Planning a Walt Disney World Vacation

I’m going to Walt Disney World!

Sorry, I don’t mean to brag, but I’m super excited that I am once again visiting the most magical and happiest place on earth!

Disney is so much more than an amusement park to me. As someone who is terrified of roller coasters, prone to motion sickness, and gets super anxious around crowds, Walt Disney World is a magical place where my fear and anxiety melt away. I feel safe. Only in Disney do I happily talk to complete strangers and ask for help when I need it. I constantly push the boundaries of my motion sickness and my fear because it feels safe to do so. This scaredy-cat would never vacation alone anywhere else, but if my husband didn’t also adore Disney, I would be headed there on my own in a heartbeat. It’s comfortable and I understand why so many Disney fans refer to it as “home”.

Planning for Disney is a great self care tactic for me. I find the organization and research fun and soothing. Planning isn’t for everyone, but for those who do like planning, it makes a trip to Disney even better! Planning for Disney also REALLY pays off. With planning, you can avoid crowds, get to go on way more rides, and eat at the places you want to eat. Disney puts a lot of information online including complete menus for all their eateries. They also allow you to book fastpasses (sort of like reservations for rides) up to 60 days in advance and their version of dining reservations 180 days in advance.

I went to Disney (both world and land) many times when I was a kid. There was a gap for over a decade when I didn’t go because college and grad. school. However, my husband and I went there for our honeymoon in January 2015. Then we returned in 2017, 2018 and 2019. I also had an extra bonus single day Animal Kingdom adventure in the fall of 2018. I think it’s safe to say I’ve had a lot of experience planning WDW trips recently. Given my naturally nervous nature, I read a lot of articles, make spreadsheets, listen to podcasts and investigate the best touring strategies.

Last year, for the the first (in forrrreevvverrr) , we brought two friends with us to Disney. One of the friends had never been before. These two (non-couple) friends both enjoyed their trip so much that they are going to WDW again. Not just again, but with me. And not just with me but on my next trip! I did not expect them to go again so soon. While most of the credit goes to Disney and to our mutual friendships, of course, I’m going to give a bit of that credit to my travel agent and tour guide skills.

I'm going to be sharing my planning experience here. My strategies, tips and tricks, moments from my previous vacations and more. I would love to help you plan your next Disney trip or answer some of your Disney questions. Please leave suggestions for topics, questions and comments below.

What do you want to know about planning a Walt Disney World vacation?

*Giveaway!!* Enter to win Sims 4 DLC or a copy of "The Bullet Journal Method"

I’m celebrating reaching 700 Twitter followers with a giveaway!

I’ve reached 700 followers on Twitter, and to celebrate I’m doing a small giveaway. Two of the most popular topics of my posts are my Sims 4 stories, and my Bullet Journal or planning posts. To honor that, and the variety of my readers, I’m allowing the winner to choose between two prizes!

You can win either:

A Sims 4 DLC pack of your choice purchased through Origin

or

A copy of “The Bullet Journal Method” by Ryder Carroll. Ryder designed the time management system. It is an excellent read for anyone who values time and is trying to live more intentionally.

Thank you for reading & following!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weekly Spread: February 24th to March 2nd

Last week I introduced you to a technique I am using to work on my relationship with time for the purposes of mental health and self care. You can check that first post out here: http://www.crazycatnerd.com/meowing/2019/2/18/weekly-spread-february-17th-to-23rd

Last Week

Here’s the completed version of last week’s spread:

It looks like I was pretty negligent on my hobbies, so I need to aim for a bit more balance. I ended up adding things to my weekly to-do list, but I checked off more than I thought I would. So, I’ve made a few more slots on the list, but left some of them blank to be filled in over the next couple days. I met my goals for steps, level up life and page views, so I can up my expectations on those a bit. It seems my EBT skills (the graph) drop off on Thursday/Friday which is something to be mindful of.

This Week

Layout:

Overall, I think last week’s layout worked pretty well. I didn’t use the schedule area (Sun, Mon, etc… beneath the calendar) so I shrunk that area and added a larger sticker. I added an “email” goal bar as I’m trying to clean out my inbox.

I shortened the Self Care area, as I had too many goals. I also increased the blog area.

Goals:

1. Reduce E-mail Clutter: My inbox is overflowing. This week I want to drop the Google-labeled “important” e-mails from 560 to 510. So handling 50 e-mails.

2. For my work-based health programs, I plan on walking 52,000 steps this week, doing three sessions of 11 minutes of stretching exercises, taking three mindful walks, getting at least six hours of sleep on five different nights and completing one activity for my Hooswell “Journey”.

3. In my hobbies, I’d like to spend time playing The Sims, practicing doodling, organizing my Disney pin collection, and working on my next session of Dungeons and Dragons.

4. For my self care goals this week I’d like to do:

   1. One meditation exercise

   2. 3 extra “5 minute pickups” to help with decluttering

   3. Play a game on Steam that is not Civilization

   4. Complete one task for tax preparation

   5. Start keeping track of my water intake in the Fitbit app

5. I still need to give you a post about the “Level Up Life” app, but my goal in there this week is to earn 300 additional XP.

6. I’m starting my next class series with EBT from a local provider, so keeping track of my check-ins and joy points (two EBT techniques) has become a priority. I’m hoping to get more of each this week.

7. I’ve made a more specific list of things I want to achieve this week. In future week’s, I may do each task more than once per week, but for now I’m setting my goal at just once per week and see what happens.

Thank you for being my accountability! ;) What are your goals for this week? Are there any topics/tasks/goals from above that you’d like to hear more about? Let me know in the comments!