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Part One: Trip Overview Nov. 20-Dec.
This is just a quick (well, we'll see about that) trip overview from our last trip. Like everyone else, this time of year it's hard to find time to jot this down--then it's too late to remember anything you wanted to write about. I'll try to be brief, then if anyone has any questions, feel free to write me.
The trip consisted of myself, DH & DD (then 9, now 10); then joining us from Nov. 23-30 was MIL, BIL, SIL and their 2 girls, ages 7 & 9, all from VT. This was SIL and both nieces 1st visit, BIL hadn't been since he was a young child, so most of it was new to him, too. I sent them books, maps, and all the information I could possibly send them, but couldn't get them to even hint at what they really wanted to see/do. For me, the compulsive planner & disneyite, they drove me nuts! However, when the time came, they did pretty much leave it up to me as to where to go, when, etc. so I hope they got to see/do most everything they needed to do.
We left MO about 7:30pm Nov. 19 (I had a meeting before we could leave town), then arrived in Orlando at 5:30pm Nov. 20--the 21 hours was our best time yet, probably because I drove the last 1/2 of the trip & wouldn't even stop to eat. I just wanted to get there! We checked into AS Music, getting a room in Jazz Inn. This was the first time none of my requests had been met. I really wanted Calypso, since my MIL can't walk & I wanted her close to the food court. Later that night I did go to the front desk & the very kind man there was able to change us to Calypso starting when the rest of the family got there, so that worked out much better. He got the first of my MFL CM appreciation forms for this trip. We went to Epcot for my fish & chips fix and were going to ride TT before we left, but as usual, it was down. We were tired, so we headed to the room for some much needed sleep.
Wed., Nov. 21, was our first time to do something off-property. I had Sea World tickets that I'd earned through one of the rewards sites and they were going to expire the first of the year, so they had to be used. We also had them validated so we could come back free one more day within the next 7 days. The other family had a day without a hopper pass, and they wanted to go to Sea World. Hey, great--free for us! We thoroughly enjoyed Sea World, except that the one show we wanted to see--Clyde & Seamore--was down for rehab. We still were able to take in all the shows and ride Kracken many times before closing the park at 6pm. I must say, the employees were very nice, the counter service food was better and cheaper than WDW, and the crowds were down. It was a pleasant surprise, but still--I want to see Mickey, not Shamu! It definitely is a park I'll go back to, though, and if ever I think I'll use it--their AP is only $80. I think the regular tickets there are about $48 for adults, $36 for kids, so this is a great deal. Since we were off-property, I wanted to eat at Pebbles, which I'd heard is a pretty good place to eat. There weren't alot of tables when we got there, but I guess we were invisible since we sat there a VERY long time (20 min. or so) before a waiter even saw us. Not good! The food was very good and we'll probably go back some day. The portions were big enough to split--just wish I'd known that before we ordered. DD had a pizza that was big enough for 2, easily.
Thurs., Thanksgiving, was also a first for us--we went to MGM just to ride RnRC & TOT (yes, Mary--TOT), then resort hopped. We all really enjoyed that and finally got to see some of the resorts we've heard so much about. DH has always wanted to stay at WL, and especially now. Plus we enjoyed watching some father ride a stick horse through the lobby--we've just GOT to eat there! It was just too funny. We went to Winterland/Summerland to play miniature golf, another thing DD has always wanted to do. With our AP's the rate for the 3 of us was $14.47. I skunked them! It's alot of fun, but not much of a challenge. We played the Winterland side. We had dinner PS's for Chef Mickey's, so headed over there and got right in. We were seated right by the kitchen door, which in a way was bad because I kept having to dodge the door when it swung open, but on the other hand, all the characters went through that door so we got ALOT of interaction, several times per, all night long. DD loved it. I had Dale "fall asleep" on my shoulder while I was the only one sitting at the table. You should have seen DH & DD when they came back. He even snored--loudly! What fun! The food was as good as everyone said and the waitress was a gem. A very good dining experience. We had a couple of hours before the MK fireworks, so we used them to wander around the Poly & GF. The GF was gorgeous--and that tree---WOW!!! The whole family was really impressed. Probably the best thing, though, was lying in the hammocks on the beach, looking at the castle and up at palm trees. Life just doesn't get much better! We went back to the Contemporary roof to watch the MK fireworks, them back to the room to bed.
Fri, Nov. 23--I could hardly sleep for the excitement of our MFL meet at PO-Riverside on Friday. First we changed our room to the new one in Calypso, then on to PO-Riverside. At the meeting was Lisa McClure and family, Maggie & Clive & Phyllis--pkchicken and her DD. We ate, visited, and filled out postcards for MFLer's. Just had a ball. Lisa's DD and mine are the same age & really hit it off. My DD really would have liked to spend alot more time with her. Maybe another trip. Anyway, it was a great experience and I'm so glad I got to meet a few of the members. It's so nice to have faces to go with the names. After our meet, we went to the Belz Mall--I just can't go to WDW without hitting the Character Warehouse. I made a few purchases--got DD's MNSSHP shirt 1/2 price instead of the full price when we were there. Glad she didn't insist on getting it in Oct.! By this time I thought I'd better call the airline & see if the family's flight was on time. Uh-oh, they're 30 minutes early. Gotta run. We headed to the airport, had to circle it a couple of times before we figured out where to pick them up (& all this in pouring rain--the first of our trip) and there they are waiting on their suitcases. According to the time they were supposed to get in, we were right on time. Then the Disney magic hit, again--the rain was gone within 5 miles of the airport, never to be seen again. We headed straight for Ft. Wilderness, as we were giving them dinner at HDD. We had a great table and enjoyed the show immensely, as usual. This was a good start to their vacation. We had gotten a wheelchair at ASMu for MIL so she was all set once we picked her up at the airport. I really appreciate someone on here mentioning that we could do this. It saved renting a wheelchair everyday, plus made her life so much easier. She can't walk without being in a great deal of pain and this we certainly didn't want.
Saturday we headed to Epcot. The family just had to see something Disney. We ended up just doing the Future World end before they wanted to go back to the hotel to swim and relax. Hey, we're at WDW! What's wrong with them?! Oh well, I kept my mouth shut & went along with them. I just couldn't believe it--their first day there and they want to go back to the room. Oh well. DD swam for awhile, then worked on her homework. We all met up for MK that night since that was the only night to see the parade & fireworks. I wasn't about to let them miss those. They all thought they would ride then, too, even though I'd told them not on a Saturday. They understood once we got there. Boy, was it crowded! We watched Tinkerbell and the fireworks from the bridge going into Tomorrowland. Poor Tink, she got stuck about 80% of the way down and hung there for quite awhile. I guess she finally worked her way free, 'cause I finally saw her sliding on down. Wouldn't that be quite a feeling! We went to a wheelchair area across from the Hall of Presidents to watch the parade. The CM's doing parade duty were something else. One guy hated his job--not only was it evident, but he also voiced it--quite often. The thing that made me so mad about this was that there were probably alot that got laid off that liked their job, and this idiot was still there. Fortunately, he was leaving in Jan. He just kept running Disney down, telling everyone not to take the backstage tours & how they were a waste, etc. He got really old real fast. Then there was the guy from HM that "flirted" with my DD the whole hour or so we were there. Hey, he was really cute--but please, not for a few more years. LOL
Sunday we did MK. My SIL decided they wanted to do a character meal, so we went to see if we could get in Chef Mickey's. No problem, in about 20 minutes we were seated. They really enjoyed it. I couldn't believe we got to eat there twice this trip. Love those potatoes! Monday Sea World, Tuesday AK and Epcot. This was the only time for them to see ToD (my family hadn't seen that yet either) and Illuminations. I loved ToN, but ToD just doesn't do it. Even DD said it was horrible compared to ToN. The CM's didn't seem to get into it, even the drummers were just ho-hum. How disappointing! We did watch part of CP with Marlee Matlin. That was beautiful and everyone (but the kids--hey, let's go do something) really enjoyed it, too.
Wednesday we spent at MGM. That morning I'd made PS's at Prime Time, knowing that the family would really enjoy it, plus we do too. When we checked in, I asked for a fun waiter. We had a ball with Anass (yep, that's his name). We hadn't told any of the family what this restaurant was about, so they were quite surprised. At one point my BIL was looking through the window into the next room & commented on what someone was doing in there. Well, he was caught and had to stand with his nose to the wall while everyone told him he was nosey. Then he had to apologize to the other room, then sing "I'm a little teapot". We were all rolling! And of all times to not have a camcorder. It was one of our highlights! When we did the Backlot Tour, we had probably the best guide we've ever had, just full of information that we've never heard before. I have her a MFL CM recognition which you would have thought I'd given her the moon when she read it! She immediately took it to show another CM. I felt like, if nothing else, I'd maybe made her day worth coming to work. She was all smiles. The rest of the family rode the GMR while DD & I went ahead to get seats for Fantastic! (and take a quick ride on TOT--we knew they'd be awhile & never know ). I explained that we had a wheelchair coming, so we were seated in the wheelchair area to save the seats. It's a good thing, because by the time everyone was there all the wheelchair areas were full. It hadn't seemed like there were that many people in the parks, but the theater was standing-room-only. Thank goodness for our walkie-talkies so we were able to do this. While DH was pushing his mother up the hill to the theater, another person in a wheelchair literally ran the chair up the back of his leg, making it quite sore--& without a word to him. A couple sat by us with their wheelchair-bound son & were having trouble finding him a spot to see. My MIL got out of her wheelchair so he could have her spot. This really seemed to perturb the CM, who was very rude to this other couple. They couldn't thank us enough & the son was a real sweetheart. (They had been on their first cruise 9-11 & were curious about the Disney cruise--wanted to try to make their cruise experience alittle better). They said they'd encountered many rude CM's this trip, which they found unusual, but they were pretty unhappy.
Thursday was the families last day, so the girls wanted to go to MK in the morning, hitting all the main rides (ie. the Mountains), then MGM. We got to MGM just as the parade was coming down the street at the end, so we got to see that. We'd missed it before since we were eating during it. It's a cute parade and we all enjoyed it. We finished the day by riding TOT & RnRC over and over and over--being the very last people of the night on the RnRC--in our own, private car.
Friday I had planned on getting the AK Safari meet, thinking their plane left in the afternoon. Well, wrong, it left in the morning so I had to miss the meet. I was really looking forward to meeting Binnie, Margaret Lewis, Deb Wills, etc., but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Will have to go another time. Back to the 3 of us, we went to MK. Just as we were coming to Town Square, the horse-drawn trolley was pulling in, so we decided to ride it to the castle. DH had never ridden it, so it was another first for him. There was one other couple on with us, a father & daughter, that told the driver they were from MO! We told them that we were, too, and when questioning where we told them NW MO, they wanted the town, we told them--he was from a little (pop. 72) town about 20 minutes from here. In fact, all the town has going for it is a very good restaurant, which we've eaten the best prime rib we've ever had there. What a small world! And the DD was the same age as ours. We had a good visit, then went together to ride Space Mtn. They just rode it once, we rode it 3 times in a row, no wait, before we headed across the park to ride the other 2 mountains. By this time, the park was getting really full. We saw an awful lot of school-type groups. Don't know what was going on, but there were sure alot of people there! We rode Splash with probably a 20-minute wait (the queue was clear down before the stairs--only time of the trip there was any wait there), the BTM with a wait of 45-minutes! Where did everyone come from?! While in line at BTM I heard the lady behind us telling her family how you had to get FP's before your trip & that they cost extra so they didn't get them. I did straighten her out--my good deed for the day. What, can't they read the info on the map? Oh well. MK was just too busy by now, so we headed to Epcot for our PS's at Le Cellier, probably our favorite restaurant (so far--there's alot more to try!). We then headed to the International Gateway so DD could make a CD and in passing the old Millennium building saw there was a doll & teddy bear show going on. We went in to see what it was all about & found we'd just missed seeing Marie Osmond. Decided then we just had to come back Sat. morning before we left town to see her. (DH said only if he could get a picture taken with her--sure!) Did one last ride on TT, then on to MGM to finish up our stay. There we just rode RnRC & TOT, again over and over. DD was finally brave enough to hold up her hands on TOT, so she wanted to ride the seatbelt seat. I finally was brave enough to hold up 1 hand--hey, the other I was holding DD's junk--and it certainly gives a new sensation! There, we saw the girl from Parent Trap taping in front of TOT. We'd seen alot of taping at MGM and MK over the last 3 days so I asked what they were doing. They said she (don't remember her name) was taping commercials for the Disney channel. When we watched the Parent Trap on the WWoD Sunday, I did see alot of clips of her around the parks. Gee, I could have been in some of them. Oh well, would have been so quick no one would have seen me anyway. LOL Sadly, the park closed & we had to go back to the room to pack.
Saturday we did one last quick trip to Downtown Disney. DD wanted a Minnie & something for her grandfather, so we went there to get the AmEx discount. Ended up costing me, as we also left with the monorail! LOL Now on to Epcot to see Marie. We got there just as they were opening the doors, but still had to wait 1.5 hours in line to get to the front. By this time I'd decided to buy one of her small dolls for DD's birthday the next week, then it would be even more special signed. Much better than just getting an autograph & picture! Of course, had to keep my end of the deal & get a picture of DH & Marie--can't help it that DD & I just happened to get in the picture, too. I must say, for a celebrity, Marie is VERY nice. She took the time to talk to everyone, not acting like she just wanted to keep the line moving (hence our 1.5 hours in line--we weren't that far back!). She told DD that she should buy all the small princess dolls & decorate a Christmas tree with them. Cool idea, but at $60/doll--well, NOT MFL!! We got a "snowflake" doll that was made just for this weekend. They had the original in a silent auction, supposedly worth $10,000.00!! I was just happy with the small one! Got a cup of cheese soup for the road, and headed out of the park. I made the family get their hands stamped to assure us of coming back (someone else on here said they did that--I liked it so did it). Of course, the family thinks I'm nuts, but that's ok. Before we left town, DH wanted to try to find a community that we'd heard about to check out their houses, etc. In Oct. and again this trip, we'd talked to a parking lot attendant/tram person that had told us about where he lived & it sounded like what we were looking for. Since we'd talked to the same man, twice, it told us that this must be what we were suppose to do (well, you look for any excuse sometimes). We found the area & stopped in to talk to the realtor at the entrance. It's a gated community, which we liked, and not far at all from WDW, which we really liked. We looked at several new homes & a few re-sales. Of course I wasn't planning on looking at anything, so didn't have my camera. We liked what we saw, but want to look further before we make any drastic purchases. We came home with all their rules & regulations, plus alot more information to read. Finally, about 3pm, we headed north--sadly! We knew that our AP's would soon run out & this would be our last trip to WDW for awhile. I'd gotten 6 trips out of mine (37 days), so I did get my monies worth. In room savings alone I think I saved about $700--definitely paid for itself. Of course, without an AP, there would have only been 2 trips, but who cares about that! LOL It did take us longer to go home--we just don't have the drive going away from FL as we do when we're coming down. Got home about 7pm Sunday, Dec. 2.
The things that really stood out on this trip was the age of the CM's. Even since the Oct. trip, it seemed like more older CM's were working--& not happy about it. We encountered alot of rude CM's this trip. In fact, in the food court, 2 CM's got into a fight. Definitely not Disney-like! Only 1 security check seemed to really be a check--then they had to see inside every little zipper, pocket, etc. This is fine, but if they're going to check, then they should ALL check. My MIL said to one of them that she hoped, when she searched her purse, that she found her sunglasses. The security person didn't, my MIL did find them later. However, the weather was perfect, close to 80 every day. The only rain we had was the day we went to the airport to pick up the family, & that lasted just for a few miles around MCO. I only rented a locker once, & found out they've raised that from $5 to $7, still getting the $2 back when you return the key. I think that's getting a little high. The 3 girls got along most of the time. It's hard when there's 3, plus mine said she was ready for just our family after about 5 days with her cousins. She did enjoy spending time with her grandmother, though, since she doesn't get to see her very often. I guess it went well considering there were basically 3 different families with close contact for a week. One of the best high points was our MFL meet. They're a bunch of great people & I'm so glad I had the chance to meet them.
Costs:
Room--AP rate of $54.88, including tax, 11 nights= $603.68
Food--(includes HDD for 8 people, major expense)=$780.48
Gas--(only time we paid over $1/gal. was twice in MO, which is usually a cheap state for gas)=$195.20
Misc--mainly souvenirs=$276.24
Total--$1855.59
I'm not unhappy with the money spent. For 11 days, we had a great time & didn't feel like we missed out on anything. We wouldn't have spent so much for food if not for the other family. We ended up picking up some charges we wouldn't have normally had, but that's ok, too. We bought some ride pictures that we normally wouldn't do, but was fun since their was other family with us. Also had to buy one at TOT with DD in the seatbelt seat, & me actually smiling--to prove to Mary that I did really ride it! LOL BTW, the pictures at Sea World include an acrylic frame. By this point our days at the park are somewhere around $10/day, but I didn't count that in since we'd purchased the tickets last Dec.
We were home for about 3 days before I couldn't stand it any longer. Just being depressed not knowing when we'd go back. So--now we're headed for Orlando Dec. 22, but aren't going to get to go to any parks this trip. I figured the only way we're going to be able to really look at houses & areas to live in is if we don't have park tickets. I just can't waste time looking for houses if we do. So, we're going back to the gated community we looked at, with a camera this time, going to look at other surrounding areas, plus maybe head to Melbourne, Sebring, and who knows, maybe Key West. I've heard there's other parts of Florida other than WDW, so I guess I'll just have to see for myself. I used Priceline for the first time to get a few nights at a Wyndham for $25/night, so I'm still trying to be MFL. Will have to at least go to some Disney restaurant while we're there.
Part Two: Trip Report (through the eyes of my Darling Daughter)
This was a trip report my 9-year-old DD wrote, so I thought I'd share a different perspective with you.
We left home at 7:30pm for Orlando. (at this point she wrote all the states we went through, plus their capitals--trying to make this as educational as possible). We arrived at Orlando 5:30pm ET, 21 hours travel time. I used math to figure it out. I used an atlas to figure states and capitals. We ate supper at Epcot in the United Kingdom, they call our french fries chips.
On Wednesday we went to Sea World. I saw and learned about an invertebrate called a strawberry anemone. I saw octopus, seahorses, different kinds of fish, sharks, eels, dolphins, whales and stingrays. I petted a stingray. It felt smooth and slimy. We watched dolphin shows and whale shows. It as interesting to see how trainers use signals for the animals to do things the same time. If they did not do it right they did it until they did it right.
On Thursday we looked at different Disney resorts. For supper we ate at Chef Mickey's, a character dinner.
Friday we met people fro California, New Jersey, Florida. We ate breakfast with them. A girl my age talked to me and she was from San Jose, CA. We picked up our family at the airport and ate supper at the Hoop De Doo Revue, a dinner show.
Saturday went to Epcot, rode a few rides, Living Seas and saw different sea animals. We rode a boat around and learned about how plants grow in different ways. One way is to grow plans out of the soil. We went to Magic Kingdom for parade and fireworks.
Sunday went to Magic Kingdom for the parade. I got to dance with the characters in the parade. I rode some rides.
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