Background: DH's company had "Meetings" at WDW and invited families to join in! (For anyone who may be reading this from said company, I've read so many helpful trip reports that I wanted to share our unique experience - I will keep details such as company name, etc out - I hope this is read as it was intended - as a helpful, entertaining guide of sorts). It was an over-the-top-no-holds-barred kind of trip where, when you wear your company tag, they cannot do enough nice things for you. We were treated so well!
Cast: DH - hard worker, deserves nice things
Me (Mom) - along for the ride
DD#1 (K) - 10, lots of hyper energy
DD#2 (S) - 9, could easily live this life all the time!
Boy, it was hard to get out of bed today! Spouses were allowed to choose whatever spa treatments they wanted and the children were allowed either a manicure or pedicure. We had these scheduled for 9:00AM, but if I had been thinking straight I would have made it for later - I underestimated the late nights. Oh, well.
I had made appointments for the girls for both manicures and pedicures (pedicures were at our expense, but I guess that's okay LOL!!!). I thought it was such a riot to see them lounging around in the spa robes, sipping tea while waiting for their appointments. They were such little ladies, I can't believe how old they seemed! I was glad that we chose to do this special girl thing - we're more used to hanging around in soccer cleats than in spa slippers. They got the full treatment - foot soaks, leg massages, the works! When I went to check on them, one of the ladies said she had a cancellation and did I want a pedicure, too? You don't have to ask me twice - those sneakers were off in an instant! (I didn't book any spa treatments for myself this trip, even though it was available). What a treat for our poor, tired, Disney-worn feet.
The spa is really nice, we checked the whole place out. If I was without kids, I'd really take advantage of the sauna and steam room. It's a very relaxing oasis among all that craziness - maybe next time.... (by the way, it's also extremely clean. All the instruments are sterilized and they let you take the disposable tools that they use on you, as well as the slippers and toe separators.) It would have been perfect if the ladies getting pedicures next to us would have stopped complaining (??) about every little thing - their hotel, the service, travelling there, etc. Just shut up, lady! You're sitting here in DISNEY WORLD of all places, in a beautiful spot, getting pampered! Please!
On our way back to get Dad, we saw the hair wrap station (despite my efforts at diversion). So, there we sat while they got their hair wrapped! We were able to bring breakfast over from the Convention Center, so it wasn't too bad. It just goes against my whole Disney philosophy that you must be at the parks when they open and don't even think about leaving until they slam the gate behind you. Oh, well - we were going with the flow and since we had chosen Animal Kingdom for today I knew we had a little more flexibility. By the time we got going (12:00??!!) we were all pampered and relaxed and ready to go.
The bus for AK took longer than I hoped but we were there in no time. It wasn't too crowded and we got to do everthing we wanted. Rained a little during the day, which made it very humid and sticky. The animals weren't very lively on the safari but it was still fun. The cheetahs were in the same exact position they were in when we saw them 3 years ago. Has anyone actually ever seen them move? We kept joking that it's Disney animitronics at work and not really a cheetah! This park is lovely and not very crowded. It's a nice, relaxed day. We all loved the Tough to be a Bug Movie and the Primeival Whirl ride is fun, too. Nice lunch, kids and dad did Kali River Rapids (I don't like walking around wet all day!), saw the beautiful bird show. Nice day - still in our post-spa stupor, very relaxed.
Dinner was another amazing hoopla! At that point, most of the little kids were well past their breaking point and what do they put in the middle of the function room? A HUGE display overflowing with every type of candy imaginable! They had little bags for the kids to use and every kid I saw had stuffed as many bags as they could carry. I don't know why they even bothered to serve any food. At this point, the parents didn't even care that their kids had 12 pounds of candy for dinner, along with unlimited soda and a hot fudge sundae for dessert. In the words of my preteen - Whatever! There was a fantastic band and all kinds of arcade and carnival games set up. We all danced and had a wonderful time, as I'm sure you would expect. Is this even still the same day? It was extremely long but very fun. We finished the day with a midnight dip in the pool, of course and I don't even remember getting into bed that night.
The next day was the end of the "meetings"! We had a lovely farewell character breakfast. I never got the chance to thank all the people who coordinated this "Meeting' but they did a great job! Everything ran so smoothly and it obviously took lots of planning. We're so lucky to be able to experience this other side of Disney "magic" and it's a trip we'll never forget! Over the years, our family has made many sacrifices for this company and you can bet we were glad to be on the receiving end for a while. It was a wonderful, FAMILY trip and we are so glad that we able to do this!
For the rest of the time we were on our own. We went to MK after breakfast (around 9:00) and stayed the whole day until the fireworks. It was crowded and hot, but we managed to do everything we wanted. Absolutely loved the Philharmagic. What a great show! We saw it twice and wanted to try for a third but the wait was too long. It's worth checking out. Even though we were there all day it went by so quickly. We ate counter service most of the day and never had to do any fast passes (longest wait was 30 min. for Splash Mountain). The fireworks were great, we all had goose bumps! How do they ever coordinate the fireworks to explode at just the right time to the music? Great, great show. Don't miss the Tinkerbell surprise. Stumbled our way out with the huge crowds and got into the monorail, but it was delayed due to some technical thing. Finally got back to GF around 10:30, just in time for a swim. Packed after the kids fell asleep and were up for our car at 6:30 the next morning (okay, now Mickey's voice was really getting annoying).
Our flight was cancelled and we we missed our connection (why do we use USAir?). Finally made it through DC instead of Philly but it was fine, we even got 1st class tickets to even further spoil our kids. Now back to reality. Thanks for reading.
Cast: DH - hard worker, deserves nice things
Me (Mom) - along for the ride
DD#1 (K) - 10, lots of hyper energy
DD#2 (S) - 9, could easily live this life all the time!
Boy, it was hard to get out of bed today! Spouses were allowed to choose whatever spa treatments they wanted and the children were allowed either a manicure or pedicure. We had these scheduled for 9:00AM, but if I had been thinking straight I would have made it for later - I underestimated the late nights. Oh, well.
I had made appointments for the girls for both manicures and pedicures (pedicures were at our expense, but I guess that's okay LOL!!!). I thought it was such a riot to see them lounging around in the spa robes, sipping tea while waiting for their appointments. They were such little ladies, I can't believe how old they seemed! I was glad that we chose to do this special girl thing - we're more used to hanging around in soccer cleats than in spa slippers. They got the full treatment - foot soaks, leg massages, the works! When I went to check on them, one of the ladies said she had a cancellation and did I want a pedicure, too? You don't have to ask me twice - those sneakers were off in an instant! (I didn't book any spa treatments for myself this trip, even though it was available). What a treat for our poor, tired, Disney-worn feet.
The spa is really nice, we checked the whole place out. If I was without kids, I'd really take advantage of the sauna and steam room. It's a very relaxing oasis among all that craziness - maybe next time.... (by the way, it's also extremely clean. All the instruments are sterilized and they let you take the disposable tools that they use on you, as well as the slippers and toe separators.) It would have been perfect if the ladies getting pedicures next to us would have stopped complaining (??) about every little thing - their hotel, the service, travelling there, etc. Just shut up, lady! You're sitting here in DISNEY WORLD of all places, in a beautiful spot, getting pampered! Please!
On our way back to get Dad, we saw the hair wrap station (despite my efforts at diversion). So, there we sat while they got their hair wrapped! We were able to bring breakfast over from the Convention Center, so it wasn't too bad. It just goes against my whole Disney philosophy that you must be at the parks when they open and don't even think about leaving until they slam the gate behind you. Oh, well - we were going with the flow and since we had chosen Animal Kingdom for today I knew we had a little more flexibility. By the time we got going (12:00??!!) we were all pampered and relaxed and ready to go.
The bus for AK took longer than I hoped but we were there in no time. It wasn't too crowded and we got to do everthing we wanted. Rained a little during the day, which made it very humid and sticky. The animals weren't very lively on the safari but it was still fun. The cheetahs were in the same exact position they were in when we saw them 3 years ago. Has anyone actually ever seen them move? We kept joking that it's Disney animitronics at work and not really a cheetah! This park is lovely and not very crowded. It's a nice, relaxed day. We all loved the Tough to be a Bug Movie and the Primeival Whirl ride is fun, too. Nice lunch, kids and dad did Kali River Rapids (I don't like walking around wet all day!), saw the beautiful bird show. Nice day - still in our post-spa stupor, very relaxed.
Dinner was another amazing hoopla! At that point, most of the little kids were well past their breaking point and what do they put in the middle of the function room? A HUGE display overflowing with every type of candy imaginable! They had little bags for the kids to use and every kid I saw had stuffed as many bags as they could carry. I don't know why they even bothered to serve any food. At this point, the parents didn't even care that their kids had 12 pounds of candy for dinner, along with unlimited soda and a hot fudge sundae for dessert. In the words of my preteen - Whatever! There was a fantastic band and all kinds of arcade and carnival games set up. We all danced and had a wonderful time, as I'm sure you would expect. Is this even still the same day? It was extremely long but very fun. We finished the day with a midnight dip in the pool, of course and I don't even remember getting into bed that night.
The next day was the end of the "meetings"! We had a lovely farewell character breakfast. I never got the chance to thank all the people who coordinated this "Meeting' but they did a great job! Everything ran so smoothly and it obviously took lots of planning. We're so lucky to be able to experience this other side of Disney "magic" and it's a trip we'll never forget! Over the years, our family has made many sacrifices for this company and you can bet we were glad to be on the receiving end for a while. It was a wonderful, FAMILY trip and we are so glad that we able to do this!
For the rest of the time we were on our own. We went to MK after breakfast (around 9:00) and stayed the whole day until the fireworks. It was crowded and hot, but we managed to do everything we wanted. Absolutely loved the Philharmagic. What a great show! We saw it twice and wanted to try for a third but the wait was too long. It's worth checking out. Even though we were there all day it went by so quickly. We ate counter service most of the day and never had to do any fast passes (longest wait was 30 min. for Splash Mountain). The fireworks were great, we all had goose bumps! How do they ever coordinate the fireworks to explode at just the right time to the music? Great, great show. Don't miss the Tinkerbell surprise. Stumbled our way out with the huge crowds and got into the monorail, but it was delayed due to some technical thing. Finally got back to GF around 10:30, just in time for a swim. Packed after the kids fell asleep and were up for our car at 6:30 the next morning (okay, now Mickey's voice was really getting annoying).
Our flight was cancelled and we we missed our connection (why do we use USAir?). Finally made it through DC instead of Philly but it was fine, we even got 1st class tickets to even further spoil our kids. Now back to reality. Thanks for reading.
