Just back from Disney Feb. 17-20th, all in one trip report, read here.

[anewvance]

Hi, there we just got back from Disney World a little bit ago and thought I would report my trip before I forgot any of it. I thought it would be easiest to post it all on one post,but will separate them by the days. So stick with me.

Cast of Characters:
Melissa - that's me, mommy and wife and 7 months pregnant.
Lane - My husband, goes with the flow, wants to do anything I want to do.
Hannah - Our 18 month old daughter who is in love with Minnie.

PART ONE -- February 17th 2001
We had to wait until daddy got home from work on Saturday before we could leave for Disney. We live in West Palm Beach, Florida so it's only about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive. So at 5pm we got packed into the minivan and got on the road. Everyone was in happy spirits and it actually only took us an hour and a half to get to highway 192. Now usually we take the turnpike to I-4 to where ever we are going. But since tonight we were just staying at a motel in Kissimmee 4 miles from Disney, my sister insisted we take 192 through Kissimmee and that it was faster. NOT!!! It took us an hour with horrible traffic and an accident ect. We had planned on just checking into the hotel and then going to Magic Kingdom to catch the Electrical Parade since we won't have another chance to see it after they take it away. But we got all the way to I-4 without seeing our hotel which frustrated us. With a drive that should have taken 20 minutes, we were still in the car after and hour and 20 minutes. And the traffic was even worse going back the other way. So we called the hotel. Apparently Ceder Lakeside Inn used to be a Park Inn and they hadn't changed the sign yet. So instead of turning back, we told them we weren't checking in until 11ish. When dh was talking to the guy at the motel, he made sure that a crib would be available. The guy said "a crib?", dh said "yes, the crib that my wife confirmed on Monday" The guy said "oh, the cribs are locked in a room and I don't have a key" Dh said "we just drove 3 hours without a crib and our dd needs somewhere to sleep. We would have brought a crib had it not been confirmed" After a little more back and forth, the guy said "ok, there will be a crib if I have to kick the door down". So we headed off to Magic Kingdom. We were running REALLY REALLY late at this point and thought we missed it because we thought the parade was at 9pm. But when we got into the park at 9pm, we found out it was at 9:30pm and we found a PERFECT front row place to sit. So after a little wait, the parade went on. After the parade, we just left. We did what we wanted to do that day so we headed to the hotel. Got into 192 into Kissimmee and IT WAS JAMMED. We crawled the 4 miles back to the hotel, it literally took an hour and a half to get to the hotel which was only 4 miles away. I was in shock!!! So we get to the hotel and it's about midnight. The guy tells us that they had a crib, but no mattress and that his manager was on his way back and was stopping at Walmart for a mattress. So we get our room (this motel is actually very clean and very nice) and we got everyone ready for bed. Then we watch tv for a bit, meanwhile dd thinks it's playtime. At 1am, the phone rings and the guy says that they couldn't find a crib or crib mattress at Walmart (you are kidding me) so dh got into the other bed with dd (which made me VERY nervous, dd isn't used to sleeping in big beds) and she still thought it was playtime. We had a VERY VERY long night. See below for next post....

 

[anewvance]

PART 2 -- Feb. 19th

So after our long night, we woke up at 7:30am and checked out of the motel. We wanted to check into the Wyndham Palace hotel in Downtown Disney which is where we had ressies for the next two nights thanks to Priceline. So we get there and wow this place is nice. We went to checkin and the lady was friendly. As I gave her my name, I asked if she had gotten my Wyndham by request number we called in. She said, yes it is here. So then she says, I don't have any rooms available right now (which at 9am, I didn't think there would be, we just wanted to be checked in for when we came back from the parks for naps) then the shocker, she said "but if you don't mind walking a few minutes across the pool, I can offer you a suite!!!!" Dh and I said SURE!!!! We went over to the room and the grounds were beautiful. The seperate building for suites, called the Islands had a nice nice lobby and neat elevators. Our suite was wonderful. It was so big, with a living room, microwave, fridge, huge desk and in the bed room was a King bed, another desk, a HUGE bathroom. We were in heaven this whole weeekend. So then we went over to the Disney Marketplace to get Hannah one of the personalized pins. We had one made for her and got on the bus to MgM Studios. At this point, by the time we got there it was about 11am. The only thing we wanted to do there was take Hannah to the Bear in the Big Blue House show and there was one at 11:30am. Even daddy and I loved the show. Hannah was in heaven. When we got out, it was SOOOOO crowded and we were hungry and Hannah was tired. So we made it all the way back to the hotel. We planned to eat in the room for lunch, so after feeding Hannah, she went for a nap and we ate. At 4:30pm we had planned to go to Magic Kingdom for awhile before going to Epcot. Now my ONLY problem with Wyndham....their bus service is LOUSY!!!! We waited 45 minutes for a bus even though they said a bus would come every half hour. It did NOT come every half hour and when it did come it wasn't on the hour and the half hour. So when we got on the bus, we decided to go straight to Epcot. We rode Spaceship Earth and went to Journey into Your Imagination. Epcot was really crowded too (actually that was what we ran into this whole trip, but we didn't mind because we come pretty often and knew what we wanted to do) So we went out to World Showcase. We asked when the TON parade was and it was in 15 minutes so we grabbed a good seat. 5 minutes before the parade, they cancelled it due to wind. So we went to the Chinese Pavilion and ate at their takeout counter. Dh and I LOVE the sweet and sour chicken and have to eat here at least once a trip. So then we just walked around the showcase. When we got to American Pavilion, I remembered that there were funnel cakes and my preggo hormones kicked up and I demanded one...hee hee. It was really good. Then we found out that the later showing of TON was going to go on, so we once again got a good seat and sat down. Hannah was so slap happy at this time that she was being a goon and the family next to us was loving her. By the way, that name tag idea was so awesome, EVERYONE called her by her name. So we watched the parade and headed back to the hotel. We slept WELL that night.

Part 3 below

 

[anewvance]

DAY # --- Feb. 19th

We woke up at 6:30am because early entry day was at Magic Kingdom today. We were ready and dressed and out the door by 7:15am. We waited for that stupid bus until 8:05am (welp, so much for early entry at 8am) So we got to the TTC at exactly 8:30am and there were CROWDS, HUGE CROWDS. If we had been 5 minutes earlier, we could have shown them our id's and gotten in and on the monorail. Instead, we had to wait with all the other people and they opened the monorail gates and everyone went a running. We herded ourselves onto the monorail and got into the park at regular opening time. We ran over to The Jungle Cruise because dd and dh had never been on it and I hadn't been on it in 12 years. We really enjoyed it. Then we back tracked to Guest Relations. Here is the short version of a long story, we stayed last Nov. at the Poly and we had tons of things go wrong and were very unhappy. So I wrote email to them. A man called back and made me feel worse but said he'd get back to me if he could "do anything" for us. He never did. So when we planned this trip and i was getting nervous because I couldn't find a hotel room, I emailed again and kinda brought up our past problems and that the guy owed us a favor. We didn't really want anything but a on property hotel room that wouldn't cost a fortune. So I got a call from a lady who apologized for the guy and offered me $50 disney dollars in compensation. So we made ressies for Chef Mickey this night with the money. She said on Tues. that she would overnight it. But by Sat. when we left for Disney it still hadn't come. So we went to Guest Services to ask for this lady's phone number to ask her what happened. It so happened that the really nice guy at GR was able to access my file and he was able to issue me the money right away. We were relieved because budget wise, we couldnt have afforded the dinner without that $50. So then we took the train to Mickey toon town. Hannah gobbled down a banana and cereal for breakfast, daddy and I had chips, we are so bad. So then we went into the huge tent because we heard that Minnie was giving autographs. We had never been in here. The line was very short and we got into the room within 5 minutes and there she was, MINNIE!!! My dd has decided that Minnie is her very favorite and she goes crazy whenever she sees her. But we went over to see Pluto, Donald and Goofy first. Hannah thought they were cute, but she kept saying Minnie Minnie. So we went to Minnie and Hannah had a ball. She didn't want to leave. She got her autograph and gave kisses and hugs. After we left there, we went through again to see Tigger and Pooh and Eeyore. Once again, she thought they were great and gave hugs and kisses, but they just weren't Minnie! On our way out, we made the mistake of showing Hannah a big stuffed Minnie. Minnie was with us the WHOLE rest of the trip whereever we went, Minnie went too. So then we went onto the People Mover or whatever they call it now. It was about a quarter until 11am now and we had wanted to eat lunch early because of our ressies for Chef Mickey that night. So we headed over to the Contemporary to eat at their downstairs counter service. I had a hot dog and dh had a hamburger and dd shared off of ours. Thanks to the people who informed me that water was free, I didn't want soda and got a LARGE glass of water for free. Then we went into the game room to blow our traditional $5. We won about 150 tickets and Hannah spotted a little plastic purse she just had to have. It was 150 tickets, but the man who was there was so in love with Hannah that he hooked her up with a few stuffed animals and some jewelry and a few other things. Hannah thought she was a princess. So after this, we went back to the hotel for nap time. Dd went down for a nap, and dh and I decided to catch a nap too. So we rung for a wake up call at 3:45pm. We want to leave EARLY for the Contemporary for our ressies at 5:30pm. Dh and I were sleeping and we heard a knock at the door. There was an employee who said that he noticed our Wynhdam by request and he wanted to bring us some goodies. There was a huge mylar balloon for dd, some pretzels, cokes, water and a really nice card. We were in shock, we thought that our suite upgrade was more than enough. So then we got up, went to the 27th floor of the floor to lookout at the area, it was really nice. Then we waited and waited for a bus and made it to Chef Mickey's 10 minutes before our PS time. We were in awe from the minute we walked in. We had a blast!!!!! The food was EXCELLENT and we sure stuffed ourselves. All the characters made it around 3 times while we were there. Hannah couldn't wait to see Minnie. And when she came around, Hannah yelled MINNIE so loud, our whole area of the resturant laughed. Minnie must have taken a liking to Hannah because she wouldn't leave. Of course dd wouldn't LET her leave. But Minnie played with her doll and then insisted she get up and dance with her which Hannah loved. They danced and hugged and dd gave her kisses. I had tears in my eyes it was so sweet. We reluctantly gave up our table and left. We went to Magic Kingdom after that. We walked around Main Street, and then we watched Tinkerbell go down the wire and the fireworks. Then we got fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear. We rode the People Mover (hannah loves it) 3 times in a row and then it was time for the fastpass for Buzz. Rode that and then went back to the hotel. Hannah was out like a light before we made it back to the hotel. We all slept really well.

Part 4 below

 

[pumba]

especially Hannah....thanks for posting

 

[anewvance]

PART 4 -- Feb. 20th

We got up at 7am this morning. Wanted to go to Magic Kingdom for rope drop at Fantasyland, it opened at 9am and wanted to allow plenty of bus time. So I was able to check out on the tv and we packed up the car. We got to the bus stop at exactly 8am and SURPRISE!!!! A bus was there. So we got to TTC at 8:30am. Had to deal with the crowds again to get onto the monorail, but we made it to the castle at 8:45am. Waited for the rope drop and at 9am, we ran over to Dumbo. We got to ride and Hannah loved it. We noticed alot of production crews at the carosel but it was open for riders. So after we got off of Dumbo, we went to Pooh to get a fastpass. We came back to Ariels Grotto, ate some breakfast and headed over to the carosel because this is Hannah's FAVORITE ride. Dd and dh got into line and I noticed Mickey and Minnie and Pluto and Goofy getting onto the carosel on the side where the production crew was. So I ran over to dd and dh and said, look they are getting on. We didn't make it on that ride but were front in line so we could see. So when the ride started I told Hannah to look for Minnie. When Minnie came around, we found out what it was all about... ROSIE O'DONNELL was taping a skit for when she has her show here at the end of the week. My sis and I are heading back up to MgM on Sat because we got tickets. I was so excited to see her!! So I took off running to the production side of the carosel and when she got off, I was 5 feet away from her!!!!!! I got some great pictures. Then we rode the carosel and It's a Small World. Then it was time for our fastpasses at Pooh. Hannah thought this ride was great! We walked around through Liberty Square and FronteierLand and found that Pirates of the Carribian was closed due to malfunction so we didnt get to ride. At this point, we went through the big store and I finally bought the Tinkerbell watch I have wanted for a year now!!!! Then when we got back to the TTC, we saw a Downtown Disney Hotel bus there. It wasn't ours, but the guy said that ours was waiting until he pulled out and would pick us up. So we sat in the shade until the other bus left. Then we saw our bus and got up to get on and the bus DIDN'T EVEN STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It blew right by us. We were livid. Hannah was so tired and we were all so hungry and were ticked we had to wait another half hour to get the bus. Dh was on the phone with the hotel to complain when we saw another Wyndham bus. So we got off the phone, still upset that the other bus did what it did. So this guy at this bus told us we couldn't get on because he had to pull out and we couldn't get on for another 25 minutes. We told the guy that the other guy left without us but this guy insisted he couldn't take us and we had to wait. So we called the hotel back and after dh was transfered 10 times, the guy at the hotel offered to send us a taxi on them. But by this time it was 15 minutes until the bus would leave and that's when a taxi would show up. We just had wanted to let them know what had happened. So when the bus came back finally, the driver was very rude. We grabbed the first row seats as we had the ENTIRE time we were there...every time except once that we got on that bus, we rode the front row, it's just easiest with a baby and bags and balloons ect. But the guy wanted to let us know who was boss I guess, because he told us we couldn't sit there with a baby. I said, but it was ok that we sat there the whole rest of the trip, every other time we rode this bus, even with you as a driver????? So anyway, we moved, Hannah bawled the whole way back to the hotel but feel asleep 5 minutes before we got there. We walked to our car and headed on home. Hannah slept the whole way. So now we are home, we are exhausted but very happy with our trip.

 

[anewvance]

Here are our pictures from disney....

Pictures from Disney, click here

 

[crusoemom]

Thanks for the update about what Hannah liked - I'm going with ds (almost 2) in April and wondered about a few of the rides that you mentioned - thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

[Winston112]

Very nice report. I loved the photos.

 

[pigletproud]

How exciting to see Rosie! I can understand the teary eyed thing. I have no children, but went this past August with my niece (2 1/2) $ nephew (4) and just watching the excitment within them just does something with tears that you just can't control.
Glad you had a good time.

 

[Casey's mom]

Sounds like a great trip! I got strange looks from friends when I took my then 2-1/2 year old and 1 year old to Disney, but they had a blast and we just didn't push them very hard so we avoided meltdowns.

 

[Wampy2]

I enjoyed your report but those pictures are priceless! We're taking our DD in Dec when she'll be 22 months and I'm so glad to see your DD enjoying herself, the characters and rides so much!

 

[Credit Man]

Great report and great pics.

 

[kathymc]

Great report - sounds like the second hotel more than made up for the troubles at the first! I loved the pictures, especially the ones from Chef Mickeys. Hannah is a cutey! Thanks for posting.

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[Rajah]

Oh how cute!! I love the picture of Hannah in awe of the electrical parade!

Great report and such darling pictures

-Rajah

cdrtrisal@aol.com

(Links will return when I find a new place to host the sites)

 

[JennSaint]

Nice report & great pics!
Thanks for sharing!

CBR 11/29-12/5 2000

 

[Barb]

Melissa, great trip report. I am so in awe of anyone that can put a trip report together. Thanks for sharing with us!+

Barb-for Real!
Been there, done that, GOING BACK!

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Sounds like a fun weekend - except for the transportation problems. Thanks for posting!

 

[jjjbennett]

Melissa I just had to say Hi I believe I bought a bread machine from you a few weeks ago. Thanks we are loving it . I just thought it was funny when I recognized your user name we were in WDW in August and stayed at the Wyndham Palace (through Expedia at a ridiculously low price) and the final bit of irony is we plan to return this July ( Have Ap's this year and have to use them again to get our money's worth) I'll be 7 months pregnant in July so I'm glad to hear you weathered your trip well pregnancy and all. Thanks for the report and the bread machine. LOL
Joy

 

[sherrie]

Thanks for posting, i loved the pics especially the one with your beauty Hannah and Minnie.

 

[anewvance]

Joy, that's really funny we found each other here. Hope you have a great time when you go to Disney. 7 months preggo isn't TOOOOO bad, just drink lots of water and make sure you take time to rest.

Sherrie, my dd LOVES your Easter Minnie icon!!