disneydan11
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2013
Goal: encourage people to go to WDW and to relax about the lines and crowds and BS and to just enjoy themselves
OK, so I have been meaning to make a trip report for a while. Like four years. Been busy. Work, kids disney, Kids, Disney, Work, kids, Disney etc etc etc.....you get the picture
A little background is in order. We live in tampa. It is exactly 72 miles from our driveway to The Boardwalk. On a regular day it takes one hour and 20 minutes. Early on a saturday morning, about an hour. On a friday evening after work, almost 3 hours!!! Can you believe that, 3 hours to get to Walt Disney World?!?
I grew up going to Disney. But as many people do I grew up and grew out of Disney but then grew back into it. About five years ago my family and i truly caught the Disney bug. We have gone as a family, as a couple, with grandparents, great-grandmas, with siblings, with nieces, on solo trips and every imaginable combination of family you can imagine. We have stayed on site and off. We have gone on bare bones budgets as well as full on vacations; gone on fully planned trips and at the spur of the moment.Typically we go once a month though in early 2014 we hit a stretch where we went 8 out of 10 weekends .
I know what some of you may be thinking, oh great, a local who goes all the time, how is this relevant to me? And I understand. We are "local' and we can go every weekend. We can get there in the time it takes many people just to get to their local airport to get on a flight to go to WDW. BUT, hear me out. We do WDW like you do. Well, sort of. When we go we vary our trips between quick day trips to weekend trips, to long weekends to the full on multiday vacations. The main difference is that we have a car. Sorry, biggest myth in the WDW blogosphere is that you don't need a car. And while that is technically true let me tell you, having a car - and tables in wonderland - makes a huge difference. A car is the difference between sitting and waiting 20 minutes for a bus and then dealing with a 30 minute bus ride versus getting in your car in about 4 minutes and driving about 10 minutes. WDW is huge, But if you have a car nothing is more than 20 minutes away. Trust me.
My trip report is not from a "local" local perspective but from a frequent visitor perspective who still treats WDW like a vacation. Sort of. I guess those of us who live within an hour or so of WDW fall into our own special category: not so close that we always go for the day and go home but not so far away that it is a once a year, every other year, or even once in a life time thing. We go as often as we want and make it easier by staying a night or two at a time instead of driving home at night. Oh, and about staying for one night- HUGE benefits when you only book one night. More on that later.
So back to the intros.
Me: Dad. Early early 40's
Grew up in The Tampa area. Went to Disney world starting around 1979. Loved it ever since. My family went once or twice a year for day trips. Never stayed at The Contemporary or Poly back in the day or any other WDW resort - we stayed out pon 192.
My extended family lived in the NE - so whenever they would come down to FL to visit my family we would inevitably end up at Disney. As a consequence I probably went to Disney about 25-30 times between the ages of 6 and 18. Loved it.
Wife: same age-ish - she would not want every one to know. She was born and raised in this area. Went to WDW from a very early age and actually got to stay at the poly and contemporary on a fairly regular basis growing up.
Kiddos: My son and my step-daughter. 8-7 respectively - though since this is a four year trip report all ages vary.
Others: My dad and his wife. My Mother in law and father-in-law #1. plus father-in-law and step mother-in-law. Step brothers and step sisters in laws. Their kiddos. brother in laws. ex-husbands and their girlfriends. Sisters. Nieces. Random friends who like Disney. We are a modern family.
Starters:
We have way too many WDW hotel sized soaps, shampoos, conditioners and lotions. Honestly, we can go years without ever having to buy those products again. I have an entire drawer full of Magic bands. last count was about 14 per person. Last week the CM said we would need to start deactivating some of them.
Ok, so. I love Disney.Like the movies. But what draws me to it is he atmosphere, the ambiance, the feeling you get being there. The details. and the details. and the little details that make it different then, well, everything else.
The little things MAKE Disney World what it is. It is all in the details.
The smells. The Lights. The Sounds. The Background music.
It is walking across the bridge from the boardwalk towards the back entrance of Epcot and looking out across the water at the boardwalk and the Yacht and Beach club while hearing the background music and dodging some family on an out of control Surry Bike.
It is hearing the horns on the boats in the lake. It is getting up early in the morning to get coffee at the boardwalk bakery, seeing the joggers run by, watching the sunrise, enjoying the peace and quite that comes before the hussle and bussle of the typical Disney Day.
It is the long morning walk on the sassugoula river as the sun rises, heading over to the French Quarter for bengiettes :sp?:
Can't decide what is best - fire works from the California grill or the deck of Narcossee's. in my heart I would say CA grill. But we had a great night hitting Narcoossee's at the absolute perfect time to get a glass of champaigne and head out to the deck and watch the fire works. Although swimming in the pools at night on property and hearing the booming thunder of the fire works and seeing flashes of light while playing in the water is really just as fun. Movies under the stars, huddled under blankets and drinking wine is quite nice too.
Not sure where this trip report is going to go. I will figure it out and hopefully you come along with me as my family and I have had an incredible time over the past few years.
OK, so I have been meaning to make a trip report for a while. Like four years. Been busy. Work, kids disney, Kids, Disney, Work, kids, Disney etc etc etc.....you get the picture
A little background is in order. We live in tampa. It is exactly 72 miles from our driveway to The Boardwalk. On a regular day it takes one hour and 20 minutes. Early on a saturday morning, about an hour. On a friday evening after work, almost 3 hours!!! Can you believe that, 3 hours to get to Walt Disney World?!?
I grew up going to Disney. But as many people do I grew up and grew out of Disney but then grew back into it. About five years ago my family and i truly caught the Disney bug. We have gone as a family, as a couple, with grandparents, great-grandmas, with siblings, with nieces, on solo trips and every imaginable combination of family you can imagine. We have stayed on site and off. We have gone on bare bones budgets as well as full on vacations; gone on fully planned trips and at the spur of the moment.Typically we go once a month though in early 2014 we hit a stretch where we went 8 out of 10 weekends .
I know what some of you may be thinking, oh great, a local who goes all the time, how is this relevant to me? And I understand. We are "local' and we can go every weekend. We can get there in the time it takes many people just to get to their local airport to get on a flight to go to WDW. BUT, hear me out. We do WDW like you do. Well, sort of. When we go we vary our trips between quick day trips to weekend trips, to long weekends to the full on multiday vacations. The main difference is that we have a car. Sorry, biggest myth in the WDW blogosphere is that you don't need a car. And while that is technically true let me tell you, having a car - and tables in wonderland - makes a huge difference. A car is the difference between sitting and waiting 20 minutes for a bus and then dealing with a 30 minute bus ride versus getting in your car in about 4 minutes and driving about 10 minutes. WDW is huge, But if you have a car nothing is more than 20 minutes away. Trust me.
My trip report is not from a "local" local perspective but from a frequent visitor perspective who still treats WDW like a vacation. Sort of. I guess those of us who live within an hour or so of WDW fall into our own special category: not so close that we always go for the day and go home but not so far away that it is a once a year, every other year, or even once in a life time thing. We go as often as we want and make it easier by staying a night or two at a time instead of driving home at night. Oh, and about staying for one night- HUGE benefits when you only book one night. More on that later.
So back to the intros.
Me: Dad. Early early 40's
Grew up in The Tampa area. Went to Disney world starting around 1979. Loved it ever since. My family went once or twice a year for day trips. Never stayed at The Contemporary or Poly back in the day or any other WDW resort - we stayed out pon 192.
My extended family lived in the NE - so whenever they would come down to FL to visit my family we would inevitably end up at Disney. As a consequence I probably went to Disney about 25-30 times between the ages of 6 and 18. Loved it.
Wife: same age-ish - she would not want every one to know. She was born and raised in this area. Went to WDW from a very early age and actually got to stay at the poly and contemporary on a fairly regular basis growing up.
Kiddos: My son and my step-daughter. 8-7 respectively - though since this is a four year trip report all ages vary.
Others: My dad and his wife. My Mother in law and father-in-law #1. plus father-in-law and step mother-in-law. Step brothers and step sisters in laws. Their kiddos. brother in laws. ex-husbands and their girlfriends. Sisters. Nieces. Random friends who like Disney. We are a modern family.
Starters:
We have way too many WDW hotel sized soaps, shampoos, conditioners and lotions. Honestly, we can go years without ever having to buy those products again. I have an entire drawer full of Magic bands. last count was about 14 per person. Last week the CM said we would need to start deactivating some of them.
Ok, so. I love Disney.Like the movies. But what draws me to it is he atmosphere, the ambiance, the feeling you get being there. The details. and the details. and the little details that make it different then, well, everything else.
The little things MAKE Disney World what it is. It is all in the details.
The smells. The Lights. The Sounds. The Background music.
It is walking across the bridge from the boardwalk towards the back entrance of Epcot and looking out across the water at the boardwalk and the Yacht and Beach club while hearing the background music and dodging some family on an out of control Surry Bike.
It is hearing the horns on the boats in the lake. It is getting up early in the morning to get coffee at the boardwalk bakery, seeing the joggers run by, watching the sunrise, enjoying the peace and quite that comes before the hussle and bussle of the typical Disney Day.
It is the long morning walk on the sassugoula river as the sun rises, heading over to the French Quarter for bengiettes :sp?:
Can't decide what is best - fire works from the California grill or the deck of Narcossee's. in my heart I would say CA grill. But we had a great night hitting Narcoossee's at the absolute perfect time to get a glass of champaigne and head out to the deck and watch the fire works. Although swimming in the pools at night on property and hearing the booming thunder of the fire works and seeing flashes of light while playing in the water is really just as fun. Movies under the stars, huddled under blankets and drinking wine is quite nice too.
Not sure where this trip report is going to go. I will figure it out and hopefully you come along with me as my family and I have had an incredible time over the past few years.
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