Bouncing Back to the Bayou --- an August 2013 PTR

[OregonMomToWDW]

Ann,

So sorry to hear about the sulfa allergy. I have the same thing and it really cuts down on the number of antibiotics available to treat infections. I had that rash in college and it was miserable. Hopefully, the toe starts to feel better soon with the new antibiotic.

 

[Tinker326]

Oh that picture you said reminds you of 'ozzy' made me laugh! Victoria's 'screaming' face combined with the writing up and down her arm! Classic . Love it! Hope that pic gets a scrapbook page all by itself!

Great pic of you & Peter as well.

Fun little trip & how exciting that you hope to go next year too.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hmmm... I don't want to be an enabler or anything but... those utuber boys look... well like pretty nice boys... I mean I know looks can be deceiving but I'm not picking up any bad vibes from any of them at all... overall they seem pretty wholesome... the girls could have way worse choices in crushin...

& the llama hats really are pretty darn cute...

Ahhh... grits... I love grits... especially shrimp and grits... Being just north of the Mason Dixon line... I don't get them here that often but when ever we head southward... I have my eyes open for them...

You all look really happy and like you're have a great time at HoB...

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Is the living statue near Splitsville? I have never heard or seen him?!?! Too cute that he was playing with your hair! I love the "Ozzy" pic of Victoria, she looks like she's having so much fun!

So apparently Savannah knew about Playlist live (that's what it's called, right?) and was pretty impressed that you guys got to go. I haven't shown her your pics yet, but she was looking forward to seeing the people you took pictures with when I told her about it!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Oh, Ann, I’m laughing so hard at that “Ozzy Ozborne” picture because Victoria looks like she has tattoos up and down her arms! Until I saw the picture, I forgot that she had the artists signing her arms instead of a book! Has that washed off yet??? Sharpie takes forever to come off! I’ll never forget the time that True put Sharpie all over her legs and it took a couple of days before it all came off! The picture of you and Peter is really sweet No food porn at House of Blues, though? OK, I’ll forgive you… this time! I love grits! I never ate them as a child because I thought they looked too much like cream of wheat (which I didn’t like very much) but I tried grits as an adult and I loved them! Now I can’t get enough! It’s nice that you got to spend some time exploring DTD. It sounds like you and the girls had a really great time! I’m sad to see your mini-TR is almost over!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Monday, the last day of our mini-trip (or IS it?!)

So, everyone was pretty down in the dumps this morning as it was the departure day. A lot of the Youtubers left last night after the conference, so the girls’ stalking activities were a bit limited. Our flight was due to leave at 5:15 so we had the afternoon at the hotel just to hang around. We started off with the breakfast buffet at The Tropicale right there in the hotel. I had already printed out the boarding passes last evening, so after breakfast I made sure to take any pictures that I hadn’t gotten before. We then all went up to the room to pack our bags and get out of the room by 11am. I’m never really good at getting out when I’m supposed to, but no one has ever complained so I think I’m ok. I wanted to enjoy my last bit of warmth before I had to go back to cold, brown Maine, so at the pool I sat……with all the bags…….with Peter!












Yeah, Peter was cold….oh honey, you are about to go into a lot colder weather!!

After the girls joined us, we went to sit in the lounge area. I decided to check the flight status on my phone. WE GOT DELAYED until 7:55pm!! Ok, well that was from Orlando to Baltimore as Baltimore had a really bad storm during the day and all the planes were backed up. Well, if everything was backed up, the plane from Baltimore to Portland would be, too, right? Right. And, according to the flight status it was, too. Even though the flight was now delayed until 7:55pm, there wasn’t much to do at the hotel and we knew we could get a bite to eat at the Orlando airport, we decided to take a car to the airport around 3:30pm.

We ate supper at the airport and just hung around at the terminal. The girls were on their computers and Peter was napping. (He does this when he’s just sitting around). I had Kali call her parents to tell them we were going to be late coming in as we were delayed. See, their family was going on a vacation to the Virgin Islands and leaving from Boston on Tuesday morning at 9am. They were going to pick Kali up in Portland and then all drive down to Boston to be there for their flight.

I think it was around 6pm when I heard the announcement “anyone on Flight ## with a connection to Portland, Maine please come to the gate counter”. This isn’t going to be good, is it?! A very nice Air Tran customer service rep explained that we wouldn’t be making our connection and would only be able to get to Baltimore tonight. I wanted to lose it so bad on this guy, but he was being way too nice about it. WHAT ABOUT KALI??!!! I explained the situation, that Kali had to be in Boston at 9am to make it to her flight for St. Thomas!!! Well, as you can all imagine, the next hour involved calling airlines and calling Kali’s parents to see what could be done. Her parents were quite upset as you can all imagine. Not at me, but at the situation. Her Dad wanted a refund from Air Tran and of course they are not responsible for the weather, so that wasn’t an option. Also, apparently an Air Tran personnel cannot call and make other reservations on other airlines for you. It’s all up to you. So, I’m looking on my iphone at different airlines, etc. I cannot possibly describe how I am feeling and how upsetting this whole situation is getting! If it were just my family with no plans, it wouldn’t have been a big deal --- we could adjust, but Kali couldn’t! I don’t have the funds to buy her another ticket on another airline. Couldn’t Kali’s parents find another flight to St. Thomas? Should we all go to Boston with her? What should we do? Kali’s Mom called with a reservation for Kali on Jet Blue that will get her to Boston around midnight. They had paid for it and all Kali had to do was give the confirmation number that her mom texted to her. OMG!!!!

This sounds like a wonderful solution, right?! Well, Kali’s first flight was with us during this trip. She has not been in airports like Victoria has and really doesn’t know how it all works. If it were Victoria travelling alone, I wouldn’t give it a worry, but Kali is not used to this. Oh, and did I mention it was about 7:15pm when this all got straightened out? Yeah, and do we remember what time our flight to Baltimore was? 7:55pm. And do we know where the Jet Blue terminal is from the Air Tran terminal?…..Let me give you all a visual……




Yeah, I had to go with Kali and get her to the Jet Blue terminal which consists of riding on the fake monorail to the terminal, and take another one to the other concourse. OMG!!! I had to leave her at security as I didn’t have a boarding pass for Jet Blue. I told her if there are any questions, that she should find a Jet Blue rep or a TSA rep and they can help her. I FELT HORRIBLE leaving a 14 year old by herself who had never flown before to get to her gate! So horrible that after I turned around I started crying!! Really?

I had to go back through security on the Air Tran side and it was then that I realized the customer service rep had taken my boarding pass and issued another one for the flights from Baltimore to Portland for the next morning. HE DIDN’T GIVE ME BACK THE BOARDING PASS I NEEDED FOR THIS FLIGHT!! Of course it was now 7:30 or so and the security people told me to go to the AirTran customer service desk. At this point I am balling like an idiot almost to the point of hyperventilating!! The counter person was extremely nice and printed another boarding pass for me (thank God I had my purse and id with me!!!). I was in such a state that they actually had an agent ESCORT me through security through a special entrance. They must have thought I was a looney bird!! They called the Gate to make sure they knew I was coming, too. OMG!!! And do we all remember I had a broken toe at this time??!! Yep!!! Peter and Victoria were standing there waiting for me and said “you almost missed the flight??!!” Really people??!! Don’t you think that I knew that??!!!

So, we all boarded the plane and I sat down still crying. I have never been through a more stressful time in my life!! It was unbelievable!!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

OMG is right! I would’ve been freaking out over that Kali situation, too! Thank goodness she was able to take another flight! What a stressful way to end your trip! Thank goodness it all worked out. That must have been such a relief! But then for you to have to rush to make it back to your flight, and all of the drama that surrounded that! Oh, Ann! Well, I’m glad you made your flight and I hope your flights home were uneventful!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Oh my, what a stressful day!! I'm so sorry that you had to deal with all of that, it must have been so frustrating.

 

[Tinker326]

Oh my gosh... how stressful for everyone involved. I'm SO glad it all worked out.

Those little travel 'hiccups' (throw ups) can really mess with you. That's for sure!!!! We had one on our way to Beijing to get our girl... and we were due to pick her up the day after we arrived and they were talking about delaying flights for a day. I started hypervenlating too at that point. But, in the end it didn't happen..and we got out (late..but out). And it all worked out.

Glad you got it worked out. And mostly glad Kali made it to her flight to her family vacay!!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

That is INSANE!!! I would have been a wreck. A WRECK! I'm so sorry it had to end like that, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end. Holy cow!

 

[solana131]

Oh my gosh...I would've been bawling right there with you! How horrible

Poor Kali. I hope she made it alright!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Let’s see, where were we? Ah yes, moving along with the day from hell……

We were on the plane without Kali and I was slowly calming down. Victoria and Kali kept texting each other and it turns out that her flight had been delayed, too. OMG!!! So, instead of just an hour alone in the airport for her, it ended up being 4 hours!! At least she could text Victoria to keep her informed as to what was going on.

Around 9:50pm we were about 15 minutes from the Baltimore airport. The connecting flight to Portland was due to depart Baltimore at 10:05pm. (At this point you all know where this is going, right??!!) The agent in Orlando had a feeling we wouldn’t make it, so he had rebooked us for the 9:30am flight leaving Baltimore on Tuesday. He had also given us a discount coupon thingy for a discounted hotel room in Baltimore. Really? I was praying really hard that we would make the flight, but no way in heck did we. Now what are we going to do?

We found some benches, sat down and talked the situation over……do we stay in the airport and just try to get some sleep on the floor or benches? Peter said no way with my health were we going to do that. So I called the phone number on the little discount voucher the airline gave me and we were able to find a room close to the airport at a DoubleTree (I think). I was way too tired to even care! Once I got over the initial disappointment of not making it home in time, I kind of thought, “hey another day of vacation” although not planned. The hotel had a free shuttle that came to get us and would bring us back in the morning. It was a nice enough room. Who really cared at this point, although the toilet kept running unless you jiggled the handle. We all slept ok, but not great. They did give us warm chocolate chip cookies upon our arrival. Yay!? Thank goodness I always pack an extra pair of undies for everyone. I did have to call into work and to school stating that neither Victoria nor I were going to show up that day as we were stuck in Baltimore. I think that’s a pretty good reason, right? We did find out that Kali’s plane left Orlando at 12:30am but that she met her parents in Boston and headed off to St. Thomas in the morning!! Whew!!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759224@N02/8595225235/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759224@N02/8595225085/
Yes, Peter is rubbing her highness’ feet!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759224@N02/8596324850/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759224@N02/8596324548/


We were driven back to the airport in the morning and made our flight to Portland……
And the rest was history…….

 

[Victoriasmom98]

OMG is right! I would’ve been freaking out over that Kali situation, too! Thank goodness she was able to take another flight! What a stressful way to end your trip! Thank goodness it all worked out. That must have been such a relief! But then for you to have to rush to make it back to your flight, and all of the drama that surrounded that! Oh, Ann! Well, I’m glad you made your flight and I hope your flights home were uneventful!

Oh Erin, I NEVER want to go through that again! No one can say that I didn't get my exercise that evening! And I wouldn't quite say the rest of the evening was uneventful, would you?

Oh my, what a stressful day!! I'm so sorry that you had to deal with all of that, it must have been so frustrating.

Thanks. I had just never been through that before in all the years I've been flying!

Oh my gosh... how stressful for everyone involved. I'm SO glad it all worked out.

Those little travel 'hiccups' (throw ups) can really mess with you. That's for sure!!!! We had one on our way to Beijing to get our girl... and we were due to pick her up the day after we arrived and they were talking about delaying flights for a day. I started hypervenlating too at that point. But, in the end it didn't happen..and we got out (late..but out). And it all worked out.

Glad you got it worked out. And mostly glad Kali made it to her flight to her family vacay!!!

Travel Hiccups, huh? Is that what they're called. Well I don't want to experience that one ever again. I know it wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to make sure Kali got to Boston in time. Stupid weather!!

That is INSANE!!! I would have been a wreck. A WRECK! I'm so sorry it had to end like that, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end. Holy cow!

Yeah it did all work out IN THE VERY END!!! I mean I like to stay in hotels and all, but not in Baltimore in the middle of the night with no activities planned. DON'T DO THIS TO A TYPE A PLANNER!!!

Oh my gosh...I would've been bawling right there with you! How horrible

Poor Kali. I hope she made it alright!

Yes, she did make it FINALLY!!! And here is a picture of her and her little brother Ryan in St. Thomas....


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759224@N02/8675522000/

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Alrighty now……time to move forward with actual trip planning. Can I hear a Yee-Haw…..(I’ll wait…go ahead! Done? Sounded great!)

Looked what popped up on my phone this morning….


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759224@N02/8675711848/
Yep….I take this as a good omen. My resort popped up. Cool!


As most of you know, I was toying around with the idea of hosting a PhotoPass share. Well, I started a group on Facebook and we are now the Awesome August Share by Ann. Great name, huh? There are six families including my own. Of course I purchased the Photopass Plus, but the share is only for the regular photopass. I’m charging $25 each and that includes the flash drives with the family’s pictures on it. I figured the cd itself is $119.95 so divided by 6 plus $5 for the drive is how I came up with the price. I think it’s fair and everyone in the group agrees, so we’re good to go. I really hope I didn’t bite off more than I can chew, but I think it will be fine. Due to our dates, I will be ordering the cd on September 13th, so that will give everyone time to edit the photos. My first family is in Disney on August 18th (that would be me!!) and my last family returns on the 9th of September. We have 30 days to edit the pics from the date the first pic is taken, so this will work out. Pretty cool I’ve taken this on, huh?

FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!!! Originally I had booked SW on the return flight home since at the time I booked, we had enough points in the account to do so. I then saw a price from Delta that we really couldn’t pass up --- $130 per person one way. That’s the cheapest airfare I had seen in a long, long time and we can save the points for a more expensive flight. So, I went ahead and booked Delta for the return flight. Now I have double booked for the return flight and was waiting to have enough points to change flights to the flight down. I was waiting….and waiting…..and waiting. See, I had booked the return flights at 8630 points per person. The flights going down were 11,940 for the LONGEST TIME. Even if I exchanged the other points, there wouldn’t be enough. I knew with the credit card statement of April, we would have enough points but two days before those points would be given to us, the price of the flight went up to 12,650 points. WHAT??!!! C’mon SW!!! We would have to now wait until May to have enough points. Grrrrrr…. Well, you all know how I am…..I kept checking and checking the flights multiple times per day (yes, anal, I know) but, SW lowered this flight down to 9660 just 3 days ago!!! WE HAD ENOUGH POINTS!!! I jumped right on this and changed our flights. Now we are flying down Southwest from Portland (one stop, no plane change) and then flying Delta to return home. I am so glad that is over with. I am not the most patient person in the world (no, really) so all this waiting was driving me nutso! But it’s done and I’ve already called Disney and added the information for Magical Express. Ahhhhh……cannot wait until I’m on that bus!!! Let’s all take a moment and think about being on the Magical Express….ah……..

Sorry there are no photos in this update. Karen will be ashamed of me…sorry, buddy!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

For shame! You could at least throw in a random photopass shot or an airplane or something!

FANTASTIC on the share! I'm not sure if we will be able to do one in February since they will most likely be totally moved over to the magicbands by then.

I'm so glad you have your airfare all taken care of! Happy 117 days!!!!!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Hi I am joining in!! I will be back tonight to read through the report.

 

[Tinker326]

Yhea on flights!!!!!!!

Awesome!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I am all caught up. What a great PTR with a couple of mini TR thrown in!!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Well, I am pretty pleased right now. Southwest upped the fares on the flights we snagged at 9660 points to 11220 so I booked them at the right time. I’m still obsessed, though, and keep checking to see if they go down. I really don’t think at this point they will. I think I’ve been watching long enough to know now. Due to my lack of photos during my last update, I will try to photographically capture all my news (ok, Karen??) so here goes….. here’s the verification that the prices increased…I’m very sorry about the quality as it’s a picture taken with my iphone of my computer screen….



Also, I have finally printed out and laminated my Lime Green Mickey Head with the Team August logo and attached it to my bag. Team August has both a Disboard thread and a Facebook group that I am part of and it will be kind of neat to meet people from the Dis….aside from Shannon and Erin who I know for sure I will see. You know, I already have my laminated dining confirmation numbers/flight numbers attached, a luggage tag, sunglass holder (Walt Disney World, of course) and a bottle holder attached. I’m going to look like a pack mule!!



I have all the beads we have received on our trips to Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter hung up in my cubbie at work. I decided a little bit of Disney here would do me some good.



Oh, and did I mention my little kitty Reeses has decided that lying on my park bag would be a good idea? So, now I have black fur on my pink bag. Easily removed, I know. Speaking of my little kitty, boy did we have a scare with her about 2 weeks ago. I noticed a bit of discharge coming out of her and decided to bring her to the vet. She was having some other issues as not holding her pee until she could get to the box and she was also vomitting sometimes when she ate. Turns out, she had an extremely bad uterine infection and must be spayed immediately. She would die without the surgery, so of course we decided to go ahead. Because she was quite a mess, her surgery costs almost $700!!! OUCH! Fortunately, Peter said it was ok to go ahead and put it on the Southwest credit card. I say, look at it this way, we saved her life AND we just earned more points for flights!!! Yay!

Also, in the animal category guess what?! We got more chickens!!! Yep, we picked up 5 baby (one month old) chicks last Saturday and one two month old chick. We now have 2 barred rock cochins, 2 antwerps, 1 silkie cochin, and the older one is a silkie, barred, cochin mix. Peter seems to really love chickens. They really are so much fun and really not all that expensive to keep. The new chicks are in our addition under a heat lamp for about another month. The older one is named Moppet as she has a little tuft of feathers on the top of her head.



She’s so ugly that she’s cute! This will make a total of 11 chickens! Now with the new ones, we don’t know if they are boys or girls yet, but hopefully most of them are laying hens. We’ll see. It was so funny when we went to pick them up as the lady we got them from had turkeys, ducks and chickens all running around. There was this big ole Tom Turkey who thought he was a dog!! He wanted to be patted on the head and followed us around. So funny! Victoria wanted to stay there all day! And he and Victoria kept gobbling at each other.



And here is Victoria and her rooster, Roo…..



OMG!!!! I just previewed the post and I SWEAR I had adjusted all the photos the correct orientation!!! Grrrrr Photobucket!!!

 

[solana131]

Well, I am pretty pleased right now. Southwest upped the fares on the flights we snagged at 9660 points to 11220 so I booked them at the right time.

Yay on the savings!

I’m still obsessed, though, and keep checking to see if they go down. I really don’t think at this point they will.

I don't dare to look at mine...I was impatient and I know I didn't get a great deal. I saw them drop once and snagged them. I know I can get a credit towards the next flight, but I don't know when we will use SW again in the next couple years....so I don't think I would ever use it and it is such a hassle to deal with it. Better to just not know.

I have all the beads we have received on our trips to Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter hung up in my cubbie at work. I decided a little bit of Disney here would do me some good.

Love this idea...I have Disney-ified my desk too. I have a Donald figurine and a Minnie/Mickey, two of my PP pics in a frame and my little man in front of the castle on my mousepad. My coffe mugs are all Disney...I listen to the Wishes soundtrack the few times I get to listen to my music. Yeah, it's safe to say everyone thinks I am a Disney freak here....oh well

Speaking of my little kitty, boy did we have a scare with her about 2 weeks ago.

her surgery costs almost $700!!! OUCH! Fortunately, Peter said it was ok to go ahead and put it on the Southwest credit card. I say, look at it this way, we saved her life AND we just earned more points for flights!!! Yay!

Very scary....we love our little furballs don't we! But I love Peter's attitude towards it. Always nice to get rewards points

I just previewed the post and I SWEAR I had adjusted all the photos the correct orientation!!! Grrrrr Photobucket!!!

Yeah, I had to dump Photobucket....just got too frustrated with them on a daily basis. I love Flickr, so much easier to use for the DIS.