Pre-Trip 2 Broke Guys (and a dog!) and $200 French Fries?! multiple short trips

Who:

Tony:

Wait, a little more recent, please (but remember the blue tufted sofa for later.)

"Hidden Mickey" ears behind me? It's actually a wall mural with ocean waves.

Brian:

That picture of him is 8 years old, but still adorbs.

...and sometimes Kylie:

60 pounds of German Shepherd/Chow Chow love & anxiety. She is as old as that picture of Brian, and also adorbs!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Could this day get any better?

Hint:

 

[Rista1313]

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And yes, that lunch came with a whole loaf of crispy Italian bread. (Heaven!)

I ate at the bar, chatted with the bartender a bit, and he decided to brag that his own version of Monteleone’s Vieux Carre is better(!)

Of course I had one!

He used a different kind of bitters. I don’t know if they were better bitters, or less bitter bitters, but a better drink? Bah. kidding. Of course it was excellent.

I barely made it to the airport in time, but it was worth it. My suitcases were overweight (and so was I) so I had to throw away clothes (again) to make room for all my freebies from the event.

It was like an episode of The Price Is Right. I’m on the floor in the front of the line, pulling certain items out, rezipping and reweighing the bag, X, try again. (All this on 2 Vieux Carres and a Bloody Mary.) Finally, I was still 2 pounds over, and the guy mercifully said, “Close enough.” Whew. Flew home.

Will we ever go to Disney again??

I missed this until I got home... waaah. We did have wonderful meals there for sure! I think I might be crawfished out for a few months!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So, yes, one of the main reasons we chose the Yacht Club was because of their pet friendly policy.

Even though we kept our Kylie at Best Friends Pet Care during the day (about $35) we love love loved the opportunity to finally bring her to our room at WDW. On most trips, we choose between leaving her home alone with a sitter, or bringing her and staying off site at a pet friendly hotel. The only time she ever stayed overnight at BFPC was unexpectedly when Hurricane Irma aligned with our trip and we were already booked on property (and we hated that.)

The previous pic plus this one:

show you the goodies you get for the $50 in-room pet fee.

We picked her up after Jiko, and without further ado, here’s Kylie in the room!

That dopey scarf thing means Brian sprung for grooming while she was visiting BFPC, so she was all clean for Mickey!

The view when I walked her before bed:

You’ll hear this again: iPhone cameras suck for distance shots! I deleted so many, but it was beautiful and peaceful in person.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

And our morning walk: (generic pic dump)

Yes, I am pretty much always the dog walker.

 

[Darstarr]

So, yes, one of the main reasons we chose the Yacht Club was because of their pet friendly policy.

Even though we kept our Kylie at Best Friends Pet Care during the day (about $35) we love love loved the opportunity to finally bring her to our room at WDW. On most trips, we choose between leaving her home alone with a sitter, or bringing her and staying off site at a pet friendly hotel. The only time she ever stayed overnight at BFPC was unexpectedly when Hurricane Irma aligned with our trip and we were already booked on property (and we hated that.)

The previous pic plus this one:
View attachment 352684

show you the goodies you get for the $50 in-room pet fee.

We picked her up after Jiko, and without further ado, here’s Kylie in the room!
View attachment 352686

That dopey scarf thing means Brian sprung for grooming while she was visiting BFPC, so she was all clean for Mickey!

The view when I walked her before bed:
View attachment 352685

You’ll hear this again: iPhone cameras suck for distance shots! I deleted so many, but it was beautiful and peaceful in person.

Love her! Love that Disney lets us bring our furry family members! Love the report!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

And yes, we walked all over the place!

In the room, she loved to watch those ducks out back.

 

[PacNWTigger]

Jaeger is wondering when he will be able to go to WDW. How exciting for you guys to enjoy a room with Kylie! Super jealous!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

And I’m not proud of it, but this post is just to aggravate the “no dogs in Disney hotels” peeps.

Dog on the bed!

Dog still on the bed!

Dog on the bed with two gay guys!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

(You’ll notice I took that stupid bandana thing off right away. I never liked those!)

Anyway, having her there really added to the experience. No way we could afford it for a 7 day trip - but when did we ever take a 7 day trip?

That day could not have gotten any better.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Dog getting ready to go bye-bye.

Bye-bye, Yacht Club - and thank you!

This was our first stay with the parking fee. I fully intended to mention it at check out - not complain, just let them know I was not happy about it.

But I didn’t get a chance to, because...keep a secret...they didn’t charge us the pet fee.

Woo hoo!

Tired dog in the car.

 

[MinnieM123]

Oh that's wonderful that Kylie could join you in your deluxe hotel room! And that little amenity swag the Yacht Club gives to the dogs . . .

I really loved the picture of her watching the ducks outside--so CUTE!

So glad you and Brian had a fun trip, and that Kylie could join the family for some of it.

 

[MinnieM123]

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Jaeger is wondering when he will be able to go to WDW. How exciting for you guys to enjoy a room with Kylie! Super jealous!!

Those ears! Adorable. What kind of dog is Jaeger? Looks like a white shepard but wondering if there is another mix in him, too.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

The light blue in the back seat is one of two bedsheets I put into the car to keep the dog hair to a minimum. It was originally covering the top part of the seat, too, but fell down.

Of course, hair blew around when the windows were open for a short time, etc.

Now, I normally go over a rental with a quick vacuum before I return it, but in this case I had the choice between doing that or getting it back on time. In the moment, in a rush, I thought it would be more important to get it back on time. I did inspect, and removed a few hairs by hand.

Returned the car on time, they inspected it, and sent me on my way. Cool!

Except...several days later, I received an email from Sixt car rental. I almost didn’t open it, figuring it was the usual thank you or survey.

But, in the “you win some, you lose some” category, it was an additional fee for “excessive pet hair.”



The fee was $169.00



(I could have gotten more French fries from Paradiso 37 for that much $$!)

ETA: the total rental price for two days was just under $80. The $169 was on top of that.

 

[NateD1226]

But, in the “you win some, you lose some” category, it was an additional fee for “excessive pet hair.”



The fee was $169.00



(I could have gotten more French fries from Paradiso 37 for that much $$!)

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Well, you know Tony could not let that stand. There must have been some mistake.

I called. I emailed. I facebooked.

Ultimately, someone explained via email that it was “excessive” pet hair - and sent me close-up pics of the car floor. The pics did not show “excessive” hair. It was here and there. Again, a quick vacuum would have done the trick. (Now I wished I had done that and returned it a few minutes late.)

Here’s my issue: if there’s a problem, why not tell me as you’re inspecting it in front of me upon return? I would have said, “Hey, I’ll go vacuum it, be right back!”

Why take it back with a smile, and send an email with a receipt as an attachment with no mention of any issue - just an exorbitant fee?

I mentioned there was no amount of vacuuming that could cost $169, and that Disney World just charged me $50 for a whole hotel room!

They would not budge. I felt very ripped off.

Bad Facebook review, bad yelp review - those got me some more contact, but ultimately back on the same merry go round - no results.

Now (this would never happen but) if she had done something actually damaging (like peeing - which, again, would never happen, has never happened in 9 years) I would apologize and pay up. But this was unreasonable over a few hairs.

So: I filed a complaint with my credit card. And it took over a month, but I have one more reason to say:

“Thank you, Chase Disney VISA Card!”

Or, I should say, 169 more reasons.

Take that, Sixt car rental!

BOOM!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Whoops, I left out my Frozen pic (before Jiko.)

This pic was intentionally a callback to the pic from almost exactly a year ago, when I captured Brian in that same exit tunnel - wet and grumpy.

So, we were back home in early September, and probably not going back until after the holidays.

First we had B’s bday in early December (had we gone up as we often do around that time, we would have bumped into @Tuvalu and Em. “Until next time...”

We stayed home and took his Dad & Stepmom to a nice lunch at Capital Grille.

Then it was Christmas season.

Joy to the world, and both of our nearly dead cars finally gave up. Strangely, both of us were pouring water/coolant into our radiators nearly every day for several weeks. Every once in a while, one of us would break down. Neither wanted to spend money on a car.

But we had no choice!

B went first. Actually, we went shopping together, thought we might get a nice twofer deal. Naturally, he found something on day one:

It is a Buick Encore, 2015, nice shape, and doesn’t need water poured in every day.

I, being me, would stress and torture myself for the next two weeks, wasting wayyy too much time looking, reading, test driving.

 

[Swissmiss]

Glad your Sixt story worked out. I think any time I’ve had rental car issues it has been them or EuropCar.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Quickly, because this isn’t Disney stuff - Christmas Eve. Remember the lobster dish I was trying to explain, and Brian was trying to recreate for me back in August for my birthday surprise dinner? It was something my Grandma would make every Christmas Eve. I had attempted to make it a few times over the years but never really got it right.

This time, nailed it! This is “lobster gravy” (served over pasta.)

And it’s a good thing I nailed it, because I brought it to his Dad’s house thinking it would be an extra dish - and it ended up being the main. Stepmom totally flaked on dinner when I mentioned bringing it.

Before the new year, I had my first lease:

And put down hardwood floors & trim (ourselves) in two bedrooms.

And just like that, it was January - time to go back to WDW!!

 

[PacNWTigger]

Those ears! Adorable. What kind of dog is Jaeger? Looks like a white shepard but wondering if there is another mix in him, too.

He is a white German Shepherd. Nothing else to him...except for a little bit of troublemaker...

 

[Swissmiss]

He is a white German Shepherd. Nothing else to him...except for a little bit of troublemaker...
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Great picture - he clearly had a hard night