This afternoon, we returned home from another Disney vacation. I want to state that this trip was completely out of character for me and Rich and right now, we don't plan to return until 2014. Possibly the end of 2014. A month or so after our summer vacation, I started to plan another because the girls really missed out on so much due to Allie suffering that allergic reaction to Advil.
My busy season with work begins in January and extends through June. In the past, I probably would have been able to sneak away for a week in March or April but with all the changes this year, that doesn't seem reasonable now. Plus, I had many vacation days that I had to use by the end of this year (or lose them) and Rich is still at home, which means not having to coordinate vacation days with each other.
We prefer to fly out of Providence instead of Boston and Jet Blue recently began nonstop service out of Providence to Orlando. We were able to purchase roundtrip tickets for less than $250 a person. I can't remember if it was $210 or $240 as there were several flights that we were looking at. The flight that we originally planned to take jumped to $550 a person before we could book it so we had to change our original plans.
We stayed at the Art of Animation, the new Disney value resort with mostly suites. This meant that we didn't have to book two rooms. I priced it out online (Disney was offering discounts) and then AAA was able to quote us even more of a discount. This was our first experience with a value resort and while there is definitely a difference in service between values and deluxes, it really wasn't bad. Kids don't understand service and a pool really is just a pool to them. The main pool at Art of Animation did not have a little kid water slide like Beach Club and my kids didn't even seem to notice. Deluxe resorts offer more conveniences like character meals or direct access to parks and while those would have been nice, we survived without them.
So I plan to review the hotel (I took a bunch of pictures) and blog more about our trip but that probably won't happen until after the holidays. I will say that we definitely experienced so much during this trip. It was a very successful vacation. The weather was almost perfect too. I guess the average high this time of year is mid-70s but it was about 80 degrees every day. I had been religiously checking the forecast and definitely didn't expect it to be that warm. There were some rain showers during our last two days but after going through that tropical storm in August, it was nothing.
I tried to set up some posts to publish in my absence but didn't get too far. I didn't bring my laptop with me and I'm glad I didn't bother as I wouldn't have used it. By the time the girls fell asleep at night, I was more than ready for bed myself. A few nights, Rich and I tried to snack or take a walk after they went to sleep and one night I fell asleep with the girls and didn't wake up until 10:40. Rich said he woke up around 10:00, saw that I was asleep so he brushed his teeth, etc. and I never woke up.
At least it feels like Christmas now that we are home and it is freezing outside!
10 comments:
I'm glad you were off doing something fun and this time it worked out better. Can't wait to hear more about it!
what a good time to go, too!
Aw, how cool is that? Can't wait to hear more about your Disney Trip 2.0!!
We stayed right across from the Art of Animation at Pop Century and we loved it. It had everything we needed.
Glad y'all got to go again! We were there 12/1 - 12/8 and I referred to your past posts often to plan out our trip. Thanks for all the work in doing the reviews, def helped me on the character meet and greets! Merry Christmas to you and your adorable family.
Oooh, awesome! And with weather that nice you probably even got to use the Disney dresses again before the girls grew out of them. Can't wait to read about it!
I'm glad you got a 'redo!'. It must have been neat seeing Disney all done up for Christmas too.
So glad you got to steal away...and everyone was able to enjoy it!!!
I am so surprised and happy for you that you were able to go back to Disney. My twins are 4 1/2 and we have not yet gone - I am hoping to plan a trip for next year but they will be in Kindergarten - did you have any issues with the school and how many days they could miss in a year?
The holiday decorations were nice but it was so warm out, it didn't feel like Christmas to me. And yes, the girls were able to re-use their holiday dresses that I made last year.
There were no issues with the girls missing school. For one of the days, they didn't have school due to an early release day. We talked to their teachers during the parent/teacher conferences and they were really cool with it.
We were there last week too! I thought I saw Emily (well maybe Allie, but I am usually good distinguishing multiples since i used to work with higher order multiples) at some point, but I thought" that cant be them, they already took their trip!" Guess my first thought was right! lol
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