A long report of our short Halloween WDW Trip- aka Pregnant in the World

[Ginamarie]

Well, with everyone writing reviews for the trips they took last fall, and with me in need of a Disney fix, I thought it might be a good idea to write my own trip review from our Halloween 2005 WDW trip

Background/The Cast

Me- 27 y/o attorney by day/Disney-freak at heart. I can’t go a day without thinking about Disney in some capacity and tend to get all of my friends and relatives psyched about Disney too.

DH- 27 y/o Disney-freak in training. He’s a cast member, because he works for ABC News here in NY. This actually makes it affordable for us to visit WDW once or twice a year.

DB- My little brother. He celebrated his 25th birthday on this vacation.

Our friends- Steve, Dante, Emily, Diana (Steve’s mom), Stephanie and Billy.

OK, so the idea for this vacation came up around Christmas-time 2004. Our friends had gone to Universal for their Halloween Horror Nights during 2004 and loved it, and wanted to plan a longer trip for 2005. DH and I had just recently returned from our December 2004 trip, and at that point I didn’t think I could convince him into another Disney vacation just yet (we went in November AND December in 2004). I said I’d think about it.

Months tick by, and my dear friends keep making me feel guilty for not joining in the fun. I start to contemplate what 2005 will be like without going to WDW at all, and it depresses me. In the meantime, an absolutely ridiculously incredible deal came out for a 15 night cruise from Houston to Los Angeles. I thought about spending 15 nights on a ship with the DH (who I rarely get to spend time with because of our work schedules) followed by a couple of days in DL and I book it. DH and I are ecstatic about our summer vacation, but it leaves us with very very little vacation time left over. Meanwhile, Stephanie and Billy insist that they can’t come along because of money constraints.

Then along comes May, and I have no idea what to get DH for his birthday. I think about planning a three day weekend, but when I add up the expenses for something like that it always winds up being more expensive than WDW. So I call Steve and tell him I’m about to do something crazy… I’m about to purchase airfare to FL for the Halloween trip for DH’s birthday. Of course, I knew that Steve was biased and wouldn’t do anything to talk me out of it, so that was that. We were going to WDW! After I booked the tickets, I decided to mention the whole thing to my DB, who was quite enthused about the idea himself, so he purchased tickets on our flights as well.

 

[Ginamarie]

Well who do you think would be in charge of planning this whole extravaganza? This was before I found the DIS, but I was still a planning nut. I originally booked us for Saturday morning 10-29-05 through Tuesday night 11-1-05. However, in trying to get to both WDW and Universal on this vacation, it left us with so little time! I couldn’t find a way to squeeze in Illuminations, and I couldn’t imagine going to WDW without seeing Illuminations. Luckily, DH found out that he was entitled to some extra vacation days, so we were able to change our reservations and leave on Wednesday morning instead.

Planning ADRs for WDW was easy! I knew we wanted the Rose and Crown for Illuminations, I had to take DH to Boma for breakfast, and since my brother was turning 25 a few days before our vacation, we decided to take him to the Cape May Café as his birthday dinner (we introduced him to the seafood buffet back in 2003 and ever since he’s been addicted to the mussels they serve). I also decided to give the Primetime Café a try, because it had some pretty good reviews since we last went and I wanted to plan for a large sit-down lunch in the late afternoon, before we went to MNSSHP. So deciding where to eat was easy, but I had to leave the reservation-making in the hands of my DB, since DH and I were going to be somewhere in Mexico or South America when our 90 days opened up and I had NO idea how crowded the parks would be for Halloween weekend.

I AGONIZED over where we should stay. We were on a budget, especially with DB and our friends coming along. The friends had decided to stay offsite for a couple of nights and onsite for a couple of nights. I thought about doing the same thing, but finally decided we’d be best staying at a value resort the whole time. I wanted to try the Magic Express, but we needed a rental car because of the two days at Universal, so that was out. After days upon days of looking at the Disney website I finally decided on Pop Century. We requested non-smoking and a King room for ourselves and a non-smoking regular room for DB. We also reserved rooms for the friends, but only for the last couple of days of our vacation.

We didn’t have to worry about WDW tickets (thank you silver pass!), but had to buy our Universal tickets, which were pricey! It would have been a good deal if we were staying in Universal for more days, because it was basically the same price for 2 days as it was for 5 days in the parks. We also bought passes for the Halloween Horror Night along with the Universal head of the line passes for the party. Due to limited time, we had to go to MNSSHP on Halloween itself, which I was nervous about, but wound up being fine.

DH and I took our long vacation and enjoyed every second of it. We came home to find out that DB had made restaurant reservations and then promptly lost all of the confirmation numbers.

About a week later, we found out that there would be another participant on our Disney vacation…. all that time hanging around with the DH on vacation had paid off. After a year of problems trying to conceive and miscarrying, we were having a baby! Let me tell you, BEST SOUVENIR EVER! Of course the next several weeks were filled with tests and worries and prayers to make it into our second trimester, which we did. Then the Dr. gave his big OK for our WDW vacation, so now we were really ready to go!

I swear, we’ll be in the parks soon!

 

[lillygator]

Congrats! I was pregnant at MNSSHP in '04, about 6-7 months and she was a souvenier from our May '04 Disney trip!! What is it with vacations and pregnancy!!

 

[Ginamarie]

Congrats! I was pregnant at MNSSHP in '04, about 6-7 months and she was a souvenier from our May '04 Disney trip!! What is it with vacations and pregnancy!!

I think we're just so happy on vacation that we get surrounded by all sorts of good vibes

 

[Ginamarie]

I like getting an early start on vacation.. no use wasting the day around with sleep when you can be in WDW. This means that we get a 4:30 am start. DB (who had to work until midnight and then be up at 4:30 was not thrilled). DH, who loves his sleep, was not thrilled. I, on the other hand, who was too excited to sleep that much to begin with, WAS thrilled.

My dad was nice enough to get up early with us and be our ride to JFK. Jetblue has set up some additional kiosks in the check in area, so we just chose a bunch of options on the touch screen and before you can say “Jack Robinson” we’re waiting in line for the metal detectors. Normally, this would be a mundane area, but somehow DH found a way to lose his ticket while we’re in the metal detector area. The airline personnel were not happy with our attempts to search the area, and promptly sent us to the customer service desk where we had to get a new ticket issued. One disaster avoided!

Now we started a pattern that would be repeated many many times. DB spent the next 45 minutes or so chatting with his girlfriend, who couldn’t come because she’d used up all of her vacation days. I went to the bathroom and found a seat, and DH watched some video files on our archos (like a portable DVD player).

I booked us into exit row seats. Oh the glory of the exit row… oh the extra space! DB and I both wanted window seats, so we had to sit on opposite sides of the aisle. This meant that DB had to sit next to a rather amorous couple who kept kissing and massaging each other throughout the flight. Luckily, he fell asleep before we even took off, because he would have been really grossed out. I was grossed out, and I was on the other side of the aisle. I had other issues to deal with though.

For one, (and don’t tell him I told you guys this!) DH is terrified of flying. That’s right, I bought him plane tickets for his birthday and he hates to fly. So I have to hold his hand every time the plane takes off and lands. I like my husband, and I like holding his hand, but “plane taking off hand-holding” is not your usual romantic gesture. It’s a sweatier kind of hand-holding, a more nervous kind of hand-holding. This is the type of hand holding you will only do for someone you really love. I fear that my children will also be like this when they fly and that both of my hands will soon be needed during takeoff, but I’m getting ahead of myself. So yeah, the hand holding starts as soon as the plane starts to taxi. We did a lot of taxiing. We waited on a long line of planes that were ready to take-off. Wonderful, we’re late already.

At this point, I realize that I’m surrounded by children. There’s an adorable little girl sitting with her parents in front of me. She keeps peeking back at me and I keep smiling and waving. I love kids. I love to play with them. However, I fear that her parents think I’m some kind of creepy stranger. Soon enough they’re convincing the little princess to go to sleep. Meanwhile, although I can’t SEE who’s sitting behind me, I know it’s a kid. In fact, I know it’s THAT kid.. the one no one wants to sit in front of on a plane. That’s right, I can’t see this kid, but I can feel his little 8-9 year old feet. KICK… KICK KICK… I said I love kids right. After two hours I’m ready to put the kid in the overhead bin. Not only does he kick, but he also loves to play with the tray on the back of my seat. SNAP goes the tray. KICK KICK SNAP!! DB is sleeping soundly while the other people in his row fondle each other (I’m trying not to watch what’s actually happening over there, but I do know that they asked for a couple of blankets, which they used to cover themselves with so that no one can see where their hands really are). DH is watching his little TV and trying to pretend that he’s not 30,000 feet above the earth. I’m getting kicked.

We finally land in Orlando and DH can relax. However, there’s no terminal for the plane to pull into. So we get to sit there and wait for a terminal to be ready. 5, 10, 15 minutes pass. I’m getting impatient, but finally the monster has stopped his kicking. After 20 minutes we finally pull into the terminal and are allowed to disembark. I get up and peek at the monster child who was sitting behind me… would you believe he had fallen asleep?? A whole flight of kicking, and he falls asleep during our 20 minutes waiting for a terminal. DB wakes up and starts calling his gf. I speedily find a bathroom.

We get our luggage, which comes off of the plane without incident, and catch an Enterprise van to the rental car terminal. I had no idea how far the Enterprise was from the airport, or how much it was in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, I have a good sense of direction. Unluckily, it seems that everyone and their brother is already on the check-in line when we get to Enterprise. DH gets on line. I find a seat to occupy while we wait, and use some maps to find the best course to Universal Studios. We wind up with a non-descript Dodge in a slate-grey color, which they list as “Amethyst.” We name the car Amethyst, because it sounds cool. I find the air conditioner right away.

I’m in a rush to get to Islands of Adventure now, because it’s after 11 am and we’re running late. The boys are hungry.. they keep asking me if we can stop.. looook, Burger King… looooook, McDonalds. I’m pregnant, so the mere mention of fast food turns my stomach the wrong way. I refuse to stop! Finally we’re at the gates of Universal/Islands of Adventure and ready for them to take our money for parking. Oh joy!

 

[dismom9761]

Great trip report!How well I remember the many bathroom stops when pregnant. Can't wait to hear more-we are going to WDW this year in October.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reports ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[Ginamarie]

OK, so there we were, at the gates of Universal, running late, but happy to finally get to the fun stuff. Universal has a tiered parking system, with regular parking and then “premium parking” for a couple of extra dollars. Since we were getting to the parking lot so late, we decided to opt for the premium parking, which worked out well, since we got a space right next to their walkway area. We locked everything up in Amethyst, took a picture of our parking spot area, and headed through the moving walkways. There are a LOT of moving walkways set up to help you get into the park faster. This was much appreciated. Of course, in between the moving walkways are throngs of people trying to get you to sign up for credit cards. This completely negates the speed which you gained with the moving walkways.

Now my itinerary had called for spending our first day in Universal Studios, saving Isles of Adventure until Sunday when we’d have more time to spend in the park. Of course, our friends, who arrived in FL a couple of days earlier, were waiting for us at IoA, so we had a change of plans. As soon as we get into the park, I take the boys to the nearest place to eat, Café4. I read in one of the guidebooks that you could get a 10% discount at eateries for having a AAA card, so that came in handy for lunch. We ordered a whole pizza and a couple of drinks. The pizza took only a couple of minutes to come out and soon the boys were happily munching and becoming less grumpy. We’re from NY, so a little hard to please when it comes to pizza, but the Cafe4 pizza was edible, especially since we were so hungry (and at least it wasn’t the McDonalds that they tried to talk me into earlier).

As we were finishing the pizza, in walked our friends along with Stephanie and Billy, who surprised everyone by hopping a flight down to FL after all. So the crowd went off to start going on rides. They did Dr. Doom’s Fearfall (which they said was just ok, like any other freefall ride), and Spiderman, which everyone seemed to like. Neither ride was ok for my pregnant body, so I hung out on a curb, since there were no available benches in that area. The line for each ride was about 30-45 minutes long, so I had quite a wait. I spent some time on the phone with my mom telling her about the morning’s activities, and read through some guidebooks.

I was really hoping to get on the water rides in the Toon area, but since the friends were already all wet, they suggested waiting until later. We never made it back here, which I regretted, because I think I probably would have enjoyed those rides! In any case, we walked around to the Jurassic Park ride, which was supposed to be ok for me to ride. Thank goodness, something to do! Jurassic Park was pretty fun, though I thought the Dinosaurs weren’t as convincing as the ones on the Dinosaur Ride in Animal Kingdom. It was nice to get a little wet, since the sun was out in full force at that point.

So we kept walking around the park in our circle. The Dueling Dragon roller coasters were next, but the wait time was listed as something like 120 minutes, which we thought was ridiculous. So we kept walking around. Universal does a pretty good job with ambiance in the park. They had some really good looking scenery, especially around the Lost Continent area and the Dr. Seuss area.

The Dr. Seuss area was actually a good deal of fun and we took a lot of pictures at the various photo opportunities. We also went on the Cat in the Hat ride, which was fun. It reminded me of Winnie the Pooh’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. By the time we finished with Seuss, it was getting close to closing time, and DH and DB really REALLY wanted to go on the Hulk, so I waited near the entrance while they did that. This meant that I missed my water rides, but things were starting to cool off a little by late afternoon and the Hulk made the boys very happy. Both of them LOVED the Hulk and rated it 9.5/10 on the coaster scale. They both said that they would rate the Hulk in their top 5 favorite roller-coaster rides of all time.

So at this point, I felt like I’d had a LONG day already, and gone on only a couple of rides. Pretty ho-hum really. We headed back towards Amethyst and avoided the credit card people again, ready to make our way to Pop Century for check-in. Luckily, I’m good with directions, and if there’s anyplace I could get to with my eyes closed outside of NY State it would be WDW, so directing DH to the hotel was a piece of cake. Finally, we were within the magical gates of my favorite place on earth. Things were looking up!

 

[Ginamarie]

Checking In

We parked Amethyst near the front lobby and kind of navigated our way to the check-in line. Quite frankly, this was the longest check-in line I’ve ever waited on for a hotel, at WDW or otherwise. This is one massive resort and there are a lot of people coming and going. The line moved at a decent pace, but DB refused to stand with us because of the French people standing in front of us. I know that sounds awful, and personally, I have nothing against the French, but DB had a very bad experience with some sickly French tourists on an airplane a couple of years ago and has decided to hold it against the entire nation. Hence, we run into more French tourists than you would expect, much to the chagrin of DB. Instead, DB find a bench and calls his girlfriend while DH and I wait around with the 20 French tourists in front of us. I’m making up stories about the people who are already at the counter—who they are, how long their staying, etc. DH is pretty amused and plays along. This is why we’re so good together.. we both do the same ridiculous and goofy things.

Now, we made a bunch of requests with our reservation- no-smoking, and a King bed. Those king sized beds are hard to come by, let me tell you. We wound up spending about 20 minutes or so at the counter, because the very-helpful cast-member wanted to find us a king sized bed. I made it very clear that we didn’t need to be near the DB’s room. In fact, preferably we SHOULDN’T be near the DB’s room because I’d heard the walls were thin and I knew he didn’t want to hear any stay noises coming from my bedroom at night. In the end, she found us both rooms in the 50s section, in the Tramp building. No, not what you’re thinking (you dirty minds), like Lady and the Tramp!

Luggage in hand, we ventured off to find the Tramp building, which was surprisingly close to the food court/gift shop/reception areas. Along the way we checked out the 60s pool and the 50s pool. We loved all the little details, like the water squirting flowers around the 60s pool and the bowling ball rack near the 50s pool. Even in the value resorts, WDW puts so much thought into these things.

We found our room at the back of the Tramp building. We loved that it was a quiet spot, and at the same time fairly close to everything. The rooms at Pop were actually a little nicer than I expected. We had plenty of room, and a table to spread out on. The most disappointing part of the room was that the sink area was very small. The bathroom was also small, but we’ve found the bathrooms in WDW resorts in general to be small.

Yes, the toilets are loud! We could hear each time the people next door flushed theirs. It wasn’t too big a deal though. DB was much more disappointed with his room location, as they found him a spot surrounded by the French! In any case, we had time for a short, and I mean SHORT nap.. most of which I spent watching the Disney channel where they preview the parks.

 

[OhMari]

I see a green light this morning, I hope you are continuing. How many months are you when you are on this trip?

 

[TLinden16]

Congratulations on the baby! Best of luck to your and your growing family!

What a wonderful start to your trip. You might want to consider yourself lucky ou didn't make it on the water rides over at Universal. You'd be drenched!

Thanks for posting.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Good report so far. Congrats on the baby. I just got around to writing my report from my Oct trip to, so you're not the only one who waited.

 

[Ginamarie]

I see a green light this morning, I hope you are continuing. How many months are you when you are on this trip?

I was about 16 weeks when we were on the trip. I'm at 36 weeks now and ready to have the baby within the next couple of weeks! I can't believe how quickly things have flown.

 

[Ginamarie]

While I napped for a bit, the boys decided they HAD to get their resort mugs ASAP. So off they went to the food court. I casually mentioned that I was craving a cupcake, so DH said he’d see what he could do. A little while later, DH returned with his prized mug (filled with soda), a huge cupcake, and a gigantic mickey shaped rice crispy treat with its ears dipped in chocolate (for any future sugar cravings I may have). The cupcake was everything I’d been looking for.. a chocolate cake with tons of white vanilla frosting. Geez, I could go for one of those cupcakes now! DB continued back to his room, talking on his cell phone with his girlfriend the whole time about the French.

Earlier in the day, I called the Cape May Café to make sure we could fit two extra people into our dinner reservations, which they said would be fine. So we planned to meet our friends around 8:15 at the Beach Club. Normally, I wouldn’t make such late dinner reservations, but “due to the dining plan and the 50th celebration” Disney changed its policy for cast-member discounted meals right before our vacation, so that the discount would only kick in after 8:30 pm. So we had reservations for exactly 8:30 pm. Good thing I had that cupcake, let me tell you!

Another good thing was that we had Amethyst. Now I love WDW Transportation, but the one time a car comes in REALLY handy is going from resort to resort. DB came and met us at our room and off we went to find the car. Luckily, we had a good sense of what it looked like at this point, so it was becoming easier to locate our rental. We had a quick trip to the Beach Club, and were let right into the gate thanks to our handy parking pass from Pop. Right after we arrived, I finished giving step by step instructions to our friends via cell phone and we were all ready for some grub.

The Beach Club is really beautiful at night. I mean, it’s beautiful during the day too, but there’s something about the way it’s lit at night that strikes me a magical every time we’re there. We checked in at the podium and were told that they were running a little behind. So we got to curl up in the beach club lobby and talk about our hotel rooms, etc. DB started to go into his Cape May Café Mode. He wasn’t even on the cell phone. He was gearing up. See, DB loves loves LOVES the Cape May Café. He has a method for eating there.. his whole Cape May Café Eating System. I make trip itineraries, DB makes a buffet itinerary. It took almost 40 minutes to get a table. I'm not sure if it's because it was a Saturday night or what, but we waited it out.

In any case, we get seated at a long booth, fairly close to the buffet, everyone orders drinks (mostly lemonade) and we’re on our way. OK, most of us are on our way. DB is explaining his dish rotation to the waitress. See, DB’s favorite thing at the buffet is the mussels. He eats probably hundreds of them, no joke. He also eats a few other things, but mostly the mussels. So, he always keeps an extra dish to put the shells into, and when he’s cleared the dish that he just ate, he starts using that one for the shell dish. He has a special place for each dish, including for dishes that he’ll “allow” the waitress to take away. The waitress we had was a gas.. she’s playing along with all of this ridiculousness, which is pure Disney magic in itself.

The buffet is great as usual. I can’t eat nearly as much as the boys, but I do love the peel and eat shrimp and the cornbread (particularly when you dip it in the melted butter they have for the seafood). I may have had half a dozen pieces of cornbread, but being pregnant, the baby NEEDS this nourishment, you know? T he ribs were good as usual and I made a nice salad.. see, there’s something healthy there as well. I also stole a chicken finger from the kids section of the buffet, and thought they were very good. Everyone was quite pleased with the clam chowder and DH loved his steamed clams. I was glad that we were able to satisfy everyone in the group even though this restaurant is billed as a “seafood buffet.” The dessert bar seemed smaller than usual, but I’m easy to please and just took a few cookies (mmmmm oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip), a couple of which made their way into my purse for a breakfast snack.. shhhhhhh.

At the end of the meal, we tipped off the waitress that we were there for my brother’s 25th birthday. She was ecstatic! So a LOUD announcement was made to the entire restaurant…. Attention everyone.. we have a man here celebrating his 80th birthday, everyone please wish congratulations to SNOOGYBEAR! DB turned all sorts of shades of red. We have this on videotape and it’s priceless.

 

[Ginamarie]

After dinner, a few of the group decided to go to the movies (something scary was playing but I can’t remember what it was), while the rest of us opted for walking and shopping. First we went outside of the Beach Club and I showed off Stormalong Bay and the Boardwalk area. It’s so nice walking out on that Boardwalk area when the weather is great. Everyone seems to be smiling and having a wonderful time and you can strike up a conversation with just about any stranger. We took some pictures and then headed to Downtown Disney for a little late night shopping.

DH HATES shopping, but was glad that the stores closed in about an hour, so we’d be limited in our purchasing. I went straight for the World of Disney. Oh WoD, how I love thee! With time being at a premium I knew what I had to do… head for the scrapbooks area ASAP. I really wanted to find a scrapbook with all of the characters on it (they had photo albums with this gorgeous picture), but for some reason they didn’t make a scrapbook like that this year. So I wound up with a Pooh 2005 album. I also helped DB find something for his girlfriend, but right after that I started to need a bathroom, and I mean NEED a bathroom.

Now I’ve been to DTD many times, but usually it’s during the day when bathrooms are in close sight. I left my scrapbook with DH, who was glad that was the extent of my purchases and headed off in search of facilities. For some strange reason, this was the only time I have ever had a problem finding a bathroom in WDW. I must have passed one along the way, but I wound up walking from WoD all the way to almost the end of the Marketplace, and stopping twice to ask for directions before I found a bathroom. I’m sure watching me waddle along while doing a pee pee dance was none too pretty for all the other shoppers, but I made it!

So back to World of Disney I walked, and then had to try to find everyone within the massive store. It was closing time, take your last purchases to the counter, etc. Then we stopped near the lego store to check out the latest creations. DB and I always love this. We’re children of the 80s, so we spent a lot of time playing with legos, but never built anything nearly as elaborate as the window displays. We were starting to feel really tired at this point, and were glad that we just had to make it back to Pop. DH drove us back and found a parking space in the 60s area, which we discovered was actually much closer to our room than the spots in the 50s area. We dragged ourselves to our rooms, I took a short, but relaxing shower and fell asleep probably 2 seconds before my head hit the pillow, visions of Mickey Mouse dancing through my head.

 

[pumba]

your trip is so awesome.......thanks so much for posting this before your big event. Our son and his wife are also at the same point as you. Congratulations and hope that this baby is a DIS baby...
I love peel and eat shrimp too and they make no money on us when we eat our weight in them

 

[Ginamarie]

your trip is so awesome.......thanks so much for posting this before your big event. Our son and his wife are also at the same point as you. Congratulations and hope that this baby is a DIS baby...
I love peel and eat shrimp too and they make no money on us when we eat our weight in them

Thanks! Congrats on your new grandchild coming soon. Here's to healthy Disbabies and very few hours of painful labor!

 

[Ginamarie]

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'll be continuing with this trip report soon! I just made it back to Disboards after having my baby. Yup, a new DISbaby!!

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'll be continuing with this trip report soon! I just made it back to Disboards after having my baby. Yup, a new DISbaby!!

OH CONGRATULATIONS!!!

i just found your trip report today and have been quite enjoying it!

Congrats to you your dh and welcome to your new wee little one!

 

[PURTYPAT1]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Boy or Girl? Name? Weight? How was your labor? I am hoping short.

How are you feeling?

I am enjoying your report, and can't wait for the rest.

Patricia