Who: Me (the mom), Vanessa (19), Ivan (16), Hannah (19), and Madi (17)
The trip:
So…. for a little background information, we booked this trip because we found out that we were going to have some family members going and taking their young children on their “first visit”. After thinking about whether we could make it work, I found out that one of my best co-worker friends and a large group of her family would also be there. Well, how could I say no to making this trip?
Since we were planning on a relatively short trip, we decided we would try to splurge and stay somewhere nice. With my daughter Vanessa being an passholder, we were able to get a discounted rate staying at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. We booked a Tower Room that was club level and with a view of the Magic Kingdom. While I have stayed at this resort before, it was in a garden wing view. We have stayed club level at the Boardwalk when I have travelled with other adults in my party, but with the kids spending so much time in the parks we don’t always stay at the deluxe resorts. I actually went back and forth a few times in my mind on whether or not club level was going to be worth the extra expense, and I almost changed the reservation to a non-club level room two weeks before our arrival – boy am I am glad I didn’t!
Day 1 (Friday – our travel day):
Hannah and Madi had already been in Orlando for the week prior to our arrival spending time with their mother and her good friend at a resort in the Orlando area. Their mother planned to drop them off early that morning (they would have to wait for our arrival) and then head to catch a flight back to Dallas. At drop off because we were not there, they would not let them check into the room, but did allow them up to the concierge lounge to snack and wait for us. They are both sweet girls, and I am sure they were not being disruptive, but they were waiting for a while, our flight was not scheduled to arrive until 9:20 pm that evening. One of the concierge workers asked them when their family was set to arrive and they told them after 10 pm. They went to ask someone something and then they came back and informed them that while they could not give them a key to the room or check them in, they would physically give them access to it, so they would not have to wait in the lounge for so long.
Hannah sent me a text around 10:30 am and it said “They let us in the room! It’s huge”. Well our last visit back in December/ January we had spent 10 days at the All-Star Sports Resort, so in my mind I was thinking anything is huge compared to that. I had made three requests when I booked our reservation – that we were close to lounge, odd-numbered so our beds faced the castle, and close to the elevator. So, of course my first question to Hannah was “do the beds face the castle?” I also told her I wanted the bed closest to the bathroom and they could lay on the other one. I then told her to send me a picture of the room.
Then Hannah started sending me pictures. The first picture I received did not have the same green and black décor that I had seen online so I was a bit confused, but she said, “yes they face the castle”. Then I kept getting picture after picture. In all she sent me 11 pictures and I was still VERY confused. Then it hit me – WE GOT AN UPGRADE! This was not the room I paid for. In more than 20 + visits, we had never been upgraded. I went into my Disney Experience account and I saw it – our “room type” was no longer a tower room, club level, theme park view – it was now THEME PARK PRESIDENTIAL SUITE CLUB LEVEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had been selected as “Family of the Day” and as that, we were given an upgrade!
Of course, by this time, their mother had only just made it to the airport and I called to tell her about our luck. I told her she should stay a day or two and see and enjoy the room with us, it was only Friday after all and she didn’t have to be back at work until Monday. She had already dropped off her rental car, so she turned around and caught a Mears shuttle back to the hotel so her girls wouldn’t have to be all alone until we got there.
Like I said earlier – we were splurging a bit on this trip, since it was really going to be our only “vacation” this summer with our other scheduling conflicts and of course soccer, and Vanessa having to go back to Claremont a little bit earlier than normal for college.
Our flight was full but good and we arrived at Orlando International Airport safe and on time. We didn’t check any bags and Gregory from Quicksilver Transportation was there on time and we were in our limo and on our way to the resort in minutes!
By the time we got to the hotel, the snacks in the lounge were all put up, but Hannah and Madi had taken care of us and we had food goodies waiting for us in the refrigerator. It had also been pre-stocked with bottled water and soft drinks.
Hope to figure out how to post these pictures by tomorrow! To be continued....
