To Hot to Handle or...my Vacation at WDW

[DVCDan36]

Well, here is the trip report for our vacation at WDW from Setpember 12th to the 18th.

Friday, September 10th:
SO and I leave the hometown area at noon after my 10:00 meeting to drive straight through from Northern New York to Orlando, Florida. At about 7pm we arrive in Virginia and make a first long stop for dinner.....at a sit down restaurant. Boy were we not thinking. Our waitress kept giving us strange looks for standing and walking around the dinning room to stretch our legs. About an hour later we where back on the road ready to conquer the rest of the road trip. I tried to take a nap and get some rest so I can switch off driving when SO would get tired. Around 4am I am extremely exhausted and could not make it much further, so Honey takes over and drives us the rest of the way to Orlando arriving at about 10am. After checking with two hotels, we find one that can get us a room right away. We stay at a Best Western on Rte 192. Not the best room, but met our needs for a good nights rest. We sleep until about 3pm, take a quick shower and head down 192 for some food. After awhile of traveling we settle on a Golden Corral (SO has never eaten at one). It was typical, ok food, but we arrived when a big family decided to clear the buffet before anyone else could get some food. I don't mean that each would take one thing, but they would fill their plates with the same item until the container was empty.
We did get our fill and went back to the hotel. Before we settled down for the night, we walked around the various stores.

Sunday: Our first day at Disney.
We check in early Sunday morning at Old Key West Resort, but they didn't have a room ready for us. So after we get our resort card and Disney Deluxe dinning, we head over to Downtown Disney to meet a friend for lunch. We walk around DTD until our friend arrives and then head over to Planet Hollywood for lunch. The meal was your typical fare, but I did enjoy the appetizers that we all shared. After some shopping we are notified that our room is ready and head back for settling in.
After a refreshing shower, we head over to Epcot to get our Annual Passes and walk through Epcot to head towards Disney's Yacht Club for dinner reservations at the Yachtman's Steakhouse. What a fantastic meal and the steaks are perfection. After our meal we head back to Epcot to wait for Illuminations. I walk around the countries while SO takes a break. I meet him at Spaceship Earth for a nice ride. After a long wait, Illumination begins to start and so doesn't the Rain with thunder and lightning. Since it wasn't bad when it started, we watched a few minutes of the show until Lightning started striking inside the park. Totally soaked, we headed back to our car and off to the hotel for the night.

 

[DVCDan36]

Monday....Fun day:

Since we forgot to set our alarm, we got a little late start to meet our friends to head over to Universal Studios. Luckily, we made it with a little bit to spare. We headed over to Islands of Adventure and find a place for a quick breakfast. We grab a sandwhich at one of the bakeries. SO and I grab a quick ride on The Incredible Hulk, which gave us headaches from the continuous head rattle. We meet our friends at the Storm ride (teacup spin ride). After that ride it was off to Spiderman. This was a great ride. We walk through Toon Lagoon, but our friend decides he would like to ride the Popeye Barge ride. I decide to go with him and get totally soaked. Not a good thing to be wet all day. But we walk around the lagoon grab a quick ride on Jarassic Park raft ride, got wet again. Finally, we make it to Harry Potter Land. After testing the ride sets, I could only make it to yellow, not green light. My friends (who are bigger than I am) test the ride seats and couldn't get off red, that is when an employee tells us that if we can get a yellow light, we can ride in a modified seat. Yeah for me (need to loose weight). No one wants to walk through the 45 minute queue with me. I finally guilt the SO to walk through with me. When we arrive at the load area, he is willing to go on the ride with me. I will tell you that that is one of the best rides I have ever riden.
The village portion of the place was just crowded and packed, so we decided to skip this area. We finally end up in Seuslanding and grab a meal at Circus (something). It was an ok meal. Our final ride is the Cat in the Hat ride. Then we head back to the hotel in the afternoon. We grab some dinner at Olivia's. This is a great place for a meal. Since we have been going through clothing fast due to weather, we decide to do some laundry while we hang out at the pool.

Tuesday, not so goods day.

We wake up to the alarm Tuesday morning and we are both not feeling the best. SO calls our friends to let them know we won't be meeting to do Universal Studios side. (Which I was looking forward too). We sleep in a little longer before getting ready. We head over to Olivia's for some lunch and decide to make reservations for dinner since we are staying on Disney property. I head off to MK for some walking around and meet the SO just before dinner at the entrance. We grab a ride on the boat over to Fort Wilderness Lodge and Campgrounds for our reservations at Trail's End Cafe. Same meal they serve at Hoop De Doo, but well worth the trip and atmospher. The boat ride is great too. After a tour of the grounds and a boat ride back we settle at the hotel room for the night.

 

[DVCDan36]

Wednesday.....Ok.

Wednesday we planned to spend the day at DHS. We arrive before the park opens and enjoy the morning people watching at the entrance. After the gates open, we head over to Tower of Terror and get to ride in our own cart, should have gotten a picture, but didn't. We then grab R&R where a little girl was just tall enough to go on for the first time and didn't know if she should. We talked to her for a few minutes and her and her father walk the queue. The rode two seats ahead and she screamed through the whole ride. The picture of her and dad is priceless, but she was ready to ride again.
We walk around the park before heading to our lunch plans at Sci-Fi Dine-Inn. We did get to watch the Jedi Training Academy for a few minutes. We checked into SFDI and waited for a table. They took the family that came in after us first and then we were seated in the same car in the back. Wasn't impressed with this, though the waiter made the joke that they picked up hitch hikers. The family began an argument before settling down. I was ready to be moved. The meal was ok, but I think I would have enjoyed it better if we had other people we knew sitting with us.
After a quick ride on the Great Movie Ride, we head back to the hotel. Our friends meet us at the room and we talk before heading over to Disney's Spirit of Aloha show. This is a great show and the food is very yummy. Though, I think they should limit the amount of food before I eat too much.

Thursday.....with this heat, I am always thursty.

We head over to the Magic Kingdom for a full day. Or at least that was the plan. We grab some breakfast at the Bakery and walked around the corner to find a place to sit. Big mistake to have milk on a warm day. This gives me an upset stomach for the morning. After riding a few rides, we miss our lunch reservations at Crystal Palace. Off to Peco's Bill for some lunch and then we decide to head back to the hotel for a quick nap before our dinner reservations and the Main Street Electrical Parade.
After freshening up, we head back to the MK for dinner at Liberty Inn. This is always a great meal. Since our reservations where late, we were not sure if we would make it to the parade in time. But luckily we did and loved every minute of the parade. We decide to stay around for the fireworks before heading back to the hotel. We meet a really nice older couple waiting in line for the bus back to Old Key West we reguilde their tour on the Disney Cruiseline for DVC Members. I hope we get to book one of those trips some day.

 

[DVCDan36]

Friday.....our day.

This day we planned to go to Epcot, but the heat did us in and decided to lay low. We headed over to the outlet mall for some shopping after breakfast at Olivia's. This is the only time we dealt with a less than stellar Cast Member. Our waiter was a little "gruff". After shopping at the Outlet mall, we headed over to the Boardwalk. We walked around and then ate at ESPN Zone Cafe. By this time we could hardly eat. The food was way too much and threw half of it away. It was ok food, but way too much. We headed back to the hotel for some R&R and I headed down to the main pool to swim there for the first time. It is a really nice pool, though some of the people swimming there had major attitudes. It was funny because one person was talking about how Old Key West was being overrun by non-DVC member and looks at me. Not sure where I came off as a non-DVC Member, but really, do you have to be that much of an idiot.
After showering, I head back to DTD to finish up some last minute shopping, then take the boat back to OKW. I meet SO at Olivia's for one final dinner and had the BEST waitress.
As we where checking in for dinner, SO asks to speak with the manager. The manager comes over after we are seated and SO tells him about our waiter that morning. I was very surprised, because I am the one that makes the complaints. He was very nice and would make sure that the morning manager knew how we were treated, apologizing all the time.
Then Radya comes over to take our orders. She was great, funny, just great. A real asset to the Disney Organization. She is one person that made you feel like family. She convinced SO to try the Conch Fritters, which he would never try if I begged him. They were great. Then the manager comped us a glass of Champaign. This really set off the end of our vacation.

Saturday.....Our trip home.

After packing the car the night before, we were up early on our way back home to the north country. We left at 4am with plans to stop in Virginia. I was tired and slept until we hit South Carolina. The trip back seemed to go smoothly. Ironically, I noticed that the Bible belt area had a lot of adult entertainment and bookstores advertised on the side of the road, something you don't really see through our neck of the woods. I know, ironic for the liberal north. Anyways, back to the trip. I took over driving duties through Virginia and the DC area until I had to take a rest stop. SO took over and we made it into Pennsylvania about 8pm. With about 3 hours to go, we decide we can make it home. By the time we hit Binghamton, New York, but are to exhausted to go any further. We grab the first place we can find, and Econo Lodge. BIG MISTAKE! This place was discusting, if we weren't so tired, we would have left, but we reluctantly stayed. We woke up early the next day and made it home within a few hours.

It was a great vacation, and we learned that we will never try and drive straight through again. We have to find a friend half way between to crash with. Thank you for reading.

 

[unfreshdiva1]

Sounds like you had a great trip! Post some photos if you can!

 

[glenpreece]

Great TR and I agree sometimes there is just too much food.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

Yeah that rain on Sunday was something else.

 

[fairlygay]

Enjoyed your trip report. Especially enjoyed the car driving aspect. My hubby and I are from Southern California and have a 7-1/2 plane ride to look forward too.