Ben and Wendy's 10th Anniversary Getaway!-Complete! About This Page:

[Wendyismyname]

Ben and Wendy's 10th Anniversary Getaway!!

Cast Members: Wendy, age 30, Disney Vet 10th trip
Ben, age 40, Disney Vet 6th trip

When: Feb. 13-18, 2005
Airline: ATA
Rental car: convertible from Alamo, $164.99 before tax; $206 after taxes
Resorts: Beach Club Villas for 2 nights; Villas at Wilderness Lodge 3 nights--studios

Pre-trip (February,2004-February 2005)

February'04

February 20, 2004, our anniversary. I gave Ben his card and he felt so bad because he didn't get me one. No flowers, no card, no candy, nothing!! Boy that didn't sit too well. Actually, I wasn't upset at all because we had agreed to not do anything because we were kicking around the idea of going away for our 10th, but in June with as many family members as possible. But when I gave Ben his card and saw the look on his face(he was really upset), the devil inside me went wild!! I razzed him good! He finally looked at me and said "do you want me to go buy you a card and flowers, because I will". LOL!! No, I kept telling him, it was just fine, but boy did I have fun giving him a hard time!!
We did end up deciding to go away, just the two of us, in February '05. But WHERE?? Oh my did we burn up the internet! I kept throwing out ideas! We booked a cruise on one of Carnival's ships, sailing out of Tampa. Do you know how hard it is to get a good flight from Indianapolis, IN to Tampa, FL?? By good flight, I mean a non-stop flight. At that time, only ATA was flying non-stop, but to St. Pete.
We put down a deposit for a balcony stateroom. Then we looked into a Disney Cruise, it would be much easier getting to Orlando and on to Port Canaveral than to Tampa. We put a deposit down on a 4 night cruise/3 night land. The hotel portion just kept changing from the Poly, to AKL, to Grand Floridian!!

March'04

Then we threw out Vegas as a possibility. We went to Vegas for his birthday in July 2002 with the kids. We wanted to see it without them. Unfortunately, it was still too early in the year to really book Vegas(no good hotel deals).
I was making myself sick trying to figure out exactly what we wanted to do. I kept(and I always do this)trying to make it the best possible vacation for my travelling companion. This trip though, I only had to please one other person. Quite a change for me. Several emails to my dear friend Cheryl for her advice probably drove her as nuts as me!(Thank you Cheryl, for EVERYTHING).
All the options looked so good, too good!! I just kept going back to Disney. Could I really be happy on a Carnival cruise? Could I really be happy going to WDW for only 3 nights and a 4 night cruise?? And Vegas?? I don't gamble and very rarely drink so it wasn't really appealing to me, but if that is where Ben wanted to go, I'd gladly follow him! ()

The price of the Carnival cruise, Vegas and Disney cruise package would all equal out to be about the same, except on the cruises, food and drink are included, so they held a better appeal to us.
Finally, I told Ben to please choose something because I cannot do this anymore!! We never had a honeymoon, so this is it!!!
Then I thought, hey wait a minute!!! Don't we own in the DVC?? Couldn't we go there for 5 nights and stay in a studio?? We already had Annual Pass vouchers. Flights can be as low as $59 each way. YES we can!! But how to sell it to Ben?? Disney without the kids?? Can we do that? Can we not feel guilty about going without them?? Hmmmm.

Of course, Ben being the loving man that he is says, "I don't care where we go, just pick something" Ah, gotta him! So I said "No way, this is your trip too, you pick because I always do" Carnival or Disney cruise?? Carnival he says. Okay. Carnival or Vegas? Vegas. Ooookay. Vegas or WDW staying on points?? WDW on points. O-K!! I was so proud of him! We Finally had a plan!! But WHERE to stay?? Oh dear, this was getting a little more complicated!! Ben and I couldn't decide whether to stay at the Beach Club Villas or Villas at Wilderness Lodge! BCV is our home, but Ben hasn't stayed there yet. The Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorite places to visit and neither of us have stayed there. In the end, we booked the 5 nights at BCV at our 11 month window. We would try to get the VWL once the 7 month window opened up in July. We finally knew where we were going on March 18th when I could book the whole stay! After all that, my stomach wasn't hurting anymore!

April'04

Fuel costs skyrocket!!! We decided to purchase our flights not only because we wanted to get our pick of the seats but because we didn't know what the rising cost of fuel would do to the ticket prices(fortunately, they did not go up at all). Two tickets from IND to MCO during that time set us back about $453, roundtrip, non-stop. Outrageous price! But we just knew we were happier knowing we had seats!!

Towards the end of the month, Planting had begun so Disney went on the back burner. Since I hardly ever saw my husband, I couldn't talk with him about it! No sense in just talking to myself. Not even I listen to myself all the time

November '04

I noticed during the month of November that the flights had went down to $59 each way. I called ATA and asked about a voucher. Well, since my flights had changed more than an hour(i think)we'd be able to get the vouchers and not have to pay the change fee of $50!! Woohoo So, now Ben and I have $90 each to put towards the tickets in June! Plus I realized that by February, I will have earned a free companion ticket!!

December '04
This month, I made a call to ATA to inquire about those vouchers I've heard so much about. Since ATA was the one to change my flights, we were able to get vouchers for $90 each($180!!!)for a future trip. I was really really excited!! Also during this month, I called DVC and told them that I wanted 5 nights at VWL and 5 nights at BCV for our June trip. I was so glad to make that call because now everyone in my party will be very pleased. We're getting the best of both worlds I tell ya!

January '05
ATA had changed our flight times so much(as I expected!)and we had Tiffany Towncar booked. I really do love using them. But in the end, I felt really guilty about having to change the times so much, I looked into renting a car. Thanks for WillCAD and others for helping me with the decision!! I was really pleased with the rate of $150(I think)taxes included for a mid-size car. I got to looking at a convertible and decided to "go for it" because I thought the price was really really good!! $206 for 5 days, taxes included!! Shortly after I booked it, the price went up to over $200 base price!!
At the end of this month, I went on my cruise with my Grandma. Oh gosh did we have fun! It really was a relaxing trip!! I knew that when we booked that cruise that I would be leaving again 2 weeks after I got home and I thought it might be a crazy two weeks! It sure was! I didn't know if I was coming or going! Trying to get the house really clean, laundry done and clothes packed!

February '05

On Feb. 12th, we headed to the Holiday Inn Select at the Indy Airport. We were so excited about going away by ourselves, but already missing the kids!! The hotel is really nice. It has a 5 story Atrium lobby complete with indoor pool. I love the smell of chlorine!
We had dinner at Benchwarmers, the sports bar, with a couple that I met on my cruise in January. It was so nice to see them again and for them to meet Ben!! We had a grand time that night! Only downside was as the night went on, my head became more and more stuffed up. Eyes started watering and everything!! Not the way I want to start my vacation!
We went to bed early after setting a 4am wakeup call. Ugh. We do this everytime we leave! We get up hours before we need to!! But I reckon it's because we're too antsy.

Sunday February 13, 2005

We awoke at 3:45am. Why? Don't know!! Because we're going to see Mickey!! Even my cold wasn't going to stop me--much!! We were at the airport at 5am so we'd have plenty of time to eat breakfast and go thru security. I'm not a breakfast person. If I'm gonna eat it, I'd rather it be late---but a cinnamon bun first thing in the morning is A-OK!!

We head to security and breeze thru after standing in line for only 20 minutes! Not bad! Now just to wait at the gate. Fortunately, we only had an hour to kill and I wanted to spend that time sleeping. I was so glad that I had Ben to look out for me instead of me looking out for kids! We passed the time by talking to another couple who were also going to WDW and even staying at the Beach Club Villas!!

We board the plane and sat by a lovely lady who drove from near Danville Illinois to catch the plane out of Indy! Heading to San Juan on Walgreens business. She was very nice and helped pass the time. I think I fell asleep before we left the gate. It was an uneventful flight. Kind of nice actually, to be sitting next to my man, no cares in the world........

When we arrived in Orlando, we could see that it wasn't very sunny. It also wasn't very warm either. High today was supposed to be about 70 degrees. Still, it sounded lovely to me!! It seems that we waited forever to get our bags, as there was a flight that was just finishing up. We got our bags(they're easy to spot since I have made them pretty with lots of craft paint!!), we headed down a level to find Alamo. It's funny, Alamo certainly had the longest line and it took us a half hour just to be seen!! We got our instructions on how to go about picking the car and what to do when we drop it off on Friday then it was off we go to find the convertible of our choice!!
We walked and walked and walked and finally found the convertible section! The excitement was building for me!! Which to choose?? LOL, not hard to make the choice--there was only one left!
We wind our way out of the parking garage and on the road to WDW!!

Getting to WDW was really easy. I had fretted and worried about getting lost going to WDW that I about made myself sick over it!! I shouldn't have worried!! Before we know it, we're passing under the arch and on property! Oh how I love those purple signs!!

We used directions from Deb's site, www.allearsnet.com, and they were right on the money!! Thank you Deb!! Soon we were arriving at the Beach Club!! Valet greets us, I show him my DVC card and off we go to check in while he gets the bags and someone parks the car.
As we check in, the CM tells us Congratulations!! "I see it's your 10th Anniversary!" Then we hear "Welcome Home". Gosh I love that saying!! I don't think that I could get tired of it!

She tells us that our room is ready!! I can't believe it!! It's not even 11:30am and our room is ready!! Yahoo!! Off we go to the Villas to check out the room! We were given room 443. I was very pleasantly surprised that my requests were given to me!! First, a smoking room, second a view of Epcot!! Hey, they also threw in a view of the Beach Club! How sweet!!
We could see the Eiffel Tower like it was right next to us!! How cool!!
Well, I had things to do and I wanted to get them done!! I switched my purse for my backpack, grabbed our DVC cards, driver's licenses and our AP vouchers and off we headed to the backdoor of Epcot. We walked hand in hand up to Guest Services. Unfortunately, we had to wait for about 20-30 minutes but still, we were THERE!! Almost soon enough, we were issued our passes, thru security and on our way to Canada!!
We checked in at LeCellier at 12:30pm and were seated within 10 minutes. Not bad. Our PS wasn't until 1:30pm but our stomachs were being very loud. How rude.
For lunch, we both had the Cheese Soup. I had a steak(not the mushroom one) and Ben had a burger. I think next time for lunch we will have the soup and a salad. Too much food. None wasted though. Neither of us were hungry for dessert, so we hightailed it out of there as soon as we could.
First stop was in Future World and Figment. Our DS Josh LOVES this ride so he wanted us to ride it for him. I was happy to see that it was a walk on. I plugged my nose during the smell test. I'm a wimp. I know. I have 4 kids. I smell them enough. I didn't want to smell anything fowl while on my vacation.

Next up was The Living Seas. I really enjoyed the movie. I really enjoyed the aquarium part. I still haven't seen the dolphins but I couldn't tear myself away from the manatees. Ben noticed I was dragging and was worried about me. He's such a doll.
Soon, we left the Living Seas and headed to Spaceship Earth. Um, I guess I was more tired than I was because I fell asleep as soon as we started up the hill. I was still upset to see that the exhibits are gone from the end of the ride.

Ben and I just didn't know what to do with ourselves. We didn't have the kids to tell us what we were to do next. We kind of looked at each other and said, where to now?? We decided to head to the MK since we were towards the front gates. I couldn't wait to see the Castle again!! I don't think I can get tired of it!!

By the time we had gotten up that very long incline, the monorail was starting to pull away. Fortunately, another was right behind it just for us! Well, okay for us and a couple hundred other people. In a short time, we were at the Ticket and Transporation Center where we boarded the Express Monorail. I hadn't ridden that one since 1986, always preferring to ride the resort monorail.
Into the MK we went and the parade was just making it's way down Main Street USA. But, having already seen it, we headed into the Chapeau where I purchased 13 embroidered Mickey Ears, 13 autograph books and 13 pens. Total for all:$240! Sent it back to the resort so I wouldn't have to pick it up later.

We headed over to Frontierland and to Splash Mountain. Um, it was very dry and it was being worked on, right after the big drop. They had the lines exposed. So we headed to Big Thunder. It too was down!! So, up the steps to the WDW Railroad. It had the longest line I can ever remember seeing!! We decided that even though we'd been in the MK less than an hour, we were heading back to the resort. I was bushed. Very tired.

Out to the bus stop where we waited a good long while for our bus to come. Fortuntaly, within a half hour, we were heading home. We stopped to buy some Nyquil tabs($8), cokes and a couple of adult beverages, oh and donuts!! Those were for breakfast not to have with the adult beverages.

Quickly up to the room where I pulled off my shoes and plopped on the couch. Ben said he was going to go down and talk to Valet about putting the parking permit in the car. While he was gone, I ordered dinner to be sent to us at 8:30pm. My plan was to be able to eat dinner, then watch Illuminations from the balcony.
As soon as I hung up, I heard the key in the door. Whew, I about blew my surprise!!
It was only 5:30pm and the day was warmer than it felt it should be(I probably had a fever)so the swimsuits went on and we made our way down to the quiet pool, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of right now. Anyway, down to the quiet pool we went and got in. Fortunately, at this time of year, the pools are not nearly as busy as summertime. The water was kind of cool, but once you went under, it was fine. Except after 10 minutes, I was chilled(my legs had goosebumps!) and I headed to the hot tub. Oh that was really nice. I could only stand it for about 10 minutes and I was ready to get back to the room. I'm so glad Ben was also. Bless this man's heart. He's like a puppy, he'll follow me around and do whatever I want to do. Gosh, it took some getting used to having all that attention focused on me! Back up to the room and I quickly change out of the wet swimsuit and into dry clothes and I immediately start to feel better, much warmer anyway!! I felt better once I popped some more cold/sinus medicine.
By now, it was nearly 7pm and Ben was making noises about supper. He wanted to know if I wanted Beaches and Cream and I told him I wasn't hungry yet. How about we walk over to the Boardwalk since it's dark?? He's never seen this area lit up at night and I really enjoy it.
I was more tired than I thought. We only made it to where the Boardwalk starts and turned around and came back. It was chilly. I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans!!!
We weren't gone but maybe 15 minutes and when I walked into the room, I stopped and stared!! There on the coatrack(you know, the shelf with pegs by the door??)were balloons and a signed photo of Mickey and Donald wishing us a happy 10th anniversary!! I was dumbfounded!! I didn't know who in the world would have pulled this off(I cannot be surprised), then I remembered reading that someone else on the boards had gotten something like it for either a birthday or anniversary. Ben was pleasantly surprised too, but he was really starting to ask about supper. Finally I said "Look, dinner will be here at 8:30pm so hush!" Now, that really surprised him!! He was really pleased!! Just wait until supper I tell him!!
Supper arrived promptly at 8:30pm and Jorge(the only CM's name that I remember) did a great job of setting it up--except one small spill. We dined on Black Angus Prime Rib(yum, yum, yum,YUM), rolls, au jus gravy, baked potatoes(butter and sour cream) and a carafe of iced tea. For dessert I ordered chocolate dipped strawberries($25.00 call 2 hours before you want them delivered).
Total, the bill was a little over $100, which I considered our big splurge for a meal. I have to admit that we didn't waste time eating, we were done and out on the balcony right at 9pm trying to watch the fireworks. I was terribly disappointed. We could not see the fireworks, we could see the smoke from them, but couldn't see them. But the worse part was, they were terribly, horribly loud. Now, that could be because my ears were really sensitive and every noise bothered me, or it could be because they are loud. I don't know. I won't know until this summer when we go back.

So we closed the door and closed the curtains. That blocked out almost all the noise. It wasn't much longer and I was sound asleep. Tomorrow was another semi-busy day!

Next: Valentine's Day