Travel Tuesday Tales: A Disney Vacation Prologue

I am probably my happiest when planning a Disney vacation…or at least that’s what my DH tells me.  So as we have started to make plans for our next Disney World trip in December, it’s been kind of a happy time around the Affordable Mouse house! 🙂 We’re just in the beginning stages at the moment, but will be making some firm plans within the next week, so it’s been kind of fun discussing the options. As you know if you have picked up my Affordable Disney Vacation Planning Guide, there is a lot of work to do at the beginning, before you book a thing!

Want to come along for the planning ride and see how I do it and what our experiences are like? Then follow along for my new series Travel Tuesday Tales, where I will periodically update you on the progress of our vacation planning. If you are new to planning a Disney vacation, it will give you the chance to see how I go about it. And if you are a Disney veteran, then you may enjoy living a Disney vacation vicariously through someone else….at least I know I sure do lol! 🙂

OK, so this is where we are at the moment.

Who: Myself, DH, DD and friend.

When: December 30 to January 3. Yup, we’re gonna be there for New Year’s Eve! We have done this a few times, and if you want to get some general thoughts on what we will be expecting, you can read this post, as well as a recent blog post I did over at Chip and Co. While we would love to be able to experience Christmas at Disney during a less busy time of year, with DD’s college schedule it is not possible at the moment. We really missed being at Disney over the Christmas season the past several years, so this year, we’re going back again.

Where: That’s the big one right now. We have been Disney Vacation Club owners for a few years now, so will be taking advantage of our points to stay in a DVC 2 bedroom, to accommodate everyone comfortably. Of course, as with everything else this time of year, points don’t go nearly as far as they do at other times of the year…plus we’ll be there over the weekend which cost more points than the rest of the week as well. So it’s a trade-off: more points per day means fewer days. It’s ok, we don’t mind.

Now, at this moment, we don’t know where we’ll be staying because we can’t book until 7 months prior to when we arrive. And I know that since Christmas week is the single busiest week of the year, I’ll happily book whatever is available. Given a choice though, we are going to request Animal Kingdom Lodge or Boardwalk Villas…but I know from experience, I’ll need to have an open mind, and that’s ok too.

What’s Next: My first opportunity to book our stay is this Sunday. Although we’re visiting DH’s family in western PA this weekend, traveling home through a few pesky mountains on Sunday morning will surely not prevent me from being on the phone with DVC Member Services when they open at 9 a.m.! So, as long as DH can find a place where reception is good, we’ll be fine. 🙂

Once I know where we’ll be staying, we’ll start finalizing those Advanced Dining Reservations, because those will be booked at the end of June!

Stay tuned for the next installment. Have a magical day!