Our Holiday, Our Choice

Update: I originally published this post back in April but I took it down after a couple of days, however having read a post over on the fab Walk in the Parks blog this morning (link in the sidebar) I have decided to publish this again and leave it up.

This post is one that I have been debating for a while now, I have written it up several times and then deleted it but I have decided that now is the time to share what I think of the negativity we have received from a few people since we announced our holiday plans for this year. I guess its a little bit of a rant and while its aimed at no-one in particular it is for anyone who thinks its ok to cast their judgement on how and where other people spend their holidays.
Anyone that knows us at all will know just how much we like to holiday in the US. It ticks all our travel boxes, pick the right place and there will be loads of things to do and see and if you go at the right time of year then you will have great weather. In addition we both love to go shopping when we visit the States and of course there is the food, so much delicious over the top diet busting food to be had. My first visit to America was back in 1993, that was my one and only trip to Florida until now. Tom has also been and like my trip his was many, many years ago, long before we met. I absolutely loved that holiday and I have wanted to go back ever since. It is somewhere that Tom and I considered going several times (I think it was even a honeymoon option at one point) but until now its just not happened for one reason or another, probably because we were too busy having fun trips to Spain/Portugal and Vegas!! 

So firstly let me get started by saying that this trip to Florida was a joint decision by both Tom and I, its certainly not something that I am making him do as I have been accused of. Admittedly when I first mentioned last year that we spend a day at Disneyland while we were in LA he wasn't that interested, however an evening of watching You Tube videos of the parks and the rides was all it needed to change his mind. In the end we spent a day and a half in Disneyland and we had an absolute blast and we both agreed that we needed to return to do/see all the things that we had missed. Our original 2018 holiday plan was to go back to California but then Tom suggested that we go to Florida instead (you can read all about that here if you want to!) and the rest is history.

Since we booked this years trip pretty much everyone we have told has shared our pleasure and excitement, but there has been and still are a number of people who think its ok to criticise and belittle our plans. We have been told that we are too old, that we are sad and asked why we would go to theme parks when we have no kids. When we first received the negativity I got really upset and I actually even questioned if we should go on this holiday, after all we are both now in our 50's and have no children so maybe it wasn't for us? We started looking into it all a little bit more and it was around this time that I found us some You Tube vlogs to watch and that was when we realized that there are plenty of people of all ages that go to Florida, with and without children and not one of them is a 'saddo' (not my words, this is how someone kindly described us!). Since then and through the powers of Social Media we have met some extremely lovely people who we are now lucky enough to call our friends. We have actually met up with a lot of them already and have plans to meet several more. Everyone has been so supportive and encouraging, sharing everything from hints and tips to excitement and countdowns!

Where or how we choose to spend our holiday is no ones business but ours, if we want to spend two weeks wandering around a theme park having our pictures taken in front of a make believe castle with a giant mouse then we will, I just don't understand why that would bother anyone else. I wouldn't mind but all of the people who have made fun of our holiday choice have never even been to Florida or any of the parks so I fail to see how they can pass judgement on something they have never actually experienced for themselves. I totally get that this kind of a holiday and the whole Disney thing is not for everyone and what a boring world it would be if that was the case. However our kind of holiday doesn't involve laying on a beach/camping/trekking up a mountain etc all day long but if that's your thing then go for it - life is far too short not to do what YOU enjoy and what makes YOU happy. We are certainly not going to criticize, mock or judge you for that, in fact feel free to tell us more about it, we love to hear all about other peoples holiday plans.

We now have 2 months until we board the plane and we are determined not to let anyone upset us or make us feel stupid for where we are going. We have so much planned to look forward to during the holiday and guess what not all of it is Disney related, Florida has plenty of other things to offer. Our plans include doing an airboat ride, going to Universal Studios, visiting Gatorland, shopping, going to the beach and hopefully taking in a water park or two. I am planning on sharing lots of this on social media so if it offends you in any way, shape or form then I suggest you unfollow me/us so you don't have to see all the fun we will be having. Oh and I will be wearing my sparkly Minnie ears and I will totally be rocking them!