Being Part of the Disney Vacation Club

Making the decision to join the Disney Vacation Club back in 2010 was the best decision I ever made. It was definitely a tough decision, financially speaking, but it works well for my family of five.
We chose Bay Lake Tower as our Home Resort; this means we can book a room at Bay Lake Tower 11 months before our vacation date and Bay Lake Tower is the resort we pay maintenance fees to yearly. The plus to being a DVC member is that we can stay at any DVC resort, not just our home resort. This was a huge selling point for my husband because he absolutely loves the Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge and I have to agree, it is wonderful there.

The outside of the Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is so very serene. It sure made us feel as if we were in our own little world.

The location is perfect, only a boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom, which happens to be where we spend most of our time.

 The Electric Water Pageant can be seen from the Wilderness Lodge each night as well, which is another reason we love the location, we really feel like we are in the middle of all the magic.

Now, our family loves to eat so we were pleasantly surprised when we had our first meal at The Whispering Canyon Café; lots of excellent food, served family style and a tremendous amount of fun!

The cast members playfully interact with guests, which our kids loved! Just ask for ketchup and see what happens!

 While I am always raving about being a DVC member, I realize many people cannot afford to do so or just want to try a villa in Disney first before taking the plunge. This is where looking into DVC rentals comes in.

You can rent points from a DVC member like me to stay at a Disney villa. This is an excellent way to decide if a villa is the right fit for you and your family. In fact, often it is a cheaper option than becoming a DVC member. I know families who rent timeshares for their Disney vacation every year and it fits their family style and budget perfectly.

1 Month and 27 Days!

In just 1 month and 27 days I will be back in my happy place! I cannot wait to get there. I know it has been a while since I've posted here. December was a downright awful month. My dear friend Heather, who had just been to WDW in October and had her engagement pictures taken there, passed away from cancer - a cancer she didn't even know she had, until it was too late.

That same week my grandmother passed away - my father's mother, not the grandma we usually take to WDW with us.  That was not easy. Then a week later my father had a heart attack. He came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve.

The job situation for CJ is still a bit shaky and we are trying our best to get situated again. Our March trip is already paid for. We're staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House using DVC points,  the flight has been paid for, we have annual passes so we don't need park tickets. We will just need money for food. If this wasn't the case, we would not be going.

Soooo, despite the dark clouds that seem to have been following us, we are just chugging along and having this upcoming trip to look forward to sure helps.

Sing-a-Long with Mickey

My kids LOVE Disney music. Even my oldest, who is 8, still loves to sing and dance when she hears those classic Disney tunes. She is still infatuated with the Princesses. My middle child is a huge Buzz Lightyear fan and my youngest is the Mickey/Minnie fan. With this in mind, for Wyatt's birthday I ordered a personalized music CD for him. It's Mickey, Minnie and Goofy singing classic songs and in the songs they sing his name. HE LOVES THIS CD!!! I got the CD at: Music and Books 4 Kids

Not only does he love the CD - my other 2 kids do too. In fact, right now as I type this (at 6:30 in the morning) the boys are in the family room playing the CD. Normally I would NOT be a happy camper about this so early on a Saturday morning but as a Disney FANatic, I have NO PROBLEM listening to Zippidy Doo Dah! ºoº

Here are my 3 dancing and singing along with "If You're Happy and You Know It" - I recorded this the other morning before school.



If your kids love Disney music, this is a great gift idea! I got a chance to speak with the owner of the website and she told me the voices are the actual Disney character voice. How cool!

Change in Our DisneyMoon Plans

As DVC members, we have enough points to visit WDW twice a year. Of course I already had our 2012 trips planned and one booked; June 17-22 at Bay Lake Tower, just CJ, me, and the kids. We knew we were absolutely going back in October, just had to wait for the 11 month-out window to book. That meant when we decided to take an adults only trip in March, we couldn't use DVC points, so I booked the trip with Kelly from Travel With The Magic - who, by the way, is an EXCELLENT Disney travel agent! I highly recommend her!

Well, things got rocky, job-wise, and CJ made the decision to quit his full time freelance writing gig and head back into the workforce. He landed at job at Martin Guitars but through a temp. agency, so there is no guarantee of  a permanent position. We knew we would have to make some changes. We still wanted our adults only 'DisneyMoon' - but would it be easier to tell a job place that wants to hire you that you have a trip in 3 months, that was planned and paid for before the job offer; or saying the trip is in 7 months?  From past experience, the vacation that is sooner is more acceptable than saying, "hey, I need off 7 months from now" so we decided to ditch the June trip altogether. We know there is probably no way he'd get time off for 3 WDW vacations next year!

I suppose we could just cancel ALL our trips but then we are out money because the points we are using for 2012 are borrowed from 2013 (don't ask, I know, I need more points! LOL) Canceling our June trip meant freeing up DVC points, so we made the decision to cancel our stay at the Polynesian and use points for our March stay. This breaks my heart cause I LOVE the Polynesian but financially, it just made sense.

We are going to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House. We stayed there in June and liked it a lot. We had a pool view:

In March we got a Savanna view. This should be interesting. So many people rave about the view and being able to wake up in the morning seeing animals roaming around.

From Halloween to Christmas

It takes just 2 nights to transform the Magic Kingdom from Halloween decor to Christmas decor!

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

For large families on a small budget, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is excellent news! it's located near Disney’s Pop Century Resort. It will offer 1,120 family suites (including a bedroom and living room) themed after “The Lion King,” “Cars” and “Finding Nemo” animated films, as well as 864 guest rooms inspired by “The Little Mermaid.”

I'm not sure of prices but it is in the value resorts area so I am guessing it will too be considered a value resort.

Beautiful Poly Sunrise

In less than 4 months I will be waking up to this; a beautiful sunrise at the Polynesian Resort. Just me and CJ - for our Disneymoon!

Photo Credit

This will be our first trip without the kids. I HOPE we can still make this trip - it's booked and the airfare has already been paid. CJ just got a new job so we're keeping our fingers crossed that he will be able to get time off for this trip.