A very overdue Holiday TR ~ A toddler, a reunion & Thanksgiving ~ Update 9/17

[Sunset Cliffs]

That is hilarious I just remembered from this that I still need to get the Photopass pictures from you!



Yes, it worked. that is so cool! I need to get copies of this from you too. The video doesn't play within the thread, it takes you to a Photobucket page, where you can play the video. Thanks for this

I can't believe I haven't gotten you the disk! I thought we did that a long time ago. I asked Todd & he said he thought we gave them to mom to give to you. I'm so sorry!! That will be fixed soon.

The videos were taken on the same camera with all of my pictures, so you might already have it if we put all of my pictures on your computer. If not, the next time we get together we can use a thumb drive to get you copies.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Figures! You started back up while I was on the cruise and so I missed it!

I had the same lunch at les chef's, YUM! I need to get my gang there as I think they'd like it.

I love love love your magic Disney moment, that's really what it's all about. Poor Dylan and the bed rail, rough night for everyone.

AK is VERY dark in spots during EMH. Cool but yeah, a little creepy at times.

Great updates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been super sporatic at doing my updates, so I'm not surpised that people are missing them. I feel like life might start to get a little more consistent, so hopefully so will my updates.

I was surprised by how much we all liked Chefs. I was really worried that I WOULDN'T like it, so when it ended up being one of my favorites, it was a really nice surprised. I think your family would like it too.

I had quite a few Disney moments on this trip and they were all not during the times when I expected them to be. That's the best part though, you know! I was so happy to get to go to AK at night, after years of looking at everyone elses pictures. It felt so different to me and I loved every minute of it!

I read this whole PTR in one night and it was so good and so entertaining! I love your family, and I am ready for more updates! Your son is so adorable!

Wow! Thanks for reading! That takes dedication to read it all in one night. Hopefully I will have another update this weekend. Thanks so much for your comments. I am going to have to go check out your PTR!

peep

Oh my gosh Jordan!! I was just talking about you yesterday! With Genee, my friend that you met when we had lunch. She was asking how you were doing and I told her you were never on here anymore. We must have had some EPS going between us. Miss talking to you and seeing you on here.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

New ticker alert below!!! A semi-spontaneous, very affordable trip to WDW for New Years IN 3 MONTHS, just became a reality. I am soooo excited right now.

Totally overwhelmed in thinking about planning all the details in that short of a time but I think we might do a more go-with-the-flow trip this time.

I guess this means I need to start a PTR... Don't know how I am going to do that. But anyways, YAY!!!!!

 

[MEK]

Saw your post on Cynthia's thread and stopped over to see if you had updated recently. congrats on your upcoming trip! That's awesome!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Saw your post on Cynthia's thread and stopped over to see if you had updated recently. congrats on your upcoming trip! That's awesome!

Thanks for checking in! I am actually working on an update right now. I am on the back side of my worst busy season of the year, so I haven't had much Dis time lately. The update should be done tonight or tomorrow.

We are so excited about our trip! Haven't done much planning yet, but hopefully soon!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Thursday, November 25, 2010 – Thanksgiving Day!

We had set the alarm for 8:30 because we wanted to give ourselves time to walk around the resort before check out this morning. I woke up early (of course), so I started writing my TR to catch up. This is the only morning we have had to really sleep in so far, so Dylan wakes up early too (of course). I had him watch a show on the iPad for a while until Todd woke up. When the alarm actually went off at 8:30, I started to pack & get ready to go. Angelyn texted & said they were planning to take the first boat to POFQ at 10:00. We took many trips back & forth to the car to get it all loaded. Dylan kept taking out one item at a time while Todd hauled large things down, and I kept packing it all up in the room. We were finally all done about 9:30, so we took our last walk down the stairs to our car, and I finally took some pictures of the property.

Quiet pool right outside our room

We drove the car around to check out. Angelyn texted & said it would be more like 10:20, so I texted back to say we were going to walk down to POFQ for beignets for breakfast & we would meet them over there.

When we walked into the lobby, we saw that it had been transformed overnight. All of the Christmas decorations were hung! We had noticed that the parks had been decorated up to this point, but not the smaller hotels. It looked so nice!

Express Checkout was easy. We had charged a lot to our room throughout our time at the parks and it was all listed to see on the bill. There were no problems so we were done! We went to refill our mugs for the walk. We crossed through the lobby and took a couple of photos of the big Christmas tree.

I love the ceiling in here! It is gorgeous!

Cute chair for pictures.

We filled up our mugs and walked outside. The rest of the family walked up. On their walk over, my mom & Angelyn had taken a lot of pictures as well. I will just post them here, so you can see what a beautiful walk it was from our building over to the lobby.

I think this was our building.

It was close to 10:00 so we decided to take the boat to POR together, since one was pulling up. I was trying to snap pictures like crazy, since I hadn’t taken many before.

I became a little obsessed with these towers. I saw them the night before when they were lit up, and I fell in love with them. I have no reason why, but I had to make sure to get a picture of them. I wish I had my camera the night before so I could have had a shot of them in the dark too.

Walking to the boat ramp.

I got a picture of everyone as we were waiting for the boat.

One of my favorite pictures of the POR property.

Continued in next post.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

When the boat pulled up there were very few available seats on it, and it got filled up before we could get on. Todd & I decided to walk to POFQ, but Dylan got pretty upset because he wanted to ride boat, so the rest of the family kept him while Todd & I walked. It was such a beautiful day and the walk was a perfect way to start the morning.

I had seen pictures before, but after experiencing POR in person, I am in love with this resort. I was genuinely sad that we were checking out, even though I knew we were moving to bigger space at the condo. I loved staying on Disney property. It was closer to everything when we were driving, we were always surrounded by the “Disney” feeling. The gift shop, all the little details, happy CMs everywhere, it all was perfect! Everything just felt much more friendly than the other resorts we stay at.

We had a nice walk to POFQ by ourselves. It was one of the only “alone” moments we have had on the trip so far. We just strolled & took pictures, and it only took 10 minutes to walk over.

Angelyn called & said they decided they wanted to take the boat all the way to DTD. We said we would get on the boat at POFQ and go with them, and we went in to get breakfast. We didn’t realize they cook the beignets right at the time you ordered them, but there was no one in line when we placed our order.

Todd said that a lot of people ordered right after us there was a huge line. I’m glad we were first, or it would have been a long wait!

Meanwhile, these are the pictures from the boat ride with the rest of the fam.

Getting on the boat. Love this picture of the cousins holding hands!

We walked to the boat ramp, armed with all of the beignets. When we got there we saw that there were about 20 people in line, so there was no way we were going to get on the boat. I called Angelyn & told her we would just take Dylan off the boat and keep him with us. She talked to everyone said they would all get off the boat too. I felt bad about that but they said they wanted to see POFQ anyway. They got off and we sat by the pool to eat the yummy beignets. I forgot to take a picture, but I think it’s because there was only one for each of us, and I didn’t want to miss out on getting mine because I stopped to take a picture. Ha, ha.

After we were done eating, Angelyn took Dylan to see the slide at the pool. I was walking over towards them and I saw a big black snake crossing the path & into the bushes. It literally stopped me in my tracks because it was so big. It wasn’t just long, it was a thick snake! Of course, I told everyone and we all took a peek at it in the bushes and we got this picture.

I’m so glad Dylan didn’t see it! He would have been scared. I went to tell the lifeguard about it, and he just smiled at me like I was a tourist and said, “Yeah, there are a lot of snakes here. Just don’t mess with it, and it will be fine.” Ok then….

We walked back to the lobby to take pictures of the Christmas decorations. Again, the lobby was so pretty. It is so cool that they incorporate decorations from the theming of the resort into the Christmas decorations. Everything was New Orleans or Mardi Gras themed.

Bryan was showing Dylan the coins in the fountain, so of course he wanted to throw some in too. At first, it was fun to just throw them in the water, but by the end he was trying to throw it into the top bowl of the fountain. He couldn’t make it so Todd finally lifted him up so he could reach it.

He was trying for that top bowl.

We headed into the gift shop where I found a cute Buzz Lightyear toy for Dylan & I got a postcard to send to his friend Levi. My mom was letting Dylan carry around items that he wanted, and I got worried he thought he was going to want all of it!

Todd got him to put it back and took him out to the playground while we finished shopping. We took a few more pictures outside of the grounds & the Christmas decorations.

It was time to head back to our cars and get going with the rest of our day. I’m sorry for all of the photos but I just can’t tell you how beautiful these resorts are at Christmas time and what a great time we had on this morning.

Up next, our Thanksgiving meal!!

 

[MEK]

You may have rushed to get pictures at the end of your trip, but they sure turned out great. You have a good eye! I love POR and those Christmas decorations are the icing on the cake.

 

[LilAnn]

Yay, an update! We really enjoyed POR when we stayed there, too. It's so pretty and relaxing. We never made it over to POFQ for the beignets, though, and I really wanted to try them!

Too funny, I have a picture of our girl with the same expression on her face as Dylan in the gift shop. She was eyeing the lollipops though. I love that his hands are full of toys.

Jealous on your upcoming trip, but congrats and have fun on it!

 

[tinkgurl]

Yay for a new trip! How exciting!

haha, Glad to know that Little Guy is not the only one who starts grabbing everything in the store.

I just love that pic of him outside in front of the alligator. Him posing with his hands folded is adorable.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

You may have rushed to get pictures at the end of your trip, but they sure turned out great. You have a good eye! I love POR and those Christmas decorations are the icing on the cake.

Thank you! I don't think there are many bad pictures to take at that resort. The Christmas decorations are so fun, it's like a treasure hunt to go to each resort and see what they did to make it themed. That is one of our favorite things to do.

Yay, an update! We really enjoyed POR when we stayed there, too. It's so pretty and relaxing. We never made it over to POFQ for the beignets, though, and I really wanted to try them!

Too funny, I have a picture of our girl with the same expression on her face as Dylan in the gift shop. She was eyeing the lollipops though. I love that his hands are full of toys.

Jealous on your upcoming trip, but congrats and have fun on it!

I wish we would have had more beignets than we did, but we all just had one since we were having our Thanksgiving "dinner" just a few hours later. It was worth it though, after seeing the pictures on other people's TRs. I had to try them!

That expression cracks me up, because you can tell he thinks he has hit the mother load. Poor kid had his hopes dashes about 5 minutes after this picture was taken.

I am so excited about our trip. We have planned nothing yet, so that is a little concerning, but it will still be fun. Hopefully I will have time to start a PTR soon.

Yay for a new trip! How exciting!

haha, Glad to know that Little Guy is not the only one who starts grabbing everything in the store.

I just love that pic of him outside in front of the alligator. Him posing with his hands folded is adorable.

I am getting really excited about our trip. It's only about 2 1/2 months away!! I am SO ready for a vacation right now.

Dylan normally does not grab things, but I think my mom gave him the green light to "show" her what he liked. That's grandma's way of saying she thought I needed to buy him something. Too bad it didn't work this time!

That's so funny you noticed his hands in that picture. He does that a lot and I always think it is cute too.

 

[eandesmom]

I love all the Christmas decorations!!!!!!!!!! While I'd love to think someday I'll get to see them live, it's a long shot at best so I love living vicariously through TR's.

Oh those beignets. Messy delicious bombs from heaven.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

I love all the Christmas decorations!!!!!!!!!! While I'd love to think someday I'll get to see them live, it's a long shot at best so I love living vicariously through TR's.

Oh those beignets. Messy delicious bombs from heaven.

Why will you never get there at Christmas? Does the scheduling just not work for you? We love going right around Thanksgiving because the lights are up, but you don't get the holiday crowds of Christams (other than the actualy Thanksgiving weekend days). Win-win. It is seriously my favorite time to visit.

Your description of the beignets made me laugh because it's so true!

 

[Dugette]

All caught up!

So glad you enjoyed AK at night! It really is a totally different experience and the way everything is lit up is so pretty. Glad you had a great ride on Everest too!

Sounds like such a nice morning enjoying POR and POFQ! The grounds there are so beautiful...wish I was there right now! And that walk between resorts isn't bad at all. And yummy beignets! Since we've stayed at POR already, we really need to stay at POFQ someday. Also cool that the holiday decorations went up before you checked out.

I'm happy that you finally got to experience the "magic" of staying on property!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

All caught up!

So glad you enjoyed AK at night! It really is a totally different experience and the way everything is lit up is so pretty. Glad you had a great ride on Everest too!

Sounds like such a nice morning enjoying POR and POFQ! The grounds there are so beautiful...wish I was there right now! And that walk between resorts isn't bad at all. And yummy beignets! Since we've stayed at POR already, we really need to stay at POFQ someday. Also cool that the holiday decorations went up before you checked out.

I'm happy that you finally got to experience the "magic" of staying on property!

Before I forget to tell you, I am currently reading your December TR and I am really enjoying it! I didn't realize that you guys got there right after we left to go home from our trip. You keep talking about how cold it was, and I remember how cold it was getting as we were leaving.

We really loved AK at night, and that ride on EE was one of the best ever. We still talk about how fun it was. Definitely left an impression!

We originally had wanted to stay at POFQ for this trip, but it was all sold out so we opted for POR. As we were walking around that morning, we realized how happy we were that it worked out the way that it had. It seems like the grounds of POFQ are smaller and a sold out hotel there felt more congested than over at POR, where it is all spread out. Someday we want to stay there, but we were very happy over at POR.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

We rode the boat back to POR from POFQ because there was no line this time. We snapped a few more pictures, since we knew it was our last time on property.

I wanted to get some pictures of the food court, since it turned into one of my favorite places at the resort. I don’t know if we always had really good timing, but it never seemed that busy in the food court while we were there. On top of that, it is a huge area, so we never felt like we were too crowded when we ate there (except for our first breakfast that we ate there). I think I just really like the architecture with all of the exposed beams and the high ceiling.

And with that, we walked out the front doors and ended our first ever stay on WDW property. I was so sad to leave because we had the best time staying here. It was everything that I had wanted it to be.

Continued in next post.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

We all drove our cars to Old Key West resort, because we had an ADR at 12:45 for Thanksgiving at

Olivia’s!!! We had debated on a few places for our Thanksgiving day meal, but this sounded like the best place to get a traditional Thanksgiving meal. We had also gotten an ADR at 1900 Park Faire, but once we all got to WDW, we decided that we really didn’t want to do a buffet for Thanksgiving and we canceled it.

Angelyn showing her excitement about Olivia’s.

I loved the beachy Christmas wreath!

We checked in 20 minutes early & to our surprise, we were seated right away. After looking at the menu for a few minutes, we all ordered the traditional Thanksgiving meal except for Elijah, who ordered the shrimp pasta.

You can see that most tables were full, but it did not feel crowded at all. While we were waiting for our food, we took some family photos.

Such a cute restaurant! It feels so cozy here.

It didn’t feel like we waited too long before our food arrived. We were all pretty hungry since we really had not eaten anything for breakfast, so as soon as the plates were put in front of us, we all dug in. I’m glad that I remembered to take pictures before I started eating.

My plate. The Thanksgiving meal included turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and sweet potatoes. It was all SO good!

Elijah’s shrimp pasta, which he said was great too.

Our meals included a piece of pie and ice cream as well. We all got different pie and it was all good. I think the choices were pumpkin, pecan or apple.

Waiting for our dessert, Dylan was playing with little Pooh & Tigger figures, and he was having a great time with my parents. This is one of the reasons that I was so happy to have us all together for the holiday. I love moments like this.

My mom telling Tigger a “secret”. Dylan is totally into it.

I love this picture of him.

We had a wonderful waitress. I wish I could remember her name. She had a lot of tables going and could have been very stressed, but she wasn’t. She handled everything with ease.

Part of the celebration of this trip was that Bryan’s birthday was right after Thanksgiving. Therefore, he had been wearing a birthday button during the trip. He was wearing it when we first sat down, but took it off when everyone sang Happy birthday to a woman at the table next to us who was 75 years old. She looked amazing for 75, let me tell you! Well, Bryan could see what was coming, so he took off his button because I don’t think he wanted to be sung to. About 20 minutes later, our waitress brought out a brownie for him anyway & made the whole place sing to him. She was teasing him and said, “You thought I didn’t notice!” I think he was embarrassed but he handled it well.

We wrapped up our lunch and waddled out of the restaurant. We all were so full! We all enjoyed our lunch and felt like we had made the right choice for the ADR. It was such a beautiful day outside, and we needed to walk off some of that food. We took a walk through the grounds to the pool and hung out for a while outside.

We went past the pool and found a little stage with a seating area. Not sure what they use it for, but we sat down and enjoyed the day while we watched Dylan play on the playground with some other kids.

This palm tree was amazing! I couldn’t believe how big it was, and how beautiful!

Did you notice Bryan and Elijah? They were both so full from lunch that they laid down there to stretch out their stomachs. And then they stayed that way for a loooong time.

We finally got the motivation to stand up, and we headed back towards our cars. We walked through lobby & when we were by the counter, one of the CM’s gave Dylan a balloon animal. He was pretty happy about that, and it lasted for almost a week! Before we left, we mailed a postcard to Dylan’s friend Levi. He thought he was such a big boy to put it in the mailbox by himself.

We were switching hotels today and we were excited about staying at a new timeshare. We drove about 5 miles out International Drive until we made it to the Marriott Grande Vista. I had been a little concerned about the distance to this resort, because it is much farther than the Sheraton Vistana (which is where we usually stay), but it barely took us any time at all to get there. We arrived at the resort at 3:00. Check in was at 4:00, but we were hoping that we would be able to get in early.

There were tons of cars in the lot, which was incredibly small considering how many people could stay there. We all went inside to get checked in and saw that there was a pretty small lobby as well, considering the size of resort. We waited in line for a while and finally it was our turn. Let’s just say we did not receive Disney service during this check in. The girl was not that nice, and she was training a new guy at the same time as she was helping us. No big deal, except that every question that we asked was answered rudely, then she would turn to him and explain why she said what she said. Basically, our rooms were not ready, and we didn’t get the building we requested by the kid’s pool.

She said it would be an hour until the rooms were ready so we decided to get our grocery shopping done for the week. Guess where we went. Walmart. On Thanksgiving day. It was not too far away, and it was a Super Walmart, so they had groceries. We were actually grateful that it was open, since other groceries stores that we drove past were closed for the holiday. It actually was not too crowded, considering the day. Of course, as soon as we walked in the front door, I got a call that the room was ready. We finished our shopping & were back to the Marriott by 4:15.

Up next, pictures of our new home for a week. It was beautiful!!

 

[tinkgurl]

Such a relaxing boat ride. It is always nice to get the chance to do that.

OLIVIA'S!!!!!!! I'm so excited you went there! It was nice to see some pics of "home". It is such a nice little place to eat at. They have good breakfast choices as well.

 

[Dugette]

Before I forget to tell you, I am currently reading your December TR and I am really enjoying it! I didn't realize that you guys got there right after we left to go home from our trip. You keep talking about how cold it was, and I remember how cold it was getting as we were leaving.

Yeah, I remember thinking that we weren't missing each-other by too much! (I'm glad you're enjoying the TR!)

Great updates. So nice that your first stay on property was all you'd hoped for! I also remember the dining area at POR being pretty empty when we were there. It looks like you got some great family holiday time on this trip. I don't think I've ever seen pics of Olivia's before...they have the same leaf-fans that Kona and the Poly Club Lounge have! Neat. And the food looks good. You can tell that it was really Thanksgiving with the guys laying out to stretch their full bellies! Sorry the level of service at your new resort wasn't as good. Sounds like at least the room was nice, though!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Such a relaxing boat ride. It is always nice to get the chance to do that.

OLIVIA'S!!!!!!! I'm so excited you went there! It was nice to see some pics of "home". It is such a nice little place to eat at. They have good breakfast choices as well.

I actually thought of you when we were there, because I know that is where you consider "home". It is so pretty! I recently saw some pictures of the renovated rooms and the look amazing! I wish we could stay there sometime. I really like the laid back feeling of that resort. I want to have breakfast at Olivia's! I'm sure it is great, just like the rest of their food!

Yeah, I remember thinking that we weren't missing each-other by too much! (I'm glad you're enjoying the TR!)

Great updates. So nice that your first stay on property was all you'd hoped for! I also remember the dining area at POR being pretty empty when we were there. It looks like you got some great family holiday time on this trip. I don't think I've ever seen pics of Olivia's before...they have the same leaf-fans that Kona and the Poly Club Lounge have! Neat. And the food looks good. You can tell that it was really Thanksgiving with the guys laying out to stretch their full bellies! Sorry the level of service at your new resort wasn't as good. Sounds like at least the room was nice, though!

The family time was great. We are all spread out over the state of California, and I live at least 10 hours from my sister. I wish that Dylan could see them more often, especially since Elijah is the only cousin he has. This was the reason I really pushed to do the Photopass too, because it is not very often that we are all together!

Olivia's decor is very cute. They have a lot of pictures of the DVC owners on their walls. I think people send in their family pictures of eating in the restaurant, and they hang them on the walls. It is very cozy and inviting.

The bad service at the new hotel was just a reminder of how great Disney is. This girl wasn't even trying to be helpful. You could tell that she had the word "no" on the tip of her tongue before we asked any questions. Rude.