mdgineok
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2013
This is my first ever trip report. I read through allot of these while doing the planning for our trip and let me warn you, I dont have the keen writing abilites that many of you possess. Many have the ability to interject their thoughts and feelings into what they write that make the story compelling. I am not that kind of writer. This will be more of a "here is what we did and how we did it" report. I think it is more directed towards those who would ask what we did, not why we did.
I am copying most of it from a trip "diary" that I wrote after we got back. My Mom wrote one about a cross country car trip we took when I was in 4th grade and I still have it. I thought our kids might like one too.
I also want to thank all of the Forum members for their help while planning our trip to the World. It would have not been as successful without all of the tips and tricks I learned here.
We (me-Mark, wife Linda, Josh 10, and Holly 8) booked our first trip to WDW in July of 2015 for May 10-16, 2015 staying at Coronado Springs Resort. We decided to stay business class due to the room location and access to the lounge. We completed our package with the Dining Plan, Memory Maker and 7 day PH’s.
We decided we were not going to tell the kids until the morning of our flight. It was the longest I have ever kept a secret and there were several close calls between me and Linda while planning the trip.
As we got closer to our ADR date I started to narrow down our itinerary. I used several touring plan websites to help figure out which day to do what parks. I knew we wanted to meet friends at the beach one day so using the recommended days we chose Wednesday as our off property day. It was about in the middle of our stay so we would be able to get a break from the parks.
Before our ADR date we spent a lot of time looking at park maps to figure out where we might be to help figure out where to eat. We also looked at menus to figure out if there were things we would actually eat at the restaurants. My plan was to avoid having more than two reserved meals at any park on any day. We were on the dining plan so I used a website I found through the forums to help figure out which ones to pay out of pocket and which ones to use the dining plan on.
Once we had our park days figured out and our dining places figured out we started to come up with a touring plan for the parks. I wanted to avoid backtracking as much as we could, but I also didn’t want to schedule the activities so rigidly that it wouldn’t allow time to explore and do things over that we enjoyed. I created a daily outline but it was more used as a guide to move logically through the park than to hurry from ride to ride. This also helped identify which rides/activities to get FP+ for.
to be continued.........
I am copying most of it from a trip "diary" that I wrote after we got back. My Mom wrote one about a cross country car trip we took when I was in 4th grade and I still have it. I thought our kids might like one too.
I also want to thank all of the Forum members for their help while planning our trip to the World. It would have not been as successful without all of the tips and tricks I learned here.
We (me-Mark, wife Linda, Josh 10, and Holly 8) booked our first trip to WDW in July of 2015 for May 10-16, 2015 staying at Coronado Springs Resort. We decided to stay business class due to the room location and access to the lounge. We completed our package with the Dining Plan, Memory Maker and 7 day PH’s.
We decided we were not going to tell the kids until the morning of our flight. It was the longest I have ever kept a secret and there were several close calls between me and Linda while planning the trip.
As we got closer to our ADR date I started to narrow down our itinerary. I used several touring plan websites to help figure out which day to do what parks. I knew we wanted to meet friends at the beach one day so using the recommended days we chose Wednesday as our off property day. It was about in the middle of our stay so we would be able to get a break from the parks.
Before our ADR date we spent a lot of time looking at park maps to figure out where we might be to help figure out where to eat. We also looked at menus to figure out if there were things we would actually eat at the restaurants. My plan was to avoid having more than two reserved meals at any park on any day. We were on the dining plan so I used a website I found through the forums to help figure out which ones to pay out of pocket and which ones to use the dining plan on.
Once we had our park days figured out and our dining places figured out we started to come up with a touring plan for the parks. I wanted to avoid backtracking as much as we could, but I also didn’t want to schedule the activities so rigidly that it wouldn’t allow time to explore and do things over that we enjoyed. I created a daily outline but it was more used as a guide to move logically through the park than to hurry from ride to ride. This also helped identify which rides/activities to get FP+ for.
to be continued.........
Last edited: