rainydayplay
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2008
Hi, all! We haven't been back from our trip for long, and I thought I'd try my hand (again?) at a trip report.
The players:
Me (birthday on 6-24)
DD (turned 5 on 6-25)
Mom (birthday in February..)
Home: POR, Oak Manor (Room 9260)
Dining: DxDP
The backstory:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
Oops..wrong story.
A few years ago, Mom thought it would be a fabulous thing to take my DD on a trip to WDW when she was 4. She'd heard October was the right time to go, and it was going to be a grandparents/granddaughter only trip. By February of 2008, I was the one planning the trip -- and the one who put down the downpayment and made the reservation! In the end, Dad didn't go, but us girls had a wonderful time.
So wonderful, in fact, that we'd barely been back for two weeks when the next trip was booked. They started those "get in free on your birthday" commercials...and the wheels in my head just started turning. DD's bday and mine are ONLY one day apart...and we still have one day left from the tickets from the last trip...I'd only have to pay for transportation and lodging. We could go down the 23rd...come back the 26th...it sounded so perfect...
Then Mom handed me the $200 and told me to book for the 3 of us for a week.
In January, I thought about her job in retail and how inventory has been in June in the more recent years...and asked if it would interfere with our trip. BOOM! The very next day, the inventory date was announced to be two weeks (roughly) after our trip, and they won't let her take vacation 4 weeks beforehand. I add a day to the trip (yay 4/3 promotion!) and downgrade from CBR to POP for the JIC, but we keep our fingers crossed the inventory date gets moved. The trip gets moved back from 6/20-6/27 to 5/30-6/6; no good...I forgot about DDs dance recital on 5/31, my doctor's appointment on 6/2, etc. Of course, then Mom talked to her assistant manager who said the inventory date hadn't been confirmed yet...so it could still change. Mom hands me her credit card and tells me to book a second ressie...the emergency ressie for the original week. This one is at POR. We'll just hold it for a few days...and decide which one we want.
When I call to get the two reservataions (hopefully) merged, they cancel the 5/30-6/6 one and tell me they are going to just transfer the trip insurance to the other reservation as well as the payment (which, I *accidentally* paid for the whole trip when trying to make a partial payment...good thing I had the money for it in the bank, right?) Everything but the insurance was transferred. I had to call back inquire why we owed so much and was told that they would refund the trip insurance since, essentially, the trip wasn't really cancelled. (Never got the refund, btw.)
The next big worry rears it's head...tenure. I'm a teacher...the economy sucks...teachers are getting cut left and right everywhere you look...and it's my tenure year. But we've had so much trouble just trying to get everything organized plus all the other stress that was going on that I decided I'd go regardless of if I had a job at the end of the school year or not. You see...my students were especially horrid (behavior-wise) this year, plus extremely low-performing, I'm on a zillion committees at school, and the week school let out...kids got out that Thursday, which is the same time I got to find out if I had my job or not; Friday, I still had to go into school for at least half a day, then rush home to get the flowers that were Fed-Exed in for my brother's wedding, then rush to get my DD for dance recital dress rehearsal at 3:30 followed immediately by preschool graduation at 7. It was also graduation for my now-sister-in-law and at the school I teach at. (Guess which I went to?) Saturday was my brother's wedding (which I was the wedding coordinator for...and, apparently, the only one in the local area who had a CLUE how to have a wedding...amazing, since I've never had one myself...). And, finally, that Sunday was the actual dance recital.
Results? I had a job. The flowers arrived and were beautiful. Thankfully, my aunt came in for the weekend and drove so I could yank DD off the stage after her second dance and change her clothes for graduation while we were in the car. The wedding went just fine. And, after all that, I felt I was either deserving of massive amounts of alcohol or a vacation! (Guess which won out there?)
Mom managed to weasel her way into coming -- she actually asked her manager if she worked Saturday and Sunday before the trip, if she could have Thursday and Friday as her days off and just take Wednesday off. What would be wrong with just one actual day off? He said no. So she asked if she'd approve her time if she called in sick. He said yes....as long as it was vacation time...then told her AM to approve for her to be sick -- said over two months in advance!
What does that mean? A mother-daughter birthday adventure for four days before another responsible adult shows up!
So, hopefully, you'll join me as I start tomorrow recounting the tale! Pictures (food piccies, anyhow...not sure how many others I'll throw up here).
The players:
Me (birthday on 6-24)
DD (turned 5 on 6-25)
Mom (birthday in February..)
Home: POR, Oak Manor (Room 9260)
Dining: DxDP
The backstory:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
Oops..wrong story.
A few years ago, Mom thought it would be a fabulous thing to take my DD on a trip to WDW when she was 4. She'd heard October was the right time to go, and it was going to be a grandparents/granddaughter only trip. By February of 2008, I was the one planning the trip -- and the one who put down the downpayment and made the reservation! In the end, Dad didn't go, but us girls had a wonderful time.
So wonderful, in fact, that we'd barely been back for two weeks when the next trip was booked. They started those "get in free on your birthday" commercials...and the wheels in my head just started turning. DD's bday and mine are ONLY one day apart...and we still have one day left from the tickets from the last trip...I'd only have to pay for transportation and lodging. We could go down the 23rd...come back the 26th...it sounded so perfect...
Then Mom handed me the $200 and told me to book for the 3 of us for a week.
In January, I thought about her job in retail and how inventory has been in June in the more recent years...and asked if it would interfere with our trip. BOOM! The very next day, the inventory date was announced to be two weeks (roughly) after our trip, and they won't let her take vacation 4 weeks beforehand. I add a day to the trip (yay 4/3 promotion!) and downgrade from CBR to POP for the JIC, but we keep our fingers crossed the inventory date gets moved. The trip gets moved back from 6/20-6/27 to 5/30-6/6; no good...I forgot about DDs dance recital on 5/31, my doctor's appointment on 6/2, etc. Of course, then Mom talked to her assistant manager who said the inventory date hadn't been confirmed yet...so it could still change. Mom hands me her credit card and tells me to book a second ressie...the emergency ressie for the original week. This one is at POR. We'll just hold it for a few days...and decide which one we want.
When I call to get the two reservataions (hopefully) merged, they cancel the 5/30-6/6 one and tell me they are going to just transfer the trip insurance to the other reservation as well as the payment (which, I *accidentally* paid for the whole trip when trying to make a partial payment...good thing I had the money for it in the bank, right?) Everything but the insurance was transferred. I had to call back inquire why we owed so much and was told that they would refund the trip insurance since, essentially, the trip wasn't really cancelled. (Never got the refund, btw.)
The next big worry rears it's head...tenure. I'm a teacher...the economy sucks...teachers are getting cut left and right everywhere you look...and it's my tenure year. But we've had so much trouble just trying to get everything organized plus all the other stress that was going on that I decided I'd go regardless of if I had a job at the end of the school year or not. You see...my students were especially horrid (behavior-wise) this year, plus extremely low-performing, I'm on a zillion committees at school, and the week school let out...kids got out that Thursday, which is the same time I got to find out if I had my job or not; Friday, I still had to go into school for at least half a day, then rush home to get the flowers that were Fed-Exed in for my brother's wedding, then rush to get my DD for dance recital dress rehearsal at 3:30 followed immediately by preschool graduation at 7. It was also graduation for my now-sister-in-law and at the school I teach at. (Guess which I went to?) Saturday was my brother's wedding (which I was the wedding coordinator for...and, apparently, the only one in the local area who had a CLUE how to have a wedding...amazing, since I've never had one myself...). And, finally, that Sunday was the actual dance recital.
Results? I had a job. The flowers arrived and were beautiful. Thankfully, my aunt came in for the weekend and drove so I could yank DD off the stage after her second dance and change her clothes for graduation while we were in the car. The wedding went just fine. And, after all that, I felt I was either deserving of massive amounts of alcohol or a vacation! (Guess which won out there?)
Mom managed to weasel her way into coming -- she actually asked her manager if she worked Saturday and Sunday before the trip, if she could have Thursday and Friday as her days off and just take Wednesday off. What would be wrong with just one actual day off? He said no. So she asked if she'd approve her time if she called in sick. He said yes....as long as it was vacation time...then told her AM to approve for her to be sick -- said over two months in advance!
What does that mean? A mother-daughter birthday adventure for four days before another responsible adult shows up!
So, hopefully, you'll join me as I start tomorrow recounting the tale! Pictures (food piccies, anyhow...not sure how many others I'll throw up here).