Leavin the Husbands & Takin the Kids Trip Report-We're BACK!!!!!

[Heatherhy01]

Hi Everyone
We had a wonderful time at the World!!!! We are sad to be back home.Our dates were from March 24th thru March 31st. I guess you would like a little more info for those that have not read the pre-trip report.

The Cast:
Myself-Heather
DMIL-Terry
DD, 10-Alex
DD, 5-Savannah
This was our only "Girls Only" trip that we probably will ever get! The husbands were jealous. We had a great time!!! I can tell you that I thought the parks were crowded, but that is because we normally take my DFIL and he his handicapped, so, we always get bumped to the front. I do not know if these were normal crowds or not for this time of the year. It was managable for us. The longest we waited was 60 minutes to get into Pixie Hollow. We did not get onto all of the attractions. If the line was too long and the fast pass did not work for us, we just went onto something else. We would wait in line if the wait time was no longer than 30 minutes. The weather was great, sunny skies and it only rained one day for half the day off and on, which made the park more managable.
I will give you all alot more details once I get my pictures finished and downloaded. I will start the report tomorrow and insert the pics when I get them back. As for now, I have to get back to work!!! YUCK! I wish I were in DW​

 

[tinkermamaof2]

Can't wait to read your report. I would love to go without my husband but I feel bad leaving him at home alone. He just offered, maybe your report will help change my mind!

Patti

 

[Heatherhy01]

Hi Patti,
It was nice to be at Disney with just the girls and I had a great time, but there were times that I had missed my husband. There were several times that I had felt guilty, especially during the trip when we would be doing or seeing something and I would think to myself "my husband would enjoy that".

Thanks for reading!​

 

[Heatherhy01]

I will start at the beginning…..

3/23/09 Monday

Myself and my DMIL, Terry had finally finished our workday at 3:00. We WERE FREE!!!! I drove home, did a few more loads of laundry and made sure that everything was ready for the dogs and the cat for the week. I ran through the McDonalds drive through for dinner. We ate dinner at my house, said goodbye to the hubbies and we were on our way to the hotel for our one nights stay prior to flying out to the Happiest Place on Earth!!! We arrived at the Sheraton Four Points at approx. 8:00 PM. I quickly ran in to see where to park the van for the week and to check us in. That went smooth enough, we gathered our bags and went inside to find out that both of the elevators were broken. We had to climb to the 3rd floor…yuck. The bell hop however brought up our luggage on an elevator??? Go figure? The room was very modern, but nice. We looked around a little and found a few surprises waiting. Someone had left their undies and some other things in one of the drawers. Another drawer had garbage in it. There was some trash under the beds also. Well, I decided that if the sheets were okay, I can handle the rest for one night. All good!!! We were getting the munchies and decided to order up some room service. DMIL had the chicken quesadillas, I had cheeseburger sliders and the girls had ice cream. It came to $56.00! WOWSERS!!! I convinced the girls to get showers tonite instead of in the AM since we were already getting up so early. We set the alarm and hit the sack with Disney dreams dancing in our heads!!!

3/24/09 Tuesday

The alarm went off at 4:50 AM, we quickly hopped up and got dressed. We made it down in the lobby in time to catch the 6:05 shuttle to the airport. I grabbed the girls a quick breakfast and then we waited and waited. Our flight did not leave until 9:00. Finally, the time had arrived, I sat with Savannah and DMIL sat with Alex. Now, I am not a good flyer. The doc gave me a script for Xanax which I did not want to take due to getting really sleepy and I knew that I still had a long day ahead. I did pretty good until the end of the flight. As long as Savannah was occupied and I could listen to music and relax, I was fine. But, when she was crying because she kept dropping everything and I couldn’t reach it and then her ears started to hurt and she was yelling about that, ugh! Just let me off the plane!!! Finally, we made it whew, it was really rough towards the end, I thought to myself that I was not sure if I could sit with her again on the way home????


Up next…How will the check in process go? What park do we visit first??? Find out in the next installment....

 

[Heatherhy01]

3/24/09 Tuesday (continued)

We arrived in the Orlando airport and hit the potty first. We found our way downstairs to the Magical Express counter and only waited 2 minutes for our turn. The nice woman behind the counter gave the girls stickers and welcomed us in true Disney fashion. Then we were on our way to wait in line for our bus. We only waited maybe 10-15 minutes tops when the bus arrived and we were allowed to board. The ride over was fairly uneventful. We enjoyed watching the video and we had stopped at 2 resorts before ours. One was Saratoga Springs and I cannot remember what the other was. We finally arrived at the Port Orleans French Quarter and it was beautiful. We had never stayed there before and we had always stayed at a value resort. Well, since this trip, I have found my new home away from home! We went inside and I hopped in the online check in line, since I had checked in online a few days prior. I had also called the hotel and made a request for the first floor of building 5. We wanted to be as close to all the action as possible. I did not have to wait, the Disney Cast member called me right up. Everything was in order, she gave me the $200 gift card from the promotion and our room was ready and my request was fulfilled! We were in room 5102 which was awesome. I asked the cast member about my deliver from the Disney florist and she informed me that it would be delivered with my luggage. Well okay, with that all taken care of, we gathered our belongings and headed off in search of our room. We found it right away and it was beautiful. By now it was about 2-2:30 and we were all starving from not eating since 6 AM, so we decided to grab something to eat at the Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory which is the only restaurant on the FQ property and it is counter service. The kids had chicken nuggets and DMIL and I had the chicken cesar wrap and chips. It was very good. We purchased our refillable mugs and went on our way.

This is totally off topic, but when you visit Disney, is there always something there that you eat or drink all week long and get addicted to it? Well myn would be powerade. I only drink it when at Disney, when I am at home, I would not touch the stuff, but at Disney, I drink it a whole week long. It is funny because each time I go, they have a different flavor, this time it was red.

Okay, let’s get back on track here. We left the restaurant and headed back to the room, to our surprise, our luggage had arrived already and so did my florist delivery. I had ordered a tote bag filled with snacks for the kids. It included cookies, crackers and cheese spread, candy, apples and oranges. We decided to head off to the MK. First we had to stop at the luggage room to pick up my stroller rental. We had rented a stroller from Orlando Stroller Rentals which was AWESOME! Anyone that has an infant or toddler, I highly suggest using this service instead of the strollers in the parks. We had a ressie for Tony’s at 5:45 and I wanted to get through as much in Fantasyland as we could tonite. When we arrived, we could not believe the crowds!

Sorry to go off topic again but I needed to include this in my report. We thought that the park was really crowded and the wait times were long, but we had never been at that time of the year before. Also, my DFIL is handicapped so when we usually go, we skip the lines because of his wheelchair, so, I do not know, maybe it was not all that crowded but we just assumed it was?

Okay, back to the topic at hand. We entered the park and made our way to Fantasyland, which was hard because the parade was going on. We got on the following rides before we gave up and decided to just go to dinner: IASW, Philharmagic, Cindy’s Carousel and Snow White. Some of the waits were 80 minutes long! We ended up getting to our reservation a little early, but they seated us right away. I had chicken parm, the rest had spaghetti. It was delicious as always. Tony’s is one of my favorite restaurants Disney, but I have found a few more this trip. After dinner, we decided to head back to the hotel because exhaustion had sunk in. Savannah fell asleep on the bus, we tucked her right into bed. DMIL took a shower while Alex and I did a little exploring of the hotel grounds. We were surprised at how quiet the hotel had been even though the parks were so crowded. We started to get sleepy and after taking showers of our own, we decided to turn in for the night. We set a wake up call for 6 AM. We were going to have another early morning.



Up Next….Why an early morning? What park was on the agenda??? Who was missing some Disney pixie dust??? All in the next installment…..

 

[Heatherhy01]

Sorry it has taken me so long to write again, I have been busy trying to catch up at work. So, let’s get on with the TR……

3/25/09 Wednesday

RING, RING…….wake up call….Stitch says NO SLEEPING!!! Alex answered the phone today. I did not answer one wake up call all week. I let the kids do it and the DMIL even answered one day.

We jumped up and immediately got dressed to dine with royalty at Norway’s Akershus Princess breakfast. This is probably our favorite place for breakfast in Disney and it has changed a little since we were there last. Last time we were there, they did not have the cold buffet. This time they had fruits and danishes. YUMMY!!!

We waited awhile for the EPCOT bus, we were ready by 7:00 and that is early for the buses. The bus finally arrived at about 7:50. There were some others waiting for the bus complaining about how late they come and I guess they were late for their reservation. They were very angry. But not us, our ressie was for 8:40, so when we got to the park, we hopped in the early reservation line, went in and took our time walking to Norway. It was so nice being able to wander through and get some great shots of the topiaries with out anyone else in our way.

We arrived at Akershus, parked our stroller, signed in and got a great shot with Belle. To our surprise, it was our lucky day!!! Cinderella was there too! Along with Ariel, Snow White and Aurora. The other change that was made since our last trip is the pictures come with the package instead of having to purchase them separately. The breakfast was awesome, scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon. yum, yum and yum!!!

We said goodbye to the princesses and headed out to partake in some attractions. I think that I had gotten us up too early because, we were all tired already or due to our tummies being full? Our first stop was the Imagination Pavillion where we were shrunk down in Honey I Shrunk the Audience and then on to one of my favorites…Figment!!! I love this attraction, I do not remember the old way, this is the only way that I have ever seen it and I love it. Next, I believe we had visited The Land. The kids were not too impressed, but I was. I love going through and seeing how they grow their different fruits and veggies. Soarin was a very long wait, we decided to skip it. We never did get back to it the rest of the trip. We visited Innoventions and we went into the new attraction, I cannot remember the name, but the one where it simulates a storm and what you can do to protect yourself and your house. That was pretty cool. A little scary for Savannah, but she did o.k. We ended up back at Spaceship Earth and decided it was really cool with the upgrade!!

We decided to go back to the hotel for a break and we would visit another park after dinner. I ended up taking a nap while DMIL took the girls swimming.

We ate dinner at the hotel then headed off to Animal Kingdom for the EMH. Now AK is our least favorite park. We only did 3 attractions while there. It’s Tough to be a Bug and in dinoland, we took the kids on the 2 rides there. We never went back to AK after that night. We felt like it was a waste of time. They were open until 9 PM, but there was no Safari running, the last one was at 6. They had no shows going, there really wasn’t much to do.

We went back to the hotel to crash since we had a long day. And we had a 7 AM wake up call for the next day.

Up Next: High School Musical 3, free fastpasses!!! Also, fun at Hollywood & Vine!!!

 

[Heatherhy01]

3/26/09 Thursday

RING…RING…. 7 am wake up call. Stitch again! We get dressed and run out the door to the hotel counter service restaurant for breakfast. MMMMMMM chocolate chip pancakes!!! My favorite and Alex’s. Savannah had a breakfast sandwich.

We went and waited for the bus, it was very quiet this morning at the hotel. We did not have to wait long and we were off to Hollywood Studios! My favorite park.

We arrived a few minutes before 9 and the crowd of people amazed me! The gates were opened and we all began to file in. Now, I had studied the map and everyone that knows me can tell you that I am a lousy map reader. Today was no different. So we want to get to Toy Story Mania and we start walking. We ended up at the Rockin Roller Coaster & Tower of Terror. I know, I went in the complete wrong direction. DMIL took the map and headed us in the right direction. By the time that we arrived at TSM, the wait time was 80 minutes. I jumped in the fastpass line while the others got in line for The Little Mermaid show. I waited maybe 10-15 minutes. Then I received my Fastpasses for between 12 & 1:00. I went back to The Little Mermaid and for anyone that has never seen this, it was so cute. My girls loved it. It is like a musical version, but shorter, only like 15 minutes long. I believe that next we heard the High School musical 3 music and quick ran to get a seat to watch the show. Alex was picked to dance and of course she LOVED it! Then we went to see the Muppets. It was great as usual. Next was the Great Movie Ride. We stood in line for about 30 minutes and would have been on the next ride when we heard this announcement. “Attention ladies and gentlemen, the great movie ride is down for maintenance, please file out the exit doors and have a great day”. So next was Playhouse Disney. I love taking the kids into this one. I love to watch the little ones as they are dancing around. They are so cute. We saw Pooh & friends, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

We wandered up to Hollywood & Vine for our lunch ressie at 2:25. This is a character lunch with the Playhouse Disney characters. The food was mediocre. It was not one of the best that we had, but the kids enjoyed the characters.

We wandered down to the RRC. The wait time was 80 minutes. Alex & I hopped in line and waited about 15 minutes when we were tapped on the shoulder by a kind woman. She had 5 fastpasses that were timed for right then and she had not wanted. I took 2 for us and gave the rest to the kind lady behind me. We hopped into the fastpass line and we were rockin out in no time. I do love this ride, however, I really noticed the loops this time and normally, I do not. We hopped back in line for the Great Movie Ride and we were riding through movie history in 15 minutes! I love this ride, my favorite part is the Wizard of Oz. One of my fav’s from when I was a kid.

We wandered through a few shops and made our way out. We arrived back to the hotel and the girls and I took a quick dip in the pool. It was chilly, but the kids did not mind at all. We decided to sleep in tomorrow, so we hit the hay and had some sweet Disney dreams!!!

UP NEXT…..Savannah needs new clothes, The best breakfast and popping the lifeguard, all in the next installment……