When I'm 64.. Mother/Daughter Trip

[msmileyface]

This is my first trip report, so please bear with me

".. Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?"

This is how it all started. Mom and I heard "When I'm 64" come on the radio and I said, "So what will you do when you're 64 mom?" Mom said, "Well, I'll be twice your age.." Yup, when mom turns 64, I would be turning 32. And because mom was a math teacher for 30 years, we both thought that was pretty cool. We started talking about doing something "big" for that year when she became twice my age. We tossed around the idea of a party, but then realized it would be much more fun to do a vacation. Mom said, "where do you think we should go?" We talked about several places, including Disney, and mom said we would decide when it got closer. This was probably 8 years ago if I remember correctly.

The original intention of this trip was to do it after my mom turn 64 (in September) and after I turned 32 (February). So technically we are doing this trip a year early. We would have to wait until the summer, since I work in a school. At Easter this year (in March), my mom said something about our trip "next summer." I got a little upset, because DH and I are finally thinking about starting a family, and I realized that the trip would probably interfere with that if we waited until next summer. I was a little moody and felt like "Even my own mom doesn't think I'll ever have kids!" I guess mom picked up on it (I don't hide my feelings well). A few days later I sent her a text message: "Mom, on a scale of 1-10, how much do you want to go to Disney THIS summer?" She wrote back, "I already got the book from AAA."

So we've been planning since March/April- not a lot of time when we're traveling June 18!

In our Just mom (almost 64) and me (almost 32)

This will be my 5th trip to WDW and mom's 3rd. I travelled to WDW in July 2011 with DH, so I feel like I was "just there." Previously I had been twice in high school on school trips, and once when I was 9 with my parents. Mom has only been twice- when I was about 9, and she chaperoned one of the high school trips.

We are traveling for 6 days- arriving 6/18 and leaving 6/24

We're staying at the Swan! I love walking to Epcot and DHS. Mom wanted a hotel that "had a comfy bed and is quiet."

We're not fancy eaters but we do have a few fun ADR's picked out: Teppan Edo, 50's Primetime Café, Garden Grove (buffet at the Swan with characters), and Whispering Canyon Café. I also anticipate eating at the San Angel Inn but haven't made an ADR for it.

As for an itinerary, I've spent 2 months making one. I am a huge planner. The days are set and the evenings are more flexible. The first day we fly in pretty early and should be at the Swan by 11 or so.

6/18- We plan to do DHS for the afternoon/evening. 50's Primetime Café for dinner.
6/19- Back to DHS for the morning. Lunch at Whispering Canyon. Evening probably in Epcot
6/20- MK for EMH. Dinner at the Swan.
6/21- AK, then check out AKL. Downtown Disney in the evening.
6/22- Keys to the Kingdom Tour at MK! Evening in Epcot with dinner at Teppan Edo
6/23- Epcot in the morning (if we still have things to see and do there), MK EMH at night.
6/24- get up really early for our shuttle, cry, and have some coffee

Special stuff-
We'll be getting our celebration buttons and being in celebration mode the whole trip. We've never been on a mother-daughter trip and we are beyond excited. We are really excited about Keys to the Kingdom. This will be our first tour ever at WDW. If we have time, we will also probably take the Behind the Seeds tour at the Land Pavillion. I'm also going to try pin trading for the first time, and stuff a box full of Mr. Potato Head parts at DTD, lol. Priorities, people! I also have a friend who works at AK and we're hoping to meet up with her at the park.

Hope I can create a fun trip report for everyone to read! Take care!

 

[momofmaz]

Great Idea! Love it. I want to do this with my mom...although getting someone to watch my crazy kid that long by theirself would be difficult! If this is this year your trip is SUPER close!

 

[mckelvey72]

So glad for you and your mom. I am going to take my mom next year but she has always wanted to do Disney with her grandkid(s) so I am taking my son along as well. The family (DH, myself, DS and DSD..Disney step daughter) went in 2011 and are going in 2013 so am looking forward to a trip with mom and my son.

Hope you have an amazing time!!!

 

[msmileyface]

I have just entered the "this trip is so close that I'm not excited, I'm just totally freaking out and nervous" phase. Of course I'm still excited, but right now I'm experiencing jitters. My bags are packed, mostly, and I'm doing all the last-minute "OMG, what do I do about... " stuff. You know, that last minute questions and obsessive actions, such as:

-Can I bring an empty (reusable) water bottle with me on the flight? (yes.)
-Do I have to do the online check-in with the airline (no, because we're checking bags anyway)
-Should I bring my umbrella?
-Let me check the weather again.
-Do I have enough socks?
-Is my suitcase too heavy?(no- 32 lbs, yay!)
-Where am I going to fit souvenirs??
-I better run to Target and buy blister prevention stuff.
-Let me look at my itinerary again.
-Maybe I better write down every confirmation number that I have down on a notecard and put it in my bag. Then I should put them in an app on my phone. Then I should put them in ANOTHER app on my phone.

If this seems neurotic to you, just be glad you aren't traveling with me LOL

I can't wait to share my adventures with everyone! Leaving tomorrow after work for my parents' house (they live near the airport). Then up bright and early with mom to fly to Orlando!

 

[msmileyface]

This is my first ever trip report, so I'll do my best. I am going to include as much detail as I can, so feel free to skim if it's too long for you! Let me know if you have any questions about anything, because I love helping others make their trips great!


Day 1-
Tues., June 18.

We got up early at 4:30am to arrive at ACY (Atlantic City Airport) at 5:40 am for our 7:25 flight on Spirit. A woman greeted us- I use the term “greeted” loosely because it wasn’t very friendly- at the door, saying, “Where are you going today?” We said, “Orlando” and she said “That is cancelled. Get in that line and they’ll tell you what you can do.” We got in a line that probably had 10 families in it in front of us. Mom’s eyes filled up with tears. I think she expected me to panic, but I didn’t.

We waited in line for over an hour, strategizing what to do. We had no information about why the flight is cancelled. We assumed (incorrectly) that we would get an explanation later.

At the counter, the Spirit employee said, “I can put you on a flight tomorrow night.” (We are supposed to leave 6/18 early in the morning, he is offering 6/19 at 7:30 pm.) We didn’t ask for other options, we just said “okay.” People in front of us had been opting to go to different airports, etc. We did not want to do that. The guy offered us a $50 credit for the trouble of having the flight cancelled. We protested this, since neither of us travels often. He told us that the credit must be used within 60 days (for travel booked within 1 year). There were easily 100+ people behind us in line whose vacations were ruined and we decided not to argue, but I figured I would just call customer service later (another silly idea). I didn't realize that Spirit has VERY limited customer service (it's a very no-frills airline). I told the man that I had paid $20 per seat to upgrade to better locations on the plane. He indicated that the new bookings were the same “level” of seat. He told us we would be in row 6. My mom asked him, “Coming or going” He replied with one word: “Neither.” I’m not sure if he thought he was being funny? I guess it was an attempt at humor, but I am really, really surprised that a Spirit employee would respond in such a snarky way when our flight had just been cancelled for no reason. I was taken aback and didn’t even question his stupid comment. On a happy note, as a bonus for our troubles, we decide to book our flight home for an additional day later, giving us a 7 day trip instead of 6. We deserved it, right?

When we got back home I had to call the Mears Shuttle and reschedule that, and my mom called the Swan to cancel the first night and add two nights to the end of the trip. They were very accommodating. Then I rescheduled my dinner reservations. I even attempted to call Spirit. I found a number online that someone actually answered. He told me that I would have to talk to people at the airport, that there was nothing that he could do over the phone. I explained that I was trying to avoid having a heated discussion at the airport, and questioned whether that was really the appropriate venue for my complaints. He insisted that I needed to “discuss my concerns” at the desk tomorrow, and noted it on our account.

And then, I had the dreaded task of reworking our trip itinerary. One might think I could just add the first two days’ plans to the end of the trip, but one would be wrong. I had to consider the best days to visit each park, dining reservations, crowd levels, anticipated times we would need down time, etc. etc. Luckily our Magic Kingdom tour, meeting with my friend Gina at Animal Kingdom, and our Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom would not be affected.

At this point, I was still stupidly positive. I reflected on the fact that we were so lucky that we could just change around our travel days, due to our flexibility. I gushed about how awesome it would be to have the 7th day in Disney (I even suggested that it was “meant to be”). I raved about how exciting it would be to start our vacation “well-rested” for our early morning at the Magic Kingdom. We would arrive at the hotel by 10pm, have a good night’s sleep, and be ready for rope drop. What a great way to start your epic Disney vacation! And with the extra days added to the back end of the trip, the night extra magic hour at Magic Kingdom would be more enjoyable because we wouldn’t be leaving for the airport the next morning.

Despite the positivity, I had a heck of a time falling asleep that night! So much anxiety! [/SIZE]

 

[msmileyface]

Just a warning, this is another travel-focused commentary. We won't actually arrive at Disney until 3am. However, if you want to laugh, you may want to read about our 2nd attempt to fly to Florida, here.

Wed. 6/19

We woke up this morning very anxious to get going. Unfortunately, we had to wait until later in the day to even leave for the airport, so it felt like a really loooong day. We ran errands and tried to stay busy. At around 2:30 we saw that our flight was delayed 3 hours. The weather was fine here and in Orlando, and we couldn’t figure out why it was delayed. We finally figured out that the plane had been delayed on an earlier flight. We checked again. The departure time had gone from 6:22 to 8:57. Then on the Spirit itinerary webpage, it said 9:37. We called the airport to find out why the airport and the airline had conflicting information. They had to call us back because they were “busy helping other people”. When the woman called back, she could not explain the discrepancy. She advised that we should “come in time for the 8:57 time in case that one is right.” ** Note, this would have been a fantastic time to inform us that security closes at 7:30pm. Read on.

We checked again, about an hour later, and the departure time said “10:52.”
At this point I could no longer be positive. I started getting really anxious about even flying at all. We tried calling Spirit, but we couldn’t speak to anyone (of course).

I called my DH, and he told me that we should leave for the airport at the normal time, as if the flight was still leaving in the early evening. I’m glad he said this, because we would have missed our flight otherwise. We left for the airport at 6:30 and we arrived at a nearly empty terminal at 7:00. The board for departure said 10:52pm. We went to the counter to check-in. My stomach was upset at the thought of having a confrontation with the spirit rep. I am really non-confrontational, I just wanted an explanation and to feel like they cared a tiny bit about messing up people's travel.

At the counter, there was a female Spirit employee and a security/police officer. The woman checked us in to the flight. I inquired about the cancelled flight yesterday, which she said she was unable to comment on. I inquired about the delay today, and the woman said, “Oh the plane broke earlier, but they got a new plane so that’s why it’s delayed.” I said, “Oh, lovely.” The officer said, “Well hey, it’s better than being on a plane that’s like this”- he motioned with his hand back and forth, the international sign for wobbly airplaine, I guess? I found that pretty unusual. The Spirit rep said to the officer, “Get someone to go over to security for these people.” I said “We’re about 4 hours early at this point so don’t rush.” She replied, “Oh, no, you have to go right away. Security closes at 7:30 (it was 7:00).” Now, I know better than to be fresh in an airport of all places. I certainly know better than to be fresh to a police officer. That being said, I was so shocked by this information that I said, “What? We’re early. What if we didn’t come 4 hours early for our flight? Would we have missed ANOTHER flight?” The woman said, “Yes. It closes at 7:30. You have to be here by 7:30.” The police officer chuckled. I said, “Wait, you mean anyone else who comes from now on won’t get on the plane?” The woman said, “Yes, we tell people that. We told almost everyone already.” I couldn’t stop. I wanted to start singing that old Brandy song from the 90's, Almost Doesn't Count. “Ok, but no one told US. Who was supposed to tell us? How on earth would we know this??” She said, very apathetically, “I don’t know, we tell people.” I said, “But we called the airport a few hours ago asking what time we should come and the woman didn’t even mention that security closes!” At this point the officer was laughing. My mom added, “I have one more question.” The officer said, “Sorry, $5 for any more questions.” I was still pretty surprised by his attitude. Mom said, “Is Spirit going to cancel this flight if it’s not full because no one knows you close security at 7:30?????” The officer said, “Hahaha! No, no. Probably not.”

At that point I could barely pick my jaw up off the floor, but I tried to protest Spirit’s awful $50 credit for our cancelled flight. I think my exact question was, “So Spirit cancelled our flight and gave us a $50 credit, which is completely unacceptable. But I suppose you’re going to tell me there’s nothing you can do about that, right? “ The woman replied, “That is correct.” I said, “So Spirit has no customer service person I can talk to?” She said, “Yes, they do, but the desk is closed.” (motioned to an empty desk). Super-de-duper.

As we were leaving the desk, I noticed an iPhone sitting on the counter. They play this "see something, say something" message on loop at the airport, and it was sitting there, unattended, the whole time we were at the counter. So I said, “There’s a phone sitting here, it’s not ours.” The woman said, in the most flat tone ever, “Oh, it must be that other lady’s from before.” The officer agreed. Neither of them picked it up, looked at it, or anything. I'm sure it wasn't a dangerous weapon, but seriously? No attempt to check it out, or return it to the lady who left it there 10 minutes ago? Sheesh.

After security (where I was pulled aside for extra screening) , we were finally “in” the airport terminal. First, we called our spouses to share the utter ridiculousness of the security thing. Everyone we spoke to (via phone and text) agreed that they certainly did NOT know that security closed early. We sat there for several hours. Atlantic City Airport is SMALL and there was nothing open except a gift shop with some pre-made sandwiches. We heard on the news that James Gandolfini died. We did crossword puzzles. We talked about our plans for tomorrow and debated whether or not we could get to the Magic Kingdom at 8am for Extra Magic Hours.

As we sat there, mom and I said that we knew that this whole ordeal would be funny- eventually- but that it had become so unbelievable that it was already funny. The whole time I sat there thinking that the flight would inevitably be cancelled, but sure enough, we actually left NJ around 11:30pm, only 40 hours later than intended. Yes, we could have indeed driven to Florida and back in that time.

Ok, I promise to actually talk about DISNEY in the next installment.. because we DO eventually get there.

 

[msmileyface]

Whew. Considering Disney is only a 2 hour flight from home in New Jersey, it sure took us a long time to finally get there!

Thurs., 6/20

The day changed to Thursday early in our flight. Considering that I had left my house Monday afternoon after getting out of work (I work in an elementary school), that felt like a really, really long time to still be travelling. I already missed DH and my pets. I was not a happy camper, and I still doubted I would ever get to Disney. For the first time I was actually really afraid to be on an airplane, because I couldn’t even trust Spirit to put enough gas in the tank to fuel the plane sufficiently.

We arrived at MCO around 1:30am. We waited for our baggage and listened to everyone complain about how the flight was delayed 5 hours. This was frustrating, considering we had been cancelled AND delayed, but we kept our mouths shut. Our positive energy was back and we weren't going to let anything bring us down again. I was very excited to see our bags. I had sworn that Spirit would lose them. Then we went outside to call for the Mears shuttle. As an added bonus to our super inconvenient flight, the Mears Shuttle only runs until midnight. After that, you have to call them to come get you and wait. I found out where we had to go, and realized how alone we were sitting in the parking lot waiting at 1:30 in the morning. Luckily, a taxi pulled up almost immediately- in fact, I was still on the phone with the person at Mears. I thought it was just a guy looking for a fare, and I tried to wave him away. Then he insisted he was here to pick us up, but I made the woman on the phone confirm that he was legit. Paranoia much? Haha. When I figured out that he was, we hopped in and headed off to the Swan.

We arrived at the Swan. Before the trip, we had made sure to do everything possible to position ourselves for a free upgrade on our room- added our AAA accounts, and our Starwood Preferred Guest status had been upgraded to “Elite”- but arriving at nearly 3am did not leave much in the way of options. The woman at the desk apologized for not having an upgrade, explained how we could help the environment by opting out of having the sheets and towels changed daily, and sent us to our room.

We arrived in our room at 2:55am. We were thrilled to have a corner room! We knew we needed to sleep, but we were also starving, so we headed over to the Dolphin to get food. One interesting thing about being up and walking around at 3am is that you get to see what goes on that they don’t want you to see. Fountains are turned off, large crews are washing floors, people are painting door trim. It was kind of like a "behind the scenes" tour of the resort. At Picabu, in the Dolphin, we got a roast beef sandwich to share. We came back and were delighted at the delicious pickle that came with it and the awesome horseradish mayo. We devoured it all. It was 3:30am. Again, we knew we had to sleep, but we decided to unpack and get organized. This was when I knew I was travelling with the right person. Who else would “get organized” at 3:30am when they were planning to get up at 6:00?

Before bed (4:30am) we made a plan. We agreed that if we woke up from our “nap” at 6:00 feeling lousy, we would sleep in and go to Epcot around 11:00, skipping the EMH at MK.

When I woke up at 6:00 I almost decided to go back to bed and just forget it, but I went to the shower (very crankily). Luckily, the shower was amazing and it made me feel a bit better. When I came out of the bathroom my mom was up and I opened the shades. I was very excited to see the Earful Tower and Tower of Terror out the right window.

Then I opened the other shade and saw Spaceship Earth, literally just sitting there in my window.

I couldn’t believe that I could see Epcot. I got a little too excited about it, then packed up my backpack for the day. We headed down to the bus stop and were on the bus by 7:10. When we arrived we watched the welcome show. I was so happy to be there that I cried. I felt foolish for this but later my mom shared, “I don’t know why, but that welcome show made me very emotional!” Armed with a combination of my Touring Plans app and my Disney guru/friend Jessica’s advice, I instructed mom not to stop to take pictures of the castle and we headed straight for New Fantasyland. We rode Pooh, got a fast pass for Peter Pan, and rode Journey of the Little Mermaid very quickly. When we got to Enchanted Tales with Belle, and the line was already about 20 mins long. I thought maybe we made a mistake, but later realized that all the other lines would be 20+ all day long. Mom and I absolutely could not say enough great things about ETWB. We were so impressed with the way Belle interacted with the kids, and with the life-like wardrobe! One little girl kept staring at Belle and not even her mom could get her to look forward to have her picture taken. I am in love with this attraction!

After that, we did Mickey’s Phillarmagic and rode It’s a Small World. I am intentionally just adding a few pictures here in there, because I know this report is already long enough as it is, but if I was going all willy-nilly with pics, I would insert about 100 here. I just love IASW and always take tons of pics. Eventually, my plan is to design a kid's room (when I have one, that is) based on the shapes, colors, and characters.

I was looking for a pin of this little guy, incidentally, but didn't find it this trip.

Next, we tried to FastPass Space Mountain, but the return time conflicted with lunch. We hopped on the People Mover, which goes against everything I know about touring and taking advantage of the early morning hours, but I love it so I didn’t care. At one point we were behind a wall and I couldn’t figure out what we were looking at- then all of a sudden we rounded a corner and saw Space Mountain, broken down with the lights on, and a man standing on top assessing the situation. I got a few pictures but they didn’t come out great. It was really neat to see how small of a space the track actually takes up, and now I know why I always feel like I’m going to hit my head on something in there. I'm sure many, many people have seen this before (Google Image search confirmed this), but to me it felt like a super special sneak peak.

Next, we got on line for Be Our Guest. We were all the way at Gaston’s Tavern and the Cast Member told us it should be “under an hour.” I would never have waited that long, especially on 1.5 hrs of sleep and in the hot sun, but I just didn’t believe it would take that long and we waited it out. Because it was just opening, a large volume of people were taken in constantly and we were through the outside line in about 20-25 minutes. When you get to the main part of the queue, on the bridge, they hand out umbrellas to shade you. Nice touch!

We had a good lunch (Croque Monsier and a cream puff) and relaxed. We liked the serving carts that the food came out on, and the real plates and silverware, and the unlimited drink refills.

Despite not having slept much, we decided to stay in the park after lunch but take a slow pace. We rode the Steam Railroad, since I couldn’t remember ever having done it. Then we got a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, went to the Enchanted Tiki Room (another I had never seen before), and saw the Country Bears, who, despite having been “edited” in the last two years were absolutely as inappropriate as ever.

It was getting ridiculously hot and crowded in Adventureland and we sat down to take a break. Then I did my first two pin trades- so much fun! We went back to ride the BTMR, which we loved. We decided it was just about time to leave the park for a break.

On the way out we took care of some things- we were having issues getting our fast passes earlier, so we went to the town hall on the way out and they said our tickets had demagnetized. We got some nice plastic tickets instead, added a day to our park hoppers, got birthday buttons, and Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards. Then we headed “home” to take a shower and watch the thunderstorm that started as soon as we got back (around 3pm).

We had dinner at Garden Grove, in the Swan. It was a delicious Mediterranean buffet with guests of honor Pluto and Goofy. Over dinner, we discussed going back out if the weather cleared up. Then we talked about why people don’t use fast passes-this topic came up over and over. My mom was very impressed with the fast pass system and could not understand why people didn’t take advantage of it. I don’t get it, either.

After dinner, the weather was still lousy so we went to bed early. The weather cleared up at around 8:15 but we were already in bed. We left the shades open and were able to see a lot of Illuminations from our room.

 

[msmileyface]

Sorry to anyone who is following this report, I am not sure why the pictures didn't show up. I'll look into that tomorrow before I continue.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along.