18 take on the World for Birthday surprises, some first times and a lot of fun!!

[lshaw6]

I haven't been to Universal yet so I am looking forward to hearing about that. Sorry it wasn't a good day for you there. I think I can guess what comes next. I love Planet Hollywood's food...but the music is so loud! My girls tell me I'm getting old...haha. Gotta love those trips to the Orlando Walmart. We shop there every time for bottled water and soda, goodies and to find neat souvenirs. How does it feel to be back at work/school now? It always makes me ready to plan my next trip...lol. Anxiously awaiting another update.

Lisa

 

[Piglet4Ever]

Good report!! Hope your daughter had the best birthday ever!!

 

[DizzyErin]

I haven't been to Universal yet so I am looking forward to hearing about that. Sorry it wasn't a good day for you there. I think I can guess what comes next. I love Planet Hollywood's food...but the music is so loud! My girls tell me I'm getting old...haha. Gotta love those trips to the Orlando Walmart. We shop there every time for bottled water and soda, goodies and to find neat souvenirs. How does it feel to be back at work/school now? It always makes me ready to plan my next trip...lol. Anxiously awaiting another update.

Lisa

Hahhaha never good when your kids tell you, you're old
Being back to normal sucks .. i always get the holiday blues! But will start planning the next

 

[lshaw6]

Hahhaha never good when your kids tell you, you're old
Being back to normal sucks .. i always get the holiday blues! But will start planning the next

I agree, being back to normal does suck. I have the holiday blues myself! It does help to start planning the next trip, just wish I had an idea of when it would be. I was talking about it last night and got the collective eye-roll from my daughter and husband. If they'd only let me move to Disney World....lol. I do want to try and fit Universal into our next trip so that will add to the planning and hopefully make it even more exciting! I am going to do a picture collage of our Disney trips and hang it on the wall over my computer. That will give me something to work on for a bit so maybe that will help chase the blues away for a while.

Lisa

 

[DizzyErin]

Up bright and early unfortunately the sky wasn't bright .. horrid clouds looking like they were bringing rain but we're English we're used to that so off we pile into our 3 cars for our very first day at the parks.

Off to Universal .. about 30 mins away .. parked in Jaws
Then the looong walk from there to the park .. i do love it though, walking along passed all the restaurants!
Tickets out and everyone in, quick measure up of the smallest peeps and we know who can go on what.

Down the street and we see some fave characters

Although the kids were not convinced Shaggy was actually a man and on closer inspection i had to agree i have to say i have seen better Shaggys

Then off down the road and a bus drove past with these guys on it

Hahahah they were fab, really played around with all the kiddos
Off to the E.T ride ... ahhh how i love this ride!
Unfortunately in the line for it i started to feel a little unwell, very sick and just plain blleecckk
Did the ride, everyone loved it .. even better when you have an Elliot riding with you heeheee
Came off and here came the rain, unfortunately i felt sicker and sicker but being the CF i am i did not want to stop or for anyone else to stop!! So everyone goes off to the Barney show except Me My cuz and baby as he needed feeding, Chloe (she decided she was too old for Barney) Bf and her DD9
By the time the show let out i was about ready to explode .. we will gloss over the next section, my dad and Bf took me home and i was sick alllll day!!
The kids had a good but very wet day, came home early and had a controversial swim in the pool .. Cue big row, biiiiggggg!! My SIL is not a very flexible or tactful person, and even in my sick bed i got pulled into this, she basically told my bf that the 4 older kids could not go in the pool as her DD wasn't allowed!!!!
BIG row, with Sil, Bf and my Mother basically tellling her she was mad hahahhaa and that it wasn't up to her what our children did .. During all of this my poor dad and bro were picking up the b'day cake that i had ordered from publix and they were taking it to T-Rex for surprise b'day dinner!
Next drama .. It seemed as though Cuz's DD5 had fallen forward in her stroller and had a suspected broken arm
Thankfully she hadn't and came home from docs in 1 piece .. my bf offered to do all the balloons, streamers and birthday banner hanging for me as i couldn't leave the bathroom for long so i took myself to bed as i could take no more and after all it was time for The Birthday Extravaganza the next morning

 

[lshaw6]

Omg, you poor thing. I can't imagine how awful that ride back to the house must have been for you. Wow, your SIL sounds like she wanted to be in control herself there! I'm curious to see what her behaviour was the rest of the trip seeing as how your mom and BF were quick to put her in her place! T-Rex must be big for birthdays...that is exactly where we took Ben to celebrate his while we were there and they came out several times to sing to different kids. The pics of Chloe are so cute, I had no idea Shaggy and Scooby were there. Guess I'll have to explore that park a little more. Ok, back to patiently waiting to hear about The Birthday Extravaganza!!

Lisa

 

[tttessa]

Hiya -

sorry you were ill out there, hope things got better quickly.....

Can't wait to read more- great trippie....

Tessa

 

[DizzyErin]

Omg, you poor thing. I can't imagine how awful that ride back to the house must have been for you. Wow, your SIL sounds like she wanted to be in control herself there! I'm curious to see what her behaviour was the rest of the trip seeing as how your mom and BF were quick to put her in her place! T-Rex must be big for birthdays...that is exactly where we took Ben to celebrate his while we were there and they came out several times to sing to different kids. The pics of Chloe are so cute, I had no idea Shaggy and Scooby were there. Guess I'll have to explore that park a little more. Ok, back to patiently waiting to hear about The Birthday Extravaganza!!

Lisa

Oh boy that ride back was the longest ever, believe me! I had not been that ill in a long time, obviously had the same as my neice did on the plane, it was horrid.. Hmmm SIL got no better unfortunately, i had 2 tasters of the behaviour pre going to Fl but i have to say she really outdid herself this time!

Hiya -

sorry you were ill out there, hope things got better quickly.....

Can't wait to read more- great trippie....

Tessa

To be honest my stomach still hasn't recovered and i was in pain for a good few days with barely any appetite .. I made it through the next day only because it was Cj's b'day

B'day day coming up

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Erin! I'm finally caught up - sorry I've been missing - just too busy to DIS this week. I'm so sorry your trip started out with so much sickness - and then the fights - who needs that! I hope to see things getting better. Your stomach bug sounds like what we got in Mexico. I hope yours doesn't last as long as mine did. I wasn't really normal for 6 months.

 

[DizzyErin]

Hi Erin! I'm finally caught up - sorry I've been missing - just too busy to DIS this week. I'm so sorry your trip started out with so much sickness - and then the fights - who needs that! I hope to see things getting better. Your stomach bug sounds like what we got in Mexico. I hope yours doesn't last as long as mine did. I wasn't really normal for 6 months.

Thanks Tammie .. yeh not the best start i have to agree, thankfully it got better, although there was a constant atmosphere with SIL, but that i knew would happen anyway!
You know i'm still not back to normal, stomach wise .. bright side have lost 10lbs due to it hahahahah

 

[DizzyErin]

After a good nights sleep for everyone it was an early start .. Breakie was booked for 8 a.m then the plan was to go to MK for the day. So somehow i managed to drag myself out of bed with my lil b'day girl with me!! Now i knew moving 18 people at once was not gonna be easy however i am a CF so i was going to try my best!!
Everyone was up on time, good start! It went a little downhill after that with the littlies .. so i had a fairly stressful drive there, i was a passenger today as i wasn't well enough to drive and i am NOT a good passenger! so as we got through the main gates of The Grand Floridian Bf and i hopped out to leg it in to tell them we were here and left the others to park .. Thankfully they were ok with us being a little late, apologies to anyone out there who got held up by us
So we made it, a little late but we were there, now this was a SURPRISE for Cj, she knew we were going for breakie but not where or who would be there, as she walked in she looked at me and said "Oh mummy this is so lovely, is Mary Poppins here??" To which i replied "Yes she is" and feeling like the best mummy ever we went in for our family photo

I'm behind the birthday girl,(trying to look as normal as poss) my folks are on the front row, my bf and hubbie to my right (in the pic) and my cuz and hubby to my left, with my aunt next to them, my bro the tallest on the right, Sil and dd in front of him
So as we are getting ready for the photo the doors open and i see .... Winnie the Pooh?? What the?? And Tigger?? Oh man at this poing a teeny tiny heart break occurs inside me as we have booked breakie with them later in the holiday and i had JUST told my baby that Mary Pops was there ... And then of course Disney did not disappoint me, not only were Pooh and Tigger there but then we saw Mary Pops, Alice and The Mad Hatter

Who were all amazing, maybe with these characters it may help to be English heehee .. no honestly they were great and lots of fun.
Baby S looved all the characters but as soon as the fluffy ones showed up that was it, he was in love

The food was great, so i'm told especially the smoked salmon as E9 told me i however stuck to fruit as i was still very dehydrated.
Surprise no 2

She absolutely loved it, everyone sang Happy Birthday, she ate it all up, enjoying every last bite!

Bill paid and we're ready to hit MK for part 2

 

[tttessa]

Wow -

looks absolutely wonderful - glad Mary P was there - we found being from the UK provided the Mad Hatter with lots of "ammo"... "la de dahhhh - how deeeelitefulllll to meeeeeeeeeeeeet you" I remember best..... So much fun when you get really good character interaction. And Alice was always looking round going - "I am from England too , you know. So many adventures since then, you haven't seen a very peculiar rabbit have you...."

Did the choccy slipper taste as good as it looks????

Tessa

 

[DizzyErin]

Ok what the heckas happened to my last post????
Tessa it was obviously here for you to read .. i came here and it has gone?? Wher did it go?? Did i do something wrong??


Ok and now it is back again ... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm weird weird weird

 

[DizzyErin]

Wow -

looks absolutely wonderful - glad Mary P was there - we found being from the UK provided the Mad Hatter with lots of "ammo"... "la de dahhhh - how deeeelitefulllll to meeeeeeeeeeeeet you" I remember best..... So much fun when you get really good character interaction. And Alice was always looking round going - "I am from England too , you know. So many adventures since then, you haven't seen a very peculiar rabbit have you...."

Did the choccy slipper taste as good as it looks????

Tessa

Yeh it was great .. the kids had Mary P telling them "Spit Spot out of your seats for a picture" And that Cj was now too old for a nanny hahah to which my mother (nanny) replied "Never" hahahah
And of course i told the Mad Hatter that it was my 'Unbirthday' heehee to which we had lots of fun with about tea parties and how we mustn't invite Alice because she just makes a mess hahahahah They were fab!!

I'm assuming it did, my cuz's little boy kept poking it to get at the choc in the ship, so Cj gave him a sail and sent him on his way and gobbled the lot!! Hahha not expensive either

 

[lshaw6]

So glad everyone had a good time, you got some great pics. That chocolate slipper does look yummy. What a great way for Cj to start off her birthday!

Lisa

 

[DizzyErin]

So bills paid and everyone ready for the next adventure we head out, Chloe had asked to go to Mk for her b'day day. Now for us we only REALLY know we're in Disney when we hit Mk and see Main st and of course the castle, so off we go, following some great advice from Jillian we decided to take the monorail to make our life easier with all the toing and froing we were about to do.
As we went upstairs to catch the monorail, the sky opened and started to rain again!! Grr park day no 2 and more rain now we're English and used to rain but we did not want to do Mk in the rain!!
Anyway so we all get ponchos and macs on and get on the monorail.

Once we arrived at MK we headed straight to Fantasyland as it was chucking it down still and we were trying to think of places to hide inside and amuse the small ones!

So we headed straight to Philarmagic, a huuuge fave for me and Cj and now a new fave for our first timers! Then straight over to Small world as there was no queue, still raining a little .. love Small world and of course we spent the rest of the day singing the song came out of small world and the weather was looking a little better, heading straight for Peter Pan again no queue .. hmmm maybe the rain was working for us not against us!
As we came out of Peter Pan, the sun came out and really came out, we were then all boiling, i forgot my sunnies, forgot cj's hat hahhah useless mother!
Quick stop to feed baby and for Cj to take a few random odd pics

and we headed over to Winnie the Pooh ride after this cuz decided to take the kiddos home for a rest so the 6 of them left and we carried on of course had a good look around the Pooh shop as we came out of there and waited for others we caught these guys doing a song .. they spotted Cj's t-shirt and badge and pulled her over for a quick Happy Birthday serenade .. which she loved

After this we decided to head to Toontown and pop and see if Mickey or Minnie were at home
We had a great wander around both houses and then headed to meet Mickey, by this point SIL was having slight behaviour issues with M4 (the jetlag hit the littlies) so her and my bro stayed out of this bit and walked her around in stroller in the hopes she'd have a snooze
So in we went to see Mickey .. who was there with Minnie yayayyaya had lots of fun with them, they both noticed cj's badge and shirt so made a fuss and she had a very special b'day dance with Mickey

More in part 3

 

[lshaw6]

Wow, Cj will have so many neat things to remember about this birthday. I can imagine by the end of this day you will be falling into bed again. It looks like it was an enjoyable day so far, other than the rain.

Lisa

 

[3D's]

What a great trip report!! I hate to travel with anyone other then my DD(12) so major props to you for going with SO many people. Your SIL sounds like she's pure joy to be around..haha..
I am a single mother too & nothing brings me more joy then to make her very happy..
Can't wait for more great reading & fabulous pics..
I hope you felt beter quickly into your trip!!
Lisa

 

[DizzyErin]

Wow, Cj will have so many neat things to remember about this birthday. I can imagine by the end of this day you will be falling into bed again. It looks like it was an enjoyable day so far, other than the rain.

Lisa

Thanks Lisa, yeh believe me i did .. We had a great day, definitely 1 to remember

What a great trip report!! I hate to travel with anyone other then my DD(12) so major props to you for going with SO many people. Your SIL sounds like she's pure joy to be around..haha..
I am a single mother too & nothing brings me more joy then to make her very happy..
Can't wait for more great reading & fabulous pics..
I hope you felt beter quickly into your trip!!
Lisa

I love going on holiday with family and friends, Bf and i have taken the kids awy every year for the last 4 years and always have an amaizng time, unfortunately the bone of contention is SIL .. she is a law unto herself and drives me insane, oh well whatcha gonna do????


Ok i posted the next part of the story and was ready to post last night when my computer froze, kicked me off and wiped the whole lot!!
So i will be back when i have done it again

 

[karajeboo]

Hey Erin! Just found the continuation of your PTR!

I had no idea you had a SIL issue..... Why must they do this to us???

And also didn't realize you were flying with a "chicken." I am a chicken flier too, but haven't yet tried meds for it. I just get scared when I fly. I never had this problem until Ally was born now all I think about is all the "what ifs." What if the plane has a problem. It can't pull over to a cloud and call AAA to come and help out. Stupid stuff like that. I guess being a CF makes it hard for me to turn over control to the pilot....

Looking forward to more!!!!