Living the dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 10/2 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

I'm now waiting to hear if those points will be used for the bungalow. Not to put a wrench in, but have you ever considered renting out the extra points? We've never done that, as typically we seem to always be in borrow mode, not bank, but I think if we had 195 I'd be tempted, as the funds earned could then go toward something spectacular on my next trip. But then again, a night in one of those bungalows IS spectacular.

A couple of people have suggested that to me, but it would be a lot of work, as we can't use a company to rent them out. Some of the resale companies do rentals, but I've enquired before and it's only for American owners, which means I'd need to the work myself and honestly, a) I cant be bothered and b) I'm too selfish and want to keep them for myself, as I can always find some way of using our points!

[cubfancolleen]

I didn't know you couldn't use one of the rental places if you weren't American. But again, may be worthwhile to have a chance to try a bungalow.

[KMB733]

Your plans for Canada look great. You are touring two of my favorite cities, Montreal and Ottawa. Hopefully you'll be able to tour the Olympic Park. Your plans for Disney are looking good. You've got a nice list of places to try. Hopefully you'll be able to go to both the meet up to remember Bill and the safari.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by KMB733

Your plans for Canada look great. You are touring two of my favorite cities, Montreal and Ottawa.

Oh that's wonderful to hear you say that, as it was really Toronto and Quebec City I've always wanted to visit - those two places were just on the way, as it were.

[DMA]

Plans are looking go so far! I am hoping we will still be able to get in a quick meet when you are in Niagara.

[Cam22]

I have always felt WDW had so many dining options, but with all the new additions, there is now an overwhelming number. We have favorites, but we also want to keep trying as many new ones as possible each trip. I'm sure you had funny making your final choices.

[NanaTink]

oooh, sounds good! I've wanted to stay at the bungalows but just don't have the points. probably why so many are available! Maybe if I save them up.....

[chezp]

Originally Posted by DMA

Plans are looking go so far! I am hoping we will still be able to get in a quick meet when you are in Niagara.

I hope so too.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

I have always felt WDW had so many dining options, but with all the new additions, there is now an overwhelming number. We have favorites, but we also want to keep trying as many new ones as possible each trip. I'm sure you had funny making your final choices.

You are so right about there being an overwhelming number of choices with all the new restaurants. I keep thinking how Disney seem to have concentrated on more places to eat, rather than new attractions, in the last couple of years. I guess that's what happens when you redevelop Downtown Disney into Disney Springs....

[chezp]

Originally Posted by NanaTink

oooh, sounds good! I've wanted to stay at the bungalows but just don't have the points. probably why so many are available! Maybe if I save them up.....

I must admit when I first found out how much they were, I figured there'd be lots of availability. The sales spiel we went to for Members on the Wonder on our Alaskan cruise almost a year ago was full of how hard it would be to book them and I was sitting there thinking "really? At those points?!" I guess I was right...

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part five: is there any way to fit this into our trip? Hmmm….

Saturday 23 January

We went up to London today to see Cirque du Soleil’s latest touring show to arrive in the UK, Amaluna, and it was excellent. While there, Mark asked how many Cirque shows we’ve now seen and while researching this (the answer up until now is 18 by the way ), I realised that Cirque have a new resident show on Broadway, opening in April. Interesting…. It would be nice to see that…

Sunday 24 January

I’m the sort of person who when something goes into their head, I ponder it, I examine all the options, and I work out whether it’s feasible before a) going with it or b) discounting it completely. The seed that been sold last night about Cirque’s new resident show in New York City. Now we’re flying out of JFK at the end of this trip. Is there any way to fit this into our trip? Hmmm….

Now my original plan had been to fly from Orlando up to JFK on the Saturday, and then fly home from there that night. I had thought about flying up earlier in the day, and then heading into New York, but I thought it would be pushing it too much. What I hadn’t considered up until now (goodness knows why ) was the idea of flying up to New York on the Friday, when we return from our four night cruise on the Dream.

I started to look into it, and realised that of course we could then fly into any of the airports, we weren’t just restricted to JFK. I had a browse of private limo services, making no decisions, as we may still just opt to catch a cab, and the cheapest airport to get one from is La Guardia, so that may be a possibility, as may Newark. At least it gives us more options anyway…

As with all these things, I thought it easiest to get some advice from those in the know, so I posted a question in the Globetrotting forum on the boards, asking which of the three main New York airports people would fly into, if they had the choice. I stressed it needed to have easy access to Manhattan, so it’ll be interesting to see what responses come back…

The flight times were pretty good as well, with a lot throughout the day. Disney always tells you not to book a flight before midday on departure day, and there are some at 12:15pm, which is perfect. That would get us up to New York around 3:00pm, and the show is at 8:00pm, so hopefully that would work.

It would also open up the opportunity to visit the 9/11 memorial and museum, which I’ve wanted to do ever since it opened. As our flight isn’t until 9:30pm the next day, that would give us pretty much a full day. This is all working out as if it was supposed to be…

I had a look at hotels, and did consider using our DVC points for a hotel in the Concierge Collection, Le Parker Meridian, but although it’s got a good overall rating on TripAdvisor, recent reviews didn’t exactly inspire me, shall we say? I figured maybe not, and anyway, if we’re going to go for a Broadway show in the evening, I don’t think I’d want to be taking the subway back to our hotel afterwards, I’d want to be within walking distance of a hotel. There are lots, and some that are definite contenders, so I think this could be a plan…

It was also lovely tonight to see Dyan posting her weekly update again on the Facebook group for Bagman Days, telling us how many days there are to go. I’ve missed those over the last couple of weeks, it’s such a great way of counting down so for doing that Dyan!

Later in the evening, we settled down to watch a nature documentary about the giant dinosaur found in Patagonia. I thought it sounded really interesting, and anything that’s on the BBC and narrated by Sir David Attenborough is a winner with me. It was about the titanosaurus, as I discovered it was called during the programme. Fascinated by what had happened to it, I did some online research, and first found out the bones were discovered back in 2014, but then I also found out that literally in the last week, the American Museum of Natural History has just opened up a display incorporating the skeleton of this amazing beast.

Ok, so it looks like someone is trying to tell me something subliminally. Scrub that, it’s not really that subliminal, it’s pretty in your face! First off, I find out by luck that Cirque du Soleil has a new resident show in New York City, then I watch a nature documentary and discover the skeleton that it’s about is also on show in New York City. Hmmm…. I really think that needs to be our final stop on this trip.

Monday 25 January

Well, the consensus on the boards was that La Guardia is the best out of the three main airports for flying into New York City. Apparently it’s the closest, which is what I thought, and it’s pretty easy to navigate, so I’ll be looking for flights from Orlando into there then… Someone did suggest looking at Southwest flights, which I did. They fly into La Guardia, but sadly there are no non-stop flights, which is really what I want. They also fly into Long Island, but I looked at that, and it’s way further out than La Guardia, so that’s not really an option. It’s a shame, as I do prefer to fly with Southwest.

It looks as if Delta is my only option, and there is a flight that leaves at 12:15pm, which would fit with Disney’s requirement not to book a flight before midday on the day you finish a cruise. I started to shop around for fares, and found a bit of difference in UK sites, but I was glad I looked at Delta’s website, as it seems that they’re all offering the cheapest version. Essentially with that, you don’t get seat allocation until you check in. I don’t think so. The next fare up isn’t much more, so I think we’ll go for that. I did look into their next cabin up, Delta Comfort I think and that looked good, but given how much extra you’re paying, I was a bit surprised you didn’t get free checked bags with that. I did think about first class, when it told me it was only $100 more, as the baggage fees for us would probably be about $80, as I guess we’ll probably have three bags. However, the site meant it was $100 more per person. Hmm…. Time to think again…

I also need to tell you this quick story… when I spoke to my dad on the phone last night, I mentioned to him I was thinking of a night’s stay in New York City, and I mentioned the Hotel Pennsylvania to him, and the terrible reviews it seemed to have on TripAdvisor. His reaction “why are you telling me about that?” and I told him I thought that was where we’d stayed when we’d visited New York City on a family vacation in 1987. He told me categorically it wasn’t, but he rang back tonight to say he’d been doing some online research, and apparently it was called the Hotel Pennsylvania before we stayed there, but not while we were there, so goodness knows how I remembered the name and now it is called that again. So I was right – it was the same place!

The reason I remember is that we stayed there for two nights at the start of our three week trip that took in NYC, Washington DC, Walt Disney World and a two week road trip on the western coast that took in places like Disneyland, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Death Valley and San Francisco. Do you see know where I get my thirst for travel from? Anyway, my dad had some stupid deal along the lines of you booked with whichever airline we flew with, and you got three nights there at something like $1 a night. This was 1987 and it was something that crazy, I promise!

Anyway, it was fine for the first two nights… we flew back into New York City to spend our final night in the States there, and I have no idea what went wrong, but basically there was no room at the inn. Now my father is not the sort of person that you say something like that to. Let’s just put it this way, when we got trapped in Cairo Airport, he managed to get through to someone quite high in the British government to highlight our plight. He is persistent and very assertive. I think that’s a good way of describing him. Some people have likened me to him, and although I have mellowed over the years, a few people on the boards have seen me when I get appalling customer service or someone just won’t deal with a problem and then I am a little like him…

Well, the reason I tell you that is by the time he’d finished, the guy behind the desk had very sheepishly said “we do have one room left”, and my dad told him we’d take it… remember this was for like $1. It was only one of their top suites! We walked in and were just stunned at the size of it and the amenities. I did joke with my dad that some stupid idiot (er, that would be him! ) told me not to take any photos of the room without flash on my camera and there was something wrong with the flash. Of course, back then we only had cameras with films, so I didn’t want to waste the film, and didn’t get any shots. Oh boy, do I now regret that, as it was a sight to behold. I did put “hotel Pennsylvania suites NYC” into a Google search for images and saw nothing I remembered, but in fairness, it was almost 30 years ago now…

Wednesday 27 January

I love how PassPorters always come up with the goods. Not only have I determined that La Guardia is the best NYC airport to fly into, but apparently JetBlue also fly direct there from Orlando, so we have another option along with Delta. JetBlue don’t yet have prices out for the date we’re looking at flying, but they are currently coming out a bit more expensive than Delta. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the flights come out for the day we’re after.

What I do like about JetBlue is that their fares include ones that allow one piece or two pieces of checked baggage per person. The one piece option doesn’t cost much more, so that’s a definite possibility. I think the option of two pieces of checked baggage is probably out of our reach, as it’s a heck of a lot more money. Anyway, we still have another three or four weeks to wait before prices are out, and we’ll see what our options are then.

Next: changing the route of the road trip

[DrDolphin]

To my knowledge - Southwest is the only US airline that says if they have an open seat, you can use points to get it (meaning they could hypothetically end up with an entire plane flying on points). All the other airlines limit the number of available seats that can be booked with miles in their programs.

[DMA]

How nice that your new ideas are working into your touring plans!

[Poobah7206]

Looks like a NYC trip is shaping up nicely.

[NanaTink]

Oh, love this plan for NYC! It certainly does look like it was meant to be with all these things coalescing as they did! Are you talking about Kurios? It's currently here in DC but we have been undecided about attending.