Bringing Mom to WDW for MY bday, Sept '09! Day 4 Part 1..AK and Tusker House 12/30!

[disneygirlinnj]

Hey everyone! No new news on the trip planning front. Just wanted to stop by and say hi Slowly getting closer to our departure date!

I still haven't bought airline tickets yet...the prices are just slightly crazy right now. i'm hoping they go down soon

 

[catherines_mama]

I heard on the news that airfare was way down right now, esp Southwest.

I also heard, and looked into it, so I kind of believe it - Airfare starts the week low. And as you go through the week it increases. Like any fare on Monday will go up through the week but by Monday its down again.

Something to check out. Good luck with the tickets - keep us posted!

 

[racefanof88]

Just stopping by to say "Hi". Hope all is going well.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Hey everyone! OK so I need serious advice about plane tickets!!!

Can I tell you that I'm jealous of all of you that don't have to fly out of a New York City airport!!! The airports charge the airlines so much for landing/gate fees that prices are just insane. The only airlines that fly nonstop to MCO from the 3 airports here are Continental, Jet Blue, Delta (for the most part...theres a few others but not any discount ones like Southwest, etc).

The perfect flights I found are leaving Newark at 7am and arriving at 9:40-ish. That gives up plenty of time to get to the hotel with ME and head to the GF for tea. Then our flight would leave at 5pm or 6pm on the way home.

So here's my dilemna.... a month or so ago I saw flights for $250 or $260 and thought even that was a little high so I decided to just wait a little bit. Sure enough I look the past few days and they're $305 and $320. I look this morning...$330!!! I almost fell out of my chair.

So now what the heck do I do?!
1) Do I just suck it up and pay the $330 for the perfect flight times I want.... 2) pay $303 to leave Newark an hour later and risk missing the GF Tea.
3) Or should I just wait it out and HOPE and PRAY that they go down or at least NOT go up any more?!

I can book through Orbitz and then if someone books the SAME exact flight going and coming for a cheaper price, they send me the difference. But do I take that chance and hope someone books a cheaper flight?!

I need suggestions and words of wisdom!!!

** oh..driving to another airport further away won't work either... I checked and the price to drive out there negates the price difference **

 

[dawnbu40]

Wow! Those are awful prices! We're in Detroit and we can usually find flights for under $150 pp rt! (our sept fare was $120) I wouldn't count on the discount from Orbitz. We did that in Dec and of course no one booked it cheaper. I do know that one of those sites, not sure if its Expedia or Orbitz etc, does a tracker where they predict if your price will go up or down. You might want to check that out. As for prices, I've found it cheaper to book directly through the airline than through the other sites. Good luck!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Wow! Those are awful prices! We're in Detroit and we can usually find flights for under $150 pp rt! (our sept fare was $120) I wouldn't count on the discount from Orbitz. We did that in Dec and of course no one booked it cheaper. I do know that one of those sites, not sure if its Expedia or Orbitz etc, does a tracker where they predict if your price will go up or down. You might want to check that out. As for prices, I've found it cheaper to book directly through the airline than through the other sites. Good luck!

thanks dawn! yeah...i've been scouring those sites that predict prices and stuff. Sadly all the ones I found only predict 7 days out. I'm still insisting that prices HAVE to go down. when i went to tampa over memorial day weekend I paid $350! But that was last minute AND over a holiday weekend! GRRRRRRRRRRRR this sucks

 

[ILuvCrush]

Airfare games stink!!

I can fly cheap via southwest.... but I have noticed that even though many of their flights are going down... my MCO flights for September are going up up up! They are $60+ more now then when I booked I keep watching, because if they drop I can rebook them and get a credit... but so far no avail.

Can you try to shift the GF tea ressie back an hour or so?? If you can, i'd definately take the later flight and book now. I have not had any luck at all getting my fares to drop on any of my last few flights. Although, I have rather bad luck anyway, so I'm sure that's a factor

Paula

 

[jenny105]

Don't fly and hitch a ride with me lol. I totally feel you on the pricey airline tickets. It's more time consuming to drive but its SO much more economical.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Airfare games stink!!

I can fly cheap via southwest.... but I have noticed that even though many of their flights are going down... my MCO flights for September are going up up up! They are $60+ more now then when I booked I keep watching, because if they drop I can rebook them and get a credit... but so far no avail.

Can you try to shift the GF tea ressie back an hour or so?? If you can, i'd definately take the later flight and book now. I have not had any luck at all getting my fares to drop on any of my last few flights. Although, I have rather bad luck anyway, so I'm sure that's a factor

Paula

Yeah I was debating moving back the Tea an hour. And just make sure we eat light since we have Citricos later that evening! I think I must have just as bad luck as you so I think I will be booking soon. I might hold off until the end of this week though. I figure I'm already screwed so why not just wait a few more days? hahaha!

Don't fly and hitch a ride with me lol. I totally feel you on the pricey airline tickets. It's more time consuming to drive but its SO much more economical.

haha my mom would NOT tolerate driving! I wouldn't mind it though. I've driven down to Ft. Lauderdale before, not too horrible!

 

[jenny105]

haha my mom would NOT tolerate driving! I wouldn't mind it though. I've driven down to Ft. Lauderdale before, not too horrible!

It's not too bad if you break it up. We tried to do it without stopping once...never again.

I was looking into airfare a few months ago but couldn't find anything locally for under $200 pp r/trip. When you tack on baggage fees and then transportation for the crusie (in my case) it was just too much money. If you are willing to drive down to Atlantic City and fly Spirit Air, I think they have decent rates.

 

[KatGarcia]

I am trying to find flights in Oct from JFK and it really does stink. I say move the tea so you aren't rushing because you never know how long it'll take to get there! Good luck with flights... have you ever used airfarewatchdog.com or supersearch.travelzoo.com??

 

[disneygirlinnj]

I am trying to find flights in Oct from JFK and it really does stink. I say move the tea so you aren't rushing because you never know how long it'll take to get there! Good luck with flights... have you ever used airfarewatchdog.com or supersearch.travelzoo.com??

I have everything saved in yapta.com which sends emails every and alerts me if prices drop. I'll check out the others too! WHYYYY are the flights so darn expensive?!?! us NYC airport users want to fly cheap too!!!

 

[MyMuse]

I almost always fly Continental, so I tend to watch them more often. Their usual trend is to start raising prices toward the end of the week and drop them in the beginning of the week. This works when you are more than 6 weeks out.

So, if you want to hang on until after the weekend, chances are the prices will drop again. I'm looking for my trip in December and they are bouncing between $218 - $228 round trip.

Thankfully, I do not pay baggage fees since I have the Continental card. Though, I do hire a car service to bring me to the airport if family isn't around. It is better, less time consuming, safer and probably less expensive than leaving my car there.

I did, howedver, drive down once. ONCE. Ugh, never again. I'd rather deal with the airport, get there in a couple of hours and have more time on vacation. If you have a large family, then it's totally worth it.

 

[LouDisney]

Good luck. I hope you can get a decent price.
I usually fly Southwest, and being so close, I usually can get a great deal, but I have noticed it's a little higher lately, than normal.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

OK, I'm here now

I have always seen the link in your signature, well since it's been there, but everytime I get into reading someone's PTR or TR, I want to start one for myself... then I get lazy and "forget" about it

But since I had to check out the Legandary Years excursion that you sent me to this morning, I had to check in on the current PTR also.

SO... I'm starting from the beginning and I just read the first post. I chuckled a little bit because I saw that you said all the food was too much last time... little did you know that you'd end up booking so many ADRs

I'll get to reading, be back in a little while.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

OK, I'm done and I wanted to catch up by commenting on everything I would have so I am sorry for the long post:

1. Let's start with the current issue: I know what you mean about flying NYC-MCO. So I know I am not from NYC or the Orlando but I am a die-hard Yankees fan... from Oregon (I get a lot of crap for it). But, in being so- I had to go to the very last Yankees game at the old Yankee Stadium and when was that?... right in the middle of our Sept 2008 trip.

Now, I go to NYC a lot anyway, my best friend lives there and would marry the city if I could. But naturally, I HAD to go to the last game and did so on Sept 20 and 21 right smack dab in the middle of my WDW trip. Finding airfare was not fun but after a while on checking we ended up grabbing a $168 rt pp fare!!!

But essentially, I paid something like $300 per ticket to go to these games because they were really important to me so unless the airfare was more than the tickets... I was going to book it no matter what. Plus we got a REALLY good deal on the Grand Hyatt we couldn't pass up.

My point is (after that really long response) keep on the pursuit, even if you have to go out through JFK... which I HATE! but I had to endure. I hope something will come up favorable for you.

Fwiw, we flew Delta that time and when I flew solo from WDW to NYC in 2007 it was also Delta.

2. As for the moving back of the Tea time, personally- I wouldn't recommend it. We went last year and the earliest ADR I could get was 4:30PM we go there at about 3:45 in hopes that we could just go in earlier and there were only 2 other groups there, who were almost done! They left about 15 minutes into our afternoon tea and it was the weirdest thing to be there alone so late. Also, the ladies seemed like they really wanted us out of there.

It was also a good thing I had decided on having my mom's birthday cake delivered there instead of at a different restaurant because there wasn't much left in terms of dessert options. I don't remember what tea package we picked but I think we got to pick 2 desserts each and there were only about 7 to pick from.

Not to put a damper on things.

3. Now to be back on order in which I would have commented: that's awesome you decided to go for POFQ this time! I plan on trying different resorts throughout my years but it's so hard to pull away from Pop Century especially when I look at the price tag. You're going to have to report back on the Resort Board about your experience there.

It was on the short list for me in April but renting DVC points at BWV won. We're going in January also, although not during the same time as you, staying at AKV Kidani. When I am there, I plan on doing the 4 parks in 1 day challenge but the only day I find feasible (sp?) would be on our arrival day which has led me to need to book another day before we check-in at AKV. POFQ has made it back on that short list... as has Pop, of course and WL or AKL, depending upon what the AP rate is- so please, let me know youur experience at POFQ.

4. Which brings me to the next point... I feel like I am in the same boat as you in the AP. Normally we only go once a year but I think I have gone insane and booked 3 trips for the upcoming year so of course I will have to upgrade to an AP also.

5. A marathon??? WOW! Are you doing the full marathon? If so then Very good for you! I think I am going to try my first half marathon in October in SF but I am not sure... I'm signed up but I'm still uncertain. Have you looked into the Expedition Everest Challenge? I guess it's on your arrival night, that would be too tricky... but it looks fun!

6. That's awesome you like going with you mom to WDW! I do too! I just feel as if it's more memories with my MOMMY!! The person who without her, I wouldn't be here. Does she ever get bored being a picky eater?

7. I hope you're able to suck in a new Disneyaholic. My BF does not like Dinsey He gives me crap all the time for liking it so much. He's gone to DL twice and has sworn it off completely, even WDW! They don't even compare! I personally don't love DL that much but if given the oppurtunity to live in WDW, I would.

Hopefully, you'll turn him

Sorry it's been so long, it probably would have been longer (overall) if I started from the get go but I didn't.

Is your name Jen? Did I catch that in there somewhere?

 

[disneygirlinnj]

so I checked again a few times today and flights are holding steady... hmmm

I almost always fly Continental, so I tend to watch them more often. Their usual trend is to start raising prices toward the end of the week and drop them in the beginning of the week. This works when you are more than 6 weeks out.

So, if you want to hang on until after the weekend, chances are the prices will drop again. I'm looking for my trip in December and they are bouncing between $218 - $228 round trip.

Thankfully, I do not pay baggage fees since I have the Continental card. Though, I do hire a car service to bring me to the airport if family isn't around. It is better, less time consuming, safer and probably less expensive than leaving my car there.

I did, howedver, drive down once. ONCE. Ugh, never again. I'd rather deal with the airport, get there in a couple of hours and have more time on vacation. If you have a large family, then it's totally worth it.

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep on looking and I'll hold off until the weekend to see what happens. I think for the morning going out there we'll probably use a car service as well. On the way home I might be able to get one of my friends to pick us up.

Good luck. I hope you can get a decent price.
I usually fly Southwest, and being so close, I usually can get a great deal, but I have noticed it's a little higher lately, than normal.

Thank you! I heard that Southwest was supposed to start flying into/out of the nyc airports more frequently and for cheaper but I haven't seen anything yet! I checked just before and they were still rediculously expensive!

OK, I'm here now

I have always seen the link in your signature, well since it's been there, but everytime I get into reading someone's PTR or TR, I want to start one for myself... then I get lazy and "forget" about it

But since I had to check out the Legandary Years excursion that you sent me to this morning, I had to check in on the current PTR also.

SO... I'm starting from the beginning and I just read the first post. I chuckled a little bit because I saw that you said all the food was too much last time... little did you know that you'd end up booking so many ADRs

I'll get to reading, be back in a little while.

Welcome over! Hahahaha...yeah, there is going to be a LOTTTTT of food consumption. I need to start starving myself like NOW! do you have a trip report? I don't see one in your sig!

OK, I'm done and I wanted to catch up by commenting on everything I would have so I am sorry for the long post:

1. Let's start with the current issue: I know what you mean about flying NYC-MCO. So I know I am not from NYC or the Orlando but I am a die-hard Yankees fan... from Oregon (I get a lot of crap for it). But, in being so- I had to go to the very last Yankees game at the old Yankee Stadium and when was that?... right in the middle of our Sept 2008 trip.

Now, I go to NYC a lot anyway, my best friend lives there and would marry the city if I could. But naturally, I HAD to go to the last game and did so on Sept 20 and 21 right smack dab in the middle of my WDW trip. Finding airfare was not fun but after a while on checking we ended up grabbing a $168 rt pp fare!!!

But essentially, I paid something like $300 per ticket to go to these games because they were really important to me so unless the airfare was more than the tickets... I was going to book it no matter what. Plus we got a REALLY good deal on the Grand Hyatt we couldn't pass up.

My point is (after that really long response) keep on the pursuit, even if you have to go out through JFK... which I HATE! but I had to endure. I hope something will come up favorable for you.

Fwiw, we flew Delta that time and when I flew solo from WDW to NYC in 2007 it was also Delta.

2. As for the moving back of the Tea time, personally- I wouldn't recommend it. We went last year and the earliest ADR I could get was 4:30PM we go there at about 3:45 in hopes that we could just go in earlier and there were only 2 other groups there, who were almost done! They left about 15 minutes into our afternoon tea and it was the weirdest thing to be there alone so late. Also, the ladies seemed like they really wanted us out of there.

It was also a good thing I had decided on having my mom's birthday cake delivered there instead of at a different restaurant because there wasn't much left in terms of dessert options. I don't remember what tea package we picked but I think we got to pick 2 desserts each and there were only about 7 to pick from.

Not to put a damper on things.

3. Now to be back on order in which I would have commented: that's awesome you decided to go for POFQ this time! I plan on trying different resorts throughout my years but it's so hard to pull away from Pop Century especially when I look at the price tag. You're going to have to report back on the Resort Board about your experience there.

It was on the short list for me in April but renting DVC points at BWV won. We're going in January also, although not during the same time as you, staying at AKV Kidani. When I am there, I plan on doing the 4 parks in 1 day challenge but the only day I find feasible (sp?) would be on our arrival day which has led me to need to book another day before we check-in at AKV. POFQ has made it back on that short list... as has Pop, of course and WL or AKL, depending upon what the AP rate is- so please, let me know youur experience at POFQ.

4. Which brings me to the next point... I feel like I am in the same boat as you in the AP. Normally we only go once a year but I think I have gone insane and booked 3 trips for the upcoming year so of course I will have to upgrade to an AP also.

5. A marathon??? WOW! Are you doing the full marathon? If so then Very good for you! I think I am going to try my first half marathon in October in SF but I am not sure... I'm signed up but I'm still uncertain. Have you looked into the Expedition Everest Challenge? I guess it's on your arrival night, that would be too tricky... but it looks fun!

6. That's awesome you like going with you mom to WDW! I do too! I just feel as if it's more memories with my MOMMY!! The person who without her, I wouldn't be here. Does she ever get bored being a picky eater?

7. I hope you're able to suck in a new Disneyaholic. My BF does not like Dinsey He gives me crap all the time for liking it so much. He's gone to DL twice and has sworn it off completely, even WDW! They don't even compare! I personally don't love DL that much but if given the oppurtunity to live in WDW, I would.

Hopefully, you'll turn him

Sorry it's been so long, it probably would have been longer (overall) if I started from the get go but I didn't.

Is your name Jen? Did I catch that in there somewhere?

Ok now onto your long post I totally feel you with the Yankee obsession. I'm the same way but luckily I'm about 8 miles from Yankee Stadium so it's a quick hop, skip, and jump away. I've already been to 4 games this season and am HOPING to go to another one soon! That's awesome that you went to the last game!!! I totally wanted to but none of my other friends were willing to pay $300 for bleacher seats! Then of course as we're all watching on tv they all agreed that it was the coolest thing EVER and they were pissed we didn't go.

I actually don't mind flying out of JFK! Newark is definitely my favorite of the 3 and I will NOT fly out of LaGuardia....EVER. Unless that's the ONLY airport that offers that destination I have a bunch of friends that are pilots or work out of one of the 3 major airports and they always talk about how sketchy LGA is. The runways are way too short for the size of the jets that are flying in there every day. The pilots have to pretty much make a perfect landing every single time. Plus LGA is the worst airport around thats known for their obscene amount of birds and geese and they haven't done anything about them in forever. Umm....does anyone remember Sully's flight into the Hudson? Came from LGA. They've known about the geese problem and still nothing. Bleh...no thanks. I'd rather spend the extra $40 a ticket to fly into EWR or JFK. There's a million more stories that I hear about LGA but who knows how many times those stories have been 'expanded' so I won't go into it here.

As for the Tea, I think I'll keep it for 2:30pm. Even if I take the 8am flight...it'll give me 3 hours from when we land (if it's on time!) to head over to POFQ and then to the GF. I know its going to be cutting it close but I'll take my chances. if we miss it, so be it. I'll call when we're on the way to see what they say if we're running late. If we get there a little late, hopefully they take us! Looking at the menu's I dont think we'll do a tea package. Maybe just order a la carte.

I will DEFINITELY be making a ton of trip reports for this trip! I'll make resort report in the resort threads... the trip report here... and a full blown out dining report over in that section! POFQ just looks perfect for us so I can't wait to try it! The price difference from Pop did make me think twice though. I've never rented points but I should probably look into that for my next trip!

I'm actually goign to be doing the HALF marathon! The full is WAY too overwhelming for me right now and I don't enjoy running THAT much! Good luck on the SF half! That sounds awesome...you should definitely do it. I did see the Everest challenge and it looked awesome but it'll be a logistic nightmare if I attempt it the day we arrive! Maybe next year!

Totally agree about traveling with mom! As for food....I joke with her and tell her she's crazy because she honestly only eats to survive. On the other hand I LIVE for eating! haha! She eats until she's satisfied and thats it. Nothing more, nothing less. There's a few things that she LOVES but I would think you HAVE to get bored after awhile being so picky!

And yup! My name is Jenn

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Alrighty guys...I need food advice this time!


So I just got the Tweet from DisneyParks that Kouzzina is scheduled to open Sept 17th... YAYYYY!!! ADRs start tomorrow mornign though! eek!

Now I just have to figure out which ADR I want to get rid of and put Kouzzina in for. With my mom being from Greece, I think she'll love this...as long as it's good food! So which one of my Epcot ones do I get rid of?

I have Tutto twice..one for lunch...one for dinner. I COULD get rid of the dinner one (kouzzina is only open for dinner I believe) but I LOVE Tutto! We also really like Teppan Edo too so I dont want to get rid of that. Ugh... I think it might be Tutto.

I then also could do a different day but that messes up my travel plans! lol...

Yak & Yeti we really liked so I'd like to do that on our AK day. The MK days I'm keeping with Kona and Tonys. Mama Melrose I wouldn't mind getting rid of on our MGM day especially since I'm having real italian at Tutto. Hmmmmm!

What do you guys think? Get rid of... Tutto dinner, Mama, or Yak?

 

[jordanyosh]

I like your line of thinking getting rid of Mama Melrose's especially since you love tutto (I do too).

Is there a menu out for Kouzzina's? I'm gonna miss Spoodles as it was one of my favorite meals in 08, but looking forward to a new restaurant in the Boardwalk area.

I guess I can wait to hear how you like it since I can't make ADRs for 3 months.....

 

[disneygirlinnj]

I like your line of thinking getting rid of Mama Melrose's especially since you love tutto (I do too).

Is there a menu out for Kouzzina's? I'm gonna miss Spoodles as it was one of my favorite meals in 08, but looking forward to a new restaurant in the Boardwalk area.

I guess I can wait to hear how you like it since I can't make ADRs for 3 months.....

So I take it you're not a huge fan of Mama's either? I only made an ADR there because I didn't want to jump around to a different park. Our last meal at Mama's could have used a lot of improvement! And I can NEVER get sick of Tutto. My mouth is watering just thinking about the prosciutto and melon...mmm!

If I'm at the Boardwalk for kouzzina...I could take the bus back to DTD and then ferry back to POFQ. Hmmmm! I have to see how many things we want to do at MGM and see if i'ts possible to do them all before 5pm. I'm thinking it is We're not big into the shows there except Lil Mermaid.

Plus if I'm at the Boardwalk and we're not tired... I can wander around the F&W a little bit!

No menu that I have found yet. But maybe tomorrow when it gets loaded into the dining system? i still highly doubt it though. Cat Cora mentioned in the article that it's traditional Greek dishes, etc. If they have Pasticio and moussaka...and the cheap good old staples of souvlaki and gyros... I'm sold! Lamb chops would be the icing on the cake I love my Greek food but don't need anything fancy...but fancy is also welcome.

I will be sure to give you a full detailed report when I get home!