Ahhh, where to begin? We flew out Wed (6/15) at 6:45 am (woke at 4am, ugh!). We were checked in to our cabin (on Disney property) by 2pm. We didn't do much that first day except relax a little bit, went grocery shopping (our cabin had a full kitchen so we planned on eating quite a few meals there to save money). In the evening we went to the Disney boardwalk resort, walked along the boardwalk a little, ate at ESPN club. Then we rode the monorail around to the Magic Kingdom resorts, just to get a little flavor of Disney. We didn't want to use our park passes that day because we were there for 11 days but passes were good for only 10. So the next day was our actual first day at the parks. I won't go into the daily details of every single day (it would take too much time that I simply don't have, as I'm leaving again in 2 days for another vacation) but throughout the trip we visited all the parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Sudios, Animal Kingdom plus the 2 water parks). Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM Sudios we visited several times throughout the trip (we had park-hopper tickets). We fully intented to go back to the cabin every afternoon to rest a bit, but it only happened about 3 times. There was just too much to do. Leaving the cabin by around 8:30 each morning and getting back around 11 each evening was very exhausting. The nice part though, was that dd (6 y.o.) fell asleep instantly every night, LOL! She did a really good job walking. For the first week, we didn't get her a stroller. She walked most and rode on dh's shoulders a little bit. We rented a stroller the last 4 days because she was so tired in the mornings and because dh's shoulders were sunburned. I wore my pedometer and most days, we walked about 10 miles (a couple were shorter, a couple were further....one was 12.5!!). My feet only hurt the first couple days and no pain after that.
We were part of a group of 26 people (mostly SIL's family) so we had a few large "group" activities planned, but for the most part, we split up. Dh, myself, dd, & MIL always stayed together and we quite often did things with BIL/SIL/2 kids.
HIGHLIGHTS of the trip: We had breakfast at Cinderella's castle. That was on Father's Day, so in addition to having all the princesses sign dd's autograph book, I had them also sign dh's FD card. We also had breakfast at Crystal Palace one morning. One of the nights, as part of the large "whole group" activities, we got to go on a cruise to watch the Wishes fireworks. This particular activity is not available to the general public visiting Disney....you have to be part of a Grand Gathering. The event started with a delicious dessert buffet at the Contemporary resort. Captain Hook and Mr. Smee and a few pirates were there to walk around for pictures, joke with us, etc. Then the pirates took us out to the boat and kept us entertained (with pirate songs and humor) until the fireworks started. We watched the fireworks from the middle of the lagoon and when we returned to the dock, Peter Pan was waiting for us so we could meet him.
FANTASTIC FOOD: When we were really busy at a park, we usually grabbed lunch at a counter-service place. But (in addition to the character breakfasts), we also ate at some wonderful restaurants. The food was so delicious! In Epcot's Germany, we ate at the Biergarten. The music and the scenery there was fantastic, the food was too! Another Epcot note....the frozen Margarita in Mexico is strong, but you don't taste it. You only feel tipsy when you're done ;o) At the Polynesian resort, we ate at Ohana. They continually grill up skewers of pork, turkey, sirloin and large shrimp (all seasoned wonderfully) and bring the skewers out to your plate. Over and over and until you tell them to stop. At the Animal Kingdom resort, we ate at Boma. The service there was the best I've ever had. The food was delicious but the service....I'm still astounded. I had read on allears menus that they offer cocomut tirimisu and I was really looking forward to it because I love coconut and I love tirimisu. When we got there, the cocomut tirimisu was not on the buffet that night. So I asked our server which nights it's available and if they offer any of their items a-la-carte so I could come back just for dessert. He explained that no, they don't offer a-la-carte, only the full buffet dinner. But he came back a couple minutes later and told me the pastry chef was making me a batch and brought it back out a few minutes later (actually, they made 2 batches for our table to share). We thanked him profusely and I gave him a "thank you" card (a postcard from my home town that said "You made our Day! Thank you for making our first trip to Disney more magical!!") I also gave him an extra thank you card and asked that he give it to the chef. A few minutes later, the chef came to our table, thanked us for thanking him (which we all did some more, LOL) and said he'd be back in a few minutes with another surprise. He came back with 2 serving bowls full of deep-fried Oreos (enough for all 19 of us at the table). They were oreo cookies, surrounded by some kind of batter..it made them look like plum-size round donuts, then deep fried until the oreo was kind of soft and melty, then drizzled with milk chocolate. They were heavenly! They also were not on the buffet offerings, but only brought out to our table. OMG, with all the wonderful foods (and so many buffets), I though for sure I'd gain 10 pounds, but amazingly, I lost 3. All that walking, LOL!!!
MISC: The nightly fireworks were fantastic! We only watched Wishes 2x. We watched Illuminations 1x at Epcot. It was also a very good show). Our favorite though, was Fantasmic at MGM. For anyone who's never been there....It's not fireworks, it's a laser light show (called Fantasmic). They have a couple fountains of water spraying in kind of a peacock tail-feather shape and they project the animated pictures onto the water sprays. It gives everything a sort of cloudy or hazy appearance. Behind the water is a cliff, where characters are out performing their scenes along with the water images. Hard to describe, but very cool to watch!! The first night we watched it there, it started pouring rain just as we were walking to get our seats, with our counter-service food. We threw on rain ponchos and there we sat, with our trays of food under our ponchos, in the pouring rain waiting for the show (which goes on during rain unless there's lightening).
I was quite amazed at how warm it is there. Again, having never been there before, I wasn't sure what to expect. But even at 8 am and 11 pm, I was hot wearing a tank top and shorts. And when it rains....it's just wet. Not cold. Still warm enough to be comfortable walking in the rain. It did not rain every day but more so on our last few days. Usually for only about 20 minutes but there were a couple days when it rained on & off throughout the day. Since it wasn't lightening, and it wasn't cold, we just threw on ponchos and kept going.
Well, I'm about beat. We left Orlando Sat evening (6/25) - our 11th wedding anniversary and we got into our home airport at midnight. So we were home and in bed by shortly after 1 Sunday morning. I spent Sunday unpacking and sorting laundry. Only to re-pack because we are leaving in 2 more days for a trip to Tennessee (6 days).
Thanks for reading!
Pam
We were part of a group of 26 people (mostly SIL's family) so we had a few large "group" activities planned, but for the most part, we split up. Dh, myself, dd, & MIL always stayed together and we quite often did things with BIL/SIL/2 kids.
HIGHLIGHTS of the trip: We had breakfast at Cinderella's castle. That was on Father's Day, so in addition to having all the princesses sign dd's autograph book, I had them also sign dh's FD card. We also had breakfast at Crystal Palace one morning. One of the nights, as part of the large "whole group" activities, we got to go on a cruise to watch the Wishes fireworks. This particular activity is not available to the general public visiting Disney....you have to be part of a Grand Gathering. The event started with a delicious dessert buffet at the Contemporary resort. Captain Hook and Mr. Smee and a few pirates were there to walk around for pictures, joke with us, etc. Then the pirates took us out to the boat and kept us entertained (with pirate songs and humor) until the fireworks started. We watched the fireworks from the middle of the lagoon and when we returned to the dock, Peter Pan was waiting for us so we could meet him.
FANTASTIC FOOD: When we were really busy at a park, we usually grabbed lunch at a counter-service place. But (in addition to the character breakfasts), we also ate at some wonderful restaurants. The food was so delicious! In Epcot's Germany, we ate at the Biergarten. The music and the scenery there was fantastic, the food was too! Another Epcot note....the frozen Margarita in Mexico is strong, but you don't taste it. You only feel tipsy when you're done ;o) At the Polynesian resort, we ate at Ohana. They continually grill up skewers of pork, turkey, sirloin and large shrimp (all seasoned wonderfully) and bring the skewers out to your plate. Over and over and until you tell them to stop. At the Animal Kingdom resort, we ate at Boma. The service there was the best I've ever had. The food was delicious but the service....I'm still astounded. I had read on allears menus that they offer cocomut tirimisu and I was really looking forward to it because I love coconut and I love tirimisu. When we got there, the cocomut tirimisu was not on the buffet that night. So I asked our server which nights it's available and if they offer any of their items a-la-carte so I could come back just for dessert. He explained that no, they don't offer a-la-carte, only the full buffet dinner. But he came back a couple minutes later and told me the pastry chef was making me a batch and brought it back out a few minutes later (actually, they made 2 batches for our table to share). We thanked him profusely and I gave him a "thank you" card (a postcard from my home town that said "You made our Day! Thank you for making our first trip to Disney more magical!!") I also gave him an extra thank you card and asked that he give it to the chef. A few minutes later, the chef came to our table, thanked us for thanking him (which we all did some more, LOL) and said he'd be back in a few minutes with another surprise. He came back with 2 serving bowls full of deep-fried Oreos (enough for all 19 of us at the table). They were oreo cookies, surrounded by some kind of batter..it made them look like plum-size round donuts, then deep fried until the oreo was kind of soft and melty, then drizzled with milk chocolate. They were heavenly! They also were not on the buffet offerings, but only brought out to our table. OMG, with all the wonderful foods (and so many buffets), I though for sure I'd gain 10 pounds, but amazingly, I lost 3. All that walking, LOL!!!
MISC: The nightly fireworks were fantastic! We only watched Wishes 2x. We watched Illuminations 1x at Epcot. It was also a very good show). Our favorite though, was Fantasmic at MGM. For anyone who's never been there....It's not fireworks, it's a laser light show (called Fantasmic). They have a couple fountains of water spraying in kind of a peacock tail-feather shape and they project the animated pictures onto the water sprays. It gives everything a sort of cloudy or hazy appearance. Behind the water is a cliff, where characters are out performing their scenes along with the water images. Hard to describe, but very cool to watch!! The first night we watched it there, it started pouring rain just as we were walking to get our seats, with our counter-service food. We threw on rain ponchos and there we sat, with our trays of food under our ponchos, in the pouring rain waiting for the show (which goes on during rain unless there's lightening).
I was quite amazed at how warm it is there. Again, having never been there before, I wasn't sure what to expect. But even at 8 am and 11 pm, I was hot wearing a tank top and shorts. And when it rains....it's just wet. Not cold. Still warm enough to be comfortable walking in the rain. It did not rain every day but more so on our last few days. Usually for only about 20 minutes but there were a couple days when it rained on & off throughout the day. Since it wasn't lightening, and it wasn't cold, we just threw on ponchos and kept going.
Well, I'm about beat. We left Orlando Sat evening (6/25) - our 11th wedding anniversary and we got into our home airport at midnight. So we were home and in bed by shortly after 1 Sunday morning. I spent Sunday unpacking and sorting laundry. Only to re-pack because we are leaving in 2 more days for a trip to Tennessee (6 days).
Thanks for reading!
Pam
my girls would be monsters I think...thank you so much for all that info we will see Fantasmic for sure! How earlt did you have to get there to get good seats? We are planning to go to OHANA so I am glad you liked it! Did you use Dis transportation or did you have a rental car? Did you do any dinner shows? Did you see Cinderellabration? Happy anniversary 
btw
. That was early in our trip and pretty much made our minds up about whether to drive ourselves or not.
