PTR – Mickeyd’s Disney Fantasy and Wine and Dine ½ Marathon adventure

[mickeyd78]

Just booked our 2015 WDW trip (well, parts of it anyway). So excited!

Background
Since completing the Dopey Challenge in January, I have been keen to do another runDisney race. My wife has agreed to run the Wine and Dine Half Marathon in Nov 2015 with me as goal to get her strength back following the births our two delightful children (now 3 and 1). We have also wanted to do a Disney cruise for some time. We did our first cruise on our honeymoon – and have since cruise a total of 7 times on Royal Caribbean – but never on Disney. Our eldest will start school in 2016, so this trip will be the last big overseas trip we can do outside of school holidays for some time. With that in mind, we are going all out for our ultimate Disney trip!

Travelers

• Me
• DW
• DD (who will be 4, almost 5)
• DS (who will be 2)
• Also, my parents will join us (more on that later)

The plan

• Fly Melbourne to LAX, and stop at an airport hotel for the night
• Continue on to MCO the next day, and stay at the Hyatt MCO so we can virtually walk off the plane and into our hotel.
• 7 Night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Disney Fantasy in a Deluxe Family Oceanview Veranda stateroom.
• 21 nights at Port Orleans Riverside, including Wine and Dine ½ Marathon and the kids races
• Fly back to LAX, stay one or two nights (to break up the trip for the little ones and for last minute shopping)
• Then LAX to Melbourne

We invited my parents to come along, as they really enjoy Disney too. Also, with both of us running the Wine and Dine Half, we will need baby sitters for the kids . Much better to have Gran and Grandad than Kid’s Nite Out. I’m sure their service is great, but I think we’d be worried about the kids all night, and wouldn’t enjoy the race as much. We’d be anxious to get back to them. Maybe that would make us run faster, lol, but we want to enjoy the party afterwards too. Mum and Dad will join us for the cruise and then 9 nights at WDW. Then they will head off for another cruise on Celebrity for 11 nights, so we all have some time to ourselves.

Things I’m really looking forward to

• Trying a Disney Cruise. Fantasy looks amazing
• The Hyatt MCO offer a service to collect your bags in the morning and send them to DCL. So you leave them in your room and see them next in your stateroom on board the ship!! Sounds so easy and loving the idea of not having to cart our bags around. (Probably a silly minor thing to be excited about, but hey!)
• Enjoying an extended stay at WDW – so we can take things slow with the kids. Come back to the room for sleeps. We won’t go to the parks every day – we can just spend some time by the pool at the resort (I say this every trip, but it never happens. With 3 weeks at WDW, I’m hoping we can!)
• Running the Wine and Dine with my wife. I ran the Dopey solo, which was fun, but I think it will be better to be running with someone.
• Celebrating our 11th Wedding Anniversary (thinking V&A's)

The only thing I’m concerned about is being Disney’d out after the cruise and 3 weeks at WDW. How much Disney is too much Disney? I’m sure we’ll do some off site activities, which might break things up a bit. On the UK section I noticed that lots of Brits stay for 3 weeks, so it mustn't be too much of a problem (if you like Disney).

The cruise and the WDW stay are booked and deposits paid! Just have to organise flights when they become available and accommodation in LAX and MCO.

Happy to hear tips from anyone who has done a Disney cruise!

 

[LivingforDisney]

Sounds fantastic.
Did you book all this yourself?
I didn't know you could book the accommodation that far ahead on Disney site, will have to have look

 

[mickeyd78]

2015 package bookings came out a few weeks ago.

 

[zanzibar138]

Welcome back MickeyD

I am just about to leave for my first Disney run - can't wait!

Be sure to be at your computer ready to register as soon as registration opens for the Wine & Dine. The half marathon distances have been selling out ridiculously quickly for basically all race weekends.

Sounds like a great trip, and how wonderful that your parents are able to tag along too!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome back!

Another trip in the works?? Well done!

 

[mickeyd78]

Welcome back!

Another trip in the works?? Well done!

Yeah - we are kind of packing them in before the kids start school!

This WDW trip is the one we have had in our mind since out last family WDW visit in 2012. Stoked that we can also fit in a cruise and the Wine and Dine run (although the dates for that are not yet official, and as Zanzibar mentioned, I'll need to be up at 3am to make sure we can register! Fingers crossed)

However, my wife though 3 years between holidays was too long, so we also have a quick (2 week) Aulani trip coming up in Nov this year. We didn't think we'd be able to do that one because of the cost - but renting DVC points worked out so much cheaper and we stumbled across a Jetstar sale at the right time.