Florida girl.

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 Last October, we purchased the Florida resident passes to Disney, and had gone a few times but wanted to squeeze in at least one or two more visits before they expired. In May, we had a plan to take a vacation after the kids went back to school, over Labor Day weekend. In my never ending search to get the cheapest price for a room at the resort, I booked it via Expedia because they had cheaper room rates. The last time we went, I also booked a room with Expedia. On that occasion, it was very last minute, so when we got to the park and they told us we were unable to purchase the dining plan, we just sucked it up.

 Now, I knew this vacation was coming up, but life has been busy for the last few months. So I left the setting up of dining plans and fast passes and whatnot as a last-minute task. For those of you who are unaware, we had a Tropical Storm that (as of this writing) is going to be a Category 1 Hurricane. I also was unaware that tomorrow is the opening of the new Start Wars: Galaxy's Edge wing at the park.

Lucky me.

 Undeterred by this news (as all Floridians are), I began to make my calls to Disney, then Expedia, back to Disney, then back to Expedia again, and then finally, back to Disney. You might be asking right now why I had to spend most of my day listening to hold music*.

 For those of you who don't know**- if you book a room at one of the WDW resorts through anyone but Disney, that booking is considered part of Disney's wholesale travel department. Unless the agent you booked with gives you the option of adding a dining plan to your vacation, you will not be able to purchase a dining plan from Disney. This was the fresh hell I found myself in today.  The end result, after a lot of repetition is that I had to cancel my original reservation in order to make a new one with Disney, that included a dining plan. Thankfully, there was availability for our original days, and at about the same price as I originally paid (THANK YOU DORIAN!).

 With any luck, Dorian will continue its slide north and west. As we fully expect rain, we have our rain jackets and sandals at the ready. I realize that for many, this decision to go forward with the vacation instead of cancelling seems crazy. But if you've ever been through a hurricane season, you know that eventually all you can really do is make sure you have your hurricane supplies at the ready, make the preparations you need to,  and keep living your life.

Here's to hoping that a ton of people cancel their trips thanks to the storm!


*Hold music is hell.
**Learn from my mistakes! Book really early through Disney to lock in good rates. Or you know, wait for a hurricane to book!

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