48 hours and counting

So it's that time once again the annual (or at least it sure seems that way :p) Smith family trip to Disney World. I am pretty excited for this upcomming trip for 2 main reasons.

1) We have the Disney dining plan. Shalisa and I did this the last time we went to Disney World (in '05) and we pretty much decided that any subsequent trips to Disney World would include the free dining. I obsess WAY too much about the cost of food when we are on vacation (I see the dollar signs racking up as we order our bread and water) and Disney only exagerates the problem with their over-inflated park prices. The dining plan allows you to order really... anything you want for your meals, and it just uses a dining "credit" which you pre-purchased before you even arrived at the park. I think if '05 the cost per adult was like... $45 per day (we got it free with our hotel reservation) and Disney has now upped the price to something like $60 or something. In my opinion even at $60 it is still a great deal only because it reduces the stress of watching money fly out your wallet every time you sit down to eat. BUT what makes this so great, we got it FOR FREE. Basically Disney runs a promotion every so often that for every night you have booked in a hotel room, they throw in the dining plan for free for everyone in your party. So Shalisa, Maddie and myself all got a free dining plan at zero cost. Free makes me happy. Free food makes me extra happy!

2) The REAL reason I am excited about this trip is that it will be the first time that Maddie has ever been to a theme park. I know she is way too young to even remember things, and Shalisa and I often mocked and scoffed at parents who drug their 2 year olds around the park, wondering what sort of idiots would do that, but I also know that her face will absolutely light up when she sees things, and Shalisa and I don't have unrealistic expectations for this trip. Since we are both seasoned WDW veterans we don't "have to see everything" on our trip, and we have planned excessive amounts of time at our hotel for both regular sleeping and nap time. I think in our daily schedule for each day we have blocked out 3-4 hours mid day for Maddie to come back to the hotel room and take a nap. Since we won't be wheeling her around the park non-stop all day every day I hope she will be a happier child than the ones I have seen in the park before.

My excitement is only tempered (every so mildly) by my broken wrist. I am not real thrilled with hanging out in 90 degree weather with a cast... but I will deal, and honestly at least I have had the cast for 5 weeks, I am pretty comfortable getting around with it. At the very least, I can use it to club those unruly children in front of me in line, so that will be fun :D

During our down times I am going to try and make a real effort to make a blog post a day from Disney (need something to do to kill the time). Disney has pretty steep prices for internet access (I think it's like $10/day for wifi) but my co-worker Joel had a good idea. I am going to see how much it costs to use my phone as an internet access point, sure it's only like 128 Kbps, but I can blog and browse with that, plus I don't need any cables or anything as I can use the bluetooth to do it, and to top it all off, it's only like $15 for a month compared to the $110 it would be for my Disney stay. I need to get Shalisa to buy off on it, but if she does I will even try and post blog posts from the plane (uploaded when we land at our layover) and some other fun stuff.

Again, no promises, we will see how it works out, but I suggest tuning in as it could be an epic posting week by yours truly.