JBurke
<font color=green>WL VET
- Joined
- Aug 21, 1999
- Messages
- 1,068
Burke Family Trip Report-Day 1-8/13/03
CAST:
Janice- age 35, mom and planner (that's me!)
Mike- age 32, husband and willing particpant
Kaitlyn- age 9, daughter
Kelly- age 6, daughter and birthday girl
Declan- age 2, son
Laura- age 50, my sister and helper!
Wilderness Lodge 8/13-8/20
Day 1-Hurray the day has finally come! We spent the night of 8/12 finishing our packing and watching the Cubs beat Houston (yippie-that's got to be a good sign). The alarm goes off at 3am (not that we could sleep anyway) we all get ready in our matching "Burke Family Vacation Disneyworld 2003" t-shirts ordered from Disney catalogue, and pick up our neighbor who is driving us to O'Hare in our minivan. We pick up my sister and we are off!!
No traffic so we got to the airport with no problems, checked in and got a quick bite at McDonalds. We had an uneventful flight and our son fell asleep on the plane (perfect!) We arrived at Orlando at 10:40, picked up our Alamo minivan and we were off to WDW!! It was sunny, hot and humid in Florida. Love that feeling of going through the gates of WDW!
We arrived at WL at 12:15pm and my sister went onto to her hotel, CSR. The feeling of walking through the doors at WL was overwhelming, both my husband and I had tears in our eyes. We love that lobby, the music, the smell, the everything! The kids watched tv while we checked in. We had the most un-friendliest CM, which was kind of a bummer when we were all excited about checking in. I asked about upgrading to Concierge and she acted like it was such a hassle for her to check. She quoted us a price of $80 a night, but I was looking for a price of $40-$60 a night like I had heard of on the boards. Oh well, we will stick to what we have. We bought our Hoop Dee Doo and E-night tickets, but our room wasnt ready yet.
We head off to Roaring Forks to get some lunch-hot dogs, Philly steak sandwiched, brownies and cupcakes. We fell in love with the cupcakes and had them daily (the brownies werent as good as I remembered). We then changed into our suits in the bathroom and hit the pool! The water felt great and so did the pina colodaes
Our bigest mistake was picking a seat by the baby pool, it was windy out and when the geyser blew it sprayed water all over our towels, clothes and stroller!! We called and our room was ready around 3pm. When they told us the room number I was a little upsept knowing it was in the south wing. I asked for the north wing in our room request. I was upset until I realized we had been given an upgrade from a standard view to a courtyard view!
We had room 5147 with a great view of the pool and Bay Lake.
A knock on our door was a gift basket I had ordered for the kids from Disney Florist. It had Donald and Daisy beanies, activity sets, cookies, candy, autograph books and pens. The kids were very excited! We then unpacked and changed into our matching Disney store dresses/shirts and took the boat over to MK with my sister. We then took the monoral to Grand Floridian for our 5:30 PS at 1900 Park Fare.
The dinner was nice and the kids were excited to meet Cindy, Prince and mice. The food was okay, I filled up and salad and prime rib and sampled every dessert. The kids barely ate, they were too excited about the characters. I had ordered a cupcake for Kelly's birthday. I thought the characters would sing, but it was only the waitress. She got a plastic placemat with the characters pictures and signatures on it to take home. My son really got into the whole autograph thing and got a kiss from Cinderella whcih left lipstick on his cheek. TOO CUTE!
We then took the monorail back to MK were it proceeded to POUR rain for 20 minutes. We hid in City Hall and then braved the rain drops and headed for Tiki Birds. Also did POC with no wait and walked the Swiss Family Tree House. It was time for the 9pm Spectromagic but all the good spots were taken. We stood behind a family that had a front row seat and were sitting down. Unfortunately when the parade started, they stood for the whole thing so we didnt have the best view. (Why get a front row seat and then stand??) We also had to deal with a lot of rude people trying to cut in front of our kids. Anyway, it was a beautiful parade.
We were all really tired, shot and sweaty so we skipped the fireworks and took the boat back to WL. We were able to watch the fireworks from the boat and then the boat dock which was cool. We hit the hay in anticpation of tomorrow at AK and breakfast with Donald.
Highlights-arriving at WL
courtyard room upgrade at WL
Lowlights-bad view at Spectro and rude people
unfriendly CM at WL check-in
CAST:
Janice- age 35, mom and planner (that's me!)
Mike- age 32, husband and willing particpant
Kaitlyn- age 9, daughter
Kelly- age 6, daughter and birthday girl
Declan- age 2, son
Laura- age 50, my sister and helper!
Wilderness Lodge 8/13-8/20
Day 1-Hurray the day has finally come! We spent the night of 8/12 finishing our packing and watching the Cubs beat Houston (yippie-that's got to be a good sign). The alarm goes off at 3am (not that we could sleep anyway) we all get ready in our matching "Burke Family Vacation Disneyworld 2003" t-shirts ordered from Disney catalogue, and pick up our neighbor who is driving us to O'Hare in our minivan. We pick up my sister and we are off!!
No traffic so we got to the airport with no problems, checked in and got a quick bite at McDonalds. We had an uneventful flight and our son fell asleep on the plane (perfect!) We arrived at Orlando at 10:40, picked up our Alamo minivan and we were off to WDW!! It was sunny, hot and humid in Florida. Love that feeling of going through the gates of WDW!
We arrived at WL at 12:15pm and my sister went onto to her hotel, CSR. The feeling of walking through the doors at WL was overwhelming, both my husband and I had tears in our eyes. We love that lobby, the music, the smell, the everything! The kids watched tv while we checked in. We had the most un-friendliest CM, which was kind of a bummer when we were all excited about checking in. I asked about upgrading to Concierge and she acted like it was such a hassle for her to check. She quoted us a price of $80 a night, but I was looking for a price of $40-$60 a night like I had heard of on the boards. Oh well, we will stick to what we have. We bought our Hoop Dee Doo and E-night tickets, but our room wasnt ready yet.
We head off to Roaring Forks to get some lunch-hot dogs, Philly steak sandwiched, brownies and cupcakes. We fell in love with the cupcakes and had them daily (the brownies werent as good as I remembered). We then changed into our suits in the bathroom and hit the pool! The water felt great and so did the pina colodaes
Our bigest mistake was picking a seat by the baby pool, it was windy out and when the geyser blew it sprayed water all over our towels, clothes and stroller!! We called and our room was ready around 3pm. When they told us the room number I was a little upsept knowing it was in the south wing. I asked for the north wing in our room request. I was upset until I realized we had been given an upgrade from a standard view to a courtyard view!
We had room 5147 with a great view of the pool and Bay Lake. A knock on our door was a gift basket I had ordered for the kids from Disney Florist. It had Donald and Daisy beanies, activity sets, cookies, candy, autograph books and pens. The kids were very excited! We then unpacked and changed into our matching Disney store dresses/shirts and took the boat over to MK with my sister. We then took the monoral to Grand Floridian for our 5:30 PS at 1900 Park Fare.
The dinner was nice and the kids were excited to meet Cindy, Prince and mice. The food was okay, I filled up and salad and prime rib and sampled every dessert. The kids barely ate, they were too excited about the characters. I had ordered a cupcake for Kelly's birthday. I thought the characters would sing, but it was only the waitress. She got a plastic placemat with the characters pictures and signatures on it to take home. My son really got into the whole autograph thing and got a kiss from Cinderella whcih left lipstick on his cheek. TOO CUTE!
We then took the monorail back to MK were it proceeded to POUR rain for 20 minutes. We hid in City Hall and then braved the rain drops and headed for Tiki Birds. Also did POC with no wait and walked the Swiss Family Tree House. It was time for the 9pm Spectromagic but all the good spots were taken. We stood behind a family that had a front row seat and were sitting down. Unfortunately when the parade started, they stood for the whole thing so we didnt have the best view. (Why get a front row seat and then stand??) We also had to deal with a lot of rude people trying to cut in front of our kids. Anyway, it was a beautiful parade.
We were all really tired, shot and sweaty so we skipped the fireworks and took the boat back to WL. We were able to watch the fireworks from the boat and then the boat dock which was cool. We hit the hay in anticpation of tomorrow at AK and breakfast with Donald.
Highlights-arriving at WL
courtyard room upgrade at WL
Lowlights-bad view at Spectro and rude people
unfriendly CM at WL check-in
