The " I dont have a witty title" trip report 2/21-3/1/14-updated 3/9/14

[beccawes7471]

Hello, going to try this report while things are still fresh. Demographics:
Our party consisted of me (turning 40 this month) dh (42), ds (turning 14 this month) , dd (4.5) aka Pnut, and dsil (39). This was our 6th trip and planned pretty last minute, I booked 12/26 with a free dining pin and the ball rolled quickly from there. We live in the midwest.
Things you should know about me:
I am not overly organized but am the coordinator for all trips, from start to finish, from money to clothes packed, to restaurants to rides. I have no clue how to make a spreadsheet, am incredibly technically challenged for someone my age ( it took me an hour to figure out how to get pics from my phone to the ipad to the photobucket to the disboards, and I still got either too big or too small, so too small pics it is i love all those cute outfits you see families wearing on trips but i have zero craft genes/time/patience and pretty much do most of my pretrip shopping the day before we leave. I usually waste a good 3 hours looking at stuff on Etsy only to get overwhelmed and end up not able to pull the trigger on anything. I work best under pressure. I have no ability to fix hair, apply makeup, and have bad memories of being uncomfortable as a kid in itchy dresses, tights, etc, therefore Pnut will never look like so many of those other cute girls you see at the parks, we are lucky to get our teeth/hair brushed each am. Just want you to know what you're dealing with upfront here i use a variety of research methods: Disboards of course, Allears, and I always check out the latest Unofficial Guide from my library ( they had 2014), and I subscribe to touring plans. I will say that touring plans/ crowd calendars are prob a little inaccurate as thet try and figure out FP+ and how it has shifted crowds, wait times and lines. Allears is my fav for menus.
I decided this trip would be to celebrate my 40th bday and ds 14th bday even though they are both in March, but dh can never get time off over spring break and we cant afford the prices anyway and wouldn't want to pay top dollar for those crowds. I had read about magic bands on this board so new a little of what to expect.
I had really wanted to stay at AoA this trip but POR was $650 LESS for the week, so that seemed like a no brainer. Then we decided we would fly out Friday night after we got off work so that we could be settled in come Saturday...just one problem, we couldn't add on a room at POR, they were sold out. So with our airfare already bought we decided to add on Friday night at AOA. This was prob not the best idea, in hindsight but live and learn. Well, as many of you know, the winter has been crazy and both dh and I have crazy stressful jobs that didn't seem to recede any during our pretrip period. Therefore, I did much less research/planning than I normally do and in about 1/12 the amount of my normal planning time.
So, before you know it, it was Friday 2/21/14 and things were coming together just perfectly, dh got off work at a normal time, my dad was ON TIME to drive us to the airport (that never happens). Our flight on Southwest was scheduled to leave at 8pm, getting us into MCO at 11:35pm. Dad picked us up at 6pm, as we were loading the car, dsil called. She was already at the airport as my in laws were driving her. Turns out our flight was delayed until 10:40pm departure. DSIL was told it was due to weather on the East Coast. I called Southwest and was told it was due to mechanical issues, no matter the reason, we were delayed. We debated changing our flight to Sat am, but figured we would be out the $ for our rooms, so off we went... to wait at the airport for a few hours:
Thank goodness for ipads and headphones and amazing big brothers:


Eventually, we boarded and had a very quiet, dark, uneventful flight.
Pnut is ready to go:

This is the awesome big brother and dsil, they spend alot of time together on these trips as Pnut demands alot of dh and I's time/attention/patience


This is what your family looks like at 2am in MCO:

We used Magical Express, uneventful, bus was actually almost full. We arrived at AOA and checked in right at 3am. I must admit, even in my sleep deprived, angry at myself for this dumb idea mental state, AOA took my breathe away.


We had done online check in and we had received our magic bands in the mail beforehand so check in was simple. We booked Little Mermaid since it was just one night, plus Pnut ( and who am i kidding, me) really love the Little Mermaid. I had read many reviews saying how far LM was from the check in and it def is a haul, esp when you get rooms in the very LAST section, room 8547 and dsil was next door. I was laughing, delirium really at that point, at how we got literally one of the farthest rooms. Sorry if we woke you rolling our 6 suitcases and a stroller. However, a room is a room and we even took a few pics before crashing out:

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Well I am intrigued to see how you find the change of resorts! Shame you were delayed but you got there in the end

 

[beccawes7471]

Saturday 2/22/14 Part 1:
well, after sacking out around 3:30am, Pnut and the rest of us were up about 10:30am. Disney had given us a late checkout, 1pm, I didn't even ask, but my sil was not able to get late checkout so she had to move all of her stuff into our room by 11am. I had called disney from our airport to 1) let them know we were going to be getting in later than planned and 2) we did check to see if there was any change or chance that we could just switch to POR but it was still sold out. That call however is why I think they gave us the late checkout, no matter the reason, we were appreciative. We got all our stuff together and headed down to bell services and dropped off all of our big luggage to be transferred over to POR. Then we headed into the AOA foodcourt for lunch. We thought the foodcourt was fantastic, we felt it was leaps and bounds better than POR foodcourt. There were 2 helpful employees just walking around answering questions such as, "Can a fresh made smoothie count as your drink" the answer was yes. We felt this foodcourt had a much larger selection of foods and variety compared to POR. For lunch, dh had tandoori sausage with wild rice, fresh sauteed spinach, plantains and fresh pita bread, he gave it a big thumbs up

ds had the tandoori shrimp and a strawberry banana smoothie, he also gives big thumbs up:

I had the build your own salad, which was wonderful and had many more options to choose from than did POR:

pnut had the spaghetti and meatballs, I think everyone knows what that looks like. we had them stamp our receipts so we could come back for ice cream as our dessert, you get 90 minutes to use it.
It was about 1pm, we hadnt recieved a text yet from POR that our rooms were ready and we really wanted to look around at the other areas of AOA. They all were so nifty!

wow, a picture that I am actually in! The crazy looking lady would be me, lack of sleep and Florida humidty really do a number on me

It rained for about 5 minutes and then Pnut could not wait any longer, she simply HAD to go swimming; she didnt care if it was raining, cold, she was getting in that pool, who were we to argue?
Having a slight suspicion that this was likely to happen, I had packed all swimming essentials for all parties in our carry on bag. we used the very clean restrooms by the Nemo pool to change and the kids had a great time while the big people enjoyed a round of "welcome to vacation cocktails".


At about 3pm, I decided to go to guest services and see if our rooms at POR were ready, turns out they were and they had been ready for awhile. I was told we didnt get a text b/c there was paperwork at the POR front desk that we would need to pick up, weird. Anywho, we finished our drinks, gave 4 and 14 the old, "10 more minutes" dried off, redressed and hopped a bus to DHS so that we could then get on the POR bus. It took about 30 minutes total.
So, our opinion of AOA is great. It is spread out, but that didnt change any when we got to POR. The foodcourt and food was awesome, pool area was also great. The downsides we could see is the noise, we could def hear toilets flushing in other rooms, people talking in the other room, outside our door, and the double beds in LM. Mind you we were aware of these going in, so we have no complaints, the theming is just fantastic, and that is what I enjoy most about staying on site.
As you can probably tell, my trip report is a combination of dining, resort, theme park and even parasailing! So hopefully we will cover a little bit of all the bases and some part of something may be what you are looking for or are interested in, thanks for reading and stay tuned-
Up next: Sat Part 2, POR and evening at Epcot awaits....

 

[beccawes7471]

Mrs Doubtfire, I completely agree, even if you are delayed, and no matter what time you arrive, you are still arriving at Disney and that made everyone happy Thanks for the reply

 

[beccawes7471]

Sat 2/22/14-Part II
So we arrived at POR about 4pm and it really is a lovely resort.

There was a very small line at online check in but we were immediately approached by staff and my sil was directed to concierge counter for check-in and I was assisted by staffmember with an ipad. Our reservation at POR was our original reservation, therefore we had a separate set of magicbands for this portion of the trip, as with our 1st set, we had received these in the mail a few weeks beforehand. Our bands were scanned and I was given a map, staff went over all the landmarks and then explained directions to our room, 8775 Magnolia Terrace. Feeling disappointed, I asked, " Is this a room that sleeps 5, because I requested that in my original reservation?" The pleasant staffmember responded, "but you only have 4 and no this room does not have the pull down bed." I asked if we could change that because I have a 4 year girl and an almost 14 year old boy, which is why I had requested the pull down bed in my original reservation (they did not show this request in their system btw). While they could move my group of 4, there was nowhere near to move my sil. They offered to put my 4 in building 39 and after discussing with dh and sil, we decided to try the rooms assigned as we were too tired to make any sort of rational decisions. Also, my sil pointed out that building 85 was very close to the east depot and that may be more of a benefit that the 5th bed. So off we went, but not before the staffmember gave both myself and my son a birthday button ( i had noted in my reservation that we were celebrating my 40th and his 14th even though they were a few weeks away.)
After a 5 or so minute walk, we found our building:


This was the view from in front of our building:


As we read the signs, my heart started to sink a little. My other room request had been 1st floor and corner room if available, we got neither. We quickly found our room, lugged our stroller up the steps, as the elevators were a bit more inconvient due to distance from our room. Got to our door and guess what? None of our bands would open our door. SIL's band opened her door though. We went inside, called the front desk and were told to come back with all the bands, not uber convenient. DH returned to the lobby and the rest of us stayed in dsil room. I called bellservices to ask that our luggage be sent up so we could at least be ready to unpack once dh returns. Well, they didnt have our luggage, "could be a few more hours," I responded, " We dropped these of at 10:55am at AOA and were told they would be available by 2pm" "well, he said, we've been very busy with the marathon and all." At this point, (cue over tired, soon to become over emotional traveler) I was near tears, which is a rare occurence. I was really feeling like I had picked the wrong resort, maybe the wrong vacation and that all these things I read before coming about the current state of Disney was coming true and that this was all a big mistake. Count to ten, start reminding self that there are people that wont eat today let alone be able to complain that their room requests werent met, etc and dh sends text, "try your band now, and...it we are in!
10 minutes later, dsil called bell services to ask about her luggage and they say, " yes, you have 6 pieces, we will bring them up," she said, " I have 2 pieces but my brother's family are next door and they have 4." So thankfully, another 15 min later and a very delightful man was at our door and we were back on track.
With all the issues with check in/luggage etc, I failed to take any pics of our room. I will say it was fine, it was def bigger than our room at AOA, esp the bathroom area, however, we noticed very quickly what I had read previously here on the boards, the storage space was minimal and we def had to be creative to find places to put our suitcases. At this point, my other over tired, over emotional traveller asks, "where's my little bed" I was hoping she wasnt going to remember but of course not. She proceeds to have a small meltdown and I again ask ds, "what do you think, should we just stay in this room, move to the other one and just be separated from your sister? try and change resorts all together?" To which he responded, "Noone in this group is capable of making a sound decision tonight. Let's just try it out for tonight and discuss it in the am when we are more clear." Reason #348 our marriage works, one of us can usually maintain moments of clarity
About 4 weeks before our trip I had made most of our dining reservations and a few fp+'s. Tonight we had a 5:40pm reservation at Garden Grill in Epcot. We had decided after our last trip with an almost 3 year old that 2 hour dinners prob werent our best bet, even though this would mean "sacrificing" being able to go to some really great places, esp since we were on "free" dining. I booked mostly family styles and buffets and this really worked well for us this trip, maybe not my waistline, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
I orginally had fp+ for MIssion space at 2pm, Nemo and Friends at 410pm and Soarin at 6pm. After our crazy arrival I attempted to change the fp+ for later in the evening but had several errors while trying to do this on the MDE mobile app (I have an Iphone 4). I called for tech support and we just ended up cancelling our Mission Space and Nemo and moving our Soarin to a 7:05-8:05pm window.
We quickly freshened up and caught our bus to Epcot for dinner and a few rides. We arrived at Garden Grill about 6pm (past our reservation time) but were seated within 10 minutes. Had a nice server Luis, who quickly got things started and this is exactly what we needed. Drinks, salad and the bread with maple butter were on the table within minutes:


Quickly but not rushed, came the main courses and I thought the presentation was great:

This is the beef, fish and I believe turkey. At one end are the mashed potatoes and the stuffing at the other. Everyone really like it all, not all of us like the same things of course. My four do not care for turkey/stuffing but sil said it was good. We all loved the fish, even asked for seconds of it along with the salad. Children actually get a served meal and Pnut's plate was the most impressive child's meal we encountered all week I think:


Her meal included baked sweet potato fries and broccoli and she ate almost the entire plate minus the mac n cheese.

Almost immed after we sat down the characters started coming around, and by the end of dinner we had seen them all and even saw Mickey and Chip twice. All the interactions were very good and we enjoyed the rotating as well as the visuals. I forgot to take pics of dessert but we all felt it was way better than we expected, two small cast iron lemon berry cobblers with vanilla ice cream. Pnut also got a kids dessert that I dont remember her complaining about. Our bill (of course, other than tip, we had no out of pocket expense, just 4 table service credits used. I would also like to put in a plug for all in the service industry, we always try to tip in cash. More and more facilities are going to a policy in which servers, etc receive a portion of their credit card tips on their paycheck at a later date. I know that when I waited tables, I needed that cash, just something to consider, plug over


We proceeded to our Soarin fp+, our bands worked just perfect and we had maybe a 7 minute wait before boarding. Even though I think Disney could def change the movie or add new things, it is still an amazing experience. this was Pnut's 1st time aboard and she LOVED it. NExt we headed to Nemo, for which we cancelled our earlier fp+ , no problem at all, standby waittime posted was 10 minutes and we walked on, I think it takes about 4 minutes just to walk through the empty line corrals. At this point we decided we are about done for and as we had an 8am reservation in the am, started to head out....until we saw Test Track standby was 20 minutes. We had not been on TT our last 2 visits due to the updates and scheduling interactions. It took us 12 minutes until we were in our car, fantastic! Best part, as we flew out onto the test track, the fireworks started, too cool. We thought the new tt was really cool, ds and pnut loved the interactive car design and the ride itself was fun, Pnut shouted, " That was totally awesome!" and with that we proceeded to exit ahead of the crowds, find our bus, get back to the resort and lights out ( me and pnut in one bed, dh and ds in the other) . After a crazy start full of ups and downs, the day ended magically, and I started to breathe a sigh of relief but I think was asleep drooling before the sigh ended.

Coming soon, Sunday 2/23/14 Magic Kingdom....

 

[wiigirl]

Wonderful update!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Not the smoothest change over but you ended on a high I think when you are tired it is easy for things to jarr when they are not right but at least you made the decision to sleep on it, so fingers crossed you made it through the night!