Welcome Gurley Family--you are FAMILY OF THE DAY!!

blessedby3

Actually Blessedby4 now, but cant change my userna
Joined
Mar 7, 2003
This is my first trip report and we had such a wonderful trip I just had to share all about it!! I have been inspired from reading brookelizabeths many pre trip reports and trip reports, so I am going to give it a go!
We are a true Disney family, and have been going to WDW for many years.

Our cast of characters includes myself, Missy, aka busy mom of 4.

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My wonderful dh, Tony, who loves Disney almost as much as his family, Praise the Lord!
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Our oldest dd, Kayla, who is 20 and LOVES everything Disney as much as her momma--We have raised her right! She would LOVE to be in the Disney College Program before she gets out of college and she is in her 3rd year right now.
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Our only boy (poor thing-he knows way to much about Disney Princesses!!!), Jonah, who is 15. We celebrated his birthday while on this trip. He goes along with whatever we need, bless his heart!
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Our 3rd child, dd Olivia who is 11. She is now riding most everything at WDW except for RNR. Im hoping to get her to like that really soon!
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Last, but not least, is our baby--Alexa who is getting ready to turn 3 in 6 days:cool1: She was 2 1/2 on this last trip (which was her 3rd trip already). She LOVES WDW and still asks daily to go back. Thankfully I just booked our next trip for May 2011. Its a long wait, but at least one is booked!
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Our trip was set for Saturday May 15, 2010 thru Saturday, May 22, 2010. After finding the room only code that they offered for that time, we were able to book BLT, a 1 br, at 45% off:cool1::cool1::cool1:
This resort wasnt too appealing to me at the time because it didnt look "Mickey" enough, but after staying here it is now our FAVORITE!! I booked it mainly because of the room and the washer and dryer:cloud9: I cant say how much I loved having that washer and dryer!! We washed a load of clothes each night and went home with only the clothes on our backs that were dirty.....this momma loves that! We had done the Give a Day promotion, so everyone had vouchers (except Alexa who was still free:banana:) to upgrade to an 8 day base ticket. We also had our annual Ohana's breakfast planned, as well as trying Cirque for the first time. This was our first trip going in the "hot" season, so I was nervous about that...we dont like heat and humidity!
And about the title of my trip report....I'll get to that real soon! On with the trip report!!
 
We had told the kids at Easter (by sending them on an Easter Egg hunt - with pieces of paper that made up a puzzle. It said where/when, etc) that we would be going to WDW again! They were very excited! Here they are searching for the eggs that held the clues to their big surprise!
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And then them trying to decipher the message pieces

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The message is finally decoded:
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and the verdict is that we have 4 very happy kiddos:cloud9:


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We left Virginia on Friday, May 14th. Kayla had returned from college earlier in the week, and we pulled Jonah and Olivia out of school at 11:00 to get a jump start on the drive. This was our first time driving since 2003, and we werent looking too forward to it. It is a 12 hour drive from our hometown and mix that with 4 kids:scared1:and that makes it seem like a 36 hour drive!
Anyway, the car ride started off to a great start....everyone was happy since we were heading to the happiest place on earth! They were all full of talking about what to ride first, what we would eat, and excited to be staying at BLT!


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Of course, this helps the car ride go much smoother too;)

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We grabbed drive thru at Wendys after picking up the kids from school.

We drove on and I had packed dinner for us so we wouldnt have to stop. Peanut butter or Bologna was on the menu. They decided they were hungry for dinner about 6pm.
After dinner, it was still a long drive to reach Orlando. I had made ressies for down the road not knowing how far we could drive. DH said he was good, so I cancelled the ressies and we made it all the way to FL and arrived at 11:45pm. We had very sleepy and grumpy kids by that time. No more smiling faces to take pictures of. Sorry, no grumpy kid pictures, but you wouldnt want to see those anyway!;)

Anyway, it was now on to finding a hotel room in the DTD area. Oh how I wished I had my mousesavers info about the preferred hotels and the ones that slept 6. If I werent so tired myself, I maybe would have thought to get on my phone internet....but I would have had to be concious and coherent, which I was not at that point! Well, we must have stopped at about 7 hotels and while I ran in the kids would place bets with their dad as to whether we would stay there or not! Places were either booked, they didnt have rooms big enough for 6, or they were just way too expensive for us to spend a few hours (literally) sleeping. We finally ended up with a room at the Buena Vista Palace. Room was okay, but very small. They actually only had 2 beds, but said they would give us a roll away at no charge. $99 and an hour after we hit DTD, we were crawling into bed- THANKFULLY!
I know I was dreaming of getting to BLT early to check in...everyone else was just zonked. And I will also get to hear those long awaited 10 lovely words....Welcome Gurley Family, You are our family of the day!!!!!!! WDW....here we come!
 
I wanna join in! You have such a lovely family and I am looking forward to reading more details about your Disney adventure.
 
Woo Hoo...I have my first follower!! Thanks mickeystoontown, we had a great trip! I also checked out your bags from you link. Love them! I may have to get one for our next trip :)
 


Woo Hoo...I have my first follower!! Thanks mickeystoontown, we had a great trip! I also checked out your bags from you link. Love them! I may have to get one for our next trip :)

I can't wait to hear how you were chosen as family of the day.

Keep watching my ebay sales. I have more items that I am working on and hope to list them soon.
 
I'm joining in also. Love your DD's name Alexa. Thats mine dd's name too. She will be 5 on her first trip to WDW Oct 2-9. Can't wait to read more :)
 


I can't wait to hear how you were chosen as family of the day.
Keep watching my ebay sales. I have more items that I am working on and hope to list them soon.

Thanks, its coming and sounds good about your bags!!


I'm joining in also. Love your DD's name Alexa. Thats mine dd's name too. She will be 5 on her first trip to WDW Oct 2-9. Can't wait to read more :)

Welcome! Thats great. I dont know any other Alexa's. We debated about naming our third Alexa, but went with Olivia instead. We brought Alexa back out when we found out we were having a 4th and a girl.
I'm in too!

And Welcome to you too! Hoping to get another installment in soon. I just lost everything I just typed in for some reason---uggghhhh. I will try again in a bit!
 
Well, I left off with it being 1am and the family falling into our beds. I was dreaming of our next day at Disney and the last one asleep. Of course I was also the first one up and ready to get to BLT! I woke everyone up and we took turns getting showers. After I was ready, I took Olivia and Alexa downstairs to see what breakfast offerings they would have here. We were giving a 20% off coupon at check in to use in the food court area. The prices for things were so expensive that this didnt put a dent in the prices. I let Olivia choose two things to take back to the room and share with her siblings. She got a cinnamon roll and a muffin. We took them back and everyone else was close to being ready. I told DH that we would have to pick up a biscut somewhere close as things were too expensive there. We gathered what little bit of stuff that we brought in to the hotel and the kids and headed to the van.
We found a McD's across the way and DH went in to get breakfast for everyone. This place was packed, but he finally made it out with biscuts. We ate on the way to BLT:banana:
It didnt take long before we were pulling up to here


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When staying at BLT, you have to check in at the CR. We decided to have everyone come in to check in so DH let us off and he parked the car. I thought they may do something special for Jonah since we were celebrating his 15th birthday. When we stayed at the CR in 2003 we were celebrating Kayla's birthday and they gave her a card and balloon.
So in we all go and get in the check in line. This is about 10am. We were waiting and another couple tried to cut right in front of us. The CM saw this (I didnt say anything) and told them to go to the back of the line. The CM then told us when it was our turn to head down to the counter. A very nice CM helped us and asked us lots of questions. She wanted to make sure we were all here, and I told her we were. Our younger girls were at the TV area, and she said we all needed to be at the counter for check in. I figured she must be doing something for Jonah, and we got the girls to come over. The CM excused herself and went to the back room, came back out and again asked us if we were all there. We said yes and DH picked up little Alexa so she could see that yes, we were all there. I thought this was really weird, but wasnt sure what was up. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, that there were balloons and people behind and to the side of me. I was afraid to turn around, but she said "Welcome Gurley Family, you are our family of the day". I about passed out right then and there. We turned around and there were 3 CM's in suits each holding a boquet of balloons. (Side note--I HATE regular balloons. I can handle mylar ones, but I dont like the popping of regular ones and I am looking at tons of them!) They all gave us their congratulations and handed the balloons over:scared1: We told them thank you so much!! The "main" CM stayed and informed us that our room was not quite ready, but that we were going to have access to the club level lounge in the CR all week, and he could take us up there right now. We were still stunned and said yes, yes, yes! I thought I would have a panic attack right then and there, having to get on the elevator with all those balloons, but I composed myself and made it up to the 12th floor. He told us we would need the special gold key card to access the lounge. When we got off, the CM on the 12th floor was telling us when they had eats and treats out and the schedule of things. There was nothing out then, as it was between breakfast and snacks, but we just stood there amazed at what just happened to us. Here are a few pics from the morning...

Check in and finding out we were family of the day


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The sign in the lobby with our name on it

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Here we are sitting in the lounge...taking in the fact that we were just majorly blessed:cloud9:

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And a view that we took in many times that week:woohoo:

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Can it get any better than this????? WOOHOO!!!

So after we regained ourselves, we headed back down to the lobby and to the van. We needed to put up the info the CR gave us and grab the stroller and suncreen. We made a couple of quick calls to our friends and families and headed over to the MK. We needed to turn in our GAC vouchers. The walkway to the MK from the CR or BLT is WONDERFUL. We used that many times on our trip. SO quick and easy! Once we got closer to the MK, we could see that it was very crowded at the front. Right past the bag check area there were lots of people in lines. Yep, of course, that is one we needed to be in to trade our GAD vouchers. DH got in line while the kids and I found a small tree (more like a shrub) to try and stay shaded. It took about 30 mins, then DH called us over and we quickly traded in our vouchers for 8 day passes:woohoo:
We were now on our way into the MK!!
It was very crowded and our main goal today was to see SpectroMagic. We were following TGM's suggested parks, and of course none of the green days were having Spectro. We opted to go into the MK on a Sat since we only needed to see Spectro. If we got anything else done, then that was a bonus.
We headed into Adventureland and to the Pirates. There was a line and I think we waited about 30 mins. Poor Alexa did not like this ride at all and wanted off. She had ridden it before,but was only 1 1/2 and didnt remember it. Once we got out of there we headed to Frontierland and picked up FP's for BTMR. One of our family's favorites! Everyone decided they were getting hungry and so we went over to Pecos Bills for lunch. We dont get the dining plan, as we can eat cheaper without it. We do have it for free for our next trip though:woohoo: We got 2 taco salads, 2 double cheeseburgers and 1 kids cheeseburger. We left there quite full and headed towards Fantasyland. We decided to hit up Mickey's Philharmagic since the line was not long and of course everyone loved this.

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We headed out of the MK at 3:00, hoping our room would be ready. We wanted to unpack and clean up before Spectro. Would the room be ready???
 
Mickeystoontown--I just notice our tickers are about the same. Yours says
8 mos and 3 days, ours is 8 mos and 5 days:cool1::cool1:
 
Mickeystoontown--I just notice our tickers are about the same. Yours says
8 mos and 3 days, ours is 8 mos and 5 days:cool1::cool1:

I just noticed that too. I couldn't believe that they offered free dining over the Memorial Day holiday. The free dining promo saved us over $1,300!:worship:

I would have pee'd myself right in the middle of the Contemporary had we been named family of the day. How in the world did you keep your composure? Probably too busy wondering what you were going to do with all those balloons.:laughing:

Seriously, congrats on being the family of the day!
 
I just noticed that too. I couldn't believe that they offered free dining over the Memorial Day holiday. The free dining promo saved us over $1,300!:worship:

I would have pee'd myself right in the middle of the Contemporary had we been named family of the day. How in the world did you keep your composure? Probably too busy wondering what you were going to do with all those balloons.:laughing:

Seriously, congrats on being the family of the day!

Yep, free dining is a huge bonus:cool1: We usually dont do the dining plan because we dont eat much table service and we split a lot of CS meals. BUT if they are going to offer it to us FREE---then heck yeah!

I dont know how we kept our composure. I am not one to draw attention to myself, so I didnt want to holler and shout or anything, but I think we were just so stunned we really werent too sure what was actually happening:rotfl: And as for those balloons. I forgot to put in the report that as soon as we got to the parking lot to get the stroller, those things went up in the car top carrier--and stayed there until the end of the trip:rotfl: By then they were good and deflated:)
 
Last trip, we had a Dis Meet and it was a lot of fun. Nothing that took a lot of time away from our family vacation. I may just decide to do that again next trip. Think you'd be interested?
 
Congratulations on being Family of the Day! I can't wait to see what view you got (and if you got an upgrade). I can't remember what view you requested.
 
Wow How exciting to be Family of the Day Congratulations!
 
Last trip, we had a Dis Meet and it was a lot of fun. Nothing that took a lot of time away from our family vacation. I may just decide to do that again next trip. Think you'd be interested?

Sure, as it gets closer we can compare notes and see what we can do:thumbsup2

Congratulations on being Family of the Day! I can't wait to see what view you got (and if you got an upgrade). I can't remember what view you requested.

Thanks for the congrats:cool1: We had booked a standard (I dont think I even said that-oops), but when we got our confirmation it said BL view:thumbsup2 That was fine with me. I was hoping for an MK view, so you will have to wait to see what we got;)

Wow How exciting to be Family of the Day Congratulations!

Thanks so much....a dream come true for sure! We never win anything so this was such a surprise!
 
Okay, so when I last posted, we were leaving the MK at 3pm to see if our room was ready. We walked back to the CR (again, this is so WONDERFUL) and went to the front desk to see if our BLT room was ready.......
Of course NOT!!
We were just so tired and wanting to be able to see the room, unpack and freshen up. We told the CM we were the family of the day and were given access to the lounge, so we would go upstairs and get a snack and wait for the call saying our room was ready. She said okay and off we went. At least we had somewhere to relax......
We got on the elevator and I put my card in.......no 12th floor lighting up on the board. Try again.....still not working! Then I remembered that the CM said earlier we would need a gold key, and we didnt get that then. Back down to the CM at the check in and she called someone to come out and get us upstairs. He took us to the 14th floor club lounge this time and there were 2 very nice CM's there. We were the only ones up there and we told them we were waiting for our room. They said to get a drink and snack and so we got some cookies, homeade delicious chips, chocolate covered pretzels and nuts. We also got soda to wash it all down.

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While waiting we told the CM what had happened. She said to let her take care of the card issue and got all our room keys/passes. In just a few mins she came back with the pretty gold room key cards:cool1:
I have only dreamed of having one of these:cloud9:
We talked with the male CM who was cleaning and putting out more snacks and he was very nice. We enjoyed that awsome view again...


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sat on the balcony, the kids watched a little Disney tv, snacked some more and then at 4:10 decided to walk over to BLT. The room had to be ready, right?? It was supposed to be ready by 4pm at the latest. We thanked the CM's and got back in the elevator, got off on the concourse and took the skybridge over to BLT. Down to the lobby we go and asked the CM at the desk there if she could check on our room. She did and it STILL WAS NOT READY:scared1: I couldnt believe it. She said it should be any minute.....well, finally at 4:35 we got the go ahead....the room was ready:woohoo:
We were in room #8427, 14th floor, dead center of the building with a Bay Lake View:woohoo:
We finally got in the elevator and went up to our room...


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We walked in and Oh My, it was definately worth the wait!! The room was just beautiful and so spacious. Here are a few pics of the inside...

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This was the headboard above the king bed

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And the wonderful view from the balcony

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Here is some artwork and cute towel animals
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We were so happy with our room...even if we did have to wait ALL day to get into it. I have to go pick up the kiddos from school, so I will finish up with day one when I get back.....
 
Bad news when I went to pick up the kiddos.....Olivia had thrown up just before school let out.....went on to the doc as I was thinking we may have strep (stomach hurt, head hurt, sore throat).....and NOPE, just a gi bug. I would rather have strep as that is quickly treatable! Especially since we are having Alexa's 3rd birthday party Saturday---UGGHHHH!!! Anyway, I hope to get more written tomorrow, depending on how Olivia feels and if Im not constantly cleaning up throw up:scared1:
 
Big delay....Olivia was sick, then we had Alexa's 3rd Birthday on Saturday...now she is sick with a sinus infection, but antiobiotics are going into her system. Hopefully everyone will remain well for awhile!

Anyway, I left off showing you our beautiful BLT room. We got unpacked and ate some snacks for dinner. We had Garden Grocer deliver a bunch of stuff since we would have the kitchen. We got all our stuff together and packed in the stroller and off we went back to the MK:banana: We made the nice leisurely stroll from BLT to the front of the park and boarded the Railroad for Frontierland. We had those fast passes from earlier and wanted to get right on BTMR:banana:
We rode and used baby swap so the kids each to to ride twice (except Alexa, of course). After that we snagged our usual spot in front of the candy shop in Frontierland to watch SpectroMagic. What a great thing to see on the first night:cloud9:
Here is a picture of Kayla and Olivia waiting...

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and one of all 3 of my girls and myself and Alexa watching the wonderful parade

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Afterwards we headed back over to BTMR since there was not wait and then decided we should head back to BLT to get a good nights rest before the early morning came. We stopped off at the Magic Carpets on our way out since there was no line for this either.
Another nice walk back to the room finished this night off:)
 
Day 2...
This was Sunday and I woke up super early and was anxious to get back to the MK. I was up at 6:45 and rousted the rest out of the bed. They never want to get up that early, but they will thank me later;)
As I had said in the last post, we had Garden Grocer deliver a bunch of groceries, but since we were also chosen as family of the day, we could use the lounge. I figured we would never see a club level lounge again, so we wanted to get our use out of it! We all got dressed and packed up the stroller with the essentials and headed over to the CR to get breakfast. We headed to the elevator and put our pretty gold card in and guess what---it still doesnt work:scared1: We had to go to the front desk again and the very nice CM said that since we werent staying at the CR, he would actually have to fix us separate cards that would only be used to get us to the lounge. Guess the nice CM that gave us the gold cards the day before didnt realize that. Anyway, the CM fixed us 3 of them and off we went. Into the elevator and POOF--we were heading to the 12th floor:dance3:
We got off and enjoyed cereals, bagels, muffins and pastries as well as fruit and milk and juice (oh yeah, and coffee for Tony). It was delicious and nice to have a MK view while eating breakfast! Here are a few pics:

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It was all delicious and we then headed downstairs to board the monorail.
Alexa ready to go

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Tony with Olivia and Alexa

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Olivia

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We got off at the MK again and headed into the park. It was a green day per Tour Guide Mike and we were hoping for low crowds. We came across Cinderella's stepsisters and the girls had to have a picture. The stepsisters and stepmother were hysterical. We enjoyed talking with them for a bit.

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Then we headed over to Winnie the Pooh and rode with no wait at all. Alexa loved this ride:) After WTP, we went to Peter Pan and it was a walk on:woohoo:

Tony and Alexa before getting on

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I hate waiting for this ride and if there is a long wait we always FP it. Alexa was a bit nervous on this ride, but didnt cry. After Peter Pan we went on Its a Small World, which is Alexa's absolute favorite. Of course the other kids can only ride it once or twice, but Alexa would stay on that boat all day if we let her:rotfl2:
Here is a picture as we walked over to IASM...there werent to many people in Fantasyland:banana:

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Here is a picture of Alexa and her good big brother riding it for the first time...she is engrossed to say the least!

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And one of Tony, Olivia and Kayla...they are all smiles on the first go around :rolleyes:

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After IASM, we went over to the Carosel. Alexa was afraid of this for some reason, and I had to ride it with her. She wouldnt even let me stand beside her.

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And a picture of Olivia enjoying her ride:)

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We were enjoying a no wait morning and loving it. I have to go get dinner on the table, so have to stop here. What land will we go to next???
 

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