dayvewc
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2013
In the language I grew up with, "I'm still a-learnin'."
This trip report is an after-the-fact accounting of my Spring Break 2015 trip to Disneyland (March 21 - 27). Had I thought it through, I would have done a full-on trip report from beginning to end; sadly, it did not occur to me to do so.
However, I am using this particular report to help me organize my thoughts into a coherent whole for my memory/scrapbook that I will put together over the next several weeks. Stories and ancedotes that others find interesting and worthwhile will definitely be included in the final form, while the bits and pieces that garner no love will more likely be left out.
The Prologue:
From the summer of 2013 - 2014 was my "Year of Disney", or as I sometimes jokingly called it "My Year in the Mouse Trap". Due to a change in employment, I was able to take more than my normal yearly trip to Disney World. When I returned home from my last trip in July 2014, I had anticipated not going for at least a year to allow time for my wallet to fatten back up.
However, right after school started back in Auguest, out of curiosity I was checking the availability of rooms for spring break. By accident, I had selected the Grand Californian option on the DVC website instead of Grand Floridian and realized that there were rooms available, and in the point range of my contract. It was still a few weeks before the booking window officially opened, but I decided that if rooms were still available, I would reserve one for a West Coast get-a-way. (I am totally and completely and intentionally leaving out the long internal dialogue concerning the worthless P.O.S that was my significant other <SO> at the time. Suffice it to say that the initial plan included a partner, the trip would have been a reward for the partner obtaining and keeping a job, there was an expectation that the partner would begin contributing the the maintenance of the house, but said partner self-disqualified due to subsequent actions).
Fast forward a few months, it is now November, the room has been reserved for 5 nights (Sunday - Thursday nights). Southwest airlines has finally released their fares for the week I need, and I discover that flying out on Saturday and back on the following Friday is about 70% of the cost of flying out on Sunday and back on Friday. The difference would more than pay for a one-night stay at a discount hotel, and add an additional day to my ticket. So, I cash in my rewards points for a free night at the Days Inn Anaheim and book my flight. Leaving midafternoon from Memphis, brief layover in Houston, and final arrival at LAX around 8:30 pm. At this time I also made reservations with Dollar Rent-a-Car for rental, with pick up around 9:30 pm on Saturday night, and drop off the next Friday around noon.
Again, hit the high-speed button to get to mid-February and I finally order my tickets and PhotoPass+ for the trip. I waited until after the first of the year in order to get tickets for the current year, then had to wait until income tax return came through to pay for the ticket, and was praying hard that I got the return before Disney did its price increase. Thanks to several websites I'm signed up with (UnderCover Tourist, Mouse Savers) I got word on that Saturday that the prices would increase on Sunday. Going by my penny pinching nature (Penny really doesn't like that some days, but she does like me so it's all good), I went to Target and used my 5% discount through the RedCard to purchase enough gift-cards to pay for tickets and memory maker. But when I called to get my tickets, they could not process the number of cards it would take, so I loaded all the cards in to my Disney Vacation Account and paid for it that way. Which worked fine as far as the tickets were concerned. However, when I went that evening to pay for the PhotoPass +, I learned to my chagrin that they do not accept payment from the DVA, and my debit card was charged. Luckily, DVA was able to reissue the excess as a gift card that I was able to take with me when the trip finally came to be.
And now, it is time to recount all the adventures.
This trip report is an after-the-fact accounting of my Spring Break 2015 trip to Disneyland (March 21 - 27). Had I thought it through, I would have done a full-on trip report from beginning to end; sadly, it did not occur to me to do so.
However, I am using this particular report to help me organize my thoughts into a coherent whole for my memory/scrapbook that I will put together over the next several weeks. Stories and ancedotes that others find interesting and worthwhile will definitely be included in the final form, while the bits and pieces that garner no love will more likely be left out.
The Prologue:
From the summer of 2013 - 2014 was my "Year of Disney", or as I sometimes jokingly called it "My Year in the Mouse Trap". Due to a change in employment, I was able to take more than my normal yearly trip to Disney World. When I returned home from my last trip in July 2014, I had anticipated not going for at least a year to allow time for my wallet to fatten back up.
However, right after school started back in Auguest, out of curiosity I was checking the availability of rooms for spring break. By accident, I had selected the Grand Californian option on the DVC website instead of Grand Floridian and realized that there were rooms available, and in the point range of my contract. It was still a few weeks before the booking window officially opened, but I decided that if rooms were still available, I would reserve one for a West Coast get-a-way. (I am totally and completely and intentionally leaving out the long internal dialogue concerning the worthless P.O.S that was my significant other <SO> at the time. Suffice it to say that the initial plan included a partner, the trip would have been a reward for the partner obtaining and keeping a job, there was an expectation that the partner would begin contributing the the maintenance of the house, but said partner self-disqualified due to subsequent actions).
Fast forward a few months, it is now November, the room has been reserved for 5 nights (Sunday - Thursday nights). Southwest airlines has finally released their fares for the week I need, and I discover that flying out on Saturday and back on the following Friday is about 70% of the cost of flying out on Sunday and back on Friday. The difference would more than pay for a one-night stay at a discount hotel, and add an additional day to my ticket. So, I cash in my rewards points for a free night at the Days Inn Anaheim and book my flight. Leaving midafternoon from Memphis, brief layover in Houston, and final arrival at LAX around 8:30 pm. At this time I also made reservations with Dollar Rent-a-Car for rental, with pick up around 9:30 pm on Saturday night, and drop off the next Friday around noon.
Again, hit the high-speed button to get to mid-February and I finally order my tickets and PhotoPass+ for the trip. I waited until after the first of the year in order to get tickets for the current year, then had to wait until income tax return came through to pay for the ticket, and was praying hard that I got the return before Disney did its price increase. Thanks to several websites I'm signed up with (UnderCover Tourist, Mouse Savers) I got word on that Saturday that the prices would increase on Sunday. Going by my penny pinching nature (Penny really doesn't like that some days, but she does like me so it's all good), I went to Target and used my 5% discount through the RedCard to purchase enough gift-cards to pay for tickets and memory maker. But when I called to get my tickets, they could not process the number of cards it would take, so I loaded all the cards in to my Disney Vacation Account and paid for it that way. Which worked fine as far as the tickets were concerned. However, when I went that evening to pay for the PhotoPass +, I learned to my chagrin that they do not accept payment from the DVA, and my debit card was charged. Luckily, DVA was able to reissue the excess as a gift card that I was able to take with me when the trip finally came to be.
And now, it is time to recount all the adventures.