A Bit Different Trip Report - 6 Days OKW - Short and Sweet

[Stitches12]

Hi all --

Well, we're back from 6 days at OKW. Just got back last night.

I thought I'd TRY a trip report, but as I was there I was thinking of questions that I usually have but maybe don't get addressed on the boards. So, this trip report might end up being a bit different that most - hope I don't bore you too much. I'll really try to keep it short and sweet but by nature I've gotta warn you - I definitely have my opinions, I'll try not to offend anyone.

First comes the cast:

Me - Disney planner - well, everything planner. My husband pretty much goes along for the ride and knows that I know a lot more than him when it comes to the planning.

DH - He's an engineer, need I say more ? Excessive about things, but "engineer" things like how the rides work, not which park to do on which day to avoid the lines. He pretty much pulls his suitcase out the night before and packs in an hour or two and then looks at me and says with a smile "I'm done honey, now we can go" (yeah, like him not being packed would stop me at this point )

DS - just turned 10 years old so we thought we'd better get there one more time while he's still on "kid" prices. LOVES the World and his favorite ride is Space Mountain. He's a thrill seeker like his father and will ride anything.

We also have a dear dog that we leave behind. Her name is Xena the Warrior Princess and she's a mantle great dane. She's a sweet girl and we miss her when we're gone but have some wonderful friends that always volunteer to watch her so we know she's in good hands.

Well - on to Day 1. Hope this works out okay.

 

[Stitches12]

DAY 1: The Trip Down

We flew Jet Blue out of Syracuse, NY. We've never flown JetBlue before and I must say we were pleasantly surprised. The legroom in coach is terrific ! A couple of years ago we flew Delta down and we felt like sardines in a can. This was great and we had TV's right at our seats to pass the time. This meant I really didn't have to pack the bag of a million things to do for the DS. He was entertained the whole trip. The flights were on-time and pretty uneventful (which is a good thing when you're flying).

Our flight left Syracuse at 11:30 am and in order to get to the airport we have to leave home around 6 am (we also needed time to drop off the dog). It was a pretty early morning in our house.

Weather was good all the way and we landed in Orlando around 4:30 pm. Our progress through the airiport was kind of slow because they no longer have the cute guys with the waving hands to greet you and lead you to DME. The Terminal A Therminal B thing is kind of confusing and the signs don't help but we eventually found our way to the DME desk.

One note about DME. We find it terribly convenient to drop our luggage off with the Skycap in Syracuse and not ever have to deal with it again. This is worth a lot to us. No luggage hauling, no waiting at claims - nothing, just drop and go. Think about it. Despite what some say, we had an excellent experience. We landed at MCO at 4:30 and were in our room and checked into OKW by 6 PM. That's only an hour and a half. There was no wait at the DME desk at the airport (well, maybe about 5 people ahead of us but it goes FAST), there was about a 2 minute wait for the bus to OKW and we just breezed through the whole thing. Even at check-in at OKW, there was no wait.

Think about this when you're booking your flights. I think it was the time of day that we arrived. We noticed a HUGE line at security going OUT of MCO as we were coming in (everyone likes to have a full day at the park but is it worth it ?) When we flew out at 12 noon, there was a line but it was nothing like the one we saw when arriving.

As we were approaching our room, the rain came. Little did we know that this would pretty much set the tone for the whole trip. The key word for the week was "intermittent." It would be a perfectly sunny day and then all of the sudden the sky would just open up with buckets of rain. It made the planning a little difficult. I can't say that we'd ever come back this time of year again. Last time it was the end of October and we found the weather a lot better. It was SO HOT AND MUGGY that our clothes were drenched just walking from the room to the bus. Just too hot for us but maybe that's because we're from NYS. We do get moist up here but it's nothing like what we experienced down there.

We had thought of going to the park when we arrived but we were just too wiped from the all day travel so we decided to just stay at the resort and have a nice dinner at Olivia's. It was probably some of the best food we had the whole trip (I'll say more about Disney Dining later). We were in la-la land around 9 PM hoping to be refreshed the next day and ready to go. As a side note, our bags did not arrive at our room until 9 pm (we landed at 4:30). It usually doesn't take this long but they said they were backed up a bit from the rain.

Did I say this was going to be short and sweet ? See what I mean about my opinions. More coming on Day 2 - ANIMAL KINGDOM.

 

[Cherlynn25]

Can't wait to hear more! =)

 

[Stitches12]

Thanks Cheryl -

Can I just say one thing ? Unpacking STINKS This is the part of the trip I always dread. I even did a load of wash mid-week and I've STILL got laundry up to my

 

[Stitches12]

DAY 2: ANIMAL KINGDOM

I have a few minutes between the 500 pounds of laundry I brought home so I thought I'd give an update on Day 2. I'll try to keep it brief.

Today was Animal Kingdom day. According to TGM it was a good day and I can say he was 100% correct. Lines were short or non-existant. Other than it was pretty moist outside, we had a great time.

For some reason, we just can't get going before 10:30 when we're at Disney. After all, it's also a vacation and we like to take our time. Maybe not the best strategy as we've never seen a rope drop but then again we've never been in the throngs of people that are waiting to get in.

People complain about the busses at OKW. I'm not sure what to say here as we've never experienced any other resort. I can tell you that you will most likely wait around 10 minutes to catch a bus. Whether that's fast or not I really don't know but one thing I have noticed about the park bus stops for OKW - they seem to be closest to the gates than others. This makes for a quicker walk to the gate and from the gate at night. Also, you don't share a bus with any other resort so we've never had to wait for a second bus because the first one was too full.

We decided to get FP to EE right away as we thought it would be crowded. Turned out it was only a 30 min wait (which ended up to be about 20 mins) so my DH and DS (this ride is not for me I HATE anything in the dark) got their fast passes and also stood in the stand by line. I decided it was time to do a little shopping so off I went for a frozen lemonade and a little shopping.

After EE we walked to It's Tough to be a Bug, then we had time for Flights of Wonder. We LOVED this show and I highly recommend it. If you get a chance, don't sit up front but go way up back and the birds fly right to you. AWESOME. By then it was time for the EE Fast Pass so once again my DH and DS headed out towards EE. They got to the front of the line and the ride broke down - my son was pretty bummed but they got free FP for anytime between now and October 31st. Needless to say, they got used up.

A few more rides and we had just about had it. It was pretty warm in the park that day but not as moist as the rest of the week. We headed home to do some swimming and ate that night at Olivia's at OKW. Meal was not as good as last night. I had the crab crusted mahi mahi and it was very dry but my DH's prime rib was very good. Their Key Lime tart is to die for !

We were going to go to MK that night but just found ourselves too tired and decided not to push it. Besides, as we were thinking about going the sky opened up (once again) and that pretty much was the deciding factor. The whole week was full of these showers, they didn't usually stop us as we had our ponchos but some of them were simply too much even for them.

On to bed and off for another adventure tomorrow - EPCOT day !!!