Never challenge a DISer to find a deal--a Nov/Dec PTR 11/26: Today's the day!!!

[ladybugmom]

YAY!! I'm glad you got everything you wanted!! I've always wanted to try Hoop Dee Doo!!

 

[therussells08]

Those ADRs look great! I LOVE Tony's and 50's Prime Time Cafe!! Yummy! That list has my mouth watering!!

 

[moparop]

Watch this spot! I have been so neglectful of this little PTR! I am hoping to get up something new tonight. I just didn't want anyone to think I've abandoned ship!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm still here!

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

Still here and waiting patiently. I understand how busy real life can be!

 

[Happy Elf]

I just noticed your PTR! Joining in...your plans sound very exciting so far and I can't wait to hear more!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

hi!! Just checking in and reading over your ADRS!!!!! They all sound good to me If I were to cancel one/rebook, it would be Tonys. We were not fans of Tonys at all.

I will give them some credit though..when we went it was July, hot as can be, we ate lunch, the place was packed, service was horrible, and the food tasted a grade lower than an Olive Garden and did not sit well in the hot sun for the rest of the day. We haven't been back and would pick Mama Melrose or Italy (Epcot) over Tonys!

If it was between Hoop Dee Doo and Tonys, I'd go for HDD. The CS in MK are very good: Columbia Harbor House, Pecos Bills, and of course Caseys (just to name a few!) and I think your kids will enjoy the show at HDD and the food is wayyyy better than Tonys!

Did you consider any Epcot meals? It seems when we go we eat most of our TS meals at Epcot! Japan is really good! We have had hibachi type meals outside of WDW and still think they are the best! The kids would like it and you get a ton of good food!

I've never been to Cape May. My brother and I had that scheduled for in March (breakfast) when we went and then we got into Chef Mickeys and chose that over Cape May.

Just some of my imputs I hope you're having fun in Michigan!!!

 

[moparop]

Cha-cha-cha-changes!

I have been a bad DISer again. I meant to provide more frequent updates and life got the better of me! The good news is: I have an update today! And, it's even a trip update!! I'll also do a life update after this. We've been busy this summer and I have been busy taking photos.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Travelocity saying they had great prices on flights to Orlando. I figured it can never hurt to look, right? I priced out the days of our trip flying out of Cinci and it was a pretty penny. I tryied a few other cities and found that Lexington, KY seemed to have the best prices. Even with the "best prices" it was still well out of our price range. Then I had another thought... what if I adjusted the dates of our trip by one or two days? When I moved our trip up to the 26th and still came home on the 5th flying and driving ended up costing within $150 of each other (outside the room nights). I mentioned all of this to the hubby and based on his reaction it was put on the back burner.

I was not to be dissuaded. My next stop was to check and see if American Express could give us any better deals. We had been hoarding reward points for quite a while and I applied those to the plane tickets. With that, I was now at a wash in cost. Then I started thinking about the currency that meant the most to Ryan - days off of work and school. While we had agreed to pull the kids out school for this trip, we didn't want it to be longer than necessary. Since we were checking out of Disney on Sunday morning and driving home, getting the boys to school on Monday was going to be tough. Getting DH to work on Monday was going to be near impossible. If we flew, it would be no problem to do either!

It was then that the real problem hit me. Our trip had been planned during the value season. The two extra nights I needed to add were in holiday season. That made CR out of the question. I decided to call and get quotes to figure out where we could stay for the entire trip and still not blow the budget. After a long call with an amazing CM (who apologized because he could not help me more) I found that either POR or CBR had availability for the entire time. We'd have to do two separate ressies due to the code we were booking the main part of the trip and we'd be without DDP for those nights, but it was ok.

I presented the Pros and Cons to Ryan of every trip and we talked for quite a while. We both loved the idea of flying but giving up the Contemporary seemed like a poor trade off. I pulled out my final card and laid it on the table. "Well..." I began, "we could always do a split stay. Two nights at a value and the rest at the Contemporary..." As I said that, Ryan's eyes began to twinkle. I knew I had him. We talked about how changing resorts midtrip would work and he seemed to like that.

So the plan is now -- fly down on Friday November 26. Our flight does not land until 7:30. We are staying at All Star Movies. My kids have often looked at photos of that resort and wanted to check it out. So now we can!! On Saturday, we have a completely open day. I'd like to do DTD and maybe resort hop. Sunday, we'll move over to CR, start with our park tickets, and DDP. I cannot wait!

Up next: So how have you been spending your summer Margaret?

 

[IluvXU]

I like the new plan... especially cheap flights!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

yay for cheap flight!!! I'm looking into cheap flights for in Oct if I go with some of the girls I worked with at WDW. Since I'm going by myself, I would hate to have my mom drive me all the way to Columbus or Louisville so I'm trying to find something cheap in either Cincy or Dayton.

You are doing the split stay the right way! When we stayed at the Poly-4 nights and POR-3 nights in 1998, we did Poly 1st and POR 2nd and were highly disappointed when we had to switch and leave Poly. We have not done that again except last Dec when we split Yacht Club and WL (due to my error in resort ressie dates vs. flights booked) and that ended up being a good thing because we saw another resort we hadn't stayed at and we spent almost all the time at a resort we love!

Question or maybe I just read it wrong but are you guys getting the FREE DINING?! I was looking into it for my Aunt's family who's going Nov 22-27th but it's blocked until the 27th which is when they are leaving. I'm not sure if I saw that noted or not??????

 

[therussells08]

Yay! I love the new plans! And I'm excited for you that you got a cheap flight! Flying is so much easier than driving!

 

[moparop]

YAY!! I'm glad you got everything you wanted!! I've always wanted to try Hoop Dee Doo!!

Last week I was sure I was going to drop Hoop Dee Doo. Tonight, I am thinking it's a good idea again! Sometimes it's awful to be wishy washy!

Those ADRs look great! I LOVE Tony's and 50's Prime Time Cafe!! Yummy! That list has my mouth watering!!

Yeah, I am very happy with the list. I did come across a new problem this week. We have Hoop Dee Doo (known for fried chicken and ribs) and 50's Prime Time (where only the chicken looks great on the menu). Now, I do love fried chicken. BUT-- fried chicken twice in a week?? That may be too much for me!

I'm still here!

Thanks for being patient Leslie!!

Still here and waiting patiently. I understand how busy real life can be!

Thanks Jill! Life certainly can get the best of you. I thought with the kids out of school this summer, I'd have so much time. With a big vacation, three sets of house guests, and two kid's birthdays this summer my time is flying!

I just noticed your PTR! Joining in...your plans sound very exciting so far and I can't wait to hear more!

I am excited to have another reader! I was hoping to put up more about our summer tonight, but that may have to wait a day.

hi!! Just checking in and reading over your ADRS!!!!! They all sound good to me If I were to cancel one/rebook, it would be Tonys. We were not fans of Tonys at all.

I will give them some credit though..when we went it was July, hot as can be, we ate lunch, the place was packed, service was horrible, and the food tasted a grade lower than an Olive Garden and did not sit well in the hot sun for the rest of the day. We haven't been back and would pick Mama Melrose or Italy (Epcot) over Tonys!

If it was between Hoop Dee Doo and Tonys, I'd go for HDD. The CS in MK are very good: Columbia Harbor House, Pecos Bills, and of course Caseys (just to name a few!) and I think your kids will enjoy the show at HDD and the food is wayyyy better than Tonys!

Did you consider any Epcot meals? It seems when we go we eat most of our TS meals at Epcot! Japan is really good! We have had hibachi type meals outside of WDW and still think they are the best! The kids would like it and you get a ton of good food!

I've never been to Cape May. My brother and I had that scheduled for in March (breakfast) when we went and then we got into Chef Mickeys and chose that over Cape May.

Just some of my imputs I hope you're having fun in Michigan!!!

We left Epcot out because we always feel like we skip over so many CS options there. This way we can try a lot of little things as we go through. As for the whole HDD/Tony's/Cape May dilemma -- I need to put a thinking cap on in the next few days and make a serious decision or two!!

We had a great time in Michigan! We are headed back in two weeks for more fun. I cannot wait!!

I like the new plan... especially cheap flights!

Me too! I know driving went great for you guys. But man -- my little girl goes batty in the car. On our last drive home from MI, Ryan and I were on pins and needles with her!

yay for cheap flight!!! I'm looking into cheap flights for in Oct if I go with some of the girls I worked with at WDW. Since I'm going by myself, I would hate to have my mom drive me all the way to Columbus or Louisville so I'm trying to find something cheap in either Cincy or Dayton.

You are doing the split stay the right way! When we stayed at the Poly-4 nights and POR-3 nights in 1998, we did Poly 1st and POR 2nd and were highly disappointed when we had to switch and leave Poly. We have not done that again except last Dec when we split Yacht Club and WL (due to my error in resort ressie dates vs. flights booked) and that ended up being a good thing because we saw another resort we hadn't stayed at and we spent almost all the time at a resort we love!

Question or maybe I just read it wrong but are you guys getting the FREE DINING?! I was looking into it for my Aunt's family who's going Nov 22-27th but it's blocked until the 27th which is when they are leaving. I'm not sure if I saw that noted or not??????

Yeah, Cincinnati is a serious black hole for cheap flights. We have looked and looked and never found much of anything. I hope Dayton comes through for you. I know Air Tran puts out deals now and then, but certainly not often enough!

Glad to hear that we have done the split stay the right way. The whole idea of doing the split has me freaked out. Are they good about transferring luggage? Should we just move out own stuff? I am pondering heading over to CR BRIGHT and early on my own or with just one of the boys and then having my hubby meet at MK (our park that day) after all the legwork is done. As far as free dining goes, I hadn't even called since I booked CR with a 40% pin code. I decided to call tonight just to make sure and free dining was going to run $500 more. The CM and I had a laugh and decided to keep things just as they were!

Yay! I love the new plans! And I'm excited for you that you got a cheap flight! Flying is so much easier than driving!

Thanks! I wasn't so sure flying was going to work but the times look really good and they are direct which is also necessary with three kids!

 

[moparop]

Your ADR's look great! I think Hoop De Doo would be a lot of fun.

So glad you got everything you wanted.

Erika

Thanks!! I don't want you to feel forgotten. Have you started a TR? I've been looking around haven't seen one yet!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

great for you!! I guess you just have to do the number crunching to find out which deal works best for you!!

When we did our Poly/POR split stay we had a rental car so we just used that to transfer luggage. We did the same in Dec with YC/WL because we had a rental car. My family loves rental cars can you tell?!

When my brother and I went in March we didn't have a car but we just took a cab/van and it cost $15 from All Star Sports to POP. We needed to go to POP to check in right away to get our DDP and tickets if I didn't have free ones from when I worked so we decided to split the cost and take a cab. We had to store our luggage since the room wasn't ready but that saved so much time rather than taking a bus to a park and then back to POP just to get the room key.

If you google mears taxi cab you can go to the site and it will estimate a cab fare. It was off by a few dollars or so. We tipped $5 total.

I would say if you already have the park tickets and could go right to the parks and have your luggage delievered later in the day that would/could work.. I didn't know if I wanted them to do a transfer, knowing me, the luggage would have been sent who knows where but if you are watching your pennies then the cab might not be something you want to spend extra $$$ on.

 

[moparop]

Summer Fun!!


As I said in one my responses, our summer has certainly gotten the best of us! In addition to the usual things like vacation bible school, trips to the pool, library story times and such -- we've also had lots of other fun (and a little not so fun) going on!

We'll get the not so fun out of the way first... If you remember around ADR time, Aileen was sick. Turned out she had an ear infection. We went back to the ped's office for the recheck and not only did she have another ear infection, but she had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease too. Of course, she was all smiles and happy at the pediatrician office even being so sick. Being the darling girl that she is, she passed the HFM along to her mother and I had a 103 fever for two days. Not so fun! Around the same time, we had the people who run our county's early intervention program out to do an evaluation of her. At her last well child check, the doctor had me do a speech screen and it can back flagged for a potential delay. When the full testing was done by the EI staff, there clearly was a delay and we will start weekly therapy at the beginning of August with her. Thankfully, Liam has gone through the program so I am very comfortable with all of the people and know Aileen will be in great hands. The speech delay along with the ear infections have raised flags so we are off to do a hearing test next week. If she fails, we are looking at tubes for her.

So... now that icky is out of the way -- we are onto the summer fun!
At the end of June we went to Michigan to visit my FIL and his wife. They have a 25 ft sailboat on Lake Michigan and our plan was to go out and putter around in the harbor and on the canals, swim at the marina's pool and enjoy the town. I planned to come home with hundreds of photos that were going to make you cancel your summer trips and folks to the beaches of Michigan. To make a long story short, FIL's motor malfunctioned, the boys got sea sick, and Liam wandered too far into the pool and got over his head making some scary moments for the grown ups. Do not fear my friends! The weather on the lake was gorgeous and the winds were perfect. Here are the two photos I did manage to snag between taking care of my sick kiddos and snuggling scared little boys.

We had friends in town for 4th of July weekend and did a highlights of Cincinnati deal with them. We were on the go constantly, but the kids and our friends had a blast!

First we did King's Island:
Horrible and out of focus, but Liam said "Check!" with a thumb's up before every ride

Aileen loving the sights and sounds of the park:

They have a rule there that all babies must have socks or shoes on to go an any of the rides. I had left Aileen's feet bare and so we had to improvise:

Because our friend hates rides with drops, we got to ride the water ride as a family. I swear Doug was not as freaked out as he looks in this pic:

He did like the kiddie coaster much better:

All day long, Liam kept watching this mini Tower of Terror thing. He kept telling me he wanted to ride it. I was skeptical and I hate these things but I sucked it up for him. Shall we vote on his opinion of the ride?

The Whip It thingie made everyone happy again:

On the 3rd, we went to the city's local festival. The had bouncers for the kids, food stalls, games and bands. The night ended with fireworks. Here are a few highlights:

Aileen LOOVED fireworks!

Our last big stop was the zoo. There were so many animals out to hang out with. The kids loved it!

 

[moparop]

great for you!! I guess you just have to do the number crunching to find out which deal works best for you!!

When we did our Poly/POR split stay we had a rental car so we just used that to transfer luggage. We did the same in Dec with YC/WL because we had a rental car. My family loves rental cars can you tell?!

When my brother and I went in March we didn't have a car but we just took a cab/van and it cost $15 from All Star Sports to POP. We needed to go to POP to check in right away to get our DDP and tickets if I didn't have free ones from when I worked so we decided to split the cost and take a cab. We had to store our luggage since the room wasn't ready but that saved so much time rather than taking a bus to a park and then back to POP just to get the room key.

If you google mears taxi cab you can go to the site and it will estimate a cab fare. It was off by a few dollars or so. We tipped $5 total.

I would say if you already have the park tickets and could go right to the parks and have your luggage delievered later in the day that would/could work.. I didn't know if I wanted them to do a transfer, knowing me, the luggage would have been sent who knows where but if you are watching your pennies then the cab might not be something you want to spend extra $$$ on.

I had thrown the cab idea out to my hubby the other day. I was thinking if I got a cab, one of the boys, and all of our luggage to CR, it should be easy for him. Do I need him at check-in? Can he just sign his KTTW card later? We will definitely all need to get our park tickets from CR, so that is a real complicating factor. I am going to need to do more reading on switching resorts before we go so I know how much sanity I am going to lose if I try to count on Disney to help us! The cost of my sanity could be far more than the cost of cab!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I had thrown the cab idea out to my hubby the other day. I was thinking if I got a cab, one of the boys, and all of our luggage to CR, it should be easy for him. Do I need him at check-in? Can he just sign his KTTW card later? We will definitely all need to get our park tickets from CR, so that is a real complicating factor. I am going to need to do more reading on switching resorts before we go so I know how much sanity I am going to lose if I try to count on Disney to help us! The cost of my sanity could be far more than the cost of cab!

The cost of the cab is by mile, not by person so if you all wanted to just get in and go, it would take out that added factor of some meeting you at check-in or park. My advice would be to just all take the cab. We just went outside at All Star sports and spoke to bell services and one was already waiting in the parking lot--we got a van for the 2 of us! You can also go to concierge and they will call for one. I would say that's a good option, especially since you need the keys to go to the parks. That way you wont have 2 or 3 waiting outside a park for you unless they were going to do the crazy bus switch to get to CR. I guess for us it just made sense to spend the extra $$$ but some families don't want the added expense which I understand too.

If you decide against a cab and do luggage transfer, I think it's similar to DME and can take up to 3 hours to be delivered and I'm sure they have some sort of tag system to know where to take it. I don't recall AS resorts having a designated van to take you right to another resort but I could be wrong?! If that's the case you could always call All Star directly and ask them, and then decide??

 

[Lady Lallie]

Great summer pictures. Aileen is getting so big!! She is such a cutie.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm here now! Your trip plans are looking great! on flying and a split stay! I have wanted to do the HDDR as well, but it still hasn't made it into the plans. I'm looking forward to your review on it and how the kids react to it all.

Love your summer update too - looks like lots of fun! Isn't this summer just flying by?? I can't believe it's mid-July already!

 

[IluvXU]

Having done a split stay with three kids... and having wet luggage delivered late to our room... not in our room as we had been told. We had to wait with a miserable one year old till our stuff got there... not my idea of fun! If we ever do a split stay again with little kids I will take a cab with my stuff.