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[kidagain]

Will post a report as soon as I can.
Want to thank all the board members for answering so many questions before we left. We had a really wonderful time!!

[bfth]

We're waiting! Hurry up! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[maggy_1]

Welcome home and we wait for the report [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Chantal [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[kidagain]

Okay, finally have some time to do my trip report! Had lots of catching up to do at work ect..after being away a little bit.

First I just want to say how wonderful it was to have the board members here as a great resource. It was a real luxury to have help in planning our trip.

My husband, our five year-old son and I had a 7:00am flight out of Newark on Thurs. Nov. 18. We got to the airport about 2 hours and 5:15 minutes early. That gave us enough time to get through security, which did not seem like much of a big deal to me.

My son points out the armed National Guards and blurts out that they are "helping to get that bad man in the cave!". I assure him that the "bad man" lives really far away and that he is not at the airport or at Disney and yes that lots of soldiers are helping to "get him". I feel a mixture of amusement (at my son's view of things) and bit of fleeting anger and sadness at the loss of innocence. They do not "wand" us as we pass through security and I worry for a minute that the terminal will be closed down if someone notices this! I later find out that you only get "wanded" if you set of the metal detector.

I am glad to be on the plane which was totally full. The flight seemed like any other to me and I am more than thrilled to due my "patiriotic duty" to support the economy and not let the terrorists win.

Our son sleeps on the flight. We land on time and getting the Mears shuttle goes smoothly. Seems we are at the All-Star Movie resort in no time!

We had requested the Fantasia building and they were giving us a room there...that is until my son piped up that he really, really wanted to be with the Dalmations!! My husband quickly gives in..we end up being a little further from the pool and food court than I liked..but it really didn't matter much since we spent so little time at the resort it seems.

I thought AS Movies had a pretty nice pool for a value resort. It was large with the Mickey fountain and neat small children's area. There was a large green partition between the pool and the entrance to the lobby and food court...they were refurbishing something or other..what we did not ever figure out.

I found the resort interesting. The large Disney icons everywhere were a blast for the kids. The resort really was just fine...my son thought it was fantasitic and my husband just loved the price. We were both glad our son thought it was fun. Me, I was a little thrown my the rows of rectangular concrete block buildings...despite the bright colors and Disney icons everywhere, it had a strong institutional feel to me which kinda bugged me. And after a while the icons screamed out to me that they were trying to hide the cheap buildings (LOL). I kept my mouth shut about this, not wanting to seem like a spoil sport at Disney...and not wanting to seem ungrateful for a wonderful vacation.

Our room was clean as could be. It was fully deocorated with bright colors and Dalmation posters in frames. The room did not bother me one bit and was certianly a welcome sight after hours on my feet..kind of a cozy retreat.

We buy some refillable mugs..just loved those!! I like the food court. We go to our room and unpack a little...my husband and I are exhausted and would love to take a quick nap...no such luck. Our son is wound up and bursting with exictement that he is at Disney!! I just love kids!

So we head off to the Magic Kingdom somewhere around 12:30pm. I have not been to the Magic Kingdom in 16 years. At the entrance I am immediately struck that it looks exactly the same...the flowers shaped like Mickey..I couldn't get over it..I was pleased that my son could see it the way I had in the past.

At the turnstyle, my son's pass does not work..we are sent to City Hall...after passing through security..they looked in everyone's bags. Not a big deal. As we enter Main Street we all fell excited..it was fantastic..and well, sooo Disney!! How could you not feel uplifted here?? My son looks a bit crazed for a few minutes taking it in..and I am imagining how absolutely magical it must be to him. At City Hall we get a temporary day pass or something til we can get his pass "fixed" at the resort.

Hardly any lines. We get to try lots of rides. My son's favorite is the Haunted Mansion..which also seemed the same as I recalled!! The Buzz Lightyear ride was a blast. We are having so much fun, we hate to even stop and eat..but we do quickly! We were able to rides several times because of short lines. It was great. We watch the fireworks in the evening..and end up back in our room and in bed by 7:30pm I think. It felt great to sleep!

Our son wakes up at 7:00am...and turns on all the lights in the room..he is ready to go!! I have to drag myself out of bed...and find it interesting that I usually need to drag HIM out of bed for school at this hour!

We eat breakfast at the food court..the Mickey shaped waffles were so cute and our son just had to have them every morning!

Soon we are off to Blizzard Beach...wow! We all had a blast on the slides and our son loved walking on the water on the chuncks of ice bergs. Eventually we relax while our son plays in the sand. I love it..then...somewhere around 3:30pm we head on over to Magic Kingdom. We get fast passes for Buss Lightyear..but my pass doesn't work in the machine..luckily a CM is there and takes one out of the machine for me...we now need to get this pass "fixed" at the resort. We do that paddle boat ride down the river and lots of other things..again not much in the way of lines. Later we end up in Cinderella's castle..go up and take a look at the restaurant. When we come down..Prince Charming is there..we take our son's picture with him and Prince Charming shows him how to stand just like a prince..our son is beaming from ear to ear and very, very proud to be standing with the prince...it was quite precious. We later see the light parade (which is just so magical!!). My husband is 6'3" so our son has a great view from his shoulders. He was mesmorized. When Prince Charming came by with Cinderella, our son's face absolutely lit up..the characters were waving to everyone, but our son was certain that Prince Charming was waving right to him!

Magic Kindgom closed early so we head on over to Epcot. I am chilly..left my jacket in the room since we had planned on returning there (but never did). Our son falls asleep in one of those Disney strollers while we stroll around the World Show Case. He somehow sleeps through Illuminations...which is the best fireworks show I have ever seen anywhere..just incredible. I swear I will come back to see it every night...but it turns out that we don't.

The next day our son is up at 7:00am..turns all the lights on and is raring to go! My body aches from all the walking we have been doing..I swear I am 80 years-old and will never be able to get out of bed..somehow I do..but the guys are patiently waitng while I slowly get ready.

We plan to go to Animal Kingdom for a couple of hours and then back to the hotel pool to relax. We first go on that jungle rive raft ride (I can't recall the name of some of the rides)..the one where you get soaked..and boy did I get soaked. I actually saw one family in a raft and they all had rain ponchos on!! Now that is being prepared!! My husband and son find it most amsuing when I get soaked. There is no line so we go around twice. I then get off while they go one more time. We enjoyed the safari ride...and the Lion King show...our son loved the dinasour playground and got soaked in the little waterfall thing there. I can't even recall everything we did. But we really enjoyed the environment at Animal Kindgom. We leave around 3pm or so I think..and go back to the hotel pool to relax for a bit. My husband thinks he has a blister on his foot. My feet just ache..our son's feet are perfectly fine..why IS that??

We shower, eat dinner at the food court and head over to the Magic Kingdom for the one late it's open during our stay..til 10:0pm. It is packed!! Heavy crowds (it least it seemed to me). Line too long for Pirates of the Caribbean and no more fast passes left. My husband and son take great pleasure in in racing after me and bumping into my car at the race track. We try the Aladdin ride and the Jungle Cruise (and yeah that is pretty tacky)..my husband and son do the Tea Cup ride which would make me sick. We all go on the carousel. We see the parade again and again our son's face lights up at the sight of prince charming. We stay and eat ice cream as people are exiting the park. Our son finishes his, says "I'm done", climbs into the Disney stroller and falls asleep! (Part Two to follow)

[kidagain]

Part Two:

The next morning is Sunday...yep, again our son is up first and turns on all the lights and wakes us up.

By this time, I am already having thoughts about when we can come back to Disney. I decide that I will spend the moring checking out some of the other resorts. So after breakfast at the food court, we head off to MGM. I hop on a bus to the Coronado Springs resort (simply because it was the one there and ready to go!. We plan to meet at the Honey I Shrunk the kids playground with an hour window of meeting time..figure our son will play for a while if I am late.

I like the resort..the grounds are nice with the lake in the middle..the lobby is also quite nice...quite a step up from the All-Star..but the price is higher too so it should be. I see the Pyramid pool..it is nice, but smaller that I thought it would be from the pictures.

Next, I hop on a bus to Epcot and from there get on a bus to Caribbean Beach resort. Same layout as C.S. The theme pool is much, much smaller than I thought it would be..but great..a little water fall and canons shooting water out for the kids...looked like lots of fun. There food court was quite nice. Overall, I like the resort.

I decide I am tired of touring the resorts and that I just want to spend time with my family. My feet ache. I get on a bus to MGM. I think Wow! when I enter. I was not that excited about going to MGM, but am impressed. I pick up a map and head over the Honey I Shrunk the kids playground..about an hour earlier that we had planned, but it's possible my son and husband could be there. Find the playground..and well..ugh!..it is closed for refurbishing...yikes!..now two hours before I meet them..and faced with possibly an hour wait in front of a closed playground.

I walk around the park..I like New York Street..especially since I used to live in Manhattan..find myself thinking..NYC is never this clean! (LOL). I finally need to rest my feet and head into the ABC Commissary for an early lunch..I decide to bring the food over by the playground in case my husband and son come by...the do within a short period of time! I bring my food and we head over to the pizza place with the Toy Story Icons (forget the name)..no seats available so we sit on brick surrounding a tree. No problem..we are outside and the weather is beautiful.

After lunch we get a Fast Pass for the little Mermaid show and then get in line for Bear in the Big Blue House..only a 5 minute wait. We are at the very end of the line and not sure we will get into the show..but we do!! My son really enjoys the show..it was cute. Afterwards we see the Muppets 3-D movie..."okay". We see some characters in the center of the park and our son joins in their circle with other guests and they do a little dance. We try to get dinner reservations at one of the MGM restaurants so we can get a pass to the evening Fantasimic (?) show without having to wait on line early...but all the passes are gon for that evening. We see the Mermaid show..very good...can't recall why we never got to Beauty and the Beast. Eventually we see the parade..which was nice. We head over to the Fantasmic show and get great seats smack in the center. The show was wonderful.

The show ends and the park is closing so we head over to Downtown Disney for dinner and to check out Disney Quest. We really like Downtown Disney. Only thing is, with the parks closing early..lots of people headed over there and it was impossible to get into a restaraunt with less than an hour wait..and we wish we had eaten at the park.
We end up in a Cuban restaurant..it was fine.

Finally, we finish dinner and get into Disney Quest. We just loved this place!! I got a little quesy on one of the simulation games..the magic carpet one. Our favorite floor was the one with the Pirates of the Caribbean game. We had such a blast on that!! My husband and son did the simulated raft ride (you sit in an actual raft with a paddle)..I still felt too quesy and had to pass and now my stomach was bothering me from the Cuban food. Our son just loves the car game (forget the name of it)..you steer cars on a screen through the maze, trying to get it to certain points to get treasures...thing is, there is an actual maze on the floor being you and you are actually driving your car through this maze! You can go from you screen and see where your car is in the maze...it was cool! We stayed until 11:00pm when it closed.

We decide to spend Monday relaxing at Blizzard Beach for a while..we sleep a bit later than usual..our son too! We know we have been over doing it. My husand and son go get breakfast from the food court to bring back to the room while I shower and dress..I feel ancient!

While we are eating in the room, we hear on TV about the plane crash in NYC..and are just stunned. We hear the NY area airports are closed (we are due to leave the next evening) and wonder how long that will be for. Our son seems oblivious to what is going on on the television (for which I am greatful). We sit there feeling quite sad and well..just stunned. At that point no one knew the cause and most just assumed it was due to terrorism.

Finall, I get up and turn off the set..and we decide no matter how sad we feel about what just happened we are not going to let any terrorist anywhere immobilze us. We are going to go about our day.

When we get to Blizzard Beach, the security guard checkig my bag thanks us for supporting Disney. Tell him that's why we came! Seems some are wondering if the crash was a terrorist plot what the effects will be on the travel industry...can the industry survive much more?? We over hear some CM's discussig the crash.

We head over to the wave pool and sit on chairs in the sand...which feels good to our aching feet!! We spend much time playing in the sand, swimming, and well..just relaxing!
Eventually we eat luch and head over to the water slides for a bit...then to the lazy river. More relaxing. Walking around the park, we some more CM's talking about the crash. They tell us the news is reporting it is not believed to be a terrorist attack. We find that a bit hard to believe it could just be a horrible coincidence, but know that is better than an attack.

We head back to the wave pool and relax a bit more. Eventually we head back to the hotel to shower. We give our son a choice between going to Magic Kingdom or Disney Quest and he picks Disney Quest. We decide it's just easier to eat at the food court and do so and then hop on the bus to Downtown Disney.