The Disney Commandos Last Minute, Planned for a Year Trip

[Minnesota]

The Disney Commandos Last Minute, Planned for a Year Trip
Pre-Trip Report

If that title isn’t confusing enough, read on to find out what’s happened so far!
Who: Me (Amanda) and My Best Friend for 13 years Sara
When: September 4-8
Where: Port Orleans Riverside
This is my 10th trip to WDW and Saras 8th!

We began planning this trip about the time we got home from our last one in August of 2007. We had gone for my birthday and almost immediately started planning 2008 as WDW has so far been an annual thing for us since 1999. We got a little more serious when we discovered my college semester doesn’t start until the 11th of September 2008 and that we could actually go during really low crowds and slightly less oppressive heat. We began scheduling and plotting, planning and coordinating. Then we came to June and looked at booking it. Unfortunately Sara hit some harder times and couldn’t afford to pay the booking payments at that time but knew she would be able to go. By the time July rolled around Sara had the money to pay the bookings, but I had to fork out for tuition and books and car repair and didn’t have enough to pay the booking fees at that point. The next thing we knew it was August and every discount code had disappeared. We waited a little while longer then decided to just pay the full price. Then our travel agent was a SAINT and found some discount even veterans like us couldn’t find and saved us about $100!!! Kudos to Dana!!!

Through all of this we were also trying to book airfare. People kept telling me I should book airfare when I found it for 274 to Orlando from Minneapolis but I wanted to wait for Sara. She flies from Denver and we wanted to arrive at about the same time so we waited. Then airfare dropped to 254 and people told me I HAD to buy it, but I uneasily waited. Then for a while I couldn’t pay for it so I stopped looking at it. When we both had the money for airfare… It had DROPPED even MORE! We were able to book for less than 200 per person including elite service! At this point all we had was the airfare but we knew we got there for CHEAP.

Eventually (today) we both had the money for the bookings and special events so we went on a Disney Shopping Spree and still got pretty much everything we wanted. We booked the magic your way package with park hopper and dining at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort. We had wanted French Quarter but Riverside was our second choice. We also decided that we wanted to go to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We have both been there before, me 3 times and Sara 2, but we love it so much that we just had to do it again. This year we also discovered we will be there during the Night of Joy Concerts. Both of us enjoy Christian music so we really wanted to do this as we have never done it before and some of the bands playing are our favorites, well worth the $45!

Now we have almost exactly 2 weeks to finish planning, purchase last minute items, and pack it all in 1 suitcase, no problem man! Kids, don’t try this on your own. I have no idea how people can even attempt WDW without planning. Check back in September for the trip report.

Also if you're in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area and looking for an aweson travel agent send me a PM for Dana's info. She has done our last two trips which is a feat dealing with the fact Sara and I don't live in the same time zone much less the same state!

Minnesota

 

[Minnesota]

The Disney Commandos Last Minute, Planned for a Year Trip – Day 1

For the trip specifics check out the pre trip report at: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1930735

Well our trip this year starts out in Denver, CO. Yes really, Denver where Sara flew out of On Sept 3 to come home to Minneapolis. She spent the day with her family then we got together that night and I stayed at her home so we could go right to the airport in the morning instead of picking one of us up. We were up until about midnight when we realized we were going to have to get up at 4:15am to get to the airport on time. Usually we don’t arrive at the airport as far ahead of our flight as we did this trip, but then again usually the Republican National Convention isn’t in Minneapolis and of course we had planned our flight out the same day as most of the convention.

4:15 am came really, really early and we got up, dressed and threw everything into the car and headed off to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. There was no one to drive us so we left the car at a park and ride then too a shuttle to the actual airport, it was the first time I had ever done that, (I know I get excited about the weirdest things on occasion). Once at the airport we checked in through the first class/elite desk which was a breeze and learned our gate was one of the farthest possible from the check in desks. It wasn’t really a big deal as we had plenty of time we though we were going to spend in security. We breezed right through security after I remembered the tiara on my head was going to cause problems in the metal detector  and sent it through with my carryon and bag of medications (gotta love traveling with asthma and allergies)

We then trekked out to our gate and read books while waiting for our plane. It was really fun boarding with the first class/elite passengers, again I know I get excited over the weirdest things, but I had never gotten to do that before. We had really awesome seats on the plane but it really didn’t matter much as the two of us slept the entire flight to Orlando. It was really helpful the 3rd person in our row moved rows so there was an empty seat between Sara and I so we could spread out more.

Landing in Orlando was perfect timing as we got off the plane and walked right onto one of their mini monorails and into the main terminal. From there we walked right up to the DME desk and then right on to the DME bus which left the airport about 5 minutes later! It was almost like we really were princesses traveling to WDW! The only “bad” thing about our bus trip was Port Orleans Riverside was the last stop and the stop with the most people but our luck was still with us as we were pulled out of line with a few other people to check in at different desks rather than just the check in windows which all were crowded.

At check in we found out we had gotten our room request and was going to be living in probably the most perfect building in the entire resort. Okay that could just be my opinion but it was a pretty darn handy room location. We were located on the second floor of building 85, Magnolia Terrace, on the back side across the parking lot from the east depot, but instead of a view of the parking lot we had a corner room so one window looked over a garden and the other had a walk way and just a bit of the parking lot. It was only a short walk to the main pool and the main building and very close to the bus stop. Also at check in we received the packages we had mailed to each other a head of time, it was just like Christmas getting exactly what we wanted and presents to boot!

Our room wasn’t ready for us yet so we got our park stuff, checked out carryons with luggage services and then walked right onto the bus headed for Epcot, again exactly where we wanted to go! Once at Epcot we wanted to ride the referbed Spaceship Earth but there was a huge line (well, huge for that ride) so instead we went to get our free Disney Visa photo while we still looked somewhat human coming into the heat and humidity of Florida and only had to wait for 2 families ahead of us. We then headed to lunch at the land but rode the ride before eating as there was no wait for that either.

Following lunch we went back to Spaceship Earth and rode it twice (so each of us could pick the options at the end) then caught a friendship to the swan where we walked to Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf. It was then that I realized I had forgotten the voucher for a free round of golf but after so many years of skipping golf we decided to just pay for it rather than go all the way back to the resort, get the carryon out of storage, get the voucher, restore the carry on and go all the way back.

Fantasia Gardens was a lot of fun. It was a typical mini golf course but all with that special touch of Disney. The holes are all themed after the music in Fantasia and nearly every last one has Disney special effects. One hole, the brooms with the buckets are triggered to spray water over you as you unknowingly walk by them but they aren’t triggered by everyone walking by. They got me but not Sara so you never know! It took us about 45 minutes and cost just over $12 per adult for one round. I did pretty well which was slightly surprising since I haven’t golfed at all since about 2004 but in the end Sara and I were about even. In the beginning her ball was really weird, no matter what she did it would not roll in a straight line. I even tried it and no luck. That ball ended up in one of the ponds by accident but her next ball behaved a lot better. Lesson, be careful of balls that come bouncing out of the rack at you, they aren’t picking you, they’re just weird 

After Fantasia Gardens we were supposed to go to Spoodles for dinner but both of us were so full from lunch we decided to cancel the ADR and go back to the resort to get our room and open our packages before Illuminations. We caught a Friendship back to Epcot then bussed back to our resort where our room was awaiting. Sara likes a cold room so she turned the thermostat down as low as it would go then gave me her travel blanket while we were there. After our packages we headed back to Epcot and right up to the fence line for Illuminations. Following Illuminations we attempted to get to the Magic Kingdom in 13 minutes flat for Spectromagic but it took us 25 so we missed the parade. We did however get pretty good seats for Wishes.

We had thought that the Magic Kingdom had EMH that night but they had switched it to the morning so after wishes we piled out of the park with a billion other people, okay maybe not that many, but we were in line for our resort bus for over an hour at which point we realized that it probably would have been faster to go to any resort, hop a bus or boat to DTD then boat back to Port Orleans but by the time we figured that trick out, we were at the head of the line. In the long run it might not have been faster but at least it would seem like we were making progress in something other than inches.

By the time we made it back to our room it was as if we had stayed for EMH! Being we had been going for over 20 hours straight with only a light nap on the plane we called for our luggage then headed right for bed. And so ended Day 1 in WDW… stay tuned for Day 2

Minnesota

 

[teruterubouzu]

This was a fun start! I'm looking forward to reading the rest.