From Land to Sea! Pre Trip Report!! LIVE FROM ORLANDO - Now with Pics!!!!

[DisneyMomforLife]

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

DW37 - Kat
DH40 - Phil
DS19 - Shawn
DD11 – Gabi

Well, let me start off by saying thank you for reading this pre and trip report!! We are a happy little family of 4 living in CT where it is flippin’ freezin’ right now!!!

A little background on us … I am a DISNEY lover (have been all my life!) and have managed to drag my husband over to the dark side!!

We have been to the World 10 times in the last 11 years and this will be our 11th trip … we have also been on 2 Disney cruises … and this will be our 3rd! We first sailed on the Wonder in October of 2006 – a quick 3 night to see how the family would do on a cruise ship. We were there for my DDs 9th birthday and it was awesome!! We were hooked!! My DH was nervous as he had sailed with another cruise line and was sick the whole time but he did fine and so did the kids and I. I begged him for a 7 night cruise on the Magic in 2008 if I kept my mouth shut about cruising in 2007 and he kept his promise!! We sailed an Eastern cruise on the Magic last April for the kids school break. We were even lucky enough to sail with his brother, sister-in-law and their 3 kids – it was their first cruise as well so it was extra special.

This trip is part planned with the kids and part surprise … they have no idea that we have tacked a 3 night cruise onto the end of our trip. I have hated not including them in on the plans but I can’t wait to see the shock on their faces when they find out!

So … getting us to where we are now … we own a timeshare in Orlando so we like to take advantage of that and this year was no different, except our timeshare landed right on the Easter Break week for the entire Northeast and JetBlue decided to really capitalize on that to the tune of close to $3,600 for 4 people to fly from White Plains, NY to Orlando. Yeah, right! So, we are pulling the kids out of school in 3 weeks and flipping the finger to JetBlue’s prices!! I managed to get the 4 of us to Orlando in May for under $800 vs $800 per person. Totally worth a week out of school. We also managed to score the kids under 12 sail for free deal so that saved us a bunch as well.

We will be staying at Sheraton Vistana Villages this time around and we are excited about that too. We have stayed at Vistana Resort and we loved that so we are excited about Vistana Villages. Anyone ever stayed there?

So, we leave on Saturday May 9 after my daughter jumps off stage for her dance recital. We will literally leave right from her recital and take off out of NY by 7pm. Not our first choice of flight times but JetBlue first cancelled our original flight at 5 and put us on a 2:30 that we couldn’t do because of her recital so we had to change to a different airport and go at 5. Then they changed that flight to 6 … and now it’s changed to 7. UGH, frustrating to say the least but hey, we will be in FL so who cares!

We will be having a Mother’s Day brunch at Boma at AKL … anyone ever been? We never have but we are excited to try a new place. We plan to retreat back to our resort and hit the pool for the rest of the day. Monday we plan to visit MK for the day. Tuesday will be another pool/relaxation day. Tuesday evening we have reservations for Rainforest Café at Downtown Disney … it’s one of our FAVORITE places to go … we just love it there!! Wednesday will be AK day. DH is a firefighter and I told the kids that we had to go home on Thursday because he couldn't get a full week off so that I had an excuse to wash all the clothes and repack everything nicely for the cruise and get everyone into the car early Thursday morning.

We have breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey’s (LOOOVE THAT PLACE) at 7:30 on Thursday morning where I will be enlisting the help of Mickey and Minnie to let the cat out of the bag. A WONDERful Creative DISer made these awesome mock boarding passes that I had laminated and I am going to pass them off to the waitress and have Mickey and Minnie hand them to the kids and then we will leave straight from breakfast and head to the port.

Of course, they are kids … and I am getting “it’s not fair! We’ve never gone to FL for only 5 days! Why do we have to come home so soon??” And I can’t fault them … they are right, LOL. They just have no idea what is in store for them!!

Stay tuned for more updates!!

Kat

 

[Grumpyismyfavorite]

I love the fact that you are surprising your kids! What a great way to start a cruise. I'm sure you will have a great time and Congrats on saving so much. We will be on the Wonder on May 28.

BOMA is one of my favorite restaurants on property - I love their breakfast. We are taking my mom to Le Cellier for Mother's Day (my very favorite restaurant on property) and I can't wait.

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

Thanks! I'm not sure I will love the drive to the port with them screaming in the car the whole way! LOL

I'm so glad you told me about Boma. Is it a good choice for Mother's Day or would you recommend somewhere else?

Kat

 

[Grumpyismyfavorite]

I prefer more casual atmosphere so I really do like BOMA. If you prefer a more formal arrangement you might like something else better....but the food is really good there. Although, at this late date I'm not sure what will still be available for Mother's Day.

Excited kids are the best kind! I can say that because mine is 20 now.

When I was a kid, my Mom thought up a pretty smart game. Before a road trip from North Carolina to Florida she taught us the alphabet in sign language. The "game" was that we only talked in sign the whole trip. Looking back, I must say I have a pretty smart Mom!

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

We are just fine with a casual atmosphere ... plus we have never seen AKL so that is part of the fun as well.

Thank you so much for your insight!!

Kat

 

[Granny Hawkins]

Love that you are surprising the kids this time. Our surprise this trip is flying.

They think they are going to be cooped up in the car for 8 hours....LOL

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

FUN!! Have they ever flown before??

That will be neat for them. It's always nice to have some sort of surprise in there for them!!

Kat

 

[Granny Hawkins]

FUN!! Have they ever flown before??

That will be neat for them. It's always nice to have some sort of surprise in there for them!!

Kat

Yes,we have flown before but they will still be excited.

They have had 2 trips to WDW that were total surprises also.

 

[wilma-bride]

Wow, what a great surprise for your kids. They will be so pleased.

I haven't stayed at Vistana Villages personally but friends of ours have timeshare there and they absolutely love it

Hope you enjoy your brunch at Boma, I can't wait to try Boma on our next trip to the World.

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans

 

[DWGal210]

That is SO COOL that you are surprising the kids - they will FLIP!

We ate at BOMA last June and loved it - I thought the food was very good and there is plenty of variety; we really enjoyed it!!

Have a great time on your trip!!

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

That is SO COOL that you are surprising the kids - they will FLIP!

We ate at BOMA last June and loved it - I thought the food was very good and there is plenty of variety; we really enjoyed it!!

Have a great time on your trip!!

Yeah, I'm sure they will totally flip ... we said we wouldn't be going on another cruise until 2010!

I'm happy to hear about BOMA - my daughter can be a little finicky about food so I'm glad that she will have plenty to choose from!

Kat

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

Wow, what a great surprise for your kids. They will be so pleased.

I haven't stayed at Vistana Villages personally but friends of ours have timeshare there and they absolutely love it

Hope you enjoy your brunch at Boma, I can't wait to try Boma on our next trip to the World.

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans

I'm so happy to hear about VV - we are super thrilled. Thanks for following our journey!!

Kat

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

So we are in crunch mode now, suitcases will come down from the attic this weekend and we will start going through the summer clothes. Of course we are dying to start packing and this weekend is going to be 80 degrees both days so I won’t want to be anywhere but outside but it has to be done!

We got our cruise docs on Monday and it was a race to the door with my daughter … they just love answering the phone and the door at that age! I saw the UPS man through the door and so I yelled out, “I GOT IT!” … and it stopped her dead in her tracks! Then she comes into the kitchen and says, “WHO GOT MAIL”? Haha … DENIED! I was so worried that the docs would come while they were on vacation from school last week … that was the last thing that could have messed up the surprise.

I also have to get out and get my fish extender gifts purchased. This is our 3rd cruise but first time participating in a fish exchange so it should be fun!! I bought my FE on Ebay and it should be in the mailbox today or tomorrow at the latest. I am super excited to see it!! I am going to send a box to the ship to be there when we get there this time. There is just too much of a chance with stuff being seen while we are in FL before the cruise. I will be sending the FE, FE gifts, cruise specific stuff that would tip the kids off like the highlighters, lanyards, etc. I’ve never sent a box before any of our other cruises so I hope it goes off without a hitch!

I also have to talk with my daughter's teachers and see if they will giver her the assignments she will be responsible for in advance. Her school participates in an online homework system and I'm hoping I can photocopy the pages of her textbooks that she will need rather than have her have to carry all of her books with her. With any luck, she can get some stuff done before we go and while she is on the plane rather than have to check the website each day for her assignments. We'll see next week!!

Her passport is still AWOL. I know it's not necessary ... but we'd like to have it. I am remarried and the kids wanted to change their last names so we did a full court order and my son's came back last week but her's didn't yet. We mailed them March 23 so it really should be any day now!!

We decided yesterday that we will stay onboard for Nassau day. We've done it twice and really don't need to get off again this time. I had considered the British Colonial Hilton as they allow you to use their private beach, pool and restaurant for a fee of $20 per person ... but then I realized that we will be on a much more private beach the next day ... we can laze about onboard without paying an extra $80 to do so ... we don't have to pack up and walk to find the pool if we stay onboard and our food will be free so why was I considering that at all? LOL Plus with just doing a quick 3 day this time, I will want to be onboard as much as possible!!

I think I heard that Ray is the CD on the Wonder right now. Anyone have any info on him? We had Christiaan the first time on the Wonder and just totally love him. I was hoping he was there again (shoot, even better would have been you-know-who!) but I guess I can't be that lucky this time!! I hope Ray lives up to our expectations!! I'm sure he will ... we aren't that hard to please!!

Kat

 

[MouseLovinMom]

We've sailed with Ray on all of our cruises, love him dearly and would definitely miss him if he weren't onboard with us. Ray's customer service is some of the best Disney has to offer. We've not had the opportunity to cruise with Christiaan; however, I've heard that he's fantastic, very dynamic and quite the entertainer! You'll find Ray to be a bit more laid back than that; if you have to opportunity to chat with him, take it, he's a sweetheart and a lot of fun to talk with. Ray's a geniunely kind person. He's also a kid magnet. They love him (and he loves them back). My son thinks Ray walks on water!

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

Thank you so much for that info ... makes me feel better. Like I said, we are pretty easy going ... but still, we like to know what we are in for!!

kat

 

[MouseLovinMom]

My pleasure. I hope you have a great time. Ray's a good guy. In addition to how much we like him personally, I'll tell you that we've heard that the cruise staff really enjoys working with him. Happy crew members are a good thing!

On another topic, we also love BOMA. We've had dinner there twice. It's casual, fun (a bit on the loud side), the food was good (and interesting)& the service was excellent. Enjoy.

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

Well, it's major crunch time now. We have been so busy with switching out the winter clothes with the summer clothes, cleaning the boat to get it ready to go in the water and other spring cleaning type stuff that once again, our trip has creeped up on us in a fashion I can't even explain!

So, with less than a week to go, I only have my two kids packed. I gathered most of my stuff up yesterday but that will be tonight/tomorrow night's task. I just sent my daughter off to school today with notes to her teachers requesting the homework that will need to be done while she is away. We are trying to find out so we can copy textbook pages rather than have to lug her textbooks with her. We'll see how that turns out!! If they don't give us anything, she will have to take her textbooks and log on each day to find out her assignments. Not the end of the world but not the best scenario either!

I started my door magnets ... collected my Mickey heads from the paint section at Home Depot and hopefully will finish everything within a day or two.

I haven't shopped for my FE gifts yet ... which I have GOT to do like as soon as possible so that I can ship out my box to the ship by Friday since we leave on Saturday morning.

On another note, I am starting to plan for our October trip - bought our tickets for MNSSHP last week and I am super excited for that. I have to check for timeshare availability and get something exchanged for that week. Airfare is bought ... just need park tickets, rental car and accommodations and that will be done.

We are dying to stay at AKL ... but spending an extra $1700 just seems CRAZY to me when we own a timeshare and can stay basically anywhere (else) in Orlando for $139. I keep telling the kids ... "We will ... ONE DAY ... I promise ... just not THIS TIME." LOL When is ONE DAY going to come??

Well, I hope I can get everything done this week. We'll see!!

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

Well, we finally made it to Orlando Saturday night after my daughter's dance recital!!

We arrived at 9:45pm from JFK with no issues ... travel went very smoothly. Anyone traveling on JetBlue from JFK will LOVE their new terminal. The food was awesome and it was so close to all of the gates.

We got to the Budget counter for our car and pick up was SMOOTH again ... no issues except waiting for our GPS to locate us!! We always bring our travel GPS so that is a major help every time.

In case anyone is curious about the weather - it's hella hot!! It was 87 when we got the rental car!

We arrived at Sheraton Vistana Resort and the check-in went so quickly. Hannah at the front desk made things go very easy. We requested and were granted the Key West area with ground floor (I had back surgery 8 months ago so we requested ground floor so it was easier than elevators and stairs if the elevators went out). We are in building 15 and it literally backs up the pool ... you can see the entire pool area from our outside sitting area. The walk to the pool is about 30 seconds. It's the smaller Key West pool but it's nice.

My pictures from the inside of the resort are on my 2nd camera that I didn't bring the upload cord for ... so I will add them when I get home.

Here are the kids outside the front of the building:



SUNDAY - Mother's Day
We woke up around 7am and began getting ready for Mother's Day Brunch at Boma in Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had never been there and were excited to go. When we got there, I was shocked to see SO many people waiting eat ... but very thankful that for whatever reason, it went very smoothly and we were sitting down within 10 minutes with barely enough time check out the pool!

Here are a few pics ...

Ha, everyone takes one of these EACH trip they go on!!!


The entrance to AKL:


Inside of Boma:


Our family:


We ate a wonderful buffet breakfast of pancakes, waffles, fresh ham and turkey, eggs, bacon, muffins, fresh fruit, etc ... Dave was our waiter and he was great.

We moved onto the store to check things out ... and the kids saw this giant Tic Tac Toe game and they had to play!!

Gabi won the first round ...


Shawn won the second round ...


And I stopped the competition there so that no one had bragging rights over the other for the day! LOL

After breakfast we went to a Super Walmart for some supplies for the week and then retreated back to the hotel for some much needed pool time. It was 96 outside and slightly humid so most of the time was spent in the pool the rest of the afternoon.

We found a nice hammock on the way to the pool:




It's now 10:30 am on Monday and we are heading out soon for Magic Kingdom. We found out that there is a space shuttle launch today ... we tossed around the idea of going to see it until we heard on the news that the traffic was already backing up at 9:30am for a 2:01pm launch. Oh well. Maybe next time, LOL.

Kat

 

[djcjn]

Well, look who I found! I didn't know you were working on a pre-trippie! I'm jealous you're at MK today, but I'm looking forward to meeting you on Thursday!

Jenni

 

[Granny Hawkins]

I prefer more casual atmosphere so I really do like BOMA. If you prefer a more formal arrangement you might like something else better....but the food is really good there. Although, at this late date I'm not sure what will still be available for Mother's Day.

Excited kids are the best kind! I can say that because mine is 20 now.

When I was a kid, my Mom thought up a pretty smart game. Before a road trip from North Carolina to Florida she taught us the alphabet in sign language. The "game" was that we only talked in sign the whole trip. Looking back, I must say I have a pretty smart Mom!

LOL....My grown kids do this still so I won't know what they are saying. I cqn do some signing but not the alphabet.

Hope you can keep up the surprise. Make sure and have the camera ready!