OKW pre-cruise stay Jan 2-5. 2014

[sskem96]

This was a short stay at OKW prior to boarding the Disney Dream on Jan. 5.

We are a family of 4-Me, DH, DD14, and DD17. We have been DVC members since 2008, with AKL being our home resort. Also along for this trip are my parents, DM 62 and DF 68.

We reserved our room approx. 6 months out after we purchased our airline tickets since we didn't know exact dates prior to that point. We stayed at OKW on a previous trip, so we knew we liked the resort. We mainly chose it over AKV for this trip because of convenience getting to the room. We have had some long walks to the room at Kidani, and we knew my mom wouldn't be able to handle that. We reserved a 2BR near HH, and requested a ground floor unit for mobility issues.

We personalized our magic bands on-line and received them approx. 1 month before our trip. We also checked in on-line a couple weeks prior to our trip.

The day of our departure, there was a serious snow storm happening. We had booked a limo to pick us up at my parents' house and take us to the airport since none of us have a vehicle that can transport 6 people plus luggage. The limo was to pick us up at 8am. We live an hour from my parents, and we left our driveway at 6:20 that morning. The roads were so bad that it took us an extra half hour to get there. We were leaving our car at DH's parents' house. Since we were running behind schedule, we drove straight to their house and my dad met us there, we transferred the luggage, and headed back across town to meet the limo driver at my parents'. We were still in DMil's driveway when the driver called to say he was there. I told him we were just dropping our car off across town and would be there to meet him in a few minutes. Meanwhile, my mom was inside finishing up a few last minute details and had no idea our ride was already waiting in front of her house!

We were back to my parents' by 8:05, and got the limo all loaded up. Not all of the luggage fit in the trunk, but there was plenty of room for the rest in the back where we were sitting. An old friend of mine from high school owns the limo company, and his dad was our driver.

Our flight was scheduled to leave from Chicago-Midway at 12:05. It should have been about a 90 minute car ride. Due to the weather, we finally arrived at the airport at 10:50. We had been checking the status of our flight on Southwest during the ride, and it was still listed as being on time, and we could see that other flights that morning had left on time. When we got up to the counter with our checked luggage, we were told that we were delayed until 1pm. We relaxed a little bit then, since we had been so rushed and were happy that we now had a chance to grab a bite to eat.

We found a seat at our gate and took turns going to get food. They made occasional announcements updating us on the status of our flight. At 1:20 we had a plane, but no pilots as they were coming in on a different flight. At 2:45, our pilots were on the ground, but they were 3rd in line waiting for a gate. Once they got off their plane, they had to complete the safety checks on our plane before we were allowed to board. We finally took off around 4pm.

We got to Orlando around 7:30, and it was close to 8 by the time we made our way to the buses. Since we were one of the first ones on the ME bus, we sat for over 30 minutes before we got to head to the resort. Thankfully OKW was the first stop!

We were assigned to room 1312, a great location directly across from HH. We had to tap everyone's magic band to the door before we opened it for the first time in order to link each band to the room. Everyone's magic bands worked except for my dad's, but we still had KTTW cards for back-up, so he just used that. By the time we got to our room, it was after 9:30 and we were starving! I went to the resort shop and got bread, lunch meat, cheese, mayo, and some chips and dip for a quick dinner before bed. DD17 has allergies to wheat, corn, soy, and egg, so I had packed some special things for her that I knew we couldn't buy once we got there. We had originally planned for dinner at Earl of Sandwich, but the flight delay forced us to change our plans. I stayed up waiting for our luggage which was delivered around 11. I think everyone else was asleep or close to it by that point, so I just left the luggage in the hall and went to bed.

 

[sskem96]

We got up on Friday morning and it was a fend for yourself breakfast. Most had cereal, DH had eggs, and I made DD17 some gluten free pancakes.

After everyone was ready for their day, we headed to DTD around 10. The boat wasn't running, so we had to wait a while for a bus. We saw 2-3 buses for every other destination before a DTD bus finally came. I was getting worried that maybe the boats had started running while we were at the bus stop, so I asked one of the AK bus drivers to make sure there was going to be a bus for us eventually. She said that the "internal bus" becomes the DTD bus after it makes its loop through the resort. We had already seen 2 internal buses, so we continued to wait for one to come back around, and it finally showed up. DH missed it because I had sent him back to the room for my camera battery. I left it in the charger and didn't realize it until I tried to turn on my camera. At least we knew there was another internal bus not far behind the one we got on, so he wasn't too far behind us.

We shopped for a bit and were surprised at how busy it was! In past experience, it's been much busier late in the evening, but WoD was just as packed as if it had been 10pm! I decided some of the New Years crowds must still be around.

We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich around noon. There were no seats outside, so we found 2 tables outside. My dad was complaining of how cold it was outside, but we did manage to find 1 table in the sun. Lunch was wonderful as always!

After lunch, we went to Babycakes so DD17 could pick out some goodies. She was in heaven! They do have traces of corn in their products because of the corn starch in the powdered sugar and their vanilla is corn filtered, but she was willing to deal with any potential side effects to have a chance to eat some "real" baked goods instead of the ones I attempt to make her at home! She chose 2 chocolate chip cookies, a 7 layer bar, 2 cupcakes, and 1 mini cupcake. Of course she couldn't eat it all in the couple of days we were there, but I was glad she got to enjoy what she did.

We headed back to the resort via bus around 2 so my parents could rest. I had to take a picture of the lifeguards all bundled up and guarding an empty pool! It wasn't terribly cold out to me, but it certainly wasn't warm enough to make me want to go swimming either.

We asked for an activity schedule at the front desk because we didn't want to miss the campfire, and they told us the campfire was cancelled due to the weather. We were bummed because we loved the campfire on our previous stay here. We went to Community Hall for a bit, but there really wasn't anything going on there, so we went back to the room and just rested and watched TV. We eventually wandered back over to Community Hall to see if there were any other activities added since the campfire was cancelled. The lady looked at us like we had 2 heads and said the campfire isn't cancelled, it started half an hour ago! We were so upset we missed all the songs and stuff, but we still got to roast a few marshmallows.

After our marshmallows, DH and DD14 played some shuffleboard, and DD17 checked out a movie to watch while I made dinner. I thought pasta would be a quick and easy dinner, but I had 1 pot of regular pasta and 1 pot of rice pasta for DD17. She wanted cheese sauce on hers, DD14 wanted just butter on hers, and I had a jar of spaghetti sauce for everybody else. Nothing can be quick and easy when my family is involved! I also got a bag of frozen steamable green beans from the gift shop.

DH and I must have gone off somewhere that evening, because I remember coming home to a kitchen full of dirty dishes and everyone asleep, so I decided to wait til morning to clean up. DH and DD17 were heading to WWoHP in the morning, so I didn't want to wake anyone up at that point!

 

[sskem96]

On Saturday morning, DH and DD17 were up early to catch their 7:30 Mears shuttle to WWoHP. They are both HP fans, but DD17 is the obsessed one! She has been wanting to go since it opened, and since we weren't doing the Disney parks this trip, DH was willing to take her over to there to check it out. DD14 and I had absolutely no interest, so we spent the day hanging out with my parents.

I had to clean up the kitchen from the night before, and we took our time getting ready for our day. We had breakfast in the room again, and then headed to the Boardwalk. We took the bus to HS and then the boat to the Swan, and walked over to the Boardwalk from there since my mom was getting sea sick on the boat. This is when I really started getting nervous about our cruise! Turns out she was fine as long as she didn't look at the water!

We had lunch at Big River Grille. DD14 and chicken alfredo, and everyone else had the pulled pork sandwich. I got mashed potatoes with mine because that's what I always get when we go there! After lunch we slowly made our way around the Boardwalk and over to the Beach Club. I had planned to treat everyone to a Kitchen Sink for dessert. I didn't realize however that you had to have reservations to be seated, and they won't serve you a kitchen sink on the carry-out side. I was very disappointed, but DM and DD14 each got a cone and we sat outside enjoying the day. DF still thought it was too cold despite having on a heavy fleece jacket. I guess they expected it to be in the 80s or something? We have been to WDW in January many times, and know good and well how unpredictable the weather is!

We took the boat back to HS and then the bus to OKW so my parents could rest. I tried to get DD14 to do something with me. I offered to take her to Disney Quest, bowling, just kept making suggestions, but she wasn't in the mood to do anything. I ended up getting her a treat at the store, and then I headed to DTD by myself.

I took the boat over, so I started out on the opposite side we had been on the day before, and I worked my way back to the Marketplace. I found some shoes I wanted at the running store, but they don't take the magic bands or KTTW card for payment, and I didn't think to take anything else with me, so I missed on getting them. I got back to OKW around 9. The rest of the family had eaten up the last of the sandwich fixings for dinner, so I got a grilled cheese and onion rings from Goods to Go. The onion rings were good, but the grilled cheese was not good at all. Everyone else was already in bed, so I headed to bed too right after I finished my dinner.

We had a 9am shuttle scheduled with Space Port Transport for taking us to our ship. We got up at 6 so we had plenty of time to shower, eat breakfast, and pack up. DH fixed French toast for breakfast. The only things I ended up having to throw out were a little bit of left over butter, syrup, 2 half eaten boxes of cereal, and some mayo. We did a pretty good job using up what we brought with and purchased. I packed DD17's special ketchup, BBQ sauce, chocolate syrup, and maple syrup to take with us on the cruise because I didn't know what they would have available. WDW has switched to Simply Heinz ketchup, and she can have that since there's no corn syrup, but the honey mustard and BBQ sauce did contain corn syrup, so I was glad I had taken our own condiments.

Our shuttle driver arrived promptly and we were off to Port Canaveral!

I have never figured out how to post pictures on here, but I'm going to try later today. I will post the rest of the TR in the DCL section.