Last Trip Before Kids - May 2010 Pre-Trip Report

[sbprincess]

Hello everyone! As you can tell from my info to the right, I'm more of a "lurker" to the boards but I love to read Trip Reports so I thought I'd try my hand at a PTR. So be kind to me please! I hope to make this entertaining...both for myself and anyone who decides to join me! Alright, ready, set, here we GO!!

Let me first introduce you all to the cast:

My wonderful husband and me.

We have been married for 2 wonderful years. Actually March 8th is our anniversary, right around the corner! We went to Disney on our Honeymoon for one week, March 9-15, 2008. It was perfect for us! We stayed at All Star Movies because we were very poor back then. Not much has changed since then but we were able to afford this trip without going into debt (and we're staying Deluxe, woo hoo!). More on that later!

Me, Shelley (26), I am an Administrative Assistant at a large physician group in our city. I really love my job and most of the people I work with. I love to make plans, but I'm actually a pretty laid back person. Even though I have done TONS of research, I'm not the type to plan our days out by the hour or anything. There is a spreadsheet, it may have some colors to draw attention to certain things, but all that is planned is our ADRs, which park we plan to go to for most of the day, park hours, etc. Okay, maybe I'm a little more into planning that I choose to admit to. But I really am pretty laid back.

My husband Brian (27), on the other hand, is the life of every party He is just about the friendliest person you'd ever meet. He works at FedEx Kinko's Distribution Center. He is okay with his job but mainly likes the people he works with. He's been there a total of almost 5 years so he must be at least okay with what he does. He doesn't complain so that makes me happy!

We've both been to Disney many times, but only together the one time for our HM. My grandparents have a second home in Daytona Beach so my family would go there usually a few times every year and my parents would take all of us (my two sisters and me, and any friends we might have along) to Disney for one day of the vacation. Because we never stayed on property and Daytona is about 90 minutes away, the Magic Kingdom was where we went every year except one. I begged and begged and finally got them to try EPCOT. My mom and I loved it (my older sister I think was married by this time and not with us) but I'm not sure about my dad and little sister. Brian's family went to WDW several times when he was growing up (his sister is 10 years older so he's practically an only child). They always stayed off-property (time share, I think). But he had been to all 4 parks each trip.

Actually, now that I think about this, I have to share a story of my childhood about MGM (this was pre-DHS). One year my mom and grandmother took my sisters and all of our cousins to the house in Daytona. We all convinced them to take us to Disney one day. Again, MK was the only real option for which park to visit. My mother, bless her heart, as much as I love her, she is sort of an air-head when it comes to some things. I think I was only 8 or 9 for this. So we all go (all 8 grandkids, ages 4 thru 14, with only two adults). We buy our tickets, make our way into the park and our first stop is a show. I'm not sure what it was but I remember we laughed a lot. So we come out and they start looking at the map. My mom's like "Where's the castle?...Where's Space Mountain?" She proceeds to ask a CM and he politely explains that Cinderella's Castle is in the Magic Kingdom...we were in MGM Studios...they aren't the same thing! My mom was so embarrassed but almost died of laughter. We went to guest relations and they were very nice about it. Lord, I wonder what kind of idiots they thought we were though! All of my family lives in Georgia (except me now) so I'm sure the hick accent didn't help at all. They switched our tickets and we went to MK for the rest of the day. This would have never happened with my dad but leave it to my mom!

Okay, I think I've written enough for now. Hopefully I haven't put anyone to sleep. Didn't quite think I'd write this much. Oh well, stay tuned for more of our plans!

Next up: Where are we staying? (like you can't see from my signature ) And more juicy details!

 

[sbprincess]

Okay, one more for today! So obviously we're staying at the Contemporary Resort. I know, you were in so much suspense! Well, let me explain how this decision was made. When we first got engaged, we lived in North Carolina, where my DH is originally from. Being the crazy Twenty-somethings that we were (okay, and still are), we decided a few months before getting married that we were going to move to Georgia, where my family lives. To make a long story very short, we moved, got married, went on our wonderful Honeymoon, and both started brand new jobs all within 2 weeks. I would highly suggest that no one do this, ever! Seeing as the metro-Atlanta area is way more expensive than where we live in NC, we pretty much started going into debt immediately. We apparently didn't budget very well SO, after our lease was up, we high-tailed it back to NC...where we should have stayed to begin with! Oh well, lesson learned.

So we stopped going INTO debt but couldn't quite get out. Well, to condense things once again, in July of last year we had an opportunity to buy a townhouse. We borrowed slightly more than we paid, got the credit from Obama for being first-time home buyers, paid off our debt, put some into savings, and I immediately started planning a vacation! Although I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Disney, I also adore New York City. My DH has only taken a quick bus tour through so I really wanted us to go there, especially before we have kids. I had most of it planned but nothing booked by about October and then one day, I changed my mind. Don't ask me why because I honestly don't know. I just went to DH and asked if he would be okay with WDW instead. He was actually quite excited for the change so the WDW planning began. We were planning NYC for the week of Feb 21 and looking at the weather they had that week I am SOOOOOO glad we changed our minds. Also, it worked better for vacation time at our jobs to wait until May. So, our trip is booked for May 7-15!!

Okay, so with the dates decided, we then started thinking about where to stay. I really wanted this to be special since we had a little extra $$ and this will probably be our last Disney trip without kids for a while. (We hope to be pregnant by July or August of this year. Shhhhh!! Don't tell our families though, they think we're waiting until 2011 ) As I'm looking at our different options, since we really didn't have any for the HM (remember, we were looking for cheap & cheerful back then), I'm so wanting to book Deluxe but can't quite stomach the price even though we technically have it. The God who loves Disney must have been shining on us though b/c right as I was looking to make our decision, we get a PIN code via email. I know they're out for the public now, but they weren't then. So it was decided - God wanted us to stay Deluxe Just kidding, but it did help us be able to justify the cost when it was brought down just a little.

Well, we both have always seen the Contemporary on commercials and over the years when we visited growing up so it was between there and the Beach Club. We both love the EPCOT area so my vote was BC but DH really wanted CR. So after some debate, we chose CR. I do love the decor. I guess it's kind of like NYC in the room, WDW everywhere else!

I know some don't agree, but I think the rooms are gorgeous!

This will probably be our view:

But I can always hope for an upgrade, right?

Seriously, we will totally be content with Garden Wing since that's all we're paying for. However, I don't know anyone that wouldn't accept a little Pixie Dust if offered, right? I can always dream!

Up Next: Are we on the Dining Plan? What else do I have planned?

 

[emmysmommy]

Shelley - great start to your PTR. You will have to share if making dining choices was difficult with all the restaurants to chose from!!

Congrats on being a young couple and owning your 1st home - how exciting!!

We are staying at the sister property to Contemporary (BLT) later this year. I've heard such positives regarding the locations so I think we will both be very happy with our choices.

Take care,
B

 

[cdotla]

Joining in!

Great choice of resort! I love the CR, and we will be there too on our upcoming trip.

And just to give you some hope that upgrades can and do happen, last year my daughter and I were upgraded from Garden Wing to Tower, Magic Kingdom view, which was amazing! But before the upgrade, we spent a couple nites in the Garden Wing and still loved it! So either way, it's good! And I totally agree with you - the CR room decor is the best on property!