HollyM7813
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2015
Hey ya'll! Welcome to my June 6-12, 2015 Trip Report!
It was a LONG 8 years in the making...but we finally made it back to the World! Now I want to go back, no, I NEED to go back! LOL Planning another trip for next year! Going to be a long year and 4 months til our next trip! So, until then I'll be reliving this....
Ok, before we get into our adventure, I guess I should introduce the cast!
This is us! We're a bunch of scary lions!
From left to right:
DH, the love of my life! From here on out he shall be known as Nick.
DD14, moody teenager, aka Beans! She hates when we call her that, but well, she's been Beans since birth, so that's what she'll be called here!
DD8 (almost 9!), goofball extraordinaire, the "Birthday Princess", aka LoLo! Her Birthday isn't for a couple of weeks but we couldn't go on her actual birthday so we went and celebrated a month early.
Last but not least, me! Aka, Holly.
Now that we got the intros out of the way....our journey begins!
And Away We Go!
We woke up at 3:00 am, UGH! We wanted to be on the road by 3! We rushed around the house trying to get everything together, praying we didn't forget something, and we're out the door by 4:10. We stopped for gas and coffee and we're on the road by 4:20! Whew!
Driving from South Carolina to Florida is a pretty boring drive, nothing to really look at until you hit around Jacksonville, so our drive was pretty uneventful. Not that I'm complaining! An uneventful drive is better that a dramatic one! So, anyway. We occupied ourselves with books, music and making jokes out of a few billboards and signs. The kids tried sleeping but were a bit too excited I think! I know I was!!!
So, we're making pretty good time, getting kind of antsy, and I decide to check our email to see if we got any info about our room...it's ready! Yay!!! We're about an hour away and our room is now calling to us!
Now, as a kid, when our family went anywhere, whether it be on vacation or driving 3 hours to visit family, my dad and I would start off the trip with me asking "Are we there yet?" and him telling me "15 more minutes". And about every hour or so, we would repeat our love/hate/funny/annoying "Are we there yet?" routine. So obviously, at 15 minutes out I HAD to text my dad with "Are we there yet?...15 more minutes!"! I know, I'm weird! LOL
The excitement is building, I'm trying to keep it under control, help Nick find the road signs and make the right turns, getting the camera ready to take that first Disney Photo, the one that says "Welcome Home"...and here it is...
We're here! We're Here!!!!
Keep it together! We still have to find the resort! We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Which, BTW I didn't get many pictures of...I was too excited and we were so on the go that we barely even saw any of it. Seriously, I don't even know what the main pool looks like...shameful right? LOL
So, we get to the resort, and even though we could've gone straight to the room we stopped at guest services to get a map and turn off our room charging. The cast members were super friendly and helpful and made us feel right at home. They checked to make sure all of our MBs were active, explained the bus schedules and had buttons ready for LoLo for her B-day and 1st visit. They were great!
We got back in the car and headed to our room. We were in Trinidad South 36 in a Pirate themed room. The room location was perfect. Seriously, we were highly impressed by where we were located. We were on the first floor, on the corner, we could walk right out into the courtyard, the pool was right around the corner, as was the bus stop, and they were just finishing up the final touches on a room right behind ours that had vending machines, microwaves, and snack items (can't recall what they were calling it), which was opening the next morning. We unloaded the car, got unpacked, freshened up a bit and headed over to the food court to grab a quick lunch and pick up our refillable mugs. We got a few sandwiches from the deli (which we paid OOP for) and sat down to relax, eat and take it all in...again, I was too "in the moment" to even think of food pics....sorry ya'll! LOL
We didn't really hang around Port Royal to check it out, we finished our lunch and headed back to the room to shower and take a nap. After we relaxed for awhile, we got ready and headed to DTD for our ADR at Rainforest Cafe. Honestly, the traffic and parking situation wasn't as horrible as people had made it out to be. I can see how it can be frustrating to people who aren't used to high traffic areas, but I guess since we are used to "tourist" traffic, it didn't seem to be so bad.
We went straight to our ADR and were seated in about 5 minutes. Our server, Michelle, was amazing. We had never stayed on property before or used the dining plan, so she took her time and explained how it worked, what we should look for on the receipts and how to see what we had left on our plan. We all really enjoyed our food and were too stuffed to get dessert, so we got it to go and headed out to check out the rest of DTD. We stopped in World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy, and one other shop I can't recall, and decided that we were all exhausted and had an early morning the next day, so we headed back to the resort to get some sleep.
When we got back to the room, there was a surprise waiting for us! There was a welcome banner on the door, and all of the lights in the room were turned off, luminaries were glowing all over the room, there were Mickey foot prints on the floor, we flipped on the lights and there were 2 pillow cases (which we're taking on our next trip for autographs!), 2 big totes (one Mickey and one Minnie) filled with treats and gifts on the bed, 2 beach towels with the girls names on them, a tray with more treats and a note from Mickey! There was even a backpack with a personalized pen, mug, and playing cards on the table for my husband for father's day! Mickey had visited our room and left gifts and treats for everyone! We took a video, which is too large to post here, but didn't get any pictures
. The girls were in tears they were so excited!!! So excited, they could barely sleep! I'll have to gather everything up and take pics to post here later! Here's a pic with the girls and their Mickey Ears from Mickey!
Magic Kingdom Day One!
We all woke up still pretty tired, and had a bit of trouble getting moving, but the excitement won and we found the energy to get out the door...only 40 minutes later than we wanted...again....Argh! We wanted to use the resort transportation, but after sitting at the bus stop for 20 minutes with no sign of a bus, already late, and worrying about missing our breakfast ADR, we ran to the car and drove to MK. There was a huge line waiting for a tram to come and we decided it would be faster to just walk to the monorail, which was actually a really good idea as we beat the trams and didn't have to wait very long for the next monorail. It took us about 3 minutes to make it to the gates, go through bag check, scan our bands and walk on through to Main Street USA!
A big thanks to all those here on DIS for the trip advice. Top three bits of advice that saved us and got us to our ADR only 2 minutes late:
1. When everyone is going right...go left! There was nobody at the bag check or entrance turnstiles on the left! Which is how we got through so fast!
2. While everyone is walking down the middle of street on Main St., use the sidewalks, they're less crowded! TRUE!
3. All of the shops on Main St. are connected and are great for avoiding the crowds and cooling off! (didn't apply to our ADR this time, but saved us a few times later on!)
We didn't have time to really check anything out on our way to BOG, I felt horrible!! Here it is, LoLo's first visit and we didn't have time to let her take in all that is Cinderella's Castle and the feel of MK. We made up for it later on though! We found our way to BOG (honestly have no clue how we found it without a map!), a little frazzled and already over heated, and the CMs at check in got us moving right away. We checked in and were on our way to a table in no time at all, we decided to eat in the Castle Gallery room. All of the room were elaborately decorated and beautiful in their own way. The Gallery had so many beautiful paintings and a huge music box with Belle and the Beast dancing in the center. Our server, Jason, was great. He got us all set up with the cups for our beverages, told us where to find everything, and was on his way to get our cart of food. The girls and I went off to get our drinks while Nick headed out to take pictures of the room. It didn't take very long before our food arrived. It was all amazing! We had ordered in advance online, and pretty much forgot what we ordered, so it was a nice surprise when I food came! LOL We took our time with our breakfast, taking in the ambiance of BOG. When we finished we walked around the other rooms, checking it out and taking some pics.
It's starting to storm pretty bad here, so I have to get off of the computer, but I'll continue this later today!
It was a LONG 8 years in the making...but we finally made it back to the World! Now I want to go back, no, I NEED to go back! LOL Planning another trip for next year! Going to be a long year and 4 months til our next trip! So, until then I'll be reliving this....
Ok, before we get into our adventure, I guess I should introduce the cast!
This is us! We're a bunch of scary lions!
From left to right:
DH, the love of my life! From here on out he shall be known as Nick.
DD14, moody teenager, aka Beans! She hates when we call her that, but well, she's been Beans since birth, so that's what she'll be called here!
DD8 (almost 9!), goofball extraordinaire, the "Birthday Princess", aka LoLo! Her Birthday isn't for a couple of weeks but we couldn't go on her actual birthday so we went and celebrated a month early.
Last but not least, me! Aka, Holly.
Now that we got the intros out of the way....our journey begins!
And Away We Go!
We woke up at 3:00 am, UGH! We wanted to be on the road by 3! We rushed around the house trying to get everything together, praying we didn't forget something, and we're out the door by 4:10. We stopped for gas and coffee and we're on the road by 4:20! Whew!
Driving from South Carolina to Florida is a pretty boring drive, nothing to really look at until you hit around Jacksonville, so our drive was pretty uneventful. Not that I'm complaining! An uneventful drive is better that a dramatic one! So, anyway. We occupied ourselves with books, music and making jokes out of a few billboards and signs. The kids tried sleeping but were a bit too excited I think! I know I was!!!
So, we're making pretty good time, getting kind of antsy, and I decide to check our email to see if we got any info about our room...it's ready! Yay!!! We're about an hour away and our room is now calling to us!
Now, as a kid, when our family went anywhere, whether it be on vacation or driving 3 hours to visit family, my dad and I would start off the trip with me asking "Are we there yet?" and him telling me "15 more minutes". And about every hour or so, we would repeat our love/hate/funny/annoying "Are we there yet?" routine. So obviously, at 15 minutes out I HAD to text my dad with "Are we there yet?...15 more minutes!"! I know, I'm weird! LOL
The excitement is building, I'm trying to keep it under control, help Nick find the road signs and make the right turns, getting the camera ready to take that first Disney Photo, the one that says "Welcome Home"...and here it is...
We're here! We're Here!!!!
Keep it together! We still have to find the resort! We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Which, BTW I didn't get many pictures of...I was too excited and we were so on the go that we barely even saw any of it. Seriously, I don't even know what the main pool looks like...shameful right? LOL
So, we get to the resort, and even though we could've gone straight to the room we stopped at guest services to get a map and turn off our room charging. The cast members were super friendly and helpful and made us feel right at home. They checked to make sure all of our MBs were active, explained the bus schedules and had buttons ready for LoLo for her B-day and 1st visit. They were great!
We got back in the car and headed to our room. We were in Trinidad South 36 in a Pirate themed room. The room location was perfect. Seriously, we were highly impressed by where we were located. We were on the first floor, on the corner, we could walk right out into the courtyard, the pool was right around the corner, as was the bus stop, and they were just finishing up the final touches on a room right behind ours that had vending machines, microwaves, and snack items (can't recall what they were calling it), which was opening the next morning. We unloaded the car, got unpacked, freshened up a bit and headed over to the food court to grab a quick lunch and pick up our refillable mugs. We got a few sandwiches from the deli (which we paid OOP for) and sat down to relax, eat and take it all in...again, I was too "in the moment" to even think of food pics....sorry ya'll! LOL
We didn't really hang around Port Royal to check it out, we finished our lunch and headed back to the room to shower and take a nap. After we relaxed for awhile, we got ready and headed to DTD for our ADR at Rainforest Cafe. Honestly, the traffic and parking situation wasn't as horrible as people had made it out to be. I can see how it can be frustrating to people who aren't used to high traffic areas, but I guess since we are used to "tourist" traffic, it didn't seem to be so bad.
We went straight to our ADR and were seated in about 5 minutes. Our server, Michelle, was amazing. We had never stayed on property before or used the dining plan, so she took her time and explained how it worked, what we should look for on the receipts and how to see what we had left on our plan. We all really enjoyed our food and were too stuffed to get dessert, so we got it to go and headed out to check out the rest of DTD. We stopped in World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy, and one other shop I can't recall, and decided that we were all exhausted and had an early morning the next day, so we headed back to the resort to get some sleep.
When we got back to the room, there was a surprise waiting for us! There was a welcome banner on the door, and all of the lights in the room were turned off, luminaries were glowing all over the room, there were Mickey foot prints on the floor, we flipped on the lights and there were 2 pillow cases (which we're taking on our next trip for autographs!), 2 big totes (one Mickey and one Minnie) filled with treats and gifts on the bed, 2 beach towels with the girls names on them, a tray with more treats and a note from Mickey! There was even a backpack with a personalized pen, mug, and playing cards on the table for my husband for father's day! Mickey had visited our room and left gifts and treats for everyone! We took a video, which is too large to post here, but didn't get any pictures
. The girls were in tears they were so excited!!! So excited, they could barely sleep! I'll have to gather everything up and take pics to post here later! Here's a pic with the girls and their Mickey Ears from Mickey! Magic Kingdom Day One!
We all woke up still pretty tired, and had a bit of trouble getting moving, but the excitement won and we found the energy to get out the door...only 40 minutes later than we wanted...again....Argh! We wanted to use the resort transportation, but after sitting at the bus stop for 20 minutes with no sign of a bus, already late, and worrying about missing our breakfast ADR, we ran to the car and drove to MK. There was a huge line waiting for a tram to come and we decided it would be faster to just walk to the monorail, which was actually a really good idea as we beat the trams and didn't have to wait very long for the next monorail. It took us about 3 minutes to make it to the gates, go through bag check, scan our bands and walk on through to Main Street USA!
A big thanks to all those here on DIS for the trip advice. Top three bits of advice that saved us and got us to our ADR only 2 minutes late:
1. When everyone is going right...go left! There was nobody at the bag check or entrance turnstiles on the left! Which is how we got through so fast!
2. While everyone is walking down the middle of street on Main St., use the sidewalks, they're less crowded! TRUE!
3. All of the shops on Main St. are connected and are great for avoiding the crowds and cooling off! (didn't apply to our ADR this time, but saved us a few times later on!)
We didn't have time to really check anything out on our way to BOG, I felt horrible!! Here it is, LoLo's first visit and we didn't have time to let her take in all that is Cinderella's Castle and the feel of MK. We made up for it later on though! We found our way to BOG (honestly have no clue how we found it without a map!), a little frazzled and already over heated, and the CMs at check in got us moving right away. We checked in and were on our way to a table in no time at all, we decided to eat in the Castle Gallery room. All of the room were elaborately decorated and beautiful in their own way. The Gallery had so many beautiful paintings and a huge music box with Belle and the Beast dancing in the center. Our server, Jason, was great. He got us all set up with the cups for our beverages, told us where to find everything, and was on his way to get our cart of food. The girls and I went off to get our drinks while Nick headed out to take pictures of the room. It didn't take very long before our food arrived. It was all amazing! We had ordered in advance online, and pretty much forgot what we ordered, so it was a nice surprise when I food came! LOL We took our time with our breakfast, taking in the ambiance of BOG. When we finished we walked around the other rooms, checking it out and taking some pics.
It's starting to storm pretty bad here, so I have to get off of the computer, but I'll continue this later today!
You sound like me. I used to go every 10 years or so... like clockwork.
OMG! I totally didn't even see her! I was concentrating on your funny face, your shirt and your tattoos!
