In my last post, I talked about having needed to pivot following hurricane Lowell, and canceling our nearly year-long planned 15th anniversary trip to Hawaii. Next up, let’s see how we pivoted.

(Spoiler alert – if you know us, you probably already know the end result…)

It was a melancholy moment – we spent the better part of two hours canceling various hotels, Airbnbs, flights, dining reservations and other activities that we had scheduled to do over our two week trip in Hawaii. But all the while, my wife and I both found ourselves feeling relieved; a weight was lifted off of our shoulders. That relief saw us quickly step out of the potentially depressed mood that could have instilled itself, and pivot in another direction. We already had the vacation time planned. We had the money saved (and/or already paid for the above-mentioned cancelations). So let’s just go somewhere else. But where?

A number of thoughts raced through our minds. One of the first ones we both considered was Paris. We had been to Paris a few years ago and loved our time there. Following that trip, we had already decided that we would return to the City of Light sometime. We looked forward to the next adventure there because we had done so much the first time, that we felt like returning would be a more relaxed and leisurely pace. We’d done much of the touristy stuff that you want to do when you visit a new city; we could skip that and just immerse ourselves in the food and sights.

I think one of the main reasons we opted to bypass Paris was that the hotel we stayed at on our previous trip was not available for our dates. As silly as that might seem to most people, we were looking for comfort and convenience. We loved the location of the hotel – we were within a 15-20 minute walk from many of the main tourist destinations. In a city like Paris, we could have easily found another hotel, likely in the same vicinity as the previous, but we didn’t want to have to go through the trouble of researching locations and reviews and the like in such a short period of time. Our vacation window was quickly approaching after all!

Anyone who is reading this who knows me or Isabelle can probably make a wild guess as to what we did next. And you’d probably be right.

Earlier this year, we took a trip to the Dominican Republic for a week and stayed in a beautiful 5-star all-inclusive resort. We were both tired (mentally, physically, emotionally), and wanted to recharge and rest. We had considered another destination for this trip, but felt that it would have been less “restful”. We wanted to really do nothing for a week to recover. So we booked the trip to the Dominican and that’s what we did. We spent the week doing next to nothing – wake up and go sit by the beach, have lunch, sit by a pool, have supper, sit somewhere on the resort, go to bed. It was very relaxing. About two-thirds of the way through our trip, we were sitting in the shade, overlooking the water, drinks in our hands and we both agreed – we should have gone to Disney.

That was our other considered destination back in February. But we opted to do the Dominican because we thought Disney wouldn’t be restful enough for us. In the end, we had wished we had stuck to our instincts and booked the Disney trip. Now, the Universe was giving us a do-over, and we decided that we would not pass up on the second chance.

On Thursday evening, after having canceled the Hawaii trip at supper time, we reached out to our Disney travel agent and had a trip booked before we went to bed that night. Instead of a 14-day Hawaiian getaway, we are now doing a 10-day Walt Disney World Resort vacation. We wanted something comfortable and convenient, and this is comfort and convenience in spades for us. We arrive in the Disney Bubble on day 1, and stay in that bubble until the day we fly home. We know our way around the parks and resorts, so everything is easy for us. Most of our meals are included in our cost, as we’ve added on the dining plan. And, because we’re doing a 10-day trip, we have plenty of time to see and do everything we want, meaning we can go at a (slightly) more leisurely pace and build in some downtime to rest.

Things may not have panned out as we had originally envisioned for our 15th wedding anniversary, but I can state with 100% certitude that I have no disappointments or regrets in how it is playing out. We get to celebrate our 15th anniversary on the same day that the Magic Kingdom celebrates it’s 55th.

We leave for Orlando in a couple of days. I am very much looking forward to the adventures and fun that await us, and I cannot wait to spend 10 days of fun and enchantment with Isabelle in our happy place, the Happiest Place on Earth.