ssmerdel
06-20-2008, 07:14 PM
Our 2008 Walt Disney World Family Vacation
Cast of Characters: Me (38), DW (35), DS (11), DD (6), MIL (52), Niece (5)
Trip Date: Friday, May 30 – Sunday, June 8 (10 days, 9 nights)
Method of Travel: AirTran Airlines and DME
Resort Stay: Pop Century Resort
Accommodations: Preferred Room – 60’s Building (Rm 4430 & 4431) – 4th Floor close to Elevators
Package:Magic Your Way plus Dining (Basic Dining Plan = 1 Counter Meal, 1 Table Meal, 1 Snack per person per night)
Experience: 2nd Trip for all except for niece, this was her 1st visit.
We had such a fantastic vacation. We went for 10 days and just enjoyed ourselves. It was hot each and every day and it had only rained during two evenings. There were a couple of dreams won, but you will have to wait until that day to hear about it. I will say this, we did not stay in the Castle, but they were pretty cool none the less. We took a lot of pictures, video and even used PhotoPass. I hope to share these with you as well.
I did a pre-trip report so instead of detailing all the planning, I would like to highlight some of the major dates. The start of the planning was in August of 2007 when the 2008 pricing came out. We booked our trip online and paid the $200 deposit. On November 30th of 2007 we reached our 180 days out and made all of our ADR’s. We were able to get all the days and times we wanted for our trip. That was exciting. In February 2008, we used our tax check to pay for the airfare ($1040 roundtrip for all four of us) and payoff our remaining balance for our trip. Now that our package and airfare was covered, all we had to do was save for our spending money. In March of 2008, DW’s mother (MIL) decided she wanted to go and take one of her granddaughters, our niece, to WDW. DW helped her book everything, just like ours, so we could stay together. We had the reservations linked together in the Disney system, so our rooms would be close together. Under our reservations, we had requested connecting rooms and the 4th floor. Her airfare was a little more than ours as costs were rising because of oil and the economy. I called the Dining Reservations number to add MIL and Niece to our table meal ADR’s. We were able to add them to every meal except Le Cellier. Finally, I had made a countdown calendar for the kids, myself and DW, to countdown the days before we left. It was fun.
And now it is finally time to go. I hope you enjoy our magical family vacation.
Day 1 – May 30th
Everyone took showers and was in bed asleep at 10pm the night before we left. Not sure how that happened with all the excitement. The alarm went off at 3:45am, but we were already 15 minutes ahead of schedule by waking up on our own at 3:30am. It must have been the magic and excitement that woke us up early (I think the carriage from that commercial on TV was coming down the street and the music was playing in the background). I loaded the van with our luggage and carry-on, and we were out of the house by 4:40am. We called MIL at 3:30am to make sure her and our niece was up and getting ready to go. They only live 2 minutes away, so at 4:30am we arrived at her house and at 4:45am we were on our way to the airport. I dropped everyone off curb side and went to park in long term parking. I took the shuttle back to the terminal to meet everyone and check our luggage. The airport was already busy as this was the first day of summer vacation for the schools in Central Indiana. I think everybody was leaving for vacation. I had checked in and printed our boarding passes the day before, but we still had to stand in line to check luggage. With luggage checked, and the 25 minute wait to get through TSA Security, we were safely at our gate by 6am. It was time for coffee, for DW and MIL, and breakfast before our flight.
I had a diet coke and a Subway Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sandwich.
DW had decaf coffee and a Key Lime Muffin. DW said the decaf coffee was bad.
DS had a fruit cup, and shared my sandwich along with apple juice
DD had a Chocolate Chip Cookie, and some Pringles chips that MIL had given them in a snack bag for the plane ride, along with a bottle of water.
MIL regular coffee and a bagel and fruit.
Niece – Not sure what she ate.
The flight left on time at 7:05am. The plane seating format was 2-3. DD and I sat in row 24, seats A and C. DW and DS were in 25 A and C and MIL and Niece were in 26 A and C. The flight was smooth and uneventful at only 1 hour and 50 minutes long. We arrived 18 minutes early into Orlando. Our plane was scheduled to arrive at 9:13am, but we were at the gate at 8:55am. We went to DME to check in and were on our bus by 9:30am. Our drivers’ name was Anthony Stephen. After waiting for the bus to fill up, we departed MCO at 9:55am. He announced that he would be making three stops: 1) Pop Century, 2) Coronado Springs, and 3) Animal Kingdom Lodge and in this order. We were so excited to be the first stop. The bus ride was not very long and DW began tearing up as we watched the scenery out the window and the video on the screen, especially when we traveled under the Welcome to WDW arch. We were sitting in the very front, and Anthony slowed down and raised the front blind all the way up so I could get a picture of the arch right before we went under it. Again, we were so excited. I will probably say this over and over again throughout the trip report.
We had finally arrived at Pop Century at 10:40am. We were home, back at WDW. I could already feel the magic as we were getting off the bus. DW headed for the check-in line while I got the stroller and carry-on bags from Anthony. I gave him a $5 tip, then kids and I headed into the main lobby. The lobby was awesome. I pulled out the video camera and started recording the pictures and nostalgia that was encased on the wall. I still could not believe we finally were back at WDW and at our resort. DW and MIL finished checking in and our rooms were not ready. We received our KTTW cards and a card with a number to call to find out when our rooms were ready. We gave our carry-on bags to Luggage Services and then decided to eat since everyone was hungry, especially MIL. Since we were on the dining plan, we decided to go to Everything Pop for lunch. I was very impressed with the food court at this resort. We can only compare it to POR, and we did think it was better. This is what everyone had for lunch, and it was very good:
Me: Meatball Sub, Chocolate Cake, and Water
DW: Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Side Salad, Breadstick, Grapes and Water
DS: Pepperoni Pizza, Chocolate Cake, Water
DD: Kids Mac-n-Cheese, Cookie, Jello and Water
MIL: Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Side Salad, Breadstick, Fruit and Water
Niece: Shared with MIL
After lunch it was time to head to Magic Kingdom. Before we did, we stopped in the gift shop in Everything POP and did some shopping. I wanted a lanyard with a couple pins and a plastic zip lock case to hold my KTTW Card. As we walked out and toward the queue for a MK bus, there was a bus already there loading. As we got closer we noticed the bus was full and there were people standing. We looked back and noticed another bus was pulling in and had MK on it. We let a couple people behind us go ahead and get on the first bus, and we waited for the 2nd bus. It pulled in right after the 1st bus and we were the first to get on. We cheered as this was our first bus ride to a park on our first day and there was no wait.
We pulled into the bus station and our journey began. We were home at the Magic Kingdom. It had been 2 years since our first trip and we were so happy to be walking under the train station then seeing the castle down Main Street in the background. We planned on using PhotoPass, so we had our picture taken with the Castle behind us as our first pictures. They turned out so well. We headed for POC. This ride was closed for the updates in 2006, and we did not get to rider it, so that was the first ride we went on. The wait was only 10 minutes and it was 1pm in the afternoon. DW and I really liked it. The kids liked it, except for the small drop. When we came out, the PhotoPass photographer was doing the pictures that included Captain Hook, so we each did that. We then just wanted to walk around and look at things. We walked by Aloha Aisle and decided to get Dole Whips. DD had chocolate, DW has Pineapple, DS had a Rootbeer Float, and I had a Pineapple Float. Oh man, these were so good. I think I could live off these for the rest of my life. It was so refreshing.
DS wanted to ride Stitch, so we headed for Tomorrowland. We stopped by the Rose Garden for another PhotoPass opportunity and this time the kids where able to have Tinkerbell posed in their hands. The pictures were so cute. After this, we made it Stitch. This was his favorite in 2006, so we rode it. DD started crying when all the lights went out. She did not like, and after said she was not riding it ever again. Then we rode the Blue Line, aka TTA. DD wanted to ride this over and over again. It was around 3pm and the kids were starting to get tired and grouchy from getting up so early to catch our flight. I called the number we were given to see if our room as well as MIL’s room was ready. Much to our surprise our rooms were ready, so I wrote the numbers down, and we headed back to our resort. Again, waiting for the bus at MK was not very long. It was maybe 5-10 minutes. When we arrived and walked into our rooms, our luggage was there as well as our carry-on we left with Luggage Services. I thought I would have to call and have them bring those to us. How nice. I took the time to write in my journal while DW did some unpacking. The kids helped unpack, when asked, and played. We were very close to the Hippy Dippy Pool, so we decided to go swimming for a little while. The kids love swimming. We flipped through the channels on the TV and loved watching the Pop Century Channel and the channel that talked about all the parks. I have to admit, when people were talking about Stacey, I was not aware of who she was. Now I know. She was ok to listen to for a while, but they seriously need to update that channel or add more hosts.
After swimming, we went back to our rooms to change, then went to Everything Pop for dinner. We purchased our refillable mugs and got water bottles with our dining plan meals. Here is what everyone had:
DD had Nachos (Chips and cheese only) and chocolate cake (the chocolate cake was her favorite the whole time).
DS had a Dbl Cheeseburger w/cheese fries and had the carrot cake.
DW had the Philly Cheese Steak Wrap w/cheese fries and shared dessert with DD (Choc cake).
I had the Dbl Cheeseburger w/cheese fries and the Tie-Dyed Cheesecake. (The cheesecake was ok.) I had a couple bites of DS’s carrot cake and it was by far my favorite.
We were not disappointed with dinner at Everything Pop. It was good.
After dinner, we felt a little refreshed, so we headed for DTD. We wanted to do some shopping and look around. We walked through the Christmas Shop and then the Kitchen Shop. After browsing in these stores, it was time for Once Upon a Toy Store. DS was looking forward to this, as he knew he was going to build a lightsaber. I had to help him, it was a little confusing at first, but we got the hang of it, and he built a cool lightsaber. DD likes to write and draw, so she wanted a couple princess notebooks and markers. She did not want to build a My Little Pony. After this store we headed to the World of Disney. DW wanted to look for a couple shirts, for her, and some Disney hair clips. Our last stop was Goofy Candy Company. We decided to use snack credits to make some snacks. This was cool. DS picked marshmallows covered in milk chocolate, nothing else. DD selected the large chocolate oreo cookie dipped in milk chocolate and covered in crushed M&Ms and sprinkles. DW selected 3 pretzel sticks dipped in, milk and dark chocolate. One had nuts and the other had white and dark chocolate chips. They looked really good. Finally, I had a chocolate oreo cookie dipped in milk chocolate, covered with peanuts and crushed Reese cup and then drizzled in more milk chocolate. I was in heaven. Oh my is all I can say. What a wonderful day! We headed for our bus stop and waited about 15 minutes for the bus. We arrived back at our resort and sat in Everything Pop, ate our snacks and refilled our drinks twice. What a perfect end to our first day. The kids did get a little grouchy this evening, but all-in-all, we had a fantastic day.
Here are some things I wanted to mention:
MIL and niece did not stay with us the entire time. We mainly met for our table meals and we did do some things together.
The busses were not bad the whole trip. There was only one bad day for the busses and that would be our 3rd day there, which was on a Sunday. It seemed that we were waiting forever for a bus.
The weather was hot. Our first day there is was 93 and I think it was 93-95 everyday. We moved a little slower and did not see as much as we thought we would.
Only 9 days left on the vacation. Tomorrow we are going to Epcot, since we did not get much time in this park during our first trip in June 2006. So far, no dreams won yet. Stay tuned…..
Cast of Characters: Me (38), DW (35), DS (11), DD (6), MIL (52), Niece (5)
Trip Date: Friday, May 30 – Sunday, June 8 (10 days, 9 nights)
Method of Travel: AirTran Airlines and DME
Resort Stay: Pop Century Resort
Accommodations: Preferred Room – 60’s Building (Rm 4430 & 4431) – 4th Floor close to Elevators
Package:Magic Your Way plus Dining (Basic Dining Plan = 1 Counter Meal, 1 Table Meal, 1 Snack per person per night)
Experience: 2nd Trip for all except for niece, this was her 1st visit.
We had such a fantastic vacation. We went for 10 days and just enjoyed ourselves. It was hot each and every day and it had only rained during two evenings. There were a couple of dreams won, but you will have to wait until that day to hear about it. I will say this, we did not stay in the Castle, but they were pretty cool none the less. We took a lot of pictures, video and even used PhotoPass. I hope to share these with you as well.
I did a pre-trip report so instead of detailing all the planning, I would like to highlight some of the major dates. The start of the planning was in August of 2007 when the 2008 pricing came out. We booked our trip online and paid the $200 deposit. On November 30th of 2007 we reached our 180 days out and made all of our ADR’s. We were able to get all the days and times we wanted for our trip. That was exciting. In February 2008, we used our tax check to pay for the airfare ($1040 roundtrip for all four of us) and payoff our remaining balance for our trip. Now that our package and airfare was covered, all we had to do was save for our spending money. In March of 2008, DW’s mother (MIL) decided she wanted to go and take one of her granddaughters, our niece, to WDW. DW helped her book everything, just like ours, so we could stay together. We had the reservations linked together in the Disney system, so our rooms would be close together. Under our reservations, we had requested connecting rooms and the 4th floor. Her airfare was a little more than ours as costs were rising because of oil and the economy. I called the Dining Reservations number to add MIL and Niece to our table meal ADR’s. We were able to add them to every meal except Le Cellier. Finally, I had made a countdown calendar for the kids, myself and DW, to countdown the days before we left. It was fun.
And now it is finally time to go. I hope you enjoy our magical family vacation.
Day 1 – May 30th
Everyone took showers and was in bed asleep at 10pm the night before we left. Not sure how that happened with all the excitement. The alarm went off at 3:45am, but we were already 15 minutes ahead of schedule by waking up on our own at 3:30am. It must have been the magic and excitement that woke us up early (I think the carriage from that commercial on TV was coming down the street and the music was playing in the background). I loaded the van with our luggage and carry-on, and we were out of the house by 4:40am. We called MIL at 3:30am to make sure her and our niece was up and getting ready to go. They only live 2 minutes away, so at 4:30am we arrived at her house and at 4:45am we were on our way to the airport. I dropped everyone off curb side and went to park in long term parking. I took the shuttle back to the terminal to meet everyone and check our luggage. The airport was already busy as this was the first day of summer vacation for the schools in Central Indiana. I think everybody was leaving for vacation. I had checked in and printed our boarding passes the day before, but we still had to stand in line to check luggage. With luggage checked, and the 25 minute wait to get through TSA Security, we were safely at our gate by 6am. It was time for coffee, for DW and MIL, and breakfast before our flight.
I had a diet coke and a Subway Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sandwich.
DW had decaf coffee and a Key Lime Muffin. DW said the decaf coffee was bad.
DS had a fruit cup, and shared my sandwich along with apple juice
DD had a Chocolate Chip Cookie, and some Pringles chips that MIL had given them in a snack bag for the plane ride, along with a bottle of water.
MIL regular coffee and a bagel and fruit.
Niece – Not sure what she ate.
The flight left on time at 7:05am. The plane seating format was 2-3. DD and I sat in row 24, seats A and C. DW and DS were in 25 A and C and MIL and Niece were in 26 A and C. The flight was smooth and uneventful at only 1 hour and 50 minutes long. We arrived 18 minutes early into Orlando. Our plane was scheduled to arrive at 9:13am, but we were at the gate at 8:55am. We went to DME to check in and were on our bus by 9:30am. Our drivers’ name was Anthony Stephen. After waiting for the bus to fill up, we departed MCO at 9:55am. He announced that he would be making three stops: 1) Pop Century, 2) Coronado Springs, and 3) Animal Kingdom Lodge and in this order. We were so excited to be the first stop. The bus ride was not very long and DW began tearing up as we watched the scenery out the window and the video on the screen, especially when we traveled under the Welcome to WDW arch. We were sitting in the very front, and Anthony slowed down and raised the front blind all the way up so I could get a picture of the arch right before we went under it. Again, we were so excited. I will probably say this over and over again throughout the trip report.
We had finally arrived at Pop Century at 10:40am. We were home, back at WDW. I could already feel the magic as we were getting off the bus. DW headed for the check-in line while I got the stroller and carry-on bags from Anthony. I gave him a $5 tip, then kids and I headed into the main lobby. The lobby was awesome. I pulled out the video camera and started recording the pictures and nostalgia that was encased on the wall. I still could not believe we finally were back at WDW and at our resort. DW and MIL finished checking in and our rooms were not ready. We received our KTTW cards and a card with a number to call to find out when our rooms were ready. We gave our carry-on bags to Luggage Services and then decided to eat since everyone was hungry, especially MIL. Since we were on the dining plan, we decided to go to Everything Pop for lunch. I was very impressed with the food court at this resort. We can only compare it to POR, and we did think it was better. This is what everyone had for lunch, and it was very good:
Me: Meatball Sub, Chocolate Cake, and Water
DW: Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Side Salad, Breadstick, Grapes and Water
DS: Pepperoni Pizza, Chocolate Cake, Water
DD: Kids Mac-n-Cheese, Cookie, Jello and Water
MIL: Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Side Salad, Breadstick, Fruit and Water
Niece: Shared with MIL
After lunch it was time to head to Magic Kingdom. Before we did, we stopped in the gift shop in Everything POP and did some shopping. I wanted a lanyard with a couple pins and a plastic zip lock case to hold my KTTW Card. As we walked out and toward the queue for a MK bus, there was a bus already there loading. As we got closer we noticed the bus was full and there were people standing. We looked back and noticed another bus was pulling in and had MK on it. We let a couple people behind us go ahead and get on the first bus, and we waited for the 2nd bus. It pulled in right after the 1st bus and we were the first to get on. We cheered as this was our first bus ride to a park on our first day and there was no wait.
We pulled into the bus station and our journey began. We were home at the Magic Kingdom. It had been 2 years since our first trip and we were so happy to be walking under the train station then seeing the castle down Main Street in the background. We planned on using PhotoPass, so we had our picture taken with the Castle behind us as our first pictures. They turned out so well. We headed for POC. This ride was closed for the updates in 2006, and we did not get to rider it, so that was the first ride we went on. The wait was only 10 minutes and it was 1pm in the afternoon. DW and I really liked it. The kids liked it, except for the small drop. When we came out, the PhotoPass photographer was doing the pictures that included Captain Hook, so we each did that. We then just wanted to walk around and look at things. We walked by Aloha Aisle and decided to get Dole Whips. DD had chocolate, DW has Pineapple, DS had a Rootbeer Float, and I had a Pineapple Float. Oh man, these were so good. I think I could live off these for the rest of my life. It was so refreshing.
DS wanted to ride Stitch, so we headed for Tomorrowland. We stopped by the Rose Garden for another PhotoPass opportunity and this time the kids where able to have Tinkerbell posed in their hands. The pictures were so cute. After this, we made it Stitch. This was his favorite in 2006, so we rode it. DD started crying when all the lights went out. She did not like, and after said she was not riding it ever again. Then we rode the Blue Line, aka TTA. DD wanted to ride this over and over again. It was around 3pm and the kids were starting to get tired and grouchy from getting up so early to catch our flight. I called the number we were given to see if our room as well as MIL’s room was ready. Much to our surprise our rooms were ready, so I wrote the numbers down, and we headed back to our resort. Again, waiting for the bus at MK was not very long. It was maybe 5-10 minutes. When we arrived and walked into our rooms, our luggage was there as well as our carry-on we left with Luggage Services. I thought I would have to call and have them bring those to us. How nice. I took the time to write in my journal while DW did some unpacking. The kids helped unpack, when asked, and played. We were very close to the Hippy Dippy Pool, so we decided to go swimming for a little while. The kids love swimming. We flipped through the channels on the TV and loved watching the Pop Century Channel and the channel that talked about all the parks. I have to admit, when people were talking about Stacey, I was not aware of who she was. Now I know. She was ok to listen to for a while, but they seriously need to update that channel or add more hosts.
After swimming, we went back to our rooms to change, then went to Everything Pop for dinner. We purchased our refillable mugs and got water bottles with our dining plan meals. Here is what everyone had:
DD had Nachos (Chips and cheese only) and chocolate cake (the chocolate cake was her favorite the whole time).
DS had a Dbl Cheeseburger w/cheese fries and had the carrot cake.
DW had the Philly Cheese Steak Wrap w/cheese fries and shared dessert with DD (Choc cake).
I had the Dbl Cheeseburger w/cheese fries and the Tie-Dyed Cheesecake. (The cheesecake was ok.) I had a couple bites of DS’s carrot cake and it was by far my favorite.
We were not disappointed with dinner at Everything Pop. It was good.
After dinner, we felt a little refreshed, so we headed for DTD. We wanted to do some shopping and look around. We walked through the Christmas Shop and then the Kitchen Shop. After browsing in these stores, it was time for Once Upon a Toy Store. DS was looking forward to this, as he knew he was going to build a lightsaber. I had to help him, it was a little confusing at first, but we got the hang of it, and he built a cool lightsaber. DD likes to write and draw, so she wanted a couple princess notebooks and markers. She did not want to build a My Little Pony. After this store we headed to the World of Disney. DW wanted to look for a couple shirts, for her, and some Disney hair clips. Our last stop was Goofy Candy Company. We decided to use snack credits to make some snacks. This was cool. DS picked marshmallows covered in milk chocolate, nothing else. DD selected the large chocolate oreo cookie dipped in milk chocolate and covered in crushed M&Ms and sprinkles. DW selected 3 pretzel sticks dipped in, milk and dark chocolate. One had nuts and the other had white and dark chocolate chips. They looked really good. Finally, I had a chocolate oreo cookie dipped in milk chocolate, covered with peanuts and crushed Reese cup and then drizzled in more milk chocolate. I was in heaven. Oh my is all I can say. What a wonderful day! We headed for our bus stop and waited about 15 minutes for the bus. We arrived back at our resort and sat in Everything Pop, ate our snacks and refilled our drinks twice. What a perfect end to our first day. The kids did get a little grouchy this evening, but all-in-all, we had a fantastic day.
Here are some things I wanted to mention:
MIL and niece did not stay with us the entire time. We mainly met for our table meals and we did do some things together.
The busses were not bad the whole trip. There was only one bad day for the busses and that would be our 3rd day there, which was on a Sunday. It seemed that we were waiting forever for a bus.
The weather was hot. Our first day there is was 93 and I think it was 93-95 everyday. We moved a little slower and did not see as much as we thought we would.
Only 9 days left on the vacation. Tomorrow we are going to Epcot, since we did not get much time in this park during our first trip in June 2006. So far, no dreams won yet. Stay tuned…..