Just got back from SSR- Trip Report

[ChelleinNC]

I can't believe it's over already All that time waiting & planning, and planning and waiting and now it's over and time to plan the next one

Cast: DH 39, Me 37, DD14 & DS11

We left home (Charlotte NC) Saturday June 7th and drove down to Altamonte Springs. We've found an Embassy Suites there that is very nice, full hot buffet breakfast and only $115 a night. Plus it's only a half hour to Disney on Sunday mornings

We drove over to SSR on Sunday morning and checked in at 9:30am. We got our request of the Grandstand, but not the building we wanted. We had wanted the building overlooking the pool and backing up to the golf course. The CM did look to move us, but they had the building by the bus stop closed because of noise from the road work, so they were full at the other building. It worked out just fine though. Our room was ready, a dedicated 2BR, 1st floor with a courtyard and golf course view Room 9111. It was perfectly clean, everything worked, nothing was broken. The only thing missing was the cable for the internet but that was brought down after we called about it.


I'll post later with more

 

[DVC Mike]

I hope you had a great time!

 

[ChelleinNC]

The plan for the day is take it easy and relax. MK EMH till 2am tonight, plan to go in the late evening.

After unpacking and settling in we went to Artist's Palette for lunch right at noon. No crowds, no line Got our food to go and went back to our room to enjoy. As always, the food was excellent

A little back story, DD had been fighting an Upper Respiratory Infection for about a week & half. We'd taken her to the Minute Clinic the night before her final exam in Geometry and on Wednesday before the trip to her regular Dr. "Viral" is what we were told. She was on cough medicine, an inhaler, zyrtec and motrin/tylenol for fever & throat pain. She was feeling worse when we got to Florida on Saturday and even worse on Sunday.

After lunch, DD went to take a nap and DH, DS & I went to the main pool for the Welcome Home party. DH & I had our books and drinks and DS was off in the pool until the party games started. They had a Hula Hoop contest (done by age group) DS is really good at hula hooping so he was very excited to join in this. When they got to several people who were still going, they had them stop and add a 2nd hoop and then there were 3 left who added a third hoop Jason from North Carolina was the last one standing and recieved the new Pixar edition of Monopoly He was soooo excited! What a great way to start our vacation!

DD was feeling a little better after her nap, so after we all got ready we headed out for MK. We waited almost 40 minutes for an MK bus, the people already at the bus stop said they had seen 3-4 of all the other busses. In the end, they waited just over an hour. I might have thought they were exagerating, except that as we went to all the other stops, others were saying the exact same thing. The bus was packed, but we eventually made it to MK

We had decided to start the night in the back of the park. Debated getting BTMR or Splash Mtn fast passes, decided to get BTMR. Then went and got dinner at Columbia Harbor House. First time there, thought it was pretty good. DS said the new chicken nuggets were much better than the old strips, DD said they were fine. After our dinner we walked on to HM, then made our way thru the Spectro crowds over to Splash Mtn but the wait was up to 50 minutes so we headed over to Adventureland. Kids hop on Flying Carpets as Wishes starts. That was neat. As soon as they were done we went over to the Jungle Cruise. I love the Jungle Cruise, I love every single corny joke Maybe because I had friends on the CP that were JC Captains, but it's one of my favorites and my dear family only indulges me every couple of trips. Pirates in undergoing refurb, so I get to go on Jungle Cruise. Since Wishes is still going we're able to walk right up and get on the next boat. Captain Sarah is great, and we play along with everything. Now I have to say, the other group in our boat did not seem to get the jokes (or the point of the ride ), that's ok, I was having fun. Then something that I've never seen happen, we come up on another boat who's captain yells over that there's a boat in front of her that's dead in the water. Yep, we got stuck on the Jungle Cruise Poor Captain Sarah, she said it was her first night and I'm sure it's one she'll never forget She went thru every joke she learned, then I tried to help by asking about the "local vegetaion" So she was able to show us the "High"biscus and the "low"biscus the Captain of the boat in front of us started yelling out knock knock jokes to our boat and then moved on to singing "if you're happy and you know it" Boats are now backing up behind us and none of the radios seem to be working. I really wish I could have seen what was happening at the dock when there weren't any boats showing up After a good half hour, they managed to get a boat out there to tow the dead boat back home and then we resumed our three hour tour (oops, sorry wrong story )

Crowds dropped significantly after EMH started and we were able to ride Splash & BTMR a couple of times with practically no wait. We went over to Fantasy Land and DS & I rode the Tea Cups. DD was starting to crash, and not feel well at all. She toughed it out, mainly because she's 14 & stubborn and she was the one talking about staying at MK till 2am since park hours were released. It was time for a snack so went and had Dole Whips (for Bawb--for those who listen to the podcast).

We moved over to Tomorrowland, rode the Wedway People Mover, Space Mtn & Buzz Lightyear. We left the park just before 2am, got a bus no problem and were back to our room in no time flat.

All in all, a very good 1st day Just wish DD would feel better

Day 2 up next

 

[SaratogaShan]

I'm loving your trip report.....keep it coming!

I hope your daughter got better fast.

 

[Maribell]

Looking forward to hearing more! Hope your daughter started to feel better. Thanks for sharing!

 

[dnoyes]

 

[ChelleinNC]

I hope you had a great time!

We were at Disney, so we definitely had a great time

I'm loving your trip report.....keep it coming!

I hope your daughter got better fast.

Looking forward to hearing more! Hope your daughter started to feel better. Thanks for sharing!

Glad you're enjoying the report! More on my DD in the next installment

 

[podsnel]

Sounds like fun! I love EMH at night, it feels (almost) like you have the park to yourself... I really need one of those Dole Whips, I've never had one , but I'll have to wait until Halloween....sigh.....
Thanks for posting pics!

 

[Tink_RN]

We checked into SSR on the 8th also! We were in room 9703. I didn't realize they had one of the buildings closed, I was wondering why we were so far out. I was hoping to be closer to the pool.

 

[disneymom8589]

Loved your "Flat Bawb"!! DH and I are going to have a Dole Whip for Bawb next month.

 

[ChelleinNC]

Sounds like fun! I love EMH at night, it feels (almost) like you have the park to yourself... I really need one of those Dole Whips, I've never had one , but I'll have to wait until Halloween....sigh.....
Thanks for posting pics!

Unfortunately we ran into a lot of crowds during the evening EMH this trip, MK was the best (but also the earliest in the week) Epcot was the worst. DH & DD love the Dole Whips, DS & I get the Coke Floats

We checked into SSR on the 8th also! We were in room 9703. I didn't realize they had one of the buildings closed, I was wondering why we were so far out. I was hoping to be closer to the pool.

I was surprised too. We had the building number we wanted on our ressie request and the CM tried but said the building by the bus stop was closed due to the road work they were doing there.

Loved your "Flat Bawb"!! DH and I are going to have a Dole Whip for Bawb next month.

Flat Bawb was DD's idea, and we made sure to take him around just like a "flat Stanley". Took Flat Bawb to a lot of good "nap" spots I think DD will be putting a Flat Bawb report together soon.

 

[bonnielynn]

 

[pjharristx]

SSR is our home resort and we have never even been there - sounds nice

 

[ChelleinNC]

Monday was our 2nd day and the plan was to relax & take it easy by the pool during the day and maybe get DS's haircut, dinner at Yak & Yeti with AK EMH.

After DD woke up it didn't look like the plans were going to go as expected. She still felt awful and said she couldn't take a full breath On Wednesday her pediatrician had said she probably wouldn't need the inhaler by Saturday and here it is Monday and she can't breath I called her Dr's office from our patio (btw, we all had trouble getting a cell signal in our villa) after telling the nurse everthing going on, she consulted with the DR and came back with "you're not going to like this, but he wants her to be seen and possibly have a chest x-ray. You probably should go to the ER or an Urgent Care center" She was right, I didn't like that idea. I was hoping they could just call in a script for more/better cough medicine. I also have experience with Orlando emergeny rooms & urgent care and it hasn't been good So we called InRoomMD, told them what was happening and then the Dr called about 20 minutes later to schedule a time to come to our room. He had some appointments already booked for the afternoon, so we scheduled for him to come around 5pm.

In the mean time we relaxed in the room for awhile, reading & napping. Then DS & I left to go to MK to get his haircut at Harmony Barber Shop. We figured if there was a long wait at the barber shop we would just meet DH & DD at AK after she saw the Dr. DS & I got to the bus stop and a few minutes later we were on a bus headed to MK. Walked straight over to the barber shop, there were 2 people in there getting there hair cut and DS was next. Now ever since I had told him about BroganMc's trip report & Grandpa Mohawk (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1787982), he's wanted to come here and get one too Penny & Michael were working and we started talking while they were finishing the other haircuts. I told them why DS wanted to get the mohawk and Penny wanted to know how we knew Grandpa Mohawk Gotta love the Disboards Michael gave DS his mohawk, and I found myself telling him to go with the blue. Never thought I'd be telling someone to color my son's hair blue DS didn't think he wanted the Pixie Dust, but Penny told him that Grandpa Mohawk allways gets the Pixie Dust so he needed it too! --I forgot to take the camera over to the barber shop, so here's the pic from when we got back to the room--

He got a great response from CM's as we were leaving and a few strange looks from families we walked past Since it was about 4:30, we decided to just go back to the room. Caught a bus right away (and the bus driver loved his hair) and got back to our villa right before the Dr arrived.

 

[ChelleinNC]

Just after 5pm the Dr arrived at our villa. He had DH fill out some paperwork and then he examined DD. Checked her pulse/oxygen, pulse was high & oxygen was fine. Blood pressure was pretty low (explains why she kept needing 2 hour naps). Listened to her lungs, had her cough and talk. Said it sounded like pneumonia in her left lung and told us that she has a heart murmur. Checked her throat and said that even though her strep test was negative on Wednesday, she had strep He checked to make sure that she didn't have a rash (indicating Scarlet fever) and after the examination he wrote scripts for an antibiotic & an allergy/cough medicine. He said she should try to take it a little easy, but that she could still go to the parks. All in all it took about a half hour.

Unfortunately at this point there was no way we were going to make our ADR at Yak & Yeti, we called and tried to push it back but were told there was nothing available. DH & DD ran out to the Walgreens to get her prescriptions and as soon as they got back we headed to AK. We called wdwdine (again)from the cell phone as we walked to the bus stop and they said there was nothing available at AK for the rest of the night. We arrived at AK a few minutes before 8 (regular park closing time) and went straight back to Yak & Yeti. DH explained that we hadn't been able to make it earlier for our ADR and they said no problem, it'd be a 15 minute wait. We went outside and got our EMH bracelets (right across from the restaurant & much much shorter lines than we'd seen elsewhere in the park) We must have gotten the last table they had available because everyone that came in after us was turned away.

Dinner at Yak & Yeti:
DH & I started with cocktails from the bar. I don't remember what it was called, but it was very very good : At the table we started with the Dim Sum basket. It was pretty good, with somethings that I've never tried before.
DH had the Duck with Anandapur glaze--this was very good
I had the Crispy Honey Chicken--it was good. The tempura coating on the chicken was the best I've ever had! The honey sauce was allright, not as good as I expected but still good.
DD had the Shaoxing Steak & Shrimp--Wow! The skirt steak was incredible (I only got a tiny bite) so tender! The shrimp were very good as well
DS was not feeling very adventourus at this point, so he had the mini burger from the kids menu. It seemed to be a pretty good burger.

We were quite full after dinner and walked slowly over to Kali. It was around a 15 minute wait. I'm the one that always gets soaked to the bone, not a dry spot on me It was neat to do in the dark and for the very first time, I didn't get totally drenched I was pretty wet, but not like normal.

Next we headed over to EE but the standby wait was 50 minutes. FP's were gone and they didn't have the single rider line open We've all been on it multiple times before, so we decided that we weren't waiting for it tonight. We started walking towards Dinoland and DD was fading fast. DS wanted to ride Dinosaur & Primevilwhirl, so I stayed with him & DH & DD went back to the room. It was 10pm by now and I wasn't sure we'd get both rides in. 30 minute wait for Dinosaur, but it moved pretty good. Had some great conversations in line, DS's mohawk was quite the conversation starter Practically no wait for Primevilwhirl DS & I love that! Rode with a Dad & daughter that had never been on before, we all laughed the whole way thru We walked out of the park at 11 and went to wait in line for the bus. It was packed! The whole bus shelter area was packed for every bus stop, there was barely a walkway left to get to the last bus stop by the time busses started showing up. It was very warm in there Finally got a bus at 11:30, thankfully we were towards the front of the line, not everyone was able to get on.

We managed to do dinner & 3 rides in 3 hours. Not exactly what we had expected, but all in all it was a good night

Next up: Tuesday is golf day

 

[figment795]

Great report. Hope your daughter is better.





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[cjs123123]

we checked out on june 10 we were in the springs... The room was wonderful, but patio door was busted. It would not lock. I had maintenance in my room all day. We got back from a park and the door was wide open. And it was like 95 that day. so the room was hotter then heck. So my sister put a fork in it from opening all the time. Other then that problem we had an awesome time. We stayed at 3 different resorts. BW, AK and ssr my best favorite was ak.. I loved looking at the animals. Bw was great for the walking purpose to epcot at night. and ssr for dtd. I cant wait to go back in dec. Got all my dinner res. all ready to go.. It doesnt feel like I never left. Well it did for the rain we got and trees down. Other then that i cant wait to go back!!!!

 

[tinkerbellblondie19]

Yeah, for once you didn't get soaked on Kali...but I did! Yes, me, the one with pneumonia, the one the doctor told to try not to get wet for the next few days. Of course. It was wonderful.

-Chelle's sarcastic DD that for once wasn't too lazy to get on her own account

 

[Ms. WDW]

I can so sympathize with you. On one of our past trips when DS was young, we fley down and DS had what we thought was just a cold. He had been coughing a little and didn't have a fever. Well on the first day he was very quiet and that was so not like him at all. The next morning I was woken to the sound of "wheezing"; yes my son was wheezing and had a fever. I called the front desk and they told me about Center Care (I think that was the name). In about 20 minutes a van came and took me and my son to the center. I did the paperwork while we were in motion. I'd say within a matter of 10 minutes from arriving there we were seen by a doctor and guess what? He had pneumonia!! I was ready to pack it up and go home to DH who had to work that week.) The doctor told me it wasn't necessary and prescripbe Zyrtec (wonderful drug if you have to take one) and some Robintusson to "loosen" up his chest. They were just wonderful with him and me cause I was a wreck!!! They took us back to our resort and he rested that day and took it easy the next day too. We still had 5 days left on our vacation and thankfully he was able to enjoy the days left.

I do hope your daughter was able to enjoy some of her trip and started to feel better after she saw the second doctor in WDW.

 

[ChelleinNC]

Tuesday is golf day, 1 of 2 actually on this trip All of us were going to go to Magnolia today, DD was going to be our photographer and part time cart driver but she was still really tired and we decided it would be better for her to go back to bed and rest.

DH, DS & I headed up to AP for breakfast before the cab picked us up to take us to the golf course. Here's DS at breakfast--looking like your typical golfer He was actually a little nervous about showing up at the golf course with a blue mohawk, thinking they might not let him play. Let me just say that the staff at Magnolia was incredible and they told him he was the coolest, baddest guy out on the course that day

Usually we drive to the golf courses, but for this trip we decided to drop our clubs at LBV's club house this time and let them transfer the clubs and take the free taxi to the courses. Taxi came in no time flat and when we got to Magnolia our clubs were waiting for us, already on the carts. Just gotta mention how much we love our DVC Golf Membership! We got it last June (where it paid for itself the first day), used it again in December and now on this trip. I can't play for my home course for $39 after 10am, so to play a resort course as beautiful as Magnolia for that price is just amazing It was a very warm round of golf Ok, it was darn right hot, but it was a beautiful day. Just wish I could say the same about my golf game DS actually played very well and managed to hit perfectly into the famous Mickey bunker on #6

A beautiful sandshot out of Mickey's ear

I was surprised that we didn't see as much wildlife as we usually do. As sunny & hot as it was, we didn't see a single gator Lot's of wild turkeys roaming around though. All in all it was a great day out playing golf We headed back to the villa to shower & change before our dinner ADR at Planet Hollywood.