Sleepless Knight
Jedi Knight Seeking His Jedi Princess
- Joined
- May 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,978
Well, I'm now certifiably insane, though anyone who's read my other trip reports probably already knows that. 
In my pre-trip report for the August visit, I mentioned the unqiue nuttiness of attempting to plan two trips to Disneyland at the same time, and now it's official, so I begin this trip report, mostly to see just how wacky things can get as I attempt to plan two separate trips with entirely different casts and very different dynamics at the same time.
So, our story actually begins last September when my little sister got married. Upon learning that my sister's husband had never been to Disneyland at Christmas time, my mother began to think about taking a family trip to the Merriest Place on Earth so our newest family member could experience it.
So, for a few months now, we've been in what I will term "loose discussions" about going to Disneyland at Christmas time. My mother has always wanted to see the Candlelight Processional, so we targeted what we think will be the processional weekend as one option. Of course, all this depends on my brother in law being able to get the time off work. And so last week, we began serious discussions, which resulted in my brother in law asking about how much time he could take off.
Once the serious discussions began, the insanity steps in, hence the title Serenity Now, Insanity Later. When you first contemplate a trip to Disney, there are moments of excitement and serenity, but they are soon replaced by feelings of feeling like you're taking crazy pills here. And this one is no diffferent. Hence, the Seinfeldian title.
So, here's the cast and the source of the insanity.
Me. Mild mannered accountant by day, Jedi Knight in search of his Princess Aurora by night. As a toddler I could spot the mouse from 100 yards away or so according to family legend. My parents took me to Disneyland at 2 years old because I was so obsessed with Mickey and cemented it all.
My father: Also a mild mannered accountant by day who is teaching me the family business. When I was but a padawan he would read me bedtime stories from a Disney storybook. I can still recite some of them from memory.
My mother: Along with my father bears responsibility for my Disney obsession. She hung a Mickey poster in my nursery before I was even born.
My sister and brother in law: They'll be married a little over a year when this visit happens. They're the reason for the visit, so it's always revolved around their schedule.
My brother, sister in law, 3 yo nephew, and 9 mo old niece: My brother works with me and my father, hence the family business. My nephew was 7 months old when we went to WDW in 2006 and was a lot of fun. He especially enjoyed eating characters noses. Now his uncle attempts to "corrupt" the kid with Mickey & friends and the story of a brave prince fighting a dragon to save a beautiful princess.
Insanity struck last week as we attempted to tenatively determine prices for 3 nights and 2 days versus 4 nights and 3 days. We learned that packages always begin with 3 day park hoppers. Also, there's been some question as to whether or not my brother's family would come join us, so we were attempting to obtain quotes for all sorts of possible party outcomes. To further complicate matters, my annual pass means that I don't need park tickets, but will need a place to sleep(unless Disneyland allows me to sleep there every night
) so we have to factor that in. It's been crazy.
And so today, the official word came. While stopping by the office, my sister told us the dates were settled, so I busted out last week's planning sheets and began to run new scenarious including my brother's family which was unsure last week.
I've literally lost count of the number of scenarios I've run in the past week. We've looked at early December, mid-December, and post-Christmas December(which would add two more college attending siblings to the group). We've also examined the RV park vs. hotel rooms, and then had to account for savings on eating food in the RV with high gas prices vs. eating in the parks, et all and staying in a hotel. Got all that? Nope, well that's okay, neither do I since we're also considering separate hotel and park tickets since that can work out better sometimes
So, we quickly realize that even before without my AP discount, it would be considerably cheaper to stay in a hotel because of gas prices for driving the RV down to Disneyland, so we quickly began to look at hotels. We've also looked at assorted prices and thier respective proximity to Disneyland on account of wanting as short a walk as possible but knowing that one car would have parking courtesy of my AP.
In the end, we quickly realized that every park package was a considerable savings for our group. With park tickets for the non AP holders totaling $1,300+ alone, package became the only way to go. So, now we turned to AAA, Costco, and Getawaytoday.com(which I found out about from the DIS). With package quotes, we began to do hotel research to find out about the hotels that we were looking at, which made for more insanity.
So, in the end, we narrowed it down to a package from Costco and a package from Getawaytoday, with a roughly $200 difference between the two. Costco is more expensive, so we're going with Getawaytoday, right? Well, not so fast. Remember that our group will have one 3 year old and he's dictating(albeit unkowingly) our thought process.
How is the 3 year old dictating our strategy? According to GAT, the package contains one magic morning in Tomorrowland while Costco has one magic morning in Fantasyland and one magic morning in ToonTown. Considering that Tomorrowland's signature attractions are easily fastpassed except for Nemo and that Fantasyland is only empty late at night near park closing, we decide that early entry to Fantasyland is better than Tomorrowland. Once you throw in the character breakfast, preferred seating on select DCA attractons, and Disney gift cards through Costco, we decide that Costco higher price is a better deal for our circumstance.
Throughly confused yet? Well, so am I. We're going to book in the next couple of days as my brother needs to make sure his family is confirmed. So, if they don't come, than we may be back to reexamining our package choice. So as of right now, there's only one question. Am I insane yet?
In my pre-trip report for the August visit, I mentioned the unqiue nuttiness of attempting to plan two trips to Disneyland at the same time, and now it's official, so I begin this trip report, mostly to see just how wacky things can get as I attempt to plan two separate trips with entirely different casts and very different dynamics at the same time.
So, our story actually begins last September when my little sister got married. Upon learning that my sister's husband had never been to Disneyland at Christmas time, my mother began to think about taking a family trip to the Merriest Place on Earth so our newest family member could experience it.
So, for a few months now, we've been in what I will term "loose discussions" about going to Disneyland at Christmas time. My mother has always wanted to see the Candlelight Processional, so we targeted what we think will be the processional weekend as one option. Of course, all this depends on my brother in law being able to get the time off work. And so last week, we began serious discussions, which resulted in my brother in law asking about how much time he could take off.
Once the serious discussions began, the insanity steps in, hence the title Serenity Now, Insanity Later. When you first contemplate a trip to Disney, there are moments of excitement and serenity, but they are soon replaced by feelings of feeling like you're taking crazy pills here. And this one is no diffferent. Hence, the Seinfeldian title.
So, here's the cast and the source of the insanity.
Me. Mild mannered accountant by day, Jedi Knight in search of his Princess Aurora by night. As a toddler I could spot the mouse from 100 yards away or so according to family legend. My parents took me to Disneyland at 2 years old because I was so obsessed with Mickey and cemented it all.
My father: Also a mild mannered accountant by day who is teaching me the family business. When I was but a padawan he would read me bedtime stories from a Disney storybook. I can still recite some of them from memory.
My mother: Along with my father bears responsibility for my Disney obsession. She hung a Mickey poster in my nursery before I was even born.
My sister and brother in law: They'll be married a little over a year when this visit happens. They're the reason for the visit, so it's always revolved around their schedule.
My brother, sister in law, 3 yo nephew, and 9 mo old niece: My brother works with me and my father, hence the family business. My nephew was 7 months old when we went to WDW in 2006 and was a lot of fun. He especially enjoyed eating characters noses. Now his uncle attempts to "corrupt" the kid with Mickey & friends and the story of a brave prince fighting a dragon to save a beautiful princess.
Insanity struck last week as we attempted to tenatively determine prices for 3 nights and 2 days versus 4 nights and 3 days. We learned that packages always begin with 3 day park hoppers. Also, there's been some question as to whether or not my brother's family would come join us, so we were attempting to obtain quotes for all sorts of possible party outcomes. To further complicate matters, my annual pass means that I don't need park tickets, but will need a place to sleep(unless Disneyland allows me to sleep there every night
) so we have to factor that in. It's been crazy.And so today, the official word came. While stopping by the office, my sister told us the dates were settled, so I busted out last week's planning sheets and began to run new scenarious including my brother's family which was unsure last week.
I've literally lost count of the number of scenarios I've run in the past week. We've looked at early December, mid-December, and post-Christmas December(which would add two more college attending siblings to the group). We've also examined the RV park vs. hotel rooms, and then had to account for savings on eating food in the RV with high gas prices vs. eating in the parks, et all and staying in a hotel. Got all that? Nope, well that's okay, neither do I since we're also considering separate hotel and park tickets since that can work out better sometimes
So, we quickly realize that even before without my AP discount, it would be considerably cheaper to stay in a hotel because of gas prices for driving the RV down to Disneyland, so we quickly began to look at hotels. We've also looked at assorted prices and thier respective proximity to Disneyland on account of wanting as short a walk as possible but knowing that one car would have parking courtesy of my AP.
In the end, we quickly realized that every park package was a considerable savings for our group. With park tickets for the non AP holders totaling $1,300+ alone, package became the only way to go. So, now we turned to AAA, Costco, and Getawaytoday.com(which I found out about from the DIS). With package quotes, we began to do hotel research to find out about the hotels that we were looking at, which made for more insanity.
So, in the end, we narrowed it down to a package from Costco and a package from Getawaytoday, with a roughly $200 difference between the two. Costco is more expensive, so we're going with Getawaytoday, right? Well, not so fast. Remember that our group will have one 3 year old and he's dictating(albeit unkowingly) our thought process.
How is the 3 year old dictating our strategy? According to GAT, the package contains one magic morning in Tomorrowland while Costco has one magic morning in Fantasyland and one magic morning in ToonTown. Considering that Tomorrowland's signature attractions are easily fastpassed except for Nemo and that Fantasyland is only empty late at night near park closing, we decide that early entry to Fantasyland is better than Tomorrowland. Once you throw in the character breakfast, preferred seating on select DCA attractons, and Disney gift cards through Costco, we decide that Costco higher price is a better deal for our circumstance.
Throughly confused yet? Well, so am I. We're going to book in the next couple of days as my brother needs to make sure his family is confirmed. So, if they don't come, than we may be back to reexamining our package choice. So as of right now, there's only one question. Am I insane yet?
Could you use your jedi mind trick to make my boss give out another fabulous bonus this year? That would help a lot!
Hmmm...which hotel to try this time...
)
I'm sure if I had kids with me, they would've liked it. Then again, I didn't have a very good tour guide so that could have been part of the problem.
