"Mom, My Wish Came True!" Our best-trip-ever-week-before-Thanksgiving '09 TR!

[ShannonMB]

Okay, so we're home now. Coming home after our first 2 trips was really pretty intolerable. I was so depressed! Right now I'm a little sad to be home, but now that Lily and I have trip #3 under our belts, I'm starting to feel like, it's okay, we'll be going back before we know it (I already got myself a new ticker for the same week next year)!!!! Also, now I can do a TRIP REPORT! This is my 2nd one!!! Love it!

I just edited my title. When we first arrived at POFQ, the CM who greeted us gave Lily a coin to make a wish in the fountain. She made her wish and threw in the coin. Just as we were leaving to come home, we passed by the fountain and Lily tells me "Mom, my wish came true!". I asked her what her wish had been, and she said, "That we would have the best Disney trip ever!" Awwww! So I was just thinking about that and decided that HAS to be the title. Best trip ever!!!

I think I'll just copy and paste the cast from my PTR so we can get started:

Shannon (me!) -- 38 year old NICU nurse who is truly just over the moon about Disney. I literally think about it every day and probably spend a *little* too much time on the boards. For instance, I could be right now, but this is more fun! Never tied the knot, but may as well be married to Darren, who I just refer to as DH on the boards. He went with us on our first visit and hasn't recovered emotionally from the chafing and blisters yet. Also, kept asking "Where are the BIG rides". So he may get another chance to go next year. I repeat, MAY.

Lily -- 8 year old 3rd grade team dancer who LOVES going to Disney! I usually am the one to bring it up in daily conversation; nevertheless, she can't WAIT to go, and is looking at stepping up the rides this time. She is a ride chicken, but has agreed to try Goofy's Barnstormer this trip , along with Test Track and Maelstrom. When I ask why she is frightened to ride something 2 year olds enjoy, she says it's my fault for not getting her on any rides till she was 6!!! She may have a point, so it's my mission in life to make up for that! She does love Haunted Mansion, Snow White's Scary Adventure, etc, just not rides with "drops".

Janie -- My aunt, but very close in age. No kids of her own, but she is basically Lily's second mom. She has been totally involved in raising Lily since being in the delivery room when she was born. Signed her up for her first dance lessons, even bought her last house with our location in mind. Picks her up from after-school care several days a week, and keeps her overnight ALL THE TIME. Spoils her ROTTEN (her own cell phone, computer, cute clothes and accessories, bought her Miley Cyrus ticket when Lil and I went). Works full time in Telecom, and REALLY needs a Disney fix. Her last vaca was a cruise (NOT Disney) in March, I think. She was on our first family blowout trip in 2007!

Andy -- Janie's DBF. They have been living in sin for a while now, too, might as well call him her DH, too! (Guess this gen of our family isn't the marrying kind? Update on THIS to come!!!). Interestingly enough, I lived next door to Andy's family from middle school on, so he's been a part of the family in one way or another for 25 years or so! A ruggedly handsome guy who works in a FREEZER (brrr), and needs a vaca probably as much as anyone in the world! Went to Disney as a kid and just basically remembers riding Space Mtn over and over and over. I hated to break it to him that it is in refurb for our trip. Lily has been giving him quizzes about the parks and our restaurants, but every time we talk about Disney he mentions the Dragster at Cedar Point. WE HAVE TRIED TO EXPLAIN TO HIM THAT THIS WILL NOT BE THAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE. We'll see if he is (as we have started to put it in our family) a "magic feeler". He has a contagious laugh and will likely be a blast at Disney.

Carol -- AKA my mom. Living in South Carolina at the moment and running a construction crew. Possible mid-life crisis? Red sports car, short skirts, very into the party scene at the beach. She raised us, and guess she figures it's HER time now! DearMom went with Lily and me (just the 3 of us) on our trip in Feb, but she was, I'm sorry to say, a bit pre-occupied with her work at that time. Lily has made it clear that she may come with us again, but she must leave her blackberry at the room when we are in the parks. (Why do I keep laughing in my mom's intro? ) She has promised to immerse herself in the magic this time, as Lily and I have made it clear that only "magic feelers" are welcome with us!!!!!!!!

Billy -- Uncle Bee. Just about the coolest person you would ever meet in your life if you were lucky enough to meet him! Carol and Janie's brother. Bee is a zookeeper, and has lived all over the country working for various zoos. He's been in Seattle since leaving New Orleans a year or so after Katrina (Guess it just got a little depressing after awhile, even though he loved it there, a lot ). I had some great trips to N.O. when he was there! His last vaca was a month-long trip to Africa last winter. He went with a bunch of other zookeepers. You should SEE some of the pics they took!!!! Anyway, Billy was with us on our family trip in 2007. He had an awesome time, and most appreciates the awesome theming at Disney. He's a *little* concerned that he won't feel the magic again like he did in 2007 (been there, done that), but I don't think that's true. We shall see!

So that's us. Let's get on with day 1!!!!!

 

[ShannonMB]

ARRIVAL DAY!!! Sat, 11/14

So the 6 of us were at POFQ from Sat, 11/14 through Fri, 11/20. Janie, Andy, Lily, and I flew from Columbus, OH, Uncle B flew from Seattle, and my mom (Carol) drove down from Charleston, SC.

Here are some pics of the Columbus people at the airport getting ready to leave for Orlando.

Me and Lily:

Janie and Andy:

Andy on the plane..

Our flight left Columbus at 11:15am. It was a direct flight, and we arrrived in Orlando at 1:30pm. In the past we have taken super-early flights, but since we knew Billy wouldn't be arriving till later in the afternoon, we figured we'd sleep in a little before starting our adventure. It worked out great! The flight was perfect and before we knew it, we were at MCO!

Here's Lily in front of the Disney store at the Orlando airport.

We were all pretty starved when we got there, and I had told Andy on the plane that they have Nathan's at MCO, so he definitely wanted to take the time to have a couple hot dogs. DANG it, I didn't take pics, but he had his dogs with a bunch of chili and stuff on them, and I had a plain one with the BEST CRINKLE FRIES ON EARTH!!! Lily helped with my crinkle fries, and she and Janie shared a huge ice cream cone of some sort from Carvel.

I'll take this opportunity to say that I did take a lot of food pics, but I still don't know if it's enough for a whole dining report, so I'm just going to do this report as an all-in-one, complete with dining!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm signing on for the adventure! Looking forward to more!

 

[ShannonMB]

ARRIVAL DAY, cont...

Here's the gang on the Magical Express, on our way to POFQ!!!

You can kinda see the Walt Disney World sign in this pic. This was the first time we didn't go under the sign. Either I missed it, or we came a different way???

Our ME bus dropped some people off at Saratoga Springs and Old Key West, then we were finally arriving at POFQ. I didn't get a good pic of the darn sign the whole time we were there! Anyway, we got there around 2:45pm.

My mom had arrived before we did, because she drove down a couple nights before and had stayed at a Days Inn off property for $29 a night! So she had already checked in to the resort, but our rooms weren't ready yet, so she was waiting out in front of the lobby for us.

We checked in, and ta-da, our rooms were ready! They gave us rooms 5109 and 5110 (I had ahead of time requested building 2 or 5 -- based on tips from the DIS, and rooms near each other). We got connecting rooms, and one corner room with the extra windows.

I failed to take proper pics of the room, too excited I guess, but I DID take a pic of the coffee maker!

If I had studied a map of the resort and tried to pick the most convenient rooms in the whole place, I could not have done any better. They were directly across from the pool and laundry, hardly any distance at all from the food court, lobby, and busses. PERFECT!!!!

Since Billy wouldn't be arriving until sometime after 5pm, Lily's first order of business was to check out the pool!!!

Lily with her Nana (my mom)

Me in bliss sitting on a pool chair on an 80 degree, sunny day!

The pool was absolutely beautiful, and it was the perfect temp. The only problem was that the water slide was going to be down for repairs the whole week we were there. BUMMER!!! Lily REALLY wanted to slide down that slide! Grrrr, oh well, there was no putting a damper on our moods or our instant love of POFQ.

 

[ShannonMB]

I'm signing on for the adventure! Looking forward to more!

Welcome aboard!!! I'm going to check out your latest, too!

 

[ShannonMB]

ARRIVAL!!!!, cont.

After her dip in the pool, Lily decided she was hungry, so we thought we'd check out the Sassagoula FloatWorks (food court). I bought Lil and me refillable resort mugs, and I used an adult counter service meal for her to have a toasted turkey sandwich with American cheese, lettuce, homemade potato chips, and beignets for dessert.

The bread the sandwich was on was really, really good for some reason, and the chips were good. I could tell they were freshly fried because a couple of them stuck together and were still chewy on the inside. That part was weird, but the rest of them were crispy and tasty.

The beignets, much-loved on the POFQ thread on the resorts board, were really just okay for me. Instead of being light and fluffy like the real thing, they were really chewy. Weird! Plus, I got powdered sugar in my "ON" button of my camera, and it's been turning on funkily ever since. Not the beignet's fault!

I really am looking forward to Lily being 10, because even though it'll cost more, she is really over ordering off the kids menu everywhere. The only choice for her in the sandwich area was PB&J. I think they did have chicken nuggets and something else at a different station during lunch, but she had eyed that sandwich and I had pretty much decided ahead of time that if she wanted something off the adult menu, we would switch around so she could get what she wanted. Somehow by the end of the week it all worked out.

Janie was also hungry, so she ordered a counter service veggie burger (she's a vegetarian).

And Andy, even after the Nathan's at the airport, felt like having this...

Bacon double cheeseburger with fries and all the fixin's. I think the Java Monster might have been his dessert, and the brownie was Janie's.

I don't know how Janie's veggie burger was, but Andy loved his food, even though his burger was on one of the new wheat buns they have everywhere now and it was falling all apart. Annoying! Those Java monsters (the big yellow drink) were SOOOOO good, and I had one of those on several mornings. Mmmmmm!

All this eating was happening at about 4pm, and we had TRex reservations at 7pm. I figured oh well, if no one was hungry when we got there, we could just get appetizers and dessert! Stay tuned to see how we did there...

Here are a couple more pics around the resort...

I love how they have mardi gras masks in the Christmas garland!!

 

[ShannonMB]

ARRIVAL!!!!!, cont.

FINALLY, Uncle Billy arrived on the Magical Express at about 5:15pm. We were all SO glad to see him!!! He had just been home to Ohio in June for my cousin's wedding, but we still don't get to see near enough of him since he lives all the way across the country in Seattle. Except for a few years in Toleldo when I was in middle-school-ish age, Billy has lived far away from us ever since he went to zookeeper college in Florida when I was a little kid. Even though he's always far away, we are all so close with him. Lily absolutely LOVES him to DEATH (and cried for missing Billy for 2 days after we got home). Hopefully one of these days he'll come back to Ohio, but until then, at least he comes on vacation with us!!!

Here he is getting off the ME...

So after he got there, we went back to the rooms and hung around for a few

before it was time to head to Downtown Disney for our 7pm reservation for TRex Cafe!! Oh, and sometime during this hanging around, the Columbus peoples' bags came from ME!

 

[ShannonMB]

Thoughts on POFQ

So now that we've all arrived, and before I get too in to our adventures, I have to just take a moment to post my thoughts about POFQ.

IT'S AWESOME!!!

From the moment we arrived, we all pretty much fell in love with this resort. It is so lovely, charming, relaxing, and quiet!!! It is so beautiful to wake up with a cup of coffee sitting on a bench at the riverbank! Or to sit there and write in your journal after a big day at the parks. Often a horsedrawn carriage would go past in the evening, and the big clompety clomp of the horse is the only sound you hear other than the ever-present dixie jazz music quietly playing in the background. It really does have that French Quarter feel to it (except, as Billy pointed out, the horses drawing the carriages in the real FQ are more like mules than the beautiful kleidsdales at Disney, and the air at Disney smells fresh and clean instead of like pee. We really love the real FQ in New Orleans, but just sayin'!)

The food court was a lot smaller than at ASMovies, but the selections seemed to be comparable. We didn't eat there too many times, but what we tried was good and fresh. The floor was a little sticky in there, but other than that it was fine. The rooms may not have been renovated recently, but they were beautiful and very clean. I couldn't find a thing to complain about as far as the rooms go. The double sinks with the curtain was very convenient and really helped out with the bunch of us trying to get ready in the mornings. Also, I never heard a PEEP out of anyone from any other room, including toilets flushing or anything, so that was great!

None of us had ever stayed at a Disney resort besides All Star Movies, and while we all loved that resort at the time, this was really just a totally different, relaxing, easy vibe. As much as I have enjoyed Movies in the past, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back there after this experience at POFQ. So a warning to anyone who is thinking of going from the values to this particular mod -- make sure you're ready for all your future trips to be mod or above!!! I'm sure if it was the only way, we'd return to Movies, but POFQ was really THAT great, to me!

Okay, on with the adventures!

 

[mcdowelj]

I second your thoughts on Port Orleans French Quarter. I can't imagine ever staying anywhere else now. It was so relaxing and even Lily said she loved it and didn't want to stay at the Movies again! I was thinking she'd miss all the loud action at the Movies but she didn't! Great pick Shannon!!!!

 

[Disneymoon09]

I'm in!

 

[Cory's Gal]

Lovin' your TR so far!! Glad you liked POFQ, we are staying there in April and cannot wait!! Thanks for sharing all your pictures!! Lily is completely adorable and I am excited to hear how she likes all the "big rides" as my son will be trying them all for the first time!! Waiting for more!!!!!

 

[ShannonMB]

I'm in!

WooHOO! Thanks for joining! We are about to have a LOT OF FUN!!!

Lovin' your TR so far!! Glad you liked POFQ, we are staying there in April and cannot wait!! Thanks for sharing all your pictures!! Lily is completely adorable and I am excited to hear how she likes all the "big rides" as my son will be trying them all for the first time!! Waiting for more!!!!!

Oh, good, I'm glad we have a joiner who thinks Lily is adorable! She eats that up! Are you guys staying at POFQ for the first time? I hope you LOVE it as much as we did. I could seriously live there! As for the big rides, Lily did venture onto the previously-agreed-upon "bigger" rides. But alas, you won't be getting her reaction on ToT or Everest in THIS TR. Maybe next time... Welcome aboard!

 

[cbg1027]

Oooh you've got me so excited for POFQ....and kinda worried. I don't think I could afford POFQ any other time of the year except value season! And I'm trying to pinch together funds to go again for spring break. Gotta make use of my seasonal pass.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[praisehisname]

Loving your report so far!

 

[ShannonMB]

Oooh you've got me so excited for POFQ....and kinda worried. I don't think I could afford POFQ any other time of the year except value season! And I'm trying to pinch together funds to go again for spring break. Gotta make use of my seasonal pass.

Can't wait to read more!

Aw, don't worry. I'm sure once the buzz wears off I won't hesitate to go back to a value either. They are very nice, and if it means trips more often, so worth it!! I just went into it thinking "how could it be any better than Movies?" and was just so pleasantly surprised. I really actually dream of staying at the WL sometime, but I'm REALLY afraid to make THAT leap! Values are so much more in our price range, so let's just hope to keep seeing those great deals they've been having!!!

Loving your report so far!

Thank you so much, I hope you stay with me!

 

[tiggerfan6]

Just back from there ourselves! Loved it... looking forward to reading more!

 

[ShannonMB]

An Evening at Downtown Disney!! Arrival Day, Sat, 11/14

Okay, so Billy arrived, we hung around the room for a little bit, and then it was time to head to DTD for our reservations at TRex Cafe. Honestly, we could have hung around in the rooms all evening and just visited, but there's WAY too much to do! And it's all planned!

(side note: for those who didn't read my PTR, Billy made a crack at some point during the planning stages of our trip about having to follow "some lame-a** schedule", so that was a running joke pretty much the whole trip! He did concede that Disney DOES take planning, especially for a group of 6. But it was hilarious!)

We, of course, decided to take the ferry to DTD, so here we are heading over there (SO close to our rooms!)

I didn't take any pics of the dang boat! But I do have some daytime pics of the scenery on the ride later in the trip. Here's a crummy one of the Characters in Flight balloon on the way...

We didn't even get on the boat till after 6:30pm, and the boat drops you off at the Rainforest Cafe area of the Marketplace, so we had to hoof it over there to get to our reservation. So we got over there (at 7:07pm!) and I checked in. I heard the hostess telling people it would be a 45min-1hr wait for walk-ups (DTD was PACKED!), but we were seated pretty much right away (schedule looking pretty good now, eh, Billy? ).

Much to Lily's delight, we were seated in the Ice Cave room. I personally prefer where we sat last time, in the Fern Forest, because you can see the meteor shower much better. Plus, in the Cave room, you are glowing blue/pink/whatever color the cave is the whole time! But I was glad Lily got her pick.

Okay, so not that delighted by the blue glow of everything, but QUITE delighted when I saw this little baby on the menu...

A candy apple cotton-tini. They pour the drink over a little house-made mound of cotton candy to make it nice and sweet. It cost about a million dollars (well, $10), but what the heck, I'm on vacation, right?!!

Lily also enjoyed her 'cocktail', a slushy in a take-home cup shaped like a big bone..

cont...

 

[ShannonMB]

An Evening at Downtown Disney, cont.

Okay, I keep forgetting to mention Lily's birthday button! Lily's bday is the day after Christmas, so we usually celebrate it at the beginning of December with one of those big friend parties that all kids seem to have these days. This year, since we were planning Disney so close to the holidays, I talked Lily into foregoing the bday party this year and just celebrating at Disney. She wore that button every day and had SUCH a GREAT time with it.

Now back to TRex!

Lily and I shared the St. Louis style ribs with a side of mashed potatoes each.

They were quite tasty. Lily loves BBQ ribs!

My mom got this chicken sandwich wrap, which I took a bite of.

It was very good, the bread was actually baked pizza dough according to the menu.

Janie had this ominvore salad, which she said was one of the best salads she ever had. It had strawberries, and I think, goat cheese.

Janie also had a cotton-tini -- the tropical one. She LOVED it!

Here was Billy's guacaburger (something like that). It had guacamole. It was pretty huge, B said he doesn't usually eat that much meat in a week!

Wondering what Andy had? Hmmph, water. He said his stomach was bothering him (plus he devoured that double cheeseburger back at the resort). We'd find out later why his stomach was bothering him!!!!

Lily and I had our eye on the Chocolate Extinction dessert (Lily loves dry ice), and we figured we could swing it with so many companions. They brought it out singing happy birthday in a hand-clapping TRexy way.

We mostly just wanted it for the fanfare, but it was SOO yummy!! The ice cream had butterfinger sprinkles on it, and the cake was SO moist and rich. We ended up taking some of the cake back with us, and Mom ate it later in the week (LOVED having a fridge in our room!) and said it was really good then!

This was the only meal I did this for, but I took a pic of the bill.

It was really a great meal all around. Lily and me LOVE that place, the rest seemed to enjoy it as well. The service was a little slow and we were all tired, but it was fun.

 

[ShannonMB]

Soo, after dinner, we strolled around DTD for awhile.

We went in World of Disney and saw all sorts of cute stuff!!!

Took a few more pics. We went into Goofy's Candy Co, but the only thing we got was a fill-your-own pixie stick for Lil because we were all so FULL, nothing even looked good.

Then we headed back on the boat to our lovely, peaceful, relaxing resort!

 

[ShannonMB]

Just back from there ourselves! Loved it... looking forward to reading more!

I hope you guys had as great a trip as we did!!! Thanks for joining my TR!