Eclpz314
<font color=red>ADDICOMNIAC<br><font color=teal>I
- Joined
- May 15, 2003
- Messages
- 13,347
First, let me take time to thank you all for the invaluable wealth of info I gained from these boards before our trip. My family thought I was a wizard of some sort! Second, the family is still going through withdrawal from a truly wonderful vacation. Our trip included dh, and ds' 14,17. DD 21 had to work and stayed home....turned out to be a good thing since the ac went out on Mon. She made sure the cats didn't suffocate in the 95+ heat in De. Note: ac decided to kick back in 3 hrs. before we arrived home on Sat. evening. I did the easy way and bought that MC 3 night/1 free (and added 3 nights) pkg. I opted for the 4 park, lenght of stay tickets (IOA, US, Wn'W, SW) I paid $35 per night to upgrade to Club level. I reserved a day at DC. I joined Loew's to get all those perks. Anyway, here's how our vacation went:
***Fri 7/18 stayed at Phila. airport hotel to catch 8:05 am direct flight the next morning. Easier to wake everyone, jump in a shuttle, and check-in 1 1/2 early from there than adding extra 45 min. drive from home. Parking all week at the hotel was only $10 extra total---nice! Just call when we get back to have free shuttle come over to airport and get us.
***Sat. 7/19 Wake up call at 5 am--yawn. Adrenalin quickly sets in. Ds 14 has never flown before, '88 since dh and ds 17 have flown. Smooth check-in, flight ontime, ds14 ear-to-ear grin on take off. Great flight, some little turbulence which ds 14 thinks is just great. Ds 17 busied himself videoing out the window. Smooth landing right on time in Orlando. Our shuttle driver was waiting at the bottom of the escalator holding a sign with my name on it ($26 pp..another splurge, but well worth it) He directed us to where our luggage would be coming down and then wouldn't let me carry a thing! I'm liking this already ; ) We waited with our luggage curbside while he went to the pkg gar. and got the van---I was concerned that we wouldn't all fit with our luggage in a towncar, guess they knew exactly what to bring. While we were waiting, a mouse appeared out of nowhere and crawled under our luggage. Family all saw it and were pointing. I was taking in the scenery and didn't notice until I looked down just as it ran out from under my suitcase and under a trash can. Startled me just a bit ; ) and family laughed. (now wondering if the mouse was from WDW since this is the first trip to Orlando that didn't include it?? lol) Did have one shuttle driver come over to our luggage and take my carryon to put in his trunk with some other people's stuff. I chased him down and retrieved it..guess he just got confused and went to the wrong pile? Our shuttle driver was very friendly and informative on our drive to RPR. We turned in to RPR and our jaws dropped. So beautiful outside, couldn't wait to see the inside. The front of the resort is a busy place with bellmen everywhere. ALL of them said Hi or Welcome when we passed them. One greeted the shuttle as soon as we pulled up, opened the van doors and welcomed us to paradise. Note: I think this is about when the whole family realized we were in for something wonderful! I signed the voucher for the shuttle and he told me to call 24 hrs. in advance for the return trip at the end. Tipped him.....first of many tips throughout our stay. I went through Loew's Express check-in. They already had my member. # on file from earlier in the week when I called with room req. I chose milk/cookies--they were waiting for us later that night in our room. I presented both kids "A" report cards. They were issued room keys that had "Grade A Kid" printed next to their name. They got their teen backpacks. RPR has 3 $ categories you can charge on your room key. We chose the$100 one just in case because we already had traveler's checks to use. The room wasn't ready yet (they gave us ph #'s to call from inside the hotel and another if we were at the parks to check on our room) so we strolled a little around the outside of the hotel---beautiful! Then we walked over to City Walk and ended up having lunch at Nascar Cafe (dh is a big race fan) The food was good here, but what really was fun was the waiter who really got into his "pit crew" role while waiting on us. About 2:30 or so we decided to walk back to check on our room. It was ready so we went up to settle in. I'll continue this trip report in a little bit.
***Fri 7/18 stayed at Phila. airport hotel to catch 8:05 am direct flight the next morning. Easier to wake everyone, jump in a shuttle, and check-in 1 1/2 early from there than adding extra 45 min. drive from home. Parking all week at the hotel was only $10 extra total---nice! Just call when we get back to have free shuttle come over to airport and get us.
***Sat. 7/19 Wake up call at 5 am--yawn. Adrenalin quickly sets in. Ds 14 has never flown before, '88 since dh and ds 17 have flown. Smooth check-in, flight ontime, ds14 ear-to-ear grin on take off. Great flight, some little turbulence which ds 14 thinks is just great. Ds 17 busied himself videoing out the window. Smooth landing right on time in Orlando. Our shuttle driver was waiting at the bottom of the escalator holding a sign with my name on it ($26 pp..another splurge, but well worth it) He directed us to where our luggage would be coming down and then wouldn't let me carry a thing! I'm liking this already ; ) We waited with our luggage curbside while he went to the pkg gar. and got the van---I was concerned that we wouldn't all fit with our luggage in a towncar, guess they knew exactly what to bring. While we were waiting, a mouse appeared out of nowhere and crawled under our luggage. Family all saw it and were pointing. I was taking in the scenery and didn't notice until I looked down just as it ran out from under my suitcase and under a trash can. Startled me just a bit ; ) and family laughed. (now wondering if the mouse was from WDW since this is the first trip to Orlando that didn't include it?? lol) Did have one shuttle driver come over to our luggage and take my carryon to put in his trunk with some other people's stuff. I chased him down and retrieved it..guess he just got confused and went to the wrong pile? Our shuttle driver was very friendly and informative on our drive to RPR. We turned in to RPR and our jaws dropped. So beautiful outside, couldn't wait to see the inside. The front of the resort is a busy place with bellmen everywhere. ALL of them said Hi or Welcome when we passed them. One greeted the shuttle as soon as we pulled up, opened the van doors and welcomed us to paradise. Note: I think this is about when the whole family realized we were in for something wonderful! I signed the voucher for the shuttle and he told me to call 24 hrs. in advance for the return trip at the end. Tipped him.....first of many tips throughout our stay. I went through Loew's Express check-in. They already had my member. # on file from earlier in the week when I called with room req. I chose milk/cookies--they were waiting for us later that night in our room. I presented both kids "A" report cards. They were issued room keys that had "Grade A Kid" printed next to their name. They got their teen backpacks. RPR has 3 $ categories you can charge on your room key. We chose the$100 one just in case because we already had traveler's checks to use. The room wasn't ready yet (they gave us ph #'s to call from inside the hotel and another if we were at the parks to check on our room) so we strolled a little around the outside of the hotel---beautiful! Then we walked over to City Walk and ended up having lunch at Nascar Cafe (dh is a big race fan) The food was good here, but what really was fun was the waiter who really got into his "pit crew" role while waiting on us. About 2:30 or so we decided to walk back to check on our room. It was ready so we went up to settle in. I'll continue this trip report in a little bit.
