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Pre Trip Report How this all happened.
Cast of Characters:
Me - The New Lisa Jones newly married and trip planner Disney regular (38)
Him - The new husband Donnie second time at Disney (41)
Our Kids:_Ashley (12/his) first time at Disney
Grace (4/mine) 5th time at Disney
Mom - My Mother commando Disney planner being kept on a tight rope this is her 4th trip (56)
Amanda - My sister who is 17 and in her last year of high school this is her 7th trip
Dawn - Sister who is married with her own family. Hasn't been to Disney since she was 6. We have NEVER had an argument I adore her
Joe - BIL, Dawn's Husband this is his second Disney trip he went once in High School.
Tayla (5) - Dawn's daughter and Grace's cousin this is her first trip to Disney
JoeJoe (4) - Dawn's son and Graces nephew This is his first trip to Disney.
Pre Trip Report - How this all happened
Whew, quite a big group of people. I am a loner by nature but I love my family. There are days when I have questioned if this is a good idea. All of us together? There are so many details and everyone seems to be counting on me to make this all happen. If it blows up will it all be my fault?
This trip started out as my annual Disney trip. I like to go in December but my brandy new husband was in the police academy and couldn't take the time off so we waited until February. I picked a date and then started negotiations with Donnie's ex wife about taking Ashley. She (lets call her the Wicked Witch) has custody and we get visitations every other weekend. It is the standard visitation with no mention of Disney trips in February. Ashley has never been to Disney and desperately wants to go.
Grace adores Ashley and it is mutual and last summer I had Amanda staying with us at the same time Ashley was. The two got along like a house fire and became fast friends despite the age difference. Amanda and I talk Disney all the time because she loves it as much as I do. I have a set of the Disney's Greatest Hits and we played in my car every time we went somewhere usually with me Grace and Amanda singing at the top of our lungs with Ashley watching us with the same kind of embarrassed look you give a woman that just walked out of the ladies room with her skirt tucked I her panties. That poor kid, but by the end of the summer she was singing along, much more dignified than we do but still singing.
Everyone really wanted Ashley to go but it was up to her Mother. I won't go into the Wicked Witch theme too much because I don't want to whine but negotiations didn't go well. When I gave her the dates last summer she first said that Ashley couldn't go with me. She could only travel with her Father. Donnie was flying in for 4 days of the trip because of his work and school schedule. That meant a much shorter trip for Ashley. I found flights and then she said Ashley didn't want to go and she refused to let me talk to her about her decision not to go. Huh? What kid doesn't want to go to Disney more negotiations more Wicked Witch stuff but in fact the kid DID want to go. Who wouldn't? I told her she needed to pay for the plane ticket and we settled that she would pay half. Ashley is happy she is going but already sulking about what she is going to miss. Note to self: pick up poison apple for Wicked Witch when we are at Disney, the must surely sell them somewhere maybe in the Villains Shop!
I casually mentioned to my Mom that we were going thinking that Amanda would LOVE to go with us, she would have a partner in crime to ride the rides with and I knew that Ashley would be happy to have a pal too. Problem is last trip we tool together it ended in my vowing that we would never travel together again.
What happened you ask? It was 4 summers ago. Grace was a baby and I was in Orlando to teach at a Scrapbook Event. I
figured I couldn't go to Florida without a few days in Disney so I started to plan a trip. I would teach at the
event Thurs-Saturday and Sunday start a 4 days Disney vacation. I usually have my little sister Amanda stay with
me during the summers so she would go to. My Mom decided to meet us there. She would take a few days off and go
to Disney with us and then Amanda and Mom would fly home to RI. That was perfect it meant that I didn't have to
drive her back home (a 600 mile trip) then Mom decided to bring a friend for Amanda to ride the rides with.
Amanda's best friend since second grade Amanda come too. They arrived and the first few days were uneventful
because I was working, they went off during the day with Grace and we would meet for dinner. Then we moved to
the Disney part of the vacation. I was staying at the Marriott World Center on my husband's expense account.
He scheduled it so he would be in Orlando at the same time working for a few days and would hopefully take one day in the parks with me.
Mom opted for the All Star Music it was a little cheaper. Neither of us had a car. When I planned this trip I counted on Amanda's help
with Grace. She was 9 months old and it was August and I knew that parks would be crowded and I didn't think I should go it alone.
The trouble started there. I had tickets that my FIL who works for Disney gave me. They were single days passes. I had one per day.
Mom bought Park Hoppers and planned to hop. I a didn't know a lot about how the passes worked but I quickly found out. Mom had some
with a detailed touring plan with lots of hopping a half day in one park then a hop to a water park and back to a different park
for the evening. I couldn't hop. Long story, they left me. I saw them ONCE during the four days. She made plans and it didn't matter
that it was impossible for me to run around like that with the baby a stroller and the fact that I didn't have passes that allowed it.
By the 3rd day I ended up losing it in the middle of the Magic Kingdom. Anyone remember that crazy lady that was sitting on the curb
on Main Street sobbing before a cast member rescued her? That was me. Managing the stroller alone with those crows was work enough
(just try to order something to eat in one of those long lunch lines when it is beyond crowded pushing a tank like stroller with a
sleeping baby in it). I didn't have a car so it meant that I had to take a bus anywhere I went. I was supposed to meet them at their
hotel one night after Spectro but I couldn't manage the diaper bag and the baby and the stroller and that particular night no one offered
to help me. That was it. I called her and asked her to spend the final day with me. She couldn't they had plans to go to Typhone Lagoon in
the morning and to the Animal Kingdom in the afternoon. It ended in a fight with me crying some more and saying that I would never travel with her again. She makes plans, carves them in stone and there is no changing no matter what happens. I like to plan but I am a loose planner, I know what park I am going to and when my PS are but that is usually the limit to my planning.
So can the Commando Mom and the Disney Daughter get along? We will see. During Moms visit on Christmas we sat down and loosely planned what we were going to do. Certain parks on certain days, what restaurants we wanted to eat on, what day to take the Family Magic Tour and so on. I write in pencil in my passporter. Mom writes in PEN in her notebook,.
Dawn enters the picture because I have been nagging her for about 2 years that she needed to think about planning a trip to Disney. Dawn is NOT a planner. Every Christmas Eve she is late arriving at My Mom's house and then has to straight in the bedroom to wrap the gifts she just bought. Everyone knows that Christmas is December 25th right? How does this happen to her every year? This is the girl that was 45 minutes late for he own wedding. Saying she will be late for her own funeral is an understatement. Another fun fact is Dawn works in retail, she manages a popular mall clothing store and is always under a lot of pressure, works long hours and HATES PEOPLE. That is right, she says it with a smile but if you ask her she will tell you she hates people. Dawn breaks out in hives when my Mom starts planning things.
I don't know her husband well. I moved away 10 years ago right after they got married so I only see him a few times a year and he is a chef so he always works holidays and misses a lot of family functions. I have no idea how he will approach Disney.
For months Mom asked Dawn is she wanted to go. Dawn secretly told me to let her know when we were reserving rooms she wanted to go but didn't want to plan it months in advance. She didn't want me to get Mom involved since she would make Dawn nuts about the trip. I was shocked. I figured if Dawn went she would plan it a week before pay a gillion dollars for the flight, not have a priority seating so be miserable from eating dinner at 9pm every night. When it came time Dawn ponied up and reserved a room with us? Huh she is REALLY going? With her 2 great kids who just adore Grace and it is mutual, we have a cousin love fest any time those 3 get together.
Trying to pin Dawn down about the details was a little harder. I finally got her to agree to talk about the details after weeks of leaving messages. Pirate Adventure for the kids....NO WAY! Oh did I mention that Dawn is paranoid, she won't leave her kids with anyone. Not that this is a bad thing but it is Disney. I kind of think that the people in charge of the children's programs have more child experience than we do as Moms and are probably better qualified. Scratch that. I could not convince her. She made it plain that her kids have meltdowns and if they overwhelmed she would have to take them back to the room. How I phrased it was this "Let's go to the same park every day, agree to meet for meals and parades and then let anyone go off if they feel they need to without guilt". Mom even offered to watch the kids at night so Dawn and Joe could get some alone time. Yes, Mom is a approved child care taker for Dawn's kids but you would not believe the certification process she had to go through!
So we have a room, we have flights; we have at least one PS every day. We have a plan mapped out (in pen in Moms case). I have lists; packing lists, shopping lists, hidden Mickey lists and more Disney in my head than I would have thought possible. Every time I lose my car keys which is often I know it is because I know all about the Hidden Mickeys in the Haunted Mansion, my brain can't remember it all and it obviously deems car keys as a low priority.
New update it is 3 weeks to the trip. I have suitcases open and the packing has started the Dining Room is now packing central. Flights book, tickets purchased, PS made, we are in full Disney mode. Then The Wicked Witch calls, she wants the name of the hotel which I have given to her many times AKL. She then wants the hotel room number, not a problem and she wants the ROOM NUMBER for the room in which we will be staying. I explained that you don't get your room number until you check in. Oh no she wants the room number, I say it again. The response is well if you can't give me the room number Ashley can't go and she hangs up. I hear the click of
the phone and I stood there in awe. The room number? What hotel does that? Is this really happening? Was she looking for a reason not to let Ashley go? I hoped that Ashley didn't hear that because I knew she would be freaking out. She calls back again yelling. Huh? Can't hear you, you are breaking up and I hang up and then do not answer for the SEVEN additional phone calls. The messages I got were charming. She said "she is not going" over a dozen times on one of them. Someone has been drinking. All I can think about is how sad that child must be if she is hearing any of this and considering the volume used during some of the voice mails how
could she not? My heart is heavy. Dad gets involved and calls the Wicked Witch and after several rounds there is still no clarification if that was just a bad mood causing the spectacle of the night before or if she was really going to cancel that child's trip? It is 3 weeks away and I don't know. I won't truly believe she is going until she actually gets on the plane.
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
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