(3X Update & FINAL!! 3/24)*~*EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!*~*A Mother/Daughter Feb 2013 TR!

[Twoboysnmygirl]

~*~EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!~*~ A Mother/Daughter February 2013 Trip Report!

Hello all! Serial Trip Reporter here! If you haven't read one of my TR's, you must not be on the DIS much! I'm kind of addicted.

It all started in 2008 when my daughter and I went to WDW with my friend and her daughter. My daughter, Savannah, was just a few weeks shy of 8, and we fell in love on that commando tour of the World!

Since then, my obsession has only grown, if only my pocketbook would grow as well! We did a family trip in January 2012, but this trip was just for me and my girl! A whirlwind trip, 4 nights, 3 days in the park!

Quick intro for those who don't know me. If you are interested and have way too much time on your hands, my PTR is here:
The Evil Spell Has Been Broken! A Special Mother/Daughter February 2013 PTR!

I have quite a few other TR's if you really just have no life and hours of time to spare! Links are in my siggie!

So, a quick intro!

My name is Karen, I will be 40 in just mere weeks! I'm a photographer, runner, homeschooling mother of 3 (my boys are 17 & 18) and I have my own petsitting business that has funded most of these trips! My husband and I have been together for 21 years and we live in rural Missouri. I grew up a city girl, so it was somewhat of a culture shock moving out here! I've grown to love it though, but escaping to Disney is my favorite thing to do!

Savannah, my youngest, is 12 going on 16. She's a joy actually, and I love nearly every moment I spend with her. We have a fantastic relationship and share a love of Disney roller coasters! She is funny, sarcastic, and loves her friends, music, and animals of all kinds. She has an amazing connection to animals. In fact, she "works" for me and is my petsitting assistant. She has grown up helping me with my business.

Our trip was from Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 to Saturday, February 9th, 2013. I'm going to TRY not to finish this TR too fast, I have a habit of updating every single day and then regretting not slowing down and enjoying it more (hey! I do that in the parks too!)

Besides, I have 376 DAYS until our next trip (oh yes! There is another in the works!!!) and have to find some way to drag out the magic!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter 1: "Is THAT the AIRPORT?!?!"

Chapter 2: "Where did all these people come from?!?!"

Chapter 3: Early bird gets the worm...and no sleep!

Chapter 4: Ah, finally "HOME", we make it to Main Street!

Chapter 5: Big smiles and puffed french toast!

Chapter 6: Even the best laid plans...

Chapter 7: Can you NOT take pictures?

Chapter 8: Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest!

Chapter 9: Little Mermaid or Pool? BOTH, naturally!

Chapter 10: A Change of Plans...

Chapter 11: DTD & Dinner

Chapter 12: Everybody DANCE now!!!

Chapter 13: Danced-out-Miss-crabby-pants?

Chapter 14: Pixie Dusted Safari

Chapter 15: Expedition Everest...and more Expedition Everest! and more?

Birthday Update!

TATTOO UPDATE!!!

Chapter 16: Everybody Dance Now...again?!!?

Chapter 17: Dual chapter title? How many desserts can you eat or How many times can you ride Big Thunder in 30 minutes??

Chapter 18: "Is THAT the line for POP?!?!" a most miserable update...

Chapter 19: The beginning of the end.

Chapter 20: "That's the QUIET pool???"

Chapter 21: LOVE those AK lights!

Chapter 22: Our Last Magical Night at MK

The Final Chapter: Through Savannah's Eyes

NEW 2014 Pre-Trip REPORT! Losing The Glass Slippers to RUN like a Princess! A serial PTRer strikes again!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

I'm here and I can't wait to read about your trip!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm here and I can't wait to read about your trip!

Yay Erin!!!! You beat Ann! She's gonna be mad!

 

[Alysa]

Welcome home! Your photos are great! Can't wait to hear about it!

 

[Tinker326]

WELCOME BACK!!!!

I can not WAIT to hear all about your awesome trip!!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Ok, I blame my lateness to this trip report on A FREAKING BLIZZARD!!!! URG!!!!!! Anyone want to come help dig me out of 28 inches of snow???

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Yay Erin!!!! You beat Ann! She's gonna be mad!

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

 

[JDailey]

Yay, your back! I hope you both had a great trip!

 

[Pixiedust530]

You're back!!! Woohooo! I'm excited to read all about your adventures!

I understand the "slowing things down", but get on with it already....this girl needs a Disney fix!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Welcome home! Your photos are great! Can't wait to hear about it!

Thanks!! I'm excited to share, I've been editing most of the day!

WELCOME BACK!!!!

I can not WAIT to hear all about your awesome trip!!!

Yay! I'm glad you are here! I will be doing my first update tomorrow morning!

Ok, I blame my lateness to this trip report on A FREAKING BLIZZARD!!!! URG!!!!!! Anyone want to come help dig me out of 28 inches of snow???

OMG, you totally get a pass! I.cannot.imagine. I was depressed today b/c it was RAINING when I was just in sunny Floriday! Snow is NOT ACCEPTABLE and certainly not that much!!

Yay, your back! I hope you both had a great trip!

We did! I can't wait to tell everyone all about it!

You're back!!! Woohooo! I'm excited to read all about your adventures!

I understand the "slowing things down", but get on with it already....this girl needs a Disney fix!

Way to enable me! I'll do my first update tomorrow morning in the wee hours!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

WOOT! Sara is here!

 

[PISCESANGEL]

Welcome back!! You know I'll be here!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Welcome back!! You know I'll be here!!

Glad you are here!!!

 

[SeptemberGirl]

Welcome back!!!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Welcome back!!!!

Thanks Liz!!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

"Is THAT the AIRPORT?!?!?"

Hellooooo fellow DISers! I'm excited to get started! Now you know I have to do travel day, so this will most likely be the least interesting update, but I have to start at the beginning!

As many of you know, Savannah has a fear of flying. She flew once to WDW when she was almost 8, but since then she has had a lot of ear problems and she was very worried that her ears would hurt badly when flying. She also said that she was just a "little child" back then and didn't think rationally about fear! At her wise age of 12, she knew this plane ride was going to be horrible. I spent MONTHS trying to make her feel better about it, she had an ear infection just a month before the trip and we were very diligent about taking her Clariton-D (something the doctor told her to just take from now on) but she was still worried.

Sidebar here: If you have never read one of my TR's, you may not know that I tend to ramble. I can just get carried away with a thought and that's it, we're talking about something totally unrelated to Disney. I will try to at least add some photographic eye candy when I do this, but I make no promises that I'm not going to ramble! I don't think I'm able to stop all together!

So, Tuesday morning (Feb. 5th) came and she woke up at 6am. Seriously, for WEEKS I had been trying to get her up earlier so she wouldn't have trouble with rope drop, but THIS morning I really didn't need her up. The flight didn't leave until 4pm!!! This was going to be a long day. We had some petsitting, but we went pretty early and stayed a long time because I was trying to keep her busy and not thinking about it. Didn't really think about that hour and a half drive to the airport.

At 11:30 I couldn't stand sitting around anymore and so we left for the airport. I tried to get a picture of both of us ready to get in the car, but she was frowning and looked like someone was about to kill her best friend. Great. I did catch half a smile, but only b/c Rey was trying to tickle her!

OMGosh, that was just too long without a photo, I'll do better, promise!

Rey and both the boys came along, I thought that might help, but man that was a long drive! We were trying a new airport, it is smaller, but the same distance from us as the St. Louis airport, and MUCH cheaper flights. So either way we would have had to drive, but she was freaking out. All she could do was repeat (ahem...complain) over and over how scared she was, how she didn't want to fly, how she hated planes... I sent a text to my friend MA, who consequently was the first person that took us to WDW back in 2008, and asked her to have her daughter text Savannah because she was freaking out! She did, but it still wasn't having much of an impact.

I told Rey to head to Starbucks. Savannah has only been to this town where the airport is twice, but we went to Starbucks both times and her friends were with us, so I thought it might comfort her. Ok...I wanted some Starbucks, sue me! It actually did relax her a bit, but not much. I took a lousy camera phone pic b/c at this point I thought she might just lose it if I pulled out my camera.

I know, right about now you are like...what am I reading this for, she is taking forever just to get on the plane! I promise though, my attention to detail and documenting everything will be worth it when we hit WDW!

So, we head to the airport. We're following the directions and I'm getting a little nervous myself! We're out in the middle of nowhere, in a FIELD, it seems and there in the distance I see a little building. My oldest says "Is THAT the AIRPORT?!?!?" and starts to mumble about how he thinks maybe the St. Louis airport would be better for our next trip. JUST what I need right now!

Wow, it was small. This really put Savannah over the edge, we parked in the small lot and got out and she started crying. Rey walked us in, but I shooed him away pretty quickly, I was afraid she would back out all together if Rey was there with a car! When we walked in, it was EMPTY. No, really. Have you ever seen an empty airport? A tiny empty airport? I felt like I was in a Stephen King book a bit. This is what I saw when I walked in the door...

I walked over to the desk and there was a woman who told me they would be opening security in about an hour. Wait...what time is it??? Oh boy, my early bird tendencies may just put me over the edge this time. It was 2pm and the flight was leaving at 4:30. We settled in for a VERY long wait. There was no excitement about going to Disney, no attempt to talk about the rides or going home to PoP would help at this point. She just sat in terror while I tried to distract her. Eventually people started to arrive at the airport. I realized that THIS FLIGHT was the ONLY flight! ALL the people were going to Orlando. I also overheard one of the employees tell someone that the flight was late leaving Orlando and would be late arriving here. Fantastic!

They finally opened security and I was glad that they at least seemed to follow the exact same procedure as a large airport. When we got through, I realized why they had waited to put us through security. After the security, you end up in A ROOM. Just a room folks. No bathrooms, and it did have some windows, but it was literally just a waiting room. There was no "terminal". We sat MORE.

Savannah was starting to loosen up a bit and we had a little magical moment when she spent 30 minutes trying to teach me the ASL alphabet. She has an interest in learning sign language and has been learning on her own. We had some giggles and finally something took her mind off the plane momentarily.

Ya know, I feel like it's appropriate that this update is just dragging on and on, at least you get the real FEEL of what it was like for us!

The plane finally arrived and we started boarding. I had to laugh when I realized we had to go outside and up a ramp into the plane! Seriously, I really do live in the boonies! But, I was SUPER RELIEVED to see a REAL live plane. A jet that looked nice and new. I was a little worried we would be on some tiny thing, but realized pretty early on that wasn't possible with the amount of people waiting for this flight.

On the plane and in our seats, Savannah chose the window seat. The tension was just OOZING from her, there was nothing I could do but try to keep her calm. Her eyes were like saucers and welled up with tears, but she grabbed her gum and her ear plugs and clutched the arm rests. Ah, I know, I sound all dramatic here! It seriously felt pretty dramatic! She tried to busy herself by taking pics out the window while they were getting ready for takeoff.

Finally we took off, I believe it was around 5pm. She did ok! She was yawning and clearing her ears a bunch, but she didn't seem in a lot of pain. I purchased TV to keep her busy (Frontier has little TVs on the back of each seat! Totally cool)

They also have animals on the plane wings and tail. They are different for each plane and have names. This is such a little detail, but for a girl that LOVES animals, it was a cute touch that I think comforted her a bit! We had penguins for the trip there. Sun setting too!

We played hangman and that is when I revealed our secret reservation that she didn't know about. She had no clue what the Wishes Dessert Party was, so she got hung! Naturally she then had to give me a bunch of really hard ones. Song lyrics mostly. The sun had gone down at this point and I realized that we were actually spending a whole day traveling. Blech!

Ok, enough plane details! She seemed ok and did ok on landing although she said that bothered her ears more than takeoff. FINALLY we were in Orlando!!! WOOT! It was 8:09. Wow, where did that day go?!?!? We headed straight to ME, did you know they light up the mini-monorail at night? It was pretty, first time I had been there at night.

Got a smile out of her on that ride! Finally we are here!!

Out of space for this update, that's going to have to be enough to wet your appetite! Up next...Where did all these people come from?!?!?

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Chapter 2: "Where did all these people come from?"

I thought I would finish up arrival day...way to take it slow and show self-control with posting my updates too fast, right?!?

We left off arriving at MCO after 8pm and heading to ME.

We got down to ME and walked right onto our bus.

and then we sat. and sat. and sat some more.

I don't think we actually sat that long, maybe 15 minutes, but we were so hungry and tired of traveling. I won't do a late flight again, I would rather have time at the resort or to do DTD on arrival afternoon. It's hard to settle in when you arrive so late! We kept talking about we didn't really feel like we were there yet. They finally filled up the bus and we were on our way! Savannah was doing the "Are we there yet?" thing over and over just to annoy me.

Finally we were home!!!

We went to AoA first, Savannah was impressed and said she wanted to stay there. I told her maybe for that 16th Birthday trip with her and friends. Rey has no interest in staying there and I don't really either at this point. It looks amazing, but also SO BIG, and after this trip, I'm thinking quieter and smaller resorts are the best choice (ooooh, some foreshadowing there!)

I was first in the very short line for online check-in. I had checked in about 18 days out since the new site lets you do that. Or so I thought! I get up to the desk and she tells me our room is in the 70s section. Ugh. I told her how I had requested 50s and I was already having to pay for a preferred room and that when I did online check-in I also requested 50s. She told me that it wasn't showing that I did online check-in. WHAT?!?!? Then told me that she had a few other people tell her that today as well. I should probably stop now before I launch into a rant about the new site. I was annoyed, to say the least, and asked if I was at least on the 4th floor that I had requested. 3rd. Ok, that will do. I wish, in hindsight, that I had pushed more. She said they were BOOKED and couldn't move us, but I probably could have moved the following day. You'll see why this became an issue...I think the 50s section would have been quieter. *sigh*

BUT, we were in Disney! Off we went to find our room, which ended up being located pretty close to classic hall, so no long walks for refills! Before we even made it to the room though, we noticed the groups...tour groups...oh boy! Well, they were at PoP last January (ahem...when we stayed in the 50s section!) and we barely noticed them. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad?!

We found our room, dumped our bags, and headed right back out!

We were starved and ready to eat! It was 10pm, and when we walked into the food court my jaw dropped. WHA?!?!? Where did all these people come from???? I was shocked. It was PACKED. At 10pm! Got over my shock and into the LINE. We made it through the mayhem with our food and escaped (it was loud too!) to the outside area where we normally sit. Ahhhh, we're here, we have food, and good food too! We both got veggie lasagna (we're vegetarians, I don't think I mentioned that for those of you that haven't read my other reports) and it was the best veggie lasagna I have ever had! Oh so good!

and what I had waited a whole year for...

We relaxed, chatted, and enjoyed our food. We headed back to the room, but Savannah was restless and wanted to do more. THIS is why you don't do late flights. Neither of us were ready to go to bed, we wanted to explore! So, what better to do at 10:30pm? RETAIL THERAPY! PoP was teaming with BTG's and lots of people in general. 10:30 at night and the store was even packed! No matter, we had money to spend! We bought more of our favorite headbands, Savannah found some beads for bracelets that she is making her friends, I got her a necklace and I also bought a swimsuit top that I have wanted since I saw it last year. Savannah was hesitant about things costing too much, so it felt wonderful to just buy her a few things on a whim with no worries about cost. It actually made me pretty proud that she thought of me and that it was a lot of money to spend. My girl has a good head on her shoulders!

Finally got back to the room at 11:30 and I took a few pictures of our loot!

I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow! We had an early morning breakfast at Crystal Palace the next morning, I hoped we wouldn't be too groggy!!

Up next, an early morning in Magic Kingdom!

 

[Tinker326]

The trip report has started. Woo!!!!

I do have to laugh at your self-proclamation of 'slowing it down' and then we get two updates at once (okay, I'm not complaining- I love it!).

I had read last week on the boards that the BTG were BAD right about now- sorry you ran into them and had issues......

And glad Savannah survived the flight...... even with fear in her eyes- the picture of the two of you is super cute!

And isn't the AoA the same size as Pop? I thought it was just 'the other side' of pop (so same layout?). That's where I'm considering staying with the fam next year.......

Oh, edited to say.. I love that you already have a new siggy! You are Disney-efficient! I still don't have one for my Fall trip!