Life’s too short...to never sleep in a treehouse! 8/27 TR is up! Link in siggie

[glennbo123]

I know you'll knock their socks off.

 

[eandesmom]

That is one long interview! It's good that you have time to research.
Best of luck with the interview!

Thanks! I need the time for the research and to put together a portfolio of sorts, which since I lost almost everything when I was laid off, will be a bit of work on my end not to mention some serious creativity!

You're going to be great!! seriously, don't stress over this! YOu've been the field (even though not exactly in THIS specialty) for a long time. You have plenty of samples of good work to take in, good recommendations, and a lot of strengths to bring to the table. Like GB says, breathe, think positive thoughts, pray a lot and you'll be fine!

I'd want it sooner than later to, just to get it over with, but being well prepared will go a long way!!

Well I can speak to the work I've done. Putting into concrete samples? Another story.

Breathing will be very important!

Wow, Cynthia - that is great news! If they're bringing you in for a 3 hour interview, then they must really want you. When my husband was going through a lot of interviews two years ago, it always seemed like that second, long interview was almost more about them selling themselves to you. You'll do great - its wonderful to have a week to prepare. Knock'em out of the park!

In my hiring experience, having been part of a lot of these kind of long interviews it can really work both ways. Either they are trying to sell you, or they are trying to weed you out when it's between a couple of either really strong, or really weak, candidates.

I know you'll knock their socks off.

Thanks! From your mouth to his ears!

 

[eandesmom]

With our little tax fiasco and an upcoming Disney California trip, not to mention piano lessons for Eric and a TKD tournament for Evan in Chicago in July, I'm feeling a wee bit stressed about the expense of our ultra deluxe fancy schmancy trip. Of course if I get the job that will go away to some degree but as long as the process is taking, it looks like it would be April before I start!

We would not normally travel at this level, at least not for 10 nights! We made the decisions to do so for some very good reasons.

1. Sandie and Paul. This is how they travel all the time
2. We have a PIN
3. There might be free dining
4. Hard Rock is pretty much Taylor's dream hotel, Harry Potter is opening and the onsite benefits are killer.

However. As it stands, Sandie and Paul are opting out of the Hard Rock portion of the trip. As a family of 6, we have no options on site other than getting 2 rooms.

WHICH IS KILLING US! It is crazy crazy expensive and I'm having a hard time swallowing paying that much, even if we can afford it. Universal released some new Harry Potter packages this week so between my TA and I we've been hammering through the options to try and get it down. One of the problems if we change anything at this point we lose the tickets we have which are 7 day hoppers for $99 each. We'd have to go to 2 day single park tickets at $117 each. Which could be fine but...

The options are:

1. Switch to the less expensive on-site hotel at Universal. Savings are only what they would have been if we'd have booked it originally so probably not worth it, plus we lose the killer park tickets.

Savings $255 ​

It's $363 if you include the value of the Harry Potter breakfast that would get added to it but since we wouldn't have bought it, we aren't counting that as a savings.

2. Switch to a Treehouse! This adds the cost of a car in but does have some benefits. Confirming the PIN discount on the villa (40 or 45).

Savings $345-438​

3. Switch to an offsite condo with a Universal Harry Potter package. It gives you early am park entry and the Harry Potter breakfast but that's it. Savings could be more if we relied on the "scheduled" shuttle and skipped a car but with the august heat I'm reluctant to do that.

Savings $383, $491 if you count the value of the breakfast
​

4. Switch to 2 rooms at Disney and use our PIN. Adds the cost of a car but I think is better for a number of reasons than the offsite condo option.

Savings range from $497-906 depending on deluxe/mod/value.
​

I've looked into dropping one night and it really hurts the universal time in a way I don't want and dropping a YC night makes zero sense as the deal is so much better. It's possible but it gets very complicated and just doesn't seem worth it. Not to mention the fact we both really want 10 days away. If we've waited 18 months between "big" trips, we want it to be BIG!

Now my husband has his own fuzzy Disney Math. Or I guess in his case it's fuzzy Hard Rock math!



His big fat plan is to con his Mom and Paul into joining us at Universal so we don't have to give up the Hard Rock rooms and killer tickets. His proposal is they pay the difference between our current package and our "second" choice which for him would be 2 rooms at Wilderness Lodge and then the add on for having an extra adult and a rollaway. So for the bargain price of $647 they can join us for 3 nights at the Hard Rock and get tickets & transportation on their own (or not).

Will they go for it?????

Pro's for staying onsite are pretty huge.
Are they worth the price difference though if we can't get Paul and Sandie to chip in?

1. Mid day pool breaks. On-site is walkable from the parks. In the August heat this is a pretty big deal to me, just being able to walk back and cool off relatively quickly.

2. Express line pass. By staying onsite you get the express line pass. It is basically an unlimited fast pass, except for the Harry Potter rides, for which you can only use it once per day. You can buy these passes ($25-40 each depending on the day but they are only good one time per ride. With HP the parks will be nuts so this is a pretty huge deal too.

3. Early morning park access. We would get 1 hour early access to IOA for Harry Potter. Only onsite guests and people who bought the HP package for offsite locations will get this. Will the teens get up for it? Maybe not but the E's and I would! It will make a big difference in crowds.

4. Margaritaville and the Lone Palm Airport Eating here, seeing the Hemisphere Dancer is a HUGE deal to Jeff. We can still do that staying elsewhere but is it as convenient? Not remotely. Jeff jokes about going there every day and I don't think he's really joking. There are other Citywalk and resort places we want to dine as well and love the idea of just walking to our room after that Margarita!

In other interesting Disney room discount news we have a couple of developments.

We received a room only PIN for our DL trip dates. Researching whether staying on-site for part of that trip makes sense. Since we have a kids fly free package we can't switch the whole thing without costs going up quite a bit but we might be able to do a split stay which could be fun.

I think I have (finally!) figured out what to do to bring our cost down if we cannot get free dining on our rooms to match what it would have been with the Free Dining.

Tell me what you think.

• We would have one room on the DDP with 5 of us (Jeff, myself, Kendall, Taylor and Evan).
  
• We would have one room NOT on the DDP (Sandie, Paul, Doug and Eric).

I think this works beautifully for the following reasons.

1. Sandie and Paul (and especially Doug) may balk at the $41.99 pp per day that the DDP has as Doug wouldn't/couldn't spend that much and Sandie might not eat that much or want dessert with every meal.

2. The idea of paying $41.99 for Eric kind of kills me. He will be 9. Right now he is listed as 10. I could just make him 9 on our plan but the kids menu is SO lame! If he is OOP then either he and Evan can split Evan's adult entree and share an OOP salad which we do a lot right now or he can get salads and apps and the occasional adult entree if he doesn't like the kids menu. Benefit to this is OOP buffet prices for him, the savings there alone would pay for him to order adult entrees on the other nights.

In some ways this may work better than free dining so I need to see what Sandie thinks if we have both as options. We can also look at splitting the cost of the DDP with it on the one room and then splitting the cost of the OOP on the non buffet nights so it lets 3 adults order without the restrictions of the DDP which would be nice at times.

Next. California here we come!

 

[carissanboys]

That's a lot of stuff to think about and try to make the best decision!

Good luck with the interviews!

 

[eandesmom]

That's a lot of stuff to think about and try to make the best decision!

Good luck with the interviews!

And me over analyzing things to death

Thanks!

 

[Native NYer]

Oh wow you have a lot of Disney and Universal decisions to make.
As much as the savings would be great, I do see the benefit of staying onsite to get the perks for US/IOA, especially the express line pass. What is the cheaper hotel option at US?

As for your Disney package, your dining ideas make sense. If all of you aren't going to really eat enough to benefit from the dining, then one room not on the plan makes sense. Although I get the feeling free dining is going to be released at the end of March. As of right now, all of the other promotions are ending on March 27th and they only cover stays through August 14th or 15th.

Waiting for deals and PINs is one reason DVC seems to make sense. I have been anti-timeshare for awhile. And now I'm swaying to the other side

 

[eandesmom]

Oh wow you have a lot of Disney and Universal decisions to make.
As much as the savings would be great, I do see the benefit of staying onsite to get the perks for US/IOA, especially the express line pass. What is the cheaper hotel option at US?

As for your Disney package, your dining ideas make sense. If all of you aren't going to really eat enough to benefit from the dining, then one room not on the plan makes sense. Although I get the feeling free dining is going to be released at the end of March. As of right now, all of the other promotions are ending on March 27th and they only cover stays through August 14th or 15th.

Waiting for deals and PINs is one reason DVC seems to make sense. I have been anti-timeshare for awhile. And now I'm swaying to the other side

Oh I think it's going to be released, I just wouldn't be surprised it if isn't available for standard rooms at the YC since they are already sold out. All the promotions have limited availability to start so I think we've got a 50/50 chance at best. I don't want to change resorts so that's why I felt I had to come up with a backup that offered the same savings.

For us it would likely be a wash to get the DDP but we will save a lot more if we can have 5 of us on it instead of 6 and I do like the flexibility of being able to have some people get salads and share all those darn desserts instead of 9 adult sized desserts. Free dining would be really great for Doug though so I'll be thrilled if we can get it.

DVC would make a ton of sense for us (and we too have been very anti-timeshare) but the plane is our timeshare right now. Maybe in a year or 2 we can do DVC.

The cheaper hotel option at US is the Royal Pacific. Which is absolutely lovely and would be fine. Rooms are smaller and it would be a 1-2 room category downgrade as well for the savings, plus downgrading from the 7 day hopper tickets to 2 day single park.

Right now we have garden view rooms but have the Hard Rock all access pass which supposedly will get us an upgrade to pool view at check in. The cheapest one (standard) is sold out. We could get standard (parking lot) views at Royal Pacific though.

I'm just not sure all that downgrading is worth it for $255, especially given how excited the kids are for the Hard Rock. We'd get a free breakfast but given how hard it might be to get the teens there that early in the trip, that's of dubious value as well.

On the flip side, that much saved would almost pay for the Illumninations cruise so....

That's why I just crunch the numbers and dumped it on Jeff to decide! I do like his plan, we will see if he pulls it off. For me, it's either we suck it up or make a big change..like to a Disney split stay.

 

[KathyRN137]

Pro's for staying onsite are pretty huge.


1. Mid day pool breaks.

2. Express line pass.

3. Early morning park access.

4. Margaritaville and the Lone Palm Airport

Cynthia, I think this says it all! The benefits are huge and the Hard Rock is Taylor's big dream, so it will count big in the special memory department!

Think of all the great photo ops!

I think I have (finally!) figured out what to do to bring our cost down if we cannot get free dining on our rooms to match what it would have been with the Free Dining.

*We would have one room on the DDP with 5 of us (Jeff, myself, Kendall, Taylor and Evan).

*We would have one room NOT on the DDP (Sandie, Paul, Doug and Eric).

What a great compromise.... I think this is an excellent solution!

And best of luck with your next interview!!


Kathy

 

[Charleston Princess]

Cynthia, I am almost in the same boat as you are right now. Well, maybe not the same boat (we don't have all the Universal stuff), but in a nearby boat. Our tax refund was not nearly as large as it has been in the past, and since that is what we typically use to pay for our Disney vacations, I have been completely panicked and questioning just about everything. Add to that the abysmal Georgia state budget and more furlough days coming out of my salary, and I am just about in the pit of despair. So, I am probably not the best person to offer any advice right now since I don't even know what I should be doing.

However, having said all of that, I think you should stick with Hard Rock if the savings is only about $255. Like you said, if you have waited 18 months in between trips, it should be a good one!

 

[eandesmom]

Cynthia, I think this says it all! The benefits are huge and the Hard Rock is Taylor's big dream, so it will count big in the special memory department!

Think of all the great photo ops!

What a great compromise.... I think this is an excellent solution!

And best of luck with your next interview!!


Kathy

Ok that's kind of pathetic, I wasn't even thinking about the HR photo ops with Tay. What a great idea!!!!!!!!! OMG I should post some of his recent band shots, they are SO cool! We could get some really really neat shots. Since he is ditching HS for running start this could be a really great thing. Brilliant! It is SO incredibly cool there.

The benefits are huge...then again they'd better be for the cost! To put it in perspective it is as if we were paying rack rate at the YC. Which we wouldn't do. So the pricing is comparable, but the discounts we are getting sure aren't. Plus at YC we only have to pay for one room so even if we didn't have our PIN it would be a lot more palatable. I guess I'm getting eaten up thinking we shouldn't consider HRH without a similar "discount". It just seems...."too" decadent and not a good use of money but it would be a vastly superior experience so...

I'm excited about the DDP "solution" as I have a pretty huge fear that we won't be able to get free dining on our room/resort choice as it stands now. I wouldn't be able to book what I have with the PIN we have so that tells me it is probably unlikely FD will be available for it.

Cynthia, I am almost in the same boat as you are right now. Well, maybe not the same boat (we don't have all the Universal stuff), but in a nearby boat. Our tax refund was not nearly as large as it has been in the past, and since that is what we typically use to pay for our Disney vacations, I have been completely panicked and questioning just about everything. Add to that the abysmal Georgia state budget and more furlough days coming out of my salary, and I am just about in the pit of despair. So, I am probably not the best person to offer any advice right now since I don't even know what I should be doing.

However, having said all of that, I think you should stick with Hard Rock if the savings is only about $255. Like you said, if you have waited 18 months in between trips, it should be a good one!

Oh Jackie I am so sorry to hear that. I know how stressful it is! We plan and save for our trips with CD's so the Disney part is paid for but when I first proposed this as a longer trip it was at a less expensive deluxe (treehouse) and a budget choice for the universal part. With the upgrade to the YC our savings just covers the Disney part, DDP and Flights, not both which it would have originally. Add the "surprise" California trip (which I do NOT want to cancel, I'll give up a YC day first) and yeah...pit of despair is perhaps a little extreme but definitely a gnawing feeling of stress that it's perhaps not the "smartest" plan to have. Or the grown up responsible thing.

Then the devil sits on my shoulder and reminds me that I always feel like this, stress about money like this and it always works out.

Still.

need a pulling hair out smilie!

The $255 is if we switch to the Royal Pacific, I think we both agree that by itself isn't worth switching for. We "could" save up to almost $1,000 if we changed those 3 days to 2 rooms at POP, $500 if we change to WL so those numbers are worth at least taking a hard look at. We will see how much Jeff can lean on his mom. It would be a huge weight off of my shoulders. Everyone is so incredibly excited for Hard Rock I would hate to change it but....WL would ease the blow for most, by a lot. The HP lines though....

We could drop a YC day at the end but that idea bums me out so I'm not giving it to Jeff as an option right now. I really want the full 7 days there, last time with bad flights we only had 5 "full" days and I really felt robbed. with the heat, pool breaks, corralling 9 people....I want all 7.

It's funny. I am stressing about the room price and yet considering the darn Illuminations Cruise. If we made a change and then actually did the cruise, it could be a wash. I think it's more about the per night 2 room cost that has me going OUCH versus the actual final total if that makes any sense.

Of course I expect Sandie to be very into the cruise idea, it's absolutely the kind of thing they'd want to do so if we split it, not quite as brutal.

Your snow days come out of your SALARY? I don't think that happens here but I really don't know.

I hope you can keep everything where it is too, I know how special your plans are! I do have faith that things will work out. For both of us.

 

[eandesmom]

Hot off the press from Mugglenet....

"The theme park will host the Three Broomsticks restaurant and the Hog's Head Pub, where Holt said guests can buy “very old liquor, and we'll have animated hog's heads on the wall that will interact with you while you drink your old beer. The Butter Beer is going to be non-alcoholic. However, you can go into the Hog's Head Pub and ask for the alcoholic version.”"

 

[All7OfUs]

Phew!! My head is spinning from all the math and decision options!! I'm not the one in our little party who is number crunching- AND SO GLAD!!!

You do have a ton of options, but here's my 2 cents:

It has been a long time since your last biggie, so you should go big,

BUT


You weren't expecting the tax fiasco either, so maybe you can't go big??

 

[MEK]

Holy crap....that's a lot of strategic planning. It's sort of confusing to me, but here is what I think........

Don't stay off site for the Universal portion of the trip. I stayed there once and the onsite benefits are so worth it. I told myself if I ever went there again I would stay onsite, no matter what the cost. Especially in August, in the heat - badda bing, badda bang......right to the front of the line! So worth it.

I think what you are saying is if you downgrade to the Royal Pacific, it still doesn't save that much. Is that right? You lose the ticket deal? It you can shave off a few bucks with RP, its really not that bad. Yeah - Hard Rock is a bit cooler, but the thing I liked about RP is its really close to IOA and you can hear the Hulk groaning in the distance. The pool is very pretty and tropical. It's an easy, easy walk to the parks.

I do like your idea of having half of your party OFF the dining plan. I definately see some advantage to that, and if you can do it - why not? The children's dining plan is weak. I know that first hand because I saw what my nephew had to choose from ......blah!

Oh well....GOOD LUCK with the job interview! You've got this!

 

[Charleston Princess]

It's not our snow day that we are getting without pay. The state has mandated that all teachers must take three unpaid furlough days this second semester -- we had to take three last semester as well. It's a cost-saving measure for the state since they are so broke.

The press release about the Three Broomsticks is cool! I know Connor will love going to Harry Potter at some point!

 

[DisMomAmy]

My head is spinning too! Sounds like you just have to wait it out and see what happens with free dining! Your one room on/one room off sounds like a good compromise for your group. It would probably be too confusing for me though... I loved having the DDP during our last trip & will miss it this time. But I understand wanting to stay at the YC. That would be a dream resort for me!

I'm anxiously waiting to find out what happens...

 

[eandesmom]

Phew!! My head is spinning from all the math and decision options!! I'm not the one in our little party who is number crunching- AND SO GLAD!!!

You do have a ton of options, but here's my 2 cents:

It has been a long time since your last biggie, so you should go big,

BUT


You weren't expecting the tax fiasco either, so maybe you can't go big??

Probably less of a can and more of a "should"

?

That said, now that I've laid it all out to Jeff I feel a lot better as I think I thought he wasn't paying attention to the cost (thinking the CD's covered it all which it no longer does) so I'm preempting a freak out on his end when all the final amounts are due. He seems to be on board with it regardless.

Holy crap....that's a lot of strategic planning. It's sort of confusing to me, but here is what I think........

Don't stay off site for the Universal portion of the trip. I stayed there once and the onsite benefits are so worth it. I told myself if I ever went there again I would stay onsite, no matter what the cost. Especially in August, in the heat - badda bing, badda bang......right to the front of the line! So worth it.

I think what you are saying is if you downgrade to the Royal Pacific, it still doesn't save that much. Is that right? You lose the ticket deal? It you can shave off a few bucks with RP, its really not that bad. Yeah - Hard Rock is a bit cooler, but the thing I liked about RP is its really close to IOA and you can hear the Hulk groaning in the distance. The pool is very pretty and tropical. It's an easy, easy walk to the parks.

I do like your idea of having half of your party OFF the dining plan. I definately see some advantage to that, and if you can do it - why not? The children's dining plan is weak. I know that first hand because I saw what my nephew had to choose from ......blah!

Oh well....GOOD LUCK with the job interview! You've got this!

The more I think about the one-off-one-on dining plan, the more I like it. We had 11 unused CS credits on our last trip! We still saved a ton but...
It would be a much better solution than making Eric be 9 on the plan!

That is right, if we move to RHP we downgrade 1-2 room categories and lose the better tickets. That would save $255. I know PRH would be lovely. I do really want to stay onsite, it will completely change that part of the trip if we don't.

Thanks on the interview. I am really excited but have a lot of work to do between now and then.

It's not our snow day that we are getting without pay. The state has mandated that all teachers must take three unpaid furlough days this second semester -- we had to take three last semester as well. It's a cost-saving measure for the state since they are so broke.

The press release about the Three Broomsticks is cool! I know Connor will love going to Harry Potter at some point!

OUCH that's a whole week plus of lost pay. The stuff starting to come out about HP is so exciting! Eric just started reading the series, we will see how far he gets by the trip.

I thought of you at the library the other day, I picked books 2 and 3 of the Starcatcher series

My head is spinning too! Sounds like you just have to wait it out and see what happens with free dining! Your one room on/one room off sounds like a good compromise for your group. It would probably be too confusing for me though... I loved having the DDP during our last trip & will miss it this time. But I understand wanting to stay at the YC. That would be a dream resort for me!

I'm anxiously waiting to find out what happens...

Well the good news is FD will no longer make or break that part of the trip, we can just do one room off/on and come out about the same. I think it will work out well, the DDP might totally confuse Sandie and Paul anyway

We'd do 5 of us on the DDP and just let whoever wanted the least expensive thing(s) be OOP on the non-buffet nights. We really liked the plan too, just as much for the savings as for having it all paid for up front. Sandie, Paul and Doug would not be on the plan.

So now it's just the US part that we need to get the cost down.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

If it makes you feel any better, everyday I question my resort decision. I decided to do a split stay and upgrade to a deluxe for a couple nights. The guilt about the extra money (even though I got a pin) or at least the penny-pinching part of my head visits me everynight before I close my eyes but my heart is sleeping soundly. It sounds to me as if your head and heart are engaging in the same type of battle.

 

[Happydog]

Ack! These are crazy decisions! I don't know how you can keep them straight in your head enough to write them down! Well I agree with CP, the savings is a good amount, but maybe not bank breaking to the point the opportunity cost outweighs the enjoyment cost in this case... The Hard Rock Hotel sounds VERY COOL!!! I can't wait to hear all about it! I do think the DDP options is a good idea for splitting the DDP between rooms... plenty of desserts to pass around, and this offers flexibility too. I hope all those decisions work out! AND I hope the new job possibility works out too... your ADRs seem great! SO glad you are going to try Sanaa... I can't say enough about it as you know!

 

[eandesmom]

I know it's the "dark side" and all but I thought everyone might enjoy a few pics of the source of the "to rock or not" debate!

Lobby

Outside

The room

Not the most exciting but the kids actually preferred it to the other 2 hotel room pics. It reminds me a lot of the pictures of the updated CR rooms (not that I've ever seen them "live" mind you! No balconies, kind of a bummer. We are booked with a garden view and "should" get an upgrade if available at check in to pool view with our All Access card.

The pool

Supposedly you can pool hop between the three resorts, I hope to do it! The Loews pool trifecta. I may even have to do a pool drink comparison. :

 

[eandesmom]

If it makes you feel any better, everyday I question my resort decision. I decided to do a split stay and upgrade to a deluxe for a couple nights. The guilt about the extra money (even though I got a pin) or at least the penny-pinching part of my head visits me everynight before I close my eyes but my heart is sleeping soundly. It sounds to me as if your head and heart are engaging in the same type of battle.

Exactly! My heart feels great, my head gets in the way at times. The unexpected expense of a out of state TKD tournament for Evan I think put me a little on edge. Just looking at the guitar fountain pics today really reminds me of all the non park benefit reasons we picked it too, which are as important. Thank heaven for the PIN or we would not be at the YC unless FD came out. I think part of the guilt is just that while we might spluge when it's just the 2 of us, to do it for 10 nights seems a little irresponsible.

But as Jeff reminded me today (as Taylor is taking is first practice SAT), it IS Taylor's last summer as a HS student.

Paul is also a musician so Jeff thinks that will help sway them to join us at HR. We will see!

Ack! These are crazy decisions! I don't know how you can keep them straight in your head enough to write them down! Well I agree with CP, the savings is a good amount, but maybe not bank breaking to the point the opportunity cost outweighs the enjoyment cost in this case... The Hard Rock Hotel sounds VERY COOL!!! I can't wait to hear all about it! I do think the DDP options is a good idea for splitting the DDP between rooms... plenty of desserts to pass around, and this offers flexibility too. I hope all those decisions work out! AND I hope the new job possibility works out too... your ADRs seem great! SO glad you are going to try Sanaa... I can't say enough about it as you know!

I am SO excited for Sanaa, I know we will love it. Seriously, the concept of 5 desserts instead of 9, with 4 salads out of pocket is really really appealing! I don't think we ate our desserts in full more than once on the last trip. 99% of the time when we go out, we don't get dessert at all.

I have spreadsheets. Stupid ridiculous overly detailed spreadsheets. Far Far too many of them. They give me some kind of illusion of control.