OFFICIAL NOVEMBER 2017 THREAD

[dnllmz]

Last night I was able to book a TRex ADR for dinner on Saturday which I think will be fun!

It does look like a fun restaurant. The last couple of reviews I've read about it were really good too. It's on my list for possible places to eat if we do Disney before our cruise next year. Although I just started to check out other options like Discovery Cove.

I'm having an ADR dilemma feel free to chime in. For our 2nd HS day, I have Sci-Fi planned. We've eaten there before and everyone enjoyed it. It may have been our best meal as far as kids sitting and enjoying their food. No complaints. I'm now starting to worry a little bit about Fantasmic. They added the dessert party thing so I'm worried there might be less standby seats and the viewing area may be really bad. So I just added a Mama Melrose Fantasmic ADR. I'm a little torn because we ate there and I just thought it was okay. My husband really liked it and I don't remember if my kids did but DD4 hardly ate the whole trip so that's not really a barometer. Hmm I guess I really need to figure out how important Fantasmic is to us.

 

[danjoan14]

100 days!

Just booked our flights - JetBlue out of Providence. Not what I wanted to pay but the cheapest I've seen them yet.

ALSO! It was cheaper to fly a day earlier so now we are going 11/24 - 12/2! Our longest stay ever! We aren't planning on doing parks on Friday or Saturday (hello Thanksgiving crowds) but we are going to take advantage of the pool, Disney Springs and hopefully do a little resort hopping.

...I might try and book an ADR for Saturday because I just cannot help myself ha ha ha

Prices out of Providence are insane. Still haven't book anything for November 9th through the 12th as our trip is still questionable. But now Frontier has launched their service from Providence. The original flights are cheap, but then they nickel and dime you for seats and luggage. We're pretty much done with SW after the disaster from our vacation last week. They cancelled two of our flights without any notice. Had to switch and fly out of Boston on the original day, plus had to stay overnight at BWI when they cancelled our return trip home. DW had been arguing with the Corporate Office in Dallas the past couple of days. They finally gave in to send us vouchers for future flights. That will probably be the last time we fly with them. Total pain. They really don't care. DW had to speak to don't know how many managers until we finally got compensated.

 

[Eriboo3]

Prices out of Providence are insane. Still haven't book anything for November 9th through the 12th as our trip is still questionable. But now Frontier has launched their service from Providence. The original flights are cheap, but then they nickel and dime you for seats and luggage. We're pretty much done with SW after the disaster from our vacation last week. They cancelled two of our flights without any notice. Had to switch and fly out of Boston on the original day, plus had to stay overnight at BWI when they cancelled our return trip home. DW had been arguing with the Corporate Office in Dallas the past couple of days. They finally gave in to send us vouchers for future flights. That will probably be the last time we fly with them. Total pain. They really don't care. DW had to speak to don't know how many managers until we finally got compensated.

This is my worst fear! I don't know what I would do if they cancelled my flight.

 

[chewysmom]

I'm at double digits today!!

 

[danjoan14]

This is my worst fear! I don't know what I would do if they cancelled my flight.

Yes, it was pretty ugly. We had reservations at our resort on the Saturday. SW was kind enough to tell us, along with the other family we were traveling with, the earliest they could get us out was on Tuesday. Wrong answer!! They didn't offer any help at all. We were on the phone trying to get a flight with another airline. It was a 6:10 AM flight. We were all on the phone at the airport at 4:30 AM freaking out. Luckily American Airlines had 7 seats, exactly what we needed, on a flight out of Boston at 8:20 AM. It was a good thing we had enough time to get from PVD to BOS to catch the flight. But we all know how expensive it is to book a same day flight, plus now having to pay for luggage. SW was blaming the weather, but yet the 6:40 AM and 7:30 AM flights were going out with no problem. The real reason was due to a flight crew problem. The SW rep just shrugged her shoulders and said Tuesday is the best we can do. All the kids were crushed. Luckily we were able to get the flight out of Boston. Not happy at all with SW!!!

 

[Trap]

99 days to go

 

[dnllmz]

@danjoan14 i'm shocked at how poorly SW handled your situation. It's very disappointing. Did the free vouchers even make up for the cost of the flights home? I know the flights home had to be way more $$$.

 

[MIndy S]

Good old JB changed our flight times--I never received an email or anything--I just logged in to add our TSA precheck # and they notified me then. Sadly, our return flight is earlier now so a little less time in the park. But we get there earlier Friday after Thanksgiving so hopefully we will actually be able to do something that evening now!

Glad I saw your post! Checked our flights and JetBlue moved up our return flight by 40 mins. It's not a big deal, we aren't going to the parks that day, but it still would have been nice to know!

 

[cyndiella]

Just saw on Weather.com that fall temps in Florida will be slightly above average... pack accordingly! PSA over.....

 

[MIndy S]

Yes, it was pretty ugly. We had reservations at our resort on the Saturday. SW was kind enough to tell us, along with the other family we were traveling with, the earliest they could get us out was on Tuesday. Wrong answer!! They didn't offer any help at all. We were on the phone trying to get a flight with another airline. It was a 6:10 AM flight. We were all on the phone at the airport at 4:30 AM freaking out. Luckily American Airlines had 7 seats, exactly what we needed, on a flight out of Boston at 8:20 AM. It was a good thing we had enough time to get from PVD to BOS to catch the flight. But we all know how expensive it is to book a same day flight, plus now having to pay for luggage. SW was blaming the weather, but yet the 6:40 AM and 7:30 AM flights were going out with no problem. The real reason was due to a flight crew problem. The SW rep just shrugged her shoulders and said Tuesday is the best we can do. All the kids were crushed. Luckily we were able to get the flight out of Boston. Not happy at all with SW!!!

Had a similar situation with Continental many years ago. Flights were cancelled due to high winds. I was flying down to see my fiance before he deployed to Iraq, and they did nothing for me to help me. Only option was to wait standby at the airport and if they had a seat they may be able to give it to me. Had to stay overnight at a connecting airport, they refused to pay for lodging because it was weather related. Got to my fiance 24 hours after I was scheduled. I didn't even get any vouchers or anything. It was a nightmare.

 

[Eriboo3]

Glad I saw your post! Checked our flights and JetBlue moved up our return flight by 40 mins. It's not a big deal, we aren't going to the parks that day, but it still would have been nice to know!

Wow now I am going to check!!

 

[Eriboo3]

Wow glad I did check, they pushed mine back an hour on my arrival day. I'm kinda pissed.

 

[lovingeire]

I'll pipe in! Not sure how it is in Poconos but we have both in Sandusky and my kids (7 and 9) loved Great Wolf Lodge but after staying at Kalahari a few months ago decided they like it there better, but then again our GWL is one of the smallest in the chain from my understanding - but as I say that we are going back to GWL this weekend with friends from out of town due to the deal we were able to get with our corporate discount Excited to be taking a family to Cedar Point who has never been there!

We loved GWL in the Poconos- it was our 1st time there and we were thrilled with it. I'm not a slide person, but dh & ds are- but i loved the pools and all of the other water things there.

Another great thing about it was my ds has a severe peanut & tree nut allergey - GWL (at least the Poconos one, not sure about the whole chain) is peanut & tree-nut tree, although some of their products may have been produced in a facility where nuts were present. Plus, they also have a specially trained chef & all of my son's food was made upstairs in their allergen kitchen by that chef- it took a little longer- you'd order and they'd send the order up and you go back to get in about 20-30 minutes. Loved how safe it felt for ds to be able to eat there.

We looked at Kalahari's website but a lot of the slides / attractions looked alot bigger than GWL and ds loves slides but not the huge or super scary/thrill type ones. Did you think Kalahari was geared more for older kids/thrill lovers, or was there alot for the tamer crowd too? It looks really cool online.

We don't live far from either GWL Poconos or Kalahari - only about 40 minutes from our house.

Ok, we are back from Kalahari, but it's been a busy week. We had a ton of Scout activities and my work schedule has been busy! I wrote a full review of our visit to Kalahari here if you're interested. We are about an hour and a half from Kalahari so it was a good getaway for us. I think next time we'll try Great Wolf Lodge to compare the two as they're not far from each other and Great Wolf doesn't do day passes. It was rather crowded the day we arrived, but empty the next morning. My kids, who are pretty varied in age, all had a blast and plenty to do. For the day and a half we spent there it was perfect. Our room left a little to be desired for the price, but otherwise we were happy with it and would go back.

 

[lovingeire]

Joining in as DH and I just decided to make a quick F&W trip! We'll be at BWI 11/4-11/8. It's been about 7 years since we last did F&W so we're really excited to experience it again!

Awesome! I'll be at BWI too until the 7th.

 

[Mopedmom1]

Wow glad I did check, they pushed mine back an hour on my arrival day. I'm kinda pissed.

My flight late November was changed to 15 minutes earlier flying in to Orlando and I leave about 15 minutes earlier flying home.

I wonder if this an MCO reshuffle as opposed to an individual airline issue.

 

[Eriboo3]

My flight late November was changed to 15 minutes earlier flying in to Orlando and I leave about 15 minutes earlier flying home.

I wonder if this an MCO reshuffle as opposed to an individual airline issue.

I'm not sure! I'm so worried about it being delayed even more when it is time to take off. I'm flying JetBlue.

 

[babets_99@yahoo.com]

I just found this thread and we are going Thanksgiving week 2017 also. We will be staying at ASSp. We have never done Thanksgiving at Disney but would love to hear from the ones that have. Why do you love this week especially?

 

[570traveler]

I just found this thread and we are going Thanksgiving week 2017 also. We will be staying at ASSp. We have never done Thanksgiving at Disney but would love to hear from the ones that have. Why do you love this week especially?

We went several times over Thanksgiving with the most recent being last year. We chose this week because we like the weather to be cooler (went a few times in June and hated it!). I'm a teacher and I only have to miss a day and a half of work (same for our kids). We absolutely love the Christmas decorations! It really gets us in the holiday spirit. We did the candlelight processional last year for the first time and it was one of the highlights of our trip. Yes, it's crowded but I ask the kids what there must do's are. I make sure they are planned and the rest we just go with the flow.

 

[danjoan14]

@danjoan14 i'm shocked at how poorly SW handled your situation. It's very disappointing. Did the free vouchers even make up for the cost of the flights home? I know the flights home had to be way more $$$.

The vouchers actually made up the difference between the original flight with SW and what American Airlines charged us to fly on that day. That's all DW wanted. It took three days on the phone with SW talking to numerous supervisors and finally a manager. We'll be sure to use the vouchers for our next vacation, but probably won't use SW after that.

Had a similar situation with Continental many years ago. Flights were cancelled due to high winds. I was flying down to see my fiance before he deployed to Iraq, and they did nothing for me to help me. Only option was to wait standby at the airport and if they had a seat they may be able to give it to me. Had to stay overnight at a connecting airport, they refused to pay for lodging because it was weather related. Got to my fiance 24 hours after I was scheduled. I didn't even get any vouchers or anything. It was a nightmare.

They get around it when it's a weather issue. Our flight was cancelled due to a flight crew issue. But they still did nothing to compensate or try to help. Pretty poor customer service.

 

[ariane37]

I just found this thread and we are going Thanksgiving week 2017 also. We will be staying at ASSp. We have never done Thanksgiving at Disney but would love to hear from the ones that have. Why do you love this week especially?

We've gone Thanksgiving week the last 2 years, love it! The Christmas decorations around the parks and at the resorts are gorgeous, and we love the storytellers in Epcot that start the day after Thanksgiving. The weather is great; yes it's crowded but as the pp said, you go in with a plan and other than that, go with the flow. Doing things like mini golf or bowling at Splitsville might be options if you find the parks too crowded. Being there that time of year puts us in the "holiday spirit"; we'd be going again this year (and every year!) that week if it wasn't for DS's sports schedule.