wee-haggis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2002
- Messages
- 2,175
The Cast
DH-Rick-51 (Always On The Run - King)
DW-Julia-44 (Walkway From The Photo - Queen)
DS-Matt-16 (Not Camera Shy - Prince)
DD-Nicole-15 (Future Animator - Princess)
6 Nights In POP Century and 8 nights In Bahama Bay Resort
Day 15- 27th Dec/07
The Last Day....and Final Thoughts
We wake up before the alarm goes off at 3-50am !
DH loads the car with the suitcases and the kids do a final check under the beds and in the drawers. At 4-15am we are ready to go.
Unfortunately no wake up call was ever received from the front desk!!!! Thank goodness we were not relying on it !
The drive to MCO was quiet and uneventful and the car drop off at Alamo was a breeze. There is a large line-up at the Southwest Airlines desks to check bags and print boarding passes (DH had done the 24hr checkin on the computer the morning before). There was several attendants on duty so the line moved quickly. After the bags were checked we moved on to the Security line which is also massive. DW started to panic thinking we hadn't allowed enough time to get through Security to catch the flight (sometimes she is a "worse case scenario" thinker).
35 minutes later we were on the monorail to the departure area.
We pick up drinks and pastries and settle into our seats at gate 129.
30 minutes later we are called to board. The flight to Buffalo is excellent due to jet-stream air direction allowing us to arrive in 1hr 57 mins (the quickest we have ever flown). Buffalo is cold,snowy and overcast.
(This is a Video taken from the plane)
We find our car,pay the $90 parking fee and head to the Peace Bridge to head back to Canada. The border crossing is no problem (pleasant border guard). The 2hr and 20 min drive home turned into 3hrs and 45 mins due to heavy holiday traffic and rubbish weather. No one is happy to be home.....but the good thing is we are now ready to plan the next one! This is an addiction !!!!
Final Thoughts
The Weather
Excellent except 2 cool days (light jacket and jeans).
Most mornings were cool till about 10am then the sun warmed things up.
To be honest,swimming was mostly for the kids as it was a bit cool for the Old Yins.
No rain for the whole trip (in Orlando).
Flights
Brlilliant!...Can't say enough good things about Southwest.
We have always been lucky with them. The price is fantastic.The organizing is great. Travelling on Southwest is more like travelling on a bus (as opposed to a flight) because there is no customs to go through,and there is no need for the arrival 3 hours before flight. Plus the online checkin allows you to get an A pass (which gave us great seats coming and going...Front Row down and ,Extra middle seat space coming back) .
Buffalo Airport is soooooo much better than Pearson Toronto Airport (its small ,compact,quiet and easy to manoever).
Accomodation
POP Century is a favourite of ours.Everyone enjoys its atmosphere,food court,pools,bus system and location. The staff are fantastic. We chose to have house keeping for one room only making sure that we had fresh towels and garbage removed each day. This meant that we always had one room (of our connecting rooms) available at any given time (not having to be out when the maid came).
Bahama Bay was a nice resort .The staff were pleasant. It was clean and well landscaped and we enjoyed our stay.However, we don't think we will stay again due to the distance away from most of the attractions. We are much happier at somewhere like Cypress Pointe which is close to shops,restaurants and parks.
Crowds
The first 7 or 8 days were quiet and we started to see a steady increase in the numbers as we approached Xmas Day. We are still great believers in arriving at the parks at opening time because it allows you the opportunity to get on the major rides without having to battle the crowds. By lunch time the fast passes are for early evening and everywhere there is a line up.Xmas week was manageable because of the early entry opening times.
You may have noticed that we do not partake in fancy dinners or meals. We like to go to WDW at least twice a year and we think its more important to be able to have 2 trips as opposed to spending money on fancy meals and expensive hotels.
With both kids starting college within the next two years, we may have to curtail our visits until after they have graduated.
These kids cost a fortune...don't they !!!
We have been lucky enough to be able to visit WDW many times in the past .This trip was both fun and relaxing as there was no need to do the parks "commando style" to the point of exhaustion (one of the benefits of Annual Pass).
Thanks for sticking with us and reading our reports.
Over and out !
:wavey:
DH-Rick-51 (Always On The Run - King)
DW-Julia-44 (Walkway From The Photo - Queen)
DS-Matt-16 (Not Camera Shy - Prince)
DD-Nicole-15 (Future Animator - Princess)
6 Nights In POP Century and 8 nights In Bahama Bay Resort
Day 15- 27th Dec/07
The Last Day....and Final Thoughts
We wake up before the alarm goes off at 3-50am !
DH loads the car with the suitcases and the kids do a final check under the beds and in the drawers. At 4-15am we are ready to go.
Unfortunately no wake up call was ever received from the front desk!!!! Thank goodness we were not relying on it !
The drive to MCO was quiet and uneventful and the car drop off at Alamo was a breeze. There is a large line-up at the Southwest Airlines desks to check bags and print boarding passes (DH had done the 24hr checkin on the computer the morning before). There was several attendants on duty so the line moved quickly. After the bags were checked we moved on to the Security line which is also massive. DW started to panic thinking we hadn't allowed enough time to get through Security to catch the flight (sometimes she is a "worse case scenario" thinker).
35 minutes later we were on the monorail to the departure area.
We pick up drinks and pastries and settle into our seats at gate 129.
30 minutes later we are called to board. The flight to Buffalo is excellent due to jet-stream air direction allowing us to arrive in 1hr 57 mins (the quickest we have ever flown). Buffalo is cold,snowy and overcast.
(This is a Video taken from the plane)
We find our car,pay the $90 parking fee and head to the Peace Bridge to head back to Canada. The border crossing is no problem (pleasant border guard). The 2hr and 20 min drive home turned into 3hrs and 45 mins due to heavy holiday traffic and rubbish weather. No one is happy to be home.....but the good thing is we are now ready to plan the next one! This is an addiction !!!!
Final Thoughts
The Weather
Excellent except 2 cool days (light jacket and jeans).
Most mornings were cool till about 10am then the sun warmed things up.
To be honest,swimming was mostly for the kids as it was a bit cool for the Old Yins.
No rain for the whole trip (in Orlando).
Flights
Brlilliant!...Can't say enough good things about Southwest.
We have always been lucky with them. The price is fantastic.The organizing is great. Travelling on Southwest is more like travelling on a bus (as opposed to a flight) because there is no customs to go through,and there is no need for the arrival 3 hours before flight. Plus the online checkin allows you to get an A pass (which gave us great seats coming and going...Front Row down and ,Extra middle seat space coming back) .
Buffalo Airport is soooooo much better than Pearson Toronto Airport (its small ,compact,quiet and easy to manoever).
Accomodation
POP Century is a favourite of ours.Everyone enjoys its atmosphere,food court,pools,bus system and location. The staff are fantastic. We chose to have house keeping for one room only making sure that we had fresh towels and garbage removed each day. This meant that we always had one room (of our connecting rooms) available at any given time (not having to be out when the maid came).
Bahama Bay was a nice resort .The staff were pleasant. It was clean and well landscaped and we enjoyed our stay.However, we don't think we will stay again due to the distance away from most of the attractions. We are much happier at somewhere like Cypress Pointe which is close to shops,restaurants and parks.
Crowds
The first 7 or 8 days were quiet and we started to see a steady increase in the numbers as we approached Xmas Day. We are still great believers in arriving at the parks at opening time because it allows you the opportunity to get on the major rides without having to battle the crowds. By lunch time the fast passes are for early evening and everywhere there is a line up.Xmas week was manageable because of the early entry opening times.
You may have noticed that we do not partake in fancy dinners or meals. We like to go to WDW at least twice a year and we think its more important to be able to have 2 trips as opposed to spending money on fancy meals and expensive hotels.
With both kids starting college within the next two years, we may have to curtail our visits until after they have graduated.
These kids cost a fortune...don't they !!!
We have been lucky enough to be able to visit WDW many times in the past .This trip was both fun and relaxing as there was no need to do the parks "commando style" to the point of exhaustion (one of the benefits of Annual Pass).
Thanks for sticking with us and reading our reports.
Over and out !
:wavey:
