We are back, we are tired, but we loved it!

Travel dates:May 10-19, 2008

Travel method: United Airlines via Chicago

Resort: Off-site-Marriott Grande Vista, got a great deal through friends

Accommodations: 2 bedroom villa with a kitchen, 2 bathrooms

Ages Represented in Group: 2-33

Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Jan '08 DL, May '05 WDW (dd was 5 months old, DS not yet thought of), Jan '03 DL, June '98 DL, couple of childhood trips


Cast of characters: DH: 33, myself, 32 holiday planner extrodinaire DD: 4 1/2: hard core princess, DS: almost 3 was scared of characters 6 months ago at DL so wondering if he has come around.

Day 1
We had to leave our house by 5 to make it to the airport for our flight from Calgary to Chicago. We had a one hour layover and then on to Orlando, arriving at 4 pm. Kids travelled great, I was really impressed with how they did. All our friends said direct flights are essential, but we actually liked the little break to run around and regroup. We got our luggage fairly fast and then grabbed our car rental at Alamo-did the express no-human contact check in. Got a chev Malibu for $13 a day, all in through their website. We drove to the Marriott Grande Vista (after figuring out the whole toll booth thing-we don't have those so took us a few minutes of 'what if we don't have change!! discussion in the car). The resort was great, highly recommend it-BUT you have to have a car there. There are many pools and a great 'inside park' for the little ones-a climbing and slide structure in the air conditioning! our room was two bedrooms (one a king and a 2 person jacuzzi and huge ensuite; the other 2 queens and its own bathroom as well) and a living room, dining room and kitchen. it had two screened patios that the kids loved to play on. We got it for $90 a night through some friends who have timeshare connections. We just did the pool and had pizza hut (it is onsite) at the resort and then went to the resort campfire/smores making evening.

Day 2
It was MK or bust for us, and it was Mother's Day, I got a flower at the gate which my DD loved. We arrived and had the AAA parking pass (thanks ebay) so got really good parking. Took the monorail (which the kids loved) and arrived at MK. We watched the show on the Castle stage (sorry, don't remember its name) at 10. We hit Dumbo, the teacups, and Winnie the Pooh. The dream team was there waiting for the right time to give out fast passes-darn, we were a few rides too early. We then went to get Buzz fast passes and headed to our reservations at Crystal Palace. We had forgotten our camera, so our waiter kindly ran around and got us a disposable one-it wasn't cheap, but we were really glad he did that. I think it was $18 for the camera. The kids loved this, and our DS liked the characters this time, he was right into the autographs. The food was quite good for a buffet we thought and the kids really loved it, a great way to start the trip. We then did Buzz, indy speedway and Monsters Inc (which we really thought was quite clever and fun, the kids loved it and there weren't any scary parts!). We then discovered Magic Carpets-a smashing success, shorter line than Dumbo, and wow, if our kids didn't love those camels. We headed back to our room for quiet time. My DH went in search of the outlet malls (we Canadians do love your outlet malls!) while the kids snoozed. We made burgers and hot dogs on the BBQ and went back to the park for a few more rides. The kids were beat, I think in hindsight, we did a bit too much that first day. :)

Can't wait to read more about your trip!

I forgot to say on day one we had a big mix up with our grocery delivery-they apparently took it to the wrong hotel and so we spent a full day trying to call them and track it down-that was our only pain in the butt of our first day-in hindsight, we got in at a decent time and should have just run to walmart and bought stuff, it would have been less hassle. We didn't get our stuff until the second afternoon. Minor pain though in the grand scheme of things. Next up-Sea World and Aquatica!

Thanks for writing.

I like that Crystal Palace buffet too. We always try to have at least one meal there each visit.

So I am finally getting back into the website and posting-I was on a hiatus getting caught up, but I miss it :) so here goes with the next few days.

Day 3-We actually went to SeaWorld this day. As this is a Disney board I won't tell you too much about it-unless someone says they are interested. It was fun, and my 4 1/2 year old really enjoyed it, but honestly, my 3 year old son could have taken or left it-he wasn't into sitting through shows. The savings grace for him was there was a climbing structure that wore him out and he enjoyed.

Day 4-A partially non-Disney day, we spent the first part of the day at Aquatica, which was a lot of fun and would be even more fun if our kids were a little older and braver! The children quite liked it, but they were missing Disney I think :fez: so we went back to Disney later in the day after a nap/pool break-the Magic Kingdom for some extra rides of the favs-their personal favorite would have been Aladdin's Magic Carpet-that spitting camel was an enormous hit. My son quite liked Buzz Lightyear, still talks about it, but my dd refused to go on it-NO dark rides (bad experience at DL that she hasn't forgotten-strangely, she loved Nemo though at epcot).

Day 5-this day was a big deviation, and a mistake. My DH decided that depsite my careful planning, and strategizing over what days to go where-he knew better. I had planned ADR with Chef Mickeys and then going to Epcot. We decided after a late night to forgo the ressies, or we would have incredibly crabby preschoolers on our hands. while i was disappointed to not go to Mickey's-it was totally for the best, and one of the most important lessons with travelling with preschoolers-go with the flow. So, my DH decided we should skip epcot and go to AK instead. We got there a little later, almost an hour after opening (mistake one), but there were loads of characters outside so we spent some time visiting with them, and the kids liked that. We found the park was really busy and quite hot-not sure if that was just the day or that park, but it seemed much warmer than everywhere else-funny. We did the Safaris, Lion King (disapointingly Nemo was not playing this day) and then went to DinoLand and did the Triceritops Spin several times. We also got the kids face's painted, ds was a pirate (so cute) and my dd had a butterfly done-it was super cute and while expensive they did love it. For some reason my DH can't get past the Dinoland piece, he thinks it doesn't fit with the rest of the park. Anyway, we went back to our hotel and had a relaxing evening. Funnily, our dd and ds were both mad at going to Animal Kingdom at first-they kept telling us it wasn't disneyworld and where was the castle!

Day 6-you will start to notice our preschooler's obsession-we went back to MK-if it ain't broke... they just loved the MK and honestly, couldn't get enough of the same rides. We went to Dumbo right away and then Winnie the Pooh, then we split up and dh and ds won a dream-it was pins, and honestly neither of the kids were super excited but I was! DH was hoping for fast passes, but it was still neat. Today we discovered Goofy's rollercoaster as the new favorite-honestly, I would be embaressed to tell you how many times we went on this! My dd decided her fav characters were the stepsisters-too funny as she is princess obsessed, but they were so funny she still talks about them. Both kids quite enjoyed getting autographs and we spent lots of time doing that. At first I kind of thought this was 'wasted' time, but after seeing the enjoyment they got and how willing they were to wait, I realized it was as much an attraction to them as rides.

More to come (I promise this time!)-next up Pirates and Princesses!!

Looking forward to more!:)

Day 7-this was it, the day I had been most waiting for and excited about. The Princess and Pirate Party! We spent most of the day quite quietly, my dh watched the kids during naptime and I actually got to go shopping alone, got my ds a pirate set from the disney store for cheap, $5, and some general stocking up of kids clothes etc. I was quite excited for the party b/c my dd is a huge princess. seriously, i have no idea where she gets it from, she only wears dresses, plays dress up all the time and tends to look down at anything too sporty-i was so the opposite. But, since she loves the princess stuff I figured this would be a big hit. I had brought her Cinderella get up that we had got at DL. DS wore his new pirate gear and she wore the dress and we were ready to go. We rode the monorail in from the parking lot and got our wristbands just inside the gate. They had decorated the entrance for the party, which was cool, so I was glad we didn't come too early and miss that (figured we had a limited time with two preschoolers and didn't want to wear them out too early). Once inside we took a few pics and headed over to Liberty Tavern for our ADR. The kids really loved this, I would definitely recommend it, and, to be honest, the food was surprisingly good. My dh is convinced that it was the best roast beef. the kids didn't 'get' the outfits (dd thought Minnie was wearing her jammies) but loved the characters. somehow, we timed it right and we saw them all twice. The first time it was Chip and Dale, Goofy, Minnie, and Pluto and they did the pictures and autographs. The second time they came around though they just played with the kids and that was so cool to watch, they ate it up. My dd is often a terrible eater so we told her she had to eat her supper to see them-I have never seen her shovel like that! She now tells everyone that Minnie makes the best mashed potatos. It is served family style and we had ham, turkey, roast beef (oh a salad first-kind of like an Olive Garden one), mashed potatos, veggies and buns. It was an apple crisp with ice cream for dessert. Overall, a huge hit, good food, great characters, well worth the cash and our best character meal I think.

After dinner we took some pics of the kids and headed to fantasyland. They had Cinderella's carriage and pumpkins set up, so we got a picture of our princess while DH and DS wrote IASW. We went to the Dance Party (I think Flounder was the host) and the kids loved that. We hit Goofy's Rollercoaster for about the 1000 time. I checked line ups for princesses and it was really long which surprised me (90 minutes) so figured we would see them at Epcot dinner anyway. We went to the parade which was really great, my ds held his sword up to the pirates, so cute. Then we hit Buzz, racecars and eventually ended up on the Astro Orbitors. It was totally by chance, but we wound up on those during fireworks, which is really cool and a great view. We just lucked out on that one. The kids enjoyed collecting treasure, mostly beads, but they got little bags of 'jewels' over by Aladdin's.

It was a really great night, I would highly recommend it. The lines were minimal (other than the characters, go figure), and the kids really got into it.

Next up-Epcot with two kids and no help-what was I thinking? ;)

Thanks for writing.

I'm really enjoying the way you're posting it. A little @ a time like this keeps it from being overwhelming, and is easy to read.

Your story about your meal @ Liberty Tree Tavern rings so true for us too. I always feel like I've just had Thanksgiving dinner when I leave the Liberty Tree Tavern. YUM !!! :D

Thanks Greg for reading! :)

Day 7-I was planning on not doing parks today, we moved hotel rooms (from a two bedroom condo to a one bedroom) b/c we only had it for a week and the nightly cost was really high, so moved to a one bedroom. My DH was in golf school on day 7 and day 8-this was our 'real' reason for going to Florida-his graduation gift. I had ADR for Princess Storybook dinner at 1645, so decided to brave the park on my own with the kids and not wait for dh. We wandered Epcot for a bit, looked in Mexico (dd refused to go on the ride, but they did the craft) and then eventually headed to Norway. I was a little stressed, there was a huge line, and most of the line was 'young adults' who appeared to have been drinking and celebrating Norway's annual holiday (it was that day, which i didn't know) and they didn't speak a lot of english, so the crowd stressed me out a bit with two preschoolers. We managed to make our way through the crowd and the big 'kids' were actually well behaved, a few very loud renditions of what I imagine was the national anthem but otherwise tame. As I have said my DD loves princesses so this was a big deal for her. My DS is 3 and can be a handful. First we saw Belle and she kissed DS and told him how cute he was, he ate that up. Ariel came by and he was well behaved and DD was pumped-but it went downhill from there and honestly I am surprised DS didn't get a ban from the Magic Kingdom. Aurora came next and DS planted a big kiss on her face, she took it in stride. Next was Jasmine and this time he planted a kiss on her, well, let's just say, right where she wears the big jewel on her top. Then Cinderella came and disaster struck-he kept trying to get under her skirt and for some reason, lick her. I honestly don't know what came over him, but it was a fiasco-funny now, but totally embaressing at the time. DD took it in stride and kept saying he's just little to explain it all away. After that, we saw Donald Duck by Mexico and then went to Nemo and went on Nemo, again, and again, and again. It had no line, but honestly after the third time, I was losing my enthusiasm for that little fish. But, it accomodated the three of us well and they loved it. We did Talk with Turtle, my dd desperately wanted Crush to talk to her but he didn't. My DH arrived and he took the kids on Nemo again and then we did spaceship earth. my DD seemed to like it but my ds tried to climb out of the ride towards the end-he was bored. I was a little exhausted from the whole princess fiasco, but my DH found it hilarious (you should see the annoyed look Cinderella is giving him in the photo).

Day 8-Once again my DH was in golf school at the resort, so I decided to brave the MK on my own with the kids. The original plan was to go to HS, but honestly, the kids loved MK and made a bit of a production about going elsewhere (didn't grasp the concept that it was all Disney-there was only ONE and it had a castle). Besides, by now I was pretty familiar with the layout and knew what stuff I could do with the kids alone. We went later in the day b/c I couldn't really navigate getting them out the door early without help, so we arrived in time for the parade. The kids really enjoyed that, but it was quite hot for us waiting. We grabbed a treat on main street and then headed to some of our favs-Aladdin's, Monsters Inc (I think I have failed to mention this one thus far, my dd thought this was the hilarious), autopia, and, unfortunately for the kids Goofy's rollercoaster as we call it was down-not a huge loss since we must have ridden it over 20 times. We went to Phillharmagic which my dd loved and my ds got bored with-this is the big reason I skipped HS-he didn't seem to patient with 'shows' just yet. By this time my DH had arrived in the park. We did a few more kiddie rides and then said good by to the MK, we were heading home the next day. We then went to Downtown Disney to check it out, bought some souveniers for the kids (potato head box and they each got a piggy bank) and then home. The next day was a long travel day, but all went well.

Trip Summary:
THE GOOD: we loved the resort we were in, it was amazing and for the great deal we got, we really felt fortunate. Plus, with little ones, we liked being off site, so we did some other things too. The kids loved the MK and the characters, they both loved getting autographs. The character meals are expensive but IMO worth it. Those were some of my favorite moments. Because we went when it was slightly less busy and our kids were too young for most star attractions we didn't feel pressure to be there at opening. Honestly, didn't notice a big difference from when we did and when we didn't, perhaps Dumbo being the exception. The kids were good little travellers, they did well with the schedule change and are still talking about it. They look at pictures and their autograph books and talk it up. The Pirate and Princess Party was a huge highlight!

THE NOT AS GOOD: We really should have ridden some adult rides, but it seemed like too much work at the time. We didn't take the time to do the adult stuff and trade off-when we were at DL we had my parents and they took the kids for an afternoon nap one day and we did all the adult stuff we could. I had someone run into me with a wheelchair as I bent to pick something up one of the kids had dropped and the lady in the chair yelled at me for stopping. I was off to the side and honestly, it really hurt, I had a big bump for several weeks-they never even said sorry! I was more hurt by that than the crash-took away some serious magic!

Overall, it was a great trip. I planned and planned but once I got there, I let it go and went with the plan but also with the flow which made it much easier. At first I was stressed about stuff we 'missed' but soon realized we were going to miss lots and that is just the way it is when doing Disney with preschoolers. And, they had no idea what they missed and got so much out of it. It was very relaxing and fun to not feel like we had to see/do it all and my dh said we would be back so why stress. He was right, we will have the chance to go again. But, I am so happy that we went when our kids were this age, they truly believed, and felt the magic-I think they are hooked!

I'm so glad to hear another family going to DW with small children. Just watching the planning video with our 2 year old is a neat experience, I can't wait for her to see the real thing! :) Sounds like you had a great trip!!

What a wonderful Trip. Your trip report was great. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Ellen

Hello...

I just read your trip report and I couldn't stop laughing at the princess dinner on day 7- that is hilarious!

I bet you'll never forget that day!

Thanks for the trip report and the funny tales... that's just whats needed after a long day. :D

Oh, you have no idea how traumatized I was chasing my not yet 3 year old around Cinderella's skirt while he said "I lick her", totally funny now, but at the time I am sure I looked like a wreck. Even now, when he sees a picture or something he says "I want to lick her"-no idea what that is all about!

I think a lot of boys want to get under her dress and lick her! That was funny! Sounds like a great trip!!