Disney in a Week

It had been in the back of my mind for months. I would occasionally drift over to the website and play with imaginary numbers. I pictured the “right year” to go on what would be “a once in a lifetime” trip. Then, on what felt like the four thousandth rainy, cold day in a row, I just did it. I punched in my credit card numbers and wondered how this would affect our budget for the next year. But instead of stopping myself, I called to confirm everything. I then ran down the stairs to share the news.  

“We’re going to Disney!” I chirruped to my husband excitedly. I probably also clapped. Love a hand gesture.

    “What are you talking about?” He turned away from the dishes in the sink to stare at me, head slightly tilted, assessing the situation. Because that’s what he does. He assesses, and thinks, and weighs his options. It can take him months to select a shirt for purchase. I just purchased a complete package at Disney World, and a flight to take us all on our first family vacation as a family of 4. In under 30 minutes.

“I went through lots of different dates and packages, and realized the least expensive time for us to go was, well… now. I priced out a lot of different dates and flights, and found one that is so cheap- it’s on Frontier, have you heard of them? And then, I looked at the hotels, and chatted with a personal planner from Disney, and I booked a trip for us to go to Disney world!”

“When?” He asked very softly, already trying to slowly and carefully inhale, and exhale.

   “Sunday.”

“Today?”

“No! That would be crazy. We’re going…next Sunday.”

   We were going to Disney World.  We were a family and we were going to Disney, which is a completely normal pastime. Millions of people do it every year- close to 20 million last year alone. It’s not like I’m trying to take us to Timbuktu.

     “Are you serious? I didn’t think you would actually do it. Next week? Didn’t we decide to wait until the kids were older? Can we handle a toddler in Disney?”

    “People do it all the time. Plus he’s free until three! See, I’m SAVING us money.”

     I wasn’t saving us money. I was panicking. I was seeing the end of my daughter’s preschool days, and knew how much she loved every single Disney character right at this very moment. I think about the day it will change, the day she will grow into another phase and this phase will be lost.  I also knew where we stood at that very moment. No one was teething, or had an ear infection. I knew that we had not recently been hit by some five digit home repair bill that would have us putting off this trip again and again. I knew I wasn’t working full time so I could take the time, and I knew my husband who works hard seven days a week, needed to take this time. Outside it was cold and gray even as spring approached.

     The first major hurdle- because, let’s face it, giving Disney a credit card number isn’t exactly a hurdle- was telling our parents we were going to Disney. I knew mine would think we were insane to go on a huge trip with one week’s notice. You read that correctly. We were a week out from our first flight. I tentatively pressed my mother’s contact, hoping that she was volunteering or working or maybe getting her hair done. But she answered on the second ring, cheerful and happy to hear from me, wondering what we would be doing for my son’s birthday. I finally said, “Mom, I have something to tell you.” Words that generally mean one is in jail, pregnant, or possibly in jail and pregnant.

   “We’re going to Disney World. Next week.”

     There was silence on the other end, and I knew she was processing my words while I cringed. We are a family of planners. We don’t just pack a suitcase and get on a plane. We spend years talking about places we would like to visit, then months finding a flight and hotel, then weeks packing and unpacking our suitcase prior to leaving.  My mother has literally been talking about visiting Paris nearly her whole life. I, on the other hand, have spent nearly my whole life shocking her with my own travels- a favorite memory is the time she called me at college, to find out I was actually standing in the middle of Times Square. This was going to be a reach.

   “Well, I don’t know what to say. Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

    Of course not. I’m never sure, and even less so when booking non refundable tickets. I ran through a list in my head of all the ways this trip could go wrong. My husband had mentioned a scratchy throat- could he be getting strep? My son had been pulling on his left ear lately- was it possible he did have an ear infection?  We were only taking two suitcases. I can usually take up two suitcases. How many princess gowns fit into two carry on suitcases? My shoe options were going to be extremely limited. Of course, I elected to tell her nothing about those concerns.

  “Yes! It will be great!” I said, and then spouted off the reasons everyone should go to Disney World on a whim.

  We spent the week packing, arguing over what to take (I said pajamas for each night, and my husband thought two pairs per kid was plenty), obsessively packing and repacking the two large suitcases my parents lent me, calling Disney on a daily basis to talk about food reservations and fast passes (apparently you are supposed to line up both these things 180 days in advance now. Gone are the lackadaisical 1980’s Disney days of waiting in line two hours to be on Space Mountain for two minutes), and joining a Facebook group about traveling to Disney that basically made me out to be a lunatic. But I’m not- I’m just a tired mother of two with a husband working around the clock and a desire to experience something new with our family. Thus our trip began.