pwdebbie
10-24-2007, 02:16 PM
Dh and I made our first trip ever to Disney a few weeks ago. Dh is 54, I am 52, and we were celebrating our 30th anniversary six months late as well as my 52nd birthday.
When I first half-seriously mentioned it to dh in January and he said yes, I was shocked. After years of saying, "You really aren't serious, are you?" he finally said YES! Then I gave him the $$$ and he still said yes. So I planned a trip for us leaving after church on Sunday (dh is a pastor) and arriving back home Saturday night. A couple weeks later he informed me that he'd talked to the elders of the church and was taking a Sunday off (something he has never done) so that we could drive down (instead of fly) and stay a little longer.
Thus began our planning our trip to be in Disney World from Oct. 2 through 10, 2007. I contacted Magical Journeys after discovering Intercot and we began making our plans. We started with Elaine but when she left the agency we were switched to TerriSue. Hats off to TerriSue for all she did for us.
We left here Sunday, Sept. 30 to begin our drive to FL. I planned for three days on the road but dh thought we could make the trip in two. We did. We arrived at POFQ late in the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 1. We decided to see if they could get us in a day early and much to our pleasure, they did have a room available. We had to switch rooms the next morning, but everything worked out great for us. POFQ is a wonderful resort. It was absolutely perfect for us.
We arrived to "unusually rainy" weather and our entire stay was "unusually warm" (according to the CMs). However, the rain did not slow us down. The heat was a little much for us. Whew, I can't imagine being there in the middle of summer!
I'm not going to give a day-by-day accounting of our time there. We did spend time in all four parks. Disney Studios was probably our least favorite. The other three we liked each in their own way.
MK was whimsical fun for us. We went there for the first time on my birthday, 10/5. The park was not crowded at all and we went right into most attractions. We were able to go back two more times while were there and saw Wishes twice.
Epcot was extremely interesting -- and crowded and hot. We spent a lot of time in Epcot and never did get to see everything. I thought we would take advantage of the Food and Wine Festival booths, but we ended up passing them by. We did Soarin' the first time we were there -- I liked it but dh did not handle it so well. He has equilibrium / balance problems and even being in the third row and having feet to focus on in front of him didn't help much. He was pretty shaky and pale for quite a while afterward. Turtle Talk with Crush is great. We went to that twice. I wish I had spent more time meandering each country. I think I would have liked to have brought back our gifts for the grandkids from there instead of Disney stuff from Disney stores, in retrospect.
Animal Kingdom was very interesting. We didn't get to spend enough time there. To be honest, every time we went there we must have picked the hottest and most crowded days (in spite of following that guide that tells you the best days to visit a particular park). The Kilamanjaro Safari was wonderful, we did that twice. The walking trails were very relaxing and the CMs were a wonderful source of information.
Our favorite meal while we were there was at Le Cellier. We tried to get back in twice as a walk-ins but weren't able to. We also enjoyed our meals at Cap'n Jacks, Cape May Cafe, Biergarten, Les Chefs de France, and Whispering Canyon. Our two most disappointing meals were Coral Reef (where I chose to go for my birthday dinner) and Concourse restaurant. NONE of our meals were terrible, by any means, but the last two could have been better in terms of CMs. At Coral Reef we were told by our server that because we were on the DDP we had to order off a more limited menu and service was way too slow. At the Concourse, we were told that since we were not staying at the Contemporary and since we were on the DDP, we were lowest priority for seating.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and dh really is serious when he asks me when we are going back. In fact, one of the first things he did when he got home was talk to his friend whose wife wants to go and told him get moving and take his wife to Disney. We are talking about maybe going again sometime between Jan. and March in 2009, hopefully there will be fewer crowds (I was really surprised at how crowded the parks were and can't even begin to imagine what it must be like during the busier seasons) and cooler weather.
Ok, so there's this first-timer's trip report. I hope I didn't bore you!
Deb
When I first half-seriously mentioned it to dh in January and he said yes, I was shocked. After years of saying, "You really aren't serious, are you?" he finally said YES! Then I gave him the $$$ and he still said yes. So I planned a trip for us leaving after church on Sunday (dh is a pastor) and arriving back home Saturday night. A couple weeks later he informed me that he'd talked to the elders of the church and was taking a Sunday off (something he has never done) so that we could drive down (instead of fly) and stay a little longer.
Thus began our planning our trip to be in Disney World from Oct. 2 through 10, 2007. I contacted Magical Journeys after discovering Intercot and we began making our plans. We started with Elaine but when she left the agency we were switched to TerriSue. Hats off to TerriSue for all she did for us.
We left here Sunday, Sept. 30 to begin our drive to FL. I planned for three days on the road but dh thought we could make the trip in two. We did. We arrived at POFQ late in the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 1. We decided to see if they could get us in a day early and much to our pleasure, they did have a room available. We had to switch rooms the next morning, but everything worked out great for us. POFQ is a wonderful resort. It was absolutely perfect for us.
We arrived to "unusually rainy" weather and our entire stay was "unusually warm" (according to the CMs). However, the rain did not slow us down. The heat was a little much for us. Whew, I can't imagine being there in the middle of summer!
I'm not going to give a day-by-day accounting of our time there. We did spend time in all four parks. Disney Studios was probably our least favorite. The other three we liked each in their own way.
MK was whimsical fun for us. We went there for the first time on my birthday, 10/5. The park was not crowded at all and we went right into most attractions. We were able to go back two more times while were there and saw Wishes twice.
Epcot was extremely interesting -- and crowded and hot. We spent a lot of time in Epcot and never did get to see everything. I thought we would take advantage of the Food and Wine Festival booths, but we ended up passing them by. We did Soarin' the first time we were there -- I liked it but dh did not handle it so well. He has equilibrium / balance problems and even being in the third row and having feet to focus on in front of him didn't help much. He was pretty shaky and pale for quite a while afterward. Turtle Talk with Crush is great. We went to that twice. I wish I had spent more time meandering each country. I think I would have liked to have brought back our gifts for the grandkids from there instead of Disney stuff from Disney stores, in retrospect.
Animal Kingdom was very interesting. We didn't get to spend enough time there. To be honest, every time we went there we must have picked the hottest and most crowded days (in spite of following that guide that tells you the best days to visit a particular park). The Kilamanjaro Safari was wonderful, we did that twice. The walking trails were very relaxing and the CMs were a wonderful source of information.
Our favorite meal while we were there was at Le Cellier. We tried to get back in twice as a walk-ins but weren't able to. We also enjoyed our meals at Cap'n Jacks, Cape May Cafe, Biergarten, Les Chefs de France, and Whispering Canyon. Our two most disappointing meals were Coral Reef (where I chose to go for my birthday dinner) and Concourse restaurant. NONE of our meals were terrible, by any means, but the last two could have been better in terms of CMs. At Coral Reef we were told by our server that because we were on the DDP we had to order off a more limited menu and service was way too slow. At the Concourse, we were told that since we were not staying at the Contemporary and since we were on the DDP, we were lowest priority for seating.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and dh really is serious when he asks me when we are going back. In fact, one of the first things he did when he got home was talk to his friend whose wife wants to go and told him get moving and take his wife to Disney. We are talking about maybe going again sometime between Jan. and March in 2009, hopefully there will be fewer crowds (I was really surprised at how crowded the parks were and can't even begin to imagine what it must be like during the busier seasons) and cooler weather.
Ok, so there's this first-timer's trip report. I hope I didn't bore you!
Deb