PTR: A New Year's Send-off Disney Style... and the small treks along the way!

[sailorgirl922]

Now presenting:
Okay, since this is my very first PTR (yay!) I shall follow precedent and start off by introducing my cast of characters...

ME! 20-year-old student by morning, retail associate by afternoon, and by night - DISNEY FANATIC! All of this is to be changing soon, as soon as I leave for basic training (boot camp) for the Navy on 11January2011. Of course I'm terribly excited, but a bit apprehensive, too. But more on that later. In the mean time, our hero is...

DBF20, fellow Disney fan but currently away at boot camp for the Coast Guard Reserves until the fall semester when we will both (hopefully) finish our degrees in December. Partly responsible for all of this is...

DMom, a teacher at a prestigious private high school, and planner extraordinaire of all of our family's many Disney trips over the years. Not to mention...

DDad, an equally avid Disney fan and wannabe Imagineer, who supports...

DNiece7, my best friend for life, and DNephew6, our constant comic relief, who always have fun with their other aunt...

DSis23, the Belle of every ball (and she's a ballerina to boot!), who will probably be spending at least a day or two with us on the way, possibly also with...

Her DBF28 of 3.5 years, pretty much my DBIL and part of the family now.

Our background story:
DBF and I are both lovers of all things Disney, and have been to WDW multiple times with our respective families over the 3 years we've been together (FL residents, yay!) but had never gone together. I know, I know, blasphemy. Thankfully, that changed a little while ago! He joined the Coast Guard in June, and I'm leaving for the Navy in January, so of course we have to celebrate every little bit that we can while we're still physically together.

Add some pixie dust:
So one of my mom's favorite boarding school pupils (who's really more a part of our family) graduated this year, and as a thank you to her and my father, bought the two of them and my niece and nephew (who live with them) annual passes to WDW! Huge, right? We hadn't had a vacation planned, but with those lovely tickets, we had to do something (Besides many, many day trips... yay for living 2.5 hours away)! Cue weeklong trip in July for me, parents, the kids, my sister (not their mom) and her DBF. Needless to say when I told MY DBF about the trip we would take while he was gone at boot camp, he was disappointed we would be going without him. Well, since my mom was planning on getting me a MYW ticket for our July stay, I asked her if she wanted to just split the cost of my annual pass, which of course she agreed to so she didn't have to go by herself with the kids on day trips when my dad was at work. Add in a Florida resident discount, plus AAA, and things ended up working out so that I was able to get both myself and DBF annual passes without spending more than a week and a half's pay!

I kept this all a secret from DBF until a week before he was leaving for boot camp. I called him in the morning on my way back from picking up our vouchers and asked if he had any plans for the day. He happened to still be asleep, so this was pretty much our conversation:
DBF"kjdfkjn-hello?"
Me"Hey babe, did I wake you up?"
DBF"lknfjjdsmmkjb-yeah-mhgr"
Me"Oh, I'm sorry, do you want to go back to sleep?"
DBF"lskndfgrumblekjsndkj-no, i'm awake now-lkndgrumblelknc"
Me"Oh, good, then I won't have to go to Disney by myself today!"
DBF"mfh-What? Disney?!"
Me"Yeah, I just picked up our passes, but by all means go back to sleep if you're tired and don't want to go, sweetie."
DBF"I'll be at your house in 5."

Hahaha! And then he really was up and ready to go in a snap, which was a miracle, let me tell you. So we provisioned ourselves, drove down and got there in the early afternoon. We did three parks in just a little over 8 hours. Yeah. We're that good. It was our first time to Disney together and it was probably the best date we've had (go figure!), and we got home exhausted but so happy that night! He said it was definitely the best going away present ever. A few nights before he left, I proposed that we go down for a long trip for the two of us at New Year's. He said he didn't know financially if it was do-able but got very excited at the idea. So, of course, left to my own devices the past 6 weeks... almost everything is booked and I'm raring to go!

This is just the beginning of what is bound to be a long and mostly prose-filled PTR, but hopefully some others join me along the way... I love feedback, especially from those more experienced and knowledgeable than myself!

Check back to find out... Who will join us on the journey? Where will we stay and for how long? What kind of deals was I able to score?

 

[sailorgirl922]

Hmm... a decent amount of views but not a single comment! Ah well, looks like I'm going it alone for now... that is, until my darling dearest disney BF graduates from bootcamp... ON FRIDAY!!!

Yeah, I'm excited to see him after 2 entire months of only writing letters back and forth. He knows I wanted to go around New Years, but has no idea that I've already planned it all. Hmm, how shall I break the news?! Any tips or ideas, let me know!

I'm leaving for NJ in the morning and simply cannot wait to be in the same state as he is, even if I'll just be hanging out with family until we watch his graduation Friday morning. SO EXCITED!

Meanwhile, expect an update once I get back, probably not until Sunday. Also, since we have the annual passes you can possibly expect a mini-report if we decide to do a day trip Monday (highly likely). Wish me luck!

 

[sailorgirl922]

It's been a while...

So DBF has been back for a couple of weeks and we had a lovely day trip with his cousing before we all had to go back to school. We contemplated going yesterday for Labor Day but decided it would be too crowded.

My 21st birthday is coming up in two weeks! Can't wait! We're going down the following weekend and I'm so excited! I was trying for a suite online with the 40% off that they had going for passholders and FL residents, but there was absolutely no availability left at this late date. Oh well, the surprise was worth it

I did, however, find a fabulous deal from the lovely mouse owners boards, so I am renting DVC points for the first time ever, and at such a low rate that it even beats the unavailable 40% off! So we have a 1BR at SSR for the weekend, and a couple of friends will be joining us!

I'm trying to decide which places to eat (and drink), since obviously I've never had a drink at WDW, so if anyone has any ideas, just let me know!

Once my birthday trip has passed, maybe I can finally move on to writing about the excellent planning I've done for the New Year's Trip!

 

[sailorgirl922]

Gosh I love annual passes. Did anyone else go see the sneak preview of Tinkerbell: The Great Fair Rescue last weekend? I didn't get to but my parents and the kids did, and they brought me back a goodie bag and passes to see a special screening of Secretariat when I go down for my birthdayyyy so excited!

So we're spending the weekend in SSR which I absolutely adored when we went with the family, and have been telling DBF all about. He's super excited, too. We're meeting his cousin in Orlando, and one of my best friends who just so happens to be a CM at DHS

First order of business is going to be drinking my way around the world at Epcot because this is my 21ST BIRTHDAYYYY! I'm hoping to start early and take my time to avoid any *ahem* embarrassment later on. I'm really excited to have a DVC villa, too, so that we can have extra provisions in our room, which means spending less money for food in the parks!

I didn't bother to make any ADRs, because I'm hoping we won't feel like actually having a sit down dinner or lunch anywhere, we'll be too busy having an absolute blast! A couple of other friends from town are thinking of coming down either Saturday or Sunday so we'll see how big a group we get together.

Other than that, I've been finalizing my New Year's trip which happens to be 102 days away! Also, I've been thinking of going down Nov. 12-14th because that seems to be a pretty awesome weekend to be there. There's a MVMCP that Friday, it's the last weekend of F&W, and it's Festival of the Masters art show in DTD. If I can find any good deals, I will be there for sure!

After this weekend, I'll get around to actually posting my plans (so far) for New Years, including my stellar room and pretty sweet ADRs and plan of attack for the parks. Can't freaking wait!