Trip Report (a bad day at WDW is better than?

[Grumpy56]

....a good day anywhere else!

Hello folks I'm back and here's my first trip report.

Our family group consists of me, trip planner and kid at heart, DH who enjoys Disney almost as much as I do, 13yo DD who is still willing to ride Dumbo with her Mom, and 10yo DS, winner of the Disney Trooper award for this trip (details to follow).

Trip Overview

The Good-Contemporary was awesome, illuminations cruise outstanding, breakfast at Cinderella's castle-lots of fun, great meal at Spoodles, private audience with Pluto on the ferry for DS-the best!

The Bad-DS got sick on the flight down and neverfully recovered, DH got sick on day 2 and was sick the rest of the time, I hardly slept taking care of everybody and got sick on the way back!

The Ugly-DS getting sick:hurl: after some fool took him on Star Tours (apologies to those in the bathroom on Sunset Blvd on Fri afternoon!)

Day 1: We flew down from Dulles on Wed night. DS was getting warm in the airport while we were waiting for the flight. When he gets sick usually it's 24 hours so we were hoping for the best. Flight was smooth, rented car from National (love that Emerald Aisle service!) and we were checking in at the Contemporary at 10:30. DS perked up for that, he was so excited to be there. We got a great room, 7318 with a view of the pool area and dock.

Day 2: DS woke up bright and early and raring to go. His temp was down and he begged us to let him go to the park so we walked to the MK (7min)and were there for Extra Magic hour at 8am. DS was in charge of ride selection for the day, due to his illness. Headed right to TL and rode his fav ride, SM, then Buzz and the Speedway. Only wait was 5 min for the Speedway. Then we headed to FL where we rode Pooh, and Peter Pan the on to BTMRR, then POTC. Stopped for coffee at the Sunshine Terrace and by this time DS was starting to fade so we talked about leaving the park, but decided to get lunch at Cosmic Ray's. This was an excellent stop, good food choices for everyone and DS loved the "entertainment". We sat in there for almost 45 minutes just relaxing. DS was ready for a rest so we strolled out of the park and took the monorail back to the hotel. The wait board said no more than 5 minute wait for any ride when we left at 11:30. The park was empty!

To be continued........

 

[Fido]

That's sad about the sickness with your son and husband. Hopefully you got some good memories out of the trip in the end. I'm lookng forward to the rest!

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Hey Grumpy56 - Sorry to learn about the sickness :hurl: (sorry couldn't resist !!
Looking forward to reading the rest of the report - hope everything else went OK.

 

[MinnieFan]

Welcome back Grumpy. Thanks for the trip report. Can't wait for day 2. Sorry about your family getting sick

 

[Grumpy56]

Day 2 continues:

After resting at the hotel we drove over to MGM at DS request, I had a surprise planned for the evening and didn't want to spill the beans just yet. Original plan had been to do Epcot in the afternoon but he was anxious to get to MGM so off we went. MGM was empty too, we walked on to RnR, then TOT, then RnR again and left. It was a blast, especially after being at WDW at spring break last year to just stroll on to these rides with no wait.
We left MGM and drove over to the Yacht Club. Don't know if it was because everything was so empty or because we had a parking pass from the Contemporary but there was no question about where we were going or how long we'd be. We had a little bit of time before our PS at Spoodles so we checked out the resort and took a leisurely stroll over to the Boardwalk. Very impressed with Yacht Club, think it would be a great place to stay one day.
We had an excellent meal at Spoodles and enjoyed ourselves, even DS who was starting to feel pretty punky. We ordered an assortment of tapas to share and no entrees which was great. We especialy liked the mussels and the lamb. Also the Sangria was excellent. Great service, nice ambience and the food was yummy:slurp:
I still hadn't sprung my surprise on them so as we walked out of the restaurant I suggested we take the friendship boat across since everyone was tired. While we waited we were entertained by a great banjo player (he managed dueling banjos with one banjo!) and then we took a beautiful twilight ride across the water. We stayed in the lobby for a bit to stay warm and then I finally had to tell them we were going to take an Illuminations cruise to get them down to the marina. They were all excited, even my little guy. We had a great time on the cruise, I HIGHLY recommend it. It was perfect for us at that time since by then my DH was feeling pretty out of it and all we had to do was sit back and relax. We had a great view from under the bridge and it was nice and warm in there. No problems with smoke either. Afterwards we were very glad to have our car parked there and we headed back to the room.

 

[figmentmom]

Hi, Grumpy!

Thanks for the report about the Illuminations cruise - we're considering that for our next trip.

Can't wait to hear the rest of your report!

 

[Grumpy56]

Thanks for the kind words everybody. This is coming in spurts as I have time and energy because everyone at my house is not completely well yet!

FigmentMom, if you can get the cruise, do it, I don't think you'll be disappointed, it is just so beautiful at night. The only hesitancy I had about it was the possibility it might have been cold, turns out we had great weather the whole trip and if you are going at a warmer time of year, I'd say go for it!

Day 3 This day had high highs and very low lows! DS spiked 103.5 temp at 3am so I was up most of the night before. In the am DH felt he was coming down with the the upper respitory crud so he volunteered to take DS to the clinic while DD and I went to Epcot.(Isn't he sweet?)

DD and I rode the monorail to Epcot ad started by going to Test Track. There was a 30min wait so we opted for a FP with a return timein an hour. While waiting we went to Mission Space which looks awesome, we took photos of each other, rode the Land which was much better than I remebered and checked out Ice Station Cool. She liked that but wished her Dad was there so we could trick him into drinking Beverly:lol:

On the way back to TT I got her to stop at the talking water fountain, caught her totally by surprise, wish I'd gotten a picture but couldn't figure out how to say "Honey, I want to take a pic of you getting a drink of water!" without sounding like an idiot!

I liked TT better this time, maybe because I was more relaxed. After that we headed over to WS and had a very relaxing time wandering around. Did the Canada film which I enjoyed but frankly those Circlevisiion movies make me a little urpy. I'll skip it next time. DD was devasted to find the Beavertail stand doesn't open till 3pm. We headed over to England, got some fish and chips and came back to Canada to watch Off Kilter. They were great! Good music and funny guys. While there DH called me on the cell to say that the doctor diagnosed Bronchitis for bith, they had their cough syrup and antibiotics and DS qwanted to go to MGM again. The doc had said whatever they felt like doing was fine. I should have known it was too good to be true. DD and I walked over to France, ran into Princess Aurora as we did and got a pic, that was very cool. Got DD a chocolate mousse in France and I got a nice glass of wine. While in France we checked out the character spot in the perfume shop, Beast was there, scaring little children but in the nicest possible way. Then we walked out the International Gateway and caught the boat to MGM to meet the boys. While we were waiting for boat, across the water Belle and the Beast appeared and took a little path down to the water's edge and waved to us. It was like they did it just for us. Even my hard to impress DD was blown away!Though we were sad the boys had missed our good time it was a very nice mother daughter bonding time we wouldn't have had otherwise so we chose to look on the bright side.

More later....I hope to have pics to post tomorrow.

 

[Grumpy56]

Day 3 continues:

I'll spare you the gory details and just say by the time we hooked up with the boys DS was feeling a little green. DH took him on Star Tours, he had his picture taken as Obi-Wan, met up with us and decided he'd better go back to the hotel.

So DD and I were on our own again. We did RnR (my favorite ride this trip) and TOT and then headed to the Brown Derby to eat. DD is a big fan of the beef filet there. We had a great meal (I had the grouper which was excellent) and enjoyed chatting. Only downside was the table next to us which was VERY loud. I had to laugh thinking of all the differing opinions voiced in this forum on loud and unruly kids at WDW. I thought I was firmly in the "kids will be kids" camp until I sat next to this group. It was 2 young moms and 3 kids that looked to be18 mos to 3 years old. I knew there was trouble as they arrived and one of the moms said "Mommy spent a fortune so we could have seats down front at Fantasmic so you'd better be good." :brick:

At first I thought I should tell her she'd get wet down front and the dinner package seats were on the side, but after enduring an hour of screaming from her kids I decided to just let karma take it's natural course. The littl boy was literally crawling on the floor and on the backs of the booths. The moms seemed to think this was very funny. When they finally left the woman at the table on the other side of us turned around and asked "How did you stand it?" to which I replied, smiling sweetly, "we'll were Disney veterans,we've seen worse!":lol: I actually felt sorry for them because the 3 year old boy was obviuosly in charge of this group.

DD was tired at this point and decided she didn't want to stay for Fantasmic. I was disappointed but afraid she was getting sick too so we took the bus back to the Contemporary. Just as we arrived we saw the MK fireworks begin so we watched them from the bustop. When we got back to the room, DH had not eaten so I took him to the Concourse Steakhouse and watched him eat. We had a nice meal (I just had to try the french onion soup):slurp: and then we all went to bed.

Not the day I had planned but lots of fun never the less. I am learning to go with the flow in my old age!:animwink:

 

[Grumpy56]

Day 4

Originally planned to got to Universal this day but decided big rollercoasters were not the best choice with this crew. Everyone felt a bit better but mostly it was wishful thinking. DS wanted to go back to MK and ride some "slow rides" so we accomodated him. We decide to take the monorail and DS asked the CM if we could ride up front. No, it was full, so DS asked if we waited for the next one and he said you can wait but I can't guarantee anything. Sure enough it was empty and we got to ride upfront! (I doubt there are many people getting on at the MK station at that time of morning so this is another bonus to the Contemp being the first stop). DS got a big kick out of riding up there.

It was a Sat am and we arrived at MK right at opening, just in time to see the characters arrive on the train, that was a nice surprise for my kids. We thought we'd take a Main St vehicle to conserve everyone's energy. There was the double decker bus and we went up top and had it all to ourselves. This was a blast! Everyone in the street was waving at us and we had a great view of the street and the castle.

The best part of everyone being sick and tired was that we just took our time and noticed all the little things. The park was really empty so we didn't have to stand in lines. We rode all the rides we wanted in FL, then did the things we had missed on Thurs, HM, Hall of Presidents, (finally saw Dubya!) and Jungle Cruise. Last time we were at WDW I really thought Jungle Cruise was getting old but this time we had a great CM and it was really fun so I'm a fan again. We had lunch at Pecos Bill and did a little shopping. DS thought he wanted to see Toontown so I suggested riding the train around but once he got on he realized he was wiped out and ready to go back to the room. So we rode all the way around and got off at Main St.

DS, DD, and DH spent the afternoon sleeping and I explored the hotel a bit. Enjoyed hanging out at the pool and reading my book Got everyone up late in the afternoon and headed up to the CA Grill for a 6:30 PS. DH and I have been 4 or 5 times but had never taken the kids. The food was too adventurous for DS but DD loved it! We had a Calif roll and the Goat Cheese Ravioli for appetizers and for entrees we had the beef filet:slurp: , the pork tenderloin and the Yoshi's sushi deluxe. DD loved the pear crepes with cinnomon ice cream. We had excellent service and I got to do a little wine tasting. I took each of the kids for walks around the restaurant, showing them the open kitchen and the view of the MK. They were enthralled when the lights went down and they got to see the fireworks from the table. All in all a very fun, low key way to enjoy the evening without expending a lot of energy. One side note-there seemed to be a lot of people who came up just to watch the fireworks, I know they are supposedly keeping you from coming up unless you have a PS but it seemd like there were an awful lot of people there at fireworks time, does anyone know if they really are checking? I didn't see any evidence that they were.

We got through just after 8 and DD and I still had energy to spare so we walked over to the MK which was scheduled to close at 9pm. We enjoyed seeing the park lit up at night, strolled down Main St together and went to ride the carousel in FL. MY DD just loved it. We just soaked up the atomsphere. Spectromagic was at 9 pm and the park was so empty we had no problem getting a spot to watch it at the last minute. As it was nearing the end we started walking down Main St watching the parade and found ourselves at the end of Main St just as the parade ended so we scooted out and on to the monorail and we were back in the room in 5 minutes! Gotta love that Contemporary!

 

[secretsquirrel]

Excellent Posts. I enjoyed hearing your

story of your trip. I hope your next trip is even better.

 

[doctor tigger]

I must agree that your trip report has been great--I've really enjoyed reading it.
I can sympathise with the "sick people" problem---when we were there this summer, I was dealing with the flu (I did make it to WDW, but missed out on Islands of Adventure--do you think that means something profound?)
I hope your next trip is even better--thanks for all the great ideas!

Doctor Tigger

 

[Grumpy56]

Day 5

Our last day to do the parks. DS was feeling a bit better but didn't really want to get up. I faced the Cinderella's Castle Dilemma After scoring resssies to the breakfast at the castle, keeping it a secret for 2 months, do you really want to try and trick your sick son into going to MK for the 3rd time in 4 days just so you can say Surprise! as you walk into the castle, we're having breakfast with the princesses? I think not. So I gave up my childish dream of surprising them, and reluctantly told him he didn't have to get up if he didn't want to but we could go eat at the Castle if he wanted. Well it was just the elixir he needed, and off we went to the MK. We missed the Extra magic hour but made it to the castle in time for our ressie at 8:55.

I thought my DH was going to pass out while waiting to be seated, the waiting area inside the castle was jam packed with people. (DH said he felt so bad he thought he would have to goi back to the room, luckily coffee and scrambled eggs revived him!) We only had to wait about 10 minutes and when we got to go upstairs we were thrilled. We had been once back in 1997 but the kids were so little they didn't remember much. The atmosphere is great and to see the look on my son's face when he finally gets to see inside the castle was priceless. The breakfast was good, nice fruit, chocoalte muffins my DD adored:slurp: eggs, bacon, sausage and some kind of weird french toast thing with blueberries I didn't care for. The characters do one section at a time so we were basically through eating when our turn came up. Then you get one character after another in rapid succession. We saw Belle, Princess Aurura and her Prince, Cinderella and of course the gal I went to see, Snow White. (The Fairy Godmother was in the waiting room, also.) A added bonus-if you are there when Cinderella' Surprise Celebration is being performed at the front of the castle you get to see Captain Hook run by the windows of the restaurant! (I've heard you can see Peter Pan too but somehow we missed him.) The character interaction was very good, there was a family next to us with two babies and Snow White planted a kiss on each of their foreheads with her ruby red lips, very cute photo!

DS decided he really wanted to go to Epcot and since that's my DD's favorite we decided to head over there. We were heading to the monorail when I suggested we ride the ferry instead. Since we have stayed on property on recent trips we hadn't been on the ferry in a good long while. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip for my DS. We were the only passengers on the return trip to the TTC, around 10:30am. We walked up to the top deck and were enjoying the sunshine when who did we see? Our old pal Pluto! DS loves Pluto and we took a few photos. When we were done, Pluto moved on but in a few minutes he was back. DS said "what does he want?' and I replied. "I think he wants you to play with him." And that's just what they did! Pluto wanted to be scrathed and my son was happy to oblige. My son had a great time and when we left the ferry my son felt like a celebrity. He and Pluto walked off the ferry arm in arm to the applause of the crowd waiting for the ferry! It was a real Disney moment.

To be continued.....

 

[Katherine]

Great trip report!! I love reading it! Sorry about your family getting sick.

 

[MinnieFan]

Wow. You have one of the best trip reports I have read in a while. It seems like the magic was all around you.

 

[Grumpy56]

Sorry it has taken so long for me to finish this. Everyone is finally well at my house and now we are snowed in! Since I have some time on my hands I will finish up.


Day 5 continued. We hopped on the Epcot monorail and headed over to TT to get a FP. My DD wanted to show her brother the talking fountain so we had to stop there and he was very surprised! Next we took them To Ice Station Cool but DD took pity on her father and gave him the lowdown on all the drinks. DS (Mr Picky) wouldn't try anything. We rode the Land again because DD wanted to show the boys the hidden mickey. Then we headed back to TT, wasn't sure if DS would want to do it but he loved it! We decided to go to World Showcase to get something to eat. We took the boat across so we could get DS some food at the American pavillion. I always wondered what kind of ninnies would go to the WS and eat Ameican food and so I found out. (People with 10yo boys who won't eat anything but hotdogs!) :brick:

I refused to eat there so he ate his two hot dogs (I think he was feeling better!) and we headed over to Japan. The three of us ate at the Yakitori House which was a very pleasant surprise. All three of us enjoyed it, the sushi was good and we had a table out on the patio which was very pleasant. Afterwards we did a little shopping, listened to the drummers perform and took in the exhibit on baseball in Japan which was very interesting. DS liked the Samurai armor and since we'd recently watched "The Seven Samurai" it was very appropriate. One note-if your kids are Japanese anime fans, the store in Japan has some very cool anime t-shirts as welll as DBZ cards and toys. Be prepared to drop some cash!

Our next stop was France where I sampled the wine-I didn't realize this before but it's less exspensive at the stand along the walkway than in the wine shop. The kids ran into Clopin and had a lengthy conversation (he was little lonely, I think) and we took some pics. By now eveyone was getting a little tired but we had to get that elusive beavertail! So we headed over to Canada making a stop in the UK to watch the WS players. They were very funny! Finally we got our beavertails, a chocolate hazelnut, a plain one and one with butter, cinnamon and lemon which was surprisingly good. DS was wiped out and didn't even want to go ride Maelstrom so we headed out. We did talk him into riding SE and I'm glad we did now that I've heard they are thinking of turning it into a rollercoaster!:hammer: I think it will be a pity to lose that attraction, it just says Epcot to me.

After that we just hung out in the room and got packed, getting some food from the Food and Fun Center and chilling out. The kids didn't even want to watch the fireworks so DH and I went out to the front of the North Garden Wing and sat on the bench and watched them. It's always a little sad at the end but I felt especially bummed since I felt we had missed out on some of the things I wanted to do. Oh well, guess I'll just have to plan another trip!

The next day we flew home, I started to come down with the virus everyone else had had about 5 am so I was glad to get home. Still haven't started planning the next trip, though, I guess I feel a little wary about making plans. Hopefully I'll get over that!

 

[wannabeBelle]

Hey Grumpy I Am sorry to hear about your family's various illnesses!!! That is terrible, although it sounds like you salvaged the trip pretty well!!! Very impressive!!
Also that was a great trip report!! As far as the french toast thingy at Cinderella's Castle, it is actually a cheese danish, There is a thread on here called Recipe that has several very nice recipes from different parts of WDW and this was one of them. A friend of mine made it using that recipe and said it was right on the money!!! Belle

 

[Grumpy56]

Thanks Belle, we did salvage the trip pretty well. As for the cheese danish, it just goes to show different strokes, etc. I just found it way too sweet, but then I'm not a fan of Tonga Toast either and lots of people adore that. There's something for everyone at WDW!

 

[jmarc63]

Hey ya Grumpy,

I know what its like to be sick at WDW, been ther as a kid and getting ill in the middle of the night is no fun for anyone.

 

[KathyG/poohbear]

Grumpy, that is a great trip report. I am so sorry you did all that planning and then your family had sickness. I have thought about that before and there is just no way you can keep it from happening. It is bad enough to have sick kids but at WDW....It sounds like you did a good job of saving the trip though.

We rode the monorail over to the Contemporary from the Poly because we had never been inside there. The Food & Fun center is really nice. I also love the elevators that talk. I would like to stay there but my son like the Poly so much it will have to wait until he moves out.

 

[Debbie]

It's nice that you could salvage a nice vacation out of all of that. I've been so lucky as to never have had anyone get sick on me, on the many times we have gone *knocks on wood*. How were you when you got home? Did you have the same thing and needed a vacation from your vacation for mom to recuperate?
Let's hope this was the first and last time your family has to deal with someone getting sick on your vacation!