A Disney-addicted mom plans a trip in August, 2010! *New pics #574*

[-Hope-]

Congrats on the 30 minute run- that is so awesome!!

 

[dismagiclover]

Awesome on the 30 minute run! I understand that desire to finish the C25K and do that 30 minute run, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I hardly ever run for 30 minutes straight. I'm a big believer in the walking break theory and so I usually stop for about a minute walk break every mile or 2. This is how I'm able to finish half marathons. And it may sound counterintuitive, but my times are actually faster when I stop for walking breaks. Because I don't get as tired and mentally I know I only have so far I have to run until I get a break I'm able to go faster. Anyway the secret to running is figuring out what works for you. And for me it is walking breaks (though it drives my DH crazy when he runs with me)

 

[klacey1]

Congrats on the run!! I remember when I first started working out, ten minutes was rough enough!!

 

[DrMomof3]

Congrats on the 30 minute run- that is so awesome!!

Thanks!!!

Awesome on the 30 minute run! I understand that desire to finish the C25K and do that 30 minute run, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I hardly ever run for 30 minutes straight. I'm a big believer in the walking break theory and so I usually stop for about a minute walk break every mile or 2. This is how I'm able to finish half marathons. And it may sound counterintuitive, but my times are actually faster when I stop for walking breaks. Because I don't get as tired and mentally I know I only have so far I have to run until I get a break I'm able to go faster. Anyway the secret to running is figuring out what works for you. And for me it is walking breaks (though it drives my DH crazy when he runs with me)

I totally get this! Once I finish the C25K, I'm continuing with a training program that does a lot more interval stuff. Run 5 min, walk 1 min repeat 7 times....

Congrats on the run!! I remember when I first started working out, ten minutes was rough enough!!

No kidding! I did turn down the speed after I ran 10 minutes....

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

Opinions needed:

Airfare has been an issue for our August trip. I've been amazed at how expensive airfare is!

Some Background:

We live about 10 minutes away from White Plains Airport. It's a super easy airport to navigate. Parking is close by so Tom can drop the kids and me at the check-in area, park the car, and return in 5 min. There are basically 2 gates in one big waiting area. JetBlue and Airtran have direct flights to MCO. A few other airlines have indirect flights (Delta, United, etc.). The airfares have been quite pricey, especially on JetBlue (our 1st choice airline). I think I can fly on JetBlue from White Plains for close to $2000. Airtran from White Plains is about $1500 but requires changing planes.

LaGuardia is about 30 minutes away. We usually take a car service because parking is essentially off-site and requires a shuttle. Not feasible with 3 kids and a zillion bags. Theoretically Tom could drop the kids and me off and then we could wait with all the gear until he returns on the shuttle and checks in with us. Parking is still close to $20 per day. Otherwise a car is about $150 each way. JetBlue is about $1800 from LaGuardia (minus $200 in travel vouchers that we have). Airtran is more like $1400 if we change planes. Delta is about $1300 with changing planes. Plus the baggage fees. I've heard some not-so-good things about flying Delta.

Southwest flies out of Islip and has direct flights to MCO for about $1300. The issue is that Islip is about 1.5 hours away. It's a small airport so it'll be more "convenient" once we get there - on-site parking, etc.

What would you do??? I like the flight times for Southwest. We could leave NY at 10:30 am (which means leaving home by 7am because I'm crazy) and arrive in Orlando around 1pm. Flying home there's a 7pm flight that arrives at 9:30pm. We then have a long drive home but the kids could sleep in the car.

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

I would go Southwest- lower fares AND better times. Of course our closest airport is 2 hours away so the 1.5 hour drives doesn't seem so bad to me. I guess it really depends how your kids do in the car?? If they are okay I'd definately go with the best flight times.

 

[lexmas]

I would probably go southwest too. It's a long drive, but smaller airport, airline you like, lower price and good flight times all are winners. I think the "pros" column definately outweighs the "cons" on this list!

 

[dismagiclover]

This is a tricky one. Of course all things being equal you would fly out of White Plains. But for me the combined 3 hour drive is certainly worth saving $700 so I would go with Islip. I'd say La Guardia is out because once you pay for the shuttle the savings isn't worth the headache of flying out of such a busy place. Of course you could go with Air Tran at White Plains, but I'd rather drive 1.5 hours each way then mess with switching planes. So I too would go with Islip and Southwest. Plus no baggage fees

 

[Charlefours]

I would go with Southwest or the autotrain to throw out another option.

 

[DrMomof3]

I would go Southwest- lower fares AND better times. Of course our closest airport is 2 hours away so the 1.5 hour drives doesn't seem so bad to me. I guess it really depends how your kids do in the car?? If they are okay I'd definately go with the best flight times.

We're definitely spoiled. We have 4 airports that are less than an hour away and then Islip and Stewart are a little bit over an hour away!

I would probably go southwest too. It's a long drive, but smaller airport, airline you like, lower price and good flight times all are winners. I think the "pros" column definately outweighs the "cons" on this list!

Thanks!

This is a tricky one. Of course all things being equal you would fly out of White Plains. But for me the combined 3 hour drive is certainly worth saving $700 so I would go with Islip. I'd say La Guardia is out because once you pay for the shuttle the savings isn't worth the headache of flying out of such a busy place. Of course you could go with Air Tran at White Plains, but I'd rather drive 1.5 hours each way then mess with switching planes. So I too would go with Islip and Southwest. Plus no baggage fees

Airtran and Southwest would be about the same price when you include baggage fees but we'd have to switch planes. I'm going to see what my DH wants...

I would go with Southwest or the autotrain to throw out another option.

I'd love to do the autotrain but I doubt I could convince my DH!

Amanda

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I wouldn't go with an airline you don't feel good about going with! If I were you I would go with Southwest, for the price, and for the convenience of the little airport. I know it's a drive, but that drive probably won't be too bad. We have an airport 20 min away from our house and one about a little over an hour. We were checking both, jetblue flies from the one further away and we will take that if their prices are better! Right now they are!

I absolutely LOVE your Disney bday pictures!! Oh, how I can't wait to be there.

 

[DrMomof3]

I wouldn't go with an airline you don't feel good about going with! If I were you I would go with Southwest, for the price, and for the convenience of the little airport. I know it's a drive, but that drive probably won't be too bad. We have an airport 20 min away from our house and one about a little over an hour. We were checking both, jetblue flies from the one further away and we will take that if their prices are better! Right now they are!

I absolutely LOVE your Disney bday pictures!! Oh, how I can't wait to be there.

Thank you!!!!

So I ran 2.69 miles in 40 min today (including warm up and cool down). One more run and I've finished the C25K program! Today went better than Monday. It's amazing how important consistency is...

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

Opinions:

I'm thinking of canceling our Fantasmic! dinner package for 2 reasons: 1. It's at Hollywood & Vine which is fabulous and 2. We no longer have the dining plan and you can't use the TIW card for the dinner package. We had an ADR for Tuesday, August 24th.
I have a Princess breakfast scheduled in Norway on Friday morning. I'm thinking about canceling this and moving it to a Princess dinner to replace the Fantasmic! package. We can easily eat breakfast in the room, my DH and kids don't eat any pork products which makes it silly to spend lots of $$$ on a breakfast, and I think the dinner will be a little nicer and less likely to interfere with our park touring.

What do the experts think???

Amanda

 

[lexmas]

I prefer breakfast because you can get in before that part of the park opens, and it's more "out of the way" as far as touring goes. But, if you're not going to eat bacon and sausage (or DH and the kids aren't, anyway) it's probably worth it to switch. Breakfast food at disney is nothing thrilling anyway.

 

[dismagiclover]

Though I've never been to Hollywood and Vine everything I've ever heard about it is pretty negative so I'd probably cancel that if you have to pay OOP. We had lunch on our first trip at Askerhaus and thought the food was good. Plus I love dinner in the World Showcase. It is a great day to end a Disney day. So I think your plan is great. Are you still going to try for Fantasmic during the trip or just not worry about it without the package?

 

[-Hope-]

I agree that breakfast makes touring easier but you have to figure out what works best for your family. Since you're going to be doing some cooking breakfast would definately be easiest on you as far as prep and clean up go. And if your family isn't going to eat a lot of the breakfast foods then it won't be worth it; have you looked at the menus on allears.net to see if there's plenty of other things w/o pork for everyone to eat? Also, is F! important to you so you'd be disappointed when you get to DHS and either have to wait in line forever or miss it altogether? If it's not that important then I'd skip it, if it is then I might not depending on your budget.

I'm not much help- I just ask more questions! Every family is different though so you just have to figure out what works for you.

 

[DrMomof3]

I prefer breakfast because you can get in before that part of the park opens, and it's more "out of the way" as far as touring goes. But, if you're not going to eat bacon and sausage (or DH and the kids aren't, anyway) it's probably worth it to switch. Breakfast food at disney is nothing thrilling anyway.

Our ADR is for 8:25am so we'd probably miss the first 30 min after park opening. I should have made it earlier but I didn't think it through carefully.

Though I've never been to Hollywood and Vine everything I've ever heard about it is pretty negative so I'd probably cancel that if you have to pay OOP. We had lunch on our first trip at Askerhaus and thought the food was good. Plus I love dinner in the World Showcase. It is a great day to end a Disney day. So I think your plan is great. Are you still going to try for Fantasmic during the trip or just not worry about it without the package?

Fantasmic! is pretty late for my kids anyway so I wasn't 100% on it. Plus, I think the little guy might be scared.

I agree that breakfast makes touring easier but you have to figure out what works best for your family. Since you're going to be doing some cooking breakfast would definately be easiest on you as far as prep and clean up go. And if your family isn't going to eat a lot of the breakfast foods then it won't be worth it; have you looked at the menus on allears.net to see if there's plenty of other things w/o pork for everyone to eat? Also, is F! important to you so you'd be disappointed when you get to DHS and either have to wait in line forever or miss it altogether? If it's not that important then I'd skip it, if it is then I might not depending on your budget.

I'm not much help- I just ask more questions! Every family is different though so you just have to figure out what works for you.

I was pretty iffy on F! anyway. If we were doing the dining plan and the package was included, I would be more inclined to try it. Truth be told I wasn't thrilled about eating dinner at 4:30pm and I wasn't sure my early risers would last thru the show. We plan to have many more Disney trips in the future so we can always to F! when the kids are a bit older.

I'm going to run this by Tom to see if he agrees but I'm pretty decided that I'm going to cancel F! dinner package, cancel Princess breakfast, and schedule Princess dinner. Another advantage to the dinner is that Jessica can change into her Princess outfit just for the dinner and I won't have to drag it throughout the park in the 95+ degree heat! We like to dress up a big for dinner (shirts with collars, princess dress/sundress) so that'll be nice for the dinner. And it's a quick walk from BCV to Norway!

Amanda

 

[mickeyphile]

Hi Amanda,

I came across your PTR last night and just spent an hour this morning getting caught up. You would be surprised at how much we have in common (I will send you a PM with some details) ... we both have three young kids that we had within a three year span, both have a complicated extended family (doesn't everyone!), and have DHs that are kind and caring but just do not share the Disney passion. So great to have this forum to turn to isn't it ?

We too have gotten spoilt by the Deluxe resorts and it feels like there is no turning back. Great for when we are there but not great because now one has to space the trips out in order to afford them. One thing I have found that works for us is to book CL with the 40% off pin. This has been better for us than going with the dining plan just because of our family's eating habits - the kids are big on breakfast and then like to have smaller meals in the day. We usually use the CL lounge for a good breakfast, do an OOP table service for lunch, and then go the the lounge for their evening appetizers that usually are enough as dinner for the kids. Of course that means being at the resort more but I am also finding that the kids like to have fun at the pools and are not (at least at their current ages - 8, 7, and 5 ) into spending the entire day at the park. There have even been trips where we have spent the mornings and afternoons at the parks and then come back to the hotel for the evening and then I have left the kids and DH after they settle in for the night to go enjoy EMH on my own. There are just so many permutations and I think everyone should just do what works best for their family.

My DH and I did the half marathon in 2004. It was great fun. My only regret is that we literally just went for the weekend and did not really enjoy the parks. We were living in the northeast then and it is great to get a break from the winter time blues and I wish I had made it more of a vacation. So even though I am hoping that you do go in January, if it means too many cutback and compromises to make it happen then maybe you should push the half marathon to the following year (and just do a cruise during value season next year). I would never suggest canceling a disney trip and not replacing it!!!! I have been very bad about physical activity and you are motivating me to get up and get going. So if you do plan on doing the 1/2 marathon in 2012, I will join you.

We also went on our first cruise last year. We absolutely loved it ... enough to go on a second one that same year in the summer. I would be more than happy to give you tips on cruising with three young kids as well as extended family.

Looking forward to reading more of your plans.

 

[liznboys]

Thank you!!!!

So I ran 2.69 miles in 40 min today (including warm up and cool down). One more run and I've finished the C25K program! Today went better than Monday. It's amazing how important consistency is...

Amanda

Hi Amanda, I saw your post on carissanboys' PTR and saw you're doing the half next year....then I see that you're about to finish up the C25K. You are pretty much where I was a year ago. I finished the C25K in the spring and did the WDW Half this year. I'm excited for you!

But I guess this PTR isn't about that trip, so I'll have to go read through. We're going to WDW in June (dismagiclover and I will be meeting up).

 

[liznboys]

I totally get this! Once I finish the C25K, I'm continuing with a training program that does a lot more interval stuff. Run 5 min, walk 1 min repeat 7 times....

I am in a mode of "starting over" with my running for a variety of reasons, and this week I just started doing this program:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=1462924

I'm not sure who the creator of that plan is, I just found it on that persons blog. I'm hoping to do a 10K in September so this will gradually (which is what I really need to avoid getting injured again) get me there. Oh and I'm doing the WDW half again next January. But you might know that from carissanboys' PTR (I'm getting confused now. lol)