DDA Chapter 3

[Tammi67]

Thanks Elin.

Maybe Vicki or Elizabeth will come on soon. They seem to be our DDE experts.

 

[PNO4TE]

Well, I am DIS'ing from inside a huge snow cocoon! We got hit with a storm sometime last night. I woke up at 5:00 FREEZING!!! I checked the heat and found that one of my lovely children (or Alan and he's just not confessing) turned it completely off yesterday! I cranked it up, and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. Imagine my surprise/horror to find that our back door had blown open (after Alan swore to me he'd deadbolted it), and our floor was covered with 2 inches of snow. The snow was still coming down hard!!!

I decided to soak in a hot bubble bath to warm up, and by the time I got out, the kids were up, so we had breakfast and got ready for church. The snow was still coming down hard, and the wind was blowing terribly, too. Halfway through Sunday School, we were informed that the rest of church was being cancelled and we were to pick up our kids and go home before the storm got any worse (apparently, it's supposed to get twice as bad in about 3 hours). So, we got back in the mini van and headed for home. The snow was so deep that we got stuck trying to turn into our driveway. Thanks to Alan and a wonderful neighbor, we dug out our car enough that we could get onto the driveway. Alan is now snowblowing our driveway!

So, here we all sit, back in our snuggle jammies, with hot cocoa in hand, tomato soup and sandwiches cooking in the background! I cannot believe this weather. It's the worst winter we've had in close to 100 years. At last look, we have 12 new inches on top of the 8 inches that hadn't yet melted from the last storm.

COULD WE PLEASE HAVE SPRING NOW???????

I will take a contract out on the Groundhog's life tomorrow, Glynis. I hope you can enjoy the snow from the relative warm and dry comfort of your house all evening!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Very Cool!!!!

I have booked a savanna-view Club Level room but it is at rack rate as there were no AAA discounts available on those rooms. Bob and I started talking about what we really wanted to do on this trip. We will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary (a couple of months late, but we can't get away in July this year) so we talked about how to best splurge on this shorter trip.

We both decided there are some amazing signature restaurants we would love to experience so have decided this will be the "September to Remember" definitive food and beverage trip. We are having Chanon book a savanna-view room with the Deluxe Dining package. Even if free dining is an option, I think the AAA discount on the room will offset that cost and make it about the same. (Chanon: I am assuming that Club Level is not available for the discounted AAA package either, but if it is we probably need to talk again... )

We will have a total of 24 TS and 16 snack credits to use for the 5 days we are there. That way we can eat an early breakfast at Boma (or somewhere else, including room service if we wish), use our two snack credits at the F&W Festival booths and then have a late dinner at any restaurant we want (including in-room dining and excluding V&A and Bistro, I think). Everything except the gratuities and alcohol will be paid for already. We won't have to think about the budget if we want to eat lobster at $55 pp or a $20 appetizer that might appeal to one of us.

Sounds like an awesome trip!

Here's another Scapbook page,

Nice job!

Thanks, Amy. I apologized to her a little bit ago and said that I was sorry if my decision made her couging worse. She looked at me all sweetly and told me that it was okay because she really really needed to make that snow daddy and that she would feel better soon.

awwwww...what a great kid! Hope she's better soon!

Chanon,
Ok I am a doofus, cause I was wondering how you got the cat on board.

I am feeling much better, thanks for all the well wishes. Katie's still fighting a slight fever..I think we will be back at the doctors with her on Monday.

She smuggled him in in a paper bag.

Glad you're feeling better! Hope Katie is feeling better soon! Joe has the head cold that the others started with. Hope that is all he gets.

I had an interesting experience tonight though--i did a split in the ladies room haha
I went to get a paper towel and there was water on the floor and i basically did a split--grabbed onto the sink so i didnt fall---my brothers girlfriend was in the bathroom with me and was hysterical..thats my dumb move for the night!

Glad you didn't get hurt!

Well, I'm about 3/4 of the way done with my shirt. I have to finish the neckline (elastic) and hem. There are also a couple of finishing touches on the sleeves that I need to make. It won't take much more than an hour to finish tomorrow.

Can't wait to see a photo!

I am redoing my plans, so I don't know yet, but we will definitely have to figure something out! I would love to meet you, and I know my mom will be game, too! I've kind of thrown my initial schedule out, as my trip will take on a different vibe with my mom - she doesn't like some of the same restaurants we do, plus I made some of our initial plans around staying at the Poly.

I plan to work on them tomorrow, so I will let you know!

Would you have any interest in a character breakfast on the 5th? Tusker House-it is early entry at AK that morning-we could do a late breakfast and get a few rides in before breakfast. This worked well for Joe & I-it was loud when we first got there but as the place emptied out it was quite enjoyable. The food was good too. I also really liked the breakfast at Cape May. Meeting up to say hello somewhere would be great too.

I'm still using scissors I finished my shirt today. Unfortunately I made a size 8 without checking the measurements. A simplicity size 8 is MUCH smaller than a size 8 that I can buy at the store so it does not fit. I will be mailing it to Vicki in hopes that it will fit one of her girls. I tried to get Nick to model it, but there was no way that he was putting a woman's shirt on

Nick is no fun. Sorry it didn't fit. It should be real easy to make the next one.

ACK!! Fatal planning error! My birthday is on a Tuesday and Citrico's isn't open on Mondays and Tuesdays. So I booked Narcoosee's. Now I am finished through 8/11. I can't decide what we want to do for dinner on 8/12 anyway. I'll have to call back to get the rest of the days later this week.

So far we have:
Breakfast - Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Tusker House, and Boma.
Lunch - Sci Fi
Dinner - Cali Grill, Coral Reef, 50's PT, Narcoosee's, Kona, and Boma. Yak & Yeti and Wolfgang Puck are ones that don't do 180+10 so those will come later. AKL IPO is doing the Y&Y for me, so I need to book Puck's.

Tweaking, always tweaking...

I called back and switched my birthday dinner to Kona and booked Citrico's for 8/7. Funny, when we were at WDW for my birthday in 2006 we ate dinner at Kona, too! So I guess I will have my fabulous cake on 8/7 since the GF bakery will only deliver to GF restaurants.

I looked at the Narcoosee's menu and it just wasn't doing anything for me. I had my heart set on Citrico's, so I thought it was better to switch dates than to switch venues.

Congrats on your ADR's! Do you call back day by day now?

We just finished up breakfast and I need to get moving on some Eric is about to make wings for the Superbowl party we are going to. I don't think that we will actually stay for the entire game. My aunt is starting the party at 3pm. So I figure we'll go, chat, eat and catch a few minutes of the game then leave.

Have fun!

OK, here is another question I just thought of!

If I decide to buy a bottle of wine at dinner instead of a glass or two, will the WDW restaurants recork the bottle for me to take back to our room? I know that our restaurants here will do that for you (and some even put it in a plain brown paper bag for you to carry out! ). Yachtsman Steakhouse was willing to wash out the empty bottle of a particularly good wine we had there once so we could take it. We ended up having them remove the label instead.

I do know that in some locales it is against the law to remove an opened bottle of liquor, or to even carry it through the restaurant. Anyone know?

I don't think they let you leave a park with liquor. I remember seeing the gate attendants tell this woman she had to finish her drink and she said why and they told her she could leave with alcohol but it was just an ice tea not the beer they were thinking so her go. I don't know about a resort though.

Does salt go in the shaker with more or less holes?

I say salt in the one with more holes.

Well, we talked about how if we continue to travel with 5 people my 200 DVC pts won't go very far, and that he should put his tax refund to good use buying more pts.

COOL!!!!

Do any of you know of a way to find out if someone who is deceased was a US Citizen?

I'm surprised it is not on your Mom's birth certificate-not that I ever paid attention to what is on them. I would just say yes on the passport apllication and hope for the best-she can always plead ignorance-"I was always told he was...."

I don't know if this link will work, but I wanted to show you what I got Bob for VD, aside from the concert tickets.

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookstore/book_viewer.py?d=tq>y-cppl`je>3238:29

That is really nice! I'm sure he & Bethany will love it.

The photopass site is like banging your head against a brick wall repeatedly. It keeps giving me an error message "Cannot connect to remote server"

That would explain my throbbing headache all last week. Good luck!

Just went to the pancake breakfast at my brother's work..then to walmart...now my friend is coming to pick me up and were going shopping..then its superbowl! ill try to come on sometime tonight

Yum...pancakes. Have fun!

Does anyone else not see it all?

I see it.

Hello, all!

Hi!

Well, I am DIS'ing from inside a huge snow cocoon! We got hit with a storm sometime last night. I woke up at 5:00 FREEZING!!! I checked the heat and found that one of my lovely children (or Alan and he's just not confessing) turned it completely off yesterday! I cranked it up, and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. Imagine my surprise/horror to find that our back door had blown open (after Alan swore to me he'd deadbolted it), and our floor was covered with 2 inches of snow. The snow was still coming down hard!!!

I decided to soak in a hot bubble bath to warm up, and by the time I got out, the kids were up, so we had breakfast and got ready for church. The snow was still coming down hard, and the wind was blowing terribly, too. Halfway through Sunday School, we were informed that the rest of church was being cancelled and we were to pick up our kids and go home before the storm got any worse (apparently, it's supposed to get twice as bad in about 3 hours). So, we got back in the mini van and headed for home. The snow was so deep that we got stuck trying to turn into our driveway. Thanks to Alan and a wonderful neighbor, we dug out our car enough that we could get onto the driveway. Alan is now snowblowing our driveway!

So, here we all sit, back in our snuggle jammies, with hot cocoa in hand, tomato soup and sandwiches cooking in the background! I cannot believe this weather. It's the worst winter we've had in close to 100 years. At last look, we have 12 new inches on top of the 8 inches that hadn't yet melted from the last storm.

COULD WE PLEASE HAVE SPRING NOW???????

Stay safe and warm!

DH is home. He is cranky and doesn't feel well. His day is going to be a nightmare tomorrow, so he is already dreading that.

Hope things aren't as bad as he fears.

I just got back from the crazy grocery store. Luckily, I only had Alyssa in tow. We bought the supplies to make Glynis's sweet and savory ribs, Chanon's pork tenderloin, and the crazy chicken recipe. We'll be eating well this week!

I went this morning and not only was it crazy due to the super bowl but the store was reorganizing things and NO ONE in the store could find anything so eveyone was walking around in a daze. The staff was pretty helpful in telling where things were but it was a ZOO.

I bought pot roast (in the crock pot now), pork and chicken.

 

[PNO4TE]

Glynis, what a way to start the morning! Stay warm!

Beth, I enjoyed seeing the pictures you posted recently! Laura's dress is gorgeous...definitely one to pass down to her own daughter someday. I bet Matthew had a blast playing the role of a "bad boy!"

I just got back from the crazy grocery store. Luckily, I only had Alyssa in tow. We bought the supplies to make Glynis's sweet and savory ribs, Chanon's pork tenderloin, and the crazy chicken recipe. We'll be eating well this week!

I doubt we'll really watch much of the game, but I'm sure we'll at least turn it on. I'm making chicken burritos and pepperoni bites. We'll see if Alyssa remembers she postponed ice cream...at the store, she picked out vanilla pudding, and she's pretty excited about it.

Have a great day DDA!

I bought the same things, as well the makings for Glynis' pot roast!

 

[PNO4TE]

Here are some more possible AK designs. I'm still not sure.

Now I'm heading back to sewing...I think

These are awesome, Deb! I would think the guys would like any one of them.

 

[UP Disney]

Do they tax you on the pre-20% off amount or the discounted amount? Is the 18% grat. figured on the original or discounted amount?

I looked at our bill from the Tusker House in December. They tax you on the discounted price but the 18% gratuity is on the original (before tax).

 

[PNO4TE]

I posted my question about re-corking a bottle of wine over on the Restaurant Board. I got the following answer, as well as a second confirmation that someone did this just last week.

FL does have a "merlot-to-go" law that allows the restaurants to recork your bottle of wine so you can take the unfinished portion with you. IIRC they will put it in a bag and then staple the bag shut. Park entrance policies do not allow glass containers of any kind to enter the parks so keep that in mind if you're using Disney transport. (For example, if the bottle of wine came from a Boardwalk restaurant, but you're staying at Wilderness Lodge, you won't be able to cut through Epcot to get to the front entrance for the buses.)

 

[Tammi67]

I looked at our bill from the Tusker House in December. They tax you on the discounted price but the 18% gratuity is on the original (before tax).

Thanks, Vicki. That sounds fair.

 

[lovesdumbo]

I looked at our bill from the Tusker House in December. They tax you on the discounted price but the 18% gratuity is on the original (before tax).

That is what I was going to say how it works.

Here are some more possible AK designs. I'm still not sure.

Now I'm heading back to sewing...I think

Those are cool. I think I would like the last one better with the more "orangy" colors of the background on the top-like a sunset.

 

[UP Disney]

Here are some more possible AK designs. I'm still not sure.

Now I'm heading back to sewing...I think

I love the last two! They are awesome.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, we can confirm that there are no discounts on Club Level because the quote I got from WDTC and the amount you told me are exactly the same.

myBob and I will discuss whether or not we want the Club Level room at full price along with the Deluxe Dining Package or if we want you to redo the package with a simple savanna-view room without concierge. Maybe when you tell them it is our 35th anniversary celebration your pixie dust will get us upgraded to CL anyway!

I will let you know tonight or tomorrow. Thanks again, Chanon!!

Well, it's my 38th birthday and it hasn't gotten me a discount on my room. These people who are posting that they got club level with the blasted 40% are making me very, very angry.
Maybe after Elin's "friends" are finished taking out the groundhog they will have time to go after some code recipients...

Is the tax on food at disney 11.5?

It is 6.5% on food and 12.5% on resorts, with the All Stars being higher than that.

These are awesome, Deb! I would think the guys would like any one of them.

I like the last 2 best!

Elin - I hope you are able to bring your wine back to your room! That would be better than feeling obligated to finish it in one sitting.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Bernadette - I am not sure if I will call back every day or not. I need to assess how difficult my remaining ADRs are and go from there. Looking at my chart I would say I definitely need to call Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then I might as well call Saturday so they will all be done!

 

[PNO4TE]

Well, it's my 38th birthday and it hasn't gotten me a discount on my room. These people who are posting that they got club level with the blasted 40% are making me very, very angry.
Maybe after Elin's "friends" are finished taking out the groundhog they will have time to go after some code recipients...


Elin - I hope you are able to bring your wine back to your room! That would be better than feeling obligated to finish it in one sitting.

I will get to work on those "contracts" immediately, Elizabeth!

As for the wine... there are times when I can drink a bottle over the span of a leisurely dinner (right, Tammi?) but there are times when one or two glasses are all I want, even after opening a bottle. I am glad to know I can take it back with me! I am assuming that since the restaurant staples the bag closed that it can get through security on the way out of the parks, if necessary. I know after Party for the Senses you cannot take a glass with any alcohol in it when leaving Epcot. But it is "open", so I assume that is the difference.

 

[PNO4TE]

Are you ready for some football???

 

[Glynis]

Can I just tell you how yummy my house smells?

I started a pork roast in the crock pot at 8:00 this morning, and it's been cooking away all day long. I just shredded it, added some barbecue sauce, soy sauce, honey and mustard and mixed it all up. It's going to cook for another hour, and then I'm making pulled pork sandwiches complete with coleslaw on top! I'm so excited!!! I've been craving this meal all week long!!!

For dessert we are having Pineapple Right Side Up cookies. These are kind of like lemon bars only with pineapple juice and crushed pineapple. We also have some vanilla ice cream to "cut the sweetness" as my mother would say.

We are going to eat dinner, and then later we'll watch Meet the Robinson's. We decided not to go to the game parties, since we are buried in a storm. So, we're going to make cookies out of the cookie dough, snack on the buffalo chicken dip and have ice cream and the pineapple cookies while we watch the movie.

 

[UP Disney]

We are just hanging out today. We'll be watching the game this evening. Katrina's boyfriend left yesterday. Becky's left this afternoon. It is just the four of us again. I'm supposed to go to Lansing for meetings tomorrow afternoon & Tuesday but I'm not feeling well right now so I don't know if I'll be able to make it.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Glynis - That sounds wonderful!

DH is up from his nap. It looks like chicken breat for dinner, but he is mad because we don't have any ingredients to make the chicken interesting. It will just be plain chicken. Which HAPPENS to be my favorite, but he is being pouty about it.

 

[Tinkaroo]

WHY is that? I am hoping for some sort of break on our AKL room and it just isn't happening!

Gotta call for ADRs!!

Hmm...this is odd. I have a CL room at AKL booked for December (4 nights), and I was able to get the AAA room only discount (15% off) on it. I also have CL at the GF with a 15% AAA discount, too.

Have you tried booking a trip for longer than you're going? I've had that happen before, where it won't show availability for the # of nights you want, but if you book it for a few more nights, all of a sudden it's available! I then just call back and adjust the reservaton to what I want. Good luck to both you and Elin!

Yay for ADR's!!!!

I have two questions for you know-it-all... I mean KNOWLEDGEABLE Disney people...

1. Can you tell me any reason why I can book a CL room at AKL by itself, or with a 1-day base ticket, but the WDW system will not allow me to add Deluxe Dining to that package? It won't let me add ANY dining to the package, actually! Just curious...

2. I already checked into costs of the Deluxe Dining Plan vs. DDE discount and know that the dining plan is better for what we will probably order. Would it make sense, or is it even permitted, to use our DDE card for the alcohol that will not be covered on that plan?

1. Now that is odd! I couldn't imagine why, since I see that it's not a minimum # of nights issue. I'm shocked that Disney won't let you spend more $$! Have you talked to CRO?

2. I see that everyone has already told you "yes!"

After a long night of coughing in which I didn't get much sleep until after 2:30, I talked to the Children's Hospital nurse this morning (they handle the exchange for our ped). From everything I said and hearing Terra's cough in the background, she thinks that she has a viral upper respiratory infection.

Hopefully the cough should ease in the next day or so, but it will probably linger for a couple of weeks. Unless some new symptom appears, she starts wheezing or it just doesn't get any better we probably won't need to go to the doctor at all. She recommended warm apple juice as a soother as well as lemon and honey water. Otherwise, just take it easy, drink fluids to help break up the junk and call if we have any other questions.

Other than sleeping fitfully part of the night and the annoyance of the cough, she seems to feel fine. She had a low fever at one point overnight, but hasn't since either. You know, it's just that mommy guilt (usually unfounded) of having done something to make your baby sick.

So, we're hanging out, watching movies or whatever and planning a few days inside.

I'm sorry she doesn't feel well. Here's some that it runs its course quickly!

I don't know if this link will work, but I wanted to show you what I got Bob for VD, aside from the concert tickets.

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookstore/book_viewer.py?d=tq>y-cppl`je>3238:29

Wonderful! I bet he will love it!

Jenn and Lindsay - I stand corrected: http://www.disneytravelagents.com/StaticFiles/DTA-Domestic/pdf/AAA_DCL_Benefits.pdf This shows the benefits of booking a cruise - the year states 2006, but it hasn't changed since then. They are combinable with Disney Visa and "booking online" shipboard credits as well.

Thanks, Chanon! That's nice to have the 10% merchandise credit, too!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Lindsay - I tried it over the phone at least 3 times with 2 different sets of dates. I tried it on the AAA website. Chanon tried it on the travel agent website one night at a time to see if there was one particular day throwing it off. For whatever reason there just doesn't seem to be a AAA discount for my dates. I have horrible luck with AP rates so I am thinking I am doomed to rack rate.

Vicki - I hope you feel better soon!

 

[babytrees]

I am going to go back and catch up...we had fun at bowling but on the way there we went by a fairly serious accident and couldn't figure out why traffic wasn't letting up. This is why:

http://www.9news.com/news/top-article.aspx?storyid=85704

there was a car seat thrown about 10 ft. from the van.

I don't know that I can ever go back on that stretch of road...I cried for 10 minutes. What a horrible sight and the road was still closed when we went toward that area a half hour ago.