January 2009. . . Calling all Snowbirds ~ Part I !!!

[spokanemom]

Thanks Shelly for the CBR "extra" info.

We have also dropped Teppan Edo & are now going to do the Grand Gathering Illuminations Dinner & Dessert Reception. We really wanted to do the Safari Celebration but it just wasn't in the planning cards.

So, today, after dragging my body to work, I had to take a half day. My heart was not in it. Here I am, working on my spreadsheets. I my spreadsheets. They are helping me decide if I want to do the DDP on the 2nd package. They are kind of like my Magic 8 Ball.

I am really grateful to have the snowbirds around. You all understand the intense planning and all the dilemmas that we face to create the perfect (ha) vacation. If only my family and co-workers understood...

 

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

Yes, I know what you mean about the planning. Others just don't understand. My daughter told someone that we even plan potty breaks at the parks. She was exaggerating...., but now I'll have to put some in the itinerary just for fun.

 

[spokanemom]

Yes, I know what you mean about the planning. Others just don't understand. My daughter told someone that we even plan potty breaks at the parks. She was exaggerating...., but now I'll have to put some in the itinerary just for fun.

It is funny that you mention scheduled potty breaks... We had to schedule them in for our last WDW trip. Our first Disneyland trip together was in May 2005. Not a hot time of the year by any means, but my DH decided that he had to drink at least one bottle of water an hour as to not get dehydrated. Well, we spent more time wating for him to get out of the bathroom than we did in any line!

For all of our other trips since, we now have a joke that he can only use the bathroom once every two hours!

 

[kaos928]

It is funny that you mention scheduled potty breaks... We had to schedule them in for our last WDW trip. Our first Disneyland trip together was in May 2005. Not a hot time of the year by any means, but my DH decided that he had to drink at least one bottle of water an hour as to not get dehydrated. Well, we spent more time wating for him to get out of the bathroom than we did in any line!

For all of our other trips since, we now have a joke that he can only use the bathroom once every two hours!

My dad was the same way but with coffee in the morning. I swear we had to wait for him between every ride!

 

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

It is funny that you mention scheduled potty breaks... We had to schedule them in for our last WDW trip. Our first Disneyland trip together was in May 2005. Not a hot time of the year by any means, but my DH decided that he had to drink at least one bottle of water an hour as to not get dehydrated. Well, we spent more time wating for him to get out of the bathroom than we did in any line!

For all of our other trips since, we now have a joke that he can only use the bathroom once every two hours!

In that case, I'll be scheduling when they can have something to drink!!!

I am a little concerned about our drive there from Iowa to WDW (straight through). I hope none of us have a small bladder. I don't want to waste time in every rest stop going to the bathroom. In March, we bought our airplane tickets, then after them changing our arrival time to much later than we had originally planned, we cancelled our airline tickets and decided to drive. We were afraid that at the last minute they would cancel our flights and wouldn't give us enough time to get a refund for the road trip. I'm glad I did because it took them 3 weeks to refund the money.

 

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

So far we only have our Castle dinner reserved because of the upgrade to their new system. Couldn't they have waited just one more week!!!!!!

I really wish they would decide when they'll offer the Pirates & Princess Party in January. It's kind of hard to figure out where we want to make our ADRs knowing we'd more than likely have to change everything around once the P&PP dates come out.

 

[southtexasmom]

Welcome, southtexasmom!

AND you're going in 3 days, too, I see from your ticker.....you lucky mom you!!!

Not sure if it luck or if we are just crazy

 

[emh1129]

I agree, it's a lot of extra work for cm's to go through.
Today I'm planning to print up my adr cards. I print each days adr's and ressie #'s on business cards, that way they are small enough to fit in a wallet and we have the ressie# in case there's a problem. It works great, it's much easier than carrying them all on one sheet of paper and trying to keep track of the paper! I print a copy for DH to carry too. At first he thought I was going overboard w/ it, then one time he was checking in for dinner while I was in the restroom, and they couldn't find our adr and he was able to give them the ressie# and everything was fine. He was glad I insisted he carry those little cards and now he 'reminds' me to print some for every trip!

That's a really good idea. Last time I just had a regular piece of paper and that didn't work out well.. I like the business card idea a lot better!

 

[miabellarose]

Looks like we're coming from a variety of states, but was wondering if there are any other January Snowbirds coming from Iowa?

Hi I grew up 10 miles north of Ames and then went to school at the University of Iowa. Now I'm here in Savannah, but I miss Iowa How's the fair going? Have a corn dog for me (Somehow I'm always talking about food when I talk to someone from Iowa. First, it was the cheese balls, now the corn dogs )

 

[backinoz]

Especially when they take the rate down to less than $80 (incl tax) for us at Pop. It does mean we'll need to 'split' one of our stays at Pop, checking out & back in again on New Years Day, but that's a rest day for us (after a late NYE) so won't phase us too much at all. Do you think there's a chance that they'll let us keep the same room, or is it more likely that we'll have to pack our stuff up, put it in to bag storage for the day, then check back in later?? Hopefully they think logically, and save us that little bit of hassle. Next job is to re-check my dining spreadsheet and figure out where we're gonna eat, and which way to go - DDP (maybe for the first part of our split stay over NYE/NYD), DDE (will we save the $$ for the cost of the plan and the AP? But I guess we may save the $$ on room rates), or do we just go OOP?

Oh the choices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[2disneygirls]

Hi I grew up 10 miles north of Ames and then went to school at the University of Iowa. Now I'm here in Savannah, but I miss Iowa How's the fair going? Have a corn dog for me (Somehow I'm always talking about food when I talk to someone from Iowa. First, it was the cheese balls, now the corn dogs )

I just got home from the fair!!!
For once, the weather was GORGEOUS~ we usually go when it's 100 degrees; tonight was 85. Beautiful!

Sadly, I did not have a corndog. I did have some cheese balls (well, they call them cheese CURDS, but you kwim) and a mocha latte bar from Bauder's......and a teriyaki steak on a stick...and some mini cinnamon rolls......and.......omg........I'd better not eat AT ALL tomorrow!!! Hm, that was kind of embarassing to write it all down. We were only there 3 1/2 hours.

A funny thing about the corndogs~ this morning they tried to make a world record of the most people eating a corndog simultaneously! They let everyone in FREE to the fair from 7-8:30 a.m. and sent everyone to the grandstand....then the FFA kids passed out corndogs and 1,2,3 chow down! I guess they filled all 10,000 seats and were turning people away. Crazy! I assume they made their record.

 

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

Especially when they take the rate down to less than $80 (incl tax) for us at Pop. It does mean we'll need to 'split' one of our stays at Pop, checking out & back in again on New Years Day, but that's a rest day for us (after a late NYE) so won't phase us too much at all. Do you think there's a chance that they'll let us keep the same room, or is it more likely that we'll have to pack our stuff up, put it in to bag storage for the day, then check back in later?? Hopefully they think logically, and save us that little bit of hassle. Next job is to re-check my dining spreadsheet and figure out where we're gonna eat, and which way to go - DDP (maybe for the first part of our split stay over NYE/NYD), DDE (will we save the $$ for the cost of the plan and the AP? But I guess we may save the $$ on room rates), or do we just go OOP?

Oh the choices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On our 2004 trip, we booked a pool view room at WL for part of the trip, then booked a standard view room for the rest of the trip. Our TA told us that Disney does not like to move you and we'd probably get to stay inn the pool view room for the entire trip. She was right.

 

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

I just got home from the fair!!!
For once, the weather was GORGEOUS~ we usually go when it's 100 degrees; tonight was 85. Beautiful!

Sadly, I did not have a corndog. I did have some cheese balls (well, they call them cheese CURDS, but you kwim) and a mocha latte bar from Bauder's......and a teriyaki steak on a stick...and some mini cinnamon rolls......and.......omg........I'd better not eat AT ALL tomorrow!!! Hm, that was kind of embarassing to write it all down. We were only there 3 1/2 hours.

A funny thing about the corndogs~ this morning they tried to make a world record of the most people eating a corndog simultaneously! They let everyone in FREE to the fair from 7-8:30 a.m. and sent everyone to the grandstand....then the FFA kids passed out corndogs and 1,2,3 chow down!

I guess they filled all 10,000 seats and were turning people away. Crazy! I assume they made their record.

I'll be going on Monday. I'll have a corndog for everyone, and much, much more.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Good morning Snowbirds!

Happy Friday! Almost another week down, so that means one week closer to January!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Where have all the Snowbirds gone today???

Hope everyone is having a great day! I would like to take the kids to the mall today to go school clothes shopping, but they aren't really interested.

 

[snykymom]

I'm here! I'm here!

Still going nuts trying to determine if we've got the right ADRs! Can't ask my d because I'll get the teenage exasperated "Mom, it's August!" She just doesn't understand!

I'm just hoping all the reports of lower crowds, etc. are correct, and I'll be able to change ADRs as we get closer & she's willing to look! Or even as we change our minds! Not being on the dining plan does give us a bit more flexibility, I suppose.

 

[peach3es]

Where have all the Snowbirds gone today???

Hope everyone is having a great day! I would like to take the kids to the mall today to go school clothes shopping, but they aren't really interested.

I'm here! I was off watching all the Olympic opening ceremony stuff! Now it's over and I got my kids in bed and things are winding down.

Enjoyed the opening ceremony! I was so happy to see my kids getting into it too. They couldn't wait to see the USA team, and then when they saw how huge it was, they just kept clapping! We are so far removed from life back home! They were also excited to see Palestine represented! That was a nice surprise, especially for my ds' friend, who happened to be here playing and is Palestinian!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I'm here! I'm here!

Still going nuts trying to determine if we've got the right ADRs! Can't ask my d because I'll get the teenage exasperated "Mom, it's August!" She just doesn't understand!

I'm just hoping all the reports of lower crowds, etc. are correct, and I'll be able to change ADRs as we get closer & she's willing to look! Or even as we change our minds! Not being on the dining plan does give us a bit more flexibility, I suppose.

Hello!

I know, I think the ADR's are driving us all nuts! I could book most of mine, but not all because of the new system. On top of that we are now arriving a night earlier, so that means 1 more TS if we do the DDP. (which I am leaning towards today ) We really want to try the new T-Rex restaurant in DTD, but aren't sure if it will even be on the DDP.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I'm here! I was off watching all the Olympic opening ceremony stuff! Now it's over and I got my kids in bed and things are winding down.

Enjoyed the opening ceremony! I was so happy to see my kids getting into it too. They couldn't wait to see the USA team, and then when they saw how huge it was, they just kept clapping! We are so far removed from life back home! They were also excited to see Palestine represented! That was a nice surprise, especially for my ds' friend, who happened to be here playing and is Palestinian!

Wow that's neat that you've watched the opening ceremony already. It's on at 7:30pm here tonight!

 

[sarbah77]

I'm supposedly working! On a Friday! At an academic instituition!

Plus I'm making a weekend trip and - gasp! - won't have any internet access. What am I supposed to do?!