Here we gooooo...A magical 8th birthday surprise March '17 TR!

[balty74]

Hello!!! First time trip report writer, long time lurker. I can't believe I'm actually doing this...but I'm jumping in with both feet here and, in the words of Peter Pan, "Here We Goooooo!"



My favorite thing about planning our Disney trips is reading about other trips. So I figured it's only fair that I join in, share what we loved, and what better way to relive the magical adventure that we just had for as long as I possibly can. I used to think I would be a bad trip report writer, because I don't think I take enough food photos. But hopefully some of my other pictures will make up for it

Who are we?
I'm Erika, your 40 something trip writer, Disney lover, mom, wife, and full-time college administrator
I'm a sucker for hub grass, champagne flights and pool drinks, and watching little kids love on the characters.




Next up is my DH: We'll call him M. A slightly younger, almost as Disney-obsessed, dad, little league coach, and civil engineer. He's a sucker for thrill rides, festival food kiosks, and fireworks.


And last but certainly not least you have DS, Z, who turned 8 on this trip. He's a full-blown Disney pro, foodie in the making, baseball and math loving kid! he's a sucker for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, pool slides, anything star wars, and of course, Mickey bars.



We spend most of our days in Pennsylvania, dreaming about our next trip to either Disney or the beach. This was our 3rd Disney Trip as a family of three (2013, 2015, and 2017). Z and I went with some friends when he was a baby in 2010, and I did a girl's trip for Princess half marathon weekend in 2015.


What: A Surprise Birthday Trip for Z, the first time we ever surprised him with a trip, and our first non-October family trip
When: March 1 - 7, 2017
Where: Contemporary (booked a garden wing - pixie dusted with a tower room)
Why: Do we really need a why? Other than our disney penny jar was full and it was time to go on another trip!

Thanks for following along. I'm excited to be here and to try my hand at trip writing! Up next I'll do a little background on how the trip came to be and share the big surprise reveal!

 

[heaven2dc]

Definitely on board for this one! Love surprise visits - can't wait to read all about your trip!

 

[balty74]

Definitely on board for this one! Love surprise visits - can't wait to read all about your trip!

Thanks!! This was our first time doing a surprise and it was SO MUCH FUN!

 

[ariane37]

Joining! Can't wait to hear how the surprise went down!

 

[balty74]

What the heck is this? Planning our trip and the big surprise reveal

Planning for this trip started back in October of 2016. It had been a year since our last trip and I was definitely the first to start feeling the itch to return. We knew we wanted to do a 2017 trip as we had fallen into a nice every other year cycle, but I didn't know if I could wait until October again. Originally we were talking about doing an adult only trip to somewhere tropical as our 10 year anniversary is coming up at the end of March. But in looking at our son's school calendar we also realized that he had a Friday and a Monday off of school, giving him a long weekend for his birthday. It was fate! We figured we have years for a trip without him in the future - and ultimately what we really wanted was a trip for all three of us!

For our 2015 trip we rented DVC points through DVC Rental Store and stayed at Beach Club villas. We loved the experience and wanted to try it again. Unfortunately, we weren't planning as far in advance for this trip (less than 6 months) and availability for studio villas was slim (nothing at Epcot or Monorail resorts had full availability for our days). We really loved being able to walk to Epcot from Beach Club and we really wanted to try the convenience of staying at a monorail resort, so we abandoned ship on renting points and booked direct from Disney. Ultimately we chose to book Contemporary Resort Garden Wing Garden View with 7 day park hoppers.

Meanwhile, as we were going back and forth with where we wanted to book, our ADR-window had already opened. So we needed to get moving. The first thing I do when we pick our days is create a spreadsheet in excel with preferred park days. I start filling in ADRs and then, eventually, fast passes. In the 6 months between planning the trip and arrival day that spreadsheet gets changed and tweaked almost daily - what can I say - I'm obsessed.



The first ADR I made was actually for Victoria and Albert's - it's a dream of ours to eat there and I thought it would be a great way to have a little anniversary touch to the trip. But then I started reading about Brunch at the Top at the California Grill and I changed my mind - that was how I wanted to celebrate our anniversary. And the kiddo could go too. We all love brunch and it just sounded amazing. So with our first ADR made and subsequently dropped we were well on our way to planning fever!

Our fast pass window opened on New Year's Eve morning. We were in Canada visiting my SIL and BIL and I was especially nervous that it would be tricky to get that done when not at home - but on 12/31 I woke up early, got my son's ipad, and while everyone else was fast asleep I got everything I wanted - including two mine trains and a frozen fp. My excitement was building - but we still had to be sneaky as DS didn't know about the trip yet and I still had 2 months until we would tell him.

The big reveal

Z's birthday was going to happen over our trip. We knew we wanted to tell him right before, but wanted to give him a few days to get pumped about it (as with other trips he is well aware and is always asking when we will go back). We had planned his kid birthday party for the Sunday before our trip (we left on a Wednesday) with the excuse that the place where he wanted to have his party was booked on the 4th. So after his party, as he was opening his gifts, we presented him with one final gift to open. It was a storm trooper suitcase filled with a balloon and some wrapped gifts - including a birthday pin, birthday ears, birthday shirt, and last but not least our magic bands. As he opened each gift his interest was peeking and you could tell his gears were turning and he knew all these things meant only one thing - DISNEY! As he opened the last box - the one with the magic bands he blurted out "What the heck is this???" and we all burst out laughing. He knew what they were. I said "When do you think we're going to go to Disney World?" to which he said "I don't know" and when I responded with "How does Wednesday morning sound???" his look of complete and utter shock and disbelief was hilarious! It took me repeating it and saying I was serious until we got yelling, screaming, and hugging. It was fantastic and we were all on cloud 9!!!



For the next few days it was a flurry of packing, excitement and lots of "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!" We couldn't wait to get there

 

[balty74]

I apologize...this is really long...skip to the end to see the really fun part

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in! The reveal was so cute, I love how excited he got when it really set in!

 

[balty74]

Joining! Can't wait to hear how the surprise went down!

Thanks!! We had so much fun surprising him!

Joining in! The reveal was so cute, I love how excited he got when it really set in!

Thanks!! The sinking in was the BEST part. For the next few days every now and then he'd just bust out in random "We're going to DISNEY!!!!". Can't get more fun than that!!

 

[balty74]

Travel Day 0

I always love reading about travel days. Must be something about the excitement of a whole vacation ahead and those months of planning, down to just hours that just always comes across so much fun in trip reports. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos, so hopefully this text-heavy quick little update will help to convey the excitement we were feeling as we started our travels to the most magical place on earth!!

We have a few airport options and although we are geographically closer to the Philadelphia airport we kind of hate it (lol) and we tend to find better deals if we fly out of Baltimore (plus, DH and I met in Baltimore so we have an extra soft spot for that airport). This was a slightly shorter trip than we usually take (6 nights) so we made our arrival flight as early as possible so that we'd have a full day on arrival and our departure flight a little later in the afternoon (always have to maximize our Disney time!!). Since our flight to MCO was at 7am we made the very wise decision to drive to the airport on Tuesday night and stay at a hotel with extended airport parking. Sometimes we act like adults and make smart choices

Tuesday was pretty much full of wasted work and school hours and texts to friends like this:


As soon as Z got off the bus from school and we threw some last minute things (chargers and toothbrushes, why am I always running around looking for chargers and toothbrushes??) and we were off! We stopped on the way to our hotel to have dinner with some friends and their daughter. My son and their daughter have such a cute bond and every time we spend time with them Z asks for days to have a sister. Sorry kid, you'll have to make due with summer vacation sisters only. But seriously, how cute are they??? (Pay no attention to the fact that they are rolling around the floor of a bar).


After saying goodbye to our friends we made our way to the hotel and tried somewhat unsuccessfully to get some sleep. But who can sleep...we were off to Disney first thing the next morning!!!!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Awww how cute are those 2! Smart idea staying at a hotel the night before the flight!

 

[oceanmarina]

Following here! I know whys you mean about every other year, it seems like a LOoNG time between Disney trips!

 

[balty74]

Day 1: The arrival

Why is waking up at 4 am so easy on a Disney day and waking up at 7am is sooooo hard on a regular day?? lol!
We were up in a flash and down to meet the shuttle to the airport. We had a slight delay as some soldiers were tetris-style packing the shuttle with 100 duffle bags. They were soldiers on their way home to Texas from Afghanistan and you could just feel their excitement to be going home. We talked with them, thanked them for their service, and one of them gave Z a patch that he ripped right off his jacket. Now that is a true hero! One of them had a stuffed camel sticking out of his duffel bag

After saying goodbye to our new friends we made our way to the Southwest gate, grabbed some breakfast, and had a very non-exciting flight to Orlando (just how you want flights to be!!). At 10 am (exactly three hours after our take off time from Baltimore) I was snapping this photo on the Magical Express. Lines were rather short at that time in the morning - gotta love early arrivals.


And right after I snapped that photo I looked down at my phone and I saw this magical text (the time is when I saved the photo, not when the text actually came)...


OUR ROOM WAS READY!!! I was ready to happy dance right off my chair. But wait....does that say TOWER??? Could it be??? Why yes, believe it, we were UPGRADED to a Tower room!! Talk about your major pixie dust We had booked a Garden Wing room and we were excited about just being anywhere NEAR the Contemporary. This was just too much to even believe. We were on cloud 9. Vacation was just beginning, it was sunny and getting warm outside, and the Magical Express was taking us to this magical upgraded room. After a stop at the beautiful Wilderness Lodge (someday I'd love to stay there, but we'll visit it later on this trip) we floated off the bus and into the lobby of the Contemporary. The smell instantly stopped me in my tracks - was that the same lovely fragrance as the Beach Club? I felt like Annie and was about to break out into song "I think I'm gonna like it hereeeeee". After a quick stop at the front desk to reset our pin and grab a pin for the birthday boy, we were headed upstairs to our room, 4224. We were on the 6th floor (you add the first two numbers) lake view. We were the last room in the building, so each time we walked to our room we had a magical view of the Magic Kingdom (I took some photos later). I could definitely get used to this. The only downside was the smell of Chef Mickeys wafting up the hallways. But we loved hearing the bustle of activity and seeing the monorail run past. As soon as we opened the door to our room both the smell and the sounds were gone. It was perfect. We loved the decor, there was lots of storage space, tons of room for the three of us, and most fantastically, a balcony with an amazing view. Oh yeah, this was paradise and we were pumped.


I know some people don't love the theming of the Contemporary. But we felt like we were in a fun urban beach hotel - like Miami or San Diego - two cities that M and I both love and have visited together.


We didn't spend much time in the room. We dropped off our carry on bags, threw on some shorts, and headed out to grab some lunch. Our original plans for arrival day were sort of loose. We knew we wanted to go to Magic Kingdom later on (and we had fast passes for early evening) but never made meal reservations for this day because you never know what can happen with travel. We decided we needed to hit the monorail (because hello, monorail resort) and thought we'd go to Grand Floridian or the Polynesian. While on the monorail we did a quick check on MDE and thought about maaaybe going straight to Epcot and doing a sit down lunch (plenty of choices were available), but in the end the desire to check out the pool won out so we stayed on the resort loop and continued to the Poly to have lunch at Captain Cook's so that we could then get some pool time in before hitting MK later that afternoon.

Lunch at Captain Cook's was the perfect choice. M and I got the pulled pork nachos and the chicken salad with the intention of sharing. Z got the fried rice with pork (with the intention of not sharing, lol) but in the end we all ended up sharing all three entrees. They were delicious and we sat outside just basking in the sunshine. Right near the seating areas there were some hula hoop lessons going on, so of course these two had to give it a try...


We love the Polynesian and of course would love to stay here someday, so we did a little walk outside the pool area and beach. And had to send a little teaser to my bff at home (we're so mean).

It was warming up nicely and we needed to get back and find some sunscreen and some pool drinks. So one quick selfie with the tiny castle in the background and we were off. My only regret is that I didn't make time to stop for an iced coffee before leaving the Poly, but the Contemporary pool was calling and the boys were in a hurry so I didn't stop. Alas.



Up next: More arrival day fun (a swim, a pool drink, and an evening at the Magic Kingdom)

 

[missangelalexis]

It's always the best when all your travel goes smoothly and quickly! That's awesome that your room was ready AND you were upgraded!

Being able to travel to the Poly for a quick lunch is such a nice perk of staying at a monorail hotel!

Sounds like your trip is off to a great start!

 

[ariane37]

This was a slightly shorter trip than we usually take (6 nights) so we made our arrival flight as early as possible so that we'd have a full day on arrival and our departure flight a little later in the afternoon

Regardless of how long our trip is, we try doing this. Early morning flight there, late flight home. In Nov. and next Sat. our flight in to MCO arrives 9:15 am and our flight home leaves MCO 8:55pm. When we go in May we could only get a flight on departure day that leaves at 2, and I'm bummed

But wait....does that say TOWER??? Could it be??? Why yes, believe it, we were UPGRADED to a Tower room!!

Awesome!!

beautiful Wilderness Lodge (someday I'd love to stay there, but we'll visit it later on this trip)

WL is my favorite resort to date of all the ones we've stayed at. Besides being gorgeous I found it so peaceful. I can't wait to be back in 10 days

Lunch at Captain Cook's was the perfect choice. M and I got the pulled pork nachos

I keep hearing how great these pulled pork nachos are! We didn't eat at Capt. Cooks when we stayed at the Poly but I need to keep this in mind if we're looking for a QS on the monorail.

 

[oceanmarina]

Nice update! Yep, my kids LEAP out of bed when i'm getting them out of bed for our vacation whereas its an ordeal to get up for school! Congrats on the room upgrade - that's always a wonderful start to a trip! I have never done online check in - but reading your experience makes me want to try it

Loved your spreadsheet - is that an app? Or do you do it on a PC ? The obsessive planner in me loves it

 

[balty74]

Nice update! Yep, my kids LEAP out of bed when i'm getting them out of bed for our vacation whereas its an ordeal to get up for school! Congrats on the room upgrade - that's always a wonderful start to a trip! I have never done online check in - but reading your experience makes me want to try it

Loved your spreadsheet - is that an app? Or do you do it on a PC ? The obsessive planner in me loves it

Thanks! The spreadsheet is just an excel spreadsheet in a google doc. That way I can access it from work or home, from my computer, ipad, or phone. Came in handy when doing fast passes while on vacation (when I had to use my son's ipad because I forgot to pack mine!). And I can look at it on my phone while in the parks - although by the time we get to vacation I pretty much just use MDE exclusively.

 

[balty74]

[QUOTE


I keep hearing how great these pulled pork nachos are! We didn't eat at Capt. Cooks when we stayed at the Poly but I need to keep this in mind if we're looking for a QS on the monorail.[/QUOTE]

You HAVE to try the pork nachos. They are AMAZING!!!! It is a huge, shareable portion. I'm glad we also got the salad (because, well, vegetables) but those nachos were the star of the show!

 

[balty74]

Regardless of how long our trip is, we try doing this. Early morning flight there, late flight home. In Nov. and next Sat. our flight in to MCO arrives 9:15 am and our flight home leaves MCO 8:55pm. When we go in May we could only get a flight on departure day that leaves at 2, and I'm bummed


Awesome!!


WL is my favorite resort to date of all the ones we've stayed at. Besides being gorgeous I found it so peaceful. I can't wait to be back in 10 days


I keep hearing how great these pulled pork nachos are! We didn't eat at Capt. Cooks when we stayed at the Poly but I need to keep this in mind if we're looking for a QS on the monorail.

You HAVE to try the pork nachos. They are AMAZING!!!! It is a huge, shareable portion. I'm glad we also got the salad (because, well, vegetables) but those nachos were the star of the show!

side note, newbie needs help here...How do I clip the quote so I don't have to do the whole thing??

 

[balty74]

Day 1 Continued, The Good Stuff
When we last left off I was trailing behind the boys as they were running through the Polynesian to get to the monorail as I was longingly looking at coffee on my way past. But no worries, soon enough THIS was in my hand to make up for it:


It was time for some fun in the sun! Both my son and husband are total fish and love a good pool. I like lounging poolside with a cool drink - we all get along fine. I did warm up enough to get in and play in the fun fountains/sprinklers with DS. Our last Disney pool experience was at the Beach Club, and we all know that this was no comparison. But with the excitement of Magic Kingdom looming just steps away, we really enjoyed the Contemporary pool. The slide was just ok, but I liked the hot tub in the middle of the pool. And the view of Bay Lake was beautiful. Truthfully, you were going to have a hard time getting us to complain about anything in relation to the Contemporary. We were just too freaking happy to be there, lol!!

After about 2.5 hours we were itching to get to a park and the Magic Kingdom was calling our name. We stopped by the room to shower, change, and then headed out for our first of many happy short walks to the Magic Kingdom. OMG! How amazing is that pathway? We felt like we needed to pinch each other the whole way there "We are walking, WALKING to the Magic Kingdom". It didn't get old! By 4:45 we were talking this first OMG we are here selfie!!


Z's request for our first order of business was to stop at the Fire House for some Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom cards. He discovered these on our last trip and he was excited to both collect some more cards and to keep playing the game. So we picked up some more cards and started a new adventure on Main Street. Z is a collector of things (baseball cards, pokemon, shopkins, etc) so Sorcerer's is right up his alley. At home he spends lots of time looking at his cards, arranging them, etc. While at the park he really gets into the game. It's fun seeing spots in the park you might not have noticed before (before playing this game, I'm fairly certain we'd never been down these alleys on Main Street or tucked into corners in Adventureland. And there are always other kids and adults playing the game to chat with (or trade cards with). I highly recommend the game if you have a few days in MK and are looking for a different way to see the park. Here he is standing way to close to a portal before another kind player told us to stand on the marker on the ground. Always learning something new!


After a few stops on Main Street we couldn't go to far without grabbing that first Disney snack, the Mickey Bar! M went for popcorn and we debating the refillable bucket, but decided we didn't want to drag it around. In the end, we ended up getting popcorn at least 3 times, so we should have sucked it up and got a bucket. lol.
A Mickey bar with a castle backdrop? Sounds like a photo shoot opportunity if I ever saw one!

(who else is majorly in love with the depth effect mode on the iphone 7? just me?)

Bellies full we were ready for some rides! We had fast passes that night for Buzz Lightyear, 7 Dwarves Mine Train, and Peter Pan and Buzz was first up. We had some time after that one so of course we walked onto the People Mover. We usually ride this multiple times a trip, but this particular time we got stuck for about a half hour. We played some Heads Up (love that you get the Disney pack for free when you're in the park) and planned where we wanted to eat dinner (we were doing quick service somewhere in the park and eventually decided on Columbia Harbor House), but we were getting antsy and we by the time we got out of there we vowed no more Peoplemover this trip (so sad!). After a quick spin on the teacups it was time for our favorite ride of the last trip, 7 Dwarves. We loved it again! The sun was setting over the castle and it was the perfect Disney moment.

Here are some fun pics from the teacups. This ride is always great for a photo op!


We were definitely still riding on a Disney arrival day high and we capped the evening off with Wishes. We were more in the mood for rides, so after hopping off Peter Pan we ran over to the carousel to catch Wishes from the backside of the castle instead of watching from the hub like we normally would. It was a very interesting vantage point as you were surrounded by fire works (some going off behind Pinocchio's restaurant and others going off on the sides of the castle). Not the best view of course, but a really cool way to see it.

We hit a few more rides after that, but we were also starting to hit the wall. The park was open until 11, but after getting up early that morning for our flight I think we made it until a little before 10. We walked back to the room and pretty much fell into bed, our eyes closing before our heads even hit the pillows. Our alarms were set though, because there is no sleeping in on your first full day of Disney!

 

[ariane37]

What a great first day! When my boys were younger I worried that, with an early flight, they'd crash and we wouldn't get a full "Disney" day in, but that never happens! I think the excitement is too great so your body goes and goes - until it can't lol. Now that they're older it's pretty much all about what I want on arrival day regardless of how early we've all gotten up

side note, newbie needs help here...How do I clip the quote so I don't have to do the whole thing??

Do you know how long it took me to figure this out? It's actually easy Left click and highlight whatever you want to quote, and when you're done highlighting a blue box will open that says "quote/copy". Hit quote and continue. When you've quoted all that you want to scroll down to the bottom of the page, it'll say "insert quotes" on the left - hit that. A bigger box will open with everything you quoted and again on the bottom it'll say (something, I think it says....) "insert quotes" hit that and only what you highlighted will appear for you to respond to. I hope that wasn't too confusing, I am completely computer illiterate so I'm taking a big chance telling someone how to do something!

Truthfully, you were going to have a hard time getting us to complain about anything in relation to the Contemporary.

Interesting, until recently I had no interest in trying the Contemporary, the theming doesn't excite me. However I seemed to read like 3 or 4 TR's from folks who stayed there and the rooms and views looked so nice, we looked into it for our stays this month and in May. Unfortunately I needed to be back at my WL for one and the rate I got at BC CL was too good to pass up, but it's on my radar now

"We are walking, WALKING to the Magic Kingdom". It didn't get old!

We felt the same way when we stayed at the Poly!!!

we ran over to the carousel to catch Wishes from the backside of the castle instead of watching from the hub like we normally would. It was a very interesting vantage point as you were surrounded by fire works (some going off behind Pinocchio's restaurant and others going off on the sides of the castle)

This is my favorite spot to watch Wishes from Like you said not the best view but I love the feeling of being surrounded. I get to see Wishes one final time this month and I'm debating watching from the carousel, or since it's our last time going to the Hub