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For quite some time now I have hung around MC and garnered info, shared info, left my trip reports and just joined in on the fun but ya see, this past year was very different. We decided to take our very first trip to WDW, which is what this thread is going to be about. Anyway, that decision changed a lot about the time I spent on MC.... well, actually about the time I spent pretty much everywhere on the internet. My life suddenly turned into an all consuming fact finding, info seeking mission. Perhaps I do exaggerate slightly but not by much. WDW is huge and there is an overwhelming amount of data to be found out there. I gotta confess that I have not been very active around here much lately. Hope ya'll can forgive me. Hopefully I will have the opportunity in the upcoming year to change that. My goal is to post this here Trip Report and then get back to things more familiar. So..... on with the report!
Oh yeah, and I gotta warn you I am a camera fiend, not necessarily a good one but I do love taking pictures, so be warned there are going to be lots of photos! And, second, my heart really belongs to DL so I tend to probably compare the two parks way too much.
Day 1, December 2, 2009
As you can imagine the morning we were to leave for Florida I had trouble sleeping and was up bright and early. Guess what? Of all things, when I woke up it had snowed here in Texas! (Amy, I borrowed your snow photo!)
We managed to actually make it out of the house by the time we had planned which is great for us because we tend to be late everywhere we go. On the way to the airport we dropped the dog off at the kennel which is no easy task. As soon as she realizes where she is she is ready to bolt. Somehow we managed to get her through the door and get everyone back into the car. After a 45 minute drive we made it to the airport parking in just the amount of time I had allowed. We found it very convenient to use The Parking Spot at DFW to leave our car under the covered parking for 2 weeks. It is cheaper than airport parking and I had a 20% off coupon that ended up saving us $40 from their regular rate. They shuttle you right to the airport and pick you up when you return. Our driver promptly gathered our luggage and dropped us off at the American Airlines terminal. Traveling for 2 weeks we always have an abundance of carry on luggage as well as some we have to check in for storage so we hopped in line to make the appropriate arrangements. Baggage taken care of and boarding passes in hand we made our way through security which is always a rather comical experience for us…. not so much for all the people who are held up behind us. We are not seasoned travelers at all so it always seems to take us twice as long to pull all our goodies out into the bin and then gather everything back up. We made it through without setting off any alarms and were on our way to find our gate. After finding where we needed to go we grabbed a bite to eat from the food court and made a restroom pit stop. Perfect timing! By the time we finished up they were just starting to line up to board the plane. We were lucky enough to be on a flight with seating configurations of 2 seats on one side and 3 seats on the other. My daughter and I took 2 seats and the boy’s seats were right behind us.
I loved it because I did not have to sit next to anyone except my daughter.
Last year’s trip I ended up seated next to a sick, sniffling, wheezing woman. None of that this time! We received our pre-flight instructions to the rhythm of “The Night Before Christmas”. I put on my little nausea arm bands and settled in for our flight which for the most part was pretty uneventful. Well…. except there was that one loop…..
No, seriously, we really arrived safely at Orlando International Airport in sunny Florida just shortly after 4:30 pm. We were all thinking it was a very strange airport as we boarded the shuttle with the crazy flashing lights to be transported to who knows where. Somehow we managed to locate our luggage and find the Dollar rental kiosk all without anything unusual happening. After a couple of laps around the parking garage my husband finally found the exit and we were on our way. We plugged the address to the house into hubby’s new "evil i-phone", as my son has dubbed it, and set out to see if the new application would indeed take us to our destination. I also had written directions as a backup... just in case.
Soon after we set out my phone rang. It was Garden Grocers. My grocery delivery was scheduled to be dropped off between 7 -9 but I was his last delivery for the day so he wanted to see if he could deliver it early. I told him we were just leaving the airport so he said he would head towards the house and just wait for us. It took us almost exactly 30 minutes to get from the airport to the gate of Sunset Lakes just as the description on the website of the house stated. I called the driver and he said he would be there shortly. In the meantime we started unloading the car and made our way to the front door. Being the nutty bunch we are we imagined opening the door and hearing music similar to that heard on the movie “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” when they enter the honeymoon suite at the Bavarian Village. Dang if it wasn’t almost that great! The house was absolutely beautiful! My daughter was so excited she probably ran around for a full 15 minutes repeating how wonderful the place was. Anyone interested in a really nice place to stay at a reasonable rate and needing more information can feel free to pm me or.... check it out..... Kissimmee vacation house rental - Peterson's Paradise Retreat
We ever had our own little Tiki gods!
We finished dragging our luggage inside just as the groceries arrived. The driver lugged all the stuff into the kitchen. Then we went over the list to make sure everything I ordered was there, which it was. He was extremely nice so I gave him a good tip and sent him on his way. I was really nervous after having read some of the reviews for Garden Grocer lately but I gotta say I very impressed with the whole experience! As it worked out I loved the fact that they delivered my order early so we did not have to sit around wondering if they were going to show up. And look! My stuff even had these little custom labels on it.
I put the groceries away and did a little unpacking. By the time I finished my daughter had waited just about as long as she could. It was time to hit the pool, which by the way, was beautiful. It was the perfect temperature. Even better it was all private… no screaming or splashing kids other than our own. That was as far as we made it the rest of the evening.
Oh yeah, and I gotta warn you I am a camera fiend, not necessarily a good one but I do love taking pictures, so be warned there are going to be lots of photos! And, second, my heart really belongs to DL so I tend to probably compare the two parks way too much.
Day 1, December 2, 2009
As you can imagine the morning we were to leave for Florida I had trouble sleeping and was up bright and early. Guess what? Of all things, when I woke up it had snowed here in Texas! (Amy, I borrowed your snow photo!)
We managed to actually make it out of the house by the time we had planned which is great for us because we tend to be late everywhere we go. On the way to the airport we dropped the dog off at the kennel which is no easy task. As soon as she realizes where she is she is ready to bolt. Somehow we managed to get her through the door and get everyone back into the car. After a 45 minute drive we made it to the airport parking in just the amount of time I had allowed. We found it very convenient to use The Parking Spot at DFW to leave our car under the covered parking for 2 weeks. It is cheaper than airport parking and I had a 20% off coupon that ended up saving us $40 from their regular rate. They shuttle you right to the airport and pick you up when you return. Our driver promptly gathered our luggage and dropped us off at the American Airlines terminal. Traveling for 2 weeks we always have an abundance of carry on luggage as well as some we have to check in for storage so we hopped in line to make the appropriate arrangements. Baggage taken care of and boarding passes in hand we made our way through security which is always a rather comical experience for us…. not so much for all the people who are held up behind us. We are not seasoned travelers at all so it always seems to take us twice as long to pull all our goodies out into the bin and then gather everything back up. We made it through without setting off any alarms and were on our way to find our gate. After finding where we needed to go we grabbed a bite to eat from the food court and made a restroom pit stop. Perfect timing! By the time we finished up they were just starting to line up to board the plane. We were lucky enough to be on a flight with seating configurations of 2 seats on one side and 3 seats on the other. My daughter and I took 2 seats and the boy’s seats were right behind us.
I loved it because I did not have to sit next to anyone except my daughter.
Last year’s trip I ended up seated next to a sick, sniffling, wheezing woman. None of that this time! We received our pre-flight instructions to the rhythm of “The Night Before Christmas”. I put on my little nausea arm bands and settled in for our flight which for the most part was pretty uneventful. Well…. except there was that one loop…..
No, seriously, we really arrived safely at Orlando International Airport in sunny Florida just shortly after 4:30 pm. We were all thinking it was a very strange airport as we boarded the shuttle with the crazy flashing lights to be transported to who knows where. Somehow we managed to locate our luggage and find the Dollar rental kiosk all without anything unusual happening. After a couple of laps around the parking garage my husband finally found the exit and we were on our way. We plugged the address to the house into hubby’s new "evil i-phone", as my son has dubbed it, and set out to see if the new application would indeed take us to our destination. I also had written directions as a backup... just in case.
Soon after we set out my phone rang. It was Garden Grocers. My grocery delivery was scheduled to be dropped off between 7 -9 but I was his last delivery for the day so he wanted to see if he could deliver it early. I told him we were just leaving the airport so he said he would head towards the house and just wait for us. It took us almost exactly 30 minutes to get from the airport to the gate of Sunset Lakes just as the description on the website of the house stated. I called the driver and he said he would be there shortly. In the meantime we started unloading the car and made our way to the front door. Being the nutty bunch we are we imagined opening the door and hearing music similar to that heard on the movie “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” when they enter the honeymoon suite at the Bavarian Village. Dang if it wasn’t almost that great! The house was absolutely beautiful! My daughter was so excited she probably ran around for a full 15 minutes repeating how wonderful the place was. Anyone interested in a really nice place to stay at a reasonable rate and needing more information can feel free to pm me or.... check it out..... Kissimmee vacation house rental - Peterson's Paradise Retreat
We ever had our own little Tiki gods!
We finished dragging our luggage inside just as the groceries arrived. The driver lugged all the stuff into the kitchen. Then we went over the list to make sure everything I ordered was there, which it was. He was extremely nice so I gave him a good tip and sent him on his way. I was really nervous after having read some of the reviews for Garden Grocer lately but I gotta say I very impressed with the whole experience! As it worked out I loved the fact that they delivered my order early so we did not have to sit around wondering if they were going to show up. And look! My stuff even had these little custom labels on it.
I put the groceries away and did a little unpacking. By the time I finished my daughter had waited just about as long as she could. It was time to hit the pool, which by the way, was beautiful. It was the perfect temperature. Even better it was all private… no screaming or splashing kids other than our own. That was as far as we made it the rest of the evening.
,DH
,DS-23 
,DD-15 
I have more readers! 
I am so happy! 
As someone who grew up on WDW and never visited DL, I love it just as much as I'm sure you love DL. 
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