Better Late than Never: Saratoga Springs- October 26th - November 2nd 2013 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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At the end of the summer last year, we started getting really excited for the trip. We were going for 8 days (Saturday - Sunday), but still weren't positive if we were flying or driving. We have driven a few times, and I enjoy the drive. We have driven straight through (leaving 10pm the night before and getting there around 3pm; on the way home leavign 6am in the morning and getting home around midnight). We have also done trips where we have stayed overnight in Savanna on the way down, and then Florence, SC on the way home. Usually every trip we plan to drive, and then usually at some point we find good airfare, and we book flights. In August, I started checking prices again. We always fly out of Philadelphia International (its 20min from our home), and always fly USAirways (would love to go Southwest, but they serve peanuts, and I'm just not comfortable with risking an allergic reaction in the air. ) However, I still wasn't getting great prices on USAirways. I talked to my husband, and gave him the bad news. He suggested I try Spirit Airways out of Atlantic City. His friend lives in NJ, and always flys spirit to Orlando, and not only are flights cheaper but so is the parking ($9 a day). We spend alot on parking--- and usually either have to do a shuttle from the economy lot, or use a service where you drive to a private parking facility, and they drive you to the airport. I knew my parents flew Spirit when they went to the Keys, and they were happy, so I gave it a shot. Tickets were almost $500 cheaper. The only deal was you had to pay for every bag, and then pay a fee to pick your seat ahead of time. But even after all of that, we were still saving $400 (not including savings on parking). AC is about an hour and 15 minutes from us (maybe a little less). They had a 6:56am flight or a 7pm at night flight --- and that's it! I'm so used to USAir with a flight every hour or so. This meant we'd have to leave our house around 4am. I called Joe, and he thought it was a good idea, so I booked flights from AC.
In the meantime, I booked Magical Express. Also got an email from Disney informing me that I should customize my magic bands (what the heck are magic bands???). This was a no research, no planning trip. I was so busy with work, I just figured we'd book and go. I had not been good about keeping up with Disney news etc, for the past few years. I went back to work about 5 years ago, and at that time, I started getting lazy about getting on passporter etc. I was really good during the years that I stayed home. So, I started doing some research. Apparently only select hotels had the opportunity to have the magic bands last fall (almost all of them, but a few were left out....and off property guests did not have them). Luckily SSR was in the bunch that had Magic Bands. So, I linked our resort reservation, and we picked our colors (pink for me, orange for Danny, red for Aidan, steel for Joe). Very cool. Unfortunately, in the past few years, I got in the habit of buying our park tickets when we get to the resort to check in (that way, I don't have to worry about leaving them at home). So I wasn't able to book our fastpasses ahead of time. I wasn't too worried-- it was off season anyway, and they still had the regular paper kiosks as well. The other question I had was whether Spirit participated in Magical Express. Could I say goodbye to my bags in AC, and have them show up in the room??? I felt a little out of sorts with this new airline and airport. We are so used to Philadelphia. We know where the terminal is.....we know how to get to security, and then are so familiar with the airport--- its no problem walking that long walk to the gate. We even know where we like to grab food in the airport. I wasn't loving this unknown airport lol. I never found the answer about magical express (I still don't know lol). I mentioned it to Joe, and he suggested to stop worrying about it. He decided he would just pick up the bags at the terminal and take them to the bus, so we never put our DME tags on our bags. We've taken so many flights to Disney after 7pm, so we're used to picking up our bags because we know we might get there after 10pm. Joe said he didn't really mind doing that.
Needed to take care of Grocery Delivery. We have used WEgoshop often in the past. Have also used Garden Grocer---- happy with both, but like that I can list what I want on Wego, rather than pick from their list. I had my list ready, and showed it to Joe. He kept saying--- we don't need that. One case of water was enough (huh? we go through a case every 2 days at home, and that's not in the Florida heat). I had too much cereal, too many snacks. He decided we could go without a delivery. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to spend $30 a morning on breakfast--- he said it wouldn't cost that much (he was right--- it was more like $45 lol). Then I reminded him what bottles of water cost--- he insisted we don't drink that much, and usually just drink when we're at meals (huh???). Ok--- I was going to let this go, and see how it worked out without a delivery (mistake lol!!!!--- we will never, ever go again without a delivery haha. Lesson learned).
I started my vacation from work the Friday before we left (we were leavign Saturday morning), because my fear was I would see patients on Friday, and would need to follow up with things Monday morning (md calls, etc), and I was not bringing my work computer or work phone to Disney. Plus I didn't want to spend Friday night charting on the patients I saw that day. So I took friday off. Thurday night I did one more very quick target shop for some toiletries, laundry detergent pods and fabric softener sheets and get Disney Gift Cards with the rest of our spending money (I used my red card and get them at the discount) . I poured all of our toiletries into the little plastic bottles (I have been doing that since I was 14-- I don't know why, I love all those little plastic reusable toiletry bottles instead of bringing our big shampoos...travel sizes are never big enough for me me, but the real sizes are too big.) The boys all use one type of shampoo, and I have another. I have all my stuff in a certain color. Also Joe gets very crazy with me about making sure all bags are under weight. If he suspects my bag is too heavy, he starts to get really tense and I start to hear heavy breathing, and huffing and puffing (so the little bottles help). Every time I pack something that he doesn't see as necessary (like laudry pods or my hairspray)-- he makes a comment (we don't need that )---yeah unless you want to see my "Monica" hair all week ---I need lots and lots of hairspray (we always joke about that episode of Friends when Monica goes to the Caribbean and her hair gets crazy---that's me). Then once I'm done-- he weighs everyhting on the Wii Fit. I gotta make weight!!!!!! Thursday night, on the way home from Target, I also did my pre Disney trip to Bath and Body, and picked out our hand soaps and my body wash and lotions for the trip (I always get a signature scent for all of our hand soaps and my body wash and cream for every trip-----that way the scent will remind me of the trip) Honestly I have one that has become our Disney scent, and I have gotten that for the past 4 or 5 years (but I only get that for Disney). This time I went with a halloween scent (since we would be there over halloween).
Friday morning (I was off---yay!) I started the day getting up early-- before the kids. mixed up some meatballs and put them in the oven to later put in the crockpot, so they could scoop them out for dinner. It was going to be a very busy day. I knew we weren't going to have time to sit together, so this way everyone could just make meatball sandwiches. I got the kids to school, ran to CrossFit, made all my doctor calls to follow up from some things on Thursday, left report for all of the nurses covering my patients, and finished up the laundry and packing. It was a nice day.
Aidan walked home from school with his friends, and I went and picked Danny up from his elementary school at 3:30. While waiting for him to come out, I met with another mom who was also going to Disney while we were there, and we talked about possibly meeting up during our trip. We only had the last Saturday that overlapped. She was going to F&WF. I know we don't like to go there on weekends, so wasn't positive it would work out, but I really hoped we could get there (only problem was we didn't have hoppers on this trip--- so that means we'd have to spend all saturday at Epcot, and that was listed as a day to avoid on my tourguide website).
Joe was home by the time I got home with Danny. He ran to the 5p crossfit, and then had to coach soccer practice for Aidan's soccer team (he coaches both of their soccer teams). So the meatballs came in handy...everyone just ate when they were hungry. I had Disney movies playing all day on our TV in our living room (our last day tradition), and you could hear them throughout the house. I had the dvds stacked next to the player, all ready for my disney movie marathon day. I can't say we were focused on sitting and watching them, but I liked hearing them. Mary Poppins, Lion King, Toy Story, Wall E, Up and Monsters Inc---all our faves. At 9:30--- we zipped the last of the bags, weighed them on the Wii Fit (all were under weight!!!!!). We made sure the floors were swept, dishes away and trash out. The kids had their backpacks packed with school books and supplies to work on their assignments. They also made sure all of their DS games were packed, Nintendo DS were charged. We also put our phones on the charger, and lights out. I had three alarms set--- the alarm clock on my kindle, and my iphone (both set to go off with the song Circle of Life), and I had a regular alarm clock also set for 5 minutes later--- just in case. It was going to be a very early morning!!!!
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Dina
Last edited by Happymommy; 08-05-2014 at 08:38 AM..
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Glad you took the extra day off, sounded like you needed it!
Time to go!
I looked at flying Spirit out of DFW because it was so much cheaper, but American finally came down to 276 and I was able to use miles for one ticket. I was so happy!!!
Great start so far. I totally understand the school dilemma. My DD is 13 and about to start 8th grade. We noticed this past year in 7th grade, it was more difficult for her to catch up if she missed school for vacation - the work is getting harder. So for the next 5 years, until she's out of high school, we'll only be traveling when she's not in school. I loved the years when she was younger and could miss school more easily and we could go during the offseason but those days are over for now LOL.
Can't wait to hear more about your trip!! Great start so far!!
What a great way to bridge the gap between trips!!! Looks like we just missed you... we arrived at the very end of your trip on 11/1. Hope your week was as fantastic as ours was! Sounds like you have great plans and you're all set for the fun to begin!
What a great start to telling your latest Disney adventure. I'm planning on going to WDW October 2015. Like you in the past I've always flown out of PHL. But considering the savings you are describing I might just fly out of Atlantic City. I might still save money if I took the early morning flight and just get a cheap hotel room the night before. Thanks for giving me food for thought.
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