The Planningly Unplanned Trip Report (Dec 9-15) - In Progress About This Page:

[awitelin]

TR Entries
Day 0/Day 1, Part 1 - Just Like Any Other Tuesday

Pre-TR Entries
Introduction - October 28
Part II - Who, What, When, Where, Why & How - October 30
Part III - Food, Drink, and New Toys - November 10
Part 4 - The $1280 Wrench in the not-Plans - November 13
Part 5 - A Week To Go... - December 1
Part 6 - Where's My Mail? Final Pre-trip Thoughts - December 4


Introduction:
Last September, I used the money from my summer internship to take my husband to Disney World for his very first WDW trip. He fell in love with it, and the trip was so much fun that I teared up a little on the Magical Express ride back to the airport. Which is how it should be, I think!

But the trip itself had some serious issues (that I should have detailed in a post-trip report, but never did - my bad!). I had spent my free time planning and reading, and reading and planning for Disney all summer long, and it turned out my obsessive-compulsive-controlling side had made things a bit more difficult than they should have been. There were so many little stubborn and snippy moments where I was upset that things hadn't gone quite according to my meticulously created plans.

We waited for a long time on return buses. We rushed through the parks to hit all the highlights multiple times. We spent way too long waiting for our ADR tables, contending with crowds and poorly-attended children in the restaurants. We got too tired for magic hours and my feet were covered in blisters from the end of the second day. We had so many plans on pieces of paper that I screwed up one night, forgetting the correct time for our La Nouba show and turned up twenty minutes late (though what we did see was great, though I felt pretty dumb!). And on our flight back home, the weather in Dallas had managed to delay and cancel many of the flights headed there from Orlando that day. Some luck and quick action on our part did manage to get us to Dallas that evening, but our luggage, which had been checked with DME early that morning, had gotten lost in the flight shuffle, costing me another day out of my classes and him another day of work while we waited for it the next morning before our drive back to Oklahoma City.

Like I said in the opening, it was still a fun trip, and it was magical for my DH, so the spirit of the trip was not harmed significantly. : It did, however, burn me about all the planning I'd done. My inner control freak was NOT PLEASED. What was the point of all the planning if, despite my research, all the tips I'd read, it hadn't turned out like I'd wanted!

When we booked this trip a few months back, though, I had to really think about how this would go differently. I realized that I'd been over-planning last time, but that's a forgivable sin; I also realized that I had been planning it all wrong for what I knew about me and DH. While I'd taken our preferences into account - such as that we enjoy thrill rides, or would rather eat anything other than more American-style food - I had completely neglected our personalities and temperaments.

For example, I'm an annoyingly bad worrywart, and the "what-ifs" will drive me crazy: "What if the bus is slow and we don't make it to our ADR on time?" and "What if the line gets too long for Fantasmic and we get a horrible seat?" and "What if our flight gets delayed/canceled and we get stranded??" And DH is frugal, so he was by-and-large disappointed in our ADR food for the price. Also, he has a high expectation on service but is non-confrontational and shy to an extreme, so he was often unhappy with the service but would not complain, to the point where we ended up walking out of Raglan Road before we even got drinks. And both DH and I are heavy-yet-active people, so while I knew we could handle a day on our feet at a theme park, neither of us were prepared for how tired we'd be by the end of a week - and how much we'd need to s l o w...d o w n...., even though our schedule really didn't accommodate it.

So on paper, it had looked like the perfect plan, but in reality some things didn't go like they should have because of planning - the wrong kind of planning.

It's going to go differently this time. Because I'm planning differently this time... I'm planning NOT to plan!

We're going without ADRs so we don't have to be anywhere at any time, eliminating the stress, waiting, and overpriced food and service.

We're not expecting to be at parks on certain days for EMH or certain nights to ensure we see every show, so if we want to sleep in late or turn in early, we can do that.

We'll be taking it much slower this time, which is hard because we're an impatient and excitable duo, but especially important this trip since I injured my knee this past month and the healing is going much slower than I'd like, and if I overdo it, it'll be a serious setback.

We'll be doing carry-on luggage only to eliminate the chance of being separated from it, and therefore packing a lot less to keep track of.

And most importantly... the most difficult thing for me to do: to just not stress over the small stuff. It's a hard life lesson to learn and I doubt I'll be perfect, but we'll both have more fun when I worry less and let life play out the way it's going to.

And on we go... to be continued...

[ilovedisney247]

Sounds like fun! Are you going to join us for some of the Mousefest Meets?

[DyanKJ130]

Great start! I like how you're taking your last visit into account while planning this one! I'm sure everything will turn out just fine. Looking forward to more

[Colexis Mom]

Great start

[MickeyMAC]

Very good start, I like your reflection on your last trip.

[bsblady01]

I hope that you and your dh have a magical time at the world

[awitelin]

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Sounds like fun! Are you going to join us for some of the Mousefest Meets?

Actually I didn't even know when I was planning this trip that Mousefest was during the same time frame. I registered just in case we do, but DH tends to be a really shy person. Actually, so am I, and even though I'm curious about the MF goings-on, I'm generally a newbie around here so it's not anyone knows me. So I wouldn't count on it, we'll definitely not be making our plans around Mousefest but we'll likely be in the same place at the same time at some point. I'll be carrying a Passporter pouch around so who knows who we might run into.

[awitelin]

Part II: Who, What, When, Where, Why & How

Who
DH - 26, Married for a little more than a year and a half now. This is his second trip to Disney and is VERY excited. In fact he was the one who instigated this trip, not me!

He started asking back in the spring, "When can we go back to Disney?!?" I told him no for the moment, not that I didn't want to go back to WDW, but it was a rough time for us after I graduated in December and was unemployed for nearly five months waiting for the job to come through. Money was tight, stress was high, and it put strain on a lot of things. My job finally did come through and finances and stress finally started feeling normal again by August, which is when he said jokingly to me, "You know if you'd let me book a trip earlier we could be in Disney eating free food by now!" I realized he was right and that we definitely needed a Disney vacation soon after the frustrating year we'd had. He was super excited and practically did the flight/hotel planning himself!



Every day he tells me how many days left until Disney. He's like a little kid about it and it's super adorable.


The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - Okay, so they're not going on the trip, but if I could take them, I would. It's so hard to leave them for a week and I have yet to find an option for a cat sitter or affordable boarding for 4 animals! They do okay on their own even though I worry, so long as there's enough food, water, and clean litterboxes.

Anyway he one in the picture above is Cowboy, our orange tabby cat and the leader of the herd. The other three are:


Kitty Jr, the huge gray-and-black tabby lap kitty



Inara, the sweet, tiny, scaredy-cat Russian Blue


and last but not least... my baby...


Pumpkin, Mommy's Little Adorable Purring Siamese Punkinhead

Sorry, had to share. Even if they can't go to Disney, they're still my little fluffy family.

And then there's Me: 23, and very happy to be returning to Disney, especially during the holidays. This has been a dream for me for some time now and I can't wait to go!



I'm the one in the back; the one in the front is my sister. As you can tell, crazy runs in my family.

[awitelin]

Where:

Pop Century - We were adequately satisfied with All-Star Sports during last year's trip, and I had no major complaints. We were kinda wondering to ourselves what the big deal was to stay in a deluxe resort other than maybe a bigger room or something. We went over to the Poly for dinner one night, and even though it seemed nice I didn't see what the big deal was. But then we went over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a Boma dinner and... OMG I was in love and vowed the next time we came to Disney that we HAD to stay there.

Well, there's good news and bad news on this front. The trip was really too short-notice to come up with that kind of money for a room, especially with my previous unemployment, so I'll just have to wait until next trip for Animal Kingdom. The good news is that I have DH on-board to be AKL DVC owners as soon as it seems economically feasible. We have been aggressively paying down credit card debt to free up extra money for such a purchase. I'm going to see if I can convince him to let me go take the DVC tour while we're there this trip but maybe that's not such a good idea considering how bad I want it!

In the meantime, we're going to stay cheap and go with Pop Century. We decided that we still needed to try somewhere new even it isn't exactly what I'd ideally want. Considering we've been in a Value resort before I'm pretty sure I know what to expect, so while I'm not exactly thrilled with the accommodation choice, I know it'll be just fine.


When:

Tuesday, Dec 9 - Monday, Dec 15: These dates were chosen specifically because it was the cheapest set of days to fly with convenient flight times. I've never been during Christmas season and I am really excited about it. We might have stayed longer if I'd had more vacation time to work with, but I'll have EXACTLY 40 hours of paid time off right before we go.

How:
Delta Airlines, with part of the way being actually flown on Delta's partner airline, Atlantic Southeast. I have never flown with either one before and would have preferred to avoid it based on the horror stories I've read, but the price and flight times were way better than Southwest's in this case. So we decided to bite the bullet and just try it this time. If it goes badly, we'll know not to do it again!

After booking, I analyzed our probable on-time statistics using the publicly available Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a government agency with the Department of Transportation. They keep records of every commercial flight and if you're good with tables/statistics, are pretty good for getting a feel how likely it is that your particular flight will be on-time. The flight number statistics are good too if your flight is a regular one but aren't helpful for minor airlines like Atlantic Southeast, which only operates as a partner for Delta and therefore uses "dummy" Delta flight numbers in the itinerary you're given when you book. For example, we're using "Delta flight 5118" even though that flight doesn't officially exist and is reported under a different number as Atlantic Southeast ###.

Anyway, my flights are:


Atlantic Southeast, OKC -> ATL, leaving 5:40 AM, arriving 8:42AM

Atlantic Southeast makes me very, very nervous. 24% of their flights leaving Oklahoma City for Atlanta are late, and the late flights are 60 minutes late on average! I am hoping we will not be one of their unlucky 1-in-4 that doesn't make it anywhere near on-time since our layover is only an hour long, and we've never been to Atlanta before and therefore wouldn't know how best to get anywhere quickly. However, Oklahoma City is a fairly quiet airport and 5:40 will likely be the one of the first (if not THE first) flights out that morning, so barring a plane breakdown I think we'll be fine.

Delta Airlines, ATL -> MCO, leaving 9:50AM, arriving 11:24 AM

Since I had a real flight number I was able to look this one up for the last year. It is 85% on-time and has only an average 8 minute delay on late flights, which is really good!

Delta Airlines, MCO -> ATL, leaving 5:30PM, arriving 7:04 PM

This flight is about as reliable as the first one, leaving late 25% of the time with an average late flight delay of 50 minutes. Fortunately we have a long layover of almost 3 hours and will not have to worry too much.

Atlantic Southeast ATL -> OKC, leaving 9:45PM, arriving 11:03PM

This is the worst flight of all, with 30% of their flights from Atlanta to Oklahoma City arriving late, again with an average late flight arrival of 50 minutes. It doesn't matter as much though; as long as we get home that night sometime (or even early the next morning) it won't be a big deal. Our workplace is actually right next to the airport so if we have to we can just roll right in, though I expect we'll be really, really tired if that happens!

So I guess the first leg of the flight is the only one I am most concerned about. I will be really bummed if we're delayed getting to Disney and we seem to have such poor luck with airplanes lately!


And more to come...

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates!! More please!!

[DyanKJ130]

Great update! Nice cast....the cats are beautiful! I think you'll be happy at Pop - while we've never been, there are many PassPorters who say it's their favorite. Hope the flights are on time too! Looking forward to more

[Diz]

Originally Posted by awitelin

It's going to go differently this time. Because I'm planning differently this time... I'm planning NOT to plan!

Originally Posted by awitelin

After booking, I analyzed our probable on-time statistics using the publicly available Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a government agency with the Department of Transportation. They keep records of every commercial flight and if you're good with tables/statistics, are pretty good for getting a feel how likely it is that your particular flight will be on-time.

Okay, I do realize you mean your park touring/eating plans, but I just had to chuckle when I saw you found other ways to find a way to curb that planning bug!

What a great start to your pre-trip report!

And what a wonderful DH you have! He really does sound excited to be going back! Very ! It's wonderful when your spouse shares your love for Disney!

Pop Century is a fun resort! Be sure to check out the Decades on the walls in the lobby! And ask in the food court when they do their special shows. The cms will get together and play a song and dance. Something simple, but a lot of fun!

Can you plan to take the DVC tour? Just kidding. But I hope it falls into place with your go with the flow...ummm...plans!

[awitelin]

Originally Posted by Diz

Okay, I do realize you mean your park touring/eating plans, but I just had to chuckle when I saw you found other ways to find a way to curb that planning bug!

I guess I'm BUSTED!! Okay, so it's much easier said than done Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Rachels have to... plan... even when they're not planning.

[awitelin]

Part III... 29 Days Out

Well, we finally made it under the 30-days-to-go mark this weekend. Not that I wasn't excited before, but now I am READY to go. Of course I had to give DH a gentle ribbing that if we'd been just a *little* more patient, we could have pushed the trip into January and gotten it for pennies. Darn you Disney, luring us in too early like this!! Anyway, unfortunately it doesn't matter if I'm ready to go, it's not TIME to go. So I guess I have to do some more not-planning to tide me over...

Food

I not-planned our food choices.

Yeah, I know, I said no ADRs! But my list of desired counter service options that I want to try is way too long at Epcot, yet way too short at Magic Kingdom. We ate at Cosmic Ray's and Columbia Harbor House last year, and we'll likely repeat them, since I couldn't find anything else in the guide books that seemed appetizing. My Epcot list is legendary though. If it was feasible, I'd probably go back to World Showcase for every meal. We didn't eat nearly enough of the food in that area last trip, though we did have an ADR at Marrakesh that I really enjoyed. Food was good and I loved the look/feel of the place. Maybe we'll drop back in if we're in the neighborhood. It didn't seem busy at all last time and that was during free dining. I wonder if there are any more restaurants that seem "underappreciated" that we could possibly walk into during non-peak dinner hours and get a table... if we're in the neighborhood. Of course.

Drink

One thing I really wanted to do last trip, but hadn't budgeted well enough in terms of time and money, was going drinking around the world. I totally want to do that this time. The budget definitely allows for it this year, assuming DH and I share a drink from each area instead of getting one for each of us. The tough part will be agreeing on the same kind of drink. I'm a big girl about my alcohol and prefer sweet or fruity things; DH is much less so (he'll drink his vodka straight)!

New Toys - "WALL-E" Suitcase

I've picked up a few new toys for this trip. The first is a new suitcase, measuring only 17" long! It was only $20 at Walmart a few months back. It was just a plain black thing but I decorated it with WALL-E stickers that I glued down with glitter fabric paint, and put some beads along the edges. It's a lot more colorful now but looks like it was meant for a 3-year-old instead of a 23-year-old... Anyway, I got it to avoid having to check a bag. The suitcase I used to use for a carry-on is, under current airline standards, too big. It wasn't four years ago when I bought it, but there you go. So I wanted to make sure I got something small enough to avoid ever needing to check a bag again. I think I succeeded.

New Toy - Canon Camera

I also bought a new camera. This was kind of a necessity too. My old camera, a small Sony camera, didn't even survive a full year before it broke. It wasn't cheap either! I spent like $300 on it and assumed it would be quality, but it turned out to take fairly lousy pictures in practice, so I guess the only downside is that I had to shell out another $300 for a new camera.

The bright side is that I have a great camera now, a Canon Powershot SX110, a bulkier model with 10x zoom. I've been testing it out at football games and at the zoo recently, and the picture quality is MUCH better. It's fun to take a picture of the crowd on the opposite side of the stadium and be able to zoom in far enough to read the text on their t-shirts. I feel like a super spy when I do it.

New Toy - Eee PC

My favorite new toy is my new computer, an Eee PC 901. Which I didn't explicitly NEED, but have wanted for a long time and finally gave in. And so glad I did!

It's only 8.9 inches big and has to be the most fun little machine I have ever purchased. It's tiny enough to throw in a purse (or a small backpack, which is what it'll be doing at Disney) and has a long battery life of 5+ hours, so it's perfect for air travel. It's perfect for someone who likes to do computer work when they travel but doesn't like carrying around a bulky item that needs its own seperate bag just to keep it safe. The Eee PC is small, discrete, stylish, and durable. I love this little computer. I'll be using it as my web browser, word processor, picture-viewer, and a little game player (solitare makes long flights shorter!).


To come... more "unplanned" events and must-dos!

[Colexis Mom]

Glad it's all coming together!! Congrats on the camera and the computer!!