Thanks everyone for the good wishes on wdw trip

[cottontail]

Hello:
Thank you to all who had good wishes for our trip to wdw. We stayed in two of the most beautiful resorts I have ever seen. The akl, was perfect, received all requests, bunkbeds, third floor, arusha savannah, daughter was just taken with the balcony and observing the giraffes, zebra, wildebeests, etc, I thought wildebeests from discovery channel were alot larger, but their not.

The pool fantastic, lots of grasses, and flowers all around, saw giraffes from pool incredible, the people great, talked to many of the young people from south africa, actually stayed one extra day here, they accommodated us.

The poly concierge was a great way to go, we being canadians with a low canadian dollar tried to offset the price of concierge by eating most meals in the concierge lounge, except for lunch, although some days I would just grab an extra piece of fruit and bagle, cream cheese for my lunch, if we did a resort day.

The food was really nice not having to go too far for meals, the drinks all day, coffee, wine very nice. When we returned home hubby wondered where his glass of wine was with his dinner, lol as he was spoiled there. Received my requests here as well, we had a nice patio, with shrubs outside it, numerous bunnies, ducks, black birds, squirrels, came to visit us, we actually had ducks tapping their beaks against the patio doors, as we would hand feed these with a loaf of whole wheat bread I bought for them. lol, Dreamflight would be proud, I thought about what a nice animal these little ducks are. Lots of fuzzy baby ducks with moms in the little streams at the poly. Rooms so roomy for four.

I don't know if we can ever afford to stay at beautiful resorts like this ever again, as they are pricey with the low canadian dollar, but it was our anniversary trip. We did not get to stay at the dolphin this time, as I had to move a week and they were full, maybe next time, cancelled hardrock in place stayed another day at the poly, as we all were so relaxed, did not feel like moving after settling in and my son and daughter got a little motion sickness, one on a wdw ride, the other at disneyquest.

The drive was super, 20 hours to orlando from Hamilton, stopped after 12 hours in a country inn and suites at rock hill south carolina, paid around 55.00 gov rate nice breakfast included, then 8 hours to orlando the next day.
Stayed in amerisuites calypso cay one night 40.00 entertainment rate, nice breakfast included, free mini golf nice pools, room with two doubles and pull out couch, fridge and microwave, nice place for offsite, about 3 miles to wdw. Stayed at ormond beach one night before driving home, saw stingrays near the shoreline, get this we left at 4.50 a.m. made good time and drove straight home 19 hours from ormond beach, got home around midnight. Never done this before, but hubby was not tired.

Oh next time I would prefer 70 to low 80's not 93, I'm getting old can't take the heat, lol.

Bye,

Deb.

 

[maryliz]

Welcome back, Deb ! Glad to hear your trip was so wonderful. We too enjoyed AKL last Sept, but our dream trip will be staying at the Poly. Unfortunately, that won't be for a while. If we are able to even swing a trip in the near future, All Stars here we come with a great AP rate ! My sister is checking in POR today for 6 days and then off to WL . Have to say I'm missing Disney right about now ... but if I can't be there, it's nice to know someone else is.

 

[sammi]

Hi Deb!

Welcome back..............it sounds like you had a wonderful trip especially staying at AKL. Yikes the price!!!!!!!!!!

I guess we are super fortunate, that when we go we stay at Cypress Pointe resort with my cousins from the UK as they are owners there so that helps a great deal in reducing costs for us. Although just one time I would love to stay "on site"......hmmmmm maybe one day I'll win the lottery! ****sigh****

~Cindy~

PS: It's so nice to see that you brought the warmer weather back with you! LOL My family from Scotland are arriving Friday and we need good weather! LOL

 

[kellyla]

Sounds like you had a great time.20hrs to Orlando from Hamilton.I keep telling my DH 24hrs.One day I will stay at one of the Deluxe resorts(if these kids ever decide to leave home or mom and dad decide they arent coming,LOL)Welcome home

 

[cottontail]

Thanks, yes we dragged the good weather behind the van, it tried to go back to florida but we wouldn't let it. lol.


They must have increased speeds on the hwy's since our last trip, cause it did take us 23 hours then. Those hours are with quick stops at the welcome centres for the bathroom, 10 min every 2 to 3 hours, and a couple to pick up wendy's or subs. Oh the 99 cent wendy's chilli, salad, and other items were a great money saver for canadians.

Hubby put the cruise control on, I think 8 over, but made sure he was behind other drivers. Just watch out for Summersville w.v.

Hey to go to florida I would gladly stay at the all stars, I guess we have not been down for so long we splurged. I may regret it when we get all the bills, lol.

Deb.

 

[sammi]

Deb how was the traffic all the way down and was the scenery nice? Also will you drive down again? Thanks in advance!

~Cindy~

 

[cottontail]

Hi Sammi:

The scenery is breathtaking in west virginia and virginia, 5 hours up and down thru the mountains, up a few miles with beautiful treed valleys beside the road and down a few miles with the same, trees, trees and more trees. They even have signs telling trucks that if they lose their brakes, there is an area to go up the side of the mountain for the trucks safety. There were two about 1/2 mile long tunnels thru the bottom of the mountain.

Pennsylvania is very pretty too, rolling hills leading to the virginias, in north carolina and south carolina we saw wild flowers and poppys, in the area dividing the two roads, my hubby loves the roads in the united states. You have two lanes going the same way all the way down, divided by a wide, wide, sometimes you cannot see the other two lanes of traffic coming the other way. At night they have the lines drawn very bright so you can see your lane, plus these reflector type things in the roads, just great. Traffic was great both ways.

Georgia is fun cause you start playing a game looking for the first palm tree or white crane type bird, they have alot of I think they are rivers coming off the ocean I believe. Florida is nice with the palm trees all over.

Yes I would drive again, but going down I would definitely stop somethere the first night, (that is what we did) (we were going to stop at grove city and shop, coming home, it is 4 hours from home, but I thought I had spent enough money and hubby was not tired so we kept on trucking) some people even take two and a half days to drive down.

We like to leave around 4 a.m. and I prebook a hotel sometimes two about an hour or two apart, with either a 4p.m. hold or 6.p.m. hold. I stop at a rest station and call the 800 number when we finally know which one we will stop at before the hold time and vice versa cancel the other. I pick hotels that offer a contintental breakfast, no real cheapies, I check the internet for all rates and compare, country inn and suites, comfort inns, hamptons, and amerisuites are nice.

Also at the beginning of each state is a welcome centre with a book of coupons for different motels, but you only get the discounted coupon rate if rooms witih the discounts are still available. So I would say you need to stop early to get those.

Oh we only drive thru fort erie, and down I- 77/79 to I -95 if it is say april to november, no threat of snow. I would take the I -75 if it were winter, but you have to look for an open window of good weather before you leave in the winter.

Hope this helps,

Deb.

 

[sammi]

Thanks so much Deb! You've been a "wealth" of information and I really appreciate it!

I think I'll let this thread sit for a few days then print everything off and store it as we are still thinking of driving and still thinking of air out of Buffalo for next March.

Sounds like the nicest route to take with the mountains etc.! Thanks again.

~Cindy~

 

[cottontail]

Hello Sammi:

Are you going during march break, I think you would really have to research the weather for each state you are going thru, especially because of all the snow that fell in march and first part of april. Erie Penn. gets alot of snow, and the route we took goes right past erie.

The other route is better for winter weather (I 75), and you still go thru mountains, not as high though. There is a good book out called something like going down I 75 with lots of info on the other route, check it out in one of the book stores.

I am afraid to fly (hate to admit it) that is why we choose to drive, the other reason is the money we save on four adult aged people goes to pay for a wdw resort, otherwise I would probably stay offsite if I had to put out 2800 for flight and car for a week. I think we spent around 500 to drive down. Now my daughter says she will fly rather than drive, as she hates a long drive.

Just curious, how much is it for an adult fare out of buffalo? I keep saying to myself if they have a direct flight from mount hope airport, with no stopover I might be able to get a pill from the doctor and tolerate it. lol. If the price was right.


Deb.

 

[sammi]

Hi Deb! Gee we should just get together in person and have a chat! LOL We keep nattering on here! LOL

We're to meet my family from Scotland March 22nd next year so we'd probably leave 2 days or so before that date.The weather we have had here this past March AND April really concerns me as it was rough. Yes I've read the Dave what's his name travelling the I-75 and really found it quite interesting but it seems like such a long way to get to the Detroit border.I think it's a decision we'd have to kind of make at the last minute.

LOL I'm not a good flyer either.......ask DH as we take off and land his hand gets totally destroyed! LOL
But you get there sooo much faster.

Southwest Airlines has "Friends Fly Free" promo going on right now where IF we could fly out between now and September we could go for $300.00 Canadian and taxes included!!!! I think that's amazing. Fly out of Canada and you're nearly paying double the price in taxes and airport fees etc! There are quite a few DIS'ers that have gone via Buffalo and SW and loved it so that also a choice IF there are great deals on like there is right now. And yes DH and I talk about being able to fly out of JC Munro and hope that maybe next year they'll give it a try since they're expanding the airport. Maybe we can convince Westjet ??? And yes you can get a valium from your Dr. for the flight down and then one for the trip back! LOL

Thanks Deb !

~Cindy~

 

[cottontail]

Hi again,

Getting to the detroit border, that is exactly why my hubby likes the other route, he absolutely hates the 4 hour drive to detroit, he says it is boring etc, etc, but you are right have maps for both ways and check the internet weather planners and then make your decision. You can always pull off and wait out a storm.

Those are great prices, my daughters friend flew down the week we went down it was $600 return for one person, from pearson, I am not sure what airline.


Talk to you tomorrow, if you have any questions.

Bye,

Deb.

 

[DisneyLisa]

Hi Deb,

Reading about your drive down brings back so many memories & I just can't wait until we leave (62 days). We've finally decided to do the drive in 2.5 days this year: leave Ottawa with DD at 6am, pick friend up in Kitchener & stop for the night at around 8pm/ish (Bridgeport, WV), sleep in the next day & stop in Orangeburg, SC for the night, sleep in a bit then off to WDW to arrive mid afternoon.

We've decided to take it easy & stop at a few malls on our way down (as well as some look-out points in the mountains). Every year we've just blazed through & missed the sights, so this year we've decided to see them....what's the rush right?

When we come back we're planning to do e-night the night before we leave, sleep in & leave by 11am & then stop in the same places on the way back (all Hampton Inns).

When you have a chance, tell us a more about your days at WDW...where did you eat & how did you find the parks?

Lisa

 

[cottontail]

Hi DisneyLisa:

You know that is the way I would love to do it, but we seem to have a time issue. Maybe someday.

Don't forget the lookout on hwy l9 just before beckley, wv, I am not sure what it is called it is also a reststop with washrooms.

Because of the low dollar and the expensive wdw hotels deluxe we were in we opted for counter service places. I think we did animal kingdom park two mornings in a row, and ate lunch at the pizza place there, it was very cool inside, a personal pizza enough for me anyways was 5 or 6 dollars, very reasonable, another day we drove out to l92 cause I had to take something back to the mall, and ate at wendy's 99. cent specials. Also we left wdw another day, to visit celebration this was a resort day, oh boy take a tour of the open houses there out of this world beautiful, but we ate at a ponderosa all you can eat lunch, I think 5.99 I also had a 10 % off coupon from one of those coupon books, we did this twice and used this as our big meal of the day. When we moved to the poly we just ate from the concierge, it was great, it was so hot that two good meals and fruit for lunch seemed to be enough.

We really did not go into any big time restaurants, I guess our money went into the resorts instead. Like my brother said we could have stayed in a way less espensive resort and done the restaurants (sit down) that is what he and wife would have liked, they have no children, but my kids (adult) are picky one does not eat meat, the other has many allergies, so for us it really isn't worth it,
I would rather have the nice grounds etc of the hotel rather than food, but that is just me.

Maybe I would think different if the dollar wasn't so bad and it was just hubby and I. We would have liked to eat at bomas, for supper but son does not eat meat, maybe next time, plus the cost with the low dollar again. Also we drank mainly water with our lunches cause it was so hot, and I guess in the end it saved us some money.

We did the parks 9 - 1, then again 4 to 7 or 9 whatever was closing, but because of the heat we ended up bring home passes and doing more resort only days, and that was fine with the kids, I just can't seem to take 95 F anymore. By the charts it was supposed to be in the low 80's.

Oh my favourite ride was temp closed cara. of progress, darn, the earth was also out of order while we were in epcot, and test track was down for an hour while we were there, I only got to see one parade the one in mgm (standing in some sort of store with air conditioning from afar), as I could not stand out at 3 or 4 in the heat. So we had a great time at the resorts as well, that is fine for me in the heat, just the parks and lines get to me in the heat. Never used to, so it has to be a thing with age, or maybe my high bloodpressure lol.

But in the end we decided that doing resort days, made sense while we were in these beautiful resorts, them in themselves have tons to do. Son rented a boat, we toured all around on the boat at the poly, etc. I think next time I will stay in a less expensive resort for my park days, and keep the biggy for the resting days.


Deb.

 

[DisneyLisa]

Thanks for the report Deb

It's sure hard to imagine that heat with the weather we've been having this spring. We always go in the summer & it's HOT. That's why we've decided on a monorail resort this year. We spend most of our time at MK & want to be able to whip back to the hotel to rest & get out of the heat whenever we feel like it. I usually try to do one PS per day (usually lunch so it gets us out of the sun for a while) & that's our main meal (a Dole Whip at MK is often enough for us for supper some days...can't wait to have one).

Did you tour any of the other resorts? Interesting to hear that you think the concierge is worth doing...we were thinking about it but it seems so expensive when converted to Canadian$ (I pay for the whole trip as DF can't afford a trip to WDW...so it's a lot of $$ for me). DD still says she'd like to stay at the POLY so we're thinking of splitting our stay...glad to hear you liked it.

Lisa