Letter #4 - Revelations

Hello all,

Just a reminder that of my letters and more can be viewed at The Great Gerryts Clan Vacation Blog ( http://gerryts.blogspot.com ).

Here we are at my last introductory letter. Last time I revealed that The Great Gerryts Clan Vacation is scheduled for 2012, when we all have flying cars and live on the moon. Right away, I have to point out something important. Saving $1/day per person isn’t absolutely necessary. There will be different options available to provide flexibility for each person/family. $1/day will pay for the ultimate super duper option, however.

While 2012 isn’t perhaps as soon as some of you may have hoped, there is much wisdom in this. $1 saved (per person, per day… you know the drill) adds up to $365 in one year. Saved over 5 years, that’s a lot of money. The full-sized vacation will most likely not cost that much money, but better to save too much than too little. (Snyders… you’re a family of 5, but $4/day will certainly be enough.) Plus, if you’re putting your vacation savings in a dedicated savings account as I suggest, you’ll be earning a nice bit of compound interest on it.

Now, I’m sure some of you may be a bit interested in knowing where all that money will be going to. Well, my carefully-planted spy has shared that some of you think it’s a cruise. Some of you may suspect it is a trip to Walt Disney World Resort. Well you’re WRONG. It’s both.

Sunday, December 2, 2012. The U.S. Thanksgiving has recently passed, so travel is low, vacation destinations are un-crowded and discounted (partially because vacationing on Mars is now all the rage), and the weather in Florida is beautiful. Everyone gets up at the crack of dawn and meets to drive to Buffalo, where we will board a plane for Orlando. Disney’s comfortable buses will take us from the airport to Walt Disney World’s BoardWalk Villas resort, where we will be staying in deluxe accommodations for the next week.

On the following Sunday, two luxury vans will take us to Port Canaveral, where we will board the Disney Wonder, one of Disney Cruise Line’s two amazing cruise ships (actually, by 2012 there will be 3 or 4 of them). Our 4-night cruise will take us to Nassau, Bahamas, and to Disney’s private island in the Bahamas (weather in the Bahamas will be ideal also). On Thursday morning, we disembark the ship and fly home, arriving in the early evening.

There are several opportunities here for shortening your stay or decreasing expense. One is choose a lower-cost stateroom on the cruise, or to omit the cruise altogether (or even the Disney resort stay, although this will be the core of the vacation). Another is to arrive at the resort later than the main group, perhaps to stay only for a few nights instead of the full 7. It is my hope that most or all of us come for at least the core one-week Disney resort stay, although ideally everyone would join us for the full experience. In all likelihood it really will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, having all of us there together. I’m 100% confident that if there are any regrets, they won’t belong to those who join us.

Up next for the blog: starting tomorrow, a detailed four-part series on the specific aspects of the vacation. I will be talking about why December 2, 2012 is the target date, transportation, theme parks, dining, our resort, and the cruise. Please take advantage of the “Ask a Question” feature of the blog to share any questions, concerns, suggestions, recipes, stock tips, or whatever. Hopefully I’ll get enough questions that I can do some “Questions and Answers” posts on the blog. Get writing!

Matt