As for our debt dumping, I have completely derailed.
I haven't accumulated any more debt but I haven't been so diligent in following The Plan. If I stuck to my budget, we would have had $5k ready for Christmas. ($1700 of that is a bonus that dh used to get right before Christmas and he would give me that in cash as my gift to go book a trip. His employer has since changed from a lump sum bonus every Dec to a pay increase spread over the year but dh still likes to give me that for Christmas since I like trips better than any material thing.)
So anyhoo, our London/Paris trip was awesome!!! All the hotels, tours & transfers we booked turned out great. Thanks TripAdvisor!!
The food there was waaaaaay more expensive than I anticipated. Whew!! For 4 of us to have burgers at a casual table service restaurant was easily 114 GBP. 139 at the Hard Rock Café. At today's exchange rate that's $186+
Yikes!
Why did I look that up? I was happier thinking it's like $$.
Anyway so we went over budget by a few hundred $$ for food. We didn't buy a ton of souvenirs so that was good.
Disneyland Paris was surprisingly a lot like our Disney World except smaller and service was not so magical. Some of their rides were way better than ours such as Small World has a globe shaped fountain with lovely gardens outside and a huge clock tower animated display. Every 15 mins it does this little thing where doors open up and little people from all over the world come out while the song plays. It's cute.
Also their Space Mtn is called Hyperspace Mtn and it shoots you out fast and goes upside down like our Aerosmith.
They also have LOTS of smokers, everywhere. No matter where you stand, someone's smoke is in your face. Ugh!
It's like going back to the 70's here. Also lots of line cutters due to very little supervision of FP lines. On Big Thunder Mtn people would hop the railing and get into the FP line and no one else checks for actual FPs except at the initial FP entrance. Another UGH moment.
The park itself is beautiful and loved our hotel, Newport Bay Club Resort. It was just remodeled and felt like our Yacht Club. Their club level lounge was awesome at breakfast, a massive buffet compared to WDW, with bacon, eggs, sausage, waffles, smoothies and all our usual offerings.
We saw lots of police presence in London but that paled compared to Paris which had HUGE military police with machine guns all over the city, and heavy presence at very touristy spots like Eiffel tower and Notre Dame. I never felt unsafe but really if we went 20 mins without seeing one, that was a long stretch.
At DLP, of course security was super tight also but no guns. The gate guard questioned our driver "who is in the vehicle", searched the trunk, not looking inside our bags. After being dropped off outside the lobby, security is set up to have all bags xrayed and we go through metal detectors before even entering the front doors. Once inside we all spread em' and get wanded down again. Wow.
The parks are about 15 min walk and all must pass through a mini version of DTD to reach the gates but first must go through another round of xraying bags and go through metal detectors. After a few times this became very routine. One could debate privacy vs security all day but I was truly glad they were doing all they could short of a cavity search so we could feel relaxed inside the parks. Without, DLP would be an easy target.
To further break my budget plans, right before leaving for our big trip, I stumbled onto flights from PHL to MCO for just $29 each way incl tax that coincided perfectly with some days off work. I think I'm pretty strong but you know that is my kryptonite! So we spent 3 nts at Yacht Club last week. We had a crazy late arrival, (flew after work) and stopped at the desk since they never texted our room assignment. Well what a shock, they upgraded us to a 2BR/3BA suite! omg, it starts off looking like a king room with a big screen tv, balcony, and the usual fridge/coffeemaker but it kept going on and on, such incredible space. A connecting door led to a full living room with another huge tv, prob 60" and double doors leading out to the hall way. Then another full bath, then a wet bar with another fridge & coffeemaker then a dining area for 4, then a huge master BR & bath! Yowza!! Then another balcony that overlooked Stormalong Bay, which I FINALLY got to swim in after every other visit being too cold to swim!
Too bad it was only 2.5 day vacation but it was really special and I teased dh that I will never be able to go back to slumming in a standard room after being so spoiled. lol.
So now we're back to hunkering down and I'll have all the Christmas $ saved by early November.
I was hoping to squeeze in one more visit before the Cirque show ends Dec 31. I have a Companion Pass with SWA thanks to their cc bonuses but I feel like I really need get a grip and stop splurging!
Like in Monsters Inc.: SMACK! - Keep it together Man!!
He does do some side things like mystery shops and whatnot, but I use Swagbucks diligently to put money in our Disney fund. Really excited to see this Swagbucks announcement tomorrow since it looks like they're adding Disney gift cards...
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My first was 10 days late, they had to go in and get her. Since she ended up being a csection I opted in the end to have a repeat c so my second was technically 10 days before my due date but I have a feeling she would have been late had we left her alone, too!
