Can we? Should we? A Spring 2009 PTR - New 5/6 - The TR has begun!

[dismom9761]

Hi Everyone - sorry for the long absence - we lost power due to a huge ice storm that came through last Thursday night. Power went out at 11:15 Thursday night and still hasn't returned. We are on generator power so I shouldn't have the computer on for long but since cable/internet/phone returned yesterday I thought I'd jump on for a quick update. I'll be back soon with photos of the damage to our yard. We had a lot of tree limbs down and one big tree, but luckily our house didn't suffer any damage. The kids have been out of school since Friday so we are a little stir crazy - but hanging in there.

Good Disney news - we booked our return flight on JetBlue!! $129 pp/one way - add that to our $84/pp one way and we spent $$213 pp/rt = 852 total!!

Sorry to hear about the storm,glad you are alright.

on the airfare!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Amy sorry to hear you got hit hard from the storm! I read on Heidi's TR about the power out and now to hear the boys are home too I can't imagine the crazies going on there!

Hang in there and I hope you can manage and keep everyone happy and warm.

yay on the return flight being booked that is wonderful news for your trip.

J-

Sorry to hear about the storm,glad you are alright.

on the airfare!!

Thanks for your concerns! We are all OK - we finally got our power back last Thursday night - a full week after it went out. Then we were hit with a big snow storm Friday night - a foot of snow - followed by a second snow storm on Sunday - another foot of snow. We had two feet on the ground before it was even winter! Alex missed 4 days of school already due to the weather - 3 from the ice followed by 1 day from a storm that we got last Wednesday. Then Monday night I got a 24 hour stomach bug which kept me from attending Alex's school concert that was rescheduled from during the ice storm! Luckily nobody else has gotten it yet - hopefully it stays that way! It's been a crazy couple of weeks!

Trip planning news - it looks like ADRs are now opened up past 3/22 using a 90 day window - so I'll be able to book mine at the end of January. This is actually a good thing since we don't have May hours yet & TGM has yet to give his opinion on best parks for the second half of April. It's nice having a date to plan with rather than the unknown that was going on prior to yesterday. And with the 90 day window I won't have to deal with a big backlog of people calling all on the same day.

I hope everybody has a great Christmas!! I'm sure I'll be in full OTP mode after Christmas. I'll need something to get me through the long winter.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

[DisMomAmy]

Since this trip is on a budget - to a certain extent - I told myself I wouldn't do any unnecessary shopping. However, luggage is one things we NEED. JetBlue only allows 1 checked bag per person - so we have to make it count, plus we want rolling carryon bags for all of the stuff we can't check, but don't need during the flights. So I heard there was a good deal on some nice and durable luggage on Disneyshopping.com I jumped on it. I got these luggage sets for the boys. The luggage was normally $99, marked down to $59 and 20% off = $47 each. The tags were under $5 per set on sale. Plus I got free shipping - everything was $105.00!!

Each piece of luggage has a Mickey head on it - it's kind of hard to see in these pictures. Alex's favorite color is blue and Zachary's is red. It's always been that way and they always remind us. Since we are going a week after Easter, I think we'll tell them on Easter. I read on another thread about a scavenger hunt that someone did for Hannukah to tell their kids about a trip and I'm hoping to borrow that idea - with the luggage at the end of the hunt.

Pretty good deal, huh? I can't wait to get them! It'll be like hiding Christmas presents all over again.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Hi Amy!! We just got home today, I love the idea of the scavenger hunt with the luggage at the end that is a fantastic idea!! I hope you and your family have a wonderful new year .

 

[MRYPPNS]

Love the luggage for the boys! They are going to be so excited when they find out they are going to Disney.

 

[coteau_chick]

I'm here. I love the luggage. Great deal.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Amy!! We just got home today, I love the idea of the scavenger hunt with the luggage at the end that is a fantastic idea!! I hope you and your family have a wonderful new year .

Welcome home - can't wait to hear about your trip. Hope you had a nice holiday at the "log home".

Love the luggage for the boys! They are going to be so excited when they find out they are going to Disney.

I can't wait! Now that Christmas is over, I'm getting really antsy for the May hours and for TGM to put out the Least Crowded Park Charts for late April. I feel like I'm on here checking constantly!

I'm here. I love the luggage. Great deal.

Glad you found me!

 

[Hedy]

Great luggage.

 

[dismom9761]

Love the luggage! I had actually showed it to my DH and thought about ordering.Now I really regret not getting it...

 

[Charleston Princess]

I can't wait to read your official review of the luggage once you get it -- I can't tell you how many times I have looked at it online and wondered if I should get it.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Great luggage.

Love the luggage! I had actually showed it to my DH and thought about ordering.Now I really regret not getting it...

I can't wait to read your official review of the luggage once you get it -- I can't tell you how many times I have looked at it online and wondered if I should get it.

Thanks!! I should get the luggage on Monday - I'll take some better pictures of it then and I'll let everyone know how it holds up during the trip. Someone over on the TourGuideMike forums said she has a set that is quite durable so she bought a second set during the sale - I guess that's the best recommendation you can get...

 

[DisMomAmy]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I hope everyone has a great 2009! And a trip to the World - or at least a trip in the works!

 

[MRYPPNS]

Happy New Year Amy!

 

[DisMomAmy]

The buy 4, get 3 promotion got me thinking... with discounted park tickets and the dining plan - could it be cheaper to stay on-site? So I looked online and found some decent prices - I added on the park hopper and waterpark plus options then quoted out what it would cost for the Quick Service dining plan and regular dining plan. I looked at several different resorts. Value, Moderate, FW Cabins (since it popped up as an alternative offer). I wrote everything down and then decided to call in to see if there were any Family Suites available that I just wasn't seeing online. No luck there... But DH came home from the gym while I was on my undercover phone call with Disney Reservations... I waved him off to the shower and knew I'd have some explaining to do.

I explained the whole thing to him how we could stay for less if we gave up some space (Value or Moderate) or pay more and stay at a Fort Wilderness Cabin (the rate I found online was great). Plus we had more flexibility with our dates (when we visit family) than we would have with the condo. And we could do more TS with the dinign plan. We discussed it and he said to surprise him!

I went back online and couldn't find any of the same rates I had found earlier! They were much higher! The promotion was still listed on the page - so I have no idea what happened.

Has anyone ever had this happen??? I'm thinking I'll try it again tomorrow and see what happens. We'll probably end up staying at the condo - but now I'm just so flustered by the price differences I want to figure it out.

 

[mrsksomeday]

The second time you did it, did you go to the special offers first? Or did you just plug in your dates on the home page? I have forgotten and done that before and freaked out with the price difference.

 

[DisMomAmy]

The second time you did it, did you go to the special offers first? Or did you just plug in your dates on the home page? I have forgotten and done that before and freaked out with the price difference.

I did it through the special offers link - and I've gone back a million times now & can't find the prices from earlier today. It's driving me bananas! I just assumed I had forgotten to change the tickets to PH and WP+ or something like that, but I've tried every combination possible to figure out what I did... it is really bugging me! I think I'll just assume it was a dream or some sort of dillusion...

 

[mousescrapper]

Amy,

fist off, sorry about all the bum luck you've had w/ the snow, power out and being sick!!!!

hope most of that is past you and you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

Good deal/steal on the luggage that is so clever about the scavenger hunt idea to suprise the boys! I'm sure they will be so excited.

As far as the prices online sometimes it's tricky to navigate it all and figure out that crazy math stuff. Boys go back to school on Monday yes? I'd really call down there. (I know it can be dangerous as DH says getting hooked in....) but I think you'll only really know what real options you have if you speak to a live person!

Have all the info you found online w/ you and the comparison w/ the condo as well. I suggest talking w/ DH one more time before you call, so that way if they do offer you some really good deal that is a set amount of savings you and DH are going for then you can just re-book it all right then.

Keep the rental car for traveling to and fro and have fun w/ it. I think the 3/4 deal is amazing and wish I could jump on it!

Good luck curious to hear what you find out and decide!

J-

 

[MRYPPNS]

The other day I played around online too and could get a week of hotel, tickets and QS dinning for $1500, plus the $200 gift card. But airfare was gonna cost me close to $800! I'm glad we can't go because it would be very tempting to save that much on a Disney vacation.

 

[DisMomAmy]

The other day I played around online too and could get a week of hotel, tickets and QS dinning for $1500, plus the $200 gift card. But airfare was gonna cost me close to $800! I'm glad we can't go because it would be very tempting to save that much on a Disney vacation.

Try Jetblue out of Portland.
I know, I'm a bad influence, but, I can't help it...

 

[DisMomAmy]

Amy,

fist off, sorry about all the bum luck you've had w/ the snow, power out and being sick!!!!

hope most of that is past you and you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

Good deal/steal on the luggage that is so clever about the scavenger hunt idea to suprise the boys! I'm sure they will be so excited.

As far as the prices online sometimes it's tricky to navigate it all and figure out that crazy math stuff. Boys go back to school on Monday yes? I'd really call down there. (I know it can be dangerous as DH says getting hooked in....) but I think you'll only really know what real options you have if you speak to a live person!

Have all the info you found online w/ you and the comparison w/ the condo as well. I suggest talking w/ DH one more time before you call, so that way if they do offer you some really good deal that is a set amount of savings you and DH are going for then you can just re-book it all right then.

Keep the rental car for traveling to and fro and have fun w/ it. I think the 3/4 deal is amazing and wish I could jump on it!

Good luck curious to hear what you find out and decide!

J-

Hopefully we've turned the corner on the bad luck... knock on wood - nobody else got sick.

I think I will call Disney again on Monday - I'm pretty much set on staying at our condo - which is fine. The only issue with the condo is that we pretty much have to stay Saturday-Saturday to get the best choices. We could possibly get a Monday-Monday, but the choices are limited. Our 60 day window for the Saturday week opens up two days before our 60 day window for the Monday week. If I don't grab the Saturday week and wait it out until Monday, the Saturday week could be gone by Monday... know what I mean. I'd rather visit family first, then go to Disney, which would require the Monday week. So worst case scenario is we take the Saturday week and visit family after Disney. Which really isn't that much of a problem. I would just rather build up the vacation - assuming that the kids would think Disney is better than family, which may not be the case - they REALLY like DH's brother.

I'll poke around a little more online and try to finalize the condo budget tonight. I can always reserve something at Disney and cancel it later so I'm not worried about that - we'd have until mid-March to pay or cancel. I just wish I could find those rates from yesterday! I'm pulling out my hair over it! It's strange because I figured I had just forgotten to change the park tickets to park hoppers or forgot to add one of us to the reservation, but I've tried every combination to recreate those rates and can't come up with it no matter how I do it. Very strange.