tbandemommy
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2009
- Messages
- 65
Hello all! This is my first ever trip report so I hope that I can make it a good one. We started planning our trip just after the new year. Our last trip (4 yrs ago) had been a surprise to our DSs. I thought it would be fun to try again. So DH and I sat, each armed with a laptop, in our respective comfortable chairs and made our plans. We IM'd each other while our DSs (11 & 10) and DD (4) sat the same room as us evening after evening. DS10 is a detective in the making. He is very perceptive and one has to be very creative when trying to keep something a secret from him. We had our work cut out for us. Very early on, DH10 was on the scent. DH started to drop subtle hints in casual conversation with the little Mouseketeers and the fun began!
Being a family of 5 now, our choices for on-property accomodations were limited to several deluxe, one moderate and several value. We had previously stayed at POR and enjoyed our accomdations, so that seemed as though it would be a good choice. We soon discovered the 4/3 offer would work to our advantage and make it possible to look at a deluxe option. We chose the Grand Floridian for our stay, thinking what fun it would be to stay there. We figured that we might not be able to do this again, so why not?.
Now that we had our date and accomodations, we needed to figure out how to get there. After exploring our options, we chose to travel to FL using the Amtrak Auto Train. It was an experience that I would highly recommend to anyone. We picked up the AutoTrain in Lorton, VA, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from our home. We arrived with plenty of time to spare. We checked in and got our tickets and selected our meal time, either 5:00pm or 7:00pm. We left the station and grabbed some lunch. We returned to the station for about an 1 1/2 hrs. wait until departure. The children got to watch the cars being loaded and the engine re-couple with the train cars. They had alot of fun taking in all of the activity. We were allowed to board at 2:30 pm for a 4:00 pm departure. The seats were very roomy and comfortable and we had plenty of leg room. The atmosphere in the passenger cars is very relaxing. I was concerned that it might be noisy, especially at night. I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet things were. We ate our evening meal at 5:00 pm. The children all had mac & cheese with a side of mixed vegs and juice to drink. DH had vegetable lasagna and I had steak and mashed potatoes with vegs. We each had a piece of cheesecake for dessert and the children enjoyed ice cream. There was also a carafe of white wine on each table. The night went smoothly. The children enjoyed two showings of Bolt in the lounge car. They were also treated to popcorn during the movie. There was a snack bar where light snacks and beverages could be purchased. The passenger car lights were dimmed at about 10:00 pm. Good night! Breakfast was served from 6:00 am to 8:00 am. Breakfast menu included cold cereal and milk, various breads, juice, coffee and tea. DS10 ( the detective) and I had breakfast with another couple who I had already informed of our surprise trip. He was still in the dark about our final destination.
The logistics of packing for a surprise trip for 5 is something that is not easily done. In order to keep me from completely pulling my hair out, DH and I decided to involve the DSs in the planning, on a VERY minimalistic level. We were not sure how to get over the hurdle of telling them that they would be missing a few days of school and needed to get their assignments etc. that would need to be completed while we were away. DH thought up a devious little scheme that included DSs knowing that we were going away on a trip and allowing them to participate in the trip planning.
DH told them that we were going on a sightseeing/historical trip. This idea was regularly emphasized for the benefit of our in house detective (DS 10.) As the months passed, DS10 became a little less confident of his detective skills. They were told to come up with a list of places that they wanted to visit. DH then took their suggestions and made up a fake trip itinerary including museums, national parks etc. Each DS then faithfully studied their respective travel plans for several months. He even included DD by telling her that when she is seven we will make a trip to WDW and had her figure out the things she wanted to do when that time comes. Easter fell during the midst of our planning. Even the Easter Bunny was in on our plans. He brought Mickey Head crocs and Teva sandals for all the children and a pair of Tevas for DH who told me that he probably would not wear them in the park as he prefers tennis shoes. Irony at its best!
As far as packing prep goes, that was a small adventure by itself. I had diligently referenced other Dis'ers (THANK YOU all) packing lists and suggestions and created my own list. Little by little I amassed everything on my list and discretely stored it away like a squirrel preparing for winter. I also found the Creative Communities section of Dis and became inspired to create t-shirts for the 5 of us.
In the end, with DH's help, I was able to produce a total of 20 personalized shirts including Mickey Head tie-dyes and various iron-ons. The children helped with the tie-dye project under the guise of practicing for our "real" trip when DD is 7. To make life easier for the young ones, I made up sets of outfits for each by rolling together shirt/shorts etc. in a bundle in the suitcase. That way each one could just grab a bundle and get ready each day. That worked out great.
We arrived in FL on 17 May. We disembarked the AutoTrain and traveled approximately 45 mins. to Orlando. The children were watching a movie in the car and were not paying attention to their surroundings. We passed the many billboards and other signage announcing our proximity to WDW without one of them noticing. It was not until we were about a half-mile away from the big Welcome to WDW sign that spans the highway did any of them notice where we were. The excitement ramped up at this point. DD4 was clapping and cheering, DS 11 was completely surprised, but tried to downplay that as he is now a cool tween
and DS10, well lets just say he was speechless for a short time. He realized that he had been skunked by Mommy and Daddy. 
The weather on this day was beautiful. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the low 80's. We got to GF and checked in, but our room was not ready. So we got geared up to head to MK until we could get to our room. We enjoyed our afternoon had our first meal on our dining plan. The food and CMs were all wonderful.
We returned to our room to find that we had been upgraded to a beautiful lagoon view, but we were one bed short. So while DH was getting the luggage transferred I called to get the room switched. At this point, the Mousekeeping staff was very helpful. They got us a room with a fifth bed (daybed) but the "view" was of several beautiful trees right outside our balcony, no lagoon view period, only branches and leaves. We figured that the obscurity of the view would be made up by spending all day in the park. We returned to the park that evening, enjoyed ourselves. We finally got back to our room and found that a bottle of champagne and two chocolate covered strawberries had been delivered to our room along with a card wishing us a magical wedding anniversary. We thought that was a magical gesture.
The next morning our "fun" began. Being the always prepared Mommy that I am, I had gotten dollar ponchos for all of us as part of packing prep. Boy, did that small investment pay off!! It rained, check that.... POURED every day we were there. At this point, DH was very happy that the Easter Bunny brought him the Tevas. The first two days were bearable as the excitement of being in WDW overcame any and all raindrops. *I think I should note here that our room for entire duration of our stay (17 May - 24 May) was not serviced by Mousekeeping anytime before 3:00 pm. By the third day of torrential, day-long downpours we would have liked very much to be able to return to our room and shower/change into dry clothes. We were unable to do this as mousekeeping at the Grand Floridian, a premiere Disney property, was unable to service our room before late afternoon. DH tried to make things a little better by attempting to launder our clothes. Well, after 3 hours of trying to get the dryer to DRY our clothes, he gave up and we then had to hang our wet, but clean clothes from any place that we could find in our room. That evening, after sending DH and the Mouseketeers to MK for some fun, I called mousekeeping to report the malfunctioning dryer. Noone answered, so I called the front desk to report same. I was told that a report would be made to engineering and someone would be looking at it. The next afternoon, after another soaking in the park, we returned to find our room had not been serviced as of 3:40 pm. I very much would have liked to provide the understandably cranky children with dry towels for showering purposes and a change of dry clothes, but was unable to do either as the room hadn't been serviced and the clothes were wet. I stopped by the laundry room to check on the dryer. It was still not working and another guest said that she was experiencing the same problem. I went to the front desk to inquire as to the status of the dryer. I was told that noone was aware of the situation and I also addressed the lateness of mousekeeping. I was told that I should have known that I need to call Mousekeeping to have my room serviced early in the day. I wasn't asking for special treatment, just reasonable treatment i.e. a cleaned/serviced room before 3:00, especially in light of the fact that the rainfall amount was so high that it had been years since Orlando had seen that kind of rain. I asked for an explanation of why the dryer had not been repaired. I was told that I should take my laundry to a neighboring building (in the pouring rain) and hopefully I won't have a problem there. I was also told that GF front desk has nothing to do with handling the calls that are made from GF rooms to GF front desk. All GF calls go to a call center. The CM's resolution was to have our room serviced as early as convienient for us for the remainder of our stay. At this point the remaider of our stay was one night. If we are fortunate enough to take another family vacation, it is certain that we will not even consider GF as an option, nor would I ever recommend it to any one else.
There was one bright spot for us at the GF. That was when DS11 got to play the Grand Piano in the lobby of the main building during evening entertainment. CM Glenn was very kind to let DS11 do that and if it were possible to burst with excitement and pride, DS11 would have burst wide open! Mommy was just a little bit proud, too!
As far as our experience in the MK, Epcot, AK and HS, we had a very magical time! DD had breakfast with Cinderella and the other princesses. She was thrilled when she met Cinderella and got to spend time in the castle. I was also celebrating my birthday during our visit. CMs regularly wished me Happy Birthday. I also received a small birthday cake and a card signed by the characters at our TS meals. What a treat for me! Everywhere we went in the parks, the CMs were wonderful.
The terrible weather did not dampen our spirits. We donned our ponchos and water tolerant shoes and stuck to our touring plan. We did note that as we sloshed through MK one afternoon that the water was at least 6 inches above the ankles of DH and myself. I am by no means exagerrating about this fact. DD 4 had to be carried for her safety. At the end of this same day as we exited MK and headed toward the Monorail station, the water laying at the base of the Monorail entrance was deeper than in the park. It was very clsoe to being a foot high. The rainwater was pouring back out of the storm drains. This was the only point at which my otherwise steady DH was afraid of what else Mother Nature had in store for WDW.
On our final day, the sun finally came out of hiding. We packed our car and then headed for MK. We spent a leisurely morning on the riverboat and other rides. DS10 and DD got to have their hair done at Main Street Barber Shop.
We had our last TS at CP. It was then time to leave WDW. We had sad faces and many tears, but we now have many magical memories. DD is already planning her next WDW trip when she turns seven! Get ready Daddy!! This one might cost you a little more.
I hope that this will suffice for my first trip report. I would like to say thanks to all of the Dis'ers who have unknowingly helped me plan this very magical trip for my family. I appreciate more than I can express.
Being a family of 5 now, our choices for on-property accomodations were limited to several deluxe, one moderate and several value. We had previously stayed at POR and enjoyed our accomdations, so that seemed as though it would be a good choice. We soon discovered the 4/3 offer would work to our advantage and make it possible to look at a deluxe option. We chose the Grand Floridian for our stay, thinking what fun it would be to stay there. We figured that we might not be able to do this again, so why not?.
Now that we had our date and accomodations, we needed to figure out how to get there. After exploring our options, we chose to travel to FL using the Amtrak Auto Train. It was an experience that I would highly recommend to anyone. We picked up the AutoTrain in Lorton, VA, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from our home. We arrived with plenty of time to spare. We checked in and got our tickets and selected our meal time, either 5:00pm or 7:00pm. We left the station and grabbed some lunch. We returned to the station for about an 1 1/2 hrs. wait until departure. The children got to watch the cars being loaded and the engine re-couple with the train cars. They had alot of fun taking in all of the activity. We were allowed to board at 2:30 pm for a 4:00 pm departure. The seats were very roomy and comfortable and we had plenty of leg room. The atmosphere in the passenger cars is very relaxing. I was concerned that it might be noisy, especially at night. I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet things were. We ate our evening meal at 5:00 pm. The children all had mac & cheese with a side of mixed vegs and juice to drink. DH had vegetable lasagna and I had steak and mashed potatoes with vegs. We each had a piece of cheesecake for dessert and the children enjoyed ice cream. There was also a carafe of white wine on each table. The night went smoothly. The children enjoyed two showings of Bolt in the lounge car. They were also treated to popcorn during the movie. There was a snack bar where light snacks and beverages could be purchased. The passenger car lights were dimmed at about 10:00 pm. Good night! Breakfast was served from 6:00 am to 8:00 am. Breakfast menu included cold cereal and milk, various breads, juice, coffee and tea. DS10 ( the detective) and I had breakfast with another couple who I had already informed of our surprise trip. He was still in the dark about our final destination.
The logistics of packing for a surprise trip for 5 is something that is not easily done. In order to keep me from completely pulling my hair out, DH and I decided to involve the DSs in the planning, on a VERY minimalistic level. We were not sure how to get over the hurdle of telling them that they would be missing a few days of school and needed to get their assignments etc. that would need to be completed while we were away. DH thought up a devious little scheme that included DSs knowing that we were going away on a trip and allowing them to participate in the trip planning.
DH told them that we were going on a sightseeing/historical trip. This idea was regularly emphasized for the benefit of our in house detective (DS 10.) As the months passed, DS10 became a little less confident of his detective skills. They were told to come up with a list of places that they wanted to visit. DH then took their suggestions and made up a fake trip itinerary including museums, national parks etc. Each DS then faithfully studied their respective travel plans for several months. He even included DD by telling her that when she is seven we will make a trip to WDW and had her figure out the things she wanted to do when that time comes. Easter fell during the midst of our planning. Even the Easter Bunny was in on our plans. He brought Mickey Head crocs and Teva sandals for all the children and a pair of Tevas for DH who told me that he probably would not wear them in the park as he prefers tennis shoes. Irony at its best!As far as packing prep goes, that was a small adventure by itself. I had diligently referenced other Dis'ers (THANK YOU all) packing lists and suggestions and created my own list. Little by little I amassed everything on my list and discretely stored it away like a squirrel preparing for winter. I also found the Creative Communities section of Dis and became inspired to create t-shirts for the 5 of us.
In the end, with DH's help, I was able to produce a total of 20 personalized shirts including Mickey Head tie-dyes and various iron-ons. The children helped with the tie-dye project under the guise of practicing for our "real" trip when DD is 7. To make life easier for the young ones, I made up sets of outfits for each by rolling together shirt/shorts etc. in a bundle in the suitcase. That way each one could just grab a bundle and get ready each day. That worked out great.
We arrived in FL on 17 May. We disembarked the AutoTrain and traveled approximately 45 mins. to Orlando. The children were watching a movie in the car and were not paying attention to their surroundings. We passed the many billboards and other signage announcing our proximity to WDW without one of them noticing. It was not until we were about a half-mile away from the big Welcome to WDW sign that spans the highway did any of them notice where we were. The excitement ramped up at this point. DD4 was clapping and cheering, DS 11 was completely surprised, but tried to downplay that as he is now a cool tween
and DS10, well lets just say he was speechless for a short time. He realized that he had been skunked by Mommy and Daddy. The weather on this day was beautiful. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the low 80's. We got to GF and checked in, but our room was not ready. So we got geared up to head to MK until we could get to our room. We enjoyed our afternoon had our first meal on our dining plan. The food and CMs were all wonderful. We returned to our room to find that we had been upgraded to a beautiful lagoon view, but we were one bed short. So while DH was getting the luggage transferred I called to get the room switched. At this point, the Mousekeeping staff was very helpful. They got us a room with a fifth bed (daybed) but the "view" was of several beautiful trees right outside our balcony, no lagoon view period, only branches and leaves. We figured that the obscurity of the view would be made up by spending all day in the park. We returned to the park that evening, enjoyed ourselves. We finally got back to our room and found that a bottle of champagne and two chocolate covered strawberries had been delivered to our room along with a card wishing us a magical wedding anniversary. We thought that was a magical gesture.
The next morning our "fun" began. Being the always prepared Mommy that I am, I had gotten dollar ponchos for all of us as part of packing prep. Boy, did that small investment pay off!! It rained, check that.... POURED every day we were there. At this point, DH was very happy that the Easter Bunny brought him the Tevas. The first two days were bearable as the excitement of being in WDW overcame any and all raindrops. *I think I should note here that our room for entire duration of our stay (17 May - 24 May) was not serviced by Mousekeeping anytime before 3:00 pm. By the third day of torrential, day-long downpours we would have liked very much to be able to return to our room and shower/change into dry clothes. We were unable to do this as mousekeeping at the Grand Floridian, a premiere Disney property, was unable to service our room before late afternoon. DH tried to make things a little better by attempting to launder our clothes. Well, after 3 hours of trying to get the dryer to DRY our clothes, he gave up and we then had to hang our wet, but clean clothes from any place that we could find in our room. That evening, after sending DH and the Mouseketeers to MK for some fun, I called mousekeeping to report the malfunctioning dryer. Noone answered, so I called the front desk to report same. I was told that a report would be made to engineering and someone would be looking at it. The next afternoon, after another soaking in the park, we returned to find our room had not been serviced as of 3:40 pm. I very much would have liked to provide the understandably cranky children with dry towels for showering purposes and a change of dry clothes, but was unable to do either as the room hadn't been serviced and the clothes were wet. I stopped by the laundry room to check on the dryer. It was still not working and another guest said that she was experiencing the same problem. I went to the front desk to inquire as to the status of the dryer. I was told that noone was aware of the situation and I also addressed the lateness of mousekeeping. I was told that I should have known that I need to call Mousekeeping to have my room serviced early in the day. I wasn't asking for special treatment, just reasonable treatment i.e. a cleaned/serviced room before 3:00, especially in light of the fact that the rainfall amount was so high that it had been years since Orlando had seen that kind of rain. I asked for an explanation of why the dryer had not been repaired. I was told that I should take my laundry to a neighboring building (in the pouring rain) and hopefully I won't have a problem there. I was also told that GF front desk has nothing to do with handling the calls that are made from GF rooms to GF front desk. All GF calls go to a call center. The CM's resolution was to have our room serviced as early as convienient for us for the remainder of our stay. At this point the remaider of our stay was one night. If we are fortunate enough to take another family vacation, it is certain that we will not even consider GF as an option, nor would I ever recommend it to any one else.
There was one bright spot for us at the GF. That was when DS11 got to play the Grand Piano in the lobby of the main building during evening entertainment. CM Glenn was very kind to let DS11 do that and if it were possible to burst with excitement and pride, DS11 would have burst wide open! Mommy was just a little bit proud, too!
As far as our experience in the MK, Epcot, AK and HS, we had a very magical time! DD had breakfast with Cinderella and the other princesses. She was thrilled when she met Cinderella and got to spend time in the castle. I was also celebrating my birthday during our visit. CMs regularly wished me Happy Birthday. I also received a small birthday cake and a card signed by the characters at our TS meals. What a treat for me! Everywhere we went in the parks, the CMs were wonderful.
The terrible weather did not dampen our spirits. We donned our ponchos and water tolerant shoes and stuck to our touring plan. We did note that as we sloshed through MK one afternoon that the water was at least 6 inches above the ankles of DH and myself. I am by no means exagerrating about this fact. DD 4 had to be carried for her safety. At the end of this same day as we exited MK and headed toward the Monorail station, the water laying at the base of the Monorail entrance was deeper than in the park. It was very clsoe to being a foot high. The rainwater was pouring back out of the storm drains. This was the only point at which my otherwise steady DH was afraid of what else Mother Nature had in store for WDW.
On our final day, the sun finally came out of hiding. We packed our car and then headed for MK. We spent a leisurely morning on the riverboat and other rides. DS10 and DD got to have their hair done at Main Street Barber Shop.
We had our last TS at CP. It was then time to leave WDW. We had sad faces and many tears, but we now have many magical memories. DD is already planning her next WDW trip when she turns seven! Get ready Daddy!! This one might cost you a little more.
I hope that this will suffice for my first trip report. I would like to say thanks to all of the Dis'ers who have unknowingly helped me plan this very magical trip for my family. I appreciate more than I can express.
