Halloweentime with Mickey PTR ***complete!~TR link added- post #205***

[julezdisney]

WOOHOOO!! I got a shout out, too! I'm loving your pre-trip report and I can't wait for your trip report!!!

Diddo! And I can't wait to write it! I got all teary-eyed today watching Fantasmic! on Youtube because I didn't get to see it in '06 (I don't know if the I-L's didn't know about it or what )and I imagined the kids watching it in awe, and I got just so darn kerplemfed!

I'm in for the ride!

I have to say, that halloween picture freaked me out!

And, is that YOU in the stroller holding your daughter?

And DH will be bummed he can't wear something similar to the ToT Party, I'm sure! I haven't even begun to think of costumes yet, I'm gonna do that much much closer to the date....

And yes, that was me in the stroller holding DD! I was tired too! But once I realized she was truly not going to wake up to see the Electrical Parade no matter how much shouting, tugging, shaking, and pulling of the eyelids DMIL and I did, I got out to watch the parade like a normal adult.... although it was comfortable, I must say...

 

[stagemomx3]

I keep meaning to purchase that first book. I have the WDW version which I love. I can't wait to see your scrapbooking efforts.

 

[kaoden39]

Passporter is a good book too! I love it because you can write in to make your plans.

Michele

 

[kmab00]

I LOVE Birnbaum's AND PASSPORTER!!! Those are my two "Disney musts" for each trip!! They are GREAT!

Turtle Talk is SO cute! You guys are going to love it!

 

[kaoden39]

I LOVE Birnbaum's AND PASSPORTER!!! Those are my two "Disney musts" for each trip!! They are GREAT!

Turtle Talk is SO cute! You guys are going to love it!

Me too! I have both and the Un-Official Guide to Disneyland. I get a new books every year or at least I do when I start planning a trip. Not that change every year or anything. It is just my obsession. I think that is why there is so much detail to my pre-trip report.

Michele

 

[kaoden39]

By the way I love the picture of you sitting down in your wedding dress.

 

[fairy8i8]

On site or off site for our very first official family vacation?

What makes me nervous is the booking agent. I’ve only ever booked a room through something major- like Overstock (which- they no longer do ) or Travelocity but this is through a place called “Airfare.com”. They have ‘vouchers’ for check in Oct. 9th and check out Oct. 13th. Apparently, HoJo’s will have my name on their books 7 days ahead of the reservation. Which I found out only AFTER I called HoJo’s to confirm. I didn’t know that I wasn’t booking ACTUAL ressies. I’m very very nervous about this but since the CC bill has been paid- I’m just gonna have to deal. If I find myself 7 days out with no room- I’ll book something else somewhere and have the CC company take care of them. ANYONE OUT THERE HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE THIS AIRFARE.COM?

Next up: Priority Seating ressies!! PLEASE GIVE ME SUGGESTIONS!

For peace of mind, I would suggest 2 options, depending on the circumstances. First, if you have the fine print of your ressie from airline.com and there is no penalty for a cancellation, I would suggest calling HoJo directly and giving them the quoted rate and what you paid total and give them the opportunity to match it, which they often will. That way you KNOW you have a reservation. If you can't cancel without paying a penalty or if HoJo won't match the rate, I'd book something directly through the hotel now and use a credit card to secure it. They often won't charge a deposit to the credit card, or only charge a single night, which is fully refundable up until 5 days before your stay. If HoJo gets your airline.com ressie w/in 6 or 7 days of the trip, great and cancel the one with the hotel (don't forget)! If not, then at least you still have a place to stay and don't have to stress last minute about finding a room, and just report airline.com to your credit card company for fraud and they'll take off the charge.

 

[kmab00]

By the way I love the picture of you sitting down in your wedding dress.

Aww thank you so much!! That's too sweet!

I know what you mean....I get a new book like every trip, too!

 

[julezdisney]

What's up with airfare.com?

So basically, I was really nervous about this booking and decided to un-book it. So I officially do NOT have a hotel or airline for this trip! I have a pile of tickets to Disneyland!

No, seriously, I was really not liking the whole "voucher" thing, and than when I contacted the agency today, I got the fine print and all that, which I apparently am only privy to during the purchasing process, when you check on the "policies' box and they dont' have it posted ANYWHERE on their site elsewhere. I didn't like what I read, so I requested cancellation and refund.

Supposedly, I'll get a refund within 72 hours, minus 1 nights stay as penalty. The funny thing was- I'd forgotten how much I'd paid and thought I'd paid less originally- so now I feel like I'm getting bonus money! der.....

So... chalk it up to a lesson learned for Julia and her very first endeavor into family vacation planning beyond a one night's stay somewhere.

Here's what I'm going to do INSTEAD:
I am going to pay rediculously MORE for both hotel and air travel by booking directly with Disney Travel. This way, I can be sure that my airline flights will be secured, while having the entire summer up to 30 days in advance of our take off date to pay the balance in full. That will be a big relief for me, as gas prices are so very scary right now.

Also, I get the perks I was wishing I had, such as an early Magic Morning, and those prized Toontown Morning Madness tickets. Also that parade and Aladdin seating that I wanted too. As well as nifty lanyards and luggage tags. Hey, the little things in life make me happy, what can I say? Even if they cost me an extra $200 in hotel and $400 on plane tickets.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm paying for the peace of mind and not worry about it.

HOWEVER, HOJO's is not open for us through Disney Travel right now- they are all booked up, so I am either going with the Tropicana- which I'd wanted anyway, OR.... I am going to search for something magical and try to get a killer deal on a Disneyland Hotel deal! That would be super sweet.

As for all those super super cool commemorative tickets I collected... they will be auctioned off on ebay w/minimum prices of $50 each. That will give me just around $600- which is the approx. same cost of the 3 day PH's for the 4 of us. More if they go for more- which they usually will go for more.

SO... in a nutshell... I have replanned the booking portion of my trip.

WHICH THROWS EVERYTHING OFF. Because now I have an extra magic morning hour to use one day, as well as Toontown to do one morning rather than in one evening, whatever I had planned- I'm too tired to go look right now

I'm going to sleep and thinking about this in the morning. But you know what? I have a secret.... *I'm very secretly glad about changing things around because that means I get to replan stuff!*

G'night all.

fairy8i8 It's so funny you brought that up today on the day that I was doing this! Wierd......

 

[stagemomx3]

*I'm very secretly glad about changing things around because that means I get to replan stuff!*

 

[kaoden39]

I don't blame you. I prefer to plan through Disney Travel myself. Except this time I am thinking about going through Costco which books for Disney but you get a free character breakfast for your party. Everything else is the same as though you went through Disney Travel. One thing to be said for staying at one of the onsite hotels is anything you buy can be sent to your room. I also love the theming of the DIsneyland Hotel it is very special for kids.

Michele

 

[Charleston Princess]

I can't wait to see what you create in the way of scrapbooking! It's one of my favorite things to do!

 

[kmab00]

One thing to be said for staying at one of the onsite hotels is anything you buy can be sent to your room. I also love the theming of the DIsneyland Hotel it is very special for kids.

Michele

DITTO!! AND they have the special "Disney Resort" channels....Disneyland having TWO channels vs. WDW's ONE! You can ALSO have a MICKEY MOUSE WAKE UP CALL from the Disneyland Resort hotels!!! You know what else? The Disney resorts just have that "Wow I'm in Disneyland" feel!!

I loved Paradise Pier and the Disneyland Hotel looked fabulous, too! Good luck finding a deal!!!

 

[kaoden39]

DITTO!! AND they have the special "Disney Resort" channels....Disneyland having TWO channels vs. WDW's ONE! You can ALSO have a MICKEY MOUSE WAKE UP CALL from the Disneyland Resort hotels!!! You know what else? The Disney resorts just have that "Wow I'm in Disneyland" feel!!

I loved Paradise Pier and the Disneyland Hotel looked fabulous, too! Good luck finding a deal!!!

The Disneyland Hotel also has the Tinkerbell wall trim that glows in the dark. Which is so sweet when you go to bed. Last spring when we were there they had a channel that showed DIsney cartoons and had Princess bedtime stories that played over and over in case your Princess misses the story.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Julia, you are too cute..!!

We booked through WDTC in December and the extras we got were awesome to me.

Atleast you do have a piece of mind. Just don't forget than when you have to pay! Also the CMs at WDTC are wonderful, so they'll help you a tons!

Oohh! If you get a DL hotel, omg, that would be wonderful! I'm crossing my fingers you do!!!

 

[MA pigletfan]

i am with you on the Birnbaum guide..its great..i have been looking through mine every day..don't want to miss a thing for my first trip!!
Your pics were so cute

 

[julezdisney]

I keep meaning to purchase that first book. I have the WDW version which I love. I can't wait to see your scrapbooking efforts.

I love the Birnbaum guide, I love the pictures, the layout, the little maps, just everything. I also love that they DON'T put in an entire SoCal section, which I don't need. I always was against scrapbooking, from a former photographer's point of view- I always saw it as "dressing up" poor photographs-- but now I see it as a way to re-live memories!

I LOVE Birnbaum's AND PASSPORTER!!! Those are my two "Disney musts" for each trip!! They are GREAT!

Turtle Talk is SO cute! You guys are going to love it!

I have wanted Passporter as well, but can't justify cost for all the extras I just don't need- all most too much detail, although I love the new binder design that you can insert new sets of pages. And I am so excited for Turtle Talk, I pathetically watch YouTube versions at least twice a month. I even have it downloaded onto my Zune.

I don't blame you. I prefer to plan through Disney Travel myself. Except this time I am thinking about going through Costco which books for Disney but you get a free character breakfast for your party. Everything else is the same as though you went through Disney Travel. One thing to be said for staying at one of the onsite hotels is anything you buy can be sent to your room. I also love the theming of the DIsneyland Hotel it is very special for kids.

Michele

You know what's funny? After I read your comment, Michele, I quoted the same trip through Disney and Costco and the price difference was $103- about the cost of a character breakfast for 4!! I think I'll just go with whoever has the room available that I want. And I don't want American Airlines so that'll factor in as well. I have no intention of paying $$ for my 1st checked bag that's ludicrous, I'm so angry about that!

I can't wait to see what you create in the way of scrapbooking! It's one of my favorite things to do!

Me too! Now to tear myself away from the DIS in order to do some.....

DITTO!! AND they have the special "Disney Resort" channels....Disneyland having TWO channels vs. WDW's ONE! You can ALSO have a MICKEY MOUSE WAKE UP CALL from the Disneyland Resort hotels!!! You know what else? The Disney resorts just have that "Wow I'm in Disneyland" feel!!

I loved Paradise Pier and the Disneyland Hotel looked fabulous, too! Good luck finding a deal!!!

I looked back through your pix and LOVED the look and size of the room at PP, since I like to THINK that we'll spend very little time at the room, I know how my DH and kids get after too long away from "home" so a break in the day is inevitable, and will be made better by a nice room to come "home" to. We'll see! And the Disney channels do seem cool.

Julia, you are too cute..!!

We booked through WDTC in December and the extras we got were awesome to me.

Atleast you do have a piece of mind. Just don't forget than when you have to pay! Also the CMs at WDTC are wonderful, so they'll help you a tons!

Oohh! If you get a DL hotel, omg, that would be wonderful! I'm crossing my fingers you do!!!

I did catch that thread with the rate for "gay days" so that's an option, but would only be good the first 2 days. Also, I'll have to look into seeing if there's any conventions going on that week/weekend that might have discounts attached to them, I'll be researching that as well this week/weekend.

i am with you on the Birnbaum guide..its great..i have been looking through mine every day..don't want to miss a thing for my first trip!!
Your pics were so cute

I love love love Birnbaum's. I just wish they had a Birnbaum's Guide for Kids like that do for WDW. It has awesome pix, trivia, I thought some activities, and an entire autograph section! I even considered buying the WDW version for the kids for this trip, since they won't know the difference, but I decided to just wait until we actually go to WDW, instead.

 

[julezdisney]

Good morning everybody! My day off! Yay! I was GOING to post how freaky it was to be woken up this morning with local weather station & the weather channel warnings to get into my basement because of severe weather/thunderstorms/and spotted funnel clouds in my area, but INSTEAD I'm giving ya'll the link to WDW in 3D on Google earth!

Why-oh-WHY do I suspect an hour AT LEAST is about to be wasted from my day?

Here it is!

WDW in 3D page to Download new Google Earth!!

So bye, everybody! I'm going to Disney World!

Ok, only in the cyberworld, of course, but still....

 

[julezdisney]

Ok, I'm back!

Just a quick trip, donchyaknow, to check it out.

The verdict is.... I need practice. And tutorial. It's kind of difficult to use on the laptop with the little touchpad instead of at the PC w/a mouse to get the 90 degree angle and to move around. But after getting lost in what appeared to be an employee parking lot behind main street, I found myself in the center hub in front of the castle and decide to come back to Illinois rather than hang a right down to Tommorowland.

I just have 1 question to all you WDW vets- how in the WORLD do you avoid wasting countless hours shopping on Main Street? I mean, OMG, it's huge, and has a bunch of what appeared to be little side streets or something?

I would spend at least the morning there before I could even get to the dang, castle, it looked like! And that train station is HUGE! NOW I see why diehard WDW fans are so reluctant or hesitant to try the original park, Disneyland. Because it's smaller, and the natural progression of our American-ized thinking is to believe that bigger is better, you can't possibly believe that what we have in Cali could compare to the park in FL. But I still contend that the two are far two different to warrant the hesitation. Bigger is not better, but different is cause for exploration!

I see many hours navigating WDW in 3D as I learn how to use the new Google Earth. I did notice that it is much slower in WDW than if you are just wandering around Florida. Which I only found out because I got rediculously lost IN southern Florida wandering around south of Wide Waste of Space... er... I mean, Wide World of Sports... and looking at people's backyards and some street and farm fields....

Technology today, crazy.

Alright. I vowed to myself not to waste the entire day on the computer, like I usually do.

My checkbook and bills desperately need some attention.
My floors need a mopping, the shelves dusting, and the carpets vacuuming.
Laundry needs to be PUT AWAY in addition to the wash.
I need to run to the grocery store AND the dollar store.
I have to go to the post office to ship an ebay thing.

Boy, I wish I COULD laze my day away on the computer.

Oh, and one last thing. This has to do with Disney-planning.

I'm excited to announce that next week is 16 weeks till Disney! Yes, I know, it's still a long time. But it makes it go faster and to make it seem more real and tangible for the kids, I'll be introducing a new Disney-theme for each week. Next week, is Peter Pan. So yippe for
that!

L8R, DISfriends!

 

[kaoden39]

OK you had your scary weather. We had an earthquake on Tuesday night and then last night there was a fire at a chemical plant and we had a shelter in place. Fun times.