Planning Journal
Where's WillCAD been? I've been living the Magic!
I originally didn't have a Disney trip on the calendar for this year. Why? $$, that's why. No money.
But when my best friend Rick asked about a trip this year, I figured we could swing it if we shared expenses, so I began planning.
Then Rick's car died, and he had to cancel. Which, of course, meant that I had to cancel, as well.
But after about a month of depression, I started looking at the numbers and thinking that maybe I could - just barely - manage a 4-day weekend trip for MouseFest. But since I wasn't sure, I decided to keep the whole thing to myself until I was certain that I could afford the trip. And even after the trip was a certainty, I decided to leave it a secret and surprise my many online friends by showing up out of thin air at some of the MouseFest meets.
But this left me in torture; whenever something good happened that made my trip that much more certain, I couldn't share it with my online friends without blowing the secret. So, instead of posting my trip planing details as they happened, I decided to flesh out my planning journal a bit and post it in its entirety on the day that I arrived in Orlando. Unfortunately, my laptop was unable to connect to the internet while I was there, so I have had to wait till I got home. This information will eventually make it into my trip report, as well, but for the moment, here it is in its raw form for all to enjoy:
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2004-03-??
Rick asked if I was going to Orlando this year and if he could tag along. I wasn't planning on a trip, but with the two of us splitting costs I think we can manage, so I started looking at dates and decided on October 28 thru November 5, since Rick isn't allowed to take time off work during the Christmas holiday season.
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2004-03-06
Went to White Marsh Mall today and bought the first $20 worth of Disney Dollars to save for October.
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2004-04-24
Checked Thrifty rates for Oct 28-Nov 5 w/ Sams Club coupons - $145
Did my first serious planning for October today. I looked up some rental car prices; the best I could find for Oct 28-Nov 5 is $145 for an economy car from Thrifty, plus a free upgrade at time of pickup, using coupons from Sam's Club. Very good rate for 9 days!
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2004-05-06
Made park pass worksheet and preliminary budget for Rick to look over
Today I started an Excel spreadsheet with a preliminary trip budget, and another one with a worksheet to compare prices of our various park pass options. I figured the difference between APs for both WDW and Universal, or a 5-day WDW hopper and a 3-day Uni hopper, was $180. Throw in room, dining, and merchandise discounts, plus the second year free offer that Uni is currently running, and APs became a no-brainer for me. Took a printout to Rick for him to look over and decide what park pass options he wants to go with.
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2004-05-11
Made small revision to park pass worksheet; add'l cost for APs only $169
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2004-05-14
Made Thrifty reservation for Oct 28-Nov 5 $176.59
Ya snooze, ya lose. Made a reservation today with Thrifty for Oct28-Nov5 and wound up with a much higher rate, grand total $176.59. Feel like a fool for not making the ressie when I originally looked it up in April, but I figure I'll keep checking between now and then and I'm sure I can get a better rate.
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2004-05-21
Purchased Universal AP with second year free, will-call
Spent some money today! Bought a Universal Studios AP with a second year free for a grand total of $183. I opted for the electronic will-call delivery option, which I used for my Uni pass last year to good effect; all I have to do is go to an ATM-style machine outside the park gates, punch in my confirmation number, and swipe the credit card I used to buy it (just for ID purposes, no additional charges are made), and viola! My pass will be printed out right at the machine!
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2004-07-10
Made outbound SWA reservation for Oct 28 $89.10
Spent some more money today. Bought my outbound airfare! Got a reasonably good fare of $73+taxes for a grand total or $89.10. This would make the round-trip fare $178.20, which is a little higher than I have paid for October in the past, but not terrible.
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2004-07-??
Rick's car died and he had to cancel out on the trip to get a new engine put into the car.
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2004-08-08
Changed outbound SWA reservation to Dec 9
Decided today that I might be able to afford a 4-day weekend at WDW for MouseFest. Changed my existing outbound airfare to December 9 and started working on a budget, but decided to keep the whole thing a secret from my online friends because I just don't know if I will be able to afford the trip at all. I have enough Disney Dollars for food, park passes, and part of the hotel. Still have a lot of saving to do between now and then and I am so totally broke these days I might not be able to put enough money aside for the return airfare and the rental car.
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2004-09-17
Changed Thrifty reservation to Dec 9-13 $120.74
Got a check with some overtime on it today, so I changed my rental car ressie to Dec 9-13, with a grand total of $120.74. Still a pretty good rate, but hopefully I will still be able to do better at some point.
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2004-08-31
Made ressie for ASMU Dec 9-12 $49AP rate
Today I achieved a major milestone in any trip plan: I called Disney and made my hotel reservation! I got the excellent Annual Passholder rate of $49+tax. I wound up on the phone with a wonderful CM for almost 45 minutes talking about my previous trips, MouseFest, and the recent hurricane damage to the Orlando area. Thank goodness for free long-distance on my cell phone!
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2004-09-01
Changed ressie to Pop Century Dec 9-13 $49AP rate
Today I realized that I had been in some sort of a euphoric dementia last night when I made my reservation, so I called back and changed my ressie over from ASMU to Pop, and from 4 nights to 5 nights. I didn't expect to get through quickly, if at all, because there is another hurricane bearing down on central Florida which is causing thousands of people to cancel tier vacations at the last minute, but I actually got to speak to a CM in less than 5 minutes. Knowing how busy they are, and what stress they are under, I didn't mind that tonight's CM was much less chatty than last night's. I could almost hear the stress in the poor man's voice, but he was totally professional and helpful anyway.
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2004-09-02
Let Tagrel in on the secret so I could ask about some meets
Today I sent a private message to Dave Card (Tagrel) to ask him about some of the MouseFest meets, letting him in on the secret that I am coming to MouseFest and swearing him to secrecy. I let him know which of the Tagrel.com meets I planned on attending and he added "1 special mystery guest" to the signup list for many of the meets, but a couple of them require prepayment or a name on the ressie so I had to let two other people know that I am coming so I could be put onto the sign ups for the meets.
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2004-09-18
Made return SWA reservation for Dec 13 $87.60
Forgot to book this last night, so this morning I got up and booked my return airfare for Dec 13, grand total $87.60. The trip is looking more real now, though I still have lots of saving to do before I can afford the rental car; since it is only a 5-day trip, precluding any time at Universal, if the worst happens and I can't afford the expense of a rental car I will simply book Mears for $30 and use the WDW transportation system the whole time. I am still planning on taking a trip in April next year so I can pick up my Uni pass then.
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2004-09-19
Changed SWA ressies to lower rates, $69.10+$69.10, saved $40 total
Durn it, only 24-hrs after booking my return airfare SWA put on a sale! Well, it's too late to get the money back, but I did rebook both outbound and return flights and saved a total of $40, which will be saved by SWA as Ticketless Travel Funds that can be used toward the purchase of my April airfare.
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2004-10-15
Changed plane/car/room ressies to arrive Dec 8. Bought MVMCP ticket for Dec 9, will-call
Today was the biggest single day in the planning of this year's Disney trip. I got paid today, both a regular paycheck with lots of overtime and an expense check, so I had enough extra money to finish paying for all the rest of my expenses. Right after work, I went to my credit union and bought enough travelers checks to pay for my rental car, then I rushed home to add an extra day to my various reservations. I figured the extra day would cost me about $95 (extra $55 for a night at Pop Century, extra $20 for another day of rental car, and my airfare would go up $20 for the extra day). First I Added another day to my Pop Century ressie at the same AP rate of $49+tax=$54.88.
While on with the Disney CMs I also purchased a ticket for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on Dec 9, so I will be able to attend one of the big MouseFest meets with Dave Card and Deb Wills.
Next I re-scheduled my airfare with Southwest and discovered that since the new outbound flight was on a Wednesday, I got it for the same price as my existing flight, so no extra $20. Happy time!
Then I went to Thrifty's web site expecting to pay another $20 for an extra day of rental car. But when I added a 6th day to the ressie, it automatically switched from 5 days at the daily $20.49 rate to one week at the lower weekly rate of $97, causing the grand total to go DOWN by $3! Darn it, I should have gone out to get some lottery tickets tonight!
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2004-10-16
Went to the Disney Store and picked up enough Disney Dollars to cover all the rest of my trip expenses. My trip is now completely paid for soup to nuts!
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2004-10-24
Today I started pulling out my trip gear. My countdown is now at 46 days, meaning only six weeks and a few days till departure; six weeks is a long time, but not too long to begin planning and packing. I pulled a blank trip notebook out and began writing my various flight times and confirmation numbers; there is something exciting to be putting this info into one place, especially knowing that this little book is not just a planning tool, but that it will be coming on the trip with me. I also went back to my planning journal and expanded my 1-line notes to this more complete format in preparation for posting this entire journal on the various Disney message boards I frequent, and eventually incorporating it into my trip report.
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2004-11-28
Only 10 days to go and I'm getting really ansty now. I did laundry today and began to pack, and started stacking my trip gear on the dining room table instead of in a corner of my bedroom. I stopped into BJs Warehouse club and picked up tier travel coupons; when I got home I checked for rates and found that with discount code MAG (from the Orlando Magicard, found on MouseSavers), I got a rate of $118.47 for an Intermediate. That's only $0.49 more than the Economy I had booked with Thrifty! And thanks to stopping at BJs today I also have a coupon for a free car-class upgrade, so I will be tooling around Orlando next week in a Full-Size car, something I've never been able to afford before! And on top of all that, Dollar is an on-airport company, which means I won't have to wait for a shuttle bus to get to the Thrifty facility, and I am already a member of Dollar's Fastlane club, which means I will get the express rental treatment (no hard sell for additional insurance).
I'm happy.
10 days to go.
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2004-12-05
Only 3 days to go! I printed out all my travel documents today and double-checked everything, but while I was doing that I couldn't help but try to add another coupon onto my rental car. Naturally, the system didn't let me add a second coupon on, but I noticed that the base rate had gone down by another $16, so I re-booked yet again, with the same company, same discount code, same car class, and same dates, but saved $16.
I'm still happy.