MY HUSBAND, OUR VACATION CONDO AND OUR TRIP TO DISNEY

In other words, this is a letter about how my husband totally screwed up our trip to Disney, AND totally infuriated me on our honeymoon. We were married in Orlando, after staying at Walt Disney World, but his job needed him for an emergency, so we flew back to Ohio without being able to tour anything in central Florida. We vowed to make our first trip back to Orlando (and the Orlando, Florida area) a special trip, like a honeymoon, but better. I scoured the web for Florida vacation condo rentals, since my husband Bubba refuses to stay at a hotel inside Disney World. He says that staying close to the attractions "Is like staying near a really big mall, with a million kids and no discounts or specials. The accommodations are really close to all the noise, and you can forget about making reservations for anything last minute, like booking dining reservations". I didn't understand all of his griping, but we had a week to spend in sunny Orlando, and we could really rekindle our romance in a vacation condo, and I could certainly work on searching for Florida vacation condo rentals.

I logged onto our computer and searched for the best price on a vacation condo that would be in Kissimmee or somewhere else close to Walt Disney World, but not so close as to annoy my husband. I was deep into my Florida vacation condo rentals search when my husband called out to me from the den@Remember that we only have a week to make our reservations@. I thought to myself @Oh great, honey, that is wonderful and so thoughtful of you to make me be the one to do all the booking and reservations, look at all of the specials, get the best price, try to make it low cost but also luxury accommodations, near Disney, yet around his family's house in Davenport, Florida. I furiously typed my way through all of the myriad lodging web sites, tore through maps of the Central Florida area (I found it hilarious that a place called Christmas could be located around the Orlando area- I mean, does Santa spend the off season in a time share resort, sipping margaritas by the pool while the elves and Mrs. Claus visit the attractions- or does he spend his toy budget at the outlet malls in and around Orlando? Too funny for words!). Nonetheless, I was really fuming that Bubba was watching the stupid hockey games again, while I was slaving over a monitor, frantically scrambling to find our lodging, make all of our dinner reservations (Jeeze Louise, how many family members to count for the dinner on Saturday? And will any of his huge family want to come along with us to visit Disney- or would they try to stick us with all of the kids and assorted grand-kids? If so, would they be able to get us a cheap deal on last minute reservations to the character breakfasts? ). I was frantic and decided to call our family's travel maven, my sister Laurie. She suggested that we stick to a condo search in and around the Davenport area (great for dumping the kids off after they have exhausted our patience in the theme parks, and close enough so that we could borrow something from Bubba's family if we forgot to pack it, or the resort didn't have the needed items Funny, but I always seem to forget to pack something really crucial, and it's not cheap to buy items when you are staying near Disney, especially around the holiday season....sigh.).

So I finally found a last minute deal on a low cost vacation condo in Davenport, Florida. It was a big fat major relief to get through to the resort and have all of my questions answered when I was booking our condo, and Bubba seemed to be distracted from the hockey game for one second. Then he calmly asked me @are we going to have separate accommodations for my Mother, or is she staying in the condo with us in a separate bedroom?@. I just about blew a gasket. The last thing I wanted on our honeymoon was my mother-in-law! She would grill us for hours on each and every detail of this trip, and demand to know if we got the best price for the vacation condo, the lowest price on the tickets for the theme parks, the best discount on the airline flight, and all the other aspects of our soon to be ruined vacation. I couldn't't believe my ears! My time spent scouring the web, packing all of my Disney tee shirts and sexy nightgowns would be all a waste of time. I decided to spring into action, and made reservations for my mother-in-law at the same resort- and I asked the resort's desk clerk to book her for the accommodations that would be nowhere near our romantic little vacation condo. This way, we wouldn't't have her watching AWheel of Fortune@ at 900 decibels while we tried to have a vacation to celebrate our marriage! Unfortunately, all of the vacation condos at this timeshare resort were booked up for the week. That's what I get for waiting until the last minute to ditch the witch! So my condo search continued.

I stopped counting how many times I was swearing under my breath as I searched for lodging near Davenport Florida, and then I struck paydirt. The resort was near Disney, but not so close that it would be right in the attractions area. I started to relish the idea of booking a condo in Kissimmee for my mother-in-law, and one in Davenport for Bubba and I. I found several cheap family style restaurants, but the condo search was still on. I was getting very frustrated when I decided to call my travel agent and tell her about my futile search for a last minute deal on a Florida vacation condo rental that would be near Disney and Davenport, Florida. The condo would have to have a discount or some specials, and we wanted accommodations that would be nicer than the average cheap motel- not too fancy, but a touch of luxury would be a good thing. I longed to hand over the daunting task of booking my reservations, and my travel agent was only too happy to help me in booking the family vacation (note that it was no longer strictly a honeymoon, we were suddenly stuck with my mother-in-law and a host of kids to cart around to the theme parks, the discount Orlando outlet malls and the other museums, shopping and dining attractions in Orlando). The travel agent suggested that she could get us the lowest price on a vacation condo- and thank goodness, she was right. I was more than relieved to have her competent hands finding all of the specials for us, and she got the best price for us on the airline reservations, too. She sounded like she was even furious at Bubba for his last minute suggestion of including his Mother, and we shared a good sisterly giggle over the thought of having my mother-in-law stay at a resort inside Walt Disney World, while Bubba and I lounged in each-other's arms poolside at our condo in Davenport, saluting the night sky's stars while we sipped strawberry daiquiris and contemplating which one of the attractions we would visit the next day.