Loosen your belt buckle-We're doing Deluxe Dining!Our 12/10 PTR!Update 12/18 TR Start

[therussells08]

Hi! I'm subbing! Your DD is SO cute!

I will be heading down to WDW in Dec. too, and DH and I just decided to try the DxDP for the first time! I'm really excited about it!

 

[eecteacher82]

Hi! I'm subbing! Your DD is SO cute!

I will be heading down to WDW in Dec. too, and DH and I just decided to try the DxDP for the first time! I'm really excited about it!

Welcome aboard! Thanks, we think she is pretty cute too! Yeah! Another family nuts enough to try DxDP too! I am really excited and I think it will work out really well, but I guess we will see.... I'm heading over to your PTR when I am done here!

 

[Tinkermom76]

I am joining in and I sent you a fb friend request!

We will also be in a few parks at the same time. MK on the Monday and Thurs morning, Epcot on the Wed and if you go to DHS on the Thursday night we will be there as well!!!

 

[eecteacher82]

I am joining in and I sent you a fb friend request!

We will also be in a few parks at the same time. MK on the Monday and Thurs morning, Epcot on the Wed and if you go to DHS on the Thursday night we will be there as well!!!

:welcome: Yeah! Another follower! I just accepted your request on FB. That is awesome that we will be in the parks on the some of the same days...I see a meet up in our future (if you are interested of course)! Thanks again for joining in!

 

[Tinkermom76]

:welcome: Yeah! Another follower! I just accepted your request on FB. That is awesome that we will be in the parks on the some of the same days...I see a meet up in our future (if you are interested of course)! Thanks again for joining in!

of course I am.... I saw disers with lime green mickey heads last year in the parks but I was fairly new to the boards and scared to say hi... not this year!!!!

 

[eecteacher82]

of course I am.... I saw disers with lime green mickey heads last year in the parks but I was fairly new to the boards and scared to say hi... not this year!!!!

Well then we will have to plan something as it gets closer...if only that would happen quicker!!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

i love the countdown!!

 

[kathymu501]

Excited reading your post, we are going in March 2011. I love California Grill it is one of my favorites. Kona is good also Ate most of your pics and all are good. Also stayed at POP really liked it there. This time staying at the Carbbean taking family 8 adulits and 6 kids 3--4yr olds twins aged 2 and a 1 year old. Counting the days. Wish you the best on your trip.

 

[eecteacher82]

I'm on hold....with Disney of course! I knew the general public discounts were coming out this morning for our dates so I was all about checking them out to see if anything worked for us. After looking at them, I think as of right now the only one that will work is the room only discount of 25% for Pop. There is also a free dining and gift card offer that includes our dates, but unless I can get around the fact that we booked just room and dining plan because we already have our APs.....I would love the FD or gift card since they would be a better value than the room only. I will take whatever I can get though! I know that when the AP rates come out, they will be better than the general public, and I will probably change when they come out, but for now I'll take what I can get! I have lots of updates to come later: the outcome of my morning on hold, updates on our weekend at WDW this weekend (only 6 days!!!!) and some other misc things! Anyone else on hold?

 

[moparop]

I'm on hold....with Disney of course! I knew the general public discounts were coming out this morning for our dates so I was all about checking them out to see if anything worked for us. After looking at them, I think as of right now the only one that will work is the room only discount of 25% for Pop. There is also a free dining and gift card offer that includes our dates, but unless I can get around the fact that we booked just room and dining plan because we already have our APs.....I would love the FD or gift card since they would be a better value than the room only. I will take whatever I can get though! I know that when the AP rates come out, they will be better than the general public, and I will probably change when they come out, but for now I'll take what I can get! I have lots of updates to come later: the outcome of my morning on hold, updates on our weekend at WDW this weekend (only 6 days!!!!) and some other misc things! Anyone else on hold?

Hoping there's good news to be had!!

 

[eecteacher82]

Well, let me just say that I am not a happy camper right now!!!! After spending 1.5 hours on hold, I got the most unfriendly, unmagical CM EVER!!!! All I wanted to do was add the 25% room discount to our package. Simple, right? I told the evil witch that is what I wanted to do and she said I couldn't! Yep, I couldn't do that! She told me that since we had booked the AP package (with just room and DP since we obviously don't need tickets), I just needed to be patient and wait for the AP discount to come out. I said that I understood that the AP rate would be better, but wanted to take this one just in case for some reason I am unable to get the AP rate, I wanted to have at least some discount. She again told me that it was impossible to do! I tried 3 times to explain what I wanted and she just kept saying there was no way to do it. By this time I was beyond P.O.'d and told her that I was no longer in need of her service and hung up. I know I should have asked for a manager or someone else (who knew what they were doing), but I didn't. I didn't want to call back and waste even more cell phone minutes, so I will try later. Did anyone else have better luck discounting their package today?

 

[exwdwcm]

so sorry for your CM experience Erin. can you try calling back for another CM. i find you can get different answers from each person.....inconsistent and frustrating, sad to say!

love her personlized backpack! so cute! we have a roll on board suitcase for William wiht his name on it! the backpack is a good idea though.

also love the countdown calendar. i might have to make one for Will too. we are nearing 100 days, so maybe i should!

yeah for the short trip- i also got the MMC email, but of course, can't go. I hope you have a great time and i am anxious to hear all about it!

 

[eecteacher82]

After my crummy phone call with Disney this morning I figured I needed a happy, positive update!

As you all know, we are taking a mini trip to Disney this weekend. It's only for 2 days, but they are 2 much needed days away from home. Toby has been beyond busy at work lately, so we need some time to just be a family and have fun.

In my last post about our mini trip I gave a rough plan, but...almost ALL of that has changed! After thinking about how hard Toby has been working, I decided to make things a bit more fun. First order of business: find a hotel. My plan was to find a cheapy hotel since it will only be one night and we are just sleeping there. Off to expedia, orbitz, etc...I went. I found a semi decent hotel about 3 miles from the main entrance and it was only $60 for the night! I was just about to book and Toby asked me where I was booking. I told him and he seemed upset I asked why and he said he was hoping to stay onsite!

I'm not sure what I was thinking (or not thinking for that matter), I hadn't even checked! I must have been delusional or something, I was still thinking it was summer season and the rates were going to be way too high to spend that for just one night. I checked any way and then it hit me, DUH, summer season ends just before the 22nd! I was really hoping for Pop, but they didn't have any availability, but All Star Sports did, so I jumped on it! With our passholder discount and tax it was $60!!! Only $10 more than the offsite and this way we didn't have to pay parking (our seasonal passes don't include parking), which for the 2 days would be $28. So when you add the offsite + parking= $78! So, not only are we saving money, but we now get EMH and can add the dining plan!!!!!

After thinking about it, I really, really wanted to stay at the Pop!!! I just love that place! I had heard on twitter that a few people had just booked Pop for Sunday night! Despite my horrible experience on the phone with Disney this morning, I bit the bullet and called to try and change from All Star Sports to Pop. I called and after making my way through the computer prompts I was told that my call would be answered in......less than 4 minutes! This call was totally different! It was what I was used to: a super friendly CM who wanted nothing more than to help me! After about 30 seconds she told me there was availability and she could switch me!!!! YEAH!!!! While I had someone so amazing on the phone I asked about adding the room discount to our December trip and she told me that she could do it if I wanted, but the the AP discounts were coming out as early as next week and that I should definitely wait b/c it would be much better and she didn't see any chance of the AP rooms being gone before I could get my discount. I decided to wait and book with the AP discount when it came out.

My other debate is whether to add the QSDP or not. To me, any sort of dining plan just makes things easier. I think I am leaning towards adding it on, but as of now I am undecided.

Staying onsite really changed my plans (in an awesome way of course)! Now just about the only thing the same is that we are leaving here around 12:30!

So, here we go, our plans:
Sunday August 22
*I have to work at church in the morning, so to cut time, Toby is taking me to work around 8:30 and coming to pick me up so we can get right on the road at 12:30.
*Leaving here at 12:30 should get us to Pop by 2:30 at the latest, but probably closer to 2:00. My goal is to check in and hope our room is ready so we can get in and get settled and head right out!
*The plan is to leave Pop by 3:30 and catch a bus to MK.
*Olivia is dying to ride Goofy's Barnstormer, Pirates of the Beegin, and the carousel, and I NEED to right the Peoplmover and CoP!
*Check in for the MMC party starts at 6:00, so we are going to hop on the monorail around 6:00 and make our way to Epcot.
*I haven't decided if we are going to eat at MK or Epcot, but I need to decide!
*I'm planning on hitting a few rides at Epcot before the MMC party starts: SSE, The Seas with Nemo, Captain EO (Toby really wants to see this), Figment (Livy loves this!), and maybe Maelstrom. (I should mention that this seems like too much to get in before 8:00, but we will have our GAC, so we should be able to hit most of them)
*8:00-9:30 MMC party!!!! I can't wait to meet so many of my online friends in real life!!!!
*After the party, the plan is to head to MK since they have EMH until 1:00am! Ahh, how I love the perks of staying onsite! I'm not sure how late we will stay, it just depends on how we are feeling.

Monday August 23
*Wake up: If it were up to me, we would be up and out the door by 7:00 since DHS has EMH! But, since it is not up to me, we will sleep until Olivia wakes up and then go from there.
*I am 99% sure that we are hitting DHS today, but I guess we will see...

So there you go, our very mini trip plans!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Great Plans!!! I wish I was 2 hours away and could go to the MMC party... I saw the invite but deleted it since I knew there would be no way I could make it

 

[Tinkermom76]

Hey I was just looking at the ADR list and we both have Kona on Dec 6 around the same time!!!

 

[eecteacher82]

Hey I was just looking at the ADR list and we both have Kona on Dec 6 around the same time!!!

Yeah! That is awesome! We will definitely have to say hello! We will be easy to find: my DH will be the one sleeping on the table b/c he doesn't like to get up early, especially on vacation, Olivia will be bouncing with excitement because that will be her princess day, and I will just have a HUGE smile plastered on my face! We are going to Kona for one reason and one reason only....TONGA TOAST! What are your plans for the rest of the day?

 

[therussells08]

Sorry about your bad experience with the rude CM! I hope that you have a wonderful mini trip!!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

yay for the mini trip!!

Sorry about the not so magical CMs, don't you hate those kind?!

I have to call at some point and add my one friend onto our Free Dining package for in Oct..I'm really dreading it. We debating about upgrading to a Mod from Value but that just causes wayyyy too many issues so we will stick with POP and hope its easy to add her on with the 2 day park hopper + Free Dining, (DDP upgrade). It was simple to do it all online but now adding someone on might be a whole other issue haha.

 

[eecteacher82]

yay for the mini trip!!

Sorry about the not so magical CMs, don't you hate those kind?!

I have to call at some point and add my one friend onto our Free Dining package for in Oct..I'm really dreading it. We debating about upgrading to a Mod from Value but that just causes wayyyy too many issues so we will stick with POP and hope its easy to add her on with the 2 day park hopper + Free Dining, (DDP upgrade). It was simple to do it all online but now adding someone on might be a whole other issue haha.

The unmagical CMs are so horrible! 99% of the time they are beyond amazing, but the ones that aren't, really aren't! I know what you mean about changing reservations! I really wish there was a way to change everything and do exactly what I want online!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Yeah! That is awesome! We will definitely have to say hello! We will be easy to find: my DH will be the one sleeping on the table b/c he doesn't like to get up early, especially on vacation, Olivia will be bouncing with excitement because that will be her princess day, and I will just have a HUGE smile plastered on my face! We are going to Kona for one reason and one reason only....TONGA TOAST! What are your plans for the rest of the day?

lol... my mom will be sleeping on the table too.. the girls will be yelling at eachother and I will also have a HUGE smile on my face. Do we really go there for them or for us????

We will be at MK for the whole day after that since it is EMH day!!! hoping to get a meet together there too since quite a few Disers are planning to be there that day