Not ready yet???!!! A February trip report! Update 10/25 Day 9

[dizneeat]

Hi, Karin! I've missed you... Max was sick this week, so I was pretty absent from the boards and am just now getting caught up. It doesn't seem possible that what you're writing about only happened two weeks ago! In fact, you know where we were two weeks, right this very minute? Oh, how I can't wait to go back... I am quite hopeful that next February will happen, no matter what, and now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe the stars will align in the most perfect way possible and we'll go back this July.

I cannot believe that you get Camembert and vanilla pudding with real vanilla in it! That's amazing... Too bad its not as good on the way back!

WPE looks great. We'll have to try it one of these days.

Missed you too!
Poor little Max, hope he is doing well again! He is such a sweetheart!

It's unbelieveable we are already home for more than a week! And I can't believe that fun breakfast is more than two weeks in the past! What a way to start off our vacation!

Can't you go back in August? We would LOVE to meet up with you again! But whenever you go - I'll keep my fingers (and toes) crossed for you so this works outfor you!!!

Hi Karin, Nice update. Hope you are having a nice Sunday. Here in NC we are awaiting a rainy afternoon. But that is ok because we need the rain. After seeing Pixies pictures I broached the subject again with my husband about getting another cat. We lost both of ours in the last 3 years. His attitude is that if they live as long as Kevin and Amos did we would be in our 80's! Oh well give Pixie a hug for me. Elaine

We had a really nice weekend, sunny but rather on the cool side!
So sorry about your cats - and yes, they can get quite old, we had our Garfield for 19 years, but our house just doesn't seem the same without a cat, so we are glad Pixie moved in!

Hiya, I am trying to win a trip to Austria through the travelchannel but I am somehow convinced the game is rigged lol It is so frustrating when you plan and plan and there is a monkey wrench in the works! My mouth is watering looking at the WPE porn

Yeah for entering a contest to win a trip to Austria - I am so hoping you win!!
You know how I just love my WPE! There is even more of it!

All caught up Great start to your TR, you guys always look like you have really good plane food. Virgin is great and all but you would never see a chocolate cake for dessert with their dinners.

I love the Musketeer's pic at the beginning, is that this year? Never seen them in the parks before.

Pixie is just too cute and you captured some great shots there

Can't wait to read more

Thank you!
Yes, the food on Lufthansa is pretty good - especially if you consider that they serve this in economy class!

The Musketeer photo is pretty old. It was one of my first character photos - they were just closing the line and asked if we wanted to jump in - and we did! We had a blast with the characters and since we were last they were up to a bit of mischief!

Thanks for your comments on Pixie! She is our darling little princess!

 

[dizneeat]

I love spoiled girl kitties. I had one for the longest time. (actually would fuss to get me to hold water in my hand so she could drink it) It was so hard for me when she passed. After a series of acquiring not nice/mean kitties We now have "my kitty" from a litter that was found under the tree outside. She is quite the princesss. We also have another rescue kitten who was so sick and goobery when we first got her. She isn't as much of a princess... but she is my dh's kitty. If I had my preference we would just have these two.... but the others no matter how crazy are still part of the family.

Spoiled kitties are the best!
Oh I love the little story about the kitty making you "serve" water to her. Ours has a running water fountain, but she prefers coffee cream! She has a way to demand it too!
And I love that so many people take in strays and spoil them. Ours is not allowed outside - she is a strictly indoor cat and because of that she gets everything she wants and is served on hand and paw!

Remember - dogs have owners, cats have servants!

How frustrating it is when there is a snag with the hotel reservation. Believe it or not... Our stay at POR 2/2010... the reservation got lost. It was a mess. Check in took hours... and it was days before all our dp credits were in place properly. Your room does look pretty comfy though!!!

WGPE .... Yummm... again before breakfast here. rotfl: I know...dinner for you)

We could NOT believe that there AGAIN was a "hickup" in our reservation! I was so happy I had printed out my confirmation in English and that I had booked it through a travel website!
But your ordeal sounds a lot more horrible than ours! Hours to check in! Yikes, I don't even want to think about it! and DDP credits not working - no thank you! Hope it got all straightened out in the end!

Was there any other way to start your Disney vacation then with WPE? I love reading your pre- & trip reports. Hurry and finish this one!!!

IS there another way to start a Disney vacation than at WPE? Well, not for us anyway!

Wow, can't believe that happened to you again. Thank goodness you were able to get a room for the night.

We could not believe it either! It was like deja vue! But at least they had a room for us this time and we did not have to drive across Orlando again!
The room was nice for the night, our room had a view of the the inner courtyard and the pool and was quite quiet!

 

[dizneeat]

Karin,
I'm here! Going back to catch up.

Hi! Welcome home!
So good to have you on board again!

Great update! It's really too bad they messed up reservations AGAIN!! Good thing they had open rooms.

Wow, what a wait at immigrations! I'm glad I don't have to go through that when I get to MCO.

Mmm, sandwiches from Wolfgang Puck look very good!

Thank you, Yuki!
We were shocked it happened again! I was really worried and thought about where we would spend our first night. And since it was so close to DTD I thought we'd give it another try - well, as I said before, I guess we will just stay value for the first night next time!

Hi Karin, we are excited about a DISmeet in Sept. Just email me when you are ready to plan.

Pics of WPE food are always appetizing! I know that that is the first place we will go after check-in.

We HAVE to get together! Once I am a bit more organized I will PM you and Wicket's Mom and we can get this show on the road!

Yeah for starting your trip at WPE!!!

Yes, claire (and I) is very excited and can hardly wait for our trip. Skips brother broke his leg and we have worried he may not be able to go now, as if his brother can't walk, then Skip has to stay home. if that becomes the case, we will take my DD Paige. At this point Skip is still planning on coming though.
Claire still keeps talking about your post card. She loves that you said Mickey is counting down the days till she comes. She really believes that!

I can't believe how they keep messing you your reservations ther at that hotel.

I really hope Skip can come along on the trip! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Your pre-trippie just moves to fast - I am not all caught up yet, sorry!

I am glad that I picked the right words to get Claire excited! She is such a sweet little girl and she must be so excited about her upcoming trip right now!

 

[WDisneyMom]

Karin...where did I go wrong? Our first trip in Nov 09, we were so excited to try WPE especially for the creme brulee! When we arrived, they told us the CB was no longer available?! I understand there are 2 locations..please point me in the right direction!

So sorry you were in line for 90 minutes!! Also, you are correct, I work for a hotel and you absolutely would have been charged a no show fee for the Jan reservation...funny business there!

 

[Swalphin]

Hi Karin,
That is just the worst feeling showing up and the reservation is not there.
Especially after travelling so far, you just want it to go smoothly.

I am sorry for the loss of your first kitty that was very hard for you both. I am so glad Pixie found you and you found Pixie,

WPE looks great, I have never eaten there shame on me.

Hope you and Tom are having a good week back at work.

 

[dizneeat]

Karin & Ter1, a Dis meet would be so great! I just love these forums. Karin, you have help me to decide on WPE. I never wanted to go there until your reports, so now I'm down for WPE!

I gte to make my ADRs Wednesday!

Yeah for ADR day!
And since we all seem to be at Disney at the same time - the meet is definitely on!
You won't be disappointed by WPE! The food is real yummy - well, apart from the pumpkin soup, which is real sweet, but then I am biased, as we have REAL good and spicy pumpkin soup here!

Those rooms look really nice! What I liked even more was the food from WP's...oh how I love that place and never can I have enough of it!!!

The room was quite okay for the night. And it was at an outstanding rate!
Isn't WPE the VERY best value for money? Such good food ...... and it is actually served to you!

Oh Karin what a mix up with the reservation !!! By now you know our plan is for off site the first night !! But I will call a month ahead and check they have the reservation !!!I have stayed at Country Inns before and always found them great !!I am booking thru hotels .com and the rate is really good !!

It's the second time this has happened at exactly the same hotel. We did stay offsite at other real low cost hotels (Red Roof Inn and Motel 6) and never had any problems. The only reason to stay there was because it is so close to DTD. Well, we survived and just like you we got a great rate and the room was nice in the end! I went through bookings which I have used lots of times before and it always worked out - the Clarion, and whatever it has been before that, just doesn't want to make it easy for us!

90 minutes for immigration?!?!?! Jeez that is totally absurd!

I stayed at the same hotel about a year ago. It was still Quality Inn then. I'm glad you found it acceptable, but it's what convinced me to never stay offsite again! The housekeeping was awful. The room I had was really gross when I got to it - questionable stains on the bedspread, cookie crumbs all over the floor, surfaces were sticky.... I'm like you now....no offsite, value or don't go at all!

We stayed there a LONG time ago when it was a Days Inn, Quality Inn, whatever and it was not bad. So when we were looking for something offsite it was one of the first things that came to mind. Last year our reservation was lost too AND they didn't have any more rooms, so we got to stay at the Shingle Creek resort!
I had a reservation at the Red Roof Inn in Kissimmee before I decided to change it to the Clarion Inn - well, I guess it IS what convinces me to stay onsite from now on!

 

[annmarieda]

Remember - dogs have owners, cats have servants!

That they do!!!

We could NOT believe that there AGAIN was a "hickup" in our reservation! I was so happy I had printed out my confirmation in English and that I had booked it through a travel website!
But your ordeal sounds a lot more horrible than ours! Hours to check in! Yikes, I don't even want to think about it! and DDP credits not working - no thank you! Hope it got all straightened out in the end!

Ours was quite the hiccup, but we got through it. I think the worst part was the fact we got to the hotel so late and then didn't get to our room until much later. When I say hours to check in.. well, I may exaggerate a tad. We got to POR around 11:30pm and it was about 1:30am by the time we got to our room. So... some of that was check in and some of it was finding our room. As for ddp credits not working... they worked, it was just we didn't have enough of them. Once we "officially checked in" the next day we essentially set up a brand new reservation and since the check in date was different than the original we lost some of our credits. Basically, it wasn't too bad. We just had to go and have credits reversed once we used them. Course, it was actually days before mousekeeping realized that our "temporary" room had become our "permanent" one. They quickly got that resolved though once the hair dryer caught fire. It honestly was a fun trip!!! Just eventful.

 

[dizneeat]

I flew AirFrance out of New York City.

Oh, Airfrance doesn't have the best of reputation here in Europe. There are lots of strikes and service is lacking.
Best European airlines in my opinion - Austrian (which is a part of Staralliance), Lufthansa and KLM. I used to like BA but no longer - the service just isn't there any more. Haven't flown Virgin yet!
Next time you travel to Europe - go Lufthansa or Austrian if you can!

I was happy to read that the hotel was able to find a room for you. Thank goodness you had all your paperwork with you.

We haven't eaten at Wolfgang Puck in all of our trips to WDW but, after looking at your pictures as well as the pictures of other Disers, I think we've got to add that to our list of "must try" restaurants.

Yes, thank god, they did find a room for us in the end! I was so happy I had printed out my confirmation in English - so helpful!

We tried WPE for the first time after they had renovated the restaurant and we fell in love with it. The food is awesome, you get to sit at a table and the food is brought out to you, your drinks are refilled and best of all ...... Wolfgang is Austrian!
I really hope you get a chance to visit!

Okay...I'm VERY late, but I'm here. Now I have to go back and read to catch up.

I know you have been pretty busy, Kathy and I am over the moon happy you joined us now! It was a fun trip and now you are going to hear version no 2 and 3 (from Tina and myself) of the fun Dismeet!

Karin...where did I go wrong? Our first trip in Nov 09, we were so excited to try WPE especially for the creme brulee! When we arrived, they told us the CB was no longer available?! I understand there are 2 locations..please point me in the right direction!

So sorry you were in line for 90 minutes!! Also, you are correct, I work for a hotel and you absolutely would have been charged a no show fee for the Jan reservation...funny business there!

There are two locations of WPE, one is at the Westside, actually it is in the same building as the WP Cafe. We usually visit the other one at Downtown Disney, pretty close to the Disney Christmas shop. And they still offer the Creme Brulee there! I had it only 10 days ago and it was yummy as always. They do run out of it sometimes! Maybe this is what happened to you!

We knew we would have a wait ahead of us at immigration - just not 90 minutes, but it was nothing compared to the 4 hours it once took us to stand in line in Washington!
And thanks for setting my mind at ease about the no show fee IF we would really have had a reserveration at the Clarion in Jan! It didn't occur to me in the first place, but once we were munching our dinner it hit me that they would have charged me IF there had been a reservation in Jan.

Hi Karin,
That is just the worst feeling showing up and the reservation is not there.
Especially after travelling so far, you just want it to go smoothly.

I am sorry for the loss of your first kitty that was very hard for you both. I am so glad Pixie found you and you found Pixie,

WPE looks great, I have never eaten there shame on me.

Hope you and Tom are having a good week back at work.

We discussed where to stay for quite some time and I actually had a reservation at the Red Roof Inn in Kissimmee, but then decided that it was too far from WPE!
I checked the BW at DTD, but it didn't get too many good reviews, so we went with the Clarion - well, live and learn - next time we will stay at a value for the first night (or the whole stay if airfare continues to soar like it does at the moment!)

 

[dizneeat]

That they do!!!



Ours was quite the hiccup, but we got through it. I think the worst part was the fact we got to the hotel so late and then didn't get to our room until much later. When I say hours to check in.. well, I may exaggerate a tad. We got to POR around 11:30pm and it was about 1:30am by the time we got to our room. So... some of that was check in and some of it was finding our room. As for ddp credits not working... they worked, it was just we didn't have enough of them. Once we "officially checked in" the next day we essentially set up a brand new reservation and since the check in date was different than the original we lost some of our credits. Basically, it wasn't too bad. We just had to go and have credits reversed once we used them. Course, it was actually days before mousekeeping realized that our "temporary" room had become our "permanent" one. They quickly got that resolved though once the hair dryer caught fire. It honestly was a fun trip!!! Just eventful.

Gosh, that sounds like something!
But it is exactly what I was worried about because we would have checked in late as well, especially since it was President's Week.
But 2 hours from check in to be in the room especially at night, that IS quite something!
And I am glad they worked out your DDP credits in the end.
The hair dryer on fire? Now that is something new to me! Guess you had a lot to tell once your vacation was over!

 

[dizneeat]

Day 2, February 20

Friends, treats, a DREAM and finally a hotel room - Part 1

Even though it had been a late night we were both up early.

We wanted to be out of the room and checked out by 7am and Tom decided to make some coffee while I remembered that I still had to put our goody bags together for our DISmeet.
I had thought long and hard about HOW I was going to pack my suitcases and we put everything we would need in our carry on, so we would not have to open our luggage.
Turns out that I had packed the goodie bags and their content in one of the suitcases, right at the bottom of it, so they would not get crinkled. So, while I was combing through the suitcase Tom proceeded to make some coffee.
He washed the coffee pot, poured some water in it and poured it into the coffee maker which overflowed instantly. On closer inspection the coffee machine was already full of water, so he poured it out, washed it and filled it with water just to discover that the coffee machine didn't work.
Now that explained why there was water in it in the first place. So instead of having coffee we share a Diet Coke and took showers.
Once we were ready we carried all our stuff downstairs, Tom went to get the car, and everything got loaded in. Um, where’s my little yellow folder with my check-in paperwork? So we unloaded again, searched for the folder, found it and loaded everything back into the car.

Tom let me get off the car at the entrance to the hotel, I settled the bill and off we went.

It was 25 past 7 and our DISmeet was scheduled to be at 7.45. We were sure we would be able to make it in time, especially since we had decided on having our car Valet parked at the Beach Club Resort.
So we drove over to the Resort and at the Gate we are asked if we wanted to check in and so we told the guard that we wanted to meet friends for breakfast. He waved us in and told us to drive to the right and self park and to have fun. Hm, being able to self park during President’s Weekend is pretty neat!

So we drove over to the self park area, found a spot pretty close to the hotel, took our goodie bags and off we went. We reached the lobby 20 minutes to 8, so we were perfectly on time. I got mixed up there for a moment thinking that I was at the Yacht Club and turned to my left, but okay, the restaurant was to my right. And while we walked up to the restaurant, I could see THEM!
The DISfriends I had been exchanging posts with for quite some time. Here they were in “real life”.
We hugged and it felt like we had known each other forever. Little Max noticed that Tom was holding a Cars bag and started talking about it, and YES, Max – you can have it, it’s your bag!
Right after we had hugged and exchanged the first few sentences we were led inside the restaurant. We had a large round table towards the back of the restaurant and everyone found a seat and we started talking about how vacations had been so far and our experience upon entering the country.

 

[WDisneyMom]

That's it! We tried the one attached to the cafe. So the one you eat at would then be in Marketplace? I need to try and fit that in at the end of the month!! Thanks for the info.

Also, I just started my first PTR this morning for our trip in 20 days...stop by when you get a chance!

 

[WDisneyMom]

Awww...fun DisMeet! Reading Tina's TR now...max is a cutie!

 

[annmarieda]

The hair dryer on fire? Now that is something new to me! Guess you had a lot to tell once your vacation was over!

LOL, ok so when I say fire... again I may exaggerate a tad. Flames no... multiple sparks shooting out, yes. Yes, it was one to tell... but I did not do a TR. It was not until our next trip that I wrote a PTR or a TR. Our 2/2010 trip was a long one though..and it would have been a VERY long TR.


Oh your dismeet looks fun!

 

[tinkmom2]

the DISmeet sounds awesome! I am still contact with some of my DIS friends from my previous cruises. What a great community we have here

 

[tinacaplan]

Missed you too!
Poor little Max, hope he is doing well again! He is such a sweetheart!

It's unbelieveable we are already home for more than a week! And I can't believe that fun breakfast is more than two weeks in the past! What a way to start off our vacation!

Can't you go back in August? We would LOVE to meet up with you again! But whenever you go - I'll keep my fingers (and toes) crossed for you so this works outfor you!!!

Awww...thanks... I so wish we could back in August. If I had stayed at my old job, I'd be off 'till the end of August, so a trip overlapping would have been do-able, at least from a calendar standpoint. Of course, I wouldn't be making enough money to go to Disney in the first place, so... there is that!

I should know in the next six weeks or so when we'll be able to go back. Come July we will either be moving or going to Disneyworld! Either way, I'm good! I've found some really good deals on-line, particularly if I'm willing to book through places other than Disney...but we'll see... Definitely next February!

Day 2, February 20

Friends, treats, a DREAM and finally a hotel room - Part 1

Even though it had been a late night we were both up early.

We wanted to be out of the room and checked out by 7am and Tom decided to make some coffee while I remembered that I still had to put our goody bags together for our DISmeet.
I had thought long and hard about HOW I was going to pack my suitcases and we put everything we would need in our carry on, so we would not have to open our luggage.
Turns out that I had packed the goodie bags and their content in one of the suitcases, right at the bottom of it, so they would not get crinkled. So, while I was combing through the suitcase Tom proceeded to make some coffee.
He washed the coffee pot, poured some water in it and poured it into the coffee maker which overflowed instantly. On closer inspection the coffee machine was already full of water, so he poured it out, washed it and filled it with water just to discover that the coffee machine didn't work.
Now that explained why there was water in it in the first place. So instead of having coffee we share a Diet Coke and took showers.
Once we were ready we carried all our stuff downstairs, Tom went to get the car, and everything got loaded in. Um, where’s my little yellow folder with my check-in paperwork? So we unloaded again, searched for the folder, found it and loaded everything back into the car.

Tom let me get off the car at the entrance to the hotel, I settled the bill and off we went.

It was 25 past 7 and our DISmeet was scheduled to be at 7.45. We were sure we would be able to make it in time, especially since we had decided on having our car Valet parked at the Beach Club Resort.
So we drove over to the Resort and at the Gate we are asked if we wanted to check in and so we told the guard that we wanted to meet friends for breakfast. He waved us in and told us to drive to the right and self park and to have fun. Hm, being able to self park during President’s Weekend is pretty neat!

So we drove over to the self park area, found a spot pretty close to the hotel, took our goodie bags and off we went. We reached the lobby 20 minutes to 8, so we were perfectly on time. I got mixed up there for a moment thinking that I was at the Yacht Club and turned to my left, but okay, the restaurant was to my right. And while we walked up to the restaurant, I could see THEM!
The DISfriends I had been exchanging posts with for quite some time. Here they were in “real life”.
We hugged and it felt like we had known each other forever. Little Max noticed that Tom was holding a Cars bag and started talking about it, and YES, Max – you can have it, it’s your bag!
Right after we had hugged and exchanged the first few sentences we were led inside the restaurant. We had a large round table towards the back of the restaurant and everyone found a seat and we started talking about how vacations had been so far and our experience upon entering the country.

Oh, it was wonderful, wasn't it? I'm not going to say too much else here and it will be awhile before I get to this point on my TR! But it was fantastic!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Yay, a DISmeet. I totally want to do one of those someday!

You sound like me with the packing. I always think I have things laid out perfectly, and then BAM! I realize that I put something somewhere that is not convenient.

 

[podsnel]

That's a wonderful meet!! Very often it is like that- you have been chatting on here forever, and when you meet in person, it just feels so perfect!!

 

[tinkmom2]

The nice thing about staying on Disney property is you can mail yourself a package. I mailed our FE gifts for our cruise to POP and just carried them on to the ship with us. I will probably do the same thing next time. I have no room in my luggage at all

 

[englishrose47]

Just home from a veerrryyy LONG day !! Read your Dis Meet update and am hoping pix will be coming !!I hope to have some pix and a mini TR within a PTR of my day in Albany!!!

 

[Stefy]

You can't leave us hanging there! We need more!!!