mitchsfan
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2010
Hello Humans...... and welcome to my pre trip report.
The wife and I will be heading down for our 10th trip together, to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and the World's 50th birthday. We are leaving on Sunday August 14 and returning Thursday August 19th.
We have 4 children - a High School graduate in about 2 weeks, an 8th grade and a pair of 3rd grade twins. The wife asked for one more and the good Lord said, "its buy one get one."
We live in south Jersey and once a year, we get away for one night down to Atlantic City with college friends. We all are in our mid 40s but for one night we think we are back to being 21. Usually that is the extent of our "summer vacation." We take day trips, we are a big baseball family so we have visited some major league and minor league stadiums. But we are not ones to be "lets rent a house at the shore" type of people.
Disney is different though. This will be our 10th trip together down. It's our home away from home. My father does not get it. My coworkers are like, "you are an adult couple going to Disney?" And I just nod my head.
We just took the whole family down to Disney World in 2021. We had a total of 10 of us, staying offsite and had a wonderful time. The trip report should have won a Pulitizer Prize. It was titled: All In
Making that long trip back from Disney on I-95 (the cost of driving in 2021 or 6 plane tickets), I said to Sarah that we would be celebrating 20 years together and we should look at doing something. She told me that with 4 kids, a double Communion party, a graduation party, money would be tight.
Then a Disney miracle happened. During my first week back in school, we were very short staffed for lunch duty. My principal asked if she had any volunteers to give up his or her lunch each day and we would be compensated EC rate which is about $30/hr after taxes. I ran people over to sign the paperwork.
I told the wife that I would be giving up my lunch every day to pay for whatever trip she wants. And every pay week, I would take the extra money out of the bank because if it stayed in the checking then it would be spent. She agreed. There were some cold days doing lunch duty, some hot days and a lot of arguing over kickball. But each day, I said, "this is for another drink around the world."
I offered Sarah any place in the Western Hemisphere. She is a very simple person. I made a power point presentation, highlighting the pros and cons of places like SF, DisneyLand, Vegas, Key West, Punta Cana, Toronto and finally Disney World.
She told me she wanted Disney World. So here we are:
Cast of Characters:
Jim - me Favorite Ride: Rise of the Resistance, Splash Mountain
Favorite Characters: the villians
Sarah Favorite Ride: Soarin
Favorite Character: Winnie the Pooh
Dates: Sunday 8/14- 8/19
Where: Currently booked at the Pop. I asked Sarah where she wanted to stay and initially it was Coronado. Then it was French Quarter. Then Disney came out with the Disney + discount and staying at Pop would knock about $400-500 off the bill. We have stayed at the Pop before. But I kind of wish that we would have kept the POFQ. Thinking about checking to see if they have inventory a week before. If they do, call them and see what the difference in price would be. Who knows maybe if I ask nicely and I have the right cast member on the phone, maybe we can split the difference?
Itinerary: Sunday August 14 - 7 am flight. 9 am arrival. Bus gets us to Pop/FQ around 10ish. Maybe if Im lucky the room is ready. Heading over to Disney Springs to do Happy Hour hopping and trying different things.
I want to try Blaze Pizza, a burger from D Lux, drinks from City Works, Reglan Road, the Edison, Jock Lindseys, and Enzos Hideaway.
Goal is to sit down have a drink, maybe some food and then just move on to the next place.
Monday August 15. Hoping to get a breakfast reservation at Topolinos or Chef Mickeys. Preferably Topolinos. Head over to Epcot and hit Soarin and Remy. Hit the lounge at Space 220. And then Drink Around the World. Sarah's nephew, wife and brother in law and girlfriend are flying down and will be joining us as we head around the world. The Food and Wine Festival will be going on and we are looking forward to trying some new stuff and some old favorites. I also want to try the Abracadra bar at the Boardwalk
Tuesday August 16 - pool day. Relax by the pool in the morning, head over to the MK area around 2ish. Get in line for Trader Sams for the bar opening at 3. Around 4ish head over to MK for MNSSHP.
Wednesday August 17 - pool in the morning and then heading to Hollywood Studios for Galaxy Edge. Hoping to build a lightsaber and drink at Ogas.
Thursday August 18 - Start planning the next trip on the plane back.
Looking forward to this trip.
