1st Trip to WDW and AKL...w/a few pot holes in the road Day 4 Update

[bertegirl]

So I am officially back and ready to begin our post trip report. Thanks to everyone who followed along in my pre-trip. What a trip we had. We learned so much...like I am staying on the monorail next time and never flying again. Anyway I am uploading my 300 plus photos and 200 photopass photos and then I will begin with 1 day at a time. Stay tuned for Berte Family's 1st Ever Walt Disney World Vacation!!!

The cast:

Me (Amber) 33 Stay at home mom and huge lover of anything Disney. I grew up in California and had annual passes to Disneyland.

DH (Jason) 32 Welder, Farmer, Construction Worker, not a Disney lover. He likes vacations where you do nothing. Loves anything Hawkeyes or sports related.

DD (Jenny) 4 Our princess or diva in training. She cried the night we left Walt Disney World and wants to go back already. Jenny can talk to anyone or anything and will. She has the most random conversations with people and objects.

DS (Austin) 1 My little bugsy. Austin was an angel during our trip. He just smiled, slept and checked out the princesses. He is going to be such a flirt.

We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge from May 9-16 in a Savannah Room and did the Disney Dining Plan.

May 9 Flight
May 10 MGK Crystal Palace & 1900 Park Fare
May 11 Epcot Tutto Italia & DTD Earls Sandwich
May 12 Epcot Biergarten
May 13 AK Flame Tree BBQ
May 14 DHS Ohana
May 15 MGK BBB & CRT
May 16 Flight

 

[longing2Batdisney]

subscribing...hope ya'll had a grand time...sorry to hear you were in a nightmare...hope to read your report before I leave in 4 days...

 

[bertegirl]

Oops 538 photos on my camera that Jason broke...want to hear how. Keep reading???

 

[chicagoshannon]

Welcome home! You sure started your report quickly.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Welcome Home!! Can't wait to hear about your trip.

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Sounds like an interesting trip.

 

[IluvXU]

1st timers worst nightmare... that makes me nervous!

 

[momofoneplustwinz]

So excited to hear all about it!

 

[KathyRN137]

Hello! Signing on for what looks to be a great report!!


Kathy

 

[souda]

Sorry about your nightmare. Looking forward to hearing about it.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

I'm here, can't wait to get started!

 

[Mom2ChinaGirls]

Welcome back. I look forward to hearing the details.

 

[chimo2u]

Anxiously awaiting your TR!!

 

[bertegirl]

Thanks everyone for joining in...

We left on Saturday May 9 from Minneapolis airport. Jenny and I waiting for our flight.

It was a balmy 60 degrees, when we touched down the weather in Orlando was nearing 90. What a shock to our system. Although I must say the skies were beautiful!!! This was Austins 1st airplane ride and Jennys second. They both did great.

The flight was nice and smooth. A warning...I hate flying more than anything.

So we got off the flight and once I realized we needed to ride the monorail over to the other side for Disney Magical Express we did fine. I was so excited to see this sign:

The bus ride over was great. We stop first at the Coronado. We were the 1st in our line...what a difference from what we saw on the way home. I feel bad for anyone standing in that line.

We got to the resort around 6:30. We had done the online check in ahead of time. Not the right choice. There was only one person in front of us and it took forever to check in. When we got the map we headed to our room and opened the door. What did we see but a parking lot. Ugh! We had paid for the Savannah view. So I headed back down to the front desk. The young lady that helped me said oh sorry we are sold out. I told her that I had paid for a Savannah view and either I wanted that or the price difference for a parking view. Seriously...not even the pool view. She decided to move us to the back corner of a long very long hallway. We arrived finally and headed down to the Mara to get some supper. I must admit now I did a horrible job taking food photos. I was so busy trying to get the kids fed that I wouldn't think about it until we were done. So after that we decided to go to bed. It was almost 9 by then and we had been on the road since 6 am. Plus we had Crystal Palace ressies at 8 am the next morning. Stay tuned for our 1st day at the parks.

Oh by the way

the gift basket we had ordered for the kiddies with the autograph books, etc. Jenny loved it. Austin just wanted to eat everything inside.

 

[wlwilliams9]

Ooh! Great start!! I'm looking forward to reading more! I'm so glad we got to meet at AK, we should have planned that one out a little better though! At least we got to ride EE together! Weeeeeeeee! I think I took about 1000 pics between our 2 cameras and our camera phones! That doesn't even include our 150+ photopass pics! Holy Moly!

 

[KathyRN137]

Soooo..... was that room at the end of the long hallway a Savanna view??

Seems odd... how could they have "sold out" when you reserved it?

Anyway, glad you arrived safe and sound.

Don't worry about not getting food pix...we understand! With little ones along, we know what the priorities are!


Kathy

 

[bertegirl]

Day 1 Officially

Mistake 1:asking the guy at the front desk how to get to the MK on the following morning for our breakfast.
Mistake 2:talking to the valet man
Mistake 3:did we read the first 2???I think that was enough
So Mothers Day began at 6:00 am sharp. We don't take long to get ready. So when the front desk man said we had to be at the bus stop between 6:30 and 6:45 I thought no problem. Wrong! I did not factor in that I needed to pack a bag to take to the park. I took way too much. You learn fast!!!

We headed down to the bus stop at 6:35 am. I asked the valet man and he told me to head over to the sign. Did he realize that I meant the bus to the resort and not to the airport. We waited 10 mins and no bus. I was freaking out because the man the night before told me the breakfast bus only runs from 6:30 to 6:45 and then stops until 8. It was almost 7 by this time. SOOO I went and talked to the valet man. He called Mears and then realized I was wanting to go the parks. Duh! So he called another number and they said the buses run every 20 mins. Good to know. We headed down to the correct bus stop and around the corner came the bus to the Magic Kingdom. Yeah! We hopped on and off to the park we went. We got there with plenty of time to spare. I think we were number 10 in line to enter the park for our 8:05 Crystal Palace reservation. Our 1st view

To anyone who has never gone this early...do it. Main street just has a different feel.

When we checked in..they told us to wait a minute and they would call our names. They did and we got a great spot right in the middle. I didn't take any food photos, because the characters came our right away and I was busy taking other photos and getting autographs. Jason said the eggs with veggies were awesome. I ate lots of fruit that morning. Jenny had cheese (a staple of her diet) and a Mickey waffle.

We got our 1st dis sighting...Mike, Emily and Wendy!!! What a cutie Emily is and Jenny had an instant new friend.

After this we headed to the barber shop. We got there and there was no one in line. Yeah for us!!!

Austin sat still. He loved the toy they gave him. Which I forgot to buy during our trip!

They gave Austin a my 1st haircut hat

Too cute!!!

We headed for the rides then...Dumbo 1st of course, Tea Cups, Cars, Winnie The Pooh, Snow White, Phila Magic. We decided around 1 we were hot and wanted to let Austin take a nap. So we headed back to the resort. Jason and Austin took a nap and Jenny and I hit the pool. The best thing about AKL...hands down.

We had a 4:45 reservation at 1900 Park Fare. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and hopped on the monorail.

Our next trip we will be staying here!!!

This was by far the best meal we had at WDW. Even hubby loved it and sait he would do it again. Jenny just loved Prince Charming

Afterwards we went on the monorail again back to the Magic Kingdom...as we were boarding the man asked Jenny is she would like to sit in the front

A totally cool view.

We did Splash Mountain, Aladdin, Pirates, and a few others. By this time it was almost 9 and Jenny does not like fireworks. I made a huge mistake and got us stuck in the back of the park. We decided to just take a chance and folded up the stroller, Jason grabbed Austin and I told Jenny to hold onto mommy and we pushed our way through the crowd to the front. I can not believe how rude some people can be. Just move over. Next time I will take Mike and Wendy's advice and use the excuse me I am going to be sick trick!!! We made it back to our room around 10:30 and hit the beds.

Tomorrow...photo session at AKL and a day at Epcot.

 

[bertegirl]

Soooo..... was that room at the end of the long hallway a Savannah view??

Seems odd... how could they have "sold out" when you reserved it?

Anyway, glad you arrived safe and sound.

Don't worry about not getting food pix...we understand! With little ones along, we know what the priorities are!


Kathy

I don't know...I think they had bumped a lot of people to better views during the previous week. Or at least thats what someone told me. Yes it was a Savannah view or so they called it. We faced a fence.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

OMG you have got to be kidding me. If they gave your room away after you paid for it you should have been bu ped to a BETTER room. Please tell me you griped about it some more. Last time I paid for a "better" location I was done the same way. So I asked for my money back and they said the room was not a gurantee. Well, in the end I got my room and his you know what got in some trouble for being a jerk. I would not have dealt with a fence view at a premium price. Forget that.

I have to say Austin is so cute in his first Mickey ears! Looks like things are getting good now. Can't wait for the next update!

 

[kadesha]

Hi!

I am in shock about your room! I cannot believe that you paid for a Savanna view and they were just going to give you a parking lot view! Do they think people are crazy, like you are just going to be ok with that!! Gosh, makes me mad just reading it! lol!

Your first day at MK seemed like so much fun!! Can't wait to read more!