*Marty_Mouse_House*
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2004
- Messages
- 60
Walt Disney World - August 2005
Me: mid-40s
Husband: mid-40s
Son: Teenager
The Beagle: Age 10
Time for another trip to WDW. The Beagle rates it as *the Petsmart of the World*. Can't get much higher than that. We decided to fly this time. My husband had some frequent flier miles that he had been hanging on to for about 20 years, but we had never used. We decided to use 'em or lose 'em. It would certainly save us the drive of 10-11 hours to get there. After driving home from there Thanksgiving weekend 2004, I was not in a big hurry to drive there again.
I am not a big fan of flying. I do it when I have to, but the thought of sitting in those little bitty seats while everybody looks at the back of your head just drives me nuts. DH had the idea of getting our seat assignments early and sitting in the last row. "The last row," I muse. "Nobody looking at the back of my head." It sounded good and was the out that got me in. My husband had no such "last row requirement" so we got 2 seats in the last row with DH sitting close by. We got our airline reservations all set up and now it was time to think about room reservations...
I called Disney reservations for the first go-round. This is not unusual as it usually takes 3 or 4 go-rounds before it's all over, while we continually read the websites for good deals. This is what I was quoted for rooms: Contemporary - $207, Beach Club - $249, and Wilderness Lodge - $169. Being cost conscious, we book the Wilderness Lodge for 4 nights. Our favorite hotel is the Dolphin, but the rooms they had were $169 for 2 of the nights, and then the price jumped to $219 for the other 2 nights. We weren't going to say ,"Yes, please jump our rate up by $50 to stay in the same room!" We started to envision the Wilderness Lodge with its lofty cabin-y feeling, the nice food court, the geyser and pool, and the boat to the Magic Kingdom. However, this wouldn't last.
We also reserved our rental car through National with its Emerald Aisle program. We were looking forward to "choosing our car and driving away". The Magical Express sounded nice, but we like to have a car and use our AAA parking passes for the parks.
Time passes and we hear about the Travel Zoo Promotion at the Swan and Dolphin. Pronto, I call. They tell me that all that they have for the $139 rate is the Swan for the first 2 nights. After repeated calls, the Dolphin just doesn't have anything. I am not a big fan of the Swan which might have something to do with a previous trip and a fire drill in which we had to walk down 7 flights of stairs. Anyway, price wins out and the Swan it is. I'm hoping that things at the Swan have changed. Now we need 2 more days somewhere. We can still use the Wilderness Lodge for 2 days, but we start to envision our last stay at the Contemporary during the summer of 2004 (please see trip report "If Only The Beagle Could Come"). The stay was idyllic with the view, the location, and the walk to the Magic Kingdom. I called Disney reservations again and the price was still $207. Because we were saving so much on the Swan, we decided to splurge a little bit and stay the next 2 nights at the Contemporary since it was so fantastic last time.
The day arrives. The Beagle is dropped off at her favorite kennel *rated as Howling Good*. We are sitting around twiddling our thumbs, new rolling luggage packed up 1 per person for carry on, waiting to leave for our flight at 6:00 p.m. DH has the great idea to call the airline and see if there's an earlier flight. Of course he's not going to make the actual call himself, but puts me up to it. It just so happens that there is a 12:50 p.m. flight. The reservationist checks for seats while I pray, "please let there be some in the last row" but no such luck. There are 2 together in the exit aisle smack dab in the middle of the plane, with another seat in another row. That's it. Also there is a $25 fee each for changing tickets. For the love of Disney, and in order to get started on our trip early, I said okay.
We arrive at the airport and get through security. Because we were sitting in an exit row, there is an age minimum which is 16. They ask my son how old he is. Luckily he is 16. You have to be able to physically open the exit door in case of an emergency. I guess we pass the physical test because they let us on board. The exit aisle is roomy with lots of leg room. Actually, I didn't mind the flight at all and it was fun looking out the window at the pretty scenery below. The 1 hour 15 minute flight was over before we knew it. The Beagle would have rated it *4 paws up!*
At the Orlando airport we disembarked and with rolling luggage in tow, walked across the street to the National Car Rental terminal. We got to the car lot and all that's there is a lone bright red Grand Am with a big dent in it. I don't want to tell you how the Beagle would have rated it but let's just say that to her it *looked like a big red fire hydrant*. This was not what I had in mind. DH wanted to throw our suitcases in it right away because we couldn't see anything else and we had people coming up behind us. I said I was going to ask the attendant in the office. The attendant said that we could pick anything behind the big cement wall up ahead. After relaying the info, my husband and son peeked around the big cement wall. There were all kinds of beautiful cars there and DH couldn't believe that we could pick any of them. We had reserved a mid-size and some of these looked luxury. I choose a champagne colored Buick LaCrosse. When we got in, our odometer said that it only had 5 miles on it! Beagle rating - **4 paws up and a tail wag**! We drove to the short check out process and were on our way!
Part 2 coming up - We arrive at WDW!
----------------------------------
Previous Trips - 30 plus trips in 33 years - staying at:
Fort Wilderness Campground, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Yacht Club, Caribbean Beach, Polynesian, Beach Club, Swan, Dolphin, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Contemporary Resort.
Me: mid-40s
Husband: mid-40s
Son: Teenager
The Beagle: Age 10
Time for another trip to WDW. The Beagle rates it as *the Petsmart of the World*. Can't get much higher than that. We decided to fly this time. My husband had some frequent flier miles that he had been hanging on to for about 20 years, but we had never used. We decided to use 'em or lose 'em. It would certainly save us the drive of 10-11 hours to get there. After driving home from there Thanksgiving weekend 2004, I was not in a big hurry to drive there again.
I am not a big fan of flying. I do it when I have to, but the thought of sitting in those little bitty seats while everybody looks at the back of your head just drives me nuts. DH had the idea of getting our seat assignments early and sitting in the last row. "The last row," I muse. "Nobody looking at the back of my head." It sounded good and was the out that got me in. My husband had no such "last row requirement" so we got 2 seats in the last row with DH sitting close by. We got our airline reservations all set up and now it was time to think about room reservations...
I called Disney reservations for the first go-round. This is not unusual as it usually takes 3 or 4 go-rounds before it's all over, while we continually read the websites for good deals. This is what I was quoted for rooms: Contemporary - $207, Beach Club - $249, and Wilderness Lodge - $169. Being cost conscious, we book the Wilderness Lodge for 4 nights. Our favorite hotel is the Dolphin, but the rooms they had were $169 for 2 of the nights, and then the price jumped to $219 for the other 2 nights. We weren't going to say ,"Yes, please jump our rate up by $50 to stay in the same room!" We started to envision the Wilderness Lodge with its lofty cabin-y feeling, the nice food court, the geyser and pool, and the boat to the Magic Kingdom. However, this wouldn't last.
We also reserved our rental car through National with its Emerald Aisle program. We were looking forward to "choosing our car and driving away". The Magical Express sounded nice, but we like to have a car and use our AAA parking passes for the parks.
Time passes and we hear about the Travel Zoo Promotion at the Swan and Dolphin. Pronto, I call. They tell me that all that they have for the $139 rate is the Swan for the first 2 nights. After repeated calls, the Dolphin just doesn't have anything. I am not a big fan of the Swan which might have something to do with a previous trip and a fire drill in which we had to walk down 7 flights of stairs. Anyway, price wins out and the Swan it is. I'm hoping that things at the Swan have changed. Now we need 2 more days somewhere. We can still use the Wilderness Lodge for 2 days, but we start to envision our last stay at the Contemporary during the summer of 2004 (please see trip report "If Only The Beagle Could Come"). The stay was idyllic with the view, the location, and the walk to the Magic Kingdom. I called Disney reservations again and the price was still $207. Because we were saving so much on the Swan, we decided to splurge a little bit and stay the next 2 nights at the Contemporary since it was so fantastic last time.
The day arrives. The Beagle is dropped off at her favorite kennel *rated as Howling Good*. We are sitting around twiddling our thumbs, new rolling luggage packed up 1 per person for carry on, waiting to leave for our flight at 6:00 p.m. DH has the great idea to call the airline and see if there's an earlier flight. Of course he's not going to make the actual call himself, but puts me up to it. It just so happens that there is a 12:50 p.m. flight. The reservationist checks for seats while I pray, "please let there be some in the last row" but no such luck. There are 2 together in the exit aisle smack dab in the middle of the plane, with another seat in another row. That's it. Also there is a $25 fee each for changing tickets. For the love of Disney, and in order to get started on our trip early, I said okay.
We arrive at the airport and get through security. Because we were sitting in an exit row, there is an age minimum which is 16. They ask my son how old he is. Luckily he is 16. You have to be able to physically open the exit door in case of an emergency. I guess we pass the physical test because they let us on board. The exit aisle is roomy with lots of leg room. Actually, I didn't mind the flight at all and it was fun looking out the window at the pretty scenery below. The 1 hour 15 minute flight was over before we knew it. The Beagle would have rated it *4 paws up!*
At the Orlando airport we disembarked and with rolling luggage in tow, walked across the street to the National Car Rental terminal. We got to the car lot and all that's there is a lone bright red Grand Am with a big dent in it. I don't want to tell you how the Beagle would have rated it but let's just say that to her it *looked like a big red fire hydrant*. This was not what I had in mind. DH wanted to throw our suitcases in it right away because we couldn't see anything else and we had people coming up behind us. I said I was going to ask the attendant in the office. The attendant said that we could pick anything behind the big cement wall up ahead. After relaying the info, my husband and son peeked around the big cement wall. There were all kinds of beautiful cars there and DH couldn't believe that we could pick any of them. We had reserved a mid-size and some of these looked luxury. I choose a champagne colored Buick LaCrosse. When we got in, our odometer said that it only had 5 miles on it! Beagle rating - **4 paws up and a tail wag**! We drove to the short check out process and were on our way!
Part 2 coming up - We arrive at WDW!
----------------------------------
Previous Trips - 30 plus trips in 33 years - staying at:
Fort Wilderness Campground, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Yacht Club, Caribbean Beach, Polynesian, Beach Club, Swan, Dolphin, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Contemporary Resort.
