8 Texans Return to Neverland at Christmas- Day 1, 12/3

[exwdwcm]

Me- Michelle, 32, marketing manager, married to a non-disney guy, no kids (but trying now!), former cast member (wdwcp in 1996), the pefectionist/organizer/trip NAZI

Mom- "MawMaw", 50s, married 35 years, recently retired, the generous one! Had brain surgery (pitutary gland)last year that might slow her down a bit this trip as she gets tired more

Dad- "PawPaw", 50s, along for the ride, our driver and constantly pulling out his wallet to pay for stuff!

Great Aunt- Marion or "Auntie", 60s, first time ever to WDW! recently retired as well!

Sister- Mandy, "NeNe", 28, special ed teacher, not big into disney, but loves to go with us, calls her "schmoopy" (boyfriend for those that don't get the Seinfeld reference) every night

Sister- Wendy, 30, paralegal, married with 2 year old, huge Disney NUT and the comedian of the family

Bro in Law- Mike, turned 30 on the trip, married to Wendy, and another comedian and great dad to little Ally

Ally- Mike and Wendy's little angel, 2.4 years old (terrible twos!!!), the first grandkid in our family and completely SPOILED ROTTEN (we love it!)





Well we had booked a very early flight for Saturday morning, December 3rd to Orlando from DFW. We all live about 20 or 30 minutes from DFW, which is very convenient. But to help us get up and going quicker in the morning, we decided that I would spend the night with my sister Wendy and ride with them in the morning. That way I could help them load little Ally and all the 300 bags a toddler requires. My parents would pick up Auntie and take their own car.

We all met as a family for a quick dinner the night before at a local pizza buffet place. We had a great dinner and shared our excitement about leaving the next day for WDW. Ally talked about going to Di-ney world and seeing “Rella”, her favorite, next to “Binkerbell”. I think my favorite thing was when Wendy told me that Ally said she was going to see “Seeping Booty”……..I was like – is that some horrible medical condition or what? Of course not, it was “Sleeping Beauty”……if she only knew what Ally had called her, she would be horrified!

After pizza, I retired with my sister to their house to help her pack. She hadn’t even started packing at all and it was 7pm!! So I helped her pack and prepare. Our youngest sister, Mandy wouldn’t be joining us on the early flight out. She had a parade for her drill team she directs that next morning and would fly out and join us the next evening instead. I guess duty calls!

So the alarm goes off at 3:45am……what on earth were we thinking booking an early flight? Oh yea, more time to spend with the mouse…….we can sleep when we are dead, right? Everyone please nod your head in agreement! We are loaded with our 300 bags and off to the airport by 4:15am or so. Wow, no traffic this time of the morning, imagine that? Ally is actually pretty wide awake. The adults, well we are a whole other story.

We arrive at the off site airport parking called “The Parking Spot” (clever, huh?) and park the car. We see a raccoon running across the parking lot, which happens to be Wendy’s favorite animal, at least as a kid. I mean who really chooses a dirty, digging through people’s trash raccoon as their favorite animal? What happened to a nice cuddly teddy bear? Well anyways, Wendy thought it was a good sign for our trip. As we are pulling out the 500 pounds of luggage, we see our parents pulling in as well. Perfect timing. We had decided to bring Ally’s car seat, as we were renting a large van when we arrived. Plus she could sit in it on the plane since they purchased her her own seat. It is a big joke in our family to always ask “Where’s the diaper bag?” since we always seem to be missing it! On this trip, it was the car seat. My parents were going to use the car seat from their vehicle. Wendy was frantically worried that they would forget to pull it out, so she called to remind them- “Where’s the car seat?”. The shuttle pulled around and they started loading our massive amounts of luggage and we began what would be massive amounts of tipping just to move our mammoth mountain of luggage from place to place. Suddenly Magical express was sounding like a better idea. Well, maybe not.

here's a pic of the luggage (this was on the way home, but still gives you an idea!)

So we get all loaded on the shuttle and are off to the terminal at DFW. Suddenly my dad yells out- “Where’s the car seat?”…..he was looking around in the shuttle and it was nowhere to be seen……lo and behold, it was in the front seat next to the driver, we just couldn’t see it there. We all wipe the sweat from our brows, first crisis averted. We arrive at the airport and decide to check in at the counter, which meant another huge tip for some other poor guy to move our back breaking pile of luggage to the check in area. Did I mention we had a lot of luggage? We even had Mandy’s huge bag, so that when she arrived later that evening, she could take a cab directly to meet us for dinner at California Grill. So the extra bag wasn’t making things easier. Let me tell you something about Mandy- she is a fashion hound. She loves clothes. We always tease her about her $200 jeans……I guess the rest of us are just cheap. She is a fashion diva and we always look to her for approval on our clothes and outfits. She always overpacks and we joke that each day she will change clothes at least 3 times, starting with outfit 21C, then outfit 21D and then outfit 55R. Well maybe it’s only funny to us. Wendy had packed enough toiletries to outfit a whole country. The toiletries got their own suitcase even. Do we really need that much shampoo and deodorant? Well maybe deodorant……. But no one beat my parent’s huge bag. It just made it under the 50lb mark, but wouldn’t be so lucky on the return flight.

So we all do the electronic check in at American, so convenient. Luggage is tagged and off to security. We had 12 large bags checked, plus all of our carry-ons, stroller, car seat, diaper bag……wait, who has the car seat? Mike’s got it….that was a close one. So we are off to the gate, everyone gets through security without being asked for a full cavity search. Us ‘kids’ head off in search of some food at McDonald’s, since we won’t be sitting in first class with Auntie and the parents. They’ll be dining on a scrumptious breakfast on the plane, so they wait to eat. Ally watches the planes from the windows. Finally it is boarding time. Auntie and my parents get to board first since they are sitting in first class, which is a first for them…..wow, that’s a lot of “firsts”! We wait to board in a later group. Auntie and my parents all hide behind magazines, so Ally won’t see them. We know Ally would cry and want to sit with MawMaw and PawPaw in first if she saw them and we are certain that the other first class passengers wouldn’t really care to have a 2 year old up there.

We board and Mike switches seats with me, so I can sit with Wendy and Ally on the same row. Mike ends up being just one row up from us, but across the aisle. The plane seats 3 across on each side- or 6 across total. We have 3 boys under 9 sitting across from us on the same row. Their mom and two more kids are in front of us. Mike is sitting across the aisle from the mom, so kitty corner from us. Apparently the dad of that large group was sitting in the row behind us, but kitty corner. After we are all sat down and comfy and carry-ons loaded, the older couple sitting next to Mike start asking him if he would mind trading seats with Scott. They never explained who Scott was, or even where Scott was sitting. Mike was comfortable where he was and could see Ally okay from there (sitting kitty corner, a row up), so he didn’t want to trade places with some ‘Scott’ guy he didn’t even know where the guy was sitting. None of us realized that Scott was the father of the kids and the old couple asking were the grandparents. We didn’t know they were all together, and they never explained that. They just kept saying “Scott needs to sit here”, “will you trade with Scott”……we were all like “who the hell is Scott?”…….if we would have known, he would have happily changed seats. But they never told us. Anyways, “Scott” became a joke the rest of the trip…….”Where’s Scott?”……

The flight was pretty uneventful. For a 6am flight, it was pretty full. Plenty of kids, which is what you would expect on an Orlando flight! Ally didn’t sleep, but behaved the whole way. She had flown twice before as a baby. She played some and we pulled out Wendy’s laptop and watched part of Peter Pan and part of a video about the parks. She kept saying “Di-ney World!”. The poor little boy next to us was deathly afraid on take off and landing, I felt so bad for him. We got our lovely free soda and sad representation of what is supposed to be a granola bar. Meanwhile, Auntie and my parents are enjoying warm washcloths, omelettes and fresh fruit in first class. Apparently when the stewardess asked what my mom wanted to order (for breakfast- there are two choices)….my mom says immediately “a mimosa!”……so she drank part of her breakfast, but they all enjoyed a nice meal up there, again, a first for them. Somehow my mom is always kicked from behind at the movies and on planes. Never fails. Somehow there was someone kicking her up in first too. The person must have had super long legs to reach across all that legroom up there.

Us poor saps in coach are still doing okay. The plane lands on time at MCO at about 9:30am. And now the fun struggle with our luggage begins again. We had considered using magical express, but had heard horror stories about it taking 10 hours to get your bags and having multiple stops before getting to your hotel. We really love the freedom of having a rental car and I know my way around very well since I lived and worked there. So rental car was our final decision. We once again, part with our money to tip another person to move our luggage for us from baggage claim to the thrifty shuttle stop. The tips are already cutting into our shopping money, oh well. AT least none of us had strained backs from all the luggage, though I can’t say the same for the guys that moved it. We rented a large 8 passenger econo line van from Thrifty. I think it was about $250 for our week there and had lots of extra room in the bag for another seat, but instead it was empty and worked well for our 500 pounds of luggage!

We all load on the Thrifty shuttle, since it is located off-site, next to Hertz, just around the corner from the airport. Once again- “where’s the car seat?”……ah, there it is. We arrive at Thrifty and again tip the guy a few bucks since he unloads all the stuff. My dad and I go check in and there is a short line. It is about 10am by this time. Check in goes smoothly, we politely turn down the navigation system and extra insurance (scam!) and proceed to our silver colored van that would be transportation for the rest of the week. Our luggage fit in the back nicely. The car seat had to be strapped in the middle of the front seat, so one of us had to climb over it each day to sit on the other side of it. Finally we are off and loaded and heading down the highway towards WDW! We dig out quarters to pay the two tolls on 528 and before we know it, we are on I-4 and so close to Disney! We exit at 535, which is right near where I lived in Disney owned apartments when I worked there. I really miss my time there. We make our way towards the downtown Disney area and finally to Port Orleans. We had two rooms booked at Riverside and had faxed in a request for adjoining (not connecting) rooms, on a first floor in Alligator Bayou, building 14. We stayed here last time and loved it- close to the food court, parking lot and lobby. We park the van, and go in to check in. There is a small line, we are probably 6 or 7th in line. The lobby is pretty full though. We notice there are lots of pop warner people right away. I was surprised a bit. I knew to expect some, but I knew most stayed at All Stars. So I was shocked to see so many. One poor cheerleader was completely passed out on a couch. Which would not have been bad, except about 30 other people were looking for places to sit, while she took up a whole couch to herself. Must have done one too many cartwheels. I can’t complain really, I was a cheerleader in middle and high school and in 8th grade we went to Nationals with UCA in Orlando at Sea World. I remember being loud and annoying. But as a kid, you didn’t care. Now as an adult, I apologize to all the adults I annoyed, really I do. Now I was going to be one of those adults that would be annoyed by the cheerleaders. Karma huh? It’s a great thing, except in my case.

to be continued in next post

 

[exwdwcm]

continued


So check in moves along okay. I look behind us and suddenly the line is out the door. Good timing on our part. We finally check in our two rooms, pay for them up front with the debit card and don’t get any charging privileges. We like to pay cash for everything else and not have to worry about paying a huge bill at check out. You never realize how quickly stuff adds up when you are just charging away to your room. We didn’t get our request, but did get Building 17, which is still not too far off. We get connecting rooms and first floor though. We have a view of the parking lot, but we don’t care, we don’t even open up our blinds. Before we know it, we are off….and all thanking our lucky stars, cuz the lobby has turned into a complete circus. People everywhere and kids running around like crazy, except for the no-spirit, sleeping cheerleader. We all buy our refillable mugs, get a quick drink and return to the safety of the van. Wait, where’s the car seat? Oh, it’s all strapped in now, no need to worry about it any longer……whew! Our rooms are not yet ready, as it is only 11am now. So we proceed with our planned schedule and go to Downtown Disney for some shopping and lunch at Earle of Sandwich. First though, we drop off Mike at the Boardwalk so he can hang at ESPN for most of the day. Today is Mike’s 30th birthday and he is a sports nut. He wanted to watch college football and have some alone beer time! He didn’t mind hanging out on his own for a bit. So off he went. We would catch up with him later for a big birthday dinner.


The rest of us were on to Earle of Sandwich. For those of you that haven’t eaten here, please do! It is a great place with wonderful food at a good price. You can get a large sandwich for under $5 and the sides, including the awesome tomato soup are $1! And free refills on the drinks too. You don’t find that often at Disney counter-service. I actually ate at Earle of Sandwich 3 times on my last business trip. That is how much I loved it! I would run over there after my tradeshow and take it back to my room while I worked.

I had told my family how great it was and they were pumped and they were not disappointed, except for the huge line that wrapped around 3 times. But it moved quickly. We found a large table and all got our food. I had the Le Frenchy (ham/cheese) with tomato soup. Melted brie cheese….um, fabulous! Wendy had some chicken/spinach/mushroom sandwich that she loved and my dad raved about his jerk Caribbean chicken sandwich. We all really enjoyed this lunch. After lunch, we did some shopping, first the Christmas store, then Ally spotted the fountains near there that shoot out of the ground…….a first time experience for her. She loved it. Luckily it was a nice day and not too chilly.

TIP- pack a swimmer diaper for them to play in the fountain!!

Before we knew it, she was soaked. But she was having a great time. Even MawMaw got in there with her and got her shoes soaked. Well Ally is a dripping mess now which means we have an excuse to buy her a shirt, right? Well we used it as an excuse anyways! We then spotted the carousel and Ally wanted to go on. We had tried getting her on one at the mall back home, so she would be prepared for rides, but she didn’t want anything to do with it at home. Now she was asking to ride it. She did great. I even got on my own horse and took a spin.

It was actually pretty crowded in downtown Disney. It was a Saturday and we stayed away from the parks since we knew the Christmas parade was being filmed that day. But downtown Disney wasn’t much better. We visited the Art of Disney Store, the Once upon a Toy store etc. We got Ally a Mr. Potato head filled with fun accessories. We didn’t realize you were supposed to stuff the potato full of stuff, instead we were stuffing the box full of stuff. So when we got to check out, the poor CM told us the news and then he spent the next 10 minutes or so, stuffing every single piece into that potato. How he made it all fit, I’ll never know. But he was so patient and kind to do that for us, when we hadn’t followed the directions. I guess he is probably used to it! We didn’t even make it over to World of Disney, it was just too darn crowded and crazy down there. Mike had called a while ago and asked if we could come get him. He was getting bored. We had told him in like 30 minutes…..well before we knew it, an hour had passed. It was close to 3pm. We called and one room was ready at 2:30. By 3pm, both were ready. Mike called and said he was just taking the bus back, he was tired of waiting on us. Well from the Boardwalk, he couldn’t take a bus directly to POR, so he ended up going to MK first, and then took a wrong bus to Epcot…..he finally was walking up as we pulled in the parking lot. Ally was excited to see her Daddy.

our POR room:

We got into our rooms and we realized they were connected, not just adjoining (next door, no door connecting). We got all unloaded, which took a while for our huge luggage pile. Thankfully, some of the bags fit under the bed. Otherwise, we would have been stepping over suitcases the whole time. We all got situated and unpacked a bit and started to explore the resort and show Marion around some. We just love the atmosphere of the swamp/rustic feel. The rooms were different since we were here in 2000. There were now lamps over the bed with sheer curtains for decorations there too. There was nice new stone tiles in the bathroom and different bedding. We still had the lovely 2 inch trundle bed, if you can call it that. By now it was close to 4pm. Everyone was tired from traveling and shopping. They had no idea that this was nothing compared to how tired we would be later in the week! I am the nazi afterall!

the pretty pathway to the food court from our room
Wendy, my dad and I decided to let everyone else rest a bit while we ran to the grocery store. We just made a quick trip to Gooding’s which is in the Crossroads shopping center near Downtown Disney. We could have gone to Walmart, but just went here instead since it is close. It is pricey though and we knew that. We just got some milk, bottled water, fruit and some birthday cupcakes for Mike. Oh and beer. Did I forget to say beer? An 18 pack of beer and a 6 pack of wine coolers for Auntie and mom. We drank all of it over the course of the week. It was wonderful having a free fridge in our room this time. In 2000, we paid to rent one. It really helped. So we are all loaded up on groceries and return to the hotel and continue getting settled in. We had 8pm reservations for California Grill at the top of the Contemporary that night for dinner. We knew we needed to be there by at least 7:30 or so to check in. We wanted to ride the monorail around the check out the resort first too. So we all got cleaned up and headed out the door by close to 6pm.

Mandy’s flight left Dallas around 3:30 or so and was touching down near 6pm. We had asked her to take a cab, since we knew we would be busy unpacking, doing grocery stop and getting off to Contemporary. I felt bad later knowing it cost her $50, but getting everyone in the van and out to the airport and back to the restaurant in time would have been rushing it. So we arrive at the Contemporary that night (Saturday) and check out the cute Pinnochio chocolate Christmas display.

We then head upstairs to ride the monorail around the loop once. We didn’t get out, but just wanted a quick ride. After that, we checked in at the Cali Grill desk. Mandy met us there. We were given a pager and called after about 15 minutes.

We had told them it was Mike’s birthday, hoping for a good table near the window. For a party of 8, I didn’t expect a great spot, but we got a pretty good one. We knew we had to stretch out our dinner, since WISHES started at 10pm. We sat down just at 8pm.

We first ordered some drinks and enjoyed the bread. We then ordered some appetizers. I had the flatbread, which was yummy. Everyone else had salads that they really enjoyed. My dad had some fruit salad with pears and beets that he liked. We then ordered some wine.

mandy, auntie and me

Well Mike ordered a bottle of Merlot or Cabernet, can’t remember which we had. It was good though. Ally was behaving so far too. She really was good all day, except when we made her leave the fountains, she wasn’t happy about that, but calmed down quickly. I mean what can you expect from a two year old who was having such a great time in the water. She really did well the whole trip. It took forever to get our entrees…..I don’t know if he was waiting to space out our meal or what, but it was longer than we wanted. My sister Mandy and I often share food on trips, and we did so that night. We shared the filet mignon with au gratin potatoes and broccoli. They even plated it on separate plates with separate portions of everything for us, which meant we actually got more food. It was delicious, the steak just melted in your mouth with a wonderful barbeque glaze. Mike and my mom also had the steak and enjoyed it. Auntie had the mahi mahi and I can’t remember what my dad or Wendy had. Ally got a little roasted chicken and mashed potatoes kids’ plate. We had a cute family at the next table with a little girl and she was just so tired by 9pm, that she laid her head down on the table and was asleep, with napkins as a pillow, it was really quite cute.

By the way, everyone asks about the dress code here. I’ve eaten here three times now and seen it all. We all had on jeans or pants and either sweaters, blouses or polo shirts. I did see some people in shorts that had obviously been in the parks all day. Then I saw some couples celebrating special occasions that were all dressed to the nines. I never saw the staff talk to anyone about their dress. I don’t think they enforce the code at all; it is more of a guideline to keep you from showing up in your bathing suit direct from the pool.

Oh and my family won’t be happy unless I mention my ‘sexy photo’ they took during dinner. We are picture crazy and were taking some pics in the restaurant. I was holding Ally and they snapped a quick one of me as I was turning my head and I made a really funny face that looked like I was attempting to be seductive while holding this little toddler. Pretty funny. They didn’t let me live that one down all night. Mind you, I am not very photogenic and just look plain silly in the picture, so it was even funnier.

Sexy, huh? lol more like stupid!

Well we finally finished our entrees and then a few of us ordered dessert- Mike ordered an apple/ice cream dessert and my dad had some mango fruit one. But before dessert was delivered, it was time for WISHES. Unfortunately our view from our table wasn’t perfect. We were pretty near the window and the balcony side of the restaurant, but a big column was blocking our view. And we were disappointed that they didn’t turn off the lights like they did last year when Wendy and I were there. They did pipe in the music and dimmed some of the lights in the back, but not like they used to. We finally decided to go outside on the balcony, since most of us couldn’t see that well. WISHES was spectacular. Only Wendy and I had seen it before and we had told everyone how great it was. It even brought Wendy and I to tears when we saw it in the park together, mind you, Wendy cries at AT&T commercials too. It was great to see it from that perspective. Dessert was delivered near the end of WISHES, but Mike was still out on the balcony watching the show, so his ice cream was half melted by the time he got there. Not good timing on the server’s part, but hey, what can you do. Our server was good, but I have had much better ones on my previous visits. We finally got the nice big bill- about $450 if I remember correctly. We don’t eat at expensive restaurants often, we just aren’t really ‘gourmet’ eaters. I eat at a lot of nice places when I travel on business about once every month or two, so I get my fill of good food and wine with the company footing the bill. I really am a picky eater and a meat and potatoes type girl, so fou-fou isn’t my thing. So this was a nice splurge for us and it was Mike’s birthday, so we had something to celebrate.

By the time we made it back to the room, it was after 11pm. It had been a long day. We had been up since 4am! Ally didn’t even have much of a nap all day. It was amazing how she could go all day long. She really is a good kid. So we fell asleep still wondering who Scott was and why he wanted to trade seats with Mike, but at least we knew the car seat was safely belted in the rental van!

Ally had to copy the little girl that was sleeping on the table....

In our next episode…….we finally visit the parks, Epcot in the am and MGM in the pm with a dinner at Sci Fi. So stay tuned to find out if the old sci fi movies scare Ally at the restaurant…Will everyone actually get up in time to be at the park at opening? Will we get to ride Soarin without waiting more than 40 minutes? Will we accidentally run into Kelly Ripa? Will we fly out of our seats on Tower of Terror?

and thanks for hanging in on the long, detailed reports!!

 

[Cinerama]

Great so far--I'll be looking for more!

 

[Deb8821]

Great report - thanks for taking the time. It's always fun to read about others adventures! Thanks again

 

[swankybeth]

Great report so far, your niece is so cute!

 

[BbearRosenfeld]

Great trip report!!!!

 

[PrincessAurora]

Love the pictures! What a great family!