So I hinted above that things didn't end up the way we'd expected. I was just thinking, I don't want to end my TR with the stressful part of the story, so I'm going to get it over with and then come back to the fun stuff. Sorry if non-chronological makes it harder to read!
So...I'm jumping ahead to Thursday March 19, the day before we were scheduled to leave. Everything was going smoothly with packing to get out of the house and to the airport. The big issue was how were we going to manage the dog, as we had to be out of the house at 10:00 am and our flight wasn't til 9:30 pm. We were hopeful we'd be able to get her into the Best Friends Animal care centre on Disney, and then enjoy the day with a last visit to Universal and a nice early dinner before collecting her and heading to the airport.
About bedtime that night dh had a medical issue crop up. I will be vague in interests of his privacy--it's a serious condition but one we have dealt with before. At home it's a visit to the ER, the doc checks his history, they fix it, and two hours later (on a good day), we're on our way.
But let me tell you, I am one Canadian who is scared to death of getting sick in the US. Because the idea that medical care costs money is so foreign, and we hear horror stories of how much things cost. But I did something right, in that I signed up for the travel insurance through work this year. I called them before I did and asked about "pre existing conditions" and knew we'd be covered for this condition that only comes up about once a year on average. The coverage cost me $15 for the family for the year.
So when things weren't better by Friday morning, I called the house mgmt co emerg line at 7:30 am to beg for a late checkout. We managed to push it to 12:30 as they had another family checking in that day. Then I found the closest ER, which was Celebration Hospital. We woke the kids and fibbed to them about what we were doing, and left them.
The first thing that shocked me was the free valet parking at the ER! Seriously. At home the biggest expense we face for a hospital visit is often the parking, so that was just voodoo weird. Then it was a blur of getting checked out and settled, talking to the insurance people, the car rental people (to add me as a driver), the kids at the house, etc etc. Eventually they insisted on admitting dh and observing him.
I was finally approved as an additional driver on the rental car--thank you lovely Alamo agent who asked different managers until one agreed to accept a fax of my license. I left dh around 11 am to get the kids out of the house. It was a frantic hour of packing, checking, tidying, and getting everything in the car, but we made it. The cleaners showed up as we were leaving, and were so nice.
Then we went to the Disney kennel and miracle of miracles, the TM found our little devil dog a private "villa" overnight even though they were totally booked. Bless him. I have pictures--those rooms are pretty sweet compared to the 3 x 4 metal cages they have in other kennels.
So freed from the dog complication, I brought the kids back to the hospital and we sat with dh for a few hours, and learned they were definitely keeping him overnight. We gave up on leaving on time, cancelled the SW flight, extended the car, and looked for a hotel. I swear everything was booked for the weekend. Not a room available at Universal, period. Eventually around 7 pm I found a room at the Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista (formerly the Holiday Inn Sunspree I believe). A terrible rate IMO, but they had a room for us. I took the kids to Bob Evan's for a welcome comfort-food dinner and then we hit the hotel. More lovely, helpful people at the hotel. The front desk agent who checked us in took the charge for the roll-away cot off our bill because "you are not having fun today". The charge doesn't matter to me (the trip insurance covers the hotel), but the gesture was very kind.
The insurance co didn't want to book our flight home until the docs gave the release, so we couldn't make firm plans. Before I went to sleep I asked the hotel if we could keep the room Saturday night, and they arranged it for us. And, glory be, they happen to be pet friendly, so I could pick up the dog Saturday AM and bring her back to the hotel.
Friday and Saturday were stressful for dh and me, and really boring for the kids, who were stuck in the house, hospital or hotel while the grown ups dealt with things. The hospital finally "fixed" dh Saturday midday (by doing what we had asked for 24 hours before when we walked in), and he was discharged by about 5 pm.
We had another comfort food supper and hunkered down at the hotel, grateful to be all under the same roof for the night. After lots of nagging on my part, the insurance co finally arranged our flight to NH for Sunday evening. (Remember, we drove 1200 km to get a cheap flight out of NH! So we had to return to NH to collect our car, and then make the drive in the opposite direction.)
Sunday morning dh drove us to Universal--our passes were still good til the end of that day. The kids and I spent a couple of hours wandering around, and had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, while dh went back to the hotel and packed up the car. We really wanted the kids to end the trip on a better note, so it was worth it to go back to the park that morning.
Orlando airport is always a nightmare for us, and this was no different. We were now flying Delta instead of SW, and we couldn't do anything online--had to check in at the airport. We were so long getting through the line, then we found out the no-online-checkin was because the insurance co's TA had booked the kids on a separate ticket from ours. They didn't have 4 seats in coach, so they had purchased first class tickets for the kids. Which sounded like a fun perk for them until we were told that the separate tickets meant the kids were being treated as "unaccompanied minors" even though we were on the same plane with them, and obviously there to get them to their seats and then off again. Then dh got TSA pre-checked or whatever it's called, so he and dd got to skip the security line. Leaving me and ds and the dog in the long, long line.
The guy who inspected our boarding cards before letting us into the long, long line said we'd never make our flight and we might as well go back to the check in desk right now to rebook. Niiice. Well, I about lost it, and ds became quite agitated. I muttered to the guy that ds has autism. I HATE sharing that with strangers, but ds was so close to a full-on meltdown, and a freaking-out teen boy in a security area could be seriously bad news. (Canadians will remember Robert Dziekanski.) The guy waved us on, but then I got flagged by another guy who pulled us past the line to an empty inspection station. It was still dicey, and I had to be swabbed and the dog examined and ds's backpack pulled apart, but at least it happened quickly instead of being in the crush of the line for God knows how long. So the "mean" guy who reviewed our passes must've realized I needed a hand and got his colleagues to help me out.
We raced through the airport and
actually made our flight. Time for a deep breath!
The kids did enjoy first class, and honestly I enjoyed letting the flight attendants play mom for a couple of hours while I read my book in my economy seat with the dog wedged under my feet.
We got to the hotel in NH around midnight, and slept until 8 am Monday morning. (Oh yeah I had to contact work as well, as I was expected in the classroom to teach a group of new hires on Monday morning.)
So, the ironic thing is, I work hard to be frugal with our travel arrangements. The hospital stay alone cost enough for us to go on that same vacation three times. (Let me tell you they almost had another medical emergency when they showed this poor little socialist the bill!) Plus those Delta last minute tickets cost about 6x what I paid for the flight down, and those nights at the Holiday Inn cost more than our "deluxe" stay at RPR. I am shaking my head, but SOOO grateful I had the travel insurance. And so thankful for all the people who were so kind to us when things were tough.
Monday we drove home. The roads were clear and the weather was good but we still didn't pull into our own driveway until 11:50-something pm. Oh, wait, we didn't pull into our driveway. While we were away, more than a metre of snow fell, 70 cm of it (about 27") in one day. We've already had a hard winter with snow piled everywhere, and at midnight on Monday, our driveway had more than 2 m/about 7 feet of snow across the end of it. Much higher than even dh is tall. Hard chunks of "plow snow", that had been sitting for almost a week, fusing into one ugly wall. Street parking was banned as the city was still trying to widen the streets, and as we stood by our car on the shoulder of the road, an RCMP car stopped to check on us, and make sure we knew we couldn't leave the car there! :/
We clambered over the icy hill and struggled up the metre-deep driveway in our made-for-summer shoes and can't-find-our-gloves-after-two-weeks-away. We brought in the dog food and the toiletries, and left everything else in the car, which we parked in my neighbour's driveway. She had emailed me to warn me that we wouldn't be able to get in, and offered her driveway, bless her.
The snow was so bad that regular snowclearing didn't work. On Facebook, I had seen that my neighbours were breaking their snowblowers on it and calling in backhoes. It was Wednesday morning before we could get a backhoe in, and I didn't get the luggage out of the car until Thursday. It's been a brutally busy week with not enough sleep and too much snow, but last night we enjoyed our traditional family Friday night of pizza and a movie, and tonight I got all the luggage unpacked and out of the living room!
Sigh. I am glad to have THAT part of the TR done! I now feel free to come back and tell you about all the great stuff that happened and the fun we had. I promise to be back in a couple of days with some of that.
Starting with Cabana Bay, which we absolutely LOVED!
back!
The good news for her was she got out later that day on the first leg, to Calgary, where she had an impromptu overnight visit with my brother and his family. And she was able to reschedule her return by one day, so that she didn't miss any time with us, it just started a day later.
Oh, and look at their cool shirts. Can you read them? "Ravenclawsome". Wonder where those good looking kids got those great shirts? 
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