My AP-ALOOZA Continues (WE RENEWED!!) ~ NEW TR link posted!

[Boston Disney Bride]

Have a great trip! Hope the flight out of Prov is smooth! Can't wait to read about your trip when you return home

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Travel safe! See you in a few days!

 

[JulieODC]

Have a GREAT trip!!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Thank you all for the well wishes!! We are heading to the pool at our resort - universal has been great! Excited to be at Disney tomorrow though and I know aria is too! If I were starting a new tr the title would have to be something including losing a gazillion things and going through the hoops to get everything back. As I type this I'm waiting for lost and found to bring me my flip flops that I lost yesterday! lol!

 

[jeni16]

Another update should come this afternoon - I need to get some actual work done first though! I have some updates though that I wanted to share.

1) I paid the deposit for a 5-night Western Caribbean cruise on the Disney Wonder, departing Feb 1st from Miami. I wanted to do a 7-nighter, but the difference in cost was $1500 ?!?! which I just couldn't get over for 2 nights. We have a family verandah stateroom, and our ports of call are Cozumel, Mexico and Castaway Key with 2 days at sea. We are going to then drive down to the florida keys after the cruise and spend 4 nights in that area. Ticks a couple things off my must do list - cruise, mexico, and florida keys - so we are both super excited. I have until November 18th to make any changes, so we may end up moving it if things in the children deparatment change. Also, it falls 2 days after Aria's 3rd birthday so we are doing this vs. hosting a huge party. She'll be able to enjoy the kids clubs on board which is what I was really hoping for.

I'm a little behind & a lurker most of the time but I would love to hear about your plans for the Florida Keys as well. DH gets to go on his company trip there in June & I'm not having much luck in the research department.

I love your trip reports. I linked to them through Dugette & have been following for a while. We'll be taking DS to Disney World for the first time in October & I need all the tips I can get for taking a toddler.

 

[Dugette]

Aw, sorry to hear about "Lost and Found: The Trip Report". Glad you've had fun in Universal, though! Hope the Disney magic takes over from here!

 

[Imagineer5]

I'm a little behind & a lurker most of the time but I would love to hear about your plans for the Florida Keys as well. DH gets to go on his company trip there in June & I'm not having much luck in the research department.

I love your trip reports. I linked to them through Dugette & have been following for a while. We'll be taking DS to Disney World for the first time in October & I need all the tips I can get for taking a toddler.

I need to really get going on the planning for the Keys. A month or so ago I really ramped up only to get discouraged on the hotel costs in the area!

Thank you so much for following along!!

Aw, sorry to hear about "Lost and Found: The Trip Report". Glad you've had fun in Universal, though! Hope the Disney magic takes over from here!

It definitely continued! LOL waiting on a call back from the Contemporary Lost & found today!

 

[Imagineer5]

We made it home!! Yesterday actually. A few great DIS/FB meets and some amazing quality time with Aria. Seriously, she is SO MUCH FUN to travel with. She was so easy, had a (sweet) opinion on everything and knew all the rides and characters she wanted to meet! I counted 58 character autographs, and if we returned to the same meeting place I didn't get a 2nd autograph, so she met a TON of characters! And loved them ALL. SO much fun.

I hoped to access the Photopass site today at work, but can't download anything from here, so that's my plan for tonight.

My trips only downs were all the things I left places, breaking my water camera (no fault of my own, just stopped being water-resistant ) and dropping my DSLR (with the $800 lens) TWICE - resulting in a $300 fix on 8/24 and an unknown cost - I'm trying to find a local repair shop now!

I also have about 3000 photos to get off my SD cards and edit as I only shot in RAW so that will take a little time, I hope to get started as soon as all the photos are downloaded and put in chronological order from all sources!

 

[ribollita]

Following along
Welcome back

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Welcome home! Glad it was such a fun trip - though sorry you dropped your camera (again)!

That's great how good Aria was with the characters and you got so many autographs!

 

[schmass]

Welcome back! I am all caught up on this TR now and looking forward to reading more!

 

[Boston Disney Bride]

Welcome home!! Glad to hear you had a great trip! Can't wait to see and read all about it

 

[JulieODC]

Glad you had a great trip!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Dugette]

Welcome home! So glad you had a great overall trip, despite the unfortunate events. So fun to see the little ones loving the characters! I think that Talking Mickey started something - nothing but character love after that for Izzy and I think you were saying the same thing with Aria. Too cute! Glad she was such a good travel partner. So fun to spend all that quality time with them. Hope your second camera fix isn't a huge ordeal and that you never drop it again!

 

[Imagineer5]

Thank you for all the welcome backs!! I've gotten through about half of my photos and am hoping to set Andrew on Aria-duty tonight so I can finish up! I would love to get the TR started next week, you know before I need to start the next series of "This time in 2 weeks..." LOL!

In the meantime however, I have been finally cracking down on the February cruise & Keys time. Looking at Andrew's time off, it looks like the max we can go is Jan 31st - Feb 9th, which gives us about 3.5 days in the Keys. I booked rooms today and flights so I'm feeling more accomplished, on my to-do list is transportation options (rental car, cruise terminal shuttle, etc) and 1/31 hotel for that 1 night before the cruise. Then I get to get to the fun stuff - planning out our days! I know it'll just be a little taste of the Keys but hopefully enough time to still have fun!

Following along
Welcome back

Thank you so much!

Welcome home! Glad it was such a fun trip - though sorry you dropped your camera (again)!

That's great how good Aria was with the characters and you got so many autographs!

Hahah yeah thank you! The lens is at a camera repair shop in Providence. $30 fee just to diagnose it.

Welcome back! I am all caught up on this TR now and looking forward to reading more!

Aw thank you!! I can't wait to read all about your cruise!

Welcome home!! Glad to hear you had a great trip! Can't wait to see and read all about it

Thank you so much!! How is your trip planning coming??

Glad you had a great trip!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Thank you!! When is your move up here??

Welcome home! So glad you had a great overall trip, despite the unfortunate events. So fun to see the little ones loving the characters! I think that Talking Mickey started something - nothing but character love after that for Izzy and I think you were saying the same thing with Aria. Too cute! Glad she was such a good travel partner. So fun to spend all that quality time with them. Hope your second camera fix isn't a huge ordeal and that you never drop it again!

Yeah mickey sure is special!! I hope you are feeling better today! Yeah, never drop again needs to be on my plan - not sure how to manage it but I sure hope that comes true.

 

[Boston Disney Bride]

Thank you so much!! How is your trip planning coming??

Our trip just finally cracked the 1 year mark, so as soon as we can book at the 11mo mark, I'll really kick it into planning mode! Were you able to access the TOTWL?

 

[Imagineer5]

Our trip just finally cracked the 1 year mark, so as soon as we can book at the 11mo mark, I'll really kick it into planning mode! Were you able to access the TOTWL?

Yes! We had no problems and I was able to bring up friends as well. They just scanned my magic band.

 

[Boston Disney Bride]

Yes! We had no problems and I was able to bring up friends as well. They just scanned my magic band.

So happy to hear this! Hope I have the same luck as you!

 

[Imagineer5]

So happy to hear this! Hope I have the same luck as you!

Yeah! I was really surprised - when I checked into the BLT, the CM asked me if it was my "home resort" instead of lying, I said I was staying on a friend's points. Her response was "even better!" lol and then said that we are still eligible to go up to the TotWL since we are staying there on points! So I planned to use her words if anyone gave me an issue going up there, but it was not a problem at all!

 

[Imagineer5]

I am all done with photos - YAY you have about 3500 coming in my August PTR, aren't you all excited!?!?!

This weekend we spend the night out at Prudence Island on the boat, it was really nice family time and I did spend a little bit of Saturday afternoon making Aria's autograph book. Of course the book I got only fit in 100 photos - with 58 autographs some had to be cut out haha! But Aria LOVES her book. She keeps flipping through it naming every character as she goes.

I have been a bit unsettled about a couple things for my October trip.

1 - they changed the park hours for 10/5 (my birthday). We had plans to go to Citricos, then to the MK that night for the parade & wishes. Now it is a MNSSHP night. So naturally I bought tickets for that! But that leaves Citricos up in the air. We could still eat there and make the party right around 7PM I think, so that is my current plan. I did add Kona for a birthday breakfast, assuming the Monorails will be working that early, if not I'll have to cancel it.

2 - I think it will be pushing it to do a 5PM ADR at Beaches & Cream when Andrew flies out at 7:30 LOL. So I need to cancel that one as well.

I also haven't spent a lot of time really thinking about the FP+'s I've made, now that I think rider swap doesn't really need everyone to have a FP as recent reports have said. We had no problems getting rider swap on our most recent trip. SO i really need to swap some FP's around to take advantage of that.


And on other trip-related notes, I think for the most part our Cruise & Key West trip in February is set. I spent time last week booking hotels and looking at our transportation options as well as daily plans for the Keys! Can't wait to work on that.


Of course, as I have mentioned, I don't want to let 2015 slip by without time at WDW. My current thought is to visit with lynda (and aria) in early May. We are thinking of checking out Shades of Green - with Lynda's rank it's only like $95/night (so only 47.50 each!). Since we can walk to the Poly & TTC, I am excited to try it out. Additionally she can get us military tickets (like $160 for 4-day park hoppers), and I have my AP for Universal - so I think this is the most viable option. It would mean no TiW however, so I might try to compile a list of non-TiW restaurants to check out haha.


As for other news, this coming weekend we have Disney Frozen on Ice tickets!

And the following weekend we are flying to Dallas for a few nights to visit my Grandmom.

Then back to WDW!

I'll be working on my new TR today so be on the lookout!