Pixie Dust Overload - the day I won One More Disney Day

[lvjen777]

Ok, so I guess I missed your dates post somewhere along the line. Sounds like you leave the weekend of the 19th or something like that? Our trip will be the following weekend...arrival of Jan. 25th. I have been HOPING a waitlist will come through for Boardwalk so we can stay there, but I am not feeling too positive about that. We will most likely be staying at Old Key West instead.

I was thinking there was no WAY we'd be doing any swimming, but with the weather being so warm even here in MD lately, I'm thinking there's a very good chance for some very warm temps in Florida for our trip. The kids would LOVE to swim in January so we will definitley be packing the suits for them now.

Can't wait to hear more about the trip. It sounds so fabulous!!!

Yes, we arrive on the 19th. Definintely pack suits! With the way the weather and temps can fluctuate, chances are your kids could get some pool time on at least one day!

It's so nice because the pools aren't busy. On days that feel a little too chilly for ME to swim, DS might still swim & I love sitting in the sun with my "umbrella" drink watching him.

I hope you have a wonderful trip !!!!!

 

[lvjen777]

This is soooo cool. I cant wait to hear all about it. We are staying at they Poly for the first time in September so I can't wait to hear what you think of it! Have a safe trip and I look forward to reading alot more

Subscribing. I can't wait to hear about your trip. It's so cool to know people actually win the trips.

Thanks for following along with my trip report! I can't wait to share all the details of our trip

 

[kittylady1972]

Yes, we arrive on the 19th. Definintely pack suits! With the way the weather and temps can fluctuate, chances are your kids could get some pool time on at least one day!

It's so nice because the pools aren't busy. On days that feel a little too chilly for ME to swim, DS might still swim & I love sitting in the sun with my "umbrella" drink watching him.

I hope you have a wonderful trip !!!!!

Thanks and I hope you have a wonderful trip as well! My kids have been swimming in November and December before...and even February! I don't think we've been swimming or our January trips but we've only had one of those back in 2006 and it was a pretty busy trip. This one is also SO short I'm just not sure we will want to take the time out for swimming...but you never know!

Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

 

[cherokeemamma]

WOW! Congratulations! How exciting and wonderful!

The weather in FL this time of year is awesome...I live in GA and sometimes I am amazed that we are really not that far away (450 miles)and it is so much nicer there. We are going into a big warm up here so it will probably be very warm in Orlando

Congrats on Winning the BIG Prize...I cannot wait to read about your trip!
Wishing you a Magical Time and Tons of Pixie Dust!

TTFN
Darlene

 

[Neverland Girl]

I've decided to come out of lurk mode. This sounds so fantastic and I can't wait to read more!

 

[lvjen777]

WOW! Congratulations! How exciting and wonderful!

The weather in FL this time of year is awesome...I live in GA and sometimes I am amazed that we are really not that far away (450 miles)and it is so much nicer there. We are going into a big warm up here so it will probably be very warm in Orlando

Congrats on Winning the BIG Prize...I cannot wait to read about your trip!
Wishing you a Magical Time and Tons of Pixie Dust!

TTFN
Darlene

for all the positive weather vibes! I'm glad you're reading along - I'm having a lot of fun writing this TR.

 

[lvjen777]

I've decided to come out of lurk mode. This sounds so fantastic and I can't wait to read more!

Being a professional Dis-Lurker myself, welcome!! I'm glad you are following along!

 

[lvjen777]

While I'm now stuck waiting for "fall" to arrive, at least I had a bunch of other OMDD trips I could follow along with in "The Group". Andy was already long used to me saying "The Group says this". Or "Look at this - I saw it on the Group . Poor guy.. it was going to be a long wait until our trip arrives - only 9 months to go at this point!

When our ADR window arrived, that was a little tricky! Being a professional Disney over-planner already, I totally HAD to get our reservations made.. but that's obviously hard to do when I don't know where we're staying on which days! The in-park reservations were no problem, but there were quite a few resort restaurants we wanted & those were impossible to plan for. So, I decided to make a couple back-up reservations for the places I had my heart set on, and planned to cancel the ones we didn't need once we got our itinerary. I sure didn't want to end up with reservations at Ohana during the days we were staying at the Beach Club, or Cape May when we were at the Poly. ug.

With all this being said, all of this is "ASSUMING" I am indeed getting our 1st choice of dates. If not, all my ADRs will be completely wrong. And dont get me started on my 3rd date choice, which was October! The only reason Im halfway confident of my January dates at this point is because other OMDDers have all gotten their 1st picks. If I never had the Group, I think I would definitely be seriously worried at this point!


Over the last year, Andy and I have each lost approx. 45lbs , so we were a little hesitant to go crazy with too many big meals. However, with all the miles we'll be walking, I figure we will be okay eating all these extra calories, its vacation after all, right! Addionally, for the last couple months, every time we are tempted by a yummy treat or some kind of "naughty" dessert, our code word to each other is Stormalong Bay. Nothing like the thought of wearing bathing suits in public to help you turn down that tempting hot fudge sundae

(Note: there was a little bit of a learning curve for poor Andy. At the beginning he kept saying Strumalong Bay. Come on, get it right guy! Don't be embarrassing me on this trip, now! )

Our restaurant list:
Ohana (twice because we love it so much!)
Kona
Napoli
Sci-Fi
Flame Tree
Chef Mickeys
Cape May (breakfast)


SO..... Thursday, Sept 6, I receive an email from Disney with our dates finally confirmed! Hallelujah! Its been hard the last couple months when friends and family ask about the trip , all I could say was havent heard anything, still waiting on Disney. I dont know how many times I said that! Also, I had put in for my days off at work as "a maybe".

Unfortunately, this preliminary confirmation shows our entire stay being at the Poly only.
I wonder if there was no availability at the Beach Club or something? DS is definitely going to be disappointed.. .

I went back and forth between :

Hey, I should be happy! I got my #1 choice, I shouldnt just expect to get everything we asked for, we should be thankful for whatever they give us

to

Well, they obviously ask you where you want to stay for a reason, maybe it was an oversight...you wont know if you dont ask !

I decided to contact my Disney rep and find out. I had a really tough time reaching them, because the phone number and email are sort of general numbers to the prize department..

Press one if you're a winner and ON your vacation. Press two if you're a winner and leaving for your vacation in the next 14 days. Press three if you're just a plain ole' winner and have some crazy question or problem (or something like that )... So I press #3, and leave a nice, friendly message, which probably ends up being at the bottom of some huge pile of voicemails somewhere because my trip is 90-plus days out. I also tried emailing them a couple times.. with emails ranging from friendly questions with lots of smiley faces, to panicked pleading.

Nope, no response to either approach


Through the Group, we had found out that the Disney department handling winners is made up of just a couple people.. Im thinking at first, what a fun job! However later Im quite sure their job might not be as magical as it seems --- with all of these overly excited, hyper, perky winners keep blowing up your phone and email all day long for never-ending questions and updates on each of their trips, ha. Im trying to be patient, but its freaking me out, especially since my ADRs are still up in the air.

Since I decided to go ahead and be picky, not only am I asking for those Beach Club nights, Im also requesting they be the first two nights of our trip, since those are the two days that were touring Epcot & HS! (If I'm going for it, I might as well go for it all! )

Soooo its October now.... AND MY REP FINALLY CALLS ME!! She says shes glad I called, it was indeed an oversight. It was no problem to fix our reservation.. She said she was working on our file right now & is also sending our flight docs right out . Yay!!! I am super duper thrilled!!!


BUT.........Then a week passes, then 2 weeks, then a month, and NOTHING!!! No flight info, no confirmations, no emails... Did it get lost? Stop the madness!!!!

Will this trip ever be finalized????? Did she get our reservation changed????? Is this process affecting my long-term health?????



 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

don't leave us hanging here!!!

 

[ohboyx3]

Best. Report. Ever.

 

[kittylady1972]

While I'm now stuck waiting for "fall" to arrive, at least I had a bunch of other OMDD trips I could follow along with in "The Group". Andy was already long used to me saying "The Group says this". Or "Look at this - I saw it on the Group . Poor guy.. it was going to be a long wait until our trip arrives - only 9 months to go at this point!

When our ADR window arrived, that was a little tricky! Being a professional Disney over-planner already, I totally HAD to get our reservations made.. but that's obviously hard to do when I don't know where we're staying on which days! The in-park reservations were no problem, but there were quite a few resort restaurants we wanted & those were impossible to plan for. So, I decided to make a couple back-up reservations for the places I had my heart set on, and planned to cancel the ones we didn't need once we got our itinerary. I sure didn't want to end up with reservations at Ohana during the days we were staying at the Beach Club, or Cape May when we were at the Poly. ug.

With all this being said, all of this is "ASSUMING" I am indeed getting our 1st choice of dates. If not, all my ADRs will be completely wrong. And dont get me started on my 3rd date choice, which was October! The only reason Im halfway confident of my January dates at this point is because other OMDDers have all gotten their 1st picks. If I never had the Group, I think I would definitely be seriously worried at this point!


Over the last year, Andy and I have each lost approx. 45lbs , so we were a little hesitant to go crazy with too many big meals. However, with all the miles we'll be walking, I figure we will be okay eating all these extra calories, its vacation after all, right! Addionally, for the last couple months, every time we are tempted by a yummy treat or some kind of "naughty" dessert, our code word to each other is Stormalong Bay. Nothing like the thought of wearing bathing suits in public to help you turn down that tempting hot fudge sundae

(Note: there was a little bit of a learning curve for poor Andy. At the beginning he kept saying Strumalong Bay. Come on, get it right guy! Don't be embarrassing me on this trip, now! )

Our restaurant list:
Ohana (twice because we love it so much!)
Kona
Napoli
Sci-Fi
Flame Tree
Chef Mickeys
Cape May (breakfast)


SO..... Thursday, Sept 6, I receive an email from Disney with our dates finally confirmed! Hallelujah! Its been hard the last couple months when friends and family ask about the trip , all I could say was havent heard anything, still waiting on Disney. I dont know how many times I said that! Also, I had put in for my days off at work as "a maybe".

Unfortunately, this preliminary confirmation shows our entire stay being at the Poly only.
I wonder if there was no availability at the Beach Club or something? DS is definitely going to be disappointed.. .

I went back and forth between :

Hey, I should be happy! I got my #1 choice, I shouldnt just expect to get everything we asked for, we should be thankful for whatever they give us

to

Well, they obviously ask you where you want to stay for a reason, maybe it was an oversight...you wont know if you dont ask !

I decided to contact my Disney rep and find out. I had a really tough time reaching them, because the phone number and email are sort of general numbers to the prize department..

Press one if you're a winner and ON your vacation. Press two if you're a winner and leaving for your vacation in the next 14 days. Press three if you're just a plain ole' winner and have some crazy question or problem (or something like that )... So I press #3, and leave a nice, friendly message, which probably ends up being at the bottom of some huge pile of voicemails somewhere because my trip is 90-plus days out. I also tried emailing them a couple times.. with emails ranging from friendly questions with lots of smiley faces, to panicked pleading.

Nope, no response to either approach


Through the Group, we had found out that the Disney department handling winners is made up of just a couple people.. Im thinking at first, what a fun job! However later Im quite sure their job might not be as magical as it seems --- with all of these overly excited, hyper, perky winners keep blowing up your phone and email all day long for never-ending questions and updates on each of their trips, ha. Im trying to be patient, but its freaking me out, especially since my ADRs are still up in the air.

Since I decided to go ahead and be picky, not only am I asking for those Beach Club nights, Im also requesting they be the first two nights of our trip, since those are the two days that were touring Epcot & HS! (If I'm going for it, I might as well go for it all! )

Soooo its October now.... AND MY REP FINALLY CALLS ME!! She says shes glad I called, it was indeed an oversight. It was no problem to fix our reservation.. She said she was working on our file right now & is also sending our flight docs right out . Yay!!! I am super duper thrilled!!!


BUT.........Then a week passes, then 2 weeks, then a month, and NOTHING!!! No flight info, no confirmations, no emails... Did it get lost? Stop the madness!!!!

Will this trip ever be finalized????? Did she get our reservation changed????? Is this process affecting my long-term health?????



So glad they managed to get it worked out...I think...but that waiting! YIKES! It would definitely be affecting my overall health!

Waiting in earnest to hear more....

 

[ampc3]

Hi there just found your link from the other thread congrats on winning super super cool!!! I would have BEEN NUTS not knowing what the deal was.. especially for you having to finalize your dates for work!! ugh... so I imagine it would be hard to be grateful and happy to frustrated and angry lol...

Looking forward to hearing all about it

Have a great trip!!

 

[Gantu]

Best. Report. Ever.

I cant wait to hear more!!!!

 

[lvjen777]

So... its November & I havent received my long-awaited paperwork. I've been diligently stalking my email/junk mail everyday for so long to make sure I dont miss anything important coming through from Disney... and nothing..

It HAS to be lost - why would she say she was sending it out that day, and me not get it ??

I contact her again. She apologizes a lot & says all my stuff is still right there on her desk, she got super behind & never sent it out like she told me she was going to. Pure torture!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said she would at least verbally confirm our trip to put my mind at ease (HA! - what mind? Ive long lost it by now )

She tells me she got us the Yacht Club for the first two nights , and the Poly for the remaining four nights, and yes, it is the January dates we wanted. YAYYYYYY!

She gave me the rate we will be charged for the two nights that we have to pay out-of-pocket for (aka w/ the gift card), and that number came out to be EXACTLY 40% off the rack rate for YC water view...40% is an amazing discount! (After I relayed this conversation to Andy, he actually said, "geez, with that kind of discount, maybe we shouldve stayed ANOTHER night or two"... Oh SURE, now you suggest that! There is NO way I am calling her back and changing ANYTHING!!! )

Before she & I hung up, she again promised she would REALLY send out all our Final Confirmation paperwork this time.
Darn those Disney employees - They're so perky & friendly, I'd fall for whatever she tells me every time!

She said it would come "no later" than 30 days prior to us leaving.. which the sound of that still made me nervous...

I immediately re-finalized all our ADRs and touring plans, and ordered our Photo Pass +.


Luckily for me and my sanity, on December 11th I receive my final paperwork via email --- five weeks before we leave!!! Everything was correct and complete. I was SO thrilled to finallllly know we were booked and everything was okay, and it was even better to see it officially on paper.. After all the worrying, wondering, hoping & waiting, I could go back to being just plain ol' EXCITED !

Cuz you know, this hammock has been calling my name for the last two years:

(me visiting the Poly & dreaming of staying there someday, in '11)


Our flights look good.. we are flying out bright and early the morning of Saturday, January 19th , so that'll get us there about 3pm Florida time. They gave us a late flight (7pm) on our last day so we can squeeze out every last Disney minute before we have to get on that sad Magical Express ride back to the airport. Our flights are with Airtran, with layovers in Atlanta. Tyler is excited about "officially" adding Georgia to his short list of states visited -- I say, does it really count? You won't even SEE it, we'll only be there for maybe 30min.. Well, he said if you're there long enough to go to the bathroom, it counts. Hmm, okay, whatever you say.

Since I haven't flown that much, we really examined our flight documents to figure out all the details.. Since we didn't buy our tickets ourselves, we weren't really sure what Disney had gotten us. I was pretty worried about how the seating would work, especially after another winner had slightly stressful seating experience.. Luckily, I was able to secure us seats together, by paying $36 total out of pocket... Money well spent!

I think our trip will be just about the right amount of days for us (seven).. we'll have our five park days, plus lots of time on our 2 travel days for exploring hotels, mini golf, shopping, swimming or whatever. I tried to talk the boys into doing something crazy and fun, something we wouldnt normally do .. like parasailing, or the Characters in Flight balloon, or the Wild Africa Trek at AK. This is a once in a lifetime trip - come on, we should go all out!! They opted out.. Pretty sure they think Im crazy. Party Poopers!

4 days later, I receive our Magical Express documents in the mail !!!!

Isn't Mickey mail the BEST mail ?! I am SO relieved that the FINAL piece of the puzzle has now arrived & our trip is finally all set. What a relief!!!

With approx. 300 days of anticipating & researching things for our trip, for some reason I now feel like I lost all my common sense. How many pairs of pants do we pack? What's the airline rules on stuff you can and cannot pack these days? Is 25 minutes going to be long enough for our layover? On to packing the suitcases......

 

[disneynan]

Thanks for another exciting installment......if I am never lucky enough to win a trip myself, it is so fun to read about your experience.

I hope you have a wonderful and safe trip!!

 

[saintstickets]

I've been more of a lurker than a poster but I had to say how much I am enjoying your TR. This has got to be the thrill of a lifetime to win a trip to Disney! I can't wait to read more and I totally understand your anxiety when you had not heard from the folks at Disney. You have much more patience than I would have had. I think I would have been calling every other day!

I tried to talk the boys into doing something crazy and fun, something we wouldnt normally do .. like parasailing, or the Characters in Flight balloon, or the Wild Africa Trek at AK. This is a once in a lifetime trip - come on, we should go all out!! They opted out.. Pretty sure they think Im crazy. Party Poopers!

You can go with DW and I anytime! I love trying something new each trip, whether it is a tour, a ride, an event or a restaurant!

 

[caralyn817]

I can't imagine the wait you had to go through. I know I would be very anxious to find out the details and everything. I would probably be calling them a lot to find out the information. I'm that you called because things might not of gotten out if you hadn't.

 

[lvjen777]

Thanks for another exciting installment......if I am never lucky enough to win a trip myself, it is so fun to read about your experience.

I hope you have a wonderful and safe trip!!

Thanks so much for following along!

 

[lvjen777]

I've been more of a lurker than a poster but I had to say how much I am enjoying your TR. This has got to be the thrill of a lifetime to win a trip to Disney! I can't wait to read more and I totally understand your anxiety when you had not heard from the folks at Disney. You have much more patience than I would have had. I think I would have been calling every other day!



You can go with DW and I anytime! I love trying something new each trip, whether it is a tour, a ride, an event or a restaurant!

I'm glad you are enjoying my TR! This experience has sure been an adventure. Thanks for reading !!!

 

[Neverland Girl]

Geeze! I would of been pulling my hair out from having to wait that long for more details. Glad everything worked out in the end.