Last Minute Getaway- Day before
Attendees: Me & DH (Both 30, 2 Disney Trips in last 2 years, Last year's trip included a trip to USF).
Introduction
This trip was not booked until the day before & I thought it would be interesting (maybe??) to do a little background. DH has been working long hours and has been feeling the effects. Suffice it to say, he has not been the life of the party as of late. I had been "planning" a bunch of trips to try to alleviate his "stress", but I was getting shot down right & left. "No vacation time", "I don't want to do that", etc. I knew he needed a vacation, he just didn't know how badly he needed it. (Are all guys like this??)
Thursday, May 29, 2003
DH starts work at 6:30am. When he arrived at work, his boss said that he really needed a day off and that he should take tomorrow (Fri.) off!! DH called me when I got to work at 7am and said that he wanted to go somewhere, he didn't care where. Music to my ears!! I told him that I would come up with something and that it would be a surprise. (Everyone around here is always surprising someone--thought it might be fun!) He was a little hesitant because he thinks I'm pretty much crazy when it comes to trips (he's right), but he bought in anyway.
I got on the internet right away and started looking around. I am always looking, so I pretty much knew what was out there in a general sense. Expedia, Travelocity and those type sites offer last minute deals where you pick your flight times and your hotel, however, they also almost always seem pricey. I also checked a few last minute sites, but nothing was really jumping out. I then went to Hotwire. I had never used it, but a lot of people on the DIS boards seemed very happy with it. Hotwire has a new feature (I think) called Weekender. This feature allows you more certainty when booking a last minute trip. Instead of not knowing flight times or hotel name, these trips list windows of flight times and the hotel name for a certain price prior to buying. I had entered various destinations in CA, FL, DC, etc. just to see what was there. I got a return in FL for a 2 night stay at the PBH at USF and roundtrip tickets from St. Louis for $780 total, including tax. Not bad, I thought, for a total last minute thing. This was by far the best deal I had seen. (Note, there were better deals at the Swan & Dolphin, but if I booked another WDW trip, I would not be here today to write this report.) The flights were guaranteed to leave between 6am-11am on Friday and return Sunday b/w 4pm-10pm Sunday. I knew we were planning on doing the FTP at WDW in Sept, with a couple of day stay at either the PBH or the HRH, but I figured that hitting the PBH for a couple of days and enjoying the pool and restaurants would be a great getaway, but wouldn't ruin our September trip.
My boss said I could have the day off as long as I finished these 3 projects I had just been given before I left. I said no problem (famous last words) and proceeded to book the the trip. When I paid for the trip, our flight times popped up. We could have had up to 2 connections. But no......We were on the 7:40am non-stop on AA and the 6:40pm nonstop return!! Yeah!! This deal is getting better & better. I reserved a car at National using the DC card discount and a coupon I had from the entertainment book ($63.99 for an intermediate for 3 days, including tax). I also decided to buy APs (with the blackout dates) so that we could use them on both of our trips. I bought them online for $236.19 including tax from the USF website. I used the print out option as we did not have enough time to have them mailed. All we would need to do would be to enter the confirmation number at the self serve kiosks at the park entrance and we would receive our passes. (I was able to book everything by 9am!! Thank you T1 lines.)
I worked around the clock (literally) to finish the 3 projects and got to bed at 3:45am (felt like I was back in college). Our alarm went off at 4:30am so that we would make our flight.
Next up- Day 1
Attendees: Me & DH (Both 30, 2 Disney Trips in last 2 years, Last year's trip included a trip to USF).
Introduction
This trip was not booked until the day before & I thought it would be interesting (maybe??) to do a little background. DH has been working long hours and has been feeling the effects. Suffice it to say, he has not been the life of the party as of late. I had been "planning" a bunch of trips to try to alleviate his "stress", but I was getting shot down right & left. "No vacation time", "I don't want to do that", etc. I knew he needed a vacation, he just didn't know how badly he needed it. (Are all guys like this??)
Thursday, May 29, 2003
DH starts work at 6:30am. When he arrived at work, his boss said that he really needed a day off and that he should take tomorrow (Fri.) off!! DH called me when I got to work at 7am and said that he wanted to go somewhere, he didn't care where. Music to my ears!! I told him that I would come up with something and that it would be a surprise. (Everyone around here is always surprising someone--thought it might be fun!) He was a little hesitant because he thinks I'm pretty much crazy when it comes to trips (he's right), but he bought in anyway.
I got on the internet right away and started looking around. I am always looking, so I pretty much knew what was out there in a general sense. Expedia, Travelocity and those type sites offer last minute deals where you pick your flight times and your hotel, however, they also almost always seem pricey. I also checked a few last minute sites, but nothing was really jumping out. I then went to Hotwire. I had never used it, but a lot of people on the DIS boards seemed very happy with it. Hotwire has a new feature (I think) called Weekender. This feature allows you more certainty when booking a last minute trip. Instead of not knowing flight times or hotel name, these trips list windows of flight times and the hotel name for a certain price prior to buying. I had entered various destinations in CA, FL, DC, etc. just to see what was there. I got a return in FL for a 2 night stay at the PBH at USF and roundtrip tickets from St. Louis for $780 total, including tax. Not bad, I thought, for a total last minute thing. This was by far the best deal I had seen. (Note, there were better deals at the Swan & Dolphin, but if I booked another WDW trip, I would not be here today to write this report.) The flights were guaranteed to leave between 6am-11am on Friday and return Sunday b/w 4pm-10pm Sunday. I knew we were planning on doing the FTP at WDW in Sept, with a couple of day stay at either the PBH or the HRH, but I figured that hitting the PBH for a couple of days and enjoying the pool and restaurants would be a great getaway, but wouldn't ruin our September trip.
My boss said I could have the day off as long as I finished these 3 projects I had just been given before I left. I said no problem (famous last words) and proceeded to book the the trip. When I paid for the trip, our flight times popped up. We could have had up to 2 connections. But no......We were on the 7:40am non-stop on AA and the 6:40pm nonstop return!! Yeah!! This deal is getting better & better. I reserved a car at National using the DC card discount and a coupon I had from the entertainment book ($63.99 for an intermediate for 3 days, including tax). I also decided to buy APs (with the blackout dates) so that we could use them on both of our trips. I bought them online for $236.19 including tax from the USF website. I used the print out option as we did not have enough time to have them mailed. All we would need to do would be to enter the confirmation number at the self serve kiosks at the park entrance and we would receive our passes. (I was able to book everything by 9am!! Thank you T1 lines.)
I worked around the clock (literally) to finish the 3 projects and got to bed at 3:45am (felt like I was back in college). Our alarm went off at 4:30am so that we would make our flight.
Next up- Day 1
