[Princess D]

This is my first time so I hope I do well.....
Cast: Me
DH - David
Weekend Anniversary Trip to Grand Floridian
Day 1

We left Midway (Chicago) on a Friday evening flight on Southwest. For the first time I experienced a delay. Our flight was to take off at 7:55PM and we actually took off at about 8:40PM. We had a pleasent trip and made up alot of time in the air and landed only 15 min. late of our scheduled 11:30PM arrival time. Using Quicksilver for the first time, based on all the praise I have read on this site, our driver, Luca, was waiting as promised holding a sign with my name in the baggage claim area. We quickly were on our way to GF. It was a nice ride in a comfortable Lincoln and we arrived at GF about 12:30AM. A quick and easy check-in (no suprise free upgrade ) and we were off to our room in Boca Chica. We had a lovely corner first floor room with a view of the back of the poolhouse and a corner of the pool.

Now, I understand Disney's air-conditioning system (motion sensors) and them wanting to save money, but the room was very warm (Florida was very warm for this Midwestern Girl 90's with high humidity)Our room was warm when we walked in and we changed to thermostat to 65 degrees. We were hungery from no dinner and we took a stroll to Gasperella Grill for pizza and a chat with a collage program student (Christine?) We came back to the room - still warm - and moved the thermostat again. We unpacked and got settled in and the room was not cooling down. I called the front desk at about 1:30AM. They tell me it takes about an hour for the room to start to cool- give it time. Besides if we want someone to come check on the system it will take at least 1/2 hour. They never offer to change rooms and I don't ask as to not ruffle feathers. We put the ceiling fan on high and go to bed.

Unfortunely this A/C problem will plague us all weekend - We briefly changed rooms Saturday evening ( I finally requested a change after 2 people came to work on it)at 2AM and switch back to our 'standard' room which was nicer and cooler than the free upgraded 'Lagoon View' room.


OK- Pitty Party OVER!!!!! On to the fun and exciting portion of the trip!!!

[Princess D]

Day 2 (Saturday)

As with all my recent trips, I have made an Itinerary. DH likes to tease but I think he really likes to have an outline for the days events. Because of the late night before, I get our 7AM wake up call from Stich and Mickey and go back to sleep. Not too bad I am just of my 45 min. We get up and get ready and off the to lobby we to to get DH's passes. We decide on a 2 day pass with only the Park Hopper option. The ticket is right on his room key - technology is so advanced . We hop on the the Monorail for our first ride of the trip - I love the monorail , it's like a 'ride' to me- and we head over to MK to get our Magical Wishes" buttons. We stroll up main street take some photos get our photopass and do some browsing until about 10:20AM. We head back to the Monorail and go to Contemporary for Chef Mickey's for our anniversary breakfast. We have an 11:10AM AR. We check in, get our picture with the giant plate and get seated. We are presented with special placemats to show we are celebrating an event. There are only 5 tables with people in our section and we never did see Mickey or Minnie at the table. We did see Chip, Dale, Goofy and Pluto and got to twirl our napkins for the special celebration song!!
After breakast we get back on the Monorail and head to TTC to head over to Epcot. My plan was to head over to WS for the Food & Wine Festival - We walked in took pictures and rode 'the ball' as DH calls it - Disney is saving money all weekend by not turing the a/c on or keeping it set very high. This is usually a great time to sit and relax in the a/c on a hot day - not today!!And we find almost all the shops and other buildings the same way!!!

DH askes what the plan is - I tell him it was to sample some wine and food - but because of the heat I cannot think about drinking or eating for fear I may get sick :

So we walk to Norway and go on the Viking Ship ride for the first time. It was neat. We head back to the Monorail and go back to MK for 'Wishes'. We are early and walk around a bit, then position ourselves for the fireworks on a percet bench on the Adventure Land bridge. It begins to rain, then pour!!!
We scramble to The Crystal Palace porch along with hundereds of others to wait out the rain. It takes about 15-20 min but all is well!! After Wishes we head back to GF to freshen up for Pleasure Island.
We leave for PI about 12 midnight. We are both very tired and decide on the bus that we do not want to go. We take another bus back to GF - 'It's all about the transportation' we tease each other.
We get back to the warm room and, after the room shuffles, go to bed abut 2:30AM.

[missy H]

So far so good.
I know what you mean about the Air Con, we are in the Uk and last summer it was so hot I kept wondering if the A/C was working. We are just not used to the heat!

Do you have any pictures?

[Dana]

Sorry about the warm room. I cannot sleep when I am hot and totally understand why you wanted to switch. Upgrade or not. I can't wait to hear the rest of the report.

[tinkerbell]

:( I know the feeling of having to deal with the A/C not working. Waiting for more :)

[lovemysons]

Bummer about the ac! But tell us more! Do you have any photos to share?

[Princess D]

Hi Again!!

I forgot something from Day 2....When we get back to the room from MK there was a lovely suprise waiting, a bottle of champagne, 2 flutes, a long stem red rose and a note wishing us a "Happy Anniversary from the Cast & Crew of The Grand Floridian". When I placed the call to the Front Desk I started with a Thank you for the wonderful suprise before I started to tell her about the A/C.

Now for Day 3 (Sunday)

Well, due to another late evening (we got to bed about 2:30AM) we called for a wake up call at 9:30AM. I figured if we weren't up by then we needed to be to get anything done.
We woke up at aboput 9AM. Stitch & Mickey called while I was in the shower and DH took the call.
Todays plan was pretty simple and I think we got most of it done as planned with one exception. Anyway, we went to guest services to be sure DH's ticket was carried over to his new room key from all the room switching of last night. All was fine. We took the launch over to MK and the took the other launch to WL, which stopped at Fort Wilderneess first. We cooled off for a moment and bought a bottle of water at Roaring Fork. We rented bikes from WL marina/bike rental, got a map a took a nice stroll over to FW. It was very warm, but so much fun and so peaceful!! This has become something that I think I will do on every trip. We went to check out the cabins and stopped at both of the Trading Posts. On the way back we cut thru the petting zoo / stable area and DH had to take photos of the Circle D Ranch sign. Our names begin with 'D'. We returned the bikes and went back to Roraing Fork to cool off and grabbed a quick snack. Once we were cooled we took a bus to DTD to do something I have wanted to do for my last 4-5 visits....take the boat from DTD to POFQ!! - Again, it's all about the transportation, LOL!!
Well, we get to DTD at about 4PM. I am hot and tired and it's late, we have tickets to MNSSHP for tonite. So I say forget the boat, let's go shopping. We head over to WoD. At about 5:30PM DH says "Let's wrap it up so we can head back to get ready". He's right, we both want to shower before we head out and we don't want to miss the Headless Horseman ride!!
We get back, shower change and stop at Guest Services real quick to ask abut DH ticket. We didn't go to any park until now and MNSSHP is a hard ticket event so he won't use it then. We add the no expiration option to his remaining day so we can use it on a future trip. It cost less than $11!!
We Monorail over to MK. it is raining when we arrive. We go out into the rain with no ponchos. It actually felt good to get a little wet, it kind of cooled me off a little. We went in and everyone was lining up for the parade. We asked a Cm about the parade route and the HH. She said he most likey would not be riding for the 8PM parade due to the wet conditions. We headed over to get out Event pins and then headed into Tomorrow Land to look for T-Shirts - They never had my size. We walked back to Toon Town and saw Mickey in his back yard. He was by the pumpkin patch back there instead of the tent, which is themed with the" Fair" backdrop. Mickey was in costume as a scarecrow. We got in line for "the Girls" (The Princesses) but it was getting too close to the special Halloween Wishes firework show. We made our way the the bridge by Cosmic Rays and found a seat. This was really close to the action and the fireworks were very loud. My Dh loved it and I did not. I kept juming from the explostions. He had a great time making fun of me!!
We moved on to Liberty Square to get settled for the 10PM parade. We were lucky enought to find the rocking chairs by the Hall of Presidents empty. Perfect seating for the parade. (NOTE:Please understand that I have heel spurs and planter facsitis(?) on both feet and at this point I could hardly walk, so it was great to find seats anywhere - But hey, I am at Disney, so they don't hurt as much!!!) Right after the parade we zoom into the Hall of Presidents for our Free Photo. We head over to Pacos Bills for some late dinner and them head back up to mainstreet. Do some shoppong and say Good Buy to MK for this trip. Mainstreet was lite up really neat, green, orange, purple lights on the buildings and the castle was blue and purple and looked spooky. There were carved pumpkins in the second floor windows and they were lite up and looked really neat.
We headed back to GF on the Launch and went to the room a packed up.

Day 4 (Monday)

We had a 6AM wake up call and had to be out front for DME at 7:55AM. It was a nice quick ride about 1/2 hour and we had a Disney Inforamtion film to watch. We had plenty of time before out flight took off at 10:55AM. We were back in Chicago at 12:15PM Local Time. The funny thing is, it was a warm, humid 87 degrees in Chicago!!! LOL!!!

I cannot get the photos to attach - it says it is too big. I am trying to attach from a cd, can anyone help!!??

[missy H]

What a great trip and a lovely suprise to come back to! We are stay at AKL for our anniversary in Jan, do all the hotel spoil you on your anniversary or just GF?

[missy H]

Originally Posted by Princess D

I cannot get the photos to attach - it says it is too big. I am trying to attach from a cd, can anyone help!!??

Try saving them to your PC from the CD then resizing to a smaller size.