Tinker*Shell*Bell
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,435
Ok, we want to go to Disney....All 8 of us.
Me (34)- Sheli, soon to be disboard junkie
DH (37)- non-disney dad who can "take it, or leave it"
Alex (12)- too cool for "kids stuff"
Matt (11)- Happy, love of my life, also High Functioning Autistic
Quin (6)- Loves everything and everyone loves him
Emmy (1)- monster baby...from happy to screaming in 2.8 seconds
My Mom (old)- nice but gets crabby easily (remember this)
My Dad (old)- Heart valve replacement, Stroke victim and hates that he can't ride the coasters anymore.
But when will we go?...lets look for good airfare and go over April Break (aka- EASTER WEEK) Those of you who have done this might know better, but I had my heart set on that week, told the kids about going, and signed up for Ding! from Southwest. Thinking "This is going to happen!!!!" I was so excited!!!
Of course, we missed the release of southwest's tickets for our time by a day and when I noticed that the dates were up the price was already through the roof. We would have paid for the higher price but my parents refused- so it was a no-go for April.
2 weeks later...A new airline is announced...flying out of Pease, NH...Allegiant Airline...and they have tix for $59 each way....YEAH!!!! But wait... the trip dates are changed to summer since they won't be flying by Easter...and Dmom decides that July 4th eweek sounds great...a holiday at Disney...what's not to love?? (ok, you can laugh at me now)
I buy plane tix for 8. Then I think..wow, not much more to plan... HAHAHA...Little did I know. (can you tell this was all PRE-DIS ?)
My dad is retired military so the first plan was to stay in 2 rooms at Shades of Green. But DH doesn't want to stay there...he wants to stay at the Contemporary (my life long dream.) Ok, look on the disney.com site, price out the CR, decide that we could swing it and parents can stay at SOG and on their budget. But 2 days pass and when I go online to book it not all the days are available at the Contemporary...ok Hubby...now what? What about the Polynesian? HEY- what about both? Let's stay at one then the other...how fun. So we book it, 2 stays, 2 deposits, all done online, Yeah! We're going to disney...nothing can stop us now!
This is when i find the Dis-Boards...full of people who KNOW about disney...they're talking about some DINING PLAN and a AAA discount, and GAC's and at least a Zillion other things I didn't know.
Well...we have AAA and the Dining Plan sounds like a great benefit...so I call Disney to have our reservations fixed. They can put on the AAA discount or the Dining Plan but not both. So I say...skip the plan..give us the discount. Wait though, Online reservations can't be modified like that so they have to cancel the first 2, and make 2 more with the discount. They refund my Credit Card but I don't have enough credit left to Charge the new reservation. 9 days of PANIC! followed while we waited for the credit so I could call back and give the deposit. Deposit was finally paid and I jumped into Dis-Boards full time. (This was when I told my parents about not staying at SOG with them, they were not happy but understood that it was what we wanted to do.)
I then found out that you can have the AAA discount and the Dining plan if you book through AAA. Back and forth for a week whether it was a good deal or not. More DIS and time made me NEED to change the reservation once again. Off to AAA I went with my home-made estimates in hand. They take my information and call me back with a number. A BIG number...but it is almost the same as my estimate so I say "Go for it!" This time I have credit available and put down the 2 deposits like an expert. I wait for the confirmation call from my AAA guy then cancel the 2nd original reservation. (Now we're going to Disney with the Dining Plan!)
ADR's??? I called from the hotel last time but this time people are saying to call 180 days out...OMG..that is in a week...I need to figure out where to eat....I need to know where MOM and DAD want to eat.... "How are we supposed to know what we want to eat 6 months before we get there...you plan it Michelle" (only my mother calls me Michelle, and when she does it grates on my nerves.) Fine- I'll Plan the meals and don't gripe about it later!
So, it becomes 9 restaurants in 7 days and if they don't like it they can eat burgers. I even went to allearsnet and printed menus for all the places and gave them to her. I don't think she ever looked at them.
Weeks pass and mom decides that she HAS to be at the same hotel as the grandkids so off to AAA they go to make their reservations, but she gets some idiot who does not know what she is doing and her package came out more than mine. My Dad and I go fix it and mom still has sticker shock..."Michelle, are you sure you want to stay there? It's SOOO much money!" Yea, I'm sure....stay wherever but don't ruin my trip.
Next Up: T minus 7 days... Allegiant flies into WHERE?
Me (34)- Sheli, soon to be disboard junkie
DH (37)- non-disney dad who can "take it, or leave it"
Alex (12)- too cool for "kids stuff"
Matt (11)- Happy, love of my life, also High Functioning Autistic
Quin (6)- Loves everything and everyone loves him
Emmy (1)- monster baby...from happy to screaming in 2.8 seconds
My Mom (old)- nice but gets crabby easily (remember this)
My Dad (old)- Heart valve replacement, Stroke victim and hates that he can't ride the coasters anymore.
But when will we go?...lets look for good airfare and go over April Break (aka- EASTER WEEK) Those of you who have done this might know better, but I had my heart set on that week, told the kids about going, and signed up for Ding! from Southwest. Thinking "This is going to happen!!!!" I was so excited!!!
Of course, we missed the release of southwest's tickets for our time by a day and when I noticed that the dates were up the price was already through the roof. We would have paid for the higher price but my parents refused- so it was a no-go for April.
2 weeks later...A new airline is announced...flying out of Pease, NH...Allegiant Airline...and they have tix for $59 each way....YEAH!!!! But wait... the trip dates are changed to summer since they won't be flying by Easter...and Dmom decides that July 4th eweek sounds great...a holiday at Disney...what's not to love?? (ok, you can laugh at me now)
I buy plane tix for 8. Then I think..wow, not much more to plan... HAHAHA...Little did I know. (can you tell this was all PRE-DIS ?)
My dad is retired military so the first plan was to stay in 2 rooms at Shades of Green. But DH doesn't want to stay there...he wants to stay at the Contemporary (my life long dream.) Ok, look on the disney.com site, price out the CR, decide that we could swing it and parents can stay at SOG and on their budget. But 2 days pass and when I go online to book it not all the days are available at the Contemporary...ok Hubby...now what? What about the Polynesian? HEY- what about both? Let's stay at one then the other...how fun. So we book it, 2 stays, 2 deposits, all done online, Yeah! We're going to disney...nothing can stop us now!
This is when i find the Dis-Boards...full of people who KNOW about disney...they're talking about some DINING PLAN and a AAA discount, and GAC's and at least a Zillion other things I didn't know.
Well...we have AAA and the Dining Plan sounds like a great benefit...so I call Disney to have our reservations fixed. They can put on the AAA discount or the Dining Plan but not both. So I say...skip the plan..give us the discount. Wait though, Online reservations can't be modified like that so they have to cancel the first 2, and make 2 more with the discount. They refund my Credit Card but I don't have enough credit left to Charge the new reservation. 9 days of PANIC! followed while we waited for the credit so I could call back and give the deposit. Deposit was finally paid and I jumped into Dis-Boards full time. (This was when I told my parents about not staying at SOG with them, they were not happy but understood that it was what we wanted to do.)
I then found out that you can have the AAA discount and the Dining plan if you book through AAA. Back and forth for a week whether it was a good deal or not. More DIS and time made me NEED to change the reservation once again. Off to AAA I went with my home-made estimates in hand. They take my information and call me back with a number. A BIG number...but it is almost the same as my estimate so I say "Go for it!" This time I have credit available and put down the 2 deposits like an expert. I wait for the confirmation call from my AAA guy then cancel the 2nd original reservation. (Now we're going to Disney with the Dining Plan!)
ADR's??? I called from the hotel last time but this time people are saying to call 180 days out...OMG..that is in a week...I need to figure out where to eat....I need to know where MOM and DAD want to eat.... "How are we supposed to know what we want to eat 6 months before we get there...you plan it Michelle" (only my mother calls me Michelle, and when she does it grates on my nerves.) Fine- I'll Plan the meals and don't gripe about it later!
So, it becomes 9 restaurants in 7 days and if they don't like it they can eat burgers. I even went to allearsnet and printed menus for all the places and gave them to her. I don't think she ever looked at them.
Weeks pass and mom decides that she HAS to be at the same hotel as the grandkids so off to AAA they go to make their reservations, but she gets some idiot who does not know what she is doing and her package came out more than mine. My Dad and I go fix it and mom still has sticker shock..."Michelle, are you sure you want to stay there? It's SOOO much money!" Yea, I'm sure....stay wherever but don't ruin my trip.
Next Up: T minus 7 days... Allegiant flies into WHERE?
Keep it coming,
