Twelve years ago I strategically moved from a successful corporate career to opening my own travel business. I was inspired to realign my work / life balance in order to stay at home and continue homeschooling my son while still earning our livelihood as a solo parent.
I opened my own travel agency because of my desire to help other families create lasting memories and experience deeper connections through travel – specifically travel to Walt Disney World.
I knew firsthand the extraordinary way Disney is able to unite, restore and connect families.
And it all started with …
The most magical present under the tree!
In 2007, I gave my then 6-year-old son a trip to Walt Disney World for Christmas…and we invited our extended family to join us.
He was, I thought, the ‘perfect age’ for our once-in-a-lifetime Disney vacation.
I had been researching for our trip off and on for a few months that fall and continued researching into the spring of 2008…without booking our trip.
For six months, I researched promotions, resorts, dining options, special event add-ons, photo packages, parade times, character meet and greets – you know ‘all the things’ you have to investigate and understand in order to plan the perfect Disney vacay.
This vacation was going to be our family’s ultimate Disney vacation – we were adding in all the bells and whistles, because we thought this was the one and only time we were going to Disney. The only thing left to decide was timing…when would we go.
We realized during the holidays that my dad, who had battled colon cancer for 5 years, was on the decline and we wanted to be sure we were available to be close to him during his last days on earth. So our trip was on hold indefinitely.
I was by my dad’s side when he drew his last breath on March 3rd, 2008. It was an honor to be with him and celebrate his life during those last few days. Because my dad was a Christian, we had a sense of peace with his passing and rejoiced that he was no longer struggling with the pain and burden of his earthly body.
After months of planning, and then pausing our plans for my dad, we quickly moved forward with booking our Disney trip to celebrate life. We decided to go the last week of April – when my aunt (aka second mom) and I were both celebrating our birthdays.
The Rice Cooper party of 6 included myself, my son Will, my mom (aka Granna), my sisters Julie and Kim, and my second mom, Nana Net.
We didn’t all fit into one resort room. We didn’t all live in the same area of the country. We were a multigenerational family with lots of moving parts and logistics to plan.
To say we were excited would be like saying Mount Everest is tall. We were “over-the-moon, everything has been planned to a tee and will go off without a hitch, pinch me we are living the dream, this is going to be the best vacation ever” excited!
We had The. Best. Vacation. Ever.
EVAH!
But not because I had a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, detailed ‘we are going to do this and then do that’ blueprint carefully crafted over months of planning and painstaking research.
Not because I had sleuthed out the perfect package price allowing us to upgrade our resort room mid way through our trip.
Not because we chose the best character meals and was showered with birthday cupcakes and specially signed birthday cards from the characters.
And not because the Pirate and Princess Party was a blast and the photo package was worth every penny.
I mean we did have all of those things. And they did help – tremendously.
Having a detailed day-by-day, hour-by-hour plan helped me realize on Day 2 that my expectations were not going to be reality.
There were too many moving parts and instead of having fun with the rest of the family, I was huffing and puffing over missed ride times and fretting about missing out on “my planned magic” – so much so that I was, in fact, missing the magic that was happening all around us.
Luckily, I’m a fast learner. Besides my overplanned schedule (which we modified and relaxed), I’m sure there were other things that went wrong during that vacation. But I cannot tell you what they were.
We let the magic of Disney wash over our family like a healing balm. We rejoiced in spending quality time together, had deep conversations and took lots and lots of photos.
In fact, downloading our photos and sharing them with our family and friends was a way we kept the magic going – especially after returning to our daily routines.
Even before Magic Bands, FastPass+, and My Disney Experience – PhotoPass was the bomb! And I am so thankful to Disney for the privilege of being able to digitally share those photos across the miles with my charming Nana Net, so that she could see them and share them with others in the family.
You see, one week after we returned from our Disney vacation, Nana Net had a stroke and passed from this world into Heaven.
Suddenly she was gone. And unlike the passing of my dad, Nana’s death was quick and completely unexpected. We were very unprepared.
We will always cherish the time we were able to spend at Disney World with her.
The memories of our first Disney vacation are even sweeter knowing we were able to enjoy so many magical moments together as a family.
Our trip truly was one to honor our family ties and at the same time deepen the bonds through our shared experiences.
After settling estates and beginning our homeschool journey full time, my mom (Granna) surprised me with a question shortly after Thanksgiving. “Would we like to go back to Walt Disney World for a long weekend in December?”
The magic of Disney was pulling on our heart strings and we wanted to relive a few of those precious moments over again. So with less than 2 weeks planning (from the first thought to checking in at the resort) and just over 6 months since our last trip, we headed to Orlando for our second Disney vacation.
Disney will renew and enrich you and your family every time you visit, but there is something extraordinary about Christmas time at Disney World. The snow on Main Street U.S.A. The characters dressed in their holiday best. The garlands and wreaths and sparkling lights. The festivities of the season are like an attraction all on their own.
I learned an important lesson from our second super quick weekend jaunt to Disney World…and it’s been reinforced every time I’ve traveled there since (25+ trips to date)…
You can go back to Disney over and over again – and every time will be like a new first time…there’s so much to experience and enjoy.
Even if your first trip becomes your only trip, please don’t try to “do all the things”, I encourage you to slow down, savor your family and embrace the magic.
Less really can be more…
