cdotla
Trish
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2006
We're Back...
So we are home, safe and sound, following our 11 day stay at my Favourite Place on Earth.
According to DH, this was to be our "last" trip to Walt Disney World for quite awhile, so I had high expectations for the trip.
I had planned the trip for over a year, starting the planning just about the time that Katie & I returned home from our last trip in March of 2009.
At 11 months I booked into the Beach Club Villas for 8 days.
At 8 months out I secured direct flights to Orlando, adding a day onto each end of the trip in the process.
At 7 months out, I was able to book the Contemporary for our first night and the Polynesian for our last night using a 40% off pin code.
And at 6 months I secured each and every dining reservation that we wanted for the whole trip.
While I did have a couple of wrinkles thrown into the planning (including the addition of my SIL and nephews less than 1 month before the trip), I was still able to juggle things around before we left and was sure that we would still end up having the most fantastic trip to Disney ever!
Afterall, I was staying a whole 11 days...my longest trip by a longshot! And this was my husband and son's first ever trip staying on WDW Property. I was sure that this, in and of itself, would surely turn my husband around and ensure that our next trip would be booked (or at least in the planning stages) before we had checked out!
Unfortunately, things did not go exactly as planned.
I have been reluctant for a long time to admit or accept that I could be married to someone who doesn't love (or couldn't grow to love) Walt DisneyWorld as much as I do. This trip finally drove it home for me. Loud and clear.
Of course we shared many special memories and experiences as a family on the trip. And overall we had a great time. However, for much of the trip (at least when we were in the Parks) I was acutely aware that someone was not as keen or enthusiastic as me about being there.
As a result, some of my enjoyment of being in the Parks was diminished and our park touring ended up getting cut short or abreviated. We spent far less time in the Parks than I expected, but fortunately still a good chunk of the time at the Resorts. Which was still great - afterall, for much of the trip we were staying at the Beach Club. However, many of the plans I had made for the trip didn't get accomplished.
In fact, we spent less time in the parks in our 11 day trip than I had spent on several of my past trips spanning only 4 or 5 days long.
Knowing that this would be our last family trip for an indefinite period of time, this was quite disappointing.
There were many things I planned and had looked forward to experiencing on the trip which did not get accomplished. As a result, I have to be honest and admit that I still have quite a few disappointments and regrets about the trip.
As a result, I am of mixed minds about doing a trip report. I have only authored 2 trip reports, and both have been fairly positive. The flavour of this report (if I am to report on it accurately) would be much different. In some ways, I am not sure I want to re-experience the feelings of disappointment in having so many of my carefully laid-out plans get nixed and scrapped at the last moment. On the other hand, there is a part of me that feels it may be somewhat cathartic to do a trip report.
As if my house wasn't already upsidedown enough (with 4 suitcases still to unpacked and a stack of vacation laundry still needing to be done), DH and I each have to go away this weekend for work. Fortunately my MIL will be coming to stay with the kids. So if I start a TR at all, it won't be until I get back home on Sunday. At the very least, even if I decide not to do a full-blown TR, I will at least provide a mini-TR of our stay.
Thanks so much again to everyone for reading along and joining me on my 1st ever PTR!
So we are home, safe and sound, following our 11 day stay at my Favourite Place on Earth.
According to DH, this was to be our "last" trip to Walt Disney World for quite awhile, so I had high expectations for the trip.
I had planned the trip for over a year, starting the planning just about the time that Katie & I returned home from our last trip in March of 2009.
At 11 months I booked into the Beach Club Villas for 8 days.
At 8 months out I secured direct flights to Orlando, adding a day onto each end of the trip in the process.
At 7 months out, I was able to book the Contemporary for our first night and the Polynesian for our last night using a 40% off pin code.
And at 6 months I secured each and every dining reservation that we wanted for the whole trip.
While I did have a couple of wrinkles thrown into the planning (including the addition of my SIL and nephews less than 1 month before the trip), I was still able to juggle things around before we left and was sure that we would still end up having the most fantastic trip to Disney ever!
Afterall, I was staying a whole 11 days...my longest trip by a longshot! And this was my husband and son's first ever trip staying on WDW Property. I was sure that this, in and of itself, would surely turn my husband around and ensure that our next trip would be booked (or at least in the planning stages) before we had checked out!
Unfortunately, things did not go exactly as planned.
I have been reluctant for a long time to admit or accept that I could be married to someone who doesn't love (or couldn't grow to love) Walt DisneyWorld as much as I do. This trip finally drove it home for me. Loud and clear.
Of course we shared many special memories and experiences as a family on the trip. And overall we had a great time. However, for much of the trip (at least when we were in the Parks) I was acutely aware that someone was not as keen or enthusiastic as me about being there.
As a result, some of my enjoyment of being in the Parks was diminished and our park touring ended up getting cut short or abreviated. We spent far less time in the Parks than I expected, but fortunately still a good chunk of the time at the Resorts. Which was still great - afterall, for much of the trip we were staying at the Beach Club. However, many of the plans I had made for the trip didn't get accomplished.
In fact, we spent less time in the parks in our 11 day trip than I had spent on several of my past trips spanning only 4 or 5 days long.
Knowing that this would be our last family trip for an indefinite period of time, this was quite disappointing.
There were many things I planned and had looked forward to experiencing on the trip which did not get accomplished. As a result, I have to be honest and admit that I still have quite a few disappointments and regrets about the trip.
As a result, I am of mixed minds about doing a trip report. I have only authored 2 trip reports, and both have been fairly positive. The flavour of this report (if I am to report on it accurately) would be much different. In some ways, I am not sure I want to re-experience the feelings of disappointment in having so many of my carefully laid-out plans get nixed and scrapped at the last moment. On the other hand, there is a part of me that feels it may be somewhat cathartic to do a trip report.
As if my house wasn't already upsidedown enough (with 4 suitcases still to unpacked and a stack of vacation laundry still needing to be done), DH and I each have to go away this weekend for work. Fortunately my MIL will be coming to stay with the kids. So if I start a TR at all, it won't be until I get back home on Sunday. At the very least, even if I decide not to do a full-blown TR, I will at least provide a mini-TR of our stay.
Thanks so much again to everyone for reading along and joining me on my 1st ever PTR!
I don't know about you, but I like to spend my time on the happy, positive reports!
If you decide to do a TR I'll be there even if it isn't peaches and cream every moment. Even though my DH tells me I like to live in Fantasyland, I can live in the real world too and know life (even at Disney) isn't always perfect.
I find it's hard to not have a little "anticapointment" (as I like to call it) on a Disney trip! Especially when you travel with someone who doesn't "get it" like you do. 
I'm not sure where he picked that idea up from but I suspect it may not be too far from the truth
It was so frustrating for me to know that they were right there - yet so far away!
I can't tell you how much this post means to me! I too am so happy to know I am not the only one who has to deal with this! For me, the most crushing moment on the entire trip came when I was sitting on the beach at the Poly watching Wishes with the kids on our last night, while DH was back in the room. Looking around at all the other families, hearing other fathers saying to their kids "Look at that one!"....."Wow"...."Awesome"....and knowing that I will never be able to share my love for WDW in that way with DH was more devestating to me than I would ever want to admit.
