skylynx
DIS Sponsor in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,280
Just back from our first time ever being the prize winners of anything! Heres a recap of what we won at the DVC event last August
four nights for four people in a one-bedroom villa, five day park hoppers, plane tickets, and a $1500 gift card (which we asked to be divided into four $375 cards).
Left OHare Airport on time on the earliest United flight possible March 25 and arrived to delightfully temperate Florida weather. Sunshine, warm, but not too hot. Picked up our rental car (Magical Express was included in our prize, but we rented a car on our own as we dont do the buses-think we lose too much time waiting for them). Drove to Disneys Character Wearhouse in the I-Drive outlet mall area to check out any Disney pre-bargains. Then the kids made their requisite pilgrimages to the RonJon and Vans outlets. Stopped at Walmart to stock up on soda, water, marble pound cake, bagels and cream cheese for the mornings wed be in too much of a hurry to take time for counter service breakfast.
Got to Animal Kingdom Lodge around 3. We own at AKV, and were so delighted that we were able to choose this resort as our prize stay location. Our room was ready, as was our prize packet with the park passes and gift cards and a special Disney trading pin only given to winners of contests. As everyone in our family trades pins, there was a big fight over that one. DS Jack, 13, ended up with it as it was his lucky initials mark on my sweepstakes entry card that made our card get picked (or so he believes.) We were happy to note that our request for a one bedroom that sleeps five was delivered as promised because we didnt bring the air mattress and no way would DD 16 share a bed with her brother.
As I feared, after staying in this one bedroom we are RUINED for going back to a studio when we travel with the kids. Unless Im really pressed to save points, its a one bedroom going forward. What a pleasure to have a separate room to shut the door and not have to listen to their iPods plugged into the clock radio speakers. And that huge balcony! WOW! I know the one bedrooms at Kidani will be even better, but were we ever impressed. The room was really clean when we checked in. As a lime-green-blooded Disboarder, as soon as we walked in I investigated behind the drapes for hidden diapers, the fridge for green fur, and did a bedbug inspection. No unwelcome surprises. It was not a savannah view, which was only a mild disappointment. Hard to complain about anything when the Mouse is picking up the tab! We did have a great pool view. And we saw plenty of animals while walking around the resort.
Got settled in, then it was time to start burning through those gift cards. It was a bit impractical when we all had a sit-down meal together for everyone to pay separately, so we decided to take turns buying those meals. Suddenly, my kids became the most frugal humans imaginable. Mom, you know, you could just have water. Despite taking these kids to WDW and on cruises their whole lives, they have still not developed an appreciation for what it costs to feed them at Disney when it wasnt coming out of their own pockets. And even though the gift cards were like found money, the debiting was nonetheless painful to them. Case in point: at Typhoon Lagoon it was DDs turn to buy lunch. We had ordered two kids meals in beach buckets and two chicken sandwiches and one Coke. The cashier announces the total and DD says in wide-eyed horror THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS! So what I had thought might be an exercise in gluttony turned out to be a reality check for both of them. When we first won the prize, the kids calculated how many Mickey Premium bars and turkey legs they could buy with $375 and stuff like that, but when it came down to it, they were pretty careful with their money, and only bought stuff they really wanted.
We checked with Guest Services at DTD to see if we could upgrade the kids 5 day hoppers to no-expiration ones because we really only planned to go to parks two or three of the days. It would have cost $70 each ticket to do that, so we decided to just use whatever of the tickets we could and that was that. DH and I will save our 2 hoppers for another time as we have annual passes.
Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom and my son rode Everest for the first time now hes a fan! It was first thing in the morning, so not too crowded. Rode Kali and got really wet, then made walk-up reservations for Yak and Yeti for lunch. What a delicious meal. I had the honey chicken, and DS had this enormous mound of lo mein. Dessert was hot cream cheese wontons with pineapple on skewers oh my! This was something we might not have done if Mickey wasnt treating an $80 lunch with no appetizers, only one dessert, and one beer. And that was after the DVC member discount! The food was truly flavorful, and a welcome break from the burger, chicken, fries and pizza rotation. We took our time walking around, enjoying the lushness of the park, and then eventually went back to the lodge for a siesta. When we got there, mousekeeping was just leaving our room. What? Had not expected daily mousekeeping, but got it. Wed been using the Internet as we figured it would be free, but since we were getting daily mousekeeping, it appeared our reservation might have been treated as a cash one. Took a trip to concierge to find out, as if we had to pay $9.95 a day we wouldnt keep using it. The lady at concierge took quite a while to read stuff, ask other people, and finally make a phone call to come to the conclusion that we would not be charged. Of course, it was added on our bill at the end anyway, but a phone call to the front desk took it off.
Thursday night we used the kids passes from last year to get into Disney Quest. We were chosen as the pirate family of the day and got a cute free photo of us all in pirate gear in the P of C attraction.
Friday: off to Epcot early in the morning to ride Test Track and Soarin before all the fast passes were gone. It was pretty crowded, but since our park warrior family had a 13 year old boy for a fast pass runner we did ok! It was good we did the wait by midday for Soarin was 110 minutes. Grief. When it got warmer and crowds started loading up, we left and went to Typhoon Lagoon. DH and I determined that floating along in a tube for a couple hours on Castaway Creek is a fine way to spend a Friday afternoon. Broke down and used some of my own gift card to buy a Quiksilver rash guard shirt at the Typhoon Lagoon shop as DD and I are getting scuba certified next month. Thanks, Mickey!
Regrouped back at the lodge, then returned to Epcot for extra magic hours. After Illuminations they played the music from the sadly extinct Tapestry of Nations parade. Oh how Id love to have that parade and music back again we got engaged during it!
Saturday: shuffled the groggy kids out of bed to get over to Magic Kingdom when it first opened as DS had a quest to do all three mountains in one day. Turns out we were early enough we did all three mountains by 11 am, plus Haunted Mansion, Indy Speedway and P of C. DD, who spends most of her time fretting over her hair, succumbed to family pressure and went on Splash Mountain. Tragically, she got the most drenched of us all. We bought the photo. Thanks, Mickey! Took a break back to our room at AKV when Magic Kingdom got so clogged with strollers you couldnt move. We went in the spa and watched baby giraffes while we bubbled gotta love AKV! Back to Magic Kingdom at night for Spectromagic, Wishes, and a few rides on the TTA (Peoplemover). MK was open until midnight but we only made it until 11.
On Sunday we woke to a thunderstorm, and had the pleasure of eating our breakfast from the Mara out on our balcony while the storm raged. I did laundry just because I could. It was quite a cozy feeling to see and hear the rain outside while the dryer was cheerfully rolling and clicking along. Then, DD announces she just remembered she has to have her works cited photocopied out of her two resource books before turning in her English class paper on Druids Monday morning. We are getting back to Chicago too late tonight to do that, and Im not about to start driving around Orlando looking for a Kinkos. Back to the concierge desk to ask where the nearest business center was. The nice lady said she could do that for us, so off she marches with my daughters school books with the pages marked. A few minutes later, shes done. Im sure my daughter was the only kid in her class whose works cited pages were copied by a concierge! Packed up and sadly checked out. Had a final trip around DTD and Ghirardelli sundaes to console ourselves before heading home.
We did do some things differently because we had Mickey money to spend, but other than the pricey lunch at Yak and Yeti and everyone buying his or her own refillable mug, we really didnt behave abnormally spending-wise. And we each came home with over $100 left on our gift cards for our next trip down in October when we have Treehouse ressies for DHs birthday.
Thanks for everything, Mickey!
Left OHare Airport on time on the earliest United flight possible March 25 and arrived to delightfully temperate Florida weather. Sunshine, warm, but not too hot. Picked up our rental car (Magical Express was included in our prize, but we rented a car on our own as we dont do the buses-think we lose too much time waiting for them). Drove to Disneys Character Wearhouse in the I-Drive outlet mall area to check out any Disney pre-bargains. Then the kids made their requisite pilgrimages to the RonJon and Vans outlets. Stopped at Walmart to stock up on soda, water, marble pound cake, bagels and cream cheese for the mornings wed be in too much of a hurry to take time for counter service breakfast.
Got to Animal Kingdom Lodge around 3. We own at AKV, and were so delighted that we were able to choose this resort as our prize stay location. Our room was ready, as was our prize packet with the park passes and gift cards and a special Disney trading pin only given to winners of contests. As everyone in our family trades pins, there was a big fight over that one. DS Jack, 13, ended up with it as it was his lucky initials mark on my sweepstakes entry card that made our card get picked (or so he believes.) We were happy to note that our request for a one bedroom that sleeps five was delivered as promised because we didnt bring the air mattress and no way would DD 16 share a bed with her brother.
As I feared, after staying in this one bedroom we are RUINED for going back to a studio when we travel with the kids. Unless Im really pressed to save points, its a one bedroom going forward. What a pleasure to have a separate room to shut the door and not have to listen to their iPods plugged into the clock radio speakers. And that huge balcony! WOW! I know the one bedrooms at Kidani will be even better, but were we ever impressed. The room was really clean when we checked in. As a lime-green-blooded Disboarder, as soon as we walked in I investigated behind the drapes for hidden diapers, the fridge for green fur, and did a bedbug inspection. No unwelcome surprises. It was not a savannah view, which was only a mild disappointment. Hard to complain about anything when the Mouse is picking up the tab! We did have a great pool view. And we saw plenty of animals while walking around the resort.
Got settled in, then it was time to start burning through those gift cards. It was a bit impractical when we all had a sit-down meal together for everyone to pay separately, so we decided to take turns buying those meals. Suddenly, my kids became the most frugal humans imaginable. Mom, you know, you could just have water. Despite taking these kids to WDW and on cruises their whole lives, they have still not developed an appreciation for what it costs to feed them at Disney when it wasnt coming out of their own pockets. And even though the gift cards were like found money, the debiting was nonetheless painful to them. Case in point: at Typhoon Lagoon it was DDs turn to buy lunch. We had ordered two kids meals in beach buckets and two chicken sandwiches and one Coke. The cashier announces the total and DD says in wide-eyed horror THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS! So what I had thought might be an exercise in gluttony turned out to be a reality check for both of them. When we first won the prize, the kids calculated how many Mickey Premium bars and turkey legs they could buy with $375 and stuff like that, but when it came down to it, they were pretty careful with their money, and only bought stuff they really wanted.
We checked with Guest Services at DTD to see if we could upgrade the kids 5 day hoppers to no-expiration ones because we really only planned to go to parks two or three of the days. It would have cost $70 each ticket to do that, so we decided to just use whatever of the tickets we could and that was that. DH and I will save our 2 hoppers for another time as we have annual passes.
Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom and my son rode Everest for the first time now hes a fan! It was first thing in the morning, so not too crowded. Rode Kali and got really wet, then made walk-up reservations for Yak and Yeti for lunch. What a delicious meal. I had the honey chicken, and DS had this enormous mound of lo mein. Dessert was hot cream cheese wontons with pineapple on skewers oh my! This was something we might not have done if Mickey wasnt treating an $80 lunch with no appetizers, only one dessert, and one beer. And that was after the DVC member discount! The food was truly flavorful, and a welcome break from the burger, chicken, fries and pizza rotation. We took our time walking around, enjoying the lushness of the park, and then eventually went back to the lodge for a siesta. When we got there, mousekeeping was just leaving our room. What? Had not expected daily mousekeeping, but got it. Wed been using the Internet as we figured it would be free, but since we were getting daily mousekeeping, it appeared our reservation might have been treated as a cash one. Took a trip to concierge to find out, as if we had to pay $9.95 a day we wouldnt keep using it. The lady at concierge took quite a while to read stuff, ask other people, and finally make a phone call to come to the conclusion that we would not be charged. Of course, it was added on our bill at the end anyway, but a phone call to the front desk took it off.
Thursday night we used the kids passes from last year to get into Disney Quest. We were chosen as the pirate family of the day and got a cute free photo of us all in pirate gear in the P of C attraction.
Friday: off to Epcot early in the morning to ride Test Track and Soarin before all the fast passes were gone. It was pretty crowded, but since our park warrior family had a 13 year old boy for a fast pass runner we did ok! It was good we did the wait by midday for Soarin was 110 minutes. Grief. When it got warmer and crowds started loading up, we left and went to Typhoon Lagoon. DH and I determined that floating along in a tube for a couple hours on Castaway Creek is a fine way to spend a Friday afternoon. Broke down and used some of my own gift card to buy a Quiksilver rash guard shirt at the Typhoon Lagoon shop as DD and I are getting scuba certified next month. Thanks, Mickey!
Regrouped back at the lodge, then returned to Epcot for extra magic hours. After Illuminations they played the music from the sadly extinct Tapestry of Nations parade. Oh how Id love to have that parade and music back again we got engaged during it!
Saturday: shuffled the groggy kids out of bed to get over to Magic Kingdom when it first opened as DS had a quest to do all three mountains in one day. Turns out we were early enough we did all three mountains by 11 am, plus Haunted Mansion, Indy Speedway and P of C. DD, who spends most of her time fretting over her hair, succumbed to family pressure and went on Splash Mountain. Tragically, she got the most drenched of us all. We bought the photo. Thanks, Mickey! Took a break back to our room at AKV when Magic Kingdom got so clogged with strollers you couldnt move. We went in the spa and watched baby giraffes while we bubbled gotta love AKV! Back to Magic Kingdom at night for Spectromagic, Wishes, and a few rides on the TTA (Peoplemover). MK was open until midnight but we only made it until 11.
On Sunday we woke to a thunderstorm, and had the pleasure of eating our breakfast from the Mara out on our balcony while the storm raged. I did laundry just because I could. It was quite a cozy feeling to see and hear the rain outside while the dryer was cheerfully rolling and clicking along. Then, DD announces she just remembered she has to have her works cited photocopied out of her two resource books before turning in her English class paper on Druids Monday morning. We are getting back to Chicago too late tonight to do that, and Im not about to start driving around Orlando looking for a Kinkos. Back to the concierge desk to ask where the nearest business center was. The nice lady said she could do that for us, so off she marches with my daughters school books with the pages marked. A few minutes later, shes done. Im sure my daughter was the only kid in her class whose works cited pages were copied by a concierge! Packed up and sadly checked out. Had a final trip around DTD and Ghirardelli sundaes to console ourselves before heading home.
We did do some things differently because we had Mickey money to spend, but other than the pricey lunch at Yak and Yeti and everyone buying his or her own refillable mug, we really didnt behave abnormally spending-wise. And we each came home with over $100 left on our gift cards for our next trip down in October when we have Treehouse ressies for DHs birthday.
Thanks for everything, Mickey!
....how exciting....love your trip report...i'm so bad at remembering trip details.......we won a America's Funniest Video 
Now, that's a vacation!
