Day one (Dec. 21): The day began badly when my brother found he had a last-minute job to do and could not fly early to be at Orlando airport before our mother to meet her plane as originally planned. This caused us a lot of concern because our mother has never been good about traveling alone and we didn't know how she would manage. TIFFANY TOWN CAR SAVED THE DAY. 
Although they normally only pick up at one gate, in our case the Tiffany driver was kind enough to make two stops. He picked us up at one gate and then drove us all to meet my mother at her gate. It was wonderful. We benefited not only from having someone there to pick us up but from having someone who knew his way around the airport get us to our mother's gate on time. (Her flight arrived only 15 or 20 minutes after ours.) I was very impressed with Tiffany.
After a brief grocery stop (Publix), we went on to the WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN.
Everyone was very excited as we drove up to the door. The lobby is beautiful and the tree was spectacular. A bellhop took our bags and put them to the side until we had checked in. Then another bellhop took them up to our room. (Yes, that meant two tips. Don't get me started on the subject of bellhops and tips.)
Check-in went smoothly except that the two refrigerators that we had reserved (one for my mother's room and one for mine) were not available. There was only one refrigerator available (so much for the "reservation").
We decided to put it in our room (because we had more milk and stuff for the kids) and for my mother to pay to have the minibar emptied and use that instead. This gave us a good opportunity to compare the refrigerator and emptied-minibar alternatives. My conclusion: get the refrigerator or do without. The minibar is a hassle to open and close, is very small, and does not cool things sufficiently. We kept having to put ice in there to keep the milk fresh. In contrast the refrigerator we got, an Avanti, was a great deal. It was spacious (18" X 21" X 15"), had a nice little freezer, and worked very well. At $25 per stay it is a great bargain. (Disney and many other hotels charge $10 per day.)
Our rooms were great. They were spacious and comfortable. My mom had a king sized bed. The rest of us had standard 2-full bed rooms. The decor is cheerful but subdued.
We were on the fourth floor on the east elevator section. By the way, the elevators are terrific. They talk. My son, who is in love with technology, wanted to talk back to them and be understood. He was convinced that if he just said to the elevator, "Lobby," the elevator would take us there. It took a couple of rides upstairs instead of downstairs to convince him that the technology of the hotel had not advanced that far.
My mother's room was in the section where there is a sort of criss-cross pattern across the window (I think it covers the fourth and fifth floors). She a good view of the walkway to Boardwalk and a partial view of the Epcot globe. She loved her view. This was a room in the 041-057 section. I think the even numbers in that section would look in to the resort but I am not certain.
We (husband, kids and I) had two connecting "deluxe balcony" rooms. This was a complimentary upgrade (thank you SwanDolphin). We faced the walkway to the Boardwalk, could see the Boardwalk sign, most of the Epcot globe (part of it was obscured by a tree) and, at night, all the "high" fireworks of Illuminations. (They would come up behind the Boardwalk.) Out on the balcony we could even hear the Illuminations music a little. It was wonderful.
These rooms were in the 031-017 section. The even numbers facing these rooms also had balconies but resort views. (My brother when he checked in late at night, got one of those rooms; he could see across to the other balconies and down to the garden. It was a nice, sunny view, but no Epcot.)
The rooms were all very clean and well-maintained except for a few stains on the carpet here and there. The bathrooms were spotless, there were plenty of towels and overall we were very comfortable. There was only one sink, outside the main bathroom, but that was enough for us, since we had two rooms for four people. The sinkless vanity/beverage area was a great place to put the fridge. We put the water glasses and the icebucket on top of the sink and turned it into our "kitchen" area (the coffeemaker was right there).
Getting settled took a little while in part because the refrigerator took a long time to be delivered. When we called to ask about it, we were told that the person who had checked us in had failed to put in the request properly. While waiting for the refrigerator, we unpacked. I set up our tree; and the kids explored the resort. My son was delighted with the gameroom except he says there should be more (some?) games for people who are alone. His sister would only play one or two games with him. He also discovered all the swimming pools and expressed an interest in trying them all even though it was about sixty degrees outside. (He's my little polar bear. The rest of us might shiver; he likes to run around in a t-shirt.) The only problem was he had outgrown his swimsuit (he's at the preteen uneven growth-spurts age when they change sizes overnight) so unless we could find time to buy him a new one, he couldn't swim. (As it turned out we did not have time to go swimming, never mind buying the swim suit.)
At around seven we got together with my mother with the idea of walking over to the Yatch Club, getting something to eat at the coffee shop and then going to our Illuminations Cruise. We had originally intended to meet some friends who live in Orlando for dinner and then go on the Cruise with them, but they had been called out of town on business just before we arrived.
Walking to the Yatch Club turned out to be a bad plan. In retrospect, we should have taken the Friendship boat. First of all, my mother walks more slowly than I remembered. Secondly, because it was getting dark, we got confused and ended up on the Boardwalk. Furthermore, at some point in our slow, winding progress around the resorts, my son managed to step back at the exact moment that I was stepping forward and I stubbed my toe badly against his heel. For the rest of the evening, I limped, and for the rest of our visit, I had a sore toe. (I have a large purple bruise under the toenail.) Then it began to get chilly and we realized that although we had brought some extra jackets and so forth, we were going to be very cold on the cruise. Finally, when we got to the Yatch Club the instructions to Beaches and Cream were confusing and we worried that we would not find it, get something to eat and be done in time for the Illuminations Cruise. (My mother had stayed at the Yatch Club eight years ago or so, but she didn't recognize anything.) So instead we sat in the Yatch Club lobby, admiring the decor and staying warm, while some sort of children's story telling show went on. Our daughter thought the little kids watching the show were cute and my son found something to entertain him in figuring out how the light and sound effects were done, so we passed a fairly nice time until it was time to face the cold again.
Except for being very cold, we had a great time on the ILLUMINATIONS CRUISE. We went around the different resorts and then to watch Illuminations from under the bridge. We could feel the heat from the great big bursts of fire in the exhibit and were very glad of it. (With the warmth from the fires, six boats huddled close under the bridge and the bridge structure acting as a windbreak, we were not uncomfortably cold during Illuminations itself.) I'd seen Illuminations 2000 a couple of times already, bu we'd never had a really good view of the spinning globe in the middle of the lagoon before, so we had perfect seats to see what we normally miss. The bridge cut off some of the effect of the higher fireworks, but as it turned out we got to see that effect fully from our Dolphin room balcony more than once after this. For my mother, the Illuminations cruise was perfect because she could not have handled the crowds waiting to see Illuminations.
The Illuminations captain dropped us off at the Swan/Dolphin boat dock and from there we went to Tubbi's for a light supper. I had the cream of potato soup which was excellent. My husband had a salad which was average. The kids had burgers which they did not like and my mom had some sort of sandwich which she did not like either. By then we were all exhausted so we went upstairs to get some rest. Since we celebrate Hannukah as well as Christmas, we lit candles and the kids each got one small present. (Other nights they got Disney dollars.) It was hard to get the kids to settle down, especially because my brother arrived at 11 pm and came by to say hello, but we got to sleep around midnight, I think.
On to Day 2
Back toOverview
[This message was edited by Emmalyn on 12-30-00 at 01:23 PM.]
Although they normally only pick up at one gate, in our case the Tiffany driver was kind enough to make two stops. He picked us up at one gate and then drove us all to meet my mother at her gate. It was wonderful. We benefited not only from having someone there to pick us up but from having someone who knew his way around the airport get us to our mother's gate on time. (Her flight arrived only 15 or 20 minutes after ours.) I was very impressed with Tiffany.After a brief grocery stop (Publix), we went on to the WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN.
Everyone was very excited as we drove up to the door. The lobby is beautiful and the tree was spectacular. A bellhop took our bags and put them to the side until we had checked in. Then another bellhop took them up to our room. (Yes, that meant two tips. Don't get me started on the subject of bellhops and tips.)Check-in went smoothly except that the two refrigerators that we had reserved (one for my mother's room and one for mine) were not available. There was only one refrigerator available (so much for the "reservation").
We decided to put it in our room (because we had more milk and stuff for the kids) and for my mother to pay to have the minibar emptied and use that instead. This gave us a good opportunity to compare the refrigerator and emptied-minibar alternatives. My conclusion: get the refrigerator or do without. The minibar is a hassle to open and close, is very small, and does not cool things sufficiently. We kept having to put ice in there to keep the milk fresh. In contrast the refrigerator we got, an Avanti, was a great deal. It was spacious (18" X 21" X 15"), had a nice little freezer, and worked very well. At $25 per stay it is a great bargain. (Disney and many other hotels charge $10 per day.) Our rooms were great. They were spacious and comfortable. My mom had a king sized bed. The rest of us had standard 2-full bed rooms. The decor is cheerful but subdued.
We were on the fourth floor on the east elevator section. By the way, the elevators are terrific. They talk. My son, who is in love with technology, wanted to talk back to them and be understood. He was convinced that if he just said to the elevator, "Lobby," the elevator would take us there.
It took a couple of rides upstairs instead of downstairs to convince him that the technology of the hotel had not advanced that far.My mother's room was in the section where there is a sort of criss-cross pattern across the window (I think it covers the fourth and fifth floors). She a good view of the walkway to Boardwalk and a partial view of the Epcot globe. She loved her view. This was a room in the 041-057 section. I think the even numbers in that section would look in to the resort but I am not certain.
We (husband, kids and I) had two connecting "deluxe balcony" rooms. This was a complimentary upgrade (thank you SwanDolphin). We faced the walkway to the Boardwalk, could see the Boardwalk sign, most of the Epcot globe (part of it was obscured by a tree) and, at night, all the "high" fireworks of Illuminations. (They would come up behind the Boardwalk.) Out on the balcony we could even hear the Illuminations music a little. It was wonderful.
These rooms were in the 031-017 section. The even numbers facing these rooms also had balconies but resort views. (My brother when he checked in late at night, got one of those rooms; he could see across to the other balconies and down to the garden. It was a nice, sunny view, but no Epcot.)The rooms were all very clean and well-maintained except for a few stains on the carpet here and there. The bathrooms were spotless, there were plenty of towels and overall we were very comfortable. There was only one sink, outside the main bathroom, but that was enough for us, since we had two rooms for four people. The sinkless vanity/beverage area was a great place to put the fridge. We put the water glasses and the icebucket on top of the sink and turned it into our "kitchen" area (the coffeemaker was right there).
Getting settled took a little while in part because the refrigerator took a long time to be delivered. When we called to ask about it, we were told that the person who had checked us in had failed to put in the request properly. While waiting for the refrigerator, we unpacked. I set up our tree; and the kids explored the resort. My son was delighted with the gameroom except he says there should be more (some?) games for people who are alone. His sister would only play one or two games with him. He also discovered all the swimming pools and expressed an interest in trying them all even though it was about sixty degrees outside. (He's my little polar bear. The rest of us might shiver; he likes to run around in a t-shirt.) The only problem was he had outgrown his swimsuit (he's at the preteen uneven growth-spurts age when they change sizes overnight) so unless we could find time to buy him a new one, he couldn't swim. (As it turned out we did not have time to go swimming, never mind buying the swim suit.)
At around seven we got together with my mother with the idea of walking over to the Yatch Club, getting something to eat at the coffee shop and then going to our Illuminations Cruise. We had originally intended to meet some friends who live in Orlando for dinner and then go on the Cruise with them, but they had been called out of town on business just before we arrived.
Walking to the Yatch Club turned out to be a bad plan. In retrospect, we should have taken the Friendship boat. First of all, my mother walks more slowly than I remembered. Secondly, because it was getting dark, we got confused and ended up on the Boardwalk. Furthermore, at some point in our slow, winding progress around the resorts, my son managed to step back at the exact moment that I was stepping forward and I stubbed my toe badly against his heel. For the rest of the evening, I limped, and for the rest of our visit, I had a sore toe. (I have a large purple bruise under the toenail.) Then it began to get chilly and we realized that although we had brought some extra jackets and so forth, we were going to be very cold on the cruise. Finally, when we got to the Yatch Club the instructions to Beaches and Cream were confusing and we worried that we would not find it, get something to eat and be done in time for the Illuminations Cruise. (My mother had stayed at the Yatch Club eight years ago or so, but she didn't recognize anything.) So instead we sat in the Yatch Club lobby, admiring the decor and staying warm, while some sort of children's story telling show went on. Our daughter thought the little kids watching the show were cute and my son found something to entertain him in figuring out how the light and sound effects were done, so we passed a fairly nice time until it was time to face the cold again.
Except for being very cold, we had a great time on the ILLUMINATIONS CRUISE. We went around the different resorts and then to watch Illuminations from under the bridge. We could feel the heat from the great big bursts of fire in the exhibit and were very glad of it. (With the warmth from the fires, six boats huddled close under the bridge and the bridge structure acting as a windbreak, we were not uncomfortably cold during Illuminations itself.) I'd seen Illuminations 2000 a couple of times already, bu we'd never had a really good view of the spinning globe in the middle of the lagoon before, so we had perfect seats to see what we normally miss.
The bridge cut off some of the effect of the higher fireworks, but as it turned out we got to see that effect fully from our Dolphin room balcony more than once after this. For my mother, the Illuminations cruise was perfect because she could not have handled the crowds waiting to see Illuminations.The Illuminations captain dropped us off at the Swan/Dolphin boat dock and from there we went to Tubbi's for a light supper. I had the cream of potato soup which was excellent. My husband had a salad which was average. The kids had burgers which they did not like and my mom had some sort of sandwich which she did not like either. By then we were all exhausted so we went upstairs to get some rest. Since we celebrate Hannukah as well as Christmas, we lit candles and the kids each got one small present. (Other nights they got Disney dollars.) It was hard to get the kids to settle down, especially because my brother arrived at 11 pm and came by to say hello, but we got to sleep around midnight, I think.
On to Day 2
Back toOverview
[This message was edited by Emmalyn on 12-30-00 at 01:23 PM.]
