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View Full Version : A Military Family's Vacation Adventure -- May 4-10 2008


bjmach
02-26-2008, 01:45 PM
Well I have been lurking here ever since we decided that we were going to take a family vacation to Disneyworld. Normally our family vacations consist of us taking a trip to visit family back to Massachusetts. My DW and I decided we were not going to do that this year, we were going to take a real vacation. But where?? Well my brother and sister in law are Disney Freaks they go at least once a year if not more, last year alone they went three times. So I started thinking why not us? With a little planning it could work so I set out like I do for most everything and began researching and researching and reading. Found the boards started reading everyones posts and trip reports and landed on 4-10 of May for our trip. DD12 attends a private school which gets out of school on May 23rd. So I checked with her school and they said she won’t be missing anything since they will be winding down the school year around that time. DW and I are both military active duty Air Force so we asked if we could take leave for those dates and both were told yes. DD2 is in daycare so its no problem pulling her out for a week, but she is smack in the middle of potty training so she will either be potty trained by the time we go or still working on it.

Cast of Characters:

(Me) Bobby – 33 yrs old from New Bedford, MA. Lived there all the way up until the age of 18 and then decided there had to be more to the world than that hell hole. Decided to join the Air Force to see the world and see the world I did. First assignment was San Antonio, TX where a Boston accent boy was made fun of constantly by the southerners, then on to Japan for four years, Hawaii for four years, DC for four years (where I met DW) and now in Dayton, OH. I am now an E-6 in the US Air Force and work on computers and networks for the base Public Affairs office. Passion is football and baseball and I am still trying to get over my Pats losing the super bowl. Tread lightly.

(DW) Maria - Maria is 36 yrs old which seems to think is much older than me. Very talented woman she is a great mother and proud to be an Air Force member. She is a Chef by trade and has been trained at the CIA Culinary Institute of America. Dining with her is sometimes very tough because being a Chef herself her standards are very high when it comes to dining. Disney world will be put to the test. She is also a Zumba instructor all our spending money is pretty much being funded by this little gem of a fitness workout. She teaches four classes a week for one hour and let me just say the money is dam good. Its basically latin dancing in the form of exercise and is really a craze that is starting to take off, she has gotten in it from the beginning and makes her very happy. If anyone is interested to learn more about it here is the website www.zumba.com

(DD12) Isabella - Isabella is my step daughter but I really never refer to her that way. She is my daughter plain and simple, she is one of the sweetest and has one of the biggest hearts of any kid I have known. Her biological father is a deadbeat, has left her waiting for him at the door numerous times to never show up and leave her heartbroken over the years. We now have a bond that is almost impossible to break, I love her so very much and want the best for her. She is starting to get into the teen years and interests and attitude is starting to change but this Disney trip is bringing back that little girl in her and its exciting to watch.

(DD2) Alicia - My little munchkin, what can I say she is remarkable. Such a little ball of fire and so loving. Absolutely loves Mickey, Minnie and the whole gang. At first we were nervous about taking her but after researching and reading, this is the age I want her to see Disneyworld. This won’t be our last trip so we will take it slow with her, we are going to try to make this a yearly vacation. We received our planning DVD yesterday and she saw all the little kids hugging Mickey (her favorite) and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “Daddy Mickey hug me, I want Mickey hug me” Yes Im a big macho sports guy but that made me feel all warm inside thinking that in a few months she will hug Mickey and just the look on her face then will energize me.


We found out a few weeks ago that DW will be deploying to the middle east, we don’t think she will be going to Iraq. But nevertheless she will be going somewhere. Up to this point we have been lucky and that neither one of us has had to leave the family for a long period of time. We both knew that it would eventually happen, she will be gone for four months shortly after we return from our Disneyworld trip, she will miss the holidays and I will be taking care of the kids solo. Hopefully my Mom can come out and give me a hand for the time DW is gone. If not, push on we will and we will be just fine, with Disneyworld family vacation to relax us and prepare me for the tough road ahead.

So dates for our trip are

4-10 May 2008

Staying at townhome www.5mins2disney.com Dreams #3
Airfare, townhome, Disney tickets and rental car all paid in full now it’s just the wait.

Day 1

555am flight from Dayton to Atlanta to Orlando
921am arrival time into Orlando
Drive from airport to townhome
Should arrive at townhome at about 1030 am.
Wait for delivery of groceries from gardengrocer.com as DW, DD12 and DD2 nap
Afternoon head out to DTD, reservations at Rainforest Café for dinner 5pm and Fultons Crab house for 540pm…going to cancel one of them, just not sure which one yet.

To be continued….

winkers
02-26-2008, 06:01 PM
Looks like a great trip!

I had a little chuckle over the cia culinary school. I didn't know they had one!

winkers
02-26-2008, 06:04 PM
:rotfl: Ok, I'm a dork! CIA stands for culinary institute of America. I read it thinking The CIA...........

Really, I'm not a blonde!

bjmach
02-29-2008, 08:17 AM
:rotfl: Ok, I'm a dork! CIA stands for culinary institute of America. I read it thinking The CIA...........

Really, I'm not a blonde!

LOL

bjmach
02-29-2008, 08:25 AM
Well not much interest in anyone reading my pre trip report, I guess its boring, or I'm too new a member or something but I will keep going since its my first time and Im learning how to do these trip reports, and if anything else its a good journal of my trip for me to have later.

Bit of good news yesterday. We were scheduled on a flight in May leaving Dayton at 555am....Very very early but it was cheap so I had booked it about a month ago. It would also get us into Orlando at 921am. Cool I thought. Until I started thinking and noticed that the layover in Atlanta was 30 mins, which means my flight from Dayton would have to be perfect to make my connecting flight. Chances were good I would miss the connection and the next flight to Orlando wasn't for another four hours.. Hmmm stuck in Atlanta airport with a toddler probably not a good thing. So I researched and saw there was a nonstop flight from Dayton to Orlando but the cost was $191 per person, plus there was a $75 change fee per person. My cheap airfare was starting to look like it was going to be expensive. So I called to see if there was anything Airtran could do for me, the first CSR I got was kind of rude and right off the bat told me I would have to pay the difference in fare and the $75 per person etc.. I said never mind and hung up. Well I started thinking some more and decided maybe if I called one more time the next CSR could be nice. I called and she seemed pretty nice right off the bat asking me about my day etc....she asks for my confirmation number (something the last one didn't do) as soon as she reads it she asks me if i'm calling about the change Airtran had sent me through email. I said Umm Yep. She kind of chuckeled because I think she also noticed that the change was a one minute time difference for arrival in Orlando. She said well I can change you to another flight if you like, I said I would like the nonstop to orlando. She said for the whole family correct I said yep. She said ok its done your on it, I said thats it?? She said yep, I said what about the seat assignments I had paid for for the previous flight?? She said I moved them over and an email confirmation for the whole trip has been sent to your email address you provided. I thanked her and we hung up. I went online to check and sure enough I was now on a non stop flight to Orlando. YAY!!!:woohoo:

winkers
02-29-2008, 09:08 AM
I had a similar problem with Frontier changing my flight times. Disney travel took care of it for me.:banana: