Disney w/2 Preschoolers-Yes, I've lost my mind

[clomahony]

Hello all,

I am new to writing trip reports but I've learned and and enjoyed them so much that I thought I'd pass along one of my own.

Cast of Characters:

Me-Karen (40) accountant and mother of 3 (only 2 are preschoolers) from Washington, DC

DS - (5) starting Kindergarden next September so this may be our last off season trip. He's also fearless and very, very active.

DD (3) - my little princess who has now decided that she's afraid of almost everything which made this trip much more challenging.


Staying at All Stars Movies for our 2nd year in a row, preferred room with dining plan for 10 day, 9 nights.

I'm trying to figure out how I upload pictures from photobucket so I'll post that really soon.

This is our 5th trip to Disney after finding that I loved it after our August 2006 trip although my DH and oldest DS (19) are not big fans so they stayed home.

More to come...

[clomahony]

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt291/clomahony/DSCN0151.jpg

Here's a photo of us from our November 2007 trip. Saddly I don't have a lot of pictures (only about 150) as I am usually found behind a very heavy double stroller so I didn't get a lot of chances to take pictures. :headache:

[clomahony]

Yay! It uploaded.

Just to give you some background on us. I've wanted to do a Disney trip for years now but my DH didn't want to go given the cost and the fact that he loves relaxing vacations like a cruise or the beach. Disney is many things but relaxing - well, not for him.

Finally, in August 2006, we were at Club Med in West Palm Beach and I planned a 2 day getaway to Disney staying at the Wilderness Lodge Villas. Well long story short, I loved Disney so much, we did not go back to Club Med but kept extending our stay at Disney until we had to go home.

The biggest downside was that I had done no research at all on Disney. Disney veterans will love this but I tried to make reservations for LeCellier for one of the evenings we were there the same day and couldn't understand that it was already booked for our entire stay.

After doing research by reading books, I planned another trip for November 2007 at Port Orleans Riverside ...

[clomahony]

So to continue...

In November 2006, we went stayed at Port Orleans Riverside in the Alligator Bayou section for 5 days. We flew down on US Air and rented a car which worked out really well for us.

While there we went to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party which was so packed we could barely walk but at least I knew enough to make ADR's.

After that trip, I still felt there was so much we had missed that I planned a trip in November 2007. This time I tried staying off property using my parents time share at the Sheraton Vistana Villages. We drove down with my DH, DSister and DN as well as DS, DD and myself for a week.

As much as I had a good time, it lacked that magical feeling you get staying at a Disney property.

Here are some photos from that trip:

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[poegirl30]

You are one brave mom! Subscribing! :)

[reyasmommy]

Well at least your daughter doesn't seem scared of the characters? My DD now 3 was terrifed which made things a little hard on our last disney vacation. We're planning a trip in March and hope she's outgrown her fear a bit.

look forward to more. popcorn::

[jana616]

I can't wait to read more about your trip! I have a 4 year old and 2 year old, and we're getting ready for their first trip. You are so brave to do that on your own-good for you!

[tarak]

I've thought about taking my two older kids to the World and leave DH and DS behind (DH says he can't take going more than once every few years - DS is only 1 1/2, so he can't express his opinion just yet). The girls are 4 1/2 and 6 - problem is that DD6 loves to go on everything and DD4 didn't like any of the faster rides, so if it's just me, someone is unhappy. I've thought about asking my sister if she'd be interested in going, though. That way we can switch off.
My hat is off to you for taking such a trip on by yourself!

[clomahony]

poegirl30
You are one brave mom! Subscribing!


Thanks for reading. I'm not so much brave but a little selfish because I love Disney and am really lucky my 2 little ones love it too so I have a good excuse to go down as much as often.

[clomahony]

reyasmommy

Well at least your daughter doesn't seem scared of the characters? My DD now 3 was terrifed which made things a little hard on our last disney vacation. We're planning a trip in March and hope she's outgrown her fear a bit.

Thanks for reading. This was the first year DD was scared of the characters although she loved the princesses and the fairies. Generally, she liked the "human" characters, the girl cartoon characters and Mickey (although she still doesn't believe that Mickey's a boy) and would go up to them but Pluto, Goofy or Pirates and the like she would hide behind me. Which is the exact opposite of my son who hid under the table from the Princesses at the Norway princess lunch.:headache:

[clomahony]

jana616

I can't wait to read more about your trip! I have a 4 year old and 2 year old, and we're getting ready for their first trip. You are so brave to do that on your own-good for you!


Thanks for reading. It's a little scary doing these for the first time - you think no one will read it. Good luck for your upcoming trip. I know there are a lot of people who might disagree but I found those ages great for going to Disney because they do so much to ensure that every age has fun and to be fair I owe a great big thank you for all the people who helped us on our trip from the people who would give up a seat so I could hold my DD to those who helped carry my not so light stroller on and off the bus. Saddly it didn't happen very often but when it did, it really made the trip more special. :flower3:

Just an FYI, having a car available really helps tremendously. I didn't have one this trip and I really found it to be much more difficult.

[clomahony]

tarak

I've thought about taking my two older kids to the World and leave DH and DS behind (DH says he can't take going more than once every few years - DS is only 1 1/2, so he can't express his opinion just yet). The girls are 4 1/2 and 6 - problem is that DD6 loves to go on everything and DD4 didn't like any of the faster rides, so if it's just me, someone is unhappy. I've thought about asking my sister if she'd be interested in going, though. That way we can switch off.

My hat is off to you for taking such a trip on by yourself!

What great ages to go to Disney but I know your issue. My son was upset he never got to go on the Pirates of the Carrabean (excuse my spelling - not one of my strong suits) or Barnstromer because DD was way too scared to get on them. Likewise, I felt a bit guilty because I'd take DD on Haunted Mansion and other rides she felt were scary. I tried to make them more fun by emphasising that they were pretend and pointing out the funny bits to her but I may never get her on Ellen's Energy Universe or in the T Rex restraunt again.:)

[clomahony]

So to continue, after 3 trips with various family members, I decided to take the little kids to Disney off season (April, 2007) and enjoy the milder weather and smaller crowds. And after staying offsite last time, I really wanted to stay onsite. So I bit the bullet and decided to try the All Stars Movies resort.

I drove down over 2 days staying overnight in Savannah and spent 7 days at Disney and 2 at Universal Studios Orlando (staying at the Doubletree near Universal). By myself, that was a loooonnnnngggg drive but we made it with no issues.

We really enjoyed the All Stars Movies resort. We ended up in the Mighty Ducks section on the first floor by the pool. The weather was perfect and it was crowded but not overly crowded.

Again we took it slow (never even made it to Epcot or Downtown Disney once) but we had so much fun. We did the Family Magic Tour at Magic Kingdom which was really hard with a double stroller by my DS loved it and even got to hold Captain Hook's hook in the photo.:cool1:

I'll have to upload the picture that I have for this trip tonight when I get home because they are all on my home computer right now.:surfweb:

We rode the Haunted Mansion for the first time and loved it and my kids could not get enough of the teacups (getting dizzy just thinking about it).

More to come...

[poegirl30]

Oh, wow! that is a long drive with two little ones! Glad that you didn't have any problems. Can't wait to see the pix! :goodvibes

[clomahony]

Unfortunately, I got home too late last night so I'll try to post those pictures tonight.

But to carryon with the story...

When we got home in April 2008, the economy started to show real signs of slow down and because I work in commercial real estate development it started to hit our projects. By summer, it was freefall and the company started layoffs.

I was lucky to survive but it meant more work for me and by year end it was just crazy. When audit season rolled around, I was stressed beyond imagination and in February I was walking in the subway when I felt something snap in the back of my head and started to have serious head and balance problems. Well it turns out, I had a major stroke and was very very lucky that I could still walk and talk, etc.

After spending a week in the hospital and they could not find a reason why this happened, I went home and back to work but with a new focus on life - my family especially my kids.

So seeing I was having a very difficult time with work, my husband said I should look into another Disney trip since they were running so many specials. About a week later, I got an e-mail from Disney on a special where adults paid full price and the kids got free hotel, park tickets and dining which saved us a lot of $$$.

So I booked the trip and booked plane tickets with US Air for May 9 - 18, 2008 and started my countdown which I found really helped me cope with all the issues that came up. :banana:

[poegirl30]

I'm so sorry about your stroke! :hug: I'm glad that you were able to recover, and your enjoy your vacation with your kids! :)

[clomahony]

poegirl30
Earning My Ears




Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 49

I'm so sorry about your stroke! I'm glad that you were able to recover, and your enjoy your vacation with your kids!
__________________
me DH

DD17 DS14 DS3


Thanks, I am very lucky and it made the trip with the kids even more special.:love:

[clomahony]

As promised here are the pictures from the April 2008 trip:

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Family Magic Tour at MK

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Dinner at Crystal Palace with MeMom's favorite character.

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DS with Power Rangers who we have to see every trip but they have such a short visit time that we end up having to go to 2 or 3 shows just to get them all in - which according to my DS "we HAVE to".

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Playhouse Disney character lunch at Hollywood & Vine at DHS which was the most disappointing meal we had all trip. Just a side note, my kids have numerous allergies but dairy, eggs and nuts are the biggest and there was only a few things my kids could eat here and they really did not go out of their way to offer non allergy items for them like other places had done so saddly this is our last trip here. Sad because the characters were great.


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Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern when it still had characters. This was also the night we attended the Pirate & Princess Party at MK which was fantastic and well worth the $$$. We walked out of dinner just in time to see the parade which we got to watch right in front of the restaurant.:banana:

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More in the next post...

[poegirl30]

Great pix! :)

[clomahony]

Sorry for the delay. My daughter has strep so it's been very crazy busy trying to take care of her and keep up with work. So anyway, I left off at the Pirate & Princess Party and the parade.

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We saw the Aladin's guard training and the pirate training. My DS is really shy but gets so upset when he's not picked in these training shows. Heck, he doesn't even raise his hand. :confused3

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We spent most of our time at Magic Kingdom and had absolutely perfect weather every day.

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We loved the TTA but it was closed for our 2009 trip; however, we had one hiccup on that ride.

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The 2nd or 3rd time we were riding it, it broke down in the middle of the ride and we had to walk off and I had to carry a 2 year old along the side at that height and down many stairs but I figure it wasn't the CM's fault so I let it go although my DD was pretty scared. :hippie:

Coming up Universal Orlando next...

[PeytonSdiz]

Subscribing. Your kids are adorable.

[poegirl30]

It looks like they had so much fun! :goodvibes

[clomahony]

Subscribing. Your kids are adorable.

Thanks! I think they are but now that I've been home with my DD for 2 days now - she's not as cute to me. :love:

[clomahony]

It looks like they had so much fun! :goodvibes

They did but so did I. Thanks for reading on. :)

[clomahony]

We had bought Universal tickets for our November 2006 trip but never used them so we were able to use them for this trip. I basically wanted to go because DD loves Barney.

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They have a fantastic play area for the kids after the Barney show just outside the Barney theater.

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Madagascar Characters

The characters at Universal were great especially Shrek & Donkey but I don't have any pictures I can find right now.

We stayed at the Doubletree at Universal hotel which was a really nice hotel. Nothing special, no special theming but very comfortable and clean and the employees were helpful. Just not Disney though.

Now, I had purchased the meal deal online and foolish me thinking it would be similar to Disney, went up to the counter and found that my kids were allergic to everything on the meal deal. So I told a worker there and their response was basically that's too bad. Live and learn.

We loved the ET ride, Jimmy Neutron ride, Shrek 4D and the kids area of the park.

Universal Studios was barely crowded and is very well designed with lots of wide open spaces so it felt much nicer than Disney but it really lacked the Disney quality.

Islands of Adventure next...

[clomahony]

We spent our last day at Islands of Adventure and the Dr. Seuss land is wonderful. It was almost empty. We would walk on Cat in the Hat ride over, over and over again until the CM said I was looking a bit green and should get some water. That ride really spins you.:sick:

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The kids met the Grinch and Things 1 & 2

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We also rode the Railroad in the Sky and the One Fish, Two Fish which really gets you wet but the kids loved it.

We then walked over to the Marvel Superhero section and met Spiderman.

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We just missed the X-Men and DS was disappointed.

We spent the rest of the time walking around and that park is really big which is nice because I never felt crowded.

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We then got in the car and made the very long drive home. It was a wonderful vacation but I'd still not done all I wanted at Disney so I planned I'd be able to go in 2009; however, the economy started to go into freefall and I work in commercial real estate so you can imagine what that was like.

AWFUL!!!

My company started laying off people in late 2008 and I got more and more work. I had planned a trip in March 2009 to celebrate my DD 3rd birthday and get her in for free for one last time but I was so worried about losing my job, I cancelled it. Then I had my stroke and well, life is too short and kids don't stay small long so I booked our trip for May 9 - 18, 2009 originally at Port Orleans French Quarter but when I found we could save about $400, I changed it to All Stars Movies and the countdown began.

I was also not going to rent a car but rely only on Disney transportation on this trip in order to save $$$ but as you'll find out, I really regretted that decision.:sad2:

We also had the Dining Plan so I made the ADR's I could given I was only about a month out from our trip so it was quite challanging.

More to come...

[lazydoxy66]

Hi there!
I hope you don't mind another reader. I saw you on another thread and thought this TR would be interesting.

You've got a good start! I love the Universal pics from your last trip. I am sorry about the stroke. Wow, that would wake anybody up. Enjoy every day and do whatever you can to make it easier.

Your kids are so cute. I can't wait to read about your adventures with them.

[clomahony]

I'd love to have another reader. Welcome!

[clomahony]

Sorry this is delayed. My husband is a teacher so he teaches during the week and takes classes on the weekends. So I have the kids on the weekend while I try to clean and run errands. It's very tiring to say the least.

Anyway, to go on...

I don't have a lot of pictures for this post but will add what I can.

DAY 1 - TRAVELING & ANIMAL KINGDOM

We flew out of Reagan National on US Air at 9:30am so since my husband got bumped from a flight that he arrived at the airport an hour beforehand, we got to the airport 2 hours beforehand with just one big suitcase to check and three carryons and three personal backpacks so we were weighed down but really excited to go to Disney.

We got through check-in and security with no issues and got breakfast at the gate and waited to get on the plane. The flight was uneventful and smooth (THANK GOD-I'm afraid of flying but have to hide it so my kids don't start to get scared).

We landed in Orlando at 11:30pm and headed over to the Magical Express counter. OMG- The line seemed miles long because a cruise was also boarding people. So I stood in line while my DD (3) started to have a meltdown because she had been up since 6am which is early for her. So when we finally get to the front of the line, the CM says the voucher is for Port Orleans French Quarter and the only way I could get to All Stars Movies was to stand in this other really long line and get the vouchers changed and then get back into the WDW line again. Now I wouldn't have minded except when I changed our reservation, I made sure to change our transportation as well.

So after we do all of that, I get into the All Stars Movies line and get stopped just as we are about to get to the front of the line. So while we were waiting DD fell asleep so I very carefully had to carry everything for everyone (yes 6 bags) and get out to the bus, pick up DD and try to close the double stroller one handed. :headache:

The ride over was comfortable though so it all went well and DD stayed asleep on my shoulder all the way to WDW. We arrived at All Stars Movies and DD woke up just as we got off the bus so we grabbed all of our bags and stroller and made our way to the online check-in line which was really short and took only a few minutes wait. It turns out, I got all my requests which I made to both the reservation agent and called the hotel directly a week before. We had a preferred room on the 1st floor with a refriderator which we did not have to pay for because I have medicine that has to be kept cold.

We were at the Toy Story section building 10 room 755 so basically right next to the main building and in the corner closest to the main building. We could not have been closer. I was really pleased. :dance3:

After we dropped off our stuff in the room and got organized we jumped on a bus to Animal Kingdom. I had done all of our research on the boards here and on Tour Guide Mike's website.

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The kids were tired from getting up so early and all the traveling so far.

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This was right outside our door. The kids loved it but it got really hot in the sun.

We got to Animal Kingdom shortly before the parade was going to begin so we hooked a left and headed into Camp Minnie & Mickey.

Turk had no line whatsoever so we popped over to see her.

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This was when I started to notice that DD was afraid of the characters which was a first for her but with some prodding I was able to at least get her into the picture. Some characters she would not go near but hid behind me.

Then we went over to the Kid Discovery Area (not sure what they are called right now) and DS had to guess what items were in the log based on feeling.

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He guessed them all correctly and they talked it bit about conservation so they gave him a card and stamped on of the spots. This was the first time he had done something like this and it becomes very important later in this trip.

We stopped into Pizzafari to get some water because it was unbelievably hot that day and AK just seems to be hotter as well as the parade went by. When it passed, we waded through the sea of humanity exiting the park to head back into Africa and catch the parade on its 2nd pass through Africa. That was a tip I learned was if you didn't have a good spot for the parade intially, wait until it passes and then catch it as it goes back through Africa at the end. The tip worked out great. :cool1:

Video link in next post...

[poegirl30]

I loved the pictures of Universal! We've never been, but it looks great.

Love the pic of your son sleeping. Too cute! Doesn't AK seem to be hotter than the other parks?

Great update! :thumbsup2