2010 K.I.S.S. Tour of Disneyworld

[schlepsnort]

I will be your narrator for this trip. It begins with a simple promise.

June 2002 my first DS was born seriously ill. At one point when all signs were pointing to a dire outcome at my DS's incubator I pleaded with him to be strong and added that if he fought for us we would take him to Disneyworld. We also promised him a hippo. A few days later my DS was weaned off the ventilator, and a week later he was finally eating on his own instead of through the tube in his nose.

Time passed and finally we were able to make good on our promise with a very fast trip to Disneworld in September of 2006. At that time our first DS was 4, our 2nd DS was 2 and our last DS was 6 months old. It was a very fast few days but we had so much fun that we were already planning our second trip on the plane ride home.

Here's my first trip report of that trip:

http://http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1243563

Our second trip faced many hurdles, finances fell short for the first dates picked so we put it off. Then we had job changes, and the sad loss of my DH's father. At this point we said life is short and we finally nailed down a date and committed to it.

We decided to take advantage of Free Dining again and went Sept. 20th - 28th. We even kept it a secret from our 3 kids, only telling them once we got to the airport to get on our plane to Disney.

I was never able to do a trip report about that trip to Disney. You see, I can only remember snippets of it. Now I will explain why.

 

[schlepsnort]

On September 28th we arrived back home in Illinois after what was a fairly good trip. I remember somethings, like our ADR's getting cancelled on accident because someone with the exact same name as me and nearly identical phone number had called and her changes were put on our ADRs. I remember the way my youngest DS would vibrate when he saw Pooh Bear. I remember the amazement I felt when I saw how well my oldest and middle DS's could swim in the ASMU pool.

That night, the 28th, my DH had to return to work. He works overnights at a warehouse about 30 minutes from our house. He left at his usual time 8:15pm and I went to bed after starting to unload the suitcases of laundry.

The next thing I remember is hearing our house phone ring and looking at the clock, it was 6a.m. I said to myself, Scott just call my cellphone. I thought it was my DH calling to tell me he had overtime. I wanted him to call the cell phone because it was right next to the bed whereas the house phone was in a different room. Then my cell phone rang.

I answered it and was immediately awake when I heard a woman identify herself as an ER nurse at a local hospital. My DH had been involved in a head on collision in his car on his way home. I had to get to the ER immediately.

The rest is a blur. When I did get there my DH was being life lined down to the trauma hospital which is nearly 2 hours from where we live. I found out from a report on the radio that my DH had hit a Dodge Ram pickup truck head on. The other driver was fine.

After a few days it was discovered that what we had dismissed as infected mosquito bites while we were in Florida were actually infected pockets of MRSA. A highly resistant virus which has killed people. Apparently this virus actually became so strong and built up in my DH's body it formed these pockets and when he was driving his system shut down causing him to lose conciousness behind the wheel.

The police and firemen who helped rescue my DH from his car (they had to use the jaws of life to extract him) were all amazed that my DH was alive. In fact, the most shocking thing is, besides treating the MRSA, my DH only had some hairline fractures of his ribs, two black eyes, and a large bump on his forehead. He didn't require any stitches. The car was totalled. I saw the car and broke down in the lot when I saw it.

Dealing with this trauma, trying to keep the 3 kids from being scared, replacing our car, and everything else I just lost my memories of our trip. Like I said I remember snippets, but not as much as I did of our first trip. My DH is the same way, though some of that is due to the accident. He only remembers punching out of work, not getting into his car or the accident itself.

This all occurred 9 months ago. We had said we wouldn't go back to the World until 2011. But we've had that nagging feeling that despite being their in 2008 it was almost like we weren't there because we can't remember much of it.

We never even had that wonderful post-trip reminiscing. You know the fun part, printing pictures, looking at souveniers, even doing the mountains of laundry (my Mom did that for me while I was out taking care of things with the insurance and hospital).

So a week ago DH and I decided that we are going back. And we are doing it differently....

 

[schlepsnort]

So that was my prologue.

Now let's get to the juicy stuff. The planning, the decision making, and of course, the anticipation.

WHO

DH Scott (36)

Me Carol (34)

DS Ian (7)

DS2 Aaron (5)

DS3 Ben (3)

DH and I plan things together. Always editing our plans together and trying to out do each other with deals we find for rental cars, plane tickets, room rates.

This time the kids are being involved in the process. Last time it was fun keeping the secret but it also seemed to bite us in the behind once we got there because our DS, Ian, seemed to be overly anxious about what we were going to do next. He never seemed able to enjoy that moment, he was always worried about what was next. We are working on that with him at home. I don't want him racing through life just to get to whatever is next.

This brings me to my explanation of our trip's name. K.I.S.S.
We aren't KISS fans, persay. But we realized part of the reason we don't remember much is that we did too much! I brought my Passporter with me and when I looked back through it I only took notes for the first 3 days of our trip. After that we were just too exhausted and frustrated with, at that point, our very cranky children. I stopped enjoying my vacation at that point.
So, with our hindsight being 20/20 we are titling this trip:

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid!

We are making a concious effort to plan this trip keeping our strengths, our weaknesses, and our breaking points in mind. Instead of scheduling all breakfast buffets, since we aren't really breakfast people, we are going to schedule more dinner buffets (we love our characters). We are going to get to the parks later. We are even making sure to have one entire day of doing nothing. No plans (besides a dinner ADR), no parties.

Plus, I have severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. So going in the height of hurricane season when humidities and heat are exceedingly high wasn't in my best interest! So we are going to try going at the very end of February.

Our plans are to leave on a thursday night, February 25th and returning on March 5th.

More to come, I hope you enjoy reading this.