I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy my PDX-MCO today. Although I love SW and wanted to wait until 12/09 for the new schedule, I noticed Delta has a flight that actually leaves Fri. night @ 11:20pm and gets in around 9:00am. It would be perfect because the kids won't miss school on Friday and it would give us all day Saturday at the parks. I think we could get away with doing carry-on or maybe checking only one bag that has everyone's dinner clothes...and the best part: $99 fare!!!
I'll definitely use SW for the trip back home though as I have some Rapid Rewards credits that will cover my four seats (although they do expire in April -- so I'll have to pay the fee to have them extended). Woo hoo...things are definitely falling into place.