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]

As we were talking, a CM came by and offered to take our picture.





I have to laugh at Claire’s face. She looks scared.


The 2nd one was a little better.





We chatted for a while and the girls tried talking us into buying things for them. Joy was telling Maddie no because they had just arrived and had lots of time to look at things and I was telling Claire no because we already bought so many things and space was limited in our suitcase.

We wandered outside after a bit and chatted a bit more.








It was now getting close to midnight, and if I remember correctly, the park was closing then or at 1, but either way it was late…..

We said our goodbyes and headed off as Claire had one more thing she wanted to get and I said she could …as long as they had them. …..the Mickey Popcorn buckets. Yes the very same one that Abby had turn into some kind of possessed evil spirit over. Claire knew they may not have them and was Ok with that, but we wanted to try.

So we headed off towards Tomorrowland.





We did stop for the final photopass pictures of the trip.








And luckily we found a popcorn bucket!





We then took a seat on some steps and just enjoyed the night and ate some popcorn. I couldn’t believe our time was coming to an end. I really felt this was such a fabulous vacation and now I am a Holiday snob. I can’t imagine seeing the castle without it’s lights in future trips. It’s just so much more magical with them.





Finally we did have to leave though.

 

[jenseib]

We grabbed a bus for AoA and before long we were back. I am pretty sure Claire fell asleep in the way back this time. She fights it, but at times you just gotta give in. The hard thing is waking her. Once she is out, she is really out.

She did get up though and we made our way back in through the lobby. But wait! ….What is it that I see?





They were starting to decorate AoA with the Holiday décor! Woo Hoo! We weren’t going to completely miss it after all.











Claire did a quick pose for me.








At the time, no one knew how AoA would be decorated for the Holidays. I was one of the lucky first few to see it for the first time and as it was going up. Of course I posted a picture on facebook immediately. I really liked the white tree and garland theme they went with.

 

[jenseib]

Joy was staying at Pop and she responded to my facebook post saying that Pop was decorating as well when they got back. Hmmmmm….. I love Pop and have never seen the tree in person, so I might have to go over there tomorrow before we leave.








More coming in.





After a bit, Claire got a bit tired, so we headed back to our room and immediately passed out for the night.


It was another great day with new experiences. We got to meet up with Joy and Maddie, something I had really been looking forward to. Oh the People We See!

And we tried out the Spirit of Aloha, the Agent P missions in the World Showcase and now came back to the Holiday décor going up at our resort! Oh the Places We Go!

Sadly this was our last sleep at Art of Animation.

 

[jenseib]

Nov. 14, Wednesday, Day 14


I can’t even believe it, but this trip was coming to an end. Luckily I was smart enough to book a flight for later in the day. Skip is famous for wanting to get home early. I, on the other hand, try to make the vacation last as long as I can. The only thing waiting for me at home is laundry! And about 500 plus emails in my inbox. LOL!


Claire was good about getting up today. She knew we had limited time left and a few things on our list to do yet. I believe the first thing we did was haul the luggage down to the resort airport check in …if I remember right. I think we were down there by 8 AM. There was a line, but it was moving OK. A funny thing though, while waiting in line, a lady came in and just walked in front of everyone and said “I was already here, but they made me go get my ID to check in. I have to hurry as I have a flight today” and then she just cut in front of everyone. I laughed and the couple in front of me did too. The guy said, “Oh hey, can I get in front of the line too since I have a flight today.” The lady heard him and then she went on to say that Magical Express was waiting out front for her. UM Lady…first off, ME is NOT going to wait for you. You will catch the next bus. Secondly, if you are cutting it this close, there is a chance your bags aren’t gonna make it anyways. We all let her go, because CLEARLY she was better than all of us!


Now this is the first time I have ever used the resort check in. Typically we have flown with Allegiant, which means we rent a car and go in and out of Sandford. The other times we have flown into MCO, we have either rented a car or have not used a participating airline. Let me say, I LOVE resort check in. It was so easy! They took our bags, gave me my boarding pass and it was just a breeze to do.

I believe we also took our carry ons to bell services to store as well till it was time to leave.

We explored the resort a bit then to see the new Christmas décor and we filled our mugs up.




















I loved this white shirt, but the price was just way too high. I think it was over $40. So I never did get it.








And then we headed back to the room to gather our bag for the day and to make sure we left nothing behind.

 

[jenseib]

With a stop here and there for pictures.

















After we made sure we had everything we then headed to the bus stop.

Of course we still had to look around a bit more at the new Christmas décor and take a few pictures.

 

[jenseib]

We really liked the way the Art of Animation Lobby was done and with Christmas decor, it made it even more fun to look around.

 

[jenseib]

As you can see, I was in the mode…..you know the one where you know you are leaving and not sure what things you took pictures of earlier in the trip, so now is the time to get everything and anything.

 

[jenseib]

Time to move on!


We had an ADR at ‘Ohanas for breakfast this morning. I actually made this one not too long before our trip. With the deluxe dining I had tried to make a few 2 credit meals to try, but I kept playing around with things and I ended up canceling one that just was not going to work. It was on our Osborne Lights night and I just knew running around was going to be hard and I didn’t want to be rushed. I decided ‘Ohanas on our last morning would be nice to try as it is one of the few character meals we had yet gone to.


We arrived at MK and transferred over to the monorail.

 

[lbrad]

LOVE the picture with Fillmore!!! I MUST go see AoA on my next trip to snag a picture with him!!!

 

[jenseib]

LOVE the picture with Fillmore!!! I MUST go see AoA on my next trip to snag a picture with him!!!

It really is a great place to get a picture with all the cars.

 

[jenseib]

We arrived at the Poly PLENTY early, so we decided to walk around a bit and take some pictures.


























A lot of these pictures are blurry. For some reason I had a wrong setting on my camera and didn’t notice it till later.

 

[jenseib]

A lot of people I know just love the Poly or it is their dream resort to stay at. I am not that impressed. The plus side is that it is on the monorail, but I just don’t think it’s beautiful. Don’t hate me, but I actually kind of think it looks dated. And though I have never been in an actual room there, I have seen pictures, and I don’t think they look all that impressive. Now would I ever stay there? Heck yeah. It’s got a great location, but I would need to really good deal to do so.

 

[jenseib]

As we were wandering by the pool I noticed this.





And this pad near it.








So I pushed the button and to see what would happen. It was a splash area.





Some people were sitting near the pool and watched me do that and as soon as we walked away, I heard the Mom ask the kids if they wanted to play in the water. She must’ve not know it was there either.





I like this next shot because you can see a boat in the mirror reflection. Had I know I would capture that; I would’ve tried harder at getting the boat centered in there.

 

[jenseib]

I really wish I had paid attention to my camera settings. It annoys me how many of these pictures have a blur to them.











This is just so cute and would be great if it was in focus….the little ducks were heading to the pool for a swim.

 

[jenseib]

We decided to see if we could retrace our steps from the night before and head back to where the Spirit of Aloha was located.

 

[jenseib]

I did think the grounds out here were really pretty and it would be neat to stay here just to roam around.








And here was the waiting area for the show. It looks so different in the daylight and empty.








This tree is so unusual.





And this explains it.

 

[jenseib]

Claire got a little antsy back there. She was worried we would be in trouble for being back there, which I assured her we were just fine, but she wasn’t believing me, so we headed back, trying to take a different route.














We headed inside then and made a quick stop in the bathroom.

 

[jenseib]

We then made our way to check into ‘Ohanas.




I don’t think we waited more than a couple of minutes before they took us to our seats.








We got that darn bread again, but also another bread as well….but it had raisins in it, which I also do not care for.





The menu today was basically this ….

Basket of sweet breads


Seasonal Fruit Bowl for na Keiki (Kids)


Breakfast platter for the table which includes:


Hua Paka (Scrambled Eggs) - made fresh, hot & delicious

Uala Kahiki (Fried Potatoes) - island-style potatoes, caramelized onions & scallions

Pua'a (Pork) - pork breakfast sausage links & smoked bacon

Biscuits

Mickey Waffles - brought tableside by a server


Unlimited Juice, Milk and Coffee included

The juice is a blend of passion fruit, orange and guava.





Our waitress wasn’t too fabulous. Not bad, but she was too busy to pay attention to a table of 2. We both got juice, but I asked for milk as well and it never came. She was slow to refill the juice and I reminded her about the milk, but again it never came.


We did enjoy our food though.





Claire pretty much had a breakfast of Mickey Waffles.





A parade came around, but Claire would not join.

 

[jenseib]

Our first character was Lilo. I think Claire has an idea who she is, but I don’t think she has ever seen Lilo and Stitch as a movie. I know I haven’t. She has seen the cartoon a few times though.








My flash was wonky and both pictures I took of Claire have her in shadow. I tried to fix them, but it didn’t work to well.








Soon Pluto arrived.

 

[jenseib]

We sure do enjoy this juice.




Stitch came over next. He was a lot of fun!











I think this might’ve been the first time we ever met Stitch.








And then our main man Mickey made his way over.