Moving overseas, date changes, a free ticket, UPDATE and NEED Dining opinions PLEASE!

[eeyoresbestfriend]

Hi everyone! I love to read everyone's reports So much, and get so excited doing it, that I though I would try one of my own! Hope it is at least entertaining to some, although I KNOW I can't live up to most!! I'll try to throw a few pics in this post, just to keep it colorful, I am not sure how to change size and color of the text, if anyone has some hints bring em on!!

Anyway, to start off, let me explain my title.

This all started last February when we were on our 7 night Eastern cruise with DCL. We rebooked onboard, for the same week next year, which was a Western Cruise. We were all good to go. Well, this is where the US Army in all it's wisdom began changing our plans!

At the time we were stationed in VA, and were supposed to be there for another 2 years at least. So when we got home from the cruise, about a month later my husband was informed that he would most likely be deploying in May. Of course we weren't thrilled, but had been waiting for it for awhile. So, knowing he wouldn't be around next FEB (09) we rescheduled for a Nov 09 cruise, and were going to do some DVC time before the cruise.



We didn't here much more about the deployment for a couple of weeks. Then when we DID here something, it was that we would be moving to Germany in June!! Now, we got this notice April 25th. Anyone who has moved knows that a lot of things come with moving, and going overseas just adds more to that even!!

A military move even adds more to the mix, as there are special passports, medical screenings and some other pain in the tooshie military things to get done!! So, this really shouldn't change our plans right? Yeah Right!

When we arrived in Germany (that is another story altogether with 2 kids and a dog!) We learned that the deployment schedule for this office was to begin in May 2009! So now, November is out! You do not know what this was doing to my planning personality (although maybe YOU do!!)- I couldn't take much more!!
SO, now when to cruise? training for the deployment will be most likely in March and April, so those are out, I do NOT want to wait 15 months until he gets back, that will be another cruise!! So, the beginning of the year was looking possible. Knowing that we have to buy tickets for the 4 of us to fly from Germany to Orlando increased the cost by A LOT, but I wasn't giving this trip up, because I know how long and tough deployments are, and we deserve some family time before he goes! I spent DAYS pouring over choices, this was in July and finally I decided!

In the end, we have decided to fly from Germany on January 11th 2009, stay at HRH at Universal until the 15th, that day move over to the BCV until the 23rd at which point we are staying at the Hampton Inn by the port and leaving for the cruise on the 24th!!

Okay this has gottn long, and I hope someone will stick around, I will post more in another post, with some introductions of our family!

Stay tuned for- A FREE TICKET?!

 

[eeyoresbestfriend]

So, I will start with a shoet introduction on the cast of characters in our journey

Me- MB (34) I am the planner, this is what I do- almost all of the time. If I don't have something to plan for, I will find something, or plan something for someone else, ANYONE else, I might not even know them. I have been known to walk up to random people on the street, hand them an itinerary and say go have fun! (OK, not really, but I have thought about it!) I am a SAHM, and since my kids are in school I have plenty of time for all of this planning! I love eeyore and once on a trip took an autograph book dedicated only to eeyore to see how many times I could get him to sign0 guess how many? I'll tell you at the end of this installment!! Let me see if I can find a halfway decent photo of myself?

taken on an adult only trip to Niagra Falls last May before we left for Germany!! one of the few photos of me!

DH- Grumpy (31) my DH, as you know already is in the Army. He is actually a Criminal Investigator inthe Army, this is a job in the Army that is not well liked by a lot of the soldiers! My husband loves his job, it is always something new, but it is a lot of work, and sometimes it causes him to have a negative outlook on people in general. Because if his job, when he deploys, he goes a lone, so that makes it a little bit harder on him also. Grumpy is into all things technical, he can do just about anything with a computer or anything else that has wires (or not nowadays!) He is a great guy once you kow him, but is slow to warm up sometimes. He doesn't want to have anything to do with planning, (which is how I like it) and will go with whatever I have planned and always has a good time.

he does smile sometimes, I promise!!

DD-Tink (12) I''ll call her Tink for this report, because she has the same attitude as Tinkerbelle. It is probably the attitude of every 12 year old adolescent girl, but let me tell you it drives me crazy a lot of the time!! This move to Germany about killed her! I swear when we told her she almost died right there, and at least once a week she tells me how mean I was to make her move here with us! She likes most things teen girls like, and by that I mean talking to friends and letting us all know how terrible her life is!! I should add that she is Very into Drama and played dorothy in a big production of The Wizard of OZ back in VA. So, everything is a little over the top with her!

This is a common look for her this was last Feb. she was 11- she wants everyone to make sure to note that she was a "child" then!!

DS- Capn' Jack (10) I'll probably shorten the nickname to Capn' just to make it easier for me. This kid is a pice of work let me tell you. He can say the funniest things and crack everyone up, and then the next minute just have an attitude to beat all! I can't believe how quickly he can turn it on and off! He is a good kid though, and almost always has a smile. He also has an uncanny ability to know when someone is upset, and what to say to make them feel better. He is totally into magic at this stage of his life, where the interest came from I don't konw, but he is very excited by it.

a picture to go with the name! this was Feb also.


So- the free ticket! Well, in August, my husband found out that in March, he will be taking over and being in Charge of this office (until he deploys, and when he gets back) This is great news for his career, and he is very excited. Anyway, he also found out that because of this he has to take a class in ATL GA. Well this class happens to occur from Dec29th until Jan 9th 2009. This was very exciting for me (the planner, budgeter that I am) because this means that the Army will be paying for hin to fly from Frankfurt into Atlanta and home again! Luckily I had not purchased the plane tickets yet, so we figuerd we would buy him a ticket from ATL to MCO and back and it would be MUCH cheaper than from here this was great news!

It got even better- The travel office told him when he went to book the ticket that he could fly form Frankfurt to Atlanta, and then leave from Orlando to come home after our vacation- just by paying the difference in the 2 tickets (FRA-ATL-FRA, and FRA-ATL, MCO-FRA) welll the difference was $25 so of course we did that, and bought him a one way ticket to MCO from ATL for $87 which all totaled $112 which saved me about $700!!
I was a very happy camper. SO, I have plans, plans and more plans! I will start with Transportion plans int he next post,
I also have mini trips to Luxembourg, Stockholm and London that we have taken since we arrived, you may see some pictures randomely thrown in here and there.

The Eeyore signature count from my trip in 06- 58!!

 

[stitcharoo]

breanna:

your PTR is good so far!
your daughter is very pretty and your son is too adorable!!

 

[eeyoresbestfriend]

Thanks for the encouraging words!! I was worried no one was reading, but I was going to give it a couple days!!

The problem with my son is that he KNOWS he is cute, and has these big blue eyes with long lashes that he will flash at you!!
Thanks again, I am going to post Transportation and ADR's next post, hopefullly get some feedback on that!

 

[eeyoresbestfriend]

Okay, Travel...

Coming from Germany is A LOT more complicated than coming form the DC area, which is where we lived when we first planned this trip!

So, knowing that I only had to buy 3 tickets, I was feeling a little bit better, but still that will be a nice chunk of change So I start searching, Expedia, Travelocity, each individual airline website-
On a side note, do you know how ANNOYING it is to type expedia.com or whatever, and be taken to Expedia.de just because my IP address is German?! If I wanted .de I would have typed .de!! I do not speak a lot of German, I am working on it, and my sister is a German teacher, but it is HARD!

This is my sister, she was SO excited to be at a German store! (she came to visit this Summer)

Back to the story! I even went to the travel office on post to see what they could do for prices, but their price was in EURO, and the exchange rate a couple of months ago was HORRIBLE!!
Now, my kids are good travellers, we travel a lot, but I was looking for the most pain free way to do this, I didn't want a short connection that would have me and the kids running thru the airport like the crazy people that we are-I try to keep our true personalities a secret from the poor unsuspecting general public!

I told you, CRAZY!!

Because I didn't have to pay for my husband, when I found a Dirct flight out of Frankfurt into MCO, I really wanted to purchase the tickets, but, I am frugal (read-cheap) and hemmed and hawed and talked to my husband, who as per usual said- do whatever you want! (big help huh?) These direct tickets would cost about $1100 more total and to me that is a lot of money! So I didn't buy, and I kept looking.

After much more research, I was set to buy a flight with a connection in ATL-YUCK! then I get an email from Lufthansa that they are having a flight sale! Of course I go to look, my direct flight would now only cost $300 more total I thought that was definitely worth it, so I went ahead and booked those- later that night when I told my husband he says- "I needed that $300 for something FUN at Disney!! "
He was of course teasing me, because he has no say in any of the plans.


Up next- Universal, Disney, A cruise, where shall we eat? what is something new that we can do??

 

[eeyoresbestfriend]

Somebody PLEASE help me make a decision! We will be at the BCV on Jan 15-23 We have it all set up to get the Deluxe Dining Plan, I like the plan because I can just let the kids (10 and 12) get whatever they want- if they want a snack- sure go ahead!!

But I was doing some math- (What was I thinking?!) and the deluxe dining plan is costing us $2300 for the stay. Plus approximately $300 for tiips. We have used it before, and really enjoy it, but coming from Germany, we are spending more just to get to WDW this time around!

So we still have our AP's and I was thinking of the TIW card. I looked at the menus of all of the places we have ADR's for, and added up everything I thought we would eat, I added in some of the more expensive things just in case!
This card includes an 18% tip, so we wouldn't have as much to pay OOP, just a little if a server deserved a larger tip. The total for the TIW comes to $2030. SO a significant savings. BUT..... I just can't get over the feeling of freedom I felt with the deluxe plan and snacking- can I make myself still allow them to get whatever they want for snacks? because I don't think that I will spend $600!!
Someone help me decide PLEASE! I beg you DIS'ers I need some input!!
I will post our dining plans, maybe that will help YOU to help ME!!

Thursday January 15
Arrive from Universal in the AM.
Ohana Breakfast 9AM
Beaches and Cream Dinner
Illuminations cruise!!

Friday January 16
1900 Park Faire 8AM
Chef Mickey's 6:20PM

Saturday January 17
Sci-Fi Dine In 11:15AM
Yachtsman Steakhouse 8PM-NEW

Sunday January 18
Donald's Safari Breakfast 8AM
Ohana 7:55PM

Monday January 19
Cape May Cafe 8AM
LeCellier 6:25PM

Tuesday January 20
Proably Beaches and cream, or something around the hotel for Lunch
50's Prime Time 6PM

Wednesday January 21
Crystal Palace 8:05AM
Liberty Tree Tavern 2PM
Hoop Dee Doo Revue 9:30PM

Thursday January 22
Boma 8:45AM-NEW
Mama Melrose 5:25PM-NEW

Friday January 23
Chef Mickeys 8:30AM
Leave for Port Canaveral!


So as you can see, most of these we have done before but I am willing to try something new, if anyone has any other suggestions??

What do you think about the dining plan or the TIW? any thoughts? I would appreciate any help you can give me!

I will post daily plans tomorrow! Thanks again!

 

[kayla87]

The price difference is hard to argue with. Unless you're eating very expensive TS meals, or 3 TS meals a day, it's difficult to ever realize and beat the cost of Deluxe Dining. Did you calculate how much you'll spend eating counter service meals, which do not have a discount on TIW? I liked the convenience of having 2 snacks/day/person, which let me be thirsty or hungry whenever I wanted, but as much as we ate we still had leftover snack credits. So not only is that money spent, its money wasted.

Another thing to consider, which I don't know details on, is any fee incurred for changing your plan at less than 45 days. I've only briefly skimmed threads on the restaurant board, but I think you can incur up to a 60 dollar fee for changing your plan.

Before our friends joined our upcoming trip, we were going to do Deluxe Dining just for the sheer convenience of it. We eat bigger than regular dining, but smaller than deluxe dining, and we were just going to "eat the cost" of upgrading to deluxe. At least having the TIW allows you the flexibility to spend the money when you want to.

 

[eeyoresbestfriend]

Thanks for the input- I can take the dining off because it is a DVC reservation on points, so I believe I have until like 3 days before. I also enjoy the snacks! And the kids do too!! But I think even with some counter service in there, I won't be paying almost $600 in snacks and counter service, seems like that would be a lot of snacks!
My kids would rather have a couple of snacks during the day than a counter service, and then I know they will eat a good dinner! WHY does it have to be such a hard decision?! I am leaning toward just using the TIW but I am afraid I will regret it in the end! I guess I could do that for this trip and see how it works, so I will know better for next time.

Thanks again, anymore thoughts I'd love to hear them!!