Abandoning the kids for a week of Disney! Dec '11 Anniversary Pre-Trip Report

[MoonFaerie]

In a mere 26 days, my husband and I will be leaving our spawn with our parents and heading for WDW alone! We've been planning the trip since last August, so we're both really excited that it's almost here.

All the vital info:

Who:
Nicole (me!) I'll be turning 32 just a few days after our trip. I'm a full time college student and former wedding photographer. I clearly lost my mind when I decided to go back to school as a pre-med student. I've got 3 semesters of undergrad left.
Philip (my hubby) He's a young'n. He's a whopping 5 months and 5 days younger than me! He's a restaurant manager.
Holding down the home front are Ben (8) - amazingly smart and funny little boy. It's been a long, hard year with him. He has Asperger's & starting school was rough. We worked our butts off, and so far this year is going fantastic. Also Lauren (6, 7 just after our trip) - amazing athlete, artistic and also super smart.
Giving us this opportunity are: my mom, who lives with us & is semi-retired, and MIL & FIL, who live about 10 miles away. They will be keeping life normal for the kids while we're away.

DH no longer has the facial hair, and who knows what I'll do with my hair when I go to the salon the week before the trip. Here we are though:

What:
Anniversary trip!!!!! We started planning this trip for our 10th anniversary, but DS had surgery last year instead. So this is our 11th anniversary trip. Tradition says steel is the appropriate gift for 11 years. I say there's plenty of steel at WDW. We were high school sweethearts, and we've been together for 15 years, plus the 5 years of just being friends before that.

When:
Dec. 11-19. Why then? Well it's simple. I love Christmas time at Disney. My birthday & our anniversary are right after the trip. It's a cheaper time of the year. I'm on break from school. DH doesn't have a problem getting the time away. FIL will also be on break (college prof), and MIL can easily get away (works in housing, which is closed over winter break, at my university).

Where:
Disney World, obviously! To be more specific, a split stay between the Boardwalk Inn and the Dolphin Resort. I'm not thrilled about changing resorts, but the reason we are makes me happy. We're splurging for a night of the platinum plan! It's going to be so amazing!

Why:
We get a lot of Why Disney without the kids? in real life. We actually started dating on a high school band trip to Disney way back in February 2007. It just seems fitting to go back for our anniversary. There are so many things we are planning that either we couldn't do with the kids or would be much less fun with the kids.


Next Up: The Platinum Plan plan!

 

[gojoe]

We sneak away at least once a year. We love all our family vacation with our kids. It's just so much better without them. Have a Magical Time.

 

[4 DZNY NUTZ]

We leave in 29 days for our first ever vacation without the kids...and we are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary!!!! So excited

Enjoy your time together

 

[MoonFaerie]

The Platinum days! We were planning on doing a couple of these things anyway, so a night of the platinum plan just seemed like a no-brainer. I was even more glad we planned when the news came out that it'll be a 3 night minimum next year. I'm not thrilled about changing hotels twice, but we'll manage.

Here's what we've got planned:

Day 1
6:00 AM - check in (I know the room won't be ready, but we need to check in for our tours), grab a quick breakfast at BW Bakery, and get to the bus stop by 7:15 AM
8:30 - Backstage Safari Tour at AK
bus to Epcot, get a quick, light lunch, probably at Sunshine Seasons
1:30 - Behind the Seeds Tour (my geeky butt is way too excited about this )
back to the resort for a break & to get ready for dinner
taxi to GF
5:00 - dinner at Victoria & Alberts
taxi back to Y&BC
8:30 - Illuminations Cruise
Early to bed! (I realize 10-11 isn't early to everyone. Typically at home, I'm up til 12-1 and the alarm goes off at 6. )

Day 2
7:00 AM - quick breakfast, move over to Dolphin (even if we can't check in, we can at least move our luggage over to bell services, I think)
8:00 - walk over to Epcot
8:30 AM - Around the World Segway Tour
monorail over to MK, walk to CR
11:30 - Parasailing (will be watching the weather closely. If it's gonna be cold or rainy, we'll change to a spa visit. Or I might chicken out even if the weather is nice. )
bus to DTD, shop & explore
2:15 - lunch at Raglan Road
6:00 - Cirque du Soliel
9:10 - dinner at California Grill (Christmas Wishes will be at 9:30)


We're spending about $600 on the platinum plan between the cost of the actual plan + the extra cost of BWI over Dolphin for the night. However, we would have done several of those things anyway, so really it's only costing us about $100. We're doing almost $2000 worth of stuff. I doubt we'll ever do the platinum plan again with the new 3 night minimum.