SuzyQ
01-19-2004, 04:44 PM
Who's Who:
Me and DH: This is our fourth trip to WDW together . . . in a year and a half!
Sister, DH, and Nephews (12, 14, 16): Never been to WDW - sister has been planning forever, husband is tolerant, and nephews said that they would rather stay home (and to think that they are my blood!)
Part I
The trip down and Pop Century
December 18
Yeah! Finally our Christmas vacation is here and we head off to Sea-Tac airport to meet up with my sister and her family. We leave our car at SisIL get to the airport about an hour and half early. We find Dsis and family by the gate (they got there 2 hours early). I must say, the kids looked less than thrilled about the adventure down to WDW, but I didn't let that get to me as they had no idea what WDW was like! Dsis was really excited and had her Passporter out and was going over the various plan - "check, double check!" (I'm so proud!) ;)
We flew down using Frontier Airlines with a stop in Denver. We usually fly down with American and am not sure that we would use Frontier again (more on that later).
We got boarded (all sitting near each other) and had fun listening to the complimentary HDTV they have going on. It's free until you are stabilized in the air. Then, it's $5. This isn't a bad set up (as all seats have little screens on them), but we would have prefered to have a movie to pass the time away.
Our first leg (Seattle to Denver) was a pack of pretzles and a soda flights. For 2 and half hours, we were glad that my sister packed a bunch of snacks! We had a brief layover and then it was off to Florida! We got a little snack (a sandwhich wrap type thing) on this flight, but were dissappointed to find that they required that you pay another $5 for the HDTV service. Even if you are on the same plane (we never left the plane during the layover). My sister mentioned it to the flight attendant and they allowed the kids to watch for free since my sister paid for the last leg (but they stated that it was per leg for future reference).
We finally got into Orlando at about 8:45 and our driver from Happy Limo was there with our sign waiting for us. What my sister didn't tell the kids was that we were taking a limo to the resort!! The driver was nice and waited with us by the baggage claim until we got our luggage . . . .or so we thought we were getting our luggage. By the time the baggage carousel stopped, none of us had one piece of luggage! We were a bit confused since we never changed planes and we checked in at different times! Then we heard an airport employee call out our names (never a good sing when they know your name!). He informed us that for some reason, all of our luggage got placed behind the "mail" and that we would have to wait until all the mail was pulled out of the plane before they could get to our luggage! Ugh! Our driver headed out to go get the limo and said that he would just pull up in front and wait for us to get out there. FINALLY, our luggage showed up. This is when I saw it . . . MY SISTER PACKED SO MUCH STUFF!!!
I heard from her husband that he thought she over packed, but they had something like 6 huge suitcases plus carryons! What a riot watching them try to stowe everything in the limo! The kids were excited that they got to ride in a limo and they had Shrek playing on dvd inside along with some sodas to drink. It was so much fun to sit around and play with the various buttons and whatnot!
We made a failry quick grocery stop (sister and I pre-ordered by fax with Albertsons) and now we were off to the Pop Century. Since it had only been "officially" open for 4 days, we had to drive in a circle before we figured out which was the main entrance.
Pop Century pretty much looks like most of the All Stars from the outside (except that it is Pop Icons instead of sports, music and movies). Inside the front desk area, there is a place to sit and watch cartoons and a little museum-type display of the various toys and icons of each decade. I went to check in while the family waited in the lobby area looking around. There were about 6 CMs at the FD and about 2 people in front of me and let me tell you, it too FOREVER to check in! Obviously, they had hired a lot of new CMs for the FD (which I think is great, but you I feel like a new resort should really bring a lot of previously-trained staff into their new openings). Our CM had no idea what to do with the fact that we had a credit on our account (I had changed from a AAA rate to an AP rate when they came out). After almost a half our, we finally had our rooms!
We were situated in the 60's building on the fourth floor - good thing we had bellman take our luggage up! There are elevators, of course, but it was a little trek none-the-less.
The rooms are the same layout as AStars and have fun theming. We didn't bother with unpacking since we were only staying this one night and then it was off to WL!
Since it was jsut past 11:00, we headed down to the food court and got a pizza to share. Quick note: there are a few hidden mickeys in the floor tiles in the main food court area.
The food court is set up pretty much the same as the moderates. You have a few stations where you can order from and you just pay at the cashier stations. After dinner, DH and I took the opportunity to look around the resort. Here are a few of our findings:
* From the backside of the 50's and 60's buildings, you can see Spaceship Earth at Epcot. I presume that you may also be able to see Illuminations from this vantage point.
*There is a big man-made) lake behind the resort that also separates the 50 - 90's from the 00's - 40's (not yet completed - just walls). There is a prominade around the resort, but the bridge across the lake stops mid-way (will be continued when phase 2 is finished). By the looks of it, I don't think Phase 2 will be finished anytime soon.
*There are huge Disney statues of favorite characters from each era (Lady and Tramp from 50's, Jungle Book frm 70's, etc.). They make great pictures!
*They have the main pool between 70's and 60's. It is a good size pool with a kiddie pool behind it that has a fountain of sorts - looks like a lot of fun . . . if it were warm! There are two other quiet pools: one in 50's and another in the 90's (shaped like a computer keyboard and screen).
*There seems to be a pool bar, but it was all closed up when we were there.
*Each decade has little plaques that state interesting facts about things that happend during that decade. (Such as Mount St. Helen's blows up May 18, 1980).
*The bus depot is in the front to the right of the lobby (if you are facing out).
Overall, the Pop seemed nicer than the All Stars simply because it doesn't feel as spread out and the lake adds so much!
Well, it's almost 2am and time for bed!
December 19th
DtD, WL & MMVMCP!
We sleep in until about 9 and then it's off for breakfast and DtD. We arrange for our luggage to be picked up and transferred to WL. Oh yeah, did I menion that my sister also planned to surprise the nephews by not telling them that we were transferring to WL? They think that they are going to stay at Pop the whole time. ;)
We head off to DtD and it is c-c-c-cold!!! It is maybe 60 degrees plus a chilly breeze. Burr! I think that it took about 15 minuted of waiting before the bus to DtD came by. We head off and it is the first time sister and her hubby get to see how big WDW is. Wow! It is amazing when you look around to see that DisneWorld is just about spreads just about as far as the eye can see!
Once we get to DtD, the boys still aren't very excited (ok, so they're teens - we'll give them some time). We meander through some of the shops. They were handing out samples of cocoa at theWorld of Disney - yum! We got a couple to try (though not too into the "Blue and Pink" cocoas). After a bit of shopping, we head off to Ghirardeli's for an Earthquake! If you haven't seen one before it is as it would seem - huge and messy! It's about 8 scoops +/- of ice cream and toppings! Of course, that was the perfect lunch for the kids!
We stayed at DtD until about 2 and then decided to check and see if our hotel room at WL was ready. Basically, the boys think that me and DH are staying there. So, we trek over to the bus depot and wait, and wait, and wait. We counted that the busses for the other resorts came at least twice (some three times) before I finally mentioned our wait to another bus driver (we had people waiting in three different areas for the WL bus since there was no more room at their depot). Gladly, this was the last not-so-great bus experience that we had for the rest of our trip. :)
We get to WL and one of my nephews said, "mom, you should've worked more overtime so that we could stay here instead". OK, not the most polite thing to say to your mom who has worked OT for the last 8 months to pay for the trip, but she wasn't phased becasue SHE WAS staying at WL! :)
I went over to check in and sent everyone else off to look around the resort. We got a great Come-Back rate for a standard (aka Parking Lot) view room. To my surprise, and utter happiness, we were upgraded to courtyard view on the 6th floor! We had two rooms, one for DH and I and one for sister's family with bunks. They gave us an awesome location with adjoining rooms! We were overlooking the pool between the lodge and VWL. We could also see water and the water pagent (at least part of the pagent) at night!!
OK, so yet again, I become amazed at HOW MUCH MY SISTER BROUGHT! Our plan was that I will check in and then go up to our rooms and decorate sister's room with a Christmas tree and whatnot in order to surprise her family. Sister said that there should be a small tree box and another small box that she shipped at the front. I should've figured that that was a gross underestimation on her part when the FD CM asked if I needed a bellman to help me. Of course I said no as I figured that I could carry two boxes to the room. The CM went into the storage room to find our packages and came back stating "I am going to call a bellman for you - you will need the help". Before I could say anything, she brought out a box with a 4-foot Christmas tree, another large box full of food (heavy) and ANOTHER box with gifts from my other sister. (OK, the third box was not my sister's fault since she didn't know that our older sister would be sending another box full of gifts to the resort.)
Finally, I get up to the room and book my little hiney as fast as Ican to get set up as I know that sister's husband and kids are probably getting a little irritated that it is taking me so long to check in. I call their cells and tell them to come up to the room. Yeah! What a great surprise for them! The kids were excited that they wouldn't have to share beds again (they brought an extra blow-up mattress for one of the kids and put it in the corner at night and under the bed during the day (ssshhh, don't tell) ;)
Like I said, the view was awesome and DH was so happy!
We chilled for a while and listened to my sister work on unpacking their life (they took up one set of 4-drawers just with food items!). At about 5:00, we headed out to MMVMCP!
We took the boat over to MK. Sister and family did not have park passes (just the party tickets), but that wasn't a problem as they let us in early - yeah! We looked around a bit and then headed to our 6pm PS at Liberty Tree Tavern. What a great dinner and one of my favorites of the trip! Finally, everyone was relaxed and able to get into the Disney spirit - even the grumpy teens!
We had visits from Chip, Dale, Minnie, Pluto and Meeko. Though, BIL got in a bit of trouble when trouble-maker Suzy told Meeko that BIL thought he was Flower - aka A SKUNK! After that, Meeko gave BIL a hard time for the remainder of dinner.
The meal itself was great - turkey, beef, pork, mashed tatos and gravy, stuffing, salad, bread, and veggies. Oh, and don't forget yummy cherry cobler - yum! The character interaction was terrific as well. Characters came by often and spent a good amount of time at each table.
After dinner, we headed out to a couple of Christmas shows and a "flight" on Space Mountain. We watched Dreams - awesome display of fireworks! and then we split up because DH and I wanted to see another show and get our pictures and sister and fam wanted to catch some rides. When we met up later, sister and family decided that they were all too tired and were heading back (what!? It's only 10!) Turns out, touring MK, at night, without a tourguide sister is not as much fun as they thought (ahhhh, more music to my ears . . . you need me, you really need me!)
We said our goodbyes and DH and I grabbed a spot for the parade. (turns out that sister and fam stayed for the parade by the exit - glad they did). The Christmas party is a lot of fun and very festive, but DH I would not pay extra to go if we had APs (as we did). Basically, you can see all the same Christmas shows and parades during regular park hours. The only thing you lack is the hot chocolate, cookies and picture.
We did our PotC (always do that on first park day) and then headed out about half hour prior to party closing. Can we just say PACKED, PACKED, PACKED!?? We had to wait for two boats before heading back to WL. We finally got home and decided to do a late night hot tubbie before going to bed. The nights were very chilly and actually record lows these last few days with temperatures in the 20's! I needed to get into the hot tub just to get my body temp up a bit.
Off to bed around 1 and prepping for MGM early entry tomorrow!!
Part II coming soon . . .
Me and DH: This is our fourth trip to WDW together . . . in a year and a half!
Sister, DH, and Nephews (12, 14, 16): Never been to WDW - sister has been planning forever, husband is tolerant, and nephews said that they would rather stay home (and to think that they are my blood!)
Part I
The trip down and Pop Century
December 18
Yeah! Finally our Christmas vacation is here and we head off to Sea-Tac airport to meet up with my sister and her family. We leave our car at SisIL get to the airport about an hour and half early. We find Dsis and family by the gate (they got there 2 hours early). I must say, the kids looked less than thrilled about the adventure down to WDW, but I didn't let that get to me as they had no idea what WDW was like! Dsis was really excited and had her Passporter out and was going over the various plan - "check, double check!" (I'm so proud!) ;)
We flew down using Frontier Airlines with a stop in Denver. We usually fly down with American and am not sure that we would use Frontier again (more on that later).
We got boarded (all sitting near each other) and had fun listening to the complimentary HDTV they have going on. It's free until you are stabilized in the air. Then, it's $5. This isn't a bad set up (as all seats have little screens on them), but we would have prefered to have a movie to pass the time away.
Our first leg (Seattle to Denver) was a pack of pretzles and a soda flights. For 2 and half hours, we were glad that my sister packed a bunch of snacks! We had a brief layover and then it was off to Florida! We got a little snack (a sandwhich wrap type thing) on this flight, but were dissappointed to find that they required that you pay another $5 for the HDTV service. Even if you are on the same plane (we never left the plane during the layover). My sister mentioned it to the flight attendant and they allowed the kids to watch for free since my sister paid for the last leg (but they stated that it was per leg for future reference).
We finally got into Orlando at about 8:45 and our driver from Happy Limo was there with our sign waiting for us. What my sister didn't tell the kids was that we were taking a limo to the resort!! The driver was nice and waited with us by the baggage claim until we got our luggage . . . .or so we thought we were getting our luggage. By the time the baggage carousel stopped, none of us had one piece of luggage! We were a bit confused since we never changed planes and we checked in at different times! Then we heard an airport employee call out our names (never a good sing when they know your name!). He informed us that for some reason, all of our luggage got placed behind the "mail" and that we would have to wait until all the mail was pulled out of the plane before they could get to our luggage! Ugh! Our driver headed out to go get the limo and said that he would just pull up in front and wait for us to get out there. FINALLY, our luggage showed up. This is when I saw it . . . MY SISTER PACKED SO MUCH STUFF!!!
I heard from her husband that he thought she over packed, but they had something like 6 huge suitcases plus carryons! What a riot watching them try to stowe everything in the limo! The kids were excited that they got to ride in a limo and they had Shrek playing on dvd inside along with some sodas to drink. It was so much fun to sit around and play with the various buttons and whatnot!
We made a failry quick grocery stop (sister and I pre-ordered by fax with Albertsons) and now we were off to the Pop Century. Since it had only been "officially" open for 4 days, we had to drive in a circle before we figured out which was the main entrance.
Pop Century pretty much looks like most of the All Stars from the outside (except that it is Pop Icons instead of sports, music and movies). Inside the front desk area, there is a place to sit and watch cartoons and a little museum-type display of the various toys and icons of each decade. I went to check in while the family waited in the lobby area looking around. There were about 6 CMs at the FD and about 2 people in front of me and let me tell you, it too FOREVER to check in! Obviously, they had hired a lot of new CMs for the FD (which I think is great, but you I feel like a new resort should really bring a lot of previously-trained staff into their new openings). Our CM had no idea what to do with the fact that we had a credit on our account (I had changed from a AAA rate to an AP rate when they came out). After almost a half our, we finally had our rooms!
We were situated in the 60's building on the fourth floor - good thing we had bellman take our luggage up! There are elevators, of course, but it was a little trek none-the-less.
The rooms are the same layout as AStars and have fun theming. We didn't bother with unpacking since we were only staying this one night and then it was off to WL!
Since it was jsut past 11:00, we headed down to the food court and got a pizza to share. Quick note: there are a few hidden mickeys in the floor tiles in the main food court area.
The food court is set up pretty much the same as the moderates. You have a few stations where you can order from and you just pay at the cashier stations. After dinner, DH and I took the opportunity to look around the resort. Here are a few of our findings:
* From the backside of the 50's and 60's buildings, you can see Spaceship Earth at Epcot. I presume that you may also be able to see Illuminations from this vantage point.
*There is a big man-made) lake behind the resort that also separates the 50 - 90's from the 00's - 40's (not yet completed - just walls). There is a prominade around the resort, but the bridge across the lake stops mid-way (will be continued when phase 2 is finished). By the looks of it, I don't think Phase 2 will be finished anytime soon.
*There are huge Disney statues of favorite characters from each era (Lady and Tramp from 50's, Jungle Book frm 70's, etc.). They make great pictures!
*They have the main pool between 70's and 60's. It is a good size pool with a kiddie pool behind it that has a fountain of sorts - looks like a lot of fun . . . if it were warm! There are two other quiet pools: one in 50's and another in the 90's (shaped like a computer keyboard and screen).
*There seems to be a pool bar, but it was all closed up when we were there.
*Each decade has little plaques that state interesting facts about things that happend during that decade. (Such as Mount St. Helen's blows up May 18, 1980).
*The bus depot is in the front to the right of the lobby (if you are facing out).
Overall, the Pop seemed nicer than the All Stars simply because it doesn't feel as spread out and the lake adds so much!
Well, it's almost 2am and time for bed!
December 19th
DtD, WL & MMVMCP!
We sleep in until about 9 and then it's off for breakfast and DtD. We arrange for our luggage to be picked up and transferred to WL. Oh yeah, did I menion that my sister also planned to surprise the nephews by not telling them that we were transferring to WL? They think that they are going to stay at Pop the whole time. ;)
We head off to DtD and it is c-c-c-cold!!! It is maybe 60 degrees plus a chilly breeze. Burr! I think that it took about 15 minuted of waiting before the bus to DtD came by. We head off and it is the first time sister and her hubby get to see how big WDW is. Wow! It is amazing when you look around to see that DisneWorld is just about spreads just about as far as the eye can see!
Once we get to DtD, the boys still aren't very excited (ok, so they're teens - we'll give them some time). We meander through some of the shops. They were handing out samples of cocoa at theWorld of Disney - yum! We got a couple to try (though not too into the "Blue and Pink" cocoas). After a bit of shopping, we head off to Ghirardeli's for an Earthquake! If you haven't seen one before it is as it would seem - huge and messy! It's about 8 scoops +/- of ice cream and toppings! Of course, that was the perfect lunch for the kids!
We stayed at DtD until about 2 and then decided to check and see if our hotel room at WL was ready. Basically, the boys think that me and DH are staying there. So, we trek over to the bus depot and wait, and wait, and wait. We counted that the busses for the other resorts came at least twice (some three times) before I finally mentioned our wait to another bus driver (we had people waiting in three different areas for the WL bus since there was no more room at their depot). Gladly, this was the last not-so-great bus experience that we had for the rest of our trip. :)
We get to WL and one of my nephews said, "mom, you should've worked more overtime so that we could stay here instead". OK, not the most polite thing to say to your mom who has worked OT for the last 8 months to pay for the trip, but she wasn't phased becasue SHE WAS staying at WL! :)
I went over to check in and sent everyone else off to look around the resort. We got a great Come-Back rate for a standard (aka Parking Lot) view room. To my surprise, and utter happiness, we were upgraded to courtyard view on the 6th floor! We had two rooms, one for DH and I and one for sister's family with bunks. They gave us an awesome location with adjoining rooms! We were overlooking the pool between the lodge and VWL. We could also see water and the water pagent (at least part of the pagent) at night!!
OK, so yet again, I become amazed at HOW MUCH MY SISTER BROUGHT! Our plan was that I will check in and then go up to our rooms and decorate sister's room with a Christmas tree and whatnot in order to surprise her family. Sister said that there should be a small tree box and another small box that she shipped at the front. I should've figured that that was a gross underestimation on her part when the FD CM asked if I needed a bellman to help me. Of course I said no as I figured that I could carry two boxes to the room. The CM went into the storage room to find our packages and came back stating "I am going to call a bellman for you - you will need the help". Before I could say anything, she brought out a box with a 4-foot Christmas tree, another large box full of food (heavy) and ANOTHER box with gifts from my other sister. (OK, the third box was not my sister's fault since she didn't know that our older sister would be sending another box full of gifts to the resort.)
Finally, I get up to the room and book my little hiney as fast as Ican to get set up as I know that sister's husband and kids are probably getting a little irritated that it is taking me so long to check in. I call their cells and tell them to come up to the room. Yeah! What a great surprise for them! The kids were excited that they wouldn't have to share beds again (they brought an extra blow-up mattress for one of the kids and put it in the corner at night and under the bed during the day (ssshhh, don't tell) ;)
Like I said, the view was awesome and DH was so happy!
We chilled for a while and listened to my sister work on unpacking their life (they took up one set of 4-drawers just with food items!). At about 5:00, we headed out to MMVMCP!
We took the boat over to MK. Sister and family did not have park passes (just the party tickets), but that wasn't a problem as they let us in early - yeah! We looked around a bit and then headed to our 6pm PS at Liberty Tree Tavern. What a great dinner and one of my favorites of the trip! Finally, everyone was relaxed and able to get into the Disney spirit - even the grumpy teens!
We had visits from Chip, Dale, Minnie, Pluto and Meeko. Though, BIL got in a bit of trouble when trouble-maker Suzy told Meeko that BIL thought he was Flower - aka A SKUNK! After that, Meeko gave BIL a hard time for the remainder of dinner.
The meal itself was great - turkey, beef, pork, mashed tatos and gravy, stuffing, salad, bread, and veggies. Oh, and don't forget yummy cherry cobler - yum! The character interaction was terrific as well. Characters came by often and spent a good amount of time at each table.
After dinner, we headed out to a couple of Christmas shows and a "flight" on Space Mountain. We watched Dreams - awesome display of fireworks! and then we split up because DH and I wanted to see another show and get our pictures and sister and fam wanted to catch some rides. When we met up later, sister and family decided that they were all too tired and were heading back (what!? It's only 10!) Turns out, touring MK, at night, without a tourguide sister is not as much fun as they thought (ahhhh, more music to my ears . . . you need me, you really need me!)
We said our goodbyes and DH and I grabbed a spot for the parade. (turns out that sister and fam stayed for the parade by the exit - glad they did). The Christmas party is a lot of fun and very festive, but DH I would not pay extra to go if we had APs (as we did). Basically, you can see all the same Christmas shows and parades during regular park hours. The only thing you lack is the hot chocolate, cookies and picture.
We did our PotC (always do that on first park day) and then headed out about half hour prior to party closing. Can we just say PACKED, PACKED, PACKED!?? We had to wait for two boats before heading back to WL. We finally got home and decided to do a late night hot tubbie before going to bed. The nights were very chilly and actually record lows these last few days with temperatures in the 20's! I needed to get into the hot tub just to get my body temp up a bit.
Off to bed around 1 and prepping for MGM early entry tomorrow!!
Part II coming soon . . .