AMW's March 2010 Trip Report

[amw]

So, I wasn't going to do a trip report this year ... but then someone asked me how my trip was via e-mail and I started typing and typing ... hey, it's a trip report! ;;D ; We went to WDW the week before Ontario's March Break via Buffalo (March 7-14) and then spent 4 more days at the Beach before flying home via Tampa.

So it starts...


My whole gang managed to catch the stomach flu the week before our trip. Everyone had recovered except ME by trip time. I was still weak, and not hungry at all so the first half of our trip was a little “unenthusiastic” for me. ;

We drove to Buffalo the day before our flight and stayed at the Fairfield Suites to get their free parking, breakfast, and shuttle to airport. This was on points.

Flying out of Buffalo was super easy. My only complaint was Southwest's seating policy. I anally went online exactly 24 hours before - to the second, trust me. And, I still only got "B"s for seating. We didn't have a problem either direction in sitting together, but the flights were full. I think more people are paying the $10 for assigned seats, or signing up for their business classes because there's no way 70 people logged on before me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed Southwest and they made up 30 minutes on the way down.

We did the Magical Express to POFQ. It was a little slow because it was now 4 pm on a Saturday, and they were waiting for the buses to get at least half full. Got to the resort. I had previously done online Disney check-in, but that line had the longest wait. There was no one in the regular lines. We finally made it to the room at 5:30. (Bags didn't show up until 9:30 - I called down to baggage service and apparently they will hold your bags until 4 hours after check-in at hotel, not after landing ... was much faster at Poly?!)

The girls and I really liked POFQ. We like the "city" feel. Everything was very compact. Our room was centrally located - down one flight to pool, down the opposite way for food court, and bus, one side for boat to Downtown Disney. The room was plenty large compared to the other hotels we stayed at on the trip. ;We could see the MK fireworks from the river. The girls enjoyed the pool, slide (although they didn't like all the toddlers on it - need an "older" slide), and they loved having a hot tub. Most importantly, POFQ was QUIET. Never heard a peep out of neighbours or anyone else in the building even though they were at full capacity.

Both girls unanimously agreed that POFQ was WAY better than the Poly ; ;...Disney surpassed my expectations on moderates (better than a Holiday Inn).

We used the Downtown Disney boats the first 3 nights for dinner - it was relaxing but a bit chilly. The temps for our trip hovered around 20C most of the trip but it was closer to 10C in the mornings and evenings.

On the Wed. we picked up our car rental (on points). From then on we ate offsite, and got groceries for breakfast. The girls and I would head to the parks while hubbie went golfing, and then he would either meet us at the parks, or pick us up at the parking lot and go for dinner. He has decided he always wants a car from now on whether we are on property or not.

The parks were not too bad the week before March Break. We like to head out for opening and then leave for dinner so we never had a problem doing everything we wanted to.

...more details to follow...

 

[amw]

Monday - EPCOT - one of the girls favourite. ; Since we were just there last year and the hubbie wasn't with us, I decided we would do whatever we like. If that meant lining up to see characters while everyone else was running for rope-drop, so be it. That was my attitude all trip. It was the garden festival so we explored all the fairy topiaries. We did all of Futureworld, except Innoventions. We covered Mexico, and then Mommy decided we needed to go back to the hotel because a diet of gravol was taking its toll and I was tired. A shame really, because this and the next day were the best weather and crowd-wise, but I just didn't have it in me. Dinner at T-Rex which I had booked ahead of time – way too loud and dark when one is sick. Girls were underwhelmed.

pics from Garden Festival:

 

[amw]

Tuesday – Magic Kingdom – Daddy came with us this time. It was drizzling in the morning but nothing substantial. Opening dance on train station was tamed down though. Again, crowds were pretty low. I had heard that the castle would be tarped for renos, but it wasn’t! (only on one side where the water was drained, but the tarp was printed to blend in to the castle wall.) We got to walk through the castle and see the mosaics. The girls had never done this before. Did all the rides except a bit of Adventureland and Toontown before I could tell that Daddy was reaching his limits. This was about 4 pm. If I had been healthy, I would have sent him packing and stayed with the girls until closing and fireworks. But … not this trip. We never did get to see the night parade or fireworks this trip. This was the only good night for it. It happens. ; :-\

Castle without tarp:

New Muppet Voluntear intro to parade ... I guess that'll get cancelled soon:

Giant Rice Krispie Treat from MK to celebrate both daughter's birthdays:

 

[amw]

Wednesday – Animal Kingdom – We made it for opening. Did you realize they do a little opening at AK before rope drop?! I didn’t. Again, going against the grain we decided to go to Dinoland to start the day. The girls rode that roller coaster thingy they have 3 times in a row. Thank goodness they can do these rides on their own now! I was feeling normal today, but Mommy doesn’t like drops on her best of days! Since Daddy wasn’t here and Mommy is the best (remember that girls!) I let them play some midway games. They were guaranteed to win because no one else was in that section. ; We then lined up for Winnie-the-pooh characters, and walked past the Bird show where the first show was going to start and decided to watch it. Low and behold, the girls were asked if they would like to open the show! They had to pull back the curtains and say a line, and then they were marched to the very first row, centre seats. They were given a certificate with their names on it and a little tiger finger puppet which my youngest named “Tyler”! (That’s an inside for NorthernMouse & NorthernMinnie!) The funny thing is … my girls don’t like birds… scares them really, especially the eldest. LOL! ; We did the Safari, and then lined up for character autographs. They skipped the other shows, and conservation station. It was the hottest day in a month – inching towards 80F – and the girls wanted to head back to swim at the POFQ pool. We left around 3 pm if that. Dinner was at Chevy’s at the Crossroads. I highly recommend it for an offsite meal. Good tex-mex, free fresh nachos, balloon animals for the kids, and free ice-cream cones for them.

Rope drop at AK:

Opening the Bird Show:

Birds up close!:

Back to POFQ for a swim:

 

[amw]

Thursday – Hollywood Studios -- Rain was a-coming – We knew this day and the next would be wet. There was a slow-moving system that had sat on Louisiana for 2 days. It later went up the NorthEast coast and caused a lot of flooding damage. I don’t know how much of it hit Canada. We went to DHS because it’s a smaller park and it seems to rain every year we go there so it’s tradition now. ; ; It was already raining hard enough at opening to purchase a Disney rain poncho. I had 2 from previous years but needed to keep the youngest dry too. We headed straight for Toy Story Mania which was a good thing because the fastpasses disappeared almost immediately. A lot of people went to DHS that day. Mainly because it was the only day besides Sat that Fantasmic was scheduled to play. I’m sure it was cancelled – we didn’t hang around to find out. (Disney really shouldn’t do one night a week. It gets cancelled on the best of nights!) Anyhoo, by ten in the morning is was pouring rain … cold rain. And unlike summer storms, this downpour did not let up … not one bit … not until Saturday a.m. It was the most rain ever in one day for the locals. Yeah us for being around to witness! ; DHS was OK. We stuck to indoor things – drawing academy, 100 years of Walt, Movie Ride, Muppets, American Idol. We sat to see Indiana Jones which the girls had never seen, but they cancelled the airplane scenes due to the rain. Daddy showed up to ride Rock N Roller Coaster with eldest ; - Mommy’s stomach can’t take that one anymore. The youngest chickened out. She loved the ride on the last 2 trips, but doesn’t remember it … she has very poor long-term memory and prefers to live in the moment. This moment told her to skip it! ; We left around 4-ish. I did laundry at the hotel. Dinner was at Golden Corral – first time, and last time. Enough said. We went back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub while the water poured down on our heads! Aaahhh… hot tub…

My Goofy:

 

[amw]

Friday – no point really – All day rain. Daddy even cancelled golf – you know it’s bad when… ; We decided to go shopping (again… you know it’s bad when Daddy agrees to go shopping!) We went to one of the Florida Malls. I forget which but it was a regular one with JC Penney, Sears, etc. Nothing special except for a M&M world shop. Didn’t buy anything, except for M&Ms. ; ; Ate lunch at Chili’s. We then walked around the Orlando Premium Outlets. The Crocs outlet was great. Eldest DD got Hannah Montana crocs for $5, and I picked up an adult pair for $15. We also got athletic shoes for her, and white fancy shoes for the youngest. Watch out Daddy, your girls are enjoying shoe shopping! Dinner was Sweet Tomatoes at Crossroads. Heard rave reviews but didn’t care for it much. Daddy definitely missed meat.

Saturday & Sunday … dilemma. Where to go? It was going to be nice weather all weekend, we just finished 2 full rain days so people will be definitely at the parks. Also, March Break has officially started. ;

 

[amw]

Saturday – EPCOT – Good choice. It was the quietest it’s ever been on a Saturday. I guess everyone went to MK! We were first in line at the gates, and decided to head to Soarin first. We saw the little pre-show before rope-drop – never done that before. The characters were drawn to my eldest’s Mickey headband. (The younger had to then buy her own shortly afterwards so that she could get attention too!) Did a few Futureworld attractions and then Daddy showed up. We decided to do ALL of the Showcase, country by country, including all movies. It was great fun! We started in Morocco for lunch, and went counter-clockwise from there only skipping Mexico since we did that on the last day. We shopped, nibbled, and watched entertainment if we happened to walk by while it was on. The only negative was America. None of us had ever seen the American Adventure. Now we have. Now we don’t have to anymore.

Since it was our last full day at WDW, I wanted to stay for the fireworks. In all our trips pre and post children, I have never seen Illuminations – it was my nemesis of shows. (I tried once during a hurricane storm and all we saw was firework smoke.) So for dinner we left EPCOT and went to Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club. We love the Epcot hotel area. John even wanted to visit the Boardwalk area after dinner but there wouldn’t have been enough time before the show. It was close to 6 pm and I had heard there are huge lines and B&C, but we didn’t have to wait at all! They sat us at the counter which ended up being amazing for the girls. Every waiter chatted them up because we were right by the soda fountain. We also got to see every dessert being made, including the kitchen sink! I do have to say for burgers, the food was good. We then returned for Illuminations. Again, cross that off my to-do list, but don’t need to do again. Enjoyed having the car in the parking lot and not having to line up at the bus stop at closing.

Drawn to the Headband...:

Rope Drop:

Drum show in Japan:

Beatles show in UK:

 

[amw]

Sunday – packed up the bags and loaded the car, husband went to play golf again. I had originally planned for 6-park days so we had to head back to MK. I was pretty apprehensive. Sundays at MK are extra-night hours, it was the beginning of March Break, and the clocks changed today. Arrived for opening, and decided to go to Adventureland first as we didn’t finish that last time. Walked on to carpet ride, walked on to Jungle Cruise, and Pirates. Maybe this day wouldn’t be too bad! Headed to Splash Mountain where there was only a 10-minute wait. Now here’s a great thing I learned. Disney lets kids ride alone at 8-years-old. My youngest just turned 8 on Tuesday (I know … what?! … how did that happen?! Where’s my baby?!), and she’s quite tall – only an inch or so shorter than her 10-year-old sister, so for Splash Mountain I told her she was already 8. You see, I can walk with them to the front of the line and then use the chicken bridge to cross over and wait for them on the other side. No need for Mommy to go on Splash Mountain … Mommy don’t do that. ; ; We did Thunder Run twice, and lunch and then decided to head eastwards through Fantasyland. Oh, so here’s where all the people are! ; Sorry girls, we’re not waiting 90 minutes for anything in here, let’s go and watch the block parade that’s new. Nope, that’s cancelled because of high winds! OK, let’s go to Toontown and visit it for one last time before demolition. There were roped lines out the door and down the street to visit Minnie & Mickey’s house! … do they realize Minnie isn’t home?! We lined up to get autographs for the Fairies in the tent. Not bad, only 40 minutes – was worse last trip, and Terence was there! Then we headed to Tomorrowland. The line for Space Mountain was 120 minutes. There was a 40-minute wait to ride the people mover! This isn’t good. We went to watch the show in front of the castle, shopped a little, and at 5 pm left. We didn’t really accomplish much after lunch. Good thing we were leaving. I’m not sure what it meant for March Break crowds. John picked us up at the TTC (he’s an expert at back roads now after all the taxi rides to the golf courses) and we headed out on the I-4 to Clearwater Beach. Bye-Bye Disney. ; :'(

Couldn't do rides, so got good seats for the Castle show:

 

[amw]

Monday-Thursday – Hilton Clearwater Beach resort (on points) – spent everyday sleeping in, having late breakfast buffet, looking for seashells, and hanging out at the heated (80F .. really not Disney “heated”) pool, and doing kid activities. Nothing much else to do. Some would say this was relaxing. I found it a bit repetitive and boring and on day 3 was contemplating a Disney drive-by (it’s such a tease being in Florida and not at WDW!).

We flew back to Buffalo on Thursday, stayed overnight again at Fairfield and returned home Friday afternoon to warmer whether in TO then we had seen most of the time in Florida. From beginning in Buffalo to WDW, to Clearwater, to Buffalo and home, it was a 13-night trip.

All in all, a good family trip. Things to change:
- flying through Buffalo was great, but I would drive directly to and from the airport and not bother with hotels. It was too many hotels for the trip.
- Husband missed queen beds, and would still prefer to stay at condos over Disney (I like the ease of transportation but agreed that having a car is great even onsite.)
- I would love to spend the same amount of time but just in Orlando, spreading out the downtime in between the park time so that we aren’t slaves to the weather and crowds.
- March was much better than April for crowds, and much better than February for weather … but for better temperature, maybe we should try May next time. Did I say next time?! Don’t tell the hubbie! ;


Hilton Clearwater from the pier:

View from our balcony:

It was windy!:

 

[realfam]

Wow!!! ; ; Great trip report. ; Sounds like you had a wonderful holidays, to bad you had a few rain days. ; Loved the pics! ; Can't believe you had never seen Iluminations @ Epcot before, wonderfull isn't it. ; A must on my list each time.
Was it your first time flying from Bufflo? ; We normally only stay the night before the flight, just because we always book an erly morning flight and don't trust the boarder waits, and by the time you pay for parking you haven't saved that much money and you travel more relaxed.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[scratch]

Thanks for posting! ;

Gets me excited for my upcoming trip!

 

[Sheila Gallant-Halloran]

wow - wonderful report. ; thanks

 

[weemcp]

sounds fun! Love the krispy treat for the birthdays@!

 

[amw]

sounds fun! Love the krispy treat for the birthdays@!

I had looked at ordering the Mickey Mouse cake Head at a restaurant. It would have been $48, and you had to order it in advance and have ADRs at select restaurants. I also had the problem that one child prefers milk chocolate and the other vanilla or white chocolate...

It seemed a bit much, but I didn't want a plain supermarket cake. I heard on another site about these Krispy treats. You could get the deluxe iced decorated ones at Goofy's for around $50, but these pre-made decorated ones were only $16 at the Main Street Confectionary at MK. They have lots daily, and I lucked out with the one milk chocolate ear, one white chocolate ear to appease each of the girls. ; It's larger than the pic makes it seem ... about 12-inches or a large dinner plate. It lasted all week, and stayed soft. Good for celebrating!

 

[deblen4]

Awesome trip report. ; ; We often think of adding a stay elsewhere in Florida when we are going to Disney, but haven't done that yet? ; I always wondered whether the vacation outside of Disney should occur first, gives you time to relax and then stay at Disney? ; Or did the reverse work better, and you go home more relaxed? ;
We always do the hotel stay the night before flying out of Buffalo, although haven't ever booked it returning. ; We like to get home but the 3 1/2 hour drive home is a bit much when you fly in late! ;

 

[amw]

Awesome trip report. ; ; We often think of adding a stay elsewhere in Florida when we are going to Disney, but haven't done that yet? ; I always wondered whether the vacation outside of Disney should occur first, gives you time to relax and then stay at Disney? ; Or did the reverse work better, and you go home more relaxed? ;

I know when we did one solid week at Disney, I found I needed to go home for a rest! If we have 10 days at Disney, I'm able to spread non-park days in the mix and I don't feel so over-stimulated. ;

Putting rest days at the end does make you more relaxed before coming home ... I just start to get "itchy" that I'm so close to WDW, and not partaking. Almost like I get re-energized and am ready to go back! ; ;D

For me the ideal would be 2 weeks in Orlando with plenty of down time away from the park ... but still able to finish the trip with a last visit ... hmmm... maybe next time...