Mother Daughter Trip
March/April 2001
Olivia and Lisa ONLY!
Lisa age 31
Olivia age 11
We had just went to WDW in Jan. 2001 just a couple months ago on a trip that was also a business trip for Alan. Since the company had paid for all 8 nights if our hotels stay (at the POLY!!) and had also paid for all of Alans meals all we had to buy was passes. Owen was only 18 months so he was free and we decided to buy Annual Passes since we only had to buy 3. This way we could go back in Nov. almost a year later and get 2 trips out of the passes.
However, once we returned from the January trip as we were going through the mail from while we were gone Alan had received 2 free FIRST CLASS airline tickets on TWA!! (Really miss TWA!) It was some promotion they were having and he had flown enough to qualify! The catch was, since there is always a catch! They had to be used by June 1st!! WHAT!! That really stunk because we could have used them for the Nov. trip with our annual passes. But NOPE! So knowing that we had just taken Olivia out of school and not wanting to do that again and also since Alan had used his vacation time till his new year kicked in on April 1st we just knew we wouldn't be able to use them! So we offered them to my parents! However, they weren't interested. This was 2001 but it was BEFORE Sept. 11th so that was not the issue they just didn't want to go anywhere. So it looked like they were just going to go to waste! And about the middle of March I suggested that maybe Olivia and I could go alone! We would go March 28-April 1st!! Alan talked to his boss and even though his new vacation days for the year didn’t start till April 1st he was able to use them a couple days early and stay at home with Owen.
This gave me only 2 weeks to plan for the trip!! I hadn't traveled alone in 10 years! So I was very nervous! Also nervous about leaving Owen alone with Alan too.
Then there was Olivia missing school again but we would only be going for a long weekend and I would just call her in sick or have Alan do it. We wouldn't tell anyone! So we decided not to tell Olivia at all about the tip. I was afraid that she would tell kids at school and get us busted! We would fly out on Wednesday evening and back on Sunday evening staying for 4 nights. She would miss 2 days of school.
I got busy and called Disney and got an AP rate for $49.00 a night at the All Stars! However, wanting to be as cheap as possible we had enough Marriott points for 2 free nights at the then brand new Fairfield Inn Marriott Village! So we would stay 2 nights there and 2 nights at Disney’s All Star Music. We would be taking Mears shuttle to and from the airport which was also new to me!
So the days went by very quickly and on that Wednesday that we were leaving she got up and went to school thinking it was just a regular day! I spent the whole day packing everything and getting things ready for when I was gone. Owen and I went to pick her up after school and we had the suitcases in trunk of the car. I told her that we had to drive up to Decatur to meet Alan at the airport because he had to fly out on a last minute business trip and he needed us to bring him a suitcase with clothes! She fell for it since it wasn’t really that unusual but then I felt bad because she got upset and started to cry because her dad was leaving on another business trip. He had just been gone not long before that and she didn’t want him to go again!
We arrive at the airport and Alan is waiting outside for us. We unload the luggage and go inside to check in. She was right there with us but didn’t know that we were checking her and I in! Then we went to sit over in the waiting area. I told her she needed to go to the bathroom and she said I don’t have to go. So we said yes you need to go and so do I we have to go before the plane is ready to board. She was just confused. Alan or I said there are no bathrooms on those little planes so you need to go NOW! She said but I’m not going on the plane! Alan said YES YOU ARE YOU AND MOM ARE GOING TO ORLANDO!!! She was so shocked! She couldn’t believe it! There were a few people sitting near us that heard it too and thought it was funny. We really didn’t have much time left so her and I did go use the bathroom and she asked me while we were walking in there “are we going to go to Disney world?” I said yes. Then she was in the stall and she asked me where are we staying at? I told her at DISNEY ON SITE at the ALL STARS for 2 nights! She was SOOOOO excited about that!! For kids the All Stars look like so much fun!
She was full of a lot of other questions like did you pack my clothes? Did you pack this? Did you pack that? What about school? What about Owen? How long have you known this? Do grandma and grandpa know? She just kept saying I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! Even once we were on the plane! I made her brush her hair and look more presentable and then they called us for boarding! I really really hate small planes!! So I had to think happy thoughts to get on it! We said goodbye to Owen and Alan and I did cry leaving Owen but I didn’t let him see me. Luckily at about 20 months he didn’t seem to know what all was going on.
Our flight left Decatur at 4:50pm
Arrived St. Louis at 5:40pm
Left St. Louis at 7:15pm
Arrived in Orlando at 10:30pm!!
Once we arrived in St. Louis we were hungry for dinner and so we each got a personal pan from Pizza Hut and a soda and used the bathroom. We went to walk down to where our next flight was at and they were already boarding it!! We were shocked! I guess we should have taken our food down there and sat and ate it so we would have known what was going on! I think it was when we were on the little plane that I told her the other flight would be 1st class on our next plane!! She has flown and she knows that is a good thing so she was excited really about that! She really enjoyed that 1st class thing. They served us drinks before the plane even took off. Then later they served us food with real silverware and she kept putting her hand up motioning for the guy to bring her things. We still joke about that!
Arrived in Orlando on time at 10:30 and went to get our tickets for Mears shuttle. There was no line for getting the tickets which I thought was a good thing since I have read some horror stories of long waits! Well we went outside where you wait for and board the shuttles and there also weren’t a lot of people but we did wait! We all waited and there were no shuttles. Finally one comes and some people get on and go then a 2nd one and more people go! Still we are waiting and getting mad as are some business men too! It doesn’t go by who has been waiting longest it goes by where you are headed too! They want to group it up so that everyone in the van is heading to the same direction. FINALLY we got on the 3rd one and it was 11:30 now!! And that is just when we are loading up! Thank God we went straight to our hotel 1st! Got checked in and into the room at 12:30! WOW that was a long evening! I called home! This is back before we all had cell phones and so I couldn't’ call Alan till we got into the room. I unpacked our bathroom things and then went to bed. We set a wake up call for 8am! Olivia had wanted me to set it for 7am!!!
She fell right to sleep but I couldn’t sleep and was awake off and on all night!
Woke up with our 8am wake up call and went down to free breakfast at 8:45. We asked for a bus schedule and they said a bus was leaving in 15 minutes! And then there wouldn’t be another one for an HOUR and 15 minutes!! (this is why you have to have your own car offsite!) Well so much for breakfast! We grabbed a muffin and headed out to the bus. It left at exactly 9am and went to Epcot.
We went straight to Test Track and got Fast Passes for 10:10 and then went to the Wonders Pavilion to play around, and then saw Cranium Command. Back over to ride Test Track it took 25 minutes even with the FP. Left and went over to send Alan an email postcard. Then to the fountain view for lunch since our breakfast was so small! (Lunch was $12.00)
While we were there it started raining. No not raining it was pouring! We were sitting in front of all the large windows watching people trying to run in the rain and one woman busted her butt! We sat for a very long lunch waiting for it to die down. We ate as slow as we could but then the place was getting busy and people were looking for tables to sit and eat at so we left. We went next door to Mouse Gears and looked around but it was packed with all the people trying to stay out of the rain. It finally let up a little so we made our way out to the Friendship boat at World Showcase. As we waited to board we were in line in the rain and it was lightening and there we were waiting to get on a boat! Not bright but we went anyway. We got off and then went to see the American Adventure which started right as we walked in. We commented on the educational show since she was after all skipping school.
After the show we went for a bathroom break and then used the pay phone to call home and check in on Alan and Owen.
Once we were done we walked over to the international gateway and exited the park to ride the boat over to MGM. Olivia fell asleep on the boat and with all the stops that the bus makes she got about a 30 minute nap!! She was leaning on me and drooling. People were laughing at her! We arrived about 2:30 entered MGM and went to the candy store and bought a giant rice crispy treat ($3.50) with chocolate on top. We took this with us to watch the Beauty and the Beast show. After that we walked over and got 2 FP’s for Rock n Roller Coaster and went over to watch the Little Mermaid show which started at 4pm. Once it was over we walked back to use the FP’s but I wasn’t going on it so she was able to go twice. However, she didn’t think it was as fun to ride alone so she just went once. It had sprinkled off and on since we had been to MGM and now we were ready to leave. We had gotten so wet today our tennis shoes were soaked clear through and it had VERY RARELY stopped raining at all today. It would pour then sprinkle and then pour again!
So we headed out of the park to go find the bus back to the Fairfield Inn. We stood in the pouring rain in the parking lot waiting for the bus for 15-20 minutes and boarded at 5:30. As soon as all of us who were waiting got on it pulled away. They didn’t sit and wait a few minutes to see if anyone else was coming so if you were running 1-2 minutes late you missed it and another one didn’t come for at least an hour!!
The bus’s were nice though they had cloth seats and TV’s in them. We got back to the hotel and decided to walk next door to the Courtyard Inn to look at the indoor pool since it was still raining and we weren’t going to be using the outdoor one at our hotel. Not just raining but storming! Back then as long as you were staying at one of these 3 Marriott hotels in the Village you could use the pools at any of them. I think they have changed that over the years. We also checked out the food court for later.
Once we got to the room we took our shoes and socks off and we had to take the laces out of our shoes so that we could open them up as wide as they would go to dry out!! We sat them on the vent for the whole night like that. We put our suits on and went to the Courtyard’s indoor pool. It is one of those ones that is indoor/outdoor with a wall to swim under. Olivia had never seen that before. We swam till 7 which was about an hour then we went to the food court for dinner. It was a VERY small food court. It was either a burger or pizza. So we got personal pan pizzas and some of the TCBY yogurt. We spent $10-$15 because we also had to get drinks since we had nothing in the room. We took the food to the room to eat since there was no place to sit at in there. This was fun since we had to walk outside where it was raining with the food. The pizza was in a box so it was ok but the cups of yogurt were sitting on top and got watered down with rain water!
While we ate we watched and episode of Friends! Olivia’s favorite. And then I called Alan again. Olivia played in the room while I watched Millionaire and ER and wrote all of this! I stayed up till 11 to watch the weather for tomorrow then to bed. (weather called for rain all weekend! )
Total spent today $25-$30.00
Got up and ate actually got to eat the breakfast today. Then packed up our stuff and went to the lobby to have them call us a cab at 10:30. I have never taken a cab in my whole life so this was a very scary thing for me! Olivia hadn’t either of course and she thought it was cool. So the cab came and he loaded our stuff and we told him All Star Music. Well he got on the interstate and in some traffic and took what I thought was a pretty long way to get there. But at least we arrived alive! I also only had a certain amount of cash on me and wanted to be able to hand him the correct amount and a tip without needing any change so that also made me nervous. It came to $18.00 + tip of $3 which I had to tip him because he was holding my luggage hostage in the trunk of the car! So I didn’t want to tick him off.
We were so excited to be there however, check in took FOREVER! Our credit card was declined and I ended up having to write a check for the room. This took such a long time and we still had to go wait in a separate line to buy our E-tickets for tonight. When I saw how long that line was I sent her over to wait in that line for me. We got the E-tickets ($ 10 each) and then went to the pay phone area to have Alan call and figure out what was wrong with the credit card. I was all upset about it since it had been very stressful to wait in line in front of all those people and be told your card is no good! He told me to calm down and not worry about it he would call and take care of it. It was now 2 hours since we left the Fairfield Inn! (Found out later that it was the Fairfield Inn where we stayed for free with points! They had put a credit card hold on our acct. of $2,000!! Which they don’t remove for 48 hours after you check out!! Alan got it all figured out and gave them a piece of his mind!)
Our room wasn’t ready yet so we stored our stuff in the luggage storage area and looked around the gift shop for about 5 minutes then hopped on a waiting bus to the MAGIC KINGDOM!! It was very busy at the MK so we got a fast pass for Space mountain and rode the TTA several times just to chill out and look at the size of the crowds! We even took pictures of it since we never see that many people there. We were now hungry for lunch and the lines were long so they had the hot dog carts out and the soda carts. I gave Olivia some cash and had her stand in line for a drink while I stood in the line for the hot dogs. ($7 for the dogs and $3 for the coke) We sat down and ate while waiting for the fast pass time to be ready. Then she went and rode by herself. After that we went to Main Street for the 3:00 parade. We got 2 mickey ice cream bars ($5) and we sat in front of the Emporium and ate them while we waited.
After that we left the park to go back to the hotel. Apparently that is what everyone else was doing also! There were 4 bus’s backed up at the All Star bus stop! We made it on the 2nd one but had to stand. We went to pick up our bags but they had already put them in our room. We were in a really good location Calypso building 3rd floor room 630. Well it took till 4:30 to get to the room after the parade!
We’ve never stayed at a Value resort before and the rooms were really small. But it was fine for just Olivia and I. However, I told her that it would be awful with the boys with us!! (funny since now our hotel of choice is always Pop Century also a value resort with the same small rooms!)
I called home to find out what the deal was with the credit card thing. That is when he told me all about it. I was glad it was figured out but still mad that they wasted all of my time with it! Olivia and I put on our suits and went for a swim. Got out at 6pm and went to change and then down to the food court for dinner. Olivia had chicken fingers, fries, mac & cheese with corn bread! It was a huge meal!! I had the roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. ( total $18)
After we ate we went out and got the bus back to the MK it was very full but we did get seats this time. Everyone was headed to MK for the light parade. We entered the park and took about 10 steps when the lights went out and the parade started. Well we weren’t there for it so we cut through over to Fantasyland to get FP for Peter Pan. We walked onto Winnie the Pooh and I felt bad riding it without Owen! Then we walked onto Snow White. We wanted to ride the tea cups but they were closed down. On to Goofy’s barnstormer and rode once. We remembered that we had to go get our wristbands for the E-night tonight! We wanted to hop on the train to the front of the park but it wasn’t running since the fireworks were about to start. We sat and watched them then rode to the front, got the wristbands and rode the train all the way back to Toontown! I rode Barnstormer with her 4 times then she rode 2-3 more times without me.
It’s now almost 10pm and we were hungry so we ate our leftover chicken fingers and cornbread from dinner. (I don’t remember taking it to the parks but my notes say we did!) We went in Star Traders and looked at all the silly wigs and took some pics. Once it was 10pm our E-night had begun! While everyone else was leaving the parks we were going to ride rides. We did Buzz with a 2-3 minute wait and then did Astro Orbiters which I hate since I am afraid of heights! It took 25 minutes just to do this ride since it takes so long to load and unload with the elevator! Olivia went and rode Space Mountain once then we walked over to Frontierland on our way over there were a lot of characters out in front of the castle but we just waved at them and kept on walking. We got to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice then Olivia started having some sharp stomach pains and crying. She didn’t have to throw up or go to the bathroom it was just a cramping pain which only felt better if she laid down. So here we sit on a bench in Frontierland with her laying and crying at midnight! And I am wondering how am I going to get her out of this park which closes in one hour. Plus I was very tired which I didn’t realize till I was sitting there in the dark. I really think we both could have curled up and slept right there.
All of a sudden she says she is feeling better so we are going to leave the park while the getting is good since we are at the very far back of the park! But as we walked by the haunted mansion we decided to ride it since it was dark, scary and midnight! Plus it’s not really a ‘ride’ there is no spinning or up and down you just sit in your chair! Well once we got off she says ok she doesn’t feel good again so we made our way out of the park with her stopping for 5 minutes to lay down on every bench we passed! This took forever! Well once we saw the characters in front of the castle again she perked up and got her picture taken with a few! When we got to the bus it was 1:00am!! Holy Crap! We waited and there was no bus for All Star Music so we took one to the All Star Movies instead and then just walked next door. This was harder then it sounded because at almost 1:30 am it was a long walk in the dark alone! Not too smart! Olivia had fallen asleep on the bus and it took all I had to wake her up!! But after all that drama her pains were all of a sudden gone! We collapsed in bed at 1:45 and set NO wake up call!! What a day!
By the way: No rain today! They called for it but it didn’t happen! Yeah!
Total Spent today: $54.00 ($21 of that was the cab so only $33 on food)
We woke up at 9:30 and called down to see how late they serve breakfast. They said 11am so we didn’t have to hurry. We laid around the room for about an hour then went down to eat breakfast/lunch. She had the pancake with bacon and I had the adult breakfast platter with eggs, sausage, biscut and potatoes. ($12) We also looked around the gift shop and she got a sucker for $1.50. Came back to the room and called home again. Then we had decided that we needed some real food and not hot dogs or pizza and so we called and made a reservation for tonight. Then we got our suits on to swim for about an hour and a half.
After our relaxing swim we watched TV in the room for half an hour then got ready and left the room for Epcot. It is now between 2:30-3:00 and it is pouring down rain with thunder and lightening! We put our ponchos on and went anyway. We rode Spaceship Earth 1st mostly because it is the 1st thing when you enter the park and we wanted to get out of the pouring rain after our long walk from the bus stop. It seemed to work because when we got done riding the rain and let up a little. We walked over to the Land and saw Food Rocks, took a bathroom break and then went to dinner! We were eating at the Garden Grill in the Land. So the whole time we were in this building we were out of the rain! This place was almost empty when we got there. We really enjoyed our dinner but of course we were hungry too. This was a character meal so they came around and played with Olivia and either Chip or Dale sat down at the table with us. Plus since they weren’t busy we had a lot of time with the characters. This is all you can eat but they bring it out and serve it family style at the table. So there is no getting up and down! Olivia had the kids dinner which was chicken fingers, mac & cheese, fries, veggies and dessert for her was dirt and worms! (This was a lot like her dinner from last night but this was much better!) I had the adult platter which was fried fish, ham, flank steak and I think turkey. Also had mashed potatoes, veggies and for dessert strawberry shortcake which I shared with Olivia. Actually we fought over it! Our dinner was $33.00 with tip.
We left at 5pm and went outside after being inside the Land for about 2 hours and it had stopped raining and warmed up! So we walked to the international gateway and took the boat to MGM. I didn’t take notes of what all we did this evening. But I believe we went to see Fantasmic but not sure. My notes do say that we bought 2 popcorns at MGM ($5) and that we had ice cream at the food court that evening. ($6)
Grand Total for today: $57.00
We go home today. Our flight isn’t until 5:35 but we are taking Mears shuttle back and they are picking us up around 3:00-3:30. So we got up and packed our stuff then went and stored it in the luggage storage. We had breakfast at the food court. ($12 again) and took the bus to MK. This park was VERY busy today and we didn’t get to ride much but we got FP for Big Thunder and we rode the TTA a lot! We just walked around being amazed at the crowds and Olivia had a giant frozen Popsicle ($2.50) and before long we had to get the bus back to the hotel. We went back to the food court to eat our lunch. I really wanted to have lunch in the park but didn’t want to cut it close with the bus back to the hotel. So I figured this way if we had to wait for a bus at least we wouldn’t be running late. So we had lunch in the food court again (about $15.00) , looked around the gift shop one last time then got our luggage out of storage and sat out front with everyone else who was taking the shuttle. This time it turned out to not be a little van but a full size bus! We got on and Olivia slept on the way to the airport. There was a man and his son sitting beside us who were on a father son trip telling us how much fun they had. We got to the airport and were bored with nothing to do until time to leave. Too bad we didn’t stay at the park a little longer and just eat lunch here!
The flight to St. Louis was normal but once we got there our connection on the little plane was delayed! I don’t remember why but we didn’t get home till 11pm instead of 9pm! And poor Olivia had to get up and go to school the next day!!
THE END!
Miscellaneous:
We had a lot of fun! Even in the major rain, even with her stomach pains, even with the huge crowds! We still refer to that 1st day of non stop rain whenever we are at Disney with the boys and it starts to rain and we say….this is not rain, WE have seen rain! And even with the crowds we got to do a lot! I am always amazed that with only 3 full days we got this much stuff done. We have never taken short trips like this before but we really crammed a lot in. Of course we were exhausted from it too.
My only real regret with this trip is that we didn’t just stay at the All Stars for the whole 4 nights! That was really stupid of me. So many things would have gone differently. 1st of all we wouldn’t have waited as long for the shuttle from the airport late that night we arrived because they were loading up people ahead of us who were going to Disney hotels! Also we spent $21 on cab to get from the free hotel to the Disney one. Well the Disney room was only $49 a night! So that really made the cab fare seem like such a waste! Also we wouldn’t have wasted at least an hour with the credit card problems at check in because it was the Fairfield’s fault so none of that would have happened! And one last thing that would have been different is we were really looking forward to the E-night since it meant lighter crowds and more time to get to ride things. But with switching hotels, checking in, having problems, calling home about that etc etc we were just too tired to enjoy our late evening! If we had already been staying at Disney that morning we could have gotten up and gone to a park then returned to our room for an afternoon nap to rest up for the big night. But by the time our room was ready that day it was too late for a nap! So I really kicked myself for not just staying onsite with the $49 rate! Stupid!
The trip was lots of fun though and we always talk of how we should do it again sometime! But now with Owen older I would feel too bad to leave him behind. It was ok back then since he didn’t know any better! Maybe when Owen is the same age Olivia was (11) I will go with just me and him! (THAT would kill Olivia too though!)