1st Family Trip to Disney: Characters, rain, and fireworks...oh my! 6/25-7/2

[southern_redhead]

I guess I should start by explaining *who* we are. Our not so little group consisted of Myself (33, second trip to Disney but the first was an afternoon in the 80's ... can that really count?), DH (35, first time to Disney and I'm not sure he had any idea what to expect), SS (15, first time to Disney, he wasn't sure that he wasn't far too cool for a "little kid" place like Disney and NINE days away from his girlfriend?! Would the world continue to rotate on it's axis?) DS 12, DD 8, DS 7 (to save space they are all first time Disney visitors.) Each of the younger three was looking forward to different things. For ODS it was the waterparks, for DD it was the rides, and for YDS it was MICKEY MOUSE.

~ The Beginning - Planning and Organizing our way to Disney ~

We (I) decided to head to Disney this year. We don’t have many times of the year to choose from, what with school schedule and all, so we chose to go the end of June. June 25 – July 2, to be exact. That’s right – one of the hottest and most crowded times for Disney. Any Disney veteran will tell you to avoid June – August but, alas, those folks must have more time at their disposal August – May than I do. So, we (I) set about planning.

First, I bought our tickets. My husband’s oldest son would be traveling with us this year which meant buying six tickets. Trust me when I say that tickets were one of the more expensive components of the trip when I started looking. Then, someone told me about a program called Youth Educational Series (YES for short) where your children got to take a short class and everyone in your party got greatly discounted tickets. Sign us UP! We ended up with six tickets that were 6 day park hoppers with the “waterparks and more” option on it. WP&M allows you as many entrances to the waterparks or DisneyQuest as you have days on your ticket, so we ended up with 6 visits to either of the two waterparks or DisneyQuest (or a mix there of.)

After that, I just had to track down a place to stay. On property was out, we would have needed three rooms to accomodate our entourage and give everyone the space they need. Unfortunately, Disney thinks much of their rooms and the cost of 3 rooms in their “value” resorts was more than a night in a condo. So, we booked a condo. I found a really nice 3 bedroom/2 bath condo that was listed as 2.5 miles from Disney. Now, 2.5 miles here in Podunk, USA might take about 5 minutes in a car, 2.5 miles in Orlando…….takes a decade. Well, no, it takes about 20 minutes but that feels like a decade when you are on your way to the “Happiest Place On Earth”! Still, for the cost I was willing to suck it up. Also, in my mind, we were going to save a fortune on food since we had a full kitchen at our disposal. Bwahahahaha! More on that, later.

I also scheduled some ADRs. Apparently, if you want to eat a sit down meal IN the World you must let them know well in advance. Totally. Worth. It. After much debate with myself, and because I was paying out of pocket for the pleasure of dining on property, we ended up with 3 ADRs. One was for TRex in Downtown Disney, I had cashed in points on Mypoints to get a couple of Landry’s Gift Cards so 1/2 that meal was paid for. The next was for Crystal Palace, the breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and his three Hundred Acre Woods pals. Crystal Palace is in Magic Kingdom. The third, and last, was for Donald’s Tusker House in Animal Kingdom.

So with everything booked, I began to excite the kids by suprising them with a countdown chain and a planning video. I had also added mini-documentaries of each park and an overall view of the parks to my Netflix cue. I presented them with the chain and video a week prior to leaving. Each night, one of the kids would remove a link and we’d watch a video before bed. These really helped prep them for the upcoming trip. It piqued their interest to see all of the things they would be experiencing and also gave them an idea of just how BIG Disney is. By the time we got there, they knew that “4 parks, 1 World” meant that Disney consisted of four major theme parks, each easily the size of our little town, as well as a Downtown Disney area that boasted DisneyQuest, and 2 waterparks.

I tend to procrastinate about packing. I mean, really procrastinate. Most trips I am still feverishly folding and packing at the time I had sworn we’d be on the road. I hate to pack, no idea why, but I do. This trip, I had promised myself, would be different. I did laundry and got everything folded, ironed, and packed by the Wednesday before we left. I actually managed to pack FOUR people into one suitcase. Yes, I’m bragging just a bit but, hey, I’m proud of myself! I’m a little OCD and it shows in how I pack. I iron everything and fold it. Then I make one stack per person. Outfits are grouped together in the stack and each stack is organized so that we can grab the top outfit and we all match. It’s a sickness.

The afternoon before the trip DD and I put on our Mickey toes:




I'm kind of proud of them, I did them myself Hers rubbed off in a few places but mine are still going strong, that Sally Hansen doesn't mess around when it comes to top coats!

The last things I did before leaving were to get the oil changed, clean the car inside and out, and load the luggage. I had told my husband that Friday night I planned to have the car packed and pointing out of the carport. What can I say? I’m big on upholding my word, so that car was packed and pointing out! I cannot tell you how happy and amazed I was to have everything ready to go. I even had the kids bathe and sleep in gym shorts and tee shirts so we literally would get up and walk out the door to start our journey to Orlando.

I’ll leave you with a picture of my kids and their countdown chain, I took it the morning I suprised them.



Sadly, these pics come through a tad small. I think you can click them to see a bigger one. If someone knows the ins and outs of resizing an image on imageshack give me a heads up Photobucket was taking for.EV.er to upload my pictures so I gave up on it. Also, should this trip report never get finished it's because my 12 year old found this post and saw a picture of himself in it....please call 911

 

[southern_redhead]

~ This is it, time to leave for Disney ~

Yea, we were down to HOURS before we left. How did I know? Well, my son had removed the last link:




My husband got home from work about 9 pm Friday night. When I say "home", I literally mean "home". He has been working in Chicago for a couple of weeks and this was his first time back home to TN. Bless his heart, the man had done his laundry and packed to leave before starting the nine hour trek from Il to Tn. As soon as he got home, we all went to bed.

I had wanted to leave at 4 (everything was ready and it's a 12+ hour drive for us!), but he vetoed that before it even got out of the starting gate. He wanted to leave at 7 I said "4:15", because I'm nothing if not willing to compromise....heh heh. To which he countered "6:45"....touche. We finally (both) grudgingly settled on 5. So, I did what any smart woman would do (especially one who had everything packed and everyone already dressed, one who only had to wake the kids and hit the road....), I set my alarm for 4 I don't even know what I did for that hour. Pace probably.

Finally, by five everyone was semi-awake and being herded, oh I mean they were getting into the car. At 5:15 we were pulling off our street. See? Here's a shot of my bright eyed and bushy tailed companions:



So, off we went. I'd love to say we sang songs and played trivia games. That would be a lie. In reality, the kids were all a little cranky and it wasn't long before the back looked like this:






I should have slept, I hadn't really all night, but I couldn't. My husband and I would stop to let the kids do a quick leg stretch/potty break (if awake) and swap driving duties every 2-3 hours. He drives a lot for work, like cross country drives, and he said that's how he and the other guys do it to fight fatigue. I was game, he was unsure. Have I mentioned that I drive like a little old lady and have a thing for stopping ANYWHERE that looks like the bathroom might be clean? You have to scope these things out for future reference.

Somehow, we made it to the Florida state line. I know this, as well, because I have the picture. I so hope none of them runs across this. We were all a little worse for wear. I posted it because my husband had mentioned that he wished we'd done a picture of them when Cingular was having customer's submit the creative "signal bars" pictures, the kids have always been stair steps.




We took several pictures in front of that sign. First I had to get this one, then ODS had to take one on his cell, then each of the younger two had to hop out and get one with their DSi. My husband was sure everyone was looking at us and commenting on the family that "must not get out much."

I should mention, at this point, that YDS decided that a sign for Florida meant you were, basically, at Disney. He said "We're at MICKEY'S house!!" Um, sure hon, in about........4 hours.

After a quick trip to the bathrooms, a small cup of OJ, and a collection of maps and Disney brochures, we were on our way again! When we finally got to Orlando, DH and I were exhausted. We had actually considered trying to swap driving duties every 15 minutes because neither of us wanted behind that wheel anymore.

Finding our condo was a bit of a challenge. We were using GPS apps on our phones. Two different apps (mapquest for me, perhaps google maps for him?) sent us in the same wrong direction. Basically, it had us turn at the street before you got to our condo, took us to a dead spot in the road, and said "You've arrived at your destination" To make matters worse, there were no turn arounds and it was a toll road. We ended up paying TWICE - once in, once out - to turn around. Needless to say the apps got shut off and we called the condo. We were staying at the Lake Buena Vista Resort Village and Spa. Hint: If you stay here, just look for the big outlet mall. Turn in like you are going to the mall, the condos are behind it.

Check in was a breeze. We were already paid up so all we did was sign a waiver promising a vital organ if anything was damaged and collected our room keys. We drove around to the side and started unloading luggage. In my reservation I had asked for building 5 or 6. Something connected to the parking garage (this was recommended on their facebook page) and with a pool view, if at all possible. We got our wish, sort of. Building 5, floor 9 (whaaaat?!), it was a corner room and we could see the very edge of the shallow end of the pool.

Oh well, it was technically what I had asked for. As it turns out, we didn't need the view for much anyway.

My husband's first words upon entering the condo "WOW! You did good!" The kids probably said something but were so busy checking out the bedrooms, the balcony, and (as my youngest referred to it) "the cazzuzi" in our room that I didn't hear much. I may try to review it on the Resort board, I haven't seen it discussed much over there. I will say our unit was super clean, very well decorated, and extremely comfortable. We did have an issue that I'll get to in a minute.

We dropped off the luggage and headed to Walmart. I think it was around 9 pm by the time we finally got to the store. The store is HUGE and nothing is placed where it is at home I had been after DH to get a couple of pairs of shorts for the trip. He only wears pants and I just knew he'd fall out from heat stroke. So, we are in the middle of Walmart and he turns to me and says "Hey, do you think I should get some shorts?" Off we went to find the Men's section. This actually worked out fine because SS didn't have swim trunks or swim shoes so we had to pick them up for him. Next, we headed to groceries. Along with the REST of Orlando. I'm not kidding you, it was wall to wall. The bread shelf was almost bare, what they did have was helter skelter on the shelves. I attempted to find two loaves of whole wheat bread (I would later find out I had one loaf of whole wheat and one of whole grain with wheat berries - OMG, if I tried to give anyone in my family wheat berries they would think I was killing them....so I ate that loaf.)

With our buggy loaded down, we got to the front. They had almost every line open and they were still long lines. Finally, we got through the check out and headed to the car. Groceries loaded, we went back to the condo...confident that we could find it on our own now.

Once we got groceries put away, I asked the kids to take baths/showers and get ready for bed. I really only mention this because....drumroll....this condo was supposed to accomodate up to 12 people and it had 4 towels and NO washclothes. None. I called guest services and the guy said "Really? None? Did you look under the sinks?" No, I hadn't. I strangely thought they might have put washcloths out like they had the towels and hand towels. I called back and he told me that was weird (ya think?) and he would send some up right away. How many did I need? Six. Okay, they would be there within 20 minutes. NOT! We never did see a washcloth that night. DH could tell I was getting antsy so he went in search of a maid cart. He was so proud of himself.......because he brought back DISHcloths This did not win any brownie points and he seemed quite confused. I wanted a cloth, I got a cloth. What exactly was my issue? I was too tired to deal with it anymore and told the kids to do the best they could, use a lot of soap, and get in the bed. We called guest services the next morning and asked, again, about getting washcloths and a couple more towels. I told them we need six washcloths.....they sent four up. I, myself, tracked down a maid cart and got 4 more washcloths (what if someone got sick and needed to shower while the rest were in the wash?) and a couple more towels. Lesson learned: it might be a good idea to bring a cheapie pack of washcloths if you stay at the Resort Village and Spa condos. I think they horde theirs LOL These towels, incidentally, are what prompted me to consider staying on property (weird I know!) because every morning I would have to throw in a load of towels, wait for them to wash, then pop them in the dryer before we left so we could have clean towels/washcloths to shower with when we got back. It wasn't actually hard. I put them in the wash when I got up, they washed while we got ready, I threw them in the dryer on the way out. But, I kept thinking how nice it was to have housekeeping leave you clean towels. Anyway....

Finally, we were all clean and we could get ready to go to Disney. The castle? No. Epcot? No. Uh......Tree of Life? Nuh uh. We were going to visit a waterpark!!

 

[ZFamily5]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[stitchfan531]

I can't wait to read about the rest of your trip! I've stayed at Lake Buena Vista before... it's okay. I'm used to staying on property, but the last couple of trips my family has taken, we stayed at LBV. The first time we stayed there, I kept looking around for Disney Transportation Buses!

Your kids are really cute, I loved the Florida State sign picture!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[southern_redhead]

to my tiny little trip report

The last couple of weeks have been a little bit crazy. I was sick when we got home from WDW, ODS had to get a tetanus booster for 7th grade and HE got very ill for 3 days, and ........ only 3 weeks until it's back to school , so I've been trying to force myself to shop for BTS clothes and supplies. Sigh.

On a happier note, my DD will be nine this Friday, so that is something to plan and look forward to I have a few other days typed up. I'll try to post an update in a bit.

 

[ZFamily5]

to my tiny little trip report

The last couple of weeks have been a little bit crazy. I was sick when we got home from WDW, ODS had to get a tetanus booster for 7th grade and HE got very ill for 3 days, and ........ only 3 weeks until it's back to school , so I've been trying to force myself to shop for BTS clothes and supplies. Sigh.

On a happier note, my DD will be nine this Friday, so that is something to plan and look forward to I have a few other days typed up. I'll try to post an update in a bit.

That's no good! PDD (post Disney depression) AND being sick?? Is your ODS better now? I don't even want to think about back to school yet!! Happy early birthday to your DD!

 

[southern_redhead]

That's no good! PDD (post Disney depression) AND being sick?? Is your ODS better now? I don't even want to think about back to school yet!! Happy early birthday to your DD!

Yes, PDD is quite bad for me and YDS...so we are planning another trip LOL

I honestly think I messed my sinuses up at the waterparks. Chlorine will do that to me, and we swam a bunch! ODS is much better. About Sunday he came around. I had no idea tetanus could be that rough on them.

Thank you for the birthday wishes. She is counting down the days, nine seems to be a big deal I suppose because next year is double digits (shudder!)

I'll try to catch up the trip report:

~ Disney Day 1, Part 1: Typhoon Lagoon ~

It was our first day at Disney! I was so excited I could hardly stand it We got everyone suited up, sunscreened down, and loaded into the car. Then, we headed to Typhoon Lagoon. Now, a little backstory: My original plan had been to head to Blizzard Beach for our first day. The theme sounded sooo cute and I love snowmen LOL But, in my careful planning, I noticed that this particular day (June 26) Blizzard Beach was having what is known as EMH – this means Extra Magical Hours, for them, it meant opening an hour early so resort guests could come in before the rest of us peons. Well, honestly, if I’m going to get there at opening to try to beat the crowds then I’m not going to come when guests have already been in there an hour. So, I shifted plans to Typhoon Lagoon.

It was sprinkling when we got there. My husband said, “It’s raining. Did you know it’s raining? Why are we still going in?” Keep this in mind, it pops up another day LOL I reminded him that this is FLORIDA, rain is the only thing you can be sure of seeing every day. Besides, it was truly just a few sprinkles and…..helllloooo….we were about to get wet. So, off we went. (Now, watch closely, I’m about to make my first mistake of the trip!) Once we got in, I went straight to the towel and locker rentals. One small locker and six towels later I was down $27. Here’s the rub(s): A) You have to keep up with the locker key and it is on this big nylon strap. I was like what the HECK am I going to do with that? My backpack was IN the locker. Thankfully, my husband had grommets on his swimsuit but not one of the little ornamental shoestring things to go through them. So, he looped the strap through one and secured it. With that, he redeemed himself from the previous kvetching about the rain. B) I just spent $12 renting 6 towels and then had to put them all in the locker or they were going to get rained on. Stupid! Lesson learned, we won’t do that again.

Off we went. Now, previous to park entry, I had encouraged everyone to do all the big “FUN” stuff they wanted to do upon arrival so as to beat the crowds. What do 4/6ths of my party do? Go hop in the wave pool. That big one, the one that fits a bazillion people? Yeah, that one. However, the waves WERE awesome so I let them enjoy their moment of unplanned, unscripted exuberence. Then I went and asked if anyone cared to ride around the lazy river as I’d heard it could get quite crowded up in the day. We all hopped over there and grabbed a float. It was really nice, not many people in it, but the current was sort of meh. After seeing the waves in the wave pool, I sort of expected to be zipped along in the river. My husband pointed out that part of the title is actually “Lazy”. Score one for him.

After we had our fill of the river, we hopped out and headed to Gang Plank falls. This was a lot of fun. It’s a big raft where you all sit and it shoots down a winding water slide. We rode this 3 and 3, my stepson and youngest son rode with me while my daughter and older son rode with my husband. After that, the kids wanted some “thrill” so we started walking to the Storm Slides and Crush n’ Gusher. At this point, my youngest had his first melt down. At 7, he is still tiny (44 inches and about 35-40 pounds soaking wet – let me just go ahead and say it ….. No, he wasn’t a preemie and Yes, we’ve had tons of tests run that have showed nothing. He’s healthy, just small.) So the three big kids and my husband are galloping up the steps while I haul a tearful boy off in search of something fun. We weren’t having much luck, he wasn’t having the kiddie area at all. I was headed back to our locker to get out some money and buy him an ice cream when who did we spy? STITCH!! There was Stitch, himself, in front of two cute surf boards. He was hugging kids and taking pictures, he saved our morning. My son and I hopped in line and he forgot all about the slides. Sort of. When we left he said “Let’s tell them that *I* got to meet Stitch AND get a picture…..but let’s tell them now he’s gone. Too bad, so sad!” Of course, once we met up with them the first thing out of his mouth was “I met Stitch! Come on, I’ll show you!” LOL

We went back and met with Stitch again, this time with the whole group. The kids got some more photopass pictures and then we left. The youngest wanted to try snorkeling with the sharks and so did I. We walked over and got our masks. (Brace yourself, someone else is about to have a meltdown.) Apparently, whatever they clean those masks with reacts badly with sunscreen. Everyone was carrying on about “My face! It burns!!” but nothing like my daughter. She deserves an Emmy for her theatrics. I thought the lifeguard was going to call 911, so great was the display she put on. Then my youngest decides that he doesn’t REALLY want to snorkel, the mask wasn’t fitting him well and he didn’t like the cold water. Of course, by this point my husband had swam happily off with the older boys, leaving me to haul two fussy kids out of the water and make the long walk back to turn in our masks. I’ll admit it, I was a teensy bit disgusted. We waited for them to come out the other side and everyone said it was “Ok” but that water kept getting in their masks and they had a hard time biting down on the snorkel to keep the water out. My husband then says “You should try it. I’ll take the kids to do something and you go on through.” No, thanks. I was done with that area. As Kate Gosselin proclaimed on that awful flight episode, "I'm done."

Frankly, two fits and having been deserted in the midst of both was enough to make me want to move on. He kept on and on until I finally snapped (in one of my not so nice moments) “I don’t want to go ALONE. I wanted to go together! But you swam off and left me. Drop it.” He said his face was burning and asked if it was red. It was, a little, but I took great satisfaction in saying “Oooh, that looks baaad. Does it hurt as bad as it looks?” Yeah, I was a little grouchy.

Then I suggested we find something EVERYONE could do, even the vertically challenged and discomfort phobic among us. We picked out Keelhaul Falls and were on our way. The bigger two boys made some noise about worrying that the slide would be lame. Apparently, my husband caught my death stare because he said “You know, I think we should do something everyone can do. Get a float and get up those stairs.” Thank you. It was a pretty good ride and our tiny thrill seeker was ecstatic. After that, the two little ones and I broke off for another trip down Gang Plank Falls and then wandered over to Ketchakiddie Creek. Previously, you may remember, this was beneath our youngest. With his sister along, suddenly it sounded like great fun. I stood around for awhile while she played with him then we saw the rest of the group and made a joint decision to ride the lazy river again. It was much more crowded by now so it was a bit more like “Super Lazy River” but my husband and I let the kids float on off while we laid back in our doubles float and tried to unwind.

Everyone wanted to try the wave pool again so we headed back there. Again, more crowded but it is so big that it wasn’t that bad. Let me tell you, when that siren goes off, the wave coming is B_I_G. I think it knocked all six of us in different directions. I rounded up the little kids and we found a photopass person and had a group picture done. It wasn’t my finest moment – bathing suit, wet hair, worn out – but I’m glad to have the memento of our day. The youngest was enthralled with photopass – he had already appropriated my wristband with the card. A few minutes later, he went back and asked the lady “Will you take my picture again? Just me?” So I have some shots of him grinning like a wild man in the wave pool. Priceless.

It was after lunch, and we were all starving. Having plopped down $300 on groceries the night before, we decided to head back to the condo and fix sandwiches. While unloading the locker (and the unused and now useless towels) we looked up and saw Lilo at the surfboards. Holy cow! I hadn’t been expecting to meet any characters today and now, we were seeing our second. We loaded up our stuff and headed over. The kids all went up and hugged Lilo then we (Yeah, me too, I wanted a picture!) had photopass taken with Lilo. What a way to end the day at the water park. On the way out, I shoved the mostly dry towels into the towel return and returned the key to collect my five dollar refund.

I should mention here, before I get ahead of myself, that after the initial sprinkling, the rain had cleared off and left us with a slightly overcast day. It was great, though, because it wasn’t too hot or too bright. This DID cause everyone to remove the watershoes I’d purchased. All except me, see I don’t care if I look like a dork in them. On the way out everyone mentioned that they had fun but their feet felt raw. I reminded them that they took off their shoes so as to protect their cool factor. I had kept mine on and was fine, who’s a dork now? LOL

We headed back to the condo where we (I) fixed sandwiches, chips, and grapes for lunch. Then we all showered and put on clean clothes. We were getting ready to hit Downtown Disney…..


*Note: I didn't take my camera into the waterparks, and we had bought ODS a waterproof mini-video/digital camera for his birthday specifically for use at the waterparks.......which he left in the condo both times So....my pictures from both waterparks are on the PP cd. I'll have to come back and add them in when it arrives.

 

[ZFamily5]

Sounds like you had a great first day! The last time we went to a waterpark was in 2005 I think! I can TOTALLY relate to your YDS being upset about not being tall enough for rides/slides. My youngest sister is 6, barely 42 inches tall and 33 lbs.! She's our little peanut, but she too gets upset when she can't "be a big kid". Can't wait to hear more!

 

[rpbear]

Great trip report. I can't wait to see if SS decides he likes Disney. Looking forward to the next installment.

Lucy

 

[southern_redhead]

~ Day 1, Part 2: Downtown Disney and the spitting Stitch ~


So, we are headed back to the condo for lunch. My husband wants to know what I’m going to cook. COOK?! Clearly, he had banged his head around on one of the slides. I’m not cooking lunch! We had ham sandwiches (on 100% whole wheat bread, don’t hate on me – I’m doing healthy dining the quick service way!), red grapes, and pringles. Oh, and Capri Suns. Okay, forget the healthy but it WAS quick.

I should stop here and inform you that my husband and stepson don’t really embrace whole wheat. At all. My husband was either hungry or smart because he wolfed down two sandwiches without blinking. My stepson took a moment to pause and give his sandwiches a critical glance. In my haste the night before I had mistakenly picked up one loaf of whole wheat and one loaf of whole grain (the kind with wheat berries LOL). Well, I knew not a one of my family was going to eat a wheat berry. So, I made my sandwich using that loaf. Seeing my stepson do the “here we go again with BROWN bread” eyeroll that we always see when he eats with us, I offered him mine LOL He took one look at it and said “WHAT is wrong with it?!” He suddenly decided that his “brown” bread wouldn’t kill him and attacked his plate.

After lunch, my husband and stepson powered up the XBOX. My 12 year old was asking if he would get a turn. You sure will, because y’all are only playing that thing while everyone takes turns getting ready. <Death stare from the men for messing with their video games>. <Death stare from me for having the audacity to think I rode over 12 hours in the car, shelled out thousands of dollars to do Disney, and might possibly sit in the condo all evening watching you shoot zombies> ….. suddenly, everyone was getting their clothes together and figuring out who was showering where. This was a repeated theme on our trip, next trip the XBOX will be “forgotten”. We usually bring it. Most vacations are either cold (during Thanksgiving up North), or on the beach. Now realistically, you can only be on a broiling beach for so long so I don’t mind if they zone out in front of the XBOX in one room while I nap in another. But in Orlando, the XBOX is evil. I considered chucking it off our ninth floor balcony but I suspected it was similar to the zombies they fought on it and would come clamboring up the side of the building in the night.

Finally, we had gotten everyone dressed and out the door. We all felt refreshed and revived. Okay, I felt refreshed and revived. So did the youngest son. The rest? Well, they weren’t sweaty or chlorinated anymore and they were HUNGRY again so they were ready to find Downtown Disney and make it to our first ADR.

Downtown Disney was a little confusing for us. It is this huge area and only 3 parking entrances. We skipped the first one we came to because we knew the restaurant, TRex, was on the other end. The second entrance was full. No sweat, TRex would be accessible from the last lot. It was full, too! My husband, never one to take a sign at face value, said “I’m going in!” We drove around and found a handful of parking places. So we took one. We wandered for a minute, dazzled by the courtyard of stores, and then made our way to TRex.

Waiting to be called in to TRex

We always have to take their picture in front of audio animatronic dinosaurs we run across. Always.

Taking an XBOX break to plow through ribs and rotisserie chicken like locusts LOL

The Princess in front of the ever-changing Ice Cave

This is a must do again for us. Expensive? Yes, for 6 people it was $175. I had some gift cards so with tax, tip, and all I only paid $100 out of pocket. You may gasp, $100 dollars! But, it easily takes $40 to feed this crew at McDonald’s and the food and ambience are not nearly so nice. We were seated in the meteor shower area. I was a little ticked, I had hoped for the ice cave or the jellyfish table. We were RIGHT next to the ice cave, though, and I soon became glad we had gotten a table where we were. That cave is a constantly changing enclosure of colors. Pink, Red, Purple, Blue….then white….then back again. It was really pretty to watch from our table but I suspect I would have left with a migraine had we sat IN it. We ordered – the oldest boys both got Mesa Bones which is a huge slab of ribs. The 12 year old got fries and chips with his. The 15 year old got fries and mashed potatoes. I joked that they must really, really love potatoes. *Crickets* Oh well, my humor is a bit off the wall. My husband got something with the word “Boneyard” in it. Which is a 1/2 slab of ribs and a 1/2 a rotisserie chicken. I think he got a salad and fries but I don’t remember for sure. At then end of the meal their plates were licked clean. The little kids each got Alfredo pasta – they declared it was NOT as good as mine…..awww! – which they tucked into and demolished. I got the Mammoth Ravioli – which is mushroom ravioli in lobster sauce. O.M.G! I couldn’t eat it all, it really IS a mammoth serving, but I sure tried. The kids and I toured the other seating areas quickly, I decided we hadn’t missed much on the giant jellyfish, and then we sat down to wait on the bill. While I paid, everyone else went to check out the gift area and Build a Dino. No one was sufficiently impressed to buy anything so we headed out.

Once out, we worked our way over to World of Disney. I wanted to get each of the kids ears and an autograph book. We debated on one book for everyone to share but then I thought that stepson might like one of his own to take home and show his family at his mom’s house. I figured giving him one and making the other three share was about as likely to go over as a brick balloon so……we bought four. We looked at ears but I wanted the kids names on them so we decided to wait for the shop in Magic Kingdom the next day.

While I paid, the kids and my husband wandered outside. The youngest came running in and said “Come on! Stitch is SPITTING on us!” Oh the joy. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on but I thought, surely, no costumed character was out there pretending to spit. When I finally got out there, I looked up and saw this:

I had seen this in pictures from other trip reports but somehow never wrapped my head around the fact that he spits. Apparently, this alone could have been entertainment for the evening LOL

We had to stay a while because Stitch only spits every so often and the youngest was determined to get spit on. You can see him waiting:

He's the little blond boy in the back. It took 3 tries (because he kept letting other kids in front of him, nothing if not mannerly), but he finally achieved his goal! He was spit on by Stitch!

After he had been throughly spat upon, we went to the Lego store. That store is so cool! I love all the figures they have built out of Legos:

I have to ask - how do you apply for the job of building those things? I think it sounds heavenly - plug in an iPod and block out the world while you build.

The kids built mini figures (a police officer, lumberjack, mermaid, and what the youngest could only describe as a guy – complete with chain saw…yikes! Oh, my husband and I had to build one too. I built a Peter Pan-ish guy and some sort of pirate that color coordinated with Peter.)

I was hoping to visit the Christmas ornament store and Basin. That got scrapped because it was getting late and we had DisneyQuest on the agenda. On the way to our car we saw a man doing a street show. He had a tiny basketball goal that he balanced on his head and three balls he would “shoot” into it. Each time he would raise it a few feet. Eventually, the goal was up near the top of the tree he was standing next to. He missed his shot a few times in a row and I was feeling bad for him but he took it in stride. He did finally make all three shots and, satisfied that he would live to work another day, we went to locate the car and drive down to explore five floors of video games….

*Note - I have other pictures of the kids in TRex. My photobucket account worked for 5 minutes (to tease me) and has now punked out again I also don't think it "resized" my pictures to medium but....whatever LOL Still better than the teeny clickables from before. Bear with me, I am trying to upload the rest of the pictures and maybe I can get them posted

Ah ha! Finally got everything uploaded.

 

[ZFamily5]

Sounds like you had a great time at DTD! I can just picture your son standing there HOPING to be spat on by Stitch!

 

[southern_redhead]

Sounds like you had a great first day! The last time we went to a waterpark was in 2005 I think! I can TOTALLY relate to your YDS being upset about not being tall enough for rides/slides. My youngest sister is 6, barely 42 inches tall and 33 lbs.! She's our little peanut, but she too gets upset when she can't "be a big kid". Can't wait to hear more!

Sounds like you had a great time at DTD! I can just picture your son standing there HOPING to be spat on by Stitch!

It was an awesome (and tiring) first day It's hard when they're little for their age isn't it? If he was just young he might not have been interested but he's old enough to want to try things, just on the small side. Thank goodness he WAS big enough for most everything he wanted to ride in the main parks.

Great trip report. I can't wait to see if SS decides he likes Disney. Looking forward to the next installment.

Lucy

Thank you Yes, I went the whole trip trying to decide what he thought of Disney - teens are so hard to read. He's quite close to his mother, so I think this trip was a challenge for him on many levels. He's extremely good with his younger siblings, though, and they fought over who rode with him constantly

 

[ZFamily5]

Great pictures of your first day! And yes, that's very good that he was tall enough for pretty much everything in the main parks!

 

[southern_redhead]

Well, what a weekend we have had. Yesterday was DD's 9th birthday. She had been complaining off and on since the day we left Disney about her left ear hurting. It was one of those things......it would hurt and then the next time you asked about it she said it felt better. Well, Wednesday night she was up some during the night with it. Thursday she said it felt much better. Thursday night we were up a good bit of the night......so Friday morning I called our doctor and got an appt. They said they would "work her in" at eleven, I should have caught that but I was sleep deprived! We waited over an hour in the waiting room, it was her birthday, she kept telling me her ear felt better....really LOL An hour and a few minutes past our appt time I went up and asked if the receptionist had an idea of when we'd be called back. I told her I realized we were "work ins" and that meant a bit of a wait. Well, long story short, there was "at least one, maybe three" people still in front of us DD wasn't having it so I scheduled an appt for this morning and we left. Had I known what awaited us, I might have ridden it out. Last night we went to my mom's to have dinner and cake with her. DD opened her gifts (for those interested: Clawdeen and Jackson Jekyll from the Monster High Gloom beach line, Ghoulia from Monster High, a new Webkinz pot bellied pig (promptly named Porker), lip glosses.........and a snocone maker. I still can't believe she talked my mother into a snocone maker LOL) We were supposed to go to Build a Bear yesterday but didn't because we thought we'd be seeing the doctor, that is on tap for tomorrow. I had preordered us tickets to see the new Harry Potter so after supper we headed a few towns over to see the movie (very good!) Then we came home and tried to sleep. My boys slept like logs, DD screamed and cried all night with her ear and I got 15 minutes of sleep for every hour I was awake with her. It wasn't a good night for either of us

Thankfully, this morning my mother volunteered to take her to the early appt so I could sleep. I was on 3 days of next to no sleep, I'm not sure I could have driven. It's times like this that make me realize how nice it must be to have a husband who works a nine to five day job......mine is back in Chicago So, anyway, she has swimmer's ear. She is on Omnicef and has ear drops for the pain. Her ear REALLY swelled up last night, even the area behind her ear is swollen and red. Hopefully, those meds will work quickly.

So, that has been my life for the last few days. Being as the most productive thing I've done all day was put supper in the crockpot, I thought I'd post an update to the trip report. That I can do from the couch

~ Day 1, Part 3 (yes, this is the end of Day 1 LOL): DisneyQuest ~

So, we had finally found our way to DisneyQuest.

This is a pre-teen/teen's paradise. Video games galore and you never "run out" of money. I found a few things that I thought were cool, but for the most part I just found it loud, crowded, and dark. Yeah, I'm officially "old". I'm not sure where the bigger kids took off to, but my daughter and I went off with the youngest. They "rode" the Aladdin's Magic Carpet thing. I was afraid the little guy would need help or flake out on it halfway through the game so I didn't participate. I just stood over to the side, I did get this cute picture of the youngest:

Afterwards, we went back to the Animation area. My husband played Sid's video game:

My daughter and the youngest son painted on the easels:

When we split again, my daughter went off with her brothers and dad to find the roller coaster simulator. Once again, the youngest was too short........once again, this brought on a mini-fit. C'est la vie. I convinced him that we would find some cool things if we explored so off we went. Not just a whole lot in DisneyQuest for the little kids. We missed an animation class by "justthismuch", so we continued on to the arcade games area. He played some sort of motorcycle game that might have been based on TRON, then moved on to a NASCAR game. He had exausted the games he found interesting, lines were SUPER long at a lot of the games, so we went in search of the other four.

When we met up with them they told us that they wanted to watch videos of their simulated ride. Cue another mini-fit from the youngest as he was reminded of the vertical discrimination being perpetrated against him. The videos were cute. Especially the one of my husband and daughter - she had built several upside down loops into the coaster so her hair looked like it stood on end for much of the video. After we watched them, we went back to the main level.

Everyone was tired but the youngest hadn't gotten much out of DQ so far. We decided to ride Jungle Cruise with him. That game ROCKS! When we got off, he asked if we could do the Safari trucks.......okay, that is a looooong game. My husband and I basically split up to stalk different trucks. We finally found one that the game was ending so my daughter and I rode with the youngest. Cute story but sooooo long...... I confess, I kept trying to get us killed in hopes it would end early. Bad Mommy award! When it finally wound down, we all left. Everyone was ready to go back to the condo and hit the sack. Of course, we had an early day ahead of us. Tomorrow was an 8:05 am ADR at Crystal Palace and our first day at Magic Kingdom............

 

[ZFamily5]

Poor DD! At least you found out what was causing her pain. I can't imagine not having your DH at home in the evenings and on the weekends. Sounds like the older kids had a great time at Disney Quest but again, I feel bad for your youngest. I can't wait to read all about your day at Magic Kingdom!

 

[teachermommy78]

Joining in! I was there at the same time as you!

 

[stitchfan531]

What fun! I'm glad the majority of your crew had fun at DQ, although the height discrimination against your youngest is a bummer-- and the fact that he seems to be such a thrill junkie just makes it even more so.

I agree with you about DQ-- I like video games as much as the next teenager, but I don't like them THAT much. Waiting in line for an arcade game I can find at home just seems kind of silly. And I'm not enough of a roller coaster fan to justify doing the simulator. It was cool to go once, but until I've got kids of my own, I'm okay with not going again.

Can't wait to hear about the Magic Kingdom!