The Mean Parents Trip PTR (Updated 4/21/10) - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I won’t bore you with the on-again off-again, million changes to our dining reservations – it’s enough to say that I am VERY thankful to have unlimited long distance on my home phone and 2000 unused rollover minutes on my cell phone
One advantage to us having corresponding trips, is that accidentally slipping and saying something about her trip to Florida is easily covered up… thank goodness! It wasn’t like last time when we surprised her by having her older sister fly in from Colorado and show up at the lobby gift shop and ask her to trade pins. So there hasn’t been much of a problem with trying to remember not to say something.
So… on with the adventure. I’ve purchased my tickets to DC and back. I’ve purchased DD’s ticket from DC to Orlando. I am SO ready for this surprise… Because this is almost like a charter group, they hold off until 30 days out to book their flights. I'd been sitting on pins and needles… FINALLY – March 18th they post the flight times. Departure time from Portland – PERFECT! They’re leaving 11 minutes before us (phew!)… we were worried they would be on a much later flight and that we wouldn’t be able to see her off at the airport. They arrive in DC about 15 minutes before we arrive in Orlando – again, perfect – dueling texts with photos as we land shall be fun!
OK – now to figure out how close I was to planning my flight up to DC. Am I going to have to try to get an earlier flight? I’m scheduled to arrive at 1:30… oh no, they’re leaving DC at 2:35pm. That’s not going to work… I won't get to the airport in time to get her before she checks in. I’m going to have to rebook to the earlier flight.
No problem, I say to myself. It’s Southwest. They’re so easy to work with… and the cost for a different flight is the same…
IF ONLY…..
It were the right airport! Of course, guess what… after umpteen years of doing this trip and flying in and out of Dulles, they are booked in and out of… Reagan! OMGoodness…. AAAAARGH! Southwest doesn’t fly into Reagan – double aargh!
So now what to do. Well; we’ll have credit for flying SW some other time, so I cancel the flights. And now I have to get there early, just in case they head to the airport really early… I have to “head her off at the pass” so to speak. I need to catch her outside the airport.
Checking the flights into and out of Reagan, I’ve now got a 9am flight in arriving at 11:30; and a 3 pm out. This actually works much better! Instead of getting back to Orlando at 8:30 and barely making it to the parks, we’ll be back at 5:15.
This works well – in fact VERY well… I’d checked the park schedules, and the park is open an hour late Thursday. Friday & Saturday are both Grad Nights (why two weekend nights in a row, I’ll never know!). A last minute call to DVC asking about the possibility of seating at the Dessert Party. SCORE! Sweet (literally!)…
OMG this is sounding like so much fun. I know what you mean about saying things and having to cover them up as I keep telling the kids that we are going to Maryland but we are going to WDW. I just tell them I am planning for a future trip lol... My Ddad actually goofed up in front of one his friends about us going to FL in front of the kids and I said, "Dad we are going to Maryland not FL. Would you please get it right!"
Glad that the flights worked out okay! How weird that they suddenly swapped airports like that! It's great that you're going to end up back in FL earlier in the day though. What a wonderful mistake.
just catching up - yes you are so mean
wish my mom would be that mean - then again I am an adult
glad your flights worked out better
great dining plans - congrats on the dessert party
hurry back with more please
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I can't believe it's only 2 more days... yikes! And have I packed... even one piece of clothing???? Nope! OMGoodness - that's a first for me.
So... here's the "official" departure schedule. The kids are meeting at the school at 2:45 am... to leave at 3am. I go to bed around midnight normally, so why even bother at that point? We decided not us, though. Are you nuts? We're going to spend the night at a hotel down by the airport.
Since we need to park for "4" nights (ok, so it's 8) we decided to do a stay, park & fly package. The Hyatt at PDX offers a $104 stay, including 7 nights parking; an extra $5 for night number 8 and we're set! Not a bad deal. We'll get an extra couple hours sleep, but still have to be at the airport around 4.... aaargh! Parking at the airport would run us almost $80, so it's a pretty good deal.
Oh, and they have a swimming pool - how convenient! And I offered to take her suit with us, so she wouldn't have a moldy gross swimsuit with her on her trip... OK... add evil planning parent to the name...
The kids head to DC at 6:09; our flight to MCO leaves at 6:20... couldn't be much more perfect! They're only doing carry-on bags, since United wants to charge them another $25 per bag to check them... oy! However, this makes my plan so much easier to grab her in DC - don't have to worry about catching her before she checks her bags! Yeah!!
I do believe I've figured out how to surprise her... we're going to get a hat for her, get "The Mean Parents" embroidered on it, and take a picture of her dad wearing it on Monday or Tuesday. I'll bring it with me when I head up to DC on Thursday... I'll sneak up behind her, drop it, and say "excuse me, miss, I think you dropped something." Hopefully the voice will be out of place enough she won't think twice and lean over and pick up the hat... she should catch on by then...
I'm still open to suggestions on surprising her, tho -- let me know if you have any ideas! I'll do my best to capture the moment on film... I'll probably catch up with her teachers first and ask them to take photos...
I like me some sneaky plans!!! Your idea for surprising her is great but I also like the idea of texting her about her clothes. It could go something like this:
" Why did you choose that (insert specific outfit here) for today. That's not gonna look good while walking up Main Street"
Or something like that. When she reads that, she'll be looking around wondering how you know about her outfit. You can be wearing something, like a hat, and when she sees you she'll get all excited.
I'm so excited for you!! Can't wait to read how it all went.
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It wasn’t like last time when we surprised her by having her older sister fly in from Colorado and show up at the lobby gift shop and ask her to trade pins. So there hasn’t been much of a problem with trying to remember not to say something.
Southwest doesn’t fly into Reagan – double aargh!
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Your idea for surprising her is great but I also like the idea of texting her about her clothes. It could go something like this:
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