Value Resorts and Inside Staterooms? Bah Humbug! 30 days of Disney fun! 02/10 Day 30

[YukiPhnx]

Awesome! It's too bad you had a bad experience. I love my TA from Mouse Fan Travel.

 

[mossyflossy]

That's a shame that we will miss each other at the Contemporary Resort by one day! But I am sure with so many of us being there at the same time we could organize a mini DISmeet. What do you think?

As for the tickets we hold - we hold A WHOLE LOT! We intend to use one set of this year's tickets (which we will need to upgrade to non expiry ) in February and use another set to get a new AP, but I hope to use up some of the tickets we still hold next summer.
We have 5 day tickets which Disney was friendly enough to exchanged for us when we found out that UK tickets do expire after having asked 3 times if they would!!! We then went past the expiry date but Disney exchanged them anyway! Gotta love a company like that!
3 sets of 7 day tickets (UK)
3 sets of 1 day tickets (FD)
and 1 set of 2 day tickets (left overs from a 4 day ticket) from the last century yip, we bought them in 1999 and they are still good!
So I guess we won't renew our APs next summer and HOPE for a good room only discount to use up some of our tickets!

Is August 11 for the Dream a typo? I hope so, as we are going to sail on the Dream from August 21 - 29 (back2back). We hope to get the discounted offer for both cruises as we have 2 cruises this year too.

A mini meet sounds like a very good plan

My oh my you have lots of tickets TBH if the British TA's are correct then Summer 2011 free dining (or any DDP) won't be that great of a deal as they are taking away the desserts on both CS and TS meals (and the refillable mug on QSDDP)...so I suspect a room only discount will be better....that said, we'll probably revert to staying and eating offsite, and use up some of those tics.

We've always upgraded the 7 day premiums to non expiry, $117 per ticket seems to ring a bell...so we'll have a couple of sets of 4 tics to use up for next year too...not as many as you1

Aug 11 isn't a typo...it's shorthand for Aug 2011

we should be booking the Aug 21-25th cruise (there's a DIS thread set up for it) but had a "blip" this weekend when we briefly considered doing it in February 11 (2011) instead, but have now decided the weather is too cool at that time of year.

So we're back with the August ones, the other option being the 3 day one on 25-28th, which is much cheaper. Regardless, you'll be on both, so we will meet for a wee cocktail I hope!

 

[KatMark]

Okay...I'm caught up. Luckily, You didn't get too far into the pretrippy. And, of course, I made the mistake reading while I was waiting for Mark to get home from umpping his baseball game which ran really late so we could eat dinner. I had boring cheese on toast and let me tell you it did nothing for me after just seeing your first couple of pictures of your dining choices.

We got good news today. Mark is getting a commission check so we can pay off our trip now and not wait.

As always, looking forward to more.

 

[dizneeat]

Awesome! It's too bad you had a bad experience. I love my TA from Mouse Fan Travel.

Yes, it's nice if you get mail with "ears on it"! And I am over the TA issues and back to doing everything myself!

A mini meet sounds like a very good plan

My oh my you have lots of tickets TBH if the British TA's are correct then Summer 2011 free dining (or any DDP) won't be that great of a deal as they are taking away the desserts on both CS and TS meals (and the refillable mug on QSDDP)...so I suspect a room only discount will be better....that said, we'll probably revert to staying and eating offsite, and use up some of those tics.

We've always upgraded the 7 day premiums to non expiry, $117 per ticket seems to ring a bell...so we'll have a couple of sets of 4 tics to use up for next year too...not as many as you1

Aug 11 isn't a typo...it's shorthand for Aug 2011

we should be booking the Aug 21-25th cruise (there's a DIS thread set up for it) but had a "blip" this weekend when we briefly considered doing it in February 11 (2011) instead, but have now decided the weather is too cool at that time of year.

So we're back with the August ones, the other option being the 3 day one on 25-28th, which is much cheaper. Regardless, you'll be on both, so we will meet for a wee cocktail I hope!

I did read about the possible changes in the DDP in Linda's thread! Well, if they take away the dessert it's not much of a deal any more, so we will stick to our Tables in Wonderland card then!
We need to renew ours anyway this summer and since it is good for 13 months (it always has been for us) it will even cover next summer's dates, so I am not too worried about getting a nice discount for food!
And it would mean that we could venture offsite more often. I remember those first few trips when we shyed away from some of the eateries because they were real expensive and went offsite and had wonderful food!

I should have thought about Aug 11 being August 2011! Stupid me !! Can I blame that on old age too?

Have you thought about what category stateroom you want to book? For this year we were lucky to score the exact same stateroom as last year but the Dream is going to be bigger and I would love to move up a deck or two! So Deck 9 or 10 sound good to me and I will definitely want a verandah room again. Tom is not going to like the higher deck! He has issues looking down and had a hard time getting used to the Wonder's verandah. I don't mind all that much - I live on the 7th floor (8th american count) and am used to some kind of height!

I am still signed up for the Aug 16, 2011 thread and that reminds me that I need to say goodbye to them and sign up for the Aug 21 and Aug 25 threads!

For this year we have already signed up for the FE fun for both cruises - happy hunting down little goodies to us!

 

[dizneeat]

Okay...I'm caught up. Luckily, You didn't get too far into the pretrippy. And, of course, I made the mistake reading while I was waiting for Mark to get home from umpping his baseball game which ran really late so we could eat dinner. I had boring cheese on toast and let me tell you it did nothing for me after just seeing your first couple of pictures of your dining choices.

We got good news today. Mark is getting a commission check so we can pay off our trip now and not wait.

As always, looking forward to more.

I am glad you are all caught up! Cheese on toast sounds good to me, much better than cucumber slices, which is what I had!
But be warned I have a few more days all typed and ready to be put up here, so more photos to come!

A check!! and it goes to the best purpose ever! Paying for a Mickey trip
I cannot wait to read all about your trip, even though I hope the 5 weeks leading up to your trip go real slooooooooooooooooow!!! well, for me at least!

 

[dizneeat]

PLANS DAY 4 - 6


Day 4
Tuesday, August 17

Early start as we want to make it to DHS for rope drop.

After picking up a FP for Toy Story Mania and maybe riding it we hope to grab a bite to eat at the Starring Rolls Café.

We hope to spend half a day at DHS and have lunch at Fairfax Fair. In the early afternoon we will go back to the villa and relax for a while.

We will have an early dinner at Tokyo Dining, then head for the preferred fireworks viewing and enjoy the Evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot.

Day 5
Wednesday, August 18

Since we get in early in the morning we will sleep in, grab a bite to eat out of the fridge and head over to Magic Kingdom for the morning.

Lunch is planned at either Pecos Bill’s or Columbia Harbour House.

In the early afternoon we will head back to Old Key West for a little rest.

Our dinner is planned for Mama Melrose in the early evening, so we will be all set for Evening Extra Magic Hours until 10pm.

Day 6
Thursday, August 19

Surprise!

Breakfast is planned at Wolfgang Puck’s Express.

Then we will explore the shops at Downtown Disney a little more, before heading over to Pleasure Island where we will hopefully be able to take a ride in the balloon.

I love the one we have in DLRP, even though I was soooooo scared the first time we went on it. We have been on the one at Pleasure Island once and I cannot wait to go on it again.
After the flight in the balloon we will hopefully walk over to Cookes of Dublin for lunch.

Guess we will need another rest after lunch, so back to the villa it is.
In the evening we will head to Epcot and have dinner at Le Cellier. Filet with mushroom risotto, yum!!

After that treat we will stay for Evening Extra Magic Hours until midnight.


Okay, that's it for the moment! Hope to be able to update a bit more later today, but now it's time to go back and do some work for school tomorrow!

 

[Stefy]

Olivia's is such a relaxed restaurant and the food is SO yummy! And I cannot wait for those strawberries and cream for breakfast, what a start to our vacation!
Thanks for sharing my excitement about paying off another part of our trip. I need to pay everything off with one credit card, as it is the one that gives me airmiles, so I need to spread payments out a bit!
But there is not much more left to pay off. I want to pre-purchase the Photopass CD, now that they have a discount on it again and the last leg of the trip (9 nights OKW and FD upgraded to DxDDP) is all that is left to pay off and then we are all set!

Sounds complicated, but I get it . You sound like me with payments all over the place etc. But it works

Bet you will be really happy once everything is paid off

News of the day!!!!

We got mail from the DCL today! Now that I have paid off the cruise they can't wait that we sail with them! ​

I just love the fact that we get all sorts of mail this year since we don't use a Travel Agent this year. I was pretty unhappy with the TA we used last year because when she found out that I wasn't handing over the rest of my reservations to her, she pretty much dropped all communication and I had to fight for my welcome booklet from DCL. This year I did it all by myself and get tons of stuff from DCL!

I love receiving Disney Mail. Can't wait til we get ours, although apart from the vouchers not sure what else you get as they don't give out ME vouchers anymore to UK Residents

Its fun to do it all yourself, have never used a TA and I don't know if I could trust them enough to do everything.

Days 4-6 sound great, love that you got WPE in again Looking forward to hearing about your Tokyo Dining experience

 

[KatMark]

Okay...I am absolutely drooling at my desk. Mark and I have never done Starring Rolls Cafe so we are going to do that for our half day at the Studios this year for lunch.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Food porn from Starring Rolls just look amazing. I can't wait to try that on my trip.

We'll be in Epcot around the same time! I'll be getting there in the afternoon. Also, we'll probably be in Downtown Disney at the same time too!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Hey Karin and Tom! I am so sorry about missing the start of this thread but at least I am here!

I have been MIA from the Dis since our last trip Nov 09 and there is so much going on with us, some of which you know and my sister just had another baby, one more niece for me to take to Disney!

Your trip sounds like a dream come true and I hope you guys have the time of your lives, you deserve it!

I am trying to get a trip together myself but for some reason I am just not into it right now. Hopefully we will go Oct 22-31 and stay at the Dolphin but I have not made room ressies or dining ressies or planned the park hours or anything...maybe I will have someone else do it for me LOL!

My AP's expire in 4 weeks and I dont think we will be going back before then...funny enough but the last 6 months have flown by and it seems like we were just at WDW and the next 5 1/2 months will probably whiz by too and I will be back in my habitat again!

 

[dizneeat]

Sounds complicated, but I get it . You sound like me with payments all over the place etc. But it works

Bet you will be really happy once everything is paid off

I love receiving Disney Mail. Can't wait til we get ours, although apart from the vouchers not sure what else you get as they don't give out ME vouchers anymore to UK Residents

Its fun to do it all yourself, have never used a TA and I don't know if I could trust them enough to do everything.

Days 4-6 sound great, love that you got WPE in again Looking forward to hearing about your Tokyo Dining experience

I get quite used to looking after my payments I wonder what I will do next month when everything IS paid off!
Hmm, means I need to work on our 2011 plans!

I haven't worked with a TA, apart from our cruise last year, in ages! And I was not impressed last year either! Austrian TAs have absolutely NO idea when it comes to Disney - Tom, who's a mailman delivers mail to several TA and he has been asked for advice on Disney several times! They do sell the DDP, but have no idea that you can/should book 180 days in advance and they have not heard of the DCL yet! Go figure!

Isn't Disney Mail the best ever? I just don't get it, do they still send out vouchers or don't they. Every year they tell me that they NO longer send the paperwork to the individuals, but to the resort and I ALWAYS get them at home! I am usually scared out of my mind, because we leave early and have portions with vouchers towards the end of our vacation! AND I need those vouchers for the preferred fireworks shows!

We have been to Tokyo Dining once before and we loved the atmoshpere, the food, but had a hard time communicating with our server, who was so overly friendly.
WPE ..... did you expect anything else from us?

 

[dizneeat]

Okay...I am absolutely drooling at my desk. Mark and I have never done Starring Rolls Cafe so we are going to do that for our half day at the Studios this year for lunch.

You need to try their sandwiches! They don't have a huge variety, but the ones they offer are soooooooooo good and quite big as well. Don't forget to get one of their cupcakes too!

Food porn from Starring Rolls just look amazing. I can't wait to try that on my trip.

We'll be in Epcot around the same time! I'll be getting there in the afternoon. Also, we'll probably be in Downtown Disney at the same time too!

Oh good to know that we will be at the same Epcot and DTD at the same time. We need to discuss this a little closer to the actual date (just in case Disney decides to change park hours and EMH again! ), so we can have a mini meet!

Hey Karin and Tom! I am so sorry about missing the start of this thread but at least I am here!

I have been MIA from the Dis since our last trip Nov 09 and there is so much going on with us, some of which you know and my sister just had another baby, one more niece for me to take to Disney!

Your trip sounds like a dream come true and I hope you guys have the time of your lives, you deserve it!

I am trying to get a trip together myself but for some reason I am just not into it right now. Hopefully we will go Oct 22-31 and stay at the Dolphin but I have not made room ressies or dining ressies or planned the park hours or anything...maybe I will have someone else do it for me LOL!

My AP's expire in 4 weeks and I dont think we will be going back before then...funny enough but the last 6 months have flown by and it seems like we were just at WDW and the next 5 1/2 months will probably whiz by too and I will be back in my habitat again!

Oh Nicki! So good to hear from you again!
And I am so happy there is a good chance you will join Kathy and Mark during their trip!
Tom and I wish we could be there too, but ............

you're an aunt again! Lucky little one! She has the best aunt and uncle ever! Congratulations!

There is still lots of time for you to plan your October trip at the Dolphin. I am so happy for you and Todd to get the chance to go again.
You are so right about time just flying by. We just came back from our February trip and it is already May. I need to take my class on a week long excursion to a small village where they will do lots of exciting things like rock climbing, canooing and canyoning, a rope garden while I watch ........... no getting into that for me! I am just not sure how I will survive without the Dis and my friends there for a week - surrounded by 24 13 year olds!

Well, I hope to see you around here more often, to get you back into that Disney mood again!

 

[dizneeat]

Okay, it's getting late here (nearly 11pm) but there is one thing I wanted to share with you.

Tom yesterday sent me a link to a Youtube video and while watching it I clicked on another similar one and I nearly fell over laughing! Just like this little guy here.

I am going to post the link to the one I love and it is about the Disney Wonder and a little "battle" it was "involved" in!

Here's my Wonder link:

and here's Tom's Wonder link:

What's so funny? The person talking at the end of the video could have so easily been me! We had the exact same situation and I said something VERY similar and was really tempted to put my thumb to my nose and wiggle my fingers!

Check it out and have fun!

 

[Jupiter&Wolfe]

Your trip so far sounds great! I have yet to look at the CS restaurants and decide which ones I want to try out....some of what you might go for sounds tempting!

I LOOOVE Mickey Mail. I've been dubbed the travel agent in the family. I love researching travel and whatnot, so we've never needed a TA. Nothing gets me more pumped than Mickey Mail. I actually got my itinerary mailed to me today. I was psyched.

And the first video cracked me up! I would LOVE to witness Disney kicking all the other cruises' butts! And it makes me want to go on a Disney Cruise... Someday!

 

[Pixiedustdawn]

Hi, I love reading your posts!! I can't wait to read and see more photos.

Can you tell me what is the advantage of booking direct with DCL?

I always switch to a TA to get onboard credit, (usually $75) after I do all the booking myself.

Wonder-ing, if I should not transfer the booking this time?

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Dawn

 

[YukiPhnx]

For some reason....those links are giving me 402 service errors...

 

[dizneeat]

Your trip so far sounds great! I have yet to look at the CS restaurants and decide which ones I want to try out....some of what you might go for sounds tempting!

I LOOOVE Mickey Mail. I've been dubbed the travel agent in the family. I love researching travel and whatnot, so we've never needed a TA. Nothing gets me more pumped than Mickey Mail. I actually got my itinerary mailed to me today. I was psyched.

And the first video cracked me up! I would LOVE to witness Disney kicking all the other cruises' butts! And it makes me want to go on a Disney Cruise... Someday!

We have some favourite CS places we never want to miss and once you stick around here with us long enough you will find out that we have a VERY soft spot for WPE! Isn't it so, Stefy?

You know, a cruise horn battle won me over for the Wonder! You can read ALL about how the Wonder won my heart right here!

For some reason....those links are giving me 402 service errors...

I am very sorry it is not working for you! I tried it from 3 different computers and it works fine for me. Firewall maybe?

 

[dizneeat]

Hi, I love reading your posts!! I can't wait to read and see more photos.

Can you tell me what is the advantage of booking direct with DCL?

I always switch to a TA to get onboard credit, (usually $75) after I do all the booking myself.

Wonder-ing, if I should not transfer the booking this time?

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Dawn

Hi Dawn!

I guess I need to clear up why I am not a big fan of TAs

I have a choice of 3 different kinds of TAs!
Austrian TA: They have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to Disney. They have a catalog of resorts (not even all of them), they have a fixed price - no discounts what so ever and once you are booked there is NO fooling around and changing things as there is a hefty fine for everything you want to change.
I don't like to pay someone for a service I know more about than he does.

Disney.co.uk TA:
This is Disney UK and they have amazing offers (48% off of OKW AND free dining) but their rules are about the same as the Austrian TA. Fines for changing.

And my other experience was a US TA.
Maybe I just hit it off badly with her, but the first thing she wanted me to do is send my Credit Card information by email, which kind of freaked me out. You are warned by EVERY bank here NOT to do that!
I never got anything official from Disney, just her emails. Once she figured out that we had a 4 week vacation with 3 weeks at Disney, she told me to mail her all my other stuff as she would over see everything! Well, she knew there was nothing left to oversee, as everything was booked AND paid off!
Once I refused to let her have my other bookings she went quiet on me. A reply to an email took forever and when I heard from other friends that they were excited about getting info on their cruise I asked when to expect my stuff and the response was that I did not need it, she was NOT going to send it, to print out my paperwork from the internet and hunt someone down for luggage tags once we arrived. I had to really push to get my "welcome package" delivered to my resort - she would NOT mail it to me to Austria (and I offered to pay for it).
Oh, and we did NOT get any onboard credits or anything else through her, we paid the same DCL asked for on its website.

Well, this year, I got tons of stuff from DCL all sent to Austria and it is just so much more fun and exciting.

So this is why I book myself. I LOVE to be in charge of my vacation and have everything in my own hands.
I do not see any reason to use a TA, if I can do it myself as well and be in charge of all my changes!

If you feel comfortable with your TA, PLEASE, go for it! I guess sitting here in Europe it is very much different to being in the US!
PLEASE don't let my experiences influence you!

 

[dizneeat]

Let's start today's update with some good news! We are doing the

today!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!​

PLANS: Days 7 - 9


Day 7
Friday, August 20

We hope to hit the Animal Kingdom this morning and try to fit in the Safari

and a few rides

before lunch

at Flame Tree Barbeque. I cannot count the many times we bypassed this eatery until we discovered the wonderful seating area overlooking Everest. Ever since it is a must do every trip.

Guess it will get boiling hot at AK around the early afternoon, so guess we will flee back to our villa and relax with a drink in hand on the balcony.

Dinner is at Boma, a first for dinner for us. We love their breakfast, but have never been for dinner, so we are real excited about it. After dinner we will drive to Magic Kingdom for Evening Extra Magic Hour until 2am.

Day 8
Saturday, August 21

Guess we will sleep in again.

Lunch is planned at either Sunshine Seasons or Wolfgang Puck’s Express. Knowing us, WPE will win!

For the rest of the morning and early afternoon we hope to hit Epcot for a few rides and a little stroll around World Showcase.

In the evening we intend to have dinner at the Grand Floridian Café, which we always enjoy.

From there we will head over to the Magic Kingdom for the Preferred Fireworks Viewing of Wishes.

Can’t believe it, but we will actually head back to our villa by 10.30 after Wishes is over!


Day 9
Sunday, August 22


Early night the day before means we “could” make it for rope drop at DHS

again and we hope to do so! After a morning full of rides

and fun we plan to drive over to the Polynesian for lunch

at Captain Cooks. We loved the sandwich and Poly chips and can’t wait to try it again.

After lunch we will be heading back to the villa for some relax time! Can you see a trend here?

Dinner will be at

Kona Café and after that we will head over to the Magic Kingdom

for Evening Extra Magic Hours until midnight.

 

[YukiPhnx]

We'll be at MK on the 20th for EMH too!