aaaateamsgrandma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
Better late than never to join. You have an adorable son. Congratulations on him. They grow fast. I will now go read the rest of the report.
Ginny
Ginny
~ A 21 month old, a celebrity sighting, & a whole lotta food~2 week trip~ 2/28 update
- Thread starter Sunset Cliffs
- Start date
Sunset Cliffs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
I think Dylan did great! He's so cute playing on those moving walkways. I can't wait to see how he acts at Disney!
He did really well for such a long flight. I think the sidewalk pics are so cute. I love anything that shows how little he is in the "big world", you know? It's like seeing it through his eyes.
It sounds like your flight went as well as could be expected. My DH is always concerned about disturbing the people around as well. I've noticed that other people's crying kids barely bother me at all. I'm just glad it's not my kid crying and I don't have to worry about it.That's a mother of 3 for ya
Other people's kids don't bother me either. In fact, even if a kid is melting down and the parents are trying to do something about it, I am fine. You just see so many parents who are oblivious to their child being bad and that is what makes me mad. I remember before kids, we would never want to sit by anyone with kids.
Now we are totally "those people". Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine taking my little guy on a plane. He definately would not do good being confined to a seat that long with no where to go.
Yeah, that was our concern w/ him. He likes to be on the go all the time. The only time he sits still at home is when he is looking at books or watching a show. That's why we brought some shows with us. It bought us some time!
Dylan did great on the flight! I know what you mean about the Yoga positions. I think I have done a few of my own. I always get the seat behind the person that has their seat back the entire flight and I always have the bag at my feet. Oh well.
Good call on the PSP. I'll have to download some shows to our ITouch as well as bringing our DVD player.
Love those blue rings, the first monorail ride of the trip.
The person in the seat in front of me leaned back and slept for almost the whole flight. So I was pretty cramped but I was expecting it. It just makes it hard when everything is at your feet. The PSP was our best idea because it can use up whole chunks of time, rather than 5 minutes per toy, you know?
Awww....how sweet is Dylan! He is adorableMy daughter joined me the last 4 days of my trip at WDW in December with my then 14-mos old grandson and I flew back with them. Let's just say I'm glad he fell asleep in my lap the whole 2 hr flight back. He was so restless on the bus to the airport that we were worried we would disturb other passengers on the plane but the ones on the bus were great - trying to distract him (he was teething and was miserable).
I don't recall if you said how old Dylan is but guessing that he is under 2 since he shared seats with you. I hope the rest of the night ended up more peaceful and can't wait to hear all about the rest of the trip!
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, Dylan is 21 months old and he is still teething too. In fact, about 1/2 way through this trip we realized he had 3 teeth pushing through. Poor little guy. You are so lucky that he slept on the flight because those teeth would have probably been pretty painful to him.
So glad you could join. Welcome!
Hi! Thanks so much.
DisneyMissy
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2009
I don't think I can say enough how adorable Dylan is! I'm glad he slept and behaved for you guys. That play area is a great idea, nice to let him lose a little energy before getting on the plane. I can't wait to read more!
Hey, Dylan did great on that long plane ride! Poor you though. I hope you bought yourself something to read on the way home.
The playground in the airport=genius!
I can't wait to hear what else you did on your very long first day. Did you ever adjust to the time difference (3 hours, right?) or did you just stay on west coast time?
The playground in the airport=genius!
I can't wait to hear what else you did on your very long first day. Did you ever adjust to the time difference (3 hours, right?) or did you just stay on west coast time?
Sunset Cliffs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
I'm on board. Can't wait to hear more!!
Also dying to know who the celeb was!!!
Your little guy is a cutie!!
Thank you so much! Thanks for stopping by.
Dylan is absolutely adorable.. I love the family self shot on the place!!!I can't wait to read the rest of Day 1...especially considering it was already 10pm!!
It took us 4 tries on the plane to get that shot.
Todd was over it by then. Yeah, it was a long day for sure.Aww, thanks so much. Now that I've seen a play area in an airport, I'm suprised that there are not more of them. Any time that I see an area for Dylan to play in, we go. It helps burn off some steam and he is a better kid later.
Hey, Dylan did great on that long plane ride! Poor you though. I hope you bought yourself something to read on the way home.
The playground in the airport=genius!
I can't wait to hear what else you did on your very long first day. Did you ever adjust to the time difference (3 hours, right?) or did you just stay on west coast time?
You know, I totally forgot to bring something on the way home.
We tried to stay in the middle of the time difference, but it was SO hot we realized we were going to need to get more stuff done in the morning. So we ended up adjusting to east coast more than we wanted to.
Sunset Cliffs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
After we got off the plane in Orlando, we found our way down to baggage claim. Now before I go any further, I should explain about our rental car situation. We always rent a car because we stay off property. Since we were staying for 2 weeks, we expected the price to be higher than usual (obviously) but it really felt like car rental prices were sky high. After a lot of research we realized that renting a car away from the airport saved us a lot of money. So we had booked a car to be picked up through Avis at the Hilton Hotel in DTD the following morning. We were also going to drop it off there the night before we flew home. Doing it this way saved us over $400 over picking it up at the airport that night!
We decided to have a car service pick us up at the airport rather than do the taxi thing because wed heard good things about it. In the end they picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel, and then they picked us up the morning of our flight home and brought us back to the airport. It cost us a little over $100 roundtrip, which is a lot of money, but in the end we still came out with $300 in our pocket more than if we rented from the airport.
So as we are walking to the baggage claim area, I am wondering how we are going to find the person. As we got off the elevator and walked to the baggage claim, we saw a guy standing there holding a sign with our names on it. We had our own sign!!! We felt so cool.
The guy helped Todd collect all of our luggage and we walked out the door and the car was right there waiting for us. I cant believe that I forgot to take a picture of it. Im pretty sure it was a Lincoln Town Car, so I found a couple of pictures online to show you. Ours was black.
Yeah, it was a beautiful car and it was HUGE inside. So much leg room and all of our stuff fit easily into the trunk. Our driver was very polite and we were loaded up and leaving the airport within 5 minutes of walking outside. I cant even tell you how nice it was to have someone do all of that for us. It had been such a long day and we didnt have to stand in line for a rental car and then figure out how to get to our hotel in the dark. If you ever are considering this service, I definitely recommend it.
Part of the car service is to stop at a grocery store for a half hour to let you pick up items that you need. By this time of night all of the stores were closed so we asked him to stop at a gas station that had a mini-mart attached. We were able to get sandwiches to eat that night as well as breakfast stuff for the morning. The people working in the store were all talking about the NBA finals because the Orlando Magic were in the finals against the Lakers. Todd & I are big-time NBA fans so we had a fun discussion with all of them about basketball. Everywhere we went at the beginning of our trip, there were Go Magic signs. So fun to be in the city whos team is in the finals.
We got to the Sheraton Vistana at 11:30 pm and there was actually a little line to check in. I was surprised since it was so late.
Waiting to check in.
When it was our turn, our check in went very smooth. We had sent in requests ahead of time to ask to be put in the Cascades section of the resort since it was in a good location to a big pool and the on-site Marketplace. We found out they had put us in Cascades so we were very happy. We had traded our timeshare through Interval International to be able to stay here, so we confirmed that they linked both weeks that we traded for together in their system so that we could stay in the same condo for the full 2 weeks. They said no problem. They also said that a crib and high chair should already be in the room. I told Todd that it all seemed way too easy.
They had a shuttle take us to our room and the 2 guys working the shuttle talked about how they both had just become fathers and this was going to be their first Fathers Day. It was very sweet. Once we got there, they told us to go up to our room and they would bring all of our stuff up behind us.
We took the elevator to the 3rd floor and walked into our room. It was a very nice room but instantly you could smell that someone had smoked a lot in the room. I have always been a little sensitive to cigarette smoke but my mom (who was joining us in 2 days) is very sensitive to it. I knew it was going to be a problem for her, so when the guys brought up our stuff we asked them what we should do. They said to call the front desk & ask to be switched. They would come back & get us if we were moving.
So Todd called the front desk and told them the situation and asked to be moved. They said they were totally booked but that a lot of people would be checking out tomorrow so to come to the lobby at 10:00 to try again. We also noticed that there was no crib or high chair so we let them know that. As he was on the phone I had used the front bathroom and noticed the toilet wasnt flushing properly, so he mentioned that as well. They said they would send over the crib right away.
Here are some pictures of the room. I took them the next morning so there was better light. It was a very cute space but it was a little smaller than we were expecting (we had stayed in Cascades before and it was definitely bigger last time), but overall it was still a nice room with a full kitchen, dining room and living room.
We sat at the dining room table to eat our sandwiches and by now it is after midnight. We get a knock on the door and we are expecting the crib. Nope, its a maintenance guy sent over to look at the toilet. I was really surprised they would send someone so late at night. We told them that we could get it to flush, it just wasnt flushing well. So he goes to work in there and we were cracking up at all of the sounds that we were listening to while we were eating. We finish up and there is another knock at the door. It is the Maintenance Supervisor coming over to help because the other guy had called him. We checked our other toilet and it was having the same problem so they went to work on that too. In the end, they said that they thought someone had flushed soap down the toilet. Go figure!
By this point, Dylan has decided to get his second wind and is running wildly around the room having a great time. He was climbing on every piece of furniture and just bouncing off the walls in general. I cant say that I blame him after having to sit still for so long on the plane, but it was a little crazy. I was trying to calm him down when his crib finally arrived at 12:45. Here is a picture of his crib. It was so cute w/ wheels on the bottom so he liked to push it around the room.
The maintenance guys finally left and the toilets were still not flushing that great, but better. We got Dylan in his pajamas and read him a book and he finally settled down. We got him into bed around 1:00 am (which is around 10 pm west coast time). We had him sleep in our room that night in case he woke up & got scared, so we had to give him time to fall asleep. I wrote up my trip report & Todd watched TV until we could finally go to bed at 1:30 am.
It had been such a long day. We were so glad that the plane ride was behind us and we were ready to start having fun tomorrow.
Stay tuned to find out were we able to switch rooms? Did Dylan sleep through the night?
We decided to have a car service pick us up at the airport rather than do the taxi thing because wed heard good things about it. In the end they picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel, and then they picked us up the morning of our flight home and brought us back to the airport. It cost us a little over $100 roundtrip, which is a lot of money, but in the end we still came out with $300 in our pocket more than if we rented from the airport.
So as we are walking to the baggage claim area, I am wondering how we are going to find the person. As we got off the elevator and walked to the baggage claim, we saw a guy standing there holding a sign with our names on it. We had our own sign!!! We felt so cool.
The guy helped Todd collect all of our luggage and we walked out the door and the car was right there waiting for us. I cant believe that I forgot to take a picture of it. Im pretty sure it was a Lincoln Town Car, so I found a couple of pictures online to show you. Ours was black.Yeah, it was a beautiful car and it was HUGE inside. So much leg room and all of our stuff fit easily into the trunk. Our driver was very polite and we were loaded up and leaving the airport within 5 minutes of walking outside. I cant even tell you how nice it was to have someone do all of that for us. It had been such a long day and we didnt have to stand in line for a rental car and then figure out how to get to our hotel in the dark. If you ever are considering this service, I definitely recommend it.
Part of the car service is to stop at a grocery store for a half hour to let you pick up items that you need. By this time of night all of the stores were closed so we asked him to stop at a gas station that had a mini-mart attached. We were able to get sandwiches to eat that night as well as breakfast stuff for the morning. The people working in the store were all talking about the NBA finals because the Orlando Magic were in the finals against the Lakers. Todd & I are big-time NBA fans so we had a fun discussion with all of them about basketball. Everywhere we went at the beginning of our trip, there were Go Magic signs. So fun to be in the city whos team is in the finals.
We got to the Sheraton Vistana at 11:30 pm and there was actually a little line to check in. I was surprised since it was so late.
Waiting to check in.
When it was our turn, our check in went very smooth. We had sent in requests ahead of time to ask to be put in the Cascades section of the resort since it was in a good location to a big pool and the on-site Marketplace. We found out they had put us in Cascades so we were very happy. We had traded our timeshare through Interval International to be able to stay here, so we confirmed that they linked both weeks that we traded for together in their system so that we could stay in the same condo for the full 2 weeks. They said no problem. They also said that a crib and high chair should already be in the room. I told Todd that it all seemed way too easy.
They had a shuttle take us to our room and the 2 guys working the shuttle talked about how they both had just become fathers and this was going to be their first Fathers Day. It was very sweet. Once we got there, they told us to go up to our room and they would bring all of our stuff up behind us.
We took the elevator to the 3rd floor and walked into our room. It was a very nice room but instantly you could smell that someone had smoked a lot in the room. I have always been a little sensitive to cigarette smoke but my mom (who was joining us in 2 days) is very sensitive to it. I knew it was going to be a problem for her, so when the guys brought up our stuff we asked them what we should do. They said to call the front desk & ask to be switched. They would come back & get us if we were moving.
So Todd called the front desk and told them the situation and asked to be moved. They said they were totally booked but that a lot of people would be checking out tomorrow so to come to the lobby at 10:00 to try again. We also noticed that there was no crib or high chair so we let them know that. As he was on the phone I had used the front bathroom and noticed the toilet wasnt flushing properly, so he mentioned that as well. They said they would send over the crib right away.
Here are some pictures of the room. I took them the next morning so there was better light. It was a very cute space but it was a little smaller than we were expecting (we had stayed in Cascades before and it was definitely bigger last time), but overall it was still a nice room with a full kitchen, dining room and living room.
We sat at the dining room table to eat our sandwiches and by now it is after midnight. We get a knock on the door and we are expecting the crib. Nope, its a maintenance guy sent over to look at the toilet. I was really surprised they would send someone so late at night. We told them that we could get it to flush, it just wasnt flushing well. So he goes to work in there and we were cracking up at all of the sounds that we were listening to while we were eating.
We finish up and there is another knock at the door. It is the Maintenance Supervisor coming over to help because the other guy had called him. We checked our other toilet and it was having the same problem so they went to work on that too. In the end, they said that they thought someone had flushed soap down the toilet. Go figure!By this point, Dylan has decided to get his second wind and is running wildly around the room having a great time. He was climbing on every piece of furniture and just bouncing off the walls in general. I cant say that I blame him after having to sit still for so long on the plane, but it was a little crazy. I was trying to calm him down when his crib finally arrived at 12:45. Here is a picture of his crib. It was so cute w/ wheels on the bottom so he liked to push it around the room.
The maintenance guys finally left and the toilets were still not flushing that great, but better. We got Dylan in his pajamas and read him a book and he finally settled down. We got him into bed around 1:00 am (which is around 10 pm west coast time). We had him sleep in our room that night in case he woke up & got scared, so we had to give him time to fall asleep. I wrote up my trip report & Todd watched TV until we could finally go to bed at 1:30 am.
It had been such a long day. We were so glad that the plane ride was behind us and we were ready to start having fun tomorrow.
Stay tuned to find out were we able to switch rooms? Did Dylan sleep through the night?
Raecheal
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2008
Great update!!!
I really do hope you were able to switch rooms.. were non-smokers and to us there's nothing more annoying when you walk into a hotel room that clearly smells of smoke especially if it's a non-smoking room.
I'm really impressed with the car service you chose.. i bet it would be faster than DME...
I really do hope you were able to switch rooms.. were non-smokers and to us there's nothing more annoying when you walk into a hotel room that clearly smells of smoke especially if it's a non-smoking room.
I'm really impressed with the car service you chose.. i bet it would be faster than DME...
jenjolt
Loves All Things Disney!
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2008
Awww...I'm sorry that you had so much trouble with your room, but for the most part the flight was uneventful and you made it to Orlando YAY!!! I hope you were able to switch rooms and I can't wait to hear about your next day!!!! You have arrived!!
The car service does sound great. I like the grocery store stop feature. Good idea!
Ugh on the room situation. Hope you get switched with no trouble. I have to tell you the same maintenance worker thing happened to us. George called one night to let maintenance know our tub/shower wasn't draining well, thinking someone would show up the next day. Nope, someone was there in like 20 minutes. We had to tell him that someone was actually IN the shower at that point.
Ugh on the room situation. Hope you get switched with no trouble. I have to tell you the same maintenance worker thing happened to us. George called one night to let maintenance know our tub/shower wasn't draining well, thinking someone would show up the next day. Nope, someone was there in like 20 minutes. We had to tell him that someone was actually IN the shower at that point.
TinyDancer
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2008
Glad I found your TR! In 3 weeks, we are taking my 4 yr old & 21 month old to Disney! Can't wait to hear more about your adventures. 
dismagiclover
Mrs. Darling: Mom to Wendy, John & Michael
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
Wow good thing you were still on CA time. That is one late night for a little guy. The car service sounds amazing. Leaving the airport with all of your baggage that quick sounds ideal
arizonacolbys
Owner of 2 Crazy Labs!
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2002
Great trip report so far! Your little guy is too cute! Happy to hear he was so well behaved on your flights! We're taking our baby girl on her frist trip in 3 short weeks - she'll be almost 11 months when we travel - and I'm a bit nervous about the plane rides! LOL We're definitely bringing some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD's for her to watch & I'm hoping she sleeps some, too.
Can't wait to hear more about your trip & I really hope you guys get moved!! There's nothing worse than a smokey smelling hotel room - I'm also very sensitive to it & would have to be moved.
Happy to hear he was so well behaved on your flights! We're taking our baby girl on her frist trip in 3 short weeks - she'll be almost 11 months when we travel - and I'm a bit nervous about the plane rides! LOL We're definitely bringing some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD's for her to watch & I'm hoping she sleeps some, too.Can't wait to hear more about your trip & I really hope you guys get moved!! There's nothing worse than a smokey smelling hotel room - I'm also very sensitive to it & would have to be moved.
aaaateamsgrandma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
What a very ong day you had for sure. Hope tomorrow is a better one and you get your room switched with no problems. I would have a hard time iwth cigarette smell in my room as well. They just have to bring those ionizers in and run them for a couple of hours to get rid of it. One would think places would do that automatically.
Anxiously waiting for more.
Ginny
Anxiously waiting for more.
Ginny
Sunset Cliffs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
It looks like we are going to be doing a lot more family stuff this week (this time w/ Todd's side of the family), so we are going to be pretty busy. I will try to get an update in this next week sometime, but I'm not sure when. Thanks for hanging around everyone!
The smoke used to not bother me as bad until I got pregnant. After that I have been more sensitive. Isn't that weird? The car service was great. It probably is faster than DME, but it's not free. So that is the trade off. But if you are willing to spend the money, it was nice to have no wait.
If I had to choose between a difficult flight and a few problems with my room, I would choose the room problems. Those always seem fixable, where a flight can go bad very quickly.
It shocked me that they would send someone over after midnight! We didn't make it sound like an emergency when we called. It was kind of like, "oh yeah, we're also having trouble with the toilet." I guess you could look at it as good customer service... The car service was great. I know that we will probably not do it again (due to the cost) but if there is a way to fit it in, you can bet I will try. It is easy to get spoiled very quickly by that!
You are going to have so much fun! Every day was something new with Dylan and I feel like he really took it all in and enjoyed it. We tried not to push him too hard, so we ended up missing out on some things that we wanted to do. But that's ok because there is always next time. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for jumping over. I'm just getting started so you didn't miss much.
Great update!!!
I really do hope you were able to switch rooms.. were non-smokers and to us there's nothing more annoying when you walk into a hotel room that clearly smells of smoke especially if it's a non-smoking room.
I'm really impressed with the car service you chose.. i bet it would be faster than DME...
The smoke used to not bother me as bad until I got pregnant. After that I have been more sensitive. Isn't that weird? The car service was great. It probably is faster than DME, but it's not free.
So that is the trade off. But if you are willing to spend the money, it was nice to have no wait.If I had to choose between a difficult flight and a few problems with my room, I would choose the room problems. Those always seem fixable, where a flight can go bad very quickly.
The car service does sound great. I like the grocery store stop feature. Good idea!
Ugh on the room situation. Hope you get switched with no trouble. I have to tell you the same maintenance worker thing happened to us. George called one night to let maintenance know our tub/shower wasn't draining well, thinking someone would show up the next day. Nope, someone was there in like 20 minutes. We had to tell him that someone was actually IN the shower at that point.
It shocked me that they would send someone over after midnight! We didn't make it sound like an emergency when we called. It was kind of like, "oh yeah, we're also having trouble with the toilet." I guess you could look at it as good customer service... The car service was great. I know that we will probably not do it again (due to the cost) but if there is a way to fit it in, you can bet I will try. It is easy to get spoiled very quickly by that!
Glad I found your TR! In 3 weeks, we are taking my 4 yr old & 21 month old to Disney! Can't wait to hear more about your adventures.
You are going to have so much fun! Every day was something new with Dylan and I feel like he really took it all in and enjoyed it. We tried not to push him too hard, so we ended up missing out on some things that we wanted to do. But that's ok because there is always next time. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for jumping over. I'm just getting started so you didn't miss much.
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