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]

This was like a character meet and greet. All these movie characters just right there and you could easily go up and get your picture with them.














I guess we were getting a little silly here.

 

[jenseib]

 

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I think nature was calling for Claire, so we headed over here to use the restroom.














I believe there was a laundry room in there as well. I am not sure why I didn’t take a picture of it.


Back out to check out the pool.











Time for a quick break, which lasted a nano-second.

 

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And back out we went.





I think Claire was dancing away as we walked.





Oh wait Mom! I didn’t get my picture taken with him!








And back to the Nemo area to look around a bit.

 

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Claire wanted to play on the little slide and tunnel, so I just stood around and took a few pictures while she ran around.

 

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Claire was having a good ole time.

 

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I finally told Claire we had to move on.











We then headed back to our room.





We had to stop and check out Rafiki and see that his butt surgery had been successful.








It was about 5:30 now and we decided it was time to go and get freshened up for our dinner ADR.

 

[FlaggNL]

hej Jen! Super report! Love it all the way and off course all the pictures!!!

 

[jenseib]

hej Jen! Super report! Love it all the way and off course all the pictures!!!

Thanks so much. It's taken me forever to get posted, but I am now finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[jenseib]

We spent about an hour in the room. We freshened up for dinner; Claire changed her clothes and went off to play a bit with her legos while I packed up most of our stuff. Sadly this trip was coming to an end and I wanted to have as much as I could packed and ready to go in the morning.


After that was done, we headed out to our dinner destination.





We were a bit early, so I made a stop in the arcade to take a look.





Claire obviously looks thrilled about that decision. LOL











And then we headed to the bus stop.








Our dinner tonight was the Spirit of Aloha. We have never done this show and I have heard mixed reviews on it. We decided since we were doing deluxe dining for this last segment of our trip, that we would give it a try. We bused to MK and then took the monorail over to the Poly.

 

[jenseib]

I think we were still early, so we shopped a little bit and there were a few things I wanted, but in the end I couldn’t justify the price and we left empty handed.





We then made our way to check in.








A quick stop for a goofy picture.





While waiting in line, I realized that we never got a message about picking up tickets for the event. We always have gotten a call message in our room in the past for Hoop Dee Doo tickets and I never even gave it a 2nd thought about this one till we got in line.


No worries. They had our tickets at the booth and we were checked off without any issues. We then had to wait a bit before we were let in. We received leas and walked a bit around the area, which was fairly crowded.








We did sit down in a small area after a bit to wait.

 

[jenseib]

After a bit of waiting they finally were letting people in to be seated.





We were seated far off to one side and towards the back of the table. At first it looked like it was a decent seat, but as the night went on I realized this was an AWFUL spot.


Our first course was delivered right away.





Pineapple-Coconut Bread

Asian Apple Pear Slaw

Hawaiian Potato Salad


The bread was the same bread as ‘Ohana served, and we are not a fan of that. Of course we gave it a try again, but once again we just didn’t care for it. The only thing that I even slightly liked was the slaw. The rest was just not my thing. Claire did not eat any of it.

I don’t remember what Claire had to drink, but beer was included and I did have that and enjoyed a couple of glasses throughout the night.


This was the view of the stage. It doesn’t look too bad, does it?





The area we sat had a roof over it and was slightly enclosed. Most of the stage area was open air. These were venting panels to let in air.





The band got started and warmed us up a bit. Still the view looks good.





And then the performers came out and got started. I soon realized that my view was a side view and most of the action happened center stage, which was blocked by a pole for us.





On top of the pole blocking my view most of the night, there were some heads in my way. One couple in particular were constantly moving and in our way the whole night. I really got annoyed by the end of the evening.


The main course then was brought out.





Island Pork Loin

Roasted Chicken

Polynesian Rice

Fall Harvest Vegetable Medley


We gave it a try, but honestly we didn’t like anything. It was very similar to ‘Ohana’s food and it had sauces that we did not care for. We did not eat much at all. I think the chicken was the only thing we both ate without complaint. If I remember right, they did bring Claire out a hotdog. I shoud’ve asked for one as well.





More of the show.

 

[jenseib]

I think they called up people who were celebrating something.





I will say this show really didn’t make much sense to me in the way of a storyline. It had some great parts, but it had some VERY slow parts as well. It had been a long 2 weeks and I was tired, so I was fighting sleep sitting there. Also the pole was in my way and I tried to take pictures, but many were just awful. And the couple whose heads kept getting in my way just annoyed me even more. Every time I had even a chance of getting a good shot, they moved and got in the way.

I will admit, I spent a good amount of time on my phone checking emails and reading facebook. It was REALLY fighting sleep and it was the only way to keep me from dozing off. Claire seemed to enjoy the show more than I, but even she wasn’t super impressed.


Then dessert came. It looks good, doesn’t it? Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut Mousse.





Well there was one problem with it for me….the darn nuts in it. I can’t stand nuts in things. I like them plain or not at all (well except in chocolate and caramel). I ate part of the mousse, but I couldn’t get past the texture of the nuts in it. So I didn’t enjoy that either. Claire was given an option of the mousse or cake pops and she choose the cake pops.





I think I took a bite and wasn’t all that impressed with those either. But I am not a big fan of cake pops because they are so dry normally.


The show did get a little more exciting towards the end and I perked up for parts of it.

 

[jenseib]

One of the guests was called up to the stage to dance. I honestly don’t remember how she was chosen, except perhaps it was a birthday or something along those lines.

 

[jenseib]

The fire guy was pretty interesting to watch.














This picture would’ve been great….if the heads weren’t blocking half of the guy out.








The show started to wind down then.

 

[jenseib]

Soooo…. My thoughts on Spirit of Aloha. It was by far the worst meal I have ever eaten at Disney World. It was just not our taste at all. I also feel that if I had gone to this show earlier in the trip, I probably would’ve have enjoyed it more. But at this point I was running on very little sleep and it was slow in spots and I had to fight to stay awake. I think if I was more rested and excited about the trip beginning, I would have a better appreciation of the show. The actors were great, don’t get me wrong, but at times their just was not enough action to keep my attention.

Where you sit can make or break the experience as well. We had awful seats. The pole was always in the way and if I could see something, others in front moved their heads and that blocked my view as well. I enjoy taking pictures and when I can’t do it, it kind of puts a damper on my mood. There were times I just set the camera down and that is not like me at all.

I am not sure if we will ever give it another try. For one, I would have to ask about a different menu as this was just not for us at all. Secondly, taking the chance of seating ……. if I got horrid seats again, I don’t know if I could sit through it again. It does seem a bit on the long side as well. If Claire wants to go again, I may think about it, but only if Skip is with us as well. I think we have enough “other” places and things to try that it this will be down low on the list of going back to.


After the show ended, Claire had to use the restroom, which of course they only have one small one. We actually waited a while to let the place empty out a bit and then went and got in line for the bathroom, which was still fairly long.


After that we slowly made our way back to the Poly. It was pretty empty at this point in the show area and we saw some of the cast members walking around and talking. Once we got back into the Poly we headed to the monorail. During the show I had been talking with another Dis friend on facebook who had just arrived and we wanted to meet up before I left. She was at the Magic Kingdom, so we decided to head over there and meet her while we had the chance.






We quickly arrived at the Magic Kingdom and my Dis friend was doing something else at the moment, so Claire and I decided to get in line for the Princesses because the line was very short ….AND Rapunzel was listed as one of the Princesses in there. That was a plus, as Claire wanted to meet her and at this point we had not found her.


We got in line and were let into the room right away with just a short wait in there. I texted my Dis friend, Joy, and let her know where we were.





It didn’t take too long and we were ready to meet Rapunzel. Now I never said this to Claire, but Rapunzel was NOT pretty at all. I do find her pictures are actually pretty good though, but in person, especially from one side, she looked awful. I texted my friend Janet as we waited and showed her a picture of her from the bad side. We had a good laugh because it seemed like we were getting all the ugly princesses this trip. Now Rapunzel made up for it with personality though. She was great with Claire and by the end of the meet, I liked her a lot.

 

[jenseib]

There was a lot of chatting going on between the 2 of them. Claire really enjoyed her meet with her.

















Rapunzel then came over and had to look at my hair. She said she wanted to “paint” her hair the same way.


Next up was Aurora. And she was beautiful!!!

 

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More of Aurora.

 

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And Cinderella was our final Princess.








By this time, Joy and her daughter Maddie had texted and said they were in line for the Princesses too, but they never came in the room while we were there.











I love this picture of Claire!





She just looks so happy to be there.

 

[jenseib]

Darn! Another blink. She was doing that a lot this evening.













After our Princess meet and greets we headed out to the gift shop and waited for Joy and Maddie. We shopped around while we waited. Claire found more things she wanted, but I told her there was no way it would fit in our suitcases.








After a few minutes Joy and Maddie came out from their Princess meet and it was like we were long lost friends. It was great to finally meet her after talking to her for so many years. The girls hit it off immediately too.





Claire seemed to lose all her shyness she had at the beginning of the trip. She and Maddie started talking like they had known each other forever.