Ben works from home, but he travels pretty often for his job. He was in California a couple of weeks ago, and while there learned that he might have to attend a trade show in Jacksonville, just a couple of days after our WDW trip. His company pays for his travel expenses on these work trips, so Ben's immediate reaction was to calculate how much money we could save by canceling his flight to Orlando and re-booking it through work. (Because they'd have to fly him to/from Florida regardless, it doesn't make much difference to them if the flight out is a week earlier than the trade show for our trip)
That's about $300 we get back!
Shortly after this, it dawned on Ben (and truthfully- I had thought of this almost immediately after I heard the words 'Jacksonville' and 'couple days after Disney') that since he didn't have to be anywhere till Tuesday morning, we may as well stay in Disney one more night, and he could drive to Jacksonville Monday after I head to the airport. An extra day? Sweet!
But the problem was that we still weren't 100% sure that Ben was going to this show. He was waiting for the final confirmation from his boss before we could change our bookings around.
The word finally came late Thursday that he was definitely going to the trade show, but it was too late for us to call DVC member services to see about availability for the night of 5/8. We didn't want to get too excited- what if there were no studios available at all?
As it turned out, there weren't many! Kidani had nothing at all, so we couldn't just extend our stay. Saratoga Springs had a studio for the entire length of our trip, and Old Key West had just one studio available for that one night only. After calling me a few times at work, we settled on a plan and Ben had everything switched.
So what's changed?
Well... Sunday 5/8 was our departure day. But now, we will get up early and check out of Kidani. We'll still head to DHS as planned, but instead of heading back for ME to pick us up, we'll leave the park at lunch time to check in to Old Key West! I have never been here, and know pretty much nothing about it (you hardly ever see trip reports about stays here, now that I think about it...)
After check in, we'll have lunch at Olivia's Cafe at OKW. We figure that since we'll only be at OKW a very short time, we should at least attempt to check it out while we are there! The menu looks pretty good- lots of sandwich type stuff. Not to mention some delicious sounding cocktails:
Turtle Krawl - coconut rum, spiced rum, and white rum, with pineapple, orange, and key lime juices
Sultry Seahorse - Amaretto, Créme de Banana, pineapple juice, orange juice, and a float of Cherry Brandy
Since I can't decided between those, I may just have to have a very fun lunch
We also want to spend some time at the pool, and relax a bit. Later on we may head back to DHS, but then again we might not. This is a bonus night. after all!
Monday 5/9 is our new departure day. We'll go to a park in the morning, but I don't know which one. My flight leaves MCO at 7:40, so ME will probably pick up at 4pm (WHY?). Ben will head over to the airport with me, and when I get on a plane, he will pick up a rental car and drive to Jacksonville. He won't be home till Friday.
So, there you have it- we are getting
really good at extending this trip. The funny thing is, that I still don't feel like we have enough time for everything. With the tours, and the water parks, and wanting to explore our resorts... even the 8.5 days have quickly filled up!
Free disney money is free... so I thought why not. Now we have two dv's though... 
Bet you can't wait to be there already
