11 Day WDW trip w/photos (1/22/06)

[dairyou]

Day 5:

Today will be a long day for us. We wake up,finish packing and make our lunches by 8am. We drive over to Port Orleans French Quarter and check in. The room wasn't ready yet, but that was okay because we didn't plan to do anything in the room but sleep. We head over to Kennedy Space Center. For all the years we have visited WDW we have never been here. We prepurchased our tickets so we just walked right in. Their security is definitely more rigid than WDW as it probably should be. They had us take out our things and even turn my camera on and off to make sure it was a camera...I think... The IMAX movie is starting in 10 minutes so we make our way over. When you come into the theater they don't tell you to move all the way to the end like at WDW so people are climbing all over the place. Not bad, just different. We see a 3-D movie narrated by Tom Cruise about the International Space Center. Very informative! We finish seeing the movie and head out to see the rockets and such.

We visit Center for Space Education, Astronaut Encounter, Robot Scounts and then off to the bus tour. The bus takes us to the LC-39 Observation Gantry. We see a movie and then there is an interactive area for you to participate in. They show the Crawler Transporter and the Vehicle Assembly building from a distance. We get back to the bus and head over to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. There Keith and the boys climb to the top and take some pictures.


Can you see my Crocks with socks

We head over for the rest of the tour and we are taken to the actual control room of the first launch.

With our tickets we received entry to the Astronaut Hall of Fame and Interactive Area. Here's a few pictures of what Keith and the boys did. The first two pictures show trying to work outside with out friction.

I think all in all it was an okay tour. We took in so much information it was hard to process. The boys enjoyed the interactive part much more. It would have been a blast if there was a launch that day..but oh well. We head back to Orlando and stop by Olive Garden for dinner. People were crowded around the door and it was a long wait. Everywhere was busy except the IHOP so at 7:00 pm we have dinner there...yuk. We head back to Port Orleans French Quarter and receive room 4116. We lug our suitcases over and it reaks of smoke. Have the boys wait in the room with the luggage while Keith and I go to the front desk and change rooms. They give us room 4232. Much better!

We get settled and let the boys go to the arcade which is much bigger than the one at OKW. About an hour later they come back and we settle into bed. We get a roll a way because the boys are getting too big to sleep with each other. The entire room is so different then staying at OKW!

What we spent today: $20.00 at the arcade, $50.00 at IHOP..how sad, $11.00 snacks at KSC. It was a long day..too long.

Next..Day 6. Park day and Expedition Everest Preview for Keith.

Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am sharing it with you Deb

 

[MOMOFMNM]

I love your reports and pics!!!


nice and big!!!

you convinced me to rent DVC points now~~ THANKS~~ MAYBE after renting I can talk dh into buying, that's my plan anyway!!

We are doing the same thing staying at POR first on the weekend and in peak season...then moving to BCV during value season!!


Can't wait to see more!!

ps Do you mind cooking at the villa?? I do not know if I will like it or not...what kind of housekeeping do you get at a villa stay??

tia

 

[OurDogCisco]

I love your trip report.... Keep them coming. I can't wait to read the next installment.

 

[OurDogCisco]

ps Do you mind cooking at the villa?? I do not know if I will like it or not...what kind of housekeeping do you get at a villa stay??

tia

Not Deb but I've cooked in the villas. I haven't made anything fancy yet but I did make a breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage & french toast. I also made grilled cheese sandwiches. I've made tacos too. I think our main problem with making food was that we didn't have enough time. Wonder what her (dairyou) secret was since she said that she made chicken, etc..?

I've been to other timeshares where it is much easier to cook like Hawaiii because you aren't spending the entire day at a theme park.

 

[dairyou]

Tia and Tina,

Dinner usually takes about an hour to cook. Planning and what you cook is what I believe saves you time. For the meatloaf I had all the bread crumbs and spices mixed in a ziplock baggie from home. All I had to add was the water and ketchup and mix. I brought foil from home to line the cookie sheet saving time on clean up and formed our meatloaf since there wasnt a bread pan. You could buy one of those disposable ones at the store..I just thought of that Mental note, do that next time. Shake and bake only takes 1/2 if you buy boneless chicken. Roast chicken I split in half and add my premixed spices from home and bake for 1 hour. The biggest challenge I found is cooking something that doesn't require purchasing alot of different ingrediants you're just going to throw away later. I used to make bake potatoes, but they take too long to cook, so rice is only 1/2 an hour...and as you can tell I'm Asian, so rice is somewhat of a mainstay at my house and goes with everything. What would be nice is if they had a crockpot in the room. You could cook all day and eat as you walk in the door. I've read of some purchasing it while they are in Orlando and then leaving it or throwing it away when they are done.

I, personally don't mind cooking at all. Actually I like more on vacation than at home. You will find others who joke that they didnt even know there was a kitchen in the villa. No way is wrong, it's just want fits for your family. I prefer to stay longer since coming from California and this is where we cut costs. If we did the Disney Dining Plan at $40.00 a person times 10 days, that would be 1600.00. I spent a total of $200.00 at the grocery store, which I would have spent if at home anyways. We just chose to spend our money a different way. Since we own at DVC we have the time to come home for an hour or so knowing we will be back again at another time.

As for housekeeping they come every 4 days for trash and towel. They will replace your towels, soaps and take out your garbage.

As far as owning DVC, it is the best thing we did. It will probably take 4 or 5 years to make up what we paid for, but after that it's just the maintenance dues. Who wouldn't mind paying $800.00 a year for a week to two weeks of acommodations?

Sorry to be so long winded...whew. I'm glad you're enjoying the report. I'll try to do more today. Halfway to the end

Deb

 

[momofdbsdc]

Great report and pictures!!! Can't wait for the rest!!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Deb - thank you for such a wonderful report and pics! We stayed in 3 1-bedroom villas at BWV in 1997 for 11 days/10 nights and couldn't get anyone interested in cooking. It would have saved so much since I paid rack rates for all 3 rooms - back then we had the plan which included dining, park hopper passes w/water parks, and the rentals for boats, bikes, etc. so it seemed I was saving money by not worrying how much was being spent on rentals & dining.

I am planning on 5 nights/6 days at BWV in October (Sun-Thurs) by renting points and have to really budget this trip. I thought by renting 2 studios it would be less expensive than renting a 2-bedroom but then I couldn't cook either. Your plan seemed to work out great with your family and it's awesome how much you saved on dining - any ideas how I can convince my 5 kids to dine in? (think they got spoiled last trip by eating whenever/wherever they could).

Deb Too!

 

[dairyou]

Deb - thank you for such a wonderful report and pics! We stayed in 3 1-bedroom villas at BWV in 1997 for 11 days/10 nights and couldn't get anyone interested in cooking. It would have saved so much since I paid rack rates for all 3 rooms - back then we had the plan which included dining, park hopper passes w/water parks, and the rentals for boats, bikes, etc. so it seemed I was saving money by not worrying how much was being spent on rentals & dining.

I am planning on 5 nights/6 days at BWV in October (Sun-Thurs) by renting points and have to really budget this trip. I thought by renting 2 studios it would be less expensive than renting a 2-bedroom but then I couldn't cook either. Your plan seemed to work out great with your family and it's awesome how much you saved on dining - any ideas how I can convince my 5 kids to dine in? (think they got spoiled last trip by eating whenever/wherever they could).

Deb Too!

I know we talk to the kids alot when they grumble about this and that. We tell them the old standard lines used by many parents.."When you are self sufficient enough to live on your own and pay your bills, you can do whatever you want. For now, you do things my way" My kids are totally reliant on us for food, so they basically don't have a choice. Now there are times they wanted smoothies, or more arcade money. If we said no, and they thought it was worth the money, they would pay for it themselves. I think they spent a total of 40.00 of their own money for the 12 days we were gone. Now, can you tell me how to get rid of the attitude with teenagers?

Deb

 

[heaven2dc]

I know we talk to the kids alot when they grumble about this and that. We tell them the old standard lines used by many parents.."When you are self sufficient enough to live on your own and pay your bills, you can do whatever you want. For now, you do things my way" My kids are totally reliant on us for food, so they basically don't have a choice. Now there are times they wanted smoothies, or more arcade money. If we said no, and they thought it was worth the money, they would pay for it themselves. I think they spent a total of 40.00 of their own money for the 12 days we were gone. Now, can you tell me how to get rid of the attitude with teenagers?

Deb

As far as getting rid of attitude with teenagers - I still dont' have a clue Altho I was really lucky with my oldest 3, my DS18 is so darn moody - one week he wants to come on the trip with us and the next he'd rather stay home and party (yeah right like THAT'S going to happen ) Am so wanting a family vacation this year - my youngest 2 didn't go in 1997 & on our original trip in 1994, their dad died of a sudden heart attack in the hotel room before our vacation even started. So attitudes or not, we're going to Disneyworld!!! (or else )

 

[slk537]

I am really enjoying your trip report!!! I love the DVC reports and it is so much fun to hear (and see!) how everyone does their trips.

I am really looking forward to hearing how you felt about doing the two nights at POFQ and then going back to OKW. Very good idea!! I could easily see us doing that. And POFQ is currently our first choice for alternate...did you do anything while you were there? And how did you plan your groceries around the two days off?

Questions, questions, questions!!

Isn't DVC just GREAT!!!?!? We love it too.

 

[dairyou]

Day 6: Part 1

We wake up this morning at 8:30. Living out of suitcases, kinda stinks because you can't find anything...but, I'm too lazy to unpack for 2 short nights. It's park day today, it's also the preview of Expedition Everest for Annual Passholders and DVC members. We get to Animal Kingdom and the parking situation is controlled chaos. Maybe this is how they park people in the summer or busy times. I wouldn't know since we usually go off season. We take the shuttle to the entrance and people are walking pretty fast. Poor Keith again..he stands in line for Expedition Everest and his chicken family goes to...you got Kilimanjaro Safari again. This is the third time for the boys. They really like to see animals. We have our walkie talkies so Keith will call when he finishes waiting in line. When we left him, he was by the split off to go to "Tough to be a Bug". The line was pretty long so we figured we wouldn't see him for awhile. I'll spare you with only a few safari pictures since I posted some already.

This guy here was so close to our car we could reach out and touch him. The driver said, "It doesn't get any closer than this guys".

The ride was a walk on, maybe because everyone was trying to get on Expedition Everest. We finish the ride and Keith walkie talkies me to let me know he is finished with the ride. He is standing in line for his landyard. It went pretty quick because he stood in the single rider lane. He loves the ride and tells me Jordan can handle it. He will probably take him on it next time. He says its a pretty smooth ride and very cool! It starts off pretty mello and then the track breaks from the Yeti. You end up going backwards and the third part of the ride is pretty intense. I tell him we'll meet him at Primeval Whirl so he and Jordan can ride again. As we go to meet him we stop for a minute to watch this man:

We finish at Animal Kingdom, plus it's pretty crowded. We head over to MGM so we can have lunch at the Sci Fi Cafe. We also want to try and see Lights, Camera, Action again. We drive and park and head over to the Sci Fi. They don't have a car for us to sit in until 3:40 and plans don't allow for that so we sit in the flying saucer section. Which is pretty much just a round outdoor table. The boys wanted to experience the cars...it looked very neat. It's pretty dark in there so I didn't take any pictures. It is definitley something we will go back and try. My fault for not planning ahead and making reservations. The boys love the B rated commercials and they throw in some Tom and Jerry also. My kids like watching the Three Stooges and such so this was right up there alley. We all have the cheeseburger and fries. The boys add bacon to their burger and a strawberry milkshake. We finish and wait for Drew to bring our bill. We tell the boys to go ahead and ride Star Tours again and we will meet them outside since we are right next door to the ride. We try to see Lights, Camera, Action..but it starts in 3 hours and we need to get going. We had back to the room so the boys can swim and play arcade.

The last time we stayed at Port Orleans was 2000 when the boys were 6 and 8. They thought that waterslide was the coolest thing on earth. When make our reservations to stay here I asked them if they wanted to stay here again. They said, "Yes! That is where that cool slide is!" So needless to say they are very excited to go swimming and this is the last day to do it.

They finish going down the slide and they look pretty dissapointed. I ask them whats wrong and they proceed to tell me it's not as great as they remembered. They are just puzzled. I let them know there were just little before and they have graduated to water parks and such. They tell me, "Oh, I just don't remember it being that whimpy. What a bummer". They get out, we go back to the room and they go to the arcade. They come back about an hour later and we leave for Epcot. We have reservations at the Teppanyaki at 6:00.

 

[dairyou]

Part 2



As Keith and I pose for the picture, Jordan tells us to sit closer, to face a different direction. He gets closer, moves farther away. I guess he was trying to get the entire Epcot ball in. Meanwhile Keith and I are thinking.."Hurry up and take the picture". We get back home and it didn't turn out that bad

Last May we rediscovered "Living on the Land". We hadn't been on this ride since our honeymoon in 1990. Keith loves this ride so it is a must do. As we stand in the cue I read this quote. I take a picture because they are from Sacramento, California

I take th is one because I think it's just plain cute!

They have some pretty amazing technology here. It is interesting to hear all that they are doing.

I wish I could get one tomatoe plant to produce all of this!

We go to Innovations and walk around. It's been awhile since we've been in here too.

The boys walk around and we find an interactive game called the Firehouse. You take these little flash lights and go to a room. You use your flashlight to detect fire hazards in each room. Keith and I are on a team and the boys on a seperate team. We win of course and we hassle them alot about it!

Mission Space again!

We ride the big Epcot Ball, I think it's Reflections of Earth. Get a Fast Pass for Soarin. Walk around the Living Seas and then head towards Japan since it is almost time for our dining reservation. We are seated and the boys are pretty excited. We did this Benihana type meal before in Jamaica so they know what it is.

Kenji is our chef (I don't know what the technical term is). He starts filling our dishes with a hot mustard type dip and sesame terriyaki dip.

He sees my camera and decides to strike a pose for me.

We enjoy watching Kenji and he makes us laugh alot! Here he is making a steaming volcano from onion slices, water and oil.

Keith has the shrimp and chicken, Jordan has the chicken and steak, Danny and I have the steak and shrimp. Kenji is pretty handy with that spatula and knife. He cuts off the tail of the shrimp and tosses it in the air. It lands on Danny's plate. LOL. He gives us the rest of our meat and Danny has a shrimp tail. Of course he removes it and gives him his meal

Kenji stops his cooking to wipe his hands. He takes my camera and gives us the salt and peppter shakers. He was nice enough to take our picture. We really did adore Kenji.

We finish our meal. The boys want to go ride Mission Space and Soarin again. I tell them to go ahead, I'm going to shop around the World Showcase. I have a pretty good time on my own browsing in the shops with noone telling me to hurry. We meet up again at the American Pavillion. Every family has their traditions. Our is Funnel Cake. Keith gets one with chocolate sauce. Jordan gets his with strawberry topping and whip cream. Danny decides to get a snow cone in Japan. I get the cinammon coated almonds. We all kinda share and wait for Illuminations to start. We see Illuminations and head back to Port Orleans.

Here is what we spent today: $70.00 at the Sci Fi Cafe for our 4 cheeseburgers and 2 milkshakes. $150.00 at the Teppanyaki. $31.00 for the funnel cake and funnel cake kit to bring home. I tried making it on my own and it wasn't the same. $2.25 for Danny's snowcone and $4.00 for my cinammon almonds.

Enjoy guys! Deb

Coming soon..Day 7...Otronicon?

 

[dairyou]

Sorry..guys. I don't know what happen to the last report. I think it was too much on one post and I split it into two, but it still didn't make the words bigger. I'll do better next time. Mental note...don't try to write so much on one post

Deb

Update: I fixed it...but still had to go into 2 posts

 

[dairyou]

I am really enjoying your trip report!!! I love the DVC reports and it is so much fun to hear (and see!) how everyone does their trips.

I am really looking forward to hearing how you felt about doing the two nights at POFQ and then going back to OKW. Very good idea!! I could easily see us doing that. And POFQ is currently our first choice for alternate...did you do anything while you were there? And how did you plan your groceries around the two days off?

Questions, questions, questions!!

Isn't DVC just GREAT!!!?!? We love it too.

The groceries were a little complicated. We had to go shopping twice since we had to move to POFQ. We over bought the first week. We had left over chicken, cinammon rolls and cereal. It was easily fixed by returning it to the store with our receipt. I did have left over butter and mustard, but able to put that in the little refrigerator they provide at POFQ.

I'll post more on our thoughts of a split stay later on

Yes! We love our DVC!

Deb

 

[MOMOFMNM]

we had Drew at the SCI FI too

he was very nice...and on top of things as I recall


I look forward to what you have to say about a split stay as this is what we are doing...we are doing the PO riverside first then the DVC


we were not all that impressed with Teppanyaki...we have a place here at home that is AWESOME (nothing like Iowa for meat...) as we found Teppanyaki to have tough meats and not a lot of flavor in thier sauces and just waaaay tooo much $$$ for what you get IMO but it looks liek you had agood chef and a lot of fun!

We did not eve get to see WS during our trip, we just got to sprint from Canada to Japan in abour 3 mins trying to make our ressies...

we are NOT going to miss WS this year...we are not!!! This is a reason we are doing BCV instead of the Poly this year, we missed a TON of Epcot and we all LOVED LOVED Epcot sooo much...

love your pics once again!!

thanks

ps TIA means Thanks In Advance...my name is Jennifer

 

[dairyou]

we had Drew at the SCI FI too

he was very nice...and on top of things as I recall


I look forward to what you have to say about a split stay as this is what we are doing...we are doing the PO riverside first then the DVC


we were not all that impressed with Teppanyaki...we have a place here at home that is AWESOME (nothing like Iowa for meat...) as we found Teppanyaki to have tough meats and not a lot of flavor in thier sauces and just waaaay tooo much $$$ for what you get IMO but it looks liek you had agood chef and a lot of fun!

We did not eve get to see WS during our trip, we just got to sprint from Canada to Japan in abour 3 mins trying to make our ressies...

we are NOT going to miss WS this year...we are not!!! This is a reason we are doing BCV instead of the Poly this year, we missed a TON of Epcot and we all LOVED LOVED Epcot sooo much...

love your pics once again!!

thanks

ps TIA means Thanks In Advance...my name is Jennifer

You are very welcome Jennifer. It's funny what you said about the Teppanyaki. I thought the same thing. It needed more salt, but I didn't want to insult Kenji by asking for some. The boys really liked it though. We are going to try Le Cellier next time

Deb

 

[dairyou]

As far as getting rid of attitude with teenagers - I still dont' have a clue Altho I was really lucky with my oldest 3, my DS18 is so darn moody - one week he wants to come on the trip with us and the next he'd rather stay home and party (yeah right like THAT'S going to happen ) Am so wanting a family vacation this year - my youngest 2 didn't go in 1997 & on our original trip in 1994, their dad died of a sudden heart attack in the hotel room before our vacation even started. So attitudes or not, we're going to Disneyworld!!! (or else )

Deb I am so sorry that your kids lost their dad. Even though it happened long ago, I send my condolences. I hope all of you have a great time!

Deb

 

[dairyou]

Day 7:

We wake up by 7:30 and check back into Old Key West by 8:30. Our room is ready. We request building 18 (receive room 1820) since this is what we mapped out the day Keith and Danny went golfing. Ahhh..it feels good to be back in a 2 bedroom We drop off our luggage and head straight back out the door. We eat breakfast at McDonalds. While investigating things to do in Orlando, I found the Otronicon website. It is a video game type convention that happens to be there the same time we are. I originally was going to take Jordan the day Keith and Danny went golfing, but Danny wanted to go also. So we drive about 30 minutes and arrive at the Orlando Science Center.



They have alot of different video games. Danny and Keith like the military type games the most. Must be a boy thing. I'm really not that interested in being there, but the sacrafices you make for your kids...oh and husband















Danny and Jordan sign up for a Halo 2 tournement. Your parents have to be there to sign you up and I saw quite a few disappointed kids. If Danny and Jordan do well, we could be here until midnight. They sign up and wait...wait...wait. Finally they get to go into this auditorium that has this huge 14 foot tv screen. They loose their challenge, and I'm pretty happy. Plus, if they did win, that means they are playing too many video games! I was amazed to hear some of the chatting in the lines. Stragedy and skills..I think these kids eat and breath video games too much While we were waiting for the boys Keith and I split a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich with fries and a coke. The boys get their fill of this convention and we are out the door by 4:00. We go to Winn Dixie for our groceries for the week and spend $107.00. I don't buy as much this week after learning a lesson from the previous week. We get back to our room and check things out.

This is a view from our balcony. Definitely not as awesome as the room we had before. We need to be down more to the left to see the golf course.





We do homeschool our kids which is how we can vacation so many times of the year off season. They still had to do some work while we were on vacation daily.

Danny doing his Geometry.



Jordan practicing his percussion for band



When we get settled we find out the remote control is missing and I request the foam mattress for Keith and I again. There is a light bulb out over the kitchen sink and they come and fix everything very quickly. I take care of 2 loads of laundry left over at our stay at Port Orleans French Quarter. Keith makes speghetti for dinner. We stay in for the night and rent "Haunted Mansion" from the Community Hall. We cook the make and break cookies and have them with some milk. At 9:00 we hear the fireworks from Epcot and we can see the high fireworks from our balcony. It would had even been better if we were one floor up. I forgot to mention this, building 18 has no elevators. We are also able to hear the music that goes with the fireworks.

What we spent today: $50.00 for the 4 of us to get into Otronicon. $11.00 for breakfast at McDonalds. $7.50 for the Philly Cheesesteak and coke. $107.00 for the week of groceries at Winn Dixie.

Next..day 8. Nothing day Deb

PS...excuse my mistypes and spelling errors. I'm trying to get these done quickly. Real life starts again tomorrow...ugh Monday!

 

[amburger]

Loving it so far. And yay for pictures. I love when I can read about it and then see pictures that go with it, too. Makes it much more interesting and fun. Can't wait to read more.

 

[THE HAT]

what an enjoyable report, love all the details!!! looking fwd to the rest!