April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Pretrip

Cast of Characters

Nick: 31, my husband. He’s an optician these days. He likes to nap on vacations and leaves most of the vacation planning up to me.

Me: also 31. You all know me. I’m a speech-language pathologist, and I’m the resident “Disney Dork” in the family. I did a fair amount of planning for this trip.

Kim: 58, Nick’s mom...aka my amazing mother-in-law. No seriously...I really lucked out in the mother-in-law department. She’s a former special education para so she and I speak the same language. She’s a Disney enthusiast. Actually, she’s just enthusiastic in general.

John: 59? Nick’s dad. He’s an electrical engineer who speaks the language of installing camera systems on Navy ships. He’s a classic engineer. He was basically along for the ride.

So this trip started two years ago on our WONDERful first Disney Cruise. Nick and I booked a placeholder because we knew we wanted to cruise again. Since then we’ve gotten engaged and married, and spent a year and a half planning this trip. I think I sent the email to start booking the 2 of us for this cruise a couple hours after I got my hands on the calendar for this school year. And, somehow, we talked Nick’s parents into going with us. This is kind of a big deal.

As the planning progressed, the trip got bigger than just a cruise. When the big pieces were planned, the trip had morphed into:

April 21st: Fly to MCO late in the evening.

April 22nd and 23rd: Disney parks!

April 24th: Drive from WDW to Miami

April 25-29: Cruise on the Disney Magic

Thankfully the countdown slowly ticked to zero, and the packing got done days in advance thanks to the coldest, longest winter and spring combo EVER! And the excitement built! The week leading up to the trip was absurd at work, and we were SO READY for vacation!!!