Minnesotans Celebration Cruise!
Pre Trip Report
Who: Me Amanda (22) 2nd DCL Cruise, 5 previous WDW trips.
Sara My Best Friend from High School (22) 2nd DCL Cruise 3 previous WDW trips
What: Celebration Vacation for my Associate of Arts Degree and the end of Saras Personal Injury settlement
When: December 31, 2003 January 11, 2004
Where: All the Central Florida Theme Parks and DCL
Well for those of you who read my DL trip report here it is at last! Minnesotans Celebration Cruise! For those of you who didnt read my DL report here are a few notes. First, I am a hobby writer, my reports are long and detailed. Second, Sara and I have nicknamed our vacations as well organized Disney Raids. We have been planning this trip for over 400 days. Last, According to trip tradition I am posting the pre trip report with in one week of receiving the documents for the trip. Unfortunatly though, due to the length of our trip and its proximity to Christmas, the actual report wont be coming to the boards until January. This portion however, will be posted on my website: http://www.geocities.com/picturedisney as will the trip report as it is written. I am hoping to update the pictures there as well when uploading the reports so keep checking back. Now on with the story!
In our Sophomore year in High School Sara was hit by a car while walking home from work. Thus began her several years of Physical Therepy and court appearances. Finally she received her settlements and decided to pay off loans and save the rest. One loan in particular was to me from a past Disney trip. She asked me if it would be ok to pay me back with a new years cruise. Of course I said yes, she didnt owe me that much, she had managed to find a value season cruise at new years and who wouldnt want to leave a Minnesota winter?!
The problem is I am a retail pharmacy tech in a unionized job. Getting a week of during the busiest time of the year (Flu season, not Christmas J ) is hard to do. I am required to give notice of a week vacation by February each year so I figured what was the harm in asking. I put in the request to have a week off the following January (11 months away) and it was approved! Then the real planning began. The two of us had been to WDW every year since 1999 together and we decided missing 2003 was not an option so we made plans to arrive in Orlando the morning of December 31. This way we could still make it to WDW in 2003. Since I have to take the whole week at once we discovered we had 3 days after the Disney Cruise and airline tickets were actually cheaper 3 days later, we extended it again.
We were also celebrating the fact that after 4 years I finally finished my Associate of Arts Degree and most of my Pre-Pharmacy work to qualify for the Professional Program at the University of Minnesota. The road was harder than usual due to the fact that I started my AA work as an English Education Major and switched to Pharmacy, a science based major.
Planning and filling our extra days would be no problem. Here is what we are planning for our vacation, tune in later to see if we survived it all! J
Day 1 December 31, 2003
Leave Minneapolis really early in the morning and land in Orlando around noon
Check into the new Pop Century Resort and drop off what will probably be too much luggage
Head to Downtown Disney to go on a shopping spree to get the last drops of discounts from our Disney Club Membership, hopefully to have the packages shipped to our room at the Polyniesian where we will be the next night
Hop a taxi to Seaworld around dinner time and stay there until they kick us out.
Day 2 January 1, 2004
Arrive back at the Pop Century at an obscene hour of the morning and get a pitiful amount of sleep
Check into the Polynesian and drop our luggage again.
Head to the parks!
Day 3 January 2, 2004
Park hopping from opening bell to closing bell!
Day 4 January 3, 2004
Second Verse Same as the First!
Day 5 January 4, 2004
Sleep in a little later and catch Tiffany Town Car to Port Canaveral
Arrive on the Disney Wonder and SET SAIL!!!!
Day 6 January 5, 2004
Nassau, Bahamas
Day 7 January 6, 2004
Castaway Cay, Bahamas
Day 8 January 7, 2004
Day at Sea
Day 9 January 8, 2004
Arrive back at Port Canaveral and take Tiffany back to Orlando
Check into the Universal Howard Johnson Hotel (we were running out of good discounts and money at this point)
Check out Universal Studios until they kick us out
Day 10 January 9, 2004
Universal Studios Orlando!!!
Day 11 January 10, 2004
Second verse same as the first! Again!
Day 12 January 11, 2004
Play a few hours at Universal
Head to the airport to go home (secretly hoping for a blizzard at this point J)
How might 2 college students afford this you ask? Well Sara received her settlement (most of which is being saved by the way) and I, being the union member got a BUNCH of really nice discounts on non Disney hotels and the tickets to the other parks. I also get to pay tuition and books before I leave and get to come home to class at 8:00am the morning of the 12th.
Well that about wraps it up for this pre trip report, tune in again in January for the real thing! There might be another pre trip but with finals and Christmas, not to mention the flu problems I will be a little busy. Thanks for reading!
Coming Later to a Chat board near you!: Minnesotans Celebration Cruise Day 1 Leavin on a jet plane!
Pre Trip Report
Who: Me Amanda (22) 2nd DCL Cruise, 5 previous WDW trips.
Sara My Best Friend from High School (22) 2nd DCL Cruise 3 previous WDW trips
What: Celebration Vacation for my Associate of Arts Degree and the end of Saras Personal Injury settlement
When: December 31, 2003 January 11, 2004
Where: All the Central Florida Theme Parks and DCL
Well for those of you who read my DL trip report here it is at last! Minnesotans Celebration Cruise! For those of you who didnt read my DL report here are a few notes. First, I am a hobby writer, my reports are long and detailed. Second, Sara and I have nicknamed our vacations as well organized Disney Raids. We have been planning this trip for over 400 days. Last, According to trip tradition I am posting the pre trip report with in one week of receiving the documents for the trip. Unfortunatly though, due to the length of our trip and its proximity to Christmas, the actual report wont be coming to the boards until January. This portion however, will be posted on my website: http://www.geocities.com/picturedisney as will the trip report as it is written. I am hoping to update the pictures there as well when uploading the reports so keep checking back. Now on with the story!
In our Sophomore year in High School Sara was hit by a car while walking home from work. Thus began her several years of Physical Therepy and court appearances. Finally she received her settlements and decided to pay off loans and save the rest. One loan in particular was to me from a past Disney trip. She asked me if it would be ok to pay me back with a new years cruise. Of course I said yes, she didnt owe me that much, she had managed to find a value season cruise at new years and who wouldnt want to leave a Minnesota winter?!
The problem is I am a retail pharmacy tech in a unionized job. Getting a week of during the busiest time of the year (Flu season, not Christmas J ) is hard to do. I am required to give notice of a week vacation by February each year so I figured what was the harm in asking. I put in the request to have a week off the following January (11 months away) and it was approved! Then the real planning began. The two of us had been to WDW every year since 1999 together and we decided missing 2003 was not an option so we made plans to arrive in Orlando the morning of December 31. This way we could still make it to WDW in 2003. Since I have to take the whole week at once we discovered we had 3 days after the Disney Cruise and airline tickets were actually cheaper 3 days later, we extended it again.
We were also celebrating the fact that after 4 years I finally finished my Associate of Arts Degree and most of my Pre-Pharmacy work to qualify for the Professional Program at the University of Minnesota. The road was harder than usual due to the fact that I started my AA work as an English Education Major and switched to Pharmacy, a science based major.
Planning and filling our extra days would be no problem. Here is what we are planning for our vacation, tune in later to see if we survived it all! J
Day 1 December 31, 2003
Leave Minneapolis really early in the morning and land in Orlando around noon
Check into the new Pop Century Resort and drop off what will probably be too much luggage
Head to Downtown Disney to go on a shopping spree to get the last drops of discounts from our Disney Club Membership, hopefully to have the packages shipped to our room at the Polyniesian where we will be the next night
Hop a taxi to Seaworld around dinner time and stay there until they kick us out.
Day 2 January 1, 2004
Arrive back at the Pop Century at an obscene hour of the morning and get a pitiful amount of sleep
Check into the Polynesian and drop our luggage again.
Head to the parks!
Day 3 January 2, 2004
Park hopping from opening bell to closing bell!
Day 4 January 3, 2004
Second Verse Same as the First!
Day 5 January 4, 2004
Sleep in a little later and catch Tiffany Town Car to Port Canaveral
Arrive on the Disney Wonder and SET SAIL!!!!
Day 6 January 5, 2004
Nassau, Bahamas
Day 7 January 6, 2004
Castaway Cay, Bahamas
Day 8 January 7, 2004
Day at Sea
Day 9 January 8, 2004
Arrive back at Port Canaveral and take Tiffany back to Orlando
Check into the Universal Howard Johnson Hotel (we were running out of good discounts and money at this point)
Check out Universal Studios until they kick us out
Day 10 January 9, 2004
Universal Studios Orlando!!!
Day 11 January 10, 2004
Second verse same as the first! Again!
Day 12 January 11, 2004
Play a few hours at Universal
Head to the airport to go home (secretly hoping for a blizzard at this point J)
How might 2 college students afford this you ask? Well Sara received her settlement (most of which is being saved by the way) and I, being the union member got a BUNCH of really nice discounts on non Disney hotels and the tickets to the other parks. I also get to pay tuition and books before I leave and get to come home to class at 8:00am the morning of the 12th.
Well that about wraps it up for this pre trip report, tune in again in January for the real thing! There might be another pre trip but with finals and Christmas, not to mention the flu problems I will be a little busy. Thanks for reading!
Coming Later to a Chat board near you!: Minnesotans Celebration Cruise Day 1 Leavin on a jet plane!
I'm really excited to read your report, since for me, the longer and more detailed, the better! 
