The Dufrene Family Christmas Trip

[jnorth1007]

Well guys I am back. I didn't want to leave but in another way I was happy to get outta there. We left there at 1:30am and drove home so we could have all day to get things back in order for school tomorrow. The trip overall was WONDERFUL it would have been absolutely perfect if my inlaws hadn't come. I will add a trip report and some pictures to this thread as soon as I get a chance. I missed you guys and checked in whenever I could.

[bs4free]

Glad your back and had a fun trip, I can not wait to hear more...

[Hedy]

Can't wait to hear more-I kept on looking for you.

[jnorth1007]

Friday 12/7 The Chaos Begins

Everyone had school and work today so I spent the day trying to get everything ready. I am in the middle of washing all of the clothes when I notice a leak coming from my washing machine. There was no way I could stop now so I just put some towels under it and washed the rest of the clothes. I put the last load in the dryer and ran to pick up the kids from school. I get home and went to restart the dryer and OH !@*( it wouldn't start. I don't what is up but we just couldn't get it going. Luckily everything was washed and dryed so I just packed up the clothes and decided to deal with the appliances striking when I get back. We all went to bed early and decided to leave the house at 2am so that the kids could sleep for most of the 9 hour drive. We got everyone loaded up and moving and out the house in time and we were on our way. My MIL and FIL had gone down on Thurs because they were trying to catch the Space Shuttle Launch. This became a recurring theme for the weekend and the bain of my existence. We finally arrive in Orlando about noonish. Now we aren't scheduled to check in to Disney until Sunday but I like to get there a day early to rest and relax and start our first day out bright and early. I had wanted to make reservations at a value resort for room early months ago but was told by my inlaws and B to just play it by ear. Sure enough there were no rooms available for that night at Disney. I cigned onto SR and used the shopping link for rooms and found a Clarion for 59.99. I reserved it immediately and we had to drive around with the kids for a while since check in wasn't until 3pm. FInally we got checked in and made everyone lay down and relax. The inlaws called and decided to come back from Port Canaverel since the shuttle wasn't launching and they got a room at the same Clarion we had. We all went over to DTD and walked around for awhile. We had some McDonalds and we headed back to the room for bed. At this point aggravation had set in because my FIL is a smoker and everything revovled around finding a smoking niche for him. AGHHHHHHHHH! It was wonderful to sleep that night and I would recommend this hotel anytime for anyone in the area. For that price they even had room service and the rooms for a very nice size. I was very comfortable and will consider staying there for the first night from now on.

[Blessing and Miracle]

Welcome home Janet!

[disney_girl]

Welcome back! Looking forward to reading more...

[linanglab]

Welcome home! This will be an interesting TR! Inlaw issues.....could be a very exciting read!

[missangie]

Welcome back Janet! I know you were missed!

[ligrumpygirl]

Can't wait to hear more...

[eaglesdare]

yay another trip report!

[jnorth1007]

Day 2

We woke up early today and drove over to the POP Century to check in and get our tickets and eat breakfast before going to the parks. Everything ran very smoothly until we get to the AK. As we are walking in my inlaws tell me that they have to leave by 1:00p so that they can get to the space center to catch the space shuttle launch that was cancelled the day before. UMMMM Ok great no problem but we have dinner at Epcot at 4:40! Will you be there? Sure!!!!!!!!!! Ok fine. We get into the park and EE is not running. Crap problem one! So we head over to Dinosaur and of course it scares the BLEEP out of Justin and Grace who begin crying AFTER we get off. No problem we run into Goofy and Pluto and all is right with the world. We go over to DInoland and let them right Tri. Spin and get their faced painted. We headed over and caught It's Tough to Be a Bug. Oh crap more crying! Finally, we decided to do Kali River Rapids. Great fun and the kids loved that I got soaked. At this point we are hungry and Brandon decided he wanted to try Yak & Yeti even though we had no ADR's. No problem the wait was about 5 minutes but the service was so slow that we were there for a good hour and a half. They messed up the charging of the meals to the rooms and we were exhausted from keeping the kids from destroying the place. We decide to leave and take the kids back for a nap before going to Epcot for dinner and a stroll. MIL and FIL take Callie and head for the Space Shuttle. I check the internet as soon as we are in the car and it says that it won't be happening but they don't care they are going anyways. I figure a nice drive and nap for Callie. We get to Pop and our room is ready so we head in for a nap and unpacking. After our nap we head over to Coral Reef for dinner. We rode Test Track before dinner and then after a really nice dinner (that my inlaws complained about not liking) we strolled along in the WS. Brandon was determined he wanted to see Illuminations. 10 minutes into the wait I realize that the kids will never make it so we leave and head for the hotel.

[coastalgirl]

Welcome back Janet!! We missed ya!
Travel with the inlaws-you are one brave girl. I can't wait to hear all about it!!

[m 'n c]

Yay!!! Janet is back. I can't wait to read more about your trip and see some pictures!

[jnorth1007]

Day 3 Epcot

We are up and out bright and early and as we are leaving the hotel my inlaws decide that they need to meet us at Epcot because they are both having a melt down. Melt down????????????? We have been here for 2 days and I have been the sole care taker of my children. I didn't let them sleep in the other room or ask them to chase around the kids because I wanted it to be a good time for them also and after all they are MY kids. Now after 1 and a half days they need a melt down. Heck even my 3 year old didn't need a melt down yet. So we let them go and we went ahead and hit Epcot. We took the kids on Soarin and got FPs first thing and they LOVED it. By the time we got out of Soarin the inlaws had reached the park so we asked them to come meet us at Soarin so they could get FPs and then we would ride Living with the Land since we knew they would enjoy this one. (A little background my MIL is only 48 and her DH is only 39 so we aren't talking about elderly people here) We had wanted to go grab Test Track FPs and ride it with the kids but decided to wait for them instead. After sitting there for 15 minutes and them not showing up we call and they are walking around in Mousegear shopping!!!!!!! WHAT??????????? I was mad to say the least. They tell us they are coming right over and we waited about 5 more minutes. At this point the line for Living is long so we send them to get the FPs. Well they hear "Go ride Soarin and leave us sitting here" Brandon finally calls and gives them exact instructions and the what for about making us wait and they head on over. We ride Living and then we left and went to ride Figment which none of us had ever done. The whole day was thrown off now because it was almost eleven and I was way behind on what I wanted to do. We stop for some lunch at the quick service. Then we went and hit Test Track and then rode Soarin. We left to go back to the hotel for a rest and to change the kids. We had ADRs at the Princess dinner in Norway so we had to be back later. All goes well with the rest and getting back for dinner. The girls were dressed in their princess dresses and Justin was in his Peter Pan costume since he couldn't be left out LOL. As soon as we left the dinner the girls were out of their dresses but Justin was determined to keep his PP on since he wears it constantly around the house anyways. We wnet directly and rode the ride in Norway. We then walked the world showcase for awhile. We met up with Alice and Winnie and Tigger in England and we walked around for awhile because Callie HAD to see Germany since she is studying it in school. We got to Germany and Justin found a PP sword he had to have and Callie got a book on Germany and we had the Kidcot person write a German phrase in it to teach her friends back in Kindergarten. We decided to park ourselves in front of the Outpost to catch Illuminations. We had a few frozen lemonades and the kids played. This was fabulous. Amazingly I have never seen this show in all the times I have been to Epcot. The kids loved it. We left as the ending fireworks were going on so we could get ahead of the crowd and we were out of there and home in bed.

[DisneyMa]

Sounds like you had a blast!! Can't wait to hear more.

[faithhope]

Enjoying your trip report...thanks for taking the time to post it. :D

Faith

[3dog2kidmom]

Hi Janet! I just found your trip report... can't wait to read the rest!

[sunshinecindy]

Love your report...your exhausting me reading it.

Where is the Clarion, is it far from Disney, Any shuttle? We will be over there in March and would like a good price.

[jnorth1007]

It is less than 6 miles from the entrance. They are a Disney Good Neighbor hotel so they have a shuttle although I don't really know how it works. I got my credit for my stay since I booked through SR. It is across the street from the big Wizard gift shop lol. I don't remember the name of the street but I know that it is between 192 and I-4 and it has just about any hotel you can hope to find. I was really impressed with them.

I am going to finish this report. I just need to get my stuff together and remember what came next LOL. I have been so busy that when I went to add a day I couldn't remember what day came next.