In this chapter I will reveal the meaning of the first portion of my Pre-Trip Report title “Glennbo’s City, Sand, and Savanna PTR”:
City.
Well, it really started several years ago when Judy was earning PChef incentive trips. (You’ll have to look back at my last PTR and TR to understand the abbreviation “PChef” if you aren’t already familiar with it.) We had some family trips, but we also had a couple of parents-only vacations. The kids complained about that a little, and apparently Judy promised to take each of them on a little “getaway” vacation for their high school graduations. I say “apparently” because Judy doesn’t remember it as a
promise, but the kids certainly took it that way. To Judy, I’m sure that when it was discussed it seemed like the day to pay up would never arrive, and she didn’t envision quitting PChef and not having an annual trip, but regardless of the circumstances the kids are holding her to it…and Lauren’s high school graduation is looming this Spring, June of 2012.
So we decided to look into using some of our Disney Vacation Club points to trade-out to an RCI destination. We set the parameter that the destination needed to be within reasonable driving distance from our home here in southeastern Pennsylvania and showed Lauren the various choices on the RCI website. We let her consider all of the resorts from the New England states down to Virginia, and maybe even North Carolina, if something was really attractive. But her mind was already made up really before she looked at the choices – she wanted to visit New York City.
(picture borrowed from the world-wide interweb)
RCI only has two resorts in New York City and our dates were pretty firm, so I was a little worried about getting a trade since everything I’ve read has said that trades can be difficult to get, and you need to be especially flexible around dates and it’s helpful to be flexible on location as well.
You can book 10 months in advance, so I called member services on Aug. 16th, in an attempt to book June 14, 15, and 16th. The first resort, The Hilton Club of New York, had no availability, but the second,
the Manhattan Club, had a Studio available for our exact dates – exactly what we wanted! After borrowing some points from my next use year to cover the trade, and some discussion around a few other items, I was off the phone. The whole process only took about 15 minutes.
(photo courtesy of "the internets")
Let me tell you, after booking it I was starting to feel really jealous of Judy and Lauren going on this trip….and you know, there would be enough room in a Studio for me to tag along.
But we talked and decided that it’s always been thought of as a “one parent and one child” thing, and I should probably hang back on the homefront with the other two yayhoos anyway. Plus, Lauren is a fan of “Say Yes to the Dress” and wants to see Kleinfeld’s, and I, well, don’t.
(photo generously on-loan from the internet)
Lauren confessed to Judy that in a way, she wished that I was going with them on the trip, so that I could help them plan! Thanks….I think.
I’ll have to take that as a compliment, even though there are many other reasons I’d like to think that I’d be desired to have along. Anyway, I said I’d help them plan if they’d agree to take pictures, keep notes, and write a little narrative to include in my DISboards trip report.
So we started talking about what they wanted to do. The one Broadway show that Lauren really wants to see is “Wicked”.
(yeah, I borrowed this photo from the internet too)
I went online to look at ticket prices and of course, was shocked.
I know I should have expected it, but I was hoping for them to be less expensive. On the website I could see the available seats, and noticed that even for June, six months away, seats were getting scooped up. So, considering that, and that it’s the only show Lauren wants to see, we went ahead and booked it. The tickets are already in-hand.
Other than that, there’s still planning to be done, such as train transportation to get them there, and maybe an excursion or two, and certainly some restaurants. If you have any recommendations, let me know!
So there you have it. The "City" portion of the trip is for two of our clan, Judy and Lauren, spending 3 nights in June, in New York City.
Link to next chapter
This is definitely a great way to keep me coming back!!
Pat! I know you would've gotten the points if you had been on the DIS when I posted.
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NYC's first timeshare resort, can't wait to see their pics.
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