Pretrip - 4 Canadians Trip to the World 6/30-7/7

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hello everybody! I have been lurking on these boards since January and I have become addicted to reading peoples trip reports so I thought I would try my hand at it as well!

I have been obsessing over this trip since August 2006. One night while at work I had nothing to do so I decided that I would fool around on the internet and look at vacation destinations. I love to travel and one of my favorite things to do is to check out new places to visit and plan trips. Well this one night I thought I would price out a trip to Disney World so I went on over to the Disney website and started checking things out. I quickly become hooked and was determined that I was going to get the family to go to Disney.

A few days later my family and I were sitting around the living room after everybody got home from work and school and I randomly spit out "Let's go to Disney" Colour me suprised when they simply said "ok". I didn't have to convince them or anything! I thought they might just be humoring me and thinking that this was one of my passing whims so I said alright let's go to the bookstore and get a guidebook and so along we went and we ended up coming home with several books. All of them ended up being returned once I started reading the Unofficial Guide and realized that was the only guide book I would need.

Well two weeks later my mom and I went to our local CAA (Canadian version of AAA) office and booked our package for a stay at the CBR from June 30th - July7th.

I should probably give you the cast of characters that will be included in this trip report.

Myself/Lessa (23) - I am a Disney freak. I love all things Disney. I am the instigator and organizer of this little trip. I am the oldest child of three. I am an obsessive planner and my family thinks that I am crazy for all the plans that I have made but they will appreciate the organization once we get there and can beat the crowds. I love amusement parks and I love rides. It is tough to find something that I will not go on. I have been anxiously awaiting this return to the world for the past 10 years and I'm sure it will not disappoint. I will probably cry when I get there, I will be that happy.

Mom/Beth (44) - My mother raised me with the love of Disney. She always took my brothers and I to see the new Disney movie every year when it came out and she dragged my dad (Disney-hater ) to the parks when we were young to make sure that we had that childhood Disney experience that everybody should get to experience. She is in desperate need of this vacation and her work situation is very stressful and this week in the World should be just the thing for her. When it comes to amusement park rides she is not very adventurous and prefers to sit the thrill rides out. She is looking forward to this trip almost as much as I am but without being obsessive about it like me.

DB1/Alek (21) - Alek is the middle child. He is also the prankster and loves to joke around and often includes my younger brother Erich in his hijinks. Alek is my ride buddy since the other two members of the family are ride chickens and we will go on just about anything. He is happy that we are returning to the world as last time we were there I was still a chicken along with the rest of the family and would not go on thrill rides and so he missed out on such jewels as Space Mountain. Now he finally gets to experience it.

DB2/Erich (18) - Erich is the youngest child and will be graduating from high school the day before we leave for vacation so this trip is also a graduation celebration for him. He like our mom is a big chicken when it comes to rides. He does not show his excitement over this trip and will constantly roll his eyes at all my plans but I am sure once we get there he will get excited and fall in love with Disney (Erich reminds me of Blue's daughter Jojo if you have read that tripie, a teenager who thinks that Disney is not cool and only for little kids)


That is it for this post. I will post later with out trip details and more talk of my obsession and constant changing of plans.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I'm back!

As I said earlier we booked a week long stay at the CBR for June 30th - July 7th. Well after we had made our reservation I discovered allears.net and I began reading all the resort reviews and I began to doubt our resort choice. There were really mixed reviews and I did not want to risk staying somewhere we might not like. There were various reasons for this decision. Once I saw all the pictures of the resort and the room decor and I didn't really care for it that much. Not to mention with 4 adults it would have been a tight squeeze in that room and the beds seemed a little small. After checking all the other user reviews for the resorts I decided that I really wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. I have always wanted to stay there but I could never imagine justifying the expense. Well I talked it over with my mom and she and I decided that seeing as how this was going to be our last family vacation before we all move on and have jobs/families we should splurge and book the Lodge and make this the best vacation possible. We decided we would keep the hotel change a secret from my brothers and suprise them when we arrive. That decided the next day I went to visit our travel agent and booked a Woods View room at the Wilderness Lodge for the AAA rate.

After this change was made I began planning out our ADR's. We had not decided yet if we were going to book the Dining Plan or not. It seemed like a good value but we were not sure if we wanted to be tied down to a reservation all the time. I was going to make the ADR's anyways because I knew that if I didn't make them we would never get in to eat anywhere wheter we had the dining plan or not. Here is where I made our ADR's on January 1st at 7am exactly 180 days out from the trip.

June 30th - Whispering Canyon Cafe (We were arriving in Orlando around 5pm and we figured once we arrived at the hotel we wouldn't want to leave again)
July 1st - Le Cellier for dinner (This ADR was fitting as July 1st is Canada Day and so in a small way we would be celebrating the holiday "in Canada")
July 2nd - Wolfgang Puck Cafe for dinner (My mom is dying to try one of the famous pizzas)
July 3rd - Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose
July 4th - Dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern
July 5th - Dinner at 1900 Park Fare
July 6th - Breakfast at Chef Mickey's
July 7th- 8am breakfast at the Crystal Palace

I was very happy because I got all of the restaurants that I wanted and at the times I wanted. I considered myself very lucky because I had been reading about how difficult it is to get an ADR. I guess my advice to everybody is to make sure that you call exactly 180 days out and then you are practically guaranted the restaurant and dining time of your choice.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We have been to Disney only twice so far. Our first trip was to Disneyland way back in 1989 when we were moving to Monterey, CA. We spent 3 days at Disney. I loved it my brothers not so much. Erich was just a few months at the time so he pretty much slept through the whole thing. Alek was 3 years old on this first trip and he only spent the first day at the parks because my parents quickly realized that he was terrified of the characters. He would scream and cry anytime he was near one. So what ended up happening that first trip was that my dad stayed at the hotel for the last two days with my brothers while my mom took me to the parks. This suited us just fine as my dad hates Disney as I said earlier and my mom and I got to run around the parks and soak up as much magic as possible. Here is a picture of me at age 5 at Disneyland:



It wasn't until December 1997 that we got to go to Disney again, this time it was to Disney World. My brothers and I had been begging my dad for years to take us and finally we got him to crack. It also helped that he found out about the military hotel on Disney property that is dirt cheap (my dad loves a bargain). We were living in Virginia Beach at the time and so we decided to make a road trip of it. We took 3 weeks and stopped and visited Charleston, SC, Savannah, Georgia, Cape Canavarel, Key West, Naples, FL and finally Disney World. I have to say that christmas at Disney is absolutely beautiful. I hope that one day I get to visit in December again. This trip went much better than the first one as my brother had out grown his fear of Mickey Mouse. At this point in my life I was a chicken and would not go near a thrill ride so I never got to experience rides like Splash Mountain, Space Mountain or Tower of Terror. I am really looking forward to experiencing these rides this summer now that I have conquered my fears. Here are some pictures of us at Disney in 1997.



The only downside to the trip was that it rained or was overcast pretty much the entire time we were there. We made the best of it though and had a fantastic trip.

 

[popcenturycp07]

sounds great so far! i am subscribed and ready to hear about the rest of your pre-trip and the final trip report!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Since your there for Canada Day don't forget to wear th flag and wish all the Canadian CM you see a "Happy Canada Day from all your friends in the great White North". Oh yeah don't forget to go to the adventures's club they love Canadians there!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

popcenturycp07 - Hey there! My first subscriber! That's awesome that you get to participate in the College Program. I would have loved to do that. I had a friend two summers ago who worked on Main St for the summer as part of the college program. She loved working at Disney. She even met her fiance there. What park/job do you have there?

EastYorkDisneyFan - A fellow Canuk. We will for sure be showing our Canadian pride on the 1st. I plan on sewing a little Canadian flag onto my Baggallini like everybody up here seems to do with their backpack. At least that is the trend here at Queen's! I'm hoping to squeeze in the Adventurer's Club. It sounds like a blast! I have read about it in other peoples trip reports and it seems to be quite the experience.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

So I went onto the Delta website to check my flight itinerary to see if anything had changed and they had completely moved my flights around!! I was originally scheduled to fly out of Syracuse and arrive in Orlando at 5 with a 1hr 30 min connection in Cincinnati. Well when I logged on today they had me scheduled to leave Syracuse at 2:30 and arrive at 7 with only 25 minutes to catch a connecting flight in Atlanta! I had a mini heart attack when I saw that. I immediately picked up the phone and called Delta and fixed everything up and now I am booked on a better flight than I had been originally! Now we are on the first flight out in the morning getting into Orlando just before noon. This is great b/c now we have more time to play at Disney on arrival day! So everything worked out well and the guy I talked to at Delta was very helpful and arranged everything just how I wanted and there was no charge for the change in flight since they had messed up my original flights.

 

[Goofster57]

Looks like the "Lurking" paid off,

Great report looking forward to following along.

I really liked the old pictures from Disneyland

 

[holcomb-mania]

We've got some friends from Barrie (my DW is from there) coming down to stay with us in June. They got really good flights.

 

[popcenturycp07]

thats awesome. you're very lucky. my dad used to work for usairways and i flew free, and i rarely came in any contact with people that were actually willing to help you.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Looks like the "Lurking" paid off,

Great report looking forward to following along.

I really liked the old pictures from Disneyland

Yep! I have learned so much from these boards. I really modified my plans after joining the boards in January. I wish I had more pictures from the Disneyland trip. Back in those days my family only ever took pictures on slides and I have only been able to find a few from the trip as many have been lost or faded over time. The pictures are kinda dark as a result of being scanned from a slide but I think they have turned out fairly well.

We've got some friends from Barrie (my DW is from there) coming down to stay with us in June. They got really good flights.

It is amazing how much cheaper it is to fly from Syracuse instead of Toronto! It is a couple hundred dollars cheaper. I will fly from there all the time now.

 

[disneymoon_0307]

Loving your pre trip report. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[lazidazi07]

Loving this trip report!

 

[Marion]

Hi from the prairies! Looking forward to reading more

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

thats awesome. you're very lucky. my dad used to work for usairways and i flew free, and i rarely came in any contact with people that were actually willing to help you.

I agree, I was super lucky. I did a little happy dance when I got off the phone. The delta guy should work for Disney as he clearly has a gift for spreading the magic.

Loving your pre trip report. Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks! I am really enjoying writing this report and can't wait to get back and write all about it.

Loving this trip report!

Thanks! I'm glad that people seem to be enjoying it!

Hi from the prairies! Looking forward to reading more

Hey there! I'm always happy to here from fellow Canadians.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Well as my mini profile shows I joined the DIS boards in January. I am so glad I found these boards and they have really taught me a lot. For instance I found out about Tour Guide Mike! Before joining the boards I had my Unofficial Guide which is great for information and it even has touring plans but TGM has the last crowded parks calender and I have to say that the crowd chart is worth the small purchase price of TGM. Now that I had the knowledge of the Dis boards, TGM, and the Unofficial Guide in my hands I realized that the itinerary I had planned out for the trip was just not going to work. I spent hours pouring over all the information and here is what I have come up with.

June 30th - Arrival Day. Hang out at the hotel in the afternoon and perhaps hit up the MK in the evening for Spectromagic and Wishes depending on our energy level after the early morning and all the traveling. I really hope that I am awake enough to do this because I can't imagine a better way to start our vacation than with Wishes. I have only ever seen the video that is available on the web but it brings tears to my eyes so I can only imagine what it will be like in person. If we don't make it to the park then I will wander down to the beach and watch the Electrical Water Parade as it floats by the hotel.

July 1st - Magic Kingdom in the morning/early afternoon and then back to the hotel for swimming and then a free evening to play mini golf or perhaps go to Downtown Disney. I also have a reservation for dinner at Le Cellier tonight as it is Canada Day and being a good Canadian I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the holiday.

July 2nd - Epcot in the morning followed by an afternoon break and then off to MGM for the evening where I plan on catching the second showing of Fantasmic.

July 3rd - This is our first water park day. My youngest brother Erich loves water parks. I think he is looking forward to the water parks more than the actual amusement parks. We'll probably spend a good chunk of time here and then in the evening we are going to head over to the Magic Kingdom. They will be showing their 4th of July fireworks show tonight and tomorrow night and since everybody says to avoid the MK on the 4th I decided we should catch the fireworks tonight. Spectro also happens twice tonight which is a bonus.

July 4th - We are spending the day at the Animal Kingdom. Since we will have seen the special fireworks the night before that is not a big priority for us today. I figured the Animal Kingdom would be our best bet for avoiding the holiday crowds today as most people would probably be hitting up the other parks that have the nighttime fireworks shows. So we will spend the day here and once done with the park we will just go back to the hotel and relax at the pool for the rest of the day.

July 5th - This morning we are heading to MGM. I have scheduled the Magic Kingdom in for the evening just in case we don't make it to see Wishes on arrival day.

July 6th - Our second water park day followed by an evening at Epcot and Illuminations

July 7th - Departure Day Our flight is not until the afternoon so I have us booked for an 8am breakfast at the Crystal Palace so we can fit in one last ride on Splash Mountain and Space Mountain before we have to leave.

That is my itinerary for now. Hopefully I will not change it again as I have been driving my family crazy.

 

[lazidazi07]

I think we will be in the Magic Kingdom July 1st as well!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I think we will be in the Magic Kingdom July 1st as well!

Maybe I'll see you in the parks!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Well now you all know about my itinerary. My next tough decision is if I should rent a car or not for the week. I currently have a mid-size SUV booked from National for about $200 after taxes. I am torn about the car though. It seems as though it would be a good idea to have a car of our own as I have read that the buses from the Wilderness Lodge to the parks can take a while since they are shared with other resorts and having a car would allow us to go off property to eat if we wanted. But the car is $200 plus and I would constantly be worrying that the car would get damaged somehow and I don't want to ruin my mom's insurance since the car is going to be rented in her name since I am not yet 25 My mom says we should just buy the insurance but that would bring the price of the rental up to $350 and that just does not seem worth it to me.

The other option that I am leaning towards is just using Disney transportation. The Magical Express seems like a great service and it is free! It would save us the hassle of trying to find our way to the hotel from the airport and the toll roads. I will not use the luggage service though. I am a very nervous person and I would rather collect our bags at baggage claim that way I can be reassured that they arrived in Orlando and then just take them on the bus with us and then we would not have to wait for our bags to be delivered to our room as I have heard that can take a long time. As for the park buses I guess that would just require patience on my part. My only thing with that is that it seems that the bus rides could take up a good chunk of our day. We plan on doing mid-day breaks almost every day which would mean 4 bus trips. I have heard a bus trip could take up to 45 minutes. If that is true that would equate to 3 hours or more just riding the bus back and forth! That is 3 hours that could be better spent elsewhere.

As you can see I am very torn about what to do. I guess I just need to decide if the rental car is worth the money and if I want to risk not buying the insurance to cover any possible damage to the car. My family has very bad luck when it comes to cars and usually it is not even our fault!

If we do not get the rental car than I have decided we are going to use Garden Grocer to deliver groceries to us at the resort. I have heard that this is a great service and it would certainly save us money on food as we could have breakfast and snacks in the room and even lunch some days. I plan on getting lots of supplies to make sandwiches and such.

Any opinions on what is the best way to go with the whole rental car thing would be much appreciated as clearly I am not capable of making this decision on my own

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Well, I have decided to go with the rental car. I don't know if they have the air miles program in the States but up here we have air mile cards that we can use when buying gas/groceries and at various other stores to collect points and then exchange them for merchandise/gift cards/etc. I was checking my points today and I found out that I could trade some of them in for a $50 National gift card so I decided to trade in some points for the $50 card which really helps lower the rate of the car. I have decided not to purchase the additional insurance as my mom convinced me that the chances that we would need it are really small and not worth the extra money. I am glad that we have figured that out as it has been making me anxious for the past few days.