Super Bowl? What Super Bowl? We are going to Disney 1/31-2/7/09 - Updated 2/11

[SRICE100]

Awesome sunrise pictures. I am so jealous. It is so cold here in Michigan!

Have a wonderful time, I will be checking often for your updates.

 

[OhMari]

We stayed at Parterre Place twice now.
We did get 1st floor, but then it was November too.
Are you in front of the building or in the back.

My dh likes the building, because the parking lot is right over the bridge,
and we walked over to POFQ a couple of times.

There sure were a lot of shells on the beach.
Glad you had a great beach day.

 

[Disneylvr]

We have stayed in Parterre Place building twice and really liked the location but that was also before we had DD. Your girls are beautiful!!! I love the sunrise and beach photos.

 

[eagillinois]

Hope your trip is good. Thanks for posting.

 

[Leigha]

That sunrise makes it all worthwhile doesn't it?! WOW!! I love to pick up shells too. These pictures make me very jealous!

 

[luvmyboys]

Your family is beautiful! Hope you had a great day, and I can't wait to read more. Oh, and I'll be down there on Wed with a few other DISers (staying at CBR). If I see you, I'll be the blond woman shouting "Hi Smith family" like a loonie!

 

[SmithFamily2003]

Have a great time!

You have a beautiful family, and this brings back my memories of our one drive to Disneyworld from Maryland. It was long, but so much fun (my kids were almost 5 and almost 3 at the time).

I grew up in St. Louis but live in Maryland now, so just wanted to say hi!

Have so much fun Sunday!

~ Amy

Thanks for reading. We flew once when Haley was 20 months. Trying to cart the luggage, car seat and Haley through the airport was awful. We won't fly again until the girls can carry their own luggage. I definetly prefer driving.

 

[SmithFamily2003]

Wow! Beautiful sunrise pics! Your daughters are adorable! I hope you have a wonderful vacation. -Kelly

Thanks for the compliments!

 

[SmithFamily2003]

I can't figure out how to respond to multiple posts in one post. Can anyone clue me in?


kkayluvsdis & SRICE100: Thanks for the compliments.

OhMari: I think we are technically on the side of the building. I did walk to the French Quarter today and it wasn't that far at all. Much faster than taking the boat.

Disneylvr, eagillinois, Leigha & luvmyboys: Thanks for reading my trip report!

 

[SmithFamily2003]

We had a photopass session at the Polynesian at 10:00 am. We had done one back in 2007 at Grand Floridian when it was free with the pre-purchase of the CD.

I read on disboards and stitchkingdom that they changed the policy/rules and now it cost $75 or something like that for the sitting fee, you have to pay for another CD, and you don't get the pics on a photopass card so you can't edit them anymore on the webpage. I was greatly confused because I kept reading different things. Anyway, when I pre-purchased the CD in the fine print it said I could have a photopass session for $25 at Grand Floridian. I called and they said I could do it at any resort, so I chose Polynesian. When we showed up today I had no idea if I would have to pay anything extra. Well, I only had to pay $25, they put the pics on a CD immediately and I also got the photopass card, so I was quite happy. The photographer took around 80 pics. Overall, I think the session went OK. I did feel though that I had to make suggestions for the poses, because the photographer just kind of stood there.

Here are some of my favorite ones:

After the photo session, we went to Downtown Disney. We got there around 12:00 pm. I thought the place was pretty busy. We had a 7:05 pm dinner at 1900 Park Fare. It was OK. It wasn't my favorite character dinner. The characters were great, but we were at a bad table. We were right next to one entrance to the buffet, so we had a lot of traffic near our table. I also wasn't too impressed with the food. We then went to the evening hours at Magic Kingdom from 8-11. Alot of people were leaving when we were coming in. Fantasyland was packed, but the rest of the park was dead. We were able to walk onto the Carousel, Small World, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Magic Carpets and Buzz. I will have some evening pics to post tomorrow. I am ready to go to bed! Tomorrow is Haley's BBB and lunch at the Castle. Haley is way excited.

 

[pdmedic]

Great report so far looking forward to following it.

 

[Amspaugh]

Thank you so much for posting! I hope that you are having a blast! We will be there soon! Our Disney vacation is from Feb 4th-10th. What is the weather like there? Has it been at all warm? Also, what are the crowds like? Are there alot of people there? How long are the ride lines during the day?
It is pretty cold here in PA...so I am looking forward to this trip!
Have a great time...If I see ya in the park I will be sure to say hi!
Anne

 

[SmithFamily2003]

Thank you so much for posting! I hope that you are having a blast! We will be there soon! Our Disney vacation is from Feb 4th-10th. What is the weather like there? Has it been at all warm? Also, what are the crowds like? Are there alot of people there? How long are the ride lines during the day?
It is pretty cold here in PA...so I am looking forward to this trip!
Have a great time...If I see ya in the park I will be sure to say hi!
Anne

Good morning. For us, the weather is warm. At evening hours at MK last night, all the CMs had jackets on like it was freezing. I was perfectly fine in my t-shirt and jeans. I thought Downtown Disney was crowded on Sunday. We have only been to one park so far, MK last night and it was not crowded at all. We are going to MK again today. Hopefully, it won't be too crowded with Super Bowl people looking for an MVP parade.

 

[SmithFamily2003]

We actually saw an alligator at Disney yesterday! We were leaving the Polynesian, and we saw one in the lake at the golf course there. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over, so I couldn't jump out and take a picture. I am on the look-out for more!

Here are some of my pics from last night at MK:

I didn't use a flash on the Haunted Mansion. I have a low-light lens I use at night.

I will be back tonight with another update!

 

[Amspaugh]

Good morning. For us, the weather is warm. At evening hours at MK last night, all the CMs had jackets on like it was freezing. I was perfectly fine in my t-shirt and jeans. I thought Downtown Disney was crowded on Sunday. We have only been to one park so far, MK last night and it was not crowded at all. We are going to MK again today. Hopefully, it won't be too crowded with Super Bowl people looking for an MVP parade.

Thank You so much for your response! I look forward to reading your daily report!
Good luck of your Gator Quest!

Anne

 

[dklam]

I am enjoying reading your report. Your sunrise pictures are beautiful. Too bad it was too cold to go swimming, but it looks like the girls enjoyed being on the beach. We got back a week ago from POR. Stayed in the mansions, too, at Magnolia Bend. Went with my DH and DD, who is 19 1/2, but I remember our earlier trips when she was little and how magical they were. Not to say that this one wasn't, but it was different. I didn't miss having to stand in line for character autographs/photos, but it cut down on the number of photos we took! The fun part was that she finally decided to go on EVERY ride - she was too "wimpy" when she was little so it was fun seeing her reaction to all of the thrill rides this time. Enjoy the rest of your trip, and looking forward to reading more!

 

[momof2sons]

You must be having a good time. Can't wait for your next installment.

 

[chiefdragon]

The photos of the beach were amazing. The sunrise over the water is truely magical.

 

[SmithFamily2003]

Good evening everyone!

We got back home today around 3:30 pm. We left Disney on Saturday around 4:00 pm, stopped in Calhoun, GA around midnight for some sleep and then left at 8:00 am this morning to finish driving home! It was a long drive, but we made it home safe and sound.

Doing a live trip report was definetly harder than I thought it would be. I think all my excitement of being at Disney caught up with me Monday night. I never got another chance to work on my trip report. But I promise I will finish it post-vacation now.

Overall, we had a great time on our vacation. My only complaints were the weather and crowds!!! First, the weather! Before we left, my husband checked the weather forecast for the week and we expected temps in the 50's and 60's. Well, that didn't exactly happen. Apparently, Florida set some record low temps while we were there. How nice for us. We were not exactly prepared. I did have gloves for the girls, but I had to buy $14.99 princess stocking hats for them. Then on Thursday, so we could stay for Spectromagic, I had to buy a $30 fleece throw. Then it warmed up nicely on Friday and Saturday. Just in time for us to leave!

Second, the crowds! We were expecting low crowds and that didn't happen. It wasn't as crowded as during the summer, but there was definetly way more people than I expected. We saw tons of cheerleaders/dancers or whatever they were! Also, several large tour groups I am assuming that were from South America or something like that.

Tuesday was our Epcot day. Crowds were OK in the morning, but got steadily larger as the day went on. We had to wait around 20 minutes for the Nemo ride. I am used to just walking onto that one. World Showcase had huge crowds in the evening.

Wednesday was our Animal Kingdom day. Crowds were OK for the most part that day. We had a full train to go to the Conservation Station. That has never happened to us before.

Thursday was our Magic Kindgom day. We went to Fantasyland first thing, so we got all of those rides done no problem. That was also our coldest day so that could have been a factor. Next we went to Toon Town and waited over an hour for Tinker Bell and her friends, but I think it was worth it. We barely found a spot for the 3:00 pm parade and we started looking at 2:30 pm.

Friday was our Disney Hollywood Studios day. The place was packed from the beginning. We went straight to Toy Story Mania at 9:30 am and got a fast pass. The return time was for 2:05 pm - 3:05 pm. We then waited in the standby line. The time said 45 minute wait, but it was only about a 20 minute wait. We had to deal with crowds the whole day. Again, we barely found a spot for the 3:00 pm parade and the people behind us kept trying to get in front of us, but we held them back!

Saturday was our Chef Mickey reservation at 10:45 am, and then we were supposed to go home after that. We didn't get a chance to make our own Mickey ears during the week, so I wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom real quick to do that. We got there around 1:00 pm and it was packed! Now I know why everyone says don't go to Magic Kingdom on a Saturday. I will never do that again. We got our ears done though!

I will post pics and more details about each day later on. I just wanted to give a quick overview for now.

Monday morning was a "free" day. The only thing we had to do was a Bippity Boppity Boutique appointment at 11:00 am and a Cinderella's Royal Table reservation at 1:25 pm.

We got to the Magic Kingdom around 11:00 am and saw this:

A CM said the Steelers Super Bowl parade was supposed to start at 11:00 am, but it hadn't started yet. Luckily, all the Steelers fans were lined up nicely, so we were able to walk behind them on the sidewalk no problem to the castle. I will post BBB pics later. The Boutique looked very busy, but we got into our appointment immediately. We were done by 12:00 pm. I then wanted to go back to the front to do the photopass pics. We left the castle and saw this:

The parade still had not started! We made it back to the front no problem. There was no wait for the photopass pics. While we were getting the pics taken, we heard the crowd outside starting to yell, so DH went outside to check it out. He was able to snap a couple of pics. I feel sorry for the Steelers fan who waited for over an hour for the parade. It lasted only a couple of minutes. It consisted of a couple of cops on motorcycles, Chip and Dale in ref outfits and Mickey sitting next to the MVP in a car. Afterwards, the MVP went up to the train station platform and waved at the fans for a couple of minutes.

I will post another update tomorrow.

 

[Lynn5700]

HI!!

WOW you have gorgeous girls!! So pretty God bless them!

Your POLY shoot is amazing. You have great pictures and you also took awesome pictures in the MK!!

How cool you got to see the Superbowl champs parade!!!!