barbnbrian
I'm a Redhead, too!
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2001
- Messages
- 709
Day 1 - July 4th - Girls' Only Trip!
Me - Barb - 38 year old Disneyaholic
My daughters, Rachelle - 5 yr. old princess, and Danielle - 8 yr. old princess
My sister - Penni - 33 yr. old Disneyaholic
My niece - Lauren - 4 yr. old princess (celebrated her birthday on July 4th)
Nana - Barb & Penni's mom, grandmother to the 3 princesses
Flights were great. No problems at airport or with plane. Barb, Nana, Danielle & Rachelle flew in from CT and Penni and Lauren flew in from NY. Since Penni & Lauren arrived first, they waited for us at baggage claim. I had told Penni that someone with a pink sign with my name on it would be meeting us and as we came down the escalator to baggage claim, there was Lauren, holding our pink sign. I had booked transportation with Your Ride after reading about them on the DisBoards. Rabbitz was our driver and he was waiting with the pink sign. He's a great guy, helped us with all our 11 bags and two strollers! What a sight we were, three grown women and three little girls all with our Minnie ears headbands with the big red & white polka dot bow in the middle! Got in the van and it started to rain as soon as we left the airport. Rabbitz had Shrek playing on the dvd player in the van for the girls and gave us all Mickey stickers. Penni was anxious to get to the hotel so we decided to pass on the grocery stop and went straight to Contemporary. I had a whole suitcase with a case of water bottles, snacks, bagels, etc.
Check in lines were long. It was around 3:00 p.m. or a little after and our room was not ready. Walked outside to see the pool area and it had started to clear up so the girls wanted to go swimming. Good thing I put their bathing suits in the backpack I carried in. They loved the slide at the pool. One gross thing though. The lifeguards (teenagers) decided to have some pool games while our kids were swimming - capture a greased watermelon and get it out of the pool. They had covered the melon with Crisco! You should have seen their red lifeguard bathing suits, all covered in grease! Well the crisco started floating around the pool water, little pieces, and my girls have long hair. The last thing I wanted was my girls getting globs of Crisco in their hair or on their bathing suits. I was kind of annoyed they did this game. The little pieces of Crisco didn't just dissolve!
Kept calling to see if our room was ready. It wasn't ready until 5:15 p.m. and we had a PS for Chef Mickey's for 5:30 p.m. We had to hurry and change and rush over to the restaurant.
Rush over to Chef Mickeys and there's a long line just to check in at the podium. Didn't matter if you had a priority seating, you still had to wait in line. They should have two separate lines, one just to check in and one for those who are just walk-ups. By the time we got to the desk, it was after 5:30 p.m. and we had to wait until 6:15 p.m. for a table.
It was worth the wait though. The three little girls loved Minnie, Mickey, Goofy & Donald. So did the three big girls for that matter! Took lots of pictures and ate lots of great food.
After dinner we walked over to the Magic Kingdom which was open until midnight on July 4th, but it was so crowded we decided not to waste a day of our hopper passes. We took the ferry boat over to the ticket & transportation center and then continued walking over to the Polynesian. Walked around the pool area which was very crowded and they went inside to look in the shops. By this time it was around 8:45 pm and we wanted to take the monorail back to the Contemporary, but they stopped the monorails for the fireworks which started at 9:00 p.m. and we were stuck there until after the fireworks were over. So we went back inside the airconditioning and parked the little girls in their strollers right in front of the picture window that looks out at the castle. We had a great view of the fireworks from there. As soon as the fireworks were over, we rushed to the monorail to go back to the Contemporary and get the girls to bed.
A great first day. Tomorrow - Breakfast with the Princesses
Me - Barb - 38 year old Disneyaholic
My daughters, Rachelle - 5 yr. old princess, and Danielle - 8 yr. old princess
My sister - Penni - 33 yr. old Disneyaholic
My niece - Lauren - 4 yr. old princess (celebrated her birthday on July 4th)
Nana - Barb & Penni's mom, grandmother to the 3 princesses
Flights were great. No problems at airport or with plane. Barb, Nana, Danielle & Rachelle flew in from CT and Penni and Lauren flew in from NY. Since Penni & Lauren arrived first, they waited for us at baggage claim. I had told Penni that someone with a pink sign with my name on it would be meeting us and as we came down the escalator to baggage claim, there was Lauren, holding our pink sign. I had booked transportation with Your Ride after reading about them on the DisBoards. Rabbitz was our driver and he was waiting with the pink sign. He's a great guy, helped us with all our 11 bags and two strollers! What a sight we were, three grown women and three little girls all with our Minnie ears headbands with the big red & white polka dot bow in the middle! Got in the van and it started to rain as soon as we left the airport. Rabbitz had Shrek playing on the dvd player in the van for the girls and gave us all Mickey stickers. Penni was anxious to get to the hotel so we decided to pass on the grocery stop and went straight to Contemporary. I had a whole suitcase with a case of water bottles, snacks, bagels, etc.
Check in lines were long. It was around 3:00 p.m. or a little after and our room was not ready. Walked outside to see the pool area and it had started to clear up so the girls wanted to go swimming. Good thing I put their bathing suits in the backpack I carried in. They loved the slide at the pool. One gross thing though. The lifeguards (teenagers) decided to have some pool games while our kids were swimming - capture a greased watermelon and get it out of the pool. They had covered the melon with Crisco! You should have seen their red lifeguard bathing suits, all covered in grease! Well the crisco started floating around the pool water, little pieces, and my girls have long hair. The last thing I wanted was my girls getting globs of Crisco in their hair or on their bathing suits. I was kind of annoyed they did this game. The little pieces of Crisco didn't just dissolve!
Kept calling to see if our room was ready. It wasn't ready until 5:15 p.m. and we had a PS for Chef Mickey's for 5:30 p.m. We had to hurry and change and rush over to the restaurant.
Rush over to Chef Mickeys and there's a long line just to check in at the podium. Didn't matter if you had a priority seating, you still had to wait in line. They should have two separate lines, one just to check in and one for those who are just walk-ups. By the time we got to the desk, it was after 5:30 p.m. and we had to wait until 6:15 p.m. for a table.
It was worth the wait though. The three little girls loved Minnie, Mickey, Goofy & Donald. So did the three big girls for that matter! Took lots of pictures and ate lots of great food.
After dinner we walked over to the Magic Kingdom which was open until midnight on July 4th, but it was so crowded we decided not to waste a day of our hopper passes. We took the ferry boat over to the ticket & transportation center and then continued walking over to the Polynesian. Walked around the pool area which was very crowded and they went inside to look in the shops. By this time it was around 8:45 pm and we wanted to take the monorail back to the Contemporary, but they stopped the monorails for the fireworks which started at 9:00 p.m. and we were stuck there until after the fireworks were over. So we went back inside the airconditioning and parked the little girls in their strollers right in front of the picture window that looks out at the castle. We had a great view of the fireworks from there. As soon as the fireworks were over, we rushed to the monorail to go back to the Contemporary and get the girls to bed.
A great first day. Tomorrow - Breakfast with the Princesses