Food & Wine & Friends, or 'Wishing a Year Away'. October 2012 PTR *NEW 11/18 TR link!

[smile4stamps]

Isn't it funny how a WDW trip expands to fill all time- even 2 weeks? I swear, there is no such thing as a long enough trip!

Especially with F&W! I want to do at least 1 Sweet Sundays, 3D Dessert Discovery, Party for the Senses and a French Regional Lunch! That's at least 4 days to be at Epcot! Plus I tentatively have us down for 2 more just for eating around the world!

I think at this point an Epcot DVC would be best but I am almost positive that won't be an option! One more month and I should start to see if anything is available through RCI..

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Yay for the new camera case!! Underwater pictures are so much fun!

 

[Imagineer5]

Couple more days til vieques! So excited for you, can't wait to see pictures when you get back. The underwater case looks fantastic. I was mad not to find one for my camera, or maybe I did but the case was like $250! So instead my husband bought me an inexpensive waterproof camera. I normally don't spend much time at pools either, but with Aria I feel like that might change.

Anyway good luck with your hotel call! I think the split stay would be fantastic - best of both worlds. Especially for f&w. I'm really excited about our blt stay too, but would choose a split stay if we were spending all 10 nights onsite. Yu can't beat walking to epcot - but the monorail is pretty darn close at least!

 

[oboedm]

I love my Touring Plans subscription! It definitely helps with planning.

I think options 1 and 2 sound great! Why would the third option not be possible? Is BWV that popular during that time? Or is it not possible because you think one of the first two will happen?

 

[klacey1]

Oh wow-- what a cool case! Ugh, I would NOT feel comfortable on a beach right now myself. I need to make a change in lifestyle, pronto.

 

[Joyciemc]

Especially with F&W! I want to do at least 1 Sweet Sundays, 3D Dessert Discovery, Party for the Senses and a French Regional Lunch! That's at least 4 days to be at Epcot! Plus I tentatively have us down for 2 more just for eating around the world!

I think at this point an Epcot DVC would be best but I am almost positive that won't be an option! One more month and I should start to see if anything is available through RCI..

Woah, you do have a lot planned for F&W! All of those plans sound absolutely amazing!

Yay for the new camera case!! Underwater pictures are so much fun!

It was fun to have the case! Though we didn't take quite as many as I thought we would...

Couple more days til vieques! So excited for you, can't wait to see pictures when you get back. The underwater case looks fantastic. I was mad not to find one for my camera, or maybe I did but the case was like $250! So instead my husband bought me an inexpensive waterproof camera. I normally don't spend much time at pools either, but with Aria I feel like that might change.

Anyway good luck with your hotel call! I think the split stay would be fantastic - best of both worlds. Especially for f&w. I'm really excited about our blt stay too, but would choose a split stay if we were spending all 10 nights onsite. Yu can't beat walking to epcot - but the monorail is pretty darn close at least!

I can't wait to share photos from our Puerto Rico trip! We had a BLAST!!

I love my Touring Plans subscription! It definitely helps with planning.

I think options 1 and 2 sound great! Why would the third option not be possible? Is BWV that popular during that time? Or is it not possible because you think one of the first two will happen?

Touring Plans is turning out to be a lot of fun to check out and plan with!

All of the Epcot resorts are super hard to book during F&W, so I doubt we'll find availability for the whole week. Though you never know!

Oh wow-- what a cool case! Ugh, I would NOT feel comfortable on a beach right now myself. I need to make a change in lifestyle, pronto.

For real- and eating and drinking so much on vacation only made it worse... back to work on it starting tomorrow!!

 

[Joyciemc]

We're home! I am exhausted... and very tan.
We had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to tell all about it. But for now, I need to relax and get ready to go back to real life tomorrow

 

[ronnmel]

Welcome back!!!!! Getting back to reality after spending a week on a beach is no fun.

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Welcome home!

 

[smile4stamps]

Welcome back!!

I just returned from a vacation to CO... (Kinda a Vacation!??! I was off of work but visiting my own house for the first time!) Was so wonderful to spend the time with my hubby in beautiful, peaceful CO. Definitely didn't return with a tan though!

Almost at the 7 months to see what you can get for DVC!!

 

[Joyciemc]

Welcome back!!!!! Getting back to reality after spending a week on a beach is no fun.

It really isn't! But I've come to terms with it Just a couple months till my next trip!

Welcome home!

Thank you!

Welcome back!!

I just returned from a vacation to CO... (Kinda a Vacation!??! I was off of work but visiting my own house for the first time!) Was so wonderful to spend the time with my hubby in beautiful, peaceful CO. Definitely didn't return with a tan though!

Almost at the 7 months to see what you can get for DVC!!

How is the house? When do you get to move to CO?

 

[Joyciemc]

I finally have a little time to post an update! Hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd do a mini TR of our Puerto Rico trip...

We were traveling with 3 other couples: Ben's cousin and girlfriend, and friends of theirs. I hadn't met the other 4 people before this, so introductions all around were in order while we waited for the taxis to pick us up. Ben and I live close to the airport, so we used our house as a meeting place.

Our flights were really uneventful- everything was on time and went very easily. Once we landed in San Juan, we needed to find out where to board our teeny tiny plane to Vieques. This proved to be pretty difficult- the island hopper airlines had desks downstairs but no one working them. After a phone call, we were finally met by an employee and then brought over to meet our captain- who was very nice and put us at ease about the upcoming flight.
We were all a bit nervous about flying in such a small plane, but figured it would be an adventure!

We actually had to ride in a van to get to were the plane was parked on the tarmac. And it sure was small!

Our luggage was loaded, and then we were sat according to weight in the plane. All 8 of us were giddy and excited about this adventure!

That's the captain up front- super small plane!

The flight was AWESOME! Such a fun ride and an experience I'll never forget.

After flying for 20 minutes, we landed at Vieques airport. When we got off the plane, we all stood around waiting to get our bags, but the airport staff told us to head on in and the bags would be in shortly. This struck us as odd, since the bags were right there and we each had only one carry on. But we obediently headed inside. And saw this:

Yup, that is the world's smallest baggage claim! I guess they were excited to use it, and that is why we couldn't bring our own bags in.

Laughing, we managed to find the right bags (they were all ours ) and turned around to find the manager of the rental house we were staying at. Mark was going to drive us to pick up our rental cars, but we wouldn't all fit in his car. We managed to get a taxi driver to take the rest of us in his van, but only after arguing with him about letting us bring our bags. I have no idea why he didn't want to, but we eventually just through the bags in the van and got in. He was a very grumpy man and practically through us out when we got to the car rental.

After about 17 years (seriously, it took a looooooooooong time), we finally had our cars. Now we could head out to find our home for the next few days...

At first glance, it looked wonderful and we were all excited. We drew cards to figure out what order we would pick rooms and Ben and I got first pick. I chose the bedroom off the pool, which was downstairs and separate from the rest of the house. (It's the room pictured above)
It seemed like a great choice at first... but then we realized that there were no blinds or curtains. The entire wall facing the pool was a window and there was even a giant window in the bathroom looking out to the pool. It was nuts!

We all drank some beers and played cards for a while before heading off to bed. We had to rest up for a big day at the beach!

 

[Nermel9]

Uh, there is no way I'd ever get on a plane like that! No way!

Awww, the little baggage claim is so cute!

Your room looks really nice, but that's annoying that there were no shades or blinds or anything! Can't wait to hear about the beach!

 

[annmarieda]

I second the "no way" that plan looked too WAY too tiny!!!

The lack of blinds.. hmm.. I think I would cause irreparable damage to anyone outside that room who caught a glimpse of me..so blinds for me are a must.

 

[smile4stamps]

How is the house? When do you get to move to CO?

The house is wonderful!! Still not completely unpacked but at least I made a dent in it! Its really a beautiful house!!

I dunno that I could do a tiny plane like that! I don't have issues with commercial planes but something so tiny sounds scary! As far as the no blinds... when sharing a house that sounds really weird! Currently the master bedroom of our house doesn't have blinds on one side but we are up in the hills and unless someone was spying on us with really good binoculars they can't see anything anyways!

 

[jenny105]

You would never be able to get me on a plane that small. No way.

LOL at the baggage claim. So tiny!

 

[Imagineer5]

Yay awesome to read your mini tr! Lol to the no blinds! And the little baggage claim. Weird taxi driver!

 

[amazingact21]

Oooh, I don't know about that plane....


The room looked great, but I could only imagine how annoying the window situation was. Who doesn't put blinds or curtains on a window overlooking the pool?

 

[khertz]

What an adorable little baggage claim!! It would have taken a LOT of convincing to get me on that teeny tiny little plane though.

Wonder what the heck had the taxi driver's panties in a twist? How in the world did he think your luggage was going to get where you were going if he didn't allow it in the cab?

The room looks pretty, but I can see the no blinds being a big problem come sunrise!

 

[ronnmel]

I'm sure the plane was an interesting experience.

The room with no curtain, yikes! Looks cute otherwise.