Flossbolna
Sea days are just so relaxing!
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2006
- Messages
- 13,934
As said before this should be the first in a row of updates, but first I want to start with the proper PTR stuff, there are a number of things t mention:
First:
We have an official reservation!!!
We will be staying in a pool view room at AKL! 
We booked a package with 9 days MYW tickets with park hopping, but no water park option. If we go to a water park (more on that below), we would get an extra ticket, that's cheaper. Now we just sit here and hope for a nice code to come out. Actually the 4+3 deal would not work for us so great... It would be 6+3 for us... Still better than nothing, though.
I am so happy that we will stay at AKL again, I just feel at home at that place.
And it was the hotel that Katharina thought was the most interesting to her as well (she has good taste! 
). So we decided to go with that. I really missed being close to AK when we stayed at the Poly, it is such a beatiful park and I am sure Katharina will like it, too. So we are planning on spending quite a lot of time there. I guess we will spend the least amount of time at MK since this is the park concept that Katharina knows best. So AKL's location actually works for us. 
I booked again through the travel agent I have used before. She has been great for past trips, even when I sometimes get impatient and would like a reply the minute I send an email
. I was thinking about booking myself, especially since online ADRs now make it much easier to make those (but maybe not for us, see below). Before I really did not want to call a call center in the US for those. I did it for a few reservations last time, but found it very tedious. Also there often is a language problem. While I have no problem with British English (I went to university for a year in London and used to have an English boyfriend), there are American accents that I don't understand at all. Very annoying if you have to ask after every second sentence for it to be repeated... Makes me feel very stupid. But then my TA has been great to get discounts for us as well. And considering that 7 am (when those phone lines open for booking discounts) is 1pm for me and I am at work at that time, it still will be a service that can be useful! I got the booking confirmation from her last week and it looks great. Since we knew our flight details, Magical Express is already set up for us as well.
Oh and I decided to pay off about half of our undiscounted package and hope that I won't have to send too much money to Disney anymore because we will get a fabulous discount...
Second:
ADRs! We still haven't decided where we want to eat. We have a few thoughts, but I think Katharina should post about her ideas for her birthday herself (you will need to wait for that, she is on a hiking trip in England at the moment).
BUT: 180days ADRs are coming back.
All unofficial websites seem to post that now that 180days ADRs will be available again starting 10/27. Our 90 day window would have started 10/29. So we will fall in this mad rush on 10/27 when not only everyone whose vacation starts at 1/25 will call, but additional 90 days worth of people. I can only imagine what a chaos this will be!! I am actually quite glad that I have a TA who will take care of our ADRs, even though I am aware that she most likely will have a lot of clients who need to be booked on that day. But then I think that we will not have lots of difficult ADRs: no character meals (perhaps Tusker House breakfast), no Le Cellier, no Ohana... Last time we booked all our ADRs at 50 days or so and had no problem, gut everything within 20 min of what we wanted.
Third:
Water Parks: If the weather cooperates we are set on visiting a water park! I know from experience that Florida can be chilly during that time frame, and we don't need really hot days for swimming, but something around the mid 70s would be great! And now I have found out that it looks like we will be having fun at Typhoon Lagoon!!
TL is closed for refurbishment in November, so it looks like Blizzard Beach will then be closed after Christmas. I am fine with that and Katharina was actually leaning more towards TL anyway. I have been to both once and thought BB had the better slides, it seemed like there was more to do. But TL is fine as well. It also means that we don't have to bother with any bus stopping at BB along the way.
So, those are the trip related updates. Next will be underwater pictures from the lake and a walking tour through Nuremberg. There might also be the one or other surprise update thrown in there... Also I really need to update my dining review...
First:
We have an official reservation!!!
We will be staying in a pool view room at AKL! We booked a package with 9 days MYW tickets with park hopping, but no water park option. If we go to a water park (more on that below), we would get an extra ticket, that's cheaper. Now we just sit here and hope for a nice code to come out. Actually the 4+3 deal would not work for us so great... It would be 6+3 for us... Still better than nothing, though.I am so happy that we will stay at AKL again, I just feel at home at that place.
And it was the hotel that Katharina thought was the most interesting to her as well (she has good taste! ). So we decided to go with that. I really missed being close to AK when we stayed at the Poly, it is such a beatiful park and I am sure Katharina will like it, too. So we are planning on spending quite a lot of time there. I guess we will spend the least amount of time at MK since this is the park concept that Katharina knows best. So AKL's location actually works for us. I booked again through the travel agent I have used before. She has been great for past trips, even when I sometimes get impatient and would like a reply the minute I send an email
. I was thinking about booking myself, especially since online ADRs now make it much easier to make those (but maybe not for us, see below). Before I really did not want to call a call center in the US for those. I did it for a few reservations last time, but found it very tedious. Also there often is a language problem. While I have no problem with British English (I went to university for a year in London and used to have an English boyfriend), there are American accents that I don't understand at all. Very annoying if you have to ask after every second sentence for it to be repeated... Makes me feel very stupid. But then my TA has been great to get discounts for us as well. And considering that 7 am (when those phone lines open for booking discounts) is 1pm for me and I am at work at that time, it still will be a service that can be useful! I got the booking confirmation from her last week and it looks great. Since we knew our flight details, Magical Express is already set up for us as well.Oh and I decided to pay off about half of our undiscounted package and hope that I won't have to send too much money to Disney anymore because we will get a fabulous discount...
Second:
ADRs! We still haven't decided where we want to eat. We have a few thoughts, but I think Katharina should post about her ideas for her birthday herself (you will need to wait for that, she is on a hiking trip in England at the moment).
BUT: 180days ADRs are coming back.
All unofficial websites seem to post that now that 180days ADRs will be available again starting 10/27. Our 90 day window would have started 10/29. So we will fall in this mad rush on 10/27 when not only everyone whose vacation starts at 1/25 will call, but additional 90 days worth of people. I can only imagine what a chaos this will be!! I am actually quite glad that I have a TA who will take care of our ADRs, even though I am aware that she most likely will have a lot of clients who need to be booked on that day. But then I think that we will not have lots of difficult ADRs: no character meals (perhaps Tusker House breakfast), no Le Cellier, no Ohana... Last time we booked all our ADRs at 50 days or so and had no problem, gut everything within 20 min of what we wanted.Third:
Water Parks: If the weather cooperates we are set on visiting a water park! I know from experience that Florida can be chilly during that time frame, and we don't need really hot days for swimming, but something around the mid 70s would be great! And now I have found out that it looks like we will be having fun at Typhoon Lagoon!!
TL is closed for refurbishment in November, so it looks like Blizzard Beach will then be closed after Christmas. I am fine with that and Katharina was actually leaning more towards TL anyway. I have been to both once and thought BB had the better slides, it seemed like there was more to do. But TL is fine as well. It also means that we don't have to bother with any bus stopping at BB along the way. So, those are the trip related updates. Next will be underwater pictures from the lake and a walking tour through Nuremberg. There might also be the one or other surprise update thrown in there... Also I really need to update my dining review...
YAY
Even though we haven't stayed SV yet, I have no problem already declaring that pool view is my favorite view. If they had had it available with the discount for our upcoming trip, I would not have even considered SV.
I can't wait to hear what you decide.
I am afraid that discount availability for pool view is always not so good at AKL. For our 2008 trip we had decided to change to standard view to take advantage of a discount because pool view was not available. But our TA managed to get a CM who got us the discounted room nevertheless. 
for booking! A pool room at AKL sounds wonderful!!!!!! Sounds like you made a really good move going with the TA again-I hope s/he works out well and provides good service. Speaking of TA's, I haven't heard from mine in a LONG time, I kinda forgot about her! 
I saw that about the Nürnberger Bratwürste! I wonder wether they are the real ones... In all of the European Union this is protected regional name, which is similar to a trademark. It says that you only may call it a Nürnberger if it was produced in Nuremberg! Same goes for Serano ham, Parma ham, Permeggiano cheese and so on... Actually, I took pictures of my favourite bratwurst location! 
