All Aboard the Crazy Train: A Jolly Holiday Adventure with Waldo - NEW 1/24!

[Disneyland_Mama]

Hi Friends! Welcome to my latest installment of my travels with my family and my crazy Dad, Waldo. Below are links to my other fabulous Waldo adventures if you’re so inclined to have a few belly laughs.


But first, a quick intro of our immediate traveling party. Now I say immediate because several friends climb aboard during our stay.

First there’s my immediate family:

Here’s the photo used in our New Year’s card. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t make it time to send out Christmas cards, so everyone got New Year’s cards.

DH, Andy, myself (T), and our children Maddie (10) and Evan (7)

We live in Southern California just a few miles from Disneyland. We’re all huge Disney fans, (some of us more recent than others…. coughcoughAndycoughcough) AP holders for the past 20 or so years and DVC owners. Our first trip to WDW was back in 2006 and we’ve been lucky enough to go back every year since.


Here are my parents, whom I affectionately refer to as Waldo and TE.

Traveling with my parents takes PATIENCE. Big time PATIENCE. Patience I know I don’t have, but I pretend I do have, which is never good when traveling to WDW. Let me just say that right now Waldo’s claim to fame is his ability to disappear in seconds, taking off on his own, not knowing where the heck he is going, getting lost and just plain annoying the heck out of me with his wandering shenanigans. My mother, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. She’s more of the turtle of the group, always lagging behind, stopping to smell the roses, clearly knowing rose smelling is NOT on my touring plan today.

We usually travel during summer, but I’ve always wanted to see the holiday decorations at WDW, so we decided Christmas would be perfect. Crazy, right?

Our traveling dates were December 14 through December 26. Just in time to get out before the real crazy started, so I though.


So you have the “WHO” and “WHEN” portion and now you need the “WHERE”, right? Well here’s where it gets all sorts of fuzzy. We decided we reeeeally wanted to spend at least one day visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP) and we reeeeally wanted to spend at least 10 days in WDW.

So I ended up with this kind of resort schedule:

DoubleTree Hotel at Universal Entrance – 1 night
Boardwalk Villas (2 Studios) – 3 nights
Animal Kingdom Villas – 2 bedroom – 3 nights
Animal Kingdom Villas – 1 bedroom – 4 nights
Caribe Royal – 1 night

Yep. That’s right. 5 resorts, 5 check-ins, 20 resort keys. UGH.

So, I think I’m ready to get this Crazy Train on the rails!

Your attention please! The Disney World Crazy Train now leaving for a trip around Disney World in search of sanity! Allllll aboard!

Do you sense a theme here?


Chapter One: Seriously? You JUST woke up??!!!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Sort of like the tables at the counter service places..... reserved, but nothing's there to eat.

Day One: 12/14 CHAPTER ONE: Seriously, you just woke up?

Day Two: 12/15 CHAPTER TWO: Hurry up, you darn Muggles!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Oh, this one looks GOOD!

And am I first!? This never happens!

Can't wait to hear all about your CRAZY TRAIN of a trip to Disney at Christmas! Isn't it just gorgeous!?

 

[PrincessV]

But first, a quick intro of our immediate traveling party. Now I say immediate because several friends climb aboard during our stay.

Here’s the photo used in our New Year’s card. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t make it time to send out Christmas cards, so everyone got New Year’s cards.

For the record, we enjoyed our NY card very much!

We usually travel during summer, but I’ve always wanted to see the holiday decorations at WDW, so we decided Christmas would be perfect. Crazy, right?

Maybe just a little... but we like crazy!

Sort of like the tables at the counterservice places..... reserved, but nothings there to eat.

Dude, don't make me call Carrieanne!

 

[mrsksomeday]

I'm aboard!! I can't wait to hear all about your trip. I love your writing style, I know this will be a great read .

 

[HomeschoolMama]

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Oh, this one looks GOOD!

And am I first!? This never happens!

Can't wait to hear all about your CRAZY TRAIN of a trip to Disney at Christmas! Isn't it just gorgeous!?

Hi and thanks for joining the crazy! It really was gorgeous, most of it was at least. Yeah, just a little foreshadowing.

For the record, we enjoyed our NY card very much! :

I'm aboard!! I can't wait to hear all about your trip. I love your writing style, I know this will be a great read .

Hi Tracy! Thanks for coming over!

Hi Dawn!


**************************************************
Working on the next exciting chapter!

 

[puggymom]

Here’s the photo used in our New Year’s card.

I loved it, thought it was a great idea

We live in Southern California just a few miles from Disneyland.

September baby!!!!!!

Let me just say that right now Waldo’s claim to fame is his ability to disappear in seconds,

I'm still laughing about the time I ran into your parents in Epcot on the Fockerfest trip and I noticed from the corner of my eye that Waldo was about to take off and had to warn TE

So I ended up with this kind of resort schedule:

DoubleTree Hotel at Universal Entrance – 1 night
Boardwalk Villas (2 Studios) – 3 nights
Animal Kingdom Villas – 2 bedroom – 3 nights
Animal Kingdom Villas – 1 bedroom – 4 nights
Caribe Royal – 1 night

OMG


Can't wait to hear about Potterland, will be there end of April

 

[jcc0621]

Here’s the photo used in our New Year’s card. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t make it time to send out Christmas cards, so everyone got New Year’s cards.

I loved it!

(some of us more recent than others…. coughcoughAndycoughcough)

You have taught him well

She’s more of the turtle of the group, always lagging behind, stopping to smell the roses, clearly knowing rose smelling is NOT on my touring plan today.

If it is not on the plan it doesn't happen. Doesn't TE know this by now??

Yep. That’s right. 5 resorts, 5 check-ins, 20 resort keys. UGH.

I'm still laughing about the time I ran into your parents in Epcot on the Fockerfest trip and I noticed from the corner of my eye that Waldo was about to take off and had to warn TE

I remember you telling us this


Looking forward to WWOHP too, all booked for August!

 

[glennbo123]

Oooo, don't want to miss this!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

December 14th arrived surprisingly rather fast. It has been 11 months since I made our room ressies, booked, canceled, traded and bartered ADRs and were ready! Ready, ready, ready!

Our flight was to depart John Wayne Airport at 8:45 am, and my brother and nephew had offered to take us to the airport. I called him the night before to confirm our AIS time at 6:30. You all know what AIS time is right?

Anyway, my plan was to wake up before everyone else and get myself ready and finish up my packing. I always leave one bag open for those last minute items, you know how that goes. I jumped in the shower and apparently Andy didn’t realize I was already in the ding dang shower and started his shower downstairs, which is right smack next to the water heater. Oy. You can see where this one is headed, right? Yes, I was the lucky recipient of a bi-polar shower. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Argh!!! What a way to start my day.

The rest of the gang woke up and by 6:20 we had all gathered in the front room waiting for my brother to arrive. My mother wanted to call him to make sure he was up, but I told her not to be a pest, of course he was up.

6:25 rolled around.

My left eye starts twitching.

6:30 rolled around.

My right eye starts twitching.

6:35 rolled around.

My eyes are twitching so bad I can’t even focus and my contacts are drying out.

Andy decides to call my brother, only to find out that the bonehead set his alarm for PM NOT AM!! Gah!

Luckily he lives just up the street, so he was here by 6:50. We loaded all of the luggage and I told him to floor it to the airport.

Thankfully, traffic wasn’t bad and we avoided being pulled over. The van behind us, not so much. (Sorry, dude!) I told my brother to pull up to Terminal A and he over shot it by a full terminal, so I just had him unload us all and we huffed it back to Terminal A. Check in was a breeze, as there was no line. No line? Yup, no line. We seem to be starting off good in the lines department.

As usual Andy got “the pat down”. Poor guy forgot to pull out Evan’s meds and they had to put in all in some fancy schmancy machine to get the “all clear”. Once we were all de-Humpty Dumpty-fied, ya know, put back together again, we headed to our gate.

Evan and I were walking and had a conversation that went like this:

Evan: Mom, what gate are we going to?
Me: Gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: Yes, gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: YES. GATE. NINE.
Evan: Ohhh, gate niiine?
Me:
Evan: Hehehehe… just kidding Mom.


We grabbed some McD’s for the kids & a blueberry muffin, croissant & coffee for Andy and I. Oh, and Evan wanted an apple. Two apples, to be exact. Do you know how much two apples cost at the airport? Let’s just say I could buy a freakin’ pie for the same amount. Well, maybe during Pie Month at Polly’s.

Soon after the airline made the same b.s. announcement about the flight being sold-out and overhead space would be really tight and would anyone like to check their luggage, free of charge. You don’t have to ask me twice… heck YA! So we scored with only having to pay for 2 bags heading to Florida. More ca-ching for the pool bar!

It was boarding time and Evan is a huge Angels fan, so naturally he was wearing his Angels baseball cap. The ticket guy was also a huge fan and stopped us to chit chat for awhile. A LONG while. I could hear the people behind us sighing and rolling their eyes. Yes, I actually heard their eyes roll. No joke, this guy chatted for like 10 minutes. We finally boarded the plane and were heading east! Not before my mother literally broke down into tears (she really hates take-offs) and freaked Maddie out. So here I am, sitting between a freaked out 10 year old and blubbering 75 year old. Love-freaking-ly.

Bye-Bye California!

Airplane Shenanigans!

The crying stopped and everyone settled down right around Arizona, thankfully. My stomach was rumbling, so I reached for my blueberry muffin. Oh that blueberry muffin. When you think of a blueberry muffin, don’t you think of a muffin filled with yummy blueberrIES? As in more than ONE blueberry? Nope. Not this one. This muffin was literally a blueberry muffin.

One measly blueberry.

At the VERY bottom of the muffin.

Lame.

We landed in Houston and I was starving. You know those cartoons when the character is so hungry that people start looking like steaks and turkey legs? Yup. Evan asked me something, but he kept turning into a chicken nugget every time I looked at him.

We stopped for lunch at our favorite café “Bubba’s Creole Café” at the Houston Airport. So, so good, as usual! We then headed off in search of our next gate and found a very crowded terminal, filled with mostly normal people and one seriously crazy lady. She was crazy. You know the type, the 50 year old who shops at FORVER 21 thinking it’s a promise, not just a store. She found this poor family, who barely spoke English, who were so excited to be heading to Florida for the first time all the way from China, to bother. They were all dressed head to toe in Mickey gear and she told them of all the other places they should go instead of Disney. Who does that?

We all boarded this mega plane and were all settled in when crazy lady came running down the aisle to her seat. A flight attendant, let’s call her Susan, Susan Happyflyer, came over to help her get her bag under her seat as she was clearly holding us up. She refused to put her bag under the seat, so Susan offered to put it in the overhead bin and crazy lady refused. Then she got on her phone and Susan asked her to turn it off and then she walked away. Crazy still didn’t turn her phone off, so Susan came back. It was getting heated, so Susan called over a co-worker. Let’s call the co-worker Anita, Anita Kickyobutt. Anita came over and got all up in Crazy’s face. Anita scared me. And apparently she scared Crazy because Crazy did whatever Anita told her to do. Anita ROCKED that plane. It was fantastic.

We arrived in Orlando about 20 minutes late, thanks to Crazy. We didn't care at this point, because we HAD ARRIVED! Everyone peed and we high-tailed it to the rental car counter, grabbed our contracts and headed to grab us some kick-butt Chargers. We walked up and down that stinkin’ aisle looking for one, but it just wasn’t meant to be. We ended up with 2 Chevy Malibu’s. Yawn. No offense Malibu owners.

The Not-Monorail, monorail!

Let me just say Andy hates driving. Ok, so he really just hates driving with me as his passenger. Whatever. He’s a scary driver. Love ya, honey. Anyway, the deal in Disney is I’m the driver, he’s the navigator. We jumped in our cars and I gave Waldo the “Keep up!” look. He gave me the finger. We headed over to the DoubleTree at Universal and naturally they got lost. My Mom called me all frantic, but she’s yapping so much about where she is and doesn’t let me talk so I hung up on her. I can’t take all that yammering, so by the time she realizes I’ve hung up, she’s got it all out and returns my call all nice and calm. This is just something I’ve learned. :thumbsup:

The Doubletree is really nice. Ok, it’s not THAT nice, but the night staff is SUPER nice and they have cookies. Yes, COOKIES. Legit, fresh from the oven, chocolate chip cookies handed to you in a cute little sleeping bag looking bag, upon check-in. Doubletree? You complete me.

At this point we were starving again. My poor little chicken nugget looking children were begging for some dinner, so we headed to the restaurant in the hotel. We peeked in and decided to find somewhere else. There was a TGIFriday’s across the street and while we were hesitant, hunger won and off we went. TGIFriday’s in California is notorious for bad service. Our server was obviously not from California. She was really great and after a long day of travel, we were grateful.

It was late, so we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest and a killer shower (NO PSYCHO), for tomorrow we head to Hogsmeade.


UP NEXT: KETCHUP!

 

[mrsksomeday]

I would have been freaking out about 6:35am . I am crazy obsessive about our ride to the airport.

I don't like the take offs either, but I don't get as upset as your Mom .

I would have been mad about the can't even call it a blueberry muffin.

Crazy lady from the Houston airport would have had me livid. Sit down, put your junk up, and turn your phone off. YAY for Anita Kickyobutt !!

I can't wait to read about your trip to Hogsmeade!!

 

[RunningGirl]

You know the type, the 50 year old who shops at FORVER 21 thinking it’s a promise, not just a store.

Thanks for starting my day with a HUGE ! Yes, I do know the type. And may I add that is some crazy resort hopping you've got going on! I hope Waldo and TE can keep up...

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

Evan and I were walking and had a conversation that went like this:

Evan: Mom, what gate are we going to?
Me: Gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: Yes, gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: YES. GATE. NINE.
Evan: Ohhh, gate niiine?
Me:
Evan: Hehehehe… just kidding Mom.

I love Evan.

We jumped in our cars and I gave Waldo the “Keep up!” look. He gave me the finger.

And Waldo

[
The Doubletree is really nice. Ok, it’s not THAT nice, but the night staff is SUPER nice and they have cookies. Yes, COOKIES. Legit, fresh from the oven, chocolate chip cookies handed to you in a cute little sleeping bag looking bag, upon check-in. Doubletree? You complete me.

Evan got his cookies!!!

 

[jcc0621]

You all know what AIS time is right?

Andy decides to call my brother, only to find out that the bonehead set his alarm for PM NOT AM!! Gah!

Thankfully, traffic wasn’t bad and we avoided being pulled over. The van behind us, not so much. (Sorry, dude!)

Oops

I told my brother to pull up to Terminal A and he over shot it by a full terminal, so I just had him unload us all and we huffed it back to Terminal A.

Whoa, your borther is 0 for 2 and he is still alive?????

More ca-ching for the pool bar!

Always a good thing

This muffin was literally a blueberry muffin. [/QYOTE]

Well, it wasn't false advertising was it? They didn't call it a blueberries muffin

Evan asked me something, but he kept turning into a chicken nugget every time I looked at him.[/QUOTE\

Poor Evan

, the 50 year old who shops at FORVER 21 thinking it’s a promise, not just a store.

Anita ROCKED that plane. It was fantastic.

Should have given here a round of applause!

He gave me the finger.

Oh, I just can't see this happening, not from Waldo

for tomorrow we head to Hogsmeade.

Can't wait to hear all about it. Jimmy and I have been reading so much about it for our trip!

 

[PrincessV]

Girl, you brought the funny, big-time!

You all know what AIS time is right?

Yes ma'am!

Evan: Mom, what gate are we going to?
Me: Gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: Yes, gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: YES. GATE. NINE.
Evan: Ohhh, gate niiine?
Me:
Evan: Hehehehe… just kidding Mom.

I can totally see this going down!

Oh, and Evan wanted an apple. Two apples, to be exact.

From the AIRPORT?!?!

Do you know how much two apples cost at the airport?

I'm guessing about the same as 2 bananas at a Disney hotel gift shop.

Evan asked me something, but he kept turning into a chicken nugget every time I looked at him.

You know the type, the 50 year old who shops at FORVER 21 thinking it’s a promise, not just a store.

Everyone peed and we high-tailed it to the rental car counter, grabbed our contracts and headed to grab us some kick-butt Chargers. We walked up and down that stinkin’ aisle looking for one, but it just wasn’t meant to be. We ended up with 2 Chevy Malibu’s.

Leo likes to point out the Chargers (as well as Camaros) in every parking lot. Every time he did, I felt badly for you, lol!

We jumped in our cars and I gave Waldo the “Keep up!” look. He gave me the finger.

...tomorrow we head to Hogsmeade.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Oh, this is going to be a fun ride.

 

[HomeschoolMama]

Hi Dawn!

Evan and I were walking and had a conversation that went like this:

Evan: Mom, what gate are we going to?
Me: Gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: Yes, gate 9.
Evan: Gate 9?
Me: YES. GATE. NINE.
Evan: Ohhh, gate niiine?
Me:
Evan: Hehehehe… just kidding Mom.

He kills me!

We all boarded this mega plane and were all settled in when crazy lady came running down the aisle to her seat. A flight attendant, let’s call her Susan, Susan Happyflyer, came over to help her get her bag under her seat as she was clearly holding us up. She refused to put her bag under the seat, so Susan offered to put it in the overhead bin and crazy lady refused. Then she got on her phone and Susan asked her to turn it off and then she walked away. Crazy still didn’t turn her phone off, so Susan came back. It was getting heated, so Susan called over a co-worker. Let’s call the co-worker Anita, Anita Kickyobutt. Anita came over and got all up in Crazy’s face. Anita scared me. And apparently she scared Crazy because Crazy did whatever Anita told her to do. Anita ROCKED that plane. It was fantastic.

Love the names!!!

I gave Waldo the “Keep up!” look. He gave me the finger.

Man... The things I missed out on with no daddy.

 

[DisneyJo]

Here’s the photo used in our New Year’s card. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t make it time to send out Christmas cards, so everyone got New Year’s cards.

I'm still waiting for mine

Once we were all de-Humpty Dumpty-fied, ya know, put back together again, we headed to our gate.

OMG love it. T you have the best sayings

I think your journey sounds almost as long as ours which is crazy!!!

 

[Cory's Gal]

Following along! Love your writing style, and I knew I would follow anyone who uses "AIS"!!!!!

~Beth