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Hi all!
Welcome to my short Disney World vacation trip report.
This is part of a 3 part trip report and actually the third part I am writing. I started with the last portion first, which was a Disney cruise with a day and ½ of Disney World at the end. Then I did the Universal Studios part, which was the first segment. This is the middle segment with just a few days at Disney World pre-cruise.
For those that read those, you now fill in the rest of the gaps!.
To get things started I will start with a mini intro.
For those that don’t know me, I am Jennifer, or as many of my friends call me, Jen! I like to travel, I like to take pictures and then I usually like to write about my adventures. I do that for 2 reasons. Number one is that I hope it helps others in their planning. I tell the good and the bad and even though my experience isn’t what others may find or even like, I hope to at least give people a little taste of things. I secondly write these for my own personal reasons. I tend to post this on a couple of message boards as well as my blog. If I want to go back and remember my trip, I can just go and read it. Or if there is something I can’t remember in a few years, like why I didn’t like this, or what made that so special, I can go and reread about it.
Of course even when I write it down now, I still can’t remember everything, but the pictures tend to jog my memory and I usually have it pretty close to how it happened.
I am a Mom to 3, but many of you who have read my past reports probably only know my youngest, Claire. Claire is 11 now…boy time flies. My other 2 are just as special but they are adults and rarely travel with me now so they just are not in my traveling reports.
I am also a grandmother now. Yes…I know…I am WAY too young to be a grandmother. I know, I know….you make me blush with all your compliments! But yes I am! And little Gracie is now 20 months old and just as cute as can be
I am also married and if you have read my past reports you have probably seen Skip make appearances. He isn’t always a fan of traveling, and he is even less of a fan of me traveling without him, but sometimes I just have to go and he gripes a bit at first and then makes peace with it.
This trip was actually a work related trip. Back in Oct. of 2014, 2 of my co-workers and I were chatting like we do daily on facebook, and my co-worker Brook mentioned great cruise rates for Feb 2016. Wow! Of course, Deb and I go and take a look and there were several short sailings that were reasonable. We had been talking about doing a work related cruise for some time now, but no one was ever pulling the trigger. They elected me to post about it on our private business page to see if anyone would bite….and bite they did. Soon we were all talking about cruising and then it came down to picking a date and a ship. It was between the Dream and the Magic. I have been on both ships, twice each. I was game for either really. Some wanted one over the other, some it was more about price and in the end we priced out a few sailings and basically went with the cheapest option, which was on the Magic on Feb. 7, 2016.
It’s a long story, but in the beginning we decided to add days to the trip either pre or post. We talked about Disney World, Universal and Sea World. Some could go earlier and some preferred after the cruise. In the end a few days precruise at WDW was decided on for most.
I had 2 roommates for the Disney World and Disney cruise portion of the trip, Cass and Brook. I have roomed with both before and I like both as roommates.
Cass and I both really wanted to do Universal though. So did a few other girls.
In the end Cass was coming down several days earlier than I, so she was going to do 3 days at WDW and then move over to Universal the day before I was to arrive. We decided that on my arrival day (and her Universal arrival day the day before) we would like to stay at Cabana Bay. It’s still a new resort and it looked so cute. We decided the next morning we would move to Hard Rock Hotel so we would have express pass access for the parks.
After that portion we were moving to Disney World and we got a GREAT deal on the Polynesian. None of us had ever stayed there before and we kept throwing around ideas and for the price…divided by 3…we just knew this was the best chance for us to stay at this resort. Cass and I were arriving on Feb. 4 and Brook was joining us on Feb. 5.
Several of my co-workers had arrived early, but the official “work” trip where we had activities planned with all started on the 5th. Like I said, several had arrived earlier and I had already done some “work” stuff with them, but as a whole, our first meeting was scheduled for the evening of the 5th. Many were arriving on the 5th and a few sadly were getting in too late to meet up with us for the first meeting. We kept that light and more of a get to know each other event.
Join me as I relive this Disney vacation….there were a lot of laughs and good times during those few days and we made memories to last a lifetime.
Great start Jen! I so hear you about the reasons why you write trip reports, I've got the same reasons. I've lost count of the amount of times I've thought "I can't remember x, but I now it's in a trip report" and I can just go and look it up. That is such a bonus of doing these.
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Great start Jen! I so hear you about the reasons why you write trip reports, I've got the same reasons. I've lost count of the amount of times I've thought "I can't remember x, but I now it's in a trip report" and I can just go and look it up. That is such a bonus of doing these.
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Originally Posted by jandsdennis
Great start. It will be fun to fill in the gaps.
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Signing in for your final installment!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Originally Posted by DMA
Great start! You are right on about reasons for writing a TR! I love looking back at old reports to remember certain aspects.
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Originally Posted by Nemo125
Signing in! Great start - can't wait for more!
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Originally Posted by benchley
Great start. Looking forward to filling in the gaps
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Signing on! Trip reports are such an awesome way to preserve the memories.
Just a little summary/recap in case you haven’t read my Universal report.
Cass and I had roomed together for 2 nights. Our first night was at Cabana Bay and then we moved over to the Hard Rock Hotel for a night.
On Feb. 4th, Cass decided to stay back at the hotel to rest up and I headed off to Universal parks to meet up with some co-workers. After lunch with the girls I trotted back to the Hard Rock Hotel where we got an Uber driver and headed off to our next adventure. The weather while at Universal Orlando had been wonderful. Mainly in the 80’s and even though today was a little cooler, it was still a beautiful morning.
We headed to the Polynesian and it was like we were entering another world…and yes Disney is like another world, but this was different. The skies became grey and the temp just seemed to drop.
Our driver dropped us off and Cass helped me finish the Uber app, which I am still not sure I could do on my own without her guidance….and were greeted by some friendly CM’s!
The CM told us our room was ready! Score! BUT…did we still want a 1st floor room like I had requested. Um…yes, that is why I requested it. She said we were given a 3rd floor room for some reason but she would call and see if it could be changed. I told her yes we want the 1st floor, but if that room isn’t ready we would just take the 3rd floor room. It took some time, but finally she got through to the right person and we were granted a first floor room.
She then showed us where our room was…parking lot view. Hahaha. But we did book a standard in the DVC area.... She told us there really isn’t an easy way to get there as there was pool construction. UGH. This did turn out to be a pain in the butt. This would be my only complaint about the Poly really. We had to walk around the front of the resorts to our building and it was quite a bit longer. There really were no short cuts through buildings that made it any faster….and the weather was not nice. I think if it had been nicer then I wouldn’t have minded so much.
Cass went off to the room ahead of me and I walked around a bit getting the lay of the land and seeing if there were any shorter ways…and there wasn’t.
Once I arrived in the room I took it in. It was awesome….so much room and it had a split bathroom…one with tub/shower, toilet and sink and the other with shower and sink. That works very nice for 3 women.
We were trying to think of a fair way to have the sleeping situation. Obviously the bed is the best and then there was a couch and pullout bed. At first we joked about giving Brook the worst of the 3, though honestly I don’t know which the worst was as I didn’t think any were that bad. But we figured playing musical bed would be fair.
We pulled out the couch bed to check it out…and it stayed out the rest of our stay. Cass and I were joking around and being silly. We decided to send a picture of us both in the bed together and send it to our co-workers….stating that we are such best buddies we are now cuddling. So then we tried to figure out how to take the picture. My point and shoot has a timer, so at first we played with that. Honestly we spent a lot of time setting this up because the timer would go off when we weren’t ready and of course we kept laughing. Then I realized that our iphones had a timer. So we set that up and I would click it and run and dive into the bed. I had the phone propped up and it would fall over as I jumped in the bed….which then got us laughing. We spent a LONG time doing this…because we are big dorks! Hahaha
I think this picture is from my camera, one of the early ones where we weren’t having fits of laughter quite yet.
We were NOT happy. Seriously??? They now close the pool at 8PM? What about people who like to come back and swim after the parks close? I know many like to spend a little time in the hot tub late into the evening. Cass asked about this and was told this is now year round too…even in the summer. I hope they were wrong.
It put a damper on our plans too. We had a dinner reservation this evening and the plan was to get in the hot tub after. Obviously that did not work. Sadly I never did make it in the pool or hot tub there….I guess I need to go back.
I headed out front with Cass and she told me that one of the rocks wasn’t real…it just floats in there (Well probably all the rocks are fake). I assume it hides something?
I had to go pick up my ticket at the MK. I had a special ticket and it could only be picked up on arrival. It kind of sucks though because I could not link it till I got it and of course that meant no prepicking FP+. I think Cass went back to the room. I believe I walked with her.
It was easy and painless and I jumped back on the monorail to head back to the Poly. I noticed these girls standing there with college program backpacks and they were tearing up as we left MK and I heard them say how they couldn’t wait to go in as official CM’s, etc. AHHHH…a new batch of CM’s. One girl ended up sitting next to me and I asked her about it and she was very excited and told me a bit about it. I have read several “Earning my Ears” books off of amazon, so I have a good idea how the program works…and basically they can’t enter the parks for free till after a certain point in their training. I think it is usually about 3 or 4 days after they arrive for most. I forget what this girl had been assigned too but I do remember thinking it was a good job.
My plan had been to go back to the room and shower and make myself gorgeous. I wasn’t feeling it. I just fluffed up myself and put on a dress and makeup….we had plans tonight!
We were going to Narcoossee’s for dinner!
So we got all primped and pretty and went to head out and it is POURING! I went looking for the 2 rain jackets I had brought but could only find one. (Of course when we got back I remember where I put the 2nd one). No rain is not going to hurt us obviously, but we wanted to look nice for this dinner and not like a drowned rat. We made the long way to the mail building by going through other buildings. There is no direct route and it was a lot of back and forth but eventually we got there and took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian.
When we were seated they mentioned that there was a birthday celebration. Um no….Cass says “yes there is! Yours!”…oh yeah, my birthday is coming up isn’t. I had totally forgotten. That Cass is a sly dog!
Our server came out and told us our food was almost ready but the fireworks were going to start soon. If we wanted, they would hold the food and we could go outside to watch the fireworks. We decided that would be fun and did just that. It was a little chilly and windy but we walked out and there were quite a few people out there. The bad thing is there isn’t much seating and only so much rail room to stand. We still had time and just kind of found a spot to stand for the time being. We kept hearing a tap on the window and this kid was there just tapping away and motioning for us to move. We just kind of waved. The fireworks had not started and we were not in the way for anything going on at the moment. Once they started I would position myself better. But the dad wasn’t having that and he rapped and motioned and we kind of gave him dirty looks.
A few minutes later he came out and told us how he paid big money to reserve that table and we were blocking his view. First off…he’s a big fat liar. You can’t pay to have a window table and yes you can request it but it is not guaranteed. That right there made us a little ticked off. He went off with his speech about not being able to see a thing. Cass said that really only 1 or 2 people at their table would not be able to see but they could move over once it started. No this was his special table and no one was going to move on their end. He kept going on and on and we just kind of glazed over and ignored him. He ended his rant by saying “you have no intentions of moving do you?” We both just kind of shrugged and let him walk away. The thing is, I had every intention of moving before he came out. I do try to be respectful to others, but nothing was going on…in fact the fireworks were delayed due to weather. I just couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy. And maybe if he hadn’t lied and just said nicely that once the fireworks started would we be kind enough to move over a bit so his son could see, I would have had no issues. I have a feeling that is family thinks they are entitled to a lot of things and the kid is probably a brat!!! Hahahaha.
So time was ticking and the fireworks were not going off yet. We were told the fireworks were loaded and once loaded they must be shot off that night, so they would be going off eventually. We waited. A few other families talked about how they could only wait so long before they had to be somewhere else. I found that odd….I thought this viewing area was for dining guest only. After a bit a few families left…needing to make ADR’s elsewhere. Gosh, that annoyed us. Here we are getting yelled out for blocking someone’s view and all these other people are standing here and NOT even eating here! If anyone should move, it should have been those families.
We ended up getting to sit on the bench. I was pretty darn cold at this point, but we waited it out. At this point I was waiting till the fireworks went off even if it killed me after having that run in with that father.
We saw parts of the water parade go by, but it wasn’t all lit up. Later we realized it was just getting in position to actually do the parade.
Most of my shots were pretty bad, so I only posted a few.
As we walked back in Cass glared at the entitled family and she took a picture and said she was going to post it on facebook and let the world know what a jerk this guy is. LOL!
Once we got back in our server brought our food out.
I thought it was excellent, but Cass said hers was just ok. Now is it worth the big pricetag? Eh….probably not, but then again there isn’t a lot of food at Disney that is worth what they charge.
Because Cass had noted my birthday, they brought me out their signature dessert on the house. Cass didn’t get dessert and honestly I was too full, but I ate the whole thing, except for the few bites Cass took.
nar13.1 by Jenseib, on Flickr
It would have never been anything on my radar to order, but I thought it was really good.
We finished up and paid our bills and the Electric Water Parade was coming by, so we headed out via the porch we had sat on for the fireworks and watched it as well.
I have never stayed at the Grand yet, but I feel like I know it pretty well….but in reality I just know the lobby. Hahaha.
Some day we will stay there!
We headed back to the Poly then and of course ideally we would have loved to have gone to the pool but since it closes at 8 PM there was no chance of that. We just chilled out and went to bed after a bit. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day as we had a tour scheduled first thing….and many more co-workers were arriving throughout the day and we would be having dinner together.
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I so hear you about the reasons why you write trip reports, I've got the same reasons. I've lost count of the amount of times I've thought "I can't remember x, but I now it's in a trip report" and I can just go and look it up. That is such a bonus of doing these.
Trip reports are such an awesome way to preserve the memories. 
Dana
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