Five People - Five First Visits... An Adventure in Learning - May 2009

[ty_n_cy]

Hi everybody! We've returned from our first ever Disney World visit... and we're SO ready to go back!

To start, I'll do introductions. We're a family of 5 from New Jersey. With the exception of 6 months spent in Pennsylvania, our family has lived our entire lives inside the borders of New Jersey. Our travels have taken us to places like Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, Stratton Mountain in Vermont and quite a few different shore destinations within Jersey... but we'd never visited Disney. Seeing some of the great deals on TV, we decided to look into it some more, and... to our surprise, it was very affordable. In late March, we settled on booking a 40% of room rate at Disney's Caribbean Beach resort for May 21st through May 28th. Since it was our first visit, and we weren't sure how much we'd like it, we decided to add the Deluxe Dining Plan to our package as well, and immediately after booking the trip... we spent 3 days going over and booking every available ADR we could find.

My name is Chuck. I'll be your guide through our first visit. My favorite Disney characters are WALL-E and Stitch. I'm a 30 year old sports fanatic who honestly never thought he could enjoy Disney. They say you won't like something unless you try it, and I can say now... I'm REALLY happy I got to try Disney.

Daddy and Brielle at the Polynesian Resort before breakfast.​

My beautiful wife's name is Tiffany. A bit younger than me at 28 years old and my polar opposite in terms of love for sports. Her passion is music and her favorite Disney characters are... well, I don't really know. But she DOES love Ariel. So, I'll go with her. (I just asked her... she says Eeyore, Hercules, Nemo and Ariel. So I was close.)

Mommy with Eeyore at the Crystal Palace breakfast buffet.​

We have three children. I'll go in order of age rather than showing favoritism. I think that's fair. Our only son is 9 years old. His name is Tyler. He's a good student who likes to goof off. Similar to me, he loves sports... or at least pretends to at times. His favorite Disney characters, at least going INTO this trip, were Captain Jack Sparrow and WALL-E. Since he would likely have way more memory of the trip than his sisters, we upgraded our room to the Pirate Room and made sure to book a Pirate Adventure Cruise for him, while we were at it.

Tyler hamming it up at the Polynesian on our way to his surprise Pirate Adventure Cruise.​

Our middle child, who happens to be our oldest daughter, is Madison. She's 3 years old... getting closer to 4 every day. She's our princess. Like her brother, she likes to goof off. Unlike her brother, her favorite characters are typically girly... and at the top of the list are Ariel and Cinderella. We made sure she would be in Princess Heaven the entire trip. (And just so everybody knows... she's laid claim to Cinderella's Castle!)

Madison showing off "my monies" that she found after breakfast at the Polynesian.​

Last, but not least... we have our youngest... Brielle. She just turned 2 years old in March, but like her sister, she's growing up way too fast. She's the perfect mix of her brother and sister and, at her current age... she fits into any category you can come up with. Mostly, she's a carbon copy of her big sister... repeating just about every word Madison says, just in case we didn't hear it the first time. Her favorite character, without question, is 'Winnie Mouse'!

Brielle at Akershus in Norway waiting on the OTHER Princesses to arrive.​

So, that's us. Over the next few days... I'll post, in sections, about our trip. I'll include as many photos as I can and more details than you probaby care to read.

But... hopefully you'll follow along on our first (hopefully of many) journey through Disney World!

TABLE OF CONTENTS​

Five People - Five First Visits... An Adventure in Learning (Introduction)
Starting at the Beginning - Day 1
Day 1 (Continued)​

​

 

[ty_n_cy]

So... our first day wasn't really a Disney day at all. To save a few dollars, we decided we'd drive from Morris County, NJ. The up side to this was just what I said... we saved a few dollars. The down side was that it was going to be a LONG drive, and the anticipation may have killed us.

The morning of May 20th, we woke up and began our preparations for the trip. Put this in the van, pack that in the suitcase, rearrange the van to fit 6 more things in, etc.

My wife runs an in-home daycare, so... we planned to leave immediately after her last child was picked up. The wait seemed to take longer than the previous 2 months combined... but, eventually... everybody was gone and it was time to leave. We backed out of the driveway at 5:35 that night and we were back IN the driveway by 5:42. We forgot our cellphones. D'oh! By 5:45... we were back on our way to Disney World!

Our hope was that by leaving so late, we'd hit little (if any) traffic in the DC area... and our plan seemed to work. About 8:15, we made our first stop in Maryland to use the restrooms and stretch our legs. Our next stop was almost 3 hours later, in North Carolina, to fill up the tank. It was just about midnight, and the gas station we stopped at was not the prettiest of sights, but we were in and out within 10 minutes. The kids, at this point, were asleep... and although I was starting to get a bit tired... I felt I could make it a few more hours.

I was right... and by 3:30 in the morning, I was beat. We crossed the border into South Carolina and stopped at the South of the Border rest area/tourist trap in Dillon, SC. The majority of the place was shut down... and we hit the restrooms, changed diapers, and then swapped positions in the van. It was my turn to try and rest... and my wife ended up making REALLY good time. By around 7:30 that morning, we were getting gas just outside Savannah, GA. We picked up a few 'energy drinks' and figured we were another 5-6 hours away. We hit a McDonalds for a quick breakfast, and continued on our way, this time... with me back in the pilot's seat.

Right about here is when our rainy adventure began. It was spotty to start, but by the time we got towards the bottom of Georgia... it began to pick up. Luckily, it was still early, and before we knew it... we were driving through Jacksonville, FL and then, almost 90 minutes after that... Daytona Beach, FL. We needed gas again by that point, so we took awhile to find a place off of Route 4... but once we were filled up, everybody was fully awake and ready to get to our home for the next week.

As we got closer, we began seeing all the billboards touting different things to do in the area... of particular interest to us were all the Disney billboards. Soon enough, we passed beneath the castle laden archway into the Disney compound. My wife and I breated a huge sigh of relief, and within minutes, we were pulling into a parking spot at the Custom House at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

When we got into the Custom House, we found a fairly large line. Apparantly, we had arrived at the same time as a bus from the airport. We regretted our decision NOT to use the online check-in option... but, after only about 20 minutes or so... we were being helped. Since we were in a Pirate room, we knew we'd be in Trinidad South, thanks to all the posts we'd seen here about that subject. We were assigned building #38 and room #3864... a corner room on the 2nd floor with a view of both the corner of the lake and the village pool.

We parked the van and headed to the room. Although we walked around the ENTIRE building... we finally found the room and opened it to a nice, cool, air conditioned room. The theming was beautiful. We all loved the beds as well as the dresser setup. The skull/eye patch privacy curtain heading into the changing room completed the decor. Our son loved the room and thought it was "so cool"!

This is really the only shot I took of the room... we realized this once we got home.​

We quickly realized the Pack 'n Play's that we requested weren't in the room, so we called the front desk, and within 5 minutes, both were delivered along with crib sheets and extra blankets.

We decided to unpack and get ourselves ready to visit the village pool for awhile, just to relax from the drive. We had ADR's at Planet Hollywood in DTD for later that night, and since we had arrived MUCH earlier than planned, we figured that we'd enjoy some down time.

Up Next:

The girls first pool adventure and our only visit to DTD during the trip.

 

[ty_n_cy]

When we left off, we had just checked into the room, and we were preparing ourselves for our afternoon activities.

After getting ourselves situated in the room (unpacking, choosing beds, setting up the Pack 'n Play's, etc... we decided we wanted to cool off a bit, so the obvious choice was to go to a pool. Since our room was just beyond the village pool, we decided we'd try there first. We got the kids all ready for the pool (swim diapers, bathing suits, towels, etc.) and headed down the stairs to the pool area.

With our girls being 3 and 2 years old, neither had really had an opportunity to be in a pool yet. Both girls HATE taking baths... so we were nervous as to how they'd react in such a large 'bathtub'. Surprisingly, Madison (the older of the girls) had no problems. Once I got myself into the pool, I took Madison's hand and walked her down the stairs. She clung to me for a few minutes, but once adjusted... she was, as my wife called her, a 'water rat' for the remainder of the trip. We spent the next hour or so splashing, kicking and just having a good time.

Brielle, on the other hand... she wanted nothing to do with the pool. If she got off the top step for longer than 2 minutes the entire time... that was a big step for her. My wife spent most of the time over by the entry steps attempting to convince Brielle to get in. At one point, we did manage to get her off the steps and halfway across the pool, but then she wanted out... so we sat her on the ledge while we attempted to coax her back in, but to no avail.

Tyler had a blast. He does not yet know how to swim, as he'd only been in a few pools, and not for very long periods of time. However, the pool was shallow enough in most areas that he could stand without an issue... so we spent some time teaching him how to swim. Although he didn't master the art of swimming yet... he was getting to the point that he could ALMOST tread water by the end of the day.

Soon enough, the sun hid behind the clouds and we got chilly... so we towelled off and headed back to our room. Once there, we debated between trying to visit Hollywood Studios so we could catch Fantasmic that night... or just head to Downtown Disney for our ADR's at Planet Hollywood. In the end, our decision was to keep our ADR and explore a little bit.

After we got dressed, we decided to do some exploring of the resort for a bit, and we walked around the paths by the lake and found ourselves at Old Port Royale and the main pool. Immediately, Madison and Tyler wanted to go swimming... but we had to hold them back because we planned to leave from OPR to visit DTD. We stopped at the pool bar and had Orange Cream flavored drinks. My wife didn't really like hers, but... it fit me just fine (although a bit sweet) and I finished off both mine and hers before we walked through the gift shop area at OPR. It was about 2:00 by that point and we wanted to explore DTD a bit... so we hopped our first Disney Bus and arrived at DTD around 2:45 or so.

Our first stop, once we figured out exactly where we were, was just outside the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique area where Madison spotted the Cinderella statue. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty strong so we couldn't get a real good picture... but we did snap a few of the girls in front of the statue. Tyler, on the other hand, didn't want any part of this photo... so he stood back and watched.

Madison and Brielle with the Cinderella statue in front of BBB in DTD.​

Next stop was Lego World (or whatever it's called). It was VERY crowded and having the double stroller made navigating the crowd inside the store a bit difficult. Instead of browsing, we went outside and let the girls bounce around on the playground. Tyler was a bit too big, and he was distracted by the kids building Lego cars to race down the ramps just next to the play area... so, we snapped a few more pictures of the girls.

Madison going down the slide outside Lego World.

And Brielle at the bottom of the slide, after a 10 minute trek to get there.​

I had hopes of getting us all on the Characters in Flight ride in DTD, but with the wind and poor forecast... the area was closed. Once I found that out, the whole ride had caught up with me, and upon checking with everybody else, it had caught up with them too. Our Planet Hollywood ADR's were for 7:30, but it was about 4:30 at this point. We decided to see if we could get in early... and luckily enough, it was not a problem. So we parked the stroller and headed in for an early dinner.

We were seated in a private alcove, almost a cave, where we spent the next 2 hours or so. We had been to Planet Hollywood in New York City so we knew what to expect, but it was still fun. Our server was a nice young woman, but she didn't speak very good english, which left us scratching our heads at quite a few things she said. The girls shared a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich platter... Tyler ended up having a personal pizza... Tiffany chose the Tomato & Mozzarella Caprese appetizer and the Sizzling Fajitas... and I chose the Buffalo Chicken Tenders and got one of my favorite meals on the planet, the LA Lasagne Rolls. Although each of the meals came with a dessert because of the Deluxe Dining Package, none of us were hungry after our meals and we decided to head out. On a scale of 1 to 10... we'd rate our overall meal here at about a 7. The food was good, and there was plenty of it... however, despite having a private alcove to eat in... we were out of the way from seeing much, and our server wasn't overly attentive.

With our bellies full, and us still reeling from our drive, we decided to head back to CBR and get some rest... we knew we had a full week planned and we'd need to get sleep at SOME point. We were back to our room and ready for bed by 9:00 pm. We set a wakeup call for 6:30 the following morning, and surprisingly... it was a good, full night of sleep.

Up Next:

Our first day in the parks and the first of our 3 ADR's on Friday.

 

[BuzzSaw]

You just brought back nightmares I had of driving straight through to Florida from New Jersey. We usually stop overnight in Savannah, GA now. Great report so far. My son would love the pirate themed room at your resort too. Sounds like someone may want a new pool when she gets home!

 

[crocko]

The girls first pool adventure and our only visit to DTD during the trip.

Only one visit to DTD? Wow!! Probably good (for your wallet)....but my wife and I love DTD. It's like a 5th park for us.

 

[ty_n_cy]

You just brought back nightmares I had of driving straight through to Florida from New Jersey. We usually stop overnight in Savannah, GA now. Great report so far. My son would love the pirate themed room at your resort too. Sounds like someone may want a new pool when she gets home!

The drive turned out to not be too bad. Unfortunately, the drive home (which I'll get to eventually, I suppose) was much longer for us... but going THERE, it wasn't tough at all. Once we were in Savannah, it was about 4.5 hours to get to the resort... so I think that would be too close for us to stop. If we were going to stop, it would have been probably in North Carolina somewhere... but with the non-traffic from driving so late, it just made sense to continue.

The theme in the room was pretty cool. Don't know if we'd pay for the upgrade again, but... it was still nice. And, yes... we talked about a pool, actually. She LOVED it... so we think we're going to join a community pool in the area for some weekend fun.

Only one visit to DTD? Wow!! Probably good (for your wallet)....but my wife and I love DTD. It's like a 5th park for us.

We packed so much into our 6 days there that we didn't get a chance to go back. We're already planning for next year... and DTD is one of our priorities. What we saw when we were there was really, really nice. We just really ran through it just to say we were there. Next visit, we'll explore some more. It's good to hear that it's worth the time!