[Pooh Fan]

Hi everyone. We got home yesterday from our wonderful trip to Disney World. While talking to my DH about the trip, we both decided it was our best and our worst trip ever. No one in our family was ready to go home when it was time to leave, but we did realize that10 days in the Disney theme parks was too long for us. I will explain more as our trip unfolds.

Day 1 Dec. 9: We left the frozen tundra of home and travelled to Chicago. I had never driven to Chicago alone and our directions were a little off, so we got lost. What was supposed to be a 6 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive since gettinglost also meant driving through the evening rush hour. We finally made it to our hotel tired and ready to get out of traffic around 7 PM. My DS still had no clue as to where we were going. He thought we were flying into Alabama where his dad is training for his new job. We got settled into our suite and just relaxed. Then, we went to bed so that we would be refreshed in the morning for our flight to Disney.

Day 2 Dec. 10: DD who has know about the trip for a while woke me up at the crack of dawn. Boy was she excited. I got her to calm down so that she would not wake her brother. We showered and waited for DS to wake up. Then, we walked to the hotel restaurant for a nice leisurely breakfast. Our flight wasn't until 3:30, so we enjoyed all the hotel had to offer. Finally, it was 12:30 and time to head for the airport. DS was so happy to be going to see dad, and DD kept giggling because she knew we were meeting dad at the airport in Orlando. We had a non stop flight that was completely uneventful except for teh hour sitting at the gate while they deiced the plane and waited for clearance to go to the runway. We finally made it to Orlando around 7:20. On the way to the baggage claim area, DS saw the Disney Store in the airport and commented how cool the Alabama airport was because it had a Disney Store. He still had no clue where he was. We got to the baggage claim area and DH was nowhere to be found. I started getting a little worried because I knew there was absolutely no way I could get all of the baggage by myself. We had a total of 9 bags between the 3 of us because we each checked 2 bags and each of us had a small suitcase for a carry on and I had my purse inside a brifcase sized bag along with some of the kids stuff for the airport and plane. I need to learn how to travel lighter. Finally right when the luggage started to come around the carosel, DH showed up. Boy were we glad to see him. We got all of the luggage and DH looked at our DS and said, "We're going to stay here for a month." DS looked at my DH and said, "In the aiport? Why do we want to stay in the airport for a month daddy?" DH did not realize that our DS had not figured out yet where he was. DH could not contain his excitement to wait until we arrived at the hotel at Disney to tell our DS, so he blurted out, "We are at Disney and we will be here until after Christmas. Then we are taking you to ?Universal for your birthday." I have never seen my DS so excited in his life. He started jumping up and down and saying, "Thank you mommy and daddy. This is the best Christmas and birthday present ever!" He trully was so happy. DD leaned over and told me that she wished she had not snooped so that she could have gotten the same surprise. Hopefully she learned a valuable lesson. We head over to Alamo and pick up our SUV. Then decide that we better check to see if my DSister made it in since her flight was schedule to arrive 10 minutes after my original arrival time. DH ran all the way to the Magical Express Checkin area and made sure that DSIster did in fact check in and was probably already at the hotel waiting for us. The kids and I were starving so we decided to find the closest fast food restaurant and grab a bite to eat. McDonalds was the first one we saw once we left the airport, so we had a quick bite there. Then, we were off and on our way to ASMusic. We were going to stay 1 night there since AS MOvies was sold out due to the Pop Warner stuff that was going on that weekend. DSister had already checked in so we checked in pretty quickly and got our room keys. It was late and we were tired and had to drive around for 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot. Finally, a CM from the hotel realized that there was n o more parking and opened up a closed off area of the parking lot. We hiked to our room with only a small suitcase since we would be moving to AS Movies in the morning. We were tired so we decided to sleep in the next morning and get to ASMovies around 10 or so. That was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made.

Day 3 Dec. 11: We made it over to AS Movies to check in around 10:00 and the rooms that we had reserved to be overlooking the Toy Story Courtyard and I had spoken to the room assigner the day before were released and given to another family. Our reservations had also been lost according to the CM at the front desk. It took her an hour to find our reservations. During this time she informed us that she no longer likes Disney and was only working there because it would look good on her resume.She infored us that we were no longer assigned to the Toy Story section and would not be able to have the view of Buzz Lightyear from the room like we originally were assigned. I got upset and explained to her that this was DS's birthday trip and that they needed to find us a room overlooking the Toy Story Courtyard since someone had released our rooms in that location that I had been promised the day before. She made her phone call and told me that she had a room for us where DS could look out his window and see Buzz Lightyear. I felt so much better. Thanked her profusely and were were finally on our way to our rooms. After walking up the entire Toy Story Courtyard, we could not find our rooms. DH went back tot eh front desk and found out that the CM who checked us in lied to us. We were on teh back side of building 9 overlookng bushes. He was also informed that there was no way that we could get a courtyard view until we switched rooms on the 17th. We finally foudn our rooms and boy was I unhappy that the CM had lied to me. I called down to the front desk and was assured that we would have a room overlooking the Toy Story Courtyard when we changed rooms on the 17th. The CM apologized for the CM who lied to us. I did not have much faith that we would get the rooms we wanted, but I was at least hopeful. I also reminded this CM that DD's birthday was on the 12th, and I was assured that she would get a balloon and card from Pooh and friends on Monday the 12th. I started to feel better about the service here. We decided to grab a bite to eat and go play some mini golf at Winter Summerland. We have never taken time to play Putt Putt while at Disney and were were glad we did. We had a ball playing mini golf on the winter course. When were finally done, we headed over to DTD to look around. We enjoyed looking around in the shops and bought a few things. Then, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We are heading over to MK tomorrow afternoon for MVMCP and an early dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern.

More to come later. I have to get ready for work right now.

[mrspooky]

Wow, eventful already and you had just gotten there.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience with the CM at ASM, that is no way to start your vacation...

You know, it is like reading a book that is missing pages and you have to wait until the pages are found to continue reading. I can't wait to hear more!!!

[jo-jo]

Just a comment about your 10 days being too long. We were there for 14 days and thought I would have to go everyday so we bought AP's. In looking back, I think if we had spent 10 WHOLE days in the park and spent the other four days resting up and perhaps just checking out other resorts, we would have done just as well for a lot cheaper admission price. We had bought the AP's thinking that would be our only trip with them.

Looking forward to more of your report.

[Dopey]

I've been wondering about your trip. Glad you're back. Now I am excited to read more. So please don't make us wait, Pooh.

Have you moved yet?

[queensmama]

What do you mean that you have to go to work...the only important work is getting this trip report done. The rest of the world can wait....
Cant wait to see what else develops.

[inluvwithdisney]

Poohfan

I thought of you while we were there knowing you arrived at the same time but got to stay sooo much longer! Cannot wait to hear more!

[jk8]

Welcome back. Sorry you have to work. When do you get to quit your job?

Can't wait to read more. You have me in suspense.

[alicefan]

Enjoying your TR!! Keep it coming!

[Dana]

Welcome home jeannie! I am sorry about the cm who lied to you....how sad. I seriously hope that you told her superiors about it..that's inexcusable. I can't wait to hear all about this trip and have been looking forward to seeing this.

[tinkerbell]

sorry :( about the bad start .. wish we had at least gotten to meet, but I read that it was even hard for you to get together with MissyH.
looking forward to the rest :)

[lovemysons]

Oh its good to "see" you Pooh Fan! Happy New Year! Sorry about the rocky start. I look forward to reading all about your trip! (We spent 10+ days at the parks, but I honestly have to stay I would have spent 10 more in a heartbeat!, That is, if I had the $$)
Have you moved yet?

[Pooh Fan]

We have not moved yet. I have an interview this Monday with a school in the Houston area, so I will be taking yet another day off work. I hope that I get this job so that I can move sooner. Otherwise, I will be stuck here until June due to DH's former company cheating him out of 2 months pay.

[Pooh Fan]

I made a mistake on Day 3 Dec. 11th. We went to DTD on the 10th and MVMCP on the 11th. After we played Putt Putt at Winter Summerland, we went back to the hotel for a little rest and then got ready for MVMCP. We had dinner reservations at LTT for 4:30, so we headed into the Magic Kingdom around 4:00. The dinner was great with the characters. We really enjoyed the food and the service was wonderful. It felt so good to be in the Magic Kingdom and I was really starting to feel the Disney magic. After dinner, we headed over towards Fantasy Land and rode the teacups while most everyone was being corralled into Frontierland. There were no waits for the rides in Fantasy Land or Tomorrow Land. We rode Buzz Lightyear 5 times in a row. My DS was having the time of his life. We got our free family photo taken with my DSister. We were riding Dumbo when the Special Wishes started. It was trully breathtaking. We were all in awe. DH took numerous pictures of the fireworks too. Around 10:00 PM my DSister was getting pretty tired, so she took the bus back to the hotel room. The rest of us decided to stick it out until the end. We were able to ride every ride at least 3 times and saw a couple of the shows. We enjoyed the hot chocolate and cookies several times throughout the night. The kids thought it was great that they could get cocoa and cookies for free at Disney. We ended up leaving at 11:50 so we could beat some of the crowds, and it wasn't really that bad. We had driven the rental car to the parks, so we did not have to wait in the long line for the bus to ASMovies. Several times this trip, DH and I were very happy to not have to wait for the busses. We were exhausted when we got back to the room and everyone crashed. The next day was our DD's birthday and we had planned to take her to Epcot.

Day 4 Dec. 12: Today was our DD's birthday, so we planned to take her to Epcot (her favorite park) and lunch at Beaches and Cream for her to get one of her favorite ice cream sundaes. My DSister had to pick up her park tickets from the front desk and we all decided to have our park tickets put onto our room keys--what a mistake. The person doing it made a mistake and cancelled our room reservations and had voided out our park tickets. We waited a while for the manager to come over and fix the mistake. We finally had our tickets and reservations back and all was on our hotel key. By the time this was straightened out, the morning Extra Magic hour at Epcot was almost over. My DD being a trooper said, "That is ok. Why don't we just go to AK instead. Maybe wew will get lucky and EE will be open." I was so proud of her. She was acting so grown up. We got to ride everything at AK and even got to see Tarzan. We had never seen it before and I am glad we got to see it before it was gone forever. We really enjoyed the show. We rode Primevil Whirl 8 times and would have ridden more but the lines starting getting too long. We started getting hungry around 1:30, so we headed over to the Beach Club toeaches and Cream for lunch. Unfortunately, they were refurbishing it, so they sent us over to the Yacht Club. The food there was great and we were able to order a No Way Jose. When DS told the waiter it was DD's birthday, he brought her a chocolate moose that was to die for. He also sang Happy Birthday to her. She was a little embarrassed, but you could tell that she secretly loved the attention. We were completely stuffed when we left there, so we walked around and explored the Yacht Club and the Beach Club before heading back to the hotel for some rest. That evening , we headed over to MGM for a couple of hours. We rode RNR, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours 3 times each and called it a night a little early. We were all beat and ready for some much needed rest.

I learned that even though I planned everything to a T, I would have to be flexible this trip. It was nice to have the luxery to know that we would be there long enough to be able to be more flexible too. I also learned that there is no such thing as a perfect vacation, and that was ok. Overall, we were having the time of our lives and my kids were having a birthday and Christmas that they will never forget.

Day 5 tomorrow...

[mrspooky]

Sometimes it is good to roll with the punches---I always have a plan, but I also let things happen if they happen. Glad your DD's birthday was a good one, if not the one you had planned for her.

[Disneyfever]

Your TR is great! I can't imagine being able to stay for so long. It's so cute how excited your DS was when he finally found out where you were really going. I can't wait to read more!