August 13, 2011 Med - Mickey's Marauding Mates

[Anal Annie]

Howdy! Think you're right about two days, although you probably won't see everything and as it's school holidays (especially uk holidays) it will be pretty busy but also should have long opening hours and possibly fireworks (DLP doesn't have nightly fireworks all year round like wdw).
Disneyland Park is actually bigger than Magic Kingdom (I think it's the biggest of all the 'Magic Kingdoms' if you know what I mean) but it doesn't seem as big if you know what I mean. A lot of the attractions are similar there to wdw but IMO rides such as Buzz and Pirates are better and Space Mountain is totally different and has loops etc.
Walt Disney Studios is a pretty tiny park to be honest, but is so much better than when it first opened when we would spend a morning there and have done everything!! Last time we went we spent almost a full day there and there's some great attractions which are unique like Cinemagique. Also Crushs Coaster (which is kind of like Primeival Whirl in theory except with great theming) has not fast pass (what a mistake) and breaks down regularly so expect queues of about an hour at least, even at rope drop!!

But overall I don't think 'only' spending two days there would be too little and you'll get a good flavour of the place!
We've only ever stayed onsite there but Val D'Europe is one (or two?) stops away on the RER so is ok for getting there.

Still not decided on our Barcelona hotel yet but paid off another chunk of our cruise yesterday so should probably hurry up and find one

Soooo then the 1 day / 2 park ticket would be a big fat NO then?! We are trying to figure out if 1 day or 2 would be sufficient for DLP!! DH wants to make sure we allow enough time for sightseeing in Paris too! I KNOW we'll be BEAT but I was seriously considering that we could do DLP on our first day (our flight lands at 5:45 am so it doesn't matter WHAT we do we're going to be TIRED but we'll still have all day), then call it an early evening and get to bed at a reasonable time then do more DLP on day 2...but then move into the city during the evening of day 2 so we could have all of days 3 & 4 in the city. Two nights in each hotel?!

(PS) I hate Primevil Whirl!! LOL...that thing is pure evil on a bad back!!! I usually sit on a bench & let DH & DS ride it!!

 

[luke]

Definitely more than a 1 day/2 park ticket needed, especially for a first timer!
2 days should be fine then those few days in Paris.
Plus you'll be relaxing on the cruise more so even should the Paris part burn you out at least you'll have that to recover!!

 

[Anal Annie]

Definitely more than a 1 day/2 park ticket needed, especially for a first timer!
2 days should be fine then those few days in Paris.
Plus you'll be relaxing on the cruise more so even should the Paris part burn you out at least you'll have that to recover!!

SOOO many decisions! And I am ssoooo baaaad at making them! OK, so I was just reading on another thread where the people are doing the city first then DLP. Interesting thought BUT that doesn't work for us because in order to do 1 night / 2 days tix we have to do it first as we leave for Barcelona on Friday. If we did 2 nights at DLP then we'd get stuck paying for a 3rd day of tix that we won't use. OK, so, now to decide on a hotel. I'd been thinking about that off-site one BUT it's really not THAT much more if we're only staying one night to just stay onsite if we pick a cheaper one. I simply cannot afford Hotel New York for the amount of time we'll be IN it ($250 more per night!)

OK, so question for Kelly & Luke - if you were going to pick a lower end hotel which one would you pick & why? Cheapest (in USD):
The Santa Fe $509.58 for 1 night / 2 day pkg, next cheapest is the Cheyenne @ $533.40 for a 1 night / 2 day pkg., then the Sequoia Lodge (where we would've stayed if we'd used points) @ $633.48. (What do you get at the Sequoia besides a pool that you don't get at the other two?)
May as well ask about Newport Bay too...it's "only" $669.90....
The Val d'Europe 1 night pkg. was $475.29 but I'm wondering since our time is so short if truely being onsite is worth a few dollars more so we don't have to use the train (I'd thought the Val d'Europe had a shuttle). OH and it looks like the Val d'Europe has a sofa bed for DS which he HATES & if we stayed onsite he'd at least have a "real" bed.

I am assuming the RER train runs throughout the evening so that if we wanted to spend all day at DLP and then move into the city say right after dinner / rush hour we could do that without major issues?!

 

[jd99]

Hey ya'll....sorry to have been MIA...internet connection was very spotty up in the mountains! DH was trying to find a "hotspot" or something with his phone then trying to connect the laptop from that...when it worked it was VERY slow and then it usually crashed quickly. Got to be frustrating so we stopped trying.

ANYWAY, we drove home last night then DS had a follow-up doc. appt. this morning with his pediatrician. He got released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon & then we spent like 2 hours trying to get RX's filled. So we spent 2 nights of our long weekend in the hosp. in ICU. Cannot believe this happened!! Anyway, so we stayed up there thru Monday & came back last night - there were some people in our house not skiing yesterday (1 was a former nurse) so we left him at the house for awhile so DH & I could go skiing for about 3 hours. He didn't like being left behind but he understood - we'd bought our lift tickets back in November!! He is doing MUCH better but still has a horrific cough - but his lungs are clear which was a plus I guess! They still don't know what CAUSED it...but his airway was like the size of a pencil due to swelling. He is still on steroids, an antibiotic, cough meds and an inhaler. He is allowed to return to school on Thurs. after another couple days of rest. He can't swim again until the cough subsides substantially. Hopefully by the weekend maybe. That remains to be seen. He was never sick like this when he was younger...payback I guess?! NONE of the docs had ever seen this in a kid his age...they said it's always in younger kids. Leave it to us to be the odd ones!!

Karen - glad you're back... we've never been to Vegas...ONE DAY maybe. Glad you've been having a good time... Remember if you get any free time while in DC we could have a DIS meet maybe!?

Glad to hear your son is on the mend. You know my DD12 got whooping cough a year ago. Doctor said that the vaccination they get when they are little "wears off" around age 11 and they need a booster. She was a few months shy of 11 and got it. It was awful so I know how your son must be feeling and you - stress wise. Take care of him (and you).

Jeff

 

[Anal Annie]

Glad to hear your son is on the mend. You know my DD12 got whooping cough a year ago. Doctor said that the vaccination they get when they are little "wears off" around age 11 and they need a booster. She was a few months shy of 11 and got it. It was awful so I know how your son must be feeling and you - stress wise. Take care of him (and you).

Jeff

Hey! How was FLA with DD!?

Just got a link to a video the boys put together from this weekend...I am bummed about all the fun that DS missed out on!!! ALTHOUGH, probably just as well he wasn't in the terrain park...Taylor broke an arm on Sunday!! Another Mom cut a finger and needed stitches...seems our group had quite a presence at the hospital this weekend!! LOL...

Don't know if you can view it...I was able to watch it from Facebook...

http://gallery.me.com/minimikejr#100428

 

[jd99]

Hey! How was FLA with DD!?

Just got a link to a video the boys put together from this weekend...I am bummed about all the fun that DS missed out on!!! ALTHOUGH, probably just as well he wasn't in the terrain park...Taylor broke an arm on Sunday!! Another Mom cut a finger and needed stitches...seems our group had quite a presence at the hospital this weekend!! LOL...

Don't know if you can view it...I was able to watch it from Facebook...

http://gallery.me.com/minimikejr#100428

We had a great time. Ran like crazy. Dd rode rockin roller coaster 8 times in a row yesterday morning. Crowds were up from last year same weekend.TONS of tour groups.

 

[luke]

For the prices you've got I'd go for the Cheyenne. In my opinion it's the best themed of the hotels. I definitely would not do the Santa Fe for such a small price difference, it's the only hotel there I personally don't like.
The Sequioa Lodge is the hotel we have stayed at most and although I do love it it's definitely more of a 'winter hotel' with it's rustic feel and roaring fires.
For such a big increase in price I wouldn't do the Newport Bay. It's a great looking hotel from the outside and the public areas but it's just a bit too big and the rooms are not massively better.
The Cheyenne has a fun cowboy theme and is nothing like anything at WDW which for me is a good thing because if you start comparing 'like for like' (Sequioa Lodge - Wilderness Lodge / Newport Bay - Yacht Club) you are going to end up VERY disappointed. Now I'm a big fan of DLP but, especially in the resorts, it is SO far behind.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[Anal Annie]

We had a great time. Ran like crazy. Dd rode rockin roller coaster 8 times in a row yesterday morning. Crowds were up from last year same weekend.TONS of tour groups.

Oh I HATE those tour groups (the Brazilian ones)!! We have run into them on a couple of trips...one was in January when we went over MLK weekend...they were EVERYWHERE and they really gunked up the lines. They were there in the summer too when we went in July for our last cruise in 2008...I distinctly remember we'd gotten in the standby line for the Toy Story Mania ride at HS...the wait was like 60 or 70 minutes when we got in line...then they came back with their fast passes and the wait literally doubled to over 120 minutes after we were already in the line! They're so loud & obnoxious too. Glad you had fun tho!! RNR was DS's first ever "loop d loop" coaster so it holds a special spot for us too!


Well, we're supposed to get 5-10" of snow today so they cancelled school!! DS has sooo lucked out since his doc said stay home until Thursday - if he only misses 1 day (yesterday) it will be amazing...I'm willing to bet they're closed again tomorrow too as this snow is supposed to go thru the night too. Guess we shall see in the morning. That would be REAL lucky tho for him to get another day to rest & for this crazy cough to subside. It is very distracting once he gets a "spell" of it.

 

[Anal Annie]

For the prices you've got I'd go for the Cheyenne. In my opinion it's the best themed of the hotels. I definitely would not do the Santa Fe for such a small price difference, it's the only hotel there I personally don't like.
The Sequioa Lodge is the hotel we have stayed at most and although I do love it it's definitely more of a 'winter hotel' with it's rustic feel and roaring fires.
For such a big increase in price I wouldn't do the Newport Bay. It's a great looking hotel from the outside and the public areas but it's just a bit too big and the rooms are not massively better.
The Cheyenne has a fun cowboy theme and is nothing like anything at WDW which for me is a good thing because if you start comparing 'like for like' (Sequioa Lodge - Wilderness Lodge / Newport Bay - Yacht Club) you are going to end up VERY disappointed. Now I'm a big fan of DLP but, especially in the resorts, it is SO far behind.

Hope this helps a bit

Yes, that does help, thanks! Curious if Kelly will agree - that would make it really a no brainer for me!! I noticed that Sante Fe has 2 double beds & Cheyenne has bunk beds for the 2nd bed...hopefully DS will be OK with that. (The older he gets the more he wants to be treated equally and have "real" beds.) Our 2 most favorite resorts at WDW are Wilderness Lodge and Beach Club...but I really don't see spending a bunch of money for a place to SLEEP. I mean, we'll arrive early, early, early & hopefully just be able to store our luggage and get our park tix and head out to the parks. I know we'll be beat but we'd be dead tired no matter where we went or what we try to do, right? (All last weekend when we were in the hospital with DS and got no sleep I kept saying it was practice for going to Europe!) But anyway, I would anticipate that we'll want to have an early dinner then go to bed somewhat early. The next morning we'll have to check out of the room & store our luggage again so we can go back to the parks. I will try to pack what we need for the day / night in our carry-ons so I don't have to rummage thru the bigger suitcases. I was thinking we could just play day 2 by ear...whenever we finish we finish and then we go back to the hotel & retrieve our luggage and head into the city. The one kink with that plan would be if we needed to buy our RER tickets in advance for a specific time...we don't need to do that, do we?!

Gosh! Just a little over 6 1/2 months to go guys!!

 

[Kels Sem]

Yes, that does help, thanks! Curious if Kelly will agree - that would make it really a no brainer for me!! I noticed that Sante Fe has 2 double beds & Cheyenne has bunk beds for the 2nd bed...hopefully DS will be OK with that. (The older he gets the more he wants to be treated equally and have "real" beds.) Our 2 most favorite resorts at WDW are Wilderness Lodge and Beach Club...but I really don't see spending a bunch of money for a place to SLEEP. I mean, we'll arrive early, early, early & hopefully just be able to store our luggage and get our park tix and head out to the parks. I know we'll be beat but we'd be dead tired no matter where we went or what we try to do, right? (All last weekend when we were in the hospital with DS and got no sleep I kept saying it was practice for going to Europe!) But anyway, I would anticipate that we'll want to have an early dinner then go to bed somewhat early. The next morning we'll have to check out of the room & store our luggage again so we can go back to the parks. I will try to pack what we need for the day / night in our carry-ons so I don't have to rummage thru the bigger suitcases. I was thinking we could just play day 2 by ear...whenever we finish we finish and then we go back to the hotel & retrieve our luggage and head into the city. The one kink with that plan would be if we needed to buy our RER tickets in advance for a specific time...we don't need to do that, do we?!

Gosh! Just a little over 6 1/2 months to go guys!!

Ok, I have only stayed in the Sequioa Lodge so not sure about the others but I wouldn't pay the extra just for one night. You will only be sleeping in the room and having breakfast. I would stay in one of the Disney hotels as with it being summer time you may be lucky enough to get EMH in the mornings which would be good to get in and get some rides down before the crowds build up.

Kelly

 

[luke]

Pretty sure you will get EMH as last few times it was daily, but morning over

 

[west&east]

Annie! I am soo relieved you are back online. I was really starting to worry. I hope DS recovers quickly.

I made my DS quite happy today by surprising him with Epic Mickey for Wii. Amazon had a deal of the day on it last week and it was like half off so I couldn't resisit. It is way cool.

BCN hotel will be hard because the apartments do require 3 days and my friends are very likely coming in only the day before, no chance they'd come before us. DH has a good friend in BCN so I am hoping to pick her brain but she has been unavailable for a while.

 

[luke]

Oh Epic Mickey is very cool but a bit frustrating with it's controls ad camera angles!! Still fun tho!
Sadly, having just jailbroken my ps3, I suspect the Wii will be on the back burners again for a while

 

[west&east]

Trying to get more serious about planning for the cruise! Do any of you have any websites you like to help plan for each port? I want to first get hotel in BCN planned then decide about any guided tours for Italy, etc.

 

[Anal Annie]

Mornin' peeps! WHEW! No school again here today...still lots of power outages from our snowstorm on Wed. so they said too many schools didn't have power. I am glad tho because even tho DS was cleared to go back to school on Thurs. he really still has some of the cough lingering here & there so the extra days off are good. Hoping the cough dies down enough by Sat / Sun to get him back to normal tho. He has missed so many swim practices and has 2 meets in February...

Karen - I know I am a failure with keeping up on the Marauding Mates website but there may be a few links there that you could check out. I REALLY should try to work on it again sometime huh?! I guess I started it thinking that by now we'd have 20 peeps signed up & then that never happened so I gave up on it. Not a good excuse tho... I have picked up some tourguide books on Paris & Barcelona and one on Italy in general so I'm probably going to use those for ideas. I do use the currency converter on the website a lot as I price stuff out - although the answers are always scary!

 

[west&east]

Mornin' peeps! WHEW! No school again here today...still lots of power outages from our snowstorm on Wed. so they said too many schools didn't have power. I am glad tho because even tho DS was cleared to go back to school on Thurs. he really still has some of the cough lingering here & there so the extra days off are good. Hoping the cough dies down enough by Sat / Sun to get him back to normal tho. He has missed so many swim practices and has 2 meets in February...

Karen - I know I am a failure with keeping up on the Marauding Mates website but there may be a few links there that you could check out. I REALLY should try to work on it again sometime huh?! I guess I started it thinking that by now we'd have 20 peeps signed up & then that never happened so I gave up on it. Not a good excuse tho... I have picked up some tourguide books on Paris & Barcelona and one on Italy in general so I'm probably going to use those for ideas. I do use the currency converter on the website a lot as I price stuff out - although the answers are always scary!

Sorry about all the snow up there but glad it gives your son extra time to recuperate! It is finally sunny and warming up here in Charlotte! High 50's today and forecast of 64 for Sunday!!!!!

 

[Anal Annie]

Sorry about all the snow up there but glad it gives your son extra time to recuperate! It is finally sunny and warming up here in Charlotte! High 50's today and forecast of 64 for Sunday!!!!!

64! HA! What is 64?! I would hope we might see 60's sometime before the end of March! They're calling for the possibility of another big storm up here next Tues / Wed / Thurs. WAAAY too far off yet to have any accuracy so we'll have to keep our eyes on the weather channel!!

I am so unmotivated to work around the house for some reason. All I want to is plan for the trip! Can't imagine WHY!! My neighbor is already exploring houses for our big ski trip next January. I am TAPPED out tho! As soon as she picks a house (they want to do ski in / ski out next time) we have to cough up a big deposit! And next winter DS will probably be on his HS swim team & will have a HS meet that weekend - not sure if we'll even be able to go on the first night - we'll have to see if he can get excused I guess when the time comes. Meanwhile DS hasn't been to practices in over a week but I got another $520 payment to make to the Tiburones this week (DS's swim team). Does it ever end?! I need a money tree!!! Anybody got any seedlings to share?!

 

[Anal Annie]

Page 4 already!! Help guys!! Let's chat!!

Got DS back in the pool this weekend. He sounded A LOT better today. Minimal coughing. But he lost sooo much weight last week! His jammer was all wrinkly on him (they're usually skin tight)!! I was SHOCKED! I mean, he's 13 and only weighed 85 Lbs before this happened!! I had taken all the dairy products out of his diet last week so as to not make the phlegm worse...plus I was trying to get him to drink tons of water to loosen the stuff up...but I had no idea he was loosing THAT much!! So I got him back on his milkshakes and protein Boosts today and made a big pot of pasta tonight (so we'll have leftovers). I hope I can beef him back up quickly (if you can call 85 beefy)!!

 

[west&east]

My DS is home this morning with a croupy cough thing. He had this also in Disney before Christmas and we just dealt with it, but if he doesn't sound better in a couple of hours, I'll call the doctor. He's really uncomfortable poor guy. I gave him advil, claritin and delsyn. Steam doesn't seem to help and he doesn't want to be out in the cold. Any ideas??

 

[jd99]

My DS is home this morning with a croupy cough thing. He had this also in Disney before Christmas and we just dealt with it, but if he doesn't sound better in a couple of hours, I'll call the doctor. He's really uncomfortable poor guy. I gave him advil, claritin and delsyn. Steam doesn't seem to help and he doesn't want to be out in the cold. Any ideas??

My youngest dd has this too. It was quite bad sat night so we took her to urgicare and they gave her a shot of some kind of steroid. She was almost instantly better cough wise. Still not feeling great with a fever but not coughing much at all.