12/09/06 Geeks.... Lost, but not forgotten

[MrsMork]

So, PJ.....how does one set up a blog??

 

[pjpoohbear]

Angie

I am using wordpress.com to do a blog about the lead up to the TA cruise. This is my first time and it has been easy so far, hardest part was making my custom title. Click on the name tag in my signature my journalling is on the Home page link under the title. It took me about 30 minutes to set it up and write my first post.

Pj

 

[pyramid2000]

At about 2:30 this afternoon I look out my office window to see a blizzard


..... it lasted all of of 45 seconds and then the sun came out again.

Did it block your view of the 'other' window?

 

[pjpoohbear]

Oh, Caroline! You are so bad!!!!

Pj

 

[Bella2000]

Hi everyone! It's supposed to be sunny weather here this week - freezing but sunny. The ski resorts are excited to be opening this weekend for the most part. No snow here though (phew). Caroline you are a hoot and hmm did Brack answer you? I think not.

Work is busy. I finally opened my MacBook this afternoon and had the guts to tell DH about it. Hey I had told him I'd bought myself an early Christmas/bday present. No, I didn't say bday - I'll tell him that tomorrow so that makes me look even better.

We are heading to see the Mouse I realized two weeks from today and I have done zippo, nada, zilch.

Stay warm and I hope everyone is well!

 

[lbgraves]

At about 2:30 this afternoon I look out my office window to see a blizzard


..... it lasted all of of 45 seconds and then the sun came out again.

We had snow flurries here on and off most of yesturday. DD got in the car after school squealing about playing in the snow at recess. Umm...I know...I had to appologize to her that we get snow so seldom here that she was that excited about a few flakes.

 

[lbgraves]

PJ I am really glad that you found your car!!! How terrible. You guys have to post here any major plans because I will not be keeping up with the TA thread. So far we are set for dinner with the group of us so that is great! We can link our resies after the 90 day rush so that we can all access our palo and excursion stuff and not be shut out with DCL's latest system. OY!

Angie...you and Dennis must start tracking your travels. It would be a great way for us to keep tabs on you two too. This trip keeps sounding better and better if you two will be joining us in WDW as well! We are keeping the plans light...which is why I upgraded our tickets to NE 10 day ones. I am thinking arive on 2/7 and do DTD, relax and dinner at Rainforest Cafe. 2/8 (Sunday) a park, off on 2/9, MK on 2/10 (my birthday and the best place I can think of to spend it ), off on 2/11, park on 2/12 and probably off on 2/13...or maybe Disney Quest. Have you guys ever done that? It is an option with the extra on the tickets. We went last year and the kids LOVED it! Just had an AHHA moment! We can have a slightly belated 3rd annual Boma dinner...at a much smaller table but we can toast to our missing Geek pals. I don't think that we will do the dining plan this time but might look into the changes. I think there is a quick service one now? That might be good but we usually don't eat all of the food offered so we will have to investigate this time. All in all I think that we got a great deal for this February trip since it is costing us less than the discounted price of the tickets total.

 

[lbgraves]

BTW...can you send me in the right direction about that Chip and Dale movie fire thing? That would be a great way to end a non-park day.

 

[pjpoohbear]

Carla, I hear that the parks are empty! Walk-ons everywhere and if you don't have ADRs just ask at the podium, bet there are a lot that were not cancelled when people had to cancel trips.

Lisa, the car was an adventure for sure, lol.

We are doing the Quick Service DP for the Feb trip, since we found that even the normal DP was too much time spent eating for us. We are doing a couple of TS meals, but haven't actually booked anything yet, lol, see no spreadsheet this trip. We are thinking maybe a first trip to Sci-Fi Diner, and I really want to head to Fort Wilderness for the Trail's End Tavern dinner.

The fort wilderness campfire/movie,
"Go to Fort Wilderness for the campfire/sing-along, nightly at 7pm behind the Meadow Trading Post. Movie begins approximately 7:40pm. A Disney classic movie follows the sing-along. Chip and Dale usually make an appearance. The Fort Wilderness staff will provide a campfire; bring your marshmallows, hot dogs and sticks if you have them. If not, marshmallows and sticks are available for purchase at $2 for 2 sticks and plenty of marshmallows; $5 for a s'more kit. The movie shown is different each night of the week. In the event of inclement weather, a "Porch Jam" sing-a-long will take place at the Ol' Meadow Swimmin' Hole. Movie & Sing-a-Long free of charge. Note: All movies & characters are outside! Campfire Show is held nightly if weather permits." from allears Sometime in January you can find a calendar of what movies are playing in a sticky at the top of the DIS's Camping at Disney forum (Angie and Dennis should be pros over there by then, lol) Read more about overlooked resort stuff here.

Pj

 

[pjpoohbear]

Lisa, on Disney Quest, I now have 8 pluses that were meant for going to the Adventure's club, hummm......

So yes, I am thinking about hitting DQ, have gone once with my Dfriend Tony but it was a rushed 2 hour visit, we busted a gut on the jungle cruise game, oh my, lol.

And since we might be doing a bounce back cruise in the late fall, we want to save at least one of our main park days, we have five each left from our 10 day passes.

Lisa, have you priced passes lately, they are charging $20 a day on a 10 day pass for non expiry. It is cheaper per day as you buy less days to start. Crazy!

Pj

 

[lbgraves]

LOL! We went to DQ from the time it opened until it was dark outside. It was a ton of fun for all of us. Of course having the Cheesecake Factory on the top floor was great too. We did a couple of the animation classes, had a ball on the human pinball machine and I think did practically everything once in that place. That jungle cruise thing was wild!!! K didn't like it too much and ended up sitting/laying on the floor inbetween the seats. LOL! We really enjoyed the pirate one too. William was getting pretty good at firing the cannon. We ended up in one of the simulators by ourselves so it was a work out. I am hoping to get both of the kids in the Buzz ball game thing. Mike had a lot of fun with that with W but he wouldn't go back on and K wouldn't have anything to do with it.

I figure that getting the 10 day passes saves us money in the long run because they are going to last us a few years and we won't have to deal with the price increases. Also, with this deal we are paying around $250 less for them than we would at underground tourist with the MS link...which is already less than Disney's price. The last ones lasted us from June 2004 to August 2008 so it ends up working out in the long run.

 

[goofyforlife]

So yes, I am thinking about hitting DQ, have gone once with my Dfriend Tony but it was a rushed 2 hour visit, we busted a gut on the jungle cruise game, oh my, lol.

Hi Peeps....

At least you lived to try the jungle cruise, PJ

Last time we went to DQ, I went on the Flying Carpet ride..... Needless to say i came off of that pretty green.....

I was thinking of trying the cruise too but just standing by the railing watching the people below was giving me the hurls....

Surprisingly though...I made it through Mission Space that trip with no problems...

Go figure...

PS...Our family's favorite thing at DQ was the cars under the floor but sadly they got rid of them.

 

[bubbasmom99]

Definitely blog it Angie! I blog for both of my businesses and use Wordpress (org not com but basically the same thing - I just get more custom function with the .org side).

I found Wordpress better than Blogger. I am planning to trip report via blog this time around...

 

[bubbasmom99]

How much time do you need for DQ? We are going to take a taxi over from Universal to DTD on Thursday the 4th and have dinner at T-Rex and do some shopping. I think there will probably be enough holiday stuff going on at DTD to eat up a few hours... We've never been to DQ but I don't want to spend over $100 to get us in so that we can only be there for an hour.

 

[brack]

Did it block your view of the 'other' window?

No and her blanket is still out there but she has not been. It's probably because it is a little ..... now what is that line Chevy Chase uses in the movie "Christmas Vacation" when he is in the store?

 

[pjpoohbear]

Joy, had no clue there was a wp.org, lol. I downloaded the iPhone app and went from there, it is so easy to draft a post on the touch and upload when I am connected. Only thing better would be a camera on the Touch to allow for adding photos.

Pj

 

[lbgraves]

How much time do you need for DQ? We are going to take a taxi over from Universal to DTD on Thursday the 4th and have dinner at T-Rex and do some shopping. I think there will probably be enough holiday stuff going on at DTD to eat up a few hours... We've never been to DQ but I don't want to spend over $100 to get us in so that we can only be there for an hour.

Joy, there are four floors of games for everyone. Around the walls are old video games that we grew up with...and you don't have to put money in them for them to work!!! LOL! We got there around 10 am and I think that we left after 6 pm. The stilt walking raindeer were out with all the lights last December when we came out. There is a section where you can take the animation class and the characters are different each time. You sit at a computer screen on a desk and draw with the wand. The kids loved doing that and we went to 2 or 3 of them with K. Your kids are about the same age as ours so they should be able to do most of the stuff too.

 

[lbgraves]

OK PJAY!!! I am trying to find out the cost of the basic table service dining plan to see if this would be a value for us on the trip. I can only find costs for packages. Is this noted anywhere for just the cost...maybe with the DVC stuff? TIA!

ETA: I finally found it!!!

The new Quick Service Dining Plan prices: Adults $29.99 per person per night; children 3-9 $8.99 per person per night

 

[pjpoohbear]

The new Quick Service Dining Plan prices: Adults $29.99 per person per night; children 3-9 $8.99 per person per night.

Lisa, we are paying the $29.99 +taxes each per night for our after cruise nights. We can't skip any meals on the plan to make it work out, but then again they aren't TS and we can do them on the run. With two snack per day as well, I think we might be taking some treats home, lol.

Even with the DP being $39.99+taxes, we now know that even with the couple of meals we will do TS, we would end up not using some of the CS to avoid over eating, taking away any savings from the plan. So our thoughts are buy the QS even if only as pre-paying of the tab, and since we are DVC, we don't pay until check-in.

Pj

 

[Bella2000]

Hey Joy, I am just slowly reading backwards and realized you are going to WDW. I think we pass each other while there. Good luck with 4th grade. I hate that your son is having to deal with the bullying stuff. We got to see it 3rd grade. It infuriates me. I call them the Edie Haskell kids. Do you ever notice the charming to parents ones are the ones saying mean things to others. I hope you have a good teacher at least to help him along the way.

We have a wake and funeral to go to tomorrow. My mothers sister. I dislike wakes and funerals in general and would prefer not to go. Its that bittersweet thing of getting to see all the family together yet its generally overwhelming to me. One cousin looks exactly like my mother and it freaks me out so much I can't look at her in pictures and in person it's like a shock to the system to look at my mothers face but she's not there. It always makes me cry. Hard to explain. In any case I'm dreading it all.