Our Magical Vacation (including the new WDW hurricane ride) - Completed About This Page:

[Tracy M.]

ATM I'm starting this trip repot sitting on my bed at the Beach Club with Jeanne only a few hours away. l wish l had a laptop computer but alas I'm writing this on my trusty palm pilot.



The winds aren’t too bad yet though we're under a hurricane and tornado watch. We're keeping the weather channel on though I'll prolly want to toss the TV out the window soon as every few minutes it make a loud beeping sound with an emergency alert.



So onto the trip report.



DH will be adding his own comments to the report, they are in () and in blue.



Date: 9/19 - 9/30

Adventurers: Myself (age 34), my husband George (age 32)

Resort/Hotel: Beach Club



This WDW trip was a very special celebration for us. For those of you who frequent the special needs forum you know that I have Meniere’s disease which took the doctor’s almost 2 years to diagnose and get a treatment plan in place. And during that time frame my life was on hold as my mobility problems were so severe I couldn’t even leave the house without my DH to physically support me. Prior to the onset of the Meniere’s we had gone to WDW on a yearly basis so I had a lot of WDW catching up to do J.



9/19 - Day 1

Our flight to Orlando at 7:40am was very early but didn’t seem that early when we had a room at the airport hotel the night before. However due to the original projected path of Ivan we shifted our entire trip by 4 days and we couldn't get a room on the night of the 18th so instead we had to arrange for a car to pick us up at 5am.



<font color="blue">(Let’s do some quick math here. 5 am car minus 30 minutes to get ready for said car means that I’m getting up at like 4:30. This is not cool. New Disney vacation planning protocol requiring flights after 9:00am has been implemented.)</font>



Since it’s so early we made it to the airport in record time and got our bags checked and through security by about 6:15 so we wound up with over an hour to wait around before our flight.



Our flight left on time at 7:40 and was one of the best flying experiences we ever had, the onboard entertainment made the trip fly by and food offerings were tastier than any airline food we’ve had before (Song has eliminated the standard in flight meal but they offer a menu of items instead for sale pretty cheap which are of a lot higher quality than you’d normally get on an airplane).



For those of you unfamiliar with Song they also have TVs on the back of each seat so you can watch a lot of different channels free of charge during the flight, only the in-flight movies have a charge for them. The movie choices were Dodgeball and Garfield so I passed on those and watched Animal Planet and the Food Network instead while DH slept the whole way.



<font color="blue">(Song seems a pretty nice airline. The B757 we were on had those cool TV’s at each seat, and the food was tasty. I’m pretty sure the seats are larger than the normal coach seat also, and that was helpful for wifey’s bad hip. For those aviation geeks out there, the entertainment system also provides a flight status mode, displaying your GPS ground track along with air data such as groundspeed, altitude and OAT. Sporty!)</font>



The flight landed on time at 10:10 and there wasn’t a wait at the Avis counter so we got our car in record time and arrived at the Beach Club at about 11:00 AM.



Much to our pleasant surprise our room was already ready and had a very nice view of a courtyard area even though we just have a standard room reservation. The room is also bigger than any of our previous visits to the Yacht and Beach. So we spend some time unpacking, looked through the schedules and headed out with a stop at the Concierge along the way to get a print out of our PS reservations since this time we didn’t automatically get one at check-in.



We had a 2:00 reservation for the Garden View Tea but arrived at the Grand Floridian about an hour ahead of time so we spent the time wandering the grounds and checked out the wedding pavilion. From the sign outside there was a noon ceremony earlier in the day and another one scheduled for 4pm.



<font color="blue">(That is one seriously nice place to get married. For example, the garden outside is set up for photographs, and puts the bride and groom on a pedestal with Cinderella’s Castle directly behind them across from the Seven Seas Lagoon. Must be pricey.)</font>



I had planned the tea to jump start us into relaxed vacation mode and it definitely worked. I felt all the stress and anxiety I had with the freaking hurricanes slipping away as we sipped champagne in the garden room. DH and I both had the Grand Tea with Earl Grey tea for him and cinnamon spice for me. The food was outstanding and the atmosphere couldn’t be beat. It was truly a luxurious way to start off our vacation and I highly recommend it for anyone that hasn’t tried it before.



After tea we went back to the resort to relax in the room till dinner. DH took a nap and I read my book and wandered the resort a bit hunting him a cup of coffee (it’s going to be a recurring theme throughout this trip report).



We had 7:30 PS reservations at the Yachtsman for dinner, DH’s favorite restaurant and wandered down to check in at about 7pm and were seated right away.



We started off dinner sharing the Pot Steamed Mussels with our cocktails and then DH had the New Zealand Rack of Lamb and I had the Yachtsman Filet Mignon. For Desert we share the Creme Brulee sampler. Here’s the current menu from allearsnet with the descriptions of each menu item.



<font color="blue">(That rack of lamb just rocked, buttery tender and over these amazing garlic mashed potatoes. I love that restaurant!)</font>



After dinner we wander the boardwalk a bit stopping in the Wyland gallery to admire all the beautiful artwork and then watched some of Illuminations from the bridge outside of Epcot.



By this point it had been a very long day and we went back to the resort and pass out at about 10pm.

[HueyDeweyandLouiesMom]

Great Start! Can't wait to hear more!

I am thrilled to see another good report about SONG...our flight to Orlando has just 6 empty seats left...one of them in our row...can our good fortune last...we will see.

Can't wait to hear more...

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Tracy

You can tell your DH that I'm one of those "geeks" who loved the in-flight feature where you could see your speed, where you were, and at what altitude you're at! Aah, the engineering geek in me

Sounds like a wonderful start to your vacation! The tea sounds so relaxing, and what a great dinner at the Yachtsman!

Hurry back with more

[LizardCop]

Great Start Folks....

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[img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/23/23_13_19.gif[/img] [img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/23/23_31_4.gif[/img]

[my2girls]

Great Start!!! Dh sounds like he would get along great with my DH - 2 naps in the same day!!!!

Can't wait to read more!!1

Kristine

[LisaJ]

Great trip report so far. I like that you have written it in a legible paragraph form - it's easier on my eyes and brain!

(My choir director at church has Meniere's and my heart goes out to you. I hope you have a great doctor who stays on top of it all).

[luvnwdwgal]

Great start!! Looking forward to your next installment!!

[Tara O'Hara]

What a terrific start to your report, Tracy! I love the way you guys planned a relaxing first day!! It sounds like the Grand Floridian tea was just the ticket to put you in vacation mode! Your dinner also sounds delicious and I love the comments from your hubby!

[buckysmom]

Awesome start, and I love the way y'all are using different colors so I can tell who is who!

[Mr. Tracy M.]

I object! Sleeping on the flight down doesn't qualify as a 'nap' and therefore I only had one nap that day.

Don't ask me who made that rule up.

[Jennifer2003]

I love the different colors in the report! And the different tones are great too.

Can't wait for more!

Jennifer

[goofy4goofy]

Great start!!! I'm loving it!!!

Kelly

[pparm]

Sounds like a wonderful, relaxing day! Can't wait to read about the rest.
Paula ºOº

[Tracy M.]

9/20
Our first full day!

I’m an early morning riser and DH gets to be one too at WDW.

<font color="blue">(blah)</font>

The alarm went off at about 7am so after taking a shower I went in search of coffee and bagels to start encouraging the DH to wake up (not that he had any choice in the matter). I usually try and give him about ½ hour with his coffee to wake up, if I don’t keep an eye on him at home he’ll go back to sleep in a heartbeat.

I’m a Disney nut through and through but since we always go to WDW in the off season we don’t do the early morning hour but instead head to a different park and this day’s park was MGM.

About 8:15 we left the Beach Club and wandered over to the slow boat to MGM. We most likely could have walked faster to MGM but one of the many games we played this trip was trying to avoid blowing my hip back out. I have outer hip bursitis on my right side, which through cortisone shots and 2 mos of physical therapy this summer was mostly resolved but still always just lurks below the surface waiting to flair up.

Even the ride on the slow boat was entertaining, that morning’s staff were these 2 older gentlemen that kept with them bags of bread for the various feathered creatures on the lake. The ducks would follow us from stop to stop and even would climb up on the front of the boat each time it stopped. It felt like something out of The Birds. At MGM there were even some Egyptian Geese that had taken up residence at the boat landing getting into the act.

Before we got into the park we had to go through the usual security check which seems a bit silly for the usual small bags &amp; waist bags people bring into the park, it’s not like you go through a metal detector. If you wanted to get something into the park you could just stick it in your pocket.

We arrived at the park entrance just a few min before 9am so we wandered towards ToT &amp; RnRC. Once the rope drops we walked onto the RnRC and sat in the front which is basically the ultimate trial by fire for me to see how much my balance will be affected by the rides due to my Meniere’s disease. Much to my surprise while I needed help getting off of RnRC and support from my loving DH for a minute afterwards the coaster affected me a lot less than I expected it to. After RnRC we did ToT which is one of the best themed rides IMO. ToT didn’t affect me too badly so by about 9:20 we had ridden our favorite and potentially most problematic rides.

<font color="blue">(The one-two punch of these two rides left me a bit motion sick. I’d recommend doing something tamer in between rides like this if you are prone to motion sickness.)</font>

The crowds for our entire trip were almost non existent, we had one day at the MK where SM &amp; TM had 10-15 min waits but that was it. Everything else was pretty much walk on the entire time and if we ran into an unexpected wait we just grabbed a fast pass and did something else till our fastpass window opened.

Next we hit the Great Movie ride, ST and the backlot tour before heading back to the hotel for lunch at Beaches and Cream a nap. We were asked to take part in the backlot tour movie scene but declined since neither of us really felt like getting that wet.

<font color="blue">(Beaches and Cream burger’s rule. That is all.)</font>

After our refreshing nap we wandered over to Epcot since we had dinner reservations at the Coral Reef. We did an initial walk around the world showcase (and in typical WDW fashion saw the china used in the Garden View Tea for sale in the UK) and then hit HISTA and Ellen’s Energy Adventure. This was our first trip back to WDW since they changed the preshow for HISTA.

We had a 5:50 dinner reservation at the Coral Reef http://allearsnet.com/menu/menu_cr.htm which has always been one of our favorite restaurants despite the mixed reviews you often see posted. At home we don’t drink a lot of alcohol but at WDW in addition to being a 12 day eating fest we also tend to consume a decent amount of booze with our meals. This trip’s theme seemed to be the week (or 12 days that is) of the martini. I started off with an outrageously good Hazelnut martini (I’m a huge mudslide fan) and George had a reef runner.

To start off dinner we both had the Lobster Soup which was as good as we remembered. You really could make a meal out of a bowl of the soup and bread (and we have done so before). For dinner I had The Grilled Atlantic Salmon and George had 2 appetizers as his meal – the shrimp cocktail and the crap cake. After all that we didn’t have room for desert and rolled out of the Coral Reef to stroll the World Showcase till Illuminations.

<font color="blue">(How can you knock the Coral Reef? The food is excellent, the atmosphere is completely unique, and the location is prime. Other than the pricey entrée’s, I don’t see what’s not to like.)</font>

My low sodium diet took a beating on this trip and the DH keeps threatening to tell my ENT on me! (bad Tracy! BAD!) I just tried to drink water from the time I woke up till the time I went to sleep to try and flush out the extra sodium from my system. There was no way I was going to keep at 1500mg a day without a lot of extra effort. My Meniere’s didn’t flair up though so there’s not too much the DH can tell on me about .

We did both the River of Time and the Maelstrom on our journey around the world showcase and at about 8:30 got frozen margarita’s from Mexico and found a comfy bench to rest on till Illuminations started.

You do meet some of the friendliest people at WDW. While we were waiting for the show to start by Norway a woman came over to us and told us about the almond pretzels in the bakery and told us we just had to get one before our trip was over. Unfortunately we never did get near the bakery again when we were hungry so that’s on the top of the list of things to do next trip (yeah, I know the DH will have a few comments on that one ).

<font color="blue">(I’m sure the planning has begun already. Add OCD to her list of medical issues )</font>

Illuminations was spectacular as usual and a great way to end our first full day at WDW.

[my2girls]

This is the rule my DH follows - if you sleep longer than 20 minutes, albeit car, plane, train, boat, yada,yada,yada, it's considered a nap!

But I won't say anything.

Kristine