October 27th-November 4th, 2012/ Our 4th trip and our best trip/ASMu About This Page:

[MsPeggySue911]

October 27th-November 4th, 2012/ Our 4th trip and our best trip/ASMu



Who went:

Me, Peggy (wife and mom)
Jeremy, husband
DD Katelyn 12 y/o
DS Dayton 11 y/o
DSS Brandon 13 y/o

Our Journey: Departed October 27th, returned November 4th and we flew from Jackson, Mississippi to Orlando.

Where we stayed:

All Star Music Family Suite Calypso building room 538 (second floor- not close to the elevator) Using the DDP.

What we did while we were there:

Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Island of Adventure, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove.


Day 1: We left our house around 11:00 am for the hour drive to the airport. We had a 1:30 flight. I figured since Southwest boards 30 minutes prior to departure that we really needed to be through security by 12:30 and with the hour drive I thought leaving at 11:00 would give us a little wiggle room just in case we ran into a traffic jam or accident on the highway getting to the airport.

We got our bags all checked in. We had 7 checked bags for the 5 of us and each of us had a carry on backpack.

Once we got through security we realized my DS11 forgot to bring any type of jacket with him AT ALL and I ended up stopping at an airport gift shop and buying him a sweatshirt hoodie so he would have a jacket for the trip. Thank goodness it wasn’t outrageously expensive. It was only $20. We also bought each of the kids a bag of snacks and a drink to take on the plane. I prefer to get them something so we don’t have to use the on board drink service. The drinks they bring you are tiny and watered down by the time you get them so I save us some time and trouble and get everyone something. ($27 for snacks and drinks)

The plane arrived on time and we boarded the plane at 1:00 pm. We had bought EBCI so we had very good boarding numbers. I think we were A21-25. I always buy the EBCI because I prefer to sit close to the front of the plane so that we can get OFF the plane quickly once it lands.

We departed Jackson airport at 1:30 headed for MCO at Orlando. We arrived at MCO at 4:10 pm (we had a time change and gained an hour going from Central time zone to Eastern time zone) The flight only actually lasted an hour and 40 minutes.

We had reserved a rental car with Advantage car rental through Priceline. When we deboarded the plane we headed over to A terminal lower level where the rental cars were and somehow walked right past the Advantage counter (it is the first one you pass) and walked all the way to the very end of the car rental counters only to realize we had obviously passed it somewhere. That’s when we got all the way back to the beginning and saw we had not even noticed it was the first counter you come to.

We had reserved a mid-size car for $13 or $14 a day. I don’t remember the exact price but once you add in all the taxes, surcharges and rental fees it was going to cost $200 for 9 days.

Of course when we got to the rental counter (I knew they would) they offered to upgrade us to a full size car for $5 a day more, so we agreed. They ended up giving us a choice of several different cars to choose from but all of them seemed like mid-size cars to me. What they call a full size car is a Nissan Altima. That is what we chose. But it was a new car with just 2500 miles on it.

Once we got in the car it was a keyless ignition and we couldn’t figure out how to start the car so we ended up having to go get an attendant to show DH how to start it. I don’t remember exactly what you had to do…It was either push down the brake and hit start or push down the gas and hit start. The key fob thing they give you has no key on it and it is just for locking and unlocking the car. I don’t really like the keyless thing myself. But since DH was the only driver on the contract I didn’t have to worry about having to figure out how to start it myself.

We finally got out of the airport and went and found a Wal-Mart to buy some snacks and drinks for the room. By the time we got to the resort to check in it was around 7:00 pm.

I had done online check in so our room had already been assigned and the packet and KTTW cards were all ready.

We were given a second floor room even though I had requested a first floor room. But by the time we got checked in there was no first floor room available to switch to so we went ahead to our room. We were in a family suite in room 538 on the wing of the building that juts out towards the parking lot. We were close to the stairs that took us out into the parking lot and we used them a lot during the 9 days we were there. We rarely used the elevator.


Once we got settled into the room we went to the food court for a quick dinner.
I had the create your own salad. DS & DSS had the Philly Cheese steak sandwich. DD had the Turkey with sides and DH had the baked Chicken with sides.

Everyone had Ice Cream for dessert except me. I was just too full and didn’t want anything.

The kids went for their first swim of the trip and played Ping Pong down by the pool. We got to bed kind of late.

Tomorrow would be Busch Gardens, Tampa.

[Cam22]

Great start!

[bsblady01]

great start more please

[chezp]

Great start!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!

[MsPeggySue911]

DAY 2: Sunday October 28th, 2012

Officially it is day 1 since we didn’t do anything yesterday but go to Wal-Mart and get unpacked.

We had breakfast at the resort food court. We had breakfast there every day. Everybody got something different every day except my husband. He got the same thing, the Bounty platter every day. He is not a very adventurous eater and he found something he liked so he stuck with it. I mostly had Biscuits and Gravy and that only counted as a snack credit. The kids had Omelets, Pancakes, Waffles, French Toast. They ended up trying almost every offering during the 9 days we were there.

After breakfast we drove the 75 minutes to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens.
We got our entry as part of our Discovery Cove package. If you pay extra to get the Ultimate ticket it includes entry into Sea World, Aquatica and Busch Gardens. And since the Ultimate ticket was only $20 more, we got that. We had planned on going to Sea World (DH and I have Sea World season passes but we didn’t have to use them since our DC ticket included SW) and Busch Gardens anyway so this just saved us some money. (It costs $71.99 each to get in SW and $85.99 each to get in Busch Gardens, so we saved a ton of money)

My most memorable observation of Busch Gardens is they have the best sweet Tea I have ever had in my life. At least from the booth by Shiekra (the roller coaster) it is the same brand Disney uses, Gold Peak Tea but Disney tea sucks. It is not good at all. Busch Gardens does something different when they make theirs. All I drink is sweet Tea so I have had it from almost every place you can think of and to say it is the best Tea I have ever had is an understatement. It is even way better than what I make at home. So if you ever go there, you might want to try it if you like sweet Tea. I had 3 or 4 glasses of it before we left that day because I knew it might be a long time before I ever get to go back there.

We liked the rides there. There were some BIG roller coasters that myself, DH and DS11 didn’t go on. But DD12 and DSS13 went on every ride. They aren’t scared of any ride. They went on most rides multiple times while the 3 of us just waited around for them.

My favorite ride was the Cheetah Hunt. It is a roller coaster but it only flips you upside down one time. (I don’t like going upside down) If it had not been for that one loop it would have been the perfect roller coaster to me.

I have a shameful and heart wrenching story to tell about the Cheetah Hunt.

Let me start by telling you that my 11 y/o son is scared of big rides and intense coasters. He doesn’t even like Tower of Terror at HS. So he gets scared pretty easy. I know this about him. He is my fearful child. I have only ever asked him to ride something one time and if it scares him or he doesn’t like it he doesn’t ever have to ride it again. And I would never force him to ride anything.

So we all saw the Cheetah Hunt. I had informed the family prior to even going that we were all going to ride the Cheetah Hunt. So we stood and watched the ride go by a few times before we went and got in line for it. Now keep in mind…DS DID NOT ask me to not make him ride this ride. He didn’t say he was scared or beg me to not make him ride it. So I was unaware that he was very scared to ride this ride. We stood in line for about 5-7 minutes before we got up to our turn to ride. We got seated in the car and I am sitting in the ride car next to my son and I look over at him and pat him on the arm to reassure him there is nothing to be scared of and when I look him in the face his eyes are welling up with tears. His chin is quivering and he is starting to cry!!! OH JUST LET ME CRAWL INTO A HOLE RIGHT NOW!! I am so ashamed even writing this. By the time I realized he was so scared he was starting to cry it was too late, we were latched into the car and starting to take off.

Now there are no words for me to be able to describe to you how awful I felt in that moment. I felt like the crappiest mother in the whole world. And him being my sweet, good, never disobeys child, it crushed my heart that I did something to make him cry.

Now once the ride progressed I guess he realized it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be and didn’t actually start full on crying. It was just the beginnings of a cry and he stopped after the ride took off.

I will say this… I will never go on another ride with him without first ASKING HIM “Are you ok to ride this? Are you scared of this ride?” It crushes your heart to see your child sad or crying but then to know it was BECAUSE OF ME!! OH MAN!!

So even though Cheetah Hunt was the best ride I have been on by far, it was overshadowed by me thinking about him being sad the whole time I was on it. I apologized to him about 50 times during the next hour after we got off the ride. I promised him it would never happen again and that he didn’t have to ride anything he was scared of. But he did realize from actually riding the ride that it was not as bad as he was expecting it to be. Which is usually the case.

The first time I ever got him to agree to ride Rock N Roller Coaster I had to bribe him by offering to buy him a pair of $20 drum sticks he wanted in the gift shop. It worked though and he has ridden it ever since with no problems.

After the Cheetah Hunt experience we went and had a counter service lunch ($62)
I had a Caesar salad. DD had the Cheeseburger and all 3 guys had the Chicken Strips meal.

After lunch we rode more rides, and looked at all the animals. This park has more rides than any park I have been to and has as many animals as a zoo. Way more animals than AK at Disney. Just an over-all good park. The animals we very close and very active. They had given big Pumpkins to all the big Cats and they were knocking them around and biting them and playing with them like a ball. All the Monkeys were fun to watch.

There was an Ice Skating type show that was happening at 3:30 that I would have liked to have stayed and watched but we weren’t sure how long it lasted or what time we would get out of there if we stayed for the show so we went ahead and left Busch Gardens around 3:00 and made it back to the room by 4:30.

Everybody rested for about an hour then we got in the car and drove over to Port Orleans Riverside. We went there to ride the boat over to DTD. I wanted to check out the resort a little bit because next time DH and I go we are going to be staying there. We walked around and looked at everything for a bit then went and got in line for the boat to Downtown Disney. The first boat came after about a 15-minute wait but filled up before we got on it. The next boat came before that first boat had even pulled away. The boats coming and going from there are pretty frequent.

It was cold outside and that boat ride to DTD was a little bit chilly.

Once we got to DTD we found the guest services office/booth so that I could pick up our Photo pass + card. I had received the voucher in the mail but they don’t send you the actual card like they do if you order the regular photo pass. It’s just a voucher that you have to redeem in one of the parks or at DTD for your card. But I wanted to try it since it included ride and meal photos and not just park photos. I always buy a few of our ride photos so just the money I would save on those would pay for the card ($149 pre-order).

Once we left there we walked the few blocks down DTD to T-Rex Café. We had a 7:00 reservation. We checked in right at 7 pm but it took them about 30 minutes before we were seated. Once we were seated it took another 15 minutes or so before our server actually showed up and asked for our drink orders. Then another 15 minutes or so before the drinks came. By the time we got our drinks and were ready to place our food order it was already 8:00.

My kids are use to living in a small town where when we go out to eat we are seated immediately. They have never had to wait to be seated or wait so long for service. I was use to it since I was born and raised in Texas and in the town I lived in (Arlington) you almost always had to wait to be seated and service was always slow because the places were so packed.

T-Rex was most definitely packed. You couldn’t tell that everybody had work and school the next day based on the crowds of ppl at DTD and inside T-Rex.


Once we placed our food order it was 50 minutes before the food arrived. By the time we got our food everyone at the table was basically starving. LOL. It was 9:00 by the time we ate. DH had the T-bone steak; DS had the New York Strip. I had the Fried Shrimp. DSS had some Steak and Scallops combo meal and my daughter had the Chicken Fried Steak. I had warned her (she had never had CFS before) that the CFS is usually HUGE and takes up the whole plate. But even with me warning her she was still in shock when it came just how big the Chicken Fried Steak was. She liked it though. I am not usually one to eat French Fries but the Waffle Fries at T-Rex were awesome. Everybody at the table had them and everybody agreed they were excellent.

Unfortunately we also had to wait to place our dessert order and wait another 20 minutes for the dessert to come. The desserts were good. 4 of us had the Ice Age Indulgence, which is layers of Ice Cream sandwiches with whipped cream, choc sauce, and Heath Bar crumbles on top. Everybody liked it. My DSS had the Key Lime Pie.

By the time we got the bill ($207) and took care of the bill and was ready to go it was 10:00 pm. Our dining experience took 3 hours from start to finish and it was definitely leaving a bad impression with me as to how this week of Disney Dining Plan was going to work out. I had hoped that our meals every night wouldn’t take so long. And for the most part they didn’t. That 3-hour experience at T-Rex was an isolated incident and doesn’t speak towards the DDP only speaks towards the T-Rex experience and how well or not well their service is.

I would definitely go back there again because the food was excellent. But I would go back KNOWING it was not going to be a quick experience by any means. And don’t go when you are very hungry.

We rode the boat back to POR (it was way colder on the ride back) then got in the car and drove back to the resort. The kids didn’t get to go swimming this night as it was already after 10 by the time we got back. It was bedtime.

Tomorrow would be Hollywood Studios.

I am going to add some photos in just a little bit once I figure out how! I have to go read the sticky! WOW. Ok I figured out how to do it but the pics are HUGE!!
(I removed the pics because they were just too big. I figured out how to resize them on Photobucket but when I tried to replace them with the edited smaller photos they were still huge. So this may be a photo-less trip report.)

Edited to add: Today DH and I decided that instead of staying at POR next trip we will be staying at CSR. Just wanted to clarify since I said in today's post we would be staying at POR next time.

[chezp]

So sorry about the Cheetah Hunt experience. I was interested to read about your day at Busch Gardens, as we'll be going back next months for the first time in five months, but we are coaster wimps and go mainly for the animals.

Sorry the meal at T-Rex took so long, but glad you enjoyed it despite that.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about the Cheetah ride with your DS! Otherwise it sounds like a great day at BG! And what a LONG dinner that was! Ugh!!

[Cam22]

Except for the one glitch your day at Busch Gardens sounded fun! We've never tried T-Rex so I'm always interested in others' opinions of it.

[MsPeggySue911]

Thanks for reading it guys. More to come. I will post again today.

[MsPeggySue911]

Here is a pic of the family at MK. It is one of the few pictures I have re-sized that aren't HUGE. Even though this pic is still quite big. I just wanted to share a pic of the family.



On the right is my 12 y/o daughter Katelyn (yes she is 5 foot 9), I am the short one in the back, DH is the tall one on the left and the shortest boy is DS11 Dayton. The taller boy is DSS13 Brandon.

[chezp]

Great photo! Oh my goodness, Katelyn looks waaaaay older than 12!

[MayraLR]

All caught up now! Great day at Busch Gardens! I've always wanted to visit. Sorry your son had a bad experience at the ride. I have a 9 year old who doesn't like thrill rides but fortunately he tells me (even if it's right before boarding). I got him to try TOT this summer but that kind of ruined the rest of the thrill rides as he refused to go on them.

About photobucket and the photos being too big, I had the same problem. The new format they're using is a pain in the butt. After numerous attempts of posting my pictures I decided to just switch back to the old format, which is much better.

[bsblady01]

more please

[MsPeggySue911]

DAY 3: Monday, October 29th, 2012

Today we started out as usual, with breakfast at the resort food court. Then we headed over to Hollywood Studios.

We headed straight for TSMM and got a fastpass and then headed to Tower of Terror and RnR. ToT is one of my favorite rides but DH & DS11 won’t ride it (again).

This was the first day we got to use our photopass+ card for photos and ride photos. We rode each ride a few times so we got quite a few ride photos here.

We got to experience Starring Rolls for the first time. I have read other people talking about it and how much they loved getting snacks from there but to tell you the truth I had never even noticed the place before this trip.

We went all out and each chose 2 snacks and a drink. We used 15 snack credits all at one time. We had a variety of things that I don’t remember everything but I do remember a few ppl had Cinnamon rolls, DD had a Cheese Danish. I had a Butterfinger cupcake and a Napoleon.

I had heard great things about the Butterfinger cupcake but to be honest, I found it to be kind of weird. It had the hard crust all around the top with some kind of white thick cream piled up underneath the crust. It didn’t really taste like icing but it wasn’t marshmallow crème either. I couldn’t really tell what it was. But the cupcake part was dark Chocolate, which I don’t really care for.

I got the Napoleon because DS really wanted to try one. Last year when we took them to Epcot we all got one but DS wasn’t hungry for anything at the time and he had always regretted not trying the Napoleon. So when I saw Starring Rolls had one I got it to share with him and DD. Napoleon is one of my favorite snacks at Disney. That and a Dole Whip Float.

We finished riding everything we wanted to ride by 12:30 so we had lunch (pizza) and left. We drove back to the room for an afternoon rest and the kids went for a swim. But when we got back to our room the housekeepers (s) were still in our room (I think there was more than one) so we ran to Walmart to pick up a few items we forgot to get our first night.

Now while on the subject of housekeepers, I wanted to say we had a very good housekeeper or housekeepers while we were there. I tipped $10 a day. We never received any towel animals not that I was expecting any. Last year we stayed 10 days and did get one while we were there. (I still have it. It’s a Swan or Duck, can’t tell which) And on the day I realized I had ran out of $10 bills all DH had was a $20. I decided to just put the do not disturb sign on the door so she wouldn't even have to come in and clean that day. What is funny is on the day we put out the DND sign I got a knock at the door that afternoon and when I opened it there were THREE housekeepers standing there asking me if I needed towels since I had asked for no housekeeping that day. It was very thoughtful of them. It made me wonder had there been 3 different ppl cleaning our room during our stay or were they just hanging out together and all decided to come to my door. But when I realized there may have been more than 1 person at a time cleaning my room it made me feel the $10 tip was not adequate for 2 housekeepers.

Also to lodge a small complaint… the free wi-fi there sucked. It was very spotty and sometimes you couldn’t even get the “agree to terms” page to come up so you could agree and log in. And when you finally did connect it would lose signal and disconnect. We tried taking our Roku with us so we could watch some Amazon Prime content but it just wouldn’t work with their internet signal.

Anyway, DH tried to lay down and take a nap once we got into the room but we had some very loud neighbors who liked to stand right outside our door and talk and laugh very loud and kept slamming their door. So he didn’t get much of a rest.

Later that night we drove over to Beach Club because we had a 6:30 reservation at Cape May Cafe. We ended up showing up 30 minutes early for the reservation and wasn’t actually seated for about 40 minutes. We walked around the resort and checked it out a little bit. We walked down to the beach. It’s a nice resort but I can’t see spending what it costs a night to stay there.

The kids had been looking forward to the all-you-can-eat Crab legs for months. I and my DH don’t even eat Crab legs but I planned this dinner just so the kids could have them. And they ate quite a bit of them (for kids). Their Mac and Cheese was awesome as well as their boiled little red new Potatoes. DH wasn’t too impressed with the scant food offerings, but I though there was enough. The night we went the main offering was fried Clams, of which none of us eat.

Back 6 months before when I had originally made the reservation the nights they offered certain items, that night was suppose to be a Fried Shrimp night, but in the 6 months waiting to go on our trip, Cape May rearranged what they served on what nights and our nights got all messed around.

I originally had us booked here for Monday night and Friday night but when DH wasn’t very impressed with the food I ended up making a reservation at House of Blues at Downtown Disney for dinner instead. I just got on the online reservation website and put in our date and time and didn’t pick a particulr place and I just let it show me what all was available and out of the choices, House of Blues seemed like the best option for us.

Up next our Magic Kingdom day.