I am leaving in about 15 minutes to pick the kids up from school. After dropping Brighid and Granuaile off at my mom’s, I am taking Eilis to meet Jim in Orlando for a long weekend. Just for her.
The trip came about a couple of weeks back when a DING fare popped up on my computer. DING is a downloadable program through Southwest Airlines that allows you to put in the city you normally travel from, and then when special fares come up from that city to any other, your computer DINGS and you can access the special rates. The DING came up that day to Orlando for $49 each way. I knew money was tight, but having just had Brighid’s big Sweet 16 party, and Eilis feeling a bit like Brighid gets all the special things in life and she gets none, I felt we could come up with the money for at least Eilis and I to fly down. I would look into using DVC points to stay so that wouldn’t cost us anything, and we would go to Universal on our annual pass. If there happened to be a few extra dollars in the budget, we’d book Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Since Jim had just been talking about taking Brighid down to Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights, I thought we’d be okay coming up with a few dollars, and I set about booking the trip.
Well, it didn’t all fall into place as smoothly as I had planned out. There are no DVC units available, which stinks. But, Jim stepped up with Marriott points and we were able to book the Renaissance Sea World. It looks nice online, and since we’re not doing a completely Disney weekend, it should be fine. And there’s a Starbucks in the lobby 🙂 Jim’s flight from Milwaukee to Orlando is double the cost to fly into Philly, but he books it anyway. He gets reimbursed from work, but he’s nervous about it costing more than normal. And to add one more kink in the works, of course we want to see Jim’s mother and step-father, but I am afraid it may conflict with a visit from her sister. That worked itself out, fortunately, as we arrive the day she leaves 🙂
So, my plan is to have Eilis go with me to the airport to pick Jim up. This is not uncommon, as she has done it before, just her and I. When we get there, I’ll suggest we go inside to meet Daddy. I have no luggage, so we don’t have to check in, we just go straight to security. She won’t know what’s going on until we’re walking onto the plane!!
Then reality starts to set in. I’m dropping the other two off at my mom’s. Eilis wants to go there. Eilis doesn’t want to ride to the airport. Eilis doesn’t want to go to dinner with me. Eilis wants to go to Dram’s for a sleepover.
So that’s where we are now. I’ll let you know how it all plays out. We’re Orlando bound either way, but the experience will either be one she’ll always remember or one she’ll never forget 😉