Duffy Lover
What?!?!? No!
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Wait, that’s not right.
Way out west there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of Jeff Lebowski.
Nope, that’s not it either.
I'm 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball, and I'm about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life.
Okay, this isn’t going as I planned. Let’s try again!
Hey there! This may not be an epic opening line from an epic movie (can you name the three movies?), but it will be a great opening to an epic trip report. Come along for a 15 night, three resort (two of which include 3 bedroom grand villas), 10 person adventure that begins at the stroke of midnight (sort of) on Saturday June 3rd, 2017. This is not my first trip report rodeo. Three years ago we took a very similar trip, and I wrote (and finished!) a trip report for that vacation:
A 2-Week Grand Villa Extravaganza!
As the time for this upcoming journey drew near, I once again made the brave decision to write a trip report. It didn’t hurt that my wonderful parents made a book out of the first trip report and gave it to me and the kids for Christmas. We are now only days away from the beginning of this next Disney vacation. If you would like to read about our plans, including the three resorts, the 12 ADRs and our daily itineraries, check out my pre-trip report with my working title:
Exciting Half-Month DVC Trip - Boring Title!
I decided to get this official report going so that I could link in my parting thoughts of the above pre-trip report. For those of you not interested in reading the pre-trip report, let me get you caught up to speed. Here are the basics:
When: Saturday, June 3rd through Sunday, June 18th 2017
Where: One night in a grand villa @ the Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House;
Five nights in a deluxe studio and 2-BR villa @ the Beach Club;
Nine nights in a hospitality house area grand villa @ Old Key West
Who: My family of four, my parents, my two sisters and my two nephews
Now for introductions. Who am I? Well, I am a 38 year-old, busy mom of two lovely daughters. As of the 15-16 school year I have moved on from my job as a secondary math teacher and school administrator and am now an “Innovation Coach” for an educational cooperative (known as a BOCES) that serves 7 school districts across the entire northwestern region of Colorado. My title is a little obscure, so let me sum up what I do- I help teachers become better teachers. Anyways, I love my job, and although I love teaching too, this is an opportunity that doesn’t often happen in a rural area like where we live. Here’s a recent pic of me:
Oh, where do we live? In a beautiful mountain town in Colorado. To be more specific, in Steamboat Springs. So hopefully now the title makes sense...
We moved into “town” just about two years ago to have more time with family - now we no longer have a 30 minute commute (in good weather) and enjoy one hour more a day with family NOT in the car! We used to live just to the right of where the lightning was striking but waaaayyy back, and now we live just minutes from the base of the ski hill. Do I ski? Not well, but I’m working on it. Anyways, when I’m not hanging with the family, I love playing ice hockey, camping, reading. Oh and I love all things Disney, duh!
My immediate family:
The first photo is from our amazing California trip last summer. The other is from Halloween 2015 when we rocked the Star Wars look, with my husband, Caz (short for Casimir- a Polish, family name), and my youngest daughter, Clara, as Jedis (Clara is a Youngling), and my oldest daughter, Emelia, as Padme (circa Episode II).
My husband - Caz:
Caz is 37 and is an engineer and sales manager for a small manufacturing company here in town. He loves to snowboard, drink craft beer (as do I), camp, play disc golf, read and hang out with “his ladies.” We met back in college and started dating in 1999, and in the summer of 2016 we celebrated 10 super great years of marriage. He is amazing, but Disney is NOT one of his passions, so he is very kind in more than tolerating my Disney obsession.
My daughters:
The first photo is from this Christmas and the latter is from the first day of school, in August of 2016. Clara is a third grader and Eme (short for Emelia) is a fifth grader (school year 17-18). They both love playing soccer, reading, camping, playing imagination games together, skiing/riding, Girl Scouts, and hanging out as a family. Although they love many of the same things, they are very different girls. Eme is outgoing and fearless, yet shy around adults. Here she is from May of this year on the day of her Confirmation:
Clara is cautious, loves deep conversations, has a wicked temper and will someday probably take over the world.
Both girls are happy, kind and pretty amazing. I’m biased, but most people would agree with that statement!
My younger sister- Brie, aka Auntie Brie-Brie:
Brie is a funny, sarcastic bank manager who adores her nieces and nephews. She loves to hang out at home binge watching good tv, reading, and playing with her large, black dog, Lily. She also loves to travel, including WDW, but I think she’d prefer it if we’d slow down every once and awhile so she could sleep in.
My older sister- Andrea, aka Auntie Drea-Drea or Drea:
Andrea is a super hard working single mom. She works for an insurance company as a lawyer. She loves the MSU Spartans, reading, escorting her busy young sons to many, many activities, and hanging out with her family and her college buddies. She is also sarcastic (genetic perhaps?) and super funny, and is incredibly intelligent.
Both my sisters have had health struggles recently… Drea has been diagnosed with arthritis and Brie had surgery on her foot in late March and emergency appendectomy just last week, among other things. Yikes. We’re going to take it slow (right @pirtategranny ?) and take our time. After all this isn’t our first tour at WDW.
Onward... my nephews - Josh and Ryan:
Josh is just four months older than Eme:
Ryan is just two months older than Clara:
The kids are all super close, even though they and the rest of my family live in Michigan. They actually get to see each other fairly frequently, and when we do visit we pretty much all hang out together all the time. These past few summers we've been sending the girls to Michigan for multiple weeks all by themselves. Anyways, the boys both love Boy Scouts, baseball, soccer, football and are super smart, kind little men. The kids are more like brother and sister and although they can play together for hours on end, they can also fight like brothers and sisters! But they also love each other very much:
My mother - Becky, aka Buszia (which is Grandma in Polish) first with my sister Brie and then with my sister Drea:
My mom is the hub of our Disney obsession. She is hopefully going to retire in the near future, but until then she is an accountant for the Ford Motor Company. She loves to travel (she and my younger sister, Brie, went to Iceland for a long weekend earlier this year!), read, spend time with her 4 grand kids, and most of all plan and take WDW world vacations. It is because of her we go on these truly epic vacations. After a 2011 trip where we rented DVC points for a week, she started buying up points like they were going out of style. We currently own at OKW, WVL and BCV.
My father - Terry, aka “Papa”:
Papa became “Papa” long before the grand kids. My sisters and I have called him that for as long as I can remember. My dad retired from the Department of Defense a few years ago, and since then he spends his time watching my nephews, rocking out to loud music, and golfing. Most of all golfing. I think part of why Papa loves WDW so much is that he can golf every other day!
We are very blessed that Papa and Buszia "sponsor" these trips to WDW. Very fortunate. What a gift!!
So buckle your seat belts people - we’ve got quite a trip in front of us. Lots of FP+, great meals, the best beer WDW has to offer, wonderful accommodations, a birthday, and some pretty cool bonus experiences like dessert parties, legal pool hopping, cabanas and nights out. I’m very excited to share this trip with you all… I would love to meet new folks on the Dis, and will hopefully be a pretty consistent poster. I might even post a few live updates! You just never know… So introduce yourself, tell me about your trips and let’s get to know each other! And with that, I’m spent.
See you real soon!
Wait, that’s not right.
Way out west there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of Jeff Lebowski.
Nope, that’s not it either.
I'm 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball, and I'm about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life.
Okay, this isn’t going as I planned. Let’s try again!
Hey there! This may not be an epic opening line from an epic movie (can you name the three movies?), but it will be a great opening to an epic trip report. Come along for a 15 night, three resort (two of which include 3 bedroom grand villas), 10 person adventure that begins at the stroke of midnight (sort of) on Saturday June 3rd, 2017. This is not my first trip report rodeo. Three years ago we took a very similar trip, and I wrote (and finished!) a trip report for that vacation:
A 2-Week Grand Villa Extravaganza!
As the time for this upcoming journey drew near, I once again made the brave decision to write a trip report. It didn’t hurt that my wonderful parents made a book out of the first trip report and gave it to me and the kids for Christmas. We are now only days away from the beginning of this next Disney vacation. If you would like to read about our plans, including the three resorts, the 12 ADRs and our daily itineraries, check out my pre-trip report with my working title:
Exciting Half-Month DVC Trip - Boring Title!
I decided to get this official report going so that I could link in my parting thoughts of the above pre-trip report. For those of you not interested in reading the pre-trip report, let me get you caught up to speed. Here are the basics:
When: Saturday, June 3rd through Sunday, June 18th 2017
Where: One night in a grand villa @ the Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House;
Five nights in a deluxe studio and 2-BR villa @ the Beach Club;
Nine nights in a hospitality house area grand villa @ Old Key West
Who: My family of four, my parents, my two sisters and my two nephews
Now for introductions. Who am I? Well, I am a 38 year-old, busy mom of two lovely daughters. As of the 15-16 school year I have moved on from my job as a secondary math teacher and school administrator and am now an “Innovation Coach” for an educational cooperative (known as a BOCES) that serves 7 school districts across the entire northwestern region of Colorado. My title is a little obscure, so let me sum up what I do- I help teachers become better teachers. Anyways, I love my job, and although I love teaching too, this is an opportunity that doesn’t often happen in a rural area like where we live. Here’s a recent pic of me:
Oh, where do we live? In a beautiful mountain town in Colorado. To be more specific, in Steamboat Springs. So hopefully now the title makes sense...
We moved into “town” just about two years ago to have more time with family - now we no longer have a 30 minute commute (in good weather) and enjoy one hour more a day with family NOT in the car! We used to live just to the right of where the lightning was striking but waaaayyy back, and now we live just minutes from the base of the ski hill. Do I ski? Not well, but I’m working on it. Anyways, when I’m not hanging with the family, I love playing ice hockey, camping, reading. Oh and I love all things Disney, duh!
My immediate family:
The first photo is from our amazing California trip last summer. The other is from Halloween 2015 when we rocked the Star Wars look, with my husband, Caz (short for Casimir- a Polish, family name), and my youngest daughter, Clara, as Jedis (Clara is a Youngling), and my oldest daughter, Emelia, as Padme (circa Episode II).
My husband - Caz:
Caz is 37 and is an engineer and sales manager for a small manufacturing company here in town. He loves to snowboard, drink craft beer (as do I), camp, play disc golf, read and hang out with “his ladies.” We met back in college and started dating in 1999, and in the summer of 2016 we celebrated 10 super great years of marriage. He is amazing, but Disney is NOT one of his passions, so he is very kind in more than tolerating my Disney obsession.
My daughters:
The first photo is from this Christmas and the latter is from the first day of school, in August of 2016. Clara is a third grader and Eme (short for Emelia) is a fifth grader (school year 17-18). They both love playing soccer, reading, camping, playing imagination games together, skiing/riding, Girl Scouts, and hanging out as a family. Although they love many of the same things, they are very different girls. Eme is outgoing and fearless, yet shy around adults. Here she is from May of this year on the day of her Confirmation:
Clara is cautious, loves deep conversations, has a wicked temper and will someday probably take over the world.
Both girls are happy, kind and pretty amazing. I’m biased, but most people would agree with that statement!
My younger sister- Brie, aka Auntie Brie-Brie:
Brie is a funny, sarcastic bank manager who adores her nieces and nephews. She loves to hang out at home binge watching good tv, reading, and playing with her large, black dog, Lily. She also loves to travel, including WDW, but I think she’d prefer it if we’d slow down every once and awhile so she could sleep in.
My older sister- Andrea, aka Auntie Drea-Drea or Drea:
Andrea is a super hard working single mom. She works for an insurance company as a lawyer. She loves the MSU Spartans, reading, escorting her busy young sons to many, many activities, and hanging out with her family and her college buddies. She is also sarcastic (genetic perhaps?) and super funny, and is incredibly intelligent.
Both my sisters have had health struggles recently… Drea has been diagnosed with arthritis and Brie had surgery on her foot in late March and emergency appendectomy just last week, among other things. Yikes. We’re going to take it slow (right @pirtategranny ?) and take our time. After all this isn’t our first tour at WDW.
Onward... my nephews - Josh and Ryan:
Josh is just four months older than Eme:
Ryan is just two months older than Clara:
The kids are all super close, even though they and the rest of my family live in Michigan. They actually get to see each other fairly frequently, and when we do visit we pretty much all hang out together all the time. These past few summers we've been sending the girls to Michigan for multiple weeks all by themselves. Anyways, the boys both love Boy Scouts, baseball, soccer, football and are super smart, kind little men. The kids are more like brother and sister and although they can play together for hours on end, they can also fight like brothers and sisters! But they also love each other very much:
My mother - Becky, aka Buszia (which is Grandma in Polish) first with my sister Brie and then with my sister Drea:
My mom is the hub of our Disney obsession. She is hopefully going to retire in the near future, but until then she is an accountant for the Ford Motor Company. She loves to travel (she and my younger sister, Brie, went to Iceland for a long weekend earlier this year!), read, spend time with her 4 grand kids, and most of all plan and take WDW world vacations. It is because of her we go on these truly epic vacations. After a 2011 trip where we rented DVC points for a week, she started buying up points like they were going out of style. We currently own at OKW, WVL and BCV.
My father - Terry, aka “Papa”:
Papa became “Papa” long before the grand kids. My sisters and I have called him that for as long as I can remember. My dad retired from the Department of Defense a few years ago, and since then he spends his time watching my nephews, rocking out to loud music, and golfing. Most of all golfing. I think part of why Papa loves WDW so much is that he can golf every other day!
We are very blessed that Papa and Buszia "sponsor" these trips to WDW. Very fortunate. What a gift!!
So buckle your seat belts people - we’ve got quite a trip in front of us. Lots of FP+, great meals, the best beer WDW has to offer, wonderful accommodations, a birthday, and some pretty cool bonus experiences like dessert parties, legal pool hopping, cabanas and nights out. I’m very excited to share this trip with you all… I would love to meet new folks on the Dis, and will hopefully be a pretty consistent poster. I might even post a few live updates! You just never know… So introduce yourself, tell me about your trips and let’s get to know each other! And with that, I’m spent.
See you real soon!
Last edited:
I think it's because I break my trips up into 3 separate reports every time.
