WIZARDS, REAL AND AMAZING, CHRISTMAS PARTIES AND CANDLELIGHT- PTR - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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WIZARDS, REAL AND AMAZING, CHRISTMAS PARTIES AND CANDLELIGHT- PTR
Who: Tara and Muffin O'Hara
What: A vacation of course!!
Where: Portofino Bay at Universal Studios and AKL
When: December 3rd- December 12th!!
Why: Because we the holidays at WDW, we haven't seen the new Harry Potter Stuff and we haven't been to Sea World in ages!!
I figured since my post in the planning forum is turning into a PTR for our holiday trip this year, I may as well continue it here! I am really going to try to follow through with this TR. I seem to be pretty good at starting them and pretty bad at finishing them.
For those of you that already read some of this story in the Planning forum, I am sorry to be redundant. Anyway!
We really did have a nice time last year at the Yacht Club. I think the cruise we took right afterwards was just too much and too close to Christmas. We actually enjoyed that too, but we felt completely overwhelmed upon returning home. We hadn't even gotten a Christmas tree and we had so much shopping and planning to do in such a short period of time. I honestly would do both vacations again. Just not together!
In all honesty, we did not plan to go back to WDW this year at all. We talked about it and decided that we would wait until more stuff was done at AK. I know you will all be shocked but we actually booked a few different trips, cancelled them, and then rebooked one of them again before we even got to this point.
Muffin will be 60 in October and wanted to plan a vacation for his big birthday trip......
First he wanted to go back to Europe and see more of the Mediterranean. We booked a trip to Rome/Eastern Med cruise for that. Then we cancelled that because........
He decided that he just wanted a party at home and that we could split the cruise in two and go to Bermuda in September for our anniversary and then to the Caribbean in January for my birthday. We took care of booking both cruises and honestly he was content for about a month. Until.........
Muffin next decided that since he had to go to Hong Kong in October that we should go to Beijing and Shanghai. So we cancelled the Bermuda cruise. He did say that we could still go on my birthday cruise in January. Anyway!
We were going to fly into Beijing and I was going to fly home out of Shanghai with him staying on another week in Hong Kong. We seriously had first class airfare and the Shanghai Disney resort booked. Then!
The show he was going to in Hong Kong was changed to the dates that we had our trip booked. It just did not work out for our home life to switch things around so we had to cancel that trip. Something to keep in mind here is that we had already bought our airline tickets, which were non refundable but were exchangeable for six months. Muffin said that we would hold on to them for now.
You guys, I tried so hard to be good through all of this but it was hard. I would just start planning for one trip and then it would get completely yanked out for another. {SIGH}. Finally, I put my foot down and said that the next vacation he picked was the one I was going on, so he'd better choose carefully! (and I'm pretty sure at this point he knew I meant that I was willing to celebrate his 60th birthday by myself!)
He said that he wanted to go back to just having a party at home for his birthday and to rebook the Bermuda cruise for our anniversary in September. In good faith, he told me to just pay off everything so that it would further commit us.
Also, we had the paid for airline tickets from China that, at this point, we thought were non refundable, so that would commit us to a trip to Europe or Asia next Spring. All in all, we still had three trips to look forward to which made me very happy.
Next: IF YOU ARE STILL WITH ME, I SWEAR I AM GETTING TO THE POINT!
__________________
Last edited by Tara O'Hara; 09-24-2016 at 05:58 PM..
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I would have been just about crazy after attempting to plan one vacation after another. I love your disclaimer at the end of your update. Can't wait for more!
oh my!!! I can't wait t see how this all works out!!!
It does!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy
YOU'VE LEFT US HANGING!!! Don't do that!! More info, more I said!
It's coming!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
I would have been just about crazy after attempting to plan one vacation after another. I love your disclaimer at the end of your update. Can't wait for more!
Thanks, Cam!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great start!
Thanks, Cheryl!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Her Dotness
We should be surprised? Planning and canceling multiple trips is unusual for these two?
Guilty!!. I am starting to think we'd be bored if we didn't do this!
Remember I told you that we didn't cancel the tickets to China yet? Just about a few weeks ago, the airline made a schedule change to our Beijing itinerary. This is one of the few exceptions for refundable tix, so Muffin jumped right on it!
We got all of our ticket money back, which was significant, and the next day while I was sitting outside minding my own beeswax, Muffin came up to me and said," I feel like I gypped you out of a nice vacation this year. How about if we go to Orlando again in December?"
WHAT.?!?!?!!?!
First of all, I was not gypped out of anything! We went to Las Vegas in March and we just got home from a lovely two week vacation in Spokane. We have been down to the Jersey shore numerous times this summer and we are going on a cruise in a month!
And!!! I was completely taken by surprise because I really thought that he did not want to go back to WDW until next year and I especially thought that he did not want to go back at Christmas time- not because he didn't like it but just because it was Christmas time and we really were crazy last year when we came home. This was when I got an amazing confession out of my husband!!
He said that he loved WDW at Christmas as much as I did and that he felt it added to his Christmas spirit! I was truly at a loss for words and those of you who know me know that does not happen to me often!
He went on to further explain that he would also like to go to USF and Sea World but just did not want to go for two whole weeks again before Christmas but a full week (which in our house means Saturday to the next Sunday) would be fine.
Further, he said that we could split the trip in half and spend four nights at Universal and four nights at WDW. I will take any time that I can get at WDW! Besides, we haven't seen the newer Harry Potter stuff at USF and it's been ages since we went to Sea World!!!
Obviously, I knew that Muffin had some plan at this point. The original idea was to do this trip on a budget. Muffin suggested leaving the day after Thanksgiving and coming home on December 3rd. I was not super keen on this because I have been there during this time and it is still nuts from the Thanksgiving crowd but HEY- if it meant going to Orlando for holiday stuff who was I to argue?!
So he wanted to stay at the new Sapphire Falls resort at USF and then POR or vice versa. We checked pricing both ways and decided it was still too expensive. I suggested we look at the next week. This is roughly the same time we went last year. We found this pricing to be a little bit better and played around with the dates a little. First we tried doing POR from the 3rd-7th and Sapphire Falls from the 7th-11th. Then we decided to switch Sapphire Falls and POR around and came up with a figure we could work with. We now had our dates which would be December 3rd-December 11th.
Then Muffin said we should get AP's as he had to go back in July and get this!! We could use them for another Christmas trip next year!!! We used some of our cash from the airline tickets to get the AP's and reserved Sapphire Falls from December 3rd-7th and POR from the 7th -11th of December.
We then bought our round trip tickets to Orlando and that was that!!!
Oh I can't wait to hear what you think of Sapphire Falls - I'm looking forward to wandering around it next month. The images I've seen so far are beautiful.
Oh I can't wait to hear what you think of Sapphire Falls - I'm looking forward to wandering around it next month. The images I've seen so far are beautiful.
Well...........we might not actually be staying there.. In any case, I will surely wander around it as well!
Quote:
Originally Posted by NanaTink
Muffin sounds so much like Dave....
I'm looking forward to a day at Uni in January!
But for now I'm wondering about that "or was it"
. Well, you must love Dave very much then! Muffin drives me crazy and I love him with all of my heart!! He seriously treats me like the princess that I am! I can't wait to go to Universal!! You will find out tomorrow if it was or wasn't!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
This is me, reading your PTR.
Hi Mayra!! I've missed you!! How is your beautiful family?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SharonK0527
Woo hoo, sounds like a great trip! Can't wait to hear more!
Next thing you know, the 20% discount on deluxe resorts came out for the general public and there wasn't much difference between a standard view room at AKL and a room at POR. Muffin said to go for the room at AKL, knowing how much I love that resort.
After about two days, I decided this was not a good move for us and told Muffin that I would rather stay at POR then have a view of the parking lot at AKL. Yes, I am spoiled that way and have never stayed in anything other than a Savanna View room.
I tried to suck it up. I told myself we really don't spend that much time in the room. I told myself that I still had full access to the savanna. I told myself that there is nothing like that gorgeous 100 foot tree in the lobby. But in the end, I couldn't do it. Besides, this was supposed to be a budget trip.
Fully expecting Muffin to say," OK, if you are sure lets switch", I was shocked when he said just book the Savanna view room!!!!!!! He also said while we are at it, book the Portofino Bay at USF!!
What?!?!
I have no idea how that happened. I was perfectly happy to stay at Sapphire Falls. (Don't worry Cheryl, I promise to still get some pictures and check the place out!). We have stayed at both the Hard Rock Hotel and the Royal Pacific resort and loved them both. We have not yet stayed at the Portofino but I guess we won't be able to say that anymore after December!. This will be our Christmas present to each other and I am giving up going to an Eagles game, but I still feel like I made out great and I honestly had nothing to do with this one!!!!
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the holidays at WDW, we haven't seen the new Harry Potter Stuff and we haven't been to Sea World in ages!!
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I love your disclaimer at the end of your update. 
Can't wait for more! 
PassPorter Guide Author
This is me, reading your PTR.
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