I am super excited to tell everyone that Evelina and I are going to Disney in November for her birthday!  For the first time I am using a travel agent to assist with the trip as there's a bit more planning and a few more new elements.  This trip we are staying at the Disney resort Port Orleans Riverside and we are including the Disney Dining Plan.

I'm paying for the dining plan to relieve the burden of having to constantly monitor a budget; it takes a bit of the fun out of the trip for me to constantly be counting every dollar spent.  Also, I have Disney planning some cool surprises for Evelina for her birthday (11/18) which is easier to plan through the agent.

I will say the agent is making this trip the most fun yet as she offers up suggestions of things we didn't realize existed.  Also she is able to track any new discounts and apply them to our trip, discounts we would have missed had we not used her services.  But the biggest reason I will always use an agent from now on is the payment structure.  I put down a simple $200 deposit leaving the remainder of the balance due 30 days prior to our check-in date.  I like being able to make payments and have her handle all the details.

For those who are new to my blog I'll give you the quick back-story.  When Evelina was a little girl growing up in Poland she always dreamed of going to Disney.  She would watch the movies and see Disney on television, but was never able to go due to it being in the United States. Communism frowned on travels to the United States, plus Disney would have been a long trip for small children.

So when I learned about this I decided that the only place for us to get engaged would be at the Magic Kingdom during the fireworks, in the Rose Garden near Cinderella's Castle.  Following our wedding we honeymooned at Disney and spent our first anniversary there also.  Now we take family trips with my mom and dad, sister and her family each year.  I guess you could say we are Disney fans.  

On this trip we will be purchasing the Annual pass option using a little trick I learned from my sister.  When we go to the gate on our last day prior to checking in, we can buy the annual pass and Disney will credit us all the money we spent on tickets for this trip against the value of the annual pass; which means we will only be paying approximately $700 total for 2 annual passes (normally $1600ish).

I have been planning dinner reservations, birthday surprises, roadtrip details, Amazon shipping list, etc. for this trip the last 2 weeks and I'm getting excited!  I want this to be the best birthday ever for Evelina; lord knows she deserves it for putting up with me!!