Everyone else gets to ride the fun rides.. 1st Family Trip May2010(top 5..9/7)

[pinkxray]

We’re back! Months of planning and it’s all over. We didn’t fit in ¼ of what I wanted to do but it was a great trip anyway. It just means we need to take another trip!

Who are we?
Me(Diane)- 27 (until next Wed. when I will have to change it to 28) I just graduated radiography school a few weeks ago and now am an employed x-ray tech! I signed my paperwork about 2 days before we left and start my new job next Monday!

Anyway, I love Disney. My first trip was when I was 3 and all I remember about that trip was my awesome red sunglasses I got that had the silver mirror looking lenses with Mickey etched in them and my sister trying to steal them. I returned again at 9 and 10 and then for the last time with my family at 14. I returned again in 2002 and 2003 with DH.


DH-29 (John)- This was his 3rd trip with me and 4th overall. Doesn’t understand why people love Disneyworld so much. Loves Universal and thought 10 days was way too long


DD 5- (Caitlin) The cutest little girl ever! It was her first trip ever and she loved it! She wants to live in Disney forever (who doesn’t) She can be the sweetest little girl ever but mostly she likes to argue with everything I say. She thinks her Daddy knows everything and sometimes I think she is a little boy wrapped up as a cute little girl. It was amazing to see her experience Disney for the first time and I hope we get to go back soon so it is still as magical for her.

Here's us at Tuskerhouse. It is one of the few pictures I am in besides the photopass pictures. I'll post those once I get the CD.

We stayed in POR May 22- May 28 with Deluxe dining that I added at the last minute. On May 28 we checked out and moved offsite to Lake Buena Vista Resort Village and Spa until June 1.

 

[jenniferkeala808]

hey i'm here! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[TinksThree]

Welcome back! I can't wait to here all about the trip!! You return and we are packing to leave Saturday!!

 

[heaven2dc]

You are a beautiful family!! Can't wait to read all about your 10 days (10 days can never be too long!)

 

[ksl5f123]

Hooray!! You are back. You are so quick to already have started a trip report. I missed that you added the deluxe dining. I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

 

[Brave teacher]

Hey Diane! You started already! I look forward to seeing how your trip went! Caitlin is just adorable!

 

[pinkxray]

hey i'm here! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Thanks for joining in first!

Welcome back! I can't wait to here all about the trip!! You return and we are packing to leave Saturday!!

I am so jealous you are leaving Sat. I wish I could go back too.

You are a beautiful family!! Can't wait to read all about your 10 days (10 days can never be too long!)

Thank you. I agree about the 10 days. I was thinking the whole time how I wish we were staying for 2 weeks.

Hooray!! You are back. You are so quick to already have started a trip report. I missed that you added the deluxe dining. I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

I never mentioned about deluxe dining anywhere until I got back. I figured it would be a nice surprise. I added it I think 3 or 4 days out. Disney had to overnight my new Mickey Mail package.

Hey Diane! You started already! I look forward to seeing how your trip went! Caitlin is just adorable!

I can't wait to hear all about your trip too. I can't believe May is over already. It came and went way to quick.

 

[pinkxray]

I spent about 45 minutes last night doing Day 1 and I hit submit. My post disappeared. Ugh.

My computer is acting up. DH is going to fix it this weekend, but until then I can't resize my photobucket pictures. (It is taking forever to resize one and I have tons of pictures) I apologize in advance for the large pictures.

Okay. Day 1 attempt 2

4:30 am - We're on our way!

I was up at 4am and woke the family a little before 4:30. We got in the car and DH had to stop at the ATM to take money out. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. We made our way to Bradley Airport and everything went smoothly all the way to Orlando. I was hoping everyone would sleep on the flight but that didn't happen. We arrived at MCO a little before 11am and picked out out rental car.

I wanted to head straight to POR and check in but DH had other plans. He insisted we head straight to a Sonics from MCO.
We don't have them in CT and while we lived in NC for a few years we loved Sonics. We see the commercials on TV and really wanted to stop there while we had a chance. I thought it could wait until later in the trip, but I wanted DH to have his way a few times too.

We arrived at Sonics and placed our order. We all got tater tots instead of fries. Since when do you automatically get tots? That was a little disappointing but the food was pretty good. Definitely not worth heading there first IMO though.


Soon we were passing under this

A few minutes later we pulled in here:

 

[pinkxray]

Once we arrived DH and DD headed off to the restrooms while I checked in. I had done the online check in and of course there was no one in the regular check-in line, but about 3 in the online. It was taking forever. I don't know what the woman checking in was talking about but she asking ? after ?. Finally, the concierge people started pulling us over to their desks. The nice lady gave me our folder including our gift card and dining info. She also gave me a 1st visit button for Caitlin.

I had requested Oak Manor or Magnolia Terrace, upper floor. We were put in Magnolia Terrace, 2nd floor. It was a great location. Once you go out the front towards the river there is a little bridge that crosses over to the main pool. After the main pool there is another little bridge that goes right to the main building.

Once we checked in we walked over to our room to check it out.

Our room

I snapped a few of these pictures and the rest are from Caitlin. Apparently she thought everyone needed a close up view of the toliet. At least you can see it was clean

The room was very clean and I didn't see any signs of being rundown that some people have complained about. I wouldn't pick this style for my bedroom but I thought it fit the theme pretty well. I didn't love the interior when I picked POR but it was fine. I picked POR b/c I loved the look of the grounds, heard great reviews of the food court, and wanted to take the boat to DTD.
We also had a corner room so we had two window instead of one. Yay!

The grounds were beautiful. They always look pretty in the pictures but are so much nicer when you are there.

Magnolia Terrace

After we checked out our room we walked back to the food court to pick up our refillable mugs. We picked up the car and drove over to our building. Once our luggage was dropped off we decided no one was taking a nap and it was time to head to EPCOT. (It sounds easy but it took a lot of begging from DD and I before DH agreed, he thought we should just chill out)

Originally I had the next day as our EPCOT day and Blizzard Beach on Friday. About a week before the trip DH saw a picture of Star Wars Weekend and wanted to attend. I really wanted DH to have a good time on this trip so it would be easier to convince him to go back, so I shuffled stuff around. I cut our EPCOT day in half and moved Blizzard Beach to that morning. We would have Friday to attend SWW.This is why we hit EPCOT on our first night. To fit in a few more hours since it we wouldn't have much time in EPCOT.

 

[Brave teacher]

I'm glad to hear the flight was uneventful. As far as SOnic goes, doesn't it always work out that the thing you build up in your mind isn't always as good as you remember it to be (WDW excluded here)? Glad to hear that your room requests were honored with online check in. I've never done it before. Maybe one day. YAY for the corner room! Those are just awesome...feels roomier.

I'm glad to hear you were able to rearrange your days a little bit to accommodate DH. I can't wait to hear how your evening at Epcot went.

 

[MHTeacher]

I found your TR, and now I can't wait to hear how your trip went.

So glad you got the building you requested at POR, and you seemed happy with the location. Can't wait to see how Caitlin enjoyed her first park at Disney!

 

[pinkxray]

I found your TR, and now I can't wait to hear how your trip went.

So glad you got the building you requested at POR, and you seemed happy with the location. Can't wait to see how Caitlin enjoyed her first park at Disney!

Glad you found your way over. I can't wait until you start you TR.

 

[Lbg206]

Taking a break from my own TR and found yours. I love hearing about kids' first experiences.....so much fun! Hope you guys had a great time and i can't wait to read more. Love the pictures already.

 

[ksl5f123]

I wanted to head straight to POR and check in but DH had other plans. He insisted we head straight to a Sonics from MCO.
We don't have them in CT and while we lived in NC for a few years we loved Sonics. We see the commercials on TV and really wanted to stop there while we had a chance. I thought it could wait until later in the trip, but I wanted DH to have his way a few times too.

I live in a town with at least 6 Sonics. We have lived here 7 years and I have yet to ever eat at any of them.

I had requested Oak Manor or Magnolia Terrace, upper floor. We were put in Magnolia Terrace, 2nd floor.

Hooray for a room request granted! I also requested a room in the mansions for our trip next week. I really hope that happens!!!

I all your great pictures!

 

[pinkxray]

We were on our way to EPCOT. I think it was around 3:30ish by the time we got there. This was the first time DH and I were onsite and it was great! EPCOT was about 2 seconds from POR.

First thing we did after the pictures of the ball was get Caitlin some water. Even though we just left POR and she had her mug of fruit punch she was now feeling the heat and needed water NOW.

Our first ride was Test Track. I think the wait was about an hour, but DH insisted we wait for some reason. He wanted Caitlin's first ride to be a good one. The wait ended up being over an hour. Maybe 20 minutes over or so. It took forever. It took me awhile to explain that since we were missing our EPCOT morning to do SWW we would have some waits at EPCOT. The rest of the trip was much better.


Waiting for Test Track

Still Waiting

Just a little bit longer

Caitlin LOVED it, especially the part were you go outside around the track. DH and I agreed we needed to come up with a better plan so we weren't waiting in line again for an hour and a half.

Next, we hit Nemo and Figment.

I missed pictures of the Figment ride (Imagination?) but took some after the ride. Caitlin and John played the air guitar at those little direct your music station. Caitlin got so into it. She was kicking her legs all over the play and jumping around. It was the funniest thing.

Our last stop of the day was Spaceship Earth. John and Caitlin rode together and their video was so adorable.
Caitlin had the happiest little face and it was so funny to see it going skiing and all the other stuff they did.

A little after 7 we left EPCOT to head to the Poly to have dinner at Ohana. I am glad we left early b/c there was a ton of traffic. I guess there was a broken down bus or accident right infront of the Poly and it took forever to get in there.

I have all my food pictures on my dining report so I won't post much about the food here.

Here are a few pictures from the night

I was able to add Ohana on about a day and a half before our trip when I was messing around with our ADRs. It was at 8:30pm which was a little late since we were up at 4:30am. When I booked it I figured DH and DD would have taken a nap at some point in the day, but since that didn't happen they were both pretty tired. (I was to but I was too excited to really care.) DD was pretty good and enjoyed her meal. DH was very crabby about being out so late when we were up so early, but he said later he enjoyed the food. He also said it would be cool if you could time it to have dinner when Wishes was going off. Um, 8:30 is late but you would eat at 10pm? I guess as long it is not on arrival night. I'll add that to my notes for the next trip b/c I loved it and would like to try it again.

We got back to the hotel around 10pm and all passed out.

 

[loveysbydesign]

great report ..can't wait to read more!

 

[Lovedisney77]

Can't wait to hear about your trip

Wish I could talk DH into a 10 day trip. He can't stand Disney and it takes alot of bribing to get him there

 

[Believeinfairytales]

Your daughter is so pretty with those big beautiful eyes! I am excited to tag along on this trip! Your hubby sounds a lot like mine - doesn't get the Disney hype, but he goes along with us - just not as enthusiastically as I'd like for him to. Oh yea - he likes to rest that first night, too, and not go into the parks. Good for you for convincing your's to go to Epcot that night!

Yay for TT! Boo for the long wait...

 

[Trinity524]

Subbing!

 

[MHTeacher]

I'm so excited that Caitlin loved her first ride at Disney!

My big kids still love to shake it at the music stations in the Imagination building.

I'll have to pop over and check out your dining review. Did you just love that bread pudding at 'Ohana?