Hoosier Mom
DIS Veteran
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First Family Disney Trip September 16-23, 2006
Cast:
Me DW 41 Cheryl Tends to prefer cruise vacations, but terribly excited to go to Disney for the first time as a family. Prior trips to Disney include 1 day in 1971 as a child. Then one week each in 1988 & 1991 as an adult. I read the Passporter and Birnbaums guides prior to planning this trip.
DH 41 Eric -- Spent 1 day at Disney with his high school band and another day there with his parents over 20 years ago. He doesnt recall much of Disney so it will in essence be his first trip!
DS 18 months Dustin-- a happy toddler who is a man of few words, but can climb like the dickens. Delights in getting the remotes and is always taking his shoes off. Has never been on vacation. Was confused about what exactly were the attractions at WDW . . . he thought the park benches were grand, climbed on several. Also he inspected all trash cans! Yep, flap works! Stooped down to check all coverplates in the walkways.
Prep for trip:
Booked trip Staying at CBR
Purchased lightweight umbrella stroller chose MacClaren Triumph
Got a Protect-A-Bub sunshade for stroller (thanks DIS for recommending it)
Ordered Keen Newport Walking shoes (also a DIS recommendation)
Read all menus on Allears. Picked 7 TS meals & CS meals
Read up on all attractions and typed itineraries.
Made daily index cards with show times, ADR confirm #s, etc.
Found Disney swim trunks for ds at Walmart
Took DS to the zoo to the dolphin program to see how hed behave in a show he sat there and watched the show just like a little adult!
Week before trip:
Left hidden mickeys for husband to find each morning. Left surprise Mickey Mouse ballcaps for dh and ds with a note from Mickey that he cant wait to see us. I found them at the Disney store a year ago for $3.99 each. Let the magic begin!! By the way, we ended up buying a second ballcap for Eric later in the week. I think he paid about $19.
Pros & Cons of our trip
The flight: Chose a non-stop since we are traveling with an 18 month old. Dustin cried when we took off, but I surprised him with a Nemo toy cell phone and that diverted his attention. The rest of the flight he was wiggly, but happy. Northwest did not offer toddlers anything to drink until the beverage cart came around. So we gave Dustin bites of cookies to eat while we ascended. He was not impressed with the stickers I brought or the color wonders. He did play some with the little magnidoodle. Since the flight was full of children, there was no pre-boarding for those with little ones. Flying home, Dustin slept the first hour and snacked the second hour. He liked fruit loops & cookies.
About security: getting thru security here in Indy was a breeze. Orlando however, was not. We ate in the food court and made our way to the gate. We got in a security line which weaved around sort of like the lines at Disney. Then a lady stopped us and had us divide up into lanes. These lanes led up to another lady who was checking our boarding passes. Heres the bad part. All of those lanes ended and the hordes of people were smooshed back into huge line that had to curve around a big column. We were all trying to hold our carry-ons & strollers and stay together thru that mass of people. It was bad. Then we met up with yet another person and she divided us up into lanes again that led to the xray & TSA people.
Magic Express: Easy! We walked off the plane, found the tram, walked all the way to the end of the tram hallway. Then when we boarded we were on the front of the tram and when getting off we were ahead of everyone else getting off the tram. Then we looked for the A (we were on the 3rd level). Went down to the first level and were directed to the Express counters. After checking in, we were directed to the correct bus line. Then when the bus came we were escorted together in a line outside to the bus. The driver loaded our stroller & carryon and we got on board. From touchdown to sitting down on the bus was 1 hour. The windshield of the bus was covered in dead bugs. More on this later.
Checking out was a breeze. We got a statement of our spending attached to our door. I still went to check out, but there was really no need. Then we went to the airline check in desk. They were having a bit of server problems, but we finally got our 4 suitcases checked & boarding passes in hand. We were supposed to be outside at 9:15 for the 9:30 bus, but the 9:00 bus was there. We asked the driver and he had room so he stowed our stroller & carryon and we hopped on that bus. At the airport, he asked us to sit still until he unloaded all the stuff. Then we got off, found our stuff, tipped the driver, and walked in the airport. Took the elevator back up to level 3 and found the food court.
Our resort: I chose CBR. I stayed there in 1991 for a week and loved it! I was previously in Jamaica and loved to walk over the bridges to get to the food court. This time we were assigned to Barbados. We were in building 12 (room 1259). We were really close to the bus stop, and the laundry room & pool. The laundry room was really clean and nice (did 3 loads there, but divided up the wash loads into more dryers so my loads would dry in one dry cycle, also used the high heat setting). The sand on the beaches was really dirty. We did see it groomed once while we were there, but it didnt remove any of the debris, just raked it around.
The bus service was great, although I was wishing we selected the Contemporary because of the monorail service. Sometimes we had a wait for a bus. Other times it was there and we had to run to catch it.
Our room was nice. Our mousekeeper left us lots of towels, washcloths, cups, and soaps. We had 1 towel bird waiting on us, but after that no towel animals (which was fine). We left 3$ per day. We met our mousekeeper and she was really sweet. When we arrived there was a dead bug in the tub and hair in the bathroom and one in the frig. I hate to include that info because it sounds worse than it was. I never ever saw a live bug in our room which was a surprise to me since there was a gap under our door. The pack in play was clean and nice. I think it had 3 sheets so pretty comfy. Twice our son turned the heat on. The knobs cover was missing off the heater/AC unit.
Also he found a loose medallion thing from the foot of the bed and pulled it and the screw off. And he found if he stood his feet on the shelf under the sink area, he could reach the light switch so the vanity light went on and off frequently. The hair dryer was broken, but still worked. The thing you plug into the outlet was broken and looked like a hazard to me, but we used it all week and made sure we unplugged it after each use. We relocated all 3 trashcans to the bathroom and shut the door. On the suggestion of a DISer, we took along a clear shoe hanging thing. We hung it over the mirror using those removable sticky hooks. This kept everything out of reach and off the vanity. Great tip!
Dustin fell off the beds twice while we were there, but he was fine. There are light fixtures right above the beds (above the head of the bed). He would grab onto them and take a nestea plunge straight back onto the bed, which was cute, until he started doing the nestea plunge from wherever he was at on the bed and we had to put a stop to that. Im glad we had a chip clip because our drapes wouldnt stay all-the-way closed. I went outside and people could definitely see inside so that chip clip came in handy.
The resort and the parks (especially MGM) were plagued with love bugs. What is the deal with that? They were everywhere. They didnt bite and reminded me of a lightning bug but they didnt light up. They were two bugs in one so everyone was calling them lovebugs. Saw a few that didnt have a mate too. Maybe its just a September thing. Weve never been in September before.
The stroller: We took our red Maclaren Triumph. Never had a problem. It was always there wherever we left it. It was a little cumbersome folding it up and jumping on the busses. Plus at Epcot, you couldnt take the stroller in the buildings. We ended up carrying Dustin quite a bit. Hes about 23 pounds.
The parks in general: There werent many lines. There were bigger crowds on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday. The parks were pretty empty on Monday thru Thursday. We did try to watch Cinderellabration Sept 16. We started it, but got overheated and had to leave. It was unbearable. We ended up leaving the parks in the afternoons. I think Soarin usually had a wait of 20 minutes, but we did fastpasses for it. All the other rides were walkons.
Magic Kingdom: Got to see the Wishes at 8:00 one night. Excellent! Enjoyed the Wednesday morning little ones hour in Fantasyland. The characters were there to ride the rides with the children. Snow White and Wendy were there too. Dustin enjoyed all the rides, even the dark ones. He didnt enjoy the teacups, but that was Erics fault. He was spinning us too hard. The Hall of Presidents was closed.
We went to the barbershop a couple times and there was a line. We finally ended up just waiting in the line. It took almost an hour I think. There were two ladies there cutting hair. We videoed Dustins first hair cut. He didnt move a muscle. The lady remarked that it was just like cutting a little old mans hair! He got ears, a certificate, and she wrapped up some of his hair & some mickey heads I think. We had to pay cash here. They informed us we could not use our Visa. It was $14 plus tip. She offered colored gel and sprinkles, but we declined.
MGM: Enjoyed the movie ride, the muppets, and lunch. Then came back for supper & Beauty & the Beast. Came another evening for Indiana Jones and the backlot tour. Purchased a nice photo album at MGM.
Epcot: I had forgotten how much walking there is here. That World Showcase is nice, but too hot to walk around in the daytime. On a day when Dustin got a good nap, we decided to give Illuminations a try. At 8:30 Dustin had his one and only meltdown and we left. I hated the looks from the other guests who I imagined that they were thinking poor kid, parents keeps him out all day in this heat, but really wed been in our hotel room all afternoon in the cool. We tried to do the build a robot thing, but the gal explained we had to listen to a spiel about plastic and something else, all total about 45 minutes of whatever until we could get to the build robot part. We did get the free photo at the Kodak section of Imagination. Plus we got to email a photo to ourselves. At the UK toy store, we saw Pooh, Tigger, & Eeyore. I didnt have the camera so Dustin and I just visited. It was such a sweet little visit. Lots of hugs and kisses. Eric was in line paying for a Tigger for Dustin and didnt make it in time to take a photo. The cashier said they return every few minutes. She was right. We came back and got a photo with them. We saw the train that we read about in other trip reports, but all that was there was the tracks. I didnt see any trains to play with on it.
Animal Kingdom: We arrived early and got fastpasses to the Safari. While waiting, we did the Pangani trail. Then we did the Safari. By then it was getting really hot so we left to go have lunch back at CBR.
Meals: We were on the free dining plan. We used our meal credits for lunch and supper. Charged our breakfasts to the room. I think well get the dining plan again even if we have to pay for it. The restaurants were pretty empty, however, we eat pretty early. Our ressies were for 11:30 and 4:30, but each time we showed up early, they took us.
We used snack credits at the resort gift shop to purchase a loaf of bread, a large bottle of water, and a half gallon of whole milk. That was 3 snack credits. We later used another one to buy a second large water.
Other snacks included: A cookie ice cream sandwich from Main Street Bakery. These were huge. It was two huge cookies (which were hard by the way) with 3 large scoops of ice cream in between. The ice cream was pretty soft so you couldnt bite into it without all the ice cream squeezing out. On the positive side, the ice cream kind of softened up the cookies. These were huge. We should have split one.
We got 4 kakigori (snow cones) from Japan during the week. Excellent!!
Also we got a dip of ice cream each from the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor.
At the end of the week, we still had 2 snack credits so we bought oatmeal and a banana with them at breakfast time.
The hotel food court was pretty good. I liked how the foods were pictured on the screen above each kitchen. The last day, I tried to toast some of the bread we had. It was toaster ovens. I stuck that bread in 3 times and it just warmed, never toasted. I gave up. The mickey waffles were excellent! As were the pancakes, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits. All yummy. Wed also get a banana each morning from the grab-n-go. Regular meals here I was not quite as impressed. It was just okay. We had the pizza & salad combo the first day. It was just okay. The chocolate cake we had here was very good! Another day we had cheeseburgers, but they were no where near as good as the cheeseburgers at Cosmic Rays in MK.
The restaurants:
Columbia Harbour House: We were a bit disappointed. The upstairs was roped off. I got fish, fries, and not-so-good chocolate cake. We ordered grilled chicken & cheese for Dustin. I thought it would be a hot meal. It was cold chunks of chicken and cubes of cheese. He wouldnt eat the cold chicken or the cheese. He did eat some of the grapes and a couple crackers. We fed him a PB sandwich later in the room.
Pinochio Village Haus: It was just okay. The pizza tasted like frozen pizza. The shakes on the other hand were tasty and came in a plastic cup that had the castle on them.
Cosmic Rays: Great burgers! Tasted like they just came off the grill. The man was surprised we just wanted the cheeseburgers and not the double bacon cheeseburgers. So he upgraded our drinks to large and threw in a free milk. That was the only time we were offered the larger drinks. Again the chocolate cake was just okay. Not quite as good as the cake at CBR. We really enjoyed the Sonny Eclipse show. The jokes were cute and the music was mellow. We sat in the back of the room where Sonny was at. It was not loud at all.
Garden Grill: Lunch with Mickey, Chip, Dale, & Pluto. Excellent! Our waiter gave us a free milk and a free childs meal that had mac-n-cheese, chicken fingers, & fries. Dustin wouldnt eat anything but mashed potatoes and bread. He also enjoyed the berries off the dessert. I wasnt sure how hed do with a character, but he shook Chips hand, and kissed Mickey on the nose. It was a special memory. We were pleased that we got a table on the outer ring.
Rose & Crown: I asked for prime rib. They didnt have it. I got the cheese plate (non of which I liked, but the fruit and nuts were good) I got the grilled steak & fish. Excellent fish! The steak was black on the outside and raw in the middle. I had ordered it medium. I asked the server about it and he offered to cook it longer. I think that would have made the outside burned even more. I just ate the middle. I tried the guiness cake. It was a flat sort of cake, very unusual. Erics apple crumble was delicious. If we return, Im going for the fish and apple crumble. We brought along a PB sandwich and apple sauce for Dustin.
Sci-Fi Drive In: We did cheeseburgers, fries & shakes. I had the spinach dip (very good) and Eric had salad for his appetizer. Very tasty, but glad we werent paying. For just a cheeseburger meal, it was a little pricey here.
Primetime: Eric got in trouble off the bat for elbows on the table. I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans (which I didnt finish and I caught a lot of flack). Eric had meatloaf and green beans. Our appetizers were the fried cheese and soup. The fried cheese reminded me of the cream cheese thats inside a popper. Dessert was angel food cake and apple crisp. We had shakes for our beverages. Very good!
Tonys: The server suggested the grilled steak & spinach dip. I wanted the Tonys Pizza, but only the white cheese pizza was on the menu and it did not have pizza sauce on it according to the server. Also the gelato was not on the menu. We were told it would be back after Sept 30. I ordered the breadsticks, steak & potatoes. Eric had the spinach dip, and spaghetti with meatballs. Afterwards, our server brought us a surprise. She said someone was feeling extra nice today. She brought me a scoop of vanilla gelato and Eric got 3 small samples of just the cheesecake.
Pizza Planet (MGM): Had the pizza/salad combos plus a cookie each. The pizza was just okay. I was disappointed. When we go to Kings Island (Ohio) and Holiday World (Southern Indiana), they have great counter service pizza, only its by the slice and the slices are huge. I wish WDW would revamp the pizzas they serve.
Rain Forest Café (AK): Had breakfast reservations 8:45. But we got there early and the lady said they would start seating people at 8:30. There werent many there. We were seated at 8:30 just like she said. Our server was from upstate NY. He was wonderful. He chatted with us about Colts (Indys football team). He was very attentive. Eric had an omelet and I had the breakfast of bandits. Dustin would only eat a little muffin and some milk.
Coral Reef: What a pleasant surprise. We got seated at a tank side table. Eric had the chowder, salmon, rice, and butterscotch brulee. I had salad w/keylime dressing, prime rib, baked potato, broccoli (gave to Eric), and then the chocolate wave. I was so looking forward to the chocolate wave. I was disappointed. It was basically an upside down cupcake with some white flakes of chocolate on top, and some sugary glaze in the center. The steak made up for it though. Very delicious. Our server was great. We explained when our main course came that we wanted to go ahead and order dessert. We could not afford to linger long with a toddler. Dustin behaved. This was also the most expensive meal. It would have been $112, but we were on the free dining.
LeCellier: By far our best meal. All the great reviews are true! And again, our server let us pre-order dessert so we could keep our meal moving. I had the cheese soup, prime rib, mashed potatoes, and whiskey cake. Eric had the tomato stack, chicken, and berry bucket for dessert. The prime rib was excellent. I was disappointed in the cake. It was dry, but came with a milky cream to pour on top. I didnt think the cream had much taste.
Caseys: Didnt eat here, but wed stop routinely for a tall cup of ice water and they were happy to give it to us. Wed fill our sons sippy cup, then Eric and I had what was left in the cup. On the flip side, a counter service in Morroco was not as accommodating. I asked for ice water. She gave me a cup full of warm water with 2 cubes in it.
Packing: We tried the ziplock bag method this time. Very efficient. I used the 2½ gallon bags. Packed one shorts, 2 shirts, undies, and 2 sets of socks in each one. Then tossed each baggie in a drawer in the hotel. Saved the baggies and put clothes back in them after doing laundry. I will do this again. The drawers smelled a bit musty so I was glad our clothes were in the baggies.
Glad we packed: 6 little cans of diet pepsis for our frig, the chip clip for the drapes, the over-the-door shoe holder, the spray mister fan, some little snack cookie packs, disposable sippy cups, regular sippy cups, a tote bag, disposable bibs, and wet ones individual packets. Wish Id taken a salty snack (just a little something to have with a pepsi in the evenings since wed eaten at 4:30 each day). Also glad we packed toddler sized disposable spoons.
Never used: rain ponchos, fannie pack (fit everything into the tote bag, but separated into ziplock baggies), toddler placemats, stickers (our son doesnt understand playing with stickers yet), and koolaide packets (took these because I read that Disney water tastes bad, but I thought it tasted fine). The Keen sandals turned out to be useless at WDW. They are fine for wearing all day here at home. But after a half day in the heat, pounding the pavement at WDW, they were hurting my feet.
Trip summary. We loved it! We pretty much stuck with our itinerary even though we left the parks after lunch and returned at around 3:30 each day. It was just too hot between noon and 3:00. The spray mister we took was a godsend. We filled it with ice & water everyday. The batteries didnt die in it until day 6. We had some spare batteries with us.
We will definitely return to Disney, but only during a cool month, and only after our son is big enough to walk on his own. Maybe when hes 5. It was good to get away on vacation, but splendid to get back to our house and our marvelous rut! And we were glad to be back home to soft puffs and our Charmin again!
If I can figure out how to post a picture, I'll come back and post some pics.
Cast:
Me DW 41 Cheryl Tends to prefer cruise vacations, but terribly excited to go to Disney for the first time as a family. Prior trips to Disney include 1 day in 1971 as a child. Then one week each in 1988 & 1991 as an adult. I read the Passporter and Birnbaums guides prior to planning this trip.
DH 41 Eric -- Spent 1 day at Disney with his high school band and another day there with his parents over 20 years ago. He doesnt recall much of Disney so it will in essence be his first trip!
DS 18 months Dustin-- a happy toddler who is a man of few words, but can climb like the dickens. Delights in getting the remotes and is always taking his shoes off. Has never been on vacation. Was confused about what exactly were the attractions at WDW . . . he thought the park benches were grand, climbed on several. Also he inspected all trash cans! Yep, flap works! Stooped down to check all coverplates in the walkways.
Prep for trip:
Booked trip Staying at CBR
Purchased lightweight umbrella stroller chose MacClaren Triumph
Got a Protect-A-Bub sunshade for stroller (thanks DIS for recommending it)
Ordered Keen Newport Walking shoes (also a DIS recommendation)
Read all menus on Allears. Picked 7 TS meals & CS meals
Read up on all attractions and typed itineraries.
Made daily index cards with show times, ADR confirm #s, etc.
Found Disney swim trunks for ds at Walmart
Took DS to the zoo to the dolphin program to see how hed behave in a show he sat there and watched the show just like a little adult!
Week before trip:
Left hidden mickeys for husband to find each morning. Left surprise Mickey Mouse ballcaps for dh and ds with a note from Mickey that he cant wait to see us. I found them at the Disney store a year ago for $3.99 each. Let the magic begin!! By the way, we ended up buying a second ballcap for Eric later in the week. I think he paid about $19.
Pros & Cons of our trip
The flight: Chose a non-stop since we are traveling with an 18 month old. Dustin cried when we took off, but I surprised him with a Nemo toy cell phone and that diverted his attention. The rest of the flight he was wiggly, but happy. Northwest did not offer toddlers anything to drink until the beverage cart came around. So we gave Dustin bites of cookies to eat while we ascended. He was not impressed with the stickers I brought or the color wonders. He did play some with the little magnidoodle. Since the flight was full of children, there was no pre-boarding for those with little ones. Flying home, Dustin slept the first hour and snacked the second hour. He liked fruit loops & cookies.
About security: getting thru security here in Indy was a breeze. Orlando however, was not. We ate in the food court and made our way to the gate. We got in a security line which weaved around sort of like the lines at Disney. Then a lady stopped us and had us divide up into lanes. These lanes led up to another lady who was checking our boarding passes. Heres the bad part. All of those lanes ended and the hordes of people were smooshed back into huge line that had to curve around a big column. We were all trying to hold our carry-ons & strollers and stay together thru that mass of people. It was bad. Then we met up with yet another person and she divided us up into lanes again that led to the xray & TSA people.
Magic Express: Easy! We walked off the plane, found the tram, walked all the way to the end of the tram hallway. Then when we boarded we were on the front of the tram and when getting off we were ahead of everyone else getting off the tram. Then we looked for the A (we were on the 3rd level). Went down to the first level and were directed to the Express counters. After checking in, we were directed to the correct bus line. Then when the bus came we were escorted together in a line outside to the bus. The driver loaded our stroller & carryon and we got on board. From touchdown to sitting down on the bus was 1 hour. The windshield of the bus was covered in dead bugs. More on this later.
Checking out was a breeze. We got a statement of our spending attached to our door. I still went to check out, but there was really no need. Then we went to the airline check in desk. They were having a bit of server problems, but we finally got our 4 suitcases checked & boarding passes in hand. We were supposed to be outside at 9:15 for the 9:30 bus, but the 9:00 bus was there. We asked the driver and he had room so he stowed our stroller & carryon and we hopped on that bus. At the airport, he asked us to sit still until he unloaded all the stuff. Then we got off, found our stuff, tipped the driver, and walked in the airport. Took the elevator back up to level 3 and found the food court.
Our resort: I chose CBR. I stayed there in 1991 for a week and loved it! I was previously in Jamaica and loved to walk over the bridges to get to the food court. This time we were assigned to Barbados. We were in building 12 (room 1259). We were really close to the bus stop, and the laundry room & pool. The laundry room was really clean and nice (did 3 loads there, but divided up the wash loads into more dryers so my loads would dry in one dry cycle, also used the high heat setting). The sand on the beaches was really dirty. We did see it groomed once while we were there, but it didnt remove any of the debris, just raked it around.
The bus service was great, although I was wishing we selected the Contemporary because of the monorail service. Sometimes we had a wait for a bus. Other times it was there and we had to run to catch it.
Our room was nice. Our mousekeeper left us lots of towels, washcloths, cups, and soaps. We had 1 towel bird waiting on us, but after that no towel animals (which was fine). We left 3$ per day. We met our mousekeeper and she was really sweet. When we arrived there was a dead bug in the tub and hair in the bathroom and one in the frig. I hate to include that info because it sounds worse than it was. I never ever saw a live bug in our room which was a surprise to me since there was a gap under our door. The pack in play was clean and nice. I think it had 3 sheets so pretty comfy. Twice our son turned the heat on. The knobs cover was missing off the heater/AC unit.
Also he found a loose medallion thing from the foot of the bed and pulled it and the screw off. And he found if he stood his feet on the shelf under the sink area, he could reach the light switch so the vanity light went on and off frequently. The hair dryer was broken, but still worked. The thing you plug into the outlet was broken and looked like a hazard to me, but we used it all week and made sure we unplugged it after each use. We relocated all 3 trashcans to the bathroom and shut the door. On the suggestion of a DISer, we took along a clear shoe hanging thing. We hung it over the mirror using those removable sticky hooks. This kept everything out of reach and off the vanity. Great tip!
Dustin fell off the beds twice while we were there, but he was fine. There are light fixtures right above the beds (above the head of the bed). He would grab onto them and take a nestea plunge straight back onto the bed, which was cute, until he started doing the nestea plunge from wherever he was at on the bed and we had to put a stop to that. Im glad we had a chip clip because our drapes wouldnt stay all-the-way closed. I went outside and people could definitely see inside so that chip clip came in handy.
The resort and the parks (especially MGM) were plagued with love bugs. What is the deal with that? They were everywhere. They didnt bite and reminded me of a lightning bug but they didnt light up. They were two bugs in one so everyone was calling them lovebugs. Saw a few that didnt have a mate too. Maybe its just a September thing. Weve never been in September before.
The stroller: We took our red Maclaren Triumph. Never had a problem. It was always there wherever we left it. It was a little cumbersome folding it up and jumping on the busses. Plus at Epcot, you couldnt take the stroller in the buildings. We ended up carrying Dustin quite a bit. Hes about 23 pounds.
The parks in general: There werent many lines. There were bigger crowds on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday. The parks were pretty empty on Monday thru Thursday. We did try to watch Cinderellabration Sept 16. We started it, but got overheated and had to leave. It was unbearable. We ended up leaving the parks in the afternoons. I think Soarin usually had a wait of 20 minutes, but we did fastpasses for it. All the other rides were walkons.
Magic Kingdom: Got to see the Wishes at 8:00 one night. Excellent! Enjoyed the Wednesday morning little ones hour in Fantasyland. The characters were there to ride the rides with the children. Snow White and Wendy were there too. Dustin enjoyed all the rides, even the dark ones. He didnt enjoy the teacups, but that was Erics fault. He was spinning us too hard. The Hall of Presidents was closed.
We went to the barbershop a couple times and there was a line. We finally ended up just waiting in the line. It took almost an hour I think. There were two ladies there cutting hair. We videoed Dustins first hair cut. He didnt move a muscle. The lady remarked that it was just like cutting a little old mans hair! He got ears, a certificate, and she wrapped up some of his hair & some mickey heads I think. We had to pay cash here. They informed us we could not use our Visa. It was $14 plus tip. She offered colored gel and sprinkles, but we declined.
MGM: Enjoyed the movie ride, the muppets, and lunch. Then came back for supper & Beauty & the Beast. Came another evening for Indiana Jones and the backlot tour. Purchased a nice photo album at MGM.
Epcot: I had forgotten how much walking there is here. That World Showcase is nice, but too hot to walk around in the daytime. On a day when Dustin got a good nap, we decided to give Illuminations a try. At 8:30 Dustin had his one and only meltdown and we left. I hated the looks from the other guests who I imagined that they were thinking poor kid, parents keeps him out all day in this heat, but really wed been in our hotel room all afternoon in the cool. We tried to do the build a robot thing, but the gal explained we had to listen to a spiel about plastic and something else, all total about 45 minutes of whatever until we could get to the build robot part. We did get the free photo at the Kodak section of Imagination. Plus we got to email a photo to ourselves. At the UK toy store, we saw Pooh, Tigger, & Eeyore. I didnt have the camera so Dustin and I just visited. It was such a sweet little visit. Lots of hugs and kisses. Eric was in line paying for a Tigger for Dustin and didnt make it in time to take a photo. The cashier said they return every few minutes. She was right. We came back and got a photo with them. We saw the train that we read about in other trip reports, but all that was there was the tracks. I didnt see any trains to play with on it.
Animal Kingdom: We arrived early and got fastpasses to the Safari. While waiting, we did the Pangani trail. Then we did the Safari. By then it was getting really hot so we left to go have lunch back at CBR.
Meals: We were on the free dining plan. We used our meal credits for lunch and supper. Charged our breakfasts to the room. I think well get the dining plan again even if we have to pay for it. The restaurants were pretty empty, however, we eat pretty early. Our ressies were for 11:30 and 4:30, but each time we showed up early, they took us.
We used snack credits at the resort gift shop to purchase a loaf of bread, a large bottle of water, and a half gallon of whole milk. That was 3 snack credits. We later used another one to buy a second large water.
Other snacks included: A cookie ice cream sandwich from Main Street Bakery. These were huge. It was two huge cookies (which were hard by the way) with 3 large scoops of ice cream in between. The ice cream was pretty soft so you couldnt bite into it without all the ice cream squeezing out. On the positive side, the ice cream kind of softened up the cookies. These were huge. We should have split one.
We got 4 kakigori (snow cones) from Japan during the week. Excellent!!
Also we got a dip of ice cream each from the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor.
At the end of the week, we still had 2 snack credits so we bought oatmeal and a banana with them at breakfast time.
The hotel food court was pretty good. I liked how the foods were pictured on the screen above each kitchen. The last day, I tried to toast some of the bread we had. It was toaster ovens. I stuck that bread in 3 times and it just warmed, never toasted. I gave up. The mickey waffles were excellent! As were the pancakes, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits. All yummy. Wed also get a banana each morning from the grab-n-go. Regular meals here I was not quite as impressed. It was just okay. We had the pizza & salad combo the first day. It was just okay. The chocolate cake we had here was very good! Another day we had cheeseburgers, but they were no where near as good as the cheeseburgers at Cosmic Rays in MK.
The restaurants:
Columbia Harbour House: We were a bit disappointed. The upstairs was roped off. I got fish, fries, and not-so-good chocolate cake. We ordered grilled chicken & cheese for Dustin. I thought it would be a hot meal. It was cold chunks of chicken and cubes of cheese. He wouldnt eat the cold chicken or the cheese. He did eat some of the grapes and a couple crackers. We fed him a PB sandwich later in the room.
Pinochio Village Haus: It was just okay. The pizza tasted like frozen pizza. The shakes on the other hand were tasty and came in a plastic cup that had the castle on them.
Cosmic Rays: Great burgers! Tasted like they just came off the grill. The man was surprised we just wanted the cheeseburgers and not the double bacon cheeseburgers. So he upgraded our drinks to large and threw in a free milk. That was the only time we were offered the larger drinks. Again the chocolate cake was just okay. Not quite as good as the cake at CBR. We really enjoyed the Sonny Eclipse show. The jokes were cute and the music was mellow. We sat in the back of the room where Sonny was at. It was not loud at all.
Garden Grill: Lunch with Mickey, Chip, Dale, & Pluto. Excellent! Our waiter gave us a free milk and a free childs meal that had mac-n-cheese, chicken fingers, & fries. Dustin wouldnt eat anything but mashed potatoes and bread. He also enjoyed the berries off the dessert. I wasnt sure how hed do with a character, but he shook Chips hand, and kissed Mickey on the nose. It was a special memory. We were pleased that we got a table on the outer ring.
Rose & Crown: I asked for prime rib. They didnt have it. I got the cheese plate (non of which I liked, but the fruit and nuts were good) I got the grilled steak & fish. Excellent fish! The steak was black on the outside and raw in the middle. I had ordered it medium. I asked the server about it and he offered to cook it longer. I think that would have made the outside burned even more. I just ate the middle. I tried the guiness cake. It was a flat sort of cake, very unusual. Erics apple crumble was delicious. If we return, Im going for the fish and apple crumble. We brought along a PB sandwich and apple sauce for Dustin.
Sci-Fi Drive In: We did cheeseburgers, fries & shakes. I had the spinach dip (very good) and Eric had salad for his appetizer. Very tasty, but glad we werent paying. For just a cheeseburger meal, it was a little pricey here.
Primetime: Eric got in trouble off the bat for elbows on the table. I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans (which I didnt finish and I caught a lot of flack). Eric had meatloaf and green beans. Our appetizers were the fried cheese and soup. The fried cheese reminded me of the cream cheese thats inside a popper. Dessert was angel food cake and apple crisp. We had shakes for our beverages. Very good!
Tonys: The server suggested the grilled steak & spinach dip. I wanted the Tonys Pizza, but only the white cheese pizza was on the menu and it did not have pizza sauce on it according to the server. Also the gelato was not on the menu. We were told it would be back after Sept 30. I ordered the breadsticks, steak & potatoes. Eric had the spinach dip, and spaghetti with meatballs. Afterwards, our server brought us a surprise. She said someone was feeling extra nice today. She brought me a scoop of vanilla gelato and Eric got 3 small samples of just the cheesecake.
Pizza Planet (MGM): Had the pizza/salad combos plus a cookie each. The pizza was just okay. I was disappointed. When we go to Kings Island (Ohio) and Holiday World (Southern Indiana), they have great counter service pizza, only its by the slice and the slices are huge. I wish WDW would revamp the pizzas they serve.
Rain Forest Café (AK): Had breakfast reservations 8:45. But we got there early and the lady said they would start seating people at 8:30. There werent many there. We were seated at 8:30 just like she said. Our server was from upstate NY. He was wonderful. He chatted with us about Colts (Indys football team). He was very attentive. Eric had an omelet and I had the breakfast of bandits. Dustin would only eat a little muffin and some milk.
Coral Reef: What a pleasant surprise. We got seated at a tank side table. Eric had the chowder, salmon, rice, and butterscotch brulee. I had salad w/keylime dressing, prime rib, baked potato, broccoli (gave to Eric), and then the chocolate wave. I was so looking forward to the chocolate wave. I was disappointed. It was basically an upside down cupcake with some white flakes of chocolate on top, and some sugary glaze in the center. The steak made up for it though. Very delicious. Our server was great. We explained when our main course came that we wanted to go ahead and order dessert. We could not afford to linger long with a toddler. Dustin behaved. This was also the most expensive meal. It would have been $112, but we were on the free dining.
LeCellier: By far our best meal. All the great reviews are true! And again, our server let us pre-order dessert so we could keep our meal moving. I had the cheese soup, prime rib, mashed potatoes, and whiskey cake. Eric had the tomato stack, chicken, and berry bucket for dessert. The prime rib was excellent. I was disappointed in the cake. It was dry, but came with a milky cream to pour on top. I didnt think the cream had much taste.
Caseys: Didnt eat here, but wed stop routinely for a tall cup of ice water and they were happy to give it to us. Wed fill our sons sippy cup, then Eric and I had what was left in the cup. On the flip side, a counter service in Morroco was not as accommodating. I asked for ice water. She gave me a cup full of warm water with 2 cubes in it.
Packing: We tried the ziplock bag method this time. Very efficient. I used the 2½ gallon bags. Packed one shorts, 2 shirts, undies, and 2 sets of socks in each one. Then tossed each baggie in a drawer in the hotel. Saved the baggies and put clothes back in them after doing laundry. I will do this again. The drawers smelled a bit musty so I was glad our clothes were in the baggies.
Glad we packed: 6 little cans of diet pepsis for our frig, the chip clip for the drapes, the over-the-door shoe holder, the spray mister fan, some little snack cookie packs, disposable sippy cups, regular sippy cups, a tote bag, disposable bibs, and wet ones individual packets. Wish Id taken a salty snack (just a little something to have with a pepsi in the evenings since wed eaten at 4:30 each day). Also glad we packed toddler sized disposable spoons.
Never used: rain ponchos, fannie pack (fit everything into the tote bag, but separated into ziplock baggies), toddler placemats, stickers (our son doesnt understand playing with stickers yet), and koolaide packets (took these because I read that Disney water tastes bad, but I thought it tasted fine). The Keen sandals turned out to be useless at WDW. They are fine for wearing all day here at home. But after a half day in the heat, pounding the pavement at WDW, they were hurting my feet.
Trip summary. We loved it! We pretty much stuck with our itinerary even though we left the parks after lunch and returned at around 3:30 each day. It was just too hot between noon and 3:00. The spray mister we took was a godsend. We filled it with ice & water everyday. The batteries didnt die in it until day 6. We had some spare batteries with us.
We will definitely return to Disney, but only during a cool month, and only after our son is big enough to walk on his own. Maybe when hes 5. It was good to get away on vacation, but splendid to get back to our house and our marvelous rut! And we were glad to be back home to soft puffs and our Charmin again!
If I can figure out how to post a picture, I'll come back and post some pics.
