We did it ALL!! 19 days Apr/May 2012 (updated! check in ROYAL PACIFIC RESORT)

wakica · May 21, 2012

Hi all! We are finally getting settled in after our glorious 19 days in Sunny Florida! So that means it's time to get my trip report started right??? :goodvibes

Our pre trip report was titled Dest. EE5K 19 days Apr/May and now our title is We did it ALL!! We felt this was an appropriate title because we did SOOO much in those 19 days that we came home EXHAUSTED!! lol. I will admit we didn't actually do it ALL

because to be honest with you... there is ALWAYS more to do in Florida and I just don't see possibly doing ALL we actually want but we sure did pack in a lot so the title is sticking. LOL.

Here is a list of all we did...

WDW parks at least 2 visits each
Typhoon Lagoon
Sea World
Busch Gardens
wedding on Madeira Beach
hung out on the beach and checked out Johns Pass on the boardwalk
Aquatica
Universal Studios parks (including staying onsite)
Surf Lesson
Exotic Car experience
Expedition Everest Challenge 5K run
19th wedding anniversary dinner at SANAA
Lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe
Breakfast at Kona Cafe
Outlet Shopping

and now to introduce us!

ME- Kim - 39 - work at home mom. I edit my husbands photos for his photography business as well as being in charge of online communications, bookings, managing specials, blogging, facebook page maintenance, billing, orders etc... I don't actually do all the editing - he does some of that too. I'd say I do about 90% of the portrait editing and 20% of wedding editing. I also watch my 5 year old niece and also do some babysitting for people mostly during evenings to raise extra money to go towards holidays. This was my 5th trip to WDW - i never went as a kid but a year after DH and I got married he took me and we both loved it SOOO much!!!
fave char - TINK
fave ride - SPLASH MNTN/Dr Doom FearFall

DH - Wayne - 40 - owns photography business (check us out on Facebook if you'd like at www.facebook.com/wayneiversonphoto ). He also works full time at a printing shop. He's a busy busy man but likes to keep busy. This was his 9th visit to DISNEY - the first 4 were as a kid to DL and the rest were with me. After he took me to WDW a year after we got married he never wanted to do DL again. He likes being in the Disney bubble. We don't usually stay onsite but we still feel we are in a huge happy bubble when doing WDW.
fave char - Shrek
fave ride - ToT

DD - Cali - 14 - Lover of all things water and fell in love with surfing after a trip to Hawaii when she was 12. We got the surf lesson as her grade 8 grad gift. This was her 4th visit to WDW and she cannot get enough of Florida life from theme parks to beaches she wants it all.
fave char - Stitch
fave ride - ToT/MIB

and here we are! this pic was taken on our Tower Of Terror theme night that we had while waiting for our trip. You can read all about it in our pretrip report if you'd like

there's an index on the 1st page so that you can find your way to a specific thread. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2853212

OK, that's it for now - I'm being called by my wonderful DH to supper. More to come soon.

wakica · May 21, 2012

wakica · May 21, 2012

At LAST!!! The day arrived! We had been planning this trip for OVER a year. We had it in our mind 2 years in advance and booked our tickets last summer before the price increase. Once the tickets were bought there was no keeping me from DISboards and TGM to get my planning done. It was a GREAT way to pass the time til our trip date finally arrived.

Sorry to say our travel day pics SUCK supremely! lol. Apparently we weren't in the mood to take pics bc all I can find are the pics my DD took with her ipod touch!!! :rotfl:

Oh well, lucky for you that means this post will go REAL fast!

We were up at 4am our time :crazy2:

which in all honesty wasn't as bad as I thought it would be especially bc we had been working on switching over a 2 hour time zone anyway so we had been waking up around 6am already anyway.

Airport check in went REALLY well!!! and before we knew it we were up in the air!!!

This is my DDs photo of leaving COLD, BROWN Regina :hyper:

We were VERY happy to be saying :wave2:

buh bye after a long drawn out cold, rainy, and windy spring!

We had a connection in Minneapolis and to our relief it went SUPER smoothly as well! I was SOOO happy that we didn't have to go through anyones bags or do any special scans or swabs on the bags or anything. YAY :thumbsup2

and we barely waited in a line for anything either.

At last around supper time we were landing in Tampa!!

Thanks again to DD for her photo out the plane window of the Gulf of Mexico

Looks much nicer than the shot of us leaving!!!

And we then got our rental car which went quite smoothly as well, flew through Tampa (it was somewhat rush hour time which had us worried but it wasn't bad at all) and here is a lovely little Disney sign that welcomed us as we got closer to our Condo...

YAY Mickey Head!!!! We have ARRIVED!!

We made a quick stop at a Walmart as it was starting to get dark outside and got to our condo just before 9pm Florida time which was 11pm our time.

We were tired from travelling and then cramming in a drive from Tampa and a grocery trip but SUPER excited to be near WDW!!!

We were thrilled to be able to watch a few fireworks from Epcot from our condo balcony before retiring for the night and getting a good sleep before our early start to MK the next day

I will TRY to find where DH put the condo pics for my next chapter. Ssooooo many pics it's hard to find them all. lol

cinderella crazy · May 21, 2012

Yay!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

IheartDDuck · May 21, 2012

I'm joining. A 19 day trip would be amazing!

DisneyStitch626 · May 21, 2012

Yay! Excited that you started!

Looking forward to hearing all the details. You guys packed in a lot of fun things!

DaveinFallsChurch · May 21, 2012

Welcome back! Joining in as well!

hjd0411 · May 22, 2012

Hey Kim!!

You've started your TR!! I've been watching for it!!
So glad your travelling was uneventful - that is always a good thing, especially at the beginning of your holiday!!
Looking forward to hearing all about it, and seeing your photos. Also the Windsor Hills condo! :thumbsup2

I'm with you re the planning - as my trip gets closer I am trawling these boards and TGM!! Plus anything else I can find!

GaRain · May 22, 2012

Gosh, 19 days and you need a vacation to recover from your vacation...

wakica · May 22, 2012

cinderella crazy said:
Yay!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Glad your joining in

IheartDDuck said:
I'm joining. A 19 day trip would be amazing!

It WAS!!! Still not long enough though. :confused3

DisneyStitch626 said:
Yay! Excited that you started! Looking forward to hearing all the details. You guys packed in a lot of fun things!

We did do soo much. We should just move there hey?? lol

DaveinFallsChurch said:
Welcome back! Joining in as well!

Glad to see you join in Dave. I need to find some time to catch up on your tr!! Cant wait to see it

hjd0411 said:
Hey Kim!! You've started your TR!! I've been watching for it!!
So glad your travelling was uneventful - that is always a good thing, especially at the beginning of your holiday!!
Looking forward to hearing all about it, and seeing your photos. Also the Windsor Hills condo!
I'm with you re the planning - as my trip gets closer I am trawling these boards and TGM!! Plus anything else I can find!

Nice to see you on here again Heather

Youve already gotten a sneak peek on some of it over on Facebook

But your in luck cuz todays post is our condo!!!

GaRain said:
Gosh, 19 days and you need a vacation to recover from your vacation...

I have done next to NO WORK at all since we got home so its been a great way to wind down from our trip. A few times I felt a bit depressed bc i was bored and so used to having constant stimulation but i am finally starting to come out of my post holiday funk I think.

wakica · May 22, 2012

Our first location was in Windsor Hills. You just CANNOT beat the price, location and ammenities at this place!! Im putting up the link to this place for anyone that wants to look into it because it was so great :goodvibes

Heres the link...

http://www.vrbo.com/89676

Marge and George are retired and keep this home as a place for their family to holiday throughout the year so if you can get it when they are not using it you are in luck. At $70 per night its a STEAL!!! It was clean, close to everything you could need including the parks. It literally took us like 7 minutes to pop in the car and be entering the parking lot of Animal Kingdom which is the closest park to this location. The other parks were not much further either so while we werent ONsite we were the next best thing to it.

The pool is gorgeous (no pics in this post but some will show up as we visit it during the trip), the clubhouse offers lots of great things from games, movie rentals and even a small movie theatre which we took advantage of one day to keep things low key and stay rested up and out of the sun before running our 5K.

Anyway, take a look at all the space we had!!

This is the outside of the building. Our condo was on the 4th floor but that wasnt a big deal bc there is an elevator to use and it enabled us to get a peek at some of the fireworks from Epcot at night. They were popping up over a building but it was enough to add excitement on our arrival night and enough for us to sit out and watch them on our final night.

This next pic is standing in the living room area and looking towards the kitchen. The entrance to the condo is on the right side at the end there beside where the kitchen is. On the right you will see entrance to the master bedroom which has an onsuite with a shower and on the left you will see entrance to the library which has a hide a bed that can be used. You might be able to make out the entrance to the kids room as well far back on the left side - its right to the left of the kitchen window and its a hallway to the kids room and a bathroom. DD loved having her own bathroom!

Now im turning around to show the living area from the kitchen area. There is a door out to the lanai beside the couch.

next is standing by the kitchen table looking into the Library and then a pic of the Library - there is a tv on the wall you cant see.

Now on the other side of the kitchen table we are looking into the Master bedroom. Sorry the pics of the master bedroom turned out blurry but it has a bathroom with a shower and a small walk in closet.

next pic shows dd after just walking down a little hallway to the kids room. Her bathroom is right behind her and has lots of hooks to hang things on, lots of counter space, and a tub.

and this would be from where dd was standing - looking at the beds. Lots of space in this room plus a little table for colouring at and a shelf with teddy bears and coloring books. sorry, cant see it all in the pic.

back inside the kitchen looking through the window type thing into the eating and living area.

and next is the kitchen itself..

and now the lanai. Its small but a GREAT place to read a book or watch a tiny bit of the fireworks from Epcot. remember - its behind a building so dont expect the best view of them - just enough to get a taste and a little excitement!! We got some great morning sun on this lanai which was nice for the mornings we took it easy.

So, there it is. I just cannot explain how much of a GREAT deal this place is!!! and it was sooo nice to make our own food when we wanted and it was just as close to the parks as some of the resorts so it was soo easy to come back for a mid day break. They do have pool toys too and towels!

Elleshoodat · May 22, 2012

You started your report ... yay!

I'm glad your travel day went smoothly, and wow -- that Windsor Hills is really nice! What a great find.

Looking forward to reading more. :goodvibes

Nermel9 · May 22, 2012

Yay, I'm here, can't wait to read about your trip! :banana:

Wow, Windsor Hills is really nice, and so cheap! :eek:

I should really give staying offsite some thought... :laughing:

MHTeacher · May 22, 2012

Looking forward to hearing all about your 19 days!

That's a great deal on the condo. So much space for only $70/night. That's a great deal!

hjd0411 · May 23, 2012

Kim, great photos and description of your condo. It looks really nice!
I agree - I like having the space and the flexibility to have meals at "home". For me, if I can have breakfast at home it sets me up for the day! For not much money, too!!!

ZehnJahren · May 23, 2012

I'm in too! Can't wait to hear EVERYTHING.

amazingact21 · May 24, 2012

What? How did I miss the start of your TR??? I was looking out for it eand everything. :confused3

I'm happy that you have begun it, though. That sounds like such a long plane ride...and then to have to drive to Orlando from Tampa. :scared:

But that condo! I can't believe you were able to stay there for 70 dollars a night. That is unbelievable! I have to say, I thought I'd be the type of person who'd never stay off-site, but with a price like that and for all that space, I might put it into consideration for a family trip....

wakica · May 25, 2012

Elleshoodat said:
You started your report ... yay!

I'm glad your travel day went smoothly, and wow -- that Windsor Hills is really nice! What a great find.

Looking forward to reading more.

DEFFINITELY a good find

We stayed 15 nights there so we were SOOO greatful for a great price!! Plus I forgot to say when you stay for 2 weeks you get a night free so that brought it down even more :thumbsup2

Nermel9 said:
Yay, I'm here, can't wait to read about your trip!

Wow, Windsor Hills is really nice, and so cheap! I should really give staying offsite some thought...

We looove staying offsite bc I just can't handle too much restaraunt food all the time. The only downfall is if you can't find somewhere really close to the world but this place had even that!!! :goodvibes

MHTeacher said:
Looking forward to hearing all about your 19 days!

That's a great deal on the condo. So much space for only $70/night. That's a great deal!

I know!!!! We were THRILLED with it and would totally stay there again in a heartbeat. If only we had another Florida trip planned soon :sad:

hjd0411 said:
Kim, great photos and description of your condo. It looks really nice!
I agree - I like having the space and the flexibility to have meals at "home". For me, if I can have breakfast at home it sets me up for the day! For not much money, too!!!

I can't wait to see yours Heather!!! Not too much longer hey?? What's your countdown at now?

ZehnJahren said:
I'm in too! Can't wait to hear EVERYTHING.

I'll start soon I promise :blush:

amazingact21 said:
What? How did I miss the start of your TR??? I was looking out for it eand everything.

I'm happy that you have begun it, though. That sounds like such a long plane ride...and then to have to drive to Orlando from Tampa.

But that condo! I can't believe you were able to stay there for 70 dollars a night. That is unbelievable! I have to say, I thought I'd be the type of person who'd never stay off-site, but with a price like that and for all that space, I might put it into consideration for a family trip....

The space is GREAT!!! We spread out all our park stuff on the kitchen table every day - move the stuff we don't need for the next day and have it all ready to pack again for the next park. DH had all his camera stuff in the Library so that wasn't kicking around and in the way and I have to say - when we went to Royal Pacific we went through a bit of shock with the lack of space :faint:

wow, was that HARD to adjust to!!! I couldn't handle a small hotel room for longer than 4 nights I don't think.
The plane ride wasn't so bad. Normally we have to do 3 planes to get there and since our condo is usually a half hour from Orlando airport we figured we'd rather add on a half hour more of driving than add on a whole extra airplane!!! 3 planes is just Waaaayyy too much. so 2 flights and an extra half hour of driving was a dream :cloud9:

wakica · May 25, 2012

Friday April 27 - MK day.

YAY!!!! First day in the parks AT LOOONG LAST :banana:

It was NO problem at all for anyone to get up today. lol. We were all rarin to go.

Arrived at parking 8:15 - great spot!!

Through bag check and turnstyles by 8:35.

Made our way yo the front which was fairly easy bc of ppl staying a bit back to watch the show. We waited here til the opening show was done and the countdown was over. We were right under the bridge at this point so amongst the 1st into the park.

Took noodle terrace shortcut to Space - no rope up like there was last time so we walked right over to Space.

grab space FP

walk on space - DH and I found it to be too jerky. That's odd- we are COASTER JUNKIES!!! Whats going on?? Oh well, it's the morning comando rush - no time to contemplate it - we need to MOVE ON!...

walk on Buzz

I suck at this game so of course my score was AWEFUL and of course DH got the best score as usual. lol

DD wins for best expression and I win for WORST one which I will continue to do so throughout the trip. LOL.

Time to cross over to the other side of the park where it was a walk on to Splash (too early to get a FP yet)

YAY I'm in my happy place with my DD right beside me!!!

This time DH wins best expression and of course I LOSE again. ROFL

We stopped at the bathrooms and then grabbed a FP to use on Splash later bc it's my HAPPY PLACE and we must ride it a few times!!!

- Headed to POTC - there was a wait of maybe a few minutes (I'm thinking 4 maybe) but I think a group went on just a bit ahead of us

DD and DH did the TreeHouse which they said was VERY crowded. I rested my feet in anticipation of them always being able to do more than me in a day. Gotta rest when you can :goodvibes

View from up in the treehouse...

It was now time to use up our FP for Space. Due to the new fastpass enforcement rules we had to do alot more crisscrossing than we would like so at this time we crossed back over to the other side of the park.

I opted to NOT do space due to the jerkiness of it. DH didn't want to either but he did anyway for DD's sake.
I rested my feet again (working hard at making sure I can keep up to those 2. lol).

We wandered through FantasyLand to check out the construction. DH wanted to grab a few pics but there really was no good vantage point and I wanted to hit HM before it got a line up.

HM a did have a few minutes but mostly due to some slower ppl ahead of us but no real wait other than that. We chose to enjoy the new walkway area through the graveyard and DD14 enjoyed some of the features but the line was going so swiftly we almost felt bad to actually try some of the things out.

Our rushing was now at an end so we stopped on the bridge area between HM and the Splash area that meanders along the water and snacked on muffins and apples.

Next we used Splash FP I'm thinking it had to be between 11:10 and 11:45 now-We were about 7 min late but knowing about the 15 min Grace Period I wasn't too worried and sure enough it was all fine. We passed alot of people in line - I think the standby wait was up around 35 min now.

of course DH won this one AGAIN! BAHAHAHAHA!!! and again - I LOSE!!! DD and I thought I should cover my eyes like I was too afraid to look but at the last minute I got worried my hat would fly off so i end up looking like a total dork again. hahahaha!!!

We decided since we were over on this side of the park and it was getting HOT!!!!! that it was the PERFECT time for a Dole Whip break :thumbsup2

We got a Dole Whip Float and an orange Dole Whip and shared the 2 of them between the 3 of us. We do that ALOT on this trip bc none of us are really big eaters.

Well, next we decide to head back AGAIN over to the other side of the park!! LOL but guess what? It took us a LOT longer than we thought :worried:

and you'll have to wait to find out why in the next post

Nermel9 · May 25, 2012

Looks like a fun morning in MK! :cool1:

Ugh, I'm so awful at Buzz, I never know where I'm supposed to be aiming! TSM is so much better!

Haha, I love your Splash pics, my DH always tries to make stupid faces on rides when they take the picture too, I sometimes feel bad if he ruins the picture for the other people on the ride with us! :rotfl2:

Yum, Dole Whips! I kind of like the orange swirl better than the pineapple!

We did it ALL!! 19 days Apr/May 2012 (updated! check in ROYAL PACIFIC RESORT)

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