Our 14 days of R&R

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Trip dates: May 27 - June 9

Cast of characters:

DH - currently deployed - loves Disney but content to leave all the planning to me with a few requests thrown in here and there.

myself - My name is Cristy and I am a Disneyholic. I'm always thinking about a trip.....even one's that often don't come to be but hey it's fun to plan. Also enjoy helping friends plan their first trip to WDW.

DS - 13 - loves Disney - loves animals - loves looking for hidden Mickey's and other little Disney trivia tidbits around the park. Avid reader. Still not afraid to be a kid.

DD - 8 - 200% Princess - loves Disney - wears a princess dress to the parks more days than not. Still not really into the thrill rides - worries to much about what others think.

In comparison to our other trips this on was a little spur of the moment as we did not get DH's actual R&R dates until late March. We had talked some about meeting him in Paris France for R&R and then going into Germany & England to visit his uncle and cousin who are there as ministers to the military. We searched and searched for reasonable air fair with no luck....cheapest I could find was going to be about $1300 each for the kids and I. The military would fly DH home (anywhere in the US) free but if he decided to go somewhere else he had to pay for it. Looked into Space-A which is an option for military family travel but it's really unpredictable and not always sure what type of aircraft you'd be taking, etc. So we decided to do something else and Disney was everyone's top pick. Found a great rate at the resort we usually stay at (off property) for $330 a week in a two bedroom unit through the Armed Forces Vacation Club. So we booked it for a week and then i was able to add on days at the front end of the ressie and end to get all the dates we needed covered. Our home away from home would be Westgate Vacation Villas which is just a short 1 mile ride to Disney property.

 

[live4christp1]

Thanks to modern communications we get to skype with DH almost on a nightly basis unless he has been sent out to another location to install equipment, etc. He is also able use skype to call us when we aren't at home.

So while talking to him one day he said that he would really like to take DD to breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table this year. I explained how much I had always looked in the past for and ADR there without finding anything and that was starting at 180 days out and that I would try but it was a long shot.

We generally only do one special meal a trip but since this would be the only 15 days we get with DH for a whole year we decided to plan one special meal for each of us. DH's choice was Chef Mickey's, DS had chosen Sci-Fi, and my choice after much deliberation (came down to Italy or France) was les Chefs de France. Was able to get Sci-Fi and les Chefs de France without to much trouble. Had checked for CRT for days and nothing available. One day I checked around 10:00 AM, nothing. I was just going through and putting each of our days in the system, willing to take whatever came up but hoping for something early if I got anything at all. That day about 2:20 I thought, lets check again and low and behold it popped up with an 8:25 ADR. I couldn't believe and booked it immediately. I was so excited to tell DH and we decided that we would keep it a secret.

Believe it or not, the hardest ADR to get was Chef Mickey's but finally after much persistance I was able to get an ADR there for 7:15 on our first full day in Florida.

Reservations made. ADRs scheduled for a special meal for each. Now we were onto waiting for the trip to get here.