Hey all,
I hope you are all enjoying a lovely weekend. It's a double playoff night in the Bo-Bina household (the Raptors are currently playing right now, and the Maple Leafs play immediately afterward) and its also nothing short of miserable outside (monsoon rains for most of the day, and now that the deluge has finally subsided, temps are dropping and freezing rain is reported to be on the way) so its a good opportunity to post a short update.
Since my last check-in, we have officially bypassed the three week mark: the countdown now sits at a scant
While I've been kind of quiet here on this thread, I have still be working behind-the-scenes to ready us for the trip. I managed to catch a few small but consecutive drops in rental rates over the course of several different days, and have whittled our price down to $205 for an 8-day rental of an intermediate SUV through Alamo. Since we booked through Costco Travel, that will include the free additional driver which is always nice to have in the case of an emergency. I'm secretly hoping we might be able to get a standard SUV or a mini van from the intermediate SUV aisle (Alamo often has a few upgrades available, just depending on their inventory at the time) but we'll be satisfied with the intermediate if that's what we end up with. My initial goal was to get a car for $200 for the week, and honestly I didn't think we'd be able to hit that target......so to get an SUV for 8 days rather than 7 and only be $5 above the original price goal leaves me quite pleased. Steve is just happy that it's Alamo so he has some input over exactly which vehicle he ends up with......he's a bit of a control freak, my Steve
.
I ordered us each a pair of water shoes since we have a water park, Discovery Cove and lots of pool time on the agenda.....Discovery Cove, in particular, has been tough on our tootsies on past visits (some parts of the lazy river have a bottom that's rather unforgiving to the toes). I was a bit worried that Steve wouldn't be able to fit his feet into the size 14's that I purchased.....he takes a 15 in a normal shoe.....but we were both delighted to find that the 14's seem to fit him just fine. That's a huge relief for me, because I dreaded trying to find a reasonably priced water shoe in any larger of a size.....I'm sure they were available
somewhere (thank goodness for the internet!) but usually those oddball items come at a crazy high premium. I am glad to have that pre-trip to-do officially scratched off the list.
I've also been working on tweaking the official itinerary: while its always designed to be able to flex when needed (due to weather, energy levels, or any other reason), we still like to have a bit of a plan for the week as a whole. In the midst of doing so, I noticed that I had made an error in our Aquatica cabana booking and accidentally reserved the wrong day....that necessitated a quick call to SeaWorld Parks & Recreation to make the adjustment. They were very kind and helpful (as always) and now I have our cabana booked for the day of the week that I originally intended
.
This coming Friday, I will submit our Diamond Lane requests to the pre-arrival coordinator at the Vistana. Since we're tacking on the additional night (with our free voucher from May 2017 .... which I still owe you all the story behind!), I want to make sure they can keep us in the same villa for both the first freebie night and our regular 7-night owner's stay. As always, we'll request a top floor villa close to the Fountains pool. In October, they assigned us to a Fountains II villa (which was surprising, as we own in Fountains I and we were using one of our ownership weeks) but I would expect we'll be back in a Fountains I villa this stay. Both sections are awesome (and are located side-by-side within the resort) so either is absolutely acceptable. It's truly hard not to be happy in ANY section of SVR!
I do think we've decided to do the owner's update meeting again on this trip: since we're a little more low-key than usual, it will be easy to fit it in on one of our resort day mornings. Those owner's updates have become a bit of a sport for us
..... its fun to see how quickly we can be in and out. The last one we did (in May 2017) we managed to keep it to 55 minutes from start to finish: that was a new record
. Considering they pay us $100-125 via a prepaid Visa gift card, that's $50 per hour, per person (or more) so well worth the time. I have become particularly adept at shutting down their sales tactics, and the dark side of me rather enjoys being able to make the sales staff uncomfortable enough that they seem relieved to be rid of us
. We thought we'd take the gift card and use it to enhance our trip in some way: maybe tickets to Gatorland. Maybe a host of fun extras at the resort (surrey bike rentals, bingo, mini golf, etc.). Or, maybe just a lot of fruity beverages at the Tiki Bar
. It's nice to have options.
The plans so far call for two full days at SeaWorld, one full day at Aquatica, one full day at Discovery Cove, and three resort days that we work in side-trips to Disney Springs, Celebration, and wherever else the spirit moves us. I suspect we may add on an additional evening at SW, and perhaps an extra half day at Aquatica.....especially if its hot. I do have to remember to call SeaWorld Parks and add on the unlimited parking pass for the week
: for $25, it will pay for itself twice over between the two parks (DC parking is free). In fact, let me pause for a moment and put that reminder in my phone while its fresh on my mind......
There. Done
. These days, if I don't do things at the moment I'm thinking of them, then poof! They disappear from my brain
.
We are scheduled to meet the new Pet Nanny this week, so I'd appreciate your good vibes that the orientation goes well. I hope she takes to my babies as well as the owner of the company things she will.....I need to know they are loved when we're gone. What can I say? I'm a schmuck when it comes to my two "kids"
. Poor little bums, they miss their momma and daddy when we're gone.
I'm wiffle-waffling on a couple of extra [and admittedly, totally unnecessary] add-ons.....namely a character breakfast to get my Disney fix, and Photokey for SeaWorld and Aquatica....but my desire to stay on budget (especially after all of our moving and house expenses) is really making me feel guilty for any more splurges
. I have almost three weeks, though, so it might be long enough for me to talk myself into one or two more unnecessary splurges
. We will have to wait and see.
I can't wait for the point where I can start watching the long-range weather forecast......hoping for lots of sun and as little rain as possible. We've been so lucky on all of our trips so far, we keep thinking we will get a complete wash-out one of these times
. Hoping that's not the case, but you never know.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
I do hope you'll be visiting SeaWorld.....as you know, their Christmas events are second to none!!
.
I am SO excited for you! 
What are your travel dates?
if I can find others to share cost? There would be 4 of us, so there would be room for up to six more. I figured I would start here because all of Gina’s fans seem so friendly. 
I will need to catch all up later with comments of what I have missed the last few months, you have been a busy lady. So happy you are getting all settled. 
. While I am grateful that all this precipitation hasn't come in snow, at the same time.....it's April, for Pete's sake! We need sun 
. At this rate, I'll won't get my gardens done before Memorial Day.
, so that's encouraging!). I am told that new nanny is a real cat lover, so hopefully that will help her be understanding of the cats' quirks and oddities. 
. We'll be enjoying dinner with @chiamarie , we have a tentative meet-up with @JaxDad , @pattyw might be able to get together with us while she's is in town visiting her son, and adding you to the group makes 4 
