My very late Oct 2006 trip report

[fizz13]

I just finished doing an abbreviated report in my pre-trippie for August so thought I would post it here as I don't know if I ever did, and for those planning it might be useful:

The dates were 21st to 29th October, and it was booked about 13 months before, which meant I had lots of time to plan and re-plan It started out innocently enough, it was to be my first big girl solo trip to the "world", i was feeling confident and ready to go. Then I started to get cold feet about the whole thing. I had booked for half term holidays in England so that meant my children were out of school. My first brainwave was to bring my DD7 with me, she was quite a mature little girl (7 going on 16 actually) and i thought we would have a wonderful time together, she is all about fine dining and thrill rides, we are a good match. the booking was now for 2.

Fast forward to Xmas 2005, and we had a party at our house. i like to try and do open house the week between Xmas and new years. A lot of people take that week off and its good to catch up. DD's best friend from school came over with her mom, who is raising molly on her own. She was always fascinated by my WDW fascination and i mentioned that i was taking the trip with Cara. She hinted that it had always been an ambition of hers to take Molly to WDW but didn't feel confident to do it alone. we signed them up. cast count is now 4.

Fast forward to may 2006 and DS5, dean, is feeling a bit put out. he loves loves WDW and completely gets the magic. he adore all the characters, rides, and he did not want to miss out. I did my calculations and figured I would just about have enough money to make it work. cara was compensated with the fact the her best friend was coming so she really couldn't complain too much. cast count is now 5

Finallt, fast forward to late may 2006 and my grandfather is feeling put out. Apparently he would like to see his great grandchildren enjoying the mouse and as its not really a girls holiday with dean coming, he would like to come too. i was very apprehensive about including him, as he is a lot slower than he used to be, has no patience for anything and has a way of undermining me with the children. Of course i relented as if anybody desreves to come with me it is him. he is the one who took me to WDW first, he is the one that has always understood my addiction, he is the one who has been supportive my whole life without questioning and criticising, he is just too important to my life to turn him down. Of course he is coming. cast count 6

So there you have it, not exactly a solo trip huh? we had the dates, the hotel was set to Coronado springs, 3 seperate rooms so plenty of space for all, I bought all our park tickets and MNSSHP tickets and we were set.
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TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL

So we flew direct with Virgin Atlantic, no delays thank goodness, really enjoyed catching up on my movies although I'm another person who tortures themselves with the little plane travelling at 0 miles per hour screen, the one where you track progress, aahhh why do i do it? Meanwhile grandad was enjoying his business class seat at the front It seemed like a long flight, although Dean didn't seem too bored


their first real ride of the trip:


We used ****** transportation who were stars, no complaints there, very helpful, courteous, punctual etc.

CORONADO SPRINGS
Now i didn't love CSR as soon as i got here, and I'll tell you why: it wasn't the Polynesian i had a feeling I was gonna feel like this but as time went on it really grew on me. Everybody was very friendly despite what i had heard about the Pepper market staff, i didn't encounter any abrupt CMs, the only funny one was a very sweet little lady who was in charge of the bakery section, she took her job very seriously! however she was such a petite lady she couldn't actually reach all the baked goods, but no way was she going to let us help her, bless her heart. i loved the Pepper market food, and there was so much choice for everybody. I could eat as much mexican as i liked while the kids had their own section. It was a bit of a problem all sitting to eat together though as i had to queue here, then somewhere else. Btw, portions were huge, i don't think i finshed a whole meal all week here.
The rooms:

Our first night at CSR


the entertainment unit, good size draws, plenty of room for 3 of us


the bathroom obviously


Now I only had one adult and 2 kids in the room and we had just enough space. i thought the beds were a little small and i think with 2 adults in the bed you might be fighting for space a little bit so be warned. Of course it could be that I am too much of a stretcher

THE POOL:
Ok my kids thought this was awesome. The pool was plenty big enough and the water slide was fantastic for them, heck i even had a go. the hot tub was incredibly hot so please please do not get in too fast, I fear you may pass out! bar staff were a little slow but I guess when i want that cocktail i want it now. Oh yeah, one CM seemed to resent me coming to fill my mug too many times, I can't imagine how strenuous it must be to turn around and fill a mug! the play area was very cute, and plenty of equipment and sand, very well done.




Looking toward the bar.

Oh yeah, check in!! This took a little longer than i would have liked but it wasn't actually CSR's fault, it was Virgin Holidays. Firstly they didn't have enough nights on my booking, then they couldn't see the dining plan on my friends booking (which never got sorted actually and friend had to get a refund from Virgin when she got home ) so we stood there for a good 20 minutes trying to sort it all out, by which time my grandfather was having a little paddy at them, the man has no patience for anything. the redeeming point was that they honoured my room requests of cabanas 9B, which is closest to El Centro and main bus stop. I did this by getting my disney booking number from Virgin holidays and ringing about 10 days before we got there, it worked!!
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So heres a little of what we got up to:


donalds Breakfastasaurus for 8am before park opening, it worked really well to get in the park before it opened, the kids had first dibs on the rides in Dinoland and cara tried Primeval Whirl for the first time, Dinosaur was not a hit, lets say, and for poor molly it put her off for the rest of the week, she was very cautious about what she rode from then on. Everest was totally awesome as usual, and the kids loved this, molly opted out.



Dean is a character fiend and made sure he met as many as possible, they were everywhere at AK.
Molly found something more to her liking:




Don't discount rafikis planet watch, the kids were fascinated by the things on display.
Some other shots;




THE DIS MEET
This was wonderful, it was a uk meet like never before, and it was bizarre how many of us were there at the same time. And of course i got to meet the legendary man that is Nathan Rose, from disney podcast fame.

[fizz13]

Some Epcot fun next, rope drop yet again, heres some highlights:


playing around at Imagination, i let the kids play for a long time here.


Mine! Mine! Mine!


Posing in japan! We saw the candy lady and both my kids got chosen to get candys made, Dean chose a shark and cara had a unicorn, sadly I didn't get piccies as my battery ran out, go and see her, its amazing what she can do!


having more fun in japan with Molly. Also had lunch at teppanyaki which i was very worried about but we loved it, and cara has requested it for our December trip, the food was simple, just rice, meat and veggies but the show was great and it was really yummy, full marks from us!


Of course we found time to taste other culinery delights, Dean is in norway here, Loved the rice cream, much better than uk rice pudding!


Doesn't Mickey look smart in his YOMD garb? Character Connection is well worth it if you don't want to do a character meal, there was hardly any wait and we saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip and dale, can't ask for more than that

[fizz13]

Magic Kingdom next, look look its Cinderellas horse:



You can tell by the gold ribbon on the tail.



We had a really cold snap while we were there, hence the jumpers, I actually shook with cold while waiting for rope drop, which wa fab though as the kids got to throw pixedust to open the park!
We rode Space Mtn about 6 times this trip, dean loved finally being tall enough, and Pirates had the longest wait I have ever seen.I saw carrouesl of progress for the first time, but decided I don't need to go back in a hurry Sorry to any loyal fans. we got soaked on Splash but we did sit in the front on purpose, and we took our first trip over to Tom Sawyer island, i was pleasantly suprised and we had so much fun, we were there for an hour exploring the tunnels and caves, i can't wait to go back actually
Of course we went to:

MNSSHP
Oh my gosh, can you say candy overload? We got there at 6pm and didn't leave till midnight. We saw the parade and the headless horseman, met tons of characters (again!!) rode tons of rides with no wait, sadly missed the fireworks as we were on the indy speedway whoops! and had a blast. heres some of my fav pics from the night, oh yeah please don't laugh at my costume

[fizz13]

the girls had a visit to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique




this is well worth the money, and it was so nice to see Cara with long hair again, she was starting to feel a bit too grown up for all this disney stuff and decided she was too big for princesses....until she did this! She was loving the nails, the make up, I got my little girl back again, I think a few tears may have been shed when i saw the finished product

MGM was my kids fav park that week because their fav characters are here, power rangers and Kim Possible.





Cara got here first ride on rock n Roller and i was so nervous that this thirll was going to tip her over the edge....nope she laughed it up big time! Dean went off Tower of terror which was no problem at age 3 for him, so it shows that fears can creep in any time. Four For A Dollar were incredible, definately make time to get to Beauty and The Beast early, you will not be dissapointed



Other highlights of the trip included Whispering canyon cafe, where Dean told our server straight away that he wanted to have lots of fun, he had seen the pics of ketchup on the food porn thread and wanted some of the actionwe got a table full of straws and napkins, ketchup coming out of our ears and giant milkshakes, so much fun. Ohana breakfast was totally yummy, Goofy's Candy Company treats made my kids eyes boggle as more and more toppings went on their treats....they never did manage to eat it all! My grandfather was blown away by fantasmic and i think he got a little of the magic that night.

Lowlights:
3 dyas into the trip my grandfather decided he would head home he never explained why but i think he was physically exhausted and he is not an ECV kind of guy, he is so proud he would never get in one of these. he also resented that i didn't want him to ride tower of terror or Dinosaur because he suffers with slipped disc and leg pain, and i thought these would aggravate him. he wanted to experience everything with the children and refused to accept his physical limitations. World Showcase day was a very low point, we got there around 3pm but we had slow going as Molly wanted to shop shop shop and naomi her mother indulged her, we sat around waiting for 45 minutes at China before naomi said to go on without her and grandad was fuming about this, he got cross with the kidcot stops, why did the children need to do it? and then waiting for Illuminations he looked like he was going to keel over. i finally managed to get him into a disabled area to sit on a bench while we stood the other side of the rope. i was so frustrated by this point, tired with trying to please everybody and i nearly snapped, my mimosa in france and the bellini in italy helped a little.
i think it was best he went home if thats how he was feeling and it allowed me and the kids to run around and be silly, but it was a shame that I couldn't have made it more magical for him.

We had a wonderful trip overall with the obvious exception above, and my kids can't wait to get back, this time with their youngest brother in tow. i'll leave this with the last few shots of our week:

[mark&sue]

Claire

Great photos. What did your friend think. Is she hooked yet? I am still working on my friend.

I too spend all my time watching that plane on the screens on the plane. I just love it when it gets to Greenland, even though there is still ages to go it feels like you are nearly there.

Thanks for a great report.

Look forward to seeing you in August.


Susan

[natalielongstaff]

i recognise a few faces from your pics

[Shane]

Hiya!

Great report, and the photos are great and it looks like the little people had a really good time.

Do you have any future visits planned yet?

[pezzapixiedust]

great trip report, lovely pics. my daughter is going to bbb when we go to wdw in 3 wks time, i know she will love it! didnt know that four for a dollar were still there, we saw then on our last trip in 2005, so looking forward to seeing them again, they were soooooo funny!! once again great trip report!!

[fizz13]

Originally Posted by Shane

Hiya!

Great report, and the photos are great and it looks like the little people had a really good time.

Do you have any future visits planned yet?

um just a couple the Girly Tour is set for August 23rd, me, Angel659 Michelle and my friend Carly.
Then in December I am taking all 3 of my children for a Xmas suprise, 12th to 22nd, staying at Pop and Wilderness Lodge. So don't worry i have plenty to keep me busy
My pre-trippie for August is linked in my signature


Hi Susan,
She liked it well enough but she feels her and Molly have been there done that now, they have been to DLP before so maybe that was enough of a disney dose for now, everything they did they enjoyed though. Theres plenty more friends in the sea though

Thanks for all your comments xx

[Nubbedy]

Great report Claire and I loved your photos. The kids all looked like they had a ball! Looking forward to the reports from your next trips!

Sara.

[buzz182]

Great report and piccies!

The kids all look like they had the time of their lives.

All your Halloween costumes were great. Sorry your Grandfather had to go home early.

When are you telling the kids about the "surprise trip"? Bless, I would be bursting to say something! Good on you if you can keep the secret till the last minute.

Karina

[fizz13]

When are you telling the kids about the "surprise trip"? Bless, I would be bursting to say something! Good on you if you can keep the secret till the last minute.

Karina

well they know we are going sometime, but they think we are going in January after New Years so the plan is to tell them the night before, my boys will be thrilled for sure, Cara I'm not so sure about as she is not really a disney loving girl, but as you can see she has a good time when we are there The way I've done it is to include her in planning, like what restaurants she may want to eat at when shes there, and what rides go on the schedule, so it will be her trip too, she doesn't know when. I think she'll be a happy bunny

[wils]

What a great trip though I can see there were challenges with some of your party! The kids look like they had a great time

Thanks

[irongirlof12]

great report, we are staying at CSR, so good to hear nice stuff about it

[Minniespal]

Excellent report Claire

Your children are so cute