njhowie
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
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We're visiting our Disney Vacation Club timeshare, which we regularly do in January, May, and September. Last year was very light with only the January visit due to Covid. This year, we've been able to get all of the visits in. Considering the new spike, things have gone very well thus far with this trip.
We park at the Sheraton across the street from the Philly airport for about $7 a day and take their shuttle. They usually have mini buses that seat about 15 people. However, this time it was a minivan with 3 rows of 3 and everyone was squeezed in - not real happy about that. They did require everyone to wear their mask, so that was good.
We fly on Southwest. Got the only nonstop of the day going down at 1:35PM. We're still using up Southwest credits from a number of our canceled trips last year. When we first booked the flights for this trip, it was $179 per person round trip. Since booking, the fares came down 3 times, with the most recent bringing it to $98 per person round trip. So now we have about $80 per person additional credits to use for next trip in January.
The flight down yesterday was great. It was maybe half full. We always sit near the rear, so besides us and another couple, the next 10 rows in front of us were empty as well as the few behind us. Everything went smoothly and we were at the gate in Orlando 30 minutes early.
Our DVC check-in is today, but since we flew down yesterday we needed a place to stay overnight. The Hyatt in the airport terminal was the most convenient since we could walk right in without shuttle and our Disney Magical Express bus is also right in the terminal. When I first made the hotel reservation it was $189 for the night. This past week it dropped to $164, so we saved a bit there too. On Friday, during the online check-in it was offering upgraded rooms for an additional $30 to $50. I reserved the cheapest available since it was just the one night, so no upgrade for frugal me. When the room assignment shows up in the app yesterday, it's the second to highest floor. Then when we go to the room, find it's got a great balcony overlooking the airport terminals and runways. This was the room they wanted $50 additional for. This is a great hotel, even though the restaurant is still closed due to Covid. Better yet, everything was contact free through their app, start to finish. Used the phone to check in, open the door, and this morning, the check out button is showing in the app.
Check out time is noon, so we'll be heading out around then, hop on the Disney bus, and head over to the resort.
We usually get a rental car when we visit so we can do other non-Disney things. Depending on prices we'll either get it at the airport for the full stay skipping the Disney shuttle, or we'll rent from one of the locations that are available at Disney for the bulk of the time and use the Disney bus from/to the airport. At first, the prices were so ridiculously high that we weren't going to rent a car at all this trip. We're talking $100 to $150 per day!!! That's what we regularly pay for an entire week. Anyhow, as time went on, rental rates have also come down significantly and I was able to get down to $37/day all in from one of the locations at Disney.
Tuesday is our park day - we visit the parks only one day each trip. We're usually able to do 3 or all 4 parks in a single day (all 4 is virtually impossible since restrictions went into effect), so we're able to relax and do other things during the trip.
So, this trip has gone extremely well thus far and looking forward to a relaxing week.
We park at the Sheraton across the street from the Philly airport for about $7 a day and take their shuttle. They usually have mini buses that seat about 15 people. However, this time it was a minivan with 3 rows of 3 and everyone was squeezed in - not real happy about that. They did require everyone to wear their mask, so that was good.
We fly on Southwest. Got the only nonstop of the day going down at 1:35PM. We're still using up Southwest credits from a number of our canceled trips last year. When we first booked the flights for this trip, it was $179 per person round trip. Since booking, the fares came down 3 times, with the most recent bringing it to $98 per person round trip. So now we have about $80 per person additional credits to use for next trip in January.
The flight down yesterday was great. It was maybe half full. We always sit near the rear, so besides us and another couple, the next 10 rows in front of us were empty as well as the few behind us. Everything went smoothly and we were at the gate in Orlando 30 minutes early.
Our DVC check-in is today, but since we flew down yesterday we needed a place to stay overnight. The Hyatt in the airport terminal was the most convenient since we could walk right in without shuttle and our Disney Magical Express bus is also right in the terminal. When I first made the hotel reservation it was $189 for the night. This past week it dropped to $164, so we saved a bit there too. On Friday, during the online check-in it was offering upgraded rooms for an additional $30 to $50. I reserved the cheapest available since it was just the one night, so no upgrade for frugal me. When the room assignment shows up in the app yesterday, it's the second to highest floor. Then when we go to the room, find it's got a great balcony overlooking the airport terminals and runways. This was the room they wanted $50 additional for. This is a great hotel, even though the restaurant is still closed due to Covid. Better yet, everything was contact free through their app, start to finish. Used the phone to check in, open the door, and this morning, the check out button is showing in the app.
Check out time is noon, so we'll be heading out around then, hop on the Disney bus, and head over to the resort.
We usually get a rental car when we visit so we can do other non-Disney things. Depending on prices we'll either get it at the airport for the full stay skipping the Disney shuttle, or we'll rent from one of the locations that are available at Disney for the bulk of the time and use the Disney bus from/to the airport. At first, the prices were so ridiculously high that we weren't going to rent a car at all this trip. We're talking $100 to $150 per day!!! That's what we regularly pay for an entire week. Anyhow, as time went on, rental rates have also come down significantly and I was able to get down to $37/day all in from one of the locations at Disney.
Tuesday is our park day - we visit the parks only one day each trip. We're usually able to do 3 or all 4 parks in a single day (all 4 is virtually impossible since restrictions went into effect), so we're able to relax and do other things during the trip.
So, this trip has gone extremely well thus far and looking forward to a relaxing week.
