The “Stop and Smell the Roses” DLR Trip, 7/19-7/25

[deekaypee]

In keeping with DISboard tradition, I begin my TR with introductions and an overview. I like to think that 1) to know us is to love us and 2) an introduction means you’ve been warned.


Cast of Not-So-Animated Characters

DH: 39, marathoner, soccer fan, looks good in a bow tie and a blazer. He loves jazz, the Sunday NYTimes, and Will Shortz. I’ll often refer to DH as My-Partner-in-Crime (MPiC) throughout this TR, a nickname which sums up our pranksterish natures. DH/ MPiC is AKA Mr. Pithy, for his dry humor and ability to make me laugh at the oddest moments. MPiC isn’t a huge Disney fan, but he loves me and has learned to like the Mouse. He even arranged a surprise trip to the World to propose to me. [Technically, he’s not a DH, as we’re not yet married even though we’ve been engaged for several years. We’ve sort of treated the engagement as its own fun destination in our journey together, no hurry, no rush. Most people in our lives forget we’re not married, except our parents, so the DH label seems to fit.] DH does love all Disney’s attention to detail, especially with landscaping, architecture, and attraction queues. With that in mind, he’s always in charge of finding Hidden Mickeys. MPiC is the eye in the tornado of our lives; I am the cackling witch frantically looking for those ruby slippers. And at the risk of sounding mushy, he’s the best person I know.

Me (DeeKayPee): 38, yoga enthusiast, animation fan, collector of odd t-shirts. I loves bad puns, Vosges chocolate, and dollar movies. You can generally count on me for the Emperor-Wears-No-Clothes moments, much to everyone’s alternating amusement and irritation. I cheat at mini-golf and play a mean game of cribbage. My first memory of Disney was seeing Sleeping Beauty at the drive-in theater with my parents. Afterwards, I re-enacted the movie, casting my baby brother as Aurora and myself as Prince Phillip (and was heartbroken when my parents told me I couldn’t grow up to be the prince who does the rescuing.) I’m AKA Ms. Snarky for my sense of humor which is, well, snarky. I’m lucky that MPiC thinks I’m funny…most of the time.


The Pre-Show Attraction

I’ve been to WDW and DL several times before—and had an active Disney life pre-MPiC, whose always known that to love me is to accept Disney as central to our lives. Among some of my more memorable trips: eloped to WDW with my first (starter) marriage; licked my wounds over my first (and final) divorce by revisiting the Disney magic; and celebrated my post-chemotherapy/post-surgery/new identity as a cancer survivor at the World. Deekaypee and Disney, partners forever.

Luckily, DH supports me in this relationship, even pretends it’s functional and not simply a fixation. In return, we’ve struck a deal, alternating our trips to Disney with other vacations or an additional trip to see his snowbird parents (who I can’t beg, bribe, or cajole into going to the parks). And all our vacations are subject to our budget, which means that we didn’t go to Disney in 2005—we had to dip into our traveling fund for trips home due to three back-to-back funerals. And then, in March 2006, we went to Europe for the first time. I’d promised myself we’d make it there before I turned 40 (DH had been there as a college student, but I hadn’t). We were on a fairly tight budget, cashing in long-saved airline miles and staying in a cheap flat in London. We loved it, and can’t wait to save up and use our passports again.

At the same time, I was a little moony—as Mr. Pithy puts it—that there would be no Disney until 2007. And MPiC could sense it, not that it took a lot to notice. We’d go to a Disney movie, and I’d drag my feet as we left the theatre, sighing and kicking at imaginary pebbles. When he mentioned looking forward to POTC: DMC, I’d mention the refurbishment of the rides. Yeah, I’m an open book, I am. So as summer approached, MPiC generously suggested we take a quick trip out to DLR. After all, we have plenty of leisure time in the summer. Plus, he said, don’t you want to see DLR for the 50th anniversary? We’d been to DLR before, but we weren’t DL veterans—we consider WDW our theme-park “home.” Hmm, there was no denying the logic of his arguments, right?

But, the expense! We may have the free time during the summer, but we’re also on 9-month salaries. (We could take the 12-month option, but we’d rather budget our money ourselves.) Of course, we had squirreled some money away for DH’s summer research trip, but it wasn’t reasonable to use that money for a fun vacation. And at the point of our initial discussion, we had no firm plans to earn extra summer cash. And even though we had enough money in our monthly budget for entertainment—movies, eating out, day trips—to make the trip feasible, it would mean compromising on the little luxuries of summer, all to indulge little old me. So, despite my daydreamy desires, I pulled my head out of the clouds and said no, not this summer. I’m an adult, I can delay gratification for another year. (We use the phrase “delay gratification” whenever we have to contain our ids. Mr. Pithy is good at it. Me, not so much.)

And that was that. No Disney this year. Final decision.

Until….

Next Post: Releasing My Inner-Disney Control Freak

[PrincessMira]

popcorn:: can't wait to read more

[deekaypee]

To recap briefly, DH (aka MPiC or Mr. Pithy) and I had made the oh-so-adult decision not to go to Disney during the summer. Even though we hadn’t been to Disney since 2004 and we wanted to visit DLR before the end of the 50th anniversary, we couldn’t justify the extra expense. After all, we’d already taken our one major vacation for the year—London, whoo hoo!! And we were already committed to a number of smaller, but not inexpensive trips for the rest of 2006. And as tempting as it is to dip into our rainy-day savings account, doing so becomes a little harder when you’re looking at a vacation destination where you actually hope it DOESN’T rain.

Summer Fun?
So, we planned on spending a long summer in our town of residence, living what I’ve come to refer to as “our provincial life.” We usually travel during the summer, mostly to family and friends. But I tried to convince myself that staying at home this summer would be our newest adventure, an exploration of familiar surroundings. Ooh, I thought, we’ll finally get a chance to go to that mini-golf course; it’s THEMED and there are bumper cars, so it’s almost like being in Disney. And we can make that concentrated effort to decide who sells the best ice cream in town….mmm, there are worse things in life than trying different flavors. And we can sneak off to afternoon matinees if we want to feel all vacation-y; I tried to be comforted by the promise of POTC: DMC looking like a great popcorn movie, even though I don’t like popcorn (a little tidbit for you to remember for later on in the TR). And I would console myself for the lack of Disney, not only with ice cream but by adding a few extra dollars to our travel savings account.

Such a summer was not to be. Oh, we went min-golfing...once, and I cheated (and still lost). But we didn’t eat our way through 52 flavors, let alone taste-test any sorbet. You know the answer why. The fact that I’m writing a TR—okay, right now the prelude to a TR—tells you why. But how? A series of Fortunate Events (and Disney should have snatched up the Lemony Snicket series)! First, MPiC received a small research grant for his summer trips, thus freeing up some of the money we had set aside just in case his proposal wasn’t accepted. I received an entirely unexpected bonus, taken from extra funds which needed to be spent before the end of our fiscal year, in recognition of some of my work. Then I received a small stipend for a project that ended six months prior, a stipend I’d given up ever seeing. Finally, after MPiC and I both ended up with short-term summer assignments, not at the salary rate we expected but enough to just maybe make an economical summer trip feasible.

My Inner Disney-Control Freak Unleashed
So we double and triple-checked our joint checking account balance, adjusted our budget, tightened our belts and started to plan our trip. Wait, let me correct that statement. We both tightened our belts, but I’m the one who does the planning for the Disney trips. I’d like to think it’s because MPiC trusts me—and he does. He’d probably tell you it’s because I’m a Disney Trip Control Freak—and I am—and that he regards the Disney vacation as my area of expertise—which I also like to think is true. (Repeat after me: I’m proud to be a Disney Trip Control Freak!) But MPiC also doesn’t want to be overly involved in the decision-making process. He just doesn’t care that much. Oh, he’s big on budgets and spreadsheets and discounts. And MPiC knows that the successful trip involves making an itinerary and he has his favorite rides, as you’ll find out. And he likes to stick to a good solid plan. It’s just that once our general traveling budget is determined, he’s much less interested in the whole planning process.

At least when it comes to Disney. When I brought home the UG to DL, MPiC said he’d try to read it on the plane. I thought, how can we stick with the plan if there is no plan? Whenever I’d tell him about a discussion on the DISboards, he’d reply with the affirmative “uh-huh.” You know, the “uh-huh” response that tells you someone’s not really listening. In deciding on accommodations, I told him about a TripAdvisor report that said a hotel near DL had a good price but was rumored to have rats on its property. Mr. Pithy asked, “Aren’t we going to Disney to see rodents anyway?”

So what choice did I have? I had to volunteer plan the entire trip, don’t I? MPiC readily agreed, almost too readily. You don’t think his responses were carefully calculated to let me plan the whole trip without feeling guilty, do you?

Mr. Pithy's Guidelines
Anyway, DH only had four requests:
1) No slaughtering of the piggy bank. (Translation: we stay within our, as it turns out, rather generous budget.)
2) Impress him with New Hotness. (We experience at least one new thing at DLR.)
3) Test out the L.A. freeways. After all, how bad could it be? (We spend one day away.)
4) Nap Time! (This means not only do we come back from our trip rested and refreshed, but we enjoy what might euphemistically be called “adult time” with one another.)

As you might suspect, MPiC’s suggestions were not only reasonable, but became the guidelines for our “Stop and Smell the Roses” trip, and our best vacation to Disney yet! But you, dear readers, will have to wait until the next installment, in which I recount the details of our “Magic, DeeKayPee’s Way” DLR trip. [Which I promise to not to delay posting, even if extending this TR helps offset the post-vacation blues!]

Next post: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

[deekaypee]

When last I left you, dear readers, DH (MPiC) and I had made the decision to go to DLR before the end of its 50th anniversary. That decision made, and after he gives me what I’ve referred to as Mr. Pithy’s Guidelines, DH has left the rest of the trip decisions up to me. Bwa-ha-ha! I’ve been given ultimate cosmic trip-planning power (but with an itty-bitty budget)!

The Plotting Thickens
And so I embarked on what I think might very well be my favorite part of the trip—the planning. Actually, for me, it’s more like the daydreaming and scheming, plotting all possibilities. In my head, I have an unlimited budget, a private jet, and even Characters who not only sit with me at every breakfast but they take care of all my mousekeeping needs. DL closes just for me and my closest friends—which include an invitation for everyone on DISboards, natch—and Dole Whips have no calories. Ah, life in my Disney daydream is good. But eventually, reality sets in. Luckily, because it’s a Disney trip, reality is pretty good too.

But there are so many decisions! I’m determined to stay within our budget, even lowball it, because I know MPiC already has a work-related trip planned to San Diego in 2007. And when you love Disney and aren’t from California, San Diego seems to right next door to DL. (I love San Diego on its own merits as well!) So, if I budget well, we could get AP and I could go back to DL during his trip, which happens to overlap with my b-day. (And what better present to give myself, since MPiC will be working? He can always join me later.) And an AP isn’t that much more expensive than a 5-day hopper, which just happens to be the length of time we’d discussed going. How convenient. At the same time, I want this trip to fit all the rest of Mr. Pithy’s needs, which in MPiC’s code boils down to: I want this to be a relaxed vacation, with occasional moments of Disney tour-guide commando-ing, one which makes me forget we’re visiting DLR during peak season.

So the search for the perfect combination begins. I discover it will be almost $400 cheaper to drive four hours to nearest big city, stay overnight at a park-and-fly hotel, and fly out of a hub airport than to use our regional airport. Hmmmm. So we pick a date that coincides with the end of MPiC’s research trip to same big city, so that the hotel room is paid for under that budget. I use my credit-card rewards program points, which I normally hoard to spend on ME! ME! ME!, to order gas cards for traveling to-and-from big city as well as for our L.A. touring. With regrets, I decide we will stay off-site and, after scouring TripAdvisor and many, many, many Mouse-Related discussion boards, I choose the Howard Johnson Anaheim. I justify the added expense of flying into John Wayne Airport, in what I consider a more-than-reasonable compromise for commute time saved. (DH wasn’t convinced of this until later.) And then I start to plan all those little extra surprises, those things that led us to calling this our “Stop and Smell the Roses” trip.

Seeing the Signs
Have you ever noticed when you’re focused on something, all these little clues from the universe start to appear? For instance, now I notice all these different lime green objects in my life now. Strange, isn’t it?

That’s exactly how planning the trip was for me. Once I decide on the Howard Johnson I notice a People Magazine advertisement for the same hotel, touting its ranking on TripAdvisor. A colleague, with whom I’ve never had an extended Disney conversation, mentions to me that he’s planning a Thanksgiving trip to WDW for his family of five and asks my advice! My movie-going friends, the ones who see independent and foreign-language films, confide in me that their most-anticipated movie of the summer is POTC:DMC, and are disappointed when I say MPiC and I can’t make it; they’re jealous when I say we’ll be riding the refurbished ride, updated to coincide with the film’s release. MPiC even began to read the UG to DL before we left for the pre-Disney trip research trip, just a little “light reading” to help him go to sleep.

So I was feeling pretty darned good about this trip. Our first leg of the trip, to the big city for work-related duties, got off to a bit of rocky start—we have a hard time leaving our cats. DH tends to drag it out the goodbyes, with extra treats and playtime. And the business part of our trip, involving air-conditioned comfort, was efficient. The night before our flight to Anaheim, we transferred to a hotel that specializes in airport transfers. It was adequate, but not memorable. I’ve noticed that, in general, these hotels offer location and transportation in exchange for other amenities and guest service. Such was the case here, and we were glad to only spend one night there.

What it did offer us was a free shuttle with a fairly chatty driver. We were the only passengers and it was fairly early in the morning, so I initiated a conversation while MPiC suddenly had a pressing need to re-organize his carry-on bag. After the prerequisite small talk about the weather, as the area was expecting severe thunderstorms which our driver darkly predicted would delay our flight—bad driver, bad driver!—we were regaled us with tales of his taking passengers to the wrong terminal. Now I understand why DH prefers to the strong, silent type of shuttle driver.

Despite what I interpreted as bad warning signs, we made it to airport on schedule. Luggage check-in took minutes, security barely longer. And there we were, at our gate, with plenty of time to spare. It was going to be a great traveling day. At least if you were already in the terminal…

As I looked out the window, I realized that it wasn’t just tinted to avoid glare from the sun. There was no sun, just gray clouds and bright lightning. Those thunderstorms the driver had predicted had arrived.

Next post: How to survive, even enjoy, delayed gratification on your first day of Disney

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing

Looking forward to more

[Kaycee]

Great report so far. I feel like I've gotten to know the two of you, and I'm looking forward to reading about your DL adventures. :)

[deekaypee]

Nope, not an update, per se. I'm just letting anyone who's interested know that I won't be posting more on this TR for a few days. DH and I have a family reunion that we're flying out to tomorrow a.m., so we'll be gone a few days.

But I will be posting much, much more after I return. After all, my de facto in-laws aren't very interested in Disney--almost antagonistic, as a matter of fact. They've already made a few comments about how we chose to spend more time at DLR on this latest trip than we're choosing to spend at the reunion, which is being held at my FIL/MIL's home. So I can't imagine I'll have the Disney tale-telling out of my system!

Cross your fingers that I have a quick and relatively tension-free reunion!

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reports ~ Thanx for sharing.

[kjhgarden]

I can't wait for your return to write more of your TR. I have enjoyed reading it so far.

[dohgusgus]

More I say! More! ;)

[PrincessMira]

After all, my de facto in-laws aren't very interested in Disney--almost antagonistic, as a matter of fact. They've already made a few comments about how we chose to spend more time at DLR on this latest trip than we're choosing to spend at the reunion, which is being held at my FIL/MIL's home. So I can't imagine I'll have the Disney tale-telling out of my system!

Cross your fingers that I have a quick and relatively tension-free reunion!

here's to you having a stress free reunion :goodvibes and never mind the in-laws that don't adore DLR like us. We will all be waiting to read the next installment of your TR :bounce:

[MissVesper]

I'm really enjoying the report as well -- good luck with the in-laws, that will be me in a month or so! Can't wait to read the rest of your adventures!

[Mary Jo]

I've enjoyed your trip report so far. It's very entertaining. :)

Looking forward to the rest of your installment.