After the enjoyable trip we had last July and my first attempt at working from Disney World, we returned again to give it a whirl with some extra knowledge on how to do it even better. The biggest two differences this year are we are staying in a 1 bedroom verses a Studio last year, and we are staying at Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary verses Saratoga Springs last year. Don’t get me wrong, we really enjoyed last year, but Kriss and Kellie pretty much stayed at the resort or walked over to Downtown Disney last year. This year being at the Contemporary opens up a lot more possibilities for them since they don’t like to take the bus or drive in Disney without me so while I work, they can hit the pool, walk to Magic Kingdom, or take a monorail EPCOT. Also staying in a Studio last year put me at the foot of the bed working while they were still asleep in the morning or getting ready, now they can go to the living room or kitchen and I can shut the door if I need quiet. This year we also decided to stay in one place the whole time, last year we hopped from moderate resorts on weekends to a DVC resort do the week, and back to a moderate again for the last weekend. Read more

It’s hard to believe another year has finally passed and it’s time for our annual pilgrimage to Disney with the whole family. Travel day, Sunday, was pretty non eventful and went like most of our travel days do. Everyone was up early actually, no one had to be drug out the bed except the youngest one who then slept to somewhere around Daytona I think, and we had no problems or arguments even. We got our Little Guy trailer loaded pretty quickly and were on the road 15 minutes before planned. Read more

We were in Disney February last year and it just happened to be one of the “special” weekends in Disney, ESPN The Weekend, at Hollywood Studios. It was totally unplanned as far as the event went, we just wanted to use our annual passes one more time and renew them while we were there. We had gotten there for rope drop and noticed something going on off to the side of the parking lot, some sort of run, so I Googled it when I got back to a computer and found out that they had a 5k run that morning before the park opened that went through the park. So this year our passes needed renewing at the same time and I was still interested in the run, so I booked a trip the same weekend and registered for the run. Read more

One of the best times to visit Disney is during the holidays because they really go ALL OUT with decorations there, every little thing gets the full Disney treatment. We’ve been before at Thanksgiving a few times as well as early December, but this year we figured out a way to go the week of/before Christmas. There are many “must see’s too; Main Street at Magic Kingdom, the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian, the Wilderness Lodge Lobby, and tree lighting at EPCOT are just a few. But the one must see has got to be the Osborne Family Lights at Hollywood Studios. We’ve been before several years ago before Lights, Motors, Action when the old Residential Street still existed and that was what got decorated, but since it was removed, they now decorate the Streets of America. We actually went in between years, the one year they didn’t have it at all which was sad to miss because we hadn’t been back at Christmas since whenever that was. Read more

Another new first for a Disney trip this time around. Usually Kriss and I go to the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival alone. We’ve been with other adults in the past, friends and family, but it’s our one trip a year where we are able to get away without any kids because we plan it on a weekend that the oldest three are at their other parent’s houses and Kellie stayed with my grandparents. Unfortunately both of them passed away this year so we decided to take Kellie with us. We’ve also added another adult going with us, Kriss’ mom Linda. This year we are also meeting some of their family from Boston, Mandy, Donna, and Joe. Again with time constraints of work and kid sitting we planned the trip to be a Friday-Sunday trip. Read more

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. Read more

We usually take at least one Disney trip in the winter during January or February and with annual passes and other membership cards expiring, we decided to go the last weekend in February. I had also thought it may be a slower weekend since Valentines/President’s Day week is usually very busy. Kellie had a Dr appointment at 7:30 Friday morning so as soon as we were done with it we headed south. We got in to Orlando just after 1:00PM at Disney’s Old Key West, one of our favorite places to stay, checked in and grabbed a bite to eat at Olivia’s for lunch. We stayed at OKW on our last trip to Food and Wine Festival in October and actually got the same room both times, studio 3316, by chance. Read more

This year’s Food and Wine trip was another first for us. This is the one trip where where in the past we’ve met others down there in Disney but for the last few years Kriss and I have gone alone, which was a nice change from being with people every year prior. So this year, after hanging out at our neighbor’s, Bruce and Lonnie, for months before talking about the trip they decided they’d like to go too since they hadn’t been in over 3 years and that was with kids too. So with a little finagling of kid’s schedules, we all took Friday off and headed south as soon as the kids were on the school bus at 7:00. Read more

Just finally getting around to writing this trip report. Yes the kids were surprised with this one again although it was a lot harder since we were pulling a trailer, sort of hard to hide it. But Marc Jr was here for his last week of summer vacation and we had the girls this weekend too so Kriss and I decided to plan a surprise trip for the kids. We booked a room on Expedia (link in the right column) and got an awesome rate on a 2 bedroom at FantasyWorld Club Villas that was a few miles from Disney. I am the first to admit that we are WAAAY spoiled by staying on Disney property all these years and yes our first impressions were not of excitement, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to do this trip if it weren’t for Expedia. The room was a little small for 6 of us but fortunately my parents decided to go with us and were able to get the same rate and Marc stayed with them right next door. It was a 2 story room that seems to have been partially refurbished recently (it looks like they have been doing it gradually based on reports on Expedia) with a kitchen, living room, and complete bathroom downstairs and two bedrooms, bathroom, and washer/dryer upstairs. Read more

With a quiet weekend coming up having only one child for the first time in over a month, we thought it was time for, you guessed it, another trip to Disney. We do this a lot after the family trip since it’s usually more of a production and this year we did one park commando day with the whole family, plus we had some DVC points we had to use by July 31 or we’d lose them. Read more