Sarahh1027
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2015
- Messages
- 345
Hello!
to my first Pre-Trip Report!
First the Who:
Hi guys! That’s me, Sarah, and my boyfriend, Donatello.
Nah, just kidding. Although that is me
Here’s James, the real boyfriend:
“Hi, James!” Ain’t he adorable?
A few things to know about James. This was taken on his 20th birthday. I’ve celebrated his 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and now 21st birthdays with him. I’m also older than him, I turned 22 less than a month before he turned 21. James currently lives about an hour and a half drive away from me (He lives in Worcester and I live near Cape Cod, both in Massachusetts). He loves penguins and Yoda
, SO MUCH. You’ll see.
James and I have been together since we met at the end of October, 2012. This is us back at his Senior Prom in May, 2013.
Accurate. ^
So, my trip history: I’ve been to Disney three times total.
August 2012- 8 nights at Pop Century the summer after I graduated high school with my then-boyfriend. This was my first ever Disney trip. I remember it being overwhelmingly large, expensive, but overall a great time. I went with someone who grew up going to Disney. I had no idea what to expect. My fondest memory? Meeting Snow White. I cried when I saw her, then I gushed about her after I met her. I was THAT happy. At 18 years old, I cried over a character meeting. I swore up and down that she was the real Snow White.
Deep in conversation here ^
August 2014- I took my older sister, Danielle, for her first trip, which was 5 nights at Shades of Green. My sister is exactly 2 years older than me to the day, both Halloween babies! She served in the U.S. Navy active duty and was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida so I flew down to her and we drove down to Disney. We had the best time ever. Through her military benefits our trip was more affordable, the hotel...AMAZING, (with a free breakfast buffet every morning included in our package, just sayin’) and it was one of the best times of my life.
That's us on It's A Small World!
My last trip was my first ever full family trip. It was wonderful. Here’s how it happened. My sister was home on military leave for Christmas in 2014, and we were talking about how my parents hadn’t been to Disney since their honeymoon, back in 1990. It was my mom’s second trip, and my dad’s first. They ate at Tony’s Town Square, and have very fond memories of that dinner and their entire honeymoon. My family went through a lot in 2014. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2014. This was her second time, she had it back when I was in first grade and Danielle was in third grade. She had a lumpectomy and lots of radiation and life went on...but when she was rediagnosed after her annual mammogram, everything changed. Danielle felt horrible because she couldn’t be around, and her mastectomy was about two weeks before me and Dani were set to go to Disney. We contemplated cancelling, and having Danielle come up to visit us, but my mom insisted we go. Wow I got completely off track here. Long story short, my mom’s cancer hadn’t spread and although she still had a reconstruction surgery planned for January 2015, the worse was over. Anyways, my parents would be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary the first week of May, 2015. And my sister would be celebrating the end of her military contract (she would be moving home in June, 2015.) She had accomplished a lot in the military, including Junior Sailor of the Year, and many awards, and had been accepted into her first choice nursing school for Fall 2015. What better way to celebrate all that than to take my parents back to Disney for their anniversary the first week of May? We stayed at Shades of Green for 6 nights, and my sister’s boyfriend joined us (Travis is also in the Navy). It was magical, perfect, everything and MORE!
Here’s a few pictures of that trip:
The fam in front of The Tree of Life. Mom, Dad, me, & Dani.
Travis captured this beauty on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
This happened to be my parents favorite ride 25 years ago. To get an idea of how long 25 years ago was, Animal Kingdom didn’t even exist then…
And finally a picture of the Sailors themselves, for without them and their military benefits, this trip would not have been possible. This was taken on our bus to Downtown Disney our first night!

Back to Disney 2016!!!
Who: James and I
What: DISNEY WORLD DREAMCATION!
Why: Many reasons (as if you even need a reason…). For starters, James has NEVER been, infact he hadn’t been to Florida or on an airplane before last December 2014 when we flew down together to visit my sister and Travis for a few nights about a week before she flew home for Christmas! Next, I’m going to be joining the Air National Guard once I finish getting my tattoos laser removed (I’m almost a year and a half into the process..it’s a LONG one) but I’ll be leaving for close to a year so we think a nice vacation together is well-deserved and will give us many memories to hold onto while we are apart. And finally, because Disney...ya know?
When: Sunday, May 1st- Monday, May 9th
Where: We decided to stay in a Little Mermaid Standard Room at Art of Animation!
We decided on this back in June 2015 when I let the idea slip out of my mouth after we attended a Nelly and TLC concert up at the T.D. Garden in Boston. I was saying how amazing it would be if we could go to Disney before I leave for the military, (as we planned on going together and staying at Shades of Green once I was home from bootcamp and tech school). We were in James’s room and I remember that moment when he said “Let’s go.” I shrieked. “Wait- really?! You mean it??” When James said “Yes!” again, I jumped up and hugged him as tears filled my eyes.
By August (Okay- more like first week of July but the real details came later…) I was pretty set on all the major vacation details.
Then, on September 5th, we officially booked our vacation! It still felt too far off to feel real yet. One day I’d be super excited like this:
and planning and pouring over the DisBoards, and the next I’d be really sad because it felt too far away to be real. I think I’ve become spoiled over the past couple years! I went from not going to Disney for my whole 18 years of life, to three trips in a matter of 4 years. Plus another on the way. I’m so very blessed and sometimes the emotions become overwhelming!
Well, that's all for now! Thanks all for reading- I know it's pretty lengthy...I get carried away and type..A LOT. See ya real soon!

First the Who:
Hi guys! That’s me, Sarah, and my boyfriend, Donatello.
Nah, just kidding. Although that is me

Here’s James, the real boyfriend:
“Hi, James!” Ain’t he adorable?
A few things to know about James. This was taken on his 20th birthday. I’ve celebrated his 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and now 21st birthdays with him. I’m also older than him, I turned 22 less than a month before he turned 21. James currently lives about an hour and a half drive away from me (He lives in Worcester and I live near Cape Cod, both in Massachusetts). He loves penguins and Yoda

James and I have been together since we met at the end of October, 2012. This is us back at his Senior Prom in May, 2013.
Accurate. ^
So, my trip history: I’ve been to Disney three times total.
August 2012- 8 nights at Pop Century the summer after I graduated high school with my then-boyfriend. This was my first ever Disney trip. I remember it being overwhelmingly large, expensive, but overall a great time. I went with someone who grew up going to Disney. I had no idea what to expect. My fondest memory? Meeting Snow White. I cried when I saw her, then I gushed about her after I met her. I was THAT happy. At 18 years old, I cried over a character meeting. I swore up and down that she was the real Snow White.
Deep in conversation here ^
August 2014- I took my older sister, Danielle, for her first trip, which was 5 nights at Shades of Green. My sister is exactly 2 years older than me to the day, both Halloween babies! She served in the U.S. Navy active duty and was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida so I flew down to her and we drove down to Disney. We had the best time ever. Through her military benefits our trip was more affordable, the hotel...AMAZING, (with a free breakfast buffet every morning included in our package, just sayin’) and it was one of the best times of my life.
That's us on It's A Small World!
My last trip was my first ever full family trip. It was wonderful. Here’s how it happened. My sister was home on military leave for Christmas in 2014, and we were talking about how my parents hadn’t been to Disney since their honeymoon, back in 1990. It was my mom’s second trip, and my dad’s first. They ate at Tony’s Town Square, and have very fond memories of that dinner and their entire honeymoon. My family went through a lot in 2014. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2014. This was her second time, she had it back when I was in first grade and Danielle was in third grade. She had a lumpectomy and lots of radiation and life went on...but when she was rediagnosed after her annual mammogram, everything changed. Danielle felt horrible because she couldn’t be around, and her mastectomy was about two weeks before me and Dani were set to go to Disney. We contemplated cancelling, and having Danielle come up to visit us, but my mom insisted we go. Wow I got completely off track here. Long story short, my mom’s cancer hadn’t spread and although she still had a reconstruction surgery planned for January 2015, the worse was over. Anyways, my parents would be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary the first week of May, 2015. And my sister would be celebrating the end of her military contract (she would be moving home in June, 2015.) She had accomplished a lot in the military, including Junior Sailor of the Year, and many awards, and had been accepted into her first choice nursing school for Fall 2015. What better way to celebrate all that than to take my parents back to Disney for their anniversary the first week of May? We stayed at Shades of Green for 6 nights, and my sister’s boyfriend joined us (Travis is also in the Navy). It was magical, perfect, everything and MORE!
Here’s a few pictures of that trip:
The fam in front of The Tree of Life. Mom, Dad, me, & Dani.
Travis captured this beauty on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
This happened to be my parents favorite ride 25 years ago. To get an idea of how long 25 years ago was, Animal Kingdom didn’t even exist then…
And finally a picture of the Sailors themselves, for without them and their military benefits, this trip would not have been possible. This was taken on our bus to Downtown Disney our first night!

Back to Disney 2016!!!

Who: James and I

What: DISNEY WORLD DREAMCATION!

Why: Many reasons (as if you even need a reason…). For starters, James has NEVER been, infact he hadn’t been to Florida or on an airplane before last December 2014 when we flew down together to visit my sister and Travis for a few nights about a week before she flew home for Christmas! Next, I’m going to be joining the Air National Guard once I finish getting my tattoos laser removed (I’m almost a year and a half into the process..it’s a LONG one) but I’ll be leaving for close to a year so we think a nice vacation together is well-deserved and will give us many memories to hold onto while we are apart. And finally, because Disney...ya know?
When: Sunday, May 1st- Monday, May 9th
Where: We decided to stay in a Little Mermaid Standard Room at Art of Animation!
We decided on this back in June 2015 when I let the idea slip out of my mouth after we attended a Nelly and TLC concert up at the T.D. Garden in Boston. I was saying how amazing it would be if we could go to Disney before I leave for the military, (as we planned on going together and staying at Shades of Green once I was home from bootcamp and tech school). We were in James’s room and I remember that moment when he said “Let’s go.” I shrieked. “Wait- really?! You mean it??” When James said “Yes!” again, I jumped up and hugged him as tears filled my eyes.
By August (Okay- more like first week of July but the real details came later…) I was pretty set on all the major vacation details.
Then, on September 5th, we officially booked our vacation! It still felt too far off to feel real yet. One day I’d be super excited like this:
and planning and pouring over the DisBoards, and the next I’d be really sad because it felt too far away to be real. I think I’ve become spoiled over the past couple years! I went from not going to Disney for my whole 18 years of life, to three trips in a matter of 4 years. Plus another on the way. I’m so very blessed and sometimes the emotions become overwhelming!
Well, that's all for now! Thanks all for reading- I know it's pretty lengthy...I get carried away and type..A LOT. See ya real soon!
