The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY!

As the husband likes to say, with everything comes the good, the bad, and the ugly.  This is also true of a Disney vacation.  Let’s get the UGLY out of the way. . .

Our family traveled for 16 days, very FULL days.  The airport was a 2 ¾ hours drive from our home.  We left our house at 6:30 am for an 11:00 am flight.  We arrived in Orlando at 6:00 pm Orlando time.  The next days were full of park touring and cruising with Disney.  It also took a full day to return home.  We left our Disney resort at 8:10 for an 11:00 am flight.  We arrived in Chicago before 1:00 pm to discover that our 3:00 pm flight to our next airport was cancelled.  After waiting for the airline’s customer service and talking to our travel agent, we had seats on a 9:00 pm flight, luckily, and boarding passes for standby on a 5:00 pm flight.  After two gate changes for the 5:00 pm flight, we watched the flight get pushed back to 6:30 pm, then 7:00 pm.  Finally, at 7:15, passengers were boarded.  We gathered our belongings and hovered at the counter watching the names on the standby list—we were numbers 5, 6, and 7 on the list of twelve names.  The boy was called first, but I went with him to the counter explaining that there were three of us and held my breath.  Boarding passes were printed and we were ON that plane!  It didn’t matter that we weren’t seated together or that we had to gate check carry-on bags due to lack of room in the overhead bins.  We were on the plane!

To contextualize our gratefulness, we had watched as folks boarded planes, sat on the runway for four hours, deboarded, and the reboarded again.  We were hearing about planes with no crews, many flights being canceled, and people trying to get home from as far away as Paris—talk about a long day!  Also, we had initially been told that there were no flights available until the next morning and there would be no compensation for a hotel, etc.

Our moments of gratitude sank when the our plane sat on the runway and the pilot announcing that they were getting a bad weather report and were waiting for further directions.  The unknown status lasted for about ten minutes when we finally approached the runway and took off.  30 minutes later we landed.  All of our luggage was on the same plane and we gathered our bags and headed for home.  You know you are a desperate vacationer when you are buying your child a Fanta and mini donuts at 9:45 pm and tuck him into bed at midnight.

The quarter-sized angry blister on my right foot.

The “UGLY” also included some physical ailments.  I developed blisters about the size of quarters—one on each foot.  The blister on the right foot popped when I pulled off the moleskin before bed on our last night.  It was quite a mess, but the good news was that I was wearing flip-flops the next day.  The blister on the other foot has yet to pop.  I am currently doing soaks in warm water and Epson salts, which feels quite nice.

The husband also developed a red, blotchy, itchy rash that traveled the length of his body.  It started on the ship on his arms and calves.  We requested bedding that had been double rinsed as he tends to react to harsh chemicals.  By the time we got to Walt Disney World, the rash was traveling to his stomach and chest.  We asked housekeeping for towels and sheets that had been double rinsed.  He went to the First Aid station on the parks and was given topical ointment and Benadryl.  We stopped at the First Aid stations at multiple parks and bought Benadryl at our resort store.  He then started wearing socks that covered up his calves, protecting them from the elements.  All of this—the socks, Benadryl, topical ointments, and double rinsed sheets and towels seemed to do the trick and his rash was fading by the time we were coming home.  He is continuing with the Benadryl, eating yogurt, and taking acidophilus to reduce any incidents of skin based yeast infections that he tends to be prone to.

Our baggie of moleskin and bandaids went with us to the parks every day.

We were prepared for some things. . . we had packed moleskin, bandaids, hydrocortisone crème, triple antibiotic ointment, and even some over-the-counter allergy medication (though not enough for the entire vacation).  We also had an assortment of medications for other potential needs including digestive aids, pain relievers, and motion sickness. 

There you have it; the “ugly” parts of our great summer vacation.  Glad to get them out of the way!

Flexibility Is Key: Flight Changes

We are now less than three months from our next Disney vacation and our flights have changed. . . twice.

Let me begin with the fact that we have the best travel agent ever!  We love her and all that she does for us—which is a lot!

The first change came a couple of weeks ago.  I got an email or phone call, I don’t remember which, about our return flights.  They were being changed drastically, so we were able to pick new flight times at no expense.  The change went in our favor as the late morning flights would mean NO three or four AM trip on the bus to the airport.  We’ve done it and it isn’t pretty.  Score one in our favor!

The most recent change came yesterday with an email from our travel agent.  This change affected our outgoing flights and had us reaching our destination at midnight.  When I read the email I groaned, audibly.  When we purchased the flights we were arrived close to 10:00 pm which was not ideal, but midnight?  I immediately picked up the phone and Shauna, our travel agent, said she would try and work her magic.  Even if it meant an early morning flight out, that would okay as we would reserve a park-n-fly hotel nearby and make our drive to the airport the night before (the airport is 2 ½ hours away.)

Another email came in with good news.  Our flights had been changed and we now had a late morning flight with an arrival time of early evening.  Yeah!  And, we were flying on a different airline altogether.  Again, the changes were at no charge to us.  Score another one in our favor!

So now the decision is whether or not to reserve a park-n-fly room for the night before or drive the morning of our flights and pay for airport parking.  We are waiting a bit to make the final decision.  Weather and possible additional flight changes are factors in our decision making.

Flexibility is the key.  We purchased our flights 7 months ago and had we been rigid in the flight times these changes may have been difficult.  Also, we planned to fly to our destination the day prior to sailing on our cruise.  Imagine the frustration and anxiety if the flight changes were occurring the day OF the cruise!  We’ve been there, done that, and will try to avoid it if at all possible.

Also amusing in the whole story is that for our return flights on our new carrier, our seat assignments are not together.  Oh, the husband and I have been assigned to sit together, but not the boy.  When we were talking about it at dinner last night, the boy was thrilled to be seated away from us on both legs of our flights—that speaks volumes for his confidence and number of times flying.  The husband then segued into a story about how the boy would be seated next to a comedian and the story would then be used in a stand-up act, etc.  (He also wanted to know if we sitting in first class.  Answer: No.) 

Am I concerned?  No.  Either one of us will sit with the boy or we will check about switching seat assignments at flight check in or will wait until we get on the plane and see if someone will switch.  We have an aisle seat to trade for a window seat so the bargaining is in our favor!

I know that flight changes, seat assignments, late arrivals, and early departures are some of the reasons some folks choose not to fly.  I get it.  Yet, given the distance to our preferred destination and travel windows, we prefer the expediency of flight travel.