[NokeyNose]

Well, I have been back now just over a week, and I am still recovering. Disney is the very best vacation you can take, however I swear, it has to be the most exhausting vacation as well!

I have read many of your TR's over the past 6 or so months and I will have to warn you, mine will not be as detailed as all of yours. I kind of tried to relax as much as possible and I did not take any notes! I know, shame on me! So basically this will be a brief overview of our travels! You will have to forgive me!!!!!

We left on Monday the 18th. Our flight out was at 10 am so we met my DMIL and DFIL (who I will refer to by their names,Donna and Pat from here on) in Hartford and proceeded to the airport! We parked our car and hopped a shuttle to the airport and checked in. Very uneventful, perfect for the airport! Our flight was great! The pilot was awesome, he updated us along the way as to where we were and he even got us there 25 minutes earlier than planned. The last 20 minutes or so I started to talk to one of the other passengers, turns out, he too was a DVC member and was going down to purchase more points! It was a great conversation! He called the DVC a cult (according to his inlaws), I shared how my DH calls MB "My cult!" he laughed, said he would have to check MB out! I told him to "beware, its addictive!"

We arrived at OKW and since Donna would have been better off in a lower level room or a building with an elevator we opted not to get into an available room and wait for one close to Hospitality House with an elevator. We ended up in Room 6222! More on that later!!!! Since our room was not available we decided to check our baggage with bell services and head straight to a park.

Magic Kingdom was our first spot! We arrived just in time to grab a hot dog and a seat for the 3:00 parade! It was terrific! My inlaws have never been to Disney so this was a great start!

DD3 was miserable, but we were just going to have to deal with it, we had waited too long for this I would not let my cranky child ruin it! We headed through Adventure Land and on to Fantasy Land. DD wanted to ride Dumbo! She loved it! Complete mood change! We then took a ride on the teacups and to be honest, I have lost all perspective about what came next! We mostly toured the park, took the railroad back to the main gate and headed to the Polynesian for our O'Hana reservation! Let me just say, this restaurant was TERRIFIC! This was our first time here, and after all of the recommdeations from you guys, I had to try it! The atmosphere was great, the kids had a great time doing the coconut races and the food was delicious! I sure as heck could go for some right now! We headed over to Kona Cafe's little shop and got our bag of Kona Blend Coffee (the pure stuff was almost $50, I cheaped out!) for the room! Again, Delicious!!!

We headed back to the TTC to get our car and head back to the room so that we could get an early start in the AM!

We walked into the room at OKW and it was gorgeous! We were so impressed! We walked out onto our balcony and to our suprise we watched as the fireworks were going off, I assume it was Epcot! We had a great view! I could not wait to see them up close!!!! We finished checking out the room and unpacked and headed to bed, excited about our next 7 days! Dreading the 8th!

Day 2 to come!

[WishUponAStar]

YAY! Welcome home, well welcome home from your OTHER home. haha! Can't wait to hear ALL about it & I hope you have LOTS of pictures as well

[NokeyNose]

Ok, day two!!!

We woke up and got a earlier start and headed to Epcot for breakfast at fountainview bakery. Then we headed over to Nemo and Turtle Talk and a photo op with Figment. We went into the Circle of Life show and the kids stopped at a Kidcot station! Then we headed over to the world showcase so that we could find some lunch and walked through the countries. We bought a bottle of wine in France and kept walking. We saw Jasmine and Alladin and my youngest (who is a huge Jasmine) fan would not even think about going near her, Jasmine came over to Ashley (DD2) and tried to ease her but she just played shy! However, all day long all she talked about was Jasmine! We kept walking and tried to find a lunch that looked somewhat appealing for Counter service, and finally agreed upon Cantina de San Angel. The lunch was so good. We headed home so we could spend some time at the pool. Then figure out dinner.

We stopped at Goodings and stocked up on water and stuff for the room and snacks! When we came out of the grocery store it was pouring rain and thundering. We figured we would wait it out and head to the pool. We got down to the pool and they had closed it and were unsure if they were reopening it. We waited a bit and they reopened, we were in it for about 15 minutes and another storm rolled in so they closed it again! Back to the room, cleaned up and tried to get resi's at Wispering Canyon.

No luck, (In the planning stages I had trouble getting dinner reservations for this night once I changed my flight reservations so we made table service resi's for lunch at Le Cellier (which we cancelled, no-one was hungry after breakfast) and figured that we would just find something for dinner randomly.) Well, we figured, we wanted to check out Wilderness Loge anyways, so lets see what the wait time is if we walk in and try and get a resi. 30 minutes!!! Can't beat that! We went shopping in the gift store and before you knew it, we were seated! I was so glad that we stopped in, the food was great! Very fun dinner, we loved the reaction to "can we have some Ketchup?" and my oldest Kailey, loved the pony races!

We left there so full, we headed home and put the kids to bed. Another long day! We had Chef Mickey's at 8:40 in the AM so off to sleep we went!

[NokeyNose]

Day three…

Chef Mickey's at 8:40, were we crazy?!!? I thought originally this would be no problem, my kids are early risers, but that is when I don't have them up past their bedtimes and skipping their naps! We made it by the skin of our teeth and my girls ahd a blast! The food was crummy, we thought, but so worth it for the character exposure! We would do it again for the girls!

We decided to do Animal Kingdom this day because we had reservations for my DH and I to go out to dinner with friends that were driving an hour to spend some time with us and AK closed at 5 that day! We grabbed a breakfast sandwich and coffee from Goods to go at OKW and off we went!

As we were entering AK, Donna’s sandal toe loop broke and she needed to get a new pair of shoes so we went into a store and bought her these Birkenstock like sandals. This will be relevant, keep reading… We hoped on the Kilaminjaro safaris and enjoyed the ride! We then headed over to Kali River rapids where we did he rider switch and I waited with Ashley (2) while everyone else went on and then I would go with my DH. When my
In-laws came off of the ride they were soaked. They were making fun of me because I was taking my poncho so that I would not get a rash when my wet clothes rubbed up against one another. Laugh all you want, they suffered and I just got wet on my hair and arms. It cooled me off perfectly!

We headed to Expedition Everest and Chris (my DH) and Pat (his dad) got fast passes for the ride and then we went over to take the kids to the Fossile Fun Games area. Donna and I stayed while the guys went to go on Everest! I bought a Pal Mickey and the girls and I rode the Triceratops Spin ride. The guys finally came back and they went to get on Everest and it was closed down due to Technical difficulties. Sounded like a good reason not to ride! Right!!!!!

We headed over to Dinosaur and again did rider switch, my in-laws went first and DH, DD’s and I went and got a quick salad over at Restaurantosaurus. We had contemplated letting DD (3) ride Dinosaur. It is one of our favorite rides! Thank GOD we decided against it! She would have been scared to death! We forgot how awesome it was!!!! Man, I could ride that 10x over!!!

Then over to It’s tough to be a bug, we had heard that the girls may be afraid of this attraction, but actually they loved it! I love it too, so adorable!

Then over to Camp Mickey and Minnie and did all of our Autographs and Pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy. We saw Pocohantas’ show and then saw the Festival of the Lion King! This too is one of the best that Disney has to offer! After that the park was closing so we headed toward the gate. As we did this Chris realized he had lost his cell phone. He thought it might have happened on the Dinosaur ride because he remembered having it while we were there. So he headed to the parks lost and found, it was not yet turned in, but they told us to call the central Lost and found and maybe they will have it.

We had to turn the service off temporarily so that no-one could make calls and then we had to head home and get changed for our BIG NIGHT OUT without the kids!

Stay tuned….

[Dopey]

Welcome back - it looks like this is going to be another great trip report. Keep the chapters coming!

I too love the dinosaur ride. I could ride it all day long

[NokeyNose]

Day three continued...

We were planning to take the busses to the Yacht and Beach Club for our dinner at the Yachtsman. We had planned to head to Jellyrolls after our dinner with our friends, so we thought we would take the WDW transportation so we could have a few Drinks and not have to drive. Our reservations were for 8:00. DH and I waited at the OKW bus stop for 35 minutes for a bus to MGM, not a single bus came by! At this point we realized how worth it it was to have rented our car! We will never go to WDW again without renting a car! We ran back to our room got our car keys and drove over to the Yacht and beach club and still had 10 minutes to spare. We walked around to see the pool and waited for our friends. We had a really nice desert. When they delivered our meals they must have mixed up the steaks and our friend’s wife got my husbands medium rare steak instead of her medium well and so when it came time for dessert the waiter brought us out a dessert sampler. It was delicious! We then went to Jelly Rolls as planned and had a blast! Of course I had decided to only have a drink since we had to drive our car home, but the place was so much fun! I wish we had a place like that around here. I think it would go over very well in one of or casino’s here in CT! We headed home after the bar closed and right to sleep.

Day Four to come…

[NokeyNose]

Day Four…

Remember I told you that Donna had to get a new pair of shoes, well, they gave her the most terrible blisters on the arch of both feet, and the Kali river ride did not help the matters. She now has no shoes that are not leaving her in Excruciating pain, so she has to wear her socks and her slippers to the park where we have to rent her a wheel chair! If you could see these blisters, no, I did not take pictures, I should have, but didn’t, you would have cried for her!

Anyways, we decide to stay at the resort and go to the pool for a bit, catch lunch (Chris drove to Earl of Sandwich and brought it back. We ate out on our balcony, very relaxing. I did a couple of loads of laundry. I know, I was on vacation, but that relaxes me. I loved have the ability to do this. It is a sickness, I know! Then we decided to head over to MGM.


We got to MGM and headed straight over to Star Tours. We did Rider Switch on this one and then Chris and I took Kailey on while Ashley stayed with Donna and Pat. Kailey is such a daredevil! She loved it! When we came out we were in a prime spot to catch the parade. Then we started to walk through the park, we had reservations for Mama Melrose’s and then we planned to see Fantasmic (not with the Priority seating). We did just that! Mama’s was good, no complaints, I am Italian, so of course when it comes to Italian cooking I am pretty picky, but they were pretty good! We made Fantasmic and it was good. I think they shortened it since we saw it in 2000, but it was still great! Kailey and Ashley loved it! They got swirling lights and had a blast! Another night, gone! Now we are on the countdown and hating that our vacation is half over! This stinks!!!!!

Day five to come tomorrow. Chris finally got home from work and we tivo'd LOST so I have to go watch it! I hope everyone is enjoying my TR!

[QuietMBR]

I am eagerly awaiting the next intallment. Thanks!!!

[Pooh Fan]

I look forward to reading more about your trip. We also tivo'd LOST. I just finished watching it.

[Dana]

Loving this report Nokey! Can't wait for more!!!

[chris24]

sounds like a great trip. welcome back.....

[KingOMiami]

AWESOME trip report Nokey!!! Just hearing how good the experiencce has been for you with the DVC has us contemplating it even more!

[lisalovesmickey]

Great TR! Thank you for sharing!

I hope the blisters heal soon!

Lisa

[Maria]

Great TR and it sounds like the first four days were wonderful!

Can't wait for more!

[iluvwdw]

Awesome TR so far!!! I can't wait to hear more!