Should we stay or should we go now...

I think it may have been about a month or so after his birthday. Sometime after the commercials came out for Disney with the Mickey balloons popping out of cards asking people "What will you celebrate?" Corban, my oldest, came to me and stated that he knew what he wanted his birthday party to be this year. He wanted his birthday party to be at DisneyWorld!!! At first I didn't know what to say other than we just wouldn't be able to afford for him to take his friends there for a party but someday we would go there. I hated to see his dreams dashed in his big brown eyes but I knew that it wasn't a possibility. He made me promise that I would take him there someday.

Now every time one of those commercials comes on he says, "We'll go there some day right mom? Promise?" Well, just out of curiosity, I wanted to see how expensive this "birthday adventure" would be, just for him, Eric, and I and Addison of course. Turns out that Addison would be free because she's so young. Corban would get in free on his birthday. So really to be at DisneyWorld for his birthday it would just cost us the price for Eric and I to get in. And any additional days it would be the three of us that we would have to pay for.

Then I noticed on the website that Florida residents get discounted rates, I think it was 40% off the ticket price but that could be wrong. Instantly I though of my niece's mom who lives in Orlando. She and I are fairly close and she loves Corban so I know she would be willing to get the tickets for us.

I also was curious about the prices of the Disney hotels. On the Disney commercials they have been promoting a special that if you book 4 days you get 3 free but it's only good through certain days. I looked at those "special" days, and it covers Corban's birthday....just barely, but it does! And the budget resort is fairly cheap. SO...if we were to go, would we go to all of the parks? or just one or two? or just the one on his birthday?

When I went to Disney back in 1993 when I was in second grade I remember some of the parks being so boring like Epcot. Again I looked on the Disney website to look at the parks and attractions they now had since things tend to change in 17 years. ( Wow! I was 7 when I went there!) The more I looked the more I remembered how fun it was and noticed that they have added a LOT of new things. Disney has a fun little thing you can do. You can create customized maps for each of the parks listing your favorite rides and attractions. You can have them made before you get to Disney to plan your vacation or after to capture the memoires. As I was going through marking all of the attractions and rides I think Corban would like, I realized that he would probably enjoy each park.

So now what to do? The more I have been thinking about it, if we stayed at the resort and got the 3 free nights I think we should drive to the closest beach and spend the days. Corban and I flew to Fort Lauderdale when he was 2 1/2 but he doesn't remember the beach or the ocean at all. We could do 2 trips for the price of 1. I really think this would be a birthday to remember! The only problem is if we do this trip, he won't get a birthday party. I'm just not sure if a 5 1/2 year old will like that. And how will we cope with the long drive since flying is definately out of the picture?

Eric and I are still debating if we can afford a trip like this. Corban really doesn't ask for much or extravagant things. It just seems like God has opened pretty much every door to making this trip a reality. My fear is if we don't do it this year, and put if off till he's older and Addison's older that 1) he won't enjoy it 2) he won't believe in the magic anymore and 3) that these deals of the free admission on your birthday and resort special won't be there "next year". Sigh. Still praying about what to do.