SeattleSuz
Em Eye See, Kay Ee Why Em Oh You Ess Ee!!
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
So, I decided to start a PTR. I have never done this before, but I was thinking about it last night and thought it would be a way to share my excitement and track my progress, without annoying the heck out of my DH with all of my chit chat. ha!
I am a lifelong Disney fan (with my mum starting my Mickey collection when I was 5 with my first Mickey "briefcase" for my kindergarten bag, ahh, the 70s), DH is pretty much just along for the ride (though I have caught him on more than one occasion telling people that our WDW trips are some of the best vacations we've ever had) and DD6 (Ariel) is a fan like me, pretty much since birth (as if she had a choice!).
We live in the sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny Pacific Northwest, in the lovely city of Kirkland, WA (yes, Kirkland, as in Costco's Kirkland-brand! haha). I am a payroll accountant and DH is a very successful personal trainer. I've been to DLR 7 or 8 times, WDW twice. DH has been to DLR 2 times (both with me!) and WDW twice. DD has been to DLR and WDW.
DH and I have been on two other cruises, small-ship, adventure cruises, to Alaska and Costa Rica/Panama.
This will be our FIRST Disney cruise.
OK, enough background on us, let's get down to business!! We were looking to try and go to the Caribbean, because neither of us has ever been and DH was wanting something other than DLR or WDW. So, I looked into DCL and thought, 'We can kill two birds with one stone; I can get my Disney fix and DH can get his Caribbean trip!' I ran it by DH and he was IN! I am a big planner, so when I was telling DH back in September 2013 that we would probably need to book at least a year out to get good pricing, he did not believe me. We booked our trip in November. We were originally going to do a 4N out of Miami, but decided that if we were going to trek all the way from WA state to FL, we might as well make it a longer cruise. So, we decided to go with the 6N Western Caribbean out of Miami instead.
In January, my DH finally decided to leave 24 Hour Fitness, where he had been for nearly 10 years and branch out on his own. At first, we were nervous about keeping the cruise, because we weren't sure how his business was going to go. But after the first month, business was sky-rocketing for him and he only lost 1 client in the transition, and ended up gaining 3 new clients. So, in February, we decided to upgrade our Oceanview room to a Verandah.
I told him that I wanted to join a FE group and of course, this was something that he just kind of said, "Ok, whatever" to and shook his head. That being said, I joined the FE group on here and then the group on FB. Seeing as how I am a huge planner, I started buying FE gifts before Valentines Day and had all of my gifts bought/made by about March 1st.
On April 13th, while DH was gone all day at a Fitness Seminar, DD and I assembled all of our FE gifts for our group (37 gifts!) and stashed them away in my craft closet.
Just a few weeks ago, we made our final payment to DU and are just waiting for our 75 day window to be able to book our Shore Ex.
Other details
We are flying into FLL on Friday, October 10th and staying on Fort Lauderdale beach. We are hopefully going to be doing a shuttle share with another family that will be staying right in the same area of FLL beach.
Post cruise, we are going to be picking up our rental car at MIA and cruising with the top down (we always like to splurge for the convertible when we are in Florida) back to FLL beach and staying there until Monday evening, when we fly back out to Seattle...
We haven't quite picked our Shore Ex yet, as I told DH he is in charge of that and he is still looking. But I think we are going to try and do a snorkeling with stingrays and then maybe a Catamaran/beach party for our Cozumel and Grand Cayman shore ex. I don't think we'll book anything for CC, we'll probably just play it by ear with that.
Other than that, I ordered a customized FE that just shipped out last Friday and I am anxiously waiting to see how it turned out!!!
I am a lifelong Disney fan (with my mum starting my Mickey collection when I was 5 with my first Mickey "briefcase" for my kindergarten bag, ahh, the 70s), DH is pretty much just along for the ride (though I have caught him on more than one occasion telling people that our WDW trips are some of the best vacations we've ever had) and DD6 (Ariel) is a fan like me, pretty much since birth (as if she had a choice!).
We live in the sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny Pacific Northwest, in the lovely city of Kirkland, WA (yes, Kirkland, as in Costco's Kirkland-brand! haha). I am a payroll accountant and DH is a very successful personal trainer. I've been to DLR 7 or 8 times, WDW twice. DH has been to DLR 2 times (both with me!) and WDW twice. DD has been to DLR and WDW.
DH and I have been on two other cruises, small-ship, adventure cruises, to Alaska and Costa Rica/Panama.
This will be our FIRST Disney cruise.
OK, enough background on us, let's get down to business!! We were looking to try and go to the Caribbean, because neither of us has ever been and DH was wanting something other than DLR or WDW. So, I looked into DCL and thought, 'We can kill two birds with one stone; I can get my Disney fix and DH can get his Caribbean trip!' I ran it by DH and he was IN! I am a big planner, so when I was telling DH back in September 2013 that we would probably need to book at least a year out to get good pricing, he did not believe me. We booked our trip in November. We were originally going to do a 4N out of Miami, but decided that if we were going to trek all the way from WA state to FL, we might as well make it a longer cruise. So, we decided to go with the 6N Western Caribbean out of Miami instead.
In January, my DH finally decided to leave 24 Hour Fitness, where he had been for nearly 10 years and branch out on his own. At first, we were nervous about keeping the cruise, because we weren't sure how his business was going to go. But after the first month, business was sky-rocketing for him and he only lost 1 client in the transition, and ended up gaining 3 new clients. So, in February, we decided to upgrade our Oceanview room to a Verandah.
I told him that I wanted to join a FE group and of course, this was something that he just kind of said, "Ok, whatever" to and shook his head. That being said, I joined the FE group on here and then the group on FB. Seeing as how I am a huge planner, I started buying FE gifts before Valentines Day and had all of my gifts bought/made by about March 1st.
On April 13th, while DH was gone all day at a Fitness Seminar, DD and I assembled all of our FE gifts for our group (37 gifts!) and stashed them away in my craft closet.Just a few weeks ago, we made our final payment to DU and are just waiting for our 75 day window to be able to book our Shore Ex.
Other details
We are flying into FLL on Friday, October 10th and staying on Fort Lauderdale beach. We are hopefully going to be doing a shuttle share with another family that will be staying right in the same area of FLL beach.
Post cruise, we are going to be picking up our rental car at MIA and cruising with the top down (we always like to splurge for the convertible when we are in Florida) back to FLL beach and staying there until Monday evening, when we fly back out to Seattle...
We haven't quite picked our Shore Ex yet, as I told DH he is in charge of that and he is still looking. But I think we are going to try and do a snorkeling with stingrays and then maybe a Catamaran/beach party for our Cozumel and Grand Cayman shore ex. I don't think we'll book anything for CC, we'll probably just play it by ear with that.
Other than that, I ordered a customized FE that just shipped out last Friday and I am anxiously waiting to see how it turned out!!!
Hi Erin!
