PTR: The "Home Sweet Home 10th Birthday Celebration" Trip! - UPDATED 9/8 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PTR: The "Home Sweet Home 10th Birthday Celebration" Trip! - UPDATED 9/8
Hello Everyone! Since we leave for our trip exactly 6 weeks from today (and I've been getting my Disney fix by reading tons of TR's lately! ) I figured it was time to start my own PTR. So here we go......
Cast of Characters:
Me (Sharon): 41 years old. Lover of all things Disney. Executive Assistant by day, Mom/Wife/Reality TV junkie by night . This will be my 16th trip to WDW.
DH (Lee): 39 years old (yes ladies, I did marry a younger man ). Restaurant Manager by day (and lots of nights), Dad/Husband/Golf Enthusiast by night (or day, depending on which one he's NOT working ). This will be his 10th trip to WDW.
DD (Savannah): will turn 10 years old on this trip . Wicked smart 4th grader by day, animal lover/karate brown belt/HUGE Mickey Mouse fan by night . This will be Savannah's 10th trip to WDW - which works out well since that's her new age!
Our Journey:
Departure Date: October 8th
Return Date: October 17th
Lodging: our timeshare vacation house at Summer Bay Resort
Traveling by car from Columbus, OH
We normally go to WDW at least once a year. We weren't able to go in 2009 due to DH starting a new job that year and he hadn't earned any paid vacation time yet. Since we had to cancel last year's trip, we haven't been to WDW since December of 2008 and I am suffering severe withdrawal! DH will earn 2 weeks of paid vacation in September of this year so the dates are set for October We love to go in October - it's one of our most favorite times to go - Food & Wine festival, MNSSHP, great weather, generally low crowds, and oh yeah - a little thing we like to celebrate called SAVANNAH'S BIRTHDAY!! We love to celebrate her birthday at WDW. I mean, what else could be better, right?
The original plan was to have my DSis and her DH fly down and meet us there to surprise Savannah for her birthday. However, some unexpected expenses came up and they ended up having to use the vacation money to pay for that stuff so unfortunately they will not be joining us for this trip.
Where we're staying: Okay, so back in 2006 we had decided that we wanted to buy a timeshare in Orlando. My sister had already bought a unit at Orange Lake but even though it was nice, the resort was WAY too big for our liking. I did a lot of research online of different timeshare resorts in Orlando and when we went down to Disney that year, we drove through the ones we had narrowed it down to. We ended up really liking this one called Summer Bay Resort. As we were driving through, we noticed this little section of vacation houses so we drove past. There was a guy outside so I asked him if these homes were part of the timeshare resort and he said "Yes, but I believe the ownership in the houses is all sold out." Oh well. A few months later I was on eBay looking at timeshares for sale and I couldn't believe my eyes - someone was selling their ownership in one of the houses at Summer Bay!! Not wanting to get into a bidding war with someone, I emailed the guy who had the house listed and told him how badly I wanted this house and asked if we could arrange a price. Now I know you're not supposed to do that but this is THE timeshare I wanted and at this point no one else had bid on it. I figured the worst he could do was say . Well as it turns out, he and his wife had just divorced and were very anxious to sell the timeshare quickly. We agreed on a price, he changed the listing to a "Buy It Now" option and I went in and purchased it! No bidding war for me! AND I paid less than half what people paid who bought their ownerships directly through the Sales Office at Summer Bay! We went through the closing process with a closing company in Orlando and DH & I were the proud new owners of our timeshare vacation home! It's a 3 bedroom house (2 Master Suites and 1 BR with 2 twin beds) with a screened-in pool and hot tub. We get to use the house for 1 week every year and our ownership is for life - no expiration. The complex has several pools, mini golf, a lake with jet ski rentals, sand volleyball, tiki bar, kids playgrounds, tennis courts...I could go on and on. We really love this resort. It's less than a 15 minute drive to get to Disney and thanks to this new road they just finished building 2 years ago, it's now even quicker than that!
So, getting back to the present, we love the resort and our vacation home so much that we go there every year. Whenever we go, when we walk through the doors of the house we always turn to each other and say "Welcome home". So this will be the "Home Sweet Home 10th Birthday Celebration" trip for us!
Here are some photos from some of our previous trips so you can see what the house looks like (the first 2 photos are from the Summer Bay website but it's exactly what the house looks like):
Coming up......more plans to be made!!
__________________
Sharon
Magic Kingdom, March 2015
Last edited by SharonK0527; 08-16-2010 at 09:58 AM..
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
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Now of course we all know that these plans have changed a hundred times since I started making them, and I'm sure they'll change a hundred more in the next 6 weeks but here is the plan as of today:
October 8th - leave for Florida. We usually drive so that we can save the money on airfare and a rental car, plus having our own car with us we are not restricted to a certain # of suitcases, etc. We can bring our own food with us, which we do. We always pack a cooler with things like drinks, lunch meat, cheese, mayo, apple sauce, yogurt - anything that needs to stay cool. Then we also pack a few bags of dry goods - bread, cereal, chips, snacks, etc. In the past we have always driven my husband's minivan but the van is getting up there in years now and I don't trust it on a long road trip so this trip we have decided to rent a car here in Columbus. I got a good deal on a Full Size car with Thrifty Rental Car. We'll pick up the rental car at Port Columbus Airport early in the morning on the 8th (the airport is about 20 minutes from our house), go home and load up the car and hit the road. It usually takes about 15-16 hours to get to Florida. We will drive for about 12 hours on Friday and then stop for the night.
October 9th - get up in the morning, have some breakfast, and hit the road. We hope to only have about 3 hours left to go so we should arrive in Orlando around 12-1pm. We'll head straight for Summer Bay and check in. Our house isn't guaranteed to be ready until 4pm but sometimes it's ready early. If the house is ready, the first thing we do after unloading the car is go to the Publix grocery store right around the corner and pick up any extra food items we didn't bring with us. If the house is not ready, we will head straight to Disney to start enjoying the parks. Since this day is Savannah's birthday the plan is to go to Epcot (that was her choice of park for her Bday). First thing we'll do is stop at Guest Relations and pick up a birthday button. We have a 4:15pm dinner ADR at Garden Grill. This will be our first time eating here and after reading all the good reviews, I'm excited. I plan to order Savannah a cake for her birthday. After dinner we'll enjoy the park and watch Illuminations and then head back to the resort to pick up the key to the house (since we wouldn't have gone earlier, we'll head to Publix at this point to pick up the extra food and then go unload the car at the house). I'm sure Savannah will want to hop in the pool for a little while and then we'll hit the sack and get some sleep
October 10th - the plan is to go to Animal Kingdom. I'd like to do the Picnic in the Park for lunch. We'll probably leave the park around 3:30 to head back to the house. Savannah has a 5:45pm ADR at the Neverland Club at the Poly. Every trip, DH & I always do one adult dinner just the 2 of us . Savannah the Neverland Club so we always take her there to enjoy herself while we go for a nice dinner. After dropping Savannah off at NLC, DH & I will head over to the Dolphin where we have a 6:30pm ADR at Todd English's Blue Zoo. This will be our first time dining here. I Todd English (he's my favorite chef)and am looking forward to dining here. If anyone has any feedback on this restaurant please share.
October 11th - DHS is the plan for today. We have an 11:20am lunch ADR at Sci-Fi. It's been a few years since we ate here and are looking forward to going back. Will spend the day at DHS and then probably hop over to Epcot to enjoy some of the F&W Festival and let Savannah get her "passport" stamped as we enjoy World Showcase.
October 12th - today will probably be a "hang out and swim at the house and enjoy the resort" morning and afternoon. We'll head over to Magic Kingdom around 4:00pm because tonight we are going to MNSSHP! This will be our 4th time enjoying MNSSHP - anytime we go to WDW in October the party is a must-do for us. We really enjoy it!
October 13th - the plan for today is Typhoon Lagoon and then probably do some shopping at DTD in the evening.
October 14th - today's park is undecided. We will probably go hit Epcot again and since we will have park hopper tickets, we might hop over to DHS in the evening to try and catch Fantasmic (if we didn't already see it earlier in the week).
October 15th - today will be a park hopper day, trying to hit any attractions we missed or if there is a particular park we want to hit again. The later part of the day will be spent at MK so we can catch Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade this evening. Then it's back to the house to start loading up the car for our departure tomorrow.
October 16th - time to head home . Many times on our drive home, depending on how we're feeling, we do the drive straight through without stopping for the night so we'll either get home around 3am on Sunday or Sunday afternoon if we decide to stop somewhere Saturday night.
So those are the plans for now. Originally we wanted to go to Universal to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter but as of right now we have decided to forego that this trip due to the crowds and price. It's still something we're talking about though so we'll see what happens with that.
As you can see, I have a few ADR's but not many. We try to eat some of our meals at the house to save some money. While we are out at the parks we'll grab some CS meals.
Normally we purchase Annual Passes but I don't think that's in the budget this year. I am able to purchase Park Hopper tickets through my work at a discount so I will be purchasing 5-day Park Hopper tickets for all of us, plus 1 One Day Magic Your Way ticket for DH - Savannah & I each have a voucher for a One Day ticket from when we participated in the "Give A Day" of volunteer service. That will give each of us 6 days of park admission.
I like to have some plans made and a structure to the trip but one thing we have learned after many trips is that we enjoy ourselves more when we make sure to take time to enjoy our vacation house and not hit the parks all day every day. We are not the type of family to be at the parks at Rope Drop. DH & I enjoy getting up in the morning, making a pot of coffee and sitting outside in the hot tub while Savannah enjoys a morning swim. This is not something we can do at home so we always make sure to enjoy our vacation house as much as we can since we only get to use it one week a year. We have learned to appreciate that this is our vacation and we don't enjoy it as much when we are "go go go" all the time.
So those are the plans for now. Subject to change, of course
We drive from the Cleveland area. We usually try to drive straight back as well. We get tired with 3-4 hours left and we tell ourselves we should not waste the money on a hotel room since we are so close to home. By this time DS is sound asleep. DH and I talk to keep each other up so we can finish the drive. The worst part is DS still gets up at his normal time and we want to sleep.
We drive from the Cleveland area. We usually try to drive straight back as well. We get tired with 3-4 hours left and we tell ourselves we should not waste the money on a hotel room since we are so close to home. By this time DS is sound asleep. DH and I talk to keep each other up so we can finish the drive. The worst part is DS still gets up at his normal time and we want to sleep.
Your vacation home is beautiful. Your plans sound great and I love the title of your TR. I think the Garden Grill is a great choice for Savannah's birthday dinner, we always have a great time there and the interaction is wonderful.
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About This Page: 
) I figured it was time to start my own PTR. So here we go......
. This will be my 16th trip to WDW.
). This will be his 10th trip to WDW.
. Wicked smart 4th grader by day, animal lover/karate brown belt/HUGE Mickey Mouse fan by night 
. This will be Savannah's 10th trip to WDW - which works out well since that's her new age! 
DH will earn 2 weeks of paid vacation in September of this year so the dates are set for October 
We love to go in October - it's one of our most favorite times to go - Food & Wine festival, MNSSHP, great weather, generally low crowds, and oh yeah - a little thing we like to celebrate called SAVANNAH'S BIRTHDAY!! 
We love to celebrate her birthday at WDW. I mean, what else could be better, right? 
Oh well. A few months later I was on eBay looking at timeshares for sale and I couldn't believe my eyes - someone was selling their ownership in one of the houses at Summer Bay!! 
Not wanting to get into a bidding war with someone, I emailed the guy who had the house listed and told him how badly I wanted this house and asked if we could arrange a price. Now I know you're not supposed to do that but this is THE timeshare I wanted and at this point no one else had bid on it. I figured the worst he could do was say 
. Well as it turns out, he and his wife had just divorced and were very anxious to sell the timeshare quickly. We agreed on a price, he changed the listing to a "Buy It Now" option and I went in and purchased it! No bidding war for me! 
It's a 3 bedroom house (2 Master Suites and 1 BR with 2 twin beds) with a screened-in pool and hot tub. We get to use the house for 1 week every year and our ownership is for life - no expiration. The complex has several pools, mini golf, a lake with jet ski rentals, sand volleyball, tiki bar, kids playgrounds, tennis courts...I could go on and on. We really love this resort. It's less than a 15 minute drive to get to Disney and thanks to this new road they just finished building 2 years ago, it's now even quicker than that! 
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