First, let me say we had an absolutely wonderful time! We went to Orlando with our best friends, 2 adults, and their DD, age 7. We are 2 adults, and 2 DS's age 7 and 6. After reading lots of reports from people traveling with friends, I was afraid that by going, it meant our friendship would be ruined-but I'm happy to say we just became better friends because of it!
10/29- Left from BWI to MCO. Got in at 5, and had a full size reserved at National reserve. Easy, easy, easy. Got a cherry red Chevy Impala-great car for us, and easy to spot in the parking lots. Went to Villa direct, got our key to our house, and went there. We stayed at a villa in Emerald Island resort-fantastic. It was very close to everything and we loved having the 2 master suites, 2 kids bedrooms, full kitchen, and private heated pool. When we got there, the pool was cold as ice-I called villa direct, they sent someone over within an hour, and it was up and running. No complaints! It worked out to be a very inexpensive alternative to Disney resorts. I was also afraid that my husband wouldn't do well with Disney 24/7, and we had planned some non-Disney activities, so it was perfect for us.
10/30 - MGM.
We got there around 8:35 and they let us in. We did TOT, RNRC, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, and Muppets 3-D before lunch. TOT and RNRC are not to be missed-they rank tops on our families favorites (including our DS's 7 and 6). Ate at Pizza planet, got pictures and met Buzz and Woody, then headed to the backlot tour.
Somewhere in all of this, I realized I'd lost one of our park hoppers while getting fastpasses. I panicked and probably looked like a crazy lady, but all the CM's were super nice, and after showing them the copy of the backs of our tickets, it was promptly replaced. Thank goodness-needless to say, for the rest of the trip, my husband got full control over our tickets. And FYI, they only needed the copy because they were AAA tickets and they don't sell them sequencially. They told me if I'd bought them thru disney ( or say at the Disney store), they'd be able to replace that one based on searching the other numbers that I had. Just a tip.
By this time it was around 2, we were planning to eat at 4 at house of blues at downtown disney, since we had 6:00 Cirque tickets. So, we went and did RNRC one more time, and headed to Downtown disney. We strolled around, had a terrible dinner at HOB (we just had a terrible waiter)- this is somewhere I will go out of my way to avoid going back to. Our food was cold, they completely forgot about our appetizer, they said the special was a fish-we ordered it, then they came back and said they were all out -mind you it's 4 pm. So, it was obviously yesterday's special. After about 1/2 hour, the waiter came out and said they had run out of iced tea. We honestly thought it was some sort of joke. Anyway, we finished up, then headed to cirque.
If you've never been to Cirque-GO!!! My husband is not very, oh how do I say it tactfully- artsy. He's a man's man if you get my drift. When the performers started coming out in the beginning he looked over to me and said he was scared. For the rest of the show, he, our friends (who were also less than really excited to be there), and our kids, were all on the edge of their seats. When it ended, we wished we could stay and see the next show at 9. We loved it!!!!! It is truly a treat, and if you can in any way come up with the money to go, it is worth every penny! We loved it so much, we considered going back to see it again at the end of our trip.
Day 3 and 4 - MNSSHP and MK next!!!
10/29- Left from BWI to MCO. Got in at 5, and had a full size reserved at National reserve. Easy, easy, easy. Got a cherry red Chevy Impala-great car for us, and easy to spot in the parking lots. Went to Villa direct, got our key to our house, and went there. We stayed at a villa in Emerald Island resort-fantastic. It was very close to everything and we loved having the 2 master suites, 2 kids bedrooms, full kitchen, and private heated pool. When we got there, the pool was cold as ice-I called villa direct, they sent someone over within an hour, and it was up and running. No complaints! It worked out to be a very inexpensive alternative to Disney resorts. I was also afraid that my husband wouldn't do well with Disney 24/7, and we had planned some non-Disney activities, so it was perfect for us.
10/30 - MGM.
We got there around 8:35 and they let us in. We did TOT, RNRC, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, and Muppets 3-D before lunch. TOT and RNRC are not to be missed-they rank tops on our families favorites (including our DS's 7 and 6). Ate at Pizza planet, got pictures and met Buzz and Woody, then headed to the backlot tour.
Somewhere in all of this, I realized I'd lost one of our park hoppers while getting fastpasses. I panicked and probably looked like a crazy lady, but all the CM's were super nice, and after showing them the copy of the backs of our tickets, it was promptly replaced. Thank goodness-needless to say, for the rest of the trip, my husband got full control over our tickets. And FYI, they only needed the copy because they were AAA tickets and they don't sell them sequencially. They told me if I'd bought them thru disney ( or say at the Disney store), they'd be able to replace that one based on searching the other numbers that I had. Just a tip.
By this time it was around 2, we were planning to eat at 4 at house of blues at downtown disney, since we had 6:00 Cirque tickets. So, we went and did RNRC one more time, and headed to Downtown disney. We strolled around, had a terrible dinner at HOB (we just had a terrible waiter)- this is somewhere I will go out of my way to avoid going back to. Our food was cold, they completely forgot about our appetizer, they said the special was a fish-we ordered it, then they came back and said they were all out -mind you it's 4 pm. So, it was obviously yesterday's special. After about 1/2 hour, the waiter came out and said they had run out of iced tea. We honestly thought it was some sort of joke. Anyway, we finished up, then headed to cirque.
If you've never been to Cirque-GO!!! My husband is not very, oh how do I say it tactfully- artsy. He's a man's man if you get my drift. When the performers started coming out in the beginning he looked over to me and said he was scared. For the rest of the show, he, our friends (who were also less than really excited to be there), and our kids, were all on the edge of their seats. When it ended, we wished we could stay and see the next show at 9. We loved it!!!!! It is truly a treat, and if you can in any way come up with the money to go, it is worth every penny! We loved it so much, we considered going back to see it again at the end of our trip.
Day 3 and 4 - MNSSHP and MK next!!!
