Fantini Family - June 2007

Cast of characters: Myself (Rhonda-38), DH (Christopher-43), DD (Maisie-14), DD's BestFriend (Brennan-14) & DD (Rhiana-6)

Trip: POR June 23-July 2

Booked our vacation thru Emily at TMFLT, had plans to drive in order to be able to stay 10 days. 3 weeks before leaving I'm still checking airline prices hoping (praying!!) to score decent airfare and save my sanity. Get online at just the right time and am able to get 5 roundtrip fares (Louisville to Orlando) for $450 out of pocket (had some credits left from cancelled Xmas trip). DH says we would spend more than that on gas, food & misc, so I book tickets. Emailed Emily and she was able to get us into POR on the 23rd instead of the 24th. Brennan's parents OK flying instead of driving and we're ready to go. We plan on using a limo service (we had tried ME a couple weeks after it started and did not like it at all). A week before leaving we call to book the limo and the price has almost tripled since the last time we used them, decide to give ME another try, if possible. DH calls ME number and they say no problem, don't worry about stickers, just bring luggage to bus with us.

Day 1

Plane leaves Louisville at 3:30pm, no problems land right on time in Orlando at 5:30pm. Go to pick up luggage, no where to be found. Spend an hour talking with Delta luggage service, just by coincidence a ME worker hears our name (Fantini tends to stick out) and looks on his computer. Our luggage arrived 2 hours before our flight and was already waiting at POR.

Head down to ME we're on a bus within 5 minutes and we are the 1st drop off. Check into room 3855 in Alligator Bayou and grab a quick supper at the food court before heading to our room. 3855 is on the 2nd floor and there are no elevators. DH has oseonecrosis in both hips, but doesn't want to make a fuss so we stay there. Make phone calls to family to let them know we are safe and sound and head to bed.

Cost for 5 in POR 10 days: $1964.38

Day 2

Wake up Maisie and Brennan (Rhiana's already up) and head out to MK. Arrive just in time for opening and we're off! This is Brennan's 1st trip to WDW and she has no concept of what we're about to see. I hurry ahead to snap a picture of her face as she sees the castle and the pic is priceless. I have a lot of our pix on MySpace (myspace.com/fantinifamily).

We immediately head to Pirates (love the addition of Jack!), Splash Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Mickey's Philharmagic, It's a Small World and the Carousel. Longest time we stood in line was 5 minutes.

Headed over to Crystal Palace for lunch. Brennan has character issues, but Eeyore is her favorite so we figure this is a good way to introduce her to the many characters. Well, it was a good thought. She did let Eeyore hug her, but was freaked out by all the others. Did get good pic of Tigger sneaking up on her. Lunch was wonderful, as usual.

Crystal Palace cost: $102 for 4 adult, 1 child buffet.

We keep at least 1 AP and use the DDE. We head back to POR for a rest and a swim before heading out to supper that evening. We head to O'hana, which has always been a favorite of ours. We check in just as a downpour starts and are seated in about 10 minutes.

I should mention that Brennan is attempting to be a vegetarian and when we made our ADR's, we did go over menus with her and she felt that there was plenty of sides that she would fill up on. The shrimp was delicious and Rhiana loved it! The turkey was delicious with the peanut dipping sauce and I think we ended up getting 2 or 3 additional bowls of the potatoes. Our only complaint was the S-L-O-W service. It took forever to get refills of anything and our server acted like we were putting him out. I was disappointed, but determined not to let 1 person spoil our trip. Rhiana did the coconut races and had fun. Our bill for dinner was $117 It was still raining so we headed back to explore POR.

Tomorrow: Epcot