Celebrating 30 Years--Part 1: The Plan About This Page:

[Beautiful Mother]

The cast: DH, my fantastically handsome husband who has been told he looks like Harrison Ford and sounds like God (I kid you not-both are true and I didn't say either!) and me--fortunately I DON'T look like Harrison Ford OR sound like God, I just live with the both of them! (LOL DH is also a VERY NICE guy!) Two grown kiddies handling the fort at home and the cast of WDW and the Wonder! And Carol our Great TA!

Planning is finished and we're now paid in full--okay Visa has paid it in full, but thanks to them we have 6 mo. interest-free, so I'll use it, especially since this is a ONCE IN A MARRIAGE trip and probably our last for a while to the Mouse.

History: Met on 12/30 and married on 12/29 with no honeymoon. In January, 2006 DH & I had our honeymoon @ WDW (yes, 26 years late!) and during the planning of that I met the PP Boards. I have learned so much over the last four years. Well. the honeymoon was EVERYTHING I'd ever dreamed of, so we've spent a number of times back in the World, and now our 30th...

We wanted something a little different, so I talked DH into TWO weeks! (We've NEVER taken a two week vacation--EVER!) Since DH has a 24-7 job and my job over the last 12 months has been EXTREMELY stressful and time consuming (I haven't seen too many 8 hour days and many 9-12 hour days since last December) and since we pushed back our normal September trip to make this an anniversary trip to remember, we are both VERY ready to get out of Dodge!

Neither of us has ever cruised before, so we originally decided on a land-sea Wonder cruise w/ 3 nights at BCR. (I'm a accountant by trade and education, so of course much of my planning crunches numbers--of all kinds--with discounts, without discounts, regular dining vs deluxe dining, tips extras--you should see my planning spreadsheet--it's a work of art and I will probably print it and put it in the scrapbook!)

Because of our work schedules, I decided to use a TA this time. I knew that I would not be able to meet the magical times needed to book the ADR's and since we've never cruised before, I was a "duck out of water"! (Carol @ MouseEars has been great!) And when we do this again, I'll make my list and let her have at it--no I won't, not completely, as I'm a control freak! DH was amazed that I allowed anyone to do anything with our trips! So, Carol booked the 7 day land/sea staying at BCR and cat 6 on the Wonder. Great, the planning was on!

I found $200 plane tickets back in February (for us THAT is amazing!) We'd decided that we would spend the 7 days w/ Disney and then do the beach thing the last 5 days or so. DH swears there are more things to see in Florida than Disney, so I had 5 days to fill with the wonders of Florida. (Understand that DH does not plan vacations, he goes on them, so it was up to ME to find an additional 5 days worth of activities or sit in a hotel room--NOT!)

Well, looking at the Disney website and crunching my numbers, I realized that THREE days at Christmastime was not going to let me see EVERYTHING I wanted to see. So, we'd just have to return to WDW AFTER the cruise, right? Disney, though, doesn't really make that very easy, at least not on the land-sea package. I couldn't blend the packages before, I couldn't do DELUXE dining, I couldn't go down early and get tickets that would work for both stays, I was frustrated! So after looking and crunching, I found that if we booked the components of the trip individually and stayed at POFQ (where we stayed on our honeymoon) I could do three more days at Disney for not much more than the cruise (Like $100) AND do the dining plan. And at this point there were NO pin codes out there for our trip! Carol made the changes and in March we were staying 5 nights @ POFQ 4 nights on the Wonder!

Most people would let that go, but not me! Nope! The great search for PINS began. And in June ( I think) the Free Dining pin was extended to include our dates--YES!!!! But I hadn't seen the PIN! I hadn't gotten the PIN! The PIN was the key and did we hold the key? Yes, DH held the key, but he didn't know it! A poster on PP had called WDW and gotten their PIN. So, I'm not proud--nor PATIENT-- so I called and the PIN was sent to DH (who says he NEVER got it) but the kind CM gave it to me and I gave it to Carol and some magical day in June our stay changed from POFQ to Wilderness Lodge w/ free dining! So the first 10 days of the trip were planned and booked, so ends part 1.

[debrabrown]

Wow. Sounds like a fabulous trip in the works!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!

[lazanya]

Great start! Sounds like a wonderful trip so far!