Our 2009 GRAND trip to WDW

[teentoddlermom]

The first time we went to the GF, we had a mirror image of that view, we were in Sugarloaf. Can I ask what type of room you booked? Was it a regular garden view?
We are thinking of going back to the GF, a this summer. I never request specific rooms or views because I think it may be ignored, but I wonder what you requested, if anything. I had some weight loss a few years ago due to disney inspiration, and I congratulate you on your achievement!

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

[loralie]

Originally Posted by dpndka

I'm on board for your TR. Great beginning. Congrats on the wieght loss. That is a pretty big deal. I'm trying to lose 20 lbs and it is a major struggle.

Your GF pics are simply beautiful. We're headed there in Dec

Thanks and have a great time at the GRAND in Dec. I wish I was going back.

Originally Posted by teentoddlermom

The first time we went to the GF, we had a mirror image of that view, we were in Sugarloaf. Can I ask what type of room you booked? Was it a regular garden view?
We are thinking of going back to the GF, a this summer. I never request specific rooms or views because I think it may be ignored, but I wonder what you requested, if anything. I had some weight loss a few years ago due to disney inspiration, and I congratulate you on your achievement!

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

Thanks and congrats on your weight loss. Seeing the Disney pics really gave me the motivation I needed to lose the weight.

We booked a garden view with the Buy 4 get 3 deal. When I first booked I did not request anything. I learned on the GF board that you can request a marina view as part of a garden view room. When I called back to make a payment I requested the marina view. I don't know if they honored it. I mean when you look to the left you can see a little bit of the water where they dock the sea raycers so maybe that is considered a marina view but when I did the online check-in, the only thing I saw noted on my reservation was that we were celebrating our anniversary.

I hear Sugar Loaf and RPC in the main building is wonderful. I would love to be able to do that one day but don't know if I can justify spending the extra $$$. Thanks for reading along.

Loralie

[loralie]

Where did we leave off...oh yeah, we took a nap and set a wake up call so we would not miss our dinner at Chef Mickeys. We went over to the monorail station in the GF and took some pics while we waited. It is time for some before and after pics.

This pic is from our 2004 trip of the 4 of us at the monorail station. Look at how little my boys are!


This one is May 2009


Another before and after.

This one is my DH and I waiting for a bus at CBR in 2005


This one we are waiting for the monorail May 2009


The monorail came and we were on our way to Chef Mickeys. We LOVED being on the monorail. So quick and easy to get to the MK or the other resorts. Even the trip to Epcot later on was pretty easy. When we got to Chef Mickeys we had to pose for a pic with the Big Plate.



Chef Mickeys is our tradition. We have been to WDW 3 times and each time we have been to Chef Mickeys. The first 2 times was for breakfast, this was our first time trying dinner. Here are a few pics with the characters.







Donald was really funny because the boys and my DH were all wearing Mickey shirts and he kept pointing to the shirts and then pointing to himself as if was saying "hey, where is my shirt?" It was really cute.

Since we were celebrating our anniversary and it was noted on all of our ADRs, they brought us out a cupcake. They also brought one out for our older son who was celebrating his graduation from Jr. High School.



We liked the food at Chef Mickeys but thought the breakfast was better. I think I will do a dining report too. I did take some pics of the food but forgot at some places. We were all full when we left Chef Mickeys but the night was not over yet. We were going to go over to the MK and watch wishes.

That's it for now, next post will have MK and a little problem.

Thanks for reading along,

Loralie

[mickeystoontown]

I do hope you'll start a dining report. We are eating dinner at Chef Mickey's for the first time this coming August. We aren't big breakfast eaters so we opted for dinner.

[wdwiala]

That room at the Floridian is the prettiest room (other than the castle room!) that I have seen at Disney. Thanks for sharing the photos.

PS. You look great. I am trying to get rid of some weight before our Disney trip. It's not easy.

[MEK]

OMG - you look at least 5 years younger than your picture in 2005. So that makes you look.....9 years younger! Seriously - what a big change in your face - you look great!

BTW - I love your DH's mickey shirt. too cute!

[wannago2disney]

I am enjoying your TR ....I love the before and after pictures! Congrats on your weightloss. I need to lose weight but not very good with sticking to a plan.
We did Chef Mickey's last year for dinner and loved it. My DS's fav guy is Donald and just loved all the crazy stunts that Donald was doing throughout the meal.
looking forward to more!

[BlueSkies]

Loralie Really enjoying your TR! and the before and after pics are great.... Your boys got so much more grown up looking from the first trip to this one...and you got younger looking thats for sure!!! Love the coordinating Mickey shirts on your DH and sons too...

Looking foward to your next installment...

[mindystar]

Oh, I can not wait to return to the Grand! Last time I was there was for my sister's wedding--we did a split stay and were there for the time leading up to the wedding. I love that picture of the bookcase/shelves they have as well as the gorgeous lace curtains! I wish I had the extra $250 to buy that mickey lamp, but my pics of it will have to do Oh and isn't a balcony just lovely!
Your towel Mickey is awesome and so elegant
I've never had dinner at Chef Mickey's, but have always enjoyed breakfast there. How many times did you get to twirl your napkins around?
Hope the problem in your next post isn't too big/bad
Okay off to do some more and packing, my traveling date got moved up a day so I've got to get crackin'

[teentoddlermom]

Originally Posted by loralie

T




I hear Sugar Loaf and RPC in the main building is wonderful. I would love to be able to do that one day but don't know if I can justify spending the extra $$$. Thanks for reading along.

Loralie

We were able to book GF in 2003 when they had the same 4/3 offer! We decided to try concierge, and we did it again the next year with the same deal at YC, but then we decided that I was too much of a planner to really use the IPO, and there was just too much food at concierge (which really kills the diet willpower), so we now think it is over the top. Don't get me wrong, I splurge on food and forget the diet at WDW, but the concierge offerings are just more food than we need. We spent a lot of time at the parks anyway, so it felt like we were missing the 'free food' anyway!
We are looking forward to the next trip, and will request the marina view! Thanks for the info!

[loralie]

Originally Posted by mickeystoontown

I do hope you'll start a dining report. We are eating dinner at Chef Mickey's for the first time this coming August. We aren't big breakfast eaters so we opted for dinner.

If you are not big breakfast eaters that I am sure you will like Chef Mickeys for dinner. I think we realized on this trip that when it comes to buffets, we like breakfast more and for dinners we prefer a sit down meal better.

Originally Posted by wdwiala

That room at the Floridian is the prettiest room (other than the castle room!) that I have seen at Disney. Thanks for sharing the photos.

PS. You look great. I am trying to get rid of some weight before our Disney trip. It's not easy.

I agree, the room was beautiful. Good luck with the weight loss. Just take it one day at a time and just focus on little goals like losing 5 pounds at a time.

Originally Posted by MEK

OMG - you look at least 5 years younger than your picture in 2005. So that makes you look.....9 years younger! Seriously - what a big change in your face - you look great!

BTW - I love your DH's mickey shirt. too cute!

Thanks for the nice compliments. That was the only day they wore mickey or Disney Shirts. My kids used to have more Disney shirts when they were younger but now they wont wear them outside of Disney World anymore so I stopped buying them. The people DH work with gave him a hard time about his Mickey shirt, they did not like it. LOL. I will tell him my friends on the DIS appreciate it.

Originally Posted by wannago2disney

I am enjoying your TR ....I love the before and after pictures! Congrats on your weightloss. I need to lose weight but not very good with sticking to a plan.
We did Chef Mickey's last year for dinner and loved it. My DS's fav guy is Donald and just loved all the crazy stunts that Donald was doing throughout the meal.
looking forward to more!

As far as the weight loss goes, just try to stick to it for one day. Then the next day try to stick to it again. Sometimes we look at the big picture and we feel overwhelmed. Breaking it down to smaller goals helps with that. Good luck, it is not easy but it is worth all the hard work. We love all the characters at Chef Mickeys but Donald was really interactive. Thanks for reading along.

Originally Posted by BlueSkies

Loralie Really enjoying your TR! and the before and after pics are great.... Your boys got so much more grown up looking from the first trip to this one...and you got younger looking thats for sure!!! Love the coordinating Mickey shirts on your DH and sons too...

Looking foward to your next installment...

The boys did grow up so much . Such a big difference 5 years can make. Hopefully I will be able to post more today.

Originally Posted by mindystar

Oh, I can not wait to return to the Grand! Last time I was there was for my sister's wedding--we did a split stay and were there for the time leading up to the wedding. I love that picture of the bookcase/shelves they have as well as the gorgeous lace curtains! I wish I had the extra $250 to buy that mickey lamp, but my pics of it will have to do Oh and isn't a balcony just lovely!
Your towel Mickey is awesome and so elegant
I've never had dinner at Chef Mickey's, but have always enjoyed breakfast there. How many times did you get to twirl your napkins around?
Hope the problem in your next post isn't too big/bad
Okay off to do some more and packing, my traveling date got moved up a day so I've got to get crackin'

Yes, all the details at the GF make it so special. I would love that Mickey lamp too but the price tag is a little too high for me. We did twirl our napkins but sadly my boys were not as into it as when they were younger. We still had fun but I missed them being younger in WDW. Wow...you will be in WDW next week. Have a great time.

Originally Posted by teentoddlermom

We were able to book GF in 2003 when they had the same 4/3 offer! We decided to try concierge, and we did it again the next year with the same deal at YC, but then we decided that I was too much of a planner to really use the IPO, and there was just too much food at concierge (which really kills the diet willpower), so we now think it is over the top. Don't get me wrong, I splurge on food and forget the diet at WDW, but the concierge offerings are just more food than we need. We spent a lot of time at the parks anyway, so it felt like we were missing the 'free food' anyway!
We are looking forward to the next trip, and will request the marina view! Thanks for the info!

I heard that if you do concierge than you should not do the dining plan because you will never be hungry. Hopefully you get the marina view on your next trip.

Thanks to everyone for reading along and the nice compliments. I am going to try to post the end of day one later on today. Have a great day everyone.

Loralie

[BIGSean]

Great trip report, its almost as if I was there with you! All kidding aside, I am looking forward to reading the whole report. It was fun watching you with your journal making notes at the end of each day.

[loralie]

Originally Posted by BIGSean

Great trip report, its almost as if I was there with you! All kidding aside, I am looking forward to reading the whole report. It was fun watching you with your journal making notes at the end of each day.

You are so sweet. I love you.

Loralie

[loralie]

O.K...I am back. We left off finishing a yummy dinner at Chef Mickeys. Then we decided a perfect way to end our first day at WDW would be to take the monorail over to the MK and watch wishes. We got there with a little extra time so we headed on over to Pirates of the Caribbean . I love the new additions to the ride. I know it is not so new to everyone else but it has been 4 years so it was new to us. Then we went over to get a spot in front of the castle and wait for wishes to start.




This is where the little problem comes into play. Since we just came from the pirates ride, we were walking towards main street but we were still over by Frontier land. The area where Main street and Frontier land meets. I see a whole bunch of people waiting for wishes to start. Some people were standing and some people were sitting on the floor. So wishes is about to start in 10 min. and we are standing there and this lady behind me starts complaining that we are standing right in front of her, blocking her view of the castle. I turn around and she is sitting on the floor. I did not realize that the people who were sitting on the floor were going to sit for the whole fireworks show. I thought they had been sitting there for a while saving a spot so that once the show started they would stand up to watch it. I told her that I see other people standing and thought we could stand there. She said that I could stay there as long as we sit down. I did not want to make a big deal since wishes was about to start in 3 min. so we sit down. Wishes starts and guess what happens? That's right, the people right in front of me who were sitting down, stand up and partially block my view. PLUS...they have a stroller with a giant balloon tied to it that is now flying in the wind and is also getting in our way. Now if I stand up then I am going to have to argue with the lady behind me again and I really just want to watch wishes which is now starting so luckily we were able to move over to the side a little so we had a better view. Then the people in front of us finally noticed that their balloon was flying around too much so they tied it down better so it was not getting in our way so it all worked out.

After the fireworks I remembered reading that you can still go on a few rides as everyone else is fighting to get out of the park so we went over to Buzz Lightyear and we rode it 3 times in a row. The kids had a blast and I even beat their score one time. So after Buzz Lightyear it was time to go back to the room. It had been a long day and we were ready to go get in our jammies and get some rest. I read on the GF board that you should take the monorail to the MK but going back to the GF you should take the boat because the GF is the first stop. We make our way over to the boat launch and we get on line and the boat is filling up. The line stops right in front of us and they tell us we have to wait for the next boat. No problem. We are waiting and I notice on the other line someone is wearing a Grand Floridian T-shirt. I am a little confused but soon the next boat comes. The CM tells us to get on the boat and I hear him say this boat is going to the Wilderness Lodge. I say wait a min. I thought this line was for the GF. He tells me we have been waiting on the wrong line and he tells us to wait in front of the GF line. We wait there while he loads the Wilderness Lodge boat and then he comes over to us and tells us that we now have to get in the BACK of the GF boat line. Of course now the line for the GF boat probably has 200 people waiting for it. I asked if the people who were in the front of the GF boat line would mind if we went on the boat and the CM tells me it is not fair to the people on the end who will not get on the boat because of us. He said if the line was shorter he would let us go but that he could not do it this time. I was so upset because we waited so long already. I know it was my own stupid fault that I did not realize that I was in the wrong line but it was not like I cut the whole line without waiting at all and expected to be first on line. So instead of waiting on the end of the GF boat line we decided it would probably be faster to get on the monorail even though now the GF is the last stop. We lucked out that as soon as we got to the monorail it was waiting for us and we were back at the beautiful Grand Floridian in no time. When we got back to the room we saw this.



Turndown service at the Grand Floridian is just a really nice little treat at the end of the day. You walk into the room and the lights are dimmed, the curtains are drawn. The bed covers are turned down and they fix the pillows nicely and leave you a nice little piece of chocolate. It was a great way to end a wonderful first day. Sure there was a couple of little problems at the end but we were in WDW and we were not going to let the little things get us down.

That's it for day 1. Day 2 has us going to Hollywood Studios, Epcot World Showcase and Le Cellier for dinner.

Loralie

[KimDis]

Originally Posted by loralie

Turndown service at the Grand Floridian is just a really nice little treat at the end of the day. You walk into the room and the lights are dimmed, the curtains are drawn. The bed covers are turned down and they fix the pillows nicely and leave you a nice little piece of chocolate. It was a great way to end a wonderful first day. Sure there was a couple of little problems at the end but we were in WDW and we were not going to let the little things get us down.

That's it for day 1. Day 2 has us going to Hollywood Studios, Epcot World Showcase and Le Cellier for dinner.

Loralie

And that's why I LOVE turndown service. There's something extra special to me about coming in after a long busy day and finding the room ready for night time. Makes me feel like a true

And I bet it helped you completely forget all about that stinky boat line and the wishes people.