for the love of mickey - a PTR

[Beee]

you are doing well Alicia! I am freaking out a bit as I haven't been able to save much at all this month (damn whoever it was that posted about endless a while back!)
I still have to pay my mum $1900 for the flights, 4 nights of DLH accom (1 night paid as the deposit), 2 new passports, 3 nights LA accom, 1 night Hawaii accom, pay for dog & cat accom and of course spending money - about another $10Kish...It's doable but we really need to stick to the budget!

 

[alicia1506]

you are doing well Alicia! I am freaking out a bit as I haven't been able to save much at all this month (damn whoever it was that posted about endless a while back!)
I still have to pay my mum $1900 for the flights, 4 nights of DLH accom (1 night paid as the deposit), 2 new passports, 3 nights LA accom, 1 night Hawaii accom, pay for dog & cat accom and of course spending money - about another $10Kish...It's doable but we really need to stick to the budget!

wow good for you to be able to save that much in this timeframe..

we have approx 6k to save in the same timeframe and i am stressing about that so much...

i paid so much more than i wanted to for our lax - mco leg but we needed to lock in that flight and that timeframe...

still have to organise the return leg and the disney accom & the spending/food money etc. plus carlo has to buy me something sparkly.... lol.

so much money in just under 5 months =

oh. and i have bills to pay and rent just went up and oh yeah... $2k for dentist bills in the next month or so.

gah!!! why couldn't cost of living get cheaper

 

[Beee]

things would be so much easier if we didn't have to keep paying these pesky bills! I hate winter especially, $300 for electricity per month - I would so rather spend that on something else, but unfortunately life would be pretty dismal without light & heat...

DD12 goes on her exchange to new caledonia the week after next and that trip just seems to get more and more expensive...will be so pleased to wave her off at the airport as then at least the bank account can have a bit of relief.

On the bright side DP is currently working 2 jobs thanks to the Olympics so while I have almost forgotten what he looks like the money will be awesome.

 

[alicia1506]

so this morning i get up and check the southwest website and discover to my horror that our flights have fallen $60 pp each way. grrrr...not happy at all. that's an extra $240 i could have spent on pina coladas and so on while we're on the cruise.

was talking carlo through the logistics of the trip last night, trying to decide which day we're going down to san diego & the zoo. he mentions doing splash mountain at disney... in december. umm. no. i'm not getting drenched. i don't care that it's california, it'll be freezing. then he says ok i'll swap splash mountain for space mountain. umm. no. not doing that ride either. ok. how bout tower of terror.... umm. no. have you met me at all???

we then spent the next 30 mins having a raging argument about different rides and likes and dislikes etc.

i will ride star tours 30 times. but there's no way in hell i'm getting on tower of terror.

you might get me in indiana's temple of doom (or whatever it's called) but i'm not going on space mountain etc. so we went through some extra park maps i'd saved from our last trip and circled all the stuff we wanted to do. his has more rides, mine has more of the 'experiences' on it like the movies at the opera house and the art gallery and great moments with lincoln etc.

then we had another 30 min argument about stuff we plan on doing on the trip... i thought we were spending time together, but if one of us wanted to go off and do something individually, then that was ok and the other person would be ok with it.. turns out he only wants to do stuff together, and if it's not a mutual consensus, it doesn't get done.



*headache*

really? i love him to bits and i want this trip to be romantic as hell, but there's no way i want him giving up experiences just because i don't want to do them, and vice versa..and no offence, but sometimes a little time apart, even for a few moments, means appreciating all the more the time you spend together... or at least, that's how i feel...

have you guys experienced this? while i hate fighting about stuff for the trip, i'd much rather have an argument here than in disneyland

 

[australiankaren]

we had a screamer day 4 last year at BLT..i wanted to do EMH til 1 am, he wanted to just chill in the apartment.....the way i carried on you'd think he had told me he was cheating with 20yr old twins

in the end, after I did an Olympic medal winning effort in sulking, we toddled off to MK at around 11 pm and enjoyed the rest of the night

we put such pressure on ourselves, our poor partners just cant understand how "life or death" these things are....My Dh needs a gold medal in patience and compassion....thats why we love them.

Now,I just tell him..."ok, I'm off to ........., will be back in an hour, and then we can have cuddle time"......works every time

been married 22 years..you'd think i would have worked this out by now..
77 sleeps to go

 

[battymum]

try having a holiday with five people - !

Generally I just do as all mothers do and give up what I want for the sake of peace! Seeing them enjoying themselves is more important !

Oh how I would love to travel alone!!

(but maybe meet them at the end of the day)

 

[australiankaren]

picture it

Dec 2003
DS1 is 16.....we are travelling together with my parents, leaving DH & DS2 at home..
we are day 9 @ wdw
we'd been travelling 2 weeks

argued that morning about nothing..I go to AK for the first time, alone.....we never got back to AK....

fast forward to last night...
he grabbed a mug with AK on it and says "I've never been to AK"....

they have LONG memorieshes now 25 and still holds a grudge

 

[battymum]

Hahaha

Did you remind him!

Whenever the subject of taking children anywhere - and sometimes people will say they are too young to remember

They will remember if they are left out!!

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Alicia Southwest has a price guarantee if you go on their website there is instructions on how to rebook and they give you a voucher with the difference we haven't needed to use it as all our prices are way over what i paid for them but hat and there no re booking fee is one of the reasons i went with them

 

[australiankaren]

Hahaha

Did you remind him!

Whenever the subject of taking children anywhere - and sometimes people will say they are too young to remember

They will remember if they are left out!!

so lesson is ladies....always leave them out/ ban them from at least one thing on your trip and they'll still be griping about it well into their 20's......

cost of trip ...20K
miles flown ...21, 000
burgers eaten....15

lifetime angst for your child...PRICELESS

 

[alicia1506]

so lesson is ladies....always leave them out/ ban them from at least one thing on your trip and they'll still be griping about it well into their 20's......

cost of trip ...20K
miles flown ...21, 000
burgers eaten....15

lifetime angst for your child...PRICELESS

lol. reminds me of last year's DLR trip.. we had only an hour til the shuttle was to pick us up, and carlo and trina wanted to do more pin trading 'real quick'. somehow in the 40 mins it took to get back to the room, pack up all our stuff, lug the bags down to the lobby and confirm the shuttle, the 2 of them managed to not only pin trade but did a meet & greet with jack & sally, went to pooh's corner, shopped in NOS and went on IASW... all things i missed out on.... not happy

Alicia Southwest has a price guarantee if you go on their website there is instructions on how to rebook and they give you a voucher with the difference we haven't needed to use it as all our prices are way over what i paid for them but hat and there no re booking fee is one of the reasons i went with them

ooh, i will check it out, thank you for the tip. i mostly use s/west for the lack of luggage fees and the lack of change fees, and i like the boarding system (we usually pay for the earlybird seating )

had another talk with carlo tonight about the whole 'going off on our own' thing and he is still insisting that we spend every minute together or it's just not romantic. i have plans to go off to the spa one day, and escape with some relaxation time. he hates spas, so will do his own thing then, but this is a 3 week trip... i can't handle being with someone 24/7 for 3 weeks. at home, we often spend our evenings doing our own thing.. he will play on the computer, i read or DIS or trip plan as a way of destressing from the day. i don't know why he thinks that our need for space will be any less on a trip where there are even more stressors ...

gah!!! men!!!

 

[alicia1506]

just checked southwest... turns out i will lose the earlybird seating option and will only get back approx 100 now...

not worth the hassle now. will keep an eye out though and if it's going to drop further, will definitely cancel/rebook etc.

thanks for the info

 

[WAMUMOF4]

just checked southwest... turns out i will lose the earlybird seating option and will only get back approx 100 now...

not worth the hassle now. will keep an eye out though and if it's going to drop further, will definitely cancel/rebook etc.

thanks for the info

I've changed my flights 3 times I haven't lost the Earlybird it just changes over they have sent me an email to confirm it maybe try calling them and asking or email them $100 is half a dooney & Burke bag

 

[Beee]

good grief, I think we'd kill each other if we had to spend 24/7 with each other. He has already been told that he is going on the ToT alone, he made me go on our local theme park's version a few years ago - I got to the top and knew it was a mistake and wanted desperately to get off, I didn't speak to him the rest of the day (maybe that was his plan...)

 

[australiankaren]

ladies...

why do you think I have signed up DH for an intensive padi course on the cruise.....12+ hrs of me time

while he's diving, studying etc, I'll be by the pool, reading whilst sipping on a cocktail or 3, or wading thru the entire room service menu....I also hit the gym every second day for an hour's alone time.he goes off for a pedi or massage....so that's another couple of hours.

he also hates roller coasters, so minds the bag & shops while i do the singles line.
so on average I get about 2 hrs a day without him.....a must when travelling for 3-4 weeks together.Marriage saver.

we love them, but really......some me time is needed.

 

[alicia1506]

ok. so we got our estimates and mine is exactly what i wanted it to be, but as carlo moved into a higher tax bracket and doesn't receive some of the offsets he used to, his return is 3 times less than i expected/needed it to be.

we've also been really lax with saving, and i've been lax with dieting/exercise (read: none) and so now i've fallen into that pit of despair and i'm suddenly rethinking our trip.

the cruise we're doing on the fantasy is $$$ expensive. we've chosen a really, really nice cabin at a really expensive time of year, and we're planning on doing a lot of optional extras. flying from lax - mco that week is also crazy ridiculous in terms of price (can i hear thanksgiving week anyone) so it's costing us mucho dinero.

so...

i was browsing, checking my options, as you do and i stumbled upon a different cruise... still dcl, but out of galveston on the magic. a deal they're running for verandah staterooms at oceanview room prices. would save us approx $1500. then i checked the flights. direct from lax - hou would be no problem, the timing works, and each flight is approx $80 cheaper per person, each way. so that's another $320 in savings right there. no castaway cay, and it's on the older magic instead of the new fantasy, but the $$$ savings are pretty nice...

but it would mean having to pay oop for the hotel the night before the cruise, and cruise transfers (included in the price for the fantasy cruise), and we would have to give up on seeing castaway cay, the new ship and the plans we'd made with our FE group and dismeet...

so we decided to stick with our original fantasy cruise which has been paid in full... just means that we have to buckle down in the next 4 months and really be vigilant around money and trying to save a few pennies so that we have some spending money for this trip.

carlo wants something romantic and special. and right now all i can see is effort and planning and scrounging and scrimping and having to diet like crazy to fit into nicer clothes...

this holiday better be worth it

 

[Andona]

I'm sure it will be worth it!

You've stuck with your original plans and, hopefully, that will give you both the motivations to make some sacrfices in the next 4 months so that you can take the holiday of your dreams

Good luck!!!

Andona

 

[WickedDreamer]

Ooh - and Aussie PTR!! Great!! I admire you going right through to MCO in one go - I have never done that - I usually overnight in LAX before the cross country flight!!
I am staying at HoJo's in Anaheim this time - I've never stayed there before, but it does get good write ups. Might be worth investigating? And it is apparently only 8 minutes walk to DL.
And you've got to love a man who can break into Disney song at any time!!
OK - will be along for your ride - and be about a month ahead of you in leaving!!

My sister and me did the SYD-Lax-MCO in one day, took us about 22 hours, plus a 4 hour wait in LA, but it worked best for us, as we were both able to sleep on the international and domestic flight. The only trouble we had was the wait in LA as it felt like forever, even though it was just four hours, there was just nothing to do or look at in the airport.

Coming back though we had to stay a night in LA, because Virgin has messed up out flights home, and we had no seats on our original flight we had booked, but that worked for us, another two days in Disney World!!! and Virgin paid for our two nights we had to add on

Going over we flew with Delta, and internationally they were wonderful, the best food I had seen on any plane carrier, and they had so many options for movies, tv shows and music, never got bored on the plane, and they had plenty of food and snacks, they came around every hour with water, and every 2-3 with snacks, plus they had the kitchen open if you needed anything extra

I would use Expedia to take a look at the hotels, thats how we looked at all our options and could stick to our budget.

Hope you have a wonderful time, sounds like an amazing trip you have planned!!!

Shan

 

[WAMUMOF4]

ok. so we got our estimates and mine is exactly what i wanted it to be, but as carlo moved into a higher tax bracket and doesn't receive some of the offsets he used to, his return is 3 times less than i expected/needed it to be.

we've also been really lax with saving, and i've been lax with dieting/exercise (read: none) and so now i've fallen into that pit of despair and i'm suddenly rethinking our trip.

the cruise we're doing on the fantasy is $$$ expensive. we've chosen a really, really nice cabin at a really expensive time of year, and we're planning on doing a lot of optional extras. flying from lax - mco that week is also crazy ridiculous in terms of price (can i hear thanksgiving week anyone) so it's costing us mucho dinero.

so...

i was browsing, checking my options, as you do and i stumbled upon a different cruise... still dcl, but out of galveston on the magic. a deal they're running for verandah staterooms at oceanview room prices. would save us approx $1500. then i checked the flights. direct from lax - hou would be no problem, the timing works, and each flight is approx $80 cheaper per person, each way. so that's another $320 in savings right there. no castaway cay, and it's on the older magic instead of the new fantasy, but the $$$ savings are pretty nice...

but it would mean having to pay oop for the hotel the night before the cruise, and cruise transfers (included in the price for the fantasy cruise), and we would have to give up on seeing castaway cay, the new ship and the plans we'd made with our FE group and dismeet...

so we decided to stick with our original fantasy cruise which has been paid in full... just means that we have to buckle down in the next 4 months and really be vigilant around money and trying to save a few pennies so that we have some spending money for this trip.

carlo wants something romantic and special. and right now all i can see is effort and planning and scrounging and scrimping and having to diet like crazy to fit into nicer clothes...

this holiday better be worth it

you will get there you have done a great job so far bummer about the tax returns but i am sure you will find a way to save the extra money you need i never thought we would make it and we have in the end with everything falling into place although i have no plans in the future except for the already planned Europe 2015 trip to ever plan a 9 week holiday again way to stressful and so many extra $$$$.

You & Carlo on your own nice romantic trip what else do you need, whatever you decide it will be amazing and you will have a wonderful time

 

[alicia1506]

you will get there you have done a great job so far bummer about the tax returns but i am sure you will find a way to save the extra money you need i never thought we would make it and we have in the end with everything falling into place although i have no plans in the future except for the already planned Europe 2015 trip to ever plan a 9 week holiday again way to stressful and so many extra $$$$.

You & Carlo on your own nice romantic trip what else do you need, whatever you decide it will be amazing and you will have a wonderful time

awww thanks.. i have been following along with your PTR too.. so much work and planning - i can't wait to read all about your trip, as i am sure it will be super special.

i'm just a big stress head i sit on the comp all day and plan/replan/organise our stuff, and stress about the money and making sure it all comes together.

i really need to buy good walking shoes. i can't wear closed toe shoes for very long as they always hurt my toes (not enough room vertically) so i tend to wear sandals/thongs even in winter, but i discovered last year that thongs were not a good idea for heaps of walking. not enough cushioning and by the end of the trip, my achilles tendon was bruised so badly i could barely walk properly.

i am sure we will have a fantastic trip no matter what... i'm just at that stage, approx 4 mths out where you start second and third guessing yourself