The Canucks Tour the World with 145 TS Credits!

[Terapin]

We just returned to Toronto from DW late last night. We had a fabulous time!

Cast of characters:

Me: 35
DP: 41
DS #1: 9
DD: 8
DS#2: 10 months
My mom: 61

We left Toronto on the 7th of February, leaving behind lots of ice and snow. Many flights were either canceled or delayed - ours was on schedule. We did leave a little late as a flight to Newark was delayed in leaving the gate, so we arrived about an hour late.

Unfortunately, little one (10 months) experienced fairly bad air sickness. Poor little thing. He was green and vomiting most of the flight. We paid for a seat for him so he had his car seat, which was good as he is comfortable, but made it harder to comfort him in my arms. The older kids liked the flight (their first) but DD was scared with descent and landing. My eldest is usually quite the conservative one and doesn't take risks, but ironically loved flying and is a real ride fan (more later). DD is the risk-taker, adventurer. She was frightened and found some rides too intense, and opted out of some rides entirely. Interesting...

Weather in Orlando was beautiful when we landed, mid-70s. We used Magical Express which was convenient, but we watched many other passengers come and go before we finally got our coach. Still and all, we were on vacation!

Seeing the Walt Disney World gates for the first time was awesome! We dropped off passengers at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian, then headed on to Wilderness Lodge which was beautiful.

Checking in we were extremely appreciative of a double upgrade (for both our rooms) from Standard to Courtyard! We were thrilled. The only request we made on our reservation was connecting rooms - I think that helped. That and my mom was traveling alone and was given a King bed room. Our rooms were just a few doors apart on the first floor, right near the pools. We were in room 1168 which was overlooking the beach and afforded us a fabulous view of the water pageant from our room! My mom was in 1162 which gave her a view of the Villas pool. Ground floor was really great, especially with a stroller. We were super close to the boat launch, but a fair hike from the Lobby. No worries though - what a fabulous upgrade! The main pool was steps from our room.

Mousekeeping was great and we got towel animals almost every day. We were really happy with the amenities of the resort, and were just thrilled with our choice. The boat launches were great. The bus transportation never let us down, and we didn't wait more than once or twice more than 10 minutes. I didn't love that we often shared a bus with other resorts because the travel time was sometimes prolonged, but oh well! We were on vacation, we had the time to sit around in nice weather.

After check-in we took the boat to the Contemporary and had a late dinner at Chef Mickey's. Lots of fun but LOUD! We shopped and got into the Disney groove. 5 table service credits down, 140 to go!

We fell into bed (after a 6am awakening after a lousy night's sleep) with plans to tour the MK the next day, after a character breakfast.

More later...

 

[OhMari]

Hi, welcome to the WDW Trip boards.
I'm interested to hear how the dining plan went. I think the best bargain is the buffets with the Dining Plan.

 

[Terapin]

Thank you for the welcome!

We were (obviously) on the deluxe plan. We like to eat and wanted to use the sit-down meals as rest breaks. We made tons of reservations and only blew off one! We ate a lot...

 

[stagemomx3]

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Terapin]

Day 2

We woke up early (that was hard!) and took the boat launch from Wilderness Lodge to the MK for breakfast at Cinderella's Royal table. We were late, and so were seated just as the MK was opening. We had a great table overlooking Fantasyland, and being inside the castle was awesome. 130 TS credits to go!

Our touring plan that day included Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Main Street. We followed a plan that helped us get on to almost everything we planned, and we waited very minimally. The baby swap passes helped the kids go on some rides twice, including Space Mountain. Even DP who had never been on a rollercoaster (!) loved SM. My mom also went on and enjoyed herself.

For lunch we at at Tony's Town Square. So yummy! We were stuffed. Thank goodness we were walking a lot on this vacation because otherwise I would have gained 10 pounds. I was the FastPass runner, so really got my exercise. 125 TS credits to go.

Dinner was at Liberty Tree Tavern, and again, was adequate. The food was clearly fairly 'prepared', but could have been worse. The characters were cute. 120 TS credits to go.

We stayed for the parade, and for fireworks, then headed back to the Lodge. We were totally tuckered, but our bellies were full! We watched the electric water parade from our room which was cool, in our pjs. We all fell asleep almost immediately afterwards, and the baby slept better than usual.

The sit-down meals were good for the baby, as he got proper food (not fast food) and time to rest for all. The kids also got really quiet over the meals and coloured, which was a good break from all the stimulation. It gave us a chance to regroup, to go over and change plans, and to talk about how the day had been going.

To be continued...

 

[stagemomx3]

How cool to watch the water parade from your room! I'm glad to here that Tony's was good since we are planning on eating there on our trip.

 

[Terapin]

Day 3

This day started well with a late morning (for us). The baby wakes up pretty early, but we were able to sleep in a little. We headed to Epcot and happily walked through Future World and headed towards sleepy little Norway pavilion for a late breakfast at Akershus.

The buffet was amazing! My dd, who dislikes waffles, bread, pastries, eggs and many other breakfast items, was very pleased they had smoked salmon and ate her weight in the stuff. The baby was very happy they had blueberries. The food was actually very decent. The princesses were cute, and my son blushed when he declined an autograph. My goodness puberty is right around the corner (ok, he's only almost 10, but *blushing* is new).

The plan was for me to go grab fastpasses for Soarin' and come back to tour Norway, Mexico, and go counter clock-wise. It was a nice brisk walk and when I returned there was still a little time left before it opened. Unfortunately we spent a bit of time sorting out my Mom's room key: the charging privileges were denied when the system 'erased' her credit card info. It was all sorted out and baby was the proud new owner of a cute Norwegian boat ferry that was sent back to our room (and made in China, natch).

We toured the pavilions as planned, and sent DP to get fastpasses for Test Track, with a plan to meet in Canada's Kidcot (the kids were loving the Kidcot stops and we liked the slower pace this forced us to adopt).

Unfortunately, my version of the plan and dp's version were not the same (and to defend him, I understand why he thought the plan was to meet at Japan where our lunch ressie was). We waited, and waited, and waited. And waited. I walked to Test Track, worried that dp, who hadn't been feeling great, was ill sitting on a bench or something. He wasn't. My mom went to a store and was put through the security and guest relations who had nothing for us. We waited. We didn't go for our lunch plans at Japan, worried that we would miss each other on the way. I felt like we should just stay in one place and it would get sorted out. Wrong. Two hours passed. A second phone call to Guest Services revealed a message that he was at Japan!

We took the boat to that part of the Showcase and met up with dp. He explained that the hostesses at the Japanese restaurants (Tokyo and Teppan Edo?) were awesome, but the male manager told him that because he wasn't a child, "nothing could be done". Eventually another person told him to leave a message with Guest Services and that worked. Ironically, I had been carrying my cell phone until that day. He had also left a message with the room, but I didn't know how to retrieve them from outside our resort. Anyhow, relieved and hungry, we decided to eat at Teppan Edo anyway, and they generously accommodated us, 2 and a half hours late for our reservation. The wait staff were cute in their worry and relief for us. Very nice.

Our dilemma was this: We had a reservation for dinner at Le Cellier in 2.5 hours! I didn't want to turn that down, nor did I imagine I would feel like eating again so soon. So we ate lightly at Teppan Edo (which was totally awesome and so yummy!) and decided we'd eat lightly at Le Cellier too.

We shopped in the Japan pavilion, and opened three oysters at Pick a Pearl. We all got pretty nice pearls, but dd pulled a bit of a gimme fit at the jewelery, so we left without any settings. To be fair, we were buying little things here and there, and there is so much consumption at Disney, that I can understand what gave her the Gimmes, but the little fits I won't tolerate, so we left the area and moved on.

Dd wanted to see China pretty badly, so we took the boat across the bay and walked to China. We had planned to see all the pavilions, but losing Dp really put our schedule off. We toured China and watched the movie, which the kids enjoyed, as well as the Kidcot stop.

I rushed over to Le Cellier (late) and convinced them to give us a table. The host was not thrilled at my saucy lateness for the revered Le Cellier, and seemed disappointed when the person at the other end of his headset said there WAS a table for 6 free. We were, gasp, 40 minutes late and I was worried that we'd miss out after all.

We were seated. I ordered a stiff drink, and settled in.

Unfortunately, our hard-earned Fastpasses were no good, I realized at the table, as it was after 7pm. DRAT! What a day!!!! The waitress, Canadian like us (of course!) was so friendly, and when she asked how we were, I poured out our down day. She was sympathetic and kind. Little did I know how kind! She returned with Fastpasses coupons for rides of our choosing, good for any day!!! She said she told our story to her manager, and Voila! What a sweetheart.

The filet, ordered blue for Dp and myself, was amaaaaaaaazing. Best steak in years. It was done to perfection, and so melty. So with the combination of the kindness and alcohol, we settled into a nice, relaxed dinner, infused with Disney magic.

We finished dinner and headed to find a spot for Illuminations. We found an ok spot, and some kind people let the kids stand with them at the railing. The show was really great, and the kids were awed (ok, we were too!). So cool. The baby, now a loud-noise trooper, fell asleep, and only briefly stirred at the conclusion. If you knew what a terrible sleeper he is at home, waking for the slightest whisper of noise, you'd find this incident, and the similar ones that followed, as amazing as we do!

We dawdled in the UK pavilion while the departing crowds thinned out, then headed to the buses. What a walk! Luckily, Wilderness Lodge is among the first stops, but still, holy hanna, what a trek.

We all slept well, and made firmer plans about what to do in the case of separation again.

105 dining credits to go.

 

[Terapin]

Day 4

We were excited today to be going to Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately the bus wait was a pretty long one, but we whooped it up when the bus finally arrived. It wasn't a short ride either, leaving us late (again) for our reservation at Tusker House for a character buffet. We were seated after awhile (fair's fair) and the buffet was quite good. I liked this restaurant because there was a lot of space. Dd had a good time joining in on the musical parade.

Unfortunately, we made a miscalculation and declined to get fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Instead we headed over to Dinoland and got fastpasses for Expedition Everest on the way. The kids really liked Dinoland, and enjoyed the rides and carnival atmosphere. Luckily they won small stuffed dinosaurs on our last carny game. The odds were pretty stacked up against them on the other games with the large numbers of players (and at $2 a pop!) but fortuitously they won on the ball-in-the-cup game, purely on chance, and on the same game!

We ate lunch at Yak and Yeti, which was great. The service was so-so and it took a looooong time to get the bill and clear out. I went for another fastpass for the Safari this time while we waited for our meal. They were all gone for the day and it was only 1230! Unfortunately the waiting time was well over an hour, and so we just had to skip it, much to our disappointment. The weather was beautiful and sunny, so the trek to get the fastpasses was great, however.

My son had been talking about Expedition Everest for the whole trip and leading up to the trip. He was pretty excited. Unfortunately, at the last moment he got very scared. He started to cry. We asked to step aside and take a moment. The ride attendant was not very nice about it. Surely other children must have had similar moments. After a few minutes my son decided to go for it, and was seated beside a very nice lady who agreed to reassure him. I sat beside my equally scared dd, and away we went. It was a great roller coaster, but the kids decided it was only a "little bit fun, and very scary". They declined a second trip.

We escaped real wetness on Kali River Rapids. Ds got quite damp, I was sprinkled, and my mom got a leg wet. Someone on our raft was drenched from head to toe! We also watched the parade and saw Lion King. Both were excellent. We were able to go right from the Pocahontas show to Lion King, and so had a good end to our day. I was still disappointed about the Safari however.

We had reservations at Hoop de Doo and headed over to Fort Wilderness from Animal Kingdom. It was a nice night and my mom, dp, and I all got some very nice hand-carved silver rings. Dp and I got matching rings with the initials of the kids, and my mom got a ring with my deceased Dad's name on it.

The kids adored Hoop de Doo. The food was so-so but filling and the show was fun. We left in good spirits and took the boat home to Wilderness Lodge. It was a late night but a very good day.

85 TS credits to go.

 

[Booknut]

Am loving this report, we're going with our baby girl next year

How come you stopped writing it, you still have heaps of TS's to go!!!

 

[pooksma]

The Canadian contingent is patiently waiting for more.

 

[bcbmom]

Joining in ...another Canadian here