Disney World - two weeks in June 2010

In August 2009, we bought annual passes to Disney World. My wonderful mother (love you, Mom!) took our whole family to Disney World as a means of coming back together to enjoy each other after the loss of my dad. We applied her generosity to a bit of our own moola and voila, we were annual passholders. The challenge, then, was to fit as much Disney World into one year as possible from the distance of about 500 miles.

We went for a week that August, another week after Christmas (holy cow, you can't imagine how crowded it was, but still wonderful) and culminated it with two weeks in June 2010. It was going to be my dream trip. The trip where we didn't have to rush, didn't feel compelled to wake the crack before down and return to our resort as zombies only to turn around and do it the next day. I was looking forward to sleeping late and enjoying a leisurely pace. Here's how it actually went...

June in Florida is hot. I don't normally complain about the heat. We live in South Carolina, which is ten degrees cooler than hell in July. I'm used to it. I still sit on the beach and cope just fine. But this was the type of hot where when you walked out of the door in the morning, the fifty pounds of oppressive humidity sat on your shoulders until you returned home for the night. No matter how excited we were for the day's activity, the minute we walked outside, there was a collective, "Ugh" from the four of us, times fourteen.

On the night we arrived, I realized I forgot my contact case. Luckily I had two small bowls, which I filled with solution and closed my eyes for the night. When I attempted to put the right one, the excruciating pain hit. Involuntary reflexes snapped and glued that eyelid shut and I had to pry it open to get the offending contact out. The pain continued. My eye was horridly red. No matter how many eye drops I put it, the pain persisted and, being completely honest, I don't screw with eyes. I like seeing, so off to the urgent care we went. The diagnosis? Scratched cornea. Lovely. Some antibiotic drops had me all healed up in a few days, though I was afraid to put my contacts in for the remainder of the trip. Since I'm completely blind without them, this also meant no sunglasses. Boo.

On day three, my husband had to leave for three days for business. This subject arose a week before and we contemplating shortening the trip, but the uncertainty of which day he'd have to go back was too much to overcome. The trip would be cut in less than half, so we forged forward.

Hubby left in the morning. I, trying to stick to my "no early mornings" vow, decided to take the gals to craft time. We were staying at the Fort Wilderness Campground in our RV. They have loads of great activities. I was sure crafting would be a hit. Little did I know it would lead to lots and lots and LOTS of whining about wanting to go to the pool. Lots of whining. We had four parks of wondrous entertainment and my children wanted to go to the pool - which we have one at home we use all the time. Fine. Whatever. That afternoon we finally made our way to the Magic Kingdom.

The next morning, the vomit hit the fan - or rather the couch. One of my girls had a wicked stomach flu. And as I cleaned it from various upholstered services, the pain in my throat and head burned. I had no voice and quite the fever. I thanked the good Lord above that we were in our RV, as opposed to a hotel, because we had food and everything it took to keep a five year-old entertained and safe while her sister and mom vacillated between moaning in pain and sleeping. It ended up being mostly a 24-hour thing. The next day we were able to venture out a bit.

Two days later, I found myself on Kali River Rapids in the soaker seat. Six hours later, I still had not dried despite having being on Expedition Everest and was quite over it.

On day twelve, I surprised my husband with a fishing excursion as an early Father's Day present. Twenty minutes into our two-hour tour, my younger ladybug puked all over herself and the boat. Glad we had eggs for breakfast.

Our last day, during which we planned to pack up and enjoy in the Magic Kingdom, it poured harder than I've seen it rain during most category 1 hurricanes. It was relentless and soaked you through if you dared to step outside. We were trapped, until dinner time. We ate at Raglan Road at Downtown Disney and it was quite good!

When we pulled out the next morning for our drive home, I couldn't have been more ready. We had some good times, despite having not really named any in this blog post. But let's be honest - it was a trying "vacation". By the time we got to I95 North, I stated boldly that our next trip would be December 2012.

A week ago my mother said, "You know, I'd really like to get back to Disney World again for the holidays." I haven't made the reservation yet, but I'm sure it will be completed by this weekend. I'm such a sucker. So even when Disney scratches my cornea, makes my kids puke, gives me a cold and roasts me like a turkey I still can't say no to it. And, just for kicks, I think we'll buy annual passes again. :-)

Thoughts on a stay-at-home-saturday

More Thanksgiving joy - my older daughter is sick! Seriously, we're cancelling this holiday next year! Thankfully one of the docs in the practice we see was able to phone in some antibiotics. My poor kiddo. It was like a fever just whacked her on the butt. What's worse is that to the touch, she felt cool. I reluctantly took her temp, telling her "I'm sure you do not have a fever." When the thermometer beeped, 101.6. Nice.

So today it's a bona fide rainy day. We were thinking about taking the kids out to see Bolt, but we'll just how my pumpkin girl is feeling. I'm completely confess that hanging around the house, cleaning up, making out Christmas cards, maybe wrapping a few gifts, being lazy and working on some Christmas decorating sounds like a pretty good day to me. I'm such a homebody.

Tomorrow we have a holiday brunch that everyone is on board for. Lots of our friends will be there. My favorite jolly old elf will make an appearance. We'll eat loads of good food. There's no way we're missing that! But for today...we'll just hang.

And in case anyone is counting...only two more weeks until our Disney World trip!! Everyone is on a strict "stay healthy" regime. We can not wait! Hubby's cousin and his family are heading down tomorrow. I am giddy to hear their trip report. All of the anxiety about getting everything done before the trip so I can actually enjoy it and not feel stressed when we get back is fading away. Another close friend and their family will be traveling down there at the same time and I think she's experiencing the same. But I'm honestly praying and crossing fingers and toes that everyone stays well. Traveling during the winter is so risky!

More time sucking...

I have so much to write about and zero time to write the past few days! Today obsession is a new Disney Rewards Visa cardholders discount being offered the week we'll be in Disney World. Upon learning about it, I promptly applied for the card...something we've been intending to do for like two years! Theoretically I'll be able to call tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM and change my existing reservation to include the free basic dining plan! That will be like a $540 savings for our family! Rock on!

I have to admit, though, that I'm feeling a little scammy. I don't have the card in hand, nor will I for several weeks. So I paid off the vacation tonight via the official Disney website with that new card. When you apply through the site you're giving instant approval. So while I don't have a card number or anything, I can rack up some debt. LOL Better yet - debt that is repayable over the course of six months interest free! Thankfully we're not in the financial position that this should be a problem, but I see how easy it is for folks to get in deep very quickly!

Why would I pay off a vacation when I plan to get a discount on? I'm creating documentation, you see. It's proof that I am, indeed, a Disney Rewards Visa cardholder. I'm in for like $1500 with them, therefore eligible for the discount. Do I sound compelling? I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And then keep them crossed that I get all the work done that should have been done today whilst I was clicking all over the world wide web to figure out if I could make this work. *sigh* Yet still...I'm literally counting the days until we go. I can not wait!!!

The Disney planning continues

I've said it before. I've spent hours and hours and hours and HOURS and HOURS planning our upcoming trip. It's par for the course, though, as this experience is no different than our previous three trips. I'm beginning to wonder if it's an obsession. Is it because I love planning things? Possibly. I'm already Christmas shopping, deciding which cookies to bake and contemplating a Christmas dinner menu. Is it because I want to make sure the trip runs smoothly? Also possible. I been to Disney World once without a plan and that first day was miserable and frustrating to me. We promptly returned to our hotel room with maps, a laptop and a phone to make reservations. What I think is the ultimate reason for my compulsion to hit all quality WDW trip related sites, though, is how happy thinking about this upcoming trip makes me! Today it is 2 months 3 weeks and 6 days until we go. Thank God we have a really busy fall to help time pass in a pleasant way otherwise I'd be going nuts!

I did something funny last week. I found out DisneyWorld.com is looking for their 2009 Moms Panel. They accept up to 20,000 applications and accept 16 parents. Nice odds, huh? Anyway, I couldn't resist applying. Cause, ya know, I have soooo much extra time. But I couldn't resist. I love talking about Disney World! I have to participate in online communities and talk to a select group of friends who fall into the category as to not drive my mother and husband crazy! I feel like there should be some version of AA for Disney World vacation addicts.

The only downfall of getting accepted to be on the Moms Panel is that it will only fuel my desire to go to WDW more. The compensation for this position is a free trip, though I would return home from it on Tuesday and go on my own scheduled trip on Saturday. Don't get me wrong. I'll take it! Though it would rock to spread out my fun a bit. Matters not, though...a 1 in 1250 chance doesn't make me put a lot of hope in being chosen.

Why did I not knock on wood?

Our plan, for our December Disney trip, is to take our older daughter out of school for five whole days. On some level this feels very very wrong to me. My parents NEVER let me miss school for vacation. Once during my junior year I was allowed to leave a few hours early, but much discussion was had about it prior to the final decision being made. When talked with my mom about this upcoming trip, she was definitely wary, the say the least, about her granddaughter's truancy.

I talked to many moms about it and everyone assured me I should go for it. I succumbed to the temptation and booked with the caveat that if our kindergartner missed time due to illness, we would choose another time to go.

Today, a mere two weeks into the school year, she has a fever. We'll have to get through the night fever free and walk up perky for her to go to school. I normally have a 24 hour fever-free rule, but we'll see since it appears she just has a cold. *sigh*

Little one's health is, of course, my first concern. But...it's hard to not already be a little disappointed. I'm a bad mom for not surprising my kiddos on our way south rather than building it up from the minute I book it. :-( When will I learn?!?

Ahhh, the magical Disney memories!

As I've mentioned, we love Disney World. The task of planning the trips exhaust me, but they really are great. I honestly feel blessed to live in an area where it's a feasible drive. If I had to fork over an extra $1000 for airfare, we could never go as often. And obviously going often is a priority to us as our 5 1/2 year old daughter will be embarking on her 4th trip in December.

Our last WDW vacation was last September. It was amazing! For those Disney novices, for the past several years, Disney has offered their dining plan for free in the fall. Since we were just dealing with a preschool schedule then, we thought nothing of taking our older daughter out of school to travel. This coming year, with the start of kindergarten, we didn't want to take her out so close to the start of the year, so we've missed out on 1) free food and 2) fall festivities. I just saw this blog documenting the start of the beautiful autumn decorations going up throughout the world. Ahh, the memories! Be sure to click. I've borrowed one of her images, but there are loads of other great ones. She's really captured how Disney has a knack for really knocking a theme out of the park - pun intended.

Friends of our are on their way home from WDW as we speak and I'm jealous. I can't wait another three months to go!! I want to go nooooooooooooooooooooow! :-)

[photo courtesy of http://www.disunplugged.com/]

The time suck of planning a Walt Disney World vacation

Let me be the first to say that our family loves Disney World like nobody's business. My children are 5 and 3 1/2. The 5 year-old will be embarking on her 4th visit this December. She went when she was 13 months, 2 1/2 and 3 1/2. The poor child hasn't been there in over a year! Such a travesty!

Let me not lead you to believe, though, that this is all for the kids. My husband and I are huge fans too. Now we don't go all the way by wearing Mickey crocs and mouse ears in the parks. But this trip is definitely something we can't keep ourselves from planning time and time again. We had decided, after our trip last September, that we would probably not go again until this coming June as we didn't want to take our budding kindergartner out of school for a week. Yet when we started talking about the crowds during the summer, we just couldn't bring ourselves to endure them. We will be going again in December and my parents will be coming with us.

While I thoroughly enjoy all of the fantastic websites out there chock full o' information about the parks, getting there, the hotels, the restaurants, etc etc etc, I find myself sucked into that vortex only to emerge hours later. I would be ashamed if there was some hidden camera hooked up to my laptop that tracked how much time I've spent developing our itinerary. It didn't help, of course, that we were originally planned for December 6 - 12th and now we've moved that to December 13th through 19th.

For the millionth time, I've just gotten off the phone with the lovely people at the Disney Dining hotline trying to move a reservation we have at Chef Mickey to an earlier time. I will call another million times before our trip...that is unless I get the ressie I want. And let's be honest, even if I do, I'll still probably call again trying to change something else. *sigh* Is it an addiction?

I read the Disboards all the time, contributing my experiences and opinions and tucking away others. Honestly, the people there are the only ones I have to talk about my upcoming and past trips. My family is sick of me. Any conversation that starts with "When we go to Disney World..." is prompted replied to with a great big old eye roll from my husband. My mom is more subtle, but I sense some exasperation over the topic from her too.

All of this planning is bittersweet. On one hand, I love it. I love putting every detail together in an effort to see every parade, miss every fireworks display (the girlies are terrified), eat at our favorite establishments, ride the best rides with minimal line wait time and, and, and...the list seems endless. On the other hand, it annoys me greatly that you need to plan out every minute of your day. A vacation is supposed to be about relaxing a bit and going with the flow. I've learned in WDW, that going with the flow leaves you hungry and frustrated.

As I mentioned, my parents are coming with us this trip and that should be a unique experience. Dad is disabled and mom also has heart problems. We typically do a lot of hustling from place to place and little sitting down and resting. This trip is likely to have a lot more of that. It'll be a different mindset for hubby and I. It'll be worth it, though. Our girls are so so excited that their grandparents are coming. And my parents are so excited to be back at WDW after 30 years and at Christmas time - which I will say firsthand is amazing!