[BDavis932]

Traveling on March 11th and 12th are myself, DH, DS (8), DD (4), and my parents:

Thursday, March 11th, 2004, I worked later than I wanted to, but got everything completed that I needed done. We had DS picked up from school and on the road by 1:20 pm. We drove to our destination of Moblile, AL where we had reservations at our favorite Holiday Inn (wonderful hot breakfast bar!!). We got checked in and hit the sack around 12:30. We were up and had breakfast and back on the road by 9:00 am. We arrived in Orlando around 4:30pm and checked in for our “free” night at the Marriott/Airport.

After checking in (a quick 5 minutes!!) we unloaded our overnight bags and then hopped back in the van and headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. My boss had stayed there a month ago and I wanted to check this place out for myself!! We ate dinner at Mara and wandered around the resort and shops for a couple hours. Although it is a beautiful resort, I still like Wilderness Lodge Villas better. AKL seemed so busy. There were people everywhere. Boma and Jiko had lines way out the door and the lobby had people zooming here and there. All the animals were sleeping, so we didn’t get to see anything but a bunch of sleeping birds.

We went back to our room at the Marriott around 9:30 so we could get up early and go check in at Pop Century. Our room at the Marriott was really nice and it had the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in!! I can’t forget to call that hotel and find out what kind of mattress that was! It was heavenly.

Saturday, March 13th, 2004: We got up around 7:15 and arrived at Pop Century around 8:15 am. We had NO wait to check in and then headed straight for the food court to grab a quick breakfast. We then unloaded our van with bell services (our room was not ready) and said our goodbyes to my parents, as they were off on an adventure to Miami/The Keys/and Everglades for a few days. They will be coming back up to Disney on Wednesday and spending 2 nights with us at Old Key West. We said goodbye and headed straight for the EPCoT bus stop. I was a bit worried because it was rather packed, but EPCoT was quite empty that day! We did everything we wanted to do at EPCoT that day! Our first ride was Journey into your Imagination, then Living with the Land, Ice Cool Station, Test Track, Mission Space, Universe of Energy, Spaceship Earth, Norway, Mexico, and we stayed for Illuminations! Our DD was finally tall enough to ride the “big rides” (40”) and she was thrilled to ride test track! We had so much fun doing it together as a family, rather than having to do the baby swap!! SHE LOVED IT!!

We ate lunch at Sunshine Season Food Court and we had dinner at Le Cellier. We had originally planned on having dinner at Cape May, but skipped it so we didn’t have to leave the park. By the way, Le Cellier was awesome this time! I had the seafood pasta…the scallops were the size of large marshmellos! It was delicious!! DH had the surf and turf and he loved it, too. I got the beef/barley soup and hubby got the cheese soup. To my surprise, the cheese soup tasted great this time. Last summer I ordered a bowl and it was horrible. But this time it was everything I hoped it would be! The kids got the “glowing” drinks and they loved that, too! After Illuminations, We headed back for our one night at Pop Century and met up with my sister. They checked in on Saturday night and we had connecting rooms. DH took our kids swimming for an hour or so and then the kids all visited for awhile, before we all hit the hay. I didn’t get much of a chance to check out Pop Century. It seemed nice. It was VERY busy….which I haven’t been as used to since we have joined DVC, but overall it was a nice resort. We stayed in the 70’s building next to the Big Wheel and the HUGE Mickey phone.

Sunday, March 14, 2004:

We were up and ready to go down and eat around 8:30. Bell services was going to take our bags to Old Key West. DH and DB-I-L drove over and checked in at OKW and met us at the Magic Kingdom. We entered the gate around 10:00 am to find that it was a busy day at the Magic Kingdom. Oh well, we were still going to have FUN! First we did Mickey’s Philharmagic…and it was great! We only waited like 15 minutes. Later that day we saw people who had been in line for over an hour. Then we did Pirates (first time I have ever waited for POC…it was like a 30 minute wait!) we also did SFTreehouse, Haunted Mansion, TTA, Buzz Lightyear, IASW, Adventures of Pooh (2ce!), Aladdin (2ce!) BTMRR, Splash Mountain, Dumbo, Peter Pan, saw SpectroMagic and watched Wishes (near Dumbo, so it wasn’t the best spot…but pretty nonetheless!) We ate lunch today at the Plaza Pavillion and Dinner tonight was at Chef Mickeys. We missed Chef Mickey’s on our trip last year, but this year we felt like they were REALLY rushing us. Mickey came to our table once. He took photos with my sister’s children and skipped mine all together. Minnie did the same thing. She came back after we told someone, but we had to end up getting Mickey to meet us on our way out by the dessert bar to get photos with him. The people at the next table over had the same problem we did. We will go back again, but next trip I think we will try Liberty Tree Tavern instead.

We arrived at Old Key West just before midnight to find our luggage was never delivered by bell services. Luckily, with just one phone call and 15 minutes later, there they were delivering all 20 bags of luggage. (I may have overpacked just a tad!!) We were in room 1831 (Building 18, 3rd floor). We had a wonderful view of the golf course and right outside our room was a huge pond with a fountain in the center of it. I really enjoyed sitting out on our balcony every night listening to the bull frogs. They were SO loud, but it was very relaxing!

Monday, March 15th, 2004:

We got up around 8:15, ate breakfast in our room and arrived in EPCoT a little after 10:00. It was packed, too. I had never seen a line of cars waiting to get into EPCoT. We did Figment, Innoventions East, Ice Cool Station (our DD loves this place!!) Mission Space, Norway, Innoventions West and we ate at the ESPN club for lunch. This is my new favorite lunch restaurant. I LOVE this place. Yes, my eye were bigger than my stomach, but everything sounded so good. Hubby and I split a bowl of chili (I’ve got to get their recipie…it was delicious!) and wings, and a huge plate of nachos. It was all delicious, and I would do it again. We surprised our son with a dessert called a “hockey puck” It was a brownie shaped like a hockey puck and they had a chocolate hockey stick and wipped cream on it. He loved it! He is a goalie for our local ice hockey team and I knew he would get a kick out of it. I’ll post pictures when I have them back.

We left EPCoT around 6:00 and took the monorail to the Contemporary. All four kids got to ride up front for the entire trip! They loved it!! We planned on a late dinner tonight as we were going on our “magical gatherings wishes cruise”. We arrived at the Contemporary around 7:00 for a reception with Hook and Smee. They had a wonderful cracker/cheese and dessert bar, so we didn’t even eat dinner!! After the reception, a comical pirate named “left patch” took us down to our “ship” and entertained us for awhile by telling stories, having contests for the kids (DS won a prize!) and telling jokes. The boat stopped and we had our own private view of the electrical water parade. That was cool. Then they drove the boat and stopped it right in front of the train station and they piped in the music and Wishes began. It was so beautiful. After Wishes was over, “left patch” continued to tell us the story of Peter Pan, and to our surprise, waiting at the boat dock for us was Peter himself!! He was holding the cutest little lantern with Tinkerbell “in” it!! The kids got to hold the lantern for pictures and each child was given the Peter Pan golden book, which Peter autographed for us. During this autograph session, it was pouring rain! We waited it out a bit inside the Contemporary, and then hit the monorail to the MK and then took a bus back to OKW. I loved this experience and I highly recommend it to everyone!! If offered, we will certainly do it again! Thank you sis, for arranging this cruise...it was magical!!

Tuesday, March 16th, 2004: RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!!!!

We spent his day at Disney Studios. This place was packed…I was hoping the rain would scare everyone off…but not this time!! It finally stopped raining around 3:00 Yeah!!

We started this day at the Animation tour and my sisters kids and our DS loved the area where they can learn to draw. We have always skipped this before, and they spent about 2 hours in there!! I guess they liked it. After seeing the movie in there, DD decided she was “starving” and we had to slip out and have some popcorn. We had fun together sitting on the bench in front of the Great Movie Ride sharing our popcorn. Then she and I went shopping were she found a “big” Pegasus that she just “had” to have! (She needed a Daddy for her “baby Pegasus” at home!!!) After that we went through “One Man’s dream” which was nice, but before the movie, now DD had to go to the bathroom!!! So we met up with them after One Man’s dream and they all headed to the Haunted Mansion movie set area while DD and I went to Playhouse Disney live on stage. Rides today included The Great Movie Ride, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours. DD and I got to see the parade on our way to an early dinner at Hollywood and Vine. We had to eat at 4:20 so we could get the Fantasmic Dinner Package (with these crowds, I’m so glad we made this PS!!) We saw the 7:30 show of Fantamic. The lines for the 9:00 were unbelievable!! Everyone headed for the Rockin Roller Coaster and DD was a little upset since she wasn’t tall enough. She said she wanted to ride ToT again, but then changed her mind and I RAN all the way to Star Tours. By then it was 9:00, we shopped for what seems like at least an hour and then we caught the last bus back to OKW.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004:

Our goal was to get up EARLY and go get St. Patrick’s Day pins. They had a limited edition pin (of 3500), only available in the parks. Today was our day at Animal Kingdom. We got there just a few minutes after the park opened (long lines again!) and got 8 pins. (4 for us, and 4 for my sisters family). We then went to ride Safari. It said it was a 30 minute wait, but I think it was more like 45 mintues or so. After that we saw Festival of the Lion King. We had really bad seats and I was disappointed that the girl that represents Zazu in the show no longer “flys”. She just dances on the stage. It was still nice. We ate lunch at Tusker House and got the lunch/snack special. We got in touch with my sister via the 2-way radios but they were on their way to Safari. We went to ride Dinosaur. DD didn’t cry or anything, but she said she didn’t want to ride it again! In our photo, we couldn’t even see DS! He was hiding under his seat practically! I like this ride, though! We still had time to see Tarzan Rocks before our Fast pass for Kali River Rapids, but we had bad seats here, too, so we left after Turk’s trashin’ the camp song. We made it all the way over to KRR and the ride was down. They didn’t know when it would be back up. So we went to the Tree of Life to see It’s tough to be a Bug. After that we met up with my sister and hopped in their suburban and headed over to the Neverland Club for a kids night out. We then drove down to DTD and ate dinner at Fulton’s. We all had the crab and lobster. It was wonderful! After dinner we met up with my parents in the Market Place and we shopped and heard all about each others trips. They had a wonderful trip and enjoyed seeing South Florida. The highlight of their trip was The Holyland Experience. They both highly recommend it.

We picked up the kids at 11:00 and they had a blast. They can’t wait to go back. This was the first time we have ever left our kids with anyone other than family, and we felt completely comfortable. It was such a cool place! After that we headed back to OKW.

Thursday, March 18th, 2004: This is our last day in the parks.

We got up by 7:30 to go eat breakfast with my parents at Port Orleans Riverside’s food court. My sister and her family were going to meet us after breakfast at EPCoT.

We rode Imagination and my parents did Honey I shrunk the audience (mom didn’t like the mice!!). We did Mission Space and ate lunch in Japan (counter service). It was good. We then explored a few more countries and then rode the Norway boat again. We headed over to Test Track for our fast passes and the line was really long. We didn’t get off the ride until 4:40 and our PS for O’hana was at 5:00. My sister and our parents were already on their way over there to check us in. We took the monorail to the TTC and then walked (not sure if that was a good idea or not??) to the O’hana.

The food was wonderful as usual! But DD slept from the monorail until after dinner. She missed the coconut races and the hula hoops. Shhhhh…don’t tell her!!
Afterwards, we all took the monorail and DH, DD, DS, and myself decided to end our last night at the MK. My parents and my sister and her family went over to EPCoT for Illuminations.

Finally, the park was not busy! We got there just in time for Spectro and watched it from in front of the Fire Station. We had watched it from Frontierland the other night, and I prefer it more over there. We were told by the monorail attendant that MK was open until 11:00, but later found out it was only open until 10:00. We boogied over to Splash mountain (DD’s favorite ride!!) and it said 30 mintues. It ended up being more like 15. So then we ran over to Aladdin’s ride and rode it, then we ran to P.O.C. and ended our trip, like we always do, riding it at park closing. We then shopped for an hour and then headed back to OKW for our last night. DD was hungry, so I drove over to POR and picked up some food for all of us before their food court closed. I stayed up packing until 2:45.

Friday, March 19th, 2004. I took the kids down to swim for a ½ hour while hubby packed the car. We met my parents at DTD so they could do some last minute shopping and DS could spend the rest of his money (it was burning a hole in his pocket!)

We got there at 11:00 and ate a quick lunch at McD’s and then shopped until 12:30. Then we hit the road and spent the night in Mobile AL again. We got up at 7:30 am Saturday morning and then hit the road toward home. We arrive home around 8:30 Saturday night. Now, all the laundry is clean (not all folded) and we go back to the real world tomorrow.

Favorite things about the trip:

#1) Being with my family, my sisters family, and my parents

#2) Wishes cruise

#3) DD got to ride Splash Mtn, BTMRR, Test Track, Dinosaur, ToT, Star Tours!!

#4) DS loved Mission Space so much he rode it at least 8 times!!

#5) Hubby wants to go back next year and buy annual passes again!!!:love:

[BDavis932]

DD and DS at Epcot

[BDavis932]

Picture of my family with Koda and Kenai

[BDavis932]

My sister's twins (age 9) are next to Mickey. My kids are in the front (DD 4, DS 8)

[BDavis932]

My photos on CD will be ready mid-week and I'll post more then.

TTFN~
Heather

[tinkerbell]

we were at Epcot the same day!!!! We spent our last day at Epcot!!!!! Saturday the 13!!! That makes me crazy .. I have to watch our videos real close .. maybe we caught you on tape :)
we ate lunch that day in Japan and dinner at the Garden Grill before leaving to come home :(

I love the pictures .. can't wait to see more!!

[SnazzyCMB]

bravo! Thanks so much for a great trip report and pics..your family is beautiful, and the report was very enjoyable! :)

[tiggerlover1971]

Great trip report !!! looks like you packed alot in

[crystalrp]

Super trip report. It sounds like you had an awesome trip. Thanks so much for sharing!! :)

[eeeee]

Great report. I learned of several things we haven't tried yet. Neverland Club for example. I hope my DS will be tall enough this Dec. He was less than 1/2 an inch too short his past March. Reading your report makes me wish Dec was closer!!

[crystalrp]

The Neverland club is a babysitting thing. I don't believe there is a height requirement. Please correct me if I am wrong!

[alextina]

Great trip report Thanks so much for sharing.:D BTW your babies are adorable I love your pictures.

[tinkerbell]

Originally posted by crystalrp
The Neverland club is a babysitting thing. I don't believe there is a height requirement. Please correct me if I am wrong!

yep thats what it is .. that was the girls favorite when they were little :) we use to take them there so DH and I could go to P.I.

[BDavis932]

The Neverland Club is a child care center that is for children ages 4 thru 12.

[BDavis932]

Originally posted by tinkerbell
we were at Epcot the same day!!!! We spent our last day at Epcot!!!!! Saturday the 13!!! That makes me crazy .. I have to watch our videos real close .. maybe we caught you on tape :)
we ate lunch that day in Japan and dinner at the Garden Grill before leaving to come home :(

I love the pictures .. can't wait to see more!!

I can't believe we were there at the same time!!! I would have loved to meet you and wiseguy. Tink, I think we did this once before

First we had ressies for Cape May then we went to the Sunshine Season Food Court for lunch and made ressies for the Garden Grill for 6:50, but we cancelled them also when we got into Le Cellier with no wait! We could have eaten dinner together.