5 Newbies Visit the World!! - UPDATED! - Our Last ADR and A Magical Moment

[mom2cgj]

This is my first trip report, and it’s a little belated. I originally wasn’t going to write a TR, but the farther we get from our trip, the more I’m wanting to go back! Since planning our next trip just isn’t in the cards right now, I’m going to relive our last trip and share it with you!

The Who:
This trip will consist of my DH (Mike), myself (Angie - Mom2cgj), DS8 (“Cubby”), DS5 (“G-Bear”), and DS4 (“Nugget”). Here is a picture of us from our trip:

This is a first trip for all of us! Yep, even as kids, Mike and I neither one ever went to WDW. (Sad, I know.) So this is a dream come true for me. Mike was excited, but thought I was a little over-the-top with all my planning and reading and learning all I could before we went. He wasn’t as interested in Disney as I was, so we added a couple of days before hitting the World to let him have his dream of visiting Kennedy Space Center.

I’m a SAHM who loves all things Disney and has always dreamed about seeing the fireworks over Cinderella’s castle. Would my dream come true? Stay tuned to find out!

Cubby (a nickname he’s had since birth - yeah, he hates it!) is a huge Star Wars fan, so DHS was what he was really looking forward to. He rolls his eyes about seeing the princesses, but I think he secretly liked it!

G-Bear is my little princess. She is super girly and just started competitive dancing this year. (That’s a whole new world!) She loves all princesses, especially Ariel, and was over the moon to be going to WDW!

Nugget is the wild man of the bunch. He is goofy and never sits still. A word about Nugget - he was in an accident when he was 11 months old. Severely burned, but managed to come out of it with only scars on the top of his head. He’ll never have hair, but has a ton of cute hats, and it really doesn’t bother him. This trip was in part to celebrate him being released from treatment by his burn center!

So, that’s who you’ll see in this report.

The When/Where:
I am NOT a fan of huge crowds, so we planned our trip for the end of January, 2013, thanks to advice on low crowds from here on the DIS and TouringPlans. We left home on Thursday, January 24 and got back Friday, February 1. We spent January 25-27 traveling and visiting Kennedy Space Center. We arrived in the World on Jan. 27, and stayed 4 full days before flying home. Where is home? You’ve never heard of it. We’ll just go with the Quad Cities - a clump of 5 cities (yeah, I know, quad = 4...I didn’t name them) in Iowa and Illinois. Right on the Mississippi River. We are on the Iowa side.

I’ll get started with the boring (ie non-Disney) stuff first, but I promise to rush through that! This TR is a way for me to journal our trip, so if no one follows along, I’ll be OK. But if you are here and still reading, WELCOME! I hope you enjoy the journey!

 

[mom2cgj]

Day 1 (Jan 24, 2013) - Wait!!! There's an Extra Person Coming???

Day 2 (Jan 25, 2013) - There are ants in here????

Day 3 (Jan 26, 2013) - An Out-of-This-World Day!

Day 4 (Jan 27, 2013) - Part 1 - We Have Arrived!
Day 4 (Jan 27, 2013) - Part 2 - Where are those hyenas? (A tour of the AoA Lion King Section)
Day 4 (Jan 27, 2013) - Part 3 - We're in Radiator Springs! (A tour of the rest of AoA)
Day 4 (Jan 27, 2013) - Part 4 - We get HOW MUCH Dessert???

Day 5 (Jan 28, 2013)- Part 1 - Our First Disney Park!!
Day 5 (Jan 28, 2013) - Part 2 - Bugs, Birds, and Dinosaurs, Oh My!
Day 5 (Jan 28, 2013) - Part 3 - A Parade, Rafiki, and Ketchup!

Day 6 (Jan 29, 2013) - Part 1 - Princesses...
Day 6 (Jan 29, 2013) - Part 2 - And A Pony!
Day 6 (Jan 29, 2013) - Part 3 - Pooh and Pinocchio
Day 6 (Jan 29, 2013) - Part 4 - A Problem, A Parade, and Peter Pan!
Day 6 (Jan 29, 2013) - Part 5 - Dinner with a Mouse!

Day 7 (Jan 30, 2013) - Part 1 - Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog!
Day 7 (Jan 30, 2103) - Part 2 - A Morning of Meet & Greets
Day 7 (Jan 30, 2013) - Part 3 - Jedi Training Academy
Day 7 (Jan 30, 2013) - Part 4 - Wait! He shot my husband!
Day 7 (Jan 30, 2013) - Part 5 - 1900 Park Fare = 1900 Park Disappointment

Day 8 (Jan 31, 2013) - Part 1 - Happy Friendship Day!
Day 8 (Jan 31, 2013) - Part 2 - A Meet and Greet Morning
Day 8 (Jan 31, 2013) - Part 3 - We're Off on an Adventure to Tomorrow!
Day 8 (Jan 31, 2013) - Part 4 - Nugget Hams It Up
Day 8 (Jan. 31, 2013) - Part 5 - Our Last ADR and A Magical Moment

Day 9 (Feb 1, 2013) - The End of the Trip

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I am your neighbor to the North-Wisconsin.
We come through the Quad Cities a lot.

Don't feel bad that you never went to WDW when you were younger. Heck our oldest was 18 and our youngest 10 when we first went. We also had to do Kennedy Space Center and Universal. It was in 2000 and I found the DIS 3 months before we left.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along.

 

[mom2cgj]

Hi,
I am your neighbor to the North-Wisconsin.
We come through the Quad Cities a lot.

Hi, neighbor! Usually when I tell someone we are from the QCA, they have no idea where that is!

I think it was great getting to experience all the magic for the first time as an adult. But I'm also glad I got to give that chance to my kids now, and spend that time with them. So, I don't feel too bad. And my parents were probably smart...if I'd gone as a kid, I'd just have kept begging to go back! (And my dad is NOT a theme park person!)

Following along.

Welcome!!

 

[mom2cgj]

After all the planning, re-planning, making ressies, designing and making shirts, and more re-planning...it was time to leave!

We picked up the older two kids from school and headed off! We ended up with an extra passenger...luckily he didnt need a ticket. Cubbys class had been working on a Flat Stanley project. Everyone in the class was given their Stanley to take home for the weekend and were supposed to take pictures of Stanley doing whatever their family was doing. It just happened that he was going home the weekend we left for Florida! So, Stanley got to go to Disney with us! It was so much fun and was a great way to use up time waiting in lines. We have a lot of fun pictures of Stanley eating snacks, meeting characters, posing with statues. When we go back, Im thinking well take a stuffed animal or maybe another Flat Stanley and do it again!

Anyway, that night we were headed to Chicago. Usually when we fly, we fly straight out of Moline, but we had gotten a great deal on tickets with Southwest flying out of Midway, and saved a lot of money. So we drove. The ride wasnt all that exciting, and weve been to Chicago a ton of times, so I wont say much about it. We had gotten park-sleep-fly reservations at a DoubleTree near Midway, which worked out great. Heres our room - it wasnt anything special. Nice, clean, convenient, but not spectacular.

We were all starving by this point, and there was a Giordanos Pizza not far from the hotel. Chicago pizza is a MUST whenever we are in the city! Im usually a Ginos girl, but Mike likes Giordanos and it was closer. G-Bear obviously likes it.

And in case you arent familiar with Chicago pizza, Stanley wants you to get an idea how thick the crust is!

By this time it was super late so we just went back to the hotel and went to sleep. The next morning would be the beginning of our Magical Adventure!!

 

[dmoore718]

LOVE IT!!! Super cute kids! We stayed at AOA in a Nemo suite the beginning of January and we loved it as well.

 

[mom2cgj]

LOVE IT!!! Super cute kids! We stayed at AOA in a Nemo suite the beginning of January and we loved it as well.

Thanks! I'm pretty fond of them, too!

I know a lot of people suggest the deluxe or mods are the way to go, but we absolutely loved being completely surrounded by Disney theme all the time!

 

[mom2cgj]

Well, when I left off, we were in Chicago. Let me just say, I dont think I slept at ALL that night!

The great thing about the park-sleep-fly deal at the hotel was that once we got up and packed our stuff, we could get on our way without having to worry about our car. Parking was included, which meant not paying the crazy airport parking rates. We headed down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Ill apologize right now for the lack of food pictures. My family thinks Im crazy when I take pictures of my dinner, and honestly, none of my food pictures turn out very well. Ill work on that for my next TR!

Here are the boys at breakfast. In this case, dont feel too bad about the lack of pictures. It was a typical hotel breakfast buffet. Which in this case, wasnt a big deal, since I dont think I could have eaten anyway!

Next it was a shuttle ride to the airport. It was just us and one other couple in the hotel shuttle, and the kids kept them entertained. They started a game of finding all of the letters of the alphabet on store signs. Nugget doesnt know how to read, so it was...interesting.

Here are some pictures of the airport. It gives you an idea of what the weather was like leaving Chicago.

COLD, grey, snowy...Midwest winter. It was below freezing when we flew out. Florida, here we come!!

None of the kids had flown before, so someone was excited!

Heres me, Cubby, and Stanley on the plane. We had A boarding (EBCI), so when Mike took this, the plane was pretty empty. That seat would eventually be filled.

Nuggets excitement eventually wore off!

When we landed in Orlando it was almost 80 degrees! In JANUARY! OK, maybe this isnt as big a deal to some of you, but were from Iowa. 80 degrees is June weather. We were in paradise.

We picked up our rental car (thank goodness for Hertz Gold program through Mikes work), and headed off. By this point, I was exhausted, so I dont remember much about the drive through Orlando. I know the kids spent most of the time checking out the car. We were headed to our home for the first part of our trip - the International Palms Resort in Cocoa Beach.

OK. I am going to be perfectly honest here. I booked this hotel based SOLELY on pictures and descriptions on their website and the price I got at hotels.com. I will NOT do that again! The upsides to this hotel: it was literally right on the beach, and...yeah, thats it. It was about half under constructions (Im assuming they are making upgrades, but not to where we were) and it was just not that nice. There were two tvs in our suite and only one worked at a time...sometimes the one by the master bed, sometimes the one in the kids area. And (thankfully we didnt notice this till the last day) there were ants crawling on the sink area. EEEEEWWW!

The room was advertised as having a separate room for the kids with a bunk bed and a separate single bed. In reality? It had a BOX made out of PLYWOOD with a bunk bed and a cot. A curtain was the door. UGH! This was not a suite. Oh, well. We decided to suck it up and make it work. We werent going to be in the room much anyway.

By this time, we were starving. Wed missed lunch because of our flight. So, we decided to find some dinner. We found this open-air BBQ place in Cocoa Beach called Slo-N-Low. The food was pretty good. I dont remember a whole lot about it, like I said I was completely worn out.

After dinner, the kids were begging to see the ocean. So, we took them over to the beach for a short walk. It had started to get chilly, we were tired, and we wanted to get an early start the next morning. But they had fun seeing the moonlight on the ocean, and we promised theyd have time to build sand castles and search for shells later in the trip.

The next day will be our trip at Kennedy Space Center! Will it be as out of this world as Mike dreamed?

 

[RunningthruDisney]

joining in!!! Love Flat Stanley.

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

Joining in! I can't wait to hear about you and kids first experiences in Disney!!

 

[mom2cgj]

joining in!!! Love Flat Stanley.

Joining in! I can't wait to hear about you and kids first experiences in Disney!!

Flat Stanley will show up a lot! He had a great time.

 

[mom2cgj]

After a good night’s sleep, we got up early the next morning and got ready to head out for a day at Kennedy Space Center. Mike has been a space nut since he was little, and Cubby is following right in his footsteps. So, this was an absolute must do on our trip!

Before the trip, I had spent a lot of time working on cute shirts for our trip. Yes, we did the matching shirt thing! It was a lot of fun, and the kids really loved it. Plus, it made finding each other easy (and finding some photopass photos that weren’t on our card, but that’s another story). Here is the back of our KSC shirt.

Before driving up the coast to Merritt Island, we had to stop for breakfast. We had never been to a Waffle House before, but we’d heard about them from friends who had been to the south, so we decided to give it a try.

Cubby wasn’t happy I made him wear the hat!

Breakfast was good. I had the chocolate chip waffle, and it was tasty. The kids really enjoyed watching their waffles being made. I’m not sure it was anything special, but good and inexpensive. We’ll go back.

After about a 30 minute drive, we got to Kennedy Space Center!

OK, funny story about the drive. The GPS in our rental car had us going one way, and the signs on the road a different way. So by the time we got to the entrance we were completely confused. This sign was on a the road to the entrance, but then you have to turn off that road onto another road. So, we turned left (like the sign says). But, Mike wasn’t sure if he was supposed to turn in on the second road, so he kept going. Um...right up to the guard shack for the restricted area!!! The guard was really nice and had a great sense of humor. He let us in to turn around and we ended up in the right place. So, for those driving to KSC - turn right just past the new Atlantis building!!

Speaking of the shuttle Atlantis, the new exhibit just opened this summer, so we missed it by about 6 months. Just another reason to go back to Florida!

After walking in and getting tickets, the first thing we came to was the Rocket Garden. This was really cool, and we got to wander around and see a lot of the different rockets. There was a “tour” going on, which was really a man standing there talking and pointing to the different rockets. We listened to him for a while, and learned a lot, but Nugget got squirrelly, so we left. Plus, we had just enough time to get to the Bus Tour which would take us out to the Saturn V building.

The bus tour was just that...a tour on a bus. Jesse was once again entertaining the people around us. That couple sitting behind us laughed the entire trip. Thank goodness they found him funny!!

The tour takes you past the Vehicle Assembly Building. That place is huge. To give you some idea of the size, they said that each star on the flag painted on the side of the building is 6 feet across. Mike really wants to do the tour inside the VAB next time.

The bus tour makes two stops. The first is to the observation gantry, where you can climb up and look around at the different launch pads. This is a view from one side of the gantry. (We took a ton of pictures, but I won’t bore you with all of them!)

After spending as much time as you want at the gantry, you can hop on the next bus and head out to the Saturn V center. For us, this was the main part of our trip. We spent a LOT of time out there! When you first get to the center, you are sent in to a room to watch a movie about the Saturn V rocket. Then you move to a different room for a second movie. That second room is a replicated launch room, and you go through a simulation of the launch of Apollo XI. According to our bus driver, most people don’t realize there is a 3rd movie, close to the exit of the center. That movie finishes the story with the moon landing, and is narrated by Jim Lovell. If you go to KSC, don’t miss the 3rd part! It’s the most interesting of the series!

After you get out of the launch control room, you are met with the breath-taking view of the engines of the Saturn V rockets. I knew they were big, but I had no idea of the scale of these things!

The Saturn V center is really neat. I won’t show you all the stuff that there is there, but if you get a chance to go, do. We also experienced our first “pixie dust” of the trip...and we hadn’t even gotten to Disney yet! As Mike was talking to a docent about the Gemini capsule on display in one section of the building, the kids and I were standing there looking bored. (He’s an engineer...so he gets into these technical discussions that are not at all interesting to small children...or me.) A staff member came up and asked about our shirts. We got talking, and he was really good with the kids. After some conversation, he asked the kids if they would like a little something special. He told us to wait there for a minute, and left. He came back with special collector coins for each of them. It was really nice and made them feel special.

After catching the bus back to the main part of the space center, we ate lunch. If you are going to KSC, I recommend you pack a lunch. There is only one place to eat (the Orbit Cafe), and the food is nasty.

Next we went to the Astronaut Memorial. We were there right before the anniversary of the Apollo I fire (that’s what the flowers are for). It was pretty amazing. Obviously, Stanley enjoyed it.

There are several different buildings with displays and interactive areas. I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures in there, since I’d used up most of my camera space at the Saturn V area. One of the things we did was to go to an Astronaut Talk. The astronaut there that day was shuttle commander Ken Cameron.

We finished up by walking through the Rocket Garden again. There are models of each different type of capsule that you can sit in. Here is Mike showing the older two something.

This next picture is one of my favorites. This is the gantry that all of the Apollo astronauts used to walk on to the shuttle. Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, all of them. So, it was pretty cool to see my kids stand there. I admit, I teared up. It would not be the last time on this trip! (Side note: A couple of weeks ago, we got to tour Marine One, and the kids got to sit in the President’s seat where every President since Kennedy has sat. It has been a pretty cool year for them!)

On the way out, we treated the kids to some astronaut ice cream. You can tell by their faces what they thought.

By now, it was late afternoon, and we had promised them a trip back to the beach. The water was COLD (it was January, after all), but they had to put their feet in the water. I love this picture.

Cubby had been dying to build a sand castle, so he did this. No bucket or anything, so it’s not much, but he got to say he built a sand castle on the beach.

After changing, we grabbed a late dinner at the Pig & Whistle pub in Cocoa Beach.

Mike had fish and chips, which he said were pretty good, but a little greasy. The boys both had burgers. I don’t really remember much about them, so they must not have been anything special. G-Bear had the Extra-Cheesy Mac & Cheese. Mac & cheese is her absolute favorite thing to eat. But she only ate about 4 bites before declaring it was too cheesy. I took a bite, and had to agree! Too much cheese!!! I had a chicken and asparagus pot pie with garlic mashed potatoes. It was absolutely fantastic! The crust was super flaky, and the sauce was creamy and seasoned perfectly. So, would we go back? It’s a toss-up.

By now it was past the kids’ bed time, so we went back to the hotel and turned in. Along with our entrance to KSC, we had been given admission to the astronaut hall of fame. We thought about going the next day, but we all just wanted to get to Disney!

 

[kate_wdw]

Joining in! I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of Disney!

 

[Lei]

Awwh, beautiful family! And yea, can't wait to see the kids' reaction to Disney!

 

[mom2cgj]

Joining in! I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of Disney!

Awwh, beautiful family! And yea, can't wait to see the kids' reaction to Disney!

Welcome to both of you! I'm so excited that people are actually reading this!

 

[mcnealrkn]

Really enjoying reading along. Love the shirts - great job Mom!

 

[apainterxx44]

So excited for when you all get to Disney World! Love reading along so far!

 

[jane2073]

Great report! We live near Cocoa Beach. Slow and Lo is one of the more popular and respected restaurants in the area.
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

 

[sue_88]

I'm looking forward to your family's reactions with all the "firsts". First time to see all that Disney magic.
Thank you for sharing your trip.