Our Magical WDW Vacation

[dac921]

I think I should set the stage:

Dee (that’s me) – I’m the DM “Disney Mom”
Jim – my loving husband DH or the DSD “Disney Step Dad
HollyLynne – my 16 year old DD1
Amanda “Nikki” – my NOW 13 year old DD2 – but we will call her Miss SMIG.

Our trip actually started on Friday 9/15, which is Miss SMIG’s actual birthday, Miss SMIG came home from school, excited as anything, I of course have been running around like a chicken without a head since around noon, trying to get the trunk packed – of course DD1 had to bring two bags and I had problems getting my laptop case in the car.

Anyway, DD1 was to meet us all at the Chiropractor’s office, but before we could all go get adjusted (and I do need to go visit her this week), Miss SMIG and I waited to DH. He got home around 3:15 pm, I told him that we had to leave no later than 4 pm, but of course, he had to watch sport channel (I don’t want to hear it guys), I wanted to get going. He had made arrangements with his Mom to stop by her house, of course he doesn’t tell me until the night before, and we were going to have dinner with my parents and have a cake for Miss SMIG’s birthday.

Anyway, by the time we left the chiropractor, stopped at the WAWA for drinks and headed out, with a yelping cat in the back seat (who decided to elevate himself, on the way to my in-laws house) for an hour and a half. DH said five minutes, which lasted 30 minutes, just love the man.

We finally arrived at my parents house around 8:30 pm with pizza in hand, had dinner, and we all went to bed, 4:15 am comes very quickly.

So by 5:00 am we were off to the airport. To my surprise, it was rather light, both the check in/baggage line and security. With a very excited 13 year old on hand, we boarded the plane to MCO. It was an uneventful flight, actually it was a rather nice flight.

We arrived at MCO (Orlando Airport), and had a heck of a time finding Magical Express, while waiting in line for ME, I had my first (of many) fights with HollyLynne (DD1). A 16 year old should never walk away with your laptop… not a good thing to do. We waiting about 20 minutes or so to get on our ME bus, then off to WDW.

Our bus driver was great, after the video, he did the DISNEY trivia stuff, and was joking with us.

We arrived at the POR, what a sight, I loved the hotel, I went to check in, and to my surprise, even though I have requested the Manor, and re-re-re checked my reservations and requests, we were not placed in the Manor, but in Alligator Bayou building 15. Which wasn’t too far from transportation. I was a little upset that we didn’t get to be in the Manor, DH wasn’t happy either, but it was better than being on the other side of the resort and having to take transportation to the pool… I am glad we did. The room was nice, with a view of the parking lot, was better than sleeping in the broom closet…

Oh did I forget to mention, that they gave Miss SMIG a “Magical Moment” for her 13th birthday when we checked in.

It was HOT… I mean HOT… not what I expected, we decided to go hang out at the pool, of course I was a little weary because of the surgery I had in July, but I figured I would just keep my eyes closed, I forgot to bring goggles. Anyway, we spent about an hour in the pool, then went back to the room, changed because we were off to Magic Kingdom… We walked into our room and there was luggage, and an envelope, that said it was from Mickey… it wasn’t from Mickey, it was from Ginger… it was Miss SMIG’s pins, they were all so beautiful, I wanted to keep one for myself, but I didn’t… And THANK YOU SO MUCH GINGER for the beautiful “Birthday Pin” you gave Miss SMIG.

After changing, running down to Fulton’s for a penny press book and autograph book for Miss SMIG… We walked over to the bus stop and off we go to MK… We got off the bus, and I just started at the train station… I could not believe I was actually going to walk into Magic Kingdom. The first thing we did was go get Miss SMIG a birthday button, then I stared at the castle, the last time I saw the castle it looked like a cake, so it was amazing just looking at it… we walked down Main Street, and hung a right into Tomorrow Land, I think we did about 95 % of Tomorrow Land … my first try at Buzz Lightyear was awful, but after that I kicked HollyLynne’s butt each and every time, I guess I just had to get my timing down.

We had ADR’s at Tony’s – it was just as I remembered… It was wonderful, just wonderful. I made sure to mention that it was Miss SMIG’s birthday and they did a little “Happy Birthday” thing for her and put a candle on her desert… We walked out of Tony’s just in time to get a front row seat for SpectroMagic… the parade was wonderful, I cried when it started, tried to video tape it, hope it came out.

After SpectroMagic, we decided to go back to POR, we were all just so tired… we decided to back to POR even though wishes was only an hour away…

DH and I stopped and bought a MUG… and off we were for our first night in WDW….

 

[dac921]

Sunday, September 17th – Epcot Day!!!!

I got up early, as I always do, headed down for coffee and downloaded pictures and video onto my computer, we got the girls up and headed for Downtown Disney… why I am not sure, I really wanted to head out to Epcot…

We got to Downtown Disney and had brunch at Earl’s… Let me tell you, they are the best. I couldn’t believe how wonderful those sandwiches are. After we ate, we headed off to EPCOT… of course the first thing we did was stop and get Miss SMIG and DD1 birthday button… yes buttons from every park… they both got them…

I just love Epcot, we went on Spaceship Earth… so we just ventured, we stopped at Innovations…
Miss SMIG had a great time, Holly rejoined us, just as Miss SMIG was going to race her robot. Then we all built our robots… it was a lot of fun… Then we wondered some more, play some games in East & West Innovations. Then headed to the Coke Zone and I didn’t try the Beverly, Miss SMIG made both Holly and Jimmy drink it, but I knew better.

Then we hit Character Connects, I picked up my photopass card that morning in Epcot, so I was ready for all the characters… pictures to follow, I promise.

We watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience and Figment, then off to the Land, for SOARING and the Circle of Life, by that time it was almost time for dinner at Le Cellier…
So off to Canada we went, we were a little early for our ADR so Miss SMIG did a little more pin trading, actually she did a lot of pin trading in every park. So we were seated and I turned around and I noticed this lovely young girl and her name was TESSA… I turned to Miss SMIG and said, “Nikki I bet that is Tessa?” she didn’t believe me, so I asked our waitress, who was a sweet and a half if that was Tessa, and to our surprise, Princess Tessa came over and chatted with us awhile.

So, our meal was wonderful… everything was just wonderful. I would go back and eat there again and again. Well it came time for dessert and I had mentioned to the hostess that is was Miss SMIG birthday, would you believe that Le Cellier gave Miss SMIG a card and place a candle in her dessert.

HOW SWEET WAS THAT….

After dinner, we walked a bit, DH had it set in his mind that Illuminations started at 8:00 pm and it was almost 7:30 pm, I told him 9:00 pm, but of course he didn’t believe me. Anyway, we settled down, and found a wonderful spot for Illuminations.

Oh what a show, it was nothing like it was 10 years ago, it was just so much more, I was in awwwww… of course I had to video tape it, and Miss SMIG tried to take pictures, but it didn’t work too well. Anyway, after Illuminations, it was time to head back to the POR. We would have to finish EPCOT another day….

End of Day 2..

 

[dac921]

Day 3 – Monday, September 18, 2006

Woke up pretty early, the girls were still sleeping so I decide to go down to the pool and enjoy the spa with my coffee… Boy that way relaxing, my feet were still slightly sore from the previous day’s walking… I knew I was out of shape but didn’t know how much… I guess that is neither here nor there…

Miss SMIG and I had plans to be in MGM when it opened, but my loving DH talked the girls into Typhoon Lagoon (they opened early that day)… don’t get me wrong, I love to go to the water park, I just don’t like to spending half the day there when I can be enjoying MGM even if they had evening EMH…

I did enjoy Typhoon Lagoon very much, Miss SMIG was hanging with DSF (DH) and she somehow hurt her chin… still not sure how, she said she hit bottom.

I tried to swim with the sharks, but the water was just toooo cold for my blood, but Miss SMIG, HollyLynne and DH did.

I wanted to leave Typhoon Lagoon around 11 am – that should be enough water for anyone, but of course it was past 12 when we finally started out. Now this really PO’d me. On the way out, I had been fighting with Holly of and on that morning, I grabbed my camera… and somehow, after yelling at Miss SMIG for placing the wet flip flops in the bag with my camera, the camera slipped out of my hand.. it hit the ground, the lens popped out, and I screamed…

But luck was on my side, I pooped the lens in, took some additional shoots and it was working wonderfully….

So we went back to the POR to shower and change then we left for MGM… I love MGM, feel in love with it the last time when I was there in 1996.

Anyway, we catch the bus, and arrive at MGM, I walk in, then HollyLynne tells me that Miss SMIG card doesn’t work, “OHHHH BROTHER” I thought to myself, Miss SMIG was giving a “FastPass Card”, great little card, I had to get one or two of them myself, between the girls all our cards had to be replaced at least once. Anyway, we went to Guest Relations and picked up Miss SMIG’s birthday button, (I am not sure if I mentioned this already, but HollyLynne also wanted the buttons). From Guest Relations, we headed over to “TOWER OF TERROR” and “AeroSmith” – we fast passed AeroSmith, and headed over to tower of terror. It was better than I remember, really it was. Then off to AeroSmith, now that is a great ride, we were able to fast pass both of the again, and we started wondering. Miss SMIG wanted to go to the Animation Studio, so we were off, it was really interesting and we all got to draw Donald Duck… I must say mine came out the best… (patting myself on the back).

After the Animation Studio, Holly wanted to see the Playhouse and Little Mermaid, so Miss SMIG and HollyLynne did that and DH and I went to see Beauty and the Beast… it was so magical… I love Beauty and the Beast, by the time we were done, we meet up with the girls and headed over the Hollywood and Vine, we got our picture taken by the Photopass girl infront of the hat, fountain and the Walt statue.

We got to Hollywood and Vine and had just a little wait, about 25 minutes even though we had arrived 20 minutes before our time. I really wasn’t impressed with the food there, I thought it would have been a better buffet. Wasn’t even excited about our server, I didn’t feel she did her best, I had stated that it was Miss SMIG’s birthday and they made a little announcement and gave her a cupcake, after she already eat about 2 pounds of ice cream.

We left Hollywood and Vine wondered through the shops a bite then it was time for Fantasmic… That was a great show… I enjoyed it very very much, I don’t think anyone got picture of it, I took video.

Then we took our fastpasses and fast passed again, both Tower of Terror and AeroSmith, I love those rides… we got photos taken in front of the tower and the guitar.

We didn’t get to do much of anything else, even though we rode the rides at least 5-6 times each… we were planning on going back, but that is another story….

Back on the bus we went, got back to the POR, another day ended… Next Stop…
“OUR PLAY DAY!!!”

 

[dac921]

Day 4 - Tuesday, September 19, 2006

This was our “Play Day” – HollyLynne sleep in until God know what time, I had a sight visit at the Hilton on WDW property, DH and Miss SMIG went to Epcot for the morning.

The plan was to meet up at Disney Quest at 12:30 p.m. Did my sight visit, called HollyLynne, she meet me at Earls… Did you know that the Hilton WDW is across the street from Downtown Disney… Oh I am happy about that… anyway, HollyLynne had this wonderful salad.

HollyLynne and I still had some time to kill, so we went to The World Of Disney. She took advantage of having everything shipped to the POR (I did too, too many times). I bought Miss SMIG and I our mouse ears, and HollyLynne walked over to Disney Quest, actually we thought we were running late, so we took the bus from Downtown Disney to Pleasure Island…

Well, we got there before DH and Miss SMIG, then we went into Disney Quest. To be truthful, I expected more, it was fun, especially when we make our own roller coaster, but I expected more games.

We left around 3ish from Disney Quest and walked over to Downtown Disney. While walking back to Downtown Disney, Miss SMIG and HollyLynne stopped by the information center and picked up their birthday buttons, is everyone keeping track, both girls are picking birthday buttons up… they now have 4 – MK, MGM, Epcot, Downtown Disney…

So we decided to ride the little speed boats and go play mini-golf, but first we had to stop off at the World of Disney… I needed to pick up some gift, scrape book, and other things. Anyway, I am not sure who had the bag, but we lost the bag with Miss SMIG’s Pal Mickey and my mouse ears, Miss SMIG couldn’t wait to put her ears on… well to make a long story short, someone was kind enough to turn the bag in to the lost and found, after we searched the store for Pal Mickey…

We left The World of Disney and walked around the dock to the little speed boats, and they were closed, it was close to 5pm, but not yet 5pm. It was also just starting to drizzle… I had my hat on, I didn’t care… well we walked over the bus stop and took the bus to the Swan, we passed the Mini-Golf place and DH noticed that it looked closed, so we went into the Swan and spoke to someone in the gift shop, they called the mini golf place. They were closed due an upcoming storm. DH was upset that he not only didn’t get to ride the little speed boats, no mini-golf… he wasn’t in a good mood…

So we walked over to the Broadwalk, I wanted to take him to Beaches and Cream, when we got there we found out that they were NOT on our dining plan, we just wanted ice cream. So we took the boat from the Broadwalk to Epcot, by this time is was raining pretty hard. DH wanted to ride Test Track, he and Miss SMIG road it earlier that day, but they were closed due to the storm so off we went to Mission Space. We road Miss Space a few times, then everyone was hungry so we countered at the Electric Umbrella… the food was pretty good.