tayalltheway
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2012
- Messages
- 431
Welcome! Hi there! I'm Taylor and I have some special travel plans that I want to share. It's been forever since my last foray onto the Walt Disney World side of the DISboardsbecause it's been way too long since my wife and I took a trip down to Florida. Our last vacation to the World was in 2012, and we'd actually won it from a contest hosted by WDW Radio. It was an excellent trip that involved staying in a Royal Room at POR, getting to Grand Marshal the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, and much, much more. You can read all about that adventure here. Since that trip, my wife Tracy and I have literally lived coast-to-coast. After spending several years in New York City, our next stop was Disneyland. We moved to Orange, CA, in late 2012 and experienced what it was like to be DLR locals for about a year and a half. I also kept a running "life report" of that whole experience, which you can read here.
More recently, we had a rough start to 2014 and ended up deciding to move back home to Colorado. We couldn't be happier with our choice because we've loved being back around family and friends, and just because we aren't Disneyland locals anymore doesn't mean that we don't still get our fair share of Disney trips in. You can read the ongoing report about our Disney Cruise to Alaska in May here and a trip report about our first return visit to CA in August here. As you'll see if you click through, all these reports became a little too much for me to juggle on the DIS alone, so I decided to start a blog where I would host them all. I make an effort to always keep the threads on the boards updated as well, however, so that I can chat with all of you as you read along.
Now we come to our current plans. As I've said, my wife Tracy is my travel companion through life and to Disney destinations around the world. Well, March 2015 is going to mark the 10th anniversary of when Tracy and I started dating (though we didn't get married until five years later). We thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to finally make it back to Walt Disney World after an absence that we really didn't mean to let span so many years.
As we started to plan a WDW trip, we realized that it was going to be expensive enough that it would probably be the only MAJOR vacation we'll be able to afford next year. Well, on our Alaska cruise, we had put down a deposit on another cruise so that we could take advantage of the 10% onboard booking discount. That cruisewhich would have been to Norway and I'm sure would have been SPECTACULARwas always a bit of a pipe dream budget-wise, and we realized it wasn't going to happen (at least not this coming year).
Since we already had that deposit down, we figured that maybe we should look into the cost of a short cruise out of Florida to make a land-and-sea vacation out of our anniversary trip. We found a 3-night cruise to the Bahamas on the Dream that would only cost about $500 more than the deposit we'd already put down, so we had our travel agent switch us to that sailing.
When it comes to our lodging at WDW, we considered a bunch of different options before deciding that maybe this would be a great opportunity for us to try renting DVC points. So we got several quotes from the DVC Rental Store for our dates and are in the process of locking that down sometime in the next week. Though we haven't decided with 100% certainty, it's looking like we're probably going to do a split-stay between Bay Lake Tower and the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. If Bay Lake Tower doesn't end up working out, then the Boardwalk Villas are our "backup."
Since we rarely plan our trips this far in advance (or have this much to think about), I've never considered doing a PTR before. But I figured that it would be fun to involve all of you in the planning of this upcoming trip and get some advice from folks who have done a Dream cruise before and/or rented DVC points. Heck, we've never even used MyMagic+, so we might have some questions about MagicBands and Fastpass+ come up as well.
I appreciate having you guys read along, and I'll keep this thread updated as further developments arise. In the meantime, please either visit the blog or read one of my old trip reports to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with Tracy and me. And please post your questions, ideas, advice, etc. on this PTR so that we can try to ensure we have the best vacation possible!
I think we might end up waiting until 2016 or 2017 to go to Disneyworld, when Avatar Land has opened at Animal Kingdom. It's not that we want don't want to go to Disneyworld sooner then that, it's just I am back in college, and my husband will be in college next year too, so I just don't think we can really afford it anytime soon. But hopefully once we graduate, we will be able to afford to go to Disneyworld more often! 
I definitely understand Disneyland being a cheaper trip overall (especially if it's closer)it's why we haven't been to WDW in several years either. We're really excited to get back to Disney World, though, and staying in a DVC rental will be a totally new experience for us too, so that is very exciting. Hopefully you can make it back to FL in a couple years, but that's great that you'll be able to go to DLR for the 60th next year! I'm glad that you enjoy reading all the reports. I think it definitely is always nice to read about Disney from a family in the same general demographicso childless couples UNITE! 
