If you're happy & you know it clap your...oh - An October 2013 Trip Report

[pggirl]

Hello Disers! This was our 3rd trip to WDW and probably my 3rd attempt at a trip report (so I will try and finish this one )

I didn’t really plan for this trip like I had with the other two because I didn’t book the hotel and airfare until two months before. I decided to keep the trip a secret from my DS8 and surprise him on the way to the airport. I only told two other people for fear that he would find out from someone else and I was shocked at how hard it was for me to keep the secret! I wanted to tell him on various occasions, but I really wanted to see the surprise on his face when I told him, so I waited.

Before we get started, let me introduce ourselves.

There is me, DM. We live in Costa Rica and I run a small vacation rentals company from my home. I love going to Disney so I can sit back and let someone else make my vacation dreams come true.

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Also along for the ride was DS8 of course. He loves to travel and all things Disney, so I knew he would be thrilled we were heading back to Pop Century.

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There’s something about getting on the Magical Express right at the airport that really gets you in the mood. But I am getting ahead of myself, I haven’t yet told you about the big reveal!

 

[pggirl]

Ok, so the day I had been waiting for had come- I could finally tell my DS we were going to Disney World!!

There are two international airports in Costa Rica and of course the one that is closest to us has the higher airfares So I saved $700 in airfare, but gained a 5 hour bus ride.

I had originally told my DS that we would be going to San Jose to deal with some paperwork for my business, so he knew we were taking the bus. I thought I would wait until we were about 2 hours in to tell him the news.

So the first two hours went like this...
DS: Are we there yet?
Me: Nope, it has only been 10 minutes. The ride is 5 hours.
DS: Are we there yet?
Me: Nope, only 5 minutes have passed since the last time you asked me.
DS dozes off.
DS: Are we there yet? (groggily)
Me: Nope, only 5 minutes have passed since the last time you asked me.

At this point I considered telling him right now if only to change up the conversation a bit But I decided to direct his attention to the large digital clock display and told him to look at the clock next time he wanted to find out if we were there yet.

Finally we were a few hours into the ride and I was ready to let the cat out of the bag. So I casually started the conversation.

Me: Ooh, I wish we were going somewhere more exciting than San Jose to do paperwork, don’t you?
DS: Nope, I think we will have a good time mom.
Me: But what if you could go someplace else? Where would you want to go?
DS: Mom, don’t worry. We are going to have fun!
Me: But what if you could go anywhere you wanted to go right now. Where would you want to go?
DS: Paris or Italy

Man, this was going to be harder than I thought! I assumed that he would say Disney World since he talks about it almost every week, what was going on here? I started to get a little nervous at this point and I thought about the parents who surprised their 3 kids and they all started bawling! They wanted to to go Dick’s house instead! If you haven’t seen the video, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MIBxhh_R_w. It will make you re-think the whole surprise thing.

So, I waited a few minutes and decided to take another approach.

Me: Look, I lied to you. (DS’s eyes get really big at this point.) We are going to San Jose right now. But tomorrow we are leaving.
DS: Aww mom, do we have to turn around and get back on the bus already?
Me: No honey. We are going to Disney World!
DS: Seriously? A small smile creeps across his face.
Me: Well, unless you want to stay in San Jose. It sounds like you are looking forward to it.
DS: Mom, did you lie to my teacher too? I can’t believe we are going to Disney World!

And then he just sits back in his chair and smiles for a bit. It was really a cool surprise and he really had no idea. I love that he was totally unaware that we were going and was super happy that he was not disappointed.

Well, at least now we have something to talk about for the rest of the bus ride!

 

[maryr1oz]

That's such a cool surprise

Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[pggirl]

Hi maryr1oz, thanks for joining in! The surprise was so hard for me to keep- if I had planned the trip more than two months out there was no way I would have kept the secret

 

[pggirl]

So today is just a travel day, but at least we get to go to Pop Century! In 2011 we took our 2nd trip to Disney and stayed at Pop for the 2nd time as well, and I was surprised at how much I felt like I was “home”. I guess since we have only stayed at Pop Century, it feels like Disney to me (well at least until I can afford deluxe ).

We woke up at 4:30am (yuck) and headed to the airport to get checked in. Even though it was crazy early, we were finally on our way!

Both flights were uneventful, well except for the giant shoe in the Miami airport...

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...and we arrived as scheduled into MCO. Because we travel internationally, we never get the Magical Express vouchers mailed to us, so we stopped in at the desk (there seemed to be so many desk/agent set ups - is there ever a line here??) and the agent printed them out for us in less than two minutes.

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There was just one other family in line when we arrived and it seemed like we waited for almost 30 minutes for our bus to pull into the loading area. The last two times we visited Disney we literally walked onto the bus without waiting, so I was more than anxious to get out of the airport. We were sharing with Art of Animation which is just down the street, but Pop was the first stop so it didn’t really matter. The drive to the hotel is pretty quick, but I remembered to whip out my camera for our traditional shot of the Pop Century sign as seen out of the Magical Express bus window.

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Once inside the reception area, it probably took less than 10 minutes to get checked-in. I was surprised to see that we had a box of personalized Magic Bands waiting for us. I knew that Pop Century was part of the testing in October, but I had deliberately not signed up for them on-line as I do not travel with a cell phone and I figured it would be a hassle to coordinate/check the fp+ system. In any case we ended up with the all gray bands, but our names were printed inside of each. We were also given KTTW cards. Once I put my son’s band on, it did not come off until two days after we got home!

I finally got my request of a room in the 70s section , so we were off to a great start. I have to say that our room location in building 6 (#6424) was ideal. It was close to the lake, just a few minute’s walk to the main pool and less than five minutes to the food court. I am not sure if we had louder neighbors than usual or if there is a difference in the noise level in rooms closer to the elevator, but I felt like I could hear a lot of other families at night. It doesn’t bother us as we are dead tired when we get back from the parks at night and also both very deep sleepers. But one night I could hear our neighbors screaming/yelling/excitedly talking and then opening and closing their door about 20 times in a row. I wasn’t sure if they were arguing or playing or just loud talkers and thinking about it kept me up, so I guess that was my fault.

As soon as we found our room we set out to explore Art of Animation. I wanted to stay there this trip, but it is hard to justify the price of a suite when it is just one adult and one child. We took the short stroll across the bridge and walked around the whole resort. My favorite section was the Cars section, but each area is really well themed and the oversized icons and various statues were really well done with great detail. The one thing I noticed is that there are no balconies, but Pop doesn’t really have balconies either as you just really use that walkway to access your room. I would have loved to see inside one of the rooms, but I didn’t think it was possible, so I didn’t even ask. Has anyone ever asked to see an actual room of a resort you were not staying in?

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I wanted to try the food court at Art of Animation, but my son really wanted to eat at Pop, so we headed back for dinner. The food court was pretty empty and I was happy to finally sit down and eat some real food after dealing with airplane/airport food all day.

Well it was an early night tonight. Tomorrow we get to go to the parks!

 

[momabaarjo]

Great Start...can't wait to read more!