Veater
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2000
- Messages
- 66
Dates: February 28 â March 11, 2001
Cast Of Characters:
Gary My patient wonderful husband
Bethany 13 yr old daughter
Miles 9 yr old son â the only official child
Me The planner
Our family has gone to DW â in June 1999, March 1996,
Charlene My sister and co-planner
Crystal Her 17 yr old daughter
Chad Her 13 yr old son
Her familyâÂÂs first time ever to go to DW
This trip was planned when we received the school calendar for 2000-2001 in October 1999. I knew that the first week of March, as spring break would also work great for my work to take a vacation. I originally wanted to go to Disneyland, California area figuring that it would be less expensive but my family out-voted me for Walt Disney World. Not that I disagreed just looking out for the checkbook. We then made reservations at the All Star Movies for $94 a night. We also made reservations at the CBR for $139 a night as Gary had no desire to stay at All Stars for the whole week.
Several months later, the 2001 rates came out and the All Stars were at $105 and the CBR was at $174. Quite a large jump in rates. My sister had also made reservations at the All Star Movies.
We poured over the Internet, read books, researched everything we could find. We had a schedule for the trip already made out in August 2000. The airfares to fly from Anchorage, Alaska to Orlando, FL were horribly high around $750 - $850 per person for when we wanted. We had very specific dates because of school spring break and my payroll clients. I was checking quite often during the summer. We figured that maybe the prices would lower in the fall after school started but we were afraid that they wouldnâÂÂt until January and that was too late to book for spring break. One day, August 15, 2000, I happened to check on Lowestfare. Com and to my great delight the price came up at $378 per ticket. My heart started beating rapidly and I tried it again. Came up again the same price! I went and told my husband, we prayed about it, played a game of Ping-Pong in the garage and tried it again that evening. Same price â good schedule with TWA so we booked it. The first time I have ever purchased tickets on line. Oh, I also called TWA that evening and the best that they could offer was over $750 a ticket. They said that if I could get it for a better price, then I should do it. I also called my sister, but she was out that evening for about an hour. She called and came right over that night when she heard the news. She decided right then and there to buy them also. So we purchased 4 tickets and she purchased 3 tickets all within 3 hours of seeing this price on the Internet. We were so excited but so nervous. The tickets were delivered within 48 hours and they looked like normal tickets â we called right away and confirmed them with TWA themselves and they had in the computer. My sister wasnâÂÂt home when hers were delivered and they were left on the doorstep by the delivery service. Jumping ahead here, my heart sunk in January when the news came out that TWA had declared bankruptcy. But it turned out that it was no problem for us as it takes time for the wheels of change to move. In fact, all our flights were totally booked when we flew so the bankruptcy didnâÂÂt scare too many people off.
Things worked out well, my husband received official permission for time off for the extra two days we were adding on the beginning of spring break. My sister had asked for her time off like a year ahead of time. I had no one to ask but just let my clients know that I would be gone. I was going in between payroll periods so it was going to work out for the most part.
We did find out in September that the week before spring break was going to be a testing week for the Benchmark and CAT tests and no one was supposed to miss those days. Crystal studied very hard in September and October and passed both her math and reading tests so she didnâÂÂt have to even take them that week before spring break. We would miss the last day of testing on Thursday but since we already had our tickets, we didnâÂÂt let that change our plans.
In November, I got a good deal on a mini-van with Dollar for $209 a week and that actually turned out to be the one that we stayed with for the trip. No one else that was on the airport property could even come close for a price for a mini-van.
In December and January we started reading all this information about the Swan and Dolphin resorts and the teacher rate. It sounded good so we made some teacher discount reservations but we could never get the whole week. At one time we had the Swan for the first 7 days and the Dolphin for the last 2 days; we couldnâÂÂt get the 8th of March at either place. Then the Disney insider rate came up on the boards and we grabbed that for the CBR at $109 plus tax. When we booked it, there was no mention of a postcard and the CRO never asked about it but then there was a big discussion on the boards whether this was a postcard rate or not. We did not want to do anything "wrong" but we really wanted the CBR at $109 instead of $174 a night. We read everything posted on it and it seemed resolved that the Value resorts were a postcard rate but not the Moderate resorts. They were open for anyone to use. Thus we felt much better and then went ahead and cancelled everything else. I had six resort reservations at one time. It is crazy to have to do that, but to get the best deal you have to grab it while it is available then cancel later if it doesnâÂÂt work out.
We were on Weight Watchers and doing the treadmill every day to get ready for this trip. My sister did better than I did, but we both were really working on being ready for this trip! We had a long ways to go but we figured that every little bit would help.
February finally came and we were getting close. I was practically packed a week ahead of time. I was amazed at how much stuff I had that wasnâÂÂt clothes. We had every kind of blister or foot protection that we could think of to buy. We had tons of stuff and we were trying to minimize packing since we had to fit 7 people plus a weekâÂÂs work of luggage into whatever minivan they gave us at the airport! We discussed the possibility of not fitting into the minivan and having to send one or two people by shuttle bus to the hotel but it did work out in the end that we all fit.
â¬
Cast Of Characters:
Gary My patient wonderful husband
Bethany 13 yr old daughter
Miles 9 yr old son â the only official child
Me The planner
Our family has gone to DW â in June 1999, March 1996,
Charlene My sister and co-planner
Crystal Her 17 yr old daughter
Chad Her 13 yr old son
Her familyâÂÂs first time ever to go to DW
This trip was planned when we received the school calendar for 2000-2001 in October 1999. I knew that the first week of March, as spring break would also work great for my work to take a vacation. I originally wanted to go to Disneyland, California area figuring that it would be less expensive but my family out-voted me for Walt Disney World. Not that I disagreed just looking out for the checkbook. We then made reservations at the All Star Movies for $94 a night. We also made reservations at the CBR for $139 a night as Gary had no desire to stay at All Stars for the whole week.
Several months later, the 2001 rates came out and the All Stars were at $105 and the CBR was at $174. Quite a large jump in rates. My sister had also made reservations at the All Star Movies.
We poured over the Internet, read books, researched everything we could find. We had a schedule for the trip already made out in August 2000. The airfares to fly from Anchorage, Alaska to Orlando, FL were horribly high around $750 - $850 per person for when we wanted. We had very specific dates because of school spring break and my payroll clients. I was checking quite often during the summer. We figured that maybe the prices would lower in the fall after school started but we were afraid that they wouldnâÂÂt until January and that was too late to book for spring break. One day, August 15, 2000, I happened to check on Lowestfare. Com and to my great delight the price came up at $378 per ticket. My heart started beating rapidly and I tried it again. Came up again the same price! I went and told my husband, we prayed about it, played a game of Ping-Pong in the garage and tried it again that evening. Same price â good schedule with TWA so we booked it. The first time I have ever purchased tickets on line. Oh, I also called TWA that evening and the best that they could offer was over $750 a ticket. They said that if I could get it for a better price, then I should do it. I also called my sister, but she was out that evening for about an hour. She called and came right over that night when she heard the news. She decided right then and there to buy them also. So we purchased 4 tickets and she purchased 3 tickets all within 3 hours of seeing this price on the Internet. We were so excited but so nervous. The tickets were delivered within 48 hours and they looked like normal tickets â we called right away and confirmed them with TWA themselves and they had in the computer. My sister wasnâÂÂt home when hers were delivered and they were left on the doorstep by the delivery service. Jumping ahead here, my heart sunk in January when the news came out that TWA had declared bankruptcy. But it turned out that it was no problem for us as it takes time for the wheels of change to move. In fact, all our flights were totally booked when we flew so the bankruptcy didnâÂÂt scare too many people off.
Things worked out well, my husband received official permission for time off for the extra two days we were adding on the beginning of spring break. My sister had asked for her time off like a year ahead of time. I had no one to ask but just let my clients know that I would be gone. I was going in between payroll periods so it was going to work out for the most part.
We did find out in September that the week before spring break was going to be a testing week for the Benchmark and CAT tests and no one was supposed to miss those days. Crystal studied very hard in September and October and passed both her math and reading tests so she didnâÂÂt have to even take them that week before spring break. We would miss the last day of testing on Thursday but since we already had our tickets, we didnâÂÂt let that change our plans.
In November, I got a good deal on a mini-van with Dollar for $209 a week and that actually turned out to be the one that we stayed with for the trip. No one else that was on the airport property could even come close for a price for a mini-van.
In December and January we started reading all this information about the Swan and Dolphin resorts and the teacher rate. It sounded good so we made some teacher discount reservations but we could never get the whole week. At one time we had the Swan for the first 7 days and the Dolphin for the last 2 days; we couldnâÂÂt get the 8th of March at either place. Then the Disney insider rate came up on the boards and we grabbed that for the CBR at $109 plus tax. When we booked it, there was no mention of a postcard and the CRO never asked about it but then there was a big discussion on the boards whether this was a postcard rate or not. We did not want to do anything "wrong" but we really wanted the CBR at $109 instead of $174 a night. We read everything posted on it and it seemed resolved that the Value resorts were a postcard rate but not the Moderate resorts. They were open for anyone to use. Thus we felt much better and then went ahead and cancelled everything else. I had six resort reservations at one time. It is crazy to have to do that, but to get the best deal you have to grab it while it is available then cancel later if it doesnâÂÂt work out.
We were on Weight Watchers and doing the treadmill every day to get ready for this trip. My sister did better than I did, but we both were really working on being ready for this trip! We had a long ways to go but we figured that every little bit would help.
February finally came and we were getting close. I was practically packed a week ahead of time. I was amazed at how much stuff I had that wasnâÂÂt clothes. We had every kind of blister or foot protection that we could think of to buy. We had tons of stuff and we were trying to minimize packing since we had to fit 7 people plus a weekâÂÂs work of luggage into whatever minivan they gave us at the airport! We discussed the possibility of not fitting into the minivan and having to send one or two people by shuttle bus to the hotel but it did work out in the end that we all fit.
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