This may be the airport layover Jack Daniels talking, but I think I’m coming to a positive frame of mind with this whole not-renewing-my-AP thing. The harsh truth of the matter is that I just can’t fit the AP (plus the associated airfare, resort costs, food costs, souvenir costs — times six) into the budget for 2014. I know no one wants to hear the Debbie Downer reality of why I’m suddenly poor (oh, you do? Well, let’s sum it up with not having a tenant in my condo for 6 months, paying two mortgages, being sued not once but TWICE because of a slip and fall in front of said condo, being dropped by our insurance, surprise dental work, and a severe addiction to WDW leading to the use of my AP six times in the span of one year), but suffice it to say, I need to start saving just a smidge.
Also, let me take this moment to offer the best life advice I can: NEVER BUY REAL ESTATE. EVER. Worst decision of my life, hands down. That time I decided to test pepper spray in my kitchen? Better decision. That time I ignored that pain in my stomach for six months and it turned out to be pancreatitis? Better decision.
But back to Disney…
So here’s how I see things: There are the once-a-year (or less! Quel horreur!) folks, and there are the multiple times a week lifestylers. In the former group, your excitement is building and broiling for a year. You spend your free time planning and plotting out your itinerary, counting down to each milestone… 180 days out, ADR time! 60 days out, FP+ time! 10 days out, check-in time! All the while, you’re checking your countdown app on your phone as if it may actually fastfoward time in front of your very eyes. Your year becomes the slow erotic building to the final climax of your WDW trip (yeah, I went there).
While I’ve never had the opportunity to be a lifestyler (one can dream…), I imagine it to be a special relationship with the parks and resorts where you can take such time and care with your experiences that you’re never worried about the clock. Didn’t get that ADR you wanted this week? There’s always next. Line too long for a certain attraction today? There’s always tomorrow. It enables you to have a zen approach to WDW, always living in the moment, never a need to rush or overwhelm the senses, always knowing that WDW itself will be there for you day after day like a trusted spouse (yeah, I went there, too).
But what of the six-times-a-year folks? I wish I could say I was as excited before each trip as I usually was back in my once-a-year days, but I genuinely can’t. It’s not that I love WDW any less or — heaven forbid — have grown tired of it — never! It’s just… I don’t feel like I even have the time to let that broiling and simmering take place. From the moment I’ve booked my trip to the day I take it, I’ve barely had enough time to make my ADRs and plot my course, let alone spend at least four months fantasizing about every moment of each day! And once I’m there… it’s still rush, rush, rush! Must make the most of every fleeting moment! I don’t get the benefit of the once-a-year build up, yet I also don’t get the benefit of the lifestyler “I can take my time and relax” mentality.
Granted, these are the half-cocked ramblings of a very sad person about to go through serious Disney withdrawal, so don’t take my assessments here as law. I’m sure everyone has their own opinion on what is the ideal WDW visitation schedule just as everyone has their own opinion on just which WDW snack is best.
But as for myself, I shall try my best to use the next 18 days, 19 hours, and 1 minute to pump myself up to maximum psychitude — reminding myself that this is it for a year, so I best make the most of it! This means memorizing my itinerary, focusing on the positive, setting goals, packing two weeks in advance, making multiple lists, and otherwise annoying everyone around me — AKA, back to my usual Disney Side. And that Disney Side is the side I’ll continue to show for the rest of 2014, slowly simmering in anticipation of my triumphant return in 2015!
My Disney Addiction 
So given this upcoming trip is the sixth cashed in on your AP, how does your level of excitement jive with going back to WDW with me, who is still classified as the once-a-year type?
For the record, I am all for the zen approach, regardless of what guest attendance group you fall into. Perhaps we can experiment with some zen habits during our upcoming stay? It’s going to be an unusually long one, after all … perhaps only surpassed by the trip for your ninth birthday??
I am over-the-moon excited about our upcoming trip! There are so many firsts or “it’s been ages!” experiences that I can’t wait to have — a trip just YOU AND ME, Wilderness Lodge, Boardwalk Villas, LIVING THERE FOR 11 DAYS, pretending I’m a lifestyler by working during the day and Disneying at night, Yachtsman Steakhouse, watching you experience MagicBands for the first time, and more! My excitement cannot be measured on any human scale.
… there’s just one tiny “but,” and that is: I still don’t feel like I have the time to dedicate to marinating the excitement like I usually do. Then again, this could have a lot more to do with the current craziness going on in my life than it does the number of times I’ve been to WDW in 2013! Like, if you can believe it, I still don’t have the itinerary memorized! I only created my packing list TODAY. I haven’t read at least three Disney-based books in the month leading up. And I haven’t done any pre-trip shopping for special vacation outfits (and given current circumstances, probably won’t — yes, I got generous gift cards for Christmas, but those should probably go toward buying a pair of business slacks that fit me and don’t have a broken zipper (big OOPS I discovered over the weekend)). You get the idea. I can’t WAIT to be there with you, but until I am, I may need to focus more on real life instead of vacation day dreams 😦
I get what you are saying here.
While I have never had the chance to go 6 times in one year (not that I wouldn’t but unfortunately for me I have a husband who hates Disney and already thinks I am weird enough, as well as now a small child so the days of going wherever I want whenever I want are far behind me), I still can understand how you would be upset to let that go.
But also I love that you admit that the amount of trips you’ve been able to take this past year finds you a little less excited each time. Not that you don’t love it because you do, but you know you will be back soon so it doesn’t make you quite as excited.
I think this could be a blessing and a curse all at the same time. While you won’t be able to go so often and that sucks, I but you will be all the more excited to go when you do get the chance. And that is exciting!!
We should start a support club for Disney lovers whose spouses/significant others hate Disney.