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Colleen Dunne -- May 2001 -- Walt Disney World (CBR)
Please be kind, this is my first ever attempt at a trip report. I just hope that everyone who reads it will enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed reading other people's . Pre-Trip When my mom and I came back from Disney World in December, 2000 we already had our next Disney vacation planned for November, 2001 (at one of my favorite resorts....the Beach Club). By the way we stayed at Port Orleans in December and I really liked this resort too, especially with all of the Holiday decorations. But I am still partial to the Polynesian and the Beach Club. Also, that was the first time that I have ever gone to Disney in December and I have to say that I strongly prefer that time of year over any other. We were still able to wear shorts, but were not nearly as hot as if we were there in the summer months. So that being said, by February my mom and I were starting to think that we were never going to make it until November for our next trip. So with the help of a very nice tax return I started talking my mom into a quick Disney get away in early May. Thus begins the saga of our trying to make a quick get-away. We first started with calling the Disney Club reservations to see what they had available. And to make a long story short we ended up calling the CRO and after some financial finagling and many calls we were set to travel on May 8th with our stay at the Caribbean Beach Club. When my mom called to pay the final balance she was told that we missed the deadline for paying off our balance and that our trip was canceled. Which by the way each time we called I made sure to ask the deadline date for the balance due and every time was told something different. :( Well I think with all the calls and the numerous "10 day holds" on different itineraries we really confused them. Finally we got it straightened out. Then I got an invitation in the mail to renew our Annual Pass which would expire on May 7th and save an additional $35. Uggggh. Now how can we change our plans and arrive on the 7th not the 8th so we can take up the nice invitation from Disney to renew our Annual Pass and save $35 bucks. Well we couldn't (oh no!). As a very generous Christmas gift from my mom we already had 6-day park hopper passes. The invitation was only to PURCHASE an Annual Pass (no trade-ins), plus we couldn't get any flight times that we would have been happy with. Foiled again! I just wanted to add an extra day anyway and thought I could justify it by saving $35 bucks on each pass. Oh well, I'm still thrilled that we are going and we are still going to trade in our 6-day hopper when we get there for an Annual Pass so that we can use them again for our November trip. On to the trip planning. I must warn you that this trip is going to be mostly relaxing. It will also be a surprise to Brandon. He knows that we are going back, but has not idea when. I'm definitely not a commando type person, especially with a four year old, plus this is my vacation and I plan to actually get some sleep and relaxation time in as well...yeah right we'll see if that actually happens :) Plus Brandon is really not a great fan of most of the rides (he's a bit scared). We plan to take advantage of the "beach" at our resort (since that's Brandon's favorite) and the pool. We only have made priority seating at one place: The Crystal Palace which will be for lunch (11:30 ?) on May 9th . Our flight leaves at the ungodly hour of 8:00 AM on Tuesday, May 8th. I can't wait to wake Brandon up 5:30 AM and tell him "We're going to Disney"! Definite video moment right there! We should arrive at our hotel somewhere between 11:00-12:00 so we'll check in and grab some lunch and head right to the pool/beach. Where of course the adults in the group will partake in an adult beverage, preferably a BIG Pina Colada. After an afternoon nap (I hope) when our room is ready we'll go to the MK and upgrade our 6-day hopper to our Annual Pass. And so begins the Disney Magic. I have a really loose agenda, since I'm sure it will change drastically when we get there I'm not going to bother writing it all out. Basically Brandon runs the show, when he gets up we'll figure out a game plan over a light breakfast in the room. It doesn't really matter to me or my mom where we go or what we do. We just love the feeling of BEING at Disney. The Disney atmosphere is all we crave, again, and again, and again. oOo Day 1 ~ May 8, 2001 The day has finally arrived. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 AM to get showered, do some last minute packing and get ready to wake up my son. Well, I tried to get him up at 5:30 and he wasn't having it even when I told him we were going to Walt Disney World. After about 10 minutes he finally said "Disney, Now!, O.K." and he let me get him dressed and ready to go. My mom's boyfriend was kind enough to drive us to the airport. So we were finally on our way. Our flight was about 1/2 hour late taking off but we made up the time in the air and arrived pretty much on time. We hauled our luggage down to the Mears pick up location and pretty much got right on a bus that was so kindly waiting for us. We arrived at CBR and my mom went to check us in while Brandon and I watched a little bit of Toy Story II. We got most of the requests that my mom faxed to the hotel. We were in Martinique #26 which is right next to Old Port Royale and about 3-5 minute walk to the bus stop. We waited for about 20 minutes for our luggage and the van to take us to our room. Since we've stayed here before I knew what to expect. Nothing really has changed in the rooms. I think they might have recently done some exterior paint, but I'm not sure. First order of business was to un-pack and head to the food court for lunch. We spent almost $60 for lunch which consisted of two burger meals, one hot dog meal and three mugs. Wow! I think that the cost of the mugs was definitely worth it and we made sure to use them every chance we got. We took it easy at the beach and let Brandon play for awhile and I just had to take him to his favorite place "The Arcade". I wanted to see if Brandon would take a little nap so we went back to the room and sure enough the little guy was out within a matter of minutes. We got up and refreshed and headed over to the MK at around 6:00 so that we could trade in our 5-day park hopper pass for an Annual Pass. Decided that since we were there we might as well go in and see what's going on. Well, Brandon wasn't really in the mood to ride anything and we actually walked around the WHOLE park in an hour (with the exception of Toon Town). We decided to just head back to the hotel and take it easy so we'd be rested for our first full day. Day 2 ~ May 9, 2001 We got a late start (which would be the theme of the whole vacation....after all we've seen and done just about everything on past trips and this time we decided that we were not in any rush. This was supposed to be a vacation right?) Anyway, we arrived at the MK at 10:00 and headed over to Alien Encounter (which I actually have never gone on yet). I decided that I didn't want to pass up the incredibly short line so I went in solo. I couldn't stop laughing there was a family next to me that tried to put two kids on the same seat when I looked over all I saw was two heads sticking out of the head restraint. The CM was laughing too and got them un-done and put one of the kids in another seat. All I knew about the ride was that it got REALLY dark. I thought it was pretty good but I was so busy listening to the kids screaming next to me that I missed most of what was being said. Not that I minded cause I was laughing at the comments that they were making. I'll definitely have to try this again some time. Well with that ride behind me I met up with my mom and Bran and I had to bribe Brandon to get on Jungle Cruise by telling him that if he went on Jungle Cruise I'd go on The Swiss Family Tree house with him. I haven't been on the Jungle Cruise in a really long time. I didn't remember the part when you go into the dark cave, fortunately for me I keep a little flashlight for just such emergencies. Good thing that the cave wasn't that bad and Brandon didn't see to mind at all. On next to the Swiss Family Tree house as promised and then we backtracked to Main Street since we had PS at the Crystal Palace for 11:45. I love this place and the character interaction that you receive when you come here. The food is not great in my opinion, but the price that you pay (which is pretty high) is definitely worth it when I see how excited my son gets. He got Piglet, Eeyore, Pooh and Tigger autographs and we got a lot of pictures. Brandon tried in vain to give Tigger a cookie but Tigger was busy with another family at that point. But it was really cute to watch. I would highly recommend starting off your trip with a character meal. It really gets the kids into the spirit of things and I'm just so happy to see Brandon enjoying himself so much. Since we were with the friends of the Hundred-Acre Wood for lunch we just had to go and take the ride. Brandon is a big fan of this ride and I was happy see them again. At this point it was 3:00 so we decided to head back to the hotel for a pool break. We hung out at the pool and beach until 5:00 and went back to the room to change and get ready for the Studios. We were at the Studios by 6:00 and Brandon's request was an ice cream cone. We looked on the map and found that Studio Catering Company had food and ice cream so we headed there only to have the window closed in our face. What, why are they closing now when the park wasn't due to close until 9:00? Fortunately, the ice cream window was still open and Brandon was happy. He was even happier when he saw the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Which, as you guessed it, was closing in 10 minutes. So we let him run around for the ten minutes before it closed. I have to say that I was a little scared of him going off by himself. It was such a maze of different things to play on that I was afraid I would lose him. It was pretty funny at one point I went into a cave after Brandon where I had to practically crawl just to fit in and it was dark to boot and I practically ran into a man asking if I'd see any other "Big Kids" running around the cave. After Honey we walked over to Star Tours, after some begging I got Brandon on the ride. I was so proud of him. He sat in the middle and held my hand and my moms hand. He looked a bit apprehensive at some points but when the ride was over he proclaimed "I LOVE IT". I was so thrilled that he got on that I let him pick out one of those annoying loud light saber things in the store. Now he was an official "Jedi" (he knew this cause the CM told him so). Now, I just had to find a place to eat, my stomach was telling me so. We found a nice little fast food place called Catalina Eddie's Pizza. When we were finished eating we decided to take a chance and see if Fantasmic had any seating left. No good, standing room only. We passed for tonight. So we headed back to the room to relax and get some sleep. Yeah, that's what I thought. Not likely tonight. Brandon had a really really bad nights sleep. He keep complaining the his leg hurt, he even made my mom put a band-aid on his leg (mind you there was not cut there....plus he always refuses to wear a band-aid when he does get a cut...Weird) Finally he fell back to sleep. Day 3 - May 10, 2001 I can't believe that it's 10:00 and Brandon is still sleeping. My mom went to the food court to get breakfast and she and I tried to decided where to go for today. When Brandon finally did wake up he decided for us. He wanted to go to the beach. The adults got some sun and Brandon played with a couple of the sand toys that I brought from home. I asked Bran if he wanted to ride on a Water Mouse and he did. So off he and I went for our allotted half hour. I was surprised that the CM who worked there let Bran sit on my lap and drive. Which I think Brandon really enjoyed. At about 1:00 we headed over to the Animal Kingdom. We went straight to Dino Land to get a fast pass to Dinosaur but they were already gone for the day. We let Brandon play in the Bone yard. Again I was a little scared to let him go off by himself because the place was really big. So off he and I went to climb the ropes (my mom was there too but gave up after a little while) and play in the bone yard. I have wanted to get back to the Rain Forest to get the Quesadilla that I loved so much. We got a great seat right next to the big Ape. We decided to leave the Animal Kingdom (it was pretty crowded for some reason) and head over to EPCOT. We bee lined it for Test Track fast passes and they were also out for the day. We decided to go to Cranium Command and played with some of the exhibits. We left and headed over to the World Showcase and stopped off to see the acrobats (caught the end of the show, but we'll be back to see more later). We then caught a little bit of the statue in France. We left EPCOT at around 8:15 or so to catch the bus back to the room. It was funny because Brandon remembered from our last trip in December the chocolate space ship earth desert at the Rose and Crown that we had while watching Illuminations and he wanted to go back there. I was really surprised that he remembered that. Unfortunately we didn't make a PS to Rose and Crown on this trip to see Illuminations. Day 4 - May 11, 2001 We got up at around 9:00 today and had the standard breakfast in the room and decided to head to Down Town Disney to do some shopping. They were doing some concrete work to make way for the Animal Kingdom lodge bus stop at the Market Place so we got dropped off at Pleasure Island. First stop was the Lego store for Brandon. He loves to play Legos with his dad and I told him that he was allowed to pick out one new Lego to take home. I stayed with Brandon at the Lego playground while my mom did some shopping. Then she came back and stayed with him while I did some shopping. Since we were right at McDonald's we decided to just grab lunch there. After shopping and eating we decided to head back to the hotel for some swimming. We left the hotel at around 6:00 to go back to the Studios. We figured that we would have problems with finding food again so that was our first order of business. Tried a couple places that normally take PS on the off chance that they had an opening. We finally found one that would take us. So we waited to be parked at the Sci-Fi. Unfortunately we were not going to park but instead have a "picnic" at the back of the restaurant. The have a few "picnic" type tables in the back which were the only thing available. Which was fine for Brandon until he saw a few empty cars and I had to explain to him that other people were going to be using them to eat. Since we wasted so much time trying to find something to eat and there really isn't much for Brandon to do at this park we decided to head back to the hotel. Day 5 - May 12, 2001 We didn't wake up until around 9:30 this morning. While my mom went to get breakfast I helped Brandon put together the Lego that he got yesterday and we also played with the Linking Logs that he got. Brandon said that he wanted the candy that he got from the "claw" game at the arcade so I told him that we could get some at EPCOT. After we went into the big store at EPCOT and got Bran his candy I barely twisted my mom's arm to get in the single ride line for Test Track since she hasn't ridden it yet. Brandon and I hung out at the waiting area inside the attraction and when she came out within 20 minutes I decided that I would go ride. I rode this as a single rider in December but didn't remember that it went quite that fast. I actually got a butterfly or two in my stomach on the open road sequence. It stinks getting old I remember when I could ride all the big coasters and scary rides. Not any more! We decided to go catch the acrobats show again this time making sure to catch the whole show. Brandon loved the show. He basically loves anything with kids. I wanted to go catch the drum people (sorry I can't remember their name) in Japan. Brandon wasn't as impressed (cause they weren't kids I guess). We finished walking around the Showcase and decided to head back to the pool. Brandon was having such a great time today at the pool. He made a new friend and they were playing with a water toy that my mom brought at the Old Port Royale shop. We didn't get back to the room until 6:45 to get ready for the MK. Our strategy was to ride on some things while people were lining up for the 9:00 parade. I was surprised but there were not that many rides without lines. We only actually got to ride Snow White and the Tea Cups and the TTA. Since we have never seen this parade we decided to take our chances to get a good spot. Actually my moms strategy here was to walk the path along Main Street and see as much as we could while walking really slow. We got caught up in the center area right in front of the train station and though we might be able to stay there but we were ushered out like a heard of cattle when their was a break in the parade. It actually worked out quite well. We got to see most of the parade and were out of there before the crowds came. Since we hadn't really eaten much today we decided to grab pizza and take it back to the room and we in bed by 11:00. Day 6 ~ May 13, 2001 (Mother's Day) Woke up really late again today and while Brandon played with his toys my mom went to get breakfast. While we were eating we decided to try to get PS at Crystal Palace again since Brandon enjoyed it so much and also since it was mommy's day. While my mom was getting breakfast stopped at the shop and got me a new CBR shirt for mother's day. How sweet. I ran over after breakfast and got her a Disney World beach bag (which will come in handy later). We decided to go back to the Animal Kingdom. We got to ride on one of the new buses that Disney has. They were pretty neat and I wouldn't have believed that they held more people than the older buses if I hadn't read it on Mouse Planet. Once we got to Animal Kingdom we headed straight for the Safari and got on without waiting. I think it may have been too hot for the animals to be out since we didn't see many. I wanted to take the train to Conservation Station since we have never done this. I wish that I had taken them up on the offer of a free stroller once we got off because it was way to hot to walk and hold Brandon. We pretty much just turned around and got back on another train. We went and got fast passes for Kali River Rapids which was for about a half hour away. Since we had time to kill we saw the Flights of Wonder show. It was pretty cute. I think the bleacher themselves were more entertaining to Brandon than the show, but I got a few laughs out of it. It was now time for the fast pass to Kali. I was worried about how Brandon would handle this. My mom and I came to the conclusion that the reason Brandon won't get on rides it that I explain them to much to him so this time I didn't tell him anything. Basically I didn't know what to expect anyway since I've never ridden on this either. He was a bit apprehensive again but got on the ride and thanks to the gentleman that was on the ride with us telling Brandon how great he was doing we made it through. There was a brief moment in the ride where the fire was that Brandon grabbed my hand but that was about it. And of course, Brandon got the wettest. But we kept telling him that it was such a hot day that the water would feel great and believe me it did. We went back to the room to head to the pool. Stayed at the pool a little longer than we should have (again) and headed back to the room to grab a quick shower so that we could make our 7:45 PS at Crystal Palace. We caught a bus to MK and were in time for our PS. There really were not that many people there since they closed at 8:00 today. I have to say that if you want the most character interaction this is the time to go. We practically had all the characters too ourselves. Brandon got to bounce with Tigger and get pictures with all the characters (again). As we were leaving we got to see the Castle change colors. Very cool! We caught the last bus out of the park and we headed back to the hotel to pack. Day 7 - May 14, 2001 (our last day) We got up at 9:00 to shower and finish packing. We left our luggage in the room and had bell service come and put it in storage while we went to EPCOT. At the last minute we decided at the entrance to EPCOT to hop on the monorail and have breakfast at the Poly. Well we missed breakfast and they wouldn't be opening until 12:00 for lunch so we headed down to their food court and got burgers. After our meal we caught another monorail through the MK and Contemporary (this is where Brandon wants to stay on the next trip...little does he know we have the Beach Club booked for November, 2001). Actually as an aside we decided to postpone our November trip until April 2002 to give us more time to save money. We got off at the Ticket/Transportation Center and caught another monorail to EPCOT. Went to a few shops to get last minute gifts for everyone back home and we sat and had popcorn and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately it was time to leave. We just missed a bus to the CBR. We would be cutting it a bit close because it took a long time for the next bus to show up. We got off at the Custom House and waited for our 4:05 pick up from Mears. What a fiasco! There were quite a few families waiting to be picked up and what did Mears send... a Van (that holds about 7-8 people). So the driver said he would call for another pick-up for the rest of us. Well, they should have sent a bus, but they sent another van! One family took up that van and they still had left overs so when another van was called they got that one too. Unbelievable! At this point there were about 4 families waiting and what does Mears finally send. You got it, the bus! We piled in and got to the airport at about 5:25 for our 6:05 flight. We now had to wait in line at USAIR to drop off our bags and get our boarding passes. We high-tailed it over in the shuttle and were looking for the gate. Guess what they changed the gate. By the time we found the right one they were at the end of boarding people so we walked right onto the plane. We took off and had a bit of a bumpy ride home. We had to circle the Philadelphia airport a couple times because apparently President Bush had been there today and backed things up. Fortunately my mom's boyfriend came to pick us up and we were home again at around 9:30 ish. Well that's about all she wrote! Hope you all enjoyed this trip report. I'm hoping to give it a go on our next trip as well! Feel free to email me with any questions or comments. I'd love to hear your feedback. Colleen Dunne cd34@drexel.edu Mail a Comment to Colleen Dunne |
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