To Disney, or Not to Disney... that is the question!

What happens when the only time you can take your dream vacation to Disney is during the worst possible time to go there? The busiest, the most hectic, and definitely most chaotic time to go to Disney is the week between Christmas and New Year's. Guess when we're going?

Ok, call us crazy, call us nuts, but we're doing it! Husband has been promising me this trip for years now. We have the money, we have the time, we have the excited kids (two of which are old enough to really enjoy this) but what we don't have is the off-peak season. One thing that really sucks about being in the military is that you are on their schedule. You don't really get to pick and choose when you want to take off for vacation. The military tells you when you have vacation. Well, they told us we have from Dec. 20 - Jan. 4. So if we want to go to Disney, that's when we have to go.

Husband has a guy that he's in charge of who bought cruise tickets that start on Dec. 15 because he heard a "rumor" a few weeks ago that said the leave dates would start on Dec. 15. Does he get to go on his cruise? Nope. Leave doesn't start until Dec. 20. That's how it goes. Is he flaming mad? Yep! Should he have bought the cruise tickets without getting confirmation of leave dates and not just listening to a rumor? Nope!

It sucks, it's not fair, and there's nothing we can do about it. Be glad you get four weeks paid vacation in the military even in your first year. Most jobs don't do that.

So, we're taking the leap and going for Disney! The great part is that we'll be there for New Year's Eve. I think that will be a lot of fun. We have four days and there are four parks. Not sure if we'll do MGM because there is a lot that Hunter can't go in. Most of it is shows and they don't let small children into them.

I'm totally excited by our hotel. It's about a mile away, but it has shuttle service to Disney. I went on priceline.com and looked up the cheaper hotels. Most of them had fair to poor customer ratings. As we all learned when we went to Niagara Falls, a good hotel is important for more than one reason! Then I started searching the 3-star hotels. A tad over our budget, but husband is always willing to make the small sacrifices to make me happy. He said sure, go for it. But before I did, I had an idea. Why not "bid" on the room? After all, isn't that what priceline is for?

So I bid $100 under the price thinking there was no way they'd accept it. It would almost 50% off if they did! I waited... and waited... and waited... then... the answer came in and they accepted it! I couldn't believe it! So I got my 3-star hotel at a 2-star price! Well ok, that didn't sound as cool as I thought it would, but it is almost 50% off the original price.

I guess the only other thing to say is, I want to go to Disneyland!!! (or World, actually)