Million dollar turkey

[judecorp]

I thought we were doing this whole "East Coast Move" thing to be closer to family.

Jen's parents are moving to Florida. Her mom is leaving at the end of this month, while her Dad is staying with her brother until the end of the year (so he can get a bigger retirement). We went out there this weekend to visit them for the last time in New Jersey. The plan has always been (always meaning for the last year or so) to have a big family Thanksgiving celebration in Florida at the new house. You know, hang out by the pool, eat a turkey, that sort of thing.

Well, we just made the mistake of looking at the Thanksgiving airfare prices to Florida. Due to our new work status we don't have a lot of flexibility in travel time (leave on Thanksgiving Day, come back on Sunday). And basically, unless we can come up with $800ish, we're S.O.L.

While the idea of a luxurious long weekend in the damp heat sounds lovely, I wish Thanksgiving dinner was being held in New Jersey. Then there would be no problems at all - just a cool 4 hour drive. Now we have to keep eyeballing airfare in the hope that it will come down, or admit the inevitable - that we won't be able to make it even though we promised.

I really, REALLY hate money. Money is the root of all of my woes, I'm convinced of this. I mean, really - who's going to pay $1000 for a turkey dinner poolside?

Comments

[kalioppe.livejournal.com]

Where in Florida?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Cape Coral (nearest airport = Ft. Myers)

[kalioppe.livejournal.com]

Did you try Jet Blue? http://www.jetblueairways.com/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi.

It looks to be $342 per person on those dates, which is slightly cheaper.

And there are $317 RT/per person flights on Expedia.

Good luck. :)

[sacharine.livejournal.com]

i would also try the name your own price feature on Priceline. I got a direct flight from CMH to SEA for $220.

good luck from me, too!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

$342 per person before taxes/fees = $700+ = too much money

But yeah. We spent all night looking at JetBlue and Song and AirTran and all of those.

Thanks though!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

The problem is the whole "Thanksgiving" aspect. Otherwise, we could fly to Ft. Myers tomorrow for like $100! (Craziness.)

But yeah, maybe when it gets a little closer to the actual day, we can try Priceline. Though my fear is that we'll arrive at 10pm on Thanksgiving night or something, and will have missed everything.

[lemur68.livejournal.com]

You could try observing the Canadian Thanksgiving, which is our Columbus Day. That's not gonna be as big a flying weekend....

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Jen only has Thanksgiving off. And that's when her brothers and their families will all be down in the FL.

Blah!

[sudrin.livejournal.com]

This reminds me, I need to request vacation time for Thanksgiving week.

[cranapril.livejournal.com]

We couldn't make it to Thanksgiving a couple of years ago because John was on-call that entire weekend and couldn't leave the state...

That's when everyone decided to come to OUR house. 15 people for dinner, and I'd never made a turkey before. I don't even remember being awake enough to even eat!

Then last year, when I hadn't heard anything about the holiday... I asked who was giving the turkey dinner. John volunteered us to do Thanksgiving every year. Of course, no one had told ME.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

HA HA - that is SO like John to have set something up involving you and then forgetting to tell you! "Oh, I thought you knew that." I just love John to pieces, but he is the spaciest doctor ever!

I bet you make a GREAT turkey. I wish Jen's family would decide to have it in NJ instead - that way the whole family wouldn't have to get these expensive tickets!

[gimmeapony.livejournal.com]

for $1000, that better be damned good turkey.
can you get jen to ask her parents for an early christmas gift in the form of helping you guys pay for the tickets? i dunno if that's totaly gauche or not because i have no social graces or anything. :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha - I am totally gauche anyway!

Her parents don't have a ton of $BLING$ right now because they're in the process of moving to a new house in Florida, and they are retiring. So while they would probably agree to help us out, I wouldn't want to ask them at all.

We'll see what happens. Worst case is that we buy one ticket for Jen and I go visit my parents or something. :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to be of service!

As a native to the state of Florida...let me say...

[tbons.livejournal.com]

. . . when it comes to flying home for the holidays . . . don't bother. Florida's prime tourist season is October through April every year. You are best trying some summer holiday to visit family in Florida. Flights to Florida go up steeply in price during the wintery months.

You'd have to get some really cool deal for the holidays in order to fly down there. The one or two times I toyed with the idea of flying up for Thanksgiving - it was almost $400 for a ticket from Mississippi.

That being said - You could take Air Tran leaving out Tuesday afternoon and return Tuesday morning the next week for $200 round trip. $99 one way. That's into Ft. Lauderdale from Boston though. It's a lot of time off, but if you really want to do it, that's my suggestion.

It's usually cheapest to fly into Ft. Lauderdale on Air Tran because it's a hub. Ft. Myers is a really small air port and has fewer flights. Ft. Myers is aprox - 2 hours from Ft. Lauderdale.

The good news about Florida - car rental is often very cheap through Dollar or Budget. They do these $19.95 deals per day and such.

I'm sure this doesn't help, but hey I thought I'd give you my two cents anyway.

Re: As a native to the state of Florida...let me say...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's very good information for the future. I didn't know how far away the airports in Florida are from each other, so that is awesome information. Thanks!

Of course, there is NO WAY that either of us can take an entire week off of work, not this year anyway. We're so new at our jobs that Jen had to specifically ask for Thanksgiving weekend off (she is in retail so the day after T-day is huge) and we can't take other time. But perhaps next year!

Thanks for your help!

[kalioppe.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you know, but Hurricane Charley is about to smack into Cape Coral/Ft. Myers within the hour.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah - thankfully my in-laws haven't moved yet. They're moving at the end of the month. PHEW!