*clap* *clap* *clap* I bow to your deal making prowess!! I just told Andrew what your Hawaii total is and he goes "HOW did she do that??" And I told him that you're a deal making bad a$$! Lol
Aw, thanks. Really, though, as much as I like to get good deals, this one (especially the airfare portion) was primarily ridiculous good luck! And the two free nights at Aulani is just really lucky too, I think. I doubt they offer that often - I'd never heard of it before.
It's funny to think that three round-trip airfares in coach should have cost more than that whole resort/air total!
I love how Izzy has so many opinions now!
reminds me of someone else I know. Caden also gets upset sometimes when I make him change his shirt or refuses to get dressed without a fight until I figure out which shirt he wants (which of course is rarely one of the two I offer him. Lol)
Yeah, toddlers can be such opinionated little things!
Tonight, during dinner, Izzy saw our Magic Bands and insisted on us wearing them. Dug tried to wear the "Mommy" one and Izzy freaked out yelling, "No, Mommy! Mommy! No!" So, we wore our Magic Bands until bedtime. And, of course, she was angry when we took them off and put them away, but so it goes.
I'm jealous of all of izzy's traveling. I have the travel bug and I'm stuck in MO! Only 5.5 more months! Lol
Come visit us in MN!
Any day or weekend trips you can take down there?
I can't wait for your trip!
Ps I just (like 5 min ago) ordered one of the new Mickey bumpkin bibs! I'm so excited. Yes he's 2.5 but I still use it when he eats messy things and I'm pretty sure he'll need a Mickey bib for when he eats his Mickey ice cream bar!! Obviously!
Yay! I'm tempted to get some, but really trying to save my money right now and it's hard to justify when we have so many bibs. By the way, the pocket really comes in handy for crayons that roll off the table and leaky restaurant milk cup straw holes.
Man your Hawaii trip is just amazing!! I so wish I could take advantage of that deal! I'm assuming the points thing is just for this fall? So nice of the points person to refund your money for those points though!
Yes, the points thing goes through part of December, I think. Crazy deal! We really lucked out on the DVC rental. I was nervous about renting points from a stranger, but she has been fantastic to work with and I'd rent from her again for sure! (she also owns at AKL, so I'm keeping that in mind if we decide we can swing the May trip, which is still not 100%).
BTW it's been nearly 20 years now, but I remember doing both the Dole Plantation and Pearl Harbor. Loved them both!
My dad lived on Oahu, and we were estranged, so as such after 2 trips to Oahu and me being worried I would run into him, we started going to Maui instead. There is a lot to do on Oahu though and being at Aulani is going to be so neat.
Oh, wow, I didn't realize you'd been there and all. Good to hear that you liked Oahu and there is a lot to do. I keep seeing things where people say there's not much to do, then I look at my ever-growing to-do list and wonder why they feel that way.
What characters are at the character meal?
I actually just saw someone post the answer to this the other day. I think they said that you meet Mickey at the entrance for a picture, then Minnie and Goofy are walking around while you eat. Minnie will be great!! (Side note: our daycare person told me today that one of the older girls wore a Minnie shirt "because she wanted Izzy to like her."
)
That is funny about Izzy's Olaf shirt! Aria wore an Elsa princess nightgown to daycare one day last week, also because she refused to take it off.
Aw, cute - it's nice that it's acceptable to wear pajamas when you're out if you're a toddler. I was worried that I should have bought more than one Olaf shirt, but I'm glad she finally agreed to change.
Does Aulani also have the alcoholic dole whip version?? I have to check that out at AK this trip!
I saw some people talking about that on the DIS and the consensus seemed to be that it was self-serve Dole Whip and you could feel free to add your own rum. Maybe I will have to see if I can pick that up at Target? I am planning to get one at AK in August, so we'll see if I like it first, I guess.
I just can't get over the deals you got to Hawaii!
I think it's safe to say, I'm super jealous. That's just incredible. I'm pretty sure my Disney trip last December cost more than 1,800. And we stayed in a value!
I can't wait to hear all about your trip. I'm sure it'll be amazing.
I can't get over them either!
Of course, we will have other expenses: rental car (currently have a $290-ish rate for a standard size), meals (will use discount WDW gift cards while on property), activities and admissions, etc. We're going to try to keep it reasonable, though.
Don't be jealous - I'm sure that you can live vicariously through an excruciatingly detailed TR that will drag on for at least 27 months, the way I do them.
I know what you mean about having every MagicBand color. I think I only need yellow now. Alex has joked that we'll have to start putting different names on the bands to tell each trip apart.
I saw that TheMaxRebo was smart and added the year onto his. I only got creative enough to change my one for this trip from my name to "Mommy". Maybe I should have a "Dugette" one...hmmmm.
Izzy just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I can't believe how fast she's growing up. Still super adorable though!
Thanks! I know, these kids just keep getting bigger and stuff! Crazy! They are like little people now instead of babies.
Wow, what an amazing deal you got for Hawaii! I think 9 nights will be perfect - it's such a long flight that you have to make it worth it. We went to Maui for our honeymoon and spend 10 days there and could have stayed longer. I can't wait until we get to go to Aulani, but it's probably still a few years away for us.
I have heard that about it being a good idea to stay longer than a week to make the long flight worth it. Of course, we booked this flight without any of that "planning" stuff
, so we just got lucky. We actually booked the dates we did because we thought we might want to do the Norwegian cruise and needed to leave enough time - but it ended up being too much (over $4k), so we went with the "bargain" Aulani stay instead. Man, I'm using a lot of quotes here.
Those pictures of Izzy from the Wisconsin trip are just too cute!
Thank you! I think we got a few pretty adorable ones!
Your Hawaii deal is amazing! I can't believe you've managed that trip for such a price. Izzy really is doing so much traveling! I can't believe you'll be back to Disney again this month. We just missed running into each other, btw. I renewed anyway and briefly considered that AP deal at Pop. We decided to skip the long weekend with the start of school. This Frozen crave is wild and I'm avoiding all of it!
Hope you both have a great time!
Her Olaf shirt is adorable. I love that you just let her keep wearing it, too!
Welcome back again! I can't believe the trip either. Or all of the traveling Izzy has ended up doing so far. Or that I'm back at WDW again so soon!
Aw, bummer you're not going to be there. If you change your minds and get sucked into the Frozen vortex over Labor Day Weekend, let me know!
Thanks on the Olaf shirt. I actually got it in the toddler boys section, but I think it's cute on her (though she did get mistaken for a boy once while wearing it...) And, hey, at least with her wearing it all the time, I'm getting my money's worth, since this was one of the few things I bought her at full price.
I think it will be an awesome time and certainly qualifies as the deal of a lifetime! 
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I know people complain that its rough and makes them sore, etc., but it really doesnt bother me at all. I just love those little drops in the dark! So fun! 
But Im sure some people try. We just wanted some corn dog nuggets. Oh, well, our back-up plan was Sunshine Seasons, after park-hopping. Wed just have to wait until then. Not a problem.
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