laurio
DVC BLT since 2009
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
- Messages
- 98
It started out innocently enough - doesn't it always? I was never much of a Disney fan - more of a roller coaster/scary ride kinda gal.
Then in 2009 my baby bro booked the kids ( 3 & 2 at the time) on a Disney cruise. I was adamant that I would go, but wouldn't like it...boyyyyy was I wrong!!! That cruise led to a DVC membership and our second family cruise in 2010.
This is the year of home-coming - 6 nights @ Bay Lake Towers..yippee
The cast:
Lauri
Late to the Disney addiction, but quickly making up for lost
time.
Danny (DH)
Long-suffering spousal unit who can cope with screaming
kids and a grumpy wife without breaking a sweat. He
tried to get me into Disney for a decade, but always
conceded to my Universal penchant....until the princess
came along!
Sarah (dd)
Her first trip to the World was an amazing week at Port
Orleans when she was 18 months old, the two cruises &
now getting ready for her visit to "Mickey's apartment".
Gabe (dgs)
He is the true family veteran, taking his first Disney
vacation at the tender age of 10 months old. He likes
Mickey & crew well enough, but loves cars &
motorcycles. He already is begging to do Test Track!!
As for the trip itself, the reservation process was pretty smooth. Emailed MS with the dates we wanted to travel & the preferred view...received a timely reply that there were no standard rooms available, however we could choose either Lake View or Magic Kingdom view. After looking over the differences in points & the possibility of looking directly into another hotel room
we choose to go with the Lake View 1 bedroom Villa.
Now, for those who are not novice DVC'ers such as us it may seem a waste of points (did I mention we took the cruise on points??? lol) but the kitchen and laundry facilities make up in any lost opportunities to sneak down for another weekend.
Oh ..did I mention that even though I am the planner/reserver/organizer/budgeter...sometimes the details escape me. See, I have this problem with doing most things vacation-wise while driving. While it is certainly time-efficient, it can lead to certain little details escaping my notice until its a bit too late.
Case in point - DH told me that he had the week of September 12th off - so it would be great if we could shoot for the 11th or 12th as the arrival date, and get as many nights as we could on our points. Great. The first request we had met abject denial - no Standard view rooms available at all. The follow up call went better...there were Lake View & Magic Kingdom rooms available - it was just a matter of when we could arrive and how many nights we could squeeze in. So calling on my way into work, I chose the most night option...not really paying attention to the dates...and emailed DH with the great news. He promptly emailed me back that I had booked us in on the 10th...and he had to work until 5pm that day..NO EXCEPTIONS
So, I call back in to MS and describe my situation. The MS rep is very nice, and very explicit that I can either keep my reservation as is, change my reservation to start on Monday (but still leave on Friday), or bump up to a MK view for the same dates (which would require borrowing points from next year, paying for 1 time points, or paying the difference in cash). We decide to keep things as they are, and hope the kids will be sound asleep when we check in around 9pm.
So far, so good..... reservations are finalized, time off from work has been approved, now comes the fun part ...dun dun dun....food & tickets
Then in 2009 my baby bro booked the kids ( 3 & 2 at the time) on a Disney cruise. I was adamant that I would go, but wouldn't like it...boyyyyy was I wrong!!! That cruise led to a DVC membership and our second family cruise in 2010.
This is the year of home-coming - 6 nights @ Bay Lake Towers..yippee
The cast:
Lauri
Late to the Disney addiction, but quickly making up for lost time.
Danny (DH)
Long-suffering spousal unit who can cope with screamingkids and a grumpy wife without breaking a sweat. He
tried to get me into Disney for a decade, but always
conceded to my Universal penchant....until the princess
came along!
Sarah (dd)
Her first trip to the World was an amazing week at Port Orleans when she was 18 months old, the two cruises &
now getting ready for her visit to "Mickey's apartment".
Gabe (dgs)
He is the true family veteran, taking his first Disney vacation at the tender age of 10 months old. He likes
Mickey & crew well enough, but loves cars &
motorcycles. He already is begging to do Test Track!!
As for the trip itself, the reservation process was pretty smooth. Emailed MS with the dates we wanted to travel & the preferred view...received a timely reply that there were no standard rooms available, however we could choose either Lake View or Magic Kingdom view. After looking over the differences in points & the possibility of looking directly into another hotel room
we choose to go with the Lake View 1 bedroom Villa. Now, for those who are not novice DVC'ers such as us it may seem a waste of points (did I mention we took the cruise on points??? lol) but the kitchen and laundry facilities make up in any lost opportunities to sneak down for another weekend.
Oh ..did I mention that even though I am the planner/reserver/organizer/budgeter...sometimes the details escape me. See, I have this problem with doing most things vacation-wise while driving. While it is certainly time-efficient, it can lead to certain little details escaping my notice until its a bit too late.
Case in point - DH told me that he had the week of September 12th off - so it would be great if we could shoot for the 11th or 12th as the arrival date, and get as many nights as we could on our points. Great. The first request we had met abject denial - no Standard view rooms available at all. The follow up call went better...there were Lake View & Magic Kingdom rooms available - it was just a matter of when we could arrive and how many nights we could squeeze in. So calling on my way into work, I chose the most night option...not really paying attention to the dates...and emailed DH with the great news. He promptly emailed me back that I had booked us in on the 10th...and he had to work until 5pm that day..NO EXCEPTIONS
So, I call back in to MS and describe my situation. The MS rep is very nice, and very explicit that I can either keep my reservation as is, change my reservation to start on Monday (but still leave on Friday), or bump up to a MK view for the same dates (which would require borrowing points from next year, paying for 1 time points, or paying the difference in cash). We decide to keep things as they are, and hope the kids will be sound asleep when we check in around 9pm.
So far, so good..... reservations are finalized, time off from work has been approved, now comes the fun part ...dun dun dun....food & tickets
