ErinC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2000
- Messages
- 2,622
What a great trip! I absolutely hated to come home!
Here are the highlights:
The trip started in our usual place...the doctors office. It never fails, I am always at the doctors office with one of my kids, the day before I leave for vacation. DD4 diagnosed with strep. UUUGGGHHHHH!!!!! Add to my packing list, cooler for the ride down to store medicine. Anyway, I finally managed to get it all packed and we( me, DH, SIL, DD7, DD4, DD9months) left Thanksgiving morning. We drove to Ocala, FL and spent the night courtesy of priceline. Took the the kids to see Cat in the Hat, BIG WASTE of money, dumbest movie ever made! Friday morning drove on over to orlando checked in to the Clarion maingate for two more nights courtesy of priceline. Friday had lunch at Planet Hollywood, enjoyed the sights, not the food, walked around DD Westside. Viewed SSR from across the lake, it's much bigger than I expected. I really like the looks of it, wish I could have had some time to go and view the models. Saturday, we went to Disney Quest, my first trip. It was really cool. We spent about 5 hours inside, pretty much did everything. I figured it would be busy and it was, but not terrible. I called VWL Saturday evening, and asked about checkin (were they blocking rooms because of occupancy, or was it first come first serve on requests)? I really wanted my requests(NON-smoking, pool view) since we had family with us, I wanted them to be impressed. I made my ressies at 11months, so I was hopeful I would get them. Not a trip ruiner(?) if I didn't. The CM said it was first come first serve. I said fine. I arose bright and early Sunday morning and left the family sleeping and drove to WL. I arrived about 7:30am. to check in. I checked in, I told the CM that I would love to have my requests met, but that I would not lay down in the lobby and pitch a fit if I didn't get them!
She asked me what I would like, I repeated my requests and she them proceeded to tell me that they had blocked the rooms because they were sold out
I told her what the CM had told me about first come first serve on Saturday night. She then looked confused. She told me that they had preassigned me a room on the 2nd floor. I questioned her about 2nd floor being a smoking floor, She thought it odd too, and took off to the back room. She returned a few minutes later and said she had me another room. She said that the second floor is smoking, but not all rooms are smoking rooms, but still she had moved me. Went back to Clarion to retrieve the family, headed to church. After church, around 11:30 I called and the room was ready!! We were assigned 4533(studio) 4535( 1 bed). We went to unload the luggage. I was a little uneasy upon opening the door, because of some recent reports, but all in all everything appeared to be in order. I noticed a few scrathes, paint chips, crayon marks, and a half a sticker stuck to the tv armoire, but I was really looking for these things. My parents got the studio, me, DH SIL, DD7, DD4, DD9months, stayed in the 1 bed side. SIL slept on the pull out, my girls on blow up matresses, so my parents could close the door to the studio and have some privacy. Everyone was impressed with the accomodations. The only major complaint about the room was that the studio did not have a balcony. I think this is the only one, and we were lucky enough to have it. At least we were using this as a 2 bedroom, both the master and the living room had a balcony, so my parents could use these. I would be really upset if I had just a studio and got stuck with this particular studio. The weather all week was beautiful (70's), my girls got to swim twice. There were no crowds until Saturday, we pretty much walked on to everything, until Saturday, which was very heavy. Everything we rode, we used a fastpass for. But since we had seen pretty much everything, we just rode the things in the MK on Saturday that the kids wanted to do again. My parents loved MGM, and AK which were first visits for them, they haven't been to the world since '89. My dad had quintuple bypass in May, and rode ALL the rides with us! He felt great and held up well. My parents asked lots of questions about DVC and I think they might be interested. The trip really could not have been better. We had one major problem when we first arrived (Sun. night). My dad realized he could not find their tickets. I had purchased them several months ago, from connections and had given them to them. I had our family tickets, but he could not find theirs. Thank goodness I had photo copied the backs of all our tickets, and put a copy in my suitcase, and a copy in DH's suitcase. We went to AK first thing Monday morning, in a matter of thirty seconds the CM at guest services looked at the remaining 5 tickets and my photo copies and handed my mom and dad new tickets. I asked if any one had attempted to use the other tickets and he said no. Mom and Dad were very releived, I only wish we could have fixed the problem Sunday night, because I know my Dad lost sleep over it. They were 6day hoppers, so it would have been about $600 down the drain. I cannot stress the importance of copying the back of your tickets (a tip I learned from this board). The CM was great about the whole thing, "no problem, a piece of cake!" We all enjoyed the xmas decor, and can't wait to try Beach Club Villas in May. I loved our second stay a VWL and hope that we will enjoy BCV as well. Of course the BCV stay will be in a studio, reverting back from the 2 bed will be difficult!
We loved the space of the 2 bedroom, the bathroom is huge, so huge in fact that even my 7 year old can't reach the toilet paper ( why did they put it so far away?)!! 
We called maintainance once about a burnt out light bulb, and the handle on the studio shower would fall off in your hand when you turned it. Maintenance came quickly and fixed both. On our first stay at VWL our pull out sofa would not go back into the couch, this time we could hardly get it to pull out. DH had to tug really hard. I think that the pullout frames are to thin and bend too easily and cause difficulty when trying to use these often (IMHO). They really need to be replaced with better frames. We tried some new restaurants for us, Liberty Tree, 50's Prime Time, and the best new place for us that we tried was Wolfgang Pucks express at Downtown Disney-great food, reasonable prices. On my picky list of things to complain about, Disney Quest- way too many machines that needed maintenance. Toon Town- really starting to look worn down, they really need to do some repainting. Nothing of course that affected our trip in any way, we had an awesome time and can't wait to get back. I'll be glad to answer any questions that anyone has. Sorry this was so long, I guess I rambled a little!
Back to the never ending laundry pile!!
Here are the highlights:
The trip started in our usual place...the doctors office. It never fails, I am always at the doctors office with one of my kids, the day before I leave for vacation. DD4 diagnosed with strep. UUUGGGHHHHH!!!!! Add to my packing list, cooler for the ride down to store medicine. Anyway, I finally managed to get it all packed and we( me, DH, SIL, DD7, DD4, DD9months) left Thanksgiving morning. We drove to Ocala, FL and spent the night courtesy of priceline. Took the the kids to see Cat in the Hat, BIG WASTE of money, dumbest movie ever made! Friday morning drove on over to orlando checked in to the Clarion maingate for two more nights courtesy of priceline. Friday had lunch at Planet Hollywood, enjoyed the sights, not the food, walked around DD Westside. Viewed SSR from across the lake, it's much bigger than I expected. I really like the looks of it, wish I could have had some time to go and view the models. Saturday, we went to Disney Quest, my first trip. It was really cool. We spent about 5 hours inside, pretty much did everything. I figured it would be busy and it was, but not terrible. I called VWL Saturday evening, and asked about checkin (were they blocking rooms because of occupancy, or was it first come first serve on requests)? I really wanted my requests(NON-smoking, pool view) since we had family with us, I wanted them to be impressed. I made my ressies at 11months, so I was hopeful I would get them. Not a trip ruiner(?) if I didn't. The CM said it was first come first serve. I said fine. I arose bright and early Sunday morning and left the family sleeping and drove to WL. I arrived about 7:30am. to check in. I checked in, I told the CM that I would love to have my requests met, but that I would not lay down in the lobby and pitch a fit if I didn't get them!
She asked me what I would like, I repeated my requests and she them proceeded to tell me that they had blocked the rooms because they were sold out I told her what the CM had told me about first come first serve on Saturday night. She then looked confused. She told me that they had preassigned me a room on the 2nd floor. I questioned her about 2nd floor being a smoking floor, She thought it odd too, and took off to the back room. She returned a few minutes later and said she had me another room. She said that the second floor is smoking, but not all rooms are smoking rooms, but still she had moved me. Went back to Clarion to retrieve the family, headed to church. After church, around 11:30 I called and the room was ready!! We were assigned 4533(studio) 4535( 1 bed). We went to unload the luggage. I was a little uneasy upon opening the door, because of some recent reports, but all in all everything appeared to be in order. I noticed a few scrathes, paint chips, crayon marks, and a half a sticker stuck to the tv armoire, but I was really looking for these things. My parents got the studio, me, DH SIL, DD7, DD4, DD9months, stayed in the 1 bed side. SIL slept on the pull out, my girls on blow up matresses, so my parents could close the door to the studio and have some privacy. Everyone was impressed with the accomodations. The only major complaint about the room was that the studio did not have a balcony. I think this is the only one, and we were lucky enough to have it. At least we were using this as a 2 bedroom, both the master and the living room had a balcony, so my parents could use these. I would be really upset if I had just a studio and got stuck with this particular studio. The weather all week was beautiful (70's), my girls got to swim twice. There were no crowds until Saturday, we pretty much walked on to everything, until Saturday, which was very heavy. Everything we rode, we used a fastpass for. But since we had seen pretty much everything, we just rode the things in the MK on Saturday that the kids wanted to do again. My parents loved MGM, and AK which were first visits for them, they haven't been to the world since '89. My dad had quintuple bypass in May, and rode ALL the rides with us! He felt great and held up well. My parents asked lots of questions about DVC and I think they might be interested. The trip really could not have been better. We had one major problem when we first arrived (Sun. night). My dad realized he could not find their tickets. I had purchased them several months ago, from connections and had given them to them. I had our family tickets, but he could not find theirs. Thank goodness I had photo copied the backs of all our tickets, and put a copy in my suitcase, and a copy in DH's suitcase. We went to AK first thing Monday morning, in a matter of thirty seconds the CM at guest services looked at the remaining 5 tickets and my photo copies and handed my mom and dad new tickets. I asked if any one had attempted to use the other tickets and he said no. Mom and Dad were very releived, I only wish we could have fixed the problem Sunday night, because I know my Dad lost sleep over it. They were 6day hoppers, so it would have been about $600 down the drain. I cannot stress the importance of copying the back of your tickets (a tip I learned from this board). The CM was great about the whole thing, "no problem, a piece of cake!" We all enjoyed the xmas decor, and can't wait to try Beach Club Villas in May. I loved our second stay a VWL and hope that we will enjoy BCV as well. Of course the BCV stay will be in a studio, reverting back from the 2 bed will be difficult! We loved the space of the 2 bedroom, the bathroom is huge, so huge in fact that even my 7 year old can't reach the toilet paper ( why did they put it so far away?)!! We called maintainance once about a burnt out light bulb, and the handle on the studio shower would fall off in your hand when you turned it. Maintenance came quickly and fixed both. On our first stay at VWL our pull out sofa would not go back into the couch, this time we could hardly get it to pull out. DH had to tug really hard. I think that the pullout frames are to thin and bend too easily and cause difficulty when trying to use these often (IMHO). They really need to be replaced with better frames. We tried some new restaurants for us, Liberty Tree, 50's Prime Time, and the best new place for us that we tried was Wolfgang Pucks express at Downtown Disney-great food, reasonable prices. On my picky list of things to complain about, Disney Quest- way too many machines that needed maintenance. Toon Town- really starting to look worn down, they really need to do some repainting. Nothing of course that affected our trip in any way, we had an awesome time and can't wait to get back. I'll be glad to answer any questions that anyone has. Sorry this was so long, I guess I rambled a little! Back to the never ending laundry pile!!
