Please help me. This trip has been a disaster since day 1. To start with, my mom paid entirely too much for a timeshare. Then she realized that she got the first week in January. Which would have been fine, I was excited about that. Except then we found out that my brothers girlfriend (who loves Disney but has never been to DW) could not get off work at all in January. So I suggested to my mom that we move the trip to late February or March so girlfriend could go along. Mom agrees, the more family on a family vacation, the better. Mom talks to DB and GF and they are super excited. Shortly after that, moms car is totalled. The insurance company gave her a really nice check but she still ended up with a car payment, therefore unable to pay next years maintenance fees and therefore unable to make reservations for a condo. In the interim, I decide that with 2 small children by myself, the autotrain is probably our best bet as far as transportation (since we will need a minivan down there anyhow). I'm a little nervous about it but overall, we (DD and I) are super super excited about that. I also decide that maybe we should go with Bonnet Creek instead of the home resort, mostly because the free shuttle option is at least available. I talk to mom who has heard great things about WBC and agrees that it would be great for us. So I keep an eye on availability and mom tentatively picks a week. While this is going on, I start trying to talk to my sister about the trip but she is not really receptive (she's moody to begin with). She is complaining that she can't afford it because she needs more money in her savings account. Then I find out that she has also been talking to my mom, saying she can't afford it, that she just wants to hang out by the pool with a book and that she will feel bad because my kids will want her to hang out with them. So she apparently told my mom that she is only planning on 2 days at the parks. Apparently, my mom is also only planning on 2 or 3 days at the parks. And my mom wants to take my kids to Sea World. My kids are too much for her to handle by herself so it looks like I'm going to Sea World.
Fast forward a bit, mom pays the maintenance fees but has not booked yet. I checked last night, WBC has no 2 bedrooms available for the entire month that we were looking at. The home resort has 2 bedrooms available, just not for the week my mom picked. She called me this morning to ask when the F&G festival starts so she can pick her week and call DB to make sure GF can get off that week. I just want to scream! I have a feeling that DB and GF will probably do the parks most days so they will be riding with us but since mom and sis want to do other things, it looks like we will end up renting a car down there anyhow. Oh, and mom has decided that she is riding down on the autotrain with us, since I was a little nervous, and she is also paying for everyones transportation there and back. So in addition for her paying for us to stay there, paying for us to get there, paying for my kiddos to go to Sea World, not even really going to the parks, now she is also missing an extra 2 days of work so I feel more comfortable taking care of my own children on the train. I don't want to say that it comes down to money but as a SAHM, that's the focus quite often in our house. I am scraping up pennies to do this trip, because it's really important to my mom and honestly, I do love DW but I'm becoming really aggravated at this point. Mom wants to do a family vacation every year and she bought the timeshare specifically to do DW vacations. I know a lot of people are going to say that maybe I should sit this one out, since it's not really in the budget, but my mom won't let that happen. She will instead just add our park tickets, food and souvenirs to what she is planning on paying for. Just tell me that once we pick and reserve a week and make travel arrangements, it will get better. People will actually be excited about a week in Florida and I will actually feel like at least deciding which parks on which days. Tell me that it will all fall into place and it will truly be the most magical place on earth. Please. Oh, and thanks for reading if you made it this far. DH doesn't want to hear about all the drama and is planning on going to work instead of vacationing with us this year.
Fast forward a bit, mom pays the maintenance fees but has not booked yet. I checked last night, WBC has no 2 bedrooms available for the entire month that we were looking at. The home resort has 2 bedrooms available, just not for the week my mom picked. She called me this morning to ask when the F&G festival starts so she can pick her week and call DB to make sure GF can get off that week. I just want to scream! I have a feeling that DB and GF will probably do the parks most days so they will be riding with us but since mom and sis want to do other things, it looks like we will end up renting a car down there anyhow. Oh, and mom has decided that she is riding down on the autotrain with us, since I was a little nervous, and she is also paying for everyones transportation there and back. So in addition for her paying for us to stay there, paying for us to get there, paying for my kiddos to go to Sea World, not even really going to the parks, now she is also missing an extra 2 days of work so I feel more comfortable taking care of my own children on the train. I don't want to say that it comes down to money but as a SAHM, that's the focus quite often in our house. I am scraping up pennies to do this trip, because it's really important to my mom and honestly, I do love DW but I'm becoming really aggravated at this point. Mom wants to do a family vacation every year and she bought the timeshare specifically to do DW vacations. I know a lot of people are going to say that maybe I should sit this one out, since it's not really in the budget, but my mom won't let that happen. She will instead just add our park tickets, food and souvenirs to what she is planning on paying for. Just tell me that once we pick and reserve a week and make travel arrangements, it will get better. People will actually be excited about a week in Florida and I will actually feel like at least deciding which parks on which days. Tell me that it will all fall into place and it will truly be the most magical place on earth. Please. Oh, and thanks for reading if you made it this far. DH doesn't want to hear about all the drama and is planning on going to work instead of vacationing with us this year.
