The Great Procrastination PTR--Trip in Aug. 2011 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Wow! That is actually a great deal on airfare, when you look at what it is lately. I've paid almost that for round trip for two recently! I'm amazed at how well you've planned for the whole family and I think it is going to be a great trip for you guys!
Wow..impressive deal on the flights. I paid several $100 more for just 3 of us.
I'm so excited for you that you'll get to experience and make all the memories with family and just your own little crew all wrapped up in one vacation.
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They caught us all smiling and looking at the camera!!!
My original plan for the trip was to book through Disney. That’s how I had always done it in the past. John, however, thought that it might be easier for us if we went through AAA. Since I was so thrilled that John wanted to go, I agreed with him. Besides which, everything we had heard about AAA travel had been complimentary.
When I called in August of 2010 to book the trip, I called the AAA travel 800 on the back of my AAA card. I was connected to the travel office in Providence. A very nice woman quoted me a price and told me that she could hold a space for us for a couple of days, but after that we’d need to put down the $200. She was laying it on really thick about how if we didn’t book very soon, we could lose out on the free dining offer. I didn’t believe that part about not getting the free dining, and I knew we were almost ready to book. I honestly didn’t feel pressured.
John and I talked about it and decided to go ahead and book since they were already holding a spot for us. We talked once more about whether or not to book on-line through Disney or to book through AAA. The quote from AAA was the same as the quote I’d gotten from the Disney website. John said he really thought it would be easier to have someone else do all the work for us, so we decided to go through AAA. He went to the AAA office in Boston, which is across the street from his office, to put the $200 down.
This is where our problem begins. The guy in Boston took our down payment and told us that if we had any questions to go ahead and call him. But he never returned phone calls and he never offered any help. He gladly took John’s money—when he paid the deposit and when he went in and paid off the trip. All they’ve ever done for us is take our money. And the guy that John originally paid the money to no longer works in the office.
So there were some things that I wanted to do. I wanted to link the ADRs I’d created with our room/reservation. I also wanted to link our room to my family’s rooms. I then wanted to add Magical Express to our reservation. Since AAA hadn’t really been helpful and I had the time, I figured I’d take care of it. In March, John went into the AAA office to get the Disney confirmation number so I could do all of these things. He even told them what he wanted the number for. They gave him a receipt with the confirmation number on it as well as all the AAA information.
I suddenly got swamped with school work and didn’t do anything about it until April. I called Disney and gave them our confirmation number so that I could start to do these things. The CM on the phone told me there were numbers missing from the confirmation number. He tried to find us in the system under our last name, our email addresses, our phone numbers. He found nothing. There was no reservation. I panicked.
I called AAA. They gave me a hard time. They asked me why I needed the number. I explained it to them, saying specifically what I wanted to do. The agent I spoke with looked up the reservation and couldn’t find it. I panicked. We’d already paid for the trip—the whole thing. If they couldn’t find it, then what? Then she peppered me with questions, “Are you sure you booked through AAA?” “Do you have a confirmation number?” “Is the information you’re looking at printed on AAA stationary?” The tone of her voice was condescending. I gave her all the numbers I had, the incorrect Disney confirmation number, the AAA confirmation number, the agent’s number, everything. She finally found it; she told me that she didn’t have the information I wanted; she would have to contact the agent who booked the trip.
She called me back a few hours later with the correct full number. I was very nice in thanking her, telling her once more what I was looking to do. She told me to have a nice day. I called Disney, ready to make the changes.
It turns out that I can’t. AAA owns the reservation. Only they can make the changes. I could do nothing—except maybe link my reservation to our ADRs. If I wanted to make any other changes or any requests, I would have to do go through AAA.
Now if someone had told me this at the beginning…If AAA had said to John in March that we couldn’t do anything…if the agent had told me earlier in the day when I told her what I had wanted to do…
It's frustrating and I have been procrastinating in calling back AAA because I'm afraid that there will be more drama. Suggestions?
Sorry to hear you have had nothing but problems with AAA. I would only suggest that if you continue to have problems with them you call and ask to speak to a Mgr. Should that not resolve issue send a reistered letter to regional Mgr and a copy to President of Ops at AAA and see how fast you become problem # 1 for them to solve
It's Sunday, May 29th. This is actually a real-time update and not one that I typed earlier and then posted.
I still have not called AAA to make the changes and updates to the trip. John is off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning. Maybe he'll call and deal with it for me.
This past week has found me spending way too much money at Target. I had hoped that the kids would be able to wear last year's summer clothes this summer. My son is so tall and so skinny that he gets away with shorts for two summers. He might be ok between last year's shorts and his cousin's hand-me-downs. I'm very grateful that the style for boy's shorts is long. Anna, however, is a different story. I was hoping that she'd manage with last year's shorts and the least boyish of her brother's hand-me-downs, but no go. So on Thursday, I bought her shorts and t-shirts.
Yesterday it was bathing suits. Jack's I knew would be too short and too tight. Anna, though, I really thought the suits I had for her last year would fit. Nope. So we went bathing suit shopping.
Clothes wise, they're in good shape for summer and the trip.
I also picked up toothbrush/toothpaste packs I found in the travel aisle. I've got a Hefty TSA quart size bag for each of us (really didn't need to buy special bags that are the same size as the quart size freezer bags I already had, but I was excited a few months ago) with shampoo, soap, and sunscreen. I've put in deoderant into the bags for adults, and I'll add the toothbrushes and toothpaste. We'll be arriving around noon and if we can't get into our rooms (which is likely), we'll have this stuff to freshen up with. I'm planning on checking our luggage (we're flying SW, so we're not paying for it), and using DME. I figured I would carry on a bag loaded with our bathingsuits so we can jump into the pool as soon as we arrive.
I also bought a couple of binders and tabs. I'm going to make the kids books to keep them occupied while we're traveling. We'll be on the plane for a long time, and hopefully we'll be able to keep Anna occupied. I've been downloading coloring pages, and I made a word search for Jack.
Last night Jack was a little sad. We decided (and he was part of the decision process) for him to take a break from karate for a while. Our neighbor is still taking classes, on and off, and was invited to a birthday party for another kid in the class. Jack wasn't invited because we haven't been to karate for about two months. The neighbor kid has talked about nothing else this weekend. We saw him Friday and he kept yelling that he had to go buy the karate kid a present. Then yesterday, the neighbor kid came over and just kept talking about it and wondering why Jack wasn't invited.
Part of me has to keep reminding myself that the neighbor boy has trouble judging social situations and maybe he didn't understand that he was hurting Jack's feelings. After all, both boys are only 6. But another part of me had to fight to keep myself from just screaming at him for being such a jerk and being so hurtful to Jack. My mantra was, "He's just six. He's an immature 6. He doesn't understand. He's just six. He's an..."
Jack understands that if we were still going to karate, then he would have been invited. He and I talked about it yesterday after the neighbor left and Jack says that he doesn't want to go back to karate--maybe we'll go back in the fall--but he wishes that he could go to the party. I told him that I understood and was sorry, but that I couldn't make it happen for him. He understood, and for the rest of the day he was happy and doing his own thing. But last night, when he was over-tired after a day spent outside in the sun on the slip n' slide, he started to cry about it.
So I started telling him about the giant Lego store in DTD and how we could definitely go there. I told him about my plans to get to the hotel and go straight to the pool. I told him about all the Mr. Potatohead pieces he could pick from. Then the poor little guy cheered up and passed out to sleep about 13 hours straight.
So today, so that Jack wasn't home and outside when the neighbor boy was off to the party Jack wasn't invited to, John took him to his (John's) sister's house. They brought Jack's go-kart so that Jack and his cousin can drive around together. There's also a really cool pool there. I've got Anna here so that it is just a little special treat for Jack.
My mother and father collected change for my kids for them to spend on the trip. The started this when we had told them about the trip we had wanted to take in 2010. Even when the trip was off, my parents still collected their change. We used the money to put towards a pool for our backyard last summer. We spent hours in the pool last summer and are waiting patiently for John to clean out the back yard so that we can again this summer. It was a great treat since we didn't get to go away.
My parents started their collecting again once we decided we were going on this trip. They collected all the money in a big yellow crayon bank and they gave it to us last weekend when we went down to Connecticut to see my nephew who was home on leave. Jack and I counted it last night. There was $162.50 in bills and change we were able to put into rolls. There's probably another $10 in coins that didn't make up full rolls. We put the extra into the yellow crayon bank we've been filling up here. We'll keep that one going until right before we leave. So as of right now, each child has $81.25 to spend as he and/or she sees fit. I'll bring it to the bank and get the money in cash and then I'll bring it to a Disney Store to get gift cards for them to use instead of the cash.
Also this week, I created a scavnger hunt for my nieces and sisters for while we're at Disney. I was reading Cam22's current PTR and she is giving little facts and trivia to her readers that she got from a book called The Hidden Magic of Disney World. I downloaded the book on my Nook and decided that I would send a fact a day or a couple of facts every couple of days to my sisters and nieces. I haven't been that great at being regular about it, but I kind of joked that the book would be a great source for a scavenger hunt. One of my nieces really liked that idea, so I went ahead and wrote it. I think it's pretty cool. I wasn't going to type it up, but ended up doing so. The one sister who isn't going with us because she'd already planned a trip for June asked if I would share it with her. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I think this has been enough rambling for the moment. Thanks for sticking with it!
So sorry that Jack has felt bad over the party! What a sweet thing for the grandparents to do for your kids! Hope the scavenger hunt works out. I've really enjoyed reading this book.
What a thoughtful idea from your parents. I actually picked up one of those banks from the dollar store that counts the change as you drop it in. I was like a little kid myself setting goals for myself.
Glad Jack is getting a special day to make up for his sadness.
FYI on AAA. We had a bad experience with them last year while planning this past vakay. We actually ended up cancelling with AAA and rebooking thru Disney. I did find out that the confirmation number AAA gives you will not appear in Disney's system (after I freaked out thinking our ressie was never made!). I think that we are spoiled from dealing with the wonderful team over a Disney Travel Company and unless the AAA agent is a Disney specialist, we get dissapointed.
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Your plans are looking great, too! 
PassPorter Guide Author
I have no suggestions for you 
but hopefully others will....
I would only suggest that if you continue to have problems with them you call and ask to speak to a Mgr. Should that not resolve issue send a reistered letter to regional Mgr and a copy to President of Ops at AAA and see how fast you become problem # 1 for them to solve 
I've really enjoyed reading this book. 
Glad everything else is coming together! 
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