Day 1 of Our Disney trip continued

One of the nice things about this anniversary vacation was that I got to spend most of my time behind the camera. Normally when the kids are with us, I don't have a free hand for the camera or the time and attention to taking pictures. Since it was just the four of us, I had a blast snapping to my hearts content.





Once we left visiting our CM friend at the Boardwalk we headed for Epcot for the rest of the day. LJ and Sonny were so excited to be in Disney World that they decided to do a dance. This would have been a perfect time to film them for blackmailing later.

More to come...

The first decision we had to make was when we were going. L.J. had recently started a new job and with no vacation days built up yet, he wanted to miss as few days as possible. The easiest solution was to plan around the holidays when everybody would already have a few off days scheduled. Plus, Sonny and I could get in another trip on our AP’s from January. December 28- January 4 started looking like our target dates.

The first time we celebrated our anniversary at Disney it was right after the Christmas holidays. The crowds were unimaginable and we said that we would never go back to Disney during the holidays. Never say never because here we are. But our reasoning this time is that with four adults we should be able to handle the crowds with proper planning.

We recently became Disney Vacation Club members and our first trip home was this past January 2007 at Saratoga Springs. Then in May 2007 we stayed at BWV. For all of the SSR lovers let me just put it out there: The resort is absolutely beautiful! The rooms are absolutely beautiful! But this resort and the Downtown Disney area is just not where we are absolutely happiest. Given a choice we prefer the Epcot Area and Boardwalk Villas, but every trip we tell ourselves that we will try somewhere new and every trip we end up right back at the BW. This trip I figured there is no sense in pretense—we wanted to stay at BWV again.

So our challenge now was finding a 2 bedroom villa at BWV for December 30, 2007 – January 4, 2008. But so did everyone else in the free world! The best the CM could do was to book us at Saratoga Springs for the first and last two nights. We went on the waitlist for the middle days that we needed and hoped for the best.

As any true Disney Planaholic knows, we don’t do well with waitlists or probability. I will play nice for a little while, but I need a confirmation number NOW to write in my Passporter! I sweated my husband something fierce about what I should do about the room situation. Out of desperation the poor man suggested that I just book concierge rooms at the BWI. That sounded really nice at first, but as I started checking out prices I realized that the cost of the two rooms was outrageous during the holiday season. No thanks. I will have to find better way.

To save points I did go ahead and book All Star Movies for the first two days of our trip (Friday and Saturday night). We stayed here last September with the kids and thought it would be a nice start to our trip.

But I started to get really antsy about not having our room booked so I called Member Services constantly. After a few weeks, I was on a first name basis with several of the cast members. Finally, the first of September I confessed to Sonny that I was afraid that the waitlist would never come through. Several phone calls to Brianne and we decided to move the entire vacation back one week. So our dates changed to Jan 4-11, 2008.

I called Member Services and received the bad news that they could not get us into a 2-br at BWV for the week. We would again have to go on the waitlist, but our chances would seriously improve with this being the start of value season. The waitlist came through for all but the last night! I am so excited that I would not be upset if we were at SSR for the last night.

Let the Planning Begin...

One of the hard parts about taking relative newbies to Disney World is impressing upon them the sheer amount of planning and the endless decisions to make the trip magical. Brianne’s first questions to me was, “How much money do you think that we will need for the week?” How do you answer that question? It is almost impossible to succinctly answer that question. So instead I begin to ask her questions. I asked her how many days she thought they would like to go to the parks. What kind of eating habits do they have on vacation? Do you see yourself wanting to do a lot of side things like Disney Quest, Pleasure Island, the Water Parks, Cirque…? Well you get the idea.

Her eyes got big and she said she had no clue as to how to answer any of those questions. So I replied that I didn’t have a clue how to answer her question either because it is not a simple equation one does to come up with a definitive number. My suggestion to her and request of her was to educate herself on Disney.

I pointed her to Mousesavers and Allearsnet to start her research. She called me a few days later in awe. It never dawned on her that Disney was so big and offered so many things to do. As she started reading she started making a list of the places they might like to eat, rides they would be at the top of their wish list, and nighttime activities they wanted to check out.

Let me digress here for a moment. My DH and I have taken quite a few people to Disney with us over the years and we always end up being the designated tour guides. The “keeper of the schedule” as it were. Everyone blindly follows us everywhere we go and never once volunteers preferences or opinions. So every trip we feel responsible for everyone’s’ good time. That is a lot of pressure on two people who are struggling with their own good time. So DH decided to make one condition on Brianne and LJ if they were to come with us. Their vacation happiness was dependent upon them. We were going without our children and so we aren’t planning on babysitting anyone else. Does that sound harsh?

Anyways, Brianne decided that she liked the process of getting ready for our trip, so I ordered her a Passporter to do some serious planning. I also through a recommendation from timandlesley decided to sign up for Tourguidemike. The jury is still out on whether or not I feel like this was money well spent.

“Disney Through Another’s Eyes”

I have been reading trip and pre-trip reports over on the disboards and I have to admit that I would love to achieve the following that some of the reports have gained. Admitting that may sound vain, but at least I am being honest.

I admit that I am late to the game and not usually up on the cool places to be, so I only recently read UtahMama’s trip report from 2006. And I am going to follow her admonition and not post any “disclaimers, warnings, or apologies”.

So let’s jump right in by introducing the crazy cast of characters:

There’s me your storyteller and vacation planner. I am a Domestic Goddess with three genius level children, a miniature Dachshund that I believe has ADHD, and a wonderful husband who deals with my ever changing moods and obsessions. I can honestly admit that Disney is one of those obsessions and at times I have been known to start planning our next trip before we are home from our current trip. I never get postcards or pin codes attached to my name because Disney knows two things about me. They know without a shadow of a doubt that I will keep coming back year after year. And two that I have been known a time or two to pay rack rate.

Sonny my DH is the person who started my Disney obsession and he recently told me that some days he wishes that he had never taken me to Disney World the first time! He was only half-way joking. He funds our trips by working as a Drafter for a small company and occasionally does free lance work on the side.

We are planning this trip to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary and I can’t wait to see what surprises he has in store for me. I guess that sounded a bit egotistical, but my DH has planned a wonderful surprise for my anniversary almost every year. Check out what he did one year that we stayed at Disney's Boardwalk Inn.

Joining us this trip will be Brianne and her husband LJ who are celebrating their 5^th anniversary. Brianne and I have known each other all of our lives. As most friends do we have experienced some rocky times, but we always manage to get through it. When Brianne and LJ were dating we would all get together and go on date nights. After about 6 months of dating LJ decided he wanted to pop the question, so he asked me first what I thought she would say. Ah…yes!!! So I got to help him plan the proposal and her to plan the wedding.

One of the things they thought would make their wedding special would be for me to be a bridesmaid and Sonny to perform the ceremony! We still talk about how sweet it was to watch their relationship develop and then to have such a special place on their wedding day. Plus, our anniversaries are in the same month 9 days apart.

This past summer Brianne and I worked really hard to surprise her parents with an awesome anniversary party. During the planning phase we would talk on the phone and email each other daily. Once the party was over we found that we really missed talking to each other, so our friendship grew.

Through the course of the daily conversations between Brianne and I, we started talking about plans for our anniversaries. With our recent purchase of DVC, Sonny and I knew that we would be spending a week visiting our favorite cast members at the BWI and Villas. Brianne and LJ are in the process of trying to buy a house, so Brianne was unsure of what they would be able to do.

The last few years we have taken different couples with us to Disney World for our anniversary. One year we took my brother and his wife, one year we took my parents, and earlier this year we took DH’s parents. I don’t remember how we came to the conclusion to invite Brianne and LJ, but I am so glad we did.

Since my first trip to Disney in 2001 I have done whatever is necessary to go back at least once a year. In total we have gone as a family or as a couple a total of 11 times. When someone asks us, “You’re going to Walt Disney World again?!!” we point out all of the new things there are to do and see.

LJ and Brianne, on the other hand, are relatively newbies when it comes to WDW. The last time LJ went he was 10 and has only vague memories of the parks. Brianne was 3 and remembers little to nothing. There is nothing better to a Disney Planaholic than planning a trip as if you are showing someone the world for the very first time. This trip we will get to see Walt Disney World through another’s eyes.