PART FOUR!! *December 2012 Roll Call* Holidays, FLE & MVMCP!! A very, merry thread!

[Tltorrez]

Thanks, DH isn't budging on the idea of a 2nd WDW trip yet, listing airfare as his main objection. And he's right, it would be high airfare. But I can't help but thinking $3 APs + we could just use a few DVC points and getting a WDW trip for the cost of airfare? When is it ever going to be that easy again? Come on, enablers, help me think of some more arguments ...

Oooh, I should go do that!

Can you get airfare some other way? I rarely pay for flights. My Chase card has reward points. They can be used for anything but go the farthest on flights. I had enough this time for 3 of 4.

 

[Tltorrez]

Has anyone used transportation from MCO other than DME? We're staying our first night at Universal so won't be able to use DME until the return trip home. I'm stuck trying to decide whether to use Mears or an airport shuttle....the shuttle seems a little cheaper (by $6) but I don't want it to take forever, kwim? Any ideas?

We took a cab to the Dolphin last year. For 4 of us it came out about the same as Mears and it was simpler.

 

[SAT887]

I have a split stay and Im assuming I have to check in twice. Someone correct me if Im wrong.

We had tw

 

[SAT887]

I have a split stay and Im assuming I have to check in twice. Someone correct me if Im wrong.

Sorry about the double post... DD1 grabbed the phone!

However, we had two linked reservations and had to check in 2x even though we didn't change rooms.

 

[Mom2Cody06]

Hope everyone had a nice holiday with their families. Ours was really nice! Now I could go to bed, but it's only 7pm, lol. DH ended up heading into work tonight so that he could get home earlier tomorrow. He has to drive to Buffalo NY to pick up and load and is hoping to be back after lunch tomorrow. And a bonus my parents took my boys home with her tonight so I have the house all to myself. Of course you would think I would have come home and put my feet up and did nothing...yeah no...I rearranged DS2's room and started rearranging DS6's but I have to wait for DH to come home tomorrow because I am not sure what to do with certain things and want his opinion. So then I proceeded to clean the common areas of the house to start getting ready for our dinner here on Saturday. Exciting, huh? Anyone heading out shopping tonight. I will sit home in the warm house and watch the crowds on the news....lol. I will however be heading to the food store tomorrow for my fixins for Saturday.

Called the Reservation line tonight and added my room requests to our reservation so I can do online check in tomorrow! AHHHH I can do online check in tomorrow!!! DH and I were talking tonight and he was talking like we had 2 more weekends left before we leave. You should have seen the look on his face when I reminded him we leave NEXT Sunday !!! It's getting so close!

 

[ksromack]

I have a split stay and Im assuming I have to check in twice. Someone correct me if Im wrong.

I'm sure you will have to, Terri. You are staying at two different resorts. I'm staying at POR the whole time.....I think I'm going to NOT do the online check in just because I will ask if I can stay in the same room the whole time, rather than have to move after our first night.

Does anyone have any experience with early ticket pickup? Since my package doesn't start until the next day I will need to pick up our park tickets so we can attend DHS that night for late EMH. I know you do that at any Guest Services stand.....any idea where that is at DHS? I don't want to waste any time once we're there!

 

[bellebookworm9]

I'm sure you will have to, Terri. You are staying at two different resorts. I'm staying at POR the whole time.....I think I'm going to NOT do the online check in just because I will ask if I can stay in the same room the whole time, rather than have to move after our first night.

Does anyone have any experience with early ticket pickup? Since my package doesn't start until the next day I will need to pick up our park tickets so we can attend DHS that night for late EMH. I know you do that at any Guest Services stand.....any idea where that is at DHS? I don't want to waste any time once we're there!

Right outside the turnstiles to the left.

 

[ksromack]

Right outside the turnstiles to the left.

Awesome. Thanks, Gretchen. I read somewhere that it's possible for them to be able to do that at the resort but not necessarily......so I'll try that first but will expect to have to do the early ticket pick up at a park or DTD.

Is everyone asleep in a food coma? Tryptophan overdose?

 

[Mom2Cody06]

Awesome. Thanks, Gretchen. I read somewhere that it's possible for them to be able to do that at the resort but not necessarily......so I'll try that first but will expect to have to do the early ticket pick up at a park or DTD.

Is everyone asleep in a food coma? Tryptophan overdose?

Must be, either that or they are sleeping so they can get up and hit the sales....lol.

 

[mom2travel]

Is everyone asleep in a food coma? Tryptophan overdose?

Must be, either that or they are sleeping so they can get up and hit the sales....lol.

way too much food today!
I'm doing some online shopping - some of the sales have already started. I'm debating going out tomorrow. There's one item for DD that I want and it's not available online. But I'd need to go to the mall

 

[PrincessAurora27]

I'm still sitting around the table at the DBF's parents.

We'll head home soon, I hope. I'm sleepy and the conversation is quite boring. Besides it's in a different language that I don't speak.

I hope everyone had a great day!!

 

[SAT887]

I'm sure you will have to, Terri. You are staying at two different resorts. I'm staying at POR the whole time.....I think I'm going to NOT do the online check in just because I will ask if I can stay in the same room the whole time, rather than have to move after our first night.

Does anyone have any experience with early ticket pickup? Since my package doesn't start until the next day I will need to pick up our park tickets so we can attend DHS that night for late EMH. I know you do that at any Guest Services stand.....any idea where that is at DHS? I don't want to waste any time once we're there!

We had our reservations linked last year so we could stay in the same villa... It was a fairly painless process.

 

[SAT887]

I'm in a food coma

Also exhausted from dinner today... I was off in my cooking and made more work it seemed... I did make homemade butter it was super easy and is very tasty!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

We are back. Had a nice dinner at SIL's parents' house, spent lots of quality time with my cute niece today. Tomorrow I convinced my hubby to go to Potomac Mills. I've been wanting to go to Ikea, and they also have a Disney Outlet. I'm hoping if we get there by 10:30am, most of the hardcore shoppers will have finished up and gone to bed!

 

[SAT887]

We are back. Had a nice dinner at SIL's parents' house, spent lots of quality time with my cute niece today. Tomorrow I convinced my hubby to go to Potomac Mills. I've been wanting to go to Ikea, and they also have a Disney Outlet. I'm hoping if we get there by 10:30am, most of the hardcore shoppers will have finished up and gone to bed!

I want to go to IKEA in Boston on Sunday to get felt food and things for the kitchen I'm getting the girls for Xmas- they are having a 50% off soft toy sale so I think I might wait- would hate to drive all the way there and it be out of stock... Thinking the weekend after vacation instead!

 

[ksromack]

I want to go to IKEA in Boston on Sunday to get felt food and things for the kitchen I'm getting the girls for Xmas- they are having a 50% off soft toy sale so I think I might wait- would hate to drive all the way there and it be out of stock... Thinking the weekend after vacation instead!

I wished I had purchased the yummy candles they had at IKEA when we were in Chicago a couple weeks ago. They were only $5 but I didn't want to lug them around. Duh. That's pretty cheap! I have to work tomorrow. I did bake a turkey breast yesterday and we had dinner at my sisters today. I made my turkey stock and strained it all so no bones.....I guess tomorrow I'll make some yummy soup or turkey and noodles.

 

[SAT887]

I wished I had purchased the yummy candles they had at IKEA when we were in Chicago a couple weeks ago. They were only $5 but I didn't want to lug them around. Duh. That's pretty cheap! I have to work tomorrow. I did bake a turkey breast yesterday and we had dinner at my sisters today. I made my turkey stock and strained it all so no bones.....I guess tomorrow I'll make some yummy soup or turkey and noodles.

I don't work Fridays but DH is working. Should be a fun day for him.

I will be packing and exercising tomorrow! I also might pop out and get my sis a tree for her Xmas present... However it will be later in the afternoon.

 

[Mom2Cody06]

way too much food today!
I'm doing some online shopping - some of the sales have already started. I'm debating going out tomorrow. There's one item for DD that I want and it's not available online. But I'd need to go to the mall

eeek! I wouldn't want to go anywhere near the mall tomorrow. Well unless you go around lunch time....most all nighters should be home by then, lol.

 

[M&MGirl1]

Is everyone asleep in a food coma? Tryptophan overdose?

Oh, we had our food coma nap earlier in the day. We headed out to Target at 7:00 and just got dine unloading and fawning over all our purchases. I'm amazed at how calm and great the experience was compared to some of our past outings! No pushing, shoving, running, rude behavior or anything unpleasant. We got 2 Nooks for $49 each, a new aero bed for $49, a 3 piece ottoman set for mom for less than half the normal price, and, my personal favorite - an Xbox with Kinect that came with the Disneyland game for $199! AND we were in and out of there in 20 minutes!

 

[taaren]

DD made a little Thanksgiving treat I thought I'd share

Hope you're all having a fun and thankful day

These are gorgeous!

There is a separate line at each resort for those who already checked in online. In theory it should be shorter but I think it really comes down to how many people arrive at a given time and have done online checkin vs not. Basically they already have all your info from checking in online so they just need to give you your paperwork, KTTW cards, etc

I won't do it this time because I'd like to have the option to have a CM move our rooms closer together if my parents don't end up near us. We did mark that on our original reservation but you never know.

I'm kind of leaning towards not checking in online for both our reservations for the same reason ... the first night we have two studios, and I'm hoping they'll be near enough to each other that we'll be able to get on the same bus in the morning to the parks (OKW), didn't want to have the owner make a special call since he'd already gone to so much trouble for us, so I'll probably call OKW in advance. For our BLT 2 bdr reservation I'm hoping for a high floor, even number, so if we don't get at least a high floor I'm hoping to ask for a different room.

Can you get airfare some other way? I rarely pay for flights. My Chase card has reward points. They can be used for anything but go the farthest on flights. I had enough this time for 3 of 4.

This year I used a combination of Alaska Airlines companion fare for me and DS, a credit DH had from a flight they screwed up earlier in the year, plus miles and credit from Southwest so we got airfare from Hawaii to MCO for under $1300 OOP for all three of us. I have some Southwest miles leftover, probably enough for 2 more tickets from the West Coast but the Hawaii/West Coast part is more difficult since the free companion certificate won't drop in until August, plus I have that earmarked for a Disneyland trip in December ...

Maybe I'll get lucky and Alaska will do something to mess up our return flight and give us another giant chunk of credit ...

I'm still sitting around the table at the DBF's parents.

We'll head home soon, I hope. I'm sleepy and the conversation is quite boring. Besides it's in a different language that I don't speak.

What language do they speak? Sometimes I feel that way about my family, even though its mainly that they're speaking 80-year-old language, lots of complaining about their bodies not working properly anymore ...

Oh, we had our food coma nap earlier in the day. We headed out to Target at 7:00 and just got dine unloading and fawning over all our purchases. I'm amazed at how calm and great the experience was compared to some of our past outings! No pushing, shoving, running, rude behavior or anything unpleasant. We got 2 Nooks for $49 each, a new aero bed for $49, a 3 piece ottoman set for mom for less than half the normal price, and, my personal favorite - an Xbox with Kinect that came with the Disneyland game for $199! AND we were in and out of there in 20 minutes!

Ooh, that Xbox deal is what has me almost tempted to shop tomorrow. Although the best I saw didn't have the Disneyland game (some game I didn't want), and was $250 ... wonder if cyber Monday will have something similar to what you got! I'm just hoping DH will order my present on Monday if Chromebooks go on sale ...
Congrats on those shopping deals!