How Many Days In A Row Will We Wear Tie Dye (or Disney 2009 review): Part 1featured

Sorry, I’m totally unoriginal and used the title I used for my Facebook album of our Disney 2008 trip. And I’m hopped up on sinus meds. I think I’ll blame those for my lack of originality. Stephanie thought I should name this “A Week at the BLT: Bacon Not Included,” but our trip was so much more than a week at the world’s best (and biggest) BLT. Oh, and no pics in this part (sorry!), but I took more than 1500, so the rest of the review will be packed with ’em.

So Disney 2009. Where do I begin?

I guess I can re-introduce “us” for new readers who don’t want to wade through a zillion pages of Carnival Miracle reviews. I’m Nicole. I’m 24. I’m a freelance writer by day and our family’s unofficial travel agent by night. I’m a total girly girl and I’m a huge baseball fan. My iPhone rarely leaves my hand unless we’re out of the country and I just took up photography in March, when I bought a brand spanking new Nikon D60 DSLR camera, which I used for all of the photos this trip (I’m still learning…don’t expect anything fancy). I travel with my sister, Stephanie (she’s 23), my Mom and my grandma (I love my life too much to post their ages online). I post a lot of pictures, but I won’t post any of grandma because she really doesn’t understand the concept of the internet, so she can’t really consent to having her picture put everywhere. You might catch a glimpse of her here and there, though (there’s a hidden pic of her somewhere in one of my Miracle reviews).

Anyways.

I suppose I should also post how this trip came to be. I’m always looking for ways to sneak Disney into our trips. For various reasons, we never went to Disney World when we were little. I think I was 14 the first time I went. I was a freshman in high school and my parents sent me on a choir trip to Disney’s Magic Music Days, where I got to sing on the (now defunct) Tomorrowland Stage. I had such a blast that Mom took Stephanie and I to Disney World for two weeks the following year. I went on another choir trip to Disneyland and southern California the year after that and that was it for Disney for three years, when I found a way to sneak a day at Epcot into one of our pre-cruise trips. Since then, we’ve done, at the very least, a short two or three day trip every year (usually before or after a cruise).

Last year, I got a promo code in the mail for 40% off our room and tickets and we spent six days at the Grand Floridian (which was our Disney resort of choice). It was August and it was hot, but it was so much fun. This year, Disney really wasn’t in the cards. We had a cruise booked out of New York for May and in December, we decided to do a last-minute trip in January. Disney was our thought for a few hours before we decided to go on a cruise of the southern caribbean.

I don’t even remember why we decided to go to Disney to be honest. I know we were home from our cruise of the southern Caribbean and we should have been busy planning our May trip, but we kept thinking Disney. So in March, with the 4/3 promo extended (pay for four days of hotel and tickets, get three for free), Mom gave me the go ahead to book a trip for August. It was supposed to be a budget trip. That would have been doable. I had originally planned for us to do our first stay in a moderate hotel (when Stephanie and I were little, we had a Disney planning VHS tape and we dreamed of staying not in the Grand Floridian or the Yacht and Beach Club, but the Coronado Springs Resort because of a shot of a family riding bikes through a tunnel there), but the Coronado wasn’t available. So we were going to stay at Port Orleans- French Quarter. Mom didn’t like the way it looked. Then the Coronado was available, but with grandma in a wheelchair, we decided to keep to the monorail resorts. I think that was around the time “budget trip” took a U-turn. Mom didn’t want to stay at the Grand Floridian again. Then she did. I didn’t want to stay at the Polynesian. There were no non-concierge tower rooms at the Contemporary. I wanted to stay at the Boardwalk, but Stephanie didn’t. Grandma just wanted to go to Florida and didn’t really care. We really weren’t agreeing on anything.

I never really contemplated staying at a DVC resort before. We aren’t owners (and aren’t likely to become ones…I’d rather buy property in Florida instead) and the resorts (with the exception of the Boardwalk villas and the Beach Club villas) are kind of far removed from everything whereas we like to be at the center of the action. Right when we weren’t agreeing on anything, I found out that the Bay Lake Towers would be opening the week we were looking at going. Brand new hotel? Right on the monorail? Something new to please everyone? It seemed like the perfect solution.

We were originally looking at booking a studio, but that didn’t seem like enough room for the four of us (with one bed and one sleeper sofa) and seemed smaller than a room at the Contemporary (which we thought were amongst the largest on Disney property when we stayed there in May, 2008). There really wasn’t that much of a price difference to book a one-bedroom villa, and that would have two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a washer/dryer (I priced it a few days ago for curiosity’s sake and it seems like over the course of a week, it’s only $150 or so more than the Grand Floridian in a garden-view room or the Contemporary in a tower room and you get so much more room). The only view available was a Bay Lake View, so on the last day that the promo was open, I booked us one week at the Bay Lake Towers in a Bay Lake view room, with seven-day tickets and the regular dining plan.

We soon realized that we’d need to upgrade to the deluxe dining plan. We did it last year and it was entirely too much food, but Mom likes the convenience of having everything paid for and with the deluxe dining plan, there’s really nothing to pay out of pocket for when it comes to food, since you get three meals (table or counter service) and two snacks per person, per day and a refillable mug for use at the resort.

We know from previous experience (and because Stephanie and I frequent the DISboards) that if you want ideal dining reservations, you need to book 90 days in advance and be on the phone when the lines open at 7 am EST. Well, our 90 days fell on Mother’s Day, which meant that Mom and I were up at 5:30 am and on the phone at 6:00 am. On a Sunday. Mother’s Day. It took over an hour to book everything, but we got nearly everything we wanted (Spoodles closed the week before we arrived, and I was disappointed to never have tried it…though I did have sangria through their takeout window last year). The only iffy one was ‘Ohana on our first night (our tradition), where the only time available was 9:30. But we got everything we wanted, including a breakfast and dinner at ‘Ohana, two breakfasts at Chef Mickey’s, a late-night dinner at California Grill and a dinner at Le Cellier. Mom went back to sleep when we were done. I went out and got everyone breakfast and then slept for most of the afternoon.

Really, if you want to eat at table service restaurants, you need to make reservations. I can’t stress this enough. I can’t tell you how many people we saw being turned away for walk ups all week. You don’t necessarily need to call on your 180 day mark (Disney has changed it back to 180 days from 90 days) when phone lines open, but you do need to make reservations.

After that, all of our planning went towards our May cruise and we really didn’t look at Disney again until the end of June, when final payment was due. Mom was exhausted from our trip to NYC and our cruise and wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go on another exhausting trip, but she ultimately decided she really wanted to go and we finished the details for this trip.

We decided to drive again, though it wasn’t nearly as cost-effective this time (I think it broke even between flying and driving, all things considered). Costs of rental cars have been going through the roof. We paid double what we paid last year for the same amount of days. Gas, though, was considerably cheaper (more than $1 less per gallon than it was the year before at the same stations).

My favorite resort in Florida is the Gaylord Palms resort. It’s a destination unto itself. Gorgeous. And vast. Really, there aren’t words to describe it. I figured we’d need a rest after the drive, and I found a great rate through AllEars.net (and part of the proceeds went to breast cancer research) so I booked us two nights at the Gaylord Palms immediately before our trip. I also booked us a hotel in Buckhead (an upscale area of Atlanta) via Priceline and Hotwire for the way there and the way home to break up our drive.

After that, we pretty much had everything booked. We upgraded to the deluxe dining plan a week before we left. We decided to add hoppers to the tickets after we checked in. We had our dining reservations and hotels. Everything was set.

I think that’s it for the pre-trip info. I guess I should maybe explain the title of this review. I like to wear tie-dye. Not necessarily bright colored swirls (though I do like those), but I just like tie dye. I have dozens of tie dyed dresses, jackets and shirts. I also enjoy the art of doing it myself, as does Stephanie. We usually tie dye tank tops every summer for fun, but we did it a little differently this time. First of all, we used professional dyes and followed every instruction for perfect tie dye (including pre-washing, using urea and soda ash, washing with synthrapol, etc) and found the instructions to make Mickey heads, hearts and peace signs to add to our usual swirls and crinkles. The results were amazing. We made every tie dyed shirt you’ll see over the course of this review (I think we must have made more than 70 shirts for us and Mom and grandma total). If anyone wants the instructions, maybe Stephanie can guest blog or she can tell me where she found the patterns.

I think that’s it for the pre-trip stuff. I’m sorry it was so bland and that it had no pictures, but I promise there’s plenty of those to come. So stick around. If for nothing else, stick around to find out what happens when you have 48 snack credits left the day before you leave. You know. Because that’s always fun.