So that's why you packed 10 pairs of underwear!!! A Surprise trip Nov. 13

[BridgetR3]

Hey guys!!! We were blessed this year to be able to finally see Disney at Christmas time (well it was actually Thanksgiving week) and boy is it gorgeous!! Wow, just wow....I think we need to go at that time just about every year! Before I dive right into the story of our secret, our surprise, and our super special trip, I will go ahead and do a few quick introductions!



Me - Teacher by day, obsessive Disney planner by night.....If I had a nickel for every time I hear my hubby tell one of his friends or family, "Oh just ask my wife to plan your Disney trip" I could go back to Disney!!

My favorite ride is either Little Mermaid or Figment. I'm not into the thrill rides at all. I used to love them until I blacked out on one and have been afraid of them ever since.

My favorite character is Steamboat Willie.

I love Disney shorts as much as the real Disney movies. Paperman is my favorite short by Disney.

DH - He works REALLY hard to pay for my addiction. Thankfully he is slightly addicted as well which works out well when I plan 3 trips in 365 days......

His favorite ride is probably Soarin or Test Track. He is a thrill ride junkie and he hates that I won't ride with him.



DS7 - He is my sweethearted Goofy child. He found himself singing and dancing his way through Disney this time. So many times I would stop and video him as we would go because he is constantly "busting a move". He wants to live IN Disney.

His favorite ride before this trip is Splash Mountain. This did change mid-trip.

He loves Disney movies and uses his toys to recreate his favorite stories in his room often. He would make a great story writer when he grows up because his imagination is huge!



DS11 is my studious child. He works really hard in school and makes great grades. He loves video games but is not a thrill ride person. He would much rather ride It's a small world over Test Track.

His favorite ride - Peter Pan....

Well there you have it!! That's us! I'm so excited to share our story with all of you! For now though, I have to go get DH from work!

Table of Contents - Because I forgot to save a spot for it in the next post

Travel Days
Arriving at AKV-Jambo
MVMCP
Carols, Cookies, Cocoa and a secret CM
Carols, Cookies, Cocoa and a secret CM part 2
A Spot for Wishes
Finally our room at AKV
MK morning
Be Our Guest Lunch
MK Afternoon - Space Mountain with the lights on!!

MK Afternoon Part 2


MK Afternoon Part 3


Headed to Epcot


DH realizes we will miss the Epcot Christmas stuff (AKA men don't listen)


Japan Pavillion and Teppan Edo dinner


Future World Fun


Making our way to O'hana

 

[Mousemommy1]

Reading along! Cute family!

 

[DawnFeiss]

I'm checking in this will be the second trip I've read of yours. Just loved the last one. But I must confess I was a lurker

 

[BridgetR3]

Reading along! Cute family!

Awww thanks!! I do think my boys are cute but then again I'm biased!

I'm checking in this will be the second trip I've read of yours. Just loved the last one. But I must confess I was a lurker

Thanks for reading along!!! I'm glad you decided to say hello!!



Funny little story to go with this post.....I made the thread and then rushed off to get my DH and grab dinner. (He does have his own truck but he had work issues so I had to go ferry him to his truck.) ANYWAYS.....I was a little worried because NO ONE had responded to my thread at all. So I came in here to type up the next part and realized that I had not subscribed to my own thread!!!

Yep, that's how I roll!!

 

[BridgetR3]

Travel Days

Our little white lie was that we were "following Daddy to work since he had to go to a meeting in Mobile, AL". My DH works away a lot and typically when we are out of school, we do follow him. However, he rarely ever (unless it is an emergency) works weekends and we were leaving to go to the "conference" on a Wednesday evening. DS11 is always an analyzer and he kept trying to figure out the conference and how long we would be away. He was sure we would be coming home Saturday.

We picked Mobile, AL because the furthest we have ever gotten on day 1 when we start after school is the border of Mississippi/Alabama. We were certain that this was a good place to pick and if we didn't make it that far we could easily sleep over telling the kids we would finish up our drive the next day.

However, for some reason on this evening we made unbelievable time. We crossed no accidents, no stalled cars, no holdups except rush hour traffic in Baton Rouge and even that didn't slow us down too much. As we were crossing the MS/AL border, I knew that we were going to be able to go MUCH further than Mobile, AL if we had some way to change the meeting. SO.....DH texted a coworker who called him to say that the meeting had been moved to Pensacola, FL. The boys completely bought it - hook, line and sinker. You see, DH receives these calls and texts all the time. We have actually had times where we are an hour or so away from the conference and he gets a call that there is an emergency at home so we turn around and drive the 6 or 7 hours back home. So far, so good.....until......

We get to Pensacola and are still making GREAT time!! So we quietly drive through all of Pensacola "looking for a hotel". We continued "looking for a hotel" for the next 1.5 hours as we raced down I-10. My boys are so gullible!

Finally we stopped and rested. In the morning, we would tell the boys the truth!

Here's a link to my reveal video on youtube....


Disney Reveal Video

And with that we made the rest of our journey to Animal Kingdom Lodge!!

 

[maryr1oz]

That's such a cute reveal

 

[wiigirl]

Following along.

 

[DopeyDonald]

Following along too. I've lurked on Trip Reports forever, but had to comment on yours too - my kids too, are SO gullible. That is so funny that you were able to string them along for that long "looking for a hotel". My kiddos would be SO easy to surprise - only one problem - I cannot keep a secret to SAVE my life!!

Cant' wait to read more

edited after I watched your video - that was toooo cute. It actually made me really want to make it through and surprise me kids one day. What a great surprise! I love watching the looks on your boys faces as they processed everything - and a surprise Disney trip is A LOT to process - lol. How fun!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Surprising your kids is the BEST!! What a great start! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[BridgetR3]

That's such a cute reveal

Thanks!! We had a great time surprising them but I am VERY glad that I don't have to keep a secret anymore!!!

Following along.

Thanks for following along! I'll be back with a short update in a little while.

Following along too. I've lurked on Trip Reports forever, but had to comment on yours too - my kids too, are SO gullible. That is so funny that you were able to string them along for that long "looking for a hotel". My kiddos would be SO easy to surprise - only one problem - I cannot keep a secret to SAVE my life!!

Cant' wait to read more

edited after I watched your video - that was toooo cute. It actually made me really want to make it through and surprise me kids one day. What a great surprise! I love watching the looks on your boys faces as they processed everything - and a surprise Disney trip is A LOT to process - lol. How fun!

Their reactions and faces were worth the effort it took to keep it a surprise! I'll have to share about that in a minute as well!

Surprising your kids is the BEST!! What a great start! Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for hanging out! It really was the best but I don't think I could ever do it again. It was so hard not to say anything!

 

[BridgetR3]

SO in my haste to go get my DH yesterday, I forgot to share about how our secret was almost blown before we even left.

I teach at the school where my youngest attends. For some reason, we, teachers, were awarded a duty-free lunch on the day I was to leave. It was so nice to sit and visit with adults only at lunch. Upon walking back to my student table, the volunteer who was watching my students said, "You might want to be careful because "Lil' Suzy" here is talking about where you are going." I totally freaked out. Well, I would find out that one of the other teachers who works with my students slipped up and let my WHOLE class know where I was going.

Each and every day, my son comes to meet me in my room after school so I was so worried about someone spilling the beans to him!!! Thankfully I was able to leave a little early and pick him up on my way out with no one sharing our secret!

 

[BridgetR3]

After telling the boys about Disney, we hopped in the car and hit the road. I was ready to be there already! Florida is the longest part of our trip and I didn't have much patience for it! Luckily we did not hit any traffic jams or accidents!

Soon we were seeing the porn signs and we knew that we were getting closer! That's our clue that we are almost to the toll roads! In Florida we see two kinds of signs - pro-life signs and porn signs. ANYWAYS....on with my trip report!

FINALLY we were at Animal Kingdom Lodge and I got to say the greatest words, "Yes we are checking in." The attendant at the gate sent me to the Jambo house. We pulled up and were immediately greeted by castmembers who called us by our last name. (I love that! Silly I know....) We unloaded ALL of our bags. Do you know how many suitcases it takes when you have summer and winter weather all at the same time?? I have never packed so much clothes in all of our trips!

DS7 and I were escorted inside while DH and DS11 went to park the car. I was slightly disappointed that our lobby was not decorated for Christmas at all.

THere was a small wait for an online check in attendant. As we were walking up to the attendant, DS7 starts hollering that he "has to pee NOW!!!!" The sweet CM lady who was with me actually offered to walk him to the restrooms and wait for him right outside the door for me. This saved me the trouble of leaving line since at this point I was still alone. As soon as they got out of site, DH and DS11 walked up so I sent them to relieve the sweet lady who was with DS7. I tried to tip her after checking in but she said that they were not allowed to accept tips.

At check-in we found that our room was ready and that it was close to the lobby. We were told that something magical would happen to our hotel while we slept that night. Yay!! We would be able to see the decorations after all.

We took our luggage tag with room number to bell services so that they could bring our luggage up as we had a party to attend. Just for reference, we arrived right around 4 p.m.

We took the elevator up to the 5th floor and got to walk across the suspension bridge! My boys were super excited!!



Poor thing!! You can't really see lil' bit's head! They were off to find our room.



I was fascinated by this and took a picture of it which actually wins an "argument" about it later on in the week when DH FINALLY notices it and tells me about this "new thing" they just put up in the lobby.

So we get to our room and notice from afar that a Mousekeeping cart is next to it. No big deal....they must be cleaning the room next to ours. We get a little closer and see the sign hanging on our door that it is in fact OUR room that is being cleaned.

About this time, our luggage arrives to our room in the hall. We weren't really phased by it and simply asked the bell hop to hold onto our luggage but he.....well, he was furious. He knocked on the door and asked the lady cleaning how much longer she would be and she answered 20-30 minutes. He immediately took out a cell phone and began making phone calls. We could only hear his side of the conversation but he was extremely upset that we had been given a room number for a dirty room. He valiantly tried to get us upgraded into any other room but was unsuccessful. He then told the person on the other end of the phone that they were going to comp us $100 for all of our troubles. I didn't know that we really had troubles. I mean after all we were at Disney and my room would be ready in 30 minutes!

We all headed back down to the front desk and they made us point out the guy who checked us in. (Poor poor guy I'm sure got reamed when we walked away.) I felt so bad for having to "tell on him". We were told to hang tight for about 30 minutes and our room would be available. In the mean time, they activated my room alerts and off we went.

First we went to the gift shop where we found......



noise makers of all types!! Kids all week long loved these bongos and other noise makers. I don't think I could work in that store.

Then we played tic-tac-toe.



Cat won many many times.



Finally we got bored with that and moved on.



Weird light fixture thingy....

We headed back to the lobby and I took a picture of the lights!



Love those!!

O.k. so it's been more than 30 minutes and I still haven't received a text but I do know where our room is so I head off to check if mousekeeping is still there.

Up to the 5th floor and off to our room.....I would have just gone to the parks at this point but we had bought special shirts for our boys to wear to the Christmas party this evening and DH wanted to change out of his "travelling clothes". Score! There is no cart at our door and no sign on the door at all. SO....I try my handy dandy magic band on the door. Red light.....try it again....red light. Shucks, back to the front desk. Maybe our bands aren't working.

At the front desk, the new CM takes my information and my MB and goes to the back through a door. Just a few minutes later, he comes back and says that my room will be another 20 - 30 minutes. Earlier, I didn't mind but now I was starting to get upset. I let him know that this is exactly what he told me 40 minutes ago and he apologized.

After talking to DH, we decided that we would rather be at the party, shirts or no shirts rather than wait around in the lobby missing it all. Looking back, I have realized that I probably could have asked for our luggage again and changed in the bathroom of the lobby but I didn't think about it right then.

And we were off to our first park of the trip! Hopefully our luck would improve!!

 

[ZehnJahren]

I'm here! I just saw that you started!

So, that was such a cute surprise video! Your boys seemed so shocked but were still super cool about it! When the little one was like "not at Disney, right?" I just thought that was too adorable. I would have had the same reaction.

The room thing would have chapped my hide. I'm ok with waiting for my room, especially if I have other things to do. But to say the room is ready - when it isn't even close, then have to wait 20-30 minutes - and wait 40, then be told AGAIN it's going to be MORE time? I would have been pretty pissy by that time. Glad you decided to just GET OUT OF THERE!

I love the AKL lobby. I'm thinking of staying there after my "mom and me" trip next fall, for just a couple of nights. It smells so good at that resort.

 

[Deesknee]

SO in my haste to go get my DH yesterday, I forgot to share about how our secret was almost blown before we even left.

I teach at the school where my youngest attends. For some reason, we, teachers, were awarded a duty-free lunch on the day I was to leave. It was so nice to sit and visit with adults only at lunch. Upon walking back to my student table, the volunteer who was watching my students said, "You might want to be careful because "Lil' Suzy" here is talking about where you are going." I totally freaked out. Well, I would find out that one of the other teachers who works with my students slipped up and let my WHOLE class know where I was going.

Each and every day, my son comes to meet me in my room after school so I was so worried about someone spilling the beans to him!!! Thankfully I was able to leave a little early and pick him up on my way out with no one sharing our secret!

So so happy the surprise wasn't ruined! After all that work keeping that secret!!
I love the reveal! Both of their reactions were unbelievable. They are both so sweet.

I can't believe the issues you had with your room. They did give us a little bit of a run around with the, it'll be ready in x amount of minutes, then it wasn't, then it wasn't, then it was.

I can't wait to hear about your room & the boys reactions to the animals. Oh, and how the Christmas party was. I hope you all loved it.

Telling you, the packing of clothes thing... so much easier when you have a washer & dryer in your room... dvc hint hint.

 

[BridgetR3]

I'm here! I just saw that you started!

So, that was such a cute surprise video! Your boys seemed so shocked but were still super cool about it! When the little one was like "not at Disney, right?" I just thought that was too adorable. I would have had the same reaction.

The room thing would have chapped my hide. I'm ok with waiting for my room, especially if I have other things to do. But to say the room is ready - when it isn't even close, then have to wait 20-30 minutes - and wait 40, then be told AGAIN it's going to be MORE time? I would have been pretty pissy by that time. Glad you decided to just GET OUT OF THERE!

I love the AKL lobby. I'm thinking of staying there after my "mom and me" trip next fall, for just a couple of nights. It smells so good at that resort.

Thanks!! We thought the reveal was hilarious because they were so shocked!! I wasn't upset about the dirty room but I did get upset about the time it took (remember we haven't received the "room is ready" text yet....)

I love the lobby too but didn't notice the "smell" you are talking about. However, the Beach Club has a smell that is unbelievable!!!

So so happy the surprise wasn't ruined! After all that work keeping that secret!!
I love the reveal! Both of their reactions were unbelievable. They are both so sweet.

I can't believe the issues you had with your room. They did give us a little bit of a run around with the, it'll be ready in x amount of minutes, then it wasn't, then it wasn't, then it was.

I can't wait to hear about your room & the boys reactions to the animals. Oh, and how the Christmas party was. I hope you all loved it.

Telling you, the packing of clothes thing... so much easier when you have a washer & dryer in your room... dvc hint hint.

Oh the room thing was super frustrating for me. I even lost it a little after we got on the bus and I posted about it on FB. I think you replied to that status. It just wasn't a good start to a trip but thankfully it did get better.....much better!

I'm working on DVC. I think 2014 is our year.

 

[BridgetR3]

We were headed to a park but first, FIRST, we had to find the bus stop. That's right folks, we had no clue where we were headed. I knew that technically we were on the 3rd floor so I suggested that we go down to the first. We did and ended up at the pool. We knew that on the third floor we could at least get to the front of the resort so back up we headed. DH just knew that you could get to the bus stop through the gift shop so we headed that way. He led me to the grocery side. I stopped at the door to the outside and said, "Shouldn't we go out here?" He said no and we kept going to the WALL. Yep that isn't it either. Clearly, folks this was NOT our finest day.

At last we went out the door in the gift shop and followed the sign outside that pointed to the bus stops. We both decided that they needed a little better signage at least for us slow people!

When we turned that corner, we could see buses so what did we do? We ran of course. Getting closer, we could see that it was a MK bus so we ran a little faster and hopped on as he was closing the doors. Bus so far!! Would this last?

Before we could even leave the resort to get onto a street, it started to rain. What a sorry start to my vacation!! I was frustrated because we had spent all of the extra money to go to the Christmas party and here we were running late, without our Christmas shirts, and it was raining. Like I said earlier this was clearly not our finest day. I remember posting something on Facebook about how hard it was not to be in control of our circumstances. Then I remembered that the trip was paid for, life would go on and I was at Disneyworld.

By the time the bus got to MK, I was in a better mood and had a completely different perspective. Sure, it wasn't perfect but honestly not many people get to experience a MVMCP much less Disney twice in a year with that. I remembered that we truly are a blessed family and off we went to make some magic.

We got off the bus and headed to Guest Relations to get our tickets. Now, even though I had purchased the tickets way back in early May, I had never ever received any kind of confirmation number, e-mail, etc. about my purchase. Yes they were charged to my account but that's all I had. So I was a bit worried about them not showing up in the system. As we walked up, DS7 decided he needed to potty so DH took the boys to the bathroom and I was thankful for some quiet to check on our tickets.

I stepped up to the window immediately and the lady asked my name. I gave it to her and she asked if I was sure I had tickets for tonight. I told her that I was sure. She assured me that we would find my tickets. She then asked my email address and I gave it. Still no tickets.....she asked for an id. She tried my physical address I believe. Still no tickets.....I am beginning to be with worry that we spent the money and can't get into the park. Now I'm not typically this crazy but for some reason, this day was just one thing after another!!! Finally, as a last resort, she asked if I had the credit card with me that I used to purchase them. Luckily, (THANKFULLY) it was in my purse! I pulled it out and handed it to her. She swiped it and VOILA I had tickets! WOOHOO!!! That was the longest 10 minutes of my life! I guess because I had purchased them over the phone they did not connect with my online account. It didn't matter because I had tickets!!!

We tried out our new magic bands at the gate. (DS11's turned blue but we were too excited to care.) We got our wristbands and moved onto the party!!

What would we ride first? I wanted to ride People mover because that seems to be a tradition but the boys won out and we rode......



This picture was taken at 6 p.m. so two hours after we started the check in process, we were FINALLY in a park!!

I rode with DS7 and DH rode with DS11. About halfway through the ride, I hear DS11 screaming, "I GOT IT!!! I GOT IT!!!" I spun our cart around and asked what he had gotten. He had......




WOW!!! He was so excited.

After Buzz, I got my wish! Peoplemover!! It was still raining quite a bit so there was a line for Peoplemover. As we got into line they roped off the escalator and didn't allow anyone else to go up. I think they were having trouble loading and people were still going up getting stuck on the moving escalator. However, after just a couple of minutes we were on our way!!



DS11 proud of his poncho



DS7 was too excited to be on the ride for him to look at me.

It was almost party time but we were hungry so we decided to hop into Cosmic Rays and grab dinner. I had the rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans.



LOVED this as usual! It is a favorite of ours on every trip!

We noticed that the cookies and hot cocoa were being set out as well but we didn't grab one just yet. We had more to do before the night was over!

Now I know that most people go to the Christmas party for the unusual characters more than the rides. I had intended to meet some of the characters but being it was our first day at Disney, my crew had other plans!

After dinner, we decided to head towards Pirates to see what we could ride along the way. First up, walk on It's a Small World.



One day, I will get a table at one of THOSE windows and I will wave at every boat that goes by. It is seriously on my Disney bucket list!

Here's a small tribute to our ride on It's a Small World.....













Never noticed that we have cowboys.....



and indians (Native Americans) on the last wall.



New screens were up in the good-bye scene. I don't remember these from this summer. I'll have to check my pics to see if they were there in June.

Next up - More rides, cookies, cocoa, carols, and secret Cast members!!!

 

[JulieODC]

One day, I will get a table at one of THOSE windows and I will wave at every boat that goes by. It is seriously on my Disney bucket list!

We totally lucked out on our last trip in Nov. and scored a table window overlooking Small World -- it was so fun, and kept DD entertained while we ate lunch!

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Nice update Bridget

AKL is our favorite resort.

We also love the people mover. It is a favorite.

Nice! Score on Buzz. I beat my family this past June and it was a little victory for me. I need to hit that mark next time we go.


Looking forward to more.

 

[BridgetR3]

We totally lucked out on our last trip in Nov. and scored a table window overlooking Small World -- it was so fun, and kept DD entertained while we ate lunch!

How lucky!!! I always try to get a window seat but they are so popular!! That just means we will have to go back many many times to fulfill that one!

Nice update Bridget

AKL is our favorite resort.

We also love the people mover. It is a favorite.

Nice! Score on Buzz. I beat my family this past June and it was a little victory for me. I need to hit that mark next time we go.


Looking forward to more.

Thanks!! I did enjoy AKL but sadly, it was not a family favorite. In fact, around day 2 or 3, DH looked at me as we walked through the lobby and said, "I miss home." (He meant Beach Club.) In all fairness, this was his resort choice in the beginning but he did really regret the decision throughout the trip.

On our second MK day, we had a special surprise on the Peoplemover.

I wish that were my score on Buzz. I can never seem to get a lot of points on it. However, I'm better than almost all of them at Toy Story!!

 

[AlohaAnnie]

I did enjoy AKL but sadly, it was not a family favorite. In fact, around day 2 or 3, DH looked at me as we walked through the lobby and said, "I miss home." (He meant Beach Club.) In all fairness, this was his resort choice in the beginning but he did really regret the decision throughout the trip.

I completely understand Sad that you missed Beach Club, we had that feeling last June when we stayed at BCV, haha! I wanted to be at our home AKV Kidani back in our one bedroom with our beloved animals outside our window. So I understand completely. Can't wait to hear more.