Have a Happy Birthday - Part Two - COMPLETE w/Final Thoughts **Updated 11/25** - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Have a Happy Birthday - Part Two - COMPLETE w/Final Thoughts **Updated 11/25**
Have a Happy Birthday – Part Two
So . . . this is the trip that actually caused the last trip. Confused yet? If so, I’ll preface with a little recap in case you didn’t catch the totally exhilarating yet poignant trip report, Have a Happy Birthday – Part One, that is the prequel to this pre-trip report. Geez, now I’m even confused.
One of my best friends, Misti, runs a customer conference for her company at Disney every year. Last year, she didn’t step into a park until it was almost time for her to come home. This year, she wanted to do things differently. She asked her parents to drive down her niece and nephew after the conference since they had never been to Disney and she asked us to join them. Us being us, we said okay especially since we had planned on coming down for MNSSHP party one weekend anyway.
Come to find out, the weekend after Misti’s conference was Maddie’s birthday weekend! Apparently, we went on and on about being at Disney on Maddie’s birthday a little too much because big sister began hinting around that her July birthday should be spent at Disney also. All the stars and planets were in alignment and thus began part one of this two-part birthday extravaganza.
Once we returned from Part One, I knew that we had to get cracking on the plans for Part Two. We were down to less than two months before the trip and I had made not one single solitary reservation. Traveling with friends who aren’t uber planners like me slowed me down a bit, but I finally decided to just go ahead with our plans hoping that they would soon follow suit.
What finally spurred me on was when we received our first pin code in the mail. The funny thing was that it was addressed to our friend who had come with us to Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort a couple of weeks before, but it came to our address. The CM with whom I spoke had no problems with us using it, but none of the resorts and rates that were available blew me away. When I told her that I would just call back when the AP rates came out for our dates, she exclaimed “Oh, they’re out and I can help you with that also!”
Okay, my Passporter pals always keep me informed up-to-the-minute when new AP rates come out and I hadn’t read a word about it. I was a little skeptical, but the CM seemed so sure of herself that I let her check on availability. Since we were talking AP rates here, I thought I would let her check club level availability first. When she mentioned that WL was available, I jumped on it since that was our first club level experience last year and was still our favorite (although the Poly was right up there with it in my book ). She gave me a price which I thought was kind of high for an AP, but I knew that I could cancel later and booked it for 3 nights.
I immediately hopped on the computer and discovered that my “AP” rate was actually the same as the rack rate offered on the Disney site. I figured that I would just wait for the actual rates to come out and then call back to have the reservation changed. At least, we did have a place to stay!
In the meantime, I put Thom (a.k.a train boy ) in charge of transportation. He booked us a sleeper car again and we laughed when we realized that we had the same exact room as last time (I guess we’re just sleeper car “B” types of people ).
By the following week, I discovered via my all-knowing Passporter pals that the AP rates for October were truly out! I explained my “rack room” AP rate situation to a CM on the phone that evening and she immediately jumped on the case. Not only was she extremely knowledgeable and understanding of my issue, but never once did she lay blame on her fellow CM. I had to commend her loyality to her fellow team mate. As she reviewed my reservation, she did comment that the prior CM had applied an AP rate to the room, but she didn’t see where it had discounted the room rate any. Within minutes, she had applied the “real” AP rate to our reservation and we ended up saving over $200!
Of course, what do I do but turn around and spend the same amount on MNSSHP tickets! I was a bit surprised at how much the prices had increased from our last MNSSHP especially considering that Miss Maddie was now 3 years old and would have her own ticket!
Once we had our major plans nailed down. I sent off an email to Misti letting her know what they were. Within a week, she had her family reserved at POFQ, MNSSHP tickets purchased and their transportation set. Misti did admit to having one moment of panic when she realized that she actually purchased Sept. 5th MNSSHP tickets instead of Oct. 5th tickets. One call to Disney cleared that up and she even had the CM laughing when she admitted to her that you should never order things after a couple of glasses of wine. That's my girl!
The surprise was that based on our successful train trip in July her parents, niece and nephew were coming on the train with us. And a further surprise was that Misti and most of her colleagues were taking the train a week before for their conference since they didn’t have luggage limitations. I think that Thom and I have started a train revolution in Columbia!
The final step was to make any ADR’s. I had a pretty good idea of what Misti’s family would like and what would work for our big party, so I decided to take a stab at a loose park schedule and a few ADR’s. We were only a month away from our trip at this point and we were dealing with a party of 9, so I thought it best to hand over the responsibility to concierge at WL. Within 24 hours, they had successfully booked every one of my requests. Now that’s service!
Friday, October 3rd
Parks: MK and possibly Epcot for EMH
Chef Mickey’s – dinner
Sunday, October 5th
Park: AK, MK for MNSSHP
Tusker House – late breakfast
‘Ohana – dinner
Monday, October 6th
Park: DHS
Sci Fi – lunch
I forwarded our itinerary to Misti and prayed that she didn’t think I was taking over. All of my fears vanished though when I read her first line “This is why I love you!” She and her family were psyched with all of our plans. As a fellow foodie, Misti was especially thrilled that the Food &Wine Festival was going on during our trip. Of course, I had to add fuel to the fire by mentioning certain Passporter favorites such as Italian margaritas and Grand Marnier slushies. Even Misti’s mom was getting giddy at the thought of all of these new FAB’s!
With only a couple of weeks left to go, there were only a few loose ends to tie up. After learning a lesson from Mary Devall’s birthday, I decided to order Maddie a cake ahead of time. When I asked Maddie who she wanted on her cake, I wasn’t too surprised to hear an immediate response of “Snow White.” The girl her some Snow White. Once again, I put WL concierge on the case and they were soon in contact with the Epcot bakery to make my little girl’s dream come true.
My final chore was to book a van for our transportation to and from the train station through Happy Limo. My immediate thought was a limo, but with 8 people arriving and 9 people departing we had to have a stretch limo and it wasn’t exactly cost effective. With a van being a third of the cost of the limo, this was a no brainer.
We are all so excited to be sharing Disney with our friends. They are all extremely laid back and just happy to go with the flow, so this will definitely be a “stop and smell the roses” type of trip. They are a warm, generous and fun loving family who want nothing more than to show their grandchildren (and niece and nephew in Misti’s case) Disney World for the first time.
Our cast of characters:
Um . . . I think you know these people . . .
Misti – I met 21 years ago on our mutual first day of work at Blue Cross Blue Shield. Before the week was out, we discovered that our parents knew each other which was odd since neither one of us is originally from Columbia. Throughout the years, Misti has been my roommate, my travel buddy and my unconditional friend. If I killed Thom tomorrow, her first question would be “What did he do?” These days, we spend most of our time together at either cooking class or book club where we can enjoy our favorite pastime – drinking wine.
Linda (Misti’s mom) – I this lady. She has the sweetest smile plus she can make a killer bourbon slush (and I don’t even like bourbon). Three years ago, Linda and Nicky began hosting Thanksgiving at their river house for my extended family and now it is a tradition that no one will miss. Even my brothers come for it. You really can’t beat eating roasted oysters with Misti’s famous snail butter and drinking a cold glass of pinot grigio on a spectacular fall day. Every year, Linda swears that she’s going to cut back, but each year the food and the party grows.
Nicky (Misti’s dad) – This man is a hoot! He loves golf, football, westerns and his family - - but not necessarily in that order. Two days after Thanksgiving last year, Nicky went to the traditional Carolina vs. Clemson football game. During the game, his heart stopped beating and, if not for the medical personnel who just happened to sit near him and the stadium paramedics, he would not be with us today. He is so excited to be taking his grandchildren to Disney World - - Misti said that he thought for a moment about him and Thom playing golf, but then decided that this trip was really all about spending time with his grandchildren.
I searched high and low for a picture of these two, but couldn't find one even though I know I have one from our wedding! I'll make up for it on the trip!
Bryce (Misti’s niece) – She is exactly 3 months older than Mary Devall so those two usually have a blast together. Misti lives 3 blocks from me, so her sister will bring the children over on Halloween and we all go trick-or-treating together. It was so much fun last year watching Maddie trying to keep up with the big kids.
Jack (Misti’s nephew) – My favorite story about Jack is when Mary Devall and I went to the circus with Misti, Christi (her sister), Bryce and Jack earlier this year. Misti had bought the tickets where we were actually in the circus, so they pulled us out on the circus floor and had us dance with these orange hats on our heads. I was praying that no one who knew me recognized me because we made quite a sight - - especially Misti and me because I noticed that both of us were holding our purses like Queen Elizabeth hooked in the crooks of our arms. Yep, we were some dancing queens. Anyway, after that little bit of humiliation, they put us in these cars and drove us around the arena just in case the people on the opposite side hadn’t seen enough of us in our orange hats. We were all dying laughing – except for Jack. I had never actually seen anyone literally turn into themselves until that day. If the earth could have swallowed Jack up that day, he would have been fine. He was the most miserable looking child that I have ever seen. We found out later that he truly hated that orange hat but was scared to take it off. Poor little guy. He is 5 years old and all boy, but he was not a happy boy that day. I can't wait to see him truly happy again!
We have already had to remind Mary Devall not to overwhelm Bryce and Jack by insisting that they go on every ride with her. I was so thankful when Misti told me that they would probably ride anything and everything because I know that all warnings will fly out of Mary Devall’s head once she walks through those gates! She informed me this week that she is going to be the "tour guide."
Misti just emailed me yesterday from her conference at the Swan and said that she was dressed in a lime green shirt herding customers into the conference center. She sounded so in needed of a FAB!
So . . . tomorrow night we'll finish packing (okay start and finish packing ) and then rest for a couple of hours before we get up again to take that midnight train through Georgia (you know I just love saying that, don't you? ) and celebrate my baby's 3rd birthday!
Until next week!
Jill
__________________
Sometimes words aren't needed . . .
Last edited by Jillybean; 10-01-2008 at 09:16 PM..
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the dancing queens comment. Sounds like such fun. I'm sure Mary Devall will make an excellent tour guide! Maybe I should invest in some train stocks....
Great start to what sounds like is going to be a fabulous vacation. I hope it's magical for everyone.
__________________
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
__________________
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About This Page: 
If so, I’ll preface with a little recap in case you didn’t catch the totally exhilarating yet poignant trip report, Have a Happy Birthday – Part One, that is the prequel to this pre-trip report. 
Geez, now I’m even confused. 
This year, she wanted to do things differently. She asked her parents to drive down her niece and nephew after the conference since they had never been to Disney and she asked us to join them. Us being us, we said okay especially since we had planned on coming down for MNSSHP party one weekend anyway. 
All the stars and planets were in alignment and thus began part one of this two-part birthday extravaganza. 
Traveling with friends who aren’t uber planners like me slowed me down a bit, but I finally decided to just go ahead with our plans hoping that they would soon follow suit. 
I was a little skeptical, but the CM seemed so sure of herself that I let her check on availability. Since we were talking AP rates here, I thought I would let her check club level availability first. When she mentioned that WL was available, I jumped on it since that was our first club level experience last year and was still our favorite (although the Poly was right up there with it in my book 
). She gave me a price which I thought was kind of high for an AP, but I knew that I could cancel later and booked it for 3 nights.
I explained my “rack room” AP rate situation to a CM on the phone that evening and she immediately jumped on the case. Not only was she extremely knowledgeable and understanding of my issue, but never once did she lay blame on her fellow CM. I had to commend her loyality to her fellow team mate. 
I was a bit surprised at how much the prices had increased from our last MNSSHP especially considering that Miss Maddie was now 3 years old and would have her own ticket! 
That's my girl! 
her some Snow White. Once again, I put WL concierge on the case and they were soon in contact with the Epcot bakery to make my little girl’s dream come true. 
He is so excited to be taking his grandchildren to Disney World - - Misti said that he thought for a moment about him and Thom playing golf, but then decided that this trip was really all about spending time with his grandchildren. 
I was praying that no one who knew me recognized me because we made quite a sight - - especially Misti and me because I noticed that both of us were holding our purses like Queen Elizabeth hooked in the crooks of our arms. 
If the earth could have swallowed Jack up that day, he would have been fine. He was the most miserable looking child that I have ever seen. We found out later that he truly hated that orange hat but was scared to take it off. Poor little guy. He is 5 years old and all boy, but he was not a happy boy that day. I can't wait to see him truly happy again!
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