Disney or Bust- A Celebration of Life- October 5th-12th 2012.... About This Page:

[CatNipRules]

Warning, I've never done one of these before. So, I'm sure that I will tend to ramble on and probably complain about some things in great detail.

First, the cast of characters-

Me-Michelle aka- Over-planner extraordinaire. According to DH I shouldn't be so obsessed with making plans for our upcoming trip. More on that later. Loves Eeyore and my favorite ride is Test Track.

DH Mike- He is notorious for not wanting to make any kind of plans. At least where Disney is concerned. He doesn't want me to make any ADR's. He would rather eat whenever he is hungry and could honestly care less about me stressing out over every little thing. He enjoys Disney, just not all of the planning beforehand. He leaves all of that stress to me. (Thank you so much honey.) He loves Mission Space and would ride it all day if possible.

And last but not least, my DS Chris- At almost 15, he's been going to Disney since he was 3 and a half. So, he is a virtual Disney pro. His favorite park is and always has been EPCOT. People are always surprised whenever I tell them that. Even when he was 4 or 5, he always wanted to go to EPCOT first. He humors his mom and all of her planning. He even agreed to wear matching t-shirts this trip. Even though I got an eye roll from him when I asked. His favorite ride is a toss up between Rock N Roller coaster and Test Track.

Now for a bit of a history of the start of our planning.

This will be our first trip back home in nearly six years. We formerly lived in Florida, about 2 hours away from Disney. So, we were fairly frequent visitors. We had seasonal passes and went there on spur of the moment trips quite frequently. Now however, living in Alabama, we haven't had a chance to get back for some time. All of us were homesick for our favorite place in the world.

We had been planning to go back in June of 2011. However, my husband's father had been diagnosed with colon cancer in August of 2010. Dear FIL started going downhill around March of 2011. So, we had to postpone our trip. We were all a bit disappointed, but family always comes first. So, we put our trip plans on hold.

The day that we were originally supposed to leave for Disney, was kind of a downer. I knew that we would be going back, but just didn't know when. I'd been saving for quite awhile and well, it was just disappointing and I wished that FIL would get better.

Well, between the time that we had to take off to help take care of Dear FIL, our savings for the trip was quickly depleted. So, I found myself getting more and more depressed. Our time was soon spent between helping FIL and trying to work. Trying to keep the family together and still maintain some kind of sanity for everyone.

We lost him on Halloween of 2011. He was a wonderful man and loving father and an even better Grandfather. Before he passed away he told us that he wanted us to take our trip to Disney. That he wanted us to be happy after he was gone. I hated that. Hated that he was worrying more about us than he was about himself. I lost my dad after DS was born so he has always been like a father to me. I was in tears when I left the room that night.

So, fast forward to January of this year. DH decided that we were going to go to Disney this year. He told me that he wanted to plan it. He didn't care where we stayed, but he wanted to fly. He's the driver in our family and he doesn't want to be exhausted after driving all day.

So, after hemming and hawwing (yes, I live in Alabama. LOL!!) about if, I went ahead and planned our trip for October of this year. DS has fall break every year and I talked to my boss about taking that week off and she was okay with it. Cool. First major hurdle cleared.

I changed hotels after deciding that I HAD to stay at POR. We are doing the Dining Plan for the first time. Deluxe, because my guys are big eaters and very fussy eaters. We'd stayed there in October 2006. Well, the more I read about FQ, the more I wanted to stay there. So, after having the entire trip paid for, I changed hotels. We are staying at FQ. LOL!! DH had no idea.

There is a story behind that one though. I think I'm a little Disney obsessed. There's really no doubt about that one. But, DH finally told me that he doesn't care what I plan or where we are going to eat. He just wants to know when we are going and when we leave. I was a bit upset at him because of this. He knows how much I love Disney and I love planning my trips. Even when we lived in Florida I would plan for months in advance. I'm a bit obsessed.

So, everything is paid off and I'm just patiently waiting for the time when I can make my ADR's.

Well, that's enough for this chapter. More to come later.

Up Next: My Sister Wants To Join Us: AKA, Why Did I Ever Think That This Was Going To Be A Good Idea.