manchurianbrownbear
<font color=green>Not very concise<br><font color=
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2002
- Messages
- 1,160
We are a family of six--me (Manchurianbrownbear or MBB) 44, DW (lauraljp)43, DS 17, DS 13, DD 12 and DD 9. We live in Minnesota. Most of our vacations are road trips but we have taken trips to Disney World by air.
We are both DISers and we both wanted to have a part in our trip report. Most of it is written by MBB but we will put lauraljp’s comments in red Hope it works smoothly and is not too confusing.
PRETRIP
Lauraljp—Back in the fall of 2007, MBB and I had started talking about taking another “big” vacation either another road trip or something else. We had been out West (including DL), to Niagara Falls, Disney a couple of times, Michigan, and a midwest trip. MBB thought it was time to go back to Disney again. I was not as excited at that option. Don’t get me wrong, I am as big a Disney fan as most of you but after a trip in 2000, a 2003 WDW and 3 day cruise trip and Disneyland in 2005 I wanted something different. There are still parts of the country that we have not been to and our kids are not getting any younger.
Our 2003 3 Day Wonder Cruise
Jump forward to January 2008 and still no decision had been made. It was a dreary winter day and it really made me long to be somewhere warm or at least start planning to be somewhere warm even if it was not going to be soon, something to look forward too.
MBB and I were discussing again what we wanted to do for our next vacation. He still wanted Disney. I said that I didn’t want to do the whole park thing again. We are up early every day running all day long and getting worn out. Every vacation we take is commando style and trying to get in as many sites as one can. Every day a new town! I wanted to go somewhere where we could relax and not be running all the time and still have fun. Then it hit me, the perfect solution! Did I just say relax and fun?! We could compromise--relax and see Disney. We could do a cruise again! We did a three day cruise in 2003 with four days in the parks. This time we could do the four day cruise, use the one day left on our hopper passes from 2003 and add attractions as funds allowed. Well we would not be seeing other parts of the country but it was Disney!! That has always been magical trip for us.
Next we had to decide on a date. The last two times we have gone to Disney World we have gone on October 30/31 through the first week of November. Now that our kids are older it is harder to take them out of school for so many days. We had to go when they would not miss as much school. That led us to October 12-19. In Minnesota, we have what is called MEA. Not sure what it stands for, I think it is Minnesota Educators Association, but the schools are out for Thursday and Friday of that week. This would only cause them to miss to three days of school. I hoped they could manage that.
With the dates set I started pricing everything out. We had been in connecting secret porthole rooms the last time we cruised but my parents had been travelling with us which greatly reduced our cost. We decided to go with two category 12 guaranteed cabins and take our chances. We would be happy with cat 12 since they are all located near each other. We knew we could end up in different parts of the ship if we were upgraded even to a category 11 but we were willing to take that chance to keep our costs down. We would worry about it when the time came.
We don’t do a lot of flying—only our two other Disney trips so far. Most trips are by car but with limited time we would be flying. I came to find out that airfare around this time of year in Minnesota is like holiday travel. A lot of people take trips during MEA time. Many people had prepared a lot further in advance than we had even in February and I wasn’t finding the great $200 airfare or less that I had found on our other trips.
After hearing from a lot of DISers not to expect real cheap airfare at this time a year, and seeing pretty high fares on the Northwest flights, I started waiting for Airtran to post their flights. They were running around $109 each way for September so I figured it would be the same for October. When the outgoing flights finally posted they were $130 round trip. I did not want to pay that and I could not get the return flights yet as they were not posted yet. I hemmed and hawed and ended up missing out on the one non-stop they offer to MCO it sold out at the lower fare right away and was now close to $190 one way. I was ready when the return flights finally posted and grabbed the non-stop return for 130 with joy I booked a connection for the outbound at the $130 rate and counted my blessings! About a month later the outbound went down to $89! I called and got a credit on Airtran for the difference!
Car rental—We booked a minivan (Chevy Uplander) through National in February with the infamous Visa code for around $340. We booked for 8 days since we were going to Disney after the cruise. I tried many combinations for transportation but for our family, a rental car seemed the most economical.
As issues arose with the Visa code through the spring and summer I was hoping to find a regular code for such a good rate. The rates were so high through the summer but come September I was able to switch to Alamo and got a minivan(Toyota Sienna) for $225. A great rate and a larger van! I filled out all the information online for quick checkout so there would not be a lot of issues at the airport. I have really liked using National and the Emerald Aisle but the price difference was too good to pass up.
The months went by and we cheered as each new milestone we passed…100 days…Final Payment due…Palo and Excursion booking date. We were able to get everything we wanted. We had main dining seating for one cabin but were waitlisted for the other cabin. That cleared at about the two month mark. We got our paperwork filled out online. All we were waiting for was the assignment of our cabin numbers.
It’s tortuous waiting nine months to find out your cabin numbers! Finally, at the 31 day mark, we got them. We were put in 5131 and 5133. These are category 11 cabins on deck five and they are right next to each other. We wouldn’t be at opposite ends of the ship. The downside was that they both slept 3. I sort of regretted booking three in each cabin. I was hoping we would get cabins that would sleep 4. In hindsight, I should have booked four to a cabin and two in the other to begin with. We had decided that having DH the two girls and me in one cabin and the boys in another cabin would be better. But since they were both 3 person cabins we would make it work…we had our cabins! We had been on deck 5 on our last cruise and had really liked the location. Coming up…the day of departure finally arrives!
We are both DISers and we both wanted to have a part in our trip report. Most of it is written by MBB but we will put lauraljp’s comments in red Hope it works smoothly and is not too confusing.
PRETRIP
Lauraljp—Back in the fall of 2007, MBB and I had started talking about taking another “big” vacation either another road trip or something else. We had been out West (including DL), to Niagara Falls, Disney a couple of times, Michigan, and a midwest trip. MBB thought it was time to go back to Disney again. I was not as excited at that option. Don’t get me wrong, I am as big a Disney fan as most of you but after a trip in 2000, a 2003 WDW and 3 day cruise trip and Disneyland in 2005 I wanted something different. There are still parts of the country that we have not been to and our kids are not getting any younger.
Our 2003 3 Day Wonder Cruise
Jump forward to January 2008 and still no decision had been made. It was a dreary winter day and it really made me long to be somewhere warm or at least start planning to be somewhere warm even if it was not going to be soon, something to look forward too.
MBB and I were discussing again what we wanted to do for our next vacation. He still wanted Disney. I said that I didn’t want to do the whole park thing again. We are up early every day running all day long and getting worn out. Every vacation we take is commando style and trying to get in as many sites as one can. Every day a new town! I wanted to go somewhere where we could relax and not be running all the time and still have fun. Then it hit me, the perfect solution! Did I just say relax and fun?! We could compromise--relax and see Disney. We could do a cruise again! We did a three day cruise in 2003 with four days in the parks. This time we could do the four day cruise, use the one day left on our hopper passes from 2003 and add attractions as funds allowed. Well we would not be seeing other parts of the country but it was Disney!! That has always been magical trip for us.
Next we had to decide on a date. The last two times we have gone to Disney World we have gone on October 30/31 through the first week of November. Now that our kids are older it is harder to take them out of school for so many days. We had to go when they would not miss as much school. That led us to October 12-19. In Minnesota, we have what is called MEA. Not sure what it stands for, I think it is Minnesota Educators Association, but the schools are out for Thursday and Friday of that week. This would only cause them to miss to three days of school. I hoped they could manage that.
With the dates set I started pricing everything out. We had been in connecting secret porthole rooms the last time we cruised but my parents had been travelling with us which greatly reduced our cost. We decided to go with two category 12 guaranteed cabins and take our chances. We would be happy with cat 12 since they are all located near each other. We knew we could end up in different parts of the ship if we were upgraded even to a category 11 but we were willing to take that chance to keep our costs down. We would worry about it when the time came.
We don’t do a lot of flying—only our two other Disney trips so far. Most trips are by car but with limited time we would be flying. I came to find out that airfare around this time of year in Minnesota is like holiday travel. A lot of people take trips during MEA time. Many people had prepared a lot further in advance than we had even in February and I wasn’t finding the great $200 airfare or less that I had found on our other trips.
After hearing from a lot of DISers not to expect real cheap airfare at this time a year, and seeing pretty high fares on the Northwest flights, I started waiting for Airtran to post their flights. They were running around $109 each way for September so I figured it would be the same for October. When the outgoing flights finally posted they were $130 round trip. I did not want to pay that and I could not get the return flights yet as they were not posted yet. I hemmed and hawed and ended up missing out on the one non-stop they offer to MCO it sold out at the lower fare right away and was now close to $190 one way. I was ready when the return flights finally posted and grabbed the non-stop return for 130 with joy I booked a connection for the outbound at the $130 rate and counted my blessings! About a month later the outbound went down to $89! I called and got a credit on Airtran for the difference!
Car rental—We booked a minivan (Chevy Uplander) through National in February with the infamous Visa code for around $340. We booked for 8 days since we were going to Disney after the cruise. I tried many combinations for transportation but for our family, a rental car seemed the most economical.
As issues arose with the Visa code through the spring and summer I was hoping to find a regular code for such a good rate. The rates were so high through the summer but come September I was able to switch to Alamo and got a minivan(Toyota Sienna) for $225. A great rate and a larger van! I filled out all the information online for quick checkout so there would not be a lot of issues at the airport. I have really liked using National and the Emerald Aisle but the price difference was too good to pass up.
The months went by and we cheered as each new milestone we passed…100 days…Final Payment due…Palo and Excursion booking date. We were able to get everything we wanted. We had main dining seating for one cabin but were waitlisted for the other cabin. That cleared at about the two month mark. We got our paperwork filled out online. All we were waiting for was the assignment of our cabin numbers.
It’s tortuous waiting nine months to find out your cabin numbers! Finally, at the 31 day mark, we got them. We were put in 5131 and 5133. These are category 11 cabins on deck five and they are right next to each other. We wouldn’t be at opposite ends of the ship. The downside was that they both slept 3. I sort of regretted booking three in each cabin. I was hoping we would get cabins that would sleep 4. In hindsight, I should have booked four to a cabin and two in the other to begin with. We had decided that having DH the two girls and me in one cabin and the boys in another cabin would be better. But since they were both 3 person cabins we would make it work…we had our cabins! We had been on deck 5 on our last cruise and had really liked the location. Coming up…the day of departure finally arrives!
. But, he still said he had a lot fun. He got up periodically to explore the ship. And both boys really enjoyed the food!
