"Life is too short to do nothing but work” PTR! UPDATED: 9/6 About This Page:

[RoonieRooToo]

This is my first Trip Report and I’m English impaired since I’m a software geek and have techie writing disease. I believe the way one of my past managers put it was “She’s a geek, so read accordingly.” Hopefully I will not mangle the grammatical rules so badly as to be unreadable.

I guess the first place to start is the cast.
Me - Mary Kay (42)
DH – John (44)

I’ll get pics loaded as soon as I actually find ones I like, which may be never. Ha.

Basic details
Dates - 10/3 to 10/14
Resort - Bay Lake Tower

This trip has been interesting in that it has evolved over time from the first day I booked it in February to today. Our last vacation to Walt Disney World was 2003. I’m rather stunned that it has been 6 years since our last Disney trip. I think we both got too caught up in work. We’ve had some nice vacations since but they aren’t quite the same as a Disney trip and being in the “Disney bubble”, as we call it.

Our previous trips together, John and I, had consisted of a week at All Star Music and two trips staying at Caribbean Beach. It was that first trip staying at Caribbean Beach that we fully understood how addicted we were to Disney and the Disney bubble.

In February, John and I were discussing our plans for the year. We never do it in January since I hate January promises; they are too easily broken and ruin the rest of the year. John said that he really wanted a Disney vacation and I knew how very much I missed it.

We had a tough time thinking about leaving our biggest furbaby Gregor for our traditional 2 weeks when we go to Disney. We haven’t been apart from Gregor for more than a single night since he was 7 weeks old. He turned 2 years old on the 16th, and he adores his daycare where he will be boarded so we finally are okay with leaving him in the capable hands of Dogboys.

The cats probably won’t notice we are missing other than wondering why their bed is so much roomier and for some reason the “cat heaters” are missing.

Needless to say, we miss Disney bad and in spite of leaving the furry kids behind they are gonna have to live without their staff for at least 2 weeks while we party with the Mouse!

Next: From a lodge to a tower.

[chezp]

Great start!

[chezp]

Great start!

[carters_mom]

Wow! You're gonna have a blast on your trip! I would love to go to WDW in October it just hasn't worked for me as of yet

Can't wait for more!

[OhToodles!]

So you haven't been on a trip since 2003 and now you're staying at your 'home'. WOW! I can't wait for the next installment.

[vfair]

Great start! You guys will have a wonderful time and the fur babies will do fine but will be happy when you return.

[vfair]

By the way, I absolutely LOVE the title of your PTR.

[KMB733]

Great Start! More please!

[NanaTink]

great start! Can't wait to 'hear' more! Agree 1000% with your title!

[Nimros]

Great start - and I'm 'thirding' the TR title.

I know how you feel about leaving the furbabies. I will probably cry as we pull out of the driveway...at least for a block or two.

[Cam22]

Awesome -- you did get started! And the title is Perfect!

[bsblady01]

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

[RoonieRooToo]

Thank you for the comments on the title. This year John and I are learning about "living" over "working".

In February, I booked our vacation for 11 nights at Wilderness Lodge from the 8th to 19th. John wanted to stay near the Magic Kingdom for this trip and this was the best looking option for us. I was also very excited about the Lodge since it’s just so beautiful. I was trying to decide whether or not we should do the Dining Package and crunching numbers like mad. Every way I crunched them they did not come out to be a good deal for the two of us.

Then the Free Dining dates were announced. That settled it. I called to see if we could move our trip up to October 3rd to the 14th and get Free Dining! No problem and we were at the next evolutionary stage of our trip. I was so excited and a bit overwhelmed by how on earth we were going to eat that much food. The only downside was I couldn’t see how to fit in any of the Food and Wine festival events with all our food paid for. But, never fear, this plan wasn’t to last long.

The next couple of months we spent contemplating DVC. We had decided that we would spend at least one morning of our vacation doing the DVC tour and would have what we needed in our account in case we decided to purchase. I sent away for the DVC DVD. Well, once we got that, DVC followed up with us with some phone calls. One day when they called, I decided to go ahead and talk to a guide to go through the list of questions John and I had come up with for our trip visit. What the heck, might as well get them answered now.

Karen, our guide, told us about the current incentives and that there were better ones coming with an upcoming webcast. We decided to go ahead and do the webcast and WOW! I could not pass up that incentive. It put the points we wanted dead on for our planned budget plus 20 extra points. We couldn’t pass that up and I didn’t want to count on there being as good or better of an incentive by October.

As some of you know, I’m quitting my job to become a stay at home wife for at least a year to get over severe burnout and get our stress and lives back in balance. Believe it or not, DVC actually is part of the plan. John knows that when I get nervous about money, as y’all are learning from my periodic freakouts over quitting, I can clamp down on spending and those pennies like a dog that has dug up its last bone!!!

DVC was our compromise in that we would guarantee ourselves future vacations yearly or every other year since lodging was always the biggest cost. John says “Mandatory Disney vacations are a part of the healing from stress.” I have a pretty awesome DH, don’t I? Right now I'm listening to John rant about his work and I believe the last quote I heard was "Your giving us a system requirement to create the Moon and the tools you gave us will only build a ROCK!" Hmm...methinks I'm not the only one who is a bit stressed.

At any rate, that left us at the final form of our vacation. After we signed the contract, Karen the Guide helped us redo our reservation for the final time to Bay Lake Towers October 3rd to 14th, Studio, Lake View!

Next: Planning the surprises for DH

[Nick and Ryans Mom]

Originally Posted by RoonieRooToo

As some of you know, I’m quitting my job to become a stay at home wife for at least a year to get over severe burnout and get our stress and lives back in balance. Believe it or not, DVC actually is part of the plan. John knows that when I get nervous about money, as y’all are learning from my periodic freakouts over quitting, I can clamp down on spending and those pennies like a dog that has dug up its last bone!!!

Congratulations on your DVC purchase!!

I am the same way about saving money!! When I started the BIG push two months ago for DVC I completely stopped spending money except when absolutely necessary. I made a copy of the DVC logo and wrapped it around my credit card so that I have to deliberately take it off to use it (and when I do I am reminded why I don't want to use it).

[Cam22]

Congrats on DVC! Yearly visit to WDW are a family de-stresser for us, too.