jeff968
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2000
- Messages
- 1,255
Well, we're back from our 2003 trip to Florida and we had a great time and fantastic weather. This year, we traveled with just our family. My oldest daughter is 13, my son who is 10, and my youngest daughter who is 3, the wife and myself. I started out the trip by turning off the news for a week. I had to, with all the threats it makes you so nervous about traveling and flying. We all deserved a nice vacation so I decided to be ignorant for a week.
We left on Wednesday night out of LaGuardia in NYC. They had trouble getting our plane started so we lost some time towards our connecting flight in Charlotte NC but we made it with a half-hour to spare. We landed in Orlando at 9:40, picked up our Ford Escape from Budget and off to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
I needed two extra nights of accommodations for our 10-day stay so when Disney sent me a special offer card for their deluxe resort at only $109 a night for the two nights I needed the AMK was where we ended up. When we checked in I informed the clerk we needed a cot for my little one. She said that wasn't possible and that we would need a room with a day bed, only $70 more! Well, she took pity on us and gave us a room with the day bed, over looking the pool, for the same rate. We spent the next day hanging out at the resort, The large, heated pool was great. The kids did a few of the activities and we went to the story telling at 6:30. We ate at the Boma 3 times. Great food!!! The resort was beautiful. We saw many animals and were impressed with the overall, resort setup. It was a steal at that rate. Friday, we got up, breakfast at the Boma, checked out, and used the transportation system to visit the magic Kingdom. A big plus with staying at a Disney resort is the transportation system and, even though we were checked out, we were guests until Midnight. We had a nice day at the park and had dinner at the Crystal palace with Pooh. My little one was sure of that. The thunder mountain railroad was not working but the crowd wasn't too bad. We left after the spectromagic parade and headed to our next home, Orange Lake resort.
Funny thing about Orange Lake, it was right next to the Animal Kingdom lodge although had had to drive all the way to the Disney entrance to get there. We checked into Orange Lake and got a unit on the fifth floor, on the first road in the resort. It was too close to the road for me but we couldn't change and the noise from 192 wasn't that bad. When we found our building there were a half dozen baskets of laundry sitting on the front yard of our location. They were still there the next morning. Our 2-bedroom unit was nice and large. It had three TVs but only a 25" in the main room. We did have a single whirlpool tub in our bathroom. We asked for a cot and it showed up right away ($30 for the week). The unit was okay, nothing fancy. We have stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club last year and the Vistana resort the year before and their units had more decorations and just looked nicer. It was reasonably clean. The next morning we got up and went to the main building for breakfast. It was the worst meal I had. The fruit was terrible, the cook brought packaged pancakes out to the buffet in their packaging!!! I had an english muffin and at least they had Krispy Kreme donuts. It was bad. We didn't eat at the resort restaurants again. It was probably made even worse by the fact that we had eaten top-notch Disney breakfast for the two days prior.
We spent the next two days at the pools. First at splash lagoon and then the main area. Splash Lagoon was crowded but the kids had a good time and I picked up a water volleyball game. Saturday we ate at Logan's steakhouse on 192 and then went to the Cruise night at Old-Town. This is a great time. Sunday we did a little shopping and had a nice lunch at Bahamas breeze and dinner at the Rain forrest at Downtown Disney. That night we had the only rain we saw. Monday and Tuesday we drove down to West Palm to visit some friends. While my family back home in CT was being plummeted by the blizzard on the 17th I was swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. It was great. I had never been this far south in Florida before and was amazed how blue-green the ocean is down there. Tuesday we drove back to Orange Lake and hung out at the pools for the next two days. The weather was spectacular. We saw at least 75 each day and we were in the 80s on a few of them. Everyone came home with a suntan. We went to the Belz mall on Wednesday and then to the Nascar café on Citywalk. Thursday night we lucked out and got priority seating at Chef Mickey's for our last night in Florida. After our dinner we went back to downtown Disney and walked off some of that food. Friday we were off to the Airport and a safe flight home.
Overall a great trip. Orange Lake was okay. We got a great deal on the unit rental ($599 for the week!!) so I really can't complain that much. As the week went on I liked it better. Part of its appeal is golf and I wasn't playing golf. The resort is so large that the kids could come and go as they pleased as they had at our other previous locations. So, we'll see where we end up for 2004 .
We left on Wednesday night out of LaGuardia in NYC. They had trouble getting our plane started so we lost some time towards our connecting flight in Charlotte NC but we made it with a half-hour to spare. We landed in Orlando at 9:40, picked up our Ford Escape from Budget and off to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
I needed two extra nights of accommodations for our 10-day stay so when Disney sent me a special offer card for their deluxe resort at only $109 a night for the two nights I needed the AMK was where we ended up. When we checked in I informed the clerk we needed a cot for my little one. She said that wasn't possible and that we would need a room with a day bed, only $70 more! Well, she took pity on us and gave us a room with the day bed, over looking the pool, for the same rate. We spent the next day hanging out at the resort, The large, heated pool was great. The kids did a few of the activities and we went to the story telling at 6:30. We ate at the Boma 3 times. Great food!!! The resort was beautiful. We saw many animals and were impressed with the overall, resort setup. It was a steal at that rate. Friday, we got up, breakfast at the Boma, checked out, and used the transportation system to visit the magic Kingdom. A big plus with staying at a Disney resort is the transportation system and, even though we were checked out, we were guests until Midnight. We had a nice day at the park and had dinner at the Crystal palace with Pooh. My little one was sure of that. The thunder mountain railroad was not working but the crowd wasn't too bad. We left after the spectromagic parade and headed to our next home, Orange Lake resort.
Funny thing about Orange Lake, it was right next to the Animal Kingdom lodge although had had to drive all the way to the Disney entrance to get there. We checked into Orange Lake and got a unit on the fifth floor, on the first road in the resort. It was too close to the road for me but we couldn't change and the noise from 192 wasn't that bad. When we found our building there were a half dozen baskets of laundry sitting on the front yard of our location. They were still there the next morning. Our 2-bedroom unit was nice and large. It had three TVs but only a 25" in the main room. We did have a single whirlpool tub in our bathroom. We asked for a cot and it showed up right away ($30 for the week). The unit was okay, nothing fancy. We have stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club last year and the Vistana resort the year before and their units had more decorations and just looked nicer. It was reasonably clean. The next morning we got up and went to the main building for breakfast. It was the worst meal I had. The fruit was terrible, the cook brought packaged pancakes out to the buffet in their packaging!!! I had an english muffin and at least they had Krispy Kreme donuts. It was bad. We didn't eat at the resort restaurants again. It was probably made even worse by the fact that we had eaten top-notch Disney breakfast for the two days prior.
We spent the next two days at the pools. First at splash lagoon and then the main area. Splash Lagoon was crowded but the kids had a good time and I picked up a water volleyball game. Saturday we ate at Logan's steakhouse on 192 and then went to the Cruise night at Old-Town. This is a great time. Sunday we did a little shopping and had a nice lunch at Bahamas breeze and dinner at the Rain forrest at Downtown Disney. That night we had the only rain we saw. Monday and Tuesday we drove down to West Palm to visit some friends. While my family back home in CT was being plummeted by the blizzard on the 17th I was swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. It was great. I had never been this far south in Florida before and was amazed how blue-green the ocean is down there. Tuesday we drove back to Orange Lake and hung out at the pools for the next two days. The weather was spectacular. We saw at least 75 each day and we were in the 80s on a few of them. Everyone came home with a suntan. We went to the Belz mall on Wednesday and then to the Nascar café on Citywalk. Thursday night we lucked out and got priority seating at Chef Mickey's for our last night in Florida. After our dinner we went back to downtown Disney and walked off some of that food. Friday we were off to the Airport and a safe flight home.
Overall a great trip. Orange Lake was okay. We got a great deal on the unit rental ($599 for the week!!) so I really can't complain that much. As the week went on I liked it better. Part of its appeal is golf and I wasn't playing golf. The resort is so large that the kids could come and go as they pleased as they had at our other previous locations. So, we'll see where we end up for 2004 .
Thanks for sharing.
