Hot and Crowded, But We had Fun!!!!!!!! Day 3........UPDATED 7/3

[Chuck65]

Hey everyone! This is my first attempt at a trip report so bare with me.

Let me introduce the cast:

Me: 42 year old Disney addict
Wife: 39
Son: 10
Daughter: 8

This was a trip that was about 2 years in the making. My wife decided, that after being a social worker since she graduated from Clemson University, home of the Clemson Tigers , she wanted to become a nurse. Well, for the past 2 years, I volunteered for every minute of overtime I could get my hands on to put her through school. I told her that when she graduated, her present from me was a trip to WDW. 2 years went by and she got her RN degree, got a job, and started making some serious money! I love me some RN degree! Now daddy doesn't have to work as much overtime.

I booked the trip in early Jan of 2008 for a week at POFQ June 16 - 21. We had previously stayed at POR but wanted to give FQ a try this time.

Well, the months between Jan and June absolutely crawled by. So, I did what any good DIS'er would do...........planned. (I'll go into more detail later, but because of the DIS boards and TGM, I was called "The Man" quite a few times) I was having a hard time getting my wife excited for the trip and was starting to worry that maybe she wasn't really all that excited about it. No need to worry folks, about 3 weeks before we leave, she finally got the Disney bug.

June 15th finally arrived. We decided about 3 weeks prior to this that we would travel to Kinglands, GA and spend the night. This would leave us about 3.5 hours to drive to WDW the next day. We left Saturday, June 15th, at 10:30 in the morning and got to Kingsland about 7 pm. We stopped in Columbia, SC to eat at Sticky Fingers.............YUM YUM! Their ribs are absolutely awesome! We wanted to try and eat at Paula Deans restaurant in Savannah, so I told Mandy (the voice my TomTom navigation uses) to find it. Well, Mandy took us right to it. We took 1 look at the crowd and decided, no way: on to Kingsland! So it was time for Mandy to do her thing again. About 2 miles from the exit, Mandy alerts me that it's time to get off the interstate (or motorway as she likes to call it). We follow her directions, mainly because I've never been to Kingsland GA before, and she leads us right to...................... a Dead End road behind a Vets office and proceeds to tell us that we have reached our destination! So I start looking around and see some hotels in the opposite direction from where we are. I figure at least it's close, so we go in that direction and find the hotel we are looking for. We had booked a night at the Sleep Inn and Suites. The hotel was nice, but our check in didn't go so smooth. I booked through Travelocity and in doing so I prepaid for the room. I go up to the counter and tell them my name. The attendant says he needs my credit card; small red flag comes up but I ignore it, he swipes my card then says "Oh, I see you already paid in advance for the room" After trying for several minutes to correct it, he proceeds to tell me that he doesn't know how and he'll have to get another lady, who works at night, to fix it.

OFF TOPIC but a good tip: I found out later on, that if I had called the hotel directly I could have saved about $20 instead of using Travelocity. Travelocity charged me $86 for the room as opposed to $68 if I had gone directly to the hotel.

Up next: aggravating curtains at night, more Mandy, and our arrival.

 

[dj1028]

Great start...can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Chuck65]

OK.........where was I........oh yeah the curtains. We get into our room at Sleep Inn and get the AC running. We decide on supper at AppleBee's, probably the worst meal I've ever eaten at a AppleBee's, and head over there. The kids decide they want to go swimming after we get back to the room, so they get their bathing suits on and we head to the pool. We come back after about an hour and the room is getting nice and chilly. It's about 10:30 at night and all of us are getting pretty sleepy. We crawl into bed and start dreaming Disney dreams. 2 hours later................

Good Lord, why is it so hot in this room? Look over at the AC, yeah it's running so why is the room not cool. I get up and check the AC unit: yep it's blowing cold air. Then I notice the curtains.......after closing the curtains when we went to bed, they hang over the ac vents and hold all the cold air in! Well no biggie, or so I thought, I'll open the curtains since we are on the second floor. I open the curtains and guess what? There is a parking lot lamp right outside our window...............aauuuuuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhhhh!
One thing I know is, I can't sleep when it's hot. So I grab a t shirt from the suit case and throw it over my head to block some of the light. Now where was I, oh yeah, Disney tomorrow!

Morning arrives and we get everything settled with the hotel. The girl at night was able to get my credit card corrected. Hmmmmmm, maybe Tink flew north of Jacksonville and sprinkled some pixie dust on us for the remainder of our trip.

We ate breakfast at Shoneys. I had forgotten how good their breakfast bar was. We used to have a Shoney's years ago but they closed it for some reason. After breakfast, we fill the Wagon Queen Family Truckster with gas and point it south towards Lake Buena Vista, FL.

We start approaching Orlando on I-4 and Mandy (Tom Tom nav. system) for some reason starts chiming in saying, "in 2 miles keep left"..........2 minutes later, "in 2 miles keep left". I had been this way before to Disney and knew that on the other side of Orlando, I would start seeing signs for Disney. What I wasn't sure of was, in the last 5 years, is there a new route that Mandy wants me to take. I soon realized that because I-4 kind of winds it's way through Orlando, Mandy was constantly updating. She likes it when she is on a straight road. She kept on with "in 2 miles keep left" my son in the back seat finally said, "Oh can it Mandy!"

We got through Orlando and Mandy settled down. We start seeing Universal signs and then..............signs for what we had saved a full year for............Disney! Mandy finally chimes in and says the words the I've wanted to hear since January............. in 2 miles keep left.............LOL just kidding. She says, "in 2 miles bear right." Which means, this is your exit. Yes, we made it!!!!!!!!!!!

The kids are super excited and Mandy leads us right to our resort, Port Orleans French Quarter.

Up next.......check in, Typhoon Lagoon, Speedos, thongs, and a storm.

Stay tuned!

 

[crgfsu1]

Loving your report so far!!! Mandy sure seems helpful

Cathy

 

[TCKK]

Love the report and the pictures. Can't wait for what's coming up next!!

Cathy

 

[cjhinch]

Enjoying your report so far!! How much further south of Savannah is Kingston? We are planning on staying at Savannah on our way down, so I was wondering how much more driving we will have to do to get to Orlando. Was your 3.5 hour expectations pretty accurate?

 

[Chuck65]

Thanks for reading everyone. It's been tough getting back into a work mode after a week at Disney.

cjhinch........I'm thinking Kingsland is about an hour further south of Savannah. It is right on the GA/FL line. There is a good selection of hotels and places to eat, although I wouldn't suggest the AppleBee's at that exit. There is a Cracker Barrell, Chick-Fil-A, Shoneys, etc.

About 3.5 hrs is pretty close to the time left from Kingsland to WDW. The only slow down was through Jacksonville. They are doing some construction on I-95 in that area. We went through on a Sunday morning, so it wasn't that bad. I wouldn't want to try it during a weekday morning.

I'll hopefully be able to work on another installment of my trip today. I've got to the kids ready to do some things this morning.

 

[cjhinch]

I understand what you mean! Zzub has a term for that, but I can't remember what it is!

Thanks for the info on the driving time. It sounds like 4.5 hours would be a pretty good estimate for us then from Savannah.

Looking forward to another update! Does your 10 year old son still enjoy it as much as ever? Mine sure does, he turns back into a 5 year old when we are there!

 

[irky416]

I'm in. (Though, I'm slightly scared of the upcoming thongs and Speedos! )

 

[jmskinner]

I'm in also, and like irky416, I'm a little afraid of the "thongs and speedos".

We also have a TomTom and the first time we used it my DS asked "Do we have to use that thing to get to school each day?" He hates it. And, what is the deal with the "motorway". Who says that in America?

Looking forward to the next installment!

 

[Chuck65]

Sorry for the delay everyone. Getting back to the real world this week has been crazy. We had a bunch of orders bumped up on us and we have been extremely busy at work. We are "supposed" to shut down next week for July 4th and a lot of our customers are wanting their orders before we do that.

OK, enough of that.............

Check in went great. When I booked the trip, I requested to our travel agent that we would like to be in either building 2, 4, or 5 with a connecting room or rooms that were beside each other. We were traveling with another family and wanted to be close to them. I get up to the counter and give the CM my name and tell her about the room request. She see's that it's noted on the ressy and tells me they would be able to honor that request. WooHoo! Way to go Annette at Small World Travel! ( Remember when I said maybe Tink flew north and sprinkled some pixie dust? These type of things happened a few times)

Our room wasn't ready yet, we got there at lunchtime, but I had already planned for this. We got some lunch in the food court, it was ok nothing special. I had the Chicken Parmesan, the kids had pizza and my wife had the chicken quesadilla. After lunch, I grabbed some tickets for Typhoon Lagoon from the hotel concierge. We got our bathing suits and towels and headed over to Typhoon Lagoon. On our way over, I noticed a storm coming in. Hmmmmm..............maybe Tink was still sprinkling pixie dust. We get changed in the locker room and while waiting for the girls, I notice a guy in his underwear outside the changing area. Oh wait, that's not underwear, that's a Speedo! And let me tell you, that thing didn't leave much to the imagination. I'm sorry, but me and my country bumpkin self is just used to seeing guys in regular bathing suits.

Our first stop was the lazy river. That thing was very relaxing. If not for the kids, I could've stayed in that thing all day. After about 30 minutes, I see the crowd starting to thin out and feel some rain drops. We get out and head over to the wave pool and there is a mass exodus of people heading towards the lockers and the exits due to the storm. Come on Tink! Keep sprinklin' some dust! You go girl!

After the wave pool, we start to do some rides. First up was Crush and Gusher...........wait time 5 mins. We rode all 3 slides back to back. Next up was shark reef.........wait time 5 mins. (See a pattern here? If a storm comes up, it can work to your advantage.) Holy cow is that water cold at shark reef! (Tip: swish some water around in your mask before put it on. This will help clear any condensation off the mask)

After this my wife and daugher decided to head back to the room and meet up with the other family. My son and I head for some more slides. Humunga Kowabunga was up next..........no wait. Fun slide, huge wedgy! We hit a lot more slides and found ourselves at Gangplank Falls. Wait time on this was about 10 minutes. We get our raft and I see a group of 3 women and 2 kids ahead of us. I'm thinking they are Brazilian. Their language sounds Spanish, but not quite. I start hauling the raft up the stairs and one of the ladies turns her back to me. Dang Girl! You must have done Humunga Kowabunga before this ride too! 3/4 of your butt is hanging out! Oh wait, that suit is supposed to be like that! Then I see movement out of the corner of my eye...........my son has spotted her too! Quick move the raft and block the view! Arghhhhhhhh, why does this freakin thing have to be so heavy. I finally say, the heck with it. Trying to block his view and move that raft is just not worth it. Plus, she really didn't have that much to look at.

We hit as many rides as we could before we headed back to POFQ. I kind of hated leaving, because it was literally walk on just about every ride. Thanks Tink for the storm! I get the luggage in to the room and meet the rest of the gang at the pool. My wife has gotten into about 3 Bloody Mary's and is really starting to enjoy the vacation I had to sample a couple of Margaritas and see what they were like

Yep, it's going to be a good vacation!

Next installment: DTD, Earl of Sandwich, and EPCOT

 

[irky416]

Great update! I'm always scared of what kinds of swimsuits I'll see at waterparks. Your post reassures me I have something to worry about!

I always tell DBF the best time to go to a waterpark is when it looks like it's going to rain. It's great that you had almost no wait times to get on the rides!

 

[jmskinner]

My DS probably would have yelled out, "she has a wedgie!". Next time we go, I'll schedule TL on a day when it could rain.

Looking forward to more!

 

[crgfsu1]

Sounds like a great start. I have never been to a Disney waterpark - maybe one day!

 

[rebecca06261]

I have a Brazilian employee that has one of those bathing suits! Although I'll admit, I am a little jealous and you would really have to be hiding some eyes as she does have something to look at!

 

[Chuck65]

Thanks for staying tuned everyone!

After some pool and margarita time at POFQ, we decide on supper in DTD. The other family that is with us has never eaten at Earl of Sandwich. We get ready and catch the boat to DTD from the POFQ dock. I'll learn tomorrrow that I should have taken the boat again to DTD instead of the bus.

I love me some Earl of Sandwich! I had the Scudeto as did my son. My daughter had the PB&J while my wife had the Chinese Chicken Salad. Everyone really like my choice of the restaurant. It's nice to go eat on Disney property and not have it cost an arm and a leg. Total price was in the neighborhood of $35.

My son had been dying to go to the LEGO store and my daughter wanted to go into Once Upon A Toy. I grab mine and the other families son and head over to the LEGO store. We are there about 30 minutes and my son picks out something he wants to buy. It's about 9:30 pm and I figure we need to be heading back to POFQ. We need to be at rope drop at EPCOT in the morning. I grab the cell phone and call my wife, no answer. Call again, no answer............hmmmmmmmm. This scenario would be repeated through the week. Call again, no answer. What the heck! It's pretty crowded at DTD and I'm wondering if she will be able to find me in the crowd. We wait outside LEGO for about another 30 minutes when I feel someone wrap their arms around my stomach. I turn around and see that my wife has found us. She left her cell phone in the room We catch the boat back to POFQ and settle in to our room.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!..............ugh what time is it? Dang, it's 6:15 already? Oh well, I'm at Disney. It won't be to hard to get the family ready.

Breakfast is in the room (another good way to save some money). We catch the bus to EPCOT and get in line for rope drop. They let us in the gate and we get held behind SSE while the characters do the opening ceremony.

Heading towards Soarin'

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...............and there off. In the outside lane making a break for the lead, its the Smiths fom Iowa followed closely by the Tayor family from Pittsburgh. Actually, there is no announcer but that is what's running through my head as we head towards Soarin'. We get to Soarin' and grab FP's and see that the posted standby is already 40 mins! Oh well, I figure by the time we try and get to another ride, we'll be getting close to riding Soarin'. We get in line and we probably wait 15 minutes. Just as we are about get on the ride the CM stops us and I have an idea Ummm excuse me ma'am.........whats the possibility of you putting us on the front row. Well, she says, you need to ask the other CM, she is in charge of that. Ma'am, can you put us on the front row? Well, she says, you have to ask nicely. Please? OK, she says, you are on the front row. WOOT! WOOT!

Soarin' is awesome! That was the first time any of our party has ever been on it.

OK.........it's lunchtime and I'll finish this post after I eat. Stay tuned

Lunch is over, time for the rest of the day..........

I was really amazed at the effects on this ride. When you go over the mountains and smell the trees. Then as you go over the orange grove and you smell the oranges. No wonder this is the most popular ride at Disney. Test Track is up next. By the time we get over there it's already posting a 60 minute wait. So it's FP time again. We go check out Mission Space and see that it's only posting a 10 min. wait on the green side.

We do the green side and decide to head back to Soarin and use FP for it. We trek it back across to Soarin' only to find out it's down! The CM tells us we'll be able to use our FP's whenever they get the ride back up. It's starting to get to close to lunchtime so we decide to head around World Showcase and find something to eat.

Our journey takes us to Morocco to eat at the Tangierine Cafe. If you haven't given this place a try, don't pass it up! I had the chicken wrap and it was very good!

The heat is really starting to build and the kids are starting to feel the effects of it. We decide to head back to Test Track and use our FP's. My daughter decides she wants no part of this one, so she and I head to Club Cool to try out some drinks and then to Mouse Gears to wait on the rest of the gang. After TT, it's pool time back at the resort.

Dinner tonight is at The Garden Grill. We arrive for our ADR about 10 mins before and give the hostess our name. We get our buzzer and it still takes about 20 more minutes for us to get seated. I'm guessing that since we had 8 people eating with us, they had to wait for the right tables to become available. Oh well, we're at Disney and everyone's happy. Here is desert pic from Garden Grill

After dinner, we use our FP's from this am for Soarin'. We bypass a 2 hour long wait and go right up to the load area. We waited in line I think, maybe, 5 mins. I couldn't help but look over at the standby and think, "Dadgum, people, do you not know how to use the FP sytem?" I'm guessing the majority don't. I couldn't tell you how many times I saw people with maps out trying to decide on what to do. Bad for them, good for me. That's just less people getting in line before I get there.

After Soarin', we grab a spot for Illuminations and wait to enjoy the show. I really wish I had done more research about getting out of EPCOT, after Illuminations, back to the resort. The line for the buses was horrendous! I can't fault Disney though. I saw nothing but a constant stream of buses coming in to pick people up. They were just a lot of guests that wanted to get back to their room. I think now, I would have taken the monorail back to either the TTC or Magic Kingdom and grabbed a bus from there. After about halfway through the line and listening to this lady tell her daughter, very loudly, that she was the prettiest princess in the park today, and how all the princesses at the character breakfast really liked how polite she was, yada, yada, yada............I'm thinking the monorail would have been a better option.

Well, that ends our first full day in the parks.

Up next: DHS, waiting on the bus, and Auntie Claire.

 

[rebecca06261]

boy you sure take a long time to eat We're still waiting for you to finish that update!

 

[jmskinner]

Those buses after Illuminations can be horrible. We have only been to WDW twice and both times stayed at POR. Both times there were long lines for buses to POR/POFQ. But I will say, the CM's usually appear and get more buses. I know when we went 2 years ago, we would see buses come in with a different hotel name on them and the CM's would stop them and then POR would show. We would all get so excited.

Enjoying your TR! It's fun reading from a Dad's perspective!

 

[Chuck65]

Thanks for hanging in there with me everyone. I was "supposed" to be off all week, but got called in to help with some maintenance projects at work.

So now it's time for the latest update.

Tuesday was our DHS day.

We once again got the troops ready and headed over to DHS for rope drop. We got there about 20 minutes before they opened the gate. We got through the gates and waited probably 10 minutes while a film crew did there opening act. I would have liked to seen this, but unfortunately we weren't close enough to follow what was going on. After the opening ceremony, we headed towards RNR. Somehow after getting our FP's I got separated from the rest of our party and more importantly separated from my son. I look around and see someone waving at me and notice it's my son. They are in line heading up the ramp. I then had to try and make my way up to them. After saying, "excuse me I got spearated from my son" about forty eleven times, I made it up to where my son was. I only got called a line cutter one time, but everyone else was super nice in letting me get caught up with my son.

This was our first time riding RNR. I have to say Soarin' is good, but boy did my son and I enjoy this coaster. I loved the whole story/theme behind this ride. I was amazed when you went into the studio and were watching Aerosmith getting ready for the concert.

On a side note: Disney does an amazing job with getting you out of the sun and into a preshow area with ac. My wife and I commented several times, that if we had been at Six Flags, we would've been waiting in the sun in a long line.

Every other coaster I have ridden, you always get pulled to the top of a hill and then gravity takes over. This was the first one I rode where you get launched! 0 - 60 in less than 3 seconds..........Holy Cow!

After RNR we started to get in line for TOT, but my daughter had second thoughts on this one. I traded my son off for my daughter with my wife and they did standby for TOT while she and I got FP's for it. We grabbed some shade and waited for the rest of the gang to get off.

After TOT, we started making our way towards TSM. The posted standby time was already up to 90 minutes, so we headed towards The Little Mermaid. Is it me, or did they really shorten this show? From what I can remember, it seems that show lasted longer.

After, The Little Mermaid, it was getting close to lunch. The ABC commissary was close and I knew that DHS didn't have that many options as far as CS places, so ............ABC comissary it was. Nothing special here. Just your average run of the mill theme park food.

After lunch we did Muppets and then headed to Star Tours. Once was enough for me on Star Tours. That is one ride that really gets me queezy. Plus, the air circulating on that ride was pitiful. I was very glad when it ended.

As our normal routine, we headed back to the resort for some pool time around 2:00. We grabbed some FP's for TSM and headed for the exit.

After about an hour and a half in the pool, I had to get mine and the other families daughter ready for BBB at DTD. We had a 5:00 appt. to transform them into princesses. We get ready and head towards the bus stop at about 4:10 pm. Right as I get to the bus stop, I see a bus pulling off for DTD. Dang, I missed it by about 30 secs. Oh well, we've still got time, another one should be along shortly. 10 minutes until 5, guess where I am? If you guessed the bus stop, on the phone to BBB, you would be correct. We waited that long for a DTD to come by. I lost count of how many EPCOTand Magic Kingdom buses I saw. So I grab my cell and call BBB. I told them I'm still at the bus stop and I needed some help. They said not to worry, they would hold my reservation. As soon as I hang up, here comes a DTD bus. Thanks Tink for some more pixie dust.

We get the girls transformed into princesses and head back to the resort. We have an ADR for 50's prime time cafe at 7:45 so it's back to DHS.
This is a pic of my daughter after her appt. at BBB.

One thing that was pretty cool was when we boarded the bus back to DHS, an announcement was made that for everyone to be on their best behavior as the "Royal Coach" was transporting 2 princesses. The smile on the 2 girls faces was priceless. Yes, this 42 year old production line worker dad came very close to getting a tear in his eye. Thanks Disney for little moments like this. That really goes a long way into making memories last a long time.

After using some FP's for TOT and RNR we headed towards 50's Prime Time Cafe. Our wait was probably about 10 mins. Just long enough for me to sample one of their margaritas. They called our name, got seated at our table, and were introduced to Auntie Claire. Folks if you get her as your server at 50's Prime Time, she plays the part great. She was standing beside the table explaining the menu when she noticed my margarita. She asked me if I knew what those things do to me? I said yes if I got into to many of them. She said no they give me gas. She warned the kids about the elbows on the table, did the airplane trick with a teenager at another table, and quizzed my son on what color the soap was in the bathroom.

We all enjoyed the food. I had the salmon and my wife had the pot roast. I would really recommend this restaurant to any one wanting to try it.

After eating, we still had some FP's for TSM. This ride was awesome. My arm got very tired from pulling that string so many times, but it is a blast! After TSM we headed for the second showing of Fantasmic. We arrived about 5 minutes before they opened the show and still got great seats. The theater was only about half full. If you can hold out that long, go to the second show. You can still get great seats and not have a huge crowd on there.

We got back to POFQ around 11:00 that night. Needless to say, sleep came easy that night.

Next up: Magic Kingdom

 

[mickeysmyboy]

Great trip report! Can't wait to hear more!