The cure for our guilt is...Another trip. finally updated 7/4/15

[m2zjj]

Hi, and welcome to my PTR. How about I start with an explanation for the title of this PTR.

My DH and I went to WDW for our honeymoon in 2004 and at the end of our trip we decided we would love to go back for our 10th anniversary. In 2008 we took our 2 year old son and in 2012 we went back with our son, our twin girls who were 2 at the time, and my niece who was 12. As our 10 anniversary got closer we decided to keep to our plan and celebrate our anniversary in WDW without the kids.

We had a blast, stayed at CR, deluxe dining plan, and had lots of relaxing meals. I don't regret not taking our kids but after we got back I started to feel a bit guilty that we had gone without them so I floated the idea of taking the kids in 2015 instead of waiting until 2016 like we had planned. He wasn't convinced and I still don't think he's completely on board but I do the budget so I'm sure if I can work it out money wise he'll agree. Let the planning and saving begin!

Coming up next The cast of characters.

 

[m2zjj]

Cast of Characters
When, Where, and How x2

 

[m2zjj]

So who will be going on this trip? This time it will be just our family, no extras tagging along, and no one left home.

My family.

First there's me, Lissa.
My first trip to WDW was my honeymoon. I'd been dreaming of going since I was a little kid but my mom never could afford it so DH made another of my dreams come true and took me there after we got married.

My DH, Keith.
Our honeymoon was technically his second trip but he always says the first trip didn't count because he only went to Epcot for a few hours.

My DS, Zach.
Zach is 8, will be 9 at the time of the trip. He is fun loving, full of energy, and has been addicted to Disney from his very first trip when he was 2 years old. He was a little upset when he found out we were going to Disney by ourselves for our anniversary trip. He knows that our plan is to go back in 2016 and he's already counting down the days to that trip.

My DD, Jessi.
Jessi is 4, will be 5 at the time of the trip. She is a bundle of energy and so much like her big brother that it's scary sometimes. She loves all things Disney, especially anything Frozen, and her favorite show at the moment is Doc Mcstuffins.

My DD, Julie.
Julie is also 4, will be 5 at the time of the trip. She's much more shy and reserved than her sister and brother. She is a total girly girl. Loves Frozen and insists on wearing her hair like Elsa for school everyday. He favorite show right now is Sophia the first.

Here is a picture from our anniversary trip in August.

Coming up next, when to go, how to get there, how long to stay, and where to stay.

 

[m2zjj]

I know I want to go, DH says if I can work it into the budget he's game so now we have a few questions to answer. When to go, where to stay, how to get there, and how long to stay?

When and the first how, how long?
All of our previous trips have been in September with one trip in late August. We don't mind the heat or a little rain and we like that the crowds are lower at that time of year. On our anniversary trip last year we missed the first MNSSHP by one day and I got to thinking that the kids would love to go to it so we're thinking about going in October this time. The dates I'm looking at right now are Oct 15th - Oct 24th with the 15th and 24th being travel days only. The down side of that is DH would have to take 7 days off work, I'd have to take 6 off, and the kids would miss 6 or 7 days of school. Because of that the trip may have to be shortened some.

Where?
Our first 3 trips were all offsite. Our honeymoon we stayed in Orlando near the airport, on the next trip with our son we stayed at a hotel near the main gate, the 3rd trip we had six people so we opted for a rental home, finally on our last trip we stayed onsite at CR which had been a dream of mine since my very first visit.
Now that I've stayed onsite I can't imagine staying offsite again but options for a family of 5 staying onsite without breaking the bank are few. It's looking like POR or CBR are going to be our cheapest options. I don't know much about either of those resorts so I'm still doing some research and trying to decide which one would be better for our family. If anyone has info or opinions on either one I'd love to hear them.

The second how, how do we get there?
We've always flown to WDW but for the dates we're looking at this time the flights are crazy expensive. We always managed to get flights for less than 300.00 RT PP, right now they are nearly 600.00 RT PP. So we are also considering driving but the thought of over 20 hours in the car each way makes me We would rent a minivan for the trip since DH doesn't want to put that many miles on ours but even with the rental, gas, meals, and a hotel it would be much cheaper than flying at those prices.
I'd much rather fly than drive even if it is more expensive so if the flights come down in price we'll fly if they don't then we'll drive.

As you can see there's still a lot we have to figure out and even thought I still have time to figure out the details I'm impatient to get things worked out so I know exactly how much I need to save up.

 

[m2zjj]

Wow talk about a neglected PTR. Life got crazy right after the new year and I forgot all about my poor PTR. However I didn't forget about my desire to go to WDW and with the crazy amount of hours I was working it was easy to put away money towards our trip. A couple things have changed since I last posted so I'll start with those.

First our dates have changed we are now going from 9/3/15-9/12/15. We decided to change dates so that the kids will miss less school and DH and I won't have to take as many vacation days because of Labor Day.
We arrive late on 9/3 and fly out early on 9/12 so other than a late dinner on arrival day and a early breakfast on departure day those 2 days will be travel days only.
Another bonus to changing our dates is that we will be there for my birthday on 9/4, my DS's birthday on 9/6 and our anniversary on 9/11.

Second we have decided that we are definitely going to fly. We normally drive to an airport either an hour away or to one 3 hrs away to get decently priced flights but when both of those were still outrageously priced I decided on a hunch to check our little local airport not expecting much because they always super expensive. I got a pleasant surprise when I was able to get RT flights for the 5 of us for under 1200.00 total. It's only 10 minutes from our house and parking is less than half what it is at the other airports so between gas and parking costs we're saving even more.

Once the flights were booked I knew we were going so it was time to decide where we were going to stay...