Party of 5's First family trip to WDW! Just back from POR 6/16 *update 8/13 thoughts

[ampc3]

Hi everyone we are back and feeling very sad at the moment.. WE had a GREAT time, best vacation ever!!!! I am trying to get caught up on laundry etc... and get my photopass pics added to the group..

It will probably be another day or two before I can start the TR... How do I get this moved over to the TR board, I noticed that some of you already had that done?

Yes Jenn, I wonder if there will be any surprise "guests" in my TR???? you'll have to wait and see....

I hope everyone else who recently went had a great time as well.... All the tips I learned in my planning etc, REALLY paid out in more ways than one! TGM was right on also....

stay tuned.....

 

[Charleston Princess]

Welcome home! I am so jealous that apparently some of you managed to run into each other . I'm sad that I didn't see anyone .

So glad that you guys had a great time!!! Can't wait to read all about it!!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh, and to answer your question, I PMed OhMari to ask her to move mine. I think she noticed that others had become TRs and just moved them.

 

[nts4wdw]

Hi everyone we are back and feeling very sad at the moment.. WE had a GREAT time, best vacation ever!!!! I am trying to get caught up on laundry etc... and get my photopass pics added to the group..

It will probably be another day or two before I can start the TR... How do I get this moved over to the TR board, I noticed that some of you already had that done?

Yes Jenn, I wonder if there will be any surprise "guests" in my TR???? you'll have to wait and see....

I hope everyone else who recently went had a great time as well.... All the tips I learned in my planning etc, REALLY payed out in more ways than one! TGM was right on also....

stay tuned.....

Looking forward to it! I'll be jealous if you ran into anyone. I was really looking for all you guys. (Of course, I probably would have been to shy to say anything.)

 

[MegansMom]

Welcome Back Annette!!! So glad you all had a GREAT time!!! I knew you would! I just pm'd Marla Hellwig to have mine moved--hope that helps!!! Looking forward to the TR!!! Jen

 

[MomofCKJ]

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear about your trip! I know the sadness stinks when you come home but sometimes writing that trippie is good medicine for that!

Allyson

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Welcome back!!!!

 

[cjhinch]

I enjoyed getting caught up on your PTR, and I really can't wait to read all about your trip!!

 

[lmillercrew]

Welcome back! Can't wait to join you on your trip journey

 

[ampc3]

So the day finally arrived!!! Today is the day we drive to Disney Yeah!!!
We woke up about 4:45 and started getting ready, we opened the kids doors and turned on the hall light to start to wake them. Joey came out on his own completely dressed and ready to go little after 5. I told him to go grab something to eat. I started to wake the girls and got Emma dressed, Lauren did the last sticker on the countdown calendar ,they had some pop tarts and we were ready to go! We pulled out of our drive way at 6:00 am.

It was a pretty uneventful drive down, except it took longer than I had planned and thought it would. We stopped for Lunch at a Bob Evans which was a mistake the food was horrible and it took forever, that added an extra hour to the trip! I don’t know why I agreed to stop there, we never stop at sit down places when we travel it is always in and out super quick. I think my DH was worried that our room wouldn’t be ready anyway so what was the hurry… The hurry was I wanted to get there ASAP!!!! Plus I knew the kids would want to go swimming etc..

So we finally made there , it took almost 9 hours! Like I said, whyyyy longer then I had planned. I was doing the driving on the final leg so I was alittle worried that I wouldn’t get the pictures I wanted when we pulled in. I was telling DH to get the camera ready…

We were soo excited when we started spotting the signs and boy was I smiling when we drove under this!!!!

And then when we pulled into this.. The guard man said the infamous words everyone is waiting to hear “ welcome home”

We told the kids to go sit over by the little TV they had showing the old cartoons and we got in line to check in. They started to give us bldg 26, but I said I had requested bldg14 or 18... So they did a double check and gave us bld 18 room 1834 second level courtyard view. The girl checking us in was as sweet as could be, gave us our 1st time buttons etc.. but had NO clue how the bus system worked etc.. she started to tell me that the buses don’t start running until 45 min before park opening…. Umm.. No sweetie that isn’t correct but thanks anyway..

We went over to the concierge and got our undercover tourist tickets added to our room keys, got our print outs for our ADR! Then off to drive our car around to bldg 18 and unload.. The kids were soo excited to see the hotel and get their swimsuits on!

It was a nice room, I loved that the sinks were outside of the “potty” area and the kids loved the curtain to separate the room and make their own private dressing room. We didn’t really unpack yet b/c the kids were ready to go check out the pool and slide!

So we put our suits on and tried to find the pool, the signs took us way out of our way to the pool, on our return from the pool we quickly found a short cut tho.

We had ADR’s @ 6:20 that night, so we told the kids we only had about an hour or so before we had to get ready and we weren’t sure yet if we were going to drive or take the bus to the MK and do the monorail to the Poly.

Here are some pictures of the pool, and kids enjoying the slide.. The line was pretty long that afternoon so they only did it a few times and Emma wasn’t ready to try it out just yet.

It was pretty crowded but we managed to get lucky and get a chair right up front by the stairs so I could watch Emma when I wasn’t in the pool.

After about an hour we went back up to the room to get ready for our Dinner @ Ohana’s….

How did we decide to travel to Ohana’s? Did we have any Dis spottings?? Did we enjoy the food? What surprise do I have in store for DH??
Stay tuned….

 

[momtotanmanandraerae]

I found your TR on timandlesley! Your kids are so cute!! Just adorable! I wish it took 9 hours to get to Disney.....it takes us 12. It is worth every minute of the drive though!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Yeay! You started your TR and reached Disney!

Good job on the room!

The pool was soooo crowded when we ventured over there!

 

[IluvXU]

Spotting???? That was a rough night for me, wonder if you experienced the problem I had. Great start... I miss WDW already!

 

[MegansMom]

Love the first installment!!! Way to go on getting your room! I did NOT know we could have added our UT tickets to our KTTW cards!!! WOW!! Where have I been!?!?!? Can't wait until the next installment!! BTW, again--YOUR KIDS ARE TOO CUTE!!! ) Jen

 

[ampc3]

I found your TR on timandlesley! Your kids are so cute!! Just adorable! I wish it took 9 hours to get to Disney.....it takes us 12. It is worth every minute of the drive though!!

Thanks for the kind words and joining us!

Yeay! You started your TR and reached Disney!

Good job on the room!

The pool was soooo crowded when we ventured over there!

My kids were soo mad at me that we never made it over to FQ, they REALLY wanted to check out that slide!

Spotting???? That was a rough night for me, wonder if you experienced the problem I had. Great start... I miss WDW already!

You have me really curious what the problems were at Ohana's that night?? As far as the spottings go... I was the one that came up to you on your way out I think?? I wasn't sure if you thought I was crazy or not for asking~lol, OR if you had any idea who I was?? I know MY Dh thought I was crazy!!

Love the first installment!!! Way to go on getting your room! I did NOT know we could have added our UT tickets to our KTTW cards!!! WOW!! Where have I been!?!?!? Can't wait until the next installment!! BTW, again--YOUR KIDS ARE TOO CUTE!!! ) Jen

YES I read somewhere about adding the UT tickets b/c they are paper and such a pain to keep carrying around.. Thanks for the sweet comments on the kids, Megan is a doll also!



Working on getting more pics uploaded and next installment...

 

[MegansMom]

You have me really curious what the problems were at Ohana's that night?? As far as the spottings go... I was the one that came up to you on your way out I think?? I wasn't sure if you thought I was crazy or not for asking~lol, OR if you had any idea who I was?? I know MY Dh thought I was crazy!!
Working on getting more pics uploaded and next installment...

Oooooohhhhhh!!! The suspense is KILLING me!! What happened?!?!?!?!? Can't wait for the next installment!!!

You are too sweet about your kind words for Megs--you saw us before their BBB makeovers, and I SO wish you could have seen them afterwards--too cute!!! I bet your girls had a blast!!! They were SO beautiful!

 

[momsavealot]

Yeah! I'm finally getting in on a TR as it starts. Keep up the good work. Your pretrip report is great and I think I need to take a trip to the Home Depot for those Mickey heads! Looking forward to your next installment! I also got us matching shirts but DH doesn't know yet!!!

 

[nts4wdw]

Cute Pictures!! Riverside has such a cool pool! Looking forward to hearing about Ohana!

 

[HonnyDipp]

Cute pics, thanks for posting!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Oh welcome back! Your kids are so so so cute! Eeek on the 9 hour drive but glad you got there with time to relax and swim!

Can't wait to hear about Ohana, we love it there!

Allyson