As mentioned, we just got back from our latest trip (arrived 2/25 with Park Days 2/26 through 3/1, Ohana on 3/2 and then home that day).
We booked that trip 3/21 of 2021 and I was excited but not overly excited. I was stressing about paying for the trip and hoping that we didn’t have a repeat of our 2018 trip. I knew we wouldn’t because we actually knew what to do this time. We also had invited our niece Claire who is a Disney addict and former CM at Magic Kingdom in the College Program. She’s essentially a walking map and Disney World Knowledgebase. The only concern was that we wouldn’t know if Claire could make it until December 2021 when she got her class schedule for the spring semester of 2022.
So, we booked the trip, got excited and then boom; that excitement leveled off after about a week. Life happened, as it always does. Baseball and Softball season came and went. We took a small beach trip for Easter and then moved right into Summer. Summer brought us the ability to start actually paying down the trip, and once we did that, we were faced with that Disney excitement all over again. Summer also brought my wife and I a nice week-long anniversary trip to Amelia Island, Fl. Let me tell you, when we got to I-75 South, it was tempting to take that exit and head to Disney!
As we moved into the fall and getting back to school, Disney wasn’t really the top thing on my mind. Holiday season came and we told the kids they were going to Disney at Christmas. January came and Claire had confirmed she was going to fly in and meet us at All Star Movies. The kids didn’t know that yet so we had another surprise for them. From January until 2/20 I was getting excited. I was finalizing plans and getting things ready. Starting 2/20, I was stressed out worrying that I was missing something. All went as planned, though, and we made it through our trip without any issues.
While the excitement wasn’t always present at the forefront of my mind, the anticipation was there. There were days where I’d look at my wife (I’d say almost weekly) and I would say “We’re going to Disney!” and she would do the same. We’d whisper it, of course, so as not to spoil the surprise for the kids.
Now, on to our next trip…
We’ve got a tentative date set, October 15th 2023. Currently, that’s 19 months away from where we are. 2 springs, 2 summers and 1.5 fall seasons. I was completely okay with 11 months of anticipation and wait time, but 19 months? That’s an ETERNITY! I mean, technically it’s around 7 months because we’re booking in late October or early November of this year, but I literally feel like I’m getting anxiety thinking about the length of that wait! We’ve been back a week and I’m already driving my wife nuts talking about it. The good thing is that we have so much time to come up with a detailed plan of what we want to do. We did that with this last trip and we crushed it. We did everything we said we wanted to do and then some.
In all honesty, I think the hardest part for me is going to be the next 7 to 8 months until we book the trip. Once we have money down, I know we’re not that far away and I can go 11 months planning and getting things ready.
Right now, the biggest question mark for me where are we going to stay. We don’t think we’re staying at any of the All Star Resorts again. Sports was closed our last trip and there were issues with transportation. I can’t imagine what it will be like when Sports is open. Tentatively, we’re looking at Art of Animation or Pop Century, but again, the transportation is a concern as we have heard that if the Sky Liner is running then the busses aren’t. I mean, that makes sense, but after seeing how packed the parks were a week and a half ago, it’s concerning. We’re also looking at Port Orleans as an outlier.
I rambled, I know.. but how do you handle the anticipation of your next trip, especially if it’s an extended period of time away?