Guest Author Sunday-Erica Hamric McLachlin

Guest Author Erica Hamric McLachlin

     Meet this week’s guest Disney Gal, Erica Mamric McLachlin, a 35 year old self-professed Disney Addict living in Baltimore, MD with her husband Jason and their two rescued “fur babies”. Erica’s first trip to WDW was in 1994 and she stayed off site. Erica told me that at the time, she thought it was the best thing she had ever done. Many trips later, Erica continues her love of visiting Disney but now as a proud DVC owner. Welcome Erica! We’re so excited to have you here today as an honorary Disney Gal!

My name is Erica, and I am a Disney Addict. My DH Jason is not a full-fledged addict like I am, but we’re slowly making progress! Just a little background on us- We don’t have any kids (yet) but we do have kiddos in our lives that we adore. We’ve taken all of them- with the exception of our youngest nephew -who is not quite a year old and an unborn niece (at least that’s what my sister says she wants, so we’ll go with that for now)

We love sharing Disney World with other people- mainly my family because Jason’s family just doesn’t get it.We bought into DVC as a “reward” to me for having gastric bypass surgery. I was very overweight pre-surgery and my quality of life was going down the tubes. From what my surgeon says, the surgery literally saved my life. My liver was in really bad shape, and to pair that with other medical issues I was having, he thinks that I may have been dead within a few years had I continued on the path I was on with my habits. To date, I have lost 184 lbs.


We took our first trip as DVC members back in September 2011. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower in a 1 bedroom with a Magic Kingdom view- I loved it! We hadn’t planned on heading back until September 2013 because we had been toying with the idea of doing a Vow Renewal for our 10th anniversary in Disney World so I knew we’d need to save money for that. Jason and I have both been married once before so we got married at the courthouse. The vow renewal is our way of celebrating all that we’ve been through and survived together, and besides, what girl doesn’t want to be a princess for a day?

Our plan was to just bank our points or rent them out while we saved money for the vow renewal. There would be no talk of a Disney trip before the vow renewal because we wouldn’t be able to afford to do the things we wanted to do at the vow renewal if we also had a trip between now and then. I let the idea of a December trip go for a while and while we were out having lunch one day we started talking about things we wanted to do on our next trip. I know, I know, who randomly talks about what they want to do on their next Disney trip? Lemme tell ya, this gal does! I’m not happy unless I’ve got a trip planned- even if the planning is just going on in my head!

We started talking about our points, how many we would need if we wanted to give our families rooms for the vow renewal using our points, why we MUST do an add on at the Grand Floridian when DVC goes on sale there  that kind of thing. I started calculating and tried to determine when the points needed to be banked by, and when they would expire, it was discovered that we had points that would need to be used by Jan 31, 2013 so Jason suggested that we go THIS DECEMBER. He didn’t have to tell me twice! I was on the phone booking our stay at Old Key West as soon as my 11 month window opened up! Next up…..plotting and planning for one of the most magical vacations ever!