[Singermom]

Day 1 – 11/3 – Arrival

Cast Members:

Me – age 38, WDW planner – 6th trip to WDW
MIL – age 62 – many trips to WDW
DS7 – older ds, age 7 and ¾, 3rd trip to WDW
DS4 – younger ds, age 4, 3rd trip to WDW

How this trip came about:

I wasn’t actually planning a WDW trip for this year since we just went last year and was not planning on returning until 2006. Thanks to dh turning 40, we got in a bonus trip. DH? You ask. He doesn’t appear on the list of cast members. That’s right. Since dh was being whisked away by his brother and best friend on a surprise deep sea fishing trip, I thought why sit at home when we could be at WDW? Also, MIL had been upset with me for not allowing her to take older ds with her on her Alaska cruise so she promised the kids she would take them to WDW since I was such a meanie (okay, okay, not her exact words but I know that’s what she meant!). I haven’t been able to tactfully tell her that I would never let my kids go alone with her and FIL on any trip so I decided to plan a WDW trip to include her. Hmmm…..how did this end up being my treat – didn’t she offer to take the kids? Need another reason to go? The kids had the 4th and 5th off so they would only miss about two hours of school on the 3rd to catch our flight. I’m quite a stickler for not missing school for vacations if it’s within my power. And final reason to plan the trip (not that we really need reasons to visit WDW) was getting a coveted postcard in the mail for a great rate ($129 AKL pool view – no other deluxes available when I called in August) and also getting a good deal on airfare ($151 roundtrip from Chicago plus I applied some refund vouchers to bring it down to $138 – that’s including tax).

Since we had to be all hush-hush due to DH’s surprise birthday trip, I decided to keep the Disney trip a secret from kids as well. Originally, I had planned to tell them that they had doctor’s appointments that day for our travel shots (we’re going to India in December) and then I would surprise them with Disney shirts and the news that we were going to WDW. Then I decided that it would be less hectic for me to break the news to them the night before and this way, dh would be on hand to get it all on video. After their baths that night, I sat them down on the bed to explain to them about getting the shots the next day – their faces immediately became long and concerned. I then said that to make them feel better about it, I had bought them some new Disney shirts and I had them put their new shirts on. Then I shook my head saying that the shirts were not enough for the pain they were about to go through so I would add ‘these’ (now I hand ds7 the park hopper tickets) to the shirts. He read the cover of the tickets over several times before he realized what they were. At this point he started jumping up and down on the bed so ds4 joined him before complaining ‘ but it’s too far!’ as predicted.

The next day I picked them up two hours early from school for a 3:45 p.m. departure on United’s new discount airline TED. Notice that TED is made up of the last half of United’s name – you got it – half the name, half the service! Oh well, guess I shouldn’t complain for the price. Thankfully, everything was smooth – flights on time, relatively quick pick-up of mini van from Alamo (though there was a bit of a back-up getting out of the garage) and upgraded to deluxe pool-view room from a standard room. At first I was excited about getting a larger room until we got there and I realized that their ‘deluxe’ rooms were still smaller than the Poly standard rooms (I know, I know, I’m spoiled!). We were all quite famished after our journey so we thought we would check out The Mara – actually, that was our only option since the other restaurants had closed. Although our room seemed quite a hike from the lobby, it was located close to an elevator and convenient to Mara and the pool area. I was actually pretty impressed with the counter-service place as my only comparison on Disney property is Captain Cook’s. There was a lot more seating here and much better variety of foods. There were several interesting options with African/Asian accents e.g. African Stew (I had this and it was yummy – especially spiked with a little hot sauce!) in a bread bowl, tandoori chicken pizza, soups from Boma, roast chicken over couscous and a zesty African House Salad (greens, chicken, sweet potato, bell peppers, lentils, and an ‘African’ dressing – also yummy!). Of course, there were the usual American standbys available for the faint of stomach. In addition, there was a bakery area offering baked goods, smoothies and specialty coffees, a ‘dry goods’ area for packaged coffees, cereals, cookies etc, baskets containing goodies like Mickey rice krispie treats, and a cooler area with cold sandwiches, drinks, jello, puddings, desserts from Boma (zebra domes – yum!), beer, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs and the like. After paying, you could help yourself to a general condiment bar which in the evenings had a ‘mini’ salad bar or tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pickles, hot peppers, dressings, etc. and in the morning there was cream cheese, jams, syrups. The kids were kept entertained by a t.v. playing old Disney cartoons while they ate.

We hit the sack right after dinner since we wanted an early start the next morning for EE at Magic Kingdom. Oh, and the weather was quite warm and muggy when we arrived – also the forecast for the next day.
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