It was one disaster after another, but we still loved our Disney vacation!

[mom2meiko]

Hello! I don't know if I will complete this, or if anyone is even interested in reading it, but I'm doing this as a sort of journal for myself and my family.

Our trip was from 1/9 - 1/17. Travelers in my family included myself (Mel, 35), dh (Dave, 37), dd (Cora, 2.5), ds (Jax 6 months). We were joined by our bff's Kim & Jay and their ds Matt (9) and dd Emma (4).

Myself, dh and Kim are all disney nuts! Jay humors us and comes along for the ride although honestly he's a homebody who would love a vacation that involved just staying home. Matt is my godson and is a very sweet and bright but demanding young man. Emma and Cora are such good friends - they are constantly yelling and screeching with joy when they are together. Jax is our little man - he's struggled with tummy issues since he was born but is finally under control with very expensive prescription formula and medicine.

Here are the basics:

• We flew JetBlue from Logan.
• We stayed at AKL - Kidani Village in a 2BR standard view.
• We nearly cancelled the trip many times in the last 6 months, probably should have, but went anyway and had an amazing time despite the many disasters we faced.
• I have mobility issues due to 2 herniated disks, degenerative disk disease and arthritis in my spine which means I depend heavily on dh - all the time.

 

[mom2meiko]

In the months leading up to the trip we encountered some unexpected (by me) financial issues that prompted me to want to cancel the trip. Luckily, those issues were resolved although more issues were encountered. Sadly, in November dh was laid off from his job of 14+ years. Luckily, he got a new job very quickly (his last day was on a Fri, he rec'd a verbal job offer on the following Mon). We were concerned that his new job may not allow him to go on vacation since he was starting on 1/4 and we were leaving on 1/9 but they were OK with it (not thrilled). He had to take it unpaid though which stinks.

We made it through Xmas and New Years and then the poop really hit the fan.

Over NY's weekend I discovered a cavity on dd's tooth! Not the end of the world I know but she is only 2.5 years and it horrifies me still! I began the search for a pediatric dentist who would hopefully be able to fill the cavity using laser technology rather than the old fashioned needle and drill. I found one and had to get an emergency appt before the trip. She was a trooper although they found 2 cavities and will have several appts now that we have returned for a cleaning and a repair.

On 1/4 dh started his new job. This same day, my aunt (who has only us for family) suffered a stroke and entered the hospital. I had to take unexpected vacation days from work during that week to take care of the kids (we were between childcare programs, my dad was scheduled to watch them but had to spend his time at the hospital with my aunt). I stayed home with the kids each day but wasn't able to accomplish much in terms of packing since they are both so young and need so much constant attention. Each night, dh would come home from his new job and send me out the door to visit my aunt in the hospital until visiting hours ended. Then, home and a quick late bite for dinner before collapsing exhausted into bed.

During all of this time we are also trying to find a new person to watch our dog since my aunt had planned to stay at our house and take care of him for us while we were gone. The only person who would do it was my mother who lives 2+ hours away. So - Dave (aka Poor Dave) had to drive all the way up to NH to drop off the dog, which meant another night of getting nothing done.

And the biggest kicker of all... I get a phone call on 1/7 from my boss's boss. I am being laid off, so sorry for the timing but can you please come in and clean our your offices tomorrow? (The day before my trip, when I was planning on spending the day packing and don't have a babysitter available no less!) Ugh!! Are you kidding me??? So you can see that my last day home was useless in terms of getting ready for the trip... So frustrating!!!

Oh - and let's just add in the fact that dh has been asked to work late the night before our trip. At this point, the frustration level is beyond high and I am completely freaking out. There is no way we are going to be ready on time for this trip - it's just impossible!

 

[mom2meiko]

So - when I left off we had survived disaster but have nothing packed and no time left to get ready for this trip... I have to insert here that my dh is a saint! He absolutely rocks and keeps me grounded when I reach my limit and begin to freak out completely.

So - it is now Saturday morning. We need to leave by 1 PM and we have next to nothing packed, the house is beyond a disaster, and I'm a walking stress-ball! Thankfully, dh did the and began packing the clothes while I worked on figuring out what we would need for beyond the obvious. (When I was laid off, I had to turn in my laptop which had all of our trip details on it. I was working from memory and I'll be honest and say that it's pretty non-existent since my 2 babies were born.)

Anyway - we managed to finish packing by the very skin of our teeth and we rushed off to the my bil's house. He is going to drive us to the airport (lives 15 mins away) and use our car for the week.

(Here are a few pics from the car trip to the airport...

Dave rushing down the highway:

Cora (losing her hat) riding in the car:

We get to the airport, find our bff's pretty quickly. They are hanging pre-security having snacks, etc.

Jay (saying hi to Cora and Jax) & Dave greeting at the airport:

Kim, Matt & Emma:

Our kids:

Cora gets her first view of a plane (not ours though):

I'm a nervous nelly when it comes to getting through security, changing the kids diapers, etc and having time to preboard so we said a quick hi and goodbye and went on our way to security.

At security, it was a nightmare. We unloaded all of our many things onto the belt (in the family friendly lane) and I walk through with dd and ds. dh is standing there trying to figure out what to do with the stroller when a (crabby and rude) tsa guy comes over and drags him to a completely different screening area because the stroller won't fit in the machine there. (can someone please explain why they have a "family lane" if it can't actually accommodate families and their equipment? i'm sure we are not the only people in the world traveling with a double stroller! it's not even a big one!)

anyway - dh is now out of sight and i am left standing at the end of the belt with all of our bins piling up and getting in the way of other travelers with a baby in my arms and a nervous 2 year old clinging to my leg! i tried in vain to begin stacking the bins to make as much room as possible for the other travelers but it was impossible to do one handed. 2 very nice tsa agents came over, i explained my situation and they helped me carry all of the bins to a nearby bench where i sat until dh finally reappeared. we quickly put everything back together, shoes on, kids in stroller, bags on bags and shoulders and continued on our way.

we stopped at starbucks quickly for coffee for us and fruit for cora (desperately needed at this point - we haven't eaten yet today) and then continued to the gate. i suggested getting food at this point and taking it with us but dh insisted it would be easiest to go and find a spot at the gate and then have one of us go back to get food. i then suggested we stop at the family changing room to change the kids but again dh just wanted to get to the gate and then we could go back one at a time to change the kids. i'm seeing disaster ahead but foolishly agree... can you see where this is going???

dh goes back to get food and i'm left sitting with the kids at the gate.

dh finally gets back and they call for preboarding! we haven't even had a chance to change the kids yet! so we move on our way and begin preboarding - and hope that our friends don't miss the plane since they are still no where to be found....

have to stop here - a very impatient 6 month old wants his bottle... sorry!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Yikes!

If anyone needed a vacation it was you!

Hope the vacation is less stressful than the getting ready for it.

 

[mom2meiko]

when i last left off, we were about to begin pre-boarding and our friends were no where in sight.

we headed down the jetway and upon reaching the end we begin gather bags and kids from the stroller to fold it up and begin boarding. dh decides to walk ahead with a couple of bags with the intention of coming back to help me with the kids, fold the stroller, etc. unfortunately, we discover (after he is on the plane) that once you have stepped foot on the plane, you may not leave. who knew? so now i am stuck with two kids, several bags and an unfolded stroller... so i hand him a couple of bags and he heads back down with the intention of coming back up. at this point, the flight attendant offers to hold the baby so i can fold the stroller and get on the plane. i hand her the baby and next thing i know regular boarding has begun! all of these passengers have formed a line to get on the plane and i can't get back to my baby!

A pic of the flight attendant holding Jax:

dave is now incapable of coming back to the front so i have to load up the bags, direct cora, cut through the line of passengers, get my baby and work my way to our seats. luckily, our fellow passengers were all tolerant and we managed without too much difficulty. unfortunately, we are now trying to setup cora's CARES harness with all of the other people around and we just barely managed to get setup and settled before take off. phew! meanwhile, none of us had a chance to use the restroom or change diapers before this point. not exactly the best start to our trip, but we are taking off and finally on our way to our happy place!

Here are a few pics from the flight:

Cora stealing her fathers burger:

Emma coloring:

Matt & Jay:

Dave & Jax:

The flight was relatively uneventful although Cora never did get the nap that I was hoping she would have. She was reasonably well behaved for a 2 year old though so I count that as a win. We landed in Orlando, waited for everyone else to get off the plane and then we finally worked our way into the airport. First item on our agenda was a bathroom break along with diaper changes for the kids - finally!

When we exited the changing area Dave grabbed most of the bags while I pushed the kids in the stroller. It was at this point that Dave said to me "Why is the laptop bag so light? Is my laptop in here?" I of course replied that it was in there, the bag was certainly not light, where else would it be? (I never did get a chance to use it on the plane.)

Well, dh started digging through the bag and discovered the laptop was indeed missing!!! We quickly thought back through our trip so far and realized that it must have been lost during the hassles we went through at security at Logan. He is now furious with me (because he had nothing to do with it? ) and the tone of our trip is quickly changing.. i do my best to reassure him that it will turn up somewhere (while deep down i know it's lost forever) and explain there is not much we can do about it now, let's just keep moving and we will deal with it later...

here are some pics from the airport:

You will see a lot of pics of Cora holding Kim's hand. She loves to be with her Auntie Kimmie and her friend Emma and stays with them at every opportunity.

 

[mom2meiko]

We continued to work our way through the airport to our ME bus! We got a stinky yellow Mears bus but that was OK. Unfortunately, we were a bit delayed in getting going because a little guy a few rows up from us threw up all over himself, his seat and the aisle. Luckily we were back far enough to not start being sick ourselves but other people had to quickly move back near us to escape the smell. Ugh. I felt bad for the poor little guy though - he was probably around a year and just wasn't handling the traveling well I suppose.

 

[disneylovin24]

The kids are so cute

You really needed a vacation after all of that

 

[mom2meiko]

Yikes!

If anyone needed a vacation it was you!

Hope the vacation is less stressful than the getting ready for it.

The kids are so cute

You really needed a vacation after all of that

thanks to both of you. we definitely did need the vacation although sadly that too was filled with occasional issues. 2010 has been a challenge for us but it will be over soon, right?

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Wow, what a start to your trip! I feel like I am watching 2012 all over again.

I hope you take this the right way but I am in. I love a good disaster.

PS I am so sorry to hear about your job. That part isn't funny. I hope everything works out.

 

[hedgehog2owl]

here!

 

[goofy's_gurl]

doesnt sound like a good start off to a trip. i hope it gets better

 

[mom2meiko]

As I mentioned, our bus ride started with a sick little boy a few rows up ahead of us. We eventually left the airport at which time our darling Jackson decided that he was hungry - again! (He has had tummy issues since birth and clearly this traveling thing wasn't going well with him.) Well, we had just given him a bottle and hadn't anticipated this and found that all of the formula was UNDER the bus! Lovely! So we now have a screaming hungry 6 month old on the bus (disturbing all of the other poor passengers) with no way to help him! I eventually did the one thing I always swore I would never do - I gave my baby a bottle of plain old water just to calm him down! I'm still riddled with guilt because of the total lack of nutrition but it was a case of desperate times = desperate measures.

The water did the trick and he quieted down for the remainder of the nearly hour long ride. There were 5 stops for our bus and of course we were stop #5!

We finally arrived! We took some pics outside and in the lobby but unfortunately they didn't come out well so I won't be sharing those. I had done the online check in from home so it was a relatively quick and easy check in. We were given our keys and then asked if we had a car! I looked at him and asked if we would need one to get to our room (fearing the distance because of my mobility issues) and he quickly reassured me I would not need one. Phew!

So - we worked our way down the hall and found our room - right next to the doors leading to the bus stop.

Some pics:

Tired kids by our door:

The 3rd bathroom:

Dining table:

You'll never guess... the couch!:

Living room TV:

Kitchen:

Master bedroom:

Unfortunately, these are the only pics that we took for some reason. Dh is normally much better about taking pics of the entire room so I assumed he had done so again this time. Sorry!

 

[goofy's_gurl]

the room looks faboulous!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I was afraid you were going to say you feed the baby soda pop or something like that. Water is really not so bad.

We got a mears bus both ways one trip and it did suck some of the magic out of it.

Yikes about the laptop!

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Those are wonderful pictures of your room. It looks like a wonderful place to stay.

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

Wow, you poor thing! It sounds like this trip was doomed from the start! I hope it gets better and you guys did actually have a great time. Looking forward to watching the rest.

 

[praisehisname]

Joining in; can't wait to hear more!

Denise

 

[Christine9125]

I am in, you sound like you have about much luck as I do. I hope things got better for you

 

[kimbo0569]

Oh no! What a horrible start to the trip! I'm reading on...

 

[quest4dl]

You've roped me in! Looking forward to the next installment!