Today is the day we have to return to reality, which includes cold and snow! Yuck! We had to be up by 7:15am as ME thought we needed picked up at 9am for a noon flight! We were up, finished packing after showers and called bell services by 8am. They arrived shortly after we called so we checked in for our flight and then I ate my last Mouse waffle for the trip. ME arrived promptly at 9am and we were the last stop so we arrived at MCO by 9:40am. We wandered around for a bit, then decided to get through security as the line was getting pretty long. Our flight took off on time and even landed a few minutes early. We had quite the comedian for a pilot. We had been in the air about 5 minutes when the pilot came on to welcome everyone aboard then proceeded to say the following "ladies and gentlemen, I would like everyone to look out the window and wave goodbye to Mickey, Sunshine and Florida. We have a smooth flight expected and should be landing at Akron-Canton in approximately one hour and 58 minutes. By the way, it is 23 degrees with light snow at Akron Canton" I have never heard so many people groan on a plane ever! DH thought is was hilarious. I should mention, DH forgot to pack pants so his fool self was in shorts when we landed. Sometimes I wonder about him.....
Our neighbor was there to pick us up and after waiting nearly 40 minutes for our luggage, we were in the truck and on our way home. Pretty uneventful trip home!
Overall, we had a great trip, but we did notice that there have been some cut-backs and while it was still Disney service, it wasn't the level that we were used to. The buses were horrible and you could just feel it in the air. I do hope that Disney doesn't sacrifice what they are known for due to the economy. Hopefully it will bounce back by the time we go back in August. DH and I are celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary as well as my graduation from grad school! We're taking our neighbors for their big 1st trip so we are looking forward to having them join us! Thank to
DVC, now we can share the magic! Thank you everyone for hanging in with me! To all of the DIS-ers we met during our trip, hope everyone had a magical trip and safe trips home! I hope everyone had a magical holiday season!!
I have to add a note here....I asked for one thing for Christmas...a Wii! Much to my dismay, there was not a Wii under the tree Christmas morning. I didn't say anything to DH as this was a difficult time for us being the first Christmas without DH's dad. We packed up the Jeep and made the rounds, finally ending up at my parents. My mother was insistent we open one gift (we were doing Christmas on Sat. because my DB had to work). Well, after a few boxes and a whole lot of wrapping paper, I had my Wii! Turns out, DH and my parents thought I deserved a good "trick" this year. DH then looked at me and said "Santa must have been teaching you a lesson for wearing that shirt" My parents thought this was hilarious! Once we got home, well...we played alot of Wii! Lesson learned....don't wear a shirt that says I'll be good next year when visiting Santa!
Thanks for reading everyone!
for trying! By now it was after 6pm and time to head to Ohana for dinner! I said my "c-ya real soon" to MK and it was off the monorail. I ate at Ohana for the first time in August with my BFF as DH isn't very adventurous when it comes to meal time. I convinced him how wonderful Ohana was so he agreed to give it a try! We arrived and DH checked us in while I hit the ladies room. I don't know what DH said, but we were seated with a MK view and it was awesome! Our servers were exceptional and DH, who had been threatening to eat an entire spit of meat, could barely finish his first helpings because I told him he had to leave a little room for dessert. DH also obliged one of my new favorited adult beverages...the Lapu Lapu! 
We wandered around the Poly for a bit and checked out their decorations then hopped on the monorail back over to MK to pick up a bus to return home. We arrived home and DH let us stop at the bar for a bit then it was back to the villa and time to pack up. I'm always happier packing at my home in OH because it means I'm going to my "house at the mouse's house!" I didn't realize how much stuff we'd bought so packing was it's usual chore. I then sat on the patio and watched the river and DTD for a bit. Last time I would feel warmth for awhile. DH finally made me come in at midnight. Tomorrow...our trip return to winter and final thoughts!
) and the gratuities are no longer included, we aren't seeing the same savings that we had. We've gotten pretty good at planning ADRs around other activities and we haven't missed anything because of it, but it does take some planning. On the 2007 plan we saw a savings (we kept all of our receipts) of about 55% however on our Aug and Dec 08 trips, the savings was down to 30-30%. Again, that is because we eat at the pricier places and choose higher cost items, but if we were paying OOP, we wouldn't have done that. We're still under what we used to spend on meals before DDP, but it's not as cost effective. We will probably use it again in Aug 09 because we have friends traveling with us and they have a DS8 so it will be more cost effective for them, however, DH and I are considering for future trips, unless the DDP becomes more in tune with the 07 plan, we will probably order more from Garden Grocer and eat maybe 1 TS per day at a lower cost restaurant and just buy our snacks. I used to be a die-hard DDP, but not so much anymore.
I did a BSN program and graduated in 2000 then got tired of it and went back. I'm really looking forward to going advance practice, but it's been a long road! I can finally start to see the destination!
