franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
Hello everyone! And welcome to another franandaj TR! For those of you who know me you don’t need the background, but in case any of you are new to these TRs, here’s the skinny.
I started writing Trip Reports about 15 years ago when my wife and I would visit Disney World. We were Disneyland locals so a trip to WDW was a big deal for us. Eventually we became DVC members and were able to visit the World at least once, sometimes twice a year. For a while I was known on the DIS for tossing an big chunk of meat into my suitcase and then cooking it, and repurposing it into completely different meals in the DVC villa over the course of our trip.
Here’s one of the last pictures we took together on one of our Big Nights Out before she suffered the injury which eventually led to her passing. Mardi Gras!
Since her passing, my besties have had my back. This is Jill, The Spinster. We met on the DIS and have been friends for over a decade. Last year she invited me to join her on a monumental “zero” birthday trip she had planned (solo). Once Fran passed, she thought I might enjoy coming along. I did! This picture was taken on our flight home when we were exhausted, overloaded with history, but still not wanting to kill each other after two and a half weeks of grueling mornings and touring! You can read about it all here.
This is Jenny, the Missus, and Michael (her boy toy). I also met her on the DIS, and have known Jenny for over a decade as well. She and Michael have been married for over 30 years now. This will be a welcome and much needed trip for the both of them!
Planning for this trip has been in the works for quite sometime! Last year, Fran and I were supposed to go to WDW and instead she checked into the hospital and never checked out.
The nice people at DVC were kind enough to put my points to back into my account when I had to cancel. I also was lucky to have my mom come to stay with me for a couple weeks after that, and then later Jill came out for a week.
It was during that week that we launched many of our planned trips. It had been over a year since I'd been to WDW back then. I won't go to Florida between June and September because I can't take the heat, and with our trip to Egypt, October and November were out of the question. Plus Jill had used up all her PTO for 2023 between the Wonder cruise the previous winter, and Egypt.
There was another thing dictating our travel time. Jill's niece and nephew play in their HS marching band. If you have followed along on previous TRs/Bonus features, you might remember this from when he played at DL in 2022. Well this year he is a junior, the trip is to WDW/US/IOA, and not only is he marching, but his sister is marching as well! Jill couldn't miss out on that! The unfortunate part is that we are traveling during Spring Break. But at least it is the week after Easter, so the DVC point values are lower.
Longtime readers will know my cat sitter Jim (aka Naked Jim), and if you remember the TR where we took him and Alberto to WDW, we stayed in a Poly Bungalow. Ever since the Copper Creek Cabins opened I wanted to find an excuse to stay there. Since over 350 points were credited back to my account last year and I already have a crap ton of points, we were well on the way to spending 124 points per night on a swanky room! At this point I did not care one bit if it were just Jill and I alone in the cabin, however, we extended the invitation to Jenny and Michael to join us, and they were more than happy to accept!
As to the new beginnings….we didn’t know about all of this when the trip was launched. For me it’s a new beginning because this is my first time back to WDW without Fran. It’s bittersweet because part of what brought us together was our mutual love of all things Disney. While I had been to Disney World before I met her, it was one of the adventures that we truly shared. A few days before the trip, I broke down and ugly cried because I missed her so much. This was an obvious new beginning for me. For the others it was more recent.
Jill had a more recent big change in her life. Obvious she worked from home during the pandemic, but her company made them come back into the office once things started opening up. Even though her entire team was WFH, she and her boss had to come into the office. Finally this past January the HR department gave in and let the company go remote. Since then we have been able to plan different kinds of trips. Like this December we will travel to WDW. She will work remotely during the day, and we can go out at night. She’ll take a day or two off, for fun, but we can spend a whole week at WDW while she works a few, and plays for a few. This changes the way that we can plan trips because PTO is one of the biggest obstacles for us to go to a lot of places.
Jenny had an even more monumental change. Last month she received word that her company was restructuring and her positon and all others located outside the state of Colorado were being eliminated as of April 1st. She had less than 30 days to regroup and come up with a new job. Luckily she's been able to put together a private practice of sorts. Her last day was March 30. With all the stress of being laid off and creating a new job environment this is a much needed vacation!
This is a great new beginning for Michael too because now he won't have to listen to Jenny complain about her job, her boss, or her hours.
So back to the plans, as I mentioned it was a lower point season but that began April 1st. Our plan was to fly on March 31st, Easter Sunday. Since we knew we would get in late, and we didn't want to pay Easter week point prices, we booked an offsite hotel near the airport for the first night. Jill wanted to rent a car rather than rely on Disney transportation. This way we could also do our own shopping instead of a grocery service. We don't have a lot of park time planned, but we are staying at resorts that are serviced mostly by busses. Jill doesn't like busses. Originally the car was going to run us around $350, but Jill found an unused travel credit on one of her credit cards and was able to apply that to a new reservation bringing the cost down to $50!
We originally had booked a hotel in Lake Buena Vista, but when I noticed that it had a $25 parking fee, we switched to an airport hotel with no parking fee. It was only $5 more than the other hotel, but no parking fee.
Our plan was to pick up groceries and check into the Cabins. We figured the room wouldn't be ready so we would just head over to Epcot and nosh on some stuff from the F&G kiosks, and see if we could score a ride on the new Guardians coaster. Neither Jill nor I have been on it yet. Once we got the text that the room was ready we could go back and relax.
One thing about staying in a cabin is that we want to actually enjoy the cabin! We've planned several meals to be cooked in the cabin. One dinner and two breakfasts. We're going to make Michael do a lot of the cooking. He's a great cook. Everything we are having is simple, but Jenny says he will enjoy feeling useful. There may or may not be adult breakfast beverages involved.
We have some other fun plans like a monorail bar crawl, Jill and I will be dining at Victoria and Albert's, plus a few other surprises. We are in the cabin for four nights and then we say goodbye to Jenny and Michael. Jill and I check into AKL Jambo House Concierge level for another two nights. Originally I had three nights in a studio booked for just me after Jill left, but I canceled that when I opted to celebrate my birthday this year overseas with more DIS friends. You'll have to wait for the trip report if you don't already know!
I think that covers the basics! I'll be back shortly with our travel day!
I started writing Trip Reports about 15 years ago when my wife and I would visit Disney World. We were Disneyland locals so a trip to WDW was a big deal for us. Eventually we became DVC members and were able to visit the World at least once, sometimes twice a year. For a while I was known on the DIS for tossing an big chunk of meat into my suitcase and then cooking it, and repurposing it into completely different meals in the DVC villa over the course of our trip.
Here’s one of the last pictures we took together on one of our Big Nights Out before she suffered the injury which eventually led to her passing. Mardi Gras!
Since her passing, my besties have had my back. This is Jill, The Spinster. We met on the DIS and have been friends for over a decade. Last year she invited me to join her on a monumental “zero” birthday trip she had planned (solo). Once Fran passed, she thought I might enjoy coming along. I did! This picture was taken on our flight home when we were exhausted, overloaded with history, but still not wanting to kill each other after two and a half weeks of grueling mornings and touring! You can read about it all here.
This is Jenny, the Missus, and Michael (her boy toy). I also met her on the DIS, and have known Jenny for over a decade as well. She and Michael have been married for over 30 years now. This will be a welcome and much needed trip for the both of them!
Planning for this trip has been in the works for quite sometime! Last year, Fran and I were supposed to go to WDW and instead she checked into the hospital and never checked out.
The nice people at DVC were kind enough to put my points to back into my account when I had to cancel. I also was lucky to have my mom come to stay with me for a couple weeks after that, and then later Jill came out for a week.It was during that week that we launched many of our planned trips. It had been over a year since I'd been to WDW back then. I won't go to Florida between June and September because I can't take the heat, and with our trip to Egypt, October and November were out of the question. Plus Jill had used up all her PTO for 2023 between the Wonder cruise the previous winter, and Egypt.
There was another thing dictating our travel time. Jill's niece and nephew play in their HS marching band. If you have followed along on previous TRs/Bonus features, you might remember this from when he played at DL in 2022. Well this year he is a junior, the trip is to WDW/US/IOA, and not only is he marching, but his sister is marching as well! Jill couldn't miss out on that! The unfortunate part is that we are traveling during Spring Break. But at least it is the week after Easter, so the DVC point values are lower.
Longtime readers will know my cat sitter Jim (aka Naked Jim), and if you remember the TR where we took him and Alberto to WDW, we stayed in a Poly Bungalow. Ever since the Copper Creek Cabins opened I wanted to find an excuse to stay there. Since over 350 points were credited back to my account last year and I already have a crap ton of points, we were well on the way to spending 124 points per night on a swanky room! At this point I did not care one bit if it were just Jill and I alone in the cabin, however, we extended the invitation to Jenny and Michael to join us, and they were more than happy to accept!
As to the new beginnings….we didn’t know about all of this when the trip was launched. For me it’s a new beginning because this is my first time back to WDW without Fran. It’s bittersweet because part of what brought us together was our mutual love of all things Disney. While I had been to Disney World before I met her, it was one of the adventures that we truly shared. A few days before the trip, I broke down and ugly cried because I missed her so much. This was an obvious new beginning for me. For the others it was more recent.
Jill had a more recent big change in her life. Obvious she worked from home during the pandemic, but her company made them come back into the office once things started opening up. Even though her entire team was WFH, she and her boss had to come into the office. Finally this past January the HR department gave in and let the company go remote. Since then we have been able to plan different kinds of trips. Like this December we will travel to WDW. She will work remotely during the day, and we can go out at night. She’ll take a day or two off, for fun, but we can spend a whole week at WDW while she works a few, and plays for a few. This changes the way that we can plan trips because PTO is one of the biggest obstacles for us to go to a lot of places.
Jenny had an even more monumental change. Last month she received word that her company was restructuring and her positon and all others located outside the state of Colorado were being eliminated as of April 1st. She had less than 30 days to regroup and come up with a new job. Luckily she's been able to put together a private practice of sorts. Her last day was March 30. With all the stress of being laid off and creating a new job environment this is a much needed vacation!
This is a great new beginning for Michael too because now he won't have to listen to Jenny complain about her job, her boss, or her hours.
So back to the plans, as I mentioned it was a lower point season but that began April 1st. Our plan was to fly on March 31st, Easter Sunday. Since we knew we would get in late, and we didn't want to pay Easter week point prices, we booked an offsite hotel near the airport for the first night. Jill wanted to rent a car rather than rely on Disney transportation. This way we could also do our own shopping instead of a grocery service. We don't have a lot of park time planned, but we are staying at resorts that are serviced mostly by busses. Jill doesn't like busses. Originally the car was going to run us around $350, but Jill found an unused travel credit on one of her credit cards and was able to apply that to a new reservation bringing the cost down to $50!
We originally had booked a hotel in Lake Buena Vista, but when I noticed that it had a $25 parking fee, we switched to an airport hotel with no parking fee. It was only $5 more than the other hotel, but no parking fee.
Our plan was to pick up groceries and check into the Cabins. We figured the room wouldn't be ready so we would just head over to Epcot and nosh on some stuff from the F&G kiosks, and see if we could score a ride on the new Guardians coaster. Neither Jill nor I have been on it yet. Once we got the text that the room was ready we could go back and relax.
One thing about staying in a cabin is that we want to actually enjoy the cabin! We've planned several meals to be cooked in the cabin. One dinner and two breakfasts. We're going to make Michael do a lot of the cooking. He's a great cook. Everything we are having is simple, but Jenny says he will enjoy feeling useful. There may or may not be adult breakfast beverages involved.
We have some other fun plans like a monorail bar crawl, Jill and I will be dining at Victoria and Albert's, plus a few other surprises. We are in the cabin for four nights and then we say goodbye to Jenny and Michael. Jill and I check into AKL Jambo House Concierge level for another two nights. Originally I had three nights in a studio booked for just me after Jill left, but I canceled that when I opted to celebrate my birthday this year overseas with more DIS friends. You'll have to wait for the trip report if you don't already know!
I think that covers the basics! I'll be back shortly with our travel day!
No. Way! Wow, that's great!
I'm glad to have you following along!
