Hello all. Thanks for reading the 2015 version of the Burnett family trip report. Hopefully you find it enjoyable. I'll add days as I find time, but this may take a while.
Anyone want to read the pre-trip report - here's the link: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-trip-that-almost-wasn’t….898587/#post-6672384
Intros
So nothing much has changed in terms of the travel party (other than every time I do this we seem to be a year older than the last time).
From left to right there is our DD Stephanie (14), myself (Graham – 40), my DW Tammy (XX) and our DS Liam (12). We were down at WDW from August 15th to the 25th. We spent 6 nights at a Poly studio and 4 nights at a WL studio.
Some background
So if you read our last trip report (http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...in-between-an-august-2014-trip-report.889324/), you may remember that near the end of the trip it was announced that the company I worked for (Tim Hortons), had announced that they were merging with Burger King. There was a lot of uncertainty about what the future would hold after that announcement, and we weren’t sure when we’d be back to WDW. Fast forward to January 26th of this year…I’m sitting in my office when the phone rings and I’m called down to one of the “extra” offices we have. Long story short, my position was deemed redundant, and I was relieved of my duties.
However, a few weeks later I had a new job. After taking a few weeks off to relax, I started my new job…and our next WDW trip was back on.
Once we knew the trip was on we started our normal prep stuff (buying gift cards at Sam’s club or Target each month). By the time we were ready to leave we had enough cards to pay for all the meals etc. I then went on the Disney gift card website and merged all the cards into 3 cards. This made life easier for us (fewer cards to carry) and for the CMs (who didn’t have to scan a bunch of $50 cards when we went to pay our bill).
Well, that’s it for background….So here we go
Day 1 – Aug 15 – A different start
So August 15th finally arrived. Everyone was really excited and had trouble sleeping the night before…Speaking of the night before…this was the first year we didn’t stay at a hotel near the airport. Being so close to the Buffalo airport, we always book flights on either Southwest or Jet Blue out of Buffalo, as they are significantly cheaper than flying out of either Toronto or Hamilton (our hometown). However, this year our flights weren’t until later in the afternoon (3:45), so we didn’t need to stay overnight since it’s only a 1 hour drive from our home to the Buffalo Airport.
So there we were, up nice and early, car already packed and ready to go. We were going to take the kids to their karate class (Steph is a yellow belt and Liam is a brown belt), but then decided it wasn’t worth risking one of them getting hurt so decided we’d just head out early. We made a quick stop at the bank to pick up some US $, and then headed out.
The trip down to Buffalo was fine until we got to the border. We have NEXUS cards (basically means we are pre-screened so we can get through customs quickly – think of it like a customs Fast Pass). However, this time we presented our cards to the officer, and we were then asked to pull over. It turns out there wasn’t anything wrong, but we had been selected for a compliance check. We weren’t really sure what that meant, but we were asked to pull over and get out of the vehicle. A few minutes later another officer came over and did a quick search of the interior of our vehicle, then handed us back our cards and our keys and said we were good to go. Well that was different.
After crossing the border we made a quick stop at Sam’s Club and Target to pick up a few last minute things, and then headed to Cracker Barrel for lunch. After a good lunch we headed over to the airport. We went to the long-term parking lot and found a spot. Right after we pulled in the shuttle came up behind us, and before we knew it we were at the main terminal…which was absolutely packed. It turns out the Baltimore airport had a power loss, so no flights were going in and out, which was causing a back-log. The line inside to get to the Southwest desk wasn’t moving, so we headed outside and did the curbside check-in which was much shorter. Our bags were all within the right weight, so all was good.
Next up was airport security. Fortunately, since we have NEXUS cards, we can sign up for pre-screening at the airport, so there was no wait there either – other than Liam got pulled over for a secondary check (seems to be a theme). They did a hand swab and then put the swab into a computer and a few seconds later he was given the all clear. After that all was good
Waiting to board selfie:
It's funny how things change. Here is a picture of what our kids were doing waiting for our first trip to Disney (7 years ago):
and this is what pre-flight boarding looks like now:
There's our plane:
On the plane selfie:
Our flight left on time, and was relatively uneventful (I fell asleep for most of the flight which was great).
I didn't choose the thug life...(and my kids think I'm a total dork now).
We arrived in Orlando around 6:30, right in the middle of the daily storm (which freaked Tammy out. She’s a very nervous flyer). We got off the plane and headed over to the ME desk. That’s when I realized I had forgotten the ME boarding passes at home. No big deal though, they just printed off new ones for us there, and sent us on our way. Our bus was waiting, and we boarded quickly (around 7:00).
ME Selfie:
A half hour drive later and we pulled up to the Poly.
Check-in went smoothly, other than our Magic Bands were no where to be found. It turns out they were waiting for us at Kidani? I guess it kinda makes sense since we had originally booked at Kidani, but we changed that back in February when Poly bookings opened.
Oh well. They gave us four magic bands (and had our colours available), and sent us off to our room.
to be continued
Anyone want to read the pre-trip report - here's the link: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-trip-that-almost-wasn’t….898587/#post-6672384
Intros
So nothing much has changed in terms of the travel party (other than every time I do this we seem to be a year older than the last time).
From left to right there is our DD Stephanie (14), myself (Graham – 40), my DW Tammy (XX) and our DS Liam (12). We were down at WDW from August 15th to the 25th. We spent 6 nights at a Poly studio and 4 nights at a WL studio.
Some background
So if you read our last trip report (http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...in-between-an-august-2014-trip-report.889324/), you may remember that near the end of the trip it was announced that the company I worked for (Tim Hortons), had announced that they were merging with Burger King. There was a lot of uncertainty about what the future would hold after that announcement, and we weren’t sure when we’d be back to WDW. Fast forward to January 26th of this year…I’m sitting in my office when the phone rings and I’m called down to one of the “extra” offices we have. Long story short, my position was deemed redundant, and I was relieved of my duties.
However, a few weeks later I had a new job. After taking a few weeks off to relax, I started my new job…and our next WDW trip was back on.
Once we knew the trip was on we started our normal prep stuff (buying gift cards at Sam’s club or Target each month). By the time we were ready to leave we had enough cards to pay for all the meals etc. I then went on the Disney gift card website and merged all the cards into 3 cards. This made life easier for us (fewer cards to carry) and for the CMs (who didn’t have to scan a bunch of $50 cards when we went to pay our bill).
Well, that’s it for background….So here we go
Day 1 – Aug 15 – A different start
So August 15th finally arrived. Everyone was really excited and had trouble sleeping the night before…Speaking of the night before…this was the first year we didn’t stay at a hotel near the airport. Being so close to the Buffalo airport, we always book flights on either Southwest or Jet Blue out of Buffalo, as they are significantly cheaper than flying out of either Toronto or Hamilton (our hometown). However, this year our flights weren’t until later in the afternoon (3:45), so we didn’t need to stay overnight since it’s only a 1 hour drive from our home to the Buffalo Airport.
So there we were, up nice and early, car already packed and ready to go. We were going to take the kids to their karate class (Steph is a yellow belt and Liam is a brown belt), but then decided it wasn’t worth risking one of them getting hurt so decided we’d just head out early. We made a quick stop at the bank to pick up some US $, and then headed out.
The trip down to Buffalo was fine until we got to the border. We have NEXUS cards (basically means we are pre-screened so we can get through customs quickly – think of it like a customs Fast Pass). However, this time we presented our cards to the officer, and we were then asked to pull over. It turns out there wasn’t anything wrong, but we had been selected for a compliance check. We weren’t really sure what that meant, but we were asked to pull over and get out of the vehicle. A few minutes later another officer came over and did a quick search of the interior of our vehicle, then handed us back our cards and our keys and said we were good to go. Well that was different.
After crossing the border we made a quick stop at Sam’s Club and Target to pick up a few last minute things, and then headed to Cracker Barrel for lunch. After a good lunch we headed over to the airport. We went to the long-term parking lot and found a spot. Right after we pulled in the shuttle came up behind us, and before we knew it we were at the main terminal…which was absolutely packed. It turns out the Baltimore airport had a power loss, so no flights were going in and out, which was causing a back-log. The line inside to get to the Southwest desk wasn’t moving, so we headed outside and did the curbside check-in which was much shorter. Our bags were all within the right weight, so all was good.
Next up was airport security. Fortunately, since we have NEXUS cards, we can sign up for pre-screening at the airport, so there was no wait there either – other than Liam got pulled over for a secondary check (seems to be a theme). They did a hand swab and then put the swab into a computer and a few seconds later he was given the all clear. After that all was good
Waiting to board selfie:
It's funny how things change. Here is a picture of what our kids were doing waiting for our first trip to Disney (7 years ago):
and this is what pre-flight boarding looks like now:
There's our plane:
On the plane selfie:
Our flight left on time, and was relatively uneventful (I fell asleep for most of the flight which was great).
I didn't choose the thug life...(and my kids think I'm a total dork now).
We arrived in Orlando around 6:30, right in the middle of the daily storm (which freaked Tammy out. She’s a very nervous flyer). We got off the plane and headed over to the ME desk. That’s when I realized I had forgotten the ME boarding passes at home. No big deal though, they just printed off new ones for us there, and sent us on our way. Our bus was waiting, and we boarded quickly (around 7:00).
ME Selfie:
A half hour drive later and we pulled up to the Poly.
Check-in went smoothly, other than our Magic Bands were no where to be found. It turns out they were waiting for us at Kidani? I guess it kinda makes sense since we had originally booked at Kidani, but we changed that back in February when Poly bookings opened.
Oh well. They gave us four magic bands (and had our colours available), and sent us off to our room.
to be continued
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And off course still following along!
