We are back from our trip. It's been a few weeks, so I will be consulting my notes for this report. It's not that it wasn't memorable, there are just so many memories that they seem to jumble together!
The party included me, my husband and our children. Two DD's ages 9 and 14, and our DS age 2. This was our second trip to Disney World. Our trip started off very well, though it was slightly raining when we left. We didn't make reservations at the car lot, and almost had to find parking at the air port. ( I didn't know you had to - or could make reservations for parking!
) Luckily, the man in charge saw our little guy in the car seat, and let us park there. Apparantly, he has a soft spot for babies. =) (He made sure that we knew the only reason he let us in, was because our son was with us)
We flew on Air Tran, and had no problems or delays on our trip down. The Magical Express check in moved very quickly, and before we knew it we were on our way to the resort! Our driver was hysterical. The poor man was losing his voice, but still had to make the usual announcements on the intercom. His first statment was "Hello, I'm your driver voiceless Dave". He was adorable. We stayed at Port Orleans, French Quarter and had the fastest check in of any trip we have ever taken. Our room was clean and the decor was pretty. We got a second floor corner room, the view was standard.
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Everything moved so quickly that we were way ahead of "schedule". This meant that our dinner reservations were a long way off. So, we headed to the Magic Kingdom to kill some time before dinner. Our reservations were at The Plaza Restaurant, in MK. We got there and we checked out the Enchanted Tiki Room and then we went on the Jungle Cruise.We then wandered around Main St. checking out the stores. It was lightly raining, so we were trying to do some indoor activities.
There was a wait at the restaurant, so we signed in at the podium outside. We were starving, so we picked up some popcorn and waited for our table to open up. After about 20 minutes of waiting and watching, we asked how much longer for our table. The woman at the podium forgot to log us in as being there, and we had to wait longer. We finally got our seat after another half an hour of being in the rain. We won't go to the Plaza again, it was just way too loud, I couldn't hear my husband who was sitting next to me. The food was OK, nothing to brag about.
After that, we watched the beginning of the Spectro Magic parade, and it was very pretty. Our little guy nearly jumped out of the stroller when Ariel's float came by. He kept waving and yelling Hi!, it was really sweet, because he thought she was smiling and waving just for him.
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Day 2:
We started out the day at Animal Kingdom. We walked all around and checked out the animals, the we went on the Kilimanjaro Safari. There weren't many animals out, but we did get to see the baby giraffe. There were a lot of ooohs and aaahs, when
we spotted him... so cute! When we finished the safari ride we walked the trail ,by the end we were starving so we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Our little guy was terrified when the "storms" started up. The "animals" were way to scary for him. We ate quickly and got the heck out of there!
At that point we headed back to the resort for a rest. The girls wanted to check out the arcade, so off we went. The pool was way too crowded, so this was another alternative. After a short time, we headed back out.
This time to Epcot. The first thing we did was ride Journey Into Your Imagination with Figment. We enjoyed it last year, and it was cute this time around too. The only thing was that we didn't have any suprises like we did last year. However, we
loved watching the expressions on the faces of the ladies in the "car" in front of us , when the big suprise happens (I won't ruin it for those who haven't gone on this attraction) We had dinner at the Garden Grill, which was very good. It was all you care to eat and even the kids liked it. The characters kept coming around during dinner, and we got some really cute pictures. Chip and Dale had our little guy in stitches, and watching that had the rest of us laughing our heads off.
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Day 3 :
Today began at the Magic Kingdom. First we visited Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we rode Alladins Magic Carpets for the first time. The view from up there is great! In Frontier land we watched Woody's Cowboy Parade, and DD9 was chosen to
take part. Lastly, we took a ride on the Liberty Bell. It was interesting to see MK from a different perspective. We had lunch reservations at the Crystal Palace. This place was packed! We only waited a short while, but it was hot out! Luckily we got a seat on the "porch" and there was water available. The food was pretty good, and though it was noisy, it wasn't unbearable (like The Plaza). The characters came around pretty quickly, and the kids had fun in the parade. We did get rushed a bit at the end of the meal, but we told them we were waiting for Eyore and they left us alone. I must say that even though they were trying to move us along, it wasn't in a way that upset us, or made us feel like we weren't being treated well.
We went back to the resort and the girls hit the pool. My DH went with them and I stayed at the room with our little guy, who had fallen fast asleep. They didn't stay long because it was so crowded AND there was a Dad tossing ice cubes from his drink into the pool, so his kids could retrieve them. That was a turn off, right there. So they headed back to the room.
When everyone got back from the pool we got ourselves ready to go to DTD. We took the river boat over and it was very pleasant. Once we got there we checked out the shops and bought some pins for trading. Then we had dinner at the Earl of Sandwich, and it was pretty good.
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UPDATE
It's been a while since I posted this trip report. Sorry that I didn't update sooner. I lost my father shortly before this
trip. We were going to call it off, but my husband thought it would be a good thing for me to go. The planning and everything
took my mind off a lot of the painful thoughts I was having, but once we came back and everything settled down, it really
hit me hard. I thought it was bad before the trip, but it was much worse once we got back. I have slightly recovered, and
I thought it might be a good time to finish my trip report. So, here it goes.
Day 4 :
Today we had luch reservations at the Coral Reef, so we figured we would begin our day at Epcot. We visited Spaceship Earth,
which we didn't get to do last trip. They were updating the ride at that time. It was pretty interesting for everyone
in our group. We finally got to experience Ellen's Engery Adventure, and it was great. I love Bill Nye, so that was a perk.
We also checked out Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Our little guy did not like this show, and my girls were freaked out when
the "mice" escape. (So was I, but don't tell anyone. OK?) We also went on Mission Space, which was a lot of fun for all of
us. We all took the side that was not as bouncy, I think it was the green team? We also went to the Charactor Spot and
got pictures taken with our Disney favorites.
Lunch was really nice. There was a short wait, and we played hot potato with the buzzer while we waited. SOme of the other
folks waiting watched us and looked like they thought we were crazy. They didn't have three ravenous kids to entertain
while they waited though. Our waitress was very nice, and set us up in a big booth. The kids had a great time watching the
fish, and there was one particular turtle that would come down and sit right at the glass and watch the people at those
tables. He (or she) made an appearance at each table. The kids loved that. The food was very good there and the atmosphere
was great.
Once we finished lunch, we headed back to the resort. We had a rest and then we took the boat ride over to Port Orleans
Riverside. We liked the amenities on Riveside much better than on the French Quarter side. We had dinner at the food court on
Riverside, and then took the boat back to our section.
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Day 5 :
Today we had breakfast reservations at the Polynesian Resort. We had to do O'hana again, because we had such a nice
time the year before. It was just as nice as we remembered. The breakfast was really good, and the charactors were funny. The
kids participated in the parade, and had a great time.
Once we finished up at the Polynesian we headed over to Hollywood Studios. Last year this was our least favorite park, but I
wanted to see if we could get on Toy Story - Midway Mania, and the Rockin' Roller Coaster was closed for refurbishment last
trip. So we grabbed fast passes for Toy Story and realized that the wait was very short, so we rode it right away and then
came back when our fast pass time arrived and rode it again. It was a lot of fun, and everyone agreed it was one of our
favorite attractions overall. Our dd9 was chosen for Jedi training which was very exciting for her (and us Star Wars fanatics)
We got some great photos from the fast pass photographers of her in her "training exercises".
We had lunch at Toy Story Pizza Palace, and that place was crowded! We had to wait for a table, but we got one pretty
quickly. There are tables outside, but it was too hot for our little guy out there at that time of the day. So, we could
have gotten a table faster, if we wanted to go outside. The kids played around with the claw games and won a little bear
for ds2, which he LOVED. The pizza was just ok, but we weren't looking for gourmet, just a quick bite. Still, we each got
a personal pizza, a salad and a drink (oh and a cookie). This was all covered on the dining plan.
We also checked out the Narnia display, which was ok. We got a photo taken with "Prince Caspian" and he was very pleasant.
He made the kids day when he played along with them.
That was it for the day. We were completely spent. Dinner was at our food court in French Quarter, and we passed out in our
room until the next day.
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Day 6 :
Our first stop today was Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. We had breakfast reservations, and we were starving when
we got there. We had a short wait, but they take your picture beforehand and that occupies you for a few minutes. One of
the waitstaff took another photo of us while we waited for our table. So, we got another family shot, which was nice.
This was a buffet, and it was nice. The food was ok, not spectacular but we ate enough and our waitress was very nice.
There was a kind of dance party in the middle of everything, and the kids (except dd14) enjoyed it. We were rushed a bit,
once the last charactor came by, but we were finished by then, so it didn't other us.
Next we hopped on the monorail and headed to Epcot. We were a little early, so we just took some photos near the
Canadian pavillion. Once they let us in, we went around the World Showcase, and took lots of photos in each pavillion. We had
lunch in the American World Showcase, which was turkey legs for everyone.
We rode Maelstrom, and hid our ds' eyes when we knew the troll was about to emerge. That was a nice way to cool off for a bit.
We also went on the Three Cabiero's ride in the Mexican Pavillion, which is one of my favorite spots.
Once again, we had dinner at our resort and we tried the beignets for the first time. They were delicious! They had just
changed the cooking oil so we had to wait a while for them to cook, but it was worth it. We got the first batch from the new
oil, which is always a good thing if your going to do deep fried.
Then we went back to our room to start packing some of our things because we would be leaving in 2 days, but would not have
much time the next day. Then we passed out for the night.
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Day 7:
Today we had breakfast in our room, which we did every morning except for the 2 days we had reservations. We headed out to
Animal Kingdom, and we went to Dinoland. We played some games and a super nice lady who beat us at the water gun game gave
her prize to our little guy. We thanked her repeatedly,and she seemed really happy to have done something nice. The Disney
magic is not restricted to cast members, we can all help put a little pixie dust in someones day. Then we rode the Dinosaur
ride, which knocked us silly. We will not be doing that ride ever again! Then I rode Mt Everest Adventure with my dd14. I
missed out last year, so she rode with me. Then we headed out of the park.
We went back to the resort to change clothes for MNSSH party. As we were leaving the resort a lot of people were staring, but
we didn't care. We had dinner reservations at Grand Floridian Cafe. The GF was really beautiful and the photos we took did
not do it justice. Once inside we were seated, and I have to say this was the second worse place that we ate at. (the Plaza
was our worst exp). Our server was not very nice and seemed like she would rather be somewhere else. The rest of the staff
members were extremely nice, and moved around the tables to chat and ask if everything was ok. Maybe our server was having
a bad day, but she was the worst we had in either trip to Disney. The food was very salty, and we just were not happy with
the meal in general. Maybe we just went there on the wrong day, but we will not go back.
After dinner, we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. The mood there was great. The cast members had on special costumes
in Halloween colors, and everything was even more "Halloweenish" than it was during the rest of the week, even though it
was decked out for Halloween. There was trick or treating and a special stage show, plus Halloween themed fireworks.
The kids had a great time, and so did dh and I. While we were there, we rode Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin, because
there was no line at all. Once we did that, we headed back to the resort.
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Day 8:
Time to go home. Our flight was not until nearly 5 pm, so we packed up the last of our stuff, and checked it all with
the magical express staff. Then we headed over to Hollywood Studios. We just ran all over the park and checked out the
shops. We were just there to kill some time, so after a short time we headed back to the resort. We hopped on the Magical
Express and arrived at the airport. Our flight was delayed due to bad weather at home, so we hung around and got something
to eat. We wound up getting permission to take off earlier than expected, so we rushed on board and got home not much later
than expected.
This was a great trip. We all enjoyed it very much. Most likely, we will not be going back next year, but we do plan to go
back when our little guy is a bit older. We're hoping to do it around Christmas time. We will see!
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