Trip Report Oh, the Places We go, The People We See

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

That’s my Daughter Claire with me.



We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.

We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.



This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.

After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.

Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.

My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.



The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.

Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.



Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.



Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.

Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.



This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL

We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.



Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

 

[jenseib]

It wasn’t too long and our appetizers arrived. The nice thing with deluxe dining is the inclusion of appetizers. I loved when the old regular plan included that and the tip as well.
There were so many wonderful options to choose from. I had a hard time deciding, but when it came down to it, I knew I would be sharing with Claire. If I ate a whole appetizer myself, I was going to be beyond stuffed, which seemed to be the theme lately as it was.
I went with the one option on the menu that I knew Claire would like. The Melalosaurus Mozzarella - Seared Mozzarella with creamy marinara and Mozzarella fingers.



This bar far was not my favorite choice, but I do like mozzarella sticks. They just had a lot of other good options too, none of which Claire would probably eat or try.
Claire was more than happy with this and she gobbled down several. I enjoyed them too.

After we enjoyed out appetizer our main course arrived. Claire went with the Rocksy's Pasta - Tossed with Alfredo.



Claire LOVES alfredo and this was a hit with her.

You can see her Lego bag on the table behind her meal picture. She was talking nonstop about her new Lego sets. She could hardly wait to get back to the room and start playing.
I am having a hard time remembering what mine was called, but I believe I got the Tyrannosaurus T-Bone - Charbroiled certifed Angus Beef T-bone steak topped with steak butter and served with red skinned garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. I don’t see veggies on my plate, but perhaps they are on the other side of my steak.



This was VERY good. I devoured the plate.

Soon it was time to decide on dessert. Claire’s decision was easy for her. She got the Saber-tooth Sundae - A chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Though she really didn’t eat a lot of it and we took the cookie with us.



Nothing was jumping out at me. I was actually pretty full, but since dessert came with the meal, I was bound and determine to get something and take at least a few bites.

What I really wanted was the Chocolate Extinction - A gigantic portion of chocolate fudge cake served with ice cream, fresh whipped cream drizzled with fudge and caramel sauces and sprinkled with Butterfinger crumbs. BUT that serves 2 and only being one adult on the plan, we could not get that option without paying out of pocket.
So I just decided to get the Ice Age Indulgence - Layers of ice cream sandwiches, fudge sauce, whipped cream and Heath Bar Crunch. I don’t even know why I decided to order this as I really don’t like Heath at all, but I think the ice-cream and fudge parts were waving at me.



I took a bite…..mmmmmmmm. This was WONDERFUL!!!!!!
I think I ate close to every bite on the plate. There went the plan of only taking a bite or 2. And yes, now I was stuffed to the max.

We finished up and grabbed our bags and headed out. I will tell you this was one of our favorite meals of the whole trip. We plan to go back next year. I am thinking this would be a great place to go on our arrival day …… that is if we get decent flight times.

 

[jenseib]

We had planned to head back to AoA pretty much right away after lunch, but while eating we got a message from Tim. He said he and the family were heading over to DTD now and we could meet up again. So Claire and I decided to hang out a little longer and wait and see if they made it.

The festival of the Masters was going on as well. This is basically an art type of festival. So we wandered around a bit and looked at some things.



I think this looks creepy. It’s advertising to make a princess with your child’s face. But the model ones were creepy looking in my opinion.





It’s amazing the talent these people have. These done with chalk (I think) on the sidewalks.



I liked this doll display, but didn’t get a very good picture of it.





We then headed over to the toy store. Claire decided she wanted to get more potato head parts so we filled a box up with many parts and accessories and paid for that.

I think about this time Tim let me know that they were circling the parking lot looking for a spot to park. I think Mel had gone shopping and he had the kids sleeping in the car with him, so he was just going to keep driving around.
We decided then to head out, but we had one more stop to make.





No, it wasn’t the Christmas tree or Earl of Sandwich.

 

[jenseib]

But you know me; I like to take pictures as I walk along.

 

[jenseib]

We still had several snack credits that had to be used up by midnight today, so Goofy’s sounded like a good place to spend them.





We purchased several things, none of which I remember …I take that back. I know I got peanut butter cups and I think I brought them home with us and ate them within the next few days. I am not sure what else, but Claire picked a few things out too.
We headed towards the bus stop then.











Bus mojo was with us now! It must be the new purse bringing it on!
We didn’t wait long at all and soon were on our way to AoA.!

 

[jenseib]

We got in line to see if our room was ready and if so, so we could get our number.











Lo and behold! It WAS ready and of course we never got that promised text!

We headed off and they told us our bags would be on their way.







Claire immediately liked the place.

 

[jenseib]

We started the trek to the Little Mermaid section then.



You have to go through the Lion King Area and it’s bigger than I expected.

 

[jenseib]

Finally!!! The Little Mermaid section.



We had to stop for a few photo ops.

 

[jenseib]

I can’t remember our room number at the moment, but we were on the left hand side of the pool, first floor like we request. Just a little ways down from King Triton.

We were excited to see out room!



OK, let’s fix the camera settings, so everyone can see the room……





We had a King bed.



We did not request this, but it didn’t matter to us one way or the other.

 

[jenseib]

Claire was very happy with the room.



I thought the walls of the shower were really neat, but it did make the room a bit too dark.

















I liked this headboard light.

 

[jenseib]

We decided to go get our new mugs with this current dining plan and bring drinks back to the room.



A lot of the plant life had brown edges. I am not sure if they were being over watered, not enough water, or what the deal was, but they weren’t taking off like they should.









As we headed back to the food court we saw a guy with a cart and our luggage was on it. I asked if we needed to be in the room, and he told me no and we kept going then.

 

[dave&di]

I'm loving your TR @jenseib what a lovely family you have!

 

[jenseib]

I'm loving your TR @jenseib what a lovely family you have!

Thanks so much!

 

[jenseib]

We picked out our new mugs and then I used a counter service credit to pick up a sandwich with chips and a bottled beverage as well.

We were not hungry at all, but I wanted to use up the credits. I think we got the Buffalo-style Turkey Sandwich - sliced turkey, blue cheese, arugula, and buffalo sauce-mayonnaise on a multigrain bread served with house make chips.

Let’s just say I will never order it again. It was NOT tasty at all. The chips were good though.

















We headed back to the room and we did nibble on the chips. Those were pretty decent. I took a bite of the sandwich, and was not impressed and we put it all in our fridge then.

Claire then begged to play with Legos, so I let her open one set and she set to work at building it. I straighten up the room and organized our clothes.

I caught up with the outside world on my kindle for a bit then I insisted it was time for a nap. Claire thought that it would be OK if I took one and she continued to play, but I told her no, the nap was for her too.

We finally settled down and I set the alarm on my phone for about 40 minutes. I figured it would take us a few minutes to fall asleep and then we could get at least a 30 minute nap.

All too soon that alarm went off. It didn’t even feel like we had been sleeping long, but in reality, we did fall asleep immediately.

Claire, who said she was not tired at all was snoring away right next to me. I had to work at waking her up, but finally she did. I told her we needed to get ready to head out. Tonight we were going to see the Osborne Lights. She felt we should just skip it and stay in the room and play with Legos. UM…NO! One of the main reasons of going during the Holiday season was to see this. I have no clue if or when I will get to again and this was one thing I refused to miss.

She grumbled, but got ready and soon we were on our way to the bus stop.

 

[jenseib]

We made a quick wander through the store.











And then waited for a bus. Again, we didn’t have the best bus mojo, but it was better than it had been at the BC.


Soon we arrived at DHS!





Isn’t this just beautiful?





We entered and searched for a photopass photographer.





Here’s one!











I forgot to mention earlier in the morning before leaving we did do some shopping in the Beach Club gift shop. Claire and I each got a Beach Club tee and she also bought some Mickey and Minnie plushies ….. The ones that sort of look black and white and old school.

I was now wearing my new tee!

 

[jenseib]

We headed back towards the lights.





Mulch, Sweat, and Shears were playing and getting the crowd in the mood. Well everyone but Claire who was mad that we came. She wanted to just go back and play Legos.


Snow has started!!!!





So we stand and wait, and Claire is griping away about being here, and I get my camera ready and I keep telling her it will be worth it…and then it happened. The lights turned on! Claire was in mid-sentence and just GASP! I did too and I think I teared up a bit. This was STUNNING! I am a fan of gaudy Christmas lights and this was right up my alley. Pictures do not do this justice. You have to see it yourself.








I took a quick and not so great video.




More pictures of the lights!

 

[jenseib]

And we got in line for a photopass picture. He took several with my camera and I mentioned the flash wasn’t going off and he said they were fine. NOT. This was the best of the 3 and I had to work to lighten it up. They all were terrible.





At least the professional ones were good.








There will be picture overload as I just was obsessed with the lights.














We walked down to the other end of the street too to take a look.

 

[jenseib]

I think I either had a huge smile plastered on my face, or I had my mouth wide open as we walked around.
















And more lights!

 

[jenseib]

And another crappy video.











We saw Santa Goofy, but the line was long and Claire didn’t want to wait, so we just took a few pictures of him from afar.

 

[jenseib]

We REALLY enjoyed the lights, but it came time to move on. We then talked about what to do next. The MK was open fairly late tonight so I suggested we head over there. Claire wanted to check out TSM first though and ride that. I decided we would see what the wait time was and decide then.

Now I don’t remember the exact waiting time stated, but it wasn’t too bad. I am thinking it said 40 minutes. We hopped in line.

 

[jenseib]

The line moved fairly fast till we got to Mr. Potato Head.





And then we waited and waited and waited. I grumbled a bit as did people around us. Claire did NOT want to leave the line though and was very patient. I believe it was over an hour wait. There were a few announcements made, but no one could understand a darn thing they said. It was muffled sounding and very loud in line. You would think people would stop talking when an announcement was being made, but that wasn’t the case.

We did have a great time, but I was not happy with how long we had to wait.



We then headed towards the front of the park to leave after our long wait but fun ride on TSM. Of course I had sore arms then too. I need some sort of better technique for shooting because I kill my arms every time.