Kristen K's Pennies From Heaven! February 2015

I was so excited last night, I couldn't sleep.

My check came in the mail yesterday! My goodness it was exciting! I knew what the base amount of the insurance policy was, but they hadn't been able to tell me what the interest was going to be. Well - 23 years worth of interest turned out to more than double my check! So I'm takin' the whole family to Disney!

I've made lots of changes to the plan overnight!

Who: Kristen (old enough), DH Geordon, DD Tori (age 21), DS Kirk (age 20), DD Katie (age 15)

What: 8 Night Land/Sea Vacation

Where: WDW Saratoga Springs 2 Bedroom Villa! I was able to get a 2 Bedroom at SSR for the entire trip, and requested the Congress Park area.

When: We added a day! We'll be flying in the evening February 19th through 27th, 2015

Flights: Ugh! Flight costs have gone up $50 per person just since I started looking last week.

Food Plan: We'll be switching to the Disney Dining Plan! Hoorah hoorah! Katie and I were too excited to sleep last night so we figure out where we want to eat most. And guess what! They will all be firsts for me! - Leaning Palms, Typhoon Lagoon - Snack Shack, Typhoon Lagoon (for the sand pail ice cream) - Bongos Cuban Express, Downtown Disney - Raglan Road, Downtown Disney - Biergarten, Germany, Epcot

Touring: We'll be there 3 full days now so we're going to do a Typhoon Lagoon, Downtown Disney, and (probably) Epcot.

We are! Seriously, Katie and I were up until about 2am this morning because we were so excited. The only reason I got to bed was because I took two Benedryl.

We'll have to work something out when we get closer to the date! I promised Geordon no crazy schedule of meet-ups but I'm sure I can get away with one.

Yesterday was a whirlwind, but I accomplished a ton of stuff for this trip. Hahaha - I don't think I've ever spent so much money so quickly in my life.

As soon as I woke up and checked the bank to make sure my check cleared I hopped on the Southwest website and booked our flights! It always seems more real to me once the flights are booked. Next I called DVC and scheduled our ground transportation on the Magical Express.

Even though this was a surprise windfall I have still be working within a budget and had to try and pinch pennies where I can, so I decided that I would buy Disney Gift Cards from Target using my red card to pay for the trip. That was going to save me 5% + 5% with an extra pharmacy discount card that I had. I could get my camera and lens at Target too, and I wanted to be sure to have that discounted as well. Katie and I hopped into the car and headed for the store.

I went back to electronics and told the guy that I needed 68 Disney Gift cards, a Nikon D5200, and an extra zoom lens. Everything was going great, until I tried to pay for it all. Apparently the amount of money that you can charge on your Target red card is linked on your regular spending habits. Since we rarely spend more than $150 or so, we had a $300 limit and I was not a happy camper. Why have the thing that gives you a discount if you can't use the discount when you really need it? After an ...ummm... exchange with the manager, they decided that they would extend the discount to me using my bank card. Yea - the exact same bank account my red card comes out of. Whatever. We did some calculations an the guy worked a bit of magic on his cash register - a LOT of magic. Ultimately I saved $486, and that doesn't include the savings from my camera being on sale. I left Target a very happy camper.

When we got home I paid off the cruise portion of our trip. The gift cards to pay for the standard DDP are sitting on my table to be added to our reservation later today. My daughter Katie keeps asking me if this is real. She's been deep into helping me plan it's so cute! She is crazy excited, I even let her at my spreadsheet to put in notes where she wanted to.

It's all coming together!

Woot! Everything's either paid off or sitting on a gift card to be spent during the trip.

Friday I called Disney and added the standard DDP to our reservations, then I made a couple of ADRs!

We've got Lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern on our Park day. Dinner at Raglan Road on our DTD Day, and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue on our Water Park day. I haven''t been to Raglan Road myself yet and I haven't been to the Hoop-Dee-Doo for 18 years. I'm very excited about going to see the Hoop-Dee-Doo again!

Tori and I decided to take the Disney bus to the Port for our cruise. I know that this won't help me avoid the crowds or get me to the terminal when I would like to be there but it turned out to be the most economical option and it will give me an extra couple of hours to shoot pictures of the resort after the rest of the family heads back home.

I think that we've decided on the Magic Kingdom for our Park day. We're not sure which counter service restaurant we want to do for dinner though. We don't want to eat at Columbia Harbour House or Pecos Bills because we eat at both of them often. Which Counter Service at the Magic Kingdom would you do for dinner?