Let me start by saying that I am the Disney nut in my family, followed by my DS (5). I am 25 and work in customer service; my DH (30) is an autoworker. I would consider us to be middle class, at the very most. We live in a small town outside of Kansas City, Missouri in a small 3-bedroom ranch style house. We've been married for almost 7 years...married a month after I graduated from HS. We both grew up in families that didn't vacation much. The only vacations I could remember growing up were with an Uncle that took me camping/canoeing for a week every summer as a reward for getting good grades in school (every year from 5th grade until 10th grade). My DH's vacations consisted of weekend trips to the Lake (3 hours drive).
When my son was 2, I negotiated a vacation with my DH, so to speak! He wanted a new boat, that I considered very expensive...costing twice that amount we paid for my car. Now granted he had a boat but it wasn't a big pretty one, like his friends had. Well, I wasn't giving in. I wanted us to go on vacation, and not to the lake. So, after many months of back and forth, I told him he could have the boat if we could go on vacation.... A REAL VACATION! I had a friend that had just come back from Maui and I decided that's where I wanted to go. After many sleepless nights, I decided maybe that wasn't the best idea.... would my DS (2) have fun.... how would he handle that long plane ride.... what would we be able to do that he would enjoy as much as we would? I decided this wasn't the best idea...so I started asking around. Another friend just came back from WDW with his family and said that it was the best vacation that he had ever been on! I called the TA up and told her to send me a planning book. We paid a lot of money going through the TA but at the time I didn't rally care too much. This was going to be a once in a lifetime trip and I was not worrying about how much money it was going to cost. I had been back to work for 18 months and been putting money into savings so that I would be able to take a vacation soon. We had $5000 is savings and if we used it all, good...that's what I had saved it for! I bet we used every bit of it too. We stayed 8 nights at Dixie Landings (POR) with Unlimited magic passes. Ate out 3 times a day at all the nice restaurants, and bought almost everything I seen! This was the most fun I had ever had in my life!
When we got back, all I could do is think about how much fun I had. Meanwhile, the new boat was ordered and we picked it up a month after returning from WDW.... 9 months after getting it someone else decided they like it more than we did! I was so upset. We dropped it off at the dealership to be serviced before the heavy boating season was under way. Went to pick it up a week later, on our way to the lake (vacation for 2 weeks) and it wasn't there...and the dealership didn't even know it was missing. I just cried, my DH and I worked so hard for everything we had and I couldn't see how someone could take something that didn't belong to them. Needless to say this was the worse vacation we'd ever had. Luckily, we had insurance on the boat, and our homeowners insurance covered the contents. The boat and contents were never recovered. We spent all summer running all over the place to replace the items the were in the boat. And we had to wait 3 months before we were able to replace the boat.
Almost a year went by and I spent every minute trying to figure out how I could afford for us to go back. My DH wouldn't budge, he wasn't going back for another 4-5 years. Or at least that's what I thought! My husband came home one day in January and said, did you know WDW was having a 100 Year Celebration? Well, of course I did! He asked me to start researching it and see how much it would cost and f we could afford it. Heck, half the work was already done! HAHAHA!!! At this point I had heard about DVC and looked into it a little but, I didnt quite understand how it worked. And DH wasn't convinced it was a great thing. How could I convince him when I didn't understand it myself? So, we went and stayed at POR again, making arrangements on our own this time, spending about half the money we'd spent two years before. This was a whole new experience, how could you go someplace twice the same time of year and still have so much fun? I wanted terrible to take the tour but, our time is so limited when there are so many things to do! I didn't get a chance, too bad.
Another six months went by when I happen to tumble upon this site.....wow, there's a lot of info out here. Actually I was researching for the Cruise on
DCL for May '04 when I happen to see this board! Every night I talked about all the information I was finding. DH just laughed and rolled hi eyes. Needless to say, we are now the proud owners of 150 pts (wanting more) at BCV. My DH says that this would be the only way to get me to quite talking about it so much, just let me buy and deal with it. First trip home planned for July of this year. My family and friends think weve lost it! They tell me Im a Disney Nut, like thats a bad thing! My parents are actually happy for us, as we are able to do things that a lot of people arent able to do. My parents also know that it is because we work very hard for everything we have. On the other hand, my DHs parents would look down on us for this.
Its actually very funny, I told my son we were going on DCL after he graduates from Kindergarten next spring when hes 6. He recently turned 5 but, started saying he was tired of being 5 because he was ready for DCL. My mom asked him if he was going on vacation this summer and she told her that he wants to go to WDW. She laughed and said we created a little monster and said is was nobody elses fault but our own. I love it! My husband and I both try to give him everything that we didnt have growing up. I just hope that he understands that it is all because of hard work. We try to explain this to him but, I think it goes in one ear and out the other.
Of course I want more points now!!!!!!
