davidrea
05-02-2008, 03:07 PM
Fantastic 5 day trip. No rain and perfect weather. We took a plane for the 1st time. That was about the worst part of the trip. Took 10 hrs just to get there, but still cut off 5 hrs. Check in perfect. Got all our buttons (bday, anniv, and 1st visit). We started off at downtown disney and always eat at the Rainforest. Also, hit lego store. 1st day MK - boy was it packed, but we got their early. Went with 3 kids (2,7,11) and in laws. Best news my mother in law had a scooter (free sun shade thanks to intercot) and we were able to go to the front on many kiddy rides in MK. Even got to ride Thunder mountain twice without getting off. Woo hoo. Also, with the use of baby swap and fast passes even with the crowd we didn't hardly ever wait more then 20 min. Only bad news is Space Mountain was shut down a few times and no fast passes available. The other great news is all kids road everything. This was huge. My 7 and 11 last trip were scared of everything and they road it all, but the best news is 2 yr old road everything including Haunted Mansion, Pirates, etc. It was great. 1st day ate at our favorite place LIberty Tree Tav- best service. This is a good time to talk about the meal plan. Awesome baby! We ate more then normal, but saved hundreds. The tip thing made it a bit difficult and we were charged 18% automatically with our large party which was a bummer because later in the vacation we had poor service at the sci fi theatre, but they still got the full tip.
2nd day Epcot. Whew! The crowds continued to be huge. Spring break from NY and NJ and the low dollar brought man visitors from abroad. very nice people though. I forgot how much walking you do in Epcot, but loved it. Road Soarin for the 1st time. Even did baby swap so kids were able to ride twice. We went to America for lunch and saw the show. They made a huge production our 15 yr anniv and in laws 50 yr anniv. We got an emergency call from Mickey and then they gave us both certificates, announced our event and after show took us to restaurant and gave us free deserts - but we already ate and ended up throwing away food. I think baby knocked on the ground on accident :). They did another announcement and a hip hip hooray. Made us feel special. We had dinner in Mexico and it was great. We did leave before the light show, but we were tired and had a great day.
3rd day we went to Hollywood. After a rought start - got to parks late despite early hour. boo. I was mad. Then we were in line for Mermaid show and after 1/2 hr they had problems and cancelled show so it's 10:30 and we haven't road a thing. Did I tell you it was my birthday. It got better. The coolest thing was my 2 kids and wife riding TOT and Rockin coaster. We even bought a picture. It was great. We had a great lunch at pizza planet and son loved the Star Tours so the day getting better. We did have terrible bus service this day and it took us an hour to get back to the hotel for break and we had to head right back for reservations at sci-fi. 5:10 reservations and we didn't get in until 5:50ish. Took forever! They did nothing special for bday and family had to leave early to go to the honey I shrunk the kid playground. They did box us some deserts, but we missed the stunt show and another show due to closing for darkness. Also, cheerleading in town and no Indiana Jones show. My son was upset. Overall we had some disappointments this day, but all was still good. We got to chill out and do some other shows and finished with the Mermaid show on the way out and it was great.
April 27 was a great day. back to the MK. We did chef Mickey's 1st and it was great. I wore my bday pen 3 days at different parks. :) Got free desert - like I needed it. Got to ride all rides we missed 1st day. Loved Splash mountain and got soaked. went back to the room and then to the Grand Floridian for a character dinner. Kids got to ride in the front of the monorail and we had the Cinderella, evil step mom, and ugly sisters. How strange is that, but it was fun. The sisters yelled at each other and the evil stop mom asked me if my crown was real (gave me to wear for bday including free cupcake and special take home place mat). Went back to park. Watched spectormagic show. Son went back to room sick, but had wife and 2 girls. Got a popcorn and 2 drinks and they said happy birthday and the food is free on mickey. Sweet, but we ended up getting pretzels back at the resort to get our snacks from plan all done. We had like 8 counter services left and had a full breakfast the day we flew out and still had 2 left over. we just couldn't eat that much food. I think we had extra 4 on there, but not sure.
Overall we really couldn't ask for a better trip. We went swimming twice, bought the free refill mugs and used them often, and spent tons of money. One side note! Talked to the guy on the monorail and he said they weren't expecting crowds and that they were caught short handed. I think that's why the bus system was so bad. That was pretty much our biggest issue of the week.
Oh my! I forgot our last day. sorry. Animal Kingdom -maybe the best day. Party because crowds were less then other parks - but still busy. Also, we hadn't been since 1st year of the park and it's totally different. Saw all the annimals, did everything. Dinasoar pretty cool, but Everest was awesome. My son felt better and we road. We had lunch at a glorified McDonalds type place in Dino land. It was great. But the dinner at Tusker House was awesome. Maybe our favorite place. We have food allergies in our family and Disney does such a great job. We talked to the chef at each place and they really worked with us and we had no problems on the plan or any restaurant. My daughter is Peanut, soy, and egg allergic so you can imagine how tough it can be. Well, this is very long and I'll cut it off, but you can see we had a great vacation.
Oh one more thing! Magic your way rocked. It's also FREE. Well, you know what I mean. No problem with bags. We checked out at the hotel and luggage at the airport when we got home. How cool is that.
We have already decided we are going again in 2-3 years and going to break down and get a premium hotel with maybe a shorter vacation. We want to bypass the busses as much as possible.
Hope you enjoy our trip report. I'm sure I missed stuff, but I'm just rambling now. :mickey::mickey::mickey:
2nd day Epcot. Whew! The crowds continued to be huge. Spring break from NY and NJ and the low dollar brought man visitors from abroad. very nice people though. I forgot how much walking you do in Epcot, but loved it. Road Soarin for the 1st time. Even did baby swap so kids were able to ride twice. We went to America for lunch and saw the show. They made a huge production our 15 yr anniv and in laws 50 yr anniv. We got an emergency call from Mickey and then they gave us both certificates, announced our event and after show took us to restaurant and gave us free deserts - but we already ate and ended up throwing away food. I think baby knocked on the ground on accident :). They did another announcement and a hip hip hooray. Made us feel special. We had dinner in Mexico and it was great. We did leave before the light show, but we were tired and had a great day.
3rd day we went to Hollywood. After a rought start - got to parks late despite early hour. boo. I was mad. Then we were in line for Mermaid show and after 1/2 hr they had problems and cancelled show so it's 10:30 and we haven't road a thing. Did I tell you it was my birthday. It got better. The coolest thing was my 2 kids and wife riding TOT and Rockin coaster. We even bought a picture. It was great. We had a great lunch at pizza planet and son loved the Star Tours so the day getting better. We did have terrible bus service this day and it took us an hour to get back to the hotel for break and we had to head right back for reservations at sci-fi. 5:10 reservations and we didn't get in until 5:50ish. Took forever! They did nothing special for bday and family had to leave early to go to the honey I shrunk the kid playground. They did box us some deserts, but we missed the stunt show and another show due to closing for darkness. Also, cheerleading in town and no Indiana Jones show. My son was upset. Overall we had some disappointments this day, but all was still good. We got to chill out and do some other shows and finished with the Mermaid show on the way out and it was great.
April 27 was a great day. back to the MK. We did chef Mickey's 1st and it was great. I wore my bday pen 3 days at different parks. :) Got free desert - like I needed it. Got to ride all rides we missed 1st day. Loved Splash mountain and got soaked. went back to the room and then to the Grand Floridian for a character dinner. Kids got to ride in the front of the monorail and we had the Cinderella, evil step mom, and ugly sisters. How strange is that, but it was fun. The sisters yelled at each other and the evil stop mom asked me if my crown was real (gave me to wear for bday including free cupcake and special take home place mat). Went back to park. Watched spectormagic show. Son went back to room sick, but had wife and 2 girls. Got a popcorn and 2 drinks and they said happy birthday and the food is free on mickey. Sweet, but we ended up getting pretzels back at the resort to get our snacks from plan all done. We had like 8 counter services left and had a full breakfast the day we flew out and still had 2 left over. we just couldn't eat that much food. I think we had extra 4 on there, but not sure.
Overall we really couldn't ask for a better trip. We went swimming twice, bought the free refill mugs and used them often, and spent tons of money. One side note! Talked to the guy on the monorail and he said they weren't expecting crowds and that they were caught short handed. I think that's why the bus system was so bad. That was pretty much our biggest issue of the week.
Oh my! I forgot our last day. sorry. Animal Kingdom -maybe the best day. Party because crowds were less then other parks - but still busy. Also, we hadn't been since 1st year of the park and it's totally different. Saw all the annimals, did everything. Dinasoar pretty cool, but Everest was awesome. My son felt better and we road. We had lunch at a glorified McDonalds type place in Dino land. It was great. But the dinner at Tusker House was awesome. Maybe our favorite place. We have food allergies in our family and Disney does such a great job. We talked to the chef at each place and they really worked with us and we had no problems on the plan or any restaurant. My daughter is Peanut, soy, and egg allergic so you can imagine how tough it can be. Well, this is very long and I'll cut it off, but you can see we had a great vacation.
Oh one more thing! Magic your way rocked. It's also FREE. Well, you know what I mean. No problem with bags. We checked out at the hotel and luggage at the airport when we got home. How cool is that.
We have already decided we are going again in 2-3 years and going to break down and get a premium hotel with maybe a shorter vacation. We want to bypass the busses as much as possible.
Hope you enjoy our trip report. I'm sure I missed stuff, but I'm just rambling now. :mickey::mickey::mickey: