poohbear56
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2004
- Messages
- 23
This trip report is different than most, for most trip reports everyone recalls what a great time they had. Unfortunately for us this is not the whole story. Let me start by saying I love Disney I have been going for twenty years, in fact this was my 20th year going. I have lost count of the times I have gone. I read these boards often, but do not post much. I love taking friends and family to experience the magic that is Disney. I enjoy seeing their faces light up when they experience it. I love planning the trip, usually every detail. I tried not to over do it and plan wisely for short lines. This trip was a very last minute trip. I love Disney at Christmas time, in fact it is probably my favorite time of the year to be there, you can escape into all the lights and decorations and it truly is magical. That is what I love about Disney they never take shortcuts when they do something, they do it to the best of their ability. Rides are not just rides it is an experience, the shows transport you to a different time and place. It is not like any other amusement park in the world, it is Disney. I love Walt's idea's, the fact that he appreciated the American family and wanted a place where famlies could enjoy themselves together. so on to the trip.
There were 7 of us my husband ,myself, son 17, daughter 14, and our best friends, they are husband and wife and their daughter 16.
Now a little background. Over the last 4 months we have been doing an addition to our house because my mom lives with us, she has been living upstairs but she has severe arthritis and it is very difficult for her to go up & down, so we finally decided we had to get her moved downstairs. Labor day weekend we started the addition well a few weeks before Thanksgiving moms knee popped! She had surgery the day before Thanksgiving, so it was more important than ever we get her downstairs there was no way she could go up & down. Anyway the point is our friends literally spent every spare moment they had helping us build the addition. Now the only free time any of us had was weekends and after work, so we would work until 2 or 3 am often and a few all nighters. We have done small projects but never anything from the ground up, so it was a learning experience. I checked out books at the library and we managed to get it done and done well. So at the begining of December I was looking at going to Disney, We needed the break. But it was too expensive, there was no way we could afford to go. So my mom offered to pay for part of the trip. So I started searching for rooms, and I love Pop-Century of course no rooms were available so I kept looking and finally I was able to book a room for the all stars, I don't care for all stars but I have to stay on property because of the extra magic hours, any of you who have been at Christmas know how crowded the parks are but with extra magic hours you can have the parks almost all to yourself {we have teens so 2-3 am is no big deal } I wanted our friends to go, they had spent so much time helping us I wanted to take them as a Thank you for all their time and effort. They had never been to Disney as a family the husband had never been at all and the mom and daughter had only spent a few hours there about 4 or 5 years ago. So they had never experienced the Disney that I know and love. So I asked if they would go with us and she said there was no way she could get off of work, but asked if it would be ok if her husband and daughter went. I wanted her to go too, but I said that would be fine, if she was sure there was no way she could get off. I really wanted her to go, I even asked if I could call her boss for her. It was a once in a lifetime trip, she needed to go. Well I decided I didn't want to bug her about it and make her feel bad for not going, so I prayed about it and asked God to give me peace about it and if he wanted her to go to work it out. I never said another word to her about it. Out of the blue her boss told her she could have the days off she needed to go. So it was all set the trip of a lifetime, but it even got better. We have a small family business and it is hard for us to take off ourselves. So I was a little worried about going so I was thinking about not going and just sending them. I prayed about it again within 20 minutes I got an email from Disney saying Suprise! you get a free upgrade. I thought can this be real, so I called and yes it was! Just 2 days before I was showing my friend the different hotels and said I would love to stay at Boardwalk, but there is no way I could ever pay the price for it. For me I would rather take extra people with us than to spend that much on a hotel. Well guess what the upgrade was! Boardwalk even waterview rooms. I could not believe it. I sent a text to my friend and her husband we were all shocked and excited to say the least. It really was going to be a dream trip! There was a storm coming into Oklahoma, we were schedulded to leave Christmas Eve and check in on Christmas Day we were checking out Jan 1st. Well the weather was getting bad and all the news stations were saying if you are driving you need to head out by noon, we couldn't because my friend had to work until 2, no way she could get off any sooner. So we were all packed just waiting on her to head out. Finally the time came the roads were getting slick but hopefully we would make it out ahead of the really bad stuff before it was too slick, about 30 min into the trip the roads were bad, luckily we were heading away from the storm, not into it. We saw one car off the side of the road down a steep hill the we saw a truck on the opposite side of the highway, it was like a pinball bouncing back and forth between the center divider and the guardrail . Then we started sliding, we were going slow after seeing the last two cars and my husband managed to keep us on the road but it was a very scary way to start the trip. We prayed a lot and made the rest of the 19 hour trip fairly well, lots of rain the whole way. Within a few hours of leaving Tulsa the DOT started shutting down all of the highways in Oklahoma, we made it out just in the nick of time. So we got to Disney around noon Orlando time get to the Boardwalk Inn and check in , our rooms are already ready. We go to our rooms, we have connecting rooms with a balcony and water views, 3275 and 3277 . The rooms were nice, but we were all tired and ready for a nap after the drive. We got our stuff in and all took a nap, I had the first few days planned around the xtra magic hours, but since it was Christmas Day I wanted to go to Hollywood studios for the lights, for me it is just magical and the fact that they have the Nativity it is just really awesome it makes you stop and think about what the true meaning of Christmas is. Speaking of that I discovered something here on the Disboards I hadn't ever paid attention to before. The Creative Dis signs, I became obsessed with making us shirts before we left so we would all match on Christmas Day . So thank you Dis sign people you all are very good I had a hard time coming up with a name because we were 2 different families so I couldn't use a family name, I asked my friends husband for ideas he is very creative, one of his suggestions was "the late night Crew" which worked well, everyone at home makes fun of us because we are always working late into the night and also we were going to be in the parks late, so I thought it was perfect. Then to go along with Disneys theme of what will you celebrate I put " Celebrating the Reason for the Season" So we were off to a great start, it really was the trip of our Dreams. I will write more soon. Please forgive me for all the background I just felt it was important for the rest of the story.
Honestly, I thought I was just going to tell the whole story at once but then all the details came in. As I said I don't write much so I hope I am posting this update in the right place. If not please tell me what I am supposed to be doing. I am also attempting to add a photo so you all can see the shirts. 
So off to Epcot for extra magic hours! 
