t_catt11
Pin Trading Addict
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2008
- Messages
- 3,790
Hello, everyone! This thread will serve as the official trip report of the seven Suddeths. We arrived at Coronado Springs on October the 1st and stayed until October the 11th. We live in Alabama, about halfway between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, so we face about ten hours of actual driving (plus the obvious breaks and such).
As I am trying to write a useful (detailed) trip report, I won't finish this all at one sitting. I will add posts to the thread, and update this first post to keep you up to date as to how complete the report is. Currently, departure day and day 1 are done.
This was my fourth trip to Disney - all as an adult. My parents didn't do "kiddie" vacations, and my wife had only been to Magic Kingdom for one day as a child, but in 2003, she talked me into taking the two kids to what I assumed would be Six Flags plus Mickey Mouse. I fell in love, and the rest is history.
Now, to meet us:
Me, age 35. I may suffer from a slight case of Peter Pan syndrome.
DW, younger and more practical than me.
DD15 (Emily). Professed hater of Disney, though she seems to find a lot to do... and far more to spend money on.
DS13 (Caleb). Still enjoys Disney, thinks that it's a great place to be silly, as nobody there knows you, anyway.
DS4 (Noah). My WDW buddy from two years ago. Just broke the 40" mark, and is looking forward to riding "big" rides. My daredevil child.
DS2 (Jonah). My sweet little boy, we are worried on how he'd handle character interactions and rides (he is both shy and a chicken).
DS4 months (Silas). Easygoing, happy little baby.
The plan is for me to handle most of the double stroller duties (Citi Mini Double from Baby Jogger - same as those rented by Orlando Stroller Rentals) for DS4 and DS2, while DW will mostly wear DS4 months in a baby carrier or ring sling. The older kids will help some, but we plan to give them more freedom to do their own thing, some.
We have matching shirts for two days - one is a multicolored tie dye with mouse ears on the chest, the other sports a stick figure version of our family (custom drawn for us) with our names and "The Suddeths do Disney 2011". We went with a "rainbow" theme, here - each of us has a different color shirt.
We love characters, and so DW created custom autograph book for the three little boys - 76 pages each, a little over 4x6 in size. Left page has pic of a character, plus a quote of theirs from a movie... right page is blank. We have the character sign their image, and after we get home, we print photos of the child with the character and paste them into the book. We have some "generic" pages for unexpected characters.
DD15 does not want a book this time (though she does enjoy photos with some characters, such as Alice and her crew). Ds13 decides at the last moment that he needs a book, as well.
Day 0: Departure
I get off work at lunchtime. Autograph books have run two days late at the print shop, but the printer meets them and delvers them to me. Not perfect, but they will do.
Several errands later, I am home a good hour beyond when I wanted to be. DS13 has baseball tryouts that have already caused us to drop the first day off of our trip (September 30, DS2's actual birthday, was supposed to be arrival day for us). I am unable to do much loading of luggage, as I must take DS to tryouts. At 5:30, tryouts end, and I drive him home. After loading all luggage onto the Pathfinder (yay for seven seats, two roof-mounted luggage carriers, and a trailer hitch-mounted luggage shelf!), we are off. A quick stop at McDonald's gets us actually driving by about 7:15 PM.
I have set Valdosta, GA as the minimum goal for the night, which would leave about four hours of driving to do. My true goal is Lake City, FL, which leaves under three.
We try to stop between the two, but can't find vacancy. D'oh! Alabama is playing Florida the next day, and everything is booked!
We press on to Lake City and our favorite Comfort Inn and Suites. It is now 4:00 AM local time (we lose due to time zone change), and the clerk gives us a break on the rate. $139 for the night for two queen beds plus a sleeper sofa - the only room in the hotel. We collapse.
***********************************
Day 1: Arrival and Epcot
We are rolling by about 9:30 AM, and while I am not trying to rush anyone, I don't want to hang around too long. I make a ciritcal mistake here - I ask family members about picking up their items, and DW points out that we did not upack, that we just fell into bed. I decide to not do a walkthrough of the hotel room (I usually check every drawer, in the shower, etc - even if I know said drawers have not been used). All of our items are near the door (I think). In my fatigue and haste, I overlook DW's $150 Ju Ju Be diaper bag.
After breakfast and gas, we roll in to Coronado at about 1:00 PM. The baby has the largest dirty diaper of his life - outfit is soaked, mom gets splattered - and we realize that the diaper bag is missing. I call the hotel who agrees to ship it to us overnight (which means delivery on Tuesday, since it is Saturday... and this will later prove to be a compounding mistake). Fortunately, we have diapers and wipes, but no bag.
Our room is ready and we have done online check in, so the front desk is fast. They give a birthday button to DS2, give balloons to both little boys, make us feel welcome. DW, DD15, and DS4 months set off on foot to head to our rooms (Cabanas, building 8B) while I drive over with bell services.
Weather is warmer than home and quite sticky. Bleh.
This resort is VAST. Boys and I arrive bfore DW, ever after waiting for bell services, and I discover that yes, they got lost. There was a miscommunication, and even though they knew which building, they didn't know the room numbers, and had a tough time finding us.
Our location proves to be very nice - a short stroll across the parking lot is Bus stop #4, El Centro (front desk, gift shops, restaurants) is about a five minute walk. We can park right by our room, which is a pleasant change from Animal Kingdom Lodge. I miss the deluxe theming, however.
First ride of the trip is Spaceship Earth - DS4 cannot wait to ride in the big ball for some reason. DS2 wakes up, enjoys the ride.
Today is opening weekend for Food & Wine. We naievely think we might eat here, but the World Showcase crowds are nuts. We would not have done Epcot on day 1, but DD wants to see the Taylor Dane concert and we are trying to do things she will enjoy.
DS4 gets his first ride on Test Track (and the first of MANY MANY height measurements). 65 MPH on a banked turn? DS13 (who loves all rides) and I are hanging on, DS2 sits there with a calm expression. Broken, just like his mother - no fear at all. We do rider swap.
Soarin is stupidly long wait of course, we elect to not bother with it today.
Aforementioned long lines at F&W, and we have unallocated table service credits, so we decide to eat at Nine Dragons. I usually view this place as no big deal... we have Chinese at home. However, they seat us right away, the food is quite tasty, and the service is very good. Nice experience.
DW goes with DD to do the concert, and DS13 splits off to go ride single rider TT and Mision: Space. I take the little boys to pin trade and do our First Kim Possible mission. Walk to Norway, walk back to China. The mission is pretty fun, though our Kimmunicator does stop talking halfway through the mission. It does continue to function, so we complete the job.
After rejoining, We do Maelstrom, pin trade, walk around WS. Little boys do some Duffy coloring. We do hit Argentina booth at F&W - skewers and empenadas are both excellent. We catch Illuminations with a slightly obstructed view of the sky, but still enjoy it. Finally, we head back to the resort and get counter service (mostly Pepper Market grill).
Pepper Market has a wonderful selection of choices, and the food is pretty darned good. The people are, by and large, only somewhat friendly, with a very laid-back attitude. One exception - Emily is very friendly, makes over the little boys, is very kind.
We eat in the room and head to bed... tomorrow is to be a big day. DS4 has lots of trouble going to sleep.
As I am trying to write a useful (detailed) trip report, I won't finish this all at one sitting. I will add posts to the thread, and update this first post to keep you up to date as to how complete the report is. Currently, departure day and day 1 are done.
This was my fourth trip to Disney - all as an adult. My parents didn't do "kiddie" vacations, and my wife had only been to Magic Kingdom for one day as a child, but in 2003, she talked me into taking the two kids to what I assumed would be Six Flags plus Mickey Mouse. I fell in love, and the rest is history.
Now, to meet us:
Me, age 35. I may suffer from a slight case of Peter Pan syndrome.
DW, younger and more practical than me.
DD15 (Emily). Professed hater of Disney, though she seems to find a lot to do... and far more to spend money on.
DS13 (Caleb). Still enjoys Disney, thinks that it's a great place to be silly, as nobody there knows you, anyway.
DS4 (Noah). My WDW buddy from two years ago. Just broke the 40" mark, and is looking forward to riding "big" rides. My daredevil child.
DS2 (Jonah). My sweet little boy, we are worried on how he'd handle character interactions and rides (he is both shy and a chicken).
DS4 months (Silas). Easygoing, happy little baby.
The plan is for me to handle most of the double stroller duties (Citi Mini Double from Baby Jogger - same as those rented by Orlando Stroller Rentals) for DS4 and DS2, while DW will mostly wear DS4 months in a baby carrier or ring sling. The older kids will help some, but we plan to give them more freedom to do their own thing, some.
We have matching shirts for two days - one is a multicolored tie dye with mouse ears on the chest, the other sports a stick figure version of our family (custom drawn for us) with our names and "The Suddeths do Disney 2011". We went with a "rainbow" theme, here - each of us has a different color shirt.
We love characters, and so DW created custom autograph book for the three little boys - 76 pages each, a little over 4x6 in size. Left page has pic of a character, plus a quote of theirs from a movie... right page is blank. We have the character sign their image, and after we get home, we print photos of the child with the character and paste them into the book. We have some "generic" pages for unexpected characters.
DD15 does not want a book this time (though she does enjoy photos with some characters, such as Alice and her crew). Ds13 decides at the last moment that he needs a book, as well.
Day 0: Departure
I get off work at lunchtime. Autograph books have run two days late at the print shop, but the printer meets them and delvers them to me. Not perfect, but they will do.
Several errands later, I am home a good hour beyond when I wanted to be. DS13 has baseball tryouts that have already caused us to drop the first day off of our trip (September 30, DS2's actual birthday, was supposed to be arrival day for us). I am unable to do much loading of luggage, as I must take DS to tryouts. At 5:30, tryouts end, and I drive him home. After loading all luggage onto the Pathfinder (yay for seven seats, two roof-mounted luggage carriers, and a trailer hitch-mounted luggage shelf!), we are off. A quick stop at McDonald's gets us actually driving by about 7:15 PM.
I have set Valdosta, GA as the minimum goal for the night, which would leave about four hours of driving to do. My true goal is Lake City, FL, which leaves under three.
We try to stop between the two, but can't find vacancy. D'oh! Alabama is playing Florida the next day, and everything is booked!
We press on to Lake City and our favorite Comfort Inn and Suites. It is now 4:00 AM local time (we lose due to time zone change), and the clerk gives us a break on the rate. $139 for the night for two queen beds plus a sleeper sofa - the only room in the hotel. We collapse.
***********************************
Day 1: Arrival and Epcot
We are rolling by about 9:30 AM, and while I am not trying to rush anyone, I don't want to hang around too long. I make a ciritcal mistake here - I ask family members about picking up their items, and DW points out that we did not upack, that we just fell into bed. I decide to not do a walkthrough of the hotel room (I usually check every drawer, in the shower, etc - even if I know said drawers have not been used). All of our items are near the door (I think). In my fatigue and haste, I overlook DW's $150 Ju Ju Be diaper bag.
After breakfast and gas, we roll in to Coronado at about 1:00 PM. The baby has the largest dirty diaper of his life - outfit is soaked, mom gets splattered - and we realize that the diaper bag is missing. I call the hotel who agrees to ship it to us overnight (which means delivery on Tuesday, since it is Saturday... and this will later prove to be a compounding mistake). Fortunately, we have diapers and wipes, but no bag.
Our room is ready and we have done online check in, so the front desk is fast. They give a birthday button to DS2, give balloons to both little boys, make us feel welcome. DW, DD15, and DS4 months set off on foot to head to our rooms (Cabanas, building 8B) while I drive over with bell services.
Weather is warmer than home and quite sticky. Bleh.
This resort is VAST. Boys and I arrive bfore DW, ever after waiting for bell services, and I discover that yes, they got lost. There was a miscommunication, and even though they knew which building, they didn't know the room numbers, and had a tough time finding us.
Our location proves to be very nice - a short stroll across the parking lot is Bus stop #4, El Centro (front desk, gift shops, restaurants) is about a five minute walk. We can park right by our room, which is a pleasant change from Animal Kingdom Lodge. I miss the deluxe theming, however.
First ride of the trip is Spaceship Earth - DS4 cannot wait to ride in the big ball for some reason. DS2 wakes up, enjoys the ride.
Today is opening weekend for Food & Wine. We naievely think we might eat here, but the World Showcase crowds are nuts. We would not have done Epcot on day 1, but DD wants to see the Taylor Dane concert and we are trying to do things she will enjoy.
DS4 gets his first ride on Test Track (and the first of MANY MANY height measurements). 65 MPH on a banked turn? DS13 (who loves all rides) and I are hanging on, DS2 sits there with a calm expression. Broken, just like his mother - no fear at all. We do rider swap.
Soarin is stupidly long wait of course, we elect to not bother with it today.
Aforementioned long lines at F&W, and we have unallocated table service credits, so we decide to eat at Nine Dragons. I usually view this place as no big deal... we have Chinese at home. However, they seat us right away, the food is quite tasty, and the service is very good. Nice experience.
DW goes with DD to do the concert, and DS13 splits off to go ride single rider TT and Mision: Space. I take the little boys to pin trade and do our First Kim Possible mission. Walk to Norway, walk back to China. The mission is pretty fun, though our Kimmunicator does stop talking halfway through the mission. It does continue to function, so we complete the job.
After rejoining, We do Maelstrom, pin trade, walk around WS. Little boys do some Duffy coloring. We do hit Argentina booth at F&W - skewers and empenadas are both excellent. We catch Illuminations with a slightly obstructed view of the sky, but still enjoy it. Finally, we head back to the resort and get counter service (mostly Pepper Market grill).
Pepper Market has a wonderful selection of choices, and the food is pretty darned good. The people are, by and large, only somewhat friendly, with a very laid-back attitude. One exception - Emily is very friendly, makes over the little boys, is very kind.
We eat in the room and head to bed... tomorrow is to be a big day. DS4 has lots of trouble going to sleep.
