This trip will be mammoth in more ways than one. The most obvious gargantuan factor is the length of the adventure. We’ll be away from home for a total of 6 weeks and 3 days. The next factor contributing to the epic nature of this journey is the number of people going. There are 21 travelers going on various portions of the trip. Brave or stupid? Time will tell…
Quick recap...We zoom back to 2009. Malcolm and I had only just discovered the existence of of DCL a few months prior to our Mediterranean cruise! Prior to our April cruise, our Disney travel record had been sadly dormant and confined to pre-kids-still living with our parents-era. We came upon DCL by chance whilst doing research to take the children on their very first trip to WDW in Dec 2010.
The original plan was to tack on a Caribbean cruise at the end of our WDW stay. And then…the kids sail free offer for the Mediterranean cruises came up. Malcolm decided to “try before we buy”. Yep, my arm was twisted. We embarked on our 11 night Mediterranean cruise on the Magic for our Disney “preview” to whet our appetite. Besides we needed an opportunity to book our “real” cruise whilst onboard for the extra savings. By then, the Caribbean cruise had morphed into a Panama Canal cruise and the plans had evolved to include New York and Washington DC. The number of participants had also slowly grown from just the 5 of us to the magical number of 21. It appears that we sell the idea of Disney very well! They all couldn’t resist wanting to come along with us for the magic…
Here's a run down of our Adventure!
Dec 9 We leave for Orlando!
Dec 21 Fly to New York
Dec 28 Catch the train to Washington D.C.
Jan 2 Return to Orlando
Jan 4 Transfer to Port Canaveral
Jan 6 Hop on to our Panama Canal cruise
Jan 21 Fly home
Jan 23 Arrive home
Feeling the need to squeeze every single bit of value into the expensive airfares and long traveling times, and not to mention the chaos that we’ll be putting our body clocks into, we have decided to go for as long as our budget and leave will possibly permit us to go for.
We’re beginning our journey on December 9 on a 13 hour and 45 minute Delta flight bound for LA. We chose to forgo continuing on the “international” flight to Atlanta (where we’d have to connect to a flight for Orlando) and opted instead for a direct 4 hr 45 min flight from LAX to Orlando. This means no more on-demand inflight entertainment…Hope we don’t regret the decision!
Our first stint at Orlando is solely dedicated to Walt Disney World. Sorry, I lie. We’ll be spending our last day at Universal Studios to satisfy the Harry Potter fans.
We then head to the bright lights of New York for a week where we’ll spend Christmas. It is then a train ride to Washington D.C where we’ll stay for 5 days before heading back down to Orlando.
Following that is a transfer to Port Canaveral in preparation for the Panama Canal cruise, a necessity for our journey west to LA. Sadly our adventure will end there as we board our flight back home to Sydney.
Dec 21 Fly to New York
Dec 28 Catch the train to Washington D.C.
Jan 2 Return to Orlando
Jan 4 Transfer to Port Canaveral
Jan 6 Hop on to our Panama Canal cruise
Jan 21 Fly home
Jan 23 Arrive home
Feeling the need to squeeze every single bit of value into the expensive airfares and long traveling times, and not to mention the chaos that we’ll be putting our body clocks into, we have decided to go for as long as our budget and leave will possibly permit us to go for.
We’re beginning our journey on December 9 on a 13 hour and 45 minute Delta flight bound for LA. We chose to forgo continuing on the “international” flight to Atlanta (where we’d have to connect to a flight for Orlando) and opted instead for a direct 4 hr 45 min flight from LAX to Orlando. This means no more on-demand inflight entertainment…Hope we don’t regret the decision!
Our first stint at Orlando is solely dedicated to Walt Disney World. Sorry, I lie. We’ll be spending our last day at Universal Studios to satisfy the Harry Potter fans.
We then head to the bright lights of New York for a week where we’ll spend Christmas. It is then a train ride to Washington D.C where we’ll stay for 5 days before heading back down to Orlando.
Following that is a transfer to Port Canaveral in preparation for the Panama Canal cruise, a necessity for our journey west to LA. Sadly our adventure will end there as we board our flight back home to Sydney.
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