SunFloridaDisney
3 of my favorite things<br><font color=red>I'll pr
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2004
- Messages
- 8,536
Cast:
Myself, (Kate), 48 years young, mother of 4 kids (ages 10 to 20) with a full-time outside job as well. The Disney nut/planner and recent DIS board addict! Also the one who has been trying to convince DH to move to Florida for the last 25 years. I absolutely HATE cold weather. LOL
DH (Harry) 49, father to the 4 mentioned Dear children, who works third shift and has recently put in mucho overtime. Likes Disney, but leaves the planning to moi!
Setting the Stage: We live in Northern Kentucky, near Cincinnati Ohio, and usually don't take very big (expensive) trips, we do lots of camping to allow our kids to see the country, but don't splurge much. This trip was a celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.
Now that we've been home a few days, and I'm buried under mountains of laundry, I've started to try to re-live the magic that we found at WDW. I'd like to share that with anyone who wants to read it!
While I was growing up my grandparents lived in the Tampa area, and my first Disney trip was in 1972 at the age of 15. Have loved it ever since! In 1980 when DH and I were planning our honeymoon, we decided on Florida, spending part of our week (2 days/one night) at the Magic Kingdom/Contemporary Resort. That's all there was to the World back then.
Fast forward 25 years (where has the time gone!??!) and after 4 kids and their schooling, braces, glasses, occasional trips to Disney, etc. we're still living on a tight budget. About 5 years ago we started planning and saving for our big Disney trip with all 6 of us to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
However, plans change, and 2 years ago our nephew got married in the Orlando area. At that time we decided since we'd be making a trip there anyway, we might as well do our big Disney deal a few years early. With the money we had saved up to that point we were able to have a nice vacation with all the kids even though it wasn't quite as long as we originally planned. At any rate, we came home with 4 days left on 2 of the hopper passes.
Last year when we started talking about what to do for our 25th, DH suggested we take those passes and just go, the two of us, for a celebration with just us 'big kids'. It sounded sooooooo nice, and didn't take much to convince me. I found the DIS boards, and started absorbing info and asking questions. Soon I was hooked!
We originally decided on just a long weekend, then changed our plans several times over the six or so months of planning. Still budget conscious, my first thing was to book airline tickets as soon as I thought I found a decent price. Then I built the rest of the trip around those dates. Our actual anniversary date is April 26, so we planned to arrive on the 24th and go back home late on the 28th.
Saturday the 23rd was our family anniversary celebration, with our children, my parents and SILs and BILs and their kids at our church, and then dinner at Buca di Beppo, a fun, crazy Italian restaurant where we had a wild time. Heading out the door at the end of the evening, we were greeted with snow! I decided it was a perfect time to head to Florida!
Next: Day One, the Magic Begins at The Airport.
Myself, (Kate), 48 years young, mother of 4 kids (ages 10 to 20) with a full-time outside job as well. The Disney nut/planner and recent DIS board addict! Also the one who has been trying to convince DH to move to Florida for the last 25 years. I absolutely HATE cold weather. LOL
DH (Harry) 49, father to the 4 mentioned Dear children, who works third shift and has recently put in mucho overtime. Likes Disney, but leaves the planning to moi!
Setting the Stage: We live in Northern Kentucky, near Cincinnati Ohio, and usually don't take very big (expensive) trips, we do lots of camping to allow our kids to see the country, but don't splurge much. This trip was a celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.
Now that we've been home a few days, and I'm buried under mountains of laundry, I've started to try to re-live the magic that we found at WDW. I'd like to share that with anyone who wants to read it!
While I was growing up my grandparents lived in the Tampa area, and my first Disney trip was in 1972 at the age of 15. Have loved it ever since! In 1980 when DH and I were planning our honeymoon, we decided on Florida, spending part of our week (2 days/one night) at the Magic Kingdom/Contemporary Resort. That's all there was to the World back then.
Fast forward 25 years (where has the time gone!??!) and after 4 kids and their schooling, braces, glasses, occasional trips to Disney, etc. we're still living on a tight budget. About 5 years ago we started planning and saving for our big Disney trip with all 6 of us to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
However, plans change, and 2 years ago our nephew got married in the Orlando area. At that time we decided since we'd be making a trip there anyway, we might as well do our big Disney deal a few years early. With the money we had saved up to that point we were able to have a nice vacation with all the kids even though it wasn't quite as long as we originally planned. At any rate, we came home with 4 days left on 2 of the hopper passes.
Last year when we started talking about what to do for our 25th, DH suggested we take those passes and just go, the two of us, for a celebration with just us 'big kids'. It sounded sooooooo nice, and didn't take much to convince me. I found the DIS boards, and started absorbing info and asking questions. Soon I was hooked!
We originally decided on just a long weekend, then changed our plans several times over the six or so months of planning. Still budget conscious, my first thing was to book airline tickets as soon as I thought I found a decent price. Then I built the rest of the trip around those dates. Our actual anniversary date is April 26, so we planned to arrive on the 24th and go back home late on the 28th.
Saturday the 23rd was our family anniversary celebration, with our children, my parents and SILs and BILs and their kids at our church, and then dinner at Buca di Beppo, a fun, crazy Italian restaurant where we had a wild time. Heading out the door at the end of the evening, we were greeted with snow! I decided it was a perfect time to head to Florida!
Next: Day One, the Magic Begins at The Airport.
