Family Gathering Oct2-8 POR

[PoohHappens]

This is my first attempt at a trip report. I always love reading others and so I thought I would share our trip with you. The Cast Me-34 DH-33 DS-3 also starring Dmom-63 Dmoms new husband-69 and making a very special appearence Dsis-38 Dbil-42 and Dniece-17. Our trip starts from two countries and three states. My DH and I reside in the Indianapolis area, Dsis family in the Dallas area and my Dmom and hubby split time between Iowa and Ontario, Canada. The same group traveled to Disney together 10 years ago however at that time it was with my Father who has since passed, Dniece was 7 and DS3 was not even a glimmer. I was in charge of all of the planning and travel arrangements and sent packets to everyyone with the plans, itinerary, and dinning arrangements. We had a wonderful time together, stayed at PORiverside in Magnolia Terrace and had the Dinning Plan (free). The week started with lighter crowds than it ended with and the weather was upp and down, dry and wet, but all in all very nice. We all used magical express with success. So here goes.........

Day 1
Up early in Indy to make morning flight, Dmom and hubby have come here to fly with us. We awakened our son at the last minute with pal mickey. No real issues with the flight this was our first time on Southwest and we found everyone to be very friendly and had no problem with the seating arrangements. Called my Dsis from the airport to make sure they were up for their mid-morning flight from Dallas with American. Arrived excited at MCO and found our way to ME. No problems with the trip although we were on a regular mears bus instead of the really nice ME bus. It was very crowded at POR when we arrived as well as starting to poor rain upon arrival. A slight panic wondering what I had got us all in to as we were all tired and there was a very long check in line. After 30 or more minutes we were finally helped by a very friendly CM and given keys to our rooms. They also allowed us to check in my sisters family since we were a Magical Gathering which was great so we did not have to do that later. Off to our rooms, which were three consecutive numbers but one of the rooms was around two corners. None of us minded though, although we all had to discuss it to make sure no on minded. (it is hard to travel with others, esp a group of co-dependents) Ahhh a nap while we wait for Dsis family. Three calls later my Dsis has figured out where to find the ME bus and is on their way. DS sleeps while myself and DH meet Dsis fam and have something to eat in the semi-crowded food court around 4pm. Get settled and off to the Magic Kingdom for MNSSHP.
Now I should clarify that my family and my Dsis family both have had the stomach flu in the days prior to leaving on the trip with Dniece still feeling quite ill. We had ressies for LTT and we ate lots of mashed potatoes. The food was good and the characters fun. It was busy there and we did not make it out in time for the fire works. We were all so tired we gave up early and headed back to our rooms. All in all it was not as exciting as the first night at Disney usually is, but that was related to fatigue and illness. We did get to ride many fantasy land rides with very little wait. Patchy rain. I would not choose to go to MNSSHP again, but I would not be a good judge because of our circumstances.

 

[PoohHappens]

Day 2

Now on to when all the fun started. Today was My Dmom birthday and we planned to spend it at Epcot, her favorite park. My DH and DS and I get there early and pick a Birthday button for her to wear for the day. We grab some breakfast at the Electric Umbrella and plan to meet at Spaceship Earth, my Dmom's favorite ride. We suggested that we grab some fast passes for Soarin before we ride and are succesful at getting passes for in a couple hours. We rode SE and went to Test Track. Now we knew DS-3 (who is almost 4) was just over 40 inches at the doctor. He is a very busy boy and only has two modes, on and off, not much speed adjustment in there. Well, they wanted to measure him, but he seemed to think his job was to clear under the bar. We kept telling him he had to stand not slouch and duck and of course then he started standing on his tip toes. I felt like one of those parents trying to cheat the system and get thier kid on a ride they do not qualify for. By the end of the week he finally got the hang of it, but until then we were always holding up the line or getting seperated from our family temporarily. We were never turned away but always had to measure him at the start of the line and again before getting on the ride. He loved the ride. My Dniece however found the ride a little jaring for her nauseated self. I had stated that the ride was quite mild so my opinion of rides was no longer valued for the week. We got to the land a little early for our fast pass for soarin so we had to wait. Good time for bathroom breaks. Now you would think that 7 adults could manage to keep track of one 3 year old....... Let me start by stating the THe Land was packed like I have never seen it. You could hardly move. My DS took this oportunity to run away. He was standing next to me where the tables are and within a split second he was gone. We all divided and I had reached the point that I was headed for a CM and not looking anymore when my DBIL found him. Once that emotional moment was over it was time for soarin. We all really enjoyed the ride. I would have loved it if it were just a bit longer, but it was a fun ride and put a smile on all our faces. Off to united kingdom for fish and chips for lunch. These are alway delicious. My DH, DS, and I headed back for a nap and the others went around World Showcase for a while.
That evening we had Ressies at Kona Cafe for Birthday for dinner for my Dmom. Our dinner was delicious and more food than we could eat. Our server was very generous with the dinning plan options and very effecient. We had a wonderful time. Of course we forced my mother to wear a tiara that said Princess for the Day and a Feather and Sparkle Boa. As a present and surprised we had sceduled a Wishes Cruise for after dinner. We had a wonderful captian named Evan and loved the cruise. It was so peaceful and a lovely view of the fireworks. The only error I made in the schedule was returning to the Magic Kindom to catch a bus back to POR after. Since the park had just closed it was packed. We could not even see the stop the people lined up so far back. We finally noticed that French Quarter had a smaller line since it is a small resort and that night they were not sharing buses. We decided to take it and walk back. However the bus driver figured out that about 75% or more of the bus was doing the same thing and dropped us all a Riversided. We all cheered!!!! We encountered several CM's on our trip who went far beyond the call of duty to make our trip wonderful. I had never seen the bus stop like this before, not even in the summer or spring break. It was crazy. Exhausted we returned to our rooms for a night of slumber. By the way I do not know if I mentioned before that our rooms at POR were beautiful and very clean. The beds were also very comfortable.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

nice start i cant wait to read more and i love that they are all in one thread

 

[PoohHappens]

Alright I finally have some time to get back to this, althought there is still a pile of laundry calling my name. I forgot to mention one other thing I found amusing. When we got on the boat we were told that minors needed to wear life jackets. As we were putting one on my son my niece leaned over to me and wispered " Im not a minor right 'cause I am not wearing one of those. " She is 17 and will be 18 in 4 weeks, of course she looks about 21 or 22. The captain never even suggested or asked, but she wanted to make sure that neither I or her Grammie suggested that she need one. It kind of made me snicker. The fire works were beautiful and my mother had a wonderful birthday

 

[PoohHappens]

Day 3
Animal Kingdom thismorning. Now my sisters family has never been to this park and I tend to be a little pushy about the most efficient way to go about things. I kept forgetting that they may want to just look around a while. I was trying to get everything in before the afternoon melt down when the 3 year old needs to return for a nap. My DH and DS and I got there at opening and rode the first train to Rafikki Planet watch. We only rode the train as that is all DS wanted to do. We then met up with the rest of the clan a little after 10. We managed to do It's Tough to Be a Bug, Kilaminjaro Safari, Kali River Rapids twice, and Dinosaur, had lunch and headed back for the afternoon nap by 1:30. The other families stayed and did a few other things until dinner. This brings me to my second grumpy and frustrated moment of the trip. Saying this I realize I never mentioned the first. Lets back up for a moment and mention the first.
My frustrated freak out #1 evening Day 2
We as mentioned before were having dinner at Kona for my moms Birthday. Ressie at 5:30. Now I the master planner know there are no aditional ressies to be had and also know that to use disney transportation to get from one resort to another is a time consuming process. I even typed out directions on the best travel conections based on where you started. I reminded everyone of this again earlier that day so there would be no confusion. So much for that plan. My sis family is very laid back, I am a planner. I have been referred to on this trip as The Park Nazi and Mouse-alini. I am in my room and receive a call from my sister at 4:20pm that they are headed toward the buses at Epcot and just saw a POR bus pull away. I tell them they should head to Kona and not come back. She tells me they are wet from rain and she needs to change and they will make it not to worry. I hang up look at my husband and say "They are never going to make it, we are going to miss dinner" He asks me if I explained the possibility of loosing the reservation etc etc. I am almost hysterical at this moment. I take a deep breath and call her back 4:25- "I really do not think you will make it, can I bring you clothes (their daughter was in their room)" No here is a bus now we will get there just go ahead and tell Dniece we will be there soon. So we get our things together and head to the East Depot for a bus to the MK. We have about a ten minute wait once we get there and as we are boarding the bus I see my sister and family running and they make it on the bus. I have no Idea how she did this. We get to MK take the resort monorail and make it all together to our reservation at 5:32. Talk about pixie dust. She told me they got on the bus got off at the main stop, ran to their room in magnolia terrace, changed and ran to the East stop. So in just about an hour they made a bus from Epcot to POR, to their room and changed then a bus to MK and Resort Monorail to Poly. That is some impressive and lucky use of Disney transportation.
I of course felt horrible for getting all frazzeled and upset and had to apologize to everyone for the first time on the trip, which brings me to the second...........................................

 

[PoohHappens]

Freak Out #2 Day 3
OK back to the day we are actually on. Day # Dinner and my second frustrated moment. We are on the dinning plan. My Dsis family is staying a shorter amount of time than the rest of us due to some nasty test called the SAT my Niece has to take on Saturday. I have explained that she has enough TS credits for the fam for 5 meals but we have sceduled 6 and they either need to share a couple of times to conserve credits or pay OOpocket for one meal. Now I have mentioned this several times but she doesn't get it. I breifly mention this again before we are seated as we are going to Sci-fi and this might be a good tome to share or pay for their meal. Everyone becomes completely frazzled suddenly panicing about what we all should eat and how they should do this. She tells her husband and this is news to him. We are also seated in two cars across from one another and have two seperate servers. I think there were tears involved and feelings of frustration etc.... It all came out OK and has all been resolved.
But later that night as I am forcing everyone to run to fantasmic as it is late and I am concerned I lose it again. We arrive to the anouncement at 7:30 that there is standing room only. I have never been there when this is the case and it is October, what is going on?????? I know we are late and should have arrived earlier. The place is packed. We find a spot in the standing room only section. I am not sure you can really see from here. I can't see the water, so it stands to reason I won't see the fire, boats etc......can you even see the film? What about my plan, there is not another night to come. I decide to approach a CM his name is Greg. I asked him if you can really see from the standing room section. My family has never seen this and my plans were coming apart. He asks me how many of us there are I quickly answer 8 but I would take seats in any form for any of them 1,2 etc..... He asks me to wait a moment and let him take a look. He looks back and waves to me and holds up eight fingers. The wonderful young man found us 8 seats together on the left side about the 5th row back. We could see everything and it was wonderful. Bonus points fro Greg, Pixie dust flying everywhere. We tried to tip him after the show and he would not accept it. It was a magical ending to our night. We shopped a little on the way out and had almost no wait for a bus that way. Back to our room for more sleep. Maybe tomorrow I can keep my head a little better and just go with the flow. Oh yeah tomorrow is MY birthday...............

 

[CK 1 and 2]

What is the second? Is ther a third?

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

sounds wonderful so far! how did you like the resort itself? we stayed at POFQ but have yet to do riverside!

With a larger group melt downs are always expected! haha as long as everyone had a good time in the end!!

 

[PoohHappens]

sounds wonderful so far! how did you like the resort itself? we stayed at POFQ but have yet to do riverside!

The resort is beautiful. The food court was a little crowded and we did not eat at boatwrights. The pool was fun and not terribly crowded and the quiet pools were just that. Quiet. There is walking involved at the resort, but because of that it is so quiet and peaceful. My niece said it was a wonderful break from the stimulas of Disney. Our room was gorgeous, and very clean. We had stayed a CBR before and were not that crazy about it. After this one my husband said he would come back here instead of the values again. We have never had a problem with the values, this was just very peaceful. The hot tub was closed for refurbishment while we were there. I know my husband was a little disapointed about that.

 

[Huntava]

Glad to read your report. You sound a little like me, I have to remind myself to stay calm on things I can feel are getting out of my control. Also, my toddler son is a "runner", his twin sister is not. This is one of the only things I am concerned about, him breaking and running. I have told DH we are going to have to tag team him and make sure we have a hold on him at all times. Great report!