Deux'in Disney August 2010...a pre-trip report - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I figured I'd get started on this little tid-bit, since there's really not much to plan as far as our itinerary is concerned....
Our players: Me-Jen (36), the mom, uber-planner, 4th trip to Disney. I like coffee in quantity, parentheses, and qoutation marks.
My hubby-Marc (41), the dad, super teacher, 2nd trip to Disney. He likes vacationing with his family, coffee with a touch of sugar in quantity, and sports. Doesn't matter who is playing what. He will watch it.
Our son-Alex (7), currently in varying stages of toothlessness, 3rd trip to Disney. He likes his nintendo DS, his Ipod, playing soccer, and relishes in his status as being a "picky" eater. He thinks it's a compliment, as if he has developed his picky palate to only accept the finest processed foods. After 18 months of age, no vegetable has passed that young boy's lips. Except: 2 bites of sweet potato, 2 bites of carrot, a bite of broccoli, and a bite of zuchinni....all occured under threat of death from mom. And with much gagging on his part. He'd better meet a cute girl real soon or he's never going to learn to like veggies.
Our trip, a WONDERFUL get away to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary, my 37th birthday, and our 2nd Disney family vacation, actually starts in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I know. My life sucks. I have never been on vacation for 2 weeks before, and am really looking forward to vegging out for the last half of August!! (ETA: my MIL has one flaw...indecisiveness, and an inability to plan ahead. Ok, 2 flaws. For those reasons, we were married 5 years ago ON MY BIRTHDAY. I am still a bit bitter about that, but don't tell her. It would hurt her feelings, and I do really like her. And don't tell my hubby about my lingering bitterness.....he thinks I should get over it. Darn, I thought I married the perfect man!!) As it turns out, this vacation started as a Jamaican vacation. The Disney part was my husband's afterthought...."in case Chiefy (a.k.a. Alex) doesn't like Jamaica all that much. It's just as easy to fly into Orlando as it is to fly over Orlando....why not spend a week at Disney before school starts back up". Oh, how I love my man!! For the record, it is not as easy to fly into Orlando from Jamaica as it was when we started to plan this vacation. The short version of the story includes banning Air Jamaica from any future travel plans for the rest of our mutual existences. And baggage fees. Lots and lots of baggage fees. But that's a gripe for another thread!!
So it was settled. We fly out on my birthday/our anniversary and spend 10 glorious nights at Beaches Boscobel gettin' our tans on! This is our first all inclusive vacation, and I'm afraid that it will ruin me for the rest of my life! Our plans so far include: Dunn's River, White River tubing, and a couple's massage. Marc would like to do some scuba diving, so I think we'll be getting "resort certified" while we're there. Technically, I'm already certified, but I haven't been on a dive in over 20 years (God, that was painful to type), so I'll have to see what's up when we get there. Alex is very excited about the kid's camp too. When we told him that he had his own activities that were planned for him everyday, and that he could spend as much time there as he wanted, his exact words were "you mean I don't have to spend time with you if I don't want too?", which translates to "Thank you mother and father for ensuring that the locale that was selected for my first Jamaican vacation caters to children as well as the adults. I will surely miss you and think of you often as I am distracted from my lonliness and grief by beach parties, waterslides, tie-dying, treasure hunts, and limbo contests." Needless to say, we are all looking forward to this getaway.
But you all don't give two hoots about Jamaica, do you? So I'll get onto the Disney stuff...
This is our 2nd family trip to Disney (hence, the "deux'in" part, get it??) In 2008, we spent 10 nights in a Standard room at AKL. Alex LOVED Simba's club. I'm not sure what they do to the kids while they're in their claws, but Simba's club is the one thing he still talks about. As far as his input in our vacation plans, he wanted to stay "at the hotel with the animals again, and go to that kid's club place. That was really COOL mom!". This year, we were able to score another 40% PIN, and upgraded to a savannah view room to suprise our progeny. I'm sure he will be spoiled forever after this trip, but he's an only child, so he's pretty spoiled (but not rotten) to begin with. We're doing the basic DDP. We have 5 day, no-extra-anything base tickets, and are staying on property for 8 nights. We have learned that taking a day off after 2 park days works well for our family, and gives us the chance to do the little extra things that we all want. Well, most of them anyway. There are still things that didn't make it into this trip's itinerary. Darn, looks like we'll be making another trip at some point.
So. for the fun stuff that's planned for this trip.....Betsy is working with me on a Welcome Basket for our family. SHHH...don't tell anyone, it's a suprise, even for me. We're planning a bit of a Pirate theme to this trip, since that's where DS is right now in his affinity for Disney. He's booked at the Pirate's League on our last day. We've also booked the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise for one of our other evenings. The other REALLY BIG THING is that he's finally tall enough for Space Mountain, Everest, and Mission: Space. But not yet tall enough for Rock N Rollercoaster. Darn, yet ANOTHER reason we will have to go back to Disney again. It's as if fate is speaking directly to me.....but fate kinda needs to speak directly to my husband, who has a definite limit on the # of times he can "do Disney." As a matter of fact, we have tenatively discussed our vacation plans for 2012, and in his words "we HAVE GOT to do something else in Orlando besides just Disney." (He said that last part with a bit of an attitude, if you ask me.) So far, those plans include an unknown number of days at US, Sea World (which we only spent one day at in 2008, and missed so much more than we saw), Busch Gardens, and some time at Disney. But he won't commit to how much time at Disney. I think we're looking at 2 weeks again.
So that's the long and the short of it (but mostly the long). I can't wait....DS can't wait, and DH won't even start getting excited about vacation until summer school ends....he teaches, not attends. Until then, I have the boards to keep me busy, as well as planning little details and suprises for my family along the way!!
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Great start, Jen! And love hearing about the Jamaica part, too! BTW -- I was married on my birthday, too, but it was my choice. This summer we'll be married 29 years and I'm always treated doubly special for that day.
his exact words were "you mean I don't have to spend time with you if I don't want too?", which translates to "Thank you mother and father for ensuring that the locale that was selected for my first Jamaican vacation caters to children as well as the adults. I will surely miss you and think of you often as I am distracted from my lonliness and grief by beach parties, waterslides, tie-dying, treasure hunts, and limbo contests."
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I have never been on vacation for 2 weeks before, and am really looking forward to vegging out for the last half of August!! (ETA: my MIL has one flaw...indecisiveness, and an inability to plan ahead. Ok, 2 flaws. For those reasons, we were married 5 years ago ON MY BIRTHDAY. I am still a bit bitter about that, but don't tell her. It would hurt her feelings, and I do really like her. And don't tell my hubby about my lingering bitterness.....he thinks I should get over it. Darn, I thought I married the perfect man!!) As it turns out, this vacation started as a Jamaican vacation. The Disney part was my husband's afterthought...."in case Chiefy (a.k.a. Alex) doesn't like Jamaica all that much. It's just as easy to fly into Orlando as it is to fly over Orlando....why not spend a week at Disney before school starts back up". Oh, how I love my man!! For the record, it is not as easy to fly into Orlando from Jamaica as it was when we started to plan this vacation. The short version of the story includes banning Air Jamaica from any future travel plans for the rest of our mutual existences. And baggage fees. Lots and lots of baggage fees. But that's a gripe for another thread!!
Until then, I have the boards to keep me busy, as well as planning little details and suprises for my family along the way!!
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BTW -- I was married on my birthday, too, but it was my choice. This summer we'll be married 29 years and I'm always treated doubly special for that day.
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