Will this trip ever get off the ground? - Jan 2012 PTR - TOMORROW - 1/5!!!

[annmarieda]

That is kinda funny... but a typical mom I guess.

 

[tankgirl427]

Here is the story of how the January trip came to be:

It started a few weeks before my aunt and cousin came to visit me in April. I asked my aunt at that time if she thought my cousin would like to go. I got a reaction of "Yep, she would like that." Kind of hard to talk about it in front of her being that its a surprise.

But let's rewind....way back when our families would take each other's kids on trips, I was thinking about how it stopped before she got to go anywhere, acutally it stopped a couple cousins before her, but one moved and has a kid, and the other is her brother who is always busy.

She hasn't had the easiest life (probably easier than some, but not as easy as me) she started off at a two year community college, then applied for a four year school and is working to get a degree to become a teacher, while all this is going on she is also working part time. She had to work hard to get all the paperwork and everything in line to get financial aid to even continue in school. At the same time her mom lost her job back in 2009 and her dad lost his job this year after returning to work from breaking his ankle in two places. They live in Western MA so they have had to honestly deal with two tornadoes, the effects of the earthquake and the hurricane. Sounds like a rough year!

She should be graduating in June 2012 (but I didn't want to go to Disney during the summer), so I was thinking her Spring Break then I looked at the crowd calendar (not so much!), so I decided to take her during her winter break to celebrate finishing college, her birthday (Feb), and she just got promoted to store manager (or something like that).

The Disney part is a no brainer when she updates her facebook with Disney stuff, is jealous I have gone, and talked about seeing Mickey light poles driving in FL. All she knows is that we are going somewhere on a plane and the dates. I've sent her an eye mask, water bottle with filter, and a wind up butterfly. Oh and about 100 pieces out of a 300 piece puzzle. I'm sure there are more reasons why I decided to do this for her, but this is all off the top of my head.

I'm hoping I can make the trip magical for her.

 

[KatMark]

Here is the story of how the January trip came to be:

It started a few weeks before my aunt and cousin came to visit me in April. I asked my aunt at that time if she thought my cousin would like to go. I got a reaction of "Yep, she would like that." Kind of hard to talk about it in front of her being that its a surprise.

But let's rewind....way back when our families would take each other's kids on trips, I was thinking about how it stopped before she got to go anywhere, acutally it stopped a couple cousins before her, but one moved and has a kid, and the other is her brother who is always busy.

She hasn't had the easiest life (probably easier than some, but not as easy as me) she started off at a two year community college, then applied for a four year school and is working to get a degree to become a teacher, while all this is going on she is also working part time. She had to work hard to get all the paperwork and everything in line to get financial aid to even continue in school. At the same time her mom lost her job back in 2009 and her dad lost his job this year after returning to work from breaking his ankle in two places. They live in Western MA so they have had to honestly deal with two tornadoes, the effects of the earthquake and the hurricane. Sounds like a rough year!

She should be graduating in June 2012 (but I didn't want to go to Disney during the summer), so I was thinking her Spring Break then I looked at the crowd calendar (not so much!), so I decided to take her during her winter break to celebrate finishing college, her birthday (Feb), and she just got promoted to store manager (or something like that).

The Disney part is a no brainer when she updates her facebook with Disney stuff, is jealous I have gone, and talked about seeing Mickey light poles driving in FL. All she knows is that we are going somewhere on a plane and the dates. I've sent her an eye mask, water bottle with filter, and a wind up butterfly. Oh and about 100 pieces out of a 300 piece puzzle. I'm sure there are more reasons why I decided to do this for her, but this is all off the top of my head.

I'm hoping I can make the trip magical for her.

How very sweet of you to do this for your cousin!

 

[shocky5]

Here is the story of how the January trip came to be:

It started a few weeks before my aunt and cousin came to visit me in April. I asked my aunt at that time if she thought my cousin would like to go. I got a reaction of "Yep, she would like that." Kind of hard to talk about it in front of her being that its a surprise.

But let's rewind....way back when our families would take each other's kids on trips, I was thinking about how it stopped before she got to go anywhere, acutally it stopped a couple cousins before her, but one moved and has a kid, and the other is her brother who is always busy.

She hasn't had the easiest life (probably easier than some, but not as easy as me) she started off at a two year community college, then applied for a four year school and is working to get a degree to become a teacher, while all this is going on she is also working part time. She had to work hard to get all the paperwork and everything in line to get financial aid to even continue in school. At the same time her mom lost her job back in 2009 and her dad lost his job this year after returning to work from breaking his ankle in two places. They live in Western MA so they have had to honestly deal with two tornadoes, the effects of the earthquake and the hurricane. Sounds like a rough year!

She should be graduating in June 2012 (but I didn't want to go to Disney during the summer), so I was thinking her Spring Break then I looked at the crowd calendar (not so much!), so I decided to take her during her winter break to celebrate finishing college, her birthday (Feb), and she just got promoted to store manager (or something like that).

The Disney part is a no brainer when she updates her facebook with Disney stuff, is jealous I have gone, and talked about seeing Mickey light poles driving in FL. All she knows is that we are going somewhere on a plane and the dates. I've sent her an eye mask, water bottle with filter, and a wind up butterfly. Oh and about 100 pieces out of a 300 piece puzzle. I'm sure there are more reasons why I decided to do this for her, but this is all off the top of my head.

I'm hoping I can make the trip magical for her.

Beautiful story behind the 'why!' So sweet of you to add something to her life that will be a great memory for her always!!!

 

[tankgirl427]

How very sweet of you to do this for your cousin!

Beautiful story behind the 'why!' So sweet of you to add something to her life that will be a great memory for her always!!!

Thanks guys. I feel very blessed to have an easier life than she does, I didn't have to worry about paying for school, my dad was the only one to work, not everyone is so lucky. I just wanted to do something she could look forward to and take that deep relaxing breath and turn into a kid again. She asked me to bring her home Mickey Ears from my trip in October for her. I already got her Tinkerbell ones. On a selfish note, doing both the October trip and taking her in January was my reasoning to get a AP which is allowing me to meet Ann.

I'm hoping to cover all costs (minus souvenirs) for both of us for January. I have our flights and tickets taken care of. I'm in the middle of paying for rooms. And I'm trying to save money for our meals, but there are still those darn snacks! But even if I have her save for snacks and souvenirs its not that bad. I'm really buckling down and think I might have extra money for January so I can buy myself things too!

If you can hang in until Thanksgiving, I'll share the reveal! I'm having her bring the puzzle pieces up to Vermont (hopefully) so we can put it together so my mom and her mom can see her face when she realizes where we are going. Her clues before then are: Pirate Ziploc bag (to be filled with gold coins?), Mardi Gras beads (if we stay at POFQ), Star Wars toys, I think there is something else, and at Thanksgiving she'll be getting a Coach crossbody bag for the trip with the remaining puzzle pieces!

Oh and I intend on embarassing her by making her wear the 1st visit, Happy Birthday, and I'm celebrating buttons along with either ears or a tiara. Tiara is more her style since in our family there is a joke abotu her mom being the queen and her being a princess. No she does not act like a princess at all. That is the crazy loud side of my family. I'm not so crazy or loud. Well maybe crazy but not loud.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

That is a very sweet story, how nice of you to plan all this for your cousin! I love the puzzle pieces idea, can't wait to see the culmination of all your work!

 

[annmarieda]

I think your cousin is going to love you forever for doing this for her. All the extra touches you are doing.... I love the puzzle pieces idea!!

 

[shocky5]

I will still be 'hanging' to see the reveal!! AND to hear about your marathon training!

 

[tankgirl427]

I will still be 'hanging' to see the reveal!! AND to hear about your marathon training!

I think we did pretty good. 5 minute warm up walk, 30 minute with a 5/55 spilt, and 5 minute cool down walk we went 2 1/4 miles. So that averages to less than 18 min/mile.

We're hoping to do a 10K on Columbus Day so we can get better placement for the half marathon so we can have shorter lines for the character photos. If its not one thing its another!

I had a rough morning today. My car is injured. I'm really not happy about it and hopefully it can be fixed easily cause that's going to come out of money for Disney or money to be deposited in my IRA for my retirement in a million years.

 

[tankgirl427]

I'm going to keep a log of how we did here so you can just check back at any time.

Run #1 (8/30) - 5 min warm up, 30 min run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down - 2.25 miles

Run #2 (9/01) - 5 min warm up, 30 min run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down - It didn't measure , we think we went further. It eventually started counting on our loop back and said we went 1.37 miles in 28 minutes which isn't right because we turn around at 20 minutes and it does not show our loop. So maybe 2.74 miles?

Run #3 (9/03) - 5 min warm up, 3 mile run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down - Not counting the 5 minute cool down. 3.26 miles in 54 minutes 10 seconds averaging 16:34 minutes/mile.

Run #4 (9/06) - SKIPPED (we're not really good at staying on schedule)

Run #5 (9/08) - SKIPPED (we're not really good at staying on schedule)

Run #6 (9/10) - SKIPPED (we're not really good at staying on schedule)

Run #7 (9/13) - 5 min warm up, 30 min run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down - ???

 

[tankgirl427]

Oh and b still doesn't have tickets.

 

[annmarieda]

Oh and b still doesn't have tickets.

 

[tankgirl427]

Yeah, she is now thinking fly in from seattle, fly out to LAX and then drive back to seattle. I'm not sure why, but hopefully she bought tickets last night.

 

[shocky5]

Yeah, she is now thinking fly in from seattle, fly out to LAX and then drive back to seattle. I'm not sure why, but hopefully she bought tickets last night.

Fingers crossed!

 

[shocky5]

I'm going to keep a log of how we did here so you can just check back at any time.

Run #1 (8/30) - 5 min warm up, 30 min run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down - 2.25 miles

Run #2 (9/01) - 5 min warm up, 30 min run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down - It didn't measure , we think we went further. It eventually started counting on our loop back and said we went 1.37 miles in 28 minutes which isn't right because we turn around at 20 minutes and it does not show our loop. So maybe 2.74 miles?

Run #3 (9/03) - 5 min warm up, 3 mile run (5/55 spilt), 5 min cool down -

Awesome! Good luck on your run tomorrow!

Explain to me this character greet after the marathon?!? I'm so unknowledgeable about what happens on race day - perks for the runners, etc?

 

[tankgirl427]

Awesome! Good luck on your run tomorrow!

Explain to me this character greet after the marathon?!? I'm so unknowledgeable about what happens on race day - perks for the runners, etc?

From my understanding there are character meet and greets along the course. But those lines get long. Better placement because you can run faster gives you a bit of a head start to get lined up. I was reading someone blog about last years princess half marathon. I can't remember where I found it. Maybe google princess half marathon 2011? My computer keeps crashing foxfire.

Honestly I have no idea of anything besides what I google. I also once posted on the WISH thread for the event. There are lots of people there.

 

[KatMark]

Yeah, she is now thinking fly in from seattle, fly out to LAX and then drive back to seattle. I'm not sure why, but hopefully she bought tickets last night.

Did we hear whether or not tickets were bought?

 

[tankgirl427]

Did we hear whether or not tickets were bought?

Nope no update yet!

 

[tankgirl427]

So I got an email this morning that my January flights on Delta had changed. This is now my third change on these flights, most of the changes were only 10 minutes in one direction or the other.

This time was a doozy!

Friday, January 6
Flight: Delta 1054
Departs: 7:30 am from Hartford, Connecticut
Arrives: 10:10 am at Atlanta, Georgia
Seats: 29E, 29D
Cabin: Coach Class

Friday, January 6
Flight: Delta 2169
Departs: 10:55 am from Atlanta, Georgia
Arrives: 12:27 pm at Orlando, Florida
Seats: 23F, 23E
Cabin: Coach Class

Sunday, January 15
Flight: Delta 990
Departs: 5:00 pm from Orlando, Florida
Arrives: 7:11 pm at Cincinnati, Ohio
Seats: 13F, 13E
Cabin: Coach Class

Sunday, January 15
Flight: Delta 2407 Operated by Mesaba Airlines
Departs: 7:55 pm from Cincinnati, Ohio
Arrives: 9:55 pm at Hartford, Connecticut
Seats: 11B, 11A
Cabin: Coach Class

Now we didn't have non stop flights. Arriving we'd be there two hours later! With a 45 minute connection in Atlanta. We would be leaving almost two hours earlier with a 40 minute connection in Cincinnati. To change it to almost identical flights from Boston would cost an additional $110, so they were nice enough to refund my tickets and I'm now back on the flight obsession bandwagon!

 

[tankgirl427]

So we left off with me not being the biggest fan of Delta right now. I started looking at our options for leaving out of BOS or BDL. I live near BOS and she lives near BDL. BDL would be the better because I could drive out there after work and drive home after the trip. She would have to find a way from her house to BOS and back, which would probably make my aunt drive her which is not what I want to do!

The contenders came down to:

Jet Blue - BOS or BDL

Southwest - BDL

Air Tran - BOS

Delta - BOS

They all had non-stops. Air Tran took themselves out of the running when I saw their times. I was not leaving at 10am to get down there. Delta wanted another $110 from me to switch our flights to BOS non-stop. I had already given them over $400 for our two tickets. Which is why I got the refund.

A couple of months ago, I got the Southwest credit card for the miles not sure what I was going to do with it and with no miles applied to my account. Both Jet Blue and Southwest were the same price. I woke up this morning and some of the miles had been applied! Enough to buy our flights! So I have to change our ME, but we are now booked on Southwest for $10! I need to figure out how to get my money back on the Delta American Express so I can apply those funds back into our trip.

Our flights now look like:
Depart Jan 6
6:35 AM Hartford, CT (BDL) to
9:40 AM Orlando, FL (MCO)
Flight #375
Travel Time 3 h 05 m
(Nonstop)


Return Jan 15
6:05 PM Orlando, FL (MCO) to
8:40 PM Hartford, CT (BDL)
Flight #468
Travel Time 2 h 35 m
(Nonstop)