Have airline credit, Must travel: a mostly non-Disney park August 2019 adventure (11/29/19 update)

I'm just catching up here after getting back from Disney and OMG, thank God you all are ok! Such a terrifying experience though; I've been in a couple pretty decent accidents. Since everyone is ok I can say it sucks about your car! Only 4 years old too................and ugh I hate new car shopping even though I'm happy at the end (when it's for me lol).

December plans look good! I am there from 12/1-4 but at Universal for training and a bunch of agents are staying so they can be at HS the 5th for ROTR opening. They're considering booking a VIP tour but I don't think they found out the cost yet as it'll be HIGH!
 
Oh no Dina! I’m so sorry. Thank goodness you all were ok.

Thanks! Yes that is the most important thing. My FIL has a few stitches which should come out tomorrow but overall we all walked away. I shudder to think if we had not been riding in our tank of a vehicle how much worse it could have been. DH was sooo livid at the scene that he couldn't even talk to the guy who hit us. Now that he apparently hasn't owned up the accident either...that's not helping matters for us.


I'm just catching up here after getting back from Disney and OMG, thank God you all are ok! Such a terrifying experience though; I've been in a couple pretty decent accidents. Since everyone is ok I can say it sucks about your car! Only 4 years old too................and ugh I hate new car shopping even though I'm happy at the end (when it's for me lol).

December plans look good! I am there from 12/1-4 but at Universal for training and a bunch of agents are staying so they can be at HS the 5th for ROTR opening. They're considering booking a VIP tour but I don't think they found out the cost yet as it'll be HIGH!

Sadly I think at this point my children have been in more accidents than I have...which is pretty sad. This is the 4th accident for all of them, 2nd one involving airbag deployment. While the vehicle itself was a 2008, we had only owned it for the last 4 years and had put in a new transmission that only had about 50K on it so we planned to drive it for a long, long time. It was in such GREAT shape...and they are not exactly easy to find...so we aren't sure what we'll do in terms of replacing it. We are 99.999% sure it will be totalled, but we are waiting for the insurance company to move on finalizing that so we can figure out our next steps.

Oh wow...another time with our trips overlapping...too funny! I really wanted to slide over to the Universal parks for a day to see some of the holiday decorations but I'm the only one with an AP so it probably won't happen. I cannot imagine how crazy Dec. 5th will be at HS. We plan to be at EPCOT that entire day for now, though part of me wonders if we shouldn't do a quick trip to HS in the morning just to ride all of the NON-Star Wars stuff which will probably be a ghost town! :)
 
Some quick updates for me.

Learned yesterday that the driver that hit us last week did in fact tell the insurance company that WE ran the red light. Unbelievable. Of course the police report that we got yesterday shows he admitted at the scene that he saw our truck in the intersection and he ran the red light. He wasn't charged though...how irritating. The insurance adjustors for his and ours finally looked at the video we sent them and told us there was NO DOUBT who was at fault after viewing it.

The other thing is that he has the BARE MINIMUM of insurance...which means there won't be a whole lot he'll be able to pay from his own claim. Now we both have the same insurance company, so either way the same company pays, but basically the adjustor said we may end up making a no-fault claim on our insurance (and they are waiving the deductible) in order to get this whole thing resolved and get paid for our vehicle which I don't think will be coming back to us. We will know tomorrow when it will finally get looked at almost a week after the accident. So with any luck this part will be resolved by the end of the week.


In other news, last night the girls who are going on the December trip all got together at my house and the 4 of us headed over to the airport together. We got in line at the Spirit counter and each bought our tickets for our December flights. It's hard to beat paying $66 each for round trip flights to Florida. We have also discussed getting matching shirts for at least ONE of our days there, probably Wednesday. We are still working on that.

Side note: This reminds me of a story of when DH and I were at EPCOT last month and we saw a group walking around and all of the guys were wearing tshirts that read: "Let's get matching Disney t-shirts said no guy EVER!"

So with flights we are now pretty much done with what we've put out for this trip for a while. The only thing left will be any food other than our CP package (which has been paid) and the rental car (which I think we are going to keep just to make it easier...it will cost us $29 each split 4-ways) so that's exciting. Of course I've tweaked our FPs a bit here and there so we'll see how it goes as we get closer. I'm not too worried about other ADRs right now since we may just do quick service to make it easier.
 


Oh wow...another time with our trips overlapping...too funny! I really wanted to slide over to the Universal parks for a day to see some of the holiday decorations but I'm the only one with an AP so it probably won't happen. I cannot imagine how crazy Dec. 5th will be at HS. We plan to be at EPCOT that entire day for now, though part of me wonders if we shouldn't do a quick trip to HS in the morning just to ride all of the NON-Star Wars stuff which will probably be a ghost town! :)
I hadn't thought about that for some reason but I bet you're right, for a few hours at least the other rides should have low waits!!
If you do decide to come over to the dark side lol let me know; we actually have quite a bit of downtime during this work trip!
Side note: This reminds me of a story of when DH and I were at EPCOT last month and we saw a group walking around and all of the guys were wearing tshirts that read: "Let's get matching Disney t-shirts said no guy EVER!"
OMG let me tell you, after having to match shirts FOUR TIMES with 100 OTHER PEOPLE on our Disney work trip, I will never ever wear matching shirts again!!!

OK 3 or 4 people is ok but a large group??? Nope :snooty:
 
DAY 6: Universal Revisited

So we had a second day to visit Universal and we had a few things left to do. 451835

First up was going to be The Hulk. We hadn't done this one yet and this would be the very first time for my FIL. So we did the put all our stuff in locker thing and then we all headed towards the ride...going through security...where my FIL had kept several items IN HIS POCKET. He didn't want to hold us up so he was just going to get out of line...and we weren't going to allow that. I told him I'd take his items out to the lockers quickly...and of course that didn't go as well as planned. So if you aren't familiar with the Universal lockers, you scan a park ticket to open a locker, put your stuff in, and then scan later to open it. The problem is it's an open and close one time only...and so as I scanned my ticket it opened the locker...only then it locked it again...but then I realized I wouldn't be able to open the same locker. Any random person coming up to rent a locker could end up opening mine again. I realized this after the fact...and so I scanned my ticket again to see what would happen...thus opening up a different locker...which didn't have my stuff...so of course I had to then flag down an attendant. This took some time as you can imagine...but eventually I got everything resolved and hopped back into the line to join our family as they waited at the security area.

I don't recall how long we waited but it wasn't too bad at all since it was early. Also now that 3 months have passed my brain can't tell you where we went next either. I have some photos. So we at least did this:

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Food...at the Monsters Cafe. I don't recall what we had...but we were there at some point. I actually think we grabbed food somewhere else and headed in here because it was cool and a place to eat.

Then we headed over to maybe do some Harry Potter stuff...but I know the family had to stop for some butter beer:

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I know I had one ride that I wanted to do which we had skipped on a previous trip...so we did go there for sure:
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I do love me some ET.

I can't even tell you what else we did at Universal since there is a definite lack of photos.

I do know that we had to make a decision on dinner and so I found an ADR for one of our favorite from previous trips...we ended up at Boatwrights. This has been a place we've enjoyed in the past and it didn't disappoint for this night either. No photos sadly...but I recall that the food was good. Pretty sure I had the Shrimp and Grits. And before I left I headed over to the food court area there to pick up something special that I know @ariane37 will recognize:

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It was quickly devoured when I got back to our Treehouse...this is taken as I sat outside on our deck.

This was our last Disney night and the next day we would be done. We had made a decision on our final day to just do some relaxing which I really enjoyed.
 


It looks just a bit different than the ones at WL but yup, that's a magic bar :love:

I haven't ridden the Hulk on my last couple visits but I do like it; I do NOT like the whole locker situation at Uni! Totally don't understand why we can't bring bags on the rides while it's not a problem at Disney!!!
 
DECEMBER TRIP UPDATE
  • We leave in just over 3 weeks...and I have only slightly tweaked FPs and ADRs
  • As much as I'd like to change our resort, I don't see that happening...so I plan to fax a room request to AoA ahead of time for us (but don't count me out if I can last minute get a DVC room via rental)
  • My 2nd set of Magicbands should arrive this week...yes the first time I couldn't get any "special" ones but the 2nd time around (since we changed rooms) I got the one I wanted...the white one with the Castle on it for the $10 upcharge...so I snagged it
  • I have a pretty agressive schedule already and and have a list of must-dos for us to try to do...they are as follows:
    • Visit the Boardwalk area to see Holiday Decorations at those resorts and maybe visit a lounge there
    • Visit Grand Floridian to see Gingerbread House (should be easy on any day we plan to visit MK to just ride the monorail here instead, check it out, head back to park)
    • Ride both Slinky Dog and Alien Saucers (2 of the girls with us haven't done these yet)
    • Try to ride FOP (either rope drop or end of the night)...we have all done this one though
    • View the Hollywood Studios projections at the ToT one evening
    • View the MK Fireworks from Main Street (last time we viewed from the Christmas Store behind the Castle...a lot was missed there)
 
It looks just a bit different than the ones at WL but yup, that's a magic bar :love:

I haven't ridden the Hulk on my last couple visits but I do like it; I do NOT like the whole locker situation at Uni! Totally don't understand why we can't bring bags on the rides while it's not a problem at Disney!!!

Yes and it was delicious...I wasn't even hungry was going to save it...and yet I devoured it as soon as we got to our treehouse, in total silence on the deck so I could savor it in peace! :)

And agreed on the locker situation. It's great that they are free, but it is such a crowd of chaos at those locker bays.

Your plans sound great!

Thanks! Yeah I'm pretty excited about the trip and I know it will be here before I know it...THREE more weeks! I'm trying to get shirts made for all of us and hoping I can get that done soon. My second set of Magicbands arrived yesterday...I finally have that white one with the castle...YAY!
 
LIFE UPDATE: Still no word on payout for our totalled vehicle...and it will be 2 weeks tomorrow. As an added bonus the local county police served up a warning that our vehicle is still in the tow yard and consdidered abandoned and they are threatening civil and/or criminal charges against us. Nice huh? We removed the tags a week ago and I told the insurance adjuster who was supposed to move it...but I guess not. Good times.

TRIP UPDATE: I managed to get our rental car about $10 cheaper and I'll continue that stalking. My 2nd set of Magicbands arrived yesterday...very happy about that. I made some updates to our schedule and did some preliminary/tentative schedules for each day. It is pretty agressive so we'll see how that goes. Plus I've ordered myself a small under the seat rolling suitcase to take on this trip and that should arrive on Friday. I'll then have to test that out maybe.
 
TRIP UPDATE: So as I was checking the Disney reservations out this evening I came across some additional resorts that were available. I texted the girls and the consensus was...we just need a bed and a shower...and so to save us some cash we have changed from a Little Mermaid Room at AofA to a standard room at All Star Music.

Now I haven't stayed at any of the All Star Resorts in quite a while. However a fun fact...the very first time I stayed on property at Disney was back in the 1990s and this was the very first trip for my husband...who was my boyfriend at the time. It was when MK was celebrating 25 years and this was my husbands first view of the castle:

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My gosh look at those youngsters. I actually have some photos...yes PHOTOS like from a 35mm camera...printed out and in an album. I know there are some of us in the All Star Music room. I'm going to have to try to get some of those here for you to enjoy!

Anyway...All Star Music will be our home for 2 nights in just a few weeks now. Hopefully the rooms will be okay for us.
 
I would of switched from AoA to All Stars too, especially for a short trip! That's annoying an put your car :headache: Like you need anything additional to be worrying about right?? Hope that all works out quickly!

Love the "old" picture lol
 
DAY 7: Relax!

So we were down to our last day. It was decided ahead of time that we really didn't have a desire to head to any other parks (even though we had Universal tickets) and so the plan was that the guys (well all except my oldest son) would be headed out to Cape Canaveral to see a rocket that was launching that morning. They got up early and headed out, taking the car with them, so it would be up to the rest of us to pack our stuff and get out of the room before checkout. Since 3 of us were going to spend the day at the pool and hanging out, we made sure we packed the luggage in the car the night before. We made sure we had backpacks with our change of clothing...and of course whatever last minute snacks and such that I could stuff in them. Along with a bottle of wine we hadn't opened...that I'd be handing off to a friend later that day.

My two teens were in moods not really thrilled with the idea of hanging at the pool and not being able to shower before getting on the plane. You can imagine how lovely that was going. We left the treehouse pretty close to checkout time and headed out to catch a bus over to the main pool at Saratoga Springs...but it was taking a really long time. My 19yo son got impatient and headed over the boat dock...but I was happy waiting for the internal bus. Somehow we got our lines crossed and while my daughter and I got on the bus my son apparently waited on the boat thinking we were coming there. Eventually we all met up and the first order of business, for their sakes (because I would have been fine either way) was checking on location of the showers. We found them...yay...and after some time at the pool the children eventually decided it was okay. They did have a bank of lockers at the pool for us to store our backpacks in as well which was nice. We spent some time relaxing at the pool for the rest of the day, eventually joined by the rest of our group probably after lunch sometime.

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I was good with this plan as you can see. It was a lovely pool day. Eventually my friend who lives in the area (and old high school classmate) joined us and she and I spent some time catching up...and I handed her the wine so it wouldn't go to waste.

DH and I also spent some time playing table tennis...since I was missing out on tennis at home this was the next best thing for me:

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We really had a fantastic day and this was a great way to end our vacation. Eventually we would make our way out to the airport...and then proceed to get on the WRONG Fake-o-rail while there as we headed to our terminal. Thankfully we had plenty of time to realize the error of our ways and make our way on the right one. You'd think we'd never been to this airport EVER!

Overall we had a fantastic trip but of course it's always nice to return back home. There would be no further trips to Orlando for us this year...or so we thought! :)
 
Well it's been a busy week or so here. I put in some long work hours, plus organized a bit Thanksgiving pig-in at the office so I prepared two turkey breasts for that feast. The rest of my time has been spent dealing with auto insurance issues...still...and yes that's still ongoing. We did get the settlement check for our vehicle that was totalled 3 weeks ago but some of the other reimbursements are still ongoing. I'm still waiting for that. In the meantime, my husband has been on a quest to replace our beloved 2008 Sequoia and since we have no intention of buying one brand new we are subject to what is on the used market and they tend to go fast if they are good ones. One attempt last week of driving 90+ minutes to the next state to look at 2 vehicles was a bust...one wouldn't even START (not a good sign) and the other was pulling away as we arrived and sold...despite only hitting the website 2 days earlier with NO pictures...and this was a Thursday night. There was a newer one also in another state, a good 2.5 hour drive away, and we were determined to see it Saturday morning so my DH called the dealership who was kind enough to take a deposit from us to hold it and we got up early Saturday to go look at it. Thankfully it was everything we hoped it would be and just about an hour later (record timing!) we were driving off with 2013 Sequoia and my husband was quite happy. We still had to now drive both cars 2.5 hours home but it all worked out. After buying THREE cars this year (all used) I'm totally over the car shopping thing for a LONG time. And now this week we will be making plans to host Thanksgiving at our house which we have done every year since before we were married...except the times when we were in Disney. It will just be the five of us, plus my FIL and my dad and his girlfriend so not a huge group. It should be nice.

AND in Disney news...last week I noticed the thread about the hours changing for our days there. They have added earlier EMH morning at EPCOT (now opening at 7am) and added another EMH at AK (also now opening at 7am) and move the HS hours to 8am from 9am...this is of course on opening day of the new Star Wars RotR ride. This put me in a bit of a dilemma because I had planned to do EPCOT EMH already...but now it would be 7am on the morning after we would probably be doing EMH at MK (midnight) on our arrival day. Plus...I did a quick check of FP+ and was able to get a morning one for Slinky Dog, which is a ride that 2 of our 4 haven't done yet. So I'm unsure about our plans for Wednesday now but here are my thoughts:


DECEMBER TRIP:
  • WEDNESDAY: Arrive at airport in the morning, rental car to resort. Everybody has agree to chip in on this as it gives us the most flexibility...and for about $25 per person not a bad deal. We will see if our room at All-Star Music is ready and if so we can drop off our stuff...but if not we'll hit a park. Which one? Right now I'm thinking HS or AK for a few hours, then back to our resort around 4pm/5pm for check-in, and once settled maybe grab dinner and head to MK for the evening, spending about 6pm-midnight there. I have a few FP+ there before the EMH hours

  • THURSDAY: I have two thoughts here. The first one is hit EPCOT at 7am, do a few things there, then head over to HS around 9am to ride Slinky and maybe a few other rides hoping that EVERYBODY else is at the new Star Wars stuff. Then we hop back to EPCOT and spend the rest of the day there, maybe at some point ride over toe the Boardwalk area and walk around there and Y&BC looking at decorations. We have the CP dinner around 4pm and then the 6:45pm show of Candlelight Processional. I'm also thinking if we don't make it for that FP at Slinky, we just do EPCOT for the day and after CP we head right over to HS and catch the last few hours there (10pm closure), maybe do Slinky and just see the ToT projections and holiday decorations.
  • FRIDAY: This is our check-out day. We can maybe do a few hours in the morning at Magic Kingdom (8am EMH) and then spend the afternoon at Animal Kingdom where I have some rides planned there. We honestly have pretty much all day here, as we'll head for the airport around 7:30pm for our 10:30pm flight. We may be exhausted after 3 full days but hopefully we can all soldier through it.
So that's the scoop for now. I haven't done too much tweaking, other than looking for a few other ADRs that might be fun but nothing has really come up. I think this will be a fabulous trip if we can keep it going for 3 full days.
 

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