Disney 2009 Trip Report

Please note, this trip report is many things to many different people, so if there are items you find boring, feel free to skim and skip ahead. Believe it or not some people really do want to know where we had our meals! This entry will be done in installments, as Grant doesn't often give me much time to sit and write for any length of time these days. If you would like to see our photos and didn't get the email to see them on Kodak, please let me know and I'll pass the link along to you. I decided the whole world would be bored looking at our 200+ pictures.

Wednesday, February 5, 2009

We left Sturbridge at 4:30 am in the snowy morning for Providence to pick up the Grandparents. After some delay of getting 5 adults, one child, two car seats, and a ridiculous amount of luggage in the car, we were on our way. This was Grant's first flight, so we were a bit nervous, but he did very well on the flight down. The flight wasn't full, so we were able to carry his car seat on and use it on the plane without buying a seat. this is a really good tip for all you parents and would be parents out there-worth saving $200 on a seat for a baby. Worse case, you gate check the seat and still save the money of renting a car seat at your destination. We'll be doing this on most trips! We got to Orlando and quickly found our car and were on our way. We went straight to Downtown Disney to get our credit card points transferred to our rewards card. This was key as we haven't been to Disney in two years and had a nice chunk of points to spend. This process we quick and we were hungry, so we hit our very favorite sandwich place in the whole world--Earl of Sandwich! I'm not sure what about them makes their food incredible, but the Original 1776 is the greatest roast beef sandwich on the planet! After a tasty lunch we headed to our hotel.

Because we were making such a last minute trip and were looking for multiple rooms, we ended up staying off property. I know, this sounds like a sin, and we were worried, but it really worked out great. We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana just outside of Downtown Disney in a two bedroom condo that we got a sick deal on. We had two bedrooms, two baths, a living room, kitchen, and screened in porch. It was perfect for our needs. They had high chairs and cribs, so we only needed to bring the baby for a perfect setup. Grant had the living room to himself and all of the adults had plenty of space to themselves as well. we also had a washer and dryer, which is key when traveling with a toddler.

G and I stayed in for his nap while everyone else went to Shades of Green to pick up our park passes. Taylor's dad is retired military, so we got ridiculous ticket deals. All 5 of us went on five day hopper passes for a total of $375. For comparison purposes, a normal 5 day hopper for one is about $300. See why we couldn't pass up a trip with deals like this?

We all met up later and had a nice dinner off property at some local Chinese place that we found in the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. If it is good enough for Testa, it is good enough for us. A quick stop at Super Walmart to load up on diapers and bottled water and we were back to the room for a good nights rest (well, for everyone except Pam who came down with the stomach flu and spent the night in the bathroom--at least it was a nice bathroom!).

Thursday, February 6, 2009

Up with the sun, Taylor, David, Grant and I were off to Epcot to start our trip. We had planned on doing the Animal Kingdom first, but it was so cold (like 40 for the high kind of cold) that we decided there would be very few animals outside so we amended our plan. We hit Soarin first for fastpasses and a ride for the dads of the group. Then it was off to Grant's first ride, Living Seas with Nemo and Friends. He liked his journey in a clamshell. What he liked a lot more than that was the aquarium inside! He didn't want to leave all the fish and loved being able to just touch the glass with them on the other side. He actually cried a little when we took him away. We enjoyed our morning, including 3 trips around on Spaceship Earth for me, as Grant fell asleep on that ride and I just kept riding so he could get some good rest and then had lunch at Sunshine Seasons. We like it there because there is good variety and it was easy to find something to share with the little guy. We bounced around the parks a little longer before Grant and I headed back to the room for his rest and to check on our sick girl Pam.

After a good nap and Grant and I headed back to the parks. Pam was feeling better but decided it wasn't worth coming in to the park for a few short hours to watch us have dinner and be freezing cold. She rested more and would join us the next day. Once back in the parks, Grant and I found the boys and walked through World's Showcase a bit. We listened to Off Kilter in Canada for awhile-they are always good for a rest and some fun music. We were having dinner at the Rose and Crown that night, so we checked in and got our beeper and decided to walk around the shops of England. We saw Mary Poppins in the back of the toy store (it was too cold for characters to be outside-did I mention it was the coldest day in FL in 10 years?). We thought it would be good to try Grant out on her as a character. As we were getting in line she was all finished and was going away. It wasn't a big deal really, but as we looked around for a moment more, Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger came out. We were second in line to see the trio. Grant got to watch them interact with the family in front of us and was able to see what it was all about. when it was his turn, we decided to just put him down and wait to see what he would do. It was hysterical. He took about 4 steps towards them, then turned back to us and started laughing. He then went a few steps more and did it again. I gave him some help moving closer to the characters and he was so excited to see these giant stuffed animals! They were great, all getting down on their knees and trying to motion him over. Pooh opened his arms, Tigger waved, and Eeyore kept covering his eyes with his ears playing peek-a-boo. When he got over to them, he snuggled in to them and just kept laughing. It was such a riot that even the people in line behind us with their own kids were busy laughing at Grant and didn't care how much time he took with the characters. We were excited that he liked the characters so much and ended up incorporating a lot of character time into our trip. Here is a photos of him with his new pals!

We had a rather uneventful dinner that night at the Rose and Crown. We were on the patio, but ended up being under two or three heat lamps and so it was the warmest we had been all day. It was a very disappointing moment for me when they brought out rolls and butter but it was just normal butter, not the incredible Guinness Butter they had on our last visit to the restaurant. Our meals were good, two fish and chips, one bangers and mash. We were all happy with our meals but declined dessert. We ended up going back to the hotel shortly after this because it was simply too cold to have Grant out (even in a onesie, shirt, pants, fleece, hooded sweatshirt, winter hat and blanket). We were out of the park and back in the hotel by 8:30 for a quick bath and night nights to rest up for our big day the next day in the Magic Kingdom!