I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

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https://twitter.com/Drofcredit/status/1124823456518828032

If TPG or MMS even picks up on this.........
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If anyone has cash stays coming up this summer at Marriott, check your prices. There's a sale going on (including Europe). Book before May 7, use promo code ADP for standard rates, and M96 for member rates.
I saved $70 on a weekend in July in exciting Bloomington, IN. The sale price was the same as the prepaid rate.

I was so excited, I checked my 3 days in Edinburgh with the "sale" and it would have been about $300 more. Bonvoyed!:rolleyes2

ETA I kept my first ressie, obviously!
 
I've been in a weird space, just quietly reading along. DH had an MRI today. It should be read tomorrow. Hopefully everything is okay. This is from his recent ER visit and a CT scan that showed a little something abnormal. I am taking a vacation day Friday. I'm pretty mentally fried right now.

Conversation Starter:

Is anyone else already actively working on 2021 vacation plans? I've already got my 2020 locked in with a Disney cruise and a trip to WDW for food and wine. I've got 2021 pretty narrowed down too.

I can't talk about this in real life - people would think I was insane planning trips that far in advance. But I can't be the only one, right?

Once I'm under 5/24, I'll be actively racking up URs again and I plan on using them for either Greece or Norway.

Thank you all for the kind words and concerns - DH got the results of his MRI and the nodule that was found was benign.

Like @1st*toright I will apparently have a lot of spend to reimburse myself with... gotta love an HSA I guess. :rolleyes2 I am blessed to have the funds to do this and I feel for those who do not.

@Lain - I loved your post about your dreams for a Japan trip. I do not have kids but I would wait until your DD is a little older too - it's a long flight and a lot of money/points. You want to make sure she remembers it/enjoys it as you say.

I am always so impressed with all the trips everyone takes here - and that they take their kids. I never got to go on any vacations as a kid. My parents did not have the money. So now I am trying to make up for lost time I guess.

@calypso726 Thank you for sharing the prices for ABD Egypt. Maybe someday! Although when I told DH this trip was announced, he said "Oh are they taking armed guards wearing Mickey ears?" I just shook my head.

I took a vacation day today for mental health. Hopefully I can catch up more here!

I am so thankful that your husband's MRI was clear!

2020: WDW in March with our kids and ds's fiancee; Australia (and maybe New Zealand) in September/October
2021: We're thinking either a combo Machu Picchu/Galapagos trip OR Africa with a safari portion. Those Seychelles pictures were gorgeous! Last summer we hosted a young adult from the Seychelles though the Mandela Washington Fellowship who would like us to visit her home. it'd be awesome to combine a visit with a safari.

I expected $10K+ per person but it's only about $7.5K. I say "only" because that's about the same price we were looking at for the Danube river cruise & Egypt is a longer trip with a more intense itinerary (IMO). I have to think that tourism prices dropped due to security concerns... which I also have, but then I keep thinking that Disney wouldn't announce the trips unless they were pretty confident about the safety of them, especially since they had to cancel their Egypt trips before.

This is throwing a wrench into my plans. Egypt has always been at the top of my list. We decided against the Danube due to timing & then ultimately realized that we would really like a more customized itinerary with more time in certain places, but for Egypt, I am very happy to let someone else lead me around.

See above our 2021 plans which I would change in a hot minute to go to Egypt! The price is honestly not that bad. Dd might be in Jordan studying during 2021-22 :rolleyes1

:offtopic:Well two hour in on the ten hour drive. Didn’t have time to write up the character meals. So here goes... it’s been 2 adults and 3 kids each meal. Also we have had others join us at time and that hasn’t changed our experience. We used the dining plan most of the time but have paid for some out of pocket. Also we have food allergies.
Listed in no specific rating.

Bon Voyage at trattoria al forno- character interaction is great. They spend time talking and stay in character. Youngest dd loves playing hide and seek with Flynn every time. Ask to see the crown as he has it in his satchel. The dancing around the restaurant is fun for the kids. Food has been great. Chef has made most of the items to meet our allergies. We do this every trip.

Storybook dinner at artist point- evil queen was great. Snow White came by smiled for a picture but didn’t really interact with us. She didn’t answer the kids questions or bother to try to listen to a quick story. She definitely rushed. Dwarfs were animated with their actions and didn’t seem to rush off like Snow White. Food was great. Apps and dessert are small portioned so you get each one for everyone in your party no sharing required. Chef was very friendly and accommodating. We will definitely do this again.

Tusker house at animal kingdom- kids love the safari outfits and dancing in the conga line with the characters around your area is the dining room. Buffet style and decent assortment. Food has been good here and we look forward to eating here as it’s a break in the day for lunch or dinner. Characters have spent time and then some times it felt rushed. They have had the same chefs for lunch and dinner for years. Not sure if it’s good that they remember us. We do this every trip.

Crystal palace at MK- buffet style. We did dinner once and haven’t been back. Characters rushed by for a quick pic and no interaction. We did dinner. Other reviews said good things so we tried it. Food was same nothing special. Chef wasn’t the friendliest. They do cross contaminate so two of us didn’t eat. He wasn’t willing to try to make anything for us because they were too busy.

Be our guest at MK- great food! Pic with beast was nice and there was a line but they didn’t rush you with interactions. Kids each got to dance with him and talk. Now that it’s 2 credits on the dining plan not sure if we would repeat. Especially since we like doing breakfast and lunch here. But definitely was worth it once. If money wasn’t an issue we would do it again. You can request which room to eat in, rose room did have a longer wait but only 5 minutes when we went.

Cinderella royal table at MK- it’s the castle. We have done this several times just because it’s in the castle. Princesses have been great and sometimes rushed. Food has been good but smaller portion compared overall to other table service. Kids like getting their wand/sword and wishing star. They have played with them at home which is nice. Cinderella pic seems rushed and not much interaction. The princesses that come around the table do interact more and make it worth it. Kids enjoy going and ask for it every visit but for the price we try to do this every couple years vs every visit.

Hollywood and Vine at HS- well we have done breakfast, lunch, and dinner several times. Food is never anything to jump up and down. If it’s the only way to meet a character then it is worth it maybe. After the last two times here we won’t be going back. Service is poor and just not like other Disney table service. Also doesn’t help that the server lost my gift card when we were paying and the manger was awful. Out $590 and they wouldn’t do anything about it. Same manger is still there after two years. We went just for vampirina for dd birthday as it was the only way to meet her. Gave to another shot and the food and service is just not good. Plus characters always seem rushed here.

Garden grill at EP- moving restaurant sometimes doesn’t rotate. We have only done breakfast here and it’s been good. Characters are fun and chip and dale played games with the kids. Family style but had no problem getting more of certain foods. We eat here every couple of trips.

Akershus in EP- we have done breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We like dinner the best. Great way to meet the princesses without paying for Cinderella royal table. They do little parade around the restaurant. Characters have been good with the interactions. Only once did it seem rushed. The buffet for apps and then individual main dish. Shared dessert. We eat here every other trip.

1900 park fare in grand Floridian- breakfast and dinner. We prefer dinner here. The interactions with the step mother and sisters are never disappointing. Prince charming always makes the girls feel like true princesses. Food is good for a buffet. If you can get there when they open the wall plays music. This is one we do at least every other trip if not every.

Ohana in Polynesian- breakfast for characters. Stitch is fun and why we come here. Food is good for family style. Service always seems slow here but we normally aren’t in a rush when we come here so it’s not too bad. We eat here every other trip.

Mickeys backyard - we did this once. Food was ok. Characters had lines to see them. The dancing was fun for the kids. For a evening it was a nice change from the parks. (FWIW if I had to choose this or hoop de doo I’d do hoop de doo. Kids seemed to enjoy that more)

Cape May - breakfast. One and done for us. Characters barely walked by and only two stopped for a pic. Kids didn’t have a chance to even talk with them. Food was typical breakfast buffet. Chef was useless. Didn’t know what was in half the dishes. Wasn’t willing to accommodate allergies.

Chef mickeys in the contemporary - dinner only here for us. I could take it or leave it here. Kids love it more for the characters and desserts. Typical buffet. Characters have been good here. They take their time and it’s not rushed. Food has gotten better the last time we went this past March. Service has been good and chefs have been changing. Had three different chefs between April and October 2018 and March 2019. They don’t have the Mickey plate statue anymore :-( kids liked getting their picture before we ate.

Sorry for all the edits but since I’m on the phone didn’t want it to lose the post.

Thanks for all the reviews! Dh and the dds have non-overlapping allergies which make dining an ...interesting experience. We've had good luck at Crystal Palace breakfast (we only go around 10:30) for character meals. We also like Boma, Sanaa, and the non-character Be Our Guest lunch. Many years back and only one allergic person, we enjoyed 1800 Park Fare with extended family and Tusker House before they added characters to all the meals.

I think we should try Bon Voyage next year with our 26, 25, 24, and 20 year olds :laughing:

Just to jump on the moving news. DS finished finals and all his RA work and is moving out of the dorms this weekend. OMG how does someone bring home more than he took to school?!? One load arrived and he is back for a second. Of course he is an adult and doesn't need help. If he had just packed over the week and brought home a load during the week, it would have been better (IMO) or asked me or DH to come and get a load. Luckily he is just 15 miles away and not too hard to make multiple trips.

We moved dd out of her dorm yesterday. The Kia Niro (small crossover hybrid SUV) was stuffed, and we stored 2 boxes, her dorm fridge, and a shelving unit with a service in her college town. She had about 50% less stuff, in total, than any of her friends. All of her clothes fit into 2 suitcases!

If anyone has cash stays coming up this summer at Marriott, check your prices. There's a sale going on (including Europe). Book before May 7, use promo code ADP for standard rates, and M96 for member rates.
I saved $70 on a weekend in July in exciting Bloomington, IN. The sale price was the same as the prepaid rate.

:rotfl2:We just left Bloomington (dd is at IU)! I'm going to go check that sale to see if it includes the dates we move her back into her dorm (apartment dorm!) in August--thanks!
 

:faint:
Holy crap! We pay about $75 a month combined.

@speedyfish we just have 30 year term policies for like $1.5million. I don’t know anything about FIRE stuff, but I do follow Clark Howard and here is some basic info from him.
http://clark.com/insurance/how-shop-term-life-insurance/

If you are into the FIRE stuff I guess you may need other resources.
My $1.4MM term policy with Mass Mutual would be $69 per month if paid monthly. I pay it annually. The majority of my cost comes from whole life policies (i.e. permanent insurance) which I'm using as a diversification tool as well as for estate planning and tax planning (and potentially some tax-advantaged annuitization possibilities in early retirement). Ok yeah...I tried to write a simple comment and seem to have lost myself again LOL!

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Just to jump on the moving news. DS finished finals and all his RA work and is moving out of the dorms this weekend. OMG how does someone bring home more than he took to school?!? One load arrived and he is back for a second. Of course he is an adult and doesn't need help. If he had just packed over the week and brought home a load during the week, it would have been better (IMO) or asked me or DH to come and get a load. Luckily he is just 15 miles away and not too hard to make multiple trips.

Nice it's a short drive. We haven't helped DD with her moves since we moved her in 4 years ago, but we said we'd figure out the move this time since she is graduating. All the stuff she still wants or needs is going to be shipped UPS across the country. I was looking into that whole Plastiq 3x URs on the CIP this morning until I realized that we should get 3x on the CIP for this move. It's not at all cheap, but we aren't going to drive the 3,000+ miles. She's doing all the sorting and packing and stuff at least. Plus we get 3 free bags since we are flying home on AA and I have their credit card. I don't even want to know what this is going to cost. :rolleyes1
 
Here is my off topic post for the day... I've got a haircut tomorrow. Since I scheduled it 2 weeks ago, I've been debating what I want to do with it... my hair is out of control long wnd I kind of want to do something different and have an idea that is a shorter cut (for me)... but I'm a big wimp and anxious because the only time I truly cut my hair shorter vs just getting it trimmed was back in middle school. I'm being completely crazy, yes. Lol.
Cut it and donate it to wigs for kids. I do this every two years. Great cause.

The moving company they give us would pack everything as well as move it. Dh’s family is a “do it yourself” kind of family which is almost the opposite of mine. We just come from different backgrounds and I think that’s why. He wants to just save the money so that we can use as much of the capped limit as possible. The biggest problem is we thought they would move our stuff in like 3 days which wasn’t realistic thinking but we literally leave 3 days after getting back from Japan so we don’t have a lot of options as far as them coming earlier to pack.

BUT the good thing is that the sellers are leaving their kitchen, dining room, and living room sets. So if our stuff takes too long we could sleep on the sectional and we would be okay.

What if you compromised and you boxed yourself and just had the moving company move your items instead of packing and moving
 
Yes—I’m super cautious since the 19-year old daughter of one of the guys I dated for a few years post-divorce was killed by a driver who fell asleep:(
My husband’s father was killed when he fell asleep driving home after working long hours. He was a corpsman in the Navy. (DH was 5 at the time)
 
I find now an opportune moment to point out that another CIP can be a cash back card......:lmao:

Haha to be fair, DH’s CIP 2 was used exclusively as “cash back” since I cashed out URs to pay $2500 towards our Disney trip. Still weighing CIP 2 for me. If I do it, it’ll be June 1 now, which will really only be better in Chase’s eyes. I should probably lower my 24k Hyatt limit just in case.

:faint:
Holy crap! We pay about $75 a month combined.

@speedyfish we just have 30 year term policies for like $1.5million. I don’t know anything about FIRE stuff, but I do follow Clark Howard and here is some basic info from him.
http://clark.com/insurance/how-shop-term-life-insurance/

If you are into the FIRE stuff I guess you may need other resources.

Yup, we pay $58 a month for the two 30 year 500k policies. We don’t have children or anything to worry about though, so really we only need the security of the other person being able to pay off the mortgage or any outstanding debt. We have policies through work that we don’t pay any extra for too.
 
But i uhhh enjoyed typing all that out for you, lol!

I enjoyed reading it! Thank you.

:faint:
Holy crap! We pay about $75 a month combined.

@speedyfish we just have 30 year term policies for like $1.5million. I don’t know anything about FIRE stuff, but I do follow Clark Howard and here is some basic info from him.
http://clark.com/insurance/how-shop-term-life-insurance/

If you are into the FIRE stuff I guess you may need other resources.

This is more what I’m looking for lol
 
Less than tuition!:)

Good point. So much less that it's like a drop in the bucket. It was so much easier to move her in since I picked up a lot of stuff locally. She's not a pack rat at all, so I suspect she won't be moving as much stuff as I think.
 
To those of you who just started all this talk about life insurance... Now the ads on this page (on my laptop anyway) are all about death and life insurance. Thanks... :rotfl: I guess it's better than the super creepy dental implant ads I was getting a while back (I have no idea why I was getting those). We should be seeing lovely travel ads from the Maldives, Florida, and Hawaii, shouldn't we?
 
@DisneyMandC Do you know anything about the Fairfield Inn Virginia Beach at 901 Atlantic Ave? We stayed at the Courtyard 37th last time and thinking of trying some people new this time.
 
Yeah I’m not sure where his mind’s at lol. I’m fairly positive I’ll convince him to have them move us. Just like he’ll probably convince me to drive it all in one day. If we take turns there’s no reason we couldn’t do it in one day. It would be nice not to have to stop at a hotel and just get to the house. It would give the cats a chance to settle in before the movers show up. That way they can get used to the house and have their scent on things.


Here’s another thing to add to your argument- movers are insured. My sil and her husband moved from ny to Texas. They stopped overnight and someone broke into the uhaul and stole a bunch of their stuff. They also had to pay some sort of deductible for damage to the uhaul.

After our last move, we paid 1k above the cap that my dh got for relocation. Worth every penny. They came on a Thursday, packed up all our crap, lablelend everything with a numbered sticker and gave me a sheet saying which box contained which numbered items and a key of what each number was.

Friday, they came and loaded the truck. We stayed in a hotel in our old city Friday night, drove Saturday and Sunday, stayed in a hotel in the new location, and the truck met us monday. With how well everything was organized, we were unpacked in a day or so.

I told DH I’m never moving without movers again. I’d maybe consider doing a short move, like within the same town with help for the large furniture, but long distance, no way
 
@DisneyMandC Do you know anything about the Fairfield Inn Virginia Beach at 901 Atlantic Ave? We stayed at the Courtyard 37th last time and thinking of trying some people new this time.

I’ve never stayed there, but one of my coworkers stays there for our conference and says she likes it. I know she’s mentioned that her kids (13 and 16) really like the breakfast, for whatever reason lol. She said it has a nice outdoor pool too.

I stayed at the Courtyard at 25th last year and it was nice. It’s identical to the Courtyard at 37th but no outdoor pool at all. It’s pretty much right in the thick of things though, and I did notice a little more noise from the boardwalk at night.
 
I’ve never stayed there, but one of my coworkers stays there for our conference and says she likes it. I know she’s mentioned that her kids (13 and 16) really like the breakfast, for whatever reason lol. She said it has a nice outdoor pool too.

I stayed at the Courtyard at 25th last year and it was nice. It’s identical to the Courtyard at 37th but no outdoor pool at all. It’s pretty much right in the thick of things though, and I did notice a little more noise from the boardwalk at night.
Wait, Va Beach has a boardwalk? I only remember there being a street behind the hotels but no true boardwalk like OCMD.

The pool at 37th St was nice except for a bit noisy with all of the Navy jet flyovers. I wonder if we get the breakfast buffet for free with my Platinum status at 37th st.
 
Hersheypark fans - any thoughts between the Springhill vs. the Fairfield for a one night stay? (We're going on a Mon/Tues this summer)
 
To those of you who just started all this talk about life insurance... Now the ads on this page (on my laptop anyway) are all about death and life insurance. Thanks... :rotfl: I guess it's better than the super creepy dental implant ads I was getting a while back (I have no idea why I was getting those). We should be seeing lovely travel ads from the Maldives, Florida, and Hawaii, shouldn't we?

Your post made me notice mine are the same. And I had the dental implant showing a screw or something for awhile as well. It's funny that a topic takes off in here and my ads will change but it's not every topic. You'd think the moving stuff would trigger more than life ins but I guess there's less stuff that moving triggers. The one's I always laugh at are the one's trying to get me to pay to stay off site at wdw. If I'm staying off site it would be because I'm using points silly algorithm.
 
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