@[USER=65722]Tidbit[/USER],
My mom was in Pensacola with my gramma for the icy weather this week. She sent me pics of her car encased in ice. Nuts!
VIPet is a little out of the way. It's actually about 12 miles out from WDW and about a 20 minute drive. BUT, the price is considerably less and it's a smaller facility. It's not as glitzy as what Best Friends is on-property but it's still very nice. Trust me, I'm picky as all hell about where I allow my baby to stay. LOL! Anywhoo, it's a bit out of the way but the cost is quite a bit less. I paid $21/night for a Junior Suite since our dog is so small. The cheapest room at Best Friends is $39/night for resort guests. At Best Friends that starting price includes just 2 potty walks per day and no tv. At VIPet that starting price includes 3 walks per day and there's a tv running for the dogs to hear and see (depending on where their little room is...the tv is up high above all the little rooms). Riley is a people dog so she needs to feel like she's near people. Having the tv to listen to helps her. For what BF would cost we were able to have additional playtime added and still come out a lot cheaper. We boarded Riley at BF's before and it was nice. Just expensive! The convenience to stop and visit your pooch is nice but we found it made it a LOT harder for our dog. Every time we'd show up she would go berserk. Anxiety overload. Then we'd leave and she'd suffer the seperation again. It's better for us to take her where she's going to be and leave her alone so she only goes thru the seperation once then has the chance to adjust to her new surroundings. But some people and their pets do good with the frequent visits so if that's something they want or need then BF is the way to go. For us, boarding at VIPet was great. It's a smaller kennel so the dogs get more of a personalized experience. I felt like Riley was truly cared for vs. watched after. The ladies were so sweet to Riley and to us. To me, the proof is in the pudding. When we picked her up at the end of the trip she didn't look like she'd been avoiding eating. She seemed less stressed or traumatized. The ladies engaged us in conversation about her that reflected things about our dog's personality that we didn't tell them. This tells me they actually spent time with her. We boarded for 8 nights, paid for extra play time every day, and had a full groom done before we left and spent about $260. The last time I boarded Riley at BFs for 10 nights we spent more like $600+. Biiiiig difference! 
The boys love to cruise. No doubt. They just prefer it to be with Disney. A lot of what influences their overall experience is the "vibe" they get from the teens club. Especially for Brian. On this cruise there appears to have been a large number of what they referred to as d-bags. 
Chandler refused to go back to the teen club at all after day 2. To be fair, we've been on Disney cruises and they've said the same thing. It's hit or miss. We seem to have better luck cruising when most kids are in school. This keeps the number of kids a bit lower so the counselors will get more personally involved. Also, it's more likely our boys will find other kids who homeschool. It's hard to explain without making it sound awful. It's not that I think kids in regular schools are all terrible. It just seems like when you cruise during times when all kids might be out of school you encounter more of the ones that can't be pulled out of class to go on trips, the jerky ones, or the ones who want to do things they shouldn't. Does that make sense without making me sound like a major "B"? 
