Hello! I have been enjoying your great TR. Thank you for sharing your experiences in such great detail!
I wanted to suggest that you consider
Disney Cruise Line. I don't have children, but I have sailed twice with
DCL (7 day and 14 day trips) and I have another trip coming up in August. Reading that you and your kids love the magic of Disney but you DH hates the lines and crowds, I think you will find DCL to be a great compromise. You get all of the magic (wonderful kids clubs, tons of characters interactions, fireworks!) and quality (fabulous CMs, beautiful ship and entertainment) that you expect from Disney. Perhaps you don't enjoy sailing, or the idea of cruise ships and I can understand that. My DH and I never cruised before we sailed with DCL (and won't sail with anyone else!) but we just fell in love with it.
So here are .2 cents from a stranger
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Thanks so much for vouching for the cruise. Like you, I really had no interest in a cruise whatsoever until Disney started building cruise ships.
So far we haven't made it on a sailing, but it is only a matter of time. Like you, I think it will be a very good compromise with Chris. And I love the idea of the kids exploring worlds of their own in the kids club (that looks positively amazing on the new Dream) while we can do stuff completely on our own, completely guilt-free!
We are tentatively thinking of trying a cruise in 2013. This is a big, milestone year for our family. Katie turns 10, I turn 40, and my parents turn 65. I think it would be a nice way to celebrate.
You know, I found a solution that has worked well regarding a stick-in-the-mud, sour puss DH...back in the beginning of our marriage more than 13 years ago he would often put a damper on my best laid plans and cast a sad shadow on our excitement whether it was WDW or simply running to the park for an evening...lots of "I'm too tired" or mumbled commentary that would ruin the mood. Or complain how hot it is the whole time I push our daughter on the swings...really?
I grew tired of this after a couple years and watching my kids faces fall and not understanding why he could not fully appreciate the great life and healthy children he was given...I decided to stop including him. I literally gave him an ultimatim and said that until he could figure out how to participate with us and enjoy spending time- we would be doing it without him. I refuse to make detailed plans or ANY plans and let them be ruined by attitude.
He quickly came around after about a year of seeing that I am serious. He was and is always welcome to do these things with us, but not with crabbiness- he is a good father and a good provider, but sometimes it seems men think they have to be harsh and serious in order to BE men. Sometimes it seems they cannot come out of themselves and teach by example to their children the lesson that life is to be enjoyed as a family because none of us are promised tomorrow.
Now we have a true agreement to pay attention to what the other wants..I try not to overplan to perfection to be happy and he gets time to himself especially when he has indulged us in riding Winnie the Pooh 4 times with a smile!
Sorry for the huge rant- I am sure your DH is perfectly nice and hardworking, as is my DH, but I can see we share a few of the same frustrations...
Loving your TR!
Thanks for your comments. Helps to know we are not alone.
There is no question I had a number of disappointments on our trip. The top one was how our last nite ended, probably followed by my disappointment in my family's lack of cooperation for our Roots photoshoot. However, in the end, I still spent some amazing time with my family at my favourite place in WDW. And shockingly, we still ended up with some wonderful family photos from our Roots photoshoot that I will cherish for years to come.
Fortunately in our ordinary life, I am quite lucky. If truth be told, it is Chris who has the shorter end of the stick, not me. He contributes the lion's share to our family in just about every respect. I honestly don't know what we would do without him.
Unfortunately, he doesn't like the heat, crowds and lines associated with Disney theme park touring and dislikes the repetition of going back to the same place, year after year for our family vacations, whereas I have yet to tire of taking the kids to Disney. But all in all, I definitely still have it pretty good.
Aww...I am sorry your last night did not turned out as planned. I love your matching outfits - they look perfect for your last dinner at Ohanas. Poor Declan, getting clocked in the eye like that. Yikes! I'm glad he was OK. Sheesh!
Well - you know what you need, right? A do-over night at the Poly watching Wishes all together.
Thanks!
And yes, Declan ended up being fine after about an hour or so. His poor eye looked awful though at first...he could barely even open it. We have all had a bad poke, and this was a doozie.
A re-do nite at the Poly for Wishes sounds like a great idea!
I'm sorry your plans for Wishes didn't work out, but it sounds like you made the best of it. At least the rest of your night was good except for poor Declan's mishap, glad he was OK afterwards. I would love to try O'Hana someday, maybe on my next trip.
O'Hanas really does get mixed reviews, but in our books, in was pretty darn good!
We will definitely be back!
Oh Trish.
Chris had been doing so well! It's hard, all the expectations of perfect moments we planners put on ourselves, and our families, for them to live up to it. It always seems for me, when it does fail, the disappointment is so much more crushing as there is that sense of never being able to get back that moment, the one we didn't have, that we wanted so badly. It's a fine line between being able to roll with it, just letting the magic happen, but also wanting/needing to stand your ground for something you really had your heart set on. I'm so sorry the evening ended that way.
I did have to smile at you pushing it with getting the ice cream, that is SO something I would have done too. I hope sleep soothed and the morning was better.
Thanks Cynthia!
You are very wise....everything you said is so true.