Disney World - Part 1

We decided to go to Disney World for Dakoda's 3rd birthday this year. We stayed at the All-Star Sports Resort from May 29 - June 3, and then we drove down to Tampa to visit Darren's sister, Gina and her family for a couple of days. We were on the Disney Dining Plan, so all of our meals were pre-paid, and we were able to take advantage of one of Disney's fabulous promotions and got a $300 gift card when we checked in! We had a wonderful time, and I would love to share it with all of our friends and family. I had typed up a trip report for a message board that I post on and I am just going to copy and paste it over here. I hope you all enjoy it!!

We left our house on Friday, May 28 and drove all the way down to Orlando, where we spent the night at the Radisson Hotel. On Saturday morning, we got up extra early and officially began our Disney vacation!

Saturday, May 29, 2010 - Disney's Hollywood Studios!!

We were headed to Hollywood Studios today, and I wanted to try and make it there by 8 am for extra magic hours (which is when the park opens an hour early for Disney resort guests only). Since we needed to stop by our hotel first and pick up our Key to the World cards (which had our park tickets and meal plan on them), that meant an extra early start. I got up and started getting ready around 5:30, and got Darren up around 6. He showered and got the kids ready while I put on my makeup and repacked our overnight bag. Thanks again, honey! :) We left the hotel around 6:45 and headed towards the World. It wasn’t belong before we saw this beautiful sight.



Here is where it got a bit tricky. You see, the navigation system that is built into our van is in need of an update, so when we put in the address for All Star Sports, it sent us in the ENTIRELY wrong direction. I knew that the All Star Resorts were in the Animal Kingdom area, so when I saw that it was taking us over by Downtown Disney, I knew that something wasn’t right. I tried to tell Darren to go ahead and take the Animal Kingdom exit, but since I’m not always the best with directions, he chose to follow the GPS. Needless to say, this is one time that he should have listened to me. ;) We ended up way over by Pleasure Island before I finally called AS Sports to get directions. Unfortunately, the cast member that I spoke to wasn’t very helpful. I just kept telling Darren to follow the signs to the Animal Kingdom area until we started seeing the All Star Resort signs. We eventually found our way, and soon we saw this.



Darren let me out by the door and parked the van while I went inside to check in. I had done online check-in before we left, so I figured that it would go fairly quickly. Unfortunately, there was only one cast member working at the check-in desk that morning, and several people already in line. After about 10 minutes, another cast member came up and started helping out, quickly followed by a third, which was a good thing since the line had kept growing behind me while I waited. Finally it was my turn. I gave the cast member my name and told her that I had done online check-in. At first she couldn’t find my folder, which made me a bit nervous. She went to another area of the counter and found it there. Whew! Then she went to find my gift card and came back a few minutes later and said that they were locked in the safe and she wouldn’t be able to get to it until a manager came in, but that I could come by and get it later, which was fine with me. She gave me our folder and our cards. I had requested the Hoops Building, because Dakoda loves basketball, but we were put in the Tennis Building. (There were several school groups there and they were staying in the Hoops Building.) We were fine with that. The Tennis Building was right by a parking lot, so it ended up being really convenient for us!

We left AS Sports and stopped at the nearby McDonald’s for breakfast, then headed to DHS. By this point it was after 7:30 and I was eager to get to the park!

We got there around 7:55 and there was a short line. We were inside the park by 8:10. Since the masses were headed to Pixar Place for Toy Story Mania, we decided to head down Sunset Boulevard for mine and Darren’s favorite attractions – Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster! The wait time for ToT said 13 minutes, so I rode stand-by while Darren picked up fast passes for RnRC. When I got back, he had consulted the Times Guide and made out a schedule for us so that we could hit all the shows that morning. I was so proud of him!

We headed over to the Animation Courtyard to get in line for the 9:15 showing of Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We made it over there by around 8:45, so I walked around and took a few pictures while Darren stood in line with the kids.





I went to find Darren and the kids and they were already inside the building. The kids were getting restless, so we sang a few rounds of “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Winnie the Pooh”, which I’m sure the people around us appreciated. ;)

They opened the theater a little after 9. We got great seats (for us) – back row close to the exit in case one of the kids freaked out. I was especially nervous about Sarah Kate since she wasn’t very fond of Ursula last year. She didn’t seem to mind her this year, though. Both kids really enjoyed the show. (And Ariel has since become her favorite princess.)

Our next stop was Playhouse Disney Live. The show was going to start at 9:40, and we were able to walk right in with no line and get great seats! As usual, the kids LOVED this show. PHD is on a LOT at our house, so they’re both familiar with all of the characters. It was so much fun to watch them dance and sing along!

After PHD, we wanted to try and catch the first Beauty and the Beast show of the day. It was scheduled to start at 10:15 and it was after 10 when we got out, so we hurried over to the theater. We must have still had a bit of Disney magic with us because once again we were able to walk right in and get great seats! We were on the front row on the right side. Darren held Sarah Kate so that I could take some pictures of the show.

























After the show ended, Darren decided to go ahead and use his fast pass for Rockin Rollercoaster. The kids and I got some ice cream at the Rock Station booth right outside the coaster and sat in the shade to wait for him. Dakoda was all about some ice cream, but Sarah Kate didn’t want any, which surprised me because she never turns down food. The next thing I knew, she was fast asleep! I guess the early morning plus all the excitement had worn her right out! When Darren got back, I decided not to ride the coaster on a full stomach, so we headed over to Toy Story Mania to check the wait time and see if there were any fast passes left. To no surprise, they were already out of fast passes (this was a little after 11 am) and the wait time was something like 80 minutes. Since it was Star Wars Weekend and Sarah Kate was still sleeping, we decided to just walk around for a bit and see what characters were out. We saw Darth Maul; one of those characters that looks like a pig (sorry, my SW knowledge is limited – LOL); and the big man himself, Darth Vader. Darren wanted to get a pic with Vader, but the line was super long, so we decided to come back later. We walked through the Star Wars store and I fell in love with a stuffed Ewok. Seriously, it was sooo cute! I also wanted to get a Jedi Mickey for Dakoda. I am a notoriously bad decision maker, though, so we didn’t end up buying anything.

At this point, Sarah Kate had woken up and we were all hungry. We decided to head over to Pizza Planet. Darren and the kids fought for a table while I waited in the long line with a hundred or so other hungry people. We all loved the food there! It's hard to go wrong with pizza for my family, though! While we ate, we got a text message that our room was ready – yay! We decided to go ahead and head over there to settle in and (hopefully) get the kids to take a nap. We ended up following the High School Musical show up Hollywood Boulevard, which the kids loved.

One last picture before we left.


We got to our car around 12:35 and headed to the hotel to check out our room.