Arcturus1020
A pirate's life for me . . .
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2007
Our first family vacation was a lot of fun, but it's certainly nice to be back home!
Since this was our daughter's first time on an airplane, she was extremely excited to see what it was like. She does have a fear of the unknown which was starting to get to her after an hour and a half of waiting for the plane's arrival, and by the time we finally boarded and found our seats, she was a bit frightened. All those fears stayed on the ground though after take off, which she absolutely loved! Landing was an even better experience.
Our vacation package with Disney included the Magical Express bus which took us from the airport directly to our hotel. The wonderful part of this service is that you don't have to retrieve your bags from baggage claim once you land. They take care of your luggage! Once we arrived at the POP Century resort, we checked in and dropped our carry-ons off at the room to head back out the door to the Magic Kingdom. As I had made no dinner reservations for that evening, we opted to get a counter service meal at the park. This is something else we decided to get with our Disney vacation package: the Disney Dining Plan. On average, you spend about $90 just for a table service meal for 2 adults and 1 child at a restaurant. That alone for one week comes out to $630. Then factor in about $35 for a counter service meal (cafeteria style meals) and a snack a day per person and you're looking at about $350 for all those. Without the dining plan, that'll cost you close to a $1,000. With the Dining Plan, you'll save close to $400 for meals. In any case, we stayed at the park that night and watched the fireworks show. What a show!
When we arrived back at our hotel room, we found our luggage waiting for us in the room. What a nice (and welcomed) touch!
The next morning, we had breakfast at the Everything POP dining area and then took off for the Animal Kingdom. It was quite a beautiful day in the low 80s with almost no humidity and a nice cool breeze. The Tree of Life was even larger than we remembered it, and DD was absolutely floored by it! Within the park was a cool play area where she was able to just unwind a bit and get some of that nervous energy out. Before heading over to Expedition Everest, we found our way over to Dinoland USA where we rode the Primeval Whirl and the Tricera Top Spin rides. Great kid rides!
We then headed to Everest where DW and I did a rider swap so that DD didn't have to ride this wonderfully made roller coaster. Then it was off to the rest of Asia for the Kali River Rapids ride and the jungle trek. We stopped over in Africa to take the safari ride and bang out some drum beats at a drumming area. After exploring the park, we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick rest and then out to Epcot for our dinner reservation at the Coral Reef. The restaurant served some wonderful food and we were seated fairly close to the aquarium. All of our food was quite tasty, and I can't imagine them serving anything poorly done on the menu. The only downside to this reservation was that although we were on time, we weren't seated for 50 minutes, and only when DW decided that it was time for us to complain about the long wait when everyone else who came after us was seated already were we seated.
Monday rolled around and we hit the Magic Kingdom for DD's birthday. We hit so many rides, that I don't know where to even start at . . . so I won't. Needless to say, we saw just about everything and rode most everything. The only two rides we didn't get to go on were the Big Thunder Railroad and Splash Mountain. We did get to see the Haunted Mansion and even stay late for the lighted parade. In the evening, we had reservations for the Crystal Palace where we got to meet Eeyore, Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet! The food was terrific, and the service was even better. Very little wait time (this is where making all those advance dining reservations comes into good use!). After our main course (this is buffet style, mind you) the server brought over a cup cake with a candle in it and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She even received a card signed by the characters! We capped off the evening with a quick swim in the Hippy Dippy Pool back at the resort.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all blur together as we park hopped so much. We all had a blast at Disney Hollywood Studios (all those for still calling it Disney MGM say 'aye') and used as many Fast Passes as possible there. Do NOT eat at the Backlot Express Restaurant outside the Indy Stunt Spectacular. The food there was so bad that my DW took two bites of her sandwich and was done with it. Aack! Epcot was truly spectacular, and you really can't do it all in one day. Especially not with an 8 year-old. There's just so much to see and do there! I can tell you that we ate at the Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater on Tuesday, and despite all the warnings of bad food on here, the food was actually pretty good and quite filling. Wednesday night we headed over to the Downtown Disney area to dine at Wolfgang Puck's Café. Now that was a dinner! If you've never been there to eat, then you absolutely need to go! Incredible food. I had the Wolfgang nut encrusted chicken special and it was wonderful. Thursday evening we headed over to the 9 Dragons at Epcot, and they served some pretty good Chinese food. Not the greatest I've ever had, but certainly not the worst either.
The only change I would make to a future trip down to Disney would be to stay at a Moderate Resort. The POP Century is cool, but the room and beds are small. Perfect for kids, though. Oh, and the meal selection for kids is extremely limited (IMHO). They really need more variety for them. But we had a great time, and we'll be back in a few years time.
By now you're probably wondering, "where are all the pics," right?!? Instead of eating up bandwidth here, I'll just give you a button to click on for the photos:
Since this was our daughter's first time on an airplane, she was extremely excited to see what it was like. She does have a fear of the unknown which was starting to get to her after an hour and a half of waiting for the plane's arrival, and by the time we finally boarded and found our seats, she was a bit frightened. All those fears stayed on the ground though after take off, which she absolutely loved! Landing was an even better experience.
Our vacation package with Disney included the Magical Express bus which took us from the airport directly to our hotel. The wonderful part of this service is that you don't have to retrieve your bags from baggage claim once you land. They take care of your luggage! Once we arrived at the POP Century resort, we checked in and dropped our carry-ons off at the room to head back out the door to the Magic Kingdom. As I had made no dinner reservations for that evening, we opted to get a counter service meal at the park. This is something else we decided to get with our Disney vacation package: the Disney Dining Plan. On average, you spend about $90 just for a table service meal for 2 adults and 1 child at a restaurant. That alone for one week comes out to $630. Then factor in about $35 for a counter service meal (cafeteria style meals) and a snack a day per person and you're looking at about $350 for all those. Without the dining plan, that'll cost you close to a $1,000. With the Dining Plan, you'll save close to $400 for meals. In any case, we stayed at the park that night and watched the fireworks show. What a show!
When we arrived back at our hotel room, we found our luggage waiting for us in the room. What a nice (and welcomed) touch!
The next morning, we had breakfast at the Everything POP dining area and then took off for the Animal Kingdom. It was quite a beautiful day in the low 80s with almost no humidity and a nice cool breeze. The Tree of Life was even larger than we remembered it, and DD was absolutely floored by it! Within the park was a cool play area where she was able to just unwind a bit and get some of that nervous energy out. Before heading over to Expedition Everest, we found our way over to Dinoland USA where we rode the Primeval Whirl and the Tricera Top Spin rides. Great kid rides!
We then headed to Everest where DW and I did a rider swap so that DD didn't have to ride this wonderfully made roller coaster. Then it was off to the rest of Asia for the Kali River Rapids ride and the jungle trek. We stopped over in Africa to take the safari ride and bang out some drum beats at a drumming area. After exploring the park, we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick rest and then out to Epcot for our dinner reservation at the Coral Reef. The restaurant served some wonderful food and we were seated fairly close to the aquarium. All of our food was quite tasty, and I can't imagine them serving anything poorly done on the menu. The only downside to this reservation was that although we were on time, we weren't seated for 50 minutes, and only when DW decided that it was time for us to complain about the long wait when everyone else who came after us was seated already were we seated.
Monday rolled around and we hit the Magic Kingdom for DD's birthday. We hit so many rides, that I don't know where to even start at . . . so I won't. Needless to say, we saw just about everything and rode most everything. The only two rides we didn't get to go on were the Big Thunder Railroad and Splash Mountain. We did get to see the Haunted Mansion and even stay late for the lighted parade. In the evening, we had reservations for the Crystal Palace where we got to meet Eeyore, Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet! The food was terrific, and the service was even better. Very little wait time (this is where making all those advance dining reservations comes into good use!). After our main course (this is buffet style, mind you) the server brought over a cup cake with a candle in it and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She even received a card signed by the characters! We capped off the evening with a quick swim in the Hippy Dippy Pool back at the resort.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all blur together as we park hopped so much. We all had a blast at Disney Hollywood Studios (all those for still calling it Disney MGM say 'aye') and used as many Fast Passes as possible there. Do NOT eat at the Backlot Express Restaurant outside the Indy Stunt Spectacular. The food there was so bad that my DW took two bites of her sandwich and was done with it. Aack! Epcot was truly spectacular, and you really can't do it all in one day. Especially not with an 8 year-old. There's just so much to see and do there! I can tell you that we ate at the Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater on Tuesday, and despite all the warnings of bad food on here, the food was actually pretty good and quite filling. Wednesday night we headed over to the Downtown Disney area to dine at Wolfgang Puck's Café. Now that was a dinner! If you've never been there to eat, then you absolutely need to go! Incredible food. I had the Wolfgang nut encrusted chicken special and it was wonderful. Thursday evening we headed over to the 9 Dragons at Epcot, and they served some pretty good Chinese food. Not the greatest I've ever had, but certainly not the worst either.
The only change I would make to a future trip down to Disney would be to stay at a Moderate Resort. The POP Century is cool, but the room and beds are small. Perfect for kids, though. Oh, and the meal selection for kids is extremely limited (IMHO). They really need more variety for them. But we had a great time, and we'll be back in a few years time.
By now you're probably wondering, "where are all the pics," right?!? Instead of eating up bandwidth here, I'll just give you a button to click on for the photos:
