The Great Procrastination PTR--Trip in Aug. 2011 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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came across this thread and read through it... mainly because I was attracted by the word procrastination! Love it. "Procrastination is the thief of time" is a well known saying.
By the way, I've just been made redundant.. means more time on the internet, but have to be much more careful shopping, and buying less at Amazon!!
Thanks for all the good cheer regarding dh's job! It is a relief that he's working. I do kind of wish that some of the project had gotten done, though, before he went back to work!
In keeping with the procrastination theme, I'll tell you what I should be doing. I should be folding the laundry that didn't get folded over the weekend. Hate folding laundry. I will gladly wash anything, but folding it and putting it away is another story completely.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you got all the travel plans worked out!
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Originally Posted by Cam22
It amazes me how your large group's plans are all coming together! on travel plans!
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by MikeL
Amazing How with alittle cooperation on everybodys part things work out
Everyone was great. I do feel bad for my sister Karen. I'm not sure I'd want to spend that much time in that close a space with my parents or her children. Don't get me wrong! I love them all, but...
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Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Whew! Lots of different travel schedules to contend with! I bet you are glad that part is out of the way.
I am. I may procrastinate, but I've got a little organizational problem. That problem is that I need to know what the heck is going on at all times. I'm way better about letting things go than I used to be, but it's still pretty hard.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, I bet that was a challenge, arranging all those travel plans.
It was easier than it seems. I told everyone when my little family would be there and they all made their own plans.
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Originally Posted by Colin4May
came across this thread and read through it... mainly because I was attracted by the word procrastination! Love it. "Procrastination is the thief of time" is a well known saying.
By the way, I've just been made redundant.. means more time on the internet, but have to be much more careful shopping, and buying less at Amazon!!
I'm sorry about the redundancy. I've spent some time reading the boards to keep me from spending money on other sites!
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Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG
Sounds like all the travel plans are comin together!
They are. It just makes me more excited for the trip.
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Originally Posted by jennie622
Talk about planning! This is like a boardgame!
It is! You're right! And I do think that I like planning for Disney way better than I like Monopoly!
(Procrastination update: I am sitting at my desk at work typing this up while my students are settling in for two hours of state testing. I should be grading quizzes and writing assignments while I monitor the testing
(Update on the update: I actually wrote this last week. I've been procrastinating about posting it. I get so distracted by other people's reports that I forget to post my own.)
When I was doing the preliminary planning for the trip last summer, I thought that we would drive. Julianna was going through a very difficult stage. She has some developmental delays that affect her response to various things in her life. For a long time we didn’t understand why she would freak out over simple things, but she (and we) has made so much progress since last summer. I was afraid how she would react to airport security and having to sit still on an airplane for that long. I knew, however, that she would freak out in the car (We took a really long car ride a few years back. We drove at night so that the kids would sleep in the car. Every time the car went below 60 mph, she would scream). In my head, I reckoned that it would just be better to keep Anna to ourselves. No one is happy when there’s a screaming kid on a plane. John, on the other hand, reckoned we should share the wealth.
“It’s a flight to see the rat,” he reminded me. “It’s going to be packed with screaming kids.” Good point. So fly we will.
I had been reading the boards and specifically what people were writing about flights. I learned very quickly that the prices were skyrocketing. I knew we would have to book ASAP. Starting in January I checked out various airline websites to see prices. Ideally, we wanted a direct flight out of Providence. In January, there weren’t any. The only direct flight I could find was out of Boston on Jet Blue. Round trip for the four of us would have been $1600. No kidding. That’s a chunk of change, but it was the cheapest available in January for our time frame.
When we reached the six month mark, I checked out Southwest. They had finally posted flights for our time frame. They had a flight out of Boston, for $110 non-stop. I was thrilled. It was mid-morning, direct. It would be perfect. For the four of us, round trip, would have been under $1000. Significantly cheaper than the other flights I’d seen. I told John about it. He assumed that I hadn’t done a thorough job with my research, so he asked that we wait so that we could really see what the deal was.
I didn’t want to press my luck with him. I wanted to be patient. He is doing this trip to make me happy, I didn’t want to seem too pushy. I knew that it didn’t matter what I’d say, he would have to see it to believe it. So I gave him a week. Then I told him that we should really check it out because I couldn’t find another direct flight. He looked at the flight, saw how much it cost, and then decided he needed to do a little more research.
He came home from work the next day ready to book. Apparently, he’d done the research and concurred with my evaluation of how perfect the flight was. Once we’d gotten the kids to bed, he sat down with credit card in hand to book the flights. They were GONE!!! Gone! He was angry because he had literally seen them on line only that afternoon. I walked away and let him be angry (thinking to myself that if he had only listened to me in the first place…). He, meanwhile, was angrily tapping away at the keys of his laptop. The next thing I knew, he’d booked flights for less than $700 round trip for the four of us.
Of course, the flight out leaves at 6:05 a.m. from Boston with two stops before it hits MCO. And on the flight home, we’ll have to switch planes in Baltimore. But for what we paid for the flights, I don’t think I can really complain, do you? My sister Valerie is paying $450 round trip for just her. I think we did OK.
Here's another installment that's already typed up. There's one more that's typed. I'll try getting to over the weekend. Then we'll be in real time and not a week delayed.
A Touring and Feasting Plan Takes Shape
By the beginning of February, we had paid off the balance on our hotel/park tickets and we had gotten our flights.
John felt his work was done. I forced him to look at menus for restaurants and to make some decisions, but he really felt his work was done. So I used information I had been gathering from the boards, from the Undercover Tourist app, and my own personal preferences to come up with a sort of plan. You have to understand that “sort of plans” for me generally involve spread sheets. So I made a spread sheet and brought it to my parents’ house on February 20th.
On this day, my family was almost all together in order to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Of course, I brought copies of my spreadsheet for everyone. We sat at the dining room table over coffee and dessert and hashed out some plans:
Friday, 8/19 –We’re all arriving at different times of the day. My family will be there around noon and Val won’t be there until late at night. I’m not sure when everyone else is arriving since they’re driving. Karen, Geri, my parents, and the girls are eating at O’Hana. I’ve made no plans for my crew since I don’t know what shape we’ll be in because of our early VERY early start. I’d like to head into MK, but we’ll probably just end up at the pool.
Saturday, 8/20 – My little family is booked at Garden Grille for dinner; everyone else is at Rose and Crown later with the hopes of being able to watch the fireworks. I can’t guarantee that my guys will be up for a late dinner. I also wanted to ease Anna into character interaction, which I think I can do at GG.
Sunday, 8/21 – My sisters and the girls will be going to US for Harry Potter. My parents and my family are headed to Tusker House for breakfast and then later we are going to Biergarten for dinner—my mother’s one request.
Monday, 8/22 – Everyone except my own little family are going to Sea World. I may send Jack with them. We have no ADR’s.
Tuesday, 8/23 – This is Kristy’s 21st birthday. We have very early reservations for Chef Mickey’s for 15 people. Then the girls are branching off (something about drinking around the World) and my sisters will take my kids. I am going to see if I can get my sisters to take my kids later because I booked FFC for John and me at 6.
Wednesday, 8/24 – We have an ADR for all of us for Linner (lunch/dinner) at CrystalPalace at 3:40.
Thursday, 8/25 – My sisters have booked the Pirate Adventure in the morning (originally they wanted to try Tuesday, but it was booked) for the kids. John and I will have the morning.
Friday, 8/26 – We’ll all be leaving at various times. My family will have time to catch breakfast at the hotel one last time. Everyone else will be staggering out toward home throughout the day.
I tried to get us into Le Cellier. I tried for the big party and I tried for just John and me. No luck. There was some place else I had wanted to get into, but had no love there either. That’s not a big deal because I can’t even remember what it was. I must not have wanted it very much, then.
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