Just what I wanted for Christmas-LINKS ON PAGE 1--- updated 11/19/10

[KatMark]

Dana, your plans are firming up. The Quality Inn sounds great -- and just perfect. Have you ever eaten at Mama Melrose? JJust tell the guys it is similiar (although I think it is a step up). The Pizza Huts here are absolutely horrible and we won't go there.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Lord have mercy Dana! $56 a night is a wonderful rate! I can't wait to see how ya'll like it because, as you'll probably remember, we are trying to decide where to stay our first night at Disney.

 

[racefanof88]

Hey Dana! thanks for checking in on me
we have had a very busy weekend...Friday night Danny and I had our grade school reunion (it was for classes '79-'89) it was alot of fun to see so many people we grew up with. Last night my cousin's dgt got married, it was beautiful and just reminded us (along with all our friends--that we are next, Gwendolyn) they had everything at the reception hall. The ceremony was set up in one room and than the reception in the hall part of the building. I can only imagine the cost (I told Danny when we left, we better start saving our pennies now--should have probably started when she was born ).

As for the US/IOA passes when we had gotten our cokerewards passes last year two of the four had quick expiration dates, so be sure to check your expirations.

Sounds fun to be getting ready to plan and what a GREAT deal on Quality Inn; can't wait to hear what you think may give it a try on our next visit for our first night if we drive straight through and do not plan a park visit.

Have a great day! enjoy your babies...
Connie

back at cha . It sounds like your weekend was busy, but fun.

I can tell you, and Lisa can attest, that yes, anyone with a daughter should start saving at conception........ I am buying stuff now because I can't imagine trying to buy it all at once.

I made sure to check the dates on our US/IOA and it is November 2011. I am checking daily to see if they are offering them again and so far no luck . I don't know that I want to spend $83 for a one park ticket and $15 to park. That is $100 we could spend in the Disney parks.

If you go through this link you will go directly to the hotel site.......
http://www.orlandoqualitysuites.com/

It gets tricky because you have to book through the hotel site to get the best deals and if you're not careful it will send you to the Choice Hotels site and the prices are higher.

Dana, your plans are firming up. The Quality Inn sounds great -- and just perfect. Have you ever eaten at Mama Melrose? JJust tell the guys it is similiar (although I think it is a step up). The Pizza Huts here are absolutely horrible and we won't go there.

I am so ready for this trip Kathy. I made the ressies at QS even though I'm not 100% sure we are leaving on Saturday . I'm hoping since I have the reservation made Dale will want to go ahead and go........ We have not eaten at MM, had an ADR there 2 years ago, but changed it to Tony's. I'm not that crazy about pizza, but Dale and Dallas will love it. I agree with you on Pizza Hut, I hate their pizza. I do have to say Flipper's is awesome though. I really need to try and make out some type of restaurant list since we only have a couple of ADRs. After Dale got sick eating the hamburger at DHS in September, I don't know that he will ever want to eat counter service again . I told him he needed to try something more than a hamburger, that it was his body rebelling.........

Lord have mercy Dana! $56 a night is a wonderful rate! I can't wait to see how ya'll like it because, as you'll probably remember, we are trying to decide where to stay our first night at Disney.

Lisa, I know, right? I was surprised, but to get the rate I had to go through the direct hotel site and use a discount code I got in an email. The one I used was holiday2010, but there is one through travelzoo too----

https://www.secure-res.com/res/vn4/...=1&ResStart=1&ri=124367&PromoCode=holiday2010

Follow the above link and it will take you to the page with the promo codes and prices.

I thought about canceling my Disney hotel and just staying at the QS for the whole week, but Dallas wants to stay on Disney property. It is really tempting since the room has a full kitchen and free breakfast .

 

[Queenofallthings]

That is a fantastic rate on that suite....you can't go wrong with that girl

Jasmine and I ate a Via Napoli in September and we LOVED it!! You are right though, it's not pizza hut I had the spaghetti and meatballs and it was delish....Jasmine had the lasagne and again,,,, loved it! Now having said that....her favorite thing on earth is pizza, but she's a basic kinda girl...you know pepperoni and cheese....ham and pineapple....they have very unique combinations for pizza.....I hope that helps you a little my friend!

 

[racefanof88]

Well next Sunday Amanda and I will be going to Atlanta . We are staying at a
Crowne Plaza Hotel. It says it is close to everything, but I won't be leaving......... I will be getting a view of the city from the hotel window.

We are leaving next Sunday morning and it should take us about 6 hours to drive there. There is a free shuttle within a 2 mile radius of the hotel, so Amanda and I may venture out to the mall after her classes in the evening. We can look for wedding stuff there and I can do some shopping for Disney. I don't mind hanging out in the hotel room during the day just relaxing. They have room service .

 

[racefanof88]

That is a fantastic rate on that suite....you can't go wrong with that girl

Jasmine and I ate a Via Napoli in September and we LOVED it!! You are right though, it's not pizza hut I had the spaghetti and meatballs and it was delish....Jasmine had the lasagne and again,,,, loved it! Now having said that....her favorite thing on earth is pizza, but she's a basic kinda girl...you know pepperoni and cheese....ham and pineapple....they have very unique combinations for pizza.....I hope that helps you a little my friend!

Thanks Queen . I'm hoping the place is nice. The reviews seem to point in that direction so we will see. Before getting to know the Disney area we stayed in a couple of not so great places in Orlando, so I'm thinking this one is going to be good.

I'm hoping Dallas isn't getting his hopes up for the pizza to be run of the mill chain type stuff. From the looks of the pictures, it looks as if I would really enjoy it . The spaghetti and meatballs sounds good to me though . I could really go for some good spaghetti.

 

[aprilisis]

Hey Dana- don't let me forget to PM you my # in case you have any "down time". Have a great time in Atlanta!

 

[racefanof88]

Hey Dana- don't let me forget to PM you my # in case you have any "down time". Have a great time in Atlanta!

Sent you a PM . I hope we have a good time in Atlanta. I'm looking forward to it in a way, but nervous about it too. I know it sounds strange, but I've never been to a place like Atlanta without Dale........ Guess that tells ya I'm not a well traveled person .

 

[Nemo32]

Subbing!

Love your daughter's wedding dress...congratulations!

DBF and I are going to the MVMCP on Dec. 9th...perhaps we'll run into each other. I'll be sporting my black Donner bag with Lime Green Mickeyhead!

 

[racefanof88]

Here is my proposed itinerary.

I registered for tickets for the Christmas parade taping today so we will see if I get them--THANKS CHRISTIE . If I do we will leave Friday afternoon and drive down, possible stay with Christie and her family Friday night . If not we will leave Saturday morning drive down and check into the Quality Suites.

Friday- December 3rd,
Finish packing clothes and load the car. If we get parade tickets we will leave as soon as Dale gets off work; hopefully around noon.

Saturday-December 4th
If we get parade tickets we will get instructions as to when we have to be at the park. The site said taping can start as early as 7:30am so we will have to be prepared for that. I'm going to order us some really gaudy Christmas sweater and hats if we are picked........

If not picked, plans will be to get up around 4:00am and start our journey. We should make it to the hotel around 1:00 or 2:00pm. I hope our room is ready and if so we will unpack the van and then decide if we want to go to a park or just resort hop. Dale likes to hit the MK on our first day so we will likely go there. I can't wait to seeing the Castle lighting and MSEP. The park is open until 12:00am. I don't have any ADRs for this day so we will just wing it.

Sunday-December 5th
Quality Suites has a breakfast buffet so we will eat breakfast at the hotel.
DHS today--I am looking so forward to seeing The Osborne Family Lights. Dallas was blown away by the lights when we watched the Disney vacation video yesterday. We have no ADRs for this day, so wing it again.

Monday-December 6th
Breakfast at the hotel.
AK today. We usually do AK in half a day, but I really want to see the Mickey's Jingle Jungle Expeditions parade at 3:45. After we leave the park we will check in at Pop and most likely go to the food court to eat. The rest of the day is open.

Tuesday-December 7th
I have two ADRs on this day and I need to decide which to keep. We have an 8:25am ADR at 'Ohana and a 11:45am ADR at Tony's. I'm not sure which to keep , and if I ask Dale he will say Tony's. He hates paying the high prices for breakfast food. So HELP ME.........
I wanted to hit Epcot morning EMH, but that won't happen if we go to 'Ohana and we likely won't get much done if we go to Tony's. Either way I plan on this being our Epcot day. I hope to see the Candlelight Processional and I have debated about the dinner package, but I just can't see paying almost $150 for Dale to eat a hamburger and for Dallas to eat pizza .

Wednesday-December 8th
AK is having evening EMH so we may head over there. Since we have hit all 4parks by now we are pretty open the rest of the week. We may use this day to resort hop if we haven't done so already. I will most likely end up doing this alone since Dale and Dallas aren't crazy about doing this kind of thing.

Thursday-December 9th
This is our MVMCP day so we will sleep in. We have a 1:45pm ADR at Kona, but I don't know if we will keep it since Queen had such a bad experience there in September. I don't plan on keeping all of our ADRs anyway so this may be one that goes away. I will talk to Dale and Dallas so we can decide which we REALLY want.
I can't wait to go to the MVMCP and meet up with Christie.

Friday-December 10th
We have an 11:30am ADR at Via Napoli so this will be another Epcot day. Since this is our last full day we will likely make it an early evening because Dale likes to leave around 3:00am and we will have to pack up the van and get to bed early.

So, there you have it. We will eat most of our meals off property since the food quality has not been so good on property during our last couple of visits. I know we will hit Hooters at least once, of course we have to get Flipper's pizza a time or two. Chili's is close to the resort as is CiCi's pizza.

Really looking forward to seeing Christie again, and I hope to meet up with April, Wendy, and keeping my fingers crossed that Leanne will be there.

 

[bouncycat]

YESSS!!! Hoping for parade taping tickets. Never had a chance to go to one, and I guess this is my chance. This AAA job offer seems promising, just emailed my resume, and Annie has hard copies of it, so pray we get a phone call for an interview soon!! I heard that AAA is a good company to work for, and it's basically a chance of a lifetime!! Anyways, yep, can't wait to meet up with ya, and hopefully ya'll will come here for a night!! We can get up and get on the road whenever we need to. I have some christmas stuff, and of course my tigger santa hat, so I think I'm set for stuff. LOL

 

[racefanof88]

Be VERY careful of any emails you open. I opened one from the USPS saying my order was returned, and it downloaded Security Tool on my computer. I never open these type emails, but I do have something on order. I tried everything I knew, and more, to get it off my computer and finally had to do a system restore. It is HORRIBLE and blocks everything you try.


I suggest you download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware BEFORE you get this horrible virus because it will block the download once your system is infected.

 

[racefanof88]

YESSS!!! Hoping for parade taping tickets. Never had a chance to go to one, and I guess this is my chance. This AAA job offer seems promising, just emailed my resume, and Annie has hard copies of it, so pray we get a phone call for an interview soon!! I heard that AAA is a good company to work for, and it's basically a chance of a lifetime!! Anyways, yep, can't wait to meet up with ya, and hopefully ya'll will come here for a night!! We can get up and get on the road whenever we need to. I have some christmas stuff, and of course my tigger santa hat, so I think I'm set for stuff. LOL

I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the parade and sending up a prayer that you get the AAA job .

Do you know when we should hear about the parade tickets? I didn't see anything on the form and if I'm going to order Christmas garb I should do so ASAP.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

First, Christy GOOD LUCK! on the job hunt. A job at AAA sounds like it could really be a lot of fun and interesting.

Next, Dana I was just catching up on Lisa's thread and came across this statement

The embarrassing part of that is Matt's mom has already pruned her guest list down and she still has 256 people that HAVE to get invitations . I don't even KNOW 256 people much less that many that HAVE to get an invitation .


My cousin's dgt just got married Saturday night...it was so nice. They rented a venue that is for weddings and parties. They have a small room they do lunches in that is where they set up her ceremony and than we all moved over to the larger reception hall area. Of course with Joe's sister just getting married on Oct 30 and one of Gwendolyn's friends in a couple weeks. (and we are expecting Gwendolyn and Joe to set a date after she graduates in May) we have been doing alot of talking. She and Joe had said a total of 100 guests I told her more like 160 probably (about 80 per side)
I was thinking that was ALOT of guest and was trying to convince them how beautiful it would be with just immediate family and friends (about 30) at the SeaCrest in FWB; and than I read 256! people just on Matt's side I would faint if Joe's mom came to me with that large of a guest list...

I need to copy the dress Gwendolyn wants to have made; she showed me the other day when I was showing her Amanda's dress. She says "OH! I have my dressed picked out we are going to have to find a seamstress".

I am trying to make her realize I need 9 mo - 1 year to plan...
enough, of my rambling...
Connie
Oh! BTW: Gwendolyn and Joe are in the process of finally moving out!!!
They have everything but water; they are waiting for the parish to come install their water meter and they are just about all moved in! all they have left here is their bedroom furniture!

Oh! and your plans for your next trip sound fun! I hope you are able to get the tickets to the Christmas parade; that sounds like a fun experience

 

[mickeystoontown]

Well, I don't know what to say about your latest couple of posts that the two of us didn't cover in our 2 + hour conversation last night.

 

[deslynnpatterson]

Dana I am so sorry for missing most of your PTR! I have been out of the disboards loop! life has been crazy! all of your plans sounds amazing You are so lucky to be going in Dec! you are going to love the lights and I think the temps would be great too Do you happen to know when they take all the lights down and stop showing the castle lit? I am curious because I would be able to take a Jan trip this year-- but not Dec-- I wonder if I can squeeze something in! I can't wait to hear more about your trip

 

[bouncycat]

Thanks ya'll for the prayers and stuff. We'll be alright, so no worries there. Dana, I know you're in Atlanta, and I really hope you're having fun, and being safe. Can't wait to hear all about it!!!!!

 

[racefanof88]

THIS IS MY 5TH ATTEMPT TO RESPONSE. IS IT JUST ME OR IS THERE PROBLEMS WITH POSTING?

First, Christy GOOD LUCK! on the job hunt. A job at AAA sounds like it could really be a lot of fun and interesting.

Next, Dana I was just catching up on Lisa's thread and came across this statement

The embarrassing part of that is Matt's mom has already pruned her guest list down and she still has 256 people that HAVE to get invitations . I don't even KNOW 256 people much less that many that HAVE to get an invitation .


My cousin's dgt just got married Saturday night...it was so nice. They rented a venue that is for weddings and parties. They have a small room they do lunches in that is where they set up her ceremony and than we all moved over to the larger reception hall area. Of course with Joe's sister just getting married on Oct 30 and one of Gwendolyn's friends in a couple weeks. (and we are expecting Gwendolyn and Joe to set a date after she graduates in May) we have been doing alot of talking. She and Joe had said a total of 100 guests I told her more like 160 probably (about 80 per side)
I was thinking that was ALOT of guest and was trying to convince them how beautiful it would be with just immediate family and friends (about 30) at the SeaCrest in FWB; and than I read 256! people just on Matt's side I would faint if Joe's mom came to me with that large of a guest list...

I need to copy the dress Gwendolyn wants to have made; she showed me the other day when I was showing her Amanda's dress. She says "OH! I have my dressed picked out we are going to have to find a seamstress".

I am trying to make her realize I need 9 mo - 1 year to plan...
enough, of my rambling...
Connie
Oh! BTW: Gwendolyn and Joe are in the process of finally moving out!!!
They have everything but water; they are waiting for the parish to come install their water meter and they are just about all moved in! all they have left here is their bedroom furniture!

Oh! and your plans for your next trip sound fun! I hope you are able to get the tickets to the Christmas parade; that sounds like a fun experience

Hey Connie .

When the wedding plans started the guest list was going to be about 200 people, now . I told Amanda if Matt's mom can't get the list down a little more we would be serving bologna sandwiches, Twinkies and koolaid at the reception........


I know you are excited about Gwendolyn and Joe getting their own place. You will have so much room you won't know what to do.

Gwendolyn really does need to give you that amount of time to plan; it takes a lot of time and effort to plan a wedding.


I don't think the parade ticket information was meant to go out to the general public . No biggie though, we are just going to wait until Saturday to drive down anyway.

Well, I don't know what to say about your latest couple of posts that the two of us didn't cover in our 2 + hour conversation last night.

I could have talked for 2 more hours .

Dana I am so sorry for missing most of your PTR! I have been out of the disboards loop! life has been crazy! all of your plans sounds amazing You are so lucky to be going in Dec! you are going to love the lights and I think the temps would be great too Do you happen to know when they take all the lights down and stop showing the castle lit? I am curious because I would be able to take a Jan trip this year-- but not Dec-- I wonder if I can squeeze something in! I can't wait to hear more about your trip

Hey Desiree I can't wait to get to Disney for Christmas. I have been wanting to go at Christmas for years. I'm not sure exactly the date, but the lights stay up until after New Years. I wish you could be there the same time we are, it would be so much fun.

Thanks ya'll for the prayers and stuff. We'll be alright, so no worries there. Dana, I know you're in Atlanta, and I really hope you're having fun, and being safe. Can't wait to hear all about it!!!!!

That is what dis buddies are for . Yes, we are in Atlanta, and I am ready to go home after only 3 hours . I'm homesick already; as is Amanda .

 

[bouncycat]

Hey Dana!!! I'm really praying for the shuttle to get delayed a few more days for ya'll to get here, right now it's due to go up on the 30th, at 4 am, but there is always a chance it won't go. It hasn't gone quite a few times this last try, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!! I'm hoping to be over this infection by the time ya'll are here, I should be, so no worries there. I'm hoping to see Leanne on the 27th!! I can't wait!!!

 

[racefanof88]

Hey Dana!!! I'm really praying for the shuttle to get delayed a few more days for ya'll to get here, right now it's due to go up on the 30th, at 4 am, but there is always a chance it won't go. It hasn't gone quite a few times this last try, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!! I'm hoping to be over this infection by the time ya'll are here, I should be, so no worries there. I'm hoping to see Leanne on the 27th!! I can't wait!!!

It would be sooooooo awesome to see the shuttle. I would love to see it, and for Dallas to see it, before it is discontinued.

I hope you get better soon. I'm sure it will be done before we are there in ????? two weeks???? wooooooooo hoooooooooo. We are actually going to come down on the 4th. I hope you and Leanne have a good time; I was hoping she would be there when we get there.