a little bitter sweet report ....

[islandmum]

well luckily far more sweet than bitter!!

the background:

me - SAHM with a little very part time job for a yacht company, vacation planner, money spender, luckiest and proudest mum in the world

him - he who earns the cash, workaholic, Director of Golf for international resort company, recently been cultivating the pot belly look, thinks he will hate Disney

them - my boys, aged just 3 and just 5, bundles of fun, on the go from sunrise till sunset, they make my heart burst every day.

we live on a tiny little island in the Caribbean having emigrated from the UK in early 2004. Every year we take our big 4 week vaca in the UK to see rellies and friends but its not a relaxing time - this year we wanted a trip for us .... and Disney fits that perfectly!

the plan was:
one week in Miami
10 days in Disney at WL
one week at Atlantis in Bahamas

so after 6 months of intense planning, extreme excitement on my part and 2 nights of barely sleeping the day of departure was here .............

 

[Avivasmom]

WELCOME BACK...hope you had a great trip...cannot wait to read about it.

 

[islandmum]

it was a lovely hot Thursday morning on the island, a 7.15 flight to San Juan meant check in at 7am after the exhausting 4 minute drive to the tiny airport.

we're off, 28 minute flight to St Lucia
stop to refuel and pick up more passengers

2 hour flight to San Juan
transit to Miami flight
have bumped us onto an earlier flight so instead of having an hour to get some breakfast and a rest we RUN to the plane where they are holding the doors for us and yell at us as we take our seats!

arrive in Miami to be met by requested pick up limo .......
which doesnt show up!

so we take a cab to our hotel in Miami, the Fairmont Turnberry Isle, which is AWESOME! get a penthouse suite overlooking the golf courses and Norht Beach skyline ..... which would be lovely if we had picked a week where the weather was good - ours was not! It was the wettest week in Miami, flooding, lightening, power outs, everything. But the hotel was great and even better - the Aventura Mall was across the road and the main reason we're in Miami was to buy clothes and all things for the next year on our island where we have no stores to buy such things.

after an exhausting 5 days of pounding the mall, endless trips to CheckECheese where the boys just ran round for hours we were tired and looking forward to the reall reason for the trip ..... DISNEY!

one more thing to do the day before we leave Miami to to drop the boxes of all our stuff at the shippers to be freighted back to our home. Off we go, in a lovely rental car (Mercedes C Class) with boxes and kids strapped in.

and then it happens - we turn left at a major intersection and are T-boned by a Ford Expedition doing 55, spun twice and hit by a school bus whilst spinning ....

this was the bitter part!

 

[Avivasmom]

Oh goodness..hope you were all fine...I remember that week..it was miserable here.

 

[sharonW]

omg..what luck!! Hope your all A-OK!! Can't
wait to here more!!!

 

[islandmum]

so as the smoke settles I focus and scream at hubby to check the kids - I cant move about as the SUV has hit my door and pillar trapping me somewhat.

kids are FINE, even though our 5 year olds door took the majority of the impact his car seat did its job perfectly and totally kept him safe. All he had was a few glass cuts and some bruises.

I tried to open my door but couldnt make my arm move, then the pain kicked in and after being transfered to Aventura hospital and Xrays showed a dislocated elbow, fractured (small) shoulder joint, broken toe and torn calf muscle.

it wasnt a good day, at all, but we all got out okay if not me a little battered.

we were due to drive to Disney but this was now not possible, the rental was a total write off as was the SUV and we couldnt rent another car as hubby got a citation in the accident. Really I needed rest so decided we should fly to Disney rather than stay in Miami as at least hubby and the boys could start on the vaca so off we went to FL airport, which I cant say much about as I was so drugged up and mostly asleep in my wheelchair.

I remember waking up at the Magical Express wait area and made sure I took it all in - the boys were so excited, even hubby aproved of the organisation and cleanliness of it all

WE@RE OFF TO DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

1st stop was the Poly, which looks just like where we live and then the WL - US!

It was gorgeous as we drove up and walking into the lobby just took our breath away - we LOVED IT!! We had booked CL but we actually changed it to a courtyard bunk room as that suited us best and we got a great view overlooking the DVC pool - which we were glad of as the main pool view rooms were pretty noisy for us and we wanted the quiet and eay access to the elevator for me.

All planning went out the window in terms of park schedules due to me and we agreed to go to the parks on the days we had but to go commando and just see how it went.

First reschedule was that first night dinner which we did in the WC instead of in MGM.

and I will say this ..... WE LOVE THE WC! kids laughed and laughed, all our servers were great, and we ended up going 4 more times during the vaca.

the staff at checkin were great although the concierge guy was probably the least helpful and least friendly. We found the room small for sure but the bunk beds were a HUGE hit and we were comfy. Because of changing rooms we lost track of the gift bags I had arranged for the arrival in the rooms but they were located soon and the boys had about the 20th excitement frenzy of that day!

arrival was done. Next morning, drug induced, was a 8am breakfast in MGM and an ECV (something I never had planned on using!!!)

so here we come MGM

 

[DisneyJo]

OMG!!!! Welcome home but OMG, not the holiday start you were planning on, so pleased you weren't more seriously hurt though

 

[islandmum]

so after a fitful nights sleep - the boys who were so excited and went to sleep clutching various toys from their gift basket, and me feeling sore, got the alarm call at 6.30 and everyone ready at the bustop for 7am for the character brekkie at MGM.

made the gates at about 7.40 and were second in the queue following a very loud, very pushy family who wanted IN right now! the mother told the daughter to grab the characters first, shout and scream so they'd see her first and grab the best table in the restaurant - whatever that is!

ironically the characters got to their table last of all and they were not happy! our oldest was just amazed, he LOVED the characters although our 3 year old just watched from the sidelines - he needed a little more warming up.

We're there at rope drop, liked the movie start and made our way through the little crowd to have a piccy with Goofy and Pluto. next stop was Streets of America for Cars and Power Rangers. This was a BIG thing for the boys and they loved it! Lightening and mater made their entrance and our 3 year old car mad boy screamed his head off in delight, it brought me to tears, he just was so happy. We took the obligatory pics, I climbed out off the wheelchair for all pics and also to move my legs about a bit which was nice.

Power Rangers were great and spent wuite a bit of time with each kid and we got all 6 of them photo'd. After that we're onto Woody and Buzz at the Toy Barn. Yet more screams of joy from the boys and the day is going great.

Feeling a little peckish by this point as its close to 11.30 so we tootle off to the counter service area opposite the Tower of Terror. Nice lunch, I got the tortilla wrap, hubby got salad and the kids mac'n'cheese. All happy with that.

After lunch it was off to Little Mermaid where the queue was quite long. My boys didnt like this AT ALL! they cried, they were scared, they werent happy being squirted with water .... lesson learned!

to make ammends we tok them off to see more favourites - the Incredibles. Our oldest had his Dash toy with him and the characters made a great fuss of this and played with him whilst Frozone played with my youngests cars - a great piccy with them all.

Last stop for the day was the Stunt car show - I was tired and sore and we had scheduled another day in this park so we though the hotel was a nice afternoon option - plus the rain was coming down.

My youngest adored the stunt show, totally in awe, but our oldest was still concerned about the car accident and was a little wary so I sat with him and egged him on all the way through and he got better. This would be the first of 3 visits to the show and its really good.

Stopped off at the Kodak shop to print out our pics - we didnt do photopass but they have an instant machine for your memory cards so we used that and got the bus back.

I think the best thing about the WL is the warmth of the lobby area. Lots of people, all smiling, feeling very family orientated. we loved that. We had a booking for Plant Hollywood that night so I took some more pills, had a sleep and the boys went to the pool and rode the slide 112 times!

Planet Hollywood was okay, we were on the top floor so felt a little out of it, and the food certainly wasnt great. Rather disppointing for sure but we were tired so didnt really care. Got straight back on the bus and back to the hotel by 8pm I was ready for bed! the kids had other ideas though and played until after 10 ..... they werent obeying the rules about Disney sleeping but on holidays we let them up late - being in Disney they never had one grumpy day! I was working hard on being able to walk around the parks by day 3. A little accident wasnt going to spoil our vaca .... and it certainly didnt!

off to MK for EMH and day 2

 

[DisneyJo]

That's so sweet how excited your DS's got with the characters, and they obviously loved that water slide

 

[islandmum]

That's so sweet how excited your DS's got with the characters, and they obviously loved that water slide

we realised after about 10 minutes that this trip wasnt going to be about rides ... it was characters. Rides - yes if it was Buzz or Astro Orbiter or race cars but mostly ... seeing characters and shows.

 

[Avivasmom]

I am sorry you got hurt...but glad you used the ECV...makes it much easier...

I am glad the kids liked the characters...Aviva would rather do rides then characters. There are a few she likes but rides are what counts.

Isn't WL beautiful? We were going to stay there for her bday but she wants AKL>

How are you feeling now?

 

[islandmum]

so as per the advice of TGM we're off to MK on day 2 for EMH.

Feeling better today and awake before the alarm call at 6.30. Get the kids brekkie of cereals whilst I hang out in the smoking area for the early morning ciggie. Into the bus and off to MK.

VERY quiet MK which I wasnt expecting at all - infact the whole time we were at Disney I was amazed at how quiet it was. No real queues, we used fastpasses when we needed by was real easy to get around everywhere.

so there we were, waiting in the queue and ready to go, open the gates and off we all motor to the Dumbo area. I have a little shopping to do so hubby takes the boys on Dumbo and gets a fastpass for Peter Pan whilst I hit the princess store for gifts for my neice. Love the way they will deliver to your hotel - great idea. I decided to try to limp around today for as much as possible and found leaning on the kids rental buggy great. on day 1 we used our own buggy but from today on we used the parks ones - they're so light and manouverable.

I'm going to make the next statement with a tin hat on waiting to get yelled at ...... I thought this part of the park was not so great. Went through Its a small world and found it very tacky, awful scenery just tacked onto MDF. I know its an old ride but gave us a bad impression early on. Luckily from there on it went much better.

Tomorrowland was the place for us - waited at the rope drop and then charged in. Grabbed a fastpass for Buzz and headed straight to the Speedway which the boys adored! Rode it 3 times and then headed to Buzz.
well .... this was the best ride for the boys, they loved everything about it and so did I as I whooped hubbys *** by scoring 110,000 to his measely 55,000! and I did it left handed! so I was all up for doing it again, when I duly whooped his *** once more and the kids were yelling to KILL ZURG!!

Spotted Tigger and Eyore in a corner so off we went for our pics with them which took a little while and then had a spin on the train around the park. Decided on our lunch break early at 11am so ventured into Cosmic Rays. It was FREEZING inside (why do all US restaurants have to be subzero??) so we sat outside by the duckpond and ate well.

It was time to see the big man .... the Mouse himself. We tottered off to see Minny first and then joined the queue for Mickey. the kids loved the insde of his house and were most upset when we had to go outside into the tent to see him. There was virtually no queue and we went straight in and met the mouse. Our oldest asked him where he got his trousers as he likes red - and couldnt work out why he didnt answer!

They had a good old muck about on the playground and then Goofys Barnstormer looked like the next stop. I couldnt go on it but they all did - and thought it was GREAT! probably the biggest line we had to wait in all vacation and hubby videoed it which was funny.

They wanted more indy speedway so went back and got a FP for that and in the meantime rode the orbiter - which I decided I could do and was fine actually. Great view from up there too. Bought a few Buzz things from the cart, hubby rode a couple of rides and we hit the speedway with the FP again .... I must say my sons drive like their father .... badly!

As it was 2.30ish we decided to grab a seat for the parade and we perched ourselves infront of the Kodak store on the roundabout on the kerb and waited. Hubby was bored and looked it .... then the parade came along and he was mesmerised, he loved it, he couldnt stop talking about it!

jumped on the mono over to the Contemporary and off to do some emailing and jump on the boat back to the WL.

Having seen a couple of hotels I was beginning to see we had made a great choice of hotels for what we wanted. I loved the way we were secluded, I loved the feel and the charm of the WL, the Contemporary felt like an airport, no soul, no warmth. But as a hotel if we were without kids and it were a city hotel its one I would stay in - but for Disney .... for us it wasnt right.

We had a ressie for WC so the kids hit the pool with dad and I grabbed some sun. Again the WC was fantastic, we had the meatloaf and skillet and the kids did the pony riding (great speach by the girl) and lots of colouring. Our waitress Katie was awesome.

We were learning that we cannot eat on the scale the DDP lets you - not once did we have a starter, ,main and desert. We only ever had the main meal ... it was more than enough for us.

In the room by 9pm when I remembered the water parade so back into clothes, down onto the beach to watch the fireworks and water parade ... which became the nightly routine from there on.

another great day, and the boys were beating Disney, still no naps needed yet

It was Columbus weekend so day 4 was a pool day .... nothing to report apart from water

 

[islandmum]

I am sorry you got hurt...but glad you used the ECV...makes it much easier...

I am glad the kids liked the characters...Aviva would rather do rides then characters. There are a few she likes but rides are what counts.

Isn't WL beautiful? We were going to stay there for her bday but she wants AKL>

How are you feeling now?

much better thanks, legs recovered very quickly, and the shoulder is taking a while but with physio I'm hoping to be out the sling soon and getting back to tennis and golf as soon as I can.
Despite the crash we cant wait to get back to Miami and actually DO it properly (in better weather!!)

 

[Avivasmom]

Despite the crash we cant wait to get back to Miami and actually DO it properly (in better weather!!)

You definitely will have to let me know when you come back. Would love to meet up with you.

Hoping the shoulder heals up and you are back to yourself in no time at all.

 

[Minnie]

How awful - what a horrible way to start off your vacation

So thankful that you were still able to enjoy the Disney portion of your trip

 

[melsmom12]

I'm enjoying your TR despite the horrible accident you all experienced. I'm so sorry, what a terrible way to start a vacation. You sound like you've got a very resilient spirit, though, sounds like you're going to enjoy WDW no matter what!

Looking forward to your next installment.

 

[islandmum]

Day 5 was Animal Kingdom day, with an early start for breakfast with Donald.

Before we get into it all I'm going to tell you now this was our least favourite park. We didnt really like it, found it disorganised and I guess that having travelled alot and visited many of the places especially Africa many times, it felt very lacking in comparison.

It went a little wrong from the start - all other character breakfast we had we really well organised, get to the gates, go in, straight to the restaurant, lady takes your name and you are shown in within 1-2 minutes if you're in the right time frame, and she kept to the timeframe ensuring people sat when they were supposed to.

well not at AK! we get through the gates (these did not OPEN until 8am) and first thing is the huge walk to breakfast (which meant we didnt actually ARRIVE at Donalds until 8.10 - with an 8am ressie?!), that was tiring. People racing past you to get there first. We had an 8am stting - the first time - and when we reached there it was chaos, buggys piled around, people queuing everywhere, staff shouting out names etc etc. Hubby joined the queue to see the booking lady, told her our ressie, the guy infront had a 8.25 ressie and got in before us so hubby asked why and the lady said its who GETS to the restaurant first, not the booking time you have ???!!

It was just really really badly done. Breakfast was good though, characters came round, kids loved the characters again.

Safari was the main one so after breakfast he made the dash for a FP and I took the boys into Dino Land. We did the rides which they enjoyed and then into the Boneyard playground.

Hubs came back and we trotted off to the Safari ride which already had a very long queue but we hardly waited with the FP, no more than 5 mins or so.
Its very well done, I've been on reall safari 4 times now and this is a god copy. Lots of the animals were out, but the lion was sleeping and thats what the kids wanted to see most of all but they were happy with other things too.

We then did the Pagani Forest trail which was lovely, and the highlight was the huge Gorilla who put on a performance for us sitting there chewing leaves looking at us, then wandering about infront of us, rolling in the grass etc, really great.

Unbelievably it was lunchtime so we headed to Flame Grill, which was CHAOS! again another disppointing thing about this park. We grabbed seating whilst hubs got the food. Whilst I like ducks and animals everywhere the seating area was covered in duck poop all over the floor and people were sliding on it all over the plce - UCK! The food wasnt too good either, infact I cant remember what we had but I didnt enjoy it much and they got the order totally wrong too.

After lunch there was only one thing left to do - Its a Bugs life. Took the boys in for that which they did enjoy, its a nice little show and I like the joke at the end with your seats- very good!

Had a wonder about, hubs went and did Everest as a single rider and the boys and I walked through Africa etc.. that element is very good in the park, they get the details right, the building look authentic, even down to the faded colours and roadways. very well done.

But overall we didnt like the park, definately not enough for us to do, we though it was staffed badly and the 2 meals we had there were chaos and totally disorganised.

Hopped on the bus back to the hotel. We had a booking for Mickeys BBQ but the weather wasnt great and we didnt fancy sitting there in the rain so we cancelled that and did the WC again - which we all loved again! Did the skillet for 2 this time and after the firework and parade watching on the beach it was into bed by 10.

 

[islandmum]

Day 6 was supposed to be a free day, but the weather was so so, and because we'd experienced such low crowds we though we'd tootle over to the MK anyway and give it a try for the afternoon.

So we did the pool in the morning, grabbed some lunch from the Roaring Forks Cafe and then headed to MK about 2pm. We immediately took our seats waiting for the parade again in the same place and I had all the photos we had printed off again in the Kodak store. Once the parade was over we fought our way through the tide (it was hard work!) and over to tomorrowland where we did the rides again, Astro, Buzz, Indy.

We had a ressie for Mickeys Buffet at 5.45 so hopped on the monorail and went over. We were 15 minutes early so stopped by the business centre to pick up our emails, got lost in the maze of escalators and lifts and finally got there. We LOVED this meal! really good food, lots of choice, hubby had about 3 plates. Character interaction was very quick but that was fine, we loved the Mickey song in the middle of everything and the dance. The desert station was great, we did weird and wonderful ice creams and I ate lots of cakes.

after supper we looked into the store - which we though was really good, better than the WL store I rekon. Picked up another couple of things and then on the boat back to WL for an evening in the hot tub.

 

[gilclan]

I too am very sorry about the accident. But the one thing about the World is that in almost all cases no matter what happens outside that place makes you forget it all.When we pass under thye welcome sign everything that was a problem on the outside stays there. And I hope everyone heals fast, physically and mentally.

 

[islandmum]

Day 7 was back to MGM. We didnt rush out of bed, had a decent breakfast and then bussed it over to arrive at about 10.45 I guess.

We knew there were things that had to be doone today, Indy, Car show again, Playhouse Disney, check for more Power Rangers, Cars parade and Rock n Roller for hubs.

we headed straight for Indy. The weather was patchy, with rain showers so we headed straight in and took our seats. We liked the action and interaction for sure - it just was a little drawn out for us. We'd have like more action closer together but it was very enjoyable and the kids loved it again. We headed straight from there to lunch at Pizza Planet as it was already nearly 12 by this point. Very well organised with the queueing and ordering and a very tast meal. We bought the Buzz mugs too and the boys loved the decor and games etc.. its a really great place for lunch we decided.

We strolled towards to car show and popped in to say hi again to Cars stars and found the white Power Ranger on show so the boys saw him which they liked. Grabbed our seats for the stunt show at about 12.59 and ready to race! we really like this show and it was as good as before.

Straight from there we went over to Playhouse Disney. There was only one other family there so we dicided to queue up and get a (what we thought) good front row seat. after a little wait - I guess 20 mins or so - we go in and are in the front row which the kids are excited about ..... wrong! what we didnt realise is that there would be a raised stage and the characters would be in the stage. The show was great, the kids loved it all, and the staff got them going and it was really well done, but the height of the stage meant anyone at the front couldnt really see the characters so we picked them up and moved back and it was much better.

We headed off and over for the Cars parade next and even though we were about 2 minutes before it started we crossed the road and suddenly a space opened up in the front row and the marshall beckoned us there. We loved this parade, the boys thought it was great and had a cool time waving to everyone and shouting out who they were.

Off to Rock n Roller for hubs so the kids and I just chilled and had a good look up and down Sunset Street and did a decent amount of shopping. By 5pm we started getting towards the SciFi where we had supper ressies for 5.45. Mike and Sully we opposite doing photos so we waited for that which took a good 25 minutes and then we hustled into the restarant.

With all the mixed views on this we didnt know what to expect. We werent hassled what car we got and we went through to a front row car with hubs and 3 year old in the front seat and me and 5 year old behind them. A couple joined us after we'd had our main meals and they were very nice. Service was good, food was good and the only thing from a personal level I didnt like was that I couldnt see my food! I wish there was a little better spot lighting on the food table. The kids loved the experience of being in a car and the big movie screen and we took lots of pics. We dragged this meal out and enjoyed every minute of the atmosphere, it was great.

back to WL and straight to bed tonight .... we were knackered!

Day 8 and Typhoon Lagoon beckoned ....