Pan's trip report

We just returned a week ago from another excellent trip down to Disney. I've been too depressed about our return to reality to even go on this site but I've always found it therapeutic to relive our vacation by writing about it. Since I'm a slow typer, and also long winded, I'm only going to post one day of our trip at a time. I suspect those who might find this report most interesting are those traveling to WDW with "tweens", those staying at the Beach Club Resort, those that have a Gluten allergy, and those who enjoy the commando style approach to visiting Disney as espoused by Bob Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide to WDW. This book is the Bible when it comes to visiting Disney.

Our family consists of myself, Pan(the boy who will never grow up), my wife, and our 3 children, 2 girls ages 13 and 11, and a 9 yo boy. Technically, we only have 1 tween, but our oldest just turned 13 and I'm not ready to accept that she is a teenager and our son is always trying to keep up with his sisters. We stayed at the Beach Club from Feb 27 to March 7.

Our trip begins at 5am when the taxi arrives to take us to the airport. We leave behind cold and snowy Minnesota and arrive at 12:30p in cold and rainy Orlando. Daytime high of 58 This was the first time we used he Magical Express Bus and I thought it was great. I learned on this site to bypass the counter and just join the line to wait for a bus. From the time we landed until arrival at the Beach Club, it took 90 minutes. I thought this was pretty good especially since we were the last stop after first going to POR and then BW. The luggage arrived just 2 hr later.

The Beach Club was beautiful. We did on-line check in and this worked well. There was no wait and there were 3 castmembers present to answer any questions,etc. We got the room-type we requested, full balcony on the east side of the complex nearest the path to Epcot, with views of the woods. Unfortunately, our plans to spend the afternoon in the pool soaking up the Florida warmth and sunshine did not happen, but it did stay dry long enough to allow us to walk around the lake to the Boardwalk.

That night, we ate at the Cape May Cafe and enjoyed the meal. It wasn't the best seafood meal I've had but it was ok in a Red Lobster way. My 11 yo has Celiac and must be on a gluten free diet. I'm going to do a separate thread with more detail in the Dining Forum but I cannot say enough about how helpful all the Disney employees were when it came to making sure our daughter had a good dining experience. We notified Disney in advance about our daughter's food allergy, and at every restaurant, a chef would come to our table and take my wife and daughter around the buffet and point out what she can and can't eat. At the Cape May, the chef brought out a plate of sauteed shrimp that were not breaded cooked especially for her. We were exhausted from our early wake up and travels and called it a night, ready to hit Animal Kingdom the next day.

 

[smk]

I am always so happy when I read of the way WDW handles people with food allergies. I have a daughter with serious allergies and I am fanatic about reading labels and pouring over recipes. I know just how difficult dining out can be. Sorry about the weather, hope that later in your trip report you will tell us the weather improved!

 

[Pan]

Day 2-Sunday, Feb 28

No sleeping in for us. We ate breakfast in the room. We had ordered groceries to be delivered to our hotel the previous day from a local grocery store. This really saves time in the morning, not to mention quite a bit of money. We're standing at the bus stop at 8am waiting for the AK bus that soon rolls up. Who cares is it's only 48 degrees! We're at Disney!!! It actually turned out to be a beautiful day from a weather standpoint staying sunny and getting up to 63 which is very comfortable to a Minnesotan in late Feb.

We're one of the first people at the gates that morning when we arrive at 8:20, which I absolutely love and my wife completely hates. But unlike the old days, she is now outvoted 4 to 1. Unlike past trips, we decided to avoid parks with EMH this time. We use to go to that park in the am EMH and then hop to another less crowded park. This time we tried the philosophy that the other non-EMH parks would have lower crowds, plus we could sleep in an extra hour and saved money by not buying the park hopper option. I think it worked out very well, but we did go during a time when crowds are only moderate anyway. AK was certainly not too busy that day.

As soon as the gates open, my family strolls over to Dinoland but being the Unofficial Guide disciple that I am, I follow the rope that guides me to Expedition Everest. I grab fastpasses(I love FP!!!) and hustle over to join the family on Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur. This was my wife's and son's first time on Dinosaur and the consensus was that one time was enough. We then head to EE and unlike Dinosaur everyone agrees that this is an awesome ride and my wife really doesn't like roller coasters. We go on it another 2 times later that day using more FPs.

After walking the Maharaja Jungle Trek and seeing Flights of Wonder, we grab some lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ which was really good. Too cold for Kali River Rapids, plus it is just too short of a ride to make it worthwhile getting that wet.

After a brief runaround in the Boneyard(sad but just not as much fun for the kids as when they were younger), seeing Devine, and walking the Pangani Forest Trail, we go on Kilimanjaro Safaris, which doesn't disappoint. Even though we have seen it several times, we still enjoy watching Festival of the Lion King. It's such a great show.

We decide to skip Nemo and still have not made it out to Conservation Station, but we do take in It's Tough to Be a Bug, sandwiched between rides on EE. My wife sits this one out as she is not really fond of the spiders danglling from the ceiling. We try to ride Primeval Whirl one more time but the 30 min wait at the end of the day chases us off and we go on Triceratops Spin maybe for the last time in a long while.

It was a great first day in the parks, and we end it with some shopping and a leisurely stroll through the Oasis before heading to AKL to eat at Boma. This was our first time eating here and the experience was awesome. The atmosphere was excellent and the quality of the food was terrific. It has become my favorite restaurant at WDW.

Because it's late and we are tired, we get a cab back to the Beach Club and call it a night, but not before we realize we can hear and see Illuminations from our balcony. Very cool. I'm still amazed at how close BC is to Epcot. We could see SE from the balcony and could hear the British Invasion and Off Kilter playing when sitting outside.

 

[Pan]

Day 3, Monday, March 1

Monday was scheduled to be one of our two "pool days". It worked out well because it got up to 69 degrees that day, the warmest day of the whole week. So after sleeping in, we spent the late morning and afternoon playing in the pool, going down the slide, and catching some rays. The pool complex at the Beach Club really is excellent and lived up to it's billing as the best pool at any of the Disney resorts. It has a sandy bottom, lazy river, a fun slide, waterfalls, and it's huge. Best of all, it was heated to 82 degrees.

By 4p, we were ready to head over to Epcot. Our room on the east side of the resort was literally steps from the International Gateway entrance. It was less than a 5 minute walk! We met up with some friends from here in Minnesota who happened to be at Disney that day. Our 3 kids and their 4 had a good time hanging out together that night. After grabbing a beer in Germany, we ate dinner at Les Chefs de France. Escargot, beef tenderloin medium rare, and a bottle of Vouvray all went down well. We strolled around World Showcase over to Mexico. We took our first ride ever on the boatride in the Mexico pavilion. Wow. That was 15 minutes of my life I can never get back.

We didn't plan to do any rides that night but our friends convinced us to wander over to TT. No wait-we walked right onto the ride which was a blast as usual. At 8pm, my buddy was all ready for a ride on MS and Soarin but his wife wisely reminded him that they had an early morning flight to catch, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. We made a stop at the Boulangerie Patisserie before strolling out the back entrance to the BC.

 

[Pan]

Day 4, Tuesday, March 2

We wake up to gloomy skys and a steady rain. The forecast doesn't look good with rain throughout the day and strong thunderstorms at times predicted. We are undaunted, and pack our ponchos, ready to head to Disney Hollywood Studios. At 8:20 as we are waiting at the dock for the boat to come, the rain subsides, and a patch of blue sky can be seen. As it turned out, it stayed mostly cloudy all day and was very windy, but we didn't get a drop of rain the whole rest of the day:sohappy:

I loved riding the boat to DS. This was the first time we had done this. It only took 15 min and was a relaxing way to travel. Once again, we are one of the first through the gates and wait eagerly with all the other Disney fanatics at the end of Hollywood Blvd for the rope drop and the chance to experience Toy Story Mania. What an amazingly awesome and fun ride. It made Buzz at MK(one of my favorite rides) feel very boring compared to this. Unfortunately my 13yo beat me every time we rode that day, but no matter. I couldn't get enough of this ride and we were able to go on another 2 times later that day using FPs.

From there, we headed down Sunset Blvd to Rock n Roller Coaster. All 5 of us including my "not a fan of rollercoasters" wife went on. We all agreed that even though it's a great ride, we all enjoyed EE better. It was my 9yo's 1st time. He "liked it", but wasn't sure he wanted to go on again. Unfortunately, it scared him off going on ToT, and since my oldest and my wife don't like drops, it was just me and my 11yo left to experience the fun.

We took in the Great Movie Ride, met Minnie Mouse, rode Star Tours, and then watched Indiana Jones before grabbing some lunch at the Backlot Express. After lunch, we watched Lights,Motor,Action, rode Toy Story Mania again, saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and did RnR Coaster and ToT one more time. This time, my son bailed on us at the last minute, which was fine. I guess he is not the daredevil that his older sister is.

It was now nearly 4p. My wife and daughters went to watch Beauty and the Beast, and since my son is a HUGE Star Wars fan, we ran across the park over to see if we could get him in the 4:45p Jedi Training Academy. They only take 15 kids at a time, and when we arrived we figured he was the 16th kid in line. Knowing full well we might get shut out, we decided to stand and see what would happen. The luck was really with us that day when a family ahead of us with their 2 very young children decided to give it a pass. He became #14 in the line, and this was without a doubt, the highlight of the day and maybe of the whole trip for my son to do battle against Darth Vader.

It was now 5, and after Pizza Planet decided to close a half hour earlier than planned leaving us without much options for my daughter who needs to eat gluten free, we decided to eat somewhere after the park closed. We took in Muppetvision, did some shopping, did one more ride on TSM and then caught the final show of the day of American Idol after the park closed. As our family has become big AI fans the past couple years, this was really a fun experience.

The show didn't end until 7:45p, and since the last boat was leaving at 8p, we hustled out to the dock. The ride back to the BC was again very relaxing but we were exhausted and we still hadn't had dinner. We decided against sushi at Kimonos at the Swan and instead headed back to our resort and grabbed some burgers and shakes at Beaches and Creams. Another first time experience, and definately worth the wait. The food was good, but what made the experience was the atmosphere, including the 50's music. It was a fun place, and the kids enjoyed watching some guy trying to eat "the Kitchen sink" by himself in less than an hour.

Unfortunately, my wife was absolutely exhausted by this marathon day we had, and sad to say I had "lost" her for the rest of the trip. I won't say anymore about this unfortunate development as I have discovered she is secretly reading my posts and it would be best to not fan the flames. Let's just say that Disney was not "The Happiest Place on Earth" the rest of the trip:lol:

 

[Todd L]

Unfortunately, my wife was absolutely exhausted by this marathon day we had, and sad to say I had "lost" her for the rest of the trip. I won't say anymore about this unfortunate development as I have discovered she is secretly reading my posts and it would be best to not fan the flames. Let's just say that Disney was not "The Happiest Place on Earth" the rest of the trip:lol:[/QUOTE]


I love my wife dearly and can tell you that in the 17 years weve been married weve been on 15 vacations and have had a fight on every single one of 'em........According to my wife vacation fights dont count. Plus its hard to "MAKE UP" with the kids in the same room.:animwink::animwink::animwink:

 

[corey154]

i'm loving your trip report, can't wait to read the rest!!! :sohappy:

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Great trip report!! Glad to read that your "rain" day ended up not raining, it's always awesome when that happens. It's also great how Disney was so accommodating with your daughters dietary needs.

It's a shame that it was chilly, but it sounds like you had a number of decent weather days mixed in there. Plus, crowds seem like they were pretty small! The pool at your resort is fantastic, and nicely heated! Haven't stayed there since I was 12, but who can ever forget it? Thanks for the report.

 

[Pan]

Day 5, Wednesday March 3

Our 5th day at Disney and MK was the only park we had not made it to yet. It was like saving the best for last. Orlando tied a record low temp that morning of 38 degrees! It would only get up to 58 today but it sure kept the crowds down. Even in the middle of the afternoon, BTM had only a 10-20 min wait. Splash was a walk on.

Like all our days, we are at the entrance before the park opens. Only this morning it is just me and the kids. My wife would meet up with us an hour later I always get a rush of adrenaline going through the tunnel and entering Main Street. Turning the corner and seeing the castle come into view is pure magic. We head straight for our favorite ride, Space Mountain. All 3 kids love going on this. With light crowds in Tomorrowland, we ride Astro Orbitor, go on Buzz, drive the Tomorrowland Speedway, and spin on the Teacups. By this time, my wife has joined us:sohappy:

It's then over to the HM(another first for my son), and then on to BTM, another ride that all 5 of us really enjoy. It's only about 50 degrees, so on go the ponchos and on Splash we go. As it turns out, we didn't get that wet but there was no way we were going to chance it. After lunch in Pecos Bill's, we ride Pirates, catch the Enchanted Tiki Room, and then wander over to the Hall of Presidents. As a history buff, I love it and I finally have kids old enough to appreciate it too.

We head back through Fantasyland and interestingly it is more packed than any other part of the park. Peter Pan has a 40 min wait so we skip it. Luckily no problem getting into Philarmagic. I really think it is one of the best attractions is all of wdw. After a ride on Snow White, we head back to Tomorrowland and experience Monsters Inc Laugh Floor for the first time. Very funny stuff. I convince my kids that they really don't want to go on Stitch. Been there, done that. Not as un-Disneylike as Alien Encounter was, but I'm not really a fan of psycholgical terror.

As we are heading over to ride Space again with some FPs, I glance to my right and am stunned. The Carousel of Progress is open!!!:sohappy: On our last several trips, we would always go in Jan or Feb so it would be closed. My kids had never been on it and i hadn't for nearly 15 years. I was worried they would find it boring but not at all. A couple of days later, I caught my 11 yo singing "It's a bright big beautiful tomorrow..." to herself.

After another ride on Space, we meet up with my wife's sister and her husband and 2 children, ages 5 and 3 who live in Boston where my wife grew up. They arrived at Disney that afternoon and are staying at the WL. We only get to see them once or twice a year, so it was great to be able to meet up like this at Disney. After dinner in Cosmic Rays, the natural destination with preschoolers now with us is Fantasyland. The temperature is now dropping and the cold and wind have chased off the crowds. We take in the Teacups, Pooh, the Carousel, Small World, and even Dumbo(only 10 min wait).

It's 7pm. My sister in law and family make an exit and the 5 of us get one more ride on BTM in. I love riding this at night. It always makes it feel so much faster. Before Wishes start, we head down Main Street and are soon on the bus taking us back to the BC. Another exhausting but fantastic day. The plan is to sleep in tomorrow morning which we will need. We all fall asleep soon after we finish our now nightly ritual of listening to the noise from Illuminations. The Do Not Disturb sign is on the door and no wake up call is needed.

 

[Pan]

Day 6 Thursday, March 4

This was the second day we had scheduled as a sleeping in/pool day. The sleeping in happened but with the daytime high only going to be 58 again, the pool was not going to happen. We saw that Sat was forecasted to get up to 65, so we rearranged our touring plan and made that the pool day, and headed today to Epcot around noon to take in WS.

Beginning in France, we watched the entertaining Serveur Amusant, and then had some fish and chips in England while we watched the WS Players perform. After a bit of shopping and checking on last weekend's football results, we moved over to Canada to watch the movie. We then signed up to do Kim Possible, and after riding Maelstrom in Norway, we picked up our Kimmunicator and headed for Germany for our first assignment. It was a lot of fun. Before the end of the night, we also did "adventures" in Japan and France. Before dinner, we were able to catch the juggler Sergio in Italy who is absolutely hilarious.

Dinner that night was at 5p at Teppan Edo, one of my favorite restuarants at WDW. The chef was entertaining, the food delicious, and again Disney came through for us with the gluten free requirement making my daughter's meal before everyone elses. They even had gluten free soy sauce.

After dinner, we watched Impressions de France, had a pint at the Rose and Crown, caught a bit of Off Kilter, and ended the night with some crepes back in France. By the end of the night, we felt like we had covered WS pretty well, and headed back to the BC. Illuminations would have to wait until our last night, saturday.

 

[Pan]

Day 7 Friday, March 5

It's our second to last day of the trip and we are starting to have those unpleasant feelings knowing that the vacation will soon be over. However, we have saved the best for last. A full day at MK today including staying for Wishes, and then back to Epcot and Future World on Sat ending with Illuminations. It's a little warmer up to 63, but it's still sunny and it's less windy. It also was noticeably much more crowded at MK today compared to Wednesday.

We begin the day again on SM and Buzz, but meet up with my sister in law and her preschool age children in Fantasyland. We ride Pooh and meet Mickey and Minnie at the Judge's Tent and then Donald and Goofy in Frontierland. On the way there we take in Philarmagic again, and think about going into the Country Bears but decide to give it a pass. After lunch again at Pecos Bills, we go on BTM and my 5yo niece gets to experience her first rollercoaster which she loved.

My sister-in-law's family decides to take an afternoon break, but we push on and ride Splash again with our ponchos on but still no wait. Believe it or not, I wanted to make this day a bit less hectic, and try to really just soak up the atmosphere. We actually ended up not going on a single "ride" fom 1p until 5pm. We did go over to Tom Sawyer Island which even my older kids still enjoy. We got some ice cream and wandered over to Main Street where we shopped, got a snack in the Bakery and watched some of the afternoon parade. We watched the glass blower and the kids got to buy some candy at the Main Street Confectionary. We ended the afternoon by watching the show in front of the castle. I felt very proud of myself but it was time to get back to some rides.

After one last ride on Space Mountain, we grab dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus, and then use some FPs to go on Peter Pan. Time's running out. It's already 6:45p! We get in one more ride on BTM and Pirates. It's 7:15 and we still hadn't gone on the Jungle Cruise which we do now. I think this is such a cool ride to go on after dark. The skipper always seems funnier at night. Luckily there is no wait for Aladdin which we do. My son is begging to go on TTA, but it's 7:40 and Wishes starts in 20 minutes. The plan to watch the fireworks from near the Crystal Palace is dropped. No time for Swiss Family Treehouse nor the Astro Orbitor. We hustle over to Tomorrowland and jump on TTA. I'm checking my watch the whole time, and right at 8, we jump off, run over to the bridge to Tomorrowland just in time to see Tinkerbell flying over our heads. Wishes is beautiful. I love the music. And then it's over and we join the masses heading for the exit. My wife and daughters do some shopping in the Emporium while me and my son sit on the curb at the end of Main Street, staring at the castle, and watching everyone slowly walking out leaving the street pretty quiet by the time we are ready to head out as well.

 

[Pan]

Day 8 Saturday March 6

Our last full day at Disney We still hadn't gone to Future World in Epcot except for a ride on TT earlier in the week, so we were excited. Entering through the International Gateway worked out fine and we met up with my sister-in-law's family at TT at about the same time that they got there after entering through the main gate. This was another first for my 5yo niece. Everyone headed over to The Seas with Nemo, but me, my 11 yo daughter and 9yo son went on MS. I'm so glad my son came on. He was unsure about it and had passed on ToT earlier in the week, but he ended up loving MS and it instantly became one of his 5 favorite rides at WDW. I think it might be my favorite.

We met up with eveyone after riding Nemo, and then watched Turtle Talk with Crush. We had never seen it before. Absolutely hilarious. If we had time I would have tried to see this a few times more. We then put our FPs to use on Soarin, had lunch in The Land, rode SE, and wrapped up the morning watching Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

At 2p, we headed back to the BC and got some time in the pool since it was up to 65 that day. Waiting on the top of that water slide in the cold wind was fairly painful but we did it. At 5p, we headed back and took in the American Adventure. Half of us ate at the Liberty Inn and the other half grabbed more fish and chips in England. We said our final goodbyes to my wife's sister and family who called it a night. We had to choose between the Chinese Acrobats and the British Invasion and went with the live music. With 90 minutes left until Illuminations, we ran over to get one more ride on Soarin, and then headed over to TT, but it broke down while we were in line. Not wanting to miss the fireworks, we wisely went out the exit door, and hustled over to a good spot to watch the show between the American Adventure and Japan. We got some funnelcakes that my daughter and son had been begging for all week.

Illuminations was fantastic. My favorite firework show at WDW. We relunctantly walked through Japan, Morocco, and France, and exited out the International Gateway. I wasn't ready for the trip to end.

 

[Pan]

Sunday March 7

What a bummer. Time to leave. We spend the morning packing. We don't bother going to the character breakfast we had arranged at the Cape May. It would have been just too anti-climatic.

It seemed to take forever to get to the airport on the Magical Express, but I didn't mind as it was sort of prolonging our stay at WDW.

But all good things must come to an end. I guess we can start planning our next trip, but as much as I love the place, I honestly don't know if we will be going back anytime soon. The last time we were there in 2007, we left fully knowing that we would be back in 3 years as my then 6yo would be 9 and could go on more of the rides. But with my kids getting older and entering the dreaded teen years, Disney may not be high on the priority list as a destination to visit. The last couple of years we really enjoyed going on some Caribbean cruises during our winter vacation and I suspect we'll be doing more of that which isn't such a bad thing. I'm sure we'll be back, but it's a little sad not really knowing when.

 

[corey154]

you've got to come back soon, i enjoyed reading your trip report!!! thanks for sharing your vaca with us!

 

[Todd L]

Pan...have another Kid:hammer::lol:...............I have a 15 y/o daughter and a 4 year old son......My daughter said to me last week........"Ill be in college in 2 years so This may be my last Disney trip with you for a long time....................I was so sad. Seems like yesterday she was 3 and Sitting on my shoulders to get a good look at the parade.....