RLGNC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2009
- Messages
- 532
INTROS AND TRAVEL DAY!
Hello! And welcome to my first trip report!
I don't know if admitting it's my first trip report is a help or a hindrance to the number of readers I will get, but I can say that I did quite a bit of binge reading of reports here before our trip, so hopefully I got the gist of it and can provide some fun reading.
My name is Becky and I'm from North Carolina. The traveling crew consists of my husband, James, our 18-year-old son, Alex, 14-year-old daughter, Emily, and myself. This is our 6th trip to Disneyworld, the first one being in 2007. We all love
Disney and were eagerly anticipating this trip. Here's a picture of us from this trip. I decided to purchase Memory Maker again this trip and was glad I did. We got Photopass pictures in many locations that we hadn't before, and we absolutely love the ride photos and Magic shots (well, I think I'm the only one who loves the Magic shots, but the others are kind enough to play along).
Our trip was from July 15 - July 21, staying at the Dolphin. Our previous stays have been off-site (twice), Pop Century, and Port Orleans Riverside (twice). We really love POR, but we wanted to try something different AND if possible we wanted to get 2 rooms because with the kids getting older we feel a little cramped in one room for a week. Alex is a light sleeper and gets aggravated at my husband's snoring (so do I but I guess I have to put up with it
) and Emily, well she's a teenage girl and needs her bathroom time in the morning (and afternoon and night) and since it takes Alex all of 3 minutes to get ready to go anywhere, she pretty much had a bathroom to herself.
So, I was able to get a pretty good rate on 2 rooms at the Dolphin through Costco. Yes, Costco! Crazy, huh? It was 6 nights with two resort-view rooms, and 5 day park hoppers. I was really looking forward to being in the Epcot resort area for the first time.
TRAVEL DAY, PART 1
Our flight on July 15 was scheduled to leave Raleigh/Durham at around 8:00 a.m. so we planned to leave the house no later than 6:00. This was potentially difficult as we are not historically early risers, but we managed to get out the door just a few minutes after 6. Arriving at the airport we were planning to park in the remote parking area and take the shuttle to the terminal, but at the last minute we decided to park in the lot right beside the terminal, even though it cost twice as much per day. This would prove to be a great decision. When we made it inside the terminal, the line for baggage check was really long. We don't travel by plane much, but my husband had recently gone on a business trip and knew that if we didn't check our bags at least 45 minutes before departure time, we would have to check them at the gate, which meant taking the bags through security, which meant dumping any liquids over the approved amount (i.e., the majority of my daughter's and my toiletries). (Alex, by the way, had nothing to worry about as he managed to pack 6 days worth of clothes and his laptop into one backpack that he carried on the plane.) We got in line and nervously watched the time ticking away, with James nervously debating (and driving us crazy) the whole time whether we should move to curbside check-in (although that line kept getting longer with every passing minute too). We finally made it to the front of the line. My husband asked the lady behind the counter how much time we had to spare and she said 1 minute.
Yes, one minute later and our first stop in Orlando would have been to Walgreen's for more face cleanser and toner. Luckily we avoided that little detour.
Next we made our way to security, thinking we were home free now that our bags were safely on their way to the bottom of the plane. We got through security smoothly and started making our way to the gate. After just a few steps we heard the final boarding call for our flight!
So we started running towards the gate. Luckily it wasn't too far down and as we got to the already empty waiting area, the check-in guy asked if we were the Green party. I replied yes and asked if they were waiting for us. He said yes, but that in 5 more minutes they would have left us. 
We were really squeaking in under the wire today!
We boarded the plane, sheepishly found our seats and got comfy. As I mentioned, we don't fly much and neither Alex nor Emily are big fans of flying, so we were glad it was going to be a relatively short flight. After about 1.5 hours, we were descending into Orlando. Emily got this great picture of our first hidden Mickey.
Isn't that cool?
On our way to get our baggage, we made a quick stop for our first Disney pictures.
(Sorry so blurry, James took that one.
)
Of course the one I took of him is clear as a bell.
After baggage claim it was time to pick up our rental car. Before we decided on the Dolphin we were toying with the idea of take DME from the airport for the first time (we usually rent a car at the airport), but DME is not available for Dolphin guests, unfortunately, so off to Budget we went. We hopped in our lovely red Hyundai Elantra and were on our way to the Disney Bubble!
Next up: Arrival at the Dolphin. Are there any upgrades in our future?!?
Hello! And welcome to my first trip report!
I don't know if admitting it's my first trip report is a help or a hindrance to the number of readers I will get, but I can say that I did quite a bit of binge reading of reports here before our trip, so hopefully I got the gist of it and can provide some fun reading.
My name is Becky and I'm from North Carolina. The traveling crew consists of my husband, James, our 18-year-old son, Alex, 14-year-old daughter, Emily, and myself. This is our 6th trip to Disneyworld, the first one being in 2007. We all love
Disney and were eagerly anticipating this trip. Here's a picture of us from this trip. I decided to purchase Memory Maker again this trip and was glad I did. We got Photopass pictures in many locations that we hadn't before, and we absolutely love the ride photos and Magic shots (well, I think I'm the only one who loves the Magic shots, but the others are kind enough to play along). Our trip was from July 15 - July 21, staying at the Dolphin. Our previous stays have been off-site (twice), Pop Century, and Port Orleans Riverside (twice). We really love POR, but we wanted to try something different AND if possible we wanted to get 2 rooms because with the kids getting older we feel a little cramped in one room for a week. Alex is a light sleeper and gets aggravated at my husband's snoring (so do I but I guess I have to put up with it
) and Emily, well she's a teenage girl and needs her bathroom time in the morning (and afternoon and night) and since it takes Alex all of 3 minutes to get ready to go anywhere, she pretty much had a bathroom to herself.So, I was able to get a pretty good rate on 2 rooms at the Dolphin through Costco. Yes, Costco! Crazy, huh? It was 6 nights with two resort-view rooms, and 5 day park hoppers. I was really looking forward to being in the Epcot resort area for the first time.
TRAVEL DAY, PART 1
Our flight on July 15 was scheduled to leave Raleigh/Durham at around 8:00 a.m. so we planned to leave the house no later than 6:00. This was potentially difficult as we are not historically early risers, but we managed to get out the door just a few minutes after 6. Arriving at the airport we were planning to park in the remote parking area and take the shuttle to the terminal, but at the last minute we decided to park in the lot right beside the terminal, even though it cost twice as much per day. This would prove to be a great decision. When we made it inside the terminal, the line for baggage check was really long. We don't travel by plane much, but my husband had recently gone on a business trip and knew that if we didn't check our bags at least 45 minutes before departure time, we would have to check them at the gate, which meant taking the bags through security, which meant dumping any liquids over the approved amount (i.e., the majority of my daughter's and my toiletries). (Alex, by the way, had nothing to worry about as he managed to pack 6 days worth of clothes and his laptop into one backpack that he carried on the plane.) We got in line and nervously watched the time ticking away, with James nervously debating (and driving us crazy) the whole time whether we should move to curbside check-in (although that line kept getting longer with every passing minute too). We finally made it to the front of the line. My husband asked the lady behind the counter how much time we had to spare and she said 1 minute.
Yes, one minute later and our first stop in Orlando would have been to Walgreen's for more face cleanser and toner. Luckily we avoided that little detour.Next we made our way to security, thinking we were home free now that our bags were safely on their way to the bottom of the plane. We got through security smoothly and started making our way to the gate. After just a few steps we heard the final boarding call for our flight!
So we started running towards the gate. Luckily it wasn't too far down and as we got to the already empty waiting area, the check-in guy asked if we were the Green party. I replied yes and asked if they were waiting for us. He said yes, but that in 5 more minutes they would have left us. We were really squeaking in under the wire today! We boarded the plane, sheepishly found our seats and got comfy. As I mentioned, we don't fly much and neither Alex nor Emily are big fans of flying, so we were glad it was going to be a relatively short flight. After about 1.5 hours, we were descending into Orlando. Emily got this great picture of our first hidden Mickey.
Isn't that cool?
On our way to get our baggage, we made a quick stop for our first Disney pictures.
(Sorry so blurry, James took that one.
) Of course the one I took of him is clear as a bell.
After baggage claim it was time to pick up our rental car. Before we decided on the Dolphin we were toying with the idea of take DME from the airport for the first time (we usually rent a car at the airport), but DME is not available for Dolphin guests, unfortunately, so off to Budget we went. We hopped in our lovely red Hyundai Elantra and were on our way to the Disney Bubble!
Next up: Arrival at the Dolphin. Are there any upgrades in our future?!?
Thanks for joining in!
Thanks so much for joining in! 
Sometimes ignorance is bliss! 
We'll take it! I was a little concerned at first about not having adjoining rooms, but Alex and Emily's was just a quick walk to the other side of the elevator from our room, and it ended up being fine. Plus they were able to give us all keys to both rooms.
When they left on Thursday we could definitely tell the difference and the guests noticeably turned over from conference-goers to Disney-goers.
But we relaxed in the water for a bit (Alex and I tried the slide), James had a beer, and Alex had a virgin pina colada slushie (his 1st of at least 5 slushies on this trip).
Emily wishes now that she had bought those rose gold ones. They do look good on her!
It was a very nice way to end the day, though!
