[korki-rad]

I was telling DH about this thread last night and he actually got a pretty good chuckle! He said that yes, he is now definitely a Disney convert and that we will, without a doubt, be headed back sometime, probably in three years or so (although he said he'd really like to see something different and would like to go to Disneyland).

Like I said, the biggest difference for him was our planning. Even though his family went nearly every year when he was a kid, they went without a plan and they made no effort to avoid the crowds, manage meltdowns, etc. So he said that the trips he remembered were always extremely stressful and not at all fun. Our trip as a family was completely different -- much more planned, but ironically, much more relaxing, he said. He loved being there early in the morning when it felt like we had the park to ourselves. He liked the idea of sitting down and having a meal every day, having characters coming to you instead of standing in line for a two minute visit and photo opp. I worked really hard to find those neat little secrets that he didn't know about (waking up Tink, various hidden Mickeys, FastPass strategies, seeing Tinkerbell fly, etc.) He'd never been to DHS and said that he could have spent the entire vacation there -- he loved that park! He said he just saw WDW in a completely different light. And, shocker of shockers to me, Mr. I-won't-pay-on-property-prices talked last night about how great it would be to be able to do the DDP, so maybe we should consider our on site options next time.

Anyway, lesson learned -- a *planned* WDW vacation is a completely different experience than an *unplanned*, *uninformed* WDW vacation. I have a feeling that many of the PPers here love WDW so much because they've discovered the smart way to managed WDW....and the reason you find people all the time who say that they never want to come back is because they haven't done the research necessary to make WDW a truly special experience.

Oh -- and to further reduce DH's stress, we also opened a special vacation savings account a couple of months ago...that was DH's one request, that we not plan a trip until the money is in the bank to pay for it...that way, he said, he can *completely* relax. (We had most of the money for our last trip, but had garage sales and saved our coins to pay for a chunk of it too, after the planning was underway.) It has saved both our sanity -- I know there is the hope of a vacation on the horizon. DH knows that vacation won't bankrupt us!