An amazing 9 days spent at WDW...with pics! UPDATED 3/5

[Tbelle1976]

Hi everyone.

This is my first attempt at a trip report, although I have read and subscribed to many! Hopefully I will be able to keep everyone's attention and get some subscribers.

About us:
Myself - Tracey, 32yo
DH - Derek, 34yo
DD - Caili, 10yo
DS - Tommy, 7yo

I will also be talking about some other family members, as the reason we all went down was for baton competitions for DD.

We traveled from Ohio, and after searching for a good price for airfare and not finding one we decided to drive. We have done it many times before, and the kids are a little older so we didn't think it would be a big deal. It also saved us alot of money to spend while in WDW. Normally we drive straight through without stopping, but we decided to stop in Columbia, S.C. for the night on the way down.

I did alot of planning for this vacation, mainly because we would be so busy a couple days with baton parades, competitions and awards ceremony, and also because the rest of the family would be there with us in the parks for 4 days.

Originally we booked Pop Century for 7 nights. We had stayed at All Star in the past and didn't care for the buses to much, plus I wanted to see Pop. A few weeks before we would leave I got an email from Disney for $49/nt at select value resorts, so we decided to book an extra night. We had to do that one night at All-Star Sports because Pop had nothing left for that promo.

We left home about 6 a.m. on Tuesday 2/10, ate out for breakfast and got on the road by 7 a.m. (that was our plan) As I said earlier we stopped in Columbia, S.C. for the night which turned out to be a disaster! I booked our hotel based on the fact that the kids wanted to swim, and I needed to work out. Going on that I booked a hotel with an indoor pool and a fitness center. Well, the pool was down because of a pump being broke, and the fitness center was not available because they were using it as a storage room for the time being. If that was not bad enough, we made it to the hotel by 7 p.m., so had we known all this we could have had an extra 2-3 hours of driving...oh well.

We were back on the road early in the morning on our way to FL. DH mother lives about 45 min from WDW, so were staying there the first night then heading over to check into All Star on Thursday morning. We arrived at DMIL sometime in the afternoon and pretty much just rested for the rest of the day.

I was so excited I could hardly sleep because I knew I would be going to WDW the next day (or maybe it was the extremly uncomfortable air matress she purchased for us to sleep on that night!)

Please stay tuned for our first day in WDW with pics (if I can figure out how to post my pics on here...can anyone help?)

 

[Cindeegyrl]

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

 

[Tbelle1976]

Sorry, I have not posted anything in the last couple days.

We actually just returned home Monday afternoon and I have been busy unpacking, getting the kids back to school and DH and I returning to work.

Coming back to Ohio to snow has gotten us a little congested and not feeling so good as well.

We also have over 200 pictures on our Photo Pass which I have tried to work on here and there to edit, whew...that takes a long time!

Anyway, I will post our first day spent in WDW tomorrow, Downtown Disney with dinner at T-Rex Cafe!

 

[dizluvah]

looking forward to hearing about your trip

 

[Tbelle1976]

On Thursday 2/12 we left DMIL and headed over to Disney to check into All-Star Sports. I chose Sports because I knew that DS would like the themeing there, but as we arrived it really didn't matter what the theme was...we were all excited!

We pulled in and went to check in for the night. As we came out I didn't even want to bother with taking things to the room, I wanted to get on Disney transportation and get over to DD!

DH, DS and DD were so happy to be here, and just the beginning of mom's picture taking frenzy!

I had decided a few months ago that since we would be here 9 days total, we would spend the first day in Downtown Disney because 8 days in the parks should be enough

I told the kids about Goofy's Candy Kitchen while on the bus and they got pretty excited about that. We finally arrived at:

We headed straight over to Goofy's Candy Kitchen. DD chose the pretzels, DS chose the marshmallows and DH and I shared the rice krispie treat. I could not believe the size of these! I had seen many pics here on the boards, but I was still surprised. I thought this place was probably the one of the best deals we found (I mean my fellow Disers had found for me).

It really took no time at all to get our treats then we were off to find some lunch. I made plans early on for us to grab lunch at Earl of Sandwich, but once the kids found out there was a McDonald's there that soon changed. I explained to DD that they should try something new, and she responded with "we are, it's Mickey D's in Disney...that's very new to us". I could not argue with that! But...I also cannot eat that food, so DH and I stuck with EOS.
It was a little busy when we got there so I told DH I would order if he wanted to take the kids to find a table for us. He chose The Full Montagu sandwich, and I got the Ckn Caesar Salad with Tomato Soup. DH said his sandwich was pretty good. My salad was just that...a caesar salad, nothing special. The soup was very good though and DD finished it off for me.
It was not time to head over to McDonald's. The kids both got a happy meal. As we sat down I believe they inhaled it , I didn't realize they were that hungry.
Ok, lunch was out of the way and now it was time to shop! While we were here we decided to celebrate DD birthday even though it's not till the 28th. I thought it would be something specials for her since both grandma's and her aunt would be spending some time in WDW with us. We wanted to get some sort of thank-you gift for everyone for coming to the dinner with us. I found some great little gift boxes at a local store that I thought would work great, and DH had the idea to purchase a pin for everyone to put in the boxes. So we now headed over to Pin Traders to pick out pins for everyone.
We took pretty much the rest of the day to just walk around Marketplace & West Side until the rest of the family arrived for our dinner at T-Rex Cafe!

I let each of the kids pick a restaurant to eat in and DS chose this one. Originally we were going to ask for the ice cave room, but after actually eating there I'm a little glad we did not. It's a beautiful room, I'm just not sure I could sit for so long in it.

We ordered an appetizer to split between everyone then ordered our drinks. Everyone but myself and my mom ordered tea or soda. Mom ordered some sort of non-alcoholic smoothie and I got a frozen mojito. I will also start a dining review where I will post everything with pics that we ate, but this frozen mojito was amazing and the best drink I had during the whole 9 days!
We then ordered our meals and enjoyed the restaurant while eating. I think we were there to see 2 of the meteor showers, so I would say they might happen about every 30 minutes or so. During that time, all the dinosaurs come alive and it gets pretty loud. Overall we all enjoyed our meals here.

We chose not to get dessert because we knew we were going to get something from Ghirardelli. We let about an hour pass before we decided to head over for dessert. At this point we had 9 of us together (myself, DH, DD, DS, my mom & her husband, my sister w/her husband and my 2yo nephew), but we also had other family down there so we called them to meet over at Ghirardelli. My cousin, her husband & two kids and my aunt then joined us! While we ate our desserts the kids all had a blast running around and having a great time. It was not busy at all in DD this evening so it's nice that we were able to let the kids do this.

Everyone enjoying the relaxing Disney atmosphere before our crazy park days would approach!

After dessert we split up once again and did a little more shopping, then decided it was time to head back to All-Star to unpack our things and get ready for bed. One our way out DS found the dancing water spouts so we let him run through them for a little bit, and he got absoutely soaked!

Since we came from Ohio, it was bizarre for DS to be doing this in mid-February!

We grabbed our bus back to All-Star, got in the car and drove over to our room to unpack. As we entered our room this was waiting for us:

By this time it was about 11 p.m. and I don't remember much about even getting in bed. The kids were fast asleep, and after nudging DH to stop snoring already I'm sure I was off to my sleeping magical place very soon after!


Up next:
A 5:30 a.m. Mickey wake up call, and our first day in the parks with lunch at Coral Reef!

 

[Tbelle1976]

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

looking forward to hearing about your trip

Thanks...I'm glad you both have decided to read my report! We had such a great time and I hope that comes out in my review!

 

[mousetravel]

I'm subscribing to your trip report. Can't wait for more !

 

[Tbelle1976]

I'm subscribing to your trip report. Can't wait for more !

Thanks so much, and to anyone else who has read so far!

Just to let everyone know, we chose not to do the dining plan this year. With all the planning I did I should have done the math to know that it really would have worked out for us this time, but oh well...there's always next year!

It's so great for me to begin this report because I'm able to relive all this magic again!

 

[Cory's Gal]

Great report so far! Those desserts from Goofy's look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! We will definately be visiting and creating our own treats there next time! I love the pic of the kids with your DH on the bus, they just look really happy and excited to be at Disney!! Can't wait to read more and hear about the baton competition too!!

 

[jojo0612]

Hi, can't jumped on board! Can't wait to read the next installment from a fellow buckeye!

 

[Tbelle1976]

Great report so far! Those desserts from Goofy's look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! We will definately be visiting and creating our own treats there next time! I love the pic of the kids with your DH on the bus, they just look really happy and excited to be at Disney!! Can't wait to read more and hear about the baton competition too!!

Thanks! The desserts were great, and HUGE! It took us our entire trip to eat them all.

Hi, can't jumped on board! Can't wait to read the next installment from a fellow buckeye!

Howdy fellow Buckeye! So glad you jumped on.

I am enjoying the TR. I can't wait to go on our family trip in May. I have not been to Goofy's yet but I plan on it.

Definitely get to Goofy's, it's very worth it. It's great to let the kids pick out any topping they want. Here's a tip, if you child is not able to decide on toppings the pretzels are great. DD got to pick 3 different toppings for them, and enjoyed each one. Oh, I've heard on here before that they had a peanut butter cup topping, well not any longer.

 

[Tbelle1976]

This was our first morning waking up in WDW. We had only stayed at ASSports 1 night, so we all got up, ready and packed our small bag for that one night back into the car. Since I was up earlier than everyone else (5:30 a.m. EVERY morning!), I went down to the food court to grab some breakfast for everyone. Breakfast just turned out to be 2 choc chip muffins and choc milk for the kids (very healthy, huh?) and 2 coffees for DH and myself.

I had planned early on to spend the day in Epcot because they had evening EMH. Although yesterday I told DH that I just could not stand not seeing the castle on our first day in the parks, so it's off to MK we go.

We got to MK for rope drop. DD really wanted to see Pixie Hollow and I knew that it would be best to head back there first because it's gets really busy throughout the day. As we entered the park and walked down Main St. I took my first picture of the castle and found a photographer to start our Photo Pass. He snapped a few shots of us and we were off to Toontown.

Well, almost. I didn't realize that it did not open till 10:00 (the park opened at 9:00). I gave DD the option of coming back at 10:00 when it opened knowing that there would be a million people waiting or to just wait it out for about 45 minutes...she chose to wait. At that time we were the only ones there waiting. DH stayed with her while DS and I went over to Fantasyland. Lines were very short and we got on Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan & Small World before heading back to DD & DH and still haveing about 15 minutes left. By this time there were so many people there that we just about had to push our way up front where they were. A cast member kept everyone entertained for the next little while until they dropped the Toontown rope about 5 minutes earlier than scheduled. One big mass of people headed straight for Pixie Hollow.

A couple crazy stories...
#1. As they dropped the rope there was a guy who must have been somewhere behind us while waiting. I didn't see him while waiting so I'm assuming he was pretty far behind. As we were walking I look to my left and this guy comes flying up next to us pushing a double stroller. There was a family in front of us also with 2 little girls walking. Well, this guy comes barreling up and literally runs over one of the little girls in front of us!!! She fell to the ground and he kept going...I was shocked!
#2. As the whole group of people got to the entrance of Pixie Hollow I looked over to my right and there was Mickey Mouse standing there waving to everyone. It then occured to me, Mickey has now taken 2nd place to Pixie Hollow? How can that be? Everyone that was waiting headed right into Pixie Hollow, and not one person (that I could see anyway) went to meet Mickey.

Here are a few pictures from inside Pixie Hollow:

A couple of those don't really do justice to how nice it is inside while waiting to see the fairies. Since we got there early we waiting maybe 10 minutes. I think the reason for the long waits throughout the day is because they do take a reasonable amount of time to talk to each person.

Well, that would be the first few hours of out day so far. I will post the entire rest of our 2nd day by the end of today. I worked a double shift at work yesterday, and need to get some housework done before heading back to work tonight...

 

[Tbelle1976]

Day 2 cont...

After we were done in Pixie Hollow we headed back over to Small World because DD really wanted to ride it. For some unknown reason everytime I ride this I take TONS of pics! I guess this would be one of my fav rides, and it's just so great inside that I get picture happy. Here are a few:

That was pretty much it for MK for the day. Like I said, I had planned for us to spend the day in Epcot and just wanted to come over to see the castle. Turns out we were able to see alot more than that.

Oh, the kids also got to see Pinocchio as we were leaving:

We were excited to get over to Epcot because we had a lunch ADR at Coral Reef. Now I have heard mixed reviews about Coral Reef, but DH really wanted to eat here and when I looked at the menu I figured I would enjoy it was well.

As we got on the monorail I asked the CM if there might be any seats available in the front and turns out there was room for 2 people, so DS and I sat up there. He really enjoyed it:

When we walked into Epcot I of course had to use our Photo Pass again to some pics in front of Spaceship Earth. I figured that since I was paying for this I would get as many pictures as I could and really get my monies worth.

I had to sneak in this picture of DS taking a pic of Spaceship Earth. We bought him his own dig. camera before we left and he got just as picture happy as mommy, lol.

We walked around a bit just to kill some time before our lunch at:

Would we have a great dining experience here? Stay tuned to find out...

 

[cassmat]

Hollow existed, and we were in Disney for 10 days..next trip...

 

[Tbelle1976]

Day 2 cont...

It was now time for lunch at Coral Reef. Even though I had heard many mixed reviews, I was really looking forward to this lunch.

Our ADR was at 12:30 and we checked in about 20 minutes early. We were given a pager and waited about 10-15 minutes before our table was ready. I do have to say that I was a little surprised at the layout of the restaurant. I don't really know what I was expecting though. It's hard to explain, but if I had to I would say it was sort of like stadium seating. We were sat on the top along the back wall, and DH says it was like having the "cheap seats". It was pretty dark throughout and was a little hard to see the aquarium from our table.

Here are a couple pictures from our table:

Our server came along and we ordered our drinks. They arrived along with some bread. At that time we were ready to order. DH and I ordered the lobster salad with lobster soup, DS was looking forward to eating fish and got the kids mahi, and DD got the kids pasta. I will post more detail about our meals with pics in my dining review, but overall we thought this restaurant was just ok. Meal portions were VERY small for the price, although it was good. I'd like to try it again in the future, but will try many more different places we have not eaten before we will return here.

Before we went over for lunch we stopped by Mission Space to pick up a Fast Pass. The kids were really looking forward to riding this, so we headed over there. By the time we got over there the stand-by line was only about 20 minutes so we chose not to use our FP and just do stand-by so that I had the FP for our scrapbook. I think I have gotten much older in just the last year since I have rode this last...but goodness, one time on this ride is certainly enough for me!

After Mission Space we walked around a little more and then found the character meeting place. We only stood in line about 15 minutes to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald. By this time DD was really getting addicted to meeting characters and getting autographs. I think DS could really care less, he was all about the rides and anything Star Wars!!!

Here's where the day gets really crazy. We had planned to meet my mom, her husband, my sister and her husband and my 2 yo nephew over in Ft. Wilderness. I knew that there used to be a petting zoo of sorts over there and we thought that DN (dear nephew) would enjoy it since they would not be in the parks on this day. They called to say that they would be arriving in Ft. Wilderness in the next 30 minutes or so, so we decided to head over. I really wanted to stay in Epcot though because there were really not alot of people in the park on this day and I wanted to take advantage of that.

Sooo, we catch the bus over to Ft. Wilderness. With waiting for a bus and all this little bus trip seemed like it took forever...probably about 40 minutes or so. As we are pulling into the campgrounds sis calls to say they they in fact no longer have a petting zoo and was told that they moved it over to AK. Oh, how nice...we just left a pretty much deserted park against my better judgement to catch an almost 1 hour bus ride all for nothing! They were now leaving and going to do whatever. We decided to take the bus over by the Trails End restaurant, get off there and catch the boat over to MK.

Here is a pic that DS took of DH and I

When we left this morning we just headed right over to MK, so we had not yet checked into Pop Century for our 7 night stay so I thought since our day had just gotten broke up already, we should go do that. Well that involved taking the bus back to ASSports, hopping in the card to drive over to Pop. We checked in, got our room # and $200 gift card and went to find our room and unpack the car once again.

What to do now? Our day was pretty much just about over and we were getting hungry again. After loosing what was actually about 5 hours with all the running around (how does time fly by so fast in WDW?), I was not in a really good mood. We decided to go back over to Epcot and eat CS in Mexico. Another place that gets mixed reviews but DH and I love the food and we eat here every year...and yes, we look forward to it! So we got to Epcot, made a bee line for Mexico to hurry up and order or combo platter because Illuminations would be starting in about 15 minutes. I'll be darned, I actually found an open table, though not within view of Illuminations. No big deal, we would plan to see it Tuesday. The kids each got a kids meal and we all shared some nachos as well.

Next we came upon Norway and I already knew what I would be eating for breakfast tomorrow morning...

School Bread!!!

It was evening EMH this night, and very chilly so it seemed like there was hardly anyone there. We headed over to Japan for DD to open an oyster for a pearl, and she ended up getting twins! Wow, who knew? Twin pearls!

We figured we would finish around WS then head "home" for the night. As we made our way closer to France I could literally hear something calling my name...oh, well what do you know, it was chocolate mousse from the bakery!

I then stopped to grab a Grand Marnier slushie as we headed up to the front of the park to head back "home" for the night.

We got back to Pop and I went straight to the food court to grab our refillable mugs and fill mine with coffee. I'm a caffeine junkie and will drink coffee all day long!

In no time at all everyone was off to a sleepy magical little world, and in about 6 hours my alarm would be going off!

 

[Tbelle1976]

Hollow existed, and we were in Disney for 10 days..next trip...

Oh no! So sorry you missed it. I read so much on the boards about how long the wait gets so that's why we did it first thing in the morning.

 

[heaven2dc]

I can't believe that man running over that little girl I loved the pics of Sleepy Hollow esp of your daughter hugging Tink How cute!!

Epcot is one of my fav parks (HS now is running neck and neck) and I would have hated leaving it with such a low crowd level too. We ate at Coral Reef this past December and got the personalized menu/diver. We loved sitting right next to the aquarium but I agree that if you aren't sitting up close, it's hard to see anything in there - it's so dark.

 

[Tbelle1976]

I can't believe that man running over that little girl I loved the pics of Sleepy Hollow esp of your daughter hugging Tink How cute!!

Epcot is one of my fav parks (HS now is running neck and neck) and I would have hated leaving it with such a low crowd level too. We ate at Coral Reef this past December and got the personalized menu/diver. We loved sitting right next to the aquarium but I agree that if you aren't sitting up close, it's hard to see anything in there - it's so dark.

Yes, we were pretty surprised by that too, DH just looked at me and shook his head. Of course he had a few choice words to say under his breath as I helped the mom to make sure the little girl was ok.

Epcot is most definitely my favorite park because of WS! Although every trip we have to make MK our first park day just to see the castle. It's not a great start without seeing the castle first.

I wish we could have done the personalized menu/diver at Coral Reef, that would have been great for DD birthday. Just DH and I will be going back to WDW in October with the DxDDP and I asked him if he wanted to try Coral Reef again and his response was "no". Maybe sometime in the future but not so soon again.

More to come soon...I promise!!!

 

[Tbelle1976]

Day 3 - (Valentine's Day) Magic Kingdom, DD parade & competition

Sorry it's been awhile since I have posted to my trip report. Since we got home DH and I have went back to work and we are also moving soon so we have been busy with that and the kids school, DD baton practices & DS baseball and football. Now you know why DH and I will be returning w/o the kids in October!

Well, again this day I have my Mickey wake up call for 5:30a.m. I really am a morning person so it doesn't bother me to get up early like this. With everything that goes on during the rest of the day at home, my mornings are the only time I get to myself! After showering, filling my coffee mug and looking around the gift shop at Pop I went back to the room to get everyone awake and ready.

We were spending the day at MK and boy was it going to be a busy day! I had to get everything for DD packed in one bag because she was not allowed to wear her uniform or carry her baton around the park. We got to MK at rope drop and rented a locker to put everything in. We had a lunch ADR at Crystal Palace and then DD had to march in the parade after lunch. We were also meeting the rest of the family this morning so that they could see DD in the parade. When we walked into the park we immediately saw Chip & Dale and went over to get a pic and autograph.

DD then spotten Snow White so that's where we went next:

By this time DD was really getting into the pictures and autographs and wanted to meet as many characters as possible. DS not so much. He could really care one way or another and I believe this pic with Snow White was the only one with a princess that he would take for the rest of our vacation.

At this point my mom called to say that they had finally arrived at the park (and would also stay on property from now on! ) We knew that we had a couple hours to kill before lunch and since it had been almost 9 years since my mom, sister and her husband had been to WDW I told them that we could just take it easy for that little bit of time and go where they wanted. We headed back to Liberty Square...I was just following at this point, lol

As we came upon HM we noticed it only had a 10 minute wait. What the heck, lets get on. We parked DN (nephew) stroller and got in line. We pretty much just walked right on and everyone loved it. The kids especially enjoyed the end when it looks like there is a ghost riding in the "doom buggy" with you. Here's a pic, it might be a little hard to see

That's DD on the right with DH being on the other side of the ghost but you can't see him.

As we walked into Frontierland DD spotted someone familiar:

DS did like taking this photo because as they got in line the CM commented that he was the first person wearing a Donald shirt for the day who had actually met Donald...I'm sure he didn't turn out to be the only one though. For being his first trip and just turning 2 in Dec DN was not scared by the characters. He didn't necessarily enjoy them, but at least he wasen't screaming.

By this time we decided that it would be a good idea to start heading back up front for lunch at CP. I was especially looking forward to this lunch because I got to be the one to take DN to his first character meal! Sounds crazy, but that really meant alot to me. Mom and sis refer to me as Aunt Disney around him anyway, lol

As we got to the check-in for CP it was about 11:20 (our ADR was at 11:45), and they told us that lunch did not start until 11:30 so that it would be a little while. We received a pager and found a bench to sit. I decided it was a great place to start taking some pics of the castle.

No sooner would I take a few and I realized that my camera batte was VERY low. OH NO! I still had the rest of the day with DD parade and competition not counting everything else to get photo happy with!
---Side Story, remember I said that our first night we stayed at All-Star? Well, as we unpacked everything when we checked into Pop I realized that I left my battery charged plugged in the wall over at AS. I immediately went to the front desk at Pop to see if they could call over there to make sure that someone had found it. Nope, it was not found by the mousekeeper!

I figured that I probably had enough time to run down to the camera shop and buy a new battery. I would pay a days worth salary for it, but what else could I do? I have a Kodak Z series camera, they were sure to have a batter for my camera...NOT! Every other Kodak model but mine. UGH! The CM got a 4 pack of AA batteries for me that are made specifically for digital cameras and assured me those would last me for a couple days until we could drive to Wal Mart for a new battery & charger. OK, I'll take them. $20 for 4 AA batteries, and I was running back down to CP. Just as I arrived our pager went off and we entered the restaurant:

Don't you just love it in here? It really is beautiful. So open and bright. Since lunch had just started we were one of the first tables sat and our waiter immediately greeted us. When I made our ADR I had them make a note about DD birthday and they had the table nicely decorated for this. He took our drink orders, told us we could make our way to the buffet and was off to get our drinks. Within just a couple minutes Piglet came to our table to greet us, then followed at a very nice pace by the rest of the cast:

We all enjoyed our lunch here, especially DH. He just loved the selections that were offered on the buffet and said that we would definitely be back next year (we have eaten here many time in the past and have always enjoyed it as well). As I was taking pictures in here my camera crapped out on me again...low battery! You have to be kidding me! Turns out that my camera was just too much for the $20 AA batteries and everytime I would load it with 2 batteries they would last about 2 minutes, seriously! Ok, now I have to figure out how to make my camera last the rest of the day. Anywhoo, as I stated lunch was very yummy and the kids all had a great time!

It was now time for the chaos! While we were eating I gave mom the key to our locker so that she could get DD baton bag out and have it ready for us after lunch. I felt like we were now getting ready for a race...

Would we make it in time for the parade, running over to WWOS for competition and then back to MK for the second parade? More to come...