395 days of planning all lead up to this! Sept/Oct 2012

[HeatherLassell]

So I am on this free dating website. I am so picky that I never actually meet anyone in person. Well tonight I met this guy from Shilo (the army base) at the local Tim Hortons and he actually was pretty cute. He was nice and had a nice smile. He is a soldier and a single dad to a 5 year old little girl.

He texted me "Thanks for coming to Tims with me, it was nice to get to know you a little better." and I said "Thanks for driving all the way out to meet me" (he drove an hour!!!) and then he said "Not a problem, it was worth the drive."

lol

 

[SoNotAPrincess]

You go, girl! I met my fella online, and we did the long distance thing for a while before taking the big plunge. One of my good friends met her hubby on eHarmony...you never know where you'll find your prince. Your soldier sounds nice...I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

 

[HeatherLassell]

You go, girl! I met my fella online, and we did the long distance thing for a while before taking the big plunge. One of my good friends met her hubby on eHarmony...you never know where you'll find your prince. Your soldier sounds nice...I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Thanks. I was so reluctant to meet someone this way but I've been seperated (and now divorced) since Jan 2008 and I've only had 1 short 2 month relationship.

Guess I'm getting bored! lol

 

[HeatherLassell]

So today I am MISSING a day of work (not good on the $$$ paycheck) because my 8 year old son has pink eye. School says "24 hours from start of meds" before he can come back. So I guess we're gonna have a The Walking Dead marathon today and chill. I have to admit other than missing the money I'm happy to miss work today!

 

[SallyNeko21]

So today I am MISSING a day of work (not good on the $$$ paycheck) because my 8 year old son has pink eye. School says "24 hours from start of meds" before he can come back. So I guess we're gonna have a The Walking Dead marathon today and chill. I have to admit other than missing the money I'm happy to miss work today!

Awww, sorry your son has pink eye. Walking Dead marathon sounds pretty good though!

 

[HeatherLassell]

Awww, sorry your son has pink eye. Walking Dead marathon sounds pretty good though!

Thank you. I'm trying to keep him across the room from me! I don't want to get it! My eyes are itch but I think it's all in my head! Like when I read a sign about the school having "lice" all of a sudden my head gets really itchy! *ick*

Yeah my 8 year old loves The Walking Dead. We talk about how amazing the make up is and the actors, etc. Because at 8 sometimes the scenes can be scarey but he really likes the show. Sometimes he covers his eyes and I just laugh at him.

 

[HeatherLassell]

DISNEY STORE ONLINE DISCOUNT CODE: PARKS25 gets you 25% off authentic Park merchandise.

I'm going to get personalized mickey ears for the kids and the discount works on them!

Not sure for how long but the code works right now!

Complaint: I wish the 'free shipping' codes worked for Canadians. We need the discount more than anyone. It's $29.50 for international shipping. None of the FREE shipping codes work and there is no discount. So it doesn't matter if I am gonna spend $100 they still charge me the full shipping. That blows.

 

[Stan Solo]

Hey a fellow Manitoba Disney nut!

I saw you made a post on the POR thread and noticed that you were from MB then I saw that you had a PTR going on. I read the entire thing while watching the Jets at NJ (what a heartbreaker of a game). Mt DD(16) and I went on our first trip ever last August and our going on our second trip next August.

I think that you are making some incredible magical plans for your trip. I hope you don't mind me giving you a tip or two.

In reguards to photo pass be sure to get some pictures taken of just your kids, just you, single pictures of your kids etc. I found that the photo pass CMs were great but they seem to only want to take pictures of the whole family. This can get a tad boring when every picture is of the same four people.

We stayed at POR with the free dining and loved it! We used Disney trasportaion for the entire trip and did not have one issue. Sure the odd time we had to stand but this was not a big deal at all the trips are not all that long. If you stay at a Mod you would get the DDP plan free not the QSDP so that would save a bit of $ and lessen the price diff. Plus if you stay at AB one of your kids could use the truddle bed the other two could share a queen and you could have a queen all to yourself.

If you plan on going to one park a day why are you paying for a park hopper pass? You would be better off canceling the park hopper and getting a water, fun and more pass. Then on your first day you could go to Disney Quest when you go to DTD I'm sure your kids would have a ball. On your extra days go to TL and BB. Being a Canadian in October you would have the water parks to yourself .

I'm sure you have some ADRs you are thinking about. Our favorites by far were Chef Mickeys for breakfast and the Chrystal Palace for dinner. In fact they are the only two places we plan to revisit on our next trip. Another must do is Yee Haa Bob at POR it's free to get in all you have to do is order something. DD had a coke and I had a coffee tables are first come first serve and fill up quickly but people come and go threw out the night. We were lucky when we just got there a family of four just left and a couple from NFLD sat down. I just asked if we could join them and had the time of our lives!

The service that Disney offers by sending items to your resort is fantastic! They say to allow 48 hours but none of my parcels took that long and every night when I got "home" we had a voice mail letting me know that my parcels have arrived. The only thing was my DD and I were the type that left well befor the parks opened and came back after the cleaners kicked us out of the parks so we could not pick up anything becuse they were always closed when we were at the resort. Finely after a day at one of the water parks (they close earlier) were we able to go to the resort gift shop. The kicker was just about everything that we bought was available at the resort gift shop .

I hope I didn't overstep my bounds here and if I did I'm sorry I'm only trying to help. This also is alot longer then I planed and for that I am also sorry. If you have any questions post them in your PTR and I'll be happy to help you out if I can and heck if I can't I'm sure someone else will.

 

[Joyciemc]

I met my DH on a dating website! So much easier than floating around randomly hoping to run into someone worth dating. He was the only one I ended up meeting in person!

Boo for the pink eye. I got it last year and it was annoying... even worse was when I had a reaction to the eye drops! Pictures from that WDW trip are kinda funny, with my wonky eye.

 

[HeatherLassell]

Hey a fellow Manitoba Disney nut!

hi!

I read the entire thing while watching the Jets at NJ (what a heartbreaker of a game).

I was so excited when we tied it up. That didn't last long as we lost not that long into OT. *le sigh*

I think that you are making some incredible magical plans for your trip. I hope you don't mind me giving you a tip or two.

In reguards to photo pass be sure to get some pictures taken of just your kids, just you, single pictures of your kids etc. I found that the photo pass CMs were great but they seem to only want to take pictures of the whole family. This can get a tad boring when every picture is of the same four people.

Thank you and ofcourse I don't mind.

I am a professional photographer so I'm mostly using the photopass so that I can get into the pictures with my kids. I will end up taking alot of photographs on this trip!

We stayed at POR with the free dining and loved it! We used Disney trasportaion for the entire trip and did not have one issue. Sure the odd time we had to stand but this was not a big deal at all the trips are not all that long. If you stay at a Mod you would get the DDP plan free not the QSDP so that would save a bit of $ and lessen the price diff. Plus if you stay at AB one of your kids could use the truddle bed the other two could share a queen and you could have a queen all to yourself.

I love the bed to myself idea. lol Of course then my kids would be fighting over who got it so they didn't have to share. Well I paid the difference to upgrade to the DDP (table service) since I had the free qs. Total pkg is about $3200. When I price out rooms at POR I'm getting around $3700. Of course then I don't have to pay the $12 per day fee for the refridgerator and maybe the mods will have wifi when I get there next year. But right now it's still cheaper to stay at Pop. I don't read very many good 'transportation' reviews for POR. Almost all complaints about the busses.

If you plan on going to one park a day why are you paying for a park hopper pass? You would be better off canceling the park hopper and getting a water, fun and more pass. Then on your first day you could go to Disney Quest when you go to DTD I'm sure your kids would have a ball. On your extra days go to TL and BB. Being a Canadian in October you would have the water parks to yourself .

We plan on spending half days at DHS (mornings) and then going back over to MK probably. It's the park they have the most interest in. I may take off the park hoppers in April once park hours are out and I can make my ADRs. If there is no NEED to park hop then I will take it off.

I don't think my daughter, who will only be 6, would get alot out of Disney Quest. It looks more geared to kids older than her. I know her brothers would but I don't think her and I would care for it.

And I am very weary of water parks on my own with three kids. I don't have enough eyes and none of them have taken swimming lessons. I know there are life guards but it just seems to me like it would be stressfull for me and not fun at all.

I'm sure you have some ADRs you are thinking about. Our favorites by far were Chef Mickeys for breakfast and the Chrystal Palace for dinner. In fact they are the only two places we plan to revisit on our next trip. Another must do is Yee Haa Bob at POR it's free to get in all you have to do is order something. DD had a coke and I had a coffee tables are first come first serve and fill up quickly but people come and go threw out the night. We were lucky when we just got there a family of four just left and a couple from NFLD sat down. I just asked if we could join them and had the time of our lives!

We are looking at a breakfast at Crystal Palace so we can get into the park before it opens and grab some awesome pics on empty main street before all the guests are let in.

I keep going back and forth on where I want to eat. The kids want to try a few different places so we'll have to really think about it before April when the ADR window opens.

The service that Disney offers by sending items to your resort is fantastic! They say to allow 48 hours but none of my parcels took that long and every night when I got "home" we had a voice mail letting me know that my parcels have arrived. The only thing was my DD and I were the type that left well befor the parks opened and came back after the cleaners kicked us out of the parks so we could not pick up anything becuse they were always closed when we were at the resort. Finely after a day at one of the water parks (they close earlier) were we able to go to the resort gift shop. The kicker was just about everything that we bought was available at the resort gift shop .

That would just be my luck too! Well we will probably go back to the resort in the middle of the day some days so I'm sure we'll be ok on the purchaces. We're gonna spend an afternoon at the Disney Store at DTD and can do most of our shopping there.

I hope I didn't overstep my bounds here and if I did I'm sorry I'm only trying to help. This also is alot longer then I planed and for that I am also sorry. If you have any questions post them in your PTR and I'll be happy to help you out if I can and heck if I can't I'm sure someone else will.

No problem. Thanks! I post questions in here alot so feel free to chime in when you have an answer!

 

[aljay]

Hey a fellow Manitoba Disney nut!

I saw you made a post on the POR thread and noticed that you were from MB then I saw that you had a PTR going on. I read the entire thing while watching the Jets at NJ (what a heartbreaker of a game). Mt DD(16) and I went on our first trip ever last August and our going on our second trip next August.

I think that you are making some incredible magical plans for your trip. I hope you don't mind me giving you a tip or two.

In reguards to photo pass be sure to get some pictures taken of just your kids, just you, single pictures of your kids etc. I found that the photo pass CMs were great but they seem to only want to take pictures of the whole family. This can get a tad boring when every picture is of the same four people.

We stayed at POR with the free dining and loved it! We used Disney trasportaion for the entire trip and did not have one issue. Sure the odd time we had to stand but this was not a big deal at all the trips are not all that long. If you stay at a Mod you would get the DDP plan free not the QSDP so that would save a bit of $ and lessen the price diff. Plus if you stay at AB one of your kids could use the truddle bed the other two could share a queen and you could have a queen all to yourself.

If you plan on going to one park a day why are you paying for a park hopper pass? You would be better off canceling the park hopper and getting a water, fun and more pass. Then on your first day you could go to Disney Quest when you go to DTD I'm sure your kids would have a ball. On your extra days go to TL and BB. Being a Canadian in October you would have the water parks to yourself .

I'm sure you have some ADRs you are thinking about. Our favorites by far were Chef Mickeys for breakfast and the Chrystal Palace for dinner. In fact they are the only two places we plan to revisit on our next trip. Another must do is Yee Haa Bob at POR it's free to get in all you have to do is order something. DD had a coke and I had a coffee tables are first come first serve and fill up quickly but people come and go threw out the night. We were lucky when we just got there a family of four just left and a couple from NFLD sat down. I just asked if we could join them and had the time of our lives!

The service that Disney offers by sending items to your resort is fantastic! They say to allow 48 hours but none of my parcels took that long and every night when I got "home" we had a voice mail letting me know that my parcels have arrived. The only thing was my DD and I were the type that left well befor the parks opened and came back after the cleaners kicked us out of the parks so we could not pick up anything becuse they were always closed when we were at the resort. Finely after a day at one of the water parks (they close earlier) were we able to go to the resort gift shop. The kicker was just about everything that we bought was available at the resort gift shop .

I hope I didn't overstep my bounds here and if I did I'm sorry I'm only trying to help. This also is alot longer then I planed and for that I am also sorry. If you have any questions post them in your PTR and I'll be happy to help you out if I can and heck if I can't I'm sure someone else will.

Hi everyone ... Sorry to intrude, but I saw a couple of you are fellow Manitobans (we're in Winnipeg). We are taking our first ever DW vacation next August too! We leave Aug. 19 and are booked for 6 days at POFQ!). Anyone have suggestions on flights? We haven't booked them yet, and so far I'm thinking we may have to fly out of Fargo or Minneapolis, as Winnipeg seems really pricey!
Anyways, just wanted to say hi. I'm soooooo excited about this trip, but we're not telling our girls till just before we leave, not sure how I'll last that long!

Alison

 

[HeatherLassell]

I met my DH on a dating website! So much easier than floating around randomly hoping to run into someone worth dating. He was the only one I ended up meeting in person!

Boo for the pink eye. I got it last year and it was annoying... even worse was when I had a reaction to the eye drops! Pictures from that WDW trip are kinda funny, with my wonky eye.

Aw of course those things happen right before or during a trip eh?

I had strep throat (even though swabs said it wasn't I KNOW it was) before a trip in December. Went to Phoenix in January and got it AGAIN. Came home and in February got it a 3rd time. It was AWFUL!

My friend Gloria is going to DisneyWorld in 5 days and she is RIGHT NOW sick to death with a stomach bug. She can't stop throwing up and she can't eat or even drink water. Whenever my kids have got this it's taken 2-3 days to be able to drink water. I really hope she is better by the plane ride!

 

[HeatherLassell]

Hi everyone ... Sorry to intrude, but I saw a couple of you are fellow Manitobans (we're in Winnipeg). We are taking our first ever DW vacation next August too! We leave Aug. 19 and are booked for 6 days at POFQ!). Anyone have suggestions on flights? We haven't booked them yet, and so far I'm thinking we may have to fly out of Fargo or Minneapolis, as Winnipeg seems really pricey!
Anyways, just wanted to say hi. I'm soooooo excited about this trip, but we're not telling our girls till just before we leave, not sure how I'll last that long!

Alison

Hi Alison. I'm in Portage la Prairie! I agree that flights out of Winnipeg are pricey and really sucks cause there are NO direct flights. Not until November. My dad has been looking at pricing and it's like 50% for us to drive to the US and fly from there! I have been told that 3.5 months before your trip is when the flight price is usually going to be the best.

Good luck on the surprise. I could NEVER do it....that's why my kids all know about the trip. lol

 

[aljay]

Hi Alison. I'm in Portage la Prairie! I agree that flights out of Winnipeg are pricey and really sucks cause there are NO direct flights. Not until November. My dad has been looking at pricing and it's like 50% for us to drive to the US and fly from there! I have been told that 3.5 months before your trip is when the flight price is usually going to be the best.

Good luck on the surprise. I could NEVER do it....that's why my kids all know about the trip. lol

Ya, I've heard 3 months before is a good time to buy. Part of me is nervous to wait that long though. . I've signed up for price alerts with Kayak, so every morning they send me an email telling me the prices for that day (I picked Fargo and Minn for the alerts). It does suck that there are no directs at that time of year ... and I really hate connecting in Toronto due to having to get your bags and do customs!
LOL ... My DH doesn't think I can keep this secret till August, so who knows! I've watched tons of videos on
YouTube of all the neat ways people have surprised their kids with Disney trips ... I'd love to be able to do it, but who knows!

 

[Stan Solo]

hi!



I love the bed to myself idea. lol Of course then my kids would be fighting over who got it so they didn't have to share. Well I paid the difference to upgrade to the DDP (table service) since I had the free qs. Total pkg is about $3200. When I price out rooms at POR I'm getting around $3700. Of course then I don't have to pay the $12 per day fee for the refridgerator and maybe the mods will have wifi when I get there next year. But right now it's still cheaper to stay at Pop. I don't read very many good 'transportation' reviews for POR. Almost all complaints about the busses.


We plan on spending half days at DHS (mornings) and then going back over to MK probably. It's the park they have the most interest in. I may take off the park hoppers in April once park hours are out and I can make my ADRs. If there is no NEED to park hop then I will take it off.

I don't think my daughter, who will only be 6, would get alot out of Disney Quest. It looks more geared to kids older than her. I know her brothers would but I don't think her and I would care for it.

And I am very weary of water parks on my own with three kids. I don't have enough eyes and none of them have taken swimming lessons. I know there are life guards but it just seems to me like it would be stressfull for me and not fun at all.

We are looking at a breakfast at Crystal Palace so we can get into the park before it opens and grab some awesome pics on empty main street before all the guests are let in.

I keep going back and forth on where I want to eat. The kids want to try a few different places so we'll have to really think about it before April when the ADR window opens.

That would just be my luck too! Well we will probably go back to the resort in the middle of the day some days so I'm sure we'll be ok on the purchaces. We're gonna spend an afternoon at the Disney Store at DTD and can do most of our shopping there.


No problem. Thanks! I post questions in here alot so feel free to chime in when you have an answer!

I've heard alot of great things about breakfast at the Crystal Palace I think that would be a wonderful idea!

I can see your point about the water parks. I think your 14 year old would get board quickly in the children's area and I can see how you you would have your hands full watching the younger ones. Maybe in a few years when your oldest is 16 and then you would have an extra set of eyes.

When it came to collectables and gifts for us it was just that. We didn't buy anything at DW that we needed at DW so we had no problem just letting everything sit in the gift shop. My DD did buy herself a Japanese fan at EPCOT and did keep it with her to use until she lost lost it the next day at DHS. I felt so bad for her. I found and ordered her one on eBay that is similar to the one she bought for herself. It's going to be one of her Christmas presents. I know it's not the same but I think she will like it.

 

[Stan Solo]

Hi everyone ... Sorry to intrude, but I saw a couple of you are fellow Manitobans (we're in Winnipeg). We are taking our first ever DW vacation next August too! We leave Aug. 19 and are booked for 6 days at POFQ!). Anyone have suggestions on flights? We haven't booked them yet, and so far I'm thinking we may have to fly out of Fargo or Minneapolis, as Winnipeg seems really pricey!
Anyways, just wanted to say hi. I'm soooooo excited about this trip, but we're not telling our girls till just before we leave, not sure how I'll last that long!

Alison

Hey Alison you have the same name as my DD and she also spells Alison with one L.

We also leave on the 19th! We are staying at POP until the 24th then we are "moving" to the Econo Lodge for Star Wars Celebration until the 27th. We will then be back home at POR until the 1st.

When we went last year we used Air Miles and will again this year (only need another 500 miles). If it was not for the air miles we would defiantly drive South of the boarder. When we went last year we flew to Chicago which was nice becuse we went threw customs (going & comming back) in Winnipeg. We left at 7:00am and were at our resort by 3:00pm! We could have checked in earlier but I choose to have a longer a layover time. Looking back an hour layover would have been more then enough time.

West Jet has a great flight time right now you leave Winnipeg at 7:00am and land in Orlando at 1:00pm! I'm tempted but I think I would much prefer getting the customs part over with in Winnipeg.

Good luck on keeping it a secret. I know I would have a hard time with that. Heck I'm planing on booking the wishes desert party and making that a suprise for my DD and almost spilled the beans a few times.

 

[Enchanted88]

Hey, there! Thanks for that code!! That could be a very dangerous thing for me to have!! haha I'm glad your meet up went well at the coffee shop!! I met my dh online..then we found out we had a mutual friend, so that's how we met in person for the first time! We went to the movies with her...and we didn't talk AT ALL! hahaha We literally said "hi" and "bye", that's it! We stopped talking for 3 months after that because we thought the other wasn't feeling it! haha
Then we started talking again 3 months later, met up again, and actually talked! We started dating about a month later, then 5 years later we got married! haha That's a fast-forwarded summary of our relationship! lol

Anyway, I hope your weekend is going good, and your son did great in his game!

 

[aljay]

Hey Alison you have the same name as my DD and she also spells Alison with one L.

We also leave on the 19th! We are staying at POP until the 24th then we are "moving" to the Econo Lodge for Star Wars Celebration until the 27th. We will then be back home at POR until the 1st.

When we went last year we used Air Miles and will again this year (only need another 500 miles). If it was not for the air miles we would defiantly drive South of the boarder. When we went last year we flew to Chicago which was nice becuse we went threw customs (going & comming back) in Winnipeg. We left at 7:00am and were at our resort by 3:00pm! We could have checked in earlier but I choose to have a longer a layover time. Looking back an hour layover would have been more then enough time.

West Jet has a great flight time right now you leave Winnipeg at 7:00am and land in Orlando at 1:00pm! I'm tempted but I think I would much prefer getting the customs part over with in Winnipeg.

Good luck on keeping it a secret. I know I would have a hard time with that. Heck I'm planing on booking the wishes desert party and making that a suprise for my DD and almost spilled the beans a few times.

Oh, I soooo wish we could do the Airmiles thing, but we don't have any where near enough! How do you accumulate so many? Many I need to start shopping at Safeway a lot more!
I'm crossing my fingers we can get a good deal to fly out of Fargo, as it's that much closer than Minneapolis, but we'll have to see! I've hard Southwest often has good deals!
Glad to see there will be another Manitoban down there at the same time!

 

[Stan Solo]

Oh, I soooo wish we could do the Airmiles thing, but we don't have any where near enough! How do you accumulate so many? Many I need to start shopping at Safeway a lot more!
I'm crossing my fingers we can get a good deal to fly out of Fargo, as it's that much closer than Minneapolis, but we'll have to see! I've hard Southwest often has good deals!
Glad to see there will be another Manitoban down there at the same time!

Yep Safeway is my freind when it comes to Airmiles! In fact I just came back from my local Safeway and picked up another 50 miles simply by buying 6 cans of soup now I only need 450 more miles. The Safeway email direct is a big help in getting AMs I got 100 miles yesterday using a coupon from there.

I'm hoping they have the deal with purex bath tissue soon. Where you buy two packages of double roll and you recive 100 AMs. I just opened my last package of bath tissue yesterday.

Another big help is the BMO gold MasterCard. Sure it costs $100 a year but you get one AM for every $15 you spend (regular MC you get one AM for every $20 you spend) plus you save 25% AMs on flights. So rather then needing 4400 AMs per ticket we only need 3300 AMs per ticket. Last year when we went I didn't have the gold MC and got four tickets to Orlando that was 17,600 AMs. This year we only need 6,600 Air Miles.

Have you checked out the Airmiles thread here on the Dis?

 

[aljay]

Yep Safeway is my freind when it comes to Airmiles! In fact I just came back from my local Safeway and picked up another 50 miles simply by buying 6 cans of soup now I only need 450 more miles. The Safeway email direct is a big help in getting AMs I got 100 miles yesterday using a coupon from there.

I'm hoping they have the deal with purex bath tissue soon. Where you buy two packages of double roll and you recive 100 AMs. I just opened my last package of bath tissue yesterday.

Another big help is the BMO gold MasterCard. Sure it costs $100 a year but you get one AM for every $15 you spend (regular MC you get one AM for every $20 you spend) plus you save 25% AMs on flights. So rather then needing 4400 AMs per ticket we only need 3300 AMs per ticket. Last year when we went I didn't have the gold MC and got four tickets to Orlando that was 17,600 AMs. This year we only need 6,600 Air Miles.

Have you checked out the Airmiles thread here on the Dis?

I didn't realize there was an Airmiles thread, I'll have to check it out!