donnajean17
Dreaming about my next trip....
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2007
- Messages
- 568
I have been a casual DISer since an intern that I had working with me introduced me to it earlier this year, (so that is what she was doing at the computer all day!) and I got more involved (or should I say addicted) in the past few weeks after booking a trip in September for me and my DH. (our first trip alone since having kids!) We are staying at the Poly this time (DH does not know that yet, he thinks we are staying at CBR, but I upgraded as a surprise! 
) so I was researching stuff on the boards about Poly and just found myself getting more and more drawn into other threads and now I cant go a day with out checking out the boards! HELP! 
Anyway, I thought, since Im having such a good time reading other pre and post trip reports (DISUNCs is my current favorite) that I would do something similar and chronicle my Disney life" and how the magic has drawn me in and made me fall so in love with this magical place. So if your interested read on if not thanks for stopping by and have a magical day!
Before we get started I should tell you a little bit about me. I am a 35 year old mother of two, (DS, 5 and DD, 3) married 8 years to a fellow Disney lover, though he is still in the closet! (see their photo on my signature). I work full time as a TV producer for a magazine style entertainment show, its the best job ever and I love it!!! So here we go .
Trip#1
December 1978
Off-Site
This was an unusual trip for me, it was the first and only vacation I ever took as a child. My parents got divorced when I was 1 (Im convinced I was the lets try to save our marriage baby). My mom worked to take care of me and my two sisters and she did not drive so we really never went anywhere because money was tight. My dad was what you might call a dead beat, he never paid child support and was sort of non-existent because he had a new family to worry about. (no bitterness here!)
Well, for reasons I dont know, he decided that it would be nice if he took me (then 6 years old) and my 2 sisters to WDW with his new family in his tractor trailer truck that he drove for a living. (as I write this it's really starting to sound soooooooo white trash!) So me, my sisters, 3 steps siblings, step mother and my dad piled into the cab of his 18 wheeler and drove south. If I recall it took 2 days to get there, all I really remember about the journey was sitting in the back of the cab and playing the Atari game Pong on a little screen. Also, one morning we stopped at McDonalds and my dad bought me an egg McMuffin, and since he was a non-exsistent father he had no idea that I did not like egg McMuffins, but he forced me to eat it anyway. I remember sitting in the restaurant and him telling me I better eat it or else! (else what, I am not sure of) A lot of this trip was a fog since I was only 6. I dont remember much about the park (there was only MK then), just my dad losing the tickets when we got there and him being really mad about it. I have no photos to show of our trip, and apparently I celebrated my 7th birthday day, though that is foggy too. Maybe I never really went and it was all a dream?? No that cant be, because me sisters still talk about it to this day. So that was my first trip to Disney, doesnt sound very magical but lucky for me it gets better....
Trip #2
April 1995 (yes it took me 18 years to get back there, I told you we were poor!)
CBR
I was a Junior in college in 1995, and if you are actually doing the math, I turned 7 in December 1978 so that would make me 23 in April of 1995. Why I am 23 and a junior in college, when most college students finish undergrad by 22? Well that is a story for another day and it involves a loser boyfriend.
Anyhoooo me and my friends decide it would be neat to go to FL for spring break! But being poor college students we decided to drive there. So one morning in late April of 1995, 12 of us pile into 3 cars and head south on Interstate 91, the road that will take us from Northeastern Vermont (yes I said Vermont) to Central Florida (actually we have to get on I-95 first but we dont hit that until we are in Massachusetts).
One of my friends has a an aunt and uncle who live in Daytona, they never had any children and love being around us crazy kids! They offer to let the 12 of us shack up at their house in Daytona Beach for as long as we want. (while they are there) 26 hours after pulling out of our dorm parking lot we arrive at their house. They treat us like kings and queens! Their house is small but they make room for us where ever they can, the dining room floor, the kitchen, its great!
That's me in the middle in the ugly flowered shirt.
We end up winning some money at a local bar and rent a couple of hotel rooms on our last night in Daytona, it was a really shady place with cockroaches and the like. The kind of place poor college students with $200 and 12 people would go. But we do the bar hopping thing and have a grand old time and besides after a few drinks the place does not seem so scary!
By the way, while in Daytona me and one of my friends get a serious sunburn (2nd degree) on my face so that was a TON of fun.
It was planned that we would spend our last two days before driving back to VT at WDW. So we pile back in the car and head south to Orlando. We (being the 12 of us)
Have 2 rooms rented at CBR, we dont tell the hotel there are 12 of sharing these 2 rooms, but thats OK cause were wild college kids on spring break!
Some of us at MGM
I remember how when we went to board the buses to go the MK, not all of us had room keys so we were afraid they bus driver would be checking them like IDs! SO funny to think about that now! We spent one day at MK and one day at MGM and of course we visited Pleasure Island. (college students + alcohol = great fun!)
We had a really great time, even though we were only there for about 36 hours. We packed up the car and headed back to VT and our life in college.
After this trip, I still did not have the Disney Bug it took at least one more before I was infected . Read on
Trip #3
December 1997
Off Site
One of my very best friends from high school had packed up her life and moved to Orlando to be a lifeguard at WDW. Actually she had a degree in graphic design and wanted to get in the door, but being fresh out of college this was the only Disney job she was qualified for. So in December 1997 (I guess that would make me 26 now) one of my other HS friends (Sue) and I boarded a plane and flew south to see her.
It was cool because my friend Mary was a Disney employee we got to get into all the parks for free and had other perks, like when it rained (which it did EVERY day we were there) we just headed over to the wardrobe dept and they suited us up in rain gear.
Me and my friend Sue (I'm in Yellow!)
This was my first trip to Disney where I think I got the bug. It was Christmas time and despite the rain, it was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in her apartment off site, but still I remember heading home thinking about how much I couldnt wait to go back....
Let me know what you think so far.... More to come....
) so I was researching stuff on the boards about Poly and just found myself getting more and more drawn into other threads and now I cant go a day with out checking out the boards! HELP! Anyway, I thought, since Im having such a good time reading other pre and post trip reports (DISUNCs is my current favorite) that I would do something similar and chronicle my Disney life" and how the magic has drawn me in and made me fall so in love with this magical place. So if your interested read on if not thanks for stopping by and have a magical day!
Before we get started I should tell you a little bit about me. I am a 35 year old mother of two, (DS, 5 and DD, 3) married 8 years to a fellow Disney lover, though he is still in the closet! (see their photo on my signature). I work full time as a TV producer for a magazine style entertainment show, its the best job ever and I love it!!! So here we go .
Trip#1
December 1978
Off-Site
This was an unusual trip for me, it was the first and only vacation I ever took as a child. My parents got divorced when I was 1 (Im convinced I was the lets try to save our marriage baby). My mom worked to take care of me and my two sisters and she did not drive so we really never went anywhere because money was tight. My dad was what you might call a dead beat, he never paid child support and was sort of non-existent because he had a new family to worry about. (no bitterness here!)
Well, for reasons I dont know, he decided that it would be nice if he took me (then 6 years old) and my 2 sisters to WDW with his new family in his tractor trailer truck that he drove for a living. (as I write this it's really starting to sound soooooooo white trash!) So me, my sisters, 3 steps siblings, step mother and my dad piled into the cab of his 18 wheeler and drove south. If I recall it took 2 days to get there, all I really remember about the journey was sitting in the back of the cab and playing the Atari game Pong on a little screen. Also, one morning we stopped at McDonalds and my dad bought me an egg McMuffin, and since he was a non-exsistent father he had no idea that I did not like egg McMuffins, but he forced me to eat it anyway. I remember sitting in the restaurant and him telling me I better eat it or else! (else what, I am not sure of) A lot of this trip was a fog since I was only 6. I dont remember much about the park (there was only MK then), just my dad losing the tickets when we got there and him being really mad about it. I have no photos to show of our trip, and apparently I celebrated my 7th birthday day, though that is foggy too. Maybe I never really went and it was all a dream?? No that cant be, because me sisters still talk about it to this day. So that was my first trip to Disney, doesnt sound very magical but lucky for me it gets better....
Trip #2
April 1995 (yes it took me 18 years to get back there, I told you we were poor!)
CBR
I was a Junior in college in 1995, and if you are actually doing the math, I turned 7 in December 1978 so that would make me 23 in April of 1995. Why I am 23 and a junior in college, when most college students finish undergrad by 22? Well that is a story for another day and it involves a loser boyfriend.
Anyhoooo me and my friends decide it would be neat to go to FL for spring break! But being poor college students we decided to drive there. So one morning in late April of 1995, 12 of us pile into 3 cars and head south on Interstate 91, the road that will take us from Northeastern Vermont (yes I said Vermont) to Central Florida (actually we have to get on I-95 first but we dont hit that until we are in Massachusetts).
One of my friends has a an aunt and uncle who live in Daytona, they never had any children and love being around us crazy kids! They offer to let the 12 of us shack up at their house in Daytona Beach for as long as we want. (while they are there) 26 hours after pulling out of our dorm parking lot we arrive at their house. They treat us like kings and queens! Their house is small but they make room for us where ever they can, the dining room floor, the kitchen, its great!
We end up winning some money at a local bar and rent a couple of hotel rooms on our last night in Daytona, it was a really shady place with cockroaches and the like. The kind of place poor college students with $200 and 12 people would go. But we do the bar hopping thing and have a grand old time and besides after a few drinks the place does not seem so scary!
By the way, while in Daytona me and one of my friends get a serious sunburn (2nd degree) on my face so that was a TON of fun.
It was planned that we would spend our last two days before driving back to VT at WDW. So we pile back in the car and head south to Orlando. We (being the 12 of us)
Have 2 rooms rented at CBR, we dont tell the hotel there are 12 of sharing these 2 rooms, but thats OK cause were wild college kids on spring break!
I remember how when we went to board the buses to go the MK, not all of us had room keys so we were afraid they bus driver would be checking them like IDs! SO funny to think about that now! We spent one day at MK and one day at MGM and of course we visited Pleasure Island. (college students + alcohol = great fun!)
We had a really great time, even though we were only there for about 36 hours. We packed up the car and headed back to VT and our life in college.
After this trip, I still did not have the Disney Bug it took at least one more before I was infected . Read on
Trip #3
December 1997
Off Site
One of my very best friends from high school had packed up her life and moved to Orlando to be a lifeguard at WDW. Actually she had a degree in graphic design and wanted to get in the door, but being fresh out of college this was the only Disney job she was qualified for. So in December 1997 (I guess that would make me 26 now) one of my other HS friends (Sue) and I boarded a plane and flew south to see her.
It was cool because my friend Mary was a Disney employee we got to get into all the parks for free and had other perks, like when it rained (which it did EVERY day we were there) we just headed over to the wardrobe dept and they suited us up in rain gear.
This was my first trip to Disney where I think I got the bug. It was Christmas time and despite the rain, it was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in her apartment off site, but still I remember heading home thinking about how much I couldnt wait to go back....
Let me know what you think so far.... More to come....
This sounds great so far--looking forward to more!
... We are going again in Mid June, so love all the new trip reports.. Waiting to read more
