The Stone Family's Magical Adventure including food photos About This Page:

[Mom of three 1971]

Well, we are back! We reluctantly returned on December 9th, having had to shave one day off our visit due to the scheduling of our 8yo Daughter Remy's holiday violin recital. We returned to find the computer hard drive fried ! The plan is to replace it with a new laptop after Xmas but it will have to wait a few weeks! That's an expense we hadn't planned on after 2 weeks away and Christmas shopping still to do. Fortunately I can still begin this report from my computer at work, though the pictures will have to go up later... sorry!

So for those of you who don't know me...I am Tara, lover of all things Disney! I planned this trip for a year for my beloved family: Husband Jeff, Daughters Remy, 8 and Gelsey, 4. Our Son Mike who is 17 opted out of this vacation since he did not want to miss school during his senior year. He was afraid he would it would affect his getting into college. Turns out he's been accepted several placed with 4 different colleges offering him scolarships so he could have gone after all oh well, we have learned it's just best to let him make a lot of these kind of decisions himself.
You can read about the planning process here if you choose:
http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...2009-trip.html

Saturday November 28th

The day fianlly arrives that we are heading to the airport!
My MIL who was joining us on this trip arrived the night before from State College, about three hours away from us..we are just outside of Pittsburgh, and spent the night. I don't know how but Jeff and I actually got into bed at a decent time the night before. For once I had been all packed and ready and had the house all clean with nothing to do...there had to be some divine intervention there ! In the past we have flown out early in the morning and I am about through with that!!!! This time I booked us a 1:20 flight that would arrive in Orlando about 3pm. This allowed us to leisurly get on the road for the 45 minute trip to the airport. My Parents were kind enough to see us to the airport. I did not want to leave a vehicle at the airport. Parking charges at Pittsburgh International are outrageous! So, Jeff drove his Mom and the Girls in our van and I rode with my Mom & Dad in their car. With no traffic that time of the day we made great time and soon were at curbside for Southwest. Since there were 5 of us we were alloted 10 free bags to check. Hmmm, we had 12. I grabbed a small empty suitcase to wheel on and MIL grabbed her smallest case too...you just know this is going to be a thing..right?
Off through security we go. There was no line so we hotfooted up to the x rays and popped all our crap in the baskets. I'm putting the girls shoes back on and Jeff is rebelting his pants when I look back and do not see my MIL. ok where is MIL? That's right. She's been stopped by security. Seems the bag she decided to carry on was her makeup/toiletry case. MIL uses every known cosmetic and beauty product known to man and was bringing them all with her....IN THAT BAG! Sure enough, security is opening up her bag and just looks at her like ! Fortunatly for us he was very kind and went through each and every item to make sure she could carry it on. It took him awhile since everthing was in little pockets and such, oh no, not in plastic bags or 3oz containers. Thank goodness we had arrived with plenty of time. I was really hoping this didn't set the tone for the rest of the trip.
That done we headed to the gate. We purchased the preboarding since we had a Southwest credit that nearly covered it and that worked like a charm. There were no handicapped guests so we were the first ones on. We took the bulkheads..no tray tables but there's no meal so who needs 'em! Jeff and Remy sat together and I sat with Gelsey and MIL. MIL sat by the window, me on the aisle. Beside Jeff and Remy was a woman who would do well to consider the size of a plane the next time she flies in regard to the amount of perfume she wears. In addition to this I heard her ask the flight attendant for some ice in a bag to keep a dip cold. This she put up in the luggage compartment. This is a good time to tell about "The Schedule" The Schedule is two page poster sized printouts that I worked on diligenty throughout the year. Every idea I got...put it on the schedule. Something special we did not want to forget to see..put it on the schedule. Each time I talked to the Platinum planner and made a change...put it on the schedule. ADR times, limo confirmation#, etc ....all on the schedule. Weekly Jeff took this to work to update and print. It had to be printed at his office on the printer designed for very large engineering schematics. It was my masterpiece and I would put it up in the hotel room so we would all know what was planned for each day. Yeah, you know it's coming! I statr to have a little and wake up halfway throught the flight to see the scented one asking for towels. She has her dip thing back out and it's wet. I don't get it yet....I close my eyes again. Once we land she nearly knocks me over to get off the plane. Jeff and reach up to get our lone carryone and The Schedule and it's soaked and dripping! Her ice leaked all over it, and our bag! The ink was run so there was no salvaging my schedule . In a general sense I get no sympathy from "normal" people but Passport Planning freaks will understand that I'm probably going to need some therapy to get past this...worst of all was how she bolted out without so much as a ! I had to make a decision. I had to move past it in order to not hang a black cloud over my vacation. Okay, I thought, everything that was on "the Schedule" was also in my Passporter so it's not as though I didn't have the info available. Deep breath Tara, it's gonna be okay. Jeff had some sympathy and kind words and.....I let it go. Because, Hey! we're here in Orlando.
Because I wanted to not have an early am flight or try to figure out what to do on an arrival day that was half over we flew in the day before our WDW stay. I booked a room at the Hyatt at the airport that we enjoyed last trip. Got a pretty good rate of $185.00 I left MIL, Jeff and the girls in the main rotunda of the airport right in front of the hotel and went up to check us in. There was no line so in 10 minutes I was back in the elevator with key in hand. I retrieved my personals, ie: family and got a bell hop for luggage. After stowing the luggage the girls wanted to take a dip in the pool, so we headed to the 7th floor where the pool was Jeff took a swim with them. It was only in the low 70's so it was a bit brisk. The girl's of course did not care but Jeff looked a little cool! MIL set up in a chaise for what I had no idea would become constant throughout the trip... reading her book. I sat watching the girls jump in the pool until it looked like Jeff was going to freeze and called them out. We headed back to the room and got them dressed. We went down into the airport proper to have some dinner in the Chilis. Bellies full we wandered around the airport checking out stores. Jeff and I needed a new camera card and went in the camera store there where the 12 year old working there helped us. We were clueless and she tols us not to feel bad...most old people don't know anything about technology! OLD! I'm 38 and I JUST TURNED 38! Jeff will be 41 in January. But then again I have no idea about the camera so I couldn't argue! We went to the Croc store and I got a new pair of Mary Janes and got each of the girls a new pair. MIL liked the new furry crocs that have the fur that can come out, and the shoe has no holes...so she bought them each a pair. The girls looked around a little in the Disney store and we headed up to the room. We were all tired from the busy day so Jeff got the girs ready for bed and I got everyone's clothes out for the next day so we'd be all ready to go. I had scheduled the limo pickup for 9:30.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Tara

[Mom of three 1971]

Sunday November 29th
Good Morning WDW! For some reason both Jeff and I thought that was the longest night ever. Probably because neither one of us are used to actually getting 8 hours of sleep. After everyone was dressed we went down to the airport and got some breakfast. Then got our luggage and headed down to driveway of the hotel to wait for our limo. I had booked Nova limo on the advice of a passporter boards poster, (thanks Kelly!), and was a little worried since we had never used this company before. The limo pulled up at 9:01 and I was sweating worrying that it wasn't going to show. But Carlos came through and soon we shoved all our luggage into the stretch, got comfy and were on our way.
So our original trip consisted of a stay at the GF. After I booked this I sent my MIL some info on the package and the hotel for her reading pleasure. She looked it over and thought the POR looked nicer.....ummmm ok. I love the GF and this was our family trip and I wasn't budging. Then I read a trip report that turned me onto POR a little. I talked to Jeff and he said he thought MIL wanted to stay there because they lived in New Orleans when he was growing up and thats why she wanted to stay there. About the same time, I got a pin code in the mail for 40% off. Ok, I saw it as an sign. I booked a three night pre GF stay with deluxe dining. So, when Carlos picked up that's where we were headed...
up next: POR first impressions!

Tara

[jenjen1127]

Great start. Anxious to hear more.

[Cam22]

Great start! Sorry about your computer. Can't wait for more!

[B.M.]

Great start!

[Hugmonster]

Great Start looking forward to more!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Tara! Sorry about your schedule getting ruined! More please!

[lazanya]

Great start! Sorry about your schedule getting ruined. She could have at least said sorry. I too would have been very upset. But kudos to you for just letting it go.

[DawnK]

Looking forward to your trip!!

[Mom of three 1971]

November 29th Sunday

Carlos drove us over to the POR for a three night stay. It took longer than I remembered to get from the airport to WDW but maybe that was because I was anxious. The girls were chilly so they had their little blankets on and shared a soft drink from Carlos' supply. They didn't really want it...it was just the novelty of it. We really liked Carlos, he was very friendly and polite and after a horrible experience with Happy Limo last time I was relieved that everything went smooth!
We arrived at the POR about 10am and headed into to check in. What I love about WDW is everything looks fresh and clean...like it was just painted. We admired the Christmas decorations on our way in. The Christmas tree in the main lobby was particulary pretty. I CAN"T STAND not being able to post pictures on here. Hopefully soon! There was a short line of only 5 or so people in front of us so that was good! We waited about 15 minutes to be called up to a window. As we were waiting we watched this sweet young CM be harassed by not one but two customers about their rooms not being ready. It's 10am people! Check in is, what?...3pm?...4pm? Why would they expect the rooms to be ready. She maintained her composure where I would have been losing it! Sure enough, who do you think we get to check us in. I was extra sweet to her because I had just seen the abuse! While we were being checked in we hear the people beside us berating THEIR CM for the room not being ready. I say to Jeff, who was standing there with me, (MIL and the girls were watching tv in the kids area) "why are they yelling at her, she's trying to be nice and they're being ignorant" I also made a reference to check in time and the CM that was checking us in looked up. I told her I was sorry she had to go through that on what I'm sure was a daily basis. I told her to rest assured that WE didn't expect our room to be ready. She smiled at me and said thank you for understanding but that my room WAS ready! Oh how great!!!!! I think it was just good karma for being polite. She asked if we were going to our room right away and I said yes so she said she would call and have our luggage brought over to us. I had requested building 14 because I thought the location looked convenient and I requested a ground floor. That's what we got!
This was the first time I had ever come to WDW and stayed in a moderate. We have always stayed at the GF except for when I was a child when we stayed at the CR. I wasn't sure how this was going to be but I was reassured by the boards, (and one of Marnie's great trip reports), that I would probably like it!
And we did! The room was the size expected and could definately do with a little more drawer space but the closet area was good and we seemed to have enough space at the sinks. Bathroom was a little tight but it was only for three nights. Immediately the girls were fighting over who was getting the trundle . We told them they could switch off. We were not there 10 minutes when our luggage arrived. We stowed it away as best we could and I noticed something on the table. Whaaaaat???? Was that? Could it be? IT WAS!!!! The fabled bounceback that I had heard so much about I was so happy! This way I could convince Jeff to let us come back next year. I had gone through so many senarios with him in the weeks before we came down...if we got a bounceback we could do this and that, if we like the POR we could do a split stay...yada yada yada. He was sooo sick of me ! But there it was! So it was 35% moderate and 40% deluxe! woooohoooo. More on that later!
We were all starting to get a little . I had lunch ADRs over at DTD at Wolfgang Puck's so we decided to make our way over. This is a new restaurant for us. We had only done the counter Puck's before. We took our time looking around on our way over to get the boat. I couldn't get the smile off my face! Looking aroun the POR was very relaxing. The hotel was just beautiful and according to Jeff, who along with MIL, had lived in Louisianna for awhile, was very authentic. We checked out the Old Man Island pool and then hopped on the boat. The boat ride over was lovely. It was a beautiful day and I loved seeing the hotel all spread out along the banks of the river. I thought the mansion building were beautiful but too remote for us. As we approached DTD I got a little teary! I had been away too long! We got off and started the long hoof down to WP's. We probably should have got on the DTD water taxis but, oh well! The girls had been talking about the candy store for months. That was the first thing they wanted to do. I promised them that right after lunch we could go there.
We arrived at WPs about 10 minutes before our ADR. We were seated immediately. I have to find my receipt so I can tell you our servers name, (didn't bring my PP with me to work tonight and all my receipts are in there), because she was just great. The girls were having a great time coloring as our server went over what we could have on the deluxe dining plan. ARGHHHHH I want topost my food photos!
What we ordered:

Gelsey: Tic Tac Toe pizza and smiley faced fries
Remy: Spaghetti -plain no sauceor butter but parmesan on the side and mashed potatoes.
---yes they are carb loving girls!
Jeff: Tortilla soup, Macademia Nut Crusted Chicken Breast
Tara: Crab Cakes, Marherita wood fired pizza
MIL: Beef Satay Skewars, Meatloaf
and something amazing happened......The girls actually ATE !!!! The girls never eat! It's such a chore at home to get them to eat ans they are sooooo picky! I had decided before we came down that I was just going to let them eat what they wanted and not fuss because why should I ruin the trip fighting with them about food, right? But here they were going on and on about how good the food was and they loved the resaturant and it was cool to look out over the water and they actually let us all eat! Well, I did have to take them to the bathroom...twice but this is typical! Disney really needs a family bathroom in every restaurant, that way I don't ALWAYS have to be the one taking them.
We were all very pleased with my food. My crab cakes were particularly good. It comes with three little cakes. I gave Jeff a cake and asked MIL is she wanted a bite and she reaches over and takes a whole cake ummmm, ok now I just have one. I actually hoped they weren't good,but ohhhh they were and I only had one little one now! I did taste one of the satays and they were pretty good too. The were four to the order. Again I apologize for not being able to post the pics. I did take pictures of ALL our food too, particularly for my Dad who pored over all the menus just to tell me what to get! My pizza was fantastic and Jeff and Ann both enjoyed their entrees as well. They were HUGE! MIL ate very little and that was the beginning of her complaining about eating. "Thank God we are walking around after this, how often are we going to eat like this, this is too much food yada yada yada" Sigh! Now a little background....Jeff and I have been on diets since June. I have lost just shy of 100 lbs...yes I did say ONE HUNDRED no typo. Jeff has lost 60lbs. We have worke hard and have been really looking forward to going off our diets and enjoying eating whatever we want and I really did not want to hear all about exercise and eating too much or anything of the sort. We would be going back on our diets after we came back so this was our chance to enjoy it. But, I digress. I had the yummy Key Lime Pie and Jeff had a chocolate cheesecake. MIL had some sort of fresh berries with cream in a big martini glass that looked really good...she ate about 1/3 but said it was yummy.
We did keep track of all our receipts so we could see if we came out ahead though it was mostly for when we are on the platinum plan portion of our trip. but, alas I don't have my pp with me. I'll try to remember to edit it tomorrow in case anyone is interested. After lunch we walked around DTD.
Up next: Doin' DTD Stay Tuned

Tara

[B.M.]

Great start!
Ya'll arrived on the day we departed
Sounds like a wonderful meal!
I also went off my diet during Disney, (and am having a little trouble returning to it since we have returned).
Looking forward to more updates.......

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Tara! Glad you enjoyed POR and had a great meal at WP! Congrats on the weightloss as well!

[debrabrown]

I have GOT to try POR next - is that the old Dixie Landings? Anyway, yes, dinner at WP is sooo good, isn;t it? Glad you had a yummy meal!

[a&as mama]

It sounds like a great trip so far and I agree with having a family bathroom available. I have two girls also and I never get to eat a whole meal out without some bathroom runs. Can't wait to read more.

[Cam22]

Great update, Tara! Glad you all were please with POR! And dinner at Wolfgang Puck's sounds so delicious. We haven't tried this one yet, but I think we are going to have to.