Back and had a great time

[hockey mom]

Hi all! Just walked in and had to check my favorite site

Wendy-pin trading was a breeze. We dropped 100 pins in the fist 3 days- I should have gotten more

Started our trip with a bit of a snaffu at National they had no cars but did get us a taxi to our hotel and got us a car on our 3rd day First 2 nights we spent using priceline at Radisson worldgate- it did the trick. From there we spent 4 nights at Pop Century which was very cute and then we went to WLV for 3 nights. I LOVE THIS PLACE. It was so beautiful and relaxing I hated to go to the parks.

We had a day and half of rain which wasn't to bad except the half part was at our MNSSHP and they delayed the parade so once again I have no pictures of the headless horseman.

 

[ChisJo]

Sorry to hear that it wasn't exactly perfect, but glad to hear your review of the Pop - was hoping to stay there in 2006.
Good to see you returned safely and look forward to a more detailed trip report!
Jo

 

[hockey mom]

Thanks Chris. You will love Pop, it is alot of fun. We took a ton of pictures of the really cute icons. We had an excellent time and I will go into alot more detail once we unpack.

 

[bunnyfoo]

Welcome back Hockeymom!

That's some serious pin trading! Were you able to trade for anything cool?

I managed to get a picture of the headless horseman on 3rd. It's not the world's greatest picture because it's dark and he went by pretty quick. Let me know if you want a copy of it

 

[Scratch42]

You'll just have to plan to go back next year!

Check out the Transporation Boards. Apparently there is a site where you can lodge a greivance with the Car Rental Company.

Glad to hear the pins are easy to trade! Guess we'll have to pack a few extra this trip!

Any mention of strikes by the CM's?

Scratch

 

[hockey mom]

Bunnyfoo- I would love a copy of the headless horseman. Thanks. The kids got some really good pins. DS started the bottle cap series, DD got alot of attraction pins that she was looking for, and other DD snagged alot of dalmation pins that are her fav.

Scratch- National had no cars because of the 4 hurricanes and that we could live with but it was the way it was handled. They let everyone stand in line for about 30 mins before coming over to tell us that they had no cars and were taxi'ing you to your hotel. One guy was working the counter also. Then they gave you a number to check back the next day but it was impossible to get through. Once we did we were told a car was being dropped off at our hotel as we speak- o.k. good recovery except that never happened. We phoned that night still no answer. Next morning we had to check out by 11 so DH phones again and they say a car is on its way-not. They paid for the cab fare to Pop and said they would drop it off there. We took the bus to DD and right in the middle of lunch they phone to tell us the car is at Pop and DH needs to get back and sign for it
The news is still mentioning the strike quite a bit, but not CM's.
Bring lots of pins- some CM's were excited to trade for the Friendship pin.
Give WL a try one year with your points- it was excellent.

 

[Scratch42]

Originally posted by hockey mom


Bring lots of pins- some CM's were excited to trade for the Friendship pin.

Give WL a try one year with your points- it was excellent.

That is such good news regarding the pins!

What are the Halloween Pins like? Any new series?

During our Xmas Trip, I have booked WC and a Sleigh ride so that we can check out the Place! It is on my "To Do" list!

Scratch

 

[hockey mom]

We only bought the Donald Pirate pin offered at our party but I seen alot of stitch Halloween pins out there.

We ran into a mom and daughter from Ottawa in DD and her pin"trader" book was bigger than all of my kids collection together. Can you imagine how big her collection must be. Her Mom told us they come about 4 times a year.

 

[tmli]

We also just returned from POP. On our second last day all of the cm's in everything Pop had friendship pins on their lanyards...I knew a CDN was near buy but I kept missing you, LOL!!!! We actually managed to only trade about 50 of our 180 or so traders. My ds would only trade for incredibles and stitch pins. I did manage to sneak a few good trades in though. We attempted to trade with a suit, turns out the pin my ds wanted was damaged so he couldn't trade for it. He asked us how long we were trading and thanked my ds for keeping pin trading alive and gave him a great pin with mickey and stitch on it that says something like thanks for trading attached to a real neat card with a special message.

We picked up our cars at National on the day after the hurricane (27th) and there were a few cars on the lot then. Not alot, but we rented 3 cars and there were still quite a few.

We are heading back in January so will trade the rest then. I spent 2 weeks at POP and I also enjoyed it. By the end of the second week it got really busy but prior to that it was quite slow!

 

[hockey mom]

tmli- so sorry we didn't get a chance to hook up. I was looking for lime green because I knew a few Cdns we down at the same time. In the beginning my kids were trading friendship pins just to have something different and then they fine tuned as the trip went on. I did notice alot of suits with pins this year which was nice.

Hope you had a nice trip.

 

[tmli]

Can you believe I have no lime green? We had a great trip, we did so many things we have never done before.

 

[sammi]

Welcome home! Despite your problem with your rental it really sounds like you had a fantastic time....especially with pin trading!

Did the rental co. reimburse you in any way? I've been reading on the transportation boards that yes there is a real lack of cars available and I'm starting to get a little worried as we've booked through Budget and will be needing the car right before the US Thanksgiving?

Again Welcome Home!

 

[Canadave]

Hey hockey mom and family...welcome back...we'll be looking for more details soon

 

[hockey mom]

Sammi- they gave us a $25 voucher for next time

Canadave I will post more details after DD's hockey game.

 

[sammi]

Gee hockey mom that was really "nice" of them wasn't it?

 

[MaMudduck]

:thewave: For pin trading!

I told you, you should have gotten more pins LOL. I think it's funny that between 4 or 5 of us we have/had ALL the LIMITED amount of that pin. rolleyes: some LIMITED EDITION ) So, now how many do I take on this trip?

Glad to hear you had a great time....I guess I'll see you on Monday?

I've been trying to book a rental car for the last 2 weeks and having a real difficult time...when I phoned down there (MCO) they told me the same thing about the hurricanes. Many of the "tourist" that couldn't get flights out as the hurricanes were coming in, so they just rented a car and dropped them up north. National/Alamo said 60% of their MCO fleet cars were now in other states and they haven't got them back yet.

Thanks alot Charlie, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne now I've got to pay twice as much for a rent car. (just teasing...I think that's the last thing Floridian have to worry about)

 

[mom_rules]

We just got back as well-when we arrived at the National desk at the Dolphin they had a no cars available sign and no customers waiting. He said the hurricane caused absolute chaos with the rental agencies-either people doing one way drop offs or damage to the rentals themselves. We had no problem getting our convertible-was waiting for us in less than 5 mins.

I also got the Donald MNSSHP pin-is there somewhere you can get others (would love to get Stitch)-they were sold out of the other nights' pins when we were there.

 

[hockey mom]

mom_rules- glad to hear you didn't have the car problems we had. I also got Donald and I think the only way to get the Stitch pin was if you know someone going to that party or check E-bay in a few weeks. We ran into a mom and daughter pin trading at DD. They were from Ottawa and the little girl is a serious collecter. They said that the 31st is sold out because that is the night for the Stitch pin

So any new plans for another trip on the horizon?

 

[MaMudduck]

I'll see what I can do while I'm there. We aren't doing the MNSSHP this year but sometimes you can get/or trade for some of those pins.

 

[Scratch42]

Oh Boy Oh Boy!

DD will definately be happy if we get that Stitch Pin!

BTW, I'm in the Single Digits!



Scratch