A Look Back, My First Trip Report ~complete~

[roberrl187]

So sorry about your purse. Hopefully someone turned it in. I look forward to finding out the answer.

 

[jaycns]

The troops:
DH- a "30 something" who although not a Disney lover by any means, loves us so he sallies forth into all things Disney for his family. If he had a favorite Disney character I am sure it would be Grumpy!

Me- another "30 something" but unlike my DH, I LOVE all things Disney. I have been addicted since I was a child and I am hoping my kids follow in my footsteps! Favorite Disney characters: Winnie the Pooh, Stitch, Figment, Abu, Aladdin, Beast, Sebastian, Jiminy Cricket, Donald Duck, the Toy Story Crew and more...

"Aladdin"- He had just turned 9 at the time of travel. He is my partner in Disney planning! He really does enjoy thinking about where we are going to eat, sleep and play months in advance (unlike his dad). His favorite Disney characters are: Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Hercules, Tigger, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Stitch and Tigger.

"Goofy"-At travel time he was getting ready to celebrate his 6th birthday...which we did do Disney style (more details to come). His favorite Disney characters are: Squirt, Goofy, Pluto, Figment, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh and the Toy Story crew.

"Stitch"-Age 4 and 1/2 at trip time. Grumpy by nature, but also way cute and loveable...Stitch is not only a favorite character but the way of life he follows. Other favorite Disney characters: Crush, ALL THINGS TOY STORY, Donald Duck, Figment, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Goofy and Pluto.

The purpose of the trip? To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary AND our Goofy's 6th birthday. Also, it was what is fast becoming an annual trip and the first time we enjoyed Disney's dining plan for FREE!! The dates of our trip? September 4-September 14 2005.

September 14...the day we had to leave Disney... Leaving is never any fun!! But we did have one last full morning to enjoy ourselves...or at least we would have had I not set my purse down in the middle of a dark parking lot and proceeded to leave without giving it a second thought.

First thing this morning we went down and had a pretty darn good breakfast for food court food! In doing so we used up our very last meal credits. But upon checking we had a full 19 snack credits left. Keep in mind we had started out with 50 (five people times ten nights) snack credits...I don't know what kind of eating you would have to do to spend all of your table service, counter service and snack credits...but we didn't do it. We took note of our left over credits and headed out to find the central Lost and Found. It really was not hard to find and is located right next to the kennel. Finding it was the easy part...coming up with the guts to go inside and see if our entire vacation full of photos was gone was the hard part...but after taking a few deep gulps of air, in I went.

I walked up to the desk, described my purse (really it's a mini backpack that I use as a purse at WDW) and it's contents and stood there with bated breath as the lost and found CM went back to check...

AND.. IT WAS THERE!! Purse, money, camera, all the trinkets and especially the memory card full of photos and our Photo Pass cards...IT WAS ALL THERE!! Now, I know good people are everywhere. I know that good things should happen all of the time. But I was so very touched that some other tired person had taken the time at the end of their own long day and turned in a found item that they could have easily kept and with the cash, camera, memory card and all of the "etc" in it was worth way more than I should have been lugging around in one bag.

I LOVE DISNEY!! I LOVE THE CMs!! I LOVE the other guests!! What a NICE thing someone did for our family. It meant the world to me. And I wish I knew who to thank!!

This happy occasion aside, it was time to travel back to our resort and do one final swim (actually our first swim as well in the main pool!!), throw some last minute items in the suitcase and sadly, it was time to shut the doors for the last time.

As dh checked out, I headed to the resort store. I bought a picture frame (I LOVE Disney picture frames), a few tidbits to take back to friends and family that were unable to make it and a last postcard or two. After shopping I thought, hmm...I might as well go over and get us all a water for the road since we have so many credits left. What I didn't think about until dh (the smart man that he is) mentioned it was that we could spend all of the remaining credits...so off I went. We ended up with 10 bottles of water and 9 cookies to take with us for the drive home (hey...there are five of us and we did have a 12 hour journey ahead of us, really only six since we would be stopping with family half way through). YEA for the Disney Dining Plan one last time. I would gladly pay for this feature. It was well worth it for our family (we love sit down meals) and dh and I especially appreciated the ease of use!

It was almost noon by the time we finally pulled out of there! Luckily my dh talked me into leaving before security had to remove me bodily from the property *hee hee*!

This was such a special trip for us. Of all of the "recent" (and by that I mean all of those that I actually had to foot the bill for and not those I went on as a child) trips we have made to Disney, this was tops in our books. It was fun. It was exciting. We got a ton done AND we had so many special experiences happen that it made it feel like we were bathed in magic all week long!

THANKS for reading my trip report! I will try and write another one after I return from our two and a half week visit to WDW and Disney Cruise Line and then back to WDW.


Best Moment of our half Disney day: Finding all of our photos and my purse.

Worst Moment of the Day: Having to leave!!

 

[RockyMtnMaria]

Woo hoo! I finally made it through an entire trip report (never mind that it is now midnight here). Thanks for taking the time to share. I have three boys about the same age as yours (and a 3yo dd) and we are making our first family trip to WDW on about the same dates this year. We also homeschool, so that was also a nice added benefit to reading this.

 

[luciloo]

Thankyou for sharing such a wonderful trip report with us. What a magical time you had.

 

[jaycns]

Thankyou for sharing such a wonderful trip report with us. What a magical time you had.

You are most welcome...I only wish I had more to write...I kind of miss the way I could just zone out real life for a bit at a time and "relive" our magical trip...ahh...guess that's why we have to go back and make lots more memories!!

 

[jaycns]

Woo hoo! I finally made it through an entire trip report (never mind that it is now midnight here). Thanks for taking the time to share. I have three boys about the same age as yours (and a 3yo dd) and we are making our first family trip to WDW on about the same dates this year. We also homeschool, so that was also a nice added benefit to reading this.

It's always nice to meet another homeschool/Disney loving family! How do you do?

Enjoy your magical time at Disney! I thought we had so much fun and actually learned a whole lot on our last trip. My boys amazed me with the connections they drew between Disney and some real things/places/topics.

I love Disney! I love Disney even more with my family! I love Disney most with my family in the off season...thank goodness our "school" allows off season vacations!

 

[cyjmhill]

Haven't made it all the way through your trip report (I am at Sea World), but I wanted to let you know that I am truly enjoying your report...it is one of the best that I have read!!!

It sounds like you have a wonderful family and that you truly enjoy being with each other. What a wonderful time you and your family had!

I will finish the report in the next day or so


Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[cyjmhill]

I finished!!! What a wonderful report.

I am so glad that you found your purse and photos!!!

Thank you for sharing - it was a great read!!!

 

[jaycns]

I finished!!! What a wonderful report.

I am so glad that you found your purse and photos!!!

Thank you for sharing - it was a great read!!!

A purse with so much money, a digital camera and many other things in it being turned in without so much as being rifled through goes to show you that Disney really does make magic! I would like to think it would have been turned in anywhere...but...well...let's just say that I think Disney breds happiness and kindness and ......well, I am just happy it was found!

Thanks for reading the report. Like I posted earlier, it was so much fun remembering everything to post the trip report.

 

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing

love the reports.

 

[jaycns]

Thanks for sharing

love the reports.

You are welcome. Thanks for reading. We had so much fun this vacation it was amazing!!

 

[jaycns]

Thanks to everyone who read/encouraged me!! I really enjoyed writing these reports.

 

[Bbgrizzle]

Wonderful trip report!!!

I have two questions:

1. How did you like ASM?

2. What did you think of Soarin'? I've only ridden the one at California Adventures, which I loved. The way you described this one sounds like it might be a tad different. My favorite part of soarin' is flying over the orange groves. It smells sooooo good!

 

[harleyquinn]

Great report! You have a wonderful family!

 

[jaycns]

Wonderful trip report!!!

1. How did you like ASM?

We loved ASMovies. This was our second stay there and we will stay there in the future. It has such a great atmosphere and the larger than life characters all over the place really set the Disney mood! Our boys love ASMovies. We are hoping they like the Contemp and the Poly just as much this coming September! The pools have great themes and the rooms are comfortable (having two adjoining rooms gave us a lot of space for 5 people).

ASMo is one of our top two resorts so far (along with AKL).

 

[jaycns]

Wonderful trip report!!!

I have two questions:

1. How did you like ASM?

2. What did you think of Soarin'? I've only ridden the one at California Adventures, which I loved. The way you described this one sounds like it might be a tad different. My favorite part of soarin' is flying over the orange groves. It smells sooooo good!

OOPS...I forgot to answer your second question. As far as Soarin'...it was awesome! It's up there in my very top few of my very favorite rides. I have never been on the California one, but I have heard they are one in the same (at least now, rumors swirl that WDW will be getting another version of Soarin' in the near future that features all of the US instead of just CA).

 

[jaycns]

Great report! You have a wonderful family!

I thank you kindly!! I am kind of partial to them myself!

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

i really enjoyed reading all of your family adventures. some really
stood out like taking advantage of your husband on buzz .[ you didn't feel
guilty?-shame on you! my wife is very docile until we are in a competition]

...i like reading all the reports just to see how others are doing their
disney trips. your T.R. caught my attention cos we have 2 sons & one
daughter...our sons are in college now but your trip reports were very
similar to the ones we took when they were little. i was surprised how
many things you did matched up with ours. soooooo i wanted to say
thanks for allowing me to reminisce.


yewww,i always "feel" , hearing that lil song about growing up...
"turn around..there doing this, then that... until they're getting married
& out the door!..mainly because it is true! i think that's why your report
made me feel so good...you expressed so many lil things are easily taken
for granted and/or overlooked [ great /tips!] . i understood your
despair over the camera with the hope of finding...what a lucky
ending for your trip!
[i had my fingers crossed before reading the final outcome!]


* therefore, if i may suggest a "tippo"..a safety deposit box is worth the $!
if nothing else , you can't make them lil all over again...no matter how
you wish... on any star! [ they will grow up ].

* and i hope you can excuse my lecturing but your report was even more
special [actually, i think everyone disney vacation is a sentimental journal],
from the challenges of your child births. thank you for the added insights...
and because there are so many female readers here..LADIES, prenatal
visits are critical for catching life/death problems for a positive outcomes!
[ our lil was dependant on this life saving insight!]

p.s..we visited at the end of sept., o5 and will spend 3 days this year
at the contemp...after the wonder 11 days cruise..isn't that wild? by
the way, i do some scrape booking cos my wife brought a bunch &
"gave" them to me. kind like getting a new washer for
christmas? but as you know in a marriage, paybacks are
wicked? just so you know...after the farewell party [cruise ships]...
you be surprised how many are pickin up the "pixie dust." a good
reason for your family take a cruise? { hey, don't show your husband
that comment, so he won't think i gave you the idea}

p.s..#2 your feelings toward crt...our boys did not wanted to go! then
they got to realized how friendly the were...we had no
further problems going back! however, i sorry to say , i wasn't in
on the action..well someone has to be the "cameraman?"

 

[dawgfan]

Thanks for the review!

 

[tictoc]

I really enjoyed your report. You were very entertaining for me! I also love the All Star Movies. We stayed there the day it opened. Buzz and Woody (statues) actually arrive during our stay and we watched them put them in place! It is a very nostalgioc place for us since it was our sons first on site trip!

Thanks for sharing your trip memories with us.