[DawnDenise]

Grand Duo Birthday Trip---Pre-Trip

Imagine, if you will, a cold weekend in December of 2007. Imagine hitting an ice patch on a pretty deserted piece of interstate and hitting the edge of a guard rail. Imagine spending the day arguing with relatives over the “stuff” of your mother who recently passed away. Imagine a night in a Red Roof Inn with a heater that was barely working, your dog barking at every little sound, and just wishing you were anywhere but there. Are you getting a clear picture? Well, that was Chuck and I the weekend of December 15, 2007. As we were huddled underneath the blankets at the Red Roof Inn, he looked at me and said we are going back and going in style. My initial reaction was just okay hon as I had no idea what he was talking about. He then clarified and said we are going back to WDW. He told me to figure out some dates and talk to my mom about prices. So on that cold night, a new trip was born.

It didn’t take me long to get this trip into the initial planning stages. The following Monday, I called my mom and filled her in on what Chuck had proposed. We started looking on the calender and decided that November/December would be the best time, which is definitely one of my favorite times of the year to visit. We wanted to avoid the week of Thanksgiving and I kept going back to wanting to celebrate my actual birthday in the World. We played around some more and decided on the dates of November 15th-November 22nd. We would be arriving on the day after my actual birthday and be able to still celebrate my birthday as well as Chuck’s birthday since his was on the 30th. This where the “Duo Birthday” came in for the title.

Now that we had dates, it was time to work on which resort and which dining plan we were going to go with. Chuck said he wanted to go Deluxe for the resorts. I picked out the Beach Club and the Polynesian, while Chuck picked the Grand Floridian. He had already told me he wanted to go with the Deluxe Dining Plan as he wanted to go to a lot of the signature restaurants which took 2 credits each. I gave mom the choices and she said she would call abck with some prices later on in the day. Later on in the day means 5 minutes later in my mom’s terms. I jotted them down and then sent an email to Chuck hoping he would get back to me while I was still on the phone with my mom. He didn’t fail me and said Grand Floridian. Mom then provided me the prices for the different levels. I shot another email to Chuck and he came back stating “Theme Park View”. He meant what he said that night. We were going in style! I gave mom the decision and paid the deposit right then. So, there is the “Grand” portion of the title.

Cast of Characters:

First, there is me, Dawn, aka DawnDenise. I’ll be 37 years and one day old on this trip. This will be my fourth trip to a Disney park this year and my longest stay. I have an ever increasing love of characters with Eeyore being my ultimate favorite but never turn down some time to meet and greet any character. Looking forward to some new firsts on this trip and getting to spend some quality time with hubby since he has been traveling a lot for work this year.



Next is Chuck, my lovable DH. As previously mentioned, he’s had a lot of traveling for work over the past year and really needs this vacation. Outside of work, he has a hard time loosening up and can be kind of shy around new people. I am hoping to push him out of his comfort zone and get him to skip down Main Street with me. His favorite character is Stitch, but you can always see him smiling when he meets up with Goofy. He’s ready to relax and enjoy some QT with me, eat some good food, and do some new things!


Hopefully, we won’t be needing to bail him out!

The basics of this trip were taken care of for now. The trip kind of took a back seat as I had my trip with my mom in February 2008 and our trip to DL in April 2008. At this point in the game, my solo trip hadn’t even been a thought in my mind.

Coming Up: Where Would We Fly Out Of, Our Dining Choices, and Some Other Plans