A working trip in Disney
Just over a year ago, the Disney Vacation Club announced that members staying using their points could access the internet from their room for free, and being able to telecommute, we’d always thought it would be nice to go spend a week or more at Disney and I work from the room and then enjoy Disney when I didn’t need to work. So finally this July we decided to try it before Kellie started back to school, just her Kriss, and I.
I booked a room at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, although I tried to get Old Key West first, from Sunday through Friday, best nights to stay on points, and took Thursday and Friday off. Then before the trip we thought “why wait til Sunday, lets get a cheap room and go down Saturday” so I called and booked a room at Coronado Springs using an annual pass discount code, and while I was at it, extended an extra night on Friday at Port Orleans French Quarter, we had never stayed at either.
Saturday and Sunday we spent driving and hitting the parks, nothing really out of the ordinary to report here, typical July days in Disney. We stayed out late both nights, later than usual and Kellie was right there with us late. We stayed in a Studio, which in hind site I would have preferred to work from a one bedroom with a separate room. I was up and online early and when Kriss and Kellie got up we would go get some breakfast and then they would head to the pool or Downtown Disney while I went back and did my thing, which I refer to as the best office I’ll ever have. Then around lunchtime I would go meet them and get something to eat, head back to the room and by mid afternoon they would come back and get bathed so that night we could go out. We stayed out late though every night, on most trips we are typically in the room by 10 or 11 most nights but we were out until 1AM or so this trip.
Tuesday night though we did something special. Kriss came back from the pool that day with a paper she had gotten from the DVC office, which is at Saratoga Springs, and was telling me about some special event at the Contemporary. It ended up being a reservation only party that was intended to show off the soon to be opened Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary, and of course get people to buy in. There was a short show/presentation, less than an hour, that was well performed, which was followed by a party. DJ and dancing on the dance floor with characters, pictures with Mickey and Minnie, finger foods, and ice cream. This has got to be one of the top 5 nights that I have EVER spent in Disney, we had a ball and it is something that could never be duplicated. Everyone was assigned a number and when they called your number, everyone with it was to go up and see the new Bay Lake Towers. We ended up having the last group number so Kriss and Kellie danced for over an hour. Kellie ended up all alone on the floor with Chip and Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey, and she danced 5 songs all by herself with Mickey, I was floored that he spent that much time with her, and only when they called our number and he saw it on her shirt, did we finally leave and go upstairs to see the new resort.
We met our group at the elevators and went up to a grand villa, which is a three bedroom suite for you non- Disney types, and they said if you booked this room on cash it would be around $2500/night at certain times of the year, wow. It was drop dead amazing though, huge, 2 floors, flat screens, and a huge window and balcony view of the Magic Kingdom. It was almost 10:00 by now so getting close to time for Wishes, the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, so they rushed us all to the roof to a private area for guests staying there only. Then the lights went down and we watched the show from high up above, once the place opened though they would have the music piped in as well so you can hear it as well as in the bar and the rooms too on your tv in case you watched from your room.
The rest of the trip was a blast too, we kept staying up late plus Thursday and Friday I didn’t work so we were at the parks all day, but it was hard to top the night with Mickey. Kellie has found that she loves the Tomorrowland Speedway now though and we drove race cars almost every night. On Saturday, which was supposed to be the day we left, we ended up going to Hollywood studios for a few hours and while sitting at the Muppetvision 3D show, I decided I wasn’t ready to leave yet and called and used a few points for an Old Key West Studio so we checked in to our fourth resort in seven days and enjoyed our last night in Disney.
This will be a trip that I won’t forget for a long time. We did a lot of things that we’d never done before, and quite a few of them we’ll never get to do again.
