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

[karentan]

thats quite a big jump in price for 4 nights, we're looking at $75 a night for the upgrade from ASM to AKV, but now i'm thinking about it, i'm thinking its what i want to do, its not that more money and it makes the holiday that bit more exciting.
just PM'd a lot of people for points rentals!!

 

[jenny105]

Good luck! I hope you can do it! Yeah for 4 nights, it's an extra $125/nt. I'll stick with the 2 night upgrade rather than the whole trip!

 

[karentan]

i'm starting to think AKV for 4 nights is a good idea, it'll make our trip that bit more special and it helps that i dont have to pay for the DDP for that bit of the trip til we get there, it helps with the budgeting

 

[m_kasch]

I'm a bit irked by the whole Sea Lion thing now. I inquired about booking though Dolphin Encounters, and they said that I have to book through Disney. Which doesn't seem right. So, Disney makes you book through them so that they can charge you $19 pp extra for the same thing? And, I want to spend more time on the island than it looks like you can with the Disney excursion. Even though I hadn't made up my mind yet about who to book through, that just kind of makes me mad!!

 

[m_kasch]

Okay, so I emailed the Dolphin Encounter people back, and told her why I wanted to book through them instead of Disney, and she responded back to me that ALL of their spaces or given to Disney when their ship is in port. Which I find a little hard to believe. So NO other cruise lines can have their guests go to the Dolphin Encounters programs that day, or nobody else that is staying on the Island can? I don't really believe that. Now I am just more mad!!

 

[karentan]

mary i had the same problem with trying to book the scuba diving.
the excursion places are contracted with disney. if someone comes in on a disney cruise and books the excursion direct, and disney were to find out they could lose their contract. the person at stuart cove scuba told me that.
it does suck but unfortunately thats the way it works. plus if you book an excursion through disney and its running late, they WILL wait for you. if you book it and bypass disney and for whatever reason are late, the ship will leave without you.

hows everyone's day going? i'm back home now (thank goodness) and gary's said he'll take me out for dinner so i dont have to cook
plus i'm looking forward to dinner, i've been on a diet for 3 months and have got into a bit of a rut recently. i've not been sticking to it properly and i'm not losing much weight recently. so i've decided to have a week off, i'm not going to class next week and am just going to have a couple of days of being able to eat what i want. think i need to get it out of my system.

 

[PixyDusted]

My day is....going. I'm just tired and cranky and I need a break. UGH!

 

[karentan]

my workday was ok, but it seems like the world was out to annoy me on the way home. a lot of stupid drivers putting me in a bad mood.......

 

[PixyDusted]

It's worse that it's raining outside. I don't mean an occasional drizzle - I mean STORMS all week. It's a great time to be HOME! In bed with the dog!

TERRIBLE week to be on vacation here.

 

[m_kasch]

It's worse that it's raining outside. I don't mean an occasional drizzle - I mean STORMS all week. It's a great time to be HOME! In bed with the dog!

TERRIBLE week to be on vacation here.

LOL, Tim (my DH) was just mocking me this morning when we were watching the weather, saying how it was a good thing we don't live in FL because it is raining all week! He knows that I really want to move there (I HATE winter, with a passion). It rains for days here all the time. Good thing you don't live in IL!!

 

[karentan]

i've heard its been awful weather over there the past few days, my friend is over there at the mo, she got married 2 weeks ago at the beach club, glad it was good weather for that.

well it's official, i've found someone who's going to rent me 44 DVC points at $8 each , so we're going to upgrade the last 4 nights before the cruise from ASM to AKV savannah view!!!!! so excited!!

 

[disney honeymooners]

Hey guys sorry i have been MIA for a while I am doing Great and so is my mom she was released from the hospital the friday after she went in. I have been busy helping her and my stepdad pack for their trip to PA they are flying so i am getting all of there stuff packed and what they can and cant put in their carry ons.
Greg and I have been working on his grandparents old house (cosmetic stuff paint, new flooring, and a couple of ceiling fans) bc we have decided to live there until i get out of Rad tech school (helps us save ALOT of money) and there is nothing wrong with it other than out dated paint and lighting fixtures. I hope to have it done by the middle of august. But i have been so busy doing stuff with it that i haven't been able to post as much as i would like.
All of my crafty FE gifts are done now to work on the goodie bags. I am doing one per cabin(plus an extra one for those cabins with kids in them) So far our ADRs look like this:
9/20- The Brown Derby (fantasmic dinner package) around 5:30 or 6pm
9/21- The Rainforest Cafe (@ Animal Kingdom) 5:30 or 6pm
9/22- CRT 5:30 or 6pm or later since we are doing MNSSHP
9/23- WCC 8:30 or 9am
Le Cellier 5pm or The Yatchsmen Steakhouse 6pm

The only one i am worried about is Le Cellier and possibly the Brown Derby b/c it is with the dinner package and i have heard people say that if you do the package you only have certain times that you can reserve but we will see.

 

[m_kasch]

I had the fantasmic package once, and you do usually have to book kind of early. Maybe they will change it because of free dining? I think they usually just do that to book up the earlier times.

Has anyone ever gone to Discovery Cove? I'm thinking of going there with my sister. I don't think Tim would ever go there (try convincing him to go somewhere other than Disney when in Orlando!!), and it looks kind of cool. I'm excited for her though, because you can get special tickets from the convention that i'm going to, for after 2pm, so it will be cheaper for her and she won't freak out.

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys that the DVC person who I was renting points from FINALLY go back to me. 1 month after he said he made the reservation!! I already had the girl at my work book it for me and got the confirmation from her any everything...so I just said sorry, you never responded back to me, so I'm not going. I felt kind of bad, but honestly, who waits a MONTH to get back to someone, especially when he said 2 days?!?

 

[karentan]

that's ridiculous, how can anyone expect someone to hang on for a month!!
i've got a new rental agreement from the person i'm renting 44 points from for AKV, i'm so excited, i get to go back to the animal kingdom lodge!! i''ve figured it out and the room cost is actually about the same as i was paying for rack rate ASM, the reason its costing $300 more is because i'm losing the 4 nights free dining, so i'm paying for that.

we went to discovery cove on our honeymoon, it was great, i'd always wanted to swim with the dolphins, its a lovely park. we got there at 9am, we had a swim time of about 10am, but we left about 1.30 as we'd done everything and it was our first day so we wanted to go explore!!

 

[m_kasch]

Yay for the AKL!! Are you staying in the new villa part, or in the original part that was converted? We've only stayed there once, but it was really nice!!

I'm so excited that it's thursday!! Since it is my Friday! I'm going to Michigan tonight with my MIL & FIL, and with Minnie. Minnie LOVES it in Michigan, she loves to swim and play on the beach. She's going to be very unhappy this year though, the water has come up so much on their lake that it is to the top of the seawall and there is no beach left. That is what she will look like!! LOL

 

[jenny105]

Yay! I'm so happy you're going to be able to stay at AKV! It'd be even better if we were staying there around the same time but oh well!

Well, I got my first sunburn of the season. I went to a college graduation yesterday and it was so hot. My shoulders are lobster red. My office is usually freezing but I couldn't put on a long sleeve shirt today because it hurts my forearms. Yup, sunburn is fun.

Less than four months to go!

 

[jenny105]

I just got a couple of things for the FE goody bags I'm making. I hope you all like what I have planned.

 

[PixyDusted]

Thanks everyone for the updates!

$8/pt for 44 points? Sounds awesome! Good job!

And I agree - who waits 1 whole month to get back to someone? DUMB!

 

[karentan]

yeah i jumped at that when he emailed me back, i was hoping for $8 a point, but would have paid $9 or $10.

i've had a good day at work, didnt really get much done as its the time in the month where my workload kinda dips, i'll have loads to do next week but at the mo its kinda quiet.
but just as we were leaving we found out that the new guy in the office (he's been there about a month) has been laid off. apparently he was told he wasnt fitting in and was being a bit condescending. i thought he was really nice, so that was a bit of a shock. i've been there for 3 and a half months now, and i'm thinking (hopefully i'm right) that they're sending me on training courses and talking about me learning payroll, so hoping that means that my job is safe. but it still kinda worries you when they lay someone off that suddenly.
i'm trying to keep myself to myself (to an extent) and getting on with my work, i dont ever want to give them a reason to get rid of me. the MD really likes me, (i do some of his emails etc) so think that helps. its just a bit disconcerting.

oh well, its nearly the weekend!! one more day to go!! (well none for mary, the lucky thing!!)

really looking forward to going back to the AKL, i've been doing some research, and looks like the DVC rooms are all on the 5th floor, i'm thinking of requesting the arusha savannah like last time. we're staying in jambo house, the main building, i did think of trying kidani village but we love the hotel so much we wanted to be in the main building.

 

[jenny105]

We're staying in the main house too. I've heard Kidani Village is a far walk and doesn't have many food options so I'd rather stay in Jambo. I think I read somewhere that the rooms are on the 5th and 6th floors. What kind of room did you get?