Return To Disney: Part One

TimNDansMom

DIS Veteran
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Mar 23, 2000
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This was the first time we have ever gone away over the Christmas holidays. I planned a much simpler Christmas Day dinner (my family comes over), did much less baking than I usually do (no one needs the calories, anyway), and everyone left earlier so I had more time to finish up the last bits of packing for our departure the next day.

Dan ended up not feeling well on Boxing Day morning (headache and nauseous) so we delayed our departure until about 10am, since we had only planned to drive as far as Cincinnati (had a reservation), the first day. He recovered through-out the day~probably due to too much chocolate, rich food and too many hours on the computer, the day before. Actually, having a shorter driving day worked out well too, because between Dayton and Cincinnati, they had a late afternoon ice storm and the traffic was terrible, so I was glad we hadn't decided to drive farther.

We spent our second stop just below Macon, Georgia and arrived in Orlando around mid-afternoon on the Friday. I had booked our first three nights at an Econolodge in Kissimmee and then the next 5 nights in Disney at All Star Music. Before we checked in we headed straight over to the Walmart on 192 and I bought our 5 day hopper tickets. I also bought the “hot pot” that I had read about so much on the DIS to cook soup in, for snacks.

After we checked in at the Econolodge we headed over to Downtown Disney for our usual stop at Virgin Megastore. Unfortunately, we only stayed a short time because Tim decided he didn’t feel well and stayed in the van. I didn’t feel comfortable about this so we left. I think he was just tired and wanted to go to the hotel and watch TV. I find it is getting harder to travel with teenagers, because they would just rather stay home!

The next day, Saturday, we went shopping at our favorite, Orlando Premium Outlet Mall. We each went our own way and agreed to meet back at a specified time. Dan was the smart one I think, because he met up with me and ended up talking me into buying him a pair of Tommy Hilfinger jeans! Tim must have something up his sleeve for later, because he still hasn’t asked me for “something equal”! Afterwards we decided to go back to DTD and had an early dinner at Planet Hollywood. We walked around, with me planning future purchases later in the trip, then decided to go over to Krispy Kreme for the much anticipated treat! But “the ornery teenagers” struck again~Tim decided that he didn’t feel well after having a sour Life Saver candy on top of his PH burger and they didn’t have Dan’s favorite Devil’s chocolate donut. And actually there were none “hot off the press”, much to my disappointment, so only DH grabbed a coffee and donut and we left. (I did end up having a KK donut~on the way home, we discovered KK donuts at a gas station store, but it wasn’t the same. I’ll probably end up driving to Toronto to the new KK store that’s just opened there.)

The kids and I went to Magic Kingdom on Sunday and it was a nice warm day (little did I realize that it would be our last!) DH had a golf-day planned and since we were still staying off-site, we decided to try out Disney’s drop-off system. It was great, the CM at the gate just directed us to the drop-off area at the TTC, no problem! We arrived at MK around 9am, the security check-in was a breeze and first spent about an hour in the Main Street Bakery, due to a long line and then watching the glass blower, but it was something we hadn’t done yet so that was okay. Park opening was 8am this day and was already very busy and we did do some “line rides” but we weren’t in any hurry and I had already decided to just relax and enjoy the park. We then got Fastpasses for Space Mountain, but there was only a short wait so we went in the stand-by line first, then went right back on with our Fastpasses, the line having grown considerably in stand-by. So it was perfect timing. We also did Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hall of Presidents with the new George W addition, Carousel of Progress which I was surprised to see open, Tim and I did Splash Mountain (I think we got a Fastpass for this) while Dan went over to his favorite, Fontierland Shootin’ Arcade since he doesn’t like flume rides.

The main purpose of the day for me was to see Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade, which I quite enjoyed and we also saw the Celebrate the Season show, in front of the castle. We had dinner at Cosmic Ray’s after going over to see if we could get in at the Crystal Palace (Dan wanted to eat here) and decided $20 each was more than I wanted to spend. We had Dole Whips for dessert (Tim’s favorite attraction). Although the kids wanted to leave MK earlier, I managed to plan it so that we saw SpectroMagic before we left to catch a bus over to DTD where DH was waiting to meet us at Virgin.
 
Wow! What a drive. I don't think I could handle that.

Getting raedy to read part 2!
 
Where in Ontario are you? It took us about 20 hours to drive to Orlando, but we didn't stop along the way ;)

I enjoyed reading about your first day at MK. Thanks for taking the time to post this for us.

Katholyn
 
It's not such a bad drive as long as the weather and traffic are good, Annie&Hallie'sMom.

Katholyn, we live in Woodstock. It's about two twelve hour days including breaks if we do it with one night stop-over half-way. One the way down, it's easier if we can have a second stop if we have the time since DH usally does all the driving and finds it tiring after his stressful job. He's usually well rested enough for just one stop on the way home. Sorry I didn't get to meet you this past summer at the DIS meets. You missed us in Toronto and I was at WDW when the Niagara meet was planned.
 

Glad you got to see all the parades you wanted. Going over christmas must be a jinxer for Canadians. We also were stuck in an ice storm last year, but because we were driving straight through we just turned off the car and went to sleep.
 
Thanks for the report! Can't wait to check out the Premium Outlet myself!
 





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