Yo ho, yo ho, it's time to get off the boat!

[lmbcdb]

The Trip:
8 days at the parks-basic ticket no hoppers
2 nights off site
5 nights at All Star Movies with free dining

When:
December 19th-26th

The Cast:
Me, Lisa, 40
DD, Claire, 3

DH, Chris, 41

DS, Daniel, 7

We drove from north Texas to Orlando over two days. I won’t bore you with the details. It was a very uneventful trip (yay!)

This was our second trip to Disney. Our first was last January and we are now officially hooked. DH was even talking about DVC this trip.

Our original trip was planned for Thanksgiving, but DH couldn’t get the days off. So we had to reschedule for Christmas break, which I really didn’t want to do (because of the crowds) but we had already told the kids we were going.

So, I decided to extend our trip by two days with a game plan of spending just the mornings at the parks. (This ended up being a good decision!)

So, going back to my title, how many times did we ride the Pirates of the Caribbean?

Read on and see....

 

[luckylady]

I'm in. Now just sitting back and trying to wait.

 

[lmbcdb]

I'm in. Now just sitting back and trying to wait.

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[lmbcdb]

We drove in to Tampa late on Saturday the 18th. We stayed with my brother-in-law to cut down on costs.

We left my brother-in-law’s house around 9:00 the next morning and headed for Orlando, which was a little over an hour away. We drove straight to our first hotel, the Ramada Maingate West.

I say our first hotel because our original plan was to stay only at the Disney All-Star Movies. But then I found out you could add two extra days to your park tickets for only $40 for all four of us. After reading the boards about Christmas crowds, I decided that short mornings at the parks would be best. So, we decided to find a cheap hotel and eat packed lunches for two days.

So, our “cheap hotel” turned out to be a Ramada one mile from Disney World. They have “family suites” where there are bunk beds for the kids in their own private “room”. Here’s a picture:

I got this room for $45! I called originally to ask if they had a discount using my teacher association, but they didn’t. They did, however, have a discount if you are a Sam’s club member. Darling MIL always adds us to her Sam’s account each year.

Our first room was a letdown. There was no wall between the beds, and no bathtub. (?) We go in the bathroom and the vent sounds like a tornado. Also, the kid’s TV wouldn’t turn on. So on our way out to the Magic Kingdom, we ask them to fix these things.

Getting to the Magic Kingdom is much different when you aren’t staying at one of their hotels. We had to drive to the parking lot, pay for parking, get on a tram/train, then ride the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. I took pictures of the lot number so we wouldn't forget:

Luckily, we weren’t in any hurry today. We had decided to just walk around and look at stuff. But lugging around a double stroller, two small children and a park bag is a pain in the you-know-what with the trams.

Here's the obligatory first family picture in front of the castle:

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We got in and headed straight for Casey’s Corner for lunch. Since we were starving, they were the best corn dogs and hot dogs we had ever had!

We then went to the big souvenir shop on Main Street to get Claire and Chris a lanyard. Claire didn’t have one last year, and she also lost the buckling part for Chris’. Daniel and I still had our lanyards from last year. Daniel kept wanting to buy pins for him, and I had to keep distracting him. However, I had a surprise waiting for him at ASMo - I had bought him a bag of pins online for him to trade, but he won’t get it until Tuesday, as I had it shipped to the resort.

Daniel had said he wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean first, so we headed that way. But, the show at the Castle stopped us first:

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After that we rode Pirates, which is mine and Daniel’s favorite ride. I thought Claire would get scared but she didn’t! She even said she’d ride it again! At the end of the ride, the guy stopping the boats sang in to the microphone, “Yo ho, yo ho, it’s time to get off the boat.” (To the tune of, “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me!) Daniel and I cracked up and continued to sing it for the rest of the day!

We then hit the Jungle Cruise, which we didn’t get to on our first trip. I had told Daniel we wouldn’t ride many rides today, unless the lines were short, which they were! We waited 10 minutes for Pirates and 10 minutes for the Jungle Cruise. Our boat driver was hilarious. He was doing stand-up comedy the whole way. I found out later in the week they all have the same script, since the kids made us ride it again….

It was starting to mist out, so we headed over to the Enchanted Tiki Show, another first for us. It was cute, but not that exciting. One time was enough for me. But it had stopped raining when we came back out!

We then headed over to Tomorrow Land and rode the People Mover. It was a race all week to see which one we would ride more – Pirates or People Mover. As of Day 1, they were tied!

After that, we decided to head out, as our plan was to have dinner at Downtown Disney. We also wanted to go to the Lego Store and Goofy’s Candy store.
First we ate dinner at Earl of Sandwich. I had heard rave reviews about this place. It was good, but I won’t go out of my way to go there again. Here’s a picture of the roast beef/cheddar/horseradish sauce one I had:

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Even Daniel’s Peanut Butter and Jelly was hot!

We then went to Goofy’s Candy store, then the Lego store. Afterward, Chris said we should have done Lego first then the candy store. Just think 7-year-old boy plus lots of sugar in his favorite store.

Goofy’s was awesome! I really wanted to look around, but it was small and crowded. Daniel got one of those tubes you fill with powdered colored sugar candy. Chris, Claire and I did “make your own treat”.

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We got 3 pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate, rolled in Oreos, and then drizzled with milk chocolate. It was awesome! Here’s Daniel on his sugar high waiting for us to eat our pretzels:

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We then went to the Lego store.

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After that we headed back to the hotel, as the kids wanted to swim. It was late, and not too hard to convince Claire that she and I go to bed instead of swimming. Well, we get back and they have fixed the vent in the bathroom and the kid’s TV. However, we turn on the air conditioner and IT sounds like a tornado, too!

I tromp down to the front desk and tell them that our room does NOT look like the website photo (I showed her on my iPhone), the A/C is loud, and there’s no bathtub. She says, “What do you mean there’s no wall and no bathtub?” She seems more confused than I was! She looked up our room and it turned out to be for handicapped people. Luckily, the room across the hall was available. So, at 9:30 pm we (or should I say Chris, as I had to do all the stuff at the front desk) moved everything across the hall.

Daniel did get to swim in the indoor heated pool, though! He said it was a little chilly, but he did like the Jacuzzi!


Pirates - 1
People Mover - 1