Our "My Husband Got a Job" Trip to WDW, August 5-11, 2007 Pre-Trip Report About This Page:

[Principesa]

Hello everyone! Our hotel vouchers and other Magic Your Way details just arrived and our trip is a month away from yesterday, so now I have even more of a case of Disney Fever than I usually have, so I decided to start working on my pre-trip report. You all are probably the only people I “know” who will understand how excited I am and be interested in all of the details !

So, first of all, meet us: I’m Amanda, a.k.a. Pesa. DH is Britton. DD1 is Abigail. She will be within a month of turning 4 when we go to WDW. DD2 is Julia. She’ll turn 2 in September. We live in CT. Our trip is planned for August 5-11. (I’m sure it comes as no shock to any of you that….I am sooooo excited !!!! )

Sorry I have no pictures yet. These boards have inspired me to enter the world of digital photography but I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’ll work on it, though. If anyone has any advice about how to upload pictures onto this site from iphoto, I’d be grateful for it!

Here’s a little bit about how this trip came about ….
The last two summers we have traveled with our extended families to two different beaches, summer of 2005 to New Smyrna Beach in FL with my mom, dad, Grandma, and sister and summer of 2006 to Oak Island in NC with Britton’s mom, dad, sister, Nana, and aunt and uncle. We both love our families and each other’s families very much and these were both wonderful trips, but, after the last one I decided it was time for a change. First of all, a nice relaxing trip to the beach doesn’t tend to be very relaxing for the mom of two toddlers, at least in my experience . Also, after so much large family travel, I was ready to go somewhere with just the four of us. (Once again, we our families, we just need some together time.) So, I talked to Britton (on our way home from NC) about it and he was all for it.

The question was where would we go. I wanted it to be somewhere where we wouldn’t be pretending to relax, since the kids want to run all day no matter where we go. Of course, WDW was my first choice. The first 2 years of our marriage we took two trips to WDW thanks to Florida Resident’s Passes (We stayed at CSR and POFQ.) and we had taken a 2 day trip to WDW with Abigail and Britton’s mom when Abigail was 11 months old (POR), but I was very ready for another trip and it was finally a possibility, because this past year was the first time in our marriage that both Britton and I had a full time job.

Britton didn’t take much convincing that WDW should be our destination (His first trip to WDW was our trip the first year of our marriage. He was an instant convert.), so I started planning. I had some old guidebooks from our past trips to visit the mouse and I read them cover to cover. I ordered a new Unofficial Guide and then, upon its recommendation I picked up a Passporter. In January I found all of you. I want to thank you all for all of the wonderful information you’ve shared with me. In one evening on these boards I found or received answers to questions I could find answered in any of the guidebooks I have ! It’s been fun planning with all of you.

So, that’s all for now. Up next: Where to stay, where to eat, and a nice surprise….

Amanda

[Tiggerbelle]

Great start... looking forward to more!

[bsblady01]

I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world.

[carters_mom]

How exciting!! Can't wait to read more

[JaimeandChad]

Great start can't wait for more!

[TheThomasFam]

Amanda:

I can't wait to read more of your pre-trip!!

I can so relate to what you're saying about vacations. Why is it the moms can never have relaxing vacations!! My DS is 4 and DD is 2 and a half so I'm really interested in how your trip is going to go since our children are so close in age.

Have a great day everyone.

[Jillybean]

I'm right with you on "there is no such thing as a relaxing vacation" when we have young children! I don't think "relaxing" is in their vocabulary!

Sounds like a wonderful trip -- can't wait to hear more of the planning!

Jill

[tndisneyfam]

Great start!! We are like you too. We don't like to sit and relax on vacation. Can't wait for more!!

[disneydani]

You are off to a great start! Can't wait to hear about all your planning.

danielle

[SleepingBet]

Can't wait to hear what resort you picked! I understand completely about being so excited about the trip and trying not to bore others with the details! I'm glad you're sharing with us.

[Principesa]

So, after we made the big decision to go to WDW, we had to make the big decision about where to stay. Let me preface this by staying that we’ve never been disappointed by any of the places we’ve stayed at Disney. Just to remind you, we’ve stayed at CSR, POFQ, and POR. I also stayed at CR with my best friend from high school the summer after we graduated. We would have happily stayed at any of the resorts we’d stayed at before on one of our past trips, but for different reasons each time, we’ve ended up at a new resort. So I considered the field to be wide open when I started planning for this trip.

During our 2001 trip we spend some time at AK and we were really impressed, so, that was where I started. I liked everything about it, but, I also spent some time checking out a resort I’ve always liked the looks of, Wilderness Lodge. Since the price was the same I compared the resorts and was swayed to the Wilderness Lodge side by the boat to MK (and the access to the monorails it provides). For us Disney transportation (even the busses) is part of the fun of WDW and I like having lots of options.

Enter DMIL:
When Britton told his mother that we were going to WDW, her first words were, “Can I come?” And Britton, of course said, “Sure!”

Enter Marital Disharmony:
As I mentioned in my previous report, this was supposed to be our family trip. Just the four of us. As I also mentioned before, Britton and I both have full time jobs for the first time since we’ve been married. Because of that, we haven’t had that much family time lately. So it was really important to me that we have this trip to ourselves. Also, and this is going to sound a bit selfish, but if anyone would understand you all would, I love to plan these trips. (I haven’t had the chance to do it that much, but I love to do it when I get the chance.) And I love to be in charge of the plans. Britton is fine with that, but MIL is more of a free spirit. She just doesn’t get how important these plans are to me and will just want to wander around and think that I am a being a control freak about things. Britton, on the other hand, knows that I’m just making plans and schedules to make sure that we all have a good trip and can do everything we want to do. Needless to say, I was less than pleased that Britton had invited his mother along, especially without asking me about it !

Exit Marital Disharmony:
But, after I freaked out a little, I pulled myself together and remembered that I my mother-in-law (I really do, I’m lucky to have her and I know it.) and it’s always fun to share a place you love with someone you love. Also it crossed my mind that with her along, Britton and I could have a romantic evening out. Signature dining here we come . So, I reversed my earlier freak out and told Britton that it would be great if she came along, provided she had her own room. (When we went on our two day trip to WDW, we stayed in the same room. Mistake. Three adults and one baby were too many for one bathroom!) So, back to the planning drawing boards I went.

Originally I thought we’d just shoot for adjoining rooms, probably at one of the moderates. At that point I was all for staying at POR again. But then I read in Passporter about the new family suites at one of the All Stars. I can’t remember which one and my Passporter isn’t handy. So I checked them out and found that they have the all important second bathroom (the only thing missing in the Fort Wilderness cabins in this situation). But then I got thinking about a one bedroom villa. With the door between the bathing area and the toilet and sink area, as well as the extra space that might be just the thing for us. I was busy trying to talk Britton in OKW (he was reluctant…expensive!) when…

Exit MiL, enter SiL:
Britton talked to his mother. She couldn’t come, but maybe his sister would like to. He talked to her. Maybe she would come.

Enter wife putting her foot down:
I love my SiL too. She’s great, we get along really well, she’s a wonderful aunt and a very caring person. And she was not coming on our trip. You see, she and Britton fight. They are really close. Actually, much closer than my sister and I are. I’m really impressed by how close they are. But put them together and sometimes they snipe at each other like they’re in seventh grade. In the heat and busyness of a WDW trip, I could just see them going at it and it wasn’t going to happen. We needed the time together and that was that. Britton assured me that she wouldn’t really be coming anyway, because she wouldn’t be able to take the time off from work, so we never really had to tell her no. He just dropped it.

So it was back to plan A, only,

Enter the predictable panic about how much this was going to cost …which is going to have to be another post. It took a lot longer to tell this story than I thought it would, so I have to go to bed now (I wrote this last night). I think Britton might think I’m a little crazy writing this thing, but I’m having fun. Thanks for reading !

Amanda

[tammyd_rn]

Thanks for sharing Amanda. Looking forward to the rest of the juicy details.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Amanda Can't wait to find out how the plans all work out

[DyanKJ130]

Great start, Amanda! I'm dying to know which resort you ended up choosing!! More please

[DrDolphin]

Looks like a great start!!!