We're going PLATINUM! An August 2010 Birthday PTR. New 8/9/10 We're going WHERE?

[arilvdc]

Somehow it's been almost 11 months since our first trip to WDW, and my ill fated attempt at a PTR. what happened?? I didn't even attempt a TR when we got back, and this year I vow to try to do both since we have such an amazing trip planned.

We'll be at WDW from 8/18-8/28, spending one night room only at WL, then one night Platinum plan, then we've a week at CSR for free dining.

Cast:
Me- ari- I'm 25, but I'll be celebrating my 26th birthday at WDW. I like food, fun and technology.

My SO- danny-25, loves all things disney and computer games. He basically lets me plan whatever I want, get everything set....and then he'll decide he wants something and I'll have to do a mad shuffle because he 'only wants that one thing, you can do what you want the rest of the time.' I can't really complain because I do love a challenge.

Right now I'm attempting to find a good free or cheap photo hosting site, since both my flickr and photobucket are maxed out. I'll update this more later tonight, but happy reading!

 

[arilvdc]

So here's a picture of me and a few of my friends....

and then a picture of my sweetie and HIS friends...

Aren't they the greatest? Made for each other!

Day #1

Right now we're planning on flying in the 18th and renting a car, then getting a cheapie hotel room. We want to hit Steak n' Shake and Cici's ( we don't have them here!!), and maybe the mini golf course out there. We really liked the one by our Howard Johnson's last year, there was this really neat plane hanging from a tree in the middle of the course!

Day #2
We're booked one night room only at Wilderness Lodge, and I plan on using a restaurant.com certificate for the House of Blues for dinner that day. We also will be exploring the resort, since we've never stayed Deluxe before!

 

[arilvdc]

Day #3

The day you've all been waiting for....drumroll please

PLATINUM PLAN!​

After reading this thread on the resort codes and rates board, we decided to go ahead and book one day on the platinum plan. We chose Wilderness Lodge for two main reasons.

#1. It's not $$$$$ like some of the other deluxes, and since we have to pay rack rate, that's huge.

#2. It's very similar to the Grand Californian at Disneyland, and we've always wanted to stay there. We can't bring ourselves to pay $300/night to do so since we live under 20 miles from Disneyland.

We're going to be crazy busy and amazingly tired after these 48 hours, but here's our schedule.

Day 3
Segway tour @Ft. Wilderness $85
Parasailing $95
Jetski $75
Lunch @ Fultons $50
2 rounds mini golf $24
Bike Rentals $??
Illuminations Cruise $???
Dinner @ Flying Fish $75

Day Four- My Birthday!
Epcot Dolphins in depth $175
Epcot Aqua Seas $140
Massage @ GF $120
La Nouba $120
Victoria & Albert's $125

When you add all of this up (even with my conservative dining estimates), it's $1084-without the Illuminations Cruise or bike rentals- and it' just for one person! When you double it, it would cost us $2,164. We're paying $440 in addition to our room and tickets, so when you do the math, the platinum plan is basically giving us over an 80% discount. Insane!!

I think we're going to end up switching the days/time of Fulton's and the massages, so we'll have enough time to get from place to place. We'll have to see what the IPO says, and if anything is still available!

Thanks for reading!

 

[goodferry]

We are doing the one night Platinum plan too, August 14th at the GF, but we will be at the AKV until the 20th. Sounds like a great plan!

 

[vikkii19]

I'm trying to do our itinerary as well, and wanted to do both Dophin's in Depth and Aqua seas. But from my understanding the Dolphin's in Depth goes until 12:45pm and the Aqua Seas starts at 12:30pm and you have to be there early for check in. Is this not the case. I hope so, because that would make my itinerary much easier.

 

[goodferry]

By the way, we LOVE the Wilderness Lodge, it's maybe our favorite. We chose Grand Floridian because of the easy access to so many of the activities we will be doing on our Platinum day! We stayed there in June with our whole family and everyone fell in love with it.

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Ooh, that platinum plan looks so fun!! I'm a little tired, though, just reading your itinerary. You'll love WL. It's my absolute favorite resort! We'll be there Aug 22-27 -- can't wait.

 

[arilvdc]

Thanks to everyone for reading!

We are doing the one night Platinum plan too, August 14th at the GF, but we will be at the AKV until the 20th. Sounds like a great plan!

It's such a great value, totally worth it!

I'm trying to do our itinerary as well, and wanted to do both Dophin's in Depth and Aqua seas. But from my understanding the Dolphin's in Depth goes until 12:45pm and the Aqua Seas starts at 12:30pm and you have to be there early for check in. Is this not the case. I hope so, because that would make my itinerary much easier.

I asked the IPO, and was told that the Dolphins in Depth ended at 12:45, but the last 15 minutes are taking a survey and receiving your photo, and that they would escort us out early. they also said that they would notify the Aqua Seas tour that we were already there, and that there shouldn't be a problem. Double check with your IPO so they can make the same notations on your reservations.

By the way, we LOVE the Wilderness Lodge, it's maybe our favorite. We chose Grand Floridian because of the easy access to so many of the activities we will be doing on our Platinum day! We stayed there in June with our whole family and everyone fell in love with it.

I'm so excited! It looks so awesome.

Ooh, that platinum plan looks so fun!! I'm a little tired, though, just reading your itinerary. You'll love WL. It's my absolute favorite resort! We'll be there Aug 22-27 -- can't wait.

It's funny, I felt the same way at first but now I feel like it doesn't seem like that much!
It seems like everyone is going in August, I hope you have a great time. I wish we could have stayed the whole time at WL, but we really loved CSR when we were there last year, and we can't wait to go back.

 

[arilvdc]

So with our trip rapidly approaching, I'm starting to get a little nervous...and by a little, I mean that I have elephants doing the tango in my tummy. Why, you ask?

We still don't have airfare booked.


I know, I know!! It's bad. There is, however, a very good (bad?) reason.

We were at a trade show where they had a timeshare booth. Normally I just laugh at them and keep walking, but this time one of the "free gifts" was a pair of round trip Southwest vouchers, good for flights anywhere in the US. Holy carp! We talked it over and decided that three hours of our time was worth free southwest tickets and some other random gifts.

We did the tour and instead of tickets we received a "flight certificate" from some company called Odenza Marketing group, and were told we had to mail it in before it expired in September...ooooookay. On the way home, I read the fine print, flights were only good if you left from 1 of 3 airports on a sunday, monday or tuesday AND you had to fly back two days later! Their website said that they can extend your travel dates by request, for a "nominal fee." I called southwest and they said we would be able to change with them directly, instead of dealing with Odenza, apparently people call about this frequently.

Odenza also wanted a "fully refundable" $50 reservation deposit, . They also had to receive your certificate at least 30 days before your desired departure date, postmarks didn't count as received, which seemed reasonable. It sounded less and less like free and more and more like "scam" but we thought what the hey, and we sent in the certificate.


Fast forward to today, 34 days before we leave and over a month after we sent in the certificate, and we still are not in Odenza's system. Their excuse? I haven't given them enough time to process our certificate, as they receive thousands of pieces of mail a week. So does my office, and we manage to have a 24 hour turnaround. They also explained to me that they don't actually process the mail at the address they gave me, their mail gets forwarded to CANADA every monday. Why they gave me that address instead of telling me I could send it directly to Canada beats me.

So basically, they have no idea when they'll get back to us again, and meanwhile we have no airfare.


We may end up doing priceline's last minute booking as our dates have a cushion of one day both before and after our trip, but maybe Odenza will come through.

 

[Tink rules]

Buy your tickets so you know you're going... it will be WAY more expensive to cancel your trip...

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Day 3[/U]
Segway tour @Ft. Wilderness $85
Parasailing $95
Jetski $75
Lunch @ Fultons $50
2 rounds mini golf $24
Bike Rentals $??
Illuminations Cruise $???
Dinner @ Flying Fish $75

Day Four- My Birthday!
Epcot Dolphins in depth $175
Epcot Aqua Seas $140
Massage @ GF $120
La Nouba $120
Victoria & Albert's $125

We're going Platinum 2!! For a second, your itineraries almost mirror mine.. From the other thread, I have learned from you that WL's management does not offer lounge access to Platinum guests. I guess we are in luck staying at AKL. We arrive AKL on 8/14 with DlxDP for 5 nights before re-checking in on 8/19 for our platinum plan for one night. We then have a one night room only on 8/20. That's mouthful!!

Day 1-8/19:
Dolphin in Depth $206
Richard petty ride-a-long experience $100
Massages@$100
Portrait session @GF $100?
Vic & Al's $125
Wishes Firework cruise $300

Day 2-8/20:
Segway@FW $95
Parasailings @$130+
Kona cafe lunch ~$55/pp
Golf lesson $$$?
Cirque du Soleil $90
Fulton's CH $75+/pp

Do you think we might bump into each other??

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Hmm...sounds like Odenza must be a government ran agency. I got that same lame excuse when mailing in my taxes this year. They said they needed 8 weeks to process a fax. A FAX! Insane. I hope it works out. If anything, I know that Southwest prices have dropped considerably in the last week. Plus, they still have their promo going on and you can save $25/per ticket. Here are details, just in case.

 

[arilvdc]

We're going Platinum 2!! For a second, your itineraries almost mirror mine.. From the other thread, I have learned from you that WL's management does not offer lounge access to Platinum guests. I guess we are in luck staying at AKL. We arrive AKL on 8/14 with DlxDP for 5 nights before re-checking in on 8/19 for our platinum plan for one night. We then have a one night room only on 8/20. That's mouthful!!

Day 1-8/19:
Dolphin in Depth $206
Richard petty ride-a-long experience $100
Massages@$100
Portrait session @GF $100?
Vic & Al's $125
Wishes Firework cruise $300

Day 2-8/20:
Segway@FW $95
Parasailings @$130+
Kona cafe lunch ~$55/pp
Golf lesson $$$?
Cirque du Soleil $90
Fulton's CH $75+/pp

Do you think we might bump into each other??

I'm thinking we might be on the same wilderness segway tour, and maybe even the parasailing.

Hmm...sounds like Odenza must be a government ran agency. I got that same lame excuse when mailing in my taxes this year. They said they needed 8 weeks to process a fax. A FAX! Insane. I hope it works out. If anything, I know that Southwest prices have dropped considerably in the last week. Plus, they still have their promo going on and you can save $25/per ticket. Here are details, just in case.

I have the $25 code, thank goodness. The price drops all start after our trip, but thanks for the heads up!

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Aw, bummer! Hope you can figure out something for airfare soon.

 

[arilvdc]

We got our airfare!! We took a chance and tried the priceline name your own, and got tickets for $220 base fare RT! AMAZING! Way cheaper than anything else I've seen, and the total price is $516. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and hopes!

 

[Tink rules]

Ok... so now I can breathe again...

Go on vacation, now will you????

 

[arilvdc]

Ok... so now I can breathe again...

Go on vacation, now will you????

Omg, me too! The breathing I mean.

These last 15 days before a trip are always the sweetest for me- so full of anticipation and excitement!

 

[arilvdc]

I also finally heard back from odenza! They sent our money order back (two months later!) because it wasn't an international money order. NOWHERE did it say that it was supposed to be, so we're going to use the $50 to pay for our checked luggage.

 

[arilvdc]

Sooo....I've been miserable since saturday. The reason? I got my Depo shot, (I've been on it before, and this was my second one this time) and I had an allergic reaction to it!

We had previously decided to take my godson to Disneyland that day, so after we left the doctor's we picked him up. It was HOT at the park (well not florida hot, but hot for here!) and I thought at first I had heat rash, but it was really really itchy. So then I thought I was having an allergic reaction from our laundry soap, and the next day I rewashed all the laundry I had done, and I took a bath in my soothing milk. My rash still itched and it started spreading all over! My boyfriend was the one who pointed out that it started close to the injection site, and was the most concentrated around that.

I called the doctor, and they basically said there's nothing they can do. I can't take benadryl at work anymore because I was starting to make mistakes and fall asleep. I feel like I'm going to have this rash until the shot wears off in three months! I don't know what to do, and I'm supposed to be leaving for my wonderful, awesome birthday trip on the 18th. How can my trip be awesome if I'm all rashy and itchy?

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Please hang in there!!