Snow and Disney.....Reservations

[PaHunter]

Chris,

Enjoy the move and setting up the new house. Sorry we are going to miss you by a few weeks now in September. We are opening a new tower at work on 9/9/17 so I had to push things to the end of September.

j

Well the RV show in Harrisburg is the 11-17th, and we usually attend that, so looks like i maybe moving the reservations to later in the month also.

 

[PaHunter]

So let's see if I can get back on track here from the whirlwind that has been my life of late. We got closed on the house, moved the trailer, got all our stuff moved, house is now full of boxes and we are back online.
Snowed yesterday to the tune of 5 inches so the camper and all are covered in white. Wife is settling in to her new job, I am settling in to my new position, life is coming along.
Was at the Great American Outdoor show last Saturday, so didn't get much unpacked. Now with the snow, not getting much done as most of the boxes are in the garage.
Need to get a pad built for the camper once the snow melts. Have it in the side yard where I planned on it going, but it needs a level spot. Ok maybe it will wait until it warms up some more, so next month.
Still plan on getting to the fort in Sept, it just seems so far far away....

 

[Teamubr]

looks like i maybe moving the reservations to later in the month also.

Still plan on getting to the fort in Sept, it just seems so far far away....

September will sneak up fast. I am a little over a month away from being able to make ADRs.

Our new tower move, at work, may be changing a little... again. I should get the next "definite" time line next week. It doesn't sound like it will impact my current vacation dates (Sept 23-Oct 1 at the Fort). Hopefully we can overlap for part of that. I'd love to meet more DISers.

j

 

[PaHunter]

Well finalized and booked our Ressies. We are going to The Fort !!!! 221 days to go. We will be there from Sep 19th to the 30th.
Oh yes, it is on !!!!

 

[Teamubr]

Well finalized and booked our Ressies. We are going to The Fort !!!!We will be there from Sep 19th to the 30th.

Congrats!

Looks like we'll be there the same time. Definitely going to have to arrange a DIS meet.

j

 

[PaHunter]

Congrats!

Looks like we'll be there the same time. Definitely going to have to arrange a DIS meet.

j

Absolutely, we will have our dog with us this trip, so we will not be doing 14 hour park days. We have a day or two to spend just sitting at the fort relaxing, maybe. I have a hard time, always want to go take pictures.

 

[Teamubr]

Absolutely, we will have our dog with us this trip, so we will not be doing 14 hour park days.

Sounds great. My DS may find your site before we do. He's a sucker for dogs.

We haven't started to plan out anything specific for the trip. My sister and her daughter are coming with us for their first trip to the Fort and my niece's first Disney trip. She's 5 now, will be 6 for the trip. Last weekend we were watching her and she announces, "I don't want to go to Disney World". I said. "You don't even know what Disney World is." I the pulled out the laptop and started playing Disney videos on the TV. She said, "OHHH!!! That's Disney? I WANT TO GO!!"

The only non-parks day I know of, for sure, is a trip over to the beach. My sister hasn't seen the ocean in over 20 years and my niece never has, so I told them we'd drive over to the beach one day. If my sister was a better driver, I'd let her take the truck over on her own, but I don't have that much faith.

j

 

[PaHunter]

Sounds great. My DS may find your site before we do. He's a sucker for dogs.

We haven't started to plan out anything specific for the trip. My sister and her daughter are coming with us for their first trip to the Fort and my niece's first Disney trip. She's 5 now, will be 6 for the trip. Last weekend we were watching her and she announces, "I don't want to go to Disney World". I said. "You don't even know what Disney World is." I the pulled out the laptop and started playing Disney videos on the TV. She said, "OHHH!!! That's Disney? I WANT TO GO!!"

The only non-parks day I know of, for sure, is a trip over to the beach. My sister hasn't seen the ocean in over 20 years and my niece never has, so I told them we'd drive over to the beach one day. If my sister was a better driver, I'd let her take the truck over on her own, but I don't have that much faith.

j

We have not started planning much yet either. Will be a much different trip for us with the dog, she has stayed home the last two trips. We got park passes for all but one day that we are there, so we may go in some days for half a day or go in the evening for fireworks. In two trip we have not made it to Fantasmic or for Illuminations, so they are on the evening list, as I guess will be Rivers of light now. And since they are changing out Wishes for a new show, there is a night there. So little to do and so much time....
Our next trip which will most likely be 2019 will include our 2nd nephew for his turn at a Disney trip. At that time he will be 8 and we had taken his brother on a just you trip, so have to be fair.

 

[sirenia88]

That was the first thing I said to the realtor was we have an RV and it needs to be parked on site. So yes that is a big factor. Most of the other things for a house I can live with or adjust. But we need space to park the RV no matter what, and that eliminates a lot of places.

Hehe. I have that as number 2 on the list. The first is a large 2 car garage. I want something large enough for my truck to be parked into when I need to do oil changes and basic repairs. I am not fond of rolling around on a gravel to rotate tires. As for the landing pad for the RV, I am hoping for something that can handle up to 40 feet in length. Electrical service on the parking pad would be considered as well. I pointed out to the wife, we are paying the loan and storage every month. The storage is about $1400 a year in these parts.i wished not to have either to be honest. Anyway, congrats on the new house.

I know @peg110 was talking about downsizing or going to a Class C. Growing up camping in a Class C, I'm more against than for. It was a hassle on family trips to have to unhook and pack up every time you wanted to leave the campground for some other activity. I love the whole drop the trailer and go thing. I can understand the whole downsizing thing. I found going to Knoebels if I am not reserved early my 30 footer doesn't fit many places.

 

[PaHunter]

Hehe. I have that as number 2 on the list. The first is a large 2 car garage. I want something large enough for my truck to be parked into when I need to do oil changes and basic repairs. I am not fond of rolling around on a gravel to rotate tires. As for the landing pad for the RV, I am hoping for something that can handle up to 40 feet in length. Electrical service on the parking pad would be considered as well. I pointed out to the wife, we are paying the loan and storage every month. The storage is about $1400 a year in these parts.i wished not to have either to be honest. Anyway, congrats on the new house.

I know @peg110 was talking about downsizing or going to a Class C. Growing up camping in a Class C, I'm more against than for. It was a hassle on family trips to have to unhook and pack up every time you wanted to leave the campground for some other activity. I love the whole drop the trailer and go thing. I can understand the whole downsizing thing. I found going to Knoebels if I am not reserved early my 30 footer doesn't fit many places.

Well we lucked out on the house purchase, I got a very large two car garage, the dually will fit inside. Then there is a room that was to be a barber shop, we have converted that space to house our pool table, beer fridge, there is also a bathroom located out there. We have room to park the RV onsite, but need to have rock delivered and leveled out for a good pad, I am also going to install an RV power outlet outside so I can power up if we need.
I also concur with the class C or B, it is a hassle to have to pull up camp just to gallon of milk or the like. Friends of mine that have a Class B, also drive a car to every campground, not very efficient.

 

[peg110]

I know @peg110 was talking about downsizing or going to a Class C. Growing up camping in a Class C, I'm more against than for. It was a hassle on family trips to have to unhook and pack up every time you wanted to leave the campground for some other activity. I love the whole drop the trailer and go thing. I can understand the whole downsizing thing. I found going to Knoebels if I am not reserved early my 30 footer doesn't fit many places.

It was less of "Down-sizing" and more of convenience for the travel. Certainly nice to send someone to the back to get me a fresh coffee while driving or having the others be able to go to the bathroom without having to pull over. Well it's great for everyone except the driver. Also the DW is not willing (unless it's a matter of life or death or something similar) to drive the Truck pulling the travel trailer. Certainly not backing it up. She did say she would drive a class A or C (and she does drive the truck without towing). The only thing is, is that as you mention, it's a pain to pull up roots to drive it somewhere like to get Milk. So I told her, that even if we had a Class A or C, we would still have a toad. She was then less willing to drive it. I told her it would be MUCH smaller then the travel trailer though. I think her concern is that the TT is Wider than the truck and certainly longer.

Maybe one day I will will the powerball, get my nice Class A with the Toad and be able to PAY a driver(s) so that I can rest up on the drive down.

 

[Teamubr]

Well finalized and booked our Ressies. We will be there from Sep 19th to the 30th.

Well,

The new tower schedule changed up again at work. Seems the contractor had a few issues around the first of the year and wasn't being upfront at the weekly project meetings. They have moved our primary move from September 9th to October 14. I don't want to wait until after the move and I doubt I could get anything that close to Halloween, so I moved us up a week, arriving on September 16 and heading home on September 24th. Crowd calendars look like it may be a little slower and we will still have a decent overlap with Chris so we can meet another DISer.

They say this will be the final move, but it won't move earlier than mid-October, so mid-September should be good.

j

 

[snowmedic]

I know the feeling. I rescheduled our Feb. trip because of a project that came up, told my supervisor that I wanted to be close to home for this up coming week so I can leave out early, so far it is working, will be 1 hr. away from home Mon., and Tues. not sure on Wednesday yet, but if it is to far I will just get in my work truck and leave. I have already put on the calendar for our Oct. dates, and those are not changing, don't care if a Super Wally World pops-up, (not likely going to happen, we only have 4 in Vt. , and 2 you can't even call a super center). Just saying, I will be there no matter what pops up.

 

[PaHunter]

209 to go. Trying to figure out dinner plans, not much as we are not doing the dining plan this time, so more dinners at campground. Looking at schedule and trying to figure out what night we want to do MNSSHP, as that will be a first for us, so want to do that at least one evening, maybe two......

 

[PaHunter]

Well, we have rolled under 200 days left to go. DW and I were discussing dinner plans and what we would like to do. Took yesterday and went to the movies and dinner with her. We only see each other now on weekends as we work different shifts. I work seconds, she works a normal day job. So it is now time to buckle down do some Disney planning. Oh yes got those pesky taxes done, return will be paying for our trip. Yea !!!!
So have to plan our drive down, the return trip, and what we are doing besides disney. Should have an extra day before arriving at the Fort. So we will see......for now waiting for the return of warmer weather, currently 11 degrees here.

 

[Teamubr]

Well, we have rolled under 200 days left to go.

I just looked. We are at 195 days. I need to get my sister over to start going through the character meals. I told her we'd take our 5 year old niece to at least one. I suspect we will be doing more meals at the camper or, at least, counter service. My sister won't have a lot of money for sit down places and I'm only so nice.

j

 

[peg110]

it is now time to buckle down do some Disney planning. Oh yes got those pesky taxes done, return will be paying for our trip.

DW has been doing a lot of planning for our next trip. We already did our taxes and they are also paying for our Trip in June 2017. They actually came back the other day too. Sadly though, this trip will NOT be at the Fort. She wants to stay at the Art of Animation. The good thing though is because we are driving, the DW can share in the driving duties. Probably the last chance to use the AP for us anyway. Probably will NOT renew it though.

I Just started a new job at the beginning of this week. (Working for the same overall company just no longer as a contractor. Yea!). This means I have a probation of 90 days where I am not allowed to take any time off (except for sick time). I already have informed my manager of the trip and it's just outside of the 90 day probation.

Looking forward to the trip, especially since I woke up this morning to about 2 inches of heavy packable snow and it was still coming down.

 

[sirenia88]

DW has been doing a lot of planning for our next trip. We already did our taxes and they are also paying for our Trip in June 2017. They actually came back the other day too. Sadly though, this trip will NOT be at the Fort. She wants to stay at the Art of Animation. The good thing though is because we are driving, the DW can share in the driving duties. Probably the last chance to use the AP for us anyway. Probably will NOT renew it though.

I Just started a new job at the beginning of this week. (Working for the same overall company just no longer as a contractor. Yea!). This means I have a probation of 90 days where I am not allowed to take any time off (except for sick time). I already have informed my manager of the trip and it's just outside of the 90 day probation.

Looking forward to the trip, especially since I woke up this morning to about 2 inches of heavy packable snow and it was still coming down.

Lucky dog! Unfortunately, our tax "refund" is going to paying the bills this year. So we are thinking about taking a Disney year off. However, I feel you about driving down. Flying in was nice. Disney really has everything set up when comes to getting you to any resort. Yes driving would be a longer event but much cheaper when it comes to 3 people. We entertained a flight for this spring. It was going to be over $1200 round trip for the 3 of us! Driving my truck was going to be cutting that to a 1/4 of the cost. Now my wife has the new car, a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. That cost would be even further reduced to at least 1/2 of that! I did a hypothetical trip with several additional stops with fuel costs based on $3 bucks a gallon, it would be less than $200 round trip plus a hotel room down and back up. The wife and I could switch off with the driving duty.

Congrats on the job! Sounds like they like you. At least you were up front about the plans. IF the plans were known while you were in a contractor position, most good companies would work with you. Good luck! I know the feeling with snow. I was just looking out the window and at the vehicles. The truck covered in snow. The car also has a cold blanket on it. Thinking to myself, wasn't it 60 yesterday? We are expected to get about 3-5 inches around here today. Ugh. Where is spring not like we had a harsh winter or anything.

 

[peg110]

@sirenia88 I just saw that you were from NW NJ so you aren't too awful far from me in NE PA. Stay safe with the snow and driving (work or otherwise). You are probably getting what we are (sort of).

The flight for us down is about the same. ~$1200 last time we priced, PLUS you have to pay EXTRA for baggage and stuff (okay... 1 bag, 1 Carry on is allowed). My DW is not a fan of flying, so if we do fly, we have to "Minimize" things like Layovers and transfers. No direct flights out of our Local Airport. Have to go to "Philly" for a direct flight, but then it's parking, or a hotel there.... Cost goes up and up.... Reality is, the only thing Flying saves us is a bit of time. Really not all that much in the end though. (Maybe a half day to a day depending.) The hassles of flying anymore make me NOT want to do it just for those reasons. I don't mind flying. It doesn't bother me but all the other "Stuff" you have to deal with is just more trouble than it's worth.

We still aren't sure if we are going to drive my truck (Highway MPG about 15 mpg) or her Town & Country (Highway MPG closer to 25 mpg). The truck is an F250 Crew cab so we have room for the three of us and all our stuff. (Bed has a cover on it too) and it's a "Safer" drive (if we have an accident) then her van which is why she is considering it. DD12 wants to take the van because she can "Recline" the seat AND there is an overhead video screen that she can watch. Decisions.... Decisions...

 

[sirenia88]

Allentown or Scranton doesn't fly into Sanford? I know it is does not a DME stop but you can rent a car. Years ago, my wife and I flew out of Allentown to Sanford. We rented a car from there on. As for the which vehicle. We have done 3 vehicles to FLA. F150/ Windstar combo the first time. (Parents had a Windstar van.They followed us down to the Fort and rented a trailer. DD hung out with them going each way due to being younger at the time and there was yes a video screen) The F150 had the trailer hooked up. The F150 was the reason why we wanted the larger vehicle. Hence the 250 which we did twice. The F250 was a nice ride with the trailer in tow. If gas mileage is and issue, then go with the better economy. If it was between the Car or the truck. As much as I like the truck, the car will win on the long trip especially with a 600+ mile range. It's a no brainer.

As for my location, I thought you NEPA guys knew this. Heck we should have a gathering over at Knoebels one weekend. We try to go at least twice a year.