I'm a newbie to trip reports, I think I did a short one years ago. But I LOVE reading others' trip reports and I'm really in Disney withdrawal...so I thought I'd give it a try. We also usually don't plan a trip so far in advance, but this one's been in the works since we got back from our last trip.
Background:
It seems like forever since I've been on a Disney trip. So let's see, let me count, um, is it 7, wait no, 6.5, oh yes 6.5 MONTHS since we've been on a Disney trip! Has it really only been 6 months? It seems like years!
. So enough melodrama...
I went to Disneyland plenty of times growing up, but my first time at DisneyWorld was during college (15 years ago, yikes!) when I was doing a summer semester in Daytona. Did several day trips from that experience, including follow-up day trips visiting Daytona friends - back then, someone always seemed to work at Disney and could get us in for free
. Years later, DH and I considered going to WDW when we were first married, but Vegas was so much cheaper and seemed more appealing 
back then
First Family WDW trip:
We first went as a family, completely clueless about the DIS and WDW in general, when DS #1 was 1 yo, in May 2003. Hmmm, Shades of Green was closed for renovation, bummer. Thought I was being so slick when I used priceline and scored the Hilton by Downtown Disney. Let me just tell you how un-slick I felt a few months later (having discovered the DIS) when I found out that we could've stayed at the Contemporary with an ultra super-duper special rate while Shades of Green was under renovation! Nevertheless, we all fell in love with WDW (and the Contemporary as the monorail zoomed through it) during that trip, promising that we'd stay onsite the next time we went.
Following trips:
We started to go more often, as I found excuse after excuse to go back...oh can't pass up that AP rate, oh can't pass up free dining, oh we have to use DVC points (yep became DVC members back in 2006!). Over the years, we lucked out with some Shades of Green overflow rates and AP rates, good deals here and there, DVC, etc. But really, this year we've held off on vacations because we've been trying to sell our house with no luck so far. But to explain why it seems like forever since our last trip, here is our list of trips since we first went as a family:
2003 - WDW - Hilton Downtown Disney (May)
2004 - WDW - Contemporary (May/June), WDW - All Star Movies and Contemporary (December)
2005 - WDW - All Star Movies and Polynesian (May), WDW - Pop and Contemporary (September), DL - Paradise Pier (December)
2006 - WDW - All Star Movies and Wilderness Lodge (February), WDW - Wilderness Lodge (August), DL - Marriott (December)
2007 - WDW - Old Key West (February), DL - Marriott (April), WDW - Saratoga (October), DL Grand Californian - (December)
2008 - Uh-oh, not til November??? - Animal Kingdom Lodge and Beach Club Villas
Cast:
Me: 30-something, full-time mom and worker bee, in front of a computer or on the phone all day (To quote our 6-year old: "You get paid for that?"
). Obviously obsessed with Disney planning
DH: 30-something, full-time dad and worker bee, works a job completely opposite from mine: non-desk job, month on/3 weeks off. Likes Disney, but is actually quite happy we are only going 1 time this year. Tolerates my obsession.
DS #1: 6 yo entering first grade in the Fall. Very active, very sweet. Loves DisneyWorld (but has progressed from the baby stuff to the more exciting stuff over the last 5 years), Star Wars, Ben 10, and I could continue on for pages and pages
DS #2: 2 yo toddler. Loves Mickey Mouse, The Wiggles, and The Backyardigans. 3 WDW trips so far. First trip to WDW was when he was about 8 weeks old. On our last trip, he was allergic to eggs, milk, and peanuts and WDW was awesome about the allergies. He has amazingly outgrown the allergies though and life is easier at home too.
TRIP PLANS:
November 14th through 22nd, 2008: 2 firsts for us -- we're staying at 2 resorts we've never stayed at before. Woo-hoo!
November 14th through 16th: Animal Kingdom Lodge
November 16th through 22nd: Beach Club Villas
I originally made our reservations for Villas at Wilderness Lodge, but I have to change my mind at least 50 times during trip planning, so my first change was to switch to BCV. I started thinking how cool Stormalong Bay would be (hope it is warm enough in november!) and how awesome it would be to be at an Epcot resort since we're planning on doing DxDDP and love Epcot dining options.
We also originally planned on staying at AsMo for a couple of days before our DVC stay since we've been telling DS #1 we'd go back there for a few years now. But DH really dislikes staying at the values (we usually just stayed there for a split stay when DS and I would start our vacation a few days ahead of DH), and DS #2 is obsessed with animals (even though AK is the rest of the family's LEAST favorite park), so we switched to AKL. Change #2, check.
I have dining, MVMCP plans to report on, but it is getting late and I still have stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow, so I'll leave with a couple of pictures from past trips:
Background:
It seems like forever since I've been on a Disney trip. So let's see, let me count, um, is it 7, wait no, 6.5, oh yes 6.5 MONTHS since we've been on a Disney trip! Has it really only been 6 months? It seems like years!
. So enough melodrama... I went to Disneyland plenty of times growing up, but my first time at DisneyWorld was during college (15 years ago, yikes!) when I was doing a summer semester in Daytona. Did several day trips from that experience, including follow-up day trips visiting Daytona friends - back then, someone always seemed to work at Disney and could get us in for free
. Years later, DH and I considered going to WDW when we were first married, but Vegas was so much cheaper and seemed more appealing back thenFirst Family WDW trip:
We first went as a family, completely clueless about the DIS and WDW in general, when DS #1 was 1 yo, in May 2003. Hmmm, Shades of Green was closed for renovation, bummer. Thought I was being so slick when I used priceline and scored the Hilton by Downtown Disney. Let me just tell you how un-slick I felt a few months later (having discovered the DIS) when I found out that we could've stayed at the Contemporary with an ultra super-duper special rate while Shades of Green was under renovation! Nevertheless, we all fell in love with WDW (and the Contemporary as the monorail zoomed through it) during that trip, promising that we'd stay onsite the next time we went.
Following trips:
We started to go more often, as I found excuse after excuse to go back...oh can't pass up that AP rate, oh can't pass up free dining, oh we have to use DVC points (yep became DVC members back in 2006!). Over the years, we lucked out with some Shades of Green overflow rates and AP rates, good deals here and there, DVC, etc. But really, this year we've held off on vacations because we've been trying to sell our house with no luck so far. But to explain why it seems like forever since our last trip, here is our list of trips since we first went as a family:
2003 - WDW - Hilton Downtown Disney (May)
2004 - WDW - Contemporary (May/June), WDW - All Star Movies and Contemporary (December)
2005 - WDW - All Star Movies and Polynesian (May), WDW - Pop and Contemporary (September), DL - Paradise Pier (December)
2006 - WDW - All Star Movies and Wilderness Lodge (February), WDW - Wilderness Lodge (August), DL - Marriott (December)
2007 - WDW - Old Key West (February), DL - Marriott (April), WDW - Saratoga (October), DL Grand Californian - (December)
2008 - Uh-oh, not til November??? - Animal Kingdom Lodge and Beach Club Villas
Cast:
Me: 30-something, full-time mom and worker bee, in front of a computer or on the phone all day (To quote our 6-year old: "You get paid for that?"
). Obviously obsessed with Disney planningDH: 30-something, full-time dad and worker bee, works a job completely opposite from mine: non-desk job, month on/3 weeks off. Likes Disney, but is actually quite happy we are only going 1 time this year. Tolerates my obsession.
DS #1: 6 yo entering first grade in the Fall. Very active, very sweet. Loves DisneyWorld (but has progressed from the baby stuff to the more exciting stuff over the last 5 years), Star Wars, Ben 10, and I could continue on for pages and pages
DS #2: 2 yo toddler. Loves Mickey Mouse, The Wiggles, and The Backyardigans. 3 WDW trips so far. First trip to WDW was when he was about 8 weeks old. On our last trip, he was allergic to eggs, milk, and peanuts and WDW was awesome about the allergies. He has amazingly outgrown the allergies though and life is easier at home too.
TRIP PLANS:
November 14th through 22nd, 2008: 2 firsts for us -- we're staying at 2 resorts we've never stayed at before. Woo-hoo!
November 14th through 16th: Animal Kingdom Lodge
November 16th through 22nd: Beach Club Villas
I originally made our reservations for Villas at Wilderness Lodge, but I have to change my mind at least 50 times during trip planning, so my first change was to switch to BCV. I started thinking how cool Stormalong Bay would be (hope it is warm enough in november!) and how awesome it would be to be at an Epcot resort since we're planning on doing DxDDP and love Epcot dining options.
We also originally planned on staying at AsMo for a couple of days before our DVC stay since we've been telling DS #1 we'd go back there for a few years now. But DH really dislikes staying at the values (we usually just stayed there for a split stay when DS and I would start our vacation a few days ahead of DH), and DS #2 is obsessed with animals (even though AK is the rest of the family's LEAST favorite park), so we switched to AKL. Change #2, check.
I have dining, MVMCP plans to report on, but it is getting late and I still have stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow, so I'll leave with a couple of pictures from past trips:
For now, I also put my Mom and my sister on the reservation. I did waitlist them for a studio at BCV or BWV. I'm not quite willing to give up my 1BR at BCV just yet.
