Belle_princess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2008
- Messages
- 783
I just can't hold this in anymore:
I'm going back to DISNEY!!!!!!!!!
Yes, it is true. However, I am not going alone. I'm going with my work BFF, Whitney! This trip has a little backstory which I will get to soon. First, I want to introduce us:
Whitney is on the left, and I'm on the right. HIIII
Kristin: 35 year old chocolatier by day and Disney fanatic by night! I have loved Disney since I was young. My first trip was in 1992 at the impressionable age of 13. I LOVED it. Always have; always will. I've been to Disney 5 times before this trip!
Favorite characters: Belle, Stitch, Mickey, Merida, Aurora. . . .
Favorite Disney Movies: Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Sleeping Beauty, Pete's Dragon, Toby Tyler. . . .and so many more!!!
Favorite Disney Memory: Hmm. . . there are so many. I think one of my favorite memories was one entire trip I took with a friend of mine and her husband and family. Her kids were like 5 and 2 at the time. It was so incredible to see Disney through a child's eyes. That was a very magical trip.
Whitney: 23 year old college student/student teacher by day and actress by night. She has only been to Disney once in her life. She is anxious to go back to catch up on all the things she missed when she went as a child!
Favorite characters:Ariel, Jasmine, Esmeralda, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Hercules, Meg, Pegasus, and Genie
Favorite Disney Movies: Little Mermaid, Hunchback, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Hercules, Lion King, and Tarzan are in my top movies! Honestly I love them all!
Favorite Disney Memory: Well, my family and I went to Disney in October of 2000 (which was cool because it was the new millennium). I was 9 going on 10 so I don't remember everything from the trip. This is the only time I've been to Disney world, so I'm so excited to return! My favorite memory...hmmm.. Well I loved the rides a lot (especially Peter Pan and space mountain because I rode in the very front!) I would also say I loved seeing some of the shows! Since I'm into acting, I loved seeing Indian Jones and Tarzan on the stage! Fantasmic was also fantastic (teehee) because I loved seeing all the characters and hearing the music! This was absolutely magical for me at my young age. This show is probably my most vivid memory from that trip!
On to the backstory for this trip!
In 2010, I was terminated from my job 5 days before my last trip to Disney. Once I returned from that trip, I had some trouble finding a job. Everyone else was more qualified. To make some money for the upcoming Holidays, I desperately started seeking retail jobs. I found Sublime Chocolate and discovered they happened to be hiring. I interviewed and was hired to do customer service/barista/ chocolate sales. It was a fun job selling truffles and coffee and chocolate drinks.
That is where I met Whitney. We started talking and got along well....REALLY well, in fact. The more we talked, the more we liked each other and the more we realized we had a ton in common. We discovered our birthdays are a day (er. . .and 12 years) apart!! We discovered we were both crazy and enjoying it! Our friendship grew quickly and within a few months, even the manager had us working together all the time. We were basically inseparable at work.
As we talked, I told her about my last Disney trip and how much fun it was. I told her we would have to go sometime after she turned 21 because Disney is more fun when you can drink, too! (Only because Grey Goose slushes are so amazing! Plus, Italian Rosa Regale!<--check out my signature for my last TR and why this wine is so important)
The idea of going to Disney was put on a back burner as my husband and I tried to have kids and Whitney went back to school to finish her degree. We both continued to work at Sublime. I moved up to Assistant Chocolatier and Production Manager. We have both had our ups and downs.
Just this spring, I really was having an itch to return to Disney. I started pricing trips and just playing around with the idea. I suggested it to Whitney, and we agreed we should do some more research. I really wanted to go in September or October, but Whitney would be student teaching, so that wasn't possible. I knew January crowds were low, so I suggested it for that time. Whitney's student teaching would be complete and she would have graduated. It seemed perfect, so we set our sites on January 2015.
As per the norm of my Disney trips, I researched and spent time on the DIS
We watched for rates and waited for discounts. I crunched every possible number to see which would be the best way for us to go and save money. I figured Free dining was best, but I also knew that Free Dining hadn't been offered in January for a couple years. However, I came across a PIN for Free Dining in January 2014. I thought maybe we might get that chance again.
We waited and saved. Saved and waited. ALL SUMMER!! It seemed like the rates for 2015 would never come out- much less the discounts. We waited. We looked at stuff online. We waited. We added stuff to my online Disney wish list. We waited. We discussed plans. We waited. I made ADRs at the 180 day mark. And we waited.
Finally, finally, I saw that the discounts for the Disney Visa holders were out!
I was on the phone right away. I was able to book at a room at Pop with the SPD deal. It was about what I had calculated!
I texted Whitney with the exciting news! It made her day!!
I knew we still needed to add flights, so I started looking. I found all kinds of flights with all kinds of price tags. I randomly decided to check Southwest. Not even remembering that Southwest has never been able to fly from Dallas non-stop to Orlando because of the Wright Amendment. I found non-stop flights from Dallas to Orlando on Southwest and they were $30+ cheaper than any other flights. However, I noticed I only had 3 days until their sale ended. Well, after talking to Whitney, I booked flights- round trip from Dallas to Orlando, non-stop both ways for just a little over $200 a person. That is with free checked luggage, too!
Score!!!
So, that is where it stands now. . .The whole backstory and some of the nitty gritty. I will write all that stuff out in the next post! I hope you will stick around!!
I'm going back to DISNEY!!!!!!!!!
Yes, it is true. However, I am not going alone. I'm going with my work BFF, Whitney! This trip has a little backstory which I will get to soon. First, I want to introduce us:
Whitney is on the left, and I'm on the right. HIIII
Kristin: 35 year old chocolatier by day and Disney fanatic by night! I have loved Disney since I was young. My first trip was in 1992 at the impressionable age of 13. I LOVED it. Always have; always will. I've been to Disney 5 times before this trip!
Favorite characters: Belle, Stitch, Mickey, Merida, Aurora. . . .
Favorite Disney Movies: Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Sleeping Beauty, Pete's Dragon, Toby Tyler. . . .and so many more!!!
Favorite Disney Memory: Hmm. . . there are so many. I think one of my favorite memories was one entire trip I took with a friend of mine and her husband and family. Her kids were like 5 and 2 at the time. It was so incredible to see Disney through a child's eyes. That was a very magical trip.
Whitney: 23 year old college student/student teacher by day and actress by night. She has only been to Disney once in her life. She is anxious to go back to catch up on all the things she missed when she went as a child!
Favorite characters:Ariel, Jasmine, Esmeralda, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Hercules, Meg, Pegasus, and Genie
Favorite Disney Movies: Little Mermaid, Hunchback, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Hercules, Lion King, and Tarzan are in my top movies! Honestly I love them all!
Favorite Disney Memory: Well, my family and I went to Disney in October of 2000 (which was cool because it was the new millennium). I was 9 going on 10 so I don't remember everything from the trip. This is the only time I've been to Disney world, so I'm so excited to return! My favorite memory...hmmm.. Well I loved the rides a lot (especially Peter Pan and space mountain because I rode in the very front!) I would also say I loved seeing some of the shows! Since I'm into acting, I loved seeing Indian Jones and Tarzan on the stage! Fantasmic was also fantastic (teehee) because I loved seeing all the characters and hearing the music! This was absolutely magical for me at my young age. This show is probably my most vivid memory from that trip!
On to the backstory for this trip!
In 2010, I was terminated from my job 5 days before my last trip to Disney. Once I returned from that trip, I had some trouble finding a job. Everyone else was more qualified. To make some money for the upcoming Holidays, I desperately started seeking retail jobs. I found Sublime Chocolate and discovered they happened to be hiring. I interviewed and was hired to do customer service/barista/ chocolate sales. It was a fun job selling truffles and coffee and chocolate drinks.
That is where I met Whitney. We started talking and got along well....REALLY well, in fact. The more we talked, the more we liked each other and the more we realized we had a ton in common. We discovered our birthdays are a day (er. . .and 12 years) apart!! We discovered we were both crazy and enjoying it! Our friendship grew quickly and within a few months, even the manager had us working together all the time. We were basically inseparable at work.
As we talked, I told her about my last Disney trip and how much fun it was. I told her we would have to go sometime after she turned 21 because Disney is more fun when you can drink, too! (Only because Grey Goose slushes are so amazing! Plus, Italian Rosa Regale!<--check out my signature for my last TR and why this wine is so important)
The idea of going to Disney was put on a back burner as my husband and I tried to have kids and Whitney went back to school to finish her degree. We both continued to work at Sublime. I moved up to Assistant Chocolatier and Production Manager. We have both had our ups and downs.
Just this spring, I really was having an itch to return to Disney. I started pricing trips and just playing around with the idea. I suggested it to Whitney, and we agreed we should do some more research. I really wanted to go in September or October, but Whitney would be student teaching, so that wasn't possible. I knew January crowds were low, so I suggested it for that time. Whitney's student teaching would be complete and she would have graduated. It seemed perfect, so we set our sites on January 2015.
As per the norm of my Disney trips, I researched and spent time on the DIS
We watched for rates and waited for discounts. I crunched every possible number to see which would be the best way for us to go and save money. I figured Free dining was best, but I also knew that Free Dining hadn't been offered in January for a couple years. However, I came across a PIN for Free Dining in January 2014. I thought maybe we might get that chance again.We waited and saved. Saved and waited. ALL SUMMER!! It seemed like the rates for 2015 would never come out- much less the discounts. We waited. We looked at stuff online. We waited. We added stuff to my online Disney wish list. We waited. We discussed plans. We waited. I made ADRs at the 180 day mark. And we waited.
Finally, finally, I saw that the discounts for the Disney Visa holders were out!
I was on the phone right away. I was able to book at a room at Pop with the SPD deal. It was about what I had calculated! I texted Whitney with the exciting news! It made her day!!
I knew we still needed to add flights, so I started looking. I found all kinds of flights with all kinds of price tags. I randomly decided to check Southwest. Not even remembering that Southwest has never been able to fly from Dallas non-stop to Orlando because of the Wright Amendment. I found non-stop flights from Dallas to Orlando on Southwest and they were $30+ cheaper than any other flights. However, I noticed I only had 3 days until their sale ended. Well, after talking to Whitney, I booked flights- round trip from Dallas to Orlando, non-stop both ways for just a little over $200 a person. That is with free checked luggage, too!
Score!!!So, that is where it stands now. . .The whole backstory and some of the nitty gritty. I will write all that stuff out in the next post! I hope you will stick around!!
)
