CleveRocks
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster worshipper
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2005
- Messages
- 9,589
DAY 1 Sunday, May 8
We put the kids to bed Saturday night in the clothes they'd wear on the airplane. My in-laws, who live almost 2 hours away in Philadelphia, slept over our place in order to be 15 minutes away from the Atlantic City airport. We left our house at 5:30 a.m. for a 7:10 a.m. flight. Airport and flight were uneventful. It was the first flight for both kids, and both loved it!
At MCO, as promised, after we got off the tram there were CMs aplenty holding DME signs and waving oversized Mickey gloves. At 9:37 a.m I got in line at the DME counter. The line was long but moved VERY quickly because there were 14 CMs serving customers, plus about 2-3 managers floating about. I went from there to the bus queue, to the air conditioned bus, and we pulled out on the bus 25 minutes after I first got in line at the DME counter. Not bad. The bus was very comfy, very well-upholstered, and we got to watch a DME DVD that lasted most of the way to Caribbean Beach Resort, the first stop.
We got to CBR by 10:30 a.m., half-hour for check in, and then we took an internal shuttle to our connecting rooms in Trinidad North. We paid for preferred location, meaning close to Old Port Royale (OPR). The bad news: we were about as far from Old Port Royale as a preferred room gets (rooms 3339 and 3340). The good news: we were as close to the bus stop as could be.
After a rest (mainly for the sake of our 5 year old and 2 ½ year old), we headed to lunch at OPR's food court. It started out as the worst meal experience of our week; we were really worried about how much worse things might get, but luckily nothing approached this.
The place was packed, it was tough to find a table, and each of the food lines was long. My FIL waited in line 15 minutes at the burger and dog place, only to learn when he ordered that they ran out of hot dogs at 1:00 p.m. I waited in line at the deli place for a specific salad for 15 minutes only to learn that they stopped making them at that food stand and that they were pre-packaged and available at the Grab-n-Go market (part of the food court). So I ordered a freshly made Asian Chicken Salad that was really tasty: udon noodles, romaine, various veggies, moist cubes of chicken, and a really good, strong Asian salad dressing made with sesame oil. It was served in a modified Chinese food take-out container (with a round bottom and no lid flaps) along with chopsticks. My wife ordered an absolutely mouth-watering "hand-tossed chicken caesar salad" at the pizza and pasta place. We love making our own Caesar dressing and almost never order Caesar salad in restaurants, but she said it looked really good, and it tasted even better. It turns out they have a great system to make it fresh. The CM pulls a heaping plate of romaine lettuce out of a refrigerated drawer and dumps the lettuce into a refrigerated bowl that sits recessed in a modified sandwich board. She then adds measured scoops of chicken cubes, grated parmasean cheese, croutons, and dressing, and then hand-tosses it in that recessed bowl. When it's all done, she plates it on the original plate the lettuce was on, then tops it off with more parmasean cheese and a warm breadstick. I highly recommend both of the above salads.
My in-laws, who have lived in the city of Philadelphia their entire lives, flew 1,000 miles to Florida and ordered Philly cheesesteaks, which of course they complained about. From the looks of them, they were nothing like authentic Philly cheesesteaks, which is what the in-laws were of course comparing them to. Well, duh, of course they're not going to be as good as the real thing! If I grew up in New Orleans, I'm sure I wouldn't be satisfied with jambalaya in Denver, and if I grew up in San Antonio I wouldn't be satisfied with fajitas in Boston.
We changed in our rooms and headed for Trinidad North's "quiet pool." Our luggage arrived at 2:30 p.m. while we were at the pool (my mother-in-law was in her connecting room, so that's how I know the time). The kids loved the pool.
The fact that my luggage arrived 3 ½ hours after I checked in doesn't bother me at all. I've been traveling as an adult for 15 years, and no matter where I go, under ALL circumstances, I pack in my carry on everything I anticipate needing for the first 24 hours in case the airline loses my luggage.
Anticipating there might be luggage delays on DME's 4th full day of operations, I did nothing different than I do any other time I travel. And this was the first time I ever traveled by air with my two pre-schoolers. We each had a bathing suit, a change of clothes for our first evening in a park, PJs, toiletries, and a fresh change of clothes for the following morning.
We all napped after the pool. Just before we left again I looked through our Gooding's grocery delivery and noticed they didn't include the peanut butter I ordered but they did charge me for it. I called and they said they could credit my credit card or get some delivered tomorrow morning, and I opted for the latter.
At about 4:30 p.m. we decided to head to Disney-MGM Studios as our first park. We figured there was less to do and see there (for the kids) than other parks, plus it was EMH night. In addition, we thought the kids would get a thrill out of Playhouse Disney. We were on the second floor of our building, and as I got to the stairs I saw an MGM bus down the road. I ran to the bus stop and asked the driver if it was possible to wait for the others who were still on the steps; he got off the bus and told me to tell them to take their time. Welcome to Disney World! By the time we got to MGM, learned how to put our passes through the turnstiles, and paid for our week of double-stroller rentals ($95.20 after 10% discount), it was 5:29 p.m. The streets were lined with people waiting for the 5:30 parade, and MIL said "Let's line up to watch it." It didn't occur to her that every square inch of viewable area was already taken. I looked at the "big board" and saw the last Playhouse Disney performance was at 6:00 p.m., so I suggested we get there fast. We waited in our first WDW line! The kids loved the show my little girl danced and sang but I think my son thought he was a little too cool for that sort of thing.
We walked across the park to Toy Story Pizza Planet, which my son had talked about going to for WEEKS. Well, I guess that's the one menu I didn't look at on allearsnet.com I didn't realize that they had ONLY pizza there, plus a Greek-like salad that didn't appeal to any of us. We got pizza for the kids, and the in-laws ate it, too. My wife ran around to Backlot Express as they were closing at 7:00 p.m. but they let her order, and she brought it around to our table outside Toy Story Pizza Planet. Great food! I had a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich with arugula and red peppers served on some type of hearty multi-grain bread. She had a delicious grilled veggie sandwich. While waiting for everyone to finish, my son got his first of MANY coveted WDW souvenirs, a Buzz Lightyear action figure. The boy craves buying toys more than breathing.
After dinner we went across to MuppetVision 3-D, no line whatsoever. Both kids loved it, as did all 4 adults. My son almost didn't stop giggling, and frequently reached out to grab whatever was coming out of the screen.
Next came Star Tours, which my son was eager to do. It was him, FIL, and me. We had a three minute wait in standby. Ben was nervous, and asked to hold my hand as we sat. About half-way through the ride I felt his strong, sweaty grip loosen and give way, and he told me, "Daddy, this isn't scary, it's fun!" Boy that felt good!
We waited outside for my FIL while he used the bathroom in Sci-Fi for, I swear I'm not exaggerating, 15 minutes. The kids were tired, we were going to head out, and I told everyone that since we were there I HAD to ride Rock n Roller Coaster. I hate to impose or make people wait, but I couldn't be so close and not do it. During the evening, my wife had developed some very bad eye pain that included strong sensitivity to light.
As usual, she, a doctor, asked me what was wrong, and as usual I made fun of her for seeking medical advice from a counselor. She decided to go on RnR with me because it was a dark ride. My in-laws agreed to get the kids ice cream and wait for us near The Big Hat. My wife and I waited in standby for about 5 minutes, and LOVED that ride. I'm so sorry we never made it back to MGM because MAN, what a ride! I love coasters, but haven't been on one since I think 1998. I'd read about the initial 2.8 second acceleration to 60 mph, but NOTHING can describe that feeling. In that 2.8 seconds I went from "Oh sh*t why the hell did I do this?" to "I've never had so much fun in my life!" The ride was absolutely amazing, and if I didn't feel badly that my sleepy kids were waiting for me I would have been riding RnR until the park closed. We opted not to buy the souvenir photo because both of us had our eyes closed and sported Don King hair.
Of course, just as we were walking out of RnR, Fantasmic let out. NOW we found the crowds, finally. We got back to the kids and then waited around til the crowd largely subsided, and then got on our bus back to CBR, our first WDW theme park visit behind us. Thankfully, the kids went to bed almost instantly when we returned, calming one of our biggest pre-trip concerns. We all had a good night's sleep in preparation for our first of three visits to the Magic Kingdom.
We put the kids to bed Saturday night in the clothes they'd wear on the airplane. My in-laws, who live almost 2 hours away in Philadelphia, slept over our place in order to be 15 minutes away from the Atlantic City airport. We left our house at 5:30 a.m. for a 7:10 a.m. flight. Airport and flight were uneventful. It was the first flight for both kids, and both loved it!
At MCO, as promised, after we got off the tram there were CMs aplenty holding DME signs and waving oversized Mickey gloves. At 9:37 a.m I got in line at the DME counter. The line was long but moved VERY quickly because there were 14 CMs serving customers, plus about 2-3 managers floating about. I went from there to the bus queue, to the air conditioned bus, and we pulled out on the bus 25 minutes after I first got in line at the DME counter. Not bad. The bus was very comfy, very well-upholstered, and we got to watch a DME DVD that lasted most of the way to Caribbean Beach Resort, the first stop.
We got to CBR by 10:30 a.m., half-hour for check in, and then we took an internal shuttle to our connecting rooms in Trinidad North. We paid for preferred location, meaning close to Old Port Royale (OPR). The bad news: we were about as far from Old Port Royale as a preferred room gets (rooms 3339 and 3340). The good news: we were as close to the bus stop as could be.
After a rest (mainly for the sake of our 5 year old and 2 ½ year old), we headed to lunch at OPR's food court. It started out as the worst meal experience of our week; we were really worried about how much worse things might get, but luckily nothing approached this.
The place was packed, it was tough to find a table, and each of the food lines was long. My FIL waited in line 15 minutes at the burger and dog place, only to learn when he ordered that they ran out of hot dogs at 1:00 p.m. I waited in line at the deli place for a specific salad for 15 minutes only to learn that they stopped making them at that food stand and that they were pre-packaged and available at the Grab-n-Go market (part of the food court). So I ordered a freshly made Asian Chicken Salad that was really tasty: udon noodles, romaine, various veggies, moist cubes of chicken, and a really good, strong Asian salad dressing made with sesame oil. It was served in a modified Chinese food take-out container (with a round bottom and no lid flaps) along with chopsticks. My wife ordered an absolutely mouth-watering "hand-tossed chicken caesar salad" at the pizza and pasta place. We love making our own Caesar dressing and almost never order Caesar salad in restaurants, but she said it looked really good, and it tasted even better. It turns out they have a great system to make it fresh. The CM pulls a heaping plate of romaine lettuce out of a refrigerated drawer and dumps the lettuce into a refrigerated bowl that sits recessed in a modified sandwich board. She then adds measured scoops of chicken cubes, grated parmasean cheese, croutons, and dressing, and then hand-tosses it in that recessed bowl. When it's all done, she plates it on the original plate the lettuce was on, then tops it off with more parmasean cheese and a warm breadstick. I highly recommend both of the above salads.
My in-laws, who have lived in the city of Philadelphia their entire lives, flew 1,000 miles to Florida and ordered Philly cheesesteaks, which of course they complained about. From the looks of them, they were nothing like authentic Philly cheesesteaks, which is what the in-laws were of course comparing them to. Well, duh, of course they're not going to be as good as the real thing! If I grew up in New Orleans, I'm sure I wouldn't be satisfied with jambalaya in Denver, and if I grew up in San Antonio I wouldn't be satisfied with fajitas in Boston.
We changed in our rooms and headed for Trinidad North's "quiet pool." Our luggage arrived at 2:30 p.m. while we were at the pool (my mother-in-law was in her connecting room, so that's how I know the time). The kids loved the pool.
The fact that my luggage arrived 3 ½ hours after I checked in doesn't bother me at all. I've been traveling as an adult for 15 years, and no matter where I go, under ALL circumstances, I pack in my carry on everything I anticipate needing for the first 24 hours in case the airline loses my luggage.
Anticipating there might be luggage delays on DME's 4th full day of operations, I did nothing different than I do any other time I travel. And this was the first time I ever traveled by air with my two pre-schoolers. We each had a bathing suit, a change of clothes for our first evening in a park, PJs, toiletries, and a fresh change of clothes for the following morning.
We all napped after the pool. Just before we left again I looked through our Gooding's grocery delivery and noticed they didn't include the peanut butter I ordered but they did charge me for it. I called and they said they could credit my credit card or get some delivered tomorrow morning, and I opted for the latter.
At about 4:30 p.m. we decided to head to Disney-MGM Studios as our first park. We figured there was less to do and see there (for the kids) than other parks, plus it was EMH night. In addition, we thought the kids would get a thrill out of Playhouse Disney. We were on the second floor of our building, and as I got to the stairs I saw an MGM bus down the road. I ran to the bus stop and asked the driver if it was possible to wait for the others who were still on the steps; he got off the bus and told me to tell them to take their time. Welcome to Disney World! By the time we got to MGM, learned how to put our passes through the turnstiles, and paid for our week of double-stroller rentals ($95.20 after 10% discount), it was 5:29 p.m. The streets were lined with people waiting for the 5:30 parade, and MIL said "Let's line up to watch it." It didn't occur to her that every square inch of viewable area was already taken. I looked at the "big board" and saw the last Playhouse Disney performance was at 6:00 p.m., so I suggested we get there fast. We waited in our first WDW line! The kids loved the show my little girl danced and sang but I think my son thought he was a little too cool for that sort of thing.
We walked across the park to Toy Story Pizza Planet, which my son had talked about going to for WEEKS. Well, I guess that's the one menu I didn't look at on allearsnet.com I didn't realize that they had ONLY pizza there, plus a Greek-like salad that didn't appeal to any of us. We got pizza for the kids, and the in-laws ate it, too. My wife ran around to Backlot Express as they were closing at 7:00 p.m. but they let her order, and she brought it around to our table outside Toy Story Pizza Planet. Great food! I had a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich with arugula and red peppers served on some type of hearty multi-grain bread. She had a delicious grilled veggie sandwich. While waiting for everyone to finish, my son got his first of MANY coveted WDW souvenirs, a Buzz Lightyear action figure. The boy craves buying toys more than breathing.
After dinner we went across to MuppetVision 3-D, no line whatsoever. Both kids loved it, as did all 4 adults. My son almost didn't stop giggling, and frequently reached out to grab whatever was coming out of the screen.
Next came Star Tours, which my son was eager to do. It was him, FIL, and me. We had a three minute wait in standby. Ben was nervous, and asked to hold my hand as we sat. About half-way through the ride I felt his strong, sweaty grip loosen and give way, and he told me, "Daddy, this isn't scary, it's fun!" Boy that felt good!
We waited outside for my FIL while he used the bathroom in Sci-Fi for, I swear I'm not exaggerating, 15 minutes. The kids were tired, we were going to head out, and I told everyone that since we were there I HAD to ride Rock n Roller Coaster. I hate to impose or make people wait, but I couldn't be so close and not do it. During the evening, my wife had developed some very bad eye pain that included strong sensitivity to light.
As usual, she, a doctor, asked me what was wrong, and as usual I made fun of her for seeking medical advice from a counselor. She decided to go on RnR with me because it was a dark ride. My in-laws agreed to get the kids ice cream and wait for us near The Big Hat. My wife and I waited in standby for about 5 minutes, and LOVED that ride. I'm so sorry we never made it back to MGM because MAN, what a ride! I love coasters, but haven't been on one since I think 1998. I'd read about the initial 2.8 second acceleration to 60 mph, but NOTHING can describe that feeling. In that 2.8 seconds I went from "Oh sh*t why the hell did I do this?" to "I've never had so much fun in my life!" The ride was absolutely amazing, and if I didn't feel badly that my sleepy kids were waiting for me I would have been riding RnR until the park closed. We opted not to buy the souvenir photo because both of us had our eyes closed and sported Don King hair.
Of course, just as we were walking out of RnR, Fantasmic let out. NOW we found the crowds, finally. We got back to the kids and then waited around til the crowd largely subsided, and then got on our bus back to CBR, our first WDW theme park visit behind us. Thankfully, the kids went to bed almost instantly when we returned, calming one of our biggest pre-trip concerns. We all had a good night's sleep in preparation for our first of three visits to the Magic Kingdom.
