Yes....we are all still talking to each other!!!!

[disneynuts777]

So after a year of planning and agonizing over every little detailed the time finaly came for our Grand Gathering to depart. Combined there were 9 of us from three families all related by sisterhood!!!!
The reason for this trip was to celebrate my nieces 5th Birthday on 09/02/09
She has never been to WDW.
The three families were:1)Me, DH, DD15,DD13 2)Dsis#2 and her DS13 and
3)Dsis#3,her DH and DD4.

I am terrible with pictures so it might take me forever to get any on here.

Day #1(08/27/09)- All met at the airport.
It blew me away that no one was late and we had plenty of time to sit and relax after we had got our boarding passes, checked the luggage and cleared customs.
Sister #3 even treated everyone to the aircanada lounge as a thank you for all the help with building her new house this summer. The lounge was a very nice way to start the vacation!!!
We boarded the plane on time and landed at MCO on time as well.(It was almost to good to be true!!) Collected our luggage and made our way to the Magical Express. We boarded the bus and within 5 minutes we were on our way to CSR.
Arrived at CSR collected our luggage from the bus and made our way to the online check-in area.
I already wrote a resort review on the CSR board so here is the link if you would like to read that.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2232763&page=123 post 1837

That evening we made our way over to Kona at the Poly. for dinner. They were behind the ADR's by almost 1/2 and hour which meant our 8pm dinner was now 8.30. We were all so tired by the time the entree arrived none of us really cared. It was crowded and noisy and the sever was to busy to attend to any of her tables needs properly. We asked for the check before our dessert arrived. By the time our server had seperated the checks and done the DxDDP credit deduction on everyones room key we had finished the desserts that had been delivered to us by a runner.
I usually love Kona but I think tiredness but a damper on this meal.

During this evening as well I had also picked up 4 out of 5 strollers from a swap that I was "sitting " during our stay. I was using 1 stroller from the swap but ended up watching 5!!! It was no big deal and it was the least I could do as the swap organizer for all these strollers is a wonderful person. It would also have broken my heart to have any of them go missing in luggage services while I was there.

It was almost midnight when we all finally fell in to our beds for the night.

Day #2(08/28/09)-Dragging my bones out of bed at 6am was tough but I was also excited. We had a 8am princess breakfast at Epcot in Norway. The youngest(4) in our party was also up as I getting out of the shower knocking on our connecting room door. She was jumping out of her skin. I sent her outside to the room next door to bang on the door. I knew this darling little face would get sister #2 moving without being grumpy!!!

We made it to Aukerhaus all in reasonable moods and waited for our table. Once again they were about 20-30 minutes behind schedule. No big deal this morning.
Once inside it was like magic. Belle greeted everyone and each family had there picture taken with her. Next we were seated at our table where juice and coffee was poured. A skillet of eggs,bacon, sausage and hash browns was brought to the table family style. You helped yourself buffett style to cheese, bread, fruit and yogurt. During this time Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora and Snow White had made there way to the table for autographs and pictures.
Breakfast ended up being tasty and hot.

We spent the day making our way around future world. Soaring was a blast and the Nemo ride was very cute.

Dinner was at the Coral Reef. Only 15 minutes behind ADR's. Thank goodness because we only had a snack for lunch!!! Everyone was pretty hungry.
We ended up being seated at a booth that faced the aquarium. Beautiful table but not for 9 people. Since they could not switch the table we all squeezed in and made the best of things. To sum it up the food quality and the service is completely lacking. I totally begruded the auto-grat that was on the bill. It will be along time before I try the Coral Reef again. It used to a favorite.

We spent the evening walking the World Showcase and enjoying the fireworks. Since there were EMH hours after the fireworks we took our time wandering back to the bus stop to return to CSR.


Day #3(08/29/09)- We all slept in!!!! We ate at the Maya Grill at CSR for a late breakfast. The breakfast here ended up being really good.
We all spent the day hanging around the pool and relaxing. I went and picked up the 5th stroller I was sitting. I did some maintenence on all of the strollers and then joined the rest of the family pool side.
Dinner this night was at Narcoosee's. This is one of my DD's favorite places to eat!!!
Upon arrival they were right on time with the ADR's. We were brought to our table and we refused it. It was the first table as you walked in the restaurant and anybody who walked by hit the person at the end of the table.
We ended up at two different tables back to back but this worked well as the teens and child sat at one with the adults at the other.

(It became a recurring theme throughout our meals that if you are an odd numbered party size Disney will seat you at a table that is smaller than your party size and than just jam a chair on the end.)

Dinner was wonderful and so was our server. Allen took great care of us and treated the teens and child just like the Adults. He totally went out of his way to make sure everything was to our liking and had excellent suggestions when needed. Allen was my definition of a Disney server.

After dinner we watched wishes from outside the M/K on the way back to the bus.

 

[disneynuts777]

Day #4 (08/30/09)- We had reservations at Cape May this morning but we just could not get everyone moving in a timely manner .
As dissapointed as I was I phoned over and told Cape May that we would not make it and to please allow a walkin in lieu of our ADR. We ended up having breakfast at the Maya Grill before we left for Hollywood Studios. Once again it was very good.

This was the only day we ended waiting for a bus. Almost 1/2hour. All our other days there were buses within 15 minutes of arriving at the bus stop.

Hollywood studios was alot of fun. The teens enjoyed the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith rock'n roller coaster. We took in alot of shows and just looked around. It was swealtering hot and the humidity was almost unbearable.

Dinner was at Mamma Melrose w/the Fantasmis package. We checked in early as we were all really hot and hungary. It was a nice surprise when we were seated 25 minutes prior to our ADR time.
They even let us pull an extra table for 2 over when we were tight at the table for maybe 8 when there were 9 of us. It was nice to have the elbow room when everyone was feeling a little sticky and gross.
Our server was efficient and got our apps very quickly. The food was plentiful and was way to much. We were quickly learning that the DxDDP is WAY to much food. We all ended trying each others food and just shared everything.
Dessert was dissapointing the Tiramisu had no taste and the coffee was like hot brown water.

By the time Fantasmic rolled around 2/3 of our group needed to go back to there rooms. To much food and florida sunshine had done them in.
Three of us that stuck it out-( I would have to be dead to miss Fantasmic!!!). I was feling guilty about having priority seating for 9 when only 3 of us were there.
Luckily we ended up chatting with a family behind us while waiting for a show to start and they were inquiring about Fantasmic as they had never seen it. I invited them to join us and it made my night to be able to spread the magic a little.
Fantasmic as usual was packed to the rafters and is by far my favorite evening preformance. It is a shame they have cut the shows back so much.

After Fantasmic we wandered through the shops on the way back to the bus. Another day over with five more to go!!

 

[SunnieRN]

What a wonderful trip so far, considering you had 9 people to corral and please.

We stayed at CSR for a couple of nights in April. I loved the resort. It's beautiful! I was not however pleased with the restaurants. The PM was hit and miss and the food was disappointing. We ate at Maya Grill two nights after the new menu change and the selection was poor and the food inedible for two of us. My daughter loved her entree at least. It's a shame as the restaurant is quite pretty and the service was outstanding!!

Loved the pool area and walking the grounds. The quiet pool in the casitas was relaxing also!!

Looking forward to more of your trip!

 

[Marshay]

I'm here but will read it later. Just wanted to let you know I've subscribed.

 

[lfwhipp]

Waiting for the rest

 

[parkers*momma]

Share the Popcorn please!

 

[disneynuts777]

Day #5(08/31/09)- With everyone refreshed from a decent night's sleep we headed over to O'Hana's for breakfast this morning. Lilo, Stitch, Pluto and Mickey were all on hand to give us a good start to the day.
We were seated at a lovely large round table which already had 2 baskets of bread on it. One was a type of cinnomen roll and the other was like pineapple upside down cake. Both were realy sweet and yummy. There was also a type of tropical punch (juice) that was served that was really good!!
The rest of breakfast was served family style. There was a huge skillet of eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns and biscuits. Mickey waffles were also served from a server wandering through the dining room. Everything was extremely tasty even though the skillet cooled pretty quickly.
The adults had a good laugh with the teens and little Rachel dancing around the dining room during the parade!!!!

After breakfast we headed to DTD. I was itching to do some shopping and the teens had Disneyquest on there mind.
We were supposd to have lunch at Raglan Road but we were not in the least bit hungary at noon. Instead we indulged in a couple pints of beer and just enjoyed the peace and quiet inside the restaurant.
I found it odd that I had such a hard time getting an ADR for Raglan Road even at lunch but we were the only ones in the place when we were there.

With the teens at Disney quest and the guys still enjoying there pints I wandered off to explore the shops. It was sad to see pleasure island closed off. In order to get to the marketplace I had to walk in behind Raglan Road.
Shopping was very nice and relaxing. I like to take my time and soak up the atmosphere of the stores. Someday I am going to be able to purchase something in the art store. Instead I settled on a new T-shirt, travel mug and earrings to add to my ever growing collection.

In the late afternoon we all met back up by the pool and soaked up a little more of that Florida sunshine. Our summer back in Toronto has been one of the coldest and wettest in many years so the heat was a welcome change!!!

Dinner tonight was at the Hoop De Doo Revue. My sister #3 wanted to do this so badly.
We headed out to the M/K to catch the ferry to Fort wilderness when the weather changed. Thank goodness for those dollar store rain ponchos because by the time we arrived at the Fort Wilderness dock it was pouring. The thunder and the lightening was very scary and it seemed like a million mile walk from the dock to where dinner was.
We all made it and after standing under the little porch into the show they opened the doors and showed us to our table(s).

We were in category 2 seating upstairs, center stage. Be warned that the tables here are very small. We had 2 tables betwen the 9 of us and we were elbow to elbow. The food was fried chicken, ribs, cornbread and beans.
The chicken reminded me of KFC and I did not care for the ribs or beans. The cornbread was really yummy. Dessert which was strawberry shortcake was okay.The guys had pitchers of Budlight and the gals had Sangaria and white wine(not very good-to warm for me!!)

The show however is what you are paying for. It started as soon as all the tables were sat and went right through dessert. There was a lot of audience interaction and the humor was slapstick and clean. It reminded me of a show we watched as kids on the weekend in the evening called "Hee Haw".

Our entire party had a great time and I am glad that we were able to experience this show. Everyone was singing and in high spirits on the bus on the way back to the resort.

Well...another day has ended as we headed for bed I reminded everyone that we had an early ADR for breakfast tomorrow.
We agreeded to meet outside my room at 7:15am.

With that arranged everyone turned in for the night!!

 

[Marshay]

O'hana breakfast sounds wonderful! I love their dinners...haven't made it to b-fast yet.

I love the art store too at DTD...I actually bought one thing BC (before children) -- it was one of those super large mickey mouse figurines...then DH surprised me with a Donald one for Christmas the following year. I'd love to have more of them ...

Hoop de Doo -- gotta love the comedy!

 

[disneynuts777]

I promise that I am going to finish this TR but things have been crazy here the last week. Have spent the last 2 weekends...(just got home ) helping sister #3 and her DH paint there new house that they are building. Trying to help keep the contracting costs down as much as possible as things have gone over budget!!!