Welcome! I am excited to get started on this trip report! If you came over from my PTR, you will already know the background that I am about to give, but I thought I should include a crash course for those who weren't.
Making this trip happen was insane. First, we weren't going to go to Disney this December to celebrate my birthday like we normally do because my dad suggested that for my 20th birthday this year, we finally go to Harry Potter World! Well, I have some extensive health problems which cause severe chronic pain and long story short, we decided to take a rain check on HP because I knew it would be the only time we go for a long time and I wanted to make sure I could fully enjoy it.
At that point my mom and I started talking about doing a couple of days at WDW. We are lucky enough to live 2 hours away and be passholders so it is a lot less stress than taking on a new park. We were considering it but then Disney announced it was the last year of the Osbourne lights and we decided we HAD to go.
Well....at that point I couldn't get any sort of deal on a room at a value resort and I really just didn't want to pay more than that. Money had been tighter than before (still perfectly fine) because the company my dad worked for had been awful to him and in that, took away 2 days a week from him which cut our income by 40%. (Moment to say something about my dads job. He is a chiropractor. Last August he closed his private practice to run two clinics for this big company. It was nice because it was a steady pay check and didn't depend on his patients having enough money to come in and see him. He soon found out that the people that run the company are truly awful people that didn't care about anyone. They gave his one office away to a new doctor without even bothering to tell him until the day he got there and another doctor had moved in. He was livid but couldn't really say much because he had closed his office for this job, he needed to keep it even if they had just taken 40% of his income. I'm telling you this now because it matters to the story later. He also was doing a great job. When he took over the office it was averaging 6 patients a day, 2 days a week. He got it up to averaging over 30 patients a day, 3 days a week and they were all thrilled with him.)
Enough about that for the moment.
2 weeks before this trip happened, I was on the Disney site doing research for a book I am working on and decided to check hotels for the heck of it. BAM. There it was. A discounted rate at All Star Movies for December 1-3. I booked it right away! My mom got the days off and we were so excited! The planning went really easy and it was shaping up to be a great trip. It has been a really hard year for my family. We had been though a lot and I had already had to cancel 2 trips this year because of my health which is really hard because Disney is my happy. My parents were really happy that I was finally getting a trip to my happy place.
Then on Black Friday, 4 days before the trip, my family took quite a hit. Out of nowhere, with literally no warning or cause, my dad lost his job. They told him at 7pm on Friday that Monday a new doctor was starting. No time for him to find a new job, no severance pay. Nothing. They wouldn't even give him a reason. We know that's because there wasn't one. We found out a few days later that the doctor that they had given his other office to back in March (who is friends with the boss) was given his other office now.
Right away I tried to cancel the trip, but my dad wouldn't have it. He said he would be so much more upset if I cancel. It was too late to cancel the hotel anyway. I came home and canceled all of my ADRs except lunch at Be Our Guest. I was determined to make it cost as little as possible. Honestly, I still felt so guilty about going.
Then my mom came up with an idea. She suggested that my dad and I go. My dad hadn't been to Disney at all in 4 years and hadn't been to a park other than MK in 8. She also could work those days and then we would still be making money. After a discussion, we decided to go for it!
We did end up switching to one night instead of two to cut costs.
As a disney addict, I was really excited to be able to share this with my dad and he was excited to go and have some fun and get away from the stress, even if it was only for 2 days.
I'm sorry that this post was kind of sad and not as fun, but I felt it needed the background info before we could get into the good stuff!
Next up: OFF TO THE WORLD WE GO!!!
