The most perfect trip ever!

[garada3]

Aside from the toe and the migraine this trip sounds wonderful!

Your daughter looks so cute in her outfits and I just love the photos of your daughter and her cousins together. What wonderful memories you have created for these kids!

Another couple of questions about the VIP guides - is there a minimum number of hours that the guide must be hired for per day? Can the hours be divided - say part of the time in the morning and then more hours later in the day? Can you use them for more than one park in a day?

Thanks for the great report and I am looking forward to your next installment

 

[praline3001]

Love your trip report B!!

Sounds like you had the time of your life and a trip I am sure Savannah will never forget!

She is already asking, "when do we go back?"

Awesome Trip Report Brook!!!

I can't believe your SIL is expecting!!! Congratulations to Everyone!!!

thanks! We are all very excited about my SIL expecting!!! I kept taking pics of "jellybean" and my SIL kept laughing telling me to stop taking pics of her gut

Aside from the toe and the migraine this trip sounds wonderful!

Your daughter looks so cute in her outfits and I just love the photos of your daughter and her cousins together. What wonderful memories you have created for these kids!

Another couple of questions about the VIP guides - is there a minimum number of hours that the guide must be hired for per day? Can the hours be divided - say part of the time in the morning and then more hours later in the day? Can you use them for more than one park in a day?

Thanks for the great report and I am looking forward to your next installment

There is a minimum of 6 hours. You can't split it up... you can go back and rest but the guide is still ont he clock.
You can parkhop with the guide if you wish. If you wish for them to drive you (especially good if you want to park hop with the guide) she can take you from park to park and you will park backstage.

 

[goofygal531]

Wow! That's awful you both fell ill on your special VIP day. It sounds like you still had a wonderful time regardless.

Sorry I'm one of those people running down main st with my stroller My DS4 cannot understand why at 8am he can ride whatever he'd like then come 11am, he can't. Children have no concept of 120 mins standby lines

Can't wait to read more! Every morning now I sit with my coffee to read about your trip. Mine was not nearly as interesting. With two little kids, we rode the same rides over and over and over and then hit the pool. Same routine for nine days! I'm taking notes for when they're older. WDW is so different as your kids grow up.

Hey Brook, how did you like your Ameribag? I noticed in the photos you didn't sling it, just wore it on your shoulder. Was it comfortable? Did it hold all your stuff?

Mare

 

[praline3001]

Wow! That's awful you both fell ill on your special VIP day. It sounds like you still had a wonderful time regardless.

Sorry I'm one of those people running down main st with my stroller My DS4 cannot understand why at 8am he can ride whatever he'd like then come 11am, he can't. Children have no concept of 120 mins standby lines

Can't wait to read more! Every morning now I sit with my coffee to read about your trip. Mine was not nearly as interesting. With two little kids, we rode the same rides over and over and over and then hit the pool. Same routine for nine days! I'm taking notes for when they're older. WDW is so different as your kids grow up.

Hey Brook, how did you like your Ameribag? I noticed in the photos you didn't sling it, just wore it on your shoulder. Was it comfortable? Did it hold all your stuff?

Mare

Well I am sure your a polite stroller mama
Its the ones that take great pleasure at ripping up my heels that I don't like

I really liked my Ameriabag!!!!!!! It was super comfy and had lots of little pockets to hold stuff! The only issue was with pictures... I am errr...well... a bit top heavy... the sling would hit right at my ...well...err... cleavage

making me look more top heavy than I already am
So I would rearrange it for pics so my you know whats weren't so obvious

We did the same rides over and over...just different ones. Savannah was RNR, TOT,TT, EE nuts this trip I think I must have ridden each one at least 10-20 times

 

[Becx N Gav]

Hi Brook,
I am really enjoying reading your tread It looks like you and Savannah had the time of your lives!

I am so sorry to hear about your poor toes I found it painful to read let alone experience it!
It's a real shame the mother over reacted, no compassion it seems

I cannot wait to hear more and am getting very tempted to try the VIP treatment Maybe if we win the lottery

Thank you for sharing his wonderful trip, it helps kill the time until we get to go in December

 

[praline3001]

Hi Brook,
I am really enjoying reading your tread It looks like you and Savannah had the time of your lives!

I am so sorry to hear about your poor toes I found it painful to read let alone experience it!
It's a real shame the mother over reacted, no compassion it seems

I cannot wait to hear more and am getting very tempted to try the VIP treatment Maybe if we win the lottery

Thank you for sharing his wonderful trip, it helps kill the time until we get to go in December

Yeah the toes were bad but even with that we had a super magical time!!! I dont want anyone feeling sorry for me as Disney spoiled me rotten our entire week
You know.. there is nothing worse than staying GF conceirge with a VIP tour guide to really make things horrid

Tomorrow I am planning on typing up our DHS day with the VIP.... I am still unpacking and doing laundry today

 

[praline3001]

Day 6 DHS day with the VIP guide

WOW what a whirlwin yesterday was for us! I was still not recovered as my toe was in shambles. I was really worried about this day being a bust on my part ... i hate being the heavy lol
Savannah was fully recovered from her migraine and was excited again!

We ate breakfast in the SL lobby. We then went and met my brother's family out in front of GF with the car seats in hand. Carolyn met us 5 minutes later with a van.
I talked to Carolyn on the way to DHS and explained how much pain I was in. I told her I might have to rest several times during the day and I would need her help with Savannah A LOT as I would not be able to keep up.
She said NOt a problem!
She parked backstage right across from the hat rope drop area. she took our park tickets and told us to meet her at the rope. We did so while she checked us in... we did NOT have to have our bags checked at any time we entered with the guide... I wanted to mention that... no security lines for us!

Here we are waiting for our guide to check us in:

Once she checked us in we were on our way to Toy Story mania before rope drop. There were 3 or 4 other families with VIP guides along with us .... we were all having fun and laughing the whole way.

Not the best score of the day

During the day, Savannah rode this ride 6 times. This was unreal as the line was NUTS!!!!!!!! She loved it so the guide took her 3 times and I took her 3 times.

After Toy Story we headed over to Star tours. On a side note my nephew has turned into the biggest star wars fan recently. He has that lego star wars video game and is star wars gaga!!! He had never been int he star wars area before as my brother didnt think we would like it as he didnt know what star wars WAS LOL
This was a huge must do and we wanted to do it early so he would stop bugging us about it LOL

LOOK< NO PEOPLE!!!!! My prego SIL keeping up with the rest of the group

It was close!!!

 

[praline3001]

After the ride, I spent some money spoiling my nephew hahaha I bought him some star wars toys and a costume. We then made our way over the the jedi academy which was just about to start. The guide mentioned having Alex get picked to be in the show but my SIL didnt know how he would react (he is only 4) so she decided that we should stand in the back the first show and let Alex SEE from afar. If he liked it, well the next show we could get him on stage.

Good thing SIL was smart lol Darth Vader came on stage and Alex looked at me and said, "Aunt Brook I glad I not up there. I would have peed my pants." hahahahahahaha
Here is a pic of his face when Darth vader walked on stage

He did much better in the back and loved the show but would have been scared to death on stage LOL


We were there while star weekend was going on but we didnt go to DHS during the weekend... I heard it was jammed packed and more for older kids... not preschoolers. As my nephew was the only star wars fan we didnt think it would be worth fighting the crowds all day!

Savannah was bored with star wars so we walked around and took a few pics while Alex watched the show:

then we saw a store with High School musical cheerleader costume!!!!!!!!!! She went NUTSO ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she had to have it LOL sooo I got it for her and we did a quick bathroom change! The guide then split our group up as Savannah wanted to see Highschool musical and my brothers family (being younger) wanted to see playhouse disney.
They got front row for playhouse and we got front row for HMS.... Here are the pics of us

This started the transistion for Savannah from Princess to HM, HMS and jonas brothers fan =( my baby was growing up =(
She got picked to go up in front to dance which she LOVED!!!!!!! I have video of it but will have to upload it to share!

I am not sure if the guide made a whisper or 2 or if Savannah got picked herself... thats how the guides work... they dont let you know all the behind the scenes work it takes to pull you day off! It is all done seamlessly!

Some pics while we waited for playhouse Disney to be done

then my brother's family went to see the car stunt show (savannah saw it in Feb and didnt want to see it again) they got front row. The guide took savannah and I on RNR and TOT twice each while they were in their show.

 

[praline3001]

Another note about the shows and the VIP guide...
She set it up where we were always in the front row with the best seats. We would show up maybe 5 minutes before it started (sometimes less) and be right up front with no waiting... other people were standing for an hour just to get in to get a seat and here we were walking up with the best seats in the house

After that we all met up at prime time for lunch. The wait was soooo long and there was nothing the guide could do =(
we waited an hour to be seated... i only waited as this is my fav lunch usually as we have always had the best luck with funny waiters.

The food was horrible, the wait unbareable and the staff was in a hurry and didnt even have time to smile or talk to us... just threw our food at us =(
it took us 2 hours to finish this meal due to how busy it was... i will most likely never eat here again.
After are crappy lunch we went strait to Beauty and the Beast which was about to start. We had our choice of 1-3 rd row and savannah picked the 3rd row so she could see over the stage lol

After the beauty and beast show we had our option of getting to our place for the parade or RNR and TOT again... savannah picked the rides over the parade.... so even though we had the same type of seats for the parade the day before we skipped it as she wanted the thrill rides ... she was getting tired of the characters =(

 

[praline3001]

Afterwards my brothers family was worn out.... my SIL wasn't feeling so hot as she was hot and prego LOL
The guide drove them back to the resort while she made arrangements for savannah and i to get into little mermaid. This is the one show at DHS she cant promise front row for... she can promise to get you into the show but the seating is first come first serve.
She also gave us 4 FP for tot and RNR so we did those each 2 more times and then she met us in the gift shop of TOT. Savannah wanted cotton candy so she got her candy and by this time my toe was THROBBING. I sat down for a good couple of hours while the guide took Savannah to the honey i shrunk the kids playground, TOT, RNR and 3 times on toy story.

We saw the power rangers.. the yellow one was the only one with no line so Savannah wanted to see her

Here is the stand by line wait was Savannah was jumping on and off the ruide with the guide... the longest I saw it was a 130 minutes but I didnt take a picture then. This is the only time I snapped a shot of the wait time.

I took a nice few hours break and kept an eye on where they were at ,..... but the guide and Savannah raced off together riding all of Savannah's favs. We did not do the indy show as savannah did it in feb and wasnt thrilled with it.
She also wasnt a big muppets fan .... i did go and ride the great movie ride on my own but rested for the most part.
We then all went to dinner. we ate at mama melrose and I was suprised on how GOOD it was. I h ave always heard mixed reviews but we REALLY liked it!!! No more prime time for lunch for us.... mama melrose all the way lol

After dinner back to TOT and RNR yet AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! Savannah was killing me with these 2 rides hahahaha

she rode each 3 more times and then it was time for Fantasmic. We decided NOT to go to fantasmic ...even though we had a spot down in front center reserved for us hahahaha we saw the show in Feb and as the park was really getting crowded and my toe was throbbing SOOOOOOOOOO bad I couldn't enjoy the show if i wanted to ..... we left the park right before the fantasmic show started.
That was a pretty full day for us... opening DHS and staying until Fantasmic started WOW!!!!!
We might not have done EVERYTHING but we chose not to do everything... savannah wanted to ride RNR and TOT until she puked and though she didn't puke she had her fill hahahaha

I am sure I am missing about a million little special things we did with the guide.... there was just WAY too much to remember everything.... we are talking a total whirlwind!
The only bad thing was i kept forgetting to take pictures!!!!!! I was having so much fun I would forget to grab the camera and take pics!
I am sure i will add more to this day as things click with my memory..... it was an extremely magical day for Savannah ... and I could not have done the parks with my toes without the guide.

After we got back from the park, we went to the pool for a nice evening swim. I soaked my toes in the cool water which took the swelling down. We then did room service dinner, bathed and went to bed!!!!

more turn down service pics... it was always done up so cute... no towel animals but I think begging for towel animals is just plain tacky IMO I mean really, begging for a folded towel just seems creepy to me
I much rather them take Savannah's collection of stuffed animals and decorate with those... too cute

I really enjoyed out time with the VIP guide. We would have never done everything we did without her! There were a ton of small things she did for us all during the day that made the day soooo much easier to handle with the summer heat and crowds!
I am terrible at rememebring every little details so I am not the best at trip reports LOL
I dont regret any of the time or money we spent on the guides.... especially with my toes! Savannah would have had to go back to the room after lunch for the day had it not been for the guide. We ended up staying with her until right before Fantasmic ...open til almost close!

 

[DisneyJo]

Having the guide sounds fantastic, the amount of rides you got done was great.

Your poor toes though and I can't believe that Mum was shouting at you

 

[praline3001]

Having the guide sounds fantastic, the amount of rides you got done was great.

Your poor toes though and I can't believe that Mum was shouting at you

Yeah it was a bit sureal

I wasnt mad at the little girl at all...the scream was just a natural reaction for having your broken toe stomped on

The next day will be fun too as we did the wildlife discovery tour for concierge guest. If you ever get the chance to do this I highly recommend it!!!!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thank you so much for sharing your vacation with us. I'm enjoying all your vacation moments. Your DD is soooo cute and I love her outfits each day.

When you had the VIP tour...you mentioned that the CM would get your daughter drinks, popcorn and snacks...is that included with the VIP tour or do you have to hand money to the CM everytime she gets your daughter something?

Another question, I see when you had the VIP tour in MK...you were able to get a picture with Mickey and Minnie...was this something you have requested or they just did it for you. You also mentioned that you were going to meet more characters at the end of the day in MK but you and daughter headed back to GF...was the character meeting something your daughter requested. I love your spot for the parade in MK.

If you where to pick two parks to get a VIP tour which would you pick in order?
Since you had 3 days of VIP tour...did they offer you a discount since you book more than 1 day?

Thanks again

 

[HonnyDipp]

Adorable pics, thanks for sharing!

 

[praline3001]

Thank you so much for sharing your vacation with us. I'm enjoying all your vacation moments. Your DD is soooo cute and I love her outfits each day.

When you had the VIP tour...you mentioned that the CM would get your daughter drinks, popcorn and snacks...is that included with the VIP tour or do you have to hand money to the CM everytime she gets your daughter something?

Another question, I see when you had the VIP tour in MK...you were able to get a picture with Mickey and Minnie...was this something you have requested or they just did it for you. You also mentioned that you were going to meet more characters at the end of the day in MK but you and daughter headed back to GF...was the character meeting something your daughter requested. I love your spot for the parade in MK.

If you where to pick two parks to get a VIP tour which would you pick in order?
Since you had 3 days of VIP tour...did they offer you a discount since you book more than 1 day?

Thanks again

The guide had my key to the kingdom card and she charged everything to our room. I told her once in the morning that any thing she needed to charge to the room was okay so we didn't have to keep going over it
I wanted to make sure Savannah got plenty of water... i think part of the migraine she got was not drinking enough water in the heat ... but i ainte sure ... anyway i made sure the guide got her water A LOT.... to make sure she stayed hydrated.... remember kids need lots of extra water in the summer and that a cranky child could be a dehydrated child!!!
As conceriege guest, we got free drinks in our building at SL but not in the parks.

Before out trip they sent us a questionaire of the things we wanted to do on our VIP days. On that questionaire it asks who your favorite characters are. I mentioned Savannah loved cindy but we were eating 2 meals with cindy and that it would be nice to see mickey and minnie without lines.
I also mentioned peter pan was my nephews favorite but that we didn't want to see a chacter if it meant standing in line for an hour LOL she just told us she had it set up and we went spur of the moment if we wanted to... we could have turned it down had we wanted to do something else. We did turn down a lot of things offered by the guide to do other stuff.. example would me front row roped off area for the parade at DHS ... savannah wanted to ride TOT and RNR AGAIN instead of seeing the parade
These guides work to personalize the day FOR YOUR GROUP... please realize that. You contact them and they plan what YOU WANT. What Savannah wanted might not be what you want in a tour guide
We got exactly what we wanted and I was happy.

We did not get any discounts. These guides book up and there is no need for them to give discounts
they are not easy to get as they book fast.
At least to my knowledge there are no discounts for them LOL

As to what days to use one? that is up to your family really.
I highly recommend MK day to use one. Just avoiding the crowds and the parades were worth it IMO...

I also would do DHS day with a VIP guide again. There are many shows at DHS and doing them on your own ... its really hard to stand in line 45 minutes before the show starts to get decent seats for EVERY show. It takes so much out of your day!!!! The guide reserves you front row and you saunter in after lunch or after riding rides... 5 minutes before the show starts and have the best seats in the house

We did not do the guide for our AK day. There are few rides and mostly viewing animals. We did the wildlife discovery tour instead on our last AK day... highly recommended as we loved it!
Doing this special tour was enough for us and I didnt get the guide for AK day.

The epcot day was really nice too... it would be a hard pick... but epcot didnt have near the shows so with DHS you get both seating for shows and rides

I also liked that the guide had several ADRS set up for us for different places to pick from!!!! I got to pick on the spot do we eat at LTT, CP or tonys for lunch .... right there at lunch time rather than having the ADRS 6 months in advance
I hate that I have to decide where i am going to eat lunch 6 months in advance ... so this was WAY cool for us!

 

[PeterAll]

more turn down service pics... it was always done up so cute... no towel animals but I think begging for towel animals is just plain tacky IMO I mean really, begging for a folded towel just seems creepy to me

I want to agree with you BUT I just can't. This is disney's fault. they have mousekeepers who do this and then your kids remember it and expect and then when they don't they get upset!

I think there should be a small list in the room with boxes to check off
--more towels
--more soap
--towel animals

Those who want them would get them and those who don't want or don't know about thm won't get any unexpected surprises when they come in and turn on the lights.

its nice that you had choice of where to eat lunch too but i hope no one was turned away at the other places because of that.
I have mixed feelings about that.

 

[katiebug86]

Hi.. new comer. I just caught up with your TR and I must say I am hooked. It doesn't hurt that you are from New Orleans, either. I was born and raised in Gretna. We moved when I was 13, but I still go ATLEAST once a year (for Mardi Gras and usually sometime in the Summer) because I have tons of family there. For some reason I love reading TR's of people that come where I come from. Don't know why. Keep up the good work!

 

[praline3001]

I want to agree with you BUT I just can't. This is disney's fault. they have mousekeepers who do this and then your kids remember it and expect and then when they don't they get upset!

I think there should be a small list in the room with boxes to check off
--more towels
--more soap
--towel animals

Those who want them would get them and those who don't want or don't know about thm won't get any unexpected surprises when they come in and turn on the lights.

its nice that you had choice of where to eat lunch too but i hope no one was turned away at the other places because of that.
I have mixed feelings about that.

Yeah hmmm lets all beg for free stuff at disney
hmm then maybe we can beg for free magical moments and beg for dream fp's and all that good stuff

The best part of Disney is getting these things without asking or begging for them!
I dont hate the little towel animals but to leave notes and beg for them? Not classy IMO
My daughter likes the little towel animals but I have brough her up in a manner that she knows these are little surprises and she should not expect anything for free

As to the ADR thing... well if Disney themselves do this than I guess I wont be going to Disney jail for doing it
Seriously Disney was the one that overbooked our ADRS it was great being able to pick where to eat last minute..
I am going to "guess" nobody got the boot at meal time for us. Its not like you make real ressies for dining ... its more like a FP for dining than anything

 

[praline3001]

Hi.. new comer. I just caught up with your TR and I must say I am hooked. It doesn't hurt that you are from New Orleans, either. I was born and raised in Gretna. We moved when I was 13, but I still go ATLEAST once a year (for Mardi Gras and usually sometime in the Summer) because I have tons of family there. For some reason I love reading TR's of people that come where I come from. Don't know why. Keep up the good work!

welcome! I know where gretna is

I hope you enjoy the trip report as I totally suck at making one of these

 

[miceli20]

Love the TR. Your dd is precious. I am from Hammond, I'm sure you know where that is, I was wondering if you can book the guide if you are staying at the value resorts as well. Can't wait to hear more about your trip. Soo sorry about the toes, I do understand the inevitable yelp of pain.