hipporina
<font color=teal>I keep Kleenex in business</font>
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2001
- Messages
- 968
Day 2 Saturday May 17 WDW
finally!
We all woke up very excited and ready to get to Disney World! We took advantage of the free breakfast in our hotel, which was pretty good, and headed off around 10:00. Of course just a few miles down the road we lost an hour when we changed time zones, so we were a little later than we would have liked. The boys were getting tired of riding in the car, and it was obvious. Joshua decided that he was done with the coloring books and chose to scribble on the car door instead! Arrgh! A quick stop at Chik-Fil-A for lunch and we were straight on to Disney!
All-Star Movies
We arrived at our resort, All-Star Movies, around 4:30 and waited in a short line to check in. We had requested a non-smoking, 1st floor room in Toy Story. They accommodated most of our requests, except that we were on the 3rd floor. Not a big deal. Our room was #928 in the Buzz building near the end. The CM that helped us was wonderful! She checked for a first floor room, talked to the kids and gave them coloring kits, and warned us about the astronomical charges if we used the phone in our room to call off-property. With keys in hand, we drove around to our room to get settled.
When planning the trip, we had talked about staying at a moderate instead of ASMo, but decided the boys would probably not like it as well. I think we made the right decision. Joshua absolutely loves Toy Story and wants to watch it daily and Luke thinks its great too. They were both thrilled with the giant characters and the themeing in the room. There is a large version of RC, the remote control car from Toy Story, in the path leading from the Toy Story buildings to the main building, and the boys thought it was one of the most wonderful things about the whole trip. Every single time we went by it, which was several times a day, they would run to it and climb into it.
As for the size of the rooms, we were quite comfortable. We unpacked all of our stuff into the drawers and had plenty of room to move around and let the boys play. It was a relatively short walk to the main building and the bus stops. Part way through the trip, we discovered that it was even closer to our room from the bus stops if we went around the edge of the resort (past the last bus stop) than if we went through the main building. A nice trick if you are in the Buzz building.
Downtown Disney
After getting settled in our room, we headed to Downtown Disney. The CM at check-in advised that driving there is quicker than taking the bus, so that is what we did. We started out at the Marketplace. We had fun walking around and looking in the stores, but we werent as impressed as we thought we would be. I did love the scrapbooking store though! We picked up pin lanyards and autograph books and then headed to Westside.
Now, a quick note on pin trading. We bought a lot of pins at the Disney Store a few months before the trip when they were on sale ridiculously cheap and took those to trade. Luke really got into the pin trading spirit and traded with anyone and everyone he could find. I dont think he kept a pin for more than a day! For him, it was more about the trading than the actual pins. John and I also had a great time trading. I love theme park pins and was able to trade all of my pins for them by the time we left. John took a more diversified approach and ended up with a lot of great stuff. We came home with 3 CM exclusives and 1 German pin, in addition to all the other ones we got. As people who love pins, and have for many, many years before they were popular, we were able to save a lot of money by trading for pins instead of buying all of them.
Our next stop was the Guitar Gallery. I was afraid I was never going to get John out of there, at least with our budget intact. He loved looking at all the unique guitars and merchandise, but finally settled on a small pick-holder key chain. We walked through a few more stores, but it was getting stormy and we were hungry, so we headed back to the resort.
The Food Court and Refillable Mugs
We went to the food court for supper and returned many times throughout the trip. We enjoy the food there and find it to be pretty reasonably priced for the serving size. We usually ordered 1 item for John and me to share and 1 for the boys to share, and we all got plenty to eat. The boys loved the pizza and ate that most of the trip. John and I really enjoyed the chicken quesadillas, Philly cheesesteak sandwich, meatball sub, and nachos supreme. Once we overheard a British man in line behind us commenting on how good the cheese pancakes looked. We were really tickled when we realized he was referring to the quesadillas.
We decided to buy only 2 refillable mugs and share. It ended up working really well for us and saved a good bit of money. On our first night, we discovered the hot chocolate on the beverage island that is amazing! It became our nightly ritual to go for hot chocolate before we got ready for bed. I think it alone was worth the cost of the mugs!
We had hoped to take the boys swimming, but there was lightning around so we just headed back to the room and got ready for bed. Tomorrow we go to the Magic Kingdom!
We all woke up very excited and ready to get to Disney World! We took advantage of the free breakfast in our hotel, which was pretty good, and headed off around 10:00. Of course just a few miles down the road we lost an hour when we changed time zones, so we were a little later than we would have liked. The boys were getting tired of riding in the car, and it was obvious. Joshua decided that he was done with the coloring books and chose to scribble on the car door instead! Arrgh! A quick stop at Chik-Fil-A for lunch and we were straight on to Disney!
All-Star Movies
We arrived at our resort, All-Star Movies, around 4:30 and waited in a short line to check in. We had requested a non-smoking, 1st floor room in Toy Story. They accommodated most of our requests, except that we were on the 3rd floor. Not a big deal. Our room was #928 in the Buzz building near the end. The CM that helped us was wonderful! She checked for a first floor room, talked to the kids and gave them coloring kits, and warned us about the astronomical charges if we used the phone in our room to call off-property. With keys in hand, we drove around to our room to get settled.
When planning the trip, we had talked about staying at a moderate instead of ASMo, but decided the boys would probably not like it as well. I think we made the right decision. Joshua absolutely loves Toy Story and wants to watch it daily and Luke thinks its great too. They were both thrilled with the giant characters and the themeing in the room. There is a large version of RC, the remote control car from Toy Story, in the path leading from the Toy Story buildings to the main building, and the boys thought it was one of the most wonderful things about the whole trip. Every single time we went by it, which was several times a day, they would run to it and climb into it.
As for the size of the rooms, we were quite comfortable. We unpacked all of our stuff into the drawers and had plenty of room to move around and let the boys play. It was a relatively short walk to the main building and the bus stops. Part way through the trip, we discovered that it was even closer to our room from the bus stops if we went around the edge of the resort (past the last bus stop) than if we went through the main building. A nice trick if you are in the Buzz building.
Downtown Disney
After getting settled in our room, we headed to Downtown Disney. The CM at check-in advised that driving there is quicker than taking the bus, so that is what we did. We started out at the Marketplace. We had fun walking around and looking in the stores, but we werent as impressed as we thought we would be. I did love the scrapbooking store though! We picked up pin lanyards and autograph books and then headed to Westside.
Now, a quick note on pin trading. We bought a lot of pins at the Disney Store a few months before the trip when they were on sale ridiculously cheap and took those to trade. Luke really got into the pin trading spirit and traded with anyone and everyone he could find. I dont think he kept a pin for more than a day! For him, it was more about the trading than the actual pins. John and I also had a great time trading. I love theme park pins and was able to trade all of my pins for them by the time we left. John took a more diversified approach and ended up with a lot of great stuff. We came home with 3 CM exclusives and 1 German pin, in addition to all the other ones we got. As people who love pins, and have for many, many years before they were popular, we were able to save a lot of money by trading for pins instead of buying all of them.
Our next stop was the Guitar Gallery. I was afraid I was never going to get John out of there, at least with our budget intact. He loved looking at all the unique guitars and merchandise, but finally settled on a small pick-holder key chain. We walked through a few more stores, but it was getting stormy and we were hungry, so we headed back to the resort.
The Food Court and Refillable Mugs
We went to the food court for supper and returned many times throughout the trip. We enjoy the food there and find it to be pretty reasonably priced for the serving size. We usually ordered 1 item for John and me to share and 1 for the boys to share, and we all got plenty to eat. The boys loved the pizza and ate that most of the trip. John and I really enjoyed the chicken quesadillas, Philly cheesesteak sandwich, meatball sub, and nachos supreme. Once we overheard a British man in line behind us commenting on how good the cheese pancakes looked. We were really tickled when we realized he was referring to the quesadillas.
We decided to buy only 2 refillable mugs and share. It ended up working really well for us and saved a good bit of money. On our first night, we discovered the hot chocolate on the beverage island that is amazing! It became our nightly ritual to go for hot chocolate before we got ready for bed. I think it alone was worth the cost of the mugs!
We had hoped to take the boys swimming, but there was lightning around so we just headed back to the room and got ready for bed. Tomorrow we go to the Magic Kingdom!
