Cheap Cheap Cheap! Disney on a dime PTR *Concluded

[Rubygoose]

DH got approval for the time off in August! I'm going to book our flights tonight and then call DLH tomorrow morning while the kids are at school/preschool!

 

[kaoden39]

DH got approval for the time off in August! I'm going to book our flights tonight and then call DLH tomorrow morning while the kids are at school/preschool!

How fantastic!!

 

[Rubygoose]

i finally booked our flights! I've been studying the Alaska Airlines website for months now and I found the best way for us to save. I ended up booking in 5 different transactions, so that took forever, but it was all worth it in the end. By using one companion fare, miles and the "miles and money" option we ended up paying $824 for all 4 of us to fly roundtrip from Victoria to SNA! Without all of the discounts, it would have cost $1940!

 

[Rubygoose]

Disneyland Hotel is booked! Now, I kind of broke my budgeting rule on this one. Uh Oh! But hey, we're celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary, so we thought we'd splurge. And it's way less expensive for 7 nights than it was last year in July for 6 nights. I got the AP rate and it's $449 for the first 3 nights (thurs, fri, sat) and $333 for the next 4 nights (sun-wed, with check out thurs). Those prices include tax. I've booked DLH for the whole week, but we might change our mind and start off our trip at Legoland, so we might end up staying the first night at the Legoland Hotel or a less expensive hotel near Legoland. DH is at his new job now, so we've decided that when he gets his pay cheque, we're going to keep living on his old wage and bank the difference. I think this will help out a lot in terms of saving for our trip!

A few things on my to do list for the next few days:

• Order 5 day park hoppers with our Air Miles. We have enough miles for 3 of us.
• Order one Deluxe AP from Way.com. They have $25 off the gate price right now. We'll upgrade the air miles passes when we get there so that we all have AP's. The nice thing about the week we're going is that there are no black out dates that week!
• Order the t-shirts that I designed on Vistaprint.
• Look into Legoland a little bit more. Decide if I'm going to order any of these passes from Air miles (if I have enough miles left) or find discounts another way.
• Look into car rental. We haven't rented a car before, and we'll only need a car to get us to Legoland. We also want to stop at Trader Joe's (the grocery store, not Trader Sam's, the bar). We fell in love with that store when we were in Washington last month. Our family has gone food-dye-free because DD has a bad reaction to artificial ingredients in foods. So, we'll either rent the car at SNA, stop for groceries on the way to DLH and then go to Legoland the next day and return the car that evening. Or, we'll get Sunny's car service (which we love!) to pick us up from the airport, see if he'll stop at the store on the way, and then rent a car for 1 day at DTD to go to Legoland on whatever day we choose. Still have to price all this out and look at Airmiles or other ways to save on car rental.
• Start getting an idea of what restaurants we want to dine at. Would like to try Blue Bayou and Storytellers this trip. DH will want us to do Minnie and Friends again at Plaza Inn (his favourite character dinning, and somewhat of a family tradition now.)
• Make a plan for "date night" to celebrate our anniversary! We're thinking Fantasmic Dessert for the two of us and then stay to watch the fire works. The kids are really early birds and don't enjoy staying up late, so we'll get a sitter who can hang out while they sleep. DS is too young for Pinocchio's because he doesn't turn 5 until October.

Oh, and my first online class for my Special Ed. diploma starts on April 25th, so I better get a lot of this done before I get distracted by school work!

 

[Disney127]

Yay! for booking the DLH. We stayed there last October and it was wonderful. Loved reading your trip report - your kids are adorable! When we go in Nov again, we are wanting to try PPH - it will be a split stay with BWPPI. It will be just my DD (12) and I, we love Disney and have vowed to visit at least once a year. It's not a cheap trip but with only 2 airfares to worry about, it seems abit more economical (at least that is what I am trying to tell myself LOL). We thought about staying at the DLH again but my DD wanted to see WOC from the room one night, so we will give PPH a try. Will be following your adventures! Good luck with your online class!

 

[Rubygoose]

Yay! for booking the DLH. We stayed there last October and it was wonderful. Loved reading your trip report - your kids are adorable! When we go in Nov again, we are wanting to try PPH - it will be a split stay with BWPPI. It will be just my DD (12) and I, we love Disney and have vowed to visit at least once a year. It's not a cheap trip but with only 2 airfares to worry about, it seems abit more economical (at least that is what I am trying to tell myself LOL). We thought about staying at the DLH again but my DD wanted to see WOC from the room one night, so we will give PPH a try. Will be following your adventures! Good luck with your online class!

Sounds like you'll have a fun trip with your DD! Thanks for reading along!

 

[Rubygoose]

I'm able to check a couple things off my "to do" list... I ordered our PH tickets from air miles and ordered our t-shirts from Vistaprint. I had a promo code for 35% off at vistaprint that expires tomorrow and I clicked through ebates.ca to get 5% off! Unfortunately, though, when I tried to order my Deluxe AP through way.com I discovered that only U.S. residents (or someone with a credit card with a U.S. address) can purchase from there.

 

[wakica]

DH got approval for the time off in August! I'm going to book our flights tonight and then call DLH tomorrow morning while the kids are at school/preschool!

YAY!! That deserves a hApPy DaNcE!

Sounds like your getting lots done too!

I plan to sit down over Easter break and get all my ducks in a row. DD is going on a mission trip during the break so finalizing plans will give me something to do instead of worry.

 

[Rubygoose]

I thought I would make a list of all the things we haven't done and places we haven't eaten that I'd like to try on this trip.

DCA
The only rides and attractions we haven't done in this park are GRR, Tough to be a bug, Annimation Academy and I'm the only one in the family who has done California Screamin'. DD is almost 48" so hopefully she'll be able to ride it with me in August. Tough to be a bug doesn't really appeal to me (I hate bugs!) and the kids are a bit too young for Animation Academy. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I haven't been on the lady bug ride and I never will!

DL
In the three trips we've taken, I have yet to ride BTMRR, so it's at the too of my list for "must do". DD and DH rode it in 2012 but I stayed with DS who was too short. We all haven't done Indy (DS is still too short), taken a raft to the island, climbed all the way up Tarzan's tree house, or Innoventions.

Eats:
Dole whip is top of my list! I looked up the ingredients and turns out it's dye free so DD can have it. Mickey beignets are also on the list. As far as restaurants, I want to try BB, Cafe Orleans, Jolly Holiday and Storytellers.

 

[Rubygoose]

So, those were the things we haven't done... Now for my list of must do/favourites:
Splash Mountain - we'll have to do this at least once a day. I even made shirts specifically for this ride.
Peter Pan- we'll do this one first during early entry.
Dumbo- we'll do this one after PP. It's just not a Disney trip without Dumbo.
Matterhorn - one of DD's favourites.
Jungle cruise-I want to try this one in the evening.
Toy Story
Small world
Character meets in the ranch area
Jedi training academy-DS is old enough now and DD wants to fight Vader again!
RSR-DH hasn't done this at night, so we'll have to get him on this one at night. DS loves this ride day or night.
Mater's-I think I enjoy waiting in the line as much as riding! I hate spinny rides, but I figured out how to look at the track and anticipate which way the tractor will spin.
Goofy's sky school- NOT a must ride for me, but DD lives it. On our last trip, DS and I rode jumping jellyfish a good 500 times while DD and DH rode GSS and at some points we could see them.
Monster's inc- we had fun walking off this one when it broke down!

Eats:
Goofy's Kitchen for dinner
Plaza inn fried chicken
Mickey pretzel
Popcorn
Breakfast from Flo's
Tangaroa Terrace
Earl of Sandwich
Sundaes at Golden Horseshoe

 

[Rubygoose]

I've drafted a plan for our week. The tricky part was tring to figure out where to put Legoland. If we rent a car from the airport, we could do Legoland the next day, but once we get to Disneyland we'll probably want to spend the next day in Disneyland. But then I discovered that I could get a car from the airport using air miles and drop it off when we get there. Then, on the day we go to Legoland we just rent a car in the morning and drop it off at night. It's only about $30 to rent a car for the day from DTD Alamo. That way we won't have to pay $15 for parking at DLH and we can do Legoland any day we choose.

So, here's my plan:

Thurs Aug 21: arrive at SNA at 2:30pm, pick up rental car, stop at Trader Joe's for snacks, realistically arrive at DLH at around 4:30. Drop off car in DTD (Alamo). Then head over to DL and have dinner. Probably fried chicken at Plaza Inn. Watch the parade, maybe fit in a couple rides, then head back to the hotel for a quick swim and then bed.

Fri Aug 22: EE at DCA. Maybe do wide right again, maybe not. Do all of the rides that are open during EE, then get FPs for RSR at official park opening. 10:00 character breakfast at Storytellers or Minnie's, then grab FPs for Splash (which I fully intend to ride each day of our trip!) The rest of the day is flexible. We'll probably go to bed early to get up for MM next day.

Sat Aug 23: MM at DL. This is the day we're celebrating our anniversary (even though it's actually Aug.7th). We'll do Peter Pan first, then Dumbo and whatever else the kids want to ride in FL. At park opening we'll head over to Splash wearing our matching Splash Mountain shirts, and try to get a log to ourselves. We'll do lunch at 11:30 at Blue Bayou, probably sharing food so that we have room for dessert. Probably have pool time and shopping in the afternoon but might go to DCA and ride Grizzley River Run first. We'll have a light dinner, maybe Earl of Sandwich or Tangaroa Terrace, then meet the babysitter at 6:00. Then DH and I will get in line for seat assignments for Fantasmic dessert. After that we'll do a few rides... maybe jungle cruise. Then we'll get our desserts and watch Fantasmic and stay in our seats for Fire Works. Hopefully the kids will be asleep when we get back!

Sun Aug 24: rent car from Alamo and drive to Legoland. Probably spend the entire day here.

Mon Aug 25: Sleep in or EE at DCA then hop to Disneyland later in the day. Goofy's kitchen for dinner. (Might swap Sunday and Monday plans. Not sure which park is worse on a Sunday.)

Tues Aug 26: MM at DL.

Wed Aug 27: EE at DCA or sleep in

Thurs Aug 28: bring luggage to front desk and check out. MM at DL. Might do Minnie and Friends breakfast at 10:30. 12:00 last minute shopping in DTD then pick up luggage and take Sunny's Towncar service to airport at 1:00 or 1:30 for flight leaving at 3:00.

 

[wakica]

I thought I would make a list of all the things we haven't done and places we haven't eaten that I'd like to try on this trip.

DCA
The only rides and attractions we haven't done in this park are GRR, Tough to be a bug, Annimation Academy and I'm the only one in the family who has done California Screamin'. DD is almost 48" so hopefully she'll be able to ride it with me in August. Tough to be a bug doesn't really appeal to me (I hate bugs!) and the kids are a bit too young for Animation Academy. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I haven't been on the lady bug ride and I never will!

DD and DH Loooove Animation Academy! I'm good to do it once - they will do it multiple times! lol I don't mind though - it's a great thing to do when it's hot out and I'm getting tired. I do it once with them then park my butt somewhere and people watch

DL
In the three trips we've taken, I have yet to ride BTMRR, so it's at the too of my list for "must do". DD and DH rode it in 2012 but I stayed with DS who was too short. We all haven't done Indy (DS is still too short), taken a raft to the island, climbed all the way up Tarzan's tree house, or Innoventions.

Again, DD and DH looove Big Thunder. It's good but I don't find it as amazing as they do for some reason. Once is enough for me. And if you can beleive it my 16 year old daughter is very much looking forward to the island as well! lol. She must have fond memories of being on the WDW island 2 trips ago when she was 12.

Eats:
Dole whip is top of my list! I looked up the ingredients and turns out it's dye free so DD can have it. Mickey beignets are also on the list. As far as restaurants, I want to try BB, Cafe Orleans, Jolly Holiday and Storytellers.

OH YA! Dole whips are a MUST!!! Mmmmm! glad they are dye free so your DD can experience the wonderfulness of them!

So, those were the things we haven't done... Now for my list of must do/favourites:
Splash Mountain - we'll have to do this at least once a day. I even made shirts specifically for this ride.
LOVE the design!!! I LOVE Splash too and it's a must hit for sure 2 times when we spend a full day in that park It is definitely my Happy Place!

Peter Pan- we'll do this one first during early entry.
Dumbo- we'll do this one after PP. It's just not a Disney trip without Dumbo.
Matterhorn - one of DD's favourites.
Jungle cruise-I want to try this one in the evening.
We heard to try it in the evening too for a different experience but when we tried it on our last WDW trip the cast member that we got was acting like she was high or something!!! She was so high strung and hyper that we could barely make out what she was saying We'll maybe try again in DL and see if we enjoy it more this time.
Toy Story
Small world
Character meets in the ranch area
Jedi training academy-DS is old enough now and DD wants to fight Vader again!
RSR-DH hasn't done this at night, so we'll have to get him on this one at night. DS loves this ride day or night.
I'm sure hoping we can hit this twice - once in the morning and once at night so we can experience the day and night. We don't mind doing single rider so I don't see it being a problem for us. Is it like Test Track do you know?

Mater's-I think I enjoy waiting in the line as much as riding! I hate spinny rides, but I figured out how to look at the track and anticipate which way the tractor will spin.
Goofy's sky school- NOT a must ride for me, but DD lives it. On our last trip, DS and I rode jumping jellyfish a good 500 times while DD and DH rode GSS and at some points we could see them.
Monster's inc- we had fun walking off this one when it broke down!
This is a show at WDW - is it a show in DL? or a ride?

Eats:
Goofy's Kitchen for dinner
Plaza inn fried chicken
Mickey pretzel
Popcorn
Breakfast from Flo's
Tangaroa Terrace
Earl of Sandwich
oooh, we love Earl of Sandwich too!!!
Sundaes at Golden Horseshoe

So, here's my plan:

Thurs Aug 21: Fri Aug 22: Sat Aug 23: Sun Aug 24: Mon Aug 25: Tues Aug 26: Wed Aug 27: Thurs Aug 28:
You are SO ORGANIZED Shall I add your dates in to the August thread?

.....

 

[happygirl5644]

Rubygoose, Canadians can order from way.com, you just have to call them directly. We did 3 day PH last fall. Aladora, the other Victorian from your August thread has done it as well; in fact it was on her recommendation that I ordered them.

Thanks for all the info in the other thread about flying out of Victoria. Dh and I are both going to get Alaska's credit card, and we just have one child, so between the two cards we can take two trips (one adult on the bonus miles, the other adult plus ds using a regulate fare+companion)!

I think we need a local support group for this addiction, lol. Thank goodness dh and ds love DL as much as I do

 

[Rubygoose]

Rubygoose, Canadians can order from way.com, you just have to call them directly. We did 3 day PH last fall. Aladora, the other Victorian from your August thread has done it as well; in fact it was on her recommendation that I ordered them.

Thanks for all the info in the other thread about flying out of Victoria. Dh and I are both going to get Alaska's credit card, and we just have one child, so between the two cards we can take two trips (one adult on the bonus miles, the other adult plus ds using a regulate fare+companion)!

I think we need a local support group for this addiction, lol. Thank goodness dh and ds love DL as much as I do

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try calling them and hopefully it works!

 

[Rubygoose]

Wakica- Monster's inc is a dark ride in DCA. You can read about Gavin's 2 failed attempts to ride it in my July trip report
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3160807&page=5

I haven't been to WDW, so I can't compare RSR to Test track. RSR is half dark ride and half coaster I guess. It's a well done, fun ride.

 

[wakica]

Wakica- Monster's inc is a dark ride in DCA. You can read about Gavin's 2 failed attempts to ride it in my July trip report
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3160807&page=5

I haven't been to WDW, so I can't compare RSR to Test track. RSR is half dark ride and half coaster I guess. It's a well done, fun ride.

great, thanks for the link.

 

[DenaRox]

Following along!!

I really am envious of your location. Being in Saskatchewan the option to drive to US for cheap flights isn't worth it. We also do not get serviced by majority of US airlines so no opportunity for Alaska airlines mastercard The only thing we really had going for us was our anazing Safeway Airmiles offers but i am scared now that Sobeys has bought our Safeways the AM's will go bye bye Am definenately looking into other card options and will keep using my BMO airmiles MC.

I used a roam mobility sim for my unlocked iphone when i went to Vegas and it worked like a charm. Well that's not true, it didn't work and i had to go to the apple store to get it fixed but that had nothing to do with roam mobility and everything to do with rogers wireless *shudder* lol. Once it was up and running it worked perfectly. I loved having the use of my phone and will be using it again when I go to disney in October.

Looking forward to hearing more of your planning (love the splash mountain shirts by the way) and then picking your brain on tips after you get back.

 

[Rubygoose]

Following along!!

I really am envious of your location. Being in Saskatchewan the option to drive to US for cheap flights isn't worth it. We also do not get serviced by majority of US airlines so no opportunity for Alaska airlines mastercard The only thing we really had going for us was our anazing Safeway Airmiles offers but i am scared now that Sobeys has bought our Safeways the AM's will go bye bye Am definenately looking into other card options and will keep using my BMO airmiles MC.

I used a roam mobility sim for my unlocked iphone when i went to Vegas and it worked like a charm. Well that's not true, it didn't work and i had to go to the apple store to get it fixed but that had nothing to do with roam mobility and everything to do with rogers wireless *shudder* lol. Once it was up and running it worked perfectly. I loved having the use of my phone and will be using it again when I go to disney in October.

Looking forward to hearing more of your planning (love the splash mountain shirts by the way) and then picking your brain on tips after you get back.

I really liked using Roam Mobility when we were in Washington. It was tricky setting up the "APN" part though, and the instructions in the text message weren't helpful. The wifi at the hotel was bad in the evenings, so I was able to use my phone as a Hot Spot and could stream Netflix on the ipad for the kids. A couple months ago I got Telus to unlock my phone for free. The guy wanted to charge me $35 but I knew that I was entitled to having it unlocked because I'm on a pay and talk plan. I tried to get him to unlock my old phone too, but he said he'd have to charge me for that one, so I said "no thanks." So, now yesterday I called again and asked to have my old phone unlocked. Again, the guy said it would cost $35 so I calmly said "I would like you to wave the fee because I have been a client for over 10 years and this is an old phone and my new phone is still with Telus." He was silent for about 30 seconds then said "I'll see what I can do" and was silent for about a minute more then gave me the unlock code. So, now I'm going to get another Roam sim card so DH can use my old phone.

Our Safeway just recently closed and became a Save On I miss the bonus miles so much! Sobeys owned too many stores in the area so they had to sell some stores so they sold their Safeways.

We told the kids about our trip, finally! They are pretty excited. Gavin is most excited about having a babysitter look after them. Annie is excited to try California Screamin' for the first time. And they've been begging to go to Legoland for months!

 

[DenaRox]

I really liked using Roam Mobility when we were in Washington. It was tricky setting up the "APN" part though, and the instructions in the text message weren't helpful.

I had googled the directions and saved them beforehand which was so good because i didnt get any text or email directions. Would have been on my own.

yesterday I called again and asked to have my old phone unlocked. Again, the guy said it would cost $35 so I calmly said "I would like you to wave the fee because I have been a client for over 10 years and this is an old phone and my new phone is still with Telus." He was silent for about 30 seconds then said "I'll see what I can do" and was silent for about a minute more then gave me the unlock code. So, now I'm going to get another Roam sim card so DH can use my old phone.

That is something that drives me crazy. The fact that we have to pay to make our own fully purchased phones usable wherever we choose. Such a rip off. Grr!!

Our Safeway just recently closed and became a Save On I miss the bonus miles so much! Sobeys owned too many stores in the area so they had to sell some stores so they sold their Safeways.

As of now the Safeways are still safeways. The only change that has been implimented is getting rid of the safeway club card. So far we still get AM events so i am praying that it stays that way. Only being able to collect through my AM mastercard will really hamper my collecting and make me reconsider AM over Aeroplan.

 

[Rubygoose]

DenaRox: do you have Marlin Travel is SK? Air Miles has $100 gift cards for Marlin Travel for around 900 miles, I think. You're aloud to use up to 4 gift cards at a time, so you could potentially save $400 on flights and hotel if you book one of their Disney packages.

We're pretty luck to have Alaska Airlines here in Victoria. I like Westjet's planes and customer service a little bit more, but Alaska's prices and the timing and frequency of their flights are so much better. And I think Alaska's credit card offers are better too. I looked into getting the westjet card, but the companion fare wasn't as good. Plus, I don't like how Westjet makes you fly from Victoria to Calgary on the way to LAX! Calgary's nice and all, but I certainly don't want to spend 8 hours in their airport when I could be in the California sun. I think the "westjet dollars" are more flexible than Alaska's miles, though, since you can use them like cash to reduce your fare.