Planning my first trip! *A Pre Trip Report!*

[Vernie822]

Welcome.. to my first official trip report, for the first trip I am planning on my own! This trip will be my first big vacation with my boyfriend, Justin. More on the two of us later! I was inspired to write a trip report because I have read all of the others and they all seem like so much fun. Plus, I can't make up my mind for the life of me and it's driving Justin crazy!!

I have been to Disney 5 times, 6 including a day trip when my friends and I were in Daytona on spring break. It was much cheaper for my parents to take my family when we were all younger. I'm the oldest of 5, so often times the youngest sibling or two was free.

My previous trips are:
1994 - Offsite with mom, dad, and younger brother #1. I was 3, he was 1.
1999 - Disney Institute? Which is no longer around. Mom, dad, me (8), brother #1 (6), sister (turned 3 on our trip), and brother #2 (1). We also went to Daytona Beach for a week (Dad's favorite spot).
2001 - Offsite, with mom, dad, me (10), bro #2 (8), sis (5), bro #2 (3), bro #3 (9 months), and Grandma. This trip was just after my grandfather passed away from ALS. She always wanted to go to Disney and I am so glad we got to share that with her! We also went to Universal for 2 days and Daytona for a week.
2002 - Same crew as before! We stayed offsite. No Grandma this time. We went to Daytona for a week too.
2009 - Senior year trip! Went with National Honor Society. Volunteered @ GKTW and stayed at AsSp.
2012 - DTD for a day. Friends and I were on spring break in Daytona and drove down.


I don't think I mentioned.. we drove for all of our trips growing up! Mom and Dad would load us all in the van, drive 15 or so hours from PA to GA, stay a night, and finish up the drive to WDW in the AM. After all of those days spent in the car, I don't know if I ever could do it again. Especially with 3 children 3 and under - what were my parents thinking? LOL!!

Just for kicks.. this is my lovely family, in present day. I may not look the oldest, but I am. I am the one in the orange. In case you're curious - I'm 23, bro #1 is 21, sis is 18, bro #2 is 16, and bro #3 is almost 14. Mom and Dad.. would probably prefer that I keep their ages to myself!

​

My family went again in 2011 when my oldest brother was performing with the HS band. I was a sophomore in college and… I WASN'T INVITED!! It fell on my spring break, too. With bro #1 staying with the band, bros 2 and 3 and sis were staying with my parents. 3 fully grown men plus my mom and sister just didn't leave enough room for me. And, they'd have to either get a villa or a second room, which wasn't in the budget. So no Disney for me that year!


So this year.. Justin and I are planning our first WDW trip together!!! Justin has only been to Disneyland. He has family there and visited in the late 90's for a day. He doesn't get the love for WDW just yet.. but he loves to make me happy, and we love to travel together, so I know he'll love it once he gets there.

So now for our trip specifics..
WHEN?! September 13-22, 2014! Only Sept. 13-20 will be spent in WDW. On the 20th, we head to Miami until the 22nd.
WHERE? We will be at AoA and POR. We have park hoppers and the DDP for the POR portion of our stay.. Subject to change due to my indecisiveness.

I will be adding more links to show more details about our trip! Thanks for reading!!

This is me, as a senior in HS, on our trip in 2009! Pooh is my FAVE!

​

​

​

​

​

 

[Vernie822]

Justin and I met in 2011. I was 20, he was 23. We worked together at our part-time job, which was event staff at football games and concerts. A fun job, but we got to chatting to pass the time. I didn't know him well and was in a relationship. For the next year, we didn't see each other too much. Eventually, we started seeing each other and talking more often, and have been dating since the summer of 2012.

One of our biggest passions is baseball. We both love it and are huge fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Our dream is to visit all of the MLB ballparks! So far we have visited Cleveland (our first date), Pittsburgh, and Camden Yards in Baltimore. We are going to be seeing Tampa and Miami on this trip to Florida! One of our days in Disney will be spent driving to Tampa and enjoying a Rays game. The last 3 days of our stay will be spent in Miami (after we have checked out of Disney), where we'll get to see the Marlins play!

Here is us in Cleveland for our one year anniversary last June..

And at Camden Yards in Baltimore last May..

At the moment, we are 23 and 26. I'll be 24 for our trip!

I work as an actuary at an insurance company. It's a tough job, but I love it. I have to study and take exams in order to be a credentialed actuary. These exams will probably take me through 2018-2019. Each one requires about 300-400 hours of study time, so.. I spent a good amount of time studying. In my spare time, I love to run. I also love to bake. Baking is something I have always enjoyed with my family. Running is a recent liking of mine. I ran my first half marathon with 2 of my cousins and 2 of our friends in May of last year! We ran our second one last September. I am running my 3rd half marathon in 2 weeks! This time, it is one of my cousins, our friend, and my sister. My sister will be 18 next week so this will be her first big race. I can't wait! I really hope to do a WDW half someday. Although, I'm sure in 2 weeks I will tell you I'm retired.. lol! These pictures are from my first half marathon.

Is this a fist pump of triumph.. or pure desperation!?

 

[Vernie822]

The Original Plan​

Our original plan was to leave Sunday and return the following Sunday. At this time (March), Justin was working overnights. His schedule was something like 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 2 off, etc., so he could essentially take 2 or 3 vacation days to get an entire week off. He doesn't get as many vacation days as I do. I work a typical 9-5, so it's pretty easy for me to just submit my days off and get approved with no problems. He finally got his vacation approved and we were set for September 14-21. I could always add a vacation day on before/after if I needed extra time to decompress after or to prepare beforehand.

We got to looking at the resorts. My family had stayed at POR and CSR for a split stay the year that I wasn't invited. I joke and say I wasn't invited, but really, I wasn't! Hahaha. Can you tell I'm SALTY!? Both of my parents had high remarks about both resorts. We knew we wanted to stay moderate.

A coworker of mine had just stayed at either Beach Club or Boardwalk. For us, that was a bit out of our price range, but we could afford a moderate for 4 nights, so we were torn between CSR, POR, POFQ, and CBR. I read nothing but amazing things about POR and CSR, so we were stuck between those two. Eventually, I decided enough was enough and I was going to go ahead with POR!!!

Our original plan was to..
* Fly into Tampa on Sunday, 9/14. Pick up a rental car. Enjoy the beach, go to a Tampa Rays game on Monday, 9/15. So we'd spend 2 nights in Tampa.
* Drive to Disney on Tuesday, 9/16, check in and go to AK.
* Wednesday, 9/17: DHS
* Thursday, 9/18: MK
* Friday, 9/19: Epcot for F&W
* Saturday, 9/20: Get another rental car, check out of WDW, drive to Miami. Go to Miami game Saturday. Fly out of Miami on Sunday.

It all seemed like a great plan. We called Disney, booked 4 nights at POR in a standard room, and we thought we'd wait on plant tickets to scope out the prices.

We live in a city that's in between Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo. So any of those 3 airports is about 1 1/2 - 2 hours from us. Score! We could find the best price at any of those and go with it. My parents live in Pittsburgh, so we thought it would be convenient to drive there, leave my car there, and have my parents drop us off/pick us up from the airport. And, at the current rates, it was about $10-15/pp cheaper to fly out of PIT. Score!

Meanwhile.. I was having second thoughts! Flying into/out of 2 cities, with 3 hotel reservations, 2 rental cars, 2 stadiums, 4 WDW parks, all in 8 days!? I was all of a sudden really, really nervous. Thus… I pitched this idea to Justin. Can we fly into MCO? Drive to Tampa and back in one day, and just add 2 nights at WDW in a value, without parks or anything?! I got a "Whatever you want, babe, it's fine with me.." I wanted to see Tampa, but since it's only about an hour away, we could get up early, see the beach, go to the game, and come back all in the same day. So…. I added 2 nights at AoA in a Little Mermaid room. We'd stay there Sunday and Monday, and then check into POR. :good vibes:good vibes I have a tiny bit of anxiety when it comes to vacationing. I'm really, really good with my money and with budgeting and saving. So is Justin. But, I always get nervous when I'm on vacation that something will happen and I won't have the money with me. So I always panic! I would hate to spend the money to get down there, and not get to do everything we want to do. Especially since Justin has never been there.

We called WDW to have them assist us in booking flights. But, since we planned to fly into MCO and out of MIA after our Disney stay, they told us that was a no-go and that they only serviced flights in and out of MCO within the time you were staying at Disney. I had no idea at the time that it wasn't true, so I just said ok, and figured we'd find our own flights on Expedia.

Since booking with Disney wasn't an option (we thought), we booked through Expedia. Picked our seats and everything. Only problem? They were saying both flights were full. At 6 months out, we had no idea if this was true or not, but we doubted it. We tried twice with no success. Just to be cautious, we checked the credit card. Yep, of course, we had no reservation, yet it charged the card twice. After an hour on the phone with an Expedia rep who didn't understand why we were irritated, we decided to just try to call and book flights through WDW. Even if we had to fly out of MCO instead of MIA.

At this point, I was SOOO annoyed with Expedia! I needed some Pixie dust in my life because Manuel from Expedia was not cutting it. Thankfully, an amazingly sweet CM told us that we COULD fly into Disney and out of Miami!

And, we got our flights for a decent price at a great time. THANK YOUUU to our fabulous CM!! I swear her name was Barbie, but I really don't think that was it, lol.

Obviously, I was ecstatic, but not 100% at ease. When I was younger, my mom always insisted that we do 1 1/2 days at MK. There was so much to see! So many things to do and take in. I didn't want to rush through it and I REALLY wanted to go to MNSSHP. I had convinced myself it wasn't worth it to pay to get into the park and then addd a $50 or $60 ticket (x2) to the day. So, I did what any Disney lover would do. Booked a 3rd night at AoA! We'll go to MNSSHP on Sunday, and Tampa Monday. At this time, I didn't know what MNSSHP dates were, I was just going off of historical dates.. so let's hope there's one on Sunday 9/14!

Our tentative final plan!
* AoA - Sat 9/13 - Tues 9/16
* POR - Tues 9/16 - Sat 9/20
* Miami - Sat 9/20 - Mon 9/22



OH YEAH.. The dining plan! I love food. We both do. But, Justin doesn't have a very adventurous palate. At all. He hates: seafood, vegetables, anything organic (organic means gross to him.. LOL), most fruits, and basically anything really healthy. Doesn't like weird sauces, either. What I'd give to look like that and eat whatever I want! He always tells me "Just eat your rabbit food" because I love vegetables lol. He'll try new things now and again. I once fed him turkey bacon, so there's a start. He does work out pretty heavily.. he's more into weights where I do cardio with a little weights.. so he is always hungry!!

We decided to go with the DDP. As I'd mentioned, I get anxious when it comes to money on vacations. I knew for a fact that I'd be 100% better off (even if it meant we lost a little bit of $$) by using the DDP. I liked the 'all inclusive' idea of being able to order what you want, and eat where you want, without thinking of the price. Plus - with as much as he eats, I knew we'd be spending at least $120/day on 2+ meals, snacks, and probably a hot dog or something for him throughout the day. Plus, my coworker who was recently back from a trip, raved about the dining plan and the snacks. I was taught to bring snacks and pack a lunch, so this was something new to us. But, we figured we'd live it up!

 

[Vernie822]

At this point, I had booked everything and was kind of at a place where I could take a deep breath.. ahhh.. but only for 5 seconds, BECAUSE I HAD TO FIGURE OUT WHAT DAYS I WAS GOING TO GO TO EACH PARK AND WHERE WE WERE GOING TO EAT!! YAY!!

My park dates weren't too hard to determine. Thursday had EMH at MK until 10 PM. I know some say avoid EMH, but I didn't really mind, because it was the only day with EMH at night that we'd be there. Friday was Food&Wine at Epcot, which was a must-do. So that left Tuesday and Wednesday to be interchanged between AK and DHS. I loved DHS growing up, but I don't think it appeals to me as much anymore. Epcot and MK are by far my favorites.

I decided on the following:
Saturday 9/13: Arrive at 2:22 PM, dinner and shopping in DTD
Sunday 9/14: More DTD or pool time, MNSSHP.
Monday 9/15: Get up relatively early, Tampa for beach and baseball game.
Tuesday 9/16: AK
Wednesday 9/17: DHS w/ Fantasmic!
Thursday 9/18: MK day
Friday 9/19: Epcot for F&W.
Saturday 9/20 - Monday 9/22: Miami! We could always sleep in a little (for me, sleeping in is any time after 7-7:30 haha), and then drive to Miami.

At this point, I felt A-OKAY! Now for ADR's to match our schedule...

 

[Vernie822]

Ah, finally. Getting close to ADR day was about 2-3 weeks ago. I was so nervous!! I called WDW the night before just to make sure that I was doing it all correctly. The CM told me 'Log on at midnight, you can make ADRs then. Your day is tomorrow, so log on tonight.' So… I stayed up, until 1 am, trying to get it to work. Looked all over Disboards.. Yep, I could try at 6 AM, not midnight. Darn it. I was so mad - off to bed I went for 4 1/2 hours! I was back up at 5:45 to try and do it on my computer.

Since I had a split stay, and the first part of my stay didn't have any tickets or DDP, I couldn't get on to make reservations for the part of my stay where I actually had the DDP. I hadn't even thought of where we'd eat at DTD on our first night, so I wasn't making a reservation right away. I ended up hurrying to get ready for work so that I could call at 7. With less than 5 hours of sleep, I was frustrated, but my CM helped me SOOO much. I was able to get..

Tuesday: Dinner at Ohana
Wednesday: No ADR's here.. DHS day.
Thursday: CP breakfast slightly after RD.. Hoping to get in beforehand. Dinner at BOG!
Friday: Dinner at Teppan Edo.

Teppan Edo wasn't really my decision, but I asked Justin where he would want to eat. He scanned the menus and said 'HIBACHI!' It's our favorite "special dinner" place when we're celebrating something. I told him of course we could eat there - but I was nervous because I wanted to try lots of places for F&W. Although, I can start that as early as 11 and our ADR is for a late dinner.

 

[Vernie822]

For the most part, I'm somewhat tech-savvy. I work in Excel all day long (not that working in Excel makes me tech savvy hahaha), so I'm constantly throwing numbers in there and making comparisons. It wasn't until I began looking at prices that I realized, "Hey, our trip falls into the usual free dining period!" That solidified our choice to go with the dining plan. CMs all said that if we find that the free dining promo is offered, we can call and add it if our room qualifies. Just my personal opinion, but I don't like the way Disney shows your balance. I think they should show.. "Rooms: Total of $$, Tickets, $$, Dining $$," as opposed to "You owe us $$$$$." Just my thoughts? Maybe it's the number nerd in me. Oh well.

Then, I worried (as per usual) that maybe our room wouldn't be qualified. I was looking online one day, and POR was sold out for standard rooms, which is what we had at the time. I began thinking.. we DEFINITELY need a back up plan! So I started to compare numbers for different resorts, including Pop Century or one of the All Stars, just in case I couldn't snag a moderate with FD. At this point if we get FD, it will save us about $625.

But then I got to thinking.. g

Since we'll only be in Tampa for that Monday, and we're still doing MNSSHP, why don't we….. UN-SPLIT our stay, and stay for a whole WEEK at POR! (Or one of our backups).. Then, we can either add on an extra park day for like $20/person, AND get the free dining for those 3 days! I found that if I cancelled my AOA ressie and added 3 days to POR or another moderate, I would still be saving about $500. So, about $100-125 less than if I kept the POR reservation and AoA one as is but added free dining. So I'd be saving $500 and getting a nicer hotel, plus 3 days worth of food for free.

Justin does not understand all of this - in fact, I think he just said "Cool, sounds like a plan," because he heard the phrase "3 extra days worth of food."

So I obviously began planning like a mad woman AGAIN…

And I came upon the notion that, if we did have 7 TS meals instead of 4.. I can make 3 new ADRs! Free dining or not, we'll be going, but we'll have 4 nights of ADRs instead of 7 if we don't get FD.



Here is my new proposed schedule…

Saturday.. MK is open until 10 PM. We arrive at 2:22, and we'd move our Ohana reservation to this day. Currently we have one for 8:25, I'd like to get it for closer to 6:30 or 7 so we can go into MK after!
Sunday: Was our MNSSHP day, but obviously I was thinking - how would we be out until 12 AM, then get up early to go to Tampa!? We will switch our days around. DHS is open until 9:30 PM. AK during the day, Boma for dinner, then DHS for Fantasmic!
Monday: Still our Tampa day.
Tuesday: Would now be our MNSSHP day! No ADR's here..
Wednesday: Epcot is open until 11 pm! Do DHS during the day for the rides we likely didn't do Sunday, then Epcot for Le Cellier for dinner. Probably wouldn't stay until 11 PM, since we have an early day Thursday.
Thursday: CP for a RD breakfast, then BOG for dinner!
Friday: Epcot for F&W and Teppan Edo!

We would be adding Boma and Le Cellier. Figured we could do QS or OOP at DTD, since Le Cellier is 2 credits. I really wanted to try Yachtsman, Narcoossee's or Le Cellier. Le Cellier just fit best with our park schedules, and I am dying to try the mushroom filet and pretzel bread!

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Hi Ashley.
You have a reader. That picture of you and Justin in Cleveland last June is a very nice picture. Love your dimples. Curious what your user name Vernie refers to.
You will love doing runDisney events. Notice I say "will" because I fully expect you will do one in the not too distant future. They are so fun. (and, of course, gives another reason for a little trip to WDW ).
I know you will have a great trip.

 

[Pylegirl]

Oh joining in!!!

 

[Vernie822]

Hi Ashley. You have a reader. That picture of you and Justin in Cleveland last June is a very nice picture. Love your dimples. Curious what your user name Vernie refers to. You will love doing runDisney events. Notice I say "will" because I fully expect you will do one in the not too distant future. They are so fun. (and, of course, gives another reason for a little trip to WDW ). I know you will have a great trip.

Thanks for joining! Yay- I have a reader

Vernie is my nickname. My middle name is LaVerne, it was my dad's mother's middle name. She went by LaVerne though. Kind of a cool namesake!

 

[MidnightParade]

Joining in!

lol, you totally have the Disney bug! Every post you add more days! Love it! POR is beautiful! You'll love it. Do you know which section you want to try and stay in?

My Le Cellier pretzel bread tip is this, ask for a side of caesar dressing with it to dip. Sooooooo yum!!

 

[LindseyLou2222]

Hi!
Joining in! Looks like you'll be there the week before us. My husband and I are also trying to make it to all the ballparks. Only made it to 5 so far! We loved PNC though!

 

[Vernie822]

Joining in!

lol, you totally have the Disney bug! Every post you add more days! Love it! POR is beautiful! You'll love it. Do you know which section you want to try and stay in?

My Le Cellier pretzel bread tip is this, ask for a side of caesar dressing with it to dip. Sooooooo yum!!

Yumm.. that sounds so good!

We have no clue where we'd like to stay at POR. We have a garden view room. Neither of us are picky with walking, being close to something, etc., but I would probably like to be close to the food court where we can refill our drink mugs, or to the bus stop.. Thanks for following

 

[Vernie822]

Hi!
Joining in! Looks like you'll be there the week before us. My husband and I are also trying to make it to all the ballparks. Only made it to 5 so far! We loved PNC though!

Thanks!! September can't get here fast enough, lol!

That's so awesome that you're also into ballparks. We just love PNC! I liked Camden Yards too.

 

[Vernie822]

Soo being that I'm sitting around waiting for Free Dining to become available, I keep switching around my ADR's and finding more restaurants I want to try. Today's find.. Via Napoli!

Originally, we had only one ADR for Wednesday. I thought we'd grab an early CS lunch at DHS, then head to Epcot for a late dinner and EMH.

Well, I've been reading dining reviews and trip reviews, and this Via Napoli has me absolutely salivating. With 7 nights of dining credits and 6 table service ADRs already (including Le Cellier), we don't have any extra credits, but we can pay OOP or switch something around.. No biggie. I just know Justin will love the pizza.

So, we had Le Cellier around 4:30, but I switched LC to 2:30 and Via Napoli for dinner at 9:15. We'll probably drink around the world a little bit, so I think Via Napoli will be a great addition.

 

[shedaisy]

Joining in.

Just started a thread myself, but it's still too far away to do much of anything except start saving for vacation. LOL!!

Love your plans so far.

And I agree with MidnightParade. The pretzel bread is awesome. One of the must do's for our meals.

 

[MidnightParade]

Yay Via Napoli! I ended up adding it myself to the plans after reading a TR and just couldn't resist the pictures of it! So yummm! Can't wait!

Garden View? Okay that could be either Magnolia Bend (mansions) section or Alligator Bayou then. A great website here for everything Port Orleans if you haven't already found it and read your way through it.

 

[mblc14]

Joining in. I ate at Via Napoli this past February and loved the pizza. Great choice.

With you guys loving baseball so much, you"ll have to come back during Spring Training some year and watch the Braves at Wide World sports complex. We didnt make it over for a game the one time we went during Spring Break, but my DW doesnt like baseball as much as you do. I bet you both would love it.


Happy Planning.