Our Big Vacation Mashup. A Pre-Trip Report

[Teknik_DC2]

Hi everyone. I'm kinda new to the whole Pre-Trip report thing so bear with me. I've written many trip reports in the past but I wanted to start a pre-trip report so I can have somewhere to share my excitement with those who might care (other then my wife).

The dates of our trip will be from April 29th-May 12th, 2011. The reason for the "mashup" in the title is because this will be many vacations thrown into one. This trip we will be spending a day and morning at Disney, Going on a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Dream, then spending 5 days in Charleston, South Carolina. I hope your all ok with me sharing it seeing as how the Disney portion will be such a small part of our trip.

The cast of characters this trip will only be Myself Jeff (27) and my Wife Kiera (23). On an exciting note Kiera and I just found out a few weeks ago that she is Pregnant with our first child so this will be our last trip before being parents.

Kiera and I got married in Febuary of 2008 and we have had a love of traveling since. Our first vacation as a married couple was our honeymoon as we found our love for cruising when we sailed to the Mexican Riviera ports of Puerto Vallerta, Mazzatelan, and Cabo San Lucas aboard the the Carnival Legend. I also found a love for writing trip reports after this cruise so i've done one for each trip my wife and I have taken since we got married. Please check them out if you'd like to get a feel for what my upcoming trip report will feel like.

Mexican Riviera Cruise:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1060691&highlight=

Our next adventure was made possible from President Bushs Stimulus that everyone got in 2008. We decied to use ours to return to Southern California and Visit Disneyland, California Adventure, Universal Studios, and Knotts Berry Farm, As well as spend some nights in Las Vegas in December of 2008. It had been 13 years since I had been to a Disney park when this trip happend and it is what sparked my love for Disney all over again.

Disneyland Trip:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2071198

Having bought a house in 2009 and recieving the new home owner tax credit we decided that it was time for a cruise again. This time we wanted to go to the Caribbean so we booked a room on the Carnival Glory to set sail for the ports of Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maartan. But we couldn't pass up flying into Orlando and not going to any parks. Since we had only 2 days and a tight budget we decided to spend those days at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure in October 2009.

Univesal Orlando and Eastern Caribbean Cruise:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2314504

Needing a break from life halfway between our big vacations Kiera and I decided to have a little get away to Las Vegas for Memorial Day weekend 2010 with some other family members. While there we went and saw Disney's The Lion King Musical which was easliy the highlight of our trip.

Las Vegas 2010:
http://micechat.com/forums/other-theme-parks-destinations/138624-vegas.html

Our most recent trip took place in October 2010 as we returned to the Orlando area for another Cruise. This time sailing the Carnival Legend to the Western Caribbean ports of the Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios Jamaica. Being huge Harry Potter fans we once again missed Disney and spent 3 days at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida so that we could experiance the newly opened Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Universal Orlando and Western Caribbean Cruise:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2579558

And so that leads us to our upcoming vacation. The reasoning behind this trip gets complicated. My parents recently moved to Charleston South Carolina this past November. So the trip was originally planned with the intent to go see them. On our most recent cruise however we didn't make all our ports of call (Our stop in Jamaica was not planned) we were issued a 20% discount on a future cruise. Knowing how pricey Air Line tickets can be to fly from Utah to the East coast we decided to make the most of our time back east and decided to use our cruise discount and attempt the ports we missed before going to my parents house in SC. We then found airline tickets much cheaper to fly in to Orlando 2 days before our cruise so we decided to do that and attempt to spend a day at Disney since we had neglected it on our previous two trips. And so thats how our big mashup of a vacation has come about.

So I look forward to slowly revealing the details of our trip to you all. Thanks for checking in and reading. The trip is about 90% booked so I look forward to telling you all about it. And don't worry. You'll see another full Disney Vacation soon as we have started planning to Visit Disney World for 10 full days sometime next year. Maybe even another quick trip to Disneyland before then as well. So in the mean time I hope you'll enjoy this Pre-trip and eventual Full Trip Report.

 

[ZFamily5]

I'm in! And first! Finally! Now I'm going back to read!

 

[Teknik_DC2]

The first part of the vacation is always one of the least favorites for anyone. Traveling. I looked around and watched airline ticket prices for over a month before finally booking. Our flights this trip would be very unique as we would be flying into Orlando and out of Charleston, South Carolina. After being patient with high airline ticket prices thru the holidays I was very pleased that right after New Years a flight into Orlando dropped drastically so we booked.

I was very suprised at the price we got the flights for. I expected to pay more then we did last year. Especially with flying in and out of different locations. However it was the opposite. I got our flights into Orlando for $117 a person and out of Charleston for $109 a person. After taxes we payed less then $550 for our airfare. We also booked with Southwest so we each get 2 free bags that we don't have to pay extra for. I Love Southwest.

We fly out of Salt Lake City on April 28th, 2011. We have a layover in Chicago before continuing on to Orlando where we land that Evening.

Coming home we leave Charleston on May 12th, 2011 and once again have another layover in Chicago before landing in SLC that evening.

Next update I will share our Hotel plans.

 

[Teknik_DC2]

Since we have two nights in the Orlando area before our cruise I wanted to find the nicest hotel I could for the cheapest price. So with much success in the past I visited Hotwire.com. Last year we were able to secure a Doubletree hotel thru hotwire. Another year we got a Holiday inn. Will we have the same success this time?

One thing I learned from our first Florida trip was to not skimp out on the hotel. When in Florida from now on we will not book at anyting less then a 3 star. So I was pretty excited when Hotwire had a 3 star hotel rates in Celebration for only $45 a night. So ahead I booked.

The hotel we ended up getting was the Baymont Inn and Suites. Its located just off Disney property and down the road from Animal Kingdom. I've never stayed at a baymont so heres to hoping its nice. Its got decent reviews though so i'm not worried. And you can't beat paying just over $100 for 2 nights. It will work out great for us.