August 16, 2011, Disney Dream - Part 3

[jenanderson]

I need your opinions cruise friends! I can't decide how I should get to the port. I currently have a rental car reserved and DCL bus reservations from AKL. It's time to decide which one to use. I originally wanted to rent a car and get there early to try and score a Palo brunch reservation on board. However, my port arrival time is 12:00, so that isn't going to work anymore. Now I'm thinking about just taking the bus and saving some frustration. I would love everyone's feedback. Thanks!

We were so torn about this as well. My original plan was to rent and get there early. Then, I was going to take the bus and get there early. Now we have a rental and I am just going to get there at our assigned time. I know this means no Palo for us so I am just going to take it all in stride.

Just finished our run for the day - 10.75 miles today (a bit short of what I wanted but more then fine). I am now kind of bumming though because apparently....our air conditioner is not working. It is going to be close to 100° with high humidity for several days and we have no air. I am so sick of things breaking down on us and all these extra bills. Hopefully it is something DH and I can figure out or else we will be sucking up the heat until Monday because I am not paying for after hour service hours.

BUMMER!!!!! We set a high one day this week 102!! It was hot!! Today the temp is 86, which is a little lower than our normal 90s!!

A/C is WORKING again! Something had happened with the breaker and we flipped it and are cooling again!

 

[uncw89]

We were so torn about this as well. My original plan was to rent and get there early. Then, I was going to take the bus and get there early. Now we have a rental and I am just going to get there at our assigned time. I know this means no Palo for us so I am just going to take it all in stride.





A/C is WORKING again! Something had happened with the breaker and we flipped it and are cooling again!

Yay for tha AC working!!!!
I forgot to say that ours broke on a weekend not to long ago and I broke down and called our guy to come fix it!! I couldn't take the heat!

 

[bigmama101]

Just sent you a PM!!

Thanks just sent you an e-mail.

 

[elgerber]

Just finished our run for the day - 10.75 miles today (a bit short of what I wanted but more then fine). I am now kind of bumming though because apparently....our air conditioner is not working. It is going to be close to 100° with high humidity for several days and we have no air. I am so sick of things breaking down on us and all these extra bills. Hopefully it is something DH and I can figure out or else we will be sucking up the heat until Monday because I am not paying for after hour service hours.

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope your dh can fix it too!!! That is bad timing. Is your basement finished so you can stay down there? When we built this house, we had this kind of weather the saturday we moved in. Sometime between walk through and move in the A/C quit working as did the hot water heater! We had to do after hours service, but we made the builder pay for it. It took a good day before it cooled the house down though.

 

[jenanderson]

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope your dh can fix it too!!! That is bad timing. Is your basement finished so you can stay down there? When we built this house, we had this kind of weather the saturday we moved in. Sometime between walk through and move in the A/C quit working as did the hot water heater! We had to do after hours service, but we made the builder pay for it. It took a good day before it cooled the house down though.

Hey Erika - We did figure it out. One of the breakers had popped so now we have cold air coming out again.

It is totally time for a nap already today.

 

[elgerber]

Hey Erika - We did figure it out. One of the breakers had popped so now we have cold air coming out again.

It is totally time for a nap already today.

Yay!!!! Go take a nap. I slept till 9:45 today, I guess the midnight HP caught up with me!

 

[jenanderson]

Yay!!!! Go take a nap. I slept till 9:45 today, I guess the midnight HP caught up with me!

I have a bunch of computer things to get caught up on so I am going to go lay and bed to work...if I fall asleep for a bit, that will be fine with me!

I really have a lot to get done today though so we will see.

 

[Pudo]

I need your opinions cruise friends! I can't decide how I should get to the port. I currently have a rental car reserved and DCL bus reservations from AKL. It's time to decide which one to use. I originally wanted to rent a car and get there early to try and score a Palo brunch reservation on board. However, my port arrival time is 12:00, so that isn't going to work anymore. Now I'm thinking about just taking the bus and saving some frustration. I would love everyone's feedback. Thanks!

I am not a big fan of renting a car because dropping it off and getting a ride to port takes too much time. You can't drop the car off at the port so renting a car (to me) is not the most time efficient option, but can be cost effective. If you are staying at a resort in the PC area the day before then that is different, but renting a car from MCO to PC the morning of a cruise doesn't work for me.

The bus option can be more fun since the bus is full of excited people all going to cruise. Depending on the timing the bus can be delayed or take awhile. Often the bus will stop at several resorts either before or after they pick you up at AKL. One time I timed the bus from PC to the Boardwalk and it took 3 hours. By the time the bus filled up at the port, traveled to WDW, and stopped at 4 resorts before ours it 1:00 pm, 3 hours later. Won't do that again.

My favorite option, depending on the number of passengers (for us it's normally 4) is the town car. It is not always the most cost effective, but the best door-to-door option if you want to get some place in a timely fashion. There are many in the area. I recommend southern elegance.

My two cents....

Jeff

 

[TiggerAllie]

I need your opinions cruise friends! I can't decide how I should get to the port. I currently have a rental car reserved and DCL bus reservations from AKL. It's time to decide which one to use. I originally wanted to rent a car and get there early to try and score a Palo brunch reservation on board. However, my port arrival time is 12:00, so that isn't going to work anymore. Now I'm thinking about just taking the bus and saving some frustration. I would love everyone's feedback. Thanks!

Do you get to check-in ahead of time if you use the DCL transfer from AKL? I know that a big advantage for us last time was getting to check-in at the airport before we got on the bus--that meant no waiting in lines at the port. It also meant that we relinquished our "checked" luggage at the airport and didn't have to drop it with the porters at the terminal. To me, these are two big advantages to DCL transfers--do you get this from the resorts as well as from the airport? Otherwise, you could take and early ME to the airport and then the DCL transfer from there...

I actually thought about returning our car to MCO and taking the DCL transfers to avoid the terminal check-in lines, but it adds 60-90 extra minutes of driving time, and with 6 people I couldn't really justify it.

We were able to get a Palo brunch after boarding at 1PM on the Magic in Jan, so you never know. You can also get on the cancellation list.

 

[DisneyFanForLife89]

30 days until our cruise, and I am definitely getting some important cruise planning done today while at work! Yay for multi-tasking!

 

[gfolchick]

I need your opinions cruise friends! I can't decide how I should get to the port. I currently have a rental car reserved and DCL bus reservations from AKL. It's time to decide which one to use. I originally wanted to rent a car and get there early to try and score a Palo brunch reservation on board. However, my port arrival time is 12:00, so that isn't going to work anymore. Now I'm thinking about just taking the bus and saving some frustration. I would love everyone's feedback. Thanks!

What time will the bus leave from AKL?

 

[gfolchick]

With a month to cruise day (22 days til we leave for FL) I REALLY should be working on my FE gifts. Instead I'm here and watching Food Network!


I've been doing laundry since last night-washing everything that came home from camp-it all smells musty...


Has anyone tried to order packing cubes lately? There's a price difference, even with the 20% off, about $4 difference per set which adds up depending on how many more I may order. Free shipping over $50. Does anyone have a better code?

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Great news that the cruise is only a month away! I was up until the wee hours of the morning working on the FEs. I'm done! They are all in a box and await being sent to the DCL
warehouse about 10 days before. I had no problem with this arrangement last October so plan to do it again. And I must admit that just like last year, my box being shipped is a bit larger than the "record box" size. I called DCL and asked about the size of the box and they told me it was fine to use a bigger box. That was all I needed to hear!

@Kristin, Thanks for your email with all of the helpful tips. I did email the car service with the reservation after my phone call just to make sure everything was correct, especially our request for two booster seats. The owner emailed me right back and said all was good. Thanks for your good advice!

@Harry, is Keira's swim team stuff over? Skye and Hope's ended today as they didn't qualify for the divisional meet. At their age they didn't really care as they quickly started to focus on the team's ice cream social/awards banquet that happens next week.

@Jeff, The new play structure in your backyard looks awesome. Skye and Hope are insanely jealous of Sarah's good fortune!

Now it is time to start figuring out how to best use all of the packing cubes that I just got in the mail. Yes, we bought four different colors.

 

[msteddom]

What time will the bus leave from AKL?

It sounds like the bus departs the resort around noon, with port arrival around one. I'm really leaning towards the bus at this point and having a relaxing morning at AKL.

Melissa

 

[gfolchick]

It sounds like the bus departs the resort around noon, with port arrival around one. I'm really leaning towards the bus at this point and having a relaxing morning at AKL.

Melissa

Probably a wise decision. I'm dreading what could be the craziness of early arrival and may decide to board later with our family/friends...Relaxing sounds good!

 

[TiggerAllie]

We're off to Joann's to purchase supplies so I can make a FE for my parents' door. I told them I would make it for them, and we leave in 4 weeks, so I better get started! We're going to reuse the one from our last cruise:

 

[hmansure]

Just finished our run for the day - 10.75 miles today (a bit short of what I wanted but more then fine). I am now kind of bumming though because apparently....our air conditioner is not working. It is going to be close to 100° with high humidity for several days and we have no air. I am so sick of things breaking down on us and all these extra bills. Hopefully it is something DH and I can figure out or else we will be sucking up the heat until Monday because I am not paying for after hour service hours.

I thought we were the only ones who had stuff breaking down!!!

Our house is the place where stuff comes to break!

I had a post last weekend where I noted I had to fix an outdoor hose bib. This week it's the ignitor in our oven and DW mumbled something about the vacuum cleaner not working properly?!?! It is always something!

 

[uncw89]

It sounds like the bus departs the resort around noon, with port arrival around one. I'm really leaning towards the bus at this point and having a relaxing morning at AKL.

Melissa

I think this sounds like the least stressful option! We are staying at the port and using their shuttle. I've never done a town car but that would be good too, probably not cost effective though!

 

[elgerber]

Made a teeny bit of cruise progress today! Started one part of one of my FE gifts, had ds try on his dress clothes, they still fit. Tried on pirate costumes, they still fit!!! Yay!!! First dh says, we're doing pirate stuff again? I said "hell yeah", then we went up to find it all and then he got totally into it!!!
And dh fixed the Mickey ears on the end of my FE dowel rod that my dog chewed off!!!!

 

[hmansure]

@Harry, is Keira's swim team stuff over? Skye and Hope's ended today as they didn't qualify for the divisional meet. At their age they didn't really care as they quickly started to focus on the team's ice cream social/awards banquet that happens next week.

Today was the last dual meet. Had to get up at 5:30, too as we had to drive 75 minutes to get there!

Tim has an extra (non-dual) meet tomorrow (I get to sleep until 6:30!!) and Keira has a mini-meet next Sunday. Tim qualified for Champs, Keira did not so we'll be going another couple of weeks. We then take August off - and the USA season starts after Labor Day. This will be Keira's first season on the "big kid" team as well. To make our lives even more complex we're trying to strong-arm Jake into joining the team, too