Airmiles Armchair Chatter

hdrolfe said:
When will it stop snowing! Boo winter :( well boo to all the shoveling any way! I'm glad I have some more time off until it's back to work. I'm glad I was able to get to Onyx for another year. I got an email from Shell that I have made Shell Go+? But I am not sure how that happened. I do need more AM for my trip in April. For some reason flights from Fort Lauderdale on May 7th are crazy prices, twice what they are the rest of the month. I'm second guessing the second cruise because of it. The flight home that day is as more than I'd normally spend round trip. But I am really looking forward to two weeks on the cruise, especially at the end of winter. The hotels are not cheap at the start either but I know I can use AM to get a nice place to stay. It will depend on when we are going to arrive, if we take an earlier flight I would like a hotel with a nice pool and some places to ear nearby, but if we don't get there until 9PM, not much point. After seeing all the travel issues the past week, I'm not sure I'm willing to risk flying Flair to FLL, though it's sure cheap! I do wish we were cruising from Orlando this time, I'd gladly add on two days to the trip and get much cheaper flight home to stay in that area. I am not sure what there is to do with kiddo in Fort Lauderdale or Miami area. I'm sure it'll work out but I have less than 4 weeks to pay off the cruises so that long to decide when we're doing.
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We stayed at Hyatt House Ft. Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port last October when we flew into FLL. It was the cheapest around, very reasonable, clean and steps away from retaurants. We had dinner at Dickies BBQ, mostly because the menu looked good. The hotel has free pick up from the airport to the hotel. They will take you to the Ft. Lauderdale cruise terminal the next morning however, I believe there is a fee. We were sailing out of Miami so we used and Uber. There is shopping around and I do believe there is a pool. We didn't use it however I went to Youtube to check out videos on the hotel (something I always do) they showed one. We stayed on a Friday night and the cost was $179 plus tax and fee. I believe it was just over the $200 mark with those added in. It was a one bedroom suite with a kitchen.
Just thought I would toss the hotel out to you.
 
tinkerone said:
We stayed at Hyatt House Ft. Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port last October when we flew into FLL. It was the cheapest around, very reasonable, clean and steps away from retaurants. We had dinner at Dickies BBQ, mostly because the menu looked good. The hotel has free pick up from the airport to the hotel. They will take you to the Ft. Lauderdale cruise terminal the next morning however, I believe there is a fee. We were sailing out of Miami so we used and Uber. There is shopping around and I do believe there is a pool. We didn't use it however I went to Youtube to check out videos on the hotel (something I always do) they showed one. We stayed on a Friday night and the cost was $179 plus tax and fee. I believe it was just over the $200 mark with those added in. It was a one bedroom suite with a kitchen.
Just thought I would toss the hotel out to you.
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Thank you, we are also cruising from Miami (first time dong that). Any chance you remember how much the Uber was? There is a shared shuttle that picks up at some airport hotels in FLL and takes you to Port of Miami. Since we are just two people I usually book a shuttle. If the cruise was from Port Everglades though I'd uber or taxi, it's so close the airport. I will add that hotel to my list, we have stayed a couple time and have a few places I'd rather not stay :)
 
hdrolfe said:
Thank you, we are also cruising from Miami (first time dong that). Any chance you remember how much the Uber was? There is a shared shuttle that picks up at some airport hotels in FLL and takes you to Port of Miami. Since we are just two people I usually book a shuttle. If the cruise was from Port Everglades though I'd uber or taxi, it's so close the airport. I will add that hotel to my list, we have stayed a couple time and have a few places I'd rather not stay :)
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It was $53.21 after tip. A bit pricey I guess but it was worth it to us so we could decide when we would leave. I did look at a shuttle service but we had to wait on them and other hotel pickups. Cheaper but less convenient. There were only two of us as well.
 
tinkerone said:
We stayed at Hyatt House Ft. Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port last October when we flew into FLL. It was the cheapest around, very reasonable, clean and steps away from retaurants. We had dinner at Dickies BBQ, mostly because the menu looked good. The hotel has free pick up from the airport to the hotel. They will take you to the Ft. Lauderdale cruise terminal the next morning however, I believe there is a fee. We were sailing out of Miami so we used and Uber. There is shopping around and I do believe there is a pool. We didn't use it however I went to Youtube to check out videos on the hotel (something I always do) they showed one. We stayed on a Friday night and the cost was $179 plus tax and fee. I believe it was just over the $200 mark with those added in. It was a one bedroom suite with a kitchen.
Just thought I would toss the hotel out to you.
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Good information, thank you. We are booked for the Hyatt House in April before our Panama full-transit on HAL. I find that most of the hotels have the free airport hotel, and paid cruise shuttle.
 
So continuing with cruise news...
We did the online check in yesterday. I had DD do the check in on her laptop while I had the app open. Things were going well for DD so I moved on to booking the breakfast and meet & greets. Everything was seamless and only took 8 minutes. I was shocked, everything I had read said that the system is terrible and there was a lot of reloading and spinning circles of death. For me, the worst part of the whole thing was waiting for the clock to strike 12. We got boarding group 5 which apparently is better than nearly everyone in the FB group I'm in. Most seemed to be getting 10 and up. I didn't get a chance to go on the FB group until this morning to see what the experience had been like for others. Well, ouch....people had the issues that I had been reading about, many people are upset that they did not get the breakfast or meet & greets. Apparently all the PDAS stuff was showing as sold out within an hour. There are a few comments about 'for what we paid, we should be able to have everything we want'.

DD is going to start her packing today and I think I will join her.
 
We had an awesome visit with Arthur and his parents - good grief they had a lot of snow before we got there! This was their poor car on Christmas day AFTER our son had dug it out the day before
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Unbelievable that when we left on the 29th the temp was 10 and the snow piles were already melting, by the time we got home there was nothing left in our parking lot or backyard.

I got a text from the kitty sitter that a package had arrived from Natura Markets. $120 worth of safe foods that will help with the utter boredom I've landed in regarding my diet that led to my doctor chastising me for dropping more weight from simply not eating (no joy in most of my meals, simply fuel) The miles for linking the Mastercard, then completing the offer and from Airmilesshop .ca have all posted, just waiting on the bonus from MC for the order over $100 and the unwrap the app offer. Once they all post I will have snagged a total of 275 miles!
Here's what I got in the box. Most of it can be considered junk food but lots of it will get stuffed in my luggage and then park bag to make sure i have safe food to eat that's high in protein. (eeek, soon I can say I'm going to see Donald NEXT MONTH!!)
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I love macadamia nuts, they are so good. I bought from Barre nuts and it was a big bag but I had to keep them in the freezer so it took longer to eat them. They may be good, and fairly healthy, but the calories sure add up fast. I enjoy the cheese whisps as well, and moon cheese, I liked the samples I got from sample source.
I think I have decided that we'll only do one of the back to back cruises, and while the first one would make more sense due to better flights, I am going with the second one as it's 8 nights and goes to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We have been to the ports of the other cruise except for Ocho Rios, and we'll get there eventually. Flights still are not great but I'll figure something out even if we have to fly into Montreal or Toronto and take the train from there. I don't want to end up having to take a super late flight from Florida though. Saving money only doing the one cruise does give me enough for the stupid expensive flight any way, and we can still flight direct there.
I went to Metro earlier in the week, and believe those points will post in the new year. I will try and keep a better eye on my total so I'm not scrambling at the end of the year to catch up and get Onyx again. But also know it will be harder without all the big promotions they used to do. Have another trip to Metro planned for Jan 3rd, before the flyer changes again, and after we eat some stuff from the freezer.
 
hdrolfe said:
I love macadamia nuts, they are so good. I bought from Barre nuts and it was a big bag but I had to keep them in the freezer so it took longer to eat them. They may be good, and fairly healthy, but the calories sure add up fast. I enjoy the cheese whisps as well, and moon cheese, I liked the samples I got from sample source.
I think I have decided that we'll only do one of the back to back cruises, and while the first one would make more sense due to better flights, I am going with the second one as it's 8 nights and goes to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We have been to the ports of the other cruise except for Ocho Rios, and we'll get there eventually. Flights still are not great but I'll figure something out even if we have to fly into Montreal or Toronto and take the train from there. I don't want to end up having to take a super late flight from Florida though. Saving money only doing the one cruise does give me enough for the stupid expensive flight any way, and we can still flight direct there.
I went to Metro earlier in the week, and believe those points will post in the new year. I will try and keep a better eye on my total so I'm not scrambling at the end of the year to catch up and get Onyx again. But also know it will be harder without all the big promotions they used to do. Have another trip to Metro planned for Jan 3rd, before the flyer changes again, and after we eat some stuff from the freezer.
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I'm still trying to sort out the car and hotels for before and after the cruise. I've got cars booked through Costco if I want to pay OOP and they are actually a very good price. Also, it allows us both to drive which might be a bonus. I always drive since DH is directionally challenged and he drives like I have 9 lives.

Hotel wise I will redeem AM for sure. It's just choosing a place that is hard. My preference would be a WDW resort but that doesn't seem likely. I'm a tad irked at the fees and whatnot associated with an AM booking. Some are $180ish but some are in the $50 range. Some are vague on the added fees while others seem to be clearly noted. Since I'll end up redeeming 7000ish miles I'm not pleased about also shelling out a couple of hundred dollars.

Anyone have any offsite hotels around WDW that they liked? We've stayed at a few and I have a list of places that I've check out over the years. Unfortunately, most of my preferred places are non refundable.
 
dancin Disney style said:
I'm still trying to sort out the car and hotels for before and after the cruise. I've got cars booked through Costco if I want to pay OOP and they are actually a very good price. Also, it allows us both to drive which might be a bonus. I always drive since DH is directionally challenged and he drives like I have 9 lives.

Hotel wise I will redeem AM for sure. It's just choosing a place that is hard. My preference would be a WDW resort but that doesn't seem likely. I'm a tad irked at the fees and whatnot associated with an AM booking. Some are $180ish but some are in the $50 range. Some are vague on the added fees while others seem to be clearly noted. Since I'll end up redeeming 7000ish miles I'm not pleased about also shelling out a couple of hundred dollars.

Anyone have any offsite hotels around WDW that they liked? We've stayed at a few and I have a list of places that I've check out over the years. Unfortunately, most of my preferred places are non refundable.
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Not sure how far offsite you are looking however you could look at Cabana Bay. It's technically a Universal resort but it is only a 20ish minute drive to Disney. The resort is themed and really very cute. Some of their rooms have a kitchenette with a separate bedroom. The cost, anytime we have gone, has been really reasonable and less than any Disney resort.
Just tossing something out there.
 
tinkerone said:
Not sure how far offsite you are looking however you could look at Cabana Bay. It's technically a Universal resort but it is only a 20ish minute drive to Disney. The resort is themed and really very cute. Some of their rooms have a kitchenette with a separate bedroom. The cost, anytime we have gone, has been really reasonable and less than any Disney resort.
Just tossing something out there.
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My go to area is usually Lake Buena Vista but today I was looking at Seaworld area. My thinking that it’s a little closer to the airport (our flight gets in around 11pm) and still a short drive to WDW. We have stayed in that area a few times before so I know it well. I think Cabana Bay is a little too far for me but I will see if it’s available on AM.
 
ottawamom said:
Reminder to take a look at your Airmiles account before midnight. Call up all transactions for the year and save them to a PDF (I right click after highlighting all items and "print" to pdf).

Transactions will likely disappear after midnight or some arbitrary time tomorrow.
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I wanted to do this but I can't get the whole year to come up so I may have to save month by month.
 
Does anyone know when the WDW on site hotels show up on airmiles? I have looked for 2023 and haven't seen anything.
 
Happy new year everyone. Here's to getting back to normal (this has to be the year we get to do that, right?)

Fireworks in our neighbourhood brought the dog up to our room. He wouldn't settle down. Finally I went outside with in him in my bathrobe and winter boots so that he could see they were all done, Then he went to sleep. Thank goodness it was somewhat mild outside at 1am.

The rain we have had the last few days has diminished our piles of snow. I'm down to a 2 inch covering in the backyard. At this time of the year I rely on that to keep the dog clean. Driveway is clear though so that is good
 
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