mandymouse
Bahama Mama Time !!
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2003
- Messages
- 72,440
Castmembers
Me, Mandy Christmas Co-ordinator Extraordinaire/Mega-Planner
DH, Paul Driver, always goes with the flow, cant make important decisions like where were going to eat
DD1, age 14 Jasmine/Tinker Bell mad
DD2, age 12 Thinks she likes Stitch more than me (but I do !!)
Christmas Day
We woke up at 7am to open our Christmas presents, the girls had both had Pirates of the Caribbean stuff including calendars, necklaces, notepads & tops. Becky had a huge Reindeer Stitch and a Pop Century top, and Kerry had mainly Disney tops. I had a Mickey bag, sunglasses, tree decoration and Captain Jack Sparrow T-Shirt (as in picture).
We spent a very quiet morning in Universal Studios (see IOA/US report) and after a bit of a sunbathe in the afternoon we had a drinky-poo around the world evening in Epcot (see Epcot report).
Pop Century
We loved this resort, and will be going back in December. Our room was in the 90s block next to the Computer pool. The pool area was always quiet, and it was in a bit of a sun trap as it always felt warm around there.
We only had to walk through the car park to get the bus or food court.
There was an outside bar, and there was one inside the food court too which served Bahama Mamas (woohoo !!). The food was lovely, we had a turkey dinner there one night, and we had the usually 16 pizza, chicken strips and the girls had there first Sloppy Joe too (rather nice).
The theming of the resort was pretty much like the All Stars, with big and bright icons and there were twister games that we played on the way back to our room. Like the All Stars you can buy the refillable mugs, which is great if you drink loads of soft drinks and they even have frozen coke free too.
We had heard a lot of negative comments about the bus service to/from the Pop Century, but we never had any problems. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes one time.
Weather
The weather for our first few days was a bit drizzly and cool, then into our first week it would be cold in the mornings and evenings and warm enough to sunbathe in the afternoon (which we always took advantage of).
Into our second week the weather was cool in the mornings and then every day was nice enough for T-Shirts and sunbathing.
Dining
We ate mainly in the Parks or in the Pop Century, on one occasion we really fancied a Chinese meal and wrongly I thought that the Ming Court was a buffet style restaurant. Anyway we werent really paying attention when we went in. We ordered drinks and then realized that there was a menu. I cant really remember what we had (I shouldve written it down) there would have been some Chicken fried rice, a lo mein, another chicken dish and I think I had a sizzling beef dish. It was all very nice and tasty, but we were so disappointed because we wanted a buffet style place (can anyone recommend one ??).
Chef Mickeys
This was our Christmas Eve treat. It was the only day that we didnt rush to get out, but we were still ready and out for 9am. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom, then caught the Monorail over to the Contemporary Resort. Our reservation was for 10am, so we had a good look around the shops.
We checked-in and were given a pager, we didnt bother going for the photo as we knew we wouldnt buy it, so we sat down and when Santa Goofy arrived, we took some video and photos. We were then shown to our table and let loose on the buffet. We had fruit to start with, then it was over to the hot food, I love all the omlettes, pizza slices, scrambled eggs and potato/corned beef hash. I also finished off with a couple of mini-danishes (I then had to be rolled back to the Pop Century).
It was a lovely atmosphere at Chef Mickeys, we did the 'Celebrate with Mickey Mouse' napkin waving song and saw all the characters, Chef Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale and Pluto and of course the food was excellent.
Shopping
We love to shop (yes even hubby does) and we did a couple of shopping evenings. The girls bought most of their gifts to friends from the Premium Outlet, I got most of mine from DownTown Disney and we had several visits to Wal-Mart (you just cant beat it). We also went to the Florida Mall a couple of times, hubby bought himself an I-Pod and I bought him some bits for it for his birthday. We also found the Cyber Café there, which was very comfortable and spacious while I checked-in on the Dis.
We did the Prime Outlets (Belz Mall) once (wasnt too impressed), we went to Lake Buena Vista a couple of times (mainly to get on-line, and where I bought hubby the worlds dearest box of Terrys Chocolate Orange for Christmas about $13). We also took our first visit to The Mall of Millenia, we werent really impressed with that, I mean the mall is lovely, but the stores werent really my thing, I think we stayed for about 20 minutes.
On a visit to DownTown Disney we also went to the AMC cinema, this was on Christmas Eve after our lazy day of going to Chef Mickeys in the morning, sunbathing and popping to DTD for a McDonalds. We went to see Fun With Dick & Jane starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni, it was a great way to end the day as the film was funny and good for a family to see.
American Express Travellers Cheque Card
This was the first time we had used these cards. We used it like a cash card and used the ATMs in the Magic Kingdom and the Islands of Adventure. It was all pretty straight forward, the only downside was that it cost $2 to use the cash machines and $2.50 was the amex charge. So we would withdraw 3 or 4 days worth of money to cut down on charges, then wed put the money in the hotel safe. I think we will definitely use these again.
By the way, American Express has an offer on-line of free $75 if opening or reloading $1000.
Last Day/News Years Eve/ Flight home
We were up at 6.30am and today I had arranged a wake-up call from Mickey & Stitch. We finished our packing and loaded everything into the car. Today we were finishing off in our favourite park. We got to Epcot for 8am opening and already it was busy, at the rope drop about 1000 people headed for Soarin. We picked up a FastPass, then headed over to Test Track (which had a 15 minute wait), we rode that and then went on Mission;Space. We went back to The Land for our last overload of calories from danishes & cookies, and then we rode Soarin. Because it was so busy we were able to exit the ride near to toilets/entrance to Soarin, which was quite weird and it brought us our by Journey Into Your Imagination. We did JIYI one last time and at 11am we had to leave. By this time Epcot was really busy, last year we left on New Years Eve around lunchtime and like last year hundreds of people were heading in as we were leaving.
We got to Sanford around 11.50am, we didnt take the car straight back to Alamo, and within 15 minutes we had checked-in and got our boarding passes. We got back into the car and decided to kill an hour at a nearby shopping centre and have some lunch. We got back to the airport around 1.30pm, took the car back and joined the line to go through security and upstairs to the lounge. We were only there a short time when they began boarding. We were seated mid-way on the plane and it left promptly at 3.15pm.
The flight home was very quick (about 7½ hours), and I watched The War of The Worlds twice (which was quite good), the other films were Bewitched (I didnt fancy that) and The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl (no thank you !!). The food was lovely again, we had Cottage Pie with veggies, bread roll, cheese & Crackers, mini galaxy choc and a choccie cake (all very nice).
We all put our watches forward, and within no time the pilot announced that it was nearly mid-night back home. We did a countdown from 10, shouted Happy New Year and sang Auld Lang Syne. Then someone on the speaker started to sing Do, do, do, come on and do the conga and we all burst out laughing, though I was a bit disappointed that we didnt actually do the conga at 39,000 feet up.
We landed at 4.15am and within 45 minutes we had picked up our cases and had rang the Meet & Greet people to bring the car to the terminal, only to hear oh I dont have that information (déjà vu I thinks). Anyway the car would meet us at the front of the terminal in 15 minutes so we go to the lift to go up a floor. Now if you have read my other reports, you will know that eldest DD isnt keen on lifts, so when we get in on the ground floor and hear doors closing going up (then no door opening) going down going up, you can imagine that she is getting a bit panicky. On the second time of going up, Paul pulled the doors open a bit and blocked them so they had to open phew end of panic. We meet up with the car, stuck Eminem back on and then drove down a very dark, very empty and very spooky M6.
We got home about 6am, and we all piled into bed
After a couple of hours sleep, I began one of the six loads of washing and within a few hours my clean holiday clothes were going back in the case ready for the next trip.
Roll on December 2006 !!!
Me, Mandy Christmas Co-ordinator Extraordinaire/Mega-Planner
DH, Paul Driver, always goes with the flow, cant make important decisions like where were going to eat
DD1, age 14 Jasmine/Tinker Bell mad
DD2, age 12 Thinks she likes Stitch more than me (but I do !!)
Christmas Day
We woke up at 7am to open our Christmas presents, the girls had both had Pirates of the Caribbean stuff including calendars, necklaces, notepads & tops. Becky had a huge Reindeer Stitch and a Pop Century top, and Kerry had mainly Disney tops. I had a Mickey bag, sunglasses, tree decoration and Captain Jack Sparrow T-Shirt (as in picture).
We spent a very quiet morning in Universal Studios (see IOA/US report) and after a bit of a sunbathe in the afternoon we had a drinky-poo around the world evening in Epcot (see Epcot report).
Pop Century
We loved this resort, and will be going back in December. Our room was in the 90s block next to the Computer pool. The pool area was always quiet, and it was in a bit of a sun trap as it always felt warm around there.
We only had to walk through the car park to get the bus or food court.
There was an outside bar, and there was one inside the food court too which served Bahama Mamas (woohoo !!). The food was lovely, we had a turkey dinner there one night, and we had the usually 16 pizza, chicken strips and the girls had there first Sloppy Joe too (rather nice).
The theming of the resort was pretty much like the All Stars, with big and bright icons and there were twister games that we played on the way back to our room. Like the All Stars you can buy the refillable mugs, which is great if you drink loads of soft drinks and they even have frozen coke free too.
We had heard a lot of negative comments about the bus service to/from the Pop Century, but we never had any problems. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes one time.
Weather
The weather for our first few days was a bit drizzly and cool, then into our first week it would be cold in the mornings and evenings and warm enough to sunbathe in the afternoon (which we always took advantage of).
Into our second week the weather was cool in the mornings and then every day was nice enough for T-Shirts and sunbathing.
Dining
We ate mainly in the Parks or in the Pop Century, on one occasion we really fancied a Chinese meal and wrongly I thought that the Ming Court was a buffet style restaurant. Anyway we werent really paying attention when we went in. We ordered drinks and then realized that there was a menu. I cant really remember what we had (I shouldve written it down) there would have been some Chicken fried rice, a lo mein, another chicken dish and I think I had a sizzling beef dish. It was all very nice and tasty, but we were so disappointed because we wanted a buffet style place (can anyone recommend one ??).
Chef Mickeys
This was our Christmas Eve treat. It was the only day that we didnt rush to get out, but we were still ready and out for 9am. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom, then caught the Monorail over to the Contemporary Resort. Our reservation was for 10am, so we had a good look around the shops.
We checked-in and were given a pager, we didnt bother going for the photo as we knew we wouldnt buy it, so we sat down and when Santa Goofy arrived, we took some video and photos. We were then shown to our table and let loose on the buffet. We had fruit to start with, then it was over to the hot food, I love all the omlettes, pizza slices, scrambled eggs and potato/corned beef hash. I also finished off with a couple of mini-danishes (I then had to be rolled back to the Pop Century).
It was a lovely atmosphere at Chef Mickeys, we did the 'Celebrate with Mickey Mouse' napkin waving song and saw all the characters, Chef Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale and Pluto and of course the food was excellent.
Shopping
We love to shop (yes even hubby does) and we did a couple of shopping evenings. The girls bought most of their gifts to friends from the Premium Outlet, I got most of mine from DownTown Disney and we had several visits to Wal-Mart (you just cant beat it). We also went to the Florida Mall a couple of times, hubby bought himself an I-Pod and I bought him some bits for it for his birthday. We also found the Cyber Café there, which was very comfortable and spacious while I checked-in on the Dis.
We did the Prime Outlets (Belz Mall) once (wasnt too impressed), we went to Lake Buena Vista a couple of times (mainly to get on-line, and where I bought hubby the worlds dearest box of Terrys Chocolate Orange for Christmas about $13). We also took our first visit to The Mall of Millenia, we werent really impressed with that, I mean the mall is lovely, but the stores werent really my thing, I think we stayed for about 20 minutes.
On a visit to DownTown Disney we also went to the AMC cinema, this was on Christmas Eve after our lazy day of going to Chef Mickeys in the morning, sunbathing and popping to DTD for a McDonalds. We went to see Fun With Dick & Jane starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni, it was a great way to end the day as the film was funny and good for a family to see.
American Express Travellers Cheque Card
This was the first time we had used these cards. We used it like a cash card and used the ATMs in the Magic Kingdom and the Islands of Adventure. It was all pretty straight forward, the only downside was that it cost $2 to use the cash machines and $2.50 was the amex charge. So we would withdraw 3 or 4 days worth of money to cut down on charges, then wed put the money in the hotel safe. I think we will definitely use these again.
By the way, American Express has an offer on-line of free $75 if opening or reloading $1000.
Last Day/News Years Eve/ Flight home
We were up at 6.30am and today I had arranged a wake-up call from Mickey & Stitch. We finished our packing and loaded everything into the car. Today we were finishing off in our favourite park. We got to Epcot for 8am opening and already it was busy, at the rope drop about 1000 people headed for Soarin. We picked up a FastPass, then headed over to Test Track (which had a 15 minute wait), we rode that and then went on Mission;Space. We went back to The Land for our last overload of calories from danishes & cookies, and then we rode Soarin. Because it was so busy we were able to exit the ride near to toilets/entrance to Soarin, which was quite weird and it brought us our by Journey Into Your Imagination. We did JIYI one last time and at 11am we had to leave. By this time Epcot was really busy, last year we left on New Years Eve around lunchtime and like last year hundreds of people were heading in as we were leaving.
We got to Sanford around 11.50am, we didnt take the car straight back to Alamo, and within 15 minutes we had checked-in and got our boarding passes. We got back into the car and decided to kill an hour at a nearby shopping centre and have some lunch. We got back to the airport around 1.30pm, took the car back and joined the line to go through security and upstairs to the lounge. We were only there a short time when they began boarding. We were seated mid-way on the plane and it left promptly at 3.15pm.
The flight home was very quick (about 7½ hours), and I watched The War of The Worlds twice (which was quite good), the other films were Bewitched (I didnt fancy that) and The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl (no thank you !!). The food was lovely again, we had Cottage Pie with veggies, bread roll, cheese & Crackers, mini galaxy choc and a choccie cake (all very nice).
We all put our watches forward, and within no time the pilot announced that it was nearly mid-night back home. We did a countdown from 10, shouted Happy New Year and sang Auld Lang Syne. Then someone on the speaker started to sing Do, do, do, come on and do the conga and we all burst out laughing, though I was a bit disappointed that we didnt actually do the conga at 39,000 feet up.
We landed at 4.15am and within 45 minutes we had picked up our cases and had rang the Meet & Greet people to bring the car to the terminal, only to hear oh I dont have that information (déjà vu I thinks). Anyway the car would meet us at the front of the terminal in 15 minutes so we go to the lift to go up a floor. Now if you have read my other reports, you will know that eldest DD isnt keen on lifts, so when we get in on the ground floor and hear doors closing going up (then no door opening) going down going up, you can imagine that she is getting a bit panicky. On the second time of going up, Paul pulled the doors open a bit and blocked them so they had to open phew end of panic. We meet up with the car, stuck Eminem back on and then drove down a very dark, very empty and very spooky M6.
We got home about 6am, and we all piled into bed
After a couple of hours sleep, I began one of the six loads of washing and within a few hours my clean holiday clothes were going back in the case ready for the next trip.
Roll on December 2006 !!!
