Cast of Characters:
DH-Scott Agreed to let me start planning this vacation back in May or June of last year. Wasn't interested in helping with the planning at all, especially since I should know "everything" after spending countless hours on the DIS. Finally picked up the Birnbaum's guide about a week before the trip.
Me-Sara Read the UOG cover to cover twice, plus countless other smaller guides, and I wish there was a way to find out how many hours I spent here on the boards planning, planning, planning!
dd8-Kristi Doesn't like rides. Will soon find out she doesn't like 3-D movies either. Loves stage shows as long as they don't involve anything loud like fireworks.
dd5-Emily Will go on anything except roller coasters. If asked, "Do you want to go on this?", she says, "Is it a roller coaster?". If the answer is no, she'll go on it.
Tuesday, April 5
I had Scott take my car to work today so I could finish any last minute packing and have his Explorer loaded up and ready to go when he got home from work. I forgot that Kristi's girl scout leader (I'm the co-leader) was coming over to get my box of stuff that I take to all the meetings at noon today since I'll be missing our meeting on Mon. Guess where that box is. IN MY CAR! So I had to drive across town to Scott's work to get it before she came over. I also had to decide today whether or not to take Emily to the Dr. before we leave. She ran a fever all last week, but had no other symptoms at all. I've never seen a kid with a temp of 102.4 out riding a bike and having a great time, but all the other kids were at school, so I figured if she wasn't exposing anybody to whatever she might be coming down with, there was no harm in it. Now her fever was gone, but she had started coughing. I listened with the stethescope and her lungs were clear, so I decided we'd just go to Walmart and get some cough med. to take with us. I had packed our clothes over a month ago since we didn't need our summer clothes yet here at home anyway, so I just had a few last minute things to throw in. The plan was for Scott to leave work at 3, we'd hop in the car shortly after Kristi got off the bus at 3:30, and we'd be at my mom's by 5. Well, Kristi beat Scott home, and we didn't end up leaving the house til about 4:20. We were at my mom's about an hour later. We dropped the animals off at her house. She kept the 2 cats all week and took the dog to the kennel the next morning. She had ordered pizza and had it there waiting for us so we wouldn't have to waste time stopping for supper. By 6:45 we were headed for Chicago. We spent the night at the Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows. I booked the room through StayParkFly.com. For $89 we got a room for the night, free parking while we're on vacation, and a free shuttle to and from the airport. It was cheaper than parking for a week at O'Hare, so we decided to give it a try. The hotel was kind of run down, but it suited our needs. We had a 7:30 flight in the morning, and the first shuttle was set to leave the hotel at 5:30am. We notified the front desk when we checked in that we need to be on the first shuttle in the morning, and they instructed us to be in the lobby at 5:15 am. Well, it beats leaving home at 3:30!
Wed. April 6
We jumped out of bed as soon as the alarm went off at 4am. The adrenaline was already pumping! We're going to Disney World today! We had ordered a wake up call, but it never came. Thank goodness we weren't relying on it! We were out the door at 5am and went to the lobby to wait. We all had that "not enough sleep/empty stomach" feeling, so we munched on some animal crackers from the vending machine. The shuttle to the airport was full, 6 other people besides us. We were the last ones to get off the shuttle at O'Hare. It was great to be dropped off right at the ticketing counter and not have to drag luggage all over the airport, especially at that hour! (I work 3-11pm, so I am NOT used to this morning stuff!) The line at the Spirit counter was long, but it moved very quickly. After we checked our luggage, we got breakfast form McDonald's and ate it at the gate. Then we took a quick potty break, and it was time to board. (BTW, the restrooms at O'Hare are the cleanest I've seen anywhere. An attendant was mopping constantly, and the seats had automatic potty seat covers! I had never seen these before!) Kristi was scared to death before we took off, but once we were in the air she was fine. We arrived in Orlando ahead of schedule, and had to sit on the taxi way and wait for a couple other planes to move before we could get to our gate. Of course we were dying to go to the bathroom. Luckily we were sitting near the front of the plane, so when we finally got off, we got to go to tthe bathroom with no line. When we came out, everyone else from our flight was in line to go. The restroom here wasn't nearly as nice as the one at O'Hare. It was much smaller, not very clean, and there was no attendant. We eventually found our luggage and hauled it way down to the Alamo counter. (When we passed the L&M counter, I was wishing I'd taken the UOG's advice and rented from them instead! They're much closer to baggage claim!) This was our first experience renting a car at an airport, and we both thought the girl at the counter was rather rude. Scott's ears were still plugged from the flight. He kept telling her he couldn't hear her, and she would repeat the same thing, but not raise her voice or lean closer at all. Then we had to drag our luggage across the street into the parking garage to pick out our car. (Next time I'm spending the $3 for a luggage cart!) We picked a bluish gray Chevy Cobalt. We planned on stopping at a Super Walmart on the way to Pop Century, but we never did see one. We did see a Super Target, but we weren't sure how to get to it. The next thing we knew we were going under the Welcome to Disney World sign! We decided to go ahead and find our hotel and eat lunch before going shopping. So, we're trying to follow the signs, but they're all over and it's hard to read them all at once and figure out which lane you're supposed to be in, and next thing we know, we're puling into the parking lot for Epcot! (OOPS!) We tell the CM our problem and he directs us to go forward, do a u-turn at the next left, and follow the MGM signs. He says, "If you can't find it, just stop and ask at Carribean Beach." Sure, if I can't find Pop, what makes him think I can find CB? Well, finally we found Pop. We got checked in right away with no line. The CM gave my girls yellow smiley face squeeze coin purses. I don't know if they always do this, but I hadn't heard of it before. We ate at Everything Pop. I had the individual cheese pizza. I was only able to eat 3/4 of it. I wasn't great, but I'm not picky when it comes to pizza, so it was fine by me. Better than my usual Lean Cuisine microwave pizzas anyway. Kristi had the kids penne pasta with meatball. She ate all the pasta and said it was good. She ate part of the meatball, but thought it was too spicy. She didn't like the bread stick. Emily had the kids macaroni and cheese. She didn't care for it. It was too cheesy for her. The rest of us tasted it and thought it was pretty good. She ended up eating a couple bites of my pizza and both her and Kristi's breadsticks. She's a total carb addict. Basically, if you call it bread, she'll eat it. You know how Homer Simpson says, "Mmmmm, beeeerrr"? Well Emily imitates him all the time only she says "Mmmmm, breeeaaad." We got our luggage hauled up to our room, and then we headed for Epcot. (On purpose this time!) My plan was to do the World Showcase today, but the bus dropped us off at Future world and as we were walking toward Mexico, we noticed that Sapceship Earth was a walk-on, so we hopped on! Kristi was scared of course, but when it was over she wanted to do it again. Our vehicle stopped twice during the ride, once in Rome for quite a while, and once briefly right near the end when you're going down backwards. It was a little annoying, but not too big of a deal. We finally make it to Mexico. We rode El Tempo Del Rio. We all liked that one, but I kept thinking how easy it would be for an active toddler to jump right out of the boat. Maybe it was just because we were in the front row. After the ride, we found the Kidcot Funstop and the girls started making their masks. Working our way around, we found Maelstrom. The standby line was 15 min, so we got in line. Emily really needed a drink, so we decided to get out of line (we were still outside), get FP, and come back after getting a drink. The return time was 5:15. We came back at 5:10 and the FP return lane was roped off. I went to say something to the CM, but she handed us the card they use to gauge wait times and I thought that was cool, so we went ahead and waited in the standby line. It was only about 5-7 min. Kristi did NOT like this ride. I told her there wouldn't be a drop, so of course she freaked when she saw it. (I really didnt know there would be one!) She kept her eyes closed the whole rest of the ride. We did a couple more Kidcot stations. The line for the one in Italy was really long, so we decided to skip it for now. We noticed that The American Adventure was just about to start, so we ran in there. Kristi loved this. She's quite the history buff. (Scott was a history major, so I guess it's in her blood. She also loves science, especially space, so I thought Epcot would be right up her alley.) Emily napped during the show. After this, we decided to go to Ponderosa for dinner. Now I'm wishing we had driven to Epcot. We had to wait for the bus, go back to the room for the car keys, and drive around for an hour looking for Ponderosa. (I think it moved since we passed it on our way in a few hours ago! Or maybe they changed the name of the road?) Luckily, when we finally found it, we had a wonderful meal, the best baked potato I've ever eaten, and we had a very nice server who gave us directions to Walmart and Target. We think we have this navigation thing under control now. We drove to the Super Target, no problem. We didn't realize they were closing at 10pm (we got there at 9:30), so when they make the 15 min. announcement, we had to hurry and forgot some things, but nothing critical. We found our way back fine, we were very careful NOT to take the Epcot exit. We're both sure we passed the exit and a couple more after that, but there it was, the big EPCOT sign, and we're driving right into the parking lot again! At least they're closed now and we already know how to get from HERE to Pop. We decided for the rest of the week, everytime we leave the World we're going to end up back here and we'll just tell the guard, "I'm sorry, but this is the only route we know to our resort!" We finally make it back to the room. I took our mugs (all 4 purchased brand new today if you're wondering!) to Everything Pop for hot cocoa, and everyone went to sleep while I stayed up to write this ridiculously long trip report.
Tomorrow-MK and CRT breakfast!
DH-Scott Agreed to let me start planning this vacation back in May or June of last year. Wasn't interested in helping with the planning at all, especially since I should know "everything" after spending countless hours on the DIS. Finally picked up the Birnbaum's guide about a week before the trip.
Me-Sara Read the UOG cover to cover twice, plus countless other smaller guides, and I wish there was a way to find out how many hours I spent here on the boards planning, planning, planning!
dd8-Kristi Doesn't like rides. Will soon find out she doesn't like 3-D movies either. Loves stage shows as long as they don't involve anything loud like fireworks.
dd5-Emily Will go on anything except roller coasters. If asked, "Do you want to go on this?", she says, "Is it a roller coaster?". If the answer is no, she'll go on it.
Tuesday, April 5
I had Scott take my car to work today so I could finish any last minute packing and have his Explorer loaded up and ready to go when he got home from work. I forgot that Kristi's girl scout leader (I'm the co-leader) was coming over to get my box of stuff that I take to all the meetings at noon today since I'll be missing our meeting on Mon. Guess where that box is. IN MY CAR! So I had to drive across town to Scott's work to get it before she came over. I also had to decide today whether or not to take Emily to the Dr. before we leave. She ran a fever all last week, but had no other symptoms at all. I've never seen a kid with a temp of 102.4 out riding a bike and having a great time, but all the other kids were at school, so I figured if she wasn't exposing anybody to whatever she might be coming down with, there was no harm in it. Now her fever was gone, but she had started coughing. I listened with the stethescope and her lungs were clear, so I decided we'd just go to Walmart and get some cough med. to take with us. I had packed our clothes over a month ago since we didn't need our summer clothes yet here at home anyway, so I just had a few last minute things to throw in. The plan was for Scott to leave work at 3, we'd hop in the car shortly after Kristi got off the bus at 3:30, and we'd be at my mom's by 5. Well, Kristi beat Scott home, and we didn't end up leaving the house til about 4:20. We were at my mom's about an hour later. We dropped the animals off at her house. She kept the 2 cats all week and took the dog to the kennel the next morning. She had ordered pizza and had it there waiting for us so we wouldn't have to waste time stopping for supper. By 6:45 we were headed for Chicago. We spent the night at the Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows. I booked the room through StayParkFly.com. For $89 we got a room for the night, free parking while we're on vacation, and a free shuttle to and from the airport. It was cheaper than parking for a week at O'Hare, so we decided to give it a try. The hotel was kind of run down, but it suited our needs. We had a 7:30 flight in the morning, and the first shuttle was set to leave the hotel at 5:30am. We notified the front desk when we checked in that we need to be on the first shuttle in the morning, and they instructed us to be in the lobby at 5:15 am. Well, it beats leaving home at 3:30!
Wed. April 6
We jumped out of bed as soon as the alarm went off at 4am. The adrenaline was already pumping! We're going to Disney World today! We had ordered a wake up call, but it never came. Thank goodness we weren't relying on it! We were out the door at 5am and went to the lobby to wait. We all had that "not enough sleep/empty stomach" feeling, so we munched on some animal crackers from the vending machine. The shuttle to the airport was full, 6 other people besides us. We were the last ones to get off the shuttle at O'Hare. It was great to be dropped off right at the ticketing counter and not have to drag luggage all over the airport, especially at that hour! (I work 3-11pm, so I am NOT used to this morning stuff!) The line at the Spirit counter was long, but it moved very quickly. After we checked our luggage, we got breakfast form McDonald's and ate it at the gate. Then we took a quick potty break, and it was time to board. (BTW, the restrooms at O'Hare are the cleanest I've seen anywhere. An attendant was mopping constantly, and the seats had automatic potty seat covers! I had never seen these before!) Kristi was scared to death before we took off, but once we were in the air she was fine. We arrived in Orlando ahead of schedule, and had to sit on the taxi way and wait for a couple other planes to move before we could get to our gate. Of course we were dying to go to the bathroom. Luckily we were sitting near the front of the plane, so when we finally got off, we got to go to tthe bathroom with no line. When we came out, everyone else from our flight was in line to go. The restroom here wasn't nearly as nice as the one at O'Hare. It was much smaller, not very clean, and there was no attendant. We eventually found our luggage and hauled it way down to the Alamo counter. (When we passed the L&M counter, I was wishing I'd taken the UOG's advice and rented from them instead! They're much closer to baggage claim!) This was our first experience renting a car at an airport, and we both thought the girl at the counter was rather rude. Scott's ears were still plugged from the flight. He kept telling her he couldn't hear her, and she would repeat the same thing, but not raise her voice or lean closer at all. Then we had to drag our luggage across the street into the parking garage to pick out our car. (Next time I'm spending the $3 for a luggage cart!) We picked a bluish gray Chevy Cobalt. We planned on stopping at a Super Walmart on the way to Pop Century, but we never did see one. We did see a Super Target, but we weren't sure how to get to it. The next thing we knew we were going under the Welcome to Disney World sign! We decided to go ahead and find our hotel and eat lunch before going shopping. So, we're trying to follow the signs, but they're all over and it's hard to read them all at once and figure out which lane you're supposed to be in, and next thing we know, we're puling into the parking lot for Epcot! (OOPS!) We tell the CM our problem and he directs us to go forward, do a u-turn at the next left, and follow the MGM signs. He says, "If you can't find it, just stop and ask at Carribean Beach." Sure, if I can't find Pop, what makes him think I can find CB? Well, finally we found Pop. We got checked in right away with no line. The CM gave my girls yellow smiley face squeeze coin purses. I don't know if they always do this, but I hadn't heard of it before. We ate at Everything Pop. I had the individual cheese pizza. I was only able to eat 3/4 of it. I wasn't great, but I'm not picky when it comes to pizza, so it was fine by me. Better than my usual Lean Cuisine microwave pizzas anyway. Kristi had the kids penne pasta with meatball. She ate all the pasta and said it was good. She ate part of the meatball, but thought it was too spicy. She didn't like the bread stick. Emily had the kids macaroni and cheese. She didn't care for it. It was too cheesy for her. The rest of us tasted it and thought it was pretty good. She ended up eating a couple bites of my pizza and both her and Kristi's breadsticks. She's a total carb addict. Basically, if you call it bread, she'll eat it. You know how Homer Simpson says, "Mmmmm, beeeerrr"? Well Emily imitates him all the time only she says "Mmmmm, breeeaaad." We got our luggage hauled up to our room, and then we headed for Epcot. (On purpose this time!) My plan was to do the World Showcase today, but the bus dropped us off at Future world and as we were walking toward Mexico, we noticed that Sapceship Earth was a walk-on, so we hopped on! Kristi was scared of course, but when it was over she wanted to do it again. Our vehicle stopped twice during the ride, once in Rome for quite a while, and once briefly right near the end when you're going down backwards. It was a little annoying, but not too big of a deal. We finally make it to Mexico. We rode El Tempo Del Rio. We all liked that one, but I kept thinking how easy it would be for an active toddler to jump right out of the boat. Maybe it was just because we were in the front row. After the ride, we found the Kidcot Funstop and the girls started making their masks. Working our way around, we found Maelstrom. The standby line was 15 min, so we got in line. Emily really needed a drink, so we decided to get out of line (we were still outside), get FP, and come back after getting a drink. The return time was 5:15. We came back at 5:10 and the FP return lane was roped off. I went to say something to the CM, but she handed us the card they use to gauge wait times and I thought that was cool, so we went ahead and waited in the standby line. It was only about 5-7 min. Kristi did NOT like this ride. I told her there wouldn't be a drop, so of course she freaked when she saw it. (I really didnt know there would be one!) She kept her eyes closed the whole rest of the ride. We did a couple more Kidcot stations. The line for the one in Italy was really long, so we decided to skip it for now. We noticed that The American Adventure was just about to start, so we ran in there. Kristi loved this. She's quite the history buff. (Scott was a history major, so I guess it's in her blood. She also loves science, especially space, so I thought Epcot would be right up her alley.) Emily napped during the show. After this, we decided to go to Ponderosa for dinner. Now I'm wishing we had driven to Epcot. We had to wait for the bus, go back to the room for the car keys, and drive around for an hour looking for Ponderosa. (I think it moved since we passed it on our way in a few hours ago! Or maybe they changed the name of the road?) Luckily, when we finally found it, we had a wonderful meal, the best baked potato I've ever eaten, and we had a very nice server who gave us directions to Walmart and Target. We think we have this navigation thing under control now. We drove to the Super Target, no problem. We didn't realize they were closing at 10pm (we got there at 9:30), so when they make the 15 min. announcement, we had to hurry and forgot some things, but nothing critical. We found our way back fine, we were very careful NOT to take the Epcot exit. We're both sure we passed the exit and a couple more after that, but there it was, the big EPCOT sign, and we're driving right into the parking lot again! At least they're closed now and we already know how to get from HERE to Pop. We decided for the rest of the week, everytime we leave the World we're going to end up back here and we'll just tell the guard, "I'm sorry, but this is the only route we know to our resort!" We finally make it back to the room. I took our mugs (all 4 purchased brand new today if you're wondering!) to Everything Pop for hot cocoa, and everyone went to sleep while I stayed up to write this ridiculously long trip report.
Tomorrow-MK and CRT breakfast!
I am looking forward to the rest of your reports. I hope that you talk about Pop Century as we will be staying there in July.
