Tracy's TR-Pretrip Part 4 Katrina changes our plans, but everyone is safe Updated 9/3 About This Page:

[Belle of Ohio]

Pre-trip report

After much deliberation I have decided to write a trip report. I reading the trip reports on this board and I thought it was only fair that I return the favor. We leave in two weeks, so here is the pre trip planning part of my trip. I hope that you all enjoy it.

Introduction and the decision to go to Disney:

First of all, let me introduce our party and explain how this trip came to be. This trip will be myself (Tracy) and my DH (Jack). This trip didn’t even start out to be a Disney trip. We had been promising Jack’s sister, Kym, that we would come and visit her in Mississippi for a long time. As much as I want to see Kym and her DH, I really wanted to see my niece Ashley and her two little boys. Hayden is two and half and Adam is one, and I have only seen Hayden once and never seen Adam. Kym and her DH were up here in Ohio for DS#1 (Matthew) graduation in June and we talked about visiting them. We first talked about July, but that is a really busy time for Jack at work, so we decided on September. We had to work around DS#2 (Conor) and DS# 3’s (Ross) cross country schedule. I didn’t want to miss any of their meets. We decided we would drive halfway to Mississippi after their meet on September 10, and drive to their house on the 11th. We would visit with them on the 11th and 12th (we shortened those dates to accommodate our trip to Disney) and then drive back home. I thought that was it. Then one day Jack says we really need to go somewhere after visiting Kym. I ask where did he have in mind and he says either the Gulf Shores or Disney. My first response was we can’t afford it. He brings up the fact that he didn’t take two of his four weeks vacation and he would be getting paid off for it in July. Personally, I prefer him to take all of his vacation and usually make sure he does. Somehow I lost track of the time and didn’t realize that his anniversary date was fast approaching and he had vacation time left. I finally say okay we can go somewhere for 3 or 4 days after visiting the family. We look into the Gulf Shores, but my heart isn’t into it. I haven’t been to Disney since September 2003. I want to go to Disney. Jack hasn’t been to Disney since July 2001. Jack wants to go to Disney. So we decide we are going to go to Disney!

The planning of hotels and tickets:

So we have decided we are going to Disney. Now we have to do it on a budget. We decided we would only use part of the payoff for our vacation. I start looking at hotels. We can swing Pop Century for 4 nights. We each have one day left on old hoppers and decided we would get two 2 day MYW tickets. That would give us 3 days in the parks. I hadn’t booked anything yet, but that looked like the way we were going to go. The cost was around $675. A couple of weeks later Jack asks what I would do if we had extra money for the trip. At first I said I would put it towards the souvenir budget, but once I thought about it some more I said I would upgrade the hotel. Jack then tells me he is getting a bonus, so I start looking at moderate and deluxe hotels. Ideally, I would love to stay at the Beach Club, (my favorite resort!) but the cost is too much this trip. Plus we are planning on staying there in December 2006. I debated between PO Riverside and CBR. We have stayed at POR before back when it was Dixie Landings and loved it. We have never stayed at CBR before, so that would be something new. While it was tempting to try something new, I decided this is such a short trip it would be nicer to be where we were more familiar with things. I had been checking prices on Disneyworld.com and knew we could get four nights at POR and two 2 day MYW tickets with hopping privileges added for $928. I was just getting ready to book it when I read (here on the great Passporter boards!) that they were offering free dining again and it would be valid during the time that we were going. I couldn’t figure out how to book it on the Disney website. At the time they didn’t have the special listed (it was added later that day). Not sure how to get the package I decide to try a travel agent. I submitted a request for a quote at the Your Magical Journeys website. Jean emailed me back very quickly and she could get us the package with free dining. The package was $928, exactly what I was going to pay before, but now we have free dining!! I was thrilled. After I got home from work I talked with Jean on the phone and booked our package. There was a $200 deposit due immediately with the balance due 45 days before check in. Well I was booking this so late that the 45 day deadline was going to be the following week. I went ahead and paid for the entire package. I got off the phone and danced around the room with my dog Daisy! Thanks Jean, you made my day!! When Jack got home I told him about the great deal I had gotten. He couldn’t believe it. I think he was a bit skeptical, but once we got our paperwork in the mail any doubts he had were gone.

Telling the boys and what to do with them:

I felt bad that we were going to Disney without our boys. After I booked the package I told Jack that we had to tell the boys. At dinner we told the boys and they were fine about it. My oldest, Matthew is 18 and is in his first year of college. He still lives at home and said that he would take care of things around here. Conor is our middle son. He is 17 and a senior in high school. He would never go anywhere during cross country season, so our going away didn’t bother him at all. Our youngest, Ross is 15 and a sophomore. He also runs cross country. I told the boys we would get a friend of ours to come and stay with them while we were gone. Well, they were fine about us going to Disney, but not about having a “babysitter”. After much discussion we decided they could stay on their own, but will have people coming to check on them. I have to say they are good kids and have never done anything to make us not trust them. Being cross country season works in our favor. Conor and Ross won’t do anything to jeopardize their running. I have notified everyone we trust that we will be gone and it will be hard for the boys to get into much trouble. I am sure I will come home to a messy house and no food left, but I can handle that.

So this is what we ended up with:

Dates:
September 10 Cross country meet in Wooster, drive to TN
September 11 Drive to Mississippi, visit with family, drive to Alabama
September 12 Drive to Florida, check in to POR
September 13, 14, 15 Disney
September 16 Drive to southern OH
September 17 Drive to Galion, OH for cross country meet, drive home.
Thanks for reading so far. I hope I haven’t bored you to tears! Hopefully, I can keep the next installment shorter.



Up Next….. More planning
What parks on what days? Free Dining…..where should we eat?

[DrDolphin]

Great start!!! I can't wait to read more!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start

[Tara O'Hara]

Your upcoming trip sounds wonderful!! I hope you have a blast!!

[Belle of Ohio]

Up Next….. More planning
What parks on what days? Free Dining…..where should we eat?

Now that we have reservations at POR and the tickets paid in full, we need a plan of attack for the parks. I also need to make ADR’s, so I need a basic plan of where we will be on what days. I ask Jack what is on his must do list. He really wants to visit the Animal Kingdom to go on KS and see the LK show. He doesn’t have any other requests. So I make sure to work AK into our plans. I tell him that it is my goal to try the things that we have never seen or done before, and to see all three nighttime shows. He was fine with that so I came up with my basic plan, which I will post at the end.

Now that my basic plan was in place, I had to decide on ADR’s. It wasn’t something I had thought a lot about for this trip, until we got the free dining plan. We hadn’t planned on sit down meals, so I had only been researching counter service. Now that we were allotted four table service meals, I had some research to do! I knew we wanted to eat close to POR on the first night, so Boatwright’s was an easy choice. Now I needed something for late afternoon at MGM. We have done Primetime and Sci-fi before, and wanted something new. I printed the menus for Mama Melrose and Brown Derby from Deb’s site. (a very helpful site!), to show Jack later. Then I narrowed down the choices for MK. We wanted to eat our big meal at lunch on this day. Jack really wasn’t interested in character meals, so I printed the menus for Liberty Tree Tavern (no characters at lunch) and Tony’s Town Square. Now for our final day would be at Epcot, and I knew I wanted Le Cellier. I printed up the menu and gave Jack the choice of Le Cellier and Le Cellier. With the exception of Boatwright’s, all the restaurants will be new for us. I showed Jack all the menus I had printed and let him decide on where to eat at MGM and MK. I had already made the decision on Boatwright’s and Le Cellier, so that was two choices for me and two for Jack. Being the overly controlling person I usually am, I think I am being extremely generous! Jack chose Liberty Tree Tavern for MK and Mama Melrose’s for MGM. With our choices made (this took 4 days!) I called to make our ADR’s. I was a little worried because by the time I called our trip was only 40 days away. I have always called at the 90 day mark, so I was nervous. I got everything I wanted, give or take a few minutes, so I was happy!

So after a couple of weeks of planning, I had my basic plan and ADR’s in place.
Here it is:

Arrival day/Monday 9/12 Downtown Disney Boatwright’s 7:10
Day One/Tuesday 9/13 AK ½ day
MGM ½ day Mama Melrose’s 4:30
Fantasmic 8:30
Day Two/Wednesday 9/14 MK (EMH evening hours) Liberty Tree Tavern 12:30
Spectromagic (just added!!!) 8:00
Wishes 9:00
Day Three/Thursday 9/15 Epcot (EMH evening hours) Le Cellier 12:50
Illuminations 9:00

Our plan is to go back to POR in the afternoon on the MK and Epcot days, since they will be open late. Hopefully it will be nice and we will be able to swim.

I am really pleased with our plan so far. I know it may change and with just the two of us it will be easy to adapt. Jack has been working very hard this summer and I know he needs a break. I really hope that he has a good time and is able to put work behind him for a few days. I think he will, Disney has a way of making the real world disappear.

Up Next…..
Jack’s question….
Ummmm, we have to get to Mississippi, are you going to plan for that?

[RobDVC]

Great update!

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Tracy!! How awesome to get your meals for free!! Can't wait to read all about your trip!!!!

[DrDolphin]

Great update!!!

[Tink and co.]

Sounds like a great trip! Can't wait to read the rest of it!

[luvnwdwgal]

Sounds like you've got a great trip planned Tracy! Btw, where are you from in Ohio? Our DS (who graduated in 2001) also ran cross country and had meets in Galion. We live in Milan, just south of Sandusky.

[Belle of Ohio]

[ QUOTE ]
Sounds like you've got a great trip planned Tracy! Btw, where are you from in Ohio? Our DS (who graduated in 2001) also ran cross country and had meets in Galion. We live in Milan, just south of Sandusky.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am in Elyria, about 30 miles east of Milan! My son started running cross country in 2002(he is a senior this year), so we just missed you in Galion.

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update

[disneymom9092]

Great update!

[SharonK0527]

Great report so far Tracy.

I'm in the Columbus area - another Ohioan here!

Can't wait to hear more about your plans & your upcoming trip

[Belle of Ohio]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm in the Columbus area - another Ohioan here!

[/ QUOTE ]

Woo-Hoo, another Buckeye!
My DH grew up just south of Columbus, in Circleville Ohio. Home of the great Circleville Pumpkin Show!