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

[crzyred]

At least it's not under a pile of dirty clothes!

Isn't that what the floor is for??????

Well I did find my bed. It's calling my name...so good night my feathered friends . (or Good Morning to Carrie! and everyone else on the other side of the world!)

58 days folks....58 days....

 

[west&east]

Wow. Am I the first snowbird up this am? Good morning everybody. Nice frost on the ground here in Charlotte this am but should get up to 61. I need to change my countdown clock because, thanks to the 4/3 deal, we are arriving one day earlier! We probably won't land until about 6pm so I don't think we'll go to a park that day (unless I can't stand it and have to go find some fireworks) but at least we'll be able to wake up and have a full day the next morning. Today I'm off to costco (my favorite store) to pick up a cake for my daughter's soccer party. Her team didn't win a game the whole season although they tied a few. DD scored the first and only goal for her team in their tournament game on Sat but the opposing team scored two and won. I am still so proud of her for playing her personal best- I really hadn't seen her play that well before and can't remember when she last scored. No school for us tomorrow (teacher work day) so it will be a laid back night.
Have a great day everybody!

 

[jenjolt]

Thank you to all the Snowbirds that responded to my dilemma of Dining Plan or Deluxe Dining Plan. I will share the ideas with DH and go over all the restaurants that we wish to visit and are going to visit. I do wish to stress, I am extremely thankful for all responses as it shed new light on some items I missed on my pro and con list.

This will also bring up the question of, is it possible to upgrade your Dining Plan, if you have already paid for your package? We still have some time before fully deciding but I think we will have to act quick for more ADRs if we are considering it. I will have to contact our travel agent with that one.

I am finding it very hard to talk to DH about all of our arrangements. It is his family with the Disney bug. This will only be my third trip and our children's second so I would like any guidance he wishes to see on how our trip is going. He is a laid back planner, more seat of the pants type fellow, and sometimes we miss so much doing it that way. Luckily, if I decide to do whatever, no complaints, he will gladly follow along. I just want a decision on how much financially we should go for, as we have saved for most, but with our Canadian $'s decline, I didn't plan for that much variance. Sorry for my ramblings.

Thank you again, for all that responded to my family's dining dilemmas.

Remmy

My package was completely paid for when I upgraded from Dining to Deluxe dining all I had to do was pay the difference with the gift card number my dad gave me, so no trouble or hassle at all!!

 

[jenjolt]

I agree Wicked is awesome. We saw Spamalot last weekend and I never laughed so much in my life.

OOOOHHH Monty Python...now that is good fun!! The Search for the Holy Grail is one of my all time favorite comedies!!

 

[dklam]

Okay, just back from Wicked! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I am so excited I get to go again! Some of the other shows we get are Grease, Frost/Nixon, Spring Awakening (which we'll miss because of WDW), Fiddler on the Roof and A Chorus Line. I keep waiting for THe Little Mermaid or Mary Poppins to come. We've seen The Lion King, although I wouldn't mind seeing it again with the girls.
Good night everyone!![/QUOTE]

Glad you enjoyed WICKED - we all knew you would! Of your list of upcoming shows, the only one I haven't seen is Frost/Nixon, but heard it was very good. A Chorus Line is one of my favorites - love the dancing (and notice my avatar has my own little "Chorus Line Kitty" ) Samantha.

If you are not going to be able to see Spring Awakening, I would suggest passing the tickets along to someone else to use - D and I saw it in NYC this summer and we both loved it. I was hesitant because it is really a show that appeals to young people - older teens/young adults, but it was fantastic. It has some heavy-duty stuff though - lyrics and story lines, so it would be advisable not to give them to someone who doesn't like that type of thing. It is kind of like Rent, but set in Germany in the late 1800's (sounds odd, I know!). One of the leads is the guy we saw on Broadway - he was great, and the other lead originated the role when the show first opened.

Not sure when LM and MP will tour - D has seen both and loved MP. Oh, the life of a college kid in NYC - I am so jealous!!

 

[snykymom]

Unfortunately, due to the economy, theater tickets are one of the things that needs to go. I'd love to see Spring Awakening, though. I'm also a big Chorus Line fan - one of my favorite lines that applies to so many situations: "Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is the picture of a person I don't know."

Regarding the Monorail Tour - D said she'd love it! So I changed the 1 day base tickets to 7 day base tickets, and even with the restocking fee for the UT tickets, I still come out ahead! And we can still add park hopping if we find we need it while we're there. If we don't need it, I've saved an extra $100!

All is good.

Happy Monday!

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

Good Morning, Snowbirds!!

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was ok, I guess. DH and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special, as our son was pretty sick. He's had a temperature for a few days now. Keeping my fingers crossed that he is feeling better this morning. Poor baby. He's rarely sick like this.


On to Disney . . .
I need to get my suitcases out! I've been pulling things out to put in the suitcase, but need somewhere to store it.

I'm going to party today, ok? Our trip is PAID IN FULL!! Whoot! Whoot!


Hopefully the TA will send me my receipt so that I have it in hand. All of our travel arrangements are made and I'm ready to go!

My son keeps asking DH for Tower of Terror rides DH will pick him up and drop him down over and over. It's so easy to please him. I've asked for a ToT ride, too but DH refuses

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I'm a snowbird as well, just a little late to the party! We'll be staying at the Beach Club (!) from January 4-11 thanks to the 4/3 discount!

Here are our ADR's:
Jan. 4 - Mama Melrose's at 6PM
Jan. 5 - Chef Mickey's at 5PM
Jan. 6 - Coral Reef at 5PM
Jan. 7 - Yak and Yeti at 4:45PM
Jan. 8 - Les Chefs de France at 4:50PM
Jan. 9 - Le Cellier at 6:05PM
Jan. 10 - Kona Cafe at 5PM

Soooooo excited!

WELCOME to the Snowbirds! It's never too late to join this party!!

I will get you added to the list! Your ADR's look great.

 

[Dancegrl624]

are you going for more than a week? that seems a little high for a compact for a week? We priced ours for under150$.

We're only going for a week. We're using Budget and it was BY FAR the cheapest deal we could find. We looked at every rental car company with every single coupon code we could find. We tried DH's discount he gets through work and our Ent Book coupons and nothing even came close to what we ended up going with. My parents, who rent cars all the time, even said it was a great deal. What company are you renting from??

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Thank you to all the Snowbirds that responded to my dilemma of Dining Plan or Deluxe Dining Plan. I will share the ideas with DH and go over all the restaurants that we wish to visit and are going to visit. I do wish to stress, I am extremely thankful for all responses as it shed new light on some items I missed on my pro and con list.



Remmy

Remmy - The Deluxe DDP has never appealed to us. So I guess it just depends on your family. We usually feel that the regular DDP is too much food and too much park time waisted in TS meals. Actually this will probably be the last time we even do the DDP. It is great for characters meals because those lines for the characters in the parks are always so long. But now we have done nearly every character meal! I guess if you were wanting to do a lot of 2TS meals the Deluxe DDP would be the way to go. I just think with the shorter park hours in January that you would be missing a lot if you did 2-3 TS meals a day. Also, about the snacks - my kids LOVE snacks, and we still always have most of our snack credits left by the end of the week. With dessert at lunch and dessert at dinner we hardly use the snack credits and end up getting a bunch of prepackaged snacks to take home!

And like some have said, they ship breakfast items and snacks down. I pack all mine (usually cereal bars, granola bars, etc.) in a suitcase and then I have an empty suitcase to bring souvenirs home in!

But those are just my thoughts! I'm sure you will figure out what is best for your family and it will work out great!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Good Morning, Snowbirds!!

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was ok, I guess. DH and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special, as our son was pretty sick. He's had a temperature for a few days now. Keeping my fingers crossed that he is feeling better this morning. Poor baby. He's rarely sick like this.

I hope your DS is feeling better soon.

 

[sarbah77]

Mine too! Will you be "spectating" much? I must confess that my dds and I will probably be at the park while he's running........but I'm sure we'll try to meet him at the finish line.

We'll be spectating! Since he usually finishes a marathon in 3.5 hours, there's not a lot open that early in the morning! So I'll be there from start to finish! (My parents are going to be there, too)

 

[overthemoon4mickey]

Morning Snowbirds!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I've been off for a few days. In all that down time I called Continental. They had changed our flight times so I called to see if we could move things around. They allowed me to pick new flights at no charge! SO instead of us arriving at 7:07 pm on Thursday the 8th we now get there at 4:45! We were set to leave on the 18th at 3:00 but now get to stay until 5:55! It's a few more hours in Disney!
We always try to go to the park for a few hours before we fly out and now we can have a half day!!! On the day we arrive we will most likely just take the boat to DTD and eat dinner. Take the boat back and get ready for the next day!

Weeee! I'm so excited!!!

Oh, and today I'm at 60 days!!!!


Gotta go powerwalk...I need to get in Disney walking shape! I'm going to actually try to run a little too! If you don't hear from me today send help

 

[Lil'Mermaid75]

Good Morning, Snowbirds!!

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was ok, I guess. DH and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special, as our son was pretty sick. He's had a temperature for a few days now. Keeping my fingers crossed that he is feeling better this morning. Poor baby. He's rarely sick like this.

I'm going to party today, ok? Our trip is PAID IN FULL!! Whoot! Whoot!


My son keeps asking DH for Tower of Terror rides DH will pick him up and drop him down over and over. It's so easy to please him. I've asked for a ToT ride, too but DH refuses

Hope your son is feeling better....
Congrats on your trip being paid for!!
That is too cute about the TOT rides.....

We're only going for a week. We're using Budget and it was BY FAR the cheapest deal we could find. We looked at every rental car company with every single coupon code we could find. We tried DH's discount he gets through work and our Ent Book coupons and nothing even came close to what we ended up going with. My parents, who rent cars all the time, even said it was a great deal. What company are you renting from??

Have you tried Priceline? Usually when we go on vacation and need a rental we name our own price. I've been extremely happy with them (have used them 3 times now). I rented a mini-van in Seattle over the 4th of July week in 2007 for $15/day!

 

[Lil'Mermaid75]

Good morning, everyone! Happy Monday! Whatever will we talk about this week with the codes now released?!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Good morning, everyone! Happy Monday! Whatever will we talk about this week with the codes now released?!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Have you tried Priceline? Usually when we go on vacation and need a rental we name our own price. I've been extremely happy with them (have used them 3 times now). I rented a mini-van in Seattle over the 4th of July week in 2007 for $15/day!

I haven't, I'm just very hesitant about naming my price. I'm kind of a control freak and I like being able to pick my own rental agency. We did find cheap prices at Enterprise, but I've read pretty yucky things about them. I'm actually very happy with the price we got. It was much cheaper than we were expecting to pay.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

For all the new CBR Snowbirds ~

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1845975

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1934729

 

[crzyred]

Good Morning, Snowbirds!!

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was ok, I guess. DH and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special, as our son was pretty sick. He's had a temperature for a few days now. Keeping my fingers crossed that he is feeling better this morning. Poor baby. He's rarely sick like this.


On to Disney . . .
I need to get my suitcases out! I've been pulling things out to put in the suitcase, but need somewhere to store it.

I'm going to party today, ok? Our trip is PAID IN FULL!! Whoot! Whoot!


Hopefully the TA will send me my receipt so that I have it in hand. All of our travel arrangements are made and I'm ready to go!

My son keeps asking DH for Tower of Terror rides DH will pick him up and drop him down over and over. It's so easy to please him. I've asked for a ToT ride, too but DH refuses

Hope you little guy gets better fast!!
The ToT stuff is too cute! My mom does in home child care and we have the Splash Mountain ride on DVD. The children request it. They put their arms in the air while yelling AHHHHH, then say TV please. It's so cute. I'm so glad their addictions are starting early!

Well not much going on around here today. I cleaned things up a little over the weekend and made room to put up a folding table with all my scrap booking stuff. So now I have absolutely no excuse to not do it.

I'm off to find me some coffee. It's cold here today. Temp is currently 29 with a wind chill of 19

 

[Monny2AE]

Well, we just made our rental car reservation! I wrote down all the coupon codes from mousesavers and we got what I think is a great deal. We're paying $240 for the week and that includes a gps system! We went with a compact car which is what I drive on a daily basis anyways (Ford Focus). I have a HUGE trunk, so I know it will fit all of our luggage and carryons. I'm so excited! All we have left to buy are our park tickets. I'm 76 days away from WDW!

I have a Focus too- the trunk IS roomy! Although I don't think it's roomy enough for a two day drive to FL and all our stuff so we're taking my hubby's truck instead. He feels a little squishy in my little car.

Good Morning, Snowbirds!!

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was ok, I guess. DH and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special, as our son was pretty sick. He's had a temperature for a few days now. Keeping my fingers crossed that he is feeling better this morning. Poor baby. He's rarely sick like this.


On to Disney . . .
I need to get my suitcases out! I've been pulling things out to put in the suitcase, but need somewhere to store it.

I'm going to party today, ok? Our trip is PAID IN FULL!! Whoot! Whoot!


Hopefully the TA will send me my receipt so that I have it in hand. All of our travel arrangements are made and I'm ready to go!

My son keeps asking DH for Tower of Terror rides DH will pick him up and drop him down over and over. It's so easy to please him. I've asked for a ToT ride, too but DH refuses

We've got some sort of bug here too. My poor son has been on the potty 5 times this morning and it's only 10:00

For all the new CBR Snowbirds ~

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1845975

Thanks Shelly!

I suppose it's time to turn our chatting from codes to packing and drooling over pics of our resorts! We could place some bets... Who's going to have their suitcases out first?