Tink-aholic
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2007
- Messages
- 1,046
This is my first trip report, so bear with me if I don't do well!
Cast: Me, DH (known as Grumpy from here on out), and DS.
Planning for this trip "officially" began back on May 1, but my mind is always whirring with future plans for Disney trips. So when Grumpy finally gave the go-ahead to get things started, I was already way ahead.
Scheduling is difficult for my family because I am a teacher in a different district than DS. This means that the only school breaks we share are two days at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and summer. Grumpy has to work on the day after Thanksgiving and is too far down on the seniority chain at work to ever get Christmas week or a summer week off. Luckily, Grumpy gets three personal days off and he only works four days a week, so he took all three days and combined them for a six-day vacation. He works overnights and would get off work around 2:30 or 3AM on a Saturday and wouldn't have to be back at work until Friday evening at 4. He checked with his work and could have the days off at the end of July. Finally, a schedule I could work with!
First, we had to choose the resort. I had stayed at many of the resorts over the years and was privately pulling for the Poly. Grumpy, however, had only stayed onsite once and it was the GF. After a lot of research and going over the budget, we decided that a moderate would work best for us. I had stayed at POFQ and loved it, though was thinking that we could try CBR this time. As I was making reservations, I discovered that the exact same reservation at AKL would only cost $200 more for the whole time! Once Grumpy saw the photos, he was convinced. A pool-room (a little more money, but not much more) at AKL was booked. Yahoo! Here we come!
In the next few days, I signed up for the DISboards (GREAT decision!), bought plane tickets, arranged a car service, and started a packing list. I took every tip to heart and started searching for cheap ponchos at Wal Mart and locating card-holder lanyards online.
Some of my careful research only lead to what I call "Overpaid Frustration Syndrome" or OFS, for short. For example, I had been going to WDW since I was three...and I just assumed that everyone paid "rack rate" for everything. I had no idea what a code was! Of course, by the time I found out, there was no code I could find for our dates and no guarantee I would be able to get the same reservation if I cancelled. Also, about a week after I bought the plane tickets, a Ding! came out that would have saved us over $150 AND we would have left from a closer airport! Grrrr!
Of course, I never shared any of this newfound information with Grumpy... 
As the days CRAWLED by, I found myself almost addicted to the DISboards. If I wasn't going over budgets and packing lists in my head, I was reading other people's tips and suggestions online. I made spreadsheets, bought the Unofficial Guide AND TourGuideMike...I was pretty much obsessed. I had a laundry basket in the dining room and any time I bought something to use at WDW, I would throw it in. And I bought LOTS of stuff!
Also from my time on the DIS, I found out about Memories by Sarah. I worked with her to get three caps (I included one for me, too!) filled with goodies all themed with AKL in mind. She was wonderful to work with and had super ideas.
At about 30 days out, we got a call from AKL. Due to my excessive time on the DIS, I knew it was coming and was prepared. The construction on the new DVC Villas was way ahead of schedule and they wanted to move us to
a different resort. I was told that many animals wouldn't be there and the noise could be disturbing. At first, they offered a 1 BR at SSR. I knew they were making some other deals, so I made sure to tell the CM that Grumpy had his heart set on AKL and I had already purchased themed baskets and everything. Without missing a beat, the CM offered the 1 BR at SSR and $946 back. Even though I probably could have had a room at the Poly, I didn't want to press my luck. I jumped at the offer and switched my ticker.
By the way, this call alleviated my OFS a bit because it seems they gave us a 40% off code rate with that offer.
When we were finally in the last few days, I was getting stressed. Somehow, I managed to pull a muscle in my neck and had to finish a master's-level course for school and pack while on muscle-relaxers (I bet my homework got some laughs!).
Even though I knew we had laundry machines in our villa, I decided to pack enough for each of us to change twice every day. Grumpy sweats a LOT and prefers to wear a t-shirt under all of his shirts, so I needed to pack 4x the number of shirts for him (or so I thought!
). Bought a new set of luggage, but it wasn't big enough...so I bought an even bigger set.
I started packing two days before we left with the 2.5 gallon bags (another tip from the DIS) and they worked GREAT -- but air would seep in over time and things I had packed no longer fit.
I packed and repacked and packed again, and just COULDN'T make everything fit. On the night before, I called Grumpy at work and he suggested another suitcase (bringing the total to five PLUS golf clubs for a 6-day trip!). Got it out and now had plenty of room! Yippee! Maybe I could fit in more stuff... 
On that same call to Grumpy, he told me that his boss messed up and scheduled him for a 12-hour shift that night. This was BAAAAAAAAAAAD news because he started work at 4PM. If you add in the mandatory break for lunch, he wouldn't be off work until 4:30AM...but the car service was picking us up at 4:15!! Our flight was at 6:30 and we live almost an hour from the airport. We really couldn't push that window much more without the possibility of missing the flight.
Did he make the flight? Wait until the next installment...
Cast: Me, DH (known as Grumpy from here on out), and DS.
Planning for this trip "officially" began back on May 1, but my mind is always whirring with future plans for Disney trips. So when Grumpy finally gave the go-ahead to get things started, I was already way ahead.
Scheduling is difficult for my family because I am a teacher in a different district than DS. This means that the only school breaks we share are two days at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and summer. Grumpy has to work on the day after Thanksgiving and is too far down on the seniority chain at work to ever get Christmas week or a summer week off. Luckily, Grumpy gets three personal days off and he only works four days a week, so he took all three days and combined them for a six-day vacation. He works overnights and would get off work around 2:30 or 3AM on a Saturday and wouldn't have to be back at work until Friday evening at 4. He checked with his work and could have the days off at the end of July. Finally, a schedule I could work with!
First, we had to choose the resort. I had stayed at many of the resorts over the years and was privately pulling for the Poly. Grumpy, however, had only stayed onsite once and it was the GF. After a lot of research and going over the budget, we decided that a moderate would work best for us. I had stayed at POFQ and loved it, though was thinking that we could try CBR this time. As I was making reservations, I discovered that the exact same reservation at AKL would only cost $200 more for the whole time! Once Grumpy saw the photos, he was convinced. A pool-room (a little more money, but not much more) at AKL was booked. Yahoo! Here we come!
In the next few days, I signed up for the DISboards (GREAT decision!), bought plane tickets, arranged a car service, and started a packing list. I took every tip to heart and started searching for cheap ponchos at Wal Mart and locating card-holder lanyards online.
Some of my careful research only lead to what I call "Overpaid Frustration Syndrome" or OFS, for short. For example, I had been going to WDW since I was three...and I just assumed that everyone paid "rack rate" for everything. I had no idea what a code was! Of course, by the time I found out, there was no code I could find for our dates and no guarantee I would be able to get the same reservation if I cancelled. Also, about a week after I bought the plane tickets, a Ding! came out that would have saved us over $150 AND we would have left from a closer airport! Grrrr!
Of course, I never shared any of this newfound information with Grumpy... As the days CRAWLED by, I found myself almost addicted to the DISboards. If I wasn't going over budgets and packing lists in my head, I was reading other people's tips and suggestions online. I made spreadsheets, bought the Unofficial Guide AND TourGuideMike...I was pretty much obsessed. I had a laundry basket in the dining room and any time I bought something to use at WDW, I would throw it in. And I bought LOTS of stuff!
Also from my time on the DIS, I found out about Memories by Sarah. I worked with her to get three caps (I included one for me, too!) filled with goodies all themed with AKL in mind. She was wonderful to work with and had super ideas.
At about 30 days out, we got a call from AKL. Due to my excessive time on the DIS, I knew it was coming and was prepared. The construction on the new DVC Villas was way ahead of schedule and they wanted to move us to
a different resort. I was told that many animals wouldn't be there and the noise could be disturbing. At first, they offered a 1 BR at SSR. I knew they were making some other deals, so I made sure to tell the CM that Grumpy had his heart set on AKL and I had already purchased themed baskets and everything. Without missing a beat, the CM offered the 1 BR at SSR and $946 back. Even though I probably could have had a room at the Poly, I didn't want to press my luck. I jumped at the offer and switched my ticker.
By the way, this call alleviated my OFS a bit because it seems they gave us a 40% off code rate with that offer.
When we were finally in the last few days, I was getting stressed. Somehow, I managed to pull a muscle in my neck and had to finish a master's-level course for school and pack while on muscle-relaxers (I bet my homework got some laughs!).
Even though I knew we had laundry machines in our villa, I decided to pack enough for each of us to change twice every day. Grumpy sweats a LOT and prefers to wear a t-shirt under all of his shirts, so I needed to pack 4x the number of shirts for him (or so I thought!
). Bought a new set of luggage, but it wasn't big enough...so I bought an even bigger set. I started packing two days before we left with the 2.5 gallon bags (another tip from the DIS) and they worked GREAT -- but air would seep in over time and things I had packed no longer fit.
I packed and repacked and packed again, and just COULDN'T make everything fit. On the night before, I called Grumpy at work and he suggested another suitcase (bringing the total to five PLUS golf clubs for a 6-day trip!). Got it out and now had plenty of room! Yippee! Maybe I could fit in more stuff... On that same call to Grumpy, he told me that his boss messed up and scheduled him for a 12-hour shift that night. This was BAAAAAAAAAAAD news because he started work at 4PM. If you add in the mandatory break for lunch, he wouldn't be off work until 4:30AM...but the car service was picking us up at 4:15!! Our flight was at 6:30 and we live almost an hour from the airport. We really couldn't push that window much more without the possibility of missing the flight.
Did he make the flight? Wait until the next installment...
I am such a crazy woman!
, I'm trying to reform!
I explained that I had called and was told that I could. He explained that there must be a miscommunication because it cannot be done, and then asked for the name of the CM I spoke to so he can be retrained. I told him that I was shocked; in all of my experience with Disney, I had never before been disappointed with their service. I told him that this changes our whole plans and we would have gone to a park yesterday, since we were going to burn two whole days from our passes anyway. He then offered to upgrade our passes to non-expiration for free! Faith restored! 
He spent a few minutes typing into the computer and passed a sheet of paper across the counter to me. On it, he also upgraded Grumpy's tickets too! I almost kissed him. The total dollar value of the ten minute conversation was nearly $300...but the overall outcome for me confirmed the magic of Disney. I am going to write a letter to management about how wonderful the CM was.
We could have spent all day there, and we still didn't get to do half of their activities. We ate a counter-service meal and played until almost closing. As we were leaving, Grumpy gave us a brief scare when we thought he had lost his lanyard that held his tickets, credit card, and ID. Luckily, it wasn't lost (it was around his neck the whole time!) and we were able to head out in a pleasantly good mood. We were back at the resort and in bed by 11:30. End of day 2, whew!
