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

[MindyLuvsMickey]

Good Day, Snowbirds!

Just returning from a long day of shopping. Felt the need to spoil my little guy today. He has a birthday coming up in a few days, so I got some more stuff for him.

At any rate . . . ROLL CALL!

Our trip will be just the three of us. DH (Matt)~33, me (Mindy)~32 and DS (Rylan)~3. We'll all be having birthdays before the trip so bump us up one at trip time.

This will be my son's third trip, DH's 4th or 5th trip and my 10th or 11th trip.

My hubby is already talking about a Disney Land/Sea Package for next time! Whoot! Whoot! Could he be seeing the light?

 

[sharadoc]

I confess, Sharadoc, I'm not even sure who all is going with me at this time. The folks, except for me, on my signature are still tentative. I'm giving them til October before I start tightening the screws on them irate:

However, I know that part of the vacation will be all the cool stuff going on at the resort and I definitely want to take advantage of this. Movies by the pool -- how neat! Is there a way to get a January schedule of this? If so, we can plan to meet at the movies! That's a great idea....

No worries. I don't want to get hung up on planning anything 5 months away anyway! I'll keep an eye on the list and when it gets close, we can talk about it then.

I don't think they publish the activities list that far in advance. I've seen photos of a weekly schedule so that's probably it. I bet it's a rotating schedule and it repeats every 3-4 weeks anyway.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

24 weeks til Disney!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Sorry for the outburst! ^^

Sometimes I just can't contain myself!!

 

[Towers5]

Just added another DAY Dec 28th - Jan 10th

Nope we AIN'T 'xcited or Nuttin'


Hmmmm now I have to add more FOOD

 

[paper1225]

Hi Snowbirds Now that I have booked my room I feel I can offically join. Here is how my trip is shaping up. It will be me, DD6, and my parents. Staying at POR, hoping to stay in the mansions. Staying from Jan 25 to Feb 1st. I think that I will book a package when it is all said and done, but I can't make up my mind about the dinning plans. I have booked our flights with AT. This will be the first trip for my daughter and I.

I have a few questions about our flight that I hope someone can answer for me. Will I need a car seat for my daughter who is six on the plane? This next one is going to sound really strange but will I need her birth certificate to prove she is my daughter? Can you tell we don't get out much!!!!

I FOUND YOU!! I am so proud of you dear cousin Finally, someone in my family to feel my addiction!! WOOHOO!!!! Now, how can I persuade my DH that we need to go down there the same time as you........hhhmmmI think we could qualify as a Grand Gathering. The true miracle would be if I could convince my dad to go too Yeah, not going to happen! You will have such a great time!
As for the flight, I would not take the car seat - your DD6 is tall enough to not need that........are you renting a car? Not sure if you told me that or not...As for the birth certificate, we never needed them with our children, but we have not flown with them in quite a while......maybe someone else will help!

 

[Remmy]

Congratulations to all that have booked thus far. Tomorrow I hope to have booked our first package vacation and change from a room only.

We have changed our dates to one less and leave on the 6th of February. We have about a 21 hour drive or so and wish to give us time to make it back a bit leisurely if we wish to. We have had to change vehicles plans too as our truck will require too much work to be long trip road worthy and must change to our good but smaller Torrent.

A few questions if you don't mind,

1. Our travel agent emailed our package deal for our trip and it states the basic dining plan. That is the one that includes 1 Counter Service Meal, 1 Table Service Meal, and 1 snack for each night of stay, correct? My brain is fried from a stressful day at work and when I go to book tomorrow I want to make certain that is the correct dining plan I am signing for.

2. To those that have used the dining plan in the past, do you feel it is worth the convenience to prepay most dining expenses before you go and just present your card for payment when dining at the table service and counter service meals. We have never done the dining plan before and wondered about the ease of use and convenience of it.

Thank you so much in advance. I also like Shelly's way of thinking by weeks, it sounds so much closer that way, a much smaller number to count down.

I also booked breakfast at Tusker and supper at Le Cellier on the 25th of January and when I called this morning it seemed I had the pick of any time available, there were many spots open.

 

[trixiequilts]

I can only answer #1...yes, the basic dining is 1 TS, 1 CS, and 1 snack per person per night of your stay. You may just want to double check with your TA that he/she is not referring to the new counter service plan which is 2 CS, 2 snacks, and mug. I don't know what the official names are for the plans this year. I'll have to find that out!

 

[trixiequilts]

On the WDW 2009 Packages page it lists the dining plans as: Quick Service Dining, Dining, and Deluxe Dining.

 

[Wish2BTink]

to Fla4fun and Wish2btink!!

I will get you added to our list!

Wish2btink - No, you won't need a car seat for your 6 year old. We've never needed one for the plane or WDW transportation. And we've never needed their birth certificates to go to WDW. We did need them to go to Niagara Falls!

Good luck with all your planning and welcome to the Snowbirds!

Thanks for the info and the warm welcome!

 

[Wish2BTink]

I FOUND YOU!! I am so proud of you dear cousin Finally, someone in my family to feel my addiction!! WOOHOO!!!! Now, how can I persuade my DH that we need to go down there the same time as you........hhhmmmI think we could qualify as a Grand Gathering. The true miracle would be if I could convince my dad to go too Yeah, not going to happen! You will have such a great time!
As for the flight, I would not take the car seat - your DD6 is tall enough to not need that........are you renting a car? Not sure if you told me that or not...As for the birth certificate, we never needed them with our children, but we have not flown with them in quite a while......maybe someone else will help!

I got my answers to my flight questions. No we will not be renting a car. It will be Disney 24/7. Maybe after we go my dad can talk to your dad and we can get him to go! You should tell the DH that if you all go the same time we do we all could tell your dad how much fun it was having us all there togeather and he must go with us next time. That way we have a reason to go twice. Not that we need a reason but it sounds good.

 

[backinoz]

Yes, we got an evening flight down on the 20th and a morning flight home on the 27th. Don't know how the evening flight is going to work out with Magical Express delivering our luggage and all, but it was either that or not arriving until late in the afternoon on the 21st.

We're also arriving into MCO early evening (6.30pm I think), 24+ hours (2 different airlines & 3 different flights) after leaving home. We've decided that we're gonna take the extra time and collect our own luggage, and take it with us on ME. We think it'll be better waiting to collect luggage, than trying to stay awake in the room waiting for it to be delivered. I know we could just leave it until the next morning, but with the upheaval of time zone changes, we'll probably wake at 4am ready to shower & get going for the day.

LOL If I mention Disney one more time, my DH is going to leave me.

I don't think that DH is quite at that stage.....YET! I know I'm doing it, I can't stop wanting to discuss everything with him, and know he must be sick of me only wanting to 'chat the mouse' with him. (But we do talk about other stuff too.......usually!)

....so I'll keep the RO and wait til we get into double digit temps [October, most likely] before I make any package decisions, oops, before we make any decisions.

Me too. I've got the most gigantic spreadsheet trying to work it all out, just don't think we want to be tied down to a main and a dessert at each TS on DDP. Then there's the chance I may buy an AP for me for room discounts and get the DDE card - heaps for options then - share meals, just get app & dessert, AND we could even enjoy a yummy 'grown up' drink or two at some meals without my eyes (and DH's wallet) going at the price tag. I've made all our ADRs on assumption of doing DDP, and think that even without it, we'll probably do just about all of them. (BTW Can DD10 & DD11 order kid's meals at non-buffet TS restaurants, and pay kids prices if we're not on DDP?? I do know that at CRT they'll have to have the adult's meal.)

 

[sixisenough]

Hello Snowbirds!!!! I have been gone awhile (almost 2 weeks from the boards). I started on page 54 and got to 60 and felt the need to chat.

It seems we have a busy thread going, how exciting!!! We had an amazing time at the FW cabins, spent 8 nights there . It was HOT, but nothing like coming home to the Illinois heat wave. My son's FB practice got canceled the first night back due to heat. Here is another sad thing, He is 9 1/2 and gained nearly 10 lbs while on vacation (we ate a lot on Disney Deluxe Dining I will share any details if anyone wants to here) They have my son running the FB and he has to be under 100lbs, so he needs to lose 6lbs in 10 days. My DH said this will be easy, poor thing will be eating salad and fruit- no ranch dressing or cheetos for him!!

Well, from what I have caught up on so far, the brazillian groups were there last year and the cheer groups at the same time, this was first week in Feb.
It was only annoying at night when we were trying to leave parks and they are shouting their chants in parades of people, and your kids are dead tired. They were staying at ALL Stars. One morning when we ate at CP, it was the whole cheer group with us and my kids

Shelly I love your new nick name My kids just did the pirate cruise at Y&B Club. It was at 930 and already blazing HOT!! It was a surprise for my DD's 8th B-day. It was cute, but I think they were so hot in the lifejackets they did not enjoy it as much as I thought. My son said it was more for the younger ones, but he is more of a sports/video game guy. I got some good pictures of them. I thought it was very reasonable in price.

This trip was so nice because we never had to deal with park crowds and MK looked like a HOT madhouse. We did the 2 waterparks and visited a lot of the resorts and hung out by the pool. Trying to make our ADR;s took up a lot of our time.

A couple of our fav dining spots were Whispering Canyon (ended up there twice DH loves it there), Olivias (a hidden gem at OKW), Narcosses (our date night while kids went to Neverland and had a blast), Konas-yummy breakfast, Cape May Character breakfast, JIKOS (one of the most amazing places I have been to).
HDR was a great show. We got to seat right by stage at late show. Very entertaining and good food. We even requested fries for kids and fish, veggies for me and they were so accomodating. What even made it better my DH got picked to be the "Star" of the show. I won't spoil it for any of you that are going, but I was laughing so hard along with my kids that we were crying They even gave us an 8x10 of him to remember it with (good blackmail )

Well, I do not want to get to carried away with my stories. Just let me know anything you want to know about!!

One last thing I did buy my park tickets for Jan- Sat before prices went up from undercovertourist, anyone else do that????
Have a great night Evie [/COLOR="Red"]COLOR="Red"]

 

[trixiequilts]

Six! Welcome back, sounds like you had a great time...are you even more excited about your first trip "home" now?

 

[sixisenough]

I would move to another resort just to be sure, but I can't find one with everything we need without doubling our nightly cost. My son needs a living area - he can't relax in just a hotel room. The Family Suites seem to be so perfect. If we would move to a DVC 1 BR, we would miss out on the fun atmosphere, nightly activities and reasonable price. We were originally in a cabin at FW but thought it would be too calm and spread out for the kids.


Thanks for the support.

Hi Sharadoc, I just read this post and I know I am late. I just wanted to let you know that the FW cabins are great and so spacious. They just showed them today on the travel channel, which I am sure will be shown again. It really is a great location, so peaceful, yet just a boatride away from the MK or the monorail, very wonderful way to start your day. We rented a golf cat and loved that convience. We got very lazy!!! Also, any of the DVC properties would be great, there are so many activities at all of them. You enjoy everything that guests in the hotel rooms have. Just wanted to let you know

 

[sixisenough]

Six! Welcome back, sounds like you had a great time...are you even more excited about your first trip "home" now?

I can't wait, AKL was gorgeous, and they have the construction so hidden I had to ask someone where to see it at. They had 4 month old baby giraffes that were so cute!!!

 

[trixiequilts]

Can you give us (me anyway) any thoughts about the deluxe dining plan? We are considering it. Thanks!

 

[kimis]

That is so funny sixisenough. I am talking about walking the football track. Well it really isn't funny it is just that it brings back memories. The last year my oldest son played Pop Warner football he had to be under 150 pounds. I remember walking that track with him to get him to drop a couple of pounds. He would drop the pounds but I bloat up because of our heat. LOL
I am glad you had a great trip.

 

[peach3es]

Good morning my snowbird peeps! Hope you are all having a lovely day! I've been cleaning and hanging pictures. After 6 months of living here, we finally have all of our pictures hung!

So, I'm doing the happy dance because we paid our deposit on our package! For some reason, that has made this Disney dream seem more real! I've been reading here and making plans...but actually paying money makes it seem like the real deal!

I am so excited to even be thinking about a WDW trip! I only hope my kids love it as much as I do!

So...off to clean the bathrooms. We've got guests coming for supper tonight!

~~Carrie

ETA: I just noticed my ticker! In 2 days, it officially becomes LESS than 5 months until Disney!

 

[ethansmommy]

Good morning fellow snowbirds, I know this thread is about January and I cant wait to go then but I just booked a trip for November 2009 for me, my mom and my son at the Caribbean Beach Resort (Pirate Room ) and was hoping that someone could tell me about the resort. I have never stayed there and after looking at the resort map I must say I am a little scared . The place is huge! Can anyone give me advice and tell me more about why you like or dislike the resort? I want to go into this knowing everything possible so there are no suprises! Oh and my son will be 4 then so I am going to sign him up for the Islands of the Caribbean Pirate Adventure, he will love that .