"There be squalls ahead" my 50th Birthday W/ Mickey PTR

[eeyoresnr]

hi...and welcome to my PTR. I would have started this sooner, but I (we) couldn't think of a name for the title

Anyways, lets introduce the cast...
first there is me.

My name is Vickie and I'm 49 years old...
I was born in Anaheim about a half mile from Disneyland, so I was lucky enough to grow up going to Disneyland on a regular basis.
I love Disney and everything about it.


2nd there is the love of my life, my awesome husband

this is Danny, age 40, and though he won't always admit it, he's as big of a Disney fanatic as I am, if not more
Danny is a firefighter, works for one dept F/T , one dept P/T, and for FedEx P/T so we can go to Disney at least a couple times a year.

we live in the wonderful state of Florida along the portion of the Gulf Coast that was hit by the oil spill this last summer
we will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary this Jan

this will be my 2nd attemp at a PTR, the last one being in 2008 before our Dec trip

more to come shortly...

 

[eeyoresnr]

a little more about our family...
we have 2 wonderful children...

First is Daniel

Daniel is 10 years old, in the 4th grade and loves Disney
Daniel live with his mom in Alabama about an hour and a half drive from us...

next is Stephanie

Stephanie is 25 (turned 25 at Disney last April)
She is our Eeyore Fanatic! loves anything and everything Eeyore! has over 500 in her colection! yep, over 500

but this trip is just Danny and I

Stephanie works at a Veterinary Hispital and pet sits p/t...which is lucky for me cause we have 4 cats, 2 dogs, and a turtle... so when we go Stephanie just stays here and brings her dog so we don't have to worry about our pets (who are like our kids too) works out good for her because it's a closer drive to her work and she gets to shop in "mom's pantry"

here's another pic of Daniel and Steph from our trip in April

 

[eeyoresnr]

this is Katrina...

Katrina is my other child...and the reason I am so grateful to have my daughter as a pet sitter.

we adopted Katrina in Sept of 2005 after hurricane Katrina, and yes that's where we got her name... she came to us after her family lost everything in New Orleans and decided they could not keep their 3 dogs...

she is an awesome dog...with issues
she loves me to death, and hates to be seperated from me. they call it seperation anxiety, and when I was working I had to medicate her every day before I left the house, and still do every time I leave the house to go to store or anywhere without her. So our trips to Disney are much easier on her when Stephanie is her pet sitter. She has to be on her meds, but at least she is at home and not in a kennel.

 

[eeyoresnr]

ok, so as you can see by my signature this will be our 17th trip to Disney since we started going as a couple in 2003 (with one of those trips being to Disneyland in 2004)

our honeymoon trip in 2003 was the first trip to WDW for both of us, and Danny's first trip ever. one trip was all it took to hook him

we have stayed in all levels of the resorts and often rent points to stay at the DVC's.
this trip was planned too late and by the time we decided I would get to turn 50 with Mickey there were no rooms left for our dates in the DVC's of our choice...
that is how we ended up going in Sept (which was the first Sept. trip for us) but we were able to do MNSSHP (also a first for us) but we were given such a good deal on points that we couldn't pass it up

we have been to Disney several times in December, but as seasonal passholders my birthday always fell in the blackout dates
but this year we got the full passes so we can go year round and decided I was going to wake up at Disney for my 50th birthday.

I'm proud and happy to be turning 50
I know some women don't like to tell their age, but a year and a half ago I wasn't sure I'd ever see 50... after a trip to the ER I was told It was 95% certain I had ovarian cancer,and possibly Pancreatic cancer and I was scared. My husband kept saying it's gonna be ok, and even asked the Dr if there was a chance it wasn't cancer. the DR told us not to do that to ourselves because the chances were so slim (the mass was so large and my #s so high) it just didn't look good. so when during surgery the lab called down and said there was no cancer, my Dr told them to check again while he still had me open...they did and same result. no cancer! it was all benign tumors and Endometriosis... even after my 8 week check up my Dr sent me for more blood work and said if my #s hadn't dropped enough I would have to go again in 6 weeks to see if the levels were dropping. a week later I got a call and they said "see you next year" my #s were all back to normal
I had so many people praying for me, people I had never met. I worked in a Cafe here in town for almost 5 years and my customers, were like a second family to me, were all so supportive and sent so many prayers my way, that I have a all new belief in the power of prayer
so, that being said I am happy to be turning 50 and even happier that I get to do it at Disney with Danny by my side

 

[eeyoresnr]

knock-knock...anybody out there? I feel like I'm talking to myself here

 

[athenna]

I'm here! As soon as I saw it was a report from you, I was happy to read it, I always love the photos you post in the photo forum. Your story was heartwarming, so thrilled for you to be turning 50 after all you had to endure.
Can't wait to read more!

 

[bkandreu]

i'm here! will be stickin with this pre-trip report, and look forward to more! Katrina is precious! Poor thing will miss you while you go to Disney!

 

[bkandreu]

And I love all the pictures! Especially the one with the haunted hitchikers!

 

[Nemo32]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more! I love your dog, Katrina. My family volunteers with animals so we have 6 rescued cats living with us.

 

[eeyoresnr]

I'm here! As soon as I saw it was a report from you, I was happy to read it, I always love the photos you post in the photo forum. Your story was heartwarming, so thrilled for you to be turning 50 after all you had to endure.
Can't wait to read more!

hi, and thanks for joining in...I'm glad you like my pics (I seem to go in spurts) I'm definatley blessed to be turning 50

i'm here! will be stickin with this pre-trip report, and look forward to more! Katrina is precious! Poor thing will miss you while you go to Disney!

welcome! Katrina wears herself out each day just following me around the house...if I leave the room she is in (sleeping) I get about halfway down the hall and I hear the pitter-pat of her behind me

And I love all the pictures! Especially the one with the haunted hitchikers!

thanks for coming on over... this was the first year we have ever gone during the fall, and we loved it. the MNSSHP was so much fun. I had pre-ordered the photopass cd and was so glad I did cause the party pics made it worth it

I'm in! Can't wait to read more! I love your dog, Katrina. My family volunteers with animals so we have 6 rescued cats living with us.

Welcome! Katrina is my baby, my husband says she has a face only a mother can love I tell her she's my pretty girl...Danny thinks I'm nuts

 

[eeyoresnr]

ok, so here's a bit of history on the planning of this trip...
We went to WDW in April for Stephanie's 25th Birthday and when we got home, Danny says let's go back one more time before our passes expire...
we got home April 17th, our passes expired May 10th.. so we went online to see what was available and went back May 4th - 9th... now the whole reasoning behind this was because we were gonna let our passes expire and wait a year or so before going back yeah, right! it was just after that when Disney came out with the 12 month payment plan for passholders
we decided since we wouldn't have to pay all at once and could just have it come out of our checking account monthly, it was just too goo of a deal to pass up
so we went ahead and purchased them online and also upgraded to the full pass...in the past we had always opted for the seasonal pass (we refuse to go during the summer) but this way we could stay later in Dec if we chose to and then I had the bright idea I wanted to be at Disney when I woke up for my 50th... Danny say's ok, book a room... so my first thought was to rent points for a DVC again, but there wasn't much left in our time frame, so I thought hey, let's go in October so we can see all the fall decorations..
and while I was looking for these dates I came across one that had to be used before Sept 30th...and it was just too good to pass up...so we booked a week at OKW hoping that the last week of Sept would be a bit cooler yeah right! this is Florida after all. it was hot...very, very hot! but we had fun.
but even after I booked that trip I was still kinda bummed that I wasn't gonna be at Disney for my birthday. So Danny says just book a room through Disney... See why I love this guy so much

 

[eeyoresnr]

so now it's, where will we stay We absolutely love AKL & Villas, but since this is our 4th trip this year and I have been out of work since April, that just wouldn't be practical so we decided on a moderate, but which one? We love CSR, (it's Danny's favorite mod) and while we like CBR (we stayed there in Dec 05 and I didn't like it...not sure why) but we tried it again last May on our quickie trip and really enjoyed the resort, but since we were just there, decided on something different. Port Orleans? I love this resort, we have stayed there twice I think (riverside), so I thought, what about French Quarter? so we looked it up, and they had availability for our dates, but no water view. and I love water views, so since we have never stayed at POR during Dec I chose that resort, and Danny called to book the room and put in our request for AB upper floor building 27 if possible, and he explained we had stayed in that section before and liked it...the CM asked if we knew which room, so I looked up the pic of the room # (yep I take pics of the Room # plaque too) and she noted it on our request
we had debated on doing the DP this trip or just eating OOP...but since I had already booked 'Ohana (dinner) twice for the trip...yes I booked the meals before we even booked the room we decided to go ahead and do the DP again.

 

[Nemo32]

Yay for POR! DBF and I are staying at CSR, so glad to hear you liked it.

 

[eeyoresnr]

Yay for POR! DBF and I are staying at CSR, so glad to hear you liked it.

uhm yeah, about that...read more shortly and hear all the details

 

[eeyoresnr]

ok, so where was I? oh yeah, we booked POR w/ DP this was back in July...so I made a payment here, and a payment there...and in October after we got back from our Sept trip I paid all but like $49. of our trip...
now I need to back up just a bit...our Sept trip ended up being a celebration trip for Danny... last Aug (2009) Danny started paramedic school. Now Danny has been a firefighter for 24 years, and an EMT for 12... in 2007 he left a dept he had been at in one form or another since he was 18 years old. this was a very tough decision for him (us) to make... change is always scary but it also involved a big pay cut... but the dept he was going to was just the right thing to do, and it didn't take long to be making the same and then more than the old dept, but most importantly, he loves where he is now and the retirement is way better. the only thing he regrets is that he didn't do it 10 years ago when he had the chance. So last August I was still recovering from my surgey when he started medic school. Then half way through I lost my job of 5 years at a cafe here in town when it closed I worked for a couple months doing the census, but that ended in April 2 days before we left for Disney, so Danny worked a lot of overtome and 2 other Fire dept jobs p/t to pick up what I was not bringing in. He finished school in Aug this year (even made the Deans list) and passed his state exam with a 94! so he really deserved a little break and what better place to celebrate than Disney

 

[KatMark]

I'm here and looking forward to following along the rest of the way.

 

[eeyoresnr]

now, when Danny went to school it was kinda neat because one of his best friends, Shaun (more about him shortly) was in the same medic class. Danny and Shaun have been friends since middle school (jr high to me) and Shaun works for the Fire Dept a few miles from where Danny works.. so here they were in school together again. now Shaun has been a Disney fanatic forever. So when Danny called him to see if he needed us to pick up anything for him during our last trip Shaun tells him they will be going in Dec as well only they were going for the week after Christmas... we are leaving Disney to come home on the 23rd and they were arriving the 22nd so we were gonna try to get up with them at some point on the 22nd. They are staying at CSR. In the meantime I'm having second thoughts about POR.. I know they are overdue for a makeover and I kept thinking about how comfy the beds were at CSR after we stayed there last time. it's never a good idea when I start thinking. I usually start the conversation with Danny with something like " I have something to run by you" and he usually responds with "let me sit down first"
anyways his answer was, "whatever you want, it's your birthday trip"
well heck, that's no help to me at all... so I put a poll on DISboards and got the pros and cons for POR & CSR and you guessed it...CSR won
so Danny called and switched the resrvation from POR to CSR ...the total was $7 more so we paid the balance of $56 and are all set...right? not quite...

 

[eeyoresnr]

I'm here and looking forward to following along the rest of the way.

yay! thanks for joining....after all, you played a big part in my decision to change from POR to CSR! thank you

 

[KatMark]

yay! thanks for joining....after all, you played a big part in my decision to change from POR to CSR! thank you

No problem; that's where Mark and I celebrated each of our 50th birthdays as well as our 25th wedding anniversary.

 

[Da Mick]

Wow this is like reading my life story.....Im rivited to my seat! And the changes are just getting started.....