The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 29

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I have had trouble with the Chase site all week too. I was finally able to order my Disney Reward Card and make my payment yesterday.

I'm going to keep trying.
The lady on the budget board said she called to ask a question about her Reward dollars, and as soon as she got off the phone they put a lock on her account for fraud. She has a payment due and can't access the account, which will mean 1) the payment is late 2) late fees 3) interest rate increase. Other people are saying their credit lines were reduced when the card had a zero balance, and when they tried to charge something it was declined. I tend to cut it kind of close with payments. I will log on and make a payment a few days before the due date. If I can't log on when a payment is due and it is too late to mail it I will have to do one of those "rush" payments over the phone. I REALLY hope I can access the account when the website comes back up. If I can't I will think there is a problem.

 

[lovesdumbo]

I really do like the Poly, too. We had dinner at Kona last night before the P&P, and I like the vibe there. Right now, I'm holding a reservation with a AAA discount for a few nights in May there. I do prefer it for warmer weather, so you can enjoy the beach and grounds more.

I see that Chanon confirms, but I'm pretty sure that if the # of children outnumbers adults, then you have be guaranteed connecting rooms. I think Disney could be in for some times if it were otherwise. Good luck with your decisions! (Don't forget the DVC option, too. Depending on the resort, you might be able to rent points for a villa cheaper than just one room at the Poly.)

I really do love the Poly but I'm thinking Pop or the family suites might be better for us.

I'm too afraid to rent points from a stranger and DH insists he doesn't want to stay at a DVC because he doesn't want a kitchen on vacation. I think he'd really like it and I'd have a hard time getting him out of the room. I also think I'd like the Poly better than any of the DVC resorts. I would love the washer/dryer though....

I have to go to the office for a few hours today so maybe I'll call CRO in the quiet there.

Well, I think this quick trip definitely qualifies as my "need a do-over" trip.

I really hope you got up and hit the parks this morning. I felt that "do-over" on my Dec trip. My friends had the attitude that I had been there so often that we should sit around and enjoy the CR concierge. My mistake for booking that. My friend said she couldn't go for more than 3 nights and then when we got home she had more vacation time than days left in the year and she took a 13 night trip in Jan that was unplanned til Jan. I guess I really should have gone alone. I won't make that mistake again either.

Good morning



We are almost at the 30 day mark

And I agree about renting DVC points for a 1 bedroom villa. WE often find it to be much cheaper than a AAA discount and usually about the same as an AP discount for a deluxe resort.

With that in mind, I have a friend who is a DVC owner who is not using all her points and is hoping to rent them. They are good through May, 2008. This is the friend we always rent from. PM me if anyone is interested.

So DVC memberservices would allow my family of 5 to rent a 1 bedroom while CRO would not?

The receptionist at my eye doctor said she had extra points that I was thinking of using for my trip with Emma but I really think Emma would be better off at Pop. I don't know if she'd have points for August 08. I guess I should look into that.

I'm going to keep trying.
The lady on the budget board said she called to ask a question about her Reward dollars, and as soon as she got off the phone they put a lock on her account for fraud. She has a payment due and can't access the account, which will mean 1) the payment is late 2) late fees 3) interest rate increase. Other people are saying their credit lines were reduced when the card had a zero balance, and when they tried to charge something it was declined. I tend to cut it kind of close with payments. I will log on and make a payment a few days before the due date. If I can't log on when a payment is due and it is too late to mail it I will have to do one of those "rush" payments over the phone. I REALLY hope I can access the account when the website comes back up. If I can't I will think there is a problem.

I don't look at my account online too much. The only time I had a problem with my Disney Visa was after my Oct 05 trip when we all got sick after we got home and I missed a payment. I had over a $6,000 balance from that trip (9 nights Poly concierge) and had to pay the late fee and interest and it put me into revolving credit so I had to pay interest the next month too. AND...I didn't earn my $60 rewards dollars for that month. That mad more mad than anything else. BUT....once I did pay the bill and got in good standing they did give my $60 in rewards.

The Disney Visa works for me. I charge everything I can-food, gas, cable, clothes.....I always pay it off except for the 1 time when the balance was higher than ever. I used it in May to pay for my AP and had almost enough this August to pay to upgrade Lizzy's ticket to AP.

I also have a Sony Visa but that's too dificult to use. And now I have the Jet Blue Amex-I haven't seen those rewards hit my True Blue account yet so we'll see how well that works.

 

[MrsHeg]

Day 3 - Little Ones Extra Magic Hour @ Magic Kingdom

After our morning ritual of trying to drag Brandon out of bed, the boy sleeps like a rock and hates it when you wake him up, we made it to the Magic Kingdom in time for rope drop. I felt bad about forgetting June's rose the prior day, so I made sure it was first on the agenda this morning.

It's always great to walk down Main Street without a crowd,

When we reached Fantasyland we followed Pooh, Tigger and Alice to Pooh's playful spot where they started playing games with the kids,

Brandon didn't want anything to do with the game playing, he wanted to ride the rides so we crossed over to Pooh's ride, this is what we saw,

DH said that there is no way that was correct, well it was, after Pooh we jumped on Snow White. We stopped at Dumbo next, there was a small wait here, maybe 10 minutes at the most. But Brandon was thrilled to see Stitch riding with the kids, he didn't get picked for a ride with him but he was thrilled that his favorite character was there.

Here's the boys, they chose a Dumbo that matched their shirts.

Mickey, Goofy and Pluto were playing games with the kids in front of Philharmagic, we headed past them on our way to ride Peter Pan, Brandon was walking along holding onto his PawPaw's hand when we spotted this guy playing games with kids, he came to a complete stop and he refused to get any closer, and he definitely was not going to play "Walk the plank" with him!

We snuck past Captain Hook and went on to ride Peter Pan, IASW, and then headed back so they could take a spin on the Tea Cups. Since we had bypassed Indy due to lines we waited at the rope by the Tea Cups so that they could be one of the first in line at Indy, they weren't first but they had a very short wait, I waited in the Grand Stand and took pictures.

When you ask Brandon what this is a picture of, he will tell you that it is him giving PawPaw whiplash,

PawPaw looks like he not suffering too much from his whiplash here,

No trip to the Magic Kingdom would be complete without a round on Buzz, so we headed over in his direction, Brandon saw this guy, who he refers to as the "Vacation Guy" and wanted me to take his picture. You may have noticed that Brandon isn't smiling in any of the pictures, he will not do it, so I just gave up trying and take the pictures without a smile.

Here's the boys on the ride, they match this one too,

And we can't pass up Zurg jail without a photo,

Next stop, Animal Kingdom!

 

[MrsHeg]

I decided we would take the monorail over to the Contemporary and switch to the bus there to head over to Animal Kingdom. Boy was this a mistake, we waited longer for the bus at the Contemporary that we did for any bus at POP, and to top it off we made a stop at WL before we headed over to AK.

Why do two Deluxe resorts share buses?

This day was very HOT, by the time we got there and in the park it was time for lunch so we went to Donald's, Brandon is always up for a Happy Meal.
After lunch our first ride was Dinosaur, Brandon's teacher is also into Disney and they are studying Dinosaurs so they had talked about this ride, this picture was taken for her,

After leaving Dinosaur Brandon wanted to play in the Boneyard, I waited on a bench in the shade with my misty mate and a cold drink, did I mention that it was HOT? When the boys came out Brandom was soaking wet with sweat, so I got him a cold bottle of water and made sure he drank it all, and gave him the misty mate to cool off with, he loved playing with it and would end up soaking his face, but with that heat I'm sure it felt good.

We headed over to ITTBAB, there was no wait here and we walked right into the theatre, here's one of the few moments that I got really aggravated, a guy in the next row saw that the row we were in was not quite as full so he jumped over the seat right in front on me, his friend went around and ended up behind my family, I purposely took the seat right next to him, he then asked me to move down and let his friend sit by hum, DH told me to let his friend through, I didn't want to but I let him sit there. Later I told DH what had happened and that I thought that if the guy wanted to sit with his friend he should have stayed with him and not jumped the row in front of me. But anyway, it's Disney and who wants a scene at Disney?
During the stink bug part of the show, Brandon says really loud, phew I stink, I need a bath. He did get pretty nervous during the spiders.

We decided to take a ride on Kali, Brandon and I shared a seat, and PawPaw was in the next section, well, PawPaw got splashed the first splash but Brandon and I got drenched, right down to our underwear. So Brandon says really loud, Hey I don't stink anymore! Problem solved, well since it was an especially hot day and we were soaked we decided it would be a good time to head back to POP to change and rest.

This was Brandon's favorite way to get to the bus stop,

And once we made it back to POP, Brandon wanted to take a picture in one of the icons, we chose this one because it matched,

Up next, dinner at Chef Mickey's.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Day 3 - Little Ones Extra Magic Hour @ Magic Kingdom

Here's the boys, they chose a Dumbo that matched their shirts.

Still loving your report! Love that their shirts matched Dumbo.

Your photos of Brandon are great! Emma used to not smile or look at the camera. She has a great big toothy forced smile now but doesn't always look at the camera.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Why do two Deluxe resorts share buses?

You're lucky they didn't also share with GF & Poly which they did when I was at CR in Dec. Gotta love the busses at Pop!

 

[Pooh67_68]

Debbie, great pictures.

 

[PNO4TE]

So DVC memberservices would allow my family of 5 to rent a 1 bedroom while CRO would not?

I cannot definitively answer that question, Bernadette, since we only have 4 people in our family and I am not a DVC owner. However, I have heard that it does happen. I will tell you that the 1 bedroom at OKW would be PLENTY of room for all 5 of you. And, we hardly ever use the kitchen (except for the refrigerator and the coffee pot) when we rent DVC points.

 

[PNO4TE]

Thanks for adding to your TR, Debbie! I am really enjoying reading it and taking notes as I go.

 

[MrsHeg]

This little guy was waiting for us when we got back to the room,

After changing into some dry things and resting we were off to Chef Mickey's for dinner, I told them when we checked in that we were celebrating Brandon's Birthday so he was given one of the special signed placemats, first to visit our table was Donald, I didn't notice the look on the woman's face in this picture until now, do you suppose the look was for me?

Next up, June's favorite, Goofy,

Our friend Pluto, we saw him more than any other character all week,

Our server brought out a Birthday cupcake for Brandon right before they did the napkin twirling song, and Mickey stopped by for a picture,

And last but not least, Minnie,

We really enjoyed our dinner here, not that the food was spectacular, but it was good. I had decided that we were going to take our time, meet all the characters and finish dinner after we had seen everyone, that worked out well. Brandon was super excited when he discovered that the mac and cheese was Mickey shaped! And when PawPaw came back to the table with Mickey ravioli Brandon helped him eat that, and then they shared a second plate.

After a long hot day we decided to head back to POP and make it an early night, the boys did spend some time in the arcade when we got back, I went back to the room and had a little alone time.

Up next - Doodlebops!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Our server brought out a Birthday cupcake for Brandon right before they did the napkin twirling song, and Mickey stopped by for a picture,

What a great shot!!!! Joe wants to have dinner here for his 7th birthday in January. We've never been before. Joe will love the Mickey mac & cheese and ravioli!

 

[MrsHeg]

Thanks for adding to your TR, Debbie! I am really enjoying reading it and taking notes as I go.

You're welcome Elin, I have a picture coming up on our last day that I took with you in mind.

What a great shot!!!! Joe wants to have dinner here for his 7th birthday in January. We've never been before. Joe will love the Mickey mac & cheese and ravioli!

Thanks Bernadette, I'm sure Joe will have a great time at CM for his birthday. If you could e-mail me the Captain Jack and Tink pictures I would appreciate it, he was so excited to see CJ that I really would like to add it to our album, and I just love Tink.

Thanks to everyone for the comments on the report, I probably should have put it over on the trip reports board, but this thread just feels like "home."

 

[lovesdumbo]

Just got off the phone with CRO. I booked 14 nights at ASMu family suites 8/15/08 to 8/29/08 and I was able to get a AAA discount. I don't think we will really go for 14 nights but this should give a little wiggle room when making plane reservations. It was $166.34 per night. That is about $100 cheaper than a AAA rate at Poly would be and I think we will really like having the 2nd bathroom and kitchenette. The suites are all in the Calypso and Jazz buildings so we won't be too far from the foodcourt or bus stop. I may just have to go check it out in November.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Elin - I FINALLY got the darn Chase site to work properly. I think they are just having website issues this weekend. But everyone remind me to make FREQUENT payments to that account so I am never forced to scramble at the last minute!

Bernadette - I am glad you got the suite with a discount! My preferred dates next year are Aug. 2-11, but if DH loses the bid we'll try for Aug. 9-18, so we might see you all again next summer.

Debbie - Still loving the TR! Little kids are funny - they either won't smile or they smile like somebody is cutting their leg off with a chainsaw.

I am home from babysitting - pretty easy!
DH returned that extra set of mallets I bought for DS since the band director said we don't need them. He was very nice - he said if the store wouldn't take them that he would buy them from us! We never even took them out of the bag, and we had the receipt so the return wasn't a problem at all. Gotta love it when money is coming IN instead of OUT for a change! But I did make that Chase payment...

 

[lovesdumbo]

If you could e-mail me the Captain Jack and Tink pictures I would appreciate it, he was so excited to see CJ that I really would like to add it to our album, and I just love Tink.

Will do!

Bernadette - I am glad you got the suite with a discount! My preferred dates next year are Aug. 2-11, but if DH loses the bid we'll try for Aug. 9-18, so we might see you all again next summer.


Little kids are funny - they either won't smile or they smile like somebody is cutting their leg off with a chainsaw.

Would love to see you next summer!

That is the look isn't it!

 

[bear74]

Marci - sounds like a great day of soccer at your house, and a nice view to go along with it!

Jennifer - you have a lot on your list of things to do. Take it easy!

Jen - I think they did a great job on the painting. Much more realistic looking now.

don't worry Elin,
Jeff and my brother will be the ones shampooing the carpet.

 

[bear74]

Deb I am loving your trip report.

 

[yellowfish78]

Just got off the phone with CRO. I booked 14 nights at ASMu family suites 8/15/08 to 8/29/08 and I was able to get a AAA discount. I don't think we will really go for 14 nights but this should give a little wiggle room when making plane reservations. It was $166.34 per night. That is about $100 cheaper than a AAA rate at Poly would be and I think we will really like having the 2nd bathroom and kitchenette. The suites are all in the Calypso and Jazz buildings so we won't be too far from the foodcourt or bus stop. I may just have to go check it out in November.

I have pictures of this room if you want to see them! Just let me know!

 

[mommykds]

Just got off the phone with CRO. I booked 14 nights at ASMu family suites 8/15/08 to 8/29/08 and I was able to get a AAA discount. I don't think we will really go for 14 nights but this should give a little wiggle room when making plane reservations. It was $166.34 per night. That is about $100 cheaper than a AAA rate at Poly would be and I think we will really like having the 2nd bathroom and kitchenette. The suites are all in the Calypso and Jazz buildings so we won't be too far from the foodcourt or bus stop. I may just have to go check it out in November.

Thats great you got the discount!!!!

We might see you there next year too!!!

 

[PNO4TE]

You're welcome Elin, I have a picture coming up on our last day that I took with you in mind.

And I, for one, am glad that you posted it here, because I don't always get over to the TR Board to read!