My wife and I took our then age 6 year old daughters to Disney in 2016. I told my wife well before hand that this is a once in a lifetime trip. Within reason, no expense was spared. We got 4 copies of silhouttes done of our daughters. We wanted to do Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. We did it. We got Park Hopper. We did the meal plan and ate at several character meals. We did BBB right before we ate at CRT. On the way out of the park, right after we had eaten dinner at BOG and had our picture taken with Beast, we were on Main Street on the way out and I told my wife “We have to come back.” I wanted to come back this year, but she wanted to take a relaxing vacation. As she put it (correctly, I might add) “Disney is fun, but it’s not relaxing.” So instead we are doing a cruise this year. I scoped out a Disney cruise, but just can’t justify spending the extra money vs a Carnival Cruise, so we are going there. I was able to convince her that after TSL and Star Wars land have opened, we need to come back. For 10 days.
When I got back, I wrote a trip report. One of the things I haven’t seen mentioned here is that I help people plan. As a matter of fact, there is a family that I am friends with that is going today through Make a Wish. They’ve never been. The oldest daughter has 4H syndrome, so they have a Genie pass. I made a list of family safe rides, intermediate, and really intense rides they should probably avoid. I told them some places to hit up for food, and some specific items, like the Dole Whip, and my favorite, the Cronut.
I also am working on planning my next trip. I won’t do park hopper or the meal plan. We aren’t going during Halloween or Christmas, so those won’t be options. I am cutting costs compared to last time, but we will still have a blast. It’ll just be more ride oriented than last time. Like many, I also hang around here. I’ve seen some people come and go, but really got hooked on this right AFTER our trip. I didn’t know about it before our trip and wish I would have, because I could have gained some valuable knowledge.
I have also made a countdown on excel. When I am planning my trip, I also factor in how much time we have left before we go again. Only 768 days!
totally understood. Husband and I went in 2016 and then the whole family in 2017 and now September 2018 just me and the hubbers again. Will likely be our last time for quite some time - maybe
When you mentioned Epcot resort, were you thinking Riviera or something else? And where is the Star Wars hotel? Is it a deluxe by HS, or something else?
We stayed at BW, loved it. I’d consider yacht/beach next time, depending on price, but the way we play and hop, can’t imagine not being in that area.
The Star Wars hotel is going to be an immersive experience. As in say, 2 nights, with role playing, costumes, kinda LARPing for Star Wars nerds plus families (I mean this is Disney after all). Exclusive access to SW:GE …
We’re talking serious money, figures of $1000 each for a couple, plus say $500 per extra person for the 2 nights were being talked about.
There are also plans for a resort at Epcot, either at the Main Entrance or behind The Land. Permits for the retention pond have been filed, and this is planned to open for the 50th anniversary. Could be a couple of years before we see building start.
It’s interesting, the blues are going down significantly after one day.
I am checking out our pictures a lot and reliving it.
I think from your list above its a combination of things but I do love hanging out in the forum so I may not leave so soon. I finally understand so much of what y’all are talking about
I think a plan to go back in 2021 is a good one but I may be able to talk DH into doing one in 2020. His biggest thing is that he wants DS to be able to be at least 40" and DD to be at least 44"
When the Apple Watch was first introduced there was a solid gold version. It looked stunning. I said to myself, “I don’t care if that costs £1,000 — I’m going to buy one.” Well, it didn’t cost £1,000. It cost £17,000 and I didn’t buy one. I ended up with the “mere” top-of-the-range stainless steel one, which was around £1,000.
My point is that I think Disney can charge — and will charge — an eye-watering for the Star Wars hotel. Selling one kidney will not be enough.
I’m struggling daily. All the little reminders, videos, photos, next time let’s… conversations, etc. are so lovely, but also kind of like a form of punishment. I’ve got my next trip already planned (as much as one can plan for 2025 at the moment knowing full well everything will change in that time).
They should have just offered me a job as a princess so I wouldn’t have left. Would have saved a lot of trauma!
Yeah, just start planning the next one. Regardless if its fantasy or reality. Sometimes fantasy turns into reality. That’s what worked for me. It’s funny, but having a trip to plan seems to keep my life in balance. It’s like that Apple at the end of a stick. It keeps me motivated and keeps my mind off the everyday stressors that drag me down. Anyway, that’s the best way I can describe it.
We do this too and I will definitely do this on our return thanks. This will be a once and done as we wont have the disposable income again and my sister lives in Australia and we need to see her next!
Well, i downloaded our memory maker, plus all of our personal pics. Then I uploaded them all to Costco to try to make a photo book. I have almost 1000 combined pics, so I got overwhelmed and stopped after I uploaded them all.
I hear you. Just got back from my first trip to WDW in 8 years and the first with kids. Such a great time, have gotten totally bitten by the Disney bug again. Trying to figure out when we can get back. The thought is in 3 years when DS1 is a little older, but I find myself trying to figure out how to make it work sooner…
A technique I use might help. It’s called “getting yourself into massive and overwhelming debt through the miracle of credit cards”. It enables you to go to WDW as often as you like!
If we’re not at Disney, we’re planning the next trip. Sometimes, like now, I’m planning two trips at the same time. We’re going 6/21-6/27 with the family, then DH and I are going sans kids 9/29-10/3. When I’m stuck at work, I enhance the sounds around me by playing Disney background music from http://www.subsonicradio.com/. I’ll also torture myself every so often and peruse the Golden Oak website, imagining the house I will live in when I win mega millions.
haha I wrote this same post about two weeks ago. I haven’t written my post trip report yet, but I had to step away from things a bit. Granted, it’s difficult b/c of all the FB groups I’m in etc. We spared no expense knowing it was our last trip for a while since we have a lot of bucket list places we want to hit in the next few years but it’s hard. Even with the first three days of our trip being miserable I still want to go back to WDW!!!
A May 2019 trip to Branson, MO (Silver Dollar City). We already have our Condo booked
A May 2020 trip to King’s Island and Cedar Point (for my DS16’s HS graduation).
A December 2020 trip to WDW (just my wife and I…25th wedding anniversary trip)
A 2021 trip (dates TBD) where we do a tour of Michigan (for my DD14’s HS graduation)
A tentative 2025 trip to WDW where we rent a 6+ bedroom house for us, our kids, and any grandkids we may or may not have by that time. This one is obviously still in the dream stage, although I’ve already done some checking through Homeaway what kinds of houses are available and what prices might be, plus told our kids to start saving for it!
Since we try NOT to use @profmatt’s technique of getting into massive and overwhelming debt, we plan way ahead so that we can budget accordingly, that way we have the entire trip saved and paid for before we leave. No debt involved whatsoever!
Well I have taken your advice and decided to plan our next trip!
We have one last summer before DS starts school so we are doing a one week trip to Guatemala. Very different from WDW and significantly cheaper but definitely helping me focus my energy.
