Anal Annie
at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2006
^ Just wanted to note for any new readers that with the change to the "new" DISboards software I noticed that a LOT but not ALL of my apostrophe's are now missing. So for example we'd might now say wed. I am NOT going to go thru this entire trip report and look for them to fix them - just know that I didn't write it that way - something was lost in the transition to the new boards!!!
This is only my 2nd ever trip report. The other one I wrote was after our epic trip to Europe and our Med DCL cruise back in 2011. For that one, I chose to use a website so I could share it easily with friends & family outside of the DIS. It was kind of a pain in the you-know-what to maintain AND I never got around to finishing my last few days so this time I am just going to write it here.
I can't write this trip report without starting it with some background. Alright, a LOT of background A lot of you who've been around here and who "know me" will remember that this trip was SUPPOSED to have happened LAST summer. Then 8 days before we were supposed to leave my teenage DS (then 16) had something called a spontaneous pneumothorax (basically a collapsed lung) and since it was his LUNG he wasn't allowed to fly for 3 weeks!! So at 8 days to go we had to cancel the entire trip!!! DS was going to be fine - but he had to go in for xrays every few days to be sure the pneumothorax was healing properly.
It was the biggest hassle to make all these last minute phone calls to cancel everything on top of taking care of DS. FIRST up was calling DVC. Then the airlines, rental cars, Pearl Harbor, surf lesson place, Starwood hotels to cancel our days on Maui ETC. We got super lucky tho in that DVC was able to find us a 1-bedroom open at SSR for 9 nights if we pushed our dates back by almost a week (the only 1-bedroom available - no studios were available anywhere). Canceling the studios at VGC and Aulani was almost an even wash points-wise with the 9 nights in the 1-bedroom at SSR. So we decided that since he couldn't FLY we would drive to FL instead. We had to use the points by November or lose them. So this became our new plan. We'd never driven with DS to FL but people do it all the time - so could we (once). I had pre-ordered our Disneyland park tickets so we brought them with us to FL. They were able to scan them and tell they were unused so we turned them in towards buying AP's.
We had booked 3 nights on Maui following Aulani at the Westin Ocean Resort Villas with Starwood points so when I called Starwood to cancel they told me that we could have our points back BUT that we'd have to use our Starwood account by October or else we'd lose those points. So then we decided to stop for the night in Savannah, GA at the Sheraton to use our Starwood account so we'd preserve those points. OY! So many loose ends to take care of.
We had booked this trip with 3 different airlines and they each one had a different cancelation policy. Most of our flights were on Alaska Airline and they actually had a very generous cancelation policy. They charged us a $100 pp penalty BUT they gave us a full year from our initial date of travel to rebook & fly (then they gave us an additional month on top of that so we essentially had thru August of this year)!! With proof from the pulmonologist, Hawaiian Airline gave us until 1 year from the date of purchase to rebook our flight that we had with them (so I had until late January to rebook with them). They did not charge a penalty. Delta also did not charge us a penalty BUT we only had 1 year from the original purchase date to not only rebook but also to FLY. So there we were with $850 in flights on Delta that had to be flown on by January (which is when I booked all the flights). It was at this point that we decided to book WDW for January - it would be better than losing the $850.
Just as a side note, when we went to FL in January there was a big snow storm at home on the day we were supposed to fly home so we ended up extending our stay by 1 extra night as Delta was waiving change fees because of the storm. We didn't have a direct flight so we were afraid we'd get stuck in Atlanta if we left Orlando. Better to just stay put. Of course that ate up a few more points BUT we were in a std. studio at Jambo House so it wasn't horrible. It just meant borrowing MORE points.
OK so before I go any further I will just give a quick update on DS. He ended up having another pneumothorax in early November on the same lung. The pulmonologist said he should have surgery this time. He had these things on the outside of his lungs called blebs which are like little blisters. And sometimes they can pop and when they pop they create a hole in the lung which is what causes the collapse. He said he was going to be prone to having this re-occur so it would be best to just have this surgery where they go in and scrape the outside of the lung to 1) get rid of any other blebs and 2) the abrasion would make the outside of the lung adhere to the chest wall. That way if the blebs would come back and pop again they wouldn't make a hole in the lung. The thoracic surgeon who performed the surgery said that there was only about a 10% chance that it would happen to the other lung too. WELL. Guess who hit the jackpot with having another one occur on the other lung in February!? YUP. You got it. He's a swimmer and the week before HS Regionals he had another one happen on the other lung. This one was a BIG one. A 40% collapse this time so they put in a chest tube at the ER and he had to have the same surgery on this lung. This one really knocked him for a loop. We had to wait almost 2 days for the surgeon to get to him (wouldn't ya know during another big snow storm). Of all the dumb luck!! Keeping our fingers crossed now that DS has had ENOUGH to last a lifetime. So far so good but the "what if" is always on the back of our minds.
OK, in my next post I will hopefully start with the new re-planning efforts for our big Disneyland / Aulani / Maui trip.
Re-planning and Re-booking http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52171592&postcount=3
Day # 1 - Winging it from DC to Disneyland http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52172508&postcount=4
Day # 2 - California Adventure http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52179607&postcount=12
Day # 3 - Last day at DL - bouncing around from park to park http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52189137&postcount=14
Day # 4 - Going to Aulani in a hurricane!! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52216679&postcount=20
Days # 5 & 6 - Paradise (Part # 1) http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52254113&postcount=29
Days # 5 & 6 - Paradise (Part # 2) http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52254302&postcount=30
Day # 7 - Just chillin' at Aulani http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52272363&postcount=38
Day # 8 SURF LESSONS and the NORTH SHORE!!! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52288828&postcount=41
Day # 9 - Lounging around in paradise! - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52330244&postcount=47
Day # 10 - Waaaa! Our last day at Aulani just MORE lounging around http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52344753&postcount=51
Day # 11 - Maui Bound!!! - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52384716&postcount=56
This is only my 2nd ever trip report. The other one I wrote was after our epic trip to Europe and our Med DCL cruise back in 2011. For that one, I chose to use a website so I could share it easily with friends & family outside of the DIS. It was kind of a pain in the you-know-what to maintain AND I never got around to finishing my last few days so this time I am just going to write it here.
I can't write this trip report without starting it with some background. Alright, a LOT of background A lot of you who've been around here and who "know me" will remember that this trip was SUPPOSED to have happened LAST summer. Then 8 days before we were supposed to leave my teenage DS (then 16) had something called a spontaneous pneumothorax (basically a collapsed lung) and since it was his LUNG he wasn't allowed to fly for 3 weeks!! So at 8 days to go we had to cancel the entire trip!!! DS was going to be fine - but he had to go in for xrays every few days to be sure the pneumothorax was healing properly.
It was the biggest hassle to make all these last minute phone calls to cancel everything on top of taking care of DS. FIRST up was calling DVC. Then the airlines, rental cars, Pearl Harbor, surf lesson place, Starwood hotels to cancel our days on Maui ETC. We got super lucky tho in that DVC was able to find us a 1-bedroom open at SSR for 9 nights if we pushed our dates back by almost a week (the only 1-bedroom available - no studios were available anywhere). Canceling the studios at VGC and Aulani was almost an even wash points-wise with the 9 nights in the 1-bedroom at SSR. So we decided that since he couldn't FLY we would drive to FL instead. We had to use the points by November or lose them. So this became our new plan. We'd never driven with DS to FL but people do it all the time - so could we (once). I had pre-ordered our Disneyland park tickets so we brought them with us to FL. They were able to scan them and tell they were unused so we turned them in towards buying AP's.
We had booked 3 nights on Maui following Aulani at the Westin Ocean Resort Villas with Starwood points so when I called Starwood to cancel they told me that we could have our points back BUT that we'd have to use our Starwood account by October or else we'd lose those points. So then we decided to stop for the night in Savannah, GA at the Sheraton to use our Starwood account so we'd preserve those points. OY! So many loose ends to take care of.
We had booked this trip with 3 different airlines and they each one had a different cancelation policy. Most of our flights were on Alaska Airline and they actually had a very generous cancelation policy. They charged us a $100 pp penalty BUT they gave us a full year from our initial date of travel to rebook & fly (then they gave us an additional month on top of that so we essentially had thru August of this year)!! With proof from the pulmonologist, Hawaiian Airline gave us until 1 year from the date of purchase to rebook our flight that we had with them (so I had until late January to rebook with them). They did not charge a penalty. Delta also did not charge us a penalty BUT we only had 1 year from the original purchase date to not only rebook but also to FLY. So there we were with $850 in flights on Delta that had to be flown on by January (which is when I booked all the flights). It was at this point that we decided to book WDW for January - it would be better than losing the $850.
Just as a side note, when we went to FL in January there was a big snow storm at home on the day we were supposed to fly home so we ended up extending our stay by 1 extra night as Delta was waiving change fees because of the storm. We didn't have a direct flight so we were afraid we'd get stuck in Atlanta if we left Orlando. Better to just stay put. Of course that ate up a few more points BUT we were in a std. studio at Jambo House so it wasn't horrible. It just meant borrowing MORE points.
OK so before I go any further I will just give a quick update on DS. He ended up having another pneumothorax in early November on the same lung. The pulmonologist said he should have surgery this time. He had these things on the outside of his lungs called blebs which are like little blisters. And sometimes they can pop and when they pop they create a hole in the lung which is what causes the collapse. He said he was going to be prone to having this re-occur so it would be best to just have this surgery where they go in and scrape the outside of the lung to 1) get rid of any other blebs and 2) the abrasion would make the outside of the lung adhere to the chest wall. That way if the blebs would come back and pop again they wouldn't make a hole in the lung. The thoracic surgeon who performed the surgery said that there was only about a 10% chance that it would happen to the other lung too. WELL. Guess who hit the jackpot with having another one occur on the other lung in February!? YUP. You got it. He's a swimmer and the week before HS Regionals he had another one happen on the other lung. This one was a BIG one. A 40% collapse this time so they put in a chest tube at the ER and he had to have the same surgery on this lung. This one really knocked him for a loop. We had to wait almost 2 days for the surgeon to get to him (wouldn't ya know during another big snow storm). Of all the dumb luck!! Keeping our fingers crossed now that DS has had ENOUGH to last a lifetime. So far so good but the "what if" is always on the back of our minds.
OK, in my next post I will hopefully start with the new re-planning efforts for our big Disneyland / Aulani / Maui trip.
Re-planning and Re-booking http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52171592&postcount=3
Day # 1 - Winging it from DC to Disneyland http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52172508&postcount=4
Day # 2 - California Adventure http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52179607&postcount=12
Day # 3 - Last day at DL - bouncing around from park to park http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52189137&postcount=14
Day # 4 - Going to Aulani in a hurricane!! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52216679&postcount=20
Days # 5 & 6 - Paradise (Part # 1) http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52254113&postcount=29
Days # 5 & 6 - Paradise (Part # 2) http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52254302&postcount=30
Day # 7 - Just chillin' at Aulani http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52272363&postcount=38
Day # 8 SURF LESSONS and the NORTH SHORE!!! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52288828&postcount=41
Day # 9 - Lounging around in paradise! - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52330244&postcount=47
Day # 10 - Waaaa! Our last day at Aulani just MORE lounging around http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52344753&postcount=51
Day # 11 - Maui Bound!!! - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52384716&postcount=56
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