Thin line tween Love and Hate WDW/Halloween TR Western Oct 24-Nov 6 updated 9/27

[Disneygrl36]

Your enthusiasm is infectious.
Love the give a day get a day project. Can't wait to see how your son reacts when he finds out he is going to WDW in addition to the cruise.

 

[Tinkerkell123]

Really enjoying your pre-trip! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Fastpaks]

Your enthusiasm is infectious.
Love the give a day get a day project. Can't wait to see how your son reacts when he finds out he is going to WDW in addition to the cruise.

Really enjoying your pre-trip! Can't wait to hear more!!

Welcome aboard! You just in time for the ship to turn, yet again.

 

[anewmac]

I'm curious. I have never had a vacation that is going to be this long (hint: it will be more than 7 days). Am I the only person that thinks about it all day long, 24/7?

HA.. if ANYONE on this site tells you no.. there LYING! lol

So glad you got to extend your vacation and that the condo paid for it YEAH!! love it went plans work out how you want them to be!

Welcome aboard! You just in time for the ship to turn, yet again.

OH NO.. I spoke too soon

 

[Fastpaks]

It's freezing cold outside in the middle of February. The monster in my house has not returned. All I can think about is this vacation that I'm supposed to not even care for cause its Disney. I find myself occasionally (everyday) going to the Dis to find other reports that people have been experienced. The obsession that is about to take place is like a pebble being hurled off a mountain top heading towards the snow banks below.

By now, my taxes are done and we should have enough to pay the cruise portion off. SO what should I do? I have confidence that my plans for the most part won't change. In fact, in NO WAY are they going to change. None. Zip. Zilch. NAdda! For the past few weeks, I have been emailing Tracey at Dreams Unlimited , about all sorts of questions. Hotels stays, dates, and trip changes to name a few. All were met with quick responses. When she was on vacations, I still heard from her. I was never expecting that "little touch." To this day, if any agent was on vacation, I wouldn't expect much. (Its only fair we all need a break sometime)

Now, you have to know something about me. I don't like to be a bother to people. I like to do my business and then be done. Especially, to people that are busy in the service industry. So with confidence, I sent of the email with the header.

The Absolute Last Email​

In it I explained, that I would like to go to another day to CBR b/c we are going to squeeze in MnSsHp . Also, we would like to add a day on the end and leave on a Monday. Now, I could fit in the DHS. In addition, to that I wanted to detach the hotels from the cruise. That way, should there be a room only discount, I could get them applied.

The vacation looks like this:

• Wednesday: Check in CBR
• Thursday: MnSsHp
• Friday: Animal Kingdom, Check out and go to the PC for a hotel.
• Sat:Cruise till the following Sat
• Sat:Get off the ship and Go to AsMv+_DHS
• Sun:MK
• Mon:check out and fly home

Meanwhile, I made the "first mistake of my life." (*story of the first mistake below) I was so confident that my plans coming together, I decided to book my hotel for PC via Hotwire. As most of us know, Hotwire can be awesome and not so awesome. I didn't care. I was ready to be done worrying about the vacation, so I booked. Did I end up by the Port? Well sorta. I was hoping may be Country Suites or something, but ended up not far from Ron Jon Surf shop about 4 miles away in Cocoa Beach. Why was this a mistake looking back? I could have gotten a more expensive but better deal at Country Suites or Raddison. For those that don't know those two hotels are literally across from the ships. Little did I know I made an unwise choice. At the time, this wouldn't matter, because I was renting a car and then dropping it off.

The only thing left is for me to do now is wait..................and...........................................................................................request the days off? Umm, should be no problem, Right?



*"First mistake I ever made"-- I had a "professor" in college that would discuss budgets and ethics in a class I was taking. It wasn't uncommon someone would point out a mistake in the budget or in a story he was telling that we would find a "little nugget of Obvious mistakes" his response back to us was... First Mistake I Ever Made. Even though its been 10 yrs, many of us in the class still say that phrase.

 

[Fastpaks]

Tax time! Yes, the time where you realize you make a good amount of money donated to your government. For some of us, it is our bank account to pay off cool things. In our case, we had enough to pay off the cruise and the hotels. With such good news, they only things we still need to prepare for is airfare, car rentals, and spending cash.

Time off from work was something I wasn't too concerned about. I had talked to my boss' boss about the time needed off, and felt fairly secure in taking a 2 personal days,1 floater, a week, and the other floater to get all the time off. Except the more I thought about this, it was sorta just stupid. What if the kid got sick in the winter. Our vacation year begins in June and ends in May of the following year. This could be a big risk as anymore time off for "legit reasons", I could be penalized for. To compound the problem, I still have to get all the time off through bidding by seniority.In addition, we have new rules for time off other than vacation time. I have 10 years in the company, so I figured I was ok with the cruise. The rest of the time was bugging me. This process would take about 3 weeks to conclude.

The first group round went with out a hitch. I was able to bid out my summer and cruise vacations with no problem. The second round takes place and there was a odd opportunity. The week prior was available. 14 days off. I have never done that before and would prefer to spread my time off. After looking at was left and then talking over with the "better half", it was decided that taking the Oct 23-Nov7 would be a killer option.

Now, March it would soon be time for the release of Southwest schedule for Oct. During this time, I began to share my plans with my parents. My mom suggested that Disney is quite expensive to stay. Maybe that I should think about staying somewhere else. I REALLY wanted to stay at CBR. It looked like a pretty nice place to just stroll. My mom then said, "what if we offer our condo?" I asked her what the cost would actually be to me. She told me I think it would cost $0 for a 1 bedroom at Bonnet Creek.

Those that want to save a buck are like :take the deal! Those that love Disney are like: I don't know about that. I talked it over with my more down to earth women of mine. We would take the deal. My wife brought out a point: we could always go to the resorts on WDW property for pics and stuff. So we booked the front end of the trip Wens and Thursday for Bonnet Creek. This was on a Tuesday.

Four days later​

I was standing in my basement in about 1/2inch of water next to my water heater. What turned out to be a under the basement problem, began to put to much pressure on my aging water heater. We thought we had a year left on it. We were wrong. I knew this would be a huge setback in our trip. We would have no more wiggle room for the rest of the year in the budget as this would take anywhere from 800+ out of us. Fortunately, a buddy had a friend who does water heaters. I was able to get one in my house for a little less than $600. What a relief!

During this week, Southwest released their prices for airfare. The first day came out a little higher than I wanted but in the budget. If the prices ($79 each person one way) can stay that way till Friday, I' ll buy. Friday comes.... $109!!! This would basically take us up over our budget by at least 100+. The budget was going to be tight as it was. I drive for a living. I don't want to drive a 15-18 hour trip. So what does a person do?

To my wife, "hey hun, we are going to drive to Florida."

 

[Dreams83]

what a long drive that is going to be but cant wait if it gets me away from here and to visit with mickey and minnie the way back though is going to be another story as i will be crying cause i dont want to leave and for the 18hr ride back with a 6yr old saying are we there yet.

 

[myelton01]

Subbing!

We are going on the Dream for Halloween 2011. Cant wait to find out all the fun Halloween stuff you guys get to do! I am just the opposite of the OP, my parents didn't celebrate Halloween and now I go nuts on Halloween!

Glad to hear the water heater wasn't as bad as expected!

 

[anewmac]

Oh no the setbacks I havent read a pretrip report yet that doesnt have them.... hmm maybe we all should stop writting them and their wont be any setbacks LOL.

Glad to hear things are somewhat back on track... sort of just think you will be enjoying vacation

 

[nenner1]

Oh no the setbacks I havent read a pretrip report yet that doesnt have them.... hmm maybe we all should stop writting them and their wont be any setbacks LOL.

That's my philosophy!

Remember my car accident 8 days before our last cruise! ETA: AND our unexpected not-an-upgrade room change AND losing our internet the week before we left! That cruise was almost jinxed!!

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Hi Fastpaks...love your pre-trip report. I can't wait for all of us to meet each other on the cruise -- it will be super fun! Thanks for sharing your stories with us....can't wait to read the next installment.

Beth

 

[JKSWonder]

I realized this morning when driving to the train station that my car inspection was due to expire at the end of the month. So, I dropped it off at the local gas station before work.

Now I am living in fear that they are going to call and say that something frightfully expensive is broken and needs to be replaced!

Currently awaiting the dreaded phone call from the mechanic.....

 

[Fastpaks]

Subbing!

We are going on the Dream for Halloween 2011. Cant wait to find out all the fun Halloween stuff you guys get to do! I am just the opposite of the OP, my parents didn't celebrate Halloween and now I go nuts on Halloween!

Glad to hear the water heater wasn't as bad as expected!

Welcome! That is how my sister is. She loves that day!

Oh no the setbacks I havent read a pretrip report yet that doesnt have them.... hmm maybe we all should stop writting them and their wont be any setbacks LOL.

Glad to hear things are somewhat back on track... sort of just think you will be enjoying vacation

There are some pretty good ups and downs coming. I thrilled its back on track! I think Setbacks and PTRs are like Camping. It wouldn't be any fun if it was normal.

That's my philosophy!

Remember my car accident 8 days before our last cruise! ETA: AND our unexpected not-an-upgrade room change AND losing our internet the week before we left! That cruise was almost jinxed!!

Wait don't curse me... oh my car!!

Hi Fastpaks...love your pre-trip report. I can't wait for all of us to meet each other on the cruise -- it will be super fun! Thanks for sharing your stories with us....can't wait to read the next installment.

Beth

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on the ship. The Dis members only account for about 1/7th of the entire population on the ship!

I realized this morning when driving to the train station that my car inspection was due to expire at the end of the month. So, I dropped it off at the local gas station before work.

Now I am living in fear that they are going to call and say that something frightfully expensive is broken and needs to be replaced!

Currently awaiting the dreaded phone call from the mechanic.....

I know the feeling all too well. Like about two weeks ago...............

 

[mrp4352]

Either way, this is definitely an outlet for me to release the built up excitement.

I hear ya - whenever I'm getting too 'talky' about a trip 4-6 months out, they send me to the DisBoards.

 

[Fastpaks]

I hear ya - whenever I'm getting too 'talky' about a trip 4-6 months out, they send me to the DisBoards.

LOL I swear I have become a lurker do to long hours at work. I'm hoping to get a couple updates and well caught up over the holiday weekend.

 

[Beachbumpirates]

Well I just found this and cannot believe how late to the party I am!!! Loving your pre-trip and cant wait for more! We are so looking forward to meeting everyone in a short 45 days!!!

 

[Fastpaks]

I have always wanted to go to MnSsHp. Mostly, well the whole reason is my wife's undying love for Halloween. She lives a dies this holiday. In fact, if Christmas would be cancelled and Halloween could takes its place, add Minnie Mouse, and we have the perfect holiday for her. So I told her that if the prices weren't too out outrageous, I would have no problem in going there.

By now, its almost April and life for our household is becoming extremely busy. Work allows us radios and I have immersed myself in the religion of Disney. (I am not questioning my "hating status".) I have started listening to the DisUnplugged podcast, WdW Today podcast, WdW News Today podcasts, Wdw Radio pocasts.. to name a few... WHAT AM I DOING? But I can't stop they are entertaining.

In March, we decided to go to Bonnet Creek, my mom asked me how many days we thought we were going to need. I told her that we would only need 2 before the cruise.. BUT THEN... I started looking at the way the trip was planned. Its kinda dumb to take 2 weeks off and then try to get time off in the back end of the trip in addition. So after talking to my wife, I asked her why not leave on a monday, and stay down there in Florida for a few more days. May be we can afford more days at the park, may be not. If nothing else we could relax. My wife was like absolutely not happening, why would anyone want to spend more time on vacation, she would rather work! OK so she didn't really say that. Now our trip would be extended by a couple more days!!

The beginning of football season has arrived in April, in 30 days we will know the cost, the dates, and if we are going to try for the MnSsHp. In fact, I have now thought may just maybe I would dress up. Since, I know NOTHING about costumes where should I look, the web! I search costume shops. I find a couple that peak my curiosity and then I find the ONE. Now, you have to know me, I have NO shame at all. I'll embarrass myself to have a good time. I just don't care. Now that I have found it, I decided to just head to bed.

My wife works first shifts. When she gets up in the morning, she sometimes checks the history of the computer to see if there was anything interesting and what does she find. THE COSTUME I WAS THINKING ABOUT WEARING. Needless to say she wasn't impressed. I believe the first text message from her was "we need to talk." To be honest, I'm not sure why may be you all can figure it out. Its below:

Needless to say she won.

*********​

My wife called me sometime in the middle of April. She would explain that we have a problem with the car. It just likes to not start. It runs when its starts with no problem, but about once a month it just well, doesn't. This is not good...

 

[Fastpaks]

Well I just found this and cannot believe how late to the party I am!!! Loving your pre-trip and cant wait for more! We are so looking forward to meeting everyone in a short 45 days!!!

Glad you finally made it. With about 33 days left I really just can't wait!

 

[anewmac]

Im lol at the costume! hmm wonder why she said NO?

Oh NOO that car.. cant wait to read the next chapter

 

[Fastpaks]

Wow I am just floored by the generosity of strangers. Part of me, wants to just blah blah blah blah about the whole thing. BUT I just feel like its too good to jinx it. I will say this.. I don't want to believe in the "magic", but I am really starting to understand why people get fanatical about it. Cryptic enough? Got 17 days left and a lot to catch up on lets see if I can.. stay tuned!!