There's a squirrel in my head! My first PTR for WDW and beyond...

Ouch!


I know we're coming to Easter and all that.....but a nail through the foot? That's not fun.

Sounds like your plans are taking shape.
 
:thumbsup2 for trip organisation and house sitters-glad you have found people who seem right for you-I think that's my DH concern-what happens if the water pump or sewerage system breaks down or a tree falls on the drive and we have people not used to dealing with that stuff here. Hope that foot heals soon - sounds yucky.

That was exactly our concern! I would have been happy with a single female but DH said no in case of that very thing. It will be cyclone season and for some reason he thinks two pairs of hands are better than one. He also discounted families with young children because of the dogs, the creek, the trampoline, the chickens and rooster etc. He didn't want the grief of one of the kids having an accident or getting bitten by an animal (our dogs aren't well socialised compared to 'city' dogs). :headache: So we decided to look for an older, preferably retired, couple. We had a lot of enquiries from people in Melbourne or Sydney and we had a lot of questions about how close to the river are we, would we flood (keep in mind these questions were coming in during and shortly after the Bundaberg floods) if the river broke its banks etc. The people we settled on are familiar with our region and the man is a bit of a handy man their ad said. It's scary having someone else living in your house, looking after your dogs, but it's peace of mind knowing the house won't be vacant for 2 months and if something does happen, like a burst pipe or broken window, someone will be there to deal with it.
 
It'll become patently obvious to readers after a while I am not a lineal planner. I'm definitely the "... squirrel!" type of thinker, I'm easily side-tricked and tend to go off on tangents. Now that flights are booked I've turned my attention to accommodation for our LA stopover and our 4 nights or so in NYC. I can't book any NYC accommodation until I've secured flights from Orlando to NYC.

I realised after we booked our Qantas flights we will be in LA on Thanksgiving. I'd love to find a restaurant that will serve a traditional style dinner on that night. I'm toying with the idea of staying at The Hilton Garden Inn LAX http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g32341-d224346-Reviews-Hilton_Garden_Inn_LAX_El_Segundo-El_Segundo_California.html but there are a few other places I'll look further into near the airport. I'm also considering the Marriott Marquis http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93507-Reviews-New_York_Marriott_Marquis-New_York_City_New_York.html and the Renaissance New Yourk Hotel Times Square http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93534-Reviews-Renaissance_New_York_Hotel_Times_Square-New_York_City_New_York.html#REVIEWS But I've still got a while to go. I'm just enjoying the research :surfweb: And I'm still undecided about flying to Vancouver or Seattle from Montana. That decision will most likely depend on flights and prices.
 
It'll become patently obvious to readers after a while I am not a lineal planner. I'm definitely the "... squirrel!" type of thinker, I'm easily side-tricked and tend to go off on tangents. Now that flights are booked I've turned my attention to accommodation for our LA stopover and our 4 nights or so in NYC. I can't book any NYC accommodation until I've secured flights from Orlando to NYC.

I realised after we booked our Qantas flights we will be in LA on Thanksgiving. I'd love to find a restaurant that will serve a traditional style dinner on that night. I'm toying with the idea of staying at The Hilton Garden Inn LAX http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g32341-d224346-Reviews-Hilton_Garden_Inn_LAX_El_Segundo-El_Segundo_California.html but there are a few other places I'll look further into near the airport. I'm also considering the Marriott Marquis http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93507-Reviews-New_York_Marriott_Marquis-New_York_City_New_York.html and the Renaissance New Yourk Hotel Times Square http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93534-Reviews-Renaissance_New_York_Hotel_Times_Square-New_York_City_New_York.html#REVIEWS But I've still got a while to go. I'm just enjoying the research :surfweb: And I'm still undecided about flying to Vancouver or Seattle from Montana. That decision will most likely depend on flights and prices.

non-linear is good. :thumbsup2
 
After lots of to-ing and fro-ing and deliberation and consultations with those who know better than me, I changed one of our flight seating arrangements. We're now in the 'back' row where there are two/four/two combinations. On our BNE-LAX flight we've got the two doubles on either side of the plane in the same row. Once the kids are settled I can go and sit next to DH for some quiet time. On the LAX-BNE flight we've got seats behind the kids in the double seats area. It's up the back, away from the food area but right near the toilets so there won't be too many people lingering I hope. I'd really like our seats right up the front of economy but it turns out we are only lowly bronze frequent flyer members so those seats haven't been released to we mere mortals yet. But that's okay. I'm starting to really warm to the idea of those back of the bus seats :goodvibes
 
Good job on the Qantas flights and seating. Hoping your Orlando-NYC flights come into play soon so you can get out of the accommodation holding pattern.
 
After lots of to-ing and fro-ing and deliberation and consultations with those who know better than me, I changed one of our flight seating arrangements. We're now in the 'back' row where there are two/four/two combinations. On our BNE-LAX flight we've got the two doubles on either side of the plane in the same row. Once the kids are settled I can go and sit next to DH for some quiet time. On the LAX-BNE flight we've got seats behind the kids in the double seats area. It's up the back, away from the food area but right near the toilets so there won't be too many people lingering I hope. I'd really like our seats right up the front of economy but it turns out we are only lowly bronze frequent flyer members so those seats haven't been released to we mere mortals yet. But that's okay. I'm starting to really warm to the idea of those back of the bus seats :goodvibes

My Mum gets all caught up on trying to get as close to the front as possible, but TBH I really don't notice the difference once I'm on board. Since Mum was with me on the way over, and Dad is a gold FF, we got pretty good seats up the front. I bet I'll be right up the back on the way home since I'm on my own, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. The worst thing I've got is that they didn't warm up enough meals and since they serve from the front, they ran out before they got to us. It just meant we had to wait an extra 15 minutes for our dinner.
 
We had seats just near the middle toilets last time. The only problem was the toilet light coming on and off as people entered, which was quite regularly. Maybe take some eye masks if you want to rest.
 
Good job on the Qantas flights and seating. Hoping your Orlando-NYC flights come into play soon so you can get out of the accommodation holding pattern.

My Mum gets all caught up on trying to get as close to the front as possible, but TBH I really don't notice the difference once I'm on board. Since Mum was with me on the way over, and Dad is a gold FF, we got pretty good seats up the front. I bet I'll be right up the back on the way home since I'm on my own, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. The worst thing I've got is that they didn't warm up enough meals and since they serve from the front, they ran out before they got to us. It just meant we had to wait an extra 15 minutes for our dinner.

We had seats just near the middle toilets last time. The only problem was the toilet light coming on and off as people entered, which was quite regularly. Maybe take some eye masks if you want to rest.

I told DH that if we crash we'll be the last to die (providing we go nose-first). Actually, I'm kind of looking forward to being at the back. It'll be like being the cool kid who rides at the back of the bus (which I never was and never did :rolleyes1).

Hopefully we will be one of the first to board and won't have to trek half way down the plane looking for a place to store all of our stuff! Aussie Shaz, I hate the lights coming on and off, too. I do have a purdy little eye mask that looks like a squirrel's face so I'm bringing that :cool2:
 
In between chasing up missing renewed credit cards, missing school fee invoices, ordering new round bales of hay etc, I managed to book our LAX hotel accommodation. Thanks to the helpful advice of Dis'ers I've booked our overnight stop at Marriott LA Airport hotel and saved myself $100 off the hotel's advertised rate (including taxes). So now I've saved $4000 on flights by NOT going with the TA's quote plus $100 on the Marriott (thanks to Beee) - that's a lot of churros :woohoo:

Next up will be looking for MCO-NYC flights and accommodation.

All I'm really counting on is the fellow who said he'd buy our ute to hurry up and come up with the cash - half of the money is mine!
 
Marlea, just double check on seat guru, that the seats recline fully, sometimes the very back seats don't recline at all:confused3
 
I just checked seat guru, I assume it is a 747, half of the 747's come up as good seats and half bad. Double check qantas website to see if you can determine exactly which 747 you are on
 
Not much on the planning front has been happening lately since I'm low on funds. DH has got more overtime at work though so that should mean we can start to get back on track shortly.

This month (after this month's credit card cycle with the $2000 braces payment for DD has passed) I plan to buy our WDW and DLR tickets before they rise in price.

I still haven't decided on NYC accom or our Cape Canaveral post-cruise accom. There's so much to do when you write it all down but I wouldn't change doing it myself for handing it over to a TA!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards
 
We were lucky DD needed a plate - only $600 once off and all future checks every few months were inclusive in the initial price. Compared to the bills our friends were getting with kids with braces it was great! Took her a while to get used to sleeping with it though. Worked a treat.

Fingers crossed for lots of OT for DH and tix soon in your hot little hands.
 
I have had two out of three kids have braces - ouch!! DD also had a plate as well as a couple of teeth removed under general anaesthetic (before we were covered) .

The orthodontist said the third one could also do with them, depending on whether we wanted a Mercedes or were happy with the Ford! - we'll take the ford, thanks LOL!
 

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