Castillo Mom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2003
- Messages
- 3,835
The players:
Me, Lisa-mother of 3 wonderful boys, obsessive WDW planner of our first ever trip and now trying to arrange a return in '07 combined with Disney Cruise. Can you tell I got hooked?
I started planning this trip in December '01 and have spent many hours on these boards, much to the irritation of DH who eventually sang my praises once we were finally there!
DH-Eblis, Mr. Bah humbug who would roll his eyes every time he caught me DISing. He refused to even discuss the trip with me until his designated date of 7/15/04 when he said he would officially be open to conversations about Disney.
This coming from a man who would later get misty-eyed while watching Fantasmic! and giggle like a little boy at Chef Mickey's! Score 1 for me!
DS-Damian, 15 years old and first born of my little brood. Loves Disney, closet character-lover and extremely talented artist. The child must have thanked me 50 times by the time the trip was over. What a sweetie!
DS-David, 12 years old. Worry wort and constant clock watcher, collector of stuffed Mickey's even though he's almost a teenager. Mid trip, we ended up temporarily taking away the watch we bought him at WDW. Sheesh, I thought I was obsessive about sticking to the itinerary!
DS-Daniel, 10 years old. Born with a smile on his face, go-with-the-flow kinda guy, wisecracker with excellent comedic timing. Also trying to transition from being a kid to a pre-teen but fortunately allowed himself to be a little boy while at WDW which warmed my heart since he's my youngest, even let me hold his hand a couple times.
My last day at work was Thursday August 12th. Of course every crisis that could occur at the office did, but hey, I was going to Disney World! It was sooo hard to concentrate but I made it through the day. Fortunately I went in early so I could get out early.
I finally got out of the office, but by this time I was a nervous wreck. I had already packed for the boys and only had myself to worry about. DH was supposed to finish up his laundry and pack for himself. Why do they like to wait until the last minute?
Anyway, I headed to the mall to get my mani-pedi. I was so tense, the poor manicurist had to keep telling me to relax because I was stiff as a board. I had all these thoughts going through my head. Did I remember everything we would need? Had DH done his laundry and started packing? What if someone gets sick? Ahhh!!! This was supposed to be a relaxing afternoon for me. It was anything but! Add to that the reports of hurricane Charley. The initial reports were that it would miss Orlando, but that later proved to be false as Charley changed it's path and headed for central Florida (more on this later).
So I run a few more last minute errands and get home to find that DH hasn't packed yet. By this time it's after 7:00 p.m. and no one had even eaten dinner yet. The plan was for us all to get to bed early and get a get a good night's sleep. Yeah, right! So now I had to pack for 2 people. Mind you, this would be a 2 1/2 week trip and I refused to do any laundry while on vacation, so you can imagine the mass of clothing we were all taking. DH and I ended up staying awake the entire night with the TV tuned to The Weather Channel so we could track the storm. At around 4:00 a.m., I realized that I had forgotten to get those cute homemade Disney luggage tags laminated!
Thank goodness for Kinko's which is open 24 hours!
At 6:00 a.m., we get the kiddos up to get ready to leave for the airport. Yay, it's Friday the 13th of August and we're finally going to WDW! That is, if Charley doesn't mess things up for us. The airport shuttle that I hired arrives at 7:15 just as promised and I do a last minute flight check on the Delta web site. Cool, no changes and we're off! DH is visibly a nervous wreck on the 20 minute ride. I think he knew deep down inside that things would not go exactly as planned.
We finally get to the airport. Wow, what a difference 20 minutes can make. I go to the Delta self-service kiosk, I get the first sign that something is definitely not right when a message pops up that I need to go talk to an agent. The agent tells me our flight has been cancelled and I need to pick up the courtesy phone. My heart sinks as I'm told that MCO is closed and we can't get a flight out until the following evening (Saturday 8/14) at 10:30 p.m. and that we will have a 2 hour layover in Cincinnati. Well, the tears began to flow as I envisioned having to call WDW to cancel the surprise Illuminations Cruise I had planned for our first day there. Initially we had a direct flight departing at 10:15 a.m., arriving at around 6:00 p.m. We would have spent the night at the Embassy Suites near MCO and Saturday morning a limo would pick us up to take us to our WDW resort and we would hit Epcot with dinner at Cape May Cafe, then the cruise. I didn't want the boys to see me upset, so I got myself together and put a smile on my face as I remembered the advice I was given here at the DIS to take things in stride when things don't go exactly as planned. It's all part of the adventure, right?
So there we we were with a 33 hour wait before we would be able to depart and a ton of luggage in tow. Everyone we knew was at work and couldn't pick us up anyway with all of our junk. I didn't want to shell out another $70 for the shuttle to take us back home with 3 disappointed kids and a break in the vacation mode. What to do? Hey, why even go home at this point? We ended up calling Embassy Suites Orlando who had no problem cancelling our ressie without penalty due to the circumstances, and instead we stayed at the Embassy Suites adjacent to LAX. It was a piece of cake. All we had to do was use the courtesy phone to arrange for their complimentary shuttle to pick us up and take us to the hotel. This was the best decision we could have made because the boys wouldn't be as disappointed as much as if we would have had to turn around and go home. Plan B didn't end up being so bad after all.
By the time we get to our suite, it's 11:00 a.m. and we're all starving. Unfortunately, there wasn't very much in the way of places to eat, so we just walk to the nearby Burger King. We went back to the hotel to get a much needed 4 hour nap. Our bedroom was sound proof, so we got much needed sleep while the boys entertained themselves in the living room watching TV and playing with their Gameboys. In the afternoon, we went down to the lounge for happy hour, free drinks and a little adult time. Later that evening we would order pizza from Domino's and just generally act silly. We were finally feeling the vacation vibe! It ended up being great quality time for our family.
The next morning we slept in. We took advantage of the complimentary cooked to order breakfast which was pretty good for comp. The rest of the day was spent at the pool and jacuzzi and just being lazy in the room. Boy, I sure did need that down time after working overtime for many months in a row. We were able to get a late check out at 6:00 p.m.
Check in at the airport was a breeze. We had a couple of hours to kill, so DH and I browsed the terminal shops and then had dinner at a place called El Cholo and had a drink and mexican food and then got McDonald's for the boys. Finally at around 10:30 p.m. we boarded our Delta flight. I had originally booked us with Song and I had really been looking forward to trying them out. Oh well, the gate agent was at least able to seat us 3 and 2 only 2 rows apart. Unfortunately, we ended up having to endure 2 of my travel pet peeves which was a red eye flight and a layover. By now it's Sunday 8/15. We arrived in Cincinnati at round 6:00 a.m. This part of the trip is somewhat of a blur because I'm not a morning person, so I don't remember the exact time of our arrival in Ohio. Strangely enough it was cold, or at least it was in the airport. As soon as we got off the plane, we headed to Starbucks for a light breakfast and caffeine pick-me-up for the adults. At 9:00 a.m., it was time to board the last leg of our flight to Orlando. This time we were seated together, except we were at the back of the plane. Oh well, we're on our way to Disney World so who cares where we sit!
Finally we're on Florida turf! We get off the plane and can immediately feel the humidity in the air. I love it! We're exhaused but so happy to have finally arrived at our destination after 2 years of planning. Damian kept saying, "Mom, pinch me because I can't believe we're really here!" We take the short monorail ride to baggage claim. We get to the bottom of the escalator and I see the limo driver holding a sign saying L. Castillo on it. This was a surprise for our boys. I booked with FL Tours and Andy was there too to make sure everything went smoothly. We headed over to the carousel and Andy helped us get our luggage. At this point the kids still didn't have a clue and Andy asked them to follow him to the "bus" that he had waiting for us. We walk outside to see a sparkling white stretch limo. Needless to say, the boys were ecstatic when they finally realized it was for us. Inside the limo were cold drinks and DVDs for the boys to watch while we did our grocery stop. We would arrive at the Beach Club Resort in style!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=6397332#post6397332
Me, Lisa-mother of 3 wonderful boys, obsessive WDW planner of our first ever trip and now trying to arrange a return in '07 combined with Disney Cruise. Can you tell I got hooked?
I started planning this trip in December '01 and have spent many hours on these boards, much to the irritation of DH who eventually sang my praises once we were finally there!DH-Eblis, Mr. Bah humbug who would roll his eyes every time he caught me DISing. He refused to even discuss the trip with me until his designated date of 7/15/04 when he said he would officially be open to conversations about Disney.
This coming from a man who would later get misty-eyed while watching Fantasmic! and giggle like a little boy at Chef Mickey's! Score 1 for me!DS-Damian, 15 years old and first born of my little brood. Loves Disney, closet character-lover and extremely talented artist. The child must have thanked me 50 times by the time the trip was over. What a sweetie!
DS-David, 12 years old. Worry wort and constant clock watcher, collector of stuffed Mickey's even though he's almost a teenager. Mid trip, we ended up temporarily taking away the watch we bought him at WDW. Sheesh, I thought I was obsessive about sticking to the itinerary!
DS-Daniel, 10 years old. Born with a smile on his face, go-with-the-flow kinda guy, wisecracker with excellent comedic timing. Also trying to transition from being a kid to a pre-teen but fortunately allowed himself to be a little boy while at WDW which warmed my heart since he's my youngest, even let me hold his hand a couple times.
My last day at work was Thursday August 12th. Of course every crisis that could occur at the office did, but hey, I was going to Disney World! It was sooo hard to concentrate but I made it through the day. Fortunately I went in early so I could get out early.
I finally got out of the office, but by this time I was a nervous wreck. I had already packed for the boys and only had myself to worry about. DH was supposed to finish up his laundry and pack for himself. Why do they like to wait until the last minute?
Anyway, I headed to the mall to get my mani-pedi. I was so tense, the poor manicurist had to keep telling me to relax because I was stiff as a board. I had all these thoughts going through my head. Did I remember everything we would need? Had DH done his laundry and started packing? What if someone gets sick? Ahhh!!! This was supposed to be a relaxing afternoon for me. It was anything but! Add to that the reports of hurricane Charley. The initial reports were that it would miss Orlando, but that later proved to be false as Charley changed it's path and headed for central Florida (more on this later).So I run a few more last minute errands and get home to find that DH hasn't packed yet. By this time it's after 7:00 p.m. and no one had even eaten dinner yet. The plan was for us all to get to bed early and get a get a good night's sleep. Yeah, right! So now I had to pack for 2 people. Mind you, this would be a 2 1/2 week trip and I refused to do any laundry while on vacation, so you can imagine the mass of clothing we were all taking. DH and I ended up staying awake the entire night with the TV tuned to The Weather Channel so we could track the storm. At around 4:00 a.m., I realized that I had forgotten to get those cute homemade Disney luggage tags laminated!
Thank goodness for Kinko's which is open 24 hours!At 6:00 a.m., we get the kiddos up to get ready to leave for the airport. Yay, it's Friday the 13th of August and we're finally going to WDW! That is, if Charley doesn't mess things up for us. The airport shuttle that I hired arrives at 7:15 just as promised and I do a last minute flight check on the Delta web site. Cool, no changes and we're off! DH is visibly a nervous wreck on the 20 minute ride. I think he knew deep down inside that things would not go exactly as planned.
We finally get to the airport. Wow, what a difference 20 minutes can make. I go to the Delta self-service kiosk, I get the first sign that something is definitely not right when a message pops up that I need to go talk to an agent. The agent tells me our flight has been cancelled and I need to pick up the courtesy phone. My heart sinks as I'm told that MCO is closed and we can't get a flight out until the following evening (Saturday 8/14) at 10:30 p.m. and that we will have a 2 hour layover in Cincinnati. Well, the tears began to flow as I envisioned having to call WDW to cancel the surprise Illuminations Cruise I had planned for our first day there. Initially we had a direct flight departing at 10:15 a.m., arriving at around 6:00 p.m. We would have spent the night at the Embassy Suites near MCO and Saturday morning a limo would pick us up to take us to our WDW resort and we would hit Epcot with dinner at Cape May Cafe, then the cruise. I didn't want the boys to see me upset, so I got myself together and put a smile on my face as I remembered the advice I was given here at the DIS to take things in stride when things don't go exactly as planned. It's all part of the adventure, right?
So there we we were with a 33 hour wait before we would be able to depart and a ton of luggage in tow. Everyone we knew was at work and couldn't pick us up anyway with all of our junk. I didn't want to shell out another $70 for the shuttle to take us back home with 3 disappointed kids and a break in the vacation mode. What to do? Hey, why even go home at this point? We ended up calling Embassy Suites Orlando who had no problem cancelling our ressie without penalty due to the circumstances, and instead we stayed at the Embassy Suites adjacent to LAX. It was a piece of cake. All we had to do was use the courtesy phone to arrange for their complimentary shuttle to pick us up and take us to the hotel. This was the best decision we could have made because the boys wouldn't be as disappointed as much as if we would have had to turn around and go home. Plan B didn't end up being so bad after all.
By the time we get to our suite, it's 11:00 a.m. and we're all starving. Unfortunately, there wasn't very much in the way of places to eat, so we just walk to the nearby Burger King. We went back to the hotel to get a much needed 4 hour nap. Our bedroom was sound proof, so we got much needed sleep while the boys entertained themselves in the living room watching TV and playing with their Gameboys. In the afternoon, we went down to the lounge for happy hour, free drinks and a little adult time. Later that evening we would order pizza from Domino's and just generally act silly. We were finally feeling the vacation vibe! It ended up being great quality time for our family.
The next morning we slept in. We took advantage of the complimentary cooked to order breakfast which was pretty good for comp. The rest of the day was spent at the pool and jacuzzi and just being lazy in the room. Boy, I sure did need that down time after working overtime for many months in a row. We were able to get a late check out at 6:00 p.m.
Check in at the airport was a breeze. We had a couple of hours to kill, so DH and I browsed the terminal shops and then had dinner at a place called El Cholo and had a drink and mexican food and then got McDonald's for the boys. Finally at around 10:30 p.m. we boarded our Delta flight. I had originally booked us with Song and I had really been looking forward to trying them out. Oh well, the gate agent was at least able to seat us 3 and 2 only 2 rows apart. Unfortunately, we ended up having to endure 2 of my travel pet peeves which was a red eye flight and a layover. By now it's Sunday 8/15. We arrived in Cincinnati at round 6:00 a.m. This part of the trip is somewhat of a blur because I'm not a morning person, so I don't remember the exact time of our arrival in Ohio. Strangely enough it was cold, or at least it was in the airport. As soon as we got off the plane, we headed to Starbucks for a light breakfast and caffeine pick-me-up for the adults. At 9:00 a.m., it was time to board the last leg of our flight to Orlando. This time we were seated together, except we were at the back of the plane. Oh well, we're on our way to Disney World so who cares where we sit!
Finally we're on Florida turf! We get off the plane and can immediately feel the humidity in the air. I love it! We're exhaused but so happy to have finally arrived at our destination after 2 years of planning. Damian kept saying, "Mom, pinch me because I can't believe we're really here!" We take the short monorail ride to baggage claim. We get to the bottom of the escalator and I see the limo driver holding a sign saying L. Castillo on it. This was a surprise for our boys. I booked with FL Tours and Andy was there too to make sure everything went smoothly. We headed over to the carousel and Andy helped us get our luggage. At this point the kids still didn't have a clue and Andy asked them to follow him to the "bus" that he had waiting for us. We walk outside to see a sparkling white stretch limo. Needless to say, the boys were ecstatic when they finally realized it was for us. Inside the limo were cold drinks and DVDs for the boys to watch while we did our grocery stop. We would arrive at the Beach Club Resort in style!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=6397332#post6397332
