okay, on property. A Value is going to be the cheapest and I had read in my guidebooks that POP wasn’t so bad. I would really love to stay at the Beach or Yacht Club, but that is really not in my budget. Wait a minute…I don’t have a budget! Hee hee Seriously though, I don’t know how people afford anything nicer than a Moderate. The Beach Club would run me over $600 a night. Ouch!

Okay, how about off-property? I prefer to stay in Marriot hotels, so I check that website. Much to my surprise, it would be just as much, if not more to stay off-property. Although, breakfast would be included.

I wonder if I can get any kind of discount with my AAA membership. Oops, I hadn’t renewed yet. Okay, there goes $60. But, AAA only gets you “Room Only” discounts of 10%, which is nothing to sneeze at, but I would like to do the Dining Plan. Maybe, as I haven’t decided on that either.

The next step is try getting quotes from travel agents. So, I got to a few websites and request quotes. Most of them are within the range of booking directly. So, I do a little research to figure out if I need to use a travel agent. I wouldn’t consider myself a control-freak, but others might disagree. Okay, I think I would rather be in control of my own reservation.

More research. Is there anyway to get a deal from Disney? I sign up for the Planning CD, call in and ask for a quote, get a quote online and then when the survey box pops up I say that it was too much. What does a girl have to do to get a pincode?

 

[jagmom]

My trip planning has been all over the map. First I research hotels, then I get side-tracked by restaurant reviews. I check guidebooks, read message boards, read trip reports, read pre-trip reports. I have many decisions to make and not a ton of time to make them. Here is one of many decisions I need to make…

Should we bring our big stroller? Ds will be 3.5 and dd will be 2 when we are there. We definitely need a stroller. Do we bring our big double stroller, rent a stroller or get 2 umbrella strollers. More research!

Okay, renting is out. It is way too much money and we are going to want a stroller for when we are out of the parks. Ds probably weighs close to 40 lbs, if not more and dd should be close to 30 lbs by October. Neither dh nor I want to have to carry them for long distances.

So, big double or 2 umbrellas. On the plus side, the big double is easy to push, not too bad to fold up and has a large carrying basket, as well as cup holders and other bells and whistles. The negatives are the size for loading and unloading and the front seat doesn’t recline that much if one of my children decides to fall asleep.

As for umbrellas, right now we only have one cheap one. It doesn’t recline, has no canopy for shade and the handles are pretty low for comfortable pushing. So, we would need another one for sure. Other negatives are that if we have two separate umbrella strollers, one of us would have a hard time pushing both strollers if we were to split up for any reason.

After reading some trip reports, researching baby supply websites and going on a scouting mission to Target, I have fell in love with the Maclaren lightweight strollers. I seriously considered getting the double Maclaren, but dh thinks that the kids will fight too much if they are sitting side by side all the time. The only thing I don’t love is the price. But, I took the plunge and bought 2 Maclaren Volo strollers in Ocean Blue. Once I found out about stroller connectors that you can buy, I was sold. Granted, I haven’t gotten the stroller connectors yet, but I will! So, now we have a way to split up and have one kid with one parent or have both kids with one parent.

Next up…what other wheels do we need?

 

[jagmom]

Dh and I on our last night on our DCL cruise in Dec 08

Ds and dd at a local parade

 

[jagmom]

Update. We got our strollers yesterday and they are awesome. Pushing my 40 lb 3 year old was like he wasn't even in the stroller.

 

[jagmom]

I held a long internal debate with myself about renting a car. I know one of the perks of staying on property is the use of Disney transportation. However, we will be there with 2 toddlers, both who will likely need diapers and/or pullups during the trip, which means toting around a diaper bag. Plus, 2 strollers, and all the other paraphernalia that I am sure I will “need” to tote around. Also, dh and I like to be able to get going on our own schedule. So, do we rent a car or not?

Negatives to renting a car are the cost. Parking will be free at the parks since we are resort guests, so that’s not a problem. We are going to need at least of mini van or a SUV, since we will have all of our luggage, strollers, etc to and from the airport. We could get by with a big car, maybe, especially now that we have the Maclaren strollers. Those take up hardly any room in the trunk of our big car at home.

At any rate, I did some internet pricing. I checked all the usual suspects, plus AAA. I also check Hertz directly, since I have mostly rented from them in the past and had good experiences. Turns out the renting an SUV will be cheaper than a mini van. Okay, so SUV it is. Now, where to rent? After doing some serious thinking, I decide to go with Hertz. They aren’t the cheapest, but I have had the best luck renting with them, so I felt most comfortable renting from them.

So, I make my reservation. This is probably 2nd week in June. Fast forward to mid July, (i.e. yesterday and today) and I thought maybe I should check and see if I could get a better rate. I do some searching for discount codes and such. I don’t find much for Hertz, except for a code for $20 off. I wasn’t sure if I could apply it to my reservation so I just searched for a new reservation and booked it. $20 saved, yeah me!

Then I started thinking, do we even need an SUV if we aren’t taking our big double stroller? A big car would save us about $100. So, this one is still up in the air.

 

[jmkford4]

We are on the fence about renting a van too. With three kids, my mom and my cousin (13), I think we have decided. I reserved a mini van from Advantage (off site with a tram to from MCO) for $239 for the week. It is a bit inconvenient to have to be trammed there, but I think I will save a ton of time not using the bus system.

You really like your Maclaren? I have a Graco Duo Glider and it is hard pushing the two boys in it.