DIS Dads The DIS Dad's Club VI - Man's Room

[carrollchristoph]

Some of mine don't pass the "family" test...

These are great! And I don't need it to pass the family test!

And ownage! About time.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hey Guys..Hae any of you stayed at Old Key West...is it nice? Thining of trying to do an RCI trade there...choices were there or Coronado Springs...Advice???

im a 12 year, 15 trip vet of the old key west. just remodeled the rooms. the rooms are the biggest of all the dvc resorts. very quiet and layed back. bus transportation to the parks is best of any resort i ever stayed at. if your getting a one,two or three bedroom unit, you have your own full size washer and dryer in your room. it reminds a bit of car.beach resort. it is very quiet there, you can sit on your balcony and not hear anything. youtube has alot of good videos of the resort. i wouldnt go without it!!!! if you want to text me steve, just wait till friday, briana has gotten a new phone today and its charging and she has mine.

 

[GoHerd1028]

Hey Guys...some of you on facebook have gotten a friend suggestion from me that is one of our newer members. It is GoBucks...we met him and his family on our cruise last year and he just now joined our little group here...very nice guy....send him a note on Facebook and let him know your screen name here so he can begin to put faces with names!

 

[DisneyFed]

These are great! And I don't need it to pass the family test!

And ownage! About time.

Well then...you want me to email some to you? Might be tomorrow...

 

[Rental01]

(Caught one… Page 142: Owned)



DCL is one of the few cruise lines that actually still allow you to control the tips. Most of them add a standard set of tips into the price of the cruise up front (which in some instances does not give the staff much incentive to perform at their highest standards). DCL also simplifies the process by allowing you to pay tips at the purser’s desk. They actually encourage this, because you can simply charge the entire transaction to your cabin, and they can make direct deposits into each CM's account.

Now, how you go about deciding what to tip is a personal decision and you may want to go up or down from the standard based on your experience during that sailing, but… The generally agreed upon standard works like this:

Room Steward - $4.00 per-person/per-day
Head Server - $4.00 per-person/per-day
Assistant Server - $3.00 per-person/per-day
Dinning room Manager - $1.00 per-person/per-day (optional)

So… for two people sailing seven days it would be $24.00 per day or a total of $168.00.

Here’s a site that will calculate the average tip for you:
http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

If you order room service, you would generally tip a couple of bucks to the CM that delivers the order. We take an envelope with a bunch of dollar bills in it and keep it somewhere near the cabin door.

That is a LOT of great information! Thank you! Now I know what to plan for!

160 is stll technically the min. Buy-in, direct from Disney. There are some places I've read about 100, even 50 direct, but those reduced amounts aren't commonly marketed. You can of course buy via the resale market too. A great place to start some research is DVCNews.com, they have lots of good info, and keep pretty current on the special incentives. I'd be happy to be referral for you if you go direct. There's a pretty nice deal going on right now, & you need a referral to get the incentive.

You can also venture in to the DVC boards and ask questions there.

A friend of ours at church is a long time DVC'er who has been petitioning DVC to allow her to start a local office here in town. She's funneled a ton of people through to DVC over the years. That said, she's still not a dad.

Thanks for the info - the more I look into it the more it makes sense to us. As much as I'd prefer not to finance, we have the choice of either financing it or waiting 5 years to pay for it out of pocket. Given the rate of inflation, the rising prices per point, and the fact that we'd like to get into AKV before too long, I'm pretty sure that we're going to have to just jump on it. Though the maintenance fee at SSR is still progressively cheaper than AKV. Hmm...

I'm gonna need to fire up Excel again, aren't I?

 

[carrollchristoph]

Well then...you want me to email some to you? Might be tomorrow...

Excellent! I'll send you my email

 

[oXar]

Hey dads....been a while (again), sorry, I'm a slacker. Figured it was time for an update. Been really busy around here trying to sell our house but it looks as if we finally have some serious negotiations taking place with the bank and hopefully in the next few days we'll have a signed contract. It's a short sale so it's all up to the bank to approve it or not but all parties are in the same ball park right now.

Secondly, the wife's job in Indianapolis is still conducting its back ground investigation, we are about 3 weeks into it and are told that it could take anywhere between 6 weeks to 6 months. We haven't heard anything other than our credit having been pulled (thankfully was done before the bank reported us).

Most currently, I've been researching neighborhoods and schools in and around Indianapolis, for those familiar with the area, I think we've settle on Avon and have started looking into rental properties, but without a solid start date, or even a final offer for the job, we can't really do anything but wait.

Unfortunately, this means that this last Thanksgiving would have been our final Disney trip for at least a year. Right now, we're thinking maybe June 2012 (hopefully all the construction will be done by then). No more Christmas trips, not until we get tired of 'white christmases', which, being native south floridians, probably won't be for a while.

Reading through the posts, seems like everybody is relatively ok and up to the same old antics.

This concludes your randomly scheduled update, carry on....

 

[goofygrump]

Hi everybody! I'm new on here and would love to join the group. My family has a Disney World vacation planned for Mar 25-Apr 1, But found out today I get to transfer to Orlando and will be working 11 miles from the world! Any one from around Orlando or know what areas to avoid and what areas are good??

 

[unclescrooge_0707]

In other news, we're also very interested in looking at DVC. All y'all DVC DisDads - what's the minimum buy-in now? Can you start as low as 100pts or is it still in the 180 range?

160 is stll technically the min. Buy-in, direct from Disney. There are some places I've read about 100, even 50 direct, but those reduced amounts aren't commonly marketed. You can of course buy via the resale market too. A great place to start some research is DVCNews.com, they have lots of good info, and keep pretty current on the special incentives. I'd be happy to be referral for you if you go direct. There's a pretty nice deal going on right now, & you need a referral to get the incentive.

You can also venture in to the DVC boards and ask questions there.

I asked during my christmas vacation (TR Pending), and was told that the minimum investment was 100 points at $120 per point. I got home and looked at a resale board, and found 200 points for $61 per point. So, "they" say if you can, go with resale. Math says to try resale, and math doesn't lie (often).

That is a LOT of great information! Thank you! Now I know what to plan for!


Thanks for the info - the more I look into it the more it makes sense to us. As much as I'd prefer not to finance, we have the choice of either financing it or waiting 5 years to pay for it out of pocket. Given the rate of inflation, the rising prices per point, and the fact that we'd like to get into AKV before too long, I'm pretty sure that we're going to have to just jump on it. Though the maintenance fee at SSR is still progressively cheaper than AKV. Hmm...

I'm gonna need to fire up Excel again, aren't I?

I put together a spreadsheet on my work computer to figure up costs. other than "expensive" it gave me good insights on if/when to pursue DVC for my family. (current answer: NOT YET)

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Ok, crazy question about meals and cruising. I'm going on the Dream at the end of March and have reservations at Palo's with the wife. We also have our two kids which have to eat and can't go with. Do we get room service or go to our assigned meal time and not eat?

Also has anyone taken the snorkeling excursion in Nassau? Any suggestions on excursions at CC or do I just sit in a lounge chair and order boat drinks?

Both are options. It will depend a little bit on the kids (age, temperament, ect…) and a little bit on the duration of the cruise, your dinning rotation and the priorities you have for this trip. Let me toss out a couple of possibilities based on my family.

My son is in his teens and is fairly responsible, so I’m pretty comfortable letting him navigate the ship by himself from time to time. We have allowed him to just kick-back in the cabin and order up room service. We have also let him pick up some early dinner at either the cafeteria or from one of the QS counters scattered around the main deck. From there he could either pull up a chair on the deck or take it back to the cabin (the steward will pick up the dishes latter). If he were to eat early, he could then order up a desert from room service latter on.

Now all that said, there are actually times when you might just want to go on to your normal dinning rotation, let the kids eat and you just have a cup of coffee (especially on shorter cruses where you don’t go to each restaurant multiple times). Once you know what your rotation is, you will know which dining room you’ll be skipping. If its one that you really were looking forward to experiencing, it might still be worth the trip just to take in the atmosphere and experience the little details that Disney is famous for. I especially wouldn’t want to miss “Animator’s Pallet” (the whole room is a show all by its self). Depending on the size of you family, you may be sharing a table with a similar sized group. If y’all were to hit it off with those folks, the dinner conversation might be worth the trip as well.

Just some thoughts. Rule one on a cruise ship: relax.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Hi everybody! I'm new on here and would love to join the group. My family has a Disney World vacation planned for Mar 25-Apr 1, But found out today I get to transfer to Orlando and will be working 11 miles from the world! Any one from around Orlando or know what areas to avoid and what areas are good??

You’ll find that everyone here is goofy (and occasionally grumpy ), so I’m sure you’ll fit right in. (Wish I were moving to Orlando)

 

[Disney Commando]

Hi everybody! I'm new on here and would love to join the group. My family has a Disney World vacation planned for Mar 25-Apr 1, But found out today I get to transfer to Orlando and will be working 11 miles from the world! Any one from around Orlando or know what areas to avoid and what areas are good??

To The Dis Dads Club, Emma's Dad will be around to give you your official member #

 

[AirGoofy]

Wow, lots of chatter. Yesterday, my now 9 year old walked to the bus stop a few houses down the street. Two neighbor boys stopped in front of my house to wait and walk with her to the bus stop. Time for crazy dad to appear ...

... you'll have to wear the "New Applicant" probationary tiara.

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are.

I'd LOVE to be a DVC owner. I really would. But my DW (and wallet) disagree with my heartstrings. Besides, do I REALLY want to own at SSR?

After several trips, we bought SSR in 2008 resale through the timeshare store. Then, we bought another contract at BLT through in 2010. Even though they're completely different style resorts it works great for us. Plus, we get two trips a year. The Timeshare store worked really well for us. We were able to get a more points through resale at a price we could afford.

You know, it's a sad state of affairs that you Southerners are getting more snow than us here in Northern

Watching us drive us in the snow is almost as bad as watching you northerners try to figure out grits, gravy, and fried okra. (just not at the same time)

Hello Boys,I've been in a bit of a funk recently.

Go to see you back.

Hey Guys..Hae any of you stayed at Old Key West...is it nice? Thining of trying to do an RCI trade there...choices were there or Coronado Springs...Advice???

Not been to Coronado, but we really liked OKW. We did a studio there, which had 2 queen beds in the room as opposed to the bed and sleeper couch. We stayed at Turtle Creek, that has a nice private pool. The main pool was fun. You only have the bus to get to the theme parks, but a nice boat ride to DTD.

 

[afwdwfan]

Hey dads....been a while (again), sorry, I'm a slacker. Figured it was time for an update. Been really busy around here trying to sell our house but it looks as if we finally have some serious negotiations taking place with the bank and hopefully in the next few days we'll have a signed contract. It's a short sale so it's all up to the bank to approve it or not but all parties are in the same ball park right now.

Secondly, the wife's job in Indianapolis is still conducting its back ground investigation, we are about 3 weeks into it and are told that it could take anywhere between 6 weeks to 6 months. We haven't heard anything other than our credit having been pulled (thankfully was done before the bank reported us).

Most currently, I've been researching neighborhoods and schools in and around Indianapolis, for those familiar with the area, I think we've settle on Avon and have started looking into rental properties, but without a solid start date, or even a final offer for the job, we can't really do anything but wait.

Unfortunately, this means that this last Thanksgiving would have been our final Disney trip for at least a year. Right now, we're thinking maybe June 2012 (hopefully all the construction will be done by then). No more Christmas trips, not until we get tired of 'white christmases', which, being native south floridians, probably won't be for a while.

Reading through the posts, seems like everybody is relatively ok and up to the same old antics.

This concludes your randomly scheduled update, carry on....

Good luck on getting things wrapped up with the house. Avon is a pretty good area, I'm sure you'll be happy there. The Hendricks county area has really been growing the past few years, and with all the road construction they've been doing on the west side, they should just about have it done in time to give your wife a clear drive into Indy for the next few years.

 

[Bunch24]

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in forever. How's everyone doing? Anybody planning on taking advantage of the Kids Stay and Play Free deal? We were going to wait until 2012 to go back to the World, but since both of our kids are now of paying age, we're thinking about taking advantage of a cheap trip.

Only problem is this summer is my high school 20-year reunion and my class is doing a cruise (unfortunately not a Disney cruise). So, my wife says I have to decide between going on my 20-year reunion cruise or taking a trip to the World. My heart says the World, but at the same time, a cruise with some old friends (not to mention no kids) does sound like a good escape.

 

[Disney Commando]

Someone might know a trick for this, yesterday I spent 3 hrs hammering ice out of the gutters, was about 8inches thick and was leaking in my window in the living room, after getting all the ice out I found it was not blocked up with leaves or anything, and I can say talking with my friends I was not the only one with this problem. I never had this happen in the 18 1/2 years I lived in the house, but we never really got blasted with that much snow at one time in awhile

So all you guys that get alot of snow, is there a trick to keep the gutters from icing up

 

[stopher1]

That is a LOT of great information! Thank you! Now I know what to plan for!

A friend of ours at church is a long time DVC'er who has been petitioning DVC to allow her to start a local office here in town. She's funneled a ton of people through to DVC over the years. That said, she's still not a dad.

Thanks for the info - the more I look into it the more it makes sense to us. As much as I'd prefer not to finance, we have the choice of either financing it or waiting 5 years to pay for it out of pocket. Given the rate of inflation, the rising prices per point, and the fact that we'd like to get into AKV before too long, I'm pretty sure that we're going to have to just jump on it. Though the maintenance fee at SSR is still progressively cheaper than AKV. Hmm...

I'm gonna need to fire up Excel again, aren't I?

Hey that's great. Glad you know you have local people "in the know"... even if SHE isn't a DAD, it's all good.

 

[Disney Commando]

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in forever. How's everyone doing? Anybody planning on taking advantage of the Kids Stay and Play Free deal? We were going to wait until 2012 to go back to the World, but since both of our kids are now of paying age, we're thinking about taking advantage of a cheap trip.

Only problem is this summer is my high school 20-year reunion and my class is doing a cruise (unfortunately not a Disney cruise). So, my wife says I have to decide between going on my 20-year reunion cruise or taking a trip to the World. My heart says the World, but at the same time, a cruise with some old friends (not to mention no kids) does sound like a good escape.

I booked August 21-27 under the Kids Play and Stay Free deal, I only have 1 kid , but it saved alittle over $400 plus got a Preferred room

 

[Bunch24]

I booked August 21-27 under the Kids Play and Stay Free deal, I only have 1 kid , but it saved alittle over $400 plus got a Preferred room

It's pretty hard to beat that deal right now. Although, a friend of mine who has APs said the room-only discounts during that same time period are pretty nice. He's going to WDW in October and is getting 35% off at Wilderness Lodge.

One day we'll get those APs, and when all I have to worry about is lodging, that will be fun.

 

[stopher1]

I asked during my christmas vacation (TR Pending), and was told that the minimum investment was 100 points at $120 per point. I got home and looked at a resale board, and found 200 points for $61 per point. So, "they" say if you can, go with resale. Math says to try resale, and math doesn't lie (often).

Very true. I found the info I was missing after I posted "on the fly" in response to Ian. There is a current promotion for new purchasers to buy in at 100 pts at both SSR and AKV. But not at Aulani or BLT, or any of the other "sold out" resorts.

By all means, if a potential purchaser has the cash, resale can definitely save a boat load of money. $61/pt beats $120/pt any time. There just is a new "restriction" that DVC announced 2 days ago that could potentially be a damper in the minds of potential purchasers if they have their heart set on using their points at any of the Disney Collection resorts (DL, WDW, Hong Kong, Paris & Tokyo), for Disney Cruise Line or Adventures By Disney trips. Basically all resale contracts that close after March 20th will not be eligible to use those points for any of those options - only points purchased directly from Disney will be eligible for those options. Now not everyone feels (at least here on the DIS) that those options are the best use of points - but many members do. I know that when I priced out a cruise for my family of 5 for this year, paying the $95 transfer fee and using a the points for the reservation beat paying nearly $5000 cash for the cruise hands down... but that's just me. To each his own.