alliecats
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2004
- Messages
- 3,244
This is the trip report from our trip to the World last May for our one-year wedding anniversary! I have been meaning to type it up, but with one thing or another have put it off until now. The last week I have been in MAJOR Disney withdrawal and no trip in sight, so maybe this will get me through.
Cast:
Allie--me, 31 (32 now), Disney freak. It had been less than a year since my last trip (with sisters) and I was dying to get DH back to Disney
Shawn--DH, 30 (31 now), able to Just Say No to Disney, likes to loaf on vacation, had been 10 years since his last trip to Disney and he was fine with that. (????***, right????)
DH & I have been together for nearly 13 years now, but only been married for almost 2. We first went to Disney together in 1994, my first-ever trip to the world, and actually, my first real vacation! May 2004 would be our one-year wedding anniversary.
Just a little backstory, we had been married a year before in the Bahamas. It
was a nice little wedding, just the two of us. Just what I wanted. But a couple of months prior to the wedding we'd had a death in the family and this took a big toll. We were both exhausted, and I spent a lot of time on our honeymoon feeling guilty for being happy, being alive, you name it. So I really wanted a lighthearted, fun vacation that was all about us, with no worries and no responsibility except to each other. And that is what we got, not to give away the ending or anything!
In January of last year, I began my campaign of terror. I knew DH was pretty much immune to Disney. He has a good time when he is there, but he doesn't feel compelled to go. For me, Disney is like crack--I always want it, as soon as I'm done with it I need it again, and it's hard to pay for. I started doing some research. I knew I wanted to stay on-site (never had before) and I knew we'd have to decide if we were going ASAP so we could start budgeting. So, one night as we were driving through the rain on the way to get some Taco Bell, I began:
Me: Baby, I want to ask you something. I want you to listen carefully, let me explain it all to you, and then I want you to think about it and give me a reasonable answer. You can't just say no. Ok?
DH: Ok.
Me: I won't go into my whole spiel here but it mentioned the 10 year gap since we'd done Disney together, the emotional baggage I'd had before our wedding, how he had mentioned on our weddingmoon (when pressed) that we might do Disney again soon, how I would like to go on trips for our anniversaries rather than buy expensive presents (I hope you appreciate the finesse in that last one--I set it up beautifully--if I don't get a trip, I'd better get an expensive present. See how I did that? Nice, huh?), that I had found this great website and I could get us some good prices, and that I was just really dying to go.
DH: Is that everything?
Me: Yes, I am done.
DH: No.
I turned to him with my mouth hanging open and he died laughing. He said he was just kidding, please keep my eyes on the road (it was raining and I am a bad driver) and to get him some numbers and he would definitely consider it.
YAY! Basically, the battle was won right then as he would not tell me to do work on it if he wasn't serious.
Planning:
I then set out to find a resort. We needed one that was convenient to all the parks so we could have minimal issues with driving. (DH said he did not want to have to drive at all once we got there if we could help it. He was very agreeable to paying a little more if necessary and staying on-site, although he had never done that before, either.) I knew the All-Stars were off-limits as DH likes a reasonable amount of luxury, is not a big kid fan just yet, and at 6'4" would need the guarantee of at least a queen bed. We are total opposites that way as I would sleep on a bench at DTD to get to go, and at 5'2", I'd fit on one. But I digress. I wasn't sure what numbers DH was expecting me to come back with, so I made an Excel spread sheet (I bet my computer about shut down from shock when I opened that program!) with prices and room info for: Pop Century, POFQ, CBR, WL, and the Contemporary. I also threw in the GF because at that time, that was my ideal, and a girl can dream, right?
Negotiations:
DH quickly dismissed PC and GF ( with a, "Holy F*@#, are you kidding me?" on the latter. In his defense, I had gotten the pricing off the Disney site and it had somehow defaulted to an extreme, honeymoon-type category of room). I showed him pictures of the remaining options. He thought the Contemporary was not that special, thought WL was "too Gatlinburg" which is not really an insult, we like Gatlinburg a lot, but we had just done that not long ago. He liked POFQ the best. Best news of all, the trip was now definitely a go.
Complications:
I set out to book POFQ. On the way, I did too much thinking. Doubt began to creep in. Had we picked the best resort? Should we have paid more for a better room in a better place?Then I found Allears, Deb's site. And I found the Swan discount codes. And I found the pictures of the Swan. And the descriptions of the "heavenly beds." And the details of the location to two of the parks and all the food & activities on the Boardwalk. I was sold. It was more money, but it looked like more luxury, more convenience, and a more adult atmosphere (not the XXX kind of adult atmosphere, you know what I mean) I called DH, he said it would be fine with him to spend more. I used my allears codes and booked a room. They had no king room left, but promised us two queens. Yay!
Tickets:
I can't remember exactly when this was but there came a price hike on tickets. Yikes! I apparently had my thumb up there and dallied around until it was almost too late. I spent some anxious moments on the disney site, ordering tickets before midnight. I got some kind of error message and freaked out, but it all came right the next day.
Details:
I spent a lot of time hunting down ponchos to take, just the right bookbag, getting some new shorts & a new bathing suit, making DH get some new shorts, both of us getting new, comfortable shoes, and a new digital camera! We hired a petsitter for our "girls" (two lovely cats, thanks for asking!), got vacation time approved, and we were good to go.
Three days before the trip, one of my coworkers came in with pink eye...
Next up: The Long Ride Down...with Pink Eye
Long overdue trip report--Day 1, scary birds, scary smell, who took my sunglasses???
Long overdue trip report--Day 2, Open MK, Close MGM. Plus, the saga of the Map Pants.
Long overdue trip report--Day 3, a morning of sloth & we close the MK down!
Long overdue trip report--Day 4, DH and DW do DTD
Long Overdue trip report--Day 5, Anniversary Day at MGM & Fulton's
Long overdue trip report--Anniversary Trip PHOTOS!!!
Cast:
Allie--me, 31 (32 now), Disney freak. It had been less than a year since my last trip (with sisters) and I was dying to get DH back to Disney
Shawn--DH, 30 (31 now), able to Just Say No to Disney, likes to loaf on vacation, had been 10 years since his last trip to Disney and he was fine with that. (????***, right????)
DH & I have been together for nearly 13 years now, but only been married for almost 2. We first went to Disney together in 1994, my first-ever trip to the world, and actually, my first real vacation! May 2004 would be our one-year wedding anniversary.
Just a little backstory, we had been married a year before in the Bahamas. It
was a nice little wedding, just the two of us. Just what I wanted. But a couple of months prior to the wedding we'd had a death in the family and this took a big toll. We were both exhausted, and I spent a lot of time on our honeymoon feeling guilty for being happy, being alive, you name it. So I really wanted a lighthearted, fun vacation that was all about us, with no worries and no responsibility except to each other. And that is what we got, not to give away the ending or anything!
In January of last year, I began my campaign of terror. I knew DH was pretty much immune to Disney. He has a good time when he is there, but he doesn't feel compelled to go. For me, Disney is like crack--I always want it, as soon as I'm done with it I need it again, and it's hard to pay for. I started doing some research. I knew I wanted to stay on-site (never had before) and I knew we'd have to decide if we were going ASAP so we could start budgeting. So, one night as we were driving through the rain on the way to get some Taco Bell, I began:
Me: Baby, I want to ask you something. I want you to listen carefully, let me explain it all to you, and then I want you to think about it and give me a reasonable answer. You can't just say no. Ok?
DH: Ok.
Me: I won't go into my whole spiel here but it mentioned the 10 year gap since we'd done Disney together, the emotional baggage I'd had before our wedding, how he had mentioned on our weddingmoon (when pressed) that we might do Disney again soon, how I would like to go on trips for our anniversaries rather than buy expensive presents (I hope you appreciate the finesse in that last one--I set it up beautifully--if I don't get a trip, I'd better get an expensive present. See how I did that? Nice, huh?), that I had found this great website and I could get us some good prices, and that I was just really dying to go.
DH: Is that everything?
Me: Yes, I am done.
DH: No.
I turned to him with my mouth hanging open and he died laughing. He said he was just kidding, please keep my eyes on the road (it was raining and I am a bad driver) and to get him some numbers and he would definitely consider it.
YAY! Basically, the battle was won right then as he would not tell me to do work on it if he wasn't serious.
Planning:
I then set out to find a resort. We needed one that was convenient to all the parks so we could have minimal issues with driving. (DH said he did not want to have to drive at all once we got there if we could help it. He was very agreeable to paying a little more if necessary and staying on-site, although he had never done that before, either.) I knew the All-Stars were off-limits as DH likes a reasonable amount of luxury, is not a big kid fan just yet, and at 6'4" would need the guarantee of at least a queen bed. We are total opposites that way as I would sleep on a bench at DTD to get to go, and at 5'2", I'd fit on one. But I digress. I wasn't sure what numbers DH was expecting me to come back with, so I made an Excel spread sheet (I bet my computer about shut down from shock when I opened that program!) with prices and room info for: Pop Century, POFQ, CBR, WL, and the Contemporary. I also threw in the GF because at that time, that was my ideal, and a girl can dream, right?
Negotiations:
DH quickly dismissed PC and GF ( with a, "Holy F*@#, are you kidding me?" on the latter. In his defense, I had gotten the pricing off the Disney site and it had somehow defaulted to an extreme, honeymoon-type category of room). I showed him pictures of the remaining options. He thought the Contemporary was not that special, thought WL was "too Gatlinburg" which is not really an insult, we like Gatlinburg a lot, but we had just done that not long ago. He liked POFQ the best. Best news of all, the trip was now definitely a go.
Complications:
I set out to book POFQ. On the way, I did too much thinking. Doubt began to creep in. Had we picked the best resort? Should we have paid more for a better room in a better place?Then I found Allears, Deb's site. And I found the Swan discount codes. And I found the pictures of the Swan. And the descriptions of the "heavenly beds." And the details of the location to two of the parks and all the food & activities on the Boardwalk. I was sold. It was more money, but it looked like more luxury, more convenience, and a more adult atmosphere (not the XXX kind of adult atmosphere, you know what I mean) I called DH, he said it would be fine with him to spend more. I used my allears codes and booked a room. They had no king room left, but promised us two queens. Yay!
Tickets:
I can't remember exactly when this was but there came a price hike on tickets. Yikes! I apparently had my thumb up there and dallied around until it was almost too late. I spent some anxious moments on the disney site, ordering tickets before midnight. I got some kind of error message and freaked out, but it all came right the next day.
Details:
I spent a lot of time hunting down ponchos to take, just the right bookbag, getting some new shorts & a new bathing suit, making DH get some new shorts, both of us getting new, comfortable shoes, and a new digital camera! We hired a petsitter for our "girls" (two lovely cats, thanks for asking!), got vacation time approved, and we were good to go.
Three days before the trip, one of my coworkers came in with pink eye...
Next up: The Long Ride Down...with Pink Eye
Long overdue trip report--Day 1, scary birds, scary smell, who took my sunglasses???
Long overdue trip report--Day 2, Open MK, Close MGM. Plus, the saga of the Map Pants.
Long overdue trip report--Day 3, a morning of sloth & we close the MK down!
Long overdue trip report--Day 4, DH and DW do DTD
Long Overdue trip report--Day 5, Anniversary Day at MGM & Fulton's
Long overdue trip report--Anniversary Trip PHOTOS!!!
