Groceries for the 2016 Trip To Disney World

We are renting a house (Villa) near Disney for 34 days. That is going to be a lot of groceries!

I have analyzed grocery purchases across multiple years and determined the best grocery prices can be found at Walmart. The Walmarts around Disney can also be the busiest and craziest places to shop! Nevertheless, the prices can be significantly lower than Target, Publix, and The Market.

I have also analyzed our grocery purchases against what we have used and what we had to throw away. We will grocery shop several times during our stay, but, we will try to get most of what we need during the first trip.

Whenever I am in Florida I want to buy and eat Florida oranges. I don't know whether it is the time of the year we are visiting, or the places we are shopping, but I can never find them! It is a huge disappointment. Nevertheless, we stock up on fruit and berries, which go great with the summer heat.

I purchase snacks for the snack bag we take to the parks. In it, I try to pack things that will be durable and withstand riding in a backpack: water, crackers, pretzels, cookies, and hard candy. I tried frozen grapes one year... and it was not a good outcome. I tried applesauce cups and the containers broke open and make a huge mess.

We try to eat breakfast and lunch at the house, and then get dinner at the park. Often we'll try to wait until we leave the park so we can eat cheaper in the Kissimmee/Celebration area. And then we always get a few evenings at home to just enjoy the villa. So, that is 34 breakfasts, 34 lunches, snacks, and a couple of dinners.

GROCERY LIST 2016

Bologna	Pizza sauce	Soda 2l	Angle food cake
Butter	Pudding	Tea Palmer	berries
cinnamon rolls	Sunflower Seeds	Water case x5	.
Cheese Slice	Werthers	Water Gallon x3	.
Coffee Creamer	.	Crystal Light Ind	.
Cookie Dough	Coffee sugar	.	.
Chip Dip x2	PAM spray	Smirnoff Ice	.
eggs	Taco Seasoning	Wine barefoot	.
Hotdogs turkey	.	.	.
milk	Bread	Coffee Filter	.
Pepperoni	mini Donuts	Napkins	.
Shrd chz Fietsax2	HamBurger buns	Paper Towels	.
Shrd Chz Mozzx2	Swiss Rolls	Tissues	.
Sour Cream light	BrownieWalmrt	Toilet Paper	.
Tortillas/wraps	Brownie Bites	Coffee Cup & lids	.
Turkey Bacon	.	Foil	.
whip cream	Cereal	Kitch Trash Bags	.
Yogurtx10	Maple syrup	Ziplocks	.
.	Pancake Mix	.	.
Break Sand	Poptarts	Finish	.
Chicken Patties	.	Tide	.
Frozen Pizza	Corn Chips	Bathroom Spray	.
ice cream	potato chips	bathroom cleaner	.
ice cream Sand	Pretzels	Bounce	.
Popsicle	Salsa	Palmolive	.
smiles x2	.	Shout Color Catch	.
Waffles	Cheezits	.	.
Sundae cones	Cookies	Hamburger	.
.	Teddy Grams	.	.
Coffee	.	DVD R	.
Apple Sauce	Ketchup	Mattress covers	.
Cranberry Juice	Mustard	Shampoo	.
Crancherry	Salad Dressing	.	.
Fortune Cookie	.	Apple Slices	.
Hershy syrup	diet Coke 6p	Bananas	.
Mac&Cheese Cups x3	Gatoraid 32oz x4	Fruit Bowl	.
Mini Rav x2	Lemonaid	Salad & Lettuce	.

Seven Tips to Avoid Sore Feet at Disney World

I have written about the importance of having good shoes for Disney.

Little can ruin a Disney Vacation like sore feet! A Disney vacation involves a lot of standing and a lot of walking. Some say an average day at Disney involves walking ten miles! That is a lot of miles if you have blisters on your toes.

1. You will need to wear sneakers at Disney. Leave the sandals, flip flops, and fancy does in your hotel room. Don't be naive to believe you can make a ten mile hike in a pair of fashionable sandals with heals. Dad's work boots or loafers won't due!  Cute stop on sandals for the kids will leave them and you in pain. Sneakers are a requirement for everyone.

2. The time to prepare is months before your trip. Sneaker experts suggest buying a new pair of sneakers every 12 months. How old is your pair? Are they up to the task? Or, is it time to go shopping?

3. New sneakers take a while to break in. You should buy them and wear them for a few weeks before heading to Disney.

4. One consideration is arch support. Poor arch support can hurt your feet, knees, and back.  If you have never been tested to see if you need arch support, I suggest going to a store that specializes in running shoes. They often have people on staff trained to analyze and make recommendations for arch support.

5. The kind of sneaker is important. It is very hot in Florida, and the heat is magnified by the blacktop and walkways. The sneakers need to breath. Therefore find something that offers canvas instead of an all leather sneaker.

6. During different times of the year (for example, summer) you are more likely to encounter rain. When it rains? It pours. A rainy day doesn't mean canceling the trip to the parks! You need a pair of sneakers that will hold up well to getting wet, or will dry out quickly. You may want to investigate a sneaker that uses a combination of fabric and leather or plastic.

7. Synthetic socks will help too. They are designed to keep the moisture away from feet and are much better at preventing sores and blisters versus cotton socks. Good synthetic socks can cost $20 per pair or more - but can be well worth the cost.

I have my sneakers for the 2016 trip ready to go!

Villa secured for Summer 2016

I don't know where the time goes, but there never seems to be enough of it to keep this blog updated!

We have our villa secures for the Summer 2016 trip. The 38 day trip includes driving down to Florida and back, along with a few days in Gettysburg.

We let our year passes elapse last year and will be renewing them this summer. The prices have gone up and it is going to be very expensive! Lucky, we have some Disney Visa Reward points we can use.

I have made dinning reservations at Ohana for Breakfast and Dinner, and Chef Mickey. Dinning is very expensive so we try to limit ourselves. Last year we only allowed for one dinning experience and ended up taking in three anyways. This year, I am just buying the bullet and doing three!

I have the itinary planned, which includes a drive to Melbourn to meet with friends. I also have our first day grocery shopping list made. Our Gettysburg hotel reservations are set. Pins for pin trading arrived several weeks ago. And everyone's new shoes have been purchased.

There is still a lot of work left to do and I will try to post more frequently as we prepare for our 2016 adventure!

Ten Step To Avoiding A Villa Rip Off

You have heard the horror stories: a vacationer pulls up in front of their villa and gets an unpleasant surprise. It may be an empty lot with no house on it. It could be foreclosed. Someone else might be staying there. An individual can claim to own a property, list it, collect the fees, and you might not know until you arrive on the doorstep. The list of possibilities are too scary to detail. However, if you follow the advice for selecting a villa that I provide in this blog? You can increase your success rate.

We have rented approximately 150 nights over the years and in that time we have only brushed up against two fraudulent properties. Here are some things to look for.

1. Always call the owner. If you can't reach the owner by phone? There is a problem. Talking to a management company might be safe, but ideally you want the owner.

2. If the calendar is empty for months in every direction? Something is wrong. If you are working with Homeaway, they can tell you the last time the property was rented and what the owner's response rate is. If the response rate is 0%? Something is wrong.

3. A property might have no reviews because it hasn't been listed very long, or, the owner doesn't have any good reviews to post. A property with no reviews isn't neccessarily bad, but it could be a clue that something is wrong.

4. Owners often try to hide the location because they don't want to invite thieves. Nevertheless, you can usually figure it out by looking at a map and then looking at the street view in googlemaps. Make sure the Google street view matches the house you are considering.

5. Once you have the street address, go to the county tax collector to make sure the taxes are paid. The tax records should allow you to confirm the owner's name.

6. Look up the property on Zillow. If the property was sold in the last year? That could explained n the lack of reviews. But if it hasn't been sold in ten years, someone should have reviewed it in that time. Look over the property records for anything odd.

7. Google the address to see if there is any bad information posted anywhere. You might find the property listed on other sites. Howeaway owns VRBO and a few others. If it isn't a homeaway owned site, check the information to make sure it is consistent with homeaway.

8. Google the owner's name and look for any bad results.

9. When it comes time to pay? Always use a credit card but never give the owner your credit card number. Make the payment through homeaway or PayPal. Using a credit card will allow you to dispute the charge. If you must give a credit card number to the owner (perhaps for a deposites)? Use a MasterCard Gift Card to lower your risk exposure. The last thing you want is the owner or management company to have your credit card number sitting in a file folder or sitting out on someone's desk.

10. You may find Villa owners are from outside the country. That isn't neccessarily bad. During construction, various communities were marketed to different countries - especially the UK. Even if from another country, you still need to talk to the owner.

Follow these ten tips for the best chance. Of avoiding a rip off.

2016 Disney Trip

We are headed to Disney this summer for 32 nights. It was a difficult decision because we have several expensive activities going on, regardless, in the balance of it all we determined this trip could fit in our budget.

My wife was struggling to find a villa to rent, so, I volunteered to help.

I went to Homeaway, entered all our criteria, and was presented with 80 possibilities. I then went through each of the 80 and looked for things to disqualify the house:

- it had to be within the triangle between i4, 429, and 193. Best location: http://relocatingtodisney.blogspot.com/2015/05/where-is-best-location-for-villa.html?m=1

- no negativity in the reviews. Owners get to delete reviews and often write their own so if there is something bad? Something is wrong. http://relocatingtodisney.blogspot.com/2015/06/can-you-trust-villa-reviews.html?m=1

- washer and dryer couldn't be in the garage (it is too hot in the garage during summers)

- we wanted a kitchen with a view of the pool and a bedroom that looked out the front of the house

- private pool area

- avoid houses with walls in the back yard that back up to highways

This analysis took a very long time, but in the end I narrowed the search to 20 possibilities.

I ranked the possibilities by cost, and sent my first email to the cheapest 12 houses. Remember the first email to the owner is to simply confirm dates and rates. You want to make sure the owner is real (a step toward confirming the property is real) and many owners do not keep the homeaway calendar up to date. Also, some owners like to avoid homeaway fees by directing you to their own websites. Here is the approach I use for contacting villa owners: http://relocatingtodisney.blogspot.com/2015/05/sixteen-questions-to-ask-before-renting.html?m=1

Twelve emails went out, many have already responded and we are into the next round of communications as we further narrow the search and decide what to rent.

Stay tuned to learn more about our 2016 trip!

Summer land mini golf

It isn't a trip to Disney without some miniature golf! There are many miniature golf options around Disney World. The choices in Disney World are Fantasia and Winter/Summer Land. 

The Winter/Summer, next to Blizzard Beach, land has two miniature golf courses: Summer Land and Winter Land. Winter Land is fun because it is winter in Florida and is usually the course we select.

This year, we selected Summer Land. Santa Clause is taking a vacation, and you get to golf through sand castles and beaches. 

If you are staying at a Disney Resort, you can take a bus to Blizzard Beach and then take a short walk down the path to the miniature golf.

Mini Golf while on vacation is a must-do. It doesn't matter if you are a good golfer or not  - it is all about having fun and being with your family. If you have some non-park time in your vacation, I highly recommend seeking out a course.

The Disney Rash

You have probably heard of or experienced The Disney Rash, as it is known. This is a red rash that occurs on the lower park of the leg, just above the socks. What is it?

This is known as a leg heat rash, or, Golfer's Vasculitis. All of the Disney walk ways are black asphalt. The sun light hits the black surface and gets reflected back up, striking guest's legs. For a variety of reasons, some guest's legs respond by producing a red rash.

I am not a doctor, and you should be cautious about taking medical advice over the Internet. With that said, this heat rash is temporary. It can be helped with a cool bath, elevating the feet, and applying cool wet towels after a day in the park. While in the park, take walking breaks often and get out of the heat. Keep socks dry and even consider taking an extra pair to change during the day. 

Not everyone gets the rash. From what I have researched, Determining who gets it is often a function of age, condition, exposure, temperature, and what is being warn.

The heat rash is not fun, but luckily it is temporary and usually goes away after a few days.