I may have mentioned once or twice or fifty times that we recently went on a vacation to Disney World. I had big ambitious plans to bestow upon you all wonderful insights, advice, suggestions, trip highlights, near disasters, don’t miss this ideas, photos, and…more photos.
Then I got busy with something else.
But I really want to torture bless y’all with our Disney experience. So what to do?
The only thing that seems to work for me: schedule a date and make it “official.” It’s crazy how motivating the simple act of assigning a specific date/time to something can be.
So from this Thursday til infinity (and hopefully probably not beyond), you can catch a bit of Disney Magic…Drama Mama style.
I’m going to start at the very beginning… a very good place to start…when you read you begin with A -B-C, when you sing you begin with (do you know the rest? Can you name that tune?)
So – why Disney? Um…..Miss A is a little girl in love with all things Princess.
And even more in love with all things Peter Pan.
And even more in love with all things Mermaid.
And even MORE in love with all things Fairy.
So really, this trip was for Miss A. There is no denying I enjoyed myself…but a healthy chunk of that enjoyment was watching how much fun Miss A had.
The husband and I had bounced the idea of a Disney trip around for awhile…always thinking it would be a few more years down the road – when both girls were old enough to enjoy it. Then I happened to have lunch with a friend who was leaving soon for a – you guessed it – trip to Disney. After hearing how cheap it was (the buy 4 days, get 3 free promotion was going on at the time) I started to wonder “what if…” just a bit. Then I told my husband about it and he sealed the deal with a simple “Let’s do it.” Miss A was the perfect age to really enjoy all the magic of a trip to Disney: old enough to remember everything and young enough to love everything about it.
Of course, the actual scheduling and arranging of the trip wasn’t quite so simple. Let me tell you here and now – don’t waste your time stressing about it – find a travel agent that specializes in Disney vacations. Their services are free, and priceless in the time they save you: from planning the trip, to making hotel and dining arrangements, to finding out about little extras and special deals, a great Disney travel agent is the first step to a great Disney trip (I should be making commercials for these guys). Our travel agent was Lori Bandera, part of Small World Vacations, and I found her through the MouseSavers website.
That’s another thing…websites. There are an insane amount of websites devoted to Disney travel, and you could go insane trying to read them all (I did get the feeling many posters to these sites are a bit mad in the hatter). My favorite was MouseSavers, but I also found AllEars quite helpful. After that, they tend to blur together. These two sites distinguished themselves from the rest and seem to offer the most variety of info in the most depth, and they both offer e-letters with updates on all things Disney.
I think that’s enough Disney for one day; to review (in case you’re a skimmer):
1: If you are speculating on a Disney trip – go for it, there are lots of great deals right now.
2. Get a travel agent who specializes in all things Disney.
3. Use the sites to help you plan, but don’t get sucked into the insanity.
Next time: we plan how to surprise Miss A with the big news, and some ideas for creative fun ways to build the anticipation.
Melonie Johnson 