It's been eight months since I last entered through the gates of Disneyland. I feel like an addict in withdraw. I am feeling a pull back to Florida (since that's actually within driving distance unlike the other!), even though I am also craving travel elsewhere. Then it hits me - let's do a cruise this year! Now I realize I'm driving my husband a little crazy. I found the perfect Disney cruise at a great price, but it's in October. He doesn't want to wait until then to go on vacation. And, alas, he'd like to do something that doesn't involve a mouse.
So, how much Disney is too much?
I think about how much money we've spent on Disney vacations in the past several years, and geeze, we could have taken some serious, longer trips elsewhere. We're deluxe resort staying, dining plan eating kinds of people. We have dropped a few thousand pretty fast. Have we had a blast? Yes. Have the kids enjoyed it? That's to say the least! I love it and don't blink an eye. It's ultimately not even about the money.
I want to keep it special. I am afraid of going too much. I don't want the kids to be like, oh, Disney again, okay. I want to still keep that magic alive. I want the pixie dust to stay fresh. I can go time and time again, but I'm struggling to find the happy medium. I still get goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes when I see the kids enjoying themselves, or when I cross through onto Main Street that first time. Gosh, I got excited walking through Downtown Disney in Disneyland before the park opened last summer, so I don't even have to enter the park to get excited.
At what point do we do something different? We kind of did last summer in that we stayed at Disneyland, but we didn't spend but a few days in the actual park. It was our home base for our LA travels, then we left and spent an amazing few days in San Diego. Would we be happier going to back to southern California, which we love, and exploring more of what the region has to offer, or going back to WDW? Sometimes the answer seems obvious, other times, it just isn't.
As far as the cruise goes, I'm still working on my husband. Unfortunately, the itinerary we want isn't available when Little Man is out of school, and that itinerary is on the older ship, not the newer one. Little Man just wants to go on the Aqua Duck, so that's a hard choice. I'd love to do this, but should we go to New England instead?