You aren't getting any Christmas presents! Jan 09 PT: Update 11/11

[rockonthemoon]

Hey everyone! Pre-trip journal #1!

The Cast:

Me: I'm Shelly, 21, Junior in College. I used to live in CA and have a Disneyland pass when I was younger (I was also homeschooled, so Disney was a reality for me and my two younger sisters at least 2 - 3 times a week.) I'm the Disney fanatic in the realtionship!

I'm going for a Creative Writing major and working at Disney is my goal after school!

Ryan: My Dbf, 23, taking classes (he's going to be a firefighter!) He is amazing in everyway. I think he loves Disney almost as much as I do, and he puts up with my endless stories about the Disboards.

Here is a pic of us on our last trip (Jan. 08)

Well, since we're both young, and both in college, this trip is being done on a budget, and also counting as the anniversery (we'll be dating for 4 years in Jan. ) and christmas presents. Our spending is limited, and we split everything down the middle.

I do most of the planning... from the ADR's to the hotel, to which park on what day... everything! I even planned the mousekeeping tips into the budget!

How it all started:

My family took a trip to DisneyWorld about 4 years back, and I managed to talk my Dbf into going with just me in Jan. WE LOVED IT!

So, a few months ago, I asked the Dbf if he wanted to go again. It took him about two seconds to think about it and BAM! IT WAS A GO!

And then I had to wait for the Jan rates to come out. Which took forever!

So in September, my Family (mom, dad, and three younger sisters, 20, 17, and 9) took a trip BACK TO DISNEYLAND! Yay!

I've been planning my trip to Disneyworld since I got back... and the Dbf is letting me take complete control... MOO HA HA HA!

 

[Jeff90]

well...do you think something "special" might happen on this trip?!?! Excited for you and your Dbf. We will be going in January also.....I have not made my ADRs yet and need to get it done!!!!

 

[rockonthemoon]

Awwww thanks!

I know that if we do get, ahem, engaged, that it's not going to be until I'm done with school. He's a little more ahead than I am, but the future looks promising!

 

[rockonthemoon]

Okay, so last year, we decided to splurge a litte on our hotel and stayed at Port Orleans, French Quarter:

We LOVED it (and would reccomend it to ANYONE thinking about staying there, esp. for a Wedding or romantic occasion. The staff was wonderful, and suprised us with a gift basket our second night.

Instead of staying here again (although we would if we could afford it) we decided to make the vacation longer and stay here:

To be honest, we were a bit worried about staying in a value resort, until I started reading the dis boards and saw all of the wonderful reveiws.

We know that we aren't going to be as comfy as we were, but here's to praying for one of those rare king beds!

 

[rockonthemoon]

Wow, I did all of this work on this insane budget, thought that I got everything on there, and WHAMO!

Forgot the Photopass!

Now I don't know about the rest of you, but the Photopass is a MUST DO for my Dbf and I. No one wants to keep asking complete strangers to take pictures of you, and there are only two of us.

On top of this, my Dbf dosen't like being in pictures unless I make him. Guilt tripping him because I paid for the photopass already makes him comply (and guess who was the excited one when we finally got the CD in the mail?)

So I was lucky enough to find a Photopass share with 5 other people (that makes it 6!) for Jan. My Bf and I get back first, but we're going to make sure that the last person to get back has a full 12 days to do all of their editing/cropping/deleting/whatever. I'll have mine done in a day, and then we'll let people mess with them in the order that they get back.

I'm heading the photopass share (I've done one other) and I'm pretty excited that when it's all said and done, we're spending approx. $25 after shipping for our photopass!

We got some amazing pics last time, that I wouldn't have gotten with just our camera:

See, if I can get my camera shy Dbf to do that, just think of what you can get your family to do!

 

[soxnation]

Spreading the Pre Trippie Love! great pics!!

 

[rockonthemoon]

Explaining the Budget:

The Magic Your Way Package:
Ok, we booked with AAA because they could get us about $140 or so off of the hotel room. Big whoop, but hey, this is the worst case sernio here. I'm hoping that they come out with codes that will save us even more, but if they don't, this is still a really good price for 10 days of vacation...



We requested a King bed in the 50's area... check out that pool!

Plane Tickets:
We booked with Jet Blue EARLY. And I mean, EARLY. I had read really good things about them on the disboards, and when I was using www.kayak.com to look at plane prices, I saw a round trip flight for $480.00 for two people and freaked. Yay!

The downside is that our flight gets in at about 9 - 10 pm, which means the parks will probally be closed by then... And we leave at 6 - 7 am the day we leave. Why don't we only have 9 day park hopper tickets then? Because it was about $6 for both of us to add another day, and we're going to try and wait on standby for an earlier flight...

Tips for Mousekeeping:
I was taught that the rule of thumb was $1 tip a day, per person, + $1. That equals $3.00 a day. If I made more money, I'd leave more, but Dbf and I keep the room pretty spotless anyway (towel anmials are cool, but I'm not going to cry if I don't get new ones every day.)

I found these really neat mousekeeping graphics on photobucket!

Extra $15.00 a day for food:
Dbf and I don't really eat breakfast... but if we want another acholic drink (that's about $7) or if we DO want breakfast (about $7 each as well) or say we used our snack credit and really want more Dole whip...

It's a cushion, true, but whatever we don't spend, we can use to splurge on a really GOOD bottle of wine, or use it for wine tasting around the world...



Server Tips... $20 a night for 9 nights:
Ok, this one was hard. I'm a waitress, and my Dbf has waited tables before as well. Last time we had the meal plan, this was the average amount that we tipped. I priced all of the menus before hand and almost 100% of the time, $20.00 was more than 20%. However, if we get HORRIBLE service, we tip 15%. If we get NO service, and managment can't make it better, we give 10%. Even though this is aa budget, if we have a server that really knocks our socks off, we'll dip into the spending money for a bigger tip for them. Sometimes an extra $3 - $6 really makes someone's night.

The Wine Budget: $30 a night for 9 nights:
Ok, we eat plenty of mac and cheese, ramen, and the most expensive thing we ever splurge on is wine, beer, and fresh veggies.That being said, we like going to Disney World for many many many reasons, but one of the attractive reasons is:

We can BOTH drink and not have to worry about getting a ride back to the room. And then this happens:

Brilliant.

So last trip, we had the meal plan, and decided the 'wine & dine' option wasn't too great for us... I mean, sure, it's an extra $40 for a bottle of wine for us to split. Not too bad. Until you consider that we had found many wines that we liked (1st night always ends with wine tasting around the world at Epcot) that were well UNDER $40 a bottle. In fact, they were between $18 - $32 more than half of the time.


The Budget Overveiw:

Room at POP/ 10day Park Hopper Tickets/ Dining Plan (1TS/ 1QS/ 1S): $2220.22
Plane Tickets: $480.00
Tips for Mouse Keeping: $30.00
Extra $15.00 a day for food : $150.00
Tips for Servers $20 a table for 9 nights: $180.00
Bottle of wine for 9 nights approx $30 a night: $270.00

___________________________________________
Total Cost of Trip: $3330.22
My Half: $1664.11

 

[rockonthemoon]

Ok, it's not as dramatic as all that, but imagine my horror when I was lurking on the disboards only to find that ::gasp:: pal mickey was going to be discontinued.

And just in time for our Jan trip!

Last time we went, we didn't really notice anyone carrying their pal mickey around, and although I knew about them, spending that insane amount of $$ on a talking doll didn't seem worth it.

And then I found out the really cool stuff.

It tells you line wait times.

It tells you trivia.

It sings songs and plays games.

So as soon as I heard that, I walked over to ebay and this little fella:

will be coming to live with me!

All together, it was $50.00, including shipping for the pal mickey. It's been used... once... and comes with instructions and batteries.

I'm pretty excited about it!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Great reporting so far!!! I was upset about Pal Mickey too. I was finally going to buy one this trip. I guess not now. Maybe this is a ploy to get a bunch of people to buy one!? Then they'll change their minds and keep him around? No, I doubt it. What is it with Disney trying to get rid of all the "characters"? Removal of Garden Grill lunch....taking them away from LTT...and now this? I'm in my 30's and I love the characters a lot more now than I ever did!

 

[rockonthemoon]

Great reporting so far!!! I was upset about Pal Mickey too. I was finally going to buy one this trip. I guess not now. Maybe this is a ploy to get a bunch of people to buy one!? Then they'll change their minds and keep him around? No, I doubt it. What is it with Disney trying to get rid of all the "characters"? Removal of Garden Grill lunch....taking them away from LTT...and now this? I'm in my 30's and I love the characters a lot more now than I ever did!

Hey! I love rreading your TR! The pictures are FANTASTIC! There are still some on ebay for sale. My Dbf was really skeptical about getting one at first, but I promised not to make him carry it.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Hey! I love rreading your TR! The pictures are FANTASTIC! There are still some on ebay for sale. My Dbf was really skeptical about getting one at first, but I promised not to make him carry it.

That's funny because it's my husband who has been wanting one really bad since 2006 but we'd always end up buying something else! He'd carry it around like a baby.

 

[rockonthemoon]

I'm soooooo excited! I am doing a photopass share with 5 other wonderful disers.

It really helps cut the cost down when you start to do a share. I'm heading the share up, and it's my 2nd time doing so... I did one for my aunt about a year ago, right after my Dbf and I got back from our trip. Believe it or not, I'd never even heard of the Disboards until she said something to me about it.


So I made a call to the Tour department and decided that we are going to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour the first day we get there. I'm excited! Hopefully it won't look like this....

Ok, so that's Tokyo Disney, but you get the idea. I'm really excited to follow the tour guide around...

And hopefully ride on the haunted mansion,

And eat here

.

It's not really going to mess our dining plan up any... I'm working on getting all of the ADR's ready and willing to go!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Try some of that sweet tea at Columbia Harbor House!

 

[jenjolt]

Totally subbing in!! Can't wait to read more!! SO I'm also going on the KTTK tour on my trip!! But I'll explain about that more when I do that chapter on my PTR!!

 

[rockonthemoon]

So I was looking at the disneyworld.com site today.... (keep hoping that those Jan codes come out) and realized I should probally make a list of the rehabs that were going on during our trip.

We are leaving Jan 8th, arriving at the hotel late (9 - 10ish) and so the first day in the parks will be the 9th.

Rehabs:

Dumbo The Flying Elephant: Closed for Refurbishment [January 7, 2009]
Mickey's PhilharMagic : Closed for Refurbishment [January 18, 2009 to January 31, 2009]
Splash Mountain®: Closed for Refurbishment [January 4, 2009 to January 17, 2009]
The Hall Of Presidents: Closed for Refurbishment [January 1, 2009 to January 31, 2009]


And that's it...

My Dbf was really dissapointed to learn that Splash Mountain will be closed for refurb again... we almost missed it last time we went in Jan, and it's his favorite ride...



On the other hand, my PalMickey showed up in the mail today... not bad for about $50.00. He is loud, and I LOVE IT! I've been playing games with him since he came in the mail, and I can't wait to bring him into the parks for some fun facts!

 

[rockonthemoon]

Yay! Dining reservations are done and I can't be more excited! I JUST found out (while trying to snag an earlier Cali Grill reservation) that the CM I spoke to when I re-booked my dining DIDN'T CANCEL THE FIRST SET OF RESERVATIONS!

There's a 7pm LeCellier for Jan. 14th floating around out there now... go get it!

So here is the breakdown of where we're eating:

Day #1 Teppan Edo
We ate here last year and LOVED it! We had never been to a Jap. Steakhouse, and my Dbf loves sushi. I don't eat seafood, but the steak was amazing! We have just enough time to eat, and then find a spot for Illuminations.

Day #2 Coral Reef
Okay, you remember that I don't like seafood, right? Well, I figured I could stand to have the customary "chicken thing" or "ny strip steak thing" that comes at this place. I'm super excited to eat here, and we're looking foward to seeing the fish. I emailed Deb a little bit ago about the diver and she said he would be there "if they were still doing it!". They'll have the menu's for sure, but other than that, I can just cross my fingers for the diver.

Day #3 Kona Cafe
I've heard mixed reveiws about this place, but my Dbf and I are young, and don't mind a little noise. I honestly just wanted an excuse to go to the Poly and walk around. (We aren't talking about getting married right now, but I think that's where I want to get married...)

Day #4 Tutto Italia
A repeat of last time. We LOVED the food here, sat outside in the warm weather, and we were able to see Illuminations from our table. It was magical and this time, we're planning on wine tasting afterwords and exploring the rest of Epcot.

Day #5 Yak and Yeti
Got a late ADR! Yay! We ate here last year, two days after they opened and OMG, was it GOOD. Pineapple wontons have been dancing around in my head for about a year.

Day #6 California Grill
They told us to get there a little early, order a drink from the bar, and wait on the balcony outside to watch Wishes before we got called to our table. We are really looking foward to this dinner, and I can't wait!

Day #7 Mama Melrose
I got an elusive Fantasmic! Package. My Dbf has NEVER seen Fantasmic before... and I still remember seeing it when I had Disneyland passes. I heard it's a little better there, but I can't wait to show it to him.

Day #8 Boma
Haha, we had to do it! I wanted to check out AKL anyway.

Day #9 LeCellier
It's a late ADR, but I don't care. It's our last day, and I wanted to eat here!

That's what we have for now. The table service places I'm going to leave up to chance....

 

[soxnation]

Kona was great when we were there in 06 and it is our first night birthday dinner pick this trip....you will love it. or maybe it was the cocktails that lead us to believe it was so good! haha and now you can order sushi from the sushi bar! deserts were great. i am getting a rumbly in my tumbly now!