3dog2kidmom
02-05-2008, 08:53 PM
Magical Winter Vacation
Disney’s Polynesian Resort
January 21-25, 2008
Cast: Me 44 -- Disney addict, DH 43 -- I am creating a monster in my own image here!, DS10, and DD8
Pre-trip Planning
After our mother-daughter vacation in June, I had about $300 in credits remaining on USA3000 to fly to Tampa/Clearwater, so I began exploring ways to use that before it expired. It quickly became obvious that we should go to Disney again since I had Disney Gift cards from Sunshine Rewards, Disney Visa Rewards Dollars, and added to my Christmas Club check when it arrived we could nearly pay for the rest of the trip if we were careful and went on a budget. We picked January when the flights on USA3000 were reasonable and it was value season! My intention was to fly to Tampa/St. Petersburg on USA3000, rent a car, stay in a cheap hotel for one night in Clearwater (I had Marriott cheques from to cover more than half of the room rate) and then drive to Orlando the next morning. I found a reasonable one-way rental on a car and fairly priced return airfare on Southwest home from Orlando. I was excited… we were going to Disney again!!
Next I called AAA to get a quote on a discounted package. I hate using AAA agents because I feel like I know more about Disney than they do, but I wanted to book a package with dining and the only way to get the discounted rate on a package was to go through them. So I found a local agent and told her our dates and that we wanted to stay at Wilderness Lodge (I had since decided we could probably save a little more money or use some of my bonus to stay Deluxe). She booked 5-nights room-only for us in a standard room (’08 packages hadn’t come out yet), and told me we could convert it to a package with dining and tickets when they came out and I thought we were all set.
Fast-forward a month. I was in Hawaii on business and my TA called to say packages were out and here was the price. Something didn’t add up for me, so I pulled my paperwork out and was horrified to see that she had booked the wrong dates! And to make matters worse, the standard room was not available at WL on the dates I really wanted and I was kind of reluctant to spend more money just for a woods view. Nevertheless, I told her to book it and hung up discouraged and frustrated. I turned and looked out the window of our temporary hotel office at this view:
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p223/mlhays/hawaii2005.jpg
And then it came to me… we would just stay one less night and go back to the Polynesian! I quickly called AAA back and booked the Poly with Deluxe Dining (well, that did cost more than I thought but at that point I was longing for the Poly so it didn’t matter – I am probably the only person who can be in Hawaii and long for Disney World!).
Planning ensued, money was saved/spent/resaved, SR credits were earned, ADRs were made/changed/changed again, teachers were notified, vacation days and a dog sitter were scheduled, ADRs were confirmed, and pretty soon we were on our way!
Day -1 – Saturday, January 19
I was really glad we weren't flying out until Sunday. I'd been so busy at work I hadn't had a chance to get things ready or pack in advance, so Saturday was Laundry and Packing Day. The kids actually had Friday off from school so DS10 got nearly all of his homework done on that day off. So I spent the day doing laundry, packing, shuffling things around, making sure we had everything... ponchos? check. umbrella? check. sharpees? check. ziplocks?... well, you get the picture.
Day 0 – Sunday, January 20
Our flight was at 4:40 in the afternoon so the morning was spent on last-minute packing, tidying up the house, and trying to calm my pre-trip jitters.
I gave the kids the goodie bags I'd made for them... I got these cute Ratatoullie gift bags at Dollar Store and filled them with autograph books, pens, activity books, glow bracelets, candy, snacks, and $50 each in spending money. They were delighted!
On USA3000, you can’t check in online and they recommend getting to the airport 2 hours early to check in. So at 1:30 we left home – I still had a last-minute trip to make to Walgreens for blister block (this stuff was great -- thank you M 'n C I think who recommended it!) and bandaids. Sundries purchased, we went directly to park the car and shuttle to the Terminal.
As we got off the shuttle, a skycap was right there to take our bags. (A minor gripe here... I had my tips all planned and did not count on this one since we were perfectly capable of getting our own luggage, but there was no way I could say we didn’t want to use him without seeming rude, so I need to budget this next time -- it's not that a few bucks would have broke the budget, but I had all my ones organized in envelopes and ready). As we entered the terminal and I saw a very frustrated family standing there debating what they should do. I wondered if something had happened or if there had been a death in their family… But I quickly dismissed them and approached the counter with my notebook and pulled out our passports and my confirmation.
What happened next was my worst nightmare… We were told that our flight was not going. What I actually heard next was “bla bla blah… bla blah blah… blah… bla blah blah… blah… TUESDAY.” Nearly hysterical that someone was messing with my carefully laid Disney vacation plans, I said “WHAT!?!” Well the second time I listened more closely and it turns out our airplane had mechanical problems so they were flying another plane in after the last flight to St. Petersburg that night and we could either take that flight (which they hoped might depart at 2 a.m. – I wasn’t getting any warm fuzzies about the possibility of that actually happening) or reschedule for TUESDAY. At that point, neither sounded like a good option so I went over to the next counter to ask Southwest if we could get on one of their flights to Orlando. “Well, sure we could,” was their answer, but we couldn’t use the USA3000 tickets and the fare would be $1064. That not being a viable option, I returned to the USA3000 counter where DH was talking to what I assumed was a customer service agent or a manager. After talking to this man, we felt our only choice was to take our chances with the 2 a.m. flight so we decided to check our suitcases and go home to wait. I called to cancel the hotel in Clearwater (goodbye SR credits!) and delay the rental car, and DH called the parking place shuttle to come back for us. At least the hotel agreed not to charge us for the night and SkyPark said they wouldn’t charge us for that day’s parking.
We had absolutely no food in the house, so we stopped at for pizzas, wings, & soda and went home to wait. There is nothing as sad as a family who was expecting to go to Disney World driving home instead :( Now I understood what that other family was frustrated about! On the bright side, DH and DS were happy that they wouldn’t have to miss the championship football game on TV, and we’d get to spend a few more hours with our dogs who we knew we would miss terribly.
Up next... will the 3dogfamily make it to Disney?
Disney’s Polynesian Resort
January 21-25, 2008
Cast: Me 44 -- Disney addict, DH 43 -- I am creating a monster in my own image here!, DS10, and DD8
Pre-trip Planning
After our mother-daughter vacation in June, I had about $300 in credits remaining on USA3000 to fly to Tampa/Clearwater, so I began exploring ways to use that before it expired. It quickly became obvious that we should go to Disney again since I had Disney Gift cards from Sunshine Rewards, Disney Visa Rewards Dollars, and added to my Christmas Club check when it arrived we could nearly pay for the rest of the trip if we were careful and went on a budget. We picked January when the flights on USA3000 were reasonable and it was value season! My intention was to fly to Tampa/St. Petersburg on USA3000, rent a car, stay in a cheap hotel for one night in Clearwater (I had Marriott cheques from to cover more than half of the room rate) and then drive to Orlando the next morning. I found a reasonable one-way rental on a car and fairly priced return airfare on Southwest home from Orlando. I was excited… we were going to Disney again!!
Next I called AAA to get a quote on a discounted package. I hate using AAA agents because I feel like I know more about Disney than they do, but I wanted to book a package with dining and the only way to get the discounted rate on a package was to go through them. So I found a local agent and told her our dates and that we wanted to stay at Wilderness Lodge (I had since decided we could probably save a little more money or use some of my bonus to stay Deluxe). She booked 5-nights room-only for us in a standard room (’08 packages hadn’t come out yet), and told me we could convert it to a package with dining and tickets when they came out and I thought we were all set.
Fast-forward a month. I was in Hawaii on business and my TA called to say packages were out and here was the price. Something didn’t add up for me, so I pulled my paperwork out and was horrified to see that she had booked the wrong dates! And to make matters worse, the standard room was not available at WL on the dates I really wanted and I was kind of reluctant to spend more money just for a woods view. Nevertheless, I told her to book it and hung up discouraged and frustrated. I turned and looked out the window of our temporary hotel office at this view:
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p223/mlhays/hawaii2005.jpg
And then it came to me… we would just stay one less night and go back to the Polynesian! I quickly called AAA back and booked the Poly with Deluxe Dining (well, that did cost more than I thought but at that point I was longing for the Poly so it didn’t matter – I am probably the only person who can be in Hawaii and long for Disney World!).
Planning ensued, money was saved/spent/resaved, SR credits were earned, ADRs were made/changed/changed again, teachers were notified, vacation days and a dog sitter were scheduled, ADRs were confirmed, and pretty soon we were on our way!
Day -1 – Saturday, January 19
I was really glad we weren't flying out until Sunday. I'd been so busy at work I hadn't had a chance to get things ready or pack in advance, so Saturday was Laundry and Packing Day. The kids actually had Friday off from school so DS10 got nearly all of his homework done on that day off. So I spent the day doing laundry, packing, shuffling things around, making sure we had everything... ponchos? check. umbrella? check. sharpees? check. ziplocks?... well, you get the picture.
Day 0 – Sunday, January 20
Our flight was at 4:40 in the afternoon so the morning was spent on last-minute packing, tidying up the house, and trying to calm my pre-trip jitters.
I gave the kids the goodie bags I'd made for them... I got these cute Ratatoullie gift bags at Dollar Store and filled them with autograph books, pens, activity books, glow bracelets, candy, snacks, and $50 each in spending money. They were delighted!
On USA3000, you can’t check in online and they recommend getting to the airport 2 hours early to check in. So at 1:30 we left home – I still had a last-minute trip to make to Walgreens for blister block (this stuff was great -- thank you M 'n C I think who recommended it!) and bandaids. Sundries purchased, we went directly to park the car and shuttle to the Terminal.
As we got off the shuttle, a skycap was right there to take our bags. (A minor gripe here... I had my tips all planned and did not count on this one since we were perfectly capable of getting our own luggage, but there was no way I could say we didn’t want to use him without seeming rude, so I need to budget this next time -- it's not that a few bucks would have broke the budget, but I had all my ones organized in envelopes and ready). As we entered the terminal and I saw a very frustrated family standing there debating what they should do. I wondered if something had happened or if there had been a death in their family… But I quickly dismissed them and approached the counter with my notebook and pulled out our passports and my confirmation.
What happened next was my worst nightmare… We were told that our flight was not going. What I actually heard next was “bla bla blah… bla blah blah… blah… bla blah blah… blah… TUESDAY.” Nearly hysterical that someone was messing with my carefully laid Disney vacation plans, I said “WHAT!?!” Well the second time I listened more closely and it turns out our airplane had mechanical problems so they were flying another plane in after the last flight to St. Petersburg that night and we could either take that flight (which they hoped might depart at 2 a.m. – I wasn’t getting any warm fuzzies about the possibility of that actually happening) or reschedule for TUESDAY. At that point, neither sounded like a good option so I went over to the next counter to ask Southwest if we could get on one of their flights to Orlando. “Well, sure we could,” was their answer, but we couldn’t use the USA3000 tickets and the fare would be $1064. That not being a viable option, I returned to the USA3000 counter where DH was talking to what I assumed was a customer service agent or a manager. After talking to this man, we felt our only choice was to take our chances with the 2 a.m. flight so we decided to check our suitcases and go home to wait. I called to cancel the hotel in Clearwater (goodbye SR credits!) and delay the rental car, and DH called the parking place shuttle to come back for us. At least the hotel agreed not to charge us for the night and SkyPark said they wouldn’t charge us for that day’s parking.
We had absolutely no food in the house, so we stopped at for pizzas, wings, & soda and went home to wait. There is nothing as sad as a family who was expecting to go to Disney World driving home instead :( Now I understood what that other family was frustrated about! On the bright side, DH and DS were happy that they wouldn’t have to miss the championship football game on TV, and we’d get to spend a few more hours with our dogs who we knew we would miss terribly.
Up next... will the 3dogfamily make it to Disney?