The "We have one whole year to wait" Now a Trip Report

[Laura.bora]

So I really wanted to do a trip report, mainly so my poor husband wouldn’t need to hear me go on and on and on about Disney for the next year, but I thought it was too far away to do a pre trip report. So many people had like a few weeks left until their trip, and I had a whole year! But after reading so many pre trip and trip reports and reading and crying through the KOTS board (pregnant right now - hormones are crazy - doing a lot of crying) I came across Colleen27 trip report, and thought, she doesn’t even know WHEN she’s going! If she can do a pre-trip report so can I! And so here I am!
I guess I should introduce everyone. Here’s the cast:

Me, Laura - Stay at home mom to soon to be 3 wonderful kids (well.....at least I hope the next one is wonderful!) I haven’t been to Disney in about 10 years, and I’ve only been to Disney twice. Once when I was12, the other when I was 16. Both times were wonderful, and I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to go back for a LONG time!

DH, Ken - wonderful husband and father and love of my life. Been to Disney a lot as a child and in his teen years, and he doesn’t remember a thing!! He remembers staying at the contemporary and watching the monorail come in the building, he remembers seeing Chip and Dale...where, he has no idea, and he remembers going to the brown derby....but that memory was only triggered after seeing pictures on the Dis. He says the only real memory he has is not liking Disney. WHAT?? How does one go every year for many years and have no memory of it, AND not like it??? No idea. But either way, he’s excited to go, because he says that because he has almost no memory of it, it will be like going for the first time.

DS, Nathaniel - 5 year old boy (will turn 6 when we go), Never been to Disney World and has wanted to go for about 2 years now. Is currently saving his money to take us all to Disney. And yes, he’s trying to save $6,000. We will have to rethink the taking money from the pockets of laundry should he reach his goal before us. Unknown to him, a trip to Disney is already in the works. Loves Peter Pan. Should say LOVES Peter Pan. Last year, he had a Peter Pan themed birthday party, all the kids came as their favorite character from the movie. This year, he got his own room and got to choose the Theme of his room and you guessed it, Peter Pan is the theme - so I am currently painting Peter Pan murals on his walls. He is thrilled!!!

DD, Ainsley - 2 year old girl (will turn 3 when we go), Also never been to Disney World, has no concept what Disney World is, but loves Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pooh, and Tigger. And the Disney princesses. She’s my little dare devil - and yet is such a dainty little princess. Loves all things pertaining to dressing up and looking pretty, and loves to jump off couches, chairs, tables etc. as soon as you’re not looking.

DS, Ephraim - currently not born yet, but will be about 9 months when we go. He’s just kind of along for the ride. I’m figuring I’ll just either put him in the sling or the stroller and he’ll be a happy camper. Hoping he won’t walk quite as early as my daughter did. She was running by 9 months. I’m thinking a running 9 month old in Disney will be a bad combination.

I figured out the links thing!
How we decided to go to Disney
When to go
The surprise
Where to stay
How we became debt free
Hopefully our restaurant choices....We think.
Pictures
Grand Floridian Photo shoot information
Blast from the past picture
Ephraim Levi has arrived!!(with pictures!)
The time Ken almost spilled the beans
Day 1

 

[Laura.bora]

How we decided to go to Disney
So it all started 3 years or so ago, we were vacationing with my father-in-law, sister-in-law, and her boyfriend. They had paid for us to go down to Sanibel Island with them so we could all spend some family time together, we could have a vacation we otherwise could not afford, and they could have a week alone with the kids, uninterrupted by other family members. My father in law had said as our big thing to do, (like going to Sanibel wasn’t big enough!) He was taking his daughter and her boyfriend to Disney after Sanibel for a day or two, and if we wanted, he’d pay for us to go too. After much talking and praying, we decided to turn that offer down because as much as we would have LOVED to go to Disney with everyone, we felt he had already done so much for us and we felt Nathaniel was too little to really enjoy the park. Silly us (as far as thinking that Nathaniel was too little). When Nathaniel found out that everyone but us were going to Mickey’s house - he was just devastated that he couldn’t go too. We decided then that when we were FINALLY credit card debt free, we would take the money we were putting towards the credit cards and take a family trip to Disney. Just us. Our very first family vacation alone! It was just another perk I saw to being debt free!

The following year, I was pregnant with my daughter, and was just feeling too sick to think about traveling all the way to Florida so we turned down the offer to go to Sanibel. Instead we opted for a trip to Sesame Place. It was closer and Ken’s grandparents own a house that they use for vacation purposes nearby and we would be traveling later in the pregnancy, so I wasn’t as sick and could travel. But financial situations arose again (we were in the process to becoming debt free, and unfortunately, that makes things VERY tight) and we needed to cancel. Super Dad to the rescue - and he surprises us with a trip with him to Sesame Place. While it may not be Disney, it was a GREAT trip, and one which Nathaniel still talks about to this day.

The next time in Sanibel, everyone went to Disney, except for us. Again - financial reasons. But all this time that debt is dwindling until finally this year....

We meet up with everyone in Sanibel again, and this time Ken’s sister and her now fiancé go to Disney alone. Nathaniel is practically in tears that again, they get to go to Disney and he doesn’t. Which starts the discussion by him “Is it really that expensive to go to Disney?” So we explain, yes it is a lot of money, and it’s money that we just don’t see as a priority right now, someday, but not now, we’ll go. “So how much do you think it would cost for all of us to go to Disney?” I just throw out a random number to demonstrate just how much it would be. I tell him $6,000. His response? “$6,000? Wow, that is a lot. But I saved my money for a bike, so now I’ll just save $6,000 for Disney so I can take you and Papa and Ainsley to Disney.” Just break our hearts why don’t you kid!!

So we got home and Ken and I started to crunch some numbers to see when we could be debt free. Surprise! By the end of this year!!! God is so Awesome and faithful!! We managed by God’s grace to pay off nearly $16,000 in debt in 2 ½ years on our measly salary of $25,000. AND, after crunching the numbers, even with our trip to Disney (budget of around $7,000 - we decided we deserve a dream vacation) we will still pay off our car loan by the end of 2008 - A YEAR EARLY. I am constantly amazed at what God can do! This should not work, but it does! What an awesome God I serve! So since we will be credit card debt free at the end of 2007, that means 2008 is when we will go!

 

[Laura.bora]

When to go

So now it’s decided we WILL go, but now the question is when? I start looking at times. We homeschool our kids, and my husband has a very flexible job, so we could pretty much go when we wanted. We decided that value time would be best since it would be lower crowds and less money. We also wanted something later on in the year so that it would give us time to save spending money and other expenses. (We are paying for the trip in full when we book).

We noticed September was value season - has had free dining the last few years, is still nice and warm down there so we would need summer clothes, so we could by some Disney clothing on clearance AND it just so happens that Nathaniel and Aisnely’s birthdays are in September, and only 2 days apart.....what about taking them for their birthdays? Bingo! We’re taking them for their birthdays! Then we started thinking, since it’s their birthdays, we should surprise them with the trip to Disney. Originally, we were planning on 8 days in Disney - Wednesday to Wednesday (cheaper air fare) Sept. 17th - 24th. We were thinking it was kinda short, but we figured, anything else would be out of our budget. Out of curiosity, I checked how much it would be for a 10 day stay....to my surprise, a whopping $200 more - air fare and all.

I brought this information back to my husband who said for $200, it would be silly not to spend the 2 extra days. And so our 10 day Disney Dream vacation is born! So now our planned dates are the 16th - 25th. Tuesday - Thursday. 10 WONDERFUL days in Disney!!! I can’t wait! We figured the 10 days can give us a few more relaxing time days/mornings. And we are all for relaxing on vacation....well....my husband is at least.

 

[Laura.bora]

The surprise

Well, this is still a work in progress, since we have a year to think about how to do it, but for right now, we like the idea that someone (can’t remember for the life of me who - if you know, could you please give me the link to her Trip report) came up with of the box inside the box inside the box - and on the top of each box is a word - the words spell out the sentence “Guess where you are going tommorow?” The last box will have a card that says “Go to the playroom to find out”. Inside the playroom will be a box wrapped in Disney paper, filled with Disney goodies inside and shirts that say “surprise, you’re going to Disney” or something to that effect.

 

[Laura.bora]

Where to stay

At first we thought that the Animal Kingdom Lodge would be for us. Our kids are animal fanatics and I thought that would be ideal. It had a Queen sized bed and in our price range. But when we saw the Disney video, both Ken and I fell in love with the Wilderness Lodge. I love the fact that it's just a boat ride from the MK. Will make nap time a little easier. And the grounds are just beautiful and so our speed. Then we watched the video with the kids, and Nathaniel said that when he saved enough money, he wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. Settled!! Wilderness Lodge is our 1st choice. When we book, if that’s not available, we’d probably go with either Animal Kingdom, or beach Club. We’re just really hoping for the Wilderness Lodge. We’re thinking either wooded view or standard. I’m thinking we’ll spend most of our time there napping/sleeping, so I don’t need anything special. I’d rather use the extra money for something else....like Cirque du Soliel tickets!

 

[winkers]

Sounds like fun! Having a pre trip report helps time to go by faster too! So when is your baby due?

 

[Laura.bora]

hey! some one posted! It is actually helping the time pass, and more poor husband doesn't need to hear about it everyday now. Just every other day. I'm due the end of January, hoping for no big snowstorms - the hospitals about an hour away in good weather and I go fast.

 

[winkers]

An hour away from the hospital! That's along way!
Last year when I was planning our first family trip to the world my poor dh thought that was the only subject I could talk about. Most conversations started with "today on the Dis I read............."

 

[Laura.bora]

An hour away from the hospital! That's along way!
Last year when I was planning our first family trip to the world my poor dh thought that was the only subject I could talk about. Most conversations started with "today on the Dis I read............."


Glad to know I'm not the only one!!!!

 

[dis princess]

you must be so excited!!!

 

[IkeandMike]

You are a finacial wizard. I am taking all advice from you from now on! I love that you are keeping it a surprise too, I can't keep a secret to save my life.

 

[Laura.bora]

thanks everyone! It's all the grace of God that our financial situation is what it is today - the numbers should NOT add up, but they Do! I normally can not keep a secret to save my life too, and many times I've almost slipped, but thankfully, it's far enough off, and they are young enough that they don't notice.
We got our Disney maps the other day in the mail. I am so excited. It's SOOOOOO far away, and yet, it seems like it's just around the corner!
My friend just got back from Disney a few weeks ago, and she got my son a lanyard and 2 pins to start him on trading. I was back and forth on if I wanted to do this or not, so she made up my mind for me. Just need to get a lanyard for my daughter and a few more pins from ebay or something for them to split. Need to do my pins research to make sure I get the correct pins and not the ones that are fake. I love the Dis! All the information I need right at my fingertips!

 

[IkeandMike]

we started the kids with the pin trading on the last trip. It was so much fun and I have to say it is the only souvineir that they still use today and take great care of. your kids are going to love it. Your ds sounds like such a little man already!

 

[Laura.bora]

Oh my, don't get me started on what a little man he's becoming. The boy has got to STOP GROWING UP!

 

[rentayenta]

A year will be here before you know it!

Would you mind sharing how you are paying off that much debt so quickly?

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

Debt Free!!

Cut up those credit cards people!!!

How amazing for you guys! I hope everything goes well! Really enjoying your report! Keep up the great work!

 

[bettyann29]

Love your Pre trip report so far.. How exciting that you are going to WDW and going debt free.. Is there any other way to go??

I bet your kiddos will be so excited when they finally find out..

Cant wait to hear more

 

[OhMari]

You can book the Wilderness Lodge now. If any codes come out, you can call and apply it to your ressie. You can actually make payments on the WDW website and watch your balance go down. Last year a 40% resorts came out for your time period, plus free dining. Remember to make your ADR's too 180 out.

 

[Shmu]

OK, I have to subscribe to your report.
1. Debt Free God is a God of miracles isn't He?
2. I have been home schooling my children for the past 14 years.

3. We will be at Disney at the same time. We are going Sept. 12 - 22 and staying at the POP. Woo Hoo for the Free Dining.

 

[Laura.bora]

hey rentayenta - nope, I don't mind sharing at all, and I'm going to share the whole story, so it's going to be a bit long! (and I love the name by the way! - I hear yenta, and I'm about to breakout into the song "Matchmaker matchmaker"!).
Ok so let me think, May of 05, our credit card debt was just out of control, could barely make minimum payments, sometimes we couldn't make payments at all, thus the interest rate went SKYROCKETING. Which of course is very helpful when you can't pay the balance in the 1st place. The credit card debt was a combination of my husband being out of work for 4 months, not relizing that we could have gotten help with unemployment and such(we both came from well to do families, had really no knowledge of this at all), and some bad financial choices early on in our marriage (we just HAD to have the full package cable, didn't we??- that was my doing not my husbands - weren't saaved at the time, and came from well to do families where we were used to such frivolus expenses - not so frivolous if you can AFFORD it, but we definatly couldn't). After much prayer and research, we finally decided to get onto a debt management program. We specifically wanted one that was Christ centered, had a good reputation, and was not going to talk the credit cards into lowering our balance, only our interest. We felt we had used that money, it was our responsiblility to pay them back. The outrageous interest however, we veiwed as greed on the credit card company's part, and saw no reason not to get it lowered so we could pay off the balance.

Being about $16,000 in debt, and it just spiraling downward month after month(we were not putting anything new on the credit cards at this point, it was a lot of interest from month to month adding up), anyway, it really made the scripture about the borrower being servant to the lender come to life. It was like "Ohhhhh so THAT'S what that means!" So we got started on the debt management program in may of 05, and we got our interest lowered significantly. We had been paying in the 20's % range, and all the cards dropped to 0% - 12.99%. We had to pay $375 a month to the debt management program, and they divided up that money between the credit cards keeping $37 a month for themselves to pay their employees. The fist year seemed to get us no where - we definatly had the debt go down, but not so much that we were thinking "woo hoo!! light at the end of the tunnel." So after that first year, I started making monthly bar charts to hang on our bulletin board, showing what the starting debt with each credit card had been (we had a total of 5 credit cards), what the current debt was, and how much we had paid off over the course of time. That helped A LOT! It was so nice to SEE a visual of it. That was a big encouragement for us. I don't recall what we started off with debt wise at the begining of 06, but at the end of 06, we had about $12,000 left to pay off.

Right around that time, the Lord really starting leading my husband to start upping the giving. So we went from faithfully giving the 10% tithe, to giving 12%. That was a HUGE leap of faith on our part. We were barely making ends meet at that point, and I couldn't see how that could possibly work out, but it did, and we've seen nothing but blessing come from that act of obedience.

We also decided to take some of our tax return and to pay off our highest interest rate credit card. That was about $3,200. But when we got our tax return back, we realized we could pay off our 2 highest interest rate cards (a total of $6,200). That would leave us with just about $1,000 in savings, which would make for a VERY TIGHT year. We prayed about it A LOT, and then decided that we would do that. So that February, we cut our debt in half. That was SO freeing! We were practically bouncing off the walls! We COULD see the light at the end of the tunnel now! We also decided to snowball our payments, so the money that was going to the 2 creditcards we had just paid off, went to the 2nd lowest balance credit card. We chose that one because the lowest interest car was a 0% interest card and we were only paying $10 a month on that one, and the highest balance one at that point had about $4,000, but we were paying a large amount of money on that one month to month without snowballing, so it was going down quickly. We had about $1,300 to pay off on the card we snowballed the payments too, and that happened quickly, even though we couldn't pay the snowball payment one month (Ken's grandmother died and we needed to take the unexpected trip down for the funeral). I believed we payed that card off in August or so. Not quite sure. The following month we knocked off the 0% interest card (about $200 on that card) with some left over from the snowball payment to go towards our VERY LAST CARD!!!! We've got somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 on that card. With the plan of using any Christmas money we get and the PTO sell back his company offers this time of year to pay off above and beyond the monthly payment of $375 and then if we have any debt left (we shouldn't but you never know) we'll pay off the remaining balance with our tax return. After putting some money in savings, we will book and pay in full our disney trip (not the airfare or extras we plan on doing. - we'll save for that over the course of the next 9 months)

And so that's how we did/are doing it. The Lord has been gracious the whole way and has totally blessed it. There were plenty of times we were very tight, but it always worked out - including the time we were going to have to take my car off the road because it wouldn't pass inspection for need of new back tires. We decided it was well worth it to take it off the road instead of putting that on another credit card we didn't need. (and believe me! We were VERY tempted to do that - but we stuck to our guns and decided obedience to what the Lord had shown us was more important). Well, the morning after we decided we need to be obedient, what shows up but somebody wanting to bless us with new tires for the van because of all we've done for his daughter and son-in-law? This from a man who is SUCH a tight wad! Needless to say, we were floored (as well as his daughter and son-in-law - I thought she was going to pass out!!). It really made the scripture from proverbs come to life - "The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he turns it wherever he pleases. " He really does guide the heart!

All in all, the Lord is AWESOME and we are VERY aware of the fact that this has been ALL HIM! and it is such a good feeling to be so close to the end!! After the vacation is paid for(spending money and all) , we'll start doubling up on van payments, and that should be paid off by the end of 08, maybe the tax return of '09 if things don't go as planned. The reward for being completly debt free will be a house of our own. Woo Hoo!