Post #36: And the decision is ...

Even though we had an extensive stay in Fiji over the December/January holidays, I was already wondering, as Jesse and I left for home, when we would be seeing our family again. Cooper was entering kindergarten, as Fiji school calendars coincide with other South Pacific countries like Australia and begin in January. Stacy feels obliged to adhere to school vacations with Cooper having graduated from pre-school to “serious” elementary school. His first quarterly break would be in March. But Stacy expected that would be too soon to make plans for a U.S. visit, especially since Cooper had yet to be Covid-19 vaccinated, as children’s vaccines had yet to be imported to Fiji. At least having had Covid at the end of our visit, like the rest of us, Cooper had likely produced some Covid antibodies.

However, Stacy and Jason organized an Australia visit during the March break, where they immediately arranged for Cooper to be vaccinated.

Brave boy

They had a great trip to Jason’s homeland which also included visiting much of his family, a meeting for Stacy, and lots of fun Cooper excursions.

Cooper having lots of fun with cousin Kylie in Australia

Jurassic Lego museum exhibit

Admittedly, I was somewhat jealous of their having visited Jason’s family before coming to us, but recognized that they had not seen any of their Australian relatives for two years due to the pandemic. And soon after they returned from the Aussie trip, Stacy confirmed, to our great excitement, that they would definitely plan to visit us in June during Cooper’s next school break. In fact, Stacy had a large monetary credit with Fiji Airways, incurred when she initially made very expensive, special reservations to fly to the United States in October, 2021, before regularly scheduled international flights to the U.S. had resumed. With all good intentions to attend her cousin Harley’s wedding in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Cooper had been asked to join the wedding party, Stacy booked the flights, as well as ordered outfit-coordinated wedding shoes for Cooper.

We ecstatically anticipated seeing them after one and one-half years. But soon after booking flights, Stacy had serious concerns about international travel. Covid delta variant was surging in the U.S., Cooper was still unvaccinated, and there was uncertainty about obtaining a timely return flight to Fiji. Sadly but understandably, Stacy cancelled their trip, leaving her with a large Fiji Airways credit that she intended to use before its expiration.

“But where are you going to visit us, Florida or Colorado?” we asked Stacy, as we had two new properties to show them. Jesse was lobbying for Florida where he thought there would be so much more for Cooper to enjoy. In addition to our own house pool, there are recreation facilities in our local community, the nearby Atlantic Ocean beach, and the reasonably accessible Orlando amusement park mecca. I was just thrilled to hear they were planning to visit, and would make either decision work for all of us. Eventually Stacy said, “We’ll have a family meeting, and let you know.”

And they did. And the decision, highly influenced by Cooper, was … (drum roll please): Florida! Driven by Cooper’s intense desire to see his favorite movie character Owen, the dinosaur wrangler from his favorite movie “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” at Universal’s Jurassic Park adventure section.

That settled it. And that set my wheels in motion, with plans taking into account Stacy’s parameters, requests and preferences for the Florida visit.

With the last day of Cooper’s kindergarten term on Friday, June 10, also a workday for Stacy, they arranged to depart for Los Angeles on the night of Saturday, June 11, arriving at LAX in the afternoon of the same date, due to crossing the international dateline going east. However, given the long overnight flight from Fiji, they will stay at an airport hotel for one overnight to re-group, taking the first Sunday morning non-stop to southeast Florida, where Jesse and I will be excitedly awaiting their arrival at the Fort Lauderdale airport.

Stacy’s requests have been:

1. Plan one day at Universal and another at the Magic Kingdom. “Jason and I can’t take more than two big amusement park days!” Stacy told me.

2. Take a tour of the Everglades. “I can’t believe that all the years you took me to Florida to visit family that we never went to the Everglades!” has said my nature-loving daughter repeatedly to me.

3. Try to connect with her cousin Michael who is the father of two little girls. “Do you think they might be in Florida when we visit?” inquired Stacy, who wants Cooper to meet his Charleston, NC-residing cousins, especially Maddie who is close in age, hoping they will consider staying with Michael’s parents (my sister and brother-in-law) in nearby Boca Raton during the Fiji family visit.

3. Arrange a second dose of the Pfizer Covid kids vaccine for Cooper.

4. Make hair appointments for Stacy and Cooper

5. Book Stacy a gynecologist appointment.

In mid-April I sent this rather long email to Stacy:

Dear Stacy,

I am happy to work on any planning you might need.

Things to consider:

Plan around Orlando trip first as parks may have limited tickets and hotel rooms

May want to acclimate to time zone change for a few days first so Cooper will get the most out of Orlando attractions

I suggest we drive to the Orlando area the day before any park entry so we will all be fresh to start the following day.

I expect you will want to go to Universal first since Cooper’s main interest is OWEN!

another question is where to stay, as there are so many hotels, at or near Universal or on Disney property?

How many nights? probably 3? to enjoy facilities in the evening too.

I just looked up the distance and it is within a 2 & 1/2 hr highway drive from us, fairly easy considering your Fiji travels.

So to sum up, need to pick when you want to go, how long, where to stay, etc.

If you have not communicated with Michael, may want to do that soon in the event they might come to Florida, so we would want to be available to connect.

And it is Father’s Day in the midst of your visit, so that might work if they want to come that weekend.

COVID Vaccine for Cooper: should not be any difficulty getting him a vaccine. Dad asked at CVS. Closer to your visit and when you have a date in mind, we can book something.

Probably don’t need to book far out for activities near us, such as Everglades trip. Plenty of kid-friendly attractions in the vicinity, including turtle and animal rescue facilities, zoos, beach, water parks, etc.

Our club has a nice playground. We can try tennis on a real court.

My friend Jill just dropped off stuff for Cooper today: car booster seat, bike, scooters, helmets, boy toys & balls.

I am sure we will not lack for things to do.

xoxo mom

Stacy’s brief reply:

“Hi. Might be better to talk through all this on weekend. We have 4-day Easter weekend coming up and will be around at home. Xox

And I wrote back: “Just thought I would write down a lot of the thoughts that have been swirling around my head since you decided on Florida.

Certainly a verbal discussion is optimal. Lots to figure out.”

Generally, in the limited FaceTime conversation we had about this, Stacy mainly agreed with my ideas or left most of the specifics up to me as she is always too busy with her overlapping mothering and work.

As I had written to Stacy, I figured I should work on the Orlando trip first as hotels and parks may get filled up. And these days the parks require specific-date reservations too, as guests are limited daily. Even though we would go to Universal on our first park day, it seemed best to reserve a kids-oriented Disney property hotel for our entire stay, and drive ourselves to relatively-close Universal on the first day. In looking up Disney World accommodations online, I found that the cost of the several hotels directly on the monorail line around the Magic Kingdom were extraordinarily expensive. But how to decide which other Disney hotels would be optimal? The online options were extensive. My brother suggested calling Disney reservations directly for their advice, which he had previously found helpful. Good idea.

And fortunately, the hold time to reach a live agent was not too lengthy. The cheerful and knowledgeable Disney agent suggested the reasonably-priced and well-located Caribbean Beach Hotel, which comes with free and frequent bus transportation directly to the Magic Kingdom entrance. Additionally, the swimming pool is created like a Spanish fort with water slides, and hotel guests have free access to the Disney Skyliner, a gondola-type conveyance that connects many hotels and Disney amusement properties, and can be ridden just for fun without any particular destination. I booked for three nights, arriving Wednesday, June 15, to be park-ready for Thursday morning.

Next step, buy Magic Kingdom tickets linked to our specific entrance day. Disney purchases (accommodations, park tickets, etc) are linked online in My Disney Experience online account, but I needed to phone Disney World travel again to understand how to negotiate the whole online process. I also inquired and learned about the Disney Genie Service, which is recommended, for a fairly reasonable additional charge, to help expedite your park plans. That will likely be a Disney add-on when we arrive. Disney plans arranged, check!

Of course, I also had to pre-purchase the day passes for Universal Islands of Adventure, inclusive of their Jurassic World “island.” Like Disney, Universal also requires linking purchased entry tickets to specific date. And Universal also has the option of buying add-on express passes to the park tickets, but we will need to decide whether that would be worth the cost based on which attractions Stacy thinks Cooper will want to ride. Universal plans arranged, check!

Moving into May, it seemed about time to book the Everglades tour, as I had a specific date in mind to space out our major activities. Admittedly, I was not particularly enthusiastic about riding around in a swamp in Florida’s June heat, but since this tour is high on Stacy’s to-do list, Jesse and I will participate. Stacy found her preferred tour company online and I booked the specifics, mutually deciding on a private 1 & ½ hour tour on the Tuesday after the Orlando excursion followed by Father’s Day weekend, for a brief breather between busy activities. When I mentioned the plans to our local friends Jill and Murray, they said that they had never been on an Everglades airboat and would like to go with us, not deterred by the summer heat. And according to Murray, Everglades passengers are cooled off the airboat fans that propel the boat. We’ll see how that goes … Tour booked, check!

Next, what about getting Stacy’s cousins to visit south Florida at the same time as her visit? When Stacy and family had gone to Australia in March, Cooper had so much fun playing with his cousin Kylie, Jason’s brother’s daughter, that Stacy hoped the scenario could be repeated with her cousin Michael’s five-year old daughter Maddie.

Cooper's cousins Maddie (5) and Kelsey (1 & 1/2)

I suggested that Stacy contact Michael first about this, as the appeal might carry more weight coming directly from her. When I sent Michael a follow-up email to Stacy’s request, I was delighted to hear that Michael and his wife Karen would plan to bring their daughters to Florida to coordinate with Stacy’s visit. Similarly delighted, Stacy emailed me,

“Oh fantastic! I was holding off on telling Cooper that he might get to see his cousins. He will be so happy. Velociraptors at Jurassic World AND Maddie and Kelsey.”

Cousins gathering, check!

When the Fiji family’s trip and flights to Florida were confirmed, a stream of packages started arriving at our house. As Stacy has done in the past for our international visits, she got busy ordering for herself and family all sorts of items that are unobtainable in Fiji, like her preferred running shoes, flip-flops, Spiderman sneakers, as well as Father’s Day gifts.

Meanwhile, ever since I knew they were coming, I began purchasing a variety of toys locally for Cooper as I came across them: Matchbook vehicles, pool toys including inflatable boat and foam noodle, soft baseball bat and ball. And I also ordered gifts for our arriving family. Remembering that Cooper had been disappointed about not receiving a

remote control boat for Christmas (even though he was extremely well-gifted otherwise), I checked with Stacy and learned he still wanted that. I proceeded with Google and Amazon searches to select (not easy among all the choices) an appropriate boat for a five year-old. Having confirmed my choice with Stacy, I was still worried about the toy that arrived, with its sketchy Chinese manufacturing and charging needs, but hoped that dad Jason would get it all sorted out.

Having asked Stacy if Cooper needed any new clothes, I found T-shirts, shorts and bathing attire at Target, and even more exciting, a Jurassic World toy with Owen and raptor Blue! The closet and drawers in the guest house cabana were filling up with toys, clothes, and odds and ends, including a package of dinosaurs I had bought last year and some sea creatures sent by Stacy that missed the duffel bag cut for Fiji in December.

I also unpacked several remaining cardboard boxes marked “Stacy and Cooper” that we had shipped from our Massachusetts home last fall, containing their own treasure trove of contents. I emptied out and sorted the boxes containing stuffed animals and books from Stacy’s and my youth, boy toys that belonged to our son Ben, and a variety of Stacy memorabilia (whether she remembered or not the variety of objects from her former life that had been randomly left in our prior home), and toys gifted to Cooper on past visits which had been too cumbersome to cart back to Fiji at the time.

I completed Stacy’s other appointment requests by scheduling a CVS vaccine appointment for Cooper on the next day after their arrival, as well as hair appointments for both Stacy and Cooper with the hair stylist whom Jesse and I have been pleased to use since we moved to Florida. With Jill's recommendation for a gynecology practice, I booked Stacy's appointment for the following day, figuring the first couple days in the U.S. would be low-keyed due to time zone acclimation.

Finally, as their arrival drew near, I asked about any food needs and got a lengthy list of healthy Cooper preferences from Stacy which I attempted to fulfill. Jesse bought an overabundance of pretzels for Cooper and beer for Jason. I chose the white wine supply for Stacy and me, as well as fish food for our pescatarian daughter and steak for our meat-loving and Fiji meat-deprived son-in-law. We were well-stocked, and as ready as we could be for the family arrival. We were counting down the days and hours to meet them at Fort Lauderdale Airport, when they would arrive on their non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles on Sunday, June 12.

And as you can see by the date, that all happened already, as did their entire jam-packed visit with us. I was originally hoping to publish the blog post about preparation for their visit before their arrival. But you probably can understand from reading this post how busy I was just getting ready for them, so much so that I was unable to complete this post before they came. So I already know in detail how the fun-filled Fiji family visit went. If I was wearing myself out with all the preparations, that was nothing compared to the actual visit. And of course, their Florida trip will be the subject of my next blog post, or likely next 2 posts as there is much to tell. So please return to FinallyNana.com to hear how Nana managed the highly-anticipated family visit with her energetic grandson. Sneak preview: great visit but exhausting for Nana, while kid-filled with dinosaurs, pirates, alligators, water play, and family, to constantly entertain a nearly six year-old boy. Looking forward to telling you all about it!