Holly
New Member
DAY ONE - Wednesday, November 27, 2002
I was so excited, I didn't need an alarm clock and was up a few minutes before our 3:00am alarm actually went off. I made some coffee, listened to my husband shower and tied up a few loose ends. At 3:15am, I hear my girl's alarm go off and at exactly 3:16am, they were downstairs wide awake and ready to go. I have NEVER seen them move so quickly. After calling my mother-in-law to wake her up (and finding out she only had one hour of sleep) we had coffee, muffins and took some coffee for the road and jumped in my husband's truck. (We pre-loaded our luggage the night before.) At about 3:50am we were at my mother-in-laws awaiting our limo that was scheduled to pick us up at 4:00am. Then it was 4:05am. Then 4:10am. No limo. At 4:15am we called the limo service and awoke the owner, who in turn had to call and awake our limo driver who overslept. Fortunately, he lived fairly closely and was at our door around 4:40am. We're known to be a family that no matter how hard we prepare, SOMETHING always goes wrong. So my thought was that if this was the ONLY thing that went wrong on our vacation, we were still sitting pretty.
Flash forward to the airport and we're still on time and we're able to pre-board and get bulkhead (yeah!) because my mother-in-law is in a wheelchair. (New plane, Southwest, 1/2 filled flight, leather seats, hysterical flight crew ... and we even arrived in Orlando 15 minutes early.)
After grabbing our bags we spot Tiffany Towncar - except, it's not OUR driver. He finally locates our driver after about 20 minutes and we're off to Disney. Our limo driver was wonderful - and since he was from Poland, a lot of talk about yummy ethnic foods went on during the short drive to Disney. We were too excited about arriving that we opted to skip our scheduled grocery stop.
We pulled up to the Contemporary and I ran in to check in and left the rest of the family standing outside to bask in the Florida sun - though it was only about 60, it was a welcome change from the snow we just left. I was surprised to find that our rooms were ready, got our key cards, maps, grabbed the family and the bellman and went upstairs. We were given rooms 4509 & 4508 - and they were NOT connecting rooms. The key cards worked on 4508 but NOT on 4509. Hmmmmmmm. The bellman had a bright idea and tried the cards in the connecting room of 4507 and BINGO we're in. (Apparently, just a minor screw up by the front desk.) But alas, the guarranteed smoking rooms that we requested months in advance were not to be - as well as the Magic Kingdom view I had hoped for. We had a pretty lake view though and opted not to complain and just smoke on the balcony.
After settling in, we went downstairs to the restaurant that adjoins Chef Mickeys, Concourse Steakhouse, and had a relaxing lunch watching the monorail overhead.
We couldn't keep the kids away (or me!) from the parks any longer, so we decided to check out Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. We had rented a electric scooter for my MIL from Life Air and we hopped on the monorail and went over to the park. This was probably 2 of the biggest mistakes of our trip - the park was literally wall-to-wall people. And we thought that using a scooter would be easy for my MIL but it was a nightmare - you can't start and stop on a dime and she was extremely worried about clipping the heels of people that were stepping in front of her. The rest of the family tried to form a human shield around her so she could move, but MK was so completely crowded, it was impossible. Right before you turn the corner on Main Street to see the castle for the first time, I pulled the girls over and said, "I want to show you what I remembered and loved about Disney." I pulled them over for a view of the castle and got a little teary - here I was, 26 years later bringing MY children to Disney. We then made our way over to Tommorrowland and my husband and I took the girls on the Indy cars while my MIL sat it out. Then we wandered over to the Tea Cups and I sat that one out - I get really really ill from anything resembling a Tilt-a-Whirl! Somehow, I don't really know how, we made it over to the other side of the park to the Haunted Mansion. I asked if my MIL could go through the que in her scooter, and the wonderful CM at the gate said if she went the handicapped way, she'd miss the first half. So she graciously handed us 5 Fast Passes so my MIL wouldn't miss anything. My MIL can walk, but not for distances longer than a 1/2 block so though the Fast Pass worked, the standing and walking through the FP que just about killed her - and made her want to kill me.
After fighting crowds the entire afternoon, we decided to pack it up and head back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we picked a time that Spectromagic was about to start. So the crowds that were really thick before, became almost impossible to navigate. Somehow, someway we made it down to the end of Main Street right before the parade started ... and then we got stuck. We couldn't move at all. So what to do? A family standing in front of us noticed our frustration and quite generously offered to squeeze our two girls onto the curb with them. The girls were in awe - and I was too.
Finally, we were able to navigate out of the park and get back to the Contemporary. We took the girls and my MIL back to our rooms and the DH and I headed down to the food court to pick up dinner. Before going, I had read reports about people being dissappointed with the size of the Contemp's food court - though I didn't have anything to compare it to, I thought it was just fine. We never waited longer than 5 minutes, and though we never sat down there to eat, there was always available seating.
Over dinner in our rooms, we poured over the Epcot map and made some guesses about what we'd like to see there the next day. At about 8:55pm, I remembered about the fireworks! The girls and my DH ran down the hallway and out the floor exit on the 9th floor and had a perfect view of the magic. We went back to our rooms afterwards, got ready for bed then heard some loud music from outside - it was the Electric Light Parade right on Bay Lake! This I definitely remembered from my visit in 1976 - and though the girls had passed out about 2 seconds after their heads hit the pillow, the adults had a relaxing time on the balcony watching the water parade.
Coming soon: Epcot, Day Two!
I was so excited, I didn't need an alarm clock and was up a few minutes before our 3:00am alarm actually went off. I made some coffee, listened to my husband shower and tied up a few loose ends. At 3:15am, I hear my girl's alarm go off and at exactly 3:16am, they were downstairs wide awake and ready to go. I have NEVER seen them move so quickly. After calling my mother-in-law to wake her up (and finding out she only had one hour of sleep) we had coffee, muffins and took some coffee for the road and jumped in my husband's truck. (We pre-loaded our luggage the night before.) At about 3:50am we were at my mother-in-laws awaiting our limo that was scheduled to pick us up at 4:00am. Then it was 4:05am. Then 4:10am. No limo. At 4:15am we called the limo service and awoke the owner, who in turn had to call and awake our limo driver who overslept. Fortunately, he lived fairly closely and was at our door around 4:40am. We're known to be a family that no matter how hard we prepare, SOMETHING always goes wrong. So my thought was that if this was the ONLY thing that went wrong on our vacation, we were still sitting pretty.
Flash forward to the airport and we're still on time and we're able to pre-board and get bulkhead (yeah!) because my mother-in-law is in a wheelchair. (New plane, Southwest, 1/2 filled flight, leather seats, hysterical flight crew ... and we even arrived in Orlando 15 minutes early.)
After grabbing our bags we spot Tiffany Towncar - except, it's not OUR driver. He finally locates our driver after about 20 minutes and we're off to Disney. Our limo driver was wonderful - and since he was from Poland, a lot of talk about yummy ethnic foods went on during the short drive to Disney. We were too excited about arriving that we opted to skip our scheduled grocery stop.
We pulled up to the Contemporary and I ran in to check in and left the rest of the family standing outside to bask in the Florida sun - though it was only about 60, it was a welcome change from the snow we just left. I was surprised to find that our rooms were ready, got our key cards, maps, grabbed the family and the bellman and went upstairs. We were given rooms 4509 & 4508 - and they were NOT connecting rooms. The key cards worked on 4508 but NOT on 4509. Hmmmmmmm. The bellman had a bright idea and tried the cards in the connecting room of 4507 and BINGO we're in. (Apparently, just a minor screw up by the front desk.) But alas, the guarranteed smoking rooms that we requested months in advance were not to be - as well as the Magic Kingdom view I had hoped for. We had a pretty lake view though and opted not to complain and just smoke on the balcony.
After settling in, we went downstairs to the restaurant that adjoins Chef Mickeys, Concourse Steakhouse, and had a relaxing lunch watching the monorail overhead.
We couldn't keep the kids away (or me!) from the parks any longer, so we decided to check out Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. We had rented a electric scooter for my MIL from Life Air and we hopped on the monorail and went over to the park. This was probably 2 of the biggest mistakes of our trip - the park was literally wall-to-wall people. And we thought that using a scooter would be easy for my MIL but it was a nightmare - you can't start and stop on a dime and she was extremely worried about clipping the heels of people that were stepping in front of her. The rest of the family tried to form a human shield around her so she could move, but MK was so completely crowded, it was impossible. Right before you turn the corner on Main Street to see the castle for the first time, I pulled the girls over and said, "I want to show you what I remembered and loved about Disney." I pulled them over for a view of the castle and got a little teary - here I was, 26 years later bringing MY children to Disney. We then made our way over to Tommorrowland and my husband and I took the girls on the Indy cars while my MIL sat it out. Then we wandered over to the Tea Cups and I sat that one out - I get really really ill from anything resembling a Tilt-a-Whirl! Somehow, I don't really know how, we made it over to the other side of the park to the Haunted Mansion. I asked if my MIL could go through the que in her scooter, and the wonderful CM at the gate said if she went the handicapped way, she'd miss the first half. So she graciously handed us 5 Fast Passes so my MIL wouldn't miss anything. My MIL can walk, but not for distances longer than a 1/2 block so though the Fast Pass worked, the standing and walking through the FP que just about killed her - and made her want to kill me.
After fighting crowds the entire afternoon, we decided to pack it up and head back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we picked a time that Spectromagic was about to start. So the crowds that were really thick before, became almost impossible to navigate. Somehow, someway we made it down to the end of Main Street right before the parade started ... and then we got stuck. We couldn't move at all. So what to do? A family standing in front of us noticed our frustration and quite generously offered to squeeze our two girls onto the curb with them. The girls were in awe - and I was too.
Finally, we were able to navigate out of the park and get back to the Contemporary. We took the girls and my MIL back to our rooms and the DH and I headed down to the food court to pick up dinner. Before going, I had read reports about people being dissappointed with the size of the Contemp's food court - though I didn't have anything to compare it to, I thought it was just fine. We never waited longer than 5 minutes, and though we never sat down there to eat, there was always available seating.
Over dinner in our rooms, we poured over the Epcot map and made some guesses about what we'd like to see there the next day. At about 8:55pm, I remembered about the fireworks! The girls and my DH ran down the hallway and out the floor exit on the 9th floor and had a perfect view of the magic. We went back to our rooms afterwards, got ready for bed then heard some loud music from outside - it was the Electric Light Parade right on Bay Lake! This I definitely remembered from my visit in 1976 - and though the girls had passed out about 2 seconds after their heads hit the pillow, the adults had a relaxing time on the balcony watching the water parade.
Coming soon: Epcot, Day Two!
Replace Sleeping Beauty with Snow White ... whoops!