PTR/TR: Can't wait to get to Diagon Alley! March 2015

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Hey, my friend....did you see this offer?

http://aquaticabyseaworld.com/en/orlando/amenities/cabanas/?from=Top_Nav

(NEW) Motu's All Inclusive Package

Enjoy an all-inclusive day at Aquatica! Package includes 4 single day tickets, 1 general parking pass, 4 All Day Dining vouchers for Banana Beach and a Roa’s Riverview Cabana which includes your locker, towels and bottled water.

Your dates are $159 (weekday) or $179 (weekend). I know you said you were going to take a pass on Aquatica this trip, but man....what a deal! Thought I'd share, just in case.

 

[coastgirl]

Wow...incl a cabana and food! Niece will be with us at that point, I'll see how much to add her. Hard to say no, you are right...

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Wow...incl a cabana and food! Niece will be with us at that point, I'll see how much to add her. Hard to say no, you are right...

Shoot! I forgot you would be a family of 5 and not 4. Definitely worth calling and asking how much for the extra body. Its such a good value!!!

 

[pigletto]

Hey, my friend....did you see this offer?

http://aquaticabyseaworld.com/en/orlando/amenities/cabanas/?from=Top_Nav

(NEW) Motu's All Inclusive Package

Enjoy an all-inclusive day at Aquatica! Package includes 4 single day tickets, 1 general parking pass, 4 All Day Dining vouchers for Banana Beach and a Roa’s Riverview Cabana which includes your locker, towels and bottled water.

Your dates are $159 (weekday) or $179 (weekend). I know you said you were going to take a pass on Aquatica this trip, but man....what a deal! Thought I'd share, just in case.

ARGH. I followed the link and pulled my credit card out as fast as could be and ....it ends on the 15th. We are in Orlando from the 18th to the 25th. Oh well. Looks like it's regular old chairs and no all day dining for us.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

ARGH. I followed the link and pulled my credit card out as fast as could be and ....it ends on the 15th. We are in Orlando from the 18th to the 25th. Oh well. Looks like it's regular old chairs and no all day dining for us.

Crap!!

I am hoping they might extend it if it goes over well. Even if the cost is a smidge higher for the warmer months (late March, April, May) it would still be a rockin' deal .

 

[pigletto]

Crap!!

I am hoping they might extend it if it goes over well. Even if the cost is a smidge higher for the warmer months (late March, April, May) it would still be a rockin' deal .

Sure would!!! And while I would be happy to get it, I am ok if we don't. I am super excited to see Aquatica

 

[coastgirl]

Good luck Pigletto, I hope they extend it for you!

 

[coastgirl]

Disaster. Or at least, disaster for a planner who thought things were going according to plan.

Last night I did two trippie things. Paid off the balance for our rental home. And emailed the pet sitters to confirm. Normally we bring Feliz with us for short trips and leave our two guinea pigs with their "Auntie Jen". Auntie Jen is great; she's a vet asst at our vet's, and she has a houseful of animals. The pigs don't mind the other pets, as they spend their time in their pig palace. Our former babysitter is a big dog person, but she lost both her elder dogs this year, and said she'd take our dog this time.

Doglet is not particularly well socialized. She's so little that she's always been scared of other dogs. She usually settles in with visitors to the house, but apparently she barked at E. for a lot of the night when we left E with the kids for a night out before Christmas. So E has decided it won't work in her home, as her landlord downstairs would hate the barking.

NOW what?

We brought her last time, but it was less than ideal. For one, it was another detail/"person" for me to manage. If you read my last TR, you may still have a picture of me with a melting-down child, another child, all the carry on and the DOG in security at MCO getting pulled aside for extra screening while dh returned the rental car. Or perhaps the lovely extra screening my whole family received at Toronto airport because I didn't realize I was supposed to declare the dog as an "animal product".

And also of course it's hard to find pet-friendly accommodations. Last time it restricted our choices in rental homes, and that was 4-6 months out. We are now less than 8 weeks out and I have FULLY PAID for a house that doesn't take pets.

So this morning I have taken the following actions:
--Emailed the house owner to BEG him to bend his rules and let us bring her with the promise I will kennel her while we are out and pay any extra deposit he may wish to impose. And I testified to her smallness and her hypoallergenic-ness. (She really is totally nonshedding. It's weird. We only ever find her hair in her brush. You can wear black and snuggle her little white body for hours without a sign of it.)
--Made a reservation at Royal Pacific for our first four nights because they are pet-friendly. Not that I mind upgrading, and the base rate compares to what we are paying for the house per night though it's more than the Cabana Bay. Discovered after I made the ressie that it accepted 2 adults and 3 kids to the room but only sleeps four. So we'd pay for a rollaway plus a $50/nt pet fee plus a higher parking fee...
--Emailed E and grovelled. I hate to make her feel guilty, we have a long and good relationship, but I'm stuck.
--Posted to our facebook neighbourhood group asking for petsitters.
--Trollled kijiji (like craigslist) for total strangers to take care of my little furbaby, sent a bunch of emails, but honestly can't see that working out given that we need in-home care with no other dogs and, you know, not an axe-murderer.

Still outstanding: look at VRBO with the pet friendly filter on in case I have that option. Look at all those email responses (or lack thereof) from potential pet sitters.

 

[livingthedream]

coastgirl - I don't want you to get your hopes up because I am really "reaching" with my thinking on this, BUT let me explore a couple of options and I'll get back to you as soon as I can about pet-sitter options!

Sending you Mummy and pixie dust!!!

 

[pigletto]

Ugh..... I am so sorry. We have a big dog (chocolate lab) and finding good care for him and trying to stuff down the "I wonder how he's doing" anxiety was one of my biggest challenges on the last trip. I can totally relate to needing our pets to be 100% happy and safe and comfortable to be able to relax at all.

I am sure something will work out somehow. I guess kennelling her is not an option. We have found a great one but there are other dogs all over the place and she would hear them if not see them. Do you kids have friends that would be willing to pet sit if you paid them? Maybe a neighbour? Just thinking outloud here.

 

[coastgirl]

Thanks for the good thoughts. I have a few email conversations going on with pet sitters. The problem with the folks we know is that everyone goes away for March break!!! I wish the house mgr would get back to me, but they tend to be Mon-Fri folk.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Oh JoAnne.....just read your recent posts. That royally, royally stinks. How frustrated you must be!!!

Sending you positive vibes and good thoughts that everything will work itself out for you in the next few days. No one needs these kinds of stresses before a vacation.

I can appreciate your worries about proper care for your little dog. Those tiny creatures are members of the family, and its hard to relax and enjoy a getaway if you're concerned about their well-being back home.

Hopefully you have heard back from your house rental by now, and they have given you the green light to bring her along.

 

[coastgirl]

Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts and ideas.

I've been super busy this week and haven't had much time to work on this, but have made some progress.

I have some leads locally on sitters, but honestly, we're not all that comfortable with leaving her with strangers for 2 weeks. We don't know anyone who can do it, so the leads I have are from Facebook and kijiji. She's shy of other dogs, and has never been apart from us.

The house owner/mgr agreed we could bring her, with some special conditions...an extra $300 deposit, another $75 on the cleaning fee, and they want to visit us during our stay. All that sounds more than fair to me. (After all, they don't normally take pets, and those all seem like reasonable measures to protect themselves.) I was thrilled to hear that, even if we don't bring her...it's great to know they are thoughtful and flexible.

I also made a booking at Royal Polynesian Resort, as they do take pets. The AP rate was about $200/nt which isn't bad, but then there's $50/nt pet fee + $10 more per night for parking, plus it's just not going to be as comfortable for 5 people. (2 beds, have to rent a roll away or bring an inflatable.) So we'd pay a lot more for something that really isn't what we wanted. I could find something off-site that takes pets for less, but we are looking forward to being onsite at Cabana Bay, and to the early admission perk.

Southwest will take her onboard for about $100 each way. Haven't booked anything yet, as we're not certain.

So tonight I've been poking around and found rover.com, which is like an agency for people who take pets in. I've emailed three sitters. I have to find out if Rover will help us with a back up if it doesn't feel right, though. They offer a pre-stay "meet and greet" but we don't really have that luxury as we will show up with the dog and not be able to go to our hotel until she is settled. Some of the profiles look pretty nice, so I am hopeful. That way she'd only be boarding for 4 days instead of 14 and if she's miserable, we can change things.

So, hoping to hear back from some of the Rover people!

Still haven't got a better car rental rate, though I should have a look tonight before I head off to bed...we are getting close now! About 6 weeks.

 

[coastgirl]

Ok...so, progress.

Puppy update. Tonight we booked a four-night stay with a rover.com petsitter in Orlando. We spent about 15 minutes on the phone with her, and she has lots of good reviews on two different sites, so we feel fairly confident about it. We get off the plane, get settled away with bags and car, and drop our little girl off on the way to Cabana Bay.

Once we got that settled, I sent a confirmation email to our rental home's managers to confirm that we're bringing the dog.

Then I changed our en route hotels to La Quinta, which takes dogs.

And I just added her to the Southwest reservation.

Phew!

Puppy's coming with us again. Really, I'm fine with that. That means she'll be with us for the whole time except those first four nights, and she'll be half an hour away from where we're staying if anything goes wrong. Instead of 14 days away from us and a lot of flying and driving... DH, bless his soul, was worried that if something went wrong I'd want to cut the trip short and go home to her (and he's probably right), so he's happy to have her closer also.

And while we were investigating the options, I made a back-up reservation at RPR, as they take pets...the AP rate was $204. (Plus $50/nt pet fee...ugh.) So anyway, with that knowledge, I have changed our res'n a little...3 nights at CBBR instead of 4, and our last onsite night is at RPR. So, two days of the unlimited express pass. I'll have to get a roll away for ds, to make the room sleep 5, but that's fine.

I'm excited. We get to try a few new things, without making our trip more hectic. I am done with vacations that leave me coming home more tired than when I left.

In related news, we all set up Pottermore accounts this weekend and got sorted. Which, according to dd, has more weight than our choices because JKR is behind Pottermore. So...no surprises for dh and I: he's a Gryffindor and I'm a Ravenclaw. (He thought he might be a Hufflepuff, but more likely Gryffindor.) Dd, who thought she was a Gryffindor or maybe a Hufflepuff: Ravenclaw. Ds, certain he is a Ravenclaw: Slytherin. So, he made a second profile this morning and got re-sorted...into Ravenclaw.

I also ordered the dvd's we've lost along the way so we will again have a full set of the movies. And I've requested the audiobooks from our public library, to play in the car, especially for our long drive to the airport.

Aaaand tomorrow is calling for another blizzard, so I am very happy to have a trip to Fl in the works!

 

[tink1957]

Joining in on the fun ...glad you got your puppy sorted out..sounds like a great trip.
Our dates overlap by a few days..we will be at the Doubletree Universal 3/7 -3/11...maybe we'll see you in the parks.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Happy to hear that the puppy issues are settled. What a relief for you!

Here's to a relaxing, awesome vacation .

 

[coastgirl]

Hi Vicki, welcome! Is that your dog in your avatar? What gorgeous eyes!

Yes, quite a relief Gina! Still nervous about leaving her with a stranger, but at least we're close. And it'll be good for the little diva, right??

So how did you both get your avatars working when all I get is a broken link?

Home from work a little early as we were sent off before it got too nasty out. Lots of snow then freezing rain later tonight. A co-worker in my area of the office is going to be arriving at the Beach Club just before we head back home...we were comparing sleeps left just before we headed out to scrape off our cars! Yes, it's really nice to have a trip to look forward to!

 

[tink1957]

Yes that's my girl Sasha in my avatar pic.

I went into avatars on my profile and deleted my old one then clicked on custom avatar and uploaded the pic from my gallery after I cropped it...it took a few tries but it finally worked...good luck.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

So how did you both get your avatars working when all I get is a broken link?

My avatar went POOF with the old Disboards software. I just uploaded a new one. It was time for a change, anyway .

 

[coastgirl]

Hmm. I didn't even have an old avatar to replace. I uploaded something last night but it's not working. I can see it when I click on the picture, but it's a broken link when it's just in the sidebar.

ETA--hey, there it is! All I did was exactly what I did last night, but this time it worked. Persistence pays. Thanks Vicki and Gina, it helped to know that I was doing what I was supposed to!

(Pic btw is from our last trip...but it's also a Florida state of mind.)