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Bill Balloni -- December 2001 -- Walt Disney World (PORR)This report covers only the planning for Bill's Upcoming Trip. December 1-8, 2001 Cast of Characters:
Introduction This report represents the planning for our next trip to WDW in December of 2001. I hope it provides some insight into planning a WDW vacation. Our family went down to Florida for a week of vacation in early March of 1998. We decided to split our time between WDW and the beach at Clearwater. We started at WDW and really loved it. Unfortunately, we only had 3 days in the parks before we headed to the beach. That made for a bit of a rushed WDW visit as we saw each park in consecutive days. The general feeling after the trip was that we really enjoyed WDW and wanted to return for a longer, more relaxed stay. Nancy actually surprised me by saying that we should plan a trip inside the next two years! Great with me! I really love planning these trips. My goals are to do the things we really want to do and save as much money as possible. We KNEW we wanted to stay on-site again (the 1998 trip we stayed at Port Orleans and really loved it). After spending a good bit of time on the Internet and lurking on RADP, I figured Dixie Landings (DxL) was the best bet for us (we stayed at Port Orleans in 1998). As far as time of year, we figured an early March 2000 trip would be perfect. We really had great weather and bearable crowds in March 1998 (another of my strong desires, low crowds), so it seemed a great time to go. I was able to secure DxL for the first week in March. I also made reservations for the Hoop-Dee-Doo review dinner show. We saw the show on our 1998 trip and loved it! But, mother nature had other plans for us... Nancy became pregnant in the fall of 1999! This would obviously change the plans a lot. After Jeremy was born we decided to go for March 2001. The March 2001 planning was in full swing when we talked to Nancy's sister. Her family had gone in the summer of 1997 and thought a trip in March was right for them. The more the merrier! In August 2000 we re-booked a room at DxL for 7 nights at $174 a night. After thinking about it for a while, we started to worry about taking a 10 month-old to WDW. Given our concerns, we regrouped and decided for December 2001. Ahhhh, Christmas time! And value season to boot! Around Christmas I received a mailing to join the Disney Club (DC); I was a Magic Kingdom Club (MKC) member through work. I called CRO to see if there was a DC discount for December 2001. The CM initially wouldn't tell me since I wasn't a DC member. After a little of "but how can I decide to join if I don't know if a discount is available?" he put me on hold and checked. Bingo! A DC rate was available for $103 a night (now that's more like it!). And, I could get that rate for Nancy's sister's family as well! After convincing Nancy's sister of the merits of a December trip, I joined DC and we re-booked our rooms at DxL (now Port Orleans Riverside, POR) for December 1-8, 2001. I also changed our Hoop-Dee-Doo review reservations for the new dates. In July I received a DC mailing that had an extra discount down to $98 a night. I was able to secure this rate for our dates! For planning our priority seatings (PS), I used the tools of the PS Planning Guide site at http://home.twcny.rr.com/pscalc. This site is great for calculating the dates to call to make PS arrangements, along with some other nice tools; there's no guess work at all. With the dates in hand, I was able to make the 120 days-out PS's in early August. The next big milestone is the 60 days-out in early October. A few other details are worth mentioning. I was torn as to whether or not to rent a car. We rented a car for the first day in 1998 through National. For $30+ we were able to drive ourselves to WDW and make a leisurely stop at the grocery store. I then dropped off the car at the National facility on-property and caught the National shuttle back to PO. This time we will get a car for the entire stay. With an 18 month old we will need to make a few grocery store trips. And I like the freedom of being able to driving instead of waiting for busses. I was able to use the DC discount and a free weekend coupon code to get a compact car rate of $126 for the week with National. I also purchased our admission media, 5 day park hoppers, at the DC rates for both families. Although I can't recommend DC for any other reason (we rarely use it for merchandise, etc.), it more than pays for itself in WDW vacation discounts. If you are planning a vacation, get one! Planned Itinerary Here is the planned itinerary for our trip:
I will be updated this report once we complete our visit. I am really looking forward to this trip, as is the entire family! Bill Balloni Bill.Balloni@bigfoot.com Mail a Comment to Bill Balloni |
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