My Husband is Awesome

Today I was having a rough day at work. I have some trying students this year, and it's wearing on me. However, everything was made right when I got a text from Luke about halfway through my afternoon.

He texted me to let me know that he had joined The Disney Movie Club! This is awesome for several reasons:

1. I love all things Disney, including Disney movies.
2. Luke supports my unnatural love for children's movies, and loves me despite this quirk.
3. By signing up for the program, we committed to buy 5 Disney movies over the next two years at full price, and in doing so, we will receive 4 movies RIGHT NOW, for $1.99 each!! What a great deal!

So in two years, our Disney blu-ray collection will increase by 9 movies! Sweet!

I've written a lot lately about how I want to build our Disney blu-ray collection for when we have kids (ahem. And also for the two big kids who live here right now. We are not ashamed :-P)

As of right now we are the proud owners of the following Disney blu-rays:

And as soon as they come in the mail, here are the 4 that Luke ordered for $1.99 each. I think he did a good job with the ones he picked out!

(For the record, Luke has never watched Enchanted. I'm sure he would want you to know that. Haha! He just knows I absolutely LOVE it).

And you better believe the first full-priced movie I buy from the Disney Movie Club is going to be this...only my favorite Disney movie of all time:
(Side-note: I was a Beauty and the Beast FREAK when I was in second grade. I was Belle for Halloween, wearing a beautiful dress made by my mom...seriously, it was an incredible dress...the perfect re-creation of the gold ball gown. On top of that, I had a Beauty and the Beast-themed birthday party. And saw Beauty and the Beast on ice. I could go on and on)

(You can click here to see the whole movie collection I would like to own for my children one day, and to read why I think movies are so much better than TV for children)

So in conclusion...I have an awesome husband. Little surprises like this get me through the day.

Click Here to find out more about The Disney Movie Club.

Apparently I'm Very Persuasive!

Well, it seems that my little commercial for Disney World may have actually worked. I was totally expecting Luke to laugh at my idea and tell me that there was no way he was going to spend money on a trip to Disney World in the summer. But he told me he is actually interested...if we can afford it, that is.

Basically, I don't know yet how much the whole thing would cost, and if we in fact CAN afford it. I am willing to save every cent of my splurge money possible in order to help pay for the trip. And today I am writing this post begging for your travel advice!

I've spent the last hour or two...or more...researching every corner of the internet for travel sites where I can hopefully find cheap flights/hotels/tickets. And all I've managed to do is confuse and overwhelm myself. I've been on Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz...you name the travel site, I've probably been there this evening. And my brain is just on information overload! Do you have a suggestion of a favorite travel website?? There are just so many out there. I think I like Expedia the most at this point, because it just seems to be the easiest for me to use for some reason.

Another question...anyone who has visited Orlando a lot: Are there any CHEAP hotels that you would recommend? I know you get what you pay for, and I won't get anything spectacular for low, low prices. However, it would be nice to get recommendations for places that are at the very least clean and comfortable!

Also, do you have any favorite tips on discounts to Disney World tickets or things inside the parks? I'm already getting a day free through the volunteer program, so that will help a lot. IF we go, that is.

At this point, I'm really trying not to get my hopes up. I'd say there's maybe a 50% chance that we will go. But I just absolutely LOVE trip planning, and I'm trying to figure out if this is going to be a good idea for us financially. I should have been a travel agent.

I'm actually a little shocked at how cheap the airplane tickets and some hotels are! Not very expensive at all! It's the tickets to the park that seem to cost an arm and a leg. And Luke and I talked about it a little bit, and we decided if we go, we want to skip Epcot and Animal Kingdom, and go to Universal/Islands of Adventure instead. Luke's more interested in that than Disney World, and I really want to check out the new Harry Potter section of IoA! Anybody know if there's a way to get discounted tickets to those parks, too?

So anyway, if you have ANY tips or tricks that would help me with potentially planning this spontaneous vacation, I'm all ears (get it? Mickey Mouse? Ears? Sorry, I had to :-P)

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