Mr. Tom Morrow
New Member
Hello there :wave: and thanks for looking in on my first trip report. Ok, first some details to set the trip up for you. There are four of us that went on the trip, my wife Marsha, my parents and me. Marsha and I are in our 30’s, Mom and Dad are in their 50’s. Our schedule was set up to take into account that Mom isn’t big on thrill rides, both Mom and I eat really plain foods, and we would spend some time doing different things than my parents. We’re from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, which is just across the boarder from Detroit, Michigan. The trip started December 26th and lasted to January 5th, still not long enough! Some things I learned that I can’t stand :hurl:, the weather, things on wheels, people who can’t follow directions and stupid questions, but more on those later. On with the report!
Day 1 – Thursday, December 26th
Marsha arrives home from work and we finish some last minute packing. We go to dinner at a local restaurant before hitting the road. We make our way through customs and are on I-75 heading south by 7:00 p.m. just as planned! :sohappy: Before midnight and we’re out of the snow and making our first stop for fuel at Lexington, Kentucky.
Day 2 – Friday, December 27th
Instead of traveling I-75 straight through to Florida, we decided to turn east at Knoxville, Tennessee. The route seamed to be shorter and had us go through North and South Carolina before entering Georgia which can take forever when traveling I-75! Second stop for fuel, 5:00 a.m. at Spartanburg, South Carolina. Next stop was for breakfast at Denny’s just outside Savannah, Georgia. Haven driven trough the night I was beat, Dad took over driving. We gassed up and were back on the road by 9:00 a.m. We were making great time and it looked like we were going to break our record of 16 hours. That was until we hit I-95 in Florida. We’re talking construction, heavy traffic and accidents all over the place. We finally reach I-4 and bam, more construction, traffic and accidents. At 2:00 p.m. we made our first stop in Orlando, the Disney Outlet Store inside Beltz Factory Outlet. This is where Disney closes out all of their merchandise from WDW. All of us stepped out of the minivan and shed our winter jackets and sweaters to enjoy the sunny afternoon. After some shopping we checked in to the Lake Buena Vista Comfort Inn just outside WDW near the Crossroads. Nice hotel, reasonably priced but very busy! To our surprise the T.V. included the WDW planning channel “zip pi di do da, tip for today!”. The hotel also provided complementary shuttle service directly to all four WDW parks, pretty cool. After a short nap :snore: while watching an NFL game at the same time, we got ready for dinner. We had priority seating reservations at 6:00 p.m. for the Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary Resort. This was our first time to dine at the Steakhouse, and it was awesome. The steaks lived up to their billing, and those red, garlic, mashed potatoes, simply yummmmmy! :slurp: Dessert consisted of chocolate cake which had layers of strawberry jam in it, I didn’t care for it. :hurl: A Jewish family of about 12 people was seated next to us. Since they must eat kosher foods I’m still trying to figure out why they would eat at a steakhouse? Anyhow, the atmosphere was very nice, but the lighting was a bit dark. Always fun to watch the monorail trains whoosh by. As the ladies still hadn’t had their fill of shopping we were off to the Marketplace. No purchases this time, just scoping the place out for later in the week. We called it a night at about 10:00 p.m.
Day 3 – Saturday, December 28th
Marsha and I had planned on going to Blizzard Beach in the morning. We thought the timing was great as this was the last day that Blizzard Beach would be open before going down for its annual rehab. So, we thought we would get to visit both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon on the same trip; usually one of the two is closed when we visit. But alas, it was too cold to go swimming
so we slept in. When we all got up, we decided to take Mom and Dad through Celebration (actual town built by Disney) as they had never been there. This included some more shopping while at Celebration. We then decided to go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge as none of us had been there before. Since we had no plans for lunch we thought we would give Boma’s a try, I read some good things about it so off we went. Unfortunately I forgot that Boma’s doesn’t serve Lunch! :hammer: So we walked around the Lodge anyways to check it out. Very nice, but as none of us are really into animals and we were really getting hungry, we didn’t stay very long. We decided to eat at TGI Fridays near our hotel. I have to say, when they tell you that they have hot chicken gumbo; you better believe that it’s spicy hot! We didn’t have any plans until dinner so we drove around WDW and then went for, yes more shopping! This time we were off to the Florida Mall. All I can say is busy, busy, busy! I can’t remember seeing the roads so busy in Orlando, or the mall for that matter. But a couple purchases and few hours later and were on our way to dinner. We had priority seating reservations for 6:00 p.m. at ‘Ohana in the Polynesian Resort. Marsha was the only one who had ever been to the Poly and that was when she was just a little kid. For those who don’t know, there is no menu here, everyone gets served the same things, and it’s all you can enjoy! The food again was awesome, and it kept coming and coming and you didn’t even have to ask for more. In fact, they almost get mad at you when you tell them that you can’t eats no more! :zipit: The desserts looked very tasty, but you’re so stuffed from dinner you can’t do it! We had a table with a great view of Cinderella’s castle. The lighting was a bit dark here as well but fit the atmosphere perfectly. One of the big complaints that I had heard was that the kids run all over the place. While there were lots of families (‘Ohana means family after all!), this was not the case. Every once in a while there would be activities for the kids which kept them occupied, it was very cute. There was a family sitting next to us and one of the children had special dietary needs. The server actually had the Head Chief come talk to the parents and the Chief made a special dish for the child, very cool. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this was mom’s birthday. The entertainer who was singing and keeping the kids occupied came over, presented Mom with a birthday cupcake, announced that it was my mom’s 16th birthday and sang happy birthday in Hawaiian and then the room sang happy birthday in English. Wait, the day isn’t over yet! Mom and Dad had never been to the Grand Floridian so we took a monorail ride. And what timing the piano player had the Christmas music going. The giant Christmas tree was in it usual location, as was the huge ginger bread house. We usual stop in for lunch at the Grand Floridian Café, but simply couldn’t fit it in the schedule, so this would be our only stop at the Grand Floridian. Then we were off to Downtown Disney. For my mom’s Christmas and Birthday present we bought her tickets to see the Cirque Du Soleil show at 9:00 p.m. that evening. My parents went to the show and we walked around, yup you guessed it, shopping! After the show let out, we returned to the hotel and called it a night. Wow, we sure did a lot in only two days and haven’t even been to a park yet! Next day, Epcot.
Day 1 – Thursday, December 26th
Marsha arrives home from work and we finish some last minute packing. We go to dinner at a local restaurant before hitting the road. We make our way through customs and are on I-75 heading south by 7:00 p.m. just as planned! :sohappy: Before midnight and we’re out of the snow and making our first stop for fuel at Lexington, Kentucky.
Day 2 – Friday, December 27th
Instead of traveling I-75 straight through to Florida, we decided to turn east at Knoxville, Tennessee. The route seamed to be shorter and had us go through North and South Carolina before entering Georgia which can take forever when traveling I-75! Second stop for fuel, 5:00 a.m. at Spartanburg, South Carolina. Next stop was for breakfast at Denny’s just outside Savannah, Georgia. Haven driven trough the night I was beat, Dad took over driving. We gassed up and were back on the road by 9:00 a.m. We were making great time and it looked like we were going to break our record of 16 hours. That was until we hit I-95 in Florida. We’re talking construction, heavy traffic and accidents all over the place. We finally reach I-4 and bam, more construction, traffic and accidents. At 2:00 p.m. we made our first stop in Orlando, the Disney Outlet Store inside Beltz Factory Outlet. This is where Disney closes out all of their merchandise from WDW. All of us stepped out of the minivan and shed our winter jackets and sweaters to enjoy the sunny afternoon. After some shopping we checked in to the Lake Buena Vista Comfort Inn just outside WDW near the Crossroads. Nice hotel, reasonably priced but very busy! To our surprise the T.V. included the WDW planning channel “zip pi di do da, tip for today!”. The hotel also provided complementary shuttle service directly to all four WDW parks, pretty cool. After a short nap :snore: while watching an NFL game at the same time, we got ready for dinner. We had priority seating reservations at 6:00 p.m. for the Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary Resort. This was our first time to dine at the Steakhouse, and it was awesome. The steaks lived up to their billing, and those red, garlic, mashed potatoes, simply yummmmmy! :slurp: Dessert consisted of chocolate cake which had layers of strawberry jam in it, I didn’t care for it. :hurl: A Jewish family of about 12 people was seated next to us. Since they must eat kosher foods I’m still trying to figure out why they would eat at a steakhouse? Anyhow, the atmosphere was very nice, but the lighting was a bit dark. Always fun to watch the monorail trains whoosh by. As the ladies still hadn’t had their fill of shopping we were off to the Marketplace. No purchases this time, just scoping the place out for later in the week. We called it a night at about 10:00 p.m.
Day 3 – Saturday, December 28th
Marsha and I had planned on going to Blizzard Beach in the morning. We thought the timing was great as this was the last day that Blizzard Beach would be open before going down for its annual rehab. So, we thought we would get to visit both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon on the same trip; usually one of the two is closed when we visit. But alas, it was too cold to go swimming
so we slept in. When we all got up, we decided to take Mom and Dad through Celebration (actual town built by Disney) as they had never been there. This included some more shopping while at Celebration. We then decided to go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge as none of us had been there before. Since we had no plans for lunch we thought we would give Boma’s a try, I read some good things about it so off we went. Unfortunately I forgot that Boma’s doesn’t serve Lunch! :hammer: So we walked around the Lodge anyways to check it out. Very nice, but as none of us are really into animals and we were really getting hungry, we didn’t stay very long. We decided to eat at TGI Fridays near our hotel. I have to say, when they tell you that they have hot chicken gumbo; you better believe that it’s spicy hot! We didn’t have any plans until dinner so we drove around WDW and then went for, yes more shopping! This time we were off to the Florida Mall. All I can say is busy, busy, busy! I can’t remember seeing the roads so busy in Orlando, or the mall for that matter. But a couple purchases and few hours later and were on our way to dinner. We had priority seating reservations for 6:00 p.m. at ‘Ohana in the Polynesian Resort. Marsha was the only one who had ever been to the Poly and that was when she was just a little kid. For those who don’t know, there is no menu here, everyone gets served the same things, and it’s all you can enjoy! The food again was awesome, and it kept coming and coming and you didn’t even have to ask for more. In fact, they almost get mad at you when you tell them that you can’t eats no more! :zipit: The desserts looked very tasty, but you’re so stuffed from dinner you can’t do it! We had a table with a great view of Cinderella’s castle. The lighting was a bit dark here as well but fit the atmosphere perfectly. One of the big complaints that I had heard was that the kids run all over the place. While there were lots of families (‘Ohana means family after all!), this was not the case. Every once in a while there would be activities for the kids which kept them occupied, it was very cute. There was a family sitting next to us and one of the children had special dietary needs. The server actually had the Head Chief come talk to the parents and the Chief made a special dish for the child, very cool. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this was mom’s birthday. The entertainer who was singing and keeping the kids occupied came over, presented Mom with a birthday cupcake, announced that it was my mom’s 16th birthday and sang happy birthday in Hawaiian and then the room sang happy birthday in English. Wait, the day isn’t over yet! Mom and Dad had never been to the Grand Floridian so we took a monorail ride. And what timing the piano player had the Christmas music going. The giant Christmas tree was in it usual location, as was the huge ginger bread house. We usual stop in for lunch at the Grand Floridian Café, but simply couldn’t fit it in the schedule, so this would be our only stop at the Grand Floridian. Then we were off to Downtown Disney. For my mom’s Christmas and Birthday present we bought her tickets to see the Cirque Du Soleil show at 9:00 p.m. that evening. My parents went to the show and we walked around, yup you guessed it, shopping! After the show let out, we returned to the hotel and called it a night. Wow, we sure did a lot in only two days and haven’t even been to a park yet! Next day, Epcot.
I have been having WDW withdraw. We were last there in June '02 and won't be returning until Nov. It made me feel like I was there with you, and my heart was heavy as I was reading about your last day