momof2intx
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2003
- Messages
- 557
I'm not sure how much of my busy trip I can remember in detail, but I think I can cover most of it! ATTN: (a few) SPOILERS AHEAD -- DON"T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!
5/2 - We packed the car up and got on the road for our long drive from Dallas to Orlando around 11 am. We meant to leave earlier but since we were up packing late the night before we slept in. We rigged the 13" TV and VCR up in the back of our minivan and the kids (ages 2 and 4) were good to go. We made good time, only stopping to get gas and to get food...but never longer than 1 hr in any once place. We weren't planning on staying over anywhere but......
5/3 - around 2 am my husband was about to fall asleep driving and the fog started to get thick as we entered into Crestview, FL in the panhandle. It was also starting to rain a bit. We decided it was better to be safe than sorry and stayed the night in a Super 8 (yech). Around 8 am we began our trek towards Orlando. We finally made it to our hotel, The Wyndham Palace and checked in around 3pm or so. Now, I'm sure you all know I am a Wyndham employee here in Dallas so I am a bit biased, but I really enjoyed my stay at the Palace and was even more impressed with it after being there. I will do a separate post about the Palace under the Orlando Hotels board.
After getting into our room, changed, bathed and showered we walked over to Downtown Disney to have dinner. The kids loved the huge lego structures and I took a bunch of pictures. My husband saw Fulton's Crab House and thought "crab" sounded great for dinner. Of course we walk right past the menu outside and go in and sit down. Nothing on the menu under $20! Except for the kids meals of course. We do not normally dine at places (or prices!) like that and we were doing this Disney trip on a budget. So I just gave my husband a look and proceeded to order....our waitress was already snotty and I was not going to lower myself by leaving. So, I ordered the scallop pasta (which was SOOOO delicious....ALMOST worth the $20 I paid for it LOL) and my husband ordered the crab. We all had sodas and the kids shared a kids meal. The bill was $65! I will never let my husband live it down.....our anniversary was on 5/8, so we just declared it our anniversary dinner!
On our way out we let the kids play at the lego area, but there was way too many people and kids in one area. I was scared that I was going to lose my little 2 year old daughter. My son wanted to make an airplane to send down the ramp, but there were not any wheels to be found anywhere. I did not like the lego area at all. Too many unsupervised kids.
We did stop in the Disney shop there and I bought a charm for my italian link bracelet and I bought the kids 2 of those little light up bouncy balls. I also got my son a "dog tag" like necklace with Buzz Lightyear on it and it had his name on it. He wore it the ENTIRE trip!
That night we went to the pool (the kiddie pool) and the kids had a blast. My husband was trying to bounce my daughters light up ball and bounced it right into the lake between the Wyndham Palace Tower and the pool area. We tried everything to find it, but it was too dark and my DH was afraid of getting eaten by an alligator -- no joke....so we just bought her another one.
5/4 - Sunday morning, we did the character breakfast at our hotel. The kids got to see Goofy, Pluto and Minnie. It was worth that hefty bill just to see my daughter's eyes light up when she saw Minnie Mouse. I thought I was going to cry it was so sweet!
Our first day at the parks. We went first to the MK. It was so hard waking up early! We finally arrived at the MK around 10am. The first thing we did was head to Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin to obtain our fastpass. Buzz was outside the building for a character greet and boy, my son was in his glory! I took a picture of my son and my husband with Buzz. OUr fastpass had a time of 1122am-1222pm to come back to ride. In the meantime we went on the people mover (I used to live in FL and was an AP holder -- I had NEVER been on this!!) and grabbed a bite to eat. Then back to BLSRS with our FastPass. I tell you, I love the FastPass.....I felt so sorry walking right by the people in line and getting right on the ride! I racked up over 200K points on this ride thanks to the advice on this board. I spun around and hit the Rock'em Sock'em robot on the wrist and got the 100K points! Everyone loved that ride except for my daughter. Of all the dark rides we went on, only this one scared her. She cried through the whole thing. I guess neon robots in darkness was just not her thing!
Then we went to ride Peter Pan -- we obtained our FastPass at around noon and the time was for after 430 pm! That ride is always so packed. We went and rode the Liberty Belle, the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the new Tiki Show -- which has a pretty scary character in it, my daughter did not like it. We also got to see a bunch of characters...then back to ride Peter Pan. That is a must. Honestly it was such a busy day I do not remember what other things we did. We did leave fairly early in hopes to get back to MGM to see Fantasmic after resting up. But, my husband got a really bad headache so we opted to order room service first and then try to make it to MGM in time. After taking the wrong bus we finally got to MGM just as Fantasmic was starting. It was standing room only but we still had a great view. The only thing was that I had to hold my 45 lb son the whole time so he could see. I was in "awe" over Fantasmic. It was unbelieveable. We all loved it.
5/5 - This day we went to AK. I really liked it, but my husband wasn't that thrilled with it. We did the safari ride, the big green flying dinos (I don't remember the names), saw the Festival of the Lion King -- which was by far one of the best things that we had seen the entire trip. WOW, it was great!
We did "It's tough to be a bug" and that was so hilarious. My son really liked it until the stink bug part. Then the smoke and the spiders...well, he was a bit freaked out. My daughter however, I think she was just in shock -- nothing fazed her. She just put her hands over her mouth when Hopper came out (we were seated to where he was right infront of us!) and I covered her eyes during the spider part. Other than that, my husband and son were more shook up than either my daughter or myself. I talked my husband into taking my 4 year old son to ride "Dinosaur". I thought he would like it, he watched the Disney vacation video and saw it on there and really wanted to ride it. So, we did the child swap and he and my husband went on first while I waited with my daughter. All of these kids, smaller than my son (in size) were coming off the ride saying how great and cool it was. I figured my son would feel the same. NOPE. It freaked him out. He didn't cry, but he was really scared. After that I felt so bad that I didn't even go on the ride myself. He wanted a Dinosaur in the gift shop and they were reasonably priced at $12 so I told him he could pick one. He picks the big red one with the big teeth -- the one my husband said he was scared to death of on the ride. Suddenly this dino became my son's best friend. He went everywhere with us for the rest of the trip!
We got to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in the meet and greet area...there were NO lines to see them. It was great because the kids got special attention from each of them since there were no people waiting.
Sometime during the day one of our water bottles leaked into my camera (they were both in my backpack) and my camera died on me. Luckily I had just finished the roll with the Mickey pictures and put a new roll in so I think I only lost a few extra pictures from the end of the Lion King Show. I bought 2 disposeable cameras to last me the rest of the trip.
That night we were going to go back to MGM to see and video Fantasmic again and also eat at Pizza Planet. Well we got there around 630 pm and my DH and DS rode Star Tours while my daughter and I went to Muppetvision 3D. Then we were going to eat at Pizza Planet but was very disappointed to find that it was already closed for the night We didn't make it to Fantasmic because we spent forever looking for somewhere to eat that wasn't closed. We finally found one counter service place open that had chicken, pizza and burgers. By the time we got our food and was done eating it, Fantasmic had already started, so we decided just to go back to the hotel for the night.
5/6 - This day we went to Epcot. That is my favorite park by far. First thing first -- of course....Spaceship Earth! I hadn't been on this ride in almost 11 years. I couldn't believe how much the "future" section has changed! It was great. Still one of the best things about Disney. The Fountain shows reminded my husband and I of Vegas (our other favorite place) and we spent alot of time watching them. We did the Living Seas -- which my daughter loved. She loves fish and things like that. Then we went over to The Land to eat. I remember eating here as a kid and thinking it was the best food in the world. I was a bit dissapointed this time. The lines were too long and the service slow and the prices very high. The kids and hubby got chicken strips and I opted for the fajita potato which was not very good. We meant to come back to do the Land Ride and the Food Rocks show but never got around to it. I think next we did the "Journey into Imagination" ride -- which also used to be one of my favorites. Again, my son got "pooted" on (his words) and he didn't like that too much. The ride was great to him until the skunk smell. From then on, every ride we rode he wanted to know if he was going to get "pooted" on! LOL After the ride we tried to send ourselves and family our e-mail picture, but it never came to us. I wonder what we did wrong. We opted not to do "Honey I shrunk the Audience" because my son did not do too well at the "Tough to be a bug" show. Maybe next year. Then we went over to Test Track. We got a Fast Pass and didn't have to wait too long. We did the child swap with our daughter and she loved watching the big machine next to the area where you look at your digital ride image when you get off of the ride. My husband and son loved the Test Track, but when I went back on it with my son I wasn't that impressed. I kept thinking something was wrong with the ride, the way it kept stopping in between the tests and stuff. My husband said it was supposed to be like that. My son really liked the speed test. We bought the picture of he and my DH on the ride. We didn't do the Showcase or really much else at Epcot. I really wanted some sushi in Japan, but never got it. My DH wan't that thrilled with Epcot but I think that if our kids were a bit older, they would've had more fun there. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't spend more time there, but there is always next time!!
That night we went back to the MK to see Spectromagic and the fireworks. We got there a bit early to do some ToonTown Fair stuff, magic carpets, Snow White and It's a Small World. Then we noticed that people were already starting to get their seats for Spectromagic. I figured we'd better get ours too. It was about 7pm at this time. We grabbed a spot at the curb to the Left of the Castle. Great seats for the Parade. Only a few people in front of us. I accidentally spilt a bit of water on the ground from my water bottle and it flowed down and got onto this lady seated in front of me. I apologized over and over and helped clean it up but she was very rude and was VERY mad at me for it. I kept thinking..."geez, it was an accident!!" It was only water. God forbid she should get a drop of water on her black cotton shorts at Disney World of all places! Some people.
The parade was beautiful -- I haven't seen one since the old Electric Parade. I was very impressed. We got it all on video. I think it was a bit much for my husband who was having a hard time with the heat and the crowds. I guess I didn't prepare him enough for what to expect. I knew it would be very hot and crowded since this was the only Spectromagic and fireworks scheduled for the beginning of May so far. Everyone and their mother was at the MK that night. We did not stay for the fireworks, the kids were hot and tired and we figured we'd better get a jump start before the mad dash for everyone to board the monorail. Standing room only on the bus that night. It made us decide to pay the big bucks next time and stay at the CR! The kids slept like angels that night! So did I. DH did our laundry (bless his heart) since we were running low on clean clothes.
5/7 - Our last day at the parks, we spend this day at MGM. We did a bunch of stuff...The Indiana Jones Show, ate at Pizza Planet, got our picture with "Sorcerer" Mickey -- there was NO line. Did the Backlot Tour...my son liked that one. Bought him a Zurg, got my daughter a Minnie and they both got those twirly light up things...my daughter got a Tinkerbell one and my son -- guess what -- a Buzz one. The highlight of the day was seeing the Playhouse Disney show. We waited in line for almost an hour for the last show of the day. The ones before were sold out. Boy was it worth it. It was awesome and the kids had a blast. They were so happy. Everyone in that theater was having such a good time! There were just as many parents singing and dancing as kids! We did other things but I am embarrassed to say that I cannot remember what else we did. We went back to the hotel and ordered room service before packing up to go to our other hotel for our last day.
5/8 - Checked out and went over to the Wyndham Orlando Resort (will post some things about it on the Orlando Hotels board) for our last day. We ate at the Mc Donald's on I-Drive...that place was completely nuts and way overpriced for a McDonalds...but the kids liked it so it was worth it. Then we went back to the hotel to swim. We loved the pool area at the Orlando Resort, it was beautiful and the kids had a good time in the Kiddie Pool. For dinner we went to I-Hop and had some good food and went accross the street to get some cheap souvenirs to take home with us and some snacks for our drive home. We all went to bed fairly early that night. I stayed up to finish a book I had started on the drive down so I was last to fall asleep.
5/9 - Checked out and got on the road about 9am to come back to Dallas. The kids did really well....we watched Aladdin twice, Jimmy Neutron once and the rest of the 22 hour drive was spent watching Spongebob Squarepants. My husband and I switched off driving during the day and night. We did not stop anywhere to sleep.
5/10 - Finally at 430 am we pulled into our driveway. I drove the last stretch of 3 or so hours and I was so tired I was seeing double. We took the kids into our bed and all fell asleep. We didn't get up until about 1030 -11am that morning!!!
So, it was a great trip, but we are planning another.....maybe October. If not October then definitely in February. DH just cannot take the heat. We plan on staying at the PR or the CR next time. And we will be flying...not driving!
We have officially become WDW addicts. We will probably go back every year now....I can't wait until our next trip!
5/2 - We packed the car up and got on the road for our long drive from Dallas to Orlando around 11 am. We meant to leave earlier but since we were up packing late the night before we slept in. We rigged the 13" TV and VCR up in the back of our minivan and the kids (ages 2 and 4) were good to go. We made good time, only stopping to get gas and to get food...but never longer than 1 hr in any once place. We weren't planning on staying over anywhere but......
5/3 - around 2 am my husband was about to fall asleep driving and the fog started to get thick as we entered into Crestview, FL in the panhandle. It was also starting to rain a bit. We decided it was better to be safe than sorry and stayed the night in a Super 8 (yech). Around 8 am we began our trek towards Orlando. We finally made it to our hotel, The Wyndham Palace and checked in around 3pm or so. Now, I'm sure you all know I am a Wyndham employee here in Dallas so I am a bit biased, but I really enjoyed my stay at the Palace and was even more impressed with it after being there. I will do a separate post about the Palace under the Orlando Hotels board.
After getting into our room, changed, bathed and showered we walked over to Downtown Disney to have dinner. The kids loved the huge lego structures and I took a bunch of pictures. My husband saw Fulton's Crab House and thought "crab" sounded great for dinner. Of course we walk right past the menu outside and go in and sit down. Nothing on the menu under $20! Except for the kids meals of course. We do not normally dine at places (or prices!) like that and we were doing this Disney trip on a budget. So I just gave my husband a look and proceeded to order....our waitress was already snotty and I was not going to lower myself by leaving. So, I ordered the scallop pasta (which was SOOOO delicious....ALMOST worth the $20 I paid for it LOL) and my husband ordered the crab. We all had sodas and the kids shared a kids meal. The bill was $65! I will never let my husband live it down.....our anniversary was on 5/8, so we just declared it our anniversary dinner!
On our way out we let the kids play at the lego area, but there was way too many people and kids in one area. I was scared that I was going to lose my little 2 year old daughter. My son wanted to make an airplane to send down the ramp, but there were not any wheels to be found anywhere. I did not like the lego area at all. Too many unsupervised kids.
We did stop in the Disney shop there and I bought a charm for my italian link bracelet and I bought the kids 2 of those little light up bouncy balls. I also got my son a "dog tag" like necklace with Buzz Lightyear on it and it had his name on it. He wore it the ENTIRE trip!
That night we went to the pool (the kiddie pool) and the kids had a blast. My husband was trying to bounce my daughters light up ball and bounced it right into the lake between the Wyndham Palace Tower and the pool area. We tried everything to find it, but it was too dark and my DH was afraid of getting eaten by an alligator -- no joke....so we just bought her another one.
5/4 - Sunday morning, we did the character breakfast at our hotel. The kids got to see Goofy, Pluto and Minnie. It was worth that hefty bill just to see my daughter's eyes light up when she saw Minnie Mouse. I thought I was going to cry it was so sweet!
Our first day at the parks. We went first to the MK. It was so hard waking up early! We finally arrived at the MK around 10am. The first thing we did was head to Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin to obtain our fastpass. Buzz was outside the building for a character greet and boy, my son was in his glory! I took a picture of my son and my husband with Buzz. OUr fastpass had a time of 1122am-1222pm to come back to ride. In the meantime we went on the people mover (I used to live in FL and was an AP holder -- I had NEVER been on this!!) and grabbed a bite to eat. Then back to BLSRS with our FastPass. I tell you, I love the FastPass.....I felt so sorry walking right by the people in line and getting right on the ride! I racked up over 200K points on this ride thanks to the advice on this board. I spun around and hit the Rock'em Sock'em robot on the wrist and got the 100K points! Everyone loved that ride except for my daughter. Of all the dark rides we went on, only this one scared her. She cried through the whole thing. I guess neon robots in darkness was just not her thing!
Then we went to ride Peter Pan -- we obtained our FastPass at around noon and the time was for after 430 pm! That ride is always so packed. We went and rode the Liberty Belle, the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the new Tiki Show -- which has a pretty scary character in it, my daughter did not like it. We also got to see a bunch of characters...then back to ride Peter Pan. That is a must. Honestly it was such a busy day I do not remember what other things we did. We did leave fairly early in hopes to get back to MGM to see Fantasmic after resting up. But, my husband got a really bad headache so we opted to order room service first and then try to make it to MGM in time. After taking the wrong bus we finally got to MGM just as Fantasmic was starting. It was standing room only but we still had a great view. The only thing was that I had to hold my 45 lb son the whole time so he could see. I was in "awe" over Fantasmic. It was unbelieveable. We all loved it.
5/5 - This day we went to AK. I really liked it, but my husband wasn't that thrilled with it. We did the safari ride, the big green flying dinos (I don't remember the names), saw the Festival of the Lion King -- which was by far one of the best things that we had seen the entire trip. WOW, it was great!
We did "It's tough to be a bug" and that was so hilarious. My son really liked it until the stink bug part. Then the smoke and the spiders...well, he was a bit freaked out. My daughter however, I think she was just in shock -- nothing fazed her. She just put her hands over her mouth when Hopper came out (we were seated to where he was right infront of us!) and I covered her eyes during the spider part. Other than that, my husband and son were more shook up than either my daughter or myself. I talked my husband into taking my 4 year old son to ride "Dinosaur". I thought he would like it, he watched the Disney vacation video and saw it on there and really wanted to ride it. So, we did the child swap and he and my husband went on first while I waited with my daughter. All of these kids, smaller than my son (in size) were coming off the ride saying how great and cool it was. I figured my son would feel the same. NOPE. It freaked him out. He didn't cry, but he was really scared. After that I felt so bad that I didn't even go on the ride myself. He wanted a Dinosaur in the gift shop and they were reasonably priced at $12 so I told him he could pick one. He picks the big red one with the big teeth -- the one my husband said he was scared to death of on the ride. Suddenly this dino became my son's best friend. He went everywhere with us for the rest of the trip!
We got to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in the meet and greet area...there were NO lines to see them. It was great because the kids got special attention from each of them since there were no people waiting.
Sometime during the day one of our water bottles leaked into my camera (they were both in my backpack) and my camera died on me. Luckily I had just finished the roll with the Mickey pictures and put a new roll in so I think I only lost a few extra pictures from the end of the Lion King Show. I bought 2 disposeable cameras to last me the rest of the trip.
That night we were going to go back to MGM to see and video Fantasmic again and also eat at Pizza Planet. Well we got there around 630 pm and my DH and DS rode Star Tours while my daughter and I went to Muppetvision 3D. Then we were going to eat at Pizza Planet but was very disappointed to find that it was already closed for the night We didn't make it to Fantasmic because we spent forever looking for somewhere to eat that wasn't closed. We finally found one counter service place open that had chicken, pizza and burgers. By the time we got our food and was done eating it, Fantasmic had already started, so we decided just to go back to the hotel for the night.
5/6 - This day we went to Epcot. That is my favorite park by far. First thing first -- of course....Spaceship Earth! I hadn't been on this ride in almost 11 years. I couldn't believe how much the "future" section has changed! It was great. Still one of the best things about Disney. The Fountain shows reminded my husband and I of Vegas (our other favorite place) and we spent alot of time watching them. We did the Living Seas -- which my daughter loved. She loves fish and things like that. Then we went over to The Land to eat. I remember eating here as a kid and thinking it was the best food in the world. I was a bit dissapointed this time. The lines were too long and the service slow and the prices very high. The kids and hubby got chicken strips and I opted for the fajita potato which was not very good. We meant to come back to do the Land Ride and the Food Rocks show but never got around to it. I think next we did the "Journey into Imagination" ride -- which also used to be one of my favorites. Again, my son got "pooted" on (his words) and he didn't like that too much. The ride was great to him until the skunk smell. From then on, every ride we rode he wanted to know if he was going to get "pooted" on! LOL After the ride we tried to send ourselves and family our e-mail picture, but it never came to us. I wonder what we did wrong. We opted not to do "Honey I shrunk the Audience" because my son did not do too well at the "Tough to be a bug" show. Maybe next year. Then we went over to Test Track. We got a Fast Pass and didn't have to wait too long. We did the child swap with our daughter and she loved watching the big machine next to the area where you look at your digital ride image when you get off of the ride. My husband and son loved the Test Track, but when I went back on it with my son I wasn't that impressed. I kept thinking something was wrong with the ride, the way it kept stopping in between the tests and stuff. My husband said it was supposed to be like that. My son really liked the speed test. We bought the picture of he and my DH on the ride. We didn't do the Showcase or really much else at Epcot. I really wanted some sushi in Japan, but never got it. My DH wan't that thrilled with Epcot but I think that if our kids were a bit older, they would've had more fun there. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't spend more time there, but there is always next time!!
That night we went back to the MK to see Spectromagic and the fireworks. We got there a bit early to do some ToonTown Fair stuff, magic carpets, Snow White and It's a Small World. Then we noticed that people were already starting to get their seats for Spectromagic. I figured we'd better get ours too. It was about 7pm at this time. We grabbed a spot at the curb to the Left of the Castle. Great seats for the Parade. Only a few people in front of us. I accidentally spilt a bit of water on the ground from my water bottle and it flowed down and got onto this lady seated in front of me. I apologized over and over and helped clean it up but she was very rude and was VERY mad at me for it. I kept thinking..."geez, it was an accident!!" It was only water. God forbid she should get a drop of water on her black cotton shorts at Disney World of all places! Some people.
The parade was beautiful -- I haven't seen one since the old Electric Parade. I was very impressed. We got it all on video. I think it was a bit much for my husband who was having a hard time with the heat and the crowds. I guess I didn't prepare him enough for what to expect. I knew it would be very hot and crowded since this was the only Spectromagic and fireworks scheduled for the beginning of May so far. Everyone and their mother was at the MK that night. We did not stay for the fireworks, the kids were hot and tired and we figured we'd better get a jump start before the mad dash for everyone to board the monorail. Standing room only on the bus that night. It made us decide to pay the big bucks next time and stay at the CR! The kids slept like angels that night! So did I. DH did our laundry (bless his heart) since we were running low on clean clothes.
5/7 - Our last day at the parks, we spend this day at MGM. We did a bunch of stuff...The Indiana Jones Show, ate at Pizza Planet, got our picture with "Sorcerer" Mickey -- there was NO line. Did the Backlot Tour...my son liked that one. Bought him a Zurg, got my daughter a Minnie and they both got those twirly light up things...my daughter got a Tinkerbell one and my son -- guess what -- a Buzz one. The highlight of the day was seeing the Playhouse Disney show. We waited in line for almost an hour for the last show of the day. The ones before were sold out. Boy was it worth it. It was awesome and the kids had a blast. They were so happy. Everyone in that theater was having such a good time! There were just as many parents singing and dancing as kids! We did other things but I am embarrassed to say that I cannot remember what else we did. We went back to the hotel and ordered room service before packing up to go to our other hotel for our last day.
5/8 - Checked out and went over to the Wyndham Orlando Resort (will post some things about it on the Orlando Hotels board) for our last day. We ate at the Mc Donald's on I-Drive...that place was completely nuts and way overpriced for a McDonalds...but the kids liked it so it was worth it. Then we went back to the hotel to swim. We loved the pool area at the Orlando Resort, it was beautiful and the kids had a good time in the Kiddie Pool. For dinner we went to I-Hop and had some good food and went accross the street to get some cheap souvenirs to take home with us and some snacks for our drive home. We all went to bed fairly early that night. I stayed up to finish a book I had started on the drive down so I was last to fall asleep.
5/9 - Checked out and got on the road about 9am to come back to Dallas. The kids did really well....we watched Aladdin twice, Jimmy Neutron once and the rest of the 22 hour drive was spent watching Spongebob Squarepants. My husband and I switched off driving during the day and night. We did not stop anywhere to sleep.
5/10 - Finally at 430 am we pulled into our driveway. I drove the last stretch of 3 or so hours and I was so tired I was seeing double. We took the kids into our bed and all fell asleep. We didn't get up until about 1030 -11am that morning!!!
So, it was a great trip, but we are planning another.....maybe October. If not October then definitely in February. DH just cannot take the heat. We plan on staying at the PR or the CR next time. And we will be flying...not driving!
We have officially become WDW addicts. We will probably go back every year now....I can't wait until our next trip!
