TammiMcMan
Ohana
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2002
- Messages
- 6,308
Jim & Tammi - The Parents
Meagan - just finished her first year at college
Colin - extremely busy 14 year old
Casey - aka "Lola" or the "Diva"
To say that I slept like the dead would be an understatement. I think all my early mornings had finally caught up with me. The plans were to get up by 7:30, call to have our luggage stored, check out and be at the Magic Kingdom by 8:45. When I woke up, it was to that feeling of not having any idea where you are, or even what day it is. I looked around the room and the kids were still sleeping, but my husband was up drinking his coffee. I asked what time it was and he said something thirty to me. I asked, 8:30? And again all I heard was something thirty. Thats when I realized that I still had my earplugs in (he snores really loudly). I pulled them out and asked him again, 8:30? Nope, 9:30. I bolted out of bed, the plan was ruined. He shook his head at me and said that he thought I really could use the extra sleep. Okay, so he had me there. I was pretty exhausted last night. I forgave him as he presented me with my coffee. By now, everyone was up and moving and it really only took about 10 minutes to organize the luggage. We really hadnt moved much stuff around since the cruise. The bellman arrived within minutes of our call and even gave us a ride back to the main building to catch the monorail. One more ride and yes, the cat pee odor was still there, but at least the smell was fainter in this car. We breezed on through the no bags line and within moments we were walking back down Main Street. There were only a few rides still left on our list. We lucked out by getting on a few of them last night. Jim offered to walk over to Splash Mountain for fast passes while we grabbed some breakfast at the bakery and wed all meet at Space Mountain. The bakery had a great setup. You could wait in the line for a bigger variety, or they had a cart right by the check out line with chocolate croissants, donuts, apple pastries and a few other items. We all chose croissants and went up to pay. Oh, oh, we just gave Jim all our rooms cards for fast passes, does anyone have actual cash on them? We pooled our money and luckily had enough to pay for the food. We walked towards Space Mountain and I wasnt holding out much hope for a short standby line. It was already 10:30am and I know this ride fills up fast. What a shock when I saw that it was only a 20-minute wait. Jim found us in line and even Casey wanted to give this one a try. Shes quickly becoming a roller coaster junkie like her brother and she loved it. I still think its pretty bumpy and a little rough on the neck.
Our return time for Splash Mountain was at 11:05, so we headed to Frontierland. The new fast pass distribution time was 11:30, so we got a second set before we got into line. This is Caseys favorite ride and I knew shed want to do it more than once. It was going to be 96 degrees today and I didnt mind getting wet. All through the line, Meagan and Colin were trying to decide how we would pose for the picture. They wanted us to all raise our hands over our head and yell some nonsense word that they made up while we went over the drop. We were fine with that, but Casey wasnt so sure that she wanted to remove her hands from the safety bar. There are some small drops, so she said that she would practice. The last time we visited Disney with the kids was July of 2002. Casey had just cleared the height requirement for this ride and we visited the Magic Kingdom every day during our 7-day stay and rode Splash Mountain. It was her favorite ride. I was surprised that she really didnt remember it at all. She panicked when she saw that there was no seat belt and thought for sure that wed all fall out of the log when it went over the final drop. She didnt calm down until almost half way through the ride. Just as we were beginning the climb up that last long hill, the ride shut down. We were stuck there for about 3 or 4 minutes and even the lights came on for a while. Finally we got moving and posed for the picture. I do have it on my link at the bottom of this report. Youll notice that were all holding our arms up, except for Casey. If you look closely though and if you can make it out, youll see that Caseys little right hand is off the safety bar. A big accomplishment for her. As soon as we got down the drop, she was laughing hysterically and begging to go on it again. No problem, as soon as we were done buying the photo, it was return time for our second fast pass. Meagan and Colin fooled around with poses again and this time through we had smooth sailing. They had also turned on the gusher for Splash Mountain. I think it was every 3rd boat down the drop, and the gusher would soak the people watching on the bridge.
By now it was just after noontime and between last night and this morning, we had checked off all our must see attractions. We had some shopping left to do, so we headed for Adventureland. The kids picked out what they wanted pretty quickly, but with only 2 registers open in the shop near PotC, it took forever to pay. The next question was where to have lunch. It was getting close to 1pm and we had to be on our way to the airport by about 3. We thought it would be quieter to head back to the Grand Floridian and eat in the café once again. On the way out, Casey was telling us that the trip would have been so much better if she had gotten just one more ride. Someone dropped a little pixie dust on us and as we were walking by Aladdins Magic Carpet ride, there was absolutely no wait. Instead of getting just one more ride, she was able to ride the carpets twice in a row. She was a happy camper. The resort boat was at the dock when we stepped out of the park and we were glad that we didnt have to ride the smelly monorail again. Lunch at the café was nice, cool and relaxing. A great ending to this up and down vacation of ours. We even ended up with some extra time to stop by the Mickey Mouse Mercantile. The girls started their charm bracelet collection and I think Colin found two more pins that he had to have.
We followed 417 right to the airport and there was a very nice man from JetBlue to check us in curbside. Jim went to return the rental car and we made our way over to the food court for some ice cream. In all the times Ive traveled through the Orlando Airport, I have never seen the food court. They had quite an assortment of fast food shops and even a Krispy Kreme. We debated on whether we should pick up a box to take on the plane, but decided against it. We were quickly through security, which is a first for us. Our flight was listed as being on time and we had a few minutes to purchase some food before the boarding began. We flew down on Flysong and we were going home on JetBlue. The one-way fares ended up being less expensive for us than purchasing a round trip. Once again, we started out with some turbulence from a weather front that was along the coast, but our pilot did a great job finding some smooth air. Casey was happy they had Nickelodeon (Flysong didnt have this station) and I didnt hear a peep from her throughout the entire flight. Unfortunately, the temperature had dropped about 40 degrees during our flight and when we returned to Boston, it was cold. We also waited about 15 to 20 minutes for our luggage, another sure sign that we were home.
Since our return, I have sent e-mails to both the Disney Cruise Line and WDW. I praised the cruise line for their outstanding service and my one complaint was the lack of supervision at the pools. It made for some very unsafe conditions I thought. For WDWs e-mail, I outlined the poor attitudes that we encountered, the monorail odor and the operation problems at the Epcot entrance and Magic Kingdoms closing time for shops and counter service restaurants.
Good things to know:
· Sometimes, sleeping in while on vacation can be considered a good thing.
· In the end, it was time well spent with our ever changing, ever growing kids.
For our photos: http://community.webshots.com/user/tammimcman
Trip Report Part 1: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=582493
Trip Report Part 3: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=582780
Trip Report Part 4: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=582976
Trip Report Part 5: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=583196
Meagan - just finished her first year at college
Colin - extremely busy 14 year old
Casey - aka "Lola" or the "Diva"
To say that I slept like the dead would be an understatement. I think all my early mornings had finally caught up with me. The plans were to get up by 7:30, call to have our luggage stored, check out and be at the Magic Kingdom by 8:45. When I woke up, it was to that feeling of not having any idea where you are, or even what day it is. I looked around the room and the kids were still sleeping, but my husband was up drinking his coffee. I asked what time it was and he said something thirty to me. I asked, 8:30? And again all I heard was something thirty. Thats when I realized that I still had my earplugs in (he snores really loudly). I pulled them out and asked him again, 8:30? Nope, 9:30. I bolted out of bed, the plan was ruined. He shook his head at me and said that he thought I really could use the extra sleep. Okay, so he had me there. I was pretty exhausted last night. I forgave him as he presented me with my coffee. By now, everyone was up and moving and it really only took about 10 minutes to organize the luggage. We really hadnt moved much stuff around since the cruise. The bellman arrived within minutes of our call and even gave us a ride back to the main building to catch the monorail. One more ride and yes, the cat pee odor was still there, but at least the smell was fainter in this car. We breezed on through the no bags line and within moments we were walking back down Main Street. There were only a few rides still left on our list. We lucked out by getting on a few of them last night. Jim offered to walk over to Splash Mountain for fast passes while we grabbed some breakfast at the bakery and wed all meet at Space Mountain. The bakery had a great setup. You could wait in the line for a bigger variety, or they had a cart right by the check out line with chocolate croissants, donuts, apple pastries and a few other items. We all chose croissants and went up to pay. Oh, oh, we just gave Jim all our rooms cards for fast passes, does anyone have actual cash on them? We pooled our money and luckily had enough to pay for the food. We walked towards Space Mountain and I wasnt holding out much hope for a short standby line. It was already 10:30am and I know this ride fills up fast. What a shock when I saw that it was only a 20-minute wait. Jim found us in line and even Casey wanted to give this one a try. Shes quickly becoming a roller coaster junkie like her brother and she loved it. I still think its pretty bumpy and a little rough on the neck.
Our return time for Splash Mountain was at 11:05, so we headed to Frontierland. The new fast pass distribution time was 11:30, so we got a second set before we got into line. This is Caseys favorite ride and I knew shed want to do it more than once. It was going to be 96 degrees today and I didnt mind getting wet. All through the line, Meagan and Colin were trying to decide how we would pose for the picture. They wanted us to all raise our hands over our head and yell some nonsense word that they made up while we went over the drop. We were fine with that, but Casey wasnt so sure that she wanted to remove her hands from the safety bar. There are some small drops, so she said that she would practice. The last time we visited Disney with the kids was July of 2002. Casey had just cleared the height requirement for this ride and we visited the Magic Kingdom every day during our 7-day stay and rode Splash Mountain. It was her favorite ride. I was surprised that she really didnt remember it at all. She panicked when she saw that there was no seat belt and thought for sure that wed all fall out of the log when it went over the final drop. She didnt calm down until almost half way through the ride. Just as we were beginning the climb up that last long hill, the ride shut down. We were stuck there for about 3 or 4 minutes and even the lights came on for a while. Finally we got moving and posed for the picture. I do have it on my link at the bottom of this report. Youll notice that were all holding our arms up, except for Casey. If you look closely though and if you can make it out, youll see that Caseys little right hand is off the safety bar. A big accomplishment for her. As soon as we got down the drop, she was laughing hysterically and begging to go on it again. No problem, as soon as we were done buying the photo, it was return time for our second fast pass. Meagan and Colin fooled around with poses again and this time through we had smooth sailing. They had also turned on the gusher for Splash Mountain. I think it was every 3rd boat down the drop, and the gusher would soak the people watching on the bridge.
By now it was just after noontime and between last night and this morning, we had checked off all our must see attractions. We had some shopping left to do, so we headed for Adventureland. The kids picked out what they wanted pretty quickly, but with only 2 registers open in the shop near PotC, it took forever to pay. The next question was where to have lunch. It was getting close to 1pm and we had to be on our way to the airport by about 3. We thought it would be quieter to head back to the Grand Floridian and eat in the café once again. On the way out, Casey was telling us that the trip would have been so much better if she had gotten just one more ride. Someone dropped a little pixie dust on us and as we were walking by Aladdins Magic Carpet ride, there was absolutely no wait. Instead of getting just one more ride, she was able to ride the carpets twice in a row. She was a happy camper. The resort boat was at the dock when we stepped out of the park and we were glad that we didnt have to ride the smelly monorail again. Lunch at the café was nice, cool and relaxing. A great ending to this up and down vacation of ours. We even ended up with some extra time to stop by the Mickey Mouse Mercantile. The girls started their charm bracelet collection and I think Colin found two more pins that he had to have.
We followed 417 right to the airport and there was a very nice man from JetBlue to check us in curbside. Jim went to return the rental car and we made our way over to the food court for some ice cream. In all the times Ive traveled through the Orlando Airport, I have never seen the food court. They had quite an assortment of fast food shops and even a Krispy Kreme. We debated on whether we should pick up a box to take on the plane, but decided against it. We were quickly through security, which is a first for us. Our flight was listed as being on time and we had a few minutes to purchase some food before the boarding began. We flew down on Flysong and we were going home on JetBlue. The one-way fares ended up being less expensive for us than purchasing a round trip. Once again, we started out with some turbulence from a weather front that was along the coast, but our pilot did a great job finding some smooth air. Casey was happy they had Nickelodeon (Flysong didnt have this station) and I didnt hear a peep from her throughout the entire flight. Unfortunately, the temperature had dropped about 40 degrees during our flight and when we returned to Boston, it was cold. We also waited about 15 to 20 minutes for our luggage, another sure sign that we were home.
Since our return, I have sent e-mails to both the Disney Cruise Line and WDW. I praised the cruise line for their outstanding service and my one complaint was the lack of supervision at the pools. It made for some very unsafe conditions I thought. For WDWs e-mail, I outlined the poor attitudes that we encountered, the monorail odor and the operation problems at the Epcot entrance and Magic Kingdoms closing time for shops and counter service restaurants.
Good things to know:
· Sometimes, sleeping in while on vacation can be considered a good thing.
· In the end, it was time well spent with our ever changing, ever growing kids.
For our photos: http://community.webshots.com/user/tammimcman
Trip Report Part 1: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=582493
Trip Report Part 3: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=582780
Trip Report Part 4: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=582976
Trip Report Part 5: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=583196
