OMG the 3 in 1 April 2012 Trip Reports!!!

[bigsis1970]

Hey Everyone - let me just say in some weird twist of fate I have 3 trips ---- YES 3 TRIPS in the same month after not being able to go for 5 LOOOOONG years !!!!

Trip 1 = is with my DD's HS Varsity Softball team (planned in the fall of 2011) I will be sucking it up and staying with my Ex Hubbys (of 10 yrs) wife and son - as they wanted to watch my DD play too and it's her son's graduation present. This is from April 7 - 14 2012

Trip 2 = is the Aspire Work Conf, let me just tell you how excited I was to find out I'd finally been selected by my manager to attend our yearly work conference and recognition program in Disney. We found out on Feb 9th and the trip is from April 29 to May 2 2012--- I seriously felt like Eli Manning when they announced my name --- Michelle MacVane your going to Walt Disney World !!! Whooot whooot !!!!
The announcement photo!

As you can see we had some rock stars announcing it - my high manager is Slash (who was standing next to Kid Rock) I am in the first standing row, second in with the coral/pinkish shirt and dark hair! I didn't have time to get my ears on before they snapped the photo (what a shame!)

Trip 3 = is the extension of trip 2 meaning that because my airfare was covered with the Conf (of trip 2) I extended it to stay until May 7 2012 and had my Hubs fly down for his very first Disney trip.

So I'll do my trips in order as not to confuse anyone (like mostly myself!) So onto Trip #1

 

[ChattaAlley]

Hi there. I will b reading along. But want to know something funny. I work at the same place YOU do but in Chattanooga, TN. Small world . . .huh? When I saw the word ASPIRE I was like wha? That is what we call our program. Can't wait to read more.

 

[bigsis1970]

So for Trip 1 It started something like this: Can I be my Ex’s almost BFF? If it gets me to Disney Cheap SURE!! LOL 9/2/11
How's that for a catchy title!!! my DD’s varsity softball team is playing at the Wide World of Sports for spring training April 7- 14 2012 and my Ex can't go due to his school schedule but his Wife can (he left me over 10 yrs ago for her so wounds have healed and we've moved on), so her and I are traveling/staying together .. Sometimes I think she thinks we are BFF's However we all get along for my kids sakes (DD is 18 and DS is 15) Plus she has a friend who works for the Marriott and Delta so she offered to get me a discount if they get her one.. I could be her almost BFF for this reason, for this one week of my life...

So the trip is 4/7 - 4/14 2012...
The cast is mostly just ME (pic from Feb 2007, I still look the same )

My DD and her Softball Team also are involved some – LOL – it was the reason for the trip (wink wink) the girls (15 of them varying from Freshmen to Seniors) are staying at the All Star Sports, get a WWoS pass and a 3 day MYW hopper ticket. the estimate for the girls portion of the trip is $750, the girls get $25 a day for food mostly it will be spent in the grocery store stocking up on breakfast and lunch items to bring to the fields – but a few of the days – their park days - they will need real money .. My DD is the last on standing on the Right side with the long dark hair

My Ex Hubby’s Wife and Son (they are called N & D) are involved – I don’t however hang out with them really at all, we both had our own separate agenda’s for this trip... however we both made it to most of the games and her son to about half.

Pic is of N, D and N's Mother at Graduation last week 6/8/12


We are right now waiting for airfare on Southwest due to no baggage fees and with softball equipment we need NO bag fees...
Which means we ride the SCHOOL bus from Portland Maine to Manchester NH oh joy but no parking fees. Now this is only how full our plane was - we had 31 people in our group and only 37 seats were taken on the trip down (trip back different story - it was FULL!)

I am going to just eat counter service meals (or snacks YUM)


The original plan on 10/11/11 was to stay at the Hotel Royal Plaza in DTD – as we need 2 beds plus a pullout (3 beds for 3 peeps) and N has offered to 2/3 of the cost... HOWEVER we didn’t hold the room and now it’s the beginning of the year 1/15/12 and the cost has skyrocketed... EEEKS... well N has a travel agent friend and she can get us the Best Western DTD for $700 (and the room had a pullout sofa) I paid my part right away!

I think this was the Nickelodeon Hotel way in the distance - I zoomed in

Southwest booked and paid for 1/31/12 (team mom held 40 tix on 10/5/11) MHT 4:05pm – MCO 7:30pm on 4/7/12 and MCO 10:45am – MHT 1:40 pm on 4/14

Park plans – right now we have no matching days! Fine by me I don’t mind being a solo in the parks, but I can’t do any planning till the girls get their schedule which won’t be till the end of March ! Ugh well anyway it comes out and I think I’ve got it down...

4/8 Animal Kingdom before and after game (game Noon-2)
4/9 Magic Kingdom or DTD before and after the games (games 10 - Noon,,2-4,4-6
4/10 Hollywood Studios for the day (games10 -Noon 2-4)
4/11 (the girls day off) Epcot all day (no games - they are doing AK then MGM)
4/12 Magic Kingdom again in the afternoon after the games (games 8-10,10-Noon)
4/13 Epcot again in the afternoon after the games (games 8-10 & 2-4)

Now how to get from a DTD hotel to the Wide World of Sports complex ---- boy what a hassle!!!! A car would have been nice but it was over $350 for a week during our trip and I couldn’t afford a taxi everyday so this is what I did : step one take the DTD hotel bus to either MK or AK : step two then take a Disney bus to either Pop Century or Caribbean Beach (I took the Pop bus every time but once because it came first) : step three then wait for the WWOS bus to pick you up – it came every 30 minutes 11past the hour and 41 past the hour and let me tell you that if you missed it, it was a LONG wait for the next one.. I showed up late for every game – sometimes just because they started a little early but mostly cause the transfers made me miss the bus I was aiming for... oh well it was ok my DD mostly was the DH anyway.. Also when I did make it to the complex on time it took 10mins to walk to the softball fields... they were way back in the very back left of the complex Fields 12,13,14 & 15,! But boy were they nice!

 

[bigsis1970]

Hi there. I will b reading along. But want to know something funny. I work at the same place YOU do but in Chattanooga, TN. Small world . . .huh? When I saw the word ASPIRE I was like wha? That is what we call our program. Can't wait to read more.

OMG !!!! too funny!!!! Nice to meet you -- I have a few friends in the Chatt office who used to work here in the Portland office then transferred down (Petrin - is the last name) I hope one day if you haven't been to Aspire you get to go --- IT WAS SOOOOO MUCH FUN... oh the pampering... it is just awesome, i'll provide lot's of details when I get to that chapter, Thanks for fowllowing along..

 

[solana131]

Too funny! My mom must work with you (Deb Pierce)....she has been there for 33 years She went on the Aspire trip a couple years ago.

And I'm pretty sure a friend of mine has two daughters on that softball team. I used to work with him (Mark, Penni, Lindsey & Rebecca). They went down to Disney too didn't they?? Huh, small world! I've been on the DIS for over a year now and I have never had a connection with anyone

I am most definitely coming along for this TR If thats okay, of course.

Loving the "empty" plane for you! We flew SW out of MHT for the first time in Feb and had a good experience. I am going in a couple of weeks with my cousin who just graduated highschool (Sacopee), and we are flying them again. So much better than dealing with Boston traffic and more direct flights than PWM. And the no baggage fees is pretty cool too!

 

[bigsis1970]

HI again Suzi, I don't think I know Deb but know the Howell's and yes both girls went and Penni and Mark and a grammie (not sure if it's Mark or Penni's mother)
LOVE to fly Southwest - it def was a bonus that there was no bag fees.
Have a great trip - have you been in the summer before, its really hot so the best advise I have is to get up for early mornings, go back to your hotel by 1 to rest or swim, come back to the parks around 5ish for the rest of the night. oh and DRINK lots of water.

 

[solana131]

Have a great trip - have you been in the summer before, its really hot so the best advise I have is to get up for early mornings, go back to your hotel by 1 to rest or swim, come back to the parks around 5ish for the rest of the night. oh and DRINK lots of water.

Thanks Michelle

No, I have never been in the summer and I am very nervous But it is just two "adults", so I don't have to worry about my son in that heat! I made sure I got park hoppers so we can fully utilize both morning and evening EMHs with a break in the middle of the day. You should see the collection of stuff I have for this trip: battery fans, misting fans, cool cloths, ponchos, filter water bottles, folding water bottles.....it goes on and on, but I feel like I am prepared. We'll see.

I can't believe how big that sports complex is! Yikes...of course the softball fields would be way in the back

 

[bigsis1970]

Oh Great stash of summer cooling stuff! I am sure two kids at heart will be just fine in the summertime

IT was HUGE!!! and we had stellar weather so that meant high 80's everyday at the beginning of April!! Oh boy I was a hot mess but probs not in a good way

I see you took your first family trip in Feb - how fun I just started reading your TR and looks good so far - if you noticed up in the begin of mine one of my trips was also my Hubs first trip as well as first time flying and he had to fly down alone as I was already there! (well he flew in 8th grade but that doesn't really count someone else was directing him around LOL )

Well back to reading..

 

[solana131]

if you noticed up in the begin of mine one of my trips was also my Hubs first trip as well as first time flying and he had to fly down alone as I was already there!

Oh my goodness! No amount of money in the world would get my husband on a plane by himself He hates to fly. I'm kinda happy he isn't coming this time around because when he flies we have to take a whole day, he doesn't like to get up early, and he is not worth anything after he travels...just wants to hang out at the hotel. Without him, I booked a 7am flight out of MHT, so we will be there around 10:30. We will still have most of the day to play

 

[bigsis1970]

So our flights from MHT on Southwest wasn't until 4 pm but we had to meet at our HS to ride a school bus (it was free to all vs. driving ourselves and paying parking at the airport) at 10:30. we only live 5 mins from the school so it was all good.. we didn't pull out til 11.. N had these made for the girls for the ride down

they were cupcakes with a Mickey head made from Oreos and our school initals on them. (I heard they were good but didn't have one as I get motion sick so I was already dreading the bus ride and wasn't adding food into the mix LOL)
The bus ride was mostly uneventful - we got a bit lost when arriving into Manchester as they redid the road leading to the airport so we had to back track and try again but arrived in plenty of time for going thru security,having lunch and boarding.

Once thru the girls played some kind of slap game with a quarter at our gate

DD and her BFF on the flight (my DD has the bow in her hair)

The flight was uneventful and empty as mentioned in the opening - and fast we got in 30 mins early !

So N and son, and myself said good bye to DD as she was off with the team on Magical Express to the All Star Sports for the week and we were off to find Mears to catch the Shuttle to the DTD Best Western
I posted the pics in the opening of the room - it was nice plenty of room for the 3 of us N and I each had a bed and N's Son had the pull out. The hotel was very nice (not disney but nice) I only used the pool once but N and son used it a few times, we walked to DTD for dinner at Earl of Sandwich YUM. I have the Chinese Chicken wrap for the first time it was really good sorry no pic~ and a Earl's Grey Lemonade.. we then walked around just a little bit to sight see and around 10:30 pm walked back to the BW..

Up tomorrow the Animal Kingdom and our first game, oh and it Easter Sunday.

 

[bigsis1970]

Well I was up early - most of the time it worked out that I would get up, shower and all that jazz then as I headed out N and Son would start waking up and we'd meet up at the games - our park days didn't match up. The DTD hotels have busses to the park. BW on was the B bus run and most days I hit it right to get to my park just around opening..

Our rate at the hotel didn't include the continental breakfast, so I was on my own.

Happy Easter in Disney World, Today was my Animal Kingdom day.. the game wasn't till Noon but I got to the AK just after opening

I headed right in and went towards the Tree of Life - it didn't feel too crowded to me but looks like lots of peeps here today

While I was filling my water bottle up at the fountains right in front of the Tree of Life I felt something brush my leg and jumped a little but it was just this little guy

Before I left I printed off some touring plans and it said to go to Dinosaur first so off I went here are a few things I saw on the way

I remember when Donald had his Breakfast here instead of at the Tusker house, we actually ate in this little camper once.

Very soon I knew I was close because I saw these

OMG I didn't remember this ride being so herky jerky I felt like I was in a blender and tried to take some pics (no flash and sports mode) but nothing came out but here is my awesome pic of "the picture" LOL how embaressing Im in the top left corner with the light blue shirt and duh look on my face.

 

[bigsis1970]

My touring plan said next I should head to Kilimanjaro Safari so off I went, I stopped at the little kiosk outside of the ride and got a banana and a pretzel for breakfast. I ate the banana on the walk up to get on - I had a 3 min wait.. as a single rider and no one in a wheelchair they let me ride in the little front row by myself

The safari is one of my fave things to do I could ride it 100 times in a row and never tire of it and I'd take pictures each ride ! so this next part is just going to be pictures of the animals on the ride.

quick story this guy was playing with the log by hooking it on his horns and throwing it up in the air and charging at it then doing it all over again - I never saw anything like that on my safari trips

Continued in the next post

 

[bigsis1970]

Again I just LOVE this ride!!!!!

 

[solana131]

Glad you had an uneventful flight...those are always the best And can someone tell me why you can't see WDW from the plane? It's not THAT far away from MCO....you would think you could at least see the Epcot ball or ToT or something. I was stumped on this. I even made sure I sat on the opposite side of the plane going down vs coming back so I could get a view of each side. Didn't see anything!

Looks like a good start to your AK day. I wonder why TP said to do Dinosaur first?? We went on a 9 out of 10 crowd calendar day and didn't hit Dinosaur until after lunch and it was still walk on. I would've thought they would have you go to either the safari or Everest first. But looks like it worked out well for you anyway....first row safari is awesome! Dinosaur scares the patootie out of me Seriously....I am like that girl in front of you in the picture.....ducking down and screaming my head off.