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Jonathan Strickland -- September 2001 -- Walt Disney World (AKL / CBR) / Disney Cruise TripThis report covers only the planning for Jonathan's Upcoming Trip. September 11 - September 19, 2001 Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia! Originally my wife (Becca) and I planned this vacation for just the two of us, but as you'll see things changed. Becca and her mother had visited WDW earlier in the year (March) and still had days left over from their park hopper passes (three days each). My wife and I decided we would use the remaining days on a vacation for the two of us later in the year. Becca works for a major airline and gets some industry discounts with Disney now and then. We were able to secure fantastic savings on both the Disney Cruise and on WDW Resort stays as long as we went on vacation before the end of September. Coincidentally we always take our annual big vacation in September to celebrate our anniversary. For the last two years we have gone on the Disney Cruise (the first time was a four day cruise, the second the seven day cruise, both on the Magic). After some debate we decided to schedule our Disney vacation in September and couple a visit to the parks with yet another four day cruise. We were excited at the idea and looked forward to cruising aboard Disney's other ship, the Wonder. Once we started looking into the vacation, however, we had to readjust our plans. Turns out the Wonder was scheduled for cleaning during our vacation plans, so to compensate the Magic would stop its normal seven day cruising plan and switch to the four/three day rotation until the Wonder was back online. We took this in stride, after all we love the Disney Magic. After careful debate, we decided to stay in the Animal Kingdom Lodge for at least two nights. We both love zoos and the reports we have read about the resort have been very encouraging. Even with my wife's discount (50% off) we wouldn't be able to afford to stay at the Lodge for the entire trip, so for the second two nights we arranged to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort (also 50% off). A second bonus for this arrangement was that the Disney Cruise Line bus leaves from the Caribbean Beach Resort, so we could board the bus to ride to Port Canaveral on our last day of staying at the resort. At this point we told my parents about the trip, and they were very envious. My family has been going on Disney World vacations since I was a baby. While my parents would be unable to take the time off to go on the full vacation with us (they are both teachers) they did have the time to go on the cruise portion. Since my wife's discount extended to immediate family, they were also able to take advantage of the reduced rates. They purchased their cruise and we began to look forward to the experience. Soon afterwards my parents called me up and let me know that my sister would be returning from her internship in Utah right before the cruise. They asked to add her to their stateroom, and the arrangements were made. Now the plan was a vacation for Becca and myself at the parks, followed by a family vacation on the cruise ship. Everyone began to get psyched up for the trip. Being of the Disney Vacation Commando Mentality (which both amuses and exasperates my wife, but that's how I was raised), I have plotted out our vacation activities for the days we are at the resorts. We will be visiting the parks on non-early entry days to avoid crowds. We also hope the crowds will be smaller during a September visit. All restaurant priority seating arrangements were made a little bit more than a month in advance of our trip:
Other notes: Although Disney does package Resort/Cruise vacations, our vacation was not booked this way. My wife's Interline discounts required us to book through an Interline travel agent (travel agents who specialize in airline industry employee vacations). Since we already had passes to the parks, we only made arrangements for accommodations and the cruise itself. Even this was booked through two different agents, one who specialized in cruises and one who specialized in Disney Resort vacations. Complicated, huh? We figure we saved more than $1,500 by booking this way, so it pays to do your homework. We will be using Disney Transportation for the entire trip (bus service to and from Resorts, monorail to the Polynesian on Friday for lunch, cruise line buses to get to Port Canaveral from the resorts and to get to the airport after the cruise). Keep in mind the bus service to the cruise line is not complimentary. Also, we will be taking a cab from the Animal Kingdom Lodge to the Caribbean Beach Resort if we are unable to get our luggage from one resort to the other any other way. Finally, I tried to arrange to have the Fantasmic Dining Experience at the Brown Derby in advance, but was told that Disney no longer accepts that before the day of the show. In other words, if you want the Fantasmic Dining Experience you have to wait until you get to MGM to make your arrangements (you can't even make a priority seating arrangement in advance and then add the Fantasmic Dining Experience once you get to MGM, it's all or nothing). After talking with the cast member I decided to go ahead with the priority seating arrangements for just dinner, then to show up and see if I could get the Fantasmic Dining Experience with the Brown Derby on arrival and just cancel the priority seating reservation made in advance. We'll see if that works out (probably not, since we plan on going to Animal Kingdom that morning and save MGM for the afternoon). Jonathan Strickland Jonathan_Strickland@haygroup.com Mail a Comment to Jonathan Strickland |
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