Is it STILL too early to start a Pre-Trip Report? Updated 2/26

[ddstratton]

Is it too soon to start a Pre-Trip Report?

As of today, it is 490 days until we leave for our next Disney vacation. Yup – 490. We are leaving bright and early on Friday, October 19, 2012.

(Just a note -- as you read through this trip report, please be aware that plans WILL change. A LOT. Some changes are due to life events and situations, some are just due to the fact that I can't leave anything alone and love to make changes!!)

A little background –

We’ve been to Disney World twice now. We would be:

Me! Darla. Currently 39, will celebrate my 41st birthday during this trip. I am an obsessive planner. As if you couldn’t tell – I’m starting a trip report 490 days in advance!!! I love Disney, with all of the details in everything.

DH. Currently 41, will be celebrating his 43rd birthday during this trip. Our birthday’s are about a week apart. He is our official bag-holder and people watcher while the rest of us are on the rides. He’s not much for rides, but also loves Disney. In fact, after our first trip he was the one asking when we were going back.

DD. Currently 12, will be 13 on our next trip. Definitely not a girly-girl. Even though she loves Disney, she is not fond of Cinderella. At all. See photo above. Definitely Daddy’s girl, though. See photo below.

Mom. My mother. Currently 61, will be 62 on our trip. She had never been to Disney World before our October 2008 trip. She rode all of the rides! Everything from Dumbo to Expedition Everest! There were a few rides we missed, but everything we rode – she rode! She is really looking forward to this trip.

Here’s a shot of all of us, just before we left on our last Disney Trip, May of 2010.

We’ve covered the who, now let’s get into the where.

We are planning on a two-week vacation. We’ll first be spending a few days in the Florida Keys, at a resort I learned about through another DISer’s trip report (DizneyDawn – I love her trip reports!).

After some time in the Key’s, we’ll be spending 8 nights at Disney World! We will be staying on-site, but I haven’t quite nailed down which resort yet. I have one in mind, but haven’t decided FOR SURE yet.

After our time at Disney World, we’ll be spending two nights at Universal Studios. We have never been. DD is a Harry Potter maniac (well, so am I). Seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal is VERY high on DD’s list of must-do’s. We will be staying at one of the resort hotels, to take advantage of early entry and the Front Of The Line option.

Well, we’ve covered the who and the where. The what, when and why will have to come in future installments. I am thinking that in each installment, I will be posting a picture (or two, or three…) These will be of people, places, things, etc., that directly involve this trip. I find that pictures make reports (PTR’s and TR’s) a bit more fun. Until next time, then…

photo disclaimer – not all photos are mine. Some are snagged from the web.

Links to Chapters....

The When 06/17/2011
The What 06/19/2011
Let's Go Back In Time A Bit 06/20/2011
Deja Vu? 06/21/2011
Photo Montage of First Trip 07/05/2011
Dinner Ideas and Where To Stay 07/07/2011
Some Favorite Trip Photos 07/25/2011
Considering Offsite? 08/22/2011
A Bit of Life-Changing News 09/27/2011
And some sad news, too 10/29/2011
New Plans and Another First-Trip Picture 12/30/2011
Debating Accommodations and 2010 Scrapbook Pages 01/16/2021
Continuing The Trip Down Memory Lane 01/18/2012
Possible Major Trip Changes and More Scrapbook Pages 02/08/2012
Changes and Surprises 02/13/2012
Continuing the May 2010 Replay 02/15/2012
On To Day Three of May 2010 02/15/2012
More of Day Three, May 2010 02/15/2012
How I Intend To Pull Off The Surprise 02/15/2012
Plan Overview 02/26/2012

 

[StephaniexMarie]

It's definitely not too early to start a PTR!
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your upcoming plans! The Key's look beautiful. Which WDW resort did you have in mind?

 

[ddstratton]

It's definitely not too early to start a PTR!
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your upcoming plans! The Key's look beautiful. Which WDW resort did you have in mind?

I am such a planner -- I love pre-trip reports! I like to read them, and I like to write them.

I will be discussing resorts shortly...

 

[ddstratton]

In the first installment, we covered the who and the where of this really early pre-trip report. By the way, we are currently at 489 days until our trip.

Let’s talk a little bit about the WHEN of this trip. I said earlier that we were planning a two-week trip. That was actually a bit misleading. We will be gone for a total of 18 days. Wow! That sounds like a really long time, once I write it out like that.

We plan on leaving on Friday, October 19, 2012. We’ll leave our house around 6:00 am. We are driving to Florida, so we want to leave as early as possible.

We should arrive at our first Destination – the CocoPlum Resort – on Sunday, October 21, 2012. We will stay here for four nights.

From the CocoPlum Resort, we will travel to Disney World, arriving on Thursday, October 25, 2012. We will be staying here for eight nights.

We will transfer over to Universal Studios (not sure which hotel yet) on Friday, November 2, 2012. We’ll spend two nights here.

On Sunday, November 4, 2012, we will head home. We’ll be taking the AutoTrain home. We’ve done this in the past, and love it! We should arrive home on Monday, November 5, 2012. Tuesday, November 6, 2012 is Election Day – which is a holiday at the office I work in. So I’ll have a day after returning home to recover before going back to work.

In the next installment, we’ll cover some of the WHAT of this trip, since we’ve now covered the who, where and when.

 

[Rozz]

Hello Darla! I'll go with you on this extended pre-trip report. It'll be great! I'm hoping our family can go in 2012 but we went this year so probably not. We'll see! In the meantime, I will need your pre trip report to keep me going!

 

[ericamcl]

I'm In!

 

[think-like-tink]

 

[ddstratton]

Hello Darla! I'll go with you on this extended pre-trip report. It'll be great! I'm hoping our family can go in 2012 but we went this year so probably not. We'll see! In the meantime, I will need your pre trip report to keep me going!

I'm glad you're reading along! I love the planning of a trip -- I just love toying with all of the details and possibilities. Expect changes!!!!

I'm In!

Welcome! Glad to have you here!

Welcome to my little report. An update is coming right up!

 

[ddstratton]

We’re down to 487 days. I said we’d cover some of the WHAT of this trip. This will be just a quick over-view. I will go into MUCH more detail as we go along.

We will be driving from Upstate (or Western) New York all the way down to the middle of the Florida Keys.

To drive straight down would take at least 23 hours – and that’s with no gas stops, pit stops or food stops. It’s just shy of 1500 miles – one way. We will NOT be driving straight through. Nope. We like to stop on the way down. Twice. This means that we will be leaving home early Friday morning and arriving in the Keys on Sunday afternoon.

While in the Keys, we want to visit Key West one day and maybe do a swim-with-the-dolphins thing one day. Other than that, we plan on just relaxing on the beach at the Resort. Sounds divine!

When we leave CocoPlum, we’ll be driving straight to Disney World. We’ll be here for eight nights. We’ll be staying onsite – resort to be determined. This trip, we’re going to add the Water Parks to our tickets. In our previous two trips, we have not yet done the water parks. The end of October, however, usually only has one water park open as this is when they usually close one at a time for refurbishment.

After Disney World, we are going to another first for us – Universal Studios! We will be staying in an on-site resort (mostl likely the Hard Rock Hotel). Doing so gives us the early entry – which can be very important when trying to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on a weekend… It also gives you the Front of the Line privilege. Another plus, considering we will be at Universal from Friday to Sunday morning.

Our final leg of this journey is the AutoTrain trip home! We love the AutoTrain. It’s expensive, but worth it to us. This way, we don’t have to rent a car and can bring whatever we want with us (don’t have to worry about lost luggage, either). We’ve done the AutoTrain from Sanford, FL to Lorton, VA on our first trip, in October 2008. For our May 2010 trip, we took the AutoTrain from Lorton to Sanford. I like doing the AutoTrain at the end of the vacation, as it gives us a time to rest after all the running we’ve done on vacation.

Once we leave the AutoTrain, it’s about another six hours’ drive home. Not too bad at all.

Well, that’s a quick overview of the WHAT of the trip. I think we might start going into a little more detail next. I love the details!!

 

[rentayenta]

I started my PTR at 600+ days so no, it's never too early. I have 483 days until WDW- see siggy for PTR link. Our trip got moved from Dec 2011 to Oct 2012 but thankfully we have a little trip to Disneyland this Nov/Dec.

 

[ddstratton]

I started my PTR at 600+ days so no, it's never too early. I have 483 days until WDW- see siggy for PTR link. Our trip got moved from Dec 2011 to Oct 2012 but thankfully we have a little trip to Disneyland this Nov/Dec.

Hey there! Looks like we'll be at Disney World at the same time! Very cool. Heading over to check out your PTR now.

 

[ddstratton]

486 days to go!

Let’s go back in time a bit, to give some background on us.

Our very first Disney World trip happened in October of 2008. Below is part of my very first Trip Report:

Our first official day of vacation!!! I woke up just after 5:30 in the morning. I took care of a few last-minute things, got a shower and finished packing up the van. At around 6:30, we called Mom and told her to come on down. She lives about five or six miles from us. She arrived (driven by my brother) and we packed her bags into the van. We left at 7:18 am. The trip meter read 45. I set it back when I filled the gas tank a couple of days before. It was 25 degrees when we left.

Just before the Coopers-Curtis bridge (about 20 miles down the highway), we passed an accident. A rig had overturned, right off the road, upside down, taking out the guardrail.

Notice the ice on the windshield still?

We stopped at the McDonald’s just past Williamsport, PA, at 8:51 am. DH got a large chocolate milkshake and we got 2 hashbrowns for DD. Total cost was $4.23. We left here at 8:59 am.

We stopped at a Rest Area at 10:55 am, and left at 11:03.

DD kept up her tradition of finding water fountains.

We stopped at IHOP in Hagerstown, MD, at 11:46.

Mom had the Combo (2 eggs, 2 pieces of sausage, hash browns & pancakes), DH had the Colorodo omelet with hashbrowns, DD had the chicken strips with apple slices, and I had the bacon temptation omelet with pancakes. Total here was $38.71. I don't have any pictures of the food. Even though I had meant to, I just never seemed to get pictures of our food... I always thought about it too late.

DH was apparently a wee bit bored while waiting for our food. He created a tower of coffee creamers. Then tried to hide it from me.

We left IHOP at 12:41. We stopped for gas at the 7-11 in Hagerstown. $41.00 for 14.699 gallons. $2.78/gallon.

As we were leaving Hagerstown, MD, it was 58 degrees.

We stopped at a rest area at 2:27. $1.75 for a pepsi for DH, and $1.25 for a bag of Doritos for DD. We left the rest area at 2:42 pm.

Notice the water fountain theme still?

At this rest area, we picked up some of the hotel discount books. We found a coupon for the Holiday Inn Express in Emporia, VA.

They had an indoor pool! We stopped in here (it was before our reserved hotel), and they had a room! Total cost for the room was $79.09.

I canceled the reservation for the Econo Lodge online.

This was really a very nice room. It was clean and the beds were very comfy.

We drove to the Cracker Barrel for supper.

Mom just loved the fact that they had the fireplace going.

Mom just had the house salad, DD had chicken strips and mashed potatoes, DH had a huge bacon cheeseburger and corn, and I had chicken strips, corn and mac & cheese. They brought some cornbread muffins and biscuits. Besides the meal, I bought a dot-to-dot book for DD and a big pen. Total here was $36.23. I used a $25 gift card I had earned through MyPoints.

We stopped at the gas station for some milk. One quart of milk cost us $3.19!!! Yikes!

After returning to the room, we went to the pool. The pool was very warm, but the hot tub was cold! We swam for a while. The pool was very chlorinated. I don't have any pictures of the pool, as my underwater camera took some really lousy pictures.

After swimming, I took our suits and towels to dry. The dryer cost $2.00, and didn’t do a great job of drying. But at least they weren’t dripping any more. I spent $1.00 on an orange soda.

While I was drying the clothes, DD had a bath. Mom was already dozing when I got back from the laundry. I caught up my notes, reheated my left over chicken strips and relaxed before bed.

And that's it for Day 1 of our 14 day trip. I know, there are a lot of silly details here, but that's what I took notes on. I like the little trivia stuff, like how much time we spent at rest areas, and what we spent for meals. More of my obsessive-planning-type personality coming out.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I don't know why I hadn't noticed before now that you had started a pre-trip report. But, I'm here now and all caught up.

Oh my geeze! CocoPlum looks beautiful and seems like the perfect way to start a vacation.

I am looking forward to hearing which resort you guys decide to stay in while at Disney. I remember how much you enjoyed Port Orleans so I'm wondering if that will be where you stay. Or, you could return to Caribbean Beach which, as you know, we love.

We've thought about going to Universal Studios on one of our "down" days which would, obviously, take away the "down" part of the day but would be something different for us.

 

[ddstratton]

I don't know why I hadn't noticed before now that you had started a pre-trip report. But, I'm here now and all caught up.

Oh my geeze! CocoPlum looks beautiful and seems like the perfect way to start a vacation.

I am looking forward to hearing which resort you guys decide to stay in while at Disney. I remember how much you enjoyed Port Orleans so I'm wondering if that will be where you stay. Or, you could return to Caribbean Beach which, as you know, we love.

We've thought about going to Universal Studios on one of our "down" days which would, obviously, take away the "down" part of the day but would be something different for us.

I only started this report a few days ago -- you're not too late

I was drooling over the pictures on DizneyDawn's trip report. It just looked so relaxing. Also, how can you beat having your own little building, a hot tub, a pool AND direct beach access???? And for less than many hotel rooms!!!

We've gotta do Universal this time, I think. DD is getting to the point where she likes some more of the "thrill" rides, and Harry Potter is a huge draw for both of us.

Caribbean Beach is in the running! I'm trying to decide between that and another resort, which will be discussed soon. It's really kinda hard to decide!!!

 

[ddstratton]

485 days to go!!!

In the last segment, I relived a previous trip report. I'm guessing that the first segment for this trip's Trip Report will look a whole lot like this one. Just with a bigger kid (she's almost as tall as I am now, though that's not hard to do!!)

I woke up just after 5:30 in the morning.

We will probably have to get up earlier, as we want to leave at 6:00 this time, instead of 6:30

It was 25 degrees when we left.

Notice the ice on the windshield still?

I am hoping it won't be this cold when we leave for this trip!!!!

We stopped at the McDonald’s just past Williamsport, PA.

Yup, this will definitely happen again. This is a traditional stop for us when travelling South.

We stopped at a Rest Area at 10:55 am, and left at 11:03.

DD kept up her tradition of finding water fountains.

This will also happen again. We stop at just about every rest area. Both to break up the long ride and just to stretch a while.

We stopped at IHOP in Hagerstown, MD, at 11:46.

Again -- another tradition with us, when travelling South.

So, when it comes time to do the trip report, the first installment may seem like deja-vu!!

 

[onescgirl]

I saw your link on Glennbo's TR. I'm hoping to be going back to WDW around the same time as you!!!

 

[shelbys mommy]

I'm in! Never too early to start at PTR! We leave in 358 days (June 16, 2012) & I have already got my PTR started & have all my plans done!

 

[Lesprivate]

Hi Darla, I am in. We are planning a October 2012 trip also.

 

[ddstratton]

I saw your link on Glennbo's TR. I'm hoping to be going back to WDW around the same time as you!!!

Welcome! I got so behind on Glennbo's TR... I finally got caught up and he was done! We've been to Disney in October before, and loved it!

I'm in! Never too early to start at PTR! We leave in 358 days (June 16, 2012) & I have already got my PTR started & have all my plans done!

Welcome! I love planning a trip. I love all of the details, and switching things around to see what works better.

Hi Darla, I am in. We are planning a October 2012 trip also.

Welcome! Looks like a few of us are planning ahead!

 

[GeminiAngel]

I got some time to kill. I'm on board for what is probably the longest PTR I've ever seen !!!!!!