princesskimberella
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
We are the Williams family Daniel, Kimmie, Nathaniel (12) Rosalie (10) and Sophia (9) and this was our 2nd trip to the World as a family. Our first trip the kids were 6,4, and 3 and boy was it a totally different experiance this time around! The 1st time the kids were small enough to just go along with mom and dad wanted to do, this time everyone has a different idea of what they want to do for the day and different interests. It was a little tricky when everyone is super excited to get everyone to take a step back, relax and realize we will get to everything in due time. Overall we had a FANTASTIC time even with a few bumps along the road !
DAY 1 - December 12th - TRAVEL DAY / DOWNTOWN DISNEY
We left Metro Detroit Airport at 8:20am and had a really good flight into Orlando, we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get on the Magical Express bus and were headed to our favorite place to stay Port Orleans Riverside. Funny thing we actually pulled right up to POR's frint door at 12:12 pm on 12/12/12 !
Headed directy to the online check-in were it unfortunately took us over an hour to check -in. The line was crazy long compared to the regular check-in line and when I finally was the next person I was given my stuff and then realized we were not in a preferred room. So we had to wait for them to move us and have new keys printed. We decided to add another park day and was told I had to do that in another line, ok... off to the concierge I go only to find out that we have NO park days at all on our cards
but our dining and rooms are on the cards, so after the CM talks to to another CM they tell me I need to go to guest services, which is in Downtown Disney( we were headed there for dinner but still if we were not that would have been very inconvinent). By this time I am getting pretty frustrated so the CM finds the manager, she fiddles with the computer for a while and they are all at a loss because this has never happend before. She could see all the reservations and park days but they could not get them on the room keys, so they printed our park days on seperate cards. Ok I have my parks days but now I have to juggle 10 cards, and she gave us 5 fast passed to use anywhere but TSMM...
So we finally get to our room, change and head to Downtown Disney for dinner at T-Rex's. T-Rex's was awesome ! Our server made sure to explain the whole menu to us and how to best use our DDP for entrees and desserts. The kids loved being able to order anything they wanted with the DDP and the atmospher was really cool. The kids were excited when the server encouarged them to get up and walk around and check out the whole place.
We shopped a little after dinner and headed back for a good nights rest before we head to the parks.
DECEMBER 13th - EPCOT
We arrived at EPCOT about 10 minutes before park opening, and headed right to the Test Track, we waited about 10 minutes to get to the point where you design your vehicle which was pretty cool. The kids enjoyed seeing how their designed were ranked after eah SIM test. We headed over to The Land next rode Soarin and The Land ride by then everyone was getting a bit hungry. We head to the World Showcase to eat - I had this great plan that everyone could eat whatever they felt like, DH and I knew we wanted Mexican and figured all 3 kids would have Chinese.. Well my Rosie really didnt want either and said to me " you said we can have eat where ever we wanted to " so I leave DH in China with the other two and high tail it to USA for a burger well we get there and Rosie is excited to find out she can get the NY strip steak for lunch. We get her steak and make it back to China were DH is now full because my kids had so much food and he finished it. The NY strip was actually really good since it was so big my daughter couldnt finish it I ended up eating it.
My Phone rings and my kids get the news they have been wating for all day Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Justin are in the park ! We wait for them to meet us and start our tour through the World Showcase, really quickly we find out that Rosie really has no interest in the WS and wants to go back to riding rides in FW. NAthaniel and Sophie really enjoyed watching seeing all the different cultures. So Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa take her on Maelstro and the Mexico ride while the other kids take their time exploring the countries. We also did the Agent P thing which was really cool. We headed back to FW to The Land sicne we had ADRs at Garden Grill. I was very happy that they were able to alllow my parents and brother to eat with us, I had been trying to add then to our ressie for the past 2 months with no success. Dinner was great as well as the character interaction, it was one of our best meals during the trip.
We finished out the night in FW hitting The Seas, Spaceship Earth and Test Track again and watched a bit of Illuminations, till the kids got pushed out of there spots by another family - little did I know this was just the beginning of the rude things I would see people do at Disney.
DECEMBER 14th - MAGIC KINGDOM
We arrived just after rope drop and since to mob was heading to New FantasyLAnd we headed to Tomorrow Land. We walked right onto Buzz, Space Mountain, Speedway, Tea Cups, met a few characters and made our way back to Fantasy Land which was crazy packed. We stopped for snacks - kids were in heaven that I allowed them ice cream at 10:30 am. This is the day I had the FP+ test cards since I had things scheduled for fantasy land late afternoon we headed to Adventure Land rode Pirate, Magic Carpets, Jungle Cruise were Nathaniel was chosen to drive the boat thru the tunnel, Splash Mountian, we hit Haunted Mansion on our way back toward the front of the park.
We had a later lunch at Crystal Palace at 2pm, I was really kinda bummed since I heard so many good things about CP, but I will try it again maybe for breakfast. The food was ok, and we waited a very long time for the characters to get to our table, once there they were one right after another so it worked out.
When we left we were kinda stuck in the parade crowd for a bit till we made it to Storybook Circus kid tried to ride Dumbo standby but the play area did not appeal to them waiting for 25 minutes. They enjoyed the Casey Jr train and loved watching the Giggle Gang clowns. It was finally time to use our FP+ so we hit Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh sadly we missed our Little Mermaid due to it being down, same with Big Thunder Mountian. We may have been able to go back but had to leave due to MVMCP. By 5:00 the park seemed really packed due to those able to get in early for MVMCP so we decided to head out but were stopped due to the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it show which was fine since the kids LOVED it
We made it out of the park and took a monarail ride over to Grand Floridian to check out the decorations. We ended up with our favorite photo from the trip in front of the tree there. Ended up back at POR by 7:30 grabbed a bite from the food court and the kids hit the pool.
DECEMBER 15th - ANIMAL KINGDOM
I woke up that morning cover over the plan in my mind and decided I could not do heavy buffet food for lunch another day. I was craving a good breakfast instead of just cereal and breakfast bars in the room. I called the Disney Ressie line and they could get all 8 of us in at Tusker House at 9:15, it was 8:00 and the kids were still in bed. Well we made it on time with a few minutes to spare !
It was so yummy and my son keeps asking me to try to make the jungle juice.
We hit pretty much everything in the park with no more than a 20 minute wait even Expedition Everest. By 3 the kids were starting to feel tired and hot and wanted to go back to the resort and swim. While waiting for the bus back my 18 year old brother is sitting on the rail and as my mom tells him to get off he flips backward, he catches himself but all his weight was put on one foot. He says he is fine....
Back at the resort the kids swam, I did some laundry, grandma took a nap and my dad decided to go back to Epcot all by himself lol. I will say POR has some really good pizza, make your own pasta and salad stations.
We took the boats to Downtown Disney, it is such a nice ride and so much better than the bus. Although our captain told us the transmission was going in the boat and reverse was giving him issue and if reverse goes then the engine goes. So it was a but if an edgy ride down there. It was really busy Downtown but we picked up some stuff at World of Disney and the Lego Store.
DECEMBER 16th - Hollywood Studios
So we let the kids sleep till they wake up since we plan to take advantage of EMH tonight. Well I get a call from my dad, Justin's whole top of his foot is swollen and bruised and hurts real bad. The resort sent paramedics over and set then up with a shuttle to the clinic. He just bruised it really bad and they wrapped it and gave him crutches but we ended up gettign him a wheelchair.
We head to HS and figure we will meet up wiht my parents later. We head to TSMM and they run out of FP as we walk up
We walked right on Muppets, Great Movie Ride, Star Tours hit the Indian Jones Show. At 3 we meet up with Grandparents at Mama Melrose, this was probably our worst dining experience. We waited over 40 minutes to be seated, and on top of it our server was very rude to my children asking my son if he as sure he wanted a steak because she thought it would be to big for him and snipped at my daughter when she asked for ranch on her salad that they only have oil and vinager. We will probably not go back, the food was only so-so..
Since the wait was only 45 minutes for TSMM we waited it out, this was our longest wait the whole trip and the kids said it was worth it. We hit the 8:00 Fantasmic, where we encountered some of the rudest people trying to get in, my brother is in a wheel chair and people look right at it then cut right in front and stop to take a picture or look at their phones. Or the oned that ignore the CM when they tell them the line is back that way then just walk up a little ways and cut into the crowd anyway. Are the guy who cut right in between our family as we were going on star tours and ignored me 3 times I said excuse me to get with my husband and kids, dh finally reached behind him and grabbed my hand and pulled me to him and said to the guy she is with us. The guy went off saying people keep walking in front of him all day. DH said well you just walked in front of my wife and she asked 3 times nicely to please get with her family and you ignored her, this is Disney World people are always around you but being rude will only make things worse.
After Fantasmic, EMH started and it was our first time taking advantage of them. Since we are night owls the evening one work well for us. Thankfully I was carrying all 10 of our cards because I didnt know we needed to show our room keys. We rode everything again, and the kids enjoyed the lower crowds in the Osborne Lights area.
DECEMBER 17th - MAGIC KINGDOM
Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Justin left this morning so it is just our family of 5 We get the MK around 10:30 hit FantasyLand, and use FP as much as we can. Little Mermaid was one of our FP and we walked right on and had another 50 minutes till we could get another FP so we decided to try out Be OUr Guest for lunch. It was about 30 minute wait to get inside which was around 1:00, it seemed like forever to get in maybe because everyone was really hungry and I had a migraine coming on Once we made it to the kiosk it went really smooth and by the time we found a table and got our drinks the food was at our table. We sat in the west wing right in front of the enchanted rose, we had lots of company lol since everyone wants a pic with the rose! DH said this was his favorite meal he had the ham and cheese, Nathaniel and Sophie had the steak sandwich they liked it but had a hard time eating it and sai it woudl be better if the steak was sliced thinner, Rosie and I had the turkey sandwich, the turkey was really yummy, we didnt car for the honey mustard so we picked the meat off the bread. We were s full from lunch that we ended up cancelling our ADR's for Liberty Tree Tavern
After lunch we bummed around tomorrowland and fantasyland, DH took the girls on rides while I sat and watched my son dance at the Club 626 dance party and let my meds take effect for my migraine. We did some relaxing type rides like the people mover and ride the train to the back of park since at 7 pm the castle was pretty crowded with people already staking out spots for MSEP and Wishes. We rode everything again in adventureland and got a good spot across from Pecos Bills at 8;45 for the parade. DH parked my daughter Sophia in her wheel chair (her JRA was really acting up) Rosie and I hit BTM one more time before the parade. Well we got back at 9:10 and DH had Rosie's spot saved with her backpack and NAthaniel sat on the other side of Sophie.. all is good... till Rosie gets up to get her drink on the other side of the wheel chair and in a flash some lady shoves her daughter in an umbrella stroller right where Rosie was sitting ! The gentleman next to me said to me Did that just happen, I was speechless, Rosie is ready to cry and this lady is staring straight ahead ignoring the comments from those around her. So the very nice people and the other side of us very loudly made a point to say dont worry we will make room for you next to us. Parade was beautiful, 2st time we saw it EP last itme it was spectromagic. After the parade we ate at Pecos Bill's on the patio and watched Wishes from there. By the time we made it back to Fantasyland it was very cleared out and we enjoyed EMH till 2 am !
The kids all cried on the way back to the bus stop because this was our last night
The trip was so great and fun and we are already planning our next trip, hopefully in 2 years once all of Fantasy Land is complete.
DAY 1 - December 12th - TRAVEL DAY / DOWNTOWN DISNEY
We left Metro Detroit Airport at 8:20am and had a really good flight into Orlando, we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get on the Magical Express bus and were headed to our favorite place to stay Port Orleans Riverside. Funny thing we actually pulled right up to POR's frint door at 12:12 pm on 12/12/12 !
Headed directy to the online check-in were it unfortunately took us over an hour to check -in. The line was crazy long compared to the regular check-in line and when I finally was the next person I was given my stuff and then realized we were not in a preferred room. So we had to wait for them to move us and have new keys printed. We decided to add another park day and was told I had to do that in another line, ok... off to the concierge I go only to find out that we have NO park days at all on our cards
but our dining and rooms are on the cards, so after the CM talks to to another CM they tell me I need to go to guest services, which is in Downtown Disney( we were headed there for dinner but still if we were not that would have been very inconvinent). By this time I am getting pretty frustrated so the CM finds the manager, she fiddles with the computer for a while and they are all at a loss because this has never happend before. She could see all the reservations and park days but they could not get them on the room keys, so they printed our park days on seperate cards. Ok I have my parks days but now I have to juggle 10 cards, and she gave us 5 fast passed to use anywhere but TSMM...So we finally get to our room, change and head to Downtown Disney for dinner at T-Rex's. T-Rex's was awesome ! Our server made sure to explain the whole menu to us and how to best use our DDP for entrees and desserts. The kids loved being able to order anything they wanted with the DDP and the atmospher was really cool. The kids were excited when the server encouarged them to get up and walk around and check out the whole place.
We shopped a little after dinner and headed back for a good nights rest before we head to the parks.
DECEMBER 13th - EPCOT
We arrived at EPCOT about 10 minutes before park opening, and headed right to the Test Track, we waited about 10 minutes to get to the point where you design your vehicle which was pretty cool. The kids enjoyed seeing how their designed were ranked after eah SIM test. We headed over to The Land next rode Soarin and The Land ride by then everyone was getting a bit hungry. We head to the World Showcase to eat - I had this great plan that everyone could eat whatever they felt like, DH and I knew we wanted Mexican and figured all 3 kids would have Chinese.. Well my Rosie really didnt want either and said to me " you said we can have eat where ever we wanted to " so I leave DH in China with the other two and high tail it to USA for a burger well we get there and Rosie is excited to find out she can get the NY strip steak for lunch. We get her steak and make it back to China were DH is now full because my kids had so much food and he finished it. The NY strip was actually really good since it was so big my daughter couldnt finish it I ended up eating it.
My Phone rings and my kids get the news they have been wating for all day Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Justin are in the park ! We wait for them to meet us and start our tour through the World Showcase, really quickly we find out that Rosie really has no interest in the WS and wants to go back to riding rides in FW. NAthaniel and Sophie really enjoyed watching seeing all the different cultures. So Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa take her on Maelstro and the Mexico ride while the other kids take their time exploring the countries. We also did the Agent P thing which was really cool. We headed back to FW to The Land sicne we had ADRs at Garden Grill. I was very happy that they were able to alllow my parents and brother to eat with us, I had been trying to add then to our ressie for the past 2 months with no success. Dinner was great as well as the character interaction, it was one of our best meals during the trip.
We finished out the night in FW hitting The Seas, Spaceship Earth and Test Track again and watched a bit of Illuminations, till the kids got pushed out of there spots by another family - little did I know this was just the beginning of the rude things I would see people do at Disney.
DECEMBER 14th - MAGIC KINGDOM
We arrived just after rope drop and since to mob was heading to New FantasyLAnd we headed to Tomorrow Land. We walked right onto Buzz, Space Mountain, Speedway, Tea Cups, met a few characters and made our way back to Fantasy Land which was crazy packed. We stopped for snacks - kids were in heaven that I allowed them ice cream at 10:30 am. This is the day I had the FP+ test cards since I had things scheduled for fantasy land late afternoon we headed to Adventure Land rode Pirate, Magic Carpets, Jungle Cruise were Nathaniel was chosen to drive the boat thru the tunnel, Splash Mountian, we hit Haunted Mansion on our way back toward the front of the park.
We had a later lunch at Crystal Palace at 2pm, I was really kinda bummed since I heard so many good things about CP, but I will try it again maybe for breakfast. The food was ok, and we waited a very long time for the characters to get to our table, once there they were one right after another so it worked out.
When we left we were kinda stuck in the parade crowd for a bit till we made it to Storybook Circus kid tried to ride Dumbo standby but the play area did not appeal to them waiting for 25 minutes. They enjoyed the Casey Jr train and loved watching the Giggle Gang clowns. It was finally time to use our FP+ so we hit Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh sadly we missed our Little Mermaid due to it being down, same with Big Thunder Mountian. We may have been able to go back but had to leave due to MVMCP. By 5:00 the park seemed really packed due to those able to get in early for MVMCP so we decided to head out but were stopped due to the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it show which was fine since the kids LOVED it
We made it out of the park and took a monarail ride over to Grand Floridian to check out the decorations. We ended up with our favorite photo from the trip in front of the tree there. Ended up back at POR by 7:30 grabbed a bite from the food court and the kids hit the pool.
DECEMBER 15th - ANIMAL KINGDOM
I woke up that morning cover over the plan in my mind and decided I could not do heavy buffet food for lunch another day. I was craving a good breakfast instead of just cereal and breakfast bars in the room. I called the Disney Ressie line and they could get all 8 of us in at Tusker House at 9:15, it was 8:00 and the kids were still in bed. Well we made it on time with a few minutes to spare !
It was so yummy and my son keeps asking me to try to make the jungle juice.
We hit pretty much everything in the park with no more than a 20 minute wait even Expedition Everest. By 3 the kids were starting to feel tired and hot and wanted to go back to the resort and swim. While waiting for the bus back my 18 year old brother is sitting on the rail and as my mom tells him to get off he flips backward, he catches himself but all his weight was put on one foot. He says he is fine....
Back at the resort the kids swam, I did some laundry, grandma took a nap and my dad decided to go back to Epcot all by himself lol. I will say POR has some really good pizza, make your own pasta and salad stations.
We took the boats to Downtown Disney, it is such a nice ride and so much better than the bus. Although our captain told us the transmission was going in the boat and reverse was giving him issue and if reverse goes then the engine goes. So it was a but if an edgy ride down there. It was really busy Downtown but we picked up some stuff at World of Disney and the Lego Store.
DECEMBER 16th - Hollywood Studios
So we let the kids sleep till they wake up since we plan to take advantage of EMH tonight. Well I get a call from my dad, Justin's whole top of his foot is swollen and bruised and hurts real bad. The resort sent paramedics over and set then up with a shuttle to the clinic. He just bruised it really bad and they wrapped it and gave him crutches but we ended up gettign him a wheelchair.
We head to HS and figure we will meet up wiht my parents later. We head to TSMM and they run out of FP as we walk up
We walked right on Muppets, Great Movie Ride, Star Tours hit the Indian Jones Show. At 3 we meet up with Grandparents at Mama Melrose, this was probably our worst dining experience. We waited over 40 minutes to be seated, and on top of it our server was very rude to my children asking my son if he as sure he wanted a steak because she thought it would be to big for him and snipped at my daughter when she asked for ranch on her salad that they only have oil and vinager. We will probably not go back, the food was only so-so..
Since the wait was only 45 minutes for TSMM we waited it out, this was our longest wait the whole trip and the kids said it was worth it. We hit the 8:00 Fantasmic, where we encountered some of the rudest people trying to get in, my brother is in a wheel chair and people look right at it then cut right in front and stop to take a picture or look at their phones. Or the oned that ignore the CM when they tell them the line is back that way then just walk up a little ways and cut into the crowd anyway. Are the guy who cut right in between our family as we were going on star tours and ignored me 3 times I said excuse me to get with my husband and kids, dh finally reached behind him and grabbed my hand and pulled me to him and said to the guy she is with us. The guy went off saying people keep walking in front of him all day. DH said well you just walked in front of my wife and she asked 3 times nicely to please get with her family and you ignored her, this is Disney World people are always around you but being rude will only make things worse.
After Fantasmic, EMH started and it was our first time taking advantage of them. Since we are night owls the evening one work well for us. Thankfully I was carrying all 10 of our cards because I didnt know we needed to show our room keys. We rode everything again, and the kids enjoyed the lower crowds in the Osborne Lights area.
DECEMBER 17th - MAGIC KINGDOM
Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Justin left this morning so it is just our family of 5
We get the MK around 10:30 hit FantasyLand, and use FP as much as we can. Little Mermaid was one of our FP and we walked right on and had another 50 minutes till we could get another FP so we decided to try out Be OUr Guest for lunch. It was about 30 minute wait to get inside which was around 1:00, it seemed like forever to get in maybe because everyone was really hungry and I had a migraine coming on Once we made it to the kiosk it went really smooth and by the time we found a table and got our drinks the food was at our table. We sat in the west wing right in front of the enchanted rose, we had lots of company lol since everyone wants a pic with the rose! DH said this was his favorite meal he had the ham and cheese, Nathaniel and Sophie had the steak sandwich they liked it but had a hard time eating it and sai it woudl be better if the steak was sliced thinner, Rosie and I had the turkey sandwich, the turkey was really yummy, we didnt car for the honey mustard so we picked the meat off the bread. We were s full from lunch that we ended up cancelling our ADR's for Liberty Tree TavernAfter lunch we bummed around tomorrowland and fantasyland, DH took the girls on rides while I sat and watched my son dance at the Club 626 dance party and let my meds take effect for my migraine. We did some relaxing type rides like the people mover and ride the train to the back of park since at 7 pm the castle was pretty crowded with people already staking out spots for MSEP and Wishes. We rode everything again in adventureland and got a good spot across from Pecos Bills at 8;45 for the parade. DH parked my daughter Sophia in her wheel chair (her JRA was really acting up) Rosie and I hit BTM one more time before the parade. Well we got back at 9:10 and DH had Rosie's spot saved with her backpack and NAthaniel sat on the other side of Sophie.. all is good... till Rosie gets up to get her drink on the other side of the wheel chair and in a flash some lady shoves her daughter in an umbrella stroller right where Rosie was sitting ! The gentleman next to me said to me Did that just happen, I was speechless, Rosie is ready to cry and this lady is staring straight ahead ignoring the comments from those around her. So the very nice people and the other side of us very loudly made a point to say dont worry we will make room for you next to us. Parade was beautiful, 2st time we saw it EP last itme it was spectromagic. After the parade we ate at Pecos Bill's on the patio and watched Wishes from there. By the time we made it back to Fantasyland it was very cleared out and we enjoyed EMH till 2 am !
The kids all cried on the way back to the bus stop because this was our last night
The trip was so great and fun and we are already planning our next trip, hopefully in 2 years once all of Fantasy Land is complete.
