tinksmom02
09-22-2009, 12:12 PM
Hope you don't mind a long read!
Cast of characters:
Me--Christi
DH--Mark
DD7--Jenna
My mom--AKA MiMa
My dad--AKA BeBop
Our friends:
Jenn and Anthony
their kids Little A age 7
the Moose age 2 1/2
We left for the airport at the relaxed hour of 5:35 and got to ACY by about 6:45. Jenn and Ant and the boys were flying SW out of Philly, so they had left much earlier.
It took us all of 15 minutes to check the luggage, park the car, and get through security. We had plenty of time for an over-priced and less-than-tasty airport breakfast. Before we knew it, it was time to board! Never having flown AirTran before, we weren’t sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. The plane was clean and comfortable and the attendants were pleasant. The most interesting part of the day thus far was watching five fighter jets take off as we made our way to the runway. It was an incredible sight, and we passed another half dozen sitting on the tarmac. I don’t know why they were there but it was so cool to watch them taking off!
Jenna covered her head with her sweatshirt so she wouldn’t have to see the take off, and we were off! Our flight was uneventful (unless you count Jenna asking me every 15 minutes how much longer we had) and we landed at MCO a few minutes early. Unfortunately, the weather looked pretty gross—gray and rainy—but who cares? We’re in Florida!! No problems getting the monorail to the main part of the building, and we made it to the ME check in line in no time at all. Jenn and Ant had landed about a half hour before us, so pretty soon we were all together and heading through the ME check in line. I would say that within 15 minutes of exiting the plane we were on our ME bus, which was such a change from last year (I think it took us almost an hour and a half total). Fortunately, both the Poly and the WL shared a bus today, so we were all able to travel together.
Before too long we arrived at the first stop—the Poly!! We left our friends on the bus and headed over to the outside check in area. My family’s name was on the list of rooms, but my parents was not, which freaked us out a little, until we learned that all that meant was that our room was ready and theirs was not. Whew! We had to wait a few minutes for a golf cart to take us over to Hawaii, and then a few minutes for the driver to wipe down the golf cart (it was still raining), but in no time at all we were tooling our way over to our home for the week.
Upon entering the building we were greeted with “Alohas!” all around, and were checked in pretty quickly. Mark and I got anniversary buttons, and Mark and Jenna got birthday buttons. We were given our itineraries and our key cards. My parents’ room was still not ready, but we were told that our connecting room request was met, so it was pretty easy to figure out which room was going to be theirs. We landed at MCO at about 10:05 am and were checked in at the Poly by 11:30 am. AWESOME!
We headed to our room to check things out, and happily discovered that although we didn’t get a surprise upgrade to lagoon view, all of our room requests were met. We were in room 1530 and my parents would be in 1531. We had connecting rooms on the first floor, and while our view was somewhat obstructed by greenery, we really liked it. Plus, as soon as we opened the drapes we were greeted by a family of ducks on the patio!
Although we didn’t ask for it, our room was handicapped accessible, which I was kind of uncomfortable with (as we didn’t really have accessibility issues and hopefully weren’t taking away from someone who did). However, Jenna liked having her own peephole (wheelchair level), and believe it or not I really grew to appreciate the shower minus the bathtub.
The room itself was gorgeous and we had no complaints at all, except that I could have used better lighting in the bathroom. We really liked the larger safe (the moderate safes are smaller) and we had plenty of storage space. We hung out for a while, as we were still waiting to hear about my parents’ room and my mom’s scooter (which we were told was in the front lobby). We headed to the lounge to check out the midday offerings and the view. WOW! Absolutely gorgeous! The midday offerings weren’t that impressive (goldfish, pretzels, gummy sharks, bananas, apples, oranges, juices and soda), but the view certainly was! I snapped some pics and tasted the yummy orange-guava drink, and then we explored the pool area (during which I was kicking myself that I didn’t pack our swimsuits in our carry-ons—that was just torture for Jenna), and the pool bar. After a while we headed back to Hawaii to see if there was any word on my parents’ room. It still wasn’t ready, but our luggage had arrived, along with some special gifts—Jenna got a signed picture from Mary Poppins for her birthday, Mark and I got a signed picture of Jasmine and Aladdin for our birthday, and the concierge sent us a very nice note and a chocolate bar with a picture of the resort on the front.
By this time it was almost 2pm and just as we were starting to get annoyed (we were told it would only be 15-20 minutes) I got the text that my parents’ room was ready and their luggage arrived shortly thereafter. We decided to take Jenna swimming for a bit instead of heading right to a park, as we had ADRs for Chef Mickey’s at 5pm. So we headed down to the pool to let her frolic and play. Of course she wanted to go down the slide, and of course I’m neurotic about her climbing all those stairs by herself, so of course I had to go with her LOL But it really was an awesome slide, tons of fun! We even got Mark to go on the slide later in the trip (he screamed like a girl the whole way down LOL).
We headed back to the room to shower and get ready for dinner, and here’s where I, the tour guide, screwed up for the first time. First of all, my watch was running about 7 minutes slow, which of course I didn’t know, and then when I realized it, couldn’t figure out how to fix it. So we were already a few minutes behind schedule, and then we had to wait for the monorail. Our poor friends were waiting for us at CMs for lord only knows how long, and the Moose doesn’t do waiting very well. But no worries, we were seated very shortly after arriving, ordered drinks and hit the buffet.
This place is hit or miss for me. I remember the food being so much better last year. Don’t get me wrong, everything was good; I just remembered it being better. But it’s a meal for the kids, and they were all so excited to meet the fab 5. I didn’t write down the cost of the meal for the 3 of us, but I know we had to pay about $40 out of pocket for drinks and gratuity. And now, looking over my receipts, I think that I got the cheapest margarita of the trip at this meal--$5.75.
Here’s my next screw up of the trip. We left the restaurant, and because mom had the scooter, we had to get on the handicapped elevator to take us to the monorail entrance. For some reason we just could not figure out where we were supposed to be, and ended up riding the regular elevator for a good half hour before we figured it out. It may sound funny now, but at the time I was really, really aggravated. In addition, there were a LOT of rude people who were just oblivious to the fact that mom was on a scooter (and she was nervous as it was, because she doesn’t normally use one and was still trying to get accustomed to it). It was just a horribly frustrating experience.
So finally we met Ant and Mark at the monorail entrance and were soon on a monorail headed to the MK. Soon enough we were in the Magic Kingdom! Our first ride, as dictated by Jenna, was it’s a small world. Obligatory photo of the Ireland dolls were taken, change was thrown in the water, and we all enjoyed the ride. After small world we headed over to Frontierland to ride Splash and Big Thunder Mountain. We soon discovered we were all exhausted. We headed for the monorail and with just a short wait were on board and headed home. We attempted the pool again but it was pretty chilly. Soon enough we called it a night.
Cast of characters:
Me--Christi
DH--Mark
DD7--Jenna
My mom--AKA MiMa
My dad--AKA BeBop
Our friends:
Jenn and Anthony
their kids Little A age 7
the Moose age 2 1/2
We left for the airport at the relaxed hour of 5:35 and got to ACY by about 6:45. Jenn and Ant and the boys were flying SW out of Philly, so they had left much earlier.
It took us all of 15 minutes to check the luggage, park the car, and get through security. We had plenty of time for an over-priced and less-than-tasty airport breakfast. Before we knew it, it was time to board! Never having flown AirTran before, we weren’t sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. The plane was clean and comfortable and the attendants were pleasant. The most interesting part of the day thus far was watching five fighter jets take off as we made our way to the runway. It was an incredible sight, and we passed another half dozen sitting on the tarmac. I don’t know why they were there but it was so cool to watch them taking off!
Jenna covered her head with her sweatshirt so she wouldn’t have to see the take off, and we were off! Our flight was uneventful (unless you count Jenna asking me every 15 minutes how much longer we had) and we landed at MCO a few minutes early. Unfortunately, the weather looked pretty gross—gray and rainy—but who cares? We’re in Florida!! No problems getting the monorail to the main part of the building, and we made it to the ME check in line in no time at all. Jenn and Ant had landed about a half hour before us, so pretty soon we were all together and heading through the ME check in line. I would say that within 15 minutes of exiting the plane we were on our ME bus, which was such a change from last year (I think it took us almost an hour and a half total). Fortunately, both the Poly and the WL shared a bus today, so we were all able to travel together.
Before too long we arrived at the first stop—the Poly!! We left our friends on the bus and headed over to the outside check in area. My family’s name was on the list of rooms, but my parents was not, which freaked us out a little, until we learned that all that meant was that our room was ready and theirs was not. Whew! We had to wait a few minutes for a golf cart to take us over to Hawaii, and then a few minutes for the driver to wipe down the golf cart (it was still raining), but in no time at all we were tooling our way over to our home for the week.
Upon entering the building we were greeted with “Alohas!” all around, and were checked in pretty quickly. Mark and I got anniversary buttons, and Mark and Jenna got birthday buttons. We were given our itineraries and our key cards. My parents’ room was still not ready, but we were told that our connecting room request was met, so it was pretty easy to figure out which room was going to be theirs. We landed at MCO at about 10:05 am and were checked in at the Poly by 11:30 am. AWESOME!
We headed to our room to check things out, and happily discovered that although we didn’t get a surprise upgrade to lagoon view, all of our room requests were met. We were in room 1530 and my parents would be in 1531. We had connecting rooms on the first floor, and while our view was somewhat obstructed by greenery, we really liked it. Plus, as soon as we opened the drapes we were greeted by a family of ducks on the patio!
Although we didn’t ask for it, our room was handicapped accessible, which I was kind of uncomfortable with (as we didn’t really have accessibility issues and hopefully weren’t taking away from someone who did). However, Jenna liked having her own peephole (wheelchair level), and believe it or not I really grew to appreciate the shower minus the bathtub.
The room itself was gorgeous and we had no complaints at all, except that I could have used better lighting in the bathroom. We really liked the larger safe (the moderate safes are smaller) and we had plenty of storage space. We hung out for a while, as we were still waiting to hear about my parents’ room and my mom’s scooter (which we were told was in the front lobby). We headed to the lounge to check out the midday offerings and the view. WOW! Absolutely gorgeous! The midday offerings weren’t that impressive (goldfish, pretzels, gummy sharks, bananas, apples, oranges, juices and soda), but the view certainly was! I snapped some pics and tasted the yummy orange-guava drink, and then we explored the pool area (during which I was kicking myself that I didn’t pack our swimsuits in our carry-ons—that was just torture for Jenna), and the pool bar. After a while we headed back to Hawaii to see if there was any word on my parents’ room. It still wasn’t ready, but our luggage had arrived, along with some special gifts—Jenna got a signed picture from Mary Poppins for her birthday, Mark and I got a signed picture of Jasmine and Aladdin for our birthday, and the concierge sent us a very nice note and a chocolate bar with a picture of the resort on the front.
By this time it was almost 2pm and just as we were starting to get annoyed (we were told it would only be 15-20 minutes) I got the text that my parents’ room was ready and their luggage arrived shortly thereafter. We decided to take Jenna swimming for a bit instead of heading right to a park, as we had ADRs for Chef Mickey’s at 5pm. So we headed down to the pool to let her frolic and play. Of course she wanted to go down the slide, and of course I’m neurotic about her climbing all those stairs by herself, so of course I had to go with her LOL But it really was an awesome slide, tons of fun! We even got Mark to go on the slide later in the trip (he screamed like a girl the whole way down LOL).
We headed back to the room to shower and get ready for dinner, and here’s where I, the tour guide, screwed up for the first time. First of all, my watch was running about 7 minutes slow, which of course I didn’t know, and then when I realized it, couldn’t figure out how to fix it. So we were already a few minutes behind schedule, and then we had to wait for the monorail. Our poor friends were waiting for us at CMs for lord only knows how long, and the Moose doesn’t do waiting very well. But no worries, we were seated very shortly after arriving, ordered drinks and hit the buffet.
This place is hit or miss for me. I remember the food being so much better last year. Don’t get me wrong, everything was good; I just remembered it being better. But it’s a meal for the kids, and they were all so excited to meet the fab 5. I didn’t write down the cost of the meal for the 3 of us, but I know we had to pay about $40 out of pocket for drinks and gratuity. And now, looking over my receipts, I think that I got the cheapest margarita of the trip at this meal--$5.75.
Here’s my next screw up of the trip. We left the restaurant, and because mom had the scooter, we had to get on the handicapped elevator to take us to the monorail entrance. For some reason we just could not figure out where we were supposed to be, and ended up riding the regular elevator for a good half hour before we figured it out. It may sound funny now, but at the time I was really, really aggravated. In addition, there were a LOT of rude people who were just oblivious to the fact that mom was on a scooter (and she was nervous as it was, because she doesn’t normally use one and was still trying to get accustomed to it). It was just a horribly frustrating experience.
So finally we met Ant and Mark at the monorail entrance and were soon on a monorail headed to the MK. Soon enough we were in the Magic Kingdom! Our first ride, as dictated by Jenna, was it’s a small world. Obligatory photo of the Ireland dolls were taken, change was thrown in the water, and we all enjoyed the ride. After small world we headed over to Frontierland to ride Splash and Big Thunder Mountain. We soon discovered we were all exhausted. We headed for the monorail and with just a short wait were on board and headed home. We attempted the pool again but it was pretty chilly. Soon enough we called it a night.