WDWfantasy
WDW Fanatic
- Joined
- May 1, 2000
- Messages
- 471
Trip Report part 1
When: Saturday May 25 - Saturday June 8
Where: POR 6nts using DVC points 8 nts cash
Who: Me Kami age 33
DH Eric age 34
DD Amy age 11
DD Kelly age 9
History: We are DVC members and have been to WDW once or twice each year the last four years. We usually stay a minimum of 10 days each time. We aren't park commandos by any means. We do go to the 4 main parks during our stay at least one time for each. Usually twice for MK and MGM. But we spend only a few hours there and then spend the remainder of our time at the water parks or the pool.
This trip came about just a couple of months ago. We had DVC points in reservation status from a cancelled cruise several months ago. We had orginally planned a short trip to Disneyland/California Adventure with these points the first week of June but then found out that the plane tickets that we had purchased to go along with the cruise had to be used before the end of August. Being from California we opted to use the plane tickets to fly to Florida and that brings us to this trip to the POR. Enough said.
DAY 1-We drove to the Sacramento Airport (about 2 hours south of where we live) on the morning of 5/25. Our Delta flight left on time at 3pm and after a connection in Atlanta we landed at MCO at 12:30 am...yawn. After picking up the Avis rent a car we were off to POR. Arriving at 1:45am we were the last to check in for the night or the first to check in for the next day...however you want to look at it. We had all of our requests met for our standard view room. Magnolia Terrace, non-smoking, top floor, room number 8912. We rolled the luggage in and hit the sheets. This was a great room. Last time we stayed at POR we had a room that was a connecting room and we could hear everything through those connecting doors...very annoying. This time we had a regular room and we never heard a peep from either side of us the entire 14 nights.
DAY 2-The first full day (Sunday 5/26) we spent entirely by the main pool at POR just unwinding. In the evening we took the boat to DD to purchase our PAPs. At this point POFQ was still deserted. The boat driver said that things would be in full swing there on Friday 5/31. We had a great ride to DD. Our boat driver was a riot!! Every time he would see someone on the paths he would honk the horn and then say with his Gomer Pyle accent things such as "howdy biker lady with the pink shorts" or "ahoy family with the blue stroller". Probably funnier if you were actually there. LOL Anyway, the trip back was another story. With the recent boom of business at WDW there are many and I repeat MANY new CM's in training. Our boat driver was a newbie for sure. The CM that was training him rode along and did the talking but the new guy did the huh um....driving. From the time we pulled away from DD until we reached POR his hands were non stop on the wheel. It was like we were doing a slalom course. We never went in a straight line. At first it was kind of funny but after awhile it was rather unnerving. As he passed under the first bridge he turned too sharp and the rear of the boat actually swung and hit the cement pillars of the overpass. I actually felt sorry for the CM but I was also worried about the 2 other overpasses that we had to go under. I thought that the trained CM might take over but he didn't. He did stop talking for the rest of the trip and just looked out the front of the boat though. In fact nobody really said a word the whole rest of the way. There were no more incidents at the other 2 overpasses, thank goodness. After the longest boat ride in history we were back safely at POR just prior to 11pm and we were off to bed.
DAY 3-Monday 5/27, Labor Day, was spent entirely at Typhoon Lagoon. DH and the kids spent most of their time doing the slides and the wave pool. I just found a nice lounge chair and was a bum in the sun all day. We did bring a water bottle/fan along and it was great to use for sun bathing. We had one cloud burst that lasted for no more than 10 minutes but I just grabbed our stuff and headed for shelter and returned to my spot in the sun when it was finished. We had dinner at the food court at POR and then drove over to the BW to look around and walked to Epcot to see Tapestry of Dreams, ride Maelstrom a couple of times and then watch Illuminations. Back to POR and in bed by 11.
DAY 4-Tuesday 5/28, we headed to AK for a few hours. We all rode on Primevil Whirl and thought it was great, Dinosaur always love it, Tough to Be a Bug, Festival of the Lion King and finally Kali River Rapids. We skipped the Safari as the park was getting quite crowded. We headed to Rainforest and found a long line. The CM asked if we were Safari Club members and I said no. I had planned to join anyway. $15 for the year with 10% off your meals, a $10 voucher that they mail to you and priority seating. So I walked over and joined in the store and we were seated in less than 10 minutes. They seemed rather understaffed as our waiter was rather unattentive and everything seemed to take forever. The food was ok. We like the RC at DD better. We headed back to POR to swim and relax. Skipped dinner because of the later lunch and had ice cream before heading back to the room around 10.
Are you bored yet?? This is my first real effort at writing a TR and I hope that I'm not putting you all to sleep. I'll post more seperately as this is getting kind of long.
When: Saturday May 25 - Saturday June 8
Where: POR 6nts using DVC points 8 nts cash
Who: Me Kami age 33
DH Eric age 34
DD Amy age 11
DD Kelly age 9
History: We are DVC members and have been to WDW once or twice each year the last four years. We usually stay a minimum of 10 days each time. We aren't park commandos by any means. We do go to the 4 main parks during our stay at least one time for each. Usually twice for MK and MGM. But we spend only a few hours there and then spend the remainder of our time at the water parks or the pool.
This trip came about just a couple of months ago. We had DVC points in reservation status from a cancelled cruise several months ago. We had orginally planned a short trip to Disneyland/California Adventure with these points the first week of June but then found out that the plane tickets that we had purchased to go along with the cruise had to be used before the end of August. Being from California we opted to use the plane tickets to fly to Florida and that brings us to this trip to the POR. Enough said.
DAY 1-We drove to the Sacramento Airport (about 2 hours south of where we live) on the morning of 5/25. Our Delta flight left on time at 3pm and after a connection in Atlanta we landed at MCO at 12:30 am...yawn. After picking up the Avis rent a car we were off to POR. Arriving at 1:45am we were the last to check in for the night or the first to check in for the next day...however you want to look at it. We had all of our requests met for our standard view room. Magnolia Terrace, non-smoking, top floor, room number 8912. We rolled the luggage in and hit the sheets. This was a great room. Last time we stayed at POR we had a room that was a connecting room and we could hear everything through those connecting doors...very annoying. This time we had a regular room and we never heard a peep from either side of us the entire 14 nights.
DAY 2-The first full day (Sunday 5/26) we spent entirely by the main pool at POR just unwinding. In the evening we took the boat to DD to purchase our PAPs. At this point POFQ was still deserted. The boat driver said that things would be in full swing there on Friday 5/31. We had a great ride to DD. Our boat driver was a riot!! Every time he would see someone on the paths he would honk the horn and then say with his Gomer Pyle accent things such as "howdy biker lady with the pink shorts" or "ahoy family with the blue stroller". Probably funnier if you were actually there. LOL Anyway, the trip back was another story. With the recent boom of business at WDW there are many and I repeat MANY new CM's in training. Our boat driver was a newbie for sure. The CM that was training him rode along and did the talking but the new guy did the huh um....driving. From the time we pulled away from DD until we reached POR his hands were non stop on the wheel. It was like we were doing a slalom course. We never went in a straight line. At first it was kind of funny but after awhile it was rather unnerving. As he passed under the first bridge he turned too sharp and the rear of the boat actually swung and hit the cement pillars of the overpass. I actually felt sorry for the CM but I was also worried about the 2 other overpasses that we had to go under. I thought that the trained CM might take over but he didn't. He did stop talking for the rest of the trip and just looked out the front of the boat though. In fact nobody really said a word the whole rest of the way. There were no more incidents at the other 2 overpasses, thank goodness. After the longest boat ride in history we were back safely at POR just prior to 11pm and we were off to bed.
DAY 3-Monday 5/27, Labor Day, was spent entirely at Typhoon Lagoon. DH and the kids spent most of their time doing the slides and the wave pool. I just found a nice lounge chair and was a bum in the sun all day. We did bring a water bottle/fan along and it was great to use for sun bathing. We had one cloud burst that lasted for no more than 10 minutes but I just grabbed our stuff and headed for shelter and returned to my spot in the sun when it was finished. We had dinner at the food court at POR and then drove over to the BW to look around and walked to Epcot to see Tapestry of Dreams, ride Maelstrom a couple of times and then watch Illuminations. Back to POR and in bed by 11.
DAY 4-Tuesday 5/28, we headed to AK for a few hours. We all rode on Primevil Whirl and thought it was great, Dinosaur always love it, Tough to Be a Bug, Festival of the Lion King and finally Kali River Rapids. We skipped the Safari as the park was getting quite crowded. We headed to Rainforest and found a long line. The CM asked if we were Safari Club members and I said no. I had planned to join anyway. $15 for the year with 10% off your meals, a $10 voucher that they mail to you and priority seating. So I walked over and joined in the store and we were seated in less than 10 minutes. They seemed rather understaffed as our waiter was rather unattentive and everything seemed to take forever. The food was ok. We like the RC at DD better. We headed back to POR to swim and relax. Skipped dinner because of the later lunch and had ice cream before heading back to the room around 10.
Are you bored yet?? This is my first real effort at writing a TR and I hope that I'm not putting you all to sleep. I'll post more seperately as this is getting kind of long.
