The Kettling Ladies Vacation (pre-trip report) - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Some of you have already read the majority of this over in the Sunroom section of threads. I kind of figured that it made for a fairly decent pre-trip report so after some copy/paste/edits. I am posting it here now. This version has the latest updates to my little saga.
Back in February, as I was doing my taxes, I decided that I was going to take my DD to WDW this summer. She and I began looking at the Disney travel site and planning our vacation. We went to a travel agent and got a Disney brochure. Then once my tax refund made it into my bank account, we headed for the travel agent (with a $1000 check in hand for deposit) to make our reservations. We had decided to go the first week of July so that we could enjoy the 4th of July fireworks at the park. We booked our package with 5 days/4 nights at AKL, 5 days of MYW passes with dining plan, and roundtrip airline tix. Two days later we delivered a check for the balance of our trip. Woohoo!! All our major expenses are paid for and we only have to worry about saving money for souvenirs and planning our fun at the parks. Oh yeah! and ADRs. Okay, we made the ADRs for dinner at CRT on the 4th and Lunch at Garden Grill on the 3rd.
March to May we are happily and excited planning our Disney trip. We are reading everything we can find on WDW. Actively trolling the passporter boards, etc.
SO everything sounds great so far, right? Here's where the magic begins to fade a little bit.
Two weeks ago my brother announced that he had asked his girlfriend of almost 2 years to marry him. Of course we were all excited because he and his girlfriend had been friends since junior high, but they never actually started dating each other until about two years ago. We love his fiancé and she has long been considered one of the family, so now they are just making it official. She had decided that she wanted the wedding to be in June. Okay, so far everything is hunky dory. Well, I just got a phone call from my dad. The place where they want to have the wedding is only available on July 6. The problem is that DD and I will be flying BACK to TX on the 6th. Not a big deal except that the wedding is at 7 PM and our plane lands at 4:20 PM, add in an hour to get bags and a 2 hour drive home. Yeah, DD and I wouldn't be able to make it to the wedding on time since it is still another 45 minutes from where we live.
According to my dad, the dates worked out for everyone EXCEPT me and my DD. SO we are being asked to cut our vacation a day short to be here for the wedding. Well OF COURSE I want to be at the wedding. SO I get on the phone to the travel agent to change the flight back from FL. Granted, Mom and Dad will be driving to Orlando just 2 weeks after DD and I get back, and we will be going with them. SO we will get to make up any days that we miss at WDW. I just feel a bit annoyed that I have to change my plans that were already paid for in full with penalties for changing flights. If they could change the preferred date so easily, why couldn't they make it for a later date in July or August? ARGH!! The fact that I have to change our vacation dates irks me, but then again in my family, I'm usually the one that has to change something to accommodate other people. (sorry for the whine)
On the positive side, my dad said that he would pay the penalties for me to change the flight. If I have to, I can even change to resort to a slightly cheaper one to save a little bit of money. (Our second choice was Coronado Springs anyway.) I could change the flight to earlier in the day, but that would put my DD and I under too much stress to be able to get home and changed in time for the wedding.
Dad even offered to pay for the NO Expiration option on our park tickets so that we can use them when we go back with them.
Okay, I have talked to my travel agent a few times now. We are able to change the flight to the 5th. Dad is going to pay the $100/ per ticket fee to change the flights plus whatever difference there is in flight fares. Luckily, the new flight will leave at the same time my old flight was leaving (2:55 pm), so we will be able to sneak in some extra park time that morning before we leave. Grace and I had already decided to change resorts after reading about the construction going on at AKL. SO we are now going to stay at Coronado Springs. This difference in resorts will save us about $500, and the agent was able to work it out so that my penalties came out of the credit. Also, while I had her on the phone, I had her add 3 days of park passes and the no expiration which also came out of the credit. Now my $500 credit is about $230. I figure that is just extra souvenir money that I don't have to worry about saving before we get there.
Maybe the magic isn’t fading as much as I first thought. I am glad that I have been able to make the changes I needed to make and no extra money out of my pocket. Granted I did lose $200 out of the whole deal, but I can get that back from Dad and then use it on the return trip to WDW.
I still have 1 month and 4 weeks until we leave for Orlando, but now that the date is getting so close, I am getting truly excited. According to my agent, my DME package should be here within a couple of weeks. WOOHOO!!!
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