An-Almost-Grand-Gathering-with-Mostly-First-Timers report - FINAL UPDATE 3/16 - COMPLETE About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear all about it

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

Saturday, January 27 – Travel day/day one

The alarm rang at 3 a.m. We needed to be out of the house at 4:00 so we could make it to the airport by 5:00 for our 7 a.m. flight. We put the kids to bed in the clothes they would wear on the plane, so we didn’t have to wake them up until we were ready to get in the van. We flew out of a different airport than usual, Flint instead of Detroit Metro. We also flew AirTran for the first time. (Note to self: do not fly AirTran every again! More on that later.)

It was chilly when we left, but we were looking forward to the warm Florida sun, so it didn’t bother us too much. We arrived at the airport in about an hour, unloaded our many, many bags and parked in the long-term economy lot. Check-in was easy, and before we knew it, we were ready to board.

One thing about AirTran that I didn’t like was that they had these “zones” for boarding. They basically load all those needing special assistance along with the first group of “regular” passengers, including business class. Now, we needed a lot of extra time just to get Christian on the plane. He sits in an orthotic seat which rests in his wheelchair. To ride on the plane, we have to take the orthotic seat out of the wheelchair, which requires taking him out of his orthotic seat, anchor the orthotic seat in the plane seat, then put him in his orthotic seat. I’m tired just thinking about how much work it is! Now add a baby, two young children and a car seat, plus gate-checking a stroller and the wheelchair, and you’ve got a time-consuming situation.

Well, we were not given ample time to get ourselves situated before everyone else was boarding, too. I ended up going on the plane with the girls to get them settled, and then had to wait for everyone else to get on board before I could go back out and help get Christian on the plane. My dh has a bad back, so he really can’t carry Christian, so I had to go out, get his seat, take it on the plane, go back, get Christian and get him settled on the plane. Fortunately, everything else went well, and we were landing in Orlando in about 2 ½ hours. Reverse the getting-Christian-on-the-plane situation, and we were off to find DME.

Now, I had read online that the Disney Magical Express counter was very hard to find. I am here to tell you that it’s true. When we finally made it there, the line was HUMONGOUS! There were probably 50 people ahead of me in line. Fortunately, there were able 15 cast members, so I really didn’t wait very long. The lovely CM who helped me (I don’t remember her name, which is a shame, because she was great) made a funny noise when she first looked for our information. Turns out, she couldn’t find us at first because the reservation had been CANCELLED! Not really, but that’s what it looked like to her. Eventually, after a phone call and some checking, she found our info and we were ready to roll. They had to call for a special bus equipped with a lift, but that didn’t take much time. We waited for 10 minutes or so once we were on the bus, and then they started the cool video and we were off to the Beach Club!

We stopped at Caribbean Beach first, where some people got off, and went to the Boardwalk next, where no one got off. When we first got on the bus, the driver had asked for a show of hands so he could make sure he was heading to the right resorts. When he called out Boardwalk, this little girl raised her hand. I wondered about that, because no one else had, but the driver took it to mean that he needed to stop at the Boardwalk. Well, he didn’t! But we got to see the Boardwalk, and it’s very close to the Beach Club, so nobody minded too much.

When we finally arrived at the Beach Club, I left my family to get Christian unloaded and ran in to see if our room was ready. We had an ADR at 11:40 for Le Cellier, and we were already late! Unfortunately, I didn’t take a minute to look around me and appreciate our new home (for the next few days, anyway) but rushed right to the front desk. However, I was SO happy to see Art the Greeter at the door and couldn’t wait to run back out to tell the girls. We were really hoping to meet him!

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

Check-in took a little while, and I was disappointed that no one said “welcome home.” However, they had a room available, so we took it! We had requested a room close to the elevator, but that one wasn’t ready. The room they gave us turned out to be a little bit of a walk, but we really liked the room, so there were no complaints. They pointed us in the general direction of the room, which unfortunately for those of us who are a bit directionally-challenged, was not enough help. We took the elevator up and then down again, realizing we were still in the Beach Club and hadn’t made it to the Villas yet. We walked a bit further, up and down again, finally asking a housekeeper to please show us which way to the Villas! She went along with us and we were opening the door to our villa in no time! Next time, perhaps a map or Onstar may come in handy.

We really liked the layout of the room. We had a two-bedroom suite, which had a master bedroom on the right as you walk in, with the second bedroom on the left. The sitting area was small, and included a fold-out couch, where the girls slept. The kitchen area was also small, but had a full-sized fridge, as well as a microwave and dishwasher. We forgot to take pictures of the villa when we first arrived, and afterwards, it was too messy, so we don’t have any photos of our room. The only problem I had was the number of doors in the place! The master bathroom, for example, had three doors: one to the toilet area, one to the bedroom, and one to the hallway! It was a bit confusing. We ordered a crib for the baby, which the grandparents requested be placed in their room. Christian slept on the foldout couch in our bedroom, and we gave the in-laws the master bedroom. Unfortunately, no one ever used their Jacuzzi tub!

We were already late for Le Cellier, so we decided to just leave the bags and head to Epcot. We walked over, enjoying the beautiful Florida sun and temps in the 70s. Epcot was very crowded, although we were able to get into Le Cellier as a walk-in since we had missed our ADR by over an hour, so it couldn’t have been too crowded!

Here are the ILs. Toast!

Our waitress was Stephanie, from Prince Edward Island. She was awesome! FIL gave her an additional $20 tip, although she assured him that tip was included in our DDP. FIL and I had the cheddar cheese soup, while MIL and dh had the shrimp.

Here are the boys.


Here are the girls, enjoying their lunch!

I loved the bread, and so did the baby! All the adults had the filet, while Grace had the hot dog and Rose had the kids’ meal with beef macaroni.

MIL and dh had the chocolate cake for dessert, while FIL and I had the crème brulee. Grace did the kids’ pick menu, so she got an ice cream sundae for dessert, while Rose’s plate came with fruit for dessert, so she didn’t get ice cream. You can imagine how ticked off she was about that! However, I promised her ice cream later, so all was right with the world.

Finally, here's Kate, dancin' away!

[tndisneyfam]

Just caught up! Glad you made it to Disney safely! Can't wait to read more! Loved your idea with Disneypalooza and the shirts!!

[Colexis Mom]

I'm glad you made it to Disney, and had a great lunch at LeCellier More please

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

Here they all are, full from lunch and ready to hit Epcot!

After a wonderful lunch, MIL & FIL decided to walk around Epcot a little longer, so they took Kate with them. According to MIL, Kate slept almost the entire time they were gone! The five of us came back so dh & Christian could have a rest, and the girls and I could hit Stormalong Bay! Let me tell you, that water park is awesome! Unfortunately, the only day we were able to swim was the first day, because we were too busy, for one, and also the weather was never as warm as it was that first day. We especially loved the water slide! Wish I had taken pictures of it! Too busy enjoying the pool, I guess.

Here's the Beach Club.



Here we are (minus Kate) in front of the Beach Club.

While we were waiting to get into Le Cellier, the girls and I had gone over to Future World so we could get FPs for Soarin’. It was one of the only must-dos at Epcot for me. Our FP time came up between 4:30 – 5:30, so we had to cut our pool time short. We collected the others, and headed to Epcot. We were a little late checking in, but The Land was packed! It was even busier this evening than it was during the afternoon, which surprised me. It was dinner time, too, so the restaurant there was pretty busy; we could even see Chip (or Dale, couldn’t tell from a distance!).


The girls, dh and I were going to try Soarin’ first, leaving Christian and the baby with ILs; then they would get to go on it. We turned in our FPs and passed by all those sad people waiting stand-by. Can I tell you how much I love the FP? It is an awesome tool; I don’t understand why anyone would wait when they could FP. (Although we did go stand-by for the safari at AK; more on that tomorrow).


My dh is afraid of heights, so I wasn’t even sure he would try this ride. He was excited about it, though, so we put the girls between us and he held onto Rose’s hand very tightly! From the moment of “lift-off,” this ride is awesome, or as Rose said afterward, “amazing!” I loved it and wished that we could have gone on it again later in the trip. Alas, it was our only trip over California! I teared up as we soared over the aircraft carrier, missing my brother in Iraq. I love the smell of the orange groves and the golf ball heading toward you. What a wonderful first ride at Walt Disney World!

[Jillybean]

What a fantastic start to your trip! I can see that your baby loves the characters every bit as much as mine does!

Great first meal at Le Cellier and first ride on Soarin!

Don't you just love the big 2-bedroom villas?

Jill

[DrDolphin]

Sounds like a wonderful start to the trip!!!

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

Originally Posted by Jillybean

What a fantastic start to your trip! I can see that your baby loves the characters every bit as much as mine does!
Jill

Yes, I was so glad that Kate took to the characters. I spent a lot of time before the trip worrying about whether or not she would scream in terror like her big sister did at that age. I needn't have worried; she loved them! One of the highlights of our trip was seeing her interact with those big furry guys!

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

When we arrived back at the Beach Club, who should greet us but Art the Greeter! We had seen him on the Great Hotels special with Samantha Brown, as well as the Christmas parade, and we were really looking forward to meeting him. He was very humble and gracious, with a beautiful smile and a lovely manner. He always greeted you as “lady” and “gentleman” and would do a little bow. Well, we came right up and told him how we’d looked forward to meeting him. He couldn’t have been more gracious, and a little embarrassed at all the attention.

I had bought pins and lanyards online ahead of time to get the girls started in their pin trading, but wasn’t sure how they’d take to it. Grace, the more outgoing one, LOVED trading, and would ask to trade whenever she’d see a cast member with a lanyard. Well, she had her very first trade with Mr. Art!

It was very cool. Once Grace traded, Rose wanted to get into the action (this would repeat throughout our trip!) so she got to trade with Mr. Art, too.

Well, Christian wasn’t wearing his lanyard yet, but Mr. Art thought he should have some pins, too.

He didn’t have anything on his lanyard that sparked Christian’s interest, so he asked if Christian liked pirates. Christian’s dad was Jack Sparrow for Halloween, so the answer was a definite yes, since Christian’s dad is his favorite person in the world! Mr. Art went away for a minute, although he was ready to leave for the day, and came back with two very cool pirate pins for Christian. He gave them to him, even though he had nothing to trade. It was awesome.

[tndisneyfam]

AWWW! I have tears in my eyes. Art sounds awesome! We hope to meet him someday. Thanks for the update! Can't wait for more.

[WDWfan]

I've heard how wonderful Art is from other TRs, but haven't had the chance to meet him. He sounds like a cast member extraordinaire! How that he started your trip off with some magic!

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

Back to Soarin’…

We convinced the in-laws to go on it when we got back. They used FPs, although they had expired, and enjoyed it as we had. We were debating whether or not to try to get to Magic Kingdom before it closed at 8 p.m. as we had originally planned. You see, the Pooh ride was closing after today, and as Kate is a big Pooh fan, we thought we’d better make an effort to get over there. BUT, time was running out, we were having such fun at Epcot, and when we asked the ice cream vendor (as we were getting ice cream, of course) if we would make it over there in time, he thought we wouldn’t. So we stayed put.

While ILs were soarin’, we went over to check out the Living Seas with Nemo and Friends. The sign said 30 minute wait, so we were going to skip it, but the lovely CM there said it was more like 5 minutes, so in we went. It probably should have stayed 30 minutes, as we had to wait for a h/c accessible clam-mobile, which took a while, especially when they kept letting people go ahead of us for some reason, and the h/c mobile went around once with nobody in it. Eventually, we made it on the ride, and let’s just say while the kids in the party enjoyed it, we adults were underwhelmed. I did enjoy the theme song, and looked forward to hearing it tomorrow at AK in the Nemo musical.

After Nemo, we met up with the ILs and decided to walk around Epcot a bit more. Christian was getting tired, and dh can't see very well at night, so they decided to head back and FIL volunteered to go with them.

The girls and I loved these seagulls: "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

[bsblady01]

more please sounds like you are having a great time at the world with your family.

[mattnkatsmum]

Oh Beth, you're putting me to shame with your trip report - when I haven't even started mine!

It's great to hear about what you did when we were there at the same time. I think our paths must have crossed several times without us realising it.

Sounds like you had a great first day.