The Disneyholic planner

Some people go to Walt Disney World and imagine it as one big amusement park...or four big amusement parks.  They think they can go there and just play it by ear and just ride what they want to ride and eat where they want to eat without any previous planning.

Those of us who are true Disneyholics laugh at those people. 

Disneyholics do research, plan meals, have a schedule...at least SIX MONTHS in advance!  People think we are crazy...but the people that are travelling with us know that we will deliver them as many opportunities as possible to see the things they want to see, ride the things they want to ride and eat the foods they want to eat.

It begins as much as 11 months in advance.  That's the earliest a Disney Vacation Club member can make a reservation at their home resort.  Ours is Saratoga Spings and if we want to travel during peak travel times we WILL call EXACTLY 11 months before we plan to arrive...and have our room booked. 

Four months later we may call again...because seven months before our trip we can book ANY Walt Disney World Resort room and if we know we want to stay someplace else ON DISNEY PROPERTY, we will once again be on that phone EXACTLY 7 months before our trip.  At this point we'll either get the new resort we want or put ourselves on a hold list...and wait oh-so-impatiently, checking the website daily to see if we got our hold list reservation.

One month later...6 months in advance of our trip...we'll be on the computer or on the phone.  We'll have a list of restaurants where we want to eat and we'll be booking our advance dining reservations (ADRs), especially if we want to eat with Chef Mickey or in Cinderella's Castle or at Le Cellier.  These are the big ones and we know you if we don't call 6 months in advance we have almost no chance of scoring a meal at either of these places at a decent time.

The months following...they are the time for changes.  We all suffer from it...just ask any longtime Disneyholic.  We'll check park schedules to find out the opening and closing time for each park on each day.  We'll find out which days we can utilize Extra Magic Hours (or EMHs for those in the know).  We will review crowd trend numbers to see which parks we should avoid on which days and which parks will have  the lowest crowds.  We'll check our dining plans and make a few (hundred?) changes, adding and cancelling reservations as we plan out our days.

Three months before our trip we'll decide if we want to do any extra tours or excursions.  Do we want to plan a special boating cruise for ourselves or for the kids?  Do we want to plan a fishing excursion?  Do we want to do any of the other fun activities (at an extra cost of course) that Disney has to offer? Then we'll be on the phone making those arrangements.

And if the new arrangements mean a cancellation of some dining plans?  Then we start the planning again, we revise our schedule and we make some new ADRs and cancel old ones.

As for me...I'm beyond most of that right now.  I'm feeling pretty comfortable with all of my ADRs, I have the EMH parks memorized, I have booked a few special excursions for some members of our group.  I had to give up some restaurants I really wanted to try...but there will always be another Disney trip in my future. 

Right now I'm quite happy with our new touring plan for June.  Some of those days are a little more hectic than others but there are still plenty of free blocks of time for relaxing at the pool or just relaxing in the room.  I know June is going to be hot and I know our touring plan needs to be a little more agressive than usual because the crowd levels will be some of the highest we've ever seen there.  However I'm happy with the plans and I can relax for now.  I have some of our park passes purchased already, I have a card loaded up with Disney Reward Dollars that we can spend on the trip, I'll purchase an annual pass and my Tables in Wonderland Discount Dining card next month and I've already started putting away some of our travel items. 

While I'm anxious for June to arrive, part of me is okay with it taking it's time because I know once it gets here the trip will be over way too soon.

The importance of vacation DOWNTIME

We've been visiting Walt Disney World with kids since September of 2001 and while most of the time the kids have been able to roll with us and keep going, there have definitely been times where we knew they needed some downtime.

Sometimes that downtime meant time in the room for naps.  Funny how it always seemed the kids were the ones who resisted the naps the most but the adults had NO problem taking a nice little midday snooze.  Very refreshing.

Downtime can even be some time in the parks for running and playing instead of waiting in lines.  One of our favorite places to take the kids has always been the Boneyard Playground at the Animal Kingdom.  The kids always enjoy having time to run and climb and slide to their hearts content and at times it was hard to get them to leave. 

Hollywood Studios has another great playground where we've spent some time.  As the kids get older and can ride more rides, I expect we'll visit these places less and less.

Of course, pools and water parks are another great place for downtime.  During our May 2009 trip we found that the weather there for a good part of the week was in the high-80s and 90s and was just making us want to spend less time in the parks.  Instead we made it a point to tour the parks as early in the morning as possible, then head back to our room and hit the pool for a while.  Sometimes we'd have lunch in our room, sometimes we'd take some lunch down and eat by the pool.  I think it made for a much more relaxing trip and since most of our previous trips have been during off-season times when the weather was rarely HOT this was a new experience for us.  We were lucky enough to also discover on that May trip that we still had some Disney passes leftover from our 2001 trip that had unused Water Park Options on them...2 for each of us and one for Nicolas.  We used those 3 free entrances to get us into Typhoon Lagoon and just had to pay for Noelle and Noah.  It was great!


During the years we've also had a chance to do many other non-park things.  In 2009 we finally had a chance to play Disney's Mini-Golf courses which was fun.  In the past we've also rented boats to take out on Bay Lake.  Despite the many trips to Walt Disney World in the past 14 years or so, we have yet to see or do it all.  There is already a list for this upcoming trip of things to see and do at different parks that are new to some or all of us.  We'll focus on those things as well as our favorites, but we'll still try to do our best to make time for some downtime.

Bay Lake Dreaming

I can remember many years ago when the rumors first started surfacing on many of the Disney boards and forums...Disney Vacation Club is going to build a place at the Contemporary Resort. The rumors seemed to go on forever, nobody at Disney was confirming it...and then the plans were released and we all started dreaming about it: Bay Lake Tower.

For a while we contemplating purchasing more Disney Vacation Club points just to be able to get the home advantage to book this resort, but we realized that just wasn't going to happen. When we started planning our December 2009 Trip (while we were on vacation at Walt Disney World in May 2009) I called EXACTLY 7 months from our planned travel arrival and asked for Bay Lake Tower. We had just enough points to cover a standard view room there...but there were so few of those units that we were put on a hold list.

Seven months on the hold list...and we never got the room we really wanted and ended up at Saratoga Springs Resort instead.

This time around the points values were released for Bay Lake Tower rooms for 2011...and the rates for the rooms were within our price range. In early December of 2010 I called for our June 2011 reservation...and snagged a one-bedroom Lakeview room at Bay Lake Tower.

We were ecstatic.

The Contemporary Resort has always been one of our favorites. We stayed there when we took Nicolas on his very first trip to Walt Disney World in September of 2001. We stayed there on another trip as well...both times in a garden wing room because the Tower was always well above our price range too. We loved the convenience of the nice walk over the Magic Kingdom, of hopping on the monorail to EPCOT and we loved the location on the water. Now to have another tower that we can stay in using our Disney Vacation Club points was just too good to be true.

This upcoming June 2011 trip is going to be fabulous. We can't wait to have our room overlooking Bay Lake, of viewing Wishes fireworks from the Top of the World Lounge at our resort, and of being back at one of our favorite resort locations.

Disney for the adults

Back in 1998, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Florida with one of my oldest and dearest friends as well as one of her friends. My friend happened to work at the Disney Store so she had some free park passes to use. We booked a VERY cheap off-site hotel for probable less than $50 a night...and split it three ways. We found some great airfares and we went during college Spring Break week...so sometime in March we did a great girls-only Disney trip.

It was a short trip but it was still nice. We had park hoppers so we did get a chance to visit all three parks that were open at the time: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and MGM Studios. We had a really fun meal at the 50's Prime Time Cafe where they did the "airplane" and fed my friend her food. We took a day away from Disney to visit a beach and to take in a Spring Training game with our hometown team the Baltimore Oriole's. It wasn't a long trip but it was nice.

Of course, back then you still had plenty of nightlife fun at Pleasure Island as well. We went to dance clubs and visited just about every place there. We watched Otis Day and the Nights perform outside there. It was great.

There are many other adult-only activities to be enjoyed at Walt Disney World. Just once you should try to secure a dinner at Victoria and Albert's for the experience. My husband and I did this one year and had an amazing multi-course meal.

My husband has had the opportunity to do the EPCOT DiveQuest several times and the kids and I enjoyed watching him in the tanks from inside the Living Seas there. We've rented several different boats from the marina at Disney's Contemporary Resort, from the water sprites to larger boats. One evening in November of 2007 we booked a Specialty Cruise where we were taken on a water tour which ended right in the water area of EPCOT where we had a breathtaking view of Illuminations from the boat. There's no better way to view that show than that!



Walt Disney World is really not just a place for kids.

Our Disney Coin Collection

One of our newest fun things to do at Walt Disney World is to collect pressed coins. It's a fairly inexpensive souvenir and can be a fun activity for the kids. EPCOT is an especially great park for this as you can go into any shop in the World Showcase and get a coin pressed that is specific to the country you are visiting there. Unfortunately when we purchased this nice little book originally, the pressed coins were mostly pennies. Now it seems the pressed coin machines are more often quarter press machines, which makes it more expensive, but the kids still enjoy it.

Reflections on Resorts

We have been fortunate enough to have been able to stay at several Walt Disney World Resort properties over the years during our trips there. Here is a quick summary of the places we have stayed and my thoughts about them at the time. I can say with certainty that I would definitely return to ANY of these resorts for future trips. There's just nothing quite like staying on Disney property and having the convenience of Disney transportation is a huge bonus...especially when you have a large group together.

1997 - All-Star Music - We had a King-sized bed for our stay at this resort. Since the trip was in February, we didn't spend any time at the pool there. The food court was convenient though.

1999 - Dixie Landings - This trip included Frank and myself as well as his parents and his sister and her fiancee at the time. We just loved the theming of this resort and the fact that you could take a boat ride to Downtown Disney. Lots of time at the food court....don't remember much pool time though we may have visited there one evening.

2001 & 2006 - Contemporary Resort - This was Nicolas' first trip to Walt Disney World so being close to the Magic Kingdom was important. We couldn't afford a Tower Room but the Garden Wing Room was just perfect. It was unfortunate that during this trip we ended up being in the Magic Kingdom on one of the very few days that it's ever closed - September 11, 2001. We were also travelling with the in-laws but ended up getting them a room at the Wildnerness Lodge due to lack of rooms at our resort by the time we booked, so we had the chance to visit their room there as well. Both resorts were just lovely. We loved watching the geiser at the Wilderness Lodge from their balcony. You really can't beat the convenience of walking to the Magic Kingdom. Is it any surprise we have stayed here twice?

2003 - Polynesian Resort - By far this is the one Frank talks about more than any of them simply because we were able to get a great deal on this room and upgraded to a Lagoon View which also boasted a view of the Magic Kingdom Castle. My favorite video from this trip is when Nicolas and I are sitting in the darkness of our room around 6am and watching the castle turn different colors. We loved being able to ride the monorail to get to the two big parks too.

2004 - Boardwalk Villa - This was when we discovered the joy of the Disney Vacation Club rooms...during our stay in this 2-bedroom villa. It was great to have so much space and our own kitchen...especially with two small kids (and one on the way...I was several months pregnant for this trip with number three). The pool here was great too and we even rented a surrey bike and biked around the loop from Boardwalk to the Yacht and Beach Club. It was really nice to take the back entrance and walk to Epcot as well...especially with a double-stroller!

2006 - Animal Kingdom Resort - This was a trip just for Frank and myself to celebrate our anniversary and enjoy the Food and Wine Festival. We had a great time and ended up taking a tour of the Disney Vacation Club...we would be members by the end of the year.

2007 - Old Key West and Saratoga Springs - This was when we took advantage of our new membership in the Disney Vacation Club. We had a spacious 2-bedroom villa at Old Key West which was lovely. A few days later we moved over to a 3-bedroom Grand Villa at Saratoga Springs which was fantastic. It was nice to be able to walk to Downtown Disney.

2008 - Pop Century - The Pop Century stay was a short one with just myself, Frank and Nicolas. Frank didn't like the fact that he could open the door to our bedroom...while still laying in bed! Nicolas loved both of the pools and the food court is always great...tie-dyed cheesecake is a MUST to try!

(to be continued...I know I'm missing quite a few especially the adult-only trips and the recent trips!)