Sand and Sun ~ Trip Number Ten Was Lots of Fun! Clearwater Beach & YC, August 2013

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Gosh it must have been humid and nasty that day you went to DHS--- holy cow! The foggy lens -- I hate when that happens.

My hair was in a pony every day as well. It's just too dang hot not to wear it up.
(Speaking of hair guess what I'm doing Friday!?! YUP.)

That is really good info that you figured out the times you can use the FP+. Seems like little precious CM could have told you....

It does make it nice to have the FP, though and you can take your time and not go running with the bulls heading to TSMM all crazy like someone is chasing you.

Looking forward to TOT!!!!
(I didn't get to ride RNRC- Belle refused I told you.)

It was nasty hot that day!!

I was tempted to pull it up all dang day, but had to try to avoid another headache. It was a lose lose situation.

You know, that was our second encounter with a rude CM at TSM over the FP+. Same thing happened in December. I wonder if it was the same CM?? I think I need to start taking pics of rude CM's...

It was nice to not have to run like a maniac to TSM!

I forgot about Belle and RNRC that day.

I do believe that I am a magic band convert! Not having to run with the herds to get on TSM is reason alone to love those MBs! So glad to hear that you can be late too. I'm certain that will be important information for us in a few weeks.

As for the hair... all my family vacation pictures are always so ugly because I wear my hair pulled back every day. I can't help it though. I just cannot deal with hot hair in Florida! And besides, one ride on BTMRR with my hair down and I'd look like Cousin It anyway!

Btw, I was on hold for 4 hours before I got through! Ridiculous! Had to upgrade to garden view for my client because standard was sold out.

I think you will really enjoy the MBs! Change can be difficult, but I really think this is a change for the better.

I seriously felt like this was our ugly vacation!! I even said that to DH mid week. How I felt so nasty & ugly the whole time and how we weren't getting any good pics!!

4 hours??? That is crazy. And then no standard rooms at POR. That stinks. I was able to get all 3 of my CBR clients standard, and my POR client was already book preferred (that's what she wanted), so it all worked out.

YES!!! Over 3 hours now...DAAAAAANNNNNGGG!!!! We have already finished all our homeschool for today!..We are ready for lunch, but I am not starting all that...If I wait past 4 hours, I will be tempted to hang up... mercy!!!!!

Oh my.

I was tempted to hang up too. I had just gotten the idea to plug in my phone in my bedroom (it was going dead) and head into the walk-in to start cleaning it out, and just then they answered!! And yeah, I haven't made my way back to the closet since.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Ok..it was well over 3 1/2 hours to get through...took about 15 minutes, so after almost 4 hours I am finished! But have to call again tomorrow or the next day!! I have a client coming in March 6 and they are changing their dates...so I have been waiting to hear from her~ hopefully the next day or so the waits will be shorter..that is what happened with the last offer...

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Ok..it was well over 3 1/2 hours to get through...took about 15 minutes, so after almost 4 hours I am finished! But have to call again tomorrow or the next day!! I have a client coming in March 6 and they are changing their dates...so I have been waiting to hear from her~ hopefully the next day or so the waits will be shorter..that is what happened with the last offer...

Oh my!! Wow that is crazy!

I wish we could make changed online, as well as add flights for ME. Would make my life so much easier!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Oh my!! Wow that is crazy!

I wish we could make changed online, as well as add flights for ME. Would make my life so much easier!

noooo kidding! Added our ME info today too~~ I thought, heck, I might as well think of as many things as I can and make this morning worth it!

 

[mickeyplanner]

New specials are out for Jan-April travel. Been on hold on the TA line for 50 minutes now.... Good grief. Going to be one of those days.


In the meantime I decided to check our January flights on SW. Our flight home came down to $99!!! So another $92 credit! Making the new total credit $204. I could also switch to a different flight going down and save another $92, but it would get us there 2 hours later.... Not sure I want to do that.

As of right now our total actual cost for airfare is: $883.20!

Shelly, our return flight went down to $99 as well. Our credit keeps growing for our May 2014 trip. Have you started thinking about your next trip to use your credit on?

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

noooo kidding! Added our ME info today too~~ I thought, heck, I might as well think of as many things as I can and make this morning worth it!

Yep, might as well do it while you have them on the phone!!

Shelly, our return flight went down to $99 as well. Our credit keeps growing for our May 2014 trip. Have you started thinking about your next trip to use your credit on?

Congrats!

Oh yes, I was thinking about the next trip long before I had the credit!!

 

[rusafee1183]

Hey Shelly - have you checked Southwest lately? They are having a sale, with lots of $99 flights in January. I think it ends tonight at Midnight - hopefully you'll check this before that and it can help you guys out!

ETA: Ooops. Just saw that you already got this. LOL. Oh well. I tried!

 

[mickeyplanner]

Congrats!

Oh yes, I was thinking about the next trip long before I had the credit!!

A girl after my own heart.

Did you find anything out about me getting tickets through or Disney with Magic Bands?

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I can't believe I missed your update. Not sure how that happened. Oh well......here now. Lol

I hate when the lense fogs up like that! That's happened to me before in.....August lol

That's exactly how the standby was for us Labor Day weekend. So long early in the morning. UGH!!!! We didn't even get to ride that day bc the FP returned time was too late. We were gonna be at another park.
It was ok though bc I knew I would be back soon. It's so much easier to miss a ride when you know you'll be back soon. If that happened a few years ago I would've been upset.
Speaking of going back..... We leave TODAY!!!! Picking up kids from school and heading to the airport. Yay!!!!
I'll try to check in but if not I'll be back Wednesday.

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[Momof2Disneyboys]

Hey Shelly - have you checked Southwest lately? They are having a sale, with lots of $99 flights in January. I think it ends tonight at Midnight - hopefully you'll check this before that and it can help you guys out!

ETA: Ooops. Just saw that you already got this. LOL. Oh well. I tried!

I did!! I got my flight back at $99 when all was said and done. In order to get a $99 flight down I would have had to switch to a later flight. Wasn't interested!!

Thanks for telling me though!

A girl after my own heart.

Did you find anything out about me getting tickets through or Disney with Magic Bands?

Yeah, I sent you a PM a few weeks back. You can tie your tickets to your reservation on MDE. It doesn't matter where you get them!

I can't believe I missed your update. Not sure how that happened. Oh well......here now. Lol

I hate when the lense fogs up like that! That's happened to me before in.....August lol

That's exactly how the standby was for us Labor Day weekend. So long early in the morning. UGH!!!! We didn't even get to ride that day bc the FP returned time was too late. We were gonna be at another park.
It was ok though bc I knew I would be back soon. It's so much easier to miss a ride when you know you'll be back soon. If that happened a few years ago I would've been upset.
Speaking of going back..... We leave TODAY!!!! Picking up kids from school and heading to the airport. Yay!!!!
I'll try to check in but if not I'll be back Wednesday.

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Yeah, that was a nasty morning. So hot & humid!! At 8am!

That stinks that the line was so long on Labor Day! I wonder exactly what time they are letting people into DHS now...

Have a fun trip!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Has everyone seen this:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/Theme_P...disney-updates+(Disney+Updates+-+wdwinfo.com)

Looks like it might finally be official. This is a project I am all for, improving AK!! And we don't spend that much time there anyway, so a long drawn out construction process won't really affect our vacation. Unlike the mess that MK has been for years and now the Poly!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

DS14 and I headed to RNRC and grabbed some regular FP's and the return time was 10-11am. So now we were holding 2 RNRC FP's!! On our way to RNRC we saw that TOT was only 20 minutes so we went over there and jumped in line, even though we had a FP+ for later (12-1pm). We probably waited almost 30 minutes. It was a great ride!! The woman beside me was funny, she was scared because it was her first time, but she had fun!

From there we walked over to RNRC. It was about 9:50 and we had a little time left to wait on our 10am FP+, so we just sat and listened to the music for a bit. At about 9:55 we walked over and tapped our bands and it worked! The stand-by line said 30 minutes but looked more like an hour. We came out and went right back through with our regular FP!

DS's hair stuck like this for a few hours!!

We of course did our traditional 'rock on' pic!

After we were done with our second ride on RNRC it was about 10:30 and we headed towards TSM. We knew DH and DS12 wouldn't be done yet. I called DH to see where they were and he said they were in a long FP return line. We knew it would be awhile, so we found a seat in the shade behind the big hat and waited.

Just before 11 they were done and met up with us. We walked by the GMR and the line was huge, clear outside the building. I knew we probably wouldn't be riding that this trip!

We decided to go grab an early lunch. DS14 had been wanting to go to Toy Story Pizza Planet for a while (we hadn't been there since 2009), so that's where we went.

They had just opened and the line was huge! DH got a meatball sandwich and a salad. DS14 got a pepperoni pizza, that came with a salad and DS12 and I shared a cheese pizza, which came with a salad as well. Somehow we ended up with 4 salads, when we should have only gotten 3! And of course the kids didn't even eat any of them!

Everything was pretty good. Not super great pizza by any means, but it'll do!

We ate upstairs and then the kids went downstairs to play a few games.

Total Bill: $29.47
Rating: 7 out of 10


Up Next: Meet & Greets and the Backlot Tour

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Your DS's hair!!!!!! A picture is definitely worth a thousands words with that one!

I'm with you on the pizza at Pizza Planet. It's just sort of blah... The meatball sub looks promising though? Maybe I'll try that next time.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Your DS's hair!!!!!! A picture is definitely worth a thousands words with that one!

I'm with you on the pizza at Pizza Planet. It's just sort of blah... The meatball sub looks promising though? Maybe I'll try that next time.

I know, it was hilarious!!

Yeah, Pizza Planet is just okay. Just like all the CS choices in DHS. I'll have to ask DH how the meatball sub rates. I don't remember him complaining about it!

 

[JoBird]

I love the pics that are at RNRC. It is always such a great area to take pictures. They always come out so pretty!

DS4's hair is so funny! Natural gel. Everyone could just ride with their heads out of the window to work and save $$.

Glad to know that the FP+ worked a few minutes early. That is good info!

The GMR line was super long when we went this year too. They have it going down the side of the building now instead of right out the front, so it looks a lot longer than it truly is. Well for us it was at least. It moved pretty fast. Belle loves that ride.

Pizza planet looked pretty good! Always forget it's there. Not a bad price for lunch for all of you either.

I am really torn over how I feel about AK. It seems as soon as I start loving something at WDW they go and change it. We have really fallen in love with AK and enjoy it so much. It was my favorite park day this trip. I've never seen Avatar, so I know nothing about that movie and IDK how it will affect the park. Hoping it will be beautiful.

I saw the bamboo dude on stilts this trip like Divine and I read they were just using him for testing for the new area. He was really really cool looking, but gone now. So IDk. I guess we'll see.

Great update, thanks for it!!

 

[disny_luvr]

Humidity does a real number on my hair as well. At least you can pull your hair into a ponytail. My hair is too short to do that so I have to deal with the mess. Oh well.

Great update. It looks like you got to ride a lot that morning. We feel the same way about Pizza Planet. Unfortunately, DHS doesn't have many great quick service options so we tend to always eat there.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I love the pics that are at RNRC. It is always such a great area to take pictures. They always come out so pretty!

I love just hanging out in that area!

DS4's hair is so funny! Natural gel. Everyone could just ride with their heads out of the window to work and save $$.

I know!!

Glad to know that the FP+ worked a few minutes early. That is good info!

The GMR line was super long when we went this year too. They have it going down the side of the building now instead of right out the front, so it looks a lot longer than it truly is. Well for us it was at least. It moved pretty fast. Belle loves that ride.

Yeah, maybe it just looked longer than what it actually was because they changed it, IDK. Oh well. I like it a lot, but I'm good with doing it every other trip. So hopefully next time!!

Pizza planet looked pretty good! Always forget it's there. Not a bad price for lunch for all of you either.

Yeah, not a bad price for lunch! Anytime we can eat for under $30 at WDW I'm impressed!

I am really torn over how I feel about AK. It seems as soon as I start loving something at WDW they go and change it. We have really fallen in love with AK and enjoy it so much. It was my favorite park day this trip. I've never seen Avatar, so I know nothing about that movie and IDK how it will affect the park. Hoping it will be beautiful.

As you know, I've never really fallen in love with AK like I have the other parks. So I am very hopeful that something new will change that!

I saw the bamboo dude on stilts this trip like Divine and I read they were just using him for testing for the new area. He was really really cool looking, but gone now. So IDk. I guess we'll see.

Great update, thanks for it!!

I didn't even know about the male version of Divine! Interesting.

Glad you enjoyed the update!

Humidity does a real number on my hair as well. At least you can pull your hair into a ponytail. My hair is too short to do that so I have to deal with the mess. Oh well.

Great update. It looks like you got to ride a lot that morning. We feel the same way about Pizza Planet. Unfortunately, DHS doesn't have many great quick service options so we tend to always eat there.

I know, my hair and Florida are not a good match!!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the update. It was a great morning at DHS, other than the scorching heat!!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Looks like you had a fun morning- especially getting 2 FPs!!!
We got back last night and I wish I could say we had a blast. Don't get me wrong a trip to Disney is never totally bad,but aspects of it were. Not being able to access FP+ really screwed us. The standby line for TSM was hour and half at 9:30!! The FP return time was 7:20pm!! UGH
It was like that at Soarin too. Unfortunately the rides were not the highlight of the trip.
We have been to Disney at very busy times of year (spring break including Easter week and July 4th) and we have never experienced not getting on rides bc we always had FPs. But now w FP+ there aren't as many FP left. KWIM???? it was really frustrating. So if AP holders don't get FP+ soon we aren't renewing them. I am so sad about this and very upset. I felt so inferior to everybody w magic bands.
Ok done complaining sorry about that!!

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[Momof2Disneyboys]

Looks like you had a fun morning- especially getting 2 FPs!!!
We got back last night and I wish I could say we had a blast. Don't get me wrong a trip to Disney is never totally bad,but aspects of it were. Not being able to access FP+ really screwed us. The standby line for TSM was hour and half at 9:30!! The FP return time was 7:20pm!! UGH
It was like that at Soarin too. Unfortunately the rides were not the highlight of the trip.
We have been to Disney at very busy times of year (spring break including Easter week and July 4th) and we have never experienced not getting on rides bc we always had FPs. But now w FP+ there aren't as many FP left. KWIM???? it was really frustrating. So if AP holders don't get FP+ soon we aren't renewing them. I am so sad about this and very upset. I felt so inferior to everybody w magic bands.
Ok done complaining sorry about that!!

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I'm so sorry to hear that!! That really stinks. Any idea when they will link the AP's to the FP+? It seems like it will have to be soon. As of next month the magicbands and FP+ will be rolled out to all resorts. And supposedly all of the FP machines will be gone eventually.

I hope you were able to enjoy some of your trip at least. Did you go to MNSSHP?

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I'm so sorry to hear that!! That really stinks. Any idea when they will link the AP's to the FP+? It seems like it will have to be soon. As of next month the magicbands and FP+ will be rolled out to all resorts. And supposedly all of the FP machines will be gone eventually. I hope you were able to enjoy some of your trip at least. Did you go to MNSSHP?

I have not heard anything about offsite guests. I don't want this to sound snotty but I would think APs would get some kind of privilege, even if staying offsite. Ya know??? They aren't cheap!!!
I am so stressed about our Christmas trip. As of right now I'm thinking we won't be riding anything. We'll just be there for the decorations lol.
We did have fun. We surprised the boys with Ohana dinner and renting sea racers at the Poly. We also did the SotMK game which we otherwise probably wouldn't have done if we could've gotten on more rides.
We didn't do MNSSHP bc my boys are not into parades and fireworks anymore and that's mostly what you're paying for. Just not worth it for us.
Let me know as soon as you find anything out about offsite guests ok?
I did email Disney this morning to express my disappointment. I hope I hear back.

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