Kanga1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2004
- Messages
- 1,470
Cast of Characters:
Jana (moi, 40, obsessive planner of this and all trips..think Chevy Chase in the Vacation movies.)
Eric (DH, 41, a big kid at heart, pretty much goes with the flow and can have a good time anywhere as long as theres good food.)
Anna Marie (4 year-old DD and true princess any princess...pick one.)
The 4:30a alarm went off early. Wait, what am I saying? 4:30am is early by anybodys standards, isnt it? Nonetheless, we get up and out ready to catch the 5:30a shuttle to the airport. Its even too early for the continental breakfast all they have are a few bananas and such. We grab one and decide there will be plenty of time to eat at the airport. Now here is a good time to tell you about my DH and airports. This calm man turns into a maniac. I mean, he gets all rigid and tense (some of this I can understand he is usually loaded down with about 10 bags) and hes so focused on everything he has to do. Tickets in hand? ID out and ready? Did you print the boarding passes do you have them? Which security line is the shortest? We HAVE to get to our gate at LEAST an hour before departure! Meanwhile, Im pushing DD in the stroller, which I learn quickly will NOT turn unless youre using both hands, and trying to take everything in. I dont get to fly much and I love the hustle and bustle of airports. I always like imagining where everyone is going usually to some exotic place of which I will never get to see. But wait! Im one of them today!!! (Can I count Morocco in WS as exotic?) Im going to Disney!! See? Ive got my new monogrammed Mickey bag and everything!! Yes, sweetheart, I have the tickets were right behind you proceed. Since we have an enormous amount of time on our hands before our 7:30 flight, we grab a bite of breakfast at McDonalds (or Old McDonalds as DD calls them) and sit at our gate to watch the planes. Finally, we are ready to board. DH tags the stroller, checks it at the gate and is told to leave it just outside the airplane door. There are no other strollers there so he asks again just to make sure. Yes, sir thats the place well put it on the plane for you. Famous last words. We settle into our seats, and for the first time in my life, I do not get to sit by the window. My DD has beaten me to it and since I would not deny my child this experience, I sit in the middle. Darn. Last time she flew, she didnt care. Guess Ill be sitting in the middle for quite some time now. Flight went smoothly DD was really well behaved and she slept some of the way. My only complaint was with the woman behind us. She kept throwing up the entire trip and was sick all the night before. If thats not bad enough she has to talk about it the whole way. And were sitting RIGHT in front of her BREATHING recycled cabin air!!! Do you know how hard it is to hold your breath from Pittsburgh to Orlando? Pretty darn hard I tell you. I just knew that between my DD just getting over her virus, and the kids at the school where I teach being absent left and right, and THIS woman practically spitting her germs on us oh, this was not good. Not good at all. I send up a silent prayer that this bug skedaddles its way past us this is our first trip to Disney bugs are not invited. We land on schedule and go to retrieve our stroller and bags. Exiting the plane we find several strollers outside the door, but, alas, not ours. We stand and wait and wait, thinking they will be bringing it up from cargo shortly until finally, everyone has vacated the plane and the Captain asks if were still waiting on a stroller. We tell him yes and he offers to go down under the plane to look for it himself! Wow! Didnt know Captains did that stuff does he secretly work for Disney? Moments later he returns saying nothing there and tells us that maybe it got sent to baggage claim. If it doesnt show up to make a claim in the claims department. It was a real expensive stroller wasnt it? I say, Oh, yes, it was VERY expensive. <grin> We retrieve our bags and wait around awhile thinking that on a chance our little Jeep stroller might come out onto the carousel at any moment. No such luck so DH goes to make the claim. He returns moments later saying that our MIA stroller missed the plane and will be arriving on the next flight. Now I just cant figure that out. We placed it in the exact area they told us to the exact same spot where you pick them up. Go figure. My theory is we boarded so early (thanks to airport Rambo, DH) that they thought our stroller was left over from a previous flight and moved it. Anyway, they will have it delivered to the Contemporary before noon. Great! Next stop is the rental car (DH needs it to travel to his business meetings) and Alamo must be running a really good deal because the line is a mile long and there are no other customers at any of the other rental companies. We plop our mound of luggage in a secluded corner and I let DD play a bit while DH stands in line. I also called my mom to tell her we made it safely. She knew this already as she had been tracking our flight on the Internet. My mom is terrified of flying would NEVER fly herself and worries when one of her loved ones decides to risk life by embarking on one of these behemoth machines. Paperwork in hand, we take the short walk across the street to pick out our car. Lets see, our choices are gray, light gray, dark gray, and silver. Gee which one? We pick the dark one and make our way to Disney. After a little confusion, we finally pass under the great Welcome to Walt Disney World sign and I snap a picture for the scrapbook. By this time we were so excited that it didnt dawn on us that we were not heading in the direction of the Contemporary until we get to the big Animal Kingdom sign. Uh-oh need to turn around. The CM at the AK gate was extremely nice and gave us explicit directions to CR. And then it happened the phrase I had been waiting all my life to hear just before we drove away he said, Have a magical day! Thats when it hit me lost on a Disney freeway in a dark gray Impala, I WAS HERE! We were at DISNEY!
My first glimpse of the Contemporary was nothing short of amazing. I had poured over every picture of this resort on the Internet for the past several months, but to actually see it in PERSON took my breath away. Now I know many people despise CR all concrete, very little theme, out of date but to me, it IS Disney. Its Walt; its Mickey. Its the fact that I never thought I would be staying on property, let alone a stones throw away from the Magic Kingdom. Bad reviews or not, this was home for the next 10 days and I was lovin it. We pull up in front of this gigantic piece of architecture and practically jump out of the car to check in. The valet CMs literally have to run to catch up to us do we want them to park our car? Oops valet parking only. Should have known better. No valet for us this time. DH parks the car off to the side. The check in line was really short only 2 families ahead of us and several CMs at the desk. DD gets a few stickers from a very pleasant CM whose job it seems is to greet people. How nice didnt get a greeter at the Hampton Inn. ;-) Five minutes later its our turn and I walk on up to the stand..(ahem)..counter. I am so hoping for a good room this being our dream trip and all and first time staying on property. I had booked a standard garden wing requesting north wing/ground floor/close to tower in that order. Didnt have huge hopes in getting all 3 requests, but really wanted north wing as it is closest to MK walkway, which we would be using a lot. So CM looks at me and says, We have you in a water view room in the south wing. South wing! Do you have anything in north? I REALLY wanted north. (I still, at this point, am not realizing that we had been UPGRADED to a water view room!) She punches a few buttons and says, Sure, we can get you in the north wing which water view room do you want? and proceeds to pull out the map to give me my choice of available rooms! Wow! I now have heard the water view part and am thrilled and I have my choice of several rooms to pick from all on the ground floor! Im ecstatic and my mind is racing which room..which room which one would the DISners pick My original request was close to tower but the CM is showing me this vacant room at the far end of the wing facing Bay Lake. I had heard about these rooms peaceful, excellent view of EWP, so close to the lake you could cast a fishing line (my Pisces need of water is calling me) That one, the one on the end. She hands me our keys to room 8119, tells me of an end entrance so the walk to the tower is not as long, and tells me to Have a magical day! What?! Our room is ready? Its only noon! This is fantastic and we park the car and begin to unload our stuff or should I say DH unloads the stuff DD and I go check out the room. As I walk down the hallway, Im looking for evidence of age dirty and worn carpeting, peeling wallpaper. I find none of this. As a matter of fact, this carpet looks brand new it smells new and theres a worker ironing new wallpaper. Hey! Newly remolded looks great! Our room was wonderful. No broken drawers or torn carpet, no dirt (that we could see), ample space for all our stuff. We had one sink in the main bathroom surrounded by HUGE counter and shelf space (LOVE THIS!) and another sink in the toilet area. This works perfectly for DH and me, as our bathroom at home has two separate vanities. The view was wonderful. Right next to the lake. Albeit no waves but a great view nonetheless.
My original plan (if our room was ready) was to unpack immediately, but it was getting late (due to the long line at Alamo and the side trip to AK ), we were getting hungry for lunch, and we had a few tasks to complete before our 5:00 PS at Chef Mickeys. We strolled on over to the Food and Fun Center (hey, that wasnt such a long walk) where we purchased our meals and refillable mugs. DD got chicken strips, DH got a burger, and I got a hot dog. The meal was adequate to fill our tummies, but the place is in need of a major overhaul. It just looked a little unkempt. This was our only meal there the entire trip.
Back in the car, we begin our list of things to take care of. We need to go get a few groceries and I need to make a quick stop at the World of Disney in DTD. I have planned a Welcome to Disney kit for DD from Mickey Mouse and I needed a few more things that I could not get at home. I had a letter from Mickey welcoming her to Disney, telling her that she was his Guest of Honor and inviting her to dinner that evening at Chef Mickeys. To go along with the invitation, Mickey was giving her a Minnie Mouse dress (complete with ears) to wear to dinner, a 50th celebration Guest of Honor badge with her name on it, a My First Trip to WDW pin, a starter pin set with lanyard, an autograph book, and a 50th Pal Mickey. Since the Pal Mickey alone would run $75, I purposely waited to get most of these items at World of Disney where I could us DHs annual pass for a 10% discount. (DH had been to Orlando on a previous business trip in February and had purchased an annual pass. We also had a DDE card which we used almost everywhere we saved over $80 with it.) We found our way to DTD without much trouble and parked in front of the Disney Store. Wow. What a store! Good thing I had a list or I would have been going crazy trying to decide what I needed! DH took DD to the princess section where, of course, she wanted everything. Nothing today sweetheart. Mommy just has to get a couple of things, but well be back. We had 1 or 2 other trips scheduled here later on in the trip. I got the necessary items from Mickey and a beautiful Ariel dress that Sleeping Beauty would be giving DD later on in the week. I cant remember how much I saved with the AP discount, but it was enough to rationalize driving all the way there. Besides, I needed to stop at Goodings for groceries.
A couple of hours and several hundred dollars later, we make our way back to CR gifts and food in hand. DH distracts DD on the playground while I set up the Mickey gifts. When they return, DD is thrilled and cant BELIEVE that Mickey gave her a Minnie dress! She is so into the dress-up thing has many princess dresses but she went ga-ga over this one. Of course she puts it on immediately while I figure out how to work Pal Mickey. We will be going over to MK after dinner and want to be sure hes ready to go. (For $75 he will be traveling with us everywhere.) The message light is blinking on our phone our stroller has arrived (yeah!) and DH has a box for his reception that he had shipped down. He goes to guest services to retrieve both.
"Planning or Obsession...What's the Difference?"
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=857133
"Our Vacation Begins"
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9138370#post9138370
Jana (moi, 40, obsessive planner of this and all trips..think Chevy Chase in the Vacation movies.)
Eric (DH, 41, a big kid at heart, pretty much goes with the flow and can have a good time anywhere as long as theres good food.)
Anna Marie (4 year-old DD and true princess any princess...pick one.)
The 4:30a alarm went off early. Wait, what am I saying? 4:30am is early by anybodys standards, isnt it? Nonetheless, we get up and out ready to catch the 5:30a shuttle to the airport. Its even too early for the continental breakfast all they have are a few bananas and such. We grab one and decide there will be plenty of time to eat at the airport. Now here is a good time to tell you about my DH and airports. This calm man turns into a maniac. I mean, he gets all rigid and tense (some of this I can understand he is usually loaded down with about 10 bags) and hes so focused on everything he has to do. Tickets in hand? ID out and ready? Did you print the boarding passes do you have them? Which security line is the shortest? We HAVE to get to our gate at LEAST an hour before departure! Meanwhile, Im pushing DD in the stroller, which I learn quickly will NOT turn unless youre using both hands, and trying to take everything in. I dont get to fly much and I love the hustle and bustle of airports. I always like imagining where everyone is going usually to some exotic place of which I will never get to see. But wait! Im one of them today!!! (Can I count Morocco in WS as exotic?) Im going to Disney!! See? Ive got my new monogrammed Mickey bag and everything!! Yes, sweetheart, I have the tickets were right behind you proceed. Since we have an enormous amount of time on our hands before our 7:30 flight, we grab a bite of breakfast at McDonalds (or Old McDonalds as DD calls them) and sit at our gate to watch the planes. Finally, we are ready to board. DH tags the stroller, checks it at the gate and is told to leave it just outside the airplane door. There are no other strollers there so he asks again just to make sure. Yes, sir thats the place well put it on the plane for you. Famous last words. We settle into our seats, and for the first time in my life, I do not get to sit by the window. My DD has beaten me to it and since I would not deny my child this experience, I sit in the middle. Darn. Last time she flew, she didnt care. Guess Ill be sitting in the middle for quite some time now. Flight went smoothly DD was really well behaved and she slept some of the way. My only complaint was with the woman behind us. She kept throwing up the entire trip and was sick all the night before. If thats not bad enough she has to talk about it the whole way. And were sitting RIGHT in front of her BREATHING recycled cabin air!!! Do you know how hard it is to hold your breath from Pittsburgh to Orlando? Pretty darn hard I tell you. I just knew that between my DD just getting over her virus, and the kids at the school where I teach being absent left and right, and THIS woman practically spitting her germs on us oh, this was not good. Not good at all. I send up a silent prayer that this bug skedaddles its way past us this is our first trip to Disney bugs are not invited. We land on schedule and go to retrieve our stroller and bags. Exiting the plane we find several strollers outside the door, but, alas, not ours. We stand and wait and wait, thinking they will be bringing it up from cargo shortly until finally, everyone has vacated the plane and the Captain asks if were still waiting on a stroller. We tell him yes and he offers to go down under the plane to look for it himself! Wow! Didnt know Captains did that stuff does he secretly work for Disney? Moments later he returns saying nothing there and tells us that maybe it got sent to baggage claim. If it doesnt show up to make a claim in the claims department. It was a real expensive stroller wasnt it? I say, Oh, yes, it was VERY expensive. <grin> We retrieve our bags and wait around awhile thinking that on a chance our little Jeep stroller might come out onto the carousel at any moment. No such luck so DH goes to make the claim. He returns moments later saying that our MIA stroller missed the plane and will be arriving on the next flight. Now I just cant figure that out. We placed it in the exact area they told us to the exact same spot where you pick them up. Go figure. My theory is we boarded so early (thanks to airport Rambo, DH) that they thought our stroller was left over from a previous flight and moved it. Anyway, they will have it delivered to the Contemporary before noon. Great! Next stop is the rental car (DH needs it to travel to his business meetings) and Alamo must be running a really good deal because the line is a mile long and there are no other customers at any of the other rental companies. We plop our mound of luggage in a secluded corner and I let DD play a bit while DH stands in line. I also called my mom to tell her we made it safely. She knew this already as she had been tracking our flight on the Internet. My mom is terrified of flying would NEVER fly herself and worries when one of her loved ones decides to risk life by embarking on one of these behemoth machines. Paperwork in hand, we take the short walk across the street to pick out our car. Lets see, our choices are gray, light gray, dark gray, and silver. Gee which one? We pick the dark one and make our way to Disney. After a little confusion, we finally pass under the great Welcome to Walt Disney World sign and I snap a picture for the scrapbook. By this time we were so excited that it didnt dawn on us that we were not heading in the direction of the Contemporary until we get to the big Animal Kingdom sign. Uh-oh need to turn around. The CM at the AK gate was extremely nice and gave us explicit directions to CR. And then it happened the phrase I had been waiting all my life to hear just before we drove away he said, Have a magical day! Thats when it hit me lost on a Disney freeway in a dark gray Impala, I WAS HERE! We were at DISNEY!
My first glimpse of the Contemporary was nothing short of amazing. I had poured over every picture of this resort on the Internet for the past several months, but to actually see it in PERSON took my breath away. Now I know many people despise CR all concrete, very little theme, out of date but to me, it IS Disney. Its Walt; its Mickey. Its the fact that I never thought I would be staying on property, let alone a stones throw away from the Magic Kingdom. Bad reviews or not, this was home for the next 10 days and I was lovin it. We pull up in front of this gigantic piece of architecture and practically jump out of the car to check in. The valet CMs literally have to run to catch up to us do we want them to park our car? Oops valet parking only. Should have known better. No valet for us this time. DH parks the car off to the side. The check in line was really short only 2 families ahead of us and several CMs at the desk. DD gets a few stickers from a very pleasant CM whose job it seems is to greet people. How nice didnt get a greeter at the Hampton Inn. ;-) Five minutes later its our turn and I walk on up to the stand..(ahem)..counter. I am so hoping for a good room this being our dream trip and all and first time staying on property. I had booked a standard garden wing requesting north wing/ground floor/close to tower in that order. Didnt have huge hopes in getting all 3 requests, but really wanted north wing as it is closest to MK walkway, which we would be using a lot. So CM looks at me and says, We have you in a water view room in the south wing. South wing! Do you have anything in north? I REALLY wanted north. (I still, at this point, am not realizing that we had been UPGRADED to a water view room!) She punches a few buttons and says, Sure, we can get you in the north wing which water view room do you want? and proceeds to pull out the map to give me my choice of available rooms! Wow! I now have heard the water view part and am thrilled and I have my choice of several rooms to pick from all on the ground floor! Im ecstatic and my mind is racing which room..which room which one would the DISners pick My original request was close to tower but the CM is showing me this vacant room at the far end of the wing facing Bay Lake. I had heard about these rooms peaceful, excellent view of EWP, so close to the lake you could cast a fishing line (my Pisces need of water is calling me) That one, the one on the end. She hands me our keys to room 8119, tells me of an end entrance so the walk to the tower is not as long, and tells me to Have a magical day! What?! Our room is ready? Its only noon! This is fantastic and we park the car and begin to unload our stuff or should I say DH unloads the stuff DD and I go check out the room. As I walk down the hallway, Im looking for evidence of age dirty and worn carpeting, peeling wallpaper. I find none of this. As a matter of fact, this carpet looks brand new it smells new and theres a worker ironing new wallpaper. Hey! Newly remolded looks great! Our room was wonderful. No broken drawers or torn carpet, no dirt (that we could see), ample space for all our stuff. We had one sink in the main bathroom surrounded by HUGE counter and shelf space (LOVE THIS!) and another sink in the toilet area. This works perfectly for DH and me, as our bathroom at home has two separate vanities. The view was wonderful. Right next to the lake. Albeit no waves but a great view nonetheless.
My original plan (if our room was ready) was to unpack immediately, but it was getting late (due to the long line at Alamo and the side trip to AK ), we were getting hungry for lunch, and we had a few tasks to complete before our 5:00 PS at Chef Mickeys. We strolled on over to the Food and Fun Center (hey, that wasnt such a long walk) where we purchased our meals and refillable mugs. DD got chicken strips, DH got a burger, and I got a hot dog. The meal was adequate to fill our tummies, but the place is in need of a major overhaul. It just looked a little unkempt. This was our only meal there the entire trip.
Back in the car, we begin our list of things to take care of. We need to go get a few groceries and I need to make a quick stop at the World of Disney in DTD. I have planned a Welcome to Disney kit for DD from Mickey Mouse and I needed a few more things that I could not get at home. I had a letter from Mickey welcoming her to Disney, telling her that she was his Guest of Honor and inviting her to dinner that evening at Chef Mickeys. To go along with the invitation, Mickey was giving her a Minnie Mouse dress (complete with ears) to wear to dinner, a 50th celebration Guest of Honor badge with her name on it, a My First Trip to WDW pin, a starter pin set with lanyard, an autograph book, and a 50th Pal Mickey. Since the Pal Mickey alone would run $75, I purposely waited to get most of these items at World of Disney where I could us DHs annual pass for a 10% discount. (DH had been to Orlando on a previous business trip in February and had purchased an annual pass. We also had a DDE card which we used almost everywhere we saved over $80 with it.) We found our way to DTD without much trouble and parked in front of the Disney Store. Wow. What a store! Good thing I had a list or I would have been going crazy trying to decide what I needed! DH took DD to the princess section where, of course, she wanted everything. Nothing today sweetheart. Mommy just has to get a couple of things, but well be back. We had 1 or 2 other trips scheduled here later on in the trip. I got the necessary items from Mickey and a beautiful Ariel dress that Sleeping Beauty would be giving DD later on in the week. I cant remember how much I saved with the AP discount, but it was enough to rationalize driving all the way there. Besides, I needed to stop at Goodings for groceries.
A couple of hours and several hundred dollars later, we make our way back to CR gifts and food in hand. DH distracts DD on the playground while I set up the Mickey gifts. When they return, DD is thrilled and cant BELIEVE that Mickey gave her a Minnie dress! She is so into the dress-up thing has many princess dresses but she went ga-ga over this one. Of course she puts it on immediately while I figure out how to work Pal Mickey. We will be going over to MK after dinner and want to be sure hes ready to go. (For $75 he will be traveling with us everywhere.) The message light is blinking on our phone our stroller has arrived (yeah!) and DH has a box for his reception that he had shipped down. He goes to guest services to retrieve both.
"Planning or Obsession...What's the Difference?"
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=857133
"Our Vacation Begins"
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9138370#post9138370
We always go with them, out of habit I guess, and we always - no matter what time of year or what time of day - always have the longest wait in the rental car area. I almost feel sorry for all the bored employees of the other rentals.
Loved your report and am off to find the others,
