Ooh-de-lally! A dining heavy October '13 Trip Report *update 2/23-We're Going Back!*

[TheMaxRebo]

Well, we have been here since Friday and having a blast - though it is packed! Like 20 minute wait for Ellen's Energy Adventure packed.

Hope to get a post or two up while here - though will want to get photopass oh tired before really getting into things

 

[courtneybelle]

Obsessed with the "A Salute to All of Disney World" shirt! And the Tiki Room shirt is so great too. HAVE A BLAST!!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Sign me up! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

 

[herb102211]

Joining in!

Your DD is adorable...

Love the shirts you all made too!

 

[emmysmommy]

Oh man how did I miss this and not wish you and your family a wonderful trip! I'm in time to welcome you back at least! (And now I know your name. Nice to meet you Phil.) What a lovely family that you have. Your DD's Frump in training photo is too adorable. (You must know that deer look huh?)

I still worry that I may mix up my DR and TR and post in my DR that we went to Blizzard Beach and post a photo of us in our bathing suits. It could happen. But you are a smart man to stick with one and give us all the dining details as well.

Victoria and Alberts - how amazing!! I definitely want to hear about that an the newly reopened California Grill.

I hope you had a great time. Sounds like it was crowded.

Waiting patiently to hear all about it.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Obsessed with the "A Salute to All of Disney World" shirt! And the Tiki Room shirt is so great too. HAVE A BLAST!!!

Thanks! We thought the Tiki Room one was very cute and accurate as Peter's naps do seem to be getting shorter and shorter.

Sign me up! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

Welcome! Going to get started really soon - we did have some good adventures, even if everything didn't go according to plan

Joining in!

Your DD is adorable...

Love the shirts you all made too!

Welcome! Thanks you - we too think she is quite cute - doesn't stop her from getting on our last nerves though

Oh man how did I miss this and not wish you and your family a wonderful trip! I'm in time to welcome you back at least! (And now I know your name. Nice to meet you Phil.) What a lovely family that you have. Your DD's Frump in training photo is too adorable. (You must know that deer look huh?)

I still worry that I may mix up my DR and TR and post in my DR that we went to Blizzard Beach and post a photo of us in our bathing suits. It could happen. But you are a smart man to stick with one and give us all the dining details as well.

Victoria and Alberts - how amazing!! I definitely want to hear about that an the newly reopened California Grill.

I hope you had a great time. Sounds like it was crowded.

Waiting patiently to hear all about it.

Welcome! I feel honored to have you visit my little 'ol trip report!

You've been doing such a great job with linking between your reports - very impressed

We had just wonderful meals at both Victoria and Alberts and California Grill. I had read a number of not so great reviews from the newly reopened Cali Grill so I was a little worried, but it turned out to be one of our best meals - no complaints at all!

 

[SheenaXena21]

I love the shirts!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Travel: Drive to PA then fly to MCO​

Well, our Disney vacation is over - it was an absolutely wonderful time. While not everything went according to plan (does it ever?) we packed in a ton of fun including quite a few new experiences - can't wait to share! .....

... but we need to start with the obligatory travel day - well, for us days. It will be a bit light on pictures and I will keep it to just this one post so we can get to the magic as fast as possible!

********************

Wednesday October 9th - my last day in work.

I haven't taken 2 weeks off from work in years and in the past I usually wound up working quite a bit on my vacations, but I was determined to minimize that this time ... which meant I was stressing quite a bit that last day trying to ensure everything I could think of was taken care of. Well, I guess I did a good job because I wound up not opening my work laptop while at Disney and though I did send some e-mails in the morning/evenings, I managed to not take my blackberry to any of the parks. My wife was quite pleased and, if she is being honest, a bit surprised.

********************

Thursday October 10th - travel to the in-laws' house in Pennsylvania.

Olivia went off to pre-school today while Judi and I finished packing and just taking care of things. Olivia was super excited - neither Peter nor our dogs fully comprehended what was going on. I did also log-in to the Disboards, largely just so I could see this:

After packing the car - which actually went fairly smoothly driven by our policy of "teach it to fit" - we were off on time to pick Olivia up from pre-school. I was glad to see that not only were her teachers not upset with us for taking her out of school, they were super excited for her! One of her teachers did have one request - that we ride the tea cups for her. Would will complete that mission?!?!??!
[spolier]yes, yes we did[/spoiler]


The first leg of our journey was to drive from the lower Hudson Valley in New York over to our in-laws (Bob and Kathy) in the middle of Pennsylvania. At this stop we would exchange our dogs (who would be watched by a family friend along with my my in-laws' dogs) for Bob and Kathy who would be coming with us on the trip - for them to have a vacation and spend time with their grandkids, and also to be babysitters for us at times.

We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread (sorry, no pictures - you can probably form in your mind what some soup, salad, and sandwiches looks like).

Here is a picture of the back of the car as the kids are pretty settled in. Olivia spent much of the trip watching DVDs and Peter and the dogs spent a good amount of time sleeping. You can also see how packed the van was (the back seat was stowed).

The drive went about as well as could be expected - it was very rainy though:

I tried to keep the mood up though by streaming Disney music via Pandora on my phone which we then patched in to the car stereo:

We arrived around 6pm, unloaded the family and dogs and tried to re-pack the car as best we could (removing the dog create, adding Bob and Kathy's suitcases, etc.) .... still in the rain.

We tried to get settled for the nights but the kids were all a little - plus Judi's sister and her husband wanted to come by to see the kids which delayed things further. Finally we did get to sleep ....

********************

Friday October 11th - travel to Florida - Orlando - Disney!!!!

.... and right back up at 2:15 in the morning - made some coffee and loaded up the car and managed to pull out of the driveway at 2:55am for our near 3 hour trip to Regan National Airport in Washington DC (closest "real" airport to Bob and Kathy and offered good JetBlue prices to MCO).

And of course we had rain again - actually rather hard at times. We made pretty good time though (guess if you can't make good time at 4 in the morning, when can you) and I dropped everyone off at the curb near the JetBlue terminal before taking the van to the long-term parking location. First time using this service but it all went smoothly.

Check-in also went smoothly, as did security (thank goodness). Kids enjoyed being in the airport and liked that we could see our plane out the window:

Overall the flight went, um, ok. I mean, the flight itself was fine but Peter wouldn't sleep a wink and was just antsy and, well, being Peter. We were split between two rows and he was very jealous that Olivia got to sit with Granddad, so Peter got passed across the tops of the seats a few times. He did enjoy looking out the window though:

Thankfully, and not really surprisingly, there were a lot of other excited kids on the plane so wasn't like ours were disturbing a plan full of sleeping business travelers or anything. We landed basically on time and after a restroom stop we went to baggage claim and our bags were already on the belt. It took a minute but then hit me that a lot of our fellow passengers were probably using Magical Express and that is why there were so few bags coming out.

An attendant helped us out and loaded all our bags on a cart and brought them right to our rental car (have the Budget Fastbreak card so could go right to the car). That was a huge help and totally worth the $20 tip I gave him.

With that we were off! We had a few stops to make on the way to our resort, but since that is actually in Orlando and (mostly) involves Disney, I will save that for the next update.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I love the shirts!!!

Thanks! For my first attempt I am pretty happy with them - definitely will do more in the future!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

GOOD FOR YOU not working (much) on vacation. I used to be one of those too, but I learned. There's No Sleeping in Disney... and THERE'S NO WORKING IN DISNEY!!!

Strange, but on Disboards I have a hard time picturing food without pictures.

That's quite the journey there Phil. But I'm glad it all went pretty well and now, YAY, onto Disney!!!

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi Phil! Sounds like you didn't get much sleep between a full day of driving and then turning around and having to go to the airport so early. I loved the touch of Disney with the Disney-tunes on Pandora. That definitely helps set the mood for the vacation!

I wish I had planned a family trip that involved my parents and all of our kids many years ago. Now it is too late to do that .... regrets and all aside, I think it is great that you are building such great memories with your family. Even though your son may not remember much it is still a Disney heritage that you are building that is completely awesome!

That's awesome that you were able to keep work in check while you were on vacation. I can see how your wife would appreciate that.

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm joining! I can't wait to hear about your trip now that you're all back.

The kids are absolutely adorable.

 

[courtneybelle]

The "1 Day Until" ticker is a beautiful sight. That's awesome that Olivia's teachers were so excited! And a good idea to play Disney music on the ride there. That's the way to do it

 

[TheMaxRebo]

GOOD FOR YOU not working (much) on vacation. I used to be one of those too, but I learned. There's No Sleeping in Disney... and THERE'S NO WORKING IN DISNEY!!!

Strange, but on Disboards I have a hard time picturing food without pictures.

That's quite the journey there Phil. But I'm glad it all went pretty well and now, YAY, onto Disney!!!

Thanks Rob, I've started to learn (taken a while to get through my skull) that the world won't end if I stay off my blackberry for a day or two ... I mean, it's not like I am a brain scientist or a rocket surgeon.

They were a couple of long days to get to Orlando (and about to start the long trip back tomorrow) but definitely worth it and it was so great having Judi's parents with us

Hi Phil! Sounds like you didn't get much sleep between a full day of driving and then turning around and having to go to the airport so early. I loved the touch of Disney with the Disney-tunes on Pandora. That definitely helps set the mood for the vacation!

I wish I had planned a family trip that involved my parents and all of our kids many years ago. Now it is too late to do that .... regrets and all aside, I think it is great that you are building such great memories with your family. Even though your son may not remember much it is still a Disney heritage that you are building that is completely awesome!

That's awesome that you were able to keep work in check while you were on vacation. I can see how your wife would appreciate that.

Yeah Brenda, didn't get too much sleep, but hey, that Disney adrenaline can keep you going for longer than you initially think!

Sorry to hear that you weren't able to get that extended family trip in - having a larger party can make the planning a bit harder but we think it is worth it ... and this was probably the first time my son had such extended period of time with his grandfather and he totally latched on to him! Actually, for much of the trip all he wanted to do was be carried by his grandfather (or Nada as he started to call him - combination of Nana and Dada).

I'm joining! I can't wait to hear about your trip now that you're all back.

The kids are absolutely adorable.

Welcome! Thanks - I've been enjoying your family's adventures in your TR as well.

The "1 Day Until" ticker is a beautiful sight. That's awesome that Olivia's teachers were so excited! And a good idea to play Disney music on the ride there. That's the way to do it

Yeah, it was definitely nice to see (actually, once it got under a week and was just single digit days left I was getting excited). Playing the Disney music was great, though I felt like I was the only one really into it. Oh well - I was driving so got to pick the tunes

 

[norybell]

Welcome back! Glad to hear all your travel to FL was relatively uneventful (which, really, is the most one can ask when traveling nowadays, isn't it?).

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Day 1 - Part 1: Orlando errands and Downtown Disney (1 of 2)​

Friday October 11th

When I last left off we had just arrived at MCO in Orlando

First up was the first (un)official ride of the trip - the Fakeorail!

Peter didn't seem too impressed and Olivia apparently thought it was a thrill ride and was holding on for dear life:

We then went down to baggage, got the bags and picked up the rental car and we were off ... all the way to the Florida South AAA office. Which was a very important and momentous stop for me personally as it was there I purchased my very first Disney World Annual Pass! (that's your cue to "oooh" and "aaaah").

Upon coming out of the store we noticed there was a chip in the windshield of the rental car. I was afraid we would be charged for damages upon return so I got on the phone and after being transferred several times it was recorded that we received the car with the chip in the windshield.

We then were off to our next stop - to pick up the rental stroller! We rented through Apple Stroller which had a promotion of the rental being free (yes, free) we just had to pay for the insurance - so after tax, etc. it cost us a grand total of $62 for a double stroller including accessory tray.

Plus, at this point we were very close to Disney as this was on the opposite side of the parking lot:

Yup - we were right across the street from some people taking pictures of themselves in front of some sort of sign that I guess was important or something...


After that we were off and our next stop actually took us on to Disney property and we stopped at Downtown Disney - and our first stop there was guest services to activate the recently purchased annual pass and purchase a Tables in Wonderland card (feel free to continue to "oooh" and "aaah"):

You may ask why we were getting an annual pass when we would only be spending 4 days in the parks, but with a group of up to 10 for meals (and being a group with adults that enjoyed an occasional adult beverage) I had done some estimations and determined that the extra cost would more than be made up from the 20% off food bills plus other AP savings (parking at parks, etc.).

So, the final tally is that I would need to save $414.27 to break even with this decision - I'll keep updates in here to see how we are doing.

After this key purchase we checked out the Lego displays:

We were in need of some food - but where to go for our first meal at Disney?

Ok, ok, so it doesn't scream "Walt Disney World" - but we wanted something fast, something that everyone would eat, and it was one of the counter service places at Downtown Disney that provided an discount for having an Annual Pass (I did just get the dang thing, might as well use it!).

We got the Family meal split between chicken strips and the citrus grilled chicken and for our sides got the fried plantains and the french fries. Olivia got Juice, Bob got an Ice Tea, Kathy got a Vitamin Water, I got a Iced Mocha, and Judi got Sangria:

Overall it was really good! Everything was fresh and tasty and just hit the spot for what we wanted - food!

Using my AP, we saved $9.89 brining the total to, well, $9.89.


(continued next post)

 

[PolkaDotLuggage]

Subbing and reading while I eat non-Disney food

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I think Olivia knows that if you're standing to "Please hold on to the safety rail" whether you're in Disney yet or not. She's just being a good Disney soldier!! Super Smart kid!

AHHHHHHHH ANNUAL PASS!!!

OK, so you only had to pay for the insurance to get the stroller for free?? Haha, I hope you beat the heck out of that stroller (with no kiddies inside of course).

Hahaha, Pollo Campero totally reminds me of "Los Pollos Hermanos" from Breaking Bad. Now I must eat there. And you say they give the discount. Is that with or without the Tables in Wonderland?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I think Olivia knows that if you're standing to "Please hold on to the safety rail" whether you're in Disney yet or not. She's just being a good Disney soldier!! Super Smart kid!

AHHHHHHHH ANNUAL PASS!!!

OK, so you only had to pay for the insurance to get the stroller for free?? Haha, I hope you beat the heck out of that stroller (with no kiddies inside of course).

Hahaha, Pollo Campero totally reminds me of "Los Pollos Hermanos" from Breaking Bad. Now I must eat there. And you say they give the discount. Is that with or without the Tables in Wonderland?

Haha, we didn't beat up the stroller too bad

The discount at Pollo Compero is just for Annual Pass - 20% off

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Subbing and reading while I eat non-Disney food

Thanks for joining! Hey, there is some good non-Disney food out there