What worked; what didn't

[jewelshouse]

How did you do the thing at Coral Reef, do you have their contact info????

 

[kkwis2]

Thanks so much for the tips! I have seen you on several boards - I think you answered a question for me about ordering pins.

Glad you had a good trip! I will have to think a bit more seriously about getting a stroller...I have a 5 year as well. I hate to fly with it, though. You found it to be pretty necessary?

 

[vcgirl925]

Those were great! Thanks! Glad you had a wonderful trip.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

Great info. Much of it I knew as we are semi-seasoned WDW goers. But I definitely wanted to ditto you on the travel insurance. I don't book a trip without it anymore. Case in point, we took our last WDW trip at the end of April. 2 1/2, almost 3 days into our trip I got really ill. Went to the ER in Celebration and they tried to take care of me as best as they could. Went back to the resort to rest and hope that things got better on their own. It didn't and thus we had to cut our trip way shorter than planned and go home so that I could be treated by my own specialists. We got about 1/3 of what we spent on our trip back. I had hoped for a little more, but 1/3 is better than nothing!

 

[Aliceacc]

Thanks so much for the tips! I have seen you on several boards - I think you answered a question for me about ordering pins.

Glad you had a good trip! I will have to think a bit more seriously about getting a stroller...I have a 5 year as well. I hate to fly with it, though. You found it to be pretty necessary?

Honestly, flying with it was no problem at all. I kept it folded in the airport going down, and gate checked it. (In English: they told me to put it down just before we actually entered the plane, and they put it away. When we disembarked, it took an extra minute or two for them to retreive it.)

Our return flight was at 8:30 pm and my youngest was pretty tired. So we folded it up at the last minute. We got to JFK at 11:10 pm, and I ended up carrying her for the 2 minutes until they got us our stroller, then she fell back to sleep in it while we got our bags.

I know that lots of Disney vets say their kids have been walking since an earlier age. But, for whatever reason, Kira was just totally wiped out. THis is the kid who is awake at 7 am (she's on the other computer playing right now) and goes and goes and goes until she just stops and passes out at about 8:30 pm. But at Disney she really made good use of the stroller.

 

[Aliceacc]

Great info. Much of it I knew as we are semi-seasoned WDW goers. But I definitely wanted to ditto you on the travel insurance. I don't book a trip without it anymore. Case in point, we took our last WDW trip at the end of April. 2 1/2, almost 3 days into our trip I got really ill. Went to the ER in Celebration and they tried to take care of me as best as they could. Went back to the resort to rest and hope that things got better on their own. It didn't and thus we had to cut our trip way shorter than planned and go home so that I could be treated by my own specialists. We got about 1/3 of what we spent on our trip back. I had hoped for a little more, but 1/3 is better than nothing!

Wow, I'm sorry all that happened!! How miserable to get so sick on your vacation!

I've always gotten the insurance before, just in case. But this time I realized how important it really was.

On Sunday morning I sent a fax to my AAA agent. I told him I wasn't concerned about safety, but with the storm coming I wanted to know just how the trip insurance worked.

He sent back a voice mail on Monday morning. Basically, he said to wait until my flight was cancelled. If I booked a room or a new flight pre-emptively, it wouldn't be covered, since it might turn out not to be necessary. (and that's how it played out.) But once my flight was cancelled, the insurance would cover a room, the new flight (which I could book myself or ask him to book for me) and (I think) it would also cover other incidentals associated with the longer stay.

At least now I know for next time.

 

[Aliceacc]

How did you do the thing at Coral Reef, do you have their contact info????

edited to add: The Coral Reef no longer does divers or personalized menus.

 

[moopdog]

I just wanted to ask about Fantasmic. Did you have any clue your kids would not like it? Are they normally afraid of fireworks, or loud movie theatres? I am just trying to get a feel for how my DD5 is going to be with it. Do you think sitting far back will help, or bringing earplugs? I've never seen Fantasmic, so I'm not sure what is "scary" part. TIA

 

[Aliceacc]

My youngest hates the sound of fireworks, so I wasn't surprised that she didn't like it.

But my 8 year old can be tough-- she loved Test Track and went on it twice-- she really surprised me. But she was terrified about 5 minutes into the show.

That said, one of her best friends was at the show too (funny coincidence) and Colleen sat through the whole show.

 

[BelleOfTheBall76]

Great info, thanks! Planning first trip June 2009...defintely adding your info to my ever growing WDW word document!

 

[CanadianPaco]

Very interesting - thanks!

 

[Aliceacc]

TAlk about service!!!

I called yesterday at about 11 am to let the Polynesian know we were missing a suitcase. The CM in the bag room located it and said they would ship it back to us.

It arrived about half an hour ago, just about 25 hours after they were notified that it was missing. Not bad for getting a suitcase from FL to NY to my front door!!!

 

[Aliceacc]

We're going back this summer and I want to see what worked for us last summer !!!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Hey! Glad to see you are getting to go back! I believe we were at the Poly the same time as you were last year! We were there for 11 days during Faye and we only had to wear sunblock twice! It was still fun though and we did the parks in the rain and there was no wait for anything. Where are you staying this time?

 

[Aliceacc]

The Poly again!

We really don't have the money, and in this economy it's not the smartest move. (But credit cards are paid off, and as teachers our jobs are fairly secure.) Instead of banking our whole tax return, we'll stimulate the Orlando economy a while.

Since this time last year, we've had a huge black cloud over our house: my mastecetomy followed 8 days later by the death of my father in law, my radiation (it just ended Friday ) several fender benders (mostly caused by my driving while preoccupied wtih health issues), the girls coming home with head lice, the babysitter MIA for 2 months because of a car accident.... the list goes on and on. So we're throwing caution to the wind and going back to Disney for a week on the 4/3 deal; fiscal responsibility can start again in September.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

The Poly again!

We really don't have the money, and in this economy it's not the smartest move. (But credit cards are paid off, and as teachers our jobs are fairly secure.) Instead of banking our whole tax return, we'll stimulate the Orlando economy a while.

Since this time last year, we've had a huge black cloud over our house: my mastecetomy followed 8 days later by the death of my father in law, my radiation (it just ended Friday ) several fender benders (mostly caused by my driving while preoccupied wtih health issues), the girls coming home with head lice, the babysitter MIA for 2 months because of a car accident.... the list goes on and on. So we're throwing caution to the wind and going back to Disney for a week on the 4/3 deal; fiscal responsibility can start again in September.

You have had a rough year! I too would book the trip. My feeling is as long as you can pay your bills you'll be fine. You can't live banking every single penny because then you haven't really lived. KWIM? I think it's good to take time and recharge. What better place than the Poly?! We booked GF because of the 4/3 deal but are having second thoughts. We are loyal Poly fans and now DH wants to try the Yacht Club. So we have no idea what we are doing.
We had such a nice time last august. The Poly is so relaxing. Our kids call it our home in Disney! I just wish we had less rain. I don't know how people do it in places like Seattle. I need some sun!

 

[PrincessMickey]

How were you able to get so much in gift cards. Did you just buy them before you went down or what?

That gave me the idea of buying giftcards every so often leading up to our trip instead of having to rely on creditcards the whole trip.

 

[Aliceacc]

We booked last year's trip a year ahead of time-- about 53 weeks before we went.

So every birthday, and Christmas and Valentines Day and Easter-- all included a gift card. The aunts and uncles were in on it too, so they did the same. For birthdays, the kids got a small gift and a gift card. It was a painless way of saving for the trip.

 

[PrincessMickey]

Thanks. I think that's a great idea.

 

[Aliceacc]

We warned the kids this morning... if they want the spending money for this year's trip, they had better start saving ASAP!!