Fine, we'll go by OURSELVES!

[juliana_sd]

Me - MOM, 30
DS - Zach, 4.5

I decided this was THE year for a big vacation. My credit card debt will be GONE FOREVER in one more week, and I haven't been on a vacation (other than trips to visit family) since 1999... so it's time to celebrate! I've been divorced for a year and a half and I've come a long way in that time... emotionally and financially, and I am so stinkin' proud of myself

The first idea was that our family would all go somewhere together. But then my sister and BIL couldn't do it (family weddings on his side are taking up all their vacation time this year) and my brother wasn't too into it. My mom's a teacher (as well as a student in a master's degree program) and can pretty much only go in July. I really wanted to do WDW, but none of us wanted to go in July. When we were kids we went in August and I about died from the heat and humidity (delicate lifelong Southern Californian!). Another idea was Hawaii, but we're really pale and can't spend all day at the beach - and my dad was worried that DS would be bored just hanging out and relaxing (and interfering with Grampa's relaxing!!) hehe.

Now, DS and I are good buddies and we're lucky to have lots of fun places to go in San Diego. We've been going to the SD Zoo forever, and we got Sea World passes for Christmas. We had such a fun time at Sea World by ourselves that I started thinking, hey.... maybe it would be ok to just do WDW on our own! And the obsession began...

 

[MomofCKJ]

Signing on! Good for you, I bet you and your son will have a blast! I have 3 kids and when each turns 12 I am taking them on a Mommy and Me trip to Disney. I think it is great when you can spend alone time one on one with your kids!

Allyson

 

[juliana_sd]

Once we decided to go, I had to figure out when! I figured we should go while school was in session to take advantage of the lower crowds, since DS will be starting K next year, this is our last chance. (I personally don't believe in taking him out of school. I know that decision is different for each family ) I figured May was perfect... no more spring breakers, shouldn't have to worry about cold weather, and plenty of time to plan!

I had checked out several WDW books from the library (of course they only had 2003/2004 editions) but that gave me a good sense of which ones I liked. I ended up buying the UG; luckily I had a 40% Borders coupon so it was only $11 and change - using their crowd calendar, as well as the Orbitz/CheapTickets airfare "matrix" - I narrowed down our dates. Then the airfare watch began... and I ended up getting a great deal the first week of Feb! I booked the flight, hotel, and purchased our MYW tickets. Yay!

It's fun planning everything. I have rearranged our itinerary at least 10 times. I think I finally have our park days lined up. We aren't doing the dining plan; I crunched the numbers and we won't spend any MORE than it would cost for the DP to pay oop, but it could cost less. I can't imagine doing a TS meal every day. We are going to do Chef Mickey's dinner one night, and the Mother's Day brunch @ Epcot will have characters too, so I might book one other one and that will be it for ADR's. We're also planning to skip DHS. There just isn't much for DS there and I didn't buy park hoppers. There's that new code for free PH upgrade while I'm there but since I booked through Orbitz... eh. More trouble than it's worth

So here's the schedule as of now:

5/7 arrive 4 pm, Chef Mickey's
5/8 Epcot (FW), break, Epcot (Illuminations)
5/9 MK, break, P&PP
5/10 sleep in, AK, FW campfire?
5/11 sleep in, MD Brunch 11:50, Epcot (WS), early evening
5/12 MK, break, MK (Spectro/Wishes)
5/13 leave for airport @ 10:30 am

 

[juliana_sd]

Changed the itinerary again, hehe.

5/7 arrive 4 pm, MK for Wishes
5/8 sleep in, DHS, early evening
5/9 MK, break, P&PP
5/10 sleep in, AK, early evening
5/11 Epcot, break, Epcot
5/12 sleep in, DTD, break, Epcot or MK (DS' choice)
5/13 leave for airport @ 10:30 am

I was unsettled with the idea of leaving out DHS. I know there isn't a ton for us there but I thought we might need a slower day for our first day. Plus, we'll be on West coast time, so a RD isn't really reasonable for that day. Hopefully we can get on a couple rides at MK on the first night to scratch that itch! With this one we only have two RD days.

Got my ME booked today, hooray!

This weekend we made our countdown chain! 71 to go

 

[BeeBopp]

Sounds like a great itinerary! Subscribing

 

[juliana_sd]

Yay, a subscriber! Welcome!

DS told me last night that he doesn't want to go because there aren't any Transformers there I told him that since it's DISNEY World, the characters that are on the DISNEY Channel are there. So he says, well I want to go to CARTOON NETWORK WORLD instead! Methinks I've been letting him watch WAY too much tv lately. But, the crisis was averted when I spilled the beans about the Power Rangers.

 

[MomofCKJ]

Oh I bet he'll love meeting the Power Rangers! Our last trip my son was 4.5 and that was a HUGE highlight for him!

Allyson

 

[juliana_sd]

Yes it's all he can talk about now. He and his friends play PR at preschool every day. He's the blue one I'm glad I added DHS back into the plan. Also hearing rumors of a soft opening of Toy Story Mania as early as April! So that would definitely be a plus as well. Buzz is his faaaaavorite ride at DLR so I'm sure he'd love TSM just as much.

AND - today was bonus day at work! Our bonuses are a significant chunk of our salaries so it's a huge deal. As soon as it showed up in my bank account this morning I sent off two big payments to finish off my CREDIT CARD DEBT! YAHOO!!! AND I still have plenty left to go into savings. When I was married we stupidly racked up a LOT of cc debt and it is so liberating to finally be out from under it. After my divorce I was stuck with all of it and scrimped to get it paid down (and the annual bonuses help too). No cable for a year, small apartment, etc. Paid for Disney this year with my tax refund rather than dumping it all over to the CC companies So anyway that is my brag for the day!!