Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 - Page 28 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Originally Posted by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince
OKW! Looking forward to reading about how much you love it, too!
We only have 100 points at OKW, but I love this place. Love parking within 50 feet of our rooms once we get back at nights. Yes, not as exciting of a pool, but the size of the rooms and how quiet it is... HEAVEN.
We only have 100 points at OKW, but I love this place. Love parking within 50 feet of our rooms once we get back at nights. Yes, not as exciting of a pool, but the size of the rooms and how quiet it is... HEAVEN.
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Glad you're back, Jeannie! I've never been inside Disney Quest, so am always interested to read about what people do there. Poor Sophia-- motion sickness is no fun. Glad she came out of it after sitting out for some time.
There was a lot to do at DQ! You could tell it was a holiday weekend because as the day went on, the lines seemed to get longer and the place generally felt more and more crowded. It was a lot of fun though!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Glad I'm not the only one who was confused about not starting out on level 1 at Disney Quest Sounds like you had a great time, sorry that Sophia didn't fare to well on Virtual SM!
After a little while, we got our bearings and were going upstairs and downstairs. Having the food areas was great to sit down, rest, and snack!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
back, Jeannie! Sorry life has gotten in the way. You all managed quite a bit of fun at Disney Quest.
Life is still busy, but isn't that the way it is for everyone? I always laugh that I can't tell you what I've been doing all day, but I haven't had a chance to rest since I woke up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great to see you back Jeannie! So sorry Sophia didn't feel well at DisneyQuest.
I'm still lurking here and there but just haven't made the time to sit down and update. I promise I'll eventually finish this TR!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you're back writing Jeannie! Sorry Sophia wasn't feeling well after the simulators!
Sophia has always been prone to motion sickness...not always, but enough that it gets in the way of fun. Now I always carry Dramamine in my purse just in case we go somewhere with rides!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Yay - glad to see you are back. Good to know a little more about Disney Quest, too.
It was fun to see a lot of the "old time" video games I played in my childhood!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Glad to have you back and have the TR up and running again!
Looked like a lot of fun a DQ. Haven't been there in a number of years, but did use the coaster simulator then and enjoyed it!
I was a chicken and didn't do any of the simulators. I should have, but I admit I was getting pretty tired at that point in our vacation, and I just wasn't in the mood to be bounced around too much. Normally, I'd be on every single roller coaster out there!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timon-HakunaMatata
We only have 100 points at OKW, but I love this place. Love parking within 50 feet of our rooms once we get back at nights. Yes, not as exciting of a pool, but the size of the rooms and how quiet it is... HEAVEN.
I wish I had stayed in your room because while I thought the resort was lovely, my room was the noisiest I had ever experienced in my entire life! Still, I'm not against going back someday...I'll just make sure I'm in the quietest building on the property!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Glad you are back!! I certainly know all about how life gets in the way
It's a matter of making time, and I'll do my best to make time to keep updating!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince
DH says it feels like home!
It really is a pretty resort!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Glad you were able to enjoy some time at DQ but bummer for Sophia after the ride
I'd like to go back to DQ someday and do some of those simulators. We skipped the Aladdin one, and I think there were some other things we wanted to do but just got too tired (and a bit too motion sick for Sophia).
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Sounds like DQ was a hit minus Sophia getting motion sick.
I'm sure your boys would love that place! Much of it was geared toward older kids, but there looked to be lots to do for kids the age of your boys!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
So how long ago did I say I was going to continue with this TR?
Ok, I'm here, so while I'm thinking about it, I'd better post an update!
I left off at Disney Quest. We finished up there and headed back to our room. We did a little shopping at the gift shop, but I don't think we got anything. There was a battery-operated coin bank that was on display that Evan really loved, but we had hardly any room left in our suitcases! I ended up finding it at Disneyland after we got home, so it was one of Evan's Christmas presents!
Sophia decided early in the day she really wanted to go to MK one last time, so we headed out. I had made a few FP+ ressies, so we were hoping to hit those.
Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but you can see how busy it was that night. It was the night before Thanksgiving, so the crowds were there in full force.
The castle as beautiful!
We enjoyed a happy sing along on a boat...
I'm always so discombobulated when I enter indoors. I'm so used to the outdoor queue at Disneyland.
It really was goodbye as we would be leaving the next day...
If I recall correctly (a year and half now after it happened!), we had a FP+ to see Ariel in New Fantasyland, but when we walked over there, it was roped off because of the upcoming fireworks. The CM said they would honor the fastpass later in the evening, but I had a feeling we wouldn't be making it back there. Sophia was sad. At this point, she was really enjoying meeting the characters and hated to miss this one. Oh well.
Our next FP+ was to meet Mickey back on Main Street, so we headed over there. The line wasn't long, and when we got into the room to see Mickey, I was surprised to hear him talk! I sort of knew it was happening, but I didn't realize it was already going on! Evan was really surprised, but he took it in stride. We had a great time with Mickey, and we told him that Evan shares his birthday with him. It was a lot of fun, and Mickey had appropriate responses to all our comments. Sophia was having a ball!
As we exited from meeting with Mickey, I saw this...so pretty!
By now, it was fairly late. I think the fireworks had happened while we were inside with Mickey. I'm guessing it must've been close to 10 by now, and the kids were hungry. We headed over to the Starlight Cafe for some chicken nuggets and roast chicken. The place was still pretty busy, but we were able to find seats at a small table.
While eating, Evan was getting whiny. I think he was just really tired from the day. I told him we would be heading back to the room soon. Sophia, on the other hand, was raring to go and wanted to stay a lot later. I hate being a mom when your kids want different things! Sadly for Sophia, I had to get Evan back to the room before he had a big meltdown, and at that point it was feeling like he was going to have a real melt-down. I think Sophia knew it had to be that way, but she wasn't thrilled about it. I promised we would be back to WDW sooner rather than later. So, we headed back to the room for our last night sleeping under the fireworks...
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So great to see you posting on this again Jeannie!
The last year has just been a blur. I've been so crazy busy. I only have less than 24 hours left on this trip at this point, and I am determined to finish it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
What a bummer about Ariel but glad you were able to still get some fun in with the crowds! I'm glad Sophia was understanding in the end too!
It never occurred to us to plan around any type of closures. Now I know for next time! It's funny that when we go to Disneyland, Sophia has no interest in lining up to see the very same characters!
The kids did great. Poor Evan was really lagging that night. I was worried when we were finishing our late dinner at Starlight Cafe that Evan might be too tired to walk to the bus stop. He was THAT tired!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Well, it was time to pack up for our return trip. When I first planned this trip, I asked Sophia if it was ok for us not to be home on Thanksgiving. She said it was fine so long as we could still have a traditional Thanksgiving meal. I remember checking to see what types of holiday meals were available, and I wasn't able to figure out much. I did see that there was a Thanksgiving lunch available at Olivia's, and that was a place we did want to eat at. Trying to think about now, I believe we had an ADR for about 11am because our Magical Express pick-up from POR was around 2pm for a flight around 5pm.
So, we packed up and called Bell Services to pick up our bags and store them while we went to lunch. I seem to recall it was a chilly morning. I loved it, but I'm sure others didn't! We said goodbye to our room and headed out to walk to the main bus stop near the lobby.
Goodbye, room!
Goodbye, Oak Manor!
Goodbye, beautiful courtyard!
Goodbye, Christmas tree near the food court!
I don't remember now how we got to Olivia's. I don't think we took a cab, but then I don't remember taking two buses to get there either. Well, however, we got there, we made it!
Christmas tree in the Olivia's waiting area:
Thanksgiving menu:
Sophia had fun amusing herself while we waited for our food.
It was sad to see these napkins because our trip was winding down.
Yummy bread!
Thanksgiving meal served family style:
The meal was all you can eat, but I'll be honest with you...even after 10 days, we still hadn't acclimated to the time change, so having a meal at noon still felt like eating breakfast. We never made it past the first platter! However, I think we did a pretty good job polishing off most of it!
We were stuffed! Sadly, it was time to head home. I do have photographic evidence that we took the bus from OKW to DTD and then back to POR.
We got our bags from Bell Services and brought them out to wait for Magical Express.
We made it to the airport with time to spare, so we hung out near the Disney Store.
As we took our last monorail trip of the vacation, I asked the kids to show me how they were feeling:
I think that pretty much summed it up. As we boarded, before Sophia stepped onto the plane, she turned to me and said, "I don't want to leave!" I knew exactly how she felt.
Before we knew it, we were coming in to land.
Even though it was a nice long 10 day trip, we felt like there was so much we still wanted to do. We knew we'd be back again, and hopefully we'll return some time in 2016.
A day or two after we got home, I decided I had to stop by my local Happiest Place on Earth just to check-in (plus I was feeling guilty we had cheated on DLR!). I was home!
Thanks for your patience everyone! I'm glad I finally finished this report!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
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Sorry to see this come to an end. I think we all know that feeling when a trip comes to an end.
When in 2016 are you planning on going back? We hope to get back in October/November 2016.
With the kids' school schedules, it's either summer or winter break. It's not worth it for us to go all the way out there for just a long weekend. It would have to be at least a week, preferably more. Since I really don't like heat and humidity, it might not be until winter break...so sadly after your trip. I don't have definite plans yet, but I'll let you know if there's any chance I'll be there October/November.
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!