After a long hiatus, I went back! - Introduction

[ILoveLegos]

Hello fellow Intercot-ears!

It is snowing out; I have the day off & I finally have some things to post - Yippee! In September of 2023 I returned to Walt Disney World for the 1st time since October 2011. I took such a long break to focus on new "perspectives". It is not an easy thing to say, but I'll kind of borrow some of the words from Luke Skywalker to Leia in Return of the Jedi. The Force is strong in my family, my grandfather had it, my mom had it, my aunts & uncles have it, & I ... I'm being "monitored". Unfortunately, it actually was not the Force, but Cancer that runs through my family tree. When you get that kind of news over-and-over, fun things like Disney get switched to the "back burner" sometimes. So basically, for the past 12 years - I focused on my family and we made some of the most beautiful memories together - beyond the doctor's visits, radiation, chemo, and sad times; we truly enjoyed lots of laughter, some travel together, and we focused on the glass being half full - because it is. Most recently my dear Auntie lost her battle in 2016 & my dear mom lost hers in 2020. The latter was right in the beginning of the pandemic, so to keep everyone safe; we had the smallest funeral, but we kept the hope that we would return to WDW in the future to remember all the good times our family shared in that happy place.

Good news, we did return but due to time and some unforeseen occurrences, it was a very small group. In September of 2023, my dad and I put on our "We're celebrating ... Family" buttons and we returned to Disney World. At the end of that trip, we got a "Bounceback Offer" and dad declined (he said once a year was enough for him) - {{{Hugs}}}. So not to be deterred - I took a solo trip in January 2024. This little trip report might state a bunch of obvious things to many, but I literally went from being a "Disney Expert" during my last trip in 2011 to being an absolute "Disney Newbie" on these trips. I had only occasionally peeked at Intercot (so sorry about that), I had seen some television commercials, and news articles about the new things happening on property; but being there experiencing it 1st-hand was totally awesome to me! I learned so much!!!

So here is the outline for the 1st trip:
(Me) - Former quasi-Disney expert, just past 50 years old.
(Dad) - Loves travel & adventure still, just past 80 years old. (P.S. Still rides rollercoasters) <= Okay, I admit that part worried me too.

Resort:
Disney's Yacht Club

Dates:
September 5-10th

(I'll write more between digging out of the snow & hot chocolate breaks ... and if I don't finish it all today ... life!)
P.S. - It is great to be back again.

[faline]

Sorry to hear your family needed to deal with so much loss.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip(s)!