Hello and welcome to my first attempt at a pre-trip report! We will be returning to the world next week for a long weekend at the Beach Club, 9/18 to 9/20, enjoying our first time in Stormalong Bay and our first visit to any deluxe besides WL. 
Other firsts for this trip include Deluxe Dining and not one but TWO meals at Le Cellier! 
Hopefully we wont be too spoiled by all this luxury since I am hoping to book a moderate (POR or CBR) for our week-long vacation next summer!
Okay, time for introductions. Here is our family:
And now, a brief history of our life!
I was born right here in Orlando and later lived only 1.5 hours away from the magic in wonderful Brevard county, Florida. We did LOTS of WDW day trips, and whenever any of our multitudes of relatives visited us in Florida, we were there!
With five kids in the family there was not much extra money for staying overnight, so we only did it once when my dad's work sponsered a corporate event. I went to Grad Night at MK in 1988, a right of passage for HS seniors here in Florida. My sister, who graduated in 1982, still has her ticket stub, with a stunning price of $12 printed on it! 
I have great memories of beng a child at WDW, and it all comes back whenever I go there. 
My DH (Spidey) grew up in Colorado and moved to Florida with his family when he was 18. He loves all things Spider Man and the timing of the purchase of Marvel characters by Disney could not have been better, bc now I can use his favorite character as his TR name! He had never been to Disney when his family moved here from Colorado. His family took ONE 1-day trip after they moved here, with no planning or researching, and hated it. 
He had no desire whatsoever to visit Disney, except maybe once or twice as a day trip once the kids came along. Despite this obvious issue I married him anyway, hoping that one day he would grow to appreciate the magic as much as I did! 
Here are our two beautiful children:
Our DS (Lil Spidey) is 11. Lil Spidey has autism. He is completely nonverbal and communicates his wants and needs through sign language. He is very unusual for an autistic child. He lost his verbal skills very late, at age 4-5, rather than at age 1-2 like most autistic children. He is also unusual in that he is a very relaxed and laid back child, with no need for rigid routines, and has quite a sense of humor, another rare feature for an autistic child. Lil Spidey lives up to his name, as seen here:
DD (Perdy) just turned 8 years old. She does enough talking to make up for Lil Spidey, and then some!
She is quite the little mother hen to her big brother, she loves him very much and takes good care of him, especially at WDW. She loves all animals and Pluto is her favorite character of the Big 5. She wanted her TR name to be Pluto but I wouldnt let her bc thats a boy name, so we settled on Perdy (from Perdita in 101 Dalmations). Perdy has fortunately inherited our love for all thrill rides. Perdy is quite the drama queen and has a personality to match her red hair. 
Now, how, do you ask, did I manage to get DH Spidey to grow to love all things WDW? That will be coming up next
Other firsts for this trip include Deluxe Dining and not one but TWO meals at Le Cellier! Hopefully we wont be too spoiled by all this luxury since I am hoping to book a moderate (POR or CBR) for our week-long vacation next summer!Okay, time for introductions. Here is our family:
And now, a brief history of our life!
I was born right here in Orlando and later lived only 1.5 hours away from the magic in wonderful Brevard county, Florida. We did LOTS of WDW day trips, and whenever any of our multitudes of relatives visited us in Florida, we were there!
With five kids in the family there was not much extra money for staying overnight, so we only did it once when my dad's work sponsered a corporate event. I went to Grad Night at MK in 1988, a right of passage for HS seniors here in Florida. My sister, who graduated in 1982, still has her ticket stub, with a stunning price of $12 printed on it! I have great memories of beng a child at WDW, and it all comes back whenever I go there. My DH (Spidey) grew up in Colorado and moved to Florida with his family when he was 18. He loves all things Spider Man and the timing of the purchase of Marvel characters by Disney could not have been better, bc now I can use his favorite character as his TR name!
He had never been to Disney when his family moved here from Colorado. His family took ONE 1-day trip after they moved here, with no planning or researching, and hated it. He had no desire whatsoever to visit Disney, except maybe once or twice as a day trip once the kids came along. Despite this obvious issue I married him anyway, hoping that one day he would grow to appreciate the magic as much as I did! Here are our two beautiful children:
Our DS (Lil Spidey) is 11. Lil Spidey has autism. He is completely nonverbal and communicates his wants and needs through sign language. He is very unusual for an autistic child. He lost his verbal skills very late, at age 4-5, rather than at age 1-2 like most autistic children. He is also unusual in that he is a very relaxed and laid back child, with no need for rigid routines, and has quite a sense of humor, another rare feature for an autistic child. Lil Spidey lives up to his name, as seen here:
DD (Perdy) just turned 8 years old. She does enough talking to make up for Lil Spidey, and then some!
She is quite the little mother hen to her big brother, she loves him very much and takes good care of him, especially at WDW. She loves all animals and Pluto is her favorite character of the Big 5. She wanted her TR name to be Pluto but I wouldnt let her bc thats a boy name, so we settled on Perdy (from Perdita in 101 Dalmations). Perdy has fortunately inherited our love for all thrill rides. Perdy is quite the drama queen and has a personality to match her red hair. Now, how, do you ask, did I manage to get DH Spidey to grow to love all things WDW? That will be coming up next
So life was a little nutty and WDW was the furthest thing from our minds. As Lil Spidey was about to start kindergarten, we decided that we needed one parent at home since child care options are very limited for school age children with autism. Unfortunately that at-home parent was not to be me, since I make significantly more than my darling DH Spidey. So, we tightened our belts considerably, and DH became Mr. Stay-At-Home-Dad. 
This of course meant no money for any Disney trips. Lil Spidey was still quite the handful, anyway, back then. It wouldn’t be unusual for him to just jerk his hand away from us and start running top speed to whatever caught his eye. As he got to be a little older, and with much discipline and training, he became much more obedient and manageable in crowds. However, we still had that little problem of no $$$ for Disney. 
Fortunately, one of DH’s long time friends was visiting from overseas in 2006. He knew of our autism and financial woes and generously offered to pay for a day trip to Disney. He is a very generous friend with quite a bit of disposable income, LOL! 
I had done a little research on autism and Disney, both on the internet and from friends who also had autistic children. So, in July of 2005, I very nervously approached Guest Relations in WDW and started to explain that I had a child with autism, and that this would be his first time in WDW, and would not be able to handle long lines. I think I got as far as “I have a child with autism” before she held her hand up to shut me up and started writing out our Guest Assistance Pass! 
