We're Back (unfortunately)

[LuvDisney]

Well we got back on Saturday afternoon. Trip was fabulous. We hit a few snags along the way, but nothing close to major! Haven't had time to sit down and write anything out, but will hopefully start something soon. As soon as I resize them, I will post pictures of the Treehouse Villas.

[LuvDisney]

Ok pictures of the Treehouse Villas just to wet your appetite. I'll work on a Trip Report later.

This was the unit next door to us. Our unit was 7047 - a handicapped accesible unit with a VERY long ramp (sorry didn't get a picture of the ramp.


Your view when you enter. Seeing the Dining and Living Room Area.


Living Room Space with Flat Screen TV, Sofa Bed and Sleeper Chair (which I'm sitting on so you can't see it).


The Kitchen Area. Bar has the Sink, Dishwasher, Toaster & Coffe Maker, behind you is the Stove, Microwave and Fridge. Cabinets have dishes and cups, etc.


Kids Bedroom with Bunk Beds and Flat Screen TV!


Second Bedroom with Queen sized bed (I think) and Flat Screen TV!


Master Bedroom with Master Bath (and yes, there was a Flat Screen TV in that bedroom too!).


Sorry didn't get a picture of the 2nd Bathroom. Someone must have been in there when I was snapping pictures! But it's a typical bathroom. Plenty of space, although unlike the other resorts, everything is in the bathroom, ie, the sink & mirror are not outside the bathroom so someone can shower or use the toilet while someone else is getting ready, etc.

Very nice place. Plenty of room. Although the person sleeping in the living area does not have space to put anything. No closet other than the one as you walk in which has stuff in it already - safe, iron and ironing board, pack N play, etc. No drawers anywhere other than a seat that is in the Master Bedroom that has a big drawer if the person staying in there wanted to share! So my BIL lived out of his suitcase for 4 days.

[Grumpy]

loks good. Look forward to your trip report. Still trying to finish mine and get pictures uploaded. Also for some reason I am wiped out

[LuvDisney]

Walt Disney World Trip Report
August 20 – August 24 – Treehouse Villas
August 24 – August 29 – Saratoga Spring Resort

Cast of Characters:
Me: Gail, 37, Lover of ALL things Disney and the only reason we go so much
DH: Marc, 39, Only goes because I make him
DD: Haillie, 10, Loves Disney as much as me, would love to go more if she could convince Daddy
MIL: Claudette, 67, DVC Owner, goes to Disney because her sister does (the whole competition thing)
FIL: Paul, 70, DVC Owner, started going when his wife wanted to keep up with her sister
BIL: Alan, 38, Went because he was invited by Mom and Step Dad
Nephew: Zachary, 11, See above, Doesn’t eat ANYTHING (you think I’m kidding, wait!)

Ok, a little prequel. My in-laws own at Saratoga Springs Resort. They attended a members’ cruise in October of 2008. On the cruise, they purchased into Bay Lake Towers and part of the incentive was 4 free nights at the new Treehouse Villas to be used between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010. Since it slept 9 people, they invited all of us (my BIL’s girlfriend and her son were invited at the time, but they broke up so they didn’t go). It was our Christmas present. We would get the 4 nights, they would pay for our Park Tickets and the Dining plan for each of us. We had to pay for our flights and anything else we purchased. Originally they were going to tell us at Christmas since they were supposed to be able to make reservations sometime in February. Well they got a phone call and were told they could make reservations in November! So they told the adults early so we could pick dates and get the reservations pinned down. Since my DD has not missed a day of school, I told them I wanted to go in the summer as I would not pull her out of school and half of us lived in NH the other half in MA and our school vacations were not the same. I told them it might be better for us to go at the end of August since lots of southern schools go back to school before we do. So they took my advice and we picked Thursday, August 20, to Monday, August 24. Now these strange dates came about because my BIL’s then girlfriends son’s birthday was 8/25 and he needed to be back to spend the day with his father. So the dates were picked. To my surprise, my DH told them almost right after they told us about the 4 nights that he didn’t want to go down there for only 4 nights, so we would probably add days to our trip and stay longer. But we weren’t worried about that yet since we didn’t need reservations that early for a regular hotel. So the reservations for the Treehouses were made and we were all set. After the holidays, we decided to book a room only reservation for Pop Century so IF free dining came out for our dates like in the past, we would have an easier time getting a room at a Value Resort. Our friends also booked for the same time we were there, I’ll introduce them later. By this time, my BIL was on the outs with his girlfriend and it wasn’t looking good that her and her son would be going with us. He then decided that he was going to stay the additional days too now that he didn’t have to rush home for the kids’ birthday. So I made his room only reservation as well. We were booked at Pop from Monday, August 24, to Saturday, August 29. When Southwest flights opened, we purchased our tickets and now we waited! Oh yeah, when Free Dining was announced we changed our reservation and added the Free Dining.

Up next – Day 1 – Arrival Day

[oakmanner]

Can't wait to read more!

[LuvDisney]

Ok, got some TR written, but I put my pictures in it and I can't copy them directly here, so I'm going to have to go back and upload them to Photobucket and then put them in. That will be my task for tomorrow at work.

[LuvDisney]

Ok, finally had some free time to load some pictures to Photobucket. Here is day one:

Day 1 – Thursday, August 20th – Arrival day

Ok, this time we got lucky and Southwest’s earliest nonstop flight was for 8:10am instead of the butt crack of dawn like they usually are and my DH always wants to take the first non-stop flight out in the morning. I get up at 5am since my BIL and his son stayed at our house and I didn’t know who needed showers in the morning. In-laws are already there as they have in in-law apartment over our garage. I was ready to go by about 5:30am and got Haillie up. She just had to get dressed, she showered the night before. DH took a shower and we were basically good to go. BIL got up and dragged Nephew out of bed to get ready to leave. We wanted to be on the road for the airport not later than 6:15am. We packed up the car and headed out, much to my surprise with the other people, on time. The airport is only about 25 minutes from our house, but my FIL has knee issues and walks really slow, so we wanted to be there in plenty of time for him to get to where we needed to be. Plus we like to eat when we get there instead of stopping somewhere. We unloaded on the curb to use the curbside check in for Southwest. The security guard even let us leave the vehicle there while we were checking in, he didn’t make one person go park it. There were only a few people in front of us and we checked in no problem! Love the Manchester Airport!! BIL brought the car to the parking garage and we went inside to wait and have some breakfast.

The flight was fairly uneventful, oh other than the fact that my Nephew didn’t feel well. He had only flown once in his life and that was when he was like 4 and his parents were still married. He didn’t know about the trip until that morning. His mother would have tried to talk him out of going if either of them knew, so we had to keep it a secret (long divorce story for another time!). So we think it was more nerves about not going with Mom, etc.

We arrived in Orlando on time and proceeded to gather up our bags at the baggage claim. After we get all the bags we head to Alamo to pick up the car with the infamous code which gave us a great rate of $198 for our mid-sized car! Every other car rental company was either empty or had a few people in line. Alamo, of course had at least 50 people in line waiting to pick up cars! How is it that everyone arrives at the same rental car counter to get their car at the same time as you do?? OIY! So after at least an hour wait, it was finally our turn. My FIL was renting a van (using the same questionable code) and we were renting a car. We were at opposite ends of the counter getting checked in. He seemed to be having a problem as the clerk was showing him the computer screen and pointing to things. I thought maybe it was because he didn’t print out his coupon. So I had an extra one and proceeded to bring it over to him. Oops, wrong move. The woman who was helping him wanted to know who was helping me and she stormed over and told the gentleman helping us to not accept the Code we used for our rental as it was an out of the country code and not for use by us. (Even though she told him, the guy said it would have spit it out when he entered the license info.) So after fiddling with the reservation, he quoted us an almost $500 price tag for the “American” same exact car rental. Luckily I had a back up priced at $216 and told him to use that one. He states “So you knew it wouldn’t work?!” Told him “Nope, anal, always have 2!” with my fingers crossed behind my back. LOL My FIL got Lucky. His rental was using the same code, with a price of like $235 for his van. He did have a back up, but it was off airport. They tried to charge him like $600 A DAY to rent him the same vehicle for the “American” price. (Isn’t it funny how they screw the Americans?!) A manager came over and he showed them his other rental agreement and told them he was just going to go there and the manager played with the numbers and ended up charging him like $240. So after much waiting and groveling, we were on our way to get the cars and head to the hotel! Finally. FIL got a Toyota Sienna and we got a Kia Rondo. Cute little SUV, but better than just a car. I love that Alamo puts the smaller SUV’s in their Midsized car row and lets you choose the vehicle you want.

So off to the Treehouses. Took us less than ½ hour to get there. A few tolls later and we arrived at Saratoga Springs to check in. WELCOME HOME!! Of course the unit wasn’t ready yet. So we gathered all the bags up and brought them over to get held by bell services so we could go to Epcot for our dinner reservations.

Off to Epcot!

Haillie and Zachary. Notice the excitement and joy on Haillie’s face and the less than excited look on Zach’s face? This becomes the norm for the trip.

Now I didn’t keep notes like I wanted to, forgot to bring a notebook to write things down, so I’ll do my best. So we head into the Park and FIL gets a scooter since he was awaiting knee surgery when he returns.


We toured around


and went into Club Cool. Haillie of course was in heaven because she is not allowed to have soda so this is a treat. Of course Nephew didn’t try anything.



Our reservations in China at Nine Dragons were for 4:45pm. It was almost 4:00pm and since none of us had lunch, we decided to head over there and check in to see if we could get in a bit early.


Look who we met along the way....


The acrobats were just about to perform so everyone stayed outside while I went in to check us in. She never asked for my ADR #, name or anything. Just my party size and handed me my paper and told the party to wait and we would be seated. The place was empty at this point. So I ran outside to get everyone and we were seated right away. We had never been here before. Everyone, except Zach, ordered their meals. Zach’s dinner was pretzels. Remember I said he doesn’t eat anything? Well, his diet consists of aforementioned pretzels, graham crackers, pop-tarts, cinnamon rolls, yogurt and Burger King French Fries and Vanilla Shakes. Now mind you, not only does he only eat these few items, he will only eat certain brands of the particular item!! Not my kid – if he were my kid he would have starved to death a long time ago because I wouldn’t cater to him! Although if he were my kid it never would have gotten to that point!! Anywho…. Dinner was great. Haillie was all excited because she was now an adult according to Disney so she had many more choices than just mac & cheese and hot dogs (my daughter eats real food). We finished up and head out. We stopped in Mexico and Norway to ride their boats.

We walked over to Test Track to ride that before the night was through.



I’m sure we did a few more things, but of course I can’t remember. After Test Track we decided that it had been a long day and we wanted to just call it a night, since we hadn’t even been to the room yet to unpack. After arriving and getting our room, DH and BIL headed to find the Walmart to get bottled water and some snacks. Everyone else stayed and unpacked and settled in. Haillie took a shower and then crashed on the top bunk. Zach watched his movie on his laptop (which he did whenever we were in the room, that’s another story and part of the reason that he was never really happy. If what we were doing didn’t have a plug attached to a wall or have batteries powering it, he wasn’t happy.).

We all crashed in anticipation of our first full day tomorrow.

Up next - Day 2 – Hollywood Studios

[Grumpy]

whooo hooo.

nice TR

[LuvDisney]

You ain't seen nothing yet! LOL I'm on page 42 in word with TR and pictures and still got 3 days to go! LOL I'm hoping to upload more photos tomorrow and post some more. That's the hard part, the pictures. If I could just cut and paste them, I'd be almost done! LOL

Hopefully more tomorrow.

[LuvDisney]

Day 2 – Friday, August 21 - Disney’s Hollywood Studios

We started our day at a fairly normal time. We are not early risers, but we don’t sleep in either. I got up around 8am to shower and get ready. DH and DD followed. MIL & FIL were up and getting ready as well. BIL slept on the sofa bed while everyone muddled around him getting ready to leave, eating breakfast, etc. Nephew was up watching TV (of course). Finally BIL got up around 9am to get ready. We left the Treehouses around 9:40am or so. Later than I wanted to leave, but what are you going to do??

On the way to Hollywood Studios with her movie star shades.


We park, of course we have to wait for FIL to get his scooter then we make a b-line to Toy Story Mania to get fast passes. It was probably about 10:30am and our fast passes were for like 4:30pm-5pm in the afternoon! I knew they went fast, but didn’t realize just how fast.

The only crowds in the whole place were around TSM!


We then decide to head over to Tower of Terror. MIL and FIL won’t go on, and then Nephew decides he doesn’t want to go on. So myself, DH, BIL and Haillie go to wait in the 50 minute standby line (since we just got FP’s for TSM). LOVE Tower of Terror!! It was awesome, we got in the front row and went up and down several times!




After that ride, Haillie wanted to try Rock n’ Roller Coaster for the first time. Well BIL decides that he doesn’t want to wait in another 60 minute line because of course Nephew won’t go on that either. So unfortunately, we skipped it. Nephew didn’t want to go on practically anything the whole time we were there. So, we head for rides that are tamer for the wimpy Nephew.

We ride the Great Movie Ride,


then head over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Play Set

Wow, he smiles!

and then over to the Backlot Tour.


I think it was somewhat in that order.

We ended up seeing the Lights, Motor, Action Extreme Stunt Show at some point ….


as well as half of the Indiana Jones Show, they only did half because of an approaching storm.

We had lunch at the 50’s Prime Time Café. It was fun.

Sister Emily was our server. She was a hoot!

Haillie and Sis Emily with the GIGANTIC Brownie Sundae!

Of course my BIL tried to pick her up the whole time, but she ignored him. LOL Speaking of BIL, side note, here he is, with his phone plastered to his ear, like it was the whole trip. He was either texting or talking. Trying to hook up with women in FL and back home. He’s a man hoar!


We then went to ride Toy Story mania using our fast passes. What an awesome ride! I knew the concept but would have never guessed it was going to be that fun!! We had a blast.



Well, I can’t for the life of me remember what else we did here today so I’ll say we went back to the hotel to relax and rest.

Up Next - Day 3 - Animal Kingdom