The trip that was, then wasn't, then it was, and it did happen! - Read All About It!

[RocketCityMama]

This is my first trip report so bare with me if I don't do it correctly or if I seem dazed and confuzzed

I will start with the members of the family!

First up, me, Frances, 32, sahm to 2 girls. I have been a sahm for 4 years now and love it. I have been running a moms group/playgroup since Feb 2006!!! We have over 115 members and continue to grow on a monthly basis. In my spare time I love to read, blog, and chat online and of course read DIS (it's my newest obsession!).

DH and I got married May 27, 2000, he's 30, will be 31 in Oct this year. He's a subcontracts adminstrator at his job at Lockheed Martin. He and I have been through some tough times but have made it and have 2 beautiful children together.

We have 2 girls J & H, J is 8.5 yrs will be 9 in Aug and H who turned 4 iin March of this year are the light of our lives. J is going into 4th grade this fall and loves school and anything High School Musical, Camp Rock, Hannah Montana related. She is also involved in Girl Scouts and will be a Jr Girl Scout this fall. H is a huge Tinkerbell fan and loves Wall-E just as much. She's a girly girl one day and a tomboy the next.

Here are a couple pics to start out

This is the family in May 2008 in Hawaii

Easter 2009 of the Girls

Up Next... How our trip came about!

 

[reyasmommy]

Your girls are beautiful!

I'm looking forward to reading more.

 

[RocketCityMama]

So to continue the story.

I have been to Disney 3 times prior to this trip and DH and both DD's have only been 1 time prior, that was this past Dec 2008. My FIL decided that he would give us a trip to WDW for our xmas present. Great right? Well the trip was only a 2 night/3 day deal. I started to research prior to our trip and tried to plan character meals, couldn't get any. I spent hours on here reading and knew we had to get there in the morning for rope drop etc. Rather than get into a whole drawn out story on everything that went wrong let's just say we didn't get much of anything done and the girls didn't really get to experience Disney.

So in Jan I registered on Dis and decided to start researching for our next trip. I had no idea we would go again so soon, as we had just sold our old house and moved into the new one in Oct. I happened upon a thread that had something about a 4/3 deal and though ok I'll check it out.

I checked the price for a week at Coronado Springs and at Pop Century. Hubby decided since it was only $200 deposit required we could put that down and if we needed to change the dates we could later. After reading even more on Dis about all of this we decided to upgrade to CSR to get a fridge with the room and a "nicer' resort. It was only a $200 difference in the price.

We knew we were not going to tell the girls about the trip and really didn't think much else of it until Feb. Feb 1 I took a pregnancy test, came up positive. We were much excited as we had been trying since Jan 2008! So after a year, we were estatic to say the least...then it hit us we probably shouldn't do Disney. It made sense to save the money for the baby stuff we would need to buy rather than go to Disney. So after a couple days of talking we decided to cancel the trip and forfeit the deposit.

Fast forward a week later, had a little bit of spotting, had my first appt. Dr wanted me to get bloodwork done to check my hcg levels both on Fri and Mon. Valentines Day was over that weekend as well. Unfortunately it was a not so good v-day as I started spotting even more. By Monday I was pretty sure I was going to have a miscarriage. Still yet I had the bloodwork done, hanging onto the small possibility that everything might work out, but then I had to get a rhogram shot on Tues. Tues evening I started cramping really bad and the dr said to come in the next day. So I stayed in bed the rest of the week and mourned the loss of our baby. It was hard, and still makes me sad to think about it.

The next week hubby was trying to cheer me up and told me had not cancelled the trip yet. We had so much going on the week before he didn't get around to it. So the trip was back on again! I threw myself into planning, getting reservation options ready, planning what to do on our 9 yr anniversary (which we celebrated while there) and how to surprise the girls.

To be continued!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Trip details were as follows:

May 22-May 29
Coronado Springs Resort
7 day MYW tickets with Park Hoppers

Reservations

5/23 CRT: 9:05 am breakfast
5/25 1900 Park Fare: 9:05 am breakfast
5/26 Hollywood & Vine (Fantasmic Packag) 4:00 pm dinner
5/27 Crystal Palace: 12:25 lunch
5/28 O'Hana 8:50 breakfast
5/29 Maya Grill breakfast

I subscribed to TGM for this trip, seemed to help with the rec. parks which days but also used Touring Plans the week before we left. We used them both combined and did pretty well with the crowds.

Up Next... we're off to see the Mouse and how we surprised the girls!

 

[RocketCityMama]

On 5/21 we departed from our home in Hsv, Al and drove up to Tifton Ga where we stayed over night. This is about 6 hours from home so that left us about 4.5 to 5 hours on the 22nd to drive. Hubby and I had put together some gift bags with some goodies for the girls to surprise them and tell them we were going to Disney. They were under the impression we were going to see their grandpa who does live in Florida.

After they were awake and dressed we gave them their bags and told them to open them. They both had tshirts (Disney ones) their glow necklaces from Disney (in Dec) their Disney personal fans, a princess jewelry box and of course the autograph books. Hailey the youngest was so thrilled to see her autograph book but it didn’t click for her why she would have that if we were going to grandpas. LOL ! Jess was a little confused and still didn’t figure it out. DH was asking her what do you use those for? She’s like autographs. He’s like yah, and where did you use that one? She says at Disney World…. And finally the lightbulb went off lol You can see the pics and see where they realize they are going to Disney. It was great being able to surprise them!

Here is a pic of the bags (quite appropriate I thought) and some their reaction.

Gift Bags

Waiting for their surprise

There are tons more pics, I will post the link to all of them at the end

 

[RocketCityMama]

We arrived around 3pm to CSR, it was storming pretty bad. The last 30 mins of the drive was awful, raining so hard I could barely see the road. We were able to check into our room, which was in Casitas 5 (water view). It was a renovated room as well, I was not sure if it would be since I knew they had just started on Casitas 5. We got the luggae unloaded and waited out rain and headed to DTD for dinner/shopping. We got there around 5 and walked in at T-Rex and got seated within 10 mins. Not overly impressed with the food but the atmosphere was cool. We were in the Sequoia Room, next to the Ice Cave so it was pretty cool to see both. The girls loved it, unfortunately we didn’t make it to the build your own dino, it was way to packed to get over there.

We did some shopping and walked around and headed over to one of their entertainment stages. There was a CM who was on stage, dancing, teaching people how to dance and joking around. It was great, the girls loved it, did some dancing and laughed a lot. There are a few pics in the photos to. We headed back to the hotel around 10;30 since we had reservations the next morning.

Pics of our room Casitas 5

Queen beds

Desk & Ottomans

Sliding doors to the bathroom area

One of the best tips I got from Dis was to use an over the door shoe organizer to keep all the bathroom/necessities items off the counters. It was AWESOME! Hubby was even glad!

View outside of our room, looking right

View straight out looking down

View if you move slightly over towards our n'bors room, same fountain as above.

 

[RocketCityMama]

On 5/23 went to MK for breakfast at CRT 9:10 ressie. Got to park at 8, went in and got great shots of the castle and main street with no crowds! We got into ressie at 8:30. I didn’t realize you get the portrait package as part of your meal, so that was nice. I do wish we could have taken a photo ourselves of the girls and Cinderella but we saw her later in the week. The food was pretty good, they were great about bringing extra food if we wanted it. Our server asked several times and refills were very prompt. The girls loved their wands and doing the wishing ceremony. Even after the princesses had did their tour of the tables they continued to make rounds and talk to the kids.

After breakfast we tried to catch the show at the castle but was cancelled due to wet stage, met Peter Pan & Wendy instead. We decided to head out and go over to Epcot, did all of innoventions. Unfortunately I started feeling bad and had to leave but we did miss the bad thunderstorm that came thru around that time.

A few pics from 5/23

No one was there at 8 am

The girls & Mickey

Main Street, as you can see, pretty quiet.

Family in front of castle with no other visitors!

My fav pic of the castle with NO ONE there!!! I was so happy to get this shot!

Oh I forgot that we did the character meet at Epcot and the girls met, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Pics are in the links at the end

 

[RocketCityMama]

5/24… I was in bed sick still, so hubby took kids to the dig site pool, they had a great time and couldn’t quit talking about it. Around 7 pm or so I felt better, we headed to MK for PM EMH. We got in early enough to get spot near Terrace to watch Wishes. It was perfect viewing spot to see Tinkerbell. My little one is Tinkerbell obsessed. We tried to get in to Toontown but they were closing it off and weren’t allowing anyone in. So we headed to Fantasy Land instead. We did just about all the rides over there and as we were on Dumbo, Mickey & Minnie were escorted to Dumbo along with 2 kiddos and rode after our ride was done. This was at about 1 am. We headed out soon after and got back to the hotel until about 2 am (eek!)

5/25 – Happy Memorial Day! We had 9:05 am breakfast @ 1900 Park Fare and headed back to MK. We got in at 8:45 for breakfast and was at the park about an hour after they opened. It was still pretty quiet. We enjoyed several rides with less than 10 min wait times. We met all the fairies and princesses in less than an hour. The line for fairies was much longer than the one for princesses, we barely waited for the princesses. After that we went to ride Buzz, standby 15 mins I think. We did Stitch, again maybe 10 mins standby, when we came out Stitch was there so we got in line. We got a fp for buzz again shortly after Stitch, we were 20 mins late coming back for the fp return time due to lunch. The CM told us, you are a little late, told him sorry we were eating lunch but he did allow us thru and I told him Thank You.

Pic of non existent crowds around 11 am

 

[RocketCityMama]

5/26 – DHS and Fantasmic!

We were there at Rope Drop and got to ride TSM (standby 45 mins start/finish) and fp lines were gone when we were done. We really enjoyed TSM a bit more than Buzz Lightyear. I would definitely say that Buzz is made for older kids, as its harder to do laser shooting and TSM for younger kids. It was a little more “jerky” moving than I was expecting and did not know there were stairs involved. I have bad knees and it hurt to climb them to only go back down again. We opted to not get another FP since hubby wanted to go to the RNRR with oldest dd. They waited over an hour in the standby, FP were gone! Younger dd and I met Prince Caspian and did the “show”…it was kinda boring in our opinion.

After we met back up we did a few shows and then headed over to Hollywood & Vine for dinner around 3:15 or so. Our ressie was at 4 pm but got in early there to. We lucked out because no sooner than we got in, it was storming bad outside. Service was good, food was ok. There just doesn’t seem to be any kind of balance to any of the meals. Not enough meat selections or kids food. After dinner we headed to The Little Mermaid Show, 10 min wait, the show was really cute and the girls loved it. We headed back to TSM again (said 80 mins, we thought it would be less…since the line was inside) but it was about 70 min start/finish.

After that we headed to Fantasmic! and worked our way in and got to our reserved seating no problem. Show was at 9, we arrived 7;30 and there was already a huge crowd. We got to our seats by 8, but it started to rain steady for the next hour with heavy rain at times and some thunder and an occasional lightening. The show went on as planned though, started at 9 but rained the entire time. So we sat in the rain 2 hours…worth it? It was cute and probably would enjoy more without the rain. Would I sit in the rain for 2 hours again? NO.

Rope Drop pic at DSH. We were prob a little more than halfway back, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Pics from inside TSM standby area.

 

[RocketCityMama]

5/27- Mk for morning meet n greets with characters, lunch at Crystal Palace at 12:25, also go in there a little early before the rain hit! Lunch as ok, nothing special about the food and I don’t think they offer enough normal foods for the kids or even adults who don’t eat the different types they serve. After breakfast we hit the monorail and headed to Epcot to finish FW and WS.

We arrived around 2, able to get fp for soarin, 60 min standby wait… tried to get a fp for test track, but were out and 60 min wait..chose not to wait. Though they didn't run out of fp until around 3pm or so. We did a Kim Possible adventure…not overly impressed with that. To many other kids doing it at the same time and so it was just follow them when they were done. We toured some of the worlds, did Soarin’ and headed out for the night. Soarin’ was pretty cool, I wasn’t sure what to expect but the girls loved it. We ended up missing Illuminations.

5/28- 8:50 ressie for Ohana Breakfast. Got in around 8;30, so early again. The food at Ohana was much better than some of the other character breakfast we had. Loved the POG and pineapple bread as well. The characters interaction was great and the CM’s were all friendly.

We headed to Animal Kingdom- got in saw some characters with young dd while dh and older dd did EE (standby) and also go FP for later. We did tricertop spin and met up with dh and older dd to head to Dinosaur…. I will never ever ride it again, I wish I had known it was going to be a rough ride. If you have any kind of back, neck, shoulder, knee pains you should not ride. My knees jolted the front of the car the entire time. I had read on DIS that the front is best for less jerks, well then I hate to imagine what the back would be like. It was ROUGH and to think a guy with a broken leg and cast on rode OMG, how in the world! Soon after that we headed out because it was so hot/humid/rainy and I felt like I was broke. Later that night we went to DHS for some pics and shopping but more rain! Headed in early to pack for the departure on 5/29.

5/29 originally planned to hit MK or DHS for last pics/shopping but changed our mind and went home instead.


Here are about 200 pics from our trip, some are repeat from this thread but there are tons of others.

Pics Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100192&id=593876813&l=65a3394705

Pics Par t2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100201&id=593876813&l=b94c9dcbaf

Overall we had a great vacation despite the rain. It rained everyday we were there but not nonstop. There was usually an early morning shower or lunch time shower and then one in the evening. I am glad we didn't cancel anything due to the rain and we took ponchos and made it just fine.

Thanks for reading my trip report!

 

[KatMark]

First and foremost, I am so sorry for the loss of your baby.

Thank you for a wonderful trip report. Despite the rain, it sounds like you had a great trip.

 

[jezaduck24]

I'm so sorry about your loss. Thanks for taking the time to share your TR. We are staying at Coronado in September and one of the buildings I am considering requesting. It was great to see pictures of that building.

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Frances, I am so sorry for the loss of your baby.

What a lovely family...your girls are gorgeous!!

You sure did lots of wonderful planning, so you all could have such a delightful vacation!

Thank you for sharing your trip with us - love all the photos!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Your girls are beautiful!

I'm looking forward to reading more.

Thanks so much!

First and foremost, I am so sorry for the loss of your baby.

Thank you for a wonderful trip report. Despite the rain, it sounds like you had a great trip.

I'm so sorry about your loss. Thanks for taking the time to share your TR. We are staying at Coronado in September and one of the buildings I am considering requesting. It was great to see pictures of that building.

Frances, I am so sorry for the loss of your baby.

What a lovely family...your girls are gorgeous!!

You sure did lots of wonderful planning, so you all could have such a delightful vacation!

Thank you for sharing your trip with us - love all the photos!

Thanks ladies for your words. It was a hard situation but sometimes life is just that.

We had such a wonderful trip, I wish we could go again soon lol but I don't think dh would go for that. Next trip is likely Canada Then the next one to Universal/Sea World AND then back to Disney on the next one. So probably 3 to 4 yrs out.