OK, I've got the ticker....Poly in August!!!

[Chicago Mo]

HOW AWESOME!!!! Flights are DONE! WHOOOOOOOOOOP
your parents house is a PERFECT getaway!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!
i'm SO happy for you!!!

 

[Pixiedust530]

Congrats on booking your airfare. I booked ours on Monday and it felt SOOOOO great!! You are right....NO turning back now!

 

[solana131]

Super duper happy for you Suzi! I am sooo looking forward to meeing Bradey and Sara when we are down there! I hope we can plan a really awesome Dismeet!

To make you feel a little better... Josh - yes MY Josh - was looking at airfare for the girls and I last night... Gulp... You know what that means... I think he is going to buy our airfare for us... xxxxxFXxxxxx That would really help out a lot... but to be honest - I think we may need to kick in a little dough from the budget as well - seeing as there are still no codes... I don't think I can let him buy airfare though until some sort of better code is released.

D~

Bradey is excited to meet you too. I have to warn you though...he might call you "The Bag Lady" because that's how I describe you to him But how else am I supposed to explain who you are?? He doesn't have a clue what it means if I say "a nice lady I met on a Disney forum".

Are you kidding??? If Josh is offering to pay for your airfare...let him silly girl!

HOW AWESOME!!!! Flights are DONE! WHOOOOOOOOOOP
your parents house is a PERFECT getaway!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!
i'm SO happy for you!!!

Thanks Mo. It would be a nice place to have a DISmeet someday

Congrats on booking your airfare. I booked ours on Monday and it felt SOOOOO great!! You are right....NO turning back now!

I totally just repeated myself on your PTR....just ignore it
So excited that we both booked! I love your planner by the way....I have a ton of spreadsheets too. I wish I could remember where I found my favorite one....I downloaded it somewhere online and it is so great. Everything on one page for easy access...Park Hours, Parades and Showtimes, ADR conf numbers, plans for each day, flight and hotel conf numbers. I just love it. I download it to my phone with ThinkFree Office App and then I have my whole spreadsheet at the palm of my hand without having to carry a binder around. Love love love it.

 

[Angies1274]

Hi Suzi!

I just noticed that your trip was back on! Yay for going in August! We went at the end of August a few years ago and although it was hot and humid, it was also much less crowded than July and there were no tour groups to deal with!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say Hi! I'm looking forward to hearing about your plans!!

 

[solana131]

Hi Suzi!

I just noticed that your trip was back on! Yay for going in August! We went at the end of August a few years ago and although it was hot and humid, it was also much less crowded than July and there were no tour groups to deal with!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say Hi! I'm looking forward to hearing about your plans!!

Hi Angie! Yep. Trip is on in full force. With airfare booked, there is no going back Yay! Looking forward to less crowds and less tour groups!

 

[solana131]

Hi guys.....I just wanted to let you know I am pausing my mini TR from our FL trip for now. I can't deal with the new Photobucket and need to find some other photo sharing site. I have heard Flickr is a good one and I have visited it before to view other people's pics. But can you still get the img code to post in here from there? Do you just hover over the pic and then copy and paste like Photobucket....the old Photobucket?? I am also having trouble resizing my pics. I get two done then on the third one it kicks me off....so annoying!

So, for now....I just need to either download better photo editing software to my new computer, or find a different sharing site. What sites do you all use?? Just PB?

Oh, and I added one more ADR to the list. So we now have:
Sat Aug 17: Via Napoli @ 6:20pm
Sun Aug 18: nothing, just QS
Mon Aug 19: nothing, just QS
Tue Aug 20: Boma @ 6:15pm
Wed Aug 21: Art of Animation for dinner
Thu Aug 22: Kona @ 10:35am and hopefully Dessert Party
Fri Aug 23: Chefs de France @ 12:50pm
And the new one....
Sat Aug 24: Crystal Palace @ 9:55am

Chefs and Crystal Palace are both new for us. As well as a bunch of new QS places I want to try. And of course neither Bradey or Sara have been to Via Napoli or Boma. And Sara hasn't been to any, obviously

 

[DMGeurts]

Hi guys.....I just wanted to let you know I am pausing my mini TR from our FL trip for now. I can't deal with the new Photobucket and need to find some other photo sharing site. I have heard Flickr is a good one and I have visited it before to view other people's pics. But can you still get the img code to post in here from there? Do you just hover over the pic and then copy and paste like Photobucket....the old Photobucket?? I am also having trouble resizing my pics. I get two done then on the third one it kicks me off....so annoying!

So, for now....I just need to either download better photo editing software to my new computer, or find a different sharing site. What sites do you all use?? Just PB?

Oh, and I added one more ADR to the list. So we now have:
Sat Aug 17: Via Napoli @ 6:20pm
Sun Aug 18: nothing, just QS
Mon Aug 19: nothing, just QS
Tue Aug 20: Boma @ 6:15pm
Wed Aug 21: Art of Animation for dinner
Thu Aug 22: Kona @ 10:35am and hopefully Dessert Party
Fri Aug 23: Chefs de France @ 12:50pm
And the new one....
Sat Aug 24: Crystal Palace @ 9:55am

Chefs and Crystal Palace are both new for us. As well as a bunch of new QS places I want to try. And of course neither Bradey or Sara have been to Via Napoli or Boma. And Sara hasn't been to any, obviously

First of all - I am still using Photobucket... But I have not done the jump yet - I am afraid to. I know it's mandatory in the next week +, but I have heard so many bad things about it. I am kind of stuck there, because I paid to have their extra service for 2 years... Let's just say that I will be doing LOTS of complaining to them if I am going to have issues.

Looking at your new ADRs, it still doesn't look like much lines up... However - we may join you for you AoA dinner if you don't mind? That is a water park day for us, and I hope to be done early... I do want to make it over to AoA at some point to check out the resort, and that might be fun? Not sure if you want to try to plan something like that with us? Let me know. or LOL

Which day is it that we may be in MK together? I want to try to get some of my Dismeets put into my Mini-Planner.

D~

 

[solana131]

However - we may join you for you AoA dinner if you don't mind? That is a water park day for us, and I hope to be done early... I do want to make it over to AoA at some point to check out the resort, and that might be fun? Not sure if you want to try to plan something like that with us? Let me know. or LOL

Which day is it that we may be in MK together? I want to try to get some of my Dismeets put into my Mini-Planner.

D~

First of all....it will always be ....never ...so don't ever worry. Afterall....we will be old friends by then after our MOA meet

And I sent you a FB message with my spreadsheet attached so you can see my full plans. Sheet One is my overview tab. Sheet Three (tab on the bottom) is my dining sheet if you want to see how I figure things.



**************************************************

Question for you all....is there some way to get Disney park maps? Not the uber cool customized ones, but just the normal paper folding ones?? I have some crafts I want to do that involves Modpodgeing them to things, but I didn't plan this out before my last trip, so I don't have any maps. I would think you could order them from somewhere online, but I can't seem to find any. Hmmm...I wonder if our AAA office has any. Wonder what they would think if I went in and grabbed about 40 of them . I can order new Customized maps in April...you know, the whole once a year thing. I can't wait to do it, so I can have some with the new Fantasyland on them!

Well, the sun is shining on a Saturday for the first time in 2013. Yep, you read that right...we haven't had a nice weekend all year yet. We have just been in such a horrible weather pattern. It has stormed every single weekend! Looking out at my driveway right now...it is soooo muddy and our snowbanks are still so high. I am really dreading how muddy it will be once they melt. It is supposed to be almost 50 here today, and while I love the sun and warmth after the past few weeks, I hate the snow melting that fast. It just has nowhere to go. But not much we can do about it....so Bradey and I are about to put our rain boots on and go out and play. Mudpies anyone??

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Hi Suzi!!! I came over from my ptr!! Another Mainer --- Yay!!!! Going to read now!!!

 

[KatMark]

I like your choice of ADR's. Crystal Palace breakfast is a must do for us each long trip. And we ate at Chefs for the first time in December and loved it.

As for paper maps, I have no idea if you can get them anywhere. However, if we hit Downtown Disney next month, I will be happy to pick one up from each park for you and send them out. Just let me know.

 

[solana131]

Hi Suzi!!! I came over from my ptr!! Another Mainer --- Yay!!!! Going to read now!!!

Hi! Welcome...so glad you came to visit I hope it is as beautiful and sunny up in Augusta as it is here today!

 

[solana131]

I like your choice of ADR's. Crystal Palace breakfast is a must do for us each long trip. And we ate at Chefs for the first time in December and loved it.

As for paper maps, I have no idea if you can get them anywhere. However, if we hit Downtown Disney next month, I will be happy to pick one up from each park for you and send them out. Just let me know.

That would be great Kathy! I would appreciate it. There are so many fun crafts on Pinterest that use them. Thanks!

 

[solana131]

I am really feeling defeated here....

I have always, my entire life had a computer with Microsoft Office installed on it from the beginning. This included the Microsoft Picture Manager. Where you can just double click the image and it pops up in that screen to be viewed, copied, edited, etc. If you click on edit then resize, a window would pop up and you could click on pre-determined sizes "web large" "web small" "document large" "document small" etc. This new computer didn't have office on it, so I just downloaded the OpenOffice suite and it all worked the same except for the photo editing. The plain old Window Photo viewer is great for viewing, but no editing capabilities.

So...today I downloaded the Photoshop package. Just the trial thank god. I am having a real hard time doing anything on there, but I'm sure I would get used to it. But the resizing tool on there is not pre-defined sizes. I have no idea what dimenions to put in.....I need the "document large" and "document small" options.

So, I just decided to pay the $150 to download the Microsoft Office suite. And guess what!!!! There is no longer a Picture Manager! Nope....$150 down the drain for NOTHING! I should've just kept my OpenOffice for free. It does all the things Excel/Word/Powerpoint does.

I am just too sick and tired of this. I cannot use photobucket to resize my pics. And now I can't resize them on my desktop. So, either I have HUGE pictures on the rest of this PTR, or I just don't do it.

Can someone help me?? Do you know the proper size ratio of pixels for a document to be the right size for here?

Going to go bang my head against the wall now for a while!

 

[DMGeurts]

Oh Suzi - that sooo sucks!

The most common sizes for most message boards are 620x480 but I personally think that is too small most of the time... I like mine a bit bigger... 800x550 works well for me.... Sometimes I do about a 1000x750 too... It just depends on what I am uploading. But for most things that middle one is perfect for me. It's really a personal thing (I think) and you can do whatever your comfortable, because as far as I know, the Dis doesn't have any sizing limits.

If you need help with PHotoshop... I am happy to help when I can - otherwise Youtube and Google are your friends for tutorials, however, just be careful about the websites you open, when ever I google computer related stuff, it always seems to come back with some sort of virus in one of the pages I open...

D~

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Hi Suzi and thanks for letting me tag along. Yes, today was absolutely beautiful in Augusta, a bit breezy, but I'll take that with the sun and no snow any day!!! We've had way to many storms and I'm just hoping they are over with. I would hope so.

As for photoshop, I'm just learning myself, but like D said, you can google instructions. I just did that for name fills and need more practice, but at least help is out there. I'm switching to Flickr for my ptr pics. Sorry you feel so defeated. Boy, do I know that feeling, as I'm sure you know by reading my ptr. Life is just so difficult at times! It's almost like I've angered the karma Gods or something....

This is so exciting to have someone else from Maine going at the same time as us and hopefully in the same building! Can you imagine if we are neighbors there? How cool would that be. I've been reading your report and you really have a great group of friends here. Lucky girl! Hopefully I can become one of them.

I'm fortunate that my hubby likes to go to Disney. POR was our honeymoon spot (with the child) and he seems to really like it there. I don't think he's quite used to my commando style, but he puts up with it. He doesn't like alot of the rides so it's usually me and my girl!

Aren't the airline tickets crazy priced right now??! I just scored an awesome deal with Delta though for our flight back ---- $130 per person! Yeehaw! We are flying SW down using our points. Actually, I have to change flights now as I had booked the SW flights returning. Now that I found that deal (which I purchased today) I will have to switch to arrival flights. SW for the same flight was $171, so even with the baggage fees that Delta has, we made out better. You are sooo right about limited choices. I just don't like to drive for 3 hours to Manchester.

Ok, I'll be waiting to hear more.

 

[solana131]

Oh Suzi - that sooo sucks!

The most common sizes for most message boards are 620x480 but I personally think that is too small most of the time... I like mine a bit bigger... 800x550 works well for me.... Sometimes I do about a 1000x750 too... It just depends on what I am uploading. But for most things that middle one is perfect for me. It's really a personal thing (I think) and you can do whatever your comfortable, because as far as I know, the Dis doesn't have any sizing limits.

If you need help with PHotoshop... I am happy to help when I can - otherwise Youtube and Google are your friends for tutorials, however, just be careful about the websites you open, when ever I google computer related stuff, it always seems to come back with some sort of virus in one of the pages I open...

D~

Thanks D Sorry I kinda spazzed out there a little. I was just so mad that this problem was keeping me inside on our first beautiful weekend of the year. But with those sizes you gave me, I should be able to get this done. It was just so much easier with PictureManager...one click to size. Seems like I have to jump through so many hoops just to size one picture on Photoshop But I'll get there.

Hi Suzi and thanks for letting me tag along. Yes, today was absolutely beautiful in Augusta, a bit breezy, but I'll take that with the sun and no snow any day!!! We've had way to many storms and I'm just hoping they are over with. I would hope so.

Don't worry, I just finally got snow tires on my car, so now we won't have anymore storms...guaranteed

As for photoshop, I'm just learning myself, but like D said, you can google instructions. I just did that for name fills and need more practice, but at least help is out there. I'm switching to Flickr for my ptr pics. Sorry you feel so defeated. Boy, do I know that feeling, as I'm sure you know by reading my ptr. Life is just so difficult at times! It's almost like I've angered the karma Gods or something....

Oh Ann I know...I feel so silly complaining about stupid stuff like that when others have such a hard road I really am blessed!

This is so exciting to have someone else from Maine going at the same time as us and hopefully in the same building! Can you imagine if we are neighbors there? How cool would that be. I've been reading your report and you really have a great group of friends here. Lucky girl! Hopefully I can become one of them.

I hope so too. I "met" a lady from Standish on here which is only about 20 mins from me, but we've never met and she seems to have disappeared. That is the only other Mainer I have "met", so I was thrilled to see you on Patricia's TR And you are right...I have a great group of friends here. Some of my best friends I've met on here. Can't wait to meet two of them in person in just 82 days!

I'm fortunate that my hubby likes to go to Disney. POR was our honeymoon spot (with the child) and he seems to really like it there. I don't think he's quite used to my commando style, but he puts up with it. He doesn't like alot of the rides so it's usually me and my girl!

So jealous of this! I would even be happy if he didn't share my enthusiasm, but didn't mind me going. But alas...I ask him and he doesn't say "no". That's as close as I get and then I have to keep my mouth shut about it until its paid off or he might change his mind. He would never tell me I couldn't do it, but he would grumble and grumble and make me feel horrible about it. He just comes from a family that never did anything and doesn't understand my need for a great vacation every year. I used to think I would change that in him and once he did it a few years and saw what the world had to offer, he would get on the bandwagon....but we just celebrated our 10 year anniversary and he is still the same....so that's out the window. That's okay....Bradey and I have fun by ourselves.

Aren't the airline tickets crazy priced right now??! I just scored an awesome deal with Delta though for our flight back ---- $130 per person! Yeehaw! We are flying SW down using our points. Actually, I have to change flights now as I had booked the SW flights returning. Now that I found that deal (which I purchased today) I will have to switch to arrival flights. SW for the same flight was $171, so even with the baggage fees that Delta has, we made out better. You are sooo right about limited choices. I just don't like to drive for 3 hours to Manchester.

I totally understand. MHT is a long way from Augusta! I just wish they would bring back the JetBlue nonstop to MCO from PWM. Not sure why they got rid of them That Delta deal is a great price!

 

[solana131]

Testing...testing...



CapeCoral2013 by solana131, on Flickr

WHOOHOO! Flickr it is....no resizing necessary!!

This is a pic of Bradey fishing in the canal behind my parents house.

Yay! Happy dance.....now I can continue. And hopefully get my money back from Office!

 

[KatMark]

Way to go Suz; I'll have to look into this Flickr.

Love the picture of Bradey.

 

[solana131]

Way to go Suz; I'll have to look into this Flickr.

Love the picture of Bradey.

It took me a little bit to figure out how to copy the code because it isn't called an "img code" like on PhotoBucket. But I tried all of them until one worked and now I see the "img" in the beginning of it. This site seems great. Easy to navigate and one click re-sizing. Happy girl right here. I will get another update tomorrow...hopefully. If the sun is shining again like today, I might have to wait a bit. I am not losing another nice day

 

[solana131]

We're booked!!!!!!

Yep, I took the plunge....I was trying to wait to see if I would get a PIN in the mail, but I just can't stand it any longer. And I know the preferred rooms at POR will go faster than the rest and I don't want to stay there if we can't be in a close AB room. So I was afraid to wait any longer. I only paid about half the total, just so when the summer sale comes out I can apply it and save.

I booked a MYW package this time. No dining, just room and PH tickets. I have never booked a package before, so I am a little nervous about the different rules (cancellation, changes, etc) but I wasn't sure what would happen re: the MyMagic bracelets if I bought my tickets elsewhere. I want to make sure we get out tickets loaded to the bracelets and this seemed to be the only way to go.

Very excited!