I must say these boards were a huge help, and I was hopelessly addicted to them before we left for our 1st trip to Disney, so here goes:
Day One - the Arrival Saturday
We are picked up and taken to Newark Airport in plenty of time to catch our flight to Orlando, which leaves at 12:45pm, getting us in to Orlando at 3:30pm. Everything goes smoothly, I was able to upgrade us to 1st Class (my first time) and our 7 yr. old son, is thrilled, although I am a bit nervous and can't bring myself to look out the window of the airplane where the WTC had been. Once we're up in the air, smooth sailing and we land with no problems in Orlando. I arranged to have Happy Limo pick us up, but there is no sign of them as we arrive down at the baggage carousel. My husband calls them on the cell phone, "Oh, we're supposed to meet them outside down at the curb where the buses are?" (my travel agent at Magic Kingdom Travel neglected to tell me this.) A few minutes later our driver arrives and we're off to the Polynesian!
Once we arrive at the Polynesian we get everything in order with our luggage, and the bellman drives us to our longhouse, which is conciege building, Hawaii. We ooh and aah over the volcano pool, which my son flips over. I'm surprised to find out that the front bellman desk back at the Grand Ceremonial House arranged our room for us, rather than the concierge at the Hawaii building and he takes us up directly to our room first, and then tells us we can then go down to the concierge who will go over everything with us. Well, I wasn't crazy about this, because after reading all the boards about problems in the Hawaii building with smells and bad water and mildew I was apprehensive about our room. I had requested a first floor Garden View room with a patio, did I get it? No! Our room was on the 2nd floor, looking out at the Quiet Pool. The minute we walked into the room, the smell was overpowering! Musty, damp, airless, mildew! And no balcony to even air it out with! I looked around, tipped the bellman, waited for him to leave and told my husband there was no way I was staying there in that room, especially after noticing the mildew on the shower ceiling, and I'd take care of it downstairs with the concierge. (In case you're wondering why am I do everything, instead of DH, I used to be a corporate meeting planner and I'm used to dealing with hotels, etc. --- I planned this whole trip like a meeting!) The concierge is very nice and tries her best to get a new room for me, there seems to be some gigantic wedding taking place at the resort that has booked all the concierge rooms for something like 3 weeks, so it's not easy to find another room for us. I am at the point where I'm asking her to check at the Yacht Club Concierge, but nothing is available. Finally she is able to give us the same room that is directly above us. This one is much better, but the shampoo smell of the damp carpet is very strong, but it's better than it was before in the other room. Everything else is fine, no mildew, nice bathroom, nice balcony!
Now that we've got our room settled and I've gone over all the details of how things work with the concierge, she gives us our Amex White Glove treatment lanyards and pins, etc. and we're off to the Magic Kingdom. It's now about 5:30pm, and we walk out of the Hawaii building and see the launch is coming toward the dock on the Seven Seas Lagoon, and we make a run for it, and catch it to take us to the Magic Kingdom, which closes at 9pm that evening. I am psyched! Perfect timing!
Once inside the Magic Kingdom, we head for the barber shop, for my husband is hoping he can get his haircut, but it's closed until 9 ?? Anyway we make our way up Main Street taking in the sights and oohing and aahing, I really have to say the castle took my breath away, just as spectacular as I imagined. We head on over to Tomorrowland, which is pretty crowded, and since there is no line for Alien, my husband goes into it, while DS and I wait. We sort of look around take in a bit of Tomorrowland and wait, and wait and wait. I get a FastPass for DH for Space Mountain, since I know DS and I will not be going on it. Finally he gets out of Alien and he tells us what it was like (goofy, he says) and we head on over to the statue of Walt and Mickey, which my son loved and can't believe how everyone is already getting their places for SpectroMagic, which is scheduled to begin at 7pm, it's really getting very crowded. Right away our son is begging us for every toy he sees, and we make a deal with him that we'll only give him something once a day, so he should choose wisely. The sun is setting and we head over to Adventureland to ride on the Magic Carpets of Alladin before SpectroMagic begins. The line moves quickly and we all three get on. It's cute and none of us get spit on by a camel. We try to head over to Frontierland, but it's all blocked off for the parade, so we head on back to the castle and wait for the parade to begin. It's now dark and our son chooses his toy, which is one of those glow in the dark things that elongate, like a rainbow colored Star Wars sword. SpectroMagic begins and we're standing in front of the castle, facing it at the entrance to the path to Liberty Village. It is very cool, and DS sits on my DH's shoulders to see and my favorite part was seeing Mary Poppins, since I always have a soft spot for her. The whole parade is very colorful and unforgettable!
As soon as the Parade passes, we follow it and make our way over to Frontierland and to Thunder Mountain Railroad, which I hear is really cool if you can manage to be on it during the fireworks, which are supposed to start at 8pm. We are racing for Thunder Mountain, and I'm thinking, there is no way we'll make it, much less how am I going to do this? I haven't been on a roller coaster since I was 9, I've always been too chicken to go on one, much less our 7 yr. old! We don't have Fast Passes, but the line doesn't seem too bad, the CM outside it says it's about a 20 minute wait, perfect! We get closer and closer to the carts and my heart is jumping, but we get in and my son is between us and we're off! What a ride, and just as we're weaving in and out of the mountain, there are the fireworks going off over the castle, what a sight! I'm screaming my head off and loving every minute of it, it was such a spectacle, I'll never forget it, it was the highlight of my whole vacation!
Afterwards we head on over to the castle again which is changing colors, purple, blue, orange, really pretty! We walk through it to Fantasyland and my husband runs off to Space Mountain, and DS and I go onto Snow White. He didn't think it was scary, and he thought it was kind of dumb, (but I think he really did like it, and just wanted to appear cool!) Then we hang around the Sword in the stone while waiting for DH to come back. DS loved the sword in the stone, but had no interest in going on Cinderella's carousel or Dumbo. We had forgotten all about Peter Pan, so didn't go on it. Once DH got back we started heading back to our resort, it was almost closing and we wanted to beat the crowds. DH thought Space Mountain was great, and he walked right on with the Fast Pass. Again, perfect timing, we took the launch back to the Polynesian, but midway on our ride we had to stop and wait for the Electrical Water Pageant to go by. It was just beginning. This was so thrilling to see it this way for the first time from the water, rather than land. Our CM on the boat was telling us all about and how it worked with the floats, etc. and it was really cool to see, especially so close up!
We were hungry by the time we reached the Polynesian so we went over to the GCH and ate at the Kona Cafe. This was an excellent meal, and the Classic Mai Tai was terrific! I highly recommend it! Much better than the Lapu Lapu. I had the pistachio encrusted Mahi Mahi (excellent, it was the best meal I had at Disney!) and before that we had these dumplings that were great as well. DS had a kids hamburger and DH had the BBQ'd shrimp which he said was just OK. I must have really lucked out. Our DS got some sort of kids ice cream dessert which we helped him polish off and it was back to the Hawaii building and bed. Our beds were turned down with chocolates and a message from the concierge checking to make sure we were happy with our room. (nice touch.) I arranged for us to be woken up at 6:45am the next morning and it was off to bed.
to be continued...
Day One - the Arrival Saturday
We are picked up and taken to Newark Airport in plenty of time to catch our flight to Orlando, which leaves at 12:45pm, getting us in to Orlando at 3:30pm. Everything goes smoothly, I was able to upgrade us to 1st Class (my first time) and our 7 yr. old son, is thrilled, although I am a bit nervous and can't bring myself to look out the window of the airplane where the WTC had been. Once we're up in the air, smooth sailing and we land with no problems in Orlando. I arranged to have Happy Limo pick us up, but there is no sign of them as we arrive down at the baggage carousel. My husband calls them on the cell phone, "Oh, we're supposed to meet them outside down at the curb where the buses are?" (my travel agent at Magic Kingdom Travel neglected to tell me this.) A few minutes later our driver arrives and we're off to the Polynesian!
Once we arrive at the Polynesian we get everything in order with our luggage, and the bellman drives us to our longhouse, which is conciege building, Hawaii. We ooh and aah over the volcano pool, which my son flips over. I'm surprised to find out that the front bellman desk back at the Grand Ceremonial House arranged our room for us, rather than the concierge at the Hawaii building and he takes us up directly to our room first, and then tells us we can then go down to the concierge who will go over everything with us. Well, I wasn't crazy about this, because after reading all the boards about problems in the Hawaii building with smells and bad water and mildew I was apprehensive about our room. I had requested a first floor Garden View room with a patio, did I get it? No! Our room was on the 2nd floor, looking out at the Quiet Pool. The minute we walked into the room, the smell was overpowering! Musty, damp, airless, mildew! And no balcony to even air it out with! I looked around, tipped the bellman, waited for him to leave and told my husband there was no way I was staying there in that room, especially after noticing the mildew on the shower ceiling, and I'd take care of it downstairs with the concierge. (In case you're wondering why am I do everything, instead of DH, I used to be a corporate meeting planner and I'm used to dealing with hotels, etc. --- I planned this whole trip like a meeting!) The concierge is very nice and tries her best to get a new room for me, there seems to be some gigantic wedding taking place at the resort that has booked all the concierge rooms for something like 3 weeks, so it's not easy to find another room for us. I am at the point where I'm asking her to check at the Yacht Club Concierge, but nothing is available. Finally she is able to give us the same room that is directly above us. This one is much better, but the shampoo smell of the damp carpet is very strong, but it's better than it was before in the other room. Everything else is fine, no mildew, nice bathroom, nice balcony!
Now that we've got our room settled and I've gone over all the details of how things work with the concierge, she gives us our Amex White Glove treatment lanyards and pins, etc. and we're off to the Magic Kingdom. It's now about 5:30pm, and we walk out of the Hawaii building and see the launch is coming toward the dock on the Seven Seas Lagoon, and we make a run for it, and catch it to take us to the Magic Kingdom, which closes at 9pm that evening. I am psyched! Perfect timing!
Once inside the Magic Kingdom, we head for the barber shop, for my husband is hoping he can get his haircut, but it's closed until 9 ?? Anyway we make our way up Main Street taking in the sights and oohing and aahing, I really have to say the castle took my breath away, just as spectacular as I imagined. We head on over to Tomorrowland, which is pretty crowded, and since there is no line for Alien, my husband goes into it, while DS and I wait. We sort of look around take in a bit of Tomorrowland and wait, and wait and wait. I get a FastPass for DH for Space Mountain, since I know DS and I will not be going on it. Finally he gets out of Alien and he tells us what it was like (goofy, he says) and we head on over to the statue of Walt and Mickey, which my son loved and can't believe how everyone is already getting their places for SpectroMagic, which is scheduled to begin at 7pm, it's really getting very crowded. Right away our son is begging us for every toy he sees, and we make a deal with him that we'll only give him something once a day, so he should choose wisely. The sun is setting and we head over to Adventureland to ride on the Magic Carpets of Alladin before SpectroMagic begins. The line moves quickly and we all three get on. It's cute and none of us get spit on by a camel. We try to head over to Frontierland, but it's all blocked off for the parade, so we head on back to the castle and wait for the parade to begin. It's now dark and our son chooses his toy, which is one of those glow in the dark things that elongate, like a rainbow colored Star Wars sword. SpectroMagic begins and we're standing in front of the castle, facing it at the entrance to the path to Liberty Village. It is very cool, and DS sits on my DH's shoulders to see and my favorite part was seeing Mary Poppins, since I always have a soft spot for her. The whole parade is very colorful and unforgettable!
As soon as the Parade passes, we follow it and make our way over to Frontierland and to Thunder Mountain Railroad, which I hear is really cool if you can manage to be on it during the fireworks, which are supposed to start at 8pm. We are racing for Thunder Mountain, and I'm thinking, there is no way we'll make it, much less how am I going to do this? I haven't been on a roller coaster since I was 9, I've always been too chicken to go on one, much less our 7 yr. old! We don't have Fast Passes, but the line doesn't seem too bad, the CM outside it says it's about a 20 minute wait, perfect! We get closer and closer to the carts and my heart is jumping, but we get in and my son is between us and we're off! What a ride, and just as we're weaving in and out of the mountain, there are the fireworks going off over the castle, what a sight! I'm screaming my head off and loving every minute of it, it was such a spectacle, I'll never forget it, it was the highlight of my whole vacation!
Afterwards we head on over to the castle again which is changing colors, purple, blue, orange, really pretty! We walk through it to Fantasyland and my husband runs off to Space Mountain, and DS and I go onto Snow White. He didn't think it was scary, and he thought it was kind of dumb, (but I think he really did like it, and just wanted to appear cool!) Then we hang around the Sword in the stone while waiting for DH to come back. DS loved the sword in the stone, but had no interest in going on Cinderella's carousel or Dumbo. We had forgotten all about Peter Pan, so didn't go on it. Once DH got back we started heading back to our resort, it was almost closing and we wanted to beat the crowds. DH thought Space Mountain was great, and he walked right on with the Fast Pass. Again, perfect timing, we took the launch back to the Polynesian, but midway on our ride we had to stop and wait for the Electrical Water Pageant to go by. It was just beginning. This was so thrilling to see it this way for the first time from the water, rather than land. Our CM on the boat was telling us all about and how it worked with the floats, etc. and it was really cool to see, especially so close up!
We were hungry by the time we reached the Polynesian so we went over to the GCH and ate at the Kona Cafe. This was an excellent meal, and the Classic Mai Tai was terrific! I highly recommend it! Much better than the Lapu Lapu. I had the pistachio encrusted Mahi Mahi (excellent, it was the best meal I had at Disney!) and before that we had these dumplings that were great as well. DS had a kids hamburger and DH had the BBQ'd shrimp which he said was just OK. I must have really lucked out. Our DS got some sort of kids ice cream dessert which we helped him polish off and it was back to the Hawaii building and bed. Our beds were turned down with chocolates and a message from the concierge checking to make sure we were happy with our room. (nice touch.) I arranged for us to be woken up at 6:45am the next morning and it was off to bed.
to be continued...
But I'm ready for the next installment!
