The Briar Patch

"Now remember, we want to relax and enjoy this vacation. Please don't go all crazy with the planning. You've already taken care of so much, whatever happens after that, let’s just fly by the seat of our pants." my Hubby said to me recently. Ohhhhh, now why did he have to go and say a thing like that! He knows I take suggestions as a direct order to do the opposite! I apparently have an issue with family "authority" and I have a difficult time following any "orders", advice or direction from anyone other than myself. Lord, just ask my parents! There is a part of me that saw the wisdom in his words, but then there was that perpetual two year old in me that felt the overwhelming urge to buck the system, as usual. That two year old takes over, a lot! Oh, how I love that little rebel!

When I was entertaining the idea of running my first marathon with Team in Training, I went to the initial meeting and then mentioned to Hubby after my interest in going for the half. It would be my first half marathon and not being much of an athlete, I thought it would be a good challenge. Besides, it was for a good cause. He of course tried to be considerate, but balked at the idea. "Why don't you try a 5k first and work your way up from there. I think a half marathon is too big of a goal for you just yet." Well, that threw the two year old into quite the tantrum. The next day I marched right in there and signed up for the full marathon! "Take that!" the two year old proudly said and stopped its foot. I trained for almost a year. (stupid two year old) Originally, my run was supposed to be in Maui, but I didn't meet my fund raising goals and I didn't feel I was ready yet. I moved my run to the Disney World Marathon. Imagine that, how convenient, another trip to Disney World. . . . who says I'm not an evil genius? I finally met my fund raising goals, became adamant about my training, was running up to 20 miles on my long runs and had a great team of runners to support me. During my training, my team also completed 3 half marathons and I was really starting to enjoy the race day atmosphere! That alone is a huge reason to race and run! I completed my first full marathon with all Disney glory and pomp. It was exhausting, painful and amazing! I don't believe I will ever do another full. Mile 20- 26.2 was interesting and a true test of self, but I did it, I finished and I really don't have the overwhelming desire to do it again. Half marathons I still love and still participate in from time to time. Upon crossing the finish line at the Disney full, I was magically adorned with my hard earned golden Mickey medal. I was so proud of it, and couldn't believe I actually finished a full marathon! I then joined some of my running mates and we all waited for the rest of our team to make it across the finish line. When they all arrived in, there were lots of hugs, tears and congratulations. Then we made our way out of the finished racers corral and headed over to our families. I hugged Thing 1 and Thing 2 and then with a smirk looked Hubby dead in the eye and said, “See I told you I could do the full." Yeah that inner two year old is a tough little bugger to tame!

Having been on several cruises, I know it's never a good idea to plan too much on sea days or on the ship in general. The daily newsletters provide you with a great schedule and so much to do. It's hard to balance relaxing, laying in the sun, bingo, shopping talks, karaoke etc. It's better to just plan your at shore days and leave the rest to chance. I know this, yet I am now fighting my inner two year old and my over the top internal magical planner. I have the knowledge of past cruises and the knowledge of how planning for Disney really pays off, how does one combine the two? It's like I'm stuck in the briar patch, looking for a way out! To make things worse, Hubby had to issue his statement (see personal challenge!) how dare he! Clearly this is now becoming an internal battle of the wills. . . . I wonder who will win this one? Clear headed, rational me usually doesn't come out as the champion. I guess I can use this as training to get my rationality back into shape.

Recently, I have slipped a little and planned, with Hubby's approval. Of course his approval makes it no fun and totally ticks off the two year old. In fact. . . I can feel two year old sitting in a corner, plotting away. . . . I can't wait to see what it comes up with! Hubby and I have booked a Couples Villa at the spa for one of our sea days. I am really excited to enjoy this bit of a delicacy! We have booked our own private Villa on board for 130 minutes. We get a couples massage, followed by fruit and champagne and then private time to enjoy the Villa. Without me having to connect the dots for you, you can guess why Hubby was ok with this plan! The Villa's have their own very private balcony, spa and large chase "bed" on the balcony as well as a very large open-air shower. Oh you wicked little Disney planners! On a cruise where parents are surrounded by children, you have given the parents a perfect, quiet little retreat to enjoy and reconnect, for a price of course. After all, it is Disney; you don't think they would give something this awesome away did you? What a great idea though, and yes please. May I have another!

In my need to let my two year old have a little fun with on-board planning, I have also been trying to obtain Remy reservations. HA! We are first time cruisers, so we are the last in the cattle call line to be able to go online and book anything. By the time we could do our online check-in and start booking. . . . . why yes, yes I did stay up until midnight to do this, what Disney Momiac wouldn't?. . . . . all Remy and Palo dining reservations were already sold out. I still keep checking back every day, throughout the day to see if any open up. So far, still not luck. I think our best chance will be to scurry up to the D-lounge after boarding and see if we can't get ourselves worked into a reservation. . . . . fingers crossed! For those of you who aren’t aware, Remy is an adults only fine dining French restaurant. Palo is the adults only fine dining Italian restaurant. These restaurants are not included in your cruise and you are charged extra, although from all I have heard, it's well worth it.

In an effort to control my "must have a magical moment-every moment" take over of the two year old, I have held off making my cruise "book". Those that know me I am sure just fell to the floor. All is well. I'm ok, but if you feel the need to rush over here to check on me with a bottle of wine, well then, I may be feeling a little faint. . . . . I have made a "book" for every Disney vacation that we have gone on. For our first trip, it came about as a matter of necessity. There was no other way for me to keep track of all the great ideas, touring plans, character meal reservations and everything else that we had to shove into that first trip. After that visit was over, I saved it to remember all the great magical moments we had and so I could properly label the scrapbook. Since then, I have loaned it to several friends who have used it as a template to create their own Disney "book". There are now several of our Disney "books" from other Disney trips. With any luck at all, by the time I am too old and frail to go to Disney anymore, I will have had to build a library to hold them all! The fact remains though, that I haven’t even put one page into our cruise "book", yet. I have the binder and all the other needed materials, I just haven’t started it yet. . . . . I guess I am still trying to figure out in my head exactly how to execute everything. I have wanted this cruise for so long, and built it up so much in my head, it's almost as if I am caving under the pressure of it all. I almost have the feeling of tossing out even the idea of the "book" and just going without any plans at all.

Yeah right! Who am I kidding? Ok fine, enough procrastination! There is magic to be planned, and I'm just the gal to do it! Besides. . . . . Hubby already said "not to plan too much."