WINTER
07-04-2007, 04:15 PM
Summer, July 2007
Short time in the World
We didn’t know until about April of this year whether we would be able to take a vacation or not this summer. We almost always head south to Florida! We decided to drive to Sarasota and stay in my parent’s condo for a week with a trip to Adventure Islands at Busch Gardens. Things always change!
Just for the heck of it, I got online :surfweb: in May with Airtran and Southwest to check on airfares. Holy Crap! We can fly from Indy to Tampa non-stop for $34 each one way on Southwest!!! Honey, we are flying!!:woohoo:
I quickly call my sister to see if her daughter can go with us as she and my daughter are very close and yes, she can!
I book 5 seats = $444.50! All we need to do is rent a car from Tampa to Sarasota and then Sarasota to Tampa as the parents have a car we can use while we are there. (By the way, Sarasota is about an hour (give or take) drive from Tampa!). I rented a car through ‘Carrentalmomma.com’. I have a car one way for $41.74 and coming back $37.93.
Since we just so happen to be in Florida the same time as the Pepsi 400 over in Daytona, DH says “see about some tickets for me and DS!” :surfweb: Got 2 tickets to the Pepsi 400 and I guess me and the girls will enjoy a day at the Magic Kingdom, our favorite!
I need a room! :surfweb: I get online and search hours and hours trying to find a room for 5 people with good transportation to the parks that won’t break the bank! I tried the All Stars suites but wow! Are they expensive!! I finally located the Hotel Royal Plaza in Downtown Disney and they offer 2 double beds and a sleeper sofa. I got a rate of $97/night for a traditional room so I booked. DH says he wants to go over the night before the race. So, I book 2 nights. (He’s not twisting my arm in the least!) He and DS will drive from Orlando to Daytona (another hour drive) on race day.
A few weeks later I am online checking rates to be sure I didn’t miss something. The rates are better now. I canceled the first reservation and now have a deluxe tower room for $90/night. This makes me happy!
Nine days to go!!!
OK, now I have 4 days until we leave. I checked rates again! Now we are back in a traditional room at $75/night. The tower rooms are bigger than the traditional rooms but from the website it looks like the tower rooms have a large bathroom and the traditional rooms have a smaller bath with a sink area outside the bathroom (which will be nice for 5 people getting ready in the mornings). So, I switched again. We won’t be in the rooms much anyway!
July 4th! We leave in the morning. I printed our boarding passes today for Southwest – yes! We got “A” boarding passes. I did a dumb thing, though. I went online to verify my Royal Plaza reservation and under “Modify/Cancel” I entered our confirmation number and name and hit enter. Well, it looked like when I hit ‘enter’ it skipped the ‘OK’ and went to cancel. Oh, s**t! :scared1: After I calmed myself down, I looked again and it says something like ‘transaction error – must call hotel to cancel’. (They have a cancel policy if you cancel after 3 days before arrival.) I called them and they said I did not cancel but would make a note by my reservation that I DID NOT WANT TO CANCEL. I worked too hard to get a $75/night to cancel now! Plus, the rate now would be $120/night. OK, I better leave things alone now.
See ya when I return!!
Short time in the World
We didn’t know until about April of this year whether we would be able to take a vacation or not this summer. We almost always head south to Florida! We decided to drive to Sarasota and stay in my parent’s condo for a week with a trip to Adventure Islands at Busch Gardens. Things always change!
Just for the heck of it, I got online :surfweb: in May with Airtran and Southwest to check on airfares. Holy Crap! We can fly from Indy to Tampa non-stop for $34 each one way on Southwest!!! Honey, we are flying!!:woohoo:
I quickly call my sister to see if her daughter can go with us as she and my daughter are very close and yes, she can!
I book 5 seats = $444.50! All we need to do is rent a car from Tampa to Sarasota and then Sarasota to Tampa as the parents have a car we can use while we are there. (By the way, Sarasota is about an hour (give or take) drive from Tampa!). I rented a car through ‘Carrentalmomma.com’. I have a car one way for $41.74 and coming back $37.93.
Since we just so happen to be in Florida the same time as the Pepsi 400 over in Daytona, DH says “see about some tickets for me and DS!” :surfweb: Got 2 tickets to the Pepsi 400 and I guess me and the girls will enjoy a day at the Magic Kingdom, our favorite!
I need a room! :surfweb: I get online and search hours and hours trying to find a room for 5 people with good transportation to the parks that won’t break the bank! I tried the All Stars suites but wow! Are they expensive!! I finally located the Hotel Royal Plaza in Downtown Disney and they offer 2 double beds and a sleeper sofa. I got a rate of $97/night for a traditional room so I booked. DH says he wants to go over the night before the race. So, I book 2 nights. (He’s not twisting my arm in the least!) He and DS will drive from Orlando to Daytona (another hour drive) on race day.
A few weeks later I am online checking rates to be sure I didn’t miss something. The rates are better now. I canceled the first reservation and now have a deluxe tower room for $90/night. This makes me happy!
Nine days to go!!!
OK, now I have 4 days until we leave. I checked rates again! Now we are back in a traditional room at $75/night. The tower rooms are bigger than the traditional rooms but from the website it looks like the tower rooms have a large bathroom and the traditional rooms have a smaller bath with a sink area outside the bathroom (which will be nice for 5 people getting ready in the mornings). So, I switched again. We won’t be in the rooms much anyway!
July 4th! We leave in the morning. I printed our boarding passes today for Southwest – yes! We got “A” boarding passes. I did a dumb thing, though. I went online to verify my Royal Plaza reservation and under “Modify/Cancel” I entered our confirmation number and name and hit enter. Well, it looked like when I hit ‘enter’ it skipped the ‘OK’ and went to cancel. Oh, s**t! :scared1: After I calmed myself down, I looked again and it says something like ‘transaction error – must call hotel to cancel’. (They have a cancel policy if you cancel after 3 days before arrival.) I called them and they said I did not cancel but would make a note by my reservation that I DID NOT WANT TO CANCEL. I worked too hard to get a $75/night to cancel now! Plus, the rate now would be $120/night. OK, I better leave things alone now.
See ya when I return!!