We put the DYS in Functional, Completing our ABC’s

[jenseib]

I now had about a month to plan. This is the downside to booking a late rate, but I really didn’t want anything special on the ship, like Palo or character meets, so I was fine.


I of course told J, P and PT that we booked and of course did a little coaxing to them that they should as well. J booked right away. Her and MK were going to join us and I would finally get to meet MK. P said she just couldn’t swing it right now and we tried to coax her, but she said too much was going on to be able to go…and I totally understand.

PT waivered a bit but really wanted to go. Her son Z was turning 18 in Jan and this would be a great gift for him. Her son C would not be able to go and she looked into having someone keep an eye on him and then did end up booking as well.


It always happens that as soon as you plan a vacation, business gets busy or life gets in the way, so my personal planning wasn’t as enthusiastic as I hoped it would be. In my spare time I looked for hotels for both pre and post cruise. Because Skip was coming with us, I planned a later flight into San Juan on Jan. 26 to accommodate his schedule better. He could do an hour or 2 of work in the morning and then we could make the 2 ½ hour drive to the airport and fly. The down side was that we would arrive at 9 PM, which made me nervous. If something went wrong, or weather was bad and we missed the flight, we could have some issues.


I looked for hotels and WOW!!!!! They cost a lot in San Juan. I was having a hard time finding anything under $400 for a night, and with us arriving so late, I didn’t want to spend that much for just a place to sleep. After talking with J, we decided on air bnb’s. She has used them in the past, but this was my first time. I looked for several days before I took the plunge. It still wasn’t cheap, but at $170, it was a heck of a lot cheaper than a hotel.


Again, we needed a hotel for the day we disembarked as well and the prices were not great, but a little less. In the end, I got a Courtyard for under $300 for the night. That was still much cheaper than all 3 of us flying home the day we disembarked.


I always watch my flights when I book with Southwest, and if they go down, I make an adjustment. I also watch the times and if a better time goes down, I change the flight to that. I am a point hungry person, so any time I can get points back I am excited.


Now during this planning process, Skip asked me more than once that if he had to cancel could someone replace him. Yes, but it wasn’t like it would be easy and there would be a $50 charge to do so. Skip has had some health issues and he was planning a surgery for his shoulder. He actually has scheduled it twice and cancelled it. He also has anxiety about the surgeries…and travel. So he was a bundle of nerves for most of Jan.


I managed to book a few excursions, some with Skip and some without, as he didn’t want to snorkel. I started the packing about a week or so before we were due to leave. I tried to minimize what we brought....but well.... that's just not easy for me.


I kept watching our air, but it didn’t drop. There was a later flight coming home that dropped, but I knew Skip would not like getting back that late. If it was just Claire and I would have changed it in a minute. It would have given us over 11,000 points back for the 3 of us.


We were all set! On Friday Jan. 25, I had all the suitcases packed for the most part, with just last minute things to throw in. I was done with work for the next week and a half and I had a small list of things to finish up at home to do before we left for the airport Sat. morning. Claire was beyond excited that her dad would be joining us on a cruise!


You are about to get a lesson on how Dysfunctional our family really is!

 

[FSU Girl]

Yay another trip report! How exciting to complete your grand slam.

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

Woo hoo!! Hooray for the Grand Slam. Joining in!

P.S. The flu stinks! I hope you are on the mend!

 

[TestingH2O]

Now Skip can’t EVER make his mind up about stuff and when he does, he changes his mind over and over. This rate is non-refundable. You go or you lose it basically. He hemmed and hawed a bit and said book it!

Good job Skip!

 

[jenseib]

Yay another trip report! How exciting to complete your grand slam.

I was very excited to complete all 4 ships and the itinerary was great too.

Woo hoo!! Hooray for the Grand Slam. Joining in!

P.S. The flu stinks! I hope you are on the mend!

Still lingering but the worst is over

Good job Skip!

Wait till you here the rest. hahahaha

 

[lklgoodman]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

 

[lizzyb]

Joining in!

 

[TestingH2O]

You are about to get a lesson on how Dysfunctional our family really is!

Uh oh!

 

[jenseib]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

Thanks

Joining in!

Welcome!

Uh oh!

Yep!

 

[jenseib]

Friday, Jan 25, 2019, Crazy Day


We started our day like any normal day. Claire was excited that this would be her last day of school for over a week! She would be missing 6 school days in total, but many of her teachers had sent home work for her to do ahead of time, and though she grumbled, she got it all done by Thursday night so she wouldn’t have to take it on the trip with us.


I dropped Claire off at school around 7:45, like normal, and came home to start my chores, which included running to the pharmacy to get meds, clean the house so it wasn’t a wreck when we got home, change sheets on the beds so we came home to clean sheets, grab all electronics and make sure I had batteries and chargers, take the chinchilla to my sisters to have her daughter (My niece) watch while we were gone…etc.


The weather for the next week was not looking great at home. It was predicting days of below zero and I worried that our upstairs bathroom pipes might freeze, so I was going to call my dad to come and turn on and off the heater up there if needed. Oh …… and one of our toilets decided not to flush properly this week. We aren’t sure if there was a frozen spot in the line somewhere or if my 1 year old Granddaughter threw something in there….and we still are having issues off and on. Ugh!


I was back home from dropping off Claire for only a few minutes and my cell phone rang. ….. It was Skip……..


“I have to cancel. I am so sorry, but the weather is going to be so bad and I can’t leave Dave (his brother and business partner) home alone to take care of everything. Things are already starting to freeze and we can’t even get feed for the cows as it froze. We have to borrow feed from the neighbors today. See if you can get a replacement for me and I promise we will go and do a makeup trip in March. I know Claire will be disappointed, but I just can’t make it. You need to contact your sister and see if you can come tonight and spend the night. If it is as cold as it is supposed to be tomorrow morning, you might have issues getting to Columbus”.



OMG! I was stunned. I totally understood, but we were 24 hours from pulling out of our driveway. Who the heck is going to be able to go at this late notice? Will I get his points back if I cancel his flight this close now? I have to repack now. I had our clothes in all 3 suitcases. I was in a total tizzy and thinking for the next few hours was a little hard to do.


First thing I did was cancel his flight. I got the points back! Thank goodness! That’s a relief. I texted Amanda and let her know we would be coming tonight. I had asked a while back that if weather was bad would it be OK to spend the night prior at her house, so she wasn’t totally surprised.

I told J and PT. What am I going to do? We are out the money if no one replaces him. I would rather have someone use that fare.


I then went and looked at our current flight situation. Without Skip coming, we didn’t have to worry about leaving later. There was a 5:30ish AM flight I could change to for only 500 total points for the 2 of us. OK, I’ll take it. It will give me peace of mind to arrive earlier. I checked in and noticed we now had C boarding for our first flight and B for the 2nd. If it was just me, I would be fine, but Claire was terrified that she would have to sit next to a stranger.

I checked that later flight coming home on the 4th to see if I could switch to that now…well it went up to double the amount of points it had been overnight. Nope. We will keep our early flight for now.


I would normally ask my Mom or a family member if they could take Skip’s place in a situation like this, but I already knew most of the family had Cirque Du Solei plans for Sat. night.

I started sending out messages to friends who I thought could possibly do it. All they had to do was get a flight and some spending money. The cruise and hotels were paid for. I already had planned to pay for the transfers. I wasn’t too sure how long to wait for a reply before sending another message out. This was time sensitive now.


I talked with PT and she said she was booked solid the next week and couldn’t move her appointments. Dang! My friend Brook said her husband was out of town and though he was coming back that night, she just couldn’t get away….she even looked at flights and said they were affordable! My friend Cass didn’t get back to me till quite a bit later and by that time I had found someone…so I am not sure if she could have after all or not, but I doubt it since she would have to fly from quite a far way.


In the end, J told me to call her daughter M, who we sailed with in 2017. She was pretty sure she could get away. Ok, I wasn’t sure if I should call immediately or wait for the others who I had messaged to say yes or no. J said that M worked the night shift, so call her soon or she would be in bed….and then a message from M came. “I want to go”. YES! Seriously, I was worried how Claire would take all this and if her dad had to be replaced, M was probably the best substitute there could be. She LOVES M!


I called M and no answer or voicemail. I tell J I can’t get her and she tells me to try again and she is looking up flights for her. M finally calls me back and is able to go. She said her mom actually found cheaper flights than what she got and as soon as I make the switch then they will book the flight. …well it wasn’t quite that smooth of a conversation because I was still in a tizzy and rambling on incoherently. But that is the gist of it.


I called Disney and made the change and paid the change fee and M was now our 3rd passenger in the room. She got her flights booked and we would be landing about the same time, so would meet in the airport where she would join us at the air bnb for the night.

And then as we all compared our flights we found out that PT’s flight connected in Orlando….just like our new flight did…and we would be flying into San Juan on the same flight! Awesome!


I began repacking and getting everything ready to go. I was just throwing Skips packing cubes off to the side and my house was now a total wreck, but I had no time to clean it up now. The day was half gone and I soon would have to pick up Claire.


Oh wait! The chinchilla! I was going to drop him at my sisters around 3:30. I quickly texted her and let he know the big change and that we would probably be an hour later and would drop him off on our way to our other sisters house.


In the tizzy of the day, I never remembered to go to the pharmacy and pick up my meds. I was lucky enough to have a little more than half of what I needed while gone and just went with 1 pill a day instead of 2. Good thing it wasn’t for anything life threatening!


Time to pick up Claire. I was nervous. I knew she would be sad that Skip cancelled, but I was hoping that with M replacing him, she would take it in stride….plus he was promising her another vacation!


When Claire got in the car she was full of excitement and I had to tell her I had bad news, good news, and then some more good news.


She was sad that Skip wasn’t coming, but M totally made up for it and she was excited for a 2nd vacation in the next few months. We got home and packed up the car and put the chinchilla and cage in and said our good byes to Skip and then started off.


Our first stop was at sister Gail’s where Abby was going to be in charge of “Nibbles” for the next week and she was so excited! We gave her all the directions and talked a bit and then it was time to head out again.


We started our drive and as we got to Findley I noticed construction and I remembered that Amanda had mentioned a few months ago that the exit had changed….and I looked for it and never found it. Shoot! We missed it. We stopped at a rest stop and figured our plan of attack to get back on course and found a way to cross over to the right road, but I think it added a good 45 minutes to our trip. OMG, today was just a disaster!


We decided to stop at a truck stop to get some food to go and use the restroom. There was a guy who took a liking to me and kept asking about my hair and just making conversation with me. Claire totally was laughing about it. I don’t know why, but I attract people like that all the time. He was nice, but very odd and he kept seeking me out to make conversation while we waited for our food. I was happy to get out of there.


Finally we made it to Amanda’s house. We were tired, but we talked for a while.


Claire wanted ice-cream and I finally caved in and took her over to Graeter’s (which has the best ice-cream) and we each got a treat!


icecream1 by Jenseib, on Flickr


We then headed to bed early. We were going to be up at a VERY early hour tomorrow and would have a very long day! And I sure hoped that the rest of the trip would go smoothly. If it went like today, I am not sure I could handle it!

 

[ljcrochet]

what a crazy start to your trip.

 

[TestingH2O]

Wow. That is quite the day. I'm so sorry Skip didn't come, but I'm also thrilled that Claire is going to have a buddy.

Winter is the worst!

 

[bcwife76]

I do remember reading in your last trip report that Skip had had to back out at the last minute, but wow, very stressful for all involved! I hope it's smooth sailing (and flying) from here on out. And hey, Skip said to book a trip for March to make up for it so hopefully that's a-go, too

 

[mickeystoontown]

I remember us messaging back and forth about Skip backing out of the trip. You were in a tizzy that day but it all worked out in the end.

 

[jenseib]

what a crazy start to your trip.

Not the way I expected that day to go at all!

Wow. That is quite the day. I'm so sorry Skip didn't come, but I'm also thrilled that Claire is going to have a buddy.

Winter is the worst!

It was sad he couldn't come, but it is what it is. Claire had a wonderful time with M though, so that made it work out in the end.

I do remember reading in your last trip report that Skip had had to back out at the last minute, but wow, very stressful for all involved! I hope it's smooth sailing (and flying) from here on out. And hey, Skip said to book a trip for March to make up for it so hopefully that's a-go, too

We are now booked for something....March 17 we fly too...... Well I can't reveal that yet. hahaha.

I remember us messaging back and forth about Skip backing out of the trip. You were in a tizzy that day but it all worked out in the end.

That was a crazy morning and my mind was flying all over the place. With such short warning it really was not an easy task to get someone to replace him. You were good at holding my hand!

 

[Woth2982]

Oh my what a headache replacing Skip! I am so glad you were able to find someone! What a stressor the night before. You handled it very well! Much better than I would have! Hope things go smoother from here!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along! We were on the Wonder 2 cruises after yours (Feb 10-14), and it was our first cruise ever! Definitely not the last and I'm figuring out what cruise to book with the 2020 itineraries! I just re-read your Alaska TR to get a sense of whether we would be willing to save money by going to another line, but I think I just loved the feel of Disney so much, and the service, that we'll stick to it! (Itinerary is also a factor, as we don't need to stop in Victoria since my Grandma used to live there, and I'd prefer separate days for Juneau and Tracey Arm or Endicott!

“I have to cancel. I am so sorry, but the weather is going to be so bad and I can’t leave Dave (his brother and business partner) home alone to take care of everything. Things are already starting to freeze and we can’t even get feed for the cows as it froze. We have to borrow feed from the neighbors today. See if you can get a replacement for me and I promise we will go and do a makeup trip in March. I know Claire will be disappointed, but I just can’t make it. You need to contact your sister and see if you can come tonight and spend the night. If it is as cold as it is supposed to be tomorrow morning, you might have issues getting to Columbus”.



OMG! I was stunned. I totally understood, but we were 24 hours from pulling out of our driveway. Who the heck is going to be able to go at this late notice? Will I get his points back if I cancel his flight this close now? I have to repack now. I had our clothes in all 3 suitcases. I was in a total tizzy and thinking for the next few hours was a little hard to do.

Wow that is just crazy! Glad everything worked out in the end!

 

[jenseib]

Oh my what a headache replacing Skip! I am so glad you were able to find someone! What a stressor the night before. You handled it very well! Much better than I would have! Hope things go smoother from here!

It was quite the day and it did take me a bit to think right and get things going. I wasn't mad, I did understand, but it was upsetting.

 

[jenseib]

Following along! We were on the Wonder 2 cruises after yours (Feb 10-14), and it was our first cruise ever! Definitely not the last and I'm figuring out what cruise to book with the 2020 itineraries! I just re-read your Alaska TR to get a sense of whether we would be willing to save money by going to another line, but I think I just loved the feel of Disney so much, and the service, that we'll stick to it! (Itinerary is also a factor, as we don't need to stop in Victoria since my Grandma used to live there, and I'd prefer separate days for Juneau and Tracey Arm or Endicott!


Wow that is just crazy! Glad everything worked out in the end!

Honestly Princess is the best for Alaska and the Glacier Bay itinerary is better too. But yes, Disney has that special feeling and it's hard to leave them.

 

[jenseib]

Saturday, Jan 26, 2019, Flying to San Juan


We got up really early, but we did get some decent sleep at least.

We weren’t doing too much to make ourselves gorgeous as we were just traveling and I was too tired to care.


We loaded our suitcases back into the car and set the gps and headed off to the airport. This early it is really a breeze to get there as not many people are crazy enough to be on the road.


We decided to just park and then take our bags on the shuttle rather than dropping them off first….but we missed the turn, totally my fault, so we had to circle around back to the lot. We noticed that the Skycap wasn’t even open yet, which I thought was odd since we have flown this early before and it has been open.


We found a spot and unloaded our bags and waited for the shuttle. It was cold, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.


cmh1 by Jenseib, on Flickr


The shuttle pulled around and we loaded our bags and found 2 seats left and off we went. At the airport we dragged our bags inside, which was a first for us. I have never had to check the bags inside at CMH before. We were greeted with this line.


cmh2 by Jenseib, on Flickr


HOLY COW!!!! There was no one at the desks yet. I don’t know why they opened later today, but many were grumbling. Once they did open, they told people they could do the self check in kiosks as well. But it appeared no one knew what they were doing in those, so we stuck with the regular line and it wasn’t too slow.


Once we arrived at the counter, we handed our bags and I handed over our passports. The lady then tells me mine is expired…Wait? What? Claire had another year or so on hers, but I thought mine had like 5 still left. She hands it to me and tells me it expired in 2012. Um, nope, and I hand it back….that is when I got it. Oops. Talk about giving me a heart attack. This gal can’t take much more.


After that, it went smoothly and bags were taken and we went in the TSA precheck line and soon were through security. We noticed later that people who got in the regular line at the same time as us took about 30 minutes to get through.


Now we had one more task to make this day flow better. Claire was having stomach butterflies because she was so worried she would have to sit next to strangers with our C boarding pass. We chose a seat right in front of the desk and I told her I would try to upgrade to A boarding if possible.


We sat and waited for someone to come to the desk, and I stood as soon as I saw her, but let her have time to start her computer and then a couple with a stroller jumped in front of us. Luckily, they just wanted to get a tag and ask some questions. Then it was my turn. I told her we wanted to upgrade and what the cost would be. She said $80 for the 2 of us and with C boarding, it was a good chance we would not be sitting together. That $80 was totally worth peace of mind for us. I had not bought early bird, so I just looked at it as a similar cost.


And look what numbers we got!


pr3 by Jenseib, on Flickr


I have NEVER been 1 or 2 before! It was kind of exciting! We would not technically be first on board, as they did have a few wheelchairs, but we were darn close.


pr1 by Jenseib, on Flickr


With that settled and Claire now breathing a sigh of relief, I went to the vending machines to get us some pops and used the restroom. It was when I came back that I noticed people we got in line with, but went through regular security had now just made their way through and were putting on their shoes.


pr2 by Jenseib, on Flickr


We didn’t have to wait too long and it was time to board. There was a couple behind us who paid to upgrade too. They also had C boarding and did not want to be separated.


We found our seats and Claire sat by the window and I sat on the aisle.


I put my bag on the seat between us and dug in it for a while. I really was looking for something, but I had found out that the plane was not completely full and I had hoped we could keep that extra seat open and have more space. If someone did want to sit in our row, I would move to the middle.

We lucked out and the seat remained vacant and we had plenty of room.


We did have to get de-iced and left a little late, but all in all not too late and we were in Orlando on time. We got off and used the restrooms and walked around a bit to find our next gate and then hit up McDonalds for some food.


pr4 by Jenseib, on Flickr


Claire spotted the pretzel place, so then we had to go back and get that for her. We had about 2 hours before our next flight, so we didn’t hurry.

Once done, we found some seats at our gate and it wasn’t long before PT and her family had arrived and they sat with us and we chatted. They had an earlier boarding number than us, so they said they would try to save us a seat near them.


When boarding started, we lined up with the B’s and once onboard we saw that Z had a row saved for us. He moved back with his parents when we arrived and this time I sat by the window. Claire sat on the aisle and we asked if the flight was full and they said no…so we put the bag on the middle seat and did our little trick again. Hahahah…..and it worked. We had the middle seat open and were able to have more room this flight as well.


cmh4 by Jenseib, on Flickr


A plane selfie of all of us.


mco1 by Jenseib, on Flickr


As we flew out I watched out the window and saw the coast not too far way. I was hoping I would spot Port Canaveral and see the Fantasy docked. We were literally just about there and then we went into the clouds and I never did see if we flew over it or not.


This time around I looked at the movie options from Southwest on my phone and found Moma Mia, Here We Go Again. I am not a fan of these movies, but I did see the first one and though I would never pay to see it, I figured it would be a good way to spend the flight. It was timed perfectly and ended just before it was time to land…and it wasn’t bad.


As we came in, I took pictures out the window. We could see a ship in port, but couldn’t tell which one. It looked like RCCL, Princess or NCL.


sju1 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju2 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju3 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju4 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju5 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju6 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju7 by Jenseib, on Flickr


It was beautiful and the excitement level went up several notches. It was real now! We were on vacation!


Just a side note…I had joined the Facebook group for our sailing and several people from the group were on that flight. I said Hi to a few who I recognized as active in the group. I saw some around the ship here and there, but really not too often.


Once we landed, we grabbed our bags and headed for a quick restroom stop and then off to the baggage area. J, MK and M had landed early and were already there and we were a few minutes late. Schedule wise, we were supposed to have arrived before them, but it all worked out fine.


J spotted us and ran over and gave us a hug and M gave Claire one. We met MK and we were all just so excited! We got our bags then and headed to the taxi line. I have been told that SJU doesn’t allow Uber or Lyft, but J got one anyways. She didn’t have any issues, but the way things had been going for me, I figured I shouldn’t chance it. PT’s family got in the taxi line as well.

Taxi’s are set fees to different areas in Puerto Rico with an additional charge ($1) per bag. We loaded up and headed off to our Air bnb.


Side note…..My gal from the Air bnb had told me that she would send me the address that morning and it never came. I messaged in SJU and she said she had sent it but found the site erroring, so she sent me texts with the info and all was fine…but I did have a few minutes of nervousness.

J’s air bnb had no power and they messaged her that she wouldn’t be able to stay since the area was without power. She was refunded and luckily found a hotel.

Patty was staying at a hotel that was cheaper than most, and worried what it would be like, but it was fine.

We all really had no clue what area we were going to be in, but ended up all being just a few blocks from each other.




We got in our taxi and said goodbye to Patty and family. We promised we would keep in touch about dinner. The ride wasn’t too long and soon we pulled up to our apartment for the evening and unloaded. I can’t remember the exact amount off hand, but I believe the ride was $25ish plus tip.


We headed to the doors and they are monitored by a security guard, unless you have a fob…which ours would be waiting in our apartment. The security guard had stepped out so we had to wait a few minutes till she got back. Once she did, she let us in and we had to do some signing in so they had a record of us staying there. She didn’t speak English well, but we made due and then headed off to the elevator and up to our room.


When we got to our door I tried it and it wouldn’t open and I heard the TV on inside. OH no! Is someone else in here? I knocked with no answer and tried again and the door opened. It was just one of those doors that needed a good shove to open and close…and the TV was just on a music channel.


We stepped in and dragged our bags in and then took a once over. At first glance, it was a cute place and resembled the pictures online.


pr5 by Jenseib, on Flickr


The futon would be M’s bed for tonight.


pr6 by Jenseib, on Flickr


The bed was advertised as a queen, but I thought in the pictures it looked smaller….and it was. It really was a double.


pr7 by Jenseib, on Flickr


pr8 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju10 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju11 by Jenseib, on Flickr


The bathroom had new towels in there and was basic, but didn’t look bad at first glance.


pr9 by Jenseib, on Flickr


pr10 by Jenseib, on Flickr


We had a small kitchen area, which we really didn’t use.


pr16 by Jenseib, on Flickr


We had a very small balcony with a decent view.


The front of our building was right across the street from the Marriott, which is one of the hotels that Disney uses.


sju8 by Jenseib, on Flickr


sju9 by Jenseib, on Flickr


pr11 by Jenseib, on Flickr


When we turned the AC on, it did make quite a loud hum outside on the balcony.


pr12 by Jenseib, on Flickr


pr13 by Jenseib, on Flickr


There is a pool here as well, but we never used it.


pr14 by Jenseib, on Flickr


pr15 by Jenseib, on Flickr


pr17 by Jenseib, on Flickr


Over all it was a decent looking place…..however…as we looked closely we could tell it was in need of a major cleaning. With this Airbnb they have a company that comes in to clean and they obviously do just the basics. The trim/baseboards all around the floors was covered in dirt/dust…very thick actually, so it has not been touched in a long time. Under the bed was dusty. The bathroom really needed a good bleach cleaning in my opinion. The dresser drawer handles were filthy… when you tried to open each drawer, you would feel just how dirty they were. The bedding for the futon was stained and did not smell great….it looked as if it probably had been washed, but just needed to be replaced. It was not matching either and just overall needed a new set of complete bedding…and a pillow.

The whole place did have a musty smell if you didn’t have the AC on and the air freshener plugged in, which may have more to do with being in San Juan than cleanliness.

For one night we could handle it, but if I had to stay longer I would have complained. I don’t blame the owner, I blame the cleaning crew.


We changed into comfy clothes as it was in the 80’s here and let our friends know we had arrived.