An Anniversary, a party, a luau, and oh so many changes from the plans, lol! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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An Anniversary, a party, a luau, and oh so many changes from the plans, lol!
I'm going to attempt to do a TR while it's fresh on my mind. I never did finish last year's TR so I'll try to do better this time.
I'm borrowing the format from Winston since I thought it made it easier to remember where I left off when reading. Hope you don't mind Winston
Dates: 10/09/2010-10/18/2010
Travelers: Stacey (writer of this report - been to WDW too many times to count), Bill (my DH who prefers DL but does now love WDW as well), Mary (our DD who is 19 months old - this is her second trip. She was 9 months the first time), Jane (my mom - drove over from Clearwater and stayed a night), Lydia (my 9 year old niece came over with my mom for a night), Derek (DH's best friend who moved down to Atlanta this year) and Linda (Derek's wife - They drove down from Atlanta for two nights with their cat Willow since their other cat recently passed on )
Hotels: Off property at the Fairfield Inn the first three nights as there were no rooms available on points and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Village for our last 6 nights.
Celebrations: DH and my 11th wedding anniversary was on 10/10/10.
Day 1 - Departure and Arrival - 10/09/2010
So, while it looks like we had a huge group of people, the primary guests of this TR are me (Stacey), DH (Bill) and DD (Mary).
Since DH works Tuesday to Saturday so he has Mondays off to watch DD, we had to leave after work on Saturday. I booked us on a 5:05pm flight on Southwest scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 8:05pm. Even though we live about equally between Logan Airport in Boston and Providence we always choose providence so we can drive ourselves and park our own car for the week. This means we don't rely on others to drop us off and pick us up and if the flight is late we are not an imposition anyone else. Parking our own car may not have been the best decision this time... you have to wait until the end of the trip to find out why though
Our flight was delayed for some reason but only by about 15 minutes on departure.
I decided to purchase the early bird checkin for only DH's ticket on our flight down. My logic was that he could board before us and get DD's car seat all set up while we came along a bit later. I figured worse case we could board with the family boarding in between group A and group B. At the 24 hour mark I checked in myself and Mary and we got A58 and A59. DH had A19 so I think it worked out well buying the EB for him. When Mary and I got on the plane, DH had her seat all installed and it was a nice transition.
Mary was awake for about half the trip but in a fun playful mood and safely strapped in her seat. She fell asleep for the last hour or so of the trip and even slept through the landing I actually woke her up trying to pick her up to get off the plane, lol
We booked a car rental since we like the freedom to come and go when we want and also since we are staying off site the first three nights. Plus with an infant, we can run out anytime we need something.
The best rate I found was with Alamo using our BJ's wholesale club discount. The bonus was that since it was through BJ's we got a second driver at no additional charge so both DH and I could drive. We had booked a compact to save money and it was a tight squeeze for the trip to the hotel with the car seat, stroller, and three pieces of luggage.
We decided this time rather than wait in a long line at Alamo, we'd skip the luggage pickup until after we got the car. So we went right down to level 1 instead. The car rental was an absolute breeze! The customer service person we had was very helpful and friendly. Not too pushy on the upgrades, etc. We got the paperwork and went back up to pick up our luggage.
Apparently they are FAST with the luggage because ours was already put aside outside the southwest office. Of course I couldn't find my luggage slips but I showed them our tickets with our name on them and got our luggage without any drama. I'm a space cadet since having a child, lol
We picked our own car with Alamo. I really do prefer this. DH decided to pick a little chevy cobalt with New Jersey plates since most of the other rental cars have FL plates. It would make it easier for us to find ours in a parking lot... and it really did help us a few times!
We got the address in the GPS and were on our way to the Fairfield Inn in Marriott Village, which is just outside of Downtown Disney off of 535.
We were floored, there was bumper to bumper traffic at 9:30pm for some reason on I4? Then there was even more traffic on 535. We could see our hotel but couldn't get there. With all the traffic and not being able to tell how to get in to the hotel (Our GPS thought the driveway was off of the highway on ramp, LOL) we didn't get into the hotel until after 10pm. The front desk folks were wonderful. Very friendly and helpful. She noted my request for the pack and play for Mary and called first thing to make sure it was there asap. Since we are marriott reward members we got 20% coupons for the food court as well.
We were starving and decided to try to get to the food court before they closed at 11pm. DH brought all the luggage in himself while I stayed in the room with DD (what a guy huh? ) We scooted down to the food court and ordered burgers with fries, and got two sodas, a milk, and a water as well. We planned to go to the grocery store but were too exhausted tonight. It was a little pricey but I have to say that was an incredible burger! The best I had all week!
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Travelers: Stacey (writer of this report - been to WDW too many times to count), Bill (my DH who prefers DL but does now love WDW as well), Mary (our DD who is 19 months old - this is her second trip. She was 9 months the first time), Jane (my mom - drove over from Clearwater and stayed a night), Lydia (my 9 year old niece came over with my mom for a night), Derek (DH's best friend who moved down to Atlanta this year) and Linda (Derek's wife - They drove down from Atlanta for two nights with their cat Willow since their other cat recently passed on )
Hotels: Off property at the Fairfield Inn the first three nights as there were no rooms available on points and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Village for our last 6 nights.
Celebrations: DH and my 11th wedding anniversary was on 10/10/10.
Day 2 - A Whirlwind of Fun and our 11th Anniversary - 10/10/10
We had a very rough night as Mary's schedule was all messed up and she wanted to play all night but we were up very early as my mother was scheduled to arrive with my niece around 8am. We went down and enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel and I was pleased to find milk, juice, cheerios, and yogurt. All things Mary would actually eat. I made myself one of those huge Belgium waffles. It was very tasty! Mom called a few times as she didn't remember the name or address of the hotel. Then they wanted to have breakfast as well. I checked in Mom's room since we were paying for it but it wouldn't be ready until later so she would use our room until then. Mom planned on shopping all day while we took our niece with us to the Magic Kingdom for the day. Both mom and my niece are from MA also but mom has a place in clearwater as well. Since my brother works for Jetblue my mom can travel standby for free. She flew up to pick up my niece for a short trip to FL but mom didn't want to spend a day in disney. She went through surgery this summer for uterine cancer and doesn't think she could spend the day walking but wasn't interested when I offered getting an ECV. I think she just wanted the day alone.
So, she went off shopping while DH, me, DD, and DN headed to DTD to get our tickets. DH and I got annual passes using our DVC discount and DN just got a one day MYW child ticket since she is still 9. DD is still free luckily!
While at DTD we went to the T-shirt store down near Rainforest Cafe to order me a T-shirt for Monday night. Then we were off to the MK!
We also have a AAA Diamond Parking Pass for this trip as we had purchased our original tickets from AAA and traded those in for our APs. What a great perk that is. We followed the green line and parked a bit further away than the handicap parking. I really liked this as we didn't need to fold up the stroller for the trams this way.
DN chose the boat so we were on our leisurely way and the breeze on the boat was quite nice. Since this was DN's only day, she was really picking what to do. Unfortunately it was a 6 or 7 on the touring plans chart so we knew it would be a busy one.
We had planned on having corn dogs for lunch but when we walked by Caseys it was super crowded so DN decided to try out an imfamous dole whip I raved about to hold us over for a later lunch. DH and I got pineapple dole whip floats and DN got an Orange one with pineapple juice? I haven't tried that kind but she said she loves orange and pineapple so that's what we got. We all loved them and they were very filling! I'm not great at remembering the order of things but I know we rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Jungle Boat Cruise, Pirate of the Caribbean, and went to the Tiki Room. DN loved controlling our carpet and a few times I had to ask her to stop going up and down so much. DD was really in observation mode on all the rides, I can't really say she loved any of them but she had her eyes WIDE open! Our Jungle Guide was really funny but I think I may have been the only one laughing a lot of the time. Oh well, I liked it! He thanked me for the pity laughs, lol. On our way in to Pirates we saw Pirate Goofy off to the side near the gift shop. DD was waving and cooing at Goofy and the Photopass CM said to make sure we stopped by after the ride. DN was a bit scared on Pirates, she thought the cannons were real. DD Mary just watched as always, lol.
After POTC we jumped in line for Pirate Goofy. The CM was about to tell us he was going on break but then recognized us and said we would be his last guest before his break. Of course Mary wasn't as happy to see him up close and personal, lol:
We went to Columbia Harbor House for a late lunch and DH and I shared a Fish and Chicken plate ( I think I had more than half though) - It was very tasty but not really enough for 2 people. Since we had ADRs for dinner we didn't want to eat too much though. DN had a kids pick Chicken Nugget meal and shared some with DD since she doesn't eat much. Mary had her very first chocolate milk and oh my was she a happy little girl!
After lunch we headed over towards fantasyland and got Fast Passes for Peter Pan. Then we headed over towards Toontown since DN really wanted to see some other characters. We got through Mickey's house only to realize all that line was just to see his house? there were no characters in there, lol
Next we went to check the lines for Princesses and Fairies and both were over an hour. We had only 1.5 hours until we had to leave for our dinner ADR so she opted to go with DH on Barnstormer then played with DD in Donald's boat to cool down. DN LOVED barnstormer and was raving about it. I didn't realize that she'd never been on a coaster of any kind before, lol
After the fun and frolicking we headed back towards the entrance via every imaginable shop because DN had a giftcard she had to spend every cent from before she saw her Nana again since Nana gave it to her, LOL
She found a cute mickey ears hat she liked and got a keychain for her best friend. So thoughtful
We picked up the car and drove over to the Poly for our Dinner ADRs at 'Ohana. This is definitely one of DH and my favorite restaurants. Since it was our actual anniversary we wanted to enjoy a nice relaxing dinner. DMom and Dniece had never been before. Mom has a restricted diet but didn't want me to say anything. Luckily there was a lot of low fat options to choose from so it seemed like she enjoyed everything. DD had fallen asleep on the way there so they were wonderful gave us a corner table and let us bring the stroller in. She slept half way through the meal then Mom held her the rest of the time. It was so nice to enjoy a whole meal and not worry about her getting fussy etc. I was really glad mom was there
After dinner, we swapped out the car seat and DD went back to the hotel with Mom and DH, DN and I left our car parked at Poly and hopped the resort monorail back to the MK for a couple more hours so DN could get in a few more rides. It was so different not pushing around a stroller. We rushed over and went to BTMRR, Haunted Mansion, then up to Peter Pan to use our Fast Passes. We were a bit late on those since dinner took nearly two hours (we waited a while for the corner seat). The CM didn't seem to mind though. The we went to see Mickey's Philharmagic. DN loves it! DH not so much, lol
DN had changed into a fancy dress for dinner. She loves to dress up it's cute. But she kept getting called princess all night and was loving all the attention. Here she is in front of the castle all dressed up.
I'm sure I missed a lot but I guess that happens with age, lol. We were at the park until nearly midnight and didn't get settled in to bed until 1am. Mom ket DD in her room since she was already sleeping. It was our first night without her in the 19 months of her life so I was a little nervous but since she was only 2 floors up I figured if I freaked out I could go up, lol.
UP NEXT: Day 3: Snow White and the TWO Dwarfs?
__________________
Stacey 40, DH (Bill) 46, DD (Mary) 4
Last edited by mzozzietj; 10-20-2010 at 11:07 AM..
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