She's Headed to High School, a June 2024 WL Trip Report: Post Trip DL Update 10/11

[GrandCalifornian]

Here! Anxious to read about your latest trip!

Thanks, we can’t wait to share. We’ll post the first day later today once we get then pictures added.

Looking forward to reading along! How is Allison ready for high school????

Thanks! We can’t believe she’s that old either. She says it’s ok, she’s not actually ready for high school.

Following! Love your past trip reports.

Thanks, we’re glad you’re back again. We fixed the pictures from some of the earlier trips that had broken links, but they are working again don’t is fun to go back and see how little the kids were. We’ll put some old pics in this one for comparison as we get to them.

Yes, you fixed the link. It was originally going to your pre-trip report from last year, but now it goes to this year's.

Yeah, I kept trying to fix it but it it didn’t want to cooperate. It should be good now, thanks for checking our work.

 

[summerlvr]

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Looking forward to reading more!

Great, now's the time because we have an update ready. We hope you enjoy it.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Let's get this started. On our departure day, we got up bright and early at 1:00 AM because we had a 6:00 flight out of LAX.

We'll get into our airfare details now, because it was a unique part of this year's trip.

It was not bright, it was too early to be bright.

That is true, but we wanted to have extra time to get the house and beds ready for the housesitters, who were taking care of our dogs, chickens, and rabbit while we were gone.

Timing acutally worked out fantastic but it was still really early. While flying out of LAX is not our ideal we’ve done it several times.

It has the most nonstop options, but is a big airport and we have had parking issues there before, like when we were flying to Hawaii and the parking lot we had pre-paid for a space in was closed for construction.

That was a nightmare and super stressful. Last year we flew out of San Diego and it was a great experience. We actually wanted a repeat this year but we waited a little long to purchase air fare and for some odd reason the flights we wanted were incredibly expensive.

Melissa made the comment that for that much money we could fly first class, so the shopping began. We looked at different airports, airlines, layovers, and everything we could think of to find a better fare, and that's exactly what she found.

You guys, trying to convince this guy that this was something we should do was not easy. After looking at all kinds of options, we have 6 airports that we can choose from to fly out of so there are a ton of flights, I found THE flight at a great price all first class, but, it was out of LAX.

It had a layover in Charlotte on the way there, and a nonstop flight home all at good times, and it was comparable in price to the San Diego nonstops in Coach. The clincher though turned out to be that the first leg of the flight was scheduled to be in a 777, which has lie flat pod seating in first class. This sounded particularly interesting to me, since my only other experience with a widebody Jet was a 14 hour Air India flight with way too many seats packed in a row.

It was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. So in the frozen food section of Costco Paul pulled the trigger and booked the airfare.

The one problem remaining was that we had to find a way to deal with LAX parking, so we found a new and unique solution to that.

We pre-paid for valet parking. It actually ended up being less than we’ve paid for parking in the past and ironically was in the same parking structure that was closed the last time we tried to park there.

Anyway, so we got up stupid early, loaded up all of our bags, kissed the puppies goodbye and made the early morning drive into LA.

The 6AM flight time worked so great because we were ahead of the bulk of the weekday LA traffic. We left our house at 2:30 AM and the GPS showed a 3:37 arrival time, which held constant all the way there.

A couple of hours later the same drive easily could have taken twice as long.

So Cal traffic is no joke especially in and out of LA. We pulled into the P4 parking garage and they literally have red carpet rolled out in the valet area. It was amazing.

They were sitting there waiting and it was so close to the terminal. Definitely the best parking arrival experience ever. We had a short walk across the bridge to drop our bags and we were on our way.

We all have TSA pre so we were headed over to that line but apparently it doesn’t open until 4:30am.

We were still really early for our flight but it was the least stressful airport morning we’ve ever had. Between the lack of traffic, easy parking, and first class check everything had gone so smooth so far that not having the TSA pre line open wasn’t that big of a deal.

We got to our gate just after 4AM and found a good seat.

After leaving Melissa with the bags we went in search of food.

Dunkin wasn't open yet, so we took the walk to Starbucks in the International terminal. Melissa pre-ordered drinks and breakfast, which I picked up at 4:41.

We enjoyed our breakfast and watched the terminal fill up. It was a full flight on a big plane so there were a ton of people.

People watching in LA is different, as there are always a bunch of characters to see. I picked up a DIet Coke to top off my breakfast, and before long they announced that they would be starting the boarding process, and that meant it was our time.

We boarded with group 1 which was awesome.

The seats on this plane are just next level. They are HUGE and each one gets it’s own overhead bin. You have your own storage and giant in flight entertainment screen, even complementary earbuds.

One oddity was that the rows were skewed, so that the window seats were behind the middle ones, so that even though we had a whole row, the kids were quote isolated being somewhat behind us as Melissa and I had the middle seats, which had a big table area between them.

The kids did great though and were super independent. We were offered water and orange juice before take off.

Once we were in the air we had our choice of beverages, and we got the breakfast that we had pre-ordered, which was Smoked Salmon with a bagel, cream cheese, and a bunch of other tasty treats to go with it.

It was AMAZING. I don’t know why it tasted so good but it was delicious.

I wasn't super excited about it, but it was all really good. We got Diet Cokes with real glasses and the whole can to go with it. Sometimes it is the little things.

The real glass was nice, I had a ginger ale and a Diet Coke during the flight.

The size of the seats was just incredible. There was a big screen in front of each of us, with a sliding table behind it and a big table area off to the side. I played with the reclining seat to see that I could actually have it all the way flat (without affecting anyone else) but I didn't want to waste any time on the flight by being asleep.

Others had no problem with it and were snoring right away.

Allie took advantage of the lie flat seat and took a two hour nap.

Marshall said he never touched his seat controls, he was busy watching a Harry Potter movie. I was able to comfortably get my ipad out and get a little work done. It just was a very relaxing flying experience.

We did buy the internet, and I watched the flight's progress and caught up on some DISBoard threads. Check out the rest of our arrival day travel in the next update.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Then you got the Starbucks breakfast because you thought you wouldn't like the breakfast on the plane?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Then you got the Starbucks breakfast because you thought you wouldn't like the breakfast on the plane?

We were ready for some food and still had over an hour till boarding. I was not going to rely on the plane food, and didn't want to get hangry. We didn't eat anything before we left the house, so it was time for something.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

When we left off, we were crossing the country from LAX to Charlotte in these amazing giant Pod seats.

I also brought up a Charlotte airport map so I knew where we had to go since we only had an hour layover.

Our Charlotte layover was tight but we had enough time to get from one terminal to the other with no problem and we had 10 minutes to spare before boarding started for our next flight.

It was my first time in Charlotte, so Marshall and I checked out one of the gift shops and got checkered flag flashlights as a little bit of a souvenier from the home of NASCAR.

That was all we had time for though because boarding started as soon as we got back to the girls.

We again boarded with group 1 and got all settled early.

We didn’t have a meal on this flight but were offered a choice of snacks and drinks. It was a pretty short hop to MCO though.

We did get drinks before takeoff which was pretty cool. It was a quick flight and we could see the coastline as we flew South. I hoped to find a room number out but had to wait until shortly after we landed.

He was so excited when he got the number though.

Yes, shortly after landing, after we got the first text saying our room wasn't ready yet but before we made it to the gate we got the number of 5107. That meant we were almost open to the lobby, with an inner courtyard view just around the corner from last year.

It was nice to know when we got to the resort our room would be ready for us but we still had to collect our luggage and aquire our rental car.

We beat our bags to the baggage claim, and watched them deal with bags getting clogged on the belt for a bit before they switched our carousel and we got our bags soon after.

Then all that was left was a quick walk over to ground transportation. I had checked in for the rental car through Alamo, and we went straight to the garage.

For the second year in a row we rented a Jeep. It’s a fun car and just barely big enough for all of our crap. It was a tetris game to get everything to fit but we did it.

While this year's Jeep was black again, it turned out to be an almost new Rubicon Hybrid. It was a nice Jeep, and would be so much fun to have to have for the week. Once the bags were packed, we set the GPS for a Target. This time we went South first and then West, kind of like the DME buses used to. We stopped at a Super Target that was really big.

Allie described it as like a mall but Target. We just don’t have a Target that big around us. We picked up a case of water and some breakfast things, along with an icepack for Allie’s face that she sunburned at the beach the day before on a school trip.

Oh yes, the dreaded sunburn. We sent her with a ton of sunscreen which she apparently failed to use. We also picked up some donuts and canteloupe for breakfast in the room. Allie and Marshall were lobbying to get into "the bubble" as quickly as possible and did not want to stop for dinner.

We headed toward Disney and were in the bubble fairly quickly. We pulled into the Lodge at 6:30pm and it felt so good to be back.

Paul dropped the kids and me at the door while he went to go park the car. We were nice though and waited for him to get there before we went inside.

It was a nice early arrival for us and it is always wonderful to step into that lobby.

We went straight up to our room and dropped off our luggage.

We were impressed at the view from the balcony despite the fact it didn't face directly towards Bay Lake. There was still a water view, and we could even see the Geyser.

A very cool new thing we found in the room was an Amazon Echo Show. We have these all over our house so we’re very familiar with them but this one is all Disneyfied.

We were able to order the extra pillows and bedding for Marshall’s air mattress with it before we went down for dinner.

We had heard about them but this was our first time having one.

It worked really well, since the stuff we ordered was in the room by the time we got back from dinner.

We pretty much just dropped everything and headed down to Roarin Fork for dinner. We were hungry so we didn’t waste any time.

Everyone picked up a refillable mug and I ordered the BBQ with burnt ends and brisket. It is always delicious and my favorite thing there right now.

I went with the Bacon Cheeseburger just to give it a try, despite knowing that it probably wouldn't be exceptional. I still ordered it for the sake of research.

Allie got a grilled cheese which was really good, and tomato soup. Marshall went with his favorite, Mac and Cheese.

We also got a magic cookie bar and a pecan cinnamon roll for dessert.

I love magic cookie bars. I’m gonna have to figure out how to make them at home.

I was impressed at how good the cookie bar was being fresh, since usually I wind up eating one that's been in the room a couple of days. It was really good, and is my favorite resort dessert.

After dinner we hit the Mercantile. We were excited to get started with shopping early.

We love the Mercantile, and the first visit of the trip is always great. We got the 30th anniversary lodge pin, and I got the new blue WL T shirt since they had my size. Melissa got a new corksicle mug too.

Marshall decided at this point he wanted to do pin trading on this trip. It would have been nice if he made this decision before we left home so we could bring his sisters old pins. We told him we would get him something in the morning so we could make sure that he was serious.

We then went up to the room and unpacked all of the suitcases. It really is nice to move into the room and not deal with suitcases for five days. We had everything unpacked by 8:45.

It is nice, we have a great system that has been perfected at this point.

Marshall and I headed down to Geyser Point to catch the fireworks, but the girls stayed in the room. We got a mug refill and watched the show, which was a neat way to kick off the trip.

The fireworks were followed by the EWP, which we caught part of before heading up to the room.

I don’t know how they had that much energy. I was exhausted after such a long day. I put my jammies on and was in bed by the time they got back.

We were in bed by 10PM, which set us up well to get onto Florida time.

Up Next, Magic Kingdom, do we make rope drop? Do we get in a Tron boarding group? Stay tuned as the fun gets started!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Roaring Fork is more unique than Portillo's (being a chain restaurant), so it's kind of nice where you ended up getting dinner.

Do you prefer the views from the rooms closer to the lobby than the rooms out on the end by the lake? Or is it more that you like the convenience of being near the lobby?

Super fun to watch the fireworks and (part of) EWP on your arrival night.

It looks like Allie's boba tea stuffed toy wasn't there this time?

Looking forward to your next update.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The 6AM flight time worked so great because we were ahead of the bulk of the weekday LA traffic.

We have now experienced LA traffic. It is always best to try to avoid rush hour. But we noticed a big difference between LA traffic and our traffic in the Chicago area. We have tons of semi-trucks here and it seemed as if LA did not have nearly as many trucks as we have. But LA traffic is something we wished we could have avoided.

They were sitting there waiting and it was so close to the terminal. Definitely the best parking arrival experience ever. We had a short walk across the bridge to drop our bags and we were on our way.

It looks like the 1am wakeup call was worth it.

Allie took advantage of the lie flat seat and took a two hour nap.

I would have taken a nap, too. How long was the flight to Charlotte?

Our Charlotte layover was tight but we had enough time to get from one terminal to the other with no problem and we had 10 minutes to spare before boarding started for our next flight.

That was lucky. I don't like layovers.

along with an icepack for Allie’s face that she sunburned at the beach the day before on a school trip.

Poor Allie! The worst sunburn I ever had was from my eighth-grade trip to the beach. It must be a rite of passage.

We were impressed at the view from the balcony despite the fact it didn't face directly towards Bay Lake. There was still a water view, and we could even see the Geyser.

You had a great view, again.

I love magic cookie bars. I’m gonna have to figure out how to make them at home.

Magic cookie bars are my favorite Disney dessert. I have seen a recipe for them. They have a lot of ingredients that I don't usually buy, like butterscotch chips.

It is nice, we have a great system that has been perfected at this point.

Marshall and I headed down to Geyser Point to catch the fireworks, but the girls stayed in the room. We got a mug refill and watched the show, which was a neat way to kick off the trip.

This is everything that I love about WL.

 

[AliceNDinah]

Sighhhh......it's just perfect so far. You definitely have me itching to get back there! Tell me, do you try for a trip every year? So jealous, lolololol. What a great start, can't wait to read about MK---my favorite park! I'll put my money on that you DO rope drop AND get a Tron boarding group

 

[jump00]

Enjoying your trip report! Great pics Love the First class photos. Looks so comfortable.
Brenda

 

[Paulaparm]

Beautiful view!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Roaring Fork is more unique than Portillo's (being a chain restaurant), so it's kind of nice where you ended up getting dinner.

Yes, it was nice to be early enough and have eaten so that we could make to the resort for food. Until last trip Roaring Fork was always our go-to arrival meal and it sets the mood so well.

Do you prefer the views from the rooms closer to the lobby than the rooms out on the end by the lake? Or is it more that you like the convenience of being near the lobby?

For us it is both. I love the view from the balcony, but also the view into the lobby from the “bear face” rooms like we had last year. The short walk to the elevator is awesome too.

Super fun to watch the fireworks and (part of) EWP on your arrival night.

It was a great “Welcome Home” to the lodge.

It looks like Allie's boba tea stuffed toy wasn't there this time?

That’s true. Only the Nuimos came this time, but she still has the boba.

Looking forward to your next update.

Great, so are we.

We have now experienced LA traffic. It is always best to try to avoid rush hour. But we noticed a big difference between LA traffic and our traffic in the Chicago area. We have tons of semi-trucks here and it seemed as if LA did not have nearly as many trucks as we have. But LA traffic is something we wished we could have avoided.

Yeah traffic is bad anywhere. Here the trucks seem to do a better job of avoiding it.

It looks like the 1am wakeup call was worth it.

Yes it was definitely worth it.

I would have taken a nap, too. How long was the flight to Charlotte?

It was just over four hours, so plenty of time to eat and sleep.

That was lucky. I don't like layovers.

Nor do we, but it was a necessity to make the first class trip economical. Fortunately it worked out well.

Poor Allie! The worst sunburn I ever had was from my eighth-grade trip to the beach. It must be a rite of passage.

Melissa has similar memories as well. Welcome to High School.

You had a great view, again.

Yes we did. Our go-to request is high floor near lobby, and it worked out again.

Magic cookie bars are my favorite Disney dessert. I have seen a recipe for them. They have a lot of ingredients that I don't usually buy, like butterscotch chips.

Yes we have seen one too, and will track down what we need to make it happen.

This is everything that I love about WL.

It is a wonderful place.

Sighhhh......it's just perfect so far. You definitely have me itching to get back there! Tell me, do you try for a trip every year? So jealous, lolololol. What a great start, can't wait to read about MK---my favorite park! I'll put my money on that you DO rope drop AND get a Tron boarding group

It was great, but not everything goes as planned. We do try for a trip every year, but it is never a given. Having DVC really helps since that we know we will be back, it’s just a matter of when.
We love MK as well, but for this time don’t put too much money on that, since one out of two isn’t too bad…

Enjoying your trip report! Great pics Love the First class photos. Looks so comfortable.
Brenda

Welcome and thanks. The first class flights were a new experience, and so fun to share. It was the most relaxing travel we have ever done.

Beautiful view!

Yes it really was. All rooms at the lodge are nice, but this view really was great, even better than we expected for the location.

 

[pinkxray]

Joining in. I always get great ideas for our trips from your trip reports.

We love Copper Creek too! We own at VGF but have stayed at CC 2/3 of our last trip and are booked there for marathon weekend this year. Can’t wait to be back.

Magic cookies bars are awesome. You should definitely make your own. I make them every Christmas since my mom made them every holiday growing up. Homemade ones are much better than Disney’s which are pretty good too. They are super easy to make. Buy ingredients, dump in pan in layers, bake and eat.

Our kids our still in elementary school so we are doing Nov or Dec trips and pulling them from school. Not looking forward to having to switch those trips to June in a few years, but happy to see it works for you. June trips are better than no trips.

Looking forward to the rest.

 

[rdkeim]

Good start! 1:00 wake up though - ugh. But not so bad when you're headed to Disney. Those 1st class seats would be my DH's dream come true. Next time we have a long flight I'll see what I can find - it would be a fun surprise. Great view at WL! Anxious to read about Day #1!

 

[Zdog]

Following!! My wife and I head to WL next month and cannot wait. First time visiting WDW w/o our kids. Very excited. And simply love the WL anniversary pin. Adding to the list of things I must purchase where there. Thanks for sharing your story!!

To note, I've edited my original entry to add this: enjoy the time at Disney w/your kids (as I'm certain you did/will). My wife and I are huge Disney fans and are returning to Orlando this summer for the first time in a decade. Last summer we went to Disneyland with friends but it made us miss the Florida parks even more. In our younger years we traveled as a family (two kids) and loved WL having stayed there many times. Going without kids is different (and in many ways wonderful and at times slightly melancholy in a Cats in the Cradle kind of way). Savor these moments as they are to be cherished.

 

[Woth2982]

Joining in! I got to fly one time first class on a 777. It WOULD have been a dream, BUT I Had my FOMO 15 month old child with me. She slept a grand total of 20 minutes on a 6 hour flight (she normally took two 2 hour naps at this point in life). With 2021 Pandemic pricing I got the round trip tickets for less than a one way. While I would love pandemic pricing to come back, I never want to live through that again. I would have been just like Allie otherwise, laying down for a lovely 2 hour nap!

Your view in WL is fantastic! It is such a homey feel there. Cant wait to read more!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in. We have a small airport in our town and have to drive at least two hours to get to one that has decent priced flights so we always drive. Having said that, our daughter is going to be flying down to meet us during our November trip and a potential connecting flight is in Charlotte. However, the layover is a little less than an hour which makes us nervous about booking it.

It is great that you were able to leave early enough not to have to deal with the LA traffic. I hate driving in heavy traffic and can only imagine how bad it is in someplace like LA.

Glad that you guys made it safe and sound!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Joining in. I always get great ideas for our trips from your trip reports.

That makes us so happy. We are glad that people enjoy following, and even more glad when they follow our lead.

We love Copper Creek too! We own at VGF but have stayed at CC 2/3 of our last trip and are booked there for marathon weekend this year. Can’t wait to be back.

We really love WL and Copper Creek. It is our favorite.

Magic cookies bars are awesome. You should definitely make your own. I make them every Christmas since my mom made them every holiday growing up. Homemade ones are much better than Disney’s which are pretty good too. They are super easy to make. Buy ingredients, dump in pan in layers, bake and eat.

This is on our short term to do list.

Our kids our still in elementary school so we are doing Nov or Dec trips and pulling them from school. Not looking forward to having to switch those trips to June in a few years, but happy to see it works for you. June trips are better than no trips.

Looking forward to the rest.

Yeah, we enjoyed September and January trips and taking Allie out of school to get lower crowds, but now we are realizing that June is probably our best family option for a few years to come. June trips are better than no trips, as long as you get a chance to cool off…

Good start! 1:00 wake up though - ugh. But not so bad when you're headed to Disney. Those 1st class seats would be my DH's dream come true. Next time we have a long flight I'll see what I can find - it would be a fun surprise. Great view at WL! Anxious to read about Day #1!

Getting up early for that flight to Disney was great. It is the best reason to get up early.

Following!! My wife and I head to WL next month and cannot wait. First time visiting WDW w/o our kids. Very excited. And simply love the WL anniversary pin. Adding to the list of things I must purchase where there. Thanks for sharing your story!!

To note, I've edited my original entry to add this: enjoy the time at Disney w/your kids (as I'm certain you did/will). My wife and I are huge Disney fans and are returning to Orlando this summer for the first time in a decade. Last summer we went to Disneyland with friends but it made us miss the Florida parks even more. In our younger years we traveled as a family (two kids) and loved WL having stayed there many times. Going without kids is different (and in many ways wonderful and at times slightly melancholy in a Cats in the Cradle kind of way). Savor these moments as they are to be cherished.

Thank you so much for your heartfelt comment. We can’t believe how quickly the last 12 years have gone, and know the next few will go even quicker and then we will just have the great memories. (Which is a part of why we love documenting our trips so well.). When deciding what to do for future years and whether to make a Disney trip, we are very aware that there are only a finite number of these trips left and they will definitely be cherished.

Joining in! I got to fly one time first class on a 777. It WOULD have been a dream, BUT I Had my FOMO 15 month old child with me. She slept a grand total of 20 minutes on a 6 hour flight (she normally took two 2 hour naps at this point in life). With 2021 Pandemic pricing I got the round trip tickets for less than a one way. While I would love pandemic pricing to come back, I never want to live through that again. I would have been just like Allie otherwise, laying down for a lovely 2 hour nap!

Your view in WL is fantastic! It is such a homey feel there. Cant wait to read more!

That does not sound like an ideal flight experience at all. We were not sure at all about how well Marshall would take it, and if he were any younger it would not have gone well.

Joining in. We have a small airport in our town and have to drive at least two hours to get to one that has decent priced flights so we always drive. Having said that, our daughter is going to be flying down to meet us during our November trip and a potential connecting flight is in Charlotte. However, the layover is a little less than an hour which makes us nervous about booking it.

It is great that you were able to leave early enough not to have to deal with the LA traffic. I hate driving in heavy traffic and can only imagine how bad it is in someplace like LA.

Glad that you guys made it safe and sound!

We are fortunate to have many airport choices within a few hours of us, but yes we often do wind up driving quite a ways to get a decent price and a chance at a nonstop flight. Whatever it takes to get to Disney.

 

[storey13]

Following along! Great room location for your vacation. We stayed at Beach Club last October and honestly didn't care for the room layout of the 2 bedroom villas (too many doors around the bathroom area), so most likely our next trip will be back to Copper Creek or maybe try the updated Boulder Ridge. I haven't tried the updated menu at Roaring Fork but the Burnt Ends and Brisket is right down my alley. I did stop by the Mercantile on our last trip and got a blue Wilderness Lodge t-shirt. Sounds like maybe you got the same one. Love reading your reports every year and it helps me overcome my Disney withdrawal.