$1000 and 2 minutes of marching

[t&m+5]

First let me apologize for any remarks that seem to suggest we don’t appreciate the mouse… it is quite the contrary!!

Every two years, my son, Will’s high school band marches at Magic Kingdom. This is his 2nd and last time to march with the mouse. Hubby and I are extremely proud parents and having grown up in Florida, have many a fine memories of trips to Disney. I can say without too much embarrassment that the first time he marched; I did turn to many strangers with tears streaming down my fact saying “that’s my son!”

This year we began to plan early for the trip and reserved a house in Davenport (I think) off of HWY 27.

Now this house couldn’t be just any house, we needed a LARGE house to accommodate my family. Give me a second to set the stage (read requirements) for you:

Nana and Poppy – need their own room and bathroom – do not like to share baths and say with age comes the wonderful ability to wake up at night to use the facilities.

Aunt G, Uncle and Ryan – need their own room and bathroom, must be king sized bed, in the middle of potty training the smartest 2 yr old since, well, since Will!

Cookie and D – Ryan other grandparents – also must have their own bedroom and private bath – came along to support Will and to celebrate Ryan’s 3rd Birthday.

Mom, Dad, Austin (11), Paige (10), Petey (8) and Timmy (4) – need 3 bedrooms – one must be king with private bath and one of the other two needs twins for Paige and Timmy and most importantly must have internet access for us to work (I know this is supposed to be a vacation but I can’t help it).

Now this is a very tall bill but we found the perfect house – 3 king suites, 1 queen suite and 1 queen that shared a bath with 2 twins. The house also had a heated pool and a garage with guy toys – pool table, air hockey, etc.
This trip has a little of everything you can hope for in a family vacation: pirates aka Spanish soldiers, condos, ‘shampoo’ the whale, bottlenecking at check in, spontaneous decisions that spell disaster, electric scooters, sorry service, parades, parking lot tours, Alaskan swims, pool sharks, running out of gas, blown tires, short cuts that add hours to trip, fevers, tossing of stomach, stalkers. But most importantly, it served as proof that it isn’t a birthday party unless someone cries and it’s not a vacation without a visit to the doctor.

Let’s start with the beginning…


Day 1 – Mad Rush and tears

Somehow I convinced Dad to leave a day earlier than planned. My justification was that since we already had tickets for 4 of us and the house was paid for already, it wouldn’t be a big deal to leave on Wed after school instead of Thursday morning. Dad did like my justification and agreed that if I could find a place to stay, get someplace for Will to stay so that he won’t oversleep and miss getting to school in time to leave for Disney, get to the doctor before the trip (upper respiratory infection), get to the bank, get the dog to the puppy hotel and pick up the kids from school, pack all while working for a full day that we could go early. I guess he had forgotten that I enjoy a challenge! The queen of multitasking got busy and completed the entire list with only a couple of minor setbacks. My dog came to the office with me so that I could get things lined out for the morning and secure a reservation for the dog, he got nervous and decided to mark my office as his own (this part I did not tell dear Dad, I didn’t want to see him smirk!). After a quick stop at the bank and the kennel, I was back to work to finish my day. When time for school to end for the day, I left for the drive thru (missed lunch due to other errand), grabbed the kids, ate lunch while waiting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, got my RX dropped off and headed home.

What should have been an easy packing turned into another nightmare! Three loads of laundry later, I had all seven of us packed to go, had Paige in tears over God know what, and was yelling at everyone to get in the car and smile because we are going on a fun vacation and there would be no crying. Finally, all loaded we headed for the pharmacy to pick up my meds, 5 minutes later we are back home having forgotten Dad’s sunglasses and our cell phone chargers. Once again we were on the road only 1 ½ hour behind my invisible schedule. Not to worry, we can make up the time by a quick drive thru for supper. By the time we get to the South Carolina/Georgia line, I have a list of items we needed from Walmart. Back in the car with new swim suits for Paige and Austin who have both grown since last summer, we are now in vacation mode – everyone is laughing and teasing each other. The kids are excited about the pool and can hardly wait to get to the house. Our last visit to weather.com suggest mild temps for our stay with the best day being Sunday which luckily is the day Will marches.

By midnight we are at the World of Golf for the night. We had rented a condo there for the night.

I must regress to explain that our daughter had a different life before coming to our family at the age of 8. She has had traumatic experience and the first time we went to Disney, we stayed at the resort in one of the Pop hotels. She wigged out and refused to sleep at a hotel. I am talking about extreme fear that took hours of holding, reassuring, and blocking doors and windows with furniture before she cried herself to sleep. Anyway, we now stay only at homes or condo because she feels safer but still get up at night to check the doors and windows.

The King and Bear is a wonderful complex, we made a very big deal about the security gate and she was fine, we made the rounds of checking the windows and doors together. I would highly recommend staying here and would rebook in a heartbeat!! Two bedroom, 2 bath, kitchen, dining room, living room with pull out sofa bed, plenty of room. We quickly unloaded and commented on the cold wind thinking it must be a fluke.

We all were tired from a very full day and quickly fell to sleep.

Next up… Day 2 – Pirate aka Spanish Soldier

 

[Adi12982]

subbing

THANKS for sharing!

 

[Temair]

subscribing

 

[Lauralee131]

Count me in for this ride too!!

 

[t&m+5]

Up and car repacked by 10 am then off to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. 1 hour later the cranky 4 yr old is full and asking for the pirate castle. As we arrive at St. Augustine’s Fort, Timmy leads the attack. He is convinced that the Spanish soldier is a pirate and after arguing with the soldier, I finally convince the soldier that he is really a pirate (I offered to leave Timmy with him and he was quickly convinced). The kids were amazed at how hard the mattresses on the bunks were and that 2 grown men had to bunk together. As lunchtime approaches, the novelty of the fort diminished. Back to the car we go! Orlando here we come!! We convince the kids to eat a late lunch in
Orange City. Sonny’s BBQ and several bathroom visits later we are again on the road.

Check in time is 4pm and at 335 we pull into the reality company’s parking lot. I figure that there shouldn’t be a problem getting the key but was made to wait until 4pm. I was smart and waited inside leaving dear Dad in the car with the 4 stooges!

By 430 we are at the house, snagged our room, unloaded and waiting on the rest to arrive. The kids have taken over the garage playroom and the noise they were making had to be heard across town.

After all have arrived, the first dilemma presents itself – what to do about dinner? Nana seems to think that everyone should do the same thing but is quickly outvoted. Paige has a meltdown about God know what and Nana takes her turn at trying to convince Paige to be happy because we are on vacation. Everyone is looking at me to see why she is crying, I can only shrug my shoulders. Aunt G requests the pleasure of Timmy’s company to give Ryan someone to play with and we secretly smile as we agree. Little does she know of the breakfast and lunch cranky child… Dad, Mom, Austin, Paige and Petey head for Disney Village while everyone else goes to Sonnys BBQ.

We spend the 20 minute ride trying to convince Paige that it will be fun and that she will enjoy herself if she can just relax. I keep reminding myself and Tom that her doctor said that any change (good or bad) in routine will throw her off and scare her. The boys are troupers and encourage her to relax. By the time we arrive, all tears are gone, frazzled nerves are soothed and excitement has replaces anxiety.

The brisk air is unreal! We comment several times on not remembering it being this cold in Florida. Shopping is overwhelming – I just know people were staring at us walking around with our mouths hanging to the floor. There was so much to see and Disney stuff at every turn. The kids were crazy running for display to display – people must have thought we have never been to a store the way the kids were acting. Having read the DisBoards, I knew that the Rain Forest Café was worth checking out – too bad I didn’t read the entire posting because you need a reservation to eat there – they were soooo booked! We ended up eating at Wolf Gang Pucks place which was surprisingly good and quick. Most of the seating is outside and they placed space heater things to help keep us warm. I had the BBQ chicken quesadilla; Tom had the rotisserie chicken, Paige chicken finger and fries and the boys had pizza. By this time Paige has forgotten ever being upset, so Dad and I can relax and enjoy the evening with the kids. We visit Goofy’s candy shop – very neat! Paige and Austin chose to make a slushy by choosing a topper and bottom for their cups and taste about every kind of slushy available (this is free so I highly recommend taste testing!) and Petey chooses jelly beans.

We wander through more of the stores and decide that there is too much stuff to choose from and head to get a drawing of the kids. We chose the black and white with shading and the artist does a fantastic job, expensive but worth the cost. The kids loved it and had a blast trying to crack each other up as they took their turn sitting for the artist.

Hungry again we stop for Ice Cream Sundaes – we split 2 between the 5 of us because they are soooooo big! The traditional hot fudge and a caramel don’t last long!!

Paige and Petey purchase some toys and Austin decides to think and look again tomorrow. Cold, tired, and full – we head to the house to sleep.

Next up.... Spontaneous adventures

 

[IkeandMike]

Sounds like a blast. Can't wait to read more.