Home sweet home...

[hockey mom]

Hi everyone were home and this time I was ready for it.
It was a good trip but to many mishaps to be a great trip. -For 14 of us it went fairly smooth.
Weather- a few great days, 2 so-so days and 2 rotten days.

The greats-seeing and hearing the new comers react to the rides and my Aunt was loving all the attention to detail.
My 4 yr old cousin Logan at the character breakfast could hardly contain herself. The look on her face was priceless.
Great service at the breakky in AK. Tons of fun with the little jokes our waiter kept doing.
Our condo at Orange Lake was very nice as were our rooms at the Royal Pacific.
My poster from TOT.(great idea-thanks Dave)
Lots and lots of animals were out on our safari ride.
My new bathrobe from TOT- very comfy!

The bad- caught in traffic jams on the way to and from Buffalo.
The flu wiped 5 out of 8 who were in our condo. Good thing my sis and family were over at Silver lake. Aunt and cousin had to miss the MGM day and I had to sit out the Epcot day. The kids seemed to get it and bounce back, but my oldest DD quit doing MGM around noon and was throwing up in a garbage pail by 2. Sorry for those who had to witness that. She was the first to go down and the rest followed in 2 hour intervalls.
Flat tire waiting for us when we got off the plane.
Missed my seat in the boat at Splash mountain. My doors closed before DH and I could load and as the CM was joking about it my family floated away and that was the poster I really wanted! I never got to see or hear their reaction to that one and I even skipped HM to run and get fast passes because I was so looking forward to it.
DD's best friend broke out in a heat rash.

 

[hockey mom]

continue...
Caught in a down pour at Universal and DH's camera got wet and broke so no pictures of the Royal Pacific or Universal.
Sister's family enjoyed it but always wanted to call it quits around 5 forcing us to miss alot of stuff. I don't think we did half of what we wanted to do.
Didn't eat alot because everyone was so sick so I ended up with 3 expensive vouchers at the end that were about to expire in a few weeks so I stopped someone-handed them over and told them to have a disney day.
Rental car broke down so had to return it and get another. Huge inconvience.
Habs lost and the Tampa fans were drunk and scary on the way out. Screaming not so nice things at us.

I need some pixie dust to get me back in the Disney spirit .

 

[Scratch42]

Hope everybody is feeling better!

It seems to be a weird year for trips!

Next trip will definately be better!

Check you pm box!

Scratch

 

[chrisann]

Sorry about that!! We the only thing you can do is look forward to the next trip!!Hopefully having a smaller one next time will make it easier! I'm sure you really made the day of that person you gave the vouchers to, so that should make you feel better!!
Take care!!

 

[Canadave]

Welcome home hockey mom ... I am so sorry to hear about 'the bad' part of your trip ...I hope you got some pictures before DH's camera got wet.
I'm glad to hear you did manage to bring home some 'great' memories.

Can't wait to see your poster

I've replied to your pm and we'll be talking to you soon.

 

[DisneyLisa]

Sorry to hear your trip had so many bad moments but at least you were at WDW. Those bad memories will fade & you'll remember only the good things before too long. I had the trip from "you know" in the summer of 2002 and have forgotten all about it...I'm even taking the friend who caused all the "trouble" back to WDW with us in July.

Welcome home.

 

[hockey mom]

Thanks everyone. I did try to keep smiling. Even when our tire was flat at the end my reply was "of course it is" and kept smiling. I was considering cancelling our October trip but DH said we need to go back and do it right so I made a PS for LTT before MNSSHP.

Don't get me wrong we still had lots of great times and my sis just phoned to say thanks and they were amazed at how well I planned a vacation that catered to a group of 14 ages 4 to 40 something so that made me feel better.

Disneylisa I hope July goes better for you.

 

[sammi]

A BIG welcome home hockey mom! So sorry to hear of the troubled parts of your trip but I can see you still had the goodtimes too and they always outweigh the bad!

Start planning your next trip and spend lots of time looking at your photographs..........that always helps me.

 

[Snowwark]

Welcome home, hockey mom!

Oh, your poor DD...

Giving away your vouchers was a very nice thing to do!!

I'm glad you were able to keep smiling, despite the problems. I hope your October trip is smooth going, all the way!!

 

[MaMudduck]

Welcome home.....I have just the surprise to cheer you up. but I can't email until tomorrow. really I'm not trying to keep you in suspense. My email data base is out.

 

[bunnyfoo]

Welcome back hockey mom! Sorry to hear that some of your crew got sick ... DBF and I caught a cold on our last trip so we didn't get to do some of the things we wanted... Anyway, I'm glad you had some good moments on your trip despite some unfortunate incidents. Time to start planning for October! What day are you going to MNSSHP?

 

[wenabre]

Welcome home HockeyMom,
Sorry your trip didn't turn out as great as you had hoped but if you keep remembering the joy on Logan's face, it will bring you back to your own good times. Last year I was sick at WDW for a couple of days before our cruise ( medication reaction) and I felt bad as we were bringing my step-DD for the first time, so I didn't get to do some of the things I wanted to do together. My step-DD said that she was so happy to do any of it ( first visit-age 29) and that was what she would focus on, what she had done, not what she had missed. It sounds like you have a nice big family to share good times with ( almost like a Disney commercial ) and I agree with your Husband...I bet there are some real great times up ahead for you.

Wenabre
PS I only organize for three or four of us when we go, I am so impressed that you do the organizing for as many as you do !!

 

[hockey mom]

Thanks for the welcome homes everyone.

Sammi- i did just that. Got the one hour photo and put them in the album. It was nice to see what I missed on my sick day.

Snowark I took Delswife's advice and when I handed them over I said "have a Disney Day" the look on their faces was great.

Wendy- looking forward to an e-mail.

Bunnyfoo- we are going Oct. 8th. Do you plan on attending a party?

Wenabre- you know exactly how I feel then. I didn't want to do the rides for myself but to see the look on their faces. When they got back to the condo they were great at reliving it for me with still a ton of excitement.

 

[maryliz]

Welcome back! Sorry that the whole trip wasn't as magical as some of the parts. You will only remember the really good stuff in years to come. It's just so sad when someone (or a whole group ) get sick in WDW. My SIL was soooo sick for 3 days in the hotel, and we were only there for 5 days ... it was her first and only trip to WDW She was only 23 at the time, so she knows she'll definitely have to go back again. I just felt so bad for her.

Hey, we ALL want to know what MaMadduck's surprise is ... keep us posted

Thanks for reminding us of "have a disney day" ... made me smile to think of you handing over those vouchers ... and to remember Delswife's DD doing the pressed penny thing for those kids

October is only a short way off ... but please don't wish it upon us too soon, I'd kind of like to at least have a summer this year.

Mary Liz

 

[bunnyfoo]

Originally posted by hockey mom
Bunnyfoo- we are going Oct. 8th. Do you plan on attending a party?

We're planning to go on Oct 3rd. I was sort of hoping they would have some weekday parties that week but what can ya do? Maybe we'll see each other down there anyway

 

[Baboo]

Welcome home! I'm sorry to hear that everything didn't go as well as you had hoped, but it's really hard when travelling with other people for everything to go perfectly. I'm glad that you still have some great memories, and are still planning on going in Oct. Looking forward to seeing the pics you did get!
So when's the next Peterborough meet?