Family, friends, teachers & Stacy too! - The End 9/27 page 14

[DisMomAmy]

Welcome to my April 2013 trip report! Thanks to those of you convinced me to write this report. I was really on the fence about it because I’ve had a hard time keeping up with the DIS this year. I do promise that this report will be finished… even if it’s months from now. I always get my reports done before my next trip & I hope to be escaping again without the family in October.
With that said, let’s get this thing rolling!



I’m Amy, an almost 40 full-time mom of two & part-time bookkeeper. I generally have two trips in the works at any given time.



This is my DH, Tim, also almost 40. He works long hours as a Software Engineer. In his spare time, he loves to golf. He tolerates Disney… or so he says… he was REALLY looking forward to this trip & ended up coming home with an annual pass.



These are our two boys, Alex & Zach.







Alex is a 12 year old 6th grader and is doing an amazing job in Middle School this year. He has autism which creates some extra challenges for us day to day and on our Disney trips. He loves all things sports! He swims year round & plays various seasonal sports (soccer, basketball & baseball). Alex has caught the Disney planning bug & now plans pretend Disney vacations in his spare time!



Zach is a 9 year old 3th grader. He’s an advanced green belt in karate, plays a lot of baseball and also plays soccer & basketball seasonally. Zach was diagnosed with Asperger’s a few years ago. He’s a very sensitive boy and has a few sensory & emotional issues but is doing well overall. His new thing is texting with his two closest friends. One of his friends was on vacation in a different part of Florida and the two boys were sending each other videos of their hotel rooms. It was so funny!



We spent twelve wonderful days in Orlando this year. We arrived on Wednesday, April 17th and returned home on Sunday, April 28th. We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Resort (our third stay) for the entire trip, which made it feel a lot longer. We usually stay with Tim’s brother or on Disney property for our first few nights before checking in for a week at Sheraton. As much as I love staying at Disney for a few days, it was nice to not have to move. I’m not sure what we’ll do next time but this was nice.

The title of my trip report come from all of the people we saw at Disney this year! Tim's brother, Jeff, and his wife, Karen, spent two nights with us plus we met us with them & Dniece for a Tampa Bay Rays/Yankees baseball game later during the trip. We got to spend time with Heidi (MRYPPNS) and her family as well as Julie (mousescrapper) and her DH, Matt. We also ran into a couple different families from our town. Zach's third grade teacher & husband (a 5th grade teacher from our school, who Alex had in 3rd grade) were there with their adorable almost three year old daughter. And even though we were staying off property, we were lucky enough to see Stacy every day on Disney TV! One day Alex even yelled out, "I love you Stacy!"

Thanks for reading!! Stay tuned to hear more about our adventures! ​

 

[DisMomAmy]

For those of you who need to catch up or want to skip over the comments... here are the links to my updates.

Day 1 - Check in!
Day 1 - Dining with the Dinos

Day 2 - Test Track & a bag of chips
Day 2 - Test Track & a bag of chips - part 2
Day 2 - Off to the Festival!
Day 2 - Off to the Festival! - part 2
Day 2 - Photopass pictures

Day 3 - Heating up at DHS
Day 3 - Dining with the Beast - part 1
Day 3 - Dining with the Beast - part 2
Day 3 - Dining with the Beast - part 3

Day 4 - Where's the sun?

Day 5 - The rain, rain, rain came down, down down...
Day 5 - Forgotten phone pics

Day 6 - Change of Plans & an Anniversary - part 1
Day 6 - Change of Plans & an Anniversary - part 2
Day 6 - Change of Plans & an Anniversary - part 3

Day 7 - Meet the Teacher(s) - Part 1
Day 7 - Meet the Teacher(s) - Part 2
Day 7 - Meet the Teacher(s) - Part 3
Day 7 - Meet the Teacher(s) - FINALLY
Day 7 - Chef Mickey & a night at MK - part 1
Day 7 - Chef Mickey & a night at MK - part 2
Day 7 - Chef Mickey & a night at MK - part 3

Day 8 - A Blizzard & Baseball

Next Trips

Broken

Day 9 - Epcot Redo & Some Friends
Day 9 - Epcot Redo & Some Friends - part 2
Day 9 - Epcot Redo & Some Friends - part 3

Day 10 - Red Minnie & a bunch of Perrys
Day 10 - Red Minnie & a bunch of Perrys - part 2
Day 10 - Red Minnie & a bunch of Perrys - part 3

Day 11 - "I'm 10!"
Day 11 - "I'm 10!" - part 2Day 11 - "I'm 10!" - part 3

 

[KatMark]

LOVE IT! Great intros, Amy.

for hubby coming home with an AP.

Sorry...but I don't love Stacy.

 

[chloe770]

I'm here and will try to keep up.

 

[starousse]

Joining in!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Count me in! Gotta love those husbands who pretend to tolerate Disney... we know they love it!! Glad yours went for the Annual Pass! And hurrah for your son who plans imaginary Disney trips in his spare time. I used to do that too... ok... I still do...

Oh, and I love Stacy too!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I'm here!

 

[archdandy]

Joining in! It sure is a small world if you managed to meet that many people in 12 days! I can't wait to hear about your trip.

 

[KathyRN137]

Joining in!!

So glad you decided to do a TR! Hakuna Matata -- you're not the only one who's fallen off the DISwagon recently! I know you can do it!


Kathy

 

[natebenma]

I love your reports, even though I do a really really bad job keeping up with them!

I'm in!

Dee

 

[MeMom]

What a treat it will be to follow these fun boys along on this trip!

An annual pass for The Tolerator? Nice job, Disney magic!

 

[wiigirl]

Joining in!

 

[eandesmom]

I'm here!

 

[DisMomAmy]

LOVE IT! Great intros, Amy.

for hubby coming home with an AP.

Sorry...but I don't love Stacy.

I was getting a little sick of Stacy after a while... we actually had to ban Stacy for a couple days but let the boys watch her again on the last couple of days.

I'm here and will try to keep up.

Joining in!

Count me in! Gotta love those husbands who pretend to tolerate Disney... we know they love it!! Glad yours went for the Annual Pass! And hurrah for your son who plans imaginary Disney trips in his spare time. I used to do that too... ok... I still do...

Oh, and I love Stacy too!

And now that we are home, Alex wants to go back & update our spreadsheet with what we actually did!

I'm here!

Joining in! It sure is a small world if you managed to meet that many people in 12 days! I can't wait to hear about your trip.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Joining in!!

So glad you decided to do a TR! Hakuna Matata -- you're not the only one who's fallen off the DISwagon recently! I know you can do it!


Kathy

I'm going to try my best to keep this thing rolling!

I love your reports, even though I do a really really bad job keeping up with them!

I'm in!

Dee

Hi Dee!!

What a treat it will be to follow these fun boys along on this trip!

An annual pass for The Tolerator? Nice job, Disney magic!

"The Tolerator"

Joining in!

I'm here!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Amy~ I'm so glad I found your latest TR and that you decided to write one.
We were there the week before.
It was so unusually hot for April wasn't it???
I was so surprised to read you just got APs thought you would have gotten them sooner with going twice a year.
We got APs this year too. So excited!!!
Looking forward to reading along.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Amy~ I'm so glad I found your latest TR and that you decided to write one.
We were there the week before.
It was so unusually hot for April wasn't it???
I was so surprised to read you just got APs thought you would have gotten them sooner with going twice a year.
We got APs this year too. So excited!!!
Looking forward to reading along.

So glad you found me!

It was hot on some days, but we actually got a couple unusually cool days... of course one of them was supposed to be our pool day!

I've had APs before... I think this one is my third, but it's a first for everyone else! We got Zach his AP last summer before the prices went up & they stopped selling children's APs at a discount. He'll be 10 on our trip next year so we are really making out with his ticket! The upgrade to APs for Tim & Alex was last minute. I double checked my math & it turned out to be a big savings to upgrade them. I think we paid just over $400 to upgrade them both. With the number of park days we would need next year, plus park hopping, there's no way we could get tickets for $200 each.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

So glad you found me!

It was hot on some days, but we actually got a couple unusually cool days... of course one of them was supposed to be our pool day!

I've had APs before... I think this one is my third, but it's a first for everyone else! We got Zach his AP last summer before the prices went up & they stopped selling children's APs at a discount. He'll be 10 on our trip next year so we are really making out with his ticket! The upgrade to APs for Tim & Alex was last minute. I double checked my math & it turned out to be a big savings to upgrade them. I think we paid just over $400 to upgrade them both. With the number of park days we would need next year, plus park hopping, there's no way we could get tickets for $200 each.

Wow that was a good deal.
My boys loved the new entry with the APs they thought that was COOL.
It was near or 90 degrees every day for us. Very little rain just some late in the afternoon ( the usual).

 

[DisMomAmy]

Wow that was a good deal.
My boys loved the new entry with the APs they thought that was COOL.
It was near or 90 degrees every day for us. Very little rain just some late in the afternoon ( the usual).

For the most part, the new entry works great! Alex always has trouble with the finger scan and we had to step aside a few times to get his card scanned by one of the CMs with the portable machines. Zach is anxious for the day he gets to scan his finger!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Day One: Wednesday, April 17th

A little back story about the few days leading up to the trip… A couple days before leaving our kitty got sick! I worked Monday and realized he needed to see the vet that afternoon. I called but they didn’t have anything until Tuesday. I squeezed in an appointment between my other appointments and they said he either had an infection or crystals in his bladder causing irritation. They gave him a combo of antibiotics/anti-inflamatory medication but said we needed to keep a close eye on him. But we were leaving the next morning!!! Luckily Tim’s mom was willing to stay at the house to look after him. Things worked out well & Snowy is feeling much better... but it really threw a wrench in things as we were preparing to leave!

Wednesday morning started at 3:30 (a little earlier for me as I beat the alarm to get up). We got ourselves ready, woke Zach around 4:00 and hit the road around 4:30. The airport & flight were both uneventful and we were in Tampa by 10am. We picked up our luggage and rental car and headed off toward Orlando, stopping for our traditional McDonald’s lunch on the way (yuck!). Since our condo rental was through a timeshare exchange, our check in date was actually the previous Sunday, so our villa was ready when we arrived! I had made a few requests - the most important was that our two reservations be linked so we didn't have to move on Sunday... also, top floor, near the pool & preferably in a different section of the resort than we have stayed before. We've stayed in the "Lakes" and "Fountains" sections of the resort on previous trips, both of which are on the right side of the resort. We had hoped to be in the left section (you really can't wait between the two sections). Luckily all of our requests had been met! We had a top floor villa in the Cascades section, right across from the recreation center & pool and most importantly, our we didn't have to move on Sunday! When we drove up, we didn't find it right away. For some reason, none of the signs pointed to building 17. We ended up circling around until we saw a sign pointing us in the right direction. Turns out the first batch of signs didn't list building 17 because building 17 was the very first building as you drive in past security. We were concerned it could be a bit busy or that parking could be an issue there, but we never had any problems. It was a nice location.

Once we found our villa, we basically put all of our stuff in the condo and headed to the grocery store to get that over with. According to my receipt we finished up at Publix at 1:34pm and stopped at the liquor store at 1:43pm. 

When we got back, the plan was for Tim to take the boys to the pool so I could unpack a bit. However, we had a couple issues with the room so housekeeping & security had to come by. Tim decided he would stay in the room while I took the boys to the pool. Later on, he came over and I went back to unpack.

Our view as we waited for the elevator (that's the recreation building and the pool is right behind)…




Kitchen:




Dining room/Living room:






Master bedroom:




Master bathroom & vanity outside the bathroom:




Second bedroom:






Second bathroom:


Vanity area outside the second bathroom:


View from the screened in porch (sorry bad pics from the screen):




Washer/Dryer off the kitchen:


We did have a couple stains on the carpet that we told them about:




It could have been from anyone but we have a feeling the stains came from the people who were there before us. They left us a few other surprises too… Tim went to turn on the tv and the remote didn’t work. It had no batteries… along with one of the other tv remotes! They took the batteries from two of the three remotes! Plus, when they left, they locked the safe so we had to call security to come open it for us. Once we got those things settled, we really enjoyed the villa. Tim stayed back to deal with that while I took the boys to swim.








Continued...​