The Last Minute(-ish) Pre-Christmas Trip....

[Hydani]

Oh my gosh, and you just keep handing us cliff hangers *faints*. This is a great story

 

[rosiep]

I love it!!!

I love scheming and crunching numbers to figure out a way to get to Disney!!!

I'm mightily impressed by your determination..both to get to Disney AND to get to Christmas Mass.

Tell me more!

 

[hematite153]

Oh my gosh, and you just keep handing us cliff hangers *faints*. This is a great story

I love it!!!

I love scheming and crunching numbers to figure out a way to get to Disney!!!

I'm mightily impressed by your determination..both to get to Disney AND to get to Christmas Mass.

Tell me more!

Thanks!

Yeah...when I feel like it I can be a VERY creative problem solver and it's hard to convince me to give up -- it took my DW MONTHS to convince me that it was impractical to live off the grid in a city that spends weeks at -40 every winter.

We are going...the question of how will come out...eventually.

 

[hematite153]

The Saturday is my birthday, which means both a very good present and free admission (hopefully the fun card instead since I do have a valid multi-day pass)...I just have to figure out how to get there (and home again).

As I said before, it's about a 24 hour drive...as long as we don't start out with a blizzard. If my DW picked me up on Friday, I could probably leave at 2:30. We have two drivers and other people do these drives overnight. So, I proposed it.

The major catch is that I'm not good at driving while other people in the car are sleeping. (Don't worry, I am good at pulling off the road before falling asleep. But, pulling off the road slows the forward progress.) In order for an overnight drive to work we'll have to be able to trade off driving and sleeping. Granted, we'll have a few extra hours to work with, but, not many. I figured, I'd just have to drink lots of pepsi and play some loud music (not ideal sleeping conditions for my DW, but, it's a trade-off).

The minor catch is that we'll arrive exhausted!

The advantages are probably worth it though. We'll now get three full days AND a half day (on the arrival day) at WDW. I'll get to show up at GR on my birthday and get a fun card. We won't have to pay for a hotel on the way down.

If we persist with the plan to drive home on the 23rd and 24th it starts to seem like a very good plan.

At least, I thought so. My DW was wavering and I was fairly convinced that I'd talk her into it...it was my birthday after all...plus, she was the one who started the whole thing by asking to take a trip to Disney in November. We did still seem to have a not great driving to vacationing ratio and the driving was now going to be hard driving, rather than relaxing time spent together. But, I was going to go to Disney for my birthday!

 

[hematite153]

Whether she'd been truly convinced that the plan was a good one or simply decided that I wasn't going to give up and gave in, my DW finally said, "okay, I guess that's a workable plan."

However, she followed that up with a request that I check for flights from the US airports nearby. I had to remind her that I'd already looked and then I had to prove to her that there wasn't a viable option. (I did find one option out of one airport and then back into another one, but, that would only work if we had someone willing to drop us off and pick us up or if we drove 2 cars to the return airport, dropped one off and then drove past the departure airport on the way home. In other words, there were no viable options.)

Then, I checked for a flight from/to home. Everything was REALLY expensive! Plus, there's the reality that the taxes for a flight from home are roughly the same as the total cost of a flight within the US.

So, I took one last stab in the dark and looked for a points (airline points) flight -- when I've booked points flights for Christmas time in the past I've found that booking 6 months out still generally meant I couldn't travel when I wanted. So, I was checking just so I could say that I had with little hope of success. And, I had an odd sort of luck. There were NO flights for the regular 25 000 points (per person, return flight), BUT, there was a flight on the morning of my birthday that is direct, non-stop and gets us to Orlando before 10:30! The catch? 50 000 points (per person, return flight).

Well, this is where the cheap gene really starts to take over. 100 000 points for a flight to/from Orlando really isn't a good use of them. My DW started pricing the various options. How much would a rental car cost? How much would the hotels on the road cost? What would the airline taxes cost? Etc.? The reality is that we would come out spending about the same overall just in a different configuration. AND, we'd get an extra night at disney.

Now the bargaining really got going....

New Plan:
Direct flight on the Saturday morning, arrival at disney by about noon.
Full half-day at disney...resort, DTD or Water Park.
FOUR full days at disney.
Flight home, in time for church on the 24th.


I just needed to convince my DW that it was okay to spend the extra points. (The thing about airline points is that they are worth something because you can use them for expensive flights, but, I view their greatest use as being available for use when you don't have the cash for a flight.)

So, I presented the options and waited about 24 hours before asking her to choose between the driving and flying options.

Her response?
"If we fly we get an extra day at disney?"
("Yes.")
"Okay, book it!"

 

[DOPEYLUVER]

"If we fly we get an extra day at disney?"
("Yes.")
"Okay, book it!"

YAAYYYYY

 

[hematite153]

So, we finally had a plan for how to get there and an agreement to go. But, there was still some concern about availability. After all, people get up and program their phones everyday 11 months out to book their Christmas visits. But, the DIS DVC - Resort Reservation Availability forums said that several resorts had studio availability for the nights in question, so, we figured it would probably work out as long as we were willing to switch resorts mid-vacation.

I decided that I should call member services while simultaneously booking the flights online. That way, neither would be irreversible until I knew that the other was still available.

So, I came home from work ASAP (I can't use a computer and a phone simultaneously at work) and sat down to make the reservation. I dialed member services and plugged in my membership number on the airline's site. Suddenly, the flight I wanted wasn't listed for double points -- remember the one that was direct on my birthday morning and would get me to Orlando before 10:30 am? It was listed as regular points! I got excited and booked it while I was still sitting on hold with member services. (I couldn't resist! And, I was excited!)

Then, MS answered and told me that of the 5 nights I wanted they only had the first night (at AKV savannah view, OKW, SSR and BWV) and the last night (at OKW, SSR and BWV). So, I had some resort choices, but, there were three missing nights.

I booked AKV for the first night and OKW for the last night. AKV because we've been trying to stay there since it opened -- we were supposed to stay in a Grand Villa about 6 months after the first phase opened, but, then they called us 2 weeks before our stay and offered us a really good incentive to switch to SSR because they were behind with construction. OKW because it's the lowest point values and therefore the easiest to cancel if/when a waitlist comes through and because we like the laid back atmosphere there. (I know that BWV is the biggest Christmas draw, so, I was shocked that there was availability there, but, I don't really like it. Granted, we only stayed there once and we had a pool view room which is usually my least favourite view. But, it just felt energetically off and there was mold growing in the hallway near our room which caused my asthma to flare. My DW keeps saying that she wants to go back sometime, so, I'll need to give it a shot sometime in the next couple of years, but, not this trip -- at least not unless I have to.)

Then, I put in two waitlists for the three middle days:
- OKW to match the day at the end of my stay
- AKV Kidani Standard because I figured there would be lots of waitlist requests for savannah view ahead of me already

Then, I booked a Member's cash reservation for the 3 days at OKW to connect with my night there. But, I only booked that because I was told that no downpayment was required and I could cancel it easily. I doubted that we would keep it because I figured our cheap genes would prevent it -- really I was balking at even booking it, but, I figured I should make sure I had something just in case I couldn't find anything else.

So, a combination of success with flights and a reservation "oops".

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

I've had great luck with wait lists in the past. I hope you get lucky with this reservation too!

I am another person who is not a fan of the BWV. Mold in the hallways and tatty rooms are just two of the problems there. The whole construction is shabby (the construction company really should be "sued"). I hate clowns so that pool area is like something right out of Stephen King for me!

Sending some PD for your reservations to work out!

 

[Hydani]

Oh wow, I love Disney stories I hope those ressies come through! Man, I had a huge smile when I saw the "Okay, book it !" written on my screen

Oh, and here's some Pixie Dust for you from me aswell

 

[hematite153]

To recap:
1 night at AKV (Jambo, savannah view)
3 nights...OKW Member's Cash Discount...not likely to keep it
1 night at OKW

2 waitlists....

Sadly in the modern DVC era, you can only have 2 waitlists at a time and they don't have a way to make a waitlist say "any studio on property" nor even "any studio at OKW". Given the way they've programmed their software, covering all of the studios at OKW would take 2 waitlists and all of the studios at AKV would take SIX!

So, we began the game of calling twice a day to ask about any studios anywhere onsite for the 3 middle days. (Really, it seems kind of like a silly process. One of the 30--or so--DVC CMs I spoke to in the next week said, "well, the previous system was just too much work because we had to fill out the form so many times." I really wonder though how that can have been less work than searching through every resort several times a day after spending time verifying the identity of the person on the phone.)

We also took a couple of days and looked at other options. The Swalphin's website indicates a free night's stay on your birthday with a minimum of a 3 night stay. You don't seem to be able to book it online, so, this was a purely theoretical discussion. But, we strongly considered spending 3-4 nights at the Swalphin. People always seem to enjoy them and when else would we go there. But, this would have required the discount of the free birthday night to get it into a price range that I was willing to pay. A terrific offer, but, it would have meant giving up the savannah view for my birthday -- I admit, a desire for animals won.

So, what else could we do? Well, I started looking around again and found a code for 30% off a value or 40% off a moderate. So, we had a discussion of POP/AS versus mods and decided that since we were planning to spend a fair bit of the vacation at the resort we would be willing to pay for the price difference (at the discounted rate) for a moderate resort if we could also get queen beds -- i.e. CSR. (My DW has always wanted to stay at POFQ, but, I haven't found it to be as great a draw.) CSR seemed like a good choice since it's one of the pools we've used our DVC pool hopping perks to visit and we've enjoyed hanging out there.

So, I tried to book it online...and the system crashed (as it seems to do EVERY time I try to book something online). The next day I called to make a reservation. Once I had the CSR reservation (for the 3 middle days) I meant to cancel the OKW cash reservation on my next DVC call. But, the next morning, I got lucky. The last 2 nights were available at SSR. So, I booked them as well as dropping all OKW nights.

New plan:
1 night -- AKV (Jambo, savannah view)
2 nights -- CSR
2 nights -- SSR

New waitlists:
2 middle nights (SSR or AKV Jambo savannah view)

And, we're still calling regularly because we would prefer a DVC stay to CSR and because we'd happily take one of the nights if it came through on its own.

(After some discussion we also decided to use our other contract for two other waitlists (OKW and AKV Kidani savannah view), but, we were concerned because they couldn't link those to cancel the others automatically. I.e. two waitlists could have come through simultaneously and both ended up booked. So, we were checking online rather compulsively.)

This last minute trip planning is tiring!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

This sounds like the trip we took in Aug. '08.
We started in a concierge room at AKL (room, not villa), moved to SSR, moved to the Poly, moved to a studio at AKV. I booked and cancelled all kinds of crap before it ended up that way. There were WL nights, OKW nights, all sorts of calling and switching. It's exhausting!!

But I am really enjoying reading all of your insanity!

 

[hematite153]

This sounds like the trip we took in Aug. '08.
We started in a concierge room at AKL (room, not villa), moved to SSR, moved to the Poly, moved to a studio at AKV. I booked and cancelled all kinds of crap before it ended up that way. There were WL nights, OKW nights, all sorts of calling and switching. It's exhausting!!

But I am really enjoying reading all of your insanity!

Yep, sounds about the same! (I've made changes before, but, nothing along these lines.)

Thanks for reading (and for posting)!

 

[DOPEYLUVER]

This last minute trip planning is tiring!

Your planning is pretty typical of my planning for my family. I have recently rediscovered an old friend and he does all the planning and I do nothing. I kind of love it but it is new to me.

 

[hematite153]

Last March we planned a short notice trip (without all the drama of this one) for which we debated ticket options. We started with the idea of just getting a 5 day expiring ticket and then compared that to the cost of a 10 day non-expiry park hopper with which we would only visit the parks twice. Ultimately, this second option seemed cheaper. Yes, more expensive at the time, but, in terms of how much we'd spend per vacation, it was cheaper. Once we did that, we added the "Waterparks & Fun" option too. We also have one leftover plus from the last time we got one of these types of tickets.

Thus, for this vacation we're debating how many days of tickets to spend. The one time we headed down at New Year's we only went to the parks on Jan 1st (the whole trip came up because they announced that the Wonders of Life pavilion would be open and the 1st was the last day) and hit all 4 parks in one day with a rope drop start and a 1am stop (the goal was 2, but, I got too tired).

Dec. 20th is set up to work with a similar schedule...9am rope drops and MK EMH until 2am. It's a Sunday, meaning that it would normally be a day we'd avoid in favour of a weekday. But, surely, as we approach Christmas it'll just get more crowded by the day. Won't it?

If this works, then we'll only spend one day's worth of tickets...it'll make one crazy commando day and several resort hang-out days...plus, DTD, Blizzard Beach ($5 per visit given the pluses), mini-golf, meeting locals (if they have time and the inclination), etc.

I.e. Dec. 20th

9:00 DHS
- I run to Toy Story Mania for fastpasses.
- DW follows, walking her wheelchair or leaving it locked to something (we always lock it now -- see later post on this issue) near the entrance depending upon her skin status at the time, and meets me to get in the standby queue.
- We do something else while waiting for FP window to open (Sounds Dangerous if it's open for the holidays, otherwise whatever seems interesting at the time, or just streetsmosphere)
- FP queue for TSM

Leave DHS
- Head to AK
- Get FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Try to hit: FOTLK, DINOSAUR, Dinoland games (yes, we're weird...but, I love these), most of the walks and whatever else feels like fun at the time.

Sometime after noon either head to the resort for a nap (necessary if we're changing resorts this day -- if room's not ready, we can nap at the pool) or head directly to EPCOT depending upon timing and tiredness level. (I don't nap well -- a side effect of my fibro -- and can take hours to feel normal after a nap. So, although a nap sounds wonderful, I'm never convinced that I'll awake functional and therefore generally prefer to just stay up and then relax the next day.)

EP:
- Kim Possible
- Dinner
- Soarin' (if the line isn't too long and/or if we decide to ignore the posted times...we once got in the line when it said "120 min wait" and the wait was less than 10 min)
- Living with the Land
- Mission Space Race Games
- Anything else that seems fun at the time.

Around the time everyone's gathering to watch Illuminations, we'll head to the Monorail and to the MK.

MK:

Mostly we'll do what seems least busy and most available. We'll probably skip the parade and Wishes in favour of doing other things at those times. Favourites that we're more likely to wait in lines for include: POTC, Tiki Room, Splash Mtn, BTMRR, Buzz, Peter Pan, TTA. My experience last time was that just as I was running out of steam the whole park was emptying out. So, I reckon 1am - 2am is the prime time for this evening.

Dec. 21st Sleep in, hang out at resort

Dec. 22nd Blizzard Beach, dinner out, drinks out somewhere in the evening

Dec. 23rd Hang out at resort, DTD

Thoughts on our insanity?

 

[OrlandoMike]

Three parks the first day? Too much! Just my opinion....

 

[dmwang9]

Three parks the first day? Too much! Just my opinion....

If I'm reading it right, it's four parks on the first day -- something I've always wanted to try, but I've never been able to convince myself to actually take a swing at.

 

[hematite153]

Three parks the first day? Too much! Just my opinion....

Did you miss it...FOUR parks!

Yes, we're crazy!

Part of the problem is that the first plan only had us actually in WDW for 2-3 days. Now, we've gained days, but, not necessarily the willingness to skip things.

It's a little bit that we're cheap and don't want to pay for a 2nd day in the parks and a little bit that my fibro works best at overwhelm/relax rather than heavy days back to back.

I don't know...we'll likely end up doing 4 parks in one day whichever day we head to the parks. But, we may be able to convince ourselves to do 2 park days....

It really was much easier before TSM when I would happily skip DHS.

 

[Hydani]

Oh man... your trip seems VERY full, but it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun Have some fun down there for me will ya?

 

[hematite153]

If I'm reading it right, it's four parks on the first day -- something I've always wanted to try, but I've never been able to convince myself to actually take a swing at.

Yep. We did it the one time and it worked out fairly well. Because we'd seen everything that was important to us in the parks we spent the next 4 days relaxing at the resorts (split stay). It does mean spending the day on the run most of the time, but, it's hard to decide that a 2nd park day is worth an extra $100.

(I also sort of want to try the MK Ultimate Touring Plan sometime. I'm oddly new goal oriented sometimes. The thing that's been stopping me -- other than my DW thinking it's nuts -- is that I'd have to ride the Tea Cups. Believe me, I'd be doing them last regardless of recommendation, but, I still think I'd end up sitting on the ground for at least an hour afterwards.)

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The Tea Cups are not that bad IF you don't turn the wheel in the middle. I can't spin. The Astro Orbiter almost killed me the ONE time I rode it. But as long as I am in a Cup by myself I can tolerate that just fine. DS likes the spin the cup like a centrifuge - I do NOT ride with him.