95 Days...

5 days away from "ADR" day!

47 days until payoff day!

26 days until I start my part-time job at the Pumpkin Patch!

I would have never thought of looking for a part-time seasonal job at the Pumpkin Patch, but my friend, Laura, got a job and suggested it to me! How perfect!? I will get to work 2 mornings a week and then Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. This will give us enough cushion with our other expenses that we will most likely be guaranteed to be able to have our payoff money in time and if everything else cooperates we will definitely be going on our anniversary trip to "The World" in December!
Yay!

Now, just counting down to this Friday, when I get to wake up at 6am and start searching for those perfect dining reservations to enjoy with our FREE dining plan! Everything has worked out so perfectly! I am so happy and excited!

Excited!

Just a post to say that I am excited!
It is a little over a month until our Advanced Dining Reservation Day!
(the second one I get to do! ha!)
Just 116 more days!
Everything has worked out exactly like we planned, now just to save those dollars between now and payoff day. Payoff day is the week before Katie's birthday, so I am anxious to get the money saved BEFORE then if possible so we don't have to worry about it at that time.

Anyway, just had to post my excitement.
Yay!

More Pixie Dust!

I got an email from Disney Tuesday that gave me a pin for Free Dining!!!! Well...we already had free dining, right?! Well...not exactly. As I explained in my last post, it cost us a little extra to get the basic dining because only the quick service was included in that promotion and if we got the pin I had been expecting then it would only save us a little bit....

Well....THIS PIN was for FREE BASIC dining! So, we got to take about $100 off our package price and get that plan for FREE! Yay! Every little bit counts, and now our payoff is $100 less... which may make a world of difference to us right now!

Our trip payoff is now $490. Still wishing and hoping that it will happen and feeling optimistic!

Something Magical..........

The email I received this past Monday morning.....


Hi Carrie,

Something Magical Has Happened!!

We always try to stay on top of the latest discounts, and today our persistence paid off…for you!

As expected, Disney released the fall free dining offer to the public today. I've upgraded your reservation to the basic dining, which is an additional charge of $10 per person per night since the value resorts include only free quick service dining, so your reservation price has increased slightly. If you would prefer to go with just the free quick service dining, please let me know.

Please review the details below and attached and let me know if everything looks good.

.......................

We hope this makes you as happy as it makes us!!

Just a bit of magic from the Magic for Less Travel.

Have a Magical Day!

Laura Bender
The Magic For Less Travel
Service Plus and Pixie Dust


Our package price increased by $80 to get the dining package, which would regularly have cost us $320. The dining plan, even if you pay for it, is an awesome value, but getting it for 1/4 price is even better! I am thrilled that we got it!

I have been hearing that many people who are traveling to stay at Pop Century Resort have been getting PINS to be upgraded to deluxe resort for free, so I guess that would be the only thing that would make it even better!

Oh yeah...and...having it paid off! :)

Good News/Bad News

Always start with the bad news, right?! Well..... we had to cancel our trip to Disney World! :((((((
Things just didn't work out for us to have the money saved in time. Well, as a matter of fact, we DID have the money saved up. BUT, we had to use that money for some other things right now as we would NEVER pay for a trip to Disney World before I took care of our other responsibilities. We are thankful that we WERE saving for this trip so that we actually had the money there to use when we needed it.

It was coming up to time to make our final payment and after that time it would cost us to cancel, so we had to go ahead and make the choice now. I am very sad, but hope was soon in coming!

The GOOD news is..... we postponed the trip to December again!

I had heard that there were sometimes discounts attached to a person's account on disneyworld.com and if you call they can sometimes tell you about it. Well...I called. The person told me that there was a pin JUST sent out to me for FREE DINING for November and December!!! I was so thrilled and relieved!!!

So, we switched back to our original dates of December 10th-14th and are hoping to get the money saved back up in time to go.

Honestly...... December was our first choice for time of the year to go. The weather will be much nicer and now if we can get the free dining plan then too, there isn't any reason for us to go sooner! We get to see all the Christmas shows and festivities and the crowds will be low that time of year also.

I am very excited again and hoping for the best! The price was cheaper than the October trip also because we changed from 2 day park hoppers to 2 day base tickets. We won't get to park hop, but I think it will be fine because I am hoping TOO that we can do the Christmas party like I went to when I went with Bethany last November. It is SO fun. BUT, if we don't it will still be fine. I am excited to just still have the trip planned and not completely cancelled. It will be a GREAT way to celebrate 10 years together with Corey!

90 Days!

Today is the 90 day countdown mark for our trip!

YAY! That means that when I woke up to go potty at 6:15 this morning, I also came into the living room, got on the computer and starting trying to get all those dining reservations I wanted! Disney now does online dining reservations which open at 6am before the phone line opens at 7am.

I couldn't get exactly what I wanted for Le Cellier, but everything else was perfect! I emailed our travel agent that we had everything we wanted except for dinner at Le Cellier (the only availability had been for lunch which is a different menu...).

Then, when I got up this morning around 9:30, I had an email back from our travel agent saying that she had also booked us at Le Cellier for a 7:10 dinner!

I then got online and switched things around to accomodate and also threw in a reservation for a lunch at the Sci Fi Dine in Theater at Hollywood Studios. It looks so neat and we wanted to check it out, so we may go there just for an appetizer or dessert or something.

Without further delay, here is our final dining schedule! FREE dining I might add! (we just pay tip). Click on the name of the restaurant for the Disney site and photos!

Thursday: arrive, head to Universal Studios for a little while, then Boma for dinner at 7:50pm.

Friday: Disney parks day, Le Cellier for dinner at 7:15pm.

Saturday: All day at Universal Studios, Maya Grill for dinner at 8:00pm.

Sunday: Disney parks day, Sci-Fi Dine-In at 2:20pm, Tokyo Dining for dinner at 8:20pm.

Now the sit-down meals are decided. We probably won't do much planning for our quick meals. The free dining plan we are getting includes 1 counter service (fast food) meal per day, 1 sit-down meal per day, and 1 snack per day.

ADRs and Single Digit Countdown!

We have begun the double digit countdown!!!!!

AND, next Friday is our ADR day. That is the day we can call and make our Advanced Dining Reservations. I have actually emailed our dining choices to our travel agent along with requested times and she is going to do the reservations for us. We are on the dining plan which means we get 1 Table Service (sit-down) meal, 1 Counter Service (fast-food type) meal, and 1 snack per day (items like popcorn, ice cream, side items from fast food places, etc) per person. The best part about it is that since we moved our trip to October we are getting all that for FREE with our package!!!!! We just have to pay for the tips at the at table service restaurants!!!!

Here is what we have chosen. Click on the photo for a link to the menu for each place.


Our number one choice is Le Cellier. This is in the Canada section at Epcot. It is supposed to be an incredible steak house. It is a very difficult to get reservation and we are going to plan our park days around which day we can get this place!

Our other choice for our "in park" day is Tokyo Dining. This is in...guess where? ha.. the Japan section of Epcot. We love good Japanese food, so this should be a great choice for us!

The interior of Tokyo Dining at Epcot

Our other two choices have to be outside of the parks because we only have two day park hoppers. We have chosen Maya Grill for one of those. It is located at the Coronado Springs Resort (our original resort choice for the trip). It has a nice variety on the menu...ribs, steak, seafood, etc.

Interior view of Maya Grill

Our other "out of park" experience is Boma. We ate there on our last trip and I really really enjoyed all the variety of exotic foods. It was so good and I am excited to eat there again and try some things I didn't try last time.

So, there ya go. I will probably update after I hear back from our agent with our actual dining times. We have planned our trip to alternate days of Disney and Universal Studios. Universal Studios closes around 5-6pm the weekend we will be there, so we will have time to spend those days at that park then clean up and head out for a late dinner.

Can't wait!