Flowers, Food, and Family - mom and dad FINALLY come to Disney with me! update 6/22

librarygeek

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 1, 2011
Hey everyone!! Welcome to my TR! We just arrived home this past Sunday, and I'm not ready to join the real world yet - so the best way to relive the Disney magic is by writing a trip report!

Index
About Us - 1st post
Beginning the Trip
Downtown Disney
Magic Kingdom - morning
Magic Kingdom - afternoon
Magic Kingdom - evening
Hollywood Studios - morning
Hollywood Studios - afternoon/evening
Epcot - Morning
Epcot - Afternoon
Epcot - Evening
Islands of Adventure
Back to Epcot
Animal Kingdom - Morning
Animal Kingdom/Downtown Disney

About Us


I'm Becky, just turned 25, and I'm the big Disney fanatic. I fell in love the first time I went when I was 8 years old. The obsession has only grown in recent years. When planning my Disney themed wedding, I came across the DisBoards and made a ton of friends here. Now I'm an annual pass holder and will be going to the World 3 times in 2013! In real life I'm an SAT/ACT tutor and just finished grad school with my master's in library science, trying to find a job in that field (which is proving to be pretty difficult!)


My husband, Jason. He is a software developer and a computer/video game nerd. He puts up with my love for Disney, but he is nowhere near the fan that I am. He has an amazing memory and because of that he doesn't like doing things that he's already done (with the exception of thrill rides). He's most excited for new experiences.


My dad. He has been my traveling companion for years, since my mom doesn't usually like to travel. The last time he was in WDW was in 2005, when we took a father/daughter trip my senior year of high school. He was very excited about this trip! He is an architect and also does woodworking in his spare time.


My mom. She is a bit of a homebody and doesn't like to travel, but she did get excited for this trip! Her favorite park is Epcot and the World Showcase, and she was looking forward to the Flower and Garden festival. She hadn't been to WDW since our family trip in 1996, so she had never been to Animal Kingdom before!

The Week

We stayed from Sun. 4/21 through Saturday 4/27. Here's our schedule for the week:
Sunday - Downtown Disney
Monday - Magic Kingdom
Tuesday - Hollywood Studios
Wednesday - Epcot
Thursday - Islands of Adventure and dinner at Epcot
Friday - Animal Kingdom

The Resort


As a wedding gift, DH's uncle had gifted us some of his timeshare points. We stayed off property at bluegreen's The Fountains, which is a gorgeous timeshare and not too far from Disney!

Why

So why and how did this trip happen? Well, after my honeymoon I knew I wanted to go back to Disney. I had told my family all about our experiences and my dad expressed a desire to go back. I knew it had been a long time since my family had been to Disney, and given my love for it that was something that needed to change! I proposed the idea of a trip to them and offered to let them stay for free using the timeshare points. Originally the trip was also supposed to include my brother and sister, but they ended up having to back out due to work.

I also plan to do a thorough dining review and will share the link to that as well once it's up!
 
Looks like I'm here first!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip, we were there just before you 29 March until 12 April and I'm avidly reading all April trip reports to help with the post disney Depression!
 


We were at the Fountains our first trip to Orlando! :cool1: We were in one of the older Oasis Lakes buildings, though (BG bought out Oasis Lakes). Looks like you may have been in the newest building. :) That, or the oldest one BG built. :upsidedow

Interested to hear what your mom thought of Animal Kingdom. Got mixed reviews in my family. :rolleyes:
 
Looks fun! I read your honeymoon report (you did dining right? I think that's what I read) I will read along!
 
Hi Becky! :wave2: I followed you over from the Mad Tea Party FB group!

Sounds like you had an awesome trip; I'm looking forward to reading all about it!

Kathy
 


Looks like I'm here first!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip, we were there just before you 29 March until 12 April and I'm avidly reading all April trip reports to help with the post disney Depression!

I know what you mean! I've been seeking out April TRs too!

In for your TR.

Welcome!

I'm here!

Yay, thanks for joining!

We were at the Fountains our first trip to Orlando! :cool1: We were in one of the older Oasis Lakes buildings, though (BG bought out Oasis Lakes). Looks like you may have been in the newest building. :) That, or the oldest one BG built. :upsidedow

Interested to hear what your mom thought of Animal Kingdom. Got mixed reviews in my family. :rolleyes:

Yeah, I think we were in the newest building - at least as far as I can tell ;) It does feel a little bit apart from everything in some ways. And my mom really enjoyed Animal Kingdom! I adore it, although DH could live without it.

Looks fun! I read your honeymoon report (you did dining right? I think that's what I read) I will read along!

Yes, I did a dining review from the honeymoon! I'm going to be doing a dining review to go along with this one as well, as I'm kind of obsessed with Disney food ;)

Hi Becky! :wave2: I followed you over from the Mad Tea Party FB group!

Sounds like you had an awesome trip; I'm looking forward to reading all about it!

Kathy

Awesome, glad you made it over here!!

Hellooo! Hopping over to your trip report!:thumbsup2

Hello! Thanks for joining! :)
 
Hi,
Following along.
Wow, you had some packed days. Looking forward to reading the rest.
 
I'm here. Your resort pic looks so nice!

I put a link to your TR in the first post at Trip Reports! ***Official April 2013 thread***

Thank you!! It was a great resort, we really like it there.

Hi,
Following along.
Wow, you had some packed days. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Welcome! And yes, I'm definitely more of a "go-go-go" person! I offered to my parents that we could do the trip how they wanted (take long breaks, have a downtime day, whatever), but they were down with my plan!
 
Beginning the Trip

We drove out to Long Island on Saturday the 20th, since we were leaving from there - my parents live only 10 minutes from the airport so it's much more convenient for us to come to them than for them to come to us! It was also nice to see my brother for a little bit too, since he was no longer coming on the trip. He chose not to come because he was working a minimum wage part time job and just didn't have the money - however, he just recently got offered a good full time job! We are very happy for him and I told him we'll have to plan a brother/sister trip to Disney someday :)

Sunday morning we headed to the airport around 9am. We were flying Southwest. I had printed our boarding passes exactly 24 hours ahead of time and we were still boarding toward the end of the groups. Frustrating but I guess there's enough frequent fliers/people that pay for the early bird check in. My mom was really nervous about flying but luckily we found 4 seats together in the very last row of the plane. The flight went fine, DH and I watched an episode of Star Trek Next Generation on my Kindle Fire, and then we were in Orlando!!

It was raining when we touched down, which is always a little disappointing when you're expecting sunshine and palm trees! But we got our rental car and headed to the resort to check in.

Arriving at the Resort

DH and I had stayed at the Fountains once before with his family and thought it was great. We checked in, and found a very special surprise - his uncle had booked us the presidential suite!! It was so nice of him, and it was absolutely huge! We had three bedrooms, a dining area, kitchen, two living room areas, and three bathrooms. Plus the whole place had 6 televisions! It was insane lol.

One of the living areas:


The dining area:


Our bedroom:


Master bathroom:


2nd living room with pool table:


And then to top it all off, we found these on the kitchen counter:


There was a very sweet note from DH's aunt and uncle that said "Happy 19 1/2 month anniversary Jason and Becky"! We are so grateful for everything they did to help make this trip special right from the start. I know my parents were extremely impressed and excited with our accommodations!

We then decided to stock up on some stuff at Publix - snacks, soda, wine (I love being able to buy wine right in the grocery store!), and ponchos. Good thing we got those, because the rain only got worse later! After dropping everything off it was time for downtown Disney!
 
Downtown Disney

We arrived in DTD about an hour before our dinner reservation at T-REX... and it was absolutely pouring. We had ponchos from Publix but it was still pretty miserable. I felt bad leading my family right into the rain during our first vacation activity! We parked over on West Side and ran for D-Street so I could check out the vinylmation. I bought 3 bloxes and the combo topper from Animation 3. Love that set! We basically hung out in D-Street til the rain cleared up a little and then we headed to our T-REX reservation early.

It was mass chaos over there with tons of people trying to get a walk up. I checked in with our reservation and then no one told me what to do. They didn't give me a beeper like other people had. Finally we went up and asked someone else and they said since we had a reservation they could seat us right away! Who knows how long we would've waited if we didn't ask.

I was a little nervous about what my parents might think of T-REX, since it's more of a kids place and I booked it back when my brother was still coming since he's a big dinosaur fan (even at the age of 23). However, they were completely floored by it. They thought the decor was way better than Rainforest Cafe and they loved sitting surrounded by dinosaurs. We were right near (though not in) the ice cave and they loved that room.











DH and I had been once before and remembered the portions were huge, so the 4 of us got an appetizer to share and then we each split a meal. Everything we ate was completely delicious. We had the nachos for an appetizer, DH and I split the chicken sandwich, and my parents split the boneyard buffet with ribs and chicken.

Here are the nachos:


For more food pics check out my dining review when it's up!

When we came out of the restaurant we were relieved to see it had finally stopped raining! :woohoo: We wandered around some of the shops and the rest of DTD.



I was a good girl and didn't buy anything else since I made my vinylmation purchase! We hit up a lot of the shops just to look and then headed back out to the car.



Once back at our resort we relaxed, drank some wine, watched TV, and played pool. It was an excellent start to our trip!
 
Wonderful start.

I read your Bride trip report and enjoyed it so much so I wanted to join you for this one.

Looking forward to more. :thumbsup2
 
however, he just recently got offered a good full time job! We are very happy for him and I told him we'll have to plan a brother/sister trip to Disney someday :)

Excellent news! As I recall, you were quite disappointed when he couldn't come along. At least now you have something to look forward to. :)

When it looked like you were in that building, I wondered if you were in a Presidential Suite. :cool2: Kudos to your uncle! :dance3:
 
Hey, Becky!
I haven't been on the DIS in a while, but I'm excited to finally read another TR from a friend. :)

•Glad to see your parents joined you on the trip--that's always so nice.
•Wow, the resort room looks amazing and so fancy!
•Hahaha, 19 1/2 month anniversary strawberries.
•I still have to try T-rex sometime, looks pretty good.

Can't wait for more!! :thumbsup2
 
I'm in! Great start.
We're hoping to eat at T-Rex for the first time this fall. DH and I are both dinosaur lovers! Your pictures are the first I've seen of it!
 
Great update so far. We loved T-rex as well and the ice cave is Awesome! I love your pool table by the way. How cool is that?!
 

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