No11's Mom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2000
- Messages
- 568
The Cast
The Houston Crew:
Donna - Me, 38, primary trip planner and organizer
Rick - husband, 42, easy going, goes along with whatever I plan, chief navigator for trip
Travis - 13 year old son, thinks hes 17, typical (fabulous) teenage boy
The Austin Crew:
Darla - sister, 37 years old, best friend
Jimmy - brother-in-law, has injured knee, not really into theme parks as much as the rest of us, but a pretty good trooper
James - 6 year old nephew, has been waiting his whole life for this trip
Friday - March 8, 2002
Alarm went off at 4:30am. Rick and I were already awake. Almost everything was already packed. Taxi arrived at 5:30 (20 minutes early). We were out the door about 5:40 and at the airport by 6:00am. Taxi fair was $25. We tipped him $7. Was a breeze to check in one of the e-ticket kiosks and get through security. We had plenty of time to eat breakfast and shop in the gift shop before we boarded. Plane left on time at 7:50am. Arrived MCO a few minutes early, about 11:10am. We had a 2 hour wait until Darla and her family would arrive. We retrieved our luggage and got some snacks in the food court. Then we found some comfortable chairs in the main lobby area, where we couldnt miss Darla and them when they came to baggage. Rick and Travis played Who Wants to be a Millionaire on the GameBoy while I perused all of the shops. Darla and family arrived right on time. She and I went to get the rental van while the guys went for the luggage. She had reserved a mini van with L&M. It was located right in the terminal and there was no line. The clerk had problems with the printer and had to reenter/reprint the info 3 times and that took a few extra minutes. By the time we were done, the guys were downstairs with the luggage. We walked across into the garage and picked up the van - a blue Mercury Villager. It was clean and comfortable and we only paid $405 including tax and an extra driver, for 10 days. So we were happy with that. We were off to Disney.
Rick had previously taken maps and plotted all of our routes. He was our official navigator for the entire trip. In no time we were at All Star Movies and checking in. Tina was the Cast Member who checked us in and she was very helpful. She arranged our Fantasmic Dinner Package at MGM for the next day and answered all of our questions. I had phoned a few weeks early to make some room requests, and I had also faxed those requests on Tuesday. Our requests in order of importance were: Toy Story building, ground floor, as close to the bus stop as possible and preferably near each other. We got: Toy Story, building 9, second floor, connecting rooms. We were in rooms 9804 and 9805. Our room was right above R.C. Unfortunately, none of the three keys issued for Darlas room would work. So we all went in through our room and called down for help. They said they would send someone up. It took a little while but finally a young man and a young woman came up with new keys. Same problem. The guy could get the keys to work. He had some sort of special touch or something. None of the rest of us could get them to work, except maybe 2 out of 10 tries. We decided we would make sure and leave the connecting doors open and unlocked all the time and just go through our room. We had stayed at All Star Movies 3 years ago, right after they opened. At that time our son was 10, just a little boy. And though the rooms were on the small side, they did not seem too small. Now that he is 13, and bigger than me, the room seemed miniscule. And the beds were SO uncomfortable. My husband called the sheets 80 grit, because they were so rough.
Travis took James down to the pool to swim and play while Rick, Darla and I left to go to the grocery store for supplies. Jim stayed in the room to take a nap. We went to Goodings Grocery store in the Crossroads shopping center. Once again, Rick had our route plotted out for us. We stocked up on breakfast and snack foods and Dr. Pepper products. When we got back, there was a maintenance man replacing the lock on Darlas door. We went down to find the boys in the pool - they werent there. We found them at the playground where 2 girls had buried my son up to his neck in the sand. We rushed them back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. When we got back to the room, the refrigerator we had ordered had still not arrived and we had milk and things that we needed to get in it. We called down and told them we were going to be leaving for dinner in about 20 minutes and could they bring it up. It was there in about 5 minutes after we called, but that was 3-1/2 hours after we ordered it.
James loves pirates. So we had made dinner reservations at the Pirates Dinner Adventure show. It is located off International Dr. We bought the tickets from www.ticketmania.com for $30 each. I think regular price is $46. We enjoyed this show. When you arrive they send you to like a great hall where they are serving what they are trying to pass off as appetizers (Ruffles and pretzels, broccoli, carrots and dip). I would not put out such a chintzy spread at my house, but whatever. There is an cash bar. They have a pirate museum that is actually pretty interesting. There is face painting and photographs to be taken, a gift shop of course. Things to entertain you (and for you to spend your money on) while you wait for the show. There is a pre-show that sets the tone for the rest of the show. For the actual show, you are taken into a large arena with a huge pirate ship in the middle. I wont give away the entire plot, but I will say that we all had a good time. They do a very good job of getting the audience involved in the show and a lot of people are chosen to participate, including children. In fact, I think every child that wanted to participate got to - with costumes, props and the whole bit. The show is of course corny, but cute and the acrobatics and stunt work is good - in fact so good that after seeing this we were a little disappointed in some of the Disney shows because we expected their talent to be better. Everyone is assigned a pirate to root for. We had Benjamin the Blue Pirate and it turned out that he was the hero of the story. The actual dinner was better than I had expected after the dismal appetizers. And the wait staff was very good. After the show ends and dinner is over, everyone goes back to the great hall where you can stay and dance if you like. One of the pirates serves as emcee and he is very good. All in all it was a fun evening and a nice way to start vacation.
We got back to the All Stars ready to hit the hay and get ready for an early start. Everyone gave Day 1 a big thumbs up!
The Houston Crew:
Donna - Me, 38, primary trip planner and organizer
Rick - husband, 42, easy going, goes along with whatever I plan, chief navigator for trip
Travis - 13 year old son, thinks hes 17, typical (fabulous) teenage boy
The Austin Crew:
Darla - sister, 37 years old, best friend
Jimmy - brother-in-law, has injured knee, not really into theme parks as much as the rest of us, but a pretty good trooper
James - 6 year old nephew, has been waiting his whole life for this trip
Friday - March 8, 2002
Alarm went off at 4:30am. Rick and I were already awake. Almost everything was already packed. Taxi arrived at 5:30 (20 minutes early). We were out the door about 5:40 and at the airport by 6:00am. Taxi fair was $25. We tipped him $7. Was a breeze to check in one of the e-ticket kiosks and get through security. We had plenty of time to eat breakfast and shop in the gift shop before we boarded. Plane left on time at 7:50am. Arrived MCO a few minutes early, about 11:10am. We had a 2 hour wait until Darla and her family would arrive. We retrieved our luggage and got some snacks in the food court. Then we found some comfortable chairs in the main lobby area, where we couldnt miss Darla and them when they came to baggage. Rick and Travis played Who Wants to be a Millionaire on the GameBoy while I perused all of the shops. Darla and family arrived right on time. She and I went to get the rental van while the guys went for the luggage. She had reserved a mini van with L&M. It was located right in the terminal and there was no line. The clerk had problems with the printer and had to reenter/reprint the info 3 times and that took a few extra minutes. By the time we were done, the guys were downstairs with the luggage. We walked across into the garage and picked up the van - a blue Mercury Villager. It was clean and comfortable and we only paid $405 including tax and an extra driver, for 10 days. So we were happy with that. We were off to Disney.
Rick had previously taken maps and plotted all of our routes. He was our official navigator for the entire trip. In no time we were at All Star Movies and checking in. Tina was the Cast Member who checked us in and she was very helpful. She arranged our Fantasmic Dinner Package at MGM for the next day and answered all of our questions. I had phoned a few weeks early to make some room requests, and I had also faxed those requests on Tuesday. Our requests in order of importance were: Toy Story building, ground floor, as close to the bus stop as possible and preferably near each other. We got: Toy Story, building 9, second floor, connecting rooms. We were in rooms 9804 and 9805. Our room was right above R.C. Unfortunately, none of the three keys issued for Darlas room would work. So we all went in through our room and called down for help. They said they would send someone up. It took a little while but finally a young man and a young woman came up with new keys. Same problem. The guy could get the keys to work. He had some sort of special touch or something. None of the rest of us could get them to work, except maybe 2 out of 10 tries. We decided we would make sure and leave the connecting doors open and unlocked all the time and just go through our room. We had stayed at All Star Movies 3 years ago, right after they opened. At that time our son was 10, just a little boy. And though the rooms were on the small side, they did not seem too small. Now that he is 13, and bigger than me, the room seemed miniscule. And the beds were SO uncomfortable. My husband called the sheets 80 grit, because they were so rough.
Travis took James down to the pool to swim and play while Rick, Darla and I left to go to the grocery store for supplies. Jim stayed in the room to take a nap. We went to Goodings Grocery store in the Crossroads shopping center. Once again, Rick had our route plotted out for us. We stocked up on breakfast and snack foods and Dr. Pepper products. When we got back, there was a maintenance man replacing the lock on Darlas door. We went down to find the boys in the pool - they werent there. We found them at the playground where 2 girls had buried my son up to his neck in the sand. We rushed them back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. When we got back to the room, the refrigerator we had ordered had still not arrived and we had milk and things that we needed to get in it. We called down and told them we were going to be leaving for dinner in about 20 minutes and could they bring it up. It was there in about 5 minutes after we called, but that was 3-1/2 hours after we ordered it.
James loves pirates. So we had made dinner reservations at the Pirates Dinner Adventure show. It is located off International Dr. We bought the tickets from www.ticketmania.com for $30 each. I think regular price is $46. We enjoyed this show. When you arrive they send you to like a great hall where they are serving what they are trying to pass off as appetizers (Ruffles and pretzels, broccoli, carrots and dip). I would not put out such a chintzy spread at my house, but whatever. There is an cash bar. They have a pirate museum that is actually pretty interesting. There is face painting and photographs to be taken, a gift shop of course. Things to entertain you (and for you to spend your money on) while you wait for the show. There is a pre-show that sets the tone for the rest of the show. For the actual show, you are taken into a large arena with a huge pirate ship in the middle. I wont give away the entire plot, but I will say that we all had a good time. They do a very good job of getting the audience involved in the show and a lot of people are chosen to participate, including children. In fact, I think every child that wanted to participate got to - with costumes, props and the whole bit. The show is of course corny, but cute and the acrobatics and stunt work is good - in fact so good that after seeing this we were a little disappointed in some of the Disney shows because we expected their talent to be better. Everyone is assigned a pirate to root for. We had Benjamin the Blue Pirate and it turned out that he was the hero of the story. The actual dinner was better than I had expected after the dismal appetizers. And the wait staff was very good. After the show ends and dinner is over, everyone goes back to the great hall where you can stay and dance if you like. One of the pirates serves as emcee and he is very good. All in all it was a fun evening and a nice way to start vacation.
We got back to the All Stars ready to hit the hay and get ready for an early start. Everyone gave Day 1 a big thumbs up!
