WDW 2008 Pre and Post Trip Report Trip Reports & Member Reviews Discuss WDW 2008 Pre and Post Trip Report in the Vacation Planning forums; Originally Posted by WDWtraveler46 It's all good Tiff. I'm glad you had a great time. I haven't read some of your trip report, but, I'm waiting for Jacque' to join ...

[lilo88]

Originally Posted by WDWtraveler46

It's all good Tiff. I'm glad you had a great time. I haven't read some of your trip report, but, I'm waiting for Jacque' to join me since she likes to read them at the same time. Probably tonight when we get done with dinner and get into the chat.

I'm having withdrawals as well.

Thank you
I'm going to start adding some of the photopass pics to my TR. Not sure when I'll do that, but it will happen.

I think most people do have withdrawals from Disney

[disneydarling]

Great TR! Love the last couple lines of your sig! Happy tenth anniv!

[WDWtraveler46]

For our next to last day of our trip, it was Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Really looking forward to dinner at The Brown Derby and for the Fantasmic package that our travel agent reserved for us. But first, we need to go hit all the other attractions.

Once we arrived, we made a bee line to Toy Story Mania to at least get a FP. Sure enough, the FP was the way to go. But, it was for that night.

Jacque’ and I made our way through the Art of Disney; dreaming of the day that we can own some of it.

After walking through the art, it was show time for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Jacque’ loves the theater type shows, and this is another one. It is so well done.

We exited VotLM, and went to TSM to check wait times. 100 minutes and no more FP available. You need to get there first thing in the morning to get on the ride.

We walked by TSM and went right into Narnia. Didn’t want to see Prince Caspian, but the set was cool.

Now was time for Block Party Bash. Well worth the wait. However, I wish we had lined up closer to the parade start. I think we waited an extra 15-20 minutes for the party to reach us.

After we partied, we went to Aerosmith. One of my favorite coasters. And, Jacque’ was able to keep her eyes open! I’m so proud of her.

We exited the ride and it was time for dinner at The Brown Derby. It was, by far, one of the best meals we had on the trip. I started with the crab cakes. Yummy! Jacque’ enjoyed the Risotto for her before dinner snack. Both of us had the steak. It was done perfectly to our liking. For dessert, I had the Crème Brule. I think it was even better than Le Celier. Jacque’ loves bananas foster, and she still talks about it. We are planning on making The Brown Derby one of our must go’s on every trip.

After our dinner, our FP’s for TSM came up. Jacque’ did better and got 152k and I faired the same at 157k.

We finished the day, bitter/sweet, by using our VIP passes for Fantasmic. I was going to tape it, but I was just in the mood to enjoy it.

I didn’t take too many pictures, but did take a few.

One last thing, once we arrived back at the resort, Jacque’ got her “Big Souvenir.” I’m really big on Citizen Watches. So, after a little bit of persuading by me to splurge a bit, she bought a Silver Citizen Eco-Drive Mickey Mouse watch. She is so proud of it and it is just absolutely beautiful, just like her.

Day 11 - Disney Hollywood Studios Pictures - Picasa Web Albums - WDWTraveler46 - 2008 WDW Trip...

[WDWtraveler46]

Day 12 – Departure Day and Final Thoughts

This day was a sad day. It always brings tears to people young and old. The day you leave to return to reality. I hate putting myself through this every time, but, I just think about all the happy memories of being at one of the happiest places on earth.

We ran to MK to get Jacque’s watch fitted at the watch store. After that, it was time for lunch. Jacque’ wanted an old fashioned hot dog, so I surprised her by going to Casey’s. So good and we enjoyed watching the ducks coming up to say “Hi.” We shared a dessert of Funnel Cake.

Got our farewell picture in front of the Castle and then it was off to Epcot.

Finished off our snack credits at the Food & Wine festival and had a final ride on Spaceship Earth.

It was time to leave.

Final Thoughts and Tips

It was a trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We went on a trip of a lifetime. We got to enjoy WDW longer than many people in the world. And I enjoyed the trip with the one person I truly love. We got some relaxation, we had our fun, and we had a tear or two.

Would I go back? Without a doubt I would. Spending all that time umpiring to save the money to go was absolutely worth the sacrifice. And I would do it again to go the next year and the year after that.

If I was asked to give some tips as to how to approach a trip like this, here are my suggestions:

• Use a travel agent. Even if you are a planner like I am, it always helps to have someone in the back watching out for you and to make the phone calls.
• If you need airfare, use kayak.com, airfarewatchdog.com, priceline.com, and expedia.com to find the cheapest airfares. Check every day!!!!
• Try to find a happy medium between going commando into the parks and taking the parks at a leisurely pace. I know time is money. But, it’s not money well spent if you can’t enjoy it either. That’s why we got to the parks a little bit later in the morning. If we stayed out late the night prior, we slept in a little the next morning to recharge.
• Take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours. That is when we hit all the popular rides and also got some of the character pictures.
• If you can afford the hard ticket events, go! It’s well worth the extra money.
• ADR’s are a must. Do decide where you are going to eat months in advance. Use allears.net to look at menus.
• If you have a blackberry or an iPhone, or any phone with a note pad feature, use it to take notes of your trip. Whether you do a trip report or not, it helps you once you get home to relive the trip and record the memories. I was typing while waiting in line, walking between attractions, on the bus, etc.
• If you look hard enough, you can find sales at the shops in WDW. Ask Cast Members. We found pens at a $1 a piece to bring back to our respective co-workers.
• Utilize FP whenever you can. It’s a great system.
• For us personally, we went at the best time. During the Free Dining Plan. I may sound like a pig, but, I like to eat. But, because of the FDP, we were able to eat at the best restaurants on property every day, and saved a lot of money!
• If you go during the Food and Wine Festival, save your snack credits. I would estimate that we saved a good $200 on snacks alone.

Finally, I would like to thank all of my friends here on the boards who lived through this report with Jacque’ and I. Thank you all for the well wishes and allowing me to write about this trip for the past year. I hope you had fun reading this report as I did writing this. I never thought I would hit close to 3000 people who wanted to read this report.

Special thanks to Keasmom for the advice and support through hurricane Ike and this trip.

One last thing, if you are thinking about going to the World, please follow this one piece of advise that Mr. Walt Disney said, “The way to get started is to stop talking and start doing.”

Eric

Day 12 - Departure Day Pictures - Picasa Web Albums - WDWTraveler46 - 2008 WDW Trip...

[Keasmom]

Bless you my friend. Thanks to you and Jacque for sharing this adventure with us and Happy Anniversary, maybe a Disney trip will become part of the celebration. The photos area hoot, and you two are just the best. And thanks for the food pics, it helps the rest of us decide if we would eat that or not, and I now it is extra effort. Great tripplanning, great trip report. HMMM? Do I see a sideline consulting business starting here?

[WDWtraveler46]

So, in this thread, I reported that we would be returning to the World and going on the DCL for 2009.

Last week, Jacque' asked if I was going to do another trip report. After going back and forth about it, I decided to go ahead and start another report for this year.

Announcing the next installment of our trip reports for this year!

The "2009 Eric and Jacque's DCL and WDW Trip Report"