aunt kelly
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2000
Background:
This was our first trip to Disney World! The trip took place over the Thanksgiving Holiday. (Hence, the "Turkey Trip")
Cast of characters:
I'm the 40-year-old mom, who is generally pretty rational. However, once we decided to go to Disney World, (my husband's idea) I bought a Disney guidebook and became a compulsive Disney trip planner. I bought another guidebook, and then another, and so on. . . Then I discovered this internet site, and a few others, and soon my friends and family were hinting I'd gone off the deep end. I had to agree!
My husband, Tom, 44, was the one who originally came up with the idea to go to Disney World. It would be an understatement to say he did not quite share my enthusiasm for trip planning.
My son, Thomas, is 8 years old and became quite tired of his mom beginning each morning with the phrase "Guess how many days until we leave for Disneyworld!"
My daughter, Patricia, is five years old, and like her brother and father, was looking forward to Disney World, but thought her mom had gone a little crazy with the trip planning.
Day 1-November 21st!
The big day finally arrived! We left our house at 5:45 am and didn't arrive in Orlando until 2:40pm. Our spirits were boosted when we arrived at the National Car Rental counter and found that there were only two families ahead of us in line. We quickly completed the paperwork and were pointed across the street to choose any car we wanted from the economy aisle. We choose a red Chevy Cavalir and were off to Disney World! (Our rate on the rental car was $141 for the entire week, tax included). The drive from the airport to Disney World was exciting (at least to me) because we saw signs for all the resorts and parks I'd read about in the guidebooks. After paying three tolls (our contribution to the Florida highway system) we arrived at All Star Movies.
Happily, there was no one waiting in line to check in when we arrived. Thanks to information I'd read on this site which was provided by the Disney Princess, I had faxed a room request for rooms 0755-0764 in the Toy Story building (The kids love the Toy Story movies). Well, much to my delight, we were assigned to room 0755! It was a corner room and it was probably the closest room in the Toy Story section to the food court, pool, laundry and game room. The room was comfortable and we found it to be big enough for the four of us. As others have noted, the theming was a little "over the top" but isn't everything at Disney? Anyway the kids loved it! We soon purchased refillable mugs for the entire family and found you really get your money's worth when your room is only a short walk away from the food court.
After settling in, we headed over to the Contemporary for our 6:30 PS at Chef Mickey's. (We drove our rental car). As we entered the restaurant, we were greeted by Pluto and Goofy, who signed the kids' autograph books and posed for pictures while waiting for our table. After a few minutes, we were seated and the characters began making the rounds. The kids were armed with autograph books ($5.50 each at the store in the Contemporary) and their "fat" pens ($1.75 and 2.25 respectively). Chip came around first and I asked him if he remembered meeting me at Disneyland in 1966. He made a big fuss over me and the kids were quite impressed that he clearly remembered me. Dale posed for pictures also and signed autographs, as did Mickey and Minnie. We all had fun participating in the "napkin waving" song. Mickey was quite cute when I asked him if Minnie was his sweetheart. He drew a heart in the air and pointed at Minnie. When we later asked Minnie the same question, she put her hand to her cheek and acted embarrassed. As we left, Donald Duck appeared and the kids got his autograph and we took more pictures.
As for the food, my husband and I were pleasantly surprised. The salad bar was fresh, the prime rib was good and those famous parmesan potatos were delicious! The kids ordered shakes (which were really unnecessary since there was an ice cream bar) and Tom ordered a mixed drink. Our tab came to $91 with tip. We all had a wonderful time.
My compulsive trip plans included a monorail tour after dinner, and then we were to watch the electrical water pageant, but we were just too pooped. (This marked the first of many deviations from my carefully laid plans). We headed back to the room, ordered our Mickey wake-up call and were all sound asleep by 10:30pm.
This was our first trip to Disney World! The trip took place over the Thanksgiving Holiday. (Hence, the "Turkey Trip")
Cast of characters:
I'm the 40-year-old mom, who is generally pretty rational. However, once we decided to go to Disney World, (my husband's idea) I bought a Disney guidebook and became a compulsive Disney trip planner. I bought another guidebook, and then another, and so on. . . Then I discovered this internet site, and a few others, and soon my friends and family were hinting I'd gone off the deep end. I had to agree!
My husband, Tom, 44, was the one who originally came up with the idea to go to Disney World. It would be an understatement to say he did not quite share my enthusiasm for trip planning.
My son, Thomas, is 8 years old and became quite tired of his mom beginning each morning with the phrase "Guess how many days until we leave for Disneyworld!"
My daughter, Patricia, is five years old, and like her brother and father, was looking forward to Disney World, but thought her mom had gone a little crazy with the trip planning.
Day 1-November 21st!
The big day finally arrived! We left our house at 5:45 am and didn't arrive in Orlando until 2:40pm. Our spirits were boosted when we arrived at the National Car Rental counter and found that there were only two families ahead of us in line. We quickly completed the paperwork and were pointed across the street to choose any car we wanted from the economy aisle. We choose a red Chevy Cavalir and were off to Disney World! (Our rate on the rental car was $141 for the entire week, tax included). The drive from the airport to Disney World was exciting (at least to me) because we saw signs for all the resorts and parks I'd read about in the guidebooks. After paying three tolls (our contribution to the Florida highway system) we arrived at All Star Movies.
Happily, there was no one waiting in line to check in when we arrived. Thanks to information I'd read on this site which was provided by the Disney Princess, I had faxed a room request for rooms 0755-0764 in the Toy Story building (The kids love the Toy Story movies). Well, much to my delight, we were assigned to room 0755! It was a corner room and it was probably the closest room in the Toy Story section to the food court, pool, laundry and game room. The room was comfortable and we found it to be big enough for the four of us. As others have noted, the theming was a little "over the top" but isn't everything at Disney? Anyway the kids loved it! We soon purchased refillable mugs for the entire family and found you really get your money's worth when your room is only a short walk away from the food court.
After settling in, we headed over to the Contemporary for our 6:30 PS at Chef Mickey's. (We drove our rental car). As we entered the restaurant, we were greeted by Pluto and Goofy, who signed the kids' autograph books and posed for pictures while waiting for our table. After a few minutes, we were seated and the characters began making the rounds. The kids were armed with autograph books ($5.50 each at the store in the Contemporary) and their "fat" pens ($1.75 and 2.25 respectively). Chip came around first and I asked him if he remembered meeting me at Disneyland in 1966. He made a big fuss over me and the kids were quite impressed that he clearly remembered me. Dale posed for pictures also and signed autographs, as did Mickey and Minnie. We all had fun participating in the "napkin waving" song. Mickey was quite cute when I asked him if Minnie was his sweetheart. He drew a heart in the air and pointed at Minnie. When we later asked Minnie the same question, she put her hand to her cheek and acted embarrassed. As we left, Donald Duck appeared and the kids got his autograph and we took more pictures.
As for the food, my husband and I were pleasantly surprised. The salad bar was fresh, the prime rib was good and those famous parmesan potatos were delicious! The kids ordered shakes (which were really unnecessary since there was an ice cream bar) and Tom ordered a mixed drink. Our tab came to $91 with tip. We all had a wonderful time.
My compulsive trip plans included a monorail tour after dinner, and then we were to watch the electrical water pageant, but we were just too pooped. (This marked the first of many deviations from my carefully laid plans). We headed back to the room, ordered our Mickey wake-up call and were all sound asleep by 10:30pm.
