DianaPrincessofWales
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2003
- Messages
- 1,314
Our trip dates were Nov 12th - 18th
Cast:
Mom - planner, vacation lover! I turned 40 and this is my gift to myself. I didn't really need a reason to plan another Florida vacation, but it sounds good, doesn't it?
Devon - 13 year old son. He turned 13 the same month as I turned 40 so we will celebrate together and hopefully make some great memories! In a year or so he will not want to be seen with me. I will take full advantage of his naivity and he will take advantage of my wallet. OK fair enough!
Hubby and 2 younger daughters had to stay at home, they will have their turn when they are older and my husband isn't quite the Disney nut I am anyway.
Day 1- Our first day starts off early. I woke up at 4 am. About an hour before the alarm. So exited and so exhausted! Oh well, I'm going to Disney World!! Girls will get on the bus alone. DH will take us to the airport then to work. This worked out really well. I wanted to make everything easy for him. I even loaded the fridge and freezer with food so he wouldn't have to cook. The girls really appreciated this!
Security did a very thorough job at the airport. We got free Frequent Flyer tickets through NWA, so today will be airport hopping day. From Duluth MN to Minneapolis to Indianapolis and then finally to Orlando. It did seem to waste a day traveling but it was free and this is a budget trip.
Really our only goals today were arrival and a nice dinner. Mission accomplished! Arrived in the dark which I wasn't thrilled about because I had to drive. Dollar Fast Lane was great, again I can't believe more people don't use this. No waiting versus waiting 20 deep. Yuck! Off we were on our brand new Dodge Stratus that had 10 miles on it! Driving went fine, a few other tourists heading in the same direction had problems with the toll booths and someone even stopped under a lamp pole to read his directions. Not me, I'm cruising. We do our traditional Yippee and WooHoo as we enter the WDW gates
!! Pop Century was easy to find and check in was quick. We parked, hauled our gear up to our room and freshened up!
I studied the map a bit and headed to Pepper Market at the Coronado Springs to have our usual steak dinner with a voucher. Asked about an appetizer and the manager said that along with the 3 most expensive dinners they were not offering appetizers any longer. That was fine, Devon loved the steak and pickles while I ate most of the veggies and baked potato. Devon picked a blue raspberry smoothy. He remembered enjoying the oreo cake from last year. I inwordly cringed but let him get that. I only had a bite, way to sweet for me. By this time it was 9:30 and we wanted to be up early the next morning. And it had been a long day. We took a short swim in the pool to relax. They kept the pool very warm! Ohhhhh that felt good!
Nice end to our first day. The only thing we argued over is that he forgot the head phones to the DVD player, which I didn't want to bring anyway. Every trip we go on the kids forget these and every trip we go on we buy another set.
Our room was comfy and cozy for us, except you could hear the kids in the pool screaming till 1 am. They had given me an inner court yard pool view, which I didn't mind until I heard the noise. Keep this in mind when you are booking if this bothers you. Nighty night!
Cast:
Mom - planner, vacation lover! I turned 40 and this is my gift to myself. I didn't really need a reason to plan another Florida vacation, but it sounds good, doesn't it?
Devon - 13 year old son. He turned 13 the same month as I turned 40 so we will celebrate together and hopefully make some great memories! In a year or so he will not want to be seen with me. I will take full advantage of his naivity and he will take advantage of my wallet. OK fair enough!
Hubby and 2 younger daughters had to stay at home, they will have their turn when they are older and my husband isn't quite the Disney nut I am anyway.
Day 1- Our first day starts off early. I woke up at 4 am. About an hour before the alarm. So exited and so exhausted! Oh well, I'm going to Disney World!! Girls will get on the bus alone. DH will take us to the airport then to work. This worked out really well. I wanted to make everything easy for him. I even loaded the fridge and freezer with food so he wouldn't have to cook. The girls really appreciated this!
Security did a very thorough job at the airport. We got free Frequent Flyer tickets through NWA, so today will be airport hopping day. From Duluth MN to Minneapolis to Indianapolis and then finally to Orlando. It did seem to waste a day traveling but it was free and this is a budget trip.
Really our only goals today were arrival and a nice dinner. Mission accomplished! Arrived in the dark which I wasn't thrilled about because I had to drive. Dollar Fast Lane was great, again I can't believe more people don't use this. No waiting versus waiting 20 deep. Yuck! Off we were on our brand new Dodge Stratus that had 10 miles on it! Driving went fine, a few other tourists heading in the same direction had problems with the toll booths and someone even stopped under a lamp pole to read his directions. Not me, I'm cruising. We do our traditional Yippee and WooHoo as we enter the WDW gates

I studied the map a bit and headed to Pepper Market at the Coronado Springs to have our usual steak dinner with a voucher. Asked about an appetizer and the manager said that along with the 3 most expensive dinners they were not offering appetizers any longer. That was fine, Devon loved the steak and pickles while I ate most of the veggies and baked potato. Devon picked a blue raspberry smoothy. He remembered enjoying the oreo cake from last year. I inwordly cringed but let him get that. I only had a bite, way to sweet for me. By this time it was 9:30 and we wanted to be up early the next morning. And it had been a long day. We took a short swim in the pool to relax. They kept the pool very warm! Ohhhhh that felt good!
Nice end to our first day. The only thing we argued over is that he forgot the head phones to the DVD player, which I didn't want to bring anyway. Every trip we go on the kids forget these and every trip we go on we buy another set.

Our room was comfy and cozy for us, except you could hear the kids in the pool screaming till 1 am. They had given me an inner court yard pool view, which I didn't mind until I heard the noise. Keep this in mind when you are booking if this bothers you. Nighty night!