Sit down! Buckle up! & Hang On! Mickeystoontown's Gang is going to Walley World! 5/15

[lovethattink]

Welcome! Your mom and my mother sound like to stubborn women...maybe that's where we got it from.

Oh, bite your tongue!

Me stubborn, where'd you ever get an idea like that?

 

[Bridora]

I am here! I can't wait to hear about your plans for this year!

 

[visitingapril09]

Joining in from the May FB board!

 

[BamaGirl]

I loved your last trip report! I can't wait for more!!

 

[JessietheNCCowgirl]

I'm in, wouldn't miss it - even if it does associate me with a person that's had a run in with Disney security and admits to "stealing" bread.

I'm so excited for you, your vacation is getting close.

 

[Disneymaddness]

Joining in! Can't wait for more!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Get to the good stuff already! We want details!



First off, I’d like to shout a big WELCOME and THANK YOU to those of you who are here! I am overwhelmed by the number of you folks who have joined in on the fun and the fun hasn’t really even started. But, that’s not to say that pre-trip report will remain calm like it has thus far. Those who know me, know that “calm” is not a normal part of our everyday vocabulary. That is unless it’s used in a sentence like “Keep calm! I see security coming!” or “Remain calm and act innocent while I sneak this bread into my backsack!” or “Calm down, we are NOT going wreck our surrey bike!” or something along those lines.

Again, thanks for joining! I hope that you’ll feel free to post and not remain a lurker. It really is quite nice to hear your thoughts as I write about our plans.

Get to the good stuff already! We want details!

Despite the fact that I know that my boss is going to have a hissy fit and act like it’s the beginning of the end of time when I tell him of my vacation plans, we, once again, planned to be in Disney eleven days even though I, technically, only get a week of vacation. When he brings up that fact, I’ll remind him that I have taken not one, not a single, sick day in all of five years I have worked for him and have only taken off early for John’s new neurologist appointments (2 of them), a day for my brother-in-law’s funeral, and a half day when I took my mother to have eye surgery. Let’s see, I think that justifies me taking extra vacation days.

The original plan was to be in Disney for 10 days and I booked the package. But, after a week or two, I figured, hey, if the boss lived with an extra day off for the cruise last year, he can live with the extra day off this year. My plan for next year is to add yet another day and be in Disney for two whole weeks! Might as well start prepping the bossman for it now.

Many of you, if not all of you, know that our family are Caribbean Beach Resort lovers all the way. We fell in love with it the minute we arrived 8 trips ago and we’ve never looked back. But, I have looked around. As in looked at other moderate resorts but we keep going back to the CBR.

There’s a resort changers thread somewhere on the Disboards for those who have an addiction (so to speak) to changing their resorts. This year, I should have joined it. I booked the initial vacation package at Coronado Springs Resort because it had a beach and looked like it had a similar “vibe” as the CBR. But, then, I found out that there was going to be a convention during our stay and that the beach would be closed off for one of the evenings. Ugh!

We talked it over and we booked at Caribbean Beach. Why try to fix something that, obviously, ain’t broken? Right? Lacey & Jesse were invited to come along and their package was booked (for a week). After changing over, Mama decided that she would like to go with us. Yay! We booked Mama a package at the CBR too.

A little while later, Mama had surgery and some other medical expenses come up and she thought that she would have to back out of going because the cost was prohibitive. So, I started looking into other alternatives. How about a suite at Art of Animation or a suite at All Star Music? That would eliminate the need for two rooms and save money but what if Mama had to back out and John and I would be stuck paying for a suite that we didn’t need? We couldn’t just put Lacey & Jesse in our suite either because they were coming in several days after us. Darn! What to do? What to do?

One evening, I started pricing out value resorts despite the fact that we’ve never stayed in a value nor have we ever really wanted to stay in a value. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t resort snobs but I do like having a larger room and I do like covered bus stops. After looking at the new Art of Animation, it looked like the bus stops were covered and we could probably live with the smaller room. We called Mama over and had her look at the Little Mermaid rooms and she said that she was fine with whatever we decided. But, I could tell from the look in her eye, that the savings was a plus for her. The next day, I called and changed us over to Little Mermaid rooms.

Doubts lingered though and, eventually, we all decided that we’d rather stay at Caribbean Beach since we spend several days at the resort, we have a lot of stuff because I overpack and, well, we just love the CBR. This was before any special offers had come out and I felt pretty sure that there would be something for our travel dates. The switch back was made and we all let out a deep breath that we didn’t really know we were holding. Shoulda went with our gut instinct and not changed over to AoA.

This is about the time that John and I talked about adding a day to the front of our vacation. Bosses and hissy fits be damned, we were doing it! We were doing it! We were going to book another day! We were going to expand our vacation! We were going to stay where? Where? Oh, I don’t know. Where? And, we were back to looking at pictures and talking and wondering and......... I took the initiative and booked a standard room at Port Orleans Riverside so that we could try out something new. Yeah, that lasted about two weeks. Why not pay a little more for a garden view? Modifications were made.

Then, there was a very active poster on the POR thread who came back from his vacation complaining about a roach infestation and how the room was quarantined and his child got sick from food poisoning (not from POR food) and how his fiancé got sick from knowing bugs were in the rooms, etc. Oh my! I don’t want to stay there now! None of us do! Another modification was made and we were booked in a standard room at Port Orleans French Quarter. Before that modification was made, there was even talk of splurging and staying at Beach Club. Admittedly, that talk went on in my own mind but, in the end, I just couldn’t justify the cost for just one night.

So there you have it folks. We were booked at:

Changed that to:

Modified that to:

Wound up back at:

Added a day here:

And later changed it to:

http://**************.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/port-orleans-french-quarter-by-ckramer.jpg

Confused yet? Still with me?

What are our travel dates?

We are going to Walt Disney World May 21st through June 1st.

Where will we lay our heads?

We will be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter on our arrival night and will switch over to a vacation package at our home away from home, Caribbean Beach Resort.

Who is coming?

John, Hunter and I

Mama

Jesse & Lacey (their dates are May 26th to June 2nd)

What are we going to do?

Have fun!

**Up next: 820 miles? That ain’t nothin’! Don’t you dare ask “are we there yet?”!

 

[KatMark]

Well, I can't say I'm surprised by all the pictures of the different resorts since I remember when you were planning all that and you and I were messaging back and forth.

You and I are a little alike with our resorts...we found what we love and we stick with it...no reason to mess with success. As you know, ours was Coronado...well, at least until we fell in love with DVC.

What I didn't realize among all this is the fact that I will miss you by a MERE five days. I can't find a tantrum smiley, so you'll get this instead:

 

[Millie12591]

OMGoodness!! You did make some good changes, and then changed again, and again......and......again! Bless your heart.
You could have done what I did and actually booked yourself at all of them.

We will stay POP first night (we added on a day too!!) , Little Mermaid rooms for two nights (because I don't want to be in the values too long), Then 7 days in CSR (our home resort where we LOOOOOVE-just like you do with your CBR) And then we'll round it out our last two nights at POR Royal rooms. I sure hope where you read about the bugs aren't in that part of POR.

It's making me itch just thinking about it! In all reality though (this is me thinking out loud and talking myself into staying at POR-), how often do you hear of someone having bug issues in the resorts? I'm sure Disney takes care of these issues pretty darn quickly. But I could see why you would have a hard time switching when you heard this.
I've hemmed and hawed about staying at POR, and it all comes down to me just breaking out of my norm and remembering I'm trying a new place I've been wanting to try. Who knows, maybe I'll try CBR next time!

And I will say the same sentiments Ms. Kat did, I'm a bit miffed I'm missing you by four, whole, stinkin days!! One of these days we'll over lap and be there at the same time. You are actually going about the exact time we went on our last two trips in May, I switched to earlier in May so I could see the Flower and Garden Fest. this time. I missed it by two days due to my son saying he thought he wanted to go to prom....which he didn't end up going to.

 

[lovethattink]

As the old cliche says, "it's a woman's perogative to change her mind."

I'm right with you and not confused.

 

[ronnmel]

Now let's just hope with the trip so close you don't change your mind again.

 

[BMC423]

WOW! Those were some serious changes! A family suite at AoA would have been cool. I'm sorry to hear you switched over to POR FQ. I'll admit his issue with the roaches did give me something to think about for about a day. I mentioned it to DH and he asked well can't they just move us, and I was like yeah I guess. So no change for us we're just hoping for the best! See we have this we want to stay at every disney resort bucket list going so every year we try to go to a new resort. Also I'm a big lover of all things Southern and I really want to stay at one of the gorgeous mansions.

Yay for an extra day!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I need a nap after all of that switching! LOL!

Wherever you stay, it will be a fantastic trip!

 

[MrsBearcat]

Wow the tea cups don't have anything on the dizzyness all that switching causes

 

[GrammyJudy]

We are exactly where you were trying to decide where to stay. It is hard when there are abunch of people and 2-3 rooms involved. My SIL still isn't sure if he is coming or not...he may do a hunting trip in VA about the same time instead. Thus 2 or 3 rooms! And waiting to see if there will be any deals from Disney. Right now we aere planninf POFQ but the other day my DS Megan said she thout the AOA suites looked cool. And of course Jet Blue which is our prefferred airline as they have a direct flight has not posted prices beyond 10/26...we are going 11/30-12/6. I want to start planning. Of course picking ADRs will be mnay discussions also!!!!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I like your plans. I understand the back and forth on which resort to stay at too. You know you love CBR, so of course you want to be where you know you will enjoy your stay. But of course you also are curious about the other resorts. I think staying one night at POFQ will be good, get an idea of whether you like it or not, but get to stay at CBR, where you know you will be happy, the rest of the time.

 

[ddstratton]

I personally LOVE all the changes. Isn't that part of the fun of planning a Disney vacation???

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Eleven days! What an awesome vacation. I think you'll really like staying at Fort Orleans FQ. Next trip you might even do a split stay with a week at each. Do worry about changing resort reservations too much, it's definitely part of the fun.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Where is that spinning head smiley?
I guess this is close enough!

Awesome that you get a nice long trip! And you deserve the vacation days! He should give you more anyway!

 

[jenseib]

I love your long vacation, but I do have to say I am disappointed you didn't try another resort for the package part. I would love to see how you liked another place.