Trip Report - Saratoga Springs - March 30 - April 3

[nzdisneymom]

Link to the Cruise portion of our trip

Trip Report – March 30 – April 6, 2008

Cast: Cindy D. (43), Gary (turned 52 while on vacation), Nathan (11 3/4), and Zachary (10 1/2)
Where: Saratoga Springs (Sunday through Thursday)
Disney Wonder (Thursday through Sunday)
Why: Spring Break and celebrating Gary’s 30 year anniversary at his job

Sunday, March 30th:
We drove from home to WDW in our usual 4 1/2 – 5 hours, stopping for lunch in Silver Springs before continuing on to Saratoga Springs. We arrived right around 1 p.m. just after a Magical Express bus unloaded several families, so there were quite a few people in the check-in queue. But the front desk was mostly staffed, meaning that there were only two slots that I noticed that did not have a Cast Member working to check people in. They also had a Cast Member helping guests watch for openings to move the line along. We waited about 10 minutes to be able to check-in.

Check-in was smooth. We had a 1-BR reserved. The CM asked if we had a preference for location and I said only that we preferred to not have a ground floor. I had not called ahead to have anything noted on our reservation beyond it being Gary’s birthday this week. She said we had been assigned a first floor villa, but she checked and found a 3rd floor in the Paddocks with a water view, so she grabbed it for us. It’s perfect for us because it is in the Paddocks building nearest the Congress Park bus stop; we had stayed one building over on a previous trip and really liked the location.

Our room was ready and clean. The only thing we had to do was call that night for sheets for the pull-out bed – I had failed to check for them when we checked in, so it was about 10:35 when we were calling that night with one boy nearly asleep and the other soon behind. Thankfully the sheets delivery came quickly – within 15 minutes. However, the sheets should’ve already been in the room.

After we checked in, we headed over to the Character Premier store at the Outlet center on Vineland. Construction has limited the parking and traffic was a bit of a mess, but we persevered and made it to the parking deck where we easily found a place to park. We were in and out of the store pretty quickly; DH found some 1/2 marathon shirts made out of the material he likes and they were only $4.99 (regularly $34). I picked up a couple of pins for the boys and some post cards for the Fish Extender gifts we were doing with our DISBoard Meet Thread. (Note: The DCL postcards were 39-cents. I saw the same ones on the ship for $1.50+)

Next was a stop at Publix; it was CRAZY in there. We generally shop at Publix at home, but this one was set up completely different than ours. But we got what we wanted and headed back to the resort to get situated and ready to head out to the parks. We had a quick dinner before heading out, though - a nice benefit to staying in a DVC resort!

 

[nzdisneymom]

We had planned to go out to the Magic Kingdom around 5 p.m. as they were open til 2 a.m., but we didn’t make it there til about 7:00. It was pretty busy, so we got a fast pass for Buzz Lightyear and then agreed to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority while waiting for our fast pass time. Well, we hadn’t even made it to the Space Mountain part when the ride shut-down. We waited for a bit and then were evacuated. That was our “new” thing for Sunday. We went on Buzz Lightyear and I finally got high-score for our family! Gary usually beats me. Next we headed for Adventureland to do the Jungle Cruise which we always enjoy at dusk, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean. The boys and I have been playing POTC Online, so it was fun to do the ride.

We followed up with a ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and called it a night by 9:15. We walked back through Adventureland and as there was no line for Aladdin, we all four rode. I rode with Zachary while Gary and Nathan were opposite us. Both boys were in charge of height, and both boys managed to time it right where Gary and I both got spat upon by the camel. Guess we shouldn’t have let them go on Aladdin so much without us on previous trips. We had gotten wrist-bands for Extra Magic Hours just in case we wanted to stay late, but decided we had had enough.

The bus was waiting as we walked up to the bus area, so we didn’t have to wait for a ride back to the hotel. We used the Congress Park bus stop since we were staying in the Paddocks right across the way. We got back to the room and had the kids take showers while we made up their beds – that’s when we discovered that there were no sheets for the sofa. We were all asleep before 11:30 p.m.

oh yeah - we were in room 6703.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Monday, March 31st:

Every year when we have our longer-than-three-days trip to WDW, we have two “split-apart” days – each parent has one-child for the majority of the day for some one-on-one time. The children get to plan the day, and we parents just follow along. Nathan and I were together for the first day, so he planned for us to start at the Magic Kingdom with a blueberry muffin from the Bakery.

We waited about 30 minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus and all four of us headed over to the park. Zachary and Gary headed for Splash Mountain and other Magic Kingdom fun while Nathan and I got our muffin and left, headed for Epcot. We left from the MK so early that the Express Monorail return from MK to TTC was still blocked off, so we hopped onto the Resort monorail to make our transfer over to the Epcot monorail.

We arrived at Epcot around 10:15 and the line was enormous for getting into the park. The Flower and Garden Festival was going on, but it still seemed like more people than we had expected. After entering, we headed for Spaceship Earth as we wanted to see it since it was re-done. The line was 20 minutes; I have only once before seen a line for Spaceship Earth so you can see its increased popularity just from having some changes. Nathan and I really enjoyed seeing what was new and different, but we had the most fun at the end where you create your own future. Our pictures were hilarious and our story was very Jetsonian. We, among others on the ride, were laughing loud and long at our envisioned future.

Upon exiting from Spaceship Earth, we wandered around the Seimans post-show area. They have a game called Power City that we played. It was similar in set-up to Opportunity City that used to be in Innoventions, so we got the hang of it pretty quickly. It was fun and we generated enough power for a Metropolis. We made a note to tell Gary and Zachary about it as we knew Zachary would enjoy it as well.

We next headed up towards the World Showcase and while walking decided to call and see where the other two were. As luck would have it, they were heading over to Epcot, and not only that, they were on the monorail that was just approaching, so we found a spot to watch and wave. We spied them and they saw us, and then we met them in front of Spaceship Earth where the line had grown to 30 minutes. We decided to wait in it because we weren’t sure we would make it back over to Epcot or not, and Nathan really wanted to ride Spaceship Earth with Zachary and also play Power City with him, so they did.

Then we all headed toward Canada as I wanted to see the show. Nathan had put it on our agenda because he knew I wanted to see it since it has been re-done. We stopped for popcorn and soft drinks (lunch of champions, don’t you know?) for the two of us. Gary and Zachary went on to see the show and we were planning to walk back to meet them, but after sitting for a few minutes, Nathan decided he was pretty tired and really wanted to just go see the American Adventure and then head back for the room. So we trekked up to America – one foot after the other – until we got there. We were just in time for the 1:30 show which we both really enjoyed. I haven’t seen it in a while, and Nathan hasn’t seen it when he could remember. He wanted to see it because he’d read about it in one of our Disney books. I got all teared-up at the montage at the end.

As we left, we had missed a call from Gary and Zachary – they were wondering where we were and were heading up to America. We were beat and ready to head back, so we told them we would meet them back at the room. We stopped for a Mickey ice cream bar for Nathan as he has several loose teeth that need to come out and that has done it for him before (sounds like a good reason, anyway). We decided to walk rather than taking the boat across as Nathan wanted to “burn off” his ice cream bar.

We had read that there was some new stuff in Innoventions, so we stopped in (the one by the Electric Umbrella) and found that there is a great interactive activity / game sponsored by Waste Management. There was only one group waiting and they take three groups at a time, so we queued for it and played. It was fun and we both enjoyed it.

Then the bus ride back to Saratoga Springs for a nice rest. I had some work to do, so I signed up for a 24-hour internet session around 4 p.m. to get started, although the bulk of it needed to be done the following morning, being the first of the month. So I checked email, got things set up to get my work done remotely (I absolutely LOVE technology that lets you be able to do that), and paid some bills (being the end of the month and all that).

We have some friends we met last summer who are at WDW this week, too, staying over at Fort Wilderness in one of the cabins, so we had pre-arranged to have dinner together over at the cabin. I have wanted to see the cabins for a while so this was a great way to get together with friends and see the cabin, too. They have two boys, and their nephew and his mom were also there. We picked up right where we left off last summer and really enjoyed seeing them. They grilled out and we brought some side stuff and dessert and hung out til after 9 p.m. It’s really nice at the cabins; each unit is stand-alone and it’s quiet. They said it’s hard to get around without a golf cart, though.

We made it back to SSR around 9:45 and the boys wanted to get into the Jacuzzi tub in the room, so I filled it up and they had a nice long soak. One thing I really love about our stay here is that when you turn on the hot water, you get hot water immediately! Not like at home where you have to wait for it to get warm!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Tuesday, April 1st

I woke up early not feeling well; sore throat, ear ache, hurts to swallow. So I got up and took some medicine, got my work started, and crawled back into bed. This was to be my day with Zachary and I know he has way more energy than Nathan does and never wants to go back to the room. Fortunately he slept in, so I got to rest a bit more. When I logged onto the computer, I noticed that it wanted me to “agree” to Internet charges even though I had just done that at 4 p.m. the previous day, so I made myself a note to double-check our bill later in the day.

Zachary wanted to try Expedition Everest as he hasn’t done it in quite some time and was wondering if he would like it better now that he’s older, so we headed out to Animal Kingdom while Gary and Nathan went to the Magic Kingdom for the day. As we were walking up to the bag-check, I was getting the tickets out and realized that I only had my ticket (or so I told Zachary). He started to be worried when I said “April Fools” and whew – the relief on his face. I did tell him that if I had forgotten his ticket that the CM when we exchanged our vouchers had told me how to get replacements should we ever need to.

We got fast passes for Expedition Everest with a return-time of 11:45, but the line was under 30 minutes, so we decided to just do the line and experience the theming. There is so much detail there, and we also struck up conversation with the couple ahead of us. He wanted to do the ride and she was terrified. This ride, IMHO, is amazing! It is not jerky going up and the sensation on the backward part where you feel like you really need to do a loop is phenomenal. I would have to say this is my favorite ride in all the parks. Zachary didn’t want to do EE again, so we found some folks to give our fast passes to (he and Gary had been given a pair for Soarin’ yesterday), and made our way to Dinoland as Zachary wanted to ride Primeval Whirl (my least-favorite ride in all the parks). After PW, we had a nice easy ride on Triceratop Spin. We stopped for cups of ice-water at the McDonalds fry stand and then made our way out.

By this time, I was starting to fade, and would gladly have returned to the room for lunch and a rest, but as I mentioned before, Zachary has way more energy than the rest of us! So we headed for the Magic Kingdom. You can’t get to the Magic Kingdom directly from Animal Kingdom; you have to go to the Ticket and Transportation Center first. So we waited for the bus. Three buses came for Saratoga Springs and three for Epcot while we were waiting for the one for the TTC. But we agreed that we would rather wait and go that way than go to Epcot and transfer back. Several others who were waiting chose to take the Epcot bus and as they were loading, the TTC bus came up, so we agreed that we had made a good decision!

The ride over to the Magic Kingdom by bus and monorail was a nice rest and I had more energy when we got there. Our first stop was Casey’s for a nutritious lunch (of hot dogs, fries, and soda). We finished lunch pretty quickly and then went in to see the Laugh Floor which we always enjoy. I’m fascinated by the interaction between the monsters and the audience and think that the performers do an amazing job.

Zachary decided because it was April Fools Day that we should do Jungle Cruise again – corny jokes and all that, so we got fast passes and had about 45 minutes to fill. Everything we went by had lines longer than we were willing to wait, so we stopped to get Zachary a churro and wait. Then after Jungle Cruise, we stopped at the Art of Disney store on Main Street and bought a book for Gary’s birthday and returned to the room. Zachary was a good sport about my need to get back.

We got back about 3:30 so I was able to use the last 1/2 hour of our internet session to finish up the work I had, and then I called to check on our billing. Turns out we were billed starting Sunday night which I don’t understand, so I walked down to the front desk and the CM was able to make the adjustment for me. I asked about when the free internet was coming for members and she said “end of spring” which probably means June. While I was down there, I looked around the gift shop (such as it isn’t) and found the 2008 Matchbox Bus – we have been collecting them for several years starting in 2000.

We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing in the room and on the balcony. We made dinner and then the kids had another long soak in the Jacuzzi. We’ve been watching Biggest Loser on NBC and it was on, so we three snuggled on the couch to watch before heading to bed early. I was still feeling pretty awful so I hoped that I would sleep better and feel good the following morning.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Wednesday, April 2nd:

I didn’t sleep well at all, tossing and turning, and my ear and throat pain kept me up much of the night, so I decided I should probably see a doctor sometime today. I think I had a fever in the night as I woke up drenched in sweat at one point. I felt like I kept Gary awake half the night, too, but he says I didn’t.

So after Gary came back from his run (he went every morning and really enjoys running around here – good change from our neighborhood at home), I headed out for Florida Hospital Centra Care. I knew there was one on 535 by the “Pineapple Hotel” but somehow missed it and ended up driving further than I needed to. I got checked in at the clinic and two hours later came out with a diagnosis of ear, throat, and sinus infections and two prescriptions for antibiotics and stronger-pain-relief. I had only taken a limited amount of cash with me and forgotten to put my debit card back in my wallet, so I had to come back to the room to get it. In the meanwhile, I also had to call my primary doctor back home because I forgot to do that first (but it was ok), catch up with Gary and the boys, and follow-up with a couple of folks who are cruising with us starting tomorrow – we had thought we might be able to meet up at Epcot today but that didn’t work out.

Gary and the boys were heading back for lunch, so I just waited for them. We were going to drop off my prescriptions at Walgreens and then just eat at the McD’s that is near there. I didn’t really want McD’s, especially since it is Gary’s birthday. Then he casually mentioned driving down I-Drive to go to Don Pablo’s where we often go when we are here, so family vote was 4 yeses for Don Pablo’s. We waited for my prescription instead of dropping it off and getting it later because as Gary pointed out, the sooner I started it, the sooner I would feel better.

So we had a nice lunch and then headed back to the room for a rest. The meds kicked in (and I’m typing much of this report as that is happening, so if it is wonky, that’s why). After a rest, Gary took Zachary to the pool while Nathan and I stayed in. My antibiotic cautions against too much sun while taking it so golly, I got out of pool duty!

Around 5 p.m. Nathan and I decided to walk over to meet Gary and Zachary at the pool, but when we got over there, we didn’t see them. So we stopped by the DVC center to tour the model room set up like Animal Kingdom Villas. WOW! It was really nice and we agreed that we need to schedule a couple of days there whenever we can be lucky enough to book it.

Later we went over to Downtown Disney to find 2008 Disney t-shirts for the boys and then a quick stop in Legoland for a small bucket of Lego pieces. It was pretty crowded in both stores, so I asked a CM for help finding where the t-shirts were. Then the check-out lines were several people deep, so I wandered around to other sections of the World of Disney store to find a not-so-busy cashier – and in the Men’s Department, there were four cashiers without a single guest in line! After I checked out, we were exiting by a line that was 6-deep, so I told the last couple that there was no line at all in the Men’s section – they went over and checked out immediately, too! The CM in Men’s said there are 36 registers in the store and it is very rare for Men’s to have a wait.

We stopped at McD’s for ice cream and found a place outside to eat and people-watch. While we were waiting, we saw one of Zachary’s classmates and her family. Then we went back to the room, did the laundry, and started packing for leaving in the morning.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thursday, April 3, 2008.

It’s Cruise day! Our 3-nights on the Wonder would begin today! We were looking forward to this day more than the WDW portion of our trip. Because we were driving over from Saratoga Springs, we knew we didn’t have to leave too early, so we let the kids sleep in until around 9 a.m. I woke up early, still not feeling great, but much better than the previous day. I could tell the antibiotics were working, so I was ready to get packed up and head out. We had done most of the packing the night before, so we mostly had to get the rest of the bathroom stuff and the kitchen stuff packed up. I had to sort out what was going on the cruise and what was staying in the car. And then I had to figure out what needed to be in the day-bag that I would have to carry with me until we could get into our stateroom at 1:30 – yet another reason to not get to the Port too early.


We enjoyed our time at Saratoga Springs - it was definitely a home-away-from-home feeling for us, and as we spent quite a bit of time in the room, we were thankful for the extra space that a 1-BR affords. And when we walked into our stateroom on the Wonder, we realized how very much space a 1BR really does have!

 

[kikiq]

Thank you for the report!

Hope those antibiotics take over and have a great time on the cruise.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Great trip report! I can't wait to hear about the cruise.
I hope you started feeling better. It seems like the cruise would be more restful.

It sounds like you guys really like SSR.

Your Gary and my DH (Mickey's Apprentice) have the same Birthday!!!
(Dh's least favorite joke in the whole world...are you sure you weren't born on April Fool's Day? Thankfully for him, he missed it by about 18 hours.)

Did you cruise on points? Was it worth the points?

 

[DisDaydreamer]

WOW.... thanks for the reports. Hope you're feeling better.

 

[alldiz]

Thanks for the report....I hope you felt better and enjoyed the cruise....

maybe I'll just click on your link and find out
Kerri

 

[nzdisneymom]

Great trip report! I can't wait to hear about the cruise.
I hope you started feeling better. It seems like the cruise would be more restful.

It sounds like you guys really like SSR.

Your Gary and my DH (Mickey's Apprentice) have the same Birthday!!!
(Dh's least favorite joke in the whole world...are you sure you weren't born on April Fool's Day? Thankfully for him, he missed it by about 18 hours.)

Did you cruise on points? Was it worth the points?

LOL - my DH missed April Fool's day by about 21 minutes! We still say his mother forged the birth certificate

We did not cruise on points, so I don't know about the value, but it seems like I've often read that DVC members are better off renting their points and using the cash. Or paying for one person in the room with points and cash for the rest. If I had the points to use that were going to expire, I'd use them in a heartbeat! We find that cruising is a good way for our family to vacation!

We also said that we were glad to do the cruise portion of our vacation at the end of our trip... even if I hadn't been sick, I think I would not have enjoyed our WDW portion as much as we did if we'd come off the cruise ship to go to the hecticness that the parks can bring.

 

[podsnel]

What a nice trip report- thanks for posting it! I will definately check out innoventions when I'm in Epcot in June, it sounds like they have some cool stuff in there...So sorry you got sick, so sad to not be feeling your best on vacation, especially one at WDW because it is such an active trip. I was sick on our last trip in November to WDW, and it was a LOT more exhausting than usual because of it!

 

[RLRDA]

Great trip report! Your DH and my 9 year old DS have the same birthday! I remember when April 1st rolled around thinking it would be a 'cool' birthday but he arrived the next day instead . I like your idea of splitting up in the parks for some one-on-one time (although we'd have to do a 2-1 split)....how old are your boys?? Hope you are feeling better now....stinks to be sick on vacation.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thanks for all the kind words.

I am feeling better now - the antibiotics really kicked in and by bedtime on Thursday, I was feeling much better and by Friday midday I felt like myself again.

Our boys are 11 3/4 and 10 1/2. We started doing split-apart days two years ago and it has been a highlight of our trip... the boys enjoy planning and having one-on-one time with us although we do tend to meet up with each other or at least cross paths at some point

 

[KevGuy]

Nice report, thanks!! I'm heading down to SSR next Thursday and it sounds like bus service was excellent for your trip, always a good thing to hear!!