Well I Was Being Sarcastic But Since You Said Yes..A June 2012 Graduation Trip!!!

[disneylovin24]

HI ALLWelcome to my FIRST EVER Pre Trip Report!!!!

So, hello again! My name is Tara and I have been on the Dis for...well I honestly don't know how long off of the top of my head...and I don't post a lot. I will admit that I am mostly a lurkey becuase I don't know when my life allows for me to spend a lot of time on here and when it doesn't.

I decided to do this PTR finally because I'm sitting around my house bored on this fine Sunday afternoon.But don't think that I'll post today just because Im bored and then give up on it! I swear I have reached a point in my life now where I don't have a lot going on for awhile so I will have time for it!

I guess I should talk about the actually trip and all that now (WARNING: I like to write A LOT! I am someone who has a lot to say so if you don't like to read a lot of details and stuff this is not the PTR for you!)

Well, the trip came to be this past December when I was in WDW with my family for our annual vacation. This past December we went down for a week just because that's what we have done every year since I was 3! We stayed at SSR in a Grand Villas and it was an AMAZING trip! Honestly, one of the best trips I have ever had! It was so nice for so many reasons! For starters, the weather could not have been better, it was sunny and hot everyday. Also, more than just my immediate family got to go down which was very nice. Also, honestly it was the first trip we had without any major drama. Like nobody got into any fights, we all got along and just went along with the flow with each other. It was just a really relaxing trip overall.

So, the end of that wonderful trip was coming near when I started to realize that it could be my last trip to WDW for awhile. I'm a senior in high school right now and I'll be going off to college in the fall. Me going off to college means that most likely the once a year WDW trips will stop because of money reasons and becuase my schedule will be more hectic (even though Im hoping my parents don't think this and the trips continue!). Of course I am still hoping that the trips continue or that Ill be able to go for spring break, but still the guarentee of going to WDW that has been there since I was little, won't be there as much anymore.

As the end of the trip was also reaching the end I also started thinking about how I have never really been to WDW with anyone close to my own age. I have been with my parents, and my aunts and unlces, and my cousins, all of who are either 7+ years older than me or 10+ years younger than me! I started to realize this trip that I really would enjoy WDW with my friends there!

So on our second to last night of our trip I decided to kinda jokingly pose a question to my parents. I wanted to ask if instead of a graduation party I could bring my 3 closest friends on a trip to WDW with us in June. Now, I really did want it to happen but since I figured my parents would say no I was almost being sarcastic when I asked them. They actually really liked the idea though! Both agreed that it would probably be cheaper than a graduation party and would be more enjoyable. My moms figured that if we had a party we would not be able to enjoy it becuase we would be too busy making sure everyone else was enjoying! Simply, we are not party people...we are disney people. So, my parents had said yes to my joke of an idea, but they said that we would have to wait until we got home to talk about it in detail. Well, that was fine by me!


I think I'm going to end that first post there since I have said a lot! I hope I'll have some readers and I hope some people will enjoy it!

 

[disneylovin24]

I forgot to mention in the last post that my whole free time now thing is because high school is almost over. I only have 2 months of school left and I am pretty much done learning in most of my classes Seriously, I never have tests or homework anymore and it is boring at times! And I just had to quit my softball team because of coaching issues so I am really free for the first time in the spring ever!


Ok, so back to the actual trip stuff now!

Once we got back from WDW in December it was pretty quickly decided that the June trip would happen! The first big question after we decided that it was going to happen, was when is it going to happen? We looked at pretty much every weekend from May to June trying to find a good one.

My school had a 4 day weekend in early May but it might have interfeared with softball so it was out. Then, every other weekend until the end of June was out because my friend Jess is a year younger than the rest of us and she would have to miss school at any other time.

So, it was decided that the weekend of June 23rd would have to do becuase that was the only time Jess would not miss school. I was alittle worried at first because of heat and crowds, but I'm not so much anymore. I feel like it won't be too crowded because it's still before the 4th and I feel like we can tolerate the heat for WDW!

The next question was how long we would stay for. My idea was to go from Friday to Monday because I didn't think my dad would be able to get off work for too much longer and I didn't think my parents would allow us to go for too much longer. So, I told my dad my Friday to Monday plan and he did not like it He felt that Thursday to Tuesday would be much better!!! Ok dad, FINE BY ME! Seriously, my parents were getting more into the trip than I was!

And that is how we picked our dates out. So, our final dates were set for June 21-26!

 

[disneylovin24]

Next on our list of things to do for the trip was figure out who was coming and ok it with their parents!

When I first thought up the trip I had it in my mind that my 3 closest friends, Katrina, Jess, and Veronica, would come. This was fine by my parents but they still wanted me to think it through more.

The first thing that worried me about inviting all 3 was Veronica's parents. Veronica comes from an overprotective family and I felt like they would NEVER allow her to go While, Katrina and Jess would have no problem getting their parents to say yes.

So, in reality I had to think about going with 3 people instead of 4. It's tough to go with just 3 people because rides usually seat just 2 and all of that stuff. My parents just wanted me to think about the fact that I would probably be torn between my friends if 2 or 3 came. I knew that they were really right and it might have been too much to bring 2 or 3 friends and entertain 2 or 3 friends and all that.

So, in the end I decided it would be best to just invite Jess since she is my absolute closest friend and we have been friends for the longest time. I have been friends with Jess since my first few months at my current school and she is pretty much the closest thing I will ever have to a sister. I know that I am going to have a blast with her and we are truly going to make this a trip to remember!

I also know that for myself I made the right decision to invite just 1 friend. It would have probably been overwhelming for me with more than 1 and I feel like it will be easier to do more this way!

 

[disneylovin24]

After we established that it would be just me, my parents, and Jess going and the dates it was time to book the trip!

I think the first thing my dad booked was the rental car because that is the easiest! I think he got us just a small and simple car! I told him that I felt like we would not really need a car but he wanted one anyone and I am glad now that he decided to get one. I'm glad now that we won't have to rely on disney transportation now. Not that it's not reliable, it's just nice to have our own car to drive places when we want to and not have to wait on buses or anything else. I'm also glad that with the car we will be able to go off property to go shopping and eat! I seriously have no idea what I was thinking when I told my dad we did not need a car, the car makes everything a lot easier.

We wanted to book our flight at this point but we still couldn't because we did not know when Jess would be able to leave on the 21st. There was a chance that she might have a test that day and we would have to leave at night.

But, we could book our hotel at this point!

It has always been a dream of mine to stay at the Poly so I immediately decided that that is where we would stay in June! My parents were fine with it but it was going to cost A LOT of money! Since we are DVC members my dad would have been able to use points for 1 room, but just 1 of 2 rooms that we needed. That other room that we needed to pay for out of pocket was going to cost close to $3000 dollars! I thought that was way too crazy considering that Jess and I would probably not be in the hotel room too much anyways.

So, we decided to look into other hotel options. I love the Beach Club, but I did not want to stay there in June becuase I wanted to stay at a MK resort for transportation reasons. While we will have the car I still figure that Jess and I will be using a lot of disney transportation to go off on our own. I wanted to stay somewhere that had the monorail running to it or was close to the monorail.

The second hotel option we explored was a 2 bedroom villas at BLT. Unfortunately, all of the 2 bedroom villas were booked for our dates! So next my dad decided to look at getting 2 studios since points would cover 2 studios Well, 2 studios were open at BLT from June 21-25. We were faced with deciding whether to just give up on BLT or move our trip a day forward hoping Jess had no tests on the 20th or just cut the trip a day short. Before we made a decision, my dad discovered that WL villas had 2 studios available for all of our dates.

My family has stayed at FW numerous times and we actually own DVC at WL, but we have never stayed there! Since I love to stay at new resorts the idea really appealed to me. I actually decided pretty quickly that I wanted the 2 studios at WL villas. BLT is amazing and it would have been really nice to have stayed there again, but I wanted to be able to keep our dates of June 21-26! I think WL will be fine for us. It will still be pretty easy to get to the monorail with the boats and there is so much to do at the resort!

Honestly, in the end I knew though that I liked WL the best because my parents would not have to pay for the room out of pocket! I knew that they would have but I still didn't want to make them pay $3000 for a place to sleep for a few nights!

 

[disneylovin24]

I know that I am posting a lot to start but like I said I am bored and so much planning has already gone into this trip!

Like I said in my last post, we could not book plane tickets because we did not know what time of day on the 21st we would be leaving. Jess would not know when she had tests officially until April or May though! So, we decided we would go by the tentative test schedule that was available before that.

Well, even before that, my dad started to get really ansy about booking the tickets. He really just wanted to be able to book them already! Jess had been talking to a few of her teachers at this point and she was sure that she would have no tests on the 21st, so I told my dad he could probably go ahead and book!

The next problem that came up though was where we were going to fly out of! The closest airport to us is a hour away, but we prefer to use the airport that is 2 hours away because Jet Blue flies out of there and Jet Blue is my dad's prefered airline. My dad wasn't sure though if he wanted to drive 2 hours to an airport on this short trip though. He was also concerned about the long term parking at the Jet Blue airport too.

I really liked the flight times that Jet Blue offered though! They could get us there at 12 on the 21st and we would leave at like 2 or 3 on the 26th. I liked this because than I feel like these two days would not be wastes.

Southwest, which is what we would fly from the closer airport, did not offer as convinent times though. We would get to Orlando at like 2 in the afternoon on the 21st and then have to leave at like 10 in the morning on the 26th! I feel like that wasted those 2 days.

In the end though, my dad booked southwest becuase he liked the convinence of the closer airport. I'm pretty bummed that on our last day we have to leave so early but oh well!


Ok, I think I am seriously going to take a break for now Coming up though I still have to introduce you to everyone, tell your our ADR's, and go over our tentative plans! I really hope I pick up a few readers! Oh, I also would like to tell you about some past trips if I get a chance! And, any advice from anyone that has gone in June or stayed at WL is welcome!