9/24/09 3 Day Wonder - Cruise Meets, and FEs, and Goombays oh my!

[jenny105]

Not officially but you can get an idea by looking at last year's park hours. I think the September hours should come out in June. We have an idea of what parks we'll be in what day too. Once the park hours come out, I can fine tune that and our ADRs.

 

[karentan]

i havent even started looking at our ADRs or park days/hours. think i'll just plan the ADRs around what we can get then do park days round that. i've never really been one for planning what parks on which days.
i'm now possible looking at Boardwalk villas for our one night stay, none of the 4 people i PM'd about renting points has gotten back to me though

 

[jenny105]

I hope somebody gets back to you. I like the area around the Boardwalk, I think it's beautiful. What happened to BLT though?

I'm a planner so I need to have a plan going into WDW. Joe pretty much goes along with anything and let me pick out most of the restaurants. His only stipulation was that we went to San Angel Inn for one of our meals! Fine by me.

 

[karentan]

gary's like that too, he just lets me plan it then goes along with it. i'm just not one of the people who can write down 3 months before what park i'm going to on what day etc...
i've been looking at DVC resorts to rent points for, we've both kinda decided that if we stay AKV without the club level we're going to keep comparing it to last time, so thats kinda out.
i've narrowed it down to BLT or Boardwalk villas. BLT is 17 points for the night ($170 ish), BWV is 12 points for the night for a preferred view ($120) (the standard view is 9 points, so only $90). the only reason i'd be booking BLT for is the view. the hotel doesnt really do much for me, and the day we get off the cruise we're off to epcot for the food and wine festival. so thats where BWV looks better, we can walk to epcot, there's things to do round the boardwalk in the evening (we keep meaning to go to jellyrolls every time we go, but have never made it there so far), and its $50 cheaper.
dont get me wrong, i'd LOVE to have a room where i can watch wishes from my balcony, but i cant afford the poly, and the contemporary and the GF do absolutely nothing for me theming wise.
i'm still waiting for someone to get back to me about renting points, think the problem may be that i only want to rent so few points that it might not be worth it for the people on the DVC rent boards.

 

[jenny105]

I've never stayed in the Contemporary but I feel like it doesn't belong in Disney World. It's just too modern looking and there's nothing special that stands out about it to me, other than the fact that the monorail runs straight through it. I've walked around the Grand Floridian and although it's beautiful, I feel like I wouldn't want to stay there. It's very...formal. I feel like if I spoke too loud, someone would shush me!

We're going to the F&W festival the day we get off the ship too! Maybe I'll see you.

 

[karentan]

we went last year and ate our way around world showcase, it was great! i'm hoping that someone will get back to me asap, i'm getting impatient!

 

[disney honeymooners]

i am sadly a planner well atleast with the ADRs there is only one place greg wants to eat b/c i told him about it and it is whispering canyon cafe for breakfast. Greg calls me his Disney Tour Guide and his personal TA. Its sad once i hear the word disney that is the only thing i can think about.
I figured since AK had morning EMH last sept. on monday that we could do those i want greg to get to see as much as possible since he works for the railroad i have no clue when the next time he will be able to go will be.

 

[jenny105]

Karen - I hope someone gets back to you soon!

Lainey - Karen & I were talking about Whispering Canyon Cafe on my PTR! I upgraded my stay from ASMo for the two nights after the cruise to WL. Shhh, it's a surprise for Joe. I think I'm going to make ADRs there for breakfast on the day we leave.

I think we're going to AK the day before the cruise. I'm planning on making an ADR at Tusker House for breakfast with Donald and we usually finish up AK around 3 or 4. I figured we could relax at POR since it'll be the last night at that resort and if we felt up to it, hit one of the other parks later that night.

 

[karentan]

grr, i'm still waiting for anyone of about 8 people i've PM'd to get back to me!!
i'm going to plan our ADRs at 90 days out but to be honest i'll probably just take whatever day the CM gives me for each, i'm not too bothered about what park we go to on what day, i just kinda go with the flow!
i was having trouble thinking of gifts for FE at one point, now i keep thinking of ideas......! came up with another idea earlier!

 

[jenny105]

I keep coming up with ideas for FE too. Hopefully you all will like my gifts.

Maybe since it's a Holiday weekend people are slower to get back to you?

 

[karentan]

they're all online, as they're replying to other people, i've had a couple of people say "i'll let you know if i've got any points left", ie: as i'm only looking to rent 13-17 points, its not important to them, so they'll leave me til closer to the time. i want to book it now while i can!!

 

[jenny105]

Well, then that's just rude. They shouldn't leave you hangin!

 

[m_kasch]

I missed alot on here yesterday!! Karen, good luck with the DVC point renting. We stayed at the Boardwalk last year, it was nice except that our room was really far away from the entrance and there aren't entrances by the ends of the hotel like in the other deluxes because of all the shops and restaurants on the ground level. But the pool is really neat, the slide is the best, except for maybe the Beach Club/Yacht Club.

The rooms at the Contemporary are AWESOME now. They were a little too funky for me before. You can either get a view of the MK, or a view of Bay Lake. And with a view of Bay Lake, you get to see the Electrical Water Pagent every night from your room, which is really neat. The food court at the Contemporary is also really good.

The Grand Floridian isn't as formal as it looks. Really, there are tons of kids running around screaming at the pool, just like at Pop. And the rooms are nice there too, the carpet in the halls is like 50 inches thick or something, it is SOOOOOOOOOOO cushy to walk on on your way back from the pool. My MIL and I go to tea there every trip now, we tried it when we stayed there a couple of years ago and now we are hooked!! It's jut nice for a girls afternoon.

I'm excited for this trip, because we are staying at Saratoga, where I have never stayed. After that, I just have to stay at OKW, and all 3 of the all stars and I have stayed at all of the hotels!!

Karen, I just thought of something. If you can't rent the points at the Boardwalk, you could try staying at the Swan or Dolphin. They are also really nice (although they aren't Disney, still nice), and you can get them for pretty good prices most of the time. Just in case.

So, we have a shower!! YEA!! Although we have to take back the doors because one is warped and the other is scratched...at least it works!! So no more commuter shower for me!!

I am all over the place here...Jen, the WL is super nice!! I stayed there in January for the Marathon weekend with my dad. The lobby is beautiful, I think the only cooler one is at AKL. And the grounds are really nice. We were going to rent bikes to ride over to Fort Wilderness but we ran out of time. The boat to MK is really convenient, it only stops at MK and WL. Also, we took the boat over to Fort Wilderness for lunch one day at Trail's End, it was really good, and very reasonably priced. Yea for WL!!

 

[karentan]

we really want to go back to AKL club level, but i've been told its not available, think if we stay without the club level we'll just be comparing it to last time. so that kicks that option out.
someone has got back to me, she was offering points for $9 each, but because i want so few, she wants $13 per point. think i might offer $11 (meet in the middle) and see what she says. i'm waiting for her to come back after she's checked availability.

mary, yay for your shower!! bet that'll make your mornings easier now you dont have to go across town for a shower!

 

[m_kasch]

That kind of stinks about the points. We always book our rooms through our castmember friend that works at POR (except for during the free dining bounceback). Sometimes, she gets 60% off the rooms!! It's nice to know a CM. When we stayed at the GF, I think we paid like $170 per night or something like that. WAY cheaper than rack rate!!

 

[karentan]

i've just checked disneyworld.com (not sure why) and there's AKL club level showing, its $388 rack rate for the room, i really want to go back there, but i just can't justify that much. wish i knew a CM!
even with the $13 a point, BWV is only going to cost me $156. last year i managed to get a AP discount on the AKL, but it was still about £175 a night with a really good exchange rate. the exchange at the mo is a lot worse than last year, so that'll push the price up even more.
wish there was a way i could get a discount on the AKL, i really want to go back

 

[disney honeymooners]

we are gonna eat at Whispering Canyon for breakfast the day b4 we leave for the cruise that is also when we are going to Epcot and i think we are eating dinner at planet hollywood mainly b/c greg wants to go to DTD and walk around and he said we should eat dinner there so we can just walk around and not feel like we have to leave to go somewhere else. We are doing AK that monday and we are hopeing to be back to the resort kinda early so that we can sit on the beach and see the electrical water parade it starts @ poly.
Greg is looking forward to meeting all of the people i have been talking about on the boards (he asks me every day how are mary, karen and Jen doing?)

 

[karentan]

i'm looking forward to meeting everyone too, its going to be loads of fun!

(keeping fingers crossed that someone will EVENTUALLY come back to me about renting points.....)

 

[disney honeymooners]

i have my fingers crossed for you! if i was in DVC i would give you my points but unfortunatly i'm not. Thanks to my new toy yall will all be on video i have gotten pretty good at video taping with my new DVD camcorder but i havent tried to record anyone after i have had a few drinks so we will see how that effects my recording ability.

 

[karentan]

nooooo! dont take it on the drinking session/meet up, that could get embarassing!