lsenquiz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2005
- Messages
- 2,730
I have been following this forum since 2008 but have been more of a lurker than a contributor. Recently I have gotten more involved in the contributing side and have decided to give a Trip report a shot. To prepare for that I decided to try my hand at a pre trip report first.
We have been going to Disney since our first trip in 1993. At that time, it was my myself, DH, DS6(he is now 23) and my DD2(she is now 19). My other DS who is now 6 was not even a consideration in our life plans. We stayed off site and visited the parks over the week of July 4th. It was one of the worst vacations of our lives.(if you would have asked me at the end of that first trip I would have told you we would have never been back).
The pain of that first trip eventually faded(kid of like the pain of child birth -you never forget it but convince yourself that you can do it again.) However, when we decided to return four years later I knew we had to do things differently. I was completely aware of the big mistakes we had made – staying off site and visiting at one of the busiest and hottest times of the year – and started to study to understand what other little mistakes we may have made. This second trip started my obsession with planning Disney vacations. Since then we have managed to visit at least once a year. This year we are squeezing in three trips and I think this may be the new norm for us.
Our Priorities for visiting Disney have been perfected over the years(through trial and error) to the point where I start each trip plan with the following basic criteria:
1. Lodging needs to be in one of the Epcot resorts.
2. Trip must occur during off or at least moderate peak times.
3. Trip needs to be at least 6 days in length
The rest of the plan can change from trip to trip but the three priorities above always stay the same. Thank goodness for DVC point rentals and the luxury Swan and Dolphin hotel which rents at moderate rates. My discovery of DVC point rental made it possible for us to have our first stay at Disney’s Boardwalk Villas in September of 2005 for our youngest DS’s first birthday. One stay on the boardwalk and I was hooked. I mean you can walk to Epcot and DHS and you have the magic and energy of the boardwalk at your fingertips. We absolutely love that. Since that trip we have let someone talk us out of staying in the Epcot resort area 2 times. After the last one, we swore we would never let that happen again.
We are also blessed to have a somewhat unique school schedule in the school district we live in. Our DS6(the two older ones are out of school and in college now) started school at the beginning of Aug and gets 1 week off during the third week of September, The whole week of Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, the whole week of Presidents week, the first week of April and then gets out for the summer the Friday before memorial day. We have had this schedule since 2005 when we took our first September trip to Disney. What a difference from going during summer break. The crowds were none existent.
This brings me to the third priority – at least 6 days – we do this because we like to have a down day(or 2) for each trip. We no longer try to go from morning to night every day. We go in the morning usually for rope drop, head back to the room for lunch, and then head back in the evening. Then mid trip we take a whole day off and just enjoy the resort. Unlike some of our friends we never come back from a Disney trip exhausted.
************************************************************************************
I started planning for our trip in September 2011 in November 2010. This is a requirement for us because we rent points. We like to stay in a Boardwalk 2 bedroom standard view so making the reservations 10 to 11 months in advance is a must. Then at the beginning of April I felt such a pull toward Disney that I decided to plan a trip starting with memorial weekend. My DS6 graduates from Kindergarten the Friday before memorial day so we felt that this would be a nice surprise for him. I really wanted to stay in the Epcot area but did not have high hopes that that would happen since this would be such a last minute trip. That is when I discovered the magic of the swan and dolphin. We were able to get a room at the dolphin for the same price we would pay to stay at a Disney moderate. Yeah!. Since this trip would only include DH, DS6 and myself I felt that a single hotel room would work so I made the ressies. I was so excited to be able to update my ticker with a second trip. Since then I have scheduled a third trip for the week before Thanksgiving(Dolphin again). This will require DS6 missing three days of school but since he will be in 1st grade I think it will be ok. We have never been to Disney during Christmas time and are very excited to see the lights and decoration. So, I got to update my ticker with a third trip.
For this trip report, I plan to focus on the upcoming Memorial day trip. If it all goes well, I will pick up in June with a pre-trip report for the September trip.
DS6
We have been going to Disney since our first trip in 1993. At that time, it was my myself, DH, DS6(he is now 23) and my DD2(she is now 19). My other DS who is now 6 was not even a consideration in our life plans. We stayed off site and visited the parks over the week of July 4th. It was one of the worst vacations of our lives.(if you would have asked me at the end of that first trip I would have told you we would have never been back).
The pain of that first trip eventually faded(kid of like the pain of child birth -you never forget it but convince yourself that you can do it again.) However, when we decided to return four years later I knew we had to do things differently. I was completely aware of the big mistakes we had made – staying off site and visiting at one of the busiest and hottest times of the year – and started to study to understand what other little mistakes we may have made. This second trip started my obsession with planning Disney vacations. Since then we have managed to visit at least once a year. This year we are squeezing in three trips and I think this may be the new norm for us.
Our Priorities for visiting Disney have been perfected over the years(through trial and error) to the point where I start each trip plan with the following basic criteria:
1. Lodging needs to be in one of the Epcot resorts.
2. Trip must occur during off or at least moderate peak times.
3. Trip needs to be at least 6 days in length
The rest of the plan can change from trip to trip but the three priorities above always stay the same. Thank goodness for DVC point rentals and the luxury Swan and Dolphin hotel which rents at moderate rates. My discovery of DVC point rental made it possible for us to have our first stay at Disney’s Boardwalk Villas in September of 2005 for our youngest DS’s first birthday. One stay on the boardwalk and I was hooked. I mean you can walk to Epcot and DHS and you have the magic and energy of the boardwalk at your fingertips. We absolutely love that. Since that trip we have let someone talk us out of staying in the Epcot resort area 2 times. After the last one, we swore we would never let that happen again.
We are also blessed to have a somewhat unique school schedule in the school district we live in. Our DS6(the two older ones are out of school and in college now) started school at the beginning of Aug and gets 1 week off during the third week of September, The whole week of Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, the whole week of Presidents week, the first week of April and then gets out for the summer the Friday before memorial day. We have had this schedule since 2005 when we took our first September trip to Disney. What a difference from going during summer break. The crowds were none existent.
This brings me to the third priority – at least 6 days – we do this because we like to have a down day(or 2) for each trip. We no longer try to go from morning to night every day. We go in the morning usually for rope drop, head back to the room for lunch, and then head back in the evening. Then mid trip we take a whole day off and just enjoy the resort. Unlike some of our friends we never come back from a Disney trip exhausted.
************************************************************************************
I started planning for our trip in September 2011 in November 2010. This is a requirement for us because we rent points. We like to stay in a Boardwalk 2 bedroom standard view so making the reservations 10 to 11 months in advance is a must. Then at the beginning of April I felt such a pull toward Disney that I decided to plan a trip starting with memorial weekend. My DS6 graduates from Kindergarten the Friday before memorial day so we felt that this would be a nice surprise for him. I really wanted to stay in the Epcot area but did not have high hopes that that would happen since this would be such a last minute trip. That is when I discovered the magic of the swan and dolphin. We were able to get a room at the dolphin for the same price we would pay to stay at a Disney moderate. Yeah!. Since this trip would only include DH, DS6 and myself I felt that a single hotel room would work so I made the ressies. I was so excited to be able to update my ticker with a second trip. Since then I have scheduled a third trip for the week before Thanksgiving(Dolphin again). This will require DS6 missing three days of school but since he will be in 1st grade I think it will be ok. We have never been to Disney during Christmas time and are very excited to see the lights and decoration. So, I got to update my ticker with a third trip.
For this trip report, I plan to focus on the upcoming Memorial day trip. If it all goes well, I will pick up in June with a pre-trip report for the September trip.
DS6
