curlyjbs
My heart belongs to the beach
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2001
- Messages
- 1,799
WARNING: VERY LOOOOOOOOONG! And I probably left out a lot!
Who are we? Connie - the planner and birthday girl, mom to 3 girls with curls , Chuck the financer, disney challenged and dad to 3 girls with curls , and Jaclyn 9, Rebecca 7, and Sarah 5. You guessed it. The 3 girls with curls!
When did we go? Friday September 28th (did I mention thats my B-day) thru Sunday October 7th.
Did we fly?? You betcha! Hey, The president said go to Disney World and we did our patriotic duty!! flight was good - Saw a rainbow. Ended up with non-stop on Delta when USair cancelled our 1 stop thru charlotte NC. (Good deal since we booked with Priceline for $99 rt.) Our return trip was also affected (bad deal since they rescheduled us to 6:55am - but that's another post)
Did we rent a car? Yes we did. Used National's emerald aisle for the first time. Snagged a mitsubishi spyder convertible (Had reserved a fullsize for a total of $163). Checkout was quick and easy. Just gave them our EA card, DC card the DC coupon and the printout. No problem! (thanks to the transportation board posters for all their tips)
Where did we stay? HIFS a.k.a. Holiday Inn Family Suites, Bldg. 7, 2nd fl., lake view, room 725 (train theme) (kids didn't care about theming). Booked the "Family Values" package which included free buffet dinner for 2 adults (kids eat free at Holiday Inns). The website says $115 per night but they charged me the priority club rate of $109. Don't know why, didn't ask. What I did ask was why they suddenly felt the need to charge us $20 for a pool view room that was reserved 7 months before. Dale, the manager behind the desk claimed the $20 charge was standard. Yea right! Well, pool view isn't worth the extra $$ and we were very happy with our location. It was convenient (2-3 min. walk) to the zero depth entry pool, the lobby and the buffet . We were right near the stairs and the elevator which we NEVER used because it was so slow. The breakfast buffet was good. Fresh fruit, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage or ham, bagels, donuts, oatmeal. It got pretty crowded after 8am ( the hotel was kinda empty so its hard to judge) The girls got a kick out of feeding the fish, birds and turtles after breakfast every morning. Tried on site Pizza Hut one day for lunch. They never asked for "proof" of children. Got 5 personal pizzas for $6. (DH was a kid that day) NOTE: I did notice that when an older woman was working behind the counter she gave some moms and dads a hard time about the kids not being present - but the rest of the staff didn't care. The dinner buffet (5pm - 10pm) was so-so. Nothing special. Lots of carbs. your basic buffet food. If GREAT meals are a big part of your vacation then avoid the buffet and eat out. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't terrible..........just ok. It worked for us. Saved mucho dinnero! The pool was great!!! (float rental $5 - buy or bring your own....much cheaper) The kids enjoyed the pool and play areas alot (shuffleboard, mini golf, pingpong). The pool is open till midnight. We did get refillable mugs for the kids $2.99 (adults $6.99). I actually got a kids mug too. Used it for cappuchino almost every night. yummy.
Wow this is really getting long....
Ok so, I told you about our flight, our rental car, the hotel, now lets get down to business:
Saturday 9/29: explored our hotel (see above), drove to the Contemporary (stayed there as a kid - didn't really remember much), took the monorail which my 9 year old aptly renamed the "smellorail" (pew) and checked out the Poly (kinda outdated), and the Grand Floridian (too hoity toity for this family) Geez, there must have been 3 weddings there that day - Beautiful Bridal Parties.....oh, If you were in one of them I apologize for my kids being in your pictures! Anyway, we made our way back on the "smellorail" (pew! what is that smell?) to the contemporary and shopped around a little while waiting for our 7:30pm ps at "chef Mickeys". At 7:46 the pager thingy lights up and off we go to the funnest, most greatest birthday dinner I have ever had! Do Chef Mickey's. It was worth every penny! Love that Napkin Dance!!! Great Charactor interaction! Loads of autographs!! FUN FUN FUN! Went up to watch the MK fireworks. COLD COLD COLD!
Unfortunely we got lost getting back to HIFS. Didn't figure it out till almost Thursday . figures.
Sunday 9/30: Magic Kingdom here we come! Breakfast Buffet. Decided to try the shuttle. It worked out great. took the boat to the kingdom and got in line for security check. Not too bad. DH and I had no bags, kids had fanny packs with snacks and $$. No problems. Oh, did I tell you I left all my notes and hints from these boards at home. All that work for NOTHING! We got onto main street and I went BLANK! The only thing I remembered was to get my "birthday pin" from Town Hall. and I'll tell you what: That pin came in handy! almost every cm we passed said happy birthday....DH began to get sick of hearing it and promised one birthday smack every time someone said it. Well, my fanny got red! (you can bet the kids jumped on that bandwagon).....Now, where was I? oh yes, BLANK. Well, we winged it. I checked out the guide, slowly started remembering my "must do's and we had a GREAT day. Sunday is NOT Crowded at all! We walked on almost everything. Got fastpass just to try it, gave a few away and had a wonderful time! The kids wore there GOH badges. The cms called them by name all the time. They felt so important. Our only complaint? The Kidswap procedure. It worked great on splash mountain. The five of us went thru the line and sarah (5 years old and terrified of anything resembling a rollercoaster) and I were instructed to walk thru the "boat" and wait on the exit side till dh and dd's came back then he and I would switch. Great! onto BTMRR.......nope. cant switch here. go back to FP line and get special kidswap pass and by the time you return, DH and kids will be done. Well, the timing was right but what a pain in the butt! Why we couldn't just wait on the exit side was beyond us. Every ride after that followed the same procedure. Well we lived thru it and got to ride almost everything atleast 2x without any waits. The show at the Castle was very good, The Snow Globe Parade was Beautiful! Legend of the Lion King was also very good. Our MK Favorite? Space Mountain (got to ride twice in a row because it was my birthday!) Sarah's favorite: Cinderellas Royal Carousel! Rebecca loved Space Ranger Spin! (big buzz fan!) Jaclyn Loves it all!
Monday 10/1 MGM: Breakfast buffet. Jumped, literally (think dukes of hazard) into the convertible and vroom we were on our way to MGM. Found it no problem (getting back to the hotel is another story). The sorcerers hat is HUGE! On our way in I was staring up at it and walked right into a cm with a camera. The two of us went down and people came rushing over to help thinking our screams of laughter were screams of pain. If you were one of those who came to our rescue thanks! I wish I could remember this cms name because she was great. I almost made it on TOT, but ended up taking the chicken elevator down. DH did it and loved it. RockinRoller Coaster was really cool. Walked on twice and got a fp for 1 hour later. Truly no crowds. MGM was amazing. The shows were the best! Loved Beauty and the Beast! The Honey I shrunk the kids play area was a godsend. DH and I got to rest while the kids, the same kids who couldnt walk another step, raced around like little monkeys. Ahhh to be young again ., Around 4:30 we decided to eat at the Brown Derby walked right in and had the place to ourselves ($65). Great cobb salad! The Fantasmic show was incredible. We brought light sticks from home (cheaper) and people kept coming up to us asking where we got them. I had a red butt today too. Our MGM favorite: Rockin Roller Coaster Sarahs Favorite: All the shows!
Got lost coming home. (funny how you start calling the hotel home)
Tues. 10/2 Do nothing day. Hung out by the pool, hit the outlet stores, RELAX, RELAX RELAX.
Wed:. 10/3 Animal Kingdom! Breakfast buffet. It really is hot there! Really hot! The bugs 3d show is awesome. What a hoot! The kilamanjaro safari was pretty good. We saw a lot of animals. Rhinos were close enough to pet. Good ride! Sarah and I missed the jungle cruise (bathroom run .oh by the way, the bathrooms in disney are immaculate! Very impressive) but Chuck and the girls enjoyed it. Boy was it hot! Festival of the Lion King is a MUST DO! What a show!! EXCELLENT! Dinosaur was a little disappointing for me. I expected a Rollercoaster ride for some reason. But everyone else enjoyed it well not sarah she was freaking out! Jaclyn was picked in the Flights of Wonder show. We are very proud of her because she is soooo shy! Way to go Jack! Kali river rapids was ok it was just over too fast but Sarah liked it. We walked on 2x. and got SOAKED both times. Felt good. Should have rode it first thing. Did I mention how hot AK is??. The Tarzan Rocks show started ..and then had technical difficulties. We left and never made it back to see it. Oh well. The kids liked the boneyard. DH and I liked the rest period. Geez its hot here! We took a peek at the tricerotop spin ride under construction. (Looks like a prehistoric dumbo) Caught the end of the Parade. It looked pretty neat. Our AK favorites : Legend of the Lion King, Sarahs favorite: Kali River Rapids
Thurs. 10/4 Pirates Cruise & Epcot. The kids enjoyed the cruise, chuck and I rented a watermouse while they were out. It was fun. When we got back the cm noticed my bday pin and said Happy Birthday (smack) its on the house! Wow, free watermouse .cool. That was so nice of them! When the kids returned with there loot we headed over to Epcot. I think Epcot is my favorite park! I loved it. Spaceship earth was neat. Honey I shrunk the audience was GREAT! Test track was a fav. of the the girls (not sarah). Ice station cool was also a surprise. Beverly was not too bad ..not too good but not toooo bad. Cranium command was good, Body wars was cool, The living seas was a hit with Rebecca ( loves sharks) All in all innoventions East and West were pretty good. We missed a lot when we decided to walk over to the World Showcase. Started with Mexico, the kids made masks, chuck and I drank Margaritas (yummy) we grabbed a snack at the cantina and moved on to Norway. Maelstrom was cool but where are the margaritas. Back to mexico we go. This time its a mango margarita. ( By the time we reached China Chuck and I decided they need a margarita stand in each country. ) The Chinese acrobats were amazing. What talented kids. My girls still talk about them. The parade came by. It was beautiful. The girls dropped their wish coins into the fairyss net and I snapped pictures like crazy. BEAUTIFUL! Chuck truly felt the magic during illuminations. What a show! We actually went back Fri to see it again. Our Epcot Favorite: EVERYTHING!
Finally figured out how to get back home! Hurray!
Fri 10/6: Do over day. MK / Epcot. The kids decided they wanted to start with space mountain. Well, MK was NOT empty today. IT WAS PACKED! FPs were a minimum of 3 hours away and the temps were in the 90s. Sarah, who spent most of this vacation patiently waiting for the rest of us to ride the rides was a PRIORITY today. What sarah wanted to do we did. This included waiting almost 1 ½ hours for the indy speedway. The lines were soooo long - kinda like this post - by 1pm we couldnt take it anymore and hopped over to Epcot. Believe it or not Epcot was EMPTY! we stayed thru illuminations and still didnt experience the whole park. (Good reason to start planning a future trip ....... that and the margaritas)
Saturday 10/7 Seaworld. Shamus splash zone? They arent kidding! We liked this park a lot but after wdw it seemed unorganized. Everything always seemed to be on the OTHER side of the park. Kracken was the best ride out of the whole week. What a coaster!! We tricked Sarah onto Journey to Atlantis. We got wet and Sarah got MAD! That was a surprise too. Not sarah being mad but the length of the ride. We were expecting a shorter kinda ride but every time we thought it was over........there was more! COOL!
By now are feet are on fire ...................................
and my fingers hurt from all this typing .suffice it to say that we had a truly magical time. WDW is all we expected and more. Can't wait to go back!
HINT: load up on breakfast! We made it till atleast 5pm every day on just lite snacks! Great time saver.
Thanks for reading and sharing our fun. Thanks for all the help with planning! I know I forgot a lot so feel free to ask any questions.
Curly
What? Oh, our flight home? It sucked! But hey we got to go to Disney World and we all made it home safe and sound! It was the BEST FAMILY VACATION ever!
Who are we? Connie - the planner and birthday girl, mom to 3 girls with curls , Chuck the financer, disney challenged and dad to 3 girls with curls , and Jaclyn 9, Rebecca 7, and Sarah 5. You guessed it. The 3 girls with curls!
When did we go? Friday September 28th (did I mention thats my B-day) thru Sunday October 7th.
Did we fly?? You betcha! Hey, The president said go to Disney World and we did our patriotic duty!! flight was good - Saw a rainbow. Ended up with non-stop on Delta when USair cancelled our 1 stop thru charlotte NC. (Good deal since we booked with Priceline for $99 rt.) Our return trip was also affected (bad deal since they rescheduled us to 6:55am - but that's another post)
Did we rent a car? Yes we did. Used National's emerald aisle for the first time. Snagged a mitsubishi spyder convertible (Had reserved a fullsize for a total of $163). Checkout was quick and easy. Just gave them our EA card, DC card the DC coupon and the printout. No problem! (thanks to the transportation board posters for all their tips)
Where did we stay? HIFS a.k.a. Holiday Inn Family Suites, Bldg. 7, 2nd fl., lake view, room 725 (train theme) (kids didn't care about theming). Booked the "Family Values" package which included free buffet dinner for 2 adults (kids eat free at Holiday Inns). The website says $115 per night but they charged me the priority club rate of $109. Don't know why, didn't ask. What I did ask was why they suddenly felt the need to charge us $20 for a pool view room that was reserved 7 months before. Dale, the manager behind the desk claimed the $20 charge was standard. Yea right! Well, pool view isn't worth the extra $$ and we were very happy with our location. It was convenient (2-3 min. walk) to the zero depth entry pool, the lobby and the buffet . We were right near the stairs and the elevator which we NEVER used because it was so slow. The breakfast buffet was good. Fresh fruit, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage or ham, bagels, donuts, oatmeal. It got pretty crowded after 8am ( the hotel was kinda empty so its hard to judge) The girls got a kick out of feeding the fish, birds and turtles after breakfast every morning. Tried on site Pizza Hut one day for lunch. They never asked for "proof" of children. Got 5 personal pizzas for $6. (DH was a kid that day) NOTE: I did notice that when an older woman was working behind the counter she gave some moms and dads a hard time about the kids not being present - but the rest of the staff didn't care. The dinner buffet (5pm - 10pm) was so-so. Nothing special. Lots of carbs. your basic buffet food. If GREAT meals are a big part of your vacation then avoid the buffet and eat out. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't terrible..........just ok. It worked for us. Saved mucho dinnero! The pool was great!!! (float rental $5 - buy or bring your own....much cheaper) The kids enjoyed the pool and play areas alot (shuffleboard, mini golf, pingpong). The pool is open till midnight. We did get refillable mugs for the kids $2.99 (adults $6.99). I actually got a kids mug too. Used it for cappuchino almost every night. yummy.
Wow this is really getting long....
Ok so, I told you about our flight, our rental car, the hotel, now lets get down to business:
Saturday 9/29: explored our hotel (see above), drove to the Contemporary (stayed there as a kid - didn't really remember much), took the monorail which my 9 year old aptly renamed the "smellorail" (pew) and checked out the Poly (kinda outdated), and the Grand Floridian (too hoity toity for this family) Geez, there must have been 3 weddings there that day - Beautiful Bridal Parties.....oh, If you were in one of them I apologize for my kids being in your pictures! Anyway, we made our way back on the "smellorail" (pew! what is that smell?) to the contemporary and shopped around a little while waiting for our 7:30pm ps at "chef Mickeys". At 7:46 the pager thingy lights up and off we go to the funnest, most greatest birthday dinner I have ever had! Do Chef Mickey's. It was worth every penny! Love that Napkin Dance!!! Great Charactor interaction! Loads of autographs!! FUN FUN FUN! Went up to watch the MK fireworks. COLD COLD COLD!
Unfortunely we got lost getting back to HIFS. Didn't figure it out till almost Thursday . figures.
Sunday 9/30: Magic Kingdom here we come! Breakfast Buffet. Decided to try the shuttle. It worked out great. took the boat to the kingdom and got in line for security check. Not too bad. DH and I had no bags, kids had fanny packs with snacks and $$. No problems. Oh, did I tell you I left all my notes and hints from these boards at home. All that work for NOTHING! We got onto main street and I went BLANK! The only thing I remembered was to get my "birthday pin" from Town Hall. and I'll tell you what: That pin came in handy! almost every cm we passed said happy birthday....DH began to get sick of hearing it and promised one birthday smack every time someone said it. Well, my fanny got red! (you can bet the kids jumped on that bandwagon).....Now, where was I? oh yes, BLANK. Well, we winged it. I checked out the guide, slowly started remembering my "must do's and we had a GREAT day. Sunday is NOT Crowded at all! We walked on almost everything. Got fastpass just to try it, gave a few away and had a wonderful time! The kids wore there GOH badges. The cms called them by name all the time. They felt so important. Our only complaint? The Kidswap procedure. It worked great on splash mountain. The five of us went thru the line and sarah (5 years old and terrified of anything resembling a rollercoaster) and I were instructed to walk thru the "boat" and wait on the exit side till dh and dd's came back then he and I would switch. Great! onto BTMRR.......nope. cant switch here. go back to FP line and get special kidswap pass and by the time you return, DH and kids will be done. Well, the timing was right but what a pain in the butt! Why we couldn't just wait on the exit side was beyond us. Every ride after that followed the same procedure. Well we lived thru it and got to ride almost everything atleast 2x without any waits. The show at the Castle was very good, The Snow Globe Parade was Beautiful! Legend of the Lion King was also very good. Our MK Favorite? Space Mountain (got to ride twice in a row because it was my birthday!) Sarah's favorite: Cinderellas Royal Carousel! Rebecca loved Space Ranger Spin! (big buzz fan!) Jaclyn Loves it all!
Monday 10/1 MGM: Breakfast buffet. Jumped, literally (think dukes of hazard) into the convertible and vroom we were on our way to MGM. Found it no problem (getting back to the hotel is another story). The sorcerers hat is HUGE! On our way in I was staring up at it and walked right into a cm with a camera. The two of us went down and people came rushing over to help thinking our screams of laughter were screams of pain. If you were one of those who came to our rescue thanks! I wish I could remember this cms name because she was great. I almost made it on TOT, but ended up taking the chicken elevator down. DH did it and loved it. RockinRoller Coaster was really cool. Walked on twice and got a fp for 1 hour later. Truly no crowds. MGM was amazing. The shows were the best! Loved Beauty and the Beast! The Honey I shrunk the kids play area was a godsend. DH and I got to rest while the kids, the same kids who couldnt walk another step, raced around like little monkeys. Ahhh to be young again ., Around 4:30 we decided to eat at the Brown Derby walked right in and had the place to ourselves ($65). Great cobb salad! The Fantasmic show was incredible. We brought light sticks from home (cheaper) and people kept coming up to us asking where we got them. I had a red butt today too. Our MGM favorite: Rockin Roller Coaster Sarahs Favorite: All the shows!
Got lost coming home. (funny how you start calling the hotel home)
Tues. 10/2 Do nothing day. Hung out by the pool, hit the outlet stores, RELAX, RELAX RELAX.
Wed:. 10/3 Animal Kingdom! Breakfast buffet. It really is hot there! Really hot! The bugs 3d show is awesome. What a hoot! The kilamanjaro safari was pretty good. We saw a lot of animals. Rhinos were close enough to pet. Good ride! Sarah and I missed the jungle cruise (bathroom run .oh by the way, the bathrooms in disney are immaculate! Very impressive) but Chuck and the girls enjoyed it. Boy was it hot! Festival of the Lion King is a MUST DO! What a show!! EXCELLENT! Dinosaur was a little disappointing for me. I expected a Rollercoaster ride for some reason. But everyone else enjoyed it well not sarah she was freaking out! Jaclyn was picked in the Flights of Wonder show. We are very proud of her because she is soooo shy! Way to go Jack! Kali river rapids was ok it was just over too fast but Sarah liked it. We walked on 2x. and got SOAKED both times. Felt good. Should have rode it first thing. Did I mention how hot AK is??. The Tarzan Rocks show started ..and then had technical difficulties. We left and never made it back to see it. Oh well. The kids liked the boneyard. DH and I liked the rest period. Geez its hot here! We took a peek at the tricerotop spin ride under construction. (Looks like a prehistoric dumbo) Caught the end of the Parade. It looked pretty neat. Our AK favorites : Legend of the Lion King, Sarahs favorite: Kali River Rapids
Thurs. 10/4 Pirates Cruise & Epcot. The kids enjoyed the cruise, chuck and I rented a watermouse while they were out. It was fun. When we got back the cm noticed my bday pin and said Happy Birthday (smack) its on the house! Wow, free watermouse .cool. That was so nice of them! When the kids returned with there loot we headed over to Epcot. I think Epcot is my favorite park! I loved it. Spaceship earth was neat. Honey I shrunk the audience was GREAT! Test track was a fav. of the the girls (not sarah). Ice station cool was also a surprise. Beverly was not too bad ..not too good but not toooo bad. Cranium command was good, Body wars was cool, The living seas was a hit with Rebecca ( loves sharks) All in all innoventions East and West were pretty good. We missed a lot when we decided to walk over to the World Showcase. Started with Mexico, the kids made masks, chuck and I drank Margaritas (yummy) we grabbed a snack at the cantina and moved on to Norway. Maelstrom was cool but where are the margaritas. Back to mexico we go. This time its a mango margarita. ( By the time we reached China Chuck and I decided they need a margarita stand in each country. ) The Chinese acrobats were amazing. What talented kids. My girls still talk about them. The parade came by. It was beautiful. The girls dropped their wish coins into the fairyss net and I snapped pictures like crazy. BEAUTIFUL! Chuck truly felt the magic during illuminations. What a show! We actually went back Fri to see it again. Our Epcot Favorite: EVERYTHING!
Finally figured out how to get back home! Hurray!
Fri 10/6: Do over day. MK / Epcot. The kids decided they wanted to start with space mountain. Well, MK was NOT empty today. IT WAS PACKED! FPs were a minimum of 3 hours away and the temps were in the 90s. Sarah, who spent most of this vacation patiently waiting for the rest of us to ride the rides was a PRIORITY today. What sarah wanted to do we did. This included waiting almost 1 ½ hours for the indy speedway. The lines were soooo long - kinda like this post - by 1pm we couldnt take it anymore and hopped over to Epcot. Believe it or not Epcot was EMPTY! we stayed thru illuminations and still didnt experience the whole park. (Good reason to start planning a future trip ....... that and the margaritas)
Saturday 10/7 Seaworld. Shamus splash zone? They arent kidding! We liked this park a lot but after wdw it seemed unorganized. Everything always seemed to be on the OTHER side of the park. Kracken was the best ride out of the whole week. What a coaster!! We tricked Sarah onto Journey to Atlantis. We got wet and Sarah got MAD! That was a surprise too. Not sarah being mad but the length of the ride. We were expecting a shorter kinda ride but every time we thought it was over........there was more! COOL!
By now are feet are on fire ...................................
and my fingers hurt from all this typing .suffice it to say that we had a truly magical time. WDW is all we expected and more. Can't wait to go back!
HINT: load up on breakfast! We made it till atleast 5pm every day on just lite snacks! Great time saver.
Thanks for reading and sharing our fun. Thanks for all the help with planning! I know I forgot a lot so feel free to ask any questions.
Curly
What? Oh, our flight home? It sucked! But hey we got to go to Disney World and we all made it home safe and sound! It was the BEST FAMILY VACATION ever!
