tzeitel
Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2008
Our October 22-27 trip was a bit last minute for me - I plan so far in advance everyone makes fun of me. I think the planning is half the fun (and price)! Since it was a bit late (started planning in mid Sept) we did not have many options on flights/hotels/car rental etc but i think we did ok.
In the blink of an eye I booked pretty much everything we needed. Got tickets and the hotel (BW Stovall's) through lmtclub (saved $53 per ticket), booked a car through Dollar ($126 for the the week), and booked our flights through SW and Frontier. I love SW, can always find the best deals and times for us...by booking way in advance. This time I could find a good time to return home but not to fly to SNA. After looking around I saw Frontier had a sale - $44 each way. Sweet, right? Except you have to pay for bags, carry-ons (except a personal item), and even to pick your seat! Want a can of soda? that will be $3. I hate all those fees! Still, it was a lot cheaper than anything else I could find - it came to $60 per person. The SW flight was booked using miles (2) and gift cards from reward sites (1).
The other thing I was hoping to do is the Ralph Brennan's Haunted Gingerbread House event. Last year it sold out super fast and we missed it. This year I went on their FB page and asked them about dates since I could not find anything on their site. It was meant to be! they only do it on one weekend, and while we usually avoid weekends at DLR this time we were arriving on the weekend they had the event. Their tickets went on sale on Sept 26 and they did not mention it on their site - only on their FB page. I was able to grab DD and I a spot on the 23th which was Sunday (we arrived on Sat) which worked our perfectly With a "handling" fee the event came out to $51 for the both of us - you could add a 3rd person for an extra $12.
Since we had done the Halloween party twice before I figured we could skip it - DD had other ideas. As late minute as it can get, DD starts with "Halloween party yay!". DD has autism and is non verbal so for her to tell us she wants to do the party is a big deal. She would not stop telling us she wanted to do the party. So I gave in an had to call Disney to see if there were any dates still available - it had sold out completely online the day before. The auto message that put me on hold said 2 dates were still available - 24th and the 26th. After being on hold for around 10 minutes I got an agent and only one day was left - the 24th. I told her to BOOK IT!!!! yes, magic, yes happy, happy Disney CM - just BOOK IT!!!!
After that it was all pretty much set. I just had to book a park n' fly in Denver - we live 2 hours away from the airport and since we fly early we always stay in Denver the night before. We called the vet to book our cat a "vacation" - she loves it, they always have a couple of cats staying at the same time, cats have their own room with a window wall, and the employees are super nice.
Next will come the good stuff - photos! Mostly of food, yeah I am one of those who takes photos of their food. But also of the haunted gingerbread event, our room etc.
In the blink of an eye I booked pretty much everything we needed. Got tickets and the hotel (BW Stovall's) through lmtclub (saved $53 per ticket), booked a car through Dollar ($126 for the the week), and booked our flights through SW and Frontier. I love SW, can always find the best deals and times for us...by booking way in advance. This time I could find a good time to return home but not to fly to SNA. After looking around I saw Frontier had a sale - $44 each way. Sweet, right? Except you have to pay for bags, carry-ons (except a personal item), and even to pick your seat! Want a can of soda? that will be $3. I hate all those fees! Still, it was a lot cheaper than anything else I could find - it came to $60 per person. The SW flight was booked using miles (2) and gift cards from reward sites (1).
The other thing I was hoping to do is the Ralph Brennan's Haunted Gingerbread House event. Last year it sold out super fast and we missed it. This year I went on their FB page and asked them about dates since I could not find anything on their site. It was meant to be! they only do it on one weekend, and while we usually avoid weekends at DLR this time we were arriving on the weekend they had the event. Their tickets went on sale on Sept 26 and they did not mention it on their site - only on their FB page. I was able to grab DD and I a spot on the 23th which was Sunday (we arrived on Sat) which worked our perfectly With a "handling" fee the event came out to $51 for the both of us - you could add a 3rd person for an extra $12.
Since we had done the Halloween party twice before I figured we could skip it - DD had other ideas. As late minute as it can get, DD starts with "Halloween party yay!". DD has autism and is non verbal so for her to tell us she wants to do the party is a big deal. She would not stop telling us she wanted to do the party. So I gave in an had to call Disney to see if there were any dates still available - it had sold out completely online the day before. The auto message that put me on hold said 2 dates were still available - 24th and the 26th. After being on hold for around 10 minutes I got an agent and only one day was left - the 24th. I told her to BOOK IT!!!! yes, magic, yes happy, happy Disney CM - just BOOK IT!!!!
After that it was all pretty much set. I just had to book a park n' fly in Denver - we live 2 hours away from the airport and since we fly early we always stay in Denver the night before. We called the vet to book our cat a "vacation" - she loves it, they always have a couple of cats staying at the same time, cats have their own room with a window wall, and the employees are super nice.
Next will come the good stuff - photos! Mostly of food, yeah I am one of those who takes photos of their food. But also of the haunted gingerbread event, our room etc.