disgeek009
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2012
Welcome to my third trip report! Without purposely planning it, we have gone on a Disney vacation each year for the last three years. Aulani in 2017, Disneyland in 2018, and now Disney World in 2019.
A little pre-trip background:
This trip materialized when one of DH's dive buddies came for a visit. I'll call him DB. DB moved to Florida a couple years ago. During the visit, unknown to me, DH and DB decided that we should visit him in Florida so they could dive together again and DD and I could go to Disney World. Of course, I was on board after they enlightened me, and started planning.
We timed the trip to be right before DD's 3rd birthday so she would still be able to enter the parks for free. And with a little bit of flight research and coordination with DB, we worked out this schedule:
Saturday: Fly to Tampa
Sunday: DH and DB go to dive in the morning, drive to Orlando in the afternoon
Monday-Thursday: Parks!
Friday: Drive to Miami, DH and DB would do more diving
Saturday: Morning dives for DH and DB, explore Miami in the afternoon
Sunday: Flight back home
I searched for nonstop flights, and was able to book all our flights with points (hurrah!). We would rent a car in Tampa, which we would drive to Orlando (about 1-1/2 hours according to Google Maps) and return once we got to Disney. We would pick up another rental car on Friday to drive to and use in Miami.
As a side note, I costed out how much it would be to keep the rental car the whole week and pay the parking fee ($23/night) at the Dolphin and it was much cheaper to return the car and get another one when we were ready to leave Orlando. I decided to rent with National, since they had pick-up/return locations inside Disney property.
For accommodations, DB generously offered his house so we would stay with him on the first night. In Orlando, we would stay at the Dolphin (booked with Starwood points). Finally, we would spend two nights at the Mondrian South Beach in Miami (also booked with points).
I bought tickets through Undercover Tourist and ended up getting five-day/one-park tickets. The original plan was to get four days, but five was just a little bit more (I think $30 more per person?) since they were having a special promotion. I had hopes that we could squeeze in a half day on Sunday, our arrival day.
I dutifully made ADRs as soon as I could. Since we had so much fun with character meals at Disneyland, the plan was to have a character meal at each park. There were also a few other restaurants I wanted to try after reading so many trip reports. And I tacked on Ohana on our arrival day and Kona Cafe for our last day. I got everything I wanted except for Garden Grill, which I ultimately concluded must be closed during our Epcot day, since there was never ANY availability.
Up next: The week before our trip
A little pre-trip background:
This trip materialized when one of DH's dive buddies came for a visit. I'll call him DB. DB moved to Florida a couple years ago. During the visit, unknown to me, DH and DB decided that we should visit him in Florida so they could dive together again and DD and I could go to Disney World. Of course, I was on board after they enlightened me, and started planning.
We timed the trip to be right before DD's 3rd birthday so she would still be able to enter the parks for free. And with a little bit of flight research and coordination with DB, we worked out this schedule:
Saturday: Fly to Tampa
Sunday: DH and DB go to dive in the morning, drive to Orlando in the afternoon
Monday-Thursday: Parks!
Friday: Drive to Miami, DH and DB would do more diving
Saturday: Morning dives for DH and DB, explore Miami in the afternoon
Sunday: Flight back home
I searched for nonstop flights, and was able to book all our flights with points (hurrah!). We would rent a car in Tampa, which we would drive to Orlando (about 1-1/2 hours according to Google Maps) and return once we got to Disney. We would pick up another rental car on Friday to drive to and use in Miami.
As a side note, I costed out how much it would be to keep the rental car the whole week and pay the parking fee ($23/night) at the Dolphin and it was much cheaper to return the car and get another one when we were ready to leave Orlando. I decided to rent with National, since they had pick-up/return locations inside Disney property.
For accommodations, DB generously offered his house so we would stay with him on the first night. In Orlando, we would stay at the Dolphin (booked with Starwood points). Finally, we would spend two nights at the Mondrian South Beach in Miami (also booked with points).
I bought tickets through Undercover Tourist and ended up getting five-day/one-park tickets. The original plan was to get four days, but five was just a little bit more (I think $30 more per person?) since they were having a special promotion. I had hopes that we could squeeze in a half day on Sunday, our arrival day.
I dutifully made ADRs as soon as I could. Since we had so much fun with character meals at Disneyland, the plan was to have a character meal at each park. There were also a few other restaurants I wanted to try after reading so many trip reports. And I tacked on Ohana on our arrival day and Kona Cafe for our last day. I got everything I wanted except for Garden Grill, which I ultimately concluded must be closed during our Epcot day, since there was never ANY availability.
Up next: The week before our trip