Cbum, DW and DD trip to WDW 9/8-9/13 2011. Quitting smoking celebration

[cbum1]

Travel dates: Sept. 8-13 2011
Travel method: Spirit Air, DME, WDW Transportation
Resort: DVC Boardwalk Villas
Accommodations: 1 Bedroom Standard View 114 pts.
Ages Represented in Group: 44, 29.9999 and holding(I will never tell) and 9 at trip time

Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group:
Cbum 8 times WDW, DW and Dkids 7 times WDW. Last 1/10 BLT GV, 4 times SSR(home) 2BR, 1 time SSR 1BR, 1 time Polynesian(really small for 5) Before DVC. My only trip without the family was in 1983 School trip(if I only knew then what I know now OMG)
Comments: 1st PTR and 1st TR to follow
Cast of characters: Cbum DH Firefighter/Chimney Sweep, Kim DW P/T Substitute teacher/keeps the books and does the scheduling for our Chimney Sweep Business-The glue that holds our home together and a truly fantastic person and love of my life , Grace DD.
This will be the first trip without Chris Jr.-DS (16) he will be in 9/2011 a Junior in HS and has all AP and honors courses scheduled for the school year and missing Thur,Fri,Mon and Tue from the first week of school will put him to far behind. And Drew DS (13) he will be entering his freshman year of HS and missing his first week would not be good to say the least. They are both a little to cool for WDW theses days anyway but I hope that wears off when they start raising kid’s someday. We decided to go this week because of the off peak time at Spirit Airlines and the low points at DVC and previous trip reports that reported empty parks in early September
.
THE STORY:
I have been reading all your PTR’s and TR’s over the last couple of years and realized how much I live vicariously through them to keep me going between trips. I am going to give it a try to repay all of you so please be understanding.
I have been talking about quitting smoking for sooooooo many years now it’s going to take a WDW trip to give me reason enough to succeed. I hope the magic is flowing and the pixie dust replaces the nicotine in me and I succeed this time. I’ll be 44 on 5/17 and have promised my kid’s and DW that I am going to try to quit on or about my birthday.
I talked to Kim-DW yesterday and let her know my plan. We have empty candle jars that all the loose change goes into daily, it is DD’s job to put the loose change on the counter in the jars. She absolutely loves that chore. I am going to put the $8 a day per pack from 5/17 to 9/7 in a special candle jar which should amount to about $900 to make this trip possible. The other jars usually have about $60 each and we presently have three full. Hopefull a full fourth jar by then and there will be about $1140 between all the jars.

Money has been really, really tight and a trip to the world has not been discussed until yesterday. With tears in her eyes, mainly because the boys will not be going, my DW agreed saying that it will be a monumental step in my life if I am able to have success quitting this time and she gave me her blessing to start planning. I never realized how much money a year Cigs cost until I did the math. 365 X $8=$2920 a year- wholly crap!!!! Wish me luck and I will try to keep all of you informed over the summer as to my progress.

That discussion took place around 2pm yesterday and by 3:30pm My Hotel ressies were made, My ADR ressies were done and Airline ressies were done. You don’t have to tell me twice that its ok to book this trip.

Costs so Far:
Spirit Air –$60 total- I used 15,000 miles for three RT tickets. Spirit’s off-peak rewards start 9/7/11 and with my miles that’s almost all of them.
BWV-$0 (we won’t count annual dues lol)
Costs when we go:
Disney Dining Plan-will be $520
Park Hopper’s for 6 days-will be $865 + tax $921.23

The Plan:
Day 1
9/8/11-630 am fly to Orlando arrive and take DME to BWV. If the room is not ready go to the Contemporary (The Wave) for ADR lunch. Then go to the pool at BLT (missed it 1/10 it was way to cold all week) hopefully get a text that the room is ready and head back to BWV and relax then head to MK 9pm MSEP and 10pm Wishes
Day 2
9/9/11-Poss EMH morning at HS +ARD’s Coral Reef 650pm + 9pm Illumination’s + Epcot EMH’s
Day 3
9/10/11-ADR’s Via Napoli 620pm + 830pm Fantasmic HS
Day 4
9/11/11-Remember all those lost especially the 343 from FDNY and reflect on Bin Ladens Demise + ADR’s Narcoosees 530pm + MK til midnight
Day 5
9/12/11-ADR’s at Chef Mickeys breakfast 1115am EMH HS til 10 pm
Day 6 pack checkout and be ready for DME pick-up 1030am for 130 flight back to NJ.
We don’t really set days to go to parks except for EMH’s. We like to parkhop and like to change plans on the go, even dining plans.
Any suggestions/reccomendations are welcomed. I hope I did ok with this PTR and hope to take notes and tell you all what really happened.
A couple of questions I do have:
1. Is there any room request that you would suggest at BWV?.
2. There is the Night of Joy scheduled for MK 9/9 and 9/10. Has anyone been to it? Is it worth going to? Is it new? Or should we just avoid it completely and go to another park those nights.
3. Have I been mis-informed about this week and will the parks be mobbed because of the Nights of Joy?
Thank you for reading and I can’t wait for September