Travels with Snowbirds 2015, January 7 to 10, 2015, Disney World

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The one about quality time with (part of) the family

The reason I left NC so early this year was due in part to being able to join up with some of the family for a few days at Disney World.

Kristine and Lou along with Maggie and Hudson left Park City, UT for a month long whirlwind tour of the east coast for the holidays. They spent time in NJ, then Christmas with me and Tim and his family in NC, and travelled to Charleston to see Maggie’s grandparents then on to Lou’s family in Fort Lauderdale for New Years. The final leg of their trip was 3 nights at WDW. The main campground I spend time at is in Orlando, so it was a no brainer for me to meet up with them. Remember I was able to get the campsite next to friend Ginnie? Well, she dog-sat Winston and watched my rig for the 3 nights I was gone as well as provided cab service for me to and from. Good friend.

I meet up with the family at 4:00 on Wednesday and we got ourselves checked into a villa at the Beach Club Resort. A villa is a one bedroom suite…..ADA style. King sized bed in the bedroom with an accessible 2 room bathroom with hot tub and floor level shower with a seat and very wide doorways. The living room had a pull out bed and a fully equipped kitchen with oven, refrig, microwave and dishwasher. I wish I had known, I would have brought my cereal and milk!! (As it turned out, the resort store was able to satisfy those necessities.) The family had an extra child with them, 10 year old Tess, daughter of a friend who were visiting in FL, somehow they all met up and arrangements were made for Tess to change her flight home to fly solo from Orlando to Atlantic City! Tess is a very nice young lady who got along very well with Maggie. We adults were often happy that Maggie had someone her own age to do her own fun stuff with.

We walked over to the Boardwalk area to eat, but there were no openings at the restaurant. This was our first indication that this was a special weekend at WDW – Marathon weekend. There were multiple events……any kind of “K” that you wanted to run, all ages welcome. So, lots of people here and no reservations at restaurants available.

We walked back to our hotel and were fortunate enough to be able to walk right into the dining room and have a very excellent meal – braised short ribs with corn risotto for me, seafood stew for Lou, the girls shared a chicken meal (yes, they are grown up, but sharing an adult meal was awesome for them) and Kristine had a pasta dish with some of the same yummy short ribs I had. Hudson sat in a high chair and threw whatever we gave him to eat or play with onto the floor. A trend was starting.

We checked out our ‘fitbit’ style wrist bands, made sure they were working by charging something and opening our room doors. When you order them ahead of ime, they bundle your tickets up into your package as well and all the info is stored on your own unique personalized band. I attached my credit card to mine and just charged everything I wanted. Amazing technology. When you want to enter a park, you hold the band up to the Mickey Ball until it turns green. To charge anything you must enter your pin on their keypad after tapping the keypad.

An early night to bed and up early the next morning and we were at Epcot when it opened. The ‘back’ entrance to Epcot is a short walk from our hotel – a definite plus to staying there. I rented a scooter. Knowing how much this family walks and how my feet and knees hurt and how tired I get and a million more excuses, made that decision easy for me. What a blessing. At the end of our time at any park I return it and get another one at the next park. Yup, awesome. The ‘health’ app on my iphone said I did 10K steps both days, that’s 5 miles…..using a scooter……can you imagine what it would have been if I hadn’t ridden?

Cereal and banana and coffee for breakfast in the room. We were on Soarin before 9:30 – one of the 2 things I requested we do. We did everything in the ‘future world’ section and didn’t go near the ‘country’ area at all. Our lunch at Coral Reef (Aunt Mary, I seem to remember butter in the shape of Mickey there……not this time) with a good but not excellent meal for all. The girls shared an adult steak, I had Caesar Salad with shrimp and Kristine and Lou had seafood manicotti which they both said was ok but not awesome. Hudson dropped his toys, and all the spoons and straws we gave him onto the floor multiple times.

After lunch we travelled to Magic Kingdom…….The Monorail was closed ‘for planned maintenance from 12 to 5’; a bus was provided and what a long bus ride for such a short monorail ride. Picked up my new scooter and off to check out the new fantasyland and all the rides in that area that we could get on. 90 minute wait for Peter Pan’s Adventure (huh? I don’t get that at all). No wait for character meet and greet, Daisy and Goofy.

Fast passes (FastPass+) can be arranged on the My Disney Experience phone app. You pick a ride you want, select the time you want to go on it and they suggest other nearby attractions for you to fastpass with enough time between to make it easily. The only things we really fast passed and used was Test Track (and who ever told me that it WAS NOT a roller coaster should be shot! I screamed!!) We had fast passes for Space Mountain and several other things, but timing did not work out for us.) The times for the standby lines are posted outside the ride and we discovered that they are often wrong and both ways……under or overestimating all the time. Magic Kingdom closed at 9 that night, the kids got to see some of the light show on the Castle and most of the Electric Parade, but they were more interested in riding a roller coaster several times in a row since there was no line. I drove around my scooter with Hudson asleep in my arms all bundled up while the others were gone. I was happy Hudson had a warm blanket ,as it helped me keep warm as well. I separated from the group to shop for a sweatshirt, return the scooter, and head back to the hotel via bus. I beat them by 5 minutes.

Speaking of sweatshirts……I was cold. Out and out cold. I had warm pants, warm socks, sneakers, my wonderfully warm chenille scarf, as well as long sleeved shirts, a vest and a very warm fleece. I dressed in layers. I was missing a warm hat and gloves, and perhaps a hoodie of some type. The kids all had winter jackets (remember they were in NJ for the beginning of their trip). All except Tess. She bundled up in Kristine’s yoga pants, Lou’s sweaters, Kristine’s Mickey SweatShirt ,and she was fine. Hudson the little chubba wubba that he is always looked like a Pillsbury Dough Boy in colors dressed in multiple layers. Diaper changing was an event.

All fell asleep quickly Thursday night. Friday we let Hudson set our schedule. I was up very very early as usual and was showered and ready to go before anyone else woke up. We ate cereal again and headed to Hollywood Studios via launch, a quick trip from right outside our hotel. Our trek thru the hotel lobby this morning made us realize that they had unChristmasDecorated it overnight. That was an amazing feat!! It seemed like more and more marathon type structures were popping up. It rained while we were on the launch, which proved to be the only rain of the day, fortunately. Renting another scooter and the gang tried to get on the roller coasters, but only got on one as the lines were so long. I took Hudson to watch the Beauty and the Beast show, he could have cared less, but at least I got to sit someplace out of the wind. We did Star Tours (and thought of Ben’s awkward performance as a Jedi Knight when he was a baby) and the Indiana Jones show, Muppets ,etc., etc., etc. Tess had only been to WDW once many years ago and had no memory of anything, and it was fun to watch her reaction to things like that Indiana Jones show. We sat in the third row and when she felt the heat from the fires….well…..it was good. They are taking down the Fantasia Blue Hat, and have it all blocked off and the BackStage Tour closed off for scheduled maintenance…..winter at Disney. Lunch was a grab and go kind of thing at ABC Commissary. Hudson dropped the plastic spoons. Back to the hotel for an hour warm up break and back to Epcot to tour the countries and eat and drink our way thru. No reservations for dinner anywhere, and Lou really wanted Mexican, so we walked/scooted all the way around and by the time we ended up in Mexico at 9:00 they had room for us. Margaritas, chips and another good meal – shrimp tacos for me, Fish of the day for Lou, kids tacos, and 2 appetizers for Kristine, and Hudson ate green beans, flirted with the beautiful waitress (classically trained dancer from Veracruz and certified yoga instructor, lived in US 10 years) and you know what else he did. I scooted to the big gift shop behind the ‘mother ship ball’ looking for this particular sweatshirt whih they didn’t have, and scooted back around the countries to the super secret back entrance returning the scooter along the way and was an icicle by the time I got to the room. All were awake until 11:45 or so.

AND, we had a 7:55 reservation for character breakfast at our hotel. Those kids were all miserable when we dragged them up at 7:30 for a teeth brush, hair comb and clothes. But, the character breakfast was great, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. We got some great pictures, and the buffet was awesome. Great salmon.

Tess’s grandmother, staying in Orlando, came to pick her up at 10 to get her to the airport, and we hung around the room packing up until time for Ginnie to pick me up and the rest to get their Disney shuttle to the airport.

Some random thoughts and observations. I ran into several cranky crabby WDW ‘cast members.’ Something that has never happened in previous visits. I just expect a happy smiley face wherever I go from all Disney employees, and that did not happen this time. I wonder why? Fewer college kids because it’s not summer and they use more locals? One food order taker at the ABC Commissary really cranked at us for blocking the condiments, and we didn’t deserve it. She later apologized profusely, but she should not have done that. Some of the cast members moving the crowds along the queues were also cranky. I guess it’s hard to smile all the time, but this is Disney World! Smile! I have never really thought the food prices were overly expensive. They all just seemed to be right under what I would consider painful. Maybe not so this trip. My 2 day Park Hopper ticket was just under $250. Ouch. $22 for a ¼ chicken dinner is too much. $16 for a name brand margarita is too much. But, people are spending it. The place was mobbed. The gift stores were mobbed. $50 to $69 for a thin hoodie is too much. Even if it is Mickey Mouse right?? Make it at least thicker quality material???? They automatically added 18% tip to parties of 6 or more. We were 6 with the baby who got no service at all. All were questioned on it, and all had the same answer, “We count the bodies, not the number eating.” Huh? The beautiful waitress from VeraCruz was the only one who told us she changed it, and she got a big tip. I wonder what it cost to enter the Disney Marathon events? And, finally, my bug bites are still itchy!!!! I got them a week ago and still find myself waking up in the middle of the night scratching!!! What a pain! Literally.

Such a wonderful vacation. Spending time with my girlies is always special for me. I miss them bad. I checked on their flight, and it looks like they had a delay. They all like being on vacation, but were looking forward to getting home.

Me? I am looking forward to the rest of my Snowbird trip. Tomorrow, Monday, I travel to the dealer where I get Moya serviced near Tampa for her annual expensive checkup. I will meet up with HS classmate Maureen Kelly and, hopefully, cousin Valerie while there. The end of the week finds me at the RV show in Tampa. I will rest soon.

The weather is warming up, a little. Winston is happy to see me, and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. All is right with the world.





Kat out

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Comments

[Kathy everett]

Wdw
Thanks for sharing your fun times at Disney. Scooter was the greatest way to go!