THE FINISHED AT LAST TRIP REPORT - THE PREQUEL: Replaced by an Alien

Poohshoney

<font color=6666CC>Ya-ya sister!<br><font color=gr
Joined
Dec 12, 2001
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THE PREQUEL: Replaced by an Alien


The Cast:
Roland (37, German) – World’s best husband.
Carol (42, British) – Trying to live up to him.

AKA: What was Disney thinking of? Were they trying to drive me nuts?

We weren’t going to go to WDW in 2003. Well we were at first, we were going to use our APs before they expired, but then the AP rates weren’t as good as we’d hoped and we decided the bank balance wouldn’t like it. I was very good. I was heartbroken but stoic. And stoic ain’t easy. We thought seriously about going to Disneyland Paris – till I realised Roland wasn’t prepared to do Disney three years in a row shock, horror! Now DLP is cute, but it ain’t DisneyWorld, sooo… In the end, we decided that Roland would choose where to go in 2003 and it’d be my turn in 2004. (To a theme park in Florida? I hear you asking. You know me so well!)

So where to go? We thought we’d try a package holiday for a change; we’d never done one of those. We didn’t half get a shock – they’re dear! Roland kept saying how it wasn’t much cheaper than Disney. I agreed. And they didn’t offer as much for your money as Disney did. I agreed. And how it probably wasn’t as safe to walk round in the evenings as at Disney. I agreed to that too but very reluctantly - I hadn’t thought about that and it was scary! But in the end, we decided on a nice hotel in Gran Canaria. Looked dead swish and wouldn’t break the bank too badly. We got up nice and early one Saturday morning to go and book. About halfway there, Roland said, “So, shall we go and book it then?” Seeing as that was the only reason we were in the car, I was a mite confused. Not for long though, I soon realised that was hubby-speak for `I've changed my mind´. You can guess the rest, can’t you?! I swear on my beloved Mickey and Moose beanie boys’ hearts, I didn’t say a thing to sway him. But me and my beanies did do a dance of joy round the room when I told them!

We decided on November/December. It’d give us time to save, it would have all the Christmas things we hadn’t seen yet and it was value season. 11 days sounded about right. It meant we could just about swing it on two weeks annual leave. We noticed last time that you don’t really acclimatise to the new time zone on your return till work makes you anyway.

Now then… what kind of tickets should we get? Hmmmmph! This is where Disney in its infinite wisdom decided to start driving me mad. Because I adore planning, it’s SUCH fun! One of the best bits of my holidays is definitely planning what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do it and where we’re going to eat – you get the picture! So we looked at all the blurb and decided eventually on 7-day Hoppers. I wanted to do MVMCP too and as we always plan a couple of down days, perfect! We knew we wouldn’t get much use out of the Plus bits. We’re not night owls but we thought we’d do Pleasure Island the once maybe. We don’t like water parks at all. But the 7-day Hoppers still seemed the best for us. I happily planned away. Detailed itineraries floated round the computer…

And then Disney announced the Fairytale Package. Wow…. At first I thought it wasn’t anything for us because we were going for longer than a week. Mousesavers corrected me. Pay rack rate without tickets for the extra nights, with the package in-between. And it had cute little goodies attached – I was sold! Course, it finished just before we were going but never mind, they extended it once, they’d probably extend it again. I needed contingency plans… More planning… more itineraries…

Then we had months and months of nothing. No discount announcements at all. Nothing for September, AT ALL. Yikes! This is when I began to go off Disney. I was so fed up of all the discount business - and there was no guarantee there’d be any - why didn’t we just cancel the deposit and go somewhere else whilst it was still warm? Yes, dear reader, these sad words actually left my lips. Several times in fact. I was one very unhappy little bunny. But at the end of August (the day after my birthday, ta!) Disney decided I'd suffered enough (there’s nothing quite like a persecution complex) and brought out AP rates. Excellent AP rates. Bargain rates that were too good to resist – Roland was amazed. We booked them! And then I was replaced by an alien. I must have been. I just didn’t want to plan any more. I told Roland, he looked at me in disbelief. I'd been planning one Disney holiday or another since 1998, it was in my blood, there was no way I could break the addiction. He knew I couldn’t resist. But I did. I'd had enough. We’d play it by ear for once – I didn’t even make a single PS. Weird…

I could write pages on the problems of buying an AP if you live outside the US. But I won’t. Suffice to say, I was repeatedly lied to by an internet CM who refused point blank to answer a single question I asked him but the day was finally saved by Paula at CRO. It took her 40 minutes to trick the computer into thinking I was in the US but she wouldn’t be put off. Definitely above and beyond the call of duty. As I told her supervisor, the human megaphone, Paula done good for me!!!

Right then, all we had to do was wait just a little bit longer and pack. I still didn’t make any plans. After all that nail biting, it just didn’t seem real…
 
Great start!!

Totally agree with you about package holidays and value for money. Disney wins hands down!!
 
Thankyou! :D

We're going to have another go at the package holiday thing. Teneriffe in November, probably. I tried for WDW again but it didn't work. Sigh! ;)
 















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