The No Distractions, Never say Never and let's eat a garbage can while we're at it TR

[justakrazymom]

Ok before I get going if you want to know more about who I am or who the cast is you can read the PTR here.

So let's get going!!

Details: Vacation is from Sept 13-Oct1 ( yep I am still not home). We would be at The Boardwalk Inn Sept 15th and 16 and POFQ Sept 17-27. We were due to arrive in the Orlando Area on Sept 14th but had not made any reservations because that's just how we roll!

Ok ready??

Day 1.. we are outta here!

So originally we planned to leave on Sunday the 16th..but between the room only discount I got at the Boardwalk and our desire to just LEAVE we ended up heading out on Sept 13th.The few days before we had major drama and it was iffy if we were even going to be heading down on time!

For this leg of the trip it was just Eric, Myself and the 3 littles. Now mind you..we drive.. its about 21 hours driving time..oh and I do NOT drive on the highway.. and I am the worlds worst passenger. So before the trip I bought a big bottle of Fireball Whisky and filled a flask..yep.. I did. It was def a huge help! So when you see me refer to Fireball.. you are now in the know!

7am on Sept 13th Noah went off to work.. 8am we finished showering and loading the kids up:

We had a really easy drive..well for Eric..me.. the first 3 hours of the drive resulted in about 6 shots of Whisky..don't judge ( LMAO)..

This bridge alone was a 2 shot deal..

7 hours in and the kids are still troopers..I swear they complain more in the 5 mile drive to Walmart than they do on the 1250 mile drive to Disney!

Potty stop and we decided to let them play tag for about 20 minutes in the dark..

We loaded em back up and headed on down the road..

Day 2.. we arrive!!

after 23 hours in ( and out) of the car we were close..

after horrific traffic getting past Orlando we arrived in the Downtown Disney area.We had no reservations anywhere...

We decided to try one of the 7 Downtown area resorts.. Doubletree Suites.. The kids and I stayed in the car and I sent Eric in to see if they had a room for us..mind you it was like 8am..lol.. they DID! It was $89 for a one bedroom suite.. and it was ready..score! Bonus they give ya warm cookies when you check in too!

we got settled then walked to Downtown and had Earl of Sandwich.. I forgot the camera this day...we walked around then came back and napped..

We took the kids swimming, where I had the worst Rum n Coke ever..yuck, walked back to DTD..came in and crashed...Mind you we had to avoid the hard sell on timeshare guy every time we went into the lobby..but we managed to!Plan was to be up and out of the room by 7:30 and head off to The Boardwalk!!

Up Next..We go Deluxe!

 

[15isto2]

Great report so far, thanks

 

[luckylady]

Wow i cna' tbelieve you all did that long drive in one shot. Kudos to ya. Did my eyes deceive me or is your vacation almost one month long? Score if it is.

 

[reyasmommy]

I can't believe you drove that far in one shot to. Now I don't feel so bad about us making two stops along the way coming back home on our upcoming trip. We have 1800 miles to drive and are making three stops to Orlando. I don't think my kids would last over 11 hours in a car. Your kids look so well behaved. Your pictures are great, can't wait to read more. ((I love Disney Road trip TR's)) I"m so jealous you're there right now.

 

[MissPrice]

Joining in

 

[justakrazymom]

Wow i cna' tbelieve you all did that long drive in one shot. Kudos to ya. Did my eyes deceive me or is your vacation almost one month long? Score if it is.

We are used to it.. we just drove home from outside Savannah yesterday.. 980 miles in 16.5 hours . We were gone 19 days

 

[justakrazymom]

I can't believe you drove that far in one shot to. Now I don't feel so bad about us making two stops along the way coming back home on our upcoming trip. We have 1800 miles to drive and are making three stops to Orlando. I don't think my kids would last over 11 hours in a car. Your kids look so well behaved. Your pictures are great, can't wait to read more. ((I love Disney Road trip TR's)) I"m so jealous you're there right now.

Mine are ANGELS in the car..seriously..they are better behaved for the 17 hours to GA or the 23ish to FL than they are on the 8 min drive to Walmart..lol

 

[justakrazymom]

Saturday morning (9/15/12) we got up early.. I had done online check in for The Boardwalk and told them I'd be there by 8am..and I meant it! I was so hoping our room would be ready. we grabbed the few things we had in the room at DoubleTree and headed out. It was an easy drive and before too long I got to see this:

If anyone else was driving by at the same time they saw a 37 year old in the front seat of a mini van squealing and bouncing with delight..yeah..that was me.. and I don't care who saw me..I was happy to be back in my Happy Place officially!

The grounds at The Boardwalk are amazing.. we parked and headed in..we on;y had 2 bags so no need for bell services.

Our room was ready.. score! The nice lady checking us in was even surprised..it was 8:03am! she gave us the map and sent us on our way.. um.. we got more than a little lost and ended up on the actual boardwalk:

I was a tad frustrated..lol..we ended up asking th CM at the food kiosk that sells the pretzels and soon we were in the right area lol. once we were in the right area we still couldnt find our room.. the little signs were not listing it... asked a CM and bam.. there we are ( BTW the front desk lady should not have said to go outside to get to the building.. going thru the building was easier and we wouldnt have gotten turned around.

We had a ground floor room!

Ziah was VERY impressed:

that couch folds down to a nice twin bed.. Declan loved it!

Loved the rug in the hall!

We settled in the few items we had and went and grabbed a snack then...

up Next.. Exploring we shall go!

 

[justakrazymom]

double post..sorry

 

[justakrazymom]

I totally completely forgot to post this! So that Friday...while we were at Downtown Disney Noah and Piff had their Ultrasound and my gran baby is a BOY!! Alexander Deric ( Xander for short)..so of course I had to head right to World of Disney and buy this:

 

[justakrazymom]

A big part of why we added 3 NO park days to our trip was to explore. So much time is spent running from attraction to attraction that we don't get to see much else. So after we settled in at The Boardwalk we headed to the bus stop and grabbed a bus to MK.

We arrived at MK and let's just say walking PAST the entrance was mighty hard.. but I managed. All Taejan wanted was to see a geyser and since we don't have many in Western Mass we knew Disney could help us out!We got in line for the boat to Wilderness Lodge. Of course pin trading happened while we waited.

Bye bye MK:

Hello Wilderness Lodge!

Hello geyser

Not realizing it only goes off once an hour ( my bad totally) we decided to look around a bit first.

We did some more pin trading, explored the lobby and store and then we had a yummy snack:

"Mom..these cupcakes are really good"

we finally made our way back to the geyser to find out we missed it..and it was going to be 50 minutes until it went off again..sorry Taej...mama messed up!
We hopped on the boat back to MK..at this point it started raining..not much..but ya know.. we got a little wet..such is life in Disney in Sept:

oh please note the socks and crocs..dont judge my fashion backwards youngest son.. the crocs rubbed on his foot and this was his solution..lol

humm...where shall we go next?

Up next.. Exploring part 2!

 

[ChitownFamily]

This is great! Can't wait to read more

 

[justakrazymom]

Once we were back at Magic Kingdom we hopped a bus for Art of Animation. I have been wanted to see this resort so badly. Be warned..I took a LOT of pictures and I intend to post each one

the themeing is amazing.. I love the bright, in your face stuff!

Of course there was pin trading.. see that cross bag Declan now has? Got that at Wilderness lodge.. it was a lifesaver for my pin obsessed son! 1000 times better than a lanyard!!

Ok here we go.. the resort We walked around the entire place.. I am in love..I seriously wish the suites were not so expensive..

Disney did not miss a trick here..

Even the pools were great..honestly except for not having a waterslide they kick butt!

Up next.. More AoA

 

[justakrazymom]

This is great! Can't wait to read more

thank you..more just posted!!

 

[justakrazymom]

After seeing the Cars section we headed off for more.. I really loved this place. I am a big fan of the POP in your face animation style of Pop and now AoA.. I FEEL like I am in Disney.

my kids were not happy ( well the youngest) because I wouldnt let them play. Told them the play area was for AoA guests and we were not! It was actually very busy with people...and I wanted to move along!

Oh Pop.. I miss thee.. last year we looked at AoA from Pop..this year we did the opposite. At this point the plan was to walk across the bridge after we explored..but that would change..darn heat and humidity!

We were super impressed with the amount of greenage..it was so rich and beautiful!

Ok I let them check this one out..

Up next..AoA part 3

 

[justakrazymom]

Yep..more AoA pictures..

anyone else think Sonya from Operation Repo and Ursala were seperated at birth?

Notice the faces on the boys..they were beat..it was HOT ( and I think it rained a bit more..so steamy too).. we had planned to get a snack here or at Pop..but that wasn't gonna happen!

So the heat and humidity won..seriously people..it's HOT and it rains and it humid and it can mess ya up.. make sure you don't let it get you down! It def didn't us.. as much as I plan pre-trip..I am mega go with the flow once we are there..so instead of our "plans" we hopped another bus

and...

Up next...where are we now?

 

[Jacqui]

Hmmm, to stalk or not to stalk!!

 

[justakrazymom]

Hmmm, to stalk or not to stalk!!

Humm..tough decision I bet

 

[justakrazymom]

When I last left you we had just left AoA and hopped another bus to somewhere from MK. Before I continue I want to say that so far, yes it's only day 3, things are going great. The kids are behaving, Taejan has not had a meltdown ( anyone remember last year??) and not having a stroller is DA BOMB!!

Ok so we hopped that bus and ended up:

We hopped on a boat with the intention of taking it to BWI..we got as far as The Swan and Dolphin stop and once the Captain told us how long until we were at BWI we jumped ship..literally. It is a 3 minute walk to BWI from there...

We got back to the room ( ha we found it..easy..going thru the interior walkways!) just in time too..

we waited for the storm part of the rain to be over and the kids did some pin organizing while they waited:

Then we headed down to the main pool..I mean it was warm and the kids were already gonna be wet anyway right?

I have to say this pool freaked us out in pictures.. well the clown did...but once we were there it didn't bother us in the least. My daughter went from being scared of it to yeppie the clown pool in about 3.1 seconds!

They had a BLAST.. seriously a great pool!!

Eric and I snagged a table to stay as dry as we could..lol..I then had the first of many adult beverages..which was way better than the nasty thing we had at the pool bar at The Doubletree!

after the swim we.....

 

[justakrazymom]

Oh and here is where I say this.. the last year of swim lessons were worth their weight in gold! Last year Ziah was still a struggling swimmer and Taejan needed a swim vest.. this year.. they were both fish ( Declan has been a fish for a few years).. I even texted the kids swim instructor and thanked her! Being at the pool with little to no worries was a huge perk of the trip!