"What?! You were RELAXED at Disney? NO WAY!"

[lindsmom]

We laughed through our whole vacation, thanks to the DIS!

Well, we got back last week from a wonderful week – long vacation at you–know–where and it was positively amazing! Since we’ve been back, everyone (of course) asks us how vacation was and my answer is “It was the most relaxing vacation our family has ever had!” And their response is usually “But I thought you went to Disney?!” Haha!

Thanks to all you wonderful people at the DIS (and a few tourguide books, maybe another website or two), I had done all my work ahead of time so we actually COULD vacation! Whoo hoo!

I scrabbled through a pre – trip report, so I thought I’d find my way through a trip report as well. I’ll have some food and drink reviews, and reviews of our experiences at Pirate & Princess and Neverland Club, and (ssshhhh! ) off property reviews of Busch Gardens, SeaWorld , and our resort, Cypress Harbour.

It looks like I took, um, about 700 pictures (really – yikes! ) so there should be plenty of photos. Here’s one to whet your appetite:

I hope this report may be slightly entertaining – feel free to laugh at me , as I laugh at myself all the time (it’s a good philosophy) – but mostly I hope it will be informative for first timers, or even people who have gone but haven’t experienced some of the stuff we managed to.

Here’s the plan, subject to change:

- Our resort, Cypress Harbour
- Day one, Epcot
- Day two, Animal Kingdom (am) and DHS (pm)
- Day three, Magic Kingdom (on a MONDAY! Shameful!)
- Day four, Busch Gardens
- Day five, SeaWorld and P&PP
- Day six, daughter’s choice = Epcot and SeaWorld
- Wrap it up, because it’s time to go home

I’ll start with a brief overview of my (albeit small) family:

Me – I had been to Disney, um, maybe 5 times before, starting when I was 8 – ish years old. My last visit was over ten years ago, though, so I don’t remember it very well – and things have changed – Hey! They took out the skyway ride thing! Man!

That's me back then (I'm on the RIGHT, for the record).... but the ride is gone and we've all changed since then:

But I'm still on the right


DH – We figured out he’s been to Disney four times before this, but due to a large quantity of lead paint that he ingested as a baby, it’s a constantly new experience (think Dory, but in a good way).

DD, six (and a half!) years old. First trip to Disney, and here’s the thing. She’s kind of a wimp on rides. You’ve got your kids who jump into the pool on a summer day. She lowers herself gently so as not to get her face wet. Same with rides. We’ve gone to StoryLand in New Hampshire (for those of you familiar with it) and only last year did she go on the Bamboo Chutes after we “tricked” her a bit. “See? it’s not so bad!” She loves that ride now. So we’ve upped the ante “See? Splash Mountain is just a bit longer than Bamboo Chutes!” (It’s not – it’s over twice as high a drop) But she’s nuts about the princesses (stereotypical) and she loves swimming in a pool (as long as she doesn’t jump in) so we figured we’d find some entertainment for her in the great big World of Disney.

We have a dog, Augie, who really doesn’t play into the story at all so this is probably her only mention for this report. But she’s a member of the family and I think she’s reading over my shoulder right now. She’d be offended if I left her out. There you go, Aug, you’re in the report. Go back to sleep.

Okay, so I hope some people will read, even after this introduction! I promise many more photos… you may have stumbled across some of them already on the DIS – I’m still organizing for PhotoPass…

later!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Looking forward to reading about your trip!

 

[rebecca06261]

What a beautiful family! I think I have the same pic of me and my mom from 1988!! I'll have to find it, scan it, & put it up next to yours!
Can't wait for more!

 

[Barbi]

Can't wait to see more!

 

[nts4wdw]

Great start!!

 

[nrod]

Great start, can't wait to read more about your trip! Storyland, Cape Cod visor on your Mom, you must be from New England!! We're from outside of Boston. Haven't made it to Storyland yet, but maybe this summer, maybe next - since all the money this year is going to our September trip. My boys are the perfect age, but are not into rides too much. Hope they change their tune by September.

You have a beautiful family, looking forward to reading more about them.

 

[Cory's Gal]

Can't wait to hear more, your daughter is adorable!!!

 

[kaysmommie]

Looking forward to reading about your trip! Your DD is adorable!! Your dog looks exactly like my mom's black & white Shih Tzu. We also have 2 Shih Tzu's. Can't wait to hear how you liked your resort and how much fun you had at Sea World. We love SW .

 

[meloneyb21]

Yay, great start, lovely family.

 

[sandym718]

I'm in!! Esp. can't wait to read about your AK am and DHS pm day - I think we're going to do that on our next trip.

 

[Sorsha]

I'm in too!
You have a beautiful family! Can't wait to hear about your adventures!

 

[LilGMom]

Count me in too! Almost gave myself a nasal tea enima when I read your lead/Dory comment about your DH. Your DD is absolutely adorable and can't wait to read about her reactions to everything.

 

[lindsmom]

Looking forward to reading about your trip!

Hi and thanks for being the first to join!

What a beautiful family! I think I have the same pic of me and my mom from 1988!! I'll have to find it, scan it, & put it up next to yours!
Can't wait for more!

Haha! That would be great to see! I suppose that's one of those shots that lots of people have, like the 100 that I took of poor DD in front of the castle! Thanks for joining!

Can't wait to see more!

Great start!!

Welcome!

Great start, can't wait to read more about your trip! Storyland, Cape Cod visor on your Mom, you must be from New England!! We're from outside of Boston. Haven't made it to Storyland yet, but maybe this summer, maybe next - since all the money this year is going to our September trip. My boys are the perfect age, but are not into rides too much. Hope they change their tune by September.

Good sleuthing -we're from Cape Cod. Storyland is great - you're right, your boys are the perfect age. It's a good quick fix between disney trips

Thanks for joining!

Can't wait to hear more, your daughter is adorable!!!

Aw, thanks! Welcome!

Looking forward to reading about your trip! Your DD is adorable!! Your dog looks exactly like my mom's black & white Shih Tzu. We also have 2 Shih Tzu's. Can't wait to hear how you liked your resort and how much fun you had at Sea World. We love SW .

Isn't it funny how shih tzu's look so much alike? Do your mom's dogs have a bit of attitude (like mine), or are they from the affectionate branch of the shih tzu tree?

Oh, wait till the SeaWorld discussion! We LOVED SeaWorld! Thanks for reading!

Yay, great start, lovely family.

Thanks and welcome!

I'm in!! Esp. can't wait to read about your AK am and DHS pm day - I think we're going to do that on our next trip.

Thanks for reading!

I'm in too!
You have a beautiful family! Can't wait to hear about your adventures!

Thanks! Adventures is a good word

Count me in too! Almost gave myself a nasal tea enima when I read your lead/Dory comment about your DH. Your DD is absolutely adorable and can't wait to read about her reactions to everything.

Oh! My apologies to anyone sitting across from you there... DH read that line and just started laughing.... then he read that line a few minutes later and just started laughing.... Kidding!


Welcome everyone! Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask along the way, as I try not to bore with details but hope to help with any plans you have coming up!

 

[lindsmom]

Arrival Day!


Perhaps I should mention for any New Englanders out there who may be interested, our journey started the night before when we stayed overnight near the Providence Airport – our flight was leaving at 10:30, and we didn’t want to deal with rush hour traffic in the morning. So we stayed at Wingate by Wyndham in West Warwick. I just love saying that. It rolls right off the tongue. For those who are interested, if you enjoy paper thin walls, rock hard beds, pillows smaller than you get on the plane, and a “heated” pool that is all of about 60 degrees, then THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU! Or, in our case, if you want a room with two queen beds for $50 for the night, you may be interested as well. Have I mentioned that I have a sarcastic streak in me?

So we’ll block out that night – we had a fine nonstop flight on Southwest – again, anyone with questions about boarding, snacks, skymall magazine, etc. feel free to ask! We got into Orlando about quarter past one. We had a car reserved with Alamo – I had a great deal, thanks to the transportation board here! I used the kiosk downstairs, we walked out and picked our car and drove away! It worked REALLY well while MANY people waited in line to speak to a human.

Our directions from Mapquest were great – we pulled into Cypress Harbour around 2:20. The place was BEAUTIFUL! Of course, I’m always impressed when we have to be approved by a security guard at a gate to get into our resort. I say always, as if it has EVER happened to me before. It hasn’t. Like I said, color me impressed.

Unfortunately, check in isn’t until 4:00 (which I had forgotten), and I had made some requests for our room location, which meant our room wasn’t ready. We walked around the gorgeous grounds – the staff had offered pool towels and a changing room for us, but we had other plans that evening – and our room still wasn’t ready. Ugh. We went to super Walmart (10 minutes away – sweet!) and stocked up on milk and cream, a few snacks and flip flops as I had forgotten ours for going to the pool. We went back and the room STILL wasn’t ready. Yikes. It was now 4:10, and we had a 5:20 at Chef Mickey’s. Uh oh. We found out which building we were in, and staked it out. I took DD to play on the playground near our building and luckily 10 minutes later we got the go ahead. We dropped everything, briskly oooohed and aaaaahed over the room

(pictures were taken the next day - we didn't have time on arrival - but they fit better into the story here!)
and ran back out to the car for the Contemporary.

 

[lindsmom]

Arrival Day, Part 2 (apparently, I have too many graphics!)


Okay, maybe some of you are PROFESSIONALS at driving Disney. But for those of us who aren’t, here’s the biggest argument for staying on property. WHERE THE HECK ARE WE? Later in our trip we learned that our drive should have taken, oh, about 15 minutes door to door. We went in CIRCLES! And the tough part is everyone knows what the Contemporary looks like, and it’s very noticeable from most roads even NEAR it. So, kind of like driving around Washington D.C. looking for the monument, we kept turning left and going “Oh! There it is! Over theeeeerrrrrreeeeee…. too late.” We could see the building on the horizon…. getting closer….. whoa! it’s gone. And we were trying to beat the clock.

I’ve heard here on the DIS that there’s a 15 minute window where they hold your ADR. If that’s true, then check this out. We arrived for our 5:20 at 5:33. yep. We could have driven for 1 ½ more minutes.

Chef Mickey’s was FANTASTIC! Now, it could be the travel talking, or the fact that we MADE IT THERE, or the fact that it was our first stop in The World, but it was really great. We got a table in the room “up above”, kind of up the stairs, tucked in the side. While it was somewhat noisy, it would have been a LOT noisier in the main room. The food was very good. Sorry, I didn’t get pictures. My DH had put up with a lot on that first day and I think whipping out the Fuji while my plate of prime rib posed for me would have put him over the edge. Also we dealt with DD’s sudden fear of stuffed animals over 4 feet tall.

Pluto came first, and DD was REALLY nervous, looking at me, kind of nibbling her nails. I asked her if she wanted me to explain to Pluto that she was nervous and she did, so when Pluto came by I said “HI PLUTO!” (I fear I may have been yelling at the poor CM in the Pluto head, but for some reason I thought it would be hard to hear in those things) “LINDSAY IS A LITTLE NERVOUS, BECAUSE SHE HAS NEVER MET YOU OR YOUR FRIENDS, BUT COULD YOU PLEASE SIGN HER BOOK AND POSE FOR A PICTURE?” And poor Pluto, in spite of the likely hearing loss, was very docile and just signed, posed, and left, likely in search of Advil for the migraine.

After that, DD got the character bug and warmed up immediately,

even getting kisses from Mickey and Minnie.

You can see she's getting more into it already...

I’ve gone on enough about Chef Mickey’s, but I just want to say it was a fantastic way to start off our vacation (since the travel part isn’t usually part of vacationing). To top the evening off, we hopped on the monorail and did one loop, past Grand Floridian, MK, TTC, Poly (not in that order – sorry), and back to the Contemporary, where Lin made her first pressed penny.

It was great, and it was just enough. We went back to the room to rest up for our first full Disney day at Epcot

 

[Cindeegyrl]

Great Report so far, I want more!!

 

[LilGMom]

Great start! We drive for every trip and it took us a few times to get the hang of it and figure out the shortcuts.

Have a question about your DD's autograph book because it is adorable! Did you buy that somewhere or make it?

 

[lindsmom]

Great Report so far, I want more!!

Hi! Thanks for joining! I'll try to get each one out fairly quickly, so I don't lose steam (and forget some of the details )

Have a question about your DD's autograph book because it is adorable! Did you buy that somewhere or make it?

Thanks! That was our "big" project for the trip. We got the designs here on theDis, from Heather at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1608084

and we got a block of color paper @ A.C. Moore (i.e. Michaels / scrapbook paper store). DD chose each color to print each character's page, she cut (most of) the sheets and she glued all of them in a 5 x 7 blank book (also from A.C. Moore). We ended up using most of two books, combined into one (you sort of bend the wire spine open and put the pages in).

The characters seemed to be pleased with them - Mickey thumbed through to find Minnie's page and gave her a kiss on her page

We also had Lindsay's name on the cover, so some characters wrote "to Lindsay" when they signed.

 

[nrod]

Have I mentioned that I have a sarcastic streak in me?

Well duh, you said you were from New England, right???

Another question on your Autograph book ... did it take long to put together? I can't decide whether to make one or just buy it when we get there. I keep thinking with the time and money to make one it would be just as easy to buy one. Did you find that or were you happy to have the home-made one? I love that the characters included her name!!

And glad your DD warmed up, that's a concern of mine. So that's encouraging.

Love your hotel - the one in FL, not in West Warwick. (See I have one too.) Great job so far!!

 

[dreamer17555]

Oh count me in! You are off to a great start. And don't worry about "yelling" at Pluto. I, too, tend to talk a little loud when talking to fur characters.

-Becca-