[richaimg]

Trip Report – February 7-12

Cast: Me, DH, DD who is 6 ½ and DS is 4 ½

While we had been planning this trip for a while, we did NOT tell the kids. Last summer we moved to Chicago. So this trip was our reward for moving away from our old life and surviving our first Chicago winter! 2 days before we left we told the kids – of course they were ECSTATIC!

DD didn’t believe us at first, so I had to get out our tickets and show her so she would know it was real!

Day 1:

We packed up and headed to the airport, made an easy and on-time flight (arrived at 2:30 p.m.) and our Quicksilver driver was waiting for us at baggage claim. Got our bags quickly and we were off to POFQ after a quick stop at Publix for some breakfast foods and snacks.

Arrived at POFQ and there was no line at check-in. I had requested a room close to the main building and they put us building #3. Everything was very close, which was SO much nicer than last year’s trip at CSR. I asked about exchanging my old PH’s for the new MYW tickets and the CM told me I would have to ask about that at Guest Relations. I don’t know if it was always like that, but there are two separate desks in the hotel lobby. But by that time we were STARVING, so we went to our room, had our bags brought around (very quick service BTW) and took the boat to DTD.

After reading the great reviews on DC we ate at the Earl of Sandwich. It was WONDERFUL!! And pretty cheap too!

Luckily I had brought the PH’s with me…so when I saw the sign for Guest Relations at DTD I decided to try and exchange our tickets.

The CM was very nice and helpful. I told her I wanted to trade in my old 5-day PH’s for new 10-day MYW tickets with the added PH feature and the non-expiration feature. She actually asked me how I knew they offered a 10-day ticket – I told her I had seen it on their website. Interesting… But she typed and typed on the computer and told me it would be an extra $291 total for the 4 of us. WOW! I had priced it out myself and was figuring on an extra $450. I don’t know what she did, but I didn’t ask questions, I just said “THANK YOU!” and was on my way! (And now have 5 days left to use on our next trip!)

If ever there was an excuse to get a sundae at Ghirardelli, that was it! We all had ice cream and headed back to the resort.