Arnold van Beverhoudt, Jr. -- November 2013 -- Saratoga Springs Resort

Arnold van Beverhoudt, Jr. -- November 2013 -- Saratoga Springs Resort

Travel Dates: November 28 to December 5, 2013
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: Disneys Saratoga Springs Resort
Accommodations: Two Bedroom Villa
Ages Represented: 3rd Grader through Older Adults
WDW Experience: Veteran (annual visits since 2003)
Comments: A rare Thanksgiving weekend trip

Cast of Characters:

Arnold, 63 (trip reporter) -- 18 WDW trips since 1973 and 1 Disneyland trip in 1985
Helena, 64 (wife) -- 17 WDW trips since 1982 and 2 Disneyland trips in 1972 and 1985
Selene, 36 (daughter) -- 12 WDW trips since 1982 and 1 Disneyland trip in 1985
John, 44 (son-in-law) -- 8 WDW trips since 2001
Jaidyn, 8 (granddaughter) -- 6 WDW trips since 2006

Advance Planning:

Almost as soon as we had arrived back home from our December 2012 trip to Florida, Helena and I started thinking about our next visit. In late January, we emailed Selene to trash around some possible dates for a year-end trip to Walt Disney World that would fit in with Jaidyn's school schedule and John's work schedule. Since Selene has her own website design business, her schedule is somewhat flexible. We finally settled on Thanksgiving weekend, with all of us checking in on Thanksgiving Day, November 28. Selene and family will check out on Tuesday, December 3 so that Jaidyn can get back to school the following day. Helena and I will close out the week and check out on Thursday, December 5.

On February 12, I made the DVC reservation for Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR), our home resort. Unlike the problem I had last year, this time I was able to borrow the needed points from our 2014 use year and complete the reservation process online without a call to customer services. Later in February, I signed up on the new My Disney Experience website and updated my personal information. But for some reason, my DVC reservation didnt carryover automatically to the new site. I tried to add it manually, using a link for that purpose, but the site wouldnt accept the spelling of my last name, no matter what variation I used van Beverhoudt, vanBeverhoudt, or van-Beverhoudt. I eventually figured out that DVC had my last name spelled with a capital "V" as in Van Beverhoudt, but it was a frustrating experience.

In the meantime, Selene, John, and Jaidyn made a quick visit to Walt Disney World over the weekend of February 8 to 10. Selene had found a discounted rate for Disney's Art of Animation resort and booked a room in the Little Mermaid section for two nights. With the APs we had given them for Christmas 2012, they were all set in terms of park admission. They drove up to Orlando on Friday afternoon after Jaidyn got out of school, visited the Magic Kingdom on Saturday and Epcot on Sunday morning, then drove back home to Port St. Lucie on Sunday afternoon. They had a great time at the parks and got much use of the main pool at the Art of Animation resort.

On April 6, I logged on to American Airlines' website and made our airline reservations. Well be flying to Miami on Monday, November 25 and returning home on Saturday, December 28. I decided to use our accumulated American Advantage frequent flyer miles to save some money. The two roundtrip tickets used up 140,000 miles, but that saved us $850. I then reserved a car with Hertz, at an estimated cost of $2,000 for the 5 weeks. After our accident last year, Im kind of gun shy and looked at what the added cost would be for the loss damage waiver, but that would have added another $1,000 to the bill, so I decided to not take that coverage and hope we have better luck on the Florida roads this year. Lastly, I reserved a room at the Hampton Inn in Deerfield Beach for our first night, because we have an appointment with the eye doctor the following day, and again for the night before our flight home. We like to drive down from Port St. Lucie to Deerfield Beach on our last day to cut the distance and tension of getting to MIA on our departure morning. These two hotel reservations added about $250 to our travel costs, but gave us a bit of an ease of mind, especially knowing we dont have to drive the full distance from Port St. Lucie to Miami on our last travel last day. Breaking it up into two legs is just easier on the nerves.

After Memorial Day, Selene started checking the Disney park menus and sent me her preferences, since she and Jaidyn have food allergy concerns. Selene is a gluten-free vegan and Jaidyn is allergic to many of the artificial additives in food, which noticeably affect her behavior and also cause body ticks (head jerks, etc). Because of those issues, we let Selene pick dining options that accommodate their needs. On June 1, the beginning of our 180-day window, I logged into the My Disney Experience website to make our dining reservations. Making the reservations went pretty smoothly, but it was a bit slow because of several steps you have to go through to make each reservation. The biggest problem I had was trying to find a suitable dining availability for dinner on Thanksgiving Day, which is our check-in day. Just about everything was booked solid, but I did eventually find an opening at Boma for 4:00P. That was a bit early because we'd be checking in around that time, but we'll make do. I was able to get all of our preferred dining options for the week, except a lunch reservation at Bongos on our check-out day.

On July 7, I went back to the My Disney Experience site and was finally able to get the Bongos reservation for 1:00P on our check-out day. All of our Disney resort and dining reservations are now showing up on the My Disney Experience website on our laptop and on the app on my iPhone! In late-July, Helena and I made a short trip to Florida for Helena's 6-month followup mammogram and visit to the breast cancer specialist and for my make-up appointment with the lung specialist (he was called away for a personal emergency back in December 2012). Both checkups went well, with no issues to worry about, and we don't have to see those doctors again until December 2014. While in Florida, we also celebrated Selene, John, and Jaidyn's birthdays.

In early October I again logged into the My Disney Experience site and was pleasantly surprised to find that we had been added to the MyMagic+ system that included assigning us MagicBands and giving us access to FastPass+ reservations. But there was one problem that took some effort and the eventual assistance of the website's help desk to straighten out. When I had set up my account on the My Disney Experience site, I had included Helena, Selene, John, and Jaidyn as "family and friends" so that they'd be included in my plans and reservations. However, I didn't know that Selene had already set up profiles for herself, John, and Jaidyn. I was able to link Selene and John's profiles to mine by inviting them to join in my trip planning. But Jaidyn ended up with two separate profiles in the system. The one I had set up included Jaidyn in our resort and dining reservations and, more importantly, in our MyMagic+ eligibility. But her AP was linked to the profile that Selene had created. We tried everything we could think of to get Jaidyn's AP linked to my reservations in the system, but it eventually took a call to customer services, with three transfers to different persons, before the website help desk was able to make the AP transfer for us. Once that was done, all of us were shown as eligible for FastPass+ reservations.

That same evening, I spent almost an hour selecting and making FastPass+ reservations for our entire trip. In selecting the attractions and times, my main goals were to select attractions that I knew Jaidyn liked and to also factor in that Selene and family usually take an afternoon break back at the resort to rest up a bit before heading back to the parks for dinner and some evening touring. I'll list our original FastPass+ selections at the beginning of each park day's write-up.

On November 7, Selene sent an email Disney's special diets team regarding dietary restrictions for her (vegan and gluten intolerant) and Jaidyn (a whole range of food sensitivities). She received a response with some basic information that included links for more information. She filled out a detailed form with information about the specific dietary issues and sent it back on November 11. By the next day, the restaurant chefs started contacting her with specific menu suggestions to meet Selene's and Jaidyn's dietary restrictions. That included Chef Sutilak at Boma, Chefs Marilyn and Chris at Tusker House, Chefs Paul and Stephen at Garden Grill, Chef Aina at Crystal Palace, Chef John at Liberty Tree Tavern, and Chef Rafa (short for Rafael) at Mama Melrose. Overall, Selene was very favorably impressed by the whole Disney dietary team's efforts to accommodate her and Jaidyn's dietary restrictions. I doubt other places would have gone out of their way to the extent that the people at Disney did.

With the planning now finally all finished, our trip itinerary looked like this:

- Mon 11/25: AA Flight from St. Thomas to Miami, Drive to Deerfield Beach
- Tue 11/26: Eye Exams for Helena and I, Drive to Port St. Lucie
- Wed 11/27: Family Time and Grocery Shopping in Port St. Lucie
- Thu 11/28: Drive to Orlando, SSR Check-In, Dinner at Boma
- Fri 11/29: Animal Kingdom, Dinner at Tusker House
- Sat 11/30: Magic Kingdom, Dinner at Crystal Palace
- Sun 12/1: Epcot, Dinner at Garden Grill
- Mon 12/2: Hollywood Studios, Dinner at Mama Melrose's Ristorante
- Tue 12/3: Magic Kingdom, Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern, Selene and Family Return Home
- Wed 12/4: Epcot, Dinner at Le Cellier
- Thu 12/5: SSR Check-Out, Downtown Disney, Lunch at Bongos, Drive to Port St. Lucie
- Fri 12/6 to Fri 12/27: Family Time in Port St. Lucie, including a week at RCI's Turtle Beach Resort
- Sat 12/28: Drive to Miami, AA Flight from Miami to St. Thomas

What Actually Happened:

Monday, November 25:

The Plan: AA Flight from St. Thomas to Miami, Drive to Deerfield Beach

We were all packed by the evening before, with just a few last-minute items to throw into the suitcase on travel morning. We had decided to try pack lighter and make do with one suitcase instead of the two we usually travel with. We ended up with the suitcase being about 5 pounds over the 50-pound allowance American Airlines give passengers, but decided to just go with it and take a chance of not being charged an excess weight fee.

The alarm woke us at 4:30a and we got dressed, had a quick breakfast, secured the house, and drove to my brother's home, which is just 10 minutes away. We transferred our bags to his vehicle and drove through the light morning traffic to the airport. We were there by 7:30a to find some other passengers already at check-in, but not an overwhelming crowd. We used one of the self-service kiosks and quickly went through the process. Since we were using our AA points, we didn't have to pay any baggage fee at all and were given priority access boarding. Nice! We cleared U.S. Customs and the TSA security check with no problems, except that the x-ray scan showed something at my left upper chest area. It turned out to be the sheet of paper with our trip itinerary. That x-ray is extremely sensitive!

We stopped at the airport dining area and had a light snack with orange juice. Helena had a fruit cup and I had a Danish pastry. Another couple who we know from church was also traveling to Florida this morning and we chatted to pass the time until we were ready to board. We got onto the plane in the first, priority access, group and had our backpacks stowed and ourselves comfortably seated without the hassle that ensued after us as the rest of the passengers came aboard, most with rather large carry-on bags. We left the gate and took off right on time at 9:35a, for what was a completely smooth flight until we had to descend through some thick clouds into the Miami airport. The walk to baggage claim was a bit longer than usual, but our suitcase was right there on the belt as we arrived. After a quick "pit stop," we set out on our long hike to the rental car facility. This is the one part of our trips to and from Miami that I hate! Since the new centralized rental car facility was opened, the rental car companies no longer provide shuttle bus service. Instead you have to lug your luggage through what seems like miles of moving-belt walkways, then a short monorail ride to the facility. To make matters worse, when we got to the Hertz counter, there was a huge line of other passengers getting cars. Luckily, a service rep came over and after looking at my online rental confirmation email said that I was already all set and could just go directly to the garage area to pick up our car. We had reserved a Toyota Corolla (or equivalent), and that's what was waiting for us.

We had no problem leaving the Miami Airport facilities and finding our way to I-95 North. I learned my lesson last December and know exactly which lane I need to be in for the I-95 on-ramp! We had a smooth drive up to Deerfield Beach, although there was a rain shower along the way, and arrived safely at our Hampton Inn. We were all checked in within a few minutes and took ourselves and our luggage to our 1-bedroom suite (only $95, thanks to an AARP discount). I don't think that's too bad, considering we had a comfortable king-size bed, a separate sitting area with couch and wide-screen TV, complimentary breakfast, and wifi service. After we had unpacked, we went out for a quick dinner at Boston Marker a tradition which Helena especially loves for the tasty rotisserie chicken, sweet potato casserole, and fresh cornbread muffin. Adding drinks and chocolate chip cookies to our two orders, the cost was still only $22! After dinner, we stopped at a nearby Walgreens to pick up a few toiletry items and then headed back to the Hampton Inn for the night.

Tuesday, November 26:

The Plan: Eye Exams for Helena and I, Family Time in Port St. Lucie

We were up by 7:00a, got dressed, and went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast, which included scrambled eggs, bacon, a variety of breads and pastries, juice, and coffee. You can't beat that! We went back to our room to freshen up and get our bags to check out. That's when our luck ran out. It was raining pretty hard and I went to get the car and drive it over to the hotel's covered driveway to pick up Helena and our bags. But I was greeted by a completely dead battery! To make matters worse, I couldn't find a phone number for Hertz on any of the paperwork we had, only email addresses. I went back to the front desk to ask the attendant to look up Hertz in the phone directory, but she suggested that she could have the hotel's maintenance manager give us a jump start. He soon arrived in his service van, but our car was parked such that there wasn't easy access to attach jumper cables from his van to our car. Luckily, he had two sets of jumper cables and linked them together, which was just long enough to reach. It took a few minutes for the power in our car's battery to come up enough that the car would start. I gave the maintenance manager a healthy tip and sat in the car racing the engine to bring up the charge. BTW, I have no idea why the battery went dead overnight.

When I felt comfortable that the car wouldn't die on us in the middle of traffic, I drove over to pick up Helena and our bags. We then headed directly to Florida Eye Care, which was about 15 minutes away in Boca Raton. When we arrived, I told Helena to go ahead to start her check-up, while I stayed in the car with the engine revved up to continue charging the battery. When it was my turn to see the doctor, I shut off the engine, hoping it would start up okay when we were finished. The eye exams went well, except that our new glasses cost us a total of $1,500! Our old ones lasted us for 3 years, so that averages out to $250 per year for each pair of glasses. We both have trifocal presciptions (for distance, midrange, and reading) put into progressive (no line) lenses and also get the UV protective coating and darkening tint for sunlight. That's why the glasses are so expensive.

Thankfully, the rental car started up just fine when we were ready to leave and we headed out to I-95 for our drive up to Port St. Lucie. The drive was completely uneventful and we stopped at a Chili's for lunch before driving the short distance to Selene's home. As planned, we arrived at Selene's home around 2:30p, before Jaidyn got out of school. Selene greeted us as the front door and we brought our stuff in from the car and then moved it to the next door neighbor's driveway (they're an elderly couple who are away most of the year). When John and Jaidyn arrived home from school, Helena and I surprised Jaidyn by greeting her at the front door! It was a happy reunion, and we spent a pleasant evening at home with Selene, John, and Jaidyn plus the kitties, Delilah and TC.

Wednesday, November 27:

The Plan: Family Time and Grocery Shopping in Port St. Lucie

Helena, Selene, and I went on a morning shopping trip to Publix and a local natural foods grocery to stock up on items we'd need during our week at Walt Disney World. Once back home, we started packing everything for the drive up to Orlando. Everyone's excited about the week ahead.

Thursday, November 28:

The Plan: Drive to Orlando, SSR Check-In, Dinner at Boma

We were up early to finish packing last-minute items. We left Selene's home by 12:30p, with Helena and I in our rental Toyota and Selene, John, and Jaidyn in their Honda Civic. While Helena and I went directly onto the Florida Turnpike, Selene and family made a quick stop at a nearby McDonald's before taking the Turnpike. We continued ahead of them almost to the end of the road trip, until we stopped at a rest area for a quick bite to eat at a Dunkin' Donuts. While we were there, Selene and family overtook us and went ahead by about 10 minutes. The Florida Turnpike toll was $9.80 (up from $8.70 last December). Continuing on the Osceola Parkway, with a toll of $1.75, we were soon driving under the magical Walt Disney World archway and onto Disney property. We followed our usual route (although the NeverLost system wanted to put us on I-4) and were soon driving up to the Saratoga Springs Resort.

We met Selene, John, and Jaidyn in the check-in area, where they had already gotten the check-in package and our Keys to the World cards. Selene had a problem with her Magic Band not registering, but that was quickly taken care of, and we were soon on our way to our room (#4727) on the 3rd floor of a building in the Paddock area. As I had requested during online check-in, our room was very close to the elevator and also close to a bus stop.

I took a few quick photos of our 2-bedroom suite as the others unpacked the food items. We then set out for Animal Kingdom Lodge for our 4:00p reservation at Boma. We all went in Selene's car because Jaidyn's car seat was already set up there. We used my iPhone and Google Maps to guide us on our way. We ended up arriving at Boma's about 30 minutes late, but had no problem checking in.

We were called to our table within 15 minutes, with Vivian as our server. She was very friendly and attentive, and soon had Chef Matt over to our table to consult with Selene and confirm the food options that she had worked out for herself and Jaidyn with Chef Sutilak a week or two earlier over the phone. Chef Matt also took Selene around the buffet stations to let her know which ones would be okay for her. For the rest of us, everything in the buffet meal was great. This is an excellent way to try different food items, with unusual spices and flavors, that we wouldn't normally get at home. We all had a wonderful dinner that, for the meat eaters among us, also included some Thanksgiving turkey! The only negative to the evening was that I couldn't use my Tables in Wonderland (TIW) discount card because today was a holiday. So, our bill totaled $227, including tax and gratuity.

Once back at SSR, we settled in to finish unpacking, shower, and turn in for the night. Luckily, I noticed on the TV park guide that Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom would be opening on Friday and Saturday at 8:00a instead of the originally posted 9:00a. Knowing of this time change, we were able to plan on getting up a bit earlier to take advantage of the early opening times.

One side note from before Helena and I left home, I had been having problems with our Toshiba Satellite travel laptop. It will sometimes completely shut down without any warning, almost as if the power was suddenly cut off. Because of this, I've had to be extra careful about saving files periodically as I work on them and backing up all new files to a flash drive and a small backup hard drive that I recently bought. This problem is something I'm going to have to get checked out by the Geek Squad when we get back to Port St. Lucie next week.

Friday, November 29:

The Plan: Animal Kingdom, Dinner at Tusker House
- FP+ - Kilimanjaro Safari - 9:00a
- FP+ - Finding Nemo: The Musical - 10:40a
- FP+ - Kali River Rapids - 12:00p

Today was our first park day for this trip, and it set a pattern that we pretty much followed for the entire week. Helena and I were awake by 6:00a to catch a 1/2-hour of news and local weather before getting out of bed. We then had breakfast and got ready for the day. Selene, John, and Jaidyn got up by 7:00a to also get ready and have breakfast. We tried to be at the bus stop no later than a 1/2-hour before park opening time so that we'd get to the day's park by, or shortly after, rope drop. As I usually do, I used my camera as a way to keep track of our activities for trip reporting purposes. I took a photo when we arrived at the bus stop, another one when our bus arrived, and took pictures of the attraction signs as we entered each queue and another photo when we arrived at the loading station. That way, I didn't have to carry paper and pen to make notes during the day.

BTW, although our room is in the Paddock section of SSR, the nearest bus stop is actually the one for the Carousel section. This is the 2nd stop in the bus route, with the Springs (nearest to the central facilities) being the last stop before heading out to the theme parks. So, each morning we usually had an almost empty bus at our stop and never had to stand on our trips to the parks.

Today, we were at the bus stop by 8:10a, and the bus arrived within 7 minutes. We arrived at Animal Kingdom park by 8:50a. Entry to the park with our Magic Bands was trouble-free and we headed in and over the bridge to Discovery Island. One big disappointment was that, although I had ordered the PhotoPass+ package and had it mailed to Selene's home, when we were packing to drive up to Walt Disney World, it didn't register that I would need a code number from the package in order to get a PhotoPass+ card! It was too late to do anything about it now, but when we got back to our room in the evening, I emailed PhotoPass+ customer service to see if they could help me out. They eventually responded that I could get a replacement PhotoPass+ card at the camera center at any of the parks by using my original order number and email address. But that didn't help me any on this first day.

About a month ago, Helena saw a FujiFilm SLR-style camera being offered on the HSN shopping channel for $300 and called me to take a look at it, since my trusty Olympus pocket camera had died on me a few months earlier. After seeing the features demonstrated on HSN and checking out reviews for the same camera on Amazon, I agreed that it looked like a good deal. Helena placed an order for the camera as an early Christmas gift for me. Those of you who are Facebook friends of mine have probably seen some of the photos I took with the camera before leaving home. One of the features of the camera is a setting that enhances the color saturation. I liked the effect I got with it at home, so I decided to experiment on this trip by taking most of my park photos in this mode, instead of just taking the same "been there, done that" shots. Personally, I like the effect and feel that the color saturation enhances the images. Let me know what you think when you view my trip photo album (link at the end).

Getting on with the trip report, we headed directly to Africa for our 9:00a FP+ on the Kilimanjaro Safari. Our driver was very good and provided interesting information on the various animals, many of which were close to the safari trail. Most of the different animals were out and in clear sight, even the male lion. We noticed a couple groups of park guests who where on the "behind the scenes" safari tour. One was on a ridge overlooking the crocodiles, while the other was out in the savannah area. One thing that struck me was that one of the adult elephants looked unusually thin, without the round mid-section you'd expect on an elephant. I don't know if perhaps this was a female who had recently given birth, but the animal's thinness really struck me.

We next took in the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Several okapi were out and about, and quite a few exotic birds were visible among the trees of their enclosure. At the pool where there are above/below waterline views of the hippopotamus, there was one hippo much closer to the viewing area than usual. As a result, it was clearly visible through the murky water. Two ducks were riding on the hippo's back. Cute! I was glad to see that the meerkats were back in their area. They were MIA last year. At the gorilla section there were a couple of adults who were fast asleep in the family area, while a youngster was playing with what seemed to be a large piece of canvas. He/she eventually dragged it up onto a large boulder and set it down carefully to lie down for a nap. Over in the bachelor section, one of the gorillas was sitting next to a large cylindrical container. After looking at it for a while, he turned it over with the open end facing upwards and then proceeded to climb inside and sit down, for all the world looking like he was ready for a tub bath. At this station, Jaidyn got one of the Wilderness Explorer activity books and started collecting stickers at the different locations in the park. That turned out to be a good way to keep her interested in the animals throughout Animal Kingdom park.

Near the transition from Africa to Asia, John and Jaidyn stopped for a few minutes to have a bongo drum duel and, a bit further along, we all watched an interesting display with two large red parrotts from the Wonders of Flight attraction. We continued over to the far end of Asia for the 11:00a showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical. We had FP+ reservations for this, which probably got us better seating than if we had gotten into the long standby line, but it wasn't down in the lower section right in front of the stage. We all enjoyed the show, as always. We then backtracked to Expedition Everest, where John rode using the single rider line. I caught a photo of him in the second row of his ride vehicle as it came down the steep drop out of the mountain. It was now a bit after noon, so we stopped for a light bite to eat, getting egg rolls and fried rice from the Yak & Yeti counter service station. Selene got a vegan snack from the nearby vegetarian kiosk. Total cost for lunch, including drinks, was $27.

On the way back to the front of Asia, we stopped at the bridge over the exit to Kali River Rapids, where John and Jaidyn had fun catching riders with a squirt from the elephant statues. Although we had FP+ for Kali River Rapids, the weather was a bit too chilly today to risk getting soaked. Instead, we went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek, where Jaidyn had a minor meltdown over an activity related to getting a Wilderness Explorer badge at the bats viewing area. The beautiful tigers were visible but mostly inactive, just sleeping like typical cats. One was pacing back and forth near the water pool. In the area where the deer and antelope usually are scattered about grazing, they were all huddled together and reclining in a small area. Maybe the cool temperature had them seeking the body warmth of their companions.

Continuing around the park, we next visited Dinoland USA, where Selene, John, and Jaidyn rode Primeval Whirl twice at Jaidyn's request. Helena and I took the opportunity to rest in a shady spot and I went to take a few photos at the Dinosaur attraction area. From there, we headed over to the Boneyard, where Jaidyn wanted to ride down the slide and then went to get her dinosaur Wilderness Explorer stickers after playing in the Dig Site for a while. As we completed the circle through Africa, Asia, and Dinoland, it was almost time for our 4:00p dinner reservation at Tusker House. We had to maneuver around the barriers that were already in place for the 3:45p parade, but we eventually found our way to Harambe village and the Tusker House check-in desk.

We were right on time for our dinner reservation and were seated right away. Our server was Genia, who again was very attentive and friendly. Chef Chris came over to go over the menu options that Selene had worked out previously with Chef Marilyn. Chef Chris also took Selene through the buffet selections, letting her know which would be safe for her gluten-free vegan requirement. This was another delicious meal with many exotic flavors. Dinner cost $158 including tax, gratuity, and 20% TIW discount. Basically, the discount covers the 20% gratuity that we normally leave.

Selene, John, and Jaidyn left Animal Kingdom park and returned to SSR around 5:15p. Helena and I stayed a bit longer so that we could catch the 5:30p showing of the Festival of the Lion and then take a short after-dark tour of Discovery Island and Africa. I wanted to also walk through Asia and Dinoland at night, but those areas were roped off. We had a 10 minute wait for the bus back to SSR, and were back at our room by 7:30p.

Saturday, November 30:

The Plan: Magic Kingdom, Dinner at Crystal Palace
- FP+ - Peter Pan's Flight - 9:00a
- FP+ - Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - 10:00a
- FP+ - Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - 11:00a

We were at the bus stop at 7:47a and the bus arrived within 10 minutes. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom by 8:25a, but I had a bit of a problem with the finger scan at the entry point. A Cast Member (CM) with a pad did something that took care of the problem and we were soon in. As we were heading up Main Street USA, the trolley show was in progress and we stopped to see a bit of it. Then we headed through Cinderella Castle to take our first ride of the day on Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid, which was a walk-on. We then headed over to Peter Pan for our 9:00a FP+. With the new camera, I was actually able to get a few decent (not great) photos on Peter Pan. I'm still playing with the many automatic and manual settings on the camera, so this is a hopeful sign for better on-ride photos in the future. "It's a small world" was a walk-on at 10:15a and then we headed over to Mickey's PhilharMagic, which was another walk-on. That was followed by a FP+ ride on Winnie the Pooh, where I again got some decent pictures. After getting off the Pooh ride, it was interesting to see all of the progress on the Seven Dwarf Mine Train ride since last December. Looks like it should be a very popular ride when it opens.

Continuing around, we next hit the Mad Tea Party, again as basically a walk-on, although Selene, John, and Jaidyn had to wait for the next set because a group decided to separate into different cups, leaving them without one to ride in. After getting spun-dry in the teacups, we all headed over to the Tomorrowland Speedway, which also had a very short wait. John and Jaidyn rode that while Selene, Helena, and I watched from the grandstand. We then backtracked a bit to Goofy's Barnstormer, where Selene, John, and Jaidyn rode twice after short standby waits of less than 15 minutes each time. Helena and I took the opportunity to look around the Storybook Circus area.

Continuing down into Tomorrowland, we all rode on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin using our 11:30 FP+. Helena and I had very low scores, with Helena again besting my score by 96,800 to 35,800. John had the top score of over 500,000 when he found the "sweet spot" in the dark tunnel with projected targets, where we were stopped for several minutes.

After Buzz Lightyear, Selene & family returned to SSR for a swim. Helena and I stayed in the park and stopped for a light lunch at the Starlight Caf, where we enjoyed the music of Sonny Eclipse while we ate. Helena had a fruit cup and I had a burger, both with drinks. The total cost was $26. Continuing through Tomorrowland, we took in the Carousel of Progress, where they're still announcing "no photography." Why?? We also noticed that the background music on the Carousel was turned up much louder than usual, to the point where it was drowning out the spoken dialogue. I hope that was just a one-time mix-up. We then took in our last Tomorrowland ride, this one on the PeopleMover. There was a short ride stop at one point, but I don't know what caused it.

Helena and I then trekked across to Adventureland, where the standby times for Jungle (Jingle) Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean were both almost at the 60-minute mark. Instead, we took in a showing of the Enchanted Tiki Room, where I again was able to capture some nice photos of the birds. We next headed through the shortcut to Liberty Square, where we were just in time for the next showing at the Hall of Presidents. I used the panorama mode on the camera to capture the entire line-up of Presidents in one frame, but the sharpness of the image wasn't outstanding. When we came out, we found the walkways were roped off for the afternoon's Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade. So, we found a spot behind people who were sitting at the curb and had a pretty good view of the parade. After the parade and the crowd cleared out, we found a bench in a quiet area of Liberty Square and just relaxed there people-watching for a while. Princess Tiana was doing a meet and greet nearby.

When it was closer to 4:00p, we moved to the balcony at the Crystal Palace to wait for Selene and family to get back from SSR. They arrived shortly after 4:30p, and I went to check-in for our 4:45p reservation. We were soon paged and shown to our table near the entrance of the right-side dining room. Our server, Jamie, explained the path that the characters would take around the dining room and then went to get our drinks. John teased her about the dozen or so WDW pens she had clipped to her apron, to which she joked that she likes to be prepared and that the other servers all know where they can find a pen when they need one. Chef John soon came over to go through the details for Selene's and Jaidyn's main meals, which Selene had planned out with Chef Aina in advance. Chef John also showed Selene which buffet items were suitable for her. During the time we were there, Pooh, Eyore, Piglet, and Tigger all came over to our table for quick pictures with Jaidyn. Although Jaidyn was extremely "character shy" during our visit to Walt Disney World last year, this time she was more open to being photographed with them but still a bit shy about it. When Tigger was there, someone at our table mentioned that Tigger is my favorite Disney character and he had me pose with him for a "twins" photo. One occurrence that really got to me was that when John, Helena, and I went for dessert, Jaidyn commented that we were making her jealous because she can't have any of those delicious desserts. Although Selene had prepared "allergy appropriate" desserts at home for Jaidyn, my heart was in my shoes for a long time after that because poor Jaidyn has so many food sensitivities that she often can't enjoy the snacks that others can, even her classmates in school. She's on a very regimented elimination diet which, hopefully, will eventually help her to be more tolerant of different food items as she gets older but, for right now, it's heartbreaking! Tonight's dinner cost $194 including tax, gratuity, and TIW discount.

After dinner, the rest of the family started for the park exit, while I stayed to do a circuit of the park and, hopefully, catch Wishes and the Electrical Parade. I started in Adventureland at around 6:15p and was amazed at the size of the crowd that had gathered in the Magic Kingdom during the 90 minutes or so that we were at the Crystal Palace! Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland were filled with walls of people, which made maneuvering around the walkways difficult. As I reached Main Street, I knew that I wasn't going to be staying for the evening shows. As filled as the park was at this early hour of the evening, there was also a continuous stream of more people entering. It was time for me to say goodnight to the Magic Kingdom. I headed for the exit and was at the bus stop by 7:10p and back at SSR by 7:30p.

Sunday, December 1:

The Plan: Epcot, Dinner at Garden Grill
- FP+ - Soarin' - 9:00a
- FP+ - Test Track - 10:30a
- FP+ - Turtle Talk with Crush - 12:00p

Because Epcot didn't open until 9:00a today, we hit the bus stop a bit later, at 8:39a. The bus arrived within 8 minutes and we were at the park just a short time after rope drop. There was quite a crowd at the security check, but we still got through rather quickly. But then Helena's band wouldn't register at the entry point, and a CM with a pad re-initialized it after verifying her ID. Based on a response email I received from the PhotoPass customer services, I stopped at the Photo Center to have a PhotoPass+ card issued in place of the one I would have gotten with the code in the package. That process took about 15 minutes, after which we all headed directly to Soarin' for our 10:00a FP+ ride. It was a great flight, as usual, and this time there were no clumps of dust on the film. We then rode Living with the Land as a walk-on. A cute Thanksgiving scene was still up in the greenhouse section.

Then it was across to the other side of Future World for us to use our 10:30 FP+ for Test Track. I noticed that the line was moving rather slowly, then realized that we were given the opportunity to completely design our vehicles on the interactive monitors. I had only ridden Test Track with FP once last year and, if my memory is correct, we were only given a choice of several pre-designed vehicles in the FP line. It took just over a half-hour for us to get onto the ride vehicles which, of course, was a blast! In the design area, Selene and Jaidyn worked together and John and I worked together. They went way out with their vehicle design, with all kinds of appendages, while John and I went with a simple, streamlined design. But Selene and Jaidyn's overall design beat ours by 8 points at the end.

It was now about 11:45a, and we headed back to the Land pavilion for lunch at Sunshine Seasons. We decided to eat there because it has the most variety of the Epcot quick service places. Our meals cost $61. We next went over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends, where we used our 12:40p FP+ for Turtle Talk. But we soon realized that using FP+ here was really a waste, because we didn't get any special seating and, in fact, probably ended up further back in the theater than if we had just entered the waiting area through the regular queue. First lesson learned! After the Seas, Jaidyn wanted to ride Spaceship Earth, so we headed there and got into the standby line at about 1:20p. Although the line was quite long, we still were on the ride within 10 minutes. This was a big test of my new camera and, although I got clear, non-blurred pictures of the various scenes, most of them had a reddish-tinge. That was a bit of a disappointment. I'll have to figure out how to adjust the "white balance" for next time.

We next headed over to World Showcase and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour as a walk-on. There was absolutely no one in line ahead of us, although a few people came in after us. We then went to Norway to ride Maelstrom, where we had a 15-minute wait in the standby line. John tried to trick Helena and I into taking the back of the Viking ship, knowing that it travels backwards. But he forgot that it reverses direction before the drop, so the joke was on him. :-) We then took a leisurely stroll through the rest of World Showcase. At China, an acrobatic troop was just getting ready to perform. At Japan, a lady was making a presentation on that country's Christmas traditions. At Germany, Snow White was in the middle of a meet and greet, while Italy didn't seem to have any presentations in progress as we passed. At the American Pavilion, we were surprised to see a long standby line for the 5:00p presentation of the Candlelight Processional, although the current time was only about 3:00p. Even the queue for guests participating in the dinner package already had several persons in line! At Morocco, a presentation of that country's dances was just beginning and we stopped there for about 15 minutes, having found a bench in the shade. We then continued on past France, where the acrobatic clowns were performing; to the United Kingdom, where Alice was in the middle of a meet and greet; and finishing up in Canada.

It was now close to 4:30p, and we continued back into Future World and headed to the Land to see if, by some miracle, we could get early seating for our 5:45p dinner reservation at the Garden Grill. The CM said that they had no current openings, but that if we returned at 5:30p they should be able to get us in a few minutes early. With an hour to kill, we headed over to Innoventions West, where we all played the Piggy Bank Game and looked around at the other exhibits. We then continued over to Innoventions East, again checking out the exhibits. John tried to encourage Jaidyn to go with him to design and ride a mild roller coaster at the Sum of All Thrills simulators, but she declined. We eventually headed back over to the Land to check-in at the Garden Grill, being seated pretty near to our original 5:45p reservation time.

Our server was Jeffrey, and he had Chef Stephen come over to go through the options for Selene and Jaidyn. During the time that we were there, Dale, Chip, Mickey, and Pluto stopped by for pictures, with Dale, Chip, and Mickey coming around a second time before we left. Dinner was $185, including tax, gratuity, and TIW discount. We started to head towards the park exit, with a stop at Starbucks for Selene on the way out. We were at the bus stop by 7:15p, just missing an SSR bus. The next bus came about 15 minutes later. We got back to our room at SSR by 8:00p. Selene got Jaidyn ready for bed and then she and John went to Downtown Disney for a couple hours, while Helena and I stayed with Jaidyn.

Monday, December 2:

The Plan: Hollywood Studios, Dinner at Mama Melrose's Ristorante
- FP+ - Toy Story Midway Mania - 9:10A
- FP+ - Voyage of the Little Mermaid - 10:40a
- FP+ - Beauty and the Beast on Stage - 12:35p

We were at the bus stop by 8:35a this morning, with our bus arriving within 10 minutes. Going through the turnstiles today was trouble-free, and we were walking down Hollywood Boulveard by 9:10a. We headed directly to Toy Story Mania for our FP+, but before getting in line, we were going to stop to also get paper FPs using our Keys to the World cards. We were shocked to find that the paper FPs were only available for 7:45p and later! I think Disney needs to install Toy Story Mania at a second location in the park. I kept up my winning streak against Helena, beating her score by 134,900 to 111,200. But our scores were beat by John at 180,000 and Selene at 143,100.

We next headed over to the Magic of Disney Animation, where we all sat in for a session of the Animation Academy art class. The choices of characters to draw were Mickey, Pluto, or Olaf (the snowman in "Frozen"). I would have preferred Mickey, but the majority went with Olaf. This was the first time at this attraction for Helena and I, and I actually enjoyed it. At the end, the instructor said that he would give his original drawing of Olaf to whoever could answer a trivia question about "Frozen" who's written work is "Frozen" based on? After a couple other participants gave incorrect answers, I put up my hand and answered correctly that "Frozen" is based on Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Snow Queen."

We were out of the Animation Academy class by 10:30a, and headed over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, where we used our 10:40a FP+. We were able to bypass a rather long standby line, but still merged into the crowd who were already inside the pre-show area. Entering the theater, I got separated from the others when I picked a row of seats, thinking they were behind me, only to find out they had gone to the row in front of me. I have to admit that I was a bit "pissed off" about the snafu.

By this time, it was becoming apparent that Jaidyn doesn't really like most of the attractions at the Hollywood Studios park. (During our December 2012 trip, she had a major meltdown here.) She didn't want to go on any of the available attractions, so Helena stayed with Jaidyn while Selene, John, and I took a ride on Star Tours. After that, Selene and family left the park and returned to SSR for a rest. It was now just about 12:00p, and Helena and I continued touring. But I was noticing the beginning symptoms of a cold coming on. My throat was getting a bit scratchy and I was coughing more than usual. Not a good sign!

Helena and I went on the Great Movie ride, being boarded from a separate "Party of 2" line they had set up to fill empty seats. I won't volunteer for that again, because I don't think I've ever had as bad a view of the movie scenes as on this outing. We were seated at the tail end of a large and raucous group that wasn't shy about holding cameras above their heads, blocking most of our view. Somehow, I still managed to get nice pictures of a few of the movie scenes.

It was now approaching time for our 1:00p FP+ at Beauty and the Beast on Stage, but we stopped at a kiosk on Sunset Boulevard to grab a couple of orange juices before heading to the theater. This turned out to be another wasted FP+, because there was no separate queue for FP+ entry into the theater. So, why is Disney offering FP+ for this attraction if it's not set up to take advantage of expedited entry? Regardless of that minor annoyance, we both enjoyed Beauty and the Beast, as we always do. This might be my all-time favorite Disney music.

We next headed over to the Echo Lake section of the park to take in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which we haven't seen in several years. We enjoyed the show and I noticed several minor differences in the overall sequencing and choreography of the stunts. Of course, it was easy to pick out the "ringer" among the audience volunteers.

I was going to try ride Star Tours again, but the standby line was over 30 minutes, so we continued towards the back to take in Muppet*Vision 3D. About 2/3s of the way through the show, the exit doors suddenly opened and the movie stopped. A CM came out from backstage and told us that there was an unknown problem and that we had to exit the theater. All the years we've seen Mupper*Vision, this had never happened to us before. Since it was getting close to our dinner reservation time, we found ourselves a bench near Echo Lake and just relaxed for a while. I also took the opportunity to walk around the lake to take a few photos.

Selene, John, and Jaidyn returned from SSR and we headed over to Mama Melrose at about 4:00p. The CM at check-in gave me a buzzer but said that they were running a bit late and we most likely wouldn't be called until close to our 4:30p reservation time. We killed some time browsing through the Muppet Store and the buzzer went of shortly before 4:30p. Our server was Julie and, despite a bit of a rough start, she took good care of us throughout dinner. She also had Chef Rafa come over to go over the menu items for Selene and Jaidyn. The total cost for dinner was $109 including tax, gratuity, and TIW discount. The meals included chicken parmesian, spaghetti and meatballs, a kid's meal chicken, and a fettuccini dish.

By the time dinner was over, it was dark enough that the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights was already all illuminated. We spent almost a half-hour slowly walking through the display, enjoying the music and the wonderful light show. The crowd traffic through the area was much better controlled than in past years, and that alone made the experience much more pleasant.

It was now almost 6:45p, and Helena and I decided to head back to SSR for the night. Helena was getting tired and my cold symptoms were getting more pronounced. However, before going to our room, we stopped off at the Springs bus stop and went to the Artist's Palette to pick up several bottles of water and cold medication for me at a total cost of $25. Selene, Jaidyn, and John stayed at Hollywood Studios a bit later, with John taking in a ride on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. They were also back at our resort by 8:00p.

Tuesday, December 3:

The Plan: Magic Kingdom, Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern, Selene & Family Return Home
- FP+ - Under the Sea - 9:00a Changed to: Jungle Cruise - 9:05a
- FP+ - Splash Mountain - 10:15a Changed to: Pirates of the Caribbean - 10:15a
- FP+ - Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - 1:30p Changed to: Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor

Note: After I had first made our FP+ selections, Selene suggested some different options. I made those changes on the laptop a few days before our actual visit to Walt Disney World.

As I had feared, I woke up this morning with a full-blown head cold, sneezing and having to blow my nose every few minutes. There was no way I was going to be able to join the others at the Magic Kingdom. I stayed in bed most of the morning and later in the day turned on the laptop to start writing up my trip notes. Helena joined Selene, John, and Jaidyn for a second visit to the Magic Kingdom. Although I don't have all of the details of what they did and saw, Selene's photos served as a guide for me to summarize their day.

They left our room before 9:00a and arrived at the Magic Kingdom by 9:15a. They first headed over for their FP+ ride on the Jungle (Jingle) Cruise, followed by an FP+ ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. Then it was over to Big Thunder Mountain, where John rode alone, and then to Splash Mountain to ride with Jaidyn.

By that time, it was close to their 12:30p reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern, where Ed was their server. Unfortunately, Selene didn't get the name of the Chef who came over to discuss the menu choices for herself and Jaidyn. (Chef John was the person from Liberty Tree Tavern who had contacted Selene before our trip.) This turned out to be the least expensive main meal of the trip, at $61 including tax, gratuity, and TIW discount. The food selections included a kid's meal turkey, a colony salad, and a couple burgers.

After lunch, Helena headed back to SSR, while Selene and family continued touring the Magic Kingdom. John again rode Big Thunder Mountain, this time with Selene and Jaidyn, and then they went to the Haunted Mansion. From there, they headed across to Tomorrowland, where John rode Space Mountain. This was John's first ride on Space Mountain since he was a little boy, and he later commented that he found the ride to be very jerky, especially since there isn't much restraint for riders' upper body. They didn't use the FP+ at Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.

Selene, John, and Jaidyn got back from the Magic Kingdom around 3:00p and got to packing up all of their stuff for their drive back home. Jaidyn missed school on Monday and Tuesday, and they didn't want her to miss a 3rd day in a row. They left SSR by 5:00p, made a stop at Downtown Disney for dinner, then headed out on the Florida Turnpike to Port St. Lucie. Selene sent us voice and text messages to let us know they arrived at their home around 11:30p.

Wednesday, December 4:

The Plan: Epcot, Dinner at Le Cellier
- FP+ - Soarin' - 9:25a
- FP+ - Test Track - 11:05a
- FP+ - Maelstrom - 1:00p

Today was a complete disappointment for Helena and I. My cold was still lingering, now at the stage where I was coughing up mucus (don't mean to be gross). I didn't think it was a good idea for me to go to Epcot to spread my germs and Helena was also beginning to have symptoms of an on-coming cold. So, I called Disney Dining and cancelled our reservation at Le Cellier. Because the cancellation was due to illness, the CM waived the late cancellation fee. I also cancelled our lunch reservation for tomorrow at Bongos online. If I'm well enough to go to Downtown Disney tomorrow, as we had originally planned, we can usually get seating at Bongos without a reservation. Using the My Disney Experience app on our iPad, I also cancelled our FP+ reservations at Epcot.

Helena took the opportunity to sleep in until 10:00a, while I caught up on Facebook and my usual morning Disney boards run-through and watched the morning news. Later in the day, I updated these trips notes for the past several days' activities. In the afternoon, I was feeling a little better and we took the bus over to the SSR food court to grab a light dinner, consisting of pepperoni flatbread for Helena and a turkey club wrap for me, and to pick up a few bottles of water. The total cost was about $50.

Thursday, December 5:

The Plan: SSR Check-Out, Downtown Disney, Lunch at Bongos, Drive to Port St. Lucie

Since I was feeling better today, with just a dry cough left, Helena and I decided to hit Epcot instead of going to Downtown Disney. With all of the construction at DTD, we figured that a second day at Epcot would be more enjoyable. Around 6:30a, I logged into the My Disney Experience app and was able to quickly reserve FP+ rides for us. These were for Mission: Space at 9:30a, Spaceship Earth at 11:00a, and Soarin' at 12:35p. I would have preferred to get Test Track instead of Spaceship Earth, but Test Track wasn't shown as being available. We also planned to have lunch at the Land's Sunshine Seasons food court and then make a circuit of World Showcase before heading out to Selene's home in Port St. Lucie.

We got dressed, had breakfast, and packed everything we had with us. I took our suitcase and other packages down to the rental car while Helena made sure we didn't leave anything behind. After making sure that everything was in order in the suite and that the stuff in the car was secured, we left our SSR room for the last time on this trip. We were at the bus stop by 9:00a and had the longest wait of the trip (20 minutes) for the Epcot bus to arrive. In the meantime, two of all of the other park buses came and went. At least our driver was a comedian and had us in stitches all the way to Epcot.

We were through the entry, without problems, by 10:00a and headed right over to Mission: Space for my FP+ ride before the reservation time expired. Helena doesn't do this ride, so she waited on a bench near the exit while I took an Orange level ride to Mars. The other three crew members on my flight were college-aged guys who seemed to be kind of cocky about their knowledge of the space program and the related techno-babble. They made up their own dialogue throughout the entire ride, which was a bit annoying, but also amusing in that I knew that half of the "facts" they were spouting were incorrect. They totally ignored me the entire time, and I was fine with that. I enjoyed the ride and hit the right buttons at the right time, while the computer override had to do their jobs for them!

I would have liked to do Test Track next, but didn't want to have Helena just sitting waiting for me to go through that attraction, which she also doesn't ride because of back problems. So, we started heading across to the other side of Future World, stopping the Art of Disney store to look at the wonderful figurines and art pieces there. The Jessica Rabbit figurine always catches our eye because Helena (jokingly) holds that as a model for her to work towards. I already fit the goofy Roger Rabbit model! :-)

We then hit the Spaceship Earth ride, where I was able to get some better photos, although they're still not as good as other's I've seen posted on the Disney boards. But then, my new camera only cost $300, not $1,000+. I have to keep that in mind when comparing my photo quality to those I often see posted on Facebook. (Check out the page of WDW Shutterbug, his photos are amazing!) In the computer animated segment of the attraction, we noticed that there were pieces missing from both Helena's and my faces. This was the first time we'd ever seen this happen, and we believe that the ride camera must have gotten reflections off of our eyeglasses or some glitch like that. But then, our photos on the globe at the end had our full faces without any missing pieces. So, I'm not sure what happened.

We continued across to the Imagination pavilion and took in the Journey into Imagination ride with Figment. There was practically no one in the queue or the ride, so we were able to take our time going through and looking at some of the details that we had missed on previous trips. I got some nice ride photos here, including Figments' upside-down house and a couple of the final scenes in the attraction.

We were now within the window for our FP+ at Soarin', so we head over to the Land to ride. We went right through the FP+ scan at the entrance and down the long passageway to the boarding area. I don't know if it was Disney's intention, but they sure captured the long walk that usually accompanies check-in and boarding at a real airport! There were probably about 20-30 persons ahead of us in the FP+ line and, it seemed to me, that only one side of the Soarin' complex was being used. Even so, we were soon on board and ready for take-off. A lady seated next to me was a bit nervous as this was her first ride, and I told her that it's quite mild and I was sure she'd enjoy it. She did. It was now after 1:30p, and Helena and I stopped at the Sunshine Seasons food court for lunch. She had a fruit cup and a guava turnover, while I had a turkey focaccia and a chocolate chip muffin. The total cost, including drinks, was $27.

After they had arrived back home on Tuesday evening, Selene had emailed us to ask that we look out for a particular Stitch pin that's missing from Jaidyn's pin collection. They hadn't found it anywhere during the time they were with us. So, we stopped by the main pin station in Future World, where the CM suggested we try the pin carts in Canada and the United Kingdom. We were later overjoyed to find the exact Stitch pin that Selene was looking for at the cart in the UK!

We started on the Canada side of World Showcase and continued around the pavilions, stopping every so often to take pictures. However, we didn't venture inside any of the pavilions until we got to the American pavilion. There we took in the wonderful pre-show concert by the Voices of Liberty. At their call, I went to sit on the floor under the dome and, thankfully, managed to get back up on my feet at the end without looking like the old fogey that I am. Again, the crowd was relatively small and we had great seats in the main theater, where I was able to get some nice shots of the full width of each animatronic scene of the American Adventure. I was a bit concerned, however, that my camera shines a dim light for a second or two when I press down on the shutter release button. I've been aware of this throughout the trip, but it was most noticeable here because the theater was so dark during the presentation. I later looked in the camera's manual to see if this light could be turned off, but found nothing at all to even describe its purpose. I assume that it's somehow related to the automatic exposure setting process.

We continued our leisurely stroll around World Showcase, ending in Mexico shortly before 2:00p. Our last target for the day was MouseGear for a bit of shopping. That included a pound of licorice jellybeans, which Helena loves; a CD with classical versions of Disney classics; and two of the nice Cinderella Castle photo albums, one for Selene and the other for me. The total cost at MouseGear was $92.

We eventually headed for the park exit around 3:30p and were back at SSR by 4:10p to start our drive down to Port St. Lucie. For some reason, the Hertz NeverLost system (which we've nicknamed "Sarah") has a fixation with I-4 whenever we're in the Orlando area. It seems like, regardless of the destination, it wants to put us on I-4 to get there. It happens every time on our drives to and from Walt Disney World, and it's quite annoying.

We again ignored Sarah and took our usual route to the Osceola Parkway and then to the Florida Turnpike ramp headed south. The drive was smooth and with surprisingly little traffic. We arrived in Port St. Lucie within 2 hours ($1.75 toll on Osceola and $9.80 on the Turnpike) and made a quick stop at Walgreens before heading over to Selene's home. Our week at Walt Disney World was, unfortunately, over. Meanwhile, in Port St. Lucie, Jaidyn was back in school and Selene and John were returning to their normal routines.

Friday, December 6 to Friday, December 27:

The Plan: Family Time in Port St. Lucie, including a week at RCI's Turtle Beach Resort

During the next almost two weeks, Helena and I spent some time at Selenes home, with a week at an RCI exchange resort in nearby Jensen Beach. Ill just summarize each days activities.

- Friday, December 6: While Jaidyn was in school, Helena and I settled back in at Selenes home and I took the opportunity to start going through almost 1,500 photos to pick out the best ones. Later in the day, Selene, John, Helena, and I had lunch at Berry Fresh Caf, a new vegan-friendly eatery in Port St. Lucie.

- Saturday, December 7: Helena and I made a trip to Publix, mainly for Helena to get ingredients she needed to bake a "sweet bread" a traditional island version of fruitcake, with a texture more like cake and much fewer dried fruits in the mix. I had continued having trouble with my travel laptop while at Walt Disney World. It would suddenly shutdown completely without any warning, and this was happening more and more frequently. Not a good sign.

- Sunday, December 8: We all spent a quite day at home. The laptop troubles were getting progressively worse. By the evening, it would shutdown before Windows even had a chance to load completely.

- Monday, December 9: I finally broke down and bought a new, small laptop. Helena and I checked out what was available at the nearby Office Max and ended up getting an 11-inch HP Pavilion with Windows 8 and a touchscreen. The computer was $425, but tax software Helena needed for her family's residential rental business and for our personal taxes added another $400. At least the cost of the business software will be reimbursed from Helena's business account.

- Tuesday, December 10: I spent a good bit of time setting up the new laptop and also downloading Corel WordPerfect Office, which I prefer over Microsoft Office. The Corel software is compatible with a whole array of other software (including Microsoft Office), while Microsoft refuses to recognize that any other software exists beside their own. The Corel WordPerfect Office suite cost $200. This is turning into an expensive proposition, with all of the software actually costing much more then the new laptop itself! We had dinner at Olive Garden today. One of my favorites.

- Wednesday, December 11: I continued to set up the new laptop, mainly deleting useless apps pre-installed as part of Windows 8. Dinner was at home, courtesy of Selene and John.

- Thursday, December 12: A quiet day at home and dinner at TGI Friday's.

- Friday, December 13: While Jaidyn was in school, Selene, John, Helena, and I went to Sake Too in nearby Tradition for a nice Japanese meal. Selene and John had sushi, while Helena and I had sweet and sour chicken. We went a few doors down to Kilwin's for delicious homemade ice cream. Selene had frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti, which is right next to Kilwin's.

- Saturday, December 14: In the afteroon we went to a nearby movie theater to see "Frozen." Jaidyn is often hesitant to go to the movies, but she liked this new Disney animated story. I absolutely loved it, as did the others. I would put it up there with "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast" as a true Disney classic!

- Sunday, December 15: Helena and I packed up for our week at Turtle Reef Resort in nearby Jensen Beach. We had points in our Bluegreen Vacation Club account that would soon expire, so we decided to use them on an RCI exchange to stay a week at Turtle Reef. The drive from Selene's home was about 30 minutes. The resort is actually located on Hutchinson Island, which is a barrier island just off the main Florida coast. Although not up to the Disney standard, the resort was big, roomy, and comfortable. The only real problem was that there was a slight odor of fresh paint in the main bedroom, which affected Helena's sinuses. She ended up having to sleep in the second bedroom during the week. Today we had dinner at a nearby Longhorn Steakhouse.

- Monday, December 16: We made a stop at a nearby Best Buy, where I had bought my problematic laptop a couple years ago to see if the Geek Squad could get it working again. The technician cleaned out the inside of the computer, which he said was full of dust and probably causing it to overheat. (Unfortunately, that evening I found that this wasn't the problem, because it continued to shutdown before Windows finished booting up. Oh well, at least I wasn't charged anything by the Geek Squad.) From there, we went to the Treasure Coast Mall and basically did a walk through of the mall, with stops at Sears, where Helena bought a couple casual tops; JC Penney; Brookstone; and FYE. I bought three DVDs that were on sale for under $10 each. We had dinner at the Ruby Tuesday at the mall and then headed back to the Turtle Reef Resort.

- Tuesday, December 17: We relaxed at the resort and I pretty much finished selecting the Disney photos I want to post to Facebook, include in my trip slideshow presentation, and include in a photo album we'll give to Selene, John, and Jaidyn as a Christmas gift. We had dinner at Chili's and then stopped at a Honey Baked Ham store to get a ham for Christmas dinner at Selene's next week. We kept it in the freezer at our resort.

- Wednesday, December 18: Helena and I went to Selene's home with the ham and later we all went to Dos Amigos in Tradition for a great Mexican meal.

- Thursday, December 19: Helena did a couple loads of laundry in the morning, while I was busy on the computer. In the afternoon, we again had dinner at Chili's. I so much wish we had a Chili's on St. Thomas I love the fajitas there!

- Friday, December 20: We relaxed at Turtle Reef Resort most of the day and then went to see "Saving Mr. Banks" in the afternoon, with dinner at Olive Garden afterwards. We both greatly enjoyed "Saving Mr. Banks" and highly recommend it to any Disney fan. However, it's not really for younger children, who may become bored with the story, which is also somewhat too intense (in the flashback parts) for the little tykes. I posted some comments about the film on Facebook.

- Saturday, December 21: We drove down to Deerfield Beach, with a stop at our eye doctor to pick up our new glasses, which were ready for us since last week. We then went to my sister and brother-in-law's home where we spent a nice couple of hours catching up on family news. We also all (including a nephew) went to Golden Corral for a filling, yet inexpensive lunch. This is the first time Helena and I had ever been to a Golden Corral, and we were quite impressed by the large selection of dishes in their "all you can eat" buffet line-up at a cost of less than $10 per person. Later in the evening, Helena and I packed up most of our stuff for an early check-out from Turtle Reef Resort in the morning.

- Sunday, December 22: This was our check-out day from Turtle Reef Resort. We were out by 9:30a and made a quick stop at the Sears at Treasure Coast Mall so that Helena could look for a top she had seen at another Sears, but not in her size. We then drove back to Selene's home to settle back in for the last week of our vacation. In the afternoon, Helena and I went to a nearby Longhorn Steak House for dinner. Today was "fish" day for Selene and family, and I don't eat seafood.

- Monday, December 23: Selene was out early this morning for a last bit of grocery shopping before Christmas, while Helena started to prepare the ingredients to bake our traditional island "sweet bread" to have for breakfast this week. (I've mentioned before that Caribbean "sweet bread" is similar to a fruitcake, but with much less fruit and nuts, with a more cake-like texture. It's a "must have" for most island residents at Christmas time.) I finished selecting 200 photos from our time at Walt Disney World and went to a nearby Walgreens to have them printed for a Disney photo album I'll give to Selene and family on Christmas day.

- Tuesday, December 24: We had a visitor in our bedroom this morning, as Jaidyn was awake early and came in to show us some art she had done on her parents' iPad. Jaidyn definitely takes after both her parents in that they're talented in the art field Selene in graphic design and John in detailed illustration art and Jaidyn shows great promise in art. We all had a quiet day at home, getting ready for Santa's arrival. I went to Walgreens to pick up the photos from the Disney part of our trip and started setting them up in the albums. In the evening, I brought up the NORAD website to track Santa for Jaidyn as he made his way across the Atlantic and nearer to Florida.

- Wednesday, December 25: Merry Christmas! We were up by 7:00a to join Jaidyn at the Christmas Tree. Jaidyn got a lot of stuff, including a professional art kit with pencils, chalks, markers, and watercolors; and a big Lego play set. I watched the Disney Parks Christmas Parade on ABC while catching up online. (I wish I had recorded it because it was better than I was expecting). In the afternoon an uncle of John's who lives nearby came over for Christmas dinner, which included honey baked ham and all the fixings.

- Thursday, December 26: This was a quiet day at home after Helena and I made a quick trip to Target and Walgreens to pick up a couple things. I packed up a box to be mailed home with stuff we bought during our month in Florida. We also spent some quiet time with Selene, John, and especially Jaidyn.

- Friday, December 27: Our last full day in Florida. We packed up our suitcase and backpacks, had lunch at Olive Garden to use a gift certificate Selene and John had given us (no Olive Garden back home) and spent some more quiet time with Jaidyn before we headed out to I-95, south to Deerfield Beach. Our first stop was at my sister's home for a final goodbye. When I was getting back in the car, I noticed a small X-shaped drone flying overhead. I'm not sure what that was about police or just nosy neighbors! We stopped at Boston Market for a quick and light dinner and then checked in to our usual Hampton Inn for the night. Unfortunately, Helena and I were still having lingering after-effects of our colds, with both of us having scratchy throats and persistent coughs. I'm really tired of these Florida flues!

Saturday, December 28:

The Plan: Drive to Miami, AA Flight from Miami to St. Thomas

We were up by 6:00am to get dressed and do our last packing of the trip. After partaking in the complimentary breakfast, we head back to I-95 for the last leg of our drive to Miami International Airport. With a stop in Fort Lauderdale to fill up the tank in the rental car, we were at MIA by 9:45a. Then began the trek to the check-in terminal. We were glad to find that American Airlines had set up a "curbside" check-in counter just a short distance from the rental car facility. So, we were able to unload our suitcase there and proceed directly to the security check-in area. I'm not sure why (maybe because we were using AA points) but we were designated as having gone through a pre-screening, which allowed us to use a shorter security line and not have to remove our shoes, belts, etc. during the process. That was a great unexpected perk!

We were soon at the departure gate and stopped at one of the eateries for a quick lunch of burgers, fries, and drinks. We boarded on time as part of the priority access group (because we using AA points) and were quickly seated onboard the Boeing 757. Our flight actually left the gate about 30 minutes late because of a maintenance problem in the cargo hold, but it was otherwise a smooth flight and we landed about 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time. My brother was there to pick us up and we were soon on our way home.

Conclusion:

Overview:

I think that this was one of our most "laid back" family visits to Walt Disney World ever. We were able to accomplish almost everything on our "must do" list but didn't obsess over it. The MagicBands worked well, with only a couple hiccups on entering the parks. FastPass+ worked to our advantage in allowing us to make a few last-minute changes when Helena and I came down with colds later in the week. We had nice meals at all of our ADR selections, and Jaidyn was more positive about meeting the characters than she was last year.

The Highs:

- The weather couldn't have been better mid 60s to high 70s and no rain.

- Our suite at Saratoga Springs Resort was conveniently located, quiet, and very comfortable.

- Our waits for the bus were 10 minutes or less, with only a couple exceptions.

- The crowds at the parks were manageable during the day.

- We enjoyed the parks and accomplished everything we hoped to do even with my two missed park days.

- I got tons of great photos with my new camera, including reasonably good shots on hard-to-photograph rides like Peter Pan's Flight, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Spaceship Earth.

- Jaidyn enjoyed the rides and attractions and only had a minor meltdown or two.

- Helena and I unexpectedly scored perfect last-minute viewing spots for the Celebrate Dreams Come True parade near the Liberty Tree Tavern.

- We had no rude guest encounters.

The Lows:

- I again caught a cold and, unfortunately, passed it on to Helena. As a result, I missed two park days and Helena missed one day.

- We didn't get to see any of the night-time shows (Electrical Parade, Wishes, Illuminations, and Fantasmic). At least we did experience the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights on our Hollywood Studios day.

Whats Next:

Before even leaving home, Helena and I discussed our finances and the best Disney vacation options for us in 2014, given the extra expenses we had for our medical trip to Florida in July 2013 and other unexpected expenses at home during the year. We decided that, instead of visiting Walt Disney World again, we'll plan for a visit to Disney's Vero Beach Resort with Selene and family for late December 2014. This way we'll have some Disney "magic" without the extra expense of a new round of annual passes or Magic My Way tickets. This option would also give us a break from the theme parks and allow us to visit some of the other tourist attractions along Florida's northeast coast, such as the Kennedy Space Center's new space shuttle Atlantis exhibit, the NASCAR museum in Daytona, and so on. We'll plan to return to the theme parks again in 2015, God willing.

Photo Album:

Ive posted a selection of over 500 photos from this visit to Walt Disney World on my Facebook page at the link below. You should be able to view the photos without having to log-in or otherwise identify yourself to Facebook. But you won't be able to comment on or "like" the images without logging in. Therefore, please feel safe taking a look even if youre not a member of Facebook. The link below will take you to a page with thumbnails of all of the photos in the album. Click on the first thumbnail image to open up a photo viewer window where you can click forward or backward to display the other photos.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0025573&type=3

If youd like to contact me privately, my email address is:

arnoldvb@islands.vi

Prior Disney Trip Reports on Mousepad:

30 Years at Disney World: 1973 to 2003
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=67012

December 2003
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=66932

December 2004
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=67027

December 2005
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=67092

December 2006
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=68905

July 2007
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=75549

December 2007
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=88757

April 2008
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=102122

December 2008
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=123939

April 2009
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=126592

December 2009
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=138196

December 2010
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=159937

December 2011
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=179581

December 2012
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=192243