Inlaws + Heat + Star Wars + Crowds = a Recipe for ?? update 6/22

[chicagoshannon]

Fun and a little Chaos.

I'm Shannon, wife to Eric and mom to Madeline (4) and Duncan (10 months). We drove to Orlando from IL with my FIL and my MIL flew out a couple of days later to join us.

Our trip was from June 2nd - June 11th. Our main goal was to take in all things Star Wars.

See my PTR here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2555622

We stayed at the Dolphin for our first night and then off property at Marriott Harbour Lakes for the rest of the vacation.

We spent a lot of time waiting in line for characters and a lot of our pictures are of such characters. I ordered the photopass cd last night so hopefully it will be here soon.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm here!!!! Looking forward to reading all about it!

 

[chicagoshannon]

Day 1: DRIVING

Our plan was to leave our house at about 3am. I believe we made that goal! I thought the kids would sleep for the first part of the drive but they were wide awake for a good hour before falling back to sleep. We stopped for breakfast around 8am in Kentucky I believe.

The kids were happy at this point.

We stopped for lunch somewhere and continued on. We ended up stopping for the night in Tifton, GA at the Comfort Inn. We ate at the Waffle House. It was NASTY!!!!!! I think I ate my toast and then took the kids back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Duncan wouldn't sleep so I drove him around for a bit and then we went to bed. This would become a theme for the rest of the trip. Sleep was not to be had though because FIL was in the room with us. He has a MAJOR snoring problem. It was the worst snoring I've ever heard. It sounded like a monster was trying to get out of his belly and eat his face. It was so, so , so horrible. We were wondering if we'd be able to sleep the next night.

Day 2: Part 1
Our plan was to leave around 8am after eating breakfast at the hotel. I think we left around 8:30 am. We drove for about 45 minutes and then it was time to stop at

The Florida Welcome Center.

after a quick potty stop it was back on the road for about 3 more hours.

Next stop the Dolphin.

 

[chicagoshannon]

I'm here!!!! Looking forward to reading all about it!

Yay! You're first!

 

[anjalee6]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[chicagoshannon]

Can't wait to read more!

Glad you joined in.

 

[chicagoshannon]

DAY 2ART 2
Eric had printed off directions for the Dolphin. I didn't pay much attention since I thought we'd just follow the Disney signs. We got off at the correct exit but then the directions had us going differently then the Disney signs. I just let him drive thinking maybe it would be a quicker way. We ended up at a Cast Member entrance to something or other so we had to turn around. We ended up taking the bus route to the MK. lol So we just went around and then followed the signs to the Dolphin. This added about 20 minutes to our drive. Ah well.

We pulled in to the Dolphin and I didn't get any pictures. Eric and I checked in while FIL stayed with the kids. Eric didn't want to use Bell Services so we schlepped all of our stuff to the room. Our room was on the first floor so we had to actually go down 2 floors to get to it. The rooms are so much bigger then the Disney resorts. I loved it! We had 2 double beds and there was still room for a crib (regular size crib) and the little bed/tent we brought for Madeline. We had a direct view of the lagoon and there was an exit door just down the hall. Again I didn't get any pictures.

We decided to try and get some lunch and then go swimming. Well I couldn't remember which restaurant was counter service so we went on a bit of a wild goose chase. Never did find it. So we ended up going back to the room and getting our suits on. We walked across the path to the Swan and ate at the poolside grill (I forget the name). We then enjoyed some swimming. I managed 1 or 2 pictures here. I regret not getting more of our hotel. I think I was just tired of driving.

The Dolphin pool was really nice. You could swim under a couple of bridges. They also had a nice waterfall and a slide. Madeline went on the slide once but I think it was too fast/scary for her. She wouldn't go again. They also had a very nice white sand beach, playground, and a little seal that squirted water in a sandy kiddie area. I wish we would have had more time to play there.

Next up:evening at DHS for Star Wars!

 

[Belle83]

We just stayed at the Dolphin, too Looking forward to reading more.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Day 2: part 3

After swimming we headed back to the room to change for DHS. We also had to upgrade our tickets to AP's and buy the Tables in Wonderland card. This turned out to be more of a hassle then I anticipated. Luckily I had done the math before we left and had the numbers with me. 2 years ago when we went we upgraded our tickets to AP's and they charged us the wrong amount and it took a lot of work on my part to get it fixed. This time they tried to do the same thing but I had the numbers with me. The CM kept trying to tell me they wouldn't bridge the tickets. He finally went in back to talk to his "manager" and "got special approval" to bridge the tickets. So my advice is make sure to do the math and have the numbers in front of you if you try to upgrade your tickets. It really bugs me that they're trying to go against official policy when trying to upgrade to AP's. My FIL added 1 day to his ticket without a bridging issue. GRR While we were waiting Madeline kept going on and on about the tower of terror so I told her that we might not be able to ride it today since it was so late in the day. The CM was very nice and gave us 3 fast passes to ride it.

So on with the show. We stopped on our way in to get a group shot. I don't have my photopass CD yet though so you'll have to wait on that. We then headed for TOT. I was really nervous that Madeline would freak out. Eric took her on and she did great! Madeline had her first Mickey Bar of the trip.

Next on the agenda was to figure out where the sign up for Jedi Training was so we knew where to go the next morning. Found that and Queen Amidala happened to be doing a meet and greet right next door so we stopped for our first autograph of the trip.

We then headed over to Star Tours for a ride. The CM at TOT didn't take the fastpasses so we were able to use them and get a baby switch. Madeline and I rode first. It was really fun. Then Eric and his dad rode with Madeline. It's such a great ride.
We then got a sneak peak at

After that I believe we decided to find a place to watch Hyperspace Hoopla and get some supper. We found a nice table by the American Idol screen and settled in. FIL and I went to find some dinner. We ended up at the Commissary. I had a kids meal and I'm not sure what anyone else got.

After the Hoopla we headed back to the Dolphin for baths and bed. We had an early morning the next day.

 

[vleeth]

 

[Corrine 1973]

Hey from another Illinois Girl. I remember seeing a couple of your posts on the Star Wars Weekends Tips page before our trips. It looks like we split the day at DHS on the 3rd. We spent the morning there and left about 4:30 and you guys spent the night there.

Can't wait to read more

 

[chicagoshannon]

Welcome. We're at vacation bible school all week so I don't have much time for posting. Maybe I'll whip something up right now since I finally have a couple of people reading.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We woke up pretty early on Saturday. We were on a mission. We wanted to make it to DHS by around 7:30 so we could see the little opening show and make it in by 8am. The published opening was 9am but on the 2 previous weekends and the previous day they opened at 8am. One bad thing about staying a the Dolphin was there was no bus to DHS. That meant we either had to walk or drive our car BECAUSE the boat didn't start to run until 8am. I'm not sure why because they start breakfast at 8am but whatever. Well since we were checking out of the Dolphin we had all of our stuff in the van. Plus we had the double stroller. Because of this I volunteered to walk and push the stroller so we didn't have to try to squeeze it into the van.

I was HOT by the time I got there. The rest of the family made it to the park to see the tail end of the opening show but I completely missed it. By the time I got there Eric had already gotten Madeline signed up for Jedi Acadamy and the Padiwan challenge. We met at the hat and proceeded to walk very leisurely to Toy Story Mania. It was so pleasant. I grabbed fast passes and then we slowly parked the stroller (the ONLY stroller there at this point) and walked into the ride. We got right on. We enjoyed the new scenes they added from TS3. When we got off there still wasn't a line so we went back on. By the time we got off a small line had formed so we moved on. We had some character to meet!

It was still before 9am but the lines were forming for the characters. We decided to meet Vader first. We had about a 15 minute wait before he was scheduled to come out. It was worth the very short wait.

We then headed around the corner and found this:

We then stood in the short line to meet Anikan.

It was now almost time for Madeline's Jedi Training session. I sent the family ahead while I grabbed fast passes for Star Tours. The area right in front of the ride was chaos the entire time we were in the park for Star Wars weekend. It was so hard to walk through the area. There was actually a line to get fastpasses. It was crazy!

After I got the passes I met the family at the Jedi Training check in. How would Madeline do? Would she defeat Lord Vader or try her hand at Darth Maul? Stay Tuned to find out!



Here are a couple of photopass pictures from our first evening at DHS.

(Duncan was asleep in the stroller behind us)

(right before her first ride on TOT)

 

[chicagoshannon]

Hey from another Illinois Girl. I remember seeing a couple of your posts on the Star Wars Weekends Tips page before our trips. It looks like we split the day at DHS on the 3rd. We spent the morning there and left about 4:30 and you guys spent the night there.

Can't wait to read more

We're a lot further south then you. We're near Joliet. BUT I used to live in Lake in the Hills and had patients in Round Lake.