The Sybah Shelstah
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2002
- Messages
- 456
Well here I go! Figure I better get around to posting a trip report before I forget everything... even with notes in my journal. LOL
Cast: me, myself, and I. In other words- I was alone on this trip.
33yr old SAHM to 3 children... 2nd trip EVER.. first trip being with the family just a few weeks before this trip. First trip staying onsite.. and flying so I don't have a vehicle while there. (meaning I was at the mercy of WDW transportation- but that did not cause a problem)
Day one is actually the 19th but all I did was fly to Orlando, take a Mears shuttle van to ASMu and check in- and then get settled in my room. Arrived around 11:30- in room around 1am. Didn't go to sleep until around 4am with a wake up call set at 6:30am. The only notable part of all of this is that I didn't get my request for a closer room (even with explaining my knee problems) and ended up in a far end side of Broadway 3rd floor.... which was really annoying the entire vacation. They offered to possibly be able to switch me after a few days when everyone was gone after MLK day- but I didn't really want to get settled in and then move everything again. I also didn't know THEY would move my luggage (which was considerable- I stayed 9 nights and didn't want to have to wash clothes while there- so I brought a lot.) or I might have taken them up on that offer.
They did not offer to take my luggage up to my room when I checked in- I had to lug it myself- so why would I KNOW that they would move my luggage for me if I moved rooms? I didn't know that at the time- so I declined that offer.
So we'll just pretend the first day was 1/20/03
I received my wake up call from Mickey!!!! at 6:30am. But since I had stayed up so late (mostly because the heat kicking on so loud over and over kept me up kinda late) I still just hung up the phone and overslept a bit until I woke up with my alarm clock going -still- and it was 8am! There goes extra magic hour.
I just got up quickly and got dressed and took my valuables to the front safe (which I had to do since when I checked in the safe in the room had no key. I had to call the front desk and they said they would replace a key for it the next day- and until then I'd have to bring my valuables to the front desk safe) and grabbed a quick breakfast at the food court (eggs/potatoes/and rock hard biscuit which I did not eat). Purchased the refillable mug at this time- but if I'd realized how little I would use it because of the long walk to the room, in hindsight I wouldn't have bought it.
It's off to grab the bus to Animal Kingdom. It was a short wait but an extremely long line. It kinda discouraged me at first thinking it was going to be that way my entire trip! Kind of a long walk to the front gate of AK from where they drop you off from the bus- but that might just be because I was already worn out from the walk from my room to where the bus picks us up. LOL
Let me preface this trip report that I intended on MAINLY just making sure I did things that we did not get to do on our last (and first ever) trip. Because that trip was with 3 young children -one in a stroller and doing parent swap on most of the rides- as well as it being the busiest week of the year... we didn't really do even half of all the parks in the 4 days we spent in WDW parks.
Some things I did that I had done before- but MOST of what I did/saw/etc was things we hadn't done in that trip.
Got in quickly- did Dinosaur twice (no wait), watched Tarzan Rocks (good seat and it was awesome), got pics and autographs of Pooh and Eeyore (for the kids ofcourse LOL), did Mahajeh (sp?) Jungle Trek (no animals to be seen except bats), Wildlife Express train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, then used the FP I had for Kilimanjaro Safari, did Pangani Forest Exploration trail (only saw a Gorilla), ate at Pizzafari (sandwich, very very very hard chips that I only ate two of and threw it away, and drink $9), & saw Festival of the Lion King (so sad the kids missed this on the last trip!).
All the rides were at MAX 20-25min wait or about 1hr on the FP if they were allowing FP's that day. I think this was the one day I saw the most FP available so it must have been busier that day. It WAS MLK day though.
About a 5min wait for the bus to come and it was full so I had to stand. (this didn't happen that often but I hated it when it did. I'm short and can't read the top rails or straps hanging down barely- so I have to hang on to the rails coming down and pray I don't lose my balance and fall on someone and crush them. )
Returned to resort in about 10min drive and the room was cleaned & key was in safe. (no animal towels or anything though)
I relaxed in the room for awhile -starting to plan that evening and the next day. Getting annoyed because the curtains won't stay closed all the way. LOL I wanted to call my husband and kids at this time but UGH, I'd forgotten my purse in the front desk safe which had my phone card in it- and it was entirely too long of a walk for me to go JUST to get that. Tried to call him collect (with my first .75 phone call charge) but no answer.
Went to wait for bus @5:20pm for DTD but it didn't arrive until shortly after 6pm!!! Short trip there though- about 10-15min?
Shopped World of Disney using my PAP discount -got the kids all lanyards with starter pins. (meaning some were duplicates so you could start trading) So I took off the duplicates and started trading them. At this time I had traded two of them- one for a USA flag mickey head type one. LOL
Called husband and kids on the pay phone. Miss them already!!!
Went to PI (free with PAP) and watched improv comedy club (it was so-so that first night. I didn't laugh but wasn't bored out of my mind either) but I enjoyed having a drink which I haven't done in so long I can't even remember (having children and no nights out without them will do that- plus the fact my youngest just weaned recently).
Went over to Adventurer's Club and had a great time there! Until when leaving I realized the USA Flag mickey pin was missing! But a quick run back to my seat found the pin- but the black back to the pin was gone. Wow, those sure come off easy and quick! I lost a few pins while there because of backs coming off (I wore some on my jacket and on the last days wore ALL the pins on an Epcot lanyard type drink holder thing I had bought) and sometimes just lost the black backs to the pins but noticed it before I lost the pins all together. I can see now I'm going to have children crying on our next trip when they wear the lanyards and lose pins all over the place. Why don't they stick better than that? *sigh*
(ps. purchased the refillable mug at Adventurer's Club because they said you get 6oz more in the mug for the same price- all over PI. I figured that was a great deal- so I bought it. This is key for what you will find out what *I* found out about this later on in the trip)
5-10min wait or so for the bus and "home" by 11:20pm. By this time I was pretty hungry but only one place was open in the food court- the pizza/pasta side ... I don't like pizza so I ordered chicken parmesan and spaghetti- that comes with a salad with the ickiest tasting dressing I've ever tasted in my life- so I didn't eat the salad. LOL It was $9.62 Didn't use refillable mug because I didn't have it with me and certainly wasn't going to walk all the way to the room and back to the foodcourt and then back to the room again just for that free drink- so I just bought a $1 12oz soda out of the machine near the elevators in my building. So much for the refillable mug so far. LOL
Showered, watched Tv and TRIED to get to sleep at a decent hour- but it was actually around 1am.
Boy I wonder if I'm going into too much detail here? LOL
All in all the first day was enjoyable. A little busier than I would have liked but it was a holiday and it was manageable because I was alone and doing what I wanted when I wanted. So I had a good time and missing the husband & kids hadn't exactly set in yet.
Off to the next day.....
Cast: me, myself, and I. In other words- I was alone on this trip.
33yr old SAHM to 3 children... 2nd trip EVER.. first trip being with the family just a few weeks before this trip. First trip staying onsite.. and flying so I don't have a vehicle while there. (meaning I was at the mercy of WDW transportation- but that did not cause a problem)Day one is actually the 19th but all I did was fly to Orlando, take a Mears shuttle van to ASMu and check in- and then get settled in my room. Arrived around 11:30- in room around 1am. Didn't go to sleep until around 4am with a wake up call set at 6:30am. The only notable part of all of this is that I didn't get my request for a closer room (even with explaining my knee problems) and ended up in a far end side of Broadway 3rd floor.... which was really annoying the entire vacation. They offered to possibly be able to switch me after a few days when everyone was gone after MLK day- but I didn't really want to get settled in and then move everything again. I also didn't know THEY would move my luggage (which was considerable- I stayed 9 nights and didn't want to have to wash clothes while there- so I brought a lot.) or I might have taken them up on that offer.
They did not offer to take my luggage up to my room when I checked in- I had to lug it myself- so why would I KNOW that they would move my luggage for me if I moved rooms? I didn't know that at the time- so I declined that offer.
So we'll just pretend the first day was 1/20/03
I received my wake up call from Mickey!!!! at 6:30am. But since I had stayed up so late (mostly because the heat kicking on so loud over and over kept me up kinda late) I still just hung up the phone and overslept a bit until I woke up with my alarm clock going -still- and it was 8am! There goes extra magic hour.
I just got up quickly and got dressed and took my valuables to the front safe (which I had to do since when I checked in the safe in the room had no key. I had to call the front desk and they said they would replace a key for it the next day- and until then I'd have to bring my valuables to the front desk safe) and grabbed a quick breakfast at the food court (eggs/potatoes/and rock hard biscuit which I did not eat). Purchased the refillable mug at this time- but if I'd realized how little I would use it because of the long walk to the room, in hindsight I wouldn't have bought it.
It's off to grab the bus to Animal Kingdom. It was a short wait but an extremely long line. It kinda discouraged me at first thinking it was going to be that way my entire trip! Kind of a long walk to the front gate of AK from where they drop you off from the bus- but that might just be because I was already worn out from the walk from my room to where the bus picks us up. LOL
Let me preface this trip report that I intended on MAINLY just making sure I did things that we did not get to do on our last (and first ever) trip. Because that trip was with 3 young children -one in a stroller and doing parent swap on most of the rides- as well as it being the busiest week of the year... we didn't really do even half of all the parks in the 4 days we spent in WDW parks.
Some things I did that I had done before- but MOST of what I did/saw/etc was things we hadn't done in that trip.
Got in quickly- did Dinosaur twice (no wait), watched Tarzan Rocks (good seat and it was awesome), got pics and autographs of Pooh and Eeyore (for the kids ofcourse LOL), did Mahajeh (sp?) Jungle Trek (no animals to be seen except bats), Wildlife Express train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, then used the FP I had for Kilimanjaro Safari, did Pangani Forest Exploration trail (only saw a Gorilla), ate at Pizzafari (sandwich, very very very hard chips that I only ate two of and threw it away, and drink $9), & saw Festival of the Lion King (so sad the kids missed this on the last trip!).
All the rides were at MAX 20-25min wait or about 1hr on the FP if they were allowing FP's that day. I think this was the one day I saw the most FP available so it must have been busier that day. It WAS MLK day though.
About a 5min wait for the bus to come and it was full so I had to stand. (this didn't happen that often but I hated it when it did. I'm short and can't read the top rails or straps hanging down barely- so I have to hang on to the rails coming down and pray I don't lose my balance and fall on someone and crush them.
)Returned to resort in about 10min drive and the room was cleaned & key was in safe. (no animal towels or anything though)
I relaxed in the room for awhile -starting to plan that evening and the next day. Getting annoyed because the curtains won't stay closed all the way. LOL I wanted to call my husband and kids at this time but UGH, I'd forgotten my purse in the front desk safe which had my phone card in it- and it was entirely too long of a walk for me to go JUST to get that. Tried to call him collect (with my first .75 phone call charge) but no answer.
Went to wait for bus @5:20pm for DTD but it didn't arrive until shortly after 6pm!!!
Short trip there though- about 10-15min? Shopped World of Disney using my PAP discount -got the kids all lanyards with starter pins. (meaning some were duplicates so you could start trading) So I took off the duplicates and started trading them. At this time I had traded two of them- one for a USA flag mickey head type one. LOL
Called husband and kids on the pay phone. Miss them already!!!
Went to PI (free with PAP) and watched improv comedy club (it was so-so that first night. I didn't laugh but wasn't bored out of my mind either) but I enjoyed having a drink which I haven't done in so long I can't even remember (having children and no nights out without them will do that- plus the fact my youngest just weaned recently).
Went over to Adventurer's Club and had a great time there! Until when leaving I realized the USA Flag mickey pin was missing! But a quick run back to my seat found the pin- but the black back to the pin was gone. Wow, those sure come off easy and quick! I lost a few pins while there because of backs coming off (I wore some on my jacket and on the last days wore ALL the pins on an Epcot lanyard type drink holder thing I had bought) and sometimes just lost the black backs to the pins but noticed it before I lost the pins all together. I can see now I'm going to have children crying on our next trip when they wear the lanyards and lose pins all over the place. Why don't they stick better than that? *sigh*
(ps. purchased the refillable mug at Adventurer's Club because they said you get 6oz more in the mug for the same price- all over PI. I figured that was a great deal- so I bought it. This is key for what you will find out what *I* found out about this later on in the trip)
5-10min wait or so for the bus and "home" by 11:20pm. By this time I was pretty hungry but only one place was open in the food court- the pizza/pasta side ... I don't like pizza so I ordered chicken parmesan and spaghetti- that comes with a salad with the ickiest tasting dressing I've ever tasted in my life- so I didn't eat the salad. LOL It was $9.62 Didn't use refillable mug because I didn't have it with me and certainly wasn't going to walk all the way to the room and back to the foodcourt and then back to the room again just for that free drink- so I just bought a $1 12oz soda out of the machine near the elevators in my building. So much for the refillable mug so far. LOL
Showered, watched Tv and TRIED to get to sleep at a decent hour- but it was actually around 1am.
Boy I wonder if I'm going into too much detail here? LOL
All in all the first day was enjoyable. A little busier than I would have liked but it was a holiday and it was manageable because I was alone and doing what I wanted when I wanted. So I had a good time and missing the husband & kids hadn't exactly set in yet.
Off to the next day.....
. Just a mom thing, we love em sooooooooo much.
