Grateful, Thankful, Blessed: our 25th Anniversary SeaWorld Celebration (Spring ’18 TR)

I didn't ask last night because I was typing on my Kindle but what do you use for your photos for Discovery Cove? Do you use one of the waterproof bags for your phone or do you buy a disposable? I don't know that I would try it while I was trying to snorkle (way to many things to try to do at the same time :D ) but wouldn't mind grabbing some photos while floating.

Oh and btw, you convinced me to join Costco. The closest one is over an hour from here but my bf from high school lives near there so we will plan a meet up so she can introduce me to the store. I do plan on using them for my bulk paper items by shipping and the main reason was the rental car was $70 :worship::worship:cheaper and I switched up to an intermediate SUV and bit the bullet and rented DD7s booster seat instead of dragging one from home. Still debating this though since the $70 savings got eaten up by the cost of the rental. Has anyone else taken a booster with them? It just seems like a lot of room being taken up in luggage. I don't want to check it separate because I don't want it destroyed by the time we get there. Maybe I will see if I have a duffle it will fit in and we can check that bag. DH is a super frequent flyer club level with the airline CC person so bag check is free. Still mulling this over.

Also, do you have to show the Costco card at pickup for Alamo? I wasn't planning on getting to the club prior to our trip so I technically won't have a card in hand (if I have to I can make the trip to the club). And for the free extra driver, do they just add them that day? I couldn't see when I booked it where you added someone. Did I miss something.

DD7 was looking at your photo book with me last night. She saw Aquatica pictures and wanted to know if we were going there (the multicolored water slides got her). Since we technically do have admission because I bought the add on package for Sea World through our DC purchase.....hmmmm. I am thinking maybe a quick trip on our arrival day since we get in at 11 am. I was going to pop into SW instead to get a few shows out of the way....there are never enough days on vacation!

I have decided to try to run the 5k at Castaway Cay on the disney cruise. I have worked up a modified version of couch to 5k. I am sure I can get in shape enough to finish it, I just want to be in shape enough that I can walk the next day. :flower:My 40 something self needs to be reminded it can no longer run like its 20 something self.
 
We got one too! I am glad I picked that instead of the drink package.
Love the book Gina!
We are under 40 days crazy!

Yay! :cheer2:
I'm a little nervous as I've heard from a DISer- @Lynne G -that the day beds weren't worth the cost. I don't think I can cancel it now, but if they look bad, I'll talk to a manager the day of. I'll be there 10/3 so I'll report back to you about the day bed situation.
 
I have decided to try to run the 5k at Castaway Cay on the disney cruise. I have worked up a modified version of couch to 5k. I am sure I can get in shape enough to finish it, I just want to be in shape enough that I can walk the next day. :flower:My 40 something self needs to be reminded it can no longer run like its 20 something self.

I'm hoping to do the 5k on my upcoming cruise too! I keep saying I will, but I never did
 
Any movement on your Nexxus apps?

Going to look at your book now. I still haven't started mine but haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with it all for this year yet.

Not a peep from Nexus yet. They charged my credit card weeks ago for both applications, so I keep thinking that we'll be getting our letters in the mail any day (we applied by mail, so we apparently have to wait for the notice by mail....we can't check the status online :headache:). I am losing hope that we'll have the cards in time for our October trip.

Now that our May trip book is finished, I'm using the lull between now and October to work on our "2018" book (pics of everything else from this year besides our Florida trip). Plus, the firm that I worked for in Canada has asked me to help them with THEIR photo books from the customer events that they've held since we moved to Michigan.....so apparently I'll be on the Picaboo site A LOT in the coming weeks. I can't wait to hear how yours turns out!!

Thanks for checking on us! We did fine with the hurricane, with no damage at all thankfully. It's a difficult time of the year to live near the coast! I'll be happy when we're well into October, and the threat has going away for another year.

What a relief. I am SO glad you made it through unscathed :worship:.

@AntimonyER , how about you guys? Is everything well post-storm?

No- never have done a photo book before- and would love to!:love: Such a nice momento!!

That's great news! Hurricanes and the aftermath are very scary!

The books are my favorite souvenirs of our trip.....and generally are the reason I can justify paying for photo packages at the theme parks. When I know the pictures will be used in the books (in addition to the ones that get printed and hung on our walls), I don't mind spending the $$ on the digital pics. And call me old fashioned, but there's just something that feels so good about having special memories preserved in a very tangible way......USB keys and flash drives are fine, but I want to see and feel those memories on something "real".

I didn't ask last night because I was typing on my Kindle but what do you use for your photos for Discovery Cove? Do you use one of the waterproof bags for your phone or do you buy a disposable? I don't know that I would try it while I was trying to snorkle (way to many things to try to do at the same time :D ) but wouldn't mind grabbing some photos while floating.

Oh and btw, you convinced me to join Costco. The closest one is over an hour from here but my bf from high school lives near there so we will plan a meet up so she can introduce me to the store. I do plan on using them for my bulk paper items by shipping and the main reason was the rental car was $70 :worship::worship:cheaper and I switched up to an intermediate SUV and bit the bullet and rented DD7s booster seat instead of dragging one from home. Still debating this though since the $70 savings got eaten up by the cost of the rental. Has anyone else taken a booster with them? It just seems like a lot of room being taken up in luggage. I don't want to check it separate because I don't want it destroyed by the time we get there. Maybe I will see if I have a duffle it will fit in and we can check that bag. DH is a super frequent flyer club level with the airline CC person so bag check is free. Still mulling this over.

Also, do you have to show the Costco card at pickup for Alamo? I wasn't planning on getting to the club prior to our trip so I technically won't have a card in hand (if I have to I can make the trip to the club). And for the free extra driver, do they just add them that day? I couldn't see when I booked it where you added someone. Did I miss something.

DD7 was looking at your photo book with me last night. She saw Aquatica pictures and wanted to know if we were going there (the multicolored water slides got her). Since we technically do have admission because I bought the add on package for Sea World through our DC purchase.....hmmmm. I am thinking maybe a quick trip on our arrival day since we get in at 11 am. I was going to pop into SW instead to get a few shows out of the way....there are never enough days on vacation!

I have decided to try to run the 5k at Castaway Cay on the disney cruise. I have worked up a modified version of couch to 5k. I am sure I can get in shape enough to finish it, I just want to be in shape enough that I can walk the next day. :flower:My 40 something self needs to be reminded it can no longer run like its 20 something self.

I just used my phone for our Discovery Cove pictures. When we were in the water, I put it in a waterproof pouch.......Ebay had great ones for right around $5. I was skeptical on quality but the pouch was super air-tight. Not a drop of water got in.

Glad to hear that you saved some good $$ on your rental with your new Costco membership!! :woohoo: I know ours has paid for itself twice over just in car rentals, so anything we save at the warehouse is just a bonus. We have never been asked for it at the rental car pickup, but its my understanding that they CAN ask you for it if they want. I'd recommend doing online check-in so you can skip the counter and go straight to the garage....I'm doubtful the gate agent (which will be the only person you actually have contact with) will even care if you have your card or not.

The free second driver you can add on when you do online check-in. Then they have to present their license to the gate agent as you are leaving.

Aquatica would be an awesome pick for your arrival day, especially if you're not out of pocket for admission. Even if you can get in a few hours of slides and fun, it would be a win. You absolutely MUST do Roa's Rapids if you go!! It's SO much fun!

I admire your stamina......a 5K is mighty impressive, my friend. This is more my motto these days :blush::

2842516.jpg

Yay! :cheer2:
I'm a little nervous as I've heard from a DISer- @Lynne G -that the day beds weren't worth the cost. I don't think I can cancel it now, but if they look bad, I'll talk to a manager the day of. I'll be there 10/3 so I'll report back to you about the day bed situation.

I read Lynne's reply as well....and wow, what a bummer for her!! I sure hope you have a better experience. I know, though, that Discovery Cove won't hesitate to refund you if you're anything but satisfied, so at least you can go expecting the worst but hopefully being happily surprised.

I'm hoping to do the 5k on my upcoming cruise too! I keep saying I will, but I never did

Cool! Where are you cruising to, and when is your trip?

Steve and I have never tried a cruise yet. We have family members who LOVE it, though. They wouldn't vacation any other way.
 


I'm old school - I do a real scrapbook. I have an addiction to Hobby Lobby and Michael's and spend way too much money in those stores. Or that's what Tony says. I think if he can drop mega bucks on fishing stuff at Cabela's then I can buy paper, stickers, and sparkly things to make my books!

I LOVE scrapbooking!!! I did our first few trips in "real" scrapbooks, and they were so much fun to do (not to mention are spectacular to look at). My only complaint were that they are super large to store, whereas the photobooks are slim and much more bookshelf-friendly. 'Cause I normally needed at least 4 books for each trip......I have a bit of a picture problem :rolleyes1.

There are way worse addictions to have than Hobby Lobby and Michaels.....both places always have such great coupons!! So its like you're actually SAVING money rather than spending it! ;)
 
Not a peep from Nexus yet. They charged my credit card weeks ago for both applications, so I keep thinking that we'll be getting our letters in the mail any day (we applied by mail, so we apparently have to wait for the notice by mail....we can't check the status online :headache:). I am losing hope that we'll have the cards in time for our October trip.

Now that our May trip book is finished, I'm using the lull between now and October to work on our "2018" book (pics of everything else from this year besides our Florida trip). Plus, the firm that I worked for in Canada has asked me to help them with THEIR photo books from the customer events that they've held since we moved to Michigan.....so apparently I'll be on the Picaboo site A LOT in the coming weeks. I can't wait to hear how yours turns out!!

I didn't know you could apply with a paper app. I will say since I was checking online daily I had about given up hope of it getting done any time soon that that's around when it came. So fingers crossed. I think it was 4-5 weeks from when I applied to when I could make my appt if I remember correctly.

My problem between the book and scrapbooking is while the scrapbooking takes more time and mess I can more easily use the little things I want to add. So instead of using a picture of a fast pass or a brochure I can just put that in. I have a friend that does digital scrapbooking and while she's always bugging me about it, which is why I don't want to ask her about it, I do need to look into that because I want to be able to put stuff over photos or stuff like that. Just not sure if I can. However, like you said, my last WDW book is so fat from adding pages it's ridiculous.

And then it comes back to, but I have all this scrapbooking stuff and wouldn't need to buy much so why am I spending more except that I do have to get the photo's printed. Costco is generally a good price though so it's not terrible. I don't know.
 


The books are my favorite souvenirs of our trip.....and generally are the reason I can justify paying for photo packages at the theme parks. When I know the pictures will be used in the books (in addition to the ones that get printed and hung on our walls), I don't mind spending the $$ on the digital pics. And call me old fashioned, but there's just something that feels so good about having special memories preserved in a very tangible way......USB keys and flash drives are fine, but I want to see and feel those memories on something "real".

I agree! We don't spend a lot of $$ on souvenirs, but pictures are priceless mementos! and even better when organized in a photo book!

I just used my phone for our Discovery Cove pictures. When we were in the water, I put it in a waterproof pouch.......Ebay had great ones for right around $5. I was skeptical on quality but the pouch was super air-tight. Not a drop of water got in.

I'm going to look into one of these for our DC day!:thumbsup2

Yep! It stayed far enough north that we only had a breezy, drizzly weekend.

Great news!:)
 
Cool! Where are you cruising to, and when is your trip?

Steve and I have never tried a cruise yet. We have family members who LOVE it, though. They wouldn't vacation any other way.

Eastern Caribbean! The ports (as of now) are St. Thomas and Tortola. And the cruise leaves Sat!

Cruising is amazing!! This will be my 7th, and they are so much fun
 
I didn't know you could apply with a paper app. I will say since I was checking online daily I had about given up hope of it getting done any time soon that that's around when it came. So fingers crossed. I think it was 4-5 weeks from when I applied to when I could make my appt if I remember correctly.

My problem between the book and scrapbooking is while the scrapbooking takes more time and mess I can more easily use the little things I want to add. So instead of using a picture of a fast pass or a brochure I can just put that in. I have a friend that does digital scrapbooking and while she's always bugging me about it, which is why I don't want to ask her about it, I do need to look into that because I want to be able to put stuff over photos or stuff like that. Just not sure if I can. However, like you said, my last WDW book is so fat from adding pages it's ridiculous.

And then it comes back to, but I have all this scrapbooking stuff and wouldn't need to buy much so why am I spending more except that I do have to get the photo's printed. Costco is generally a good price though so it's not terrible. I don't know.

Both traditional scrapbooking and the Picaboo photobooks each have their individual merits, for sure. I'm not a very crafty person but I did love letting my artsy side loose with scrapbooking.....however with the two cats now, I can't imagine that the process would be anything but stress-inducing :crazy2:. Violet likes to lay on anything paper, and if she can pick something up in her teeth and cart it away, she will :laughing:. Dash likes to bite things, so all of my photos would end up having teeth marks in the corners :rotfl2:. Like you, though, I am a complete pack rat on our vacations: I keep everything from our boarding passes to expired park tickets. I incorporate those into the Picaboo books by mounting them on the inside and back covers of the book (one of the reasons why I always purchase the hard cover books) and on the designated blank pages which are included at the front and back by default.

I say you can't go wrong with either method of preserving memories. Both are such lovely finished products!

Yep! It stayed far enough north that we only had a breezy, drizzly weekend.

So great to hear :thumbsup2. Hopefully Florence is the last big storm threat of the 2018 season.

I agree! We don't spend a lot of $$ on souvenirs, but pictures are priceless mementos! and even better when organized in a photo book!

I'm going to look into one of these for our DC day!:thumbsup2

Great news!:)

Here's the specific one I purchased:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Sport-...r-For-Cellphone-/252364943328?var=&hash=item0

Eastern Caribbean! The ports (as of now) are St. Thomas and Tortola. And the cruise leaves Sat!

Cruising is amazing!! This will be my 7th, and they are so much fun

Sounds AMAZING!! Have an awesome trip!!
 

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