DisneyDreamerMN
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2010
Hello and Welcome to my first ever trip report!
I have been a trip reporter reader for about a year now and have been tempted to write about my last two trips but have always chickened out. So here I go by taking the plunge and hoping for a few readers.
Introductions:
Going on this trip is of course is me! My name is Jamie.
Joining me is my wonderful husband of five years, Kyle.
Staying home would be our cuddly cat Moto.
This trip wasn't actually planned...not really at all. It started with my husband putting an idea in my head. He does that a lot. He can be pretty sneaky.
He had mentioned during the first week of May that he wanted to go somewhere for Memorial Day, but didn't want to just take a short trip up north. He jokingly said Disney World and I laughed. We had gone on a trip with his parents to DW last October and had vowed that we needed to try other things and not come back for a couple years....but the seed was planted. I started to really consider it. What if we went 3 days? What about 4? We could do a value resort rather than a moderate. But in the end he wanted to make it a great trip and I couldn't blame him. By the 2nd week in May we had booked a flight and a 6 night stay at Wilderness Lodge! This would be our very first time at a deluxe hotel. I was beyond excited! We kind of get stuck in ruts which is why we have stayed at POR 3 times.... But not this time. We were set for Sunday, May 29th - Saturday, June 4th in a "courtyard" view room.
So let's get this trip started!
My brother had come over Saturday night as he was going to house/cat sit for us while we were gone. I had made a plan to go to bed by 9 PM as our flight was 7 AM (way to early if you ask me), but I really wanted to hangout with my brother! We managed to get ourselves into bed by 10, but like most others I could not sleep. I tossed and turned and considered just getting up and hanging out with my night owl of a brother. I managed to fall asleep around 12:30 AM and catch a few Z's before my 3 AM alarm But I wasn't sad for too long because I remembered where we were going!
We left our house at 4:00 and were arriving at my work where we would keep the car for the week at 4:30. The taxi came a few minutes later and we reached the airport by 5 AM. The Delta counter was empty, but they directed us a self check-in kiosk. Security was a complete walk through with no delays. Since we had about an hour and a half before boarding we decided to get some McDonalds breakfast and eat it as slowly as possible. After breakfast we walked to our gate and found a couple of seats by the window.
Do I look tired?
We chatted with a family that was sitting across from us as we waited to board. They were meeting other family in Orlando and would be staying in a condo and going to DW for a couple of days. The mom of the group said she hoped to run into us at the parks, but we never did see her.
We took our seats after we boarded the plane. Kyle had the middle seat and I had the window seat. The plane was a little different than others we had taken before. For one we had leg room! My husband is 6'2 and I am 5'11 so our knees are usually right up against the seat infront of us, but not this time
Every seat had its own monitor!
This was a game that was free to play. It was a trivia game that let you play against other passengers...very cool. The monitor also had free TV with about 10 channels. It made the 3 hour flight go by really fast.
Lastly, the person who was supposed to sit in the aisle seat did not show up so Kyle was able to move in the aisle seat and we were both very comfy.
We landed at just about 11 AM and hustled to DME. I wanted to take a photo but there was no line at all. I didn't even get to (hooray!) stand in line to wait for our bus as they told us we made it just in time to catch one that was just about to leave. We hopped on the bus and walked all the way to the back as it was full. We sat right in front of the bathroom on the bus, so no picture of the entrance sign
Wilderness Lodge was the first stop! As soon as we pulled up I was in awe.
Kyle had held onto our carry on so we did not have to wait for the driver to unload it. We went inside to check in and stood in line for maybe 10 minutes. The CM took Kyle's cell phone number and said they would text when the room was ready.
We gave our carry on to the vallet outside and decided to head back toward the pool to check it out.
The pool was packed and most of the lounge chairs were taken. We weren't dressed for the pool anyway. Leaving the house at 4 AM isn't exactly shorts weather in Minnesota even though it was late May. We walked over to the pool bar where Kyle ordered a beer and I ordered a Pina Colava and took a seat at an empty table next to the bar.
We enjoyed our drinks and the hot, but beautiful Florida weather. We started to get hungry for lunch and since we hadn't received a text yet decided to head to Downtown Disney.
Up next - our long/short trip to Downtown Disney
Can't wait to read more!
I always hope that the 3rd seat person doesn't show up. Before boarding Delta kept annoucing that they had seats in first class available for an additional $100. I saw about 6 people go to the counter and purchase the upgrade so I am sure that's where our seat mate went.
The text said our room number was 4037. Having never stayed at WL, I didn't know if that was a good location or a bad location. We finished up eating and decided rather than shopping we would just head back to the resort as we were both exhausted. We did want to make one stop at Earl of Sandwhich to grab a couple of sandwhiches for dinner later, but once we got to the entrance I noticed the huge line, so we changed our minds. 
trying to talk my DH into going on an adults only trip. You wouldn't think it would be hard since we don't have kids, but my nieces and nephew go with me on all my disney trips, this will be the first one totally solo for me in September...
