Pre-trip report for February 2019

[xtinelizabeth]

Just wanted to point everyone in the direction of my pre-trip report.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/february-2019-for-this-canadian-family-of-10.3668378/

We're a family of 10 coming from Winnipeg. First time for 6 of us! Would love any advice, tips and critiques on my plans so far.

Much love from the freezing cold prairies.
Happy Monday !

 

[La Belle]

Hello! I am from Winnipeg as well.

Happy planning!!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Just took a peek at it - look like fun! We're not too far from you in Northwestern Ontario. How long of a drive is it from Wpg to Florida? Your sister and her family are very brave! lol

As for flights for your family - I think a lot of people look at allegiant out of Grand Forks for cheap flights.

Early February last year Disney had the Stay Play and Dine, which was a decent deal. It included the QS dining plan (which you could upgrade) at a value and regular dining plan at a Moderate. Also, in the fall they announced discounts for Canadian Resident tickets. So keep your eye out next fall for discounts and do the math to see which one works best for your family.

Also, if you're an Airmiles Collector, check out the thread in this section to learn how to maximize your points. You can turn that into $ for Disney, or use towards tickets, etc. With the Canadian $$ so much lower, we Canadians have to save as much money as we can when we travel to see the mouse! Check back to the Canadian section often for the latest airmiles or PC points collecting strategies!

Have fun planning!

 

[xtinelizabeth]

Just took a peek at it - look like fun! We're not too far from you in Northwestern Ontario. How long of a drive is it from Wpg to Florida? Your sister and her family are very brave! lol

As for flights for your family - I think a lot of people look at allegiant out of Grand Forks for cheap flights.

Early February last year Disney had the Stay Play and Dine, which was a decent deal. It included the QS dining plan (which you could upgrade) at a value and regular dining plan at a Moderate. Also, in the fall they announced discounts for Canadian Resident tickets. So keep your eye out next fall for discounts and do the math to see which one works best for your family.

Also, if you're an Airmiles Collector, check out the thread in this section to learn how to maximize your points. You can turn that into $ for Disney, or use towards tickets, etc. With the Canadian $$ so much lower, we Canadians have to save as much money as we can when we travel to see the mouse! Check back to the Canadian section often for the latest airmiles or PC points collecting strategies!

Have fun planning!

Thanks for the tips! Its 24 hours nonstop to drive from Winnipeg to Orlando. I tried to talk her out of it, but they just upgraded to a new 7 seater SUV so I think they want to make that purchase worth it lol. My nephew will be 1 and my niece will be 3 at the time so they're planning on doing the drive over 4 - 5 days and making frequent (long) stops so they can see more of the states on their way down.

We considered flying out the states but allegiant out of grand forks only flies to Sanford. There's no ME from the Sanford airport so with the added cost of gas to drive down to grand forks, hotel for a night + cost of shuttle from Sanford to Disney, there'd basically be no savings. Plus my kids will be 1 and 5.Thankful that my 1 year old will fly for free and really hoping my son's godfather pulls through with some westjet employee discounts. I'm disappointed that I didn't utilize my air miles card better. I have a year to try to minimize my costs. Just going to pray to the discount gods and cry over our awful dollar.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Thanks for the tips! Its 24 hours nonstop to drive from Winnipeg to Orlando. I tried to talk her out of it, but they just upgraded to a new 7 seater SUV so I think they want to make that purchase worth it lol. My nephew will be 1 and my niece will be 3 at the time so they're planning on doing the drive over 4 - 5 days and making frequent (long) stops so they can see more of the states on their way down.

We considered flying out the states but allegiant out of grand forks only flies to Sanford. There's no ME from the Sanford airport so with the added cost of gas to drive down to grand forks, hotel for a night + cost of shuttle from Sanford to Disney, there'd basically be no savings. Plus my kids will be 1 and 5.Thankful that my 1 year old will fly for free and really hoping my son's godfather pulls through with some westjet employee discounts. I'm disappointed that I didn't utilize my air miles card better. I have a year to try to minimize my costs. Just going to pray to the discount gods and cry over our awful dollar.

Sounds like a fun trip in the makings there! I'm going to second @momof2gr8kids and tell you to get yourself over to the 2 Airmiles threads that are currently very active -- you can easily get enough miles to get at least one pass to Harry-World (as my daughter and her wife called it!) by the end of this year -- current miles needed for one 2 day park-to-park ticket is just shy of 3,000 miles. Starting March 8th there is a promo that can net you at least 1250 + miles getting you 1/2 there for one ticket! Don't wait till you have enough for more than one pass -- just keep redeeming as you go.

Airmiles Alert Thread
Airmiles Mega Miles Promo Thread

 

[bankr63]

Thanks for the tips! Its 24 hours nonstop to drive from Winnipeg to Orlando. I tried to talk her out of it, but they just upgraded to a new 7 seater SUV so I think they want to make that purchase worth it lol. My nephew will be 1 and my niece will be 3 at the time so they're planning on doing the drive over 4 - 5 days and making frequent (long) stops so they can see more of the states on their way down.

I think 24 is pretty optimistic from Winnipeg. Google pegs it at 30 hours, and overall they are pretty accurate with road time. What time you make up in the fast stretches is lost in traffic slowdowns and pee stops. We generally take about the same amount of time as GMaps indicates overall. Still our trip from Eastern Ontario is about 23 hours and very doable, so 30 wouldn't be that much more. We generally drive it with only one overnight; those extra 7 hours would make me take a second overnight and do it in 3.