Hi everyone. Well, we’re finally back from a 10 day trip to Disney, so it’s time to start a trip report. Anyone interested in the PTR can find it here:http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...eptember-pre-trip-report.873402/#post-5711274
First, the introductions:
From left to right – Our DS Liam, , DW Tammy, me (Graham) and our DD Stephanie (this picture is from last year, so you'll be able to see how much the kids have changed from last year's trip).
We were down at the world from Sept 18th to the 27th, in a one bedroom villa at AKL. As the title hints at, this will be our last September trip for a while. Steph starts High School next year, so we won't be able to take her out of school anymore. So, let's make the most of this last September trip shall we...here goes:
Day -1 - Sept 17
Day -1 started the same as any other day for us. Tammy and I were up at 5:15am and got ready for work (I’m the manager of the advertising accounting department at Tim Hortons (a coffee and donut chain), and my wife runs an in-home daycare). Work was fairly busy which was good because it really made the time fly. Before I knew it, 4:00 had rolled around and I said my last goodbyes to my team and headed home. The drive home was OK – about 45 minutes. Tammy and the kids were waiting at the door when I got home. 10 minutes to pack the car, we were on the road to Buffalo. We crossed into Buffalo and headed to Sam’s Club to pick up some breakfast items (pastries, etc), and to Target to pick up some Disney gift cards (you can pay for the gift cards with the Target card, which knocks 5% off the price (which pretty much covers the foreign exchange for us Canadians)). We picked up $300 in cards with the plan to use them to cover some of the QS meals while we were there (we would have purchased more, but we weren’t sure how this would work, so we decided to start small this year – if it works, we’ll do more next time we go). With all the pre-trip shopping out of the way, we headed to the Sleep Inn across from the Buffalo airport (with a brief stop in at the airport to weigh our largest bags to make sure we weren’t overweight with them), and were in bed around 10:00. Hard to believe, but the trip we’ve been planning and looking forward to for almost a year is finally here.
Day 1 – Sept 18
The wake-up call came at 4:30am (and the alarm on my phone went off at approximately the same time). Everyone got up, got ready, and headed down to the lobby of the hotel for a quick bite, before taking the shuttle over to the airport. We breezed through security check, grabbed a bit more caffeine and hung out at our gate.
We started boarding the AirTran plane around 7:30, and were in the air just after 8.
The flight down was pretty uneventful, and we were on the ground in Orlando around 10:30. One cool thing was that the plane had to approach the runway from the opposite side it normally does when we fly down, so we flew over Universal, and saw the MK in the distance. We love the Orlando airport. It’s a really nice airport, and it’s the first stop on our Disney trip which makes it even better. We flew through airport to the Magical Express desk, and were on one of the best bus rides known to man in no time at all.
The Magical Express ride was good as usual. One kind of funny thing happened when did the drop off at AoA. The driver had announced that we were at AoA so everyone staying here could get off. After everyone got off, the driver pulled away and was about halfway between AoA and POP when a lady comes running from the back of the bus. Turns out she didn’t hear the announcement to get off. I thought the driver was going to turn around and drive back…Nope…opened the door right there and told her and her family they could get off here then...
Hey... that's where we're staying
Anyways….We pulled into AKL around 11 and were greeted by David, who was a manager at the hotel. “Welcome Home Burnett family” was how we were greeted – I liked the personal touch of knowing our name. He took us into the lobby and sat us down on a couch and said he’d handle the check-in for us. We had already done on-line check in so everything was pretty much ready (and, SCORE, our room was ready too). We were up on the 5th floor and a bit of a hike from the lobby (and no savannah view) but we were happy. We went to the concierge desk and bought our park passes (8 days of park passes with park hopper and waterparks and more), then headed to the store to get our mugs. I noticed the Rapid Fill program was rolled out here, so it will be interesting to see how that works. After all that we headed up to our room. We did the quick room tour, dropped off our carry-ons, then headed out to the busses. We decided that since we were so close, AK would be the park today. I also made another decision…I decided not to bring my camera (I had my phone with the camera on it, but I didn’t bring the DSLR with me). Let me explain…I love taking pictures (I didn’t say I was good at it, I just like it), but too often I find myself being more concerned with getting the perfect picture than with enjoying the experience that I’m taking the picture of. So, for the first day, I left the big camera in the room.
The bus to AK pulled up, and before we knew it we were there. The first thing I noticed when we got to the park was that something was missing…the big AK sign that used to be between the bus stop and the front gates. It was there last year:
Oh well, no biggie. We flew through bag check, then I headed to the customer service desk to do something we had never done before…buy a Tables in Wonderland card (why you can’t buy the TiW card at the hotel is beyond me). Up until this year we had always done the dining plan, and it worked pretty well for us. This year, however, a few things changed: 1) Liam turned 10, so we would now be 4 adults on the dining plan and 2) Disney raised the dining plan price twice between September 2012 and September 2013. Being an accountant, I did some number crunching and realized that based on how we eat (we aren’t big eaters, and DD is more of a picky/simple eater) that we could save quite a bit not buying the dining plan this year. I decided to track the costs of everything we bought that would have been covered by the dining plan, and see where we ended up at the end. I can tell you that the standard dining plan for 4 adults for 9 days would have been $2,121. Oh...btw, the card is good until October 31, 2014, so it may get two trips worth of use.
Could this be the source of some major savings? Time will tell
After TiW is purchased, and with 4 KttW cards just itching to be used, we approached the entrance poles. A quick tap and finger scan and we were in. Problem…it started raining. Bah. We decided lunch would be the best way to start since we were all kind of hungry, and hopefully the rain would pass by the time we were done. The kids wanted to do Restaurantasorous, so we headed there. A cool thing about the AK QS restaurants is that they let you use TiW in most of them. We got to the restaurant just as it started pouring. For lunch Steph got the mac and cheese dog, Liam got the bacon burger, Tammy got the chicken nuggets, and I got the grilled chicken sandwich. All were good and, bonus, the rain had stopped.
So the next decision to make…what to ride first. I will say that the rain pretty much emptied the park out, which was great for getting on rides. We were so close to Dinoland, so the kids picked Dinosaur as the first ride. The ride was pretty good, but the dinosaur that come out and roars at you when they take your picture was not working (which made the picture look weird since everyone was looking at the substitute dinosaur on the opposite side of where the roaring one was, except for me, who was looking the wrong way expecting to be roared at). Anyways…not a bad start. Primeval Whirl was next (Steph loves this one). Next up was my favourite – Expedition Everest. I love this ride. I never got to experience it with a fully functioning yeti, so I can only imagine how much more awesome it would be. We went on twice, and walked on both times. After EE it was safari (one of Tammy’s favourites). It was really good. The lions were quite active this time (which made me wish I had my better camera). It was really funny to watch. There were two female lions and one male. The one female was at the very top of the rock formation and every time the male lion tried to get up there, she would swat him in the head…”They’re so much like us”.
After this, the kids wanted to do Everest again (yeah…the “kids” wanted to do it again). So we head back to Asia, and rode Everest 3 more times (the kids each wanted to do one ride alone, and one together). Fun times. We decided to call it a day for the park, and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. Dinner tonight was ‘Ohana – a first night tradition for us.
I had purposely booked the meal for a bit later (6:50) so we could watch Wishes from our table. We requested a window seat, and were in woodfired meat heaven in no time.
First, the introductions:
From left to right – Our DS Liam, , DW Tammy, me (Graham) and our DD Stephanie (this picture is from last year, so you'll be able to see how much the kids have changed from last year's trip).
We were down at the world from Sept 18th to the 27th, in a one bedroom villa at AKL. As the title hints at, this will be our last September trip for a while. Steph starts High School next year, so we won't be able to take her out of school anymore. So, let's make the most of this last September trip shall we...here goes:
Day -1 - Sept 17
Day -1 started the same as any other day for us. Tammy and I were up at 5:15am and got ready for work (I’m the manager of the advertising accounting department at Tim Hortons (a coffee and donut chain), and my wife runs an in-home daycare). Work was fairly busy which was good because it really made the time fly. Before I knew it, 4:00 had rolled around and I said my last goodbyes to my team and headed home. The drive home was OK – about 45 minutes. Tammy and the kids were waiting at the door when I got home. 10 minutes to pack the car, we were on the road to Buffalo. We crossed into Buffalo and headed to Sam’s Club to pick up some breakfast items (pastries, etc), and to Target to pick up some Disney gift cards (you can pay for the gift cards with the Target card, which knocks 5% off the price (which pretty much covers the foreign exchange for us Canadians)). We picked up $300 in cards with the plan to use them to cover some of the QS meals while we were there (we would have purchased more, but we weren’t sure how this would work, so we decided to start small this year – if it works, we’ll do more next time we go). With all the pre-trip shopping out of the way, we headed to the Sleep Inn across from the Buffalo airport (with a brief stop in at the airport to weigh our largest bags to make sure we weren’t overweight with them), and were in bed around 10:00. Hard to believe, but the trip we’ve been planning and looking forward to for almost a year is finally here.
Day 1 – Sept 18
The wake-up call came at 4:30am (and the alarm on my phone went off at approximately the same time). Everyone got up, got ready, and headed down to the lobby of the hotel for a quick bite, before taking the shuttle over to the airport. We breezed through security check, grabbed a bit more caffeine and hung out at our gate.
We started boarding the AirTran plane around 7:30, and were in the air just after 8.
The flight down was pretty uneventful, and we were on the ground in Orlando around 10:30. One cool thing was that the plane had to approach the runway from the opposite side it normally does when we fly down, so we flew over Universal, and saw the MK in the distance. We love the Orlando airport. It’s a really nice airport, and it’s the first stop on our Disney trip which makes it even better. We flew through airport to the Magical Express desk, and were on one of the best bus rides known to man in no time at all.
The Magical Express ride was good as usual. One kind of funny thing happened when did the drop off at AoA. The driver had announced that we were at AoA so everyone staying here could get off. After everyone got off, the driver pulled away and was about halfway between AoA and POP when a lady comes running from the back of the bus. Turns out she didn’t hear the announcement to get off. I thought the driver was going to turn around and drive back…Nope…opened the door right there and told her and her family they could get off here then...
Hey... that's where we're staying
Anyways….We pulled into AKL around 11 and were greeted by David, who was a manager at the hotel. “Welcome Home Burnett family” was how we were greeted – I liked the personal touch of knowing our name. He took us into the lobby and sat us down on a couch and said he’d handle the check-in for us. We had already done on-line check in so everything was pretty much ready (and, SCORE, our room was ready too). We were up on the 5th floor and a bit of a hike from the lobby (and no savannah view) but we were happy. We went to the concierge desk and bought our park passes (8 days of park passes with park hopper and waterparks and more), then headed to the store to get our mugs. I noticed the Rapid Fill program was rolled out here, so it will be interesting to see how that works. After all that we headed up to our room. We did the quick room tour, dropped off our carry-ons, then headed out to the busses. We decided that since we were so close, AK would be the park today. I also made another decision…I decided not to bring my camera (I had my phone with the camera on it, but I didn’t bring the DSLR with me). Let me explain…I love taking pictures (I didn’t say I was good at it, I just like it), but too often I find myself being more concerned with getting the perfect picture than with enjoying the experience that I’m taking the picture of. So, for the first day, I left the big camera in the room.
The bus to AK pulled up, and before we knew it we were there. The first thing I noticed when we got to the park was that something was missing…the big AK sign that used to be between the bus stop and the front gates. It was there last year:
Oh well, no biggie. We flew through bag check, then I headed to the customer service desk to do something we had never done before…buy a Tables in Wonderland card (why you can’t buy the TiW card at the hotel is beyond me). Up until this year we had always done the dining plan, and it worked pretty well for us. This year, however, a few things changed: 1) Liam turned 10, so we would now be 4 adults on the dining plan and 2) Disney raised the dining plan price twice between September 2012 and September 2013. Being an accountant, I did some number crunching and realized that based on how we eat (we aren’t big eaters, and DD is more of a picky/simple eater) that we could save quite a bit not buying the dining plan this year. I decided to track the costs of everything we bought that would have been covered by the dining plan, and see where we ended up at the end. I can tell you that the standard dining plan for 4 adults for 9 days would have been $2,121. Oh...btw, the card is good until October 31, 2014, so it may get two trips worth of use.
Could this be the source of some major savings? Time will tell
After TiW is purchased, and with 4 KttW cards just itching to be used, we approached the entrance poles. A quick tap and finger scan and we were in. Problem…it started raining. Bah. We decided lunch would be the best way to start since we were all kind of hungry, and hopefully the rain would pass by the time we were done. The kids wanted to do Restaurantasorous, so we headed there. A cool thing about the AK QS restaurants is that they let you use TiW in most of them. We got to the restaurant just as it started pouring. For lunch Steph got the mac and cheese dog, Liam got the bacon burger, Tammy got the chicken nuggets, and I got the grilled chicken sandwich. All were good and, bonus, the rain had stopped.
So the next decision to make…what to ride first. I will say that the rain pretty much emptied the park out, which was great for getting on rides. We were so close to Dinoland, so the kids picked Dinosaur as the first ride. The ride was pretty good, but the dinosaur that come out and roars at you when they take your picture was not working (which made the picture look weird since everyone was looking at the substitute dinosaur on the opposite side of where the roaring one was, except for me, who was looking the wrong way expecting to be roared at). Anyways…not a bad start. Primeval Whirl was next (Steph loves this one). Next up was my favourite – Expedition Everest. I love this ride. I never got to experience it with a fully functioning yeti, so I can only imagine how much more awesome it would be. We went on twice, and walked on both times. After EE it was safari (one of Tammy’s favourites). It was really good. The lions were quite active this time (which made me wish I had my better camera). It was really funny to watch. There were two female lions and one male. The one female was at the very top of the rock formation and every time the male lion tried to get up there, she would swat him in the head…”They’re so much like us”.
After this, the kids wanted to do Everest again (yeah…the “kids” wanted to do it again). So we head back to Asia, and rode Everest 3 more times (the kids each wanted to do one ride alone, and one together). Fun times. We decided to call it a day for the park, and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. Dinner tonight was ‘Ohana – a first night tradition for us.
I had purposely booked the meal for a bit later (6:50) so we could watch Wishes from our table. We requested a window seat, and were in woodfired meat heaven in no time.
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