40 Hour Contest Vacation

[JohnO]

I’ll begin in the past. Last year in October 2010, we sailed aboard the Disney Magic for 7 days on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise. Previously, we sailed on the Disney Wonder, once for 3 nights and again for 4 nights. Last year’s cruise was followed by 2 days at WDW. This was the absolute best vacation we’ve been on. Prior to the cruise, we stayed 1 night at the Radisson in Port Canaveral. Great service at this hotel, the restaurant there was decent and the pool was fantastic. Also, we were allowed to park our van at the hotel for free while on the cruise. The hotel shuttle was perfect getting us to and from the cruise terminal. I can’t say enough about how relaxing a 7 night Disney Cruise is. It was incredible. Once the cruise was over, we were excited to hit the road towards WDW where we checked into the Coronado Springs Resort. The first time we’d stayed at a moderate. CSR was great. In our two days there, we went to MK one day and Epcot the next. At that time of year Epcot was holding the F&W festival. We love F&W and had a fantastic time. The day we went home, we stopped by AKLV and ate at Sanaa. Great way to end our incredible vacation.
We arrived back home and all along, our plan was to save up and return to WDW for the F&W Festival and hopefully join Lou at the 40th anniversary celebration. Unfortunately as the year progressed, the financial situation was not looking good for a vacation at all. Normally our WDW and DCL trips are paid for entirely with overtime, but with budget cuts, the overtime is gone, along with our hope of a WDW vacation this year. We came to this realization that it just wasn’t going to happen towards the end of the summer. I had already scheduled vacation time for the last week of September and the first week of October of this year. Unfortunately, it was going to be a “staycation”. I formulated a “honey do” list and accepted this horrible fact.
While on staycation, one project was doing some remodeling of a bathroom. By remodeling I mean the cheap way, removing old wallpaper, painting, and other projects that cost very little to freshen up the look of the bathroom. One saving grace was the fact that Lou and his crew were going to have the 40 hour live show. At least I could ‘connect’ with Lou and crew whilst I worked. I broke out the laptop on a very sunny morning here at home and began watching the live show first thing as I got to work. I work night shift normally so lots of coffee was required to get me going but there was also the ‘cool factor’ of watching the show as I worked. The wallpaper removal was quite the ordeal. Who used so much glue! Overall it was difficult but the job seemed to fly by as the 40 hour show kept me going. In the middle of the night, I couldn’t continue. I fell asleep, with the show still playing in the background. After about 3 hours of sleep, I was up and back at it, in the early morning hours. Glenn Whelan was hilarious and had me laughing as I worked.
The 40 hour show was fantastic. What a great way to get a ‘taste’ of WDW from home. When I learned of the vacation giveaway, I knew I had to give the contest a try. After the show ended, I wondered how difficult it would be. I found out when the questions were released. When I had them answered I believed I was on the money with the responses. I knew I might have at least two chances to win.
My staycation was over when I reported back to duty on October 12th, 2011. The very day the contest winners were to be announced. This meant I had to stop by the house for an early lunch break in order to catch the 730 live show. My wife and daughter were glued to the laptop. Everyone was getting ‘antsy’ wondering when Lou would announce the winners. The show seemed to take forever then it ended without the announcement. When Lou came back on to chat after the show, he went through the contest answers, the ones I heard read back, I was pretty sure I had gotten right, and then, finally, he was about to announce the winners. The three of us were on the edge of our seats. That’s when he said it; the first winner was “John O-----“. I was in shock!!! I actually won something! Not just something a free trip to WDW!!!! My wife and daughter were delirious. My daughter actually started to CRY!! 6 nights at a moderate resort, park tickets and dining!
Monday morning I emailed Beci with our preferred vacation dates and resort choices. Beci told me that WDW has to approve the choices and that we’d find out within two weeks. I chose three different weeks in January for a couple of reasons; we want to go to WDW ASAP and January is historically very sparsely crowded. We’re excited and can’t wait to begin to plan! I’ll keep this thread going when I have updates.
I’d like to thank Lou Mongello and his crew at WDW Radio, the absolute best podcast AND Beci Mahnken and her crew at MEI-Mousfan Travel. I hope to meet as many of you as I can in WDW.

[pinkemma666]

Congrats again! Its such a shame that Disney rules out us Brits from entering their comps!! But I'm happy for friends to get a free trip to the magic

I think this trip is going to feel super magical and make sure you let those CM's know that you're competition winners

[NC_WDW_Daddy]

Congrats and have a great trip.

[JohnO]

Just foun out we're going in early January and staying at Riverside!!!! Never been there before!

[ajwiseman09]

Congratulations on the win! Riverside is amazing. Quiet, but a lot of theming. I actually got to see my first armadillo while we stayed there. I was about 3 feet away

[eeyore79]

John, were your 1st choices the ones you got?

Im sending in my email tomorrow to Beci!! so excited!!

[Thumper10]

You're gonna love POR. That's my family's resort of choice. Relaxing and gorgeous grounds to walk around. It's also nice to walk the trail down to POFQ and pick up a snack or something. Excited for you! I'll be down in early January too--I'm SO looking forward to it

[JohnO]

Jamie,

we did not get our first choice of hotels. I chose CSR as my #1 POR as my #2, POFQ as my #3. We did get our #1 choice for dates.

We're extremely excited! We've made dining reservations already and got everything we wanted.

72 Days!!!!

[eeyore79]

Jamie,

we did not get our first choice of hotels. I chose CSR as my #1 POR as my #2, POFQ as my #3. We did get our #1 choice for dates.

We're extremely excited! We've made dining reservations already and got everything we wanted.

72 Days!!!!

hahahah!! awesome though!!! so jealous you going soo soon! but it will be nice! are you guys driving or flying down? where did you do your adrs for?


i gotta make up my counter! and work on my adrs...i have an idea what we wanna do, just gotta look at the calender and hours and figure out where what days! so much fun planning!

we got our 1st choice for hotel and dates!! soo excited!!!

may 22-28th at POFQ!

[eeyore79]

Haven't heard from you in a while...just wondering how your planning is going for your trip and how you are doing!!??

[JohnO]

Well everything is planned out. We got all of the ADRs we wanted, now we're just counting down the days!!!!

[JohnO]

So our plan is to drive down on sunday Jan 8th. We'll miss the meet of the month uuugh!! We'll stay at All-Star Sports that night and probably head to DTD that evening. The next day we'll be checking into POR!! Some of our ADRs include; Boma, Beirgarten, Tusker House, Crystal Palace, Tony's TS and Ohana!!

[weepstah]

JohnO,

Looking forward to hearing more about the trip. Congratulations again!

[eeyore79]

its getting sooo close!! im so excited for you! cant wait to hear all about it!! i am getting ready to book my adrs soon!! then to find airfare!

merry christmas!!!!

[MissMEY]

I hope you and your family have an amazing time.