How our 10 year anniversary trip turned in to DS’s almost 5th birthday celebration PTR – YC April/May 2009 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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How our 10 year anniversary trip turned in to DS’s almost 5th birthday celebration PTR – YC April/May 2009
Who:
Myself, Heather 34 y.o. SAHM/WAHM, P/T Substitute Teacher, obsessed vacation planner on a budget
DH, Jake 37 y.o. Fabulous husband extrordinaire of almost 10 years. He's a total enabler of my Disney habit (or has he just secretly caught the Disney bug himself?)
DS, TJ 4 y.o. (Turns 5 right after our trip, so we'll be celebrating his birthday while we're there) TJ has some special needs based on some developmental delays and minor sensory integration issues. Although TJ's issues present some extra challenges for us in planning and executing our trips, we are fortunate that these challenges are so minor and count our blessings everyday to have such a healthy, beautiful boy. Note: We survived most of our last WDW trip with the assistance of a pair of ear-muffs. We've slowly weaned him of the ear-muffs on other theme-park visits and hope to have an ear-muff free WDW vacation this go around.
After returning from WDW in December 2007, we did what almost everyone does after they return from a great WDW vacation. We started planning our next trip. Well….I did, and since I tend to talk out-loud as I brainstorm DH was technically aware that the wheels were turning. I tried to keep the actual planning to a minimum and busied myself with post-trip activities; photopass editing, trip report writing, scrapbooking. An active cold/flu season, particularly aggressive Spring allergies, and DS’s bouts with Asthma, Pneumonia and recurring ear infections kept us pretty distracted though much of the Spring of ’08. I was further pre-occupied with our next trip to Legoland. We were 7-8 months into our Legoland memberships and wanted to take at least two more trips to Carlsbad, Ca. before they expired in October. A perfect reason for a trip was DS’s 4th birthday in early June. I found a great resort right on the beach in Carlsbad (Beach Terrace Inn), so I booked 4 nights so we’d have lots of time for relaxing. It was a fabulous trip and I loved the Beach Terrace Inn. It wasn’t as fancy and refined as Disney’s Beach Club, but its location was perfect. One of my favorite memories of our BC trip was my early morning walks around Crescent Lake. Similarly, one of my favorite memories at the Beach Terrace Inn was my early morning walks in the surf of the Pacific Ocean. As distracted as I had been with other things (you know, life), it was after we returned home from this trip that my Disney addicted brain started going into overdrive.
I attempted to distract myself once again while playing around with Windows Movie Maker. We used DH’s Canon PowerShot SD850 to take a lot of video on our California trip and I wanted to actually do something with the video for a change. The result of this project was a fabulous (if I may say so without sounding arrogant) 30 minute ‘Legoland Movie’ that DS enjoys watching over and over again. Once a month, I’d get together with my friends for scrapbooking. As I continued to scrapbook our pictures from our December WDW trip, I started wishing I had taken more videos so that I could make something equally as great to help DS remember his trip there. The only reason we didn’t take more video then, was that we didn’t have as many memory cards. DH had since gotten several great deals on a few 4 GB and a couple 8 GB cards. It was about the end of August and I really started getting antsy about actually sitting down to start planning our next WDW adventure. Although, I always tell people it’s never too early to started planning a trip to WDW, deep down, I know that starting to plan too early can really create quite a deal of angst in the planner and sometimes really start to annoy one’s family members. So, I was off once again to distract myself with planning one final trip to Legoland before our memberships were set to expire in October. It was only a quick weekend trip at the beginning of DS’s fall break, but it still required a bit of planning to make it as budget friendly as possible.
Around the beginning of September, I started reading some posts about ‘Pin Codes’ that people were receiving for Free-Dining outside the traditional Aug/Sept time frame. I tried discussing with DH what we thought we should do if we got the Pin Code….we were all pretty distracted at the time and didn't have time to figure out ‘what we would do’ if we got the code. So on September 16th, I opened my e-mail and gasped. It was the Pin Code! What to do? What to do? As any normal Disney addict does, my first impulse was book first, question later. Fortunately, better reasoning set in fairly quickly and I thought to actually consult DH and you wonderful ‘Passporters’. By the time I had actually done a little research, called DH, and posted a thread….I regained my sanity and realized that the responsible thing to do was to continue to save up our money for our future trip.
I don’t know what made me come up with the idea other than that I was still having major Disney Park withdrawal, but a light bulb went off in my head on how to satisfy my Disney urges. Before the day was through, I added 2 nights to our Ramada reservation for Octobers Legoland Trip and purchased 3 tickets to Mickey’s Trick or Treat Party at DCA. By booking 3 or more nights, I got a better rate at the hotel so it didn’t cost much more for the extra nights. I also transferred enough of my Disney Reward Visa $ to my rewards card to buy 3 one day, one park tickets for use at DL. I also went through my Disney folder and pulled out our unused Disney Dollars from our last trip. We had enough for our lunch and maybe even a snack to share. Although we were spending more money on this trip than was planned, it felt like we were actually saving money since we had passed on the pin code and were spending no where near as much as if we had booked the offer.
The time came for our trip and aside from a last minute problem with DS’s asthma/allergies flaring up; we had a pretty great time. Legoland as usual, was a blast and especially fun due to a lack of crowds. We did the Brick or Treat Party at Legoland, but much preferred Mickey’s Trick or Treat Party at DCA. I have to say that DL itself….was just okay. I grew up going to DL, but have since fallen in love with WDW. This was only the 3rd time I’ve been to DLR for a day trip and the first since we’ve had DS. On DS’s two prior trips, we had 3 and 4 day park hoppers and really took our time. This one day trip was just way too rushed for us to be able to fully enjoy it. Also, it just seemed like everyone we encountered that day was a little more on edge and crazed. In the end, we are still glad we went, but wish it had been a little bit more magical. Of course you can see where this is going……not being completely satisfied with our ONE day at DL, I was even more obsessed with planning our next LONG trip to WDW. We finally settled on 11 nights at the YC in December 2009 to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. I was so happy to finally have a time frame and a definitive 'plan'.
Okay, so that 'plan' was in effect for all of about a month. I dove in and started my spreadsheets. I planned out our ADR’s again and again. I estimated how soon we’d earn our next SWA reward tickets. I had DH notify our house-sitter so he could mark off his calendar. I read through our trip report and Passporter notes from Dec. ‘07’s trip to think about what changes to make and what to keep the same. On 11/5/08, I just happened to notice a thread on Passporter about Mousesavers mentioning a big announcement the next day. I had mentioned the announcement to DH. I told him all I knew was that it was some kind of savings discount for the first half of 2009. Since we weren’t traveling until the 2nd half (okay, the last month) of 2009 we agreed it would have to be a substantial savings to get us to change our plans. We talked about when we would go and agreed that we’d rather go when it’s starting to warm up, after SAB was open from rehab, before the summer crowds started going, and not to far away from DS’s 5th birthday in early June. The next day, I was so distracted and busy I never got around to even turning on the computer. Fortunately, when DH got home, he asked “so what was the big announcement?” Agggh! I flew to the computer, turned it on, navigated to Mousesavers and read about the ‘book 4 nights, get 3 nights for free’ offer. At first, DH was still hanging onto the idea of going again in December for all the holiday extra’s. I was also a little hesitant and was worried we’d be sad if we did switch the trip around and then later regretted missing going in December. In the end, we decided it couldn’t hurt to at least price out a trip with the deal and see what the savings would be. Once we saw that our savings would be over $1,300, we just couldn’t justify not booking it and saving the money. So, we booked 10 nights at the YC from late April thru early May with 10day P/H’s and the Basic DDP.
So, 11 nights in December for our anniversary became 10 nights in April/May for DS’s 5th birthday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t book airfare yet as our return flight is still beyond the dates available on SWA’s schedule. I did notice, however, that the only non-stop flight would get us into MCO later than I wanted (almost 7pm). By the time we got into MCO, took DME, and check-ed into the YC it would be bedtime. Since we enjoyed it so much last time, we wanted to make a first night tradition out of eating at Spoodles. Arriving so late would make that impossible. It would also make unpacking and being ready for MK’s EMH the next morning extremely difficult. So, we decided we’d book an extra night onto the front at one of the value resorts. With our AAA discount, I should be able to get a room-only reservation for one night at Pop or one of the All Stars for around $100. We’re still saving over $1,200, but now we’re officially back to 11 nights altogether.
It’s been pretty quiet planning wise. I adjusted the dates on my spreadsheets to work with our new trip, made a few ADR changes, had DH revise our dates with our house/dog-sitter, and started to make DS a new Autograph book. Just when I started to wonder if and when I should be getting any Disney Mail, I received an unmarked envelope from North Texas. Inside was a copy of our booking document with a note attached that it had been included inside someone else’s Disney Mail. Fortunately, they were nice enough to forward it along to us and not just toss it in the bin.
Other than booking our 10 nights at the YC, we haven’t booked anything else. It feels a little unsettling knowing that there’s still so much to do. I’ve been watching Passporter, Mousesavers, All Ears, and SWA.com like a hawk to make sure I don’t miss any important dates. Tentatively, it look like on Dec. 1st I’ll be able to call and make our ADR’s and DS’s Albatross Treasure Cruise. On Dec. 9th, I should be able to book our flights. Once our flight is actually booked, I’ll call and get our room only reservation at a value resort using AAA. I'm anxiously awaiting May's hours so that I can make sure our ADR's will work. Deep down, I know that all this waiting is nothing like what it will be like once all the details are booked and confirmed. In just a few short weeks, there will be nothing to do but wait for April to come. Well…..nothing but obsesses over what to pack, how to keep us all healthy this Spring, and all the spreadsheet revisions. Oh…..and pre-order our Photopass CD. AND, make our mousekeeping envelopes. I’m sure I’ll come up with more. I'll be waiting and watching to see what comes of this whole 'on-line resort check in' and on-line ADR's. I'm hoping that all the 'on-line' service doesn't distract or limit the amount of person to person interaction that sometimes leads to so much Disney Magic.
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Countdown to April/May 2014 Boardwalk Inn.....3 Generations trip with my mom (first trip) and DS9 (fourth trip). DS's gonna show his Gramma the world!
While 10 nights at the YC for the holidays sounded great...saving $1300 and getting there for the beginning of May sounds even better...first off it is an amazing savings, two it means the trip is so much closer and May is such a great time because of the weather...
Can't wait to hear more of your plans as they unfold...
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
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Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Sounds like you are off to a great start planning wise!!! DH and I took a trip in February of 2007, our 15th anniversary was later that year and we didn't expect to get back. On the 10th of February (our anniversary day, 8 months early) we got our anniversary pins and celebrated. We did end up with a trip for our anniversary and we did celebrate (again) with our kiddos this time. So, since it was supposed to be an anniversary vacation, you could get your anniversary buttons and celebrate one day!
Can't wait to hear more about your plans!!!
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Me ~ Christina; DH ~ '92; DD ~ '99; DS ~ '06
My reasons for breathing!!! MGM Studios October 2007
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While 10 nights at the YC for the holidays sounded great...saving $1300 and getting there for the beginning of May sounds even better...first off it is an amazing savings, two it means the trip is so much closer and May is such a great time because of the weather...
Can't wait to hear more of your plans as they unfold...
I think that's the selling point that convinced DH it was worth going earlier....$$$ and pretty much guaranteed good weather.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start!! How lucky to have such a long trip!!
Don't I know it! We thought our 9 night stay last year was going to be too long. Once we came home we realized we wished we had stayed longer. Flying from AZ takes up most of the first day (even if we can get on an early morning flight). We also like to make our airfare go as far as possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsblady01
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mad4mickey
Sounds like you are off to a great start planning wise!!! DH and I took a trip in February of 2007, our 15th anniversary was later that year and we didn't expect to get back. On the 10th of February (our anniversary day, 8 months early) we got our anniversary pins and celebrated. We did end up with a trip for our anniversary and we did celebrate (again) with our kiddos this time. So, since it was supposed to be an anniversary vacation, you could get your anniversary buttons and celebrate one day!
Can't wait to hear more about your plans!!!
That sounds like a plan to me! We'll celebrate DS's birthday when we go to CRT and our anniversary at either Tutto Italia or Chefs de France.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Sounds like you are going to have lots of fun planning the trip. Hope everything is magical when you go. Can't wait to read more on your planning.
Thanks! Once I get the green light, I really do like the actual planning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DyanKJ130
Great start!! Looking forward to more
Thanks! I'm still anxiously counting down the days until I can make more arrangements.
I called today and made a payment on the trip. I mentioned that my confirmation got stuffed in someone elses's envelope and they said not to worry as they will require confirmation of at least 3 security items if a call is made to change any of the details of the trip.
She asked what we were celebrating, if anything. I mentioned DS's birthday and it was noted on the reservation. I didn't mention our anniversary....was just planning on mentioning that on one of our ADR's. We celebrated our 8th anniversary on our December 2007 trip. We mentioned it when booking and wore buttons the entire time.....this time, we'll be a bit more low key about it and letting DS get the attention this time for his big 5th birthday.
While I had her on the phone, I asked if there was an update yet about making Advanced Dining Reservations and she said their estimate was the 3rd week of December. I asked if there would be anything noted on the website or if there would be an announcement and she said she didn't think so. So, I guess I'll start calling each morning starting on December 1st and take it from there. (If I miss the morning, it won't take me long to find out since I'll probably see 50 posts about it on-line.)
I was also planning on pre-ordering the photopass cd this month, but I think I'll wait until next month since there really isn't a hurry about it.
My next task is to figure out when to reserve our first night room-only reservation. Since it's only one night, I'll have to pay for the whole thing when I book right? I'll book it with the AAA discount and then hope for a room-only deal to come out that will make it a little cheaper. If I get a deal, do I just get a strait refund? Maybe I'll book it next month too. We want to give POP a try for the first night, but since we'll get in late and just sleep and eat breakfast - technically, we'll be flexible and just book what's available even if it's at the all-stars. What would be the latest you'd wait? Ideas?
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Countdown to April/May 2014 Boardwalk Inn.....3 Generations trip with my mom (first trip) and DS9 (fourth trip). DS's gonna show his Gramma the world!
Last edited by dizzparkmom; 11-29-2008 at 10:15 PM..
Great start!! Definitely get the pins...both anniversary and absolutely for DS's birthday. I did it for our trip this Oct/Nov and DH and I got tons of happy anniversary's and I got even mor happy birthdays. It made it all a little more special.
We'll be staying at the BC for the first time next November, it's great to hear that you liked it so much.
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Great update! With a room-only, you have to pay the cost of one night's stay, so you would need to pay the entire thing. If you end up getting a deal, a credit will be applied to your credit card. Good idea to wait on the PhotoPass CD....why pay the money out now, if you don't really need to. Looking forward to more
Great update! With a room-only, you have to pay the cost of one night's stay, so you would need to pay the entire thing. If you end up getting a deal, a credit will be applied to your credit card. Good idea to wait on the PhotoPass CD....why pay the money out now, if you don't really need to. Looking forward to more
That's what I was thinking! Thanks! I'll probably wait until next month for both the CD and the Room Only Resv. and leave this months budget open for more Christmas shopping.
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Countdown to April/May 2014 Boardwalk Inn.....3 Generations trip with my mom (first trip) and DS9 (fourth trip). DS's gonna show his Gramma the world!
Since SWA opened up their schedule beyond 5/8 today, I was able to go ahead and book our flight home on 5/9. I had been holding off on booking our travel to MCO as well since I had 2 RR credits to use and wanted to use them for the most expensive fares. My patience (if you can call it that) worked out as the flights home were cheaper than the outbound ones and I saved a tiny bit of money. Every bit counts, right?
As good a deal as we are getting on the 4/3 package, it's still disappointing to go back to my records from the Dec. 07 trip and see that we are paying $240+ more in airfare for this trip. I could have held off on booking the flights and waited for a better deal, but I haven't been seeing very many deals or DINGS for the flights/days we wanted.....so, I decided to just book it. If we do get any deals, we'll just have banked credit that may or may not get used. We've got no other trips planned before they'll expire, but we could probably think of something economical to use them for.
Speaking of not having any other trips planned , I can't stop wondering what the DCL announcement is going to be tomorrow. My mother has been wanting to take a cruise since I was little and has never had the opportunity....if this is a really great deal...it's got my mind wondering about maybe a mother/daughter cruise. It's going to have to be some HUGE deal though and maybe not even then, but I can dream, can't I?
Still awaiting the May hours and ADR system!
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Countdown to April/May 2014 Boardwalk Inn.....3 Generations trip with my mom (first trip) and DS9 (fourth trip). DS's gonna show his Gramma the world!
Glad you got the rest of the airfare!! DINGS have been few and far between around here! I'm hoping things come down for our cruise in August (and I'll be watching for that annoucement tomorrrow as well)!!
About This Page: 
Note: We survived most of our last WDW trip with the assistance of a pair of ear-muffs. 
We've slowly weaned him of the ear-muffs on other theme-park visits and hope to have an ear-muff free WDW vacation this go around. 
kept us pretty distracted though much of the Spring of ’08. I was further pre-occupied with our next trip to Legoland. We were 7-8 months into our Legoland memberships and wanted to take at least two more trips to Carlsbad, Ca. before they expired in October. A perfect reason for a trip was DS’s 4th birthday in early June. I found a great resort right on the beach in Carlsbad (Beach Terrace Inn), so I booked 4 nights so we’d have lots of time for relaxing. It was a fabulous trip and I loved the Beach Terrace Inn. It wasn’t as fancy and refined as Disney’s Beach Club, but its location was perfect. One of my favorite memories of our BC trip was my early morning walks around Crescent Lake. Similarly, one of my favorite memories at the Beach Terrace Inn was my early morning walks in the surf of the Pacific Ocean. As distracted as I had been with other things (you know, life), it was after we returned home from this trip that my Disney addicted brain started going into overdrive. 
Fortunately, better reasoning set in fairly quickly and I thought to actually consult DH and you wonderful ‘Passporters’. 
By the time I had actually done a little research, called DH, and posted a thread….I regained my sanity and realized that the responsible thing to do was to continue to save up our money for our future trip. 
but a light bulb went off in my head on how to satisfy my Disney urges. Before the day was through, I added 2 nights to our Ramada reservation for Octobers Legoland Trip and purchased 3 tickets to Mickey’s Trick or Treat Party at DCA. By booking 3 or more nights, I got a better rate at the hotel so it didn’t cost much more for the extra nights. I also transferred enough of my Disney Reward Visa $ to my rewards card to buy 3 one day, one park tickets for use at DL. I also went through my Disney folder and pulled out our unused Disney Dollars from our last trip. We had enough for our lunch and maybe even a snack to share. Although we were spending more money on this trip than was planned, it felt like we were actually saving money since we had passed on the pin code and were spending no where near as much as if we had booked the offer. 
I flew to the computer, turned it on, navigated to Mousesavers and read about the ‘book 4 nights, get 3 nights for free’ offer. At first, DH was still hanging onto the idea of going again in December for all the holiday extra’s. I was also a little hesitant and was worried we’d be sad if we did switch the trip around and then later regretted missing going in December. In the end, we decided it couldn’t hurt to at least price out a trip with the deal and see what the savings would be. Once we saw that our savings would be over $1,300, we just couldn’t justify not booking it and saving the money. So, we booked 10 nights at the YC from late April thru early May with 10day P/H’s and the Basic DDP. 
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