The 7 Of Us hit the Big Easy a Pre-Trip--WE HAVE RETURNED (Look 4 trip report) Page 3

[katdocnorf]

Let me just start of by giving you the CAST "7 of US"

Kathy (Me) -- Long time Disney lover and this makes trip # 13 I think, I loose count very easily (checking my signature is the only way I can keep track, but from time to time I think I have left some off??? and forgot to go back and put them on), plus 3 trips on DCL . Anyway yes I am the main Disney fanatic, especially after taking DS10 (my 1st son, all older ones are actually step sons, but they claim me, so they are my sons) for the 1st time at age 1 and returning at age 2(really hooked). I am a city worker and some what crazy sometimes with so many kids in the house.

DH Lee -- This is my second husband and I love him dearly. He is not a Disney fanatic like me and just can't seem to understand the concept. My ex and I that was the only thing we could actually always agree on and it was the only time we never faught was in Disney. The magic really does wonders sometimes. Anyway, this will only make his second trip there and I keep trying to get him pumped with no avail. He keeps saying, "Maybe when I get there." I keep showing him pictures and so on, I really get into looking a pictures especially the month or so before leaving. I guess we will see.

DSS23 Brandon -- will not be attending this trip as he just started a new job and can't get time off.

DSS20 Justin -- Justin just turned 20 last week and he is Autistic. If you have caught me on any of the disability threads then you may know that. Loves Mickey Mouse and Rollercoasters. Has been saying "road trip" and "mouse" and "castles" for a few months now even before we definitely decided we were going (I will explain that later).

DSS18 Thomas -- He is actually 17 right now but turns 18 in only 4 more days. He is more interested in NJROTC (Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp ...I Think I got that right). He is in Leadership Academy right now for it and won't return until after his Birthday. Says the other day I don't think I should go to Disney because I might miss something import in ROTC. Talked to his 1st SGT and he stated "Heck No, he needs to just go". Oh yeah and skateboarding, Halo and other video games.

DS10 Chris -- The next Disney Fanatic only cause he has been almost 2 times his age times to Disney, also went to Disneyland with his Dad last year. And he has basically grown up at Disney, most of his milestones were at Disney. WALKING< POTTY TRAINING> and so on. He achieved them all in Disney. WOW....

DD6 Allison -- Also a Disney Fanatic. Watches Disney Channel 24/7 if would let her. If not she watches Disney DVDs. Loves all Princesses, Pooh, Tinker Bell and thinks she is a princess for real....

DD 10 months -- She will be a couple of weeks away from being a year old when we are in Disney this time. May actually celebrate Birthday there anyway, just to may it extra special. Spoiled rotten by her daddy (DH), even though he won't admit he does spoil her.

 

[katdocnorf]

To start my "Nothing" part of the story. We originally had ressie for a long Memorial Day weekend at OKW, but something happened of course and I had to cancel that ressie. One of the night shift girls transferred to another city department in order to get off night shift and guess who was put on night shift just 1 month before our trip. Then I was told since we were short handed at the moment I could not put in leave until will got a new person to fill the hole. Yes that would be me, as you can tell from my posting times on all my posts and this thread (shhhh, yes I am doing this at work).

So anyway, I had used DVC points and if you are familiar, those cancelled points get turned into reservation points and have to be used at end of that use year which for me is this September and can only make a reservation with them with a 60 day window (very difficult). So anyway I took a shot in the dark, I had stayed at Wilderness Cabins back in 1999 and loved the couple of days we had spent there (we -me and ex- used to like filling the front or end of our WDW Vacations with a resort we have never stayed at). Points were not very high there and the cabins will fit us --always a plus--. So around the middle of June I called MS and low and behold "Yes it is available".."Okay I'll take it". So we decide we will just make this a relaxing trip, no parks (at least not that we are discussing right now). If we do, we have never been to Universal and that $86 for 7 days looks kind of good, so that is a possibility but we won't decide definitely until the week before we leave. But still if we don't I told everyone it will be pool and resort touring, watch fireworks from Poly or Contemporary Observation Deck (is that still there? I haven't used it in about 8 years), watch water pagent, do Backyard BBQ, bike ride (maybe) and just enjoy the Wilderness area mainly.

So that is it in a nutshell right now, any changes and I will post.
What does everybody else think, good idea?, any other ideas.

With this being kind of short notice I also don't want to spend a whole lot of money so I am trying to extremely budget this as well, that is another reason for no WDW parks. We do each have a hopper passes with 1 unused day left on them and as long as everybody can find theirs we may use those. Also we plan on stocking the cabin with food and cooking on the grill and I will make a coupld (2-3) pans of baked ziti when we arrive and everybody can eat on that at their leisure (save me from cooking all the time).

 

[Avivasmom]

I am in! Keep it coming! Glad you were able to get what you wanted.

 

[katdocnorf]

Okay I have been looking at resort make. ONLY 2 pools!!!

Does the main pool have a slide?

Last time I stayed we only went to pool on cabin loop as we were right across from it in 2600 loop. Just curious about main pool.

We are still in planning stages. And I am trying to decide if I am going to gamble with what cabin we are given or try to request a loop.

Need everyone's help for pretrip planning....

 

[katdocnorf]

OK I know I haven't been posting to my pre-trip. The bulk of this will be our roadtrip down which will sure be an adventure. Right now we are trying to decide when to start this adventure...WDW OR BUST....

I think I will take JoJo's advice from their roadtrip (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1418606). Stop on green lights, go on red. Restart car at every stop light. Look behind me frequently with a paranoid face. and many more. THANKS JOJO for the roadtrip advice.

But anyway cramming seven people into an SUV plus luggage and then driving 13 hours is always an adventure, especially when some are smaller (the 6 year old and 11 month old). So it is always imperitive to pick the appropriate drive time so that you will not be bald by the end of the 13 hour trek down I-95. Between the "Are we almost there yet"s, the "he's picking on me"s and so on, I end up pulling every hair I have out of my head. So usually for these reasons I prefer to travel in the middle of the night so that at least the youngest ones sleep for the majority of our trip and we don't have an extra stop for hotel stay and we get there and still have a full day to do a park or what have you. This time however we are not going to any or the parks as mentioned earlier, so I may actually decide to leave about midnight and that way the sleep half the trip and the other half we can make some frequent stops (rest stops, to through football around; Craker Barrell for breakfast and lunch ; Daytona Speedway to say hey, its a Nascar fan thing). I don't know though we may still leave at 7 or 8 the night before (on the 1st), so that we get there first thing in the morning and then vegetate at the pool.

 

[KathyRN137]

Hi Kathy!

I think that FW is the perfect resort to be at if you are planning a "no park" trip! There are so many recreational activities (nightly campfire program, wagon rides, petting zoo, water craft and surrey bikes, horseback riding, swimming) and you are right there on Bay Lake, so you have easy access to all the MK Resort.

I read in one book that "Fort Wilderness would have little trouble drawing guests even without the nearby Disney attractions." I think your crew is going to have a fun, relaxing time!

BTW, have you checked out the Camping at Disney board yet?? I've never stayed at FW, but I'll bet you can find a lot of experienced campers on that board who can answer specific questions.

As for the long drive......you have my condolences!! (You poor thing!)

Kathy

 

[katdocnorf]

Hi Kathy!

I think that FW is the perfect resort to be at if you are planning a "no park" trip! There are so many recreational activities (nightly campfire program, wagon rides, petting zoo, water craft and surrey bikes, horseback riding, swimming) and you are right there on Bay Lake, so you have easy access to all the MK Resort.

I read in one book that "Fort Wilderness would have little trouble drawing guests even without the nearby Disney attractions." I think your crew is going to have a fun, relaxing time!

BTW, have you checked out the Camping at Disney board yet?? I've never stayed at FW, but I'll bet you can find a lot of experienced campers on that board who can answer specific questions.

As for the long drive......you have my condolences!! (You poor thing!)

Kathy

I have been checking out the Camping Board off and on. I found a couple of suggestions that I didn't know. As stated I had stayed there a couple of nights several years ago and remembered some things. Plus having been an avid Disney Vacationer for over 10 years now kind of helps along with being a DISer for almost 8 years (I had another ID prior to this one). Even when we have not stayed at Wilderness we have frequented it because of HoopDeDo, Petting Zoo and Trails End, plus we have brought our bikes with us a couple of years and drove over there just to bike ride around. The kids are looking for pool slides though so we will probably have to do some pool hopping.

I am just looking for something I didn't already know, maybe even at another resort. THANKS

And THANKS for the condolences. I need it with:
Autistic 20 year old over 200lber
out of control 18 year old
10 year old that loves to irritate 6 year old
6 year old that is hungry every 30 minutes and has to tell you that every 30 minutes even though she just had something to eat 30 minutes ago and asks "are we there yet" in the second breath.
and last but not least -- I have to have someone paying me attention constantly 11 month old and if you don't pay me attention I will shreik and shreik some more and if that dont work anything in my reach gets picked up and thrown on the floor.

 

[ILMICKEY]

Hi! I saw your post on the "Cockroach" trip report and read that you only had 2 people come to your pretrippie. I'm not having much success either.

Thought I would check it out.

Sounds like you have a very nice relaxing vacation planned. I will have to try that some time. I'm sure my husband would like the no parks thing. He's not a people person, hates crowds.

We have an 18 hour drive to do. I couldn't imagine that many people in a vehicle for that long of a ride. Kudos to you!!!

 

[celerystalker]

No parks! eek! I bet it will be fun.
That Universal deal does sound super great. But with as many people as you have, it can get pricey.
You know they show movies at night at the campground, right?
I still never have been over there, but it sounds like fun.

 

[katdocnorf]

Hi! I saw your post on the "Cockroach" trip report and read that you only had 2 people come to your pretrippie. I'm not having much success either.

Thought I would check it out.

Sounds like you have a very nice relaxing vacation planned. I will have to try that some time. I'm sure my husband would like the no parks thing. He's not a people person, hates crowds.

We have an 18 hour drive to do. I couldn't imagine that many people in a vehicle for that long of a ride. Kudos to you!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Yeah its an adventure within the adventure with so many. At least we do have a big SUV, it fits 8 adults pretty confortably on a short drive. We have 7 going with 3 children weighing at under 100 lbs--10yo, 6yo and 11mo..

No parks! eek! I bet it will be fun.
That Universal deal does sound super great. But with as many people as you have, it can get pricey.
You know they show movies at night at the campground, right?
I still never have been over there, but it sounds like fun.

Yes very pricey. That is one of the reasons for not doing the parks. This as I said was a last minute kind of thing and therefore it was not really budgeted. And with so many I must budget out that kind of money. The main saving grace for being able to go is being DVC. That helps so much for us. If I didn't have DVC we would never be able to go to Disney at all. Yeah we have been talking about the movies as well as BBQ and petting zoo.

 

[katdocnorf]

I always like to think back to previous trips that I have taken to Disney and how much Disney has changed and how much I have learned.

Lesson#1: Don't book with a local travel agent.

I often think back to my first trip in 1988. I was fresh out of high school and me and my high school sweetheart decided to take a trip together. Well that Christmas after graduation we discussed it and decided to go to a travel agent. So within the first few months of the new year we finally made our way to a local travel agent and decided to go to WDW. His grand parents had taken him as a child but he remembers very little of the trips. And my parents had saved up a couple of times to take me and my brother but something would always come up. I remember one of the last things "to come up" was my braces. EEK.

So Anyway that was always a childhood dream of course so he and I decided to go for it. Out local travel agent had a package for a hotel, rental car, flight, 3 day passes, and bunch of other junk (I'll mention the junk later, since we didn't even use most of it). It was $1200 for a week with everything. Wow We would never be able get away that cheap now days, even staying off park, which we did.

We stayed at the Sheraton World Resort which now I believe is something else. It was on International Dr really close to the Bee Line (its one of the Hwys if your not familiar, I think the # of the Hwy is 538 correct me if I am wrong) and right around the corner from Sea World. So we made payments on it until it was paid off which it had to be paid in full 30 days before travel and we did.

We flew Delta Airlines (which doesn't exist anymore either) and flew in on Sept 12th 1988. The flight went great. Uneventfull. But then it is time to get the rental car. I can't remember for sure what rental car company it was, but I think it was Alamo. Anyway we have these vouchers for the rental car and we start to wait in this long line. While waiting in line, I see another sign that says "Alamo Express Line". My thought was, if you already paid then you should be able to go Express right?... Well we head to that line and it is very short, only 1 person (clue #1). We get up to the counter. Customer Service person proceeds to tell us "oh no on that you have to go in that line." and points back to the line we just got out of which now is twice as long and it was when we got out of it. Well, I never lived that down and until the day we divorced (15 years later) he would remind me of that incident every so often.

We finally got up to the counter to find out they just check to see if you have a reservation and then send you to another area where you wait for a bus. Then you get on the bus and ride 5 miles or so to their place to stand in another line to get serviced. WONDERFUL. We get through that line get our paperwork and they tell us a parking space number to pick up our vehicle out of. We didn't pay attention to what kind of car but knew it was an economy, because we did not upgrade. We walk what seemed like a half mile across a parking lot to finally find the parking space and low and behold. A CHEVY SPRINT..... I don't know if you are familiar with a Chevy Sprint but they are no more than a go cart with a cover on it. It runs on 3 cylindars and gets about a million miles to the gallon (that would be nice right now actually with over $3 per gallon, gas back then was barely $1. I think it was 89 cents actually).

We go to try to put our luggage in this punch buggy and have to fold the back seats down for even the 1 bag. Thank God it was a hatchback with seats that fold down or we would have had to find some bungie cords. So we put his bag in and then mine on top and the 2 carry ons were stuffed behind the 2 front seats. Sit in the car and can't see out the back window cuz that filled it up to the ceiling (with just 2 bags!!!!). They gave us a map of the area and we get on the bee line and get off at International Dr and there is our hotel.

Go to the front desk to check in and they find nothing. "What do you mean nothing!!!????" Front desk person told us, "Let me do some checking and I will be right back with you". Come to find out, we were only booked for our last night, the 18th and check out on the 19th. So then I asked the 10 point bonus question, "Do you have any rooms available?". "No maam, we are booked." So we flew in here and have no place to stay. Needless to say I am peeved at this point. I ask if there is a phone I can use. First I call home and let them know what is going on and then I call the travel agent. I lit that travel agent a new one. "Let me do some checking Ma'am".

Did we have a place to lay our heads? Find out in the next installment....

 

[ILMICKEY]

Oh, no!

Don't leave us hangin'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[katdocnorf]

So here we go... time to blow a serious gasket....

My boyfriend and I were only 19 years old. We did not bring but so much cash maybe $100-200 each and our credit cards did not have a large limit (maybe $500 at that time). We were young, no established credit yet. We could not go find another place and still have enough for food and souvenirs and whatever else comes up for the rest of the week, no way. I wanted to buy all kinds of stuff, I didn't know when or if I would ever be back to the Magic. Somebody better come up with something.

Sheraton World (SWR) informed us they could put us on a waiting list in case someone was a no show or cancels...."Yeah smartie how are you going to contact us to let us know this. " (Cell phones were not really around back then...you had to be the richest of rich and even then they were attached to your car, you couldn't walk around freely like they are now. Plus they weighed about 3 lbs.. )

Well, the travel agent comes back on the phone. Says, "I see you booked at the Howard Johnson in the Disney Village area." #1 that is not what we asked for..nor what our itinerary sheet says....#2 I don't really care at this point, I just want a place to stay and we have pretty much now wasted our entire first day... #3 if that is the case in your computer, why would we have a ressie for 1 day here at SWR.?????

OK, Lets just see this other place and see what the deal is, cuz its not like anything has been right so far. So we tell the front desk what the travel agent said, they said they could contact that hotel for us (they had the number near their phone) and check to make sure we have a ressie there. (THANK GOD, this front desk clerk was so nice to help.) She calls and low and behold we have a ressie, FOR TONIGHT ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a place to stay tonight, we have a place to stay the last night. WHAT ABOUT THE IN BETWEEN...!!!!!!!!!!!

I get back on the phone with the travel agent (by the way I am burning up my credit card with these phone calls). Scream at her. I am beyond peeved at this point. "Well, ma'am. For all your trouble, we will change your trip home (on the plane) to 1st class seats instead of coach." All well and good but I have no place to sleep and we need a refund now for the other 5 nights, so that I can find some place else and be able to pay for it....... I was to mad at this point, screamed a bunch more in her ear and then just hung up the phone for now, until I could cool down and then figure something out.

So we decide to go drive to the Howard Johnson. At this point it is beyond lunch and almost Dinner time and we need a place to sleep, we have just wasted the whole day with this. Before we leave SWR I tell the front desk to put us on that waiting list and contact us at the Howard Johnson if it opens up and I would keep them abreast of what is going on also. They were glad to do that for us.

We get back in the punch buggy (Chevy Sprint) and peeled out of the parking lot. It actually burned some rubber... Hop on the Bee Line, then got on I-4 towards Disney and the Disney Village Howard Johnson. Talk to the people at the front desk there and explain to them the circumstances and asked whether they have anything more available. They had one more night beyond the 1st night. So now I have two nights here, 4 nights nowhere and 1 night SWR.

We are so much closer to Disney here and our room is on the 9th floor, It seemed like we could see forever. We decide to find a nice place to eat and the front desk suggested we go into the Disney Village Marketplace. So we head that way. We decided to eat at the Restaurant that is now Capt Jacks (I can't remember what the name was then). We got a table by the window and we both ordered the steak with lobster sauce...VERY GOOD... For dessert we ordered the Strawberry shortcake... That was to die for. It came in a very large champagne glass and I could bearly finish it. I wish they still had those things on the menu but hey that was almost 20 years ago....WOW

After our enjoyable meal, we went back to the room to lay our heads down for the busy day ahead of us.... (Magic Kingdom awaits)


MAGIC KINGDOM....WILL WE GET A PLACE TO SLEEP OR WILL WE SLEEP IN THE CASTLE FOR THE REMAINING 4 NIGHTS....WE USE UP SOME OF THE JUNK

 

[KathyRN137]

It all seems like a bad dream! I'm so glad the experience did not sour you on WDW....

Kathy

 

[katdocnorf]

It all seems like a bad dream! I'm so glad the experience did not sour you on WDW....

Kathy

Looking back on it it seems like a dream. But thank God only a short lived dream. As the title of the Flashback reads "Lessons Learned". We took those experiences and learned from them when we became Disney Maniacs and was able to return in 1996.

 

[katdocnorf]

Well Dinner was wonderful and we get back to the room. There is a message waiting for us at the front desk. It is the Sheraton World Resort. The have a room for us starting tomorrow all the way until 2 nights before we leave. So they have the last night and then those nights. We are now just missing 1 night. So Howard Johnson asks if we would be checking out the next morning, we said "Yes" and we take it and hope for the 1 night to be found.

We go to MK the next day and have a good time. Ride all that we can ride. Including 20,000 Leagues, Mr. Toad, just to name a couple. (Sorry had to mention a couple of the ones that have now left us.) Maybe half of what we absolutely want to go on and go to the SWR.

They inform us of one thing at check in. They said they assumed it would not be a problem that is why they did not tell us on the phone last night. Instead of a standard room, we have a pool room. In other words we are on the second floor looking over the pool. Yep, no problem. It was very nice. But one catch we may have to switch to a standard at the end unless someone else is a no show or cancel and that hopefully something will happen with the one night missing.

We get into the room to relax after a long day in Magic Kingdom and we see a wonderful fruit basket sitting on the table in the room. This thing was huge. It had all kinds of fruit and a bottle of sparkling water. It was great and lasted almost the whole trip.

The next day we decide to use some of our JUNK inclusions. I say Junk, but they weren't really. But to me if it is not Disney, its not Disney. We decided to go to Boardwalk and Baseball. Our choice was that are the Gardens (I can't remember the exact name of the Gardens). We get there and some of the rides are fun, the park was small though and again, its not Disney. It rained on us a couple of times. Did I say rain. It downpoured. But it would only last about 15 minutes and then quit. By about 2 o'clock we did everything we wanted to do and was board. So we were part of the way to Clearwater, so we decided to drive the rest of the way and see what it was like. We enjoyed ourselves on the beach for a few hours. One thing though, the water didn't seem very clear to me. Maybe it was just a bad day...

Me on the beach in Clearwater

We got back to Orlando and the gas tank was just below half way, wo we decide to fill it back up. We weren't going to go to many more places of great distance and we could just top it off before we turned it back in anyway. Remember it is a Chevy Sprint. Can you believe it only took 3 dollars. HOW BIG OR SHOULD I SAY SMALL IS THIS TANK ? This thing must of only had about a 6 gallon tank cuz that was crazy.

So we filled it up and went back to the room. Decided what we were going to do the next day and decided on Sea World. We had a pass for that as well. (That was not JUNK) That was OK. Once again not Disney, but it is still better than Boardwalk and Baseball. At least this park we have returned to on a couple of visits since this one. We never went back to B & B.

We woke up got ready and hoped in the Sprint Mobile. Got out our trusty map to find Sea World.
ME: "The map shows it just off International Drive and we are on International Drive. So go out and make a right."
BF: "OK. After that how far down before I turn."
ME: I'm not sure, but the streat name is "" (I can not remember the name)

We did not even travel a block and low and behold here is the street.

BF: "Turn here"
ME: "Yes"

Guess what. We could have walked to Sea World. I don't think we even traveled a mile total.

We saw the Penquins, watch the otter/sea lion show and of course Shamu. There were no rides there back then.

Me feeding dolphin at SeaWorld

Called it a day and went to find a place to eat.

Well we still have more 'Junk" and two more days of Disney and 1 more day of no hotel.

Join us for the next installment. CANNONBALL, HOT TUB, EPCOT.

 

[KathyRN137]

.......and 1 more day of no hotel.

I suppose that sleeping in the Chevy was out of the question......

Kathy

 

[katdocnorf]

I suppose that sleeping in the Chevy was out of the question......

Kathy

That would be like us trying to sleep in a toddler bed. Not gonna happen.

 

[katdocnorf]

Well it is now just a week before we arrive in Fort Wilderness... DSS20 has really been gearing up. He keeps saying; "2 days" "10 minutes" "Patience, Patience" and sits in his chair in the living room hoping to see some signs of leaving now. When he doesn't he gets upset. Some days are not so bad and some days are pretty bad.

You see with his autism, it is kind of to the severe end. He has no concept of time and you cannot have a normal conversation. His sentences consist of a couple of words, unless he is reciting from a movie or something. And you can try to explain to him how long it is going to be as much as you want but he still expects it right then and there.

We were not going to tell him that we were definitely going until a day or to before for that reason but he overheard a conversation and understood that perfectly. That was about a week or so ago.

OFF TOPIC:

If you know someone who is autistic you should be able to relate. DSS20 had picked up one of DD6's baby dolls that actually cries and then has a bottle and stops crying when you give it the bottle. Well he picks it up and plays with it for a couple of minutes then it starts to cry.

---this is kind of funny and not funny at the same time---

Anyway he must not of understood at all and put that baby down and ran up stairs and started crying himself. It took us a little while to figure out what happened exactly b/c we were in the kitchen and he was in the living room with the kids. They saw it and we just heard the stomping up the stairs then I heard the scream crying that he does. Then we put 2 and 2 together and there you go. That was the first time anything like that had ever happened with him.

 

[KathyRN137]

Well it is now just a week before we arrive in Fort Wilderness... DSS20 has really been gearing up. He keeps saying; "2 days" "10 minutes" "Patience, Patience" and sits in his chair in the living room hoping to see some signs of leaving now. When he doesn't he gets upset. Some days are not so bad and some days are pretty bad.

Poor guy! It's hard for him to understand. Every time my son hears us talking about WDW he runs to put on his shoes so we can leave for the airport!!

Do you have any kind of countdown "calendar" for him?? Billy will actually cross off days on a regular calendar. When he starts to ask about "are we going" yet, we go to the calendar and he counts days with his finger. It doesn't make the days go any faster, but it can help make the "numbers" less abstract.

I've seen some DISers use stickers on a calendar, or the Mickey-head paint cards from the Home Depot, etc.

You could do the same thing with manipulatives if that works better for him. Take a container and fill it with safe objects he can physically count...when Billy was younger we used pieces of uncooked macaroni. He would count out the days left using the macaroni, sometimes over and over (and over!), but somehow it relieved some of the anxiety and made the concept of time more concrete. Each object = one "sleep".

It's difficult enough for us parents to wait patiently...for our ASD kids it must be so frustrating!

Kathy