Well, I have 15 minutes till the kids get home. (Mean mom is making them walk home even though it's like minus a zillion
) so I'll do a quick trip report for anyone interested.
We went from Nov 29- Dec 8 so had 9 nights. We stayed at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. This was the fourth Disney resort we have stayed in, not my favourite. It had beautiful landscaping but it was so large! It took forever to walk anywhere and the housekeeping wasn't that great. I preferred some of the other hotels we have tried. We have done Disney many times ( I think this was my 9th visit) and so we really know our way around.
Our plane ride was great! Just recently an airline added direct flights from our city to Orlando so for the first time ever we could fly directly! We have many stories to tell of cancelled flights, being in the wrong cities, snowstorm in, snow stormed out etc (I joke that my kids think it's a 36 hour flight from here to Florida) so to arrive in under 4 hours was something for us!
We used Disney' s Magical Express in which you mark you suitcases with special tags and after you checked them in at the airport they magically appear in your hotel room. No need to pick them up at the airport, we've used it before and it works great. We got on the Magical Express bus and were at the hotel about 9 pm. (Our flight left at 4!) My sister, BIL and their 2 kids had gone down the day before and so we had a visit then took a look around the hotel and had some supper.
In the offseason, to attract people Disney will occasional offer free dining which if your staying at one of their resorts you eat for free! We were able to get this deal which was great! We had one snack item, one fast food meal and one sit down meal for each day. Disney has some great (Expensive ) restaurants that we never did before and se we ate at a different fancy meal everyday! Dessert was included at lunch and supper! I ate way too much. Lots of very neat restaurants!
We spent 2 days at EPCOT, 2 days at the Magic Kingdom, 1 day at Hollywood Studios and 2 days at Animal Kingdom. The 4 kids had a blast together with the 3 older ones going off by themselves occasional (with a walkie talkie and with the 3 together). We have been there so many times it makes it so much more pleasant to navigate, plan where to go ,etc. SOme people look so lost as it's such a huge place. We didn't rent a car but just used the Disney transport around. SOme afternoons when it was hot we came back to the hotel to swim in the afternoon and the kids swam most evening late at night. We had 2 days of rainy/colder weather.
We also had one day at a waterpark and another day at Disney Quest (5 stories of interactive/virtual reality video games)/Downtown Disney shopping. The 4 boys rented a car and drove into Tampa to watch the hockey game which was the highlight of the trip for them!!
My sister and her famliy returned 2 days earlier than us and it was nice to have some family time.
Okay, that's the highlights.