Philadelphia Freedom: 8 days south of the cold Northeast (Jan '07 / OKW) About This Page:

[Happymommy]

My goal is to make this the first report I actually finish--- I swear I WILL finish this one (2 previous attempts, and I failed miserably—sorry, I still feel badly about that).


Cast of Characters: Me (Dina), 33 – 12th trip
Joe (DH), 32 – 6th trip
Aidan (DS), 6 – 4th trip
Danny (DS), 3- 4th trip
Fran (DMom), 59 – 7th trip
Steve (DDad), 58 – 7th Trip

Our Journey: Flying out of Philly International 7am , Friday 1/19, and returning
Saturday 1/27

Lodging: Old Key West (our first DVC trip)

Pre-trip report
Long story---This trip started spring ’06 when my aunt and uncle called to tell me they wanted to go to Disney in November, with my cousins and my cousin’s fiance, and they wanted to go over the quote the TA gave them, to see if I thought it sounded right. They were a little upset because the TV advertisements kept mentioning that a family of 4 could go to Disney for $1500. I tried to explain that was for a family of 4 (not 5) at a value (they were staying at POR with two rooms), and they were including the dining plan and airfare—the advertisement was not including those. Anywho--- I went over the numbers and deals out there, and since they really wanted the dining plan, it was pretty cut and dried—the number sounded right to me (though I thought they could get better airfare).


After we hung up, my aunt called back , and asked if we would want to go too. I called Joe, he said sure, but I should ask my parents as well. So, I called my parents, they said yes—but if we were all going together, we’d have to ask my grandmother as well : (she's my mom’s mom--- really her step-mom, but nobody talks about that--- weird family secret). When you think of my grandmother, think Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond, but worse—really really worse she’s like a dark side of Marie(except to me, she never ever bothers me—maybe because I’m her step-granddaughter, I don’t know—but she never bothers me,my dad, or Joe—she’s actually quite entertaining-- but everyone else forget it). So, I called my cousin and talked to her about asking my grandmother. She said, no way, would any of them go if my grandmother was going. That was kind of a deal breaker for me. I don’t usually ask my grandmother to go with us, because she is really tough, but she loves Disney, and we can’t possibly ALL go to Disney without her--- both her kids and all of her grandkids and great grandkids -- that would just be wrong. So, we said that we couldn’t go if we couldn’t ask my grandmother. And, then my aunt and uncle cancelled anyway because my cousins really didn't want to go, and they didn't want to go by themselves.

My parents still wanted to go. My grandmother couldn’t go anyway, she said she just couldn’t handle Disney anymore. So it was just my parents, Joe and I and the kids. My dad really wanted to go in the winter because he didn’t want to miss any of his fishing season, and Joe wanted to run the marathon--- so everyone agreed on January. In the mean- time Free dining came along for August, and we asked my parents if they wanted to go in August (since that would save my dad a lot of money, since he has a hard time letting Joe and I pay for anything--- I had a feeling he’d be paying the bill for many of our dinners, and my dad doesn’t eat counter service, but he only eats one meal a day--- odd, I know). My dad said “no way” about August--- he was looking forward to January (my parents always took me in July or August, so he’s never gotten to experience cooler temps or low crowds). Fine by us, but Joe and I did decide to take advantage of that free dining anyway (Aidan’s birthday gave us an excuse). So we booked a trip at ASMo for August, and Joe’s mom asked if she could come with us on our August trip as well. So that was a-go as well.

Anyway, back to the January trip. Some time in July we booked our trip--- 2 rooms at Pop Century. And we were all going to drive down (separately, my parents live 2.5 hours away), and meet down there. My dad also told me the restaurants he wanted to eat in—all in Epcot (Alfredo’s, San Angel Inn and Le Cellier), and he told us to pick the rest, but he wanted one table service per day. I tried to sell him on the dining plan, but my dad didn’t want it.. Joe and I also picked Chef Mickey dinner, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon, ‘Ohana and ‘50s Prime Time (nothing new on this trip--- actually Alfredo’s was new for Joe and the kids), and Lilo and Stitch Breakfast. So, I made all of the ADRs. Everything was set.

Sort of related--- Joe and the kids and I went on our August trip with DMIL. On our last day, we were facing an impending thunder storm so decided to pass the time with a DVC Tour, and we ended up buying 150 points that day. It’s something we had been thinking about for a long time.

The day after we returned from ASMo I called Member services to see if I could book a 2br for our January trip--- SSR was available--- and even though we had to borrow almost all of our points for the next year, we were able to book it--- I called my mom and dad and told my parents the good news! They were pretty excited. I cancelled the rooms at Pop. Bought APs with DVC discount, and then bought the DDE Card--- which would help save a little money on all of those ADRs.

We ended up having a really bad month in November. Joe was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and was told he needed to stop running, and my mom was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. My mom needed surgery 3 days before we were supposed to leave, plus we thought it would be too hard on Joe to be around all of the marathoners. He was really really looking forward to it, and he trained so hard for 10 months. So, my mom and I called MS, and changed our reservation from marathon week, to a few weeks later. The good news was OKW was available--- which was what we were originally hoping for, since OKW required less points than Saratoga. The new really worked out well since it gave my mom a few weeks to heal from surgery, plus it was 2 weeks before starting chemo.

Though we were planning to drive, I kept checking airfare just in case something really great turned up. Airtran had a sale for our dates--- $49 each way. So, it came to just a little over $500 for all of us--- we couldn’t pass that up, since gas alone would probably cost $300. Literally, the day before our trip, we booked Quicksilver to meet us at the airport (we're gonna go with DME again, but decided to do Quicksilver at the last minute, last time we arrived on a Sat. the line for DME was really long and I was figuring it would take a few hours before we'd get to OKW-- as the trip got closer this became less appealing)—we needed a van so they could provide a car seat (they always have boosters, but can only provide carseats in the bigger vehicles)—the van really wasn’t much more than a towncar though, so no problem.

So, I think that’s it. Oh one last thing, the first week of January, Joe had an appointment with a rheumatologist--- and he said the rheumatoid diagnosis was incorrect (great news). Though the RA level in his blood was elevated--- it was at 20 rather than 12 (which is the normal number). This doctor said he doesn’t feel that someone truly has RA unless their blood count is 60 or higher. He truly believed Joe had been suffering from a virus-- which made sense since Joe had really been feeling fine for the past 3 weeks. So, that was a bit of good news. I believe it was all of those pixies you wonderful people sent! Joe's now back to running every other morning, with no problems or pain whatsoever.

Coming up:
Heading out before sunrise!