Wow it's hard to believe where the summer has flown. Between moving from Winnipeg, some camping, getting settled into the new house and work, summer slipped by again. The boys start school next Tuesday. We were over to the school today to finalize paperwork and get older son registered for his 10th grade courses. All in all it went well. There will be 9 students in his class and 15 in younger son's class.
Moving is often fun in that you get to see different parts of the country and experience unique regional cutures but what a pain in switching over driver's licenses, vehicle registration, insurance and plating them. Also in Nova Scotia vehicles must be safety inspected annually. So yes it is expensive. Yesterday cost us $600. On a positive note though we found out vehicle insurance is half the price of Manitoba.
In my last post I mentioned I would review a restaurant at Magic Kingdom. Today I'm picking Liberty Tree Tavern. How we ended up here was street appeal and thinking it would be nice to have such a traditional meal for the holidays. We ate at Liberty Tree in 2010 for dinner. Please note this is one of the few restaurants in Disney that the lunch and dinner menus are completely different. I can't review lunch as we haven't eaten during that time of day but you have a choice of burgers, pasta, stews,roast, sandwich and a traditional turkey dinner(pilgrims feast). As for dinner the meal is an all you can eat family style dinner consisting of nice hot rolls, mixed greens, turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni & cheese, stuffing, seasonal vegetables and apple crisp with ice cream. The roast beef is the best any of us has ever had and I make a really nice roast beef I cook on low heat in my crock pot that is extremely tender and full of flavour. It doesn't hold a candle to the beef at Liberty though. The macaroni & cheese is also delicious. Really nice creamy and flavourable cheese sauce. Hmmmm. How this restaurant works for dinner is you wait outside and your assigned waitress calls your name. She or he will escort you to your table take your drink order(we recommend the lemondae) and from then the food is brought to you in serving dished. It's basically a buffet at your table. Our family all enjoyed this restaurant immensely and left full. We have reservations for Christmas Day 2011.
Well that's enough writing for today.
Enjoy the rest of your day everyone.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Tuesday, the Intro to Disney Dining.
Well it's Tuesday 23 Aug and had a nice day. Work was good and I made some peach jam this evening. Speaking of food, our Disney vacation is 116 days away. Today I'm going to talk about the various dining options. First of all I am a big fan of the Disney Dining Plan mainly for the fact that it keeps things simple. The only thing you pay for at the restaurant would be a tip. Think of the dining plan as part of an all-inclusive package: Resort, park tickets and food for one price. We were fortunate last yr to get the free dining plan and again this year. From what I've seen and talking to others , the dining plan is usually announced 3 months before it begins. With the exception of a few black out periods, it should be fairly simple to get your vacation package centred around the free dining. That is a savings of about $1500 for our family of six using the dining plan(1 snack, 1 quick, 1 table per person each day) Disney has so many different vacation plans, and prices though everyone would have a slightly different plan. My family doesn't need to dine with the characters. Some people with small children and not.
Onto the different restaurant types, there's Quick serve and Table. Quick would be cafeteria or counter service. Table serve is exactly what it says. A tip is strongly suggested at Table serve and a madatory 18% is charged for a party of 6 or more. Quick Serve can vary greatly, from carts that sells turkey legs, family food courts at hotels and Magic Kingdom and parks, the food extraveganza at EPCOT world showcase. Not to be left out then is Downtown Disney(DTD) an area of Disney with lots of nice stores, actually the world's biggest store, great restaurants and cirque du soleil. DTD is geared more towards adults but still interesting for children. All locations with the exception of value resorts will have both table and quick serve restaurants.
Well that's enough writing for one evening. I'll be back again and talk more specifics. Tomorrow I'll talk about our dining experience at the oldest Disneyworld park, Magic Kingdom.
Have a great night. Work starts early for me.
.
Onto the different restaurant types, there's Quick serve and Table. Quick would be cafeteria or counter service. Table serve is exactly what it says. A tip is strongly suggested at Table serve and a madatory 18% is charged for a party of 6 or more. Quick Serve can vary greatly, from carts that sells turkey legs, family food courts at hotels and Magic Kingdom and parks, the food extraveganza at EPCOT world showcase. Not to be left out then is Downtown Disney(DTD) an area of Disney with lots of nice stores, actually the world's biggest store, great restaurants and cirque du soleil. DTD is geared more towards adults but still interesting for children. All locations with the exception of value resorts will have both table and quick serve restaurants.
Well that's enough writing for one evening. I'll be back again and talk more specifics. Tomorrow I'll talk about our dining experience at the oldest Disneyworld park, Magic Kingdom.
Have a great night. Work starts early for me.
.
Monday, 22 August 2011
$50 Find on a Mediocre Monday
Today was a good day for savings. My husband, son and I had a few things to pick up at the store. When he got to the cashier to pay; my husband asked to have some old giftcards checked just for the balance. Good thing he did, we ended up having two cards worth $50 in total. So remember whenever you are decluttering and come across giftcards, get them checked at the retailer or online before you throw them out. It's like money in your pocket.
Other than the $50 savings at the store, sad news for Canada today; the leader of the NDP(Canada's opposition party) Jack Layton passed away in the early hours of this morning from cancer. Too bad he was only 61 and did a lot for that party. RIP Mr. Layton.
I made a batch of strawberry jam(cooked style). Tomorrow I'll open a bottle to see how it turned out. If it turns out I will make some peach jam tomorrow night. It's my husband's favourite and peaches are in season. What a great way to save money. Some of the cute little country shops are selling homemade jams for up to $9.00 a bottle. Here's a helpful link I used to get started. http://www.pickyourown.org/jam.htm
I will write more tomorrow. My plan for tomorrow is to give my family's reviews of the quick service restaurants in Disney. Our reviews will be based on taste, variety, quality, wait times & atmosphere of restaurant.
Other than the $50 savings at the store, sad news for Canada today; the leader of the NDP(Canada's opposition party) Jack Layton passed away in the early hours of this morning from cancer. Too bad he was only 61 and did a lot for that party. RIP Mr. Layton.
I made a batch of strawberry jam(cooked style). Tomorrow I'll open a bottle to see how it turned out. If it turns out I will make some peach jam tomorrow night. It's my husband's favourite and peaches are in season. What a great way to save money. Some of the cute little country shops are selling homemade jams for up to $9.00 a bottle. Here's a helpful link I used to get started. http://www.pickyourown.org/jam.htm
I will write more tomorrow. My plan for tomorrow is to give my family's reviews of the quick service restaurants in Disney. Our reviews will be based on taste, variety, quality, wait times & atmosphere of restaurant.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Sizzling Sesame Chicken & More
Well Saturday started out alright. We picked up our ride on lawn tractor. Didn't get it for the $300 I hoped to pay but negotiated from $400 - $350 so we're happy with that considering the same tractor retails for $1200 new; it looks good, not brand new but in very good shape and works. Also saved us paying taxes.
My husband spent about 2 hours of his time on the phone to our cell phone carrier trying to get a mistake the retail store made Friday evening when we went to the retail store just to change numbers and upgrade one phone sorted out. It is now sorted out. While he was getting that sorted out though I added some of my favourite links that hopefully will be interesting to you.
Supper last night was honey sesame chicken. A family favourite. It's pretty much identical to our favourite at 9 Dragons Restaurant in the Chinese Pavillon at Epcot. Here's the recipe. It's time consuming but well worth it. I serve it with sticky rice and spring rolls; delicious: http://www.illuminatingepcot.com/blog/recipe-honey-sesame-chicken/
Flights: Speaking of Disney I am starting the look out for flights from Halifax to Orlando as well as from Bangor to Orlando. When we lived in Winnipeg we drove to Minneapolis, about an 8 hour drive but saved approximately $3000 in total on flights. The savings from Bangor wouldn't be as significant as Minneapolis(basically the hub of the mid-west for air travel) but still a $700 savings over Halifax. We leave in 118 days so flights aren't worth really looking into. They are in the $3800 range with US carriers out of Halifax and $4900 with the Canadian carriers. Looking at 59 days or less flights out of Halifax are $2200 with US carriers and just under $3000 with Canadian. However flights out of Bangor are only $1650. The flights all mentioned were roundtrip including taxes. I expect we'll be driving to Bangor. A move to Ontario in another 3 yrs is starting to sound lovely. The drive is quite reasonable over two days.
Well that's it for now. It's now around noon on Sunday and I want to enjoy what remains of my weekend.
My husband spent about 2 hours of his time on the phone to our cell phone carrier trying to get a mistake the retail store made Friday evening when we went to the retail store just to change numbers and upgrade one phone sorted out. It is now sorted out. While he was getting that sorted out though I added some of my favourite links that hopefully will be interesting to you.
Supper last night was honey sesame chicken. A family favourite. It's pretty much identical to our favourite at 9 Dragons Restaurant in the Chinese Pavillon at Epcot. Here's the recipe. It's time consuming but well worth it. I serve it with sticky rice and spring rolls; delicious: http://www.illuminatingepcot.com/blog/recipe-honey-sesame-chicken/
Flights: Speaking of Disney I am starting the look out for flights from Halifax to Orlando as well as from Bangor to Orlando. When we lived in Winnipeg we drove to Minneapolis, about an 8 hour drive but saved approximately $3000 in total on flights. The savings from Bangor wouldn't be as significant as Minneapolis(basically the hub of the mid-west for air travel) but still a $700 savings over Halifax. We leave in 118 days so flights aren't worth really looking into. They are in the $3800 range with US carriers out of Halifax and $4900 with the Canadian carriers. Looking at 59 days or less flights out of Halifax are $2200 with US carriers and just under $3000 with Canadian. However flights out of Bangor are only $1650. The flights all mentioned were roundtrip including taxes. I expect we'll be driving to Bangor. A move to Ontario in another 3 yrs is starting to sound lovely. The drive is quite reasonable over two days.
Well that's it for now. It's now around noon on Sunday and I want to enjoy what remains of my weekend.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Let's Talk Getting to Disney
Well our family, as I mentioned in my first post are big Disneyworld fans. After years of spending money on gifts that would be forgotten before the kids went back to school, we decided to take the plunge and do a non-traditional Christmas.
The key to making your holiday truly magical at Disney as well as affordable is plan ahead. First of all how do you get there. If you are Canadian and live near a US airport, check out the prices. The drive across the border may just be worth it.
Drive or Fly. For us flying. After checking out the distance on Mapquest. http://www.mapquest.ca/ we realized driving wouldn't be an option. It was just going to be too far especially driving from Winnipeg Manitoba to Orlando. Flying as an option out of Winnipeg was quite pricey for five, around $4000 roundtrip so we decided to check out flights from Minneapolis. We were able to fly roundtrip from MSP http://www.mspairport.com/ for just over $1500 taxes included. What I did was research flights on various fare searchers including priceline, expedia and hotwire. My favourite is priceline. http://www.priceline.com/ For flights out of Canadian airports I like expedia. http://www.expedia.ca/ . Our drive to Minneapolis from Winnipeg was just under 8 hours. Another bonus we found out from a little more research was http://www.parksleepfly.com/ . We stayed at a hotel near the airport that offered rooms at a decent rate as well as free shuttle service to the airport, free parking at the hotel for up to 14 days and for an added bonus a free shuttle to Mall of America. Here's the link for people who live in the mid-west or planning on a visit. http://www.mallofamerica.com/home
Well that's enough talk about Disney for this blog. Time for me to sign off. I'll be on tomorrow talking about acquiring my ride on lawn tractor. I am planning on getting a second hand one. New they retail for $999 for the type I'm interested in. Used they are $300-$500. I am interested in one that's advertised at $400. I'll try and get it for $300. I refuse to pay HST where I can avoid it.
The key to making your holiday truly magical at Disney as well as affordable is plan ahead. First of all how do you get there. If you are Canadian and live near a US airport, check out the prices. The drive across the border may just be worth it.
Drive or Fly. For us flying. After checking out the distance on Mapquest. http://www.mapquest.ca/ we realized driving wouldn't be an option. It was just going to be too far especially driving from Winnipeg Manitoba to Orlando. Flying as an option out of Winnipeg was quite pricey for five, around $4000 roundtrip so we decided to check out flights from Minneapolis. We were able to fly roundtrip from MSP http://www.mspairport.com/ for just over $1500 taxes included. What I did was research flights on various fare searchers including priceline, expedia and hotwire. My favourite is priceline. http://www.priceline.com/ For flights out of Canadian airports I like expedia. http://www.expedia.ca/ . Our drive to Minneapolis from Winnipeg was just under 8 hours. Another bonus we found out from a little more research was http://www.parksleepfly.com/ . We stayed at a hotel near the airport that offered rooms at a decent rate as well as free shuttle service to the airport, free parking at the hotel for up to 14 days and for an added bonus a free shuttle to Mall of America. Here's the link for people who live in the mid-west or planning on a visit. http://www.mallofamerica.com/home
Well that's enough talk about Disney for this blog. Time for me to sign off. I'll be on tomorrow talking about acquiring my ride on lawn tractor. I am planning on getting a second hand one. New they retail for $999 for the type I'm interested in. Used they are $300-$500. I am interested in one that's advertised at $400. I'll try and get it for $300. I refuse to pay HST where I can avoid it.
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Life with the Crazies
Welcome to my world. We are a military family just transferred(posted) from Winnipeg Manitoba to Greenwood Nova Scotia. We travelled about 4000 kms over an 8 day period with 3 teenagers, 2 dogs, a 30 foot trailer and storage compartments getting more full as we stopped in nice little antique shops along the way. We decided to take the US route so lots of great bargains to be found along the way. I'll post some pictures of our journey.
That was July. Here we are in August. Since then we've moved into our new house. It's alright. The price is right and location is amazing. We love the fact that our mortgage is costing about $900 a month less than the last house. I guess that's the difference in city vs country living.
Work is pretty decent. As I said earlier we are a military family. Yes both of us are in the Armed Forces. I'm in the Army and husbad is in the newly renamed Air Force. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1039727--navy-air-force-to-get-back-old-royal-names We started our new jobs the first week of August. Some people who aren't used to moving often don't see the point or wonder why the militay does it. I think the main reason is to broaden your career knowledge. My job is considerably different here than my last position. In my Winnipeg job I was responsible for giving people money. Think Senior paywriter. A sometimes dull job but a great learning experience. Here my job still involves helping people but it's ensuring they have all the necessary paperwork in hand for travel. Not as much a learning experience as putting all the organizational skills I've gained over the years to good use. As for husband's job, I'm not really sure what he does. I have a little bit of an idea but it's technical it technology doesn't really interest me. This brings me to the next point. What interests me. Travel, cooking, spending countless hours of my life on facebook. Time I'll never get back. So much fun though to see what your friends and family who are scattered throughout the world are doing. Speaking of travel. I am counting down to our next family holiday to Disneyworld. I think I'll end this blog and talk about our Disney trips in the next.
Well this is the first of my many blogs I hope. The idea of this blog is to talk about some of my interests. One of the biggest will be discussing Disney. Also I intend to tell a little bit about our daily lives beginning tomorrow 20 Aug 11 for the duration of our posting here in Greenwood. I hope to have some hilarious posts about our Crazy Lives. There will be some not so hilarious but overall I just want to have some fun and meet new people.
Signing off for tonight. It's now midnight AST. Take care.
That was July. Here we are in August. Since then we've moved into our new house. It's alright. The price is right and location is amazing. We love the fact that our mortgage is costing about $900 a month less than the last house. I guess that's the difference in city vs country living.
Work is pretty decent. As I said earlier we are a military family. Yes both of us are in the Armed Forces. I'm in the Army and husbad is in the newly renamed Air Force. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1039727--navy-air-force-to-get-back-old-royal-names We started our new jobs the first week of August. Some people who aren't used to moving often don't see the point or wonder why the militay does it. I think the main reason is to broaden your career knowledge. My job is considerably different here than my last position. In my Winnipeg job I was responsible for giving people money. Think Senior paywriter. A sometimes dull job but a great learning experience. Here my job still involves helping people but it's ensuring they have all the necessary paperwork in hand for travel. Not as much a learning experience as putting all the organizational skills I've gained over the years to good use. As for husband's job, I'm not really sure what he does. I have a little bit of an idea but it's technical it technology doesn't really interest me. This brings me to the next point. What interests me. Travel, cooking, spending countless hours of my life on facebook. Time I'll never get back. So much fun though to see what your friends and family who are scattered throughout the world are doing. Speaking of travel. I am counting down to our next family holiday to Disneyworld. I think I'll end this blog and talk about our Disney trips in the next.
Well this is the first of my many blogs I hope. The idea of this blog is to talk about some of my interests. One of the biggest will be discussing Disney. Also I intend to tell a little bit about our daily lives beginning tomorrow 20 Aug 11 for the duration of our posting here in Greenwood. I hope to have some hilarious posts about our Crazy Lives. There will be some not so hilarious but overall I just want to have some fun and meet new people.
Signing off for tonight. It's now midnight AST. Take care.
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