Hi there – as I was writing up our trip report for our family trip to Disney World, I realized it was going to just be too darned long to fit into one post comfortably. So I will break it up into a few parts and post them as get the pictures and write up ready.
The first part will cover our drive down to Minneapolis, our shopping day there and then our travel day to Disney World and our first evening there. So on with the show…
Saturday Feb 1st:
Alright – travel day and vacation begins! Have to drive from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada to Minneapolis. Basically 8-9 hours of driving when you throw in stopping for gas, snacks and potty breaks. I wanted to make sure I would get in some running on this vacation and it seemed like a good idea to do a quick run on the treadmill before loading in the van. I figured it would help wake me up and be a good start for the trip. So I did that and it felt really good to stretch out the legs.
The four of us (my wife Heather, our son T, our daughter K and I) had a good breakfast to get through some of the last of the stuff from the fridge and then loaded up the van and pushed off probably around 9:20 am.
The ride down was pretty uneventful – sun was out and the US border stop was very quick. We then did a quick stop in Fargo for a quick lunch and to check out the running gear situation at Scheels. We figured we would stop again on the way back through so we didn’t pick anything up on the way down. Had a quick gas stop in Fargo and continued on toward Minneapolis – with only one or two potty breaks for the kids.
Got to the hotel around 6 pm or so and checked in easily. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites Bloomington which is right across the street from the Mall of America and has a good and quick shuttle service to the airport. We got a room that was near the elevator but quiet – not sure I ever actually heard it.
After we got set up in the room we wandered over to the attached TGI Fridays for supper and a drink before headed across the street to the Mall of America to do some minor shopping.
At the Disney Store there K got an Anna dress (from Frozen) – good thing we got it there because they didn’t have any at Disney World! Lots of little girls were envious at the parks.
Headed back to the room and had a quick swim and dunk in the hot tub with the kids before heading to bed to finally crash for the night.
Long travel day!
Sunday Feb 2nd:
I got up a bit earlier than everyone else so I went and hit the treadmill at the gym at the hotel. It was actually a pretty solid machine – I was not expecting that. Put in a hard and fast 3 miles in 24 minutes before heading back to the room.
We decided to go to the IHOP attached to the hotel for breakfast. It was quite good with very friendly service.
At this point we still had time before the Mall opened so Heather hit the treadmill at the hotel as well to stretch her legs too.
We then walked over to the Mall and did some more shopping and we had lunch there and wandered all the floors.
Strangely we decided to have supper at IHOP as well – was pretty dead but the service was attentive and the food was decent. The kids ate well and without complaints which was really what we were shooting for here.
The next day we were flying to Orlando so we got the kids in bed and put a show on the tv for them while we repacked and repositioned everything we needed for the plane ride in the morning. Then off to bed.
Monday Feb 3rd:
Got up with our alarm and had breakfast in the snack room at the hotel before going to grab out stuff to get on the hotel shuttle to the airport.
While the kids were finishing up I went to confirm our shuttle time at the front desk and they had us on a shuttle that had just left… They do half hour shuttle departures and we had asked for a 07:45 and they didn’t tell us they couldn’t do that. They got us on the 8:00 instead which actually left a bit early anyway and was still lots of time to get to the airport. Not a big deal but gave a second of panic.
The shuttle ride was quick and easy and airport check in worked well too. Paid our bag check fees, dropped the bags at the bag check, grabbed our boarding passes and headed on towards security.
Security was super quick as we were given priority screening and got through nice and quickly with no hassles! Whoohoo – first security screening in a couple years where I wasn’t “randomly selected” for the body scanner.
We had a bit of extra time with the nice quick security line so we spent a bit of time looking around and then waiting at our gate for the plane. Nicely the plane was on time and loaded with no hassles beyond the ordinary.
Flight itself was pretty good with only a little turbulence part way through that didn’t last long. The kids did well, watching shows and playing games.
As we were getting off the plane and the Captain complimented T and K on their hats and then asked if they would like to see the cockpit. They had a seat and we got a few pictures and out of the plane we went. We then did a quick change and then hit the monorail to terminal B.
We had a quick peek in the Disney store and then headed to Magical Express.
Magical Express book in was quick with almost no wait. We did have a slight glitch though – the man with the computer told us which aisle to head to for the Beach Club and we were escorted by a lady who then told us a different aisle – to be sure we checked with the loading helper and he quickly escorted to the aisle the man with the computer had said originally. No biggee but a bit of a surprise – usually see the guests mess up the bus aisles not the staff.
Magical Express ride was good and quick – a few stops before ours but not too bad.
At the Beach Club the greeter was tied up and she eventually came back to take us up to the Club Level
Check in there was as smooth as always – they brought us a beer and a wine and the kids chewed on some taffy and then we quickly got to our room. Definitely wasn’t the best view we have had from our room at the Beach Club but it was a full balcony though so that was nice.
After dropping some of our stuff in the room and checking it out we headed down and got into Beaches and Cream for supper after a short wait. We were told we would likely end up at the bar but were given a table instead – that works!
After supper we headed back to the room to change into our swim gear and then Storm Along Bay for an hour or so. Awesome!
Shortly before 9 we headed into Epcot to see Illuminations – there were some troubles with our tickets / magic bands but they let us in quickly to see the fireworks and then we headed back to the room for bed.
Another busy travel day but we still got lots of stuff done even with getting to the hotel later in the afternoon.
Part 2 up – starting with our first full day at Disney World and the Beach Club Resort
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