sandynd
Rookie Desperado
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- Jan 4, 2008
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So, this is my first ever trip report, and Im doing it because of all the stuff that happened during our recent trip, some good, some bad, some new, some repeats, but its all worth telling about (now whether you think its worth reading about is another story, and totally up to you!!)
I wont put pics in here for a couple of reasons: 1. I dont have a photo account anywhere and dont want to sign up for yet another thing to keep track of, and 2. My daughter is young and I prefer to protect her privacy for a while longer most of my pictures are of her in some context.
This trip was our first ever staying offsite. It was a hard decision to make because we loved our two previous onsite experiences, but finances dictated that if we wanted to go this year, offsite it was. So in April, we made our decision (based completely on the lazy river pics in the picture thread, I might add!) to book at Wyndham Bonnet Creek for the week of Sunday Oct 27 to Saturday Nov 2. I decided to splurge, since I wasnt going to get transportation and daily housekeeping, on a 1 BR presidential suite instead of the regular deluxe. We went through Vacation Strategies and paid $625 for the week.
Following the budget board pretty closely, I was able to buy 5-day (3-day plus two free deal) parkhopper passes through the Orbitz Activities webpage for about $270 per ticket. I also bought through eBates on a daily double day and got a $70 eBates cheque back. I screwed up and bought a childs ticket for my daughter, which wouldnt work because shes 11. But we had no problem changing it to an adult ticket at the gate, and Im not sure if it was pixie dust, but it only cost me $17 to do that!
Because our budget for the trip was under $2000 CA, we decided to drive down from Ontario, Canada. We also wanted to go to Clearwater Beach for a day of our trip, so instead of busting out of the Disney Bubble to head over there, we decided to go there first. I budgeted about $300 for gas and ended up pretty close to that, maybe about $20 under. The first day, October 25, we started out about 9:30 in the morning, and drove approximately 950 km, to Cartersville, GA. One of my planned areas to save money on hotels was to car camp at large truck stops on the way down and back. I had discussed this plan earlier with some DISers on the camping board, and got some good advice. We also tried it a couple of times for practice throughout the summer, both in our backyard and on a camping trip with one of my daughters friends for her birthday. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was certainly passable for a night. Unfortunately, it was FREEZING in Cartersville that night! Thank goodness we brought the wool blankets and big sleeping bag we would have been very cold otherwise. We stayed at the large Pilot travel center, got cleaned up and ready to go in their bathrooms in the morning, had breakfast at McDonalds there, and continued on to Clearwater Beach Florida that day.
We arrived at Clearwater late in the afternoon, found a parking spot on the North Beach(which is almost impossible, even in the off season apparently!) and immediately hung out on the beach. We could not find a place to change, so we ended up just paddling our feet in the water and hunting for shells on the sand. Watching the sunset was beautiful. We had planned to car-camp again that night, but since parking was at such a premium, I ended up finding us a little motel to stay at that offered parking for the night. It was an extra $80 that I hadnt budgeted for, but I figured we would cut some other corners later on.
On Sunday morning, we got up at dawn (which is actually later than it sounds like, since dawn is about 7:30 these days!) and went out to the beach again we were rewarded by seeing a group of dolphins jumping and playing in the water about 50 feet away from us what an amazing sight! I knew Clearwater Beach was a good place to see dolphins, but I thought they were always out in deeper water I didnt realize wed see them without the aid of a boat. It was the beginning of a fabulous day hanging out on the beach, swimming in water warmer in October than our water up here will ever be, going out on a Dolphin Boat at the Clearwater Marina for an even closer view of the dolphins, and a touristy glimpse of all the rich peoples homes on the bay as well as shelling on a tiny island in the bay and seeing either a movie or photo shoot taking place while we were there. We ended that day with another relaxing beach afternoon, and then got in the car and drove to our reservation at Wyndham Bonnet Creek.
Although we had had no further communication with Vacation Strategy after we made our final payment, I listened to the seasoned travellers on this board and didnt worry about confirmation numbers, etc. We drove into the gates at Wyndham Bonnet Creek (after getting lost and pulling in at Caribbean Beach for directions to the resort not sure how I missed the signs posted on the side of the road Ill just say I was tired and let it go, mm-kay?) The security guard came out and checked on the list voila, there we were, assigned to Tower 6. Finding Tower 6 was fun in the maze of twisty roads and parking lots, but we just kept going until we ran out of room to drive. We parked and went in to check in at about 6:00 in the evening. Check-in was smooth, the parking pass person had gone on break, so no pressure there, and we went up to room 1822, which BTW is a Presidential Reserve Suite not sure it made any difference in the room, but my daughter felt important having to put in her room card to get the elevator to work! Inside the room, my jaw dropped I thought I had known what to expect, but I did not get the full impact of just how beautiful and spacious the rooms are from the pictures on here. And considering wed spent the previous night in a very clean but run-down motel, and the night before that in our car, it felt like we had won the lottery. We were so spoiled Im not sure I can rave about any place else now that Ive been there. I posted on the Bonnet Creek thread that I was not classy enough to stay there it was so amazing Im still daydreaming about it. I cannot say enough good things about it. We went to Downtown Disney for dinner at Earl of Sandwich (our first time there) and started getting into the Disney spirit, although by then my daughter was hungry, tired, grump and snappy, and I quickly got into the same mood. But after some food and rest, I figured we would get over it and have a magical vacation week.
Monday was an Epcot day, since my daughter is an anime fan and had heard that Japans pavilion had an anime museum. We went straight there, then spent quite a lot of time in Mitsukoyo, looking for souvenirs with Astro Boy on them. I guess Astro either isnt huge in Japan anymore, or maybe he isnt a Disney property, but alas, no Astro Boy to be found. My daughter got a little sour about that, since she is a tween very quickly turning into a teen, who also has some other things going on, so that disappointment sort of coloured our first day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We found that the standby lines for Test Track were pretty reasonable at 20 minutes, but the FastPass lines were ridiculous, perhaps owing to the new FastPass plus. Since we didnt qualify for that, we just did standby. Both of us are fans of the new look of TestTrack, since we both like the visuals from TRON. And of course, the fact that they didnt mess with the fast part of the ride made it even better, since that is our favourite part. Soarin standby lines were too rich for our blood, and FastPass was all gone, so we didnt do Soarin that day. We did try out the Agent P mission for Mexico, since Ive never been able to convince my daughter to go into the temple before that was awesome! I had a fabulous time looking around, and Agent P actually roped my daughter into fully participating in the game, which is great, since she has that Im too cool now attitude happening. We then got on the ride in Mexico, which was so fun and empty that we stayed on and did it again There were a few shows that I wanted to catch, but my daughter by that time was begging to go back to the hotel because her feet were sore. I agreed to go back, only to find out that her angle was to actually get back to a reliable wi-fi connection to watch Astro Boy on Netflix. I was a little frustrated she can do that anytime we dont have to pay to be in Disney World to do that! As I was on the verge of being one of THOSE moms: I didnt pay all this money for you to I caught myself and reminded myself that it was her vacation too. And it gave me some time to enjoy the luxury of the room. We ended up going back to Epcot in the evening, but it was crowded because of Food and Wine, so we didnt do a lot except wander through the crowds, although we did get a ride on Spaceship Earth in. We did end up near China to watch Illuminations at the end of the evening, and then my daughter got to jump around on the lighted tiles on the walkway beside the fountain on the way out, which was one of her favourite things to do last time we were there.
The next day, October 29th, we decided was a resort day until mid-afternoon, as we had tickets to Mickeys Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. We slept a good part of the morning away, and then lazed around the room until it was time to put our costumes on. I went as Ursula, and my daughter was a mermaid. She wasnt terribly thrilled with her costume as I made her put a shirt on underneath the bikini top that stood in for shells, but she looked great in my opinion! She also wasnt happy that many people commented on my costume but not as many did on hers. I truly think it was because I was the only Ursula I saw all evening, while mermaids were pretty common. I really saw that my daughter laps up attention - Im not really sure how to feel about that yet. I guess well see where it leads. We rode Haunted Mansion for the first time ever, and had so much fun we repeated it twice more and then stopped to get a Magic Shot in front of the mansion. We had a list of characters we wanted to meet, including Dr. Facilier, Jack Sparrow, Merida and a couple of others. We found the lines for Jack Sparrow and Merida far too long, but did luck out and got to meet both Cruella DeVille and Dr. Facilier at the second Villains Mix and Mingle. We also got in line to meet Jane and the monkey (cant remember his name) from Tarzan, and lucked out in that we arrived just at character changeover time and so got a picture of my daughter with Jane, Tarzan and the monkey the only ones in line to get all of them in one picture! We danced for a bit with Woody and Jessie at their dance party, and rode Big Thunder Mountain with practically no line. My daughter banged her hip on the way out of the ride at the end, so we spent a good amount of time sitting outside Big Thunder consoling her. We then made our way through Liberty Square, intending to check the line for Merida, but the walkway was closed for the impending fireworks. My daughter wanted to wait beside the castle for the show, which I thought was a good idea, but when the show began, we found our view blocked by a large tree, so Hallowishes was pretty much a bust for us. We wandered for a bit but by then my daughter was fed up with the crowds, her hip and feet hurt and she was ready to leave. Once we found our car, we prepared to head back to Bonnet Creek. On the way, I noticed a funny smell, but chalked it up to heavy traffic. Sadly, once we got back to Bonnet Creek, I noticed my cars temperature gauge had redlined at the top. The smell was our car, overheating. I parked and decided to deal with it in the morning.
The next morning, I got up early and decided to look up some information online. I remembered a few DISers over the years had mentioned a Car Care Center. Since I had no contacts at all in Florida, I thought maybe that was a good first step to research getting someone to look at my car. To my relief, I found that it was a Triple-A facility, and I am a CAA Premier member, so I knew that I could get taken care of there. I called them, and they booked me in for a tow and a diagnostic that morning. They also offered a ride over to the Ticket and Transportation Center so we could get on with our day while they looked at the car. Our tow-truck driver was TJ, and he was extremely nice, helpful and friendly. It turns out he owns the same make, model and year of our car, and we had a nice chat on the way to the Car Care Center. We dropped off the car, made arrangements to have it looked at and left my cell number to contact me when they knew what was going on. We then got a ride to T&T, and hopped a bus for Hollywood Studios. We had breakfast at Starring Rolls, and then found out how my daughter could audition for American Idol Experience. Although she is not old enough to audition for the show, they allowed her to go on a practice audition. She was very nervous but soaked up the attention and advice the auditioning agent had for her, got her button and was thrilled that she had her first real audition under her belt. Hmmmm I hope that she has not been bitten by the acting bug that is not all its chalked up to be for a career. After that, we went on Star Tours a couple of times, met Mike and Sulley, met some Streetmosphere characters, and a Green Soldier from Toy Story who wanted to run away with my daughter! She loved it. We were just at the loading point for the Great Movie Ride when the Car Care Center called me back. Unfortunately, the problem was not the simple fix I was hoping for the problem was complicated and the part needed was not available anywhere until Tuesday November 5th. Also, the repair would cost about $700. I have a car emergency fund that I have saved, hoping to get a newer vehicle in the spring, so the cost of the repair wasnt a huge concern, but not having my vehicle available to start back home on November 2nd as planned was a big fly in the ointment. I authorized the Car Care Center to take something apart for one last-ditch attempt at a quick-and-dirty repair, and then we went on with our day. We knew we had to be back at the Car Care Centre before 7:00 p.m. to get the final word and figure out what happened from there, so we finished up our day watching some shows, going on Star Tours again, and then catching a boat back to Epcot, catching the monorail to Magic Kingdom, and a cab to the Car Care Center (I realized later we could maybe have walked that, but my sense of direction wasnt great.) At the Car Care Center, I got the news that the further authorized work had confirmed the original diagnosis and we were stuck until Tuesday, waiting for the part. Not very welcome news I wasnt sure how that would go over at work, or at school. Or where we could stay since Bonnet Creek is a timeshare, its not like just renting a hotel room. Renting a car, etc. Bleh. I wasnt prepared for this!! I needed a night to process everything and figure out what I was going to do, so we went floating down the lazy river at Bonnet Creek Tower 5 for a few hours while I let it all cook.
The next day, my daughter was impossible to get out of bed. I asked her if she wanted to just do another lazy day, and she voted yes!! So, while she slept, I remembered that because of my CAA membership, they may have some help available for the extra days we would have to somehow work out. I got online again, and found that yes, my Premier membership did entitle me to some benefits if a trip got interrupted by car troubles. I phoned my membership concierge, and got transferred to a local representative, who confirmed that yes, I could get reimbursed for a rental car, and hotel, meals and other expenses related to the extra days we had to stay!! Thank goodness for CAA soooo worth the money. I reserved a car rental from Hertz through them, getting one free day of the rental, and then I phoned my boss, who to my relief was amused rather than angry at our situation. Then I started looking around for a place to stay. Since we were being reimbursed a good percentage, I looked at all my options staying at a budget place offsite, trying to extend my reservation for Bonnet Creek, staying at a Value or Moderate onsite, but really, nothing was coming together. Then I remembered that I signed up for a free membership at Last Minute Travel Club last year, so I logged on to see what kind of deal I could work through them. I found a room at the Wyndham Grand Bonnet Creek Hotel, which is attached to Tower 6 of Bonnet Creek Resort, and knew Id found the simplest answer for us. I got the room for $114 a night, plus $16 a night resort fee and $15 a night parking fee. There were Deluxe 2 BR suites at Bonnet Creek available for about $170 a night, but since I was moving rooms anyway, I figured the extra money shouldnt be spent, even if it wasnt coming directly from my pocket.
I was so glad to have the washer and dryer available at Bonnet Creek. We hadnt packed enough clothes for an extended stay, so being able to wash everything and have it ready to go was great.
The rest of our trip went really smoothly since we had taken a couple of resort days, I only had to buy one extra park day to cover our extended stay. They bridged the price for me no problem at Guest Relations at Epcot, and added an extra park hopper day to our tickets for a grand total of about $21. We park hopped through all of the parks more than once, doing things we hadnt gotten to do the first time around, and taking advantage of the pools and lazy rivers at Bonnet Creek in our downtime. On Monday November 4th, I checked in with the Car Care Center to see if my part had come in by any chance, and lo and behold, the car was ready to go! We took the rental car back, got a ride to the Car Care Center, paid the bill and got our own car back. We spent the rest of the day at Epcot, saying goodbye to our favourite vacation spot, and finally riding Soarin. I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom on our last night to catch Wishes, but my daughter really wanted one last ride on Test Track. At 8:15, with the Standby line at 50 minutes, I knew it was one or the other, and I REALLY wanted to see Wishes. But seeing her little face struggling to hide her disappointment, I realized that not only did I not want our vacation to end on that note, but we also had the single-rider line option, which was at 20 minutes. I asked her if she minded splitting up into different cars if it meant we could get in faster, and she was all for it. The 20 minutes was misleading we were in the same car, back and front, 10 minutes after that. Single-rider ROCKS! I wish I knew what other rides offered that. After our last Test Track zoom, we raced for the monorail to head to the Magic Kingdom. I knew we wouldnt get premium spots but even seeing it from the monorail station would do for me.
We RAN up the ramp to the monorail, swung onboard and then sat there for 10 minutes while they waited for other traffic clearance. ARRRGGHH!! Once we finally got moving, we stopped twice more for other issues we were ready to explode by the time we got into the MK station! We raced for the entrance while the opening fireworks went off, and then found a spot on the second floor of the train station to watch we couldnt see the Castle, but we saw every firework and got to hear the music, so it worked out fantastically! Since MK did not close until 10 that night, we spent the last hour wrangling up our last souvenir shopping items, and then went out and waited for the ferry back to the parking lot. We went to bed early in preparation for the drive the next day, then started back home. Goodbye to Disney, and to Florida, and a fabulous trip that although it got extended, was still too short!
Here are some of the things that stood out for me:
Car camping works in large truck stops if youre on a tight budget. I wouldnt do it at smaller stops, but the big ones like Pilot and Flying J are good.
Clearwater Beach is amazing and I would like to go back there for a full vacation sometime.
SPLURGE and book presidential at Bonnet Creek. We loved it so much that even the luxury room at Wyndham Grand was disappointing after that!
I thought I would miss daily housekeeping. I didnt! Turns out if its just the two of us, and I nag a little, that we are pretty tidy and dont really need it.
I thought I would HATE doing laundry on vacation. Well, when youre in a presidential suite that is so well laid out, its no big deal! And it sure saved us a lot of hassle later!
I dont think I can go back to staying onsite in a Value or Moderate now. And for the prices, I could never justify a Deluxe or even a DVC rental. Im thinking Bonnet Creek is now our go-to resort when were in Florida!
Dont bust the Disney Bubble if you can help it. I bought and brought things for the Bonnet Creek stay before we arrived, and would have been content to never go off Disney property again for the whole stay. Unfortunately for us, with the extended stay, and car rental, etc., we did have to go into Kissimmee a few times, and it just reminded me that the real world was out there, ready and waiting for me when vacation was over. It did put a little damper on things, not enough to wreck it, but enough that I didnt totally lose myself in the experience.
Disney thinks of everything. The existence of the Car Care Center and the service we got there, along with the rides they offered to access Disney Transportation, is awesome. I dont know what we would have done if the car had broken down somewhere other than Disney World.
If youre travelling by car anywhere, BUY CAA or AAA!! The peace of mind is so worth the money!
Thanks if you got this far, and if you know anyone who might be able to use our experiences to help them out of a jam, please share. Happy Disney everybody! See ya real soon!!
I wont put pics in here for a couple of reasons: 1. I dont have a photo account anywhere and dont want to sign up for yet another thing to keep track of, and 2. My daughter is young and I prefer to protect her privacy for a while longer most of my pictures are of her in some context.
This trip was our first ever staying offsite. It was a hard decision to make because we loved our two previous onsite experiences, but finances dictated that if we wanted to go this year, offsite it was. So in April, we made our decision (based completely on the lazy river pics in the picture thread, I might add!) to book at Wyndham Bonnet Creek for the week of Sunday Oct 27 to Saturday Nov 2. I decided to splurge, since I wasnt going to get transportation and daily housekeeping, on a 1 BR presidential suite instead of the regular deluxe. We went through Vacation Strategies and paid $625 for the week.
Following the budget board pretty closely, I was able to buy 5-day (3-day plus two free deal) parkhopper passes through the Orbitz Activities webpage for about $270 per ticket. I also bought through eBates on a daily double day and got a $70 eBates cheque back. I screwed up and bought a childs ticket for my daughter, which wouldnt work because shes 11. But we had no problem changing it to an adult ticket at the gate, and Im not sure if it was pixie dust, but it only cost me $17 to do that!
Because our budget for the trip was under $2000 CA, we decided to drive down from Ontario, Canada. We also wanted to go to Clearwater Beach for a day of our trip, so instead of busting out of the Disney Bubble to head over there, we decided to go there first. I budgeted about $300 for gas and ended up pretty close to that, maybe about $20 under. The first day, October 25, we started out about 9:30 in the morning, and drove approximately 950 km, to Cartersville, GA. One of my planned areas to save money on hotels was to car camp at large truck stops on the way down and back. I had discussed this plan earlier with some DISers on the camping board, and got some good advice. We also tried it a couple of times for practice throughout the summer, both in our backyard and on a camping trip with one of my daughters friends for her birthday. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was certainly passable for a night. Unfortunately, it was FREEZING in Cartersville that night! Thank goodness we brought the wool blankets and big sleeping bag we would have been very cold otherwise. We stayed at the large Pilot travel center, got cleaned up and ready to go in their bathrooms in the morning, had breakfast at McDonalds there, and continued on to Clearwater Beach Florida that day.
We arrived at Clearwater late in the afternoon, found a parking spot on the North Beach(which is almost impossible, even in the off season apparently!) and immediately hung out on the beach. We could not find a place to change, so we ended up just paddling our feet in the water and hunting for shells on the sand. Watching the sunset was beautiful. We had planned to car-camp again that night, but since parking was at such a premium, I ended up finding us a little motel to stay at that offered parking for the night. It was an extra $80 that I hadnt budgeted for, but I figured we would cut some other corners later on.
On Sunday morning, we got up at dawn (which is actually later than it sounds like, since dawn is about 7:30 these days!) and went out to the beach again we were rewarded by seeing a group of dolphins jumping and playing in the water about 50 feet away from us what an amazing sight! I knew Clearwater Beach was a good place to see dolphins, but I thought they were always out in deeper water I didnt realize wed see them without the aid of a boat. It was the beginning of a fabulous day hanging out on the beach, swimming in water warmer in October than our water up here will ever be, going out on a Dolphin Boat at the Clearwater Marina for an even closer view of the dolphins, and a touristy glimpse of all the rich peoples homes on the bay as well as shelling on a tiny island in the bay and seeing either a movie or photo shoot taking place while we were there. We ended that day with another relaxing beach afternoon, and then got in the car and drove to our reservation at Wyndham Bonnet Creek.
Although we had had no further communication with Vacation Strategy after we made our final payment, I listened to the seasoned travellers on this board and didnt worry about confirmation numbers, etc. We drove into the gates at Wyndham Bonnet Creek (after getting lost and pulling in at Caribbean Beach for directions to the resort not sure how I missed the signs posted on the side of the road Ill just say I was tired and let it go, mm-kay?) The security guard came out and checked on the list voila, there we were, assigned to Tower 6. Finding Tower 6 was fun in the maze of twisty roads and parking lots, but we just kept going until we ran out of room to drive. We parked and went in to check in at about 6:00 in the evening. Check-in was smooth, the parking pass person had gone on break, so no pressure there, and we went up to room 1822, which BTW is a Presidential Reserve Suite not sure it made any difference in the room, but my daughter felt important having to put in her room card to get the elevator to work! Inside the room, my jaw dropped I thought I had known what to expect, but I did not get the full impact of just how beautiful and spacious the rooms are from the pictures on here. And considering wed spent the previous night in a very clean but run-down motel, and the night before that in our car, it felt like we had won the lottery. We were so spoiled Im not sure I can rave about any place else now that Ive been there. I posted on the Bonnet Creek thread that I was not classy enough to stay there it was so amazing Im still daydreaming about it. I cannot say enough good things about it. We went to Downtown Disney for dinner at Earl of Sandwich (our first time there) and started getting into the Disney spirit, although by then my daughter was hungry, tired, grump and snappy, and I quickly got into the same mood. But after some food and rest, I figured we would get over it and have a magical vacation week.
Monday was an Epcot day, since my daughter is an anime fan and had heard that Japans pavilion had an anime museum. We went straight there, then spent quite a lot of time in Mitsukoyo, looking for souvenirs with Astro Boy on them. I guess Astro either isnt huge in Japan anymore, or maybe he isnt a Disney property, but alas, no Astro Boy to be found. My daughter got a little sour about that, since she is a tween very quickly turning into a teen, who also has some other things going on, so that disappointment sort of coloured our first day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We found that the standby lines for Test Track were pretty reasonable at 20 minutes, but the FastPass lines were ridiculous, perhaps owing to the new FastPass plus. Since we didnt qualify for that, we just did standby. Both of us are fans of the new look of TestTrack, since we both like the visuals from TRON. And of course, the fact that they didnt mess with the fast part of the ride made it even better, since that is our favourite part. Soarin standby lines were too rich for our blood, and FastPass was all gone, so we didnt do Soarin that day. We did try out the Agent P mission for Mexico, since Ive never been able to convince my daughter to go into the temple before that was awesome! I had a fabulous time looking around, and Agent P actually roped my daughter into fully participating in the game, which is great, since she has that Im too cool now attitude happening. We then got on the ride in Mexico, which was so fun and empty that we stayed on and did it again There were a few shows that I wanted to catch, but my daughter by that time was begging to go back to the hotel because her feet were sore. I agreed to go back, only to find out that her angle was to actually get back to a reliable wi-fi connection to watch Astro Boy on Netflix. I was a little frustrated she can do that anytime we dont have to pay to be in Disney World to do that! As I was on the verge of being one of THOSE moms: I didnt pay all this money for you to I caught myself and reminded myself that it was her vacation too. And it gave me some time to enjoy the luxury of the room. We ended up going back to Epcot in the evening, but it was crowded because of Food and Wine, so we didnt do a lot except wander through the crowds, although we did get a ride on Spaceship Earth in. We did end up near China to watch Illuminations at the end of the evening, and then my daughter got to jump around on the lighted tiles on the walkway beside the fountain on the way out, which was one of her favourite things to do last time we were there.
The next day, October 29th, we decided was a resort day until mid-afternoon, as we had tickets to Mickeys Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. We slept a good part of the morning away, and then lazed around the room until it was time to put our costumes on. I went as Ursula, and my daughter was a mermaid. She wasnt terribly thrilled with her costume as I made her put a shirt on underneath the bikini top that stood in for shells, but she looked great in my opinion! She also wasnt happy that many people commented on my costume but not as many did on hers. I truly think it was because I was the only Ursula I saw all evening, while mermaids were pretty common. I really saw that my daughter laps up attention - Im not really sure how to feel about that yet. I guess well see where it leads. We rode Haunted Mansion for the first time ever, and had so much fun we repeated it twice more and then stopped to get a Magic Shot in front of the mansion. We had a list of characters we wanted to meet, including Dr. Facilier, Jack Sparrow, Merida and a couple of others. We found the lines for Jack Sparrow and Merida far too long, but did luck out and got to meet both Cruella DeVille and Dr. Facilier at the second Villains Mix and Mingle. We also got in line to meet Jane and the monkey (cant remember his name) from Tarzan, and lucked out in that we arrived just at character changeover time and so got a picture of my daughter with Jane, Tarzan and the monkey the only ones in line to get all of them in one picture! We danced for a bit with Woody and Jessie at their dance party, and rode Big Thunder Mountain with practically no line. My daughter banged her hip on the way out of the ride at the end, so we spent a good amount of time sitting outside Big Thunder consoling her. We then made our way through Liberty Square, intending to check the line for Merida, but the walkway was closed for the impending fireworks. My daughter wanted to wait beside the castle for the show, which I thought was a good idea, but when the show began, we found our view blocked by a large tree, so Hallowishes was pretty much a bust for us. We wandered for a bit but by then my daughter was fed up with the crowds, her hip and feet hurt and she was ready to leave. Once we found our car, we prepared to head back to Bonnet Creek. On the way, I noticed a funny smell, but chalked it up to heavy traffic. Sadly, once we got back to Bonnet Creek, I noticed my cars temperature gauge had redlined at the top. The smell was our car, overheating. I parked and decided to deal with it in the morning.
The next morning, I got up early and decided to look up some information online. I remembered a few DISers over the years had mentioned a Car Care Center. Since I had no contacts at all in Florida, I thought maybe that was a good first step to research getting someone to look at my car. To my relief, I found that it was a Triple-A facility, and I am a CAA Premier member, so I knew that I could get taken care of there. I called them, and they booked me in for a tow and a diagnostic that morning. They also offered a ride over to the Ticket and Transportation Center so we could get on with our day while they looked at the car. Our tow-truck driver was TJ, and he was extremely nice, helpful and friendly. It turns out he owns the same make, model and year of our car, and we had a nice chat on the way to the Car Care Center. We dropped off the car, made arrangements to have it looked at and left my cell number to contact me when they knew what was going on. We then got a ride to T&T, and hopped a bus for Hollywood Studios. We had breakfast at Starring Rolls, and then found out how my daughter could audition for American Idol Experience. Although she is not old enough to audition for the show, they allowed her to go on a practice audition. She was very nervous but soaked up the attention and advice the auditioning agent had for her, got her button and was thrilled that she had her first real audition under her belt. Hmmmm I hope that she has not been bitten by the acting bug that is not all its chalked up to be for a career. After that, we went on Star Tours a couple of times, met Mike and Sulley, met some Streetmosphere characters, and a Green Soldier from Toy Story who wanted to run away with my daughter! She loved it. We were just at the loading point for the Great Movie Ride when the Car Care Center called me back. Unfortunately, the problem was not the simple fix I was hoping for the problem was complicated and the part needed was not available anywhere until Tuesday November 5th. Also, the repair would cost about $700. I have a car emergency fund that I have saved, hoping to get a newer vehicle in the spring, so the cost of the repair wasnt a huge concern, but not having my vehicle available to start back home on November 2nd as planned was a big fly in the ointment. I authorized the Car Care Center to take something apart for one last-ditch attempt at a quick-and-dirty repair, and then we went on with our day. We knew we had to be back at the Car Care Centre before 7:00 p.m. to get the final word and figure out what happened from there, so we finished up our day watching some shows, going on Star Tours again, and then catching a boat back to Epcot, catching the monorail to Magic Kingdom, and a cab to the Car Care Center (I realized later we could maybe have walked that, but my sense of direction wasnt great.) At the Car Care Center, I got the news that the further authorized work had confirmed the original diagnosis and we were stuck until Tuesday, waiting for the part. Not very welcome news I wasnt sure how that would go over at work, or at school. Or where we could stay since Bonnet Creek is a timeshare, its not like just renting a hotel room. Renting a car, etc. Bleh. I wasnt prepared for this!! I needed a night to process everything and figure out what I was going to do, so we went floating down the lazy river at Bonnet Creek Tower 5 for a few hours while I let it all cook.
The next day, my daughter was impossible to get out of bed. I asked her if she wanted to just do another lazy day, and she voted yes!! So, while she slept, I remembered that because of my CAA membership, they may have some help available for the extra days we would have to somehow work out. I got online again, and found that yes, my Premier membership did entitle me to some benefits if a trip got interrupted by car troubles. I phoned my membership concierge, and got transferred to a local representative, who confirmed that yes, I could get reimbursed for a rental car, and hotel, meals and other expenses related to the extra days we had to stay!! Thank goodness for CAA soooo worth the money. I reserved a car rental from Hertz through them, getting one free day of the rental, and then I phoned my boss, who to my relief was amused rather than angry at our situation. Then I started looking around for a place to stay. Since we were being reimbursed a good percentage, I looked at all my options staying at a budget place offsite, trying to extend my reservation for Bonnet Creek, staying at a Value or Moderate onsite, but really, nothing was coming together. Then I remembered that I signed up for a free membership at Last Minute Travel Club last year, so I logged on to see what kind of deal I could work through them. I found a room at the Wyndham Grand Bonnet Creek Hotel, which is attached to Tower 6 of Bonnet Creek Resort, and knew Id found the simplest answer for us. I got the room for $114 a night, plus $16 a night resort fee and $15 a night parking fee. There were Deluxe 2 BR suites at Bonnet Creek available for about $170 a night, but since I was moving rooms anyway, I figured the extra money shouldnt be spent, even if it wasnt coming directly from my pocket.
I was so glad to have the washer and dryer available at Bonnet Creek. We hadnt packed enough clothes for an extended stay, so being able to wash everything and have it ready to go was great.
The rest of our trip went really smoothly since we had taken a couple of resort days, I only had to buy one extra park day to cover our extended stay. They bridged the price for me no problem at Guest Relations at Epcot, and added an extra park hopper day to our tickets for a grand total of about $21. We park hopped through all of the parks more than once, doing things we hadnt gotten to do the first time around, and taking advantage of the pools and lazy rivers at Bonnet Creek in our downtime. On Monday November 4th, I checked in with the Car Care Center to see if my part had come in by any chance, and lo and behold, the car was ready to go! We took the rental car back, got a ride to the Car Care Center, paid the bill and got our own car back. We spent the rest of the day at Epcot, saying goodbye to our favourite vacation spot, and finally riding Soarin. I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom on our last night to catch Wishes, but my daughter really wanted one last ride on Test Track. At 8:15, with the Standby line at 50 minutes, I knew it was one or the other, and I REALLY wanted to see Wishes. But seeing her little face struggling to hide her disappointment, I realized that not only did I not want our vacation to end on that note, but we also had the single-rider line option, which was at 20 minutes. I asked her if she minded splitting up into different cars if it meant we could get in faster, and she was all for it. The 20 minutes was misleading we were in the same car, back and front, 10 minutes after that. Single-rider ROCKS! I wish I knew what other rides offered that. After our last Test Track zoom, we raced for the monorail to head to the Magic Kingdom. I knew we wouldnt get premium spots but even seeing it from the monorail station would do for me.
We RAN up the ramp to the monorail, swung onboard and then sat there for 10 minutes while they waited for other traffic clearance. ARRRGGHH!! Once we finally got moving, we stopped twice more for other issues we were ready to explode by the time we got into the MK station! We raced for the entrance while the opening fireworks went off, and then found a spot on the second floor of the train station to watch we couldnt see the Castle, but we saw every firework and got to hear the music, so it worked out fantastically! Since MK did not close until 10 that night, we spent the last hour wrangling up our last souvenir shopping items, and then went out and waited for the ferry back to the parking lot. We went to bed early in preparation for the drive the next day, then started back home. Goodbye to Disney, and to Florida, and a fabulous trip that although it got extended, was still too short!
Here are some of the things that stood out for me:
Car camping works in large truck stops if youre on a tight budget. I wouldnt do it at smaller stops, but the big ones like Pilot and Flying J are good.
Clearwater Beach is amazing and I would like to go back there for a full vacation sometime.
SPLURGE and book presidential at Bonnet Creek. We loved it so much that even the luxury room at Wyndham Grand was disappointing after that!
I thought I would miss daily housekeeping. I didnt! Turns out if its just the two of us, and I nag a little, that we are pretty tidy and dont really need it.
I thought I would HATE doing laundry on vacation. Well, when youre in a presidential suite that is so well laid out, its no big deal! And it sure saved us a lot of hassle later!
I dont think I can go back to staying onsite in a Value or Moderate now. And for the prices, I could never justify a Deluxe or even a DVC rental. Im thinking Bonnet Creek is now our go-to resort when were in Florida!
Dont bust the Disney Bubble if you can help it. I bought and brought things for the Bonnet Creek stay before we arrived, and would have been content to never go off Disney property again for the whole stay. Unfortunately for us, with the extended stay, and car rental, etc., we did have to go into Kissimmee a few times, and it just reminded me that the real world was out there, ready and waiting for me when vacation was over. It did put a little damper on things, not enough to wreck it, but enough that I didnt totally lose myself in the experience.
Disney thinks of everything. The existence of the Car Care Center and the service we got there, along with the rides they offered to access Disney Transportation, is awesome. I dont know what we would have done if the car had broken down somewhere other than Disney World.
If youre travelling by car anywhere, BUY CAA or AAA!! The peace of mind is so worth the money!
Thanks if you got this far, and if you know anyone who might be able to use our experiences to help them out of a jam, please share. Happy Disney everybody! See ya real soon!!
Hope you had just as good a time as we did - was this your princess's first time? Disney is just magic! I thought I had lost the feeling for a little while this trip, but it all came rushing back at a Dream Along with Mickey show and I just can't believe how lucky we are.
everybody!
