amazingact21
Upendi
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2010
- Messages
- 6,350
Introductions and Overview:
Hello new friends and old! Welcome to my 6th trip report here on the DIS.
Wow…6 reports. Doesn’t feel like that many. Time flies when you’re talking about vacation…
For those that don’t know me, I’m Alicia, a 25 year old mom and military spouse:
My first trip to Disney was in 1998, but I didn’t fall in love with the place until 2010. I have a ridiculous collection of Disney coffee mugs, the pizza at Via Napoli owns a piece of my soul, and when I’m stressed I daydream about running away to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a long weekend.
Next up is my husband, Alex:
He’s the whole reason this particular trip came to be.
In 2014, he deployed for 6 months.
It was a long year.
My last report centered around our last Disney trip together (May 2014) shortly before he left. There was an element of sadness attached to that vacation, and we both counted down the days until Alex would be home again and we could do a less melancholy trip.
Alex’s dream job would be working on board the Jungle Cruise, where he could throw puns around all day, every day. And if that position was full, he’d make his mark in the Contemporary gift shop or MouseGears.
Unfortunately for him, his entire paycheck would go to all the cool Disney items he happened upon while on shift.
The third and cutest member of our family is Landon:
At the time of the trip, he was a few months shy of 2 years old.
Despite his young age, this was not his first time to Disney.
Not even close.
He went in December 2013:
Then in May 2014:
Then in August 2014 (sans Alex):
Andddd, then again in December 2014 (again….sans Alex):
Clearly, he’s no stranger to the parks.
You would think at such a young age, the boy wouldn’t have strong opinions on what he likes/dislikes, but he already knows that no Disney trip is complete without experiencing every mode of transportation the company has to offer. He’s also fully aware that fireworks go off in the sky every night and expects them to serve as his pre-bedtime entertainment.
Unlike all my other Disney trips, this one came together spontaneously and without much regard to limits.
Alex got home at the end of January.
We moved into a new house the beginning of February.
We planned a week- long trip with his parents for the beginning of March.
My sister in-law and nephew came for a 2 week visit from Germany in the middle of February.
So on top of the normal adjustment period (Landon went from having one person tell him 856 times not throw his sweet potatoes on the floor to having that cool guy on FaceTime tell him, too. The sudden double teaming was cruel and unfair at best, cause for a meltdown at worst.) we barely had any time at all to think about going away as a family.
We wanted to. No doubt about it.
The logistics were the issue.
But finally enough was enough. This family needed some Disney magic!
Landon had spent 6 months stuck with the woman who insisted he put pants on before going outside. I had spent 6 months in a constant state of exhaustion due to pulling double duty as chef, launderer, chauffeur, and toddler referee. Alex had spent 6 months working his tail off in a place that was NOT home and watching his kid grow up through a computer screen.
In our minds, we all deserved some time together to reconnect as a family. Alex wanted to bond with Landon again, I wanted to not have to load a dishwasher for a few days, and Landon wanted to stay up past his normal bedtime.
A Disney trip was a win all around.
I can’t recall when in February we called, probably around the first of the month, but Alex and I had sat down and worked out a way to get 4 nights in at the end of the month.
February 26th through March 1st to be exact.
Alex got on the line with a Disney agent and began asking for available military discounts.
On a whim, Alex asked if they had any deluxe hotels available.
They did.
I told my husband he was insane.
We’d just stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge last year. We needed to recoup before we could splurge like that again.
He evaluated our checkbook and told me to live a little.
I threw something like Landon’s future college fund at him.
He threw back that we’d skipped a usual Disney trip last fall and had money set aside for it.
I brought out the big guns.
Said he was ridiculous.
But here’s the thing about Alex.
He’s persistent.
If he argues and rests his case enough times, he usually gets me to cave.
Hence why we’ve stayed at AKL. And raced in two Expedition Everest 5Ks. And have Landon.
I kid. I kid.
So, yes. Alex did get me to agree to stay at deluxe resort for this trip.
An amazing deluxe.
(I’ll save the surprise for the next update.)
When Alex and I hastily put this vacation into being, we had no idea that it would become the most magical one we ever experienced. So many special moments marked this trip that we know for sure nothing else will ever come close to it. I believe every DIS veteran has a trip here and there which stand out to them. The ones that they instantly think of when someone brings up the subject of Walt Disney World.
Well, for my family, this is the reel I’ll be playing for quite awhile. Indulgent, surprising, and surreal.
That was February 2015.
So, if you’d be interested in hearing how such a vacation took hold of my heart in such a way, then please join me as I recap our (second to last) Disney adventure.
Hello new friends and old! Welcome to my 6th trip report here on the DIS.
Wow…6 reports. Doesn’t feel like that many. Time flies when you’re talking about vacation…
For those that don’t know me, I’m Alicia, a 25 year old mom and military spouse:
My first trip to Disney was in 1998, but I didn’t fall in love with the place until 2010. I have a ridiculous collection of Disney coffee mugs, the pizza at Via Napoli owns a piece of my soul, and when I’m stressed I daydream about running away to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a long weekend.
Next up is my husband, Alex:
He’s the whole reason this particular trip came to be.
In 2014, he deployed for 6 months.
It was a long year.
My last report centered around our last Disney trip together (May 2014) shortly before he left. There was an element of sadness attached to that vacation, and we both counted down the days until Alex would be home again and we could do a less melancholy trip.
Alex’s dream job would be working on board the Jungle Cruise, where he could throw puns around all day, every day. And if that position was full, he’d make his mark in the Contemporary gift shop or MouseGears.
Unfortunately for him, his entire paycheck would go to all the cool Disney items he happened upon while on shift.
The third and cutest member of our family is Landon:
At the time of the trip, he was a few months shy of 2 years old.
Despite his young age, this was not his first time to Disney.
Not even close.
He went in December 2013:
Then in May 2014:
Then in August 2014 (sans Alex):
Andddd, then again in December 2014 (again….sans Alex):
Clearly, he’s no stranger to the parks.
You would think at such a young age, the boy wouldn’t have strong opinions on what he likes/dislikes, but he already knows that no Disney trip is complete without experiencing every mode of transportation the company has to offer. He’s also fully aware that fireworks go off in the sky every night and expects them to serve as his pre-bedtime entertainment.
Unlike all my other Disney trips, this one came together spontaneously and without much regard to limits.
Alex got home at the end of January.
We moved into a new house the beginning of February.
We planned a week- long trip with his parents for the beginning of March.
My sister in-law and nephew came for a 2 week visit from Germany in the middle of February.
So on top of the normal adjustment period (Landon went from having one person tell him 856 times not throw his sweet potatoes on the floor to having that cool guy on FaceTime tell him, too. The sudden double teaming was cruel and unfair at best, cause for a meltdown at worst.) we barely had any time at all to think about going away as a family.
We wanted to. No doubt about it.
The logistics were the issue.
But finally enough was enough. This family needed some Disney magic!
Landon had spent 6 months stuck with the woman who insisted he put pants on before going outside. I had spent 6 months in a constant state of exhaustion due to pulling double duty as chef, launderer, chauffeur, and toddler referee. Alex had spent 6 months working his tail off in a place that was NOT home and watching his kid grow up through a computer screen.
In our minds, we all deserved some time together to reconnect as a family. Alex wanted to bond with Landon again, I wanted to not have to load a dishwasher for a few days, and Landon wanted to stay up past his normal bedtime.
A Disney trip was a win all around.
I can’t recall when in February we called, probably around the first of the month, but Alex and I had sat down and worked out a way to get 4 nights in at the end of the month.
February 26th through March 1st to be exact.
Alex got on the line with a Disney agent and began asking for available military discounts.
On a whim, Alex asked if they had any deluxe hotels available.
They did.
I told my husband he was insane.
We’d just stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge last year. We needed to recoup before we could splurge like that again.
He evaluated our checkbook and told me to live a little.
I threw something like Landon’s future college fund at him.
He threw back that we’d skipped a usual Disney trip last fall and had money set aside for it.
I brought out the big guns.
Said he was ridiculous.
But here’s the thing about Alex.
He’s persistent.
If he argues and rests his case enough times, he usually gets me to cave.
Hence why we’ve stayed at AKL. And raced in two Expedition Everest 5Ks. And have Landon.
I kid. I kid.
So, yes. Alex did get me to agree to stay at deluxe resort for this trip.
An amazing deluxe.
(I’ll save the surprise for the next update.)
When Alex and I hastily put this vacation into being, we had no idea that it would become the most magical one we ever experienced. So many special moments marked this trip that we know for sure nothing else will ever come close to it. I believe every DIS veteran has a trip here and there which stand out to them. The ones that they instantly think of when someone brings up the subject of Walt Disney World.
Well, for my family, this is the reel I’ll be playing for quite awhile. Indulgent, surprising, and surreal.
That was February 2015.
So, if you’d be interested in hearing how such a vacation took hold of my heart in such a way, then please join me as I recap our (second to last) Disney adventure.
Last edited:
Thank you for reading. And thank YOU for your sacrifice. I always send my gratitude to the spouses and dependents, because they have to deal with their own set of hardships. 
