Well, our much planned trip has come and gone, and I can't say that there were too many ways to make it better. A brief recap of our characters:
Me, 41 yo working mom, Disney obsessed
DH, 41 yo working dad, loves Disney and doesn't fight my obsession
DS#1, almost 7 yo, with mom's love of Disney, ready to tackle the big rides
DS#2, almost 2.5, on his first trip ever
DM, 68 yo, travelling with us to WDW for the second time, greatest mom in the world.
We departed from Newark at 2:15 PM on 12/4. We flew Song, having gotten an amazing deal on the airfare. Having never flown this airline, I didn't know what to expect, but I must say I would fly them again in a heartbeat. Both flights were on time, staff was pleasant and attentive, nice big leather seats w/ direct TV at every seat. We had been previously assigned seats in the row in front of the exit row, so on the way down they moved me, dh and ds#2 one row up. On the way back, I went to the gate and told them the dilemma and they ended up moving my entire family up to rows 1 and 2 so we had a bulkhead. Much more pleasant. Arrived on time, had to wait a bit for the luggage (I just hate checked bags) and then headed out to get our minivan from National. I had joined National's Emerald Club so we just went to the lane and picked a van. We brought our own carseat for ds#2, got it installed, loaded up and headed out. The wait to get out the checkout lanes was a bit long, but once out of there, we headed off to our rental condo for the week.
We rented a 3 bdrm condo at Windsor Palms. This is about 4 miles from Disney off the road where Splendid China used to be. Found it quickly and made our way up. What a lovely home. Clean, spacious, with everything we needed for our stay. The owner even purchased a new full sized crib prior to our arrival and we were the first to use it (I had to remove the plastic wrapping from the mattress). I was a bit nervous about ds#2 sleeping in the crib, as he's never slept anywhere but his own crib since birth. But once we showed it to him, put in his sheet and blanket and his stuffed animals, he climbed right in and went to sleep. Every night was exactly the same...not a minute's problem. What a joy. DH and I went to the grocery store to stock up on some essentials we'd need for the week and then we crashed, looking forward to our first day at the parks.
Me, 41 yo working mom, Disney obsessed
DH, 41 yo working dad, loves Disney and doesn't fight my obsession
DS#1, almost 7 yo, with mom's love of Disney, ready to tackle the big rides
DS#2, almost 2.5, on his first trip ever
DM, 68 yo, travelling with us to WDW for the second time, greatest mom in the world.
We departed from Newark at 2:15 PM on 12/4. We flew Song, having gotten an amazing deal on the airfare. Having never flown this airline, I didn't know what to expect, but I must say I would fly them again in a heartbeat. Both flights were on time, staff was pleasant and attentive, nice big leather seats w/ direct TV at every seat. We had been previously assigned seats in the row in front of the exit row, so on the way down they moved me, dh and ds#2 one row up. On the way back, I went to the gate and told them the dilemma and they ended up moving my entire family up to rows 1 and 2 so we had a bulkhead. Much more pleasant. Arrived on time, had to wait a bit for the luggage (I just hate checked bags) and then headed out to get our minivan from National. I had joined National's Emerald Club so we just went to the lane and picked a van. We brought our own carseat for ds#2, got it installed, loaded up and headed out. The wait to get out the checkout lanes was a bit long, but once out of there, we headed off to our rental condo for the week.
We rented a 3 bdrm condo at Windsor Palms. This is about 4 miles from Disney off the road where Splendid China used to be. Found it quickly and made our way up. What a lovely home. Clean, spacious, with everything we needed for our stay. The owner even purchased a new full sized crib prior to our arrival and we were the first to use it (I had to remove the plastic wrapping from the mattress). I was a bit nervous about ds#2 sleeping in the crib, as he's never slept anywhere but his own crib since birth. But once we showed it to him, put in his sheet and blanket and his stuffed animals, he climbed right in and went to sleep. Every night was exactly the same...not a minute's problem. What a joy. DH and I went to the grocery store to stock up on some essentials we'd need for the week and then we crashed, looking forward to our first day at the parks.
