UPDATE-How we got the auto train for free!: A pregnancy-brain PTR

[GinnyBear's_mom]

The title says it all- at 20 weeks pregnant my brain cells just aren’t clicking like they used to, so bear with me!

First the introductions!
This October trip is going to be convoluted with lots of family, but I’ll start with the most important members, my daughter Gin (2), DH (35), un-named child #2 update- we just found out it's a girl! (3 months old during our trip) and me (Tess-33).

DH works in retail and is completing his bachelor’s degree (he graduates May 2012!) and I am a school librarian. I had what I thought was a fairly safe job until my district announced they were laying off all librarians. Along with my job went our summer 2010 Disney trip. We tried rescheduling the trip 3x, but I had 12 interviews over the summer and I didn’t want to miss one because of the trip so we kept pushing the WDW trip further and further into the summer. When it looked like all hope was lost of me finding a job for the 2010-2011 school year we rescheduled the trip to the fall but as luck would have it I got a job at a much better school district 1 week before the school year started, and since teachers can’t take vacations during the school year our trip was completely off. I have been pining away for this trip since coming home from our summer 2009 trips!!!

As for the baby on the way, planning for the Disney trip has kept me from completely obsessing over this pregnancy. I had a few medical issues early on and we were told advised not to tell many people until I was about 4 months pregnant because there was such a high risk, so Disney planning has been a great stress reliever for me! The baby is due July 28th and will be 3 months old when we head to Disney.

I used to be the Disney nut of the house, but that role has clearly been taken over by our daughter Gin. She is obsessed with all things Disney but mostly fixates on Minnie, Mickey and a handful of princesses (Cinderella, Ariel and Sleeping Beauty).

As a family of 3 we have been to Disney 2x during separate trips in July and August 2009. We stayed off-property both times. DH and I made a short trip to WDW in June of 2007 and stayed at Coronado Springs which was DH’s first trip to WDW ever! I’ve stayed at Dixie Landings (1995) and the Poly (1983) during family vacations.

Next up... why we had to book 4 cabins!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

So there’s a few more people than our little family of 4 that will be joining us in Disney:

My mom and step-dad (aka Mimi and Grandpa)
My sister Meg, her DH Bill and my 2 great nephews: Jake (4) and Jude (2)
My brother-in-law Bill’s parents: Linda and Bill Sr.

Yes, it will be a full house folks! That’s why we needed 4 cabins at Fort Wilderness so everyone has their own space.

Our trip dates are October 24th-28th and I’m super excited to be staying on-site for the first time in 4 years! We received an awesome 40% off pin mailed to us sometime in November but with blackout dates of the entire summer and since I can’t take vacation time during the school year I was bummed that I couldn’t use it, but I didn’t throw it away. Once I found out I was pregnant we quickly realized we could take a once in a lifetime trip to Disney in the fall during my maternity leave! Since my mom, step-dad, sister and her family were also supposed to come on the failed summer of 2010 trip they were just as excited as we were about the discount pin so they decided they wanted in on this trip as well! One variable that I didn’t count on was my sister’s in-laws wanting to come! Of course, blame it on the pregnancy brain but I completely forgot you can only book 3 rooms per pin!! When I called to make my reservation for 4 cabins the CM could tell how upset I was when I found out one cabin would have to pay full price so we spent about 20 minutes thinking of every possible email that anyone in my group has ever used and it turned out that my sister had a coupon code attached to one of her email addresses! SCORE!! I knew then that this vacation was clearly meant to be...

Up next, our tentative plans and when will those October hours be released???

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Wow, i'm joining in our your fun for sure! A baby on the way AND a disney trip to plan. How exciting! Can't wait to hear more!!!!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Wow, i'm joining in our your fun for sure! A baby on the way AND a disney trip to plan. How exciting! Can't wait to hear more!!!!

Thanks for joining! The next few months will be so busy and exciting, I have to make sure all Disney arrangements are made well before the baby arrives! There's no way I can be making last minute plans for our vacation when I'm up every 2 hours with a newborn.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

So here are a few pics of the members of our grand gathering...

Here's DH and I on our short trip to WDW in the summer of 2007. We drove down to Florida to visit my sister after she had my nephew Jake and one the way home we couldn't help but book 1 night in Disney. We stayed at Coronado Springs and I remember eating a fantastic dinner at Maya Grill, DH still talks about the pool at CS (it is pretty amazing) and we went to Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom all in one day. I was able to fill an entire scrapbook just from the pics we took from our 24 hour vacation to WDW!

On our July 2009 trip to WDW we stayed off-site- my mom decided to trade in her Maui timeshare so we could all take a family vacation together. Before we left on vacation she must have 'reminded' me 100 times how she was giving up her beloved yearly Maui vacation for a trip to Disney. I think she expected that it wouldn't be that great of a vacation, but we had so much fun that as soon as we came home she asked when we could start planning another Disney vacation- so glad I was able to convert my mom to a Disney fan!

We had a Disney photographer with us on the beach at the Polynesian. The photographer wasn't that great but we knew we wanted some good family shots of all of us and we 3 kids under the age of 2 there was no way one of us could be the official photographer, so we didn't mind paying, but I don't think it is something we would ever do again. I'll bring my own tripod and camera next time I want some group shots. Here's one of the pics that did come out well. This is my step-dad, my mom (the backs of their heads at least!) DD and my two nephews. I love how you can see the castle in the background!

Here's a more recent picture of DD from this past Halloween. Gin still tries to wear this Minnie Mouse costume almost daily even though it now fits her like a shirt not a dress!

And finally a pic of my sister Meg and her DH Bill. I think we were all in the process of drinking around the world in EPCOT when this was taken. I think they were mainly persuaded to come to Disney in October because of the Food and Wine festival!

And a group shot from 2009 before our early ADR at Crystal Palace

I don't have any Disney related pics for my DBIL's parents so you'll just have to catch my trip report next fall for pics of them!

I know I have a few pics from my family trip in 80's, I'll have to dig them up and scan them.

As for the newest member of our group photos so far just look like blobs! But we find out this week if we will be bringing a boy or a girl!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

We'll be staying at Fort Wilderness in 4 cabins. DH, the kids and I will be driving down (we LOVE roadtrips!) and everyone else will be flying. We are looking into renting 1 or 2 golf carts from a rental agency outside of Disney. I don't plan on using the buses too often, we'll probably use the golf carts for getting us around the fort and to the dock. I've looked at the map and it looks like transportation times between the docks at the fort and Magic Kingdom and EPCOT should be manageable, plus I think the boats will be like an extra ride for the kids!

I'm anxiously awaiting the release of October hours so we can figure out our specific dining plans. Here are the places we are interested in:

Restaurants we've been to before and want to try again this trip-
Crystal Palace (breakfast)
Grand Floridian tea
Biergarten (lunch)
Earl of Sandwich
Chef Mickey's (breakfast)

Places we've never been to before that we'd like to try this trip
Akershus (lunch)
The Plaza (dinner)
and possibly Cinderella's Royal Table

Since we have a full kitchen in the cabin we'll spend a few meals there and it will also be the Food and Wine Festival so we'll be grabbing lots to eat (and drink) there as well!

We had such a great time drinking around the world in EPCOT on our last vacation with my sister and brother-in-law and I'm sure the Food and Wine Festival will be just as much fun Thank goodness we always bring along some babysitters (aka their grandparents) for the kiddies

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Two exciting things have happened since my last post...
1) October hours have finally been released (at least on the travel agent's website!) so I can spend the next few weeks until my 180 day mark obsessing over the perfect plans for each day
2) we found out if we're having a boy or a girl!

so will the next few years of our lives be spent with even more Disney Princesses or with Cars and Spiderman?












It's a girl! We honestly would have been happy with a boy or a girl, but having a girl right now seems a heck of a lot easier since I still have all of my daughter's old clothes and toys.

We still don't have a clue when it comes to naming the baby but I'd like to have the name picked soon so I can actually call the baby by an actual name instead of "the baby". Two names we have been tossing around are Georgia and Annie but we're not sure of either of those are keepers.

After I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I didn't think we would ever use the Disney portrait photographers my sister of course mentioned that this year we shoudl all wear denim and white shirts in our portraits. Ummmm, that sounds great, but I'm not taking 2 hours or so out of my vacation to sit on the Poly beach and look pretty for just so-so pictures. Our last vacation together was for 7 days, this time it is just 5 so I don't think we really have time to cram that photo session in. Plus we live about 45 minutes from the beach and go there often in the spring and summer so my idea is to hire a local photographer and get a family portrait done on our local beach and save the 5 days in Disney for fun stuff!!

I'm still debating on wether to avoid the Extra Magic Hours completely or if they might be worth it. Decisions, decisions!

 

[poisonapple_PRINCESS]

Love the picture of the kids and your parents! Congrats on the little princess!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Love the picture of the kids and your parents! Congrats on the little princess!

Thank you! I'm excited that our daughter Gin will have a sister, my sister and I are very close and we are just about 3 years apart, the same age that our daughters will be !

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Hmmm, I just realized my trip ticker is incorrect, I'm off by about 5 days. Pregnancy brain strikes again!!

I was all about the Disney bargains this past week!
Someone started a post awhile ago on the Attractions and Strategies board about autograph books and it got me thinking.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2673709&highlight=autograph

I hadn't really thought about making an autograph book before because I figured this was something that at 3 years old DD just wouldn't be interested in for this trip. Gin has started a new obsession asking people to write "letters" to her and she likes to write her own "letters" and give them to people, so I re-thought my decision about autograph books after realizing DD would probably love to see Mickey or the princesses writing her a "letter". Anyway the autograph book thread was really inspiring and I found out you could make a hardcover 20 page 8x11 autograph book through Picaboo and only pay shipping ($7.99). I gathered a few pages from the autograph book thread and while reading that I also found out about the Creative Designs Forum and their Autograph Book Thread which is amazing! I found lots of great pages to include in our autograph book http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2323160

I was able to use the Picaboo coupon code twice and got another photobook for my mom and step-dad for Grandparent's day for another $7.99 (which isn't until September but I'm all about getting stuff done NOW while I have the time before the baby arrives in July!). The photobook I made for them has pics from our summer vacation last year in Ocean City, NJ. My mom rented us all a big house a few blocks from the beach and we had a blast.


As for my further adventures in Disney bargains, I saw on the Bargain boards on the Dis that on Thursday Disneystore.com had a coupon code for 20% off and free shipping for orders over $50. We bought 2 pairs of longsleeve Ariel pajamas for the spring, 2 raincoats for my nephews Jake and Jude, personalized fleece Minnie and Mickey vests for Mimi and Grandpa (more Grandparent's day presents) and an adorable Mickey bracelet for DD's Easter basket. The total came to $71.74 which I thought was a great bargain! I can't wait for all of my awesome Disney packages to arrive!!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Today was a beautiful day, so even though DH had work, I decided to take Gin to the zoo. I may have overdone it just a bit , the Philadelphia Zoo has some monster hills and pushing DD in the stroller was a bit of a struggle occassionally but we both made it home in one piece! DD was really begging me to take her for a swan boat ride, but at 23 weeks pregnant there's no way I could peddle that boat! She'll have to wait until DH has the day off and can make the trip with us.

After looking at the park hours for the days we will be in WDW, we came up with a (very hopeful) schedule for our ADR's. Now I just have to wait until the end of April to make the reservations.

Monday: hoping for a lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table for myself, DD and DH
Tuesday: pre-rope drop breakfast at Crystal Palace for all 12 of us
Wednesday: breakfast at Akershus for myself, DH and my mom AND tea at the Grand Floridian at around 2:30 for myself, my mom, my sister and my sister's mother-in-law
Thursday: pre-rope drop breakfast at Hollywood and Vine for all 12 of us AND Biergarten for my mom and step-dad
Friday: breakfast at Chef Mickey's for myself, DH and DD

We don't have any lunch reservations (other than CRT) or dinner reservations due to the fact that we all plan on hopping over to the Food and Wine festival a few times for meals. We also have the full kitchens in our cabins and we are probably scheduling a grovery delivery through Garden Grocer.

I'm excited about our dining reservations because we are trying a few new places including Akershus, Cinderella's Royal Table and Hollywood and Vine. DD is absolutley in love with princesses at this point so I think she'll really get a kick out of Akershus and CRT, plus I think it is neat to eat inside the castle. I've heard mostly disasterous reviews about H&V, but since they just dropped JoJo & Goliath and now have Oso this is a must do since DD and my nephews absolutley love Oso as well as Handy Manny and Little Einsteins. Plus since we're trying for a pre-rope drop ressie for H&V we will avoid some of the mad dash to Toy Story Mania since we will already be inside the park.

This Friday we'll be going to our local Disney store since they have a special event for the premier of Minnie's Masquerade on Disney Junior. There's a costume party, kids will make a crown, watch Minnie's Masquerade on their movie huge screen and they will be giving away prizes as well. Now we just have to figure out what costumes to wear! I know DD will want to wear her Minnie dress but it is wall too small and has officially been retired- it was starting to look like a Minnie shirt instead of a dress We have a few Disney dollars left over from Disney Visa rewards transfer so if he's feeling generous maybe the Easter bunny will make an early visit to our house and get DD the Minnie dress in an appropriate size!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

So let me re-cap what has happened in my life over the past month or so...
We had to replace our roof including every. single. piece. of. plywood
The baby has been doing well , but my heart just isn't liking this pregnancy and I've had more cardiology appointments lately than obstetrician appointments.

We booked the auto train to Disney- for free!!

For about 2 months we have been debating car trip vs. auto train. Flying to Disney is out of the question since I don't fly and get panic attacks when I even think about taking a flight somewhere. The only thing we didn't like about the auto train was the cost- when I first started researching prices in January, roundtrip would have cost about $1300 for a family bedroom which is about $600 more than we would have spent on gas, tolls, hotel overnight, food etc. for the 1,000 mile journey. Money is tight for us (especially considering the $5500 we just spent on the roof ) and I knew there had to be some sort of deal or discount out there somewhere on the auto train, but Amtrak isn't offering anything for the dates we are traveling. I saw an auto train thread on the disboards where people mentioned they could transfer points from certain credit cards to Amtrak points to use toward travel. Here's the breakdown on how we managed to get the auto train roundtrip for free :

**Note: A one-way trip on the auto train with a family bedroom requires 30,000 amtrak points

1. I signed up for the Continental Airlines credit card in March. (My family laughed when they heard this considering how I feel about flying!). They are running a promotion where you receive 25,000 airline miles when you sign up for the card, a $50 credit on your account for your first purchase and no annual fee for a year.

2. I used the card immediately when I got it (I purchased a gift for a friend who just had a baby and got it for free thanks to the $50 credit you receive on your first purchase. We are planning on cancelling it after the Disney trip so we don't have to pay the $85 yearly annual fee which was waived the first year.

3. Within the first week of receiving the card I called and had DH added to the account so he could receive a card with his name on it. Another promotion they had was if you added someone to your account you would receive another 5,000 miles.

4. Within one week of receiving our "bill"- since I bought something small and had the $50 credit I didn't actually have to send in any payment- the 30,000 miles were posted to our account. They said we might have to wait up to 2 months to get our miles so I was excited they were posted so quickly!

5. I called the Continental OnePass phone number and had my Continental miles transferred to Amtrak miles (they transfer 1:1). I had to wait almost an HOUR on hold (the actual conversation with the agent took about 4 minutes) but hey, when you are saving money you can't expect things to be easy! They said it would take up to 2 weeks to have my miles transferred, but they posted within 3 days!

6. I called Amtrak - twice actually- the first time was at about 8pm, I was on hold for close to TWO HOURS and I started to fall asleep so I had to hang up! Again, easy and free are often not used in the same sentence I called back at 6am the next morning and got an agent right away. It took about 10 minutes to redeem my Amtrak miles for the southbound trip to Disney! The total breakdown was 10,000 miles for the car, 20,000 miles for the family bedroom.

7. DH applied for the same credit card about a month after I did and repeated the steps above!

As of today on the Amtrak website, the total roundtrip cost for our trip on our actual dates is $1920!! I can't believe it has gone up $600 in the past few months! I'm guessing it is going to be a very full train.

Oct. 23 VA to FL: tix plus family bedroom plus regular size vehicle is $1088.50
Oct. 28 FL to VA: tix plus family bedroom plus regular size vehicle is $831.50

We are so excited about how much we saved!