Bumps, bruises, too many teenagers & swimming with sharks! NEW 11/17 pg. 32

Looked like a lot of fun Amy!!

We are going to Universal in April or July!!! Yay! I got my way. Well at least we're going to FL. We'll go to Disney for 1 day. I don't know how I'll handle that but at least we're going!!
Not sure about the flights yet though. I wanted to fly out on Friday. But missed the day they came out. We could fly out Thurs. night but I'm still not sure of the return flight. I'm thinking going in July would be better we could stay a little longer and flights are cheaper.
Not sure yet.

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We had a lot of fun!

Yay for your spring trip!! :cool1:

What an amazing trip!!!
Looks SO BUSY!!!

Thanks Mo! Yes, BUSY is a good way to describe it! ::yes::

What a fun trip! My boys would have been in heaven. Great hotel location, but yes, major sensory overload (and McDonald's overload...yikes! you poor thing!)



:lmao:

Sorry, I can't help it.

If you ever ask Evan who he wants to win, any game, it would be...

Whoever is playing against the Yankees.


the fact that it was OUR team....

Even better.

from Evan's perspective that is.

It was a really good trip & I'm glad we added days on to our trip so we could do all of those things while we were there.

Zach feels the same way about the Yankees!
 
Looks like a great trip to NYC! I actually can't stand the Yankees, but am a huge baseball fan. I'd go to Yankees stadium just for the history of it!

Gorgeous view from your room! I'd love to take my boys to NYC, but Jeff hates the city, so convincing him will be difficult. I'd like to go for a weekend during the holiday season...someday!

Cool boat excursion! The boys' smiles say it all! :)

I think there are places you could stay in NYC that aren't so busy. We chose to stay right in the middle of Times Square because we wanted to see all of the busy... we would probably choose to stay somewhere else if we went back.

I tolerate the Yankees but Zach doesn't like them at all!

What a super cool trip! Those fake Mickey and Minnie characters sure are a little creepy!!

The characters were very creepy! They were all over Times Square too.

As Amy knows, Red Sox fans are familiar with that phrase as well!

::yes:: Alex is trying to convince me & Zach that we should cheer for the Yankees since they are in the playoffs & the Red Sox are not. I told him I wouldn't root against the Yankees... Zach can't make the same promise!

Wow!!! What a great trip to NYC! We really need to take our boys there, and would do a lot of the things your family did. Natural History Museum, 9/11 Memorial, harbor tour, Lego Store, Disney store, M&M...

We would probably skip Yankee Stadium, but it looks beautiful and the museum is very impressive. Nice choice of a generic baseball shirt for Zach, but I love that he wore red to the game! :rotfl2:

Great hotel with an amazing location and fantastic view!!! What floor were you on?

Do your boys know much about 9/11? Nate was 3 and Ben was 4 months old when it happened. Bob Hayes, a really nice guy from our neighborhood who had boys the same ages as mine, was on one of the planes.

Thanks Dee! I believe we were on the 41st floor or something like that. I was a little freaked out about being up so high & being able to get out if anything happened. But we did have a great view!

Alex was 9 months old on 9/11, Zach wasn't born yet. They really don't know too much about it. The boys have a school mate (in a different grade) who's grandparents were on one of the flights & died that day. I didn't even know that until a couple years ago so I don't think she talks about it much (at least not school-wide). And they don't really know her well. We talk a little bit about it every year. We figured it would be good for them to see the memorial so they could have that memory for when they do learn more about it at school.

So sad about your neighbor. I'm surprised we don't know anyone directly who died that day. There were a lot of people from New England. I know people who know people but that's about it.

Yes they are!!! Lol :)

:thumbsup2
 
Great NY trip...:goodvibes

I really want to go see a game in Yankee Stadium... I'd love to see a Phillies-Yankee game but since their in different leagues that very seldom happens...

I can be positive about the Yankees because of all the history and because they are in the AL ... the Mets no so much...:snooty: I do like the Red Sox too but I tend to feel more benevolent about more of the AL teams...( I was hoping -since the Phillies were obviously going to be out of post season play this year for an Orioles-Nats game... with the Orioles winning but sadly not to be...:sad1:)

Is the Hard Rock attached to the stadium? or does it have a separate entrance...

(Have you guys ever been to Cooperstown? It was great- your boys would love it... all of your boys...:thumbsup2)

I think that the Marriott Marquis has a theatre in it too?

How did your boys like Time Square? I wasn't sure how David would feel but he loves it and wants to go there everytime we go to NY... (his sensory issues are pretty limited through) me on the other hand, I can feel my pupils dilating and I feel myself spacing a bit... it's pretty intense but it is fun (I just wouldn't want to live in Times Square...;) ) The M & M store and the Toys R Us are big hits in our house too...

The Natural History Museum is pretty awesome... one of the best science museums I've been in... Easter Island Statue... "more gum gum dumb dumb" ...yes I'm a geek and I love Night at the Museum...

Looks like a really great time...:goodvibes

oh btw - I'm really glad to have your report on the "Shark". I had wanted to do that this past summer but wasn't sure... It sounds awesome and we will definitely we sitting in the front...::yes::
 


Wow - that was one mega update on your trip to NYC. I skipped even trying to read this week cause I knew I couldn't see pics.

Your hotel room was very nice. The view was wonderful.

Thanks for all the Yankees pictures. That looks like an amazing stadium and the museum is very, very cool.

What a bummer that they lost, but it still must have been a great experience for the kids.

Good to know about the speed boat tour - sit in the front. check!

Yeah for a DIS meet with Kathy!

I really, really, really want to see the 9/11 Memorial. I am sure it is very emotional to visit.

Thanks so much for sharing your NYC trip.
 
Great NY trip...:goodvibes

I really want to go see a game in Yankee Stadium... I'd love to see a Phillies-Yankee game but since their in different leagues that very seldom happens...

I can be positive about the Yankees because of all the history and because they are in the AL ... the Mets no so much...:snooty: I do like the Red Sox too but I tend to feel more benevolent about more of the AL teams...( I was hoping -since the Phillies were obviously going to be out of post season play this year for an Orioles-Nats game... with the Orioles winning but sadly not to be...:sad1:)

Is the Hard Rock attached to the stadium? or does it have a separate entrance...

(Have you guys ever been to Cooperstown? It was great- your boys would love it... all of your boys...:thumbsup2)

I think that the Marriott Marquis has a theatre in it too?

How did your boys like Time Square? I wasn't sure how David would feel but he loves it and wants to go there everytime we go to NY... (his sensory issues are pretty limited through) me on the other hand, I can feel my pupils dilating and I feel myself spacing a bit... it's pretty intense but it is fun (I just wouldn't want to live in Times Square...;) ) The M & M store and the Toys R Us are big hits in our house too...

The Natural History Museum is pretty awesome... one of the best science museums I've been in... Easter Island Statue... "more gum gum dumb dumb" ...yes I'm a geek and I love Night at the Museum...

Looks like a really great time...:goodvibes

oh btw - I'm really glad to have your report on the "Shark". I had wanted to do that this past summer but wasn't sure... It sounds awesome and we will definitely we sitting in the front...::yes::

We had a lot of fun in NY. We've actually talked about doing a trip to Cooperstown. I need to do a little research to figure out what else we could do out there.

I wish we hadn't been so tired when we were at the Natural History Museum. We really just walked through & didn't spend much time looking at the exhibits. The boys were actually disappointed that the musuem didn't look more like the one in the movie. We had watched it just a few weeks before our trip. The Easter Island statue (or "Gum gum statue" as they called it) was one of their favorites. :thumbsup2

The Shark was one of the highlights from our trip. You should definitely check it out - up front! ;)

Times Square was good to visit but it is definitely a very sensory experience. Loud, bright & crowded with all kinds of smells. We really like having experienced it & I'm glad we stayed there but I think we'd stay somewhere else next time. We didn't hang out in Times Square much - just going from point A to point B with a couple visits to stores.


Wow - that was one mega update on your trip to NYC. I skipped even trying to read this week cause I knew I couldn't see pics.

Your hotel room was very nice. The view was wonderful.

Thanks for all the Yankees pictures. That looks like an amazing stadium and the museum is very, very cool.

What a bummer that they lost, but it still must have been a great experience for the kids.

Good to know about the speed boat tour - sit in the front. check!

Yeah for a DIS meet with Kathy!

I really, really, really want to see the 9/11 Memorial. I am sure it is very emotional to visit.

Thanks so much for sharing your NYC trip.

It was a great trip. So different from anything we've done. The kids (more Alex than Zach) get bored easily so this trip had a nice balance of sports stuff & some touristy things. I think we made some good plans to keep their interest - like doing the speedboat rather than a full tour of the Statue of Liberty.

The 9/11 Memorial is definitely something you should see. They are still working so it'll be interesting to see it when it's done.
 
Great update!!:thumbsup2 Your trip to NYC looked like so much fun! We're thinking about taking a trip there next year. Many of the things you did are on our to-do list. I'll have to look into the speed boat tour. It looks like something my boys would love.:goodvibes
 


What a great NY trip! A place Alex and I are quite interested in visiting. If we ever get to go, I'll be asking you for pointers :teeth:
 
Great update!!:thumbsup2 Your trip to NYC looked like so much fun! We're thinking about taking a trip there next year. Many of the things you did are on our to-do list. I'll have to look into the speed boat tour. It looks like something my boys would love.:goodvibes

It was such a fun trip & so different from other trips we've taken. You will have a ton of fun!

Man o man you are BUSY!!! :goodvibes

::yes:: But hoping to find more DIS time this weekend!

What a great NY trip! A place Alex and I are quite interested in visiting. If we ever get to go, I'll be asking you for pointers :teeth:

You should totally go! It was a lot of fun & it would make a great mom & Alex trip!
 
I'm back! My girls weekend trip was so much fun & we got to do so many new things but now it's time to get into planning mode for our next family trip in April!

I had hoped to get this TR finished up before the trip but that didn't happen... I have one post left with my final thoughts & plans for April. Those plans are coming together quickly with a busy week ahead. Monday morning is airfare booking day as Southwest opens up our dates. I also have ADRs to make next week.

I might post "final thougths" this weekend & do another update next week once the plans are firmed up. :thumbsup2 I'm not sure if I'll write a PTR or not for the April trip. :confused3

So stay tuned & I promise to get things wrapped up here!
 
I'm back! My girls weekend trip was so much fun & we got to do so many new things but now it's time to get into planning mode for our next family trip in April!


Glad you had a great time and made it safely home to your guys! I am trying to not think too much about my March trip until the first of the year. November and December will be very busy, so they will go by quickly. January and February are torture with cold weather, so trip thoughts will keep me happy then. :)
 
Glad you had a great time and made it safely home to your guys! I am trying to not think too much about my March trip until the first of the year. November and December will be very busy, so they will go by quickly. January and February are torture with cold weather, so trip thoughts will keep me happy then. :)

The rest of 2012 will definitely fly by! I just need to get some of our April plans set (flights & ADRs) then I'll put things on the back burner until after the new year. My to-do lists always start in January. :thumbsup2

I love having a spring trip to help get me through the tough New England winters!
 
I have been dragging my feet on writing up my final thoughts because it's been so long since the trip. I should have written this part right after returning. I'm sure there are more things I had intended to write about, but the two major things I took from this trip are:

1 - We like more down time now that the kids can entertain themselves.

Tim & I really enjoyed sitting around in pool chairs on this trip. The kids did a great job playing at the pool (for most of the week). They wanted more time in the pool with Dad toward the end of the week but we have a solution for that for our next trip... different resort with several pools so we can pool hop to keep things interesting! And there's no reason we can't swim with them some of the time. It was just nice to sit & relax. There were a few times that we took mid-day breaks & found ourselves relaxing in the sun, not wanting to go back out for our dinner ADR. Because of this, we'll probably plan our days differently, do fewer split park days and more 3/4 park days, either early or late.

2 - We don't ever want to be held hostage by our tickets again.

I had an annual pass, but Tim & the boys were using the last 6 days of their 10 day non-expire tickets that we bought for our Nov 2011 trip. We could have had up to 10 park days. It was nice to have some non-park time planned and to experience some new things like a waterpark & DisneyQuest (as much as I didn't love that one). There were several occassions when the weather didn't cooperate or we just felt like going to a park & couldn't.

For the next trip, Zach & I have APs. I bought his just before the price increase so he'll get a trip as a 9 year old & a trip in Feb 2014 as a 10 year old with this AP. I haven't bought mine yet. Tim & Alex have 6 day park hoppers for now. (Bought them through Undercover Tourist before the price increase.) We'll probably add a day or two to them - it's very cheap to do that. The main thing is that we'll have the option to add up to four days to the tickets (maxing out at 10 days). We won't be ticket hostages! :thumbsup2

Tim & the boys also have 8 waterpark & more tickets left on those non-expiring tickets. That was the one benefit of buying those tickets. I'm sure it will take us many, many trips to use them all up.

Side question... For anyone who has had a child age up from 9 to 10 while they still had a valid ticket, do you get them a new adult ticket or just keep using the child ticket? I've heard that you can get the ticket changed over to an adult ticket at no charge but do you need to bother? Zach will age up during his AP year so he'll just be 10 for the second trip... no big deal. But the waterpark ticket could take years to use up. He could be 16 by the time he uses all of the tickets.

Some other final thoughts....

We really enjoyed staying at Sheraton Vistana Villages & it was fun staying at the same place as Heidi & her family. We only spent a little time together at the pool, but I really enjoyed that time. Unfortunately we won’t be able to do that next time because she is staying at a resort (Bonnet Creek) that’s not part of our timeshare exchange network. In April we are going to try to just stay at one resort the whole time. Even though it’s fun to stay onsite for a few days, we’d prefer not to move & are on a tighter budget for April. We've taken three big trips within the last year… Disney Nov 2011, Disney April 2012 & NY August 2012. Plus I just had my solo trip earlier this month. We're looking to do this one on a tighter budget... which also means skipping Universal again. (We'll get there some day.)

We enjoyed exploring some new things on this trip. Typhoon Lagoon, DTD movie theater, DisneyQuest were all fun (mostly). Surrey bikes… not so much!

The Beach Club was nice but the weather really didn’t allow us to fully enjoy all the resort had to offer.

As always, love April. Weather is good, love F&G Festival. The end of our trip we saw more teen groups than ever before but we survived.

After I book our airfare tomorrow & finish making ADRs this week, I'll post about our plans for April. I'd write more about it now, but I'm still trying to put together the itinerary. It's hard to break old habits... I have to remember to build in the down time & try not to do too many days with an am park & a pm park!
 
So glad you had a great girls trip!

Jeremy had an AP when he was 9 and turned 10. We never got it changed. It worked just fine when he was 10 as a child.

Love your pictures from NY. I want to go. My dream trip has been to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We have contemplated going several times but have decided that Jeremy needed to be a little older so he will not drive us crazy waiting for such a long time on the street. I can't believe you drove. Just the thought of driving in New York scares me to death!!!

Really enjoyed your spring trip. F&G was such a fun time for us.

Glad you were able to bring the bear home to its owner!!! :)
 
Nice recap, Amy. So glad you enjoyed the Sheraton, and I thoroughly enjoyed your report.

Great pictures from your New York trip as well (sorry...I forgot to respond when you posted all of those).
 
So glad you had a great girls trip!

Jeremy had an AP when he was 9 and turned 10. We never got it changed. It worked just fine when he was 10 as a child.

Love your pictures from NY. I want to go. My dream trip has been to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We have contemplated going several times but have decided that Jeremy needed to be a little older so he will not drive us crazy waiting for such a long time on the street. I can't believe you drove. Just the thought of driving in New York scares me to death!!!

Really enjoyed your spring trip. F&G was such a fun time for us.

Glad you were able to bring the bear home to its owner!!! :)

Glad to hear you didn't have to change over the AP. I figured that would work out OK. I guess I'm wondering more about the waterpark+ ticket that could be around for quite a while.

NY was a lot of fun. We almost got to see the Thanksgiving Parade when we lived down in CT. A whole group of our family was going in to see it. Unfortunately, it was a year that we had committed to go to NH for Thanksgiving. :headache:

I wouldn't have driven... It was no big deal for Tim. And aside from not being able to figure out how to get into our hotel the drive was pretty easy.

We were so happy to be able to reunite Snow Bear with his family. :goodvibes

Glad you enjoyed my trip report. Update on next April coming up.

Nice recap, Amy. So glad you enjoyed the Sheraton, and I thoroughly enjoyed your report.

Great pictures from your New York trip as well (sorry...I forgot to respond when you posted all of those).

Thanks Kathy!! I enjoyed writing this TR, even though it was hard to get through sometimes. I think I need to do it faster next time. This one seemed to drag on forever.

NY was a lot of fun - glad you enjoyed the pictures. :goodvibes
 
Unfortunately this is only part one of the update on our next trip in April.

I was up before 6am ready to book our airfare. It wasn't up yet so I got some coffee, made an ADR & poked around the DIS to see who else was up to book with Southwest. Finally it started to come up, then would go down, then up again. I got a glimpse before it went down one more time & I didn't like what I saw. $212 :headache: I was hoping for anything under $200 so I guess it wasn't all that bad.

Finally it came up for good & I snatched those $212 return flights for the 28th. I always book the return flight first since we like to fly home on Sunday mid-day and it's the end of school vacation. I grabbed the $212 flights then jumped on the other computer (which was up and ready on the Southwest site) to see if there was anything cheaper into Tampa. Nope! Not even close! Which was surprising, but back to the laptop to pay. I was using points for these tickets but still had to go through the whole thing with entering names, etc. so I did all that and entered a credit card for the $10 security fee. Cofirmation numbers pop up... but only for 2 of us! Ugghh... Unable to confirm all flights. :headache: So back I went to book two more but now the price is up to $247. :mad: But I booked them. Return flights done.

Now how to get there... I wasn't too surprised by the prices for the return flights but the flights down (on a Thursday or Friday) were even worse! Almost $300 each, one way! So I didn't book anything yet. I'm really hoping the rates come down tomorrow or Wednesday.

We have one option, which would be to fly down on Wednesday morning. There are flights for $179 (still high for mid-week) into Tampa. The only real issue is whether we want Alex to miss three days of school. I'm not worried about it for Zach but I was already worried about Alex missing two. It would probably be fine but we're still thinking about it... at least until tomorrow when we see if fares drop.

We have some rapid rewards points left over on each of our four accounts. Zach & I would have to buy a fair amount of points to have enough for a ticket so it may not be worth it, especially since they don't expire and buying points costs more than just buying the ticket. Tim & Alex almost have enough points for a full ticket. I'll buy points for each of them to get their flights down.

In other trip planning news, since we are staying off-site I've been making ADRs day by day. I haven't gotten up early or anything and there has been plenty of availability, even for Be Our Guest (which I haven't booked yet but keep checking availability). So far I have booked Chef Mickey's for arrival night (assuming we fly down on Thursday), Crystal Palace for Friday morning/pre-park opening and Shula's for Saturday night. :thumbsup2 Other ADRs that we hope to get are Be Our Guest, Teppan Edo, Le Cellier lunch, 50s Prime Time & T-Rex. I think there are others but that's what I can think of for now. Honestly I don't even have the itinerary 100% complete. :rolleyes1

So that's it for now. I'll be sure to report back tomorrow or Wednesday & hopefully have our flights to Florida booked!
 
Good Luck with airfaire!!! That is the one advantage to driving. However, we are flying to California next year over Thanksgiving and was looking at what it currently cost today!!! :lmao: Little over planning don't you think when I don't even have this coming trip planned really well....

Wow, great that Be our Guest has availability. I scored us a ressie the day it opened for the Friday after Thanksgiving. I kept trying to call disney dining but could never get through. Finally dawned on me to call DVC and was done within 15 minutes!!! Super excited. :yay:
 
I tried to book this morning too. I went on at 6:30 and thought OMG what time did they open them up!!!???? B/ c some were already sold out isn't that insane??? And they were all over $300 and some over 400 one way!!! Well we are not paying those ridiculous prices. So I think we're going in July instead. :(

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