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Pre trip planning
cast of characters:
Grace (me) 5th trip
Steve (DH) 5th trip
Vincent 5 turning 6, 4th trip
We have made four trips in the last 2 years, with one more coming up in December before we take a breather. The challenge this trip is to find some new things to do, do some old favorites, and somehow, shift out of commando mode (somehow, I'm always in it...). Also, Vince turns six this trip, so looking for some birthday magic.
As a pin-carrying member of The Mouse For less, here are my money saving strategies for this trip:
$150 in GCS for Marriott, will be staying at Fairfield Inn first 2 nights to use them.
$50 in GCS for RFC, plus Safari club certificate
$213 in webcertificate money on a MC debit card
$89 rate at Coronado Springs for our last 5 nights
$15 from Red Lobster from their ill-fated online club
$10 from Hard Rock Cafe for signing up for their
membership club
***Just heard yesterday about the special for AP
holders on the water parks. We'll
definitely take advantage!!***
Priceline rental car--Budget, $13/day, economy
We already have Disney APs, Universal seasonal passes,
and Vince has a Sea World AP,
since it was cheaper than buying him 2 days of
admissions!
Tues: leave home 4:10 a.m., fly from Bloomington 6:10, arrive MCO 11:05. Get rental car, check in to FFI, lunch at Bennigan's. Go to MK, pick up birthday button at Guest relations, buy waterpark passes.
Wed.: Sea World, PS BOMA for dinner
Thurs: check in to CS, Blizzard Beach (our first time), PS Rose & Crown or Cape
May.
Fri. (Vincent's birthday): EE Epcot, Character bkfst Garden Grill, maybe rent water mice, dinner PS Crystal Palace (his choice for birthday dinner)
Sat. IOA/Universal, Merry Mystery kids' dinner theater
Sun. EE MGM, lunch PS RFC, afternoon AK
Mon. open-- maybe return to IOA/Univ or waterpark or Fantasmic dinner package (Hwd & Vine)
Tues. PS for breakfast at Kona Cafe, PS for late lunch at 50s diner, flight leaves 8 p.m. MCO.
I'd like to try the campfire sometime on this trip also.
Day 1, Tues. May 1
Well, I was awake by 2 a.m. (alarm set to 3:30) & Vince was up by 2:45, so we even had time to eat breakfast before we left. We were out of the house by about 3:50 (25 min. ahead of schedule). My first hidden Mickeys of the trip: a speed limit sign with orange warning flags in each upper corner. No problems with any of the flights (Airtran, connecting through Atlanta). We reached Orlando about 11:20 a.m. We had rented a car through Priceline & got Budget. There was a very long line, which took Steve about 35 minutes to get through. When he got to an agent, he found out that there was no key for us, so we had to wait another 15 min. before they brought the keys in. We were pretty hungry, since we hadn't eaten since 3 a.m., so we went to Bennigan's for lunch (I had a $35 voucher). We had the southwest appetizer plate, chicken salad, fajitas, kid's hot dog meal & drinks and the voucher just covered it. We went right across the street to the new Fairfield Inn in the Marriott's complex at Lake Buena Vista-- our first two nights would be here, paid for by Freeride. The room was fine; there was a nice little fridge. Vince took a nap. We got to MK about 4 p.m., rode the ferry over since we hadn't done that for a couple of trips. We split up, and I went to Guest relations to get a birthday button, while the guys went to Tomorrowland. I was so quick that we met up before they had time to do anything. We grabbed a FP for Buzz, then rode TTA-- as we were going through SM, we saw NO LINE, so as we got off, we went over there and rode it. The guys did a couple of pin trades-- Steve traded for a Pirate Mickey which I was very jealous of... By then it was time for our Buzz FPs, so we rode it, then walked to Toontown. We hopped on the train (first time for all of us), and rode all the way around. I saw an alligator in the river, that was sort of neat. After we got out back in Toontown, Vince checked out Donald's boat, but there was no water (because of the drought?), which we greatly appreciated! The weather & crowds were perfect! We went through Mickey & Minnie's houses, but didn't wait to see them, then rode Barnstormer and headed toward Fantasyland. Pooh had a 65 minute wait & was out of FP. We rode Snow White (one of Vince's favorites) and IASW. Peter Pan had a huge line, so we skipped it & went to Haunted Mansion. As we walked toward the entrance there was NO ONE else in line. Vince got a little nervous..."Are we the only ones here? I WON'T GO if we're the only ones..." Fortunately we were soon joined by some other folks, so we got to ride it. There are still some parts of this ride that make Vince a little nervous, especially the part where the doors are being pushed open from behind like something's trying to escape. We skipped the mountains on this side of the park because Vince had had enough roller coasters, so we did PoTC and Jungle Cruise. I loved the fog on the river-- don't know if that only happens at certain times, but I didn't notice it again when we did the ride later. By now it was closing time (8 p.m.) and we had done almost everything we wanted to do at MK-- and we hadn't even planned this as a park day. Made a quick stop at Publix for groceries & back to the room.
Day 2, Wed. May 2
Had continental breakfast at the hotel. Today was a Sea World day. Vince has annual pass, Steve & I had free admissions earned through My Points. We started with Kraken & Journey to Atlantis, doing kid swap on both. Vince is tall enough to ride Journey to Atlantis, but rode it once and decided he didn't like getting wet. Both of these are among my favorite rides anywhere! Meanwhile, Vince was spending souvenir money on a stuffed flamingo & moray eel. (We each get $5/day during the trip). (Note: he got 10% off on every purchase he made at park stores & restaurants, plus deals on the food you could buy for the animals because of his annual pass. Likewise at Universal parks, everywhere we went we got discounts from the annual passes. Only Disney is so stingy with its perks!) At 10, when the rest of the park opened, we headed to wild Arctic, which I think is one of the best animal display areas ever constructed! Then on to Terrors of the Deep, followed by lunch. (I forget the name of the place, we had a roast turkey sub, kid's ham & cheese meal, watermelon, giant rice krispy treat, total $16.55--I forgot to ask for the discount!) Then we saw the penguins and fed the sea lions before Clyde & Seamore's show. That is the best animal show-- all the other shows are a total bust compared to Clyde & Seamore! Vince wanted to play at Happy Harbor for a while, so we did that for 40 min. or so, then caught the Pseudorca show (used to be dolphins, I guess they moved them to Discovery Cove). That wasn't much-- only a 12 minute show. We bought some fish & fed the dolphins (one of them flipped us with his tail & Vince & I got soaked). We visited the stingray pool and the coral reef exhibit, then went to Cirque de la Mer. At that point it was about 4:30 & we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest & swim before dinner. I always enjoy getting to interact (feed & touch) the different animals at Sea World-- it's a unique experience! Back at the hotel, we went swimming, met a nice fellow from Connecticut & Vince got to playing with a little boy from Scotland. After a nice break, we cleaned up for our trip to Boma! It was great getting to see AKL, there were many aspects of it that were done very well. The meal was our best meal of the trip! Steve & I love trying new foods, and we tried a bit of almost everything. Both of us fell in love with the saffron rice. The oxtail soup was also good (watch out for bones, though), and we enjoyed the lamb meatballs and curry pasta salad (well, I enjoyed all the salads & all the vegetable dishes!) Even the lemonade was better than usual! The desserts were great also (our waiter told us there were 16 different kinds; we only tried about 8 each!). Total: 51.76 + tip. We were going to try to do Fantasmic, but by 8, when we got to the Studios, we were told that it was SRO, so we went to the last showing of Millionaire instead. We had not seen it before, so were quite taken by the faithful reproduction of the TV show. Unfortunately, the evening ended with my chair #1 on the leader board, but no more contestants! That's quite the letdown!
Day 3, Thurs. May 3
Got up early enough to check out of Fairfield Inn (very nice place, no complaints) and check in to Coronado Springs. We had an AP rate, and I had originally asked for Port Orleans, but the only availability was at CS. Well, CS became my absolute favorite resort; I can't imagine staying anywhere else now. I just fell in love with it! We checked in early; I had requested Building 9B, and they told me I could have a room immediately in one of several other buildings, but I held out for 9B and was glad I had (walks seemed very reasonable from this building). The original plan was to go to Blizzard Beach today, but the highs were predicted for low 80s & good chance of rain, so we changed our plans. This turned out to be the only bad weather day of the trip; the rest of the days were low 80s and sunny! We went to Islands of Adventure, one of our family's favorite parks. Started out with kid swaps on Hulk and Spiderman (both totally awesome rides!), then back to Pteranodon Flyers, where the lines were short enough that they were letting adults ride without kids, so I got to experience this for the first time. It was (to say the least) an ill-conceived ride. 80 seconds long. We stayed in the play area while I rode Jurassic Park. As I came off, Vince came running up. Somehow he had lost Steve & gotten out of the play area, but had found an IOA staff in the Jurassic Park store and had seen me getting off the ride. We had our 2-way radios (they came in very handy every time we split up!), so quickly got back together. While Steve rode, Vince found the water-squirting areas, and before I knew it, he was totally soaked. Because it was time for lunch & I knew he would be cold in the AC of the restaurant, Steve (bless his heart) went all the way back to the parking garage & got him a dry change of clothes (our suitcases were in the car since we were changing hotels that day). Vince & I went to Hard Rock Cafe since I had their card (forget what it was called) with $10 free on it. I had a Tupelo chicken strips appetizer & Vince had the $6.99(!) kids meal hot dog. When we went to pay, turns out the card had $20 instead of $10, so the meal was free except for tip! Good deal! Back in the park, we split up, Steve to ride Dueling dragons, Vince & I to do some Seuss stuff. We were going to go on Cat in the hat, but it closed as we were walking up, so we tried out the Express Pass. Because we have seasonal passes, we get 3 express passes. These are better than FastPass because 1) you can have more than one, and 2) you can choose your return time. We got 1 for Cat in the hat and 1 for One Fish Two Fish, since the line was 25 min. long. We went on the Caro-Seuss-el, and by that time our Express Pass was due for Cat, so we did that. It had started to rain by this time. Vince wanted to play in the playground, so I sat in the little house there (my standard waiting spot) and kept dry. Steve returned, so we put Vincent's wet clothes back on him so he could get wet at this playground. After about 30 min. of playing, we decided to do Dudley do-right. He was already soaking wet but wanted his poncho put on anyway (whatever...) The rain had died down to a sprinkle by this time. Dudley was very fun except that we were in line with a bunch of really rowdy high school kids who were spitting, etc. (The only problem crowds we had this whole week were local school field trip kids, who tended to be quite obnoxious wherever they were). The ride itself was great-- I really love this one, although I've heard a lot of derogatory comments about it by other people. We were also going to ride on the Bilge rat barges, but Vince was about 1" too short (height requirement 48"), so we didn't do it because I didn't want to split up the family. He played on the Olive for a while, then we got and Express Pass for the Flying Unicorn and went to see the Sinbad show, then returned and rode the Unicorn. It was time for the birthday party, and since Vincent's birthday is tomorrow, we decided to go. We put on birthday hats and watched a show with some of the Seuss characters. Everyone got a piece of birthday cake & some of the characters came around for pictures, etc. Vince ended up with a Grinch balloon. I called CS and got our room number, then we went on One Fish Two Fish. By the time we got off the ride, it was raining quite hard. We quickly ran to Cat in the hat and went on it again. It was still pouring as we got out, but we put on our ponchos and left the park. We drove back to CS and unloaded & unpacked. We had PS at Cape May for dinner, drove over there, had a really good meal, but it seemed more expensive. (This was our most expensive meal of the trip, coming in at just over $70 for the 3 of us). This was our third time there, and because of the expense, we decided to probably skip it the next few trips. Because Vince had gotten two outfits wet that day, I decided I needed to do laundry (I had packed one extra outfit, but not two), so I spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and watching the Survivor finale. It continued to rain anyway, so we appreciated the little rest. Vince was very excited about his birthday and was telling us how the Birthday Fairy was going to come and put birthday hats (which we had saved from IoA) out for everyone.
.......to be continued......
Part One, Part Two, Part Three
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