Three Ladies at WDW-Preamble and Day 1

[BrerGnat]

Cast: Me, a.k.a. Natalie, 28 year old mother of 2 boys, on a trip with "the Girls" a.k.a. Cynthia (my younger sister), celebrating the big 2-6 on February 16, and Andrea, my friend since 4th grade, 29 years old.

Reason for Trip: Do you need a reason for a vacation when you have two kids under 3? My reason was a sanity break, as well as giving DH a rare opportunity to be the solo caregiver for our boys for more than a few hours at a time. For "the Girls", this trip was a much needed break from "the grind" of working for over 2 years without a vacation. For us all, it was a very rare opportunity to spend some quality time together. We first traveled to WDW together in March 2003, while my DH was deployed to Iraq. Since our last trip together, I've had 2 kids, Andrea has made a major life change moving to Chicago from NJ (where she had lived her whole life) and Cynthia had graduated from Art School and landed a wonderful job as a graphic designer for Pottery Barn. It's amazing what can happen in just 4 years. This trip was born last September, when we all realized it had been WAY too long since we had seen each other and we agreed that we just HAD to go to WDW again together.

Our trip was set for 5 nights, Feb 12-17. We used Magical Journeys (thanks Debbie!) and got a MYW package including the dining plan. Cynthia and I, traveling from California, booked red eye flights for Feb 11, and Andrea booked an early morning flight out of Chicago on the 12th.

I made all our ADR's and booked a Keys to the Kingdom tour for us on Thursday, as a birthday present to Cynthia. I figured the tour would be a fun thing to do, as we had all been to WDW so many times, it would be fun to learn something for once.

Day 1: Monday, Feb 12
I will spare you the details of the red eye flight from LAX to Orlando. Suffice it to say, I did not sleep a wink, as usual for me. I cannot sleep sitting up, no matter how tired I am. I arrived in Orlando first, at 6:30 a.m. Cynthia was flying from San Francisco to Miami, then on to Orlando, and would arrive around 8:30am. Andrea was due in at 10:10 am from Chicago. I grabbed my luggage and proceeded down to the ME desk. After a loooooong walk down a deserted hallway, I found the ME desk and was greeted by a very wide awake team of CM's, who let me know I was their first guest of the day. I checked in quickly and was led to a bus to the WL. There was a couple on the bus, and as soon as I boarded, we were on our way. I enjoyed the video (last time, they were showing A Bug's Life on the ME bus ). We pulled up to the WL around 7:20 and I noticed some scaffolding which really detracted from the ambiance of pulling up to the "Grand" lodge. It was overcast, cold, and drizzling when we got off the bus. I quickly made my way to the warm lobby, and walked right up to the front desk. A very nice young man from Brazil greeted me and I tried my best to get a room that was ready (I was EXHAUSTED at this point). Bless him, he was so nice, but the hotel was just completely booked! There were no rooms ready at that time, except for junior suites, which I really could not afford to upgrade to. He gave me the card and told me to call after about 12:30pm. Slightly dejected, I turned my bags into the bell services desk and made my way over to Roaring Fork to get some coffee. It was going to be a long day. I grabbed a refillable mug (I knew I would never get $12 use out of it, but I really needed a new mug for home). I got the yucky coffee and took a seat in the lounge to choke it down in peace. At this point, it was POURING rain outside, and it was about 8am. My cell phone rang and I was surprised to see it was Cynthia! She should be on a plane right now, I thought. Turns out, her plane was broken (her words), and they were sitting on it, waiting for the mechanic to fix it. 30 minutes later, she called again, to let me know they were getting off the plane and on a different one, that would hopefully take off around 9am. I told her to try and call Andrea once she arrived at MCO. Maybe they would arrive at the same time and be able to catch the ME bus together.

After I got off the phone, I walked over to the Villas, to the Iron Spike room, per some suggestions here. It was indeed a nice quiet room, but I was buzzing from the coffee and no longer wanted to rest. Instead, I took some pictures of the train stuff for my older DS who is recently fascinated by trains. After that, I returned to the lobby and pulled up a SUPER comfy chair and watched a few episodes of The Office on my portable DVD player. Around 10am, I got up to stretch and decided to freshen up and change my clothes in the bathroom in the lobby. That was fun.

At that point, I decided, on a whim, to call to see about our room. I actually said to the CM who took my call "I am calling to see if, by some miracle, there is a room ready for me yet". She replied "well, it's a miracle...your room is ready! You're in 6056." I thanked her profusely (she was probably really confused) and headed straight up to my room. Before I even got there, I got a little flutter of excitement. I knew we were on the 6th floor, and we booked a standard view, so did that mean...

...I opened the door to the room, and straight ahead of me, right smack out the sliding glass door, was THE MAGIC KINGDOM!!!! I beelined over to the balcony, stepped out, and smiled as I took in the view of the Contemporary to the right, Space Mountain and the Astro Orbiter tower right in the middle, and the Castle to the left. I heard the train whistle and immediately, I was IN Disney World. You know that feeling We were at the top of the (very thin) treeline, so all this was clear as day. I looked forward to seeing some fireworks later in the week.

I quickly surveyed the rest of the room and it was spotless and I very much liked the new decor. There was a towel Mickey head on our bed and a bow made out of towels on the bathtub. I was highly impressed at how clean the room was, and so quickly too, since just 3 hours ago, the room was occupied. This trend of impeccable housekeeping was maintained throughout our stay, and I actually plan to write a letter to the management praising our housekeeper, because she did an EXCELLENT job all week!

I quickly claimed a drawer and some closet space as my own and unpacked my stuff. Along the way, I talked to Andrea and Cynthia and found out they met up at the airport and were heading to the ME bus and would be here around 11:30. I called my DH and all was well at home, so I decided to use the time to relax and just wait for my companions to arrive.

(Part 2 coming soon)

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[2MuchWDFun]

Your description of walking into your fabulous room was magical...I actually got a little teary eyed.
"I heard the train whistle and immediately, I was IN Disney World. You know that feeling " Yeah, we know just what you mean!

Really looking forward to reading the rest of your travel reports. I know the 3 of you are going to have a fabulous time together!

[BrerGnat]

Day 1, Part 2

Well, it was not until around 12:30 that Cynthia and Andrea arrived via ME bus. They ended up making a couple of stops before the WL and it took them a while to first FIND the DME desk at the airport and then actually check in. When they finally arrived, I met them in the lobby and we all went up to our room. They were impressed with the room and appreciated the MK view as well. We were all very hungry at this point, so the plan was to very quickly unpack and then find some FOOD!!! We debated about where to go first, and decided upon Epcot. We had a 7:50pm ADR at Kona Cafe for dinner, and figured we could monorail from Epcot, then walk over to the Poly or monorail there. Plus, Cynthia had not yet ridden Mission:Space, so she was excited to do that. We agreed that it was probably too late in the day to go to AK to ride Everest, since it closed at 5pm and was already close to 1:30. So, after a brief freshening up shower for Cynthia, we were on our way to Epcot. We waited about 10 minutes for a bus, then stopped at Ft. Wilderness AND Grand Floridian (this would become a pattern) before heading to Epcot. We arrived at Epcot and decided to ride Spaceship Earth, since there was no line. Next up, we NEEDED food, like pronto! We beelined to the Electric Umbrella (since it was the closest) and were a bit surprised to see huge lines at the registers. It was 2:30...hardly prime time lunch hour. We all got double cheeseburgers and fries and cookies for dessert (remember, dining plan here). The burgers were REALLY good here. Probably the best CS burgers I've had so far at WDW. It proved to be too much meat for me, though, and I removed one of the burger patties and enjoyed my single cheeseburger. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and saved the cookies for later.

We exited the restaurant and walked right to Mission:Space. I could not remember which was the original ride, Green team or Orange team, so I told the CM "we want to ride the REAL one". He handed us Orange cards and we headed into the "20 minute wait" standby line. In 5 minutes, we were boarding our pod. Cynthia was beyond nervous. She is a thrill seeker, though, so I knew she would be fine. Let me just say here, M:S when you have had NO sleep is NOT the same as M:S when you are in a normal state of being. We all got off the ride incredibly dizzy and disoriented (but not in a bad way). To put it bluntly, we felt really drunk, and this feeling lasted a few hours. We made our way over to the Seas next. We meandered through the queue, which I found quite cute, and boarded our clam mobiles. Let's just say, the maximum adult occupancy of those is 2. We squeezed into one, and we are by no means large people, but Cynthia ended up practically sitting on my lap. We laughed about it, but when it came time to get OUT, it was a bit tough to unwedge ourselves.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Seas pavilion and enjoyed seeing the dolphins and manatee, especially. We were pretty much hitting a wall at this point, and after a brief rest on a bench outside, we decided to leave and head for the Poly. It was close to 5pm at this point and our dinner was in three hours, but we were just too beat to continue. We monorailed over to the Poly and took a seat in the Tambu Lounge. We talked and enjoyed drinks in the lounge until our dinner time was near. I checked us in and we were seated within about 5 minutes. As a sidenote, I realized how busy and LOUD the lobby of the Polynesian was over these three hours. It was unreal how packed with people the upstairs area got. We were lucky we had seats and a couple of times, my DH called and I could not even talk to him over the noise in the lobby. I was actually strongly considering staying here on our first trip with our boys next year, but quickly realized how much I appreciate a QUIET lobby after spending a couple hours in this one (we returned for dinner at Ohana later in the week, and it was even worse on that day). I realized that, although I love the restaurants in the Polynesian, I would go crazy if I stayed here. I really need a place to unwind after being in the parks, and especially with two small children, one of whom is autistic, the Polynesian does NOT meet my requirements for a haven away from the parks. Plus, it was starting to rain again when we were seated for dinner, and it pained me to see all the families trying to RUN for their longhouses while attempting to cover their stroller riding children with ponchos, blankets, and plastic bags. If I am going to pay that much for a hotel room, I don't want to have to walk outside in the rain to get to my room.

So, anyway, we sat down for dinner at Kona Cafe and, once again, it did not disappoint. We were seated and immediately brought bread and drinks, and once we ordered, our appetizers were literally brought as soon as our waitress left with the menus. Talk about fast service! We ordered two full meals to split and chose the sticky wings and ceasar salad as appetizers, Pan Asian Noodles with Chicken and the Teriyaki Sirloin as entrees, and then for dessert, we were divided, so we each ordered one. I got the white chocolate cheesecake, Andrea got the Macadamia Nut Tarte, and Cynthia chose the child's "make your own sundae". All the desserts were fabulous, and our waitress charged us for the child's sundae, since it was the cheapest of the three. We left Kona stuffed and very impressed with our meal. One of the highlights for us all were the yukon gold mashed potatoes served with the steak. They were, by our consensus, the BEST tasting mashed potatoes we had all ever tasted.

We made our way back to WL via monorail to MK and then boat ride. We showered and literally crashed around 11:30pm. It had been a LONG day, and we needed our rest badly.

Coming up in Day 2, We conquer Expedition Everest (and a few other things too).

[SBETigg]

Great reports! How fun to have a girl vacation. Walking the Poly grounds was a highlight to my trip. I really enjoy being spread out and having different buildings much more than I like being stuck in one building for the whole trip. The Polynesian grounds are amazing, worth the risk of a little rain. No big deal. But there's something for everyone at WDW, and that's so great.

[KylesMom]

Well for not getting a lick of sleep during your travels, what a wonderful beginning to your trip!

We stayed a few doors down from you during our trip in July and we too had impeccable mousekeeping and the same towel designs you described. I wonder if we had the same Mousekeeper? Ours was Pam and she was a gem.

Can't wait to read more!

[disneydrmr]

What a great first day! I'm surprised that you made it as long as you did with as tired as you were. Quite impressive! Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

[Fairy Grandmother]

Wonderful report! Thanks for all the details. Those two little ones have probably prepared you to keep going regardless of the amoount of sleep you get.

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

[BrerGnat]

We stayed a few doors down from you during our trip in July and we too had impeccable mousekeeping and the same towel designs you described. I wonder if we had the same Mousekeeper? Ours was Pam and she was a gem.

YES!!! Pam Rios was our mousekeeper! That tells you a lot about how good she was because I remember her name and we checked out 4 days ago! I am going to write a letter to the WL management with some very high praise for Pam! I never saw her, but she was wonderful. I wish I had gotten the chance to thank her in person.

[KylesMom]

Nat, I really wish you could have met her. She is truly a warm, smiling CM, always there to greet us with a "Good Morning" when we left our room every day, leaving towel animals for us each day to come home to. She had the nicest southern drawl!!! And yes, you know she's good when we BOTH remember the name of our Mousekeeper!

[ChipnDaleGal]

Congrats on that great view from your room. I am sure that you enjoyed that very much during your stay. For being travel weary you did great at Epcot. Kona Cafe is one my favorites so I am not at all surprised that you had a scrumptious meal there. Thanks for the great report!

[faline]

Your room sounds wonderful! Your trip is off to a great start - good friend, good food, and Disney!

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds like it's the start of a great trip.

[offwego]

A great report.I'm so happy to hear you loved your room.

I hope the rest of your trip is going to be filled with lovely memories for you and your sister and friend!!

[TKDisneylover]

I'm really enjoying the start of your trip! What a wonderful sounding view off your balcony, and your description of that magical moment was truly felt when read. Can't wait to read day 2!

[DizNee143]

sounds like a great long first day!! and i agree with you about the electric umbrella...i love that CS place..and i swear they have the best burgers around disney also!! yum!! lol..cant wait to read about the rest of your trip!!

[ElenitaB]

Oh my... I got tired just reading about your long day! But what a great first day it was!

P.S. Nat, it's so nice to read a post from you!

[Bethanymouse]

What a day! It sounds exhausting but exhilarating! Thanks for bringing me there with you! I cant wait to read more!

[BelleCiavo]

Wow, congratulations on surviving M:S with no sleep. I love the magic, unexpected moments that sometimes happen at WDW like your view. What a wonderful day.

Karen

[sleepingbooty]

Wow, took the redeye and still made it up until 11:30! I'm impressed! Its amazing how energized you can get just by being at WDW. The room sounds fabulous - what a view!