What was I thinking????? Spring break 07

[fletchers5]

Let me first start off by saying that I can not believe that there are so many people with awesome writing abilities. You people should write novels. I on the other hand might bore you all to death. But after reading these Dis Reviews everyday for the last 4 months, I thought I would give it a try.

Our Cast:

ME 43 and the mother of 3 children- well they are not children anymore. Love to plan vacations. Can get obsessive when planning, but nothing compared to the Dissers. Probably wouldn’t be able to survive without reading the Dis boards. First Disney trip when I was 21. Two trip with the kids when they were younger.

DH 45 Definitely OCD ( but only with his possessions) Great guy, goes with the flow, loves to travel

DD 22 College senior, has probably traveled to more countries in her short life than I have. Wants to be a world traveler. Scares her mother half to death.

Also with us on this trip: My older brother and his wife. Their two sons ages 6 and 9
My younger brother and his wife. Their two children- daughter age 6 and son age 8 months. Both of my brothers live in Florida and travel to Disney and Universal a few times a year.


The Beginning:

This trip planning started back around Christmas. My older brother made his yearly phone call. Nope we do not talk too often. Not because we don’t get along, but because we are all so busy. I know, no excuse. I do try and call them a few times a year. They had just went to Disney over Thanksgiving ( thought it wouldn’t be busy). They bought 5 day park passes and rented a vacation home for the long weekend. Because of the parks being way toooooooo crowded, they only went to Disney the one day. So they spent the rest of their mini vacation swimming in the pool, visiting Old Towne and a little shopping. Anyways, when he made his yearly phone call he suggested that me and my husband come to Florida in the spring. Rent a vacation home and enjoy the parks. I told him we would think about it. Now you must understand, I LOVE DISNEY. If finances allowed it, I could go there every weekend.

When our children were young we wanted them to see other places. I know, BAD, BAD mom. We have taken them to Disney twice, Disneyland once, Savannah Georgia, Niagara Falls, Skyline Drive, Virginia Beach, St Thomas, etc. So we tried to let them see the country. Now that they are older (my oldest is 24 and youngest 19) my husband and I have been vacationing ALONE. Yes it is SWEET!!!! We have asked the children if they wanted to go but they are all too busy.

This year is our 25th anniversary. Wow, can't believe I have been married that long. Still feel like a teenager. My husband asked where I wanted to go on vacation to celebrate. Naturally I said Bermuda. Am I on the cruise boards. Ooops. No I am on the Disney boards. Sorry. Yes if I had a choice it would be Bermuda. So we booked a cruise to Bermuda for September.

Then I get that yearly phone call from my brother. He puts the bug in the ear about Disney this spring. I had told him we would think about it. Two vacations in one year. We do mini vacations all the time, but Disney and Bermuda in the same year. I have died and gone to heaven.

So January arrives and it had been pretty mild here in Illinois. Then February hits. Snow, cold, snow, cold, snow, cold. And I mean below zero cold. I think you get the picture. It sucked. Really. If I ever wanted to move somewhere warm, it was this winter.

I start talking to my husband. “ You know honey, it would be really nice to go to Florida this spring. Go to Disney without our kids. Did I just say that out loud??? Mean MOM. Yes without them. Love my kids, but you know, It is that time in our lives for us to enjoy US. Let us enjoy the nieces and nephews whom we only see once a year ( if we are lucky) My husband responded with the “ I will think about it.” So I do the wifely thing that we all do, I start PLANNING. We are going to DISNEY.

I call the oldest brother. Where will we stay, when do you want to go and so forth. Since none of us were born into Howard Hughes family, we all needed to budget. Remember I am going to Bermuda this fall. So I really needed to budget. My brother always rents a house while in Orlando. I know, I know, nothing like staying on site. And we did do that the first time we took the kids. But you need to remember that there will be 10 of us. We actually end up with 11 ( you remember, we are at that time in our life where we go places without the kids. ) but I will get to that later. My bother tells me he can get us a house really cheap for the week. Will not cost us much at all. He will look into renting a house. Now we need to figure out when to go. Really not wanting to go during spring break, but that is the only time I can get off of work. I work two jobs. During spring break, I will have off my one job and my other job will be no problem taking off. PROBLEM #1: My spring break is the week before both of my brothers kids spring break. Hmmmmmmmmm…. What to do. I can’t take off the week they are off. So we go back and forth for a week trying to figure it out. My brother decides that they can take vacation the Wednesday before their actual spring break. We will rent a house Wed through Monday. Sounds good to the rest of us. The planning begins…………………

 

[soupy11]

Great start! Can't wait to hear more as the larger group dynamics at play will surely be interesting!

 

[fletchers5]

Ok, see I told you I wasn't sure I could write this thing. I posted it twice. LOL. Actually wasn't my fault.

So our trip was in the making. My brother was looking into a vacation home. We had the date set. Now to figure out how my husband and I were going to get to Florida. We normally drive. How much fun is driving 20 hours. Not fun but it isn't all that bad. Usually we would drive because buying airfare for 5 people is expensive and remember we are not Howards relatives. But for 2 of us, maybe we should just fly down. It is a vacation for only 5 nights. So I start checking airfare. This is in February and we are arriving to Florida the last week of March. Airfare is way too expensive. I could drive to Florida 2 roundtrips and it would be still be way cheaper. So I guess we are driving. My brother finds a house. Only 15 minutes from Disney, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, pool and hot tub. What more could we ask for.

Now just so you all don't think I am a really bad mother, I did ask my kids to go. The oldest couldn't get off work, the youngest was going to Florida with his girlfriends family and my daughter is in college. Her spring break is two weeks before ours. But now I had to tell my daughter ( remember world traveler) that we were going to Disney at the end of March.

" hey you are going to be mad"
" Why"
" Your dad and I are going to Disney the last week of March"
" What the heck. I want to go"
" You can't. You have classes"
" When are you going"
" March 28th through April 2nd"
" Book me a flight for the 29th and return trip on the 1st"
" You can't take off school"
" It's only a day and besides, I want to see everyone"

So lets see here, my husband and I are driving 40 hours round trip to save money because remember- AIRFARE IS WAY TOO HIGH DURING SPRING BREAK- and now I am booking a ticket for my daughter because she wants to go.

Instead of world traveler insert SPOILED. Now our trip is consisting of 11.

Now my head starts spinning- since I have the whole week off, what if my DH and I leave on Saturday, visit my parents on the way for one night- leave for Orlando Sunday and arrive sometime Monday AM. Yes we drive all night. Yes we are a little mental. Riding for 16 hours ( remember we are leaving from my Moms who is 4 hours closer) with my DH who does not like to talk when he drives. BOREING. I love my husband to death, but he has got to be the most boreing person to be with when you are traveling in a car. Then we could enjoy the parks Tuesday and part of Wednesday before the rest of the family arrives.

Have you ever gone on vacation with 10 people? Some of those 10 people being little ones? One wants to go here, one wants to go there. You waste half the day just waiting for everyone to go to the bathroom.
So If my DH and I go a couple of days early, we can get in what we want to see and then we can enjoy the kids when they arrive.

Sounded like a good plan to me. So I start looking for information on a place to stay Monday and Tuesday night. That is when I discovered................ the Dis Boards. WOW, where have you people been all my life. What an enormous amount of information and very enjoyable trip report reading. My days- yes while I am working, shoot me, were spent reading all the great trip reports. I got addicted. After a couple of weeks I did a yahoo search for Disney addicts Couldn't find anything. Maybe you need to start a new forum for addicts. We could meet once a month at the mouse.

So I start looking for a place to stay. Knew we couldn't afford to stay onsite and didn't want to stay in Disney's cheap hotels. Sorry, not to offend all you people, but the outside of those places scare me. Not really. Just seems like a great place if you have small children. Remember my children are adults. And the other Disney resorts were just out of my price range for this trip Yes this was supposed to be a cheap vacation. That is what my DH kept telling me. Renting a house, cooking our food, etc. This trip cost me more for the three of us than it did when we took all three of the kids and stayed onsite.

Since I have not been to Orlando in 7 years, I wasn't sure of where to stay. We usually stay in places like the Marriott. I was afraid to book anything. I didn't want a roach motel. Luckily a friend of mine has a friend who lives in orlando. So she gave us a name of a hotel. Turned out to be really nice and clean. So we booked the Radisson for two nights.

So now we are leaving Saturday the 24th of March, staying at my Mom and Dad's for the night in Ohio, then heading to ORLANDO on Sunday.

Ok, after reading the boards I need to get my Crocks. NOT. Sorry, but there is no way you are going to make me wear those. I am not as stupid as some and buy new shoes for the trip only to have blisters. I know better. I am a vetern. I will wear my comfy flip flops. I do not need Crocks. Kudos to those that like them but they will never go on my feet, I don't care how comfy they are. And my husband would divorce me if I made him wear them. I am one that always sais " if doesn't matter what other people think, as long as you are comforatable with yourself that is all that matters". So I am not putting down crock wearers. I love Disser's but I won't go that far.

Bagalini- Nope don't need that. I have a great tote I bought from A&F. Love it. Remember I don't have little ones .

ADR's. NOPE we don't need those. We are eating at our house. My brother kept saying how cheap staying at a house was. Cook your own food. I was brought up that vacation means no COOKING. So brother who is cooking for 11 people??????

I know, you are all beginning to think that I am really not a Disser. I must be from some other disney board. How can someone go to Disney and not wear crocks, have a bagalini and make ADR's. Well now I am really going to scare you, WE DIDN"T make a plan of what to see, what to ride and so on. Nope not us. No chart, no plan of attack. We are the ones that complain because we didn't get to experience Disney the right way. We didn't get to ride all the rides etc. Only kidding, I would never complain about Disney.

So on with the plan of attack. It is now gettting into the beginning of March. We leave in less than three weeks. I am on the dis board EVERY day for hours. I ask my husband if we should get our Disney tickets early. He said I should call my brother to find out how many days they are planning on visiting the world. OMG woman down. Call 911. Oh I think she just fainted.
What, what is going on. Did I have a bad dream. Brother did you just say you only wanted to visit Disney one day??? Ithink my heart stopped.........

 

[fletchers5]

............. What, what do you mean only one day at the most magical place in the world. I thought you guys had days left on your passes?

" We do, but we will be going again. Remember, we live in Florida> Besides it is Williams Birthday ( Nephew 6) and he wants to spend more time at Universal and Islands of Adventure."

" you mean I am driving 40 hours to only go to Disney one day"

" Well, you are coming down early. Why don't you spend a couple of Days at Disney before we get there?"

" Hey that sounds like a plan"

So now that he got my heart pumping again I started thinking- we will do 3 day disney pass- use two days before everyone else gets there and use the last day when we all go. Now, we have taken the kids to Universal. When we originally took them their second trip to Disney, we did a day at Universal. Kids were older and they really enjoyed it.

So now I needed to get a 3 day pass to Disney and a 3 day pass to Universal. Well while working hard at my job, I started looking into Universal and Islands. Universal was having a special- 7 consecutive days at either park- park hopper- for $85.00 a person. Wow, that is a great price. DUH. Told DH about it. He said- being the conservative one " Why don't you get 3 ( Remember spoiled was coming with us) Universal 7 day passes and we will just go to disney one day with the rest of the family.

Oh how my heart broke. But we do need to make this vacation as cheap as possible and with adding my daughters airfare into our budget, my husband won.

So now you are all asking me " what the heck is this newbie doing writing a trip report on the disney board when they only spent one day at Disney?"

Because I want to. LOL. Actually I really love reading all these trip reports and thought I would like to write one and besides, I really am not a proffessional Disneyite so even if I went to Disney for 5 days I don't think I could help anyone. I just want to write a report. Arrest me.

I really think you are all so kind that you won't care.

So my spring break trip report begins.................

 

[fletchers5]

So now we are off..... We get up at 4:00 a.m Saturday to head to Ohio. It is a 7 hour drive. Haven't seen my parents since Christmas so I am looking forward to the short visit. We leave the house at 5:00. Nothing to exciting about this trip. Kind of boreing. I did read a book and I had brought along the portable DVD player to watch a couple of movies. I love to read and can usually get a couple of books in during the drive.

Sunday around 5:00 p.m. we leave my parents for the long awaited trip to heat, magic and getting to see my family. I am on cloud nine. I haven't seen my niece or nephews in a long time. Have never seen the new one. I will post pictures soon.

The ride was again very uneventful. We drove, drove and drove. We each take turns driving. He drives about 3 hours then I drive about an hour. Around 8:00 a.m. we were about and hour away from Orlando. I spotted a Crackle Barrel. You can never go wrong with a breakfast at this place. I am not sure the people at this Crackle Barrel really enjoyed us visiting.... 15 hours with no shower....... but we enjoyed visiting and the food.

I had bought by husband a GPS unit for Christmas. I was very excited about using this on this trip. We punched in the hotels address and away we went. I believe we arrived at the hotel around 10:00. I was anticipating being able to check in. Yeah right...... No can do. They wouldn't have a room ready for another couple of hours. By this time my husband was exhausted. He just wanted to lay down. I asked if it would be ok to go lay by the pool till our room was ready. There was no way we were going anywhere for a couple of hours and the thought of laying in our car with temperatures outside at 80 degrees didn't appeal to us. So we layed by the pool till our room was ready.

At this time my husband took a nap. Now you don't know me really.... I don't sleep alot. I do sleep at night, but I am a morning person no matter what time I go to bed. We were in Orlando. There was no way I was going to sleep. GRRRRRRRRRRR but on the other hand I was bored. I did unpack some of our stuff. Naturally took a shower, boy did that feel good.

After a couple of hours, my husband felt bad for me ...... such a nice guy... and got up. We decided to do the Downtown Disney. I really love this place, the atmosphere. It just makes you feel all warm inside
We ended up walking around, shopping and had a few drinks. Have never had a rum runner before. They looked good. Had one. Wow is there alot of alchohol in that drink. By this time I wanted another one. . Now I was definetly feeling good.

We enjoyed the stroll. Walked by Disney Quest. Mentioned to the DH....... Remember when we brought the kids to Disney Quest??? NO. What do you mean. Don't you remember. NO
Come on. Remember Lego Land. NO Remember Rain Forest Cafe. NO
Wow, that is scary. It hasn't been that long ago.
He thinks I was here with someone else. No, honey, remember we are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this year. I am not old enough to have had another husband.

We end up leaving Downtown Disney and head back to the hotel. We actually made it in time to watch American Idol. There I am, 1200 miles from home, on vacation and what am I doing? Watching American Idol.......

 

[fletchers5]

I said I would post some pictures and since I am now at home I will give it a try.

 

[fletchers5]

well I guess that didn't work. Will try again.

Can't you tell that I am not computer literate.

 

[fletchers5]

ok now I really feel computer stupid.

 

[fletchers5]

Ok now that I have it figured out. That was a picture of my nephew that I got to meet for the first time. Here is a picture of all of us at Disney. It is really hard to see the two people in the stroller.

WEll I don't know why this one wouldn't work. I guess I will have to play with this awhile

 

[lamagique]

Keep trying with the pics... this is interesting! *Subscribing*

 

[fletchers5]

Now we had planned on going to Universal on Tuesday.... had the 7 day pass... and thought we would enjoy the park by ourselves. Boy did we have the park by ourselves. We got up early and headed on over. The park was kind of spooky because there wasn't anyone there. We literaly got on every ride with no wait. We actually got to ride every ride by 1:00. I wanted my husband to sign up for fear factor..... but he doesn't like getting up in front of crowds. No go. I figured that when my daughter arrived..... coming in on Thursday... that her and my brother would try it.

Since we had seen the whole park by 1:00... and this included me having an overactive bladder all day.... we decided to go and eat lunch. We headed over to Hard Rock and enjoyed a pleasant lunch. Then we headed to Islands of Adventure. Now, I have never been to this park and was amazed at how colorful it was. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at Islands, riding every ride with no wait. And to think that I thought with it being spring break, we would be lucky to get in half of a park.

The park was closing at 7:00, so we headed to City Walk. This place is much like Downtown Disney. We enjoyed a drink.... no rum runner for me.... and people watched for a long time. Went into a couple of shops and naturally had to pick up a few things. City Walk was busy. We wondered where all the people came from because they were not in the park this day.

We headed back to the hotel and ejoyed a quiet evening. I don't ever go to bed this early back home.

The next day, Wednesday, is the day the rest of my family was arriving. They thought they would get in around 5:00 that evening. Originally we thought this would be our Island day, but since we had seen it all the day before, we decided to do some Orlando shopping. So we hit the strip. There is alot of tourist shopping on one road.... can't for the life of me think of the name..... After shopping and eating we were ready to meet the crew. We waited for their phone call and put the address into the GPS and we were on our way. I could not wait to see everyone. It had been a year since I had seen any of them.

WE arrived at our destination..... real estate place.... to pick up the keys. We only had to wait about 10 minutes till both my brothers arrived. Hugs and kisses for everyone. As soon as I saw the baby I fell in love. He is way too cute

From all of the excitement I think I scared him . He started to cry. Well I am one mean looking aunt.

We got the keys and off to find the house. About 10 minutes later we arrived...................... Wow is all I can say. This house was great.....

 

[fletchers5]

What a great house. Loved the pool and hot tub. The pool was a little chilly and we did pay for heated water, so up goes the thermometer. I really feel sorry for the people that own that house. We eventually got the water temp to 97 degrees. I was in heaven. Didn't want to get out.

We all visited for awhile. The baby warmed up to me and now I was the nicest aunt in the world. I had brought the kids some presents. I had also made them each an autograph book. The women loved them. I am not so sure the kids really cared. ARG. So those were given out. Hey, an aunt needs some brownie points The men.....are we women stupid......went and got the food for the week.......No ADR's remember....and we made a quick dinner. Sat around the pool and relaxed. Everyone hit the hay a little early. Thursday was DISNEY. We planned on getting up early, hitting the park early. This is spring break. Could we be as lucky as the day before and find Disney to be a ghost town????????????

The plan was... since I get up at the crack of dawn... that I would wake everyone up. Now, my sister inlaw... the one with that adorable baby.... takes a little while to get ready. We do have a father to help.....Please...... So I would take the baby and get him fed, feed the other kids. This would give everyone enough time so we could be out the door by 8:00.

Wow, my biological alarm clock did not work this morning. I did wake to here the baby cooing. I jumped out of bed and into the kitchen. There sat my sis in law feeding the baby. Shoot..... it was 7:15. Everyone up!!!!! We have a mouse to see.

We ended up leaving the house at 8:15. Not to bad. Our plan was to head to Space Mountain and hit the rides in that area. My daughter was landing in Orlando at 11:00. She was to find a bus to take her to the world. We expected her to arrive at Disney around 1:00.

Well we park the car. For 8:30 a.m the place was packed. I couldn't believe all the people. We had to wait around 15 minutes to get on the tram. People kept pushing and shoving. We were in front, ready for the next tram, it pulled up and wham, push, shove. I couldn't believe how rude the people were. So we had a plan. We kind of took up the whole front row. As soon as we were allowed, we would run to the tram and not let anyone else on until our crew of 10 was safely to the doors. This time it worked.

When we got to the monorail we were amazed at the 1000's of people walking up the hill. My brother told us to head to the ferry. Not as many people but still crowded. It took about 15 minutes to get into the park. All in all painless. Hey we are on vacation, I am with my family, me and my brothers , with my niece and nephews. What more could a person want.

My title reads...... What was I thinking?????? Exactly. What was I thinking?? Spring break at Disney. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in Disney. You could not move. Literally. Wow. We would be lucky to do 3 rides.

I love Disney. Love the atmosphere, the shops, the landscaping, the everything. It was so crowded I couldn't even go into one shop. I saw no landscaping. All I saw was PEOPLE. Back in the day...... I loved crowds. My favorite day was Black Friday. Loved shopping with all those people. Now that I am older..... give me a ghost town. People can really bug you. I just don't have the patience that I used to have. I guess I was bullied for so long that you finally just have to start sticking up for yourself.

Disney breaks record for most people in park..............