Mindy5767
Loving My DVC Membership
- Joined
- May 14, 2007
- Messages
- 1,944
An Introduction and My Disney History
Hi, I want to introduce myself to anyone who is reading my trip report that doesn’t already know me from the DIS. My name is Mindy, and I am a mid 40’s mother of 3. I’ve visited Walt Disney World with my family in the 70’s twice. The first time was probably shortly after it opened. I still have the Minnie Mouse that my parents bought me on that trip. Her clothes disintegrated, but she survives. I visited the Magic Kingdom and River Country on a trip with a friend in 1984. Then, I didn’t go back to Disney until I took my oldest daughter on her first visit in 1990 when she was almost 2. Our next trip wasn’t until 10 years later in 1990 when my daughter was 12 and my son 8.
Our next trip was in 2005 when we went down during spring break right after my son’s Bar Mitzvah. That trip was pretty eye opening. By that trip, we had a 16 ½ year old daughter, a 13 year old son and a 2 ½ year old girl. We stayed at the All Star Music. Not the family suites, they didn’t have those yet. We quickly learned that even if you can squeeze yourselves into the hotel room, you won’t have enough drawer space. It took some time to get ready in the morning. We had to work out a system where my son got up and showered and dressed first, then he’d head for breakfast, my husband and I got up and got ourselves and the baby ready, and we headed out for breakfast, then after we left, our 16 year old would do the same. By the time we were all ready to head to a park, it was nearly lunch time. That sure didn’t work. So, we didn’t plan another Disney trip for now.
Then in 2007, my sister suggested a trip with just the two of us, my now 4 year old daughter and her then 10 year old son. We stayed at Pop Century. We were on the meal plan. This was a transformative trip. We had such a fantastic time. We also discovered Dole Whip this trip. It was during this trip that I noticed all the DVC booths and grabbed a brochure while my sister kept us tight on our schedule. And to make an even longer story shorter, I decided to buy a DVC share at Saratoga Springs. We did all the sales work from home. It has been the best investment we’ve ever made. So then after we made our first DVC visit during Thanksgiving week 2007, staying in a 2 bedroom villa at Saratoga. We bought annual passes for myself, DH and my younger daughter for that trip. We then returned in April 08 for spring break in a studio at Saratoga and squeezed another trip in Oct 08 for MNSSHP and F&W in a studio at Old Key West. Then came one trip in 2009 in July when we brought my Mother in law and niece along. This year, in 2010, we visited twice already.. and we have to hurry with this trip report as we leave in 46 days for Thanksgiving week at Saratoga Springs.
Hi, I want to introduce myself to anyone who is reading my trip report that doesn’t already know me from the DIS. My name is Mindy, and I am a mid 40’s mother of 3. I’ve visited Walt Disney World with my family in the 70’s twice. The first time was probably shortly after it opened. I still have the Minnie Mouse that my parents bought me on that trip. Her clothes disintegrated, but she survives. I visited the Magic Kingdom and River Country on a trip with a friend in 1984. Then, I didn’t go back to Disney until I took my oldest daughter on her first visit in 1990 when she was almost 2. Our next trip wasn’t until 10 years later in 1990 when my daughter was 12 and my son 8.
Our next trip was in 2005 when we went down during spring break right after my son’s Bar Mitzvah. That trip was pretty eye opening. By that trip, we had a 16 ½ year old daughter, a 13 year old son and a 2 ½ year old girl. We stayed at the All Star Music. Not the family suites, they didn’t have those yet. We quickly learned that even if you can squeeze yourselves into the hotel room, you won’t have enough drawer space. It took some time to get ready in the morning. We had to work out a system where my son got up and showered and dressed first, then he’d head for breakfast, my husband and I got up and got ourselves and the baby ready, and we headed out for breakfast, then after we left, our 16 year old would do the same. By the time we were all ready to head to a park, it was nearly lunch time. That sure didn’t work. So, we didn’t plan another Disney trip for now.
Then in 2007, my sister suggested a trip with just the two of us, my now 4 year old daughter and her then 10 year old son. We stayed at Pop Century. We were on the meal plan. This was a transformative trip. We had such a fantastic time. We also discovered Dole Whip this trip. It was during this trip that I noticed all the DVC booths and grabbed a brochure while my sister kept us tight on our schedule. And to make an even longer story shorter, I decided to buy a DVC share at Saratoga Springs. We did all the sales work from home. It has been the best investment we’ve ever made. So then after we made our first DVC visit during Thanksgiving week 2007, staying in a 2 bedroom villa at Saratoga. We bought annual passes for myself, DH and my younger daughter for that trip. We then returned in April 08 for spring break in a studio at Saratoga and squeezed another trip in Oct 08 for MNSSHP and F&W in a studio at Old Key West. Then came one trip in 2009 in July when we brought my Mother in law and niece along. This year, in 2010, we visited twice already.. and we have to hurry with this trip report as we leave in 46 days for Thanksgiving week at Saratoga Springs.
I'm looking all over the place. Surely they must have some. No luck. Where is it? I finally see a man who looks like a manager standing in the middle of the food court. I ask him about the locaiton of the creamer. He does more than tell me where the cremaer is. Its in the back actually, so the specialty items don't get contaminated with other things. So he asks me what kind of non-dairy creamer I want. He brings out the chef to introduce himself to me. The chef told me about all their options. He offered me fat-free Lactaid milk. Perfect!! He goes into the back, and comes back out with a whole cup of it. More than 8 ounces and there was no charge! 
My DH goes through the food line with Heidi and gets her scrambled eggs and gets some for himself. 
I then have to spend the next 15 minutes trying to scrape it off on the curb and any patch of grass that comes along. Why do people even think that dropping their gum in an area where people gather would be a good idea? So finally, the cast member that is guardian of the gate, opens the gate wide and we're led across to the entrance of the stadium. We sort of file in and everyone rushes across the seating area. We end up with seats that aren't too bad. We're a little off to the side, but near the front, and there is enough of a breeze here. The rows up further have a fan mounted on the ceiling, but they must be stuffier or they wouldn't have that fan there, so we settle in. 
Don't have too much to get caught up on.
She darted inside just before we came up. Needless to say I was quick to go to the front desk! 
Actually, the reason we stayed at Pop and not DVC is that we used up our DVC annual allotment of points in March when we stayed in a 2 bedroom villa during spring break. I could have borrowed ahead on our 2010 allotment of points that we receive on Dec 1st (we receive our points for the year on Dec 1 because we have a Dec contract--which has nothing to do with our signing date) but we are also going back for our 3rd 2010 trip for Thanksgiving. Which, magically, is still prior to our 2010 allotment date of Dec 1st, so we still have to borrow them ahead. If we'd borrowed ahead and used the points for August, we'd be out of luck for Thanksgiving because we can't borrow 2011's allotment before the 2010 allotment comes. We will be staying in a 2 bedroom villa in November (my sister and her family are joining us), so it made sense for trip #2 to stay at the Pop Century to save money. We were able to afford 8 nights with that choice. There were only the 3 of us for August because Max was now in college and Lily was with her husband in New York. I didn't get free dining because we went for the Annual Pass room-only discount. With DVC, you have a separate price structure for our annual passes and it is about $100 less than the non-DVC annual pass. For this year it definitely paid to renew our annual passes for me, DH and Heidi. Max doesn't have an AP, but as a full-time Florida college student, he can get a Florida resident pass, so I'll have to get him one when he arrives at Disney on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 
x
ugh! A smoker. Wait a minute...??? Smoking at the pool? Is that allowed? I walk over to the life guard and ask her if people are supposed to be allowed to smoke around the pool. Her answer was not diffinitive. She said they could but they're supposed to smoke in the designated smoking areas. She said she'd talk to them. So, she went over and spoke to them. They loudly complained that someone had complained, but then the smokers in the group went over to the designated smoking area, which was over by the laundry room at some benches. Finally.. the coast was clear! So, then I needed to use the bathroom. So I went over to the pool building that looks like an old CD player or something. This is also where the washers and dryers are. I put my key in the door, but it wouldn't open. I then had to go over to the life guard and ask her if the bathrooms are supposed to be locked. I told her that at other pools they were unlocked or your room key would open them. She said that they were not supposed to be locked. So she had to call maintenance to come unlock the bathrooms. When maintenance arrived, he noted that the bathrooms were not supposed to be locked, and that the door seemed to have a problem, but he let me in. We went back over to do some swimming. The pool was nearly empty. My daughter took her Bruce the Shark over to the pool. The lifeguard came over and told us that we couldn't have the inflatable shark in the pool. I could understand if it had been crowded.. but it wasn't. 
Great start. I dropped my first DD off at college this summer too. She chose a school just outside of Boston so I couldn't squeeze in a trip to Disney at the same time. (How inconsiderate of her, I know!)
We both have children with ages that are far apart so I have feeling we may have alot in common. 
Looking forward to more of your report! 
