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Trip Planning > Walt Disney World > Trip Reports > NAME- MONTH YEAR
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Revis Family - May 2005 Cast- Me (Karen 33) and DH William, 37Background: I planned this trip in Dec. We had just brought our children on a surprise trip and it was so much fun, I decided to do it for my husband. I bought airline tickets from Delta Song. We had not flown since 1998 because my husband said he was never flying again until the children could all carry their own luggage!~ Everyone knew about this trip except for my husband and children. My husband has his own business and my mother is his secretary, so it was no problem from her to schedule "fake" work for Thursday and Friday. We would be gone Wednesday night- Sunday night. This also was our first trip away from our children EVER! Our oldest is 11. It has always been DH dream to stay at Wilderness Lodge, but with all our kids, who could afford that? So I booked the Wilderness Lodge. Day 1 -Wednesday 5/11 OK, we need to be at the airport at 5pm. I came up with a "little" white lie to get DH home. I told him our daughter was getting a dance award at the Bradley Sheraton Hotel which is CONNECTED to Bradley Airport! My daughter had been there before for dance, so it was not that big of a stretch for him to believe it. I told him to be home by 3 and we were leaving at 4. The plan was to pack and put all the luggage in the car while he was at work. I had not packed before hand because I was afraid he would miss his clothes! So, at 1 I had all the kids down for naps and I started packing. Clothes everywhere, all over the bedroom, 4 pieces of luggage everywhere and list going. I was 85% done at 2. When I look out the window and who do I see but my husband! So I am thinking, OK, he is just picking up something and going back to work. WRONG! He is doing things outside till a welder gets to our house because a piece of equipment broke. I am still OK as long as he is outside. I run inside and quickly throw everything in the bags. At this point I figured if I forgot it, I will just buy it. I hide all the luggage in my boys room. I go back outside and make up a story about our neighbor needing my DH to look at his tree (my husband is a landscaper). So my husband agrees to go down the road and look at it. As soon as he was out of sight, here I am running back and forth between the house and car as fast as I can, throwing bags probably weighing 50 pounds each in the trunk. Then I go to the truck to get my husband's wallet and sunglasses because he does not carry them on himself. Here I am looking to see if he is coming, looking for the wallet, looking to see if he is coming, looking for the wallet. If any of my neighbors were looking, they probably thought I was running away! So, 4 comes and we are all in the car. My daughter knows my secret and is playing it up big time! Wearing a special dress for getting her dance award, doing her hair and putting on make-up. My sister is in the car to "see" her get her award. Really- she is watching the kids and is driving the car back. So, we pull up to the airport and I am trying to read the little writing for departing flights. I see Song (I am driving). I pull over to unloading and my DH starts yelling at me-"you can't park here" "keep going- the police will come". I look at him and start laughing. It was so funny! He had no clue! So I tell him "surprise! I am taking you away for a long weekend". He goes completely pale. He tells me he has a business to run and he cannot go anywhere. We go back and forth for 10 mins. I finally tell him if he doesn't get out of the car- they will call the police! He does so, not willingly. Not because he doesn't want to go- because he is a workaholic and he is going crazy thinking about missing work! At this point he sees the luggage and sees the tags for Magical Express and he knows where we are going and knows he is going to Wilderness Lodge. Our flights is leaving at 6:40. At this point he is not talking me and I am mad because he is mad instead of happy! I get a drink at the pub. And I order him a three drinks total before we left. He finally starts talking to me after an hour. I call my sister at 6:20 to check on the kids and she starts yelling at me- why aren't you on the plane? I said it leaves at 6:40. She says- but it is boarding now! I have no idea about this! I have not been on a plane in so many years! Sure enough- we get to the gate and they are boarding! We get right on no problem. I buy DH two more drinks on the plane and he is good to go anywhere now and is no longer mad. We get in 1/2 hour early and only wait 10 mins to get on our Magical Express bus. We are at WL by 9:30. It is at this point I realize I forgot my DDE card at home. The front desk tells me I can go to EPCOT tomorrow and get a letter. It is 10 and MK is open till midnight with EMH. So we hop a bus there. We walked right on Space and did Splash twice without getting off! We went back to WL and I found out I got the king bed room I requested and it is on the ground floor. Very convenient. Now the bad part- at 2am I still did not have my luggage and I could not go to sleep. I had nothing! I called the front desk multiple times. I was not a happy camper. They finally found my luggage and they told me to eat breakfast wherever I wanted the next morning and to charge it back to the room and they would take it off. Low points- DH mad at me, my luggage being lost till 2am High Points- I really did surprise him and I am at Wilderness Lodge! Day 2 - Thursday 5/12 I am up by 6:30. Less than 4 1/2 hours sleep. We got ready and had breakfast at Whispering Canyon. It was only OK. We ate dinner there last year and we were not impressed. We were waiting for the MK bus by 8am. A bus finally came at 8:25. That is the one really bad thing about WL. The transportation. My minimum wait for any bus was 25 mins. One day I heard a guy yelling because he had been waiting for a MK bus for an hour. Today was the day Regis and Kelly were going to be there and I was nervous about large crowds. Well, there were NO crowds. We rode Space Mt five times in a row! No wait. We walked around and did other rides like Haunted Mansion. Splash, BTMRR, Pirates and Buzz. We had a PS for noon at Crystal Palace. This one lady was having a fit because they could not find her PS and she was screaming at them she made it 6 months ago. My husband and I were just looking at each other because it was so obvious she was lying. I bet she did not even know about reservations and could not get one. 6 months! Ha! I felt like saying, Lady you can only make them 90 days in advance, but I kept quiet. Lunch was wonderful. My DH really enjoyed it. We walked around a while longer and did some more rides. Then we left at 2 to go back to WL to change to go to the Contemporary because we had a reservation to go tubing. I had done tubing 15 yrs ago on Marco Island. It was calm. This was nothing like calm. Our driver Grace had a great time trying to flip us off our tubes. She did flip each of us once in the water. I have no idea how fast we were going but it was very fast. My DH had a blast! When I told him I had already booked it for our Aug trip with our kids, he was thrilled. We did 1 hour. That was long enough for me. My arms were killing me and I was holding on for dear life! My DH says I was exaggerating, but trust me when I say I was not! We used the flat disc like tubes that you lay on your stomach and hold on straight ahead of you. The kind I was used to was the kind with the hole in the middle that you put your butt into. That is the type I will use and my kids will use this summer. (PS- I have this thing about not being able to see my feet in water. I was literally doing Lamaze breathing to keep calm till the boat came back to pick me up when I was dumped in the water. When we were done and we were driving back to the Contemporary, Grace told us there are alligators in the lagoon!. Thank God she did not tell me before we went tubing because I honestly think I would have had a heart attack waiting for the boat to pick me up after dumping me in the water!) We then went back to WL and went in the hot tub (for my arms) and the pool. It was very relaxing. It was so great to see all the other parents with their screaming and crying kids. Sometimes you feel like you are the only parent on this Earth that has children that act this way. I told him we will get our due come August! We then dressed up all fancy (which we never do!) and went to O'Hana's. WL transportation is so bad. I would have had to either take the boat to the Contemporary and then taken the monorail or take a bus to Mk and then the monorail the Poly. Forget either in a dress and high heels! We called a cab. round trip with tip it cost me $14. We had a great meal- O'Hana's is my favorite! We had a window seat and we saw the fireworks. Then back to WL to go to sleep. I was exhausted from the only 4 1/2 hours of sleep the night before. Low point- my arms killing me and getting dumped in the lagoon! High Point- EVERYTHING ELSE! Eating at my favorite restaurant and going to my favorite park, and relaxing with no children to take care of, etc, etc, etc. Like I said- EVERYTHING else!~ Day 3 - Friday the 13th Today is Animal Kingdom and EPCOT. Again we were up by 6:30. We were supposed to go to Kona's for breakfast but we were still so stuffed from 3 sit down meals the day before, we skipped it. This whole trip so far, DH keeps saying- how come we have no waits? And I keep telling him THAT is why I am on the computer all the time and you should be happy! It is paying off. So then he adds, so now that you know it all, you do not need to be on the computer, right? Wise acre that he is!~ So, we are at AK before it opens. Get right in and get FP's for the Safari and then we head to Dinoland. Of course it is totally dead where we are going because EVERYONE is getting in line for the Safari. At one point a security guards asks me if I am lost! I said no and looked at my DH and he was shaking his head and I am laughing! So we do Dinoland land with no waits and then do the Safari. We opted not to do Kali River Rapids because we did not want to carry our watershoes and bathing suits. That is so much easier when you have a stroller! We had a great time on the Safari. We had seen 3 of them, but no babies this trip. We had lunch at Tusker House. DH favorite is the Salmon. I tried the turkey wrap and corn chowder. It was very good. We saw It's Tough to be a Bug. We have been to this many times, so we knew about it. I could not tell you how many children that were there screaming and crying! We heard parents telling their children it was just like the Bug's Life movie, etc. So much screaming! For everyone that has not been to Disney yet- it is so NOT like the movie! We left then and went to EPCOT. I wanted Dh to do Soarin since the kids and I did it in April. We got the middle section top row. I was thrilled!~ He liked it. Then we decided to do Test Track. The wait was a 65 mins, so I explained the single rider line to him. It said that was 35 mins, but we walked right on, no wait at all. We were separated, but that was OK. We did it again and this time we were together. I had him try Ice Station Cool. He liked the watermelon the best. We then walked to Morocco because I wanted a Pina Colada. Well, of course after all that walking, they had no Pina Colada left! So I got a Strawberry Daquari. DH got the watermelon daiquiri. We took the boat back towards Future World. It was 4:30. We were hot and tired and we wanted to swim, but we had a PS at 7:30 at Le Cellier. So I called Disney Dining to see if Artist Point had an opening that night and they did for 6:45, so I took that and canceled the Le Cellier one. Again we went in the hot tub (my arms were STILL killing me) and the pool. While we were in the hot tub there was another couple in there and a woman also. We were all talking about where we were all having dinner and all 3 were also going to Artist Point. They had 8:45 and 9pm. I told them I had just called and gotten 6:45 I think they wanted to drown me! We had a great seat at Artist Point right at the window. Our waiter was Carlos. He was very good. Lots of smooshing going on here. The manager even came by to say thank you for dining here, if there is anything you need, and on and on. For a starter my husband had the Venison Spring Rolls and I had the duck. Very good. For our meal, I had the buffalo. I had never had that before and it was wonderful. It tasted like an awesome steak. Lean and so tasteful! My DH had the Tenderloin. For dessert, we had chocolate cake. My husband had coffee which they brewed right at the table. Very impressive. We were back in the room by 8:30. DH was complaining because he said it was too early for bed. I told him to watch his weather channel and I would call home and check on the kids. I talked to them for about 30 mins when I realized Dh was sound asleep! So, I hung up and went to bed early also. Low Point- not getting my Pina Colada High Point- Eating at Artist Point- it was WONDERFUL Day 4 - Saturday, May 14 MGM Up again early!~ We were at MGM by 8:20. Like usual, we stood in line and then they let us up the main road a little ways and we had to wait till 9. BUT we were in the very front! When they dropped the line, we were right behind the RNRC guy and followed him the whole way there. Very different from my April trip when no one escorted us and everyone ran. We rode RNRC 5 times!!! In a row! Almost no lines! Then when there was a wait, we went to TOT and there was no wait there. We did it twice. Then we went to a bakery right near the "sorcerer hat" Very good pastry there!! Then we grabbed FP for the new stunt show. The first show of the day was a 1. That seemed a little late, but oh well! The bad thing was a 2 hour wait for another FP! Did the muppets as my DH loves them and then Star Tours. We had a 12 noon PS for Brown Derby, but we need to be at the Stunt show by 12:35 it said, so we went at 11:30 when Brown Derby opened and they seated us right away. I did not mention my PS because I heard they would not seat you before your PS time if you had one. At 12 I did go back up and tell them I had come early and to take me off the PS list. The Brown Derby is very nice. Our Waiter Matt was a little weird and not very attentive, and this woman had a baby there that kept screaming in the restaurant! I mean- come on! Take your kid outside! Why ruin everyone else's meal? She kept walking the child around INSIDE the restaurant! I have 5 and I would never let my children disturb other people!~ We had a pasta dish with spinach and mushrooms in a cream sauce. It was very good. My husband really liked the white chocolate martini's there. Then we ran to the stunt show and we were in the middle section. To me this show is just OK. My boys who are 11, 8, and 6 will probably love it, but I think my daughter will be bored this summer. At least we tried it! Then we went to DTD. We could not catch the bus at MGM though for DTD. They told us to hop a bus to a resort and then catch a bus to DTD. So, the first bus that came along was POR. We literally pulled up to the stop in POR and the DTD bus was waiting for us! Great bus luck!! We shopped at World of Disney and then grabbed a couple of 1800 Margaritas at the Margarita shack. Very good! We then headed back to Wilderness Lodge to spend more time in the hot tub and pool! We had an 8pm PS at California Grill. I had bought this long black sexy dress! Very elegant, nothing on the top, just spaghetti straps. It felt so nice really dressing up! I had shown my daughter the dress before I left and she told me I looked naked! LOL! They are used to me in jeans, sweatshirt, sneakers and my hair in a pony everyday! That's how Mom's are supposed to dress, right? We again took a taxi, as I did not want to ruin my hair on the boat to the Contemporary. We were seated right away, but not at a window seat. Those had an hour wait with a PS! Forget it! We had an absolutely lovely meal! We ordered one course at a time so we could make it a very long experience! I had filet mignon and my DH had their signature pork dish. We went out on the observation deck for Wishes and it was wonderful. They piped in all the music. I do want to mention, I am a tea drinker, not a coffee drinker and I order tea with my dessert and it cost $5 for a cup of tea! I could not believe it! My DH coffee was $2 something. They ship the tea in from right here near me in the Northeast, that is why it is so expensive. But still! It was a wonderful evening though!~ Low Points- disappointed with the stunt show and not getting a window seat at California Grill High Point- riding RNRC 5 times in a row Day 5 - Sunday, May 15th MK and the day we go home Up very early so we can pack up and check our luggage in at the airport kiosk before we head to MK. We do this no problem. We are at MK in line by 7:30. DH is a little disturbed with me that we are waiting 30 mins when he could have had 30 mins more sleep!~ Oh well!~ They are have the triathlon (?bi?) so we watch all the runners come through MK and head towards the Grand Floridian. They let us right in at 9 and we head to Space. They tells us it is down now, but we can get a FP. We get to Space and they say- no we are not giving FP's out. Oh well, that was a waste of time! We did Pooh, Peter Pan and then headed to Splash and BTMRR. While we were on Splash, we were in the last seat of the log. This couple did not want to get wet, so instead of getting in the log in the 3rd row, they wanted the last row, so they waited for the next log. We are going along just fine and we are starting to climb the last big hill. The one where you do the big drop. When all of a sudden the ride stops. Then this person comes through the loud speaker yelling, "get back in your log" "" Stop where you are, stop walking" and we look and that same couple has jumped out of their log and they are trying to get out and they are walking up the "big" hill. Where did they think they were going? As it turns out, they decided they might get wet so they jumped out! If I was in charge, I would have kicked them out of the park! What idiots! Every sign in the place says you might get wet! They escorted them out but did not kick them out. We continued with no further problems. We did Haunted Mansion next. I have to say, we had a group of 10 teenagers in front of us and a couple with a little girl in back of us. The teenagers were literally screaming at the top of their lungs over anything and everything. I mean, come on this is not scary! Well, the little girl was freaking out behind us, just because they were screaming. My husband kindly said stop screaming twice. He did not yell, just talked a little louder than normal. No response. We got to the part where it is lighted up a little and you can see the people in the cars next to you. Well, I blasted the kids. I do not know where it even came from, but that poor little girl behind us was getting so scared because of them! I screamed at them to knock it off and grow up and they were scaring the girl behind us and that I did not want to hear them the rest of the ride. I will tell you, you did not hear a peep the rest of the ride. Dead silence. And then they ran off the ride with their tails between their legs. Why were these teenagers (like 14) alone anyway? Well, I felt good after that!~ We also did Pirates and Mickey's Philarmagic. When we came out, we found out Space was back up and running so we got a FP. We then went to lunch at the castle. We had a PS. It was wonderful! We had the beef pie. VERY VERY GOOD! I know CRT is changing to a character meal for lunch in June, but I cannot tell you how many parents there thought it was a character meal and their kids were all dressed up with autograph books and pens out waiting. They were VERY disappointed to find out there were no characters. But, we had a lovely meal with a window seat. After that, it was time to head back to Wilderness Lodge to catch our Magical Express bus to the airport. We were told our bus would be there at 3:05 and we were to be there at 2:50. Well, we were there, but our bus showed up at 3:30. Then we went to The Poly and The Grand Floridian, so by the time we were on the road it was 4:30. By the time we got to the airport it was 5:10. Then we had to wait because we needed to be at the other terminal. By the time we were at our terminal, it was 5:20. Our plane was leaving at 6:03. We grabbed sandwiches fast and got to our gate and they were boarding! We cut it close. Over all we had a great vacation! And flying was so much quicker than driving!!~ Low Point- Leaving Disney High Point- eating a wonderful lunch at the castle 
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