Book it. Buy it. BELIEVE it! - TR is started! link posted 8/11

[wigdoutdismom]

We do the travel insurance through DVC....

 

[glennbo123]

I haven't gotten travel insurance before...I guess I'm "self-insured", which means "not insured".

I'll be watching the responses to your question on the DVC boards though, so that I can learn some more about what's covered.

 

[Poolrat]

LOL Pat about the hurricane! I don't know, I think we can see all kinds of hints in life and never really "see" them until we look back.

Oh Yes taking this time to reflect - the signs were there. I guess all I have to say is that I guess we really tried. With things thisclose to being final, I am feeling like my "old self " or a should say "young self' again.

We typically don't bother with it but this trip just feels riskier...especially with some news/drama that occurred this weekend.

Uh Oh - I forecast Kendall drama.

 

[eandesmom]

Absolutely no clue about the insurance. Ugh. Sorry, wish I could be more helpful.

LOL!, no worries

We do the travel insurance through DVC....

Are you doing your cruises on points or cash? I think that's the part I'm more nervous about and considering the extra coverage for, that and deciding whether to get both years of points covered.

I haven't gotten travel insurance before...I guess I'm "self-insured", which means "not insured".

I'll be watching the responses to your question on the DVC boards though, so that I can learn some more about what's covered.

For the price, it seems pretty decent and competitive but it's going to be kind of the basics that are covered, flights, baggage, medical, property damage which is actually a bit unusual, roadside assistance and then dues associated iwth the reservation. Doesn't really seem to help with points, I imagine best case scenario is a holding situation, worst is they are simply lost.

Oh Yes taking this time to reflect - the signs were there. I guess all I have to say is that I guess we really tried. With things thisclose to being final, I am feeling like my "old self " or a should say "young self' again.

And you have BEAUTIFUL children to show for it! Finding yourself again is such a wonderful thing to go through, exciting and scary all at the same time.

Uh Oh - I forecast Kendall drama.

Whatever would make you think that?



You KNEW something would happen didn't you? It wasn't really an if...it was a what.

 

[eandesmom]

You KNEW it was coming didn’t you? We did. It’s never an IF, it’s a WHAT or WHEN. LOL! I have to laugh as otherwise well; I’d be more grey than I already am. Which actually would be impossible but oy!

Interestingly enough I was more on the ledge than Jeff. Go figure.

About what you ask?

Well SOCCER of course!

First and foremost I’d like to thank Mary Ellen for putting up with my freaked out texting Friday night, as a fellow soccer mom who tries to balance vacation and soccer (many don’t) I knew she’d get it. I have come off the ledge since then. It did involve some crazy calls and online digging though to get me off the ledge.

Ah yes, it’s that time again. Tryout time. Because of the way the season goes, tryouts are in late spring every year. Which means that 1) you don’t know if you’ll make the team you want until the end of may and 2) you won’t have a clue what that team is planning for summer tournaments until you make the team and they submit registrations, which they can’t really do a lot of till teams are fully set. If you plan to stick with a team you’ve been on, you might have an inkling. If however, you are switching clubs…all bets are off.

Can you guess? Kendall switched clubs. A little history here. She played for one club for 4 years. A very very good Division 1 team but not one K really “shone” in. For a lot of different reasons. Her confidence, coaching, and a whole host of other issues. She sat on the bench a bunch. So, a couple of years ago she moved to a Division 2 team. Opportunity to shine, get lots of playing time, build the confidence back and really gut check the commitment level. Year 1 was good. Decent for the team, they did well enough to get bumped up to Division 1 by the end of the season. An even better year with HS soccer, her skills took a quantum leap. This year, year 2, another HUGE leap at HS with her team coming in 4th for 3A at State with K as a starter, pretty much never coming out of the game but with her club…another story entirely.

They didn’t win a single game in the spring RCL season.

Lots of ties.

Amazingly, not last in Div 1 but I’m fairly sure they are getting bumped back down to Div 2. It was the most frustrating season EVER for all of us, on multiple levels and the bottom line, much as we adore her coach, the overall quality of the players on the team just wasn’t the right group for K to progress. So, seeing the writing on the wall she decided to try out for her old team again, which has a different coach than when she left, starting this year. This team came in 2nd for State Division 1 and is off to the Far West Regionals. A far cry from the team she’s been on all year. No guarantee she’d make it, despite playing HS soccer with several of the players and knowing the coach. On the sort of positive side, we knew 3 spots were opening up by girls moving up to the ECNL level full time (they played both teams last year and made a lot of people pretty angry as a result...glad we missed that drama!), on the negative, rumors abounded some other top players from other teams were going to be trying out as well. K was invited to practice with the team for a good 2 weeks before tryouts actually started, obviously a good sign but until that first night happens and you see who really shows up, you never know. She was scheduled for tryouts with both teams, just to be safe. Tryouts were scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday if needed.

Just before the Friday night tryouts we get a text from her mom.

"XX (coach she's trying out for) is trying to get the team into XX college showcase. It…".

IS DURING THE CRUISE

I about had a heart attack.

And reacted with my heart instead of my head.

Kendall was the DRIVING factor for the cruise as she has never been on one.

I had researched EVERY possible tournament, including the ultra competitive college showcase ones, knowing all season that a move back was probable, including the one we were hearing about. We did NOT want her, ever, to be in the position of having to chose between something like this, and vacation. At this level, we know the drill and basically people just don’t take vacation unless it doesn’t conflict with soccer. The whole point of this level is this kind of exposure. And while we don’t expect or count on college $$, the reality is that it could happen, at least in part and if her commitment is there…and it is…we want to support it. I didn’t see anything past the weekend of the 22nd and so we booked our trip based on that.

Had I rechecked ANY of the tournament dates as they started to come out? No. Did I base our assumptions on similar weekends to the 2011 summer line up? Yes. Would it have made a difference? No, not really, we bought our tickets before any of the dates were released.

After I get the heart stopping message from Jeff, I had to get Evan to baseball practice, Eric to a scouting trip and then head back to pick up Evan. While waiting in the car for Evan, I got on the phone to DCL to figure out my options. AMAZING CM who really walked me through every possibility.

Turns out the day I was calling was in fact the last day to make changes. I’d paid in full early so hadn’t connected the dots that it was actually PIF day. I could, conceivably, move the cruise as long as I did it in the next 5 minutes on the phone, or the next 2 hours online without losing anything.
Only problem with that is that 1) we didn’t know if she’d even make the team and 2) we didn’t know if the new team would get into the tournament (though it’s likely).

Penalty after that would be about 1K. I’d lose our deposit and I’d lose our discount and on board credit. We could, in theory, move it out to protect it and then move it back. Currently prices were up but only about $300 so it was a better potential option than the 1K penalty.

Ugh.

Flights were even worse. We’d be looking at about $1500 in change fees.

Only then did I check the actual dates of the tournament. It is July 28-30. The cruise starts 8/1.

She could still make the cruise. She’d have to fly there, on her own, from the tournament.

I got home with Evan about 7:30...into online changing only time. Jeff was adamant. No changes to the trip. We could change her outbound flight for $150 plus any fare difference, or she could skip the tournament but those were really the only 2 options in his mind. I did a quick check and IF her mom would drive her to LA instead of having her fly out of San Diego, she could get a non stop red eye on the 30th and not have to deal with changing planes and still get one full day at Vero, plus help make the time change. Otherwise the flight options are kind of icky and take up a whole day.

At 9:30 PST we found out that she made the team.

On Saturday at tryouts she rolled her ankle.



Back to PT and hopefully well enough to play in a tournament in 2 weeks in Utah.

Sigh.

Now we wait and see if they get into the tournament. Frankly I'll be surprised if they don't but you never know. And we hopefully get ourselves on the email list NOW as her mom won’t tell us stuff till after the fact if she can avoid it. Once we are one the communication chain it will be fine but making that first parent meeting is key and she’s historically kept Jeff out of the loop till after.

I have considered trying to see if there is any possibility of downgrading to a studio or an inn room to save points if this happens but will probably leave it alone, it will just make for a quieter first 4 nights for all of us and the E’s won’t have to share a bed more than 1 night of the entire trip which they will love. Plus I don’t really want to give up laundry or a full kitchen.

In theory I suppose we all could fly down on the 30th instead via the San Diego red eye and have only one beach night but the concept of giving up 4 days/nights of vacation simply so we all arrive together, at a cost of $750 to do so, makes sense to no one except maybe Kendall's mom. I suppose if we wanted to go to San Diego for the weekend and see the tournament that would be an option. I'd like to see it but the boys? Yeah, not their idea of vacation.

That said I'm not ruling out the possibility that Jeff might have to do that to ensure she makes the trip but it's early to get quite that paranoid. If that does happen, honestly I'll probably move the boys and I to WDW for those days, versus Vero without Jeff and Kendall. I really don't think that will happen though, Jeff's pretty stoked about Vero. But, you never know.

With this soccer change though, I’m thinking Atlantis is even more unlikely and I really really need to figure out a plan for Nassau. Based on initial scuttlebutt, prior to the parents meeting it looks like 3 travel tournaments, (Utah and CA x2) for just the summer and the probably another 2-3 for thanksgiving/presidents weekend so our soccer costs are going to go through the roof in a hurry.

So…while we are bummed that Kendall may not make the entire trip, we are hugely relieved it doesn’t cut into the cruise portion and if this is what it needs to be, it is doable. Of course there is a lot to figure out once we know if they are going, regarding a new flight, her mom agreeing to it all, etc etc etc not to mention us stressing until she actually gets ON the plane but...it's doable.

In other developments, we've had some interesting trip changes to our girls food and wine trip. Originally my dates were 10/17-23. We were booked at VWL and waitlisted half of it at BWV. Mary Ellen booked her flights and is going in on the 16th so added a night at AKL. In looking at flights for me, 16th-22nd looked like they'd be a better deal although I've not booked yet..."better" being relative and not all that great.

our wait list came though. So currently we have

16th AKV
17-19 VWL
20-22 BWV

And I don't know what to do about flights! I don't really want to move 3x, so may go back to the 17-23 option (really can't do more nights than that) but then again we may waitlist the 16th for VWL or the 17-19 for BWV or or or or...I don't know! LOL! Of course we moved our ADR's around based on 1 night at AKV on the 16th so coming in the 17th and being elsewhere changes that as well and...UGH! LOL.

Lastly...so this update isn't all drama, I had a lovely lovely mothers day and thought I’d share some pictures of our day. It was about perfect as far as I was concerned. I had morning coffee on the front porch, was served breakfast (made by Evan and absolutely delicious) on our back deck and then we went for a 6.8 mile hike. Typically I drag them to flower world, the rule on Mothers (and fathers) day is that the mom gets to pick. However this year there was a) no budget for flower world, b) nothing I really really needed. (Bark for the entire exterior doesn’t count lol!) and c) it was an amazingly beautiful day, nicest of the year so far! It is not usually nearly that nice at this time of year. So a hike it was!

And all the way up the mountain I heard…

Isn’t this SO much better than Flower World Mmom? LOL! 3 boys that were MUCH happier with this years option. And told me repeatedly that we should do it every year.

After the hike I caught some rays in the back yard, we hit 80 and I knew it would be awhile before that happened again and then they made me a lovely dinner of shesh kabobs.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Holy Cannolli Batman!!
Well, I guess we can count on drama around here, huh? It's amazing how the stars have to align just to take a vacation!!

I sure hope that it works out for Kendall to fly out and meet you. Sports can just take over and make it hard to work around. We had some of that on a smaller scale here this spring with softball and in the end, softball lost. Although we're not looking at college stuff and all, choices were made.

Well, for my own selfish reasons, I hope you go to WDW on 10/16 and stay at AKL, because that's where we'll be and I can see you then!! I do plan to get to the big meet on 10/18 too.

 

[dizneeat]

You scared me here BIG time! But I am glad it "kinda" works out in the end!
I cannot even start to imagine what it must be like to plan for so many people with so many interests. So glad it is going to work out! Did I say that before?

Love your Mother's day hike photos, what beautiful scenery! (and people)

 

[Misskitty3]

Wow!

The unknowns and unexpected issues must be so completely frustrating! I cant even begin to imagine. You handle everything so well!

Your mothers day pictures are beautiful! We're you at Tiger Mt?

 

[MEK]

I'm so glad I knew the story ahead of time!

I am glad that Kendall can still make the cruise. Bummer on Vero. Soccer - ugh - what a pain. I hope she does play college ball after all this drama. She darn well better!

Glad that Jeff put his foot down with the possible changes.

I did waitlist for the 16th at VWL. I think we would have a better chance at getting the 17th - 20th at AKL, so that was my next question - should we waitlist for AKL those dates. I hate to give up VWL. The DVC lady was so nice when I did the waitlist for the 16th. I told her that I was just getting ready to call to drop the BWV waitlist when it came through. Oy! Actually, I was going to ask you first and then drop it. Oh well.

Beautiful hike on Mom's day! How nice!

 

[eandesmom]

Holy Cannolli Batman!!
Well, I guess we can count on drama around here, huh? It's amazing how the stars have to align just to take a vacation!!

It wouldn't be an official eandesmom PTR without this kind of drama though now would it!

I sure hope that it works out for Kendall to fly out and meet you. Sports can just take over and make it hard to work around. We had some of that on a smaller scale here this spring with softball and in the end, softball lost. Although we're not looking at college stuff and all, choices were made.

I have to say, I'm really impressed and proud of Jeff on this one, there was a big part of me that feared if she couldn't go, he'd want to somehow scrap and rebook the whole thing. The fact that it's just part, and the non cruise part, is a big factor in it but he really dug in his heels and said NO CHANGES. But we want her there of course and her mom does know how much she wants to go on the cruise so I do think it will happen, it will just be a matter of how it all plays out. We are kind of assuming this is the last summer we can even try, if this one is intense, next summer will the the ultimate from a scouting standpoint so we don't even want to try to schedule anything then.

Well, for my own selfish reasons, I hope you go to WDW on 10/16 and stay at AKL, because that's where we'll be and I can see you then!! I do plan to get to the big meet on 10/18 too.

I will definitely see you on the 18th for sure, I'm really torn about the 16th.

You scared me here BIG time! But I am glad it "kinda" works out in the end!
I cannot even start to imagine what it must be like to plan for so many people with so many interests. So glad it is going to work out! Did I say that before?

I will feel better after the parents meeting and an official schedule is out for the summer. Then we can confirm her schedule and book her a flight etc if we need to.

Love your Mother's day hike photos, what beautiful scenery! (and people)

Thanks! It was a lovely day.

Wow!

The unknowns and unexpected issues must be so completely frustrating! I cant even begin to imagine. You handle everything so well!

Well, when you expect it to happen it does take a little of the edge off. All I can really control in this situation is how I react and at least only Jeff and Mary Ellen saw/heard me freak out before we got it under control.

Your mothers day pictures are beautiful! We're you at Tiger Mt?

We were, we did the west tiger trail #3 as it has a bit better elevation gain and is a little longer, so we were hopping less crowded. It wasn't bad although I prefer the vista view on the main trail, I did like this hike a little better.

I'm so glad I knew the story ahead of time!

I am glad that Kendall can still make the cruise. Bummer on Vero. Soccer - ugh - what a pain. I hope she does play college ball after all this drama. She darn well better!

Seriously! She needs to quit rolling her ankle!

Glad that Jeff put his foot down with the possible changes.

Me too, he's been doing that more and more, proud of him. At least on this one we aren't fighting with her mom about whether she wants to go or not, that part is a given at this point.

I did waitlist for the 16th at VWL. I think we would have a better chance at getting the 17th - 20th at AKL, so that was my next question - should we waitlist for AKL those dates. I hate to give up VWL. The DVC lady was so nice when I did the waitlist for the 16th. I told her that I was just getting ready to call to drop the BWV waitlist when it came through. Oy! Actually, I was going to ask you first and then drop it. Oh well.

Yeah, it's funny, I was all set on the entire trip at VLW. I'd actually kind of forgotten about the waitlist! I'm with you, reluctant to give up VWL as well, especially since I'll be at AKL in August anyway. It does make me lean towards coming on the 17th though so I'm 3 and 3 on the split but I don't know. I just can't do 7 nights, 6 is pushing it as it is. I'll be looking at it more closely over the next 6 weeks so who knows, maybe that one night will come through. I am excited about BWV though!!

Beautiful hike on Mom's day! How nice!

It was.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Yowza! That is some drama! I cannot imagine having to balance those sports commitments. Yikes!! Glad you were able to make sense of what you could and develop a plan forward. It is going to be a great vacation no matter what!!

Your Mother's Day sounds awesome!!

 

[tinacaplan]

Well...bottom line...I'm glad that its all working out in the end with minimal changes. For a second I was worried Kendall wouldn't get to come at all and that would have been unacceptable. But the lack of communication with Kendall's mom has to be the hardest part of it all.

On a somewhat unrelated soccer note... this past Mother's Day we were all gathered at my mom's, including my husband's flaky sister. We're talking about soccer, because Max just started playing and she says something along the lines of girls shouldn't play soccer, they should take dance lessons. UM...SERIOUSLY??? I did not handle my response particularly well, as I rarely do in these situations, as I just snapped back, "Its does great things for girls' self esteem" and walked out of the room in disgust. No wonder she doesn't like me...

Definitely looks like you had a wonderful Mother's Day. I can't get over your pictures of the mountains. So totally different than here.

 

[Poolrat]

And you have BEAUTIFUL children to show for it! Finding yourself again is such a wonderful thing to go through, exciting and scary all at the same time.

I do have 2 Wonderful and beautiful children and I keep reminding myself that when:
a) I feel like throwing a pity party
b) When they are driving me up the wall acting like you know who..

Whatever would make you think that?



You KNEW something would happen didn't you? It wasn't really an if...it was a what.

Oh I had a feeling. Soccer and sport schedules in general are usually not vacation or even schedule friendly.
I have been left scrambling a time or two because of a last minute schedule change.
At least swim meet are not usually like tournament schedules like you have no idea if they will make it through and have to play the next round.

Sometimes you almost root for them to lose so it fits in your schedule better.

When we swim outdoors the weather is one of the things that mess with us.

 

[eandesmom]

Yowza! That is some drama! I cannot imagine having to balance those sports commitments. Yikes!! Glad you were able to make sense of what you could and develop a plan forward. It is going to be a great vacation no matter what!!

It will be great no matter what, we'll be out of town and that in and of itself goes a LONG ways to making it great already!

Your Mother's Day sounds awesome!!

Honestly one of the best, if not the best, one ever.

Well...bottom line...I'm glad that its all working out in the end with minimal changes. For a second I was worried Kendall wouldn't get to come at all and that would have been unacceptable. But the lack of communication with Kendall's mom has to be the hardest part of it all.

Oh I don't know, it could be SO much worse really, in the big picture of things. It's a known quantity at least that we can anticipate and plan around and try to roll with as best we can. The reality is though that something COULD happen where she couldn't come at all and it is what it is. She has earned our support for her passion with her commitment and as frustrating as it can be at times, it really isn't her fault that the system works as it does, we just do our best to work around it and still do what we want to an extent. Her mom really does want what's best for her, and while her definition of that may be different than ours at times, I don't question her commitment there.

On a somewhat unrelated soccer note... this past Mother's Day we were all gathered at my mom's, including my husband's flaky sister. We're talking about soccer, because Max just started playing and she says something along the lines of girls shouldn't play soccer, they should take dance lessons. UM...SERIOUSLY??? I did not handle my response particularly well, as I rarely do in these situations, as I just snapped back, "Its does great things for girls' self esteem" and walked out of the room in disgust. No wonder she doesn't like me...

Good for you!

Definitely looks like you had a wonderful Mother's Day. I can't get over your pictures of the mountains. So totally different than here.

it was lovely, just lovely!

I do have 2 Wonderful and beautiful children and I keep reminding myself that when:
a) I feel like throwing a pity party
b) When they are driving me up the wall acting like you know who..

hey if it makes you feel better, even if you know who wasn't around, traits have a way of popping up organically that can make you crazy.

Oh I had a feeling. Soccer and sport schedules in general are usually not vacation or even schedule friendly.
I have been left scrambling a time or two because of a last minute schedule change.
At least swim meet are not usually like tournament schedules like you have no idea if they will make it through and have to play the next round.

Sometimes you almost root for them to lose so it fits in your schedule better.

When we swim outdoors the weather is one of the things that mess with us.

And therin lies the rub. In many ways it COULD be better to buy her a new ticket, a full flex ticket so she could potentially come down earlier if they don't make it till the 30th. Assuming they get in they will definitely be playing 28/29th but historically last day is semi's and finals so they may not be. They are good, very good but the Cali teams are UNREAL. I will be researching the options on that score, that's for darn sure! I am thinking that the red eye on the 30th is best right now as it allows for a lot of flexiblity with that day and even if they don't make it till the 30th, chances for a team dinner on the 29th are pretty high so probably cleanest to just plan for the 30th. That does assume her mom is willing to drive her to LAX so K can have a direct flight. IF her mom isn't going then it becomes far far more complicated so who knows.

We'll see, it's a bit premature still.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Yikes... I get sports so, I know how it feels. I hate planning around them and trying to guess things. We use to have to guess the school calendar too but they finally posted 3 years worth so, it makes it a bit easier. High school is such a difficult time and I find all the sports don't allow for much planning. You don't know you are in tournaments until like the last minute. Anyways, I'll keep my fingers crossed in hopes it all works out.

 

[glennbo123]

Aw nuts. I was hoping that the drama would cause you to move the Vero portion of your trip to June 19-23.

The hike definitely looks better than Flower World to me too.

 

[englishrose47]

Hi Glenn !!!

 

[glennbo123]

Hi Glenn !!!

G'mornin' Rosie!

 

[DisMomAmy]

 

[eandesmom]

Yikes... I get sports so, I know how it feels. I hate planning around them and trying to guess things. We use to have to guess the school calendar too but they finally posted 3 years worth so, it makes it a bit easier. High school is such a difficult time and I find all the sports don't allow for much planning. You don't know you are in tournaments until like the last minute. Anyways, I'll keep my fingers crossed in hopes it all works out.

We get a mixed bunch on the school calendar but since we have 3 calendars to juggle it doesn't help all that much as the 2 younger ones, then K and then the college student all have different breaks anyway. It will be interesting with the younger 2 to see if we end up with these kinds of constraints. I don't think it will be as bad but really, you never know.

Aw nuts. I was hoping that the drama would cause you to move the Vero portion of your trip to June 19-23.

LOL! All 3 younger kids are still in school until the 22nd, the only one who could be at Vero then would be Taylor...not nearly as much fun for James and the girls. But oh, would I love the ideal of vacation in a MONTH, versus over 2!!

The hike definitely looks better than Flower World to me too.

With the weather around here, you have to seize that kind of day, that's for sure!

Hi Glenn !!!

G'mornin' Rosie!

Morning Glenn and Rosie!

oh just wait, there's more...or possibly more...