A Grand Family Vacation to see the Fountains; an April 2019 Trip Report Completed 3/1!!

[tbholc81]

Introduction​

Welcome to another Trip Report! This is my third report, and my second one with the whole family.

After our last family trip (read about it here!) to WDW in April we decided that we would not take the kids back for a year, but also wanted get back with them before The Galaxy's Edge opened. Deb and I went in August as an adults only for anniversary (that report is here), so we decided that we'd go over the school's April Break again. This took some discussion because it was the week after Easter so we were expecting it to be pretty crowded. It didn't matter that much to us though so we decided to go for it, and if the parks turned out to be too crowded in the afternoons, we could get some pool time in. We'd also never been to WDW for a Holiday before and we decided that we'd have to figure out how the Easter Bunny was going to visit. Lastly we got a great price for a resort we've always wanted to stay at, The Grand Floridian! Those small, fun challenges aside we had a great time. One of our favorite trips ever!

Something else that we discussed a lot heading into the trip was the Dining Plan. We'd never done it before and couldn't rationalize it. With lot of debate we decided to go for it this time. Why? For a couple reasons, but mostly Deb is a part time TA and wanted the experience to share thoughts with her clients. So throughout this report we'll keep up with our meal choices, cost, and we'll see if it was worth it in the end. We ended up with the Disney Dining plan, which was 1 Quick Service, 1 Table Service, and 2 snacks per day per person. As a preview, it was a ton of snacks. We did a lot of research going into this trip on where to use our credits to get the best bang for our buck!

So let's get to the details!

When: April 19-27
Where: The Grand Floridian
Why: It's been a year with the full family
Who:

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Tim: I'm a BCBA
Trips - many, but 8 to WDW since 2012
Favorite Character- Goofy
Favorite Park- EPCOT
Favorite Ride- BTMRR

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Deb: Chemist and part time TA
Trips- more than me and I lost count since the last time I wrote about our trip.
Favorite Character- WALL-E
Favorite Park- EPCOT
Favorite Ride- Haunted Mansion

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M:
Trips- 6
Favorite Character- She says she currently can't pick
Favorite Park- MK
Favorite Ride- Splash Mountain

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D:
Trips- 4
Favorite Character- Dopey
Favorite Park- He says the one with the Mad Hatter, so I'll go with MK
Favorite Ride- Mine Train

Table of Contents
- Friday Departure
- Day 1: Arrival and The Grand Floridian Cafe
- Day 2: Easter Around the World
- Day 3: I Blew it at HS
- Day 4: MK finally
- Day 5: Two days at HS?
- Day 6: Finally trying BOG
- Day 7: A Rainy Day with Animals
- Day 8: Deb's Saddest Day, Going Home.

Thanks for reading we have a lot of pictures to share this time. Hopefully you'll enjoy some of our experiences and I can share some thoughts with everybody that are useful for a future trip. Also I played with the sizes of our pictures so hopefully I can get more than 10 on a post.

Enjoy!

 

[tbholc81]

Friday Departure​

Our long journey began on Friday after all of the work and activities were done. Deb had the day off for Good Friday so she was able to take this rascal on his doggiecation to run around with all the other pups for the next 9 days.

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He loves nothing more than when we go away and he gets to go to the doggie daycare for a week. I always imagine him as the one dog that runs around and doesn't let any of the other dogs get any rest. M also has gymnastics on Fridays so we weren't leaving until after she got home at 5:45, which is a late start, but that's ok we were hoping that the kids would sleep in the car.

We live in VT and the airfare from here was ridiculously expensive so we found flights out of Hartford CT first thing in the morning on Saturday, and it was a direct flight. Our plan was for me to pick up some sandwiches on the way home from work, and then the kids would eat once we were all home. The kids also had no idea we were going, and we had a lot of discussions about how to tell them. In the end we thought we'd have the luggage lined up to go...

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and their Magic Bands in with their sandwiches.

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The idea being they would open these up, see their Magic Bands, and have their OMG we are going to WDW moment. How could they not get excited when they opened up the boxes right? When they got home they both completely missed the suitcases and went right for their dinner. Their reactions when they opened up the sandwiches were...

M- (as D opened the one with the purple Magic Band) "Hey, that one is mine."

D- "Yum"

Then they proceeded to start eating....

Then we had to ask them where they thought we were going and point out the suitcases and tell them that they we were leaving as soon as they ate and changed into their PJs. Then they started to get excited and they asked some questions, but yet again the surprise was lost on them. We've tried to surprise them a few times, but they are so laid back they never have the huge hilarious reaction, or they just go to WDW too much.

After dinner we loaded up the stuff and we are on our way. We just got this luggage this year for Xmas so that they could all be carry ons. This way we wouldn't have to have anything checked and we wouldn't have to wait to have our luggage delivered to our room. It was also way more convenient with rolling them around, and the kids could pull their own. Once everything was in the car we were on our way.

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Pulling out by 6:30 was perfect and the drive was uneventful. We made it down to Hartford by 10:30. The kids slept for about 2 hours in the car making it a nice quiet ride. We stayed right next to Bradley Int. at the Candlewood Suites, mostly because we could leave the car there for cheap and they had a shuttle to the airport. Once there we went right to our room.

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I took this the next morning, it was nothing special but it worked for a few hours of sleeping. The kids slept on the pull out, and me and Deb had the bedroom.

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Everybody was asleep pretty quickly which was ideal as we had a early flight on Saturday.

Up next our first day at WDW!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Joining in!

I would be so excited if someone put a Magicband in my sandwich lol. Sorry that it was lost on the kids though!

Can’t wait to hear about the trip !

 

[suse66]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

 

[JKMastalski]

Following along!

 

[garnwr32229]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip

 

[tbholc81]

Joining in!

I would be so excited if someone put a Magicband in my sandwich lol. Sorry that it was lost on the kids though!

Can’t wait to hear about the trip !

Maybe they were just really hungry! Thanks for reading!

 

[tbholc81]

Day 1: Arrival and The Grand Floridian Cafe
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Thanks everybody for joining in. It's a rainy evening in VT tonight so I have a few minutes to get our first Disney day started!

We got up early! Deb and I had our alarm set for 4:30am, and we got the kids up in just enough time to get to the lobby and catch our 5am shuttle. Our flight was at 6:30am, so we gave ourselves plenty of time. The hotel was literally at the end of the runway and it was a quick ride in. We went right through security and to our gate. This guy was pumped to roll his luggage through the airport (He also loves John Deere Tractors, and those pajamas)!

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It was a rainy day, which meant a rainy flight.

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Surprisingly with the pretty big weather system over the northeast we board and take off on time. Everybody was ready to go.

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D got his new headphones so he could be entertained for the flight. Of course this plane hadn't been remodeled yet so all the TVs and the entertainment systems were super old. M's headphone jack barely works, but she got to watch the new Mary Poppins movie, so she was happy.

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The flight was pretty bumpy, they didn't turn off the seatbelt signs until we were, like over Florida, and they reminded people several times to stay in their seats unless they absolutely had to get up. The flight was a little longer than it should have been, from looking at the maps on the screen we skirted the clearer skies between to storm systems so it added about 30 minutes to the flight. We didn't get a decent picture from the plane until we were getting ready to land. At least it was a great looking day in Florida.

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At 9:33 we touched down in MCO and were officially on vacation, my watch went into vacation mode.

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Right off the plane we headed for the bathrooms to change, and the kids had their luggage in tow. Deb's suitcase is apparently borderline for getting on flights. When she went out to California last month the airline made her check it, but we had no issues on this flight. It was certainly easier having all our stuff with us.

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We changed and headed over to DME, and given the holiday we are expecting this to be painful. The monorail ride was fun as always!

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We stopped for a quick picture as we were getting there.

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Are we heading for a cruise?!?!?! Ha, no kid go to the other busses, but we might do a cruise this summer. Anyway, completely to our surprise, or astonishment might be a better phrase....

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It's literally empty, the longest line we stood in was to scan our bands so he could tell us which lumber line to go to. For some reason it took us over 40 minutes to get over here, I have in my notes we got on the bus at 10:20.

Up Next our bus ride and pulling in to the Grand Floridian!

Also I'm playing with the picture size to see if I can post more than ten, but so far no luck and some of them aren't as sharp as my past reports. I'll keep trying some different things to see if I can get them to look any better, and get more in a post.

 

[buteraa]

following along!

 

[dvc at last !]

Your TR is off to a great start.
Waiting for more.......

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Awesome seeing the DME area so empty!

It was certainly easier having all our stuff with us.

We're considering carry-ons only for June (if we can get all our stuff to fit) and it certainly does seem like a benefit to just have all your stuff with you!

 

[tbholc81]

Your TR is off to a great start.
Waiting for more.......

Thanks! I should be able to get a bunch done over the long weekend!

Awesome seeing the DME area so empty!



We're considering carry-ons only for June (if we can get all our stuff to fit) and it certainly does seem like a benefit to just have all your stuff with you!

We were really surprised to see the lines that empty. It seems like everytime we think it's going to be slow we wait in the longest line ever, and when we think it's going to be busy no one is there. We can't figure it out.

This is the first time we all had carry ons. Now that D is out of diapers we really cut down on what we packed. Now that we've done it this way I don't think I could go back.

 

[tbholc81]

Welcome Back!

I hope to get at least 2 posts up today, might as well get them written while I'm motivated.

D made it here pulling his McQueen the whole way!

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Like I said above we got on DME at 10:20, we are making pretty good time so far, and we are pretty tired, but we are in Disney and really excited to get to the GF.

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I struggle with headaches when we fly, especially early in the morning. I drank 2 gatorades and a ton of water, plus I made sure I ate some food this morning. So far so good for me, but I'm looking tired here.

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We must have waited on the bus for a bit because we got to the GF at 11:10 after stops at Wilderness Lodge and the Poly.

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We'd been waiting years to stay here, and Deb was pumped so she got a lot of really great pictures on the way in. As expected it's beautiful and everything we hoped it would be.

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We check in, Deb was really hoping for an upgrade so she is super nice to everybody as we got there (she's always super nice anyway). We got all the way to the desk so they didn't upgrade us to CL, oh well it was a slim chance anyway. We check in and did get a small upgrade from a standard view to a lake view. Even if that's not really an upgrade we pretended it was.Our room wasn't ready yet so we grabbed a few pictures.

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The detail in the floor is amazing, and there was a ton to see. After a short walk around we thought it was time for some lunch and then we'd go to the pool. the kids were excited about the Mad Hatter splash pad. We were starving though, so first things first.

Of course 10 pictures and I'm out of room! When we come back lunch, swimming, and our room!

 

[tbholc81]

After some brief exploring the lobby (all the Easter eggs were out and it was super crowded),We headed over to Gasparilla Grill for lunch and to get our mugs etc.....

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We've heard pretty good things about the quick service food here and so we were looking forward to trying it. We grabbed our mugs, which is something else we've never gotten before. We aren't big soda drinkers and the mugs never made sense to us. But with the Disney Dining Plan they are included so here we go.

The Cinderella egg was right outside 1900 PF.

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For lunch I had a Bacon Cheeseburger with fries, Deb had the Blackened Fish "Reuben," M had Chicken Fingers, and D had a burger. We were super hungry so I'm short on pictures here. It's only quick service though and it doesn't matter how fancy the hotel is, chicken fingers look like chicken fingers.

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M got the pink mug, (after much deliberation), and Deb's sandwich was worth a picture.

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All the food was great (how could it not be, we were HUNGRY). The other great part about the dining plan was the beer and cider Deb and I go with our meal. We packed those up and saved them for later.


Deb was in full Disney mode at this point.

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Kids were now in full vacation mode we haven't seen the sun for 6 months in Vermont mode...

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Deb and I found a nice shady spot to sit in for about 5 minutes, then the staff came around and lowered all the umbrellas because it was too windy. As a result, there I was drinking a beer in the pounding sun. Oh well, beats work...

We stayed at the splash pad till our room was ready, then we were ready for a nap. Deb had to head to MK to upgrade her ticket to a Annual Pass. While she does that D will nap.

More to come today!

 

[Bama Mom]

Following along. The Grand Floridian is one of my dream resorts. One day I hope to be able to stay there.

 

[frostymojo]

Following along

 

[tbholc81]

Following along. The Grand Floridian is one of my dream resorts. One day I hope to be able to stay there.

It was our dream resort too! It was worth the wait for sure!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Signing up!

 

[tbholc81]

Our room assignment was for Big Pine Key, which was a pretty good location. It was a short walk to and from the pools and the main building. A little bit longer of a walk to Gasparilla Grill but still manageable. We were on the third floor which I liked a lot more than being on the ground floor in the entrance lobby. It seemed like those room would be pretty noisy.

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The entrance is beautiful, our room was in this area off to the left but far enough from the elevators that we couldn't hear them.

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When we got into the room Deb made sure none of us touched anything so she could take pictures before I messed everything up (as she put it).

First thing through the entrance is the bathroom off to the right.

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We noticed right away how much bigger these rooms were. Plenty of room to spread everything out and not be crammed.

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They left us a Mickey with the resort activities etc.....

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I wish they would go back to putting the runners on the beds to add some color. I get why they are just wall white now but it does make it look pretty bland.

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We had a nice view of the Poly, which was a nice surprise. We only booked a garden view and were expecting to just see the GF grounds. Plus now we could see the Electric Water Pageant from our balcony.

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We got settled pretty quickly and got D down for his nap. Deb ran out to MK and M decided she was going to pick a quiet activity (coloring) and sit outside. I tried to rest a little as well, but M kept coming in and out of the room with questions so my rest was limited.

Deb grabbed this on the way through the courtyard.

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Up next, Deb hits MK and then off to our dinner and evening!

 

[queenofthehill]

Great TR so far