I tend to put a lot of undue pressure on myself. Part of it is just the way I am but I think this time it's due to my last trip. It was awful. It's kind of a long story but I'll shorten it where I can.
November 2001 a friend of a friend (Clue #1) offered us a really great deal on a Christmas trip to Disney. Matter of fact, it sounded to good to be true (Clue #2). My friend kept assuring me that her friend was on the up and up. My friend also invited my cousin's family and we were set to leave on December 26, drive 2 days, spend December 28, 29 and 30 in the parks, leave December 31 for home, finally arriving home on January 1. It ended up that my DH and my cousin couldn't get time off work but my DH said to go and take our 2DS and my cousin told his wife to go and take their 2DD. So we started making the plans and told all the kids.
December 22 my cousin's wife calls to tell me that the friend of our mutual friend wasn't on the up and up and had dissapeared. We hadn't paid him any money yet so at least we lucked out there. But we had told our kids and they were excited. Our mutual friend and their family opted not to go. My cousin's DW & I decided we'd still go and just max out our credit cards rather than dissapoint our kids.
Lots of things had to be re-planned and that was all on me. Let me just say, it's really hard, not impossible though, to find rooms at Christmas time.
I had never traveled with my cousin's DW before and I never will again. She complains that they never go out and I see why. She is so self-centered. She yelled at a CM, a guy in a
scooter and 2 security guards, took food from the buffett each morning so she wouldn't have to stop or pay for lunch ... there's more but I think you get the picture. I ended up in tears the first day, called my DH and wanted so much to just fly home.
When we did get home I begged for a whole month to please say that we (our family of 4) could go back early December 2002 so I could have a good memory of Disney. Well, that trip now includes 6 of us as we are taking his 2DS from his first marriage who have never been. So it's my DH, me, and 4DS -- ages 20, 17, 7 and 3 years. All the planning is on me since my DH thinks you can just go and not have a basic plan. Plus, we have never ever all 6 been on vacation together.
I know we'll have a good time -- everybody has been so kind with all my questions and ramblings here on the boards that I don't see how much of anything could really go wrong -- but if it should I'll feel like I failed.
Disnee Dad -- I can't say a bad day at Disney is better than a good day at work. I'm a SAHM. However, I can say a bad day at Disney is better than a day spent scrubbing the toilet!
Thanks again for setting me straight, all your help, advice ... I'm back to being excited again!!
