Disney Trip Review!!!

Prior to Arrival:
We booked a last minute trip to Disney. We used Mouse Made Simple and decided to stay for 4 nights at the Port Orleans Riverside. We were going to do two days at the parks. One at Animal Kingdom and one at Magic Kingdom. We took advantage of the Give a Day Get a Day promotion and volunteered a few weeks before our stay at the Boys and Girls Club of Lorain County. We were only there for a few hours and had two free tickets to the park. We also chose to use the Disney Dining Plan. This included 1 quick service, 1 snack and 1 table service per night of stay. This worked out really well for us.

We booked three character dinners: 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella, Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Donald’s Safari Breakfast. We were pretty happy getting these as we were only a few weeks out. A few days before we left we were watching the weather and it didn’t look great on Saturday when we had planned on going to Magic Kingdom. We decided to move all our reservations around and lost the Crystal Palace, but we were able to still go to the other ones. The weather also looked very cold so I had to repack everyone from shorts and t-shirts to pants and long sleeves.

Day 1:

Departure:
We had a 4:45 am wake up call Thursday morning. We were up and out of the house at 5:45 on our way to Orlando. Check in was pretty easy and we were on our way. We bought CJ a seat because he is such a squirmer. We also brought his car seat. This is the first time we had done this. He did great. The only issue was him kicking the seat in front of us. I was worried about this and I did the best I could, but I think the guy in front of us was a bit annoyed. Oh well :)

And this is where things went south. We arrived in Orlando and followed the signs and what we thought we heard to catch the shuttle. Jim was heading into the Orlando office for work. We got him all checked in for his Alamo car rental and headed outside to catch the bus. Well we were in totally the wrong spot. The guy was really nice though and said he would drive us where we needed to be. I think he saw all the stuff I had to carry by myself and felt sorry for me. Jim headed off to work for the afternoon and I was on my own. Once we actually got to the B Terminal where Magical Express was the check in was pretty easy. We were first in line for our bus and had to wait about 10-15 minutes for the next shuttle. I got the kids and all our stuff (our two pieces of luggage went straight to the resort which was really nice). I had two kids, a stroller, carseat, camera, diaper bag, and two other carryons. Yeah, crazy I know! We got on the bus and the driver said it would be about 30 minutes. Perfect. It was getting close to lunch and CJ just pooped his pants. We were in the first row. As we pulled out I knew things were going to be going south. Our driver was going about 20 mph and everyone (including other Disney busses) were passing us. Then he proceeded to just drive around and around and around. We see him miss the turn to our resort and then he gets the map out. Long story short it took us over an hour. The kids were crazy and CJ stunk to high heaven. After we finally got to our resort he told one of the passengers that that was the route that he supposed to take. Uh I don’t think so. We don’t go by the same thing 3 times. Don’t thing that is in Disney’s efficiency plan. So we go to check in and the kids were crazy at this point. Our room wasn’t ready, but they said they would text me when it was. I went to change CJ and came back. I thought well maybe I would buy the extra day for the park for Savannah. Well I can’t find the cards for our room. I went and told them that I didn’t get them. So they were looking all around. Well they ended up being in the stroller. They fell out of the binder. Jim called to check in and I just broke down crying. I was so stressed at this point. But I think it helped because the rest of the day was better. I dumped our stuff with the concierge and took the kids to lunch. Lunch was pretty good and then we headed to the playground. Thought I would let them run some of the extra energy out. We played for a while and then I thought I would head back to the front desk to check on our room. As soon as I got there we got the text. Woo hoo! We could get into our room and take a nap. They accommodated our requests for building 85 in Port Orleans Riverside. We also asked for ground floor and adjoining rooms with Jim’s parents and all were met. We got to the room and all went down for a rest. Of course within 15 minutes of laying down our luggage arrived, but the kids went back down. Jim’s parents arrived around 5 that evening and Jim started to make his way back. He got lost and was a bit cranky. He didn’t make it back in time to meet us in the room so he met us at dinner.

We had reservations at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian the first night for the Cinderella dinner. We decided to drive since Jim’s parents had a car. Well I started out by telling them the wrong directions. While they do have great signs here at Disney they do not make it very easy to turn around if you do miss a turn. Well after all of that we finally made it there and Jim was waiting for us. We put our name in as we had a reservation and were seated within minutes. Savannah was all dolled up in her princess outfit. They took a picture of all of us and we were seated. We did not get in the main dining room, but it was fine. We saw Cinderella, Prince Charming, the evil stepmother and the two step sisters. While I did bring my camera I totally forgot the kids autograph books. Looks like I will be signing those myself  The hard part with character dinners is you really can leave your seat all that often as you might miss someone. Dinner was pretty good. Nothing fancy, but good. CJ went to town with the mac and cheese. Savannah loved all of the characters and even danced with one of the stepsisters. We didn’t end up buying the picture ($29.99), but it was pretty good. We all had a few desserts and were done. We had a 7:20 seating and it was nice being there a bit later. It started to clear out as we were leaving which was nice. We drove back and headed to bed as we had an early wake up call.

Day 2:

In the middle of the night our power went out for about an hour. For a family that always sleeps with fan it was soooo quiet! The kids slept through it, but I was awake until it came back on. Still not sure what happened, but I think there were quite a few places that were out listening to people talking. The alarm went off at 6:20 as we were at the bus stop around 7 am. We had a 8:05 reservation with Donald at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. I left a $5 bill and two toys in the room before we left with a note to leave them for the kids from Mickey. I will get to that later.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom early and were the only ones on the bus. We turned in our Give a Day Get a Day vouchers for a day pass and got volunteer buttons. People were thanking us all day for helping out. Was kind of nice. They let us into the park a little before 8 am (the park doesn’t open until 9). It was really chilly! We all had layers on and the kids even wore their hats. We headed all the way to the back of the park to the restaurant. We again got our picture taken with Donald and in we went. We had a table in one of the side rooms and it was nice and big. Was really for 8 so we had plenty of room. They told us when the characters were at one of the tables to not go anywhere. We all headed up to the buffet and picked up tons of goodies. The food was really good here for breakfast. The Mickey waffles were the best! Once again the characters were great. CJ still wouldn’t go to any of them, but Savannah loved them. This time I remembered to bring their books to sign. We saw Mickey (which was a surprise and was great!), Daisy and Goofy. Savannah loved it. After breakfast we headed straight back to the Safari. There was really no wait so we actually ended up riding it twice. I rode on the right side the first time and the left the second. Most of the animals were on the left so CJ and I got a better view the second time. We then went around Animal Kingdom for the day. We took the train to the back of the park and saw Pocahontas, Rafiki, and Jimeny Cricket. It was great because there weren’t any lines to see them. We saw two shows – The Lion King and Nemo. The Lion King was great! CJ took a nap through Nemo. We used one of our snacks and got a pretzel. Savannah got ice cream of course. Jim’s parents took the kids for us and Jim and I rode Everst. The wait was 25 minutes. It was pretty cool because you go up this big hill and think you are going to go down only to show that it is a dead and then you go backwards. It was a nice ride. After that we headed back and didn’t last for the parade. It was a long day. Savannah fell asleep waiting for the bust (which was less than 5 minutes and wasn’t full). So both kids had about 40 minute naps today and did pretty well.

We came back to the room and I was all excited to find what Mousekeeping did with the toys I left. Well I came back and no towel animals, no toys and no $5. Hmmm, where did that go. I called the front desk after dinner to complain. She asked how much the toys were worth. I said they were only $1 each, but it was more the fact that she took them and the money. She said she would talk to them the next day and get back with me. She called later that night telling me she would credit our account for $10. So that was nice, but now the toys I brought for the rest of the week I guess will just be from me and not Mickey  We ended up just doing a Quick Service at the hotel. We all had made to order pasta and it was delish! Also had Apple Pie ala mode for dessert. Yummy!

Day 2:

Well today was kind of a bust. CJ awoke at 6 am! That was quite early for another night of not sleeping very well. We just played around in the room for a while and then around 9 am he fell asleep. We let him sleep until a little after 10 when we were going to catch the boat to Downtown Disney. When we left the room it started sprinkling. By the time we got to the boat it was pouring. We were so excited when we booked this resort because they had a boat. Kind of disappointed because we didn’t really get to enjoy it. It was cold and rainy. We arrived at Downtown Disney and headed straight to lunch. We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich. It was very good just busy as everyone was trying to get out of the rain. We ended up only hitting a couple of stores and calling it a day. The kids weren’t cooperating and it was just nasty out. We took the boat back to the resort and stopped at the dining hall for a snack. We headed back to the room and a nice surprise was waiting for us. Mousekeeping put these really cool towel animals in our room. A nice makeup for yesterday. We all took a nap and then it was ready to head to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner. We had a 4:40 reservation at Boma which is an African Themed Buffet. It was really good. My favorites were the Carrot Ginger soup, FaFa (sweet and mashed potatoes together), and all of the desserts! We walked around the grounds afterwards as they have animals all around. What a neat resort. We headed back to our room and called it a night.

Day 3:

We were up early to head to Magic Kingdom. We headed to the Quick Service at the Resort and had breakfast before we headed out. We went to the bus and got to MK before they opened. It was kind of neat to see the show they put on as you were waiting to go in. Jim’s dad was able to get a handicapped pass due to his neuropathy. This was key with the kids as we didn’t have to wait in any lines! We took the train to Frontierland and rode a few rides. Then we headed to the back of the park around 10 am to see the princesses and fairies. We got through the Princess line pretty quickly, then Jim’s mom got in the Fairy line which we were told went slow. They weren’t kidding. It was sooooo slow! We waited in the Mickey and Minnie line and came back and still waited close to 30-45 minutes. Not sure the fairies were worth it, but Savannah enjoyed it. We then had lunch and rode a few more rides. Oh and there were strollers everywhere!!! And watch out for the stroller fairies. You may leave it in one spot to go ride a ride and come back and it is in a totally different spot! Sometimes very hard to find. CJ fell asleep during one of the shows so it was nice. He got a good hour or so nap in which helped us not have to leave the park. We watched the parade at 3 pm and headed out of the park to the Wave in the Contemporary. This was the only sit down dinner we at that wasn’t a buffet. It was nice to be served and the kids did pretty well. After dinner we headed back to MK rode one ride and then it was time for the fireworks. We had a great seat for the fireworks. Savannah loved them, but CJ not so much. We actually got out of the park much quicker than I thought we would. We were on the first bus back to the resort. We finished packing up and were in bed by 9:30. We got up early the next morning as we had to drop of our bags for check-in by 8 am. It was so nice and easy. You could check your bags and get your boarding pass right at the resort. What a convenience! This worked out great. We were on the bus and at the airport in plenty of time. Security wasn’t bad and we were on our way back to Ohio. All in all we had a great trip!