Ignoring the Basics -- a PTR to give you nightmares...

[Thats_for_Shore]

I've read my share of pre-trip reports. While every single one of them is different, they all have a common theme...to give others information about their upcoming vacation.

Some of the basic information included in a PTR:

1. The cast of characters.
2. The dates and location of the vacation.
3. An Itinerary (whether basic or planned-to-the-minute specific).
4. Dining plans or reservations.

Well, my planning obsessed friends, find a little brown paper bag, and get ready to hyperventilate.

Because my trip is two months away, and even I, planning extraordinare, cannot answer those basic questions.

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

The first bit of information people normally share is the cast.

Meet me, That's for Shore, 30 year old mom of two crazy children, wife to one obsessed duck hunter, and CFO - General Manager - Cheif of Foreign Relations - Payroll Administrator - and General-Go-To-Girl in our own seafood company. Yes, I'm crabby, and I'll take that as a compliment! (Ok, that probably may not have made sense to some of you, but it's ok, I promise...)

I KNOW I'll be on this trip. There is only one other cast member that I know FOR SHORE that will be going.

DH, 32 year old hubby of me. As pointed out before, obsessed duck hunter, currently in the midst of training two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers to fetch those poor defenseless little birds. One of these beautiful doggies is only 3 months old. So yes, he's a little unrealistic. He's also the delivery person for our seafood business, so his official title is Crustacean Transportation Specialist, and PITA.

We have two children, two beautifully crazy, hyper-active children. DS8 likes football, video games, and thinks he's 20. DS3 likes Animal Planet, and finding new ways to make messes.

Due to their food fight two days ago, I have revoked their Disney World privledges until they have kissed me, hugged me, sucked up to me, and cleaned their rooms sufficiently enough to have their names removed from the "Not Going" List.

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

Oh, the horror of not knowing who's accompanying you on your vacation...

And I mean that in two ways. "Two ways?," you're wondering? Let me explain...

My husband has a best friend that lives in another state. We're in Maryland, he's in Virginia. They both sell seafood to the Baltimore/Washington area, and they see each other all the time, and talk on the phone practically all day while their driving (HANDS FREE, PEOPLE!!).

Hubby's BFF just came back from a three day Orlando vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday. They had the weirdest trip ever (that's where no planning gets ya!), and are now talking about infaltrating OUR vacation. They stayed off property, visited MK one day, Sea World another, and Univeral one day. The places were crowded, the lines were long, and they did more driving than anything else. They want a do-over, and are talking about joining us.

So this leaves me not knowing whether they're coming or not.

Also, to add to this little abnormality, I have only met this man once, very briefly, although I talk to him on the phone at least once a week. His family? I don't know a thing about them, except he has a wife and three children, with ages close to our own children.

How, oh how, I ask all you planning experts, how do you plan a vacation when you don't know how many people you're planning for nor do you know any likes/dislikes of the people you're possibly vacationing with?

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

DH and I took longer to decide where and when we'll be staying than anyone would think it was humanly possible.

May. In May of 2007, we decided we were going back to WDW. It took us until Mid-November to decide when we'd go, and where we'd be staying.

This was difficult because I am a "I don't care where or when as long as we're going" type of person. DH is a "I'm very busy, let me clear my schedule, particular about where we're staying" type of person. So I left it up to him. Which was a mistake, but more about that later.

I pinned him down to the computer one late night, and typed in www.disneyworld.com and forced him to pick a hotel. He reviewed each hotel, and finally narrowed it down to two.

Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge. But he still was unable to make up his mind. I was going crazy, waiting for a decision, and DH decides to call WDW and ask for their advice!! "I want to make a reservation, but I'm not sure where I want to stay." Can you imagine the CM rolling their eyes on the other end of the line?

Fortunately enough, we had a very nice CM, who gaves the pros and cons of each resort (they have cons?!?!). Eventually, DH booked AKL for February 4 - 9.

Finally, I thought. Finally, we know what we're doing and where we're staying.

Or do we?

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

That's when my mild Disney obsession turned into a full blown Disney Fever. That's when I found the DIS. I also found a promotional code for the Disney Visa Rewards cardholders. Here I am, thinking I'm doing something good, when in reality, I was only giving myself a headache.

I called with my promo code, wanting to put it on my ressie. Sorry, the CM tells me, we have no more rooms available for that code in AKL. Aww, shucks. But, were there any other places we were interested in staying, because she would look it up to see if they had rooms available. Sure, I said, hubby wanted to stay at WL too! And guess what! They can book me in WL instead and save me over $650! I'm thinking this is great!

So I have the CM on one phone and hubby on the other. Hubby is grumpy and irritated that I want to change his ressie!! Ok, Mr. Control-freak, I'll leave your ressie alone.

Nothing like a promo code and a savings of $650 to create a little marital tension, huh? Hubby later explained that its the giraffes. It's all about the giraffes. LOL @ his giraffe obsession, but whatever floats his boat.

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

Now that we have our ressie intact for us and our DS's...hubby's BFF is talking about joining us...so what does that mean?

I'm not even sure myself!

Should we keep our ressies and let them worry about finding their own hotel and stuff, or should we get a place together? I stayed in one of those vacation homes before, and I have to admit that it was very nice. It would actually save us tons of money by renting a vacation home with them, but I have no idea what to do because they're still in the "should we stay or should we go?" process!

At this point, I'm just going to let them figure it out for themselves instead of worrying about it. Unless they come up with the "let's get a place" together idea, I'm just going to keep everything the way it is.