Glennbo’s City, Sand, and Savanna PTR - TR Link (pg 73)

[Captain_Oblivious]

Did he say "Get some rest Pat, you look tired." (movie quote alert.)

Dang it, I was slow checking back in and missed a good movie quote. Serves me right.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Hey Glen, I've been meaning to comment for a while now, so here's a nice long one!

City
Andrew and I was just in New York on August! We loved it so much. We stayed at the Ameritania Hotel, which was right on Broadway and 58th Ave. We were right in the middle of the theatre district. Eveything in NYC is so close and compact. We were only about a 20 min walk from Times Square!

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND booking Scott's Pizza Tour. Even if they're not the biggest fan or don't love pizza, they'll love the tour. It's given by this guy that is super fun and very passionate about all to do with pizza. He brings you around the less-touristy places in New York to introduce you to the best the city has to offer. I'm not a fan of pizza but now I've become a pizza snob! If you look on Trip Advisor, you'll see lots of great reviews. This tour totally made our trip. If they do decide to go, tell him Yuki sent them!


We ate at Bubba Gumps in Times Square and it was awesome! Only if they like shrimp. We had a shrimp-only meal and loved it. The prices weren't ridiculous and the coconut shrimp was to die for.

We tried to get seats to Wicked for our trip but was too slow, so wasn't able to get the seats we wanted (read: we could afford). My bestfriend saw it when she was there and she loved it, I'm sure Lauren will too!

If they want to see the Statue of Liberty, I recommend taking one of the boat tours around Manhatten. We took a Starlight tour around the harbour and it was beautitful. We also got great views of the Statue because we weren't right under it on the island.

I like Say Yes to the Dress too! I can't believe I didn't think to make a visit.

Sand

Wow, Vero Beach! Even though I havent seen your ticker, I guessed it was that.

It looks GORGEOUS! I've always wanted to know what it was like to be in a non-WDW DVC resort. Like the one in New York too.

Ok, I need to read the posts because I don't know what happened at Sonic. Driving is just....a different experience I guess. And you'll have help on the way back, yay!

The turtles look so cool! I had no idea you needed to make reservations to see them, but that makes sense. They don't want too many people disturbing them.

Savanna

Of course, Savanna meant AKL. It's gorgeous. Those pictures make me wish I could stay there next.

It's totally worth it to splurge for grandparents.

No trip in 2013? Well I survived with no Glennbo trip in 2011, I think I can do it again.

 

[glennbo123]

When I saw they extended booking out to SEpt 27 I checked and booked a flight. My conference this year is in Vegas so I am thinking.... DL for a few days. I booked a flight for a trip to DL on the front end. The flights have gone up $20- 30 since Sunday.

You never know what they’re going to do. Maybe they hiked them so if they bring them back down to where they were, people will snap them up?

That’s cool that you’ll get to visit DL this year!

When ever I read that some one is taking the parents/in-laws a little bell goes off in my head and is soon joined by a voice yelling "NNNOOOOOO"!

But, since you've done this before you should be fine.

Cherie!

Yes, I know….I thought of you when I started planning this. My mom is very capable of attempting to bring everything and anything that “might be needed” into the park. We’ll see how that goes!

Jambo or Kidani? And why? I can't decide?

We prefer Kidani. Here’s why:

1) Better pool, in our opinion. (Better slide, and a fun play area)
2) Jambo just seems “busier”, with lots of traffic through the lobby and other common areas. Some people like that vibe though, so it's just a personal preference.
3) Kidani’s Community Hall is James’ favorite place. He’d be happy just spending the whole day there, whoopin’ off-duty lifeguards at foosball.
4) 2 bathrooms in a one-bedroom suite.
5) Most buses stop at Kidani first, then Jambo, before continuing on to a park. It’s nice to have a seat. Or, look like a hero if you offer your seat to an expectant mother.
6) The big knock against Kidani is that you have to go over to Jambo to get counter service food from the Mara. But we just don’t do that, so it doesn’t affect us. We either eat at a restaurant that I’ve already made an ADR for, or we eat in our suite from groceries that we’ve had delivered. We’re not big breakfast people, just something quick, and off to the parks.

That’s what I can come up with off the top of my head.

UGH, ours went up too, though not a bunch. But we aren't 6 months yet so I'm keeping fingers crossed. I can see myself booking sooner than hoped for though.

I’m hoping you can get a good deal. Fingers crossed.

But not all have a magical bag of you know what!

My mom was always a big purse person, and was happy whenever she could supply “the item” that was in need at the moment…so there’s a good chance I’ll have some similar stories as Winkers had!

I am finally here!!! I have been subscribed, but haven't had time to read.

Brook! No worries, I knew you’d make it over when you could come up for air. You’ve been a little busy.

WOW! What an awesome trip you have planned!!!!! Beautiful Kidani pictures too, makes me want to be there right now.

Thank you! I think we’re going to have a fantastic time.

Let me know if you need any help/tips, etc with NYC. Here is a YouTube video that is very good about navigating the subway here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blgTobE83lk&list=PL87EB186A6978D37F&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Wow, thanks! I will check it out and be sure to pass it on to Judy.

Wicked is a great show, I was once able to snag $20 seats! They were in the very last row, but all well!

Hey, at least you were able to beat the rush out the door when the curtain came down!

Believe me, after what we just paid, I know what a great price that is.

Yay for Kidani! And a savanna view too! Sounds like an excellent plan. I really love the look of AKL and Kidani. We toyed with booking AKL but for a family of five, you'd have to book a stupid suite and that's expensive.

Molly you should look into renting points from a DVC member. Go onto the rent/trade board (under the DVC boards here on the DIS). People usually rent for about $10/point and you can look at the point charts to see how many points you’d need for your stay (a link to the point charts is at the top of the page when you’re on those boards). It’s still not going to be as inexpensive as the Value resorts, but it’ll sure be cheaper than Disney’s rack rates. Something to think about…

Anyhow, I'm sure you'll love being back there. Love the stitched pic too, it came out great! I'm not sure if you've mentioned this or not but is this the first Disney trip with your parents and the kids? Plans are looking good.

Thanks. Let’s see, the last time my parents and the kids were at Disney together was over Christmas of 2001, so the kids were 7, 5, and 2. I think this trip will be somewhat different than that one! We’ve already told the kids that we’ll let them go off on their own, since they’ll be going at a whole different speed.

 

[glennbo123]

Dang it, I was slow checking back in and missed a good movie quote. Serves me right.

And here I thought I served it up on a silver platter for you.

Hey Glen, I've been meaning to comment for a while now, so here's a nice long one!

Saving up, huh Yuki?

City
Andrew and I was just in New York on August! We loved it so much. We stayed at the Ameritania Hotel, which was right on Broadway and 58th Ave. We were right in the middle of the theatre district. Eveything in NYC is so close and compact. We were only about a 20 min walk from Times Square!

Very cool. Okay, you’re making me jealous again that I will not be on this portion of the trip!

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND booking Scott's Pizza Tour. Even if they're not the biggest fan or don't love pizza, they'll love the tour. It's given by this guy that is super fun and very passionate about all to do with pizza. He brings you around the less-touristy places in New York to introduce you to the best the city has to offer. I'm not a fan of pizza but now I've become a pizza snob! If you look on Trip Advisor, you'll see lots of great reviews. This tour totally made our trip. If they do decide to go, tell him Yuki sent them!

Sounds great to me! I’ll pass it along to Judy and Lauren and see if they want to do it. (I would, but with them, who knows.)

New York pizza reminds me of a scene from The Office when Michael goes to New York and he says that he “can’t wait to get a New York slice” and then they show him walking into a Sbarro’s.

We ate at Bubba Gumps in Times Square and it was awesome! Only if they like shrimp. We had a shrimp-only meal and loved it. The prices weren't ridiculous and the coconut shrimp was to die for.

Noted, I’ll pass it along. I think they’re going to try to hit a deli somewhere along the line.

We tried to get seats to Wicked for our trip but was too slow, so wasn't able to get the seats we wanted (read: we could afford). My bestfriend saw it when she was there and she loved it, I'm sure Lauren will too!

I wasn’t able to get the tickets I wanted for them either, which were “great seats at low prices”. Apparently it doesn’t work that way. Anyway, we decided a long time ago that we go to shows/concerts/etc. so infrequently that we’ll pay more for decent seats. One time, way back when we were dating, I took Judy to an orchestra concert and got some inexpensive seats because that’s what I could afford. It turned out that the seats were behind a pole and we couldn’t see a darned thing.

If they want to see the Statue of Liberty, I recommend taking one of the boat tours around Manhatten. We took a Starlight tour around the harbour and it was beautitful. We also got great views of the Statue because we weren't right under it on the island.

Yes, that’s one of the things Judy wants to do!

I like Say Yes to the Dress too! I can't believe I didn't think to make a visit.

Do over!

Sand

Wow, Vero Beach! Even though I havent seen your ticker, I guessed it was that.

Nuts, I didn’t surprise anybody!

It looks GORGEOUS! I've always wanted to know what it was like to be in a non-WDW DVC resort. Like the one in New York too.

I’ll tell you allll about it when we get back.

Ok, I need to read the posts because I don't know what happened at Sonic. Driving is just....a different experience I guess. And you'll have help on the way back, yay!

That was in a flashback trip report embedded in my PTR from 2010. I think I included a link to that story.

The turtles look so cool! I had no idea you needed to make reservations to see them, but that makes sense. They don't want too many people disturbing them.

The turtles’ dance cards fill up quickly.

Savanna

Of course, Savanna meant AKL. It's gorgeous. Those pictures make me wish I could stay there next.

Dang, you got that one too?

It's totally worth it to splurge for grandparents.

There are only so many opportunities to assemble all of these people at the same time…

No trip in 2013? Well I survived with no Glennbo trip in 2011, I think I can do it again.

If I recall correctly, Jen (CreightonsMomma) was disappointed that I wouldn’t have a trip report from a 2011 trip and was contemplating taking up a collection to send me. It is a worthy cause – can we count on your support?

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

first place dance

 

[Poolrat]

You just reminded me -- today's Tuesday -- I need to check Southwest.

Edited to add: Yikes! They've gone up! A bunch. So.... is still in the forecast.

UGH, ours went up too, though not a bunch. But we aren't 6 months yet so I'm keeping fingers crossed. I can see myself booking sooner than hoped for though.

Remember the airlines now have to add in all the taxes whatnot into the prices so they all look higher.

I checked my SW flight and I actually rebooked already saving $20.00. Check tonight and then next Tuesday. Remember the price you see is the price you pay taxes and all.

 

[glennbo123]

first place dance

That's a lotta dancing for so early in the game.

Remember the airlines now have to add in all the taxes whatnot into the prices so they all look higher.

I checked my SW flight and I actually rebooked already saving $20.00. Check tonight and then next Tuesday. Remember the price you see is the price you pay taxes and all.

Yes, I saw an article on that the other day and thought that I need to get back on here and update that that's what it was. I used to always mentally add $20-$30 for those fees. Thanks for reminding me about the change.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Hi, Glenn! It's been a while since I've been on the boards. But we're putting together a new trip, so I'm sure to be on here a little more often! I saw this and had to check in on your new trip. Looks great! The girls will LOVE Wicked (awesome show!) in NYC, and Vero Beach sounds so peaceful. I have to admit - after taking a beach vacation last year, there's something to be said for a calm, peaceful time at the beach. Throwing in a little Disney could only make it better!

Looking forward to more planning!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Remember the airlines now have to add in all the taxes whatnot into the prices so they all look higher.

I checked my SW flight and I actually rebooked already saving $20.00. Check tonight and then next Tuesday. Remember the price you see is the price you pay taxes and all.

Pat, I'm not finding that to be entirely true while looking at flights a few days ago. One of the airlines said they were doing it because of the new ruling, and put up a link. When I read that link it was to a schedule of congressional discussions, and that one had been tabled to July or something, so I think you still have to read the fine print.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I forgot about the bag O C****

 

[Poolrat]

Pat, I'm not finding that to be entirely true while looking at flights a few days ago. One of the airlines said they were doing it because of the new ruling, and put up a link. When I read that link it was to a schedule of congressional discussions, and that one had been tabled to July or something, so I think you still have to read the fine print.

SW is already doing it but the others may not have started. When I booked a SW flight and then went back a couple of days later, I was shocked until I read this:


In compliance with the Department of Transportation's new price advertising rule, fares displayed on southwest.com will now include the government excise tax, government segment fees, September 11th security fees, and airport facility charges.


Then I had to go back to see what I actually paid and realized my flight price actually went down a bit.



Glenn- check often and hopefully, you can get a good deal.

 

[marvali]

We prefer Kidani. Here’s why:

1) Better pool, in our opinion. (Better slide, and a fun play area)
2) Jambo just seems “busier”, with lots of traffic through the lobby and other common areas. Some people like that vibe though, so it's just a personal preference.
3) Kidani’s Community Hall is James’ favorite place. He’d be happy just spending the whole day there, whoopin’ off-duty lifeguards at foosball.
4) 2 bathrooms in a one-bedroom suite.
5) Most buses stop at Kidani first, then Jambo, before continuing on to a park. It’s nice to have a seat. Or, look like a hero if you offer your seat to an expectant mother.
6) The big knock against Kidani is that you have to go over to Jambo to get counter service food from the Mara. But we just don’t do that, so it doesn’t affect us. We either eat at a restaurant that I’ve already made an ADR for, or we eat in our suite from groceries that we’ve had delivered. We’re not big breakfast people, just something quick, and off to the parks.

That’s what I can come up with off the top of my head.

Nice list and comparison! About the only thing I can add is similar to your number 2. We enjoy how "quiet" Kidani seems. When you've been around the hustle and bustle of the parks all day, Kidani seems like you are in a totally different (and very relaxing) world!

 

[englishrose47]

Just catching up !!!Judy is somewhere in Pa tonight !!They went to Erie for the Splash Lagoon and the weather was so bad this evening she called and said she's staying at a Motel off the thruway till morning cuz she couldn't see a thing driving on the ThruwayI said it was A very wise decision , as I would prefer she got home safely tomorrow than taking chances tonight !!!Now I am saying she's in Pa ... but if she couldn't see she could be in New York

 

[eandesmom]

Remember the airlines now have to add in all the taxes whatnot into the prices so they all look higher.

I checked my SW flight and I actually rebooked already saving $20.00. Check tonight and then next Tuesday. Remember the price you see is the price you pay taxes and all.

Yep, they still went up. Some options by a lot, some only by a little. We will see what happens on Tuesday but right now we are leaning towards booking this week. Which will be twice as much as we've ever paid.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

SW is already doing it but the others may not have started. When I booked a SW flight and then went back a couple of days later, I was shocked until I read this:


In compliance with the Department of Transportation's new price advertising rule, fares displayed on southwest.com will now include the government excise tax, government segment fees, September 11th security fees, and airport facility charges.


Then I had to go back to see what I actually paid and realized my flight price actually went down a bit.



Glenn- check often and hopefully, you can get a good deal.

Thanks Pat! It will be nice when they all follow suit.

Nice list and comparison! About the only thing I can add is similar to your number 2. We enjoy how "quiet" Kidani seems. When you've been around the hustle and bustle of the parks all day, Kidani seems like you are in a totally different (and very relaxing) world!

That is why we love SSR - it is a nice break from the craziness, but close to DDT and transportation. I do love the atmosphere at AKL, too!

Just catching up !!!Judy is somewhere in Pa tonight !!They went to Erie for the Splash Lagoon and the weather was so bad this evening she called and said she's staying at a Motel off the thruway till morning cuz she couldn't see a thing driving on the ThruwayI said it was A very wise decision , as I would prefer she got home safely tomorrow than taking chances tonight !!!Now I am saying she's in Pa ... but if she couldn't see she could be in New York

I'm glad she decided to stay safe for tonight.

Yep, they still went up. Some options by a lot, some only by a little. We will see what happens on Tuesday but right now we are leaning towards booking this week. Which will be twice as much as we've ever paid.

Yikes! I just saw a blurb on the news that most flights are the cheapest 6 weeks before a trip - hard to wait that long and see if it will be true, though.

 

[afwdwfan]

5) Most buses stop at Kidani first, then Jambo, before continuing on to a park. It’s nice to have a seat. Or, look like a hero if you offer your seat to an expectant mother.

Just make sure she really is expectant before you say anything.

 

[glennbo123]

Anybody else having trouble with the Disboards? I couldn’t get on last night or I would have posted replies sooner.

Hi, Glenn! It's been a while since I've been on the boards. But we're putting together a new trip, so I'm sure to be on here a little more often!

Hi Jen! It’s good to “see” you again. How is everyone? When is your trip?

I saw this and had to check in on your new trip. Looks great! The girls will LOVE Wicked (awesome show!) in NYC, and Vero Beach sounds so peaceful. I have to admit - after taking a beach vacation last year, there's something to be said for a calm, peaceful time at the beach. Throwing in a little Disney could only make it better!

Looking forward to more planning!

Thanks, I think it’ll be a great trip…June is going to be an amazing month.

Pat, I'm not finding that to be entirely true while looking at flights a few days ago. One of the airlines said they were doing it because of the new ruling, and put up a link. When I read that link it was to a schedule of congressional discussions, and that one had been tabled to July or something, so I think you still have to read the fine print.

I got an e-mail from Southwest with the wording that Pat posted, so it all made sense when I understood what was happening. I think it’s a good idea actually, (to show all of the costs, including taxes and fees and such).

Ooo, I just noticed your Hawaii ticker (although you've probably had it there for a long time). Will you be visiting Aulani?

I forgot about the bag O C****

I hadn’t. I’m afraid we may have our own version…time will tell.

SW is already doing it but the others may not have started. When I booked a SW flight and then went back a couple of days later, I was shocked until I read this:

In compliance with the Department of Transportation's new price advertising rule, fares displayed on southwest.com will now include the government excise tax, government segment fees, September 11th security fees, and airport facility charges.

Then I had to go back to see what I actually paid and realized my flight price actually went down a bit.

Yep, that’s the wording on the e-mail I got. “Aha!” I said.

Glenn- check often and hopefully, you can get a good deal.

Thanks. I’ll keep watching.

Nice list and comparison! About the only thing I can add is similar to your number 2. We enjoy how "quiet" Kidani seems. When you've been around the hustle and bustle of the parks all day, Kidani seems like you are in a totally different (and very relaxing) world!

I agree!

Just catching up !!!Judy is somewhere in Pa tonight !!They went to Erie for the Splash Lagoon and the weather was so bad this evening she called and said she's staying at a Motel off the thruway till morning cuz she couldn't see a thing driving on the ThruwayI said it was A very wise decision , as I would prefer she got home safely tomorrow than taking chances tonight !!!Now I am saying she's in Pa ... but if she couldn't see she could be in New York

A wise decision indeed. Those lake-effect snows can be brutal. I grew up in that part of PA.

She’ll have to look at her hotel receipt to determine what state she was in.

Yep, they still went up. Some options by a lot, some only by a little. We will see what happens on Tuesday but right now we are leaning towards booking this week. Which will be twice as much as we've ever paid.

Wow, twice as much? Yikes.

That is why we love SSR - it is a nice break from the craziness, but close to DDT and transportation. I do love the atmosphere at AKL, too!

SSR does have a good location.

Yikes! I just saw a blurb on the news that most flights are the cheapest 6 weeks before a trip - hard to wait that long and see if it will be true, though.

Now what obsessed planner can wait until 6 weeks before to book their tickets? But they probably know that, don’t they.

Just make sure she really is expectant before you say anything.

Very true! Very true! I’ve never made that mistake, but I’ve come close!

 

[glennbo123]

So, in the last chapter I revealed that we’ll be at Walt Disney World (Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village) for 7 days, checking in Saturday June 23rd and checking out Saturday June 30th. The next step for any Disney vacation planner is to decide on park days – how many, which days, and which parks. Let’s go through my thinking.

How many park days? The short answer is: 4.

Still sticking around for the long answer? Okay. During our last trip, we upgraded the tickets we received from PChef for use later (we had annual passes so didn’t need to use the tickets that Judy

earned with the trip). Link to TR chapter We made them non-expiring and we added some days, totaling 7. In hindsight, I wish I’d made them 8 days, but we didn’t know what our future plans would be and it was getting into some significant money so we stopped at 7. Now I’m thinking that I’d like to use them over 2 trips – 7 park days is a whole lotta time (for 1 trip) when you factor in travel days and some down-time here and there. 7 park days may equate to about 10-12 days on-site, which is more than I’ve got DVC points for (especially the way I’m using them lately). So, I might try to add a day to our tickets when we get there this summer, in order to have 2 trips with 4 park days. Or, maybe the next trip really will be only 3 park days but with a Blizzard Beach or Universal day thrown in. We need to get to those parks anyway. We’ll see.

But with 4 park days, it lines up quite nicely with the number of Disney parks, doesn’t it?

Our last two trips we had annual passes, and I have to tell you, planning for this trip with regular tickets feels a whole lot different. It’s going to be hard to fight that “park commando”

feeling when I know that each day that I put that ticket into the machine at the turnstile I knock another day off of the ticket. You really want to make sure you get a full day each time you use them.

Anyway, I started out by thinking which days aren’t park days. We arrive on a Saturday and depart on a Saturday, and like I said, I want full park days…with an annual pass you can zip into the Magic Kingdom for example, in the evening on the day you arrive, but that would blow a whole days’ ticket with what we have. Plus, we have a fair amount to do on arrival day – drive in from Vero, get groceries, greet Gram and Poppy, etc. etc. And on our departure day we’ll want to get a bunch of miles behind us. So, both Saturdays are out. Next, I’d like to catch DVC’s “Welcome Home Wednesday” at the Boardwalk, so Wednesday was our next candidate for a non-park day. One more to go. I settled on Friday, so that we could take our time packing and enjoy the resort before we have to leave on Saturday. The only bad thing about that is we’ll be going like gangbusters Sunday through Tuesday, with a park each day.

But that’s why we have that big Vero Beach pre-park rest-up!

So, our park days are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday…but which parks on those days?

I don’t subscribe to the Tour Guide Mike website anymore, but I still subscribe to his philosophy, which in a nutshell is: “zig when everyone else zags”. So I plan to avoid parks with morning extra magic hours, since they pull a lot of people in. (People even arrive late and miss the actual extra hours, but they still go to those parks…it makes no sense, but that’s another topic.) We may hit some evening extra magic hours parks, if any of us have enough energy to do so, but that will be a game-day decision.

The Saturday that we arrive (a non-park day) has morning EMH at DHS, and there are evening EMH there on Monday, so Sunday, in between those two days, seems like a good day for DHS.

We’ll go to DHS on Sunday.

As of now there hasn’t been a morning EMH park declared for Sunday (which would make it a candidate for the next day, Monday) but the Magic Kingdom has evening extra magic hours on Sunday, so we’ll head there on Monday.

MK on Monday.

The Animal Kingdom has extra magic hours on Monday, so we’ll go there on Tuesday.

AK is on for Tuesday.

That leaves Epcot for Thursday, which seems pretty good because it has morning extra magic hours the next day, Friday.

Thursday is Epcot day.

I noticed that the Undercover Tourist website now has a recommended parks section, using a Green, Yellow, Red format. My choices for Animal Kingdom and Epcot match up with their “Green” parks for Tuesday and Thursday. But I don’t fare very well for Sunday and Monday. They have DHS as “red” on Sunday, but I’m not sure why, with extra magic hours occurring the day before and the day after. Regarding the Magic Kingdom, I know that it can be pretty busy on Sundays and Mondays since a lot of people start their vacations on those days and they like to visit the Magic Kingdom first. But the only day they have MK as green is Wednesday, which I’m planning as a non-park day, so I’ll just have to deal with it.

So there you have it…a very long way to say:

4 park days
DHS on Sunday
MK on Monday
AK on Tuesday, and
Epcot on Thursday

Normally I’d end the chapter there, but the other night we were watching TV and an ad for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

came on and of course, the kids said how they’d love to visit it. And so would I. But I just don’t know how I would squeeze it in. Even for our non-park days I have some things planned that I haven’t shared with you yet. And, I was thinking that with Gram and Poppy along on this trip we wouldn’t do WWHP because we’ll definitely want to tour that park commando-style and they’d either slow us down or I’d have to ask them to stay at Kidani, which would be rude. But on the other hand, we’ll have a car since it looks like we’ll be driving, so that would be a plus. We could potentially spend an extra day and go after Gram and Poppy leave, but then we’d be at the park on the weekend, the busiest days, and really I should be on the road in order to get back to work. Ay-yi-yi!

It all just goes to show – like with any planner, the plan is “set”, but is always subject to change!

Link to next chapter

 

[eandesmom]

Park plans look good! I do have to say I'd probably add WWOHP in there if it were me...since you already have a car and all that. I'd have a hard time saying no to that one.

Yikes! I just saw a blurb on the news that most flights are the cheapest 6 weeks before a trip - hard to wait that long and see if it will be true, though.

I think that can be true but at summer peak travel times to FL, not so sure. I've had it work both ways. The last 2 trips to FL we bought tickets on 12/26 for a President's week trip and then exactly 5 months out for a mid August trip. On the more recent one, I tracked those puppies daily and jumped when it went to the magic rate ($208 RT!). That said, the $208 rate (which is really $225 as it didn't include those pesky fees) is definitely not the normal low fare which is more in the $350 range. Given how things are tracking, I wasn't ever expecting to see that rate. I haven't seen it pop up for any dates, be it 2 weeks, 6 weeks or 6 months out for the last couple months I've been watching it. They've also cut back on our favorite red eye out which is a major drag.

So right now I can get semi decent times and rates in the upper $400's with one being a non stop, another a red eye at times we like (we prefer red eye heading there for the time change), doing 2 one way trips on different airlines. Crummy times for maybe $40 less which just isn't worth it. Had I booked a month ago, yes maybe as low as $375 but they were awful awful times, long layovers and well..it was Christmas. No money for 5 tickets plus we didn't have agreement from K's mom until 2 weeks ago.

We will probably buy them on Weds, the tickets I am looking at would qualify for credits if the price drops.

Anybody else having trouble with the Disboards? I couldn’t get on last night or I would have posted replies sooner.

ridiculously slow.

Wow, twice as much? Yikes.

It's all relative, the rate I'd gotten in the past was pretty crazy good. I still can't believe I got it twice. Neither could my TA the 2nd time.

We bought our Hawaii tickets last year 6 weeks out. They were decent but not what I'd call the "best" deal and definitely more than I'd spent before to get there. All the super saver fare emails I get that are 6 weeks out are not really great deals at all anymore. Of course Seattle isn't on the way to much so that doesn't really help. Seems like the only deals I see are to SF and they aren't really deals, just the fare seems to hold a little more constant.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

One Judy!!

Ok going back to read!

Park plans look good, I understand what you mean though regarding WWoHP. We're contemplating a quick hop over to Universal because we're big fans. I've read that Sundays are a good day to visit as people are usually transitioning at that time to go home. So maybe you could tweak and add another day? I agree, you'll probably want to go commando though as there will be much to see and only one day to do so. Plus, as you said, if you're going to have a car, then it's soooo easy! I'd try to squeeze it in if you can, especially since your kiddos seem excited over it.

Also, for park planning purposes, there's a great, free website that allows you to see which days they anticipate crowds and why...it's called easywdw.com. The guy that runs it gives explanations too (like TGM) for why he does or does not recommend a certain park.