WLfamily
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2009
- Messages
- 496
This is my first attempt at a trip report so I can't promise how it will turn out. For those who choose to follow along with me on this journey, I will do my best to keep you entertained. Several of my friends from the July board already know the cast in this story, but for the rest of you let me fill in the blanks.
Me (41) ~ Disney Fanatic
DH (42) ~ Loves Disney too but not as much as me
DS (14) ~ Stuck somewhere between mom and dad
DD (10) ~ Following in my footsteps
A little backstory: Our first trip to Disney was way back in 2002. I had never been before but always dreamed about it. Dh had been once as a child, when there was only MK, and didn't understand why I would want to travel nine hours to an amusement park. At this time ds was 6 and dd was 3 so I convinced him it would be a great vacation for the kids.
To make a long story short...booked vacation, then discounts came out, changed dates of vacation, got a great deal, went for 6 nights at the Wilderness Lodge with water parks and park hoppers (there was no dp back in those days), and I was there on my 34 birthday! Keep in mind we knew "nothing" about Disney, total newbies. Driving up to the Lodge my dh reached over, patted my leg, and said "You did good honey." !!!! From that moment on we were sold! No turning back now.
Now for this trip. This is trip number three for us. We have stayed at WL on the first two trips and as much as we say we want to stay somewhere else, we are too chicken to try somewhere else. Now I'm an obsessive planner. I book a year out and spend an entire year researching, making notes, planning, changing plans, driving people crazy, etc. This trip we decided to be brave and we booked CB in a pirate room. That lasted about a month and I got nervous that it wouldn't live up to my expectations so I changed. We had always said we would like to try the Beach Club so, I booked it. That lasted about three weeks and I changed again, to WL. Now you're thinking I'm done right? Wrong. I am still researching and decide that I can save money by going back to a moderate. I change WL to POR telling my family it will be fun to try some place new! I am really trying to convience myself, not them, but at least I'm trying. Well by now I am sure you have figured out that I didn't stay with that resort, I chickened out and went back to ole' faithful WL. 
I think I changed our reservation a total of five times when all was said and done. 
So we are booked to stay at WL July 19-26 with 8 day park hoppers and dining plan. We normally leave our house around mid-night and drive all night, it takes us about nine hours to get there. When the kids were younger they would sleep on the way there, but last year when we went to the beach we tried this and guess what? They don't sleep anymore!!!! So dh comes up with a new plan. He decides that we leave Sat. morning instead of Sat. night and find somewhere to stay for one night. This way the kids are exhausted when we arrive, but can get a good nights sleep before we check into the Lodge and start our park days. Great idea! And since we have always wanted to try some place new to stay I found this the perfect way to do just that! So I booked a one night stay at the Pop. Now we will be leaving on July 18 and staying one night at the Pop, checking out on the 19th and heading over to WL until the 26th.
Next up...trip down, our Pop stay, and day one of parks. And I promise pictures will be in this next part also.
Me (41) ~ Disney Fanatic
DH (42) ~ Loves Disney too but not as much as me
DS (14) ~ Stuck somewhere between mom and dad
DD (10) ~ Following in my footsteps
A little backstory: Our first trip to Disney was way back in 2002. I had never been before but always dreamed about it. Dh had been once as a child, when there was only MK, and didn't understand why I would want to travel nine hours to an amusement park. At this time ds was 6 and dd was 3 so I convinced him it would be a great vacation for the kids.
To make a long story short...booked vacation, then discounts came out, changed dates of vacation, got a great deal, went for 6 nights at the Wilderness Lodge with water parks and park hoppers (there was no dp back in those days), and I was there on my 34 birthday! Keep in mind we knew "nothing" about Disney, total newbies. Driving up to the Lodge my dh reached over, patted my leg, and said "You did good honey." !!!! From that moment on we were sold! No turning back now. Now for this trip. This is trip number three for us. We have stayed at WL on the first two trips and as much as we say we want to stay somewhere else, we are too chicken to try somewhere else. Now I'm an obsessive planner. I book a year out and spend an entire year researching, making notes, planning, changing plans, driving people crazy, etc. This trip we decided to be brave and we booked CB in a pirate room. That lasted about a month and I got nervous that it wouldn't live up to my expectations so I changed. We had always said we would like to try the Beach Club so, I booked it. That lasted about three weeks and I changed again, to WL. Now you're thinking I'm done right? Wrong. I am still researching and decide that I can save money by going back to a moderate. I change WL to POR telling my family it will be fun to try some place new! I am really trying to convience myself, not them, but at least I'm trying.
Well by now I am sure you have figured out that I didn't stay with that resort, I chickened out and went back to ole' faithful WL. I think I changed our reservation a total of five times when all was said and done. So we are booked to stay at WL July 19-26 with 8 day park hoppers and dining plan. We normally leave our house around mid-night and drive all night, it takes us about nine hours to get there. When the kids were younger they would sleep on the way there, but last year when we went to the beach we tried this and guess what? They don't sleep anymore!!!! So dh comes up with a new plan. He decides that we leave Sat. morning instead of Sat. night and find somewhere to stay for one night. This way the kids are exhausted when we arrive, but can get a good nights sleep before we check into the Lodge and start our park days. Great idea! And since we have always wanted to try some place new to stay I found this the perfect way to do just that! So I booked a one night stay at the Pop. Now we will be leaving on July 18 and staying one night at the Pop, checking out on the 19th and heading over to WL until the 26th.
Next up...trip down, our Pop stay, and day one of parks. And I promise pictures will be in this next part also.
JUmping on board
I hope I don't disappoint! 
Second sign something is wrong: he asks me to take him to the doctor. 
We get to the doctor and he tests positive for strep throat and a sinus infection. No big deal, we still have ten days before we leave. The doc puts him on antibiotics and by the next day he is feeling somewhat better. He takes his last dose of medicine on Friday and he seems to be fully recovered, thank goodness! Of course we find out later that is not really true, stay tuned. 
We were given a room in the 50's building and our door opened up to overlook the bowling ball pool. Now if we were going to stay any length of time I would not recommend this room, a little loud. But being that we were only there one night and our main idea was to let the kids swim and then sleep, this room location couldn't have been more perfect. 
Within 10 minutes of walking into our room at AS Music my DH said, "I can handle this for a day or two, but we go back to a moderate for anything longer." I guess we are hotel snobs also.
Even better, we head up to our room which is on the 4th floor and realize that is the floor with the amazing balcony that overlooks the lobby and has the large deck that overlooks the pool/lake! We find out later that night that our room is also a Wishes fireworks view room!!! And we only booked standard view! You could see the monorail passing through the trees during the day, so cool. 
Here are some pics of our room and the WL lobby. 
