Two trips in a year?? Yipee!!

[txmomto1]

I'm new to this board, but I am so excited about WDW, I thought I'd join in. DH thinks I'm a bit crazy

Here's our background.

I grew up in Southern California, and have been to Disneyland a million times, and WDW around 1980, 1999 off property, and then WDW ASM January 07
DH went to WDW once when he was 8, and Disneyland around 14, and then our trip in January
DS 4 had his first trip in January 07

I've always loved to travel, and love Disney. I love planning trips, and am our friends go to for travel questions.

I was looking for something for our family to do this summer, and came across free dining in September

I did some quick calculating, and using miles, staying for 5 nights, and bringing my mom, who's never been to WDW it would be $1300

But going twice in a year??? Some people are lucky to go once in a lifetime?? So in talking it over with DH, the thing that we loved so much in January was how excited our son was. He was truly beyond excited seeing his heros, live and in person, fireworks, and being apart of it all. I know while he will always love it, that "excitement" will fade, so I want to soak it up as much as possible. Plus, I want my mom to see it. She was a single mom, and worked so hard for me, I want her to get to experience her grandson's excitement. So we are booked...

Here are the details, September 12-17th at Pop Century. We have the first flight out at 6AM and arrive a little after 11 AM.

We will spend that half day at Epcot, and have dinner at Garden Grill. I can't wait for my mom to go on Soarin'

First full day is at MK, with breakfast at Crystal Palace, we'll see all the parades, and wishes

Second day, Animal Kingdom, with breakfast at Donald's Breakfastasouras.... we will either go to MNSSH, or DD for dinner.

Third day, MGM with playhouse disney breakfast. DS will FLIP OUT over JO JO and the Little Einsteins

Fourth Day, back to MK, with dinner at Liberty Tree.

Do you see a character dining pattern???? So that's it! I'm thrilled, and am counting down the days.

Thanks for letting me share.

 

[fizz13]

Thanks for letting me share

hey you're welcome, and welcome to the DIS I totally understand about wanting your son to enjoy the excitement while it lasts. My DS5 still gets the magic and excitement but there are signs its waning, his sister, 7, has nearly lost it. Luckily I kept DS3 in reserve and he is so pshyched for december.....anyway, sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread, just can relate to what you're saying. Plans sound great so far, good start

 

[OhMari]

Welcome to the DIS.

We will spend that half day at Epcot, and have dinner at Garden Grill. I can't wait for my mom to go on Soarin'

Get there before closing of Future World 7:00 p.m., Soarin is known for it's 2 hour waits.

You have a lot of Breakfast ADR's, you may get Breakfasted out. You can use your counter service for breakfast in the morning at Pop Century Food Court. You can get a lot of food and also use snack credits for milk at your Food Court at Pop Century. I would maybe change your Crystal Palace breakfast to a later lunch time, you will still see the same characters at Crystal Palace.

 

[txmomto1]

We are doing 3 breakfasts... I found during our trip in January that we did better with our TS meal being breakfast, as DS was rested and enjoyed the experience more. Plus then we where full most of the day, and would split our CS meals. When our TS meals are at night, we are not really that hungry.. as you get so much even from CS.

I've debated whether or not we should do Epcot half day, or MGM. We did a half day at MGM last time, so I figured we should give it more time.... this might change though.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

But going twice in a year???

We started with only one trip this year - but are taking second trip too

 

[txmomto1]

I think I'm addicted to checking airfare.

When we flew in January, it was my son's first flight, so the most important thing for me was to find a non-stop flight from Austin to Orlando. SW was the only option, and I found flights for $800 for the three of us. I was ok with the price, so did not look for a lower price fare with stops.

5 months later, DS is an airline veteran, and so now it becomes about price. My addiction starts. First I check the travel websites, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline. I'm not liking what I see.

Now here is some backstory that complicates the issue a bit. DH has 24K American miles, 1K shy of the amount need to fly to MCO. I have a $235 credit on American from a ticket that went unused... a botched girls trip to Palm Springs in March. So obviously, I'd like to use American, but at this point, they are close to $400.... So even with my credit, needing to buy 1K miles for DH $120, and DS ticket, we'd be spending close to $800. Based on January's trip, and the credit, and miles this does not seem like a deal.

So my addiction starts. I check the airline websites a lot... um... hourly??? Not a lot of change. Then things get a shake up. Delta comes out of bankruptcy. I've never flown Delta, but I don't care. They offer roundtrip, to MCO, getting in a little after 12PM for $178.00 PP, that's a good deal. But ugh, I've got this silly voucher, that I'll lose if I don't use it by November 1st. Now, I'm stressed. I decide to wait a bit and see what happens.

So my addiction continues, and is only fueled when airlines start to follow Delta, and prices begin to drop. American went from $385... to $335... to $305... to $286... to $276... I am getting excited So this means, with my credit, DS tickets, and DH miles, we will fly for around $550. So I decide to book DH mileage flight, since flight options for miles are limited. We are out at 6AM, in to MCO by 11:15. I make the decision to wait again for my flight and DS's ticket.

My addiction continues... AA holds steady at $276 for a few days, then to my horror, it goes back up to $286. This is not good. I don't deal well with this stress, and I hate to gamble. WHAT DO I DO??? I know we are still several months out, and things change all the time, but what if it goes up??? I snap! So I start to book everything. I've got to call to book my flight, then book DS online, then have to call and get us all next to one another. So we are all booked flying out at 6AM, arriving before noon, for about $570.. a good deal, and with free dining we are spending $1100 less then January, and we are paying for my mother's hotel, and park tickets.

The problem is, I'm still continuing to check the flights all the time, to see If something better comes up. It would have to be $100 PP better to change our situation, but I still have to look.

I've got to say though, I'm thinking of this as practice for our next WDW trip. It's research, so I will know more about how things work. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to pass up free dining ever.

So that's my story for now. I'll update again later with the saga of "Will DH need his gall bladder out??? and how will we rehab him, so he's ready for Disney??"