Our Disneyland Trip: Introduction

Cast of Characters:
Me (Laura)-23 years old, LOVES the Disney parks. I went to Disney World in 1999 with my parents at the age of 15 and fell in love with the parks, the dining, and especially the planning. I have been back to Disney World 6 times since then, and have a trip planned for October of this year. I hate amusement parks, but Disney theme parks, now that’s another matter!! I am the master planner.

DH- 26 years old, also loves Disney and the parks, but his love doesn’t really show itself until we get there. He will tolerate my planning talk, but doesn’t really understand the thrill I get from planning. However, once we get there, he is happy as a clam and is as much of a Disney lover as I am. He is also slowly decorating his office with Disney stuff and Stitch has become his favorite character. (I think I am converting him, but keep that between you and me  )

Intro:
This was a much needed vacation for my husband and me. I have been searching for a new job closer to home because I work too far away from home. (and job searching is hard) I am in the process of getting my masters degree in business (via night class 2 nights a week). And then of course working at my job, which has become increasingly difficult due to deterioration in management (as in my manager is mostly absent now and trying to micromanage us from home, and it is not working). I also got an awful virus a month ago that left me with low grade fevers everyday for 2 weeks and my absent manager did a good job of making me feel guilty for missing only two days of work. So, to say the least, life was getting us down, and we really needed the trip. Our 1st year wedding anniversary is in July and we wanted to take a special trip. We took our honeymoon in Walt Disney World last year and we both wanted to go to Disneyland since neither of us had been before. The problem was of course money, and my classes. I am taking 10 week courses, which means no break in the middle of summer for me, so when would we take the trip? Also, where would we get the money from to fly there? Tickets from Houston to LA are expensive!!

Well, I downloaded Ding in the beginning of April and hoped and prayed for something really good to pop up. Then, one Sunday morning before church (about 3-4 weeks prior to our trip), I sat down to check my email and low and behold, there were $49 fares to LAX from Houston!! Hooray!! I sent a text message to my DH (he is the media director at our church, so he was already at church) and he said to book them, so I did!! The tickets would fly us to LA May 16 and fly us home May 19. I would finish the semester the week before, and I don’t start the summer semester until June, so it was perfect. Later that afternoon I booked us rooms at the Howard Johnson, bought our 4 day park hopper passes, and made a reservation for the Blue Bayou for lunch the second day of our trip. The next day, my husband and I reserved a car through Enterprise so we wouldn’t have to worry about bus schedules and getting back to the airport on time.

Everything major was set, so all I needed to do was set down an itinerary and pick some places to eat, and remember what to not miss. I did lots of research on Disneyland about where to eat, the best snacks, what little details not to miss. I had about 3 weeks to prepare for our trip.

The Week of: The week of our trip we both were to work on Monday and Tuesday. The Thursday right before, my boss told me to take Monday off because we had a light schedule. I asked her if she was sure and she told me yes. I am salaried, so I assumed like always when I didn’t work, she would be paying me. Well, the Monday before our trip, and my day I was given off, I got a call offering me a job, finally!! I had been going on 1-2 interviews a week for about a month and finally I got a new job! I had been very open with my boss about the job searching since I had been searching for a job for about a year or so. I gave her a call to let her know about my job offer and she was compliant at the time and we agreed to talk about the exact last day the next day. The next day (May 15th) and the day before we were to leave, was pay day and I had a little note on my check telling me she would be taking the hours I did not work the day before out of my final check and that my final check would be on May 25th, so I was quite upset that she would give me the day off, then later tell me she would not pay me for it, because I would have never agreed to that if I knew it was unpaid!! Also, no chance to work out my last day with her, as she really wants me to leave since she decided my last day for me! She is just mad I suppose because she might now have to actually come into the office now that I am leaving. In any case, this put quite a damper on my spirits. So now I really, really, needed a great Disney trip!!!