moretigger
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2005
- Messages
- 62
I have been lurking on the boards forever. I was going through old email and saw that I still had the mini-trip report I sent to my TA when I got back. I figured it was only fair to share since I have been reading so many others.
This was a sort-of spur of the moment trip. I had volunteered to be a chaperone on a cheerleading trip, but ended up not being needed. As I had already done so much research, a month later, I decided to go anyway.
We arrived Friday 4/1/05 and left 4/6/05.
On the trip - DH, me and DS - had just turned two. DH had been as a child, I had never been, and DS is obsessed with the Disneyland Fun VHS tape.
Port Orleans French Quarter was wonderful for us - small and quiet. After
seeing a few of the other resorts, we were very glad that we were in a
smaller place. Our room was in building 2 on the ground floor right across
from the pool entrance - so convenient. We loved the pool and it never
seemed crowded.
We went to Downtown Disney the first night (Friday) - it was actually a
nightmare it was so crowded! We dug in, put our name in at Captain Jacks
(for the 3 hour wait) and walked around. By 9, we were seated and things
had slowed down. We really enjoyed dinner there, mostly because our waitress was great and there was beer and DS slept in his stroller.
We got up on Sat to a light drizzle, and were at MK by 8. Chip and Dale
were signing autographs, so I took my son (2) over to see them - I assumed
he would be afraid or at least hesitant. He started yelling their names and
almost flipped the stroller trying to get out! We ended up spending a great
deal of time visiting with characters - he loved them. He actually had a
tantrum later when I would not take him to see a character that he didn't
even know - some critter that I couldn't even tell you what it was! We
walked around Main Street and Fantasyland and Toontown most of the time - we rode the train about 5 times that day. We stayed till lunch, ate at
Columbia Harbor House then went back to the hotel and napped. We went back to MK, then went to Kona for dinner. Our server was very nice - but super slow (1/2 hour to bring the check) - we enjoyed the food.
We tried to watch the fireworks from the beach but DS hated
the fireworks so we got on the monorail - when we got back to MK (to catch the bus), he said "more more mimi, more more tigger" - so we went in for the spectromagic parade - which he was terrified of! We had a fun time waiting for the parade though as a man and his older (8 and 10?) sons made some room for us and we chatted and the boys played with DS. Left quickly once the parade drama got going and hopped a bus to POFQ.
Sunday we went back to the MK - did Tom Sawyer Island, the Riverboat, the
Tiki Room, and more characters, then instead of going back for naps, I
suggested that we go to Epcot and walk around. Someone should have said
"no, bad idea" as we were delirious by dinner - too much sun! The street
characters and performances were enjoyable - I loved the woman who makes
candy animals in Japan. We had moved our PS so we would not be at Rose and Crown for the fireworks, since DS was so afraid the night before. After dinner (which we loved - service and food), we went back to MK. If it was a
grown-up trip, I would have spent more time in and enjoyed Epcot more...my
son's favorite part was the coca-cola display - he was covered in the
watermelon coke from China!
Monday we went to AK - it was a fun day. I am glad we spent the whole day there. We finally used fastpass (not needed for the train at MK which is
what we rode the most!) and rode the safari twice. The parade was awesome and we also went to the Flights of Wonder show - otherwise we wandered around and took it all in. We love zoos - I don't care what Disney says, it is a zoo! We went to dinner at Boma - the food was good, but it was super crowded and DS was cranky - which made everyone cranky. That was the first time that there was a problem with PS - I waited in a long time to check in and we sat for over 1/2 hour while the seated people from the line who were walk-ins. I eventually went up and asked and was told that I had been passed over, but was seated soon after. No big deal.
After dinner we went to MK and saw more characters (we saw pooh and tigger 5 times in 3 days!) and rode Fantasyland rides while everyone else was watching the parade. We went on small world and the pooh ride to escape the fireworks. It was a wonderful evening and we all seemed to get our groove back once we were in MK.
On our last day, we had a character breakfast at O'hana - amusingly enough,
it was a near fiasco! DS was so used to walking up to see characters and
waiting in (very short) lines that he could see them in, he could not understand why Goofy was over there and I was trying to get him in the highchair - he wanted to walk over and see him! I had assumed that it would take him till the last day to get used to characters - I didn't realize he would be a character junkie!
The amount of information I had and planning that I had done was
really imperative to the success of the trip. Between what the TA gave me, and reading a part of AllEars each night, I had a sense of what was
where, what I wanted to do. I think it saved me a lot of wandering around.
I thought that the meal plan was very convenient, but I think that you have
to like the sit down meals and do your homework. Our dinners at Kona and
Captain Jacks were about $100, so that alone was a great savings. Getting
the deserts at lunch was overkill, but at Pinocchio's, it was Mickey rice
krispie treats which we saved for later, so that was nice. I mostly liked
having everything on one card. The only thing I used cash for was getting
DS's haircut (which was a really cute experience).
Obviously, we had a very toddler focused trip - we did not ride anything
wilder than Dumbo, and spent little time outside of toontown and
fantasyland, but our days were packed. It was not as crowded as I thought it would be, but I saw all kinds of lines for BTMR, etc. I do have to say that the urge to keep going is incredible - DH and I were calling it Disney crack effect
Next trip report Feb 2006...
This was a sort-of spur of the moment trip. I had volunteered to be a chaperone on a cheerleading trip, but ended up not being needed. As I had already done so much research, a month later, I decided to go anyway.
We arrived Friday 4/1/05 and left 4/6/05.
On the trip - DH, me and DS - had just turned two. DH had been as a child, I had never been, and DS is obsessed with the Disneyland Fun VHS tape.
Port Orleans French Quarter was wonderful for us - small and quiet. After
seeing a few of the other resorts, we were very glad that we were in a
smaller place. Our room was in building 2 on the ground floor right across
from the pool entrance - so convenient. We loved the pool and it never
seemed crowded.
We went to Downtown Disney the first night (Friday) - it was actually a
nightmare it was so crowded! We dug in, put our name in at Captain Jacks
(for the 3 hour wait) and walked around. By 9, we were seated and things
had slowed down. We really enjoyed dinner there, mostly because our waitress was great and there was beer and DS slept in his stroller.
We got up on Sat to a light drizzle, and were at MK by 8. Chip and Dale
were signing autographs, so I took my son (2) over to see them - I assumed
he would be afraid or at least hesitant. He started yelling their names and
almost flipped the stroller trying to get out! We ended up spending a great
deal of time visiting with characters - he loved them. He actually had a
tantrum later when I would not take him to see a character that he didn't
even know - some critter that I couldn't even tell you what it was! We
walked around Main Street and Fantasyland and Toontown most of the time - we rode the train about 5 times that day. We stayed till lunch, ate at
Columbia Harbor House then went back to the hotel and napped. We went back to MK, then went to Kona for dinner. Our server was very nice - but super slow (1/2 hour to bring the check) - we enjoyed the food.
We tried to watch the fireworks from the beach but DS hated
the fireworks so we got on the monorail - when we got back to MK (to catch the bus), he said "more more mimi, more more tigger" - so we went in for the spectromagic parade - which he was terrified of! We had a fun time waiting for the parade though as a man and his older (8 and 10?) sons made some room for us and we chatted and the boys played with DS. Left quickly once the parade drama got going and hopped a bus to POFQ.
Sunday we went back to the MK - did Tom Sawyer Island, the Riverboat, the
Tiki Room, and more characters, then instead of going back for naps, I
suggested that we go to Epcot and walk around. Someone should have said
"no, bad idea" as we were delirious by dinner - too much sun! The street
characters and performances were enjoyable - I loved the woman who makes
candy animals in Japan. We had moved our PS so we would not be at Rose and Crown for the fireworks, since DS was so afraid the night before. After dinner (which we loved - service and food), we went back to MK. If it was a
grown-up trip, I would have spent more time in and enjoyed Epcot more...my
son's favorite part was the coca-cola display - he was covered in the
watermelon coke from China!
Monday we went to AK - it was a fun day. I am glad we spent the whole day there. We finally used fastpass (not needed for the train at MK which is
what we rode the most!) and rode the safari twice. The parade was awesome and we also went to the Flights of Wonder show - otherwise we wandered around and took it all in. We love zoos - I don't care what Disney says, it is a zoo! We went to dinner at Boma - the food was good, but it was super crowded and DS was cranky - which made everyone cranky. That was the first time that there was a problem with PS - I waited in a long time to check in and we sat for over 1/2 hour while the seated people from the line who were walk-ins. I eventually went up and asked and was told that I had been passed over, but was seated soon after. No big deal.
After dinner we went to MK and saw more characters (we saw pooh and tigger 5 times in 3 days!) and rode Fantasyland rides while everyone else was watching the parade. We went on small world and the pooh ride to escape the fireworks. It was a wonderful evening and we all seemed to get our groove back once we were in MK.
On our last day, we had a character breakfast at O'hana - amusingly enough,
it was a near fiasco! DS was so used to walking up to see characters and
waiting in (very short) lines that he could see them in, he could not understand why Goofy was over there and I was trying to get him in the highchair - he wanted to walk over and see him! I had assumed that it would take him till the last day to get used to characters - I didn't realize he would be a character junkie!
The amount of information I had and planning that I had done was
really imperative to the success of the trip. Between what the TA gave me, and reading a part of AllEars each night, I had a sense of what was
where, what I wanted to do. I think it saved me a lot of wandering around.
I thought that the meal plan was very convenient, but I think that you have
to like the sit down meals and do your homework. Our dinners at Kona and
Captain Jacks were about $100, so that alone was a great savings. Getting
the deserts at lunch was overkill, but at Pinocchio's, it was Mickey rice
krispie treats which we saved for later, so that was nice. I mostly liked
having everything on one card. The only thing I used cash for was getting
DS's haircut (which was a really cute experience).
Obviously, we had a very toddler focused trip - we did not ride anything
wilder than Dumbo, and spent little time outside of toontown and
fantasyland, but our days were packed. It was not as crowded as I thought it would be, but I saw all kinds of lines for BTMR, etc. I do have to say that the urge to keep going is incredible - DH and I were calling it Disney crack effect
Next trip report Feb 2006...
