Goldys4
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2015
I’ve only attempted one other pre-trip report and didn’t really follow through with it very well. Needless to say, we had a great family gathering and the Disney bug really bit me hard.
Our upcoming trip has been long in the making- 20 years! And 16 years. And 13 years. You may be wondering how that adds up…
After our trip in 2016 where we watched our youngest dance at Disney with the Disney Performing Arts program her dance studio participated in, I was left with a feeling of loss. I loved the planning, the thinking about, the overall Joy I felt when remembering our trip and the fun times we never would have had with my parents and sister if it weren’t for that trip.
Mom, sister, dad, oldest, hubby, me, youngest
After our amazing family vacation, I had the most wonderful idea. Our 20th Anniversary was coming up in 2019, my oldest will be turning Sweet 16 in 2019 and my youngest will officially hit the teen years in 2019. What better way to celebrate all of these milestones than another WDW family vacation!
My brain working overtime, I knew it had to be spectacular with all of these things happening. Something we hadn’t done before. I had always wanted to go on a cruise, but hubby was kind of reluctant. I knew to get him on-board with taking the family on a cruise I would need to do something drastic.
Enter our adults only 3 night Disney Dream trip, September 2017
Me & Hubby- I swear the CM knew exactly where I was supposed to stand for the "ears"!
Hubby agreed that a short trial cruise would be a good to make sure he could handle it. Also, we needed some couple time! He said if it were any other cruise line he probably wouldn’t have done it- he trusts Disney to take care of their guests. Let’s just say, hubby doesn’t like boats. Or beaches. Or water. Pretty much anything on or near the water. It was a miracle I got him to agree to it! He really liked the idea of going to sleep and being in a different country though. Loves the idea of seeing so many different countries within a short span of time. I knew I had him hooked if he was ok with our little cruise. Of course, I wasn’t sure I would absolutely love cruising either, but as soon as I saw the ship I knew I was home. So, with hubby agreeing to the trial cruise I knew it would be relatively easy to get him to agree to a placeholder for a cruise in 2019 with the whole family- as long as it went well!
And it went great! I convinced him that since we were already spending the airfare to get to Orlando a day early, we might as well go a few days early and hit the parks. He realized I was right and we flew in on a Wednesday, went to Animal Kingdom to see the new Pandora area we missed in 2016, did the Keys to the Kingdom tour on Thursday (absolutely LOVED it) and then headed to the Disney Dream on Friday.
It was a whirlwind trip and I fell in love with cruising. Hubby was able to tolerate it, and actually *gasp* had a lot of fun too! I couldn’t get him to go near the rails very often, and having a veranda room may not have been the best use of our money since I only got him out there once. I am terrified of heights, but even though we were on deck 7, I really didn’t mind the heights on the ship. It was very strange, but maybe because it was water down below I wasn’t as afraid? I know in reality if anyone fell from that height it wouldn’t be a great outcome, but the mind plays tricks when looking at the ocean.
So, after a great cruise we put down our placeholder. We anxiously awaited the release of the 2019 late spring/ early summer itineraries. We narrowed it down to a Western Caribbean cruise because the ports looked like a lot of fun and we had gone to Jamaica for our honeymoon. We are looking forward to revisiting there with our kids!
Dunn's River almost 20 years ago! Hoping to book Dunn's River port adventure to climb the Falls with the kids!
As soon as the itineraries dropped we got a hold of our TA and promptly booked the May 25 Fantasy cruise.
There was only one slight hitch. We didn’t know what the girl’s school schedule would be for that year. We booked it knowing it might not work. It didn’t. It could- if everything worked out perfectly. But you know how the best laid plans are! They get out of school the day before the cruise. I just really wasn’t comfortable that they wouldn’t have to make up a snow day or our flights would work out that we could leave after they get out of school.
After talking to hubby about it, we decided to look at the next round of releases when they came out to see if there was a cruise a little later that would work better for us. When they did release the summer 2019 itineraries we saw the June 8th date. It was more expensive, but for peace of mind we decided to switch.
And that brought up a whole other possibility to me! Why not add a few days before like we did for our couple trip?!? Once again, I was able to get hubby on board with this. Yeah!!
So now we are looking forward to our epic 2019 Celebrate Everything! 4 days at WDW and 7 night Western Caribbean Fantasy cruise.
We will be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter where we will feast on beignets and jazz, visiting the Magic Kingdom one day, one of the other parks another day (not sure which yet), and have a day to explore resorts or do something else fun. We aren’t really sure what we will do that extra day, but I’ll keep you all posted. I thought maybe one of the water parks, but hubby will have enough of water/ beaches with the cruise. I’ll update as ideas come along, maybe someone can suggest something fun?
We are looking forward to a great trip and I hope you all will enjoy following along!
Our upcoming trip has been long in the making- 20 years! And 16 years. And 13 years. You may be wondering how that adds up…
After our trip in 2016 where we watched our youngest dance at Disney with the Disney Performing Arts program her dance studio participated in, I was left with a feeling of loss. I loved the planning, the thinking about, the overall Joy I felt when remembering our trip and the fun times we never would have had with my parents and sister if it weren’t for that trip.
Mom, sister, dad, oldest, hubby, me, youngest
After our amazing family vacation, I had the most wonderful idea. Our 20th Anniversary was coming up in 2019, my oldest will be turning Sweet 16 in 2019 and my youngest will officially hit the teen years in 2019. What better way to celebrate all of these milestones than another WDW family vacation!
My brain working overtime, I knew it had to be spectacular with all of these things happening. Something we hadn’t done before. I had always wanted to go on a cruise, but hubby was kind of reluctant. I knew to get him on-board with taking the family on a cruise I would need to do something drastic.
Enter our adults only 3 night Disney Dream trip, September 2017
Me & Hubby- I swear the CM knew exactly where I was supposed to stand for the "ears"!
Hubby agreed that a short trial cruise would be a good to make sure he could handle it. Also, we needed some couple time! He said if it were any other cruise line he probably wouldn’t have done it- he trusts Disney to take care of their guests. Let’s just say, hubby doesn’t like boats. Or beaches. Or water. Pretty much anything on or near the water. It was a miracle I got him to agree to it! He really liked the idea of going to sleep and being in a different country though. Loves the idea of seeing so many different countries within a short span of time. I knew I had him hooked if he was ok with our little cruise. Of course, I wasn’t sure I would absolutely love cruising either, but as soon as I saw the ship I knew I was home. So, with hubby agreeing to the trial cruise I knew it would be relatively easy to get him to agree to a placeholder for a cruise in 2019 with the whole family- as long as it went well!
And it went great! I convinced him that since we were already spending the airfare to get to Orlando a day early, we might as well go a few days early and hit the parks. He realized I was right and we flew in on a Wednesday, went to Animal Kingdom to see the new Pandora area we missed in 2016, did the Keys to the Kingdom tour on Thursday (absolutely LOVED it) and then headed to the Disney Dream on Friday.
It was a whirlwind trip and I fell in love with cruising. Hubby was able to tolerate it, and actually *gasp* had a lot of fun too! I couldn’t get him to go near the rails very often, and having a veranda room may not have been the best use of our money since I only got him out there once. I am terrified of heights, but even though we were on deck 7, I really didn’t mind the heights on the ship. It was very strange, but maybe because it was water down below I wasn’t as afraid? I know in reality if anyone fell from that height it wouldn’t be a great outcome, but the mind plays tricks when looking at the ocean.
So, after a great cruise we put down our placeholder. We anxiously awaited the release of the 2019 late spring/ early summer itineraries. We narrowed it down to a Western Caribbean cruise because the ports looked like a lot of fun and we had gone to Jamaica for our honeymoon. We are looking forward to revisiting there with our kids!
Dunn's River almost 20 years ago! Hoping to book Dunn's River port adventure to climb the Falls with the kids!
As soon as the itineraries dropped we got a hold of our TA and promptly booked the May 25 Fantasy cruise.
There was only one slight hitch. We didn’t know what the girl’s school schedule would be for that year. We booked it knowing it might not work. It didn’t. It could- if everything worked out perfectly. But you know how the best laid plans are! They get out of school the day before the cruise. I just really wasn’t comfortable that they wouldn’t have to make up a snow day or our flights would work out that we could leave after they get out of school.
After talking to hubby about it, we decided to look at the next round of releases when they came out to see if there was a cruise a little later that would work better for us. When they did release the summer 2019 itineraries we saw the June 8th date. It was more expensive, but for peace of mind we decided to switch.
And that brought up a whole other possibility to me! Why not add a few days before like we did for our couple trip?!? Once again, I was able to get hubby on board with this. Yeah!!
So now we are looking forward to our epic 2019 Celebrate Everything! 4 days at WDW and 7 night Western Caribbean Fantasy cruise.
We will be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter where we will feast on beignets and jazz, visiting the Magic Kingdom one day, one of the other parks another day (not sure which yet), and have a day to explore resorts or do something else fun. We aren’t really sure what we will do that extra day, but I’ll keep you all posted. I thought maybe one of the water parks, but hubby will have enough of water/ beaches with the cruise. I’ll update as ideas come along, maybe someone can suggest something fun?
We are looking forward to a great trip and I hope you all will enjoy following along!
