A Change of Plans

Blah... this hasn't been a happy few days for this Disney fan.

I've been so excited about September and our trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  And over the past few days, it's like everything has completly imploded.

There are a lot of things that are upsetting me about our upcoming trip to California.  I'll be upfront, there is some personal stuff going on behind the scenes that I don't feel like sharing, but it's put a lot into question and it's weighing on me heavily.  Hopefully, that all gets sorted out in the next few days and we have some answers mid-next week.

Then, the Main Street Electrical Parade being "retired" a few days before our trip has bummed me out.  It probably seems superficial, but I was really excited about it.

I got more bad news the other day.  I was excited when Eliot told me that the D23 Expo panel schedule was finally released.  Then... we started looking at everything.  Literally the two things that I wanted to do at D23 are at the exact same time.  So now I'm going to go the Princess Concert with my family and Eliot's going to the Duffy panel without me.  (If they don't announce that Duffy is coming back to the states... I might revolt!)

Don't even get me started on the nightmare that is trying to get our D23 Expo tickets set up.  That is a complete disaster of a process and I'm not impressed.  Eliot and I never got our tickets in the mail.  They went to his mother's house and she never got them.  So now she's scrambling to get that straightened out.  Oh, and if you have tickets, you're supposed to have them transferred into the correct people's names by tomorrow.  So who knows how we'll do that when we don't even have the tickets... 

And now, on top of that, Eliot and I have had to change our plans yet again...

I didn't let on when Eliot and I decided to cut our anniversary trip in half.  (That was a few weeks ago.)  We had decided to only go through Wednesday the 21st, and then we'd extend our January trip to Walt Disney World for the 2023 race weekend to add a few days to the end of it to make up for the days we'd miss on our anniversary trip.

This Thursday night, we sat down to make our actual anniversary trip plans.  (Yes, we literally hadn't booked anything yet.)  After doing a bit of math and realizing how ridiculously expensive it was going to be for only a four day trip, we have made the difficult decision to cancel our 10th anniversary trip to Walt Disney World all together.

I won't lie... I'm completely devastated.  I've looked forward to this trip forever.  But it just doesn't make any sense.  With D23 being days earlier, we really can't afford to do both trips and we had to make adult decisions.  We were trying to make it work, but it just seems like it's a fruitless effort.  Plus, we're realizing that Eliot can't take that much time off from work right now.  He's been swamped with his workload lately... and this isn't the time to take two weeks of vacation almost back-to-back.

On the plus side, we have made alternative plans.  I wasn't thrilled at first, but now that I've had a day or two to let it marinate, it does make a lot more sense.  And Eliot and I are going to get a two week trip out of it... even if that wasn't what our intention was.

Instead, we have decided to extend our January WDW trip in the other direction as well.  Now, we will be going down to Florida a few days before race weekend.  So we'll be able to visit the parks a few days before the races, and then a bunch of days afterwards.  And as sad as I am about our anniversary trip, this makes more sense.

There's also a lot of things in the plus column... Eliot will be missing work when most people are already taking a bunch of time off for the holidays.  He also gets New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off, and since they're both on Saturday and Sunday this year, he should be able to get two days off without using vacation days.  Plus, we'll be in Florida during January when it's cold here in Maine.  And finally... the most important positive thing that was my biggest reason for agreeing to this change of plans... 

Eliot and I will be going to the Magic Kingdom on New Year's Eve.

I love being at the Magic Kingdom on New Year's Eve.  There's no were else that I'd rather be when we say goodbye to one year and hello the next one.  (I think it's extra magical to ring in the new year with Cinderella Castle and fireworks!)  Eliot doesn't particularly love how crowded the parks are, but it says a lot that he's willing to suffer through it to make me happy.  And, it gives me something else to look forward to now that I can't look forward to being at the parks on our actual 10 year anniversary.

The only thing better than knowing that I'll be at the parks over New Years... this is 100% booked.  We were up until the wee hours of this morning booking the flights and by 3 am, this extended two week trip was official.  Set in stone.  It's happening!!!

So while Eliot and I will be missing out on the trip over our actual anniversary, we'll be at Walt Disney World for a belated anniversary trip in January.  For two weeks.  From December 30th to January 14th.  To celebrate our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary.  And Walt Disney World's 50th Anniversary.  And celebrating New Years there as well.

It hasn't been a happy few days here... but I think this is the silver lining.  °o°