After all these years that I have blogged, you all pretty much know that we don’t normally spend a lot of money on anything but necessities. Sure we spend a fortune every month on cable, Netflix, and a home telephone which I could probably cancel if Hubby didn’t like sports so much. But he does so we keep it. But that is okay because it makes him happy. We eat out once in a while but not to the excess that a lot of people we know do. We don’t go to the movies and other expensive venues like casinos, etc. Have you ever wondered why we save so much money every month and don’t treat ourselves with those aforementioned things?
Well, the answer is so very simple. We save our money for things that are important to us. We save to be able to treat our grandchildren and kids once in a while. But most importantly we save so that we can treat ourselves once in a while like this trip to Disney World for me. Hubby was invited but turned it down. He doesn’t like to travel. He missed out on a great time.
While he was home, I was in the parks every day except Saturday. That was because I started getting sick on Friday and spent the day in bed on Saturday so I missed the dessert party and fireworks at the castle. But my family went and loved it. Fortunately, I didn’t get sick at the beginning of the week. We arrived in Orlando about 8:30am on Sunday the 7th. After checking into the DVC resort at Boardwalk, we went for a walk on the Boardwalk where we stopped for a Quick breakfast at the Broadway Bakery. The snack on the plane didn’t kill our hunger. We were at the airport at 4am so hadn’t eaten. The bakery has such wonderful pastries, sticky buns and breakfast platters. We walked around for a while after and then went to the ESPN Club on the Boardwalk to get appetizers and beer and watch the Buffalo Bills vs. Jaguars football game. Even though our Bills didn’t win, it was fun to be there. The Club was filled with Buffalo Bills fans who had traveled down. Our plane was actually filled with fans. Most of whom flew down and rented a car to drive to Jacksonville. But there were plenty of us who ended up at the Club. It was a fun afternoon of beer and appetizers. Alas we had to leave early though because we had a reservation for dinner at Paddlefish at Disney Springs.
We did all of the parks using our hopper passes, some more than once. My favorite is Epcot where my son and I spent a morning and afternoon eating and drinking our way through the countries. Yes, I put on three pounds while we vacationed but I am right back on my Keto diet today.
We ate every lunch and dinner in the parks. We went to Ample Hills Creamery, Be Our Guest (for lunch), Earl of Sandwich(lunch), Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop(dessert), Victoria and Alberts Dinner Queen Victoria Room, Hoop De Doo Musical Review at Wildnerness Park, Landscape of Flavors, Paddlefish at Disney Springs, Sci- Fi Dine in Theater Restaurant and Yak and Yeti’s for lunch one day. I know there were many more than I can’t think of right now. But it is expensive eating in the parks for lunch and dinner and sometimes breakfast(which I think we did twice).
I took my son and DIL out on separate evenings late night for drinks and appetizers at the ESPN Club and the Big River Grill & Brewing Company. The rest of the nights they went out late night to extra hours- 9PM to midnight for DVC members only at Magic Kingdom and I babysat.
However they treated me to a wonderful Christmas present. My gift was dinner in the Queen Victoria Room at Victoria and Alberts at the Grand Floridian. What a treat I was in for. There was a strict dress up code which we abided by. We had a 10 course dinner(menu pictured) with wine pairings with each course. MY DIL and I both received a long stem red rose all prepared for travel just before we left. We all went home with a box of specially picked chocolates from the best in the world. They sent us home with our menu that also had our welcome by name engraved on the back. The dinner took 4 hours and we enjoyed and savored every minute of it. We had waiters and wine sommeliers for every course who explained everything we were eating and drinking. The Chef came out during the meal to see how we liked everything. The head of the restaurant did the same. The service was the best we have ever had. The food was like nothing I will ever see again. It was just superb. There are only 4 tables in the Queen Victoria Room and we got so much attention. There was a wonderful fire burning in the fireplace. The elegance in the room was wonderful. We felt like royalty for the evening.
If you decide to go there it is a very romantic place if you don’t have your Mom in tow. But the kids wanted to really treat me. But bring your bank roll with you because dinner and the wine pairings will run you $ 340. to $365. per person plus tax and gratuity.(They didn’t tell me;the information is out on the web.) It was not a cheap evening for them between this and a 5 hour babysitter for their son who couldn’t go. No children allowed. Plus we took a car service door to door and back. It was a magical evening for me and I was very thankful to my children for this. It was a beautiful night that I will always remember.
Since my son owns timeshares at Disney, I did not have to pay for a room. We had a 2 bedroom at Boardwalk. But I did have to pay for my airline tickets and 7 day hopper pass both of which were not cheap. If I remember correctly that came to about $900. I paid for my son’s car long term rental at the airport which was $65.25. Hubby was going to drive us but was unable to so it was the least I could do. I spent $ 175. for the scooter for the week. I spent another $1300. in cash for meals( I treated my family a few times), Florida newspapers for coupon inserts that were too good to pass up, a treat for my grandson for the plane, and a Mickey Mouse key chain because mine broke. The key chain was the only souvenir I bought. I did buy a birthday gift for my grandson since his birthday is this week. But that was it. I only had a carry on with me and it was so full that I could barely zip it so I couldn’t buy anything else.
But anyway as you can see I spent about $2500. for this trip and it was probably higher because I didn’t write down every dollar I spent. And that was without paying for a room. Disney is very expensive.
Anyhow we had a blast! It was cold and rainy a few days we were there but we didn’t let that bother us. We went to all the parks and even spent an afternoon in the pool and jacuzzi.
So now you see how and why I make beautiful memories with my family and that I am not frugal all of the time. I just prioritize how we spend our money and what we save it for.
I am happy to be back even though I have a bad cold or the flu. I will not let that stop me though since I have errands to run the next few days along with two appointments this week and lots of mail and laundry to catch up on. I will be posting now that the trip is over.
I also have to order Hubby’s favorite zero calorie coffee syrup that he ran out of while I was away. Plus his boots fell apart while he was out snow blowing. I love my LL Bean boots so I will order him a men’s pair from there. I have a 25% off coupon code and a $10. GC.
