MichelleTO
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 13, 1999
Pre-trip Background and Day 1 Long Drive Road
“We were not doing any more large Disney trips” says DH after our last trip in 2011 – “we could be going to Europe for the cost of what we pay at Disney.” Yes dear – guess he doesn’t know secretly I have been looking at Disneyland Paris. So back in Jan 2015 DD lands an International College Exchange placement for the summer and that pretty much trumped this statement, as we couldn’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of the discounts, free tickets etc. Besides someone has to go pick her up – right?
Back up a few months to ICEP drop off
She gets her placement for May to August and has to arrive the long weekend in May – perfect! So off we go to Buffalo along with Grandma (made it a 3 generation girls weekend). A stop at US customs, they called us into secondary to review her J1 Visa and tell us we were supposed to notify Nexxus - oops hadn't done that but luckily a Nexxus person was there and assisted us. Early flt. to MCO, picked up a rental car and headed to Pop Century then to Epcot for 12 hours!!! And our fist Magic band experience - loved it.
Next day got her checked in with Disney and all settled into to her Disney digs for 3 months after a few Walmart and Walgreen stops. We stayed at Pop Century two nights while she got all settled. This was the first time for Grandma at this resort and she liked it, I have been here a couple of short stays during a conference and then as well during the Marathon week. This was the first time I actually sat by the pool. I must say it was a great stay and we were very impressed with everything except for the huge lineups at luggage check on our departure morning. Most impressed with the selection of food at the food court, I didn’t remember that many healthy choices. Took the opportunity to walk through Art of Animation – sadly was not impressed with the feel of the resort with the buildings being boxes with no outside balconies. Theming was nice but will not be a place I will stay but can see the draw for young families. I had been at Pop in 2009 and remember looking at AOA from the bridge while it was in the abandoned construction phase. So nice to have this all completed and the running loop around the lake is great! Time for us to leave her had a cry and kiss goodbye as DD starts a dream job in Magic Kingdom. I am certain I was more excited!!
Family Road Trip - 2 day drive
Fast FWD to August. DD has had a great 3 months as a CP! All of us living vicariously through her experiences. We had decided early on, or I had, that we would take advantage of the discounts offered to CPs and plan a family trip around picking her up. So family road trip and a drive to Florida her we come. We pack up the SUV - with the roof carrier to ensure we have space for her stuff. Lots of arguing over packing - argh DH always wasn't to share a suitcase and leaves me no room.
We planned to do a two day drive down and back and to pass the time downloaded the DIS podcasts to listen on our way. BINGE DIS!!!! We did this on a road trip last winter and loved this way of getting caught up on any shows we missed. Great drive down binge listening to the gang. Really loved this way of listening as we got all the jokes that you would only understand if you listen to the shows back to back. We were actually running out of drive time and I wanted to listen to more of the universal shows we loaded in case I missed any great info before we got there. Loved the Disneyland 7 + 7, "remember go to Disneyland", yes Pete we are sold! That's going to be another road trip - don't tell DH. The two DS in the back seats had various electronics plugged in so didn't even realize how far we had driven until they stepped out into 38c heat in SC. Now it has been a hot summer at home but this was steamy! Cant wait till we hit FL, and we did expect this given it is August. Day 1 was a quick 15 hour of drive for an overnight in SC followed by a short 4 hours on day 2 to get us to MCO. We did our obligatory Walmart run in Jacksonville when we had to make a gas stop as I didn't want to endure the craziness of the MCO Turkey lake Rd. location. Overall the road trip time flew by - much easier now the kids are really adults - 17 and 18 and basically need the odd food, water and a place to plug in their laptops etc. Then all of us sudden we were in MCO and at the DDs apt.
Goodbye Patterson hello Poly DVC Studio
Packed DD up from the apt. which was really quite nice, she lived in Patterson with 4 other wonderful CPs. She still had a few days of work left but decided she would rather stay with us at The Poly rather than at her apt. go figure. After a few tense moments and cursing by DH trying to pack all her stuff into the SUV - yikes it was full! We were off to our vacation digs at the Poly DVC Studio!!
“We were not doing any more large Disney trips” says DH after our last trip in 2011 – “we could be going to Europe for the cost of what we pay at Disney.” Yes dear – guess he doesn’t know secretly I have been looking at Disneyland Paris. So back in Jan 2015 DD lands an International College Exchange placement for the summer and that pretty much trumped this statement, as we couldn’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of the discounts, free tickets etc. Besides someone has to go pick her up – right?
Back up a few months to ICEP drop off
She gets her placement for May to August and has to arrive the long weekend in May – perfect! So off we go to Buffalo along with Grandma (made it a 3 generation girls weekend). A stop at US customs, they called us into secondary to review her J1 Visa and tell us we were supposed to notify Nexxus - oops hadn't done that but luckily a Nexxus person was there and assisted us. Early flt. to MCO, picked up a rental car and headed to Pop Century then to Epcot for 12 hours!!! And our fist Magic band experience - loved it.
Next day got her checked in with Disney and all settled into to her Disney digs for 3 months after a few Walmart and Walgreen stops. We stayed at Pop Century two nights while she got all settled. This was the first time for Grandma at this resort and she liked it, I have been here a couple of short stays during a conference and then as well during the Marathon week. This was the first time I actually sat by the pool. I must say it was a great stay and we were very impressed with everything except for the huge lineups at luggage check on our departure morning. Most impressed with the selection of food at the food court, I didn’t remember that many healthy choices. Took the opportunity to walk through Art of Animation – sadly was not impressed with the feel of the resort with the buildings being boxes with no outside balconies. Theming was nice but will not be a place I will stay but can see the draw for young families. I had been at Pop in 2009 and remember looking at AOA from the bridge while it was in the abandoned construction phase. So nice to have this all completed and the running loop around the lake is great! Time for us to leave her had a cry and kiss goodbye as DD starts a dream job in Magic Kingdom. I am certain I was more excited!!
Family Road Trip - 2 day drive
Fast FWD to August. DD has had a great 3 months as a CP! All of us living vicariously through her experiences. We had decided early on, or I had, that we would take advantage of the discounts offered to CPs and plan a family trip around picking her up. So family road trip and a drive to Florida her we come. We pack up the SUV - with the roof carrier to ensure we have space for her stuff. Lots of arguing over packing - argh DH always wasn't to share a suitcase and leaves me no room.
We planned to do a two day drive down and back and to pass the time downloaded the DIS podcasts to listen on our way. BINGE DIS!!!! We did this on a road trip last winter and loved this way of getting caught up on any shows we missed. Great drive down binge listening to the gang. Really loved this way of listening as we got all the jokes that you would only understand if you listen to the shows back to back. We were actually running out of drive time and I wanted to listen to more of the universal shows we loaded in case I missed any great info before we got there. Loved the Disneyland 7 + 7, "remember go to Disneyland", yes Pete we are sold! That's going to be another road trip - don't tell DH. The two DS in the back seats had various electronics plugged in so didn't even realize how far we had driven until they stepped out into 38c heat in SC. Now it has been a hot summer at home but this was steamy! Cant wait till we hit FL, and we did expect this given it is August. Day 1 was a quick 15 hour of drive for an overnight in SC followed by a short 4 hours on day 2 to get us to MCO. We did our obligatory Walmart run in Jacksonville when we had to make a gas stop as I didn't want to endure the craziness of the MCO Turkey lake Rd. location. Overall the road trip time flew by - much easier now the kids are really adults - 17 and 18 and basically need the odd food, water and a place to plug in their laptops etc. Then all of us sudden we were in MCO and at the DDs apt.
Goodbye Patterson hello Poly DVC Studio
Packed DD up from the apt. which was really quite nice, she lived in Patterson with 4 other wonderful CPs. She still had a few days of work left but decided she would rather stay with us at The Poly rather than at her apt. go figure. After a few tense moments and cursing by DH trying to pack all her stuff into the SUV - yikes it was full! We were off to our vacation digs at the Poly DVC Studio!!
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