How my "Budget" trip is becoming their dream trip of a lifetime

[Chelley00]

I'll admit it. I'm a tightwad.


You heard me. I'm the queen of budgets. The anal, obsessed, overplanner extraordinaire. My family laughs that I spent 2 years staying up at night researching our first trip to WDW in 2006. My DH thinks I memorized the Unoffical Guide and all the Dis posts of 2006.

Now they thank me, because it was truely the trip of a lifetime for us. We are not even close to being millionaires, so we spent 2 years hoarding pennies and eating Ramen noodels to save for our last trip. Staying offsite meant we could stay 10 days and spend 9 of those with the Mouse. With 4 kids (2 of those being teenage boys I have to feed every 2 hours or so), it's not a cheap trip! We made it, we had a blast, we did character meals every day, went to MNSSHP and hit the Food and Wine Festival. It was amazing. And our once in a lifetime trip, so we thought.

The kids started to talk about going back before we had even left the Orlando city limits. Back to saving pennies and eating bologna every meal. But we'll go again. Because we had a great time. Because we missed so much. And because there is something magical about being at WDW with the ones you love. We actually had free dining booked last year, but scheduling conflicts with work and schools came up and we had to cancel

Now pennies are saved and I was ready to book. We looked at November 08 so we could see the lights and go to MVMCP this time. I had the deposit down on the same villa where we stayed in 06, with a great rate, and was in the process of picking out a condo on the beach to spend a few days before our budget trip, when someone (still debating who that was) threw out the idea of a Disney cruise.

Being the number cruncher I am, I threw out this to the kids: For about the same amount of money you can have 8 days at WDW, or a 4 day cruise. I thought for sure my roller coaster daredevils would say WDW. I knew DH would say WDW because he missed WS at Epcot.

But they ALL, including DH, said cruise. I was floored, but okay, we'll deal. I started checking, pricing, and repricing, and the cheapest cruise for all of us is the week of DH's birthday. PERFECT! All booked, deposit paid and we're off to plan!



Then comes the next big mouth (who may or may not have been me!) who said "Well, if free dining comes out, it will probably be the week before the cruise. Maybe we could squeeze a quick trip to WDW on top of the cruise". More number crunching, more family discussions about dropping cruise excursions, way less spending money for the kids, no more REAS package for mom and dad, and we can do it. Provided all goes according to plan and that Disney releases free dining for our date, and the summer OT happens for DH we're be at Pop 9/20 - 9/28 then head to the Wonder for our first ever cruise!

Come help me plan my now Not-So-Budget trip for my DH, boys 15, 12 & 3 our our daughter, 6!!

 

[BrittBritt]

Hey, if bologna=Disney, I'd eat it every day as well!
I love how your family is included in your decisions...I was surprised they picked the cruise as well, but now you'll have the best of both worlds.
This sounds like it will be a wonderful trip.

 

[Melanie98]

This is similar to what happened when we began planning our vacation. We just figured that we'd already be in Florida, so why not take a cruise while we're there! Afterall, what's another $2k anyway? We're made of money!

 

[Chelley00]

BrittBritt - I will gladly give you my bologna, since I DESPISE it. That could be a good thing, think about how much weight I'll lose not eating!

Melanie - Our thinking was the opposite. Since we'll be in Florida for the cruise, we should go to Disney first!



The reason I opened this planning journal is because I'm a planning lunatic. I make decisions/then change my mind and then second guess myself 100 times over. I thought by opening this, I can keep everything in one spot instead of on post it notes around the home office/scraproom, and get some opinions and ideas from the masters while I'm at it My planning spreadsheet in Excel is getting to be a little too long!

Tonight, to help keep the little one's frenzy down, and to give us something to do in the middle of the ice/snow storm that has found its way to Indiana, we totally stole ChrisLei's idea that she used for her ticker in her journal (which is full of fabulous ideas for a 30 day countdown with meals/movies etc)

Mine is nowhere near as neat as hers, and since my closest Home Depot is 40 minutes away (and not in a pretty area of town) we didn't get to use the Home Depot Mickey Paint Chips, but at least now we have something to countdown the days!

Too bad that says 200 days and not 20 days!!!

 

[Chelley00]

Here is what I have so far:

We originally booked the cruise for November, but realized we could save quite a bit of money going in September instead, and the week of DH's birthday was the cheapest week of them all. We have booked 2 category 6 staterooms on the Wonder Sept 28-Oct 2. DH's birthday is the 30th. No better way to celebrate your birthday than at Castaway Cay, right??

I really went back and forth about putting the 2 older boys in a cat 11 across the hall from us, but we were having a hard time finding rooms close enough. I like the idea of us all being in "one" room for our first cruise just in case, and the budget amount I had for the Nov cruise covered the 2 cat 6's for Sept with some leftover. I had just enough left in my cruise budget to book the REAS package. I wanted it mainly because DH and I NEED that Palo experience and I was afraid with us being first time cruisers, we wouldn't get it. DH and I work opposite shifts, so we rarely see each other, and after being cooped up in tiny rooms with 4 kids, we're going to need some adult downtime! If for some reason we need to trim some budget, the REAS pkg will be the first thing to go.

Today I called a AAA agent and booked the 8 days at Pop. Since the trend has been for free dining to end with a checkout date on a Saturday, I went ahead and booked the Saturday the 20th check in. If they release the dates and they take a check in date later than the 20th, we may drop a couple of days from our WDW leg to save a little money, although everyone is looking forward to 7 days in the parks instead of our original 4! We've never stayed onsite before and even though the thought of being cooped up in 2 tiny hotel rooms with 3 kids and a snoring DH gives me hives, I'm about to bust with excitement!!

Our DS15 will not be at WDW with us. He's in a very intensive prep high school, and I'm paniced enough about taking him out 4 days for the cruise. He'll fly in on Saturday night and board the ship with us on Sunday, then he'll fly back on Thursday after we disembark. The rest of us are driving from IN. I HATE to fly, and with 5 of us (or 6 with DS15) it's so expensive! DS15 (whose birthday is today!!!!!) had to fly in during our trip in 06 because they scheduled basketball tryouts. He still had 5 days at the parks, so he didn't miss too much!

So, right now the major details of when to go and where to stay have been taken care of (at least until free dining days are released) I need to plan ADR's since I can make them on the 24th! YIKES!!! Right now I have to decide if I want to do a 2 TS credit meal (or HDDR) or do I want to do all 1 TS's and leave a TS for breakfast the day we check out and head to the port. Ideas?


Last time we ate at:

Chef Mickey's dinner
Liberty Tree Tavern (MNSSHP)
Crystal Palace breakfast
Cinderella's Royal Table breakfast
Hollywood and Vine Fantasmic Pkg
Whispering Canyon
Ohana breakfast


I really want to try to eat at different places this time, but I have a feeling the gang will hate me if I don't book Chef Mickey's for dinner. They all loved it on our last trip.

I'm really hoping to snag a Le Cellier! Another on our tentative list is Akershus. I hate to waste a TS on breakfast, but I'm not sure how well dinner would go over with my non-so-adventerous eaters! DH is pushing for Coral Reef or Ohana dinner. I thought 50's Prime Time would go over well with DS12. Any ideas?

 

[Chelley00]

So, the best laid plans are not always the best plans

The school schedule came out and we've had to push back our trip. Ugh! It was already so far off, and now it's even farther, but thankfully, only by 30 days. DS15 has 2 days off of school the first week of November, so we're going to cruise then instead.

Maybe. If my TA gets back to me. I'm a huge control freak, and having a TA who takes 2-3 days to respond to emails is HIGHLY frustrating....especially when I called DCL and they have very limited availability on cat 6's with cat 11's across the hall, or even connecting 6's which we don't want to do since the Nov cruise is way more expensive than the Sept one was going to be. Hopefully she'll take care of switching our reservations tomorrow (from my Saturday night email) or we could be screwed stateroom wise. I actually emailed someone to ask if we could possibly switch TA's. I am going to be very unhappy if those staterooms are booked by the time the TA gets to them.


So, a few more changes. DS12 has decided he thinks he wants to head back to school and doesn't want to homeschool next year. That means he will have to miss out on the WDW part of the trip and will fly in with his older brother for the cruise portion. This also means I had to not only change our Pop ressie dates, but also drop from 2 rooms to one. We'll miss out on free dining if they offer it, which was a huge selling point in going in Sept. But, hey. We're still getting to go!!


So now our revised dates:

Oct 25 Drive straight through and check into Pop on a room only ressie for DH, DD6 and DS3

Oct 26-Nov 1 Pop Century with dining (our first onsite stay!)

Nov 1, check out of Pop, pick up older boys from MCO around 1, and head to Cocoa Beach to stay overnight, with a little time to play on the beach before dinner.

Nov 2-6 Wonder cruise

Nov 6, throw the older boys on the plane for home, then DH and I, along with the younger 2, will drive halfway home, stop and stay all night, then finish our drive home.





My to do list:

*Figure out what parks on what days since we won't have park hoppers
*Plan ADRs
*Book hotel in Cocoa Beach
*Book hotel for stay on way home
*Book flights for older boys (hurry up Southwest with Oct-Nov dates & rates)
*Take the gang for passports

 

[pajules]

Don't worry about having to change dates, I'm sure it happens to everyone, it happened to me. First we were going at Easter, then it changed to the last week in April, now it's the first week in May. The bottom line, we have a vacation booked and isn't that what we all dream about the other 365 days a year anyway?

 

[Chelley00]

Thank you, pajules! I felt so bad about changing my dates so many times. I'm so glad to know someone else did it too!


And so, we're all set. Kelsie from DU emailed some availability, although no cat 6's across from a cat 11 , and in what little time it took for me to call DH and run it past him, someone booked our first choice of rooms They were quad sleepers and DD really wants to sleep on that upper berth. Don't know why since she has bunk beds and never sleeps on the top bunk at home It's okay. We have staterooms connecting cat 6's. I think we'll try to call after the 75 day final payment mark has passed and hope that someone canceled, but if not, I think we'll be very happy with what we have!!!

Now I can mark changing cruise dates and picking new staterooms off my list!

 

[lisalonglash]

I'm glad it all worked out in the end! It sounds like a wonderful vacation will be had by all I'm looking forward to reading more, your ptr is great so far!

You mentioned a 30-day countdown thread by ChrisLei, but the link you posted goes back to your thread I tried to search the forums for ChrisLei, but, as usual, the search function isn't working Would you mind letting me know how to find that ChrisLei thread? I'd love to implement some great countdown ideas here. Thanks!

 

[Shir Kahn]

That trip sounds like a nightmare to work out, but it's definitely worth it! Here's hoping you get what you're wanting!

 

[ChrisLei]

Hi there! LOVE your trip counter! My two want to make a new one for the Disney Cruise. I suppose I have to go back to Home Depot for paint chips! LOL Glad the instructions helped. It is a perfect snow day type of project!

Great ideas for the trip!

 

[naner]

Subscribing!

 

[Chelley00]

I've been obsessing.


This free dining announcement is killing me! Do you know how much cheaper that would make a trip to WDW than the cruise? Two thousand dollars, at least!!!! I'm really going back and forth on this. That's a lot of money.

However, we have to stick with the cruise. We have to. This is the last year our DS12 qualifies for that child rate. We've already set our budget, made payments and planned away. The cruise will be more relaxing, and free dining could make WDW busier than we like, plus it will be H O T!!!

And DH is already annoyed at how many times we've had to change our plans, if I did it again, he may pack my bags and kick me out! We've had to change again since my last post. Our Pop trip has been shortened to a few days off site because of DS12's school schedule. This way we will at least get to go to MNSSHP at MK, and one other park on Friday.

To keep myself on focus, I bought a few things last weekend for the cruise. A local store was having all of their pool supplies on sale, and I bought all the kids snorkeling kits 30% off. That will save money since we don't have to rent them during an excursion.

 

[DisneyFun08]

Hi! I saw your link on the Photopass Share thread and came to check it out. You seem so organized with your planning even though you have had to make changes. Can't wait to read more!!!!!
We'll be at WDW the same time as your family!

 

[rentayenta]

I'm in and love how budget conscious you are! Free dining is what prompted us to take our first trip to the The World last year. DH said if I could earn an extra $5K we could go again this year. I think I can live with only one kidney.

 

[Chelley00]

Welcome all journal friends!!


So excited! Thanks to a tip from the budget board, I called our congressman's office today and they are arranging free tickets for Kennedy Space Center for the day before we embark on the cruise!! That saves us almost $200! I was trying to think of something cheap to do the day before instead of just laying around Cocoa Beach for the day, and you cannot get much cheaper than free!!!!

And in another round of saving money, we decided to downgrade one of our cabins to a category 11 across the hall from our category 6. That saves about $400. Just waiting on someone from Dreams Unlimited to email back. I'm way too much of a control freak to have a travel agent I think.


Now I feel a little better about missing free dining. A little

 

[shezfrombermuda]

Hi Chelley,

I love your countdown timer! We just stayed at Pop during our wedding planning session trip and it was great! I thought it was in a good location, good food court, and the resort was nicely laid out. I would definitely stay there again. In fact we had a much better time there than we did at POR RIV.

 

[stagemomx3]

I thought I posted here before, but apparently not. I'm reading along with you and also looking for tips since I want to take a Disney cruise in Jan. 2011.

 

[Chelley00]

I've been a busy budget shopping bee lately!

First was airfare for DS15. He lives with his dad and needs to miss the least amount of school possible (he's off Mon-Tue of the cruise), so we needed to fly him from point A to Orlando and get him to port. I saw the Airtran $25 off coupons, and signed myself up for one, and DH up for another. I used one to book DS's flight there, and DH's coupon to book DS's flight back home again. Airtran already had the cheapest flights and the best flight times. As long as Southwest doesn't come out with some killer airfare, I did the best I could! Flying DS round trip from Chicago came to $179 total.

Then, I got an email from Expedia about booking 3 night hotel stays and getting a $50 gas card. I started pricing things, and found that my expedia account had a $50 off coupon on a 2 night stay before October 31st. That would mean we drive straight through on Wednesday and check in, stay Wed the 29th and Thur the 30th (and go to MNSSHP on the 30th) I found a couple of resort type places that are around $90 a night for 2 bedroom rooms. (Buena Vista, Fantasy World Club Villas, Worldgate Resort)

Now what to do on the 31st? Plan A is to stay one more night in Orlando and go to Disney Quest for the day, then trick or treating at DTD that night. Cheaper options would be Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum or Wonderworks, or maybe even Wet N Wild if it's warm enough.

Plan B is to check out of the Orlando hotel, drive to Cape Canaveral and check into the hotel we have reserved for the night before the cruise a day earlier and just spend the day on the beach (free!) The only thing is that I would have to drive back to Orlando that night to pick up DS from MCO and drive back. If we stay in Orlando the extra night, it cuts out 1 1/2 hour drive at 11pm on Halloween night.



So here is our plan as of now:

Wed Oct 29, leave Indiana early, drive straight through, check into hotel

Thur Oct 30, rest in the morning, play in the pool, MNSSHP

Fri Oct 31 either Disney Quest and trick or treating at DTD, or drive to Cape Canaveral, check in to hotel and play on beach. Either way pick up DS late that night from MCO

Saturday Nov 1 Kennedy Space Center for the day

Sunday Nov 2-Thurs Nov 6, cruise!

Thurs Nov 6 lunch at DTD, DS15 back to airport to catch flight home, the rest of us drive to Georgia and stop and stay

Fri Nov 7 drive the rest of the way home

 

[ChrisLei]

Sounds like you have gotten some amazing deals! I can not wait to book airfares for our cruise. Last year we had the worst time finding a cheap return ticket since it seems flights were expensive from FL to NJ at that time of year.

So glad it worked out with DS's ticket.