Trip Report **COMPLETE** The "SURPRISE!!! We're not going to Pittsburgh... We're going to Disney World!!" TR

Hi everyone! My family and I just got back from an amazing week at the Beach Club Villas and I'm going to try my best to do a trip report, because I learned SO much by reading everyone else's on here.

First off, for full disclosure, I realized as I was looking through our pics after we got back, that other than one Lapu Lapu and several Mickey Bars, I didn't take one. single. food pic. My only excuse is that I was so excited to eat all the delicious food that I didn't take the time to photograph it. So if you read trip reports for the food pics, you will be sorely disappointed with my TR.
I did, however, eat a TON of delicious food, and kept good notes, so hopefully that will make up for the lack of pics.

This was our first family trip to WDW. This is our family-

Kevin and me

Calvin and Claire


I (Michelle) went to Disney World in 1994 when I was 14 with my family to the MK, Epcot and MGM Studios. I also went to the MK for one day trips in 1998 and 2005. My husband (Kevin) went to the MK in 1978 as a 5 year old and remembers nothing. This was the WDW experience between the two of us.
I am, however, a huge lover of all things Disney and have been dreaming of taking my kids to Disney World since before they technically existed.
So last summer, I told my husband "That's it. Claire is three and Calvin is five. They are the perfect age for Disney magic. We are going to Disney World next February break". Since I do all of our vacation research, planning and prep (a mutual choice, not because I'm some control freak ), he basically nodded and went along with it. And I'm pretty sure he loves me and knew how important this trip was to me.

So after much research and planning, we decided to rent points through David's to stay at the Beach Club for a week. We also decided to keep it a secret from our kids and to tell them the day before we left. We live about an hour south of Buffalo NY in a frozen tundra called Lakewood. Seriously though, it has been flipping freezing this winter, more so than usual, and I was beyond ready to escape the cold. We told our kids about two weeks before we were set to leave, that we were going to a hotel in Pittsburgh (we were flying out of Pittsburgh) with an indoor pool. They were so excited about this. I couldn't WAIT to tell them we were actually going to Disney World.
But based on my son's reaction when we told them, I think I may have gone a little overboard with the Disney jug we kept on the counter and saving our money up for our "someday in the very far off future" trip to Disney World. Next up is their reaction when we told them...

 

[AJ's B]

Can't wait to read more!!!!

 

[mishel635]

After we left the Crystal Palace, we went over to Fantasyland to get on some rides before it got too busy. We figured Sunday and Monday of our vacation were going to have the busiest crowds due to President's Day, and the gorgeous weather wasn't going to help keep the crowds away either!! (Not that I'm complaining! We hit the jackpot weather-wise for the whole week we were there.)

It wasn't quite time for our Enchanted Tales with Belle Fastpass yet, and we saw on the MDE app that the wait for the Little Mermaid ride was only five minutes so we headed over there...

We all loved this ride, and the five minute wait was just how long it took to walk through the extremely long queue area. There was practically no line yet. Just like the Nemo ride the night before, this one stopped a couple of times but not for very long. And it was nice that Sebastian let us know how things were going.

Although we really did love this ride, Kevin and I both agreed that Ariel's face was just a little bit creepy. It didn't seem to bother the kids though.

After this we headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle. The kids were a little overwhelmed with the crowding into the room, and the parents standing near the back, but once the show got started they were fine. We went through the Magic Mirror and the kids loved the armoire, and even though they were not doing anything to try and increase their chances of getting a part in the story, Calvin was picked to be Maurice and Claire was one of the dishes.

They headed into the room with Lumiere (which was awesome, by the way) and I think they were just a little overwhelmed by meeting their first princess because they just looked like they were in shock! They were both enjoying the show/story though.

Claire curtsied when she got up to Belle...

Calvin did the best shivering he could...

They really did enjoy this, and finally seemed to be warming up to the whole "storytelling with a REAL princess" experience by the time we left.


After this we headed over to the Pooh ride as the wait time was less than 5 minutes. I remembered this ride from before and knew I loved it, and Kevin and the kids loved it too. In fact, for the rest of the day, Claire told anyone that wanted to listen that this was her favorite ride...

Next up was our fastpass for Peter Pan, which I was really excited for since Peter Pan is Calvin's favorite Disney movie. In fact, the kids birthday party theme last year was actually Peter Pan and they dressed up as Peter Pan and Wendy. We are big fans. Kevin and I agreed that while we definitely enjoyed it, I don't think I would wait 50 minutes in the standby line for it, which was what the wait actually was at the time. Thank goodness for Fastpass!


Coming up next- Lunch at Be Our Guest!!

 

[RMichael21]

I am absolutley loving this trip report! And your kids seem so happy to be at WDW for their first time. Excited to see more.

 

[morningstar]

Your dining choices have been fabulous. I just don't know how you can match those for 6 more days. I think Coral Reef and the Garden Grill are my two favorite restaurants at Disney World, just because they are like doing an attraction while you eat.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Yay!!! You started your report The letters to the kids are just adorable and I LOVE Claire's Pooh dress! Crystal Palace is definitely one of our faves as far as character meals go. That breakfast lasagna is so evil and yet so amazing! Garden Grill was also a big hit for us...loved the fish and the character interaction was fabulous. I keep debating about renting DVC points for an upcoming trip, but DH isn't ready for me to book anything just yet so we'll probably just stick to a standard room if/when discounts come out. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

I noticed your children's shirts might I ask where they were made I tried ordering one for my daughter on customizedgirl.com. They wouldn't print it because it said Disney World QUOTE="mishel635, post: 5963959, member: 90158ack to the resort and I was still just trying to take a moment and realize that we were actually and really HERE! After months of counting down, we were finally at DISNEY!

 

[FAITHTRUST&PIXIEDUST]

I'm here and caught up! My kids are 5 and 3 as well so I'm excited to read this report, loving it so far! The picture of your DD curtsying with Belle is so precious btw!

 

[Betsyboo]

Following along. Just got back last night. Downloading pics for my trip report.

I've enjoyed your posts! We loved CP back in 2009. May have to do it again next time.

 

[Ellen Ripley]

Amazing report!

 

[mishel635]

@Disneydreamer23 I got the shirts at either Walmart or Old Navy and then bought iron ons from either eBay or Etsy. If you just search for Disney iron ons or the specific characters you want, you can find TONS of designs. Let me know if you want the names of the people I bought from. I love buying cute clothes for my kids as it is, so I was in heaven outfitting them for this trip!!!

 

[mishel635]

I love, love, love the letters from Tink. Great report!!

Thanks!! The kids really loved them and ran to the door every morning to read them!

A very NICE trip report from a really HAPPY family!

Thanks so much!!! That means a lot to me! One of my favorite moments as a mom was when my son had to give me a "Mothers Day" award for a reason of his choice and my award said "Because she's always happy and she makes me happy too". Doesn't get much better than that!!! Thanks for reading along!

Great report so far! I literally gasped when I read that everything was great at CP except the breakfast lasagna, then I read the rest of your sentence and laughed! I felt the exact same way when we had it in November. Best stuff ever!! I would love to have the name of the lady on Etsy who did your letters for you. We are going back to WDW and on a DCL cruise in June with my parents and my brother's family, and I think my 3 kids and my 2 nieces would love something like that! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading along. I have day dreams about that lasagna!!!!
I will message you her account name later. She just did invitations for me for my Gram's surprise 80th birthday party and they turned out great too.

Great Report!! I'm going to try to wait patiently for that Lapu Lapu pic. We went last December and that was on my must do list that I didn't do. I will get a chance this September on a one day kid free trip to MK. I'm making a point to run to the Poly just to get one!!!!

It was pretty good and I loved that it came in a whole pineapple!! I wanted a Grey Goose slushie and never got one. Next trip for sure!!

Can't wait to read more!!!!

Thanks for reading along!!!

I am absolutley loving this trip report! And your kids seem so happy to be at WDW for their first time. Excited to see more.

Thanks for reading along! Thankfully their excitement and happiness lasted all week long!!!!

Your dining choices have been fabulous. I just don't know how you can match those for 6 more days. I think Coral Reef and the Garden Grill are my two favorite restaurants at Disney World, just because they are like doing an attraction while you eat.

Thanks! And I haven't even gotten to my two favorite meals yet!!!

Yay!!! You started your report The letters to the kids are just adorable and I LOVE Claire's Pooh dress! Crystal Palace is definitely one of our faves as far as character meals go. That breakfast lasagna is so evil and yet so amazing! Garden Grill was also a big hit for us...loved the fish and the character interaction was fabulous. I keep debating about renting DVC points for an upcoming trip, but DH isn't ready for me to book anything just yet so we'll probably just stick to a standard room if/when discounts come out. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks!!! This trip report is helping to cheer me up from my "Post trip to Disney World depression"!!!
When you're ready to book you should still check with David's. I get emails from them for last minute deals sometimes and they're only for $10 a point or so.
Thanks for reading along! I loved reading your trip report from October. Is everyone healed up now from the accident?

I'm here and caught up! My kids are 5 and 3 as well so I'm excited to read this report, loving it so far! The picture of your DD curtsying with Belle is so precious btw!

Thanks!! They were the perfect age for Disney!!! Although I'm sure they'll love it in two years or so when I convince my husband to go back again!!

Following along. Just got back last night. Downloading pics for my trip report.

I've enjoyed your posts! We loved CP back in 2009. May have to do it again next time.

Thanks for reading along! Can't wait to read your trip report too!

Amazing report!

Thanks so much for following along!

I'm hoping to get more up tonight. It's been a busy weekend!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Thanks!!! This trip report is helping to cheer me up from my "Post trip to Disney World depression"!!!
When you're ready to book you should still check with David's. I get emails from them for last minute deals sometimes and they're only for $10 a point or so.
Thanks for reading along! I loved reading your trip report from October. Is everyone healed up now from the accident?

I'm guessing he's got some section on his website to sign up for alerts? I really need to do that because it's such a huge savings.

We're definitely doing better. We're done with chiropractic care, but trying to get everything done with the pain & suffering settlement. FUN- not.

 

[blackthidot]

We did not want you here in Pittsburgh anyway!!! Haha just kidding.

 

[mishel635]

We did not want you here in Pittsburgh anyway!!! Haha just kidding.

Haha! That's funny!
We actually love Pittsburgh!!! My husband and I have been there MANY times just to visit and for concerts, my Grandpa grew up in McKees Rocks, and when my sister and I had to have a transplant surgery seven years ago, my family actually lived in the Shadyside area for 3 months.... We just don't love it more than Disney World!!!!

 

[party like it's 99]

I love surprise trips and can't wait to read more! Claire's pooh dress is too cute!

 

[mishel635]

So next up was our Fastpass for lunch at Be Our Guest!!! I was SO looking forward to this! Not for the food, although I knew it would probably be good, but just to see this Castle that looked so amazing in all of the pictures I had seen.
We went up to the cast member near the LONG line over the bridge, and she directed us to a small building nearby where there were two cast members handling the Fastpass reservations. She gave us a ticket and told us to go find Zack. We walked past all of the people waiting in the sun, and I mentally sent up a thank you to this site for informing me of the Fastpass option!
Went in and found Zack who sent us over to the ordering screens. Thank goodness for the cast members there helping with the orders, because for some reason, it was like they were expecting me to do some calculus equations to order lunch. I could not figure this out for the life of me and kept messing up our order. And I am actually pretty good with computers so I'm not sure what the problem was. After getting some help we finally got our order in and took off to check out the Beast's castle!
The first room we went into was the Ballroom which is just gorgeous. The details are amazing.

The kids couldn't get over the snow and when they asked how it was snowing when it was hot outside, we just replied "It's magic". This would come around to us in a bit...

Next we checked out the West Wing where it was lightning and thundering just as we got there. Very neat.

We finally came to the Rose Gallery (I believe that's what it's called) and once Claire saw the dancing Beast and Belle and all the pictures from the movie, she said we should definitely eat in this room!
Calvin actually really likes this movie as well, so he and Claire were looking all around at the different pictures while Kevin and I found a table. Belle is one of my favorites as well (a girl who loves to read is a girl after my own heart... )

Just a gorgeous room...
Kevin had ordered the croque monsieur and I had ordered the roast beef sandwich so we could share. The kids had each ordered the turkey sandwich, and Kevin and I had both ordered the Master's cupcake for dessert so we could all try the grey stuff.... Spoiler alert! It really IS delicious! (Sorry I couldn't help myself... )

As we were sitting there we saw all these cast members bringing everyone's food out on these nice rolling carts. We hadn't been given an order number and we chose our own table, but the lady knew right where to find us in this crowded dining room. Kevin couldn't help himself and asked her how she knew where we were sitting. She just smiled and looked at Calvin and Claire and said "It's magic, sir". Pretty funny.

Our sandwiches were both very good although I did take a bit of the horseradish sauce off of the roast beef. Once I removed the tomatoes from the kids' sandwiches, they devoured them. That's one food I just can't get them to like. The only thing we really didn't care for was the sweet potato wedges Calvin ordered. I assumed they would be more of a fry but they were actual big cooked wedges of sweet potato that he really didn't like. No biggie. Just not what I expected.

Overall this was a wonderful lunch experience and I will definitely be trying for that coveted Be Our Guest dinner ADR on our next trip!!!

At this point it was about 1:30 and we could tell the kids were a little tired. Since we had Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table that night, we made the decision to go back to the room for a rest. This was what we found when we got to the bus stop-

they had fallen asleep holding hands.... I may have had a tear at this point.

Next up- a not quite expected Bibbidi Bobbidi experience and dinner at CRT!!!

 

[blackthidot]

Haha! That's funny!
We actually love Pittsburgh!!! My husband and I have been there MANY times just to visit and for concerts, my Grandpa grew up in McKees Rocks, and when my sister and I had to have a transplant surgery seven years ago, my family actually lived in the Shadyside area for 3 months.... We just don't love it more than Disney World!!!!

McKees Rocks is about 10 mins from me. I ran a Bed and Breakfast/Wedding Site over in Shadyside as well.

 

[Britt]

OMG Come back and do some more!!! I totally up at the sleeping holding hands pic!

 

[mishel635]

Continuing with Day #2, we went back to our resort to rest for a couple hours. Not sure how I missed it, but we also had a Fastpass for Buzz that morning and we all loved it. Calvin still says that was one of his two favorite rides

We were NOT messing around. Those are some serious faces! I believe my score was 129,000 this time. We all LOVED this ride!

And of course they had to get into the jail cell with Zurg!

So now we are back on track. We had taken a rest at the resort, and this had magically appeared for the kids.

Claire made some friends who were listening to the Frozen soundtrack... she sings this day and night.

We hopped on a bus and headed back to Magic Kingdom for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and dinner at CRT. Claire had been talking nonstop about getting her hair done by a fairy godmother. And Calvin had agreed to do the Knight package (I figured that way he would have something fun to do too while we were there).

So we get there, Claire climbs right up into the chair, and they show her the different hairstyles, and she insists on the most intricate one, with rows of hair twisted back with a low bun. I asked her if she didn't just want the Cinderella bun on top but she said "No mommy, this one is the prettiest.". Well, I didn't really think much of it, and let her pick. So, Frances, our "fairy godmother in training" gets started. She was very nice.

I should give you a little background on Claire- she is very talkative and inquisitive. She is constantly asking how things work and why things are the way they are. After about five minutes of having Claire in her chair, Frances says to me, "she is the most inquisitive three year old I have ever had in my chair." I answered that I was sure she was.
Well, this hairstyle was taking a very long time, (at least it seemed that way) and I could just see that Claire was getting nervous. About 20 minutes had already passed and I could tell that we were not going to make it through this whole thing. Calvin was already knighted and was loving his sword and shield. The girl who knighted him was great but I forgot to write down her name!

So, I whispered to Frances- "I think we might have to stop soon" quietly enough that Claire couldn't hear me. Within the next minute, Claire had these big silent tears going down her cheeks and the quivering lip and whispered to me "I don't want to have pretty hair anymore Mommy". The girl tried talking her into it, but I could tell she was done. And I know some parents would say I should have tried to talk her into sticking it out, but this wasn't something that needed to be done, it was something for fun, and I just told the girl (many times) that it was completely fine. She felt badly that Claire didn't have her hair done, but I made sure she knew it was not her fault and we were completely fine with it. I even tried to pay for Claire's package but they wouldn't let me.

So that did not go as planned, but Claire calmed right down once she was out of the chair, and we had a lovely half head of gelled back hair look! She decided to put it to one side like she does when she's pretending to be Elsa... works for me!!!!!

Since we had a little time to kill before our ADR at Cinderella's, we checked out the Castle Couture store and rode the Carousel. And before we knew it, it was time for dinner in the castle!!!!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

@Disneydreamer23 I got the shirts at either Walmart or Old Navy and then bought iron ons from either eBay or Etsy. If you just search for Disney iron ons or the specific characters you want, you can find TONS of designs. Let me know if you want the names of the people I bought from. I love buying cute clothes for my kids as it is, so I was in heaven outfitting them for this trip!!!

Did they stay stuck on well? Please I would lo0ve to know the names of the people I appreciate it!!!!