Pretrip
Cast of Characters
Me: 32 (How did that happen?), a school-based Speech-Language Pathologist, Disney lover, UNH hockey enthusiast, procrastinator, family travel planner
Nick: 32, my husband, newly working in the sales department of a large car dealership, Disney Cruise Line enthusiast
This trip was put on the books on our MAGICal April Vacation last year. I’m not sure exactly what pixie dust Disney pumps into those DCL smoke stacks, but somehow I booked our most expensive vacation ever for just one year later...one week, during April vacation (which this year happens to be Easter week), on the Disney Fantasy, while we were onboard the Disney Magic. We got off the ship VERY excited, and started planning the next trip before I had even started the trip report for that cruise.
Plans gradually came together for the important stuff, mostly because we don’t fly legacy airlines, and therefore have to wait awhile before booking anything. In the end, the plans are as follows:
Friday, April 19th: I’ll work just a half day (darn!), and we will take the last (and unusually early at 3 PM) nonstop from MHT to MCO, then spend the night, on points, at the Homewood Suites Orlando Airport, JUST off airport property.
Saturday, April 20th: We will have a leisurely free breakfast at the hotel, then hop on the free shuttle back to the airport, where we will board the DCL buses to Port Canaveral, and board the Disney Fantasy, for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise to Tortola, St. Thomas, and Castaway Cay.
Saturday, April 27th: We will once again board a DCL bus, this time to All Star Movies (yup, slumming it for our final night), for one last day of Disney Magic, without entering the parks.
Sunday, April 28th: We will hit reality hard as we fly JetBlue back to Boston. Those who have read about my last two adventures with JetBlue, probably know why I’m most concerned about this final leg of the trip.
Plans also started to come together for what we wanted to do while on the ship, despite the most mentally exhausting year, thus far, of my career. At midnight on January 20th, we booked our excursions, Palo, and drinking classes, then passed out with visions of palm trees and adult beverages dancing in our heads, while the snow fell outside the house.
And then, just a few days later, on January 25th, everything became uncertain. You might have noticed that Nick has a different job description now than he did in our NOLA Christmas trip report. His company downsized, and in classic last in, first out form, he was on the losing end.
We heavily debated continuing on with the cruise plans, and stressed for quite awhile. NH might have the best economy in the nation, but getting an interview somehow proved difficult. Fortunately, on Valentine’s Day, he was offered a new job, which he started on March 4. Valentine’s Day just happened to be about a week before the deadline to cancel and only lose our deposit. After that, we would lose half of our cruise cost. So we basically had to make a decision by that week after Valentine’s Day mark. We bought trip insurance, but we bought it about 5 days too late for it to cover a job layoff. Probably will purchase slightly earlier in the trip planning process next time! With Nick headed for employment, we decided to stick with the cruise.
So Nick is back at work, this school year keeps getting more stressful, we’ve replaced multiple major household appliances since he returned to work, and some medical stuff has popped up in both our house and family members’ houses. But we are going, albeit with a large pile of wound care supplies in the suitcase, and in need of serious rest. And this countdown SLOWLY got shorter. Time sped up when Nick was looking for a job and we were up against a decision making timeclock. But once he was employed again, boy did it slow.
As the countdown slowed to a slug’s pace, the mountain of pre-trip laundry grew. One of the appliances that needed replacing was the dryer, and with crazy work schedules, and a funeral to attend, finding a delivery time proved really difficult. But we realized that most of the clothes we needed for the vacation hadn’t been worn since last summer, so they were already clean, and we pressed on, organizing for vacation as best as we could, without upsetting the dogs too much. The laundry will get dealt with before we leave, right?
Somehow, the laundry got done. So did the IEPs. I wrote 11 of them in the 2 weeks leading up to break. 11. The meetings dwindled too, down to one last meeting the morning of departure. I looked forward to the simple things like reading, something I hadn’t had time to do since February vacation.
As the work countdowns decreased, the weather forecast got more concerning. A seriously massive frontal system would be moving through Orlando about the same time we were supposed to be arriving.
As the concerns switched to the weather, the boarding passes got printed, the packing got finished (how do we need this much stuff for 9 days?!), and the excitement and exhaustion reached all new levels. We were so ready!
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