June comes before August & the APs will still be valid! I think we're done here!

[VroomVroomLightning]

Which is good, because we are already booked! Getting a coupon NOW would make me mad!

Hello There! I have been following your Trip Reports and decided to chime in when I saw this. I am not sure if you know but with Air Tran anytime your flight changes if even by a few minutes you can get a refund of the tickets. So if you get a coupon and a minor change in time has happened you can use it! Just a heads up if you didn't know it! I love reading your Trip Reports!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hello There! I have been following your Trip Reports and decided to chime in when I saw this. I am not sure if you know but with Air Tran anytime your flight changes if even by a few minutes you can get a refund of the tickets. So if you get a coupon and a minor change in time has happened you can use it! Just a heads up if you didn't know it! I love reading your Trip Reports!

Hello and welcome!

I did know I could change the tickets if they changed the schedule, but it wouldn't have occurred to me to get a refund and rebook with a coupon! GREAT advice! Thank you!!

 

[PghLybrt]

Hello and welcome!

I did know I could change the tickets if they changed the schedule, but it wouldn't have occurred to me to get a refund and rebook with a coupon! GREAT advice! Thank you!!

I didn't think of that either!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, so much for my Universal plan.

We would have to pay to add Express Pass, and you pay to add it EACH DAY. At a minimum of $25 per person, there's $75. The passes are for 2 days. What if we want to go back for another day? Which is what would happen if we don't finish both parks in one day. We would also be out for round trip transportation TWICE. Ugh! I think we are going to go ahead and spend one night in a US/IOA hotel. It would only cost about $35 more to stay overnight than it would to go there and back to WDW twice AND add Express Pass twice. Sigh. I HAD 3 nights at a US/IOA hotel booked with a super cheap glitch. But I cancelled them. Well, really, chances are I would have lost the super cheap rate if I tried to modify it anyway, so no sense in worrying over it now.

Now what I need to worry over is WHICH DATE we want to go to Universal and WHICH HOTEL we want to stay in. Royal Pacific is cheapest, but that Portofino sure looks nice!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hmm.

I WAS planning to go to US/IOA on the 17th. BUT we can go the 9th & 10th with minimal disruption to our schedule. I thought MAYBE we would get a better rate by going earlier because the US website says their "season" changes June 12. But interestingly, the rates are the EXACT SAME PRICE. Boneheads. What is the point of having different seasons if 2 out of the 3 onsite hotels have the same price for BOTH seasons? At any rate, in the interest of possibly lower crowds I think we will go during our first week instead of our second.

This means I will need to cancel 2 ADRs and reschedule one of them. Hopefully that won't be an issue. I am irked that when you make online ADRs there doesn't seem to be a way to pull them back up unless you have the confirmation number. The problem is that there is ALSO not a "printer friendly" way to print off the confirmations. If I print my ADRs it will take an entire ream of paper and a full cartridge of ink! Way to be "green", Disney. At any rate, I do think this new plan is satisfactory. For now.

 

[soulmates]

Hey Lady!! I'm REALLY thinking about Boma for our ONLY OOP meal. I SWORE we'd never do OOP again, however, I want a nice breakfast before we head out. Last trip we did Poly and it was okay. Boma looks AWESOME! I thought the girls would really like it. Also, gives us a chance to see the resort! We'll do the DDP but we will use our meal credits everyday. SO, Sat as we leave, we wanted to do a resort for breakfast and we've never been to the AK. Soooo, do you think thats' a good one? I know you guys are HUGE AK fans. Also real surprised the teenager still eats off the kids menu? My kids couldn't wait to eat stuff other than chicken nuggets & fries!

Thanks

Chris

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I think Boma has a lovely breakfast buffet! We really enjoy eating there on our departure day, just taking our time. Which won't work this year because our plane leaves at 8 AM. But I digress...
Yes, I highly recommend going to Boma for breakfast! It is less expensive than the character breakfasts but the food is better. There is also a beaded jewlery activity at AKL on Saturdays if you have time to kill. Ages 13 and up, you select your beads, arrange them on a bead tray, string them, and then the ladies put the clasp on for you. I made a very nifty bracelet in August, and DS made a necklace for Princess. He was SO proud of the way he hand selected the beads JUST for her. It starts at noon, I think, and you do NOT have to be an AKL guest to participate. You pay for each piece by the inch - my bracelet was about $7.

The kids menus at the signature restaurants are usually pretty decent. Grilled fish, steak, etc. For teens with small appetites it works great to do an adult appetizer and a kid entree. Or the kids menu at Yachtsman has chicken noodle soup for an appetizer, fish for the entree, and ice cream for dessert all for like $12. The portions are small, but it works out to be enough. We don't do Dining Plan anymore - we lose so much money I can't stand to think about it. The buffets kill me, too. $25 for DS to eat a waffle and a handful of grapes. They say he will hit a "growth spurt" one of these days. We shall see!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Soooo...

I thought I had it all figured out to stay one night at RPR. In fact, I was SO sure that I was going to book it this morning. But then I opened my wallet and realized my Disney Visa wasn't in there! ACK!!!!

Luckily I was able to locate the card. In a safe place. Where I put it.

OK, back to booking. I decided to book a Town Car for transport between the hotels. Yes, I know there are shuttles and cabs and whatever. I wanted a Town Car. So I booked it.

Got an e-mail confirmation for my Town Car almost immediately. And right on the heels of that was an e-mail from my travel agent. She found a deal at Hard Rock that was better than the deal at Royal Pacific. OK, we'll take that, thank you! Called the Town Car guy back and told him I needed to modify. I am sure he thinks I am a complete whack job. But it kind of worked in his favor because I decided to do A Town Car back to the airport instead of Magical Express. Our flight goes out at 8 AM so the Town Car gives us an extra hour before we have to leave. The difference between 5 AM and 6 AM is significant!

 

[Desiree1972]

the difference between 5 and 6 is substantial - sanity vs insanity!

A town car sounds fancy.

We still haven't chosen our HP day - we'll see!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The Town Car is cheaper than a cab, and it will take us resort to resort. There is a shuttle that will pick us up at AKL, but it would drop us off somewhere at Universal that is NOT the hotel. In the interest of convenience we decided that a Town Car was the best option. The shuttle would be the least expensive option but I don't want to be wandering aimlessly around some parking garage or something!

 

[soulmates]

I think Boma has a lovely breakfast buffet! We really enjoy eating there on our departure day, just taking our time. Which won't work this year because our plane leaves at 8 AM. But I digress...
Yes, I highly recommend going to Boma for breakfast! It is less expensive than the character breakfasts but the food is better. There is also a beaded jewlery activity at AKL on Saturdays if you have time to kill. Ages 13 and up, you select your beads, arrange them on a bead tray, string them, and then the ladies put the clasp on for you. I made a very nifty bracelet in August, and DS made a necklace for Princess. He was SO proud of the way he hand selected the beads JUST for her. It starts at noon, I think, and you do NOT have to be an AKL guest to participate. You pay for each piece by the inch - my bracelet was about $7.

The kids menus at the signature restaurants are usually pretty decent. Grilled fish, steak, etc. For teens with small appetites it works great to do an adult appetizer and a kid entree. Or the kids menu at Yachtsman has chicken noodle soup for an appetizer, fish for the entree, and ice cream for dessert all for like $12. The portions are small, but it works out to be enough. We don't do Dining Plan anymore - we lose so much money I can't stand to think about it. The buffets kill me, too. $25 for DS to eat a waffle and a handful of grapes. They say he will hit a "growth spurt" one of these days. We shall see!!

Ohhhh, LOVIN' the idea of making a piece of jewelry!! We are SO in for Boma!! I also didn't know Signature restaurants have such yummy things on their menus for the kiddos. Really looking forward to our trip!! Yours sounds amazing as always. Wished we had the vacation time, but alas, we have to make our time count. Christy's family always visits in the summer, so we take time off for that, our wedding and honeymoon, that about gobbles it all up!
I think once I've been here 5 years, I get 3 weeks!! Looking forward to that!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Ohhhh, LOVIN' the idea of making a piece of jewelry!! We are SO in for Boma!! I also didn't know Signature restaurants have such yummy things on their menus for the kiddos. Really looking forward to our trip!! Yours sounds amazing as always. Wished we had the vacation time, but alas, we have to make our time count. Christy's family always visits in the summer, so we take time off for that, our wedding and honeymoon, that about gobbles it all up!
I think once I've been here 5 years, I get 3 weeks!! Looking forward to that!

DH thought he would get 3 weeks this year because it is his 5 year anniversary. In fact, I would have SWORN I read somewhere in some manual or something that you get 3 weeks the year that you will have 5 years of service. WRONG! He won't get 3 weeks until next year. And I have looked through the paperwork and can't find anything that says he would get the extra week this year. I must have just made that up. Actually, they probably verbally said that when he was hired but the written policy is different.

 

[PghLybrt]

I am excited that you are still doing Universal! I will put it out there I love Universal too! We stay usually at the Royal Pacific. Honestly I think it is the best one. It feels like a much nicer Poly to me. We also stay at the Hard Rock often. The walk to the parks is nice and short! The pool is cool with underwater music piped in! You can just sit and drink poolside, or even in the pool! ( At least last time we have been).

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I am excited that you are still doing Universal! I will put it out there I love Universal too! We stay usually at the Royal Pacific. Honestly I think it is the best one. It feels like a much nicer Poly to me. We also stay at the Hard Rock often. The walk to the parks is nice and short! The pool is cool with underwater music piped in! You can just sit and drink poolside, or even in the pool! ( At least last time we have been).

At first I had us booked for 3 nights at Royal Pacific, but for whatever reason I decided not to do that after all. So now it is just about having an onsite room so we'll get the Express Pass thing. It seemed smarter to book a room for the one night than to pay to take a cab (or a shuttle, or a whatever, TWICE) AND pay to add Express Pass TWICE if we couldn't get through everything in one day. Since Hard Rock was cheaper (AND the whole hotel in non-smoking) we decided to go with that. I think DS will love it! Not sure we will have any time for the pool, but we'll see!

Speaking of pools, do you know that in all of our trips I think DS has only been in the hotel pool ONCE? I am serious! In 2008 when we did all the resort hopping I got sick. Of course it was on a day we had to switch resorts. And of course our room wasn't ready when we got to the Poly. So I sat at a table near the pool and tried not to die while DS went swimming. He has yet to go in the AKL pool even though we have stayed at AKL probably 45 nights. Crazy, huh?

 

[PghLybrt]

LOL I don't do the pools at all! ( I also avoid all water parks and Hot tubs). however when I take the nephews they love the slides. We used to stay at the Yacht club and that pool is super cool. I do sit and relax with a nice cocktail poolside! I can't say I blame your DS, after all you can swim at home but you can only goto th Disney parks at Disney!

For Universal:
Do you need to buy the express pass? I thought that if you stayed in their hotels you already recieved it? At least you used to.
I admit it has been a few years! We used to start every trip there and then move onto Disney.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

LOL I don't do the pools at all! ( I also avoid all water parks and Hot tubs). however when I take the nephews they love the slides. We used to stay at the Yacht club and that pool is super cool. I do sit and relax with a nice cocktail poolside! I can't say I blame your DS, after all you can swim at home but you can only goto th Disney parks at Disney!

For Universal:
Do you need to buy the express pass? I thought that if you stayed in their hotels you already recieved it? At least you used to.
I admit it has been a few years! We used to start every trip there and then move onto Disney.

Right - if you stay at their hotel Express Pass is free. If we commute back and forth from AKL we would have to pay to add Express Pass, and we would potentially be looking at adding it on 2 separate days. Which would be $150! I think our night at HRH is like $227, so it was a no-brainer to just add the one night of hotel and stay over there.

 

[PghLybrt]

Right - if you stay at their hotel Express Pass is free. If we commute back and forth from AKL we would have to pay to add Express Pass, and we would potentially be looking at adding it on 2 separate days. Which would be $150! I think our night at HRH is like $227, so it was a no-brainer to just add the one night of hotel and stay over there.

sometimes i read to fast......

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Sigh.

TiW is now honored at bluezoo. I have always wanted to go to bluezoo. Crap. Where do I have room in my schedule for bluezoo??

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We seem to be at some sort of planning plateau.
I have nothing to add, nothing to plan, nothing is really happening.
So there you have it!

 

[mommykds]

There is also a beaded jewlery activity at AKL on Saturdays if you have time to kill. Ages 13 and up, you select your beads, arrange them on a bead tray, string them, and then the ladies put the clasp on for you. I made a very nifty bracelet in August, and DS made a necklace for Princess. He was SO proud of the way he hand selected the beads JUST for her. It starts at noon, I think, and you do NOT have to be an AKL guest to participate. You pay for each piece by the inch - my bracelet was about $7.

We have a Boma dinner schedule for the Saturday we arrive in July. My oldest would LOVE this, thanks for mentioning it.