Shadowcat70
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2010
WDW 2014 trip report
Split stay at Pop Century 10/17-19 and 10/19-25
Cast of characters:
Me - the mom, family shusher, favorite Disney movie Sleeping Beauty"
Hubby Jack - the dad, Star Wars fan, and roasted pecan/almond craver.
Son Trowa - trades for chaser pins, favorite Disney movie "Tron", favorite rides are Test Track and all the mountains, is autistic.
Daughter Becca - collects all things Zero, major foodie, love the Disney animals (Marie, Dumbo, Simba, etc...)
My mom - First time to WDW, loves all things Disney, favorite Disney movie "Pinocchio"
My dad - First time to WDW, not as crazy about Disney as the rest of us, but really enjoys the parks and the rides and has a great time.
This was a very special trip for me. I had always wanted to go to WDW with my folks since I first went in 1993. My parents are both retired now, and the hubby and I were able to save up the SW miles to practically get free airfare for everyone, so we paid for my parent's flight, room and park tickets. They have taken such great care of me and my brother growing up, that I definitely wanted to treat them to a vacation where they didn't have to worry about anything. They deserve it.
Oct. 17 (arrival day)
The morning before the trip, we were up bright and early to check in to Southwest Airlines for our flight the next day. The process went smoothly, and we all had A group seats, so we were feeling very positive wed sit together without issues. Hubby and I both worked from home the next day (at least tried our best to stay focused!) so we could get a head start on laundry. Being that its already pretty cold here in Oregon, all the shorts were already packed, as well as the sunscreen, swim goggles, etc
Even though we were pretty much prepared to go, probably moreso than any other family vacation weve taken, hubby and I still didnt manage to get to bed until about 11pm.
That 3am alarm came waaay too soon, but it only took a second of groggy grumpiness to remember were up this early to GO TO WDW!!!
The kids were up and in their clothes they laid out the previous night a lot quicker than I ever expected, and we were ready to go right on schedule.
Hubby had purchased some large breakfast muffins the night before, so I put one each into a zip lock sandwich bag and handed them out to the family. I was a bit worried that the time between flights in Chicago would not be enough for food, so this way we all had a big muffin and some other snacks just in case.
My parents were leaving Seattle at the same time we were leaving Portland, so I texted my mom and they were on the way to the airport as well. I decided to take some benadryl before leaving the house to calm my flying nerves and it worked great.
Father-in-law dropped us off at the airport and we were checked in with about 30m to go before boarding. My son already took out his 3DS and was playing quietly, while my daughter was just sleeping and waiting. I text my mom again and they too were at their airport waiting to board. Wed meet in Chicago.
We began to notice A LOT of veterans in wheelchairs arriving at our gate. When it became time to board, they were all pre-boarded one at a time, which cause a delay in the departure, but nothing that would cause us to worry about missing our connecting flight. It was an honor flying with them and the crew of the Southwest flight was fantastic. I slept most of the flight thanks to the benadryl. It was a pretty rough landing at Midway airport in Chicago. As we touched down and slowed down, the flight attendant got on the intercom and said Whew! We made it! Since the veterans were taking a later flight to Washington D.C., they let the rest of the passengers off first to make connecting flights. We hurried to our next gate, seeing my folks there in the A group and we lined right up with them. There were some tears of joy shed, excited we were finally going to be all on our way to WDW soon!
Hubby did the gallant thing by running over to the nearest McDonalds and getting some packs of chicken nuggets and some cheese burgers for us all to share on the plane. They warned us when we boarded the plan that the takeoff would be really bumpy, but we must have gotten lucky because it was a really smooth takeoff.
In the air, my parents and I looked over the AirMall magazine, laughing about some of the crazy things in there, and hubby and kids played games and watched some movies on the ipad. At one point my parents and the kids were all talking and I instinctively "shushed" everyone without realizing it. Hubby laughs and said to me "Did you just shush your Mom?" Having two kids that tend to talk over each other at home a lot has turned me into a ninja-shusher, lol!
We had gotten some free SW drink coupons, so after a while we cashed those in. I have got to say that SW makes a strong drink. It was much appreciated!
After about two hours and 40 or so minutes, we arrived at MCO and got to take our first trip of the vacation, the airport light rail! Happy bus, here we come!
Of course we did the same thing in our excitement that we did last time, we went down to level 1 on the A side instead of the B side. We did the same thing the first time, and we even had the map with us and everything. lol!
Having our magic bands on helped us skip the line at the Magical Express desk, and we were whisked right over to our bus with no waiting. This was about 5:30pm on a Friday.
On board the bus, we took a couple a now traditional Happy Bus photos. Sorry if they are too big, I am not sure how to resize them.
We were the first stop on the bus (Pop Century) and I think it took us about 45m to get from the airport to the resort. When we exited the bus, we waited for the driver to get our carry-ons out from under the bus, and we gave him a tip. Then we were on our way to the online check inside Pop Century.
Check-in was a breeze, and my parents were presented with anniversary buttons. This was the first of two room-only nights before our 6-night package stay. I asked at check-in if it would be possible to activate our 6-day park tickets early, and after a short wait while they talked to a manager, they were able to activate them. We walked through the Pop giftshop and through the food court to give my folks a little tour of the place, and then headed to our rooms. We had been given ajoining rooms in he 70s building, 0306 and 0307. They were GREAT rooms! The walk to the main building was not bad at all, and it was a nice and quiet area overlooking the giant foosball table players. In comparision, when we went 3 years ago we request the 80s building and that walk felt like forever.
So we got the carry-ons settled into the room, took a pit stop, and then headed back over to the food court. It was a little busy, but not bad, and the lines moved pretty quickly. All the food we ordered was really good! Myself and my parents all got the rotisserie chicken with roasted red potatoes and green beans. I split that with my daughter since it was so much food! Hubby got the Everything fried rice, and our son got the chicken nuggets and fries.
To walk off dinner and stretch our legs a bit, we walked over to the AoA resort to take a look. It was AMAZING. The theming was incredible! We also noticed that the main pool was locked to only AoA resort guests, in case anyone was thinking about walking over there to swim from Pop.
We headed back to the room around 10pm and our luggage still had not arrived, so my parents decided they were going to head over to Petals for a while. I let them know we were going to unwind and wait for the luggage and that I would text them when it got here. We were prepared with a full change of clothes and bathingsuits for everything in the carry-ons should the worse happen. Lucky, we didnt need that. Right around 10:20pm, our luggage arrived. So figuring we first checked in and got to our rooms about 6:30 or so, luggage arrived a little under 3 hours. This was about the same time we got it on our trip three years ago when we arrived in Orlando about the same time. I texted my mom to let her know luggage was here, and then we started to get settled in for the night. Tomorrow is going to be our first day at Magic Kingdom!
Well that's all for now. I will work on a write-up for Day 1 at Magic Kingdom soon.
Split stay at Pop Century 10/17-19 and 10/19-25
Cast of characters:
Me - the mom, family shusher, favorite Disney movie Sleeping Beauty"
Hubby Jack - the dad, Star Wars fan, and roasted pecan/almond craver.
Son Trowa - trades for chaser pins, favorite Disney movie "Tron", favorite rides are Test Track and all the mountains, is autistic.
Daughter Becca - collects all things Zero, major foodie, love the Disney animals (Marie, Dumbo, Simba, etc...)
My mom - First time to WDW, loves all things Disney, favorite Disney movie "Pinocchio"
My dad - First time to WDW, not as crazy about Disney as the rest of us, but really enjoys the parks and the rides and has a great time.
This was a very special trip for me. I had always wanted to go to WDW with my folks since I first went in 1993. My parents are both retired now, and the hubby and I were able to save up the SW miles to practically get free airfare for everyone, so we paid for my parent's flight, room and park tickets. They have taken such great care of me and my brother growing up, that I definitely wanted to treat them to a vacation where they didn't have to worry about anything. They deserve it.
Oct. 17 (arrival day)
The morning before the trip, we were up bright and early to check in to Southwest Airlines for our flight the next day. The process went smoothly, and we all had A group seats, so we were feeling very positive wed sit together without issues. Hubby and I both worked from home the next day (at least tried our best to stay focused!) so we could get a head start on laundry. Being that its already pretty cold here in Oregon, all the shorts were already packed, as well as the sunscreen, swim goggles, etc
Even though we were pretty much prepared to go, probably moreso than any other family vacation weve taken, hubby and I still didnt manage to get to bed until about 11pm.
That 3am alarm came waaay too soon, but it only took a second of groggy grumpiness to remember were up this early to GO TO WDW!!!
The kids were up and in their clothes they laid out the previous night a lot quicker than I ever expected, and we were ready to go right on schedule.
Hubby had purchased some large breakfast muffins the night before, so I put one each into a zip lock sandwich bag and handed them out to the family. I was a bit worried that the time between flights in Chicago would not be enough for food, so this way we all had a big muffin and some other snacks just in case.
My parents were leaving Seattle at the same time we were leaving Portland, so I texted my mom and they were on the way to the airport as well. I decided to take some benadryl before leaving the house to calm my flying nerves and it worked great.
Father-in-law dropped us off at the airport and we were checked in with about 30m to go before boarding. My son already took out his 3DS and was playing quietly, while my daughter was just sleeping and waiting. I text my mom again and they too were at their airport waiting to board. Wed meet in Chicago.
We began to notice A LOT of veterans in wheelchairs arriving at our gate. When it became time to board, they were all pre-boarded one at a time, which cause a delay in the departure, but nothing that would cause us to worry about missing our connecting flight. It was an honor flying with them and the crew of the Southwest flight was fantastic. I slept most of the flight thanks to the benadryl. It was a pretty rough landing at Midway airport in Chicago. As we touched down and slowed down, the flight attendant got on the intercom and said Whew! We made it! Since the veterans were taking a later flight to Washington D.C., they let the rest of the passengers off first to make connecting flights. We hurried to our next gate, seeing my folks there in the A group and we lined right up with them. There were some tears of joy shed, excited we were finally going to be all on our way to WDW soon!
Hubby did the gallant thing by running over to the nearest McDonalds and getting some packs of chicken nuggets and some cheese burgers for us all to share on the plane. They warned us when we boarded the plan that the takeoff would be really bumpy, but we must have gotten lucky because it was a really smooth takeoff.
In the air, my parents and I looked over the AirMall magazine, laughing about some of the crazy things in there, and hubby and kids played games and watched some movies on the ipad. At one point my parents and the kids were all talking and I instinctively "shushed" everyone without realizing it. Hubby laughs and said to me "Did you just shush your Mom?" Having two kids that tend to talk over each other at home a lot has turned me into a ninja-shusher, lol!
We had gotten some free SW drink coupons, so after a while we cashed those in. I have got to say that SW makes a strong drink. It was much appreciated!
After about two hours and 40 or so minutes, we arrived at MCO and got to take our first trip of the vacation, the airport light rail! Happy bus, here we come!
Of course we did the same thing in our excitement that we did last time, we went down to level 1 on the A side instead of the B side. We did the same thing the first time, and we even had the map with us and everything. lol!
Having our magic bands on helped us skip the line at the Magical Express desk, and we were whisked right over to our bus with no waiting. This was about 5:30pm on a Friday.
On board the bus, we took a couple a now traditional Happy Bus photos. Sorry if they are too big, I am not sure how to resize them.
We were the first stop on the bus (Pop Century) and I think it took us about 45m to get from the airport to the resort. When we exited the bus, we waited for the driver to get our carry-ons out from under the bus, and we gave him a tip. Then we were on our way to the online check inside Pop Century.
Check-in was a breeze, and my parents were presented with anniversary buttons. This was the first of two room-only nights before our 6-night package stay. I asked at check-in if it would be possible to activate our 6-day park tickets early, and after a short wait while they talked to a manager, they were able to activate them. We walked through the Pop giftshop and through the food court to give my folks a little tour of the place, and then headed to our rooms. We had been given ajoining rooms in he 70s building, 0306 and 0307. They were GREAT rooms! The walk to the main building was not bad at all, and it was a nice and quiet area overlooking the giant foosball table players. In comparision, when we went 3 years ago we request the 80s building and that walk felt like forever.
So we got the carry-ons settled into the room, took a pit stop, and then headed back over to the food court. It was a little busy, but not bad, and the lines moved pretty quickly. All the food we ordered was really good! Myself and my parents all got the rotisserie chicken with roasted red potatoes and green beans. I split that with my daughter since it was so much food! Hubby got the Everything fried rice, and our son got the chicken nuggets and fries.
To walk off dinner and stretch our legs a bit, we walked over to the AoA resort to take a look. It was AMAZING. The theming was incredible! We also noticed that the main pool was locked to only AoA resort guests, in case anyone was thinking about walking over there to swim from Pop.
We headed back to the room around 10pm and our luggage still had not arrived, so my parents decided they were going to head over to Petals for a while. I let them know we were going to unwind and wait for the luggage and that I would text them when it got here. We were prepared with a full change of clothes and bathingsuits for everything in the carry-ons should the worse happen. Lucky, we didnt need that. Right around 10:20pm, our luggage arrived. So figuring we first checked in and got to our rooms about 6:30 or so, luggage arrived a little under 3 hours. This was about the same time we got it on our trip three years ago when we arrived in Orlando about the same time. I texted my mom to let her know luggage was here, and then we started to get settled in for the night. Tomorrow is going to be our first day at Magic Kingdom!
Well that's all for now. I will work on a write-up for Day 1 at Magic Kingdom soon.
