Dh and I decided to leave the kids at home this year for our annual Jan trip. I have a conference in Orlando over MLK and we normally take our kids with for a little winter break. My DMom and Ddad come so they can help dh at the parks while I'm at the conference. Last year we stayed at Kidani in a 2bd. After a week at disney, we then went on a 3 night cruise on the Wonder. In April, we stayed at BWV with dh's Dsis and dniece. The April prior to that we spent 10 nights at three different hotels,(CSR, VWL, and BCV) with dds. At the time, they were 6, 3 and 5 months old. It was a lot of work! So after 3 trips in one year, we decided the kids needed a break and so did we, (from them, not Disney 
). We decided to stay at WL rather than use DVC points. My CE money was paying so why not. Not too shabby digs for a work trip.
We left Midway on Friday the 14th. Initially dh thought he would work the day and meet me at night. As the trip got closer, he continued to mope about my spending an extra day in the sun and fun, so he decided to see if he could fly standby on an earlier flight. We go to Midway around 7:30, he went to the Airtran counter and for $25 he got a guaranteed seat on the 10:50am flight. I was flying Southwest at 9:20, so it worked out great. I just hung out at MCO for an hour until he got there before going to get our rental car. We drove to WL and checked in. We had a courtyard view and it was our first trip staying at the actual lodge. When we checked in the CM said our room was HA on the first floor. Without any comments from us, he asked if we would like non HA and a higher floor. Sure why not? If you have one. So he looks, and then goes in the back room. Forever! We thought he went on break or something. He came back at least 15min later apologizing profusely saying they were booked that night and there were no other rooms available. No biggie. We saw where the room was located on the map and get our keys. As we were leaving the counter, the CM apologizes again and said he was comping us half the cost of the first night, and that we could request to be switched in the morning. We thought it was odd, since we really never cared, but thought maybe we weren't getting a courtyard view that we paid for. People must do a lot of complaining about rooms or something. We didn't have a request in, and he was the one who offered a different room in the first place. Oh well, it paid for our dinner at Les Cellier.
Off to our room. It was fine, to the right of the lobby, overlooking the pool by the hair wrapping station. Couldn't see much from the room, but it is better than the view from our house in Chicago right now.
I can't sit still at Disney until I have made a trip to the MK. But we were starved. Decided to hop on a boat to CR and eat at Contempo Cafe. I had a salad and dh had the lime chicken sandwhich. Mine was actually pretty good, dhs was fair. Off to MK. We stopped to pick up our APs, and got our first TIW card. I had been dreaming of walking over the bridge to Adventureland for several months. I kept thinking that once I heard that music, I could relax. I was stressed before we left. I HATE to fly, and making all the arrangements for the kids and the pets is stressful. We were on the bridge, and heard the music. Time to chill out and enjoy. Dh and I love WDW, kids or not, and we were ready for some rides. We headed to Jungle Cruise and then Pirates. Back around for BTMR, I pouted when I saw SM. It's always down when we come in Jan, but I'm sad non the less. Rode HM, IASW, (have to do it ONCE. The girls love that ride and we go on it so many times with them that we can't skip it without them). Over to tomorrowland, and then back to main street for my chocolate covered rice krispee treat for Wishes. It was pretty cold by the end of the night, so we took the bus back to WL to crash. It had been a long day and we were ready to get back.
Pictures and more later.
). We decided to stay at WL rather than use DVC points. My CE money was paying so why not. Not too shabby digs for a work trip.We left Midway on Friday the 14th. Initially dh thought he would work the day and meet me at night. As the trip got closer, he continued to mope about my spending an extra day in the sun and fun, so he decided to see if he could fly standby on an earlier flight. We go to Midway around 7:30, he went to the Airtran counter and for $25 he got a guaranteed seat on the 10:50am flight. I was flying Southwest at 9:20, so it worked out great. I just hung out at MCO for an hour until he got there before going to get our rental car. We drove to WL and checked in. We had a courtyard view and it was our first trip staying at the actual lodge. When we checked in the CM said our room was HA on the first floor. Without any comments from us, he asked if we would like non HA and a higher floor. Sure why not? If you have one. So he looks, and then goes in the back room. Forever! We thought he went on break or something. He came back at least 15min later apologizing profusely saying they were booked that night and there were no other rooms available. No biggie. We saw where the room was located on the map and get our keys. As we were leaving the counter, the CM apologizes again and said he was comping us half the cost of the first night, and that we could request to be switched in the morning. We thought it was odd, since we really never cared, but thought maybe we weren't getting a courtyard view that we paid for. People must do a lot of complaining about rooms or something. We didn't have a request in, and he was the one who offered a different room in the first place. Oh well, it paid for our dinner at Les Cellier.
Off to our room. It was fine, to the right of the lobby, overlooking the pool by the hair wrapping station. Couldn't see much from the room, but it is better than the view from our house in Chicago right now.
I can't sit still at Disney until I have made a trip to the MK. But we were starved. Decided to hop on a boat to CR and eat at Contempo Cafe. I had a salad and dh had the lime chicken sandwhich. Mine was actually pretty good, dhs was fair. Off to MK. We stopped to pick up our APs, and got our first TIW card. I had been dreaming of walking over the bridge to Adventureland for several months. I kept thinking that once I heard that music, I could relax. I was stressed before we left. I HATE to fly, and making all the arrangements for the kids and the pets is stressful. We were on the bridge, and heard the music. Time to chill out and enjoy. Dh and I love WDW, kids or not, and we were ready for some rides. We headed to Jungle Cruise and then Pirates. Back around for BTMR, I pouted when I saw SM. It's always down when we come in Jan, but I'm sad non the less. Rode HM, IASW, (have to do it ONCE. The girls love that ride and we go on it so many times with them that we can't skip it without them). Over to tomorrowland, and then back to main street for my chocolate covered rice krispee treat for Wishes. It was pretty cold by the end of the night, so we took the bus back to WL to crash. It had been a long day and we were ready to get back.
Pictures and more later.
