Two Sisters finally get to go to WDW together! - TR has started!

[Flossbolna]

Hi everyone! My sister Katharina and I just booked flights for our trip to WDW, so I thought, it is a good time to start the trip report.

The Story behind this Trip
The Cast
Update 6/20: Dates
Update 6/21: Flights
Short Update 6/26: Passporter and Wiki
Update 6/28: Pondering on Resorts
Update 7/5: more thoughts on resorts and restaurants
Short Update 7/13: Less than 200 days!
Update 7/13: Shoes!
Update 7/16: Interesting Rumor
Update 7/20: Mini-TR about Köpenick
Update 7/27: Films
Update 8/2 Less than 180 days and 2010 rates
Update 8/17 We have a room!!
Update 8/18 Underwater Pictures!
Update 8/20: Floß
Update 9/9: huge shock and a few bits and pieces
Update 9/11: Restaurants - Magdalene's choices
Update 9/11: Restaurant's - Katharina's choices
Update 9/15: Disney Mail
Update 9/21: Tour and Restaurant Shortlist
Update 9/30: To upgrade or not to upgrade?
Update 10/2: January Hours
Update 10/5: The PLAN
Update 10/16: planned ADRs
Update 10/17 Disney History
Update 10/19: Disneyland 1992 Part 1
Update 10/25: Small Planning Update
Update 10/26: Disneyland 1992 Part 2
Update 10/28: ADR success!!
nodnol Update 11/1: Surprise at the Baltic Sea
Update 11/5: Disneyland 1992 Part 3
Mini Update 11/9: Berlin Wall
The "real" Berlin Wall update
Update 11/13: Back to Trip Planning: To Do List and Camera
nodnol needs some cheering up
nodnol update 11/20: Passport and Springerle
Update 11/27: two months!
Update 11/28: Heide-Park Part 1
Update 11/28: Heide-Park Part 2
Update 11/28: Heide-Park Part 3
Update 12/3: Discount Code 2.0
Update 12/4: CS with outdoor seating?
Update 12/8: Disneyland 1992 Part 4
Update 12/18: Small PTR things and Disneyland 1992 Part 5
nodnol Update 12/29: More Disney stuff from Santa / flossbolna
Update 1/4 DLP 1995 Part 1
Update 1/4 DLP 1995 Part 2
Update 1/4 Bags, T-Shirts and Shoes
Update 1/5 ADR, Photopass, Packing and the Muppets
Update 1/10 SIM Cards
Update 1/15: News about the AKL Pool
Update 1/16: Nuremberg Part 1
Update 1/16: Nuremberg Part 2
Update 1/18: Single Digit Dancing!!
Update 1/25: The day after tomorrow!
Update 1/26: Everything is packed!
We are back!
TR has started!

 

[Flossbolna]

The Story behind this Trip:

Katharina and I have travelled a lot together, starting with a trip to a summer camp when we were kids, youth groups trips to Scotland and then our big trip: six weeks to the USA after my high school graduation, visiting relatives and family friends. On that trip my aunt took us to Disneyland which had been a dream for me ever since I first heard that such a place existed! We spent two days in Disneyland and one day at Universal Studios. We loved Disneyland but did not enjoy Universal. 1992 was the year Disneyland Paris, then EuroDisney, opened and of course after having been in DL, I really wanted to go there next!! This year my sister gave me a number of guide books for EuroDisney which I read again and again! One of those was actually a EuroDisney version of the Unofficial Guide!

We finally made it EuroDisney in 1995. And returned in 1997. In 1998 I discovered Disney sites on the internet: allears.net (then it was still wdwig) and especially Brian Benett's trip report archive (became later part of mouseplanet.com). At that time they were just text, no pictures!! Katharina and I, along with a friend of Katharina's, started planning a big trip to the USA again for September 1999: three weeks through the Southeast including 5 days at WDW. Well in spring 1999 I had a new boyfriend and we ended up canceling USA and boyfriend and I went to Namibia instead while Katharina and her friend went on a holiday to Southern France. Namibia was wonderful, really a trip in a lifetime. However, it still left me feeling rather guilty towards Katharina and I will never ever cancel a trip with her!!

We returned to Disneyland Paris in 2003 with the friend who was supposed to go to WDW with us and had a lot of fun. And in 2004 I finally got to go to WDW with a friend of mine: two weeks in Florida including five days at WDW, one of those was my birthday!! Since that first trip I was really sad that Katharina was not there with me since she had been my Disney buddy for so long. After 2004 I got to see quite a lot of the Disney parks, but only one trip included Katharina, once again Disneyland Paris in 2007.

Life just did not work out in a way that it would have made sense to go on a trip to WDW together, even though we continued to travel together all the time, for example hiking with my father along the coast in Cornwall in England.

A week or so ago there suddenly came some unexpected financial luck and we decided that now it was finally the right time to go to WDW together! So my tentative solo trip in January 2010 became a trip for the two of us!! And went from tentative to definite.

 

[Flossbolna]

The Cast:

First, let me introduce the cast of this pre trip report:

Me – Magdalene – I am 37 at the moment, but will be one year older on our trip. I have actually been to WDW four times and in the last three years seem to have gotten into a yearly habit of going to WDW in the winter. January/February is a great time for travel to WDW: sunny and warm, but not too hot, manageable crowds in WDW , cold , grey and miserable at home. Home, by the way, is in Berlin, Germany, and in case you don't realize by my sometimes strange writing, I am German, so English is not my native language. So my view point will sometimes be slightly different since I am from a different cultural background.

This is me on my very first trip on Dumbo (at DLRP in 2007):

My sister Katharina – she is 34 at the moment and will turn 35 during our trip. So we get to celebrate her birthday during our trip! So far she is not on the DIS, but when I asked her wether it would be ok, to do a PTR, her reply was: Oh, then I need to sign up for an account so that I can add comments. So I guess she will appear at some point in person. Katharina lives in Berlin, too.

This is Katharina on that same Dumbo ride on an early morning at DLRP in 2007:

and because I really like this picture, this is Katharina with Remy from Ratatouille (also DLRP 2007):

As you might have guessed, Katharina and I are very close and since we both live in the same city, we actually see each other a lot. I think this will come in handy for planning this trip! I will also try to get us take a picture of the two of us together so that you can see what we look like in 2009!

This was longer than I planned, so the plans so far will be the subject of the next update.

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm joining in! I can't wait to hear more of your planning.

I think it's so great that you and your sister finally get to go to WDW together.

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm joining in! I can't wait to hear more of your planning.

I think it's so great that you and your sister finally get to go to WDW together.

Hi LL, welcome to my PTR!! I am so excited to have someone who posts here! I am glad to have you here, I am still following your TR, but did not get round to posting that much recently!

 

[TyRy]

Hi Flossbolna,

I don't think I said how much I loved you story of this trip over on the Jambo thread. I can't wait to hear all about your adventures.

Ty

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Flossbolna,

I don't think I said how much I loved you story of this trip over on the Jambo thread. I can't wait to hear all about your adventures.

Ty

Ty, thanks for the nice comment and welcome to my PTR!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Dates: January 27 to February 5, 2010

We are trying to do this trip with as little vacation days as possible without driving ourselves crazy. Flying 10 hours over the Atlantic ocean really is not the greatest fun in the world. Granted, the seats are better than on the smaller planes and you get a variety of films to watch, but still... So once we are in Orlando we don't want to leave after a few days. The first WDW trips I combined a vacation in Florida with some time at WDW. 2008 was the first only WDW trip and I stayed for 9 nights. This was a very relaxed trip. In 2009 I stayed only for 7 nights and it was definitely too short. So we are going to stay for 9 nights again.

Next thing was figuring out when? We had a few things we wanted: flying back home on a Friday, which would get us to Berlin on Saturday and give us Sunday to recover from jet lag; and being out of WDW well before presidents' weekend. So mainly, this gave us either 1/20 to 1/29 or 1/27 to 2/5 work with. As I had mentioned, Katharina's birthday is on 2/3, so the question was wether she would want to celebrate it in WDW without her DH. I think she was feeling a bit bad about leaving him behind, but he saw no problem with celebrating the birthday after her return (meaning this in a nice way that she should celebrate in WDW not saying that he did not care about it). So that's how we ended up with our dates!

So we will be leaving Berlin in winter behind:

and get to see Florida in winter:

It's not a bad deal, isn't it?

 

[Lady Lallie]

Those are great dates, it's going to be such nice weather down there for you two. I think a 9 night trip with the long traveling you have to do is good too. My dream is to do a 10 day trip someday.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Can't wait to hear more about your plans. How fun to share such a special trip with your sister!

I can imagine that your plane ride is not the most fun. I get cranky on my 2.5 hour flight!

Love the DLRP photos! For some reason the Dumbo ride looks even more fun and the background of the Remy photo is awesome!

Looking forward to more planning!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Count me in on your PTR! I am so excited that your plans are definite! You two will have a blast!!!

 

[teruterubouzu]

Hi. Great start to your trip report! My sister and I are around the same age as you and your sister. We went to WDW on a short trip last summer and had a great time. It will be fun to read about your planning!

 

[Flossbolna]

Those are great dates, it's going to be such nice weather down there for you two. I think a 9 night trip with the long traveling you have to do is good too. My dream is to do a 10 day trip someday.

I am sure you will get to go for a long trip one day! And if you do some fuzzy Disney math, you will realize that it is cheaper to stay longer!! At least the per day cost will go down...

Can't wait to hear more about your plans. How fun to share such a special trip with your sister!

I can imagine that your plane ride is not the most fun. I get cranky on my 2.5 hour flight!

Love the DLRP photos! For some reason the Dumbo ride looks even more fun and the background of the Remy photo is awesome!

Looking forward to more planning!

Welcome to my PTR Christine! I am intending to post some more DLRP pictures as I am planning to get over those long 7 months until my trip by writing about Katharina's and mine past Disney trips!

Count me in on your PTR! I am so excited that your plans are definite! You two will have a blast!!!

Welcome!! Having those flights booked makes it so much more real!!

Hi. Great start to your trip report! My sister and I are around the same age as you and your sister. We went to WDW on a short trip last summer and had a great time. It will be fun to read about your planning!

Welcome!! I remember reading your trip report and thinking that it reminded me of my sister and me and that I really want to go to Disney with her! Oh, and I love your avatar, it is so cool!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Flights

Flying transcontinental to Orlando requires a bit more of pre-planning. In the last two years my trips were spontaneous decisions triggered by airline sales. So I had really good airfares. This time we really want to fly on a certain day. I am not at all a gambler, so seeing that the normal airfares (without any discount or sale) were still rather reasonable, we decided to get the flights sorted now. Of course now I am not allowed to look at flight prices for Orlando until after our trip in case they might go down!!

We are flying with Lufthansa – strangely enough on a United Airlines ticket as it is a code share flight and United was about 100 Euros (about 140 $) cheaper. Who understands airline prices??? In order to make this not so heavy with text, here is a picture of a Lufthansa Airbus 340-600, the plane we will fly with:

We leave Berlin (TXL) on 1/28 at 9:25 am and then have a longish layover in Frankfurt (FRA). We opted for the earlier flight to Frankfurt in order to minimize the danger of missing our transcontinental flight. We depart Frankfurt at 2:15 pm and arrive at MCO at 6:50 pm, which for us will be 12:50 am!! Flight time is 10:35 hours. Going back we are leaving MCO on 2/5 at 8:45 pm and will be in Berlin at 2:30 pm (again with layover in FRA).

We wanted to have a direct flight from Europe to MCO as I am always nervous if I have to make a connection at an airport where I have to clear customs. So we will get through immigration at MCO, which will take some time, pick up our luggage, take it through customs and then take it with us on the ME! Last time it took us about 100 minutes from touchdown to hotel which I think is very good considering that we were in quite a line at immigration! So hopefully we will be in our hotel room by 8:30 pm (that's then 2:30 am for us!!), can get something small too eat (in order to avoid waking up in the middle of the night because our bodys think it's breakfast time) and have an “early night”

Flying back, I really like that we have such a late departure. ME will most likely pick us up at around 5:45 pm, so we have a lot of time on that day for having fun!

When I was booking our flights, I was not able to choose our seats, but in the confirmation I saw that we had been assigned seats 33A and 34A, which seemed very silly. These are two window seats in the rows behind each other. We actually would like to seat next to each other , especially since the Airbus 340 which we will be on has a 2-4-2 configuration. So I called Lufthansa and changed it to 30H and 30K on the way there and 31A and 31C on the way back. Which are going to be nice seats as you can see here:

By the way, the Airbus 340 is really interesting as the restrooms are one level down from where your seats are, you need to go down some stairs!

This is a picture I found of the Airbus 340 cabin:

Also Katharina has recently found out that she has problems with milk. It seems to be a food intolerance. Therefore I ordered a lactose free meal for her. Yes, you get food on those long distance flights, even two meals, one hot and one cold. I think they are afraid that people would otherwise get nasty due to hunger! It will be interesting to see what she will get for her special meal! And just because it is much more fun to post pictures, here is my meal from January 2009, I also got a multigrain bread roll with it and it was actually very tasty!

Ok, sorry for being so long winded... But I guess I have told you everything that there is to say about our flights! Next will be thoughts about where to stay!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm here!!!

I gotta go back and read....

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm sure long flights like that are not glamorous but seeing as our planes are so teeny and barely serve a snack...the fact that you get a meal and have lots of seats makes it seem glamorous.

 

[teruterubouzu]

Your flights sound good. Smart move to do a non-stop into the U.S.! I've been on two trips where my luggage didn't make it with me when I cleared customs in a city other than my final destination.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

The flight does sound glamourous. But I am nevertheless thankful for my 2.5 hour flight.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I was finally able to read this afternoon with Henry down for a nap.

I'm so excited for your trip!!!! 9 nights.

I love that your sister is coming with, it will be such a great trip! Is C not doing Disney at all this year, or might there be another trip in the makings?

Great idea on the flights too-I can't imagine clearing customs and then having to get on ANOTHER flight. It would make me nervous as well.

I love the DLRP pics! So pretty.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Hi Magdalene! I found your link on Brook's trip repot!!

I'm so excited to read about my fellow NUE'er and your travels with your schwester! Gosh, did I get that right? Funny, like another pp stated, you are almost my age and your sister is almost my sisters age! Another funny coincidence - my sister always said if she had a daughter she would name her Magdalene! She is a huge Sandra fan and I think she got the name from one of her songs. Be nice to the German weather - I do know what you mean though!

That Airbus is freakin' huge!!! Air travel sure has come a long way since I moved back here. At least the last several trip overseas have been on the Airbus versions so we could watch our own movies or watch tv - makes a huge difference flying International!

FRA is a madhouse, eh? It's better to have a long layover however, and not risk anything. You definitely made the right choices and everything sounds perfect! I booked our flights for our upcoming September trip about two weeks ago and already, 3 flights have changed. One, pretty dramatically in my opinion. We now get into MCO 2 hours LATER than we planned, but it's still the first flight for their day. What can you do?

Looking forward to hearing about your plans!

Heather