A Little Family Magic (VWL): 5/24-30 '05 Completed! About This Page:

[Goofy'sGal]

A Little Family Magic
May 24 - 30, 2005
Where: Villas at the Wilderness Lodge
Adventurers: DH - 40, Me – 39, DD – 7, DD – 4-1/2

A brief intro: This will be our 3rd trip to WDW in 3 years time. We became DVC members in 2003 after our 1st family trip when we stayed at the VWL; we visited Home at the BCV for the 1st time this past November; and we have celebrated both girls’ birthdays on each trip. MIL had joined us for the last two trips, but this time it would be just the 4 of us – quite unique for us as we have never vacationed without family or friends since the girls have been born! We are using up the last of our APs and do not expect to be back at WDW until sometime in 2007. This trip is slightly longer than November’s and we’ll be trying some restaurants and a tour as well, so we’re very excited!

Tuesday, May 24, 2005
This will be our 2nd time flying down to MCO. The girls both have school and DH will be coming home early from work. We have a van scheduled to pick us up at 3:15pm to take us to Newark Liberty Airport for our 5:45pm flight. Our driver is 15 minutes early which is great for us as we’re all ready and excited to start our adventure. He is a comedian and keeps us entertained during the whole ride. We check-in at curbside and now, one heavy bag lighter, we maneuver over to our gate. The girls and I are hungry so we go in search of hot dogs – they’ve changed the set-up here since last November – unless we’re just in a different area; no McD’s – but we find decent hot dogs and a chicken sandwich for me. We get some drinks and meet DH back at the gate. We board on time, little wait at the runway but soon we’re up and flying. A bit of turbulence here and there. It had been very rainy lately so we fly above the clouds and DD7 says it looks like there’s a cotton candy world below us. I had bought new coloring books and sticker booklets which kept them both entertained. We got small sandwiches, carrots and little Twix bars on the plane. Amazingly, DD7 decided that she liked the baby carrots (this is truly a great thing as she hasn’t had a carrot in a LONG time!). Her reward was both of the little Twix bars. DD4 who had eaten her entire HUGE hot dog at the airport wasn’t interested in her snack and kept coloring. She colored so hard that she was fully of colorful crayon “crumbs”!

As we started to descend, DD4’s ears started to bother her (just like her mommy! ) but luckily, she fell asleep during landing so it didn’t seem to bother her much. Of course this meant that I would have to carry her plus my two carry-on bags and hold onto DD7’s hand while DH got to carry the other two heavier bags. But DD woke up and walked off the plane with us! Such a trooper! We took the airport train-thing that chutes you over to the baggage claim area. As we came down the escalator, I noticed two things: 1) a man holding a sign with our name - our Quicksilver driver – hooray!!! And 2) a lady waving at everyone with a HUGE Mickey hand!! LOL I could only guess that she was from their Magical Express service. There was a huge crowd standing behind her, not a happy looking crowd either, but then again, I just glanced in curiosity as I was passing by.

We walked over to the baggage claim carousel and waited quite a while for our bag to come out. Our driver, whose name I didn’t catch, was very pleasant and made small talk with DH. As we had some time, we called my sister and MIL to let them know we landed safely and to let DD4 chat with them each a bit! Finally, bag in hand (well, DH’s hand), we waited for our driver to bring our “van” around – hmm...a Cadillac Escalade! Nice! There were two benches behind the driver’s seat so it was roomy. Sadly, no DVD player here – DD7 was a bit disappointed in that. I was disappointed to find the car seats I requested were still in the trunk rather than in place as they were for our Nov trip. And I’m almost ashamed to admit this after all the worries I had last trip, but DH looked at me and we both nodded and just strapped the kids in between us. I know-I know, not the wisest thing to do – but we were tired and just wanted to get to the hotel instead of wrestling with the car seats *hanging head in shame*

We kept busy by reading all the road signs leading us to Disney World. And we all cried out as we passed through the WDW Resort archway! Hooray! We kept our eyes pealed for the sight of Spaceship Earth – DD7 and I spotted it together! And very soon we were passing through the gates of the WL!! It had been 2 years since we were last here but it still felt like home to us! Our driver confirmed our pickup time and as I’d already paid for the trip and gratuity via credit card before we left home, he wished us well.

DH checked all our bags except our backpacks with the Bell Captain. We walked through the lobby full of new “ooh’s” and “aah’s”! There was one other family at the Front Desk, but there were 2 Cast Members so no waiting for us. Sterrie took care of us and he and Jim were a great team, playing off each other with quips and jokes. He welcomed us home and asked if we’d ever been at the WL before. Once we said yes, he said he could then skip a lot of the welcome info spiel which was fine with us. He was very friendly with a dry sense of humor. He asked the girls if they were excited to be here and if they wanted a few Mickey stickers, then he pulled out a big strip for each of them which they thought was very cool!

Before we left the Desk, I remembered to ask about the availability for being a Flag Family – he checked the book and although each day that we were there, it was already booked by another family, he entered us onto the wait list. We weren’t chosen in the end , but that was okay as we’ll see later on. We then headed over to the Villas at the WL to Room #4530. As we got to the 4th floor, it was interesting to be able to look down into the Villas Lobby – you can’t do this from the 5th floor (where we stayed last time). You can see all the exposed beams and it’s really neat! Although this room was pretty much an exact replica of our last 1 bedroom at VWL, the balcony was slightly different. Last time, I remembered being disappointed that the railing was blocked out so you couldn’t see a thing if you were sitting down and it was high too, so you really had to look on your tippy-toes to see over it (not that the view was anything out of the ordinary LOL). This 4th floor room had a nice slatted railing so you could see your view through it – again, nothing spectacular like the pool or Bay Lake (I don’t think any of the villas overlook Bay Lake) but a lovely wooded area with the occasional bus passing through in the distance LOL

DH was hungry and I wanted to visit the Mercantile for some necessities: milk, autograph books and pens! LOL Our luggage, however, was taking its time to get to us. We waited about a half hour with the kids watching TV when DH finally called downstairs. A few minutes later, he met the bell attendant at the door and we were off to explore. Yes, it was close to 10pm but we were all wide awake from excitement! We made our way to Roaring Forks Snacks (for the next few days, I would involuntarily re-name this place with variations on its rightful name, my favorite being "Roaring Snorks"; I just couldn’t remember the right name! LOL ) DH got a hot dog and fries; the girls and I got chocolate milks and we picked up a bag of Cheetos and microwave popcorn for snacking later on in the trip.

While Dh waited on his meal, I walked to the Mercantile. Oh, wow!! I could lose my head in here!! As I made my way to the milk and the display of autograph books/pens, I took the long way around hats, shirts, mugs, scrapbooks, keychains – you get the idea! LOL It’s amazing that I was able to show any restraint but I did! I almost bought the girls each a pre-packaged Happiest Celebration Princess autograph book and pen set but it was also a photo album and it was a bit larger than the regular book (also a few dollars more but that wasn’t the reason I put it down – I figured we’d want more blank pages for autographs versus less pages and more plastic pages for pics). Despite the time of night, the place was jumping!

As I walked back to Roaring Snorks I ran into my family. We headed back to the room. DH and DD7 promptly fell asleep while I repacked my backpack and made sure that I had everything ready for our first day at MK. Poor DD4 was too excited to fall asleep. She fell asleep very late and was, not surprisingly, cranky in the morning.

NEXT: Family Magic Tour and Can We Stay Awake for the evening EMH at MK?

and I promise there will be pictures from here onward!!