Our 25th Anniversary Pre-Trip Report

[KatMark]

My wonderful husband and I are going to Disney World September 1 -9 for our 25th wedding anniversary celebration. We will then head to Daytona Beach for five days to give us two weeks in wonderful Florida. Traveling with us for the Disney portion is my best friend, Shelley and her husband, Tom. I've known Shelley for 30 plus years; Shelley has been to Disney but has never been to the Studios or Animal Kingdom. Tom has never been to Disney at all. Boy is he in for a surprise. We are staying at the Coronado with free dining. My husband offered me the Polynesian since it is our anniversary and he thought it would bring back memories of our honeymoon in Hawaii, but for two reasons, I said I'd rather stay at the Coronado: 1) I cannot justify the cost of a deluxe with two boys in college--one who just graduated but is going to continue his education to get his teaching certificate/masters and the other a sophomore in college; and 2) I just truly love the Coronado (we are staying for the 7th time). It has everything I could want in a resort and I think it is absolutely beautiful. We have requested the Casitas section--our favorite; and our friends have requested the Ranchos as they like the themeing there.

We have adr's at: LeCellier, Rose & Crown, Yak & Yeti, Cape May Cafe (for breakfast), Crystal Palace (for breakfast), Whispering Canyon, Boma, Mama Melrose, Plaza Restaurant and we will be celebrating our 25th with a special dinner at Fulton's (the first Disney restaurant my husband took me to). My husband I will also have dinner at Emeril's at City Walk at Universal on our way to Daytona.

For awhile, I thought we might have to cancel the trip. My dad was admitted to the hospital in February and then transfered to a nursing home in March. On our actual 25th anniversary in May, he was taken back to the hospital. On at least three occasions, we thought we were going to lose him overnight or the next morning, but he keeps fighting. He is now stable enough to go back to the nursing home. I know my dad...and he has beat death on at least three other occasions, and I truly believe he is holding on so that we can go and enjoy our vacation without worrying about him. That's just the type of man my dad is.

Husband and I are really looking forward to this. I haven't seen a lot of him between my being at the hospital/nursing home/hospital and his umpping over 90 baseball games to make the extra money to pay for our trip and his travels for work.

I'll try to type at least one or two updates before we leave. 22 days and we'll be at our favorite place in the world.

[michelLe x3]

Aw sounds like you are ready for this vacation! I'm sorry to hear about your dad. I hope you have a magical trip & can't wait to read your reports! Try to post pictures too if you don't mind! :mickey:

[KatMark]

Thanks. I plan to write a report when we get back and also post lots of pictures (but I don't think of food...just can't see myself taking pictures of food.

[#1disneyfan]

Have a great trip and Happy Anniversary!

Can't wait to read all about your 14 wonderful days!

[faline]

Happy Anniversary! What a lovely celebration you have planned!

[daparish]

Have a magical trip! I can't wait to read all about it.:mickey:

[TiggeRia]

I hope that you have a wonderful trip! :mickey: Many of your ADR's are some of my favorite places...makes me hungry! Have a magical time! :thumbsup:

[Lizzie]

Enjoy your vacation!

[ChipnDaleGal]

Sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate your 25th! Congrats on making it to that milestone. Hope you have a great time! :mickey:

[KatMark]

Have a great trip and Happy Anniversary!

Thanks! :mickey:

Can't wait to read all about your 14 wonderful days!

I'm not a very good writer, but I will write a report on our return.


Happy Anniversary! What a lovely celebration you have planned!

Thanks...I looked at our itinerary again yesterday and I think we are pretty well set.


Have a magical trip! I can't wait to read all about it.:mickey:

Thank you so much.


I hope that you have a wonderful trip! :mickey: Many of your ADR's are some of my favorite places...makes me hungry! Have a magical time! :thumbsup:

Everytime I look at my ADR's I get hungry...maybe that's why I can't lose those last eight pounds I wanted to lose. ;)


Enjoy your vacation!

Thanks.


Sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate your 25th! Congrats on making it to that milestone. Hope you have a great time! :mickey:

And they told us it would never last! :cloud9:

[KatMark]

Darling Disney Husband came home from a week business trip in Vegas on Wednesday night. He went with around $600 for miscellaneous expenses (cabs, drinks, etc.) and gambling. Well, he didn't break the bank...but he came home with $400 of it which he promptly gave to me and said "have fun shopping at Disney." Part of the reason we've made it 25 years!!! :tink::dumbo:

[yjgirl32]

That is so nice to take a nice long trip like that. I hope you have great weather for your trip. Some Pixie Dust for your strong dad :tink:
Have a wonderful and magical vacation.

[KatMark]

First, I wanted to thank all my new friends here at Intercot for their warm welcome and wishes for our anniversary trip. I probably won't be on here for awhile and there is a good chance I will have to cancel our trip. As I mentioned in the first post of our pre-trip report, my dad was admitted to the hospital in February and then spent over seven weeks in a nursing home; he was then taken back to the hospital mid-May and has been there ever since...until last night when they took him back to the nursing home. Unfortunately, medicare will only pay for 24 more days of him being in the nursing home and, since he and my mom have no savings and cannot pay for him to continue to stay there, we have to start filling out paper work for public aid from the state and move him to a depressing long-term nursing facility. My heart is breaking for my dad because this is no way to live the rest of his days. The doctor truthfully doesn't think he'll last more than two months. If I can't get all of this paperwork situated and know that he is going to have someplace to go, there is no way we will be able to take our trip. My heart is also breaking because one of the last things my dad said to me when he was totally coherent was that no matter what he wanted us to go on this special vacation because as he said, "in today's times, not a lot of people make it 25 years, and you have something special to celebrate."

[KatMark]

To all the wonderful people here who sent me private messages, I wanted to thank you for your prayers during this difficult time. My dad passed this afternoon around 12:30 and I know that he is at least now at peace.

[KatMark]

Well, the time has almost arrived. Eight hours from now we will be on a plane from Chicago O'Hare to Orlando on the trip we have been planning for a year for our 25th anniversary. We are going with heavy heart with my dad on our minds; but we also go knowing that it is what he wanted us to do. So we our dedicating our trip not only to our anniversary, but to my dad who gave me 50 years of unconditional love and then gave my DH 26 years of that same love; and then came our two boys, Andy and Mark, who he loved more than life itself--he was so proud of his grandchildren. We will purchase a balloon at Epcot (his favorite park with Andy and Mark) and send it up to heaven to dad--where I know he continues to watch over all of us.

Before we depart, I thank ALL of you for your prayers and encouragement during the difficult weeks before dad's passing and then when he did pass all the love and sympathy and additional prayers I received from all of you.

I promise lots of pictures from our home away from home--CSR and lots of pictures from the trip itself. And I'll do a full trip report and a food report upon our return.

[wdwgrl377]

Have a great trip! I will be looking forward to reading about it and seeing some pictures :mickey:

[KatMark]

We are back from a most magical 25th anniversary trip. Here is our report:

We arrived at the CSR on Monday, September 1, at around 12:30 p.m. Check-in went very smoothly--no one else in line. We had terrific CM's who were laughing and joking with each of our parties (you'll remember that my best friend and her DH went with us). The Assistant Manager personally came out to talk to the four of us, ask if we had any questions, gave us a list of all of our dining reservations and gave us his phone number in case of any problems or issues. He indicated our room was not ready, but that it would be soon. We were then given anniversary buttons and balloons and Shleley was given a birthday button (her birthday is September 26) and Tom was given a 1st Time Visitor Button. Shelley and Tom originally asked for Ranchos but were put in Casitas to be close to us which they were delighted with--they got upgraded to a water view room. Since our room was not ready, we went to Pepper Market where we all had something from the deli and shared by each couple as we had a 5:00 dinner at Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic Package. Just as we finished lunch, the Assistant Manager called to say our room was ready. Our friends were in Casitas 3 -- 3133 and we were in 3225. I was a little disappointed as we really like 4 and 5, but then we walked into our room. We were upgraded to a suite (what a treat it was having two bathrooms and two televisions). There were more balloons, autographed photos of Mickey and Minnie and a huge bouquet of flowers. We were also given robes for our stay and turn down service every night. We both had beautiful views of the Lake.

Every CM we dealt with was as friendly as could be. Although we only ate at Pepper Market twice, the service was good and friendly and the food outstanding. I saw one of the Mangers' helping several people who were obviously new to the PM and di not understand the set up. We had breakfast there one morning and wanted American Cheese omelets. They did not have American Cheese at the station, but the cook went and found it for us. Analia at the coffee bar was outstanding every morning I went for my cappucino--friendly, chatty. The lifeguards were very good and friendly and joking with the kids in the pool. Francisco was superb as always (and yes, Shelley and I had a few Pina Coladas at the pool). A large convention came in Saturday night/Sunday morning and we saw ONLYtwo people in suits--the rest were dressed casually (mostly in shorts) as they wen tot their meetings and always said hello when he passed us. Mark and I went to the Dig Site/Hot Tub on three nights. It was just us and two other people in the hot tub when the convention people were there and maybe 10 people in the Dig Site. During the afternoons when we were at the Dig Site, there were no more than 50 people in the pool. We even went down the Jaguar slide twice.

Mousekeeping was great and we received towel animals one day--a puppy dog and a peacock.

Shelley & Tom were given a Magical Dream the day they check out--they were asked to open Panchitos and were given a certificate for doing so. The four of us also won a Year of a Millions Dream prize. As we were exiting Splash Mountain one morning, we were each given Mickey Mouse Year of a Million Dream ears. We each kept one and then the men gave the other two to little children that we saw in the park.

As for the parks, the longest we waited for a ride was Tower of Terror--which was about 20 minutes and that was our own fault. We went right after Fantasmic ended and Rock & Roll Roller Coaster was not running, so this was our fault. Other than that, we waited an average of five minutes for every single ride, and ten at the most (including Soarin'). The CM's at the park were very friendly--always saying Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, etc. We received three "Happy Anniversary/Birthday phone calls) in the parks. We saw only one large group of travelers from Brazil and they were loud, but I saw no other issues with them.

We visited two other resorts during our stay and we will stick with the CSR--thank you very much (we've already booked our bounceback for next year). We went to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe (the worse meal of our trip--I'll write about it on the Dining Board) and talked to two different CM's--one at the desk and one who was walking around--and we felt like we were being a huge bother to them by asking them a question; we also went back to the Caribbean to give their food court a second try--sorry it was just as bad as the first time (but we felt better giving it a second try).

The second portion of our trip at Daytona Beach was very nice and relaxing (although I either got food poisoning or the 24-hour flu and spent Friday in the room all day).

As many of you know, this was a difficult trip as I lost my dad the week before we left. I walked into Epcot and broke into tears and when we went on Spaceship Earth (which I really like the new version) I couldn't stop crying on the first ride through. I bought a balloon which I was going to release into the sky. But as we were getting ready to release it, I heard my dad in my head saying "why would you spend $7.00 and then just let the balloon go--that is such a waste of money (this from the man who told me to stop buying him cards at holidays because Hallmark had enough money). So instead I found a little girl in a stroller and gave her the balloon. I explained, with tears streaming down my cheeks, to the parents why I was doing this--that my dad had died and I know he would have wanted me to give the balloon to someone as he always bought them for his grandchildren (those poor parents must have thought I was nuts).

The trip was just what we needed after the last seven months with dad in the hospital/nursing home/hospital and then passing on.

We had a wonderful trip and can't wait to go back next year--God willing.

P.S. When we got home, there was a box from Disney--I assumed it was one of the two shipments I sent home. It was not. We won a "specialized Disney Dreams Prize Pack" which consisted of a stuffed Mickey and Minnie, a tote bag, a coffee cup, a photo album, picture frame, tin of candy and a Deluxe Pin Trading Starter Kit and a DISNEY GIFT CARD. What a way to end the trip!

I will add pictures later.

[Diznee4Me]

Sounds like y'all had a wonderful trip. I read the entire post before posting myself and have to say that the balloon episode was quite touching - I feel certain those parents were touched by your story - as I was.

Start planning that trip for next year!:thumbsup:

[KatMark]

Thanks...I appreciate it. I think Dad would have liked that I gave the balloon to a child.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb136/Luvwrestling/IMG_1661.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb136/Luvwrestling/IMG_1631-1.jpg


http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb136/Luvwrestling/IMG_1631-1.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb136/Luvwrestling/25thanniversarytrip--viewofCasitas.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb136/Luvwrestling/IMG_1663.jpg