lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
- Messages
- 4,550
Welcome one and all to another year of trip planning! Alternatively known as a game of how many trips can I fit into a year while staying in budget and not getting fired.
It's a fun game. I'm sure many of you can relate.
Some introductions may be nice here.
My name is Courtney.
I'm an Emergency Room nurse overnight and currently in denial about turning 30 in a little over a week. My favorites include the Little Mermaid, Animal Kingdom, Halloween, roller coasters, Harry Potter and collecting popcorn buckets in all forms. I'm the planner (mastermind) of all of our trips and spend a lot of time convincing Mike that we can take another one.
That brings us to Mike.
(I can't get this picture to appear the other way for the life of me)
He's a grocery store manager by day, cooks/sleeps/listens to me complain by night. His favorites include Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween, Donald Duck, sweet tea and Yak and Yeti lo mein. His contributions to trip planning primarily consist of telling me "whatever you want to do" and then asking me at the last minute when I can't change anything why we aren't doing certain things. He has taken a bit more active role in planning for this year's trips which has been both good and bad lol.
So what do this year's trip plans consist of?
The last few years, our "big" trip of the year was to go to Orlando for 2 weeks and enjoy the Halloween-Christmas crossover at WDW. This year, we are sad to skip that trip but excited because we'll be spending two weeks in California in September! This, of course, includes both of us visiting Disneyland for the first time! I've never been to the west coast at all and Mike only has when he was stationed in the military so it's a whole new ballpark for both of us.
With this trip planned as our major trip for the year, we decided to let our WDW APs lapse for the first time since 2015. I've been struggling with this but the price increase last year was insane and ultimately, it was the smartest decision. As a result, when it was time to plan somewhere to go in March, we had trouble deciding where to go. We were almost set on a Royal Caribbean cruise but it took us both too long to get the time approved off and the price skyrocketed. We found cheap flights to Denver, Colorado so decided to spend that week enjoying Colorado, the Rocky Mountains and Mount Rushmore.
With those plans made, I found myself in severe WDW withdrawal. I'm excited for our other trips and to see other parts of the country but it's hard to resist the pull to get back to WDW. We will be making a short Fall trip for MNSSHP and HHN. The dates for this haven't been decided yet because I'm hoping to take my brother and need to see what his college schedule will be.
That's far too long to stay away so the wheels started turning. We didn't get a chance to go to Flower and Garden last year and it's my favorite of the Epcot festivals. I started looking at things for May and found decent resort prices so I suggested the idea to Mike
. He gave me the tentative go ahead pending official approval of his boss! 
So now, I'm in full-on trip planning mode for May 14-20! Our UOAPs are still active so I'm planning on 2 days in Universal and 5 in WDW!
And with that our trips for 2020 are set (until I change them 9000 times)! I hope you'll join me for another year of fun!
It's a fun game. I'm sure many of you can relate.
Some introductions may be nice here.
My name is Courtney.
I'm an Emergency Room nurse overnight and currently in denial about turning 30 in a little over a week. My favorites include the Little Mermaid, Animal Kingdom, Halloween, roller coasters, Harry Potter and collecting popcorn buckets in all forms. I'm the planner (mastermind) of all of our trips and spend a lot of time convincing Mike that we can take another one.
That brings us to Mike.
(I can't get this picture to appear the other way for the life of me)
He's a grocery store manager by day, cooks/sleeps/listens to me complain by night. His favorites include Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween, Donald Duck, sweet tea and Yak and Yeti lo mein. His contributions to trip planning primarily consist of telling me "whatever you want to do" and then asking me at the last minute when I can't change anything why we aren't doing certain things. He has taken a bit more active role in planning for this year's trips which has been both good and bad lol.
So what do this year's trip plans consist of?
The last few years, our "big" trip of the year was to go to Orlando for 2 weeks and enjoy the Halloween-Christmas crossover at WDW. This year, we are sad to skip that trip but excited because we'll be spending two weeks in California in September! This, of course, includes both of us visiting Disneyland for the first time! I've never been to the west coast at all and Mike only has when he was stationed in the military so it's a whole new ballpark for both of us.
With this trip planned as our major trip for the year, we decided to let our WDW APs lapse for the first time since 2015. I've been struggling with this but the price increase last year was insane and ultimately, it was the smartest decision. As a result, when it was time to plan somewhere to go in March, we had trouble deciding where to go. We were almost set on a Royal Caribbean cruise but it took us both too long to get the time approved off and the price skyrocketed. We found cheap flights to Denver, Colorado so decided to spend that week enjoying Colorado, the Rocky Mountains and Mount Rushmore.
With those plans made, I found myself in severe WDW withdrawal. I'm excited for our other trips and to see other parts of the country but it's hard to resist the pull to get back to WDW. We will be making a short Fall trip for MNSSHP and HHN. The dates for this haven't been decided yet because I'm hoping to take my brother and need to see what his college schedule will be.
That's far too long to stay away so the wheels started turning. We didn't get a chance to go to Flower and Garden last year and it's my favorite of the Epcot festivals. I started looking at things for May and found decent resort prices so I suggested the idea to Mike
. He gave me the tentative go ahead pending official approval of his boss! So now, I'm in full-on trip planning mode for May 14-20! Our UOAPs are still active so I'm planning on 2 days in Universal and 5 in WDW!
And with that our trips for 2020 are set (until I change them 9000 times)! I hope you'll join me for another year of fun!
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sounds like a great year you have in store though! Let me know if you have any questions about Disneyland! You guys will love it!
).
) you are going to have! 
(It's only been like a year since ours expired...)
)
