We booked our vacation directly with portofino bay so we could elimiate the middle man (woman). We were extremely surprised when they told us that we could get a BAYVIEW room for $199.00/night without the loews first card!!! Usually we book through southwest airline vactions because we always fly them (hint: if you really want to save a lot of money voulenteer to get bumped off of the flight. What I mean is that if the flight is overbooked and they have to kick people off of the plane, if you voulenteer, they will give up your seat for another person, pay for your hotel stay until the next flight, pay for phone calls you make to family to tell them where you are, give you a free shuttle to the hotel, and sometimes give you free food. Also they "compensate" you. We got a $572.00 voucher and used that voucher to fly FREE for 3 people, round trip, to orlando MCO!!). If we would have booked through southwest airlines we would have nevere gotten that deal for portofino bay.
P.S.: Barry, I can't wait until you post those photos!!