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Trip Report A Spooky, End of Summer Vacation - A LIVE Trip Report!

Hi everyone! I'm back for another trip report. I leave for Disney World in four days! I've been so busy lately that it didn't even cross my mind until now. My busy life will continue when I get back because I'm a teacher, and I start my inservice days essentially right when I return. Therefore, I know that I'll have no time to do a post-trip report. That means this one will be live. I plan on posting periodically while I'm there. I apologize in advance for it not being as organized as some of my other TRs!

For those that don't know me, I'm a teacher from Wisconsin. I believe this will be trip #22 to WDW in my lifetime. I have also been to DLR once, which you might know if you followed my TR back in March.

Here are the details:

Who: My parents, brother, SIL, 7.5mo niece, and myself
Where: Port Orleans Riverside (we requested the mansion rooms which have been recently renovated)
When: August 12-19

As mentioned, we will be bringing my 7.5mo niece for the first time. We normally take our annual family trip in June, but we pushed it back to August to give her a couple more months (because we all know 7.5 month olds are very independent and easy to take care of). This will be our first time going with a baby, so that will be a new experience!

Also, we will be doing MNSSHP. I haven't done that since 2003, when I was in 3rd grade. I'm sure it's quite different. Even if not, I don't remember a lot about it.

We have dining reservations at four different restaurants this time: Tusker House (breakfast), Beaches N Cream (dinner), Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch), and my favorite... Homecomin' (lunch).

So welcome aboard another trip! The fun all starts on Wednesday!
 
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Baloo124

Baloo124

Well-Known Member
Looking forward to it.

(And a belated congrats to you on reaching Unclehood).
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PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This time tomorrow, we should (hopefully) be landed and on our way from the Tampa airport to Riverside!

We are flying out of Madison, WI because it's the closest airport to us. It's also small, which we like. However, the flight to MCO out of Madison didn't arrive until about 10pm, but the flight to Tampa is scheduled to arrive around 1:30. So we'd make better time going to Tampa and driving to WDW. We were going to get a rental car anyway, as we like our own car when we're on property. We're not big fans of dealing with the Disney buses.
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I think I'm all packed except for the stuff that has to wait until tomorrow. Packing always gives me anxiety that I'm going to forget something. I want to have everything packed before I go to bed tonight.

My parents will pick me up around 6:30am tomorrow, then we'll head up to the airport. In 24 hours, we'll be in the bubble!
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What a travel day... quite a few unfortunate mishaps, but ultimately we're in our room now and getting settled!

The flight left on time, but there was a LOT of turbulence for the first part of the flight. It felt like Star Tours.

Once we landed, we struggled to find the rental car area at the Tampa airport because it wasn't well marked. Ultimately we found it.

A lot of traffic getting out of Tampa, but once we got to I-4 we were cruising.

They didn't give us anything we requested for our rooms, which is totally fine. However, when we asked they were able to get us in the area we wanted, but we had to wait for the room. We just got in about 8:15. We also had a grocery delivery dropped off at bell services, but ultimately the CMs accidentally took it to French Quarter, so they had to track that down.

My mom has a scooter for her bad knee, and they delivered the wrong one, so we weren't able to get that tonight and still have to call the company to correct that.

We aren't faulting anyone for any of the problems, because I totally understand. But it just made it a much longer day than expected.

Ultimately we did not get our APs today and have not left our resort since we got here at 5:30. But once all this is settled, hopefully the rest of the trip will run smoothly!

Tomorrow is Epcot in the morning and MK in the evening!
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So the scooter thing is apparently still an issue... they wouldn't fully refund us and wouldn't have the scooter we actually ordered until Friday, so TBD on that.

But my dad and I walked down to the main building and filled up our resort mugs and took a loop around the resort. It's so peaceful and relaxing around here. I was sitting in the lobby just soaking in the smells, sounds and ambience. I think that's a goal for me this trip... slow down and just enjoy being here.

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