Day Travel & Check-in

Welcome to our August 2009 trip to Walt Disney World!

First a quick intro about who participated:

Me (of course)
Hubby Jeff
Alex (14)
Katherine (10) &
Jeffrey (8)


Our trip report starts on the plane which we boarded on time and with no delays.

As usual I got to sit with the dynamic duo.
Jeff & Alex sat across the aisle.... I guess they didn't need their picture taken.

Before we knew it we were backing away from the gate and heading for the runway.
And then suddenly we stopped and headed right back to where we started.

They pulled right up to the ramp, opened the door and an official looking man came in and headed  into the cockpit.

They told us there was a small problem, nothing to worry about but since it might take a bit of time to fix, they felt we would be more comfortable back in the terminal. So they bribed each one of us with a $5 food certificate on the way off the plane.

We took our $25 and indulged in Cinnabuns and smoothies.
So much for not having our flight delayed again this year.
At least we didn't have to make a connecting flight!

It took an hour and a half for them to fix the problem but finally they called us to reboard and off we went.
We didn't have our own personal TVs like we did last year but they did have overhead monitors and they showed Monsters vs Aliens which the kids loved. I think I must have slept through part of it but I enjoyed the part I saw.

Almost 5 hours of flying and we finally made it to the Orlando airport.

And we took our usual first ride of the trip on the airport monorail:

We hopped aboard the Magical Express (What no pictures?? Bad me!!)
We checked into Old Key West and were immediately given our room... Ah what a beautiful sign!

This is across from the hospitality house bus stop.
I love the grounds and how tropical and relaxing it feels.

We brought our luggage with us on the bus this time so we immediately unpacked and watched some TV until it was time to go to bed.
I realized later I didn't take nearly enough picture of the room but here are the ones I did take:
Our kitchen:

Next to the eating area:

The kids bedroom (complete with kids):

The outer area of the bathroom:

 The spa tub:

The view off our balcony:

Day 1 ~~ EPCOT & The T-Rex Cafe

As usual we have a very hard time getting off west coast time so even though we end up out the door and to the park early for us (7AM Pacific time) its already 10 AM Florida time.
It's something we've learned to live with when we visit so we just plan accordingly and stay later at night.
Our first park of the trip was EPCOT.
As soon as we got there we headed straight to Spaceship Earth.



Next up was our first trip to Station Cool. We need to visit here at least 2-3 times a day when we are in the park so we figured we would get started right away.
After Jeff got his first infusion of Japanese Vegitabeta and I got a some Chinese Watermelon and Katherine confused everyone by drinking two cups of Beverly and enjoying it, we headed over to Mission Space.

We were in line for about 10 minutes when the ride broke down and they shoo-ed everyone out of the building.
We walked over to Test Track but the line was out the door so we got a some fastpasses to use later.

It was getting close to our first real meal of the trip so we hopped on the boat and rode across the lake to Japan for lunch at Teppan Edo.

This is the hallway that leads to the eating rooms:

Waiting for lunch!

We had a really nice lady chef who seemed to really love what she was doing.
We sat with another family who had never been here before.

The kids favorite is the onion volcano!

And of course after we were done we had to go shopping in Japan downstairs:

So many great things to choose from.
Shrimp chips anyone?

I love the dishes!

And everything they have on display:

Jeffrey always wants one of these but they are pretty pricey:

And Katherine always wants something from this display:

After we were done inside we walked through the gardens outside.

One day I would like to have a koi pond in my backyard:

We were just in time to see the Taiko Drummers:

We watched the giant Illuminations ball being brought out onto the lake:

Then we took the boat back across the lake so we could use our Test Track Fastpasses:

A view of Morocco as we are pulling away from the dock:

Unfortunately Test track broke down right before we got on.
I was hoping this was not going to be a running theme of the trip.
The kids got a few pictures of the waiting area and then we went inside so they could drive a car or two:

Katherine and Jeffrey cooled off in the misters.
(Have I mentioned it was hotter than Hades outside??)



We took a walk over to the Finding Nemo ride where there was absolutely no line and the ride did not break down before we got on! YAY!

Katherine got a picture of Jeffrey trying to look cool:

We went into the aquarium upstairs where the kids took about a thousand pictures... this is just a tiny fraction of them:

There were divers in the big tank when we got there:

And these are some of the fish in the aquariums:











That night we headed to downtown Disney and took the kids to the Build-a-Dino at the new T-rex Cafe so they could each make a dinosaur:

I think Alex was sorry he decided to get one done because the guy stuffing them made him do all kinds of dances and contortions before he finished his dinosaur.



The 3D mural they have on the wall there looks just like the one they have at Animal Kingdom on the Primeval Whirl: