The quiet litte Trip that snowballed into two PTR - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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I have been good I have waited but now I am way way too excited to wait any longer to start a Pre-Trip report. Disney is usually a once every three or even four years experience for us so I am over the moon to be returning only 7 months after our last trip and also planning two trips simultaneously.
This trip(s) all started in July 2012. We had thought about buying DVC in 1998 but I was pregnant and we didn't have a clear view of our financial future so we decided not to do it then. We did the tour in 2006 fully intending to purchase but we didn't want to do the purchase on the spot thing so took the information away to purchase from home in the cold light of day. When we got home my job changed so again we waited. I had almost decided it wasn't to be when we were on our 2012 trip but the last weekend I said to my husband instead of thinking about it for another 6 years why don't we just go for it. We took a tour on a Sunday afternoon, left the two older children (teenagers both) in the apartemnt and took the youngest with us to the Saratoga springs resort facility. Three hours later we left with 220 AKV points with a plan to bank them and start a three year cycle of visits. We were also given an additional 220 2011 points which had been immediately banked and had to be used by July 2013. Now that didn't fit with our once every three years thinking so we decided a simple little quiet trip was in order but when. The options were October, February or July. Well we already had a trip to Italy planned for July, October seemed too soon to fly back over the Atlantic so that left February...
We were invited to a new members breakfast at the top of the world lounge in BLT the following day which was also our last day. While at the breakfast we booked a week at Hilton Head Island for February 2013 thinking a nice quiet holiday would probably be just what we needed after the madness of three weeks in Orlando. The best bit about leaving WDW in 2012 was knowing now we had to come back...
Next up: How long did it take for our small quiet trip to snowball into full on disney madness.
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Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 11-30-2012 at 10:42 AM..
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So we left the world with a trip to Hilton Head planned for February. Just to give a little background we moved to Paris a year ago and bought annual passes to Disneyland Paris. We had been so many times we had almost put ourselves off Disney if that is even possible partly because DLP is never quiet not even first thing in the morning and because it just doesn't have the customer service of WDW. So when we went to Orlando in July we were not really feeling Disney. We mostly did Universal until the last few days where we started to do Disney and I suddenly remembered why I love that place. Due to this I left Orlando really feeling that I hadn't had enough disney. On the flight home i was already thinking I don't know if I could enjoy hilton Head without thinking we could have been in WDW. When we got home I looked at flights and flying to Savannah from Paris or London was a lot more complicated than flying to Orlando. When I looked at prices I was sold. We cancelled Hilton Head and booked a 1 bedroom standard view at Kidani village for 8 nights and bought flights to Orlando. I did say to the children we will be having a quiet holiday I will buy passes for 1 or 2 days but no more.
My DD is 17 and sitting her final exams this summer. She has one set in January and another in May. I felt February was a perfect time for a holiday as she could have a break after the first set before starting to study for the second. However, she decided she wants to study through so she will stay at home and we will go without her.
That means this holiday will just be the 4 of us. Me DH, DS14 and DS9.
Next up: What do you mean we are going twice in 2013?
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Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 12-03-2012 at 10:28 AM..
Glad DVC is working out for you. I imagine living so close to DLP has been fun - even if it did lead to a bit of "too much Disney" for a while. Sounds like you have some nice trips coming up.
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So within a week of coming back from WDW we had cancelled our two bedroom at Hilton Head and swapped it for a 1 bedroom at AKV as we were missing the world and also because my DD had decided she really didn't want to come with us. We went to Scotland in August for a holiday and were visiting a castle when said daughter announced she wants to go to Orlando next year. go figure. So I asked her if she wanted me to change the 1 bedroom for a 2 bedroom but no she is adamant she doesn't want to come in February. Our next trip after that was pencilled in for summer 2014 but she is planning on leaving home before then so may not want to come with us then. My work then threw us a curve ball as well. My boss announced we will most likely be moving to our next location summer 2014 And it might be Australia so with a potential house move in the pipeline maybe a trip to Orlando that summer isn't the best plan. So I started playing around with dates and came up with late August 2013 just befor DD leaves home. I look at flight prices and points and decided to buy flights flying to Orlando on the 13th of August leaving on the 28th. So with two trips in the near future we are going to have to be very careful how we use our points.
Next up: Would we have enough points for all this travel. What accommodations have we ended up with
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Scottish Hogmanay (with a stolen Picture)
Last edited by Thomhazel; 12-23-2012 at 02:44 PM..
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The quiet litte Trip that snowballed into two PTR
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to DVC! Congrats on two trip, too! 
Can't wait to learn all the details.
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