[katiebelle]

My sister and I just got back from a wonderful WDW vacation. (It was the first time we went without our parents and brother) When I say we just got back it was actually almost 2 weeks ago. I help out at summer school in my school district so I've been really busy since we got back. Anyway, we took the Amtrak Autotrain down to Florida. I have always been afraid to fly and I didn't want to drive from PA all the way to FL so the train seemed like a logical compromise. Despite some negative opinions I heard, it was actually quite comfortable and relaxing. The food was really good. The seats also reclined really far like a lounge chair. We left the station at 4 pm and were supposed to arrive around 8:30 the next morning. As we were passing through Virginia we hit a major storm. It was so bad that it knocked out all of the signals and we had to go really slow and stop a lot for other trains. That was the only bad thing I can think of about the train. With that delay we arrived in Sanford, FL at 11:15 and were on our way down I-4 arriving at the All Star Movies at 12:30. We were able to check in right away. I had requested a room in the Toy Story Buildings and we got it!! Yeah!! We unpacked, got lunch in the food court, and headed to the pool for a swim. The Fantasia Pool was under construction ( I think they were resurfacing the deck area) so we went to the Mighty Ducks one. It was very nice and not crowded at all. We were only out for about 30 min. but we were starting to get red. We went back to the room to shower and get ready for out PS at Chef Mickey's. Now my sister and I had never been to a character meal before. Heck, we have never really eaten in any of the sit down restaurants there before. My parents got us counter service all the way. I didn't know quite what to expect. I had never had so much fun in my life. The food was great, especially the parmesan potatoes, and the atmostphere was fun. I loved how the characters interacted with us. After we were done eating we decided to go to Downtown Disney to check out the Marketplace. That was a bad idea. It was late on a Friday night and there were wall to wall people. I couldn't handle it all and we were both tired from the train ride so we decided to go back to ASM and go to sleep. We had to get up early for Disney Studios the next day. It was Extra Magic Hour and the last weekend for Star Wars. I just knew it was going to be crowded.

[kcamozzi67]

Welcome back!
Must have been exciting as this was your (and your sister's) first time without the rest of your family :)

I've never stayed at ASM - is it nice? Looks like you had a good time so far (reading your report). Hope the rest of your trip was perfect :)

[neen626]

Sounds like you had a great time! Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Chef Mickey's is a place I would love to try hopefully the next time we go :)

[ilvminnie]

Sounds wonderful so far. Aren't those character meals fun??!!:) :) Can't wait to hear the rest of the details. BTW, my DH used to take Amtrak from DC to Philly occasionally & loved it. Much better than taking those little puddle-jumper planes they had shuttling between those 2 cities!