Friends! I just got off the phone from booking a trip to French Quarter for August 5-10th! At a great price--and with a River View for the first time!
I am so excited. We haven't been since 2015. It is a non parks trip, soaking up the sun and the pool and the gorgeous landscaping, the cobbled streets and the clip-clop of horses and the light jazz music and the boat ride to Riverside and Disney Springs. 5 nights and six days, right before school starts for us both and after a myriad of summer commitments and tasks in June and July.
I put money in a vacation account every month, and we go on a nice summer vacation every other year. But today, only four hours ago, haha, my DD17 asked if we could possibly go this year instead of next because she is graduating next year and that summer will be all about making money and packing and getting ready for college. This summer is all about working her tail off on getting a lot of audition pieces ready for the fall screening auditions for music schools (she is a pianist). I have been saving more, thinking that we would go on a bigger, grander, more expensive trip next summer. But she said, "I would love for us to go to Florida this summer, Mom." I am fine with no vacation next year." I will definitely have enough in the account for a small getaway next summer. Heck, how many more times will I get her eager (and available) to go on a "hang and relax with Mom" vacation in a place we both love? She has been there in 2016 with her school Band, tearing up all the parks with her friends, and so she is glad to have a nice chill vacation before her hectic senior year starts up. I am cool with it! Our trip in 2015 was planned last minute, too, because I was desperate for sun and warmth, after the Polar Vortex winter and a damp and wet June where we live. And we had a great time.
I am so pleased that I learned to budget from the DIS about 8 or 9 years ago. It has allowed me to take my DD on some nice vacations as well as ease any anxiety about how I would pay for it. One tip I learned is to plan a trip that does not drain the vacation account down to the last dollar. Leave enough in there that I have a real head start on saving for the next one over the coming year(s).
Just wanted to share. We don't do Disney the way most people do. We order from Garden Grocer and eat at the two Port Orleans food courts; sometimes we do the parks for 2-3 days, sometimes not. One time we did a split stay with FQ and the Hyatt Grand Cypress and its super-impressive pools and combined it with a conference I had there at the Hyatt. I don't want to drive at all while there, so we do DME and use the Disney buses, boats or a cab to go anywhere else we want to go.
Just wanted to share! Thanks for reading along with me.
