3dog2kidmom
05-19-2008, 08:28 PM
This will be a totally different kind of trip for us. DH and I have taken a few vacations together alone since we have had children (Sedona, Door County, New Orleans), but could we pull off a Disney trip without them? Or should we?
I had booked the flights for our January family vacation using Southwest. One of the things I love about Southwest is that if the fare goes down, you get a credit! In between booking it and our trip the fare went down around $180 for the four of us, leaving enough for one round trip or two one-way tickets to, where else, Orlando.
If you read my 2008 Magical Winter Vacation Trip Report (http://www.sunshinerewardsforum.com/showthread.php?t=6596), you already know that we had a rough start to that trip with USA3000 airlines. What you may not know is that I wrote them after we got back to complain, and they gave us $200 in credits. So between the two airlines, I had enough for two of us to fly to Orlando on Southwest and home from Tampa on USA3000.
I made some complicated (and boring to the rest of you) arrangements for the 3 (really 4) dog2kid part of the family so they could all stay home together, gathered up my Sunshine Rewards credits to pay the deposit, put a bunch of stuff on ebay so we could have food and souvie money while we were there, and it was settled: we were leaving the kids at home and going to Disney for the International Flower & Garden Festival!!
DAY ONE -- SATURDAY, MAY 3:
We got up early… left for the airport at 5 am for a 7:05 flight. We parked at EZPark and were through security in a flash. We got breakfast at Starbucks (thank you ex-BIL for the gift cards left over from my birthday), and were on the plane and in Orlando at the fake monorail in no time. Since we had sent our bags along with the Magical Express tags, we didn’t have to wait at baggage claim and made our way to the ME area and checked in. Pretty soon we were on the bus headed to Pop. We felt free as birds! No kids, no luggage... this was the life!
Check in was a breeze… there were no lines at all. And our room was even ready! By then it was 11:30 and we were starving so we grabbed lunch (chicken Mediterranean flatbread and salad, along with cokes in our refillable mugs, and a piece of the famous tye-dyed cheesecake to share) in the food court before heading to our room.
After lunch we went to check out our room and drop our carry-on luggage off. We were in the 80’s section, building 9, fourth floor. What can I say about the room… it was a Value. Clean, cute, not very big but what do ya really need? I will state right now that I am a hotel snob. I am lucky enough to be able to stay at some really nice places when I travel for work, and our last two family trips we stayed at the Polynesian. In reality, we can't afford that (those Poly trips were the exception for our budget and result of some heavy duty saving and creativity -- how I found Sunshine Rewards and learned to sell on eBay -- not the norm), though, so Pop it was! Also we did not pay for a preferred location, and found that we didn’t need it. It was really close to everything so I was glad to have saved that money. Another thing I was glad of -- I didn't bring my laptop and it's a good thing since it wouldn't have fit in the safe. My camera wouldn't even fit in the safe -- it was that tiny. I guess it was good for my wallet (I only carried my ID and room card with me to the parks) and would have worked for jewelry if I traveled with any, but I tend to wear only my wedding ring and the same necklace & earrings all the time so I don't need to secure anything.
After checking out our room and watching a bit of Disney TV, we walked over to the bus stop. A bus was just pulling up for Downtown Disney -- we had really good bus karma this trip. We had skipped DTD on our last 2 visits, and really didn't have much time there last summer when DD8 and I went, so it was nice to wander around. We picked up our free key chain from Planet Hollywood with our package voucher, bought a bottle of water at the pretzel place, browsed in a few shops, and stuck our heads in Bongos to do some reconnaisance for a future trip. DH and I are foodies and love to try new things, and the Cuban cuisine at Bongos along with the tropical atmosphere is definately something we want to experience next time. And don't forget about the mojitos!
Since we scored the "park hopper, water parks, and more" (or whatever it was called) free upgrade through the promotion I booked with, our admission to Disney Quest was included so we decided to check that out for awhile. Oh my gosh... if DS10 had been with us we would never have been able to drag him out of there. I am not much of an arcade person, but we had watched something on TV -- on the Travel Channel I think -- about the virtual Space Mountain so we had to try that. Twice. This is where you design your own coaster, and then board a simulator to "ride" it. I was skeptical at first and nervous that it would be too curvy. So our first one we did was only rated 2 out of 5 on the "scary" scale. We wished it would have been faster, so we made the next one more intense and it turned out to be a 4 out of 5. That bothered my tummy a bit, so I think 3 might be the most appropriate level for me. Anyway, we visited a few minutes in line for the simulator with a young honeymoon couple from Philadelphia, and there was a boy -- probably 10 or 11 (his virtual coaster was a 5!) -- in line also who told us we had to try the Virtual Pirates of the Caribbean. So after Virtual Space Mountain we went off to conquer pirate ships! That was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I don't usually care for 3D experiences and cannot stand stuff on my head (you have to wear these glasses strapped around your forehead). We played one more game before leaving -- a shooting game that reminded me of Indiana Jones. Disney Quest is 5 stories of interactive games and virtual reality type stuff. I think on a longer trip it would be good to take the kids there on a down day, so I was glad we checked it out while we didn't have to pay. At $37 per adult for all day, though, it wasn't really a bad deal. We figure the one game we played would have cost $8 just for that 15 minutes or so at Dave & Busters.
We had a dinner reservation at 7:30ish at Boma, the buffet in Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our plan was to head over around 5:00, and walk out on the savannah and look at animals and then get drinks in the lounge. We caught a bus at Downtown Disney (one was just pulling up, actually) and got there just as planned. The resort was beautiful and we really enjoyed being there. I'm adding that to my list of future places to stay -- maybe if we ever buy DVC and can stay in a villa. We checked in at the podium to see if we could get an earlier seating, and she told us we could probably get seated in about an hour. We used the time to (can you guess?) go see animals, take a few photos, and get drinks in the Victoria Falls lounge, while the Kentucky Derby was on TV. I had a ginger mojito and DH had a beer I think, while we people-watched and caught the Derby out of the corner of our eye. My drink was delicious and DH approved of his beer (a Sam Adams White, I believe)! We were called to our table in less time than we expected, and were greeted by server, Jeff. He looked familiar to me, and later I learned that he'd waited on us at Hollywood Brown Derby at MGM for lunch during our January of 2007 Land & Sea trip. Jeff got another beer for Dave and familiarized us with the buffet. He highly recommended the carrot ginger soup and it did not disappoint. In fact, I loved everything I tried from that dinner! Aside from the soup, especially memorable was the pineapple upside down cheesecake in the dessert section. After dinner we waddled out to the main entrance and caught a taxi back to Pop Century, filled our mugs with Coke, and watched a little TV before turning in.
to be continued...
I had booked the flights for our January family vacation using Southwest. One of the things I love about Southwest is that if the fare goes down, you get a credit! In between booking it and our trip the fare went down around $180 for the four of us, leaving enough for one round trip or two one-way tickets to, where else, Orlando.
If you read my 2008 Magical Winter Vacation Trip Report (http://www.sunshinerewardsforum.com/showthread.php?t=6596), you already know that we had a rough start to that trip with USA3000 airlines. What you may not know is that I wrote them after we got back to complain, and they gave us $200 in credits. So between the two airlines, I had enough for two of us to fly to Orlando on Southwest and home from Tampa on USA3000.
I made some complicated (and boring to the rest of you) arrangements for the 3 (really 4) dog2kid part of the family so they could all stay home together, gathered up my Sunshine Rewards credits to pay the deposit, put a bunch of stuff on ebay so we could have food and souvie money while we were there, and it was settled: we were leaving the kids at home and going to Disney for the International Flower & Garden Festival!!
DAY ONE -- SATURDAY, MAY 3:
We got up early… left for the airport at 5 am for a 7:05 flight. We parked at EZPark and were through security in a flash. We got breakfast at Starbucks (thank you ex-BIL for the gift cards left over from my birthday), and were on the plane and in Orlando at the fake monorail in no time. Since we had sent our bags along with the Magical Express tags, we didn’t have to wait at baggage claim and made our way to the ME area and checked in. Pretty soon we were on the bus headed to Pop. We felt free as birds! No kids, no luggage... this was the life!
Check in was a breeze… there were no lines at all. And our room was even ready! By then it was 11:30 and we were starving so we grabbed lunch (chicken Mediterranean flatbread and salad, along with cokes in our refillable mugs, and a piece of the famous tye-dyed cheesecake to share) in the food court before heading to our room.
After lunch we went to check out our room and drop our carry-on luggage off. We were in the 80’s section, building 9, fourth floor. What can I say about the room… it was a Value. Clean, cute, not very big but what do ya really need? I will state right now that I am a hotel snob. I am lucky enough to be able to stay at some really nice places when I travel for work, and our last two family trips we stayed at the Polynesian. In reality, we can't afford that (those Poly trips were the exception for our budget and result of some heavy duty saving and creativity -- how I found Sunshine Rewards and learned to sell on eBay -- not the norm), though, so Pop it was! Also we did not pay for a preferred location, and found that we didn’t need it. It was really close to everything so I was glad to have saved that money. Another thing I was glad of -- I didn't bring my laptop and it's a good thing since it wouldn't have fit in the safe. My camera wouldn't even fit in the safe -- it was that tiny. I guess it was good for my wallet (I only carried my ID and room card with me to the parks) and would have worked for jewelry if I traveled with any, but I tend to wear only my wedding ring and the same necklace & earrings all the time so I don't need to secure anything.
After checking out our room and watching a bit of Disney TV, we walked over to the bus stop. A bus was just pulling up for Downtown Disney -- we had really good bus karma this trip. We had skipped DTD on our last 2 visits, and really didn't have much time there last summer when DD8 and I went, so it was nice to wander around. We picked up our free key chain from Planet Hollywood with our package voucher, bought a bottle of water at the pretzel place, browsed in a few shops, and stuck our heads in Bongos to do some reconnaisance for a future trip. DH and I are foodies and love to try new things, and the Cuban cuisine at Bongos along with the tropical atmosphere is definately something we want to experience next time. And don't forget about the mojitos!
Since we scored the "park hopper, water parks, and more" (or whatever it was called) free upgrade through the promotion I booked with, our admission to Disney Quest was included so we decided to check that out for awhile. Oh my gosh... if DS10 had been with us we would never have been able to drag him out of there. I am not much of an arcade person, but we had watched something on TV -- on the Travel Channel I think -- about the virtual Space Mountain so we had to try that. Twice. This is where you design your own coaster, and then board a simulator to "ride" it. I was skeptical at first and nervous that it would be too curvy. So our first one we did was only rated 2 out of 5 on the "scary" scale. We wished it would have been faster, so we made the next one more intense and it turned out to be a 4 out of 5. That bothered my tummy a bit, so I think 3 might be the most appropriate level for me. Anyway, we visited a few minutes in line for the simulator with a young honeymoon couple from Philadelphia, and there was a boy -- probably 10 or 11 (his virtual coaster was a 5!) -- in line also who told us we had to try the Virtual Pirates of the Caribbean. So after Virtual Space Mountain we went off to conquer pirate ships! That was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I don't usually care for 3D experiences and cannot stand stuff on my head (you have to wear these glasses strapped around your forehead). We played one more game before leaving -- a shooting game that reminded me of Indiana Jones. Disney Quest is 5 stories of interactive games and virtual reality type stuff. I think on a longer trip it would be good to take the kids there on a down day, so I was glad we checked it out while we didn't have to pay. At $37 per adult for all day, though, it wasn't really a bad deal. We figure the one game we played would have cost $8 just for that 15 minutes or so at Dave & Busters.
We had a dinner reservation at 7:30ish at Boma, the buffet in Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our plan was to head over around 5:00, and walk out on the savannah and look at animals and then get drinks in the lounge. We caught a bus at Downtown Disney (one was just pulling up, actually) and got there just as planned. The resort was beautiful and we really enjoyed being there. I'm adding that to my list of future places to stay -- maybe if we ever buy DVC and can stay in a villa. We checked in at the podium to see if we could get an earlier seating, and she told us we could probably get seated in about an hour. We used the time to (can you guess?) go see animals, take a few photos, and get drinks in the Victoria Falls lounge, while the Kentucky Derby was on TV. I had a ginger mojito and DH had a beer I think, while we people-watched and caught the Derby out of the corner of our eye. My drink was delicious and DH approved of his beer (a Sam Adams White, I believe)! We were called to our table in less time than we expected, and were greeted by server, Jeff. He looked familiar to me, and later I learned that he'd waited on us at Hollywood Brown Derby at MGM for lunch during our January of 2007 Land & Sea trip. Jeff got another beer for Dave and familiarized us with the buffet. He highly recommended the carrot ginger soup and it did not disappoint. In fact, I loved everything I tried from that dinner! Aside from the soup, especially memorable was the pineapple upside down cheesecake in the dessert section. After dinner we waddled out to the main entrance and caught a taxi back to Pop Century, filled our mugs with Coke, and watched a little TV before turning in.
to be continued...