Trip Report from July 19-24, 2009
Posted: Aug Sun 23, 2009 8:11 pm
So it's only taken a month to finally get to my trip report. I've probably left out some details. I can't find the papers I wrote on during our trip but I think I've covered most of the details.
I'll probably break this into a few reports of each of the days just to keep the posts from getting too long.
Enjoy!!!
Saturday July 18
We left the Atlanta area around 7:30. We had packed most items Friday night so we could get an early start. Fortunately we're not far from I-75 so we don't have long until we really feel like we're on our way. We drove to my in-laws in central Florida for a short Saturday night visit. The trip down was uneventful. One minor wreck in south Georgia had the highway shut down for a bit. The delay was about 30 minutes. Still the 500 mile trip took about 9 hours.
Sunday July 19
We left for WDW around 2:00 Sunday afternoon. It was a little overcast and started to rain as we got closer. We pulled into the Contemporary Resort about 3:30. The check-in process was smooth as always. We were meeting our neighbors there. Our kids and their kids had no idea that we were going to be there at the same time. So, while our rooms were in the Garden Wing, our neighbors got a room in the tower. I led us to our neighbor's room and inserted my key which didn't work. I heard noises coming from the room and I asked my kids to check and see who was in "our" room. They knocked and their friends opened the door completely surprised!! It was a cool moment.
We chatted and then headed to our room, called for our luggage and got settled. We were getting hungry and I suggested a trip to Downtown Disney so we wouldn't burn a park day on our passes. We hopped on the Monorail and headed to the TTC thinking we could pick up a bus here. We were advised to walk over to the Polynesian and get a bus there directly to DD. We just missed one but finally got a bus after about a 20 minute wait in the rain. We were under a covered bus stop so it wasn't bad.
We made it to DD and it was raining a little harder. A lot of people were leaving. We don't mind the rain too much so we tend to go out when others are avoiding it. However, because of the time of day, people were heading to restaurants and we had not made an ADR's for Sunday night. Not the best plan I've come up with. We headed to on of the first restaurants we saw . . . Rainforest Cafe. I know some don't care for it . . too noisy, overpriced, slow service. Well, we headed to the back patio and got seated immediately. The wait up front was 2 hours. We got our drink order placed, got our drinks, placed our food order and then we waited. It was nearly 30 minutes before our food arrived. It was tasty, prepared just right . . . it just took too long.
We then headed out to the Lego store which was my 9-year-old's destination for the night. He had already decided the item he wanted. The Emerald Night. You can look it up or if you are my FB friend, I posted a picture of the finished product. It took me a little over 4 hours last Thursday night. For those interested, it's product #10194 on Lego's site.
After winding our way out of the Lego store, we headed back to the bus area and made our way home to get some good rest before hitting Epcot on Monday.
More to come later.
I'll probably break this into a few reports of each of the days just to keep the posts from getting too long.
Enjoy!!!
Saturday July 18
We left the Atlanta area around 7:30. We had packed most items Friday night so we could get an early start. Fortunately we're not far from I-75 so we don't have long until we really feel like we're on our way. We drove to my in-laws in central Florida for a short Saturday night visit. The trip down was uneventful. One minor wreck in south Georgia had the highway shut down for a bit. The delay was about 30 minutes. Still the 500 mile trip took about 9 hours.
Sunday July 19
We left for WDW around 2:00 Sunday afternoon. It was a little overcast and started to rain as we got closer. We pulled into the Contemporary Resort about 3:30. The check-in process was smooth as always. We were meeting our neighbors there. Our kids and their kids had no idea that we were going to be there at the same time. So, while our rooms were in the Garden Wing, our neighbors got a room in the tower. I led us to our neighbor's room and inserted my key which didn't work. I heard noises coming from the room and I asked my kids to check and see who was in "our" room. They knocked and their friends opened the door completely surprised!! It was a cool moment.
We chatted and then headed to our room, called for our luggage and got settled. We were getting hungry and I suggested a trip to Downtown Disney so we wouldn't burn a park day on our passes. We hopped on the Monorail and headed to the TTC thinking we could pick up a bus here. We were advised to walk over to the Polynesian and get a bus there directly to DD. We just missed one but finally got a bus after about a 20 minute wait in the rain. We were under a covered bus stop so it wasn't bad.
We made it to DD and it was raining a little harder. A lot of people were leaving. We don't mind the rain too much so we tend to go out when others are avoiding it. However, because of the time of day, people were heading to restaurants and we had not made an ADR's for Sunday night. Not the best plan I've come up with. We headed to on of the first restaurants we saw . . . Rainforest Cafe. I know some don't care for it . . too noisy, overpriced, slow service. Well, we headed to the back patio and got seated immediately. The wait up front was 2 hours. We got our drink order placed, got our drinks, placed our food order and then we waited. It was nearly 30 minutes before our food arrived. It was tasty, prepared just right . . . it just took too long.
We then headed out to the Lego store which was my 9-year-old's destination for the night. He had already decided the item he wanted. The Emerald Night. You can look it up or if you are my FB friend, I posted a picture of the finished product. It took me a little over 4 hours last Thursday night. For those interested, it's product #10194 on Lego's site.
After winding our way out of the Lego store, we headed back to the bus area and made our way home to get some good rest before hitting Epcot on Monday.
More to come later.
It seems like yesterday you were sending me text message updates of where you were and what you were up to. I am happy to see you guys had a blast there and can't wait to see the rest of this report.