Liz
Make a miracle!
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
- Messages
- 4,909
Our Family:
Me - 46, born & raised in Florida but have been gone since 1981. Love WDW, obsessive planner. Really want this trip to be nice because we're bringing a family of 1st timers! Writes trip reports with way too much detail but I just can't do it any other way!
Paul - DH 52 - Loves Disney but not as much as I do. He'd probably be happy to vacation some place else occasionally but as soon as we get home I'm planning our next trip before he has time to process what I'm doing!
Jeff - DS 17 - Raised on WDW and Disneyland and loves it all. Super friendly guy!
Laura - DD 16 - Loves WDW but doesn't handle the heat well. Gets tired easy but she has a good excuse. She had a heart transplant when she was 6 weeks old and had West Nile Virus in 2002. Doing really well though. Our sweetheart.
Our Friends:
MM - 40ish - Going to WDW for the wife & kids. Isn't really a theme park kind of guy. Really nice though.
JM - 40ish - My good friend! Been trying to get her DH to go to WDW for a couple of years now!
Mike - DS 16 - Jeff's best friend since probably Kindergarten.
Heidi - DD 13 - Laura's friend. Despite the age difference they get along great!
I got up at 6:00 to finish what remained of our packing and feeling mad and frustrated with myself for wasting my last night by going to bed so early!!! But I really didn't feel very good. I remember even waking up once in the night thinking what if I didn't feel well enough to go to breakfast in the morning. But luckily today I felt fine. Frustrated but fine.
We loaded our cars and were out the door by 7:45. MM had gone to the front desk earlier and gotten boarding passes printed for all of us. He also checked to make sure all was right with our bill and apparently it wasn't. Our room had been paid in full before we ever arrived. Our friends paid for their room on their credit card when we checked in. The charge for the second room was put on our credit card, not theirs. But it got all straightened out. It was this very reason I didn't charge anything to the room like we normally do, because I was afraid our charges would get mixed up and it would be a huge mess trying to sort it all out.
We took two cars, following each other to Wilderness Lodge for our breakfast at Whispering Canyon. We learned from our mistake the other day and made sure we stayed far to the right and didn't miss the turn off to the Magic Kingdom Resorts! We arrived at our destination, this time with no trouble at all.
We did notice two police/sheriff cars on the road between where you enter the Magic Kingdom toll plaza and the Wilderness Lodge! One officer had someone pulled over. I think it would be hard to have a magical day after that! Glad it wasn't us!
We'd never eaten at Whispering Canyon before, but I had read much about it. Breakfast fit our budget more than dinner so we chose to experience the restaurant during morning hours, hoping it would still be lots of fun. Our server was Rick and he made the experience an absolute delight! I smile just thinking about him telling his funny stories about "Captain Obvious" and others! He also made hats out of napkins and/or coffee filters for each of us and brought Paul a refill of his diet Coke in a huge bottle with an even bigger straw! It was all so funny and the food was excellent too!
After breakfast we made the short drive to the Polynesian. At the marina we talked to Jennifer again, who happily changed our boating arrangement to the Family Plan. She said we could take them out as often as we'd like, which would have been great if we hadn't been heading to the airport in a couple of hours.
We started off taking out four Sea Racers and one larger boat. The larger boat went really slow and wasn't fun at all so that one was brought back to the marina. We doubled up in the Sea Racers and went out with five. JM and I were in a boat together and although we didn't go very fast we had fun! Apparently we broke the cardinal rule of getting too close to a ferry and were waved down by "Captain Obvious", I mean the lake patrol! We laughed and had fun "running from the cops" after that!
We stayed out on the lake till noon. It was lots of fun! A couple in our group said their boats didn't go as fast as they had the previous time we went out in them.
Some in our group changed into long pants in preparation for the flight home. I bought Jeff & Laura each a t-shirt in the Poly gift shop before we headed to the airport.
We, sadly, left Disney property and headed down 417 towards the airport. I was following directions I got online to a Circle K near the airport so we could gas up before returning the rental car. Most of the info I got online was wonderful, but this tip didn't work so well. Gas here was 7 cents more a gallon than the Hess station on Disney property. And service was extremely slow. It was close to the airport but that was the only good thing.
We let National have their car back and happily let Southwest take care of our most heavy luggage. After arriving at the gate we had a little time to get some lunch at McDonalds and Sbarro.
Our flight stopped in St. Louis and it wasn't very full at all. Paul, Laura and I sat towards the back of the plane and everyone else sat towards the front. Laura was tired and slept most of the way.
When we arrived in St. Louis, Laura, Paul and I moved up front to sit with everyone else. The flight to Salt Lake City appeared to be totally full. The girls had a lot of fun giggling together all the way home. I'm sure the man sitting beside them loved it!
We arrived safely in Salt Lake City. Can't say I was thrilled to be home, back to the problems we deal with on what seems like a daily basis. It was a wonderful trip for me and I hope it was as wonderful for everyone else too. I can't wait to go back.
Part 12 - To be continued when we are fortunate enough to return to the Happiest Place on Earth again!
Me - 46, born & raised in Florida but have been gone since 1981. Love WDW, obsessive planner. Really want this trip to be nice because we're bringing a family of 1st timers! Writes trip reports with way too much detail but I just can't do it any other way!
Paul - DH 52 - Loves Disney but not as much as I do. He'd probably be happy to vacation some place else occasionally but as soon as we get home I'm planning our next trip before he has time to process what I'm doing!
Jeff - DS 17 - Raised on WDW and Disneyland and loves it all. Super friendly guy!
Laura - DD 16 - Loves WDW but doesn't handle the heat well. Gets tired easy but she has a good excuse. She had a heart transplant when she was 6 weeks old and had West Nile Virus in 2002. Doing really well though. Our sweetheart.
Our Friends:
MM - 40ish - Going to WDW for the wife & kids. Isn't really a theme park kind of guy. Really nice though.
JM - 40ish - My good friend! Been trying to get her DH to go to WDW for a couple of years now!
Mike - DS 16 - Jeff's best friend since probably Kindergarten.
Heidi - DD 13 - Laura's friend. Despite the age difference they get along great!
I got up at 6:00 to finish what remained of our packing and feeling mad and frustrated with myself for wasting my last night by going to bed so early!!! But I really didn't feel very good. I remember even waking up once in the night thinking what if I didn't feel well enough to go to breakfast in the morning. But luckily today I felt fine. Frustrated but fine.
We loaded our cars and were out the door by 7:45. MM had gone to the front desk earlier and gotten boarding passes printed for all of us. He also checked to make sure all was right with our bill and apparently it wasn't. Our room had been paid in full before we ever arrived. Our friends paid for their room on their credit card when we checked in. The charge for the second room was put on our credit card, not theirs. But it got all straightened out. It was this very reason I didn't charge anything to the room like we normally do, because I was afraid our charges would get mixed up and it would be a huge mess trying to sort it all out.
We took two cars, following each other to Wilderness Lodge for our breakfast at Whispering Canyon. We learned from our mistake the other day and made sure we stayed far to the right and didn't miss the turn off to the Magic Kingdom Resorts! We arrived at our destination, this time with no trouble at all.
We did notice two police/sheriff cars on the road between where you enter the Magic Kingdom toll plaza and the Wilderness Lodge! One officer had someone pulled over. I think it would be hard to have a magical day after that! Glad it wasn't us!
We'd never eaten at Whispering Canyon before, but I had read much about it. Breakfast fit our budget more than dinner so we chose to experience the restaurant during morning hours, hoping it would still be lots of fun. Our server was Rick and he made the experience an absolute delight! I smile just thinking about him telling his funny stories about "Captain Obvious" and others! He also made hats out of napkins and/or coffee filters for each of us and brought Paul a refill of his diet Coke in a huge bottle with an even bigger straw! It was all so funny and the food was excellent too!
After breakfast we made the short drive to the Polynesian. At the marina we talked to Jennifer again, who happily changed our boating arrangement to the Family Plan. She said we could take them out as often as we'd like, which would have been great if we hadn't been heading to the airport in a couple of hours.
We started off taking out four Sea Racers and one larger boat. The larger boat went really slow and wasn't fun at all so that one was brought back to the marina. We doubled up in the Sea Racers and went out with five. JM and I were in a boat together and although we didn't go very fast we had fun! Apparently we broke the cardinal rule of getting too close to a ferry and were waved down by "Captain Obvious", I mean the lake patrol! We laughed and had fun "running from the cops" after that!
We stayed out on the lake till noon. It was lots of fun! A couple in our group said their boats didn't go as fast as they had the previous time we went out in them.
Some in our group changed into long pants in preparation for the flight home. I bought Jeff & Laura each a t-shirt in the Poly gift shop before we headed to the airport.
We, sadly, left Disney property and headed down 417 towards the airport. I was following directions I got online to a Circle K near the airport so we could gas up before returning the rental car. Most of the info I got online was wonderful, but this tip didn't work so well. Gas here was 7 cents more a gallon than the Hess station on Disney property. And service was extremely slow. It was close to the airport but that was the only good thing.
We let National have their car back and happily let Southwest take care of our most heavy luggage. After arriving at the gate we had a little time to get some lunch at McDonalds and Sbarro.
Our flight stopped in St. Louis and it wasn't very full at all. Paul, Laura and I sat towards the back of the plane and everyone else sat towards the front. Laura was tired and slept most of the way.
When we arrived in St. Louis, Laura, Paul and I moved up front to sit with everyone else. The flight to Salt Lake City appeared to be totally full. The girls had a lot of fun giggling together all the way home. I'm sure the man sitting beside them loved it!
We arrived safely in Salt Lake City. Can't say I was thrilled to be home, back to the problems we deal with on what seems like a daily basis. It was a wonderful trip for me and I hope it was as wonderful for everyone else too. I can't wait to go back.
Part 12 - To be continued when we are fortunate enough to return to the Happiest Place on Earth again!
