Disney DayDreamer
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2010
First off, this is my first Trip report, or pre-trip report for that matter. I've enjoyed reading so many others, I thought it might be nice and fun to do one of my own.
First off, this will be my 6th trip to Disney. My first trip was when I was 11 years old, August 1986. It was only Magic Kingdom and Epcot back then. We spent a few days visiting the Orlando area, and a few days at the parks. We stayed off site, in a place that had an indoor pool with a waterfall. I thought that was awesome. The next trip I would go on was June 1999, and don't ask me why, but even though I just got married in Sept 1998, we booked this vacation with my parents, and I guess to save money we even shared a room with them. I know, what was I thinking! We stayed at the All-Star Music that year.
Our next trip to Disney would be Sept 8 - 15, 2001 - yep that's right we were in Disney World on September 11th - THE September 11th! That trip we booked with our best friends, the one and only trip we took with them. Not that we wouldn't want to go on vacation with them again, it's just never worked out yet that we've been able to go with them. That was before we both had kids. It wasn't the best week either. Even though the parks weren't very crowded, which was good, it rained every day, and by the end of the week, a tropical storm rolled in and they almost had to shut down Disney World twice in one week. In fact, September 11th, probably was the sunniest, least rainy day of that week, and that was the day we got kicked out of the park at noon. We were in Animal Kingdom, sitting down to watch the 11:30am flights of wonder show. We had left the room that morning early for breakfast and were at the park by 8am. And back then, not every single person carried a cellphone with them, like they do now. We had gone on the safari ride, walked through all the animal exhibits, we even have video of us petting goats at the exact time a plane was flying into the world trade towers. We had no idea, about anything until 11:30, and even then we didn't find out right away. We were sitting down for the 11:30 flights of wonder show when the came over the load speaker and said "Due to circumstances beyond our control, the 11:30am Flights of Wonder show will be caneled." We figured some of the birds weren't cooperating or something. Then we stopped at the rest room, by the time we exited, I realized we were like the only people around. I pointed this out to my best friend, this was really odd. Then the guys were waiting for us, so we met up with then and said "What now?" and that's when a CM told us the park was closing and we must exit now. "What, are you kidding?" It's only 11:45am, and it's bright and sunny. That's when we said, "An animal or something must have gotten out. Should we go to Magic Kingdom?" Then someone with a cell phone said to us "No, didn't you hear all of Disney World is closing. They are bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentegon." What? Well it was almost right. Then we stood forever waiting for a bus back to the All-Star Movies. Just about every other resort had left and the All-Star bus stop was filled. They were sending buses but it just wasn't getting everyone out fast enough. We were lucky to get a plane home that trip though, Spet 15th was the first day they started flying out of Orlando, even though other airports opened the 14th, The tropical rainstorm delayed additional flights. Rental cars were nearly gone that week. We did make our regular flight home and in fact there was nearly nobody on that flight. They announced that if you didn't like where you were sitting feel free to move, because this was it.
Our next trip wasn't until August 2008, my daughter was 5 now, and that's when my husband said we could go back to Disney, when she was old enough to remember and enjoy it -
That's a joke. Then he went and invited his mom, dad and older sister to join us. So I went and invited my cousin, who is more like a younger brother and happens to be my daughter's god-father to join us. He had just graduated high school and it was his graduation present. I'm so glad he came along. I would have gone insane without him. In in laws a nice enough, and they are very generous, but it is so hard to be around my SIL 24/7. She is 2 1/2 years older than my husband but still lives at home with mom and dad. She can be so bossy at times. And I think since she doesn't have a family of her own, she tries to control ours. Besides the in-laws trying to plan out and control every moment of our trip, our 5 year old daughter, whom my husband says was now old enough to go and enjoy Disney was afraid of EVERYTHING. She was afraid of all the shows, even Monsters Inc. She was afraid of even Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Small World. She had always liked boats before, but for some reason this trip she decided she was going to be afraid of boats, even ones that were in water so shallow, I could touch the bottom. It wasn't until later in that trip, she decided, Small World wasn't so bad and she wanted to go back, then she just wanted to keep going on that ride. The only thing she loved that trip was the swimming pools at the hotel (All-Star Movies) The characters, especially the princesses and Small World.
July 2009 was her 6th birthday and Disney was running the promo for free entrance on your birthday. Well my husband and I still had free passes they were passing out from our Sept 11th trip, he hadn't used them for the 2008 trip because we got a package deal with 7 day tickets, the difference in a 5 day to a 7 day wasn't worth using our free tickets for, so we decided to save them. This time, my husband couldn't go with us, so my parents decided to join my daughter and me. That was an AWESOME trip. Maybe it was the fact it was my family, maybe it was the fact we didn't go long enough to get tired and frustrated with each other, whatever it was it was Magic.
NO less than 150 people wished my daughter a happy birthday. She got picked to fight Captain Jack himself, she got picked to get a tiger made for her from the candy lady in Japan (even the airport security broke it later) and she got to ride Test Track a second time (without waiting). She loved SOOOO many more rides this time around. Everything about that trip was awesome.
That brings me to this trip. My husband and I will have been married 12 years this September. We were trying to plan a small trip to Vegas for the both of us, however we just couldn't get the airfare we wanted. And by the time we found a good flight, our hotel went up in price. It just wasn't meant to be. Then Southwest had an anniversary sale, for Airfare $79 each way to Orlando Sept 7 - Nov 17, and Disney happened to be offering Free dining during that time. So we decided to look into a trip, just the 3 of us in Sept. I wasn't happy about taking our 7 year old daugther out of school, but the $1720 package for roundtrip (non-stop 2 bags per person) airfare, 6 day park tickets, and 5 nights hotel and free quick-service dining was too good to pass up. My husband finally said yes, and I booked. Later on, when flights went even cheaper I was able to rebook our flight and add a day. So now we are staying 6 nights, and we got a $90 credit to use later. My husband still remembers his last trip with her when she was afraid of everything and doesn't believe how much better she did last year, so we can't wait to show him. Plus in 7 years that my daughter has been alive, this is our VERY FIRST ever vacation, just the 3 of us. Usually we go to the beach or somewhere with other family, but besides a day trip here or there, we've never gone anywhere together just the 3 of us. Plus my husband works long hours and 6- 7 days a week so this will be the most time we've got to spend with him in ages. That could be good or bad. We shall see.
Anyways, the only things we have planned this trip, since we are on the quick-service plan. Is Thursday Sept 16 - breakfast in the castle with Cinderella's Royal Table (we did Askerhus in Epcot in 2008), and Wishes Dessert Party that night. We also booked the MNSSHP for Saturday, Sept 18We've never been to one of these ever before, and my daughter loves Halloween, dressing up, and trick or treating, so this should be a real treat. She already picked her costume, she wants to be Tinkerbell. Other than that, that's our only plans for sure. I'd like to take her to pick a pearl, we've never done that before. And She didn't get to see Fantasmic yet, so we plan on doing that Sunday, the 19th, the last day of our trip, it's only offered on the 16th and 19th while we are there.
So stay tuned... just 33 more days, and we are off on our 1st family trip, just the 3 of us!
First off, this will be my 6th trip to Disney. My first trip was when I was 11 years old, August 1986. It was only Magic Kingdom and Epcot back then. We spent a few days visiting the Orlando area, and a few days at the parks. We stayed off site, in a place that had an indoor pool with a waterfall. I thought that was awesome. The next trip I would go on was June 1999, and don't ask me why, but even though I just got married in Sept 1998, we booked this vacation with my parents, and I guess to save money we even shared a room with them. I know, what was I thinking! We stayed at the All-Star Music that year.
Our next trip to Disney would be Sept 8 - 15, 2001 - yep that's right we were in Disney World on September 11th - THE September 11th! That trip we booked with our best friends, the one and only trip we took with them. Not that we wouldn't want to go on vacation with them again, it's just never worked out yet that we've been able to go with them. That was before we both had kids. It wasn't the best week either. Even though the parks weren't very crowded, which was good, it rained every day, and by the end of the week, a tropical storm rolled in and they almost had to shut down Disney World twice in one week. In fact, September 11th, probably was the sunniest, least rainy day of that week, and that was the day we got kicked out of the park at noon. We were in Animal Kingdom, sitting down to watch the 11:30am flights of wonder show. We had left the room that morning early for breakfast and were at the park by 8am. And back then, not every single person carried a cellphone with them, like they do now. We had gone on the safari ride, walked through all the animal exhibits, we even have video of us petting goats at the exact time a plane was flying into the world trade towers. We had no idea, about anything until 11:30, and even then we didn't find out right away. We were sitting down for the 11:30 flights of wonder show when the came over the load speaker and said "Due to circumstances beyond our control, the 11:30am Flights of Wonder show will be caneled." We figured some of the birds weren't cooperating or something. Then we stopped at the rest room, by the time we exited, I realized we were like the only people around. I pointed this out to my best friend, this was really odd. Then the guys were waiting for us, so we met up with then and said "What now?" and that's when a CM told us the park was closing and we must exit now. "What, are you kidding?" It's only 11:45am, and it's bright and sunny. That's when we said, "An animal or something must have gotten out. Should we go to Magic Kingdom?" Then someone with a cell phone said to us "No, didn't you hear all of Disney World is closing. They are bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentegon." What? Well it was almost right. Then we stood forever waiting for a bus back to the All-Star Movies. Just about every other resort had left and the All-Star bus stop was filled. They were sending buses but it just wasn't getting everyone out fast enough. We were lucky to get a plane home that trip though, Spet 15th was the first day they started flying out of Orlando, even though other airports opened the 14th, The tropical rainstorm delayed additional flights. Rental cars were nearly gone that week. We did make our regular flight home and in fact there was nearly nobody on that flight. They announced that if you didn't like where you were sitting feel free to move, because this was it.
Our next trip wasn't until August 2008, my daughter was 5 now, and that's when my husband said we could go back to Disney, when she was old enough to remember and enjoy it -
That's a joke. Then he went and invited his mom, dad and older sister to join us. So I went and invited my cousin, who is more like a younger brother and happens to be my daughter's god-father to join us. He had just graduated high school and it was his graduation present. I'm so glad he came along. I would have gone insane without him. In in laws a nice enough, and they are very generous, but it is so hard to be around my SIL 24/7. She is 2 1/2 years older than my husband but still lives at home with mom and dad. She can be so bossy at times. And I think since she doesn't have a family of her own, she tries to control ours. Besides the in-laws trying to plan out and control every moment of our trip, our 5 year old daughter, whom my husband says was now old enough to go and enjoy Disney was afraid of EVERYTHING. She was afraid of all the shows, even Monsters Inc. She was afraid of even Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Small World. She had always liked boats before, but for some reason this trip she decided she was going to be afraid of boats, even ones that were in water so shallow, I could touch the bottom. It wasn't until later in that trip, she decided, Small World wasn't so bad and she wanted to go back, then she just wanted to keep going on that ride. The only thing she loved that trip was the swimming pools at the hotel (All-Star Movies) The characters, especially the princesses and Small World. July 2009 was her 6th birthday and Disney was running the promo for free entrance on your birthday. Well my husband and I still had free passes they were passing out from our Sept 11th trip, he hadn't used them for the 2008 trip because we got a package deal with 7 day tickets, the difference in a 5 day to a 7 day wasn't worth using our free tickets for, so we decided to save them. This time, my husband couldn't go with us, so my parents decided to join my daughter and me. That was an AWESOME trip. Maybe it was the fact it was my family, maybe it was the fact we didn't go long enough to get tired and frustrated with each other, whatever it was it was Magic.
NO less than 150 people wished my daughter a happy birthday. She got picked to fight Captain Jack himself, she got picked to get a tiger made for her from the candy lady in Japan (even the airport security broke it later) and she got to ride Test Track a second time (without waiting). She loved SOOOO many more rides this time around. Everything about that trip was awesome. That brings me to this trip. My husband and I will have been married 12 years this September. We were trying to plan a small trip to Vegas for the both of us, however we just couldn't get the airfare we wanted. And by the time we found a good flight, our hotel went up in price. It just wasn't meant to be. Then Southwest had an anniversary sale, for Airfare $79 each way to Orlando Sept 7 - Nov 17, and Disney happened to be offering Free dining during that time. So we decided to look into a trip, just the 3 of us in Sept. I wasn't happy about taking our 7 year old daugther out of school, but the $1720 package for roundtrip (non-stop 2 bags per person) airfare, 6 day park tickets, and 5 nights hotel and free quick-service dining was too good to pass up. My husband finally said yes, and I booked. Later on, when flights went even cheaper I was able to rebook our flight and add a day. So now we are staying 6 nights, and we got a $90 credit to use later. My husband still remembers his last trip with her when she was afraid of everything and doesn't believe how much better she did last year, so we can't wait to show him. Plus in 7 years that my daughter has been alive, this is our VERY FIRST ever vacation, just the 3 of us. Usually we go to the beach or somewhere with other family, but besides a day trip here or there, we've never gone anywhere together just the 3 of us. Plus my husband works long hours and 6- 7 days a week so this will be the most time we've got to spend with him in ages. That could be good or bad. We shall see.
Anyways, the only things we have planned this trip, since we are on the quick-service plan. Is Thursday Sept 16 - breakfast in the castle with Cinderella's Royal Table (we did Askerhus in Epcot in 2008), and Wishes Dessert Party that night. We also booked the MNSSHP for Saturday, Sept 18We've never been to one of these ever before, and my daughter loves Halloween, dressing up, and trick or treating, so this should be a real treat. She already picked her costume, she wants to be Tinkerbell. Other than that, that's our only plans for sure. I'd like to take her to pick a pearl, we've never done that before. And She didn't get to see Fantasmic yet, so we plan on doing that Sunday, the 19th, the last day of our trip, it's only offered on the 16th and 19th while we are there.
So stay tuned... just 33 more days, and we are off on our 1st family trip, just the 3 of us!
