susieh
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2005
- Messages
- 462
Pre Trip Report The Booking/Planning and Waiting!
Cast Members
Me (Sue - 47) loves Disney very organised planning is part of the holiday for me and adds to the excitement
DH (Steve - 48) nervous flyer but loves going OKW not as Disney mad as me, wants to do some other stuff this time hates planning or even talking about it!
September 2004
DH and I are going back to WDW for my brothers wedding. He and his fiancée are staying in our villa at OKW with us.
The day after we get there Hurricane Frances decides to join us and all the wonderful plans we have go out the window. 
Instead of us having 5 days to chill out before the wedding and the other guests arriving 2 days after us were stuck in our room for 2 days and then spend the rest of the time trying to find a Court House open to get their marriage licence and find out if the others are going to arrive on time (they included the brides parents and the bridesmaids). To say the least it was extremely stressful but at least the wedding went ahead as planned and everyone did arrive in time 
. The second week of our holiday was also spoiled by the threat of Hurricane Ivan stopping us getting home. 
November 2004
We decide to go back to WDW in August 2006 with friends who we went with in 2001.
On that occasion there were 9 of us (me, DH, DS17, DSs friend, DS19, Friends (H&W), their daughters 15 and 17). We had an absolutely fabulous trip and we hope that we will again the next time. In August 2006 there will be 5 of us (me, DH, friends (H&W) and their daughter (who will be 18 but has special needs)).
July 2005
Our friends decide they have reached the end of the road in their marriage and they are splitting up.
So plans will have to change. They decide to go to WDW Sept 2005 as one last family trip (they can put up with each other for 2 weeks for the sake of the girls and in particular the younger daughter who doesnt really understand what is happening). We also decide to change our plans and to go in June 2006 and include a cruise in the middle of our two weeks there. 
August 2005
I book our flights with Virgin. Because we are now going out of high season the flight prices are cheaper and because there are only two of us this time that makes it less too! So we decided to treat ourselves and book to fly Upper Class!
Once the flights are confirmed I phone MS and book a 1 bed villa at OKW for us well have so much space we wont know ourselves!
Next thing is to add the cruise. Despite DH not being a Disney fan he agrees to go on the 3 night Disney Cruise - fortunately he doesnt ask how much it is compared to the other cruise lines so I book that for the middle weekend of our trip.
When we went in Sept 2004 we did Discovery Cove and we loved it. We agree to go again but this time to do the Trainer for the Day package. So this is booked and added for the week after the cruise.
October 2005
From reading the forums I realise that we will need to hand over our passports for the whole time we are on the Disney Cruise. I know DH will NOT do that
So after much discussion (during which DH also realised how much more a Disney cruise costs than a RCCL cruise) I cancel and rebook with RCCL. DH very reluctantly agrees that if we get there and they will only allow us on board if we handover our passports he will do so (but we have one email and 2 phone calls saying we can keep them). 
December 2005
Made our ADRs for the first week were there. Now its starting to feel more real! Buy 14 day Ultimate Tickets so we can do what we want whenever we want -we love the Water Parks and this means we'll be able to go there for half a day several times and not feel like we've wasted our tickets
Ticker gets below 150 days too!!
January 2006
Add in the Dining Plan for the first week and also book the Backstage Magic and Segway Tours. Now Im running out of things to plan! But there is still the decision over which free Beauty Treatment to have at the Airport !
Updated for Feb 2006
February 2006
Added the beauty treatments at the airport and the waverunner excursions for the cruise and thought that was it. But now I find out that it is a Star Wars weekend at MGM on the 1st Sunday we are there. I'm not missing that
And after a lot of checking and rechecking park times and finally emailing Disney directly because the UK/Canada and US sites said different things I find out it is evening EMH at TK on our 1st and last Saturday's so that is a 'not to be missed' event too. Then found out Herman's Hermits will be at Epcot while we are there and I want to make sure I see them.
It's now got to the point where even I think I may have overplanned
So I decided to undo our entire itinerary except for the things we had to book. That still means we have
5 ADRs,
2 Disney tours,
DC Trainer for the Day,
Star Wars weekend,
Evening EMH at TL,
Epcot Flower Festival Concert,
3 night cruise.
I think we'll decide what goes round that lot on a daily basis or we will just feel too pressured and stressed instead of enjoying it all.
Cast Members
Me (Sue - 47) loves Disney very organised planning is part of the holiday for me and adds to the excitement
DH (Steve - 48) nervous flyer but loves going OKW not as Disney mad as me, wants to do some other stuff this time hates planning or even talking about it!
September 2004
DH and I are going back to WDW for my brothers wedding. He and his fiancée are staying in our villa at OKW with us.
The day after we get there Hurricane Frances decides to join us and all the wonderful plans we have go out the window. Instead of us having 5 days to chill out before the wedding and the other guests arriving 2 days after us were stuck in our room for 2 days and then spend the rest of the time trying to find a Court House open to get their marriage licence and find out if the others are going to arrive on time (they included the brides parents and the bridesmaids). To say the least it was extremely stressful but at least the wedding went ahead as planned and everyone did arrive in time . The second week of our holiday was also spoiled by the threat of Hurricane Ivan stopping us getting home. November 2004
We decide to go back to WDW in August 2006 with friends who we went with in 2001.
On that occasion there were 9 of us (me, DH, DS17, DSs friend, DS19, Friends (H&W), their daughters 15 and 17). We had an absolutely fabulous trip and we hope that we will again the next time. In August 2006 there will be 5 of us (me, DH, friends (H&W) and their daughter (who will be 18 but has special needs)). July 2005
Our friends decide they have reached the end of the road in their marriage and they are splitting up.
So plans will have to change. They decide to go to WDW Sept 2005 as one last family trip (they can put up with each other for 2 weeks for the sake of the girls and in particular the younger daughter who doesnt really understand what is happening). We also decide to change our plans and to go in June 2006 and include a cruise in the middle of our two weeks there. August 2005
I book our flights with Virgin. Because we are now going out of high season the flight prices are cheaper and because there are only two of us this time that makes it less too! So we decided to treat ourselves and book to fly Upper Class!
Once the flights are confirmed I phone MS and book a 1 bed villa at OKW for us well have so much space we wont know ourselves!
Next thing is to add the cruise. Despite DH not being a Disney fan he agrees to go on the 3 night Disney Cruise - fortunately he doesnt ask how much it is compared to the other cruise lines so I book that for the middle weekend of our trip.
When we went in Sept 2004 we did Discovery Cove and we loved it. We agree to go again but this time to do the Trainer for the Day package. So this is booked and added for the week after the cruise.
October 2005
From reading the forums I realise that we will need to hand over our passports for the whole time we are on the Disney Cruise. I know DH will NOT do that
So after much discussion (during which DH also realised how much more a Disney cruise costs than a RCCL cruise) I cancel and rebook with RCCL. DH very reluctantly agrees that if we get there and they will only allow us on board if we handover our passports he will do so (but we have one email and 2 phone calls saying we can keep them). December 2005
Made our ADRs for the first week were there. Now its starting to feel more real! Buy 14 day Ultimate Tickets so we can do what we want whenever we want -we love the Water Parks and this means we'll be able to go there for half a day several times and not feel like we've wasted our tickets
Ticker gets below 150 days too!! January 2006
Add in the Dining Plan for the first week and also book the Backstage Magic and Segway Tours. Now Im running out of things to plan! But there is still the decision over which free Beauty Treatment to have at the Airport !
Updated for Feb 2006
February 2006
Added the beauty treatments at the airport and the waverunner excursions for the cruise and thought that was it. But now I find out that it is a Star Wars weekend at MGM on the 1st Sunday we are there. I'm not missing that
And after a lot of checking and rechecking park times and finally emailing Disney directly because the UK/Canada and US sites said different things I find out it is evening EMH at TK on our 1st and last Saturday's so that is a 'not to be missed' event too. Then found out Herman's Hermits will be at Epcot while we are there and I want to make sure I see them.It's now got to the point where even I think I may have overplanned
So I decided to undo our entire itinerary except for the things we had to book. That still means we have
5 ADRs,
2 Disney tours,
DC Trainer for the Day,
Star Wars weekend,
Evening EMH at TL,
Epcot Flower Festival Concert,
3 night cruise.
I think we'll decide what goes round that lot on a daily basis or we will just feel too pressured and stressed instead of enjoying it all.
Great planning, sorry about you missing the 
