Day 7
Our wake up call came at 5:15 AM and we got up and starting getting everything together. After we were all showered and done with all the liquids that we aren't allowed to take in our carry ons, we packed up the suitcases and DW and I took them down to check them in for our flight. The hotel check in service is really great I love that we don't have to deal with our checked luggage when we leave the hotel. There wasn't any line that early and we were quickly checked in and our bags were taken. We headed back to the room and finished packing up our carry ons. Then we said our goodbyes to Gram and Paco (their flight was about an hour later than ours) and headed down to catch the bus. The driver said that we should just take our carry ons on the bus because it wasn't going to be full. As we were sitting on the bus and waiting I looked back towards our room at the end of the hotel and could actually see Paco coming out onto the balcony (it was still pretty dark outside and ours was one of the only rooms with lights on). I called him up on his cell phone and had he and Gram wave goodbye to the kids from the balcony.
We stopped at two more hotels and picked up additional passengers contrary to what the driver had said, the bus got very full. We made it to the airport without incident and headed to the security line to go to our terminal. When I handed the woman our boarding passes that we had obtained from the hotel check in she told us that there were no names on them. Uh oh... Yup, sure enough. No names. I headed back out to the JetBlue check in area and asked them to issue us some new boarding passes with names on them. It was a short wait for me and DW and the kids checked out the
Disney store while I did this. No problem getting the new boarding passes and we were soon through security and hopping the tram to our terminal. We grabbed some breakfast in our terminal and then headed over to our gate to wait for the flight. The flight ended up being delayed about 45 minutes and after talking with Gram and Paco on their cell again we found that our flights would depart at about the same time.
The flight home was uneventful and our baggage magically appeared at baggage claim after having seen it last at the hotel (based on the boarding pass fiasco, this was good to see). We made the 30 minute or so drive home without incident. I picked up the dog from the kennel and she was very happy to see us. It had been quite some time since she spent a full week at the kennel. So then we were all home and our first trip to WDW with the kids was history.
Some thoughts on our trip:
- This was a great first trip with the kids it was nice to have Gram and Paco along to help out with the kids and to give DW and I some time to spend on our own there.
- We really love the Beach Club.
- The walk to Epcot and boat to Hollywood Studios are great perks of staying in that particular resort area.
- I don't think it made it into the trip report, but we ran into Art, the Beach Club greeter, on our way down to the pool. DW and I spoke a bit with Art on our last trip down and it was good to see him again. I introduced him to DS. If you stay at the Beach Club, make sure that you stop and say hi to Art!
- The pool complex is really great we didn't make much use of it, but it's very impressive.
- At night it's nice to have the Boardwalk area right there to walk around and enjoy.
- I was surprised at how little I felt like we got done in the time that we had there. We had six days (5.5 really), but I felt like there was a lot that we didn't get to that we were hoping to do.
- Ordering from the Garden Grocer really saved us a lot of money. Getting breakfast items and eating breakfast in the room also helped us to get a head start on the day.
- While the large majority of our afternoons involved some level of meltdown and inevitably had DD finally falling asleep in someone's arms, we had some really great mornings (up to and including lunch) on this trip!
- DW and I both agree that now (about six months since the trip) DD would do SO much better at WDW. While we don't regret taking the trip when we did, we do think it would have paid dividends to wait until she was a little older.
A few days into the trip we started to realize that we most like weren't going to be able to get to every attraction that we wanted to, so DW and I made up a list of the attractions that we most wanted the kids to experience before the end of the trip. Then we gave each of them a rating between 1 (like to do) and 3 (must do). We then planned our remaining days around this list. Here's the list we put together the ones in bold are the ones that we actually got done.
Magic Kingdom:
Philharmagic 2.5
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 2
Splash Mountain 2
Swiss Family Robinson Tree House 2
Belle's Story Time 1
Castle stage show 1
Epcot:
Test Track 3
Soarin' 3
Spaceship Earth 2
Mexico boat ride 1
Norway boat ride 1
Club Cool 1
Characters 1
Hollywood Studios:
Star Tours 2
Muppets 1
Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Show 1
Great Movie Ride 1
Animal Kingdom:
Safari 3
Finding Nemo Musical 3
Festival of the Lion King 2
Boneyard 1
Flights of Wonder 1
Due to DD's potty meltdown at the Animal Kingdom, our time there was very limited so we didn't get to much there. We would have ridden Test Track, but it was closed due to the rain. I wanted to get DS on a couple of the more exciting rides at the Magic Kingdom as well, but DD couldn't ride those rides and DS was a bit apprehensive whenever we would talk about them. We'll have to catch them next time.
That about does it for my trip report thanks for hanging in there with me!
I'll leave you with a list of tips that DW put together. DW and DW alone is responsible for the content and or usefulness of these tips. I hereby absolve myself of any responsibility if you should act on one or more of said tips.
- Chocolate milk is generally not included with kids meals, but can be purchased separately as a big bottle of Nesquik. (Later we found that this isn't true for every location as it was available at the ABC Commissary it was not at Sunshine Seasons or Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe.)
- The TV in the workout room at the Beach Club has its audio broadcast over FM, so if you want to listen to the TV, plan accordingly!
- If you forget a straw at the ABC Commissary, ask a trash collector for one!
- Tired of getting to the front of a character greeting line just to have them go on break? Lightning McQueen and Mater at HS never go on break!
- The Marketplace at the Beach Club opens at 7:00 AM, so don't expect to get coffee there at 6:30!
