Wanna Double-Dip our way to Donald & Pluto??

[Donald - my hero]

Huhm perhaps I should mention before I go much further, I have been accused of “abusing the use of custom smilies” a time or two before so either deal or stop reading!

I guess the best place to start is to introduce the cast??


Me --self-appointed planner extraordinaire



Hubby (John) -- self-appointed side-liner

It's been 5 years since we last visited Donald & Pluto (OK, so we tolerate the Mice since it is their house ) to celebrate our 25th anniversary. On about day 3 of that week long trip we were already moaning & whining about how soon we would be heading home and wistfully started dreaming of a longer "ideal vaca"

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For those of you who paid attention in math class, you win a prize if you've figured out that this will be a celebration of our 30th anniversary Our kids all figure we're old and should be sitting in our rocking chairs covered with blankets as we watch game shows and while we FEEL old some days we still have a couple of good miles left in us. Just to be sure that we don't come home with hips & feet as sore as we did last go round we've waited till we can devote a full 2 weeks to this celebration!!

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So there we are the 1st night of our last trip, sitting DTD in the freezing cold, giddy with the excitement of starting a new trip. This was before we checked into our “wonderful” room in AKL, you know, the one with the WET CARPET!!

I made mention of “the kids” so perhaps you’d like to meet them as well?? The ones we “grew ourselves” Ben – 27 & Emily – 25 (often lovingly referred to as Em when I’m just plain lazy). The two girls who have merged into our family unit, Chelsea – 23, Ben’s wife & Shannon - 22 Em’s BRAND-NEW fiancée.

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Ben & Chelsea just married last summer Ok so I've spent about 30 minutes trying to re-size this pic -- guess you get to count their pores!!

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Emily freshly graduated and Shannon proving she’s crazy enough to join this motley crew


I'm exhausted now! I always love a good report but never truly appreciated the work that goes into it!!
I might just wait to see if i manage to get anyone to follow this before i hurt my brain anymore

 

[Piglets Mommy]

I'm in!!! Cant wait to follow your crazy adventure!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I'm joining in too!!!!!!

 

[ddstratton]

Joining in! I followed you over from Lisa's (Mickeystoontown) report. Looking forward to reading about your plans.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I'm in!!! Cant wait to follow your crazy adventure!

Do I really KNOW YOU?? From old "limey days" perhaps?? And about the crazy part yuppers

I'm joining in too!!!!!!

WOOT this should be exciting now. Better buckle up your seat-belts this is gonna be a one-way ticket to crazy-town

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here! I'm here! Great introduction pictures! Looking forward to reading more about your upcoming adventures and more smilies. You can never have too many smilies.

 

[bigsis1970]

Great start can't wait to read more..

 

[Donald - my hero]

Joining in! I followed you over from Lisa's (Mickeystoontown) report. Looking forward to reading about your plans.

Great! Lisa inspired me to start this process!!

I'm here! I'm here! Great introduction pictures! Looking forward to reading more about your upcoming adventures and more smilies. You can never have too many smilies.

Thanks for joining me but it does mean i have to stay on my toes if i want MY report to come even close to yours!!
Special smilie just for you

Great start can't wait to read more..

Welcome to the ride!!

 

[Donald - my hero]

What is "Double-Dipping" BTW??​

Well lookie there, I DO have some peeps willing to jump on board already! Guess I better pull up my socks, put on my thinking cap and get to it.

Time to explain the title of my report? Anyone have any idea of what it means? Any Canadians out there yet? Bit of a background here, I do NOT shop I HUNT. Since John works for himself (and dang he works hard --sometimes from the butt-crack of dawn till after 10) money is at times tight. His wallet also squeals when he opens it from lack of use! So I pride myself on being able to find ways to enjoy the style of living we WISH we could have! I am the fool who giggles and actually enjoys the days when the “trash-paper” arrives on Thursday cause it is chock full of flyers. Huhm I’m still not answering that burning question am I? What the heck does she mean by “double-dipping”??? Does she eat chocolate to get to Disney?? Does she repeatedly dip her toes in the water before she goes swimming??


Alright before anyone actually has time to knit a sweater before I answer, let’s just get down to brass tacks shall we? We collect “AirMiles” No, no, no, we do not fly a lot and collect “frequent flyer points” we can actually earn “AirMiles” which I can then convert to THINGS!! Like what, you ask?? Well, (ala Sam in Bewitched) I’ve earned everything from cameras, to phones & an electric drill (that one dreadful year when we had NO money for Christmas gifts for the kids!) but those aren’t the true reason we collect them. More on that later

How, you wonder, do I EARN these wonderful things?? Simple I SHOP!! Both of our major credit cards let us earn these goodies just by spending exactly the way we normally do – MasterCard gives us 1 Mile for every $20.00 we spend and AMEX gives us 1 for every $15.00. Certain stores give us Miles for shopping there – our grocery store does and a certain drug store as well. Huhm let’s see, Staples does as well so that’s where we buy our paper etc. SO, if we use our AirMiles credit cards in any of these stores we can actually “DOUBLE-DIP”, earn the Miles they grant, PLUS the ones we earn for using the credit card.

Confused yet?
Gets even better … the grocery store we shop in actually tracks our purchases and e-mails me customized coupons for BONUS Miles so we stock up on those items at the right time (only a tad bit big-brother-ish eh?)

Complicate the issue further?? In those previously mentioned flyers there will be wonderful, exciting BONUS shopping events!! Tiny example here? Last weekend the drug-store offered 50 Airmiles for every $50.00 spend AND was also giving 5 bonus Miles on Imodium (TMI here but John has IBS so we buy that by the truck load!!) So we drove around the city and cleaned off the shelves and poof in a matter of 30 minutes we earned close to 200 MILES!! Add to that fact that I had snagged a coupon for $2.00 off each package AND they were on sale for under $2.00 a pill (yeah 1 tiny pill a whopper of a $2.00 price tag) I was dancing in the aisles!!


So that is a brief lesson in “DOUBLE-DIPPING”. Put simply (yeah right, like I can EVER make anything simple) buy what we normally do, use my credit card with the funky symbol on it

Hand over my AirMiles card

And POOF earn my treasured AIRMILES


Ok, i now remember how i got my 1st silly comment by the "tag Fairy" (bout the dreaded MOUSE HAND!) finding & re-sizing images while balancing a laptop on my knees ...

so i think it's time to stop for today. Stay tuned for what might actually involve some PLANS! (novel concept to do what i set out to do??)

 

[mickeystoontown]

Guess what? I actually understood the whole double dipping explanation! You did a good job explaining it 'cause normally I would have been doing the "HUH?" look. I giggled at your $2 a pill comment. Why? 'Cause one of the medications (he takes quite a few) that my John takes is $26.67 a pill and that's the generic. I told him that he should be pooping out gold. Oops, TMI.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Guess what? I actually understood the whole double dipping explanation! You did a good job explaining it 'cause normally I would have been doing the "HUH?" look. I giggled at your $2 a pill comment. Why? 'Cause one of the medications (he takes quite a few) that my John takes is $26.67 a pill and that's the generic. I told him that he should be pooping out gold. Oops, TMI.

Awesome, you understood!! And OMG about the meds, i totally understand that problem. I take so many pills that we often joke that i rattle when i walk!! We have on occasion been audited at Tax time for the amount we claim for my medical expenses -- since John works for himself we have NO INSURANCE! sure our medical CARE is covered but not those tiny (what must be gold-dusted) pills we BOTH swallow daily -- we forward a copy of the receipts the drug store supplies and the tax hounds back off for a couple more years!

 

[Donald - my hero]

Oh dear, been a bit since I tackled this, amazing how real life can get in the way of planning what really matters!!

Ok so I’m not driving but I am going to see DONALD. Does anything else matter??

The rules provided for those of us who actually attempt to complete a pre-trip report mention what to include. I tend not to play well when I’m told what I should do so this won’t be any different! I did tell you who is lucky enough to be going on what will surely be the most laid-back trip but other than that you know nothing. (if you ever watched Hogan’s Hero’s imagine that voice!!)
I think it might be more fun if you learn these things as we go along because stuff still hasn’t be finalized and you might just get an understanding as to why John shudders when ANY event that requires planning crosses my mind.

I think we all have the vision of that illusive perfect Disney vaca and we fit squarely into that round hole. Why you ask, do I describe our vaca in such a fashion? Simply put, we’re both Sagittarius and don’t read directions or follow rules. Not only that, but I like to plan everything in all it’s tiniest details and while john understands basic plans need to be made, he would rather I just tell him how many pairs of undies to pack. He trusts that i will spent hours staring blankly at the monitor of my laptop and eventually produce a trip that will dazzle both his senses and keep his wallet happy. Fairly easy task? It took me a long time to figure out that John in fact had champagne taste but was only will to pay for ginger ale! I guess it serves me right for introducing him to both the champagne side of life (since he joined my family when my dad had access to a company credit card with NO LIMIT) and my talent for saving money. I never pay full price for anything and consider shopping an adventure not to be taken by the faint of heart. I carry stacks of coupons around and some of my favourite websites provide links to sale flyers! We never go out to eat without either a coupon or one of those fancy scanny-things that John will pull up on his Blackberry.

So what does this have to do with this trip to Disney? EVERYTHING! I made the delightful discovery of the DIS-boards when they were in their infancy and i was tasked with planning a family trip to celebrate the end of a very long work project. It turned me into a single parent for about 18 months while John commuted from home to Chicago and then all across Canada. He would leave at the butt-crack of dawn on Monday and return on the last flight on Friday. One of the very 1st things I found was a gem of a link ... it led me to a precious code at a brand-spanking new Holiday Inn Kidsuites that had the management sweating bullets on check-out. I snagged a 3 room suite with breakfast INCLUDED and we paid HALF the post introductory rate. Oh wait Jacqueline, don't forget, we only had to pay said amount every OTHER night. SO yeah, $49.00 every-other night for 8 nights!!! I also found a code to let us rent a car for half-price and was bold enough to call after I made the reservation to add John’s frequent renter card so we could get upgraded to a super-dee-dooper car! Oh I, was on a roll. I would sit in the tv room giggling as I clicked knowing that every discounted I found would make the trip longer!

I think that's enough for one sitting -- John keeps calling me, NO he's not out of the house just incredibly lazy. We live in a split-level and he would have to physically climb 4 flights of stairs to get here so we use technology to stay in touch even when we're both at home. Seems he thinks it's time for us to stop what we're "working on" and spend time together. Novel concept??

 

[ddstratton]

Frugal is good!!! I'm always looking for a deal, too. However, you have me beat by a mile! $49, every other night?? For a three-room suite?? With breakfast?? Woo hoo!!!

 

[pixie dust 112]

Oh my goodness! Jaqueline has a pre trip report! I will be a devoted follower of this thread!

 

[ryckpen]

Hello Jaqueline, You can add me to your list of followers. I can so relate to the planning, more planning and it's just not quite right, more planning. I am familiar with the eye rolls and I have heard whispered talk in the house of a Disney intervention. Nice to know there are more Canadians who love Disney as much as I do.

 

[-Hope-]

I'm so hoping you haven't abandoned this PTR. I want to learn at your feet (which are probably adorned with 1/2 price shoes).