I've been waiting almost thirty years for this deluxe trip!

goldielocksraj

Anxiously awaiting deluxe birthday trip!
Joined
Mar 29, 2006
Hi everyone! Thanks for joining me on my 30th birthday trip that has been in the making for almost that long! But-don't you want to know who you're joining??

I'm Rebekah, obviously I'm 29 right now. I'm very bubbly and outgoing, and I am an incurable optimist. I believe that not only is the glass half full, but didn't you enjoy drinking the first half?!! :goodvibes Just some of my hobbies include Bible study, spending time with my hubby and our "kids", reading, cooking, scrapbooking, sleeping, talking, eating, and now working out! :confused: (I had NEVER thought that last one would happen!) However, I really don't do some of those too often, I really have so many things I love to do, even with fairly decent time-management skills, I just don't get to do it all! I've lived in FL since I was 18 months old, and always within a two-hour drive to WDW, so I've been many, many times! (I will elaborate on that later, I promise! :cutie:)

My hubby, Ed, will also be on our trip! He's 40 (but don't tell him that I told you, he's very sensitive about his age! :sad2:), he's also very friendly and outgoing, and EXTREMELY sensitive and compassionate, he has a big heart! He loves Bible study, eating, watching TV while laying in bed "comforatably" (aka not presentable :blush: ), just spending time with me, NFL, eating, spending time with our "kids",and going out to eat. He lived in FL until age 11, then lived in SC until age 30 (he moved right before we met :love:), so even with trips to visit his dad in FL, he hasn't been to WDW as much as I have. He still doesn't understand that "Mickey" (said with a combination of distain :crazy2: /snootiness :snooty: ) is more than Fantasyland at MK, even though we went to Epcot for a day a few years ago! So, he's not looking forward to this trip, but I know that he'll love it, based on my plans! Our ninth wedding anniversary is this September, so by now I've learned what we each like and how to "reconcile" the two at times they're different!

Here's a picture of us Christmas 2008:


UsatChristmas.jpg



But-don't use that picture if you're going to look for us this December, because since then we have each lost well over 30 lbs (and I still have a lot more to go!). Not an easy thing for two people who love to eat!!

We do not have human children, so our kids are the animals! Alex is an 11-year-old purebred, purely spoiled English Springer Spaniel. Diamond is a 10-year-old beautiful while kitty. Lucy is a 5-year-old beagle/ dachshund mix. They're pretty well behaved and not candidates for needing Caesar Milano's help, but they are all spoiled and with few exceptions, have the run of the house! Do you find that hard to believe?

Allthreeonbed.jpg



The kids will not be coming with us, obviously! Either Uncle (my brother) will be staying with them or they will be on their own vacation to Grandma and Grandpa's (my mom & stepdad). Although the kids will love either option, we have not left them for that long in MANY years, so we will still probably get the silent treatment when we get back!

We'll be going to WDW December 6-11 :santa: , staying at the Contemporary :cheer2: :dance3: :yay: IN THE TOWER!!! with a MK view! We're also splurging for DxDDP (told ya we like to eat!!), so there will be a pre-dining report too!

So, this is already a long post! I will be posting the background of the trip, plans made so far (which are almost all!), etc in future posts!

Thank you so much for sharing my trip with me! :grouphug:
 
Hi Rebekah!! I'm jumping in. Sounds like you'll have a great time! I love Disney at Christmas time. Ohhh! And you live in Florida.

Cannot wait to hear more!

Peggy
 
I'll use this post for a Table of Contents (which I love on other TR, and of course the reference to books).

Warning about me: I do not like abbreviations! I personally feel that when I use them, I'm being lazy. (But I do not think that about other people!! Am I strange :scared1:, a perfectionist :snooty:, or just crazy :eek:?? I'll let you be the judge :rotfl: .) I do use them sometimes, depending on my mood, but more often than not, I don't! I'm that way in real life, too. I.E., this fax has five pages, I live on XYZ Street, the Bible verse is in Romans, etc. So, be forewarned; though I might sometimes say that we were at MK, I will usually not!

Again, thanks for reading!!!

Table of Contents
Why did it take THIRTY years to plan this trip???!!
Plans thusfar (and I've got lots of them!)
Keeping occupied
Trips before December
 


Some people can plan a WDW trip quickly (see HappyDog's February TR for how quickly!), most people need at least a few months, and others use a year or more, often due to financial reasons. So, since I live within a 90-minutes drive :drive: (or 60-70, depending on if my car is rushing too much :rolleyes1 ), why did it take so long to plan this??? :confused3

Growing up so close to WDW, my parents made sure we went a lot, and we went with how we could afford it. Every other year since I was about 5-6 (and my little brother 2-3), they would work a little extra for the money to buy season passes for the four of us. Back then it seemed like it was designated months you could go in, instead of the date-specific black out timeframes there are now. (I could be wrong on this?) So, in the months that we could go, we would go every Saturday in that month. We would leave the house before the sun came out :coffee:, get there right about opening time, and stay until dark!! Also, we would have a big duffell bag with our food popcorn:: and drinks. Mom still did a good job helping us feel that we were on "vacation" since we got things we normally didn't get at home, i.e., Hi-C. Any souvineers were bought with our allowance money; given our ages and appropriate allowances, they were usually small souvineers! So, I did a lot of window shopping. We always had a blast, and some of my fondest family memories are of WDW. :hug:

About once a year, we stayed in a random motel off property. Boy, that was a treat :cloud9: !!! Since this was waaaaayyyy before moderate and value resorts were built @ WDW, we never stayed on property. I distinctly remember passing through the Contemporary on the monorail and looking down at the concourse and thinking, "Wow, those are real people, not animatronics like the rides! They actually get to stay at a hotel at WDW!! How lucky!!" And from that moment on, I wanted to stay at the Contemporary. :lovestruc

Our trips decreased dramatically when, at age ten and a half, my parents added my baby sister :littleangel:: to our family! I still got to go a few times a year with church groups for Night of Joy :music: or an occasional day trip with school, but nothing like it had been.Again, no hotel, just day trips.

When I was about sixteen, because of many things Disney had done and said, my family (and myself personally) decided not to go again until we felt that they were more family-friendly again. (I'm not trying to start any kind of arguments about the boycott-although I'm still confident that we made the right decision-I'm just trying to explain where I came from! :goodvibes ) So, from ages 16-26, I didn't go. During that time I graduated from high school, got my first "real" job, got married, etc, all while missing Disney :bored: and hoping that they would change so I could feel alright about going.

So they did, and I decided that by my thirtieth birthday, hubby and I would go on my dream trip; stay in the Contemporary ON MY BIRTHDAY (which is Christmas Day :cake: :santa:), stay in a big suite so that some of my immediate family could at least stay a night with us to see us on Christmas, and go for at least 4-5 days. If you want a good laugh, look up the rates for the Contemporary from December 23-28 for the top two suites! :scared1: :scared1: :scared1:

I then priced it for early December, when crowds are lower anyways and we don't have to miss my family, when prices are lower, and just a tower room with MK view, and add in 40% off bounce-back offer from a quick trip on New Year's with BFF, and wola! An affordable option! I officially booked it on January 2, 2010, while sitting in the room @ Pop Century. :hyper2: Correction-not sitting, bouncing on the bed, causing BFF to laugh uncontrollably! :lmao: :rotfl2: But-it was official! :banana: :yay:

Okay, this update has gone on long enough (told ya I like to talk!), so I'll let you go and give an update later!

Thanks again for reading an joining in on my birthday trip! :grouphug:
 
Hi Rebekah!! I'm jumping in. Sounds like you'll have a great time! I love Disney at Christmas time. Ohhh! And you live in Florida.

Cannot wait to hear more!

Peggy

Oh wow, thank you Peggy!! Hey, if you like to hear more, then you're in the right place, because as BFF says about me, "Hi, I'm Rebekah, and I'm talking forever!" :chat: But I promise it's not just going to be chatter, I'm a decent storyteller and I love to give details, so maybe think of this a cheaper than buying a brand-new novel?

popcorn:: I'm subbing....

Another reader already!! Thank you, I'm honored to be on your subscription list! :goodvibes

Well, I should go now since it's a worknight, and if hubby finds out how long I've been on the computer for "Mickey" . . . :eek: :rolleyes1

So, good night DIS! Good night Belle 2007! Good night, OhioDisneyLover! Good night, John Boy!
 
Since I've been actively planing this trip for almost four full months (and of course, inactively planning for 20+ years :rolleyes: ), I've got plans fairly well set. I'm also very decisive (again, could be something about the 50+ childhood trips and the 20+ years planning :confused3 ), so I know what I want, and I usually stick to it. I've often found that second-guessing myself on what I want just leads to frustration :headache: , so more and more I trust my instincts.

I've made my plan based on what parks I/we like :yay: , our priorities :cloud9: , and our schedule :hourglass . Obviously I can't factor in operating times yet (though my plans will change very little, just maybe ADR's), and although I subscribe to touringplans.com, since crowd levels are pretty low during our trip :banana: , I'm not going to worry about what park to do/not to do.

For park tickets, we just bought the basic one-day with the package. I plan to upgrade them, upon arrival, to the FL resident weekday seasonal pass, :cool2: because that'll fit our plans and budget the best. With that, the only day we won't have park tickets is Saturday, but that will probably be okay. If we really really really want to get into a park that day, :idea: we can upgrade the weekday pass to the regular seasonal pass.

Here goes:

Sunday- :drive: drive to Kissimmee (technically, Lake Buena Vista) right after church and check in to the local Courtyard. Just hang around Sunday afternoon and evening :upsidedow , and play it by ear. Since it'll be either the last week of regular NFL or first week of playoffs, I see hubby either watching TV in the room or going to a sports place to watch. :happytv: I'm really going to let him pick most/all of what we do or don't do that day, since for the next six days it'll be already planned!! :laughing:

Monday-get up kinda early, eat a hearty breakfast @ hotel, checkout, and check in to THE CONTEMPORARY, WHERE THE MONORAIL GOES THROUGH!!!! It'll be Epcot that day :figment: , both lunch and dinner in the park, and a break in the afternoon to unpack and probably nap. We will be returning to Epcot in the evening at least to eat. If a park (other than Animal Kingdom) has evening EMH, probably go there too.

Tuesday-MGM day. (Hey, I went when it first opened and it was MGM, before that silly hat was put in front of the theatre :smickey:, so I will call it MGM! ) We will be having lunch at the park (have to take hubby to Sci-Fi!), but dinner in Epcot. Afternoon nap is questionable-we may or may not need it, I plan on playing it by ear that day.:tilt: I plan on returning to MGM for the Osborne lights. Since park hours for last year show the park closing kinda early (8:00), this very likely might be when we go to Jellyrolls, especially since it's close walking distance. Of course if someone has evening EMH, that'll be taken into consideration.

Wednesday-free day! The only set plans will be California Grill for dinner, and I really plan on keeping it free until at least 9:00 am that day. We can sleep as long as we like, eat whenever or wherever we want, do things together, do things seperately, WHATEVER!!! I think very likely we'll be solo for at least part of the day, since by then we'll already have had three days in a row of 100% togetherness (counting Sunday).

Thursday-Magic Kingdom! And pre-park opening ADR at Cinderella's Castle!!! princess: (I just know how much my "manly man" pirate: hubby will love eating breakfast at "Mickey" in a castle with princesses. :rotfl: But, whose birthday is it???) We'll go to Epcot for lunch and dinner (I want to eat in as many countries as possible!), with a nap between lunch and afternoon back at Magic Kingdom. Evening will likely be at Magic Kingdom still, unless hubby is too Mickey-d out or there are EMH's somewhere else.

Friday-Epcot again! It's our favorite park. We'll have pre-park opening ADR at Askerhaus, and assuming that my hubby hasn't run away because of two princess meals, we'll finish up our must-do's in Epcot, including all of the storytellers. Again, lunch and dinner will be there. Evening/night plans really depend on what we feel like and who does/does not have EMH's. This could be another Jellyrolls night. :mic: :drinking1

Saturday-Last day :sad1: :scared: But, since we live so close, it'll still be a full day! (Remember: I'm used to driving there and back in the same day!) It's another free day, lunch will be @ Kona and dinner @ Narcossee's, otherwise free. I suspect I'll be driving around all of WDW madly buying whatever souvineers I thought I didn't want but then decided that I couldn't live without!

So-who thinks I'm a nut/OCD/a control freak?! What if I told you that on the "inteneraries" section of my trip planner on waltdisneyworld.com, I told you I have ideas more detailed than than?? :eek:

I'll let you go for now (and hug all of the normal people in your life :grouphug: ), and we'll catch up later! Thanks so much for reading. And please feel free to post, even if it's just to say hi.
 


Your plans sound great. :thumbsup2

I remember the first time my DH went to Sci-Fi. It was a lot of fun. I think he liked the atmosphere a lot better than the food but it was definitely worth the trip.

We love EPCOT too. Have you decided on where to have lunch and dinner the days that you are there? We went to Chefs de France for the first time last year and loved it. We're wondering why it took us so dang long to try it! Of course, there is Le Cellier too. We like it there but we both think that the steaks are better at the Yachtsman. :confused3

Breakfast at the castle sounds fun too. We went there once on our anniversary and they were so kind. Our table was decorated and they gave us champagne flutes that were beautiful.

I have serious OCD when it comes to Disney planning (see my PTR :laughing:) and I find it necessary to plan as much as possible. As long as I have a plan, I'm happy. I don't mind if things go different from our plans but it sure does avoid the "what do you want to do today" blues.

Looking forward to reading more. :surfweb::surfweb:popcorn::popcorn::
 
So, this trip was official on January 2, :dance3: and I have been counting down ever since! :hourglass I have the ticker here on the boards, the "how many days?" count down on my phone's calendar and my Outlook calendar at work. Between those and spending a lot of time on the DIS :disrocks: , I started to become stir crazy. :crazy: I HAD to help myself establish goals to accomplish before the trip-that way I could DO things to accomplish those goals, :teacher: thus taking my mind off the trip and leaving less available time for DIS. :scared1: Yes, yes, unimaginable, I know! But being so close to WDW, I had to keep away from the temptation to drive there every weekend! :car:

So, I think in late February or early March, I made a list, and I literally titled it "Keeping Occupied". I won't post the WHOLE list (it's rather lengthy), but I'll post the general ideas.

1. Books I want to read. :cloud9: This includes both books I haven't read, books I have read but want to re-read, and a series (Left Behind) that I've read about 2/3 of the books but I want to finish, so I'm going to start over and read them all sequentially. The list is VERY long, I'm an incurable bookworm, to put it mildly! So far, I've read two of the books on my list, and there are at least three dozen!

2. Movies I want to see. This list isn't movies that are coming out, but ones that are already out and on DVD. Some I've seen, some I haven't, some just not for a very long time. This list includes Disney princess movies! princess:

3. Cleaning, :laundy: finish unpacking, and decorating the house! Two years ago, we moved from the one-bedroom apt :crowded: we'd lived in as newlyweds to the house we're renting now, and still haven't finished unpacking or decorating! :guilty: We both work full time (well, hubby usually works a good bit of OT too! :crazy2:) So, when we come home, our priorities are recharging and spending time w/each other and the kids :dog: :cat: :dog2: This project alone should keep me busy until December!

4. New food to try, both restaurants and cooking at home. popcorn:: This will help prepare us for our WS eating! (I know I haven't said which restaurants yet, I will be posting that shortly on the PTR and I will be starting my PFR soon!) Also give us another excuse to eat out! :woohoo:

5. Financial goals (besides just paying off this trip and saving tip/spending money!) It's mostly about saving.

In addition, I do have several other trips coming up this year :teleport: , and soon I'll post what they are and do mini TR on each one. But, this post is already quite lengthy (how do I always do that? :mic: :chat: :hyper2: ), so I'll leave that for next time!

:grouphug: Thanks so much for reading and sharing in my birthday fun!
 
I need a Keep Occupied list too. My stupid Disney OCD takes over though and I'd probably never accomplish a thing on my list.... :rolleyes1 :lmao:
 
I need a Keep Occupied list too. My stupid Disney OCD takes over though and I'd probably never accomplish a thing on my list.... :rolleyes1 :lmao:

Hey, if you think you can't do it, then isn't that a great reason to do it??? Start small-just two or three things. Also, break them down into smaller goals that will help you reach the larger one, it seems much easier that way!

And, I think you could do it!!!

But-you do have more people to plan for, so you do have a very legitimate reason for the extra planning that you do.
 
Gee, I didn't realize that you had a PTR, for your December trip! Good for you! And how fun for your birthday. I was blown away by Christmas at Disney. I hope to do it again in a few years. It was breathtaking. You will love it I am sure :)

Take your time the next six months will fly by! Mine did! :thumbsup2
 
Gee, I didn't realize that you had a PTR, for your December trip! Good for you! And how fun for your birthday. I was blown away by Christmas at Disney. I hope to do it again in a few years. It was breathtaking. You will love it I am sure :)

Take your time the next six months will fly by! Mine did! :thumbsup2

Thanks so much for stopping by!! :goodvibes I really do love your TR and PTR, especially your Christmas TR!

Yeah, my birthday was a good excuse for this trip. I'm not looking forward to being thirty (I don't think it's old, just not as young as a twenty-something!), so I hope this will help take the "sting" off. Plus, since Christmas is my favorite holiday and the beginning of December is low-crowds, it seemed the perfect opportunity!
 
Well, besides my "keeping occupied" list and regular life (which can get hectic and stressfull, :scared: even without human children!), I also have some non-Disney trips coming up before 212 days from now.

Memorial Day weekend: go see my baby sister :cutie: and her husband in Seattle! :cool1: They dated on and off in high school, then got back together a few months before graduation and right after he joined the Army. He was in Iraq for a year, with a two-and-a-half week trip home to get married! :bride: :groom: Right before he came home, sis moved to the base near Seattle, and he's back and they're finally together! I haven't seen her since Valentine's Day, so I'm definately looking forward to the trip. We'll also be doing some Seattle sightseeing, since it's my first trip there.

Fourth of July weekend: going with BFF to San Francisco! :banana: This will be for our annual vacation together. Since we started doing this just a few years ago, we've been to Boston, Epcot (for just a day), and New York City. We still haven't even booked the flights for this (for many reasons), but we're pretty committed to going. Neither of us have ever been there, so it'll be fun sightseeing for both of us!

Labor Day weekend: going to with hubby to Niagra Falls! :cheer2: This is for our ninth wedding anniversary :love: , and it'll be our first "international" trip :eek: , since we're staying on the Canadian side! Last year we went to D.C. (he had been as a child, I'd never been), and we had said we'd be back this year, but hubby decided he wanted a vacation with less history and culture. :confused: He suggested Niagra Falls, and I fell in love with the idea :love: , so that's our plan.

Hubby's birthday, mid-October: nothing even close to planned yet. We don't always go away for his birthday, and when we do it's usually small (one night, somewhere close where we can drive :drive: ). A few years ago we went overnight to SeaWorld, last year we stayed at a nice Marriott on Clearwater Beach (and got the room for half price! :yay: ). I've asked him a few times what he's wanted to do, and he's been very low-key. It may be the year where we finally buy him a PS3 and he just takes an extra day or two off work to stay home and play it! :surfweb: My only rule is-it's his birthday, so he gets to pick!

And then a low-key, quiet, uneventful break in some tiny town in Central Florida . . .

Thanks everyone for reading! :grouphug: I should be starting my pre-dining report soon, I'll put the link in my signature.

 
Just noticed the link for your PTR in your siggy this morning! Your plans are sounding great - you're going to love WDW at Christmastime!
 

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