DH-2-mamaduck
DisDad#446 - Family of 7 from MN
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2009
And don't worry, we start the punishment in your home state.
I found this T-shirt the night after I posted here. Hope you don't mind
And don't worry, we start the punishment in your home state.
I found this T-shirt the night after I posted here. Hope you don't mind
There are some cool places in Wisconsin. Living North of Chicago, we have visited quite a few. I'm curious to read your take on the area, and maybe get a few ideas...
Yuck... this trip report smells like moldy cheese and Old Milwaukee.
If you tell it, it will be an outside joke. Not that there's anything wrong with that.As I mentioned earlier, it'll be a while before we get to Wisconsin. The title is more of an inside joke. Hope we don't disappoint!
I'm sure Mark will be fine with it, as long as you're OK with this one.I found this T-shirt the night after I posted here. Hope you don't mind
I found this T-shirt the night after I posted here. Hope you don't mind
I'm coming along for the ride! Looking forward to seeing the rest.
Some?? ALL of Wisconsin is cool. True Story.
That's the best part!
If you tell it, it will be an outside joke. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I'm sure Mark will be fine with it, as long as you're OK with this one.
[GALLERY=]
Sorry I'm late to the party. But I have a good excuse - I was in Disney World.
After a chaotic two and a half months, I'm finally getting back into the Dis groove. Another fantastic trip report is just what I need to read so, naturally, I'm subscribing to your's.
[GALLERY=][/GALLERY]
LOL..yeah. We'll win the Super Bowl tomorrow...the 5th time's the charm, right?
Joining in from my home state, WI. After reading your past TRs it will be interesting to see what you think of our beautiful state.
Not a thumbSomewhere, the Buffalo Bills are saying the same thing.
Not a thumb
Ouch!Chapter 1: False Start (Or, Everything You Hate About Airlines Wrapped Into One Chapter)
I mention this because vacation planning gives me the same sense of anticipation that I used to get in the days before Christmas.*
*Full disclosure: I still can’t sleep on Christmas Eve. But now, it’s because I can’t wait for everyone else to open their gifts.
Take that, baseball curse!
The baseball curse lives.
(Or, Everything You Hate About Airlines Wrapped Into One Chapter)
When I was a kid, I could never get to sleep on Christmas Eve.
and dial up radio stations playing Christmas music on my state-of-the-art Sony Walkman
Thump
Thump
Thump
Thump
Thump
(pause)
ThumpthumpthumpthumpthumpTHUMPTHUMP “Santa was here!”
*Full disclosure: I still can’t sleep on Christmas Eve. But now, it’s because I can’t wait for everyone else to open their gifts.
The night before a vacation, I’m tossing and turning in excitement, as I can’t wait to leave work behind and start exploring. Julie is also tossing and turning, but she’s wondering what we’re going to forget to take with us.
my father drove our van back to Delaware and saved us $100 in parking fees.
We were leaving on a Tuesday, because that was the date that had offered the cheapest flights.
Once we landed in Minneapolis, we were going to head straight downtown to Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. They just so happened to be playing our team, the Philadelphia Phillies, that evening.
This time, I purposely checked the Twins schedule before booking our flights, saw they were playing the Phillies, and made sure our dates coincided with the games. Take that, baseball curse!
In order to avoid paying airport prices for crappy fast food for lunch, we stopped at a McDonald’s just before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and paid regular prices for crappy fast food, eating in the car.
I had been hearing horror stories about the TSA lines at airports, but we sailed through security and were at the gate in plenty of time for the flight. We all had our Phillies gear on and were excited to get the trip started.
All of us, especially Drew, were excited to get on board and fly in an airplane.
Soon, the view looked like this:
Ever try and keep a 2-year-old boy peaceful and happy in an airport?
Wait, let me re-phrase that: ever try and keep a 2-year-old boy peaceful and happy anywhere? It’s impossible.
If you remember from last year’s vacation, I had to schlep this kid around everywhere in a backpack because he wouldn’t be able to go on his own
He disproves the laws of thermodynamics, because he is a perpetual motion machine. He Does. Not. Stop. Moving. Ever.
Eventually, we found the best way to keep him entertained in the airport was to just let him run on the moving sidewalks. Over and over and over and over. He’d run down one, turn around, and then run the opposite direction.
Eventually, the skies cleared and we began to see flights taking off and landing again.
Our gate was still empty.
If the flight was delayed long enough, we wouldn’t be able to get to the baseball game. This distressed David greatly. Out of all the kids, he is the true baseball fanatic.
Imagine how much he’d enjoy it if the Phillies were any good!
Finally, after some bouncing, cajoling, fussing and bear-hugging, I managed to get Drew to sleep.
We had bought the tickets on Stubhub, so I pulled up the site on my iPad and re-listed the tickets for sale. Fortunately, someone actually did buy them from us—we sold at a loss, of course, but at least we got a little something back for them.
Poor Dave was devastated to miss the game and was in tears. I felt awful for him.
The baseball curse lives.
Meanwhile, flights were arriving and departing for cities all over the country with no issues whatsoever.
“Hey, remember when we said your flight was cancelled? Made you look! No, seriously, our bad. You’re not cancelled. Relax and have a seat.”
Fine. Let’s do that. At some point in the evening, we walked down the hall and paid outrageous airport prices for crappy pizza for dinner.
“Well, I can try and put you on a flight that leaves later this evening. There’s one that leaves at 12:30 a.m.”
Right. With 4 kids, including a toddler. How about a nice, hot steaming cup of No?
NOT EVEN TWO MINUTES LATER: “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that your flight has been cancelled.” Thanks again for stringing me along, Mr. Desk Clerk!
No way I’m getting back to the desk anytime soon in order to re-book the flight. So, I called Southwest’s reservation line directly.
I asked about any availability from Philadelphia, which is only 45 minutes from my house and much more convenient. Absolutely, the agent said. The difference in fares is only $400 per seat, so I could book a flight from Philadelphia for an extra $2,000.
I work for the state government. And as far as I’m concerned, any of you that work for the airline industry have forever lost your right to complain about bureaucracy ever again.
With the flight re-booked, I then called our hotels for Tuesday and Wednesday nights and was able to cancel them with no fees or charges, which was a relief.
The rental car company took some work, because they would only hold the reservation for 24 hours before marking me as a “no-show”. I explained the situation and finally convinced an agent to hold our minivan for us—this was a huge relief as a quick search of rental websites showed no availability for minivans.
Drew was on his last legs.
My father arrived around 10:30 p.m. We still didn’t have our luggage.
My father put Drew in his stroller and just started giving him rides all over the baggage claim to try and keep him calm since he was exhausted but refusing to sleep.
People would disappear to check on bags and then never come back.
We all just wanted to go home.
an employee who told her a different story: “Oh, I think those bags are already on their way to Minneapolis.”
I’m sorry…WHAT??
“Did you put in a request to have your bags pulled from the plane? If you didn’t put in a request to have them pulled, our policy is to send them on.”
Gee, that might have been helpful information, say…three hours ago. It’s our fault, really. When they said bags from the cancelled flights would be brought to the baggage claim, we went to the baggage claim. What were we thinking?
Southwest’s motto is “Bags Fly Free”. I had no idea that was meant to be taken literally. You’re not going anywhere, but your bags could fly all over the country!
And how come they could get to Minneapolis but we couldn’t?
We rode all the way back to Dover and crashed onto the beds at my parents’ house. No pajamas, no toiletries…and we didn’t care. We just crashed.
Right off the bat, we’d lost two days of our summer vacation.
Coming Up Next: Will we ever actually get to Minnesota?
And we’ll check in on the trials and travails of The Alternate Universe Oblivious Family, to see what fun we would have had if we’d actually been able to depart on time.