Dawn414
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
- Messages
- 523
Kindergarten countdown (ok, so it’s a year and a half away).
I’ve read a ton of trip reports and decided to try my hand at it. It’s pretty long and will probably include DCL and time at Disney, but I find it helps me to remember it as well (as if the 869 pictures we took and 4 videos wouldn’t trigger my memories). It all begins with my desire to have the kids live the Disney experience before they start Kindergarten September 2008. I’m not actually sure how I got to the disneycruise.com site and interest in taking the cruise, but I do recall doing a bunch of research and thinking to myself…”How the heck am I gonna convince Kyle (DH) to spend this kind of money on a cruise?” (Sidebar—DH had never been on a cruise and had previously been told (on numerous occasions) that he would fall off the face of the Earth and that a seamonster would get him). How to convince him? Well, first off, I readily gave up all presents for the full year (birthday, anniversary, valentine’s day, etc). I hyped it up on how cool it would be…got the video, etc. He finally agreed and I booked the 7-night Western, category 9, deck 2. I even took him on a RCL 3-night cruise to get him in the mood of cruising (which worked…he LOVED IT). I bought a bunch of stuff for the kids from disneyshopping.com, got the Passporter book (LOVE IT) and started highlighting away. Then, I started looking at the Disney site and got THAT itch. I brought up the topic and he just gave me a blank stare. I didn’t take that as a good sign. OK…I had to think of a way to make this more cost effective. Did I mention I’m really good at saving money while I spend it? I couldn’t change the dates…we had gotten a deal on the airfare and if I changed the dates, the deal would be lost. Then, I thought, “Hmmm…maybe we could do the four night cruise and then a few days in Disney.” I could book the verandah (whoo hoo) and still get some time in Disney. Well…3 days in Disney for the four of us is like $800(ish). Hmmm…not gonna convince him with that. Then I started thinking about the season pass. We have a vacation club in Orlando (not Disney) that we can split our room and get two weeks for the one week we pay for. Not staying on property, but the room would be paid for already. The season pass for the four of us was $1700…if we go just twice….it’s paid for. OK…some upfront cost, but the two together come to about the same as the 7-night cruise. I might be able to sell that. And sell, I did! I got the planning video for Disney to help get the kids hyped for the Year of Disney to begin.
Packing---OK, so truth be told, packing began each time something from disneyshopping.com came in the mail. I had also purchased some things recommended by the passporter site (collapsible hamper, over the door shoe holder were by far my favorites). By the time we left, we had 3 suitcases and a suitbag ready to go and all under the 50-lb limit…but would it fit in the full-size rental car when we got to Orlando? Yikes.
Day of…circa 2:30am.
Once we got down to 10 days and less, we began counting down on our hands so the kids (DH-4, DS-4) could countdown with me. Even the teachers at daycare were counting down with us. I think they were greatly jealous of the adventure that was about to begin. Ok, where we live, we have access to no less than 4 airports…from 20 minutes away to about 90 minutes away. This particular trip was about 50 minutes away and while I’m thankful for the additional time in Orlando, Spirit Air has a tendency to change airfare times out of Atlantic City. Our flight to ORL was originally around 7:40am and it ended up being 6:30am …considering the schedule we had planned for the day, we were okay with this. On the way back, it moved from 7:30pm to 8:40 pm. Same philosophy…that just meant more time in the parks. We left our house around 3am and got to ACY around 4am. Everyone napped on the way down, but me. That would have been a bad thing since I was driving (ha ha). I mention this because as the week goes on, there are more instances of everyone, BUT ME sleeping. We were checked in and waiting at the terminal for our 6:30am flight.
Day 1—EPCOT, Cape Canaveral & Watching the Magic Leave…
The upside of having such an early flight is that you have plenty of day left a head of you. Remember my concern about fitting all the luggage in the car? Well…I got up to the counter and stood there contemplating whether to upgrade to the next size car. It was almost like the rental agent read my mind. I mentioned how much luggage we had and she said she would charge me for an upgrade, but not for the car seats…ok..I can live with that. Sometimes we bring our own carseats, but with 4 other bags, plus carry-on bags, there was no way we’d be able to manage all of that. THANK GOD we upgraded. Even with the upgrade, it was tough getting all our luggage AND the stroller in the car. Thank God we took the side-by-side stroller and not the bigger one. We’d have been in deep doo doo. Even as it stood, the stroller went across the back seat, but at least we all fit. PHEW. Disaster avoided.
The goal for EPCOT was to talk to Crush, see the Nemo show, do Maelstrom & the Mexico boat ride. I would have loved to have done Soarin’, but we got there around 10am and with our time constraint and the fact that Kendall isn’t really tall enough…we skipped it. Gavin (DS) even got to talk to Crush. Of course, we didn’t get to see it, but it was cool, none-the-less. We even got our first autograph. Panchito (from the Three Caballeros). Kendall actually went up to him. I was SHOCKED! We have been going to Sesame Place for 3 years and it’s always potluck as to whether she’ll actually go get a picture with the characters. They liked the river ride in Mexico, but they didn’t like the trolls in Norway. I won’t be telling my Mom that since she is 100% Norwegian. We left EPCOT after a few hours and drove over to Cape Canaveral.
I really wanted to see the Magic and have the kids see her leaving. Of course, the greatness and reaction I was longing for as we went over the bridges didn’t come as both kids were conked out in the back seat. DD (Kendall) did wake up, but she is so tiny she couldn’t see anything. DARN! Oh well. This was going to be a Hakuna Matata trip and if that was the worst thing that happened, I’d be doing the happy dance at the end of the week.
The hotel (Radisson at the port) was fine. I didn’t really care for the sleep# beds (Sorry Lindsay Wagner (aka Bionic Woman)). I found the firm to be that of a rock and the soft was too mushy and just didn’t like those in between. I slept, but it wasn’t the best night sleep. We decided to go see if we could ‘find’ the Magic…we followed it along a service road for a bit and took a couple pictures. The kids were excited that they would be on a ship the next day. Now, I really don’t know that they got the whole gist that they were ON a ship for a few days, but who knows…? For dinner, we drove around a bit to see if there was somewhere I could eat. I have various dietary restrictions and eating out ain’t easy! We drove around for a bit and I was surprised at how few chain type restaurants (i.e. Applebees, Chili’s, etc) were there. We went back to the hotel and ended up walking over to Kelsey’s Pizzeria. I mention this for a couple reasons…a) because my niece’s name is Kelsey (got her a t-shirt from the place) and b) because it was a lot better than I thought it would be)…I mean, Kelsey is Celtic/Gaelic in nature so I was understandably curious. The kids/hubby had pizza (I took a small bite…pretty good). I had a salad & Minestrone soup (which was excellent). After, we went back to the hotel and I rearranged the suitcases so that I wouldn’t be bringing the clothes we would be using AFTER we got off the ship…we just left that suitcase in the rental car (which we left at the Radisson for free). (SIDEBAR…it was cheaper to keep the car for the week then to rent for a day, return and rent for 3 days…how weird is that?) Ok, so off to bed…we were on the first shuttle over to the pier at 10am…getting excited!!!
I’ve read a ton of trip reports and decided to try my hand at it. It’s pretty long and will probably include DCL and time at Disney, but I find it helps me to remember it as well (as if the 869 pictures we took and 4 videos wouldn’t trigger my memories). It all begins with my desire to have the kids live the Disney experience before they start Kindergarten September 2008. I’m not actually sure how I got to the disneycruise.com site and interest in taking the cruise, but I do recall doing a bunch of research and thinking to myself…”How the heck am I gonna convince Kyle (DH) to spend this kind of money on a cruise?” (Sidebar—DH had never been on a cruise and had previously been told (on numerous occasions) that he would fall off the face of the Earth and that a seamonster would get him). How to convince him? Well, first off, I readily gave up all presents for the full year (birthday, anniversary, valentine’s day, etc). I hyped it up on how cool it would be…got the video, etc. He finally agreed and I booked the 7-night Western, category 9, deck 2. I even took him on a RCL 3-night cruise to get him in the mood of cruising (which worked…he LOVED IT). I bought a bunch of stuff for the kids from disneyshopping.com, got the Passporter book (LOVE IT) and started highlighting away. Then, I started looking at the Disney site and got THAT itch. I brought up the topic and he just gave me a blank stare. I didn’t take that as a good sign. OK…I had to think of a way to make this more cost effective. Did I mention I’m really good at saving money while I spend it? I couldn’t change the dates…we had gotten a deal on the airfare and if I changed the dates, the deal would be lost. Then, I thought, “Hmmm…maybe we could do the four night cruise and then a few days in Disney.” I could book the verandah (whoo hoo) and still get some time in Disney. Well…3 days in Disney for the four of us is like $800(ish). Hmmm…not gonna convince him with that. Then I started thinking about the season pass. We have a vacation club in Orlando (not Disney) that we can split our room and get two weeks for the one week we pay for. Not staying on property, but the room would be paid for already. The season pass for the four of us was $1700…if we go just twice….it’s paid for. OK…some upfront cost, but the two together come to about the same as the 7-night cruise. I might be able to sell that. And sell, I did! I got the planning video for Disney to help get the kids hyped for the Year of Disney to begin.
Packing---OK, so truth be told, packing began each time something from disneyshopping.com came in the mail. I had also purchased some things recommended by the passporter site (collapsible hamper, over the door shoe holder were by far my favorites). By the time we left, we had 3 suitcases and a suitbag ready to go and all under the 50-lb limit…but would it fit in the full-size rental car when we got to Orlando? Yikes.
Day of…circa 2:30am.
Once we got down to 10 days and less, we began counting down on our hands so the kids (DH-4, DS-4) could countdown with me. Even the teachers at daycare were counting down with us. I think they were greatly jealous of the adventure that was about to begin. Ok, where we live, we have access to no less than 4 airports…from 20 minutes away to about 90 minutes away. This particular trip was about 50 minutes away and while I’m thankful for the additional time in Orlando, Spirit Air has a tendency to change airfare times out of Atlantic City. Our flight to ORL was originally around 7:40am and it ended up being 6:30am …considering the schedule we had planned for the day, we were okay with this. On the way back, it moved from 7:30pm to 8:40 pm. Same philosophy…that just meant more time in the parks. We left our house around 3am and got to ACY around 4am. Everyone napped on the way down, but me. That would have been a bad thing since I was driving (ha ha). I mention this because as the week goes on, there are more instances of everyone, BUT ME sleeping. We were checked in and waiting at the terminal for our 6:30am flight.
Day 1—EPCOT, Cape Canaveral & Watching the Magic Leave…
The upside of having such an early flight is that you have plenty of day left a head of you. Remember my concern about fitting all the luggage in the car? Well…I got up to the counter and stood there contemplating whether to upgrade to the next size car. It was almost like the rental agent read my mind. I mentioned how much luggage we had and she said she would charge me for an upgrade, but not for the car seats…ok..I can live with that. Sometimes we bring our own carseats, but with 4 other bags, plus carry-on bags, there was no way we’d be able to manage all of that. THANK GOD we upgraded. Even with the upgrade, it was tough getting all our luggage AND the stroller in the car. Thank God we took the side-by-side stroller and not the bigger one. We’d have been in deep doo doo. Even as it stood, the stroller went across the back seat, but at least we all fit. PHEW. Disaster avoided.
The goal for EPCOT was to talk to Crush, see the Nemo show, do Maelstrom & the Mexico boat ride. I would have loved to have done Soarin’, but we got there around 10am and with our time constraint and the fact that Kendall isn’t really tall enough…we skipped it. Gavin (DS) even got to talk to Crush. Of course, we didn’t get to see it, but it was cool, none-the-less. We even got our first autograph. Panchito (from the Three Caballeros). Kendall actually went up to him. I was SHOCKED! We have been going to Sesame Place for 3 years and it’s always potluck as to whether she’ll actually go get a picture with the characters. They liked the river ride in Mexico, but they didn’t like the trolls in Norway. I won’t be telling my Mom that since she is 100% Norwegian. We left EPCOT after a few hours and drove over to Cape Canaveral.
I really wanted to see the Magic and have the kids see her leaving. Of course, the greatness and reaction I was longing for as we went over the bridges didn’t come as both kids were conked out in the back seat. DD (Kendall) did wake up, but she is so tiny she couldn’t see anything. DARN! Oh well. This was going to be a Hakuna Matata trip and if that was the worst thing that happened, I’d be doing the happy dance at the end of the week.
The hotel (Radisson at the port) was fine. I didn’t really care for the sleep# beds (Sorry Lindsay Wagner (aka Bionic Woman)). I found the firm to be that of a rock and the soft was too mushy and just didn’t like those in between. I slept, but it wasn’t the best night sleep. We decided to go see if we could ‘find’ the Magic…we followed it along a service road for a bit and took a couple pictures. The kids were excited that they would be on a ship the next day. Now, I really don’t know that they got the whole gist that they were ON a ship for a few days, but who knows…? For dinner, we drove around a bit to see if there was somewhere I could eat. I have various dietary restrictions and eating out ain’t easy! We drove around for a bit and I was surprised at how few chain type restaurants (i.e. Applebees, Chili’s, etc) were there. We went back to the hotel and ended up walking over to Kelsey’s Pizzeria. I mention this for a couple reasons…a) because my niece’s name is Kelsey (got her a t-shirt from the place) and b) because it was a lot better than I thought it would be)…I mean, Kelsey is Celtic/Gaelic in nature so I was understandably curious. The kids/hubby had pizza (I took a small bite…pretty good). I had a salad & Minestrone soup (which was excellent). After, we went back to the hotel and I rearranged the suitcases so that I wouldn’t be bringing the clothes we would be using AFTER we got off the ship…we just left that suitcase in the rental car (which we left at the Radisson for free). (SIDEBAR…it was cheaper to keep the car for the week then to rent for a day, return and rent for 3 days…how weird is that?) Ok, so off to bed…we were on the first shuttle over to the pier at 10am…getting excited!!!
(Sidebar…for those of you who may wonder (no pun intended)…we brought our own snorkel gear and just used their vest…no charge. They have some out near the water and you are free to use them). After snorkeling, we got the kids. We had rented tubes and just floated out in the water with them on our laps. Although they are not for public viewing (because I look horrible), Kyle had taken what he calls, “paparazzi shots” of me and Gavin in the tube. The funny thing is…they really are…I’m just kind of staring off into the distance totally unaware. I got a good laugh out of them before promptly deleting them.
