Mousefever
02-23-2010, 02:04 AM
Tom – husband and dad, and up way too early!
Me (Amy) – 38, mom and planner
Jacob – 11, very surprised kid
I need to begin on Friday night, because that is when we surprised Jacob with the news that we were going to Disney World the next morning. If you read my pre-trip report, you will know that we had made a Kindness Calendar we gave to Jacob at Christmas. Each day for a month he peeled back the date to reveal his act of kindness for the day. I have to say, it wasn’t always met with enthusiasm. But he spent a month finding ways to donate to charity, express his gratitude to various people, and putting other people ahead of himself. On Friday night, he peeled back Saturday’s date to reveal, “Give a compliment to a cast member at Disney World.” It was fun to see his eyes get very wide when he figured out what that meant!
I was surprised that he was able to get to sleep, but it was easy to convince him to go to bed, at least.
We had an early start the next day. A friend drove us to the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave the car there for 10 days. We were quite early for our 10:30 flight to MCO, so we had a leisurely breakfast before we had to be at the gate. I was a little worried that one of our carry-ons was too big for Frontier standards. In fact, the gate people recommended putting it into checked bags, as the flight attendants might not let us place it sideways in the overhead compartment. It held a change of clothes for all of us, though, so I really wanted to try to keep it as carry-on if possible. We took our chances and it turned out fine. I don’t think the flight was totally full and that probably helped.
Our flight was very smooth and we landed at MCO at 4 pm local time. Our walk to the Magical Express was quick and we were led to a fairly full bus right away. We were happy that we were the last boarded so we could be in Disney World as soon as possible! I had a window seat on the right side of the bus. I’ve been trying to spot a gator since we started going to Disney World. This time I scored! Not only did I point out a gator to Tom and Jacob, but it was dang huge! It must have been hanging out there most of the day, because I read the report of someone else who saw it earlier in the day. I also saw three armadillos in the grassy area off the highway. Pretty neat for someone who has lived in the north all of her life!
We arrived at the Customs House of the Caribbean Beach Resort at 4:45 pm. We had checked in online and went right up to an open spot at the front desk. Our packet was all ready and we were assigned to Martinique 2533. We had paid for the preferred location. Our room wasn’t right next to Old Port Royale, but it was still a short walk. We were about half way between Old Port Royale and the Martinique bus stop. The room was a corner room on the second floor. It was nice to have the corner room with the extra window.
We decided to skip going to a park for the evening, and instead ate dinner and explored CBR. We hadn’t been back since November of 2005, and a lot had changed with the refurbishment of the pool area. It was a lovely evening to stroll around and take everything in. We felt very happy with our resort choice and anticipated being in Epcot early the next morning.
Me (Amy) – 38, mom and planner
Jacob – 11, very surprised kid
I need to begin on Friday night, because that is when we surprised Jacob with the news that we were going to Disney World the next morning. If you read my pre-trip report, you will know that we had made a Kindness Calendar we gave to Jacob at Christmas. Each day for a month he peeled back the date to reveal his act of kindness for the day. I have to say, it wasn’t always met with enthusiasm. But he spent a month finding ways to donate to charity, express his gratitude to various people, and putting other people ahead of himself. On Friday night, he peeled back Saturday’s date to reveal, “Give a compliment to a cast member at Disney World.” It was fun to see his eyes get very wide when he figured out what that meant!
I was surprised that he was able to get to sleep, but it was easy to convince him to go to bed, at least.
We had an early start the next day. A friend drove us to the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave the car there for 10 days. We were quite early for our 10:30 flight to MCO, so we had a leisurely breakfast before we had to be at the gate. I was a little worried that one of our carry-ons was too big for Frontier standards. In fact, the gate people recommended putting it into checked bags, as the flight attendants might not let us place it sideways in the overhead compartment. It held a change of clothes for all of us, though, so I really wanted to try to keep it as carry-on if possible. We took our chances and it turned out fine. I don’t think the flight was totally full and that probably helped.
Our flight was very smooth and we landed at MCO at 4 pm local time. Our walk to the Magical Express was quick and we were led to a fairly full bus right away. We were happy that we were the last boarded so we could be in Disney World as soon as possible! I had a window seat on the right side of the bus. I’ve been trying to spot a gator since we started going to Disney World. This time I scored! Not only did I point out a gator to Tom and Jacob, but it was dang huge! It must have been hanging out there most of the day, because I read the report of someone else who saw it earlier in the day. I also saw three armadillos in the grassy area off the highway. Pretty neat for someone who has lived in the north all of her life!
We arrived at the Customs House of the Caribbean Beach Resort at 4:45 pm. We had checked in online and went right up to an open spot at the front desk. Our packet was all ready and we were assigned to Martinique 2533. We had paid for the preferred location. Our room wasn’t right next to Old Port Royale, but it was still a short walk. We were about half way between Old Port Royale and the Martinique bus stop. The room was a corner room on the second floor. It was nice to have the corner room with the extra window.
We decided to skip going to a park for the evening, and instead ate dinner and explored CBR. We hadn’t been back since November of 2005, and a lot had changed with the refurbishment of the pool area. It was a lovely evening to stroll around and take everything in. We felt very happy with our resort choice and anticipated being in Epcot early the next morning.