Unfortunately this post is pretty light on photos as we didn’t take a lot of pictures for a few days. We did get a few photopass photos that are included below.
Feb 14th
Got up and did a short run this morning – I took a path that completely avoid the main building because the crowds in that area were insane!
Once I got back the room and cleaned up we all headed out for breakfast and headed over to the lobby to catch the shuttle to do the DVC tour. The tour occurs over at Saratoga Springs where they have a full area where you can view the different room styles all decorated in the styles of the newest DVC resorts.
The tour was pretty cool and the facility was great.
One very awesome thing was that our tour guide Mark is part of Off Kilter – the band that used to play at the Canada pavilion in Epcot. Sounds like they still play festivals and have a new album coming out. It was a great experience meeting Mark and it was a very good tour.
We are pretty sold on DVC but the Canadian dollar needs to recover before something like that could even be seriously thought about.
Another cool thing about the DVC tour was that we got 3 special fast passes for each of us that could be used at any time during the next few days at any parks and they didn’t need to be reserved. Pretty awesome! Because we also did a morning tour they also gave us a $50 gift card too. Nice!
The kids enjoyed the kids club area including the arts and crafts while we did the tour – our son enjoyed video games while our daughter made a bunch of stuff.
After the tour we were treated with ice cream at the tour center and then given a shuttle ride to where ever we wanted to be dropped off. We decided on Animal Kingdom figuring we maybe could use some of the special fast passes there.
So we got to Animal Kingdom and it was insanely busy. To the point that we were holding onto the kids to make sure we didn’t lose them.
We first tried Kilimanjaro Safari but the fast past line was huge and we didn’t want to wait – unfortunately this made this the only trip we have never made in on the safari ride. That is a bit disappointing.
We then went to Everest and the fast pass line was over 20 minutes for our son and I to make it through. So he and I had burned one of our special fast passes each so far.
We then had a normal fast pass time for Primeval Whirl and our daughter was finally tall enough to ride – she had a blast!
It was still pretty early but the crowds were just too much – so went back to the hotel to get ready for supper reservation at Narcoosie at the Grand Floridian resort.
Narcoosie was great – we all got a bit dressed up for Valentines Day – we had a window view of the boats on the Seven Seas Lagoon and of the monorails and the entrance to Magic Kingdom. While we were there it got dark and we were able to see everything get all lit up. A fantastic setting really.
We then did a tour around the gorgeous Grand Floridian resort before grabbing the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. We didn’t have park hopper tickets and we were all pretty tired so we decided to not bother to upgrade our tickets and instead head back to the hotel by bus.
That was a pretty full day.
Feb 15th
I woke up around 6-7 because my back was hurting – got up and took some advil and lay back down. Surprisingly fell back to sleep.
I then got up and started to run just before 10 – already pretty warm outside – seemed like it was going to be a warm day. I ran 3.6 miles – went the opposite direction than I had been going – that helped with the crowds near the main building.
Then after getting back to the room and shower and having a shower we went for lunch / breakfast at the hotel and figured we would go in the pool after. But after a wander we found it too cool due to surprisingly cool breeze so we looked at the updates to the main pool area and let the kids play on the play structure for a while before heading back to the room.
We grabbed sweaters and left the room and took the boat to Disney Springs – after some quick shopping (our daughter needed socks) and a snack (Wetzel’s Pretzles – jalapeno cheese dunk was phenomenal).
We then took a boat to Old Key West and did a quick wander around to check things out. Then took a bus from there to Hollywood Studios.
At Hollywood Studios we all did Rockin Roller Coaster – Heather was not feeling well after that even after having taken some of her meds for motion sickness – of course she got the front seat too to make it more interesting. It was also our daughter’s first time on the ride – she didn’t much like it either. I enjoyed it.
Then did the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.
Next thing we had was the Frozen Sing a Long – it was actually very good – quite funny. Kids loved it.
Was raining a little bit after that but not too bad.
We all then did Star Tours before leaving the park.
We had supper reservations at Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort – it is about a 20 minute walk and we just made it (3 minutes late). It was pretty awesome having the Symphony in the Stars fireworks going off as we wandered over.
Another great meal at Beaches and Cream – the Classic Root Beer float with the hard root beer was very tasty!
Walked around Beach Club and Beach Club Villas and then the Yacht Club.
Walked over to Board Walk and checked out the model villa – very nice.
After a bit more walking we grabbed a cab to Riverside ($10.80)
Put on the Duffy show for the kids and then we were off to bed. My calculations had us walking over 6 miles today – the kids did great!