DDA Chapter 22

[tinknme]

I just booked our flight down for January and it only cost me $28!!!! Well, not really since I had a credit for the SWA flights I canceled. But still, those had already been paid for so I'm only out a few dollars more. Now I need to wait for SWA to release the rest of the Jan. dates so I can book our return flight.

Hi Glynis.

Yea

Hi Glynis!

 

[mommykds]

I just booked our flight down for January and it only cost me $28!!!! Well, not really since I had a credit for the SWA flights I canceled. But still, those had already been paid for so I'm only out a few dollars more. Now I need to wait for SWA to release the rest of the Jan. dates so I can book our return flight.

 

[babytrees]

Thanks! It was a relief to finally see the school & their teachers...soooo different from their old schools in many ways & for the better.

that is great!! (for you and the kids)

 

[babytrees]

Good Morning DDA!!

Janet-Happy Birthday to Riley!!


Beth-Happy Sweet Sixteen!!

Tammi- on the great airfare!!

Elizabeth-you confuse me...I hope you don't hurt your head too much with your calculations.

Hi Glynis!!

Anybody see Heidi recently??

We had Back to School Night for Abi last night...she's got some strange teachers and I was right...there will be a ton of homework (a lot of it writing as they realized the kids (even the "advanced" ones) writing skills were sorely lacking once they hit HS) and along with the book we are being asked to suscribe to smartmusic.com for band....while it looks to be a great program...there is just no more blood to get from this turnip.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Just a quick post while I um....browse at work. Who wants to work on a Friday afternoon?

Quick question for recent travellers...Did MK get new rental strollers? I just noticed a lot of khaki strollers in a recent stroller parking pic on another thread. Are they just different colors or a new style? Is it just MK or all parks?

ETA: Okay, I found some pictures of the actual strollers. Wonder if they're any better/worse than the old?

The new strollers are MUCH smaller!!! I think Emma would feel mushed in a single and the doubles are just way too expensive. I plan on bringing my MacLaren for Emma in January-I would rather have it and not need it (leave it in the room) than pay the rental prices. If you still have the link to my last day photos #27 shows a double stroller and you can see how squished the kids are in it.

I just planned out my color coded matrix of fun for January. Now I know when we will be where and I'll let the kids help pick the restaurants. I know they want to eat at Crystal Palace. I also emailed IPO for the Sunrise Safari. I'm so excited that we will be doing that on my birthday!

Elizabeth/Kristine - do you know if there is a discount for the safari for AP holders or DVC members?

How cool that you get to do the sunrise safari on your birthday! If I keep AKL CL for Emma's birthday we could do it on her birthday too.

Well, while I was standing in the shower this morning I ran through the numbers for having plain DDP added to our AP room. Since we would have to use 2 TS credits for Yachtsman it would basically be using 2 days worth of credits for that one day. 2 CS meals, plus dinner. We would break exactly even on the food it would cover, and we would have to pay OOP for any appetizers and tip. Not to mention DS would have to order from the adult menu. So, NOT a good deal for us.

If we do 2 signature dinners and a buffet we would come out ahead buying a new TiW. If we do Coral Reef, Yachtsman, and Crystal Palace I think having the TiW would just about break even. Hmmm...

You could just eat all your meals with someone who already has TiW.




Anne Marie-glad the kids are all excited about school! I'm sure Gene will be happy when ours go back. I took several shots of the kids at Disney all lovey dovey and while most of those moments are genuine not staged there just aren't too many of those moments at home.

Beth-Happy Birthday to Laura!





Guess I should do some budgeting or forecasting or something work like.....

 

[Steffy]

Just a quick post while I um....browse at work. Who wants to work on a Friday afternoon?


The new strollers are MUCH smaller!!! I think Emma would feel mushed in a single and the doubles are just way too expensive. I plan on bringing my MacLaren for Emma in January-I would rather have it and not need it (leave it in the room) than pay the rental prices. If you still have the link to my last day photos #27 shows a double stroller and you can see how squished the kids are in it.


How cool that you get to do the sunrise safari on your birthday! If I keep AKL CL for Emma's birthday we could do it on her birthday too.



You could just eat all your meals with someone who already has TiW.




Anne Marie-glad the kids are all excited about school! I'm sure Gene will be happy when ours go back. I took several shots of the kids at Disney all lovey dovey and while most of those moments are genuine not staged there just aren't too many of those moments at home.

Beth-Happy Birthday to Laura!





Guess I should do some budgeting or forecasting or something work like.....

Would you like to help me do this bank rec.???

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

But you will also be spending more.

Kristine - I'm with you. It makes my head spin.

I just planned out my color coded matrix of fun for January. Now I know when we will be where and I'll let the kids help pick the restaurants. I know they want to eat at Crystal Palace. I also emailed IPO for the Sunrise Safari. I'm so excited that we will be doing that on my birthday!

Elizabeth/Kristine - do you know if there is a discount for the safari for AP holders or DVC members?

Nah. If I have wine or a cocktail at dinner it would add to the things NOT covered by the DDP. It's money we would spend anyway.

As far as I know there is NOT a discount for the Safari.

So we MIGHT be going to Disneyland in February! Dana will be in LA on business. We have 2 free tickets from US Airways & Danas ticket is paid for so we'd only pay for 2 airfares. We have Marriott points so this may work out. Just in the planning stages though...hopefully things will be ok with my mom & overall so we can go.

That would be fun!

Today my baby girl turns 16. Where did the time go? We are going out in a little while to get her learner's permit. She isn't a "party person", so we'll just have a family celebration.

Language doesn't start here until 7th grade. My older two both picked French, even though I thought Spanish would be more practical. The only choices in our district are Spanish, Italian, and French. I took German, but I don't remember more than tiny bits and pieces.

They OFFER foreign language in our middle school, but there are so many other MANDATORY electives (which is asinine, if they are MANDATORY then they are NOT electives!) I don't know how the kids fit in any languages. In 6th grade DS took Band for the whole year, then a semester of Art and a semester of "Tech Ed" computer. Last year they said he HAD TO take a year of PE. So he did Band, ONE semester of PE, and a semester of Computer Applications, which was MANDATORY (and he darn near failed). So now he is short one semester of PE! I have no clue what his schedule will look like next week. I am positive when we did his schedule for last year that PE was listed as a year long thing. I THINK we signed up for "Spring Athletics", which would be 2nd semester only. We'll see how that pans out.
I took 2 years of Spanish in high school and a semester in college and I can still just BARELY communicate in Spanish. I can speak and read it much better than I can write it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Laura!!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Would you like to help me do this bank rec.???

Sure! Could we go out for dinner and drinks after?

I've been here for almost 18 years doing essentially the same job for the last 16+. It gets a little old but I don't have any desire for change and I get treated well.

 

[Pooh67_68]

I'm here Theresa - just reading along, no posting. Not really much to say.

 

[Tammi67]

Trip Report Day 1, AK

We arrived at MCO after an uneventful flight. I think we were about 15 minutes early. Since we rented a car this time we had to go collect our bags and pick up the car. Avis gave us a Chrysler Sebring, which was just big enough for the 4 of us and all of our luggage. The kids still didn't know we were staying at BLT for the first 2 nights, so when we were heading down World Drive and the Castle came into view they thought we were going to go to MK. I then pulled through security into the CR and told them. There were lots of YAYs and excitement! I have to say that I was really surprised how much quicker the drive from MCO to WDW is when you have your own car. I think ME must take an extra long drive so they have time to show that video. Check in went smoothly but our room was not ready, so we headed over to BLT just to check it out. Within 10 minutes I got a text saying that our room, on the 7th floor, was ready so we unloaded the luggage. Thoughts on BLT: it's biggest draw is the view of MK. Other than that, to me, it's just....eh. The room seemed small. I think it's because of the huge entertainment center/dresser. The kitchen/bath area is weird, and wouldn't accomodate 2 larger people very well. I didn't take pictures of our room, since there are already enough floating around on the sites as it is. Another thing that was weird was that there are no shops or restaurants in BLT. You have to go over to the CR for that.

We settled in and then drove over to AK, arriving right around lunch time. We were very hungry at this point so our first stop was lunch at Pizzasaurus. Bob went to get FPs for Kali while the kids and I ordered. I forgot to tell him about the centralized FP machines in AK though.

After lunch Nicholas and Bob saw ITTBAB while Alyssa wanted to visit with Lilo & Stitch.

After meeting back up we saw the Bird Show

and rode Dinosaur. Since it was very hot and crowded we decided it was time to head back to BLT and enjoy the pool. Before leaving AK, we used our FPs for Kali. Notice how everyone but me got soaked. My rain poncho was in the backpack, so I figured why not put it to good use.

Dinner tonight was supposed to be at Pucks but we wanted to enjoy the resort so we canceled that and eventually just went over to the CR and had CS at the Contempo Cafe. We did a lot of pin trading and browsing while we were there too.

Here are some pictures I took from our balcony.

These are from the CR.

There was a very pretty sunset that I tried to capture in pictures, but it was much nicer in person.

At night.

 

[tinknme]

Tammi I love the view you had from your room. Love the pictures & report, keep them coming!

Smart thinking putting your poncho on

 

[Tammi67]

A few more night shots.

 

[Tammi67]

Thanks, Janet.

 

[bethbuchall]

Tammi, awesome photos and beginning of your trip report!

Anne Marie, I received your e-mail with the photo link and loved yours, too!

Bernadette, I haven't had a chance to see the latest set, but I am really enjoying your photos, also.

I LOVE CR. I don't know if it is because that is where we stayed the first time I ever went to WDW (Jan. 1972) or if it's waking up practically on the doorstep of MK. We went a couple of other times growing up, and it was always CR or our motorhome at Fort Wilderness. Our honeymoon trip (May 1988) was the Poly, and we passed the construction of the GF every day on the monorail. I really, really wanted to go back and stay there when it opened. We ended up at the new (at the time) CBR for our next trip (September 1990), because we needed to save money, since I was pregnant with Matthew. Now if I could stay anywhere regardless of cost, I'd pick a split stay at CR and YC/BC. I think it's going to be values or POR for quite a while, though.

Laura passed her permit test but hasn't asked to get behind the wheel yet.

I need to go finish a birthday cake!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Tammi - Your view from the room was FABULOUS!! I am not in any rush to stay at BLT. The location is terrific, but the interiors don't do anything for me.

Beth - Congrats to Laura!

 

[Tammi67]

Trip Report Day 2, Typhoon Lagoon

Since we went to BB last summer we decided to try TL this time. I must say, we all liked BB better. The biggest draw TL has is the shark swim thing, which we all did 3 times, except Alyssa wouldn't put her face in the water. At least she can say she swam with sharks. She just couldn't see them! We rode all the tubes and slides, had lunch and went back to the resort around 2 or 3 and swam for a bit. Dinner tonight was at Citricos, a new restaurant for us. We got cleaned up and while I took some pictures of the outside of the resort, Bob took the kids to the community room, where Alyssa made a necklace and Nicholas played video games.

We walked over to the CR and hopped the monorail over to the GF.

We all LOVED LOVED LOVED Citricos.

I had the Gateau of Crab appetizer

Bob had the Yellow Tomato Gazpacho. The goofball didn't know gazpacho would be cold, so he was a little taken aback.

Nicholas had a kid's salad

And Alyssa had the kid's Cheese and Grapes

My dinner was the Wild King Salmon and Lemon Risotto

Bob had the Filet Sicilian with sweet vidalia onions and banana pepper and 4 cheese crushed potatoes

Both kids had the Beef Tenderloin

My dessert was the Citrus Soaked Angel Food Cake Infused with Honey and Cointreau

Bob had the Lemon Cheesecake

Both kids made their own sundaes.

Everything was delicious. Bruce, our server, was excellent. Although he did remind us of Ezra from the HM. He really bumped up his tip when he served the kids their steak and then proceeded to cut it up for them. He said "we like it when Mom and Dad can eat their dinner while it's still hot."

It was a little after 7 when we left the GF so we stopped off at the MK to browse around Main St.

I told the kids no rides tonight and they were okay with that. We did a lot of pin trading while heading to the hub. When we got down around Casey's there were some CMs setting up a little portable stereo playing Disney tunes and dancing with the kids that were waiting for Spectro to begin. It was so fun dancing on Main Street, right in front of the Castle. We stayed for some HSM songs, Hoedown Throwdown, Cha Cha Slide, Electric Slide, Macarena, and the Chicken Dance.

 

[Tammi67]

We needed to head back to BLT to watch Wishes from the Top of the World Lounge. No fireworks pictures because they never come out, but here are a few looking out from the top.

 

[Tammi67]

Tammi - Your view from the room was FABULOUS!! I am not in any rush to stay at BLT. The location is terrific, but the interiors don't do anything for me.

That's how I feel. Now that it's off my bucket list, we probably won't stay there again.

Beth - Congrats to Laura!

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Tammi-you have fantastic pictures!!! I love the view from your balcony

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Tammi-I meant to say the kids look SO tall! They are growing up!!