Free Disney Day

A month or so ago I was approached by a coworker to see if I would volunteer to be a judge for a Destination Imagination competition (DI is a program for elementary kids...if you've never heard of it, it's okay, I don't entirely understand what it is yet either. Ha!) I was told that I would have to spend a Saturday morning being trained, and then give up another entire Saturday from dawn until dusk judging the actual day of the competition. I decided that wasn't so bad, and plus one of my friends from work was doing it so I wouldn't be totally alone! So I decided to do it.

Fast forward to Monday of this week. I received my information packet about being a "DI Appraiser" and come to find out that DI volunteers are officially on the list for Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" program. For those of you who haven't heard of this program, if you volunteer for a day for any of the approved programs on the Disney website, you get a 1-day, 1-park ticket to Disneyland or Disney World. FOR FREE.

When I first heard about this program, I scoffed at it. I thought it was so silly to bribe people to volunteer. If they're getting something out of it, it's not really volunteering. However, I did sign up to volunteer BEFORE I knew it was one of the approved volunteer opportunities on the Disney website. And when I first heard that I COULD gain a free ticket to Disney World for volunteering, I didn't give it a second though because Luke and I have no plans to travel to Florida this year. Or anywhere, for that matter. Our vacation money is being spent on car repairs :-P

Well, of course in the boredom of my workday today, the wheels finally started turning in my mind. I'm a Disney FREAK. I love it. I don't care that I'm 25 years old...I would give my right arm to visit Disney World again :-P

During my lunch break today I found myself searching online for the cheapest flights I could find to Orlando, and the cheapest hotels there. By the end of the day I pretty much had an entire vacation dreamed up in my mind.

I really thought this thing through. I thought I could go to Disney World sometime this summer (I know...Florida in the summer...YUCK. But when you work in a school, you don't have a whole lot of vacation time that's NOT in the summer). I would want to leave super early in the morning on a Monday and fly out to Orlando. I would probably want to purchase a 1-day park-hopper ticket so that I could spend a day going back and forth between Animal Kingdom and Epcot, my two least favorite parks. Then I'd buy a 1-day, 1-park ticket so that I could spend the whole day Tuesday at Hollywood Studios. I would then use my free ticket on Wednesday to spend the entire day at Magic Kingdom, by FAR my favorite Disney park. On Thursday I'd either fly out early, or book a later flight so I could spend some of the day exploring and shopping at Downtown Disney.

I would want to get to the parks in the morning the moment they open, and not leave until they close. I would book the cheapest hotel I could find that has a shuttle bus service to the parks. I don't mind a little less luxury and a little more work if it means going to Disney World! And if it was just me going, I have no doubt that I could save up enough of my splurge money (aka weekly allowance) and then some to do it before this summer.

There is only one problem with my whole plan: Luke. I am willing to save up my own splurge money to pay for this trip for myself, but I doubt he would be. And I probably couldn't save up enough money to pay for both of us. I would be willing to brave the Florida heat, but I'm not sure if he would be so gung-ho about the whole thing. I would be more than happy to spend upwards of 12 hours on my feet, three days straight if it meant exploring the "Happiest Place on Earth." But I'm not so sure about my hard-working hubby, who would probably more enjoy a relaxing vacation. Sigh.

I'm still pondering the idea in my head. I seriously considered making a persuasive Powerpoint presentation about why we should take a trip to Disney World this summer. I decided that was a little too extreme, though :-P So instead, I thought I'd write a blog post about the whole thing to try to convince him ;-) And hey, if he can't go, I can always try to pursuade someone else to go with me. (Julie?? If you're reading this, I'm talking about you :-P How fun would a sister trip be??)

Anyway, I would really love to go with Luke, and I really want to go to Disney World before we have kids. Kind of like one last time to BE kids before we have our own. Not that we're having kids anytime soon, but I figure if I could get a day FREE, what better time than now to go? I guess it's just a little dream I have :-)

I mean, who could turn down THIS??

Luke, if you're reading this, please let me down easy :-P