Will it hurt when you staple the mouse ears to my head? 1st Family Trip *UPDATE 9/25!

[Porphyro]

The players in our drama, a family of four living in Cincinnati, Ohio:


Shawn, 31, Applications Analyst, Husband, Father – Lifelong dream to see Disney World, been planning a trip in his mind for years…really antsy to get out of his cube at work and go on a trip for the first time since 2007.
Becky, 31, PT Project Manager/FT Mom, Wife – visited Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios as a child; loves vacations but secretly fears that Disney might not really be her scene, and might be too big and expensive an undertaking for a family with two small boys – she is hoping the family won’t have to “recover” from this potentially stressful trip - was she proven right?? Stay tuned!
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Caden, 4, Pre-schooler. Caden has only been on one vacation, two years ago, and has been salivating ever since the announcement that we are going to Disney, though he admittedly has no clear concept of what it is – he’s excited because we are. He is charming, adventurous, very bright, active, and the word “precocious” should have his picture next to it in Websters (or at the very least Wikipedia). He loves Playhouse Disney, Mary Poppins, and Toy Story (beyond that his exposure to Disney has been pretty limited).
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Connor, 20 months, Toddler. Connor is pretty laid back. He likes being with his brother and acting like he knows what’s going on, but we all know most of the time he doesn’t. He answers any question with a half-hearted “Yeeah” (“Connor, do you want to see Mickey?” “Yeeah.” “Do you want us to throw you off the Tower of Terror?” “Yeeah.”) But he’s super cute and so huggable and goes with the flow most of the time. He does still require a 2 to 3 hour nap every day. See note about Becky above!!
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The planning:
We used to take a vacation every year before the kids were born; before we were married Shawn hadn’t really been anywhere so we really enjoy planning our vacations and seeing places together. Disney was always on “the list,” especially for Shawn, but once we had kids it just made sense to wait to see it through their eyes and really get our money’s worth. We had tentatively carved out a Disney trip for the fall of 2008, but then Becky unexpectedly lost her job and that was put on the back burner. Once a new job was secured and things began to look up, Shawn turned his thoughts back to Disney. He began skimming the internet for deals and started pitching them to Becky, who is definitely the “cheap” one in the marriage! At that point we started REALLY looking at it for the first time, and on his birthday in March, Shawn found the “4 nights get 3 free” deal. While trying to be as economical as possible, we really didn’t look at single hotel rooms as an option because we’ve done that for weekend trips and everyone is pretty miserable. The kids won’t sleep, they have no room to run, no place to nap, and we all go to bed at 8 pm. Not anyone’s idea of a good time. We were aiming to get a suite in one of the value resorts, but they were all booked – so the Disney operator suggested the cabins at Fort Wilderness, which we’d never heard of. After doing a little more research and realizing how much we’d save by using the full kitchen in the cabins instead of eating out for every meal, we booked it, and the Research Onslaught began. We are both thinkers and planners, and planning a trip is ALMOST as enjoyable for nerds like us as taking it.
The first thing to decide – fly or drive? We priced the tickets vs. gas & hotels and the drive came out slightly cheaper. AND that also gave us the benefit of having our own on-site transportation, and from our research we discovered the Disney transportation from Fort Wilderness can be a bit of a hassle, so we arranged to borrow Becky’s parents minivan (it has an entertainment system which is a MUST for kids who can’t read yet!). We briefly considered driving it straight (about 1,000 miles) overnight, but if that backfired and the kids didn’t sleep, we thought that would be a bad way to start a 7-day trip.
So the plan evolved thus:
Friday, August 7th – leave early in the morning and drive the first 180 miles to London, Kentucky, and visit with Becky’s aunt and cousins. Early on the 8th, get up and drive, with as many stops as necessary, to Savannah Georgia. Book cheap hotel through priceline.com – hope to arrive by dinner time. On the 9th, drive about 2 ½ more hours to St. Augustine, visit the Disney Outlet located there for some souvenirs, have lunch at a family favorite restaurant, see the ocean (because Ohioans can’t drive 1,000 miles to Florida and not SEE the flippin’ ocean!), and then carry on the remaining 2 hours to Orlando. We’d be there from the 9th to the 15th, and return the way we came – driving about 4 hours to Georgia after our last morning in the parks, then a day’s drive to London, spending the night and then coming home the next afternoon (the 17th).
Only Becky had been to Disney, and her last trip was about 13 years ago, so neither of us is intimately familiar with the resort. Sources we used for planning our days at Disney:
www.disboards.com
www.mousesavers.com
The Unofficial Guide to Disney (2009) borrowed from a friend, and its companion website www.touringplans.com
Tour guide Mike’s website: www.tourguidemike.com
We wanted to have one character meal, and chose Crystal Palace for our 1st day at Magic Kingdom. The boys both love Pooh, and we chose lunch because we weren’t sure how early we’d be able to get up and going (turns out that wasn’t a problem, but who knew that going in?). We booked that 90 days out. We also requested one of the recently refurbished loops, 2100 that was most central to the campground, and reserved a high chair and bed rails well in advance.

Our packing list (and whether or not we should have taken the items on it) is as follows:
*5-6 lightweight, summer outfits for all of us (we planned on 1 laundry day, and this was just the right amount)
*2 swimsuits each – water wings/life jacket for boys, beach towels
*Sandals/tennis shoes for all (we were told sturdy shoes would be necessary, but we all did fine in sandals, so that is one less thing that could have been packed)
*Ponchos (don’t waste your space and money in August – we welcomed any opportunity to get wet and these never left the suitcase)
*Bug candles/lantern/BBQ tools for cabin – never used them, but we might have if it hadn’t rained on the night we planned to cook out
*Potholders – YES, a must have, not supplied in cabins
*Laundry detergent (we just poured some in a shampoo bottle)
*Dixie cups for teeth brushing
*A bag of individual condiments collected a few at a time from every fast-food restaurant we went to over the summer – BEST IDEA EVER!
*Camera – we purchased a dual video/still camera to avoid taking two, since that is something we needed anyway. So glad we did!
*Food – various cereal, cookie, and chip variety pack for trip down and in parks – some bottled waters and juices, lunch meat for the way down, and 1 cooler full of frozen, ready to bake meals (we purchased dry ice)
*Some board/card games – we never got them out, maybe if the kids were older?
*Diaper bag, backpack for parks
*First aid bag – all our normal prescription medications, plus small packages of anything else we might need – ibuprofen, Pepto Bismol, NyQuil, SUNSCREEN, aloe (for the spots we might miss with sunscreen), bandaids and Neosporin, benedryl cream, mole skin, etc.)
*Safety tattoos for the boys – we got a lot of comments on these, and they last 4-5 days without wearing off (they have a “if lost call” message and then you write on your cell number). We got them at www.mom4life.com
*2 battery-powered water-bottle fans ($6 at Walmart, or $17 in the park – you decide!)
*Stroller, portable cups for boys. We really agonized about the stroller situation, but eventually decided to take 2 – our regular heavy duty stroller, and a small umbrella stroller which only Connor can ride in. The plan was to take both into the parks, and “park” the little one in a centrally located area. If Caden got exhausted and whiny, we’d go get it, put him in the big stroller and transfer Connor to the little one. We didn’t want the rental strollers due to the extra cost as well as the lack of a cup holder and storage space. In addition, we might need the stroller in the campground (we didn’t, but who knew?). The umbrella stroller took up next to no space – but we NEVER got it out of the van. Everyone has different kids of course, but Caden proved that a 4-year old is fully capable of walking EVERY step of the way in the parks (even in blazing August heat) as long as they’re not pushed to go all day. He must have walked miles but never complained once. We found that the key is to limit the activity to the earlier, less hot part of the day and get them lots of fluids and rest in the afternoon. Their euphoria at being in Mickey’s domain does the rest!
*Pack ‘n Play for Connor – even though Disney provides them, we’d need something for the trip down. We decided to pass on the bed rails for Caden and see what we could devise to keep him in bed using nothing but our wits.
*We also took the boys’ (small) air purifier to give them some “white noise” to help them sleep, and some sand buckets which were only used once – probably wouldn’t take them again.
*A potty chair was in the trunk as well for any emergencies, but Caden has a bladder like a camel, and that was never used either. Still, we’d pack it to be safe for the little ones in case there is a MOMENT they need it when you’re miles from a rest area.
*Some of the clothes were divided into an overnight bag for the trip down.
*And finally, we had a bag of travel diversions we’d accumulated slowly over the summer – new DVDs, some books that Caden could read on his own, some coloring books (Crayola Wonder markers are great), some audio books, and the grand toy of all toys, the My First Leapster. Caden didn’t know about any of these until the trip was underway, and he was utterly entertained for all 16 hours of the drive. Connor was a little harder to please since he’s not as able to do anything besides watch TV, but he did sleep some which helped. We knew this going in!

We created our own “touring plans” for each park based on our kids’ tastes, our nap limitations, and our own “must-do” ideas. We knew going in which day we’d be at which park based on both website’s crowd guides. At first we were all excited about Magic Hours but every site we read said to avoid parks with Magic Hours like the plague, so we did some rearranging, and planned the following itinerary:
Sunday the 9th (arrive around 3): Go to Hollywood Studios in the evening
10th – Epcot
11th – Animal Kingdom
12th – Magic Kingdom
13th – Day off, hang out at pool
14th – Magic Kingdom again
15th – Hollywood Studios if we didn’t fit it all in on Sunday, leave around 1 and start home
We briefly flirted with the idea of adding on the park-hopper, but we are SO GLAD we didn’t. Despite planning to be at the parks in the morning and the evening, we never went back in the evening, and never needed to. So we DEFINITELY didn’t need the ability to do two parks in one day. Thanks to all the planning we got almost everything done in the morning and were able to relax and get the boys in bed early each night. More details on how we did that on each day…

Sooo, let’s get started on THE TRIP::cool1:

T-1 day:
Both of us worked on Thursday, which is just a miserable idea if you can avoid it! The day before should be spent cleaning and packing! Becky MUST come home to a clean house or her head will shoot off her body, and no one wants to see that. She cleaned a little each day, and her dear mother surprised her by vacuuming, dusting, and mopping while she was at work on Thursday. She has the best mom EVER! And it’s a good thing, because due to all the various last-minute issues that arose – Shawn came down with a fever and had to mow the lawn anyway, no one could find the cord to the portable fridge, the van still needed to be loaded – neither of us was in bed before 11:00.

[cricketgirl]

Very nice report. Will be checking back for more details.
Adorable boys.

[Porphyro]

:drive:
Friday, August 7th:
We woke up at 7:30, trying to get ahead of the kids, and put all the last-minute things in the car – medicines taken daily, the coolers, etc. Becky decided at the last minute NOT to take her purse – instead she clipped together 1 credit card, the boys’ insurance cards, and her license and put them in pocket in her back pack. That will come into play later.
Shawn went into Caden’s room at 8:00, his normal wake-up time to try to get him moving. Or so he thought. As he went in, Caden said, from beneath the covers, “Can I get up now?” Shawn told him he could and he flung back the covers and jumped into the air, fully and completely dressed. Who knows at what point in the night he decided to get ready for Disney, but someone was excited! We piled the kids into the van, and showed Caden the giant road atlas we’d brought along to help him mark the trip. We’d highlighted the route from Cincinnati to Orlando – 75 to 40 E through the Smokies, to 26 South and finally 95 to I-4 in Florida – and laminated a little red Honda Odyssey for him to move along the line as we went. He really loved that. We went to the breakfast bar at Frisch’s, a family tradition dating back to Becky’s childhood, and then stopped to pick up some dry ice for the frozen dinners to keep them frozen for the two-day trip.
About an hour into Kentucky, Shawn had the eureka moment that while we had two giant coolers of food in the back, it had never once occurred to either of us to pack the small lunch cooler we’d need to bring lunches into the park. Sheer genius. Luckily, London is the proud location of a Super Walmart, so that would be easily remedied. We didn’t get many new toys out for the 2 ½ hour drive, wanting to save the big guns for the next day, and Caden got pretty antsy on that trip, whining and complaining about not wanting to be in his seat. At this point, Becky began to have a Gob moment (http://www.fanpop.com/spots/arrested-development/videos/785114/title/ive-made-huge-mistake).
We arrived at Aunt Margie’s house around lunch time, and the boys had a good time playing with their cousins.
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Shawn was unfortunately feeling crummy. We’d quarantined the boys for 7 days prior to leaving, but could not do the same for him – they’d both had croup about 10 days before we left, and generously passed it on to their father right around the time they recovered. So he decided to sleep it off while Connor napped, and Caden and Becky went to the dollar store to pick up a couple more forgotten items – barrettes for her and glow sticks for him.
We made one of our frozen meals for Margie for dinner and enjoyed some good family catch-up time before hitting the hay around 10 pm.

Saturday, August 8th - London to Savannah

Connor, who was in our room, woke up around 7, realized he could see us, and stood up shouting, “HI! HI!” He made himself hard to ignore, so we decided to take it as an omen and get an earlier start than we’d planned.
Shawn took the first leg. The plan was to try to drive 90 minutes to 2 hours at a time. We had a very serious talk with Caden about how long the drive would be, and how he would be expected to behave. He really rose to the occasion, even announcing from time to time, “Hey, Mom! I’m STILL enjoying the ride!” We were on the road by 8 am, and in the Smokies shortly thereafter. It was really beautiful. It's break taking just how true to its name the range is in the morning, when the sun is newly risen and fog floats between the peaks.
The boys watched their new videos and played with some coloring books, and were doing so well at our first planned stop (Knoxville) that we just kept on going. We got all the way into North Carolina and stopped at the welcome center around 10:30, got out some soccer balls, kicked those around a bit and played hide & seek. There’s a really great grassy area there to play, but the gnats were incredibly annoying!
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Shawn was OK to keep driving, so around 11:00 we got back on the road. Neither child kicked or screamed at being strapped back in, so far, so good!
Our next stop was the South Carolina welcome center for lunch at 12:30. It wasn’t as hot as we’d expected. We ate sandwiches and chips and the boys found giant sticks. Yea!
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Connor loved “digging” in the red dirt with his, and got a nice dirty backside. He also decided to chase a dog, tripped over a root and got a bloody nose, but recovered quickly. We used the break to reveal the Leapster and get Caden familiar with its controls, and were back on the road by 1:30. We didn’t hear much from him after that, and Connor passed out around 2. Right after he did, Becky realized we would need gas in the next 100 miles, and made the decision to try to fill up now rather than wake him an hour into the nap – it was a good call, he was “freshly” asleep so the stopping didn’t bother him. Mission accomplished! He slept until right around 4, waking right around the time that we passed a traffic alert warning us of an accident and “slow traffic” about 14 miles ahead. Shawn began searching the map for a detour, but we didn’t take the next exit because we saw there was 1 more before we got to the accident site and we figured we’d have time. THIS call was not so good. About 2 miles after we saw the sign, traffic ground to a halt. And we knew we had 12 more miles of this, and at least 6 before another exit. We decided to take a break at a rest stop and give it some time to clear up.
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It never did. And we had been making such good time with only 2 stops so far!
So we rolled along at about 10 miles an hour for awhile and took the next available exit. Our trusty GPS, named Jill, took us along a back country road and back onto the highway a few miles south of the accident. Overall we lost about an hour. Just as the boys were starting to fuss, we got into Georgia, and a few miles later were at exit 109 Port Wentworth. We checked in at the Savannah Inn.
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We liked the "Ummm" part, like they weren't really committed to the waffles.
We walked through a large parking lot to Wendys to stretch our legs. It was later than we were used to eating, so as soon as dinner was over, we walked back, bathed the boys, doped them up with Benadryl, let them do a little bed-jumping, and then turned on Finding Nemo – how lucky that it was on TV this particular night! Shawn devised “bed rails” for Caden by rolling up the sides of the bedspread under the sheet and it worked great!
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Despite all being in the same room, they went to sleep with minimal fussing, and we were all knocked out by 8:30. Only a few hours of driving left!!:goodvibes

Sunday, August 9th – ARRIVAL DAY!!

Connor (did we mention he normally sleeps until 9) was up at 6:30. “Mum! Hi!” he called over and over, and then we heard, “Mommy, Connor is waking me up.”
Well, why lay in bed when Disney awaits? We got dressed, trooped down to the lobby for our free breakfast – not bad, there was waffle batter and grits in the fridge, 2 sugary cereals, and bread for toast, plus OJ and milk…but no place to sit. So we made a giant Belgian waffle and trooped back to the room to try and eat it there. Again, thanks to Connor-the-alarm-clock-without-a-snooze, we were on the road by 8 with Becky driving.
About 20 minutes into the drive, she said, “Hey, check the glove compartment and make sure my credit cards are all still there.” She just realized she hadn’t seen them in awhile. Shawn checked. Nada. Feeling slightly uneasy, “Well, then look in the pocket of my backpack.” Nothing.
Voice shaking now, “What do you mean they’re not there?” Now we’re talking about sick in the pit of the stomach. That moment when you realize your identity – your license, your credit cards, your kids insurance – is out there somewhere and you don’t know where. She remembered using the credit card at the dollar store in London and putting it in her back pocket. Those shorts are now in the dirty clothes bag. So we stopped at a gas station, dug through the trunk and emptied it. Shorts pocket empty. We called Margie and she ransacked her car and house to no avail. Becky was approaching the point of throwing up at this point. Shawn did a good job keeping her calm, and filled up the van while reassuring her that he’d just call and cancel the credit card, sure it would make the vacation a little more difficult, but…then she got an epiphany and began rummaging through the diaper bag that we’d taken it to Margie’s. Sure enough, they were there, still banded together. She must have stuck it in there after the dollar store…so CRISIS averted. They went into the locked glove compartment at that point and stayed there. It is amazing, however, that absolutely NOTHING bad can happen, but when you think it might have, and then realize that it didn’t…your whole outlook is changed. The sun is brighter, you love your family even more, and you feel like bursting into a Disney-copywrited song!
And we only lost about 15 minutes. As we drove through Georgia we began smelling that sulfury, swamp smell that the locals probably don’t even notice. We were in the marshes, and that can only mean Florida is close!
We got to the Florida welcome center around 9:45.
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We just had to have some of that great Florida OJ! That stuff is the best OJ ever. Possibly it’s that when you drink it, you’re on vacation endorphins, but whatever! Connor is starting to get ticked off about being put back in the car now, but we are now on a non-stop drive to St. Augustine!
Here is the part where Jill, who proved her worth yesterday, fell a bit short. For some reason, she had the Prime Outlets in her little map brain in the middle of a poor residential neighborhood near downtown St. Augustine. And we, the two college-educated planners, followed her jauntily confident melody like rats followed the piper. Followed her right past the Prime Outlets that you can see from the highway. Not our proudest moment. So we lost a good 40 minutes driving to a dead-end cul-de-sac in the middle of nowhere, and then had to drive back. Sigh. And it was somewhat disappointing, because we’d so hoped to get discounted mouse ears, but all they had were Happy New Year 2008 mouse ears…which..not so much. They had a couple of cute T-shirts in Connor’s size, but nothing for Caden, and the boys were REALLY getting into everything in the store so we had to make a break for it. We got two large stuffed animals, a Pluto and an Eeyore, for $27, reasoning that 1) It was cheaper than at Disney (correct) 2) Connor wouldn’t care if his toy was different and cheaper than Caden’s (not correct). Apparently he wanted a Pluto, too (even though his Eeyore is super cute!!), if only because that’s what Caden had.
With some minor tussling over the souvenirs going on in the backseat, we drove over to Anastasia Island for lunch at our favorite eatery there, The Oasis. We each split an entrée with the kids – Caden and Becky had a crab cake sandwich, Shawn and Connor had fried flounder. The service was fast, the food good and fresh, and when they found out we visit there every so often, we got a VIP card for 10% off for life. Not too shabby!
After lunch, we were crunched for time, but we were only ½ mile from the beach. Becky had to go. So we drove down, paid the $7 for a day pass, parked, and got the kids out and all lathered up with sunscreen. It took some coaxing for either of them to even get their feet wet, but once Connor did, Caden (ever the drama King) finally decided he could too.
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There was a minor freak-out when a wave moved one of his shovels, but he soon learned he could walk in the surf, even crouch in it – and of course right as he was cleaning off his shoes in the water to get back in the van – he fell in it. (So we had to change his pants right there on the beach to keep his car seat dry. We left around 1:30, all excited that our FINAL STOP WAS DISNEY!!
Connor fell asleep before we even got off the island, and Shawn dozed too while Caden played his Leapster. We got into the Orlando metro area right around 3. We had one minor delay when we got stuck in a left-hand exit only lane but found our way back on all right. We got off of I-4 at exit 68 to go in “the back way.” And at 3:30 pm, we saw Mickey’s welcoming smile. It had been a long trip, but we had arrived!! Caden was thrilled, Connor looks like he had just merely "survived" the trip. Keep in mind he was still groggy at this point!
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Now the real adventure could begin!

[Spoonful of Sugar]

Subscribing! Can't wait to hear all about it. :yay: Your boys are super cute. :)

[Porphyro]

Aww..thank you! We think so too (most of the time!).
We'll try to put up another chapter tonight.

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

YAY!!! First page!!!:thumbsup2

My first time being on the FIRST page!

I can't wait to hear more! You're family is adorable...and those blue eyes on your boys! Ugh...talk about lady killers!:lovestruc

[dismagiclover]

Great start and adorable little boys:goodvibes Can't wait to hear about your 1st Disney Trip. There is nothing else like the first one:)

[Sarilas]

We're planning our first drive down for November with three of our kids- I'm seeing a lot of foreshadowing for that trip in your TR!

[Angies1274]

Joining in.:goodvibes Your boys are so adorable!!!! The first trip is always very exciting!! Can't wait for more.popcorn::

[WantToGoNow]

Where in Ohio are you from. Both of you look so familiar to me but I can't place where.

[Porphyro]

We're both from the Cincinnati area, but have also lived in Oxford and Akron.

[Porphyro]

We entered the resort on Hotel Plaza, drove along Lake Buena Vista up to Vista, and soon we saw the sign for Fort Wilderness Campground, our home for the next week. There was a small line of traffic at the guard booth, I’m sure it FELT that we waited longer than we did! After he verified that we were on “the list” we drove over to the check in at the Outpost. I’d read something about drive-through check-in, but apparently this is only for mobile homes/campers. Us cabin folk have to WALK in, imagine! We’d done express on-line check in, which put us in our own, shorter line, but it was still a line. It was about 20 minutes and the boys were running around, knocking over Disney maps, asking other people for their snacks, and being a general nuisance, but what do you expect after two days straight in the car?
We finally got our Keys to the World and our cabin assignment – cabin 2321. Not the 2100 loop, but just the next one south. Not too bad. We headed back into the campground. The map makes the campground really easy to navigate, and it takes less than 5 minutes to pull into our loop.
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We’re 6 or 7 cabins from the end, which opens onto the main road and a bus stop, so we’re close to the stop, but not right up on the road to hear the bus go by every few minutes. Perfect! There are a lot of trees, and we notice these weird roots on all the trees sticking out of the marshy ground. The cabins are pretty close to each other, but we hardly ever see another person out and about our entire trip, so privacy and noise are not issues at all. The cabin looks a little small, but bigger than a hotel room! Caden was really excited to see it, as we’d shown him the inside on youtube and promised him a top bunk. About two seconds after Shawn pulled the key card from the slot, he was clambering up the ladder in the bedroom. Becky toured a little more slowly to get a feel for the place. She was surprised - happily – to see the bathroom was outside of the bedroom. We’d thought it might be in the bedroom and that it might be difficult to get in and out of with the boys asleep, but that wouldn’t be a problem! When you walk into the cabin, you have the kitchen just in front of you and the hallway to the bath and bedroom to your left. To your immediate right is the kitchen table, with a bench seat and 2 chairs that look like they’ve been made from large sticks – but in a pretty way! It looks rustic. And then, beyond that is the living room, with a Murphy bed (or the secret bed, as Caden called it), in the far right wall. With the bed down, it’s a tight space, but when it’s up there’s plenty of room.
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There is a large, floor-to-ceiling pantry in the kitchen, and empty cabinets under the TV and the two windows that flank the Murphy bed wall. In the bedroom, there’s a double bed on the left wall and bunk beds on the right. There’s also a narrow bureau with 4 shallow drawers and a TV (that we never turned on once), and an odd alcove area where the hairdryer and mirror is, that possibly could have given the bedroom more shelf or drawer space, but for some reason was solid. In between the two was a decent-sized closet partitioned with a curtain, with a shelf above it. Unfortunately a lot of the closet was taken up by mousekeeping’s vacuum cleaner. There was also a nightstand with a clock radio on it between the beds. There was just enough space between the two beds to wedge a pack & play (as we’d discover later). We'd read complaints about the lack of storage space in the bedroom, and while we didn't have a problem, we'd only brought down enough clothes for half a week and half of our party wears very miniature clothes! In a couple years it would have been really tough and we'd probably have had to live out of a suitcase - but hey, if that's the worst of it...
We unloaded the perishables – mainly food, got it in the fridge, and realized that the bedrails and high chair were not accounted for. We called the front desk and had the high chair by the time we had the food unpacked. The bed rails were dropped off by the time we returned that night. We’re not sure why they insist your request them in advance if you have to call to actually get them upon arrival, but maybe they have to earmark them for you or something.
Back in the van! Caden didn’t mind since he knew we were going to the park…I think Connor was pretty frustrated with us at this point, but luckily it was a short trip, and we bribed him with the promise that dinner was on the way. The Disney highway system is VERY clear to follow, and while the resort is huge, we honestly thought it would take longer to get from the cabin to each park. Hollywood Studios is on the southern edge of the property, and Fort Wilderness is in the northern part – but it was maybe a 10 minute drive. There were no lines at the parking lot gate. We were waved to a parking spot pretty far back in the lot, but the tram system at Disney is unparalleled. One leaves, the next pulls up. We folded up the stroller and hopped on board. Both of the boys were giddy at this point. Connor enjoyed being on a moving vehicle without being in a car seat. He didn’t want to sit in anyone’s lap and kept saying “Choo-choo!”
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Riding the trams is almost as thrilling for the two of them as riding something in the park, and with no line! How good does it get?
We went through the turnstiles, and of course noticed the Sorcerer’s Hat in the center of the park ahead of us. Becky didn’t think that looked familiar and it turns out it was built the year after her last visit. Our hopes were to possibly get a fastpass for Tower of Terror for later on, possibly catch the last playhouse Disney show, and check out Toy Story Midway Mania, maybe let the kids burn off some energy in the playground. A quick glance at the showtime schedule let us know that the last Playhouse started at 5:50. It was 5:49. We ran back to the Animation Courtyard, but of course the show was full and had just started. We decided to explore the (packed) Pixar Place, but Midway Mania was experiencing technical difficulties. 0 for 2, and Caden was starting to get anxious. OK, plan B – Muppets, anyone?? Once we pushed our way through the swarming crowd in Pixar Place (also new since Becky’s last trip), the crowds thinned considerably and we followed the signs through the Streets of America.
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The signs made it easy to find the cute little courtyard with the Muppet fountain. We saw there was no line for the movie, so decided to grab some dinner at Pizza Planet. Now Caden LOVES Toy Story (but is petrified of Zurg, more on that later), so he was digging this idea. Shawn ran in to wait in line while Becky snagged a table on the patio. She realized that Caden wasn’t with her and turned around to see him frozen in ecstasy, with a huge dopey grin on his face, waving frantically at the 10-foot high Buzz Lightyear that perches on the roof of the restaurant, waving at passersby. He was in utter heaven, and it wasn’t even a character he could meet yet, just a statue. That was a neat moment.
We got two small pizzas, a giant coke and a huge bottle of apple juice for the boys. At first Becky thought one would have been enough, but we polished off the two very easily. It was pretty tasty pizza, and we were hungrier than we thought!
After dinner we walked right into the pre-show for the Muppets movie. It is really clever, but most of that went over Caden’s head. He just wanted to get into the theatre, he had no concept of pre-show entertainment. The pre-show is about 10 minutes and then we filed in. We put the 3D glasses on Connor and he sat in Becky’s lap, but we figured he’d not get it. Whether or not he “got it” we’ll never know, but he was mesmerized. He didn’t reach out to touch the glasses once during the show, and he stared at the screen, not making a sound for the entire 15 minute show. That’s a long stretch of silence for a toddler! So either he loved it or he was terrified.
Caden had never experienced 3D, and was giggling and shrieking the whole time, trying to touch anything that “came near” him. At one point in the show, a character “leaves” the movie and appears as a puppet in a box seat. He started yelling, “Hey, what are you doing? You really need to get back in the movie!” Disney does a great job blurring the lines between reality and fantasy and playing to kids love of that. It’s almost as fun watching the kids as it is seeing it for yourself!
It was already after 7 when we straggled out of the theater. We decided to see if Midway Mania was up and running – it was, with a 90 minute standby line. So we ran back to the playground only to find that it closed at 7. We don’t know if this night was typical of most in the parks, but with no fastpasses left, several attractions that were done for the day, and heavy crowds, but that pretty much clued us in to the fact that evenings at the park weren’t going to work well into our plans.
But the night wasn’t a total loss. We got a feel for the layout of DHS, and on the way out got mouse-ears for the boys. We’d told Caden on the way down that we’d get mouse ears right away and he pitched a fit, yelling that he wouldn’t wear them, he didn’t want them. We were flabbergasted and chalked it up to irritability from the drive, until he said meekly, ‘OK, I’ll wear them, but will it hurt very much when you staple them to my head?’
Needless to say, he was quite relieved to learn it was just a hat with a strap, and he jumped on board with the idea then. We had to check several stores, but finally found a Youth Size and Infant Size at Mickey’s of Hollywood on Hollywood Blvd. Connor had more fun looking at his than wearing it, so most pictures we have of him with it are of him pulling it off. But Caden loved his ears, and wore them a lot. He was just about the cutest kid in mouse ears we’ve ever seen! OK, so we're biased, but still.
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After that we hopped back onto the tram and we were all just basking in the glow of sunset at Disney when a group of women boarded – it looked like a middle-aged woman and 3 daughters, the youngest of which was probably 10 or 11. They were all just sitting there sullenly when they just turned as a group on the girl and started berating her, calling her a brat, and it became clear that while they had all ridden the “kiddy” rides with her, she refused to ride adult rides and so no one got to ride them. Her mom was calling her a brat and then started swearing at her. OK, first of all – maybe she was being a brat, but heard of parent swap? She doesn’t have to keep you from riding stuff. Secondly, as parents, we understand that kids can drive you to the brink, but you have to be in control of the situation and realize you are in public. No one on that tram was comfortable with what we were having to sit through. Thirdly, we’re not naïve enough to think there aren’t people out there who use choice words around and even towards their children, but we’re not part of that group, and certainly don’t appreciate having the choice of when our kids are exposed to those words made for us. We just started talking to Caden really loudly and enthusiastically to drown her out. Then the woman answered a cell phone call, and proceeded to vent (still really loudly) about the whole thing with her unfortunate caller, claiming several times that due to the girl’s attitude, they were going to give up their next 3 days of tickets/hotel and go straight back to Michigan. This did not even elicit a raised eyebrow on the part of her daughter, so she, along with everyone else on the tram, knew this was a bluff, and a terrible one at that. You ruined the day for us, so now you’re going to ruin the whole trip for us?? It was hard to suppress our own eye-roll at that one. But in the end, we used the situation to our benefit – whenever the kids were misbehaving or we were tired or cranky throughout the week and one of us was at our wits’ end, the other would turn to the less calm parent and say, “OK, that’s it. Now we have to back to Michigan!” It always broke the tension and helped remind us what our trip was supposed to be about and help us not take things too seriously.
Anyway, back at the cabin we bathed the boys and attempted to put Connor in the bottom bunk – unfortunately, two side rails don’t fit, and 1 only covers 2/3 of the bed. He immediately found the gap, despite our best efforts to jam it with a suitcase, and shimmied out of bed, grinning, thinking he had us over a barrel.
But luckily we had a Plan B, and put him the pack & play, where he slept for the week. Both boys were so tired, they went to bed with minimal fuss – they have their own rooms at home so of course Connor had to entertain himself by talking to Caden for awhile, but they were both zonked by 8:30. Becky began unpacking while Shawn drove to the Winn Dixie for more perishables – most importantly 2 giant containers of water as we can’t stand Florida tap water, as well as some egg beaters, aluminum cookie sheets, bread, butter, fruit, etc. Then we packed up our “park supplies” that we would take every day – a backpack with a few bags of chips and cookies, our touring plan, and the 2 fans, and the diaper bag with first aid supplies, diapers, and a bib. We also loaded up the little cooler with water bottles and juice. We were ready to take on Epcot!!

[SunnieRN]

Woo hoo!! You're there safe and sound!! What cute kiddos you have!!:goodvibes

We drove from central TX last year on our first trip. We didn't do the whole trip in one day either. The next trip we flew, as we are on the 21st, even though we debated driving again.

Looking forward to more updates!!

[dismagiclover]

I have to agree with you that Caden is adorable in those ears:goodvibes Sounds like a crazy evening at the Studios, but you got to eat at Pizza Planet. That is always a must for my boys. I'm actually looking forward to a day when we can eat somewhere else;)

[Porphyro]

MONDAY, AUGUST 10th – EPCOT
We set the alarm for 7:00. We thought we’d need it, especially since the cabins were so dark (some people complain about this, but our boys are up with the sun, so we loved the fact that we could keep it out of the cabin in the mornings and at nap time).
However, the excitement of not being at home and being in the same room with us made them get up early anyway. The boys were both up shortly before 7, but rather than being groggy and frustrated, we were just as excited. We split a banana between them and let them watch cartoons while we dressed and scarfed down a bowl of cereal and put ice packs in the cooler. Then we dressed them and put them in the van, each with a no-spill bowl of sugary cereal they never get to eat at home. They were in heaven!
We had no idea how much traffic there’d be – technically this was the first week of the “off” season, but still summer, so we left around 7:45. We were in Epcot’s lot by 8, in one of the closest rows to the gate.
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We walked up to the turnstiles, and parked ourselves about 3-4 families back. We got to each park at about this time every day and had similar results. We were never the first, but we were decently close to the front of the pack, and never had to wait an unbearably long time to go through the gates. But overall, this was the longest wait of each day. We used it to lather our pasty Ohio skin with sunscreen, and that did kill some time. The Epcot wait was one of the easiest also because we were under a monorail track, and Caden is obsessed with trains in all their various forms. He was so excited every time he saw one, and we promised him that at some point this week he’d get to ride one.
The turnstiles opened around 8:50. Caden LOVED feeding his pass through the machine and watching it come out the other side. Us grown-ups were fingerprinted, and then we were herded like cattle up to the “holding pen” by the Innovations West breezeway. Being at rope-drop every day is crucial to getting things done, but it makes it difficult to appreciate the beauty of each individual park. The Leave a Legacy markers are really fascinating – and our sister-in-law is in one – but we couldn’t appreciate it in the morning and were very hot and tired upon leaving! But we know we have many trips to come to appreciate these things!
Around 8:58 the Disney characters began “meeting-and-greeting” those standing at the rope. They led a count-down at 9:00 and the stampede to Soarin’ began. There’s not much of a “rope-drop” show to speak of at Epcot, but since this was our first park we didn’t know to expect one. They just played “Celebration” and let us take off. We really liked the information centers that displayed stand-by and fastpass times for the big attractions, but thought it was interesting that before the rope had even dropped, Soarin’ said 20 minutes. Must be the lowest they’ll show!
We got better and more aggressive as the week went on, but didn’t fare too well at Epcot! The stroller was especially difficult to navigate and people just mowed us down. When we got up close to the Land pavilion, we grabbed Connor and ditched the stroller, a difficult maneuver to pull off in a swarm of people. We then joined the stream going down the escalator, and even though we had no idea where we were going, the human tidal wave eventually deposited us right at the entrance of Soarin’. Now, most people grab a fastpass before jumping in the standby line to secure a second ride for later. If you have small children, and especially if you plan to not be there much later than lunch time, this is not necessary – you have Parent Swap at your disposal, which is so much cooler than Fastpass. A parent swap ticket gets you into the Fastpass line – even before it may be accepting anyone in the morning. It can be used all day, doesn’t count against your fastpass account, and multiple people can get on with 1 ticket.
They measured Caden (we were still getting jostled by the runners this whole time), handed Becky a parent swap and she and Caden ran hand-in-hand down the corridor while Shawn looked for the Living with the Land boat ride to entertain Connor. It was closed for maintenance. Yea! So he took him to a Kidcot station to color, or more appropriately, to switch up the lids on the markers for 10 minutes.
On the way down the ramp, Becky and Caden passed two people who were leaning on the rail (it was semi-dark back there) waiting for other members of their party to catch up with them. Caden paused as he approached them and stage-whispered, “Are they real?” They started cracking up, because at Disney, you never know!
We waited about 5 minutes in the corridor and then were assigned our flight row (the front most), and waited maybe another 5. Caden got a little anxious about how scary it would be, so Becky told him it’s a ride that helps you pretend to be a bird. He immediately said he’d like to be a seagull and started “cawing” like one, and forgot to be nervous. The ride was great, definitely Top 5 at Disney in general. It would be nice if some of the scenes lasted longer, but it’s just an exhilarating feeling. Caden of course loved flying over the Magic Kingdom with Tinkerbell, he just shrieked with joy. His noises didn’t seem to disturb anyone else, though, the music is loud enough to drown out other sounds.
By the time it was over, it was after 9:30 and we decided to let Shawn have a go later on, so we could get over to the Aquarium to see Crush’s first show at 10. When we found our stroller we also found a chipmunk (I don’t think he was a cast member, but maybe?) perched in the stroller next to ours, munching his way through some unsuspecting family’s snacks. Hopefully he hadn’t had a go at ours first!
We really enjoyed the ‘Mine’ birds outside of the Seas!
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We opted to ride Nemo instead of walk into the aquarium, for the kids sake. They seemed to enjoy it, but not a lot to say about that ride.
By the time we got in and wandered around it was 9:50, so Becky parked herself in the Crush line while the boys looked at the fish in the room. We got into Crush with the first group, and got Caden settled on the floor while we sat on the end of the front row. It really is a neat show, and Crush has some great one-liners as he interacts with the kids. Caden waved his hand frantically but didn’t get called on. It would have been hilarious to see the two of them chat, he’s so funny even when not talking to a giant animated turtle, but maybe next time! Crush asked one kid where he was from and the answer was Philadelphia. Crush responded, “W-hoa! Philly!” Pause. “Never heard of it.” The humor there was probably aimed at the adults more than the kids, but they got to talk to a giant animated turtle, so we all win!
We spent some more time in the aquarium after that, watching the dolphins and visiting some exhibits. Connor really enjoyed this, and we knew there wasn’t a ton he’d get to do today so we let him get his fill. At 10:45, Shawn took Connor over to Test Track to pick up fast passes while Becky and Caden headed over to the Imagination Pavilion – the information board said there was no wait for the Imagination ride, and Becky had read about the leaping fountains, and thought Caden would enjoy them. Boy howdy, did he ever! He had so much fun trying to “catch” them as they jumped over the sidewalk. This might have been his favorite thing of the day - and go figure, no lines - in fact, we were the only ones there!
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As the pictures show, he even crawled onto the wall to get smacked in the face. The water knocked off his hat a few times, and he was loving it! They were an awful lot of fun. Once Shawn arrived we got into the 5 minute line for Figment. This ride was less entertaining than Nemo, kind of a big “meh.” The most exciting part (and not in a good way) was when Caden realized it was a “moving floor” ride – the kind where you step onto a rotating platform to board your car. He has an unnatural fear of the moving platform – either that he won’t get on the ride before it leaves, or worse, that he will and the parent with him won’t…and then once we’re all settled, as he nears the end of the ride, the fear of nailing the dismount kicks in. I’m not sure this ride was worth the hand-wringing over the moving floor, especially coupled with Figment turning into skunk and “spraying” the riders (being sprayed by a skunk is Caden’s #2 fear, after rotating floors). And the big noise and blast of wind at the end scared the pants off both kids. We were really riding it to play with the gizmos at the end, but both boys suddenly went kind of berserk at this point. They’d been up for almost four hours, they’d narrowly survived an encounter with a moving floor, it was hot, they hadn’t eaten, and we spent most of the time chasing them around trying to contain them. We were going to send the “morphed” photos to friends, but there was a line at each station, and the two we actually got to use suddenly froze up and wouldn’t work.
We decided that our sanity was more important than this experience, and that it was time for a snack break. We headed back outside, got them settled in the shade with some juice and cookies, and let Caden play with the fountain some more. Then, since we were closer to the Land than Test Track, thought we’d stop back by there and let Shawn and Caden ride Soarin'. They did (both loved it), and we headed over to use our Test Track window. On the way we stopped at Club Cool. Caden had only recently been permitted to have pop so the idea of free samples of any pop he wanted was very appealing. We parked in front of the machine and Becky read off the different countries to him and asked which he’d like first. “Umm..Italy!” he cried. Becky gave him a cup of the Italian drink "Beverly" (unsuspectingly – she’d not researched this) and watched his face contort. She didn’t think it could be that bad, so she chugged the rest. She later heard it described as nail polish remover, and that’s a pretty accurate assessment. Here (http://www.dailyping.com/archive/2005/11/14/) is someone else who agrees. Also some good videos dedicated to this on youtube, just type “Beverly Epcot.” After watching us, Shawn couldn’t be coaxed into it - wonder why (“Come on, it is SO nasty, you have to try it!”)? but we all enjoyed the rest. Becky really liked the vegi-infused soda from Japan, and Caden’s favorite was either the watermelon or the honey-flavored from Israel. Shawn liked the orange-y one from Germany.
Becky took Connor into Innovations to try to get him to cheer up as he was WELL past nap time at this point, hot and cranky. Unfortunately there was not a whole lot that interested him here, it’s more for older kids. Shawn and Caden rode Test Track. Even though we had fastpass, it was still a 25 minute wait, so by the time they got off (they enjoyed it, but not as much as Soarin’), it was after 1. Becky decided to forgo her turn for the sake of the family! We had planned to head over to the World Showcase and try some international food for lunch, but it was HOT at this point, around 93 degrees, and that even made the grownups tired just thinking about it, and the kids were clearly winding down. So we went with our vow to be flexible and not plan-oriented, and went back to the Land pavilion and got lunch at the food court. It was a good call – Caden was getting really obstinate at this point – he insisted on going on the escalator alone, ripped his hand from Becky’s, and immediately stepped on to two different steps and fell. Luckily he didn’t fall down the escalator, but he couldn’t stand up either, and started trying to crawl up it looking much like a hamster on a wheel - a very panicked hamster. Becky had to run up it (faster than he was crawling in order to get to him), which was a feat in and of itself. She managed to pick him up while running in place and he assured us he had learned a valuable lesson. We got him calmed down and then ordered the grilled salmon and the rotisserie chicken from Seasons (each came with 2 sides and very hearty portions) and split them with the kids. The food was REALLY good – maybe it just seems that way after hauling yourself around in the heat – and a nice alternative to burgers, chicken fingers and fries.
At that point it was definitely time to call it a day. We walked out, but did manage to find the first Disney photographer we’d seen so far, and had some pics done at the entrance (we look pretty good to be so beaten up at this point, don’t we??).
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We were back in the Cabin by 2:40, and Caden was ever so excited to see what the “mice” had done while we were away. We had swan towels in our windows and a great towel alligator on the bench in the living room, that Connor immediately tore apart. Connor went down for a nap pretty easily, and Caden vegged out on the couch playing with his Leapster while Shawn made another Winn Dixie run to get some ice cream (how could we have neglected THAT??). When he got back it was close to 4:00 and Connor was still zonked, so he drove Caden up to the Contemporary so they could ride the monorail that loops around the lagoon and into the Magic Kingdom. They had a really good time! His eyes in this picture tells the whole story - can you see the joy??
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Dinner that night was 3-cheese manicotti, garlic bread, and veggies, yum!
At 6 we got into our swim gear and walked to the bus stop. This was the longest wait we had for a bus, maybe 10 minutes? We went to the pool at the Meadow and the boys had a blast in the kiddy area and we got to hang out in lawn chairs and talk for a few minutes. What a luxury!
By 7:30 we were back, had the kids bathed, given them a snack, and had them settled in to bed. Tonight there was no chit-chat, just blissful silence! Overall, Day 1 was a success! Unfortunately Shawn’s cough was not improving as the boys’ had, and rather than wake us all up with his spasms, he left the bedroom and spent most of the night on the Murphy bed. He had a little adventure on this particular evening, as he was in the bathroom rummaging for cough syrup at 1 am, he saw something floating in the toilet. He assumed (go figure) that Caden had not flushed before going to bed, and went over to take care of it, when the alleged “turd” made a sudden movement, scaring him to death. It turns out a tree-frog had swum up the pipes into our toilet. He called the front desk and they said they’d send someone from horticulture, but they hadn’t come by 2 am, so HE FLUSHED IT! One day the tree frogs will have their revenge on him!:eek:
Up next - a HOT day at Animal Kingdom!

[NorweJenNY]

What super cute little ones you have!

I love the picture of your little boy peering around the tree with Mickey ears.

And good tip about using child swap vs. fastpasses! For certain groups, it can work quite well. It's nice that you're not forced to use the child swap right away either. While it's nice that most attractions will allow fastpasses even after the time that's posted on your ticket, that's not the case at Soarin'.

What to do when the kids are too tall though?! My one son is right at the border line at 40". He can go on the rides (standing up straight and tall), but you wheel him over in a stroller and no one would say he's too tall. So we could still get child swap for him (given that he's going through a very cautious phase and doesn't like any of the 40" height requirement rides we've tried). Our next trip we've got my one-year-old nephew joining us though, so child swap is a definite possibility with him!

[Porphyro]

Thanks, NorweJen!
As for the parent swap thing - it was my understanding that it wasn't just a height thing, but (at least for the bigger rides) could be a "fear" thing too. Technically Caden was tall enough for Tower of Terror, but there was no way he was willing to ride it. He didn't even like being near it! Like I said, I don't know for sure, because of course we had Connor with us which is basically an automatic parent swap, but my assumption is that you can still technically get one even if they're tall enough.
What I liked best about it was that it wasn't good for just one person - Caden got to ride fun stuff like Soarin' twice, without a wait. That was just great for him!

[Porphyro]

This morning it was Caden, rather than Connor who decided to wake us all at a horrifying hour – 5:45. We managed to keep them in bed until 6:30 but he wouldn’t stop talking. At that point, Becky was very frustrated, because, being the keeper of the touring plans, she knew that them being up at such an indecent time meant we’d lose the afternoon at Animal Kingdom – which meant no Festival of the Lion King, because AK just announced they’ll be closing at 6. WE SHOULD JUST GO HOME TO MICHIGAN!! OK, good, she got that out of her system. Remember, there will be other trips.
We went through the same morning routine and got to AK, the farthest park from the campground, at about 8:15. We looked for a “talking palm tree” that we’d read about, but alas, a CM told us he was no more. So we found a nice shady spot to park and lather on the sunscreen. It was already warm, you could tell it was going to be a scorcher. And that the boys were going to be – not pleasant. Caden was already complaining of being tired and Connor was sitting in the stroller like a nonresponsive lump. It wasn’t even nine and they’d been up nearly 3 hours.
They opened the turnstiles early, around 8:40 or so. We’d learned that this wasn’t necessarily a good thing, because we’d have to give up our nice shady spot outside the gates to stand in a shoulder-to-shoulder (those body parts if you are lucky) crowd in the blazing heat that is constantly jockeying to get closer to the rope. Caden started begging to be held. But this time there was a rope-drop show that he seemed to enjoy that distracted him for a bit. Minnie, Goofy, Daisy and Donald greeted us from a safari jeep, and then “radioed” Mickey who was climbing the Tree of Life in the Distance for the countdown.
The plan was for us to each ride Everest first and then have a kid-centered day the rest of the time. We stayed with the crowd through the Oasis, and then when we got to Discovery Island we cut off through DinoLand, which we’d read was shorter. It probably is, but with one of us pushing a stroller and the other lugging 40 pounds of whiny boy, we got to Everest at roughly the same time as the mob – and they kind of formed the line as they mobbed, so we had to fight our way in. Becky took Caden with her to stand in line – he was petrified that meant he’d have to ride it, but it was only until she could get to the entrance and “present” him for her parent swap pass. That accomplished, he passed under the ropes to Shawn and she was on her way, and on the 3rd or 4th car to go out – maybe a 5 minute wait. When she was done, Shawn got to use the parent pass to hop into the empty FP lane, so we both had ridden it by twenty after nine. It was a great ride, and we both (as avid coaster fans) really appreciated its unique design and smoothness.
We hiked back to Dinoland, and after briefly considering getting in a line to see Pluto (Shawn said yes, Becky wanted to wait until Toontown – Pluto settled the discussion by disappearing), walked right onto Triceratop Spin. Yes, it’s essentially a Dumbo ride, but you share a car, and the back and front seat controls do different things. It was pretty cool, and both boys enjoyed it. Here is Connor just before the ride began:
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It was, however, the only thing either of them were tall enough to ride, so onto bigger and better things! Shawn stayed behind to ride it again with Caden, and Becky went back to Discovery Island to the fast pass kiosks. AK is “piloting” centrally-located fast pass area where you can obtain FP for the big stuff without walking all the way across the park. She got the FP for the safari with a return time of 10:40-11:40, and then went to Kali River Rapids to meet up with Shawn and Caden…who had found Pluto once again, and this time he stuck around and there was no Becky to argue with, so Caden got to meet his favorite character first. It was very fitting, and just cheered him up for the rest of the day!
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Meanwhile, Becky was hanging out at Kali, watching the standby time click from 10 minutes…to 15…to 20, and then they arrived. However, that 20 was way off, as it was more like 6. Caden was really excited about this one because we have a similar ride at Kings Island but you have to be 48 inches to ride it. Then he realized it was a (wait for it)…moving floor ride! He made Becky run to get on, and started freaking out as we made our way to the two open seats left on the boat. Once he was in, though, he was fine. It was a really cool ride, with a nice drop unlike the one at home. We both got completely soaked, but it felt great! He did start screaming when it was time to get out, nearly pushing over the other family on our boat in his frenzy to exit (this part I don’t understand – the worst thing that could happen would be you’d ride it again!), but the great thing about Caden is that he recovers quickly. Once the danger is passed he doesn’t spend much time agonizing over it. He just moves on.
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After that we walked the Maharajah trail and saw a kimodo dragon, giant bats, and tigers. We often visit the Cincinnati zoo so this was just kind of a time-killer. Caden thought this bamboo was cool:
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We tried to take a snack break on the trail but no food is allowed in the vicinity of the animals so that had to wait till we were done. The boys were rapidly disintegrating and there were a couple of “disciplinary” actions that needed to be taken on the trail. We needed to get to the safari and try to end our day before things spun out of control!
The one other thing we really wanted was to find DeVine before we left. Caden had seen pictures of her in our Unofficial Guide and had asked for months if he could see her. A CM told us she was often in the wooded area between Asia and Africa – we kept our eyes out for her on the way, but no luck!
The local feeling of both Asia and Africa is really neat – keep in mind we’ve never been to either one, but we’re sure the Imagineers did a great job capturing the “feel” of the continents. This was one park we were too rushed to appreciate, so we don’t have a ton of pictures, but in this case the needs of our kids had to take precedent, and what they needed was sleep. So we waited in line about 15 minutes for the safari, and we all really enjoyed that. I think Caden was a little frightened by the “old bridge” schtick, but not too much. The landscape was really beautiful, at times you forget you’re really in Florida!
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We got really close to some giraffes – one was about 3 feet from the left side of the truck. We had a great driver, he was always pointing out hard-to-see animals and stopping at good angles to get us good pictures.
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After riding that, it makes you wonder how Jungle Cruise in MK has survived and kept itself relevant after the opening of AK – why be thrilled by really fake plastic animals when you can see the real thing at AK?
After the safari we walked back to DinoLand via Discovery Island. We really enjoyed the various views of Everest from all over the park, like this one:
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We made a brief stop to apply some moleskin, and then found a nice covered porch with a fan (Restaurantosauraus) where we enjoyed our packed lunch. Well, most of us did – Shawn hates lunch meat. Florida heat can be draining, but Disney does a SUPERB job providing lots of shade and fanned areas. The shade can actually feel nice!
After lunch we headed over to the Boneyard to let the kids play a bit.
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That is a HUGE area for preschoolers, and not a lot of shade – and it was around 93 degrees again today. Not long after Caden took off to the top of the slide, we saw him crying hysterically up there because he couldn’t find his way down. Shawn went on a search and rescue mission while Becky tried to keep Connor from climbing up the slides. Once the rescue was accomplished, we moved to the actual dig site, expecting sand – what’s actually there is tiny gravel, which flows into ever y crevice of the shoe and is actually quite painful. It was time to call it a day!
We decided to try to end on a good note and asked again about DeVine. This cast member told us she hung out in the Oasis, which we had to go through on our way out. The oasis is really neat with all its different paths, but unfortunately we didn’t have the time to search high and low. We had just given up and were making for the gates when we saw a small crowd gathering just off to the left. It was her!! Caden’s spirits lifted immediately. He ran over to her and started chatting a mile a minute, excited and waving! We got his picture with her (look closely to see her face):
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She really is incredible, I had no idea she was on stilts, and somehow she appears to float on them. Connor was not as impressed. She leaned down to smile into his stroller and he immediately slammed his cover in her face. She was definitely suppressing a laugh! You can see him closing it here:
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That was enough to cheer us for the ride home. Even though we parked close, it was blazingly hot now at just after 1, so we decided to take the tram. Back at the cabin, we decided to get Caden to nap too, but that didn’t work out so well. The boys just ended up irritating each other, so we had to get Caden to lay down on the couch in the living room. They were at that point that parents don’t realize exists until they have kids – so tired they can’t (or won’t) sleep! Finally around 2:45 all was quiet and we were able to gather our wits about us!
Dinner that night was BBQ pork enchiladas and rice for most of us. Connor cried all through dinner he was so tired, so he got oatmeal. Sometimes you just have to do what you can.
And that included loading the kids into bed right after dinner. We had them quiet and settled just after seven in the hopes that tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom could be better. That would be the most important day for them.
Shawn, meanwhile, was getting worse instead of better, which he assumed he’d be by now. He briefly considered going to the local Urgent Care, but called ahead and the wait (at 10 pm) was two hours. He decided to take cough syrup and spent another night on the Murphy bed coughing up a lung. :sick: Poor guy!
Up next: saving the best for last - The Magic Kingdom!

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

AK is such a hot park that it has become last on our park list, which is a bummer because it is a nice park.

Enjoying your report!

Sarah

[SunnieRN]

It's so hard with little ones as you never know how they are going to act or react to things. It sounds like you all are good at going with the flow though!!:goodvibes

So cool that you got to see Devine! Looking forward to reading about your MK day!!

[Sarilas]

How great would it to have a child make DeVine bust out in laughter? That's a great memory!

[Porphyro]

Most of us slept until the alarm went off at 7:00. We wanted to get an early start because we had to drive to the TTC and catch a monorail into the Magic Kingdom. No lunch to pack today, because we had an ADR at the Crystal Palace, so we jammed the cooler full of juice and water, as today was supposed to be hotter than the last two (it got up to 95 in the afternoon). We set off but got a little confused trying to find the TTC, and ended up driving around the entire lagoon (which is only about a 4 minute drive). So we got to see the entire Magic Kingdom very early on! We still couldn’t figure out the quickest way to the TTC lot, so we cheated, drove to the Contemporary and took the monorail from there. It’s only one more stop and much less of a walk from the lot to the building.
Connor immediately LOVED the monorail as much as Caden had. He kept saying “choo-choo” and just stared out the window and grinned.
Despite the delay, we had the earliest arrival time we’d logged yet – it was only 8:15 as we disembarked and headed for the turnstiles. That left a lot of time to kill, you can only apply sunscreen for so long!
Luckily, the welcome show is a bit more elaborate at MK and requires an early start. The train full of characters pulled up around 8:45 or 8:50. It’s hard to not wipe away a few tears despite the corniness of it all – in the midst of “zippity doo dah” when Mickey comes bounding off that train and you see your child just shriek with joy – you realize THIS is why you planned this entire trip.
Caden happily participated in the countdown and then we took off running down Main Street towards the castle. Our goal on MK Trip #1 was to utterly destroy Fantasyland and all its inhabitants (LOL). Out of nowhere Alice in Wonderland appeared in front of us and took the hands of two young sisters as they walked down Main Street – now that was a magical moment for them!
Main Street is so incredibly beautiful, with the morning sun streaming in on the castle. There are no facades here, just intricately carved buildings and smiling cast members waving all the way down the street. It’s impossible NOT to smile on this early morning walk, go ahead and try!
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We cut through the castle (later, during shows it’s closed and you have to go around) and got fairly close to the rope to Fantasyland. We’d forgotten to grab a map so Shawn snagged one right as the rope came down and we headed for our first conquest – Dumbo. Yes, it’s a dinky round-and-round ride, but it’s also one of the only slow-loaders in Fantasyland. If you don’t do it first, you’ll wait 90 minutes for a 2 minute spin because it has such a low capacity. Even at rope drop, we had to wait through 3 rotations to get on, making it a 15 minute wait first thing in the morning. And the line was HUGE by the time we got off. But you HAVE to ride Dumbo, it’s like a rule.
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From there we headed to the Winnie the Pooh ride and parked the stroller. There was about a 10 minute wait. We were on by 9:30. This one is kind of a dud – guess it used to be Mr. Toad’s wild ride and now you just kind of bump and spin through a dream of Winnie the Pooh’s and it’s dark and at times hard to focus on much that is going on around you. But it’s air conditioned and the kids like it, even Connor, who as we said, had no idea what was going on. After that one, we fell victim to the first “Disney stroller move” (a Cast Member moves your stroller while you’re on a ride) but it only held us up a minute or two, we’d been expecting one, thanks to the Unofficial Guide!
Back over to the other side of the carousel, to Peter Pan. This one already had a 20 minute wait posted, and was pretty accurate. It has one of those deceptive lines, where you think you’re close to the entrance – but then you round the bend into a whole different building! But the lines do move pretty constantly and they’re in the shade. Across the way we could see Small World with a 5 minute wait posted, and that never changed, so we were reassured that we’d be able to hop onto that right away. By 9:50 we were on Peter Pan. Caden’s not too familiar with that story, so I’m not sure even HE knew what was going on at this point, but again – air conditioning!
There was actually NO wait for Small World, we pretty much hopped right on and THIS one the kids loved. It’s a nice long boat ride with a wonderfully catchy song and lots of dancing puppets. What’s not for kids to love? There’s so much to see but it’s not dizzying and you have a long time to see so much of it, so it’s not overwhelming. Connor just grinned and pointed, and Caden really enjoyed it too.
So not too bad – in our first hour we’d knocked out four major Fantasyland rides – only two to go! We stopped by Cinderella’s carousel next, mainly because there was no wait and Connor loves carousels. Caden was itching to ride something a little more exciting, but we told him it’s only fair that Connor gets to do some of his favorites too.
We saw Ariel’s Grotto on our way over to Mickey's Toon Town Fair – already at 10:15 a 50 minute wait to see Ariel – or her cleavage, depending on your age and gender. No mermaid gazing for us today. We have a Barnstormer to ride!
Tune Town was already open (supposed to open at 10, we found it often does a bit earlier) with a 10 minute wait for the Barnstormer. Most families were in line to meet characters, but that was on our agenda for our next visit, so we could focus on rides today. Shawn and Caden rode the little roller coaster while Connor had a snack break, and then we headed for the train station. Rental strollers must stay at the station – of course we could take ours, but you have to fold it up and carry it which is a bit of a pain, we had expected a “ramp” like the one they let us use at Kings Island. Caden was also really upset that he couldn’t sit on the end to look out the open railing, but alas – all kids in the middle.
The train took us out of Toon Town to the Main Street station, and then to Adventureland. We had time to fit in one more ride before our 11:50 reservations – Caden’s first “adult” roller coaster, Big Thunder Mountain. It was about 11:20 and the line was 30 minutes long, but the FP return time was well into the afternoon. No choice but to wait! Shawn and Connor shared a mouse-ears ice cream while Becky and Caden waited. He amused himself by fanning random strangers with his water bottle, which all of them welcomed.
He did a fantastic job on the coaster, no chickening out for him! He loved it and did a lot of yelling and laughing. We got off and had to run to Crystal Palace so as not to lose our reserved time. We got there right around 11:45 and checked in. There was a show going on at the castle that Caden could see from a distance while we waited, and he was pretty intrigued by that. We got in around 11:55 but then our true wait began. This was one of the more unfortunate things about our visit. We had told the reservationist that Caden had a severe peanut allergy, but this did not get passed on to the server, and hence to the chef. Disney’s policy is that the chef must speak to the family individually before eating can commence if someone has a food allergy. We’d have been in his “rotation” if this information would have been retained, but as it was we were tacked onto the end of his list, and we waited for about an hour before being given permission to go to the buffet. Luckily the character greeting took up the first half of this time, but after that it became a bit difficult. The waiter suggested that Shawn and Becky go ahead and eat, but as any parent knows (except maybe Kate Gosselin (http://blogs.newsobserver.com/tv/the-jon-kate-watergate-mama-kate-drinks-in-front-of-thirsty-kids)) that’s downright unfair when you have a tired, hungry kid across the table from you, if not just mean. It wasn’t any one person’s fault what happened, and lots of servers came by to assure us the chef was on his way, but it was very inconvenient over all.
As for the characters, they were great. Caden of course wanted to “talk” to all of them, and the conversation was somewhat one-sided but several of them tried to participate in a meaningful way. When asked which of the Mickey confettis on our table was his favorite color, Pooh very carefully picked out a gold one to show Caden. And when Caden cried, “Look who’s on my shirt!” to Tigger, Tigger looked, pointed to himself and started clapping and bouncing. They don’t make any family feel like they’re being brushed off or that they’re too rushed, and it really is magical for the kids (unless they’re under the age of 2 – Connor was OK with the characters when they were at the next table, or even hugging his brother – but any time they got within two feet of him he started moaning and straining to get out of his chair).
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Once we finally did get to eat, around 1, we found the food to be REALLY incredible. They have a kids section with meatballs, green beans, and mac & cheese, but it’s nice to get your kids to try something other than the usual fare. There was a lot Caden was willing to try, we were pretty proud of him. There are a ton of different salads, including asian and Mediterranean ones, and there was a vegetable frittata, really good mashed potatoes, pastas, ratatouille (of course), and soups. We also loved the fire-roasted spoon bread. The desserts were plentiful and amazing as well (except the brownies which tasted dry and refrigerated). The best of those was probably the cheesecake bites. Yumm!! Caden tried a bite of Becky’s coconut flan, and ended up with his own piece.
After lunch, we found some photographers and got some iconic poses taken care of, because - well, you have to:
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Look closely to see Tinkerbell in Caden's hands here. So cute!
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Becky headed to the monorail to take Connor home to nap. It started to drizzle a little bit as she headed out, but the sun never went in, Florida is kind of wacky like that. Shawn and Caden stayed for Mickey’s Philharmagic. They absolutely loved it – Shawn rated it in his top 3 attractions in the whole place, and Caden was learning to love anything 3D. Once they were done, they took the ferry to Fort Wilderness and then the bus to our cabin, arriving around 3.
With the boys resting (one completely conked out and the other staring with a glazed look at Looney Tunes), Shawn finally allowed himself to be talked into a visit to Urgent Care. It took about 2 hours, but they did find fluid in his lungs and gave him a nebulizer treatment, antibiotics, and cough syrup with codeine to help him sleep.
While he was gone Becky and the boys feasted on Chicken Tetrazzini and garlic bread and prepared to go to the pool. We got there around 6 and the boys enjoyed some more time in the newly opened splash area:
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Unfortunately there were a few claps of thunder so they closed up shop and we had to go home a bit earlier than planned. We went back to the cabin, bathed the boys, put Connor to bed, and then Caden and Becky took the bus back to the Meadow for the campfire, after checking that it would not be rained out (they move it indoors if they need to). We’d heard how much they charge for marshmallows & chocolate, so we brought our own s’mores ingredients, and got there in time for the 7:30 bonfire to make ourselves a tasty treat!
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Just after the cowboy started the sing-along, the rain became a bit heavier, so we had to meet Chip & Dale in a shelter behind the site.
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After we met the famous chipmunks, Caden started complaining of how tired he was, so we hopped on the bus, got home and tucked him in. At 9:45, Shawn went up to the beach to see the electric parade on the water, and then the Wishes fireworks show at MK. We had heard the booming every night and had been anxious to see it. They piped in music on the beach so people at FW could enjoy the show.
Tomorrow was our planned day of rest, and not a moment too soon!

[SarahSoftballchick]

Love the title:yay:

[Porphyro]

When I last left off, we had 3 days (mornings & early afternoons) at the park in a row completed, and have at least visited all 4 parks. It was definitely time to fully explore all the aspects of our chosen home for a week - Fort Wilderness campground.

The plan was to sleep in, but foiled again by the baby! Shawn made it almost all night in the bedroom with us but after a coughing fit at 5 am exiled himself to the living room. Right around 7 Connor stood up and started jabbering. Becky hid under the covers to make him think he might be alone. After a couple of minutes Caden started complaining that Connor had woken him up. He was shushed. Next thing Becky knew the bed started jiggling and she felt a weight collapse on her legs. Caden says in a loud stage whisper, “MOM! Connor is on your bed!!”
So after 4 days of maneuvering, Connor finally learned that he could grip the bedspread of the double bed and use it to hoist himself from the pack & play. This could prove problematic for the rest of the trip!
So we all laid around in the living room while the boys watched cartoons for an hour or so, then Becky made French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast. The boys loved playing on the Murphy bed, and had a pillow fight (well, it was kind of one-sided, but they were both having fun):
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Then it was off to the pool! Shawn rented a golf cart for the day, and went to the Outpost to pick it up while Becky threw all the laundry in a giant bag. The boys were thrilled with the cart (or “Gof cot” as Connor named it) and we enjoyed a nice ride through the campground. Becky and the boys were dropped at the pool and Shawn drove to the nearby comfort station to throw the laundry in and get it going.
Of course the splash pool was out of order, on our one day devoted to using it. :mad:Our vision of lounging in lawn chairs while the children entertained themselves was abruptly shattered. But look at the bright side - we're still on vacation, right?? They enjoyed themselves for a short while in the baby pool, and then once Daddy came back we all got into the big pool. The slide there is really neat, but Caden wouldn’t go near it. There’s quite a current at the bottom. The whole pool is between 3-4 feet deep, so not a lot of swimming area for adults, but it was a nice place to “practice” for Caden, and they both enjoyed jumping off the sides.
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There was a snack bar but we’d brought our own food so can’t give feedback on that…there was also a craft time going on but Caden decided he’d rather be in the water. Given the cool summer we’ve had back home, that was fine with us, he’s kind of been cheated out of a lot of swim time this year!
Once the laundry was done, we gathered it up and drove back to the cabin for a nice lunch of Leftover Roulette. Then it was time to settle Connor in for his nap. We decided to use the two bedrails from housekeeping to our advantage, and built the following "monkey-trap" to keep him from escaping:
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We're happy to announce that it worked! Once he was asleep, Becky decided to get our money’s worth out of the cart and she and Caden went for a drive. At this point we’d only been from the Outpost to our cabin, to the pool. We drove the entire loop and made a stop up at the lake so Caden could play on the beach and in the playground for awhile. The beach was pretty, but there was not much shade near the water so it was HOT. We only stayed about long enough to take this picture:

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Then we went to the corral and enjoyed a pony ride on Levi.
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Becky got to lead the pony, which was a first! There was a funny moment when Caden was thanking Levi for doing such a good job, and the lady handling him said, “Levi says you're welcome.” Caden, ever the intellectual, paused a moment and then said skeptically, “How?” She didn’t really have a ready answer so just said she could tell. Not sure he bought it!
It was pretty hot again, so we were ready to head home. We spent another hour relaxing while Caden watched his Looney Tunes movie, and right around the time that Connor woke up and Shawn started getting ready to fire up the grill for our steak-cook-out, a huge storm moved in. It was pretty intense, with loud thunder and heavy downpours. Connor was not a fan.
So, flexibility is the name of the game! We had pan-fried steaks and played indoors the rest of the evening. Even after a quiet day, the boys were ready for bed early. After they went to bed, Shawn took advantage of the golf cart to drive up to the Trails’ End to pick up their loaded nachos to eat while we watched Superman on DVD. All in all, a great day (other than the rained out cookout and broken splash area), and we were ready to tackle Magic Kingdom again!

[Porphyro]

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14: MAGIC KINGDOM, PART 2
Once again both boys were up before the alarm, but believe it or not, neither Shawn nor Becky have found themselves overly tired at this point. We’re all getting so much rest in the evenings that we’re waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed even five days in. And when we leave the parks, while we’re very hot, no one is exhausted beyond belief. There’ve been no blisters, no real tantrums, no sunburn, no dehydration. We’ve done good taking care of ourselves and keeping this relaxing, and still getting as much in as possible.
Since we were very familiar with the Contemporary by now and had yet to find the TTC, we went ahead and parked there again and took the monorail in to the park.
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Like Wednesday, we arrived around 8:15 and sat in almost the same spot just under the track, about 10-15 people back in the turnstile line. This was a good spot to view the show and be in the shade at the same time. Same show, different emcee at 8:50. This time once we were in we headed with the crowd down Main Street but veered off to the right to Tomorrowland. Not nearly the crowd at that rope drop as there is in Fantasyland. They even let us in a couple minutes before 9. Most of the crowd went right to Buzz Lightyear but we had decided to do the Speedway first. It wouldn’t have been on the to-do list but Caden had seen it on Wednesday and was stoked about riding in a mini-car. It’s a slow-loader, so we wanted to do that first and not wait and get high on gas fumes. We got in the last 2 cars to be released in the first round. Even Connor was excited and started yelling "DRIVE! Drive!" Caden wasn’t as thrilled with it as he’d hoped to be, as those fumes were a bit strong for his very sensitive nose.
Our first ride checked off the list, we headed to the main attraction, Buzz Lightyear, where there was a mere 5 minute wait. Tomorrowland is probably much busier when the Transport and Space Mountain are open, but both were down for refurbishing and the crowds were light to non-existent. It took some coaxing to get Caden on the ride because he’d heard that Zurg shows up, but we knew once he was on he’d like the shooting. And we were right. He had a grand time (except when entering and exiting as it was yet another moving-floor ride). A model of Zurg is in jail at the end of the ride, and Caden ran by that pretty quickly, so we weren't able to get a picture of him with Zurg...he wouldn't go near it. As we exited the ride to head for Astro Orbiters, we saw Buzz Lightyear just hanging out with no line whatsoever. We couldn’t pass that up, so we deviated from the to-do list for a photo op (there was a smudge on the lens so the next couple pics are a bit foggy).
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There was still no line to speak of at Astro Orbiters, so we got on there in about 5 minutes. It’s different from Dumbo because it is much higher, and spins in a tighter circle. The easily dizzied might want to steer clear of this one! Here is a picture of Connor before it started, and Becky & Caden mid-flight:
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We’d done the 3 main open attractions in Tomorrowland and it was only 9:35.
We’d read on a website that there was a “back entrance” to Toontown, which was scheduled to open at 10, that had its own rope drop that most people didn’t know about. We decided to see if it was open, but had our doubts because it’s back by Space Mountain and there was no one back there. We asked a security guard who was directing people away from the Mountain if there was still a path to Toontown back there, and he motioned us on through. Lucky break number one. There was a rope blocking off the start of the path, but two construction workers were going through, and asked if we were going inside also. We said yes, and they lifted the rope and let us through. Lucky break number two. We headed on down the path. It was completely empty, but hey, it’s on the map! We decided to just press on and see what happened. So far two people could have stopped us but just let us keep walking. When we got down to the end, there was a rope and a CM right there by Mickey’s house. He was a little confused that we were there – apparently they don’t do rope-drop at the back entrance any longer, but we were there, and he told us that as soon as the front rope dropped he’d let us in. It was 9:40 at this point – and over his shoulder we saw the mob approaching. “Oh,” he said, “Guess they’re already in.” HUGE lucky break number 3 - as we had no idea Toontown would do an early rope drop and we got there JUST in time! So he dropped the rope, and led us directly into Mickey’s house – we were welcomed as the First Family that day. :banana:What incredible luck!! Other families were not let into the house as we were personally escorted through, alone, with a Disney photographer, and we had special alone time with Mickey and Minnie in the Judges Tent. Minnie kissed Caden and he got to shake Mickey’s hand. That was definitely our MAGICAL moment for the week!
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Once we were done, we let the boys play for a few minutes in Donald’s Boat while we waited for the next train to take us to Frontierland. We were on the train by 10, much earlier than Wednesday, but the park was starting to crowd up a little faster than it had that day. When we disembarked at Frontierland there was already a 45 minute stand-by wait for Splash Mountain, so we grabbed a FP for 11:30 and walked over to Adventureland to see what sort of lines were forming there. The first ride we came across was Pirates, with a 5-minute Standby. pirate: And even that was an overstatement. We walked right onto that one. It has been renovated quite a bit since Becky rode it ten years ago, with Jack Sparrow written into almost all the scenes. We really liked the eerie, computer generated image of Davy Jones that the boats pass through in the beginning. The boys seemed to enjoy just looking around though they weren’t really following what was going on.
After a brief bathroom break we headed down to Jungle Cruise, where there was just a 20 minute wait. We had snacks and juice while we waited. It didn’t take too long to get on board, and the kids enjoyed this one too. It is kind of showing its age, but they’ve spiced it up with very sarcastic, self-effacing tour boat drivers, who complain that this is where a 5-year degree in religion landed them, or reprimanding the guests for just staring at them because, “This isn’t TV. I can see you too.” So the kids enjoy the fake animals, adults enjoy the humor and the shade. At one point the guide told us sarcastically how afraid he was as we drove into the temple, and Caden (who was sitting right next to him), said with empathy, “It’s OK. You don’t need to be afraid. It’s just pretend!”
After that we still had some time to kill so we let Caden choose – the Swiss Family Robinson tree house or the Haunted Mansion. He wanted to check out the tree house, so he and Becky did that while Connor enjoyed getting sprayed by the tikigods by the Magic Carpets (too long a line for that right now). Caden had very little interest in seeing the family’s rooms, he just liked the steps and the concept of being in a tree house. So that didn’t take too much time, he just zoomed through.
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We walked up to Liberty Square to check out the Haunted Mansion, but the line was 25 minutes long (no FP - why is that, anyway?) and it would be hard to fit that and Splash Mountain in before lunch, so we took the river walk over to Frontierland, where Caden and Shawn enjoyed chasing Briar Rabbit through Splash mountain.
We headed back to Liberty Square (no luck catching the paddleboat!) and saw a line to visit with frontier Donald. We hadn't met him yet, and it was only about a 10 minute wait so we hopped in line.
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Now we were really hungry. Most of the shaded tables in the Liberty Square area were taken, so we parked ourselves on a brick wall around a tree (with pelicans beneath it who seemed mighty interested in us!) and had our packed lunch and some more mouse ears ice cream!
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We thought about trying to squeeze in the Haunted Mansion, but it was down for maintenance. So instead we went over to the carousel for Shawn to try his luck at the Sword in the Stone.
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He must have used up all his luck getting into Toontown as the sword didn't budge, but he’ll always be Becky’s King Arthur!
The would-be king left with the smallest prince then to get him down for his nap, and Becky stayed to see Mickey’s Philharmonic with Caden, who loved it every bit as much the second time as the first! After that he was willing to check out the Mansion again, which was up and running. There was a 25 minute wait, and then once we got on it, it did shut down briefly. We were stuck under the upside-down staircases for two or three minutes, long enough for Caden to be a bit uneasy and to spend some time worrying over how the exit onto the moving floor would go. Luckily it didn’t last too long. We got a goofy looking ghost in our car at the end, Caden kept staring at the mirror and then whipping around to try to see it in our car, that was pretty funny.:lmao:
On our way back down Main Street he found the trolley car tracks and pretended to be a train, and just as we got to the end, Mary Poppins came strolling right across our path. :goodvibes Caden ADORES Mary Poppins and was immediately enamored. She invited us to join her in the shade where he chattered up a storm with her. She said laughingly that he reminded her of Michael and that she “quite enjoyed” talking to him.
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Once it was time for the picture she motioned to the camera and said, “Say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” He hesitated and responded, “Ummm…why don’t we just say cheese?” :rotfl:As we were leaving he complimented her on her umbrella and she thanked him and explained that it helped her to fly. She asked if he flew, and he responded, “No, not yet. I’m just a kid. But when I grow up and become a superhero, then I’ll fly just like you!” He truly was the perfect age for this trip – old enough to appreciate the magic of it, and young and innocent enough to have the most beautiful nonsensical conversations with the characters!
He enjoyed the ferry ride back to the cabin once more:
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We got back around 3 and sadly, realized it was time to start packing up a bit...but Shawn had one more trick up his sleeve to celebrate our last night...Stay tuned!

[Porphyro]

We had one last treat to enjoy, one that we’d decided we’d cancel if we had to, based on how the boys were doing. But they both rested a good long while and had been cheerful the past two days – so we decided to go for it. Shawn had researched and booked a dinner as a surprise for Becky to celebrate their upcoming ninth anniversary. He saved extra money on the side and added it to the travel budget, and he’d even packed nice clothes in a separate bag without her knowing, and didn't tell her until after we'd arrived, because he wanted her to help him decide whether or not the boys could handle this. But they both rested a good long while and had been cheerful the past two days – so we decided to go for it. So we bathed the boys, got all dressed up, and got into the van to drive to the Wilderness Lodge – we were headed for Artist Point.
We could have taken the ferry, but that would have involved a bus first, so we just drove the 5 minutes. The interior of Wilderness Lodge is just something you need to experience. The soaring front hall is incredible to look at, with all the open corridors above, the beautiful wood work, and fountains.
We’d expected a wait, but with 5:50 reservations we got to sit right away, it was pretty much empty. We were surprised to find that we had special menus set out with a Happy Anniversary message for us.
Shawn ordered the Grilled Buffalo Sirloin and Becky had the signature dish – Cedar Plank roasted Alaskan salmon. The steak came with goat-cheese polenta, ancho-cherry compote, baby golden beets, asparagus, and a dark chocolate red wine reduction. The salmon came with spring beans, English pea gnocchi, baby carrots, and a bacon vinaigrette. The boys split a grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies. They also got funny straws which of course, all kids love, and the servers were extra sweet to them. It's nice that Disney has formal restaurants that cater to adults, but those same restaurants are fully prepared to meet the needs of kids as well. Again, the chef came out to talk to us about potential allergens, but this time it was immediate. The food was truly spectacular. The salmon was perfectly seasoned and so tender it fell apart in your mouth. Shawn really enjoyed the buffalo steak. Steak is his favorite food and this definitely put a new spin on it. The boys behaved very well, as their anniversary gift to us!
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For dessert we were treated to dessert wine on the house, and our dessert (chocolate covered cheese cake, it was divine!) had a candle and a “Happy Anniversary” wafer. Caden enjoyed an ice cream sundae with mouse ears!
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The servers all complimented us on how well the boys had done – we're sure they see quite the range of behaviors, and there’s nothing you can do to make a parent’s day like noticing the good behavior of their kids and remarking on it. Everyone notices the bad, most people don’t say anything when they do what they ought to!
The dinner had been served very quickly which got us back into the cabin early enough to get the boys to bed and pack up the van. This would be our last night in our wonderful Disney home, but we had one more park to conquer!

[Porphyro]

Our kids are SO maddening sometimes. For the first time in 8 days, they were still asleep when the alarm went off. On the ONE day we had to be up early to get in plenty of time at the park before we started on our long trip home. We actually had a hard time waking them up, and they were groggy and disoriented (of course). They laid on the couch watching cartoons while we finished packing up the perishables and throwing away leftovers. We gave the bag of charcoal and matches we’d bought to our next-door neighbors, since the storm had “rained out” our grill plans.
Check-out was a breeze. Shawn just called the front desk and told them we’d be checking out, we did one (or two, or three) “final sweep” checking every drawer, under every bed, in the tub, for anything we might have left, and then had the boys say goodbye to good old 2321. Connor of course didn’t get it, Caden may have been a little sad, but we’d been away from home long enough that he was starting to miss his own bed and favorite stuffed animals. This was a good length of trip for a 4-year old. He’d declared several times on the trip, “I really like this cabin, and I’ll stay here for a little while, but then I’d like to go home and see my fish.” He is such a good kid!
We were in the DHS lot by 8:00 am, and at the gates at our usual time. The kids were still not in the best of moods and would probably have still been sleeping at this point if it had been up to them, so the “Lights Camera Action” welcome show was pretty much lost on them. As soon as the rope dropped, we veered right onto Sunset Blvd to ride Tower of Terror first. Caden was technically tall enough, but this was one ride he still needs to work up the courage for. We obtained the parent swap, and Becky got in the stand-by line (about 5 minutes at this point), while Shawn took the boys up to Pixar Place to get our Midway Mania FP. It took him awhile to fight the crowds up there, Becky had been off the ride a good 10 minutes before he made it back, with a drooping, already tired of walking Caden. She and the boys parked themselves in the shade and enjoyed some snacks (the dried fruit we bought at Winn Dixie – mango, papaya and pineapple – was a huge hit with the kids!) while Shawn took his turn. We stopped for a few pictures - you can see how Caden was feeling, he's doing his "I won't do what you tell me to do" pose in the second pic:
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Hard to believe, but the FP the boys obtained at around 9:15 for the Toy Story ride were for 11:30. Those things go FAST!
So we had a lot of time to kill between then and now. First we went to see if we could make the first Playhouse Disney show, but it had already started. So we found Luigi’s garage – not on the map, but several CM were helpful – and got in line to see McQueen and Mater. This would normally have THRILLED Caden but he was still being a bit grouchy and all he did was complain about the noise from their engines.
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That little journey ate enough time that we could head straight back to Playhouse Disney for the second show of the day at 10:30. We got in line about 5 minutes before the doors opened, and once inside, got the boys settled on the floor. There’s a LOT of little kids in this room, crawling around, bumping into each other – some of them not smelling so great – but it was nice to be in a room full of parents in the same boat as us. You know, 30-somethings who know all the lyrics to “Handy Manny” and so on! This is a cute little show, and seeing both the boys faces light up when the theme music started and the Mickey puppet popped up was really something. We didn’t get great pics because it was so dark, but every time the theme changed – from the Clubhouse to Handy Manny to Little Einsteins to Pooh – there were just audible gasps.
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And at the end of each song, Connor let out a heart-felt “Yeeeeaaah!” Of course the kids are asked to participate a bit (saying the magic words to get the clubhouse to appear, dancing with Pooh, etc.). At first Caden was OK with this but then the crankiness started to kick in. He has this weird personality quirk where he HATES to be compelled to do something as part of a group unless he’s really comfortable/familiar with the situation. He’s been that way since he was a baby and has really mellowed out over the years, but that can make shows a nightmare. Most kids love to jump up and do whatever the performers ask, but he just freezes up and shuts down, and can get angry over it. That’s what started happening the longer we were there. He did enjoy the bubbles blowing from the ceiling and the confetti shooting at us at the end, but was all too ready to leave by the time the show ended. If he’d been more rested it probably would have been better!
We still had 30 minutes to kill before riding Midway Mania, and walked over to the Backlot tour, which we’d almost had time to do prior to Playhouse. And of course it had shut down for technical difficulties. We wondered if this happens all the time, or if we just had bad luck this week!
As we headed back through Pixar Place we saw Green Army man outside the Woody photo spot. Apparently he’s not out much, and there wasn’t much of a line so we got a really sweet picture of Caden saluting with him (though in his mood, it took some time!).
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The line to see Buzz and Woody was marked at 25 minutes, and that’s exactly how much time we had left. This was the longest we waited to see a character the entire time, and it was not exactly pleasant, with the moods the boys were in. Caden wanted to see Woody NOW, and Connor kept wandering away. At least we were inside.
When we were next, they had to do a “switch” - this had happened to us yesterday with Donald as well. We ARE having bad luck!! This one didn’t take long, thank heavens. Caden was sure they weren’t coming back!
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We got out just in time to use our FP. We still had to wait about 15 minutes to get in. The ride is really cute – it’s full of 3-D carnival games – shooting a ball, darts at a balloon, etc., and you play for points and accuracy. It’s about 5 minutes long, and moves you from game to game. Even Caden hit a decent amount of the targets. Connor had a big whopping zero but never figured out how to shoot, and had a hard enough time keeping his glasses on!
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Shawn had the highest score, but Becky had the best accuracy! This ride was fun, definitely better than Buzz Lightyear at MK, but neither of us really felt it was worth all the fuss and the posted 90 minute waits!! We’d never do that one without a FP.
The Backlot was open again but the boys were winding down so we decided to have some lunch. We got a table at Studios catering – Becky got the Greek salad and a few orders of apples; Shawn and the boys found a vendor and got some corn dogs and we split a delicious Coke smoothie. This was our third and final counter-service meal – all of which cost us about $20, so $5 a person…but two of our “persons” are rather small. We’ll cherish these cheap days. When we come here with two teenage boys…yikes!!
As we were eating, a CM came up to us and said he’d noticed one of our balloons had partially deflated. Shawn had bought two of the “Mickey head balloon” inside a balloon at Magic Kingdom, and we’d brought them in with us today and tied them to the stroller – we were afraid being trapped in the van all day would make them pop. Anyway, he gave us a voucher for a free one to replace the one with the “dented” ear. That was awfully nice, one of those “Disney” above and beyond services that puts a smile on your face!
Then we headed off to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This was a much bigger hit with the boys than the boneyard. Caden’s favorite part was the “spiderweb.” It is an intricate net that kids follow up to a “nest” and then back down. He must have gone through it 20 times.
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Connor even made it through once, and that was a lot of climbing for a little guy! Connor’s favorite thing was the caves. He loved to run through them and go up and down the stairs, but that was a bit strenuous for whichever parent was with him – they were about 3 feet high, so he could run through at breakneck speed while one of us had to huff and puff after him bent over in half! Easier said than done!
It was after 1:00 at this point and we wanted to get going - well, we didn’t WANT to get going, but we needed to be in Savannah before it got too far past bedtime. We had a potty/diaper-changing break and then realized Caden’s sunglasses were gone. Becky had them tucked into the top of her shirt, but assumed while she was bent in half chasing Connor they must have fallen out. She went back in to the playground, and the CM at the gate had them, someone had turned them in. Everyone really is nicer at Disney!
With that, we headed, slowly and reluctantly out of the park and to the lot, with a lot of longing backwards glances. It’s always sad to leave, especially when you don’t know when’ll you come again, and how your family will be different when you do. This trip, with all its memories and things peculiar to a short chapter of our lives with two tiny boys, had come to a close.

Next up - the trip home and what we've learned!

[jana616]

OK, all caught up. Great updates! I am SOO jealous of your back entrance into Toontown. I felt like I researched everything, but I'd never heard of that. How awesome for you guys to get First Family treatment! We did get to Toontown at 9:45, which was a great tip to know. We were in the very first car for the Barnstormer, which was fun. Gotta do whatever you can to keep the lines short for the kiddos!

You've made me consider the cabins for the next time we go. It looks like a more relaxed way to go, which would be nice. Glad the boys were so well behaved for you at dinner!

Can't wait to read the finale!

[Porphyro]

Glad you enjoyed the TR! Re: the Toontown entrance - I think we got lucky in the fact that the website we got the info from was out of date or not written for when most of Tomorrowland is shut down - maybe that path is just closed during the construction, or maybe it'll never open again. No CM was ever very clear on that matter of whether or not it's "supposed" to be used. It's still on their official park map (you can see it along the right hand side right next to the tracks), and there's still a rope at the Toontown entrance - maybe it's meant to keep people IN Toontown, not out - but hey! We were so glad they didn't make us go all the way back around or it would have been hours to see Mickey. Just one of those things that worked out! :goodvibes

[Porphyro]

We left through the main gate and got onto the highway straightaway. Both of the boys were cranky and needed naps. Connor fell asleep about an hour later, Caden of course feels he is far too old for this, so to make up for it, he just whines. The going-home drive wasn’t nearly as pleasant as the coming-down drive!:headache:
We were able to drive without any stops thanks to Connors nap, all the way to northern Georgia, where we stopped at a Waffle House. Caden has never been to one, and has always begged to go, so to mute the pain of leaving Disney, we fulfilled his life-long dream of eating at a glorified truck stop. The kids plates were cheap and the waffle was the same size as an adult portion – that is to say – bigger than the plate! If we’d known that we’d have had them split one! It was starting to drizzle as we left, like even the weather was let down. We were only a couple of exits away from the Inn at this point.
We got there around 6:30, took our showers, and got ready for bed. Tonight Pinocchio was on. Caden knew the story from Little Golden books, and wanted to watch it “until the whale part.” Did we mention his #3 fear is being swallowed by a whale? We keep trying to explain to him that we live in a land-locked state but it still keeps him up at night...:confused3
Lights were out by 9:00 and it was a quiet night. Thank heavens Shawn’s cough was subsiding enough for him to be in the same room with the family!
The boys woke up around 6:30 so we got another early start on Sunday. This time there was no traffic, no delays of any sort, just a long, boring drive through South Carolina. We stopped at the North Carolina welcome center for lunch. It had recently rained and all the tables were soaked, so we sat on a dry bench and had a picnic, finishing up some of the lunch supplies from the week. From there we drove on into the mountains, and through a couple of incredible downpours that passed as quickly as they arrived, leaving water pooling on the highway. Since Connor had been in the car a long time it took him awhile to fall asleep, and then Shawn drifted off, and right as we crossed into Kentucky, Caden dozed off as well, so the last hour was a quiet one for Becky!
We arrived in London around 5:00, and took aunt Margie out to dinner at Cracker Barrel. Caden was full of stories, and was able to list his favorite Top 10 attractions in order. Overall I think Soarin’ is the one that made the biggest impression on him. He also talks a lot about meeting Mickey Mouse, playing in the pool, Mickey’s Philharmagic, and Big Thunder Mountain.
We spent a quiet, relaxing day with the family on Monday (the only excitement was finding that Connor had thrown up sometime overnight, :eek: but weirdly, he seemed fine all day), and left around 7, thinking the boys would sleep. Caden actually did fall asleep north of Lexington, but Connor babbled happily away to no one, and threw stuff at us until we crossed the Brent Spence bridge into Ohio, then he suddenly passed out. We carried two very asleep boys into our house just after 9:30 and started the long arduous task of unpacking, which isn’t even close enough to interesting to include in a very long Trip Report! We were bone-tired at this point, but were so happy that our trip was a success, and one that Caden, at least, will remember for a long time. Becky was SO excited to have been wrong about it being “too much,” and Shawn’s favorite memory from the trip? On Thursday, Becky was reading the “Return booking” deal details in our cabin, and came to him and said…”So how much, exactly, would it cost to come again next summer?” That's when he knew the trip was a success! :yay:
There are always some arguments to be made for waiting until the kids are older to fully experience Disney, but after the week we’ve just had, we could definitely make some arguments for doing it when they’re little, too. If we’d just had one toddler – then, maybe our money could be better spent elsewhere…but for Caden the trip was pure magic, and Connor had fun because the rest of us did! We just don’t know if Caden will ever enjoy it again in the way he was able to this time.
Overall take-aways from this experience:
- Becky was amazed at how different the entire resort experience is from just visiting one park for a day. When the day isn’t a marathon of how-much-you-can-fit –in, and you have a nearby place to relax and hang out, the mood and feel of the whole vacation changes. It’s more relaxing, less stress, and SO many more parks to experience, not being limited to just one. And each park is so unique in feel and environment. There’s really something for everyone!
- This was our experience, during what we believe was a decently crowded week – GET THERE AT ROPE DROP!! We really don’t see how you can get much done otherwise. Most of the time we had 5-6 attractions done before 10:00 am, and had obtained fastpasses for one other big attraction at that point. Other than the Lion King show, we got everything done on our list. We did our top priority and/or slowest loading rides first, and found that most of the “secondary” attractions had little to no lines during this first hour. And it was just more pleasant in general to not have to deal with wall-to-wall people. It really starts getting packed between 10-11. The touring plan sites were SO worth the money just to help us put things in order to get the most accomplished.
- If you have small children, USE PARENT SWAP! We didn’t see this offered or described in much of the Disney-official literature, just in our guidebooks and from our friends. It is the best-kept secret ever. It’s like Bonus Fastpasses – as many as you want, free access to the FP line at any time of day, even before the FP lane opens. And your older kids get to ride things twice. Don’t “waste” a FP when you can use a parent swap, and then you can go get a FP for something else.
- Love the Disney policy of bringing in food – or lack thereof. Every amusement park we’ve been to has restricted outside foods. For whatever reason, Disney realized it made much more sense to have happy families during this economic crunch and lets us pack our own lunches. I can’t figure out how they come out ahead on this one, but maybe it didn’t make a big enough difference to them and is actually something just (GASP) nice to do for people. Anyway, we took good advantage of this, cutting down on money spent and time waiting in lines at peak dining hours.
- Love the free parking in all resorts and parks for resort guests. We used this A LOT and didn’t have to rely on the transportation system’s schedule.
- Try to plan specific times to meet with characters instead of just hopping line wherever you see them – that can eat a LOT of time, because they are everywhere and the lines are long. Remember, Mickey’s Toon Town fair in MK opens before 10 most days, if you go there immediately you can cross a lot of characters off your list with minimal wait.
- Have a code word with your spouse or other adults in the party, for when things go “awry.” It can be something planned in advance, an inside joke, or something that you overhear at the park. For us, the “WE’RE GOING TO GO HOME TO MICHIGAN!” woman gave us what we needed to keep our cool, keep our perspective, and keep frustration at bay before any arguments could begin. That would get a laugh, then we’d take a deep breath, and go on about the day.
- Don’t push the kids (especially the little ones) too hard. Don’t lose sight of the fact that this is for them – their memories, their experiences. If everyone has stopped having fun – LEAVE. Even if more than half the party has stopped having fun – LEAVE. Vacation if FOR YOU, so be flexible and be willing to drop a few things from your to-do list for the sake of everyone’s sanity. There will be other trips, and it doesn’t have to be a marathon. When it’s hot and you’re all tired, go to your room and rest. It was this attitude, and ONLY this, we are convinced, that got us home actually feeling refreshed and rejuvenated and not completely drained.

We can’t wait to plan our next Disney trip! We might go along with extended family next time, but this will definitely become a family tradition!
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[Charlefours]

I'm a bit behind but I wanted to comment that I loved your TR! It looks like you had a great time. I did not realize Disney is being more relaxed about food being brought into the parks. We are anticipating eating breakfast most days in our hotel room, packing snacks and drinks. We have the dining plan otherwise but we are definitely planning on taking a break midday to relax.

Love the pictures--so cute! Your sons are adorable :) Did you order your Photopass cd prior to leaving or when you left? I am anticipating on doing this because, from what I have gathered, it is definitely cheaper. :woohoo:

We have park hoppers on our tickets right now but I am questioning them and whether or not we will use them enough to make it worthwhile. We like several restaurants in Epcot, which is probably the big reason as to why we have them, so we can go there in the late afternoon/evening to get dinner. Perhaps I should rethink this...who knows, I still have time before I have to make ADRs so I may be able to plan accordingly and remove the to save money. :3dglasses

Glad you had a wonderful trip! I am hoping this becomes a family tradition for us too. Did you like the cabins overall and felt like the worth the extra money (over a value resort say)? Something to consider the next go around.

[Porphyro]

Did you order your Photopass cd prior to leaving or when you left? I am anticipating on doing this because, from what I have gathered, it is definitely cheaper. :woohoo:


Did you like the cabins overall and felt like the worth the extra money (over a value resort say)?

We did order the photopass prior to leaving, but I'm not certain that it would have been worth the money had we not gotten to be the "first family" when we got to Toon Town. We just couldn't be bothered to stop for every picture opportunity, and standing in line with the characters wasn't a first priority for everyone in the family - although it was a big deal for the kids.

I really did feel that the cabins were worth the extra money, we saved a ton compared to what we would have had to spend in the parks for meals - and the privacy and seclusion were priceless. Not to mention that having the extra room was invaluable when Shawn came down with that cough and had to sleep in the living area.