Hayes Family at WDW: Day 1 - Arrival and Epcot
Sunday, December 10th
We left Raleigh, North Carolina on Midway Airlines at 9:40. The flight was overbooked so they said we could have 4 round trip tickets anywhere Midway goes if we would go on a later flight. It was very tempting, but the kids were too excited to make them wait so we declined. The flight (Sam's first) was smooth. As we were walking through the Orlando airport my son said "Mommy you never told me Disney was so beautiful." We explained that this was the airport but if he was impressed with it he would really like Disney! We were greeted in Orlando by Nasar from Tiffany Towncars. I had selected Tiffany based on good reviews on boards. Everything went smoothly and Nasar was very nice. Our biggest surprise at this point was the weather; it was much warmer than we expected - about 80 degrees. We arrived at the Yacht Club and checked in; however, our room was not ready. We dropped off our bags and decided to go to Epcot for our Ice Cream Social at the Garden Grill at 3:30.
In Epcot we say the Canadian Santa Claus, and then ran into the characters who had just gotten off the character bus. It was fun for the kids to see so many characters so soon. I had forgot to get our autograph books (that we had made) out of the luggage, so missed that part but I did have my camera so we were able to take pictures. My favorite parts of this were when I saw Baloo (my favorite) and when Sam started interrogating the characters. He is very talkative and inquisitive and started asking Tigger why he was not bouncing. Tigger scooped Sam up and started bouncing all over with him. Very cute! After that, we went on Spaceship Earth, which both kids liked. Then, to the ice cream social. This was fun - the characters were sweet and the portions of ice cream were huge. I made the mistake of confusing Dale with Chip, so he drew me a picture so I could keep them straight. Sam started asking Pluto how he got there and Pluto was able to communicate that Mickey drove him. I was amazed how clearly the characters communicate without speaking. We headed back and stumbled upon the Tapestry of Nations parade - very cool.
We walked back to the Yacht Club and went to our room. We had requested a non-smoking room, close to an elevator, with a view of the fireworks (in this order). We received the first two, so I was happy. We had a nice view Crescent Lake and beyond that the Boardwalk. Directly below our room was the wedding gazebo and Sarah and I had fun watching weddings during the week. We had planned on having dinner at the Cape May Café, but none of use were up for it so we had room service which was just fine. I had wanted to go see the Osborne lights, but the kids were anxious to go to the pool so we went to the quiet pool (Stormalong Bay closed at 6:00 pm the week we were there). We tried to go to sleep around 9:00 but we were all kept up for awhile by the boats that go back and forth between the hotel, Boardwalk, Disney/MGM, and Epcot.
__________
Yacht Club, December 2000
Sunday, December 10th
We left Raleigh, North Carolina on Midway Airlines at 9:40. The flight was overbooked so they said we could have 4 round trip tickets anywhere Midway goes if we would go on a later flight. It was very tempting, but the kids were too excited to make them wait so we declined. The flight (Sam's first) was smooth. As we were walking through the Orlando airport my son said "Mommy you never told me Disney was so beautiful." We explained that this was the airport but if he was impressed with it he would really like Disney! We were greeted in Orlando by Nasar from Tiffany Towncars. I had selected Tiffany based on good reviews on boards. Everything went smoothly and Nasar was very nice. Our biggest surprise at this point was the weather; it was much warmer than we expected - about 80 degrees. We arrived at the Yacht Club and checked in; however, our room was not ready. We dropped off our bags and decided to go to Epcot for our Ice Cream Social at the Garden Grill at 3:30.
In Epcot we say the Canadian Santa Claus, and then ran into the characters who had just gotten off the character bus. It was fun for the kids to see so many characters so soon. I had forgot to get our autograph books (that we had made) out of the luggage, so missed that part but I did have my camera so we were able to take pictures. My favorite parts of this were when I saw Baloo (my favorite) and when Sam started interrogating the characters. He is very talkative and inquisitive and started asking Tigger why he was not bouncing. Tigger scooped Sam up and started bouncing all over with him. Very cute! After that, we went on Spaceship Earth, which both kids liked. Then, to the ice cream social. This was fun - the characters were sweet and the portions of ice cream were huge. I made the mistake of confusing Dale with Chip, so he drew me a picture so I could keep them straight. Sam started asking Pluto how he got there and Pluto was able to communicate that Mickey drove him. I was amazed how clearly the characters communicate without speaking. We headed back and stumbled upon the Tapestry of Nations parade - very cool.
We walked back to the Yacht Club and went to our room. We had requested a non-smoking room, close to an elevator, with a view of the fireworks (in this order). We received the first two, so I was happy. We had a nice view Crescent Lake and beyond that the Boardwalk. Directly below our room was the wedding gazebo and Sarah and I had fun watching weddings during the week. We had planned on having dinner at the Cape May Café, but none of use were up for it so we had room service which was just fine. I had wanted to go see the Osborne lights, but the kids were anxious to go to the pool so we went to the quiet pool (Stormalong Bay closed at 6:00 pm the week we were there). We tried to go to sleep around 9:00 but we were all kept up for awhile by the boats that go back and forth between the hotel, Boardwalk, Disney/MGM, and Epcot.
__________
Yacht Club, December 2000
