Umm, I've flown everything from a helicopter, to a 4 seat step over the wing, to a small jet of 20 seats, to a jumbo jet, with a second story of seats. Have to admit, that 2 story one was awesome. Yes, I take my medicine for motion sickness on all of them. I didn't mind the helicopter, as although I don't like heights that much, felt like I wasn't going to fall. I've also been in a hot air balloon, and well, for me, that's one and done. While I was okay and not sick, the smell and kinda small basket made me not so happy. Taking pictures though, was so much fun. So, I would say, go for the helicopter ride, but take your medicine just to be sure, and maybe not eat or eat what you are used to when traveling in an airplane.
Oh, and I am glad you enjoyed the movie. That bunny was funny. I am sure if Universal does open a Pets ride, we will ride it, even if it's more for the kiddies. Everyone I think likes a pet or animal that is cute.
I hear ya for prices. I am so glad I bought my airfare tickets for October when they were first available. Then, about a month ago, they dropped 30 dollars, so I changed. From then on, about $100 more round trip more than I have paid. For Christmas, don't get me started. Crazy prices and had to fight to get at least an acceptable return flight. While October may not be sold out flights, the Christmas ones will be. Here's to cheap flights. And the funny thing, I'll be leaving when you arrive. I will be returning the car around noon.
How rotten that we miss each other by literally a couple of hours
. If our flight gets moved to a later arrival for any reason, we'll try to meet at the airport and at least say hello as we're coming and you're going.
Good feedback on the helicopter ride and the motion sickness meds/less intake of food is what I was thinking, too. We're not really looking to add a helicopter ride to THIS trip, but its something I would love to get the courage to do on a future vacation. Still lots of time to think about it and decide
.
As for Christmas fares, I have been dreaming about booking a spontaneous, budget, one-week getaway in mid December while we could enjoy all the holiday festivities before the Christmas crowds arrive
. I priced it out and actually found a decent deal of around $1800 including accommodations, food, flights, car rental, and park tickets....including
MVMCP. I am sorely tempted!! YOLO, right?
Gina to answer your seating questions.. I had this conundrum when I booked all of us on Jetblue for our cruise last week. It came down to DH and my one brother left, and I wasn't sure how to seat them. Ultimately I went with Dh on the aisle and my brother (who's not a big guy) in the middle seat. My reasoning being, that if it's a full flight then at least they are sitting beside one another and not with a stranger in the middle. Yes the stranger gets the window seat but oh well. The thing with Steve across the aisle from you is that the rows are never lined perfectly ( on Southwest's 3 and 3 configuration anyway) so he's likely to be back a bit forward or behind you isn't he? That makes it difficult to chat quietly.
When we fly with our kids for family vacation I put the kids and I in one row, and dh across the aisle, but with the rows not lining up we don't end up chatting much unless necessary. If you left your window seat open like I suggest, it would hopefully be one of the last to fill up because it's an upgrade fee.
Jetblue's Airbuses have the rows of seats evenly across from each other. We have booked three aisles before....one each for Steve, Jake and I.....and we've always had two of us directly across from one another and the third person one row behind.
I chatted about it with Steve again last night, and we decided to make the switch. I called Jetblue this morning and we're now in seats 11C and 11D. If we get really, REALLY lucky on travel day and two seats are still empty next to one of us, we'll make a last minute switcheroo to me in the window, Steve in the aisle and the middle seat unoccupied. The inflight crew has always been very happy to accommodate us that way
.
I know for a fact that WDW is a no fly zone. Can't speak to the other parks but it may be safe to think they are as well.
For future reference never take one of the tour flights over the Grand Canyon. The safety record is really bad. You don't want to hear any more.
I know the one tour I was looking at offered different options.....one was for views of Universal and one for views of SeaWorld. I honestly didn't even think to look for Disney on there, because the SW/Uni tours would be our picks anyway. Cool to know, though, about the no-fly zone. Something I would have never though of.
I wouldn't be too bummed about it yet... For our 2014 trip we were booked on an airbus, and about two weeks prior to our departure we were downsized to an Embraer! Hopefully this happens for you as well!
Well, that would be nice switch
. I will have to keep my eyes out in the event that that occurs in our case as well. That must wreak havoc on people's advanced seat selections, though!!
Wow - I take a break from the DIS Boards for a week (ahhh, stay-cation), and you've wrapped up the old trip report and started a new one. You are a busy, busy gal!
I am sorry about the non-job offer. You seem to have an awesome outlook about it and fortunately work for some pretty good peeps. That can make it all the better.
I cannot believe how much you have planned already. I feel woefully under planned, as we are at the four month/three week countdown from today and I clearly have quite a bit of work to do. I've never done sky auction though. I'm still trying to find an Orlando hotel for our pre-Disney stay and there are so many choices with so many varying prices, I am just at a loss. Do you find sky auction easy to work with?
I wanted to throw out a couple of Halloween costume ideas that are very easy and can accommodate all shapes and sizes. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. View attachment 181137 View attachment 181138
Welcome back, Ruthie!! I hope you had a very relaxing staycation!
You guys looked adorable in your costumes.....the pics are AWESOME! Steve still has his heart set on gangster/20's themed attire, so we're hoping that we can get him all fixed up in something fitting (both theme-wise and body-wise) if at all possible. I have found some plus size options from a Canadian supplier that would work for his big ol' chest, but all of them have legs that are two inches too short and much larger waistlines than he requires. I am glad that we have lots of time to get it sorted out.....something tells me we're going to need it!
You will have a new option for airport opening up right around the time of this trip (but I wouldn't consider booking until the flights actually start). Looks like Ogdensburg NY has direct flights on Allegiant Air into Sanford starting in October, we drove by the airport expansion last month and it was moving along well so that start date seems plausible. That would be about the same distance as Watertown for you. Of course I don't think Ogdensburg has a reasonable hotel that I have ever seen, but airport parking is free (at least it is now). Interestingly, Allegiant lists the airport as Ogdensburg NY/Ottawa ON. Think they are planning to attract the Canadian audience to their cheaper flights?
Beautiful photo book! You can really see how much you guys did when you see it all laid out like that. What a great trip.
I've become hopeless with pictures. I take plenty of them
but I've resorted to just putting them on a private Instagram account as I go and then at the end of the year clicking a button and printing out a basic photo book on Blurb.
I'm fascinated with all of the airport talk. We just book at Newark and that's that. We could shop around if we were willing to go to JFK or LaGuardia but the traffic can make you lose hours if you hit it wrong.
I don't blame you for wanting to skip Toronto, I loathe that airport for some reason. I love the Ottawa airport, it's adorable.
Hey, a basic photo book is better than none at all
. Much as we've entered a very digital world, I still yearn for those printed, tangible memories you can hold in your hand.
We have yet to fly from Ottawa, though we considered it in the earlier years. A big part of what scares off of of that airport is the unfamiliarity....of not only the airport itself, but of the entire area. We hardly ever visit our nation's capital
. Does that make me a bad Canadian?
I love JetBlue! We could fly out of our small town airport, but there are no direct flights and no JetBlue! We are happy to drive the ~2hours to Richmond to fly direct and Jet Blue. We also always do the Even more space seats. Once you do it, it is hard to not to in the future! I love being at the bulk head and the first off the plane. There is also the boarding early (which is a necessity when we only have carry-ons), and the quicker security (needed in Orlando!). The JetBlue flights we have been on have always been the Ember with the 2 x 2 arrangement. That is a tough call! On non-Jetblue flights, like when we went to Anaheim with delta, I got the window and DH sacrificed himself and took the middle seat both legs of the trip
Love that guy. Will is about 6' though and can fit ok in the middle. Steve could not!! I would chose for yourself which seat makes you feel less queasy. If you need the window to feel better, than it is worth the gamble to possibly have the awkward middle stranger.
I have been on several helicopters...for fun, Hawaii!...for work, training with Flight Paramedics. I think you should ask someone who gets motion/air sick though, how their experience was in a helicopter. There is a lot of motion and sensations you feel on an airplane in a helicopter!
Ah yes, those direct flights....they are a MUST. I can' imagine taking a connecting flight, to be honest. I guess in large part because I hate the feeling of landing. I don't know why, but it always feels to me like that plane is still going so fast when we touch down that we'll end up barreling into the terminal
.
A helicopter ride in Hawaii sounds INCREDIBLE!
Motion sickness or not, that's one I'd do for sure. It would be worth every little white bag I might need while in the air
.
I never thought about doing this, it would have made things easier. It's an issue when you have two people that want a window or an aisle. When my friend and I went to DC last year we both had windows on the redeye for sleeping so she was behind me. The puddle jumper from Philly to DC we sat next to each other. The flight home from Philly to Seattle we did window aisle and ended up with the weirdest person I have ever sat next to on a flight. He didn't even wait for me to get up so he could sit down, he started to climb over me. Umm...never had that happen unless I'm too lazy to get up at the movies or a sporting event and even then I squish to the side. Then later in the flight he took his shoes off, and I think his socks, or he just didn't have them on, and he sat indian style in the seat, the middle seat. It was all I could do to move as far into the aisle as possible to avoid his feet. ***.
I'd go for the two aisle's or suffer in the middle seat for a couple of hours.
LOL, your post was convincing enough for me! At least, if we're both on the aisles, we are guaranteed at least one side each that's not risking touching a complete stranger for 2.25 hours. I will admit I have personal space issues at the best of times, so sitting that close to people I don't know is uncomfortable for me even in ideal circumstances!
I can't believe someone took off their shoes
. Ew, just EW! I can tell you with complete honesty that if Jake (and sometimes even Steve) did such a thing after spending a week in the Florida heat, the engines of that aircraft might fail just due to the smell alone
. Seriously folks, keep those shoes on!
Does Air Ornge count as a helicopter ride? I didn't get to see much laying flat on my back on a stretcher and it was real noisy and vibratey. I didn't get air sick but that might have been cause my blood pressure was 50 over 28
LOL, not exactly what I was envisioning
. But I am glad to hear you didn't suffer from motion sickness on top of everything else!!
How are you feeling these days, anyway? No setbacks? Better every day?
Ok...so what's wrong with Mexico?
Jamaica is a place with great resorts but you don't venture off the resort. Not the safest thing you could do. Antigua I haven't been to but have friends that used to go every winter. Those southern islands are all really nice but VERY expensive and they really don't have an off season. If there was an off season it would be now and they still go for $1500 per person with no meals or $2200+ for AI. Any of the places that you would book without meals you can count on an additional $1000+ just for food.
The company that Steve works for has a plant in Mexico. My brother (who is the Assistant GM for the firm here in our hometown) has traveled to the Mexico facility regularly for several years. Let's just say there are lots of not-so-nice stories of his travels to and from that plant
. As a result, it has soured Steve on Mexico for vacation purposes....and quite honestly, I can't blame him (let's just say that some of the stuff is pretty disturbing). There are plenty of other warm places for us to travel to when the urge hits.
Yep, we have found the same with the costs for Antigua (hence the reason we keep returning to Orlando versus branching out to other southern destinations). So far, Florida continues to be our best-value option. A big part of me hopes that never changes!
.
Now I'm feeling rather guilty about suggesting it. It would be a huge splurge on an already big travel year. I'm so torn.
.
.
. Not holding out a lot of hope that the prices I am seeing now for December will be available in two weeks time. My cautiously optimistic outlook just got a lot less optimistic.
