Unfortunately I had to make the very difficult decision to cancel our Disney vacation last Thursday evening. We were scheduled to leave for the airport in less than 12 hours and I’d held off making this decision as long as possible. Hurricane Irma was still a frightening Category 5 and the word ‘catastrophic’ was in almost every newscasters vocabulary. Nobody really knew where she would make land but since she was wider than the entire state of FL I knew it wouldn’t be a wise decision to continue with our trip. While millions where trying to get out of FL, why would I take my daughter and willingly enter this frightening situation?
Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t the easy thing to do. Poor Hannah cried and cried when I shared the news with her as I’d sheltered her from news and pictures of Irma so she was blindsided by my news. Oh the tears….from both of us!
She was a trooper though and I know she handled the news better than Mommy!! The following morning when we woke up and Irma had been downgraded to ‘only’ a Category 4 I was suddenly second guessing my decision. (What was I thinking second guessing??? D’oh!!!)
When I took Hannah to school Friday morning and then continued on to work, over and over again teachers, friends and co-workers were thrilled to see us and expressed how thankful they were that we hadn’t gone. Me too!
Anyway, Disney gave us a 100% refund for our trip and Southwest gave us a travel credit for 100% of our flight costs as they hadn’t actually cancelled our flight.
The great news is that Hannah and I have already rebooked our trip and will be heading to Disney late next January for an awesome Mommy-Daughter trip….without Irma!!
Thanks to all who have checked in after noticing our countdown in the sidebar.
I’ve never posted about our Disney Cruise from earlier this year so my new goal is to get a Disney fix by working on those posts soon.
I want to take a 6 year old and a 2 year old in late December and would LOVE advice!
ReplyDeletesorry you missed your trip :( definitely was the right decision
Happy to help! Are you thinking of going this year? It may be tough to find availability at Disney which is what led us to go in Jan. Please email me at catherineschatter@rogers.com
DeleteI'm so glad you didn't go, I was hoping you wouldn't. I have friends whose families live in that part of Florida and said they really hoped people wouldn't risk going. And now as you said you have something to look forward to. It's a hard lesson for kids to be disappointed, but ultimately such a good life lesson about priorities! Well done, Mummy!
ReplyDeleteGlad you guys didn't go. Our former nanny evacuated from Miami to Orlando and said the storm was still incredible there. Late January will be so wonderful - a nice break from winter :) Were you able to get all your promotions? You guys usually manage free dining, don't you?
ReplyDeleteI'm dying for another Disney trip, but I think my husband needs a break this year ;)