My first attempt at a pre trip report for our first Disney World trip

[annegirl]

updated with post links at bottom!

I just found out today that we will probably be going on our long awaited trip to Disney World this year!
I have been planning this trip for years now and can't wait!
Who would be going?
DH: Likes Disney movies but I wouldn't classify him as a disney enthusiast. He adores his princesses though and wants to make the dream come true for me.

Annegirl: Me, 32 almost 33, longtime Disney lover and obsessive trip planner. My favorite trips so far have been a Canadian road trip with my parents, a trip to Prince Edward Island with my mom, Disneyland with my mom, and two road trips to the East coast with my parents and my oldest daughter. I have never been to Disney world.
This picture is of DH, myself, and DD4 last summer when baby daughter was still on the way..

DD's: Abi is 4. Maddy is 3 months. The trip will be a surprise for Abi's 5th birthday so she will be turning 5 on the trip and Maddy will be 1 before we go. Abi (DD4) is a little princess, lover of all things pink and purple and princessy. She loves Disney princesses as well as Barbie princesses. She also is very creative and has an amazing imagination. Everything is magical to her which is why I want to go as soon as possible.. before that magic is lost. She loves princess Aurora right now because her dress is pink.

Maddy(baby) is happy as can be. She is a little sweetheart that hopefully won't be too young to take with us! I'm a little worried about that but I don't want to leave her behind.

My parents:
Marathonmomma: my mom is going to be 62 by the time we go and is an avid marathon runner. She is absolutely amazing and fun. She is my best friend and favorite travel companion because we love all the same things!
Eeyore: my dad. He is so sweet and caring but my mom calls him her little Eeyore because he can be just like him sometimes. He also tends to be on my vacations with me.
I have traveled much more with them because DH doesn't enjoy road trips.

DH is the only one in our traveling party that has been to Disney World. He was very young and spent almost the entire trip in Captain EO (is that what it was called?) not because he loved Micheal Jackson but because he wanted to be in the shade and sit down!
We are planning on going in December during the slower weeks.
At this point I am planning on getting our rooms at Pop Century and doing 10 day park tickets and the dining plan although we will be going up to Islands of Adventure one day to visit the Harry Potter world.
Since I am new to this I have been researching and reading on here for a couple years now. I think I have a lot figured out but still have a lot to learn before I book the vacation.
I am hoping to get a good discount or free dining. I did get an email today for free dining but it isn't good for our travel times. It also said that it was only for the counter service dining plan so I am wondering.. those of you who have had free dining... was it the counter service? Or did you get the basic plan free as well?
I am also looking for some input on how big of a difference there is between Pop Century and Port Orleans if I can get a good enough discount to make POR prices close to what Pop's would be....
I appreciate any and all input.
I am daily inspired by all of you and can't wait to have our own magical experience!


Contents:

First movie night- Pinnochio
The autograph book
source
Booking
Travel journals
T-shirts
Movie night: Dumbo
ADR's
Catching up on movie nights (11 of them!)
Changes to ADR
ADR again
Movie nights- Treasure Planet and The Sword in the Stone
Movie nights- Tarzan and Mulan
some plans
Is collecting things for the trip an addiction?
movie night-UP
First big sewing projects- Alice dress and BBB dress
movie night- 101 Dalmations
Change to the trip!
Another ADR
A bug's Life movie night
Another ADR update
Tinkerbell?
Day by Day plans for entire trip
The Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins
Peter Pan movie night
Animal Kingdom twirl skirts
Minnie Mouse twirl skirts
pillowcases
Feliz dresses
Snow White movie night
Lady and the Tramp, Cars, and Winnie the Pooh movie nights
Good Mail
Movie nights: Sleeping Beauty, The Incredibles, Jungle Book, and Monsters Inc.
Twirl shirt and Hidden Mickey
Hairbows
Halloween
Movie night: Mickeys Treat and Little Einsteins Halloween

 

[ChevyNat]

First of all, Congrats you are going to Disney!! You have a cute family... and I can't wait to read more about your plans. Great start

 

[disneychard]

When are you going?? Have fun, and congradulations.

 

[annegirl]

We should be going Dec 5-15th if it works as planned. Her birthday is on the 13th.
Thanks for the warm wishes!!

 

[annegirl]

Right now I am trying to decide if it's best to fly or drive. I think flying will be the cheaper option. We're not sure what we will use to get to Islands of Adventure. Does anyone know if there is a shuttle or any other kind of service from nearby that goes there... or do you have to use a taxi or rent a car when going off property?

 

[annegirl]

Right now we are in the midst of choosing a resort. We want to call and reserve but there are still so many things up in the air. I'm pretty sure we will have to stay at a value resort but we really want Port orleans Riverside or French Quarter. It's just at the end of a ten day stay.. there is a huge difference in price.

I am wondering... if we book a resort and package and I get a code for a discount for December on the hotels or for free dining can I call and have them added to my reservation that is already made or do I have to wait until I have a discount code to reserve if I am going to get the savings?

 

[cmp1111]

Great start! The girls are beautiful!

I'm fairly sure you can call and add the code later to an existing reservation, but I'll ask a friend who would know for sure.

Also, we do have a separate section for "pre-trip" reports that are in the planning stages, so I'm going to move you over there!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[annegirl]

Thanks! I'm so sorry- I didn't realize it wasn't in the pre trip report section.
I'm feeling a little out of sorts now.. I've been planning this trip for so long that now that it is actually going to happen I feel like I still have so much to find out and learn.

 

[annegirl]

Right now I'm looking at patterns for a dress to make my daughter trying to decide whether I am going to do a smaller BBB package and take our own dress or do the full package.

 

[BabyEeyore]

Yay for Disney planning! Can't wait to read more!

 

[my2disneyboys]

I came over from the Disney Night Thread! Congrats on your first trip!!!! That is SO exciting. I wish I could get that feeling back of the first trip!! Enjoy it

I hope you will post some pics from your disney nights! We have been doing them now for a couple years and the kids just cant get enough of them.

I hope that you can make it work for POR or POFQ- both are SO beautiful and I LOVED the boat to DTD from both resorts.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[annegirl]

I will post pictures for sure!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Hi Anniegirl! I'm joining in! Fellow Wisconsinite here! What area are you from? I'm outside Green Bay.

I just booked our first family trip as well. It was a hard desicsion on hotel - especially when it's you're first time. We really want POFQ - just love the feel of the place, but we decided to book Pop instead - save a little money and I think the kids will like it more - much more fun and colorful, I'm sure will kids will be all over those giant figures and icons. I'm glad we choose Pop, I haven't second-guessed that decision at all.

I read up on Disney for about 6 months before I booked the trip - we booked it on Christmas Eve - I don't have any discount appied to my ressie right now, waiting for them to announce August discounts yet, but I'm planning to just call and have the discount applied when they come out..from what I've read here on the DIS it's very easy to do.

We are planning to fly Southwest out of Milwaukee - again rates are not out yet for August but they sure seem reasonable when I've checked for other dates over summer.

Can't wait to hear more of your plans!

 

[annegirl]

Last night we started off our Disney movie family nights. It wasn't as exciting as some of them I've seen on here but it was perfect for our little family. We watched Pinnochio which Abi had never seen before and she loved it! She was so happy and excited the whole time... partly because of the fun activity and partly because she gets to stay up past her normal bedtime to do it!
I made the 'Stromboli' pizza that I saw on the movie night thread for dinner and then later we had 'Pleasure Island Popcorn' (that meant it was the full fat and extra butter kind!) and Conscience Cola (sugar free, calorie free, caffeine free Sprite!). I printed some finger puppets off of Disney's website and we colored those and had a puppet show.
It was great. I can't wait for next weekend!

 

[annegirl]

Hi Anniegirl! I'm joining in! Fellow Wisconsinite here! What area are you from? I'm outside Green Bay.

I just booked our first family trip as well. It was a hard desicsion on hotel - especially when it's you're first time. We really want POFQ - just love the feel of the place, but we decided to book Pop instead - save a little money and I think the kids will like it more - much more fun and colorful, I'm sure will kids will be all over those giant figures and icons. I'm glad we choose Pop, I haven't second-guessed that decision at all.

I read up on Disney for about 6 months before I booked the trip - we booked it on Christmas Eve - I don't have any discount appied to my ressie right now, waiting for them to announce August discounts yet, but I'm planning to just call and have the discount applied when they come out..from what I've read here on the DIS it's very easy to do.

We are planning to fly Southwest out of Milwaukee - again rates are not out yet for August but they sure seem reasonable when I've checked for other dates over summer.

Can't wait to hear more of your plans!

We're down in Kenosha near the border

 

[annegirl]

Although we are so far out from our trip, I have a lot of things I'll need to make later so I thought I would put together a few things as I go along.. this weekend I did an autograph book.
I bought the supplies years ago but hadn't made it yet. The book I used is from Stampin Up. It's about 5x5 and has a chipboard front and back cover but thick cardstock pages.
I printed off the images from Donatalie. Thank you so much for those wonderful designs. I looked around on here for days getting inspiration and I just have to say thanks to all of you on here for all of the wonderful creations that have inspired me!!
So here is the finished product. I took pictures of all the pages- first the front sides and then the backs and a picture of the book put back together. I have more autograph cards as well for characters we might not see or that she might not care about that I am going to carry with us and if we get them I'll add them later or make a second book.

 

[BabyEeyore]

Great movie night! Your DD looks like she had a BLAST! And your autograph books look fabulous.

 

[annegirl]

All right, this morning I called to talk to an agent hoping that the free quick service dining plan I got could be extended to December and upgraded to a basic dining plan. It could not be extended.
We did however find out we could get a really great military discount because of my dad being retired. 40% off the rooms! I was thinking this would make pops rooms about $50-60/ night but it's $70/night. Still pretty good though. The dining couldn't be discounted with this but we can buy our tickets seperately through the base so hopefully that will get a good discount too.
I'm hoping to call back and book this today or tomorrow but I'm not sure yet.

The next question I have is: yes or no on insurance for the trip? How much is it per person and why do you get it? I've seen posts where people have said "thank goodness for trip insurance". What did you need it for?
I hesitate spending any more money than we already have to spend so I would love to know if you buy it or not and why for both!

 

[my2disneyboys]

love the autograph book!! Where did you get those sheets with the characters?? The first trip I made a little book and then the next two we used the ones they sell in the park and last year I brought a mat and there was a spot open in the mat to put a picture. I really loved how it came out but now have to think of something new for next year!!??

 

[annegirl]

I got the autograph book pages with the characters from a link on here. They were made by DoNatalie. The link is here.