Travel dates: December 8-16, 2012
Travel method: JetBlue; Rental Car
Resort: Port Orleans-Riverside (POR)
Ages Represented in Group: 2-73
Cast of characters: Me, DH, DD11, DD6; Sister 1; Sister 2, BIL, N5, N2; Auntie; MIL (Sister 2s Mother-in-Law)
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: My immediate familyvery experienced; Sister 1 and my aunt3-4 previous visits; other adults in group1 previous visit; first trip for niece (2) and nephew (5)
We werent planning to go on two Disney trips in one year, but after we returned home from our January trip my mother and sister announced that they were going with us next year. Um, we dont usually go every year, but OK. My niece (2) and nephew (5) have never been to WDW and my sister didnt want to go without us, so it was hard to say no (plus, any excuse to fit in an extra trip to Disney!). Then my aunt announced that she was coming. Then my other sister started talking about joining us. The count got up to 12 when Sister 2 remembered to tell me that her mother-in-law would also be joining us. Yikes!
After comparing everyones work schedules, we realized we couldnt go in January and settled on the 2nd week in December. If only we had known, we would have bought annual passes back in January!
The planning began in earnest over the summer. We bought our Disney tickets from Undercover Tourist before the prices went up. We booked rooms at Port Orleans-French Quarter (the only moderate weve never stayed at) at the full price, hoping a discount would come out later.
I planned our itinerary using Touring Plans and made our ADRs. Talk about pressure! I was very worried about pleasing everyone, including 4 kids, 2 people Ive never traveled with before (my aunt and my sisters mother-in-law), and my restaurant critic sister. I settled on T-Rex (Dinner), Coral Reef (Lunch), 50s Prime Time (Lunch), Be Our Guest (Dinner), and Cinderellas Royal Table (Breakfast). Needless to say, making all these arrangements required a huge amount of email traffic.
When room-only discounts came out, I called Disney twice, but was told there werent any discounted rooms available at either of the Port Orleans resorts (the only moderates we were interested in). I contacted a travel agent we had used before, Mary Kraemer, and she was able to book all of our rooms at POR with a garden view for more than $300 less than the standard view rooms we had booked at POFQ. It was very quick and painless. Lesson learnedI will use a travel agent from now on! DH and I have stayed at POR only once, on our honeymoon 18 years ago. No one else in our party has ever stayed there.
We requested ground floor rooms in the Alligator Bayou section. The new dcor in these rooms looks really cool and I think the kids will really like it. Also, my girls are getting to the age where they dont like to share a bed (lots of squabbling over silly things), so the 6-year-old can sleep in the pull-down bed. We want ground floor rooms because my mother has asthma and I dont want her to have to deal with the stairs (no elevators in the Alligator Bayou section).
The three grandmothers didnt want to rent a car, so we need a minivan because there will be times theyll be too tired to take Disney transportation, and also we were going to spend a couple of days at Universal. I was able to book a minivan for nine days with Alamo through the Costco website for $299. Not satisfied, I kept checking and was eventually able to get the price down to $284, including taxes and fees. Yes, Im so cheap Ill cancel and rebook to save $15!
I also obsessively checked airfares. I was surprised by how few direct flights at decent times there wereand how expensive they were. Wow, things have changed in the last couple of years. We finally settled on JetBlue flights that came to $198/person with taxes and fees. This is more than we usually spend, but we wanted direct flights and convenient times. The day after we bought the tickets, the price went up by almost $100/ticketand kept going up from there. Score! Sister 2 and her family will be on the same flights as us. Everyone else is making their own way to Florida from different parts of the country, by plane or train.
By way of background, I should mention that Sister 2's only trip to WDW was when she was a teenager on a school trip in the summer. It was hot, crowded, and she was with a bunch of people who didn't know what they were doing. No one did any planning and she had no idea what to expect. She didn't have a very good experience and is not exactly thrilled to be going back. She's mostly going for her kids, and I also think she's looking forward to spending time with us. Still, I feel like I'm under a fair amount of pressure to make this experience a good one for Sister 2!
Since there are many opinions and discussions about whether the dining plan is worth it, even if it is free, I thought it might be helpful to explain my reasoning for going with the room discount rather than free dining. First, in addition to the $300 we saved on the room, we were able to save another $200 or so by buying our tickets through Undercover Tourist before the prices went up. Thats only about $60/day, and I admit we cant feed the four of us on that amount. However, we will be spending 2 days at Universal so we wont be dining at Disney restaurants on those days. Second, we wanted some table service meals, but not every day. So there wouldnt be a dining plan that would meet our needswed end up paying for some meals out of pocket anyway. Third, the dining plan is not a good fit for the way we eat. We rarely eat desserts with our meals (wed rather indulge in treats as we walk around the parks), but DH and I almost always order an alcoholic beverage. I almost always order an appetizerand sometimes two (one for my entre). In other cases, we share meals. We feel that the dining plan is simply too much food for us and in addition to being frugal, I cant stand waste. The amount of food that would get thrown away every meal would really upset me. Id much rather eat where and what I want (it IS a vacation after all!) and save money other ways, such as eating breakfast in our room and packing snacks for the parks. Fourth, I prefer not to purchase a package. I dont like having to pay for everything so far in advance and I dont like the cancellation policy. It is much less risky to book a room that can be cancelled up to 5 days before arrival with no penalty and buy tickets that wont expire if we end up not being able to use them when planned. On top of all this, free dining wasnt offered for the first couple of days of our trip, so we would have had to do a split reservation. Just not worth the hassle to us.
Our rough itinerary:
Saturday, December 8th: Arrive, boat to DTD, Dinner at T-Rex
Sunday, December 9th: Magic Kingdom
Monday, December 10th: Epcot, Lunch at Coral Reef
Tuesday, December 11th: Hollywood Studios, Lunch at 50s Prime Time
Wednesday, December 12th: Animal Kingdom; Magic Kingdom for Dinner at Be our Guest
Thursday, December 13th: Islands of Adventure
Friday, December 14th: Universal Studios
Saturday, December 15th: Magic Kingdom for Breakfast at CRT; hop to another park (MK is supposed to be VERY crowded on this day)
Travel method: JetBlue; Rental Car
Resort: Port Orleans-Riverside (POR)
Ages Represented in Group: 2-73
Cast of characters: Me, DH, DD11, DD6; Sister 1; Sister 2, BIL, N5, N2; Auntie; MIL (Sister 2s Mother-in-Law)
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: My immediate familyvery experienced; Sister 1 and my aunt3-4 previous visits; other adults in group1 previous visit; first trip for niece (2) and nephew (5)
We werent planning to go on two Disney trips in one year, but after we returned home from our January trip my mother and sister announced that they were going with us next year. Um, we dont usually go every year, but OK. My niece (2) and nephew (5) have never been to WDW and my sister didnt want to go without us, so it was hard to say no (plus, any excuse to fit in an extra trip to Disney!). Then my aunt announced that she was coming. Then my other sister started talking about joining us. The count got up to 12 when Sister 2 remembered to tell me that her mother-in-law would also be joining us. Yikes!
After comparing everyones work schedules, we realized we couldnt go in January and settled on the 2nd week in December. If only we had known, we would have bought annual passes back in January!
The planning began in earnest over the summer. We bought our Disney tickets from Undercover Tourist before the prices went up. We booked rooms at Port Orleans-French Quarter (the only moderate weve never stayed at) at the full price, hoping a discount would come out later.
I planned our itinerary using Touring Plans and made our ADRs. Talk about pressure! I was very worried about pleasing everyone, including 4 kids, 2 people Ive never traveled with before (my aunt and my sisters mother-in-law), and my restaurant critic sister. I settled on T-Rex (Dinner), Coral Reef (Lunch), 50s Prime Time (Lunch), Be Our Guest (Dinner), and Cinderellas Royal Table (Breakfast). Needless to say, making all these arrangements required a huge amount of email traffic.
When room-only discounts came out, I called Disney twice, but was told there werent any discounted rooms available at either of the Port Orleans resorts (the only moderates we were interested in). I contacted a travel agent we had used before, Mary Kraemer, and she was able to book all of our rooms at POR with a garden view for more than $300 less than the standard view rooms we had booked at POFQ. It was very quick and painless. Lesson learnedI will use a travel agent from now on! DH and I have stayed at POR only once, on our honeymoon 18 years ago. No one else in our party has ever stayed there.
We requested ground floor rooms in the Alligator Bayou section. The new dcor in these rooms looks really cool and I think the kids will really like it. Also, my girls are getting to the age where they dont like to share a bed (lots of squabbling over silly things), so the 6-year-old can sleep in the pull-down bed. We want ground floor rooms because my mother has asthma and I dont want her to have to deal with the stairs (no elevators in the Alligator Bayou section).
The three grandmothers didnt want to rent a car, so we need a minivan because there will be times theyll be too tired to take Disney transportation, and also we were going to spend a couple of days at Universal. I was able to book a minivan for nine days with Alamo through the Costco website for $299. Not satisfied, I kept checking and was eventually able to get the price down to $284, including taxes and fees. Yes, Im so cheap Ill cancel and rebook to save $15!
I also obsessively checked airfares. I was surprised by how few direct flights at decent times there wereand how expensive they were. Wow, things have changed in the last couple of years. We finally settled on JetBlue flights that came to $198/person with taxes and fees. This is more than we usually spend, but we wanted direct flights and convenient times. The day after we bought the tickets, the price went up by almost $100/ticketand kept going up from there. Score! Sister 2 and her family will be on the same flights as us. Everyone else is making their own way to Florida from different parts of the country, by plane or train.
By way of background, I should mention that Sister 2's only trip to WDW was when she was a teenager on a school trip in the summer. It was hot, crowded, and she was with a bunch of people who didn't know what they were doing. No one did any planning and she had no idea what to expect. She didn't have a very good experience and is not exactly thrilled to be going back. She's mostly going for her kids, and I also think she's looking forward to spending time with us. Still, I feel like I'm under a fair amount of pressure to make this experience a good one for Sister 2!
Since there are many opinions and discussions about whether the dining plan is worth it, even if it is free, I thought it might be helpful to explain my reasoning for going with the room discount rather than free dining. First, in addition to the $300 we saved on the room, we were able to save another $200 or so by buying our tickets through Undercover Tourist before the prices went up. Thats only about $60/day, and I admit we cant feed the four of us on that amount. However, we will be spending 2 days at Universal so we wont be dining at Disney restaurants on those days. Second, we wanted some table service meals, but not every day. So there wouldnt be a dining plan that would meet our needswed end up paying for some meals out of pocket anyway. Third, the dining plan is not a good fit for the way we eat. We rarely eat desserts with our meals (wed rather indulge in treats as we walk around the parks), but DH and I almost always order an alcoholic beverage. I almost always order an appetizerand sometimes two (one for my entre). In other cases, we share meals. We feel that the dining plan is simply too much food for us and in addition to being frugal, I cant stand waste. The amount of food that would get thrown away every meal would really upset me. Id much rather eat where and what I want (it IS a vacation after all!) and save money other ways, such as eating breakfast in our room and packing snacks for the parks. Fourth, I prefer not to purchase a package. I dont like having to pay for everything so far in advance and I dont like the cancellation policy. It is much less risky to book a room that can be cancelled up to 5 days before arrival with no penalty and buy tickets that wont expire if we end up not being able to use them when planned. On top of all this, free dining wasnt offered for the first couple of days of our trip, so we would have had to do a split reservation. Just not worth the hassle to us.
Our rough itinerary:
Saturday, December 8th: Arrive, boat to DTD, Dinner at T-Rex
Sunday, December 9th: Magic Kingdom
Monday, December 10th: Epcot, Lunch at Coral Reef
Tuesday, December 11th: Hollywood Studios, Lunch at 50s Prime Time
Wednesday, December 12th: Animal Kingdom; Magic Kingdom for Dinner at Be our Guest
Thursday, December 13th: Islands of Adventure
Friday, December 14th: Universal Studios
Saturday, December 15th: Magic Kingdom for Breakfast at CRT; hop to another park (MK is supposed to be VERY crowded on this day)