[emamasa]

We are home from an awesome trip!! We had such a great time - with only a few bumps in the road. I prepaid for the photopass, and I haven't looked yet, but I bet I have over 100 photopass pics. I took over 700 pictures with my digital camera (still have to resize and transfer from laptop to pc to post them - DH is working on that for me)!

We had some amazingly good meals (most with not so great service) with free dining. And I took pics of all the table service and most of the counter service meals!! I need to go thru receipts to get a good idea of what it would have cost, as the receipts don't have price info on them. (wish they did)

Exciting highlights -

• We had an official dream, and a couple things that happened that were dreams for us (especially for the girls)
• small crowds most of the time
• rain usually only lasted a little bit (EVERY DAY tho) - and we weren't TOO wet
• we got to eat at Tutto Italia!!

I'm off to play with pics, and then I'll do more TR later!!

[tiggerlover1971]

welcome home cant wait for the report after the teasers

[Dana]

Welcome home.

[Princessbaby]

Exciting teasers!!

[emamasa]

I don't have all the pics resized, but I'll try to do some as i go! I had 213 photopass pictures, and 700+ digitals. wow - i went picture crazy!!


cast.....

Me (Sarah)
DH (Mark)
DD6 (Maia)
DD3 (Emma)

This was our 3rd trip to the world. We are not going back next year (we are moving in the summer, so we have to save $) - but seriously considering a cruise in 2009.

we were sorta celebrating the girls birthdays as the trip was part of their presents (well...we tell them it is, they still seem to get waaaay too much stuff for the birthdays)! so, we picked a day, and let them wear birthday buttons and celebrated that day! It was a lot of fun for them!! I'd love to go on their birthdays (October and November) - but it just doesn't work out for us time wise. This is as close as we can make it!

anyway....

we stayed at POP Century - 1st time onsite. We were in the 70's - building 6, 4th floor. We really enjoyed the resort - of course we weren't there a whole lot! Rooms are small (we have been spoiled by timeshare condos), but suitable for sleep and showering, which is all we basically do in the room anyway! Only had 1 towel animal all 9 days (it was on the 1st day) & we tipped every day. that kinda bummed me out, but no big deal!

We had the DDP (Free) - 1st time for the DDP for us as well. It was way more food than we are used to. Nice to get to try all of the table service places - we are usually just counterservice with a nice TS/off site meal every once in a while kinda travelers. This was a great change of pace for us!

My only complaints on the DDP - we didn't have good service at at least 1/2 the restaurants - not sure its the DDP, or just bad servers, so I won't blame the DDP for that. The ones that were good, were really good. The others....eh, not so great. The other "complaint" is the amount of time we spent eating. I mean, it was wonderful, but it did eat up (no pun intended) a good chuck of time each day - from waiting for the table to eating, to traveling if it wasn't in the park, to bus time, to bus hopping (there is no direct way to get from resort to resort). kind of a pain at times...but for such good meals (and free), well worth it. If we had been there for a shorter amount of time, I'm not sure I would have planned meals not in the park/super close vicinity or times that we chose (Boma was tough to get home from)!

[emamasa]

We had a 7 am flight out of Indianapolis (it's just 45 minutes away, but since we had been having car problems and just had it fixed a couple of days before we left, DH wanted to leave extra early, just in case). We left the Columbus at 4:15 am!!

We flew airtran - had no problems at all! they gave us cokes and little cookies, earphones for free XM on the flight, and sat with 3 together and 1 across the aisle. It was a nice direct flight.

Arrived, got ME, checked into POP (our room was ready when we got there), dropped off carryons and hopped on bus to DTD for lunch at Rainforest Cafe. We had a gift certificate, so it only cost a little for a great lunch!!

[WishIWasThere]

Welcome home! Can't wait to read more of your trip report.

[emamasa]

ok, i have my pictures uploaded, but cannot get them to resize!! it's driving me crazy!!

I am going to play with it more, but doubt i get any done tonight! this stinks!!

I can't show you the photopass ones until I buy the cd, right? I don't want to do that until I go thru and add captions and all that fun stuff! UGH!! I am frustrated!! I am sooo not a computer person!

so....until i figure out the pics, I will wait to finish the TR! and, MOndays are super crazy busy days for me, so I doubt I get to any tomorrow. sorry!!

[Daisee]

Welcome Back!!! Yeah, a new TR! Glad you had a great time.

[emamasa]

ok, I may have it figured out!!

this is my nachos from rainforest cafe - they were good - cheese sauce on the bottom (I prefer real melted cheese tho) - DH really liked them.



Dh and I split those and the BBQ wrap (it was really good). we got kids pizza and kids mac & cheese as well as cokes for all of us. I have no clue where all my receipts are, so I'll do a dining report later with prices/ddp info. this was not ddp, but we had a gift certificate, so it was still almost free!

[emamasa]

are these pics ok? too small? I can try photobucket - this is imageshack (r2go's recomendation in another thread).

[Jen]

I'm so glad you like Pop!!

Can't wait to read more!

[LuvMyLittleNoah]

Welcome Home Sarah!!!!
Can't wait to hear more about your trip. I'm glad you had a nice time and liked Pop.

[emamasa]

thanks for the warm welcome back everyone!! I am exhausted! I just realized I have been up since 3, and didn't go to bed until after 11 last night. It has caught up with me for sure. plus, I was a little airsick on the way home - that awful feeling wore me out too!

I will try to do more TR tomorrow if I can, but most likely it'll be tuesday....unpacking day. I am finishing the laundry (i was smart and packed all the dirty stuff together, so I can just dump that suitcase and wash it all at once) and will just put it all away on tuesday - that always makes me so sad!!

have a great night - i'm going to bed soon!!

[Caseys Corner]

Let it rip!