“WHAT!!!” You say! “Not looking forward to your trip?”
OK, before you think I’ve fallen off my rocker, let me explain: I am in the midst of planning a surprise 50th birthday celebration for my husband (in order to keep it secret, even the kids don’t know what’s happening in a couple months). The planning started about a year ago when I made reservations for a cruise on the DCL Wonder…
Ohhh, how far the plans have come since then. Back then, I was only planning on the cruise, but - hey, since we have to fly all the way across the country to get to the cruise, we might as well spend some time at WDW, too. Right? We’ve never been to WDW and hear it’s pretty cool. Heck, the kids will already be missing a week of school, so what’s the big deal if they miss 3 more days??? I spent months debating if we should go to WDW… So after lots of number crunching and moral battles (pulling kids out of school for more days), I decided to go for it and made the appropriate flight and hotel arrangements. Rationale: this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our family and the kids are at the perfect age (8, 8, and 11).
Since I wanted to save as much money as possible, I used our Marriott points to reserve an offsite hotel. I was really hoping for an onsite hotel, but just couldn’t justify spending that much money. I spent hours weighing pros/cons of onsite v. offsite (I even knew the room I’d like at POR if we stayed onsite!). Although bummed, I knew staying offsite was the right choice - at least that’s what I kept telling myself. Well, fast-forward a month after making that decision, and Disney comes out with a fabulous Stay, Play, and Dine package!!! I crunched the new numbers and could not believe my eyes - the deal was AMAZING, so I canceled our Marriott reservation and made reservations at POR!!!
Now I get up at least 2 hours before the rest of the family so that I can read forum threads, make ADRs, change ADRs, post questions, adjust my TP, research, plan, research, read, plan, read some more… And I’m loving it! In just 6 days I get to make our FPP selections!!! WOW, time is flying by so quickly now!
The planner in me is having so much fun, that I’m wondering “What will I do after our big trip???” So, in away, I don’t want the trip to come… Oh, hogwash!!! Of course, I want the trip to come! I suppose after the trip, I’ll just have to spend my time writing trip-reports and reliving our vacation 
I have lots more to share and ask questions about, but I’ll save that for another morning’s post. Family’s waking up, so I’ve gotta close down my “super-secret” life… Until tomorrow morning 