We're Here! I might as well start my TR About This Page:

[Dreaming of DisneyWorld]

Yay! We're here! "Who are we?" you ask:

me - Alicia (34) sixth trip
DH - (32) sixth trip
DD - (6) sixth trip
DD - (22 months) third trip
DMIL - 52 first trip!!
DFIL - 52 first trip!!

DH's parents are along for this adventure and to do some celebrating with us!

We landed at 11am on Tuesday - right on time (thank you SW!). Got into our rental minivan straight away with no problems (thank you Dollar for the great rate: $205/wk). We drove straight to OKW for our first stay there. We are DVC members at VWL and AKV. We were immediately impressed with OKW, though!

Our room was ready upon arrival. We have a great room near the Hospitality House. We're on the ground floor with a fabulous view of the golf course from our patio. We love the spaciousness and layout of our 2BR! My only complaint here so far is the floors - they were absolutely filthy! Not just dirty, but crusty food stuck to it. Yuck! I immediately located the broom & mop and remedied the situation.

You can tell it was recently refurbed, though, as the paint smell is still in the air. I also had to peel the stickers off the cookware before using it.

DH, DMIL, & DFIL ate at Olivia's for dinner on arrival night. The kids and I joined them for dessert (banana fosters bread pudding - YUM!). Everyone agreed the food was good and no ADRs were required.

WDW is all over the news here. They're calling it the bus "rumble". A CM bus driver was involved in an altercation w/a guest (who reportedly pushed a small child into the driver) and the whole thing was captured on what looks like phone video. There is also some news in reference to WDW CM contract negotations.

We aren't letting anything get us down!! We are at Disney World!!

[tinkerbell24601]

Glad you are enjoying your trip! Have a safe and wonderful time!!!

[ilovejack72]

excellent start have a great vacation!!!!!

[disneydreamer33]

Sounds like a great start!
We stayed at OKW last Sept and I loved it. Our 1 bdrm was very clean. Sorry your floors were yucky! I would have had to sweep and mop too!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!

[Cam22]

Great start! We really enjoyed our stay at OKW a few years ago. Glad you are liking it, too!

[bsblady01]

more please

[Dreaming of DisneyWorld]

I forgot to mention that my in-laws called us on Monday evening and said they were too excited to sleep!

Now on to our Wal-Mart horror story. I don't know if I should post the exact location so I'll just say it was off of the highway on the way here from the airport. It was absolutely awful. There were no groceries left on the shelves and the story was dirty. MIL said maybe they re-stock on Wed (we were there on Tues). They didn't even have milk for DDs. The customers were rude, running into us, running stop signs on the parking lot, etc. What ever happened to someone saying "Excuse me" when they needed to move past you? Then, the checker was beyond words rude. She refused our coupons and complained the entire time. She complained that we were in line at her quitting time and she was going to "Fly outta here like a bat outta hxll". Nice, huh?

Never fear....Super Target is here! Thanks to another PP we followed her great directions and found the ST on 192, which has a Starbucks I might add!! Everyone (customers and clerks) were friendly. The store was clean and well-stocked. I totally recommend this place!

Anyway, early to bed on our first day. With travel today and knowing our late night plans the next two evenings, I knew the DDs would need their sleep. Afterall, they need to be able to enjoy vacation without feeling groggy or having meltdowns. Right? Oh, yeah, and me too!

[disneydreamer33]

Sorry for you horrible experience at Wal-Mart. I have always found that Target is much better in the store and their employees too!
Hope you are having a great day today.

[chezp]

Great start, but sorry about the horrible experience at Wal-Mart.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about the Walmart experience. We've had a few of our own in Orlando and now always search for Super Targets!

[Cam22]

My goodness what a raunchy Wal-Mart! Glad you found a Super Target!

[Charlie97]

Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip

[tdhc]

Hope you're enjoying your trip....look forward to hearing more.

[Dreaming of DisneyWorld]

Much to my family's dismay, we were out the door at 8am! Of course, when we were attempting to walk thru the turnstiles, the welcome show began at MK. When I saw "attempting," it's because there were so many people that we couldn't even get thru the turnstiles until the show was over! Yes, on October 13 the crowds were insane!

Despite the crowds, we let my in-laws stop in front of the castle for some PhotoPass pics, which later turned out to be too shadowy. Then, we walked them thru Cindy's crib to Fantasyland. We stopped for them to snap lots of pics here as they were in awe.

With, all of the crowds, the Fastpass was our best friend here, today, as we used it twice. We saw that Peter Pan had a 30 minute wait immediately so we got our FP and went to Dumbo, the carousel, PhilHarMagic, then to Peter Pan. (Keep in mind that my beloved IASW and Mad Hatter's Party are under refurbishment right now )

We headed to HM, next, which DMIL loved!! She's a ghost hunter at heart. Then off to Frontierland to FP Big Thunder Mountain RR (another half hour wait in Standby) before walking on Pirates of the Caribbean. My DD6 is scared to death of this ride, but loves HM - go figure!

DH took DD to the resort at this point to give her a nap (for three hours!). The rest of us used our FP at BTMRR, saw the Tiki room, and ate at Columbia Harbour House before departing around 1:30.

Not too bad, huh? We rode seven rides before our afternoon break!