Wow Wee we're going to Disney! (pics and pre-trip)

[prncess674]

This is my first attempt at a Disney trip report. I am still in the pre-trip planning stages but hope to use this as my planning journal and also as a trip report to share with others. I am not new to trip report writing. I have written several trip reports for another bulletin board for frequent flyers (flyertalk.com) but this will be my first non flyertalk trip report. If you want to check out my other reports check out these links.

The Princess goes to Bangkok
The Princess Goes to Rio de Janeiro
The Princess Goes to Dusseldorf
The Princess goes to Singapore

I am including pricing for things since I am always curious how much some of these trips cost. I think it helps others in planning a trip that meets there needs.

Cast of Characters:

Princess Daughter (33) – Me, your story teller, daughter extraordinaire, certified travel junkie and lover of Disney. Last trip to Disney was 2003 with friends for a long weekend. My day job is a technology consultant, with more airline and hotel points than I know what to do with!

Queen Mum (59) – The magical mother of all mothers. She will be prepared with a suitcase full of all those things, that I always seem to forget on a trip, but isn’t that what mom’s are supposed to do, even if there children are 30-something! Mom hasn’t been to WDW since 1982! They were still building EPCOT at the time.

Prince Chuck (56) – a.k.a., Dad! He was coined with the name “Prince Chuck” when his eyesight prevented him from driving. He would just walk out the house without keys or money always assuming someone else would take care of it. We are assuming Prince Charles of England, probably doesn’t have to bother with such trivial things as carrying money and keys on a daily basis. Hence, Prince Chuck he is called! Last WDW visit was 1997.

Teacher Sister (32) – Sometimes the arch nemesis of Princess Daughter but for the most part a pretty cool little sister. As you can tell by her name she is a teacher. She may be short but she doesn’t accept any crap from her students!

A photo of the fab 4 decked out in our St Pat's Day finest! Yes TeacherSister is really 32!

How this trip came to be:
Now why are 4 adults headed to WDW? Where are the kiddos? Umm, I may be 33 but I can still be a kid! The great thing about this family vacation is me “the kid” is picking up the tab for the parents and teacher sister. I am not getting any younger and may not ever have the opportunity again to go a family vacation and I said “What the heck, let’s go to WDW.”

I am the planner of the family and sent out a couple of links to the family trying to get feedback and input on ADRs. I got lots of “You’re the Disney expert, whatever you think is good.” Not exactly the input I was hoping for, but they do seem excited to be going.

Dates of Travel

Depart Home via plane, Thursday, October 28, 2007
Depart WDW evening of Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Air Details:

Mom & Dad are flying from New Orleans. There are really only two choices for non-stop flights from New Orleans to MCO: Delta and SWA. Personally I am not a fan of SWA, and neither airline flies a plane with first class seating non stop and seeing as the flight times are horrid on Delta I went with SWA. (Total Cost for two tickets: $424)

Teacher Sister is flying from Houston, Texas. My job requires lots of travel, hence piles of frequent flyer miles. Teacher Sister is booked on Continental non-stop to MCO using miles! (Total cost: 37,500 miles + $5 ticketing fee)

Princess Daughter (me) hasn’t booked airfare but assuming I am usually staffed out of town for work, my job will fly me down to MCO rather than flying me to my regular home in Washington DC. (Total cost to me $0)

Rental Car Detail:

We could have gone with a smaller rental car, but 4 adults in a rental car can get miserable and Dad uses a walker sometimes, so I really didn’t want to play fit all the pieces in the car like a jigsaw puzzle, hence I forked out the extra $$ and rented a full size SUV from National. I am an Emerald Club member and they generally have nice cars. Scoured the internet for coupon and discount codes, total cost for 5 day rental with all taxes and fee for a full size SUV: $210.

Hotel Details:

We arrive late on Thursday evening at various times AND the Contemporary was sold out for Thursday evening so I figured we would spend the first night at an airport hotel and get up early the next morning to head to Disney. This also makes it easier on me to pick everyone up in the rental car or take a taxi if need be to the hotel.

Hampton Inn Orlando-International Airport
5767 T.G. Lee Blvd
Orlando, FL United States 32822

Total cost: 2 rooms/ 1 night: 50,000 Hilton Honors points (Woo! Hoo! for business travel perks)

I have never stayed on property, but have vague childhood memories of wooshing through the Contemporary on the monorail. I am also a gadget and technology freak hence the CR just appeals to me. Let’s go to convo mode for a sec:

Princess Daughter: I think I want to stay at the CR.
Queen Mum: Umm, don’t you have like 3 billion hotel points you could cash in for the Swan, Dolphin or Hilton and you have status so we would automatically have club level access.
PD: Yes, but the CR is magical, and when else will we have an opportunity to have a magical family vacation.
QM: I am not sure your Dad and I can afford that.
PD: Not to worry, it is on me.

Contemporary Resort
4600 N. World Drive
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

We are booked in two tower lagoon view rooms for 4 nights (Total Cost: $3300)


More to come, about the ADRs we have planned.

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I am going to move you over to our pre-trip board. I know it sounds confusing, but we opened it up since so many DIS members liked to discuss their pre-trip before the actually leave. When you return, we will move you back to this board. Just give me a PM.
Thanks
Moderator-Ohmari

 

[punkin413]

yay!!!!! another TR for me to live vicariously through until next april. can't wait for more details!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Have you ever named your own price on priceline.com for a car? That's always the least expensive we can find for rental cars.

 

[prncess674]

Have you ever named your own price on priceline.com for a car? That's always the least expensive we can find for rental cars.

I have rented cars using Priceline for rentals, but knowing Dad has a walker, I don't want to be stuck with a no name company. I know it sounds counter intuitive but renting from a known company is worth the extra hassle in my book. While I am not saying money is no object on this trip, I am more interested in the simplest most convenient answer verses the cheapest answer.

For instance, the reason we are staying at the CR is so we can monorail to Epcot and MK. Dad will be self conscious using an ECV and rolling onto the monorail will make him feel more comfortable hence the extra cost of staying CR tower. Most of our ADRs are at monorail resorts and parks.

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

I totally get that...it would stink for your dad to have to struggle to get into and out of the car. Takes too much energy that could be used for other purposes, and leads to too much frustration. Good call!