[Annabel]

<font color="purple">Seeing Disney Through Loved Ones' Eyes - AKA The Double Celebration Trip!


Adventurers:

Annabel aka me – soon to be age 33 [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img] Disney World fanatic who wishes she had Dorothy’s ruby slippers to get to her happy place instead of a 9 hour flight (how to do you spell chicken? A-N-N-A-B-E-L!) [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Andy aka welshandproud – soon to be 36 – not as fanatical as me but still loves Disney World. Rollercoaster and cold beer [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img] fanatic

Bobbie aka my beloved mum – 54 (hopefully she won’t slap me for sharing that [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]) – patiently understands my obsession and wants to do some of the many things I rave about. First and only visit to Disney World was in September 1989! Sadly doesn’t remember much about her first trip but hopefully we may trigger some memories [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Jez aka Mum’s toyboy and hubby – turns 50 during our trip [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] Loves America, rollercoasters and cold beer. First and only trip to Disney World was in 1995.

Also during this trip, Mum and Jez will be celebrating their first wedding anniversary, aaw [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] I am so excited about this trip [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] Every time we’ve come back from our trips, Mum and Jez have both said they’d love to go one day.

A little background is needed here [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] We all get on like a house on fire. Mum and I are very close, I consider her to be one of my best friends. We speak daily and if we don’t, it feels very weird. Mum always complains when we go on holiday that it feels like one of her arms is missing as we don't get to talk as much. Jez and Andy, thankfully, get on brilliantly – they have a similar sense of humour and also share another common bond: they both love fast rollercoasters and cold beer. Oh and American muscle cars [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

We mentioned after our Christmas 2004 trip that maybe they should come with us in a trip or two. Mum and Jez both loved the idea so we decided that 2006 might possibly be the year. At one stage, my brother Chris and his girlfriend Clair were going to join us but unfortunately they couldn’t afford it – plus my dear brother is a bit like BA Baracus from the A-Team when it comes to flying and we would have had to knock him out to get on the plane [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] I can just imagine trying to explain to the stewardess that he’s not my excess baggage, he’s just afraid of flying so we knocked him out for his own good [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

So enough background stuff – let the pre-trip begin [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

Flashback time! Captain's Log. Star Date: Early summer 2005. Andy and I are in the garden lapping up the sunshine, sat on our picnic bench with the laptop and enjoying a lazy Friday evening together. We’re eagerly chatting about our forthcoming holiday as well as reminiscing about previous ones, and Andy started looking at flights and holidays. We got a couple of quotes and it was actually cheaper to book a holiday for the 4 of us than going for flights. How silly! We were flying First Choice in October and while looking at different dates, Andy put in our October dates for the fun of it to see what availability was like. It was showing premium seating available for our flight. I put on what I hoped would be an innocent look and suggested to Andy that maybe he should phone First Choice and just see what they would want to upgrade. Just for the fun of it, of course [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] My innocent look won Andy over and he was on the phone in seconds. We were expecting a good laugh and a silly amount. Instead, Andy looked at me with wide eyes and said to the agent that he just needed to speak to his wife. He then tells me that they want a mere £300 for the pair of us to upgrade [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] And that’s return, not each way. Well, for that money we couldn’t say no [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] After Andy upgraded us, I quickly rang my mum and told her about our luck. She immediately cursed us because she’d paid that for each of them each way to the Bahamas for their wedding. Ouch, sorry Mum [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/sorry.gif[/img] Mum suggested that maybe we should consider them for when the four of us go. We left it with me having to come up with some dates and some research was needed [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zputer.gif[/img]

Firstly I figured that the weather would have to be lovely but not too hot so the summer months were out. I then considered April and then realised that Easter was in the middle of the month so that wouldn’t be any good. A plan started forming in my mind for May. I spoke to mum again and she mentioned it was Jez’s birthday on the 11th of that month. May was definitely a good choice then [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] I then went to timeanddate.com and found out Mother’s Day was in the middle of May in the US, so with Easter being in the middle of April, the end of April through middle of May sounded like an ideal choice. Unfortunately there was no flights available for that period but Andy rang First Choice and got a quote for a holiday for the 6 of us, which was about £3,500. Not bad I guess. It was staying off-site though and I wasn't sure what Mum and Jez wanted to do. We would have to wait until July or so for the flights to come out for April/May 2006. Even though I was excited about my brother coming with us, I just had a gut feeling in the back of my mind that they wouldn't be able to come. At a later date, this would prove to be right [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/pout.gif[/img]

Coming up: they want HOW MUCH for flights [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img]