DisneyEater
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2011
- Messages
- 485
This is a report of the trip we just took in May where none of our transportation seemed to go right. In the end it was a great trip, but not without a few bumps along the way. Here is a preview of the trip report and you can see the full report with pictures at the link below:
My Trip Reports | 4Parks1Blog.com
The Great
Kouzzina and Cali Grill: Both meals were spectacular.
The rooms: This was my first stay in DVC and we had a 2br. I may never go back to a studio again as the extra space was perfect after a long day.
Mothers Day: We brought my Mom and my wifes G-Mom with us and not only had a great time with them but actually planned a special event I will tell you more about (its a tease to keep you coming back for more people)
The Terrible
Flights: Both ways including sitting on a plane for 2 hours before switching to a new one and a lack of jetway upon landing
Monorail: Multiple stops and delays evertime we were on one.
The Heat: It was sooo hot it was almost funny.
The Good and Bad
Nanny: Brining my wifes grandmother along proved to be both good and bad. She seemed to have a great time as the kids did with her, but she blew our scheduling to shreds much to her own demise. We had planned a lot of downtime knowing she was coming but we ended up missing much of it and the things we wanted to do because of slow starts and pride.
The full trip report is linked above with pictures and stories including pictures of the test track lounge and of the Mothers Day suprise, so check it out.
In the mean time, I will expand my The Good and Bad thoughts on the above.
We brought my wifes grandmother along (Nanny) and she had a great time. So did we. I just want to make it clear that I do not for one second regret bringing her along and we will all cherish the memories made on this vacation.
That said, I want to expound a little on the bad I was referring to. It bascially came down to two things:
The first was just pure exhaustion. Anyone who has been to WDW can surely appreciate that and for a great grandmother it is obviously amplified. We knew this was going to be an issue so we wanted to get her a wheel chair which she refused to accept for the first two days. Then, once we got her one, she would often refuse to sit in it for one of two reasons. Either it was the morning so she felt fine and wanted to walk or my 11 yo would make any comment about being hot or tired and she would hop right out and insist on pushing her instead. There was no arguing with her about either of these things. Both of course resulted in her being exhausted by the end of the day despite the wheelchair and she ended up missing two breakfasts (which I had already paid for on the DDxP) and one of the park days.
The second was getting to rope drop. This may not sound like a big deal, but considering how I planned this trip, it was. You see, I knew she would be tired (hence the reason we wanted to get the wheelchair) and I set up to have a lot of down time in the room or by the pool so we wouldnt push her too much. That was all predicated on hitting rope drop so we could get done the rides much faster.
You see, as long as I have known Nanny, she has been the type to wake up early .like 5am early. I figured she would be a little later based on being tired, but getting up wasnt necessarily the problem.
The first day we told her we needed to be out the door by 8:30 to catch the monorail so what time did she need to get up. She said 7:30. She got up at 7:30 and we didnt leave until 9:45 despite all the rest of us being ready at 8:15. I chalked it up to a rough morning based on our flying troubles the night before (more to come on that).
So the next morning she gets up 2 hours before we need to leave. Still late. The pattern continued every morning. It had nothing to do with her getting up, just getting ready. She was even late for her 10am massage in the hotel. I got up at 6:30 that morning and she was already up.
The issue was she would just not get ready. She would drink coffee and talk to the kids and watch TV and not start getting ready until 30 minutes before we had to leave, and it took her much longer than 30 to get ready.
What happened was it ended up cutting out a bunch of rides and a bunch of relax time because we were waiting in longs lines and dragging from being there during the hottest part of a 95 degree day instead of back at the hotel like I had planned.
My Trip Reports | 4Parks1Blog.com
The Great
Kouzzina and Cali Grill: Both meals were spectacular.
The rooms: This was my first stay in DVC and we had a 2br. I may never go back to a studio again as the extra space was perfect after a long day.
Mothers Day: We brought my Mom and my wifes G-Mom with us and not only had a great time with them but actually planned a special event I will tell you more about (its a tease to keep you coming back for more people)
The Terrible
Flights: Both ways including sitting on a plane for 2 hours before switching to a new one and a lack of jetway upon landing
Monorail: Multiple stops and delays evertime we were on one.
The Heat: It was sooo hot it was almost funny.
The Good and Bad
Nanny: Brining my wifes grandmother along proved to be both good and bad. She seemed to have a great time as the kids did with her, but she blew our scheduling to shreds much to her own demise. We had planned a lot of downtime knowing she was coming but we ended up missing much of it and the things we wanted to do because of slow starts and pride.
The full trip report is linked above with pictures and stories including pictures of the test track lounge and of the Mothers Day suprise, so check it out.
In the mean time, I will expand my The Good and Bad thoughts on the above.
We brought my wifes grandmother along (Nanny) and she had a great time. So did we. I just want to make it clear that I do not for one second regret bringing her along and we will all cherish the memories made on this vacation.
That said, I want to expound a little on the bad I was referring to. It bascially came down to two things:
The first was just pure exhaustion. Anyone who has been to WDW can surely appreciate that and for a great grandmother it is obviously amplified. We knew this was going to be an issue so we wanted to get her a wheel chair which she refused to accept for the first two days. Then, once we got her one, she would often refuse to sit in it for one of two reasons. Either it was the morning so she felt fine and wanted to walk or my 11 yo would make any comment about being hot or tired and she would hop right out and insist on pushing her instead. There was no arguing with her about either of these things. Both of course resulted in her being exhausted by the end of the day despite the wheelchair and she ended up missing two breakfasts (which I had already paid for on the DDxP) and one of the park days.
The second was getting to rope drop. This may not sound like a big deal, but considering how I planned this trip, it was. You see, I knew she would be tired (hence the reason we wanted to get the wheelchair) and I set up to have a lot of down time in the room or by the pool so we wouldnt push her too much. That was all predicated on hitting rope drop so we could get done the rides much faster.
You see, as long as I have known Nanny, she has been the type to wake up early .like 5am early. I figured she would be a little later based on being tired, but getting up wasnt necessarily the problem.
The first day we told her we needed to be out the door by 8:30 to catch the monorail so what time did she need to get up. She said 7:30. She got up at 7:30 and we didnt leave until 9:45 despite all the rest of us being ready at 8:15. I chalked it up to a rough morning based on our flying troubles the night before (more to come on that).
So the next morning she gets up 2 hours before we need to leave. Still late. The pattern continued every morning. It had nothing to do with her getting up, just getting ready. She was even late for her 10am massage in the hotel. I got up at 6:30 that morning and she was already up.
The issue was she would just not get ready. She would drink coffee and talk to the kids and watch TV and not start getting ready until 30 minutes before we had to leave, and it took her much longer than 30 to get ready.
What happened was it ended up cutting out a bunch of rides and a bunch of relax time because we were waiting in longs lines and dragging from being there during the hottest part of a 95 degree day instead of back at the hotel like I had planned.
. I do wonder though...why didn't you have your wife stay back and wait with her, and you take the kids to the parks early? And then just meet up when she finally got ready?
, loved it. We arrived at BLT a few days after you, stayed for 10 days with a split stay at BCV. We had almost the same room location as you, except on the 11 th floor! You weren't kidding about the sunset views and watching the light parade, how fun is that ha?! Thanks for taking us along!
