Our Wonderful Trip!! (2/25-3/4)

[tiedye602]

Hey everyone! Just returned Saturday night and we had a wonderful trip! Thank you for all the wonderful advice!!

Day 1: Saturday, Feb 25th - After getting up at 4:00 am to leave for the airport, and after a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, we got to Orlando at 3:30 pm. Used Magical Express and were checked into CSR by 4:30. It was great! We received a letter congratulating us on our anniversary and were treated to a champaign toast at Francisco's Lounge. We requested a king bed, lake view. We got king bed but it overlooked quiet pool in Casita 4, third floor. DH loved it and actually, I think it was still a lovely area. We loved CSR. It was very peaceful and relaxing. After settling in, we took the bus to MK and got on the monorail to the Poly to eat supper at 'Ohana. We had 7:00 pm ressie but got there about 6:15 and were seated right away. Food was ok. Meat was kind of dry. Loved all the other dishes that came with the meal. Used 2 table service meals. It was very festive. Enjoyed watching all the little ones having a good time. We left the Poly and went back to MK. There is definately something magical about walking down Main Street, hand in hand with the one you love at night with all the beautiful lights! We rode HM and PC without waiting. Walked right into Philharmagic and were seated within 5 minutes for movie. It was fantastic!! DH loves the 3D movies at Disney! Went back to room about 10:00 and crashed. It was a long day but we were so happy to be there!!

Day 2: Sunday - Feb. 26th My birthday!! Went to Pepper Market for breakfast. Learned that morning how big breakfast meals were and after using two CS meals we decided to share from then on at breakfast so we could save some CS meals for lunch. Loved the Pepper Market!! It was not crowded any time we ate there and the food was wonderful! We went to MGM that morning. Got there around 10:30. It was not crowded at all and we were able to ride TT within 10 minutes. Went over to RRC, got a fast pass, went back to TT, rode again, caught the movie ride (no wait), then back to RRC to use our fast pass. It was great!! I had gotten a birthday button, so when we went back over to TT to get a fast pass for later, we were given 2 more by a CM, who wished me a happy birthday. We never waited over 5 or 10 minutes to ride TT all week. (it is my favorite ride in all of WDW!) We got 2 popcorns and shared a coke (3 snack credits) for lunch as we watched Lights, Motor, Action! which we enjoyed very much. We mosied around MGM and left around 4:30 to go to Epcot for supper. DH carried a backpack that was packed lightly with just a disposable camera, some chap stick, and 2 light jackets for cool evenings. I didn't have to keep up with anything! Not a purse, not a kid, not anything!! I felt so free!!!! Got a margarita in Mexico and DH got a beer at Norway and after a nice walk around the world we ate supper at Garden Grill. We got seated right away and had a great waitress. (Used 2 TS meals) The characters interacted with us just as much as the kids. It was great. Food was very, very good and plenty of it. They surprised me with a birthday cake and a birthday card. It was a wonderful birthday. (Did not get balloons or card or anything from CSR for my birthday, but as I mentioned before, they noted our anniversary with champaign!)

Day 3: Mon - Feb. 27 Our 25th wedding anniversary!! Went to Pepper Market for breakfast. Shared breakfast skillet (used 1 CS meal). It was more than enough for 2 people! Grabbed a huge rice crispie treat at the check out for snack for later! (1 snack credit) Went to AK this day. It was so beautiful! Weather was perfect! Got a fast pass for the safari and walked over to ride rides at Dino Land. Loved PW! It was a lot of fun. Rode Dinosaur. That ride scared the bejeebies out of me!! I looked so silly in our picture. I was all ducked down with my hand over my head!! DH loved it! Got a fast pass for it while we were there, against my better judgement! Walked right in to see It's Tough to be a Bug. Loved it!! A lot of kids didn't like to very much though. I can see where it would be pretty scary for little ones. Saw DeVine. She was great! Loved the little seating area on the path between Africa and Asia that looks towards back of the big tree. It was a nice quiet place to rest. Went over to Asia and got a fast pass for EE. Looked around that area and headed back to ride the safari. It was very nice. Got to ride it within 10 minutes with fast pass. Shared a rib dinner from Flame Tree BBQ with one CS meal. It was plenty for the two of us knowing we were going to eat a big meal for supper. (plus we had that huge rice krispie treat to share for a snack!) After lunch we went to see The Fesitval of the Lion King. It was great!! Saw the Bug show again! Wandered back over to Asia to ride EE. It was a great ride!! Plus, we literally walked right up to the loading area, handed her the FP tickets, got right on the next train. We had zero wait time. As were were getting off, there was a disgruntled man letting a CM know that they needed to change the wait time posted from 40 minutes to an hour and 5 minutes because that is what he had to wait. Man, FP is the only way to go!!! I felt kinda guilty, but then again, everyone has the same oppurtunity to use it that we did, so.... Off we went to use our Dinosaur FP!! We left AK around 3:30. Went back to Epcot. Got another margarita and beer. Wandered around WS again. It was so nice to not have the kids pulling on us to go ride something (I love my girls, but man it was nice!!) We had our anniversary dinner ressies for 7:00 pm at LeCellier. Arrived about 6:40. Got seated at 6:50. Food was wonderful. Although we got dessert with DP, we were also brought out a dessert with "Happy Anniversary" written on the plate and we received a magical celebration certificate. I also got a birthday card signed by all the CM's working that evening. It was a very special experience. (Used 2 TS credits for a meal that would have cost $103.00!!) We got out in time to catch Illuminations. (Isn't life good!!!)

I have to go for now, will finish later!!! Have a great day!!

 

[Eileen226]

My birthday is also Feb. 26th! My husband and I have celebrated about 5 of our almost 22 wedding anniversaries at the world without our kids (now 20 and 16). We like to think we will renew our vows at WDW for our 25th and stay at the Grand Floridian. Who knows, dreams do come true, especially at Walt Disney World. Happy Birthday and much luck and love to you and your husband, congratulations!

 

[swillis]

I got goose bumps reading your post! I could actually "feel" the magic!

 

[javamom]

subbing!

 

[tiedye602]

Ok, have you ever awakened in the middle of the night and had a thought pop into your head that wouldn't let you go back to sleep for hours?! Well, that happened to me at midnight last night and I'm kinda blurry eyed this morning. I guess having a birthday and getting closer to the geriatric age, I totally messed up my anniversary day report. All that about AK happened but it was on Tuesday!!! I guess being there a whole week, the days blend together and I got ahead of myself. So..... just a slight do over!

Day 3 - Monday Feb 27th - We set the alarm this morning because we had to be at the Speedway at 7:30 am. Yes, I bought DH a King's Experience to drive a Nascar for our anniversary. (I can't beleive I forgot this!!) Anyway, it was a little cool and windy that morning but it was sunny and bright and we had a wonderful time. He drove 18 laps at an average speed of 126 miles per hour and he was so happy. I did a ride along that was really not as scary as I thought it would be. It was pretty cool, though! We finished up with this around 12:15 and went back to CSR for lunch. We ate fajitas at Pepper Market. We were pretty hungry, as we didn't get breakfast that morning, so we each got our own and used 2 CS meals. After lunch, we did go to Epcot. We got there around 2:00 and that is when we took our time going through WS. We stopped on our way over to WS and got a FP for Test Track and rode it before we had our supper at LeCellier. It was a lot of fun! This was the only time we waited about 20 minutes to get on a ride all week, and it was because they had to shut down for about 10 minutes. Anway, sorry for the slight confusion in my report, but as I said, my age is showing!

Day 4 Tuesday Feb. 28th - See previous report about AK! We did leave about 3:30 and headed over to MK where we had a dinner ressie at Crystal Palace. When we got to MK, we looked in several shops. We had a 7:00 pm ressie but arrived around 6:30 and had about a 10 minute wait. I loved the food here. The atmosphere was very loud and festive. The characters came around and we got to see them all. We did have a rather unusual experience here. A nice looking family of Dad, Mom, about 4 year old boy, and infant along with Grandmother sat at the table beside us. We weren't really paying much attention, as we were enjoying our meal and watching all the kids react to the characters, when all of the sudden Grandma threw her plate across the table at the little boy, food and dishes flying everywhere! She stood up and said an unmentionable phrase that ended in "you" to Dad and walked out. Pooh was at their table, as was the waitress, and CM handler. I just about jumped out of my chair, the crash was so loud. Little boy started crying, baby started crying, everyone (even Pooh) stood there dumbfounded and everything got really quiet!! Don't know what Dad did to make Grandma mad, but boy, something set her off. Dad held little boy in his lap and rocked him until he stopped crying. Mom and waitress cleaned up the table. They all refilled their plates (little boy got a plate full of chocolate cake and ice cream!) and all seemed ok after that. I guess Grandma had lost the magic!! We left stuffed (used 2 TS credits) and walked around the park until Wishes. We did stop in to see Philharmagic again. It was just as wonderful! Wishes brought a tear to my eye as DH stood behind me with his arms around me. We were right in the middle of the street about half way down Main Street. Another beautiful, romantic night for us, not sure about the poor family who had grandma with them!

Day 5 Wednesday March 1st - We shared another breakfast skillet at Pepper Market. Yummy!! Headed over to Epcot to ride Soarin'. Had about a 10 minute wait. Loved, loved, loved it! As we got off, we got a fast pass to use later. We then rode the monorail over to MK. Got right on Space Mountain, rode Buzz Lightyear. I swear my gun wasn't working right! DH scored over 100,000. I only scored about 3,000. It surely wasn't my shooting expertise! We walked over to Peter Pan and got a FP to use later. Went back to Buzz. Tried again. Did a little better, but not much! Rode the Transit Authority. Picked up a FP for Winnie the Pooh ride on the way to use FP for Peter Pan. The wait times on the FP's were really short. Between 30 and 45 minutes so it was working great for us. We walked into several shops between riding the rides. After riding Pooh, we headed over to Frontierland for lunch at Peco's Bills. We shared a double cheeseburger that came with fries and a yummy chocolate peanut butter brownie and a large tea. Only used 1 CS credit. It was more than enough. After lunch we rode BTMRR then took the raft over to Tom Sawyer Island. We had a nice stroll through there. We then headed into Adventureland. I was glad we caught PC our first night, as it was closed for refurb starting this day. As DH stood and watched unsuspecting people get squirted by the spitting camel (if you've been there, you probably know what I'm talking about, if not, I'll let it surprise you!) I shopped in the shop that is right there. Bought me and my girls some cute skirts and DH a hat. Had purchase delivered to CSR. Isn't that great?!! We stopped and got a Dole Whip. We had seen people walking around with what I thought was a Dole Whip, that was actually the pineapple float, so I ordered the wrong thing to start with and ended up getting both kinds. It was a little much for me, but DH loved his float. We could have shared, if I had read the menu board!! (Again, showing my age!) We finished up at MK around 4:30 and headed back by monorail to Epcot. We got a FP for LWTL and used our FP from the morning for Soarin'. While waiting on FP time, we strolled through the Living Seas. Came out of there, bought a beer, sat and people watched. Rode LWTL. DH is facinated by all that. We didn't have ressie for supper that night. We decided to go see the movie at China that we hadn't seen yet, but the acrobats were about to perform so we watched them instead. They are very flexible, if you know what I mean! We then headed to Germany for a braut and sourkraut. (2 CS credits) Very good!! We were pretty tired, so headed back to CSR. Another wonderful day!!!

I've got to go for now. Will be back soon. Have a magical day!!

 

[jugglinfish]

I'm really enjoying your report. Thanks for sharing your fun and romantic trip with us.

 

[tiedye602]

I'll try to finish up in this report!

Day 6 Thursday - March 2nd We started out the day thinking this would be a relaxing day to shop and look around. Ended up doing more than anticipated! DH wanted to ride Rockin Roll Roller Coaster again so we thought we would ride on over to MGM, knock that out and head to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. We got to MGM about 9:30, checked the wait time at RRRC. It was 20 minutes so we decided to get a fast pass and ride TT since it only had a 10 minute wait. (and did I mention it is my favorite ride?!) Also, since we hadn't seen Fantasmic yet, I called and made an ADR for Sci-Fi for supper. We thought we would just save our FP and use it in the evening, so we exited the park at 10:15 am with the expectation to catch a bus to DTD. Well, a word of warning. There is no bus that goes directly to DTD from MGM. We thought, ok, lets just go back to CSR and catch a bus from there. We waited, and waited and waited... 40 minutes later and no bus to CSR I got the bright idea to catch a bus to TTC thinking, surely there would be a bus to DTD from there. Bus came right away, we hopped on, got to TTC. No bus to DTD. Well, I told DH that I thought it would be nice to take a look around Wilderness Lodge, so why don't we catch the boat to MK and transfer to boat to WL. It actually was a lovely day and the boat rides were relaxing (and we weren't on our feet!!)We ended up spending 2 hours doing transfers, looking around WL and were able to catch a bus from there to DTD. Got there in time to get a sandwich at Earl of Sandwich. We took our desserts (2 muffins) to go to have for breakfast in the morning. Delish!! We looked in all the shops. Sent some purchases to CSR. Ended up at Disney Quest. This was pretty fun. DH liked
"driving" the race cars. He got beat by a 12 year old kid, but still had fun! That is a pretty cool place, but we just aren't into video games and I did best on the old fashioned pin ball machines. (Showing my age again!) We left DTD about 4:30 and headed back to CSR. We changed from shorts and T's to jeans and long sleeves so we wouldn't need to carry our back pack and jackets. Went back to MGM. We used our FP and rode TT again! We enjoyed a nice supper at Sci-Fi. DH got ribs and I got the steak. His ribs were much better than my steak. We got the spinach dip and onion rings for appetizers and loved them both. We left stuffed again! By the time we finished though, it was 6:50 and I was worried we wouldn't make it into see Fantasmic at 7:00. We got over there and they said it was standing room only, but I think we had the best place to watch it. We were directly centered in the back and I was able to lean on the railing in the standing area. DH stood behind me and gave me a wonderful back scratch the whole time the show was going on. I think I'll keep him!! It was a great show. I'm glad we caught it! We went from MGM by boat to The Boardwalk where we walked around a bit and then just sat and watched the people and performers. DH wants me to found out how we can buy a surrey bike to ride around our neighborhood!! We walked over to Epcot just in time to see Illuminations again! I think it was even better that the first time we saw it if that's possible. We left Epcot and headed back to CSR knowing tomorrow would be our last day to enjoy this wonderful place!

Day 7 Friday March 3rd We got up and ate our yummy muffins for breakfast. It was a beautiful day! We wanted to just soak it up like a sponge. We decided to go back to AK. It wasn't crowded at all. We rode the Safari again. We rode the train to Rafiki Planet Watch. We missed this the first day and I'm so glad we were able to do this. DH was too, since he got to so Pocahontis!! He was pushing all the kids out of his way! Just kidding! She was very pretty! This was a really nice area of the park. Very interesting. We left there and found our quiet spot in the path to Asia to share an ice cream and coke. We left AK and since we were so close, we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to look around. What a beautiful resort! I was sad that Boma only served dinner and not lunch. It sure smelled good. We then left there and headed to Epcot. Since we ended up having extra 4 TS meals left, we wanted to do a sit down meal for lunch so we could use our 2 CS meals left at Pepper Market to get the rib eye steaks for supper. It worked out great. We got right in without ressies in Mexico. The food was good. DH thought it was a little too dark in there. He likes to see what he is eating!! After lunch we went back over to The Land so he could do Living with The Land again. The last thing we did was ride Space Ship Earth. Like I said before, we spent all our time just soaking it up!! We left hand in hand, talking about what a great week we had. We went back to CSR around 5:00. DH had bought some beer in the gift shop earlier in the week, so he grabbed a couple and we walked over to the big pool and just found a seat. He drank his beer and I drank a couple Margaritas and we felt like we were in paradise. We left there about 7:00 and went to PM for our steak dinner. All too soon, the day was coming to an end. We went back to our room after strolling around a bit more and started to pack for our trip home tomorrow. Another glorious day!!

Day 8 Saturday March 4th On our way to breakfast, we dropped our two checked luggage bags at the bus stop and got our boarding passes for our flight. That is really a great service Disney offers. We used our last 2 TS meals for breakfast at Maya Grill. It was really a good buffet breakfast. We walked over to PM and used our last 5 snack credits to get a coke, a water and 3 rice krispie treats for the trip home. We walked slowly back to our room to gather our carry ons and packages, stopping and sitting by the lake to enjoy the last of the wonderful atmosphere. I was sad to have to leave but so grateful for the time we had to spend alone together in such a magical place. We caught the bus back to the airport at 11:15 and started our trip back home.

Again, I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and advice to make our trip a pleasant and enjoyable one.

Have a great day!!

 

[smilie]

What a wonderful trip you had. Thank you so much for sharing it!

 

[Buzz2001]

Great report!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[hfrink13]

It sounds like a great trip. Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[MOMOFMNM]

see now...unfortunately..."Grandma" is the reason my mom will not ever be joining us on a family vacation...then again...do they serve booze at the MK?? NO...so she probably would not go there any way...

geesh I can not believe I am airing my dirty laundry to you dis'ers but that is the truth...


anyway OP I am soooo happy you had a great time and HAPPY birthday and Anniversary!!!

one of these days, maybe when we hit our 25th we can get to the world without the girls like you!!!

the dining plan is great isn't it?? we shared a lot of meals too!!! TOO much food for us but a great way to have three meals on the plan is to share food!!


thanks again
"-

 

[byoung]

Nice report.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for posting.