Whooohooo, time to start planning

[dpuck1998]

Okay, finally talked my DW into another trip. Sounds great hu, the only downside is she agreed to go for christmas 2009. The best part is however is she agreed to go for 14 nights!! This will be our longest trip ever. The early plan is to go down before christmas until new years. So I have a year and a half to plan.

Where should we stay for that long? Should we hop hotels or stay in one spot? The idea for the long trip is so we can do that parks early then do the "other" Orlando for several days. We want to do the Wine Bar after seeing it on Great Weekends on Travel Channel. Several other things we want to do outside the parks. Its never to early to brainstorm. All help and input is wanted!!

 

[Rob&Jan]

That's great but I'd keep it a secret from your son or you'll be taking the entire school with you.

 

[simonkodousek]

With a stay that long, I would definitely split it between two resorts. You also may want to consider renting DVC points to stay in a 1 bedroom or larger villa with a full kitchen and washer/dryer.

 

[dpuck1998]

With a stay that long, I would definitely split it between two resorts. You also may want to consider renting DVC points to stay in a 1 bedroom or larger villa with a full kitchen and washer/dryer.

We are actually DVC members, but we would need to rent to get enough points to pull off a lonnnngg stay like that. So far we are considering Ft. Wilderness, Old Key West, Beach Club Villas and Port Orleans Riverside.

We have even considered off site possible for part of the stay. Maybe a nice stay in Celebration or Winter Park maybe? Anyone ever stay there?

 

[lovethecastle]

Wow. Sounds like a great trip in the making.
I'll tell you what we would do. 1 week in a magic kindom resort & 1 week in an epcot resort. Who knows maybe the CR dvc will be up & running by then.
We stayed in kissimee(spellings wrong I know) once in the 80's. I just is not the same though.
Although staying in Celebation could be fun(and since I want to move to florida we could look at realestate)
Have fun planning!
_________________
Sandy

 

[Livi'sMom]

On our trip down this month we spent 2 nights at the Gaylord Palms... it was lovely.... before our onsite stay. I would consider that for a week myself!

 

[dpuck1998]

That's great but I'd keep it a secret from your son or you'll be taking the entire school with you.

 

[WaltD4Me]

We are actually DVC members, but we would need to rent to get enough points to pull off a lonnnngg stay like that. So far we are considering Ft. Wilderness, Old Key West, Beach Club Villas and Port Orleans Riverside.

We have even considered off site possible for part of the stay. Maybe a nice stay in Celebration or Winter Park maybe? Anyone ever stay there?

First.........14 days!?!? Wow, I am soooooooooooooooo jealous!
How very cool for you guys!

Personally I'd probably stay on property the whole time, but I did stay off site in Feburary and I gotta say, it was really nice. We rented a time share from someone at Marriott Grand Vistas on I-drive and it was awesome and HUGE. Just $650 for 7 nights! My SIL just happened to find it on ebay, but I've checked VRBO.com and there are some awesome deals there. I've been wanting to check out Bonnet Creek and there were several listings for it on VRBO that might be a thought. You are going to have SO much fun planning this! Congrats!

 

[crazydisneyman]

I have two words for you: annual pass.

Hey, you may as well plan two trips and use the annual pass. For 14 days, the AP is definately the better idea.

 

[dpuck1998]

I have two words for you: annual pass.

Hey, you may as well plan two trips and use the annual pass. For 14 days, the AP is definately the better idea.

APs are a must! I'll have to check what the price is for DVC members at the moment. I can buy them well in advance and maybe save the next years increase.

I should check into staying in a house possibly. That hasn't crossed my mind yet, maybe I can get Kevins place!!

 

[tinkbutt]

if I was lucky enough to go to WDW for that long I would definitely want a kitchen of some sort! save on food buying!!! Maybe if your stayin off site you might wanna look into those 89$ Universal tickets!!

 

[dpuck1998]

if I was lucky enough to go to WDW for that long I would definitely want a kitchen of some sort! save on food buying!!! Maybe if your stayin off site you might wanna look into those 89$ Universal tickets!!

Funny you should say that, I actually already bought those

I'm not sure i want to hit universal though. If I go to USF I MUST stay on site and have FOTL access.

 

[Rob&Jan]

We have done trips of that length with DVC and at first we moved around but now we like to get settled, unpack and just relax for the entire time. We find nothing worse than repacking in the middle of the trip as it tends to wipe out an entire day. Also as was mentioned in another post AP's are a must, we also use the DDE to help with meal costs. We don't use the meal plan as we find it to be to much food.
Not sure what your home resort is but we like the Beach club for its proximity to the Boardwalk, Epcot and Hollywood Studios also it has a great pool.

 

[Jubilee]

Fort Wilderness is my dream place so I have to vote for that. Especially during the holidays I would not stay off property!

2 days Epcot
2 days MK
1.5 days DHS
1.5 AK each this and DHS with the second part of the day for both days spent relaxing
1 poolside/resort day in the middle somewhere
1 day exploring other resorts
2 days downtown disney
3 days off property doing things like Old Town or Medieval Times....maybe Sea World if you *really* want to

 

[DVCsince02]

I am so there with you. My parents are giving us a Disney Cruise for Christmas this year so we are adding 7 more days to that for a total of 12 days.
Come on June 09!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

How fun!!! Christmas was crazy busy but alot of fun too!!! You will have to keep us posted with all your plans. I would love to see the candle light procesional. We are always there a week before it starts. Happy planning!!!

 

[dpuck1998]

We watched the new Travel Channel Great Weekends in Orlando and it kinda spured us to take a nice long trip. We really want to hit the wine bar, I'd love to see ICE, the foam in the street of celebration sounded very cool. I'm hoping to make the trip long enough that we can do several days of the "other" Orlando.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Hello from Michigan,

We always go for 10 to 14 days each trip. We like to stay in kissimmee. I would hate to move halfway into the trip. It seems like to much work. We are going November 21, 2009 for 14 days. We just booked a condo in Windsor hills where we stayed last year. Its so close to Disney and yet we can do lots of other things in the area. There is so much to do that we always leave thinking we could have used more time.

 

[tn4mickey]

Sounds like a great trip! I agree the wine bar looked really cool

 

[MODisFan]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I'm soooooooo jealous!

I think checking out one of Kevin and John's villas is a great idea. Plus, if you buy an annual pass, you can return to WDW within 365 days and use the DVC points you saved. As you know the points don't go as far at the holiday.

Someone in a previous post mentioned the DDE - my DH and I used this for the first time in May and saved quite a bit of money.