Ahhh Happy Place. nothing like a disney inspired zen moment to forget about the hours, and hours, and hours and even MORE hours of studying. That's a week. *cring*
So where are we? Oh yes. So on Jan 14th for the 9th time in a row (almost) Jeff and are will be heading from cold Kansas City, to wonderful, warm and fuzzy Orlando, FL. We will be there for 9 days until Jan 23rd. Now usually we go down there the last week of January and this year we are moving it back a week to MLK day/week. Why? Well the answer would be school. Yes next semester the "fun" continues with Microbiology. *double cring* just the name is scary.
Four years ago in 2007 Jeff and I bought into DVC or Disney Vacation Club, Disney's version of a timeshare. At disney its all point based (instead of week based) and we started out a little atypical, we started out with on 25 points. Last year we finally made it up to 100 points with a 50 point add on at BLT, that's Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary, not the sandwich.
Yeah I know you where thinking about it.
Prettttyyyyy... but you know this is only concept art....
I guess one of those times concept art really does live up to the real thing...So 11 months out, this last February I went to work early to make sure I could call Disney at exactly 11 months out at 9:00:00 mins to reserve a coveted reservation. BLT studio MK view.
Yes a room with a view. Supposedly.
See this wouldn't be a Jennifer Lovesee trip report, or trip in general without something for me to stress about. REALLY! Five min walk to Magic Kingdom, Monorail stop on my doorstep, no money that I have to pay when I check in, seriously I would have to find something to stress about. Otherwise it just wouldn't be me.
So what is it? Well see Disney in their infinite "wisdom" had categorized MK views as 3rd floor and above. 3rd floor rooms are more like parking lot views with a castle in the background. I am checking in on Sunday of MLK weekend, yes I am worried about getting the worst view possible. Could it happen? Yes. I am trying to make myself not worry about it. Its not working.
So to keep my mind off of that I am thinking about other aspects of the trip. First item on my agenda that we finally crossed off just a few days ago was the flights. Two months ago I booked the return flight from Orlando to KC on Jan 23rd using free tickets that we had on Southwest. The outbound flight I had been watching, and watching and watching. Southwest and I have a love/hate relationship you see. I love their policies, their refund/rebook policies, free baggage, etc. I don't like the fact that the seem to love to play with your mind with flight prices. $133, YIKES, $119 a little bit better but still high. Then last tuesday it FINALLY dropped under $100, to $90 I grabbed it. $90 per person for a round trip flight to Orlando. Pretty decent. Especially when one considers it is on a holiday weekend.
I will still be watching though. Should it go down in price again. If it does I will happily take a credit back... southwest are you listening?
So my standard practice after I book the flight is to book a car. Now some people go to Disney and depend on their transportation. I have considered it, I even almost did it, but I J U S T C A N T G I V E U P M Y C A R. Ugh got that out. Seriously I know the minute a try to rely on Disney transportation only I will be stuck at a park waiting an hour for the bus like we did at Port Orleans This summer. I Know This, I will not tempt fate, plus $160 isn't bad for a car for 9 days right? I also expect that to go down to. Right Alamo?
Now in the past I would have also been considering hotel options. Well I still have to consider hotel options but only for 2 days. See BLT is a 7 night reservation. The first 2 days we are going to Universal. I will admit it. Not only am I am a overstresser must rent a car fanatic, but I am also a Harry Potter fan. My name is Jennifer and I am a Harry Potter fan. Ok not nutty enough to show up in costume on premier day. But I might still be there on premier day... Yeah I have a problem.
So right now Jeff and I are considering options. We are considering Royal Pacific a Universal Onsite hotel, $219 a night though, UGH. Yeah it is only 2 nights but still with tax that's like $500. Still it does give you front of the line access to all the major attractions at Universal and early entry so I have been trying to look at different options. One of those has been getting Jeff a Universal Annual Pass.
$299, but that brings the room down to $139, and then Jeff can use it instead of buying 2 different tickets (he is going down on a business trip in a week and can use it then too), so its not a big difference in overall ticket price... That's what we are thinking about now. Check back later to see what happens!
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