We *are* going to Star Wars W/E **WE ARE BOOKED :)

[PghLybrt]

you know what's sad... I wish I could get flights for $1100 return from here for 2 people.

I guess I would be driving to seattle too!

I try to stick to under $200 myself. I love Southwest. Although their prices can be weird. Last year I had a nice flight that left at 6:30 on Friday. I loved that flight as it got me in on Friday night so I had all day Saturday. This year that flight was double what I could get on Saturday so I ended up not getting in until Saturday afternoon. I love when I can snag a $60 one-way fare. I have the Southwest app on my iPhone and get the Ding! alerts but I've never seen one from PIT to MCO

I never see southwest cheaper than airtran from PIT. You should sign up for the savers. They send you emails , sometimes they can be really cheap from PIT to MCO. They also usually have a 25$ off email that you can sign up for to be sent to you. I guess that is why they have increased their service by almost 50% last year in PGH. I either go direct or stop in atlanta (their hub) and sit at the sam adams bar for a beer!

 

[PghLybrt]

. But AirTran was OK. The airport debacle would have been easily avoidable IF we had known the details ahead of time (no curbside baggage check-in, no porter, no luggage carts, no signs to the AirTran desk, 200 people in the security line). If we fly them again we will be prepared.

I feel bad, I should have warned you. Sorry.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Obviously it is good that I don't have a trip to Canada in the works.

I am terrible at shopping for airfare. I get fidgety and buy, then the fares drop. But we usually have pretty specific flights that we need. If we were flexible on travel dates and time we'd probably have more choices in price. I like to fly out on the very first flight in the AM going to Orlando, and fly back in the afternoon. Non-stop. But SW doesn't fly that route non-stop.

TagsMissy, how is your spread sheet coming along? Getting those park days and ADRs all hammered out?

 

[PghLybrt]

Obviously it is good that I don't have a trip to Canada in the works.

I am terrible at shopping for airfare. I get fidgety and buy, then the fares drop. But we usually have pretty specific flights that we need. If we were flexible on travel dates and time we'd probably have more choices in price. I like to fly out on the very first flight in the AM going to Orlando, and fly back in the afternoon. Non-stop. But SW doesn't fly that route non-stop.

TagsMissy, how is your spread sheet coming along? Getting those park days and ADRs all hammered out?

Have you tried BING travel?
http://www.bing.com/travel/

It is supposed to tell you when to buy based on the history of the flight. So far it has not been off for me for my boston or chicago flight. It is worth looking at, kinda neat. I

 

[hematite153]

Obviously it is good that I don't have a trip to Canada in the works.

The biggest catch is the close to $200 cross-border tax (I think it's split roughly evenly by the two countries) that's included in the price. It means that the fares never look good. Basically air travellers end up paying for the customs agents used by drivers as well.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I feel bad, I should have warned you. Sorry.

Have you flown AirTran out of DFW? Otherwise I don't know how you could have possibly known! We know from past experience that curbside check-in isn't always open, BUT American has porters with carts waiting to help you. From what we saw, AirTran doesn't HAVE curbside at DFW.

Have you tried BING travel?
http://www.bing.com/travel/

It is supposed to tell you when to buy based on the history of the flight. So far it has not been off for me for my boston or chicago flight. It is worth looking at, kinda neat. I

Hmm. Haven't looked at that one. I am signed up for all kinds of flight alerts from Fare Compare, Yapta, Kayak, etc. but I will take a look at Bing.

The biggest catch is the close to $200 cross-border tax (I think it's split roughly evenly by the two countries) that's included in the price. It means that the fares never look good. Basically air travellers end up paying for the customs agents used by drivers as well.

We have never traveled internationally. Those are the sort of things that wouldn't occur to me.

 

[TagsMissy]

TagsMissy, how is your spread sheet coming along? Getting those park days and ADRs all hammered out?

Spread...sheet...what.... planning... ADRs? Say again? You mean I need to organize????? LOL I am not an uber planner for trips, we hate being tied down to schedules... I make 1 or 2 sit down reservations, otherwise we go with the flow and do counter service for food. I write down the crowd calendar and any extended hours but otherwise I do little else. However we generally go in September when uber planning isn't necessary.

When we went in Feb last year we were met by more crowds than normal (for us) and it was cold but hey we are Canadian ((we didn't pack accordingly unfortunately)) but we had our G'tex and so stayed nice and dry in the rain.

Since part of the point of going that time of year is to celebrate my hubby's 40th I'll need to plan and book one nice lunch or dinner somewhere. I'll chat with him and see where we wants to go...

we never make it to the morning extra hours either though we have said one day we will make it to a park for opening. I'll believe it when I see it but we had a hard enough time making a 9:30 am brekkie reservation at the Poly

 

[hematite153]

We have never traveled internationally. Those are the sort of things that wouldn't occur to me.

Well, if you ever decide to visit Canada let me know.

International travel is something I love, so, I'd encourage you to try it sometime. But, you will need to either drive a long distance, take a longer flight, or, use a cruise designed for transport purposes.

 

[PghLybrt]

Have you flown AirTran out of DFW? Otherwise I don't know how you could have possibly known! We know from past experience that curbside check-in isn't always open, BUT American has porters with carts waiting to help you. From what we saw, AirTran doesn't HAVE curbside at DFW.


We have never traveled internationally. Those are the sort of things that wouldn't occur to me.

Nope! I hate to say I have never been to texas . But I do know that airtran is a no frills airline. I would expect nothing in the way of curbside or carts and I know there signage in other airports is also incredibly bad!



I have flown internationally and I will admit I never noticed what I was being charged for, just the total. I guess I never thought about it.

 

[TagsMissy]

Well, if you ever decide to visit Canada let me know.

International travel is something I love, so, I'd encourage you to try it sometime. But, you will need to either drive a long distance, take a longer flight, or, use a cruise designed for transport purposes.

Same here... if you ever make it to BC let me know.

In case you need inspiration to come here.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwSCHRQCIBY

 

[PghLybrt]

Spread...sheet...what.... planning... ADRs? Say again? You mean I need to organize?????

Since part of the point of going that time of year is to celebrate my hubby's 40th I'll need to plan and book one nice lunch or dinner somewhere. I'll chat with him and see where we wants to go...

we never make it to the morning extra hours either though we have said one day we will make it to a park for opening. I'll believe it when I see it but we had a hard enough time making a 9:30 am brekkie reservation at the Poly

What?!!! No planning? No spreadsheet?!
I admit that is part of the fun for me. However, we have gone with no plan whatsoever and have had a great time! It forced us to do things and see things and eat places we never would have!

40th bday! Maybe a nice couple’s massage at the spa? Or what about lunch at DTD and a ballon ride?

Park opening......we used to make it every time.......when I was little with my Mom. Now we are lucky if we get to a park around 1030! We keep saying the same thing but then those evening cocktails sneak up on us! LOL

 

[hematite153]

What?!!! No planning? No spreadsheet?!

Yeah, I agree...and I suspect that the reason JSG hasn't responded yet is that she's seeking medical attention for the heart attack you may have caused.

I find that creating a plan helps make the vacation last SO much longer than the time we are in WDW. It gives us a chance to think through all of our favourite activities and dream about new things.

Park opening......we used to make it every time.......when I was little with my Mom. Now we are lucky if we get to a park around 1030! We keep saying the same thing but then those evening cocktails sneak up on us! LOL

We pretty much always make park opening (except for the one year that we went 3 times and got APs) if we are going to a park. But, we have a hard time getting to the evening events and definitely don't spend time over evening cocktails.

We do sleep in on the non-park days.

 

[TagsMissy]

Yeah, I agree...and I suspect that the reason JSG hasn't responded yet is that she's seeking medical attention for the heart attack you may have caused.

I find that creating a plan helps make the vacation last SO much longer than the time we are in WDW. It gives us a chance to think through all of our favourite activities and dream about new things.




We pretty much always make park opening (except for the one year that we went 3 times and got APs) if we are going to a park. But, we have a hard time getting to the evening events and definitely don't spend time over evening cocktails.

We do sleep in on the non-park days.

I didn't say I don't see what's going on, and check out stuff to do but I don't plan out my days from morning to night. we know what parks we want to go to but that's about it. when you come from a military background it's nice to not have to worry about schedules and timings your whole vacation.

We come from the west coast so park opening is tough. Especially since we get up so early regularly for work it's nice to sleep in a wee bit while on vacation. Even waking up at 8am in Orlando is 5am for us... our usual wake up time. We won't sleep the day away but we often aren't leaving the resort until 930-10am but we stay til closing most nights.

 

[Sphyrna]

I never see southwest cheaper than airtran from PIT. You should sign up for the savers. They send you emails , sometimes they can be really cheap from PIT to MCO. They also usually have a 25$ off email that you can sign up for to be sent to you. I guess that is why they have increased their service by almost 50% last year in PGH. I either go direct or stop in atlanta (their hub) and sit at the sam adams bar for a beer!

I've checked AirTran a couple times and their prices have always been close to Southwest. It might be a little cheaper but the times of Southwest have been better. Plus I like Southwest. A fare would have to be considerably cheaper than Southwest to entice me.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

My afternoon got out of hand yesterday! I had to gather up my small associates and leave the house for 2 hours. The house is for sale so it has to be empty if anyone wants to see it. And we had a whopping one hour of notice. The showings are so disruptive! I will be glad when the house finally sells.

At this point we don't have any international travel plans. None of us have passports.

I always make a spread sheet of which park we are going to and our ADRs. But this year we switched our park days all around, cancelled a couple of our ADRs, and walked in for lunch at Sanaa and dinner at Jiko! See? I can be flexible! We LOVE going to early entry, and if we aren't doing that then at the very least we are at the parks when they open. But we are horrible at doing anything after dinner. We see very few fireworks.

I got our DVC confirmation yesterday so I can start my 2011 document envelope.

I always look at American, SW, and AirTran and decide based on price and flight times. But I am also picky about not changing planes, so if a flight with stops was cheaper I would probably pay more for a non-stop.

 

[TagsMissy]

My afternoon got out of hand yesterday! I had to gather up my small associates and leave the house for 2 hours. The house is for sale so it has to be empty if anyone wants to see it. And we had a whopping one hour of notice. The showings are so disruptive! I will be glad when the house finally sells.

At this point we don't have any international travel plans. None of us have passports.

I always make a spread sheet of which park we are going to and our ADRs. But this year we switched our park days all around, cancelled a couple of our ADRs, and walked in for lunch at Sanaa and dinner at Jiko! See? I can be flexible! We LOVE going to early entry, and if we aren't doing that then at the very least we are at the parks when they open. But we are horrible at doing anything after dinner. We see very few fireworks.

I got our DVC confirmation yesterday so I can start my 2011 document envelope.

I always look at American, SW, and AirTran and decide based on price and flight times. But I am also picky about not changing planes, so if a flight with stops was cheaper I would probably pay more for a non-stop.

Good luck in the selling!

Oh man I don't know what I'd do without an active passport! I think we may get a Nexus card so we don't need to bring the Passport to the US... one less thing to worry about, you know.

I think on my last trip, which included my brother and his family we had 1 reservation -- and that was at Chef's so we could all see the RAAAAAAAT; oh and we went to Chef Mickey's for lunch so the kids could get one character meal.

I don't know maybe for the hubby's 40th I'll get him a reservation at Akershus again so he can get a photo alone with Belle which I can frame and put in his office For some strange reason I cannot find our photo with Belle from a couple of years ago when we last ate there. I think he's hidden them.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We always tease DH about his girlfriends Suzy & Perla. When they were at 1900 Park Fare they kept coming by to rub his head. It was HILARIOUS! So if we see them in a parade we make a big deal about it.

Beetlejuice came up and rubbed his head at Universal this year. Not sure what it is that attracts the characters to him.

We usually have at least one ADR each day. This year there were a couple of days we didn't have an ADR, and none where we had 2 on the same day. That has never happened before! We only did 2 table service breakfasts this year - Crystal Palace and Boma. Our first day and our last.

 

[hematite153]

We LOVE going to early entry, and if we aren't doing that then at the very least we are at the parks when they open. But we are horrible at doing anything after dinner. We see very few fireworks.

Yep, this sounds like us. I can get to the evenings if any breaks are short. I.e. an airconditioned TS lunch somewhere in the park. Or, a trip to the resort to change (if the weather is shifting) during a transfer to another park. But, I also need to have sleeping in on the agenda for the next day. Once we leave the parks and settle, I don't go back. We really liked having APs because it meant that we could go to the parks every morning for about 2 hours without feeling like we had to get our money's worth out of the ticket media. When we left before lunch we were more likely to go back for fireworks later.

I always look at American, SW, and AirTran and decide based on price and flight times. But I am also picky about not changing planes, so if a flight with stops was cheaper I would probably pay more for a non-stop.

Yep. I check several airlines (and actually several departure locations), but, I also look at overall travel time from my driveway to WDW and am sometimes willing to pay for the direct flight. For some reason, there is a daily non-stop flight TO Orlando, but, only one non-stop flight FROM Orlando to my home. So, we pretty much have to take 2 planes on the way home. In Dec. we've ended up taking 2 planes to WDW as well because the direct flight was $400 more and there was an option with a transfer that is only 1.5 hours later in arrival. (It does leave from here at 5:30 in the morning though, )

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I like to leave super early in the AM to go to WDW because I can never sleep the night before.

Since we almost always do a TS dinner we have problems getting from dinner to a park in time to see fireworks. Especially when it involves MK where people are sitting on the curb at 5PM for a 9 PM parade. We can usually find a spot for the parade in Frontierland, but that is NOT a good spot for Wishes (or whatever).

 

[Sphyrna]

But we are horrible at doing anything after dinner. We see very few fireworks.

Sounds like you need to talk to DH if there are no fireworks!

I've seen Wishes several times and love the soundtrack. But I've never seen it up close. All I've seen are the fireworks. Last year I watched it from my balcony at the Poly several nights. A couple times it was from Narcoossee's or California Grill. Maybe my next trip I'll actually see Tink fly!