I was raised in a frugal home. Not because clipping coupons was trendy in the 1980s, but because we didn’t have extra money. We didn’t go on fancy vacations, but my parents did try to take us on an annual trip. The one time I went to Disney World as a child, it was partly due to my mother having won a 3 night stay at the Ramada Inn in St. Petersburg, less than two hours from Orlando. It was May of 1989, the month that MGM (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) opened. We spent one day at Magic Kingdom and one day rushing through both EPCOT and MGM with tickets awarded to us after being tortured with sitting through a time share presentation. Regardless of how we got there, those two days left lasting memories of a magical family vacation that I have treasured my entire life. We didn’t stay on property, or even know what “on property” meant at that time. Read more
