First Pre-Trip Report (& as a DVC Member)

[PiratesCove]

I'm not good at keeping secrets, but I'm going to try my best with this one. I planned a special surprise for my husband on the night of our anniversary (8 years) which is on Tuesday! The CM at Disney was wonderful, but you'll have to wait until next week to find out exactly what I did

 

[kikiq]

I'm not good at keeping secrets, but I'm going to try my best with this one. I planned a special surprise for my husband on the night of our anniversary (8 years) which is on Tuesday! The CM at Disney was wonderful, but you'll have to wait until next week to find out exactly what I did

WHAT?!?! You don't think we can keep your secret? But wait, does your DH read your TR?

 

[PiratesCove]

WHAT?!?! You don't think we can keep your secret? But wait, does your DH read your TR?

DH does read the TR, so ...even though I told him to stay off the boards for a few days, I'm not chancing it

Leaving in 31 HOURS Better get the rest of the wash and packing finished

 

[Donald is #1]

Have an awesome trip!!!!

 

[PiratesCove]

It doesn't really count as day one - especially after the trip we had
I know I mentioned in a previous post that we had a late flight out and weren't due to the world until about 11:30. As luck would have it, there were storms Sunday evening. Had everything been on time, we probably would have made it out in time, in fact even with our plane arriving to the gate late, we were still ready before the storm came. But, of course the run way was full with the planes that couldn't take off (because they were to be heading directly into the storm). I wanted to just say, ummm excuse me can't we just skip to the front of the line since we aren't going into the storm?
As it turns out, our 7:55 departure time, turned into a 7:55 boarding time, 9:00 push out of the gate, and .... drum roll please.....

The wheels left the ground in Philly around 11:30 PM

Two tired kids = unhappy parents but hey, it was mother nature

Good news - we had a great pilot on SW who kept us informed, and had the smoothest take-off and landing EVER He also was slow to ascend and descend so the baby didn't mind it at all

We arrived in Orlando (about 1:30 am), got our luggage and made it to the bus, and then sat again What gives? Apparently, someone forgot their luggage (thinking that Magical express would get it at 2 AM) and they went back, so we sat for a little over a half hour!
Finally, arrival at SSR - about 3:00 AM on July 27 The request that I made for Grandstand wasn't met, and at that point I didn't care - I wanted to sleep.

Asleep by 4:30 AM - wow that was one long night. Good thing I had planned on sleeping in and not hitting the parks until after noon. Well, the sleeping in until almost 10 doesn't count since it equated to only about 4-5 hours of sleep.

Groceries arrived, and there was a message on the phone ... who could it be? Your room switch is ready Great, wake-up, re-pack, load the kids, and off we go. Luckily the guy from bell services suggested that we eat breakfast first (since they were about to stop serving it) before we went back to the front desk to inquire about the room change etc.

Turns out that as soon as we finished breakfast and went to the front desk our room was ready

OOOOOHHHHH, bell services. Finally a little after 11 we made our way to a more permanent home located directly next to the bus stop at Grandstand - SCORE

Keep reading to find out how this long day ends

 

[kikiq]

Glad you made it to SSR and the Grandstand area.

I'm actually waiting for your DH's surprise

 

[PiratesCove]

After getting settled into our room, we were off to AK. We wanted to make it to the parade & I was afraid we would miss it because of the slow buses. We made it in & DD & I headed to Dinosaur. The baby was sleeping so DH took a shift with the stroller. The wait was posted at 50 min but it didn't seem to take that long. I have a pic that I'll put up as soon as we get home. We tried to do Everest but that line was over an hour wait - no thank you! So we did Bugs life instead with no wait. And finally it was time for the parade! We loved it and stood right at the entrance to the safari - worked like a charm! We only waited about 20 min. Then it was off to our ADR at Tusker House- so so. DH took DD on the rapis since I don't like getting wet & baby & I headed home! By this time were exhausted - end of day 1!

Up next - our anniversary & hubby's surprise!

 

[kikiq]

What time did you get to AK? You did a lot considering you weren't there in the morning. If you go to AK again and ride the safari in Africa, look for my DD working one of the QS areas on her WDW College Program. Name tag will say something like Cal Poly SLO or Cal State Poly SLO. She loves kids