The 7 Not-So-Dwarfs... It's Off To The World We Go!

flowergirl

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Messages
59
Heigh-Ho Heigh-Ho It's off to Disney we go!!!

The cast

Me 33 - flowergirl - A disney lover from the beginning, I guess it's just in our genes. I love to travel and Disney World is my favorite! I love spending time with my family and we typically vacation together.

DH37, Kennon - After I introduced him to the world 13 years ago he was hooked. Loves all of the thrill rides and everything in between. He must know "the plan" ahead of time which poses a problem for me (I am not a planner except when it comes to a wdw trip!). He's a great husband and dad.

DS11, Andrew - He was 10 on this last trip - Football lover in every way. He has played football since he was 7 and counts the days until practie starts again! He loves a trip to the world and would rather go there on vacation than anywhere else. This child is definetly a thrill seeker - we are talking bungee jumping & "flying" (a contraption that pulls you up in the air about 150 feet then you pull a ripcord and free fall 50-60 feet) rank high on his list of fun.

DSis30, Jen - My only sister, we own a business and work together 6 days a week and still get along remarkably well! Needless to say we are very close and we share the love of Disney!

DMom(mid 50's) - The Matriarch of the Disney loving bunch, it is because of her we love this place and the reason for this trip. She loves to lie on the ground and watch Tinkerbell fly over head to begin Wishes, she always sheds a tear of joy.

DDad(mid 50's) - Actually our step-father but I hate to think of him like that - to my sister and I he is Dad. He's been married to DMom for 17 years. He doesn't love Disney like the rest of us but he certainly isn't going to stay home while we go to the world to have fun.

DBro13, Allen - Yes, he is our half-brother and there is a 20yr age gap between him and I. That was a shocking phone call my freshman year of college to find out DMom was expecting. He is a PEOPLE person!!! He loves attention and doesn't even know what shy means. Loves football and girls (way too early for the girls part imo).


Just to fill you in a little DSis and I visited Magic Kingdom for the first time in 1980 with our father, it was our first taste of the magic. A few years later DMom and Grandmother took us MK and Epcot, a few years after that we went back with all of my mother's sisters, all 4 of them and their families and my grandparents. Numerous other trips have passed since then, Andrew and Allen have visited the World 4 or 5 times each and "know their way around" according to them. Which brings me to this trip report ....

In early December of this past year DMom starting saying "Let's go to DW, don't you want to go to DW?" I hear this over and over and over until I said yea Mom I want to go but I can't deal with that right now, you know this is my busiest month of the year we'll talk about it after Christmas. - Well, during this past year my Mother's mother (Nanny) passed away due to brain cancer very unexpexctedly, I had back surgery, and DMom built her dream house and moved in October while trying to sell her other house. The list goes on but I think that's enough to say we had a rough year so she was in desperate need of a Disney fix! - Back to early December ... The phone rings at work and it's DMom...
DMom: Hey, when can you guys work it out to go to DW?
Flowergirl: Mom, I don't know I told you we would plan a trip but I have to get through this month first.
DMom: Well can you give me a date?
Flowergirl: No, I don't have any idea, I'll need to talk to Kennon.
DMom: OK, Well I have talked to a travel agent and that's going to be everyone's Christmas Present so you need to tell me when in March you can go.
Flowergirl: WHAT! Are you kidding me? Are you CRAZY?
DMom: NO! and if you tell anyone I'll kill you!
Flowergirl: So how do you expect me to pull this one off?
So there and then right in the middle of my busiest time of the year DMom and I go into planning mode. I had to make some decisions very quickly - like in 5 minutes! Not only did she need dates she wanted to know where we wanted to stay, how many days, what names to put on the airline tickets, as you know this goes on and on. Don't get me wrong this was going to be a GREAT gift but, who was I going to tell - I couldn't even celebrate. I had to walk out of my office and act "normal", no hooping and hollering and jumping up and down! Plus I had to lie to Jen about why DMom had called and kept me on the phone for 30 minutes!
The weeks passed until Christmas morning arrived. It was time to open presents so we gathered in the living room and starting ripping open all of the packages. Everyone (Except Me & DMom) thought that was it, then DMom said "Oh wait, there's one more for everyone". She hands out large envelopes and instructs us to open them together and don't say anything! We open the envelopes and inside contains a piece of paper with information about a dwarf all 7 of us had a different one. So Doc, Bashful, Grumpy, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, & Sneezy look at each other and no one says a word - we were told not to say anything! DMom says "Well, somebody say something", Allen says "I don't get it Mom". Jen say she doesn't get it either, so DMom says there is another piece of paper in there. Everyone looks and finds the plane tickets and slowly it begins to click with my siblings we are going to DISNEY WORLD!!! Kennon says cool are we leaving in the morning? The boys start the hooping, hollering, and jumping around I wanted to do weeks ago so I join in and then bust their bubbles - No, we don't leave until March! AWWWW! We want to go now. It was a great present and one like we will probably never recieve again!
The months that follow were filled with lots of planning by Me the "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of girl. Dining reservations were made, attempts to book an Illuminations cruise, car service transfers etc...had to be finalized and I had the best job of all - calling the shots!
 
After many nights reading reviews and trip reports we finally had "The plan".
We were going to Disney World March 7-11. The flights were booked, reservations were made at Contemporary - Magic Kingdom view, and Dining reservations were agreed upon. DMom and I agreed that she would take care of transportation to the airport from home, and I would take care of our transportation from the airport in Orlando. We didn't use ME mainly because on our last trip we used a limo service and DSis was not with us and I wanted her to experience that. As the days got closer to March 7 we started the packing process. I don't know what it is about leaving home but our family feels the need to take along at least one of everything just-in-case!

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Jen's foot had been hurting for weeks, she went to the doctor and they gave her a cortisone shot and the dreaded "Boot" to wear at all times. According to the Dr she had Plantar Fasciitis and should not walk around Disney World. Great! This should have been our sign of some things to come I guess. So Jen gets to view the world from the wheelchair and the guys get a workout in the process.
Because our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:50am we decided to spend the night out DMom's house and the transport service was supposed to pick us up at 5:45am. We decided to go out for dinner and met at a local restaurant, DMom met us there and as soon as she walked in I knew something was wrong. Well long story short the gas company had made a mistake with the billing, and they had disconnected service to the "New" house which meant no hot water! After some heated phone calls someone showed up around 9pm to connect the gas - yea! we had hot water.
5am came way to soon but we were all ready to leave at 5:45am, all 7 of us and all 7 suitcases and all 7 carry-ons!

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But - you guessed it - the guy from the transportation company was no where to be seen. We called and dispatch said "Oh yes ma'am he knows where you live, he should be there shortly." Another 30mins go by no driver, once again we call dispatch, "We are so glad you called, he looked up the wrong street!" The driver arrives at 6:45, he apologizes and we get to the airport only to have to stand and wait on Jen to be "searched" by a female security officer because of the "Boot". They put her in a glass enclosed box and she had to be searched and the boot swabbed for explosives. She passed and we hurried to the gate and made our flight!!!

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We land in Orlando on time and everyone thinks a van is picking us up to take us to Contemporary Resort. We head to baggage claim to pick up our 47 suitcases and there is a man at the bottom of the escalator holding a sign with our name on it. We head outside to the "van", I'm sure we looked like bunch of little ducklings following Mother Duck the way were walking through the airport pulling our luggage all in a line. We got outside and our nice driver opened the door to a black stretch Excursion Limo. The look on everyone's face was worth every dime! We enjoyed our ride to the CR in style.

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Allen was a little excited!

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Andrew

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View from room 4727 CR - We loved it!!!
 
Great TR! I can't wait to read more. We always take the ME but that limo sure looks like a good idea. Do you remember how much it was?
 

Great TR! I can't wait to read more. We always take the ME but that limo sure looks like a good idea. Do you remember how much it was?

We used Happy Limo and the Stretch Excursion Limo was $275.00-$300.00
for roundtrip plus we added a tip. They provided good service plus we got a grocery stop that I didn't mention. :thumbsup2
 
We arrived at CR and checked in right away, there was not a wait!:woohoo:
Our rooms were not ready but we were going to be on the 11th floor MK side. We left our bags with the bellman and headed upstairs to the Monorail. We had reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern for 4:10 so we went to the MK. I'm sure you remember the "boot" Jen has on her foot and her Doctor's orders NOT to walk around the world - So we went over to rent a wheelchair for all of the days we will be in the parks. We suggest she get an ECV - but no we couldn't be that lucky, she doesn't feel like she can drive it "through all those people" so we end up with the manual kind. The boys successfully disappear so they won't have to push the wheelchair and DH and DDad give each other this look, so my sweet DH proceeds down Main Street pushing DSis in the wheelchair! No, I guess pushing isn't correct he was running and she was screaming - yes, we really are dysfunctional and always creating a "scene". We were hungry so we stopped at Casey's for a hot dog. We got our food and a table outside, well if you remember the birds hang around the grassy area at Casey's and there are signs everywhere saying "DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS". I guess boys will be boys, I was right in the middle of a conversation with the other adults in our party when I glanced up to check on the boys who were seated at another table (Big Mistake!) - Of course they were sneaking food to the birds who were not supposed to be getting fed because the sign clearly stated so. I made them move over to our table and behave like good little boys when DMom starts feeding the birds! DDad is a Police Officer and didn't appreciate any of us breaking the rule - so after the boys and the Grandmother got a lecture we were off to infinity and beyond. There was no wait at Buzz Lightyear so walked right on and one of us hobbled right on! This was Jen's first time riding Buzz, so being the good sister I am I volunteered to ride with her. I had an all-time low score because I was too busy spinning the car in circles and jerking it back and forth, she was so confused when the ride was over that I promised we could go again and this time I wouldn't act like a 10 year old. We all rode one more time and I acted like a 10 year old again only this time I was riding with my DH (he didn't appreciate my behavior either).
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On the way to Space Mountain

Our next adventure would be Space Mountain...once again we had no wait and loaded in our space vehicles right away. DMom, DSis, and I rode together in a car - big mistake! I think we had too much weight in that little vehicle, it was the jerkiest and roughest ride ever. I have ridden SM many times and I never remember a ride as rough as that one. All I could hear was the screams coming from Jen who was seated directly behind me. When the ride came to a stop I looked back and she had her hands wrapped around her head. I asked her what was wrong, she told me she thought her head was going to fall off or her neck was going to break. After a good laugh we got out of there and vowed not to ride that again anytime soon. (I had back surgery in July 06, I was STUPID to think I could ride SP in the first place - FYI... I have always loved this ride and never remembered it being that rough)!
Our next stop was Mickey's Philharmagic, we had to wait in line here and some of us were a little bored!

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The more the better, right?

We were able to visit many attractions that day with little to no wait, but soon enough it was time to eat. I was a little worried about our meal at LTT due to some of the reviews I had read on these boards. If the meal wasn't good it was going to my fault because I "made the decisions" according to all of the males in our party. We were seated quickly at a nice round table and our food and drinks were served. We enjoyed the meal - no complaints :woohoo: - Although our server wasn't the friendliest and acted disgusted when we asked for more we had a good time. The character interaction was as good as any character meal I have been to.

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We decided to take a little ride down the river over at Splash Mountain after dinner and let our food digest. Once again - what were we thinking? You must know Splash Mountain is DMom & My very favorite ride in the whole world! We love it!!! We could live there among the "Critters", it is a must do every time we go to MK. But, this time we got SOAKED!!! like never before. I have never - I looked like I just stepped out of the shower, I had to go to the bathroom when we got off to dry off! (Yeah we're weenies!)

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We called it a night and rode the train back to the front entrance - wheelchair & all! Got on the monorail and exited at our resort the Contemporary. Wow, we have stayed at All-Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, & Wilderness Lodge but we were loving the CR and the convenience of the monorail. I must say we are really spoiled now!
When we got to our room our luggage was there and the "new" rooms were great. They were very comfortable for our family. We had two rooms that connected, each room had 2 queen beds and a single bed - very spacious as far as Disney Resorts go.
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We watched Wishes from our balcony and went to sleep with the glow of Cinderella's Castle filling our room. Epcot is next!
 












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