Jan '12 It's Cold, Let's Go to Disney!!(NEW 3/27 EP, DHS, AK & Pouts)

[kaoden39]

Yeah, I got to do this TR quickly so I can start my Mommy & Me TR soon!

OKW was really nice. I was surprised how relaxed we were.



Strange...maybe they forgot to re-calculate their computer codes for Leap Day...and still just had 365 days.

That is probably it.

 

[mousescrapper]

Hi Marsha,

I'm all caught up looks like you had a good travel day and a nice time on the train, despite the long wait for your car to get off

isnt it so great when you see the sign! ans sounds like you had a fun dinner too out at the garden grill w/ all those characters practically to yourself

looking forward to more!

PS my Rachel loved your Rachel's latest drawing and letter, she'll be writing back soon

oh and I love the Rapunzel pix in your siggie and too fun about a Mommy daughter trip for the b-days is it just you and rachel?

J~

 

[Marshay]

I'm still trying to find the time to start mine, too! I've been trying to finish my photopass book, but the site seems so slow! And we had birthday festivities here for my DS who is now 6!

BTW, I loved this quote from your train ride.

So wonderful to meet you, and hopefully soon, you will have my TR to read, too.

I hear ya! I know how busy life gets post trip. This was the longest it took me to get started on my TR.

Happy birthday DS!!

Definitely let me know when you start your TR -- I want to read it!

That is probably it.

Hi Marsha,

I'm all caught up looks like you had a good travel day and a nice time on the train, despite the long wait for your car to get off

isnt it so great when you see the sign! ans sounds like you had a fun dinner too out at the garden grill w/ all those characters practically to yourself

looking forward to more!

PS my Rachel loved your Rachel's latest drawing and letter, she'll be writing back soon

oh and I love the Rapunzel pix in your siggie and too fun about a Mommy daughter trip for the b-days is it just you and rachel?

J~

Thanks! Rachel loved making the valentine for Rachel. Sorry, it was late but I know you understand how hectic things get. We meant to send postcards from WDW but I totally forgot to buy them at Walmart the 2 times we were there.

Yes, Rachel and I were both born on the same day in July so we are both going to FL for a Mommy and Me trip. My parents/sister will watch Elizabeth for a few days in Pennsylvania and then DH will drive up to get Elie and he'll have her for 2 work days (4.25 days total). It'll be interesting to see how well he does being in charge all that time! Of course, it's much easier now in some ways than when she was a baby.

Anyway, our tentative plan is the last week of July with visits to Sea World, Discovery Cove and Disney World, with our first time at BBB, if we can get in. I checked yesterday and they had a lot of openings for our dates (which was surprising). We might even stay in the new Royal Princess Rooms at POR!! Everything is still tentative...Rachel and I seem to change our plans each week (air boat ride, helipcopter ride, just disney, sea world, discovery cove, WDW tour, etc)

 

[kittylady1972]

Yippee, so glad to see you started your TR for real now!

I LOVE that large booth on the bottom of the lounge car...right next to the bathrooms if I recall correctly! I think the only thing I was concerned about was that it was pretty close to the smoking area on the bottom of the loung car, and you'd have to go upstairs...to get more food and of course the wine!! Still I think we may try to snag that one for our trip in November which seems SO far away right now!

Sounds like a great first day. I've read mixed reviews about that restaurant so I'm not sure if we'll try it or not, especially since we won't be there for a Friday night so couldn't get the seafood! It looked pretty yummy!

 

[dara00]

Yep! I think almost all the S&D restaurants are on restaurant.com. On a previous trip we did the same for Todd English's BlueZoo.

Saves a bit of money!

there's a deal for restaurant.com today but I don't see any of the s&d restaurants on there, am I searching wrong?

 

[Marshay]

Yippee, so glad to see you started your TR for real now!

I LOVE that large booth on the bottom of the lounge car...right next to the bathrooms if I recall correctly! I think the only thing I was concerned about was that it was pretty close to the smoking area on the bottom of the loung car, and you'd have to go upstairs...to get more food and of course the wine!! Still I think we may try to snag that one for our trip in November which seems SO far away right now!

Sounds like a great first day. I've read mixed reviews about that restaurant so I'm not sure if we'll try it or not, especially since we won't be there for a Friday night so couldn't get the seafood! It looked pretty yummy!

Yep, that's how I found the booth b/c my DD6 had to go to the bathroom. I never wanted to go since it's right across from the smoking lounge and even though it is separated by a door, I can still smell it. Fortunately, on this trip, no one was using the smoking lounge.

I do recommend Garden Grove if you like seafood (Friday night only). I originally chose it b/c a friend recommended it and we weren't' planning to go into the parks that day, so having the characters would be like a bonus. Turns out the food is good too. Now it's nothing to rave about like the filets at Le Cellier or the Pork at Cali Grill, etc, but it's good food and IMHO better than Chef Mickeys, since it's all seafood.

there's a deal for restaurant.com today but I don't see any of the s&d restaurants on there, am I searching wrong?

Sorry, I didn't see this earlier. When I searched I put in the zip code for swan & dolphin or typed in Orlando (can't remember which it was) and just went until I found it.

I do know that they only list so many certificates at once and when they fill up, the restaurants are taken off. So it could just be that they are gone for now. Most people buy them when they are $25 worth of food for only $2 and with summer coming up, they may go fast.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

All caught up!

I've never heard anything about taking the train before, so I was really intrigued by your way of getting there. Sounds kinda fun!

You have a great looking family. Even though your DH says he isn't a big Disney fan, he IS the one that suggested DVC, so it seems like he might be more than he will admit! Haha.

How funny about the expiration of the AP's. At least you got and extra day out of it.

Looking forward to seeing the photos of the room and view.

 

[princessmorgan]

I'm a little late to the party! I'm all caught up now. The train looks fun, but I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to do it. I just hate being in confined spaces for a long time. Aren't the rooms at OKW huge? We had a 2 BR and it was enormous! For once we felt like we had too much room It really was a peaceful resort.

How fun to do a mommy/daughter trip! I did one with my oldest last year and it was such a bonding experience for us! We stayed out until 3 am once at the MK. We could never do that with all the kids! I did feel a little guilty for leaving the others, but they had so much fun with daddy that they didn't really mind.

 

[Marshay]

All caught up!

I've never heard anything about taking the train before, so I was really intrigued by your way of getting there. Sounds kinda fun!

You have a great looking family. Even though your DH says he isn't a big Disney fan, he IS the one that suggested DVC, so it seems like he might be more than he will admit! Haha.

How funny about the expiration of the AP's. At least you got and extra day out of it.

Looking forward to seeing the photos of the room and view.

Thanks for all the compliments! Yes, we enjoy taking the train!

I laugh when people from DH's work ask him Disney questions ... and he knows the right answers!! He is a secret Disney-phile!!

I'm a little late to the party! I'm all caught up now. The train looks fun, but I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to do it. I just hate being in confined spaces for a long time. Aren't the rooms at OKW huge? We had a 2 BR and it was enormous! For once we felt like we had too much room It really was a peaceful resort.

How fun to do a mommy/daughter trip! I did one with my oldest last year and it was such a bonding experience for us! We stayed out until 3 am once at the MK. We could never do that with all the kids! I did feel a little guilty for leaving the others, but they had so much fun with daddy that they didn't really mind.

See for us, the train is opening up space. If we were stuck in our SUV for 17 hours, that would be 'torture' for us. But since we can get up and walk around and hang out in the lounge cars -- perfect! Even our room is much bigger than the interior of our SUV (and we have a Toyota Sequoia which is a big one!!)

Oooh, I really am looking forward to the mommy and me trip. DD6 and I just narrowed down our list of 5 must-do's so now I get to plan my July trip for real! Already made hotel, train and ADRs but will go back and change the ADRs now since we had too many!

 

[Marshay]

Today is January 21st and we are up early at 6am but lounge around until 6:30am. Showers, cereal and off to HS.

We are actually there pretty early (EMH-AM) and this is what we see:

I take the girls and we go on

It's a longer line than I expected (15-20 minutes) for first thing in the AM but we also grab FPs for later.

I ride with Elie and Rachel rides in the same car but by herself. She is great about it though.

DH rides ToT and RnR. Then DH and I switch.

Notice the interior camera and gearwork

RnR

RnR ceiling shaped like a record

Then it was time to eat breakfast at H&V. We had eaten here twice before for lunch and the food is fine...characters are great and one of the best character interactions we've ever had. The place was pretty empty again so the characters just kept coming and coming and coming. ABout every 15 minutes or so they all got up and danced.

Special Agent Oso and Rachel

SAO and me

SAO took both girls around the dining room on the parade

Elie loved dancing with him

The girls were just having an absolute blast here!

Also, notice the new Princess skirts that they received from Tinker Bell earlier that morning!!

Rachel and Handy Manny

what's funny is that Rachel doesn't really even like watching Special Agent Oso or Handy Manny anymore ... but at Disney, even my little kid is a little kid again!!

June from Little Einsteins was so excited that we were all wearing HER color. She wanted us all to pose for a family photo.

June and me

You can see how empty the restaurant was ... and Elie doing her "booty dance"

One of the main reasons we booked here was to see Jake, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates

He was a big hit at our table

 

[Marshay]

Then we met up with our friends who live in Tampa. I used to work with Mike when I worked for Verizon. We became friends once we learned of our love for Disney. They go to DW 3 out of 4 weekends a month!! Good for them!!

We rode Star Tours (Elie's 1st time, "a little bit scary"), Great movie Ride (elie slept) and then it was time to go. So we gave away our FPs for Star Tours and TSMM. The family we picked was overjoyed and overwhelmed by the free FPs -- made us feel wonderful!

We all took a brief nap/rest and then had lunch on our balcony. Look at this -- isn't it just lovely!! We were so relaxed at OKW. This balcony is huge, overlooking the water canal and the golfers on the opposite side of the canal.

Then it was time to go to AK. We caught up with Mike and Debbie again and rode Kali River Rapids since it was rare for this ride to be open in January ... AND it was warm enough to do it. Mike/Debbie thought we were crazy to ride in January, as they were cold.

Luckily we didn't get soaked but we still had wet bottoms from where the ponchos didn't cover.

So a quick ride on EE will dry us off. Now Mike doesn't normally ride this but when Rachel asked to ride it with him, he couldn't say no.

Rachel loves this ride but notice how close she is to Mike on it! Or is it Mike holding onto Rachel for support?

Front Row, baby!!

I liked how this pic turned out

And here is all of us -- Mike and Rachel holding on to each other with Jerry and I in the background. Debbie was kind enough to stay with Elizabeth.

Then we watched Finding Nemo. Elie has been really into Nemo lately and I knew she would love this.

Just a couple of good pics here. I love this show and always get all caught up into the puppets.

If you haven't seen it yet and like Nemo, I highly recommend it. This is probably my favorite show in all the parks.

By now we were hungry so off to Flame Tree BBQ for dinner. The girls were acting up b/c they were tired/hungry and said they didn't like BBQ. Now who doesn't like BBQ??? We love this restaurant. After dinner we wandered around the seating areas admiring all the details in the lights.

More lights

It was nice to just relax and wander around -- no commando tonight

Ok, do you think we are crazy yet for taking photos of the lights of AK?

Then off to ride Primeval Whirl

Deb and Mike took Elie on Triceratop Spin so we could go on PW. The park was empty and both CMs let each of us ride 3x in a row on our respective rides. Soooo cool!!

Triceratop spin

A few final photos before saying good night. I love wandering around AK at night and going in January when it gets dark early allowed us to enjoy the lights at AK.

Rachel and a big foot!

Now the park was closed and the girls had fallen asleep in the SUV. So we went back to Walmart to exchange the new Disney shirts that I had bought for Rachel (she didn't like my choice) and Elie (too small). We also picked up some coke and wine.

Back at the room, we dropped the girls off on the sofa bed and they went to sleep quickly.

I think DH and I watched some tv, finished unpacking and re-packing for the next day.

All in all, this was a wonderful day!

The girls loved the Disney Jr. character meal and I loved wandering around AK and riding PW 3x in a row!

 

[kaoden39]

It looks like you guys were all having a good time!! Your breakfast pictures are so cute. The girls really seemed to enjoy it there. Those are the great memories.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Love it so far! Looks like your girls had a great time at the character meal.

Must have been nice to have such a quiet day. 3x in a row seems pretty rare, haha.

 

[dara00]

great pictures!

can you tell me what PW is exactly? what about triceratops spin? thanks!

 

[Marshay]

It looks like you guys were all having a good time!! Your breakfast pictures are so cute. The girls really seemed to enjoy it there. Those are the great memories.

Thanks -- we did have a great time! The food was good at the breakfast (hard to go wrong for breakfast buffet) but the characters really make this meal. Such fun!

Rachel said she wants to eat there again -- but really it's for the characters. Part of me says, we've done this now 3x in the last 4 years...let's try something else...but then again, she may not love these toddler/preschoool characters much longer, so perhaps we should since we get such great memories here.

Love it so far! Looks like your girls had a great time at the character meal.

Must have been nice to have such a quiet day. 3x in a row seems pretty rare, haha.

Thanks! Yes, they love the characters!! It's also great for us b/c we know they not only will behave at the meal but have fun, too!

Yeah, we've always gone when the PW line has been long and it's a slow-loading ride, so getting to ride 3x in a row was a great treat!! And it was even more exciting b/c Deb and Mike had taken Elie with them, so Jerry, Rachel and I could ride together, too!

great pictures!

can you tell me what PW is exactly? what about triceratops spin? thanks!

Primeval Whirl is an old "mouse trap" type ride. It's like a small roller coaster but the car will actually spin around like a teacup in some places. Although the spinning is controlled (it will break if your car spins too fast), it's still fun and there are a few little hills where your car can go down backwards, plus some bunny hops. The theme is a meteorite/asteroid is going to hit the dinosaurs and they are running for it! There is a 48" height requirement.

Triceratop Spin is basically your Dumbo or Magic Carpet ride but the cars are shaped like a 3-horned dinosaur. You go around in a circle and can manipulate the car up/down or tilt back/forward. This one is for little kids.

 

[WDWCP96]

Love the DHS photos.

We have been thinking about doing H & V for the characters again. So is it Oso, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake? I think DS1 would be thrilled to see Jake.

Love the balcony at OKW. What a great place to eat lunch.

 

[Marshay]

Love the DHS photos.

We have been thinking about doing H & V for the characters again. So is it Oso, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake? I think DS1 would be thrilled to see Jake.

Love the balcony at OKW. What a great place to eat lunch.

The only character from Little Einsteins is June ...guess they wanted to throw in one female character

We did a late breakfast and that was great to see the characters. Their lunch buffet is fine, IMHO. Dinner is not a character meal so I probably wouldn't do their dinner since the whole reason for us to go is the character interaction. This is the only place that really encourages the kids to get up and dance with them, in addition to the parades.

And I of course, I love signing all the Disney Jr. songs, too! (Hot, hot lava; hot dog dance; We work Together, etc)

 

[mousescrapper]

Sounds like a really great day and you lucked out great w/ the crowds


Love the new princesses skirts, our Rachel has the same one as yours you'll see it in pictures coming up in my TR

Looks like you had a blast at H&V w/ the characters what fun...and love seeing you and Jerry in pixs w/ them too

I haven't walked around AK at night, but I bet it was nice

 

[cherbear]

5 days before we leave and I wake up with a stuffy nose, sore throat, sneezing and coughing

It's not bad at all...but I can totally tell this cold is starting...It was that bitter wind and cold yesterday. So I'm pumping the vitamin C and Zicam and staying inside this weekend a lot.

Bummer is I had a Dismeet today but I just feel that I need to rest today to thwart this likely cold from going to a full-blown cold.

Gotta pack anyway!!

I wish you didn't get so sick right before the trip, yikes!

Ok, so I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. The cold got worse and I'm pretty sure I have an ear infection again!! Just had one right around Christmas along with a sinus infection...got meds and thought it was all better.

Now came back again.

Thanks guys!

So I went to doc and she thinks I may be allergic to our Sugar Gliders that we just got a few months ago ... or the (real) sheepskin that I got a few months ago and sleep with as a blanket. Or it could be something else ...

So I'm on a OTC Allegra and prescription nasal spray to see if that helps. I'm feeling much, much better now. So who knows?

that is crazy, I hope you're not allergic to the sugar gliders!! Did you/Will you find out?

yeah and I'm hoping they will watch the girls so Jerry and I can go on Mission Space Orange side!!

I always forget which is which. I always get confused because when I think of GREEN I think of THIS green... which is what many people look like after coming off of the spinning side (which I assume from your post is the orange side?) LOL

Thanks! This was probably our best vacation at WDW ever!!

AWESOME!

So before we get to the room, I have to tell you about our AP experience. I knew we wanted to get AP for this January trip and for January 2013. I had timed our vacations so they would overlap completely and by the last day...meaning I purchase on 1/21/12 and it expires on 1/21/13.

I had asked on several boards (DIS and Liners) about exactly when an AP expires and was told the above is correct.

Ok, fast forward to the check-in desk and I ask the CM just to be sure about the dates and he tells me, no. If I purchase on 1/21 it will expire on 1/20, so I had to wait until 1/22. Well that wouldn't work for us since I had plans (including a CCG ADR for 1/21 in DHS). Now today was 1/20 but I had planned to purchase tomorrow before going into the park.

So a 2nd CM comes over and says the same thing. I'm trying to tell them that I think they are wrong (in the nicest manner). So they bring over a manager, Stephanie, and she says -- have them get their tickets today and then give them a complimentary pass for 1 day, parkhopper so they can get into the parks on 1/21/13.

Sounds good.

They give me the free tickets and then I buy the AP.

And guess what the expiration date is: 1/20/13 (not 1/19 like they said it would be) so the AP covers me for 1/20/13 and the free ticket covers me for 1/21/13.

Now if I had just waited until 1/21 to buy the tickets, everything would have turned out exactly like I expected and WDW wouldn't have needed to give me the free tickets. But since the CM didn't understand when an AP expires, I got an extra day in the parks...well, evening actually. We hadn't planned to go to the parks tonight 1/20 but now we could!

So Arnold and Joann (CM) said that they learned something new today and would suggest getting the training manual updated/rewritten to say that an AP expires on the same day, one year in advance.

I felt very proud that I not only knew more than the CM but that I was able to help them learn something too.

Go Dis!!

that is perfect! Glad it worked out in your favor!

I had gotten restaurant.com gift certificates $25 worth of food for only $2 and decided to give Garden Grove over at the Swan a try since friends of ours went and loved it.

There is a big tree in the middle of the restaurant, lit up.

It was delicious. We were one of only 4 tables occupied at 5:15pm on a Friday night. The characters kept coming around and around ...so much so that we had to tell the girls they had to eat their food and stop getting up all the time!

At first Elizabeth was shy of the characters but by the 2nd time they came around she was going to them and by the 3rd time she was hugging them and the 4th-7th times they were dancing, waving, hugging, kissing, etc.

Friday night was Seafood Night and it was good. Reminded me of Cape May Cafe but perhaps not as many options. However, they did serve a bucket of fried shrimp, clams and hushpuppies ... and each adult got:

Here are some samplings of our meal. Snow crab clusters, mussels, shrimp -- yum!! Also, the desserts were much better than Disney's IMHO.

Smiles and laughs were plentiful at this meal.

After dinner I decided that we should go to Epcot since we were so close and had the bonus day from the AP dilemma earlier. I also bought the TIW card to get 20% Table-service restaurants for this trip and our next one(s).

We went to UK and ran around the maze for 15 minutes or so. The girls loved it. The band started playing Elton John's pinball wizard and folks were singing/dancing. We got a photopass picture in France and then took the Friendship #4 boat back to the Swan/Dolphin and then drove home to OKW to unpack.

Our initial thoughts on OKW were the rooms are H_U_G_E!!! We had a great location, right across from HH and with a water/canal view and also could watch the golfers swing on the other side of the canal.

It was very relaxing (pics in another post) and I felt blessed! I said I will try not to rush us again this trip. Last trip (May 2011) I went for 5 days before going commando...maybe I could make it the whole week this time!

that looked great! I'll have to try that next time if the certificate is available. I have a few restaurant.com credits saved up in my account, just a matter of picking some restaurants to use em on! (Hardly anything in my area)

Yep! I think almost all the S&D restaurants are on restaurant.com. On a previous trip we did the same for Todd English's BlueZoo.

Saves a bit of money!

mm...now that sounds good too!

Yep, that's how I found the booth b/c my DD6 had to go to the bathroom. I never wanted to go since it's right across from the smoking lounge and even though it is separated by a door, I can still smell it. Fortunately, on this trip, no one was using the smoking lounge.

I do recommend Garden Grill if you like seafood (Friday night only). I originally chose it b/c a friend recommended it and we weren't' planning to go into the parks that day, so having the characters would be like a bonus. Turns out the food is good too. Now it's nothing to rave about like the filets at Le Cellier or the Pork at Cali Grill, etc, but it's good food and IMHO better than Chef Mickeys, since it's all seafood.



Sorry, I didn't see this earlier. When I searched I put in the zip code for swan & dolphin or typed in Orlando (can't remember which it was) and just went until I found it.

I do know that they only list so many certificates at once and when they fill up, the restaurants are taken off. So it could just be that they are gone for now. Most people buy them when they are $25 worth of food for only $2 and with summer coming up, they may go fast.

that booth looked so cool!

You do mean Garden Grove right?

 

[cherbear]

what a great first couple of days!! DISmeets sound great, the laid-back-ness of the trip sounds heavenly. That balcony is awesome!

Can't wait for more pics and more stories!