A Rolex Vacation on a Timex Budget: Sept '11 PTR (TR is Live!)

[Shannon84]

I saw that GF was closing its doors, glad to hear that they could still serve you just moved to a new location Sounds like a perfect relaxation day to me

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

Glad you still have your 'spa day'! the sugar scrub sounds WONDERFUL!
I also feel bad for that manager having to make all those calls.

Good luck with Irene, we are preparing for her here in MA...taking all outside furniture in, etc...hopefully, it won't be as bad as they are saying

 

[swwake]

I was wondering if you'd get your GF spa day or if it would be closed during your time. So glad they were able to move you to the other spa. I too have heard that it's nicer. Y'all will have a wonderful day!

Can't wait to hear the new things you've added.

 

[jenbear123]

Ive been seeing some pretty scary images on the news of Irene in Virginia. I hope you're okay!

 

[Stefy]

Bummer about GF, but I have heard that SSR spa is a lot nicer

 

[cdotla]

Love your PTR so far! Laughing because I started reading to try and find out how I too could save a few bucks and do a Rolex vacation on a Timex budget. Instead, you just have me lusting over Conceirge and private dining events! Fortunately, the frugal side of me will probably never shell out for concierge so my pocketbook is fine on that front, but I look forward to hearing all about your experience with it next month! Too bad your event got cancelled, but hopefully dinner at CG will be a nice consolation.

Sorry to hear all the pre-trip obsticles you have been dealing with lately...hopefully you can leave all that behind very shortly and have an awesome trip!

 

[jenneth79]

Hey everyone. No power but no major damage. Updating from my phone. Hope to have fun updates once we get power restored. 20 days to go!

 

[Kari-B]

Your spa day sounds great! Glad to hear it worked out in the end!

 

[Stefy]

Glad to hear you guys are ok, hope the power comes back on soon

 

[natebenma]

After such relaxation, we’re free for the rest of the day. We might do a little resort touring on the monorail, or head back to the YC and spend a nice long afternoon at SAB. It really depends on the weather, but I’m hoping to get a few hours out there by the water with a good book! I deliberately only bought 8 day passes to Disney, not 9, so we would be forced to stay park free for a day.

Hopefully I’ll get some time on the lazy river floats, and get to try a signature cocktail at Hurricane Hanna’s….. Does anyone have any recommendations on the best drink to try at SAB?

Sounds like a really nice non-park day!

Unfortunately, I can't personally recommend a drink from HHs, but so many people rave about the Sunken Treasure that we have made it the unofficial drink of the YC/BC FAQ thread:

Sunken Treasure: The unofficial beverage of the Beach and Yacht Club FAQ forum:

Contents: Malibu Rum, Midori, orange juice, pineapple juice and Sprite with a splash of BOLS Blue Curacao.
Served in a souvenir cup for an additional $2.00 - $7.50

Thanks, pixarmom, for the photo!


Alas, the drink may no longer be on the menu board, but some of the HH bartenders will still make it if you ask.

Hey everyone. No power but no major damage. Updating from my phone. Hope to have fun updates once we get power restored. 20 days to go!

Hope you are back on the grid, now! We lot power from 9 am to 3 pm, but other than that, no big problems in our area. We have a few branches down, but others we know have had huge trees uprooted in the storm.

Hope everyone is doing fine!

 

[PixieMama]

Oh, no... hope you get power back soon!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Glad to hear you are safe - hope the power comes back soon.

 

[jenneth79]

Happy Monday, everyone!

We're drying out here in Virginia. Power came back late last night, and while we lost everything in the fridge, the freezer stayed below 30 degrees, so nothing in there was lost. Either way, I'll take a power outage over a tree in my house any day. Some people in our area were not so lucky. Lots of trees on cars and homes.

Of course, because of Irene, we didn't get much of our errands done this weekend (laundry, packing, etc.) so I will be very busy after work all week. We have plans each weekend leading up to Disney, so I've got to get my butt in gear and get stuff DONE!

Hey, at least the fridge cleaning is off my list now...

Oops forgot to say your spa day sounds wonderful. The couples massage is awesome and so relaxing and the sugar scrub sounds like it will be amazing

I know, Mike and I both said last night how much we both need a day to just relax and be pampered!

That's exactly what I'm hoping to have on my next family trip to WDW... a park-free day. The past 2 trips have been Sunday to Saturday, with those 2 days for travel... meaning we've had 5 days to get all the parks done. Next trip, I'm hoping for a longer stay... especially if we can swing a Deluxe! I would definitely want a chance to relax at the resort!

Your spa day sounds absolutely fabulous!

There is a part of me that feels like we're missing out on park time, but I think once we get there, we will both appreciate the day of just relaxing and not worrying about lines, etc.

I love park free days. I'd love 'em even more with a day at the spa Sounds like a very nice relaxing day. It'll give you a chance to enjoy YC too.

That's true! I was so excited to book that hotel, now I'm wondering if I'm going to see it at all.

Lol I love the 'under the desk story!' Am sure that will come back to haunt you many times in the future

Yay on having a relaxing day away from the parks - have two of them planned and can't wait. I'm also looking forward to enjoying reading a book near the pool at some point during our trip.

We both just bought protectors for our nooks so they don't get water damage

I saw that GF was closing its doors, glad to hear that they could still serve you just moved to a new location Sounds like a perfect relaxation day to me

Yeah, I think we really lucked out on that one! I had honestly been wondering about changing spa locations a month or so ago, but thought I'd just see how things went. I guess karma worked in my favor!

Glad you still have your 'spa day'! the sugar scrub sounds WONDERFUL!
I also feel bad for that manager having to make all those calls.

Good luck with Irene, we are preparing for her here in MA...taking all outside furniture in, etc...hopefully, it won't be as bad as they are saying

How did you fare w/ Irene? I'm so glad it wasn't as bad as they thought, but still, with lives lost and so much damage, there's no way to see it as all good. Hope you are doing OK!

I was wondering if you'd get your GF spa day or if it would be closed during your time. So glad they were able to move you to the other spa. I too have heard that it's nicer. Y'all will have a wonderful day!

Can't wait to hear the new things you've added.

Working on that right now! As it turns out, we came back to the office today to find out we had no internet, which set me behind about 3 hours. Ah well, up and running now! I'll get the first of the "surprises" written up today once I get some real work done. Boooo to real work!

Ive been seeing some pretty scary images on the news of Irene in Virginia. I hope you're okay!

Thanks sweetie! We're good. The worst of the damage is SE of us.

Bummer about GF, but I have heard that SSR spa is a lot nicer

I have too, so I'm secretly not complaining about what happend.

Your spa day sounds great! Glad to hear it worked out in the end!

I know, pixie dust ROCKS!

Glad to hear you guys are ok, hope the power comes back on soon

Thanks, my dear! We had a relatively calm day, once we spent two ours cleaning out a very stinky fridge!

Sounds like a really nice non-park day!

Unfortunately, I can't personally recommend a drink from HHs, but so many people rave about the Sunken Treasure that we have made it the unofficial drink of the YC/BC FAQ thread:

Sunken Treasure: The unofficial beverage of the Beach and Yacht Club FAQ forum:

Contents: Malibu Rum, Midori, orange juice, pineapple juice and Sprite with a splash of BOLS Blue Curacao.
Served in a souvenir cup for an additional $2.00 - $7.50

Thanks, pixarmom, for the photo!


Alas, the drink may no longer be on the menu board, but some of the HH bartenders will still make it if you ask.



Hope you are back on the grid, now! We lot power from 9 am to 3 pm, but other than that, no big problems in our area. We have a few branches down, but others we know have had huge trees uprooted in the storm.

Hope everyone is doing fine!

Thanks for the drink option! Also, glad to hear you've got power back. Ours was out from roughly 2AM (really, when the wind woke me up and I realized the power was out until 9pm. Considering the massive amount of outages, I think Dominion has really been doing a great job!

So glad you guys weathered the storm without major damage!

Oh, no... hope you get power back soon!

Glad to hear you are safe - hope the power comes back soon.

Thanks!!! Up and running and going crazy... a typical Monday, I suppose!

 

[jenneth79]

Love your PTR so far! Laughing because I started reading to try and find out how I too could save a few bucks and do a Rolex vacation on a Timex budget. Instead, you just have me lusting over Conceirge and private dining events! Fortunately, the frugal side of me will probably never shell out for concierge so my pocketbook is fine on that front, but I look forward to hearing all about your experience with it next month! Too bad your event got cancelled, but hopefully dinner at CG will be a nice consolation.

Sorry to hear all the pre-trip obsticles you have been dealing with lately...hopefully you can leave all that behind very shortly and have an awesome trip!

Thanks, and !

I guess there is a little problem with "truth in adverstising" when it comes to my PTR name, but I have to defend it a little. When I started out, I planned on focusing on HOW I was going to make this vacation work. I got caught up in all the fun stuff to do though, and that all fell by the wayside.

However, I'm really glad you brought it up as I've been meaning to post some of the "how we did it" notes on this seemingly insanely expensive trip. (Don't get me wrong, it sure ain't cheap!)

To start, we were able to book our CL Lagoon Room view at 40% off. I don't know that I would have stayed club level (or even Deluxe!) if it weren't for that, as this is our first CL experience ever!

I also made good use of one of the coupon rewards sites that if I write it on here I think the moderator will cut it out of my post... it's "sunny" ..... but I was able to rack up nearly 600 dollars worth of Disney Gift cards from that alone!

On top of that, the Fun Fund Piggy has so far netted us another 250 bucks, just from collecting loose change for 8 months. Not too shabby!

The Rolex? Yeah, that doesn't count, but I did save up for it starting last year, and it took me quite a few payments on layaway to get it.

Finally, there was a bit of money from my dad's estate that, once we paid off all our outstanding debt and put some in savings, we decided to use a little to splurge.

With all the stuff we've done, this will certainly be a once in a lifetime trip...but I don't regret one penny of it for what we've been through this year!

 

[jenneth79]

So.... I know I promised I would share a few surprises with you, and now it's time to reveal surprise number one for my wonderful husband! (Who hopefully has not decided to read these board... honey, if you are on here... LOG OFF NOW OR FACE MY WRATH.) Ahem. Anyway...


So my DH is a huge fan of Scotch. Like, he researches it and there are bottles on our shelf that get opened once a year for a teeny tiny sip. I thought it might be fun to surprise him with a small bottle on our trip in case he wanted a nightcap, but didn't want to do something super expensive, because let's be honest, no one is going to finish a bottle of scotch in a week!

So, while talking to the CMs, we came up with a bottle of Macallan 12 wrapped up for him when we arrive. To make it extra special, when we arrive, they will place an order for a glass of Macallan 25 to be delivered to the room, with a little "happy birthday" card as well!

The 25 is super rare, and one of those bottles we could never afford on its own, so this glass will be a special treat!

It's my way of thanking him for coming on this trip with me, as much as he loves theme parks and Disney, we all know I am the fanatic of the bunch!

So that is surprise number one..... the second one will come later that evening! (Stay tuned.....)

 

[Shannon84]

That is an awesome surprise, how sweet of you

 

[Kari-B]

Sounds like something he will really love!

 

[heathsf]

I just got all caught up from last week. I'm glad that you made it through the hurricane and the earthquake okay. And I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been going through with your health. Best wishes that you'll be well soon!

 

[TanzUnited99]

What a lovely and thoughtful surprise - can't wait to hear the others! Am hoping this one won't get rumbled!

 

[jenneth79]

That is an awesome surprise, how sweet of you

Thanks! I hope he likes it!

Sounds like something he will really love!

I hope so!

I just got all caught up from last week. I'm glad that you made it through the hurricane and the earthquake okay. And I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been going through with your health. Best wishes that you'll be well soon!

Thank you so much ... I've come to the conclusion that nothing is going to take away from our Disney fun, so I'm just going to stop worrying. I wake up with hives every morning, yes, but they DO go away by 12!

Sounds like you had a great trip! I'm enjoying following along

What a lovely and thoughtful surprise - can't wait to hear the others! Am hoping this one won't get rumbled!

Ok, so can I just say that I adore that term, "rumbled"? It's one of those obvious splits between American and British slang..... here it means to get into a fight... which I suppose might happen if you get rubmbled in the UK!