First stop Baltimore..Finally part of your world in pt 5

[TinkyBelle]

That's right folks, I said Baltimore! Alright so that isn't the actual travel desination just one stop along the way but things did happen and it would not be fair to you if I left them out. This is going to be a rather long trip report as my family (of three at this point in the trip) was gone for three weeks. I will try not to bore you, however, you do have the option of just leaving this thread and I don't! You know cause I have to write it and all. So I will also try not to bore myself.

For those of you who have read my pre-trip report I am sorry for anything that gets repeated and for those of you who haven't...well, shame on you! It was slightly entertaining and rather enjoyable, if I do say so myself.

With that said....Here we go....Back in time to the 28th of November.
This is when my husband and I realized that in two days we would be landing in Baltimore with our connecting flight not leaving until morning and we didn't have a hotel room reserved. So I hop onto Expedia.com and look for a nice cheap room. Found a hotel (one I have never heard of before)with rooms for $72 a night. They provide a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport and to the mall (haven't been in one for 2 years so this sound wonderful to me), are located only two miles for the airport (flight leaves at 6:30am so this is important) and has a free continental breakfast. So I book a room and get a little pop up for the entertainment book. If I sign up for one month free usage I get $25 off my next hotel reservation booking through Expedia. Well this is a no brainer cause I still need to reserve a room for our return flight. So sign up and book a room at the same hotel for the 19th of December and check a little box and hey in a few short days I will receive a check for $25. Not bad!

Now jump ahead 2 days and you will find me lying in bed at 7 am wondering why the blasted alarm hasn't gone off yet (it's set for 8:45 by the way) and is it possible that the clock is broken? By 8 am I was ready to pull out my hair and then my daughter woke up and I had an excuse to get out of bed. We didn't have to check in for our flight until 2:45 pm and I had re-packed (the essentials were packed about three months ago) and double checked (for the 50th time) that we had everything the night before (to include all the brand new toiletries, that way nothing was forgotten) so there wasn't much to do but wait. Showered and dressed the family just sat around staring at each other.........Okay that didn't happen! My little princess watched Disney cartoons and I got on the Disboards for my last little fix before leaving. Don't know what the husband did!

Then off to the terminal for check-in. Totally painless until.....naptime passed without our princess participating. We sat in the terminal for three hours with nothing to do. Now remember, for those of you who did read my trip report and news flash for those who didn't, we live on a tiny little island and can only get on or off once a week, unless you take a boat. There isn't a real airpot just the terminal and then the passengers get bussed out to the plane. Well, and hour before our scheduled departure the announcement is made that we can now board the plane and that take-off will commence once everyone is on board. Yippy an hour early!!!! So we all push and shove (who cares about the small children) our way onto the buses and off we go. Half the people have now boarded the plane and the rest of us are waiting oh sooo unpatiently for our turn when it happens.....The announcement that the tower at BWI has denied our clearance to land an hour early. This means that everyone has to get back on the buses and head back to the terminal to sit for another hour. Thanks for dashing our hopes of freedom! All right, so the rest of the wait wasn't thaaaat bad.
Anyway, we finally got on the plane and had a very long and uneventful flight. With the exception of temper tantrums, crying and screaming and then there were the antics of my little princess who had gone without her nap.

No matter we are now in Baltimore and that much closer to DisneyWorld!
Hotel Shuttle picks us up and takes us to MicroTel, our hotel for the night.
The shuttle was wonderful. The driver was very helpful...the rest was totally awe-inspiring...NOT!

What do you get when you combine cheap rates with employees working in the hotels that have cheap rates (it was only 8 pm when we got there so late hours don't apply)......the answer: clerks that give away rooms that happen to be still occupied. That is correct folks, it happened to us. While my husband and I were marveling at the shabbiness of the room (holes in the shower where the towel rack used to be) and the magnificence of the wall of mirrors behind the beds..way classy, the clerk had apparently forgotten that we had moved in to this particular room. So not even two hours after check-in I start towards the door in order to grab a coke from the vending machine down the hall when it magically opens and there on the other side is a couple with luggage. It seems they were assigned to this room also....Nope not sharing with you people! They left to fight it out with the fornt desk and I went for the soda. Upon my return to the room I made a fascinating discovery...my card key no longer worked. Thank you front desk! At least they got the wake-up call time correct and we made it to the airport in time to catch our flight out. However that is another day and I have taken enough of your time for now. So check in tomorrow (I promise not to forget you were here) and I'll have more. If you were too bored to wish to continue I understand and I was bored with you too....

 

[TinkyBelle]

Chast of Characters for this Chapter:
Me: 26 y/o mother to the Princess and Disney planner

the Husband: 28 y/o father and the one responsible for the trip

the Princess: 3 y/o princess who will happily allow anyone to supply her with presents but lets no one tell her what to do

Cousin (to the Husband) Tom or C.T: Florida resident who's never been to Disney World

Ash: Wife to C.T.: Once visited the Magic Kingdom

Mom2: Mother to the Husband- Main reason for coming is to see the Princess, Disney World is just a bonus

After our rather uninspiring stay in Baltimore I was very much looking forward to Florida. Our first couple of days were to be spent visiting with the Husband's cousin and his wife. That went as planned and I got to shop in an actual mall and a Walmart for the first time in two years. It was wonderful!! Then it happened, the guys realized that the six hour drive to Orlando was supposed to happen on a Sunday. They had known all along that check-in was on the 4th and that that is the day the rest of the families would arrive but it hadn't clicked that it was a Sunday. Now both guys are big sports fans and they watch every Bears game they can. They even have a system set up so the Husband and C.T. can watch the game each week and talk to each other on the computer. Enough background, on with the story. The guys have realized that if we are driving six hours to Orlando for a 3:00 pm check-in that they will be unable to watch the game. Horror of Horrors that they miss one! The answer is to drive down on the 3rd (in two seperate cars) and get a cheap motel for the night, get up early and send the women folk to check-in at Shades of Green while they go to the Boardwalk to watch the game.
Which is exactly what we did. The drive down was easy and passed by fairly quickly. For some reason the guys thought it might be possible to check-in a day early and at almost 9 pm. So after dinner at Perkins while standing in the parking lot C.T. calls Shades of Green to check. Gives them my confirmation numbers (which I have in my Disney World binder-the one that they all scoffed at yet asked to look in time and again) and discovers that there is no room at the inn for us tonight. Asks about his room for tomorrow and hey guess what?! They have no reservation for him. C.T. is positive, well almost sure that he booked a room on-line months ago. Silly man! No confirmation number and no double-checking. What was he thinking? I personally called a week before we were set to leave to check that we were still in their computer and that all the changes we had made were listed. So there was no problem for us. The guys figured that since the Husband's mother would be in a room by herself with two Queen beds that they could share with her. I thought it would be nice to ask her, especially since she was coming on this trip to get away from people and crowding but hey no one asked me. So that figured out it was on to where to stay tonight.
We stayed at a Howard Johnson not 10 minutes from Disney World. It was much better than MicroTel and cheaper too! The room was clean and there were no holes in walls, no one came to our room trying to move us out and the television got the DisneyWorld channel. The next morning we checked out just before 11 and split. The guys going off in search of their game and us girls in search of rooms, hoping for early check-in. Thanks to directions from MapQuest, that I had filed in my handy dandy notebook, finding the resort was a breeze. All though there were plenty of signs after awhile. Disney sure does make finding places relatively easy with all the signs.
Check-in was simple and hassle free. Only one room was ready at the moment but that's really all we needed to drop of the luggage. Decided to do some laundry and wander the hotel while waiting for the guys.
The hotel was simply gorgeous! There are two pools (the main one to swim laps in and one shaped like Mickey), a sports bar (that was playing the game), a waterfall at the front entrance and another that lead downstairs to the bus stop, wonderful views of the golf courses and a lovely pond behind the resort with little motor boats the kids could drive.
After the laundry was done Ash and I noticed the time and realized that we better get a move on if we were to get to the airport in time to pick up the rest of our families. Put in a call to the guys to meet us there and we're off. I would like to take a moment to mention that the Princess is being remarkable well behaved, especially considering she hasn't had her nap today or for that matter a decent one in the last four days. We did have a small meltdown leaving the resort but not bad. I did mash my sunglasses, do to a lack of sleep on my part and the frustration of knowing that the tantrum could have been avoided with a nap, my fault.
Off to the airport, which we find with no trouble! Once again thanks to directions from my book. The guys however, have beaten us there. They did have to pay more tolls then we did though! Now for the sitting and waiting and then oh! wait the flight number (which we knew only becuase it was in the book) for the first of our arrivals. Mom2 will appear at any moment. Turn to face the directions the passangers will come and

 

[TinkyBelle]

Upon turning around I was shocked in my discovery that Mom2 had clearly been drinking from the Fountain of Youth, lost some weight, grown a couple of inches and wait a minute..that's the Husband's little sister Nici! As some of you may remember, at the beginning of the planning stage she was invited to come and then parental issues developed and Mom2 decided to come by herself and yet here is Nici but no Mom2. Apparently Mom2 had not been feeling up to the flight and sent Nici instead. To get the time off from her job Nici (who is 16) told them that she was moving. I don't understand how she thought that was going to work and surprise surprise, it didn't! They told her she would need to bring in a note at which point Nici fessed up and said that her mom wasn't feeling well and they had tickets to Florida that they didn't want to waste and she would only need to be gone for one week. Nice people that they are they let her leave. The truth does work best on most occasions, the rest of the time make it up!
The was yet another hour to wait for my mom and Papa Larry to arrive soooo
Now the entire gang is here and we can all set off for the resort but first Papa Larry has to rent a vehicle. Papa Larry has declared in the past that he would never again set foot in a theme park and yet here he is about to venture into Disney World. He does not however plan to actually go into any of the parks. He has promised to go to the Verry Merry Christmas Party with us though! Mom and I decided that what he doesn't know can't hurt him.. The poor man actually thinks it's a just a Party!!! Don't know where he got that idea! Thus the need for the vehicle to explore Orlando and it's surrounding areas, when not immersed in the spectacular golf courses that abound on Disney property.

The Cast of Characters at this point....

Me: Rather frazzled mother of the Princess and Disney planner

the Husband: Carefree football fan who's going with the flow

the Princess: 3 y/o delighted with the attention from everyone

C.T.: Still never been to any Disney World parks but has now visited the BoardWalk

Ash: Waiting for her chance at the rest of the World

Nici: 16 y/o sister to the Husband and Disney World first timer

Nana: My mother and while enjoys the idea of Disney World came mostly to see the Princess

Papa Larry: Came for the golf and cause he loves his step-daughter

Now that we're caught up with the cast it's back to the story.
The Princess and I got in the car with Nana and Papa Larry while the others went on ahead to the resort. The plan was for me to get my parents cheked-in and then the four of us would head on over to Wal-Mart for some supplies. The rest of the gang isn't feeling too well and so there mission is to rest up for tomorrow.

Check-in was a breeze. Nana and Papa Larry had the room next to ours with a connecting door, that will come in handy later. A quick check with the others and wait they're not there yet. It seems that without the directions in my book (the book they all mocked) they had some how ended up at the Animal Kingdom! I don't know how they did that but I sure didn't let them forget it.
So into the car with us and off we go. I had printed up directions to some of the closest stores, including Wal-Mart, and placed them in the book before we left home. Following the directions was simple and we were all excited about being on this vacation and talking up a storm when Nana noticed that we were heading into an industrial area and there was no sign of a Wal-Mart, although according to the directions it should be less than a mile from us. We kept on though and the industrial section became a neighborhood. I went over the directions and there at the bottom was the answer. When I entered the address into MapQuest I wrote Oceala Parkway yet it had been changed to Oceala Court. If we had continued we would have arrived at someone's house. I am fairly sure that they would not have appreciated four people arriving on their doorstep at 10:00pm to buy water and some cough drops from them. Next time I will re-check the address on the directions. Well, no shopping for us tonight, back to the resort because we have an early morning ADR at 1900 Park Fare.
P.S. no telling the Husband about getting lost....our story is that we decided to just drive around for a little while and go to the Super Target tomorrow. [/

 

[TinkyBelle]

Cast of Characters:

Me: Mother to the Princess

the Husband: Father to the Princess

the Princess: 3 y/o and ruler of all

Nana: Grandma to the Princess

C.T.: Uncle to the Princess

Ash: Auntie to the Princess

Nici: Tia to the Princess

and with occasional appearances from Papa Larry: Granddad to the Princess


Rise and shine!!! I said......
Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!! Everybody get your lazy selves out of Bed!!!!

Alright, it wasn't exactly like that but it could have been. Amazingly enough everyone was ready to go by 8:20 and we were off to the Polynesian to catch the monorail to the GF for breakfast. Got there early and still had to wait about 20 minutes for a table but I think it was worth it. The lobby of the GF was beautiful and we all had a wonderful time looking around and taking the spectacular Christmas tree and Gingerbread House.
We really enjoyed our time at 1900 Park Fare. The Princess got to meet (and have sign her autograph book) the Mad Hatter, Pooh and Tigger. Nici didn't know who the Mad Hatter was as she has apparently never seen Alice in Wonderland. Poor deprived child The cutest moment was when the Princess actually shared her Fruit Loops with Tigger (she gets them without milk). She picked one up and deposited it on his paw and he pretended to eat it. It was adorable! She rarely shares her food or anything else for that matter, pretty much everything is hers.

After breakfast we rode the monorail over to the TT&C to buy our APs. No wait to see the lovely lady behind the window so we can purchase those aforementioned APs. She's sorry but the card is not accepted...Excuse me! I don't understand...there is more than enough money in the account why is it not working? So the Husband goes to the ATM and gets his daily max allotment and we had all the cash we have and then try the card with the cash making up the difference. Still no go...so I go to the ATM and take out the max daily allotment..or attempt to. Check the balance, yep the money is still there. Try to take out a smaller amount...nope! Go back to the window and the wonderfully patient lady calls the customer service line for us. Did any of you know that there is a maximum amount that you are allowed to spend on your debit/credit card in a 24hr period? For security purposes of course. Well, what with check-in for two rooms (paying the full amount) yesterday and the computer delays getting the APs put me over the limit. However, it is possible to up the amount for a certain purchase and that's what we did. Thank you to the guy on the customer service line and the gracious lady at the window! We now have APs. Back to the resort to get the park tickets for Nana and Nici....they will not be coming back within the next year so no APs for them

Get back to the resort and buy Nici's ticket (Nana's getting her own)...what with all the cash we have from the ATM we didn't have to worry about a card getting rejected

Here's where we split...It is time for the Princess to have some food and then shortly naptime, the Husband and his gang head out to Epcot. Nana stays at the resort to explore and then at 4:30 the three of us meet up with Papa Larry and drive over to Super Target. Shopping is a wonderful activity!!

I was supposed to meet the Husband at 6:00 so we could all get some dinner in the park but that didn't happen. We didn't get back to the resort until almost 6:30, Nana decided to keep the Princess and I went on to Epcot by myself. Rode the monorail into Epcot around 7:00 and as it was docking I could see C.T. and Ash at Disney's hideous display of greed and people's willingness to hand over their money or Leave a Legacy as some like to call it. As I got to the entrance I pulled out the walkie talkie (we bought them especially for this trip) and contacted the Husband. They were now at the boarding area for the monorail..so back up the ramp I go and we were all off. Get off at the TTC and walk through the Poly towards SoG. Not a bad walk, lovely things to look at the entire way and it's not very long. We ate at the Garden Grill downstairs at is wasn't bad, not wonderful but not awful either.

Had some playtime with the Princess and then bed!! Maybe tomorrow I will finally get to go through the entrance of a park!

 

[TinkyBelle]

Once again awake at the crack of dawn..or 7:30, close enough as most of the group will sleep until 9 or so. However, I am ready to go around 8:30 so I grab Nana and we take the Princess to breakfast downstairs. It was a lovely little buffett style breakfast where kids under a certain age ate free.
A little after 10 the rest of the cast is ready to go...with the exception of Nici who has wardrobe malfunctions and is upset by the fact that her shoes (black and pink) don't match her shirt and sweater (light blue and white) so Ash trades with her. Then she goes and puts on her sweatshirt (black and pink)...so what I ask is the point of trading shoes?? Papa Larry has decided to go golfing today and we will most likely not see him until late.

Off to MGM.... First thing we do is split up so that the slowpokes in our group can have some food to fill their bellies. Clipping the walkie talkie on my pants pocket I herd Nana and the Princess towards the Little Mermaid. It was a big hit! Check pocket for walkie talkie, check! Decide that turning it on might help if someone (the Husband) wants to get ahold of me. Stroll on over to the Muppets, another big hit! As we were in the props room for the pre-show the Princess decided that she needed some chapstick, so I handed mine over and then we were led into the theatre. By the time we had gotten to our seats the Princess (who was carried in by Nana) has lost the cap, it was now somewhere down the aisle just waiting for someone to step on it or in another dimension looking to find a new home. The Princess sat on my lap so that she could see and actually kept her glasses on for most of the show and she really enjoyed the bubbles. I knew we would enjoy this park together. Next stop, Playhouse Disney. On our nice scenic walk towards the theatre I feel my pocket for the walkie talkie, check.....or not! It's gone..probably in the same dimension as the chapstick cap, I've only used the blasted thing once. Anyway, the great news is that the Princess loved Playhouse Disney and the Husband saw us standing in line so he knew to wait for the show to end. The bad news, I am not allowed to take things into theatre type attractions anymore.
It is now time for a nap so I take the Princess back to the resort (she passed out on the way) and leave the rest of the gang to have fun.

The plan is to meet up at 6 at the big and beautiful, yet it blocks my view of the glorious Chinese Theatre, hat and then head on over to Fantasmic. The plan actually works.

Fantasmic was amazing! The Princess got a little scard of the villians and said, "I want to go home." After a few cuddles she was good to go...until she saw Chernabog and freaked had to hold her tight until Maleficent came out and then she was entranced by the dragon.

After Fantasmic Nana took the Princess to see the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights and I finally got to go on a ride! Not just any ride but one of my all time favorite, absolutely have to go on rides...the Tower of Terror! I love this ride but only got to do it once though because then it was time to head home...but I will be back....

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reports ~ Thanx for posting.