Cass, Rob and Kira back in Disney! Toddlers' tempers and tantrums *Final Video!1/06*

[Timon]

Walt Disney World and Disney Magic Cruise

WHEN: October 15th, 2009 - November 1st, 2009


Cast of Characters

Cass…that would be moi. Disney fanatic since I was 3 when my parents first took me to WDW in 1975, ( Thanks mom & dad wherever you are! )
DIS junkie since 1997 (anyone remember this place when it was a one- page thread index?) and SAHM to Kira, my little princess who will be one month shy of her third birthday when we make this trip. I also take care of my beautiful 2-year-old niece Dani during the week and I work part-time running my own diaper cake business.

Rob, my amazing hubby who works way too hard and who desperately needs a break from all his jobs! He is an electronics engineer during the day but on weekends he turns into DJ Darkrobe, owner and president of Quests End Mobile Disc Jockey, a company he started when he was just 16 years old! Together with his best friend Sean, they spin tunes and entertain the masses 30-40 times per year. They are the best at what they do and although the hours are very long, I think they both enjoy being the best DJ’s in Calgary!

Kira, the archetypal 2 year old whom I am currently brainwashing into loving Disney as much as I do. She is a huge princess and by princess I don’t mean the cute, sweet, loving, generous kind of princess. No, no. I mean the I-tell-you-what-to-do-and-you-follow-all-my-rules-or-else-I-will-throw-a-huge-tantrum kind of princess.

Her favourite sayings are “NO!” and “I don’t think so!” and “Don’t touch me!” with a few “Don’t sing mommy!” and “Stop talking to me’s” thrown in for good measure. To say she has a bit of a ‘tude is an understatement. She has a lot of meltdowns and tantrums at home where everything is safe and familiar so I have a feeling there will be a good amount of them during this trip, hence the title of this report.

At the same time, she is so smart and loving and incredibly amazing and we love her to bits and we are extremely lucky and blessed to have her in our life.

I’m sure those of you who have two-year-olds (or are still sane enough to remember when your kids were 2) know exactly what I am talking about!

Here she is doing what she loves best...bouncing!

Supporting Cast

We are also traveling with some great friends, Sean & Bernie and their 2 kids Gary and Bailey so you will see them mentioned quite a bit in this trippie too.





I will leave this area for links to all the different chapters. I'm going to have to split them up quite a bit because I have tons of photos




Kira's Autograph Book


Day 1 Part 1

Day 1 Part 2

Day 1 Part 3

Day 1 Part 4

Day 1 Part 5



Day 2 Part 1

Day 2 Part 2

Day 2 Part 3




Day 3 Part 1

Day 3 Part 2

Day 3 Part 3

Day 3 Part 4



Two little videos from AKV Pool



Day 4 Part 1

Day 4 Part 2



Day 5 Part 1

Day 5 Part 2

Day 5 Part 3

Day 5 Part 4

Day 5 Part 5



Day 6 Part 1

Day 6 Part 2

Day 6 Part 3

Day 6 Part 4


Day 7 Part 1

Day 7 Part 2

Day 7 Part 3

Day 7 Part 4



Day 8 Part 1

Day 8 Part 2

Day 8 Part 3

Day 8 Part 4

Day 8 Part 5


Photopass Pictures Part 1

Photopass Pictures Part 2


Day 9 Part 1

Day 9 Part 2

Day 9 Part 3



Start of the Disney Magic Cruise, October 24th, 2009

Day 10 Part 1

Day 10 Part 2

Day 10 Part 3

Day 10 Part 4


Day 11 Part 1

Day 11 Part 2


Day 12 Part 1

Day 12 Part 2

Day 12 Part 3

Day 12 Part 4


Kira's 3rd Birthday Party Pics


Day 13 Part 1

Day 13 Part 2


Day 14 Part 1



Day 15 Part 1

Day 15 Part 2


Day 16 Part 1

Day 16 Part 2



Day 17 Part 1

Day 17 Part 2

Day 17 Part 3

Day 17 Part 4

Day 17 Part 5


Day 18 Part 1




Videos

The End

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm signing on. I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. Thanks for your contribution....I need all the help I can get since we aren't heading back to Disney until May, 2010.

 

[mebbradley]

I loveee Disney. And these reports keep me sane as well.

I can't wait to read more!

 

[Timon]

Day 1, Part 1

October 15th, 2009 - Travel Day, Checking-in to AKV


My morning started at 3 am, well it was more like 2:40 am because my internal alarm clock went off before my actual alarm clock. With only a few hours of sleep in me, I had no problem jumping in the shower because today was the day (finally!) that we were going to Disney World!!!!

Nearly two years of planning, I am excited for this baby to start!!

After I am done, I try to wake up Rob so that he can go shower. Not an easy task. We are both night owls, mornings are not our friends but at least I can be relatively functional considering we are getting up to see the Mouse!!! Not him.

After me yelling at him "If you make us late for our plane, you will be in BIG trouble Buster!" (being late for anything is the thing that stresses me out most in life!) he knew I meant business so he finally dragged his body into the shower!

I got dressed and finished packing my last-minute items and then Rob packed all our suitcases into the truck and then went and got Tim Horton's for himself. For you non-Canadians out there, Tim Horton's (or Timmy's) is an extremely popular spot for coffee and bakery items. Rob is completely addicted to Timmy's and unless I intervene, he will visit Timmy's 3-4 times in a single day!

You coffee drinkers out there will probably understand this addiction. I, however, being a non-coffee drinker, do not. It started off kinda cute, begging to stop at Timmy's every now and then but now it is just annoying! I cannot leave my house without him begging me to pick him up a coffee. And we cannot go anywhere together unless he stops for a coffee first.

So, since I knew that he would need his coffee fix, I told him to get it before we are ready to leave.

Just as he was getting back, my brother Ken pulled up so all that was left to do was wake up the princess.

She was very tired but also excited that the day we were going to "Dizzyworld" was finally here!

I dressed her quickly, said good-bye to our furry kids and then off we went

We took our vehicle to the airport because it was big enough to hold all of our crap and her car seat was already in it, so all we had to do was take it out when we got to the airport.

We got there at exactly the time I wanted to be there, right before the line gets crazy stupid for Customs Pre-clear.

So, there we were, just about to get in line to check-in with United and I looked at Rob with all of our stuff....

And I realized that I had a total blonde moment

Notice anything missing???

CRAP!! We forgot to take out the car seat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I frantically call my brother (thank goodness he answered!) and asked him to turn around!!! Rob got the car seat and back in line went. Crisis averted

By now though, the check-in for United was really busy and it took us about 20 minutes to get to the front. I begged and pleaded with the nice gentleman to find us 3 seats together as they had changed our planes and split us up. He was not very friendly but he did manage to seat us together so all was good.

So now we get in line for US Customs pre-clear and the line is MASSIVE!!!!!!!!! This was exactly why I wanted to get there at exactly 5am before the lines get crazy! We made it through no problems and then next up was the line for security.

What a pain it is to go through security with a toddler who doesn't understand the process and all the junk that we had. She had a bit of a fit when we had to put Louise (her bear) through the machine but we all made it through unscathed and barely in time to make the first call boarding.

So while I took a potty break, Rob grabbed yet another Timmy's for the plane and we boarded before the rush of people.

Since we had 3 carry-ons, a stroller and Rob's hot coffee, I asked Kira if she could roll her own carry-on.

Well, that started a love affair between my girl and that bag!!!

It took her a little while to understand just exactly how to roll it while walking but once she mastered that, there was no stopping her!

She HAD to roll it all the way to our seat and was very mad when she had to stow it under her seat in front of her.

We got to our seats early enough for Rob to attach her CARES belt to her seat and get us all settled in. We had showed her her "special seat belt" before we left so she was ok with the whole thing.

Grumpy pants begins

Ready for take-off

I have to continue this in the next post because I have too many pics already



.

 

[Amy7979]

I'm in!

 

[disgrits]

Woo hoo, sign me up! Hope y'all are feeling better!

 

[OurDogCisco]

Woo Hoo... great trip report!!!!

I remember those days in forgetting stuff. When my oldest who is 12 now was one we went on a NCL cruise and forgot to pack EXTRA baby wipes. I only had the ones in my diaper bag. I thought no big deal except the ship didn't sell baby wipes. Obviously, this was before they had a lot of families on ships. So, I figured at the next port we could get them. NOpe it was Sunday and all the stores were closed. So, we had a sea day inbetween and I finally got the wipes in St. Lucia. Let me tell you it was a trip we'll never forget. I felt bad for a our room steward because we had to get creative in making homemade wipes..

 

[Timon]

Day 1, Part 2

October 15th, 2009 - Travel Day, Checking-in to AKV


So we were on our first plane ride of the day....Calgary to Denver.

Hiding from the camera

I was worried about Kira getting bored on the plane so I bought her a whole bunch of new stuff to play with. Her little Tink bag was filled with things she had never seen before

Turns out we needed it before we even left the ground It took forever for them to close the doors and then even longer to back out and then we had to wait for the wings to be de-iced.

So while we waited for all that, Kira looked through her very first Viewfinder

I bought her some Little Einsteins slides as well as Dora and Cinderellas ones. She really liked these and it passed the time until we were up in the air.

She did well for most of the trip actually. She got super cranky about being in her buckle with only about 45 minutes to go so we let her walk around our feet. This is where I realized that we were in Economy Plus.

We had quite a bit of legroom and she was able to walk around very easily. It's not often we get something free in life so I was thrilled about being in Economy Plus I know, easy to please

She enjoyed looking out the window

and before we knew it, we were in Denver!

I checked out the dining options at the Denver Airport before we left so we knew we were going to be eating at Wolfgang Puck

The pizza was fantastic and the fruit was nice and fresh.

I love flying United to Denver when we have a connecting flight. They have their own huge terminal and everything you need is right there. No crazy long walks to change terminals (like we always have to when flying via Dallas, Houston or Chicago) and in case of a Tornado, we are totally safe

Off to our gate for our flight to Orlando, notice the bag?

Of course, Rob had to update his Facebook status

We found our gate and only had about 15 minutes to wait until the early boarding.

I asked Kira if she could take a picture with me but she freaked out when I lifted her up. She wanted her BAG!! So I had to lift the bag too LOL!

Ready to board our final flight..

And look a family shot from a nice lady who sat next to us!

Kira saw her daddy reading a magazine so she too wanted to read one.

She did OK on this flight, not as good as the first one but no huge meltdowns, just little ones. She was done being in the CARES belt, she didn't want to be buckled down anymore! Once again we let her out and walk around near our feet but we didn't have Economy Plus seats on this flight and there was zero room for her to maneuver.

Which brings me to my first pet peeve of the trip (ok, well perhaps the second since I did bring up my hatred for being late ) which is people who put their seat backs on short flights!

Ok, to begin with, I had very little room near my legs. My knees were almost touching the seat in front of me. So when the jerk...errr...I mean person in front of me put his seat back, the seat was literally on top of my knees!!!

And unless I put MY seat back all the way (which I never do!) I have no room to breathe!! After that seat came back, Kira could no longer look out the window and could barely even stand. In fact, when he guy put his seat back, Kira was behind that seat and ended up hitting her in the head.

Ok, rant over

Back in her seat she went and we tried to occupy her with Disney movies on my netbook

That second flight seemed to take forever! But we landed on-time to a wonderfully wet-looking Orlando

 

[misskate]

Joining in!

 

[hellokitty86]

Loving it so far! And I know all about needing to stop and change my Facebook status from my phone....luckily my husband does it too so he doesn't get annoyed with me.

 

[Timon]

Day 1, Part 3

October 15th, 2009 - Travel Day, Checking-in to AKV

We always had to wait till most people were off the plane so that Rob could go and unhook Kira's CARES belt, which was a pain but it was all good because it also enabled her to roll her beloved Tink bag off the plane without cutting anyone off.

We caught the monorail to the main terminal

and she found her first Mickey!

We found our luggage belt and thankfully everything arrived!

We paid the $4 for the cart (excellent investment with all our crap lol!) and made our way to Avis on the second level.

Rob loaded all our luggage into the rental van and then put Kira's car seat in while I checked the vehicle for dents and dings.

This was where Kira pretty much lost it. I really don't blame her, the poor kid was exhausted! We woke her up 4 hours earlier than she normal and she never did sleep on the plane. She was tired of being strapped in and she had her first meltdown of the trip.

It was tough trying to talk to Rob over the screaming but once we got on the road, she was gone in about 8 minutes just as I knew she would! As soon as she feels movement, she passes out if needed.

Ahhhh peace and quiet


We took the south exit to Disney because it's a great back way to go, never busy and very easy to get to Disney.

Off to Animal Kingdom Villas

This was taken the next evening, but it's the only one I took

Now, this was my little piece of heaven! I've wanted to stay here for a very long time now. As soon as they announced the DVC resort here, I knew this is where we would be staying on our next trip.

I rented some points from a very nice DISer (thanks Ellen!!!) for our first 2 nights because check-in for our condo was only on Saturdays.

Check-in was at Kidani Village and as soon as I entered the lobby I knew I was in love! It is just like AKL but more intimate, which totally works for this resort! Since it was just 2 nights, we rented a standard view studio. It worked out for us and we both LOVED this room!

We parked the van right next to the Rafiki elevator (parking here is underground, which has it's good and bad points) and took all our luggage up to our floor. Our room number was 7701 but we weren't on the 7th floor. I can't remember exactly but I think it was actually the 4th floor. So the numbers were kind of screwy but our room was nice and close to the elevator and the lobby, as requested, so we were happy!

I took some pics and video and then let my girl go crazy and explore. She loved exploring all the new hotels/rooms we stayed in.

The studio was GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!! I can only imagine what the 1-bedroom would be like! Even Rob said "Wow, nice place! Good job baby!"

Ok, well I got tons of pics and I can only post 25 in a single post so I will post the AKV room photos in the next part


....

 

[Dyerneeds]

underdog and his sweet polly checking in to follow your adventures.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was about to comment and then my computer shut down. By the time it rebooted you had already posted another update. Poor Kira, she was just so tired, she didn't know what to do except for have a meltdown. Sounds like a nap was just what she needed.

 

[CJK]

LOVING IT!!!!!! Long, tiring travel day for sure, but at least the day ended on such a positive note! I have a feeling that after seeing your pictures of AKV, I'll want to rent some points myself. You haven't lost your knack for trip reports!!

 

[Timon]

Day 1, Part 4

October 15th, 2009 - Travel Day, Checking-in to AKV



Here's some pics of the gorgeous studio we had at AKV.

Peek-a-boo!

She loved seeing all the hidden Mickey's I pointed out to her....


Carpet

bedspread

Shower curtain

Of course she had to test out her bed

I guess this would be a great place to talk about the room...


The bed was heavenly!!! I just melted right into it!!! The pillows were also soft and heavenly and there were actually enough of them for me, I like my pillows

Kira's bed was not so heavenly. It was rock hard and I would have been totally miserable if I had to sleep on it! Lucky for us she's really small and is not picky about her beds yet!

The view of the porte cochere at the front of the hotel bothered Rob a little bit but I didn't care at all. I kind of liked watching all the comings and goings at the front and honestly, we weren't out there much. If we had more time there and knew we were going to spend a lot of time in the room then the Savannah view would have been lovely but otherwise would have been a waste of money.


I also loved the bathroom! Lots of counter space and I can't tell you how much I LOVED the shower. The shower head was pretty good but what I really loved was the rounded shower cutain rod!! It sounds crazy but it was such a wonderful little touch! It kept the shower curtain off of me (wait till you hear about my adventures with the shower curtain on the ship!) and it made the shower seem so much bigger!!!

The little kitchenette was also nice to have, especially the fridge and the furniture was just beautiful! The BEST thing about this room was that it had so many plug-ins!!!!

Rob and I are electronics geeks and we always have so many things to charge at the end of the day. Usually we are fighting to find one spare outlet in a decent spot. Well not this time, everywhere you looked there were outlets galore!!! I'm sure a lot of people appreciate that little touch!


If there is anything to complain about it's that their TV channels suck!! But that's at every Disney resort, not just AKV, so really...I can't think of a single thing we didn't like at AKV!

The parking lot underground isn't my favourite thing but it was nice to keep our vehicle out of the sun!

The thing I didn't like about it was that we were right next to the lobby elevator but to get to the parking elevator, we either had to walk ALL the way down to the Rafiki elevator or walk through the lobby and then take another elevator down to the parking level.

Like I said, not a big thing really.

I did however love the fact that they had a Timon elevator

even if it looked like a 12-year-old did the painting



Ok, I will continue this later tonight. I need a rest as my head is killing me.

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

Great first day, Cass and I am loving all the photos! I saw Kira's "meltdown" photo after you finally go there and was reminded of a similar meltdown that my youngest had at the airport a few years ago. Also after we landed but they get over it quickly, don't they?

 

[Timon]

Day 1, Part 5

October 15th, 2009 - Travel Day, Checking-in to AKV

Ok, let's try to wrap this baby up!

After settling in at AKV, we were all starving!!! We were dying for some of those new chicken strips so we decided to walk over to Jambo House (AKL) and have some at The Mara.

Waiting for the elevator

We had a little bag from our Dis Tag in 2007 which worked great as a little diaper bag so we brought that with us and nothing else. Well Kira really wanted to carry it so I said sure. But since we had nothing to carry, I was laughing because it looked like we gave the two-year-old the bag to carry so we could be lazy!

I kept asking her if I could carry it for her but she said "Nope! My bag!"

Walking to Jambo House

The walk was awesome! The light at that time of the day was just beautiful. The temperature was perfect, not hot at all and it was a nice short walk.

Kira enjoyed walking around and exploring new places.


We made it to AKL and Mara and got some chicken strips and fries.


Now I don't know if it's because we were starving or because we hadn't eaten those strips in 2 years or because I have been eating so well and haven't had anything bad in quite some time but they were the MOST delicious thing EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We did not leave a single crumb on our tray!!! It was THAT good!!

We sat inside along the bench at the back of the restaurant where no one else was and Kira loved it! She kept walking and crawling along the bench back and forth to her daddy and the end of the bench. She was having so much fun.

We got a few dirty looks from people who I guess didn't appreciate Kira walking along the bench but her shoes were clean and she wasn't bothering anyone and she was happy, which isn't easy when we're eating

After our bellies were full, we walked back to our room and changed into our swimsuits.

I was really looking forward to going to this pool. I've seen pics of it online but they really didn't do it justice.

Spotting the Hidden Mickey on our way out

We got there just after 8 and found out all the spraying stuff stopped at 8pm but that was good for Kira because she doesn't like getting splashed plus there was no one else there in the kid area.

She loved playing in all the little pools

She didn't want to stay long in the small pools though, she kept asking to go to the big pool so off we went. This was a gorgeous zero entry pool, perfect for Kira!

She totally shocked me here!! I take her to the wave pool at home and she barely even wants to go in past her knees, even when the waves aren't going so when she went ALL the way up to her neck, I was just amazed!!!!


And it wasn't just once either, she kept on going and then when it got too deep she just reached out for my hands so I could make her float a little! She was fearless and soooooo happy!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just kept thinking to myself..."Who IS this kid?????"

She was just beaming!!!!!!!!!!! She was so happy she wanted to stay there all night!

I took advantage of her good mood and got lots of kisses

Look at this, she is putting her face in the water!!!!!!!!!!!! That is SO not my kid LOL!

And look how happy she is!!!

We stayed there for a couple of hours, going from pool to hot tub when she got too cold. Just a few minutes in the tub to warm her up and she wanted back in the pool lol.

Finally we had to go because it was getting late and she needed sleep.

Know what the first thing she did when we got back to the room?

Well, after we took off the cold wet swimming suit, that is?


You betcha....she got her Tink bag.

And the pic I took was one of my faves from the entire trip. I had to be creative and edit a little bit though











.

After getting a bath and jammies on, it was time for her bed. I was worried about her being able to fall asleep with us moving around the room and making noise (like in Edmonton in August) but she was snoring within 2 minutes of kissing her good-night LOL!

Rob checked his email and did a little surfing. I was so tired I passed out not long after Kira. And I slept so well in that glorious bed!!!

It was a very long, tough first day but she did pretty well, all things considered and the day ended so wonderful with AKV and supper and the pool and just the whole evening!!!!!!!!!

 

[misskate]

Yay for Kira "diving right in" with her swimming. (Bad pun, sorry! ) I'm glad you had a great, yet eventful, first day.

 

[cntkg1]

.

Bwhahahahahahaha!!!!!

Way to go Kira!

Lovin' the Trippie so far Cass. Great job sweets!

 

[Timon]

I'm signing on. I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. Thanks for your contribution....I need all the help I can get since we aren't heading back to Disney until May, 2010.

I totally understand...our next trip won't be for a very long time so I will have to read many trip reports!

I loveee Disney. And these reports keep me sane as well.

I can't wait to read more!

I will try my best to update on a regular basis

I'm in!

Woo hoo, sign me up! Hope y'all are feeling better!

Thanks Paige, we are slowly getting better!

Woo Hoo... great trip report!!!!

I remember those days in forgetting stuff. When my oldest who is 12 now was one we went on a NCL cruise and forgot to pack EXTRA baby wipes. I only had the ones in my diaper bag. I thought no big deal except the ship didn't sell baby wipes. Obviously, this was before they had a lot of families on ships. So, I figured at the next port we could get them. NOpe it was Sunday and all the stores were closed. So, we had a sea day inbetween and I finally got the wipes in St. Lucia. Let me tell you it was a trip we'll never forget. I felt bad for a our room steward because we had to get creative in making homemade wipes..

Wow, that must have been stressful!!! We did the same thing last trip with diapers, well we didn't forget them, we just didn't have enough. We ran out on our last flight and she had a very big diaper when we got home. I almost did it again this trip but got home with 1 diaper to spare

Joining in!

Loving it so far! And I know all about needing to stop and change my Facebook status from my phone....luckily my husband does it too so he doesn't get annoyed with me. :

LOL, I make fun of him all the time

underdog and his sweet polly checking in to follow your adventures.

Wooohoooo!!!

I was about to comment and then my computer shut down. By the time it rebooted you had already posted another update. Poor Kira, she was just so tired, she didn't know what to do except for have a meltdown. Sounds like a nap was just what she needed.:

Yup, that meltdown was totally understood and expected It was the unexpected ones that were really tough

LOVING IT!!!!!! Long, tiring travel day for sure, but at least the day ended on such a positive note! I have a feeling that after seeing your pictures of AKV, I'll want to rent some points myself. You haven't lost your knack for trip reports!!

Thanks hun, you are way too kind to me I highly recommend renting at AKV!!!!

Great first day, Cass and I am loving all the photos! I saw Kira's "meltdown" photo after you finally go there and was reminded of a similar meltdown that my youngest had at the airport a few years ago. Also after we landed but they get over it quickly, don't they?

Yup, I call her my bipolar baby....one minute it's the end of the world...the next she is happy as can be

Yay for Kira "diving right in" with her swimming. (Bad pun, sorry! ) I'm glad you had a great, yet eventful, first day.

I know eh! I was so proud of her!!!

Bwhahahahahahaha!!!!!

Way to go Kira!

Lovin' the Trippie so far Cass. Great job sweets!

Thanks babe! By the way, I asked her today if she remembered who got her her favourite bag and she did! She said "Naaaaaaancy and Tuck!!"