Sorry, folks. I've been wide awake since 3 am, and have done all the schoolwork I can do without going upstairs and waking everyone up. Anyway, as you know, we're planning another trip to Disney World next summer. Anyone else want to plan one too??? Here's our status: -I found a travel agent I love!! She's a certified Disney specialist, and her services (as is almost always the case with travel agents) are free. So she'll be on the lookout for any bargains I miss. - I've booked 7 nights at the Beach Club. http://allears.net/acc/bcss.htm For anyone not familiar, it's "across the street" (in the words of Julia's friend Kelly) from the back entrance to Epcot. It's pool is called Stormalong Bay, covers 3 acres, and has it's own map. http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/uu294/natebenma/Beach Club FAQ/SABgoogleearth2.jpg http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m632/pixarmom/03b98eff.jpg http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m632/pixarmom/36135b64.jpg http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m632/pixarmom/b5975d35.jpg The kids are SO excited to be trying the Beach Club this time around. It's a deluxe (hence, expensive) resort, but when you're a family of 5 your options are much more limited than a family of 4. I have looked into cheaper options (family suite at All Star Music, trundle room at Port Orleans Riverside, Art of Animation resort, Fort Wilderness, teacher discount at Swan/Dolphin) and we're happy with the Beach Club. - As of right now, we're on the meal plan (subject to change-- see the next point.) The 4 meals that are definite so far are: ** dinner at Chef Mickey's ** dinner at the Coral Reef ** lunch at Le Cellier ** lunch at Yak and Yetti We're still considering Whispering Canyon, Biergarten, 1900 Park Fare, and I'm not sure what else. (If we don't do the meal plan, we're still making one dining reservation for each day; we'll just put money onto a debit card and pay it off that way.) - I'm looking into YES tickets. http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/catalog/?location[]=WDW&filter=startDate Basically, that means that your kids each take one 3 hour behind-the-scened type of class. And the entire party gets vastly reduced ticket prices. It's win/ win. It should save us at least $700, in addition to any room discounts we can find. But the downfall is that you can't be on the meal plan and that August class tickets won't be released until about March. Whether we do YES or not, we're getting parkhopper tickets. - I've started looking at airfares. We like Jetblue, and their prices aren't out yet. But I can get the 5 of us on a Delta flight for a total of $1086-- very close to my target price of $1000. So I'm hoping that we do well when Jetblue releases its fares. - I've gotten a few Christmas gifts with Disney in mind-- Vera Bradley duffels for the girls to use as carryons, drawstring bags for all 5 of us, and a 3 pack of mistymate misters. When I get the money, I'll hit www.mousepinsonline.com and get a grab bag of 50 pins for trading.
wow, you are really all planned!!! I am on hold until I see when school starts, and when orientation is going to be for next year, but our dates are between the 15th and the 30th of august right now. I think Monday I will start bugging my superintendent about those dates
Well, I'd love to, but I am not sure 2 is the right age to take the kids to Disney, we were thinking 5, but I am now pushing for 3
I'd love to, but with two kids in university in the fall of 2012, I'll be lucky to be able to afford to put gas in my van!
They're free BEFORE they turn 3. After that point, you have to buy park tickets. So if you're thinking of anywhere near 3, think about going for 2 1/2 instead. You'll save some serious money.
Hmmm...Next summer might happen after all, but I have some serious research to do. Neither of us have ever been! The kids turn two 6/18/12 so next summer would be the closest or maybe Christmas 2012 for 2.5
Alice... sounds great... Can't wait to hear if you liked that hotel. We were thinking about that one, but went with AK.
Sounds great, Alice! I'm finally going to achieve my dream of doing all the Disney endurance races in one year. I have purchased all the race entries, and there's no backing out now. That puts us in Disney World the first weekend in January for a week-we're flying in that Wed. and flying the following Tues. I got us a room at the Sports resort-we just wanted cheap and on-site. That trip is both a half and full marathon in one weekend. We'll be in Disneyland at the end of January for the Tinkerbell half marathon, but will be staying off-site just a few blocks. We can still walk to the park, and it's about 1/4 of the Disney hotel price. I just couldn't pay $800 for two nights. Then I'm going back to Disney World in February for a week with my mom to run the Princess half marathon. Dh will be staying home, and we have a room at the Dolphin or Swan-can't remember. I've saved all my vacation days for the trips, and think I'll just get an annual pass to both parks since I'll be there so much for the trips. Not sure if I'll be running the half marathon in Sept. back at Disneyland-hopefully!-but it would come in handy then, too. Race registrations and hotel reservations are as far as I've gotten so far. I guess we'll look at flights soon, though!
I wish their standard rooms would accomodate 5-- I would love to try it someday. (For those of you wondering, AK is the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It's located adjacent to the Animal Kingdom park. So you can look out your window and see giraffes and lions in the "wild".)
We didn't see any lions... but giraffes, wildebeast, I think, just different grazing animals!!!! It was cool though!!!
So you did it!!! You got the registrations, that's awesome! I just did my first 1/2 today and my running buddy wants to do the Feb Princess now- her daughter just got an internship at Disney too so she could visit her AND run...we have to decide soon since it is booking up fast!
We did the YES program with our senior trip and they did behind the scenes with the animals at Animal Kingdom. It was neat. We got to see them wash the elephants and prepare meals for some of the animals.
I really hope we get to take part in it; it sounds so very cool! They won't post the summr schedule until about February, so I'm on hold until then.
