ª"˜˜ª¤.¸Official Team August 2013 Thread!¸.¤ª˜˜"ª&#9733

[Koh1977]

It may not necessarily be cheaper to drive according to the link since we are renting the car to drive so as not to put the extra miles on our own. But it means being able to go to sea world without paying for a taxi and the hotel we're at for the first 2 nights is cheaper than Disney and allows us to get the front of the line passes for SW for free. Also, we would end up driving to the airport and staying the night before anyway and most likely the night we return as well, plus the fees of parking the car in the garage the entire trip...probably is about the same in the long run? But DD was awful on the plane last time, so perhaps driving will be a better experience for her!

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[rabeck]

Just tried to apply the new room discount to my stay, but since I am arriving on the 12th the CM told me that I would not be able to apply the discount because the 15th must be first day of my vacation. Is that correct?
I was told by another CM, when I applied the beginning of August discount from the 12th-14th, that if something else were to come out I could apply it for the rest of my trip.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Just tried to apply the new room discount to my stay, but since I am arriving on the 12th the CM told me that I would not be able to apply the discount because the 15th must be first day of my vacation. Is that correct?
I was told by another CM, when I applied the beginning of August discount from the 12th-14th, that if something else were to come out I could apply it for the rest of my trip.

From what I understand, you can apply it to the rest of your trip, but only if you break it up into another reservation. Room discounts are only valid for the dates noted within each offer, whereas offers like free dining can be extended through the end of the trip. Perhaps the original CM was implying that if free dining came out, you could apply that to the rest of your trip?

Under the two offers you are trying to book, does your resort have the same discount for both offers or does it differ?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Glad to hear that there is at least some sort of discount available for my onsite August peeps. I hope the savings shave at least a wee bit off of your vacation expenses. "Every little bit helps", right?

 

[maa]

Just tried to apply the new room discount to my stay, but since I am arriving on the 12th the CM told me that I would not be able to apply the discount because the 15th must be first day of my vacation. Is that correct?
I was told by another CM, when I applied the beginning of August discount from the 12th-14th, that if something else were to come out I could apply it for the rest of my trip.

I had to call 4 times today to get it accomplished, but...

For our stay, we were booked under the previous promo for our check-in day (8/14). When I called today to have it applied to the rest of the stay, I kept getting told that there was no discount applicable to Beach Club or there was no discount at all. FINALLY, the last CM had to split our reservation and apply the new promo. I think the key was that standard view rooms were sold out, so we had to upgrade to a garden view to apply the new discount.

Maybe ask them to check garden view and see what happens?

 

[squirrel4569]

So....some folks kind of touched on this in the budget QOTD a week or so back, but let's make this an official QOTD all on its own:

Do you have a pet (or pets) that require care during your trip?

Do you board them, have a neighbour watch over them, or take them to you parents house to be "babysat"?

Does it cost you anything, and if so, how much?

Do they care if you are gone (and are mad as heck when you get home?) or do they thoroughly enjoy the temporary accommodations with the kennel/dog-sitter/grandma/neighbour?

And if you are willing.....please post a pic so we can all admire your fur-baby (or I also suppose that could be a feather baby for those with birds ).

We've got a dog and a cat. Typically we'll board the dog and have someone come over and check on the cat, but this year we're fortunate enough to have my brother-in-law staying with us and not going on our Disney trip so he can stay home and watch both, saving us some money. Typically for boarding it's $25/night for the dog. Usually the way it works out is the day before our trip we'll take the dog in for boarding since we usually leave before the kennel opens and then we'll pick her up the day after we get home because we usually get home late.

Our cat is right around 17 years old. I got him when he was about 3 or 4 months old and the family I got him from already had named him. They named him Mickey Mouse because he has two large round circles on his ears. I have always thought that once you name an animal you can't change it so it has stuck. He's been my buddy for that whole time, outlasting relationships and handling cross country moves with ease.

Here he is consoling me after ankle surgery.



Our dog will be 7 in October. She's huge, but gentle and sweet. We named her Layla because our previous dog was named Eric Clapton. Great with the kids but a lot of hair and a lot of dog!

 

[squirrel4569]

I have no pets so this is something I don't need to worry about.

But I do have a QOTD:

As we are all getting very close to this point, will you be doing online check in? Why or why not? Personally I think I may just to make the trip seem to be closer then it actually is and the convenience may be worth it as well but I have never done it

I'll definitely be doing online check-in. We've done it on our past two trips and they have 95% of everything ready for us when we arrive. The difference in the check-in lines between online and regular are huge.

I'm not sure why they moved the check in time to 60 days from 10 days (seems like overkill) except for the FP+ stuff that is supposed to be coming out eventually.

 

[squirrel4569]

I could use some opinions if anyone has a spare minute.
We'd like to spend some time at the beach on this trip. (Details.. we're staying at Bonnet Creek for 8 nights, not doing all Disney stuff because we'll be back for a surprise trip in December).

As it stands I could drop down to 5 nights at Bonnet Creek and then head about 2 hours over to Ana Maria Island for 3 nights. We would switch our flight to fly home out of Tampa (and right now there's a perfect flight that is cheaper so we'd have another credit for December).

OR
Stay at Bonnet Creek the whole time and do a few beach day trips. I'd prefer a Gulf Coast beach, but the Atlantic beaches would be much closer for a daytrip I think.

I can't decide if it's worth moving for 3 nights or just to leave things as they are, stay the 8 nights at Bonnet Creek and make some day trips. Any thoughts? Thank you

I'm assuming you have a car (haven't gotten completely caught up on the thread yet) and I would suggest Clearwater beach. The Gulf waters are warm and clear and the sand is nearly white. It's one of my favorite places to go. The East Coast beaches are cold and dirty due to the Ocean, even in the summer.

 

[squirrel4569]

End of August discounts announced!!

Ok, so they aren't great, but here they are:

The link to the thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3107093

Called in this morning to apply the discount to my reservation. Of course the Nemo suites aren't part of it. Lion King or Cars or I can select a "Family Suite" and have them pick the theme. The discount is 15% but it looks like it includes more than just the room. 15% off of our room only would be $233. 15% off of our room and tickets comes to $420, which is what they are offering.

I have to clear it with the boss (my wife) plus the kids and our friend who is traveling with us, but I think grabbing a Cars suite would be fine. I'm wondering if I could do the Family Suite and then set preferences of Nemo (if available) then Cars or if we could switch it when we get there...

$400 isn't free dining, but it does pretty much pay for the bump from QSDP to DDP.

 

[Koh1977]

I had to call 4 times today to get it accomplished, but...

For our stay, we were booked under the previous promo for our check-in day (8/14). When I called today to have it applied to the rest of the stay, I kept getting told that there was no discount applicable to Beach Club or there was no discount at all. FINALLY, the last CM had to split our reservation and apply the new promo. I think the key was that standard view rooms were sold out, so we had to upgrade to a garden view to apply the new discount.

Maybe ask them to check garden view and see what happens?

I saw somewhere that the BC was only discounting LV rooms?

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[electrocutie]

Welcome!!!

We like Garden Grill. The food is fine, and the characters are cute. We loved it our first time though so I think it's worth doing once at least

For a 6 or 7 day trip I am with you and vote to fly. We've considered driving and may if plane tickets are too high for the next trip but there are four of us. Is your dh a nervous flyer (which I can totally relate to)? Or is it a cost thing? If it's cost, I came across this calculator today that you may want to go over with him..http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/.

With two people flying I don't think driving would save you all that much if that's your main concern. We fly out of Buffalo. Usually for 1000-1200 for the four of us. Driving would save about 300-500 for us, but even then there are variables, like how much a few extra days of vacation is worth to us, food cost there and back, and hotel costs. It just wasn't worth it to us this time.

We've stayed at Coronado Springs twice and we love it!

Thank you so much for sharing that calculator link! It actually was fun plugging in numbers. The whole plane vs drive debate is solely about cost. My DH can be pretty frugal. The calculator showed at first that we'd only be saving about $150 driving. But it's estimate for airfare was off. I checked airfare at the lowest price for the both of us and it would be around $800 round trip. Driving will be about $300 in gas and we'd be staying at a family member's house in NC, so no motel costs either.

As much as I want to fly- the road trip sounds like it could be fun. We do have the extra time to drive so I think with good planning, it won't be so bad. I do keep asking DH if he will be ok with doing most of the driving since I am just getting my driver's license in the coming months. (Being a city girl- I never had much need to drive a car) And he says he can handle it- so it seems like driving it will be. I'll still keep my eye on airfare prices with Yapta.

 

[Koh1977]

We've got a dog and a cat. Typically we'll board the dog and have someone come over and check on the cat, but this year we're fortunate enough to have my brother-in-law staying with us and not going on our Disney trip so he can stay home and watch both, saving us some money. Typically for boarding it's $25/night for the dog. Usually the way it works out is the day before our trip we'll take the dog in for boarding since we usually leave before the kennel opens and then we'll pick her up the day after we get home because we usually get home late.

Our cat is right around 17 years old. I got him when he was about 3 or 4 months old and the family I got him from already had named him. They named him Mickey Mouse because he has two large round circles on his ears. I have always thought that once you name an animal you can't change it so it has stuck. He's been my buddy for that whole time, outlasting relationships and handling cross country moves with ease.

Here he is consoling me after ankle surgery.

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/squirrel4569/media/null_zpsb9cfbabc.jpg.html

Our dog will be 7 in October. She's huge, but gentle and sweet. We named her Layla because our previous dog was named Eric Clapton. Great with the kids but a lot of hair and a lot of dog!

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/squirrel4569/media/null_zps034b2e3a.jpg.html

Your dog looks a lot like ours did... LOTS of fur that's for sure! I don't miss that in the least!

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[Koh1977]

I'll definitely be doing online check-in. We've done it on our past two trips and they have 95% of everything ready for us when we arrive. The difference in the check-in lines between online and regular are huge.

I'm not sure why they moved the check in time to 60 days from 10 days (seems like overkill) except for the FP+ stuff that is supposed to be coming out eventually.

Of course now it's not supposed to come out until September...?

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[Koh1977]

I'm assuming you have a car (haven't gotten completely caught up on the thread yet) and I would suggest Clearwater beach. The Gulf waters are warm and clear and the sand is nearly white. It's one of my favorite places to go. The East Coast beaches are cold and dirty due to the Ocean, even in the summer.

I liked Clearwater. That's where DH and I stayed when we got engaged. wasn't too far from Disney for a couple day trips, but we also had the beach. of course it was cold and windy when we were there (april 2004) so not much beach fun, but still...On the Atlantic side I thought Port Orange area was nice and pretty quiet compared to some of the rest...

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[Koh1977]

Called in this morning to apply the discount to my reservation. Of course the Nemo suites aren't part of it. Lion King or Cars or I can select a "Family Suite" and have them pick the theme. The discount is 15% but it looks like it includes more than just the room. 15% off of our room only would be $233. 15% off of our room and tickets comes to $420, which is what they are offering.

I have to clear it with the boss (my wife) plus the kids and our friend who is traveling with us, but I think grabbing a Cars suite would be fine. I'm wondering if I could do the Family Suite and then set preferences of Nemo (if available) then Cars or if we could switch it when we get there...

$400 isn't free dining, but it does pretty much pay for the bump from QSDP to DDP.

I was wondering something like that myself...re: choosing family suite and requesting nemo. I
Are the nemo suites in the prime location? Is that why they seem to be booked long before the other 2?

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[Koh1977]

Oh, and re: Garden Grill...

I liked it. The food was pretty good and where else do you get to visit with Chip and Dale? that being said, it didn't get on the list of dinner ADRs this trip since we wanted to do Via Napoli and Le Cellier for sure and there are only so many nights I can give Epcot!

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[Loreli]

Thank you so much for sharing that calculator link! It actually was fun plugging in numbers. The whole plane vs drive debate is solely about cost. My DH can be pretty frugal. The calculator showed at first that we'd only be saving about $150 driving. But it's estimate for airfare was off. I checked airfare at the lowest price for the both of us and it would be around $800 round trip. Driving will be about $300 in gas and we'd be staying at a family member's house in NC, so no motel costs either.

As much as I want to fly- the road trip sounds like it could be fun. We do have the extra time to drive so I think with good planning, it won't be so bad. I do keep asking DH if he will be ok with doing most of the driving since I am just getting my driver's license in the coming months. (Being a city girl- I never had much need to drive a car) And he says he can handle it- so it seems like driving it will be. I'll still keep my eye on airfare prices with Yapta.

Drive, while you don't have kids take advantage of it and drive. Books on CD are great fun on a road trip especially mysteries, which I dislike reading. DH and I drove all over visiting and going "home" to see family before we had kids. Boy I kinda miss those days.

 

[squirrel4569]

I was wondering something like that myself...re: choosing family suite and requesting nemo. I
Are the nemo suites in the prime location? Is that why they seem to be booked long before the other 2?

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Nemo is the center section and has the largest pool. There are also only two buildings there which could cause it to fill faster. Lion King also has two buildings but no pool. Cars has 3 buildings and a much smaller pool.

My girls and travel companion requested Nemo because it's closest, although none of the suites are particularly far from the food court.

I'm thinking the Cars area might be quieter though being away from the pool.

 

[jdd]

I had to call 4 times today to get it accomplished, but...

For our stay, we were booked under the previous promo for our check-in day (8/14). When I called today to have it applied to the rest of the stay, I kept getting told that there was no discount applicable to Beach Club or there was no discount at all. FINALLY, the last CM had to split our reservation and apply the new promo. I think the key was that standard view rooms were sold out, so we had to upgrade to a garden view to apply the new discount.

Maybe ask them to check garden view and see what happens?

I had a similar experience - the first CM didn't really understand how to deal with my week as it spanned the two discounted periods. Had a much more knowledgeable CM this afternoon. Although the room I wanted (Poly GV CL) was not available with this discount, I was able to get a AAA discount applied to my last five nights (saved me about $400 - the 20% offer would have saved about $650, so it's better than nothing!). She had to split the week into two separate reservations as well, but said she'd make a note to keep us in the same room for the whole week. She also said to keep calling back to see if rooms opened up under the 20% discount - she said they are constantly changing/updating discounts.

Keep trying and good luck!!

 

[squirrel4569]

Thank you so much for sharing that calculator link! It actually was fun plugging in numbers. The whole plane vs drive debate is solely about cost. My DH can be pretty frugal. The calculator showed at first that we'd only be saving about $150 driving. But it's estimate for airfare was off. I checked airfare at the lowest price for the both of us and it would be around $800 round trip. Driving will be about $300 in gas and we'd be staying at a family member's house in NC, so no motel costs either.

As much as I want to fly- the road trip sounds like it could be fun. We do have the extra time to drive so I think with good planning, it won't be so bad. I do keep asking DH if he will be ok with doing most of the driving since I am just getting my driver's license in the coming months. (Being a city girl- I never had much need to drive a car) And he says he can handle it- so it seems like driving it will be. I'll still keep my eye on airfare prices with Yapta.

We drive unless we can get a killer deal on airfare. Anything more that $200 a person becomes not worth it to fly unless we really need to save the time. 4 people add up quick, especially when you factor in bag fees and such. This time we got flights for $167/person and no bag fees so it made sense.