How early is too early for a PTR? Who cares!

[MK2010]

So I'm beginning to develop a headache. I was planning on driving, but ran across some good deals for this January so I know they can be had which has me debating. See, its like a 24 hour drive for us. We'd probably drive the 6 to my parents, 12 to Crestview, Fl, and then on in. Same coming back. Or we could drive to my parents and fly out of Dallas. My question is, how do you plan your trip if you Free Dining is your #1 consideration of when to go. (Well, okay its probably #2 'cause I ain't goin in August!) Last year was the first year for Disney to offer Free Dining in January. They did it again this year, so I assume that while it is a possibility for next year no Special Offers are guaranteed to return. Who else is trying for a special offer and how do you plan/book your trip?

 

[UndercoverMama]

So I'm beginning to develop a headache. I was planning on driving, but ran across some good deals for this January so I know they can be had which has me debating. See, its like a 24 hour drive for us. We'd probably drive the 6 to my parents, 12 to Crestview, Fl, and then on in. Same coming back. Or we could drive to my parents and fly out of Dallas. My question is, how do you plan your trip if you Free Dining is your #1 consideration of when to go. (Well, okay its probably #2 'cause I ain't goin in August!) Last year was the first year for Disney to offer Free Dining in January. They did it again this year, so I assume that while it is a possibility for next year no Special Offers are guaranteed to return. Who else is trying for a special offer and how do you plan/book your trip?

We drive down so I don't have to worry about concrete dates ahead of time. I am definitely waiting for specials to see when exactly we go. I know there are no guarantees but I am hopeful!!

 

[Terkina]

I'm not booking WDW before I have the plane tickets boooked. I'm hoping there will be a free dining discount for february 2013, but I just have to wait and see. I'm guessing that the plane tickets will be available summer 2012. At the moment it's the plane tickets I'm waiting for

 

[MK2010]

Happy Christmas Tree Day! What? You've never heard of Christmas Tree Day? You thought it was Halloween? Well, for the rest of the U.S today is Halloween. But my family doesn't celebrate Halloween so when my husband and I got married we decided that instead of celebrating a day focused on fear we would celebrate love. So up goes our Christmas Tree every Halloween to remind our neighbors that Christmas is just around the corner!

As far as the trip goes, I played with numbers on the WDW site and compared a 30% off room for the same dates as free dining and found it would cost me $2000 more for the 30% off room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that is crazy! So I guess we will be booking free dining for whenever it is available and then fly if we get good airfare otherwise we'll plan on driving!

I'm finding it hard to save the money. All these extra expenses keep popping up. I need to have a tooth pulled, my oldest needs braces, I need to buy a new comforter set to replace the one the dog decided to pee on a couple of nights ago. Its birthday season at our house and Christmas is around the corner. This happens every year and then I spend March through September trying in vain to catch up! I finally put my foot down and told the 8 year old he absolutely could not return to gymnastics before next fall and even then it was a maybe. I just can't do $130/ month for one kid, plus competition fees. It definitely makes me appreciate all the money my parents shelled out on dance lessons/costumes over the years.

Okay, well i have four kids not picking up or doing school work. I'd better go crack the whip...again.

 

[Terkina]

I have also done the numbers on free dining vs 30% off the room. Even if we're only two adults I found out that the free dining is the cheapest for us (200$ I belive). We have to eat. So even if we get 30% off the room we still have to pay for food. And food in Disney is expensive.

 

[MK2010]

I spent this last weekend at a Women of Faith conference in Oklahoma City. I was really nervous 'cause I was going with ladies from church and I don't know any of them real well and their all super sweet and nice and I'm...well... I'm nice sort of. Sarcasm is my second language and I like to talk a lot and I usually say something that gets me in trouble. I tried hard to behave, but I didn't even make it the four hours to OKC before I was acting up. They started taking a head count 'cause we were all driving in different cars and they couldn't find me. So they texted the car I was in and we decided to make them think they left me standing in the parking lot! (We were 3 1/2 hours into the trip at this point) We let 'em sweat it out for 10 minutes or so and then 'fessed up!

Anyway, the conference was good. I missed my girlfriends from back home. The speaker would say something funny and in my head I could hear them all laughing.They just opened an outlet mall in OKC. If you're not familiar with these its basically the store that gets all of the extras that wouldn't sell in the other stores. Sometimes the stores have good deals and sometimes your paying just as much as you would anywhere else. It just depends on the store. It was a bad idea for me to go in there on payday! They even had a Disney store but I was broke before I even made it that far. However, I did get a bagallini. (I'll have to post a pic later.) I'd never heard of a bagallini until last year. There was a thread on the DiS about the best bag to take to the parks and everyone was talking about this bag. Well, I was getting ready to go back with my friends and I started looking around for one. I found one for $75!!!!! Holy cow! I just don't spend that kind of money on myself. So anyway they had one on sale at this outlet store for $37.50! You betcha I jumped on that! So anyway, now I have my park bag for Disney next year.

Just for the record, I also bought two pairs of shoes, a gigantic red leather bag from Wilson leather, a denim skirt and pair of tights for my daughter and 8 pairs of star wars underwear for the boys. My total for all of this including the bagallini? $153

Now I'm just waiting for January so I can sign up for touring plans.Thanksgiving is coming up here in the States next Thursday and work will become insane until Jan. 1. My daughter is going home with my Mom to Dallas after Thanksgiving so there will be one weekend when I will probably go get her. My BFF from college is home from Africa while one of her twins gets medical treatment so I may try to see her while I'm in Dallas. This also kicks off the birthday season for us. My son's is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, followed by mine a week later, then my daughter's is two weeks after mine (or one week before Christmas) My niece's is Christmas Eve, followed by my mother in law's and grandmother's on Dec. 30. Then we get a reprieve and my oldest has his the beginning of Feb., followed by the baby's (who will be 7) the beginning of March. But by the time we get done it will be time to hopefully start making some serious decisions about Disney!

 

[Terkina]

Sounds like you have your hands full until February next year
At least the time will go fast because there is so much happening and then you can start serious planning for Disney

 

[MK2010]

That's the idea! I can't wait and at the same time I'm all nervous with the what ifs? What if I can't get cheap flights, what if I can't get free dining?

 

[Terkina]

If you are flexible on your dates I'm sure you will be able to find cheap flights The big question is if Disney is going to offer free dining. What I've heard from this boards is that Disney is most likely to have some kind of offers. What kinds of offer we just have to wait and see.
I'm hoping for free dining. A discount for children doesn't help me since we are two adults traveling.

 

[CookFamilyVacation]

Subbing in!

I am planning a trip for the same time. It will be our first family vacation. I haven't been to Disney in 16 years! Right now I'm just doing alot of reading and learning from PTR!

 

[MK2010]

CookFamilyVacation! So glad to have you join us! Our first trip back was two years ago. It was a first trip for everyone except me. I had been twice before as a kid then again as a teenager. But it was my first time to plan everything. It was a great trip with no major malfunctions. My kids left happy. We didn't see everything (that's impossible), but my kids saw so much that they didn't even know they missed anything! So happy planning to you and we're glad to have you. I don't post a lot right now because there isn't a whole lot of news. I do find myself running numbers about every day to try and get a ball park figure.

So here's a question for you guys. My parents are going with us. They were/are going to pay for their portion. Estimating right now, the entire trip for all of us is going to be close to $7500. My parents portion will be around $3000 with airfare. It has been understood that they will pay for theirs and we will pay for ours.

My parent's house has some serious foundational issues and repairs are going to cost $20,000 which will have to come out of their retirement. Do you think it would be appropriate to book and pay for the trip and then just ask them to reimburse me for what I can't cover? I would be short between $1500-$2000. I only ask because my Dad seems committed to the trip regardless, but my Mom is always looking for ways to be difficult and now doesn't want to go because of housing repairs. (Which on the one hand I totally understand, but I also know that if it weren't this it would be some other excuse.)

I just don't want to ask them to reimburse me and then have them feel like I cheated them by making them pay more. I don't think they would think that, but sometimes I wonder about my Mom! (Yes, I have serious Mommy issues! Lol!)

Another option I thought of was asking them to pay the airfare and I pay the rest. Airfare is going to run about $2000, but I think they have some free air miles that they could use, plus they would build up a ton of airline miles (around 10,000). Either way I feel like they save and they would appreciate the savings but you know parents, they don't want to seem to be mooching off their kids!

What are your thoughts? Or do you need more info about the situation? Sometimes its hard with these type of questions because each family has their own little personality quirks and back history. So anyway, I guess I just want to know if my plans sound shady or if someone came to you and said, "Hey we can all pay our own way and your cost will be X. Or you can pay airfaire and I'll handle everything else. or if you'd like I can book everything and you can just send me a check for whatever I run short on. " What would your thoughts be? (Of course I'm sure my actual conversation would probably be a little smoother!)

 

[Terkina]

This is what I think: If you are open about all the numbers to your parents I don't think that they will think you are cheating them to pay more.

Another thing is if they will allow you to do this for them. That's another question that I don't have the answer to

 

[MK2010]

So, I haven't updated in quite a while. Life happened. And we got VERY busy. I was going to updae just after Thanksgiving. Really i promise I was, but then... our lives changed. My daughter had gone home to spend the month with her grandparents. they live about 7 hours from us. 2 days after she went with them my mother called. She had taken my daughter's blood sugar that morning and it was 325. And just like that our lives changed. The events that followed saw Lauren (my daughter) in the ER 7 hours away from us being treated for Type I (or Juvenile onset) diabetes. Soon she was transferred by ambulance to Children's Medical hospital in Dallas (an hour and a half from my parents house.) My husband and I quickly arranged for time off work and time away from our other obligations. My in-laws took the boys at a moments notice so that we could focus our energy on getting our daughter home. She was in the hospital 3 days. We got her home and we'vebeen into the specialist here...twice. We're still working on her blood sugars. In addition to diabetes,she also has a cow's milk allergy, chicken egg allergy, and wheat allergy. They're waiting to see if she is also allergic to soy, nuts, and gluten. Anyway, the past month has been a trying time filled with blessings. This is a fun disease (I don't really know of any that are.) But she has come out of it unscathed for the most part...just changed. Now we are trying to put our lives back in order and move on. One of the results of all of this is hospital bills, Dr. bills, and medication. So, for now, the trip to Disney World has been postponed for at least a year or more. Sad news, but I will take happy and healthy any day of the week. My kids have had one trip to Disney...more than some will ever get in a lifetime. This Christmas we are counting our blessings and choosing to be happy for life that God has given us.

 

[serene56]

So, I haven't updated in quite a while. Life happened. And we got VERY busy. I was going to updae just after Thanksgiving. Really i promise I was, but then... our lives changed. My daughter had gone home to spend the month with her grandparents. they live about 7 hours from us. 2 days after she went with them my mother called. She had taken my daughter's blood sugar that morning and it was 325. And just like that our lives changed. The events that followed saw Lauren (my daughter) in the ER 7 hours away from us being treated for Type I (or Juvenile onset) diabetes. Soon she was transferred by ambulance to Children's Medical hospital in Dallas (an hour and a half from my parents house.) My husband and I quickly arranged for time off work and time away from our other obligations. My in-laws took the boys at a moments notice so that we could focus our energy on getting our daughter home. She was in the hospital 3 days. We got her home and we'vebeen into the specialist here...twice. We're still working on her blood sugars. In addition to diabetes,she also has a cow's milk allergy, chicken egg allergy, and wheat allergy. They're waiting to see if she is also allergic to soy, nuts, and gluten. Anyway, the past month has been a trying time filled with blessings. This is a fun disease (I don't really know of any that are.) But she has come out of it unscathed for the most part...just changed. Now we are trying to put our lives back in order and move on. One of the results of all of this is hospital bills, Dr. bills, and medication. So, for now, the trip to Disney World has been postponed for at least a year or more. Sad news, but I will take happy and healthy any day of the week. My kids have had one trip to Disney...more than some will ever get in a lifetime. This Christmas we are counting our blessings and choosing to be happy for life that God has given us.

Sorry to hear all this, But am curious to what happend that your parents took her to the ER ?

I have a friend who has a 7 year old GD and she kept telling the parents to get her checked because she was always drinking. (a huge sign of diabetes) and they put it off and put it off-- and finally- took her where she was diagnosed.

 

[Terkina]

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter. Reading about all your medical bills. It makes me think that I am very blessed to be in a country where we don't have to worry about medical bills.

I hope you will manage your bills and that the trip to Walt Disney World won't be too far away. It's always good to have something to look forward to when times are tough.

 

[MK2010]

Sorry to hear all this, But am curious to what happend that your parents took her to the ER ?

I have a friend who has a 7 year old GD and she kept telling the parents to get her checked because she was always drinking. (a huge sign of diabetes) and they put it off and put it off-- and finally- took her where she was diagnosed.

This was exactly our scenario also. My Mom kept swearing that Lauren had diabetes because she was drinking and going to the bathroom constantly. She was also getting very thin. (I thought it was just because she was growing and my husband's sister looks super thin like that.) So anyway, all better now, just a new life. It'll take a bit but soon this will be just a part of our regular routine. Right now though, we're kind of living meal to meal. With all of the allergies and she is limited to only 45 carbohydrates per meal it is going to take a little research on my part to revamp our menu. (i hate cooking so I have the tendency to just make the same thing over and over!)

 

[serene56]

did they send you to classes best thing i did with my honey i learned so much my dad and brother have diabetis and they made me believe it was alll about sugars boy were they wrong my entire life

joe is allowed 15 carb choices a day 15 grams -1 carb
reading labels i found i was amazed that almostveverything we eat has some type of carb

 

[MK2010]

We were so lucky! This diagnosis got us in to a pediatric specialist in our town. I've been wanting in to this Dr. for 5 years. The man is amazing. Lauren had been seen at children's and we had a little bit of education there, but they knew we were bringing her home to this specialist so they didn't make us come back a week later for their diabetes class. We brought her home on a Thursday, the next Wednesday we were in to the specialist. he squeezed her in and opted to be late to a meeting in order to see her. he wasn't seeing patients that afternoon. He probably spent 20-30 minutes with her. Then he left and his nurse went over more information with us for another 15 minutes or so. Then they scheduled us to come back to see him on Saturday morning despite the fact that he was on call and was not seeing patients that day! We spent 2 1/2 hours with him going over Type I diabetes. In addition to watching her total carbs (Some people do this magic trick of total carbohydrates - dietary fiber, we don't he has us counting it all!), she is also off cow's milk, chicken eggs, and wheat (she can have organic wheat or gluten free). He believes that the immune system plays a huge role in diabetes so he always tests for allergies. Lauren came back highly allergic to these so he has pulled those from her diet in the hopes of her immune system settling down and being more receptive to the insulin we give her and seeing her blood sugars drop. We are also reducing her salt intake, increasing her water. (She went from drinking constantly to hardly at all.) Also, she is so skinny, that he only has her giving herself shots in the thighs and hips. There isn;t enough fatty tissue to absorb it elsewhere causing the insulin to be absorbed too rapidly and then not covering her for long enough. It has been a HUGE learning curve at our house. Thankfully I was already very familiar with gestational and TyPe II diabetes so carb counting was nothing new for me. And all of our frineds have very restrictive diets for their kids. (They seem the same Dr., but have SERIOUS illnesses! Makes Diabetes look normal!!!!!) sO they've really been helping me out with ideas of what to make for her. And now I'm late for church! Oops!

 

[3Rouselings]

I really loved reading all your plans! I am busy planning a trip for my family for May 2013. We will be travelling with BIL/SIL and their two boys and my BF/her husband and dd. In my family it's myself, my dh, ds 11, dd 8 and dd 4.

We are looking forward to this trip - maybe even more than our first time. We are booked into AoA for May 5-11, 2013. We'll be flying into Orlando seeing how we're coming from New Brunswick, Canada. We booked and paid for our room three weeks ago - and as soon as we can (August I think) we will be adding park tickets and meal plans to our package and will continue to pay away at it all through the year.

I look forward to reading more about your plans.

 

[simba35217]

A suggestion on the moderates. I like CSR because they have Queen beds. Not only that its beautiful, buses no problem. Hope this helps.

Hello again to all you lurkers. Yes, I see you out there all 27 of you! Just in case you were wondering yes, I got quite a bit of the laundry done. About four loads. Still have 2-3 loads today. Then I'll be all caught up! But I have a few minutes before we leave for church so I thought I'd throw out a few more tidbits of information. Just to keep this from disappearing into the netherworlds of threads! Let's see, Oh yes, I promised to tell you where the kids wanted to stay.

Well, DD and DS (4-now 6) agreed with me that 2 rooms at ASMo would be nice. I was torn between ASMo and POP though and DS (7- now 8) thought POP looked cool. My oldest DS agrees with his father on everything. I swear, he's my husband's mini me. So of course he wanted ASSp. (He's 11 now by the way.)

Then, I started playing around and looking at Moderates. They haven't really been on our radar because we are very frugal people. How can we get the most bang for our buck?! We have a contest amongst ourselves each Christmas to see who can get the best Christmas present for the least amount of dough. My husband usually wins.A couple of years ago he made some birdhouses for my grandmother out of a leftover pallet of cedar that he got for $50. (You should see the play fort he built my kids for $50. Around here to buy that thing would have cost a family of four a trip to WDW!) Anyway, back to grandma, she loved them. Swore up and down we bought them from some boutique. Nope.

Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah Moderates. Well, let me be honest your not going to get an answer to this question today. Mainly 'cause I haven't decided. My boys really like the Pirate ship at CBR. My Mom and Daughter (and myself too, for that matter) really like POR. I would love to put my Dad at CSR though. Oh wait I got ahead of myself didn't I? Sorry.

Okay, backing up. See last time we went my mother begged to go. But I was mean and said no. I wanted a trip with just my family. I was nervous enough about seeing everything and doing everything they wanted without Mom slowing us down. She moves at a more relaxed pace you might say. So this time around I begged for them to come along. Of course, my father, the cheapskate, wasn't going for it. Absolutely not. Basically if it isn't my Dad's idea he's not paying for it. Although my Mom did nag him into a trip to Boston this week with my oldest son.

So I started in on the guilt trip with my father. My son and his family live about 30 minutes from my parents in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. My Mom watches my niece for them. (She is the cutest thing ever. I think she gets it from her aunt!) And my niece has my Dad wrapped around her little finger which is absolutely hilarious 'cause my Dad really isn't a baby/kid type person. So I just pointed out how I'm sure that if she were going Dad would have already booked his trip. No dice. He wasn't falling for it.

Finally, this last weekend I met with success! We were down dropping my oldest off for this trip to Boston. I had been wheedling my Dad and talking nonstop about Disney. Finally, last Sunday they day before we were leaving pixie dust fell in my lap. About 12 years ago my father started flying. Learning to fly has been a lifelong dream of his. I find it a very dangerous dream for him. The man has ADD and can't drive 30 minutes without falling asleep. (Unless he's had a coke) I've held out 12 long years harassing him about how flying with him isn't safe. Well, Sunday morning in his Sunday School class a couple just got back from WDW with their kids/grandkids. (They go every year about this time for Night of Joy.) I got the couple to promise to continue to harass dad in my absence and they happily agreed. Well, it didn't take long, at Sunday dinner the topic of his flying came up and he begged me to go up with him. So, the evil child that I am I played on his desires. I would go up with him if he would go to Disneyworld with us. He was out the door and in the car on the way to the hangar before I could get up from the table! Sucker! I never had a real problem flying with him I just wanted to harass him!

So now our cast includes my Mom and Dad. I don't have a real good picture of them. I'll have to find one. The nice thing about this is that they will wind up spending about $2000 while I end up saving about $1000. I can put two of my kids in a room with them and only have to get 1 room. I mean we'll have a room and they'll have a room and we'll split the kids between the rooms. So we can definitely go moderate. WooHoo! Now which moderate? Well, that is a debate that will have to wait until at least after church. But feel free to weigh in with your opinions. Just be sure to tell me why its your favorite!