I'm back!! If I'm not crazy now I will be! I took 5 kids to DW alone!

[DisneyJo]

I just loved reading about all of your past trips Debra, so sorry about your Dad though

 

[saralexander97]

I can't wait until our US trip. DH really wants to stay at HRH and since it is his birthday... I think we will have a blast with the front of the line express card thingie you get for staying onsite. Plus it is off season so crowds should be minimal.

Right now I can't get an October trip for less than $2500!! We bought 10 day no expiry tickets in '07 and will use up the rest of the days in June. So our next trip we will have to buy new tickets for everyone and that is killin my budget. I even tried different ticket options for this trip (upgrading to no expiry or AP) but nothing can get me below that $2500 and that is just for room and tix! Plus we would have to start paying for Tau because he turns 3 this summer. But I just hate the thought of throwing away a free dining pincode.
But if you or V could help me with my fuzzy math to make October...

Have you stayed at the HRH before? We are going in June and staying five nights @ HRH. It was a hard decision to make between HRH and Royal Pacific, I chose HRH because DH loves music.

 

[debraW76]

I just loved reading about all of your past trips Debra, so sorry about your Dad though

Thank you Jo

Have you stayed at the HRH before? We are going in June and staying five nights @ HRH. It was a hard decision to make between HRH and Royal Pacific, I chose HRH because DH loves music.

No, We have never stayed anywhere onsite at US before. We chose HRH for the same reasons - DH is a metal head. Since we know we are going to Orlando in Sept we can really make this trip about the kids.

 

[scottny]

Nice look back at the trips of yesterday...

 

[debraW76]

Nice look back at the trips of yesterday...

Thanks Scott. I wish i had pictures. but most of those were before digital photography.

 

[PrincessV]

My first trip to Disneyworld was when it was just the Magic Kingdom in 1980ish with my family (mom, dad, 2 brothers and 1 sister. I remember very little from this trip. I remember the Topiaries and landscaping shaped like the characters. I remember loading Peter Pan’s Flight with my dad – I was stunned that the floor was moving and I remember him grabbing me and pulling me on the ride in quite a panic.

Yep, those were a couple of my vivid memories form my first trip, too!

I decided to go and visit my dad that weekend and when I left he cried and begged me not to go. He told me that he wasn’t going to live to see my child be born. Had I known he was telling the truth I would have stayed a little longer. That was the last time I saw my dad as he died when I was in the hospital giving birth to my daughter. Even though he didn’t see her in real life, I am thankful that he got to see her in his dream (while I was in WDW) before he left us.

Discovered valet parking and felt it was worth every penny!

You said it sister!

V - Debra needs some Fuzzy Disney Math lessons

Right now I can't get an October trip for less than $2500!!

OUCH! Any chance you'll go again in the same year? You could do FD with one-day tickets and upgrade those to APs. Okay, it won't save you anything in Oct., but it would be a sound investment toward the next trip, lol!

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Loved reading about your Disney park history! I had a friend who also chose Epcot as their one park to visit (also pre-TT, Soarin and MS). He said it wasn't too bad, but he couldn't understand my Disney obsession. I keep trying to convince him to go back and experience it the right way.

I hope you can work some numbers out so you can go in October. I'm sending tons of !!

 

[debraW76]

OUCH! Any chance you'll go again in the same year? You could do FD with one-day tickets and upgrade those to APs. Okay, it won't save you anything in Oct., but it would be a sound investment toward the next trip, lol!

The problem is we have too many kids and have to rent two rooms. My mom said she could come and help by paying for one room. But that is included in the $2500 price

One room at POR for 6 nights with 1 day passes was about $1500. Then we would need about $1000 in tix upgrades. Even if I try to upgrade some tix this trip it still isn't working out for me to get within my budget.

BTW one room for 6 nights at POP with 1 day passes was about $1100. But my pincode only offered the counter service dining plan with the values.

And I think that after this trip Zeta wants to go to the mountains so that will be our next vacation. So APs aren't really an option.

Here are the tickets that we have. Maybe if I show you my numbers you can come up with something different.

Zeta has one day left on a 10 day no expiry paper ticket Plus a 1 day ticket.
I have just a one day ticket
Alpha has 4 days left on a paper ticket and a one day ticket
Chi has 2 days left on a paper ticket and a one day ticket
Omicron has 4 days left on a paper ticket and a one day ticket
Delta has 1 day left on a paper ticket and a one day ticket
Tau doesn't have anything.
Everyone has 3 waterpark and more options

Plan A
For June we are visiting 4 days (except Zeta only 2 days) in the theme parks so our cheapest option is to upgrade my 1 day to a 4 day ($146), upgrade Chi's 2 day to a 4 day ($66), and upgrade Delta's from a 1 day to a 3 day ($124) for a total of $336 in ticket upgrades this trip.

Plan B
If instead I upgraded those to 10 day no expiry then the cost would be $1108 for a difference of $772. Then in October i would need to upgrade everyone else (Zeta, Alpha, Omicron, & Tau) to at least 5 day passes for a total of $552. That is a total of $772+552 = $1324

Plan C
Or I could just stick with Plan A for now and upgrade everyone else in October to 5 day passes and it would be $973. Add that to June's tix upgrades and you get (336+973=) $1309. So I only save a few bucks but the other way I still have leftover days!!

Plan D
Then I started looking at undercover tourist just to see if I could lower the price any more by just buying plain 6 day passes but nope that was more.

Plan E
Then I started looking into getting my first AP If I use my 1 day tix and upgrade to an AP it would be $419 per adult and $374 per child. That would be $2708 for the family

Plan F
And we all know that if we had APs I would find a reason to visit my happy place at least once a month. Then I would be right back here trying to figure out how to get one more vacation paid for.

This all kind of reminds me of the children's book If you give a mouse a cookie Or is it moose? I can't remember.

Loved reading about your Disney park history! I had a friend who also chose Epcot as their one park to visit (also pre-TT, Soarin and MS). He said it wasn't too bad, but he couldn't understand my Disney obsession. I keep trying to convince him to go back and experience it the right way.

I hope you can work some numbers out so you can go in October. I'm sending tons of !!

Thank you. I really think you have to visit all the parks before you can start to appreciate Disney and all its genius. Everyone has their own favorite and you don't know which one yours is until you visit all 4.

 

[askelton]

Plan A
For June we are visiting 4 days (except Zeta only 2 days) in the theme parks so our cheapest option is to upgrade my 1 day to a 4 day ($146), upgrade Chi's 2 day to a 4 day ($66), and upgrade Delta's from a 1 day to a 3 day ($124) for a total of $336 in ticket upgrades this trip.

Plan B
If instead I upgraded those to 10 day no expiry then the cost would be $1108 for a difference of $772. Then in October i would need to upgrade everyone else (Zeta, Alpha, Omicron, & Tau) to at least 5 day passes for a total of $552. That is a total of $772+552 = $1324

Plan C
Or I could just stick with Plan A for now and upgrade everyone else in October to 5 day passes and it would be $973. Add that to June's tix upgrades and you get (336+973=) $1309. So I only save a few bucks but the other way I still have leftover days!!

Plan D
Then I started looking at undercover tourist just to see if I could lower the price any more by just buying plain 6 day passes but nope that was more.

Plan E
Then I started looking into getting my first AP If I use my 1 day tix and upgrade to an AP it would be $419 per adult and $374 per child. That would be $2708 for the family

Plan F
And we all know that if we had APs I would find a reason to visit my happy place at least once a month. Then I would be right back here trying to figure out how to get one more vacation paid for.

Makes me glad I don't have to worry with all this.

 

[DisneyJo]

I'm with Angela

 

[debraW76]

Makes me glad I don't have to worry with all this.

I'm with Angela

 

[daisyduck7]

Hi, everyone. Debra wanted me to kind of fill in some of the blanks on her first visit to WDW. It was in the early 80's, and there was only MK. There were no 1-day or more passes then. You received a book of coupons/tickets per person, and the park was divided into sections of A, B, etc. You couldn't ride everything in each area, you had to choose which of the rides you most wanted to ride, and tear out the tickets accordingly. If you ran out of tickets for that section, you had to move on to another section, or pay extra to ride something else.. Probably what she remembers about boarding the ride, we had waited in a very long line for almost an hour to get on the Space Mountain ride in the Tomorrowland part of the park. When we reached a certain point, we were no longer outside, but had started into a long descent into what seemed to be a cave or something. My DH was extremely claustrophobic. By the time we reached the boarding section, he was almost in full mode panic attack. He was so glad to get out of there.
The day that he told her that he wouldn't live to see her baby, was the day of her baby shower in September, before Chi was born in October. He had also told my sister the same thing 2 weeks later.That was the year that he was in 2 diferent hospitals and 2 different therapy locations back to back. He went in the first on the first weekend in March, and I rolled him through our kitchen door on June 29th. Almost 4 solid months. He knew Chi had been born, but he didn't get to see her. DD had been home from the hospital less than an hour when we had to call her and tell her Daddy was gone. In June, 2002, She had Omicron, and his sense of humor, the way he laughs, stands, the things he cares the most about, just reminds me so much of my DH.
I hope this information has helped everyone. Don't be sad about his passing. It was a sad time when he passed, yes, and it was sad that he didn't get to see Chi , but like she said, there are a lot more happy memories to get us through the sad ones.
I thank all of you so much for the words of encouragement you give her. Here's hoping that by October, we will have learned enough about the fuzzy math that we can all go again, and stay on-site, with free dining. To keep DD mind occupied, she can do ALL the planning, ADR, schedule, yada, yada, yada, for all of us, plus I am going to try and talk my other DD, and her family into going, too.
Well, I got to go again, and get back to work. Keep those cards and letters coming though cuz I love reading all of them. Talk to you later, bye, now.

 

[PrincessV]

Maybe if I show you my numbers you can come up with something different.

Wow... I don't know. Unfortunately, the one area in which I have no experience at all is ticketing. (I've only ever had APs as an adult.) I'm sorry!

You received a book of coupons/tickets per person, and the park was divided into sections of A, B, etc. You couldn't ride everything in each area, you had to choose which of the rides you most wanted to ride, and tear out the tickets accordingly.

Yep, that smiley looks just like my dad's face from my first trip! Those stupid ticket books were a pain.

 

[debraW76]

Hi, everyone. Debra wanted me to kind of fill in some of the blanks on her first visit to WDW. It was in the early 80's, and there was only MK. There were no 1-day or more passes then. You received a book of coupons/tickets per person, and the park was divided into sections of A, B, etc. You couldn't ride everything in each area, you had to choose which of the rides you most wanted to ride, and tear out the tickets accordingly. If you ran out of tickets for that section, you had to move on to another section, or pay extra to ride something else.. Probably what she remembers about boarding the ride, we had waited in a very long line for almost an hour to get on the Space Mountain ride in the Tomorrowland part of the park. When we reached a certain point, we were no longer outside, but had started into a long descent into what seemed to be a cave or something. My DH was extremely claustrophobic. By the time we reached the boarding section, he was almost in full mode panic attack. He was so glad to get out of there.

I forgot about the tickets! I've read about them but didn't put it together that we had to use them when we went.

I still think it was PeterPan or maybe HM that I remember though because I remember him pulling me into the car just as the bar was about to come down. It seems that I was wanting to ride with you or something but you were already in one seat with Donna and trying to get C&D into the other car. Anyway we were almost at the end of the moving walkway and he was trying to pull me on before the ride took off without me.
But you remember how panicky he could get.

Wow... I don't know. Unfortunately, the one area in which I have no experience at all is ticketing. (I've only ever had APs as an adult.) I'm sorry!

Yep, that smiley looks just like my dad's face from my first trip! Those stupid ticket books were a pain.

HAHA! I don't actually remember the ticket books but it does sound like a pain. I do like the general admission tickets now.

And it seems that I may have made a mistake in the quotation for the fall break free dining offer

 

[debraW76]

Day 1
Objective: To arrive in Orlando without incident, accident, or losing any children whether intentionally or non-intentionally while maintaining the sanity of the driver.

Summary: After the completion of the duties required at my place of employment, use personal transportation in the form of a twelve passenger fullsize van to acquire five excited children and load them into said fully packed van and drive 500 miles to Orlando, Florida, refueling at every Starbucks or McDonald’s McCafe along the way. Once the destination is reached the van shall be unloaded of all luggage and/or personal belongings and transported to the room that will be used as living quarters for the next 10 days. Then utilize the next 2 hours convincing said children they need to sleep for physical strength that will be required for the upcoming days ahead.



Next...Day 2 Itinerary

 

[jcc0621]

Then utilize the next 2 hours convincing said children they need to sleep for physical strength that will be required for the upcoming days ahead.

Sorry, but this made me giggle!

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Day 1
Objective: To arrive in Orlando without incident, accident, or losing any children whether intentionally or non-intentionally while maintaining the sanity of the driver.

[/FONT}

LOVE your objective...good luck w/ that!

 

[KatGarcia]

That was hilarious! Can't wait for more of your report!

 

[lisalonglash]

Day 1
Objective: To arrive in Orlando without incident, accident, or losing any children whether intentionally or non-intentionally while maintaining the sanity of the driver.

Summary: After the completion of the duties required at my place of employment, use personal transportation in the form of a twelve passenger fullsize van to acquire five excited children and load them into said fully packed van and drive 500 miles to Orlando, Florida, refueling at every Starbucks or McDonald’s McCafe along the way. Once the destination is reached the van shall be unloaded of all luggage and/or personal belongings and transported to the room that will be used as living quarters for the next 10 days. Then utilize the next 2 hours convincing said children they need to sleep for physical strength that will be required for the upcoming days ahead.

Oh nicely done, Debra! The last line made me truly

 

[Charleston Princess]

Happy Mother's Day, Debra!