Why did I wait so long to plan a trip to Disney?

My daughter is going to be 13 this year, our trip to Disney is a birthday gift to her and it will be her first time at Disney. 

I was in 4th grade when I went to Disney and I don't remember much about it at all. In fact, I have no memories of being inside the park! It was February and the trip was my birthday present. It was me, my mother, my brother (Sal), and 2 of his friends (Butch and Rusty). Yes, my birthday trip and 2 of his friends! It was colder than we had packed for and I remember my mom going to buy us all sweatshirts to wear to the beach. I think we wore those sweatshirts every day we were there. I remember riding up to our room from the lobby alone and a man got on the elevator with me, he asked me if I wanted to go see something on the stairwell with him. Thank goodness I didn't!

My most vivid memory was being in the lobby with my brother and and his friend Butch, I was exploring and they were hitting on a couple of girls. My dad is Mexican and my mom is German, my brother is very dark like my dad, his friend Butch was black, and Rusty was naturally red haired and freckled faced. So here is Sal and Butch, talking up the girls when the elevator bell rings, the doors open, and out walks Rusty singing "If you want my body, and you think I'm sexy, come on sugar tell me so...". Everyone in the lobby turned to look, the girls laughed, and the guys were completely embarrassed as he walked right up to them and the girls. 

Other than that, I have absolutely no memories of that trip. In general I have a lousy long-term memory which is why I waited until my daughter was older, just in case she was the same way as her mom! 13 is a good age, she's not going to want to hang out with mom and dad for much longer so this may be our last chance to have her all to ourselves on a vacation. Needless to say, I am putting a lot of pressure on myself for this trip to be magical, yet still on budget. Unfortunately, I keep finding things we just HAVE to do and the price is going up but I will start to get into that in a later post.