Re Plan

The vacation plans I had for this year were pretty simple. I was going to use most of the money we got back from taxes to buy plane tickets and hotel lodging in Hawaii for the whole family. Take the boys to the Volcano National Park, go skin diving in Hunama bay, bake on the beaches. For a change I was thinking of going to Maui. Every time I've gone (OK, both times) I've gone to Oahu and The Big Island. Makes for a great vacation, with lots of things there that need their picture taken.

A few days after the refund checks came in the mail, my wife tells me, "Lets not go to Hawaii this year, save some of that money." Fine with me, I've still got that week scheduled off, we could do almost anything in that time for considerably less money.

During the next few days, my mind had all kinds of things we could do. Fly out to Vegas (every time I've gone there, I've driven, and that's my least favorite part), or up to the Frisco area, or over to Catalina island, or go camping, or any combination.

However, one thing I'd seen a few ads for came to mind. There have been some spots about how cheaply a family of four could vacation in the Disney resorts in Florida.



I made mention to the wife, and she immediately fixated on that idea. I checked it out, and even with airfare it looked to come out more than a thousand dollars cheaper than the Hawaii trip.

Of course, this would be staying at one of Disney's "budget" resorts. $82.00 per night, I guess there are a lot of places that cost more, but that didn't seem like a real great price to me. Of course, it is Disney, so you know it'll be done up right. I looked at all kinds of options, travel times, dates, etc. The budget resort I liked the sound of best is Disney's Pop Century, which has icons of the 1950s, -60s, -70s, -80s and -90s made into exhibits, statuary and activity themes. Giant Foosball players, the big wheel, and a swimming pool shaped like a bowling pin. How cool is that???

An interesting (OK, not that interesting) side note: while I was getting all this straight, I was preparing an order at Amazon. They had an offer to get their Amazon Visa card and get a rebate of $30.00, almost the whole amount of the order. In addition, earn credit towards future purchases for every dollar you spend on that card. Cool, I was already going to be buying it with a card and paying it right off, if I can get a few thousand racked up as credit towards future purchases at Amazon, cool!!! I applied, but it took a REALLY long time before they got back to me. Meanwhile, its getting closer and closer to the travel time. Finally I gave up the wait and used another card. Trying to get the hotel I wanted on the Disney site, it kept telling me that there were no rooms available on the dates I was travelling. I had gone through Expedia for the flight, and since I couldn't get a room at Disney's Pop Century, I'd look through Expedia for whatever other place I could get near the parks. Well, they had rooms available at Disney's Pop Century, and it was $13 less a night!!! Guess that worked out better for me anyway, then!!!



As far as Disney park passes go, I had been thinking we didn't need to be at a park EVERY SINGLE DAY we're there, but it turns out with their package tickets if you're only going six of the eight days you'll be there, it only comes out to be something like $13 less for the whole family. A clever ploy for them to get you to spend more time (and money) in their parks.

Last time I was to the Florida Disney parks was in the impossibly antiquated year of 1983, can you stand it??? I was 14 at the time, and EPCOT center was a new park. Now they have a wild animal park, two water parks, and Disney MGM studios. The latter has an Aerosmith roller coaster that I'll be reporting back on. They also have the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride that is also at California Adventure. One of the water parks has a slide that actually has water jets that launch you up slopes in the flue. I'm interested in seeing that, too. The wave pool at the other of the water parks is one of the largest in the world, and they have surfing lessons before the park opens (for an additional cost, of course). The surfing lesson (nor the additional cost) isn't especially appealing to me, as I already know the basics, but a couple of hours in an uncrowded wave pool that makes perfectly formed waves every time could be well worth the price!!! The older boy and I may very well take them up on this offer. The parks have days when they open early or are open later for Disney resort guests, for extra, less crowded time. Cool. When we were at California Adventure last time, the younger and I went on the Sun Wheel. He was a little freaked out by it when we went on it, but since then he talks about it a lot!!! When we last went to Disneyland, he wanted to ride it, but, of course, it was in the other park. Hopefully there is something like that in one of the Florida parks for him. The older boy wants to eat gumbo every day. They have a plan where you can pay in advance and have meals paid for at the Disney parks. Seems like a great idea, since you'd likely spend more than the cost if you ate there most days, but I don't know if we'd use all the vouchers you get. Also, since I bought it through Expedia it wasn't offered through them. Probably could still get the deal. Maybe, maybe not...

Something of interest we'll probably pick up is the little stuffed Pal Mickey. Click the link if you want to read all about that (I recommend the read). Wonder if he'll work at the West side parks in the future???


Now here's something I didn't get a chance to do last time I was in Florida. Orlando isn't too terribly far from the Kennedy Space Center. I would love to just tour the place, but as it turns out, there is going to be a shuttle launch the week we're there!!! Of course we'll have to go to that!!!

I'm so looking forward to this trip. It would be cool, since we're in Orlando, to visit with a dear friend who has gone ghost on me. It's OK. I understand that everyone goes disappearing,
into the greatest grey...