How did a trip that start out so well end so bad??? Updated 8/17 post 173

[ccgirl]

Hi Everyone,
Please be gentle on me as this is my first trip report.

Cast: Me (Mom). I work full time as a sytems analyst and enjoy spending all my free time with my children. I just adore them. Luckily, they like DW as much as I do.

DH: We have been married for 10 years but together for 20 - high school sweethearts. He humors me with the Disney trips. As long as I plan them, he will go. I think he is a closet Disney fan.

DD: Katie is 7. She is in first grade. She loves just about all Disney characters. She is very intelligent and stubborn. She is just the sweetest kindest soul.

DS: Ryan is 2. Oh my!!! What can I say about him? He is all boy and just a wild child. I try to tame him I really do. He is not bad, just high maintenance and full of energy. Having a girl first I was so not prepared for this. He was very excited to be going to Mickey's House!

This is the 7th trip for our family so it is nothing new for us. I wanted to make it a little more "special" so I created a countdown calendar, and some dining invitations and t-shirts courtesy of the wonderfully creative people on the disign board. I will post pictures later. Here is the one for the countdown calendar.

The plan:
We were leaving Providence airport on Saturday morning at 9:30 am so we decided to stay overnight at an airport hotel the night before. I had everything packed and ready to go when I got home from work Friday night. I had an outfit for each day in a labelled ziploc bag for each child so they could just take the whole bag out. Plus, it kept the clothing protected should there be any spills in in the luggage.

As we loaded up the car, DS2 fell in the driveway and got a big road rash on his forehead...that should be great for pictures. Anyway, we booked the Park and Fly at the Hilton Garden Inn. We had never stayed there before. We got to the hotel about 7:30pm. What a wonderful place! We were so pleasantly surprised and will definitely go there again. It was $111 and that included the nights accommodations, parking for the week and a full breakfast the next morning for the 4 of us. We were the only ones on the shuttle. We got to the airport in no time.....

Sorry to cut this short, I just realized how late it is and I have to head home. I will pick up tomorrow with the travel day.

 

[disneydreamer98]

As we loaded up the car, DS2 fell in the driveway and got a big road rash on his forehead...that should be great for pictures.

That same thing happened to my little one (then 4 years old) the night we arrived in Florida back for our December 2008 trip! He ran into a cement pillar in outdoor food court at the resort we were staying at for the night. That was the same thing I thought "That's gonna be great for the pictures!"

Can't wait to read more!

 

[nilla]

My wife does the exact same thing with the ziplocs. Your TR is starting out fine, but how can you lead in with a title like that and then only post once??



Also, I have a question for you, and all the Disers in general: does "DH" stand for "Dearest Husband" or "Disney Husband"? I've seen both. If it's the latter, and if your husband "humors you with Disney trips" and you *think* he might be a closet Disney fan, should you call him your "DH"? Is the "D" just implied for everyone's spouses? Or does the "D" stand for something o

Not knocking, just asking!

Keep up the TR. I'm on Day 4 of mine, and I'm having a blast!

 

[2BOYMOM]

Great start! Looking forward to more....

 

[ccgirl]

My wife does the exact same thing with the ziplocs. Your TR is starting out fine, but how can you lead in with a title like that and then only post once??



Also, I have a question for you, and all the Disers in general: does "DH" stand for "Dearest Husband" or "Disney Husband"? I've seen both. If it's the latter, and if your husband "humors you with Disney trips" and you *think* he might be a closet Disney fan, should you call him your "DH"? Is the "D" just implied for everyone's spouses? Or does the "D" stand for something o

Not knocking, just asking!

Keep up the TR. I'm on Day 4 of mine, and I'm having a blast!

Sorry...I didn't realize how late it was when I started posting. I will try to post a lot more today.

As for DH - I thought it was "Darling Husband" guess I don't really know for sure what it stands for.

Thanks for reading!

 

[ccgirl]

Sorry my first post was so short. Reading through, I left out a good deal of information so I am going to back track a bit if you don't mind.

First...if it wasn't for bad luck my family would have no luck at all. So, all the "good luck" the beginning of the trip was really quite refreshing. My DH is somewhat of a pessimist. He kept saying how crowded it was going to be, how hot etc. I just kept saying it was going to be a wonderful trip!

The Dates: May 1 - May 8, 2010. We were fortunate enough to trade our Hawaii timeshare thru RCI for a 2BR at BWV. We previously stayed at POFQ and swore we would never stay on property again unless we could walk to some of the parks. So, we were really excited about this location. I had my excel spreadsheet all done up and ADR's made. We were doing the Dining Plan. I wanted the counter service as my DS2 does not really like to sit at restaurants and it is very stressful for me. My DH, however, wanted to include TS as he likes to sit down and eat. In the end we went with the dining plan that has 1CS, 1TS, and 1Snack per day.

We were meeting dear friends of ours that were already down there and staying at the Beach Club. They have a 6 year old and 1 year old and were eating all meals with us.

My MiL and FiL also decided to come down once they heard we were going. They were staying at an off site timeshare and actually staying for 2 weeks.

My BiL, SiL and their 2 children (6 and 2) also decided to come long after we had all plans in place. I was a little nervous about this as the last time I travelled with them it was a horror show. They are staying with the inlaws so I was "hoping" that would be better. They weren't coming down until mid week so we still had some along time with our other friends.

This is suddenly turning into a very crowded vacation.

My family and I had volunteered through the Give A Day program. The plan was to get 3 GAD Fastpasses since my DH and myself already had AP's and my DD had a multi day ticket. Since my son was only 2 he did not need a ticket. I was going to use one GAD with our friends and 2 with the inlaws. That was the plan anyway.

I purchased the pearl carriage cages off of eBay for my DD and my DNiece. I was really looking forward to doing the pick a pearl in Japan. The countries are my DD favorites. I didn't tell her about the pick a pearl as I wanted it to be a surprise. Good thing I didn't tell her or she would have been terribly disappointed like I was.

I think that is enough background. Thanks for letting me back track. Next up....travel day May 1st and our good luck begins.

 

[Tiggeye]

Can't wait to hear how your vacation went. We love the Beach Club Villas

 

[loveysbydesign]

Sounds like an interesting trip...can't wait to hear more! I also have a 7 y.o. dd and 2 y.o. ds...his name is Ryan too!

 

[OhMari]

Is GAD-Give a Day?

 

[ccgirl]

Is GAD-Give a Day?

Sorry...yes GAD is GIve a Day.

 

[ccgirl]

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated.

Our plane was leaving at 9:30am. Since we were right next to the airport, and the airport is very easy to get around with quick security we figured we would leave the hotel at 8:15am. We had scheduled the shuttle the previous night. We woke up at 7am after a pretty restless night. The kids were just way too excited to sleep and I was way too nervous worrying about my DS2 on a plane. We went downstairs for continental breakfast only to find out it it was a full breakfast and was free for all 4 of us. We were so excited....as I stated, we usually don't get lucky breaks. We ate then went to our car to unload our luggage for the shuttle. As we were unloading, the shuttle pulled around to our car - he had seen us. Man...this is going to be a GREAT trip! We get to the airport and the shuttle drops out right out front. The sky cap had a crazy long line so my DH sent me in to check it out. Surprise...nobody in line. We move to go in line. Let me tell you...I told my DH the night before to weigh our luggage but he thought I was nuts. I'm sure you can see where this is going. As we go to the line, we realize we still need a couple of luggage tags. Quite a few people pass us at this point; still not bad. We get in line and it moves very quickly. My DS is already starting to get restless. It is our turn, we put the first piece of luggage on the scale and you guessed it....51 lbs, overweight by 1 lb. She asks if we want to take something out. My DH takes out one of his shoes and puts it in another bag. By now, I can see people getting impatient with us. I felt awful. Anyway, the shoe ended up weighing exactly 1 lb so we were okay. By now, we kind of start arguing...oh boy; this is going to be a long plane ride. We get to the gate and get a tag for the stroller. They started making several announcements about family boarding, when it was, who was eligible and all that. As usual, there were people who didn't feel the rules applied to them. I even heard one mom telling her 6 year old not to talk so she could pass for 4. NICE was to teach your child honesty. I digress. Anyway, 1 person boarded with business class, his wife and two children tried to board with him and were told they could not that they could do family boarding, They were beginning the A boarding and that same woman tried to board with her two children. Again, they were told they did not have an 'A' so needed to wait until family boarding. They asked family boarders to line up. For some reason, people didn't feel the need to form a line except us and 3 other families. The above mentioned woman stepped right in front of us so I explained where the line was. My DH was not happy with me but I have no patience for rude people. She said; it doesn't really matter where I board because my husband is already on the plane so I'm going to sit up front anyway because he was saving them seats. I said I didn't care; she still had to go to the back of the line. Much to my pleasant surprise, the SW employee reprimanded the people not in line and took us first. We got on the plane and lo and behold the first row was still open. My DH is tall so he was really psyched about this and took my DD7 with him. I was lucky enough to get my DS2 and sat in row 4 on the opposite side of the plane. I sat next to a wonderful gentleman who was there with his family on a MAW trip with his daughter. They were staying at GKTW. I saw the business class guy and he already had two strangers sitting next to him. His wife got on the flight and was stewing. The flight attendants kept announcing that this was a completely sold out flight that all bags and other articles had to be removed, they had an open seating policy so anyone could sit there. Some people seemed pretty upset but even after all that, I didn't see any families getting entirely split up. Something tells me the guy that boarded with business class wasn't too disappointed with is seating arrangements.

Anwway, it was a pretty turbulent flight so they didn't give out drinks until very late. I was so grateful my DH had purchased drinks in the airport. I had a DVD player, crayons, coloring books, snacks, legos etc....they were all great until about 1 1/2 into the flight when my son started yelling...me all done mommy... me all done - me go to mickey's house. I knew the last hour was going to be LOOOONNNNGGGG!!! Somehow we made it threw. I think keeping him buckled in his car seat helped tremendously. We got to Orlando 30 minutes early. I was so excited!!!! It looked like our good luck was starting again! We just had to find the ME. As we were walking there I took this picture. Shirt designs were courtesy of the Creative Disigns board. I LOVED them as did the kids....

We found the ME and were very grateful we didn't have to go to baggage claim to get our bags. When we got to the woman checking us in we realized we only had 3 passengers listed. My DS2 was not on there. She said it was fine and would add him so he was on there for our ride back. She pointed us to the line ane we noticed the mass of people waiting. Our line was empty.....ought oh...that means a bus just left. We said oh well....then they came back and said they had enough seats for us on the bus and we boarded right away and were off. Yeah...this trip really is going to be magical. My DS was just clapping and singing waiting to get to see Hot Diggety Dog! That's what he calls Mickey Mouse a lot becuase of the Hot Diggety Dog song on Mickey Mouse club house.

All in all, I guess it was a fairly uneventful flight down. I just get so stressed flying with the kids and trying to remember to pack everything.

Up next.....we arrive at Boardwalk Villas.....what do we think of it?????

 

[A&Bmama]

Wow, sounds like a lot of things went right for you on the way down. I love the fact that the airline staff made everyone line up properly and took the "rule followers" before the "rule breaker wannabes." Can't wait to hear more

Up next.....we arrive at Boardwalk Villas.....what do we think of it?????

Please, do tell, what did you think of the Boardwalk Villas?

 

[mla1977]

Sounds like you had an easy time getting there! I understand that you can appreciate the family boarding. Having flown on SW before when the had family boarding before the A's, I am thankful that they now have it after the A's and before the B's. I'm usually a solo traveler and flying to Florida was a bit of a nightmare under the old system. I would get up early and make sure that I was checked into the A's, but then end up with what was essentially a B grouping after all the families boarded.

You bet that dad was happy that he got "stuck" with strangers!

 

[ccgirl]

Wow, sounds like a lot of things went right for you on the way down. I love the fact that the airline staff made everyone line up properly and took the "rule followers" before the "rule breaker wannabes." Can't wait to hear more



Please, do tell, what did you think of the Boardwalk Villas?

In one word....SPECTACULAR!

 

[ccgirl]

Our bus got there probably around 1:30pm. We went into the lobby which I just found very charming. There was no line to check in. I had the carry on bag with our bathing suits, beach towels etc. I know it takes a while for our checked baggage to arrive so I thought we would swim until they arrived. I wholeheartedly felt our room wouldn't be ready yet since check in was at 3:30. SURPRISE....our room was ready. YEAH!!!! Now we can change in the room rather than the pool house. I was told our room was 4010. We take the elevator to the 4th floor and walk....and walk....and walk.....this had to have been the longest walk to a hotel room ever! We get to room 4010 and put our key in. I was amazed at the spaciousness and cleanliness of this place. We were walking around giving ourselves a tour. After a while, I remember this is supposed to be a 2BR. I try the key in room 4008 and it works there too. That is a huge studio. My DD7 was thrilled she could have her "own room". I find the door that connects the two rooms and open that. THere was a balcony off the studio, one off the living room and one off the MBR. THe kitchen was amazingly appointed. They had coffee with all the fixings, tupperware, plates, glasses, toaster etc.... Anything you could need. I get a glass of water from the sink expecing that sulfur taste. SURPRISE....no sulfur taste and it was good. Yeah....we can save on not getting bottled water. We get changed for the pool and are planning on swimming for a few hours before our 5:30 reservation at Cape May. Here are some pictures of the living room and our view.....the view....what can I say???

Up next....pool time, our first "catastrophe" and dinner at Cape May.

 

[JanetMom]

I'm in. Can't wait to see more of your pictures.

 

[alexensmom]

Enjoying your TR. Ready for more

Our DS is 2 also and sounds alot like your DS: always on the move, wants what he wants when he wants it, keeps you on your toes, but such a sweet and happy boy. I tell people Im still in gender shock after my very low maintenance DD (although not so low maintenance now ...gotta love preteens). I am looking forward to what type of schedule your DS dictates for your trip, seeing how similar their energy levels are.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'm in! Don't you love traveling with young kids !!

 

[wendy3]

Count me in!

 

[luckylady]

I'm in. I hope what ever happened wasn't bad.