WDW Arrival day (12/15)
Cast: Me (40), DH (47), DD (12 ½) and DS (11 ½) flying from Southern Maryland, staying at BWVs
DM (late 60s) driving from Naples FL, staying at Pop Century
Our family had an early morning flight (about 8:00 am) from Reagan National Airport on the 15th. Oh the joys of booking travel using frequent flier miles during the holiday season. Anyway, they had us connecting through Miami and arriving at MCO around mid-day. Since we live about 90 miles south of Reagan airport, and since we were going to be gone 14 days, we decided to do one-way rental cars to and from the airport. We left our house just before 5:00 am and arrived at the airport about 6:45. Check in and security were pretty uneventful. We had a pretty short connection in Miami, and of course our gates were just about as far apart as possible. The map said it was a 25 to 30 minute walk between gates, and we only had 15 minutes from the time we got off the plane to the next planes boarding time. We all race walked through the d, c, and b terminals to terminal a, and made it on our new plane about 3 minutes before they closed the door. Whew! For once, this flight was very uncrowded, and we made the short hop between Miami and Orlando, arriving about 10 minutes early.
We had been watching the weather before we left. Temps in Washington were in the high 30s, and it was supposed to get down to the low 40s in Orlando that night, but slowly warm up during our two days and end up around the mid 70s the day we left for the cruise. That forecast was just about right. It was pretty chilly Wednesday night, but when we arrived, the sun was shining and it was in the low 60s. Pretty nice sweatshirt weather.
We got our rental car (upsized at the gate from a Taurus to a full sized sport utility since I didnt know if the luggage would all fit. We had 7 full sized checked suitcases, and 4 carry ons), and took 417 over to the BWVs. I checked in while DH parked the car. Our room was ready and was in a pretty nice location for a standard view. We overlooked the check in area and had a small balcony. Room number was something like 3105. We dropped our two WDW bags, and headed out to the boat launch, after stopping to admire the chocolate amusement park that was in our lobby. It was absolutely beautiful! A working train, a roller coaster, and working carousel, etc. The sign said that it took 3 months to build and I believe it!
Pictures speak louder than words
We had lunch at Beaches and Cream and I called my mom to meet us. She had arrived about the same time we landed, and was all checked in. She had bought a limited Florida resident annual pass, so I told her the best choice was to go through Epcot to the International Gateway and meet us there. We took the very short walk from the Beach Club over to the gateway and met about 3:00.
Mom and the kids by the tree next to the chocolate display (sorry it's sideways)
DH took the kids to the pool after they insisted. He froze sitting by the pool in his sweatshirt while they had a blast playing in the water and going down the keister coaster slide. Mom and I went to get park passes from Shades of Green, and take a trip to Super Wal Mart for our supplies. 2 day UPH for 4 was a total of $472 (just like the website said), and I got breakfast and snacks for us for about $45. I also had to pick up a snorkel set for DS for the cruise, and a gameboy advance, so my total bill was a bit more!
We met back at the BWVs and headed out to Downtown Disney via bus about 6:30. That was our longest bus wait of the entire trip at about 20 minutes. We used the Safari Club head of the line card and were seating at Rainforest Café in about another 20 minutes. We had a typical Rainforest dinner where we split an appetizer and 3 entrees among the 5 of us. We did go for the Volcano for dessert. I had 2 certificates from the Safari Club (one for joining and one for my birthday). The servers only let us use one of them. Total was around $75 + tip which wasnt too bad. We split up and took the buses back to our respective resorts and called it a night about 10:00. We were able to see part of Illuminations during the bus ride back.
Overall, the weather was chilly but sunny, and we had no major disasters, so it was a good day!
Cast: Me (40), DH (47), DD (12 ½) and DS (11 ½) flying from Southern Maryland, staying at BWVs
DM (late 60s) driving from Naples FL, staying at Pop Century
Our family had an early morning flight (about 8:00 am) from Reagan National Airport on the 15th. Oh the joys of booking travel using frequent flier miles during the holiday season. Anyway, they had us connecting through Miami and arriving at MCO around mid-day. Since we live about 90 miles south of Reagan airport, and since we were going to be gone 14 days, we decided to do one-way rental cars to and from the airport. We left our house just before 5:00 am and arrived at the airport about 6:45. Check in and security were pretty uneventful. We had a pretty short connection in Miami, and of course our gates were just about as far apart as possible. The map said it was a 25 to 30 minute walk between gates, and we only had 15 minutes from the time we got off the plane to the next planes boarding time. We all race walked through the d, c, and b terminals to terminal a, and made it on our new plane about 3 minutes before they closed the door. Whew! For once, this flight was very uncrowded, and we made the short hop between Miami and Orlando, arriving about 10 minutes early.
We had been watching the weather before we left. Temps in Washington were in the high 30s, and it was supposed to get down to the low 40s in Orlando that night, but slowly warm up during our two days and end up around the mid 70s the day we left for the cruise. That forecast was just about right. It was pretty chilly Wednesday night, but when we arrived, the sun was shining and it was in the low 60s. Pretty nice sweatshirt weather.
We got our rental car (upsized at the gate from a Taurus to a full sized sport utility since I didnt know if the luggage would all fit. We had 7 full sized checked suitcases, and 4 carry ons), and took 417 over to the BWVs. I checked in while DH parked the car. Our room was ready and was in a pretty nice location for a standard view. We overlooked the check in area and had a small balcony. Room number was something like 3105. We dropped our two WDW bags, and headed out to the boat launch, after stopping to admire the chocolate amusement park that was in our lobby. It was absolutely beautiful! A working train, a roller coaster, and working carousel, etc. The sign said that it took 3 months to build and I believe it!
Pictures speak louder than words
We had lunch at Beaches and Cream and I called my mom to meet us. She had arrived about the same time we landed, and was all checked in. She had bought a limited Florida resident annual pass, so I told her the best choice was to go through Epcot to the International Gateway and meet us there. We took the very short walk from the Beach Club over to the gateway and met about 3:00.
Mom and the kids by the tree next to the chocolate display (sorry it's sideways)
DH took the kids to the pool after they insisted. He froze sitting by the pool in his sweatshirt while they had a blast playing in the water and going down the keister coaster slide. Mom and I went to get park passes from Shades of Green, and take a trip to Super Wal Mart for our supplies. 2 day UPH for 4 was a total of $472 (just like the website said), and I got breakfast and snacks for us for about $45. I also had to pick up a snorkel set for DS for the cruise, and a gameboy advance, so my total bill was a bit more!
We met back at the BWVs and headed out to Downtown Disney via bus about 6:30. That was our longest bus wait of the entire trip at about 20 minutes. We used the Safari Club head of the line card and were seating at Rainforest Café in about another 20 minutes. We had a typical Rainforest dinner where we split an appetizer and 3 entrees among the 5 of us. We did go for the Volcano for dessert. I had 2 certificates from the Safari Club (one for joining and one for my birthday). The servers only let us use one of them. Total was around $75 + tip which wasnt too bad. We split up and took the buses back to our respective resorts and called it a night about 10:00. We were able to see part of Illuminations during the bus ride back.
Overall, the weather was chilly but sunny, and we had no major disasters, so it was a good day!
