GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Guess what today is? The saddest day of the year. The first day back to work after a Disney trip....
In order to brighten this most dreary day we knew there was one thing to do: Start writing our Trip Report!
Welcome aboard this crazy ride. We've got 10 days of fun and excitement to cover.
As we have done in the past, we will both contribute our comments to this report, with Paul writing in Blue, and Melissa writing in Orange. We also have a ton of pictures, which are really the best part.
They are the best part, that and the stuff written in orange.
As your loving husband, I have to agree... (Really, I have no choice.) Anyway, for anyone who's new to our reports let's begin with introductions. I'm Paul, a 38 year old Mechanical Engineer and general "car guy".
I've been to WDW seven times now, with the first being a week at Fort Wilderness when I was five years old. I didn't make it back to WDW until our honeymoon, and we've shared every trip since then. My favorite park is Epcot, my favorite ride is Test Track, my favorite character is Tow Mater, and my favorite movie is Cars (followed very closely by Cars 3...) See, I am a car guy.
And I'm Melissa, I'm a mom first and second I work at my family's elevator company.
We've really grown in the past couple years and work is busier than ever. I always end up having to deal with something at work while at Disney but this year may have been one of my smoothest years yet. I love our Disney vacations and they are my favorite trip we take during the year. My favorite characters are Stitch and Perry the Platypus. My favorite park is Epcot and my favorite ride is Living with the Land.
Here's Allison, She's the "she" in our trip reports, and is just about to turn nine.
She loves Disney, especially Beauty and the Beast, and is often accompanied on trips by her sleeping companion Eeyore, who she's had since she was 1.
She's super excited to be Mary Poppins for Halloween this year and she loves to read.
And finally here's Marshall.
Despite being just two years old this was his third WDW trip, so he's a pro at it. He loves cars, trains, dinosaurs, and robots, and being crazy. He's either running full speed or passed out asleep.
Luckily he didn't get to meet the paramedics this trip.
We were again joined by our friends Jon and Brandy, who joined DVC along with us last year.
They are as big of Disney fans as we are, and were excited to head to the world with us again.
We love them to death and they put up with all of our crazy.
And we do bring the crazy, especially with the kids. Our party of eight was completed by my parents, who were making their fourth WDW trip with us.
Grandpa Jim is a retired middle school math and science teacher who loves The Seas and Test Track, and Grandma Nancy is a retired elementary teacher and librarian who loves Belle and Disney watches.
Our home for the trip was our new home resort, the Copper Creek Villas and Cabins at Wilderness Lodge, where we purchased DVC during our trip last year.
For the first part of the trip we split a two bedroom villa with Jon and Brandy then we moved to a cabin for the last three nights.
Thanks to buying points at the time we did, when we had already taken a trip, we had basically two years worth of points for this time, so we chose to spend some of the extra to try out the cabin. We knew it was a rare opportunity, and we really wanted to see what it was like to stay in one.
We hail from Southern California about 45 minutes from Disneyland. We have spent a lot of time there and even had our wedding at the Grand Californian. People always ask why we venture to Florida when Disneyland is so close.
For us, Disneyland is home, and somewhere we can go after work or on a weekend, but we really love the longer term Disney immersion that we get at WDW.
It’s an actual vacation!
We then honeymooned at the Wilderness Lodge, when we fell in love with the resort. We love the quiet secluded feel it has despite being so close to the world’s busiest theme park.
I grew up in a log home and Wilderness Lodge is all kinds of homey for me.
Our only problem with our honeymoon trip was that a week seemed too short, so since then we have started going for nine nights, which makes it worth the trip across country.
I’m still lobbying for longer trips.
And more frequent ones...
Paul just looked at me and gave me a yeah right chuckle. Hey a girl can dream.
I should have bought a lottery ticket today.
Me too. Well this is enough gabbing let’s get on with the show!
I think that sums up the basics, and if we missed anything we can cover it along the way. We hope you'll join in and follow along as we relive our September 2018 trip to Walt Disney World. Let's get started!
In order to brighten this most dreary day we knew there was one thing to do: Start writing our Trip Report!
Welcome aboard this crazy ride. We've got 10 days of fun and excitement to cover.
As we have done in the past, we will both contribute our comments to this report, with Paul writing in Blue, and Melissa writing in Orange. We also have a ton of pictures, which are really the best part.
They are the best part, that and the stuff written in orange.
As your loving husband, I have to agree... (Really, I have no choice.) Anyway, for anyone who's new to our reports let's begin with introductions. I'm Paul, a 38 year old Mechanical Engineer and general "car guy".
I've been to WDW seven times now, with the first being a week at Fort Wilderness when I was five years old. I didn't make it back to WDW until our honeymoon, and we've shared every trip since then. My favorite park is Epcot, my favorite ride is Test Track, my favorite character is Tow Mater, and my favorite movie is Cars (followed very closely by Cars 3...) See, I am a car guy.
And I'm Melissa, I'm a mom first and second I work at my family's elevator company.
We've really grown in the past couple years and work is busier than ever. I always end up having to deal with something at work while at Disney but this year may have been one of my smoothest years yet. I love our Disney vacations and they are my favorite trip we take during the year. My favorite characters are Stitch and Perry the Platypus. My favorite park is Epcot and my favorite ride is Living with the Land.
Here's Allison, She's the "she" in our trip reports, and is just about to turn nine.
She loves Disney, especially Beauty and the Beast, and is often accompanied on trips by her sleeping companion Eeyore, who she's had since she was 1.
She's super excited to be Mary Poppins for Halloween this year and she loves to read.
And finally here's Marshall.
Despite being just two years old this was his third WDW trip, so he's a pro at it. He loves cars, trains, dinosaurs, and robots, and being crazy. He's either running full speed or passed out asleep.
Luckily he didn't get to meet the paramedics this trip.
We were again joined by our friends Jon and Brandy, who joined DVC along with us last year.
They are as big of Disney fans as we are, and were excited to head to the world with us again.
We love them to death and they put up with all of our crazy.
And we do bring the crazy, especially with the kids. Our party of eight was completed by my parents, who were making their fourth WDW trip with us.
Grandpa Jim is a retired middle school math and science teacher who loves The Seas and Test Track, and Grandma Nancy is a retired elementary teacher and librarian who loves Belle and Disney watches.
Our home for the trip was our new home resort, the Copper Creek Villas and Cabins at Wilderness Lodge, where we purchased DVC during our trip last year.
For the first part of the trip we split a two bedroom villa with Jon and Brandy then we moved to a cabin for the last three nights.
Thanks to buying points at the time we did, when we had already taken a trip, we had basically two years worth of points for this time, so we chose to spend some of the extra to try out the cabin. We knew it was a rare opportunity, and we really wanted to see what it was like to stay in one.
We hail from Southern California about 45 minutes from Disneyland. We have spent a lot of time there and even had our wedding at the Grand Californian. People always ask why we venture to Florida when Disneyland is so close.
For us, Disneyland is home, and somewhere we can go after work or on a weekend, but we really love the longer term Disney immersion that we get at WDW.
It’s an actual vacation!
We then honeymooned at the Wilderness Lodge, when we fell in love with the resort. We love the quiet secluded feel it has despite being so close to the world’s busiest theme park.
I grew up in a log home and Wilderness Lodge is all kinds of homey for me.
Our only problem with our honeymoon trip was that a week seemed too short, so since then we have started going for nine nights, which makes it worth the trip across country.
I’m still lobbying for longer trips.
And more frequent ones...
Paul just looked at me and gave me a yeah right chuckle. Hey a girl can dream.
I should have bought a lottery ticket today.
Me too. Well this is enough gabbing let’s get on with the show!
I think that sums up the basics, and if we missed anything we can cover it along the way. We hope you'll join in and follow along as we relive our September 2018 trip to Walt Disney World. Let's get started!