Dreamer & Wisher
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2006
- Messages
- 2,877
Cast Members: The Daniel Family from Georgia
Me (34) The go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Tell me where to be or what to do and Im there!
DW (34) The biggest Disney addict in our family. She loves planning the trips and I love letting her because we always have a good time.
DD (5) What 5-year-old doesnt love Disney? She likes all the princesses and is particularly entranced by Tinker Bell. Her favorite ride (mine, too) is the Peter Pan Ride. DW made her a Snow White costume to wear to Cinderellas Royal Table.
DS (2) The stinkers already done Disney three times in his two years. Pretty good average! He really likes the Toy Story and Pooh characters and really warmed up to all of them on this trip. DW made him a Peter Pan costume to wear. He was adorable, but he kept stabbing at people with his fake sword. Those things still hurt!
Also with us were DWs parents, who live far away in Illinois. DWs sister (30) who lives near us -- also came along for part of the trip and brought her husband (34) and step-daughter (12).
This was supposed to be a Magical Gathering with DWs family a rare chance for the grandparents to see two of their three total grandkids enjoying Disney World. It turned into a nightmare about halfway through the trip (DW says not to give away the details this early, but I will say we never even got to use our Maelstrom fastpasses at Epcot on Day 5!). We visited three resorts on this trip. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for one night before the grandparents arrived. We spent the next three nights at Coronado Springs in a room that was connected to the grandparents room before what we now call the incident. Disney was very gracious in allowing us to move to Caribbean Beach for the final three nights after the incident, which worked out nice because we liked Caribbean Beach a lot better.
Anyway, here is how things went from the beginning:
Departure/Arrival/Day 1:
We live about 450 miles from Disney, so we drove down. It takes us in the neighborhood of about 8 hours to get there. We got off about 6:30 a.m., grabbed some coffee from Starbucks and by 2:30 that afternoon we were pulling into the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our one-night stay. DW called the resort a few days earlier and requested a room with bunk beds for the kids. We had booked a standard room, but when we arrived we got a complimentary upgrade to a Savanna view room with our bunk beds. Really cool!
After taking a break from the drive and spending some time on our balcony looking at all the animals, we headed for the pool. DW really liked the fact that the pool sloped from the sides (rather than the typical stairs straight down three feet or whatever). It was about 95 degrees late in the afternoon and the water was just right. We got to play in the pool for about two hours before a storm cloud got close enough that the lifeguards asked everyone to get out of the pool (Ernesto was approaching).
For dinner, we went to Boma. Im sort of a picky eater, so I dont think I was as impressed with the place as DW was (I can get rotisserie chicken anywhere!). Everything had cinnamon in it! I did enjoy a lovely adult beverage (the Pretoria Punch) with the meal. DS was tired and climbed all over the bench seat and several empty chairs while we waited for our check. Our waitress was giving another family a complete description of all 4 theme parks and which rides had fastpasses to another table (we waited about 30 minutes on our check while this went on maybe she finally got the hint when she saw the tip I left her). A manager stopped by the table to tell us that all the theme parks would be open the next day despite Ernesto threatening to dump buckets of rain on us. It didnt matter since we had an off day from the parks scheduled with the grandparents flying in mid-morning. Ernesto was pretty much gone by Day 3 when we hit our first park the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, for us, the grandparents werent.
Me (34) The go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Tell me where to be or what to do and Im there!
DW (34) The biggest Disney addict in our family. She loves planning the trips and I love letting her because we always have a good time.
DD (5) What 5-year-old doesnt love Disney? She likes all the princesses and is particularly entranced by Tinker Bell. Her favorite ride (mine, too) is the Peter Pan Ride. DW made her a Snow White costume to wear to Cinderellas Royal Table.
DS (2) The stinkers already done Disney three times in his two years. Pretty good average! He really likes the Toy Story and Pooh characters and really warmed up to all of them on this trip. DW made him a Peter Pan costume to wear. He was adorable, but he kept stabbing at people with his fake sword. Those things still hurt!
Also with us were DWs parents, who live far away in Illinois. DWs sister (30) who lives near us -- also came along for part of the trip and brought her husband (34) and step-daughter (12).
This was supposed to be a Magical Gathering with DWs family a rare chance for the grandparents to see two of their three total grandkids enjoying Disney World. It turned into a nightmare about halfway through the trip (DW says not to give away the details this early, but I will say we never even got to use our Maelstrom fastpasses at Epcot on Day 5!). We visited three resorts on this trip. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for one night before the grandparents arrived. We spent the next three nights at Coronado Springs in a room that was connected to the grandparents room before what we now call the incident. Disney was very gracious in allowing us to move to Caribbean Beach for the final three nights after the incident, which worked out nice because we liked Caribbean Beach a lot better.
Anyway, here is how things went from the beginning:
Departure/Arrival/Day 1:
We live about 450 miles from Disney, so we drove down. It takes us in the neighborhood of about 8 hours to get there. We got off about 6:30 a.m., grabbed some coffee from Starbucks and by 2:30 that afternoon we were pulling into the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our one-night stay. DW called the resort a few days earlier and requested a room with bunk beds for the kids. We had booked a standard room, but when we arrived we got a complimentary upgrade to a Savanna view room with our bunk beds. Really cool!
After taking a break from the drive and spending some time on our balcony looking at all the animals, we headed for the pool. DW really liked the fact that the pool sloped from the sides (rather than the typical stairs straight down three feet or whatever). It was about 95 degrees late in the afternoon and the water was just right. We got to play in the pool for about two hours before a storm cloud got close enough that the lifeguards asked everyone to get out of the pool (Ernesto was approaching).
For dinner, we went to Boma. Im sort of a picky eater, so I dont think I was as impressed with the place as DW was (I can get rotisserie chicken anywhere!). Everything had cinnamon in it! I did enjoy a lovely adult beverage (the Pretoria Punch) with the meal. DS was tired and climbed all over the bench seat and several empty chairs while we waited for our check. Our waitress was giving another family a complete description of all 4 theme parks and which rides had fastpasses to another table (we waited about 30 minutes on our check while this went on maybe she finally got the hint when she saw the tip I left her). A manager stopped by the table to tell us that all the theme parks would be open the next day despite Ernesto threatening to dump buckets of rain on us. It didnt matter since we had an off day from the parks scheduled with the grandparents flying in mid-morning. Ernesto was pretty much gone by Day 3 when we hit our first park the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, for us, the grandparents werent.
I want to know about the incident!
Obviously sis and I can "live" with our parents for a lonnnng period of time! Can't wait to hear what happened with yours!!! Call me a nosy busy body or gossip or whatever, but I just love to hear the dish about other families - makes us all realize that we are not alone out there in family-weirdville......
More More!!!
