Tropical Storm Debbie! Lots of firsts! June 23-30 UPDATED X2, day 3 first half

[SuddenlyObsessed]

Hello! I'm Jackie and I've been a long time lurker (well for the last 6 months anyway, since I started planning this trip). I couldn't wait to try to write my own trip report, as I have enjoyed so many of yours. This trip was truly a special one.

WHEN: June 23-June 30
WHERE: Wilderness Lodge
WHO: Me (Jackie), 38 year old lawyer, single mother of--
Jordan, my amazing son just turned 8 years old on June 11.
WHY: For Jordan's birthday, and because I really wanted to stay on-site at Disney for the first time ever!

There were a lot of firsts on this trip. I brought Jordan to Disney once before, but stupidly did so on New Year's Eve (MK & HS) and as you can imagine, got on basically no rides. We then went to IOA to see the Harry Potter world on New year's day and that was the whole trip. Before that, I had only been to Disney once that I can remember, when I was 12, when I stayed off-site and did only Epcot and MK.

So, my brief list of firsts on this trip:

--First time staying on site;

--First time staying more than 4 days at Disney;

--First time taking a vacation alone with Jordan for more than 3-4 days;

--First time on the Disney dining plan;

--First time for most of the restaurants we ate at;

--First time for most of the rides and attractions we did;

--First time visiting Animal Kingdom;

--First time experiencing extra magic hours...

The list goes on and on!

I am in the process of learning how to make this trip report and am downloading my pics onto Photobucket, so my next update will start with the pictures. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this one!

Also, a few disclaimers:

--I am a sucky photographer and have a sucky point and shoot camera;

--I started out well taking food porn pics but ended weakly in that department;

--I did not really keep a trip journal, but did manage to write down the rides and attractions we did each day so I think, combined with my pics, I will be able to piece together my trip accurately, but no promises!

--I am in very few pictures since I was always taking them. And when I was in pics I look like hell because, well...

TROPICAL STORM DEBBIE RAMPAGED THE FIRST 3 DAYS OF OUR TRIP!

Which...was AWESOME. I will explain why Debbie was the best thing that could happen to us as I get to that part. Let me just say that my planning went out the window and it turned out even better than I could have imagined. Being a slightly obsessive, Type A personality, I had planned out every second of our trip before leaving, and was still so worried about fitting everything in and battling the lines in June with a slightly hyperactive son, but Debbie saved the day on that one!

Overall, this was a great, fabulous trip that I can't wait to relive by telling you about it!

Oh, to whet your appetite for the report to come, here are some of our table service meals I will be reviewing in this TR:

Whispering Canyon Cafe
Liberty Tree Tavern
Ohana
Boma
Sci Fi Drive in
Chef Mickey's
Biergarten

I would love to hear from you if you are reading along! I promise pictures soon!

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

Hi again everyone! Ok, so I figured out how to download pics so I can officially begin this trip report!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am divorced, but Jordan's dad is really involved in Jordan's life, lives in our town, and we are actually good friends. So Jordan went to sleep at his dad's the night before we left for Disney. That day had also been his last day of 2nd grade! I had taken that day off from work to do a bunch of last minute things for Disney. I packed:

Excuse the line of shoes...I took this picture by the front door where all of our shoes hang out!

And then tried to sleep. I was so excited and probably only slept about 5 hours that night. I was up at 6:30 a.m. even though our flight didn't leave until 11:55 a.m.!

My ex was nice enough to volunteer to drive us to the airport. We left for LaGuardia around 9:30 a.m. Here is Jordan in the back seat on the way to the airport with "his dog" (it is actually my ex's girlfriend's dog ):

We checked in at Delta without a problem and settled in at the gate to wait. This must have been a fairly new thing--they now have free I Pads hooked up for use to go on the internet and play games while waiting at the terminal! No charge! We were excited to snag one of those and played chess and tic tac toe:

I'm not sure why Jordan likes posing with objects on top of his head?

Soon we were on the plane. Jordan is not a great flyer. He doesn't like the way the plane makes his ears and head feel. But he kept himself occupied by writing in his trip diary:

Oh, and here is a picture of me taken by Jordan:

We sat next to a really nice young guy who entertained Jordan by talking a lot to him about Disney and giving him a word search to do.

Soon we were landing in Orlando! I was so excited! Jordan was too, but mostly because of my excitement. I screwed up our prior Disney trip by bringing him on the most crowded day of the year so he had no idea the week of fun he was in for!

Up next...Magical ? Express
Entering the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge!
Our room!

 

[KBoopaloo]

Sounds great so far! Can't wait to hear all about how you dealt with TS Debby!

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

Thanks! More to come soon! Thanks for reading!

 

[ohboyx3]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[jlas00]

I was down there roughly the same time so I am subbing!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I'm joining in. I can't wait to hear why a Tropical Storm would be so great. I'm hoping you had some really short lines.

 

[jlas00]

I'm joining in. I can't wait to hear why a Tropical Storm would be so great. I'm hoping you had some really short lines.

The days it rained all day it did kind of suck, but the lines were short. The other days it was projected to rain all day, but only rained for parts of the day so the lines were very short and it didn't rain nearly as much as they thought!

 

[JuliaIsabella]

Love mommy and me trips, joining in

 

[bookmama]

Hi I'm so reading your TR. We were there June 21-28. We played in Debbie too. My boy said he saw y'all getting in the monorail after Chef Mickey's he remembers your son's face.

 

[Jessica527]

I would love to read more!

 

[flea1267]

We were there the exact same dates you were!!!! Can't wait to read your trip report!

 

[Kimmy]

Subbing We are going the same time next year. Can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[draybook]

So far so good! It's also nice to see someone friendly with their ex. My oldest sons mother(ex-gf) is so the opposite of friendly that it's pathetic. Looking forward to more details and pictures!

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

Hi again everyone! Thank you so much for those of you reading my report! I am so happy to have readers!

So when I left off, we were landing in Orlando! This was my first time using Magical Express and first time ever staying on Disney property! Being the obsessive planner I am, I had fully researched where to go in the airport for the Magical Express and had no trouble finding it.

Fake Monorail!

You can see in the picture of Jordan above that he is holding two new Harry Potter wands--we bought those at the airport before getting on the ME...he had been talking for months about getting Dumbledore and Voldemort's wand and he contributed some of his own money toward these.

We landed around 3:30 p.m. and there were really no lines at the ME! It was really nice not to have to get my luggage!

Now the thing about our Magical Express bus...it wasn't as magical as I was expecting. We got the Mears bus. Our bus driver was a little cranky: he gave a whole lecture before he left about not pressing the "help" button above our seats unless there was an emergency. He then demonstrated the annoying buzzing sound it made if pressed. Then he drove off and he started the Disney welcome video I was so anticipating! However, half way through the trip, that annoying buzzing sound started and didn't stop. Our bus driver yelled "WHO IS PRESSING THE HELP BUTTON?" No one was. It was buzzing and stuck like that on its own. This went on for 10 minutes, ruining the show. Then the bus driver pulled over, right after entering Disney property, and shut everything off and on again to try to fix the problem. Nope, still buzzing. And now he couldn't run the rest of the video, so I never saw the end! He then told us he thought the bus may be in trouble and could break down but wanted to try to get us to our resorts before that happened or else we would wait forever for another bus to get us. Thank goodness we made it!

We first stopped at the Polynesian. Bad picture from the bus:

I was so excited to see the monorail!

Then we stopped at the Grand Floridian:

I really would love to stay here someday!

Before long we were entering the road headed to Wilderness Lodge!

I thought it was beautiful in the pictures and the real life first look did not disappoint!

Buffalo:

We were greeted outside with a "Welcome Home" by a CM and entered the impressive lobby

I had done on-line check in so Jordan hung out in the kid's TV area nearby while I checked in:

I had paid extra for a Wood's View room. However, I had read the sixth floor was not a great one in this resort, because the roof came down on the balcony so far, one could not really see out. Of course, they had me assigned to the sixth floor. I politely requested to my very nice CM at the check in counter to have something on the 4th or 5th floor. He gave me a choice of a 3rd or 4th floor room. The 3rd floor room faced the pool and the 4th floor room faced the MK (but blocked by "woods") yet its entrance way was overlooking the lobby and right over Whispering Canyon. I asked which he recommended, and he said the 4th floor room would be quieter. I took his suggestion, but let me tell you, IT WAS NOT A QUIET ROOM AT ALL! However, the location was very close to everything and we could see Wishes over the trees from our balcony!

Continued in next post...

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

More lobby pictures:

You can sort of see where my room was in this pic--fourth floor up overlooking the lobby.

This really was the most impressive lobby I saw of my visits to other resorts in this trip, followed closely by AKL!

Details under the check in desk:

I loved the stream in the lobby and the little bridge:

The stream looked like it went from inside to outside, and then dumped into the pool:

I was very happy with the details of our room. It was the perfect size for Jordan and me:

Our balcony:

Headboard details:

Hidden Mickey towel! Unfortunately, although I left a generous tip everyday for the cleaning staff, we never again got another towel creation during our stay.

Our view:

Yes, it was woods and it was great to see fireworks above those trees but it was noisy there, both outside from a big generator or something below and very noisy outside our door from the lobby and Whispering Canyon!

Shower details:

We're here!

The fridge was stashed behind this door:

I really did love the look and details of this room! And by the way, despite how noisy it was, the beds were super comfortable and we slept fine...after the noise died down after 11 p.m. and before 8 a.m.!

Jordan received a birthday button which he wore everyday on this trip. His birthday was a couple weeks prior but this trip was my birthday present to him! He loved receiving "happy birthdays" everywhere he went and loved the cupcakes and singing with each meal!

In the next installment...we explore the lodge, eat dinner at Whispering Canyon and go swimming in the amazing pool!

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

I'm joining in. I can't wait to hear why a Tropical Storm would be so great. I'm hoping you had some really short lines.

It was great because of the short lines, which I was really worried about going into this trip! Jordan does not do well in long lines!

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

Hi I'm so reading your TR. We were there June 21-28. We played in Debbie too. My boy said he saw y'all getting in the monorail after Chef Mickey's he remembers your son's face.

How funny!

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

After settling in the room, we walked around the resort a bit, trying to kill some time before our ADR at Whispering Canyon.

We looked around the gift shop and Jordan got a Buzz toy.

Although we were early for our 6:40 reservation, I decided to check in to see if they could take us early.

They gave us a buzzer and Jordan played with the Lincoln logs while waiting. This was a cute play area for the kids.

Our buzzer went off within 10 minutes even though we checked in about an hour early. However, the seater led us to a table in the back of the restaurant, far away from the "action." I had told Jordan that this restaurant was known for the funny servers and he was looking forward to this. I asked the hostess if we could wait for a table closer to the action and she said no problem. Within 5 minutes we were seated in the center of the room!

Although we were seated right behind the area where all the kids line up to do the hokey pokey, etc., our waiter was not fun. He was pretty quiet and we heard the other servers around us really laying it on thick. Jordan was quite disappointed, but had fun watching the other tables around us get extra long straws, huge jugs of water and 50 bottles of ketchup. Our server did none of that with us. In fact, when it was time for Jordan's birthday celebration, our waiter brought the cupcake with the candle but spoke in almost a whisper for those around us to sing happy birthday. The other birthday tables had a huge production made out of it by their servers.
Jordan had fun getting up to do the activities with the other kids.

Our food was okay. I am not a huge fan of BBQ but got the skillet anyway. It was not my favorite. Jordan loved the cornbread and got the kids pasta that he enjoyed. Plus milkshakes and smoothies!

Our server was very strange at the end of the meal asking if I wanted dessert. Um, doesn't it come with the dining plan? I ordered a chocolate cake, thinking Jordan would eat some (I am not a huge dessert person). This is what was brought out:

I don't know...is that chocolate cake? That is how it was described by our server. Jordan wouldn't touch it and it went to waste.
Our server also was sketchy about reviewing my KTTW card before taking our order. I was so confused by this that when he asked for my card again at the end to run the bill, I said, "oh, you need it again?" He replied "well yes, the machine can't read your mind as to your name!" Um okay. I was new at this dining thing, I found him a bit rude. He also made a big production about explaining that the tip was not included in the bill and how I should add it in. I mean, I did need that explanation, but he was really not a great or fun waiter and I wish he had taken the time he took in explaining the tipping and paying process into doing his job at being "fun" during this dinner like his co-workers were.
I would give this meal a 6/10. Definitely not one of my favorites of the trip, both in service and food. Jordan had fun though and laughed a lot. So that is why I gave it as high as I did.
Continued in next post...

 

[SuddenlyObsessed]

Jordan was super excited to get in the pool. He loves swimming and is a great swimmer for his age.
The pool is a little small but really beautiful.

The geyser goes off every hour and is clearly seen from the pool area:

Jordan went down the slide about 50 times! I later in the trip went down it, it was a lot of fun!

Jordan loved the hot tub!

Later we decided to watch the movie on the beach. They were showing Toy Story 3.

During the movie, we walked the 20 feet to the water to watch the Electrical Light Parade float by!

I loved it.
And soon thereafter, Wishes clearly seen from the beach!

We went to Roaring Forks for a late night snack.

We then went to bed for an early start the next morning.