THE PLAN blew up, and we had a BLAST! w Pics

lgcountry

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
233
Hello everyone! This is a TR about our first family trip to WDW together from August 5 through August 13. First an introduction of the cast and a little background on the planning of this trip.

The Cast:

DH: Greg, 36, had been to Disney on a band trip sometime in the early 90’s I think. (Before my time) Enjoys traveling, seeing new things, and in general is a lot of fun to go places with. His mistress, Harley D, played a big part in messing with THE PLAN!:mad:

DS: 10. He and I went to WDW 3 years ago with DH’s step-mom, my nephew, and a lot of other people. It wasn’t a particularly great trip. There were too many people, no plan whatsoever, and we missed a lot. Even though he was 7 for that trip, he didn’t remember a lot. His PLAN included doing Everything, and doing it NOW.

Me: Mom, 48, planner (of course). I had been to WDW in 1983, and with DS in 2004. I had always dreamed of an all-immersive Disney vacation and this was too be that trip. I bought the guidebooks, and did all the online research, then did my best to get both of them involved in planning. All they did was get sick of my excitement! Oh well, they appreciated it later.:thumbsup2

Background:
Early this year I found that we would have an unexpected chunk of cash available and I asked DH what he thought about going on a nice vacation to Disney, staying on site, and generally enjoying a vacation with just the three of us. Previously, we had been on several cruises with a group of friends, and various vacations with extended family. For once, I didn’t want to have to worry about what everyone else was going to do. He thought that it was a great idea! So I begin to plan.:banana:

First I went to the Disney website, and started playing with various dates in June and August. July was out of the question with DS’s schedule of camps and other activities. I thought, and DH agreed that a moderate resort would be best for us, ammenity wise, so we finally narrowed it down to POR. Price for 7 days was about $3,000. As I was researching though, I realized that there was no way to do everything in just 7 days, so I began reading about DVC. Funny how planning one trip leads right into the next one, isn’t it?:rotfl:

The more I learned, the more I liked, so I got the ok to get more info. You see, at that point, I knew it was a done deal, but DH didn’t so I went though the explanations and benefits for us, the money thing (Yes, I had started learning about fuzzy Disney math thanks to all of you), and all the possibilities, and we ended up buying 160 pts at Saratoga Springs resort. Of course that opened a new realm of resort choices, so I had more research to do.:surfweb:

Long story short, in early March, I made our reservation for a studio at Old Key West for 8 days in August. It was originally going to be 7 days, but I decided it would be cool to celebrate our anniversary in Disney, so 8 days it became.:love:

Next up: How the mistress became involved!
:headache:
 
Wait...that's it!?!? You got me hooked and just stop...NO!!!

Come back...I need to know about this 'mistress' :)
 

Waiting oh not so patiently for the next installment...Guess I'll go to get coffee...Hope theres an update when I get back. ;)
 
Hmm a mistress?? Sounds interesting and you've got me curious so I'm in for this trippie!

Lucky duck, buying into DVC, I hope to one day buy into it as well.
 
March 23, 2007

Hubby went to work at 5AM as usual. A few minutes later the phone rings. It’s DH.

DH: Hey, I ummm, just got hit by a deer!
Me: (Suddenly wide awake) Where are you? Are you ok?
DH: I’m on **** Road. I’m not sure.
Me: Ohmygosh. Do you want me to call 911?
DH: Well, I don’t know. I guess, well, maybe you’d better.

I hang up on him, and call 911. Needless to say, I’m shaking, and panic is in my voice. I give them the info and his cell number, throw on some clothes, wake up DS, and head for the door. As I’m leaving, I hear the scanner go off with the call for rescue and fire dept. I head to where he said he was, and found this.:scared1:

frontpage.jpg

Hubby on his mistress, Harley

Unreal! No one could believe it. DH was transported to a Richmond area hospital where he went into surgery for a compound break of his left leg. There were three breaks between the knee and ankle, and he had to have a rod permanently inserted. After 5 days in the hospital, he came home in a cast and on crutches. Two weeks later, they removed the cast, and put him in a boot. Six weeks after that, he was off crutches, and on July 26, 10 days before our trip, he was out of the boot, shaky, but walking.

What we had no way of knowing was how he would hold up with all the walking at Disney.
 
WOW! Glad he is ok! That is a scary call to get! I hope he was feeling MUCH better by the trip--but I am sure there was still a lot of pain.
 
Sorry, I still get shaky thinking about how awful it could have been, and how lucky we were to even be thinking of our trip.

During the next few months, we continued to plan, although we left a lot of open gaps in our days. We made 4 dinner ADR's alternating with open evenings. We checked the EMH for each park, and basically had an idea of where we wanted to go each day, and what we wanted to do and see. We knew we could rent a wheelchair, if necessary, although DH thought he would be ok if we took it easy. And we tried, but all of you know, it's not easy to take it easy on a trip like this.

Now on to the actual trip!
 
Mistress? I'm curious now...

Wait...that's it!?!? You got me hooked and just stop...NO!!!

Come back...I need to know about this 'mistress' :)

Hmm a mistress?? Sounds interesting and you've got me curious so I'm in for this trippie!

Lucky duck, buying into DVC, I hope to one day buy into it as well.

Ok, this one sounds good - waiting for more :surfweb:

Yes, now you see what he spends his money on, and hours with on the weekends. I'd be a Harley widow, but I'm always invited to go along on their trips.:rotfl:

WOW! Glad he is ok! That is a scary call to get! I hope he was feeling MUCH better by the trip--but I am sure there was still a lot of pain.

Yes, there was pain, and for that he had pills.:yay: The swelling was the main problem, but you will hear more about that.

Thanks to all who are reading. I hope to get to know you all better as we go along. While I'm thanking people, I'd also like to thank various TR writers that have influenced me, and I can only hope that I've learned the best from all of you.
 
:lmao:

A lot of the guys in my family have those kinds of mistresses. DBF has the orchard that we (he) planted this year.

:rotfl2:

Now, waiting for the trip...

popcorn::
 
HOLY COW!!! That must have been very scary for you and for your DH of course. That is amazing that he was able to hold it together and stop himself safely.
 
Greeat TR so far.

That must have been HORRIFYING with your DH though!

I hope he held out at WDW.
 
OMG!! How scary! and how lucky! Now I understand the 'mistress' part.

Can't wait for the report!
 
:lmao:

A lot of the guys in my family have those kinds of mistresses. DBF has the orchard that we (he) planted this year.

popcorn::
:lmao: Is DBF a treehugger, then?:rolleyes1

HOLY COW!!! That must have been very scary for you and for your DH of course. That is amazing that he was able to hold it together and stop himself safely.

Greeat TR so far.

That must have been HORRIFYING with your DH though!

I hope he held out at WDW.

OMG!! How scary! and how lucky! Now I understand the 'mistress' part.

Can't wait for the report!

Yes, it was very scary and lucky! We know he had an :angel: with him. Glad you got the mistress part.:rolleyes1

We shall see how he progressed through the week.

The beginning of the trip is ready. I had some pics to download for it. Coming up next.
 
Saturday, August 4: Travel Day

We live out in the country and our nearest airport is Richmond, about 1hr 15min away. However, we usually fly out of Raleigh Durham because we get better fares, and I used to work there so we are more familiar with the airport. It’s only an hour further so we can drive down the day of our flight, or go the day before, stay at a motel with Park and Fly, and relax if we have an early flight. We were leaving on Southwest at 6:20 am so we opted to spend $83 for a room at the Day’s Inn instead of $90 some parking fees. We left our house around 2pm, and arrived about 4:10pm, planning dinner (Texas Steak house, very good), and lights out about 8:30. I was so excited I kept waking up, and finally fell into a deep sleep about the time our wake up call came. Figures.
Ready.jpg

3:30 am DS is ready!

Sunday, August 5

We got to the airport in 5 minutes, waited for Southwest to open the counter so we could check our one big bag. Ooops Number 1. Bag was 4lbs overweight, hubby said pay the $25 (he packed it, and didn’t feel like fooling with it). No problem with security, DH’s new titanium rod didn’t even beep, and we were at the gate with coffee by 5:20am.

DS made a friend in line, the first of many people he just started conversations with. He is a very outgoing boy, and enjoys talking to new people, especially other kids. He is also very nosy sometimes. He and his new buddy traded Game Boys while waiting to board.
NewFriend.jpg


OT: There are just somethings I don’t understand about why people do things they do, and if anyone can help me, it’s much appreciated. These questions will be prefaced by WHY PEOPLE?

WHY PEOPLE? Are you sitting on the floor inside the little line up area for boarding the flight 45 minutes before boarding, and blocking every possible path to the bathroom? Are you afraid you won’t get on the plane?

Push back early, land 8:15, on ME at 8:35, arrive OKW 9:07, checked in by 9:20. How much easier can this be? As heard on a NEBO TR, Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. Yes, I thought of my DIS friends often.

Couple OKW lobby pics.

HPIM0264.jpg

HPIM0265.jpg


Outside on the OKW grounds.
HPIM0266.jpg

DS gets sunscreen on his ears.

HPIM0267.jpg

A view from the boardwalk.

Next up: Downtown Disney
 
Great trip report so far! You gotta give us a thorough run down of what you thought of Old Key West! It looks very nice from the above pictures!

Like the others, I thought "What mistress?!" Then after seeing the newspaper clipping I was like "Of course, I knew this - how could I not put two and two together to make the 'Harley D' connection?!"

Did you guys go to the Harley store in Downtown Disney? :)

Great trippie so far! Your son is a cool kid and my lil' buddy fo' sho!
 
Old Key West looks sooo pretty!

Sounds like your flight went really well aside from the people crowding all the floor space in the airport.
 


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