Go on take the $ and Run 15th Anniversary Trip, Saratoga Springs & DCL Wonder May 15-21, 2009 About This Page:

[sueh818]

I know this was way back in May, but I figure better late than never!

This is the land portion of my trip report.

You'll find my pre-trip report here.

I've begun the sea portion here.

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Cast: Sue (38) Theo (39)
What: Saratoga Springs May 15 – 17, Disney Wonder May 17 – 21.
Celebration: Our 15th Wedding Anniversary sans kids.


Day 1A - Thursday, May 14, 2009, The Plane Ride

The plan: Take a red-eye to Orlando and hit the ground running with a day at DHS!

Finally the day had come! I spent the morning doing the final packing. At 2:30pm I picked up the kids from school and took them to gymnastics at 4:00pm. Soon after we got home, my Mom arrived. We fed the kids and went over all the kids stuff with Mom.

Around 6:30 pm Theo and I packed up to go to LAX for our 10:15pm flight. We said good-bye to the kids and Mom. Before we got in the car we had each of the kids take pictures of us both to distract them and to hopefully make the separation easier.







Then we took one of the four of them.

We had an hour drive to the parking garage, plus about 20 minutes in all from arriving at the garage to being dropped off at the terminal, and about an hour through security. The plane was on-time and we boarded without incident. It was a FULL flight on a narrow 737. The plan was to get as much sleep as possible. Unfortunately, the guy sitting next to me had the same plan. Right after takeoff, before the plane had even leveled off, he was fast asleep and snoring...loudly. So much for that plan.


Day 1B - Friday, May 15, Disney Hollywood Studios


Five very long hours later we touched down in Orlando just before daybreak.


We found our way to the Magical Express desk. It being so early, we were the only ones there for a ride so we had the whole bus to ourselves. Who needs a limo! As day was just beginning to break we set off for the World.



Are we awake yet?




Our limo



Our first view of the World


Pulling into Saratoga Springs Resort

We dropped off our bags with bell services, checked in, bought tickets, and hopped a Magical Express bus to DHS for our early morning “brunch” at Hollywood and Vine.





Still not awake.




Leo, meet Theo.









At 9:00am the park opened and we first headed over to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, went on the ride and took some silly pictures.




Next we went to the Tower of Terror, followed by a showing of the American Idol experience and the Back Lot Tour. It was during the tour that my lack of sleep really started to catch up with me and I fell asleep. After the tour I took another nap through the Great Movie Ride.


Somewhat refreshed after my little cat naps, we had a snack and looked around the shops until the next showing of the Lights, Motors Action! Stunt Show Experience.



Theo waited patiently for the show to start. While I took a self-portrait of my nostrils.


This was a fantastic show. I mean, as much of it as I saw before I fell asleep again. I'm not sure how I fell asleep amidst all the revving motors, explosions and burning rubber. I think it's a skill I picked up when I had colicky infant twins.


After the show we received a call that our room was ready, so we took the bus back to SSR, found our room and took a nap on a bed this time.












The view of Downtown Disney from our Balcony


We woke up in time to make it back to DHS for our 5:00pm ADRs at the Brown Derby.



See? I'm wide awake now!

After dinner we dragged ourselves back to our room and called it a night.

Coming Soon: Day 2 - Epcot

[vfair]

Great start!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start! More please!!

[bsblady01]

more please

[Cam22]

Great start! The pictures are great, too!

[chezp]

Great start!

[chezp]

Great start!

[Kenny]

I wanna go, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!! signed: Kenny

That wasn't me sitting on the plane snoring, was it? I've been known to do that on the red-eye... don't remember if I was on that plane or not............
This is a FUN TR!!

[jagmom08]

Can't wait to hear more.

[DrDolphin]

Great start!!

[sueh818]

Thank you all for your encouragement, I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Kenny

I wanna go, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!! signed: Kenny

That wasn't me sitting on the plane snoring, was it? I've been known to do that on the red-eye... don't remember if I was on that plane or not............
This is a FUN TR!!

Kenny, I thought you'd get a kick out of that one. And I'm sure it wasn't you on the plane. That man had a beard.

[mcc0313]

Great start....love the pictures

[sueh818]

Day 2 – Saturday, May 16, Epcot


We awoke bright and early and stopped to take a few pictures of the resort while waiting for the Epcot shuttle.

Our balcony is up top in the middle.


By 9:00 am we were at Epcot. We had a little breakfast in the Land building and took the Living with the Land Tour. Afterwards we went over to Test Track. We weren't in line very long before it broke down. They said it would be fixed soon so we decided to take our chances and wait. Bad choice. We finally got on but it wasn't worth the long wait.


After we escaped from test track we had to skedaddle over to Coral Reef for our ADRs at 11:30. Even with the reservations they said the wait was 15-30 minutes. After 45 minutes when we saw many people being seated that we knew arrived after us, Theo went to see what the problem was. Apparently someone had made a mistake activating our pager or something like that. They apologized and seated us right away in a booth with a good view.

It was really too dark for pictures, but I took a couple anyway.



After lunch Theo wasn't feeling well so she went back to the Resort to rest while I toured the World Showcase solo. It was a BEAUTIFUL day.












These guys "Serveur Amusant" were great. Very funny and entertaining.

















Bringing out the barge to set up for Illuminations:








Around 3:30 Theo called. He was feeling a little better but wanted to beg out of our 5:30 ADRs for Tutto Italia. So I finished my World Showcase tour and met him back at the Saratoga Springs. We walked to Downtown Disney and had dinner at Earl of Sandwich, which was fantastic. I hope they put one of those in the DTD at the DLR, and walked down to the movie theater to see Star Trek. I, of course, fell asleep again, but Theo enjoyed the movie. Afterward we shopped for presents for the girls at World of Disney for quite a while. It is a big store.

When we'd had enough of that we took the bus back to the resort and called it a night.

Coming Soon: Welcome aboard the Disney Wonder

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update!! Sounds like fun times at Epcot!

[chezp]

That was a beautiful day.