Well, I started to look at the pictures of the characters with the kids, and seemed like every day had a story to tell, which lit the fire under me to start the
actual TR. Prepare yourself. It's going to be a big report. With more pictures. Lots of pictures. Lots and
lots of pictures. Lucky for you I am a woman of few(ish) words
so it shouldn't take you long to get through it!
LET'S BEGIN, SHALL WE????
It’s arrival day! WOO HOO! We had to get up early even though our flight was at noon. So here we are, tired but excited, on the drive to Newark Liberty airport!
Dave looking anxious about the weight of our near-empty bags. He worries too much:
Here is Mimi singing along to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride soundtrack that we had playing in the car that morning:
Roo is comforting himself by sticking a piece of Blankie in his ear and swirling it around. He couldn't decide what he was more thrilled about; flying in the airplane, or landing in Walt Disney World:
Here I am after a frantic night and morning of last minute laundry/packing/sleeplessness/dish washing/breakfast making etc. etc. etc. I just wanted to GET THERE!!!! Please note that I was still sick - the red nose from so much sneezing, nose blowing, etc becomes me, no?
Roo made sure that I didn't forget to take a picture of Blankie. Apparently Blankie was just as excited as we were to go to Walt Disney World:
Dave dropped me off with Mimi and the checked luggage at Sky Cap, as he and Roo took the car to the economy parking lot. We were very pleased, by the way, with the economy lot bus service to the terminal and back again. They didn't have to wait more than five minutes for a bus in either direction. Although on the way to the terminal, the bus driver struck a pole while turning and didn't care as he just scratched and dented the side of his bus. WELCOME TO JERSEY!
Anyway! This photo was taken as he and Roo waited for the bus to bring them to the terminal. Roo is very proud to be carrying his luggage:
Already the wallet bleeding begins as Ronan shows off his new airplane toy. Mimi is eating a Finding Nemo fruit snack:
NOW THAT IS WHAT I LIKE TO SEE:
Fighting off the boredom by walking around the terminal while we wait for the plane to arrive:
There it is:
Since we're a family of four and the airplane row seats three, Dave sat with Ronan on one side, while Mimi and I sat across the aisle. It was an uneventful flight for the boys - Ronan was so interested in flying that he hardly made a peep. But me? Mimi wouldn't nap and she was squirmy, and squealing, and general a pain in the behind. My apologies to the poor woman that was sitting beside us where ever she is! By the time we got off the airplace I was already spent, and just wanted to let Mimi run herself ragged so she would nap. Did she?
No... of course not! Ei yi yi. I have no idea how that girl does it. Here she is with quite a look on her face while running around MCO like a mad woman:
And here is Ronan in a wonderfully familiar and thrilling sight you ought to know yourself:
THE MCO AIRPORT SHUTTLE!
We don't do DME anymore. We've tried it enough times and have had enough problems on each of those times that from now on we hire a car or rent a car. This time we decided to hire Quicksilver car service and take the grocery store stop along the way. We
Quicksilver and highly recommend them to anyone unsatisfied with the DME service.
We paid a little extra for a water view room at POR and were placed in room 8426 in the Acadian House (
Disney's Port Orleans Riverside map - wdwinfo.com). We asked for a quiet room and we got it! We loved the location and were we staying there again (which I doubt we will for the reasons you will read about below), would probably ask for the same. Here is the view from our door:
There were two stairwells within steps of our resort room, and this was the view of one of them:
We originally decided to stay at POR. We usually stay at Deluxe resorts, but since we had invited family members on the trip, we wanted to make it more affordable and arranged to give a moderate a try. We picked POR based on our walking tour of it in December '07, and because we had read that they offer extra-long double beds. In case you need reminding, Dave is 6' 6" tall. If anyone needs an extra long bed, it's him. However... when we arrived, the beds were so small that he and I could not sleep together. He needed an entire bed to himself. So Roo and I ended up bunking together in one bed, while Dave took the other. However, Disney had washed all the room carpets on the day of our arrival and they were still damp when we arrived. It is my suspicion that it was either the dampness or the scent used in the carpet shampoo but something in that room woke Mimi up in the middle of the night with a stuffy nose and tears tears tears tears tears! The poor little thing (and I) slept only a handful of hours on the first two nights, as she kept waking up unable to breathe. That sealed it for us... between having to bunk with Ronan (who is notorious for pushing bunk mates off the bed in his sleep) and Mimi's sleepless nights, we decided to move to Wilderness Lodge after our mothers' departed in four days. I won't tell you the hassel it was to get the switch done, but it was well worth it. We weren't able to make the breakfast Passporter meet because we were so exhausted that we slept in several mornings in a row. We missed park openings and the advantages of getting to the busiest attractions before the heavy crowds. It was really disappointing. Happily, you'll see a decrease in dark circles under my eyes in the photos
after we switched resorts! Going back to WL was a like a gigantic sigh of relief. We were so happy to be there and had a much more positive experience than we had on our first stay there. But I will tell you more about WL in good time.
Here is Mimi in her WDW-issued crib before the stuffy, sniffly, sneezey set in:
My final thoughts on the subject: I don't think that unless I go on a solo trip that we will ever have the option to stay at a moderate or value resort because they can't accomodate my husbands needs. Sure, we could get adjoining rooms - one with a king size bed for us and one with doubles for the kids, but by the time you add up that expense it's a wash between two adjoining rooms or one room at a deluxe. And we'd rather stay in the deluxe for the vicinity to the parks. Lesson learned - anyone of greater height should reconsider when booking a room at a moderate. If you can't get a king size bed, you might regret your choice to stay there. The beds, while "extra-long", are still incredibly small when you've got to pull up your knees in order to keep your feet on the bed. And equally uncomfortable for person trying to sleep beside.
After we had arrived, we headed over to Epcot, but we decided not to take the camera with us since we were only going to be there a short while. I do not have any photos to share, but Roo rode Test Track for the first time with Daddy (and got two TT car toys), had a late dinner at San Angel Inn, rode Gran Fiesta Tour, and then I rode Test Track with Roo. We have the Photpass pics of those two Test Track rides, and I will download them once our CD arrives.
Wow. And I thought I was short on talk! HA! But that'll do it for our arrival day! More photos and fun to come!
Thanks for reading!!!! 