Nuclear Family Trip-Let's Hope I Don't Explode!! About This Page:

[KimandMark]

I've got some numbers for you. 9. 6. 5-2=3. 32. 31. 23.

9 number of days before we leave for....

6 nights at AKV-Jambo. There were supposed to be

5 of us (Jake, Me, Weeman Adam, Baca and Mimi) but minus

2 (Baca and Mimi) there are now just

3 of us because just

32 days before our trip Mimi (my mother) had a small stroke and was admited to the hospital. Clearly, Mimi and Baca would not be able to take this trip, and we were uncertain if our little nuclear family would go either. As DVC members know, you have until

31 days prior to your trip to cancel without having to rebook. So I had to make a decision--cancel them or cancel the whole thing. My father insisted that we go, as my mother was okay/stable and he didn't want Adam to miss the trip. With just 24 hours to make a decision we opted to go. Mom spent another

23 days in the hospital and rehabilitation center before coming home Wednesday. She's doing very well, following through on her exercises but she's also lost some coginitive abilities--her memory is poor, and she says she really has to work hard to follow or maintain a conversation.

It's been a month of stress and anxiety, confusion, joy, frustration, all the things that go with a sick and elderly parent.

Since joining DVC four years ago, we've always brought my parents on an annual trip, partly because they love Disney, partly because they love to see Adam enjoy Disney, partly because we like getting 2 or 3 adult dinners to ourselves, partly because they do so much childcare for use the rest of the year they deserve a vacation too. So this will be the first time we've gone as a family without my parents. Of course I'm going to miss date nights, but I'm really upset that Baca won't get to swim with Adam, and Adam won't have his morning run around between our balconies and bedrooms getting excited to spend days and days with all of us.

As for the logisitics of making DVC and airline changes, I've got to praise both Disney and Southwest for being almost absurdly pleasant and easy to deal with. Perhaps it's the family illness that brings out the extra nice customer service or maybe these two companies really do deserve the praise consumers give them.

I called DVC Member Services to cancel part of my reservation because I was sure I would screw it up online and wind up with no room and the few borrowed points I was using lost forever. We booked a two bedroom at AKV Jambo House (we just prefer Jambo, sue me) which is always a one bedroom with a lock-off studio so I figured it would be easy--just release the lock-off and done. The CS told me it's not really that easy, as they book the two bedrooms as if they are NOT lock-offs, so while someone could get that studio now, it's generally not in the pool of rooms as a studio. I'd borrowed 12 or 15 points to fulfill this reservation and wanted to make sure those were used and the refunded points were from this use year so that I can bank them (once you borrow, you must use, they can't be put back/banked). The CS took care of that, I got 47ish points back and off to the bank they will go! So easy. And we had a long talk about my mother, her father, elder care options, homes, finances, everthing. She really was an outstanding person to talk to just then as my mother lay, medicated into a near coma (she had some bananas high BP that had to be dealt with in addition to the stroke symptoms).

Southwest was equally amazing. Look, my parents aren't going anywhere on an airplane for a quite awhile, possibily not ever again. Cancelling a SW ticket gets you a credit, but it expires 12 months from the original purchase date. That would be December. So I called and explained it all again, and again, had a CS who shared the story of her father and offered tons of sympathy in addition to changing our nuclear family's flights (Jake, Adam, me) to a more convenient airport, cancelling my parents and getting me in touch with another CS who could help me with a refund. Really, I'd figured that at best I'd get an extension on the credit, or perhaps a partial refund, maybe the ability to rename a ticket. But no. FULL REFUND. I explained to another insanely pleasant person the whole thing, again, and she said write this down: claim number for each, confirmation number, email address, subject line. Then she told me to call my mother's doctor and get a letter saying she won't be flying. Bang. Done. Easy.

I'm not kidding when I say that these two phone calls took about 15 minutes total. Getting the letter was easy, I emailed and had a response in minutes, with a note that the refund would be processed in 30 days.

In so many ways I feel like an incredibly insensitvie person that I spent time while at the hospotal with my mother making these calls and decisions. Shouldn't I have been worried about her and not about 50 DVC points or $700 of airfare? I suppose I handle stress by controlling all the things I can. You'd be amazed at the amount of work I got done in the overnights at the hospital. Mom was sleeping/drugged and I was afraid she'd wake up and not know where she was or who the nurses were so I stayed all night until she was coherent. So I sat on her bed, with her hand on my lap, and my computer on her table, typing away, narrating my work, offering commentary on the lastest education policy and hoped she could hear me.

She's home now, sad to miss Disney, but excited to Skype with her Weeman Adam. The visiting nurse comes daily, OT and PT are semi-supervised, she still heads off to dialysis M/W/F mornings, and while she's not prefect, she's actually doing far better physically than she was prior to the stroke. Seems a bit a wake up call about her sedentary behaviors, ignoring doctors, and brushing off medication.

Here's hoping our first long trip with just the three of use doesn't cause one of us (me...) to explode; counting down 9 days until the Nuclear Family Trip begins!!!