Email To: 7 Families Including Mine
Subject: Summer (?) 2018 Disney World Trip
Hey All,
So anybody remember that trip we started discussing around two years ago? You know, the one I won’t shut up about? It’s been a while since we talked seriously about this – as far as making actual plans, I’ve been pretty quiet for a year. We are now a little less than two years away from a likely date for the trip. Although we won’t need to make any reservations until about a year out, it’s about time for us all to sit down and seriously think about:
1) whether your family is still interested (who, and how many of what ages)
2) what it is you want to do
3) what that’s going to cost
The reality is, as I know you all saw from our previous discussions, a Disney World/Orlando vacation isn’t cheap. So the time to start saving up for it is probably now!
A quick recap of how we got here…back in about October 2014, a bunch of us were at a game night and started discussing the possibility of taking another trip together – many of us having done so several times in the past. A cruise was mentioned but ultimately put off until the youngest kids were older. But the possibility of a trip to Disney World seemed promising, to happen the summer or fall before the youngest (at the time) kids would start kindergarten. That had us considering 2018 as a strong possibility.
In March 2015, as happens when I have a particularly stressful period at work, I started thinking about Disney Trip planning again and contacted the original people who were interested, as well as several others who I thought would blend well together. Everyone on the list has strong links of family or friendship to at least two of the other families who are going, and all of you have met each other at least a few times. Most families are quite close to 80% of the people who are potentially attending, and those of you who don’t know each other that well would likely get on smashingly. Everyone I contacted indicated they were interested, which surprised me a little bit.
I sent out a survey, asking details of your past Disney/Orlando Attraction experiences, plus asking you to rate various statements about how such a trip would go.
From that survey, it was discovered that the group in general likes to plan things ahead, but with flexibility for when things change. There’s interest in spending some time with others from the group, particularly at meals, but people don’t want to have the entire group wandering around theme parks as a tour group all together. The group is somewhat cost-sensitive, recognizing this will be an expensive trip, but wanting to make smart choices for our budgets. One way to make the trip more cost-effective is to take a longer trip – theme park tickets are expensive, but the cost drops off as you start adding more days. So the difference between a 2 day trip and and 3 day trip is a lot bigger difference between 10 day trip and an 11 day one. Also, the group in general would like a longer trip, if possible, which jives with that strategy.
The group is interested in sharing lodging – and a rental home is one of the most cost effective ways to do that – and one of the cheapest ways to stay in Orlando, plus has many additional benefits for those who want them, such as the ability to cook and eat there instead of more expensively eating in Orlando or in the parks themselves, which is substantially more expensive.
There’s strongest interest in going to the following theme parks (in order of popularity): Epcot, Universal Studios, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Lego Land, and Universal Islands of Adventure. The next most common desire people have is one of the Water Parks, or possibly Animal Kingdom. Nothing says people have to do the same things, or even on the same day.
As a quick reminder, here’s who is currently on this email, and approximate age in Summer 2018 for the kids:
-The McGillen Family: Alice, myself, Jasper (5), and Violet (5), as well as possibly my father-in-law.
-The Carmody Family: Eileen and Gerry, plus Nancy (8) and now Geoff (2)!
-The Morpho Family: Rose and Lee, plus Peggy (7) and Theo (5)
-The Brown Family: Sammi and Hayden.
-The Humbug Family: Henri and his fiance (by then wife) Em Gale.
-The DeGood Family: Henry, Betty, plus Daisy (8)
Editor’s Note: I removed a family from the list that has already determined they will sadly not be able to come.
That’s a maximum of 27 (actually 20 now) people, but based on the % likelihood for each family, based on a variety of factors, we are probably in reality talking about 18 people total coming. Depending on totals, rental of more than one house may be required.
As part of the vacation planning process, I’m going to be blogging it. Planning Disney trips has been a passion of mine for several years now, and I’ve decided that I want to share my methodology and tools with with world – so I’ve started a blog, “Two Years ‘Til Ears”, which you’ll be able to find at http://twoyearstilears.com very soon – this email will be the first blog post over there. I welcome everyone’s feedback and involvement with the planning process. I’ve already heard from two of you that you might be interested in guest blogging about specific parts of the planning process that interest you – I welcome and encourage that. I’m hoping to build a meaningful resource that others can use.
To protect everyone else’s privacy (I don’t care if my name is attached to all this, but you might), I would ask that, if you are still on-board for the time being, please send me an alias for your family (last name) and aliases for everyone’s first names so that I can refer to you by those names instead of your real ones.
Editor’s Note: I used aliases above for everyone but my immediate family. The ??? names will hopefully be filled in as I get responses from the rest of the families that are involved.
In the end, the purpose of this email is a few things. Like I mentioned before, we need to start thinking more seriously about:
1) whether your family is still interested (who, and how many of what ages)
-I am not asking for a final commitment now – I’m asking if, based on our previous discussions and the budgeting tool you got to mess with a while back, whether or not your family is still interested. We probably will need slightly more concrete commitments in about April 2017. But for now, I’m just asking, still want to maybe do this? For those who are interested still, you’ll be hearing from me more often over the coming months as I put together information for you to review and consider.
2) what it is you want to do
-again, the planning tools I sent out a while back are useful for seeing the options. Think about what you want to do, how long you’d like the trip to be, etc. I’ve come up with an approximate plan that I’m seriously considering that is a 16 day trip straddling three weekends, so I’d only miss two weeks of work – it’s 2 days driving there, 2 days driving back, and 12 days in Orlando, with 10 days in theme parks (3 Universal, 1 LegoLand, and 6 Disney) and 2 being lazier days. This spreads things out a fair amount so the trip is more relaxed for both adults and children. Not everyone has to do the same thing – I’m just sharing my current plans. You should be able to look at the past documents I’ve sent and get a feeling for what you want to do. The only major updates I’ll add to what I’ve sent already:
-Animal Kingdom will have a lot of new stuff. They already have extended park hours into the evening. There’s a new nighttime show debuting this fall, plus the Tree of Life has some nighttime special effects. The Pandora (from the movie Avatar) land will also open and is supposed to be beautiful – amazingly bioluminescent, etc, at night.
-Hollywood Studios will likely have a new name by the time we go. They’ve recently closed about half of the attractions, added a bunch of shows and special things related to Star Wars, etc. It’s questionable (honestly unlikely at this point) that the new Star Wars Land will open in the parks by the time we go, although it’s possible phase one might be open. There should be some new Pixar stuff by then though – a Pixar land that’s themed to their movies with a bunch of rides for the younger kids.
-Universal – I’d be surprised if there isn’t new Harry Potter stuff by the time we go, to add to the two sections that already exist. Also, they have a new water park opening soon – Volcano Bay.
3) what that’s going to cost
-I’m in the process of revisiting the planning/pricing spreadsheet I sent out before with current prices and forecasts for 2018, for budgeting purposes. I’ll be sending that out soon. Once you have a feel for #1, and #2, you can apply that information to #3 and then know how much you need to save. If you’d like to know now, you can use the existing spreadsheet and it will give you a ballpark figure of what we are talking. Disney tickets are rising in cost faster than predicted, so you may want to add 10% to the cost of those in your budgeting. Otherwise you can wait a week or two and I’ll have a new version of the budgeting spreadsheet to look at.
So in short:
-Is your family still interested in going. If so, who and how many? This is not a final commitment.
-I’ll be sending an updated budgeting sheet soon.
-I’m blogging this, but will keep everyone else’s identities off the internet – send me an alias for your family name and each member and we’ll make it fun!
I’m excited to be moving into the next phase of planning this. I hope you are too!
Magically Yours,
~Dan