skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
- Messages
- 13,057
Let me back up a little bit - My name is Skier_Pete, I am now 47 years-old, and I have been a Disneyholic for about 11 years. Though the seeds were sown much, much earlier. Back when I was a wee lad of two my grandmother took me to this new place in Florida called DisneyWorld, and I spent much of my less than wayward youth dreaming of Tiki Birds and Captain Nemo.
But as a young adult I lost the Disney fever. Though when I met my future DW and found she had never been, we went (off-site) in 1997 as a young couple, and again in 2000. We loved our trips, but were not in a real hurry to return. In 2006 when our DD was 3.5, we decided it was time to go back. This time, we decided to stay within the Disney bubble for the first time, and we were HOOKED so bad.
Including those first trips, we are now at 13 times as WDW, 3 times at DL, a DCL trip (in 2014) and an ABD trip (also part of the 2nd DL trip in 2013) Here's the family all as one!
We are also fairly new DVC owners - bought re-sale in 2014. My intention was to take advantage of the APs and the way DVC members can bank and borrow to take mulitple trips in a 12-month window to allow those trips to be significantly cheaper. Well, so far we haven't done that - but we are about to. The plan right now is 4 trips in a single 12 month period and this PTR will cover all 4, with links to the actual TR when they start to come together. We will have a Disney AP (which we've already paid for but not activated) and the first two trips we will also have a Universal AP - bought for a trip in February 2017.
Trip 1 - DW and I solo weekend. November 4th - 8th (Trip Purple)
This one is booked - we have 4 nights in a value room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. This gives us hopefully most of 5 days with the primary goal to enjoy food and wine, but also the chance to check out Avatarland and some of the other parks. We did a similar trip in 2014 right after we bought into DVC and we really enjoyed being just the two of us. We actually COULD spend a day at Universal as well, but we haven’t decided whether we are going to do this yet.
Trip 2 – DW, DD and I – Uni/WDW trip – February 17th – 25th (Trip Blue)
Plans aren’t solid yet, but we are activating our Universal AP on February 20th of this year, so we expect to be able to take 2 or 3 days at Universal at the start of this trip. We will then transfer to WDW on our DVC/AP. This plan is to spend a little time at each park, seeing as likely we will only have maybe 6 days at Disney because of the Universal part of the trip. We are also hoping one of these two trips to bring a friend for DD along. It would probably be my first choice to do this to the OTHER trip, as that won’t involve the extra cost of Universal, but we shall see. This trip is during President’s Week, but also the end of the trip encompasses the Princess Marathon, which means not easy to get at a non-home resort. We are tentatively planning a split stay between either Wilderness Lodge Villas or Boardwalk Villas for a few nights, followed by the last few nights at AKV. Either way we will be booking this at the 11 month mark, meaning booking it in March 2016.
Trip 3 – DW, DD and I – WDW only trip – August 25th to September 2nd (Trip Red)
A hot august trip – as of right now there is no specific plan for the resort yet – though the hopes are for a split stay between a monorail resort (Bay Lake Tower or dare-to-dream at this off-season time the Grand Floridian) and then finish the trip at either Boardwalk or Beach Club. I am not expecting to stay at our home resort at all this trip, and as such was not even planning to try and book until 7 months out, so we are talking January, 2018 that we will book. This trip would be a VERY laid back trip. Lots of time spent at the resorts…early mornings and some evenings in the parks.
Trip 4 – DW and I and hopefully another couple – possible dates Oct 13th – 17th (Trip Green)
One thing we dreamed of when we bought into DVC is to eventually have enough points to bring friends along and share our good fortune. We are hoping to have enough points leftover at the end of this adventure to get TWO rooms at AKV – hopefully value rooms, but even if we have to standard rooms – and invite another couple to come along with us. We have the couple in mind, and have mentioned it in passing to them, but will have to see as the trip starts to approach. The idea here again is to focus on Food and Wine, with some nice meals as well. The trick is even with the free room, it’s not cheap for them to come down to Disney for 4 nights, and so we still need to find someone willing to come along. This is something we would essentially have to book at the 11 month mark, so we are looking at actually booking this trip in November of 2017, so BEFORE Trip 3.
If we can pull this all off – there’s a good chance that we would not head to Disneyworld at ALL in 2019, and possibly not again until late-2020 or early 2021. (The back of my mind has another multi trip year in 2021 for the 50th anniversary – but who plans that far ahead? WE DO!) It would also give us about 24 days on our Annual Passes, which is in the ballpark of $20 per day for park tickets.
Updates may not be that frequent here - but I promise links to all the trip reports will come through here.
But as a young adult I lost the Disney fever. Though when I met my future DW and found she had never been, we went (off-site) in 1997 as a young couple, and again in 2000. We loved our trips, but were not in a real hurry to return. In 2006 when our DD was 3.5, we decided it was time to go back. This time, we decided to stay within the Disney bubble for the first time, and we were HOOKED so bad.
Including those first trips, we are now at 13 times as WDW, 3 times at DL, a DCL trip (in 2014) and an ABD trip (also part of the 2nd DL trip in 2013) Here's the family all as one!
We are also fairly new DVC owners - bought re-sale in 2014. My intention was to take advantage of the APs and the way DVC members can bank and borrow to take mulitple trips in a 12-month window to allow those trips to be significantly cheaper. Well, so far we haven't done that - but we are about to. The plan right now is 4 trips in a single 12 month period and this PTR will cover all 4, with links to the actual TR when they start to come together. We will have a Disney AP (which we've already paid for but not activated) and the first two trips we will also have a Universal AP - bought for a trip in February 2017.
Trip 1 - DW and I solo weekend. November 4th - 8th (Trip Purple)
This one is booked - we have 4 nights in a value room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. This gives us hopefully most of 5 days with the primary goal to enjoy food and wine, but also the chance to check out Avatarland and some of the other parks. We did a similar trip in 2014 right after we bought into DVC and we really enjoyed being just the two of us. We actually COULD spend a day at Universal as well, but we haven’t decided whether we are going to do this yet.
Trip 2 – DW, DD and I – Uni/WDW trip – February 17th – 25th (Trip Blue)
Plans aren’t solid yet, but we are activating our Universal AP on February 20th of this year, so we expect to be able to take 2 or 3 days at Universal at the start of this trip. We will then transfer to WDW on our DVC/AP. This plan is to spend a little time at each park, seeing as likely we will only have maybe 6 days at Disney because of the Universal part of the trip. We are also hoping one of these two trips to bring a friend for DD along. It would probably be my first choice to do this to the OTHER trip, as that won’t involve the extra cost of Universal, but we shall see. This trip is during President’s Week, but also the end of the trip encompasses the Princess Marathon, which means not easy to get at a non-home resort. We are tentatively planning a split stay between either Wilderness Lodge Villas or Boardwalk Villas for a few nights, followed by the last few nights at AKV. Either way we will be booking this at the 11 month mark, meaning booking it in March 2016.
Trip 3 – DW, DD and I – WDW only trip – August 25th to September 2nd (Trip Red)
A hot august trip – as of right now there is no specific plan for the resort yet – though the hopes are for a split stay between a monorail resort (Bay Lake Tower or dare-to-dream at this off-season time the Grand Floridian) and then finish the trip at either Boardwalk or Beach Club. I am not expecting to stay at our home resort at all this trip, and as such was not even planning to try and book until 7 months out, so we are talking January, 2018 that we will book. This trip would be a VERY laid back trip. Lots of time spent at the resorts…early mornings and some evenings in the parks.
Trip 4 – DW and I and hopefully another couple – possible dates Oct 13th – 17th (Trip Green)
One thing we dreamed of when we bought into DVC is to eventually have enough points to bring friends along and share our good fortune. We are hoping to have enough points leftover at the end of this adventure to get TWO rooms at AKV – hopefully value rooms, but even if we have to standard rooms – and invite another couple to come along with us. We have the couple in mind, and have mentioned it in passing to them, but will have to see as the trip starts to approach. The idea here again is to focus on Food and Wine, with some nice meals as well. The trick is even with the free room, it’s not cheap for them to come down to Disney for 4 nights, and so we still need to find someone willing to come along. This is something we would essentially have to book at the 11 month mark, so we are looking at actually booking this trip in November of 2017, so BEFORE Trip 3.
If we can pull this all off – there’s a good chance that we would not head to Disneyworld at ALL in 2019, and possibly not again until late-2020 or early 2021. (The back of my mind has another multi trip year in 2021 for the 50th anniversary – but who plans that far ahead? WE DO!) It would also give us about 24 days on our Annual Passes, which is in the ballpark of $20 per day for park tickets.
Updates may not be that frequent here - but I promise links to all the trip reports will come through here.
Amazingly I am the most disney-obsessed person I know in my circle of friends, LOL. Some have not even been.
- maybe you'll end up with more planned with those APs burning holes in your pockets?)
