The Drive, the Dream and DVC - A March 2011 Birthday Surprise TR(NEW 11/9 p. 32 END)

[jeremysdisneymom]

The details in Royal Palace is just amazing!

Great finds at the Disney Store. We are getting a new interactive Disney store in Cincinnati this fall. We have been without one for several years so I am looking forward to it.

Can't wait to hear about SSR.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Hey Sheree!!!

All caught up now!!! Can't wait to hear about SSR and AKL!!!

I saw the stuff for the new VB store when I was there in May!! VERY dangerous!!!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

You had a lovely last night aboard the ship. It's always so deflating though, the last evening/morning of vacation. Bummer.

I love the things you picked up at the Disney Store. I too love my Disney mugs! I cannot wait to hear about your next trip!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

The Royal Palace looks just beautiful! I'm so sad the cruise part of the TR is over. But I'm looking very forward to the WDW part that is coming up!!




Love all your Disney Store stuff. Looks like you got some great bargains!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Great finds! We have a Disney store here but they never seem to have much of anything - lots and lots and lots of princess stuff and plushes, that's about it.

Good luck to Sarah on her games tomorrow!

Thanks! It's sometimes hit or miss at the store! Luckily I caught a sale!

Great finds at the Disney Store!!!

See, my dilemma right now with a Disney cruise is that there are two the week we are off for Thanksgiving in 2012. One is the three-night and the other is the four-night. Charles wants to do the four-night, but it is $1400 more than the three-night. I am pushing for the three-night, and then we can do something else -- either add days on for Disney or take a Disney trip that is separate or something like that. Decisions, decisions.

That big cost difference must be for the holiday? That's partly why we went for the 3 day, it was a LOT cheaper. I would say it's too short just by itself, you MUST add a few days extra at Disney!! HA!

We got a porter too. We thought it was well worht it to not to handle our bags. One was pretty heavy and I just wasn't in the mood to drag it. LOL! We went through customs very fast as well, but I have heard of others getting stopped...but the conclusion seems to be that you rarely get stopped if you have a porter.

Love the buys. I have been trying to stay away from our Disney store AND looking online too. It can be dangerous!
I sitll need to do Fathers day shopping...and yes it is the morning of Fathers day...I'm just last minute! LOL!

Yeah, it's so much nicer not to have to lug a heavy bag - which mine were, thanks to trying to cram everything into them and getting so much more stuff onboard!
I bought my father a gift the night before (I'm such a planner). But I didn't end up seeing him yesterday, so it has to wait until tonight!

I'm so sad to see the cruise end! What a bummer! But your evening at RP looked really nice. We are dressing up that night too. The girls looked really pretty in their dresses!

So I am a little confused on the luggage? You have to sit it out by 10:30 the night before even if you are driving? Do they take it to your car for you the next morning? If so, that's a nice bonus! DH would very much appreciate that. And how do you get a porter? Do you have to ask in advance for someone?

So do we get to see the pictures you bought on the ship?

Oh, thanks on the girls' dresses! They get a kick out of dressing up for special occasions.
I'll try to get those pictures scanned soon. It's been a crazy weekend!

I can answer some. You set your luggage out and the next mroning you find it in the terminal. You then take it theough customs with you and to your car or bus, or whatever. The porters are al lwaiting at the bottom of the stairs for you and just say yes I would like help...they will ask, believe me. they cart it through while you go through the customs line and to the agent. Once through they did cart it to the pick up spot where my Dad was picking us up and then they just drip it off there. (I'm not sure if they help load, because my Dad was still circling at that time and wasn't there at the moment. I also am not sure if they will take it all the way to the parking garage, or if they drop it off at pick up spot and someone may need to go get the car and pick it up? Sheree can tell you hat one, I'm sure.

You do leave your luggage outside your room the night before. Be sure to keep essentials with you (in a carry on). Plus clothes for the next day!!! People have forgotten and were forced to leave the ship in their PJs! Yes, the porters are waiting for you in the terminal and will help you find your luggage and cart it through customs and all the way to your vehicle and load it for you! It's wonderful! No heavy lifting!

Oh my gosh..Disney Store and Vera Bradley in the SAME mall!!!! How ever is a girl to resist that!

And I know I'm not the only that immediately started wondering if this would fit in my purse without anyone noticing!

It's a good mall to have around. Unless you're trying to save $$.
Oh - I'm sure a few things would have looked great at my house!

On the Maiden Voyage People were stealing these and other things left and rigt.

It's true! I have heard stories about the stuff that disappeared from the ship! Crazy!! Disney will catch on and figure out a way to sell them and make $. They already had the red pillows from the bed for sale.

The details in Royal Palace is just amazing!

Great finds at the Disney Store. We are getting a new interactive Disney store in Cincinnati this fall. We have been without one for several years so I am looking forward to it.

Can't wait to hear about SSR.

So typical Disney - all that detail!
Our Disney store was renovated not that long ago, and I wonder if they'll change it to the interactive deal anytime soon. It's just got a big video screen in back by the stuffed animals. I'm sure it will be nice to have your store back!

SSR - hopefully I'll get an update together soon!

Hey Sheree!!!

All caught up now!!! Can't wait to hear about SSR and AKL!!!

I saw the stuff for the new VB store when I was there in May!! VERY dangerous!!!

Well, Kim! Nice to see you again! It's funny, I'd been so busy writing about the cruise (and taking so long to do it) I almost forgot we have 5 more days at the parks to talk about!!! This will keep me busy all summer at this rate!
There is a little gift shop near me that sells VB and I've looked there before, but a WHOLE VB store???? WHOA! I'm sure I'll find SOMETHING!

You had a lovely last night aboard the ship. It's always so deflating though, the last evening/morning of vacation. Bummer.

I love the things you picked up at the Disney Store. I too love my Disney mugs! I cannot wait to hear about your next trip!

I'm just glad I didn't have to go straight home from the ship! That would have been awful!
My Disney mugs are slowly replacing all other mugs. I have a few that I won't part with from special places/people, but all the plain ones that match my dishes are packed away or sold! My mom requested that I keep one older one for her to use when she's over because she was worried that she'd drop one and break it!!! Isn't she thoughtful? Worrying about my Disney mugs like that!

The Royal Palace looks just beautiful! I'm so sad the cruise part of the TR is over. But I'm looking very forward to the WDW part that is coming up!!




Love all your Disney Store stuff. Looks like you got some great bargains!

The Royal Palace was wonderful - a little cramped in our section, but just a lovely place to be!
Big fun is coming up at WDW!!!
Thanks - I love finding things that cost less than $5 or $10 at Disney!


Well, we managed to get our games in on Sunday morning! Sarah's team lost the first game, but then played for third place. They won and Sarah did really well in both games! She made a great play in the field and got on base (more in the first game!). She had fun, and they got medals (which is very important!).

We high tailed it out of there after her game and headed to downtown Minneapolis to watch the Twins play. We got there about the 4th inning and had to boot some people from our seats. Funny thing is, we do not have great seats. Upper level, all the way down the third base line looking at left field. Who would want those seats? Maybe theirs were top row.?
We had fun, and after the game (Twins won!) the girls got to go down on the field and run the bases. They do that after every Sunday afternoon game. This was their second time. It's cool because we walk down to the field with them and enter through a maintenance type door in left field and walk ALL the way around the outfield (on the warning track only thank you very much) to first base where they start running. We meet them at home. Lots of picture taking going on. I have to upload some from my phone and DH's phone.
We made it home and just hung out. DH cut the grass. Poor Sarah's feet were killing her - having spent most of the weekend in her cleats, some of that time with wet feet, the bottoms of her feet were pretty beat up.
I hope she's better today because she has a two hour dance class followed by another softball game tonight!!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Well, that was strange. Isomehow posted twice.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I'm glad Sarah and her team did so well. Yay for the Twins! Woot!!

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Thanks Jen and Sheree for the luggage info. That sounds great! My DH will want to thank you too since he won't have to do all that himself!

Very cool that your girls got to run the bases! Looking forward to seeing the pictures!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Loving all of the Dream photos....I really want to take a Disney cruise!!!

SO jealous that you're getting a Vera store!!!!! I wish we had a store dedicated to just Vera around here.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm joining in on your adventure! I read a bit of your bit of your PTR and might have posted a couple times over there too.

Loving your report! Your entire time on the Dream was amazing! I enjoyed all your pictures, and the details you shared....ahhhhh! I can't wait for my turn to cruise! We will be on the Magic, but I'm more than fine with that!! Thankfully I get a ship tour of the Magic in August...I so very much want to see that chandelier in the front lobby and the one in Royal Palace. Simply gorgeous!

Looking forward to all your family has in store for your DVC portion of the trip!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I'm glad Sarah and her team did so well. Yay for the Twins! Woot!!

Thanks! It was fun!

Thanks Jen and Sheree for the luggage info. That sounds great! My DH will want to thank you too since he won't have to do all that himself!

Very cool that your girls got to run the bases! Looking forward to seeing the pictures!

Glad to help!
I've got to get organized with pictures and get them all in one place!

Loving all of the Dream photos....I really want to take a Disney cruise!!!

SO jealous that you're getting a Vera store!!!!! I wish we had a store dedicated to just Vera around here.

I hope you get to go on a cruise! The kids love it and so do we!
Come to MN and we can shop!

I'm joining in on your adventure! I read a bit of your bit of your PTR and might have posted a couple times over there too.

Loving your report! Your entire time on the Dream was amazing! I enjoyed all your pictures, and the details you shared....ahhhhh! I can't wait for my turn to cruise! We will be on the Magic, but I'm more than fine with that!! Thankfully I get a ship tour of the Magic in August...I so very much want to see that chandelier in the front lobby and the one in Royal Palace. Simply gorgeous!

Looking forward to all your family has in store for your DVC portion of the trip!

Hey Brook!
Hopefully I will get things going here with my WDW portion of the trip. I go in spurts - post a couple updates, wait a week or two, post some more! It's going to go on for quite a while I guess! HA!

Cruising is just awesome! Like so many things, (DVC...) I wish I'd started going sooner. But, then again, you just go where life leads you...
The Disney ships are just amazing!

I'm working on scanning some of the cruise photographer's pictures that we bought and also an update on our first WDW day at SSR!!!
Stay tuned...

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Okay, I finally got to scanning my cruise photos!
Here is the boarding picture

Dave and me at Palo

At Castaway Cay

Our "formal" night picture

Okay - I've got another update coming up!! I'm on a roll!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

So we arrived at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa around 10 a.m. It’s a really beautiful resort, with a theme of Saratoga Springs, NY - a horse racing town. There’s a big statue of a horse out front of the check in building. Not sure which horse it is supposed to be, but it’s clearly a winner!
I actually took some of these the next day...

We checked in and the CM asked me if it was our first time. I thought she was referring to the first time staying at SSR, but she was referring to our first visit to WDW. So she hands me four FIrst Visit buttons!!! I didn’t argue. The girls also got Birthday buttons. A CM invited the girls to come hang out and watch TV and color. Sarah pointed out to me that in the area there were pictures of Disney characters with their horses. She remembers Belle and Phillipe in one!

LOBBY PICTURES


We verified that we were just staying one night with the QSDP (MUGS!!!) and got our room keys. Our room was not ready of course, and it was going to be in the Paddock section. So we drove over to that parking lot and rearranged suitcases in the parking lot! I repacked our one bag to bring into the room, switched a few things around and packed a backpack with our swimsuits to head to the pool later in case our room still wasn’t ready.

We were able to go get our mugs at Artist’s Palette. It was really busy at 11:00 a.m. That’s sort of a strange set up to me. The gift shop and the CS are all together, and they try to wind the line from the CS into the shop. Then the cashiers are the same for both the CS and gift shop. I did not like that. It was too cramped when it was busy.

AP pictures

I thought the lights were pretty.

We decided to head to Downtown Disney. We just walked over - that was a nice walk! We saw some critters along the path.

It was warm and sunny!
Checking out the birds at Rainforest Cafe

Nice day for skywriting. Who can afford to do this so often?
They seem to be doing it just about every day.


The girls had PBJ at Earl of Sandwich and I got to run to a couple shops and buy some gifts. I hit Basin, the Christmas shop, World of Disney and we all went into Goofy’s Candy store. While we were in there, we watched a lady making fudge. The CM’s name was Sha and she talked to us for about 10 minutes. She asked if we’d like a sample - uh, SURE! So we each got to pick a flavor to try. She cut pretty nice size hunks for us. Then she saw the girls’ birthday buttons and asked them if she could do something for them. She said “I can sing Happy Birthday backwards”. “ready?”
The girls said yes. 

So she turned her back to us...

And started singing. Happy Birthday. The regular way. 




Get it?

I thought it was cute! 
Then she went and got them EACH a HUGE Oreo cookie filled with fudge! It was about 2 inches thick!!! She said she loves her job and being able to do special things like that for people. It was so nice!!!
These looked good! A bit pricey!!!

Cooling off a little!

We did some more shopping, bought a DVC pin and DH bought a monorail set! He wants to put it around our Christmas tree (the Disney one, of course!)
I'll do a souvenir post later so you can see all the goodies!!!

We lugged that back to SSR and still hadn’t gotten a text about our room being ready, so we put that stuff in the car and got our swimsuits. We walked back to the pool and enjoyed some time in the water. It was crowded, but not bad. I was able to find a table with an umbrella and the kids loved the pool. The water was nice and cool - not like last July when it wasn’t very refreshing! The kids went on the slides and just had fun! It was a great afternoon.

Pool pictures

zero depth entry area

practicing the back float

FINALLY around 4:30, we went to the desk to find out if our room was ready. They did the old, “Oh, yes it’s ready. Sorry you didn’t get a text” Uh, thanks for NOT TEXTING ME!!!! I’m guessing it had been ready for quite some time.

cont.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Around the resort

We got some food from AP - a cheeseburger flatbread, that was just okay. Maybe some dessert too. I don’t remember. We headed to our room - 6301 Paddock and unloaded a few bags that we’d need for the one night. I had wanted to rest up, maybe nap a little because we wanted to hit the EMH at MK that night. We’d been up so early, we’d never make it if we didn’t sleep a little.
We rested, Paige got a bath, watched TV, and DH talked to his sister who was going to meet up with us at WDW.

No naps.


Our room

Looking at the door, room number and mat, it seems like this is pretty dated and doesn't seem too, I don't know, "deluxe". Maybe it's just me.

But the inside was very nice.

I can see leaving stuff on that shelf and forgetting about it! But the hooks are handy.

The bed had been nicely made when we arrived!

fold-out sofabed for the girls!

Probably a bad time to take this picture- the sun was shining right in!

Our little kitchenette

vanity

The door with the mirror is to go into the bathroom where there is a toilet and tub/shower. Apparently I didn't take a picture of that!

Our view from the balcony

I think this was looking left - I get so turned around!!

Look - it's the DTD balloon!!

Details, details!!! I love this railing!

Okay - this is my artsy shot. You are looking at the floor (sideways) with the shadow of the railing.

I generally like SSR. The theme isn't anything I get excited about, but the resort is very relaxed and beautiful, which I liked. The drawback is that it is pretty spread out. Our room couldn't have been much farther away from the main building and feature pool. The quiet pool for Paddock was under construction and they are making it into another theme pool I understand.
I didn't like trying to figure out the best way to catch a bus either - you always take your chances with timing, but you definitely had a good walk ahead of you coming from Paddock to any of the bus stop areas.
It would be nice if you had a car and were willing to drive to the parks. At least then you'd be on your own time. I just don't generally like doing that. I prefer to immerse myself in the WDW experience, let others do all the work and be dropped off at the gate! I'm on vacation!!!
That being said, we did do some driving to the parks on this trip!

We headed to MK around 7:30. I wanted to see the fireworks and/or parade and hoped to stay a while to get some rides in without big crowds. There was the Main Street Electrical Parade at 9 and 11 with Wishes at 10. We were planning another MK day, but I figured we could maybe get some rides in during the early parade and actually watch either the late one or wait until our other MK day to see it.

Would it happen?

Well, we had to figure out the bus stops/schedule first!!! We walked toward what we thought was a close bus stop (well closER). We JUST missed the MK bus. So we figured we'd take the Epcot bus and monorail to MK. Probably not any faster!!

We arrived at MK at 8:30. That was an hour of my life I'll never get back.

What do you think we managed to do at MK? How late do you think we stayed?
Answers to those questions and more...in the next update!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great updates Sheree!

Beautiful cruise pics!

SSR looks very nice. Reminds me of the 2 nights we stayed at OKW. We loved the atmosphere, but didn't care for how spread out it was and the buses.

Looking forward to more!

 

[MeMom]

I generally like SSR. The theme isn't anything I get excited about, but the resort is very relaxed and beautiful, which I liked. The drawback is that it is pretty spread out. Our room couldn't have been much farther away from the main building and feature pool.

Takes me back to our SSR stay. We were pretty far away, too, but for us, being value folks as the norm, it was great. We loved the walk over to DTD. Your view was much better than ours. The Mickey railings are cool.

One reason I love to experience every ride, restaurant, attraction, resort, etc. at Disney World is because I want to be able to say I have done it myself and not just taken someone else's word for it. In doing that, it also helps me enjoy the pictures of others so much more. In your pictures, I could 'feel' the atmosphere around me, since I have been there. We've sat at the kiddie TV and seen the horse pictures for instance. We've eaten at Artist's Palette and walked by the fountain in the lake and the pools. Every Disney resort lobby has it's unique sights, sounds, and smells, and since I have been to every lobby except Swan and Dolphin now, it really makes looking at the pictures so much more fun.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Oh good pictures!!! Thanks for the update! Girl...ya'll do a lot more on that first day than we ever manage!! LOL...but we areusually up and leavin' the house around 5 before heading to Houston,...if we go anywhere it's usually just over to DTD then we cme back to the room and crash!!!

 

[SoonerGirl]

That is so odd that they have the gift shop and the food court combined, I can see that being very hectic during busy times.

SSR looks lovely from your pictures, but I understand what you mean about it not feeling truly 'deluxe', I had the same feeling at OKW - it was nice, and I enjoyed my stay there, but it felt more like a moderate to me than a deluxe. Plus I think the outdoor entry at OKW makes it feel more like a motel, kwim?

 

[MEK]

Love the cruise pictures. Very nice. Pretty dress!

Thanks for taking all those SSR pictures. They are all lovely and I think you got a great view from your room. Bummer about not getting a room ready text. Thats just wrong.

I hope you have a fabulous time in MK and that you make up for that lost hour.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Love your cruise pics! Great shots of all of you!

SSR is very pretty! You're right -- the theming isn't something I get too excited about, but your shots of the resort and the room are very pretty! Love the Mickey heads on the railings!

Shopping at DtD is always a good thing, and the girls' experience with Sha at Goofy's just highlights what I like about Disney most of all -- incredible cast member interaction!