If it wasn't for bad luck we would have no luck at all...Update 1/4 Evening at the Magic Kingdom

[Dreamer & Wisher]

And then something changed.

We won a trip to Walt Disney World

Who are we??

We are a family of 5 who loves Disney, but as the kids got older and we added our third, Disney became too expensive for our budget. So I started entering Disney Trip Contests. Over at Mousesavers.com there is a list of sweepstakes you can enter. So occasionally I would go over there and using the links they have posted enter the different sweepstakes.

A little bit about each of us.

I am Nancy, my first Disney trip was in 1976, I was just 3 years old. Now I am a preschool teacher and a mom.

My DH is Ron his first trip was in 1980 and he is the editor for our local newpaper.

My Daughter Abby is about to start High School. Her first visit to Disney was in 2005.

My son Ethan is about to start 6th Grade, and his first trip was in 2005.

And our youngest son Henry is in PreK and his first trip was in 2013.

We haven't been to Walt Disney World since that trip in June 2013 so this trip will be so different from all our other trips in many ways. Hopefully, one thing will stay the same and that is the Family fun that Disney has to offer.

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

So this is me in the blue shorts hugging Mickey with my brother in the yellow tank, my sister on the left, and the little guy in the lower left hand corner is another brother of mine. This was in May of 1980 and we stayed at Fort Wilderness in a tent.


Our first Family Trip, March 2005

 

[Fastpassminus]

You WON a trip!! Amazing!!! Congrats!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I can't believe you won!! That's is so cool! I'm totally in to follow along and hear all about your plans!

 

[disneyaddicted]

Wow, you won a Disney trip, that is awesome. I can't wait to read about your plans.

 

[kde175]

I'm in, too.

 

[mercydisney]

WINNING!!!!! LOL, I am in!

 

[Dentam]

So... is it this trip that you won or the June 2013 trip? Either way I'm in to hear about your plans!

 

[Pluto0809]

Followed the link over from Mo's TR. I'm so interested to hear how the process works when you win a trip! I really need to start entering some those contests.

 

[Chicago Mo]

I'm Here!!! Cannot wait to read how all this came about!!!

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

So now you know who we are, a little bit about our bad luck. Which mostly seems to affect my van and various appliances.
Right before our trip to Disney in June of 2013 the air conditioning in my 2005 Honda Odyssey went out. Now you can't drive from Georgia to Florida in June without Air Conditioning so we had to have it repaired. We enjoyed our trip but it was really expensive, most of our previous trips we took during Free Dining but it was not offered for our June 2013 trip. After we came back I found the Mousesavers.com page and started entering the different contests offered on their website.

Then the sliding door on the van broke, stuck shut, and the only way to repair it is to cut a hole in the door. Price to fix it $1000, not gonna happen.

Then in August last year, we were running some errands and it was hot and the AC didn't seem to be cooling down. Yep, broken again.
Since it had only been a little more than a year since we had it repaired we drove up to the place that had repaired it before.
Closed, Out of Business

So, since it is almost the end of summer we decide to wait to fix the AC so we have a little more money for Christmas. We'll just get it fixed when we get our tax refund in the spring.

So my husband uses Turbo Tax to file our taxes, on February 1st we attempt to efile our tax return. Immediately after sending it he receives an email informing us that someone has already filed a tax return using my name and Social Security Number.

We contacted all the major Credit reporting agencies and added fraud alerts to our accounts.

We have to file our tax return via USPS along with an affidavit, and copies of my Driver's License and SS card.
And we wait...so it is now the middle of June and we still haven't recieved our refund. In the meantime several other appliances in our house
need some repairs. The icemaker and water dispenser on the fridge are broke while we were out of town for my grandfather's funeral. We came home to a glacier in the freezer. And when we went in the back yard to let the dogs out, one of the Bradford Pear trees in the backyard had split in two landing on our new little swing set. Thankfully the swing set was allright and a neighbor with a chainsaw came over and cut up the tree for us. Also, a little button on the washing machine is broken, making it a little hard to start. And our van still has no Air Conditioning.

By the way, if you are in the market for a Minivan, stay away from the Honda Odyssey, my Sister in law has one and she has also had many of the same issues with hers. Her door broke and unfortunately for her it broke while the door was open so it wouldn't latch closed. Her Air Conditioning has also broken twice.

Up next, how we won...

 

[ljcrochet]

Can't wait to hear about how you won the trip!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Hi, Nancy!
I followed your post on ChicagoMo's PTR and can't wait to hear how a little magic changed your bad luck!!!!
Jackie

 

[goofymimi]

Congratulations, that is so awesome that you won a trip to Disney!! And just a little funny note, my name is Nancy and my husbands name is Ronnie!!

 

[Blissikins]

Subbing in! I found your post through ChicagoMo's thread.

I can't believe you won a trip to Disney!! That's amazing! Sounds like it was about time your luck changed.

 

[teresajoy]

I thought you were going to say you had a Chevy Venture! Our AC went out in Georgia while we were driving down to Florida a few years ago. We never repaired it, so now all car conversations have to be said really loudly. And, the driver side sliding door doesn't work either. The joys of car ownership!

I'm so excited about your trip!!! I can't wait to read all about it!

 

[DisneyTeacher01]

I'm here! I love a good PTR/TR

 

[CruisingCamper]

HI There! Glad to hear your luck changed. Looking forward to hearing about how you won your trip!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I can't believe all the bad luck with the Honda. I'm a nanny and they had the odyssey for years with no problems until someone rear ended them. We've had a Honda CR-V and now an accord and love them. Just regular maintenance. Boo for the bad luck. BUT--going to disney after winning a trip sort of makes things better, right?

 

[Wood Nymph]

I want to hear all about winning a trip to Disney.

So my husband uses Turbo Tax to file our taxes, on February 1st we attempt to efile our tax return. Immediately after sending it he receives an email informing us that someone has already filed a tax return using my name and Social Security Number.

And we wait...so it is now the middle of June and we still haven't recieved our refund.

My daughter had that happen to her and they told her that she most likely won't get her tax refund until November. It is scary to think how vulnerable we all are now with all the reported data breeches out there. And the IRS could have prevented those tax fraud cases if they ran a simple verification first before sending out all those tax refunds. It makes me angry to think how irresponsible the government is.