mistyinca
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2014
- Messages
- 309
OK, I've been reading and posting in a few places here, but I guess it is time to post an introduction.
My name is Misty. I'm a Southern California resident and Annual Passholder at Disneyland. My husband is Scott. We are in our late 40s-mid 50's (I'm the young one, LOL). I have two adult sons in their early 20's, one just about to graduate from college with his bachelors degree.
We just got our APs in December. We've had them before, but we don't have them every year. Some years we only go to Disneyland on Christmas Eve. I love going that day. Its actually not as crowded as some people say, and it has been a tradition for us since my kids were pretty young. I was born in So Cal, and I've lived here my whole life, so I've grown up with Disneyland, and I know the park pretty well and can navigate it easily.
That said. My husband and I went to WDW for my first time on December 3, 2016 (we have only been married since 2013 and he had gone once with his first wife and his daughters in like 2006 or something, but I had never been). So we planned this trip as a 1 day following our cruise out of Port Canaveral.
While we didn't expect to be able to do it all in one day, we were totally unprepared for how different it is from Disneyland and that park hopping a one-day would not be easy. Also, it is very difficult to navigate the park when you haven't grown up with it. (Basically, I could park hop Disneyland and CA Adventure on a one day and probably do just about everything because I know the parks so well). So I was very wrong to think that we could "do it" like Disneyland. Bottom line: it was a DISASTER. We knew you COULD book fastpasses in advance, but did not know you had to, as well as dining. We didn't know the fastpass + system was so different from the one we have at Disneyland. In search of food, we took the bus to Disney Springs after a cm at Epcot told us we'd be able to take it back to MK, that turned out not to be true. I actually ended up breaking down and crying, hungry at 7pm stuck at Disney Springs with our car at the MK parking lot and the restaurant waits there 1-2 hours.
We ended up taking the bus to Wilderness lodge and then another one on to MK. We went back in, got dinner at the Plaza restaurant after a not-too-bad 40 minute wait, and said let's go. I said I will probably never go to WDW again.
So. After coming home, we did our usual Disneyland Christmas eve experience--mostly to "get the bad taste" of WDW out of our mouths (don't worry; this ends on a positive note, I promise, LOL!
).
So after reading a bunch of Trip reports here, and looking at the pictures, I started thinking...hmmm this could be fun if planned right.
Now let me say this: I am usually a really, really good vacation planner, if I do say so myself. The reason I put no effort into the WDW thing is that it was an afterthought to fill a day after getting off our cruise, and I erroneously believed it could be done like we do Disneyland.
So...
We now have another cruise planned for March 3-10, 2018 out of Port Canaveral. This time we're going to do WDW after the cruise, and we're going to do it right!
The plan is to go directly from the cruise on March 10, 2018 and we'll stay through the 16th at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort. We have 5-day parkhoppers that I got from UT before the price hike. So we'll do 5 park days over 6 (will take one day off from the parks to chill and rest weary feet).
I'm currently gathering information on Fastpass+ strategy (will combine with rope drop and other strategies), restaurants, and shows, parades and experiences that are MUST DOs.
Another thing about me, I love to try to get the best deal possible. I do lots of price checking, deal watching, love to find good credit card bonus deals and gift card deals. The tickets and room are paid for. I'm hoping to score a good deal on $1000 in Disney gift cards for meals in the parks.
I'm now really excited for our Do-Over in 2018!!
So that's about it for me. I've been posting here and there and reading your trip reports and gathering a bunch of information, but I wanted to post to explain what we're all about...and that primarily while this is not our first visit, that it kinda sorta really is. (Also it will be the first time for my adult sons).
So that's me!
My name is Misty. I'm a Southern California resident and Annual Passholder at Disneyland. My husband is Scott. We are in our late 40s-mid 50's (I'm the young one, LOL). I have two adult sons in their early 20's, one just about to graduate from college with his bachelors degree.
We just got our APs in December. We've had them before, but we don't have them every year. Some years we only go to Disneyland on Christmas Eve. I love going that day. Its actually not as crowded as some people say, and it has been a tradition for us since my kids were pretty young. I was born in So Cal, and I've lived here my whole life, so I've grown up with Disneyland, and I know the park pretty well and can navigate it easily.
That said. My husband and I went to WDW for my first time on December 3, 2016 (we have only been married since 2013 and he had gone once with his first wife and his daughters in like 2006 or something, but I had never been). So we planned this trip as a 1 day following our cruise out of Port Canaveral.
While we didn't expect to be able to do it all in one day, we were totally unprepared for how different it is from Disneyland and that park hopping a one-day would not be easy. Also, it is very difficult to navigate the park when you haven't grown up with it. (Basically, I could park hop Disneyland and CA Adventure on a one day and probably do just about everything because I know the parks so well). So I was very wrong to think that we could "do it" like Disneyland. Bottom line: it was a DISASTER. We knew you COULD book fastpasses in advance, but did not know you had to, as well as dining. We didn't know the fastpass + system was so different from the one we have at Disneyland. In search of food, we took the bus to Disney Springs after a cm at Epcot told us we'd be able to take it back to MK, that turned out not to be true. I actually ended up breaking down and crying, hungry at 7pm stuck at Disney Springs with our car at the MK parking lot and the restaurant waits there 1-2 hours.
We ended up taking the bus to Wilderness lodge and then another one on to MK. We went back in, got dinner at the Plaza restaurant after a not-too-bad 40 minute wait, and said let's go. I said I will probably never go to WDW again.
So. After coming home, we did our usual Disneyland Christmas eve experience--mostly to "get the bad taste" of WDW out of our mouths (don't worry; this ends on a positive note, I promise, LOL!
).So after reading a bunch of Trip reports here, and looking at the pictures, I started thinking...hmmm this could be fun if planned right.
Now let me say this: I am usually a really, really good vacation planner, if I do say so myself. The reason I put no effort into the WDW thing is that it was an afterthought to fill a day after getting off our cruise, and I erroneously believed it could be done like we do Disneyland.
So...
We now have another cruise planned for March 3-10, 2018 out of Port Canaveral. This time we're going to do WDW after the cruise, and we're going to do it right!
The plan is to go directly from the cruise on March 10, 2018 and we'll stay through the 16th at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort. We have 5-day parkhoppers that I got from UT before the price hike. So we'll do 5 park days over 6 (will take one day off from the parks to chill and rest weary feet).
I'm currently gathering information on Fastpass+ strategy (will combine with rope drop and other strategies), restaurants, and shows, parades and experiences that are MUST DOs.
Another thing about me, I love to try to get the best deal possible. I do lots of price checking, deal watching, love to find good credit card bonus deals and gift card deals. The tickets and room are paid for. I'm hoping to score a good deal on $1000 in Disney gift cards for meals in the parks.
I'm now really excited for our Do-Over in 2018!!
So that's about it for me. I've been posting here and there and reading your trip reports and gathering a bunch of information, but I wanted to post to explain what we're all about...and that primarily while this is not our first visit, that it kinda sorta really is. (Also it will be the first time for my adult sons).
So that's me!
