Planning
The initial planning for this trip probably began as soon as we returned from our trip in December 2005. The best cure for the end of vacation blues is to start planning the next trip. I love all the planning involved in getting ready for a trip, while my son is content to leave it all to me. It works out great for both of us. I’m constantly pricing out different vacation scenarios, checking rates for air fare and car rentals.
We decided on the second week of October. In October 2004 we became annual passholders for the first time and we wanted to visit one more time before our AP’s expire on October 17. This will be our last trip to a Disney park for a couple of years. We plan to return to WDW for at least 10 days in December 2008 and need a chance to replenish the vacation fund.
In February I booked our hotel rooms. As usual our first choice for hotel is HoJo’s. We love it there. The grounds are beautiful, the staff is very friendly and helpful, the rooms are impeccably clean, plus they offer free high-speed internet access. I booked two rooms for October 7-15 in Building #2, our favorite building overlooking the quiet pool. To increase our chances for connecting rooms, we booked one room with a king bed and one room with two queens. Because we are AP holders, we were able to take advantage of a 15% discount off our room rates.
I think I jumped the gun a little with our air fare. I was beginning to panic because fares seemed so much higher than what we paid for our trip last December. I was afraid that another bad hurricane season might drive them even higher. So when Alaska Air Lines sent me an e-certificate good for 15% off flights to Southern California I went ahead and booked our flights on Horizon Air. Fares ended up dropping later on, but it was done and there’s no sense worrying about it. We’re kind of picky about flights anyway. We prefer Ontario airport which is less expensive than Orange County and much smaller and easier to navigate than LAX. Plus, the planes Horizon uses on their flights to Ontario only have 70 seats, with two seats on each side of the aisle. Jason prefers the window and I want an aisle seat. This way we both get what we want and we can still sit next to each other.
The last few years we’ve tried to plan something for each trip that we hadn’t done before. Usually, this involves taking a tour or visiting a new restaurant. This time we decided to purchase tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Treat for Friday, October 13. I ordered them online with the $10 AP discount.
Next up was a rental car. The last two times we rented from Alamo which seemed to have the lowest rates. This time it didn’t seem to be the case. I collected every discount and coupon code I could find plugged them into the website of every major car rental agency. At one point I had three different reservations. Finally, I ended up with a great rate through Avis using a coupon from my Entertainment Book. I also cashed in some of my Citibank Thank You points for $150 in Avis vouchers. As a result we ended up paying $17.22 for a rental car for the eight days of our trip. Not bad at all.
The last thing to do was to make our priority seating arrangements with Disney Dining. Even though you can do this up to 60 days out, I wanted to wait until they posted the park hours for October on the Disneyland website. Every morning I would check the website to find hours only posted through September. It wasn’t until after the first of September that October hours finally appeared. In addition to our usual favorites, the Blue Bayou and Carnation Café, we decided to try Café Orleans and Granville’s Steakhouse. I booked the Blue Bayou for our first full day at the park, Café Orleans for mid week and Granville’s for the day we were scheduled to fly home. Jason and I both agree that there’s no better way to start the day than with a Mickey Mouse waffle at the Carnation Café so we booked the first available seating for four mornings of our trip. On previous trips we were able to book a seating as early as 30 minutes before the official park opening. This worked perfectly for us as we were able to have a leisurely breakfast and still be done right around the time the park opened. This time, however, the earliest seating coincided with actual park opening. Not our ideal choice, but still a great way to begin the day.
With all the arrangements made, it was time to assembly the official trip binder. This ½” binder contains all our airfare, hotel and rental car confirmations, vouchers, MapQuest directions, tips I’ve gathered from Mouseplanet, and a few plastic sheet protectors to hold receipts and park maps. It fits nicely in my carryon tote bag and keeps everything neat and organized.
The only thing left to do wait.
We decided on the second week of October. In October 2004 we became annual passholders for the first time and we wanted to visit one more time before our AP’s expire on October 17. This will be our last trip to a Disney park for a couple of years. We plan to return to WDW for at least 10 days in December 2008 and need a chance to replenish the vacation fund.
In February I booked our hotel rooms. As usual our first choice for hotel is HoJo’s. We love it there. The grounds are beautiful, the staff is very friendly and helpful, the rooms are impeccably clean, plus they offer free high-speed internet access. I booked two rooms for October 7-15 in Building #2, our favorite building overlooking the quiet pool. To increase our chances for connecting rooms, we booked one room with a king bed and one room with two queens. Because we are AP holders, we were able to take advantage of a 15% discount off our room rates.
I think I jumped the gun a little with our air fare. I was beginning to panic because fares seemed so much higher than what we paid for our trip last December. I was afraid that another bad hurricane season might drive them even higher. So when Alaska Air Lines sent me an e-certificate good for 15% off flights to Southern California I went ahead and booked our flights on Horizon Air. Fares ended up dropping later on, but it was done and there’s no sense worrying about it. We’re kind of picky about flights anyway. We prefer Ontario airport which is less expensive than Orange County and much smaller and easier to navigate than LAX. Plus, the planes Horizon uses on their flights to Ontario only have 70 seats, with two seats on each side of the aisle. Jason prefers the window and I want an aisle seat. This way we both get what we want and we can still sit next to each other.
The last few years we’ve tried to plan something for each trip that we hadn’t done before. Usually, this involves taking a tour or visiting a new restaurant. This time we decided to purchase tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Treat for Friday, October 13. I ordered them online with the $10 AP discount.
Next up was a rental car. The last two times we rented from Alamo which seemed to have the lowest rates. This time it didn’t seem to be the case. I collected every discount and coupon code I could find plugged them into the website of every major car rental agency. At one point I had three different reservations. Finally, I ended up with a great rate through Avis using a coupon from my Entertainment Book. I also cashed in some of my Citibank Thank You points for $150 in Avis vouchers. As a result we ended up paying $17.22 for a rental car for the eight days of our trip. Not bad at all.
The last thing to do was to make our priority seating arrangements with Disney Dining. Even though you can do this up to 60 days out, I wanted to wait until they posted the park hours for October on the Disneyland website. Every morning I would check the website to find hours only posted through September. It wasn’t until after the first of September that October hours finally appeared. In addition to our usual favorites, the Blue Bayou and Carnation Café, we decided to try Café Orleans and Granville’s Steakhouse. I booked the Blue Bayou for our first full day at the park, Café Orleans for mid week and Granville’s for the day we were scheduled to fly home. Jason and I both agree that there’s no better way to start the day than with a Mickey Mouse waffle at the Carnation Café so we booked the first available seating for four mornings of our trip. On previous trips we were able to book a seating as early as 30 minutes before the official park opening. This worked perfectly for us as we were able to have a leisurely breakfast and still be done right around the time the park opened. This time, however, the earliest seating coincided with actual park opening. Not our ideal choice, but still a great way to begin the day.
With all the arrangements made, it was time to assembly the official trip binder. This ½” binder contains all our airfare, hotel and rental car confirmations, vouchers, MapQuest directions, tips I’ve gathered from Mouseplanet, and a few plastic sheet protectors to hold receipts and park maps. It fits nicely in my carryon tote bag and keeps everything neat and organized.
The only thing left to do wait.
posted by Eighty8Keys @ 3:56 PM
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