A Very Merry Surprise ~ The TR (11/4/11 - 11/12/11) About This Page:

[Dlandmom2]

I've only done the drive down I95 once...and that was many years ago, but I still remember all those silly billboards leading up to it. I really wish I had stopped and taken a picture just for laughs. Your girls are amazing to have lasted that long of a drive!

[MayraLR]

Glad the drive down was a breeze!

[ilovedisney247]

Wow! That's a pretty long drive for one day--glad everyone was happy and occupied through the whole thing! I have fond memories of a I95 road trip to SC with my parents. My mother made it from Paramus NJ to DC in 3 hours. After that she was forever relieved of long distance driving duties!

[JKnott17]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Great start and great reveal!

Originally Posted by lazanya

Glad the reveal went well! more please

Coming right up!

Originally Posted by Dlandmom2

I've only done the drive down I95 once...and that was many years ago, but I still remember all those silly billboards leading up to it. I really wish I had stopped and taken a picture just for laughs. Your girls are amazing to have lasted that long of a drive!

South of the Border is a ghost town, any time we've stopped there no one is around! And they've changed the signs and removed most of them. I remember from my childhood trips they would start right around the time you entered North Carolina and tons of them would pop up the closer you got to the SC border. My sister and I would look forward to those signs, having contests to see who could spot the most. Now there's hardly any signs

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Glad the drive down was a breeze!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Wow! That's a pretty long drive for one day--glad everyone was happy and occupied through the whole thing! I have fond memories of a I95 road trip to SC with my parents. My mother made it from Paramus NJ to DC in 3 hours. After that she was forever relieved of long distance driving duties!

Wow, 3 hours from Paramus, that is amazing!!

[JKnott17]

Day 2, Part 1 - Saturday 11/5/11 - Are We There Yet?


Our alarm was set for 7 this morning, but I woke up a little before it went off, around 6:45. Instead of lying back down, I decided to just get up and get myself in the shower. I was not feeling great at this point, a little nauseous and just really dragging. I was really hoping it was because I was hungry and just overtired from the trip so far, and that I wasn't coming down with something. Chris and the girls were up shortly after me, I think we were all dressed, packed up and out of the room by 7:45. We headed down to the lobby to check out and grab something to eat from the free breakfast they offered.

Breakfast was not much to write home about, but it was quick and filled our empty bellies. I had some OJ, coffee and a bagel, while the girls both had some oatmeal and yogurt. Chris first tried one of the microwaveable breakfast sandwiches, but after one bite decided that oatmeal would be a better choice . Thankfully, the food is just what I needed, I was feeling much better after breakfast. Chris and the girls cleaned up our table while I grabbed another cup of coffee to go, and after a quick stop in the restroom we were on the road again at 8:30.

It was rather dreary out this morning, cloudy and very cool with temps in the low 50s, so we were really looking forward to getting to Orlando where the forecast was sunny and mid 70s for the day. As we continued south, the weather began to break soemtime around 10 and we finally got to see some sun! The temps were still a little cool, but at least it was sunny.

The ride that morning was very uneventful, there was no traffic and we made it to Orlando in just over 3 hours. We were even able to stop at Publix for some groceries, finally arriving at our resort just before noon. Sadly the sun we saw just a couple of hours earlier did not last ( I guess the weather forecast was wrong today!), it was windy and chilly when we arrived, but it didn't matter we were just happy to finally be there! I stayed in the car with the girls while Chris went inside to check us in. Now, if you remember from my PTR, the Harbour Lake is part of the Marriott Vacation Club, and is my Aunt Lorraine's home resort. She booked us this stay as her "guests" and that's how it was notated on our confirmation. I guess the woman who checked Chris in did not notice that as she welcomed him "home" and gave him a packet that contained several items that are perks for resort owners. Of course he didn't correct her and just took it with a big thank you . Nothing major, but still a nice surprise. We got a free gift (a reusable shopping bag with the Marriott logo), a coupon for a free 5x7 family photo (which we never actually got around to using) and a pass to the onsite mini golf that was good for our entire length of stay. I guess they don't really pay attention to the confirmation sheets as the same thing happened to my Dad last year when my Aunt booked him a guest rate as well . Check in went smoothly, but our room was not quite ready. Being assured that we would get a phone call on Chris' cell when it was, we decided to go check out some of the grounds and grab a bite to eat at the poolside restaurant.

Here are some pics of the grounds. The main buildings are all decorated in a "Key West" style according the resort's website.


The main building, which houses the lobby:




Another side of the main building, this part houses a tv room/lounge area:



Kaeli and Abby both balked at the idea of lunch when we passed by the giant pirate ship play area of the pool, but their hunger won out and we were soon seated at a table in the covered area they had by the bar. Lunch was very good to say the least. I tried the fish tacos, which were filled with seared tilapia that tossed in a delicious sweet chili sauce and topped with cabbage slaw. To drink I had a Shocktop Pumpkin Wheat Ale, I mean we are on vacation after all . Chris went with the Captain's Burger, which is topped with bacon and cheddar cheese. He went the boring route with a diet coke to drink. Abby had the children's mac & cheese with fruit, while Kaeli chose the chicken tenders and fries.

After lunch Kaeli and Abby wanted to go into the game room so that's what we did. It was quite small, but they both had a ball playing the different arcade games that they had. Most of them did give out tickets and there was a vending machine that was set up to count your tickets and dispense you a prize chosen based on the amount of tickets you had, so they were happy with that.

From here we went to take a look at the area near the waterslide pool. Over here they have a small pavillion that houses ping pong and pool tables, some picnic tables and barbecue grills. There are also a couple of basketball courts, a playground and the mini golf course. It was too chilly for swimming, but Kaeli and Abby had some fun running off some energy in the playground and then playing some basketball with Chris.

Some of the barbecue grills:


A seating area around the firepit, lit nightly for smores and a singalong:














It was probably around 2 pm at this point and I was thinking that our room should be ready soon, but no phone call yet. So, we decided to use our pass and try a round of mini golf. It's a great little course, and keeping with the pirate theme of the resort, it is setup like a pirate shipwreck. We only kept track of Chris' and my score and he beat me by one! Have I told you that I hate when he wins?? Ugh, oh well, we still had fun!










Now at this point it was 3 pm and still no phone call about our room. We were heading over to Fort Wilderness tonight, and we needed to leave by 5 pm to make it to our ADR. I still needed to shower and change before we left, so I asked Chris to run over to the lobby to check on the room. He walked in and spoke to the man at the desk, he checked the computer and was handing Chris our room keys in minutes. I'm not sure why we didn't get a phone call letting us know the room was ready, but nothing we can do about it now. As we were walking away I remembered that we needed to get the stroller that Orlando Stroller Rentals was supposed to have dropped off for us that morning, so I sent Chris back in to ask about it. They told him that it was not there. What? It was supposed to have been dropped off at 10 am! We headed up to the room so that I could look for the confirmation sheet that I had printed when I rented the stroller so that I could call Orlando Stroller Rentals. As I was looking through our bags there was a knock at the door. Apparently, when the stroller was dropped off it wasn't logged into the system, which is why they told us it wasn't there. Thankfully the man who helped us went into the back to check and found the stroller, he delivered it himself to our room and apologized for the misunderstanding. No biggie, we thanked him and he was on his way. Phew, crisis averted!

Now that I didn't need to worry about the stroller, I took some time to explore our room. We were in a different building than we've usually had, away from the pool. But that was ok, as we had a newly renovated room with a lovely view of the lake behind the resort.













Master Bedroom:


Master Bathroom:


Behind the door was a small room with a toilet, I thought I'd spare you a pic of that My only complaint about the master bathroom was that there was no curtain or door separating the shower/sink area from the sleeping area. The shower doors were made of clear glass, not the frosted kind, so I felt like I was on display when taking a shower. I know it's just my husband in the room with me, but sometimes it's nice to have just a little privacy, even if it is just a curtain seprating the rooms.



Second Bedroom:


Second Bathroom:


The screened in balcony:


Our view: (Sorry, it was so hard to get a good pic through the screen)


In room laundry, what a lifesaver!





After some exploration we all showered and got dressed for our evening at Fort Wilderness, we were ready and heading out the door by 5:10. Will this give us enough time to make it to our 5:50 ADR at the Trails End Buffet?



Up Next: We're going to be late ...

[chezp]

Wow, that looks like an amazing place!

[valegirl5292]

Great start, the resort looks lovely and can't wait to hear about Trails End we are heading there for the first time next month.

[lauriep]

What a beautiful resort!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great room!

[JKnott17]

Originally Posted by chezp

Wow, that looks like an amazing place!

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a beautiful resort!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

What a great room!

This is our third time staying here and we really enjoy it. It might not be filled with Disney magic, but it's got magic all its own

Originally Posted by valegirl5292

Great start, the resort looks lovely and can't wait to hear about Trails End we are heading there for the first time next month.

Thanks! I'm working on the next part of my report and should have an update with a full review of our dinner at the Trails end in the next few days

[ilovedisney247]

Beautiful Room! Hope you had a great first evening!

[guerns17]

Your room was beautiful. I really love the porch area...how nice!! Can't wait to hear more

[JKnott17]

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Beautiful Room! Hope you had a great first evening!

We did! Details coming up soon

Originally Posted by guerns17

Your room was beautiful. I really love the porch area...how nice!! Can't wait to hear more

Thanks! The screened in porch is one of my favorite parts of the room too. It was nice to sit out there in the morning sipping my coffee, and at night to unwind in the cool air after a long day at the parks. The screens are great since you don't have to worry about bugs and other critters

[JKnott17]

Day 2, Part 1 - Saturday 11/5/11 - We're Going to be Late!


OK, so we left off with us leaving to get to our 5:50 ADR over at the Trails End Buffet. It was about 5:10, and I was a little worried that we would be late, since we still needed to get to Fort Wilderness, park and hop on a bus out to the Settlement area. We left our resort and got on the highway, a couple of exits later we were finally through those magical gates!



Now here's where things went a little downhill . Our GPS told us that we had a right hand exit coming up, and Chris immediately took the exit we were at even though it clearly showed that we had a little ways to go to get to the correct turn off. Not a big deal, but somehow when turning around we ended up getting back onto the main road, heading in the WRONG direction . A couple of minutes later we were passing under the exit gates, heading out of WDW. Oops! We passed the exit for Rt 4, and we had to go about 5 minutes down the road until we could turn around. Now I was positive that we would be late, but hey, atleast we were finally heading in the right direction! We did get to see where the Nickelodeon Hotel was located, I had no idea it was so close to WDW. With another pass through those magic gates, we were on our way. Chris of course blamed the GPS, even though it was clearly him that made the mistake .

We arrived at Fort Wilderness with no other problems, parked and headed over to the the bus stop to wait for a ride to the Settlement area. It was about 5:40 at this point, but we didn't have to wait long for a bus. Within minutes we were pulling up to the Settlement and we quickly walked over to the restaurant, arriving just a couple of minutes late. There were a lot of people mulling around the porch outside of the Trails End and I was worried that we were going to have a wait ahead of us. I got on line to check in, there was one family ahead of me already. They were a large group, I think 10, and they did not have a reservation. The hostess told them that they would have a wait since they were such a large group, well, that was not the answer this woman wanted to hear. She wanted to be seated . Someone from their group had called in the morning to see if a reservation was necessary, and they were told no. The woman just kept repeating that to the hostess, and you could tell that the hostess wanted to do something to help the group out, it was just not possible at the moment. Finally the woman accepted that they would have to wait, took her pager and sat down. My thought was, if you took the time to call the restaurant you should have made a reservation even if they said it wasn't necessary. Better to be safe than sorry, especially with a large group. Most importantly, don't take your frustrations out on the hostess when clearly this situation was not her fault

My check in went much smoother, we were all set and I was handed my pager within minutes. I met back up with Chris and the girls to wait for our pager to go off. Kaeli and Abby had spotted the playground, so Chris took them over to play while we waited. They didn't get much playing time in as our pager was blinking after about 5 minutes. We were seated at a table in the back righthand corner of the restaurant, near a small game room. Our server (who's name escapes me) was qucikly at our table, he made note of the allergy listed on our reservation and took our drink orders. Chris and I both got unsweetened iced teas with lemon, while the girls both got chocolate milk. Kaeli and Abby both liked that the drinks were served in mason jars, I though it was pretty cool myself. We had to wait quite a while for the chef to come out to speak to us about Kaeli's peanut allergy, but the server was very apologetic. I guess the HDDR and Trails End share the same chef and at the moment he was over there dealing with the dietary needs of guests of the show. Soon enough he made it to our table and went through each and every item on the buffet with us. The only items that we off limits were the breads and desserts, he assured us that everything else would be safe. The chef was very friendly and happy to help us, and we really appreciated him taking the time to do so !

After we thanked the chef, we made our way over to the buffet, we were all very hungry ! The food was tasty, and I'm sorry but I didn't get any pics. I completely forgot! Anyway, I started out with some caesar salad and the peel and eat shrimp. The salad was good, and I was surprised to find that the croutons were made from cornbread. It was a nice surprise, I love the combo of sweet and savory. The shrimp was tasty, its just a pain to have to peel them all before eating. Next up, I tried some of the fried chicken, which was very flavorful and tender, but soggy. I would have been much happier if it had a crisp and crunchy skin. I also grabbed a baked potato which I loaded up with toppings from the fixins bar and some mixed veggies.

I have no idea what Chris ate right now, but I know he made several trips up to the buffet and had no complaints. The girls basically ate the same things, they loved the pasta bar and had several servings of pasta, pizza and mixed veggies. We all skipped dessert since we were all quite full and still had smores to look forward to later in the evening . Overall, I think we all enjoyed our meal here this evening, but I'm not sure that I would go out of my way to eat here again. It worked tonight since we were heading to Fort Wilderness anyway for the campfire and movie, but I would not make a special trip over just for the buffet which I would give an average rating, nothing special to write home about.

We left the restaurant and had to fight our way through the crowds outside that were gathering for the next showing of the HDDR, but we made it to the bus stop and with a short wait we were boarding a bus to take us down to the Meadow recreation area for the Chip and Dale campfire. The fires were already lit when we arrived and there were a good amount of people there already. We had no problems finding a good spot on one of the wooden benches in the seating area though, I sat down and started getting our smores together while Chris took the girls over to meet Chip and Dale.





It's a good idea to get there early if you want to meet both Chip and Dale together. Later on after the singalong is over there is an opportunity to meet them, but they split up with Chip going to one half of the crowd while Dale goes to the other, they do not stay together.

On the way back, Chris stopped at the Chuckwagon to pick up some roasting sticks (I think they were 75 cents each, totally worth it!) so that we could get our marshmallows roasted for our smores. If you plan on visiting the campfire, I would recommend bringing your own marshmallows (and chocolate & grahams if you want smores) because the kits they sell at the Chuckwagon are quite expensive IMHO. I think they were $5 or more, for just a couple of marshmallows, a small Hersey bar and a small package of graham crackers. For about the same amount of money we were able to pick up enough ingredients to make smores for all four of us from the grocery store, and we even had enought to share with some of our neighbors .





Notice how white and not at all browned Kaeli's marshmallow is? I don't think that girl has ever actually tasted a toasted marshmallow, lol. She is so worried about it catching on fire, and too stubborn to let anyone help her out, that she never gives them a chance to get all toasty. If you watch her around the fire, you notice that everyone else has their sticks close to the fire while she is holding hers practically straight up in the air, probably as far away from the flames as possible .



After we finished our yummy dessert , we settled in on our bench to wait for the singalong to start, around 8 pm Chip and Dale made their way to the stage with our song leader for the evening. The singalong was cute, full of lots of old favorites and lots of cheesy jokes. Kaeli and Abby had a ball singing along and dancing to the Hokey Pokey, Home on the Range, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse March, among others. I tried to get some of it on video to share, but it is just so dark over there that it didn't come out well at all. Sorry! After the singing was done, Chip and Dale made their way down into the crowd for a little meet and greet, splitting up like I mentioned before. The handlers made an announcement asking everyone to stay in their seats, that Chip and Dale will come to us, but of course there were plenty of people who did not listen and tried to bum rush them as they left the stage . Finally the handlers got everyone to return to their seats and Chip and Dale started making their rounds. They don't do autographs here, only pictures , and it is a little rushed since there are so many people they need to get too. If you have someone in your party who is really looking to meet Chip and Dale, I wouldn't save this as your only opportunity since they won't get much attention here. We got our turn and met with Dale, who was of course as cute as can be .



While Dale moved on to greet other guests we sat down to get comfortable while we waited for the movie to start. Tonight they were showing Cars 2 which Kaeli and Abby were both looking forward to since they had never seen it before. Unfortunately there were some technical difficulties and instead of starting at 8:40 like scheduled, the movie did not start until after 9 . We didn't get to watch much before calling it a night around 9:30. The girls were both lookig tired, and quite honestly so were Chris and I . It had been a long day, and we had an early morning ahead of us. We really enjoyed our time at the campfire tonight even though we didn't get to watch the whole movie. It was a great way to get a Disney fix on our first night, without having to go to a park. The best part, it's 100% FREE!!! I quickly packed up our things and we made our way over to the bus stop, stopping at a few of the campsites that had their holiday decorations up along the way. Some of those campers really go all out!


We were the only family at the bus stop and when we got there poor Abby had a breakdown . As soon as we got under the shelter,she started crying for what I thought was no reason. It took a few minutes to get her calmed down, and for me to find out that she was worried that we had missed the bus. A little background, Abby is what I call my "what if" girl. The poor girl is always worrying about things that her 5 year old mind shouldn't have too, and she's constantly asking "what if this?" and "what if that" in all kinds of situations . I guess since it was late and we were the only ones at the bus stop, she thought we had missed the bus and would be stuck here tonight . Chris and I assured her that we did not miss the bus, and that there would be one along to pick us up shortly, she eventually calmed down and we were on a bus to the Outpost after a short wait. We made it back to our car and we were "home" by 10:30. The girls were both asleep about 10 minutes later , while I took some time to finish unpacking our things and write up some notes about the day. Lights were out for Chris and I by 11:30. Thank goodness it was time to turn the clocks back tonight, I was so tired and really could use that extra hour of sleep!


Favorites of the Day:

Me - Finally arriving in Orlando after a long drive
Chris - Mini golf
Kaeli - Mini golf and smores
Abby - The singalong at the campfire


Up Next: A Good Morning and Breakfast with some Friends

[lauriep]

I'm impressed that your condo is so close to WDW. Even with the wrong turn you made it to Ft Wilderness really fast! The campfire sounds like a lot of fun. Very sweet photos of your girls with the chipmunks.