Michael & Kellis Nov 2012 trip to Saratoga Springs Resort for Epcots International Food & Wine Festival
Travel dates: Nov 1 to 10, 2012
Travel method: Air, Delta; Car, Alamo
Resort: Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR), plus two nights at Pop Century
Accommodations: DVC Studio
Ages Represented in Group: early 50s
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: 15 trips to WDW
Comments: This trip is our first for the Food & Wine Festival. We have tickets to the last Halloween Party and the first Christmas Party
Cast of characters: Me Michael, & my wife Kelli
Pretrip:
Being fairly new DVC members; we knew our next trip should include the Food & Wine Festival. Due to our schedules and other commitments we could only head south for the last few days in October and the first two weeks in November. Kelli wanted to celebrate her birthday at home and we wanted to be home for Halloween so we booked a studio at Saratoga Springs Resort from Sunday November 4 to Saturday November 10. We planned on visiting friends on the coast on the weekend we arrive or the weekend we leave. We also waitlisted (we knew it would be a long shot) for Beach Club or The Wilderness Lodge.
What we didnt know was that it would be Jersey Week; when, due to Election Day, a two day conference for teachers and Veterans Day weekend; many New Jersey families head down since they can take a week off and the kids would only miss a couple of days of school. This led to many unavailable flights or very high airfares. Since the difference in airfare for arriving on Thursday would easily pay for additional accommodations for the 3 extra nights we book Delta leaving LaGuardia Airport in NY on November 1. To get the cheapest airfare would also mean arriving back at a different airport, JFK on Saturday the 10th. We booked Thursday and Friday night at Pop Century (annual pass discount) and the Saturday at a Holiday Inn Express in Melbourne, Florida (AAA rate). We will use Alamo for the first time since the best deal was the DVC discount with them.
Another perk on arriving on the first is that we could go the last Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party on the 2nd and enjoy Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party on the 9th. We also paid for reservations for two Culinary Demonstrations: Wendy Bazilian and Jon Ashton, Driscoll's Only the Finest Berries (Turkey) and Cristobal Lopez, Portobello, (Pork). And lastly we signed up for one of the DVC member previews for Fantasy Land.
My wife wants to relax more on this vacation, - so little park storming for us, but as usual I may get up early and ride thrill rides at opening while she sleeps in. Another wonderful surprise was that Kelli decided to take swimming lessons, now we can both enjoy the pools together. And yes, I know the pools are only 3 4 feet deep in most areas, but this has relieved a lot of the apprehension she had. Im really looking forward to that.
A week before leaving we heard that Hurricane Sandy will be heading our way. On late Monday October 29 the storm hit. The winds were incredibly powerful and our lights flickered for hours. Oddly we did not have a lot of rain, less than 2 inches. We saw the power lines arcing across the street, sending sparks to the street and lighting up the night sky but somehow our power never went out. Our arbor tipped over in the yard but the house had no damage. We were very lucky, many other people were not. Kellis work was closed Tuesday but they got power back and she went in Wednesday. My work place in northern New Jersey was hard hit and I did not have to go to work Tuesday and Wednesday since they had no or limited power. (I latter learned that my work was without power for ten days!).
On Tuesday we found out that Delta had cancelled our Thursday morning flight. LaGuardia Airport was under water! They rebooked for Friday night; we would miss the Halloween party and lose 2 days of vacation. I re-booked it so we could get in Friday evening, missing half the party. Not happy I re-rebooked it from a small airport north of us going from NY to Detroit to Atlanta then to Orlando, but we would get in by Friday afternoon. On Wednesday night we heard on the TV that LaGuardia would partially open the next day (Thank God we had power!). I was then able to re-re-rebook the flight out of LaGuardia on a direct flight AND it was the same time as our original flight that was cancelled! We then had to quickly finish packing and hope the flight would leave the next morning. Stay tuned for how it went.
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Michael & Kellis Nov 2012 trip to Saratoga Springs Resort for Epcots International
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