SO WE'RE HEADED FOR DISNEY ... IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO STAY WITHIN OUR BUDGET?? (part 2)

In case you missed the last post, the answer is YES!

We just returned from a happy (though scorching & wet) trip to our favorite vacation spot, after being away for five years.   Thought I'd post some thoughts on traveling to Disney with a big family ... if nothing else, it will help me remember for next time.   Upcoming posts:  What You Absolutely, Positively Must Pack.
Keep tuning in! 
 

For all Disneyphile big families out there, here are our last three ways to enjoy the Disney magic without depleting your bank account:

#3.   Recycle your Disney gear from trip to trip.  We have a large plastic container that holds all of our Disney fun stuff.  After each trip, it all goes back in.  We're talkin' shirts, lanyards, beltbags, backpacks, hats, and especially mouse ears.  I know what you're all thinking.  In the Disney afterglow you're thinking how much fun it would be if you leave it all out to enjoy.  Don't do it.  You know what will surely happen:  mouse ears get squashed, pin backs fall out, lanyards slip behind shelves, and shirts fall into the abyss of the laundry room never to reappear.  If you pack it all up right away, you will save money in the long run.  A few weeks before our trip, we pull out the Disney box. We're all excited to see our collection, and it adds to the trip anticipation.  The Disney box is the only way we still have discontinued Jack Sparrow (that's Captain Jack Sparrow) pirate mouse ears from 2007 (left).  And of course, we hit the parks armed with great stuff to begin with, so splurging is less of a temptation.

#2.  BYOPonchos.  This is not an original idea, but it's a crucial one that I must mention, because so many families forget!  How do I know?  Check out the sea of Mickey raingear that emerged during this downpour, and then remember that Disney charges $9 a pop for 'em.

If you are headed to Orlando in the spring or summer, it WILL rain.  You must be prepared to slosh through afternoon thundershowers.  Go to the Dollar Store and load up on cheap ponchos - they'll fit easily into your backpacks and you can toss them after the trip.  Don't bother with your own raincoats or umbrellas from your closet; they're too bulky for your backpacks and you'll regret it.  If you have big boys in your family -- Dads, teenage sons, Grandpas -- buy everyone at least 2.  (After an afternoon of Florida rain and heat, let's just say ... they don't smell "magical" anymore.)  If you get desperate at the end of a long, extra-rainy trip like we just did, you can try this:  I doused all of them in soapy bathwater after EA got out of the tub, then let them drip-dry overnight in the shower.  It did the trick, and I didn't have to throw away $63 for 7 Mickey ponchos.  (We'd rather use that $$ on Dole pineapple floats!!)

#1.  Before buying anything, ask yourself, "Will I actually use this/wear this when I return home to the real world?"  Let's face it:  the same Grumpy shirt that is perfectly acceptable in the Magic Kingdom would be ridiculous at home at say, a football game in the stands.  Will you walk around town with that bright pink Minnie backpack??  Just say no. (The traditional monogrammed mouse ears are the exception of course.)

This time around, we all thought the new illuminated Mickey ears were amazingly cool.  "Glow with the Show" ears change color in sync with the nighttime Disney shows and fireworks, and we McDonalds do LOVE the shows!  But $25 each?  For ears to wear only at night?  When we already had ears for all the kids?  We said no, don't regret it, and saved nearly $200.   
 



 Want more "So You're Headed for Disney ..." posts?  See Why Bother with Matching Shirts? and Is It Even Possible to Stay within our Budget, part 1.

TWENTY YEARS AND COUNTING ...

On Liberty Island, across from the new Freedom Tower, still under construction on the far left, built on the Twin Towers WTC site.

We're back from an amazing 20th anniversary trip to NYC, thanks to hours of painstaking planning by Tom and even more thanks to the kindness of my parents, who graciously stepped back in time about 35 years to relive when THEY had 5 active kids at home.  (My dad even dressed up as a cow for Chick Fil A's Cow Appreciation Day, which was certainly above and beyond the call of duty, free meal or no!  Sorry, Siblings, no pics of THAT!)

I promise not to bore you with a travel log here - but can I just say that Wicked was incredible as expected, Spider Man - Turn Off the Dark was cooool, no matter what the critics say, and Tony-winner Jay Corden was so funny in One Man, Two Guvnors that we hurt from laughing???  There - that's it.  You can call us about all the other great food fun stuff.

To all of you who have said you've been thinking about some kind of trip together, to quote my old friend Hamlet, we say, "Get thee on a vacation -- GO!"  Here are my three quick takes about why we're glad we went, and I'm sure Tom will post his thoughts later too.

~Our Kids Needed It~
And I don't mean that they needed some special time with their grandparents, though that was a precious, priceless benefit.  Elizabeth Ann (2) still talks about "rock-rocking with Gramma" at bedtime, memories I hope remain with her for a long time.  As we were preparing for the trip, it dawned on us how important it was for the kids to see us get excited about our anniversary ... that we still love each other after all these years, that we still have fun together, that twenty years of marriage is not only do-able but worth celebrating!  You know, we adults tell teens all the time that they should wait for marriage ... save themselves, all that good stuff, but we should ask ourselves every once in awhile, Does our marriage look like it's something worth waiting for?  Does the vocation even look appealing to our teens??  So it was more than just a fun trip for Tom and me; it was remote marriage preparation (as JP II called it) for our kids!  (Expensive preparation, I might add, but worth it.)

~We Needed It~
 It was great to be kids together again, roaming the city hand in hand, without a care in the world except where we would eat dinner and getting to our Broadway play on time.  We felt like we were college sweethearts once more, and it confirmed for us that yes, we ARE still great friends and still love each other's company.  It's easy to lose the joy and forget to have fun in the midst of the workaday world and life with five; it's easy to forget what drew you together in the first place.  It reminds me of what JPII once wrote about vacationing:

"Man, freed from the pressing tasks of daily  life, has the opportunity to rediscover his own contemplative dimension recognizing God's imprints in nature and especially in other human beings. This is an experience that opens him to a renewed attention to people who live near  him, beginning with his family." (Angelus message, July 21, 1996)

~The World Needed It~
Not kidding, and not talking about dollars we personally put toward resuscitating the economy!  We ended up talking a lot to people around us, on the plane, in the restaurants ... in the old-timer, local places we ate (Katz's Deli, Gramaldi's Pizza - to die for - thank you, Tom, for all your research!) we were often squeezed in with other folks, family-style)  So of course we told everyone that we were celebrating our 20th, and each time we were met with an amazed "Wow!" followed quickly by a sincere "Congratulations!" and "That's so wonderful!"  We were there in New York in the midst of the TomKat break-up, and the city was abuzz with the news that Katie Holmes had just bought an apartment in Manhattan, not too far from where we were staying.  It's paradoxical:  no matter how mixed-up and broken the world is about marriage, there is something deep within people that admires faithfulness and longevity ... it's inscribed within us that the permanence of marriage is a good thing.  So gosh darn it, the world needs to see more of us couples in love, who have endured and made it through, still together though we may not look as dashing as we once did at 18 and 19.  Like our kids, the world needs to see that marriage for the long haul is certainly do-able.  So more than just having fun, we were witnessing and evangelizing about the Sacrament of Matrimony! Take that, Visa bill!

We are already talking about our 25th anniversary, and we plan on going to the same quaint hotel, located in the midst of everything.    Y'all come - Summer of 2017.  (Don't panic, Mom and Dad, by then Christopher will be in college - gulp - and he can watch the rest of the kids himself!)

Hotel 414 - in Manhattan, on Restaurant Row,  within walking distance to Times Square and the theaters ....

Upcoming Posts:  Tom's review of The Dark Knight Rises, more teacher-y things to download, and Saxon vs. Teaching Textbooks ... be sure to "Join the Party" on the right; just enter your email to be sent new posts automatically.