Reposting in hopefully the correct and better location re: our upcoming May trip

I posted this in the trip dates, so am reposting here for a better reference.

Okay, here goes. Not sure if posting trips is dead or not, but if there’s room for a thousand, we’re volunteers.

In the past couple of weeks, out of the blue, we found a “cabin” (I use the term loosely) at Ft Wilderness had come available with the stay more save more discount, for our limited window to travel. We prefer the cabin because we’ll have a kitchen (dietary restrictions) and we’ll have the dachshunds with us, again. So its perfect for crating them and exercising them and hanging out in nature (even tho more of the trees cut down) when we don’t go in the parks.

We’ll be one night at AoA (never been) and then move to our “cabin” for 5 nights. Wow, we could barely cough up the rate, but when i checked yesterday, the same basic room at AoA was 2x the rate we paid. Crazy. We have $150 in Disney visa dollars to use plus I purchased several of the discounted Disney Gift Cards from Best Buy several months ago. Every little bit helps. We will only be in the parks 2 days. We still have like 12 days of non-expiration park hopper tickets and we’re only using them little by little, especially because we are still being penalized by having to make park reservations and we prefer to fly by the seat of our pants. Which is why we don’t book dining. At this rate, our tickets will last us another 10 years. And since we are so unhappy with Disney right now, that should be easy. We don’t walk around with our phones (except as one of my camera options), we don’t pay extra for rides, we know each day now that if do any attraction rides it will likely be one or two things first thing in the morning. We’re doing this on 1 income since 2021, so eating and drinking mostly at our “cabin” always helps.

So, why are we going then?

1) we already have tickets 2) Because on May 20 we will celebrate 25 years of marriage and we began our honeymoon at Disney May 21, 2000. We will be back at Epcot 25 years to the day! I plan to print a photo of us “then” to take photos of places we visited when we were there 25 years ago. Several times since we booked it, I’ve said, I can’t do this, we have to cancel, I have so much anxiety about going to Disney World now. I’m going to laminate a sign for our door and/or window that shows we are celebrating these 2 things. It seems fun when we see others do that. But partially I want to add the words, don’t ruin our trip!

3) Also, I just completed 19 rounds of radiation therapy for DCIS in March. My diagnosis was in October, and I had 2 lumpectomies. We’d like to celebrate these phases of the journey being over.

Now, I just have to hope it isn’t ruined by Disney! Because as some of you have stated about your more recent trips, we’ve had some unpleasant experiences since 2018, including the so-called mandatory “security” room checks and just very unmagical experiences and completely different feel in the parks, not to mention costs.

It should be a no-brainer that Disney fans would celebrate an anniversary or completed cancer treatment with a trip to feed the mouse, but not so. Since we booked the trip I have said several times that we have to cancel because it stresses me out going to Disney now. At least I know from reading some of the posts on Reddit that many others have also experienced awful things like us and many have experienced far worse. Our best times may be cooking out the cabin, sharing a some wine or sipping some whiskey on the deck, listening to D-cot and walking the pups around the Fort. I think we’re going to take our mountain bikes for the first time, so we can get around faster to the boat launch or Pluto’s dog park. We’ll resort hop to our favorite places. Sigh. Fingers crossed we have a good trip because right now my Disney emotions are Eyeore, Grumpy, Sam Eagle, and Statler and Waldorf Muppets (to quote comedian Brian Regan, “you said this would be a happy place”—the birthday party skit) Arrive at AoA May 17 and then Fort Wilderness May 18-23, 2025

I suppose I could take the opportunity to edit and improve but I am too pooped! Happy Saturday! I guess I should return after our trip to post “what happened”. Is that what folks do? Thanks for the tips Starbee.