FINALLY...I'm about done with this trip report! I don't usually split the posts up but I am going to attempt to include photos too! Here we go...
Travel dates: February 20 March 9, 2013
Travel method: Plane and Rental Car
Resort: Ramada Gateway Kissimmee & High Point World Resort (off-site)
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: Participating in the Royal Family 5K!
Cast of characters:
- Pam, 52: 17th trip to WDW and overall Disney fanatic
- James, 53: Pams hubby and 14th trip to WDW
The Planning
Im not a fan of running but I AM a fan of Disney! I completed the Disneyland 5K in 2011 and the inaugural Never Land 5K at Disneyland in 2012 and have now decided that I want to add a 5K medallion from Walt Disney World (WDW) to my collection. The Princess theme appealed to me so I began making plans for a trip to the World in February 2013.
I wasnt sure of James reaction to the trip after the way our last one began in October 2011 (he had a medical emergency on the flight to Orlando and ended up spending a couple of days in the hospital in Celebration undergoing tests), so I initially thought maybe we would just stay for a week after the race. However, when I discussed my plans with him, James surprised me by saying we should just go for the same long trip we usually do since its such a long way to travel each way!
Well, you dont have to sell me on THAT idea so I immediately started conserving vacation days and watching airfares, rental car rates, and lodging rates. This trip will be one of our mega-trips, which means that we spend at least a couple of weeks in the Orlando area to allow enough time to see everything we want (this includes visiting Universal Studios and Sea World in addition to several days at the WDW theme parks). We also designate every 3rd day as a water park/rest day, which are greatly needed as we get older! All of these days make for a very long trip (18 days, including 2 travel days), but help us make the most of the time available within that duration.
For me, Im a planner and thats a huge part of the fun! As the plans fell into place, here is what happened:
Airfare: I got the Southwest Airlines credit card in order to get 50,000 points to use for this trip ($69 annual fee), with the plan to close the account before it renews, and then I started watching the fares. I eventually booked the flight out in November, going through Las Vegas (Early-Bird add-on = $20); good thing too since that flight never went down in cost! When it looked like the return fare was never going to go on sale, I bought the additional points I needed (11,000 = $275) to book in late December (with the Early-Bird add-on of $20 as well); of course, then the flight did go down a couple of different times over the next month or so & I re-booked accordingly, even getting the extra 11K points back in my account (no problemI can use them for my flights to Disneyland so they definitely wont go to waste!). Unfortunately, at one point I had to re-purchase the Early-Bird add-on for the flight due to some issues canceling & rebooking online (additional $20); all-together I spent $404 total for our flights so were happy with that!
Airport Transportation: We again asked our neighbor Steve to drive us since he has been kind enough to do so in the past plus he will also be looking after our non-diabetic cat while we are gone (we will have to board Simon so he can get his twice-daily injections).
Lodging: I started watching Extra Vacation rates on the RCI website (my mother-in-law has a timeshare and we use her account to book our lodging whenever we will be at WDW for at least a week) but James thought we should wait and book Last Call vacations, which are considerably cheaper; however, I was concerned about the availability of our favorite resorts due to the dates falling between Presidents Day weekend and the start of spring break. Fortunately, the stars & planets aligned and I was able to purchase two Last Call weeks in mid-January ($611, including the Guest Certificate), which works out to be about $47 per night, at the High Point World Resort (HPWR). Weve stayed here several times with no issues and they are located about 5 minutes from Disneys Animal Kingdom right off of US 192, which is where we like to stay.
The other 4 nights were booked at the Ramada Gateway Kissimmee for about $51+tax/night; Ive stayed here three times before with satisfactory results, and its in the general vicinity of the HPWR as well.
Rental Car: I was shocked at the rates for Alamo, which usually is the lowest of the major agencies; they were over $400 PER WEEK for a full-size car! I checked rates every so often and ended up making a reservation with Enterprise through Costco ($462 total with fees); fortunately, they dont charge a fee for spouses either! We later found out the reason the rates were so high is that the first weekend of our vacation was the Daytona 500 race and fans were flying into Orlando and renting cars from there, which was jacking up the rates big time!
Dining: We mostly eat at counter-service places and off-site during these trips, but I knew that I wanted to book the San Angel Inn and the Fantasmic! Dining Package (FDP) at the Hollywood & Vine (H&V). We also discussed trying Boma one more time; we really liked it the first time we ate there but were disappointed the second time and havent been back. Finally, I looked into booking Les Chefs de France for lunch on my 5K race day with some co-workers from our St. Petersburg office who were thinking of doing the race with me, and I was able to successfully book all four places (with a few alternate ADRs to be cancelled as needed).
James isnt a picky eater (like I am!), but he doesnt like too many buffets because its a lot of food; hes happier with the counter-service places.
Here is our planned ADR schedule (not including the extra alternate ADRs):
02/23: Les Chefs de France @ 12pm
02/25: Hollywood & Vine @ 3:55pm (FDP)
02/28: San Angel Inn @ 11:30am
03/05: Boma @ 5:15pm
Tickets: We still have several options left on some old WDW park hoppers, plus we have 2 7-day park hoppers (PH) that we bought from UndercoverTourist.com in 2011 that we ended up not using when we bought the special Military Salute tickets at Shades of Green (SoG; James is former Air Force) for that trip. Ive planned 8 WDW theme park days this trip, so well either add a day on to the passes we have or buy more of the Military Salute ones, since they are such a good deal right now for us (4-day PH = $156 and the 4-day PH + options = $184).
I then bought 2 2-day PH tickets for Universal Studios in mid-June from UndercoverTourist.com ($285.90) before their price increase; however, they later announced a military offer of a free 3-day PH for the service member that would be good during our visit so we will check SoG for that deal too.
For Sea World, I registered James online for their Hero Salute promotion when it was extended into 2013 (free admission for both of us!).
The Itinerary
With all of the reservations complete, I decided on the following itinerary (James usually lets me make all of these decisions and just drives us to where I say we need to go!):
- Wednesday (02/20): Fly to Orlando; pick-up rental car; check-in to the Ramada Gateway Kissimmee
- Thursday (02/21): Sea World; Premium Outlets; buy WDW military park tickets at Shades of Green
- Friday (02/22): Animal Kingdom; Princess Fitness Expo
- Saturday (02/23): Royal Family 5K; Epcot; Lunch ADR @ Les Chefs de France; MousePlanet meet; IllumiNations
- Sunday (02/24): Check-out of the Ramada; Typhoon Lagoon; Lake Buena Vista Factory Outlets; check-in to the High Point World Resort
- Monday (02/25): Disneys Hollywood Studios; Fantasmic! Dining Package @ Hollywood & Vine; Fantasmic!
- Tuesday (02/26): Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, Premium Outlets
- Wednesday (02/27): Typhoon Lagoon; Downtown Disney shopping
- Thursday (02/28): Epcot; Lunch ADR @ San Angel Inn; IllumiNations
- Friday (03/01): Magic Kingdom; Disneys Electrical Parade & Wishes
- Saturday (03/02): Typhoon Lagoon; Premium Outlets
- Sunday (03/03): Disneys Hollywood Studios; Animal Kingdom; Epcot; IllumiNations
- Monday (03/04): Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, Premium Outlets
- Tuesday (03/05): Typhoon Lagoon; Downtown Disney shopping; Dinner ADR @ Boma
- Wednesday (03/06): Magic Kingdom; Disneys Electrical Parade & Wishes
- Thursday (03/07): Typhoon Lagoon; finish shopping; finish packing
- Friday (03/08): Disneys Hollywood Studios; Epcot; Micky Dolenz
- Saturday (03/09): Check-out of High Point; return rental car; fly home to Sacramento; pick up Simon from pet hotel
One more thing: right before I left for Florida, I loaded my Disney Visa Redemption Card (DVRC) with the $97.41 balance I had accumulated since my last Disney trip (Disneyland in August/September 2012)that Disney Visa Rewards Card is so rewarding! :D
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Actual: I worked from home today so I could do the last-minute laundry and packing, plus we needed to drop Simon off at the pet hotel (that always makes me feel so sad to leave him!). I also ran a couple of errands and picked up two foot-long sandwiches from Subway for our flights tomorrow ($10.40).
I had hoped to get to bed early, but THAT didnt happen! James also procrastinated on his final tasks, even though he knew he needed a good nights sleep tonight as well.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 (77 degrees)
Plan: Fly to Orlando, pick-up rental car, check-in to the Ramada Gateway Kissimmee
Actual: The alarm went off at 4am and we started getting ready; I had only 3.5 hours sleep and James had only had 1.5 hours sleep so we were very tired. We said goodbye to Sidney, loaded up Steves SUV, and were on our way to the airport at 5:45am. We had no traffic at this early hour and were soon checking in our bags at the counter. We nest a medium-sized bag inside of each of the large suitcases so we have extra room to bring our purchases back with us and one of the bags was a bit overweight. I redistributed the weight and all was well!
We made it through TSA and I filled our water bottle. We sat down in the food court area to work on our Subway sandwiches and then headed to our gate to wait for our flight.
We boarded and left pretty much on time. We had some very funny flight attendants on boarda couple of their comment we remembered were:
- Our monitor shows there are still 6 cell phones on followed by a Just kidding!
- Look for the house with the red tile roof & a poolthats mine! as we were flying into Las Vegas (there are LOTS of houses fitting this description!), followed by do you see my dog in the backyard?
We had our usual snacks en route (Coke Zero for me & ginger ale for James, plus honey-roasted peanuts) and arrived on time in Las Vegas. We deplaned and checked out the food options; James went with spicy chicken & a large Coke Zero from Pei Wei ($13.71) and I had 2 pretzels from Auntie Annes ($7.11), even though I still had half of my sandwich left!
We boarded onto a new 737-800 plane and were even in the exit row. Everyone was on board and James said to me that he was starting to feel bad. My heart sank as I realized his lack of sleep was beginning to affect him, which was a repeat of our flight out to FL in October 2011 where he got light-headed and needed a bit of oxygen en route (the good news is that they landed that flight 50mins early; the bad news is that he spent the next two nights at the hospital in Celebration enduring a bunch of inconclusive tests!). He got up to speak to a flight attendant and then came back telling me that we were deplaning!
We got off and I spent the next several minutes working with customer service to rebook; they had us on stand-by for 5:50pm (it was just after 11am at the time) and we tried to find a quiet spot for James to get some sleep. He laid down on the floor at an unoccupied gate and then sent me to find some type of sweat or track pant so he would be more comfortable than he was in his jeans. I found a Mr. Boxer and bought some lounge pants in an Americana print (it was either that or money or poker hand prints, after all it WAS Vegas!) for $28.11. He changed clothes and STILL could not get to sleep.
Around 1:30pm we finally decided to find a room where he could get some quality sleep and then fly out the next day. I used the airports free Wi-Fi and checked Kayak.com, where I saw that the Excalibur was only $49 (mid-week, thank goodness!) and I booked a room with 2 queen beds in the tower (deposit = $54.88 rate + tax). I then rebooked our flight with a very helpful gate agent (Denise) for tomorrow at 7:15am going through Houston with no plane change. Somehow our boarding passes were A17 (J) and B39 (P) so I asked her about that; she said we could pre-board but then we couldnt sit in the exit rows so she wrote XT on the boarding passes (which meant extra time) so I could board between the A & B sections.
We left the terminal and found the ground transportation area; we purchased two one-way tickets to the Excalibur ($15) and were able to board a waiting shuttle. We departed shortly thereafter and were the first stop; however, we didnt tip because the driver had the radio blaring the whole time!
I waited about 15-20mins to check-in and fatigue was really starting to set in with me. We went to our room (14154) and James immediately laid down & fell asleep. I called Enterprise and a VERY helpful Elliot put a 24-hour travel delay on our reservation so our rates wouldnt go up sky-high (darn Daytona races)!
I then called the Ramada Gateway to let them know we would be coming in a day later and that I was willing to pay the room charge for tonight since the cancellation period was in effect. The reservation agent (Esther) told me that I had to make that change online or else I wouldnt have a room for the next night; she also said that I had another 2-night reservation active for tonight & tomorrow night (I KNEW I had cancelled this last month but didnt have that paperwork with me). I next went on their website and couldnt even access the correct reservation because it was too late to change or cancel the reservation at this point!
I looked up the 1-800 numbers for Ramada reservations and also their Customer Care department. I first called the reservation number and explained my issue; they transferred me to Customer Care but no one came on so I called them directly. A VERY helpful Jamie called the hotel directly and got the reservation changed at no cost to 3-nights beginning tomorrow. She also confirmed that my 2-night ressie WAS indeed cancelled and even gave me the cancellation number (I still had the email; I just couldnt open it up from the phone for some reason).
Lastly I called to check on Simon; he hadnt warmed up to the staff yet but was doing okay.
It was now 4:45pm & James was still asleep; I looked through the coupon book they gave us at check-in and ate the rest of my sandwich, before laying down myself. I turned the TV on low and dozed through the various sitcoms before waking up in time to watch Survivor at 8pm. I then watched some more TV (LOVE The Big Bang Theory!) and took a shower around 10pm. I checked the actual times for our new flight tomorrow and then laid back down for more sleep.
Thursday, February 21, 2013 (81 degrees)
Plan: Sea World; Premium Outlets; buy WDW military park tickets at Shades of Green
Actual: James woke me up around 12:30am; he was hungry so we got dressed and went to McDonalds for a couple of Big Macs, fries, & a drink for $8.41 (there was a coupon in the check-in book for a free sandwich with a combo meal). Since they were the only place open in the Food Court it took quite a while before our food showed up and it was after 1:30am by the time we ate and returned to the room!
We went back to the room and dozed until the alarm went off at 3:45am. We got ready and left the room at 4:40am, stopping to check-out (another $16.80 for the resort fee + tax). We caught the 5am shuttle ($14); boy, it was COLD outside! We stopped at the Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, and Blue Heaven resorts before going to the airport. Southwest was our first stop but at least we didnt have to go through the long check-in line since our bags should already be in Orlando!
We got through TSA and found our gate. I bought 2 bananas and 3 string cheeses from a kiosk ($8.05) for our breakfast; healthier than fast food and Auntie Annes didnt have pretzels yet!
James boarded first and then I joined him later in an exit row. We pushed back 30mins late due to weight restrictions (needed extra fuel due to rain in Houston) and I was really worried how the delay would affect James flying but all went well. I had some Diet Dr. Pepper and James drank water this time, and they served us honey-roasted peanuts and Honey Maid Cinnamon Roll Thin Crisps while James read the paper and I updated my trip notes and read Steve Russos trip report.
It was overcast for our flight to Houston and we were late leaving there as well for Orlando; it was a bit bumpy the first half of the flight and then it smoothed out. We had a nice tail wind and landed about 4:20pm. After retrieving our bags from Southwests baggage office, we were upgraded to a Toyota Venza with less than 500 miles by Enterprise (they were out of full-size cars) and were on our way to Costco. We took a wrong turn and ended up on the Turnpike for a short time first but got there OK.
We picked up some fruit, snacks, & bottled water for the room and grabbed a hot dog combo & turkey wrap for our dinner ($33.31). We quickly ate and drove over to Shades of Green, arriving just before the ticket office closed at 7pm! We purchased 2 4-day Military Salute Park Hopper tickets and 2 4-day Military Salute Park Hopper + Options tickets ($680) and obtained the free 3-day PH ticket from Universal for James. On hindsight, we could have saved $56 had we not purchased the Park Hopper option on 2 of the tickets but I was too tired to remember our itinerary at the time!
We stopped at the AAFES store for detergent, soy milk, & candy ($5.35) and left for the motel. We checked in around 7:45pm, went to our room (#416), got settled, and were in bed by 10pmWE ARE HERE!!!
Friday, February 22, 2013 (84 degrees)
Plan: Animal Kingdom; Princess Fitness Expo
Actual: The alarm went off at 7:15am and we were out the door by 8:40am. We drove to Disneys Animal Kingdom (DAK), parked in Unicorn 26 ($14), and rode the tram to the entrance. After going through bag check, we waited in line to activate our military tickets with CM Sonaya from Columbia. I, of course, managed to confuse her with the process, but we were soon on our way through the turnstiles at 9:20am.
We walked straight back to Africa and picked up Fastpasses (FPs) for Kilimanjaro Safaris at 9:30am (10:05am & 10:10am; it always cracks me up to split the times like that on the same machine!). We then went to board the Wildlife Express Train, which was at the station. They waited a few more minutes to allow additional guests to board, and soon we were on our way to Rafikis Planet Watch. We walked back to Conservation Station and looked around for a little bit; there wasnt much going on since it was so early and we didnt linger.
We caught the train back a little after 10am and went to ride the Safari with our FPs. We had CM Kelsey as our guide and she did a very good job of pointing out the various animals, of which there were a bunch (including the cheetahs and the lions).
We headed over towards Asia and saw De Vine along the path; she always manages to draw a big crowd and is quite a sight to see.
Our favorite counter-service restaurant at DAK, Flame Tree Barbecue, was now open so we stopped to eat lunch. I ordered my favorite pulled pork sandwich and substituted beans for the coleslaw, plus the chocolate mousse for dessert; James ordered the chicken salad and we shared a large Diet Coke ($27.37, which included a $1 donation for their wildlife conservation button). James didnt want to sit down by the water because of the aggressive birds, so we found a seat in the covered dining area nearby. I gave him the beans from my meal and we polished everything off in record time!
James went to pick up FPs for DINOSAUR at 11:30am (12:10pm) while I waddled over to get in line for Finding Nemo The Musical; we met back up and went inside the theater. We got great seats in the front right section and waited for the show to begin at noon. It was great as usual!
After we found Nemo, we headed over to ride DINOSAUR with our FPs; they werent needed after all and we again were successful in bringing back the Iguanodon with us.
Now it was time for my favorite musical entertainment show at the WorldFestival of the Lion King! I had read late last year that they had planned to close this show temporarily at the beginning of the year so they could build a new theater for it back in Africa, so I was absolutely THRILLED that they had postponed that decision! We sat in the Lion section and I tried to capture the show with our new HD camcorder, but the darn CMs kept going up & down the stairs for the first half of the show next to me and blocking my shot! Oh wellI cried at the end as usual!
After the show we headed up towards Africa and then over to Asia so I could ride Expedition Everest (single-rider) while James waited for me. While I was in the SR queue, I saw a young lady with a Princess Half Marathon button on so I asked her if she picked it up at the Expo that morning; she said she had and that it was practically a zoo over there earlier! I told her that I was going over there later this afternoon and she said hopefully it would be less crowded by then.
My wait for Everest was only about 6-7mins, and I was so excited to see that the Yeti was working again! YAY DISNEY!
I met back up with James and we went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek around 2:30pm. The area was really crowded, and there was a new entertainment offering by the Yak & Yeti: D J Anaan, which was really just some belly dancer-type ladies encouraging guests to dance with them (think Bollywood) to some peppy Indian musicit looked like fun though!
We checked out the various animals in the Trek, and there were several tigers moving around. There was a CM who saw the WDW Marathon shirt James was wearing and started talking to me about the various Disney races; he kept following me as I was trying to move along, chatting the whole way! I finally was able to get away from him and catch up to Jameswhew!
We went to see the 3pm Flights of Wonder show and sat in the 3rd row, center section; great seats except I was trying to capture video and the kid in front of me kept hopping around to take pictures and blocked my shot over and over! Oh wellthe show hasnt changed that much and we enjoyed seeing the birds anyway.
It was time to head over to the Fitness Expo, so we headed towards the front of the park. We cut through the Rainforest Caf to see what deals they had going on in their retail store, but didnt buy anything.
The Fitness Expo was being held at the Coronado Springs Resort rather than the Wide World of Sports, and they had said there would not be any expo parking at the resort so we had decided we would just take a bus over from DAK. We walked out to the bus stop and a bus came along in a couple of minutes. It wasnt crowded at all and we got to see some of the resort as we circled around the 5 stops before exiting at the last one.
I had been exchanging texts with my friend Mike who was going to do the 5K with me the next day; he was also doing the Princess Half on Sunday (a mutual friend had asked him to do it with her, but she ended up not being able to make the trip from CA) and had arrived at his resort a short time earlier. We managed to coincide our visit to the Expo and after several minutes of texting we finally found each other! I introduced James to Mike (Mike & I work for the same company, he just works in the St. Petersburg office!) and we all went to get me checked-in for the 5K the next day (Mike already had gotten his bibs before we got there).
I got my bib, bag, & the commemorative pin I had pre-purchased and then we picked up our shirts. I made sure mine fit and then I was disappointed that I didnt get one of those Princess Half buttons like I had seen earlier. Mike had one so he gave it to me, along with the pink drawstring bag he had received as well (thanks Mike!).
We checked out the event merchandise firstboy, it was a madhouse there! I ended up buying a Waiting for Prince Charming shirt and a logo auto magnet ($40.37) and then we went to check out the exhibitors.
I bought some light-up shoelaces ($20) and then we did a meet & greet with Ali Vincent, the first female winner of The Biggest Loser, who also has her own cable show. She still looks great and she gave both Mike & I a pink rubber bracelet with her shows name on them, to wear on the wrist of our treat hand and hopefully be inspired to reach for healthier treats!
I stopped at Sparkle Skirts to say hello to Leah and ended up buying another tech skirt which was Tinker Bell-themed (bright green with pixie dust on it) for $90.53. In hindsight, I dont have a lot of shirts to wear with that color and should have bought a different color but oh well! Ive found these skirts to be great for wearing in the theme parks.
I made plans to meet Mike around 5am tomorrow and we parted ways for now. James & I waited a few minutes for a bus back to DAK and rode the tram out to the parking lot so we could get our car. It was now about 7pm so we drove to Wendys for dinner ($12.82), where James had the full-sized Baja Chili Salad and I had the single combo (we shared the fries & drink).
After we finished eating, we went to Target to pick up some food & miscellaneous items ($21.81) and were back at the room by 8pm. James watched TV while I prepared for my early departure tomorrow morning. I was in bed at 9:15pm, and James followed a couple of hours later.
Steps: 15,432