PTR 2011 - Two Teachers Bound For...Disney World! - Updated 3/18

[cstorm65]

Preface

Introduction - I have enjoyed reading the reports of others who are preparing to go as well as the reports from those who have returned, so I have decided to give a go at my own PTR. I have never been much of a blogger or journal writer, but I am going to give it a go as I hope it will make the next few months pass until vacation time. Also, as a teacher, I understand the importance or writing and I know it is “good for the soul”, or so the English teachers at my high school tell me. I don’t know whether anyone is going to follow or not, but I have sure enjoyed reading other peoples posts and they have definitely helped me in planning our visit.

Introductions – My name is Jon and I am the main planner of this trip, as I have the personality of an organizer. I am 26 years old and am a high school science teacher. My favorite class to teach is Physics, and one of the greatest things I get to do is use theme park rides (especially) roller coasters to teach these great concepts of motion, energy, momentum, and rotation. We take a trip to a Six Flags amusement park each year to ride roller coasters and measure velocity, acceleration and those neat kinds of things. In addition to this, I also teach a course in Chemistry and a course in Environmental Science. I have also taught Honors Biology in past years. I am just a lover of all things science. I am also the Head Boys Track and Field Coach at our high school and Assistant Football Coach. I love teaching, coaching, and making a difference in young people’s lives. I also enjoy golfing, reading, and traveling with my beautiful wife.

The other member of the trip is my wonderful wife April. April is a school teacher in her own right as well as a head girls basketball coach. This is the first year we have both been in education, thus the title of this set of posts. April is actually the person who got me liking roller coasters, while on our honeymoon in Orlando, three years ago. Yes, this trip will kind of be like a 3rd anniversary trip for us, although not over the exact dates of our wedding. All while I was growing up I would never ride roller coasters, at least not any of the “fun” ones. On our honeymoon though April made me feel bad because she was going to have to ride on her own. She got me onto Dueling Dragons on our first day at Universal Islands of Adventure (by telling me there was only one loop…She lied!) and I have loved them ever since. She is also the kindest and most caring person I know.

About Us – We are not necessarily Disney Addicts (at least not yet), but we are what I would call theme park junkies. Any time we take a vacation it usually centers on a theme park. Neither of us has ever stayed on site at Disney World, although we have both been three times in our lifetime. Our latest visit was together in 2008, on our honeymoon. We stayed close to Universal and did that several days, but did come and tour EPCOT one day. I absolutely loved EPCOT and its science/educational value. I am very much looking forward to this again this summer. We love traveling, mainly because we get to spend time together. Now, we are going to take advantage of us both being public school teachers and getting a wonderful summer break to do the thing we love together, travel.

Thanks, if you read this. I am long winded, I apologize in advance for this, but I hope you enjoy reading about our trip.

Next Up: Chapter 1 - "Why Disney, Why Now?"

 

[bam1004]

By your ticker, we must be going at the same time!!! I am also a teacher, but pre-K is much different than high school!!!
Have fun planning and I hope you two enjoy your trip!

 

[cstorm65]

Chapter 1 – Why Disney? Why Now?

I guess the next logical question is why have we chosen Disney World? As I said in the last section we are both theme park addicts and about an vacation we go on includes some type of visit to a theme park. Our honeymoon took place in Orlando with us spending most of our time at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Because of that we have both wanted to take another trip and spend more time at Disney, as we have seen most of what there is to do at Universal.

This trip was actually berthed out of the “Blizzard 2011: State of Emergency” as it was called by one of the local news stations here. We were stuck inside for an entire week, not able to go to work due to getting 14 inches of snow along with blizzard type winds. Just a side note, I am so sick of shoveling my driveway. I spent about 4 hours getting it cleared on this storm as it was about 5 feet high at the top of the driveway. You can imagine how I must have felt when I woke up a week later and Mother Nature was laughing at me as 10 more inches were dropped and we missed another three days of school. All told we have missed 8 days of school up to this point. With that said the one week of being trapped in the house got us thinking of going somewhere warm and away from here. We searched and looked at many vacation options before kind of stumbling across a deal to stay on site at Disney. When we saw it on the computer we just kind of knew that is what we were going to do. After all it was something that we both have always wanted to do.

So that is how this trip came about. We are going to Disney because of 14 inches of snow that had us trapped in the house. I can’t think of a better thing to happen!

Next Up: Chapter 2 - We Wanted a Caribbean Vacation....What Did We Get?

 

[cstorm65]

Chapter 2 – We wanted a Caribbean Vacation…What did we get?

Well, the snow is finally out of Oklahoma and we have been able to get outside a little bit over the last week. This definitely slowed down my trip planning, although I was re-energized today after noticing we are now in double digits; 99 days until our trip.

As we were in the process of booking this vacation we were also considering a trip somewhere in the Caribbean. While we looked at Disney World resorts my wife was extremely drawn to the Caribbean Beach resort as it was very similar to other vacations we were looking at. I was happy to oblige her and booked our vacation at the Caribbean Beach Resort and we are looking forward to getting our “Caribbean Vacation” as well as a stay at Disney World at the same time. Nowhere else in the world can that happen; that is one of the special things about Disney.

Advice Needed: As I am coming to this point we are looking at ADR’s for our trip. We are considering where to eat and I would like to know what are your favorite eating spots at WDW. I already have the coveted Le Cellier booked as it is the one we want to try in the World Showcase. Other than that we are looking for good places to eat, so if you have any good ideas we are open. I lied, we actually have one other ADR at Hollywood and Vine for the Fantasmic Dinner Package one night of our stay. Please post your thoughts on restaurants in WDW.

Up Next: Chapter 3 - This shouldn't take to long to plan...........2 months and 20 itineraries later!

 

[cstorm65]

Just an aside from my PTR, if anyone is reading???

One of the best parts of having a spouse who is a school teacher like you is you get to share all of these great breaks. We decided to enjoy our spring break and come south to Dallas, TX for a few days............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................so did every other human being within 500 miles of Dallas.

No really, the Dallas area has been great we have shopped and had a lot of fun, but using our Six Flags season passes "could have" been tough. Yes I said "could have" because we were pretty smart with our time. As I sit here typing this I am looking out our 18th floor hotel window at the Six Flags Over Texas parking lot and it is at capacity, yet people are still backed up on every street trying to get into the lot. I don't know where they are going to put more cars, but I bet they keep taking their money to get in for parking.

We used two days and arrived at Six Flags for RD and ran to The Titan on the 1st day and to Batman this morning. We stayed in the parks until about Noon each day and were able to ride everything we wanted. It was nice as we exited at noon each day to see thousands of people arriving only to wait over an hour in the line just to get into the park. That is nuts! We did everything we wanted in two hours. It pays to arrive at RD. I also just looked at my ride time app on my phone and there are six different rides at Six Flags over Texas right now with a 120+ minute wait.

Moral of the story, arrive early or don't go at all!

Sorry for that aside from my PTR, I will get back on track with the Disney PTR soon with Daily Itineraries and ADR's.