PTR....Universal Adventures of Dreams and an Expanding world part 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PTR....Universal Adventures of Dreams and an Expanding world part 2
Hi, I am Jennifer.
For those who don't know me, I am a mother of 3, Michael (23), Paige (19) and Claire (7). Claire is my traveling buddy. My older 2 no longer go with us.
To make a long story short, My son doesn't get along well with my husband and Paige won't go anywhere without her boyfriend these days....
Niether are huge Disney fans either...which is a huge dissappointment.
Here is Claire. She loves everything Disney and she makes me very proud.
I am married to Skip...and I hate to say it, but I don't really have a good recent picture of him. He was unable to come on our trip last year, and that is when I am usually able to get a picture of him. The last trip we went on as family was in 2009, so it's been awhile. We did do a 1 day trip to Cedar Point last year though.
Skip is what some call a resister...he seems to not want to go on vacations at all anymore.....while I want to do them more often. I do a lot of complaining about him, but he is a good guy... he just doesn't see why anyone would ever "need" to vacation once a year, let alone a couple of times. This also cramps my style, as I became a travel agent just over a year ago. So now I am planning trips for others and dreaming of Disney daily.
Also,.... repeat clients is good for business as well, and he wants me to succeed, right?... so he should see the light!
We have 2 very exciting trips planned this year....When I say we, I mean Claire and I....Skip will be coming on 1 of them, but the other he has chosen not to join, for 2 reasons. 1, he is a dairy farmer and that time of year can be busy, and 2, my family is going on that trip and he doesn't want to spend a week completely with them......though I have told him over and over that we can seperate as often as we like. I think he may still be considering it, but it is booked without him at this point in time.
So what are these 2 exciting trips you may ask? I'll start with trip number 2.
That is the family trip and what this PTRwill focus on. We booked this back in Oct. and won't be going till Nov 3rd of this year. My husband did give me hassle about this, but end the end he reasoned...happy wife, happy life... oh so true!
We will be cruising on the Disney Dream for 4 nights (nov. 4 ~ 8) and then heading off to Disney World for a few more nights. I know I will be staying 3 nights for sure, but I am thinking of extending it a few days more (again that has been met with grumbles). Claire and I will most likely be stayingtill the 14th.
Claire and I will have one cabin, My parents will be in an adjoining cabin. My one sister and her DH and 2 girls will have a cabin. My Aunt and Uncle will have an adjoining room to my sisters. Then we have 2 families of cousins along as well.
I have NEVER booked a trip that far in advance for myself.....EVER!
Now for trip number 1. This year we will be married 10 years, and I wanted to do something special, but the resister was fighting me on it. I had traveled twice last year, once with Claire and my Mom, who took Skip's place when he had to cancel last minute, and once by myself to go to a Disney agent education program.
I finally just kind of gave up hope of doing anything and waiting till next year. Skip then mentioned that we could go to Asheville NC to visit the Biltmore Mansion. This was something I had wanted to do for years. We had it planned that we would drive to a buddy's house and deliver a part, spend a day or 2 there and then drive to NC for a day or 2 and then stopping off at Gatlinburg on the way home. When we actually looked at a map and googled it, the drives were much longer than we thought...or hoped. At least 8 hours for each segment. This wasn't sounding too fantastic to me, but I didn't complain. Skip then came right out and said no way does he want to drive that long.
After looking at a few options , he came in one night and told me that we might as well go to that "other" Disneyland park....Ok, he gets park names confused all the time, so I asked, "You mean in CA?" and he said, "No, the other one in FL". So I knew he meant Universal So I started looking up prices of flights. Skip wanted to leave Monday, March 12......But the flights were sky high and hotel availibilitly was next to none. I told him we should try for the week Claire was off on Spring break. The flights were less, but still high and I could find several hotels to choose from. The main key being he wanted it cheap.
After doing research and some hem-hawing around (with things like should we stay onsite and pay $1000 more, or just go cheap and get a free breakfast buffet. ...the trip was booked!
We would be flying into Sanford Airport late March 26th and staying at the Quality Inn and Suites (formally a Fairfield Inn). We have 3 day park to park tickets and will fly home Friday. March 30th. It's a short trip, but I'm sure we will be busy and have a good time.
I haven't been to Universal since 1999, and both Claire and Skip never have been. After booking it, Skip almost regretted it and said maybe we should've stuck with Disney after all... UGH!.....go figure. But he just doesn't like to try new things, so I'm sure he'll be OK after we get there. He is still daily doubting this decision. I knwo we will have fun, we just have to convince him he is having a good time.
I am very excited to start planning. I leave in 13 days!!! I have so much research to do. I am super excited about going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Also it will be fun to be offsite and maybe get a look at other places in Orlando.
I am obviously back from that trip now and you can read about it here.
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Trip 1 is done and over, but I don't have the major blues because I KNOW when we are going back!!!
As I mentioned, we are going on the Dream on Nov. 4th and then a little Disney time. I can hardly wait!!!!
The plan is to fly down Nov 3. Flights are out for Delta, which is the airline we will most likely fly. We only want direct flights. I refuse to fly Spirit again, UNLESS the price was so LOW that I couldn't refuse, but there are a lot of extra costs with Spirit, including having to pay for Carry ons, so I highly doubt I will ever fly with them again. They have small seats, no leg room ,and a lower baggage weight limit as well. (meaning I had to buy an extra bag to bring stuff home last August) Air Tran is the other option, but My Mom refuses to fly with them because they are famous for changing flight times, or turning a nonstop flight into one with a layover.
Though after talking with her yesterday, she's not so opposed if we can get a good rate.
Delta has their flights out for that time period, but the price is just awful. Most of the family is thinking of staying after the cruise for a few days and heading home on the 11th. I looked at prices and it was about $354 per person. I checked again yesterday and it's up to $409. There is NO WAY we will pay that amount for a flight, so we are going to wait it out for now. My plans right now are to come home on the 14th. Flights are slightly less (about $70 less actually), but still much higher than I want to pay, so again, we'll do the waiting game.
Aren't flight prices outrageous?! I wonder if we'll ever see $120-$150 rates again?!
It's horrid. I can't believe they expect people to pay that much more during a slower time of year. I've been told to wait till the end of summer. I hope it pans out.
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So the plan right now is to fly in on Nov. 3, which is a Sat. I am hoping to get an earlier flight and get to Orlando around 12 or 1 PM. Delta has some good flight times....there prices suck though right now. We are going to rent cars and drive over to the port area and stay at the Residence inn there.
I am hoping we can get ther in time to see the Fantasy pull out. I want to wave from the beach or park to it! I need directions on where exactly that is though. I'm sure we'll take the kids swimming at the pool, and amaybe even at the beach as well. This will be kind of a lazy day..I hope.
And with luck we'll get to bed at a decent time. Hopefully I'll sleep better this year.
Claire and I are sharing a room with my parents. We reserved a room with 2 queen beds. Last year we had a room with one king and a pull out couch. My parents slept on the couch and said it was absolutely horrid.
I get excited just thinking about it, but I stil lhave 7 months to go!
I know what you mean about being excited to go, even with a looong wait. In fact I have a suspicion that most everyone on these boards know exactly what you mean!
Glad to join you on another trip (and I can hardly wait to see what Claire will be wearing!!)
I know what you mean about being excited to go, even with a looong wait. In fact I have a suspicion that most everyone on these boards know exactly what you mean!
Glad to join you on another trip (and I can hardly wait to see what Claire will be wearing!!)
I bet you are right! I am hoping to reuse some outfits for Claire and a few more have been bought. But I know myself and I might get a new custom outfit ...or two. I have eyed some really cute DCL themed dresses and skirt outfits. The one I really liked is like $75 and I can't justify paying that much for what it is, but it is really darn cute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great travel day plans!
Thanks. It's really hard planning when air prices are so high for the one airline who has dates released and the others I am looking at haven't released that far out yet. I sure hope the prices drop. I have heard so many people complaining about air for even the summer months as well. I hate driving, but for $800 for 2 people it might be worth it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Travel day plans look good.
Thanks. I'm sure there will be changes of some sort, there always is. But I just have to wait it out for now. I guess the airlines don't realize there are some people who like to plan far out.
[QUOTE=jenseib;3918303]I have eyed some really cute DCL themed dresses and skirt outfits. The one I really liked is like $75 and I can't justify paying that much for what it is, but it is really darn cute.
Well don't keep me in suspense --do you have a link so we (I) could see it?
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...though I have told him over and over that we can seperate as often as we like. I think he may still be considering it, but it is booked without him at this point in time.
...the trip was booked! 
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I am hoping to reuse some outfits for Claire and a few more have been bought. But I know myself and I might get a new custom outfit ...or two. 
I have eyed some really cute DCL themed dresses and skirt outfits. The one I really liked is like $75 and I can't justify paying that much for what it is, but it is really darn cute.
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