~ A 21 month old, a celebrity sighting, & a whole lotta food~2 week trip~ 2/28 update

[Porturican]

How nice that you were able to pick up your parents. Please tell her congratulations on her retirement. Where in CA did she teach? I grew up in a suburb near San Francisco and lived in several other areas of CA as an adult.

LOVED Dylans pictures with Mickey and Minnie and the drummer kids. What fantastic memories.

The picture of the two of you on small world is precious! Looking forward to more!

I know this is totally (not in the grumpy look way though) But SunnieRN what suburb near SF did you live in? I too live in a suburb near SF (on the Peninsula) but just put SF because it is a more recognizable spot

 

[Porturican]

My parents started out in San Mateo but then moved to Oroville (about an hour north of Sac)when I was pretty young. She has done most of her teaching there. How did you like living in the Bay Area? That has always sounded difficult to me due to traffic/commuting, etc.



Is that what those are called? Boomwackers? All I know is that he was having himself a good time. That last picture where he is making a funny face is my favorite. That was the face he kept making all week, like he was getting away with something.

I work for a high school where I live, so I know about CalPers. I'm not a teacher, but I do the accounting for the student ASB accounts on campus. I won't pretend to understand the budget situation either, just that it seems like our state always tries to fix their problems with school money. A couple of my friends just got laid off due to our budget cuts. It's a pretty scary time right now in California, and it doesn't seem like the people making the decisions know what they are doing.



In the past we have definitely done the "commando touring" route, but that was just the 2 of us. We knew that we would have to be totally different on this trip with him if we didn't want him to melt down. A lot of magical moments were things we didn't plan for.

Oohhh ooooohhhh I know where San Mateo is, I live about 10 minutes away by .
I think I want to get me some of those Boomwackers, for me to play with!
Keep up the great trip report!

 

[SleepingBeautyOH]

-about the "commando touring"
( dis boards is not liking me and I can't quote right now for some reason)
I have usually ascribed to this method as well, until my trip with 2 1/2 year old cousin. We quickly found out that it was more fun for all involved to just let him do his thing and not be in a rush to do everything. Not sweating ( no pun intended) the small stuff goes a long way with kids at Disney.

 

[Raecheal]

ohh.. I love the polynesian.. I truly enjoyed all the pictures you posted especially considering were gonna have some photos taken there in 6 days. The photo of Dylan pointing during his first sight of the monorail is so precious. I"m so glad that you posted your day of first's, Day 2... sounds like everyone enjoyed themselves.

Day 3, well AK is one of my fav.. but your right it always feels sooo HOT there.. I love the idea of the tatoos! That's such a great safety precaution That's sucks that yous had a bad experience on the Safari, good thing yous are going back later in the trip.. Mmmm... haha I love wendy's. Well it's nice to know your parents arrived safely..

Can't wait to read Day 4

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm cracking up at the thought of tomatoes dipped in ketchup for lunch. Too cute!

I love those tattoos, that is a great idea!

Too bad it was so hot, I always think AK is a much hotter park anyways.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Just read your last 2 updates. I love the story of meeting Mickey and Minnie, that is adorable. Sometimes I wish I had a little kid to take to Disney World because I bet it would be a blast seeing it through their eyes. We keep hinting to my cousins that if they need a babysitter/tour guide...haha.

I definitely agree about the DL version of IASW being better. I've only been to DL twice but it is interesting to compare the 2 resorts. We've actually only seen the Christmas one which was really cool...except when Dad and I got stuck on it for close to an hour!

 

[xoktenox]

I've heard around the DIS that the heat feels the hottest in AK! I can't blame you all for just being so beat from spending the day there...especially Dylan! At least he got a little nap in during Nemo...which my 24 yr old boyfriend also did, just not laying in my lap

Glad your parents made it down alright and you got to spend some time with your mom to talk before bed! Can't wait to read more!

 

[jlr9882]

I am loving the trip report! My son will be 35 months the day we arrived in Disney, and this will be his first trip to meet "KickMouse". We will be staying 8 days and I am praying there won't be too many meltdowns. My cousin is a CM, so at least we don't have to pay for park tickets.

 

[Gwen412]

So much fun!

 

[jstouder]

Great report. Tagging along to the end.

We're taking our 2 year old son the first week of September. It will be his first trip.

 

[beyondblessed]

I just found your trip report but I'm going back to read your pre-trip report first! You're little boy is soooo cute!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Yeah that sounds like his baby mama! I think he takes the kids there a lot. I wish my son would have went up to him but oh well. I'll be sticking around reading your report, it takes me back to when my son was a lil guy.

Thanks for sticking around. I'm so glad that I found the Dis and it influenced me to write a TR, because now I will always have a very detailed keepsake of Dylan's first trip.

Oohhh ooooohhhh I know where San Mateo is, I live about 10 minutes away by .
I think I want to get me some of those Boomwackers, for me to play with!
Keep up the great trip report!

I was actually born in San Mateo but I have only visited there a couple of times since.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

-about the "commando touring"
( dis boards is not liking me and I can't quote right now for some reason)
I have usually ascribed to this method as well, until my trip with 2 1/2 year old cousin. We quickly found out that it was more fun for all involved to just let him do his thing and not be in a rush to do everything. Not sweating ( no pun intended) the small stuff goes a long way with kids at Disney.

It felt so weird to plan the trip this time because I was researching all of this "kid" stuff, which I had never had to do before. Todd & I had been there enough times to have a game plan w/out too much effort, but I knew we couldn't do that w/ Dylan. It definitely makes you stop & observe a lot more than we used to.

ohh.. I love the polynesian.. I truly enjoyed all the pictures you posted especially considering were gonna have some photos taken there in 6 days. The photo of Dylan pointing during his first sight of the monorail is so precious. I"m so glad that you posted your day of first's, Day 2... sounds like everyone enjoyed themselves.

Day 3, well AK is one of my fav.. but your right it always feels sooo HOT there.. I love the idea of the tatoos! That's such a great safety precaution That's sucks that yous had a bad experience on the Safari, good thing yous are going back later in the trip.. Mmmm... haha I love wendy's. Well it's nice to know your parents arrived safely..

Can't wait to read Day 4

I can't wait to see your pictures from the Polynesian. It is such a beautiful resort. I love the AK too but I think it feels so hot because there are less places to go into for air conditioning. It also seems like the walk in between things is much longer than the other parks (other than World Showcase). We still had a great time, and we thought we were prepared for the heat... what did we know?

I'm cracking up at the thought of tomatoes dipped in ketchup for lunch. Too cute!

I love those tattoos, that is a great idea!

Too bad it was so hot, I always think AK is a much hotter park anyways.

Yeah, Dylan LOVES tomatoes which is so funny because Todd HATES them. So he always says "No son of mine should like tomatoes" and then I say, "Yes, but MY son loves tomatoes." So tomatoes dipped in ketchup was a little victory for me in the "tomato war" between Todd & I

Just read your last 2 updates. I love the story of meeting Mickey and Minnie, that is adorable. Sometimes I wish I had a little kid to take to Disney World because I bet it would be a blast seeing it through their eyes. We keep hinting to my cousins that if they need a babysitter/tour guide...haha.

I definitely agree about the DL version of IASW being better. I've only been to DL twice but it is interesting to compare the 2 resorts. We've actually only seen the Christmas one which was really cool...except when Dad and I got stuck on it for close to an hour!

Having a little kid with you gives you a totally different perspective. I never thought that I would like it as much as I did.

You are so lucky that you saw the Christmas IASW at DL (unlucky that you got stuck, though!). Did you see the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion too? That is another one of my favorites.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

I've heard around the DIS that the heat feels the hottest in AK! I can't blame you all for just being so beat from spending the day there...especially Dylan! At least he got a little nap in during Nemo...which my 24 yr old boyfriend also did, just not laying in my lap

Glad your parents made it down alright and you got to spend some time with your mom to talk before bed! Can't wait to read more!

Ha, ha. Yeah, I bet Chris would have laid down and settled in if he could have! The Nemo auditorium air conditioning was so nice after standing out in the heat.

I am loving the trip report! My son will be 35 months the day we arrived in Disney, and this will be his first trip to meet "KickMouse". We will be staying 8 days and I am praying there won't be too many meltdowns. My cousin is a CM, so at least we don't have to pay for park tickets.

Welcome! Thanks for reading. You are going to have so much fun with him! My advice to you is to pick the things that are most important to you and do them early in the day. Then, everything else you do is just a bonus. Meeting Mickey was a priority and I'm so glad that we did it when we did. It is nice that you are going for 8 days too. You won't feel as pressured to push it too much each day.

So much fun!

Thank you!

Great report. Tagging along to the end.

We're taking our 2 year old son the first week of September. It will be his first trip.

Welcome! Thanks for stopping by. I hope I am giving some good tips to people who are taking small kids. Anything that worked for me is what I am trying to pass on to others.

I just found your trip report but I'm going back to read your pre-trip report first! You're little boy is soooo cute!

Aww, thanks for reading. And thanks for going back to read the PTR too. You're so sweet!

 

[Booknut]

Hi ya, just read through your TR, am loving it! Your family is beautiful, especially your little boy, your TR is making me excited for taking my daughter to Disneyland Paris in September and hopefully to WDW next year!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hi ya, just read through your TR, am loving it! Your family is beautiful, especially your little boy, your TR is making me excited for taking my daughter to Disneyland Paris in September and hopefully to WDW next year!

Can't wait to read more!

Hi & welcome! Thanks for your nice comments. How long of a flight is it for you to Paris? Has your daughter flown before? That sounds like it will be a special trip. Are you going to do a TR? That would be very fun to read!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Today was a scheduled “free day” which means we didn’t really have a plan at all. Dylan slept through the night and woke us up at 9:20 this morning. Much better than yesterday! My dad was already up and having coffee out on the patio. Now, let me just say this about my dad…if there is a patio anywhere around, you will find him enjoying it with a drink and a book. Most of the time that we were at the condo, he was outside on the patio. I think he started doing that because it got himself out of the way while the rest of us were getting ready, etc. But it was so nice out there, it became a favorite hang-out spot for all of us.

Todd, Dylan & I all had breakfast outside with him while mom slept in. This was her first official day of retirement to sleep in and she was taking advantage of it. She finally got up around 10:15 and was very happy about it (which is funny because it was only 7:15 on west coast time), but I didn’t mention that because she was so proud of herself for sleeping in. We all sat outside & talked for a while and played w/ Dylan. We had bought a cheap plastic ball at Walgreens for him, and that was the best investment of the trip. He burned off a lot of energy in the condo just throwing, kicking, chasing that ball all over the place. It also had Handy Manny on it, and he is on Dylan’s favorite Disney cartoon right now.

We finally made the decision to go shopping, so we got moving and left around noon. We headed over to the Premium Outlets on Vineland Ave., which was only about a 5 minute drive from where we were staying. This is our favorite outlet to shop at because there are a wide variety of shops and it seems like you can get decent deals here. My favorite store here is the Banana Republic outlet. We always manage to find good stuff there.

We had misjudged the time today and once we got there, we realized that we didn’t have a lot of time to shop. We had an ADR at Boma today at 4:45 pm and I wanted Dylan to have a nap before we went so that he would be on good behavior. As a result, we power-shopped for the things that we needed and said we would come back another day to shop at a more leisurely pace. Mom wanted some shoes for walking and I wanted some new capris, so we split up and both found what we were looking for.

Dad & Dylan waiting while we shopped

Playing on some toys at the mall

Todd & I also went to the Disney Character Outlet to see if there were any great deals. We have a couple of sets of friends at home who are expecting babies in October and wanted to get them something. One couple is having a girl and the other has chosen not to find out, so that means we had to find something unisex for them. That is easier said than done! Disney stuff is usually very girly or little boy, and the only things for unisex are usually Winnie the Pooh. Not necessarily my favorite thing.

We found a lot of good stuff at the Character Warehouse. We found a red onesie for the girl baby. We also got Todd a hat to wear in the parks because he forgot to bring one. A First Trip t-shirt for Dylan w/ all of the characters on it and a Pirates of the Caribbean Christmas ornament for our tree. We paid $37 for all of that stuff! We were pretty proud of ourselves when we left that store. On the way back to the car, we stopped at this little kiosk called the Beach Hut that was selling necklaces, and I found one that I liked so I bought that too.

I tried to take pictures of everything that we bought as I was packing to go home. I know that I missed a few things, and the layout of the photos is not great but at least you can get the idea of the things that I bought.

Not a good picture of this necklace but I wore it all the time on this trip so you will see other photos of it.

It was a little busy at the outlet today. It was probably because it was extremely hot again (this is a theme during our vacation, unusually high temperatures) and people were looking for a place to cool off. I commented to Todd about how many people don’t look where they are walking. I had a few people walk right in to me when I was standing still and then glare at me like I hit them. I try to be extremely careful with the stroller so that I don’t run into people, but I can’t help it if you run into me! It actually became funny after a while since there is nothing to be said in those situations. I would just smile at the person and move on.

We were back at the condo by 2 pm and we all had a small lunch of sandwiches. Then I put Dylan down for his nap, and Todd took my mom to get a temporary cell phone since she left hers at home. She ended up with a pre-paid phone from Walmart and Todd picked up a few forgotten items.

I sat with dad out on the patio. He read a book and I wrote up some of my TR. It was such a nice time because it was so quiet. The patio is shaded with a ceiling fan, and it is right next to a really big pond. The pond has a large fountain in it, so the sound of running water was always in the background. Very relaxing! I wish I had one of these set up in my backyard at home. I would never leave to do anything else!

My favorite part about the patio… the entire thing is screened in from floor to ceiling so that you don’t get any bugs bothering you or flying into the condo if you leave the door open. I don’t think we saw a single bug inside the condo the entire time we were there. That is pretty amazing considering we were in Florida right next to a large pond. Plus, I felt safe with Dylan opening the door and going out there by himself, knowing that there wasn’t a way for him to get out.

We tried to let Dylan sleep as long as possible before we got him ready to leave for the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our ADR was at 4:45 and we left at 4:30. Definitely cutting it close considering that area of the property is the farthest from where we were staying.

Getting ready to go to dinner. The infamous patio is in the back.

On the drive there, I saw something that I hadn’t noticed before. Once you go through the arch and are on Disney property, the asphalt on the road is sparkly. I saw this on multiple occasions on this trip so I know that I wasn’t just seeing something. It was so cool, almost like it was saying, “Come to the magic. It’s this way.” Has anyone else seen this? I think a lot of people ride the Disney transportation and don’t notice it.

There were also a lot of cops on the roads, trying to catch all of the speeding tourists. We really did not speed all that much because of the amount of cops that we saw. One time it was late at night and we were driving back to the condo and we saw a cop car flying in the other direction with no lights on! We watched in the mirrors and he zoomed up on a car that was speeding and then threw on all of the lights. There weren’t a lot of other cars on the road at that time but this felt a little dangerous to us. Maybe he was bored that night and looking for a little excitement.

The clock on the dashboard said 4:45 just as we pulled up to the AKL. I hate being late to ADR’s because you just don’t know if you are going to be out of luck and have to wait since you missed your time. Todd dropped us off so that we could get down to the restaurant and check in.

I had decided to schedule the ADR for 4:45 so that we could do an EXTREMELY early dinner and then spend a lot of time hanging out at the resort, looking at the animals. The restaurant opened at 4:45 so I assumed we would be some of the first people to get in. When we got off the elevators, there were quite a bit more people standing around that I expected. I went and checked in.

Stay tuned….do we have to wait long? Does Dylan like African food?

 

[Raecheal]

I"ve never have been to the outlets there.. but I hear they are great. I love your necklace you picked up up.. and the photo of you and dylan is really cute.

I hope you didn't have to wait long for your ADR...

 

[tinkgurl]

Oh my gosh, Dylan looks adorable all dressed up. Love his shoes! They are so easy to slip on and velcro fast.

 

[AGPrincess]

Great trip report so far! I can't wait to hear about Boma - yum!