(Sea)Lions & Gators & Dolphins….Oh, My! A Halloween PTR/TR with a “wild” theme - Oct/Nov '18

Well you are racing up to the start of your vacation.

I'm just getting FP for our December trip and our good news is that my daughter can now join us, only for the last week but I'm so pleased :cheer2:

So now I've had to get a decent priced flight, WDW ticket, travel insurance, airport hotel etc etc £££££

Hope you manage to get everything sorted :goodvibes
 
One week for you, two for me :) Two weeks from yesterday at this time I'll be getting dropped off at the airport. Getting my hair done tomorrow and I'll iron my shorts on Sunday but I won't pack anything until next week and that'll just be putting them in packing cubes. The final packing will happen the day of the flight.
 
Do you have to go to the post office to pick up a form? I have always scheduled our mail holds through their website.

I was just going to say can you schedule the hold online? That's what we've done the last few times. So easy!

Thank you both for that tip!! I had no idea that the request could be submitted online! I got the hold mail all set up tonight as we were watching the hockey game :thumbsup2 .... so we have officially scratched one more item off the to-do list :banana:.

Our local post office won’t let u schedule he hold only, but we are a small rural town

Yes - I am 80% packed - we had to do laundry for Sam for his army weekend which is this weekend so we did it all at once!

I. Working on putting together the travel baggies of bygone stuff - glad we will use most of that up so we don’t have to worry about it coming back!

I *finally* started packing today......and have 90% all ready to go. What's left to pack is mostly the last-minute stuff.....so I am feeling much more ready and prepared :goodvibes.

So exciting that it's down to 1 week!

I can't wait! :cool1: 3 more work days! :jumping1:

Well you are racing up to the start of your vacation.

I'm just getting FP for our December trip and our good news is that my daughter can now join us, only for the last week but I'm so pleased :cheer2:

So now I've had to get a decent priced flight, WDW ticket, travel insurance, airport hotel etc etc £££££

Hope you manage to get everything sorted :goodvibes

What wonderful news that your DD can join in the Christmas fun! :woohoo: You must be absolutely THRILLED!

I hope you are able to secure all the extras that you need at a good price :thumbsup2.

One week for you, two for me :) Two weeks from yesterday at this time I'll be getting dropped off at the airport. Getting my hair done tomorrow and I'll iron my shorts on Sunday but I won't pack anything until next week and that'll just be putting them in packing cubes. The final packing will happen the day of the flight.

I know I have a busy week on deck again, so I'm definitely working to clear off most of our remaining pre-departure tasks over the course of today and tomorrow. Today was actually pretty productive: I got our hold mail request submitted, we picked up all the supplies that will be needed during our absence for the cats and the fish, I submitted our payment to the Pet Nanny, I got all of our travel documents printed and in order (including printed confirmations for all the meals and special events that we have booked), and most of the packing is done. The whirlwind of preparations always makes me feel like we "need" a vacation by the time the vacation actually arrives :rotfl::faint:.
 


I finally managed to get through to the Fort Wilderness golf cart rental office today, and sadly, they are fully booked for our date (October 30th). I also tried to secure a horse and carriage ride for that night (thinking it would be a good second option), but not surprisingly those were all booked as well. So.....we'll likely just try and catch a wagon ride between our dinner and the Sleepy Hollow Event, if there's room on the wagon during the time we have available. I wasn't really surprised at this late date, but hey....it was worth a try!

I did speak with Seaworld and moved our Sea Lions Tour from the Thursday to Sunday, which will mean we have both our tours on the day when the park is most likely to be much busier. This will leave the lower crowd day free to do rides and shows with (hopefully) much lower waits. Our Sunday day at SeaWorld, then, will be devoted to the tours and the Spooktacular events and riding Infinity Falls for the first time. And if we feel so inspired, we can now add on the Walrus Up Close tour to our Thursday when it will be 30% off for passholders (the November monthly special). If we love the Animal Ambassador and Sea Lions Up Close tours as much as we expect we will, I'm sure we won't need much convincing to book the Walrus Up Close Tour :rolleyes:.

I emailed the pre-arrival coordinator at the Vistana last week, but so far haven't received any confirmation from her.....so I may submit a Diamond Lane form tomorrow just in case. I know she was off for a few days (I receive an auto reply to my original email) so its quite possible she's just a bit backlogged at the moment.

All in all, its coming together. I may do online check-in for our car rental before the weekend is over......rates have come down a smidge, but not to the level that I secured back in August, so it looks like $250 will be our price for the 8 days. It would be nice to tie up that loose end and scratch that to-do off the list as well. Love that Alamo keeps that process so easy.

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Woohoo 6 days! Been keeping up with you on FB, as I’m so behind posting here.

I did the online checkin for Alamo for our September trip- so easy to just roll out to pick up a car.

Funny that Jaxdad is staying at Harbour Lake as that is where we stayed in September. Resort undergoing refurbishment bit they close a building at a time so didn’t bother us at all.

Since I put our suitcases away :sad: as we don’t actually have a trip planned until January I’ll be living vicariously through others trip reports again. Although I’ve almost got DH talked into the Cuba cruise next year...I’ve actually put a deposit on it already to lock in price, fully refundable until March. I always have to do this, if I waited til his last minute decison we’d never get to go anywhere!

So jealous of your fab discovery cove day! Such a fantastic price!
 
You are going to really enjoy the tours! Animal Ambassadors is very high on my list (right behind killer whales up-close). Sea Lions is fun too
 


Glad you are ticking your to do list off. Your plans sound great and i bet you can't wait to get off with all the things going off!

What wonderful news that your DD can join in the Christmas fun! :woohoo: You must be absolutely THRILLED!

I hope you are able to secure all the extras that you need at a good price :thumbsup2.
.

Yes it was great news and I managed to scrape all our miles together, and purchase a few more, and get the flight for around $570 (compared to $1641) if I didn't have the miles. So I was definitely pleased with this. Flights over Christmas are sooooo expensive :scared1:
 
Woohoo 6 days! Been keeping up with you on FB, as I’m so behind posting here.

I did the online checkin for Alamo for our September trip- so easy to just roll out to pick up a car.

Funny that Jaxdad is staying at Harbour Lake as that is where we stayed in September. Resort undergoing refurbishment bit they close a building at a time so didn’t bother us at all.

Since I put our suitcases away :sad: as we don’t actually have a trip planned until January I’ll be living vicariously through others trip reports again. Although I’ve almost got DH talked into the Cuba cruise next year...I’ve actually put a deposit on it already to lock in price, fully refundable until March. I always have to do this, if I waited til his last minute decison we’d never get to go anywhere!

So jealous of your fab discovery cove day! Such a fantastic price!

@JaxDad would be there right now, assuming his plans didn't change. Hope he and his kiddos had a wonderful weekend of fun!

It's a good thing our men have such reliable wives, who continue to book trips for them even when they don't provide any input :rolleyes: ;). Actually, I don't mind.....planning is MY thing, even though enjoying the vacations are "our" thing ::yes::. To have to share the planning part would make me a little sad :rotfl:. I would love it if he would get a Disboards login and contribute to our trip report, though!! I think it would be fun for you all to get the other side's perspective, right from the horse's mouth.

Discovery Cove is sure offering some big incentives this quarter.....I have to wonder if Disney and Universal's increasing prices are making adding a DC day to a family vacation out of budget for many folks? :scratchin Or are people afraid that the weather may be too cold to enjoy it? :confused: Either way, in addition to the $99 dolphin swim rate that they offered passholders in October, they've now released an offer to the general public for a free dolphin swim (pay the day resort rate and be automatically upgraded) until December 24th. That's a pretty sweet incentive!!

You are going to really enjoy the tours! Animal Ambassadors is very high on my list (right behind killer whales up-close). Sea Lions is fun too

SeaWorld always knocks their tours out of the park....we haven't been disappointed in the value of one yet :thumbsup2. Can't wait to enjoy two new experiences next weekend!! :banana:

Glad you are ticking your to do list off. Your plans sound great and i bet you can't wait to get off with all the things going off!

Yes it was great news and I managed to scrape all our miles together, and purchase a few more, and get the flight for around $570 (compared to $1641) if I didn't have the miles. So I was definitely pleased with this. Flights over Christmas are sooooo expensive :scared1:

Congrats on getting such a great price on your flight! :woohoo: Well done, Momma! That $1000+ savings will go a long way in the vacation budget!!!
 
Hey Gina! We had a great weekend in Orlando!

We spent Friday afternoon at the resort—free upgrade to a 2BR!—then Friday night at the Outta Control Comedy Magic Show. It was good. I have a vague recollection that it was better with Tony Brent, but it was still fun and well worth our discounted price.

SeaWorld was great! We rode the 3 coasters many, many times! We rode Infinity Falls twice. Great ride! I got pretty wet the first time and soaked the second. Our standby time was about 20 minutes. (The sign indicated 50 minutes after our second ride.) We did the shows we missed last time. Our only disappointment was that Journey to Atlantis was down when we planned to ride it and we didn’t make it back. Oh well.

We did more resort time Saturday afternoon and evening—it was really nice and relaxing—then the other WonderWorks stuff this morning. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets.

So, another Orlando trip is in the books! We may do another trip right before Christmas. I hope your last minute planning and packing are going well!
 
I would love it if he would get a Disboards login and contribute to our trip report, though!! I think it would be fun for you all to get the other side's perspective, right from the horse's mouth.

:thumbsup2

I told Joe he should have a DIS account, too!! But, maybe it's better we don't let them see what we post! especially when we're in the planning stages and we haven't told them of our plans yet??:rolleyes1

I know these last few days will be so hectic for you, but next week you'll be relaxing in the sun!:sunny:
 
Hey everyone, finally back from our trip, we had a GREAT time. The crowds at Sea World and Busch Gardens were pretty low, Discovery Cove was as good as I remembered, Our first visit to Aquatica was super fun, and the surprise MNSSHP was a huge success (Too. Much. Candy.) Now to move on to our pre-thanksgiving Universal trip.
 
Hey everyone, finally back from our trip, we had a GREAT time. The crowds at Sea World and Busch Gardens were pretty low, Discovery Cove was as good as I remembered, Our first visit to Aquatica was super fun, and the surprise MNSSHP was a huge success (Too. Much. Candy.) Now to move on to our pre-thanksgiving Universal trip.

That's wonderful!!! You did a lot!! Yay on too much candy!:cool1: Did your family dress up for the party?

Ooh- and a Universal trip coming up soon??? WOW!!!:goodvibes
 
Getting closer! My October trip was awesome, met up with some DISers, and great times. No HHN for me this year, and doing the Mickey party in August, felt no need to do twice, so skipped it in October. Was so much candy, that no need to duplicate 6 weeks later.

Kids really want to cruise, but I am still getting sticker shock since the last time we sailed. Plus, three adults now. But I reminded them, we are now more like an every other holiday trip. But with APs to the Dark Side and Busch parks, with little one graduating from high school, she'll be out earlier than the end of school, an early June trip may be in the works. The joy of planning. Yep, I'm the only one who generally plots and schemes, none of the other family members give a hoot, other than suggestions once in awhile as to where. The logistics are all mine.
 
Yes that saving was definitely needed to make it more manageable.

The $99 DC is equivalent to 4 days parking at WDW or Universal. Which would you rather do?

Ha! Don't even have to THINK about the answer to that question! :p

Those parking prices at the parks are getting painfully steep :crazy2:. Honestly, it almost pays to get one annual pass (to whatever set of parks you plan to visit) just for the parking savings.

Hey Gina! We had a great weekend in Orlando!

We spent Friday afternoon at the resort—free upgrade to a 2BR!—then Friday night at the Outta Control Comedy Magic Show. It was good. I have a vague recollection that it was better with Tony Brent, but it was still fun and well worth our discounted price.

SeaWorld was great! We rode the 3 coasters many, many times! We rode Infinity Falls twice. Great ride! I got pretty wet the first time and soaked the second. Our standby time was about 20 minutes. (The sign indicated 50 minutes after our second ride.) We did the shows we missed last time. Our only disappointment was that Journey to Atlantis was down when we planned to ride it and we didn’t make it back. Oh well.

We did more resort time Saturday afternoon and evening—it was really nice and relaxing—then the other WonderWorks stuff this morning. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets.

So, another Orlando trip is in the books! We may do another trip right before Christmas. I hope your last minute planning and packing are going well!

I am SO glad you guys had a great weekend away!! :goodvibes And super thrilled that the Outta Control dinner show was still (almost) as good, even with Tony off. I think we're going to try and do that dinner show again next spring.....we had such a good time when we went a few years ago, its a shame we've never been back.

I am happy to hear that Infinity Falls was a hit for your fam! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2:thumbsup2 I have been binge watching POV videos and I'm growing more excited with each clip.....though I could do without the getting drenched part :rolleyes1. Do you think ponchos would help at all? Or would they be pointless?

Fingers crossed you can work in that holiday trip :santa: .... there's nothing like Seaworld at Christmastime!!!

:thumbsup2

I told Joe he should have a DIS account, too!! But, maybe it's better we don't let them see what we post! especially when we're in the planning stages and we haven't told them of our plans yet??:rolleyes1

I know these last few days will be so hectic for you, but next week you'll be relaxing in the sun!:sunny:
Hey, maybe we can work on both of our guys over dinner at Hash House? :idea: Perhaps if they each know the other would be chiming in, we could sway them into becoming the newest members of the Dis!! :teeth:
Steve and I have been married long enough, he always knows I'm planning SOMETHING :rotfl2:. Of course, he also knows that I'm the thriftier one of the two of us, so maybe that's why he doesn't worry so much? :scratchin He is quite happy to live by the YOLO philosophy, while I have a little more trouble with being spendy!!

Hey everyone, finally back from our trip, we had a GREAT time. The crowds at Sea World and Busch Gardens were pretty low, Discovery Cove was as good as I remembered, Our first visit to Aquatica was super fun, and the surprise MNSSHP was a huge success (Too. Much. Candy.) Now to move on to our pre-thanksgiving Universal trip.

Welcome back!! :goodvibes So glad you all had a great trip! Would love to see a photo or two from your adventures if you're wiling to share!

How did you find the crowds at your MNSSHP? Reviews here on the boards have been so negative this year!! Sounds like you guys may have hit a good crowd/weather night, though!

Yay on too much candy!:cool1:

Amen to that! If you're gonna go, go big!! :rotfl:

Getting closer! My October trip was awesome, met up with some DISers, and great times. No HHN for me this year, and doing the Mickey party in August, felt no need to do twice, so skipped it in October. Was so much candy, that no need to duplicate 6 weeks later.

Kids really want to cruise, but I am still getting sticker shock since the last time we sailed. Plus, three adults now. But I reminded them, we are now more like an every other holiday trip. But with APs to the Dark Side and Busch parks, with little one graduating from high school, she'll be out earlier than the end of school, an early June trip may be in the works. The joy of planning. Yep, I'm the only one who generally plots and schemes, none of the other family members give a hoot, other than suggestions once in awhile as to where. The logistics are all mine.

I am so glad you had a good trip this time around! After Hurricane Matthew upsetting your vacation LAST October, you earned a fun & enjoyable fall trip in 2018!

Always fun to meet up with friends from the Dis, too :goodvibes. The people on these boards are such great folks!

A cruise sounds lovely.....have the kiddos got somewhere specific they wanted to cruise to? I'm sure whatever you end up deciding will be wonderfully epic :teeth:.
 
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I did online check-in for our Alamo rental on Sunday, so I'm officially done with checking rental rates. We are all set up for skipping the counter, I've added myself as the free extra driver (love that little bonus through Costco!.....we will likely never use it but its a "nice to have" perk, just in case) and we can head straight to the garage once we have gathered our luggage at MCO. I was going to keep stalking rates for the next few days, but decided that my time could be better spent on other tasks (like chatting with y'all here :teeth:), especially when I was reasonably certain that rates weren't going to decline below my current reservation.

I still haven't heard anything back yet from the pre-arrival coordinator at the Vistana :confused3 (super odd, the first time ever) so I submitted a Diamond Lane form as well, just in case. At the very least, our wait to check in should be a bit less, as we can use the Diamond Lane check-in line (which is almost always shorter)...so submitting the DL form will hopefully reap some benefits one way or the other.

Other than a few last-minute toiletries and our standard "OMG bag" (which contains medication to help manage any malady that might befall us while we're vacationing......everything from Gravol, Imodium and Excedrin to band-aids, hydrocortizone cream and cough drops), we're pretty much packed. I ended up back at the urgent care clinic on Sunday morning - that rotten sinus infection that I was treated for 3 weeks ago came back with a vengeance, and I honestly couldn't imagine schlepping around a theme park when I could hardly put one foot in front of the other here at home - so I'm back on a stronger prescription (and longer .... 14 days this time) to see if I can kill the pesky bug that I can't seem to shake. On a good note, I'm feeling noticeably better tonight for the first time in days (yay!). And it is comforting to know that this current round of drugs will carry me right through the trip and back home again (making it unlikely that I'll catch any other germs while I'm there). So far, I've managed to keep Steve from catching my cooties (hand washing and Purell-ing have become my two favorite past times!!) so hopefully he escapes it entirely. If something does hit, we will have the OMG Bag ready and stocked! (and a Walgreens just steps from the resort :thumbsup2)

Two more work days for me: a LONG one tomorrow (my regular day, followed by a staff meeting from 6:30 to 9:30) and then Thursday. Wednesday I'll do a deep cleaning of the house, and a last minute review of the contents of the suitcases. Thursday after work, I have a hair appointment and Steve will get a fresh head shave. We've got to cut the lawn and rake the leaves one night as well (likely Wednesday if the weather cooperates) and then I think we're ready to roll. Or, make that ready to fly.

OH, and the long range weather forecast? :sunny: So far, it's INSANELY awesome. So much so, I'm almost worried.....too good to be true!! Right now its showing sunshine and pleasant temps (high 70's/low 80's for daytime highs, and nighttime lows in the high 50's/low 60's) for the ENTIRE week. I still have a full arsenal of umbrellas and ponchos in the luggage just in case, but hopefully that's right where they will stay :thumbsup2.

We are getting SO close! :woohoo:
 
I am happy to hear that Infinity Falls was a hit for your fam! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2:thumbsup2 I have been binge watching POV videos and I'm growing more excited with each clip.....though I could do without the getting drenched part :rolleyes1. Do you think ponchos would help at all? Or would they be pointless?
I think ponchos would definitely help. It is not as much of a soaker as the Popeye ride in IOA. If you're at the front of the raft when it hits a couple of the standing waves, especially the one under the pedestrian bridge, you will get water over you. There is also a part where you go under the big drop, and there is water falling from above. If you wear a poncho tucked around your legs and bottom and with the hood up, you should be okay. You still need to watch your feet though, as water sloshes around in the bottom of the rafts, and I don't recall footrests like on the Popeye ride to help keep your feet up.

We had awesome rides on Kraken. We were in the front row with no screamers on the ride, so it was just a smooth run with the wind rushing by our ears. It was pretty cool. When we got back to the loading area after our first ride, there was no one waiting, so they just let us ride again. The second time around, there were people waiting for the front row, but no other rows, so we just moved back to the second row. We also got to ride in the front row on Mako a couple times, as well as the back row, which is probably the wildest row.
 
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Hey, maybe we can work on both of our guys over dinner at Hash House? :idea: Perhaps if they each know the other would be chiming in, we could sway them into becoming the newest members of the Dis!! :teeth:
Steve and I have been married long enough, he always knows I'm planning SOMETHING :rotfl2:. Of course, he also knows that I'm the thriftier one of the two of us, so maybe that's why he doesn't worry so much? :scratchin He is quite happy to live by the YOLO philosophy, while I have a little more trouble with being spendy!!

Sounds like a plan!:thumbsup2 Yep- Joe can't keep up with all my plans!!:laughing: Hey I'm with you on YOLO! Rather than buying stuff, we'd rather travel and make memories!!:)

our standard "OMG bag"

I like that!! Always better to have the meds with you than have to run out to a store! Cheaper too!:thumbsup2
 
I always carry the entire contents of our medicine cabinet with me when we travel! Unfortunately, I usually pack it way before we leave, and my husband has to struggle to find medications I have packed away:teeth:
 

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