Doing Disney-who what when where

I thought I’d start this series off first with why Disney, why now.

Both of my kids are pretty big Disney fans. I realize that this is a direct result of my input into the movies we watch and what TV shows we watch, and I’m totally okay with that. The choice to go was an easy one, the harder decision was when.

After we had Taylor I was pretty adamant about going the year after. She’d be free for the flight and tickets, and Jackson was at an age where he’d really enjoy it. He probably wouldn’t be able to do a ton of the bigger rides, but it would have been fun none the less. That year came and went and Disney became a fleeting thought. The year after I thought may be the year, but nope, didn’t happen.

At the end of last year (I think, I can’t remember) I sort of just decided that we were going to go this year. There was a lot of back and forth and some heated discussions on whether or not we should take this trip the same year as buying a house. And to be honest, during the whole house buying process I did start to second guess it, but now I’m so happy we decided to do it now.

So, with that said, I think the first step is deciding when you want to go. The more time you give yourself to plan/save/pay for this vacation, the better.

I really wanted to take advantage of the Wine & Food Festival and the Not So Scary Halloween party, so we aimed for October.

Our first and biggest struggle was finding a place to stay. There would be 7 of us (5 adults and 2 kids) and trying to find out the best option (a suite, two separate rooms, etc.) was getting the best of us when a friend of my Mom’s suggested looking into renting Disney Vacation Club points. She sent us a link to a company that handles these sorts of things and before we knew it we had started the process.

We used David’s Vacation Club Rentals. Basically, you fill out a request form and pay a small deposit fee (which if they are able to book your room gets applied to the total coast) and cross your fingers. You enter in your date and three choices of where you’d like to stay. They say it takes about 24 hours to find you a reservation, so I did my best to not stalk my email for the next day.

I almost forgot about it, and then was talking to my Mom the next night and checked and voila! We had a room. It wasn’t our first choice (AK Lodge) but we were super excited that it worked and we had a lovely 2 bedroom villa at the Old Key West. All we had to do was pay the balance in full (now they allow you to pay in installments!), and then “sign” a contract with the owner of the vacation club points. It was a pretty quick process and we were (and continue to be) very happy with the customer service there.

So that’s how we got our room at Disney. I’ve done some research since and not only is it great to know that David’s vacation rentals allows you to pay over time now, but I’ve also learned that if you book your package with Disney, you can put a $200 deposit and pay over time, with the balance being due within 45 days of your trip. If we go again (maybe just me mike & the kids) we’ll probably go that route, but with such a large party, the vacation club was the way to go for us.

Next up I’ll talk about tickets, dining & fast pass.

#disney #family #kids #vacation #halloween #travel #savingmoney