QuickGold
Studios Superman
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2002
- Messages
- 3,187
It's funny how some trips to Walt Disney World get planned. And it seems the last few of mine never seem to be planned the way they should be.....in advance with months and months to compare and critique. And of course, this is no different. This trip actually began in....Jamaica. Okay, well not really. The idea was for Thanksgiving the whole family (or at least those we could stand to be with on vacation) would go on a big blow-out vacation in honor of my little sister's Bat Mitzvah. If you know anything about Bar/Bat-Mitzvah's, they're usually these grand, over-priced parties that create giant headaches to plan. My parents, having done the whole bar/bat-mitzvah thing twice before with me and my other sister, offered my youngest sister the option to forgoe the giant party and instead, take a really nice vacation. After re-assuring her that she would still get all the gifts that she would usually get and telling her all the bar-mitzvah horror stories I could think of, she agreed to the vacation idea. So the vacation was set; We were going to....Jamaica!
So fast forward to earlier this week; It was a Monday(or maybe a Tuesday...I forget) and I was at work, slaving away at my desk(otherwise known as checking Disney World message boards with Mouseworld playing in the background) when my mom called me to tell me that the airline we were taking to Jamaica called to tell us that our flight had been changed(don't recall the reason and don't care) and that we would have to stop at one part of Jamaica and then board a dinky plane(I don't think Jamaica Air used the adjective 'dinky' but you get the idea) to get to the part of the island where our resort was. My mother can barely get herself onto one plane, let alone two so she said she refused to do that. Myself, a recently born-again-fearful-flyer, was not going to do that either and voiced my opinion that I would not want to go and then my father chimed in that he did not want to, although I think he was more against spending money than the plane problem.
So after reaching a consensus that we would not be going to Jamaica, (and thoroughly ticking off my middle sister by canceling Jamaica) we had to come up with where to go. Since the vacation was for my Naomi (my youngest sister), she had the opportunity to say where she wanted to go. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Soviet Commissars have nothing on me when it comes to spreading propaganda (especially the Disney variety), but I swear that I had nothing to do with influencing Naomi into making her decision. She said she wanted to go on a Disney cruise. We'd never been on a cruise before, let alone the Disney Cruise Line, so this was exciting. My middle sister was still mad because she wanted a vacation where she could lay on the beach for 12 hours a day and bake herself stupid, but I'm sure as time goes on, she'll come to see things our way. Any who, we had to start planning this thing and make reservations because now it was less than two months away and we wanted to go during Thanksgiving!
Of course, the hardest part of any vacation our family decides is transportation. On the one hand, you have the "terror twins", consisting of myself and my mom, the "Ill-fly-on-anything-with-wings-to-get-me-somewhere-hot club", of my middle sister and my dad and then there's Naomi, who is a prime example of how peer pressure can make people do anything. After careful negotiations that would make the United Nations Security Council cringe, we hammered out a deal. My mom and dad would drive down from Connecticut to Port Canaveral, thus appeasing my mom's fear of flying and my dad's desire to save money by driving. Meanwhile, me and my sisters would fly down to WDW a day early, spend a day at WDW, take Disney cruise bus to Port Canaveral, meet my parents, cruise, then go back to WDW for a day and then fly home, thus appeasing......me!
With that set, I would take care of planning of the WDW aspect of the trip while my mom would handle the cruise. Now, being the "Disney Nazi" of the family, I wanted to make sure we'd be going one way or the other so I booked something off the bat that could not be cancelled....air fare! I wanted to fly out of Hartford, CT so basically my options were Southwest or Song. I opted for Song because I have frequent flier miles with Delta and booked the trip online. I had to book the flight going to Orlando separate from the return flight because on the way back, my middle sister would drive home with my parents so she could be dropped off at her college in Washington. Well I guess the smile I had on my face from ear to ear was interfering with my basic brain functions because when I went to check my email after booking the flights, I realized I had booked one of the flights for the wrong month!
I quickly called Delta up, waited for an hour on hold, then explained my situation to them, gave them a sob story about why I needed this to be rebooked and they went ahead and cancelled the incorrect flight for a full refund and then re-booked me on the correct day.
Now it was time to book our hotel at WDW. I figured we'd be staying at a $20 per night place since our time in Orlando would be quite limited. However, my mom told me we could spend more (god bless parents and their seemingly endless supply of money!) and after telling her it would make sense to stay on Disney property, as to make catching the cruise line bus easier, she agreed to let us stay onsite. Now, I've never stayed onsite before. I think it's written somewhere in our family bi-laws that we shall never stay onsite. At any rate, I managed to <strike>con</strike> persuade my mom into allowing us to stay at Port Orleans: French Quarter for the first night at WDW and Port Orleans: Riverside for the last night (I chose those moderate hotels because the cruise line bus stops at those resorts). With the extra two days in WDW, I can spend time in the parks in addition to cruising. My mother will be booking the cruise reservations on Monday and I am on my way to my first Disney Cruise Line and onsite WDW vacation ever! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to try to staple my feet to the ground and knock the grin off my face so I can resume thinking about things other than Disney.
Things I Learned
- Pay attention to the dates your booking, otherwise you feel like the world's dumbest person.
- Calling the WDW reservation number to book a trip is one of those numbers you would never want to put on your speed dial; it's far more rewarding to hit each number manually and savor the flavor.
- Nothing, and I mean nothing, makes me happier than booking a Disney vacation.
So fast forward to earlier this week; It was a Monday(or maybe a Tuesday...I forget) and I was at work, slaving away at my desk(otherwise known as checking Disney World message boards with Mouseworld playing in the background) when my mom called me to tell me that the airline we were taking to Jamaica called to tell us that our flight had been changed(don't recall the reason and don't care) and that we would have to stop at one part of Jamaica and then board a dinky plane(I don't think Jamaica Air used the adjective 'dinky' but you get the idea) to get to the part of the island where our resort was. My mother can barely get herself onto one plane, let alone two so she said she refused to do that. Myself, a recently born-again-fearful-flyer, was not going to do that either and voiced my opinion that I would not want to go and then my father chimed in that he did not want to, although I think he was more against spending money than the plane problem.
So after reaching a consensus that we would not be going to Jamaica, (and thoroughly ticking off my middle sister by canceling Jamaica) we had to come up with where to go. Since the vacation was for my Naomi (my youngest sister), she had the opportunity to say where she wanted to go. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Soviet Commissars have nothing on me when it comes to spreading propaganda (especially the Disney variety), but I swear that I had nothing to do with influencing Naomi into making her decision. She said she wanted to go on a Disney cruise. We'd never been on a cruise before, let alone the Disney Cruise Line, so this was exciting. My middle sister was still mad because she wanted a vacation where she could lay on the beach for 12 hours a day and bake herself stupid, but I'm sure as time goes on, she'll come to see things our way. Any who, we had to start planning this thing and make reservations because now it was less than two months away and we wanted to go during Thanksgiving!
Of course, the hardest part of any vacation our family decides is transportation. On the one hand, you have the "terror twins", consisting of myself and my mom, the "Ill-fly-on-anything-with-wings-to-get-me-somewhere-hot club", of my middle sister and my dad and then there's Naomi, who is a prime example of how peer pressure can make people do anything. After careful negotiations that would make the United Nations Security Council cringe, we hammered out a deal. My mom and dad would drive down from Connecticut to Port Canaveral, thus appeasing my mom's fear of flying and my dad's desire to save money by driving. Meanwhile, me and my sisters would fly down to WDW a day early, spend a day at WDW, take Disney cruise bus to Port Canaveral, meet my parents, cruise, then go back to WDW for a day and then fly home, thus appeasing......me!
With that set, I would take care of planning of the WDW aspect of the trip while my mom would handle the cruise. Now, being the "Disney Nazi" of the family, I wanted to make sure we'd be going one way or the other so I booked something off the bat that could not be cancelled....air fare! I wanted to fly out of Hartford, CT so basically my options were Southwest or Song. I opted for Song because I have frequent flier miles with Delta and booked the trip online. I had to book the flight going to Orlando separate from the return flight because on the way back, my middle sister would drive home with my parents so she could be dropped off at her college in Washington. Well I guess the smile I had on my face from ear to ear was interfering with my basic brain functions because when I went to check my email after booking the flights, I realized I had booked one of the flights for the wrong month!
I quickly called Delta up, waited for an hour on hold, then explained my situation to them, gave them a sob story about why I needed this to be rebooked and they went ahead and cancelled the incorrect flight for a full refund and then re-booked me on the correct day. Now it was time to book our hotel at WDW. I figured we'd be staying at a $20 per night place since our time in Orlando would be quite limited. However, my mom told me we could spend more (god bless parents and their seemingly endless supply of money!) and after telling her it would make sense to stay on Disney property, as to make catching the cruise line bus easier, she agreed to let us stay onsite. Now, I've never stayed onsite before. I think it's written somewhere in our family bi-laws that we shall never stay onsite. At any rate, I managed to <strike>con</strike> persuade my mom into allowing us to stay at Port Orleans: French Quarter for the first night at WDW and Port Orleans: Riverside for the last night (I chose those moderate hotels because the cruise line bus stops at those resorts). With the extra two days in WDW, I can spend time in the parks in addition to cruising. My mother will be booking the cruise reservations on Monday and I am on my way to my first Disney Cruise Line and onsite WDW vacation ever! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to try to staple my feet to the ground and knock the grin off my face so I can resume thinking about things other than Disney.
Things I Learned
- Pay attention to the dates your booking, otherwise you feel like the world's dumbest person.
- Calling the WDW reservation number to book a trip is one of those numbers you would never want to put on your speed dial; it's far more rewarding to hit each number manually and savor the flavor.
- Nothing, and I mean nothing, makes me happier than booking a Disney vacation.
Trip Report to read - can't wait! You are going to have a great time, enjoy! 
