princessnicchia
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2008
So, although I’ve written a trip report before, this is my first PTR. I think writing it is my way of A) dealing with my need to obsessively plan and think about the trip without driving people around me crazy (said people are already tired of hearing about it) and B) organizing my thoughts, keeping myself on track, and getting feedback on my plans!
So here we go, with the players: First of all, me. I’m the Disney planner (actually, I’m the planner, period) of our family. If I let anyone else in my family plan vacations, we would never go anywhere. At. All. And I would be sad. So at least once a year, sometimes twice if things are rolling in the right direction and life is good, I get to plan the next big thing. I do enjoy everyday life, but thinking about a vacation keeps me on a nice even keel. Next, there is DH. He does not enjoy vacation planning, rarely goes on vacations with us due to work commitments as well as a dislike of crowds and heat. To him, there is no reason to ever leave our home. He likes it here. I like it here too, I just like to see other places. Then, there is DD13, my sweet teen girlie girl. She is so looking forward to this trip. She keeps saying she wants to get a tan, but her mother is not down with that plan. She has beautiful alabaster skin that does not tan, it only burns. I’ve tried to remind her of the time we went to Hawaii and she looked like a lobster for the first week…I think I’ll end up having to hold her down to spray her. Last, but not least, is DD10, who is turning 11 on the second day of our cruise. She is super excited to have her birthday on the ship (more on that in a minute) and can’t wait to get in the water. This child does not burn, only tans, but will eagerly apply sunscreen without being asked. (Lest you get the wrong idea, she’s not that compliant generally, just in this one area!)
My dad and my stepmother are also going. They travel with us often, which is good, since more often than not it’s just me and the girls. They are big travelers and cruise frequently, though this is their (and our!) first Disney Cruise. My dad was NOT impressed with the price point. He’s definitely a guy who appreciates a bargain, but I had already booked the trip when I invited them so he didn’t get a chance to try to persuade us to do another line. We actually cruised the Bahamas with them in 2012 and had a blast on an older RCCL ship---we aren’t terribly picky people and I’ve never had a bad time on a vacation in my life.
Another family is also going with us. They are good friends, and our kids are very close together in age. Their son is less than a month older than our oldest daughter, and their daughter is only four days older than my youngest daughter. Which means we will be celebrating two birthdays on this trip!
I actually started planning this trip in January of 2015. We had a lot going on at that time, but I didn’t have anything really exciting planned for 2015 yet, except a trip to Seattle to see Taylor Swift for my oldest daughter’s birthday. And while that was fun, it really didn’t meet the heat index I like to look for in my vacations. And I knew in 2016 my youngest daughter’s GOLDEN Birthday was coming up. For those who aren’t familiar with the Golden Birthday thing (like my dad, who was like “you are totally making this up”) a Golden Birthday is the birthday when your age and your date of birth coincide. So my daughter turns 11 on the 11th of April, and it’s her Golden Birthday. The girls informed me of this whole thing several years ago, and I thought, well, that’s another way to make parents part with $ from their wallets…not just a birthday but a Golden Birthday. But I obviously succumbed to this thinking because then I started thinking that I did need to make this a very special birthday. On a side note, my oldest daughter has her Golden Birthday and her Sweet Sixteen the same year…I think the heavens might have to part to keep up with her expectations!
So I started thinking about what we could do. April isn’t normally a great time to travel, as both girls have school and for my oldest daughter, school just gets harder every year. But then I really thought about it and decided that yes, this is probably the LAST year that I can take time out on the school year. High School starts next year, so this is it. The last hurrah, so to speak. I talked to DD10, and she immediately said “I want to go on a Disney Cruise!” I started looking online, and though it wasn’t cheap by any means, the price wasn’t as horrible as I had imagined either (it was pretty horrible though). On February 2nd, I bit the bullet and emailed my TA to put a deposit down on the cruise.
I let the kids know right away. I thought about keeping it a secret, but overall I am horrible about keeping secrets and also the times that I have kept secrets it hasn’t been the way I imagined it. It was more confusing than anything else. And although they are older now and it might have worked out, to me the planning and dreaming of a vacation is half the fun. Now why would I deprive my children of that?
When I let them know, I asked them how they felt about asking Grandpa and Grandma to come. I thought they might want to do a “just us” trip and wanted to give them the opportunity to say what they wanted to do. But they both were all in favor of inviting G&G---so a phone call was made and a voice message was left. A few days later my dad came back with an “all in” and they made their reservations as well.
Months passed….dreaming of the cruise….dreaming of the cruise…and then I was talking about it to my friend, and I said how much fun it would be if they came. I was half in jest (not about the fun part, but I just didn’t think she’d seriously consider it) but a few days later she asked me if I was joking or if I would mind if they came. Mind? Of course not! I love having people I like surrounding me! The more the merrier! So her family of four also made their reservations (at some point, I’m thinking Disney owes me a TA fee).
Anyhow, that’s it for now. The cruise that started over a year away is now under 75 days!
So here we go, with the players: First of all, me. I’m the Disney planner (actually, I’m the planner, period) of our family. If I let anyone else in my family plan vacations, we would never go anywhere. At. All. And I would be sad. So at least once a year, sometimes twice if things are rolling in the right direction and life is good, I get to plan the next big thing. I do enjoy everyday life, but thinking about a vacation keeps me on a nice even keel. Next, there is DH. He does not enjoy vacation planning, rarely goes on vacations with us due to work commitments as well as a dislike of crowds and heat. To him, there is no reason to ever leave our home. He likes it here. I like it here too, I just like to see other places. Then, there is DD13, my sweet teen girlie girl. She is so looking forward to this trip. She keeps saying she wants to get a tan, but her mother is not down with that plan. She has beautiful alabaster skin that does not tan, it only burns. I’ve tried to remind her of the time we went to Hawaii and she looked like a lobster for the first week…I think I’ll end up having to hold her down to spray her. Last, but not least, is DD10, who is turning 11 on the second day of our cruise. She is super excited to have her birthday on the ship (more on that in a minute) and can’t wait to get in the water. This child does not burn, only tans, but will eagerly apply sunscreen without being asked. (Lest you get the wrong idea, she’s not that compliant generally, just in this one area!)
My dad and my stepmother are also going. They travel with us often, which is good, since more often than not it’s just me and the girls. They are big travelers and cruise frequently, though this is their (and our!) first Disney Cruise. My dad was NOT impressed with the price point. He’s definitely a guy who appreciates a bargain, but I had already booked the trip when I invited them so he didn’t get a chance to try to persuade us to do another line. We actually cruised the Bahamas with them in 2012 and had a blast on an older RCCL ship---we aren’t terribly picky people and I’ve never had a bad time on a vacation in my life.
Another family is also going with us. They are good friends, and our kids are very close together in age. Their son is less than a month older than our oldest daughter, and their daughter is only four days older than my youngest daughter. Which means we will be celebrating two birthdays on this trip!
I actually started planning this trip in January of 2015. We had a lot going on at that time, but I didn’t have anything really exciting planned for 2015 yet, except a trip to Seattle to see Taylor Swift for my oldest daughter’s birthday. And while that was fun, it really didn’t meet the heat index I like to look for in my vacations. And I knew in 2016 my youngest daughter’s GOLDEN Birthday was coming up. For those who aren’t familiar with the Golden Birthday thing (like my dad, who was like “you are totally making this up”) a Golden Birthday is the birthday when your age and your date of birth coincide. So my daughter turns 11 on the 11th of April, and it’s her Golden Birthday. The girls informed me of this whole thing several years ago, and I thought, well, that’s another way to make parents part with $ from their wallets…not just a birthday but a Golden Birthday. But I obviously succumbed to this thinking because then I started thinking that I did need to make this a very special birthday. On a side note, my oldest daughter has her Golden Birthday and her Sweet Sixteen the same year…I think the heavens might have to part to keep up with her expectations!
So I started thinking about what we could do. April isn’t normally a great time to travel, as both girls have school and for my oldest daughter, school just gets harder every year. But then I really thought about it and decided that yes, this is probably the LAST year that I can take time out on the school year. High School starts next year, so this is it. The last hurrah, so to speak. I talked to DD10, and she immediately said “I want to go on a Disney Cruise!” I started looking online, and though it wasn’t cheap by any means, the price wasn’t as horrible as I had imagined either (it was pretty horrible though). On February 2nd, I bit the bullet and emailed my TA to put a deposit down on the cruise.
I let the kids know right away. I thought about keeping it a secret, but overall I am horrible about keeping secrets and also the times that I have kept secrets it hasn’t been the way I imagined it. It was more confusing than anything else. And although they are older now and it might have worked out, to me the planning and dreaming of a vacation is half the fun. Now why would I deprive my children of that?
When I let them know, I asked them how they felt about asking Grandpa and Grandma to come. I thought they might want to do a “just us” trip and wanted to give them the opportunity to say what they wanted to do. But they both were all in favor of inviting G&G---so a phone call was made and a voice message was left. A few days later my dad came back with an “all in” and they made their reservations as well.
Months passed….dreaming of the cruise….dreaming of the cruise…and then I was talking about it to my friend, and I said how much fun it would be if they came. I was half in jest (not about the fun part, but I just didn’t think she’d seriously consider it) but a few days later she asked me if I was joking or if I would mind if they came. Mind? Of course not! I love having people I like surrounding me! The more the merrier! So her family of four also made their reservations (at some point, I’m thinking Disney owes me a TA fee).
Anyhow, that’s it for now. The cruise that started over a year away is now under 75 days!
