Countdown to the Ultimate Fantasy Vacation

[tncplace]

Hi, I have been very fortunate to benefit from everyone’s great tips and trip reports since I discovered Disboards in 2010 when I was planning our first WDW family vacation. Now, I figured is my turn to give back by sharing my planning experiences and hopefully after my own trip report.

I suppose I should start with our cast of characters; there is me, Tara, a.k.a Drill Sergeant (I will explain that a bit later), my fun loving hubby Chris and our sweet girl Lexie who will be turning 8 in June.

Lexie has been vying to go back to Disney since the day after we returned in 2010. We told her we would try to plan a visit in 2013 once all the Fantasyland changes have been completed. Then she saw the awesome commercials for Dream and Fantasy and that became her new wish, the ultimate Fantasy to go on a Disney cruise. Now my smart little one knows it takes a lots of money to pay for anything Disney so she started saving right away saying that she was going to pay for the cruise for all of us herself. We didn’t have the heart to tell her that even if she saved until she was 15 she would not be able to pay for all of us to go. This past October DH and I started talking about going back to WDW, we knew a cruise was not going to be in the cards as bonuses were not going to be great and we had put in a new boiler in September which was a nice chunk of change. Then the end of October I was told that my position was being eliminated which meant that I would be out of work right after Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays – not! Luckily I was there for 7 years so I got a decent severance package but still we knew there was no way we would be going on vacation in 2013 …. Or would we?

The end of November we got news that my DH’s uncle who had passed away in August had left him some money. It was an unexpected windfall and I knew that money needed to be banked especially given my current job status. DH on the other hand convinced me that we could use just a bit of it for a dream vacation. There is a reason I call him the fun loving one. He asked if we could go on my dream vacation where would I choose to go? For a split second I had visions of being in Hawaii’s warm waters again but then I thought of Lexie and realized that my dream vacation would be to make her Fantasy vacation come true. So that is how I came to be here writing for all of you. We decided that we were going to surprise Lexie with a Fantasy cruise for her birthday. My hubby knows me very well and knew planning a vacation would give me something to obsess about other than finding a job. It has been very comforting to escape to disboards after a morning of sending out resumes or having interviews that go nowhere.

Up next? Disney Cruise Line a Whole New World.

 

[tncplace]

We have cruised before but never on DCL and we were in for some surprises. The first surprise being that people book Disney cruises more than a year and sometimes two in advance. We were booking in January for the June Eastern cruise on Fantasy and found that our dream room category 8A, a Deluxe Family Oceanview that has two large portholes and a room divider was fully booked all summer. Since that was not in the cards for us and Lexie’s last day of school being June 14, we decided on the June 15th sailing. We knew we didn’t want to do an inside cabin for a 7 night cruise but really couldn’t justify the cost of a verandah. That only left us with an 8C GTY category as all other Oceanviews were fully booked. The other issue with booking “late” as that only late seating was available. This is not the worst thing in the world for us as Lexie can stay up quite late if she is having fun. She was only 3 years old when we sailed RCCL and I remember at least two nights that she was at the kids club until 11pm.

Our second surprise was the rotational dinning, I had never heard of that before and we are still waiting to hear if we got our desired dining plan. I knew from past cruises all about cruise critic and meetups but the cruise meet thread on Disboards is so much more fun! People actually post often and the facebook thread is even better. I look forward the countdown and picture of the day every morning when I log in. The folks on our cruise are very open and thoughtful. One person even arranged a tour in St. Maarten that we will all be doing together. I feel like I am going on vacation with friends and that is very exciting.

Once we had the cruise booked I started thinking that we couldn’t go to Florida and not go see the new Fantasyland. I talked to DH and laid out my logic and was over the moon when he agreed. He had given me a budget for this vacation and said as long as we could stay within that book whatever I liked. There is a reason I love him. We were spoiled from our last visit onsite at CBR and figured we would just stay with what we know until …..AAA offered a Disney planning session and we found out about Royal Princess rooms at POR. If this trip was really to make Lexie’s fantasies come true we HAD to stay here. I contacted our TA and had her add it on immediately.

 

[jedijill]

Joining in! Sorry about your job, but glad you are going to be able to take the trip anyway. Can't wait to hear more.

Jill in CO

 

[tncplace]

Joining in! Sorry about your job, but glad you are going to be able to take the trip anyway. Can't wait to hear more.

Jill in CO

Welcome Jill! Thanks for joining in.

 

[tncplace]

Anyone who knows us can tell you that we go all out for Lexie’s birthday parties. Lexie and I usually have a theme in mind 6 months in advance and then I research, plan, organize and execute. I am the first to admit that these parties are just as much for me as they are for DD. They give me a chance to exercise my creative gene that is usually crushed by my day to day work as an executive admin. What does this have to do with the Disney cruise? We will be on board Fantasy on Lexie’s birthday and if this trip is her present then we really can’t have a party as well – that would be going overboard, pardon the pun. The dilemma here is that we want to keep the trip a surprise; I have visions of pulling into port to see the ship and saying ”Surprise! We are here to stay”. DD has been coming up with all sorts of ideas for a birthday party and we have just been trying to avoid the conversation by saying we are not sure if we can afford a party this year b/c mommy isn’t working. Did I mention that the kid is smart and isn’t really buying this? She knows that I am a bargain hunter and could pull off a decent party on the cheap. Maybe not the over the top Carnival type party we had last year but something on a smaller scale.

This is a picture from DD's party last year - can you tell she is the center of our world?

So every day I have been trying to offer DD something for her birthday that would take the place of a party, for instance a trip into New York to the American Girl store or a day at the beach. She wasn’t taking the bait though. Then this past weekend she asked if we could go see Big Time Rush in concert. I knew this was our opportunity, I said we could do that but then we would not be able to have a party. She said she was willing to trade a party for the concert since she hearts Big Time Rush (her new favorite phrase). So finally we have the whole party thing settled. Of course we are in NJ and will be flying into Florida so I still have to work out that cover story, but for now the party topic is settled. I must admit that keeping this a surprise is very difficult on me as DD is my little planning partner - but I think of the memories we are creating for her and know that it will all be worth it.

 

[ChrisParker]

Subbing in! Looking forward to reading your adventures.

 

[tncplace]

Subbing in! Looking forward to reading your adventures.

Welcome ChrisParker! Great to know there are actually folks following!

 

[tncplace]

We are officially at the 9 week mark today! This has been an exciting week; I received the last of the supplies needed for crafting my FE gifts and my husband’s pirate costume came in. Since the trip is a surprise I have to work on my FEs into the wee hours of the night when dd is sleeping. I feel accomplished though as I made all of the little girl’s FEs last night, now I just have to figure out packaging them. Wish I could share what I made but don’t want to spoil any surprises so I will wait to share pictures with you after the trip.

I have to say that pirate night is what dh is looking forward to the most. As a family we love to dress up and dd and I are lucky that dh is a good sport and goes along with whatever theme we cook up each Halloween. Even wearing a mermaid fin as King Triton – see below:

http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a554/tncplace/73840_1510329553704_3366186_n_zps3f6e8b53.jpg

Pirate night is a chance for dh to finally have a say in the costume choices and such he was really picky when trying to find a Jack Sparrow costume. We had been to a few local costume shops and finally found what he was looking for online. Of course you can never be sure what you are getting until it comes and I must say the costume is awesome. I am especially thrilled as I have always had a crush on Johnny Depp and can’t wait to see DH in the costume.

When dd’s costume came in a few weeks ago I concerned that it wouldn’t fit so I put her in a blindfold so I could try it on her. I told her it was for a surprise and she went along with it. It will be dd’s actual birthday on pirate night so it was very important to me that her outfit is special. I think we have achieved this and thinking of the great pictures we will have is making me giddy. Did I mention that I am photo obsessed? So much so that dh bought me a dsl camera for Christmas this year thinking that it would stop me from taking Lexie for pictures twice a year. He also thinks that this means I won’t be buying the photo cd onboard or photopass in the parks but he is in for a surprise. The best thing about photopass in my opinion is that I can actually be in some of the pictures instead of being the one behind the lens.

 

[ChrisParker]

You can return the favour shortly as I'm going to attempt a PTR too!!

 

[Ndsmorrison]

Hey I'm joining in (I know I'm late) but I've just started really using DISboards but I started reading ur trip report and It stops before y'all got there. Is there a link to another blog or something? I was really getting interested and excited to see how it all turned out for ur family. We went on the Fantasy in November and had fun, I'm bad I haven't done a TR but maybe I will one day!! TIA!!!