Started the day with a quick 2 miles – it was quite warm! It was nice to finally get some real heat.
Took a while before everyone else got up after I got to the room – all the walking yesterday burned everyone out!
Lunch was pizza at the hotel then an hour of swimming in the quiet pool. Just a beautiful area with a great mix of sun and shade.
Then a bus to Epcot!
Walked into Epcot and right onto Spaceship Earth.
We then stopped for treats – popcorn and ice cream by the main fountain.
We then had a quick stop to check on the special DVC fast passes – they were not showing up in app anymore – asked fast pass folks and they confirmed they were still there and active. Excellent.
Used one of the specials for each of us to do Test Track – Heather did not ride though.
Next was Ellen’s Energy Adventure.
Then we went in and saw that the wait for the Sum of all fears simulator was not very long. So our son and daughter and I went on it. I had done it before with our son but it was our daughter’s first time. He went on his own this time and I went with her. They both had a blast and loved the designing aspect of the ride.
Sun was starting to set right at about now – great colors in the sky!
Then we did the walk over to Rose and Crown for our supper reservation – it was quite good.
Then a look around United Kingdom / England pavilion before walking to the fast pass area for Illuminations viewing. We had never done the fast pass for the fireworks show before – what a great area to view the fireworks!
Magic hours tonight so we still had lots of time to do stuff after fireworks…
First we walked around the world and had a beer in Germany.
While there we saw them open the bridge to let the globe out of the lagoon – that was pretty cool – we had seen the globe and other barges come out to the lagoon before but never leaving for the night.
Wandered back to do the Character Stop and saw Mickey, Minnie and Goofy then did the Finding Nemo ride, the Journey into Imagination with Figment ride and then went to check on Test Track again but it ended up being down. One more trip on Spaceship Earth then Mouse Gear for a final bit of shopping for the night.
We were pretty much ushered out of the store and then wandered out to the buses. One was waiting for the hotel that we ended up running for. Last ones on before it headed out.
Got out at main entrance of the hotel and went to the food court that was still partially open. Got some snacks and headed back to the room for a bit of tv and then to sleep. Another day up after midnight.
Feb 17th
3.68 miles this morning. There were lots of ladies out running this morning – Princess Half Marathon folks are showing up
Received Magical Express transportation notice for the 18th but it had no pickup time – called and got it set up. 3:30pm
Lunch at hotel then off to Magic Kingdom for our last full day.
Magic Kingdom:
Steam train to Story Book Circus
Run around and shop in that area
Over to Tomorrow Land
Bought Heather a purple magic band
Rode People Mover
Used special fast passes to do Space Ranger spin – it had been closed for a refurb when we here a few days ago but now it was open again but my question is what did they do doing refurb? Both my gun and Heather’s were wonky.
Splash mountain
Looked at using special fast passes for Heather and our daughter to go another time on Splash Mountain but it was too long a fast pass line
Back over to the Tiki Room
Then to hub and caught end of Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it
Then hub grass for a bit before checking in for supper at Plaza – bit of a wait – supper was not too bad – lighter sandwiches which was nice for a change
Then some shopping before Wishes – got a nice spot on main street
Then over to Space Mountain for fast passes
Then the Tomorrowland dance party
Tomorrowland Speedway
Then Goofy’s Barnstormer – couple times for the kids including a back to back ride without having to get out
Dumbo
Ariel meet and greet
Under the Sea ride
Pirates of the Caribbean
Thunder Mountain to end the rides for the day. Just realized we conquered the Magic Kingdom mountain range again today!
Then got Kaia a Shellie May just before the stores closed and then off to the bus and back to the room to pack…
Feb 18th – checkout day
Just an easy day today as we finished packing and got all of our stuff over to the airline check in desk. However there was an issue with the type of flight we had from Delta and we weren’t able to check our bags at the hotel unfortunately.
So we dropped the bags with the concierge folks and did some wandering and shopping around the hotel (including using up the gift card we got from the DVC tour).
Eventually it was time to get on the Magical Express and head to the airport. It is always sad to leave but at this point we were all getting anxious to get going and get home to see the pups.
We had some more fun at the airport with our bags and then our flights but we got on the plane fine and it was all good in the end – just more stress than we had been hoping for.
Off the plane in Minneapolis and caught the shuttle to the hotel where we had parked the van. It was pretty late by the time we got there and checked in but the TGI Fridays that was attached to the hotel was still open so we had some appetizers to fill the bellies and then off to bed.
The next morning it was near freezing and raining – it was lovely loading all our stuff in the van!
On the way home we made some stops for more running gear shopping and supper in Grand Forks before heading toward home. There was risk of freezing home the last couple hours of driving so that added some extra fun right at the end of the trip.
Kids off to bed as soon as we got home and we did some quick unpacking – and then I was up and at the kennel picking up the pups first thing on the 19th.
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!
Breakfast reservation this morning for the character breakfast at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. This meant we had to get up and moving quite early compared to what we had been doing – we were all out of the room by 8:30! Crazy.
We got to Animal Kingdom just after 9 and got our first indication that the park was going to be crazy – there was a very long wait for back check and we just got to Tusker House in time for our 9:25 reservation.
Overall the food was good – fresh and a very good selection. The characters took longer to come around then what I remember from other character breakfasts but it wasn’t a bad wait. I would go there with the kids again.
After breakfast we abandoned the park because the lines were already crazy.
After a few minutes back at the hotel we decided to try Blizzard Beach – it was the first day of the trip where it was warm enough to actually go to a water park and we wanted to hit Blizzard Beach at least once while we were there. Every time we have gone in the past Blizzard Beach has been closed for winter reno and we have gone to Typhoon Lagoon instead – this year we lucked out and they were switched.
We got to and in the water park at around 12:45 but surprisingly they hadn’t opened until 12:30 (was supposed to be 10). I’m not sure what the issue was but it did mean the park wasn’t that crowded and we were hit everything without too much of a wait.
In the end we did every slide and kids’ area except for the Downhill Double Dipper as it was closed for some repairs. Several of the slides we did more than once. It was a lot of fun and I think in the end we enjoyed it more than Typhoon Lagoon.
We left the park around 4:45 (after stopping at the med station to get a bandage for scraped toe) – we then waited for a bus until 5:30. That was a just plain irritating frankly. And then to make it worse the bus got stopped by some kind of weird traffic jam on the way back to the hotel – we sat on one of the roads for pretty long time. Once we got going though there were many cheers through the bus!
The bus stopped at French Quarter first and after a quick discussion with Heather, I decided to get off there and run to the hotel room while she continued on the bus with the kids. We would then meet up back at the room. I have been trying to run every day as part of a challenge to run every day of 2016 and I hadn’t run in the morning so I needed to get that run done. So I hopped off and met up with everyone after a couple miles of running.
After that we had supper at the resort and did a bit of shopping through the general store there.
Later I took our son to the arcade for a little while (whoops – found out later he had lost his resort mug there).
Then we went back to the room to crash and have a relatively early night for a change.
Feb 13th
I got up and out for a run at around 9 and man, were my legs ever beat up after the day at the water park the day before. Ouch. The run was fairly slow due to a lot of extra traffic at the resort.
When I got back to the room our daughter was up and all dressed wanting to come run with me – so back out we went and did a little tour while having some daddy-daughter time.
After a quick cleanup we all went and had breakfast before coming back to the room to get changed to do some more swimming. The main pool at the Riverside was closed for reno while we were there and we decided to go try the French Quarter pool today.
So we walked over to the French Quarter (there is a shuttle as well but we decided to walk down) and spent a few hours there swimming and the kids enjoyed the slide and doing a bunch of the pool side trivia games, etc.
They were in the process of building a new splash pad area at the FQ pool when we were there and it is probably open by now. They were also in the process of putting extra gates around the pool (I suspect to ensure that only hotel guests are coming into the pool areas such as what was done at Art of Animation).
We also took a few minutes to let the kids run around on the play structure before we caught the golf cart shuttle back to the Riverside.
We decided to head to Hollywood Studios to see if we could get into Fantasmic that night as well as see Symphony in the Stars. On the way to the bus stop we stopped and talked to the Disney Vacation Club guy there and decided we should probably just do a tour. We go frequently enough and with how we vacation at Disney it would probably make some sense for us to get into DVC. Granted the Canadian dollar was fairly awful at that point but we figured if we did the tour and got the info we would be in a better place to make a decision once the dollar gets better. So we booked an appointment for the next morning.
Then off to Hollywood Studios! Very busy there as well so we didn’t end up getting on any rides but we did manage to get into SciFi Dinner for supper. The last time we were there our son had gotten a bit freaked out by some of the movie shorts they had been playing and he really didn’t want to go this time but they had changed just enough of the movies that he had a blast.
After supper we did a wander around the Launch Bay Hanger to get a look at all the Star Wars merchandise – it would be easy to lose a fortune in there…
We watched Symphony in the Stars right in front of the Great Movie Ride – it was a beautiful thing. Fantastic fireworks but the power of the music was great.
We went then to see if we could get into Club Disney that I had heard about a while back but apparently it was no more – that didn’t last long…oh well.
So then we went and got a seat at Fantasmic and had a great time before heading back out of the park to catch the bus to the hotel.
At this point we needed to get some laundry done so I went down to the quiet pool and the laundry facility to see if anything was available. Found out about something I had never heard of before – there is a laundry tracking site for all the laundry rooms at Disney World. You go to the site, pick the hotel and the laundry facility and it will tell you which machines are free and where the active machines are in their cycles (including time to completion). That is a phenomenal thing! Super convenient. www.laundryview.com/disneyworld/
Another late start this morning – this will be the theme for the rest of the trip really.
I was up before everyone else again and went for a run – it was a bit slower going this morning as it is starting to get busier at the hotel for Mardi Gras and the upcoming Presidents’ Day weekend.
The kids woke up around when I got back from the run so we got moving and went and had breakfast / lunch at the hotel.
Today was set to be Magic Kingdom and we were lucky enough to get one of the newer bendy buses almost entirely to ourselves – it was different enough to make the ride to the park a little funner.
Magic Kingdom was fairly busy but we had fast passes later plus it was Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom that night so we weren’t worried that we wouldn’t have fun.
We started with Astro-orbiters which gave a great view of the park and then we hit Stitches’ Great Escape before walking back down Main Street to get to the fast pass viewing area of the Festival Fantasy parade.
We grabbed a pretty good spot there and had fun snapping pictures and interacting with the characters. Our kids got high fives and our daughter got a hand kiss from Donald Duck. Some pictures are below but I will probably add a gallery page at a later time.
After the parade we blasted over to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for our fast passes and we all managed to ride – Heather took some of her travel meds for motion sickness so that she could hopefully ride the ride. Whoohoo! She did it!
We then had a snack on Main Street before ditching the busy park for the hotel for a while.
A few hours later we came back for a fast pass for the Anna and Elsa meet and greet (which seemed a bit rushed – they seemed to move us through much more quickly than we were used to) and then headed over to Be Our Guest for our supper reservation.
Supper at Be Our Guest was very good – great atmosphere (we were in the main ballroom) and we loved watching the fake snow fall outside.
After that we were into Magic Hours and took advantage of the reduced crowds to hit an amazing number of rides:
tea cups
Tomorrowland Speedway
It’s a Small World
Big Thunder Mountain – Heather was able to ride this one too because her motion sickness meds hadn’t worn off yet!
Pirates of the Caribbean
Magic Carpets
Haunted Mansion
Royal Carousel
And then we figured we would end the night with a ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train again – we were able to get on and through the line up fairly quickly (maybe 10 minutes) and when we were done they were still letting people through…so we bolted back through the line and got to ride again! I think we were in the 2nd last train to go through. Whoohoo – Mine Train 3 times in one day! That is pretty rare.
This did make for another late night – back to the room at about 1 am.
Feb 11th
I woke up around 9 again and did a few laps of running around the hotel. It was still a bit cool but the sun was warm and you could tell it was getting warmer.
When I finished the run I checked out the pool and it was set to be very warm. So I ran back to the room and found that our son was up so I got him to grab his swim suit and we went to the pool for a half hour to some daddy-son time.
Heather and our daughter were just getting up when we got back so off to breakfast we went.
We decided on a Downtown Disney / Disney Springs day today so we took the boat down the Sassagoula River to Disney Springs.
We did some wandering around and shopping – a fair number of changes since our last trip and way more to come!
T-Rex was the choice for supper and we went in around 4:45 – always a fun place to eat.
After some more shopping we headed out and took a bus back to the hotel. Unfortunately it stopped at French Quarter first and a huge tour group got on and the bus driver almost didn’t stop at Riverside to drop us off – it took some yelling back and forth over the crowd before he caught on and dropped us off. That could have been quite irritating.
We then hit the pool for an evening swim and grabbed some hot chocolate and snacks before getting to bed quite early compared to other days! Tusker House for breakfast tomorrow so everyone needs to be up bright and early!
Unfortunately our son woke up and got sick around 6 am but at least he got back to sleep after and seemed good the rest of the day after that.
I did not get back to sleep however, so after a bit of trying I decided to get up and go for a run. I did 2 laps of the hotel running path including the out and back past Port Orleans French Quarter. Beautiful morning, if a bit cool.
After my shower, everyone was still asleep so I wandered down to the general store and picked up some milk for the room fridge and some more meds for our son. Everyone was just getting up as I got back from the walk.
We had breakfast / lunch at the hotel in what became a bit of a theme for the trip – late nights and late breakfast.
We found out that Port Orleans Riverside now keeps a breakfast station open in their food court until 11:45 – sweet!
After a short wander around the hotel we grabbed a bus ride to Epcot.
It was weird to see a long wait for Spaceship Earth at around 2 in the afternoon. We skipped that with a promise to the kids that we would get to it before we left – it is one of our favorite rides but we only end up ever doing it as a walk on.
We then did the Finding Nemo ride before going to give Living with the Land a try…but it had a huge line as well!? Strange.
So a quick ice cream and popcorn stop by the fountain and then a quick check of Ellen’s Energy Adventure. But they had just let in a group and the wait was going to be too long before they opened the doors again.
Instead we did a wander of the World Showcase area making sure to hit the 3 Caballeros ride in the Mexico pavilion and also to get pretzels and beer in Germany. We also stopped in the Norway pavilion to grab some of the perfume Heather loves from there.
We also hit the American Adventure show and I hate to admit it but I fell asleep – the beer from Germany and the less than 5 hours sleep caught up to me I guess.
After the show we explored some more and did a quick walk out the International Gateway before coming back into the park and making our way back to Coral Reef for our supper reservations.
We had a short wait once we checked in but it was worth it. We ended up with a table right by the aquarium windows. The kids were ecstatic. The meal was very good as well and we had couple visits from a young boy who politely asked if he could take some pictures at the window to show his friends. It was pretty cool – we saw a few groups of divers in the aquarium during the meal.
After supper we wandered over to do our Test Track Fast Passes, then hit Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land, which were walk ons now.
We then caught the last 75% of Illuminations before getting back on the Finding Nemo ride and one more go on Spaceship Earth.
Then a bus and back to the hotel. Kids probably fell asleep around midnight.
So, I haven’t been as active on this blog as I would like due to other responsibilities but I am at least going to finally start getting up a write up for our family trip to Disney World in Feb 2016.
Look for the write up to come in several installments over the next few days (hopefully).
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Our vacation this year started on Feb 5th with a drive from Winnipeg down to Fargo, ND. We overnighted in Fargo, did some shopping at Scheels and enjoyed the hotel pool. We then headed to Minneapolis on the 6th. We overnighted in Minneapolis for the 6th and the 7th and then hit the flight on the 8th. Minneapolis was pretty much pool time and Mall of American shopping with a stop at a premium outlet mall for some sport gear shopping. (lots of running shoes…)
We could have flown out of Winnipeg but we like doing the drive down to Minneapolis as it allows us to wind down and get in vacation mode before we hit Orlando. Plus, even with the cost of the gas and extra hotel rooms we still end up saving money on the flights.
Our son woke up feeling pretty sick on the morning of the 8th and we ended up giving him some anti-nausea meds before getting on the hotel shuttle to the airport which helped him during the day and seemed to prevent any disasters.
We did end up having some fun getting on our flight – apparently the flight type we had didn’t give us assigned seats and the plane was overbooked…by 8 seats. That was stressful for a bit but we got our seats – right at the back of the plane but that worked pretty well for us.
We landed in Orlando and had a quick bite at the food court before wandering over to the Magical Express check in area. We were directed onto a bus immediately which was nice – there was about 15 minutes or so sitting on the bus before we got going but it wasn’t too bad.
The bus got us to Port Orleans Riverside quickly and we checked in, dumped some stuff in our room and immediately headed to Magic Kingdom. We had thought about just relaxing instead of going to a park but Magic Kingdom was slated to be open until midnight and we figured we would be able to have some fun at least.
We got off the plane in Orlando at 5:25 and were in Magic Kingdom by 8:25 – not too bad for timing – the park was not crowded so we figured we would be able to hit quite a bit of stuff before closing.
First thing we did was go to Pirates of the Caribbean and then Splash Mountain which were both essentially walk ons at that point.
We were getting hungry, so we went to Pecos Bills just as the Electrical Parade was starting and ended up getting a very good vantage point to watch just by the restaurant. Once that had passed we looked at the menu and decided there wasn’t anything we wanted there after all and headed to Pinocchio Haus instead and ate there while sitting and watching people load onto It’s a Small World. We did end up missing Wishes unfortunately.
After supper we went and got on Big Thunder Mountain before heading over to ride Little Mermaid and then back tracking to watch Mickey’s Philharmagic (we tend to jump around a lot at the parks).
The park was getting close to closing so we wandered over to Tomorrowland and rode the People Mover to end the day. But while we were coming to the end of the ride we realized they were still letting people on Space Mountain…could we make it and conquer the Magic Kingdom mountain range in one night?
We got off People Mover and sprinted to the entrance – 2 people got in behind us before they stopped letting people in. Did it! Mountain range conquered! Well, for 3 of us at least – Heather can get motion sickness and didn’t ride Big Thunder or Space Mountain.
At this point the park was closed so we did the wander out, got a photopass picture or 2 and watched the Kiss Goodnight before making our way to the buses.
That was a productive 4 hours in the parks! And to think we almost didn’t go.
The theme of being up earlier than the rest of the family continues. Another quick run in the Boardwalk area this morning. The weather was a bit cooler and there were definitely fewer people out and about so I pushed it a bit faster. It felt good after several days of walking at a constantly changing pace to be able to just get out and move. I regretted not continuing longer after I got back to the room and the kids were still asleep! I could have kept going without feeling guilty. Oh well.
Breakfast in the club room again and then we walked to Hollywood Studios. Even at a nice leisurely pace and we beyond beat the ferry boat. Usually the boat versus walking is close but for some reason the boats were very slow that morning.
We started with a short standby line for Star Tours and then wandered over and I did standby line with T for Rockin’ Rollercoaster (this was a first time for both of us). T loved it.
T waiting for Rockin’ Rollercoaster
We then did our fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania after a quick pretzel (and beer for me) snack.
We decided to try the Pirates of the Caribbean show and T and K were picked to be the audience members who held up the skeleton key at the start of the show. They enjoyed that and the show was pretty cool.
Then time for lunch at the ABC Commissary before doing a fast pass for Star Tours.
We checked several times during the day to see if we could get K on Tower of Terror but wait times were too long and we were out of fast passes for the day. So we did not get her on the ride but we still did lots of other fun things.
Decided to let T build a double bladed light saber (blue and red) as his treat to match up with K’s new Anna dress and then we walked back to the hotel.
After a quick snack in the Club room and I hung out in the room with the kids while Heather did some laundry while soaking in the hot tub by the quiet pool.
K relaxing
During this I decided we should do a bit of a special supper so I made 8 pm reservations for Akershus Royal Banquet Hall to have dinner with the Disney Princesses. K dressed as Anna from Frozen and was extremely excited to show off the dress to the Princesses.
So T wouldn’t feel too left out we picked him up a foam sword and shield on the way, similar to what I had grabbed as part of my half marathon running costume in January (see http://biggoofyrunner.com for more details on that).
We were greeted by Belle at the entrance and then saw Snow White, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (Little Mermaid) and of course Cinderella.
It was late magic hours at Epcot that night so after supper we did test track through the standby line – very close to end of magic hours and park closing at that point.
We started walk toward the Nemo ride but hit the Character Spot on the way to see if Mickey, Minnie and Goofy were still taking pictures – they were and we were the last family of the day. The characters were playing around and in the end the PhotoPass photographers got over 90 pictures with us and the characters – some even with all three characters together with us. That stop alone paid for the Memory Maker + we had pre-purchase. We were certainly glad we had it at that point!
And we still managed to get on Nemo and then walked back to the hotel through a mostly deserted Epcot. I had my DSLR with me and managed to get some cool photos on the way. Some examples are below – I will be adding a gallery on the site with more later as I get some time to process them.
Feb 8th – cool and rainy
We still had some laundry that needed extra drying from the night before so I took it over to the laundry facility early in the morning (while everyone else was sleeping, again). I had some issues with one of the dryers eating my coins which was unusual for Disney. While things were drying I got in a bit of longer run. I ended up having to dry a few things a bit longer and could have run further but the hot tub was right there by the laundry area so I decided that would be more productive instead. I sat in the hot tub for about 20 minutes in a light rain. Very peaceful.
We decided on Animal Kingdom to start the day again and hit the club room for a fast snack and then hit the bus to Animal Kingdom. Fast pass to Everest in the rain – makes for a different experience. There was only a light rain when we got in the cue – but when the ride started it was coming down pretty darned good! Second time in one trip I was getting high speed rain in the face. It was pretty funny. I don’t think the kids liked it by I laughed. Was still fun.
We had fast pass for Nemo musical next but had a wait so we hit Primeval Whirl (T and I) as a walk up, Triceratops Spin (all 4 of us), and then dinosaur dig play area. Then got in line for Nemo – Nemo was a first for all 4 of us – very cool.
Then had fast pass for Dinosaur but a bit of a wait yet – the rain picked up and we got a bit wet as we were waiting. Unfortunately it looks like the standby time clock was way out from what I could tell (said 20 minutes but looked like a walk on). We could have skipped our fast pass and just rode and not got as wet. Oh well – did the ride, had fun and then headed over to Asia for lunch.
Hit the quick serve food place near Yak and Yeti and found a mostly dry spot to eat. Rice seemed like a nice treat after many days of fries.
Then headed to the safari ride and it was basically a walk up as well – lions were very active in the rain – took many pictures – looks like some turned out pretty nice.
Then, back to the hotel for a quick snack and hit the hot tub.
On to Magic Kingdom probably around 6 pm and hopped on the steam train and rode around to the Fantasyland Station and tried to get on Barnstormer but it was not running so we got on Dumbo instead.
After that we wandered over to Tomorrowland and rode the speedway. K and I got a car with busted steering and they let us go a second time while Heather and T waited in the spectator / fan bleachers.
Decided to checked to see about Space Mountain but the line was too long, so we looked at Space Ranger spin, also too long, so we looked at People Mover…and it had a line? I have never seen a line for the People Mover? Very odd – we left Tomorrowland and went to Adventure Land instead.
Did the Jungle Cruise (T and K sat up front by the driver and participated, a lot), then did Tiki Room (saw 3 different families get up and leave during the show – never seen that before).
Next we rode Magic Carpets. The family in front of us wins the award for the worst ride load we have ever seen – they were supposed to go in car 9 but went to 12 instead and yelled at their kids when they tried to go to the right one. They wouldn’t move for the family that were supposed to go in that carpet – Heather let that family know which car was free because of the mix up and they took that one. The mixed up family also loaded with adults on the inside instead of the outside and were on the verge of arguing with the Cast Member who was helping to sort them out. All around pretty rough. And this was NOT a language barrier issue.
After Magic Carpets we went on Pirates as a walk on and got first row (both times through this trip has been front row which is cool).
We then ate at Pecos Bill’s and then went to head over to check out Big Thunder Mountain. As we were leaving the restaurant we saw that Electrical Parade was on and was just passing by the restaurant – we were able to grab a spot right near where the floats go back stage and saw the full parade from there. The kids were happy to see everything and wave at the characters. With the constant waving to the crowd that the Cast Members do K was sure that Alice and Cinderella and others had seen her waving and had waved back to her personally – very cute.
Once the parade was over we headed off to Big Thunder – there was a bit of a wait but not too horrible. T, K and myself were put in one car and we went for the ride while Wishes was going on. It was misty with low lying clouds so couldn’t see most of the fireworks but we could see several that were launched from closer to Cinderella’s Castle, so that was cool.
After that we wandered over toward Barnstormer again and did the Ariel ride and met Ariel in her grotto along the way.
At Barnstormer T got his own seat and I sat with K.
Then we headed into the Speedway again and this time I was with T. We then went and did Space Mountain (only about 15 minutes wait).
After Space Mountain we did Space Ranger spin and started heading for the exit, stopping for a few pics along the way.
There was a bus waiting for us when we got to the cue and we left shortly after getting a seat – bus pulled out at 12:42 am.
Both kids fell asleep on the ride to the hotel (go figure) – K laying against Heather and T sitting up with me hold his head in my hands so he wouldn’t fall over.
Quick wander up to the room and then to bed.
Sunday Feb 9th – last full day and it is a bit warmer and no rain!
At Epcot we did a tour of the countries and all the kidcot stations – we hit all stations but did no rides besides Living with the Land. We had lunch at The Land and during our wandering tour the kids got to test out the new beaker drinks called Doofenslurpers.
They are a blue raspberry slush drink in a large beaker cup with Doofenshmirtz on it. Kids loved them and we brought the cups home with us so I can only imagine what kinds of concoctions we will have to think up to put in them.
Then it was time for a bit of a slight rest at the room and then hit the pool for a while. On the way we were able to roast marshmallows on the beach so the kids had a nice treat. Once we got in the pool I was quite cold and was shivering quickly (the kids and Heather were fine but I think I got more heat on my shaved head that day than I thought and I really felt the sun setting pretty quickly), so I hit the hot tub near the pool and watched the kids play from there.
After a while we went back to the room and got changed before heading out to the Boardwalk to grab a pizza. Coming down the bridge over the canal the Friendship boats use to get to Epcot, K was power skipping at full tilt and tripped. She ended up with a pretty good goose egg and a bit of shiner out of it in the end too. Nothing serious but it obviously hurt and with how tired she was she kept starting to cry again after we would get her calmed down. We got some children’s Advil for her from the store on the Boardwalk and she was back to herself before too long. We also got some ice to put on it when we got our pizza from the pizza window on the Boardwalk which helped as well.
By the time we were done the pizza she was primed and ready to go see the Princesses in Magic Kingdom.
Everything seemed to be ok so we continued on – went through Epcot and saw some of Illuminations on our walk through to the monorail to Magic Kingdom.
Quickly into Magic Kingdom probably around 9:30 pm or so (magic hours to 1 am that night). We decided to go to Town Hall to confirm if we had one more day of tickets for the kids or not in case we wanted to do something in the morning. Plus we wanted to confirm the times for the Disney Princess greeting areas. We got a very cool cast member who confirmed everything and then gave us fast passes to see both pairs of Princesses and one for Space Ranger Spin for T. Very cool.
Wandered over to watch Wishes and after that made our way to see the Princesses. Rapunzel and Snow White first and then Cinderella and Aurora second. Fast Passes for these were awesome – really makes the little princess feel special coming out of a side entrance and walking through to the meet and greet areas while a whole line of people are waiting in the standby line. Almost makes the girl feel like everyone is waiting to see them. It was kinda neat.
After that we tried to pull out Excalibur (which we had never tried before) – it did not work.
We then went on the Carousel before wandering to Tomorrow Land.
Some of the rides still had longer waits in Tomorrow Land so we did our Space Ranger Spin fast pass (which we really did not need as the ride was a walk on and the fast pass cue path was longer than the shortened standby line cue path).
Did our ride and then decided to try one more thing before we left. We decided on Space Mountain which had a 20 minute wait but before we got there we saw a horde of cheer leaders and a bunch of others hit the line so we decided to try something else.
Decided on Laugh Floor – we got seated in the center along an aisle (or at least the kids did) and T ended up getting called on to be talked to by one of the monsters. After a bit K couldn’t contain herself and leaned into the picture and the show took a different turn after that. K wouldn’t speak but just did the craziest monster faces she could, just to see what they would look like on the big screen. Got a bunch of laughs from the crowd and gave the monster a bunch of material to work with like “did she get some evil candy?” and said that he was a bit scared of her. They both thought the whole thing was hilarious and the crowd seemed to enjoy it so that was good.
After that we wandered out to the busses – there was one waiting but we were able to get some seats for T and K (a man popped up quickly to let T sit – very nice) but Heather and I had to stand a bit away. Kids were good but K ended up falling asleep so at the Yacht Club a woman let Heather sit beside her to hold onto her for the remainder of the drive to the Beach Club. K woke up when we got there and we wandered to the club room for a quick snack and then headed to the room. Got off the bus at 12:20 am.
We let the kids watch a show while we did a bunch of packing and organizing and then got them off to sleep and we followed an hour or so later once we were organized.
Monday Feb 10th – check out day
I was up around 7:30 with everyone else sleeping – had a shower and got dressed, etc.
Did a bit of work on the computer and called the resort / airline baggage number to pay for our baggage and about 20 minutes later our luggage tags and boarding passes showed up under our door.
We finished getting ready and took the bags down to the baggage drop off area – quick and smooth.
Then back up to the Club room for a final snack and headed out. Inez (spelling?) had a little care package for Heather (some danishes and muffins).
Wandered downstairs and sat in the lobby for a couple minutes to get the final bit of ambiance and then headed out and sat outside for a few more minutes before the bus came. Bus had one more stop after ours and then we were off to the airport. We did a wander and had a quick lunch before heading through security. Security was quick – only delay was that I forgot to take out my laptop and they had to scan my carryon bag a second time.
Then on to our gate and got on to the plane fairly quickly – a small horde of cheerleaders got on too but they were quite subdued. Nice smooth flight and got off the plane in Minneapolis and grabbed our bags quickly with no hassle – bags were almost already waiting for us since we were in the back end of the plane.
After we got our bags we headed over to the hotel shuttle area and called the hotel. Shuttle was there in around 10 minutes and driver was very courteous and we went straight to the hotel. Once we were checked in we went to TGI Fridays for supper and after moving some stuff around in the van we wandered over to the Mall for some (more) shopping.
A few things were bought at the Disney Store and I picked up a flip phone case for my phone – had to get Best Buy to price match their own website? What the heck is that? Then went back to the hotel to watch some shows before bed.
Kids went to bed and Heather and I made sure everything was good to go and then went to bed too.
Tuesday Feb 11th
Organized a bunch of stuff and got some things out to the van.
Then we went to IHOP for breakfast – finished loading the van and off we went.
Next was a stop in Albertville Premium Outlet mall for some kids clothes and a major cash drop at the Nike store. Both Heather and I got a bunch of stuff and the kids also go some clothes items. Some very deep discounts on shoes – Heather got 2 pair and I got 4 – I also picked up a winter running jacket that retails for $300 in Canada for $105 – awesome!
Then got gas and some snacks and headed on.
There was some heavy blowing snow just around Fargo – we planned to stop there for lunch / early supper but K was asleep so we decided to keep going to Grand Forks instead. K woke up 5 minutes after we passed Fargo but we kept going anyway and the weather cleared up.
In Grand Forks we had supper at Ruby Tuesdays and then did a quick stop at the beer store and a craft store before getting gas and hitting the road. We were at the Canadian border by 9 pm and home around 10.
We let the kids play for a few minutes while we unpacked some stuff and got organized a bit and then got them to bed.
I woke up way earlier than Heather and the kids so I decided to suit up and go for a run on the Boardwalk. It was very foggy and pretty hot and humid already – ended up being a pretty warm day all around. I did 4 laps around the Beach Club / Yacht Club / Boardwalk area – the official running path maps say each lap is 0.8 miles but my running GPS app on my Samsung Galaxy S4 says each lap is a bit longer than that. Took it nice and easy and just enjoyed the peace and quiet.
fog at the Beach Club
After everyone else got up we went and had breakfast at Stone Harbour lounge (also known as the Club room or the Concierge lounge) that we had access to being on Club Level. Nice selection of pastries, hard boiled eggs, cereals (hot and cold) and juices, coffees and milk. Not a heavy breakfast but all you need to get a good start on the parks for the day!
We headed off to Epcot to sort out some issues with our tickets – for some reason Heather’s and my annual passes were not linking to the bands properly for the park readers – all the computers said it was ok but the readers would have none of it. We got things sorted out and got into the part about a half hour later than we intended but got complimentary passes for the kids for the day which was nice.
Tried to walk on Soarin’ but wait was too long – so we fast passed it with the app and got a spot about 45 minutes out! That worked!
We went on Living with the Land and Nemo to pass the time until the fast pass came up. We also tried Turtle Talk with Crush but we waited for 10 minutes and they told us it would be another 10 so we headed out and did our fast pass for Soarin’. It was a first ride for Heather and K and a second for T and I.
After that we did Journey into Imagination with Figment, Mission Space, Ellen’s Energy Adventure, skipped Test track because the wait was too long, Space Ship Earth, Club Cool ( this was the kids first time trying any of the drinks – they were not fans of Beverly), Three Caballeros and then tried Maelstrom but it was too long a wait. Hit lots of things!
We then headed back out the World Gateway and walked back to the room.
After a quick lunch / snack in the Club room we had a few hours swim at Storm Along Bay and then hit the snack room for supper.
At this point we decided Magic Kingdom for the evening – hit the bus and then the park about 7 pm.
We managed to do multiple rides here including Pirates of the Caribbean, we looked at Big Thunder but it was too long a wait, Haunted Mansion, watched fireworks near Pinocchio Haus restaurant (fantastic spot – everything lights up and you feel like you are in the middle of everything as it is happening – very cool), Small World, the Carousel, Tea Cups, Space Ranger Spin, Space Mountain (first for me, T and K – Heather did not ride), and then finished with Stitches Great Escape (first again for all of 4 us). By this point the park was closed and we wandered out to the buses.
We missed a bus just as we were coming up to the cue but another came very quickly and had a quick ride back to the hotel.
We were able to grab supper from the Market Place at the Beach Club right before it closed at 11 pm and ate outside as it was still very nice out.
Wednesday Feb 5th – hot again!
Once again I was up way earlier than everyone else (bit of a theme here) so I went for a run on the Boardwalk again – it was a bit cooler and less humidity which was very nice as I could actually see the scenery. I forgot my headphones on the run but it was still nice and peaceful despite the leaf blowers.
Beautiful morning at the Beach Club
Once everyone else got moving we had breakfast at the Club room again – and once again it worked well for to get us moving quickly without having to drop a small fortune on a too big of a breakfast.
The forecasts showed this likely to be the hottest day of our trip so we made the call to head to Typhoon Lagoon – we were a touch concerned when we got off the bus and saw hoards of teenage girl tour group folks.
Saw lots of these tour groups through the week – appeared to South American Quinceañera or Quince tours. Later in the week there were several cheerleader crews to contend with. They were all well behaved and not rowdy or crazy, but as they traveled in packs if they got in line before you at a ride, what was a 5 minute wait turned into a half hour very quickly. Basically at Typhoon Lagoon we had to move around the park staying ahead of them – if we saw them coming we would head to a different area of the park and when we saw them stop for lunch we hit as many slides / rides as we could before they came back out.
So we started with the lazy river for a while and then did Humunga Cowabunga with T (his first time). We then tried the storm slides but only got one run before being overrun by the hoard, so went and did the tamest (blue rafts) raft ride and then were overrun again, so we did the family raft and then headed to the main wave pool for a short bit.
Decided on some lunch at this point and we had some confusion on what we ordered but was ok in the end – they missed one kids meal (they hadn’t charged us for is so it not like we were short changed or anything like that but we didn’t want to go through the line again to order one more meal) but still gave us the fries, the grapes and the drink, and bucket – so we got enough food and shared everything around instead of going and paying for another kids meal. We still had plenty of each of us.
We then dodged the hoard and got on Crushin’ Gusher (first for T) – and did several runs of that with either me or Heather with T. Went back to storm slides and got a couple more runs of the slides and the Humunga Cowabunga (T did go one more time too and then Heather went with him for her first time (she had some delays as she built up her courage for it)).
Since K was missing out on several rides since she isn’t tall enough yet we decided to give her some time in the kids play area then headed out and got mini donuts and popcorn for a snack.
We then got back in the wave pool and did some bobbing waves before heading out.
Several firsts today! The kids on the Storm Slides, Heather and T on the Humunga Cowabunga, and T on Crushin’ Gusher. Very cool.
We then got changed and headed out to catch a bus back to the hotel and had about a 25 minute wait for a bus but it went directly back to the hotels on the loop and did not have to hit Downtown Disney first.
After a quick stop in the hotel room and a snack in the Club room we headed to Downtown Disney. We had intended to hit T-Rex for supper but the wait was just too long.
In the end we went to Planet Hollywood which we got into in around 30 minutes or so. We had never eaten there before so it was a first for all 4 of us – enjoyed it. The kids really liked the décor and pointing out things they were seeing on the wall.
Then it was shopping time. K and I built our own droids and T got some Lego figurines.
Then back to the hotel to sleep, sleep, sleep.
Thursday Feb 6th – bit cooler today and some light rain
I did not run this morning – I decided to sleep in a bit later to rest and recover.
Once again we had breakfast in the Club room and then headed straight to Animal Kingdom. K was wearing Anna dress from Frozen and got many compliments from cast members and other little girls. She enjoyed that, a lot.
We had a fast past for Expedition Everest – Heather did not ride but T and K sat together and I was right behind them. In all the trips we have had this was a first for all three of us – granted this is the first year K has been tall enough. K was pumped to do this ride as she wanted to see the yeti. Chants of “Yeti, Yeti, Yeti” proceeded us through the park on our way to the ride. In the end I think T enjoyed it the most but K liked it too and said she would do it again even though she was frightened in the dark areas.
We then wandered over to Kali River Rapids – we had a fast past for a while later but it was a walk up so we did it. It was a first time for all 4 of us and we only got a bit wet. Slowly dried off as we headed towards Kilimanjaro Safari ride but it had a half hour wait and we had a fast pass for later in the day so we decided to do lunch instead.
Rain Forest Café for lunch – only about a 15 minute wait to be seated and lunch went smoothly. No Blue Moon beer though as they are switching away from it. Very disappointed there.
Then back out in the park and went to the Safari ride and it listed a 10 minute wait and our fast pass still was about 15 minutes out so we did the standby line – it was basically a walk on. Animals were very active though which was super cool – hippos were out of the water (one came out just to relieve itself just as the truck went by before going back in the water – gave everyone on the truck a bit of chuckle) , the lions were awake, rhinos were walking around and the giraffes were close to the truck.
After that we went to the bird show which was just starting as we went by – the kids absolutely loved it.
Waiting for the bird show to begin
We then went back to Kali River Rapids as it was still a walk on – since it was raining at this point we figured that if we got wet it was not that big a deal – T got absolutely soaked. K got pretty wet as well (her Anna dress was drenched) but we all got wet. We were able to short cut back through for another ride as there was no wait. Since we were already drenched, why not go again? We ended up with our own family raft for the four of us and we didn’t end up getting too much more wet.
By this point the kids were getting chilled so we found a sweater for K at the Everest store and yeti plushes for the kids. T was still freezing and we still had to find him a sweater. Eventually found something at the main store on Discovery Island that he liked and started getting him warmed up.
We then headed out to the buses and there was one waiting when we got to the bus stop – straight to the Yacht and Beach. Whoohoo – although we apologized to the bus driver for the puddles where we were sitting.
To warm up the kids quickly we put them in a hot bath while Heather and I had an adult beverage from the Club room to warm up after we got changed.
Now we kids dressed warmer and headed into Epcot after a quick supper/snack in the Club room.
We went straight to Test Track and got on in the standby line after 30-40 minutes – rain was causing the ride to shut down occasionally but it went fairly smoothly. I have never done Test Track in the rain – it is a different sensation on the outside portion of the ride with the rain lightly falling and hitting your face at 60 mph. It doesn’t help when I am in the front row my head goes over the windscreen. Some of the interior parts of the ride seemed slower than normal – I suspect that was deliberate as they would have been worried about wet tires on some of the sharp corners. Still fun though.
We also did Spaceship Earth at the request of the kids, not sure why this is one of their favorites but I like that it is. The kids also like to ride this one together so it is one of the few rides Heather and I get to sit together on.
Headed out to the entrance to World Showcase and caught Illuminations (which T directed using the Force) – and got a bit of a reminder about all cultures being different.
There was a man standing on the edge of one of the planters / seating areas filming the show and K got up to stand too close to him and I was afraid she would bump him and cause either or both of them to fall. So I got her to move, seconds later an oriental family came up and planted their kids there and let them go wild while they had an extremely loud discussion about a wheelchair. Not sure what was going on but you could tell the man filming was getting a bit upset as he kept getting bumped and the adults were not supervising the children. Plus T’s view was partially blocked. Maybe it’s my size but I am always conscious of where I am, who is around me and if I am in someone’s way, etc but I am always surprised when I see people who don’t offer the same courtesy to others.
That family left part way through Illuminations and the man’s wife got up beside him to provide a buffer and T had an easier time seeing the rest of the show.
After that was over we headed back to the hotel and stopped to pick up ice cream to eat in the room. Then off to bed.
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.
T in the cockpitK in the cockpit
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.
K on the Magical Express
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.
Illuminations
Another busy travel day but we still got lots of stuff done even with getting to the hotel later in the afternoon.
So as highlighted on biggoofyrunner.com, my wife and I will be doing a couple only trip to Disney World in January 2014. We will be participating in the Disney World Marathon weekend (we are both signed up to the Goofy Challenge) and as we will both be running we are not bringing the kids with us. We decided when we when we booked it we would do that trip as inexpensively as possible while still staying on Disney property. This led us to booking the Pop Century resort for the 5 nights we will be there – by booking a Disney hotel we are getting the Magical Express which will make it a lot simpler and faster to get to the hotel from the airport (also makes the heading home day a bit less stressful).
When we booked the trip we intended to not buy any tickets and just enjoy non park Disney stuff during this trip as we weren’t bringing the kids. We are both annual passholders but my ticket expires before we get there and my wife’s expires the 2nd day of our trip. As we didn’t intend to have a family vacation with the kids to Disney World this winter (due to putting in a pool this past summer) we figured we wouldn’t renew our passes and then on our trip if we couldn’t take not going to a park we would buy a day pass each and just go with that to get our fix.
That was our plan back in September at least. As time progressed I think we both started feeling guilty about not taking the kids on the Disney World Marathon weekend trip, plus we were both starting to look at Disney stuff as we were getting ourselves pumped for the race trip and frankly I know I wasn’t very good at hiding what I was looking at from the kids.
So long story short we were randomly looking around at flight prices on Expedia and hotel deals on Disney.com and we found some surprising deals that we thought we might be able to deal with financially. In the end we found flights out of Minneapolis (we will have to drive there from Winnipeg but even with gas, food and hotel rooms for the drive there and back we will save well over $1000). We have done the drive to Minneapolis before as part of our Winter 2013 family trip to Disney World and the kids did really well – we do have to watch for winter storms coming in but with the timing of the trip we can adjust our driving day going down by a day or 2 and beat the storms.
We are doing the Pop Century as part of the Disney World Marathon trip for my wife and I – we have stayed there before and we found it tight when we were there with just our son – now with 2 kids we are worried about it being too crowded. Plus the double beds at the Pop are a bit small for me (at 6′ 2″ 218 pounds with wide shoulders I can use a double myself if I am greedy). So we wanted to bump up to a moderate to get bigger beds and maybe a bit more room – we really were hoping for French Quarter but that didn’t work out with our travel times. We looked a few of the other moderates online to see what would work and in the end we admitted to ourselves that we have been spoiled our last few trips to Disney World with the family. We have done our last 2 family trips to Disney World at the Beach Club Resort and we love it there. A huge part of the draw is the ability to walk right into Epcot and have a short walk to Hollywood Studios (plus the kids love the pool area).
Once we made that admission to ourselves it didn’t take too much to convince ourselves that the club level jump in cost wasn’t too bad considering we know how much we have used the club room (Stone Harbour Club) in the past when we got a bump to club level. We used it for all breakfasts, snacks, travel cokes and waters and beers for the room – with the discounted room rates this was a cost win bumping to club for the trip.
Yeah…so we went from saying no trip so that we could rebuild our reserves to doing a week club level at the Beach Club…I think we may be very slightly addicted to Disney World.
