Our trip began on Thursday morning with an 8 AM flight from Newark to Orlando. I arranged for a car to pick us up at 6, waking ds at 5:30 to get him ready. At 6:15, the driver called for directions from only 3 blocks away. At 6:35, he still wasnt here, so we prepared to lock up and drive ourselves. Finally, he showed up and got us to the airport as they were boarding the plane. Maybe this was going to be our glitch for the entire trip? I hoped so, since I was now so wired that I couldnt relax and enjoy the fact that we were finally going, after all those months of planning.
Our flight was uneventful, arriving a bit ahead of schedule. We were met at baggage by Bob from TTC (a lovely man who I would definitely request again). He got our bags and brought us to the waiting area, while he got the car. He even had a booster seat for our son. He drove us to the Contemporary, where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. We agreed that he would pick us up on Sunday morning at 11 AM to head to the port, with a grocery stop for water and juice.
We checked in at the hotel, but since our room wasnt yet ready, we left our bags with the luggage handlers and headed over to the parks for the remainder of the afternoon, and to meet my sister, BIL and niece, who were leaving the following morning. We did a bunch of things that my son enjoys, like Mickey's Toontown, the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and the Mad Hatter's Teacups. We also did Aladdin's Magic Carpet and the Enchanted Tiki Room for the first time. Enjoyed dinner at the Crystal Palace, with great Winnie the Pooh and Friends character interaction. Headed back to the Contemporary to find a nice tower room with a Magic Kingdom view all ready for us.
Spent Friday at the Kingdom , leaving early and heading back to our hotel to enjoy the pool and dinner at O'Hana at the Polynesian. It was our 5th wedding anniversary and we had a wonderful time and a great meal. If you haven't visited this restaurant yet, you should. It's also good for the kids, since they have a hula-hoop event and a sweeping the coconut contest around the restaurant. Good kid meal choices that are pretty reasonably priced, too. Saturday did the Animal Kingdom, which was so hot that we missed at least half of the park. Never got to the safari or any of the animals. Watched the live Lion King show, which we thought was very enjoyable. Our son liked it very much, being a big Lion King fan. If you are going to do this park, get there EARLY. It gets super hot the later it is in the day. We left early afternoon, and after attending a presentation for DVC, headed back to the hotel. We ate dinner at the steakhouse on the concourse floor of the hotel. Our son took one bite of dinner and keeled over asleep. We stayed to enjoy our dinner and dessert (those of you with little kids know that this is not often an option...I figured if he was asleep in my lap, I might as well have tea and dessert!). It had started to rain shortly after we started dinner, and the hotel was mobbed. We thought we would miss the fireworks, but they went off beautifully. We enjoyed it from the balcony of our room.
Woke up Sunday morning for the character breakfast at Chef Mickey's downstairs. Jason had a wonderful time, but ate almost nothing, which I expected. We took tons of pictures with Mickey and friends with our new digital camera. Since we had express checkout, we just returned to our room, called a bellman and went downstairs to meet Bob for our trip to the port.
Next...our arrival and first view of the Wonder.
Our flight was uneventful, arriving a bit ahead of schedule. We were met at baggage by Bob from TTC (a lovely man who I would definitely request again). He got our bags and brought us to the waiting area, while he got the car. He even had a booster seat for our son. He drove us to the Contemporary, where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. We agreed that he would pick us up on Sunday morning at 11 AM to head to the port, with a grocery stop for water and juice.
We checked in at the hotel, but since our room wasnt yet ready, we left our bags with the luggage handlers and headed over to the parks for the remainder of the afternoon, and to meet my sister, BIL and niece, who were leaving the following morning. We did a bunch of things that my son enjoys, like Mickey's Toontown, the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and the Mad Hatter's Teacups. We also did Aladdin's Magic Carpet and the Enchanted Tiki Room for the first time. Enjoyed dinner at the Crystal Palace, with great Winnie the Pooh and Friends character interaction. Headed back to the Contemporary to find a nice tower room with a Magic Kingdom view all ready for us.
Spent Friday at the Kingdom , leaving early and heading back to our hotel to enjoy the pool and dinner at O'Hana at the Polynesian. It was our 5th wedding anniversary and we had a wonderful time and a great meal. If you haven't visited this restaurant yet, you should. It's also good for the kids, since they have a hula-hoop event and a sweeping the coconut contest around the restaurant. Good kid meal choices that are pretty reasonably priced, too. Saturday did the Animal Kingdom, which was so hot that we missed at least half of the park. Never got to the safari or any of the animals. Watched the live Lion King show, which we thought was very enjoyable. Our son liked it very much, being a big Lion King fan. If you are going to do this park, get there EARLY. It gets super hot the later it is in the day. We left early afternoon, and after attending a presentation for DVC, headed back to the hotel. We ate dinner at the steakhouse on the concourse floor of the hotel. Our son took one bite of dinner and keeled over asleep. We stayed to enjoy our dinner and dessert (those of you with little kids know that this is not often an option...I figured if he was asleep in my lap, I might as well have tea and dessert!). It had started to rain shortly after we started dinner, and the hotel was mobbed. We thought we would miss the fireworks, but they went off beautifully. We enjoyed it from the balcony of our room.
Woke up Sunday morning for the character breakfast at Chef Mickey's downstairs. Jason had a wonderful time, but ate almost nothing, which I expected. We took tons of pictures with Mickey and friends with our new digital camera. Since we had express checkout, we just returned to our room, called a bellman and went downstairs to meet Bob for our trip to the port.
Next...our arrival and first view of the Wonder.
