Author Archives: neal

Disney Cruise Report 2010 (Part 1)

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We just got back from a Disney Cruise and it was a blast. We flew into Orlando from Jackson, MS (about 3 hours away) the day before the Cruise and stayed one night in our second home (Disney Vacation Club), Bay Lake Tower a the Contemporary.

When we booked the trip, Jennifer and I had talked about enjoying the nice bathroom in that would be in our room. I was talking about a 1 bedroom, but she was thinking a Studio room (which has the basic bathroom). So she was very surprised to open the door and see that we were staying in a 1 bedroom. Of course, this made her want to stay longer, ha!

We dropped off our bags (just carry ons, Disney’s Magic Express was taking care of the big bags), and made it to Chef Mickey with time to spare for our 8:10 pm reservation.

After dinner, we went back to Bay Lake Tower and went to the Top of the World Lounge on the top floor. We had missed the fireworks for the night, but wanted to at least walk through the Lounge before heading back to the room for a little relaxing.

We enjoyed the Magic Kingdom side of Bay Lake Tower, if only for one night. Here was the view outside our window the next morning:

We ate breakfast at the Polynesian with our friend Stacy and her friend DeSha who had just finished up a cruise and stayed a couple of days at Disney. This Sunday was SuperBowl Sunday, as you can tell. (L to R: Jennifer, Neal, Caden, & Stacy)

After breakfast, we took a few more photos in the lobby area of Bay Lake Tower. The lobby is really small (which makes sense, since you check in at the Contemporary). The lobby had looked huge on all of the photos we had looked at before our trip.

A couple of hours later we were at Port Canaveral and aboard the Disney Wonder, Deck 7, Room 7010 (toward the front of the Ship).

As Castaway Members (Disney Cruise Line repeat cruisers), we not only had a special line to get us on-board quicker, we had a few little gifts waiting for us!

Of course, the Super Bowl was playing and we got to catch the last 7 minutes of the game which was playing on the Deck. I know many people maybe wondering why we didn’t watch the whole game.

There was a live theatre show during the game, and Caden was more likely to watch it over a Football game on TV. He did love the live musical (The Golden Mickey’s) and we got to see the end of the game.

Go to the next post!

Mommy Vacuum!

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Caden apparently saw Jennifer put his chairs on the hearth before vacuuming last week.

When we got home yesterday he aparently thought the floor needed vacuuming again and put the chairs back on the hearth and said “mommy vacuum.”

Glad he didn’t say “daddy vacuum.” Ha! Ha!

Ford says “Drive One.” — I wish I could

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So here are the Facts as of today, September 24, 2009:

We bought a Ford Freestyle in May of 2007.  We changed the oil and performed the routine maintenance according to the maintenance schedule.

July 2009 - Vehicle’s transmission light came on when starting it, vehicle died, restarted, light went off.

August 2009 – Vehicle’s transmission light came on when starting it, vehicle did not drive correctly until it was restarted.

September 2, 2009 – Brought the vehicle in for service, local Ford dealership could not get the vehicle to mess up; recommend bringing it back when it is messed up, without shutting it off. (I don’t fault them for this, they had good advice to bring it straight there)

September 18, 2009 – Vehicle’s transmission light came on when starting it; took it to the dealership for them to diagnose the problem

September 21, 2009 – Informed the bad part was the “Throttle Body” and that it was not covered under the 60k power train warranty.

September 23, 2009 – Talked to local dealership and told the part is NATIONALLY back ordered UNTIL DECEMBER 2009.

Praise to Ford for offering to:

  • cover the cost of a rental car
  • trying to expedite the part replacement
  • cover all but $150 of the repair

Major Criticism to Ford for:

  • Not covering a rental car for the entire time we are without our car. They will pay only up to $550, translation not much more than two weeks.
  • Trying to expedite the replacement part – sounds good, but the millions of Freestyle owners having the same problem are probably being told the same thing?
  • Not covering the cost of the entire repair.  This part was so poorly designed the supplier went out of business.  The new supplier is redesigning the part. I would call this a defective part. I was told because it is not a safety issue; there can’t be a recall on it. I understand that, but this same car had crappy brakes, and Ford extended the warranty for them, they could do the same.

More details:

  • Ford has killed the Freestyle (which was renamed the Taurus-X for 2008 and 2009 models).  The 2010 line up does not include the Taurus-X, which has killed the resale/trade-in value. This problem leaves us up-side down in our payments if we wanted to try to replace this vehicle.
  • This vehicle was our 6th (and our last) Ford between Jennifer and myself (others including Escort, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Explorer, & a F150).  None ever had any major problems and routine maintenance was done on all of them.
  • While I appreciate what Ford has offered to do to help us, it is not enough when we are paying a $500 note for a vehicle to sit at the dealership and continue to depreciate for the next 3 months.
  • Please feel free to share my experience with anyone you know.

Somewhat Healthy Pancakes

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We have these pancakes on a regular basis.  Jennifer shared with one of her friends that we had “healthier” recipe for pancakes and a request was made for the recipe.  So of course, I blogged it, ha!  Enjoy!

IMG_0174-edit

Ingredients

  1. 1/4 c egg substitute
  2. 1 1/4 c low fat buttermilk
  3. 1/2 c whole wheat flour
  4. 3/4 c bread flour
  5. 2 Tblsp olive oil
  6. 1 tsp honey
  7. 1/2 tsp baking soda
  8. 1/2 tsp salt
  9. 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

  1. Pre-head griddle, test heat by sprinkling a few drops of water on the griddle, it should bubble and roll around when just right, if it evaporates right away, it is too hot.
  2. Put butter substitute or olive oil spray on the griddle
  3. Mix all dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and mix until batter is smooth
  4. Use about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake, turn pancakes when puffed and full of bubbles (before the bubbles break)