11days...4kids...3bdays...2parents...1 room...0 sanity!

[delmar411]

I'm going to take a stab at writing out our trip report over the next week or so....maybe I can regain my sanity by writing it all down or maybe figure out at what point in the planning did I think there was no such thing as too long of a family trip to WDW?!?!?!

....at about day 4 I was the one whining that I just wanted to GO HOME! :lmao:


Let's start with this image....keep it in mind when I talk about my little princess and how she spent our vacation....

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9839.jpg

this is the perfect capture of how she spent the majority of the vacation. Sorry no great pics of her flailing about on the floor or beating on her brothers...I was the <snort> "good" mom and was busy being "THAT" family...so no pics of her other tantrums. ;)


Yep as you can guess from the moment we walked into the airport to head out of Indy we did become THAT family. The family others pray they never are or act like....did I think they'd behave any differently because it was Disney? Nope! But I sure did secretly hope it! :rolleyes1


And for anyone who got the ummm pleasure? of experiencing our company at Disney...I apologize from the bottom of my heart. And yes we are always that chaotic. :crazy:

Now you think I'm going to write about this horrible time we had right? Well you're wrong! ok, well kinda wrong! :rotfl2:

Actually there were moments that were exactly like I had hoped and wished for. And even through the tantrums and the illness (yes there is even illness!) the kids took away some of the most sweetest bits of Disney.

*~*~*~some of our magical moments~*~*~*

my little man learned to say...boat, bus, Buzz-man, choo-choo, apple, MINE!, me me me, up, and trashcan...and got the most adorable first haircut at the Main Street barbershop

my little girl is now singing the words to it's a small world and actually hugged Cinderella, Minnie Mouse and a few other characters and asked me to take her on the Tea Cups

my oldest rode on all the roller coasters multiple times, the spinning version of Mission Space 2x and got to go into the parks for a late night daddy and daughter extra magic hours while I stayed with the little ones in the hotel

my other not so little man got to show me the way to the Pirates of the Caribbean and the way to the Buzz man ride (Buzz Lightyear) and simply was an awesome little guy for the most part. He submitted to being measured more times that I would ever have the patience for, w/o a single complaint and he even said wheeee on all the fun rides! :goodvibes


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Day 1 through 4 to come hopefully by tomorrow....WITH pics! :cloud9:

[Carrieannew]

I am so in!!! Woohoo and first. Your writing style is awesome. No worries we were "that" family mutliple times. Writing my report is making me remember the good.. the bad is slowly going away.

[disneyfanforlife]

Well I'm in. can't wait for more.

[NMAmy]

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9839.jpg


:rotfl2: Honestly, how could I skip a trip report with THAT to look forward to? It makes me smile because it wasn't me. ;) Can't wait to hear more!

[delmar411]

...what does the T in that stand for anyway???

Anyway it's DAY ONE!! The day I had planned to get up at the crack of dawn and....

.....

CLEAN THE HOUSE!! :rotfl:

Sorry house, that just never happened. I did finish laundry and packing and break up multiple fights and ask DH to do a million and one things, that I ended up just doing myself. So 6hrs later I finally threw in the towel, ordered everyone out to the car, packed it around them all...to a chorus of "there's a stroller smushing me.....he's looking at me....she's breathing on me.....ouch that's my eye..." You get the picture...

I send Dh in for one last look see...have him turn off the house water (we have a massive leak in the pantry wall and we are renters....still filling a bucket every 3hrs BTW since the landlord thought $150 was just too EXPENSIVE for the fix HIS contractor came today and LOL'd at the $150 quote....it's going be a 1k fix now! So HA HA HA to him! And boo hoo hoo to me since all my pantry items are STILL on my counter and in my bedroom)

Anyway we finally get out onto the road and I'm starting to get EXCITED!! Here we go!! A vacation....a nice relaxing, no rush, no worries, vacation!

~yes, you can laugh at my foolishness...WTH was I thinking?~

So 20mins later we arrive at the airport! WHEEEE! I'm so flipping excited at this point that I don't even register that I have no idea where I'm planning on putting the car for 11days or what it might even cost! LOL

I get DH, 3 kids, and all our bags unloaded at the door, get all our bags checked, ID's shown, then hop back into the car with the baby and zoom off ISO of parking!

I'm too impatient and excited at this point to even think about driving the whole strip to find the cheapest long term parking so I choose the 2nd place down....$88 for 11 days, OUCH! But I park and the shuttle pulled up as soon as I walked to the stop so I figure it was perfect. I chat with a super nice woman on the shuttle and the baby behaves perfectly.

I meet up with DH and the kids inside the airport and we still have TONS of time before our flight. So we head over to grab some lunch. A nice quick, easy lunch and we are heading through security....where we deposit pretty much everything but the kids onto the belt to go through the x-ray machine...and then get pulled aside to have all my carefully packed bags searched....sigh....'yes those things are called COINS'...aka MONEY. :rolleyes1

...'yes that's really food...ha ha ha Mr.rent a cop, too funny about having to let my booty go through' (the kids favorite food...pirate booty).

But we survive and get to the gate in plenty of time...too much time! LOL The excitement over seeing the planes is quite short lived for them. So we start taking quick walks...then I find a nice coffee stand...so go ISO of money to get what is actually a reasonable priced cup of coffee....and the girl working the counter...totally out of the blue...not only gives my DD and DS a cookie...she gives them 2 cookies to take back to my other 2 and then gives them 4 big bottles of apple juice! ALL FOR FREE! :goodvibes So generous and really helped to kids the kids occupied those last 30mins or so.

So here we are and finally it's our turn to get on the plane and for some unk reason the 3 ticketed kids are sat together w/ DH and myself together on the row behind them. We give that a whirl for about....oh say...like 10mins! ;)
We were sat w/ a mom traveling with another lap infant so I'm thinking it is perfect and Logan will have another baby to look at and he's just so mild mannered that this will be a breeze.....

~yeah this is another one of those laughing at me moments ;) ~

So my mild mannered, perfectly sweet little boy begins what will become the norm for him on all this unsecured transportation over the next 10.5 days...to wriggle, and squirm...and SCREAM when he can't get down and run all over.....

did I mention the screaming? Non-stop? For an hour and 20mins? :scared1:

should I mention he FINALLY fell asleep about 30mins before we landed? After waking up the super well behaved, quiet, and sleeping lap baby in our row...

should I mention that the passenger behind me (with a child of her own!) actually offered me a flipping lollipop for him? Yeah, let's give the hyper,flailing, screaming child who needs a nap desperately...a TREAT for his behavior! Um, no thanks! I don't even know how I managed to smile and just say, sorry he's just tired, through my clenched teeth and purple face.

But we land in what must be record time from Indy to Orlando...literally shaving off 40mins from our flight time.

You think the screaming child had something to do with that? Good thing we were already in the air when the screaming started, huh?

At this point I am really starting to worship the Magical Express system. All I need to do is get from the gate to the buses. Easy peasy! We book it down there, get our papers and literally just make the bus that is about to depart! :cool1:

Sadly to say...yeah the screaming and climbing and wrestling the baby did have to start again...but we were in ORLANDO! We had made it this far and NOTHING was going to bring me down now! :thumbsup2

So we finally get our first glimpse of POR and I'm feeling good and the kids are excited and DH is about bouncing off the walls (did I mention this is like his 15th or 16th trip to Disney? He's a Disney nut). I wait in the check in line while the kids and DH putter about the lobby.

I'm loving the coloring station and the kids cartoons w/ the little chairs all setup right there in the middle. FABULOUS!

So I get our key cards and our room assignments and gather up the kiddos and DH and head off to find our room. We're in building 17....1729 to be exact....first floor, close to everything. I was thrilled! So I turn the last corner to where our room is.......

...and keep on walking!

WHY??

What could possibly make me not stop at our room?

Why would I immediately drag DH around the corner while he's asking me what our room number is?

Why would I tell him sorry but we are marching back up to the lobby?

with all our carry ons?

and the kids?

and why oh why would I be FUMING?

~did you think of anything yet? :idea: ~

hmmm?


DING DING DING...we have a winner....:idea:

OUR room was ALREADY OCCUPIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously...WTH?

And all I can say is TG they had their blinds open, were IN the room, and had their kid sitting outside the room....because I would have been beyond freaked entering an occupied room! :sad2:

So we march back to the lobby where I get to spend 15mins trying to translate what OCCUPIED ALREADY means! And how exactly does a room get released to be reassigned w/o housekeeping giving it the 'yes, it is really empty' approval?? And how exactly are their keycards still working?????

Which leads me to my totally random...hmm, I wonder if our keycards will still work in our room when we go back?

Anyway after finally getting through what I meant by occupied and a phone call to the guests in the room...I find out they just randomly decided to stay on and didn't let anyone know...which still leaves me with those random thoughts above!

So she now cheerfully assigns us to a room in Magnolia something or other....

um, no.........

we have to be in Alligator Bayou because of our party size. To which she says she'll get a rollaway....to which I now, not so very nicely say....WE ARE A FAMILY OF SIX!!!!!!!!!!

I admit it....I was rude and I was frazzled by this point and so ready to get rid of our carry ons and get to the relaxing and enjoying part of our vacation.

But I swear it was as if a light had come on for her and she got that 'oh duh!' thing going on....

So we are now assigned to what I am assured is 100% unoccupied room in building 18.

We get there, toss everything down and just collapse! LOL

But this is Disney and sitting and doing nothing just isn't on menu! ;)

I swear I said everyday like 10x per day that this was supposed to be a relaxing and easy going vacation....

..but I guess you can't take the commando out of a person. And I'm referring to DH when I say that!

So we get diapers changed and potty stops done and head out for the first order of business....my refillable mug!

This was supposed to be my savior on the trip since I'm a diet coke addict. I only drink diet coke and coffee...

Hi, my name is Mary, and I'm a caffiene addict. :upsidedow

SO after getting my cup and drinking like a gallon of soda :laughing: we head on down to the docks for our ride to DTD. Not even thinking about the repercussions of this decision I had left both strollers in the room because it would be "easier" for us.

~gosh yet another laugh at me moment, huh? ~

But we make it to DTD w/ only 3 or 4 tantrums and 1 smacked hand* (the kids were really out of control at this point..sorry fellow guests!)

*for smacking my DD's hand I received a freaking SMACK to the back of my head from another passenger on the boat...I choose to not turn around and punch their lights out because I might have actually snapped at this point. I didn't even mention it to DH until we were back in our hotel room that night because he would of had them arrested on the spot. So PSA...watch out for other guests who feel the need to physically demonstrate THEIR displeasure of your discipline methods with YOUR kids!


So boat drama aside, we make it in mostly one piece to DTD and we are off on our family adventure! We putter in and out of the shops and walk down to pleasure island and then back again and through the big Disney store and get some chocolate samples. But the kids are getting really tired and hungry by now so I head off to the westside and find the earl of sandwich. Looks interesting enough so we all find something we'll eat on the menu, order and I send DH to find a table while I get drinks and wait for our order.
So as I'm dropping off the drinks to DH, some man comes up to him and asks him if DH moved his soda. DH tells him yes, that according to the table next to us it was just left there and had been there more than 20mins. So DH moved it, assuming it was an abandoned soda. I needed no more drama so I left them to battle it out (DH wasn't moving anyhow) and got our food. The kids actually ate a good bit and we wrapped up the leftovers for another day (DH is the food garbage disposal...he eats all the leftovers! LOL).
Then we decide it's time to get back to our room to rest up for our first full day in the parks! YIPEE!!!

And yes you can guess what happened on the boat....3 of the kids fell asleep! Are you remembering we have ZERO strollers at this point? :headache: So somehow we actually managed to get 3 sleeping kids off the boat with only 2 adults and pretty much run as fast as we could with 90lbs of kids draped on us to our room!

Day one....100% successful! REALLY!! We made it to Disney. We went to DTD for dinner and some shopping. Found some goodies for the kids. Everyone is still accounted for! That is a success in my book! :cheer2:


Day One pics...ok, they aren't so exciting but I can prove everyone was excited and happy at some point!!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9297.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9298.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9300.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9301.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9302.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9306.jpg
Livvie is actually SMILING! GASP! She appears smiling in many of the first few days, I'm thrilled to report! ;)

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/IMG_9313.jpg
The boys wanted to gift Daddy something upon their arrival but w/o any money this was the best they could do. :rotfl:


And that is actually it for first day photos. I didn't bring the camera to DTD so nothing from there.

And whew another long day here so this is my entry for the day on my report. Day 2...our first day in the MK will have to wait until tomorrow.

[OhMari]

I usually don't subscribe to threads, but I sure am to this one. Please believe me when I say I was in your shoes. They will eventually all grow up really fast.

[kindakrazy2]

I can't believe that happened to you at POR with the room! When we stayed there (okay, so it was Dixie Landings then) we were delivered late at night to 3 occupied rooms! I had never heard of such a thing until then and now it happened to you at the same place! You've just made me feel so much better! :thumbsup2

Someone actually smacked you on the boat?!!! They would have been wishing for a death faster then the one they were about to endure if they had done it to me. You are a better woman then I tell you!

Loving the report, keep it coming!

[kors]

Wow...I would have nailed the person who smacked you on the head...the nerve of some people...UGH!!

[reyasmommy]

I love your trip report so far! I wanted so badly for my DD to get her 1st haircut at MK, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. Poor thing still doesn't have any hair and she's 18mos old. ((I blame her father)) ;)

[disneyfanforlife]

LOL. I love the pic of dh and his gifts. How did he like them?
I can't wait for more.

[Mama Kanga]

That's hysterical Mary! :rotfl: I'll be sure to keep reading.

Chantel :surfweb:

[Sleeping*Beauty]

I can't believe someone hit you. I would have been ticked!

[portia9]

Hi Mary! I am so excited to read this. And the good thing-next April my family will make yours look angelic :lmao:

Yvette

[portia9]

And dh looks so happy! LOL

[delmar411]

well I'm still fixing, cropping, and rotating day 2 pics so my report has been delayed. I can't believe I took about 100 pics our first day in MK! :rotfl:

I've been slowing going through each one and just noticing all the little details I was too stressed at the time to notice.

Here's a short video clip though of my younger DD seeing the castle after we rounded the corner on Main Street. The audio is just a mess of ppl noises though...maybe someone else will skill can tell me how to get all the extra noise out of the clip? :goodvibes

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/th_MVI_9352.jpg (http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/delmar411/?action=view&current=MVI_9352.flv)

[delmar411]

notice the hair pretty she's wearing? this will be come her favorite hair band in the days to come. Why is this worth mentioning? Because we found this on the pathway to the docks to go back to POR from DTD on the first night. She picked it up and wouldn't give it up. So I gave it a good check over and it was perfectly clean and she kept it! :rotfl:

It's one of her favorite souvenirs of the whole trip! :confused3


we found a ton of little things on the ground during our trip. Funny that your attention is much lower to the ground when traveling with little ones. :goodvibes

[delmar411]

Too many pics to edit and I'll pick the best of them and add them in later.

So Day 1 ends with a grumbling 9yr old who is 'forced' to shower before bed and a yawning DH who is also ordered to shower before bed. ;)

Me? I spend about 2hrs preparing our bags and strollers for the next days adventure! And then crashing hard w/o any alarms set (no alarms allows this entire trip!)

So since I didn't want any alarms going off to wake the kids up before I was ready for them....I spend the night waking up NON STOP! UGH! Literally every hour I woke up and checked the clock.

Finally it was 6am and I could go get my coffee!! WOHOO! :rotfl:

So off I went to grab some oh so precious ME time. Got back to the room, showered, got everyone up and hustling and bustling......

just in time to have LONG missed the little ones extra magical hour....this will be a running theme through our trip....

just like at home, it was about 9:30am before we even got out the door.

so we head out to the bus stop, catch the bus to the MK (no need to go into that we um...had already forgotten how to FOLD the new stroller! LOL) ...get all of us and all our 'stuff' off the bus

and we are there!!! And I just know that it is going to be a GREAT day!

~that Disney fever just hits you hard once you get to the gates!~

but the kids are already bickering and no one wants to stop and have their picture taken so I take my pictures anyway because darn it I want proof of all these GOOD TIMES we are having! :lmao:


So we make it (barely) past Disney security and through the ticket machines...


and we are IN! WOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

did I mention Jack was crying by now because we weren't letting him hide away under the stroller canopy? sigh.....I give! Whatever you want Jack!

So I spy the photopass guy and have him snag some family pics. I swear I had to repeat myself more times to the photopass ppl than I do to my kids.....I know not everyone is looking at you....or happy.....or smiling....or awake....or even in the picture.....just take it anyway!

~Seriously....I wanted pics of MY family....not us pretending to be some other family!~


So then I take some tradtional pics of the kids right there in front of the train station.

We then we are off to the rides!

No...not really! :rolleyes:

I can't imagine being so small and being told over and over how we are going to WDW and going to ride these rides and then finding out that not only do you not just get there and have all these rides waiting for you...but you get to the park and still have to go even farther, through tons of ppl and your parents being annoying and wanting all these pics when you haven't even had a chance to even have fun yet!

That being said...I was thrilled to be annoying and wanting all those pictures! LOL

The kids are pretty excited and we make it over to the castle where we discover you can't go through it until after lunchtime....so that's a slight bummer.

So we head over through Frontier land and go on Splash Mountain. Well I sit while DH and the kids go on Splash Mountain. Logan and I discover the little playarea under the railroad tracks and he plays and hangs out in shade...it was so HOT! I seriously dislike sweating and I was already drenched from it.

They don't have to wait in line too long (yay!) but Livvie decides this is NOT the ride for her (she has this massive dislike of being wet) so she stays with DH and Logan and I take the switch pass and the other 2 and take my turn on Splash Mountain.....where I get SOAKED!!!!! OMG, I don't think I've ever been that soaked before on SM!

We then hit Big Thunder and find out how lucky it is that we decided to go then because it is closing for rehab the next day! Logan and I hang out and enjoy a frozen lemonade while waiting. After a pretty long time in the heat (seriously..how did I not check that it was still going to be in the 90's when I booked this trip??) they finally come out and no surprise that Livvie disliked this ride too...

but I make her come along with us since this will be her last chance to dislike it this trip! ;) Actualyl I promised her ice cream and told her she had to ride to get the ice cream. :angel:

Thank goodness for those switch passes BTW!

So she hates it (no surprise) but everyone else had fun getting to ride again.

We find the nearest ice cream cart and get popsicles for everyone.

At this point Logan has fallen asleep and we head over to the Haunted Mansion to check the lines. It's not too bad but Logan is sleeping. Worked out though since Delia didnt' want to go on the ride. So we parked her and Logan in the shade right next to the HM cart and went on that. We had to let about 40ppl pass us by though because the kids weren't done with the ice cream! ARGH! Tantrums ensued after DH ate up Jack's and then threw away Livvie's remaining mess. I swear we looked like the most horrid parents! Livvie and Jack were both pretty terrified of the stretching room which didn't help their tantrums....I think their shrieks had to of scared away any ghosts hanging around! But they survived to tell the tale and to ride again another day!

When we came out both Delia and Logan were safe and sound and Delia had gotten a Magical Moments certificate for playing villains trivia with the CM working the cart. And had gotten a bunch of stickers so she decorated the stroller! LOL

~I really appreciated the CM doing something w/ Delia since I was a bit worried about leaving her alone w/ the baby...she's a street smart kid but it was nice to know that an adult had kept an eye out for them~

We then hit Fantasyland where the lines were CRAZY long!! Since Logan was still sleeping I left DH, Delia and Jack to wait it out on Peter Pan's Flight and I took Logan and Livvie to book it over to Space Mountain for fastpasses.

That was Livvie's first view of the carousel and she begged to ride it. I promised to ride it as soon as we got the fast passes and met back up with everyone else.

We managed to weave our way through the boiling hot area..UGH!....and make it over by the teacups when I see NO LINE!!! OMG!!! I park the stroller, grab a still sleeping Logan and hustle Livvie through the turnstill and onto the ride! This is like my FAVORITE ride EVER! And I know she is going to LOVE IT!!! So we start spinning and she gets this HUGE grin going on! Logan wakes up towards the end of the ride with this WTH?? face. LOL

This is one of my most special memories of this trip. Totally spur of the moment...no drama...just luck and happiness. pixiedust:

She wants to go again...Wohoo a ride she likes!!! And how could I say no? esp with no line??? So we go again!! Logan is wide awake and not quite sure about the ride but seems to enjoy himself.

After the 2nd ride though I was done...a bit too zealous on the spinning I think. :sick:

So I decline a 3rd go round for the moment. LOL

Then we're off! Past the speedway....zooming over to Space Mountain...grab some fast passes....zooming back past the speedway, screeching to halt to grab diet cokes!...past the teacups....into the boiling heat of fantasyland....past the carousel with promises of riding..let's find Daddy! And then WAITING another 10mins for them to emerge from the ride.

So then I see It's A Small World barely has a line so I convince everyone to go on there since Logan can ride that...and more promises that after this we are on that carousel! Minimal tantrums...more chatting with ppl that no they aren't twins and yes we have our hands full..ha ha, like I don't hear that non-stop! and boy aren't they glad they aren't in our shoes...

~seriously, why do ppl say such stupid things like that? They may be bratty...ok they ARE bratty! But I seriously wouldn't change their spacing at all! I love my family even if they drive me insane!~


So we finally get on the ride and I'm watching Logan like a hawk...mostly because I'm afraid he's going to launch himself overboard. LOL

And they all have a GREAT time on the ride. Logan was so fascinated with all the animals and sights....it was really neat to just watch them all take everything in.

so after our relaxing ride we head off as promised to the carousel! I rode w/ Logan who was quite impressed with this ride! He doesn't normally get to ride a moving horse (the children's museum doesn't allow his age to go on a moving one).

After that we still had some time to kill before our early dinner ressies at LTT so we head over and have the perfect timing to get onto the speedway with minimal wait time! yay!

then onto Space Mountain! Delia rode that 2x with the fast passes and us doing the switch pass.

then it's off to dinner where we discover Jack is totally zonked...like dead to the world zonked! LOL

LTT was pretty good except Livvie declared their food disgusting and wouldn't eat.

~nothing new about that though. She's even declared MY food disgusting and expected me to throw it away so she doesn't have to see it! LOL~

The kids had a great time meeting the characters and taking pictures even if the food wasn't what they wanted....

~is it just me or has the food there gone way downhill?~

after dinner everyone was pretty beat but we still had fast passes remaining and had promised Delia another go round at Space mountain. SO she did that while we all hung out. Then I kept Livvie and Logan out while everyone else did the Stitch Escape ride.

After that we pretty much puttered our way out of the parks and headed back to get some sleep.


~I can't believe how much we did do in one day! I keep thinking because of all the late starts we didnt' do a lot! :confused3 ~

I'll get up some good pics soon I hope. I'm sure I'm already starting to forget the little things but day 2 gets 2 thumbs up from me. :goodvibes

[delmar411]

Today we are celebrating Livvie's 4th b-day!!! Yeah it's a day earlier but that's the day I could get CRT ressies and she doesn't know any better! ;)

......more to come when it's not midnight! :rotfl: