In 1999, our family made our first trip to
Walt Disney World and the Disney cruise ship. Our love of all things
Disney quickly grew after that trip. This web site lists the trips we
have taken and includes many pictures from the trips. We hope to
continually add more information and pictures as well as links to Disney
information.
Disney Trivia
Planned Disney Vacations
2012
February 2012
at Champions Gate (DVC)
The trip is planned for 2/3/2012 - 2/13/2012.
A 1 BR Theme Park view room at Bay Lake Towers has been booked for 2/5/2012
- 2/10/2012. The balance of the nights will be spent in Champions
Gate.
-
Delta - depart 2/3/2012
11:13 am (Flt 5131 Seats 2C, 2D), arrive Atlanta 2:09 pm.
Depart Atlanta 4:50 pm (Flt 925 Seats 2C, 2D), arrive
Orlando (MCO) 6:20 pm.
-
Delta - depart 2/13/2012
11:30 pm (Flt 2018 Seats 2C, 2D), arrive Atlanta 1:05 pm.
Depart Atlanta 3:10 pm (Flt 3801 Seats 2C, 2D), arrive Des
Moines 4:27 pm.
March
2012 Disney Magic Eastern Caribbean Cruise (Cash)
We have rescheduled the 2011 cruise that we
had cancelled. The sail date is March 10, 2012. We will fly to
Orlando on Thursday 3/8, then stay Thu and Fri at Champions Gate. We will travel
to the port on Saturday morning. We are booked for room 8534. This trip was scheduled to include
Stephanie; however, she was accepted into the Disney College Program and
will be working at Walt Disney Word during this time. She may be able
to ask for the week off. We hope to find out if she will cruise with
us in early February.
-
Delta - depart 3/8/2011
11:01 am (Flt 5131 Seats 2C, 2D), arrive Atlanta 2:05 pm.
Depart Atlanta 3:55 pm (Flt 11 Seats 3C, 3D), arrive
Orlando (MCO) 5:26 pm.
-
Delta - depart 3/19/2012
3:30 pm (Flt 1950 Seats 3A, 3B), arrive Atlanta 5:11 pm.
Depart Atlanta 8:45 pm (Flt 2273 Seats 2C, 2D), arrive Des
Moines 10:04 pm.
April
2012 Trip to Atlanta, then to Orlando
We have scheduled a split trip in April.
The first 2 days will be in Atlanta to visit Ryan, Meghan and Isabelle.
We then will travel to Orlando to stay at the house for 8 nights. We
have no plans to stay at Disney, but we are sure we will visit the parks
and/or resorts. Golf, golf lessons and working on the house may also
be part of the plan. And of course, visiting Stephanie at Disney will
be part of the trip.
-
Delta - depart 4/20/2012
4:00 (Flt 5312 Seats 5C, 5D), arrive Atlanta 6:59 pm.
Depart Atlanta 4/22/2012 12:50 pm (Flt 2369 Seats 17D, 17E), arrive
Orlando (MCO) 2:19 pm.
-
Delta - depart 4/30/2012
11:30 am (Flt 2018 Seats 21D, 21E), arrive Atlanta 1:03 pm.
Depart Atlanta 2:11 pm (Flt 5312 Seats 5C, 5D), arrive Des
Moines 3:22 pm.
June
2012 at Champions Gate and Boardwalk Villas (DVC)
The primary purpose of this trip it to visit
Stephanie at Disney for her birthday and to attend the last weekend of Star
Wars Weekend. We will stay at Boardwalk Villas for 4 nights.
-
Delta - depart 6/6/2012
11:30 am (Flt 5131 Seats 6C, 6D), arrive Atlanta 2:45 pm.
Depart Atlanta 3:55 pm (Flt 25 Seats 21D, 21E), arrive
Orlando (MCO) 5:29 pm.
-
Delta - depart 6/13/2012
3:30 pm (Flt 2369 Seats 17D, 17E), arrive Atlanta 5:04 pm.
Depart Atlanta 8:40 pm (Flt 1953 Seats 11D, 11E), arrive Des
Moines 9:53 pm.
December 2012 at Disney World
(Cash)
We will travel to
Disneyworld
in December 2012 for 11-12 nights. We plan to travel to Orlando on
Wednesday, December 26, 2012 and return to Des Moines on Sunday, January 6,
2013 or Monday, January 7, 2013. We have booked a room at the Disney Polynesian resort from
December 29th through Jan 5th. We will celebrate New Year's Eve at Disneyworld.
Previous Disney Trips
Disney Trip
Count (total # of Disney trips, DCL, WDW)
1973
KATHY'S
1973 TRIP
1999
AUGUST 1999 LAND AND SEA - (1/1/1) This
trip was a 3 day land / 4
day cruise package. For the land portion of the vacation, we stayed at
Boardwalk. The cruise (in rooms 6534 & 6532) was aboard the Disney Magic and sailed to Nassau and
Castaway Cay.
2000
JULY and AUGUST 2000 LAND AND SEA - (2,1,2) and (3,2,2) Our second was much different. It began
on July 26, 2000 with 10
days in Kissimmee, FL with David's baseball team, the
Iowa
Sting, for the 16U AAU National Championship. We stayed in a hotel 2.5
miles from Disney World. Mom, Tony, Ryan and Steph spent most of this
time at the parks. After the
tournament, we flew back to Des Moines on August 5, 2000 and spent 1 week
preparing for a 7 day cruise. We returned to Orlando
on August 11, 2000 for the inaugural Disney Magic 7 day cruise
(in room 6046) that began on the 12th.
We sailed to St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay.
2001
AUGUST 2001 CRUISE - (4,3,2) Our next Disney adventure
was another cruise (in room 6046) in August 2001. We were in
the same 2 rooms that we were in during the 2000 cruise.
2002
MARCH 2002 CRUISE - (5,4,2) We next took a cruise
(in room 6120)
during Spring
Break 2002. This cruise added some excitement because the ship caught
fire a few days before our cruise began.
2003
MARCH 2003 CRUISE - (6,5,2) We next took a cruise
during Spring
Break 2003. This cruise sailed to Key West, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel
(8548).
We could not go ashore at Grand Cayman because the seas were too rough for the
tenders..
2004
MARCH 2004
CRUISE - (7,6,2) Our
Spring Break
2004 cruise again took us on the eastern route (8548). We visited St. Maarten,
St. Thomas and Castaway Cay.
NEW YEARS EVE
2004 CRUISE - (8,7,2) We surprised Stephanie on
Christmas morning 2004. She opened one of her gifts and found homework
inside. After she showed us a very bewildered look, we handed her our
"gift certificate" that informed her that we were about to embark on another
Disney cruise; however, she had until 7:30 the next morning to prepare.
What a surprise! We spent a fun New Years Eve on the
Disney Magic.
2005
NEW YEARS EVE
2005 WALT DISNEY WORLD - (9,7,3) We traveled to the
Polynesian Resort
at Disneyworld from December 27, 2005 through January 3, 2006. This
resort is across a small lake from
Magic Kingdom. We visited all of
the parks and had a great time!
2006
MARCH 2006 CRUISE -
(10,8,3) Our next one was a cruise on the Disney
Magic (8548) during March 2006.
We sailed on the Disney Magic 7 day cruise starting March 18, 2006. We
flew in the night before. The cruise took an eastern Caribbean route.
The route took us to
St. Thomas,
St. Maarten and
Castaway Cay.
NEW YEARS EVE
2006 WALT DISNEY WORLD - (11,8,4) We traveled to the
Polynesian Resort
at Disneyworld from December 26, 2006 through January
2, 2007. We visited all of
the parks and had a great time!
2007
JULY 2007 WALT
DISNEY WORLD - (12,8,5) We traveled to the
Polynesian Resort
at Disneyworld from July 7, 2007 through July 14, 2007. We
celebrated Mom's 50th birthday by visiting all of the parks and had a great
time!
NOVEMBER 2007 WALT DISNEY WORLD -
(13,8,6) In
November 2007, Dad and Mom
traveled
to the Grand Floridian Resort
at
Disneyworld from
November 3rd through the 10th, 2007. We visited
all of the parks and had a great time!
NEW YEARS EVE 2007 WALT DISNEY WORLD -
(14,8,7)
In
December 2007, we
traveled to the
Polynesian Resort at
Disneyworld from December 26, 2007 through January 2, 2008. This
resort is across a small lake from
Magic Kingdom. We visited all of the parks
and had a great time! We had so much fun that we decided to purchase
shares in the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) which will allow us to enjoy Disney
vacation for years to come!
2008
FEBRUARY 2008 WALT DISNEY WORLD -
(15,8,8) In
February 2008, Dad and Mom
traveled to the
Polynesian Resort at
Disneyworld from February 2 - 9, 2008. This
resort is across a small lake from
Magic Kingdom. The primary purpose of the
trip was to allow Dad to attend the National Biodiesel Conference and Expo
in Orlando. While we were there, we also visited all of the parks
and had a great time!
MARCH 2008 LAND
AND SEA - (16,9,9) In March 2008, we
traveled to Orlando on March 13, 2008 and stayed for 2 nights at
Polynesian Resort
and visited
Magic Kingdom,
Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios. We then boarded the Disney Magic on Saturday, March 15th and
returned to port on Saturday, March 22nd. We visited St. Maarten, St.
Thomas and Disney's Castaway Cay. Dad, Mom & Stephanie were in room
8534. David,
Jessica and Zach were in room
7014.
David and Jessica got engaged on the beach in St. Maarten!!
JUNE 2008 WALT DISNEY WORLD -
(17,9,10) We
traveled to the
Boardwalk Villas at
Disneyworld from June 7, 2008 through June 12, 2008 and celebrated
Stephanie's birthday on June 10th. Emily joined us during this
trip for her birthday. We stayed in a 1 BR DVC Villa at Boardwalk resort,
which is between Epcot and Disney Hollywood
Studios.
AUGUST 2008 WALT DISNEY WORLD
- (18,9,11) We
traveled to the
Boardwalk Inn at
Disneyworld from August 13, 2008 through August 18, 2008 because our
Lake was flooded (what an excuse!!). We visited all of the parks except
Animal Kingdom
and had a great time!
NOVEMBER 2008 WALT DISNEY WORLD - (19,9,12) Dad & Mom
traveled to the
Boardwalk Villas at
Disneyworld from November 2008 through November 15, 2008. We
stayed in a 1 BR DVC Villa at Boardwalk resort, which is between Epcot and
Disney Hollywood Studios. During this trip, we purchased DVC points at
Bay Lake Towers.
NEW YEARS EVE 2008 WALT
DISNEY WORLD - (20,9,13) In
December 2008, we
traveled to the
Polynesian Resort at
Disneyworld from December 26, 2008 through January 5, 2009. This
resort is across a small lake from
Magic Kingdom.
We hosted a web cam (Ustream.tv)
during the entire stay.
2009
FEBRUARY 2009 WALT DISNEY WORLD -
(21,9,14) Dad &
Mom traveled to
Disneyworld from February 6-15, 2009. We stayed in a 1 BR DVC
villa at Saratoga Springs
resort. We visited all of the parks
and had a great time! We
hosted a web cam (Eyesonears.com)
during the entire stay.
MARCH 2009 LAND
AND SEA - (22, 10, 15) We traveled to
Orlando in March 2009. We stayed at the
Polynesian for two nights before boarding the Disney Magic (room 8548) for a 7
night eastern Caribbean cruise We then returned to the Polynesian for 2
nights before returning home. The vacation ran from March 12, 2009 through
March 23, 2009. We hosted a
web cam (Eyesonears.com) during the
entire stay. Streaming from the ship while at sea was an experience.
JULY 2009 WALT DISNEY WORLD -
(23,10,16) Dad,
Mom, Stephanie & Emily traveled to
Disneyworld in July
2009 for 9 nights (July 24th through August 2nd). We stayed in a 1 BR DVC
villa at Boardwalk
resort. We hosted a web cam (Eyesonears.com)
during the entire stay.
NOVEMBER
2009 WALT DISNEY WORLD - (24,10,17)
Dad &
Mom traveled to
Disneyworld in November 2009 for 9 nights. We stayed at
Bay Lake Towers. Bay Lake is the newest Disney Vacation
Club (DVC) resort. It opened in August 2009. Our names are
included on the fountain out front as being one of the 1st 1000 families to
purchase an ownership stake in this resort.
We hosted a web cam (Eyesonears.com)
during the entire stay.
DECEMBER
2009 WALT DISNEY WORLD (25,10,18)
-
Dad, Mom & Steph traveled to
Disneyworld in December 2009 for 9 nights. We stayed at the Disney
Polynesian resort and celebrated New Year's Eve at Disneyworld. We hosted
a web cam (Eyesonears.com) during the entire stay. Everyone enjoyed
watching NYE fireworks. We even had families who watched the fireworks
last year on the internet join us at our room this visit.
2010
FEBRUARY 2010 WALT DISNEY WORLD (26,10,19)
-
Dad and Mom traveled to
Disneyworld
February 5th - 16th, 2010 for 11 nights. We stayed at the Disney
Boardwalk Villas resort. We hosted
a web cam (Eyesonears.com) during
the entire stay.
The original plan was to return to Des Moines
on Sunday, February 14th. The weather forecast in Des Moines raised
safety concerns and also the concern that we may be forced to spend the
night in Minneapolis led us to change our return date by one day. The
airline could not accommodate us with a return on Monday, February 15th, but
could on Tuesday, February 16th. Despite what everyone may believe,
this was not done just to stay at Disney 2 more days. Although we
made sure we enjoyed it. As a footnote, Dad actually got more work done
this week than in a normal work week in the office (less distractions).
This cannot become a habit however. During the bonus day, we did get a
chance to check out the golfing facilities at Disney World. We also
got the ball rolling on the addition of more DVC points.
MARCH 2010
WALT DISNEY WORLD PLUS DISNEY CRUISE
(27,11,20)
Dad, Mom & Steph
traveled to
Orlando in March 2010. We stayed at Bay Lake Towers
(room 7726 - same as last November) for two nights before boarding the Disney Magic
( room 8534) for a 7
night eastern Caribbean cruise We then returned to the Bay Lake Towers
(room 7626) for 2
nights before returning home. The vacation ran from March 11, 2010 through
March 22, 2010. Our servers on the ship were Raman from India and
Stephanie from New Zealand.
We hosted a web cam (Eyesonears.com) during
as much of the trip as possible.
JUNE 2010 WALT DISNEY WORLD
(28,11,21)
Dad,
Mom & Steph traveled to
Disneyworld in June 2010 to celebrate
Steph's graduation and visit Disney's Star Wars Weekend. We stayed at
Boardwalk Villas. The trip was very short. We flew down
on Friday June 11th and returned on Monday, June 14th.
We hosted a web cam (Eyesonears.com) during
the entire stay.
JUNE/JULY 2010
WALT DISNEY WORLD / CHAMPIONS GATE
(29,11,22)
Dad,
Mom & Steph traveled to
Disneyworld on June 28, 2010. The
primary purpose of the trip was to close on our new vacation home and to move
in. We stayed at
Saratoga Springs resort at Disney World. We also spent some time
at the parks. We watched the 4th of July fireworks. We flew down
on Monday, June 28th and returned on Monday, July 5th.
Our furniture was not delivered as scheduled. Another
trip was scheduled to move in. We hosted a web cam on this trip as we
have done before.
AUGUST 2010 AT CHAMPIONS GATE/OMNI
(30,11,23)
Dad & Mom traveled to Florida in August. The primary purpose of the
trip was to set up our new home and to enjoy both the new neighborhood and
Disney World. We stayed at the
Omni Hotel in Champions Gate for 2 nights before staying in our
new vacation home.
Pictures of
our new home after we put everything in place. We did briefly visit
Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney.
SEPTEMBER 2010 AT CHAMPIONS GATE
(31,11,24)
Dad & Mom traveled to Florida for a long weekend in September. We
flew down on Friday, September 24th and returned on Monday, September 27th.
We had not planned to visit Disney World during this trip; however, we could
not resist. On Sunday, we ate at Rain Forest Cafe outside of Animal
Kingdom. We then drove to Epcot and spend a few hours there. We
then walked to Hollywood Studios to eat at Prime Time. We then walked
back to Epcot to watch Illuminations, then drove back to the house.
NOVEMBER 2010 AT DISNEY WORLD/CHAMPIONS GATE
(DVC)
(32,11,25)
Dad &
Mom traveled to
Disneyworld in November 2010. We stayed at
Bay Lake Towers for part of the time with rest of the time at our new
townhouse. We booked the trip for 10 nights (November 5-15,
2010). Dad golfed at the course in Champions
Gate.
NOVEMBER 2010
(THANKSGIVING) AT CHAMPIONS GATE
(CASH)
(33,11,26)
We traveled to
Disneyworld
over Thanksgiving week (6 nights). We traveled to Orlando on Sunday,
November 21, 2010
and returned to Des Moines on Saturday, November 27, 2010. Ryan & Meghan
flew down on Wednesday to join us for Thanksgiving at Disney World.
We stayed at our vacation home in Champions Gate, FL.
DECEMBER 2010
AT DISNEY WORLD (CASH) (34,11,27)
We
traveled to
Disneyworld in December 2010 for
10 nights. We traveled to Orlando on Sunday, December 26, 2010
and returned to Des Moines on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. We stayed at the Disney
Polynesian resort and celebrated New Year's Eve at Disneyworld. We visited
the parks all 9 days during this trip. The was probably the first time
for a trip of this duration to not have at least one down day. We did
web cast the entire trip. Viewership on
www.eyesonears.com exceeded 300
during the fireworks show.
2011
FEBRUARY 2011
AT CHAMPIONS GATE (35,11,28)
We traveled to
Florida in
February 2011 (4th - 14th) for
10 nights. We had planned to split our time between Champions Gate and
Boardwalk. Instead we spent the entire time at Champions Gate working
on our new vacation home.. Dave also attended a 3 day golf retreat at the
Champions Gate Golf Course (www.DavidLeadbetter.com).
We did visit Disney's Hollywood Studios one afternoon for lunch at Mama
Melrose. We rode Toy Story Mania 3 times in the standby line because
the crowd level was so low.
MARCH 2011 DISNEY WORLD / CHAMPIONS GATE
(36, 11, 29)
We booked 5 nights at Animal Kingdom Villas and
stayed 2 nights before and 1 nights after at our vacation home in
Champions Gate. The trips was from 3/11 - 3/19. We also attended a showing of Wicked in
downtown Orlando on March 15th.
MAY 2011 AT CHAMPIONS GATE
(37, 11, 30)
We traveled to Florida in May (14th - 21st) to spend a week at the house.
During the trip, we purchased new dining room and office furniture.
Dave attended a half day at David Leadbetter for more golf lessons. We
both went to the community pool several times. We also spent one full
day at Epcot for the last day of Flower and Garden festival.
JUNE 2011 AT CHAMPIONS GATE AND DISNEY WORLD - STAR
WARS WEEKEND (38,11, 31)
We traveled to Disney World for Star Wars Weekend. We flew down on
June 8th and returned on June 15th. We stayed one night in Champions Gate, then spend 4 nights at Boardwalk
Villas, then 2 more nights at Champions Gate before returning home.
Stephanie's birthday was on June 10th. Our 20th anniversary was on June
15th.
4TH OF JULY AT
CHAMPIONS GATE AND DISNEY WORLD (39, 11, 32)
We traveled to Champions Gate on July 2nd to spend some time at the vacation
home as well as the Polynesian for the 4th of July fireworks (which were
shown on both the 3rd and 4th). We web-casted the fireworks on
Eyesonears.com.
JULY 2011 AT
CHAMPIONS GATE (40,11,33)
We
traveled to Champions Gate in late July to spend some time at the vacation
home. During this trip, we completed the furnishing of the vacation
home (furniture for 3rd bedroom) as well as played some golf and enjoyed some
of the restaurants at Disney
World
SEPTEMBER
2011 AT CHAMPIONS GATE AND DISNEY WORLD (41, 11, 34)
We traveled to Champions Gate in September
2011 to spend some time at the vacation
home. We also stayed 3 nights at Winderness Lodge Villas (9/18 - 9/21)
and attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on Tuesday, September
20th.
NOVEMBER 2011 AT CHAMPIONS GATE AND DISNEY WORLD
(42, 11, 35)
This was a busy trip. We flew to Orlando on Friday, November 4th.
We spent 2 nights at our house in Champions Gate. We then checked into
Boardwalk Villas and spent 4 nights. We enjoyed Walt Disney World
(Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot). One of the highlights
was watching Air Supply on the Epcot stage. We checked out on
Thursday and returned to the house for one night. We drove to Stuart,
FL on Friday to see our new boat. We stayed at a Hamption Inn on
Friday. We spent some time out on the water then stayed on the boat
Saturday. We then returned to Champions Gate on Sunday and flew
home on Monday, November 14th.
DECEMBER 2011 AT CHAMPIONS GATE AND DISNEY WORLD
(43,11,36)
We traveled to
Disneyworld
in December 2011 for 12 nights. We arrived in Orlando on
Monday, December 26, 2011 and returned to Des Moines on Saturday, January 7,
2012. We stayed at the Disney Polynesian resort from
December 29th through Jan 4th. We celebrated New Year's Eve at
Disneyworld. We webcasted the New Year's Eve
fireworks on www.eyesonears.com.
Stephanie did not join us on this trip because she marched in a college bowl game (Pinstripe
Bowl in New York City). We did enjoy the parks but did not ride
any rides. We also spent 2 days at
Port Canaveral enjoying our
boat.
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