i've been stuck in this whirlwind my life's been spinning round my head

I'm really bad at coming up with titles for things, which is why I always use song lyrics as my post titles. In case anyone was wondering, the titles are completely irrelevant to anything; it's usually from whatever I happen to be listening to at the time.

I changed the look of my blog. I'm not totally in love with it, but I'm happy enough with it for the moment. For now, I'm keeping the same title, but that may change.

So for the last few trips that we've taken, I've used Priceline's "Name Your Own Price" feature to book our hotels. We've been pleased with the results so far. Unless there's a specific hotel where you'd like to stay, I honestly can't see a reason not to use it. It's unlikely that you'll find a better price somewhere else.

In general, I don't think it's worth it to stay at a Disney Resort Hotel when you're visiting Disney World. You can get a much cheaper (nicer) hotel on Priceline (or other travel sites). For example, the cheapest Disney "Value Resort" (2.5 stars) room right now is $85/night. The last time we went, Josh and I got a 3.5 star room for $30/night. If you're going with more than just two people, it can be even cheaper to rent a house. However, something made me decide to stay at a Disney Resort Hotel this time. So we'll be staying at the All-Star Music Resort. (I did get a pretty good deal, but not through Priceline.)

I am super excited about it. I stayed at the All-Star Sports resort on my high school senior trip, and it was pretty cool. I have also stayed at Port Orleans, but that was about 20 years ago, so I don't remember it really well. Unlike our last trip, we will actually have a day where we aren't visiting the parks, so we'll get to explore the whole resort and hang out at the pool(s).

The only disadvantage at the last hotel we stayed at was transportation to the parks. They offered it, but it didn't run very often, and the last bus left the park right at closing time. Had we chosen that option, we would have missed the bus and had to find another way back to our hotel due to the long lines for the monorail/ferry to get back to the transportation center. Luckily we drove, but that also meant paying to park. Staying at a Disney resort, the transportation will be a lot better, and it'll be really nice to not have to worry about driving and parking at the parks.

Initially, I had thought we would leave Thursday morning and come home Sunday, leaving us Friday and Saturday in the parks. However, after doing some research, I found that it would be better to do the parks on Thursday and Saturday, which gives us a nice, relaxing day off in between. We'll leave work early on Wednesday and drive down to Orlando. I didn't want to add another (expensive) night at the the ASM resort, so I booked us a cheap 2.5 star hotel through Name Your Own Price. I got a room for $35 at the Destiny Palms Hotel.

I'm going to be honest - I wasn't excited when Priceline gave me the name of the hotel I'd booked and this is what I saw. It doesn't look like a great place to stay. However, I checked reviews on multiple websites, and I didn't see a single complaint. Everyone seemed to really love it. Plus it has a free continental breakfast (which you know Disney doesn't offer! haha). We'll be getting there late at night and leaving early in the morning, so it really doesn't even matter. We just need a safe, clean place to sleep, and this meets those requirements.

I kind of wish we had some friends that could come with us, but it's bad timing for a lot of people, and no one is able to come with us. :/ Still, I know we'll have a great time. I can't wait!!