The Wife Decides We're Going to DISNEY!!!

[DaPanMan]

Its time to stop being a lurker and start being a tripper.

The ME tags arrived on Thursday, just in time for the first snow storm of the year. I gotta order the park tix by Friday so it must be time to get ready for WDW.

I'm a black humor, sarcastic type person. It has to do with what I do for work. I'm always around when no one wants me to be and never around when they absolute need. Yes, I'm a police officer, put the stuff away right now unless you plan on sharing with me.

Here are the crazies that are going:

Me 37 year old pop of 3.....what was I thinking, wait what was SHE thinking??!?? Work in the fastest growing county in the state of Michigan. Huge sports fan, Michigan State, coming around on the Tigers since they are going to the World Series. Am still avid Houston Astros fan, long story, and Philly Eagles, has to do with family name. And apparently, I have the Disney curse, if you want to call it that. Only been 3 times in my life, '76, '87, and last year. Did you know things have changed down there since '76?

DW : Entrepenuer, she is (hand over mouth) years older than I am. yes, I married an older woman because they are more, oh wait, thats a different site and different thread. Looking over left shoulder.....all clear.......looking right right shoulder......all clear........ TOO LATE!!!! SMACK!!!! How does she do that?!?!!?

DD10 : She is 5th grader, smart as anything, doesn't study much, but brings home the right grades. Just getting into Tink, not much into the princesses anymore. Oh did I mention she'll be 15 next week. At least she acts like it.

DD8 : Athlete, strong headed, they all get that from their mother......SMACK!! Dang it!!! They are all pleasantly persistent I call that stuborn.

DS3 : This guy is a true HAM. He has also gotten my gift of quoting movies. He can do most of Shrek and Shrek 2, Chicken Little, Monsters Inc. He absolutely loves Monsters, I used to, until the 800 time.

DGM : My mom. She's .....well, different. She's semi retired, and will be full time retired at the end of the year. She is planning on being a jet setter and is well on the way to spending my inheritance. She's coming back from Greece 3 days before we ship of to the World. In Feb of '07 she's off to New Zealand, southside. Last time in WDW, was '87.

Why We're GOING!!!

Way back in March, we were looking for a place to take our vacation. We purchased DVC at SSR. I'll get to that reason later in the trippie. Anyway, we are planning on going to WDW next year for Thanksgiving with DW's side of the family. Her parents, brother and his wife and 3 kids. We'll have enough to get the 3 bedroom villa.

So, we thought we'd go to Hilton Head for a week with our points. EEEENNNNHHH!!! Not going to happen. All full. Trying a few other places. Up north with an exchange for a week. Didn't happen. The wife says," we bought these points to go on vacation and by ( insert word here ) we're going!!!!!"

Ok, more options, don't work out. We had just gone to WDW last year, hence becoming DVC members. But finally, the wife says matter of factly, in front of the kids no less, "let's just go to WDW for Thanksgiving this year." Was done by all.

So, I, who planned last years trip and apparently did such a fine job is now in charge of this years and next years trip. I still don't know how this happened, maybe one of you married ladies can tell me how such deception and trickery is worked upon us men.

I call up MS and ask for a 2 bedroom at SSR. Looking for 11/18 - 11/24. No dice. All full up on Turkey day. Have the day after available but not the day of. More discussion, do we move out to move back or what. Nope, book 11/18 - 11/23. Call MS again. DONE!!!!! Be back for dinner on Thanksgiving day with the inlaws. Um, hey, are you sure there aren't any rooms available for T-day? What if I give you a $50? a hundie? RATS!! Oh well, the wife says she'll be spending a week with my mom. True True.

Now, comes the big planning.

Next time: how we scored first class airline tickets!!!!

 

[rie'smom]

You're off to a great start. Watch what you say about Mom though-she can smack harder.Anxiously awaiting next chapter.

 

[OhMari]

Work in the fastest growing county in the state of Michigan.

That is for sure not in the UP of Michigan. My dd and ds both go to NMU. My dd is actually graduating in Dec. in criminal justice. The academy doesn't start until May, so she just wrote her resume to work at security at WDW from Jan.-May.

Hope you guys have a great WDW vacation.

 

[DaPanMan]

Once it was decided we were going, I had to find airline tickets for the flight down without breaking the bank. We are kinda picky about our flight times and won't do the redeye because of the kids, especially the 3 year old. Also, we don't want to be the cranky family everyone can't stand. We try to take into account meal time and nap time for the youngest.

I was looking for flight times in the middle of the day. Again, I was put in charge of finding 6 tickets. I didn't want to break the bank either. I looked at all the online sources. Most tickets when I started to look were around $345 or so. I would check once a week or once every couple of days. At one point, tickets went from $375 to $435 over night. I started thinking I could donate a lung or two to get the tickets, cause $2,500 is a little steep.

I began looking at the airline sites Northwest, United, Delta... I was at working, inside, yes your tax dollars hard at work. When we work inside, we pull numbers for calls for service and answer questions from people who call. Majority of the time is questions similar to "what time is the 3 o'clock parade?" That is spine tingling police work right there.

To compensate we might serf the web now and again. I was looking on the Northwest site and found round trip tickets for $300. On of my Lt.'s walked in to ask me if I had anything better to do with my time. Now, if a supervisor asks a subordinate that type of question, it would be good that they not be caught doing similar things. My reply was,"well at least I'm not on ( online auction site name here ) looking for muscle cars to buy." After he closed his mouth, he left.

I called my wife and told her that it was probably not going to get any better and we may want to go ahead and get our tickets. I wanted her to buy them from her computer at home rather than our IT dept. watch me do it.

She went to NWA and started reading the fine print I did not. She asked me if we were flying 1st class on the way down. Being the fine trained observer that I was......I basically had no idea. She hits the BUY button and looks at the order. Yep, on the way down we are in the first class section of the aircraft. SCORE!!!! On the way back, we'll have to ride with the common folk......oh wait that is us.

I couldn't pick our seats until it was closer to our flight date. I looked just a few days ago and found our seats had already been assigned. I figured they would have put us all together, not the case. We weren't spread out but we weren't together either. So, I had to do some adjusting our our seats. We are all together on the way down, but on the way back we could not take up a whole row because someone as already taken a window seat. Hope they're ready for us when we board. One person in our party, me its always me, will have to sit a row behind on the aisle. If thats the worst of it .....oh well.

Next time: Trading Pins.

 

[julsmom]

DaPanMan: Love your posts (so far ). Keep it coming. The packing one should be interesting!

Hey, can you fix a couple of tickets for me? Just kidding. Some of that humor that I know cops appreciate.

Overall: you sound like a super great dad for taking your kids to WDW on a whim.