"Hurry & fly away to Neverland before it's too late!" Trip wrap up page 30

[vamassey1]

Well it was finally here...our departure day. Our walking papers (ME) had been delivered the day before. Our check out papers were on the door when we got up. The original plan was to spend the morning in DTD. We had a lunch reservation at TRex for 11:30. Our papers told us our pick up time was 1:30. Both our flights were leaving for around 4:30. We were also told the bus ran about every 30 minutes. The night before Tena said she was going to sleep in late and didn't think we would have enough time to do Trex. Although I was disappointed I agreed with her but I still wanted to go to DTD. I had saved my shopping just for this reason and guess because I had done this before I wasn't worried about not making it back in time. Due to the heat Danielle and I each had two CS credits left. We awoke early, finished packing and gathered our suitcases to bring to luggage check. About the time we were ready to walk out Tena woke up and of course the first thing she wanted to do was smoke. Well I wanted to get going so I was mean and made her wake Bailey to take with her on her smoke break. So out the door we went with our 2 very large suitecases, 2 carryons and backpacks. For some reason I didn't want to wait for help with my bags or go get a cart. I thought we could make there just fine on our own. In hindsight I wish I had gone to get a cart. I had to stop several times to rest and regroup. I also saw the mousekeeper making her way down towards our room to clean. Since I was flying Southwest I was able to check my bags and store my carryons. One bag just barely made the weight limit! Off to breakfast we went. Right after we finished eating I got a call from Tena, they were headed our way. Seems that mousekeeping had knocked on the door not too long after I left and she thought she had to get out. And of course this was my fault since I had left the room earlier. She could have just told them to come back later. Anyway I was patient and waited for her to check her bags and eat then we all headed to DTD. She was very concerned that 3 hours wasn't enough time so she wanted to be back early and ride an earlier bus. At the time I told her to do what ever she had to do but I was going to wait. Once we got to DTD we split up. I hit the Christmas Store to buy an ornament, pin store to get a pin for Michelle, Ghirardelli for free chocolate and some purchased chocolate too, the toy store so Danielle could get her potato head parts all while making my way towards the World of Disney.



Before entering we took some time to look around the Lego Store.

















Now it was time to do the real damage.

 

[vamassey1]

Here are a few pictures inside the World of Disney.













I don't think I can remember everything I got but I do know I got a shirt, I got Michelle a shirt, Danielle a shirt, some antenna toppers, pens for co-workers, some of those washrags that grow in water and we started looking for a shirt for Dennis. He's the hardest one to buy for because he's so picky. We had already gotten him one shirt from AK but I wasn't real happy with it, but the pickins were slim. This is the shirt I wanted to get him but they didn't have his size.



We finally settled on a gray shirt with Mickey on it. Of course I spent enough to get a canvas bag for $9.99. So now I had two backpacks and a bag. At some point we ran into Tena in the World of Disney and she was once again worried about time. She headed back to Pop at around 11:30. We doubled back and hit the Goofy Candy co to use some snack credits and to finish using Danielle's birthday card. She loves candy and has the cavities to prove it. We headed back a little after 12. Once back we had lunch to use up our last CS credits. For some reason Danielle wasn't hungry so yes, I left Disney with 1 CS credit. I picked up some doggie treats in the Pop store for the pups and headed out front to meet up with Tena. I caved and went ahead and agreed to go the the airport early. Here is Danielle waiting for the ME bus.





She could do this all day.

Because Tena's luggage tags had someone else's name on them she was sure they were going to loose her luggage and everyone had to listen to her complain and worry for most of the trip to the airport. I tried to tell her the only thing that really mattered was that the correct airport and flight information was on them. After a while I tuned her out and fell asleep. I don't remember if we stopped at any other resorts. Before I knew it we were at the airport. Why does it seem to take forever to get to your resort and it takes no time at all to get back to the airport? Once in the airport we said our goodbyes due to our flights being in different concourses. We lucked out and got some pretty good seats in the Southwest station to wait for our flight. While there I saw the news that the guy who does the infomercials had died and for some reason I'm drawing a blank on his name. Not too long after that a family came and sat by us. They were from somewhere in South America and only the father spoke English. They were also going to be flying to New Orleans. It was a mother, father, twin sons around 4, twin daughters right under a year and a grandfather. When they got there Danielle was coloring with her Tinker Bell set and they went right up to her to see what she was doing. Before long she was passing out markers and papers so they could color too. When the little girls got down on the floor and wanted to play with the markers too, Danielle pulled out her potato head stuff for them to play with. She was doing a wonderful job keeping the kids entertained even though they couldn't understand her and she couldn't understand them. I was very proud of her that day because what should have been a little wait turned into a very long wait and she helped keep those kids occupied. Bad weather was holding up our plane from getting to Orlando. We ended up waiting 3 hours for our plane. So I ended up waiting in the airport for about 4 hours. Tena was back in Lafayette before we even left the airport. Just think about all the damage I could have done in DTD if I had been there instead of waiting at the airport. Poor Dennis I kept having to call him and tell him don't head to New Orleans yet, and the worst part was he was suppose to be at work and they were waiting for him to get there so someone else could go home. But it did give him more time to clean up. I came home to a clean house! I was so tired and just wanted to get home. Of course it started raining once we did get on the plane and rained most of the way home. As soon as we were in the air we both fell asleep. I had to wake Danielle so she wouldn't miss her peanuts. We both went back to sleep until right before we landed. Poor Danielle the air pressure was too much for her and she was in tears by the time we landed. She doesn't want to ever fly again.

Well that's about it. Dennis is putting on "The Princess and the Frog" so I have to go get my dose of Disney. Thanks for reading along. I ordered my photo pass for our trip last month so I might be starting that trip report sometime next week.

 

[RockinDisney]

Glad you got to DTD, It might be a good thing you went to the airport early it might have saved you money

That was so sweet of D to entertain the other children and to share her toys What a generous young women you are raising...Sorry about the flight delay, I had the same problem going out last Monday night...it made Tuesday at work a LONG DAY...hopefully you did not have to work the next day.

thank you for such a great TR and Great Pics

 

[vamassey1]

Glad you got to DTD, It might be a good thing you went to the airport early it might have saved you money

That was so sweet of D to entertain the other children and to share her toys What a generous young women you are raising...Sorry about the flight delay, I had the same problem going out last Monday night...it made Tuesday at work a LONG DAY...hopefully you did not have to work the next day.

thank you for such a great TR and Great Pics

DH would agree with you on the saving money. I was very proud of Danielle that day. I didn't have to work the next day but I did have to go in for a mamogram, that turned out just fine.

Thanks for reading along and for all the compliments!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Looks like you had a very full departure day! It already stinks to fly home, but it's made so much worse when your flight is delayed. I can't wait to hear about your most recent trip!

 

[vamassey1]

Looks like you had a very full departure day! It already stinks to fly home, but it's made so much worse when your flight is delayed. I can't wait to hear about your most recent trip!

I ordered my photo pass so maybe I'll start once it gets here. I'm hoping Dennis and Michelle will help.

 

[RockinDisney]

I didn't have to work the next day but I did have to go in for a mamogram, that turned out just fine.

AWESOME news

 

[DisneyJo]

Sounds as though you bought some nice things in DTD and we always have to go get our free chocolate too

I'm glad you finally made it home and what happened to Danielle with the air pressure? I used to suffer terribly with really really bad earache on flights until I started using a decongestant nasal spray, it's worth a try if that was the problem

 

[PittypatBR]

Hi, Vanessa. I just found your trip report and read as much as I could today. I will go back and finish later but just wanted to say Hi, since I am from BR also. I know I will enjoy it. We are going back in June as soon as school is out.

 

[vamassey1]

AWESOME news

This was a big relief!

Sounds as though you bought some nice things in DTD and we always have to go get our free chocolate too

I'm glad you finally made it home and what happened to Danielle with the air pressure? I used to suffer terribly with really really bad earache on flights until I started using a decongestant nasal spray, it's worth a try if that was the problem

Thanks Jo! If we fly again I'll have to give that a try. She was in so much pain. Do you use the spray right before you load or when?

Hi, Vanessa. I just found your trip report and read as much as I could today. I will go back and finish later but just wanted to say Hi, since I am from BR also. I know I will enjoy it. We are going back in June as soon as school is out.

It's so great to meet other Disney nuts who are local. We hit Disney in May of 2007 the day after school let out. Lucky you! We just went last month and I already have to itch to go back.

 

[reyasmommy]

Thanks for sharing your TR !

 

[DisneyJo]

Thanks Jo! If we fly again I'll have to give that a try. She was in so much pain. Do you use the spray right before you load or when?

Roughly 30 minutes before take off and landing, well I do that as it's a 9 hour flight but if yours is short just the first spray should be fine. I have small nasal passages apparently so the spray just sort of opens them up so I can equalise the pressure easier. I still have to do that weird hold my nose, close my mouth and blow to release the pressure but there's no pain The one I use is called Otravine but you may not get that in the US so any decongestant should be fine just check that the one you get can be used on children!

 

[vamassey1]

Thanks for sharing your TR !

Thanks for reading! I enjoyed sharing the ups and downs.

Roughly 30 minutes before take off and landing, well I do that as it's a 9 hour flight but if yours is short just the first spray should be fine. I have small nasal passages apparently so the spray just sort of opens them up so I can equalise the pressure easier. I still have to do that weird hold my nose, close my mouth and blow to release the pressure but there's no pain The one I use is called Otravine but you may not get that in the US so any decongestant should be fine just check that the one you get can be used on children!

Since our flight is under 2 hours hopefully one spray is enough. I can tell you chewing gum didn't help on the flight back at all. Maybe she has small nasal passages too. When she was little she had to have tubes put in her ears. They never fell out so she had to have them taken back out when they took her tonsils out.

 

[Disneymoon09]

Loved the report and hated to see it end! I hope you start a TR for your most recent trip, you def. deserved a do-over!

I am going to shameless plug my TR since you follwed my PTR.

 

[vamassey1]

Loved the report and hated to see it end! I hope you start a TR for your most recent trip, you def. deserved a do-over!

I am going to shameless plug my TR since you follwed my PTR.

Thanks I'm still trying thinking about doing one.

I'm going over to check out your report. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[vamassey1]

I wanted to post some final thoughts on this trip. Kind of a review of some of the aspects of the trip.

This trip evolved from a family-birthday celebration trip to a mother-daughter trip to finally a girls trip with my sister and niece. As always I had high expectations for the trip and some were met and some weren't, but it's that just like life anyway. I hope my sister had a good time. She seems to have trouble just letting go and having fun. I know Bailey had a good time. Danielle still says Tena ruined her birthday trip, but then I remind her of the good times and she admits that no it wasn't that bad.

Time of Year- We went in the heat of summer. After our late May/early June trip in 2007 Dennis said he never wanted to take a trip during the summer again. We live in the south and it's hot and humid here so we choose to spend lots of time indoors. When you go to Disney you can't just stay indoors. We learned we had to take breaks on that trip so I planned breaks for this trip. It doesn't bother me near as much as it would Dennis but I'm a much easier going person than he is. So going in the summer was fine with me it just meant planning things a little differently. Because of our breaks we missed the 3:00 parade at the MK both days we were there. We did catch the parades at AK and DHS. We missed a lot of the entertaiment at Epcot around the World Showcase. It is still my goal to one trip catch it all. I have yet to meet that goal even after our trip in February.

POP- This is hands down our favorite value resort. I have always had the hardest time conviencing Dennis to spend more on a moderate because we are hardly ever in the room. We have stayed at Movies twice, Music once and now Pop 3 times. We enjoy the theming, pools, food court, pop jets and gounds. I really enjoyed sharing this with Tena and Bailey for their first trip. I really don't have any complaints except the bus stops at most of the parks. It is the fartherst bus stop at Epcot and MK, not so far at AK and of course DHS its one of the firsts. But after staying there 3 times I was ready to try something new for our next trip or even to go back to Movies or Music. Danielle really doesn't remember staying at Movies since we haven't been there since 2004.

Meals- We did the Disney Dining plan and I think it really worked for us especially since Danielle was still considered a child. The price was right and we had lots of food choices. My favorite CS on this trip was Columbia Harbour House. If we had hit Sunshine Season I don't know if it would have won out. Our favorite tasting TS was 'Ohanas. The food was great, our server was great and the kids had a blast. The most fun at a TS was Whispering Canyon. We had a blast! I would do this again but I don't know if I could get Dennis to do it unless he had had a few drinks to loosen him up. I'm really glad we got a chance to do this without him.

Rides- My favorite is Tower of Terror. Danielle's favorite is Expedition Everest. I wasn't really upset Space Mountain was down since it's something we only do every other trip anyway. I'm sorry we missed some rides and attractions just due to not enough time. You can never do it all. Before we went I kept asking Tena to tell me what they really wanted to do so we could make it a priority. She just didn't get it until we left that there really is just too much to do and see.

Well I really do think that's about it and I hope to start a new report on our Mardi Gras 2010 trip. I'm still trying to come up with a catchy title. Anyone had any ideas?

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Hey Vanessa! I'm thinking something about beads and french quarter.... Are there any stories that may lend themselves to a catchy title?

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Great wrap up. We too loved the Pop and found our biggest issue to be the busses. Looking forward to the next TR. I have no title help as of right now...brain is frazzled from a day of troubleshooting.

 

[vamassey1]

Hey Vanessa! I'm thinking something about beads and french quarter.... Are there any stories that may lend themselves to a catchy title?

I kept thinking "When the Saints Go Marching In" since the Saints had just won the superbowl, it was Mardi Gras and there was Saints fans EVERYWHERE. But after your suggestion I'm thinking "Throw Me Something Mister...Mardi Gras WDW style. What do you think?

 

[vamassey1]

Great wrap up. We too loved the Pop and found our biggest issue to be the busses. Looking forward to the next TR. I title help as of right now...brain is frazzled from a day of troubleshooting.

Poor GB! I hope tomorrow is a better day.