iluveeyore
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2005
- Messages
- 2,470
Okay, I wasn't go to do a trippie, but this long, long month of January has me wanting to relive our trip, so I've decided to relive it for you!
I didn't do a pre-trip report either, so I better fill you in on the who's who and the what's what of this whole trip. My wonderful Dad, bless him, decided last January that he wanted to take the entire family on a dream vacation for Christmas - we lost my Mom 15 years ago, and he wanted one huge family trip before he gets too old to travel. And we were blessed with some dividends from Mom's life insurance policy, so he wanted to use the whole thing to pay for the trip, since no one in our family could pull this off without saving forever! So a whole year ago, we started planning. The hardest part was that my sister did not want her children to know until the last possible moment! My kids are older, and I told them because I had to know everyone's schedules and booking time off, etc.
The cast members are me, Tracey - 43, Mom, Disney Freak and planner extraordinaire; Bob, my hubby, 44, Disney freak as well, but he lets me do all the planning and just wants to know when to show up; my Dad, Roger (Grandpa), 66, lives for his grandchildren, would do anything for me and my sister, his only children; Trevor, 21, my oldest - tattoo artist and just plain goofy and fun; Tyler, 19, quiet but fun-loving, lives in my basement (by choice, we didn't lock him down there!); Brooke, 15, my daughter and best friend, budding actress with the biggest heart of anyone I know; Brad, 40, my hubby's brother whom my kids adore; Trina, 37, my sister and best friend in the world; Scott, 39, my brother-in-law - only one who has never been to Disney!; Mitchell, 16, my nephew; Mason, 13, my nephew; Marek, 11, my nephew; Matthew, 9, my nephew; and Dave & Joan, my sis's in-laws. Phew! And if that's not enough, our best friends, Pat & Rob, and their sons Ryan 10 and Nicholas 6, are joining us the second week on their third trip with us.
Now that you know how many of us there are (a lot), here's what we planned. DH and I always go every year if we can and stay at our DVC resorts for at least 12 days. My sister could only go away for a week because of her hubby's schedule, so we planned on going on ahead and they would join us later. So from Dec. 14 to Dec. 26 it was going to be me, my hubby, his brother, my Dad, and my three kids in a 2 bedroom at Old Key West. My sister and her family were flying down to join us from Dec. 19 - Dec. 26. Our friends were driving down to arrive and stay the same time as my sister.
Is everyone still with me? Hope so!
On with the trip!
After a long year of planning, waiting and wishing, it was finally here! Monday, December 13th, hubby and I both worked, and my Dad came home with Bob to spend the night so he wouldn't have to get up at his house an hour away and drive early in the morning. We were all so excited, but I wanted to get to bed early. We had to leave before 4 am because they were calling for snow and we wanted to leave plenty of time to get to our flight. We were flying out of Buffalo on the 6:40 am Southwest flight - we live in Ontario Canada, but are only 4 minutes from the border at Buffalo, and another 15 minutes to the airport. So at 7:30 pm Monday night, I took a gravol to make me sleepy, and slept a whole 5 hours until 1:00 a.m., when I opened my eyes and just watched the clock! At 2:45 a.m. I jumped out of bed and woke everyone up because..... it was a blizzard outside!
My worst nightmare had come to pass, and I had horrible visions of spending the entire first day of my Disney dream vacation snowed in at the airport. I felt like crying, but got everyone ready and loaded up as though it was a summer trip. Bob went to pick up his brother at 3:30 a.m., then we finished loading our two cars (had to take two to fit all 7 of us), and we slowly made our way to the airport.
The plows hadn't been out yet, and you couldn't even see pavement, so it took a while, but we got there with plenty of time. The shuttle met us at our cars and we loaded all our luggage (had 13 checked bags, plus each of us had a carry-on bag!). There was no line at the Southwest counter when we arrived, so by 5 a.m. we were through security and happily waiting at our gate. It was still snowing, but our flight showed on time, so we just sat and hoped. My pixie dust started early, because we took off only 15 minutes late for de-icing, and actually landed 15 minutes early, so we were right on time!
I was smiling so hard when we landed, my face hurt for quite a while!! There isn't a better moment than when you're on the shuttle/mini monorail taking you over to the luggage area and seeing a palm tree up close for the first time - in December!!! I saw no snow, only green foliage, green grass and even pavement!
Once we collected our luggage, we crossed over to the Alamo garage - and discovered that even though the sun was shining, it was only 40 degrees - in Orlando! But we Canadians are a hearty bunch, and knowing it was 13 degrees at home made me feel warm and toasty on my way to Disney! We got our two rental cars (Bob's brother Brad rented one for himself), and off we went. Screaming with joy as we passed under the iconic Walt Disney World sign onto Disney property, we proceeded to Old Key West, our favourite place to stay.
Of course our room wasn't ready, so to pass some time, we left the luggage in the cars and headed to Hollywood Studios to use the guest services to get all of our passes in order. We had our volunteer for a day vouchers to put towards our DVC AP's - actually arrived on the day before they expired! Back at the resort by 1pm, but still no room ready. So Brooke, Dad and I took the car and went to the Walmart Super center nearby to get groceries for our first week, while everyone else hung out at the resort. Two hours later, we returned to find Bob and Brad waiting for us at Hospitality House while Trevor and Tyler waited in the room. We had room 5121 at South Point. Bob and Dad didn't like the view of the road past the golf green, but with nothing better available I said we were staying and proceeded to get us settled in and unpacked. The most fun part was decorating with a few things I had packed, especially my little tree
And here are some pictures of our 2 bedroom villa
I made hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner while I finished unpacking. No parks were open late, and it was quite cool outside, but even though we were all tired, some of us just had to get out and keep the Disney feeling going - after all, we were finally here!
Trevor and Tyler headed to Disney Quest, and Brooke and Brad headed to Downtown Disney to explore the shops. Dad, Bob and I stayed in and watched Elf, one of my favourite Christmas movies. Around 8:30 p.m., I felt like I had to get out there too, so I just went to the gift shop to try and find some 2010 items on sale - they didn't have any, and it's still 2010!!! My sister will be crushed if I can't find her a magnet, in fact so will I! Now I was on a mission, so I got in the car and headed to Downtown Disney - busy place even for a Tuesday night! Would this be a clue as to how things would be the rest of the time???
I looked everywhere - every store I was in said they marked everything down last week that said 2010, and most of it sold out. I did manage to find a small 2010 photo album with 100 picture capacity for $4.99, so I bought that to put away for my Dad. No magnets, no Christmas ornaments. I even stopped at Saratoga Springs gift shop on my way back, and they were out too. The CM there told me to check all the parks, and believe me, if one was open, I would have continued my hunt!
But back to my villa I went, to lay my head down in my wonderful master suite to rest up for my first full day here! I love waking up in Disney - or do I? ......
I didn't do a pre-trip report either, so I better fill you in on the who's who and the what's what of this whole trip. My wonderful Dad, bless him, decided last January that he wanted to take the entire family on a dream vacation for Christmas - we lost my Mom 15 years ago, and he wanted one huge family trip before he gets too old to travel. And we were blessed with some dividends from Mom's life insurance policy, so he wanted to use the whole thing to pay for the trip, since no one in our family could pull this off without saving forever! So a whole year ago, we started planning. The hardest part was that my sister did not want her children to know until the last possible moment! My kids are older, and I told them because I had to know everyone's schedules and booking time off, etc.
The cast members are me, Tracey - 43, Mom, Disney Freak and planner extraordinaire; Bob, my hubby, 44, Disney freak as well, but he lets me do all the planning and just wants to know when to show up; my Dad, Roger (Grandpa), 66, lives for his grandchildren, would do anything for me and my sister, his only children; Trevor, 21, my oldest - tattoo artist and just plain goofy and fun; Tyler, 19, quiet but fun-loving, lives in my basement (by choice, we didn't lock him down there!); Brooke, 15, my daughter and best friend, budding actress with the biggest heart of anyone I know; Brad, 40, my hubby's brother whom my kids adore; Trina, 37, my sister and best friend in the world; Scott, 39, my brother-in-law - only one who has never been to Disney!; Mitchell, 16, my nephew; Mason, 13, my nephew; Marek, 11, my nephew; Matthew, 9, my nephew; and Dave & Joan, my sis's in-laws. Phew! And if that's not enough, our best friends, Pat & Rob, and their sons Ryan 10 and Nicholas 6, are joining us the second week on their third trip with us.
Now that you know how many of us there are (a lot), here's what we planned. DH and I always go every year if we can and stay at our DVC resorts for at least 12 days. My sister could only go away for a week because of her hubby's schedule, so we planned on going on ahead and they would join us later. So from Dec. 14 to Dec. 26 it was going to be me, my hubby, his brother, my Dad, and my three kids in a 2 bedroom at Old Key West. My sister and her family were flying down to join us from Dec. 19 - Dec. 26. Our friends were driving down to arrive and stay the same time as my sister.
Is everyone still with me? Hope so!
On with the trip!
After a long year of planning, waiting and wishing, it was finally here! Monday, December 13th, hubby and I both worked, and my Dad came home with Bob to spend the night so he wouldn't have to get up at his house an hour away and drive early in the morning. We were all so excited, but I wanted to get to bed early. We had to leave before 4 am because they were calling for snow and we wanted to leave plenty of time to get to our flight. We were flying out of Buffalo on the 6:40 am Southwest flight - we live in Ontario Canada, but are only 4 minutes from the border at Buffalo, and another 15 minutes to the airport. So at 7:30 pm Monday night, I took a gravol to make me sleepy, and slept a whole 5 hours until 1:00 a.m., when I opened my eyes and just watched the clock! At 2:45 a.m. I jumped out of bed and woke everyone up because..... it was a blizzard outside!
My worst nightmare had come to pass, and I had horrible visions of spending the entire first day of my Disney dream vacation snowed in at the airport. I felt like crying, but got everyone ready and loaded up as though it was a summer trip. Bob went to pick up his brother at 3:30 a.m., then we finished loading our two cars (had to take two to fit all 7 of us), and we slowly made our way to the airport.
The plows hadn't been out yet, and you couldn't even see pavement, so it took a while, but we got there with plenty of time. The shuttle met us at our cars and we loaded all our luggage (had 13 checked bags, plus each of us had a carry-on bag!). There was no line at the Southwest counter when we arrived, so by 5 a.m. we were through security and happily waiting at our gate. It was still snowing, but our flight showed on time, so we just sat and hoped. My pixie dust started early, because we took off only 15 minutes late for de-icing, and actually landed 15 minutes early, so we were right on time!
I was smiling so hard when we landed, my face hurt for quite a while!! There isn't a better moment than when you're on the shuttle/mini monorail taking you over to the luggage area and seeing a palm tree up close for the first time - in December!!! I saw no snow, only green foliage, green grass and even pavement!Once we collected our luggage, we crossed over to the Alamo garage - and discovered that even though the sun was shining, it was only 40 degrees - in Orlando! But we Canadians are a hearty bunch, and knowing it was 13 degrees at home made me feel warm and toasty on my way to Disney! We got our two rental cars (Bob's brother Brad rented one for himself), and off we went. Screaming with joy as we passed under the iconic Walt Disney World sign onto Disney property, we proceeded to Old Key West, our favourite place to stay.
Of course our room wasn't ready, so to pass some time, we left the luggage in the cars and headed to Hollywood Studios to use the guest services to get all of our passes in order. We had our volunteer for a day vouchers to put towards our DVC AP's - actually arrived on the day before they expired! Back at the resort by 1pm, but still no room ready. So Brooke, Dad and I took the car and went to the Walmart Super center nearby to get groceries for our first week, while everyone else hung out at the resort. Two hours later, we returned to find Bob and Brad waiting for us at Hospitality House while Trevor and Tyler waited in the room. We had room 5121 at South Point. Bob and Dad didn't like the view of the road past the golf green, but with nothing better available I said we were staying and proceeded to get us settled in and unpacked. The most fun part was decorating with a few things I had packed, especially my little tree
And here are some pictures of our 2 bedroom villa
I made hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner while I finished unpacking. No parks were open late, and it was quite cool outside, but even though we were all tired, some of us just had to get out and keep the Disney feeling going - after all, we were finally here!
Trevor and Tyler headed to Disney Quest, and Brooke and Brad headed to Downtown Disney to explore the shops. Dad, Bob and I stayed in and watched Elf, one of my favourite Christmas movies. Around 8:30 p.m., I felt like I had to get out there too, so I just went to the gift shop to try and find some 2010 items on sale - they didn't have any, and it's still 2010!!! My sister will be crushed if I can't find her a magnet, in fact so will I! Now I was on a mission, so I got in the car and headed to Downtown Disney - busy place even for a Tuesday night! Would this be a clue as to how things would be the rest of the time???
I looked everywhere - every store I was in said they marked everything down last week that said 2010, and most of it sold out. I did manage to find a small 2010 photo album with 100 picture capacity for $4.99, so I bought that to put away for my Dad. No magnets, no Christmas ornaments. I even stopped at Saratoga Springs gift shop on my way back, and they were out too. The CM there told me to check all the parks, and believe me, if one was open, I would have continued my hunt!
But back to my villa I went, to lay my head down in my wonderful master suite to rest up for my first full day here! I love waking up in Disney - or do I? ......
I explained we had been told when we arrived we would not have to move, otherwise I wouldn't have bought a weeks' worth of groceries to pack up and haul somewhere else. She excused herself to the back and I stood there shaking my head. Then......as I was looking around, I noticed someone familiar at the counter a few CM's down - it was my husband and my Dad. I yelled down to them, and my husband signalled for me to come over. He was talking to a manager (laughing and chatting like long lost buddies more like!), and I said what are you doing? Oh, we just changed rooms. No wonder the CM told me we were checked out! I said he could have left me a note or something!
Enjoying the review! Pics. are great! 
But I agree, being at disney is MUCH better than being cold at home!! I just started my Trip Report as well!
and watches Pirates 2 
until bedtime. 
