Healing at our Happy Place: making GOOD 2017 memories: Mar, May, Aug, Oct, Dec TRs (3/24 UPDATE)
- Thread starter kittylady1972
- Start date
KathyM2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
Have an amazing time!!
I love Auntie Anne's - I wouldn't mind celebrating there!
If you have the energy, it's a great time to get through a lot of rides, lines are shorter and you can get a lot done!
I love Auntie Anne's - I wouldn't mind celebrating there!
If you have the energy, it's a great time to get through a lot of rides, lines are shorter and you can get a lot done!
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Greetings from the Grand Floridian!
It is after 8am and my family is still in dreamland. No plans to wake them. We will see if they begin stirring soon now that they have about 7 hours of sleep.
So our flight was (thankfully) uneventful. We arrived pretty close to 8:15pm as planned, got a nice Toyota Avalon to rent which I really enjoyed driving, and were a the Grand around 9:30pm. Having never been here we checked the nearest resort map for building and room numbers and when none of them had our room range my husband said they must have sent us the wrong room number...until I noticed the DVC wing location which didn't have any room numbers listed. We headed there.
As we walked into our studio room the kids made a beeline for the table. Sitting there was a Disney cooler bag with our name embroidered on it and it was filled with goodies galore and there was a beautiful Disney photo album also. My husband looked at me thinking it was my doing but I told him it wasn't, and the card read from the Grand Floridian.
I'll explain later why I may have had a little something to do with it but it wasn't what I expected to happen.
We pried them away from this amazing gift and headed to the MK via monorail. It was about 10pm when we arrived and the non-resort guests were flooding out of the park in droves.
First priority was some food though so we stood in line forever at Casey's and grabbed some grub. Even though I have been so good about eating healthy since my cancer diagnosis I did go ahead and share a hotdog with my husband. So it was about 10:30pm before we headed to get our ride on.
During our time we hit Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Space Mountain and got in line just before midnight to finish off with Buzz Lightyear where I got a terrible score. After that we headed out of the closed park and hopped the monorail back to the GF, finally calling it a night around 1am.
Today is a planned EPCOT day but our first FPs aren't until after 10Am so no rush. We have breakfast to decide somewhere and then hopefully some park time and pool time today.
It is after 8am and my family is still in dreamland. No plans to wake them. We will see if they begin stirring soon now that they have about 7 hours of sleep.
So our flight was (thankfully) uneventful. We arrived pretty close to 8:15pm as planned, got a nice Toyota Avalon to rent which I really enjoyed driving, and were a the Grand around 9:30pm. Having never been here we checked the nearest resort map for building and room numbers and when none of them had our room range my husband said they must have sent us the wrong room number...until I noticed the DVC wing location which didn't have any room numbers listed. We headed there.
As we walked into our studio room the kids made a beeline for the table. Sitting there was a Disney cooler bag with our name embroidered on it and it was filled with goodies galore and there was a beautiful Disney photo album also. My husband looked at me thinking it was my doing but I told him it wasn't, and the card read from the Grand Floridian.
I'll explain later why I may have had a little something to do with it but it wasn't what I expected to happen.
We pried them away from this amazing gift and headed to the MK via monorail. It was about 10pm when we arrived and the non-resort guests were flooding out of the park in droves.
First priority was some food though so we stood in line forever at Casey's and grabbed some grub. Even though I have been so good about eating healthy since my cancer diagnosis I did go ahead and share a hotdog with my husband. So it was about 10:30pm before we headed to get our ride on.
During our time we hit Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Space Mountain and got in line just before midnight to finish off with Buzz Lightyear where I got a terrible score. After that we headed out of the closed park and hopped the monorail back to the GF, finally calling it a night around 1am.
Today is a planned EPCOT day but our first FPs aren't until after 10Am so no rush. We have breakfast to decide somewhere and then hopefully some park time and pool time today.
piglet1979
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2015
Sounds like an amazing first night.
Jenny Sanders
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2007
I love the GF!!!! I have stayed there twice now, and it is by far one of my fav resorts, close to the WL and POFQ...
GF is one we haven't stayed at yet but it's on my list!
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Another day comes to an end...going so fast already. I can't believe we check out of the Grand Floridian tomorrow but I will say we really dId enjoy our stay here and not once did we feel out of place.
We didn't get a whole lot done in the parks today but that's okay. Unfortunately we spent a lot of time backtracking for lost and left behind items thanks to my 13yo son. Sadly he comes by it honestly thanks to me.
Highlights today included Mission:Space Green which I enjoyed, FINALLY seeing Happily Ever After and a lovely meal at Citricos AND Kona Cafe. We also enjoyed some time at the pool here.
We closed down another evening at MK with rides on POC and the FUNNIEST photo taken since we were unaware of the new photo op there. Also we made the crazy decision to squeeze 3 across in a boat on Splash...not the best move.
Tomorrow the hope is to aim for early entry at MK so we will see how that works out. At least we in bed about 3 hours earlier tonight.
We didn't get a whole lot done in the parks today but that's okay. Unfortunately we spent a lot of time backtracking for lost and left behind items thanks to my 13yo son. Sadly he comes by it honestly thanks to me.
Highlights today included Mission:Space Green which I enjoyed, FINALLY seeing Happily Ever After and a lovely meal at Citricos AND Kona Cafe. We also enjoyed some time at the pool here.
We closed down another evening at MK with rides on POC and the FUNNIEST photo taken since we were unaware of the new photo op there. Also we made the crazy decision to squeeze 3 across in a boat on Splash...not the best move.
Tomorrow the hope is to aim for early entry at MK so we will see how that works out. At least we in bed about 3 hours earlier tonight.
KathyM2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
Sounds like a really fun first couple of days!!
Why would you feel out of place??? No reason for that!!! Glad you enjoyed it!
Why would you feel out of place??? No reason for that!!! Glad you enjoyed it!
Araminta18
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2016
Just found this epic trip report/PTR and read the whole thing. I hope your trip now is amazing! And just wanted to express my condolences over the passing of your mom and your mother in law. 
From your comments about your mom, she sounds like she was an amazing, thoughtful woman. I'm glad you get to go to your happy place, despite all the trials and troubles going on back in real life!
And can't wait to read how this trip is!
From your comments about your mom, she sounds like she was an amazing, thoughtful woman. I'm glad you get to go to your happy place, despite all the trials and troubles going on back in real life!And can't wait to read how this trip is!
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
It has been fun for sure. As for feeling out of place at GF, it just seems so upscale and fancy and we are just NOT fancy people. However we never felt out of place at all.
Just found this epic trip report/PTR and read the whole thing. I hope your trip now is amazing! And just wanted to express my condolences over the passing of your mom and your mother in law.
And can't wait to read how this trip is!
Thanks for reading and commenting and for the condolences. It has been a rough year emotionally for all of us but I think we are doing okay overall.
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Sorry for dropping off for a while. Trying to resume normal life after vacation isn't easy.
Besides this week, yesterday actually, this happened:
Yes chemotherapy completed...so let's hope I can put that behind me for good!
Next I have a surgery to schedule to remove my mediport, since I've already reached maximum output on my individual insurance this year, might as well have that done. Radiation is next, which will start in about 3-4 weeks.
So vacation was great, too short but isn't that always the case. I've uploaded a few photos from our first day so up next is part one of our AUGUST trip!!
Besides this week, yesterday actually, this happened:
Yes chemotherapy completed...so let's hope I can put that behind me for good!
Next I have a surgery to schedule to remove my mediport, since I've already reached maximum output on my individual insurance this year, might as well have that done. Radiation is next, which will start in about 3-4 weeks.
So vacation was great, too short but isn't that always the case. I've uploaded a few photos from our first day so up next is part one of our AUGUST trip!!
Jenny Sanders
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2007
Congrats!!!! I am so happy for you!!!!!!
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER
My plan was this:
At home there was no big rush as we had packed already, but we threw together some last minute things and I repacked a few things and we got out the door around 3:30pm. We parked at our usual offsite place and they took us directly from our car to the terminal in no time. We got through security quickly and were waiting at the gate with plenty of time to spare.
Somehow my kids decided they were hungry AGAIN so they went off to get some food. I relaxed with my tablet and then tortured my kid with some poor quality tablet selfies:
And I don't know why these are flipped and I can't flip them back. My photo editor had them looking correct. So until I fix it, you'll have to look at these putting your head upside down. She hates my new hat:
We had managed to get a "B" boarding group, so we were soon lined up for that. Kids went ahead of us and saved us the exit row and got a row for themselves.
Flight was uneventful, we landed and headed directly to pick up our rental car. After surveying our choices, we ended up with a Toyota Avalon and since I was the driver I must say I really enjoyed this vehicle. It took a while to get settled in it but we were off and arrived at our resort close to 9:45pm or so. Kids were of course excited.
Having no familiarity with the resort, we headed into the lobby to try to determine the location of our room. The resort map listed room number ranges for all of the buildings...and our room number wasn't within any of those ranges. My DH assumed we were given an incorrect room number, but then I realized we were DVC so we just had an entire building for those rooms, even though the map doesn't give room numbers for that building.
We headed to our building and I LOVED this in our lobby:
We walked into our 3rd floor room and the kids ran immediately to this sitting on our coffee table:
The bag had our name on it and was packed with tons of goodies and this lovely photo album as well. We had to tear into it and my husband looked at me as if it was my doing...but it wasn't.
What I suspect is that, a few days before our trip, I received an email from the GF letting us know that due to a lack of rooms, we were being assigned a handicap accessible room. I replied to her thanking her for letting me know and also went into some details about the year our family has had so far, our losses and illnesses, and how this trip was a very short one for us but we were so looking forward to our stay there. I was hoping for maybe the magic of a room upgrade. I suspect we got this instead. It was lovely.
My battery is dying now and I'm going to log off...but I promise to continue again soon...
My plan was this:
- WED: This is going to be a crazy day. I'm heading to work for a few hours in the morning. Due to my time off for funerals and illness/treatments, I need to work whenever I can to preserve the leave that I have now. I'm heading to work, then going home to pick up the kids and then back to attend a ceremony for my DH who is graduating from a 3-year program at work. The ceremony and lunch will be afternoon and should end around 1:30pm. Afterwards we'll all head home, change our clothes, grab our bags and head to the airport. We have a 5:25pm flight with a connection (no plane change) that should land us at MCO around 9pm. We'll grab our rental car and head straight to our resort: Grand Floridian. If we arrive in time, MK is open until midnight so we just might hop over there and try to get a few rides in for the evening.
At home there was no big rush as we had packed already, but we threw together some last minute things and I repacked a few things and we got out the door around 3:30pm. We parked at our usual offsite place and they took us directly from our car to the terminal in no time. We got through security quickly and were waiting at the gate with plenty of time to spare.
Somehow my kids decided they were hungry AGAIN so they went off to get some food. I relaxed with my tablet and then tortured my kid with some poor quality tablet selfies:
And I don't know why these are flipped and I can't flip them back. My photo editor had them looking correct. So until I fix it, you'll have to look at these putting your head upside down. She hates my new hat:
We had managed to get a "B" boarding group, so we were soon lined up for that. Kids went ahead of us and saved us the exit row and got a row for themselves.
Flight was uneventful, we landed and headed directly to pick up our rental car. After surveying our choices, we ended up with a Toyota Avalon and since I was the driver I must say I really enjoyed this vehicle. It took a while to get settled in it but we were off and arrived at our resort close to 9:45pm or so. Kids were of course excited.
Having no familiarity with the resort, we headed into the lobby to try to determine the location of our room. The resort map listed room number ranges for all of the buildings...and our room number wasn't within any of those ranges. My DH assumed we were given an incorrect room number, but then I realized we were DVC so we just had an entire building for those rooms, even though the map doesn't give room numbers for that building.
We headed to our building and I LOVED this in our lobby:
We walked into our 3rd floor room and the kids ran immediately to this sitting on our coffee table:
The bag had our name on it and was packed with tons of goodies and this lovely photo album as well. We had to tear into it and my husband looked at me as if it was my doing...but it wasn't.
What I suspect is that, a few days before our trip, I received an email from the GF letting us know that due to a lack of rooms, we were being assigned a handicap accessible room. I replied to her thanking her for letting me know and also went into some details about the year our family has had so far, our losses and illnesses, and how this trip was a very short one for us but we were so looking forward to our stay there. I was hoping for maybe the magic of a room upgrade. I suspect we got this instead. It was lovely.
My battery is dying now and I'm going to log off...but I promise to continue again soon...
Jenny Sanders
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2007
Love the GF!!!! What a wonderful gift!
piglet1979
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2015
Yay!!! For being done with Chemo.
The trip so far sounds wonderful and off to a good start. I love the bag.
The trip so far sounds wonderful and off to a good start. I love the bag.
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Yes we loved the GF as well. Beautiful place. . The gift was also awesome of course!
Agreed with being done with chemo...just one thing behind me now, still more treatments and procedures to go this year of course.
And yes a wonderful trip start!
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Ok time to finish our first day at Walt Disney World.
After the distraction of a bag full of goodies, we knew we needed to hit the park for the last two hours of the evening. So instead of unpacking, we grabbed our MagicBands and headed out to the monorail to catch a ride over to the Magic Kingdom.
There was a sea of people leaving the MK, so we were like salmon swimming upstream. The park was closing to non-resort guests as it was now evening EMH time.
My husband was already cranky, more like "hangry" despite having had dinner at the airport before we left AND having torn into some goodies from the bag in our resort room. So upon entering the gates, we decided to head directly to Casey's since it was the closest place for "real" food. There was quite a line and wait there, but we got a few things to share and stood at a high top table outside chowing down for a bit. By the time we were ready to head to a ride, it was closing on 10:30pm and of course there were not FPs to use now.
We were trying to find something we had not ridden in a while...and we ended up with this:
There was no line, so we were on and off in almost no time except that we got stuck for a few minutes at the point where the photo above was taken.
Since we were already close to one of my favorites, we headed here next:
I ended up riding with this crazy kid:
He bounced us up and down quite a bit.
Having two rides accomplished, there wasn't a whole lot of time left but we wanted to try to tackle a big ride...so we took the "back" way and headed over to Space Mountain. The kids hate taking this way because we have to walk past the smokers, which is not fun at all (sorry any smokers here...we are all very sensitive to cigarette smoke). The wait was about 20 minutes I believe, and soon we were blasting off. Yes my kids were actually all trying NOT to look at the camera:
I must say this was our most disappointing ride on Space Mountain. They appeared to be doing some kind of work on the TTA so there was lots of ambient light which meant we could see quite a bit of the Space Mountain track as we were riding. It just took some of the fun out of it for us. Sadly we never had the chance during this trip to ride again, but that's okay as there is always next time.
We had only a few minutes left until the park closed, and so we made our way to one last ride on Buzz Lightyear. I probably scored my worst on this ride, and the kid riding with me (mine) wasn't even trying...teens! Now it was time to head out of the park, but not before just getting a few photos before leaving (cue the eye rolling of teens again):
We hopped the monorail back to our resort and climbed into bed. We wanted to be ready for our first full Walt Disney World day!
After the distraction of a bag full of goodies, we knew we needed to hit the park for the last two hours of the evening. So instead of unpacking, we grabbed our MagicBands and headed out to the monorail to catch a ride over to the Magic Kingdom.
There was a sea of people leaving the MK, so we were like salmon swimming upstream. The park was closing to non-resort guests as it was now evening EMH time.
My husband was already cranky, more like "hangry" despite having had dinner at the airport before we left AND having torn into some goodies from the bag in our resort room. So upon entering the gates, we decided to head directly to Casey's since it was the closest place for "real" food. There was quite a line and wait there, but we got a few things to share and stood at a high top table outside chowing down for a bit. By the time we were ready to head to a ride, it was closing on 10:30pm and of course there were not FPs to use now.
We were trying to find something we had not ridden in a while...and we ended up with this:
There was no line, so we were on and off in almost no time except that we got stuck for a few minutes at the point where the photo above was taken.
Since we were already close to one of my favorites, we headed here next:
I ended up riding with this crazy kid:
He bounced us up and down quite a bit.
Having two rides accomplished, there wasn't a whole lot of time left but we wanted to try to tackle a big ride...so we took the "back" way and headed over to Space Mountain. The kids hate taking this way because we have to walk past the smokers, which is not fun at all (sorry any smokers here...we are all very sensitive to cigarette smoke). The wait was about 20 minutes I believe, and soon we were blasting off. Yes my kids were actually all trying NOT to look at the camera:
I must say this was our most disappointing ride on Space Mountain. They appeared to be doing some kind of work on the TTA so there was lots of ambient light which meant we could see quite a bit of the Space Mountain track as we were riding. It just took some of the fun out of it for us. Sadly we never had the chance during this trip to ride again, but that's okay as there is always next time.
We had only a few minutes left until the park closed, and so we made our way to one last ride on Buzz Lightyear. I probably scored my worst on this ride, and the kid riding with me (mine) wasn't even trying...teens! Now it was time to head out of the park, but not before just getting a few photos before leaving (cue the eye rolling of teens again):
We hopped the monorail back to our resort and climbed into bed. We wanted to be ready for our first full Walt Disney World day!
Last edited:
piglet1979
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2015
I make my family do the pictures and I get eyes rolls from all of them, even my husband. But they do it them to get it over with or we will stand there and fight over it until they do. So you mine as well get it over with. But now we have a ton of nice family pictures. I just need to print them and hang them up around the house.
We never make to EMH because the kids just need to head to bed after the evening show. I am hoping the next time we go (they will both be in high school or close to it) we can stay up longer. It seems like you can really get a lot done in those few hours.
We never make to EMH because the kids just need to head to bed after the evening show. I am hoping the next time we go (they will both be in high school or close to it) we can stay up longer. It seems like you can really get a lot done in those few hours.
KathyM2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
Hey what a fun first day!!!
I totally agree with you on this one...that would be such a nice walk if not for the smokers.
You did manage to get some stuff done on the first day and of course the GF is magical.
I totally agree with you on this one...that would be such a nice walk if not for the smokers.
You did manage to get some stuff done on the first day and of course the GF is magical.
Share this page
GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE
Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.
Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!
Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.
Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!
