Sorcerers, Spies and Superbowl Adventures - A February Trip Report

This trip began a very long time ago. In fact, over 15 months ago, I assumed that this trip would be our first trip back to WDW in over a year. But that hasn't been the case! Never the less - we were super excited to join my husband in Orlando for a conference Feb. 6 - 11. The reservations were made for the Beach Club (conference rate.) My husband's ticket was purchased for Tuesday and we were all set........ or so I thought.

Two weeks ago, my husband called and said he wanted to go to an additional 'meeting' in Orlando on Tuesday - the day he was supposed to arrive. He said we should all just drive down together on Friday.........so that he could go to the meeting on Tuesday...........hmmmmmmmmmmm.......... a meeting he 'had' to go to..... that we 'had' to arrive 3 days early for...... sounds like someone figured out they'd get more park time by arriving early! So we booked the Caribbean Beach at a great rate and added on a few more nights.

Friday, we left home, stopping overnight in Georgia. On Saturday, we pulled onto Disney property promptly at 3 pm. We only had time to check in quickly and throw our bags into the room, before we had to rush off to my son's 4:30 haircut appointment at the Barbershop in the MK!

Hey! I know that place:

We were getting ready to walk out the door when my daughter spilled a bottle of water on her outfit. She insisted she HAD to change clothes, so I told my husband and son to head on to the bus stop without us and to get on the first MK bus. I told them we'd be right behind them.

They were right on time to their appointment, but sadly, I missed the whole thing. It took my daughter and I a good hour to catch up with them with the whole outfit changing, waiting for the bus, etc.

(Pictures of haircut to come - all are on my husbands phone at this time.)

It was a perfect evening in the MK though, so who can be sad???

 

[erstwo]

i'm loving your trip report! your kids are adorable! i know everyone else has mentioned it, but i think it is worth repeating. and your daughter's dresses and bows are so cute. it looks like you all had a wonderful time on your trip. i leave in 2 days and your trip report is really getting me excited! thanks for sharing!

Thank you! So exciting about your trip - isn't it just the BEST few days right before leaving for WDW? I can hardly stand it each time.

We did have a great time. My computer had a few hiccups this morning or I might have been able to finish. I lost an entire post...... grrrr... so I'm going to try again this afternoon or evening!

I still haven't finished your last trip report (honeymoon right?? Or maybe I have confused you with someone else? I hope not! I think I was still on the cruise part. I'm excited to start reading TR's again!

 

[disneygirl1]

Finally all caught up! Such an awesome report! Can't wait to get back to the world! Only 77 more days to go! But who's counting!?!?!? :ROFLOL:

I totally have to agree with you regarding the privacy curtain... I love that they have it at the values and modorates. But why not deluxes? I understand that you have a little more more at the deluxes, but still when there are 3 or more people in the room it would be fine to have a little extra space to throw your clothes on as opposed to having to do so in a cramped little bathroom!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

My daughter would be so envious that you get to keep yours on your bed. I make her keep hers in a bin - otherwise I'd be the one putting all 100 of them on her bed each day (to her exact standards, which are pretty high considering she didn't like how Mousekeeping placed them one day! :lol and I don't think I could handle it.

I'm excited to read your trip report! The Boardwalk is beautiful! I bet you will love it when you stay there. I can totally understand about the Beach Club, it's always nice to have something different!

Thanks about the photo! Sometimes my phone does take good pictures - just like my camera - the issue is with the user, not the camera.

I can imagine if she was very picky with mousekeeping!

Thank you! I should have the rest of it up sometime later tonight, or tomorrow night.

Welcome! :wave:

 

[erstwo]

Finally all caught up! Such an awesome report! Can't wait to get back to the world! Only 77 more days to go! But who's counting!?!?!? :ROFLOL:

I totally have to agree with you regarding the privacy curtain... I love that they have it at the values and modorates. But why not deluxes? I understand that you have a little more more at the deluxes, but still when there are 3 or more people in the room it would be fine to have a little extra space to throw your clothes on as opposed to having to do so in a cramped little bathroom!

Me! I would be counting! :lol: Aren't you cruising this time too? So exciting!

Yes - privacy curtain is the best. I'm not sure what happened with the design of the Beach Club rooms. I have seen 'refurbished Beach Club rooms' mentioned on here a few times, so maybe we just got a room that hadn't been redone yet? :shrug: But it was still an amazing room even if I did have to practically do yoga to get my pants on without falling into the shower. :lol:

I can imagine if she was very picky with mousekeeping!

Thank you! I should have the rest of it up sometime later tonight, or tomorrow night.

Welcome! :wave:

Yay! Trip Report reading here I come!

 

[erstwo]

Double post!

 

[erstwo]

Finally! Day 7 con't!

So eventually, my husband and children tore themselves away from the pool and headed upstairs to join me in the room and get ready for our evening out!

I called down to the Sandcastle Club to see if the kids could bring dinner in with them to the club. Turned out Dinner was included in the babysitting price (score!) and they had a big menu for the kids to choose from. Everyone was ready pretty quickly so we headed downstairs:

Past Mainsails

Sandcastle Club!

My kids walked right in and never looked back. They didn't even tell us goodbye! :lol:

In their defense, the place is pretty awesome. We gave them some extra info, filled out a form and were off!

We walked to the Boardwalk. It was such a great night for walking. Perfect temps and a great breeze.

 

[erstwo]

My husband and I have never been alone at Disney - never. Even when we had my parents or my in laws with us, we've never taken advantage of the babysitting because both of those trips we were so tired from park touring, we just didn't have time. So this was a rare experience for us!

We checked into the Flying Fish and only waited a few minutes before being seated.

I have to be honest and confess, I booked this restaurant entirely for my husband. Looking back, I wish I had booked something inside Epcot like Le Cellier (sp?) or Chefs de France, that I might have enjoyed a bit more (and we won't be able to access once our AP's expire) but it was what it was!

I couldn't find any entree that appealed to me, but my husband couldn't decide which entree to get. :lol: I ended up getting 2 salads - Ceaser (pictured below) and the tomato salad. Both were amazing! Loved them. My husband also loved his meal.

We weren't really into any of the desserts listed on the menu and I was honestly just ready to go by the time my husband was finished, so we paid the bill and headed out onto the Boardwalk.

We saw this guy performing a magic/ comedic act. It was pretty funny, but a lot of the jokes were at the expense of the little boy pictured. Bless him - a lady next to us asked out loud, "How is that kid not crying yet?" But the boy seemed fine with it all, so I guess he didn't think much of it.

While he was performing either Wishes or Illuminations started in the background - so fun!

 

[erstwo]

We walked over to the Boardwalk Bakery seeking some dessert....... my husband settled on a Key Lime Pie and I got the Cheesecake Brownie.

We just sat outside enjoying the evening.

It was fun to be there on a Friday night, with big groups of people hanging out and enjoying themselves

We walked around and checked out the other fun things to do.

That Jamaican Banana cracked me up! :lol:

 

[erstwo]

We needed to do some Tooth Fairy prize shopping (we figured things like that must be extra special at WDW) and checked out the shop at the Boardwalk, but didn't find what we needed.

It had started to drizzle, but we still didn't really need an umbrella yet.

We kept walking back toward the Yacht Club and poked around inside the YC for a few minutes. The gift shop there was absolutely empty. The CM's were so helpful in picking out gifts for our kids. We considered having them delivered to the room, but we weren't sure where they would put them/ how we would hide them/ if they would make it in time, so we dropped them off at our room ourselves before picking up the kids - we had EMH at Epcot to go to!

They almost didn't want to leave!

First stop for the boys - Test Track. First stop for we girls - The Seas!

Can I just say that the park was EMPTY, but somehow we managed to get in a clamshell next to a guy who kept his camera flash on almost the ENTIRE ride?!?! Drove me nuts - I saw the angler fish robotic arm and everything. So not nice guy in the next clamshell - SO NOT nice!

Then it was time for TTwC! I was worried they might have closed it for EMH with the low crowds, but yay! it was open.

 

[erstwo]

After TTwC, we wandered around The Seas for a while. I really wanted to see the Manatees, but they were already sleeping for the night. Oh well, next time!

I read somewhere not too long ago that this tank was the largest tank in America for years and years - I think they held the record until around 2005 or so? So cool.

What is this? Anyone know? Just curious.

 

[erstwo]

Don't know about everyone else - but I have terrible phone reception in the Seas! I always forget about it though. So when we exited the Seas, I had 3 texts from my husband.

Test Track had been closed due to the rain (bummer!) and they rode Mission Space Orange (orange is the tough one right?) and that had about done them both in, so they were playing games in the exit area of Mission Space.

My husband had mentioned about twenty bazillion times that he wanted to ride Journey into Your Imagination this trip, as we've never ridden it before. So we decided to meet up there.

This was fun for me, as Honey I Shrunk the Kids was one of my favorite movies growing up. I thought the only reference to this movie that survived was the playground at DHS. My favorite quote, "We broke up for religious reasons. He thought he was God and I disagreed."

 

[erstwo]

We were totally alone on the ride - which honestly made it a bit freaky. I nearly jumped out of the vehicle at the end when they blast you with air and drop the curtain to show all of the dancing Figments. My kids liked it though.

We played around in the exit queue for a little bit:

And then we had just about a half hour left until the park closed. My husband and son really wanted to see Captain EO. I remembered bits of it from years ago and really wasn't keen on the idea, but they talked me into it.

There were probably 15 of us in the whole theater.

Captain EO was every bit as freaky as I remembered, but I will say I had forgotten about some of the 'effects' and those were pretty awesome. A reminder of how innovative Disney really is/ can be and how they don't just stop at 3D, they make it 4D.

 

[erstwo]

After Captain EO, we realized that my daughter was running a fever. My husband was done anyway, so he decided to take her back to the room, while my son really wanted to run and see if we could make it on SSE before they closed.

As we were running toward SSE, he decided he would rather check and see if Test Track had reopened. I told him that it was still wet (even if it wasn't currently raining) and I thought they would not have re opened it. I also said if we detoured to TT, we'd never make it on SSE.

Sure enough, TT was closed and so was SSE by the time we got there. So instead, we just made our way slowly out of the park, talking about all the good times we'd had on this trip. So sweet!

Okay - I know it's a 'duh' moment for most of you, but I'd never noticed before how the American Pavilion is the focal point of the WS from the main entrance. So cool!

International Gateway, here we come!

It was baths and bed, tomorrow was packing up and leaving day.

 

[fractal]

Enjoying your report! The pics of Beach Club has left me feeling homesick.

Loved the "tooth" story -except for the crying part, but just like a brother to just go in and yank it.

 

[erstwo]

The next morning we woke up to discover a different type of fairy had been to visit us at WDW!

And she had left prizes! The Lotso was for my daughter and the St. Patrick's Day Mickey was for my son.

We were up, dressed and packed in record time - thanks in part to my sweet husband taking the kids down to breakfast so that I could do the packing in peace and quiet.

The plan was to head to the MK and ride Pirates one last time so that my son could pick up something for a friend's birthday party at the PoC gift shop. Hey, if you've got to go to the gift shop, you might as well ride the ride right?

The MK was supposed to be pretty packed this day, so I was glad we were planning on just one ride.

We packed up the car, I grabbed some breakfast and we were off to the TTC! Belatedly, I realized we probably would have been better off parking at the Contempo or the Poly and eating breakfast there, but that's something we'll file away for next time!

We did take the resort loop over on the monorail though! The weather was PERFECT and the locals were out in droves. The line for the express monorail was entirely too long.

On the monorail - this is the tooth I lost!

Please stand clear of the doors

yes, we arrived just as the express monorail passengers were exiting.

Perfect day!

It was a little chilly in the wind. This was the last warm day before the 'cold snap' a couple weeks ago.

 

[erstwo]

Sorcerers wasn't open yet.

Loved these yellow flowers! I don't know what type of tree/ shrub this is, but they were so beautiful all week.

Sorcerers may have been closed, but someone was still able to play, I guess with cards they had from another visit.

 

[erstwo]

We went left and walked right on to Pirates.

Unfortunately, we got a boat that had gotten a little wet on it's previous trip and the second I sat down, my rear end was soaked! Ha!

All too soon, our last ride was over and we exited.

We picked out a gift for our friend's birthday and then set about spending my daughter's Tooth Fairy money.

She knew just what she wanted - a ring and earring set she had seen earlier in Mousegears in Epcot (but she was already out of money) and I knew just where to find it - Castle Couture or the 'princess section' on Main Street.

My husband didn't want to head anywhere near Fantasyland (I think he knew we'd end up on another ride) so Main Street it was!

(I told my husband to take pictures while I pushed the stroller (I meant of the buildings, etc.) - this is what I got - Ha!)

 

[erstwo]

We were a sad, but it was time to say goodbye to the Castle and Main Street. We were ready to be home, but so thankful for all the great memories!

It was only around 9:30 or 10 at this point, so they hadn't even opened the monorail to visitors returning to the TTC yet! So we decided to take the ferry rather than the resort loop (again, I think my husband feared us asking if we could tour the resorts and we knew we needed to get on the road.)

There were only about 15 of us on the ferry headed to the TTC

 

[erstwo]

Our last little glimpse of the MK

And then it was time to head back into the real world! What a great trip, with so many wonderful memories. So much to be thankful for, that's for sure.

And that concludes our February 2012 Trip Report!

I may add a few thoughts later in another post, but I hope you have enjoyed this! Thank you so much for reading!!! :wave:

 

[disneygirl1]

Me! I would be counting! :lol: Aren't you cruising this time too? So exciting!

Ha Ha Ha! :ROFLOL: See this is why I love the boards, we're one in the same when it comes to our Disney vacations! :lol:

Yes, this is the trip we were suppose to be cruising, but we cancelled the cruise portion last week! We decided that we rather do an extending trip to Disney as opposed to breaking it up between the cruise. So now we will be spending 9 glorious days at the Wilderness Lodge! Can't wait!!!