DREAMing, some MAGIC and a little bit of Paris! Trip report link!

I am still looking at hotels. I am really over thinking it being it is only 2 nights. LOL. Thanks for the info on the plane. Still looking at that too. We are doing Italy 9/19-9/30 and then Paris 9/30-10/4.
So far Rome hotel is booked and still looking in Florence and Venice for a hotel. Lots of research being done.

The breakfast looked good.
Too bad you couldn’t get the next room or enter it earlier.
I love Disney Village.
Not too bad at the Main Entrance.
 
I am still looking at hotels. I am really over thinking it being it is only 2 nights. LOL. Thanks for the info on the plane. Still looking at that too. We are doing Italy 9/19-9/30 and then Paris 9/30-10/4.
So far Rome hotel is booked and still looking in Florence and Venice for a hotel. Lots of research being done.

The breakfast looked good.
Too bad you couldn’t get the next room or enter it earlier.
I love Disney Village.
Not too bad at the Main Entrance.

I highly recommend the Locanda Orseolo in Venice. It's just off St Mark's Square and is run by a great family. I stayed there 2 nights in 2007 and loved it!

Www.locandaorseolo.com

Jill in CO
 
I just love your trip reports! They make me smile so big and daydream about traveling for as long as you are able to!

Not to mention the thought of you making all these memories with your brother makes my mama heart just swell. Oh how I pray my children are close when they are older. :cloud9: :love:
 
I am still looking at hotels. I am really over thinking it being it is only 2 nights. LOL. Thanks for the info on the plane. Still looking at that too. We are doing Italy 9/19-9/30 and then Paris 9/30-10/4.
So far Rome hotel is booked and still looking in Florence and Venice for a hotel. Lots of research being done.

The breakfast looked good.
Too bad you couldnt get the next room or enter it earlier.
I love Disney Village.
Not too bad at the Main Entrance.

Scott, it is really a pleasure to be able to help someone with something I deal with all the time. ;)
To be honest, if they would not give me a nice discount I would not stay at the NY - too expensive. We like the Kyriad and given how much time you spend there it really is all you need. If you want to stay on property, have you looked at the Sequoia Lodge? It is cheaper than the NY and just a few more steps away.
Again, I would not rule out National carriers when choosing flights. They usually use the "big" airports and it is easier to get a connection on the next flight if you should miss a flight.
As for Venice - remember that if you choose a hotel on the island your only source of transport is by water. There are Vaporettos - water buses who are very reasonable and get you to the main points, or you can take a watertaxi - holy moly, they are expensive! If you take a Vaporetto, be aware that you might have to drag your luggage to your hotel.
We usually stay close to the terminal (after the long bridge) as we never spend a lot of time in a hotel room and from there you can either walk everywhere or use the Vaporetto.

We were fine with not having a room for a while in the end. ;) It just was so disappointing when you only have three nights and they take half a day away from you. ;)
Disney Village is cute. :thumbsup2


I highly recommend the Locanda Orseolo in Venice. It's just off St Mark's Square and is run by a great family. I stayed there 2 nights in 2007 and loved it!

Www.locandaorseolo.com

Jill in CO

Looks great! :thumbsup2 I looked at the map and it looks like a little walk from the Vaporetto - do they pick you up?

I just love your trip reports! They make me smile so big and daydream about traveling for as long as you are able to!

Not to mention the thought of you making all these memories with your brother makes my mama heart just swell. Oh how I pray my children are close when they are older. :cloud9: :love:

Thank you for your kind words!
It is really nice to travel for a longer period of time. Time to really enjoy life in a foreign country. Well, even though it is an easy life, as we don't have to worry about work. ;)

I am sure your kids will share a lot of wonderful memories as well. :goodvibes
 

Three weeks from today we will already be on a plane to Orlando! It's coming up fast!!!!!!!


Therefore ..........


I need to interrupt my current Paris TR to post planning for our WDW/DCL trip. Hope you don't mind too much. :rolleyes1
 



Looks great! :thumbsup2 I looked at the map and it looks like a little walk from the Vaporetto - do they pick you up?





I don't they they offer a pick up service. You can take a water taxi directly there but I walked from the St Mark's vaperetto stop....it really wasn't bad except for the wheel had been broken off my suitcase by the airline. :)

The family running it is just lovely and the breakfasts were yummy! I miss the Nutella crepes they made me every morning!

Jill in CO
 
Let the planning begin!





Day 1, February 15 - And off we go ………..

We will have had a short night when we get up at 4.30 that day. The day before we will have taken Pixie



to her vacation home, then get the house ship shape and finally have finished packing. I guess around midnight we will have fallen into bed, just to get up 4 and a half hours later.
We will then quickly get ready, grab a bite to eat before locking up the house and loading our luggage into the car to drive to the airport. Since it will be so early in the morning, we should not have any traffic problems and arrive at the airport in good time. We will then leave the car in the 10 minute parking zone, grab the luggage, head inside and drop off the luggage, before driving the car over to the parking lot. Car parked we will just stroll back to the terminal, only having to take care of our carry-ons. Soon we will be through security and after a short bathroom break we should be able to board our plane for the first leg of our trip.



The trip only takes and hour and 5 minutes and will fly by while we will be nibbling our snack



and enjoying our free drink.
Having arrived in Frankfurt, the plane will most likely be parked at an outside position and we will all be taken to the terminal by bus. Once there we will have 5 and half hours to spend, but since we were lucky enough to get an upgrade to Business class, by paying with airmiles, we will have the lounge





to hang around in, have internet access and lots to nibble on.





I guess we will be able to relax in the lounge and soon we will be on our way to the gate to board our plane to Orlando. If I remember correctly, we will be greeted by a nice glass of wine



and will settle into our seat. Once we are on our way we will be treated to a nice lunch, white table cloth





and all, before we will watch a little TV and try to catch up on a little sleep. Thankfully these seats convert to beds,



so it should be fairly easy. Shortly before we arrive in Orlando



we will enjoy a light dinner



and once we have arrived at our destination we will try to get off the plane as quickly as possible to be as far at the head of the immigration line as possible. Once immigration is done we will hope to find our luggage and head through customs before getting in line to pick up our rental car.



And then finally we will fit our GPS in the car and off we go to Walt Disney World. If we are in time we will make a slight D-tour and stop at Publix and the Kissimmee Krispy Kreme



to officially start off the vacation in style. Soon after our stop there we will drive under the well-known arch



that is the entrance to Walt Disney World. We will head right for the Villas at the Grand Floridian



and check into our Lake View Studio.



We will then pick up our Owner’s Locker and haul our luggage up into the room.
Then we will quickly freshen up and head over to the Monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom.



Depending on when we arrive we will either use our first fastpass+ at Peter Pan



or get ourselves to either Cosmic Ray’s or Pecos Bill

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for some dinner. And after dinner and a flight over London we will head over to the Jungle Cruise,

IMG_6174.JPG


where we will use fastpass number two. If there is enough time left we will try to get on Pirates

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before heading to the last ride of the day, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

IMG_6190.JPG


Once we get off there we will slowly head towards the exit, get onto the Monorail and head back to the Grand Floridian. I guess by then we will be more than tired enough to get a good night’s sleep.

 
I don't they they offer a pick up service. You can take a water taxi directly there but I walked from the St Mark's vaperetto stop....it really wasn't bad except for the wheel had been broken off my suitcase by the airline. :)

The family running it is just lovely and the breakfasts were yummy! I miss the Nutella crepes they made me every morning!

Jill in CO

My problem is that we do NOT travel light. :rotfl2: Even for a weekend trip the boot of our car is FULL. ;)

And the airline breaking a wheel off of the suitcase is no fun. I hope you got refunded.

Mmh, Nutella crepes, sounds yummy - maybe I know what's for dessert tomorrow. :rotfl2::rotfl2:
 
Departure plans sound great!! How nice to have the reclining seat to get some sleep !! Food looks very good too!!!
 
My problem is that we do NOT travel light. :rotfl2: Even for a weekend trip the boot of our car is FULL. ;)

And the airline breaking a wheel off of the suitcase is no fun. I hope you got refunded.

Mmh, Nutella crepes, sounds yummy - maybe I know what's for dessert tomorrow. :rotfl2::rotfl2:

I travel that way too. :) Hi, my name is Jill and I'm an overpacker! ;)

I did finally get Delta to replace the bag...there was no Delta representative in Venice so I drug the bag through Venice, Florence, and Rome for 10 days and finally filed a claim when I got back to Kansas City. 3 months later and about 50 phone calls, they sent me a check. :)

Jill in CO
 
That cat is adorable. I used to have a cat that looked just like that. :thumbsup2

Sounds like an great, long, exhausting, and super fun arrival day.

Remember - lots of pictures of VGF!
 
Departure plans sound great!! How nice to have the reclining seat to get some sleep !! Food looks very good too!!!

Thank you, Rosie!
I am sure we will have a little nap on the plane, since we won't get much sleep the night before. ;)
And I guess I am one of the few who actually like to have FP+ as it will open up the opportunity to actually get on some rides, even later in the day. :woohoo:


I travel that way too. :) Hi, my name is Jill and I'm an overpacker! ;)


May I join your club please! :lmao:


I did finally get Delta to replace the bag...there was no Delta representative in Venice so I drug the bag through Venice, Florence, and Rome for 10 days and finally filed a claim when I got back to Kansas City. 3 months later and about 50 phone calls, they sent me a check. :)

Jill in CO

At least they did replace thebag, but having to deal with the issue while travelling is definitely no fun. :headache:

That cat is adorable. I used to have a cat that looked just like that. :thumbsup2

Sounds like an great, long, exhausting, and super fun arrival day.

Remember - lots of pictures of VGF!

Thank you, Mary Ellen!
If someone understands that she is the "lady" of the house, it would be you, knowing how much you love your cats. :hug:
As much as we love travelling, leaving her behind is the hardest thing to do, even though we know that she is well taken care of. :goodvibes

I promise we will take LOTS of pics of VGF!

It will be a long day, given that there is a 6 hour time change for us as well. We arrive at 6pm local time, which is midnight our time, so I guess it will be nice to be able to take a nap as I intend to stay at the MK until 1am. :rotfl2:
 




Day 2, February 16 - Back to the DREAM

Being that we will still have to fight with the time change we will be up early again and will repack our stuff, now including the things that we kept in the Owner’s Locker.



I guess we will head over to the Gasparilla Grill and pick up some breakfast items, which will be consumed out on the balcony of our studio. We will enjoy the view and check out the grounds after our breakfast and all too soon it will be time to say goodbye to the Grand Floridian and we will drive over to Downtown Disney for a second breakfast at Wolfgang Puck’s Express, which is a pre-cruise tradition for us.
And finally after having enjoyed a breakfast pizza



we will get on our way to Port Canaveral. It will take us about an hour to get there, but we are in no big hurry as we can check in whenever we want, being Platinum Castaway Club Members has its advantages.
About 50 minutes into our drive the ship will come into sight





and that will push our excitement even more. Soon we will drive up to the porters and they will take care of our luggage, while we drive into the parking garage to park our car. Then we will head over to the Security checkpoint and finally check in. Once we are checked in we will head on board and right over to guest services to find out if we can do a galley tour and some tastings and I guess by then it will be already around noon, so we will just go downstairs to the Enchanted Garden for some lunch.



Then it will be time to get in line at the Royal Palace’s side entrance to find out if our seating request has been honoured or if they can help us there. I guess we will stroll around deck 4 or find a comfy seat somewhere until it will be time to check out or home for the next four days.



We have chosen a new stateroom category this time. Smack dab at the aft of the ship on deck 8. It is supposed to have a larger veranda than the other staterooms and by the photos we have seen it really does. So it will be nice to check that out.
After we have settled in and hopefully have already found a suitcase outside our room we will head to the DVC presentation,



where we will enjoy a nice drink,



watch the reps trying hard to sell some points and after that it will be time to head to the DISmeet, which I guess will be held at the Vista Café



at 3pm. There will not be much time after the meet until we need to head to our muster station for the safety drill. Drill over, the most difficult task will be to get back to our stateroom. I hope that the rest of our luggage will be delivered by then and we will order some room service nibbles before we head out to sea.





This time we will watch the sail away from our balcony instead from deck 12. Once we are out at sea I guess we will go down to stroll through the stores and try to find some familiar cast member faces. I guess we will skip the Golden Mickeys and instead will deliver our first round of Fish Extender gifts



before heading to one of the lounges for a nice relaxing drink.
At 8pm we will head to our assigned rotation restaurant, meet our servers and enjoy our first dinner on board.







I guess that the time change will have caught up with us after dinner and all that we will still do that evening is sit out on the veranda and watch the ship glide through the ocean before we head off to dreamland.

 
Great plans and all those food pictures are killing me right now. I am HUNGRY! :rotfl2:

Love the FE magnets. They are super cute!
 
So happy you and Tom are getting to cruise again real soon. I have been looking at all our cruise pics to try and get through this terrible deep freeze.
 
Wait a minute! Are you sailing in OUR CABIN? Center aft on deck 8?

While it is not for everyone, we love it back there. So much so that we will be back there again in Sept! Yes, it is a long walk to get almost anywhere - helps burn calories. Yes, you will feel the ships vibrations while pulling into port - acts like an alarm clock for me. I am not a morning person but feeling the ship vibrations gets me excited enough to get up and get going! I am not very good at posting pictures but I have some good ones of the balcony that I will try to post when I am on my desktop. No way will I be able to manage that on my tablet. I hope you enjoy our favorite cabin!

Your little Pixie is really cute. I know well what you mean about it being really hard to leave her. We have 2 cats who spend time at "cat camp", actually our friend's house when we travel. While they do seem to love it there, we still feel really bad about leaving them.

Awesome that you're staying at the Villas at the GF! Knowing you, I know there will be great pictures!
 
Plans sound terrific, Karin.

I know we will never stay at the GF Villas, so I am looking forward to your pictures.
 
Great plans and all those food pictures are killing me right now. I am HUNGRY! :rotfl2:

Love the FE magnets. They are super cute!

Glad you like our plans ...... we have done it that way quite a few times and it works out fine for us. ;)
I guess once you are going on your cruise later this year, you will be killing US with all those food pics. ;)
We love to give out those FE magnets. And we have seen some of them on a later cruise as well. :thumbsup2


So happy you and Tom are getting to cruise again real soon. I have been looking at all our cruise pics to try and get through this terrible deep freeze.

I can't believe we only have two more weeks until we are on our way again. :yay:
Oh, and Teresa, I can so relay to the bad weather - ours has not been that bad for that long, but those last few days of snow and cold are more than enough for me. :rotfl2:


Wait a minute! Are you sailing in OUR CABIN? Center aft on deck 8?

YES!!!!!!! We are - 8188!!!!!!

While it is not for everyone, we love it back there. So much so that we will be back there again in Sept! Yes, it is a long walk to get almost anywhere - helps burn calories. Yes, you will feel the ships vibrations while pulling into port - acts like an alarm clock for me. I am not a morning person but feeling the ship vibrations gets me excited enough to get up and get going! I am not very good at posting pictures but I have some good ones of the balcony that I will try to post when I am on my desktop. No way will I be able to manage that on my tablet. I hope you enjoy our favorite cabin!

Awesome to hear that you loved that stateroom. I am not bothered with ship's movement, we have sailed through two hurricanes and it only gave us a good appetite. :rotfl2:
So I guess we can live with the vibrations. :lmao:


Your little Pixie is really cute. I know well what you mean about it being really hard to leave her. We have 2 cats who spend time at "cat camp", actually our friend's house when we travel. While they do seem to love it there, we still feel really bad about leaving them.

It is so hard to leave our little princess behind. We know she loves where she goes as the lady there really takes good care of her and plays with her, but she hates the drive there ..... and to be honest, so do I. :rotfl2:

Awesome that you're staying at the Villas at the GF! Knowing you, I know there will be great pictures!

I could not believe we were able to snag a reservation. :woohoo: But as lovely as it will be I guess this will be our only visit there as it takes a lot of points.
But we are curious to see this new DVC addition. :thumbsup2


Plans sound terrific, Karin.

I know we will never stay at the GF Villas, so I am looking forward to your pictures.

Thank you, Kathy. I really hope that our plans will work out the way we planned them. :goodvibes

Never say never, Kathy. ;) For quite some time I said that I would not stay at the GF. :rotfl2:
But I guess this will be our only stay there as it costs quite a few points.
 
Never say never, Kathy. ;) For quite some time I said that I would not stay at the GF. :rotfl2:
But I guess this will be our only stay there as it costs quite a few points.

Trust me...this one is a NEVER. Mark detests the place. And since he pays for these trips with his umpping, I won't argue with him on this one.
 
Great plans Karin
It's so close to your trip now, I can't wait to hear what you think of the GF Villas
Kathy - my hubby is the same, he really dislikes the GF :(
 












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