Saturday, March 19, 2016

We've Arrived! (Day 1 - 3/5)


We landed in Orlando just before 6am (2am AK time) and grabbed our rental car.  With our road trip plans, we opted for a mini van for the first time.  I don't know why we haven't done that before!!  The van is really nice and comes complete with leather seats, a DVD player, and captain chairs for the kids.  Not to mention the ample cargo space!!  I'm not saying I'd ever buy one...buuuuut, I definitely never thought I'd be so happy to drive one either!!  Word to the wise, we later found out that if you add your milage number, Alamo for sure and I'm assuming others do it too, tack on a random fee of $10 to your rental agreement without giving you any idea.  Nice huh!

We headed directly to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, yum!!  Then we were off to check-in and see if we could get into our room at Disney's Caribbean Beach.  Unfortunately, the hotel could not get us in right away, but, promised to text when the room was ready.  Another learning experience here that we learned after the fact...if you ask to be a priority and say that you are going to hang out on the property until the room is ready, they will give you one of the first available rooms.  However if you do that, the room most likely won't meet any of your preferences like top floor or corner room...that kind of thing.  We also learned that although they tell you check-in is at 3pm, that doesn't mean your room will be ready at that time.  In fact, the hotel's policy, at least the Disney World hotels, is that your room will be available no later than 5pm.   Kind of frustrating to learn after you've been awake for over 32 hours...

The check-in was fun though.  They gave Liv two buttons, one button said it was her birthday (I didn't say anything about that, they must have taken it from the birthdate I noted on our account at some point), and the other button said it was her first visit.  They also gave her and I super cute glittery wands and the boys got swords.  So, after such a warm greeting, we were off to a good start.    We all changed into shorts in the parking lot and caught the first bus to the Magic Kingdom!!  It was in the mid-60s by then and a little bit windy.  We took sweatshirts, but, were still a little on the chilly side until later in the day.




We were all dragging, but, with the new fast-pass system, we had 3 rides on the agenda.  First stop, Thunder Mountain.  Olivia's head barely grazed the measuring stick allowing her on all the good rides, phew!!!  Thank goodness she gets to wear shoes...I'm guessing her height chart in her room is about a 1/2" lower than it should be or at least, Disney takes shoes into account when they build the height sticks.  She got on the ride with no objection, but, announced that she didn't want to ride that one again as we exited, haha!  We didn't understand at that point that we got the ride pictures, nor did we understand that you had to use the fancy new Magic Band to claim your picture as you depart the ride.  So, we missed out on the picture with all of us on the train.

But, Dave and Owen hit Splash Mountain next and somehow accidentally secured their picture.  We gave both kids a Disney gift card on a lanyard and told them it was their money to spend on special treats and souvenirs, but, when it was gone, it was gone.  Owen blew through his right off, but, we didn't end up letting Liv have the final say on hers.  Right off the bat, while we waited for her dad and brother, Liv found a $10 lollipop she wanted.  It was super cute, but, not $10 worth!!  I talked her into the $6 bundle of smaller lollipops that I knew would last longer.  She was happy with that thankfully!



Then we were all off to the newest ride, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  It was VERY similar to Thunder Mountain, so, we decided not to push the issue with Liv.  Instead, Dave went with Owen and Liv and I opted for Prince Charming's Regal Carousel instead.  Actually, this was probably the first time that the kid's age difference really was a factor.  Liv tries to keep up with Owen in every way until we rarely remember how little she really still is.  It also had a big effect on pictures.  Liv and I spent a lot of time alone and a lot of time waiting on the boys...so, I'm sure there's a skewed number of pictures of our little trouble maker!

The new ride is incredible, and in addition to somehow linking the pictures to your Memory Maker account without having to claim it, they even put together a video of your ride each time!!!  How cute is this!









Everywhere we went today, all the "cast members" told Liv "Happy Birthday Princess".  She's super confused at this point but totally eating it up!

We visited Tom Sawyers Island for the first time for all of us, it was really cute! We also sat through the Caousel of Progress (by accident...SO boring!!) and road the People Mover before heading over for our final fast pass, Buzz Light Year's Space Ranger Spin.  Always a favorite!



































At that point, we were all on our last leg.  We headed for the hotel bus with plans to grab the van and go off-park for lunch. But, we didn't have it in us and ate at the hotel instead.  Over $60 for a less than stellar lunch!!  At this point, it was 3:45 and we'd NEVER received a text that our room was done!!!  So, Dave called the front desk to get our room number.  The kids and I got settled in the room and went down for a nap.  But, Daves high school friend Jackie drove two hours down to see him, so, he headed back to the main building to visit with her before he too got some sleep.

We woke-up and were off again!  We made a run to Target for snacks and hit Steak 'n Shake for dinner, SO GOOD!  We dumped everything off and caught the bus back to Magic Kingdom to meet up with Jackie and her family.  We got to ride Under the Sea-Little Mermaid Voyage and Its a Small World.  Jackie had stopped for a snack and texted that she had amazing seats for this crazy new light show on Cinderellas Castle.  They use lights to totally transform the castle into all the other Disney castles.  It was crazy cool.  I didn't get any pictures unfortunately and we never made it back to watch it a second time unfortunately.




That was enough for one day let me tell you!!  So, we went back to the hotel for some well earned sleep!!

I didn't pay that close to the weather each day, but, weather underground.com maintains the actual highs/lows, so, thought I'd add that to the end of each post too.

High:  75
Low:  59

Steps walked:  27,257
Miles:  11.74

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