PassPorter Community - Message Boards and Forums - View Single Post - Our 1st Holiday Trip to WDW (COMPLETED 1/4/05)

**SharonK0527** · 12-28-2004, 02:44 PM

Day 1, Sunday 11/28/04 
 Part 2 

The first thing we did was drive to Downtown Disney to buy our Annual Passes

We walked around a little bit and did some window shopping and let Savannah play at the Lego playground for a while. After the long ride in the car, she needed to run and stretch her legs. Here are some cute photos I took of things made entirely out of Legos:

We then headed over to Port Orleans French Quarter to check in. It was about 4:00pm and there was no line. I had booked a water-view smoking room. We were assigned to Building 2, room 2232. If we stay at this resort again (which we probably will), I will definitely request that room again. It was in the perfect location - right by the boat dock, overlooking the river and you could see the pool a little as well. It is a corner room so there are two set of windows instead of one. It was very close to the elevators, the pool, and the main building.

Fountain in lobby

View of boat dock from our room

View of river from our room

We were impressed with the size of the room and were thrilled to find that we had a complimentary fridge. The fridge was actually bigger than we were expecting and we used it throughout the trip to store juice and sodas.

We had a priority seating scheduled at 5:30pm at Boatrights over at Port Orleans Riverside but we opted to cancel it and just take time to unpack and get settled in. We decided we would just grab some dinner at the food court instead. We went for dinner around 6:00pm to Sassagoula Float Works (the food court). Savannah had a cheeseburger and fries. I had a chicken parmesan meal that came with a side order of spaghetti, a small salad, and a breadstick. Lee ordered a chicken club wrap that came with potato chips. My chicken was good but I didn't eat the spaghetti - too much food. Lee's chicken club wrap was awesome! I knew I would have to get one of those before the trip was over. After dinner we had a 7:00pm reservation for a carriage ride over at Port Orleans Riverside so we loaded Savannah in her stroller and took the walking path that winds along the river over to Riverside. The carriage stand is over near the boat dock, behind Boatrights. The carriage was very pretty with leather seats and a blanket to use if you got chilly. Our horse's name was Luke and he was a Belgian. The carriage ride starts out by going all around Riverside and then heads over to ride around French Quarter. It was a very nice ride and Luke was wearing his jingle bell harness which put us in the holiday spirit. The ride was nice and relaxing and a really nice way to spend our first evening at Disney.

After the ride we walked back to French Quarter, refilled our mugs at the food court, and headed back to our room so I could start gathering up the laundry. I did 3 loads of laundry and while I was waiting for them to wash I sat out by the pool. It was quiet, only a few people in the pool, and I just sat there and let the Disney ambience start sinking in. Lee was really sweet by offering to go down to the laundry room and fold everything since I had washed and dried them. While Lee was downstairs folding the clothes, I stayed in the room and watched TV after I put Savannah to bed. When Lee came back we put away all the clothes, watched a little more TV and then it was lights out.

 The best thing today was arriving at Disney!
 The worst thing today was having to pay so much to do laundry
 The funniest thing today was Savannah's reaction when we passed through the Disney arch and arrived on Disney property.
 Firsts for today: we became Annual Passholders, we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, we took the carriage ride at Port Orleans Riverside.
 The most magical moment today was sitting out by the pool late at night when it was quiet and just letting the Disney mood start taking hold!

 Coming up....Day Two - Savannah comes face to face with a Dinosaur!