So today is 110 days until we return to Disney World...
I can’t believe it!!!!! 
We booked our new trip back in March of last year, and it was a totally unexpected trip that my DH planned. Rather that my DH booked… you
KNOW who will be doing all the planning!
So with that in mind, I have decided it is time to officially “end” this TR!
Now I do have a photo pass CD coming in the mail, hopefully it will arrive this week sometime, so I will post those pics at the end, when I get them, and I will let everyone know.
So for now, I want to just put down a few final notes about our trip… hopefully they will be useful to someone, and fun for me to go back and look at, and maybe you guys will agree!
Traveling over the 4th of July….
I was worried.
I really should not have been. It was a GREAT week to be at WDW! The days leading up to the Holiday were not very crowded, and at least the way we tour parks, I really only noticed one or two days/evenings where I felt there were crowds that you had to really contend with… The weather (humid) may have impacted how we felt about “crowds”. Meaning, it is harder to want to deal with crowds of people when the heat is really unbearable!
I can tolerate crowds if I am not sweating!
Which is a good thing, because you know at Christmas there will be crowds!!!
The resorts really did some nice games and fun treats for guests on the 4th, I loved that they had games, snacks, and music at the pool. I thought the special 4th of July fireworks were amazing, and it was fun walking around the parks seeing everyone who was dressed patriotically in
Red White and
Blue!
Visiting WDW in JULY….
This is a hard one. We had never visited in the summer, only the Fall… FWF was always our reason for the visit!!! I think hot and humid requires leaving the park and taking a break and then returning in the evening. I don’t know how you could manage the trip otherwise. For those who stayed the whole day, and who had little kids, I think it may have been less “Magical”… I have been there – staying all day because we didn’t get park hoppers, and didn’t want to ride the bus all the way back to the resort… In November it was really tiring. In July it would have been exhausting and unpleasant, NO question. What a relief it was to have that option! I think I prefer the fall, but when we go this coming summer, it will be earlier, so perhaps not as hot, though after reading other TRs it seems June isn't much better!
Transportation Car or ME and Busses …
We used the ME and park transportation this past November. I enjoyed having the transportation taken care of for us, more or less. I LIKED that the busses could drop you relatively close to the entrance (closer in most cases!) and I felt we really didn’t have to wait too long for the busses generally speaking. I had heard horror stories about SSR busses when we were there last Nov, and I was pleasantly surprised… and apparently e were there during a busy time (Jersey Week). A few busses we had to wait, with no room, and with the scooters that had to be loaded, and sometimes no seats, but mostly it was not a problem – we felt we could deal with that in the AM and in the PM for arrivals and returns. With the busses, though, I felt that the time it took to get the bus to and from the park in the middle of the day was a long time to wait and too much time to sacrifice going to and from the park and resort during the day (especially since we were at SSR). And as a result, we didn’t take a mid day break from the parks. We used “dinner” as our break, and often we were still in the middle of it all, and it was a little sensory overload at times. We had fun, but we felt “tired” at the end of our trip.
But this trip we had the car, and having the car was tremendous.
I would never do it any other way if we stay again at a resort that is not close in (like OKW or SSR)… Now if we stay at the WL or Poly or Contemporary, I would consider forgoing the car, but I am not sure my DH would… But even this December, with us at the Beach Club, the car is a big plus.
TOURING the Parks
So as I mentioned above, at the end of our November trip we were WIPED OUT.
It was
constant, for 8 days. We ended up bailing on one evening plan, for the fact that we were just too tired to go back to DHS. And that was apparent by the middle of the week. In the effort to get everything into every possible moment, you can really lose site of a “vacation” – did I mention we didn’t use the pool ONCE that trip??!! So that being said, when I got ready for this trip I knew, knew, knew that it would have to be different, and having done my research, and bought a few books, I was prepared! Well as prepared as one can be five months out...
In the end, it was easy knowing we would have another trip soon, and that we could go back and forth from our resort. The villa was spacious, we had room to relax, a big requirement for DH, and we could take in the pool, etc. in the middle of the day, and then we felt we could hit the parks again in the evening with the kids rested and excited to do so. It made the trip such a better time for all.
I think having the ability to “park hop” also helped us to know we had “options” on any given day. We were able to visit more than one park a day IF we wanted to… that was a great feature, and we didn’t really realize how much so until we had them again. In the past we did have hoppers, but last Nov I figured we wouldn’t do it with our kids being so young. I was wrong!! It is always good to have options at WDW!
Dining
So we brought food from home, having a cooler in our car on the car train was a great plus, and we had the DDP. I have already discussed the DDP, but in terms of dining in general, I think that Disney does a good job in providing you options that meet everyone’s needs. QS in particular. While there are some pretty standard fare options, and some of the options are exactly the same in each park, there is still enough variety if you plan it out and are creative. The meal plan "desserts" for QS meals leaves something to be desired in most locations, but overall it was fine. TS as well. I found plenty of great choices that met my family’s tastes and interests! am of course very glad that the 90 days has gone back to 180… I just wish it was being set up BEFORE December!!! Ah well, I have been practicing with the online dining system!!!
We did bring food, and some we never touched. I will be bringing different items this next trip, but I will report on that in my new PTR! Christmas calls for a whole new kind of planning!!!
The Resort choice….
If you recall, we scored a super deal on OKW.
Having never stayed there, and not being too thrilled about the distance from parks, I must say I really was pleasantly surprised.
I felt the public spaces were/are FAR TOO SMALL for the size of the resort. I think SSR is better in that respect, but even still the SSR areas are also a bit small. I think the pool deck areas are too small for the resort size, but still, you feel the Disney magic around you at OKW, and though the theme isn’t so obvious, it still has a great feeling… music piped in, decoration details, those little things that make Disney “Disney”.
So we LOVED the 2 bedroom villa, and after this, it will be hard to go back to a resort room!! Even a studio, but we’ll see. Part of a vacation to DH is having that space, so I suspect that will be the way it is for us from now on. However, I would have been perfectly happy in a room, and that is because it is Disney after all! I have only stayed at deluxe resorts, but I am really interested in the other resorts, too. Our decisions have mostly been due to who we traveled with and deals we received, and not because we won’t stay anywhere else… Personally, I have no desire to stay at the Grand Floridian. My DH thought it looked like a retirement center (CAN you believe that??!!) and that it was “dated” – I said well it IS supposed to look Victorian, dear, and so I guess you can tell his taste!!!
The moderates and values look great and get great reviews. With a car, staying at one would be doable… I love the pirate rooms and pool at CBR!!! And I love the look of Port Orleans! But having space is very important to the man with the pocketbook, so we’ll see!
Final Thoughts on the vacation…
Well, we did accomplish my most important goal:
To have a restful trip to WDW! Sure, there were a few crazy moments, The Haunted House escapade, the crabby toddler on the BTMRR, me not remembering where we parked our car in the Epcot Parking lot
on the 4th of July (oh, did I forget to mention that??!!
) but generally speaking, we really had a fabulous, fabulous trip.
DH had his extra room, well, we all had extra room! And we could be leisurely on our trip, we didn’t have to rush too much, we saw things at the park we didn’t last time, and we left relaxed. WHAT a plus! And sure we missed a few things, but it was easy to make decisions that allowed us to skip stuff, because we knew that we could catch them in December, along with all the exciting new things that we will see at Christmas time…
So I am going to leave you and this TR FOR NOW.....
As soon as I get my Photo CD, I will post the pics here… BUT, for
NOW, stay tuned for a
NEW
CHRISTMAS
PTR... HO, HO, HO!!
Back just in time for the end... 
)
