What began as a value trip....became a WL CL Family Fiesta!

[annaaidan99]

The story of this vacation dates back several years. I am the Disney nut in my family, which consists of myself, my son Aidan (15), my daughter Lily (just turned 6), and Lucy (almost 4). At the time I began planning (2011) I returned to college to pursue a degree in ultrasound. I would buy Disney gift cards whenever I had any extra money and it would go in a box for "one day". I originally planned to stay at Art of Animation for nine nights with the QSDP. In fact, that's exactly what I booked. I changed resorts to All Star Music when the spring promo came out. My dates fell right after my graduation from college (May 28- June 6) In February of 2014, I told my parents that I was going to Disney. In my wildest dreams I would never have expected them to want to come! I've invited them on all my previous trips, and they've always declined. This changed everything. Mom and Dad hadn't been in 25 years. The last place they stayed was the Poly. They had fond memories of Discovery Island and their memories of resort morning hours was just the Poly, CR, and the Fort. They didn't like buses. We considered other options and settled on Wilderness Lodge. I chopped two days off my trip, ditched the dining plan, and booked us all in a deluxe room. Then, my brother and his family decided to join us. I changed dates to June 5-12 to accommodate the later school ending in Texas. I also got a summer pin code for free park hopping I was able to apply to his room as well. So, to summarize what wound up being a long story....my value resort trip morphed into a deluxe club level trip, and wasn't much more. We opted to drive. June 4, 2014. The traveling day It's a ways from Baton Rouge to Disney, but we opted to drive out the day before and spend the night in an inexpensive hotel outside the gates. And, of course we drove in a van. Just like 1989!
[ That's me in the back. No, I wasn't wearing makeup. I had gotten a pitiful amount of sleep and was up at 5:30. The kids and I had dropped my dogs off at the vet to board that morning at 7, and we then went directly to my parents house to leave in the van, which was packed the day before. My kids are not perfect, but they are fantastic travelers. We made the trip from BR to the maingate in 9 hours, with a single stop for gas. My dad had packed homemade sausage biscuits, coffee mugs, drinks, beef jerky, chips, and cookies. The view from our single stop. The kids occupied themselves well. Lily and Aidan played on iPads. Lucy slept. They watched one movie in the car, Cinderella.
We decided to wait to have dinner until we got checked in to our one night hotel, which was the Clarion Maingate. It is a cute, clean little motel that served us pretty well for what we needed. The room slept 6, had a fridge, a microwave, and a nice bathroom for $70 per night. It included a hot breakfast. The girls enjoyed "relaxing" by the pool. No swimming though, as we were starving. We opted for Cracker Barrel, as it was walking distance to the hotel. Like, right next door.
It was better than we expected, and was inexpensive as well. The hotel was fine, but no way could we have been in it for more than a night. The a/c didn't work well, the dividing wall for the sofa area wasn't very good at separating the space. Aidan slept on the sofa and said it was not super comfortable. The girls had trouble sleeping that night, and they were in the bed with me. That meant I didn't sleep well either. However, we were excited because we were so close to Disney and knew the next day was going to be great.

 

[kastoney]

Wow what an exciting start. Doing WL CL for the first time in September so I can't wait to hear all your details. Let the adventures begin....

 

[Denamac]

I'm here! We leave in 40 days for our first CL stay at WL so I will be following closely.

 

[disney meema]

I found your trip report ... Yeah!!!

I love your planning story with the gift card in a box ... Amazing! Your kiddos are so adorable and wonderful your parents are along. What a great first day of travels and I am a big fan of Cracker Barrel although I have to admit I love to lookie loo in there gift shop, some cute stuff : )

Subscribed and following along!

 

[SusieBea]

I'm in!

 

[carolann210]

I'm here...BTR WL fan as well! Looking forward to living vicariously thought your TR!

 

[annaaidan99]

I found your trip report ... Yeah!!! I love your planning story with the gift card in a box ... Amazing! Your kiddos are so adorable and wonderful your parents are along. What a great first day of travels and I am a big fan of Cracker Barrel although I have to admit I love to lookie loo in there gift shop, some cute stuff : ) Subscribed and following along!

OMG, I had SO MANY GIFT CARDS by the time it was done. And once I had paid, I was terrified to cancel because I was sure I'd lost some somewhere.

 

[annaaidan99]

I'm here...BTR WL fan as well! Looking forward to living vicariously thought your TR!

I'm also living vicariously through it because I wish it wasn't over!

 

[houstonmama]

Following!!

 

[annaaidan99]

June 5, 2014 Check in! Epcot!

So, I told you I didn't sleep well. I honestly don't remember sleeping at all. I figure I probably did, it just didn't seem like it. So, getting up at 6 was no problem. I had given the girls baths the night before. I had packed clothes for myself and my kids for this one night in a carryon type bag, and the girls outfits were packed together in a single ziploc. My son is bad at dressing, as he is used to a uniform. I had decided before we left what he would wear every day. He seemed to appreciate this, honestly.

We were all ready by seven, and headed over to the lobby for our hot breakfast. It included eggs ( powdered), hash browns (good), sausage (good), pancakes, and toast. None of us are big breakfast eaters, but it was filling. We were on the road by 7:40.


Making our way into Disney was pretty easy. We got to the front of WL, and a CL CM was waiting for us when we pulled up. Valet parked, stored our luggage, and headed up to the 7th floor and met Mike. Our room wasn't ready, and I was not expecting it to be. Mike gave us a tour of the lounge, activated our bands, and gave me a print out of my fastpass selections (I liked that).

My brothers flight was due in at 12:30, and he was using Magic Express to get to WL. To kill some time, since it was 8:30 am, we decided to go to Epcot that morning. Now, I told you my folks don't love buses. So, we did the boat to CR, monorail to TTC and Epcot.











The boat ride was nice, it wasn't overly hot yet. We shared a boat with another family from the same area I live in, which was neat. The monorail was empty, too.







Inside the park

My parents are also not speed walkers. They are 63, and dad is recovering from a fractured tibia. Mom is having a vein ablated soon and has trouble walking fast. My plan was to do two things....Universe of Energy and Living Seas. I wanted to do those separately since it would be tough to do later while walking slower and having kids wanting to do thrill rides.

My mothers favorite shows are Jeopardy and Ellen, so I knew she would be ALL OVER the new Universe of Energy. And yes, it was new to them. The dinosaurs were not scary to my kids...even Lucy was ok with this ride. And as you will see, later, this was important. My mom loved this ride and I think my dad did too, although he had fond memories of the '80's version.


Onward to the seas!
I had a tier 2 fastpass for Seas with Nemo and friends, which was totally unnecessary. But with nothing else to use it on, we did it anyways. The verdict? Mom, Dad, Lily loved it. Aidan is a teenager so was unimpressed. Lucy was scared to death. She thought she might die.
We moved on to the exhibits.

It was nice having a morning like this because we could really take our time with the exhibits. The girls made a bee line for the manatees, and spent almost fifteen minutes watching. We went through everything and everyone liked it.

Coming out, I decided to take everyone to Club station cool. The kids were getting hot and crabby and I knew we were about to head back. They enjoyed sampling all the flavors. Can you believe the Beverly was dad's favorite one? Either he hated everything or he is just different than most. We stepped out just in time to see the fountain do its thing.

The return trip via monorail and boat was less pleasant. Mom had more trouble with the ramp in that direction. We decided to ride the bus home the next time we went, which was that evening. I received a text at 9:30 that our room was ready, so now at 12:00 we were definitely ready to see it.

We went to the 7th floor first, and Mike walked us to our room to make sure all the bands worked. We were in room 1000, which was everything I requested. (North wing. Ground floor)

This is the living room area of the deluxe room. My parents requested this room as theirs, which worked great. And yes, that sofa is comfy.



The bedroom area had a wardrobe and a dresser, so plenty of storage.

Now you may wonder why I wanted ground floor at WL, where higher is better? Well at the Poly, I loved my patio so much....was the highlight of the room. I figured it would be similar here. Well. It was super convenient to get to boat path, but I was shocked how tiny and unusable our patio was.



Seriously. That was it.
Now, we had envisioned our patio being a hangout spot for the whole family. Clearly this wasn't happening. Fortunately we had underestimated the club lounge, which was fantastic for this.

We decided to hit the pools and wait for my brother. The main pool was loud and crowded with pool games, so we went to the quiet pool.



My brother, Jonathan, got in about two. We swam until 5 pm, and headed up to the club lounge for wine time. The lounge had buffalo chili and sweet and spicy chicken breast pieces for the hot appetizers. That, plus wine and cheese...we were full. We decided to head on over to Epcot again, this time with Jonathan and family...he has two sons, Jackson (10) and Owen (9).




First stop this time is Spaceship Earth. It's 7:30pm and we have a fastpass, which was also useless, as the wait was 5 minutes. But hey, the kids enjoyed using their magic bands. My parents liked this, Lucy did okay. She didn't cry but she told me she hated it. Lily said it was good, Aidan did as well. His cousins adore him and we had to divy up who got to ride with him on each ride. He and Owen enjoyed their "future" they made on that one.

Next we jumped in line for Maelstrom, and it did have a 20 minute wait. As you can imagine, Lucy also hated this ride. Everyone else loved it. This ride was there the last time my parents were here, but they didn't remember it.

After this, we grabbed a margarita and checked in for our Illuminations fastpass. The reserved area is a great viewing spot...I can't say I've ever seen it from that angle and it WAS better. However, Lucy, as it turns out, hates fireworks. She grumbled the whole show. Not loud, but just enough to let me know she wasn't happy. Lol.

We took the bus back, and it was pretty easy. The WL stop was about as far away from the exit as you could be, but once you made it was great.

That night, I slept well.

 

[Koh1977]

Lucy is the 4 year old? What was it about Spaceship Earth and Maelstrom that she didn't like? We have a 3 year old and are planning to ride both of these at Epcot.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[annaaidan99]

Lucy is the 4 year old? What was it about Spaceship Earth and Maelstrom that she didn't like? We have a 3 year old and are planning to ride both of these at Epcot.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Truth be told, I think she liked them just fine. In Spaceship Earth, she hid her eyes until we were not in the darkness. Once she could see she was fine. She likes to tell is she doesn't like things. You will see as the story progresses there was very little that she said she liked at all at Disney...but she is the one who was most sad to leave. Maelstrom, she pronounced bad because she doesn't like trolls or the drop. However, she didn't hide on that one either.

 

[Lzylitnin]

I'm enjoying your review! Can't wait to read more. That patio is so very small!

 

[mcconnellfam96]

Looking forward to the rest of your report! We are heading to WL for eleven days next month!

 

[annaaidan99]

I'm enjoying your review! Can't wait to read more. That patio is so very small!

It was so smal! And the bedroom didn't have a patio at all. It wound up being a non issue but fair warning that the deluxe room patios are teeny.

 

[annaaidan99]

June 6, 2014 Magic Kingdom

My alarm went off at 6, but I'd actually been awake for about ten minutes just laying there. The beds at WL are super comfy, and the two rooms had separate A/C units so we could make our room freezing without bugging my parents who like their room hot. I showered, and woke everyone else up when it was their turn. The bathroom design is good in that room. The fan that comes on automatically is not.

The kids had their outfits laid out night before, so dressing was easy.

The club level is great for bigger groups....once i had the kids ready, I left and went upstairs to get breakfast, and my parents had the room to themselves to finish getting ready. They had oatmeal, cereal, bagels, muffins, fruits, juices...and a very cool espresso machine. I ate the oatmeal, which had brown sugar, raisins, and dried cranberries to dress it up. My kids had an assortment of cinnamon rolls and muffins.

The view was fantastic.




Amazingly, the whole crew was ready for 7:30. The great thing about the club lounge is that it was the natural congregation spot for our group. We didn't have to look for anyone as they were all eating breakfast as soon as it opened.

Now, being as close to MK as we were, the reasonable assumption is that the MK boat would be the fastest way to get there. Turns out, at least today, this was wrong.


We got to the dock at 7:45, and there was no boat until 8:40. The line was backed up for ages, and we were in the front of it. Fortunately,this guy was very entertaining.



When we did get in the boat, it went to FW as well so we missed rope drop at MK. Fortunately I was traveling with slow walkers and wasn't planning on going anywhere that crowded up too quick. We were headed for Frontierland.





The crowds at gates were scary looking, but thinned to nobody in Frontierland. Even shuffling along, the wait was 5 minutes at Thunder Mountain.
Everyone rode Thunder. Lily was excited to ride it, and Lucy wasn't complaining about going. Lucy is just barely 40" with her tennis shoes.



That's me and the girls in the car in the front. Did everyone like it? Well, everyone but Lucy. She got off and stomped her foot " That train is crazy." But again, she seemed to like it during the ride. Splash Mountain was next, and had a 10 minute wait.

Splash was not there last time my parents were there. Lucy had told me upon seeing it that she did NOT want to be splashed. So I opted to stay behind with her at the playground while everyone else rode.




Lucy adored the playground. She may have stayed there forever, but I wanted to meet the family inside the gift shop so I could get their ride photo on my photopass plus card. I forgot about that till they were already on the ride. While inside, I got Lucy her favorite thing in the universe, a lollipop. Not just any lollipop...but a six pack of multicolored Mickey ones. She was happy. When the family emerged, I wound up passing the others around to the remaining kids, plus my brother. My father said he thought was the best ride he had ridden in a long time...said he could do over and over.


The Sucker Club

We made our way to Haunted Mansion, and the crowds were pretty steady towards Frontierland as we left. Haunted Mansion had a fifteen minute wait, but we walked right on.

Verdict? Everyone liked but Lily...the six year old....who was scared to death. Lucy watched everything...said she did not like it, but was not upset.

From there, It's a Small World, ten minute wait...which was again, walk on. Both girls loved this, and I suspect the boys did too.

Then, we used our first fastpass on Peter Pan which my parents remembered fondly. The girls loved it. The boys actually did too, which surprised my brother.

From there, we split up as I had another fastpass for Enchanted Tales that my brother didn't want to do. He and his boys and wife headed to Pirates while mom and dad and my crew went to Belle. I doubted that Lucy would "act" but I knew Lily would want to. And boy did she ever.



Yup! She got to be beast. And boy she was good.



I volunteered for a picture frame role because I knew Lucy would want a picture with Belle.



They made Dad a suit of armor.


And, last but not least...


I held her while I carried the picture frame and then sent her to have the picture made.
This was such a big hit...everyone liked it. Even Aidan.

So my next fastpass was for 12:00 and it was only 11:30, so we did Philharmagic. This was a hit for everyone too.

Off to the mines!

We all rode this one too, as everyone was interested. The girls played the mine train apps in the weeks preceding and were excited to see it.



It was wilder than I expected, the dark scene was cute, and while the kids liked it, they weren't clamoring to ride it again. I wish it had a ride photo.

We all met back up for lunch here, and decided on Columbia Harbor House, which was very good. Many lobster rolls were enjoyed.

After finishing that, we headed to Tom Sawyers Island, which was fun but in retrospect a bad place to bring my parents. They sat at a picnic table while the kids ran amok. At about 2, I grabbed my kids and my parents and jumped on the train back to Main Street. My brother still had to ride mine train at 2:30, so we met up later on.

Once back at WL, it was swimming time.



Again, we swam until wine time and headed upstairs. Beef stew....which was divine, crab rangoons, and some great salads. We found an empty corner in the back of the lounge with sofas, and hung out talking and laughing all night...switching out from time to time to take the kids swimming. I brought the girls to the Mercantile to spend some of their personal gift cards.

This guy would get lots of friends as the trip progressed.

We went back up to lounge and got a plate of cobbler and cookies and watched
Wishes from the hallway windows of the 7th floor.

Again, we all slept well that night. Epcot again next.

 

[maryandtyson]

Enjoying your report! Glad you got a good night's sleep! It does wonders. Poor little Lucy! I have a sensitive kid as well, but she is now 10 and much better.

 

[Wood Nymph]

You and your family really made good use of the club level lounge. Except for the very long wait for the MK boat, it sounds like a very successful day.

We had a long MK morning boat wait last January. I think it took us 40 minutes to get to MK. But that was the only time that happened out of the three times we have been at WL.

 

[annaaidan99]

You and your family really made good use of the club level lounge. Except for the very long wait for the MK boat, it sounds like a very successful day. We had a long MK morning boat wait last January. I think it took us 40 minutes to get to MK. But that was the only time that happened out of the three times we have been at WL.

I swear that bird was so entertaining that we didn't really mind the wait. We opted to do the CR/walking route the next MK day.

 

[annaaidan99]

Our second Epcot day was a beautiful morning. I had several espressos in the lounge while I ate. All the kids enjoyed the breakfast time. The lounge was never overly crowded and everyone was very nice. We decided to give the bus to Epcot a shot.


This was much faster and easier on my parents. It made dad grumble a bit to ride a bus. "You'd think in all this time they would have found a really innovative transport."
"If I was spending a billion dollars I would have spent it on the transportation."
It seemed like the route to get FW took longer than the drive to Epcot itself. That said....we made it to rope drop without any problem.

Rope Drop!

I had fastpasses for Soarin at 9:30, so my goal was to go to Test Track first.
The wait was posted at 40 minutes when we got there, but we never waited inside for anything. The line moved continuously to the design room (which Lucy loved) and then continuously to our car.




The nephews were thrilled to BOTH get to sit by Aidan!
Lily told me she did like it, and Lucy was fine on it....she was able to hold on to me tight enough that she was satisfied. My parents liked it very much.

Onward to Soarin!

Lucy did not want to do this, and I wasn't going to make her do it either. I stayed behind with her and we waited for the others to come out. I was able to do it afterwards easily. This was an overwhelming hit...my dad said it was probably his favorite. Lily liked it a lot too.
We did Living with the Land with another useless fastpass. There was no line at all.



Mission Space was next, and was fine. My parents said they didn't notice anything rough about it at all.


From here, we headed to world showcase as it was now 11 am.
We headed counter clockwise towards Canada, although my son pointed out that the music sounds better if you go the other way. You know, he may be right.



Everyone was now starving. We decided to give Spice Road Table a try, so we headed to Morocco.




Look at that crew! Especially Lucy. The heat was really on that day and Epcot is brutal in the heat.

Now, about Spice Road Table. The food was good. The place was empty. The prices were high. The service was terrible. I had to find the waiter for drink refills, more pita bread, and the bill. And we were maybe one of two tables seated. That being said, we were feeling much better when we moved on.






Lucy bought that horse....

We continued along, stopping in America to use the restroom. Imagine our surprise when these guys came out to visit us outside the bathrooms!


Our tour ended in China, where we watched the acrobats. We had a nice shaded bench, so my parents were happy. I went over to the Joy of Tea and bought Mango Green Tea Slushies that were absolutely perfect. I mean...seriously if you find yourself hot and melting in China...get one of these.

The acrobat show was ok, not like I remember it, but was still ok. We left after this and made our long walk back to buses. It was about 4 pm when we returned to WL.

Time for swimming!



Must be five o'clock!


Beach playing


We migrated upstairs to find salmon chowder and ancho chile marinated chicken skewers. Both were great. We again hung out upstairs, comparing notes and enjoying the view of the lobby. The girls packed their toys and played in the corner.

Of course, they didn't last long...


Next installment is Animal Kingdom!