The "I said I wasn't going to do a PTR...PTR" (Sept '11)

[OhioDisneyLover]

After our wine tour we headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before heading for dinner. I have to tell you, dinner at the Crown Plaza was AMAZING. It was one of the best meals I have ever had. I had the scallops and risotto which I totally loved.

Belly’s full, we hit our rooms to rest up for a couple of hours before hitting the casino again.

A few hours later we went back to the Hard Rock to see Maria again…yeah, we were on a first name basis by this time. We ordered drinks and chatted for a bit before heading back to the casino.

This time we found a hot table. Let’s just say we all left there up. We were up a whopping $12.50 at the end of the night. I can never get Joe to quit while we’re ahead. Had he listened to me, we would have doubled our Disney loot, I mean … doubled our money. I think we were in the casino about 4 hours or so. We ended the night back at the Hard Rock.

The next morning Joe and I got up to do a bit of shopping before checking out of the hotel and heading back to the states. E and B decided to sleep in a bit.

We took this picture in our room but tried to get the falls in the background.

There are a lot of little shops inside the hotel and connected to it. Check out this hat that I wanted Joe to try on.

We also went to the Hershey store to get a few things. Man, that place is awesome. Here is me with the kiss....yep, it was COLD outside!

Joe humored me and took this picture.

We wondered up and down the street a bit and headed up Clifton Hill to see if the MGM store was open...yep, that made me think of Disney too. Sadly, it was not open and neither was the WWF wrestling store. Joe was bummed.

I stopped and took these along the way.

Joe took these. We try and do self portraits when we can. I love his hat...E kept calling him "Rerun" from the old What's Happening sitcom.....

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

After shopping for a bit, we went back to our room to collect our bags and check out of the hotel. I took these from our room.

We met E and B in the lobby and checked out. We then began the LONG wait for our car. We valet parked. Get this.....it was $28 bucks a NIGHT! Can you imagine????? As E was walking through the lobby he heard the hotel manager and someone else reprimanding a valet who had two prior accidents. They were telling him that they'd write him up next time. Guess what? He was the valet that had E's brand spankin' new car!!!! I thought E was gonna puke. He got so upset. E and Joe gave the car a once over when it FINALLY arrived .... 30 MINUTES LATER!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

We then headed for the duty free shop. Usually we buy liquor and such when we are there but this time E & B just got a couple of bottles of vodka. I wasn't really in the shopping mood which wasn't a good thing considering E had a slight detour in mind on the way home.

We went to over the Peace Bridge and crossed into the US. We had the same border guard that we had last year. We all remembered him. They ask you so many more questions now than they have ever asked in the past.

So, E had a little detour in mind. First, let me say that I had hoped to meet Rosie this trip (englishrose). Since we didn't have much time to plan to meet, we couldn't make it happen this trip, but I hope to on our next trip this spring/early summer. Rosie said that we could go outlet shopping. OMG, Rosie, if you are reading, I think E took me to the mall that you may have been talking about. It was in Niagara Falls, on the US side. Holy crap, peeps, this joing is AMAZING! There is an awesome Coach outlet where I got one bag and one wristlet at an incredible price. We also went to Tommy Bahama and I found a pair of capri's that were regularly $88 bucks for $5.97! I got a sweater there as well and 2 pair of pants. Next was the Dress Barn outlet where I got a blazer, shirt, scarf, neckace and earrings for a whopping $50! We also went to Eddie Bauer and scored big there too. Man, I wish we had more time in the mall. We stopped for lunch but knew that we had to get on the road if we wanted to get home at a reasonable hour.

Rosie, if you are reading, we are definitely on for a meet at the Outlet Mall this spring/early summer! Sheesh, that place was amazing.

From the mall we headed home. I was exhausted by the time we got back but all in all, Joe had a great birthday. He had a bit of an issue with 40 but I told him he could be me....in 14 months I will be 50!

Happy Birthday to my awesome husband!

 

[charming23]

Finally getting caught up. I am dumbfounded that no one had a clue as to what buildings had what in them at POFQ.

Love your pics from Niagra Falls. I love going there, but have not been in years so am living through your pics. I hope Joe had an awesome birthday.

 

[petals]

Wowsers Niagra falls with the snow looks fab lol! We were there before but it wasn't snowing

 

[Queenofallthings]

What a great birthday weekend! I love Niagara Falls, it`s so beautiful...I almost prefer how it looks in the winter!

Did Joe buy the hat Looks like you guys had an awesome time!!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Finally getting caught up. I am dumbfounded that no one had a clue as to what buildings had what in them at POFQ.

Love your pics from Niagra Falls. I love going there, but have not been in years so am living through your pics. I hope Joe had an awesome birthday.

I could not believe that no one could answer what I thought was a simple question.

I love Niagara Falls. I have never been there in the summer though.

Wowsers Niagra falls with the snow looks fab lol! We were there before but it wasn't snowing

I really want to get there in the spring/summer some day as well.

What a great birthday weekend! I love Niagara Falls, it`s so beautiful...I almost prefer how it looks in the winter!

Did Joe buy the hat Looks like you guys had an awesome time!!!

We did have an awesome time! He didn't buy the hat but OMG, I was laughing so hard when he tried it on.

 

[Queenofallthings]

I have been meaning to tell you that Jasmine will be buying the same package as last year on her phone...so if you want to text while we're in the world, we would love to hear from you. Let me know if you still have her number and if not, I'll send you a PM. She doesn't think it will be the same without chatting to you

 

[-Hope-]

Looks like a great trip. I literally lauged out loud at that Rerun comment, hey, hey, hey!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I have been meaning to tell you that Jasmine will be buying the same package as last year on her phone...so if you want to text while we're in the world, we would love to hear from you. Let me know if you still have her number and if not, I'll send you a PM. She doesn't think it will be the same without chatting to you

I'm glad to hear that! I think I still have her number in my phone. If not, I will let you know. It was fun to talk to the two of you while you were there. I enjoyed hearing about your days after we left. I'm still bummed that we will be missing each other.

Looks like a great trip. I literally lauged out loud at that Rerun comment, hey, hey, hey!!

Yeah, that was a trip. I still snicker when I think about it but I love the hat!

 

[Stefy]

What a great weekend trip, loving all the photos. Looks like you had a really great time and score on the outlet mall at the end, what a great haul!

 

[annmarieda]

What an awesome trip! I love all the pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[inkedupmomma]

trip looked like a ton of fun! We should plan to do that together sometime.. i should also plan to get a passport!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Hi Sophia!!! Since I saw you pop up on my PTR, I had to come read yours, of course!! I'm glad you shared your Niagra Falls trip. We've never been, but I would love to see it! You would think being as close as I am (well, relatively speaking...) I would have gone by now. My mom went last year by bus and it took 6 hours. Wow...our days do overlap just a bit. Maybe I'll get to see you!! We'll have to see if we can work that out closer to our trips.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

What a great weekend trip, loving all the photos. Looks like you had a really great time and score on the outlet mall at the end, what a great haul!

Thanks Stef. We really love Niagara. The outlet mall was quite the bonus this year!

What an awesome trip! I love all the pics. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading.

trip looked like a ton of fun! We should plan to do that together sometime.. i should also plan to get a passport!

Yes, get the passport!!! We could meet up there!

Hi Sophia!!! Since I saw you pop up on my PTR, I had to come read yours, of course!! I'm glad you shared your Niagra Falls trip. We've never been, but I would love to see it! You would think being as close as I am (well, relatively speaking...) I would have gone by now. My mom went last year by bus and it took 6 hours. Wow...our days do overlap just a bit. Maybe I'll get to see you!! We'll have to see if we can work that out closer to our trips.

I think it is so beautiful up in Niagara. Once we get closer to our trip dates, maybe we can see if we can meet and say hi!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I've been watching airfare now for months. Every year it has typiaclly gone down in March...except for this year of course. After trying to find a decent fare for days, we finally decided to combine our airline miles which we were able to do for under $200. Joe "gifted" his miles to me so as of now, tickets are in hand.

Wanna hear the good part? In order to get tickets with miles, we had to add an extra night. Darn, it just killed me to have to do that......NOT!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I've been watching airfare now for months. Every year it has typiaclly gone down in March...except for this year of course. After trying to find a decent fare for days, we finally decided to combine our airline miles which we were able to do for under $200. Joe "gifted" his miles to me so as of now, tickets are in hand.

Wanna hear the good part? In order to get tickets with miles, we had to add an extra night. Darn, it just killed me to have to do that......NOT!

OH, you had to stay an extra night!!!?? The horror!!! I hope you didn't cry over this too much!!! It's good you had airline miles to use. I really have to look into getting a card that you can earn miles with!!

 

[-Hope-]

I've been watching airfare now for months. Every year it has typiaclly gone down in March...except for this year of course. After trying to find a decent fare for days, we finally decided to combine our airline miles which we were able to do for under $200. Joe "gifted" his miles to me so as of now, tickets are in hand.

Wanna hear the good part? In order to get tickets with miles, we had to add an extra night. Darn, it just killed me to have to do that......NOT!

Hooray for booking flights! As for the extra night, sometimes we have to make sacrifices in the name of a good deal.

 

[labsrus1]

Hi Everyone!

I've been saying for months now that I wasn't going to do a PTR this trip because I've got a recertification that I have to get done by June 2011. I was working on my recert until last weekend....when I ended up in the hospital. I've subsequently had surgery and am now home recovering so I figured why not start a PTR!

So far, this is what I know:

Dates - Sept 16 - 26 for our 11th wedding anniversary

Resort - We were originally booked at WL, where we stayed last year but DH and I talked and we recently changed to POFQ. We have not stayed there since 2005 an loved it. I hear that there is a refurb there so we're excited to give it another try. IF, and only IF, we get a PIN or an AP code, we may move again to the Poly. For some reason, we NEVER EVER get PINs.

Our cast of characters is small this year. Last year my family was there as well...mom, sister, nephew, brother and cousin joined us as well.

Here we are last year. I booked a private photography session at WL for our 10th anniversary.

It was so nice seeing you guys. Talking Disney with someone who under stood was nice. We are glad that our trips overlap. See you soon

 

[MaryAz]

Yay for getting your tickets and adding an extra night!! Loved the pics from Joe's bday!!