The Big Birthday Celebration / Meeting My Starfish Pre-Trip Report - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The Big Birthday Celebration / Meeting My Starfish Pre-Trip Report
Hello! Now that it is officially less than 30 days until my Big Birthday trip, I thought I would start my Pre-Trip report. I’ll explain the title later in the report.
WHY: This birthday is a big one, and I wanted to do something special to celebrate it and take my mind off getting OLD. So, why not celebrate in the most magical place on Earth?
WHEN: My birthday is May 1, which falls on a Saturday. I knew that I wanted to wake up at WDW and sleep at WDW for my birthday, so that meant we would at the very least need to be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And one more day wouldn’t hurt anyone, so I decided to travel VERY early on Thursday and leave as late as possible on Sunday. That gave me almost 4 full days. Yeah! So the answer to WHEN is: April 29 – May 2.
WHERE: I knew it had to be a deluxe hotel for this trip and with passholder discounts, I was free to choose whatever I wanted. Since I wanted to spend a good amount of time at Epcot and DHS, I wanted an Epcot resort. I finally settled on : The Boardwalk Inn!
WHO: Next, I needed to think about WHO would travel with me. DH and I work at a theatre in NH, and this theatre shows the HD opera broadcasts from the MET in NY. Unfortunately, the MET had the nerve to schedule the opera “Armida” on May 1st. So since one of us HAD to be there to run the place, DH could not travel with me. DD17 had scheduled herself into the SAT subject tests on May 1st , so she was out. BUT, DS11, could be pulled out of school for two days, so he was in! And, by chance, an old friend from a previous job sent me an email asking if I was going to WDW this Spring. We had gotten together on our last vacation and we had a great time. He’s a single Dad with a little girl he has adopted from Ethiopia. When he heard how excited I was to have company on my trip, he decided to ask some other folks to join us.
I guess I’ll add a little back story here: DH and I adopted two children from Korea through a wonderful agency in Massachusetts. This agency requires all potential adoptive parents to attend a two hour introductory meeting and then attend 2-4 small group parenting meetings where they discuss various aspects of the adoption and parenting. Each of these meetings has a speaker; someone who has been through the process and talks about their experiences. Several years ago, I was the speaker at one of these meetings. My speech was about “Adopting the Waiting Child”. (A waiting child either has special needs, medical needs, is older, or is in a sibling group) My DS had been on this list for over a year before we found him. He had a long list of medical issues, so I talked about what this experience was like for me and encouraged the group to consider waiting children. Coincidently, a friend from a former job was in the group that day and he and a few of the others, inspired by my experiences, decided to adopt children from the waiting list. So, DF has invited them to come down to join us as well.
This means that the WHO is me and DS11, with drop in visits from various friends and fellow adopters (is this a real word?)
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I felt it necessary to respond, as my birthday is 2 days before yours and I'm ALSO going to Disney from April 30-May 3 Sounds like we'll both have fun!!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
I knew that I wanted to wake up at WDW and sleep at WDW for my birthday, so that meant we would at the very least need to be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And one more day wouldn’t hurt anyone, so I decided to travel VERY early on Thursday and leave as late as possible on Sunday. That gave me almost 4 full days. Yeah! So the answer to WHEN is: April 29 – May 2. 
So since one of us HAD to be there to run the place, DH could not travel with me. 
DD17 had scheduled herself into the SAT subject tests on May 1st , so she was out. 
BUT, DS11, could be pulled out of school for two days, so he was in! 
And, by chance, an old friend from a previous job sent me an email asking if I was going to WDW this Spring. We had gotten together on our last vacation and we had a great time. He’s a single Dad with a little girl he has adopted from Ethiopia. When he heard how excited I was to have company on my trip, he decided to ask some other folks to join us. 
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