A no holds barred ( but many lap bars held) friend-i-versary trip report

[Juliette58]

Background: Fifty years ago I fell madly in like with another girl on the school playground. Laura and I became best friends who have spoken pretty much every day for the last half century. We went to high school and college together, got married within 6 weeks of each other and raised our kids just blocks apart. Our first trip together was DisneyWorld. So last year we started talking about an anniversary of friendship trip. That same year my crazy spinster aunt passed away at 95 years old. She lived like a pauper. My brother was the executor of her estate and met withattorney. He told me before the meeting that there likely wouldn’t be any money after the funeral expenses were paid. He called me immediately after the meeting and said “how’s your bank account?” I though he was telling me we needed to pitch in to cover final expenses. Then he said “ Well it’s about to get ALOT bigger”. Yep she had hoarded every penny she made and was apparently a very savvy investor. She was woth a great deal. When I got the check a few months after my aunt had passed, I called Laura and told her I wanted to take her on an all expenses paid trip to Disney to celebrate our friendship. She was in. My husband who was still stunned by our windfall had urged me to do this and “ do it right”.

So plans were quickly made. 4 day park hopper, First Class air, Contemporary Concierge level, extra Fast passes. Disney Deluxe Dining, Plan Fireworks Dessert Party. No MNSSHP because my friend had done it with her family and hated it.

So I’ll be posting a quick recap/review of our trip. No pictures because 1) I am a terrible photographer and 2) Laura would kill me if I posted a picture of her online. I know this means most won’t be too interested but Ill be keeping each entry pretty short.

 

[Juliette58]

Travel and contemporary.

I have the worst travel luck. Every plane I’ve been on for the last several years has experienced significant delays. Im sure all of you hope to never be on one of my flights. But you should hope to be on Laura’s because for the first time in as long as I can remember it all went incredibly smoothly. All flights early! We left for the airport about 3 hours ahead of time because I am a neurotic traveler (now I’m sure you are all glad to never have to travel with me). We were picked up by the guy I regularly use for business travel and got to the airline club 2 hours and 15 minutes ahead of time. (the perks of business travel..my firm gets us club membership). We read the newspaper with Laura vowing to go “inside the Disney bubble” and not think of the “ current horrors”( she’s a Civil Rights attorney so you can probably guess her views) until we got back home. We boarded first and enjoyed a mimosa and muffins on the flight.

We were picked up by the Happy Limo that I had hired. The guy was super professional and there was no traffic. On the way I did online check in and immediately got a message that our room was ready. 4811. We went to the room and the magic bands easily opened the door. We loved the location just steps from the lounge but not visible from it. The room was huge and perfect for us. I’m soneone who wants privacy in the bathroom even from my own family so loved the layout with an extra door to the toilet. We planned to use the lounge only for breakfast. I had heard you could see the fireworks from there but thought I didn’t want to watch from inside. I hadn’t realized that the lounge had balconies. Hmmm we might just adjust our plans....

 

[sparkle78]

Curious to see how club level and deluxe dining plan worked.
I have a good friend I met at 4 years old at story hour at the library. Flash forward 30+ years
We were in each others weddings . Now my kids are preteens and she’s got 4 kids under 6, so here’s hoping in another 15 years we can take a friend trip together.