Don't be a Drag, Just be a Queen June 3-18 (MORE PICS ADDED 6/25!)

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I cannot believe that happened with your bags and they are saying it's not their fault. Of course it is. I am not the type to demand free stuff but I would be yelling about getting something for that. At least you got home safe though, that's the most important thing.

We did arrive safely, and I am thankful for that!

Today's latest is this: I sent AirTran a nasty e-mail. They replied VERY promptly offering me a $50 credit per person for a future flight. Well, AirTran is going to cease to exist before next June. I called SW to see if I can use the credit with them, and they don't know. So I MIGHT have $150 to apply to next year's airfare, or not. I guess my next move is to call AirTran and ask them what I am supposed to do if SW won't honor the credit. Because by the time SW says NO, AirTran won't exist anymore.

HI! Glad you are home safely. Sorry to hear about the soaked luggage, LAME! Your last day at MK sounds great! SO cool that DS got to see SM with the lights on!! We love the People Mover! Which hot dog did DH get? Did he like it? We are already planning our next trip to WDW! I'm praying that we get a normal tax return next year so we can do a 3 night Disney Dream cruise, and then 7 nights at WDW. Idk what happened with Uncle Sam this year! I wanted to ask you what you thought of the Magic, the Memories and You castle show? We were able to see it twice and we were blown away! I've never seen anything like that before. Mike videotaped it on our last night.

DS very proudly posted his video of Space on FaceBook.
DH got a plain hot dog and an order of nachos. Which makes my throat burn just thinking about it, but he was happy.
We were way over to the side for the castle show, plus we had an obstructed view. What we could see was distorted from not looking at it straight on, so it was hard to tell what we were looking at.

I am working on getting our plans sorted for next year. I need to hurry, because next Friday is our 11 month mark to book the villa! I am pretty sure we will arrive June 1, but beyond that I don't know what we are doing.

 

[DrGaellon]

I decided not to book our timeshare yet because David's best friend Rob and his husband are florists - we're talking to them about an early-Spring trip to catch the Epcot Flower and Garden Show.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I decided not to book our timeshare yet because David's best friend Rob and his husband are florists - we're talking to them about an early-Spring trip to catch the Epcot Flower and Garden Show.

DH has instructed me not to pay cash for any part of our resort reservation. Which means we are looking at about 12 nights. I will concede that 15 may have been too long. But 12 is too short. 14 would be good. But I would be at least 30 points short. 72 points short if I wanted savanna view the whole time. So I have some thinking to do.

Of course DH also has to bid for vacation, which won't happen until after Thanksgiving. I SAY we can book now and change it, but the truth is, if he can't get time off for Gay Days I throw a fit. If I say DS & I will go for Gay Days and then all 3 of us can go another week DH gets mad.

 

[DrGaellon]

Of course DH also has to bid for vacation, which won't happen until after Thanksgiving. I SAY we can book now and change it, but the truth is, if he can't get time off for Gay Days I throw a fit. If I say DS & I will go for Gay Days and then all 3 of us can go another week DH gets mad.

Yeah, my boss gets a little pissy if I put in for vacation more than about six months in advance; fortunately, as a Presidential level owner, it's nearly impossible for me to be unable to book at Westgate - and if they can't accommodate me at the Town Center, they can find me a Presidential unit at one of the six other Orlando-area resorts.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Yeah, my boss gets a little pissy if I put in for vacation more than about six months in advance; fortunately, as a Presidential level owner, it's nearly impossible for me to be unable to book at Westgate - and if they can't accommodate me at the Town Center, they can find me a Presidential unit at one of the six other Orlando-area resorts.

The concierge level villas are the ones that are SUPER hard to book. Since we aren't doing that next year I would be perfectly safe waiting to book, but I don't like to wait.

 

[ctink23]

We did arrive safely, and I am thankful for that!

Today's latest is this: I sent AirTran a nasty e-mail. They replied VERY promptly offering me a $50 credit per person for a future flight. Well, AirTran is going to cease to exist before next June. I called SW to see if I can use the credit with them, and they don't know. So I MIGHT have $150 to apply to next year's airfare, or not. I guess my next move is to call AirTran and ask them what I am supposed to do if SW won't honor the credit. Because by the time SW says NO, AirTran won't exist anymore.

I didn't know SW was buying AirTran. Good to know.

You could always take another trip sooner rather than later. It would cost you way more than you would save with the flight... but it's a good excuse

Hopefully, SW will take any AirTran vouchers that were issued before the buyout!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I didn't know SW was buying AirTran. Good to know.

You could always take another trip sooner rather than later. It would cost you way more than you would save with the flight... but it's a good excuse

Hopefully, SW will take any AirTran vouchers that were issued before the buyout!

According to the e-mail I got this morning, my flight credits are only valid on the flight paths currently offered by AirTran. Um, hello? You are issuing me flight credits that will be invalid in a few months and you want me to accept that as fair compensation? The original e-mail stated the credits are good for one year, but that's not true. Those credits are valid only until AirTran pulls out of DFW. SW won't EVER operate out of DFW, AirTran has NO flights out of DAL. They need to issue credits that are valid on SW flights out of DAL. I sent them another e-mail this morning, so we'll see what they say. If they refuse I guess I will take it up with SW when it is time to book. The fact that SW won't be running flights from DFW is really not my fault. We can't travel before next summer, even though I would love to.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

OK, the lady from AirTran called me and said I WILL be able to use the credits on SW flights out of Love Field. I just can't use them for flights out of DFW next year because there won't BE any flights out of DFW. Fair enough!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Your last day (before flight issues) sounded great! I love spending my last day running around MK trying to get in as many things as possible before I have to head back to the resort to fly home.

Good luck with your flight credits! I got flight credits last July from a delay but each credit was tied to each passenger so when I tried to book our family Aug trip I had to book each person separately. Then when those flights dropped in price I had to get those credits in each person and they made those price change credits expire the same date as the original credits even though I was still paying WAY more than the credits I had used. So I had my flights booked for August and credits that expired in July. I just HAD to book another trip for November. I had signed up on www.yapta.com and got notified when the prices drop. I had paid $440RT each for August (way too much but I had to fly the times that works for DH ) and got credits down to $272 and now those flights are back up to $420.

DH has instructed me not to pay cash for any part of our resort reservation. Which means we are looking at about 12 nights. I will concede that 15 may have been too long. But 12 is too short. 14 would be good. But I would be at least 30 points short. 72 points short if I wanted savanna view the whole time. So I have some thinking to do.

Of course DH also has to bid for vacation, which won't happen until after Thanksgiving. I SAY we can book now and change it, but the truth is, if he can't get time off for Gay Days I throw a fit. If I say DS & I will go for Gay Days and then all 3 of us can go another week DH gets mad.

Couldn't you just buy him another lens to keep him happy?

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Your last day (before flight issues) sounded great! I love spending my last day running around MK trying to get in as many things as possible before I have to head back to the resort to fly home.

Good luck with your flight credits! I got flight credits last July from a delay but each credit was tied to each passenger so when I tried to book our family Aug trip I had to book each person separately. Then when those flights dropped in price I had to get those credits in each person and they made those price change credits expire the same date as the original credits even though I was still paying WAY more than the credits I had used. So I had my flights booked for August and credits that expired in July. I just HAD to book another trip for November. I had signed up on www.yapta.com and got notified when the prices drop. I had paid $440RT each for August (way too much but I had to fly the times that works for DH ) and got credits down to $272 and now those flights are back up to $420.



Couldn't you just buy him another lens to keep him happy?

I am not sure what booking will look like. The original e-mail said I have a $50 credit per passenger, and all 3 of us were on one reservation. If I have to do all 3 of us individually I guess I can. And $50 won't cover more than a piece of a one-way ticket.

I watched the fares on AirTran EVERY DAY after I booked, and they NEVER went lower than what I paid. SW's fares have been CRAZY high, so it is possible that even WITH a credit and WITHOUT bag fees it could be cheaper to fly American.

After the nightmare with the lens last time, I think his lens shopping days are OVER. The shots from that lens aren't even that good.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

So many loose ends!

I need to call and request a refund on the PhotoPass CD because we never did get more than about 5 PhotoPass pics taken.

I still want to total all the food receipts to prove to myself that Dining Plan wouldn't save us a cent. Our overall expenses came in exactly where I thought they would, BUT we didn't do the Imagineer dinner due to their scheduling error. So we would have been over my estimate if we had done everything we had planned.

I have to sort out the hail repair on the car. I had forgotten that I would have to deal with that when we got home.

I did remember to call and pay the balance on DS's summer camp. I still need to call the box office for tickets to "the Wiz" because he gets a free ticket through the camp.

I need to look at the point charts again and talk to DH. Maybe I would agree to only 12 nights next year, even though it seems short. It would keep us within our points, which would be easier than scrounging for points through other sources or waiting until the 7 month mark to get one-time use points through DVC.

 

[DrGaellon]

According to the e-mail I got this morning, my flight credits are only valid on the flight paths currently offered by AirTran.

Generally speaking, DFW and DAL are considered a single market as far as flight paths are concerned - you're not flying airport-to-airport, but Dallas-to-Orlando. (The same is generally true in New York, and our market includes five, or even six airports - LaGuardia, JFK, Newark/Liberty, Islip and White Plains, and Stewart/Newburgh for some carriers.)

 

[DrGaellon]

I need to look at the point charts again and talk to DH. Maybe I would agree to only 12 nights next year, even though it seems short.

I don't think I've ever done more than EIGHT nights, and by then, I'm usually more than ready to go home!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I don't think I've ever done more than EIGHT nights, and by then, I'm usually more than ready to go home!

Our "long" trips used to be 9 nights, but that was when we were also taking 2 short trips per year in addition to a long one. With airfare at $1100 for the 3 of us, if we go we need to stay a LONG time!

Our longest trip was 17 nights and I still wasn't ready to go home!

 

[Aristocath]

So AirTran will cease operations at DFW? I got a few emails from them today and I was looking for flights to Las Vegas in the fall and it said there were none available although they advertised them. I wonder what the stop date is? The SW flights were outrageously expensive!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

So AirTran will cease operations at DFW? I got a few emails from them today and I was looking for flights to Las Vegas in the fall and it said there were none available although they advertised them. I wonder what the stop date is? The SW flights were outrageously expensive!

A lady on the Transportation board had commented that the AirTran schedule only goes through November 20-something. The lady I spoke to at AirTran said they will cease operations at DFW in November, so I am guessing the schedule that is currently up is it in terms of DFW flights.

I checked SW prices for awhile for this year's flights, but they were higher than American! OK, add the bag fees on American and they were probably equal. Once I booked on AirTran I stopped looking at SW, so I don't know if they ever came down. The other issue was the only SW flights that didn't require a plane change were leaving MCO at 8 AM.

So DH says I can book however many nights I want for next year. But he doesn't want to go over the points we currently have available. Sigh. More calculations in my future. I told him I don't want a "standard" view for the whole trip. Looking at the pool for 15 nights really kind of diminished the whole AKL experience, so we need to book savanna view. the trade off becomes view vs. space, because the one bedroom savanna view will gobble up a lot more points than a standard view. Decisions, decisions...

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I need to post our Citrico's photos, and I need to do my Photo Finale of random pics from all 4 cameras.

For some reason I have can never get PhotoBucket to load at work, so maybe I can post more photos tonight.

 

[Candy30]

Hey! I missed so much and you are back home already! What drama with the airlines. Loved all the pictures. Especially the favorite of your son and those heads!!! Welcome home and I see you are already planning for next trip!!!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hey! I missed so much and you are back home already! What drama with the airlines. Loved all the pictures. Especially the favorite of your son and those heads!!! Welcome home and I see you are already planning for next trip!!!!

Hi, Candy! Hope all is well with you!
Yep, have to plan the next one. That's one of the good things about booking our villa at the 11 month mark - the 11 month mark happens almost as soon as we get home!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Dinner at Cosmic Ray's on 6/16

Dinner at Citrico's on 6/17
House bread

Crab appetizer

Kid's appetizer

Peach salad

Kid's pasta

Snapper

Pork two ways

Tres leches cake