|
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
This
final day will be a quick one without too many photos. Ernie got
sick through the night every couple hours but had vomited last
at about 5am. He hadn't much sleep through this all either but
just clung to me.
We were perpetually doing laundry to clean up the messes on the
sheets, blankets, clothing, etc. I phoned my friend Maureen this
morning to see what she thought since it had been over 24 hours
of him being sick. She gave some good advice and said that
although I was nursing, the milk was heavy on his stomach and
not helping him to get better any sooner. The problem was that
with me in the same vicinity as him, all he wanted was me. EB
and I decided that I would take Amelia to our scheduled 1900
Park Fare Christmas Eve breakfast to get us out of the room and
me away from Ernie for a bit.
During the morning we continued to pack. We had to be out of the
room by 11am and our flight wasn't until around 4pm-ish. EB
walked to the front desk and explained our situation, asking if
there was any way we could have a later check out. They were
gracious in offering us the room until 1pm that day. That was
very very helpful.
At this point it was already closing in on 10am and that is when
our reservation was. EB stayed back with a sleepy and groggy
Ernie while I took Amelia for a Princess breakfast at the Grand
Floridian. We made it on time and checked in a few minutes late,
mostly because the line in front of us at check-in was moving
very very slowly!
The meal was very tasty and the characters were fun. I only wish
I had Amelia put her Alice costume on for this as it would have
made for some really great photos! Our waitress was a dud here
and had the personality of a wet mop. Perhaps she was mad she
had to work on Christmas Eve? I don't know, but she was not
friendly whatsoever and rarely came back to see if we needed
drink refills or anything.
Amelia and I enjoyed a couple of trips to the buffet and she
LOVED the strawberry soup! It was a lot of fun to have some
special alone-time with just her. I'm glad we decided to get out
of our villa and do something on our last day in our happy
place.
After settling our bill we went into the Grand Floridian lobby
to take some pictures of the holiday decorations. They already
had some great Christmas festivities happening and the
gingerbread scent filled the lobby! This is such a beautiful
resort and I hope we can afford to stay here someday.
A couple standing in front of the gingerbread house was kind
enough to take some pictures of me and Amelia together and we
also got some nice shots of the lobby's trees.
Afterwards we retrieved our RAV-4 from valet - all of the Cast
Members working out in the front of the resort were so nice to
us! After picking up our car we headed out of the Grand
Floridian area, stopped to fill up our tank at the Hess (I think
that's what it was) and then got back to our resort.
Ernie had slept most of the morning while we were gone and EB
was able to get some packing done. We finished packing right on
time, gathered our belongings and headed to the lobby at
Saratoga Springs Resort to waste about an hour before heading to
the airport.
Amelia watched Donald Duck cartoons in the lobby and made some
friends and EB and I took turns pushing Ernie around the lobby,
Artist's Palette area, etc in the stroller. They were passing
out drinks (I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was
juice or something similar) and cookies in the lobby. There were
many people checking in today!
As of this point, Ernie had still not gotten sick, but I was
prepared with a change of clothing for not only me, but for
Ernie as well!
Luckily, we made it home without incident but it was a long day,
especially after the flight, which was delayed by about an hour
from the original time and then the 2+ hour drive home from the
Philadelphia airport.
Afterthoughts...
I usually have a page of afterthoughts, but I only have a few to
mention this time:
-
Being in WDW for the holiday season is absolutely beautiful
and we love it. We've learned, though, that with smaller
kids we should not push it so close to Christmas time. This
is mainly due to the crowds and nothing else. We were amazed
at just how crammed, packed and crazy it gets in the days
leading up to Christmas. Once that weekend hit for us, it
was just unbearable at times. We were amazed at the lines
everywhere! With kids as young as ours, it just makes
touring a little more stressful and a little less enjoyable.
Therefore, this year we're backing up our trip by about a
week so that we do not run into that crowd issue as much.
-
SSR is a beautiful resort and by the end of the trip since
we had stayed there in September as well, I was a little
burned out of the resort. I think maybe what fed that
feeling was not liking our room location and the fact that
we got a room that used to be a smoking room. In retrospect,
we should have found a way to just hold out for that
Grandstand room instead. Until this vacation, I was never
one to say that room location can have such an affect on the
overall pleasure of your vacation, but now I believe that at
some resorts it can. That being said, we do love our home
resort and are looking forward to staying here again.
-
Having the Christmas Tree in our room was wonderful! I would
do that again in a heartbeat. We have our tree here boxed up
and ready for this December's Disney vacation. I was part of
a tree exchange with some friends on
TourGuide Mike's
website. I was also put in charge of pickup and delivery
(actually, I volunteered since we'd have a car during our
vacation and many others do not) of a couple of trees. I had
some major issues with pickup of a particular Polynesian
tree but didn't include those details in my report. I'm so
sorry for those who did not get their tree! It's crazy but I
tried several times!
|
