From Terror Threats to Hurricanes...Day 4 update w more pics

andy_fish

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
51
OK…I am going to start my very first Disney trip report. My family (Me, Wife, 9 year old son, 8 year old daughter, and 6 year old daughter) traveled from Seattle to Disney World to Nags Head back to Disney World from 8/13 until 8/31. 7 days of Disney sandwiched around 10 days in the outer banks…5106 miles of flying 2100 miles of driving. The trip started with the "liquid bomb" terrorist threat right before we left and finished with us scrambling to rebook flights and find a room with Ernesto was aiming to hit us the day we were supposed to leave.
My kids had never been to Disney World but my wife and I had our anniversary there in August of 1995 :love: . We spent 4 nights at Saratoga Springs :thumbsup2 , then drove to nags head :moped: , then spent 3 nights at Worldmark in Orlando.
Anyway…here is day 1…I was so tired that some of the details are probably missing and I didn’t take any notes on this day when I got back to the room since I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

8/13-8/14: This is two days but to me it seemed like one very very long day. We left our house 7:30 for our 10:40 Flight. With the new airport rules we were worried about long lines through security. Of course check-in and security took about 11 minutes leaving us two hours or so to kill at the airport. Fortunately the service at Anthony’s was ridiculously slow so dinner took up just about all of the time. Before we left I printed our boarding passes snagging 4 seats in row 6 and an aisle in row 8. DS9, DD8, and DD6 took A, B, and C and I took D. DW took row 8. Anthony’s took long enough for me to gulp down two 22 ounce beers so I was ready to actually sleep through the red eye to Orlando. DW had a glass of wine…actually she had a half a glass of wine which I cleaned up as we left the table. The flight was uneventful but I didn’t get much sleep. The kids were remarkably well behaved on the plane…likely because they were asleep most of the flight.
We land at MCO at around 7:30 AM. All of us exhausted we do the red-eye zombie walk though the airport looking for magical express. We follow the pointing arms of the magical express cast members until after walking for 17 miles we reach the launch zone for the ME busses. Once aboard we all seem to get a second wind…the reality that we were now going to Disney World has woken us up.
The bus pulls into Saratoga Springs…wow…we are actually here :banana: . I can’t believe it. After all this planning and the years of saying “next year we will take the kids to Disney World” we are finally here. It is still early…about 9:30 AM. We figured we would check-in and then head to MGM until our room was ready but it turns out our room is already ready. Fantastic! So we get a golf cart ride to our building and head to the room. It was a nice room…didn’t blow us away but definitely nice. Boy did those beds look comfortable…I just had to test them out and rest my eyes for just a minute…two hours later we were off to MGM.
We chose MGM for this day because they were having the evening magic hours. Most of this day is a blur since I was operating on about 60 minutes or beer induced sleep. We walk into the park and I am immediately hit with “Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan” ugghh. I don’t remember how much they cost but at the time I thought they were way too expensive…I guess the drugs that Disney adds to the water that makes you attempt to spend money as fast as possible hadn’t taken effect yet (although the next day the drugs clearly had taken effect because among many many other things we bought two fans).
We decided to head to thelft as we entered which seemed away from the crowds who were probably heading toward the bigger rides. On the way we walked by the sci-fi theater where my wife and I had once eaten on our honeymoon and we thought the kids would enjoy having dinner there so we walked up to the podium and asked about any available tables for dinner. The CM at the podium stared blankly at me…it was probably not for more than a second or two but in that time and recognizing the meaning of the expression on his face I realized something that my tired brain had not yet comprehended…everyone is getting the DDP for free…I have no reservations for any meals…holy crap :furious: . “We are totally booked up all night including the Magic Hours”. That line was repeated to me at every other restaurant in the park. So not only am I paying for the DDP when everyone else is getting it for free but because EVERYONE is getting it for free there are no restaurants available at which we can use our DDP to eat. Wife made some comment to the effect of...how is the DDP a bargain if we can't actually eat the meals... :teacher:
So trying not to let this get us down we set off to enjoy the park.
The first thing we did was hit the 3D movies :3dglasses since fatigue started to catch up to us and our Sammamish, WA bodies were not adjusted to the weather. The kids absolutely loved the Muppet show…even more than Honey I shrunk the Audience (which we saw next). We hit the movie ride (which oddly enough the kids also enjoyed even though they hadn’t seen most of the movies). Now you have to remember that we were a step slow and our brains were adjusting to Disney…but we totally blew it and never got fast passes for Tower of Terror or Rockin’ Roller Coaster…the only two good rides in the park and we were going to miss them. At the time we figured that we could just stand-by on them during the magic hours. Well when the magic hours started the park was about 10x more crowded than it was all day. I sat down on the curb and did something I should have done weeks or months ago…I called advanced dinner reservations :sad2: . I sat on hold for a few minutes and glanced at the family…wife looked spent…girls seemed in a daze…my son was hopped up on whatever natural amphetamines kick in when he gets really tired which means a major crash was around the corner…I really needed to find us a place to eat. ADR CM was very helpful…she checked every park and every resort and found nothing…finally she managed to get us in to the Turf Club at our resort. This was actually perfect since we were all ready to call it a day anyway. Not a great start to our trip…we didn’t plan our park very well and we totally skipped the magic hours which was why we came here first…but we are here and is there really a bad day at Disney?
Turf Club was running late but that worked out. It gave us time to have a drink and let the kids settle down in front of the TV outside of the restaurant. My wife took my son to the gift shop because he really wanted a Sorcerers’ Apprentice Hat. He was really excited when he had it on when he came back :wizard: . My wife told me that she felt really bad because some older boys (age 12 or 13...my wife pointed them out later on a bus from one of the parks) in the gift shop were making fun of him when he was wearing it. My son is extremely intelligent but he can sometimes seem a little bit odd to other kids…so this wasn’t the first time something like this happened and to his credit he didn’t let it affect him what so ever (I don’t know if he even noticed…he usually doesn’t). When we got back he said he wants to be the sorcerers spprentice for halloween :). My girls just sprawled out on the couch the whole time managing to stay awake watching some Nick cartoon that I hate and they love.
Dinner was awesome… so much wonderful food…I finally won my big points for getting the DDP even if we did have to pay for it. In fact every meal we had on the trip was fantastic except for our final table service meal (which I will talk about in a later installment). After dinner we took the loooooong walk back to our room and were all asleep within minutes…tomorrow at the Animal Kingdom would be a much better day and we would actually check out our resort.
 
I know about not having ONE ressie........we were in May and didnt make any priority seating and we only could get to Biergarten while we were there.....thanks so much for your report so far
 
Good report so far. It is amazing what kids think they can't live without when they get to WDW, then never touch them again when you get home :confused3

Looking forward to more, hope you got some good ADR's for the rest of the week..

bev
 
My DH always tells me that I need to be more spontanious and not plan all of our meals and what parks on what days. You just experienced what I never want to experience. Glad to hear you didn't let it ruin the rest of your day. Looking forward to hearing more.
 

enjoing your TR, It is also so nice to see this written from a DH perspective :thumbsup2 Your wife seems very laid back, which is great! I am a complete control freak so there is NO WAY I would leave ANY planning to my dh :bitelip:
 
Love your TR and hope tomorrow at AK is a better day! You are a trooper! My DH would have been back at the hotel asleep!
 
Great TR so far! :thumbsup2 I can totally relate to how you felt that first day. In Jan. 05 we flew red-eye (for the first and only time). Our flight left LAX at 10:30 p.m. and arrived at MCO at 6:30 a.m. We thought we (myself, my DM, and my DD5) would sleep on the plane-not really! The flight was great (on Song, now Delta). My DD slept maybe 1-1/2 hrs. My DM and I about 25 min. When we arrived at POP at about 7:30 a.m. we were so gald to find that our room was already ready! We all crashed and took naps.

And then, and I have to plead lack of sleep here, here's where it got interesting. When I went to get our luggage out of our van, the keys didn't work. To make a long story short, and so I don't look as stupid as I felt, several hours and a $95 lock out charge (and a new van) I found the real set of keys in my jacket pocket. I had picked up two sets (from two different vehicles) at Alamo! It had to be sleep deprivation! :confused3 I'm usually not that stupid! When all else was said and done, we didn't get to the parks til about 2:30 p.m. that day so arriving so early wasn't that much of a benefit and now we arrive late at night (usually about 10-11 p.m.) which isn't so bad since due to the 3 hr. time change, our bodies still think it's early. The time change also lets us eat a little later so we usually get the ADRs we want. And yes, thankfully, I have our ADRs made! :grouphug:
 
Can't wait for more!

Glad your son didn't let those kids get him down :wizard:
 
Day 2: Today was a good day...a lot of this probably had to do with the fact that we were rested but I think AK is just a better park than MGM. Also we really liked the Saratoga Springs pool...although paying $6 for a Corona and $11 for a Margarita seemed a little steep...even steeper since we each ordered two ;)

Before my wife went to bed on day 1 she ordered a bunch of food and drinks from Green Grocer with a note to deliver at 7 AM :thumbsup2 . Good thing because when they called at 7:30 to let us know that they would arrive soon we were still asleep :surfweb: . Once I hung up the phone I rolled out of bed to wake the kids. They of course were wide awake watching something on Nick again (don’t they realize that we are in Disney?). I got on the phone to the ADR line while my wife took a shower. I got a great cast member…she worked with me forever. Nothing I wanted was available but we did manage to get a character meal at Epcot and dinners at the Grand Floridian Café and Key West. She actually found a dinner open at Cinderella’s Castle but between the time she found it and I decided to use 2 meal credits for it it was taken :guilty: . I was a little disappointed that none of the places I wanted were available but just knowing that we had places to eat lifted a big weight from my shoulders. The Groceries arrived around 8 with Milk, soy milk, rice milk (don’t ask…each kid drinks a different milk) cereal, sausage, fruit, snacks, soda, water, and Gatorade. The kids ate their cereal and DW and I ate some kind of pig meat and we were off to the bus stop. We chose today to go to AK because we had the Epcot Character meal tomorrow and the extra morning magic hours for the MK were the following day.
We were pretty far from the lobby at Saratoga Springs but we were pretty close to the Congress Bus Stop which was nice. We all walked across the grass to the busses feeling much better than they day before. The stop wasn’t too crowded and we only waited about 10 mins for the AK bus…I had heard horror stories about long waits and crowds for these busses but we had a great experience…at least when trying to catch busses from our resort.
I have to say…Animal Kingdom was probably our favorite park :sunny: . This was partly due to the fact that we actually had a plan going in instead of misadventure at MGM. We arrived at the park just after it had opened and headed immediately to get a fast pass at Everest. I was just amazed when we entered the park…wow…Disney did a wonderful job. It is a great amusement park built into one of the best Zoos that I have ever seen. Wife navigated and we made a bee line to EE. By the time we got there the return time was 1:20 PM and we did the Olympic fast walk from the entrance right after it opened. Our next fast pass was available at 11 AM which we figured we should use for the safari…on the way we went stand by to the Kali River Rapids which at that time of the day was very quick. We had a great ride…we didn’t even get very wet. My son does not like scary rides…and by scary ride I mean anything that has any kind of warning sign causes him agitation in line. This was no exception…he was worried the whole way but he sucked it up and we had a great ride. We had him take off his shirt which might have been a Disney faux pa but it seemed to make sense at the time and the CM said it was ok.
After the Rapids we headed to the Safari to get a fast pass…we were a little early so we walked through the pangani forest trails next door. The kids really liked it…Komodo Dragons, Bats, Snakes, Bugs…they were in heaven (well…two of my kids anyway…middle daughter is more into Hello Kitty than snakes and bats). We got our safari fast pass with a time of 11:45 and left to see more of the park and get our DDP snacks. 4 Smoothies and a triple mocha later we headed back to catch the Safari…my watch said it was 11:48 but apparently Disney clocks can differ a little bit and the CM guarding the fast pass line was not going to yield even a second :hourglass . No big deal…we stood around waiting until she calls out 11:45 and away we go. It was a good ride...great feel and lots of amazing animals…I kind of wanted the Disney story part of it to end a little differently though. After the ride we headed over to DinoLand to kill some time before the EE fast pass time. Dinoland was HOT…whoever designed it should have realized that it can get very warm in Orlando and an all blacktop section might not be the greatest of ideas. The kids loved the time machine roller coaster…even my son who hates roller coasters…we rode it several times. We wasted zero dollars on the midway games but we did spend lots of money at the gift shop and we bought each girl a squirt bottle fan :sad2: . I instantly regretted it since it made all the kids walk even slower while they squirted themselves…and then guess who got to carry them on rides or when the girls decided they didn’t need them for a while.
We grabbed a fast pass for the Dinosaur ride and headed over the EE. I don’t know how but we convinced my son to ride with us. The only problem was that this ride (like many others) seats 2 per car and DS9 had to ride with my wife. Which left me making sophies choice with DD8 and DD6…the man that was going to have to sit with one of my DDs was Japanese and didn’t speak any English but he realized what was happening and motioned to me that he was switching places with his young daughter (probably 6) and my DD6 happily hopped into the seat next to her…problem solved :banana: (we bought ride picture which turned out great which I will scan and post). Great ride…my girls loved it…my son said that he was terrified and would never ride it again.
After EE we needed to eat so we looked for a place to escape the heat and found Pizzafari. I did the table hover while my wife orders the $50 worth of food (the kids got the frozen lemonade as dessert which normally is too expensive to be a snack!). It was a nice break…I think the best part of the DDP was that it allows you to relax when ordering food and not make cost based choices that you shouldn’t be making on vacation anyway. After lunch we headed to the Dinosaur ride making a quick detour for a time machine roller coaster ride. The ride was fine although I could have used more visual and less banging around in my seat. Kids found really enjoyable. After Dinosaur my wife decided to shop at every gift shop in the park (and out of the park too actually as we stopped in the one outside of the gates). I think she was looking for a shirt but no shirt ended up in the bags of stuff that we bought. We took some pictures at the tree of life and let the kids run around some more in the play area and then headed out to make our table at the Grand Floridian. We had a great time at AK…more than made up for the day before.
We headed back to our hotel to let the kids swim a little bit before dinner. The kids loved our hotel pool which had a pretty decent waterslide that never seemed to be crowded. After quickly changing we caught a bus to MK and took the boat to the Grand Floridian :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 . We hadn’t been there before and had a nice walk in the lobby before dinner. What a nice hotel…doesn’t really work for the 5 of us but if the Wife and I were to take a trip without the kids this would be our hotel. The dinner was great…the best meal we had on the trip. I was kind of worried when all we could find was the Grand Floridian Café for this evening but I can’t imagine that any other single meal credit restaurant could have been much nicer. The kids even had a steak option on their menu (although only DD6 ordered it) and the server let her add the shrimp skewer just as he had let my wife. Nice atmosphere with great food and great service…everything was coming together. My wife loved the chocolate fondue for dessert.
We headed back to our hotel (after going through the Grand Floridian gift shop) to get to bed. The next day would be Epcot which ended up being our fullest day…in fact we tried but just couldn’t do everything we wanted to do.
I will post some pictures soon :)
 
Finally figured out pictures :)

Here are the kids at the Epcot Character meal. I have a bunch more but I need to get them uploaded.

Shoot...I can't post images...how many posts do I need to be able to post pictures?
 
We love the Grand Floridian Cafe too! We usually eat there at least once every trip! It has a great atmosphere too!!
 
Dizneydaz said:
Great TR so far! :thumbsup2 I can totally relate to how you felt that first day. In Jan. 05 we flew red-eye (for the first and only time). Our flight left LAX at 10:30 p.m. and arrived at MCO at 6:30 a.m. We thought we (myself, my DM, and my DD5) would sleep on the plane-not really! The flight was great (on Song, now Delta). My DD slept maybe 1-1/2 hrs. My DM and I about 25 min. When we arrived at POP at about 7:30 a.m. we were so gald to find that our room was already ready! We all crashed and took naps.

And then, and I have to plead lack of sleep here, here's where it got interesting. When I went to get our luggage out of our van, the keys didn't work. To make a long story short, and so I don't look as stupid as I felt, several hours and a $95 lock out charge (and a new van) I found the real set of keys in my jacket pocket. I had picked up two sets (from two different vehicles) at Alamo! It had to be sleep deprivation! :confused3 I'm usually not that stupid! When all else was said and done, we didn't get to the parks til about 2:30 p.m. that day so arriving so early wasn't that much of a benefit and now we arrive late at night (usually about 10-11 p.m.) which isn't so bad since due to the 3 hr. time change, our bodies still think it's early. The time change also lets us eat a little later so we usually get the ADRs we want. And yes, thankfully, I have our ADRs made! :grouphug:

I thought the 3 hour time difference would help but having no sleep probably negated any benefit :(
 
WOW! Sure sounds like you had a busy time! I know how you feal about your first day there after taking a red-eye...we've done that 3 times before and you always feal like a washed out rag when you get off that plane! I won't do it again I don't think. Fortunately for us we made all of our restaurant reservations as soon as we could when we booked out trip in December!
we didn't go on the DDP untill a couple of months ago but we just couldn't resist because we figured the price it would be for the 5 of us WITHOUT it and it would have been ASTRONOMICAL! there's me, dad and three kids...all pretty big kids! DD13 is 5'6, DS13 is 5'9 and DS19 is 6'3 and BOY can they pack away the food!
Can't wait to hear some more on your trip....sounds like you had a BLAST! Helen
 
andy_fish said:
Here are the Bats :)



Hi, Mr. Fish. Welcome to the Dis, and I am enjoying your persoective. I agree with you on the design of Dinoland. Has that cool peeweehermanesque feel but needs some trees and more shade!

Congrats on figuring out how to post pics. Now would you enlarge them so us seniors don't need a telescople, glasses and a magnifying glass to see the pictures! :lmao:
 




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