The Disney Ph'D's do WDW AGAIN (and Vero Beach too!) now with pic's!
Hi all, we just got back from a very lovely trip to WDW at PORS and then a few days at Vero Beach DVC resort in a ocean view Inn Room. Since we have annual passes this year this was our bonus trip and it was just the 4 of us. Little PhD is 4 years old, her sister Baby PhD turned 9 months on the trip and then DH and myself (34 and 33 years old) We were just at WDW in Late Feb/ early March with some friends, their kids and my niece so we had a group of time that time. Here is a link to that trip report if you are interested.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=52223&page=2&pp=15
What I was looking forward to this trip was just being together and relaxing in our favorite place (and being away from our house that has been under construction for 10 months now.) We got a great pin code deal at PORS for 88 a night and a deal on the airfare so the trip just kind of came together nicely. Too good to pass up, even if it was just 8 short weeks from our last trip. Our luck stayed very good for most of the trip, even small things like every day seemed to be a good hair day, even with hats on. (I get home and my hair won’t cooperate since, then again the 4 year old is being rather uncooperative today too.
I am including lots of little details that I have found from the last trip report people with kids the same age, or staying in the same places appreciate. Just skip them if you don’t! (Sorry!) :animwink:
Thanks for reading in advance.
Day 1 April 29th.
The airfare was cheaper to take the 11:00 flight out instead of our usual 7:00 am. This means we get to wake up at a normal hour to go to the airport (instead of 4:00 am.) but puts us at WDW after 2:00 pm. Turns out it was easier to take the later flight. The airport was much less crazy and everything went well. I thought we were doing so well I even stopped for Starbucks. That made going through security a bit harder, since they flagged hubby for a search and I had to get both girls and the stroller though myself. The double stroller (Peg Pergo Aria Twin a side by side.) doesn’t fit in the x-ray machine but they hand checked it with no problem. I used the baby Bjorn to get the baby on the airplane, good thing because it is tight going down those isles. We flew Spirit (another great deal, also we had vouchers that made it better when our airfare from March went down. We were even able to use them and book on line.) Both kids ended up sleeping on the flight and it was sunny when we got to WDW. We brought our soft cooler with our own drinks and snacks on the plane that was helpful.
At WDW we used one of those carts for $3 to get all the luggage to the rental car counter (I was concerned about this) it worked well. At National the guy took one look at all we had (6 bags, 2 adults, 2 kids and a bunch of carry ons) and said “You guys look like you have a lot, would you like a SUV instead.” I asked how much more it would cost. “Well normally it is $30 a day, but we have a special for $15.” That is $120 extra for the 8 days, we only are paying 130 for the full size rental car now (including tax.) No thank you, we will make it fit, we got to the airport ok after all. He tried to not let us use the second code for priceless vacations but hubby got determined and he waved it. (found on mousesavers.com)
We got everything to fit in the Chevy Impala (just barely) and headed out for some lunch. I have this thing about Chick-fil-a on vacations (they don’t have them up north in Detroit) so we found one near DTD and had lunch. They have this great Diet Lemonade there, can’t even tell it is diet. We stopped at the Publix for some food. They had all kinds of different baby food for marketed for Latinos (in Spanish with the word Lantio on it), some looked really good (different fruits and such) but I didn’t want to start new stuff with the upset stomach she had a few days before we left. They also had this brand of yogurt and juice, Sabino Latino (I think was the name sorry if I am wrong and I unknowing offend anyone) it was so good. (and cheap.) I wish I could get that up North. :slurp:
We wanted to do the Disney outlet, but since it was after 3:30 we wanted to get to PORS more. We got there and checked in with no problems. Our room that we called and requested a 1st floor in building 14 was ready. Room 1417. It was a great location, I only wish it had a ramp instead of a few steps up. After unpacking it was clear Little PhD had to run for a while so we loaded up and headed to Epcot for the evening. MK was closing at 7:00 for grad nights so we expected Epcot to be rather busy. We didn’t get there until 6:00. We headed over to the new (but as we found out not really improved) Land for some dinner. The baby had fallen asleep in the stroller, but they would not let us in with the stroller under any circumstances (fire hazard, but they allow wheel chairs.) So we had to take the poor baby out, she wasn’t too happy but delt with it fine. The new Sunshine food court had good food, but it was really high priced for what you get. I got some kind of steak salad and it was $10, and I wasn’t even full when I was done. We didn’t try to get in Garden Grill, but it was open and I wanted to at some point during the trip.
At 7:00 we headed over to World Showcase and stopped at this great area for the flower and garden festival. Mickey’s Maze. It had a playground and a sand dig area, Little PhD had a blast. We saw the show in Canada that both baby and Little PhD liked (we were able to talk about it a bit since 3 out of 4 of hubby’s grand parents were born in Canada. I needed fish and chips after that since dinner was so small so I stood in a very long line and chatted with a nice women while hubby and the kids waited in Canada to see Illuminations. As we learned for most of the trip, the busses at PORS are good, but VERY FULL. I had my normal luck with holding the baby that someone popped up and gave me their seat right away. (Thank you.) We found the only way we could manage both kids and the double stroller was the use the baby Bjorn every time. When Little PhD fell asleep too that made it even harder.
The question is can a couple of DVCers with kids who has upgraded to deluxes still be happy with a mod like PORS? As we found out this trip the answer is YES. :sohappy: :sohappy:
It was a great resort. The rooms were redone, the beds and towels were soft. They had this new hard title in the bathroom with a ring of broken pieces grouted in. That sure hurt on already tried feet, bring slippers, I almost did but then unpacked them. The refrigerator while a small one was big enough for our needs. There was more room to unpack then in a studio. The resort was lovely and the rooms were nice and quiet. We got great nights sleep every night. The baby slept better on vacation then at home. We put the pack and play next to the sink with the curtain up. I had packed extra blanket to put in it to pad it, (the baby likes her bed soft) but they brought some with it. If your baby is standing and grabbing thing this area might not work since the iron is near it.
We all had a good nights sleep (Baby slept from 10:00 to 4:00 am that was longest she has slept in her whole short life!) and we were well rested and ready to play the day away at MK the next day.
More as I write it.
Hi all, we just got back from a very lovely trip to WDW at PORS and then a few days at Vero Beach DVC resort in a ocean view Inn Room. Since we have annual passes this year this was our bonus trip and it was just the 4 of us. Little PhD is 4 years old, her sister Baby PhD turned 9 months on the trip and then DH and myself (34 and 33 years old) We were just at WDW in Late Feb/ early March with some friends, their kids and my niece so we had a group of time that time. Here is a link to that trip report if you are interested.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=52223&page=2&pp=15
What I was looking forward to this trip was just being together and relaxing in our favorite place (and being away from our house that has been under construction for 10 months now.) We got a great pin code deal at PORS for 88 a night and a deal on the airfare so the trip just kind of came together nicely. Too good to pass up, even if it was just 8 short weeks from our last trip. Our luck stayed very good for most of the trip, even small things like every day seemed to be a good hair day, even with hats on. (I get home and my hair won’t cooperate since, then again the 4 year old is being rather uncooperative today too.
I am including lots of little details that I have found from the last trip report people with kids the same age, or staying in the same places appreciate. Just skip them if you don’t! (Sorry!) :animwink:
Thanks for reading in advance.
Day 1 April 29th.
The airfare was cheaper to take the 11:00 flight out instead of our usual 7:00 am. This means we get to wake up at a normal hour to go to the airport (instead of 4:00 am.) but puts us at WDW after 2:00 pm. Turns out it was easier to take the later flight. The airport was much less crazy and everything went well. I thought we were doing so well I even stopped for Starbucks. That made going through security a bit harder, since they flagged hubby for a search and I had to get both girls and the stroller though myself. The double stroller (Peg Pergo Aria Twin a side by side.) doesn’t fit in the x-ray machine but they hand checked it with no problem. I used the baby Bjorn to get the baby on the airplane, good thing because it is tight going down those isles. We flew Spirit (another great deal, also we had vouchers that made it better when our airfare from March went down. We were even able to use them and book on line.) Both kids ended up sleeping on the flight and it was sunny when we got to WDW. We brought our soft cooler with our own drinks and snacks on the plane that was helpful.
At WDW we used one of those carts for $3 to get all the luggage to the rental car counter (I was concerned about this) it worked well. At National the guy took one look at all we had (6 bags, 2 adults, 2 kids and a bunch of carry ons) and said “You guys look like you have a lot, would you like a SUV instead.” I asked how much more it would cost. “Well normally it is $30 a day, but we have a special for $15.” That is $120 extra for the 8 days, we only are paying 130 for the full size rental car now (including tax.) No thank you, we will make it fit, we got to the airport ok after all. He tried to not let us use the second code for priceless vacations but hubby got determined and he waved it. (found on mousesavers.com)
We got everything to fit in the Chevy Impala (just barely) and headed out for some lunch. I have this thing about Chick-fil-a on vacations (they don’t have them up north in Detroit) so we found one near DTD and had lunch. They have this great Diet Lemonade there, can’t even tell it is diet. We stopped at the Publix for some food. They had all kinds of different baby food for marketed for Latinos (in Spanish with the word Lantio on it), some looked really good (different fruits and such) but I didn’t want to start new stuff with the upset stomach she had a few days before we left. They also had this brand of yogurt and juice, Sabino Latino (I think was the name sorry if I am wrong and I unknowing offend anyone) it was so good. (and cheap.) I wish I could get that up North. :slurp:
We wanted to do the Disney outlet, but since it was after 3:30 we wanted to get to PORS more. We got there and checked in with no problems. Our room that we called and requested a 1st floor in building 14 was ready. Room 1417. It was a great location, I only wish it had a ramp instead of a few steps up. After unpacking it was clear Little PhD had to run for a while so we loaded up and headed to Epcot for the evening. MK was closing at 7:00 for grad nights so we expected Epcot to be rather busy. We didn’t get there until 6:00. We headed over to the new (but as we found out not really improved) Land for some dinner. The baby had fallen asleep in the stroller, but they would not let us in with the stroller under any circumstances (fire hazard, but they allow wheel chairs.) So we had to take the poor baby out, she wasn’t too happy but delt with it fine. The new Sunshine food court had good food, but it was really high priced for what you get. I got some kind of steak salad and it was $10, and I wasn’t even full when I was done. We didn’t try to get in Garden Grill, but it was open and I wanted to at some point during the trip.
At 7:00 we headed over to World Showcase and stopped at this great area for the flower and garden festival. Mickey’s Maze. It had a playground and a sand dig area, Little PhD had a blast. We saw the show in Canada that both baby and Little PhD liked (we were able to talk about it a bit since 3 out of 4 of hubby’s grand parents were born in Canada. I needed fish and chips after that since dinner was so small so I stood in a very long line and chatted with a nice women while hubby and the kids waited in Canada to see Illuminations. As we learned for most of the trip, the busses at PORS are good, but VERY FULL. I had my normal luck with holding the baby that someone popped up and gave me their seat right away. (Thank you.) We found the only way we could manage both kids and the double stroller was the use the baby Bjorn every time. When Little PhD fell asleep too that made it even harder.
The question is can a couple of DVCers with kids who has upgraded to deluxes still be happy with a mod like PORS? As we found out this trip the answer is YES. :sohappy: :sohappy:
It was a great resort. The rooms were redone, the beds and towels were soft. They had this new hard title in the bathroom with a ring of broken pieces grouted in. That sure hurt on already tried feet, bring slippers, I almost did but then unpacked them. The refrigerator while a small one was big enough for our needs. There was more room to unpack then in a studio. The resort was lovely and the rooms were nice and quiet. We got great nights sleep every night. The baby slept better on vacation then at home. We put the pack and play next to the sink with the curtain up. I had packed extra blanket to put in it to pad it, (the baby likes her bed soft) but they brought some with it. If your baby is standing and grabbing thing this area might not work since the iron is near it.
We all had a good nights sleep (Baby slept from 10:00 to 4:00 am that was longest she has slept in her whole short life!) and we were well rested and ready to play the day away at MK the next day.
More as I write it.