1st day's report:
Well the train was an experience. The train picked us up at 9:30pm in Raleigh, NC. It travels overnight, and makes a few stops along the way. It arrives in Orlando at about 10:00. The train was pretty much on time, which is good, since trains are known to be late often. We both had a very hard time sleeping on the train. They didn't turn the lights down very low, the whole thing was constantly rocking, people were on their cell phones, the train whistle was going frequently. All-in-all I wouldn't do it again, unless we had a sleeper car. That way I could turn the lights off, and there wouldn't be so much disturbance. Plus you get the benefit of laying flat.
My options for getting to orlando this trip would have been a flight that leaves at 7am to arrive at 10, or the train which leaves the night before to arrive at 10. The train was half the price, and I figured that i'd be able to sleep on it. I figured i'd get more sleep by taking the train, since I wouldn't have had to wake up at 4:00 am. But I think I would have gotten more sleep by taking the plane.
After we arrived at the train station, our towncar that we reserved was waiting for us. Nice guy, took us to SSR where we checked in. We had asked for a room in the Grandstands, and she said that we had one assigned to us, but that it wasn't ready yet. Since we really wanted to freshen up after that long trip, we asked if they had anything now, and we got THE furthest one bedroom in Congress Park. It has a GREAT view of Downtown Disney, and the walk to the bus stop is very short compared to some of the locations at the moderate resorts. The walk to the main pool is fine too. Longer than I would have liked, but not as long as some people make it out to be.
After we freshened up and took pictures of the room (will have to post those later). We walked to downtown Disney to pick up our La Nouba tickets. I'm glad I went to pick them up earlier too, because they couldn't find them in the computer and I didn't have our confirmation number handy with us. I called member services and got them to give me the confirmation number and got my tickets. If I had gotten there just before showtime, I wouldn't have been able to give them my confirmation and I don't know what would have happened
After that we hopped a couple of buses to hollywood studios. We had an itch for ToT. I bought my fast pass, which I will say that I was able to get the 10% pass along savings with my DVC discount! We went in and wow were the crowds low :-D We decided to grab a fast pass and then walk on and then use our pass. Well, we put our card in, and the attendant pushed some magic button and 4 of them print out. For each of us. With 4 passes in hand, we decide to head over to Rockin Roller Coaster to ride that, but it had just closed temporarily and they were turning people away, so we head back to ToT and it wasn't our fast pass time, so we go standby and just walked right on
:. We still didn't use our fast passes yet and walked back over to RnR, it had reopened, but the standby time was 80 minutes and we didn't have that much time. We decide to try our luck at Toy Story Mania. standby time was 30 minutes. At 4 in the afternoon.
We rode that and it was time for us to head back to hotel for our evening plans.
We get back to the hotel, shower, change, and head to Downtown to Earl of Sandwich for dinner. Best. Sandwich. Ever. Tried the strawberry shortcake for dessert and that wasn't so hot. Then it was showtime! We head over to La Nouba. We used our DVC 30% off tickets. We had the last row. The seats were still Great! We had the front row last year, and were constantly looking up. Not only were our necks not sore after the show, and the seats were still great being in the last row, but we also paid 1/2 the price this year that we did last year with our DVC discount
After the show, we walked back to the room. I decide to go check out the pool. The pool is awesome at night. Swam a bit, and the hot tub was great on the feet from all that walking!
Bed was comfortable! had no problems sleeping. The room is in great condition. No problems. Other than just some very minor and normal wear-and-tear, the room is in great condition.
No pictures yet. We are running to an ADR for Chef Mickey's! But I will definitely post pictures of the room, and chef mickeys, plus the MK later tonight. Plus! A special surprise! Stay tuned!
