A cranky 10 month old, a spoiled bday girl, "universal people" and me go to WDW! 5/23

[mickeysgirl17]

Hey disers!!!!!!

I just got back home on Sunday from another great (but hot) WDW vacation.

My family:

Me, DH, DD7 (our spoiled bday girl)
and DS 10 months (my very always cranky baby)
were in disney for 3 nights, 4 days. On the last two days, my brother in law, his wife, and their 2 kids joined us. We got to visit all 4 parks and had some wonderful moments!

I took hundreads and hundreads of pics while there and I'm hoping to do a trip report that shows you our adventure through mostly pictures.

So, without further due, here is a picture of us.....

On the last 2 days of our trip, the extended family joined us. Here they are on the left....

My brother in law and his wife are "Universal people" and don't really like disney very much because they think its for kids despite many attempts at trying to convince them otherwise. They are joining us because my DH begged them to.

We were there 5/13 (my DD's birthday) to 5/16. My DD had no idea that we were going to WDW until we reached the epcot gate! It was so fun to surprise her!

We are FL residents so we took advantage of the FL resident dream pass....

Scroll down for the 1st installment....

 

[TaliaB]

Can't wait to read more. I'm taking my 10 month old in two weeks

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I had made an ADR months in advance for my DD to celebrate her birthday with the princesses at Akershus breakfast. I thought this would be extra special. Our ADR was for 8:25am. We had to drive all the way from Jacksonville (a 2 and a half hour drive) and be there for breakfast, plus exchange our FL resident certificates for real tickets and pack up everything we would need for the baby in the stroller for the day so I made sure we were all up and in the car no later than 5:15am.

DH went to bed at 2:30am because his parked car was crahed into the night before and therfore, he was super busy with the insurance people, etc....and he was our driver.

Here are the kids very sleepy in the car....

We told DD we were going to our cousins house in Orlando which was close to disney, and she would probly see signs for disney but we wouldn't be able to go until next year and that we would spend her birthday in a chuck E. Cheese there because Orlando had a better Chuck. E. cheese than the one near our house. She believed us so everything was perfect.

Just over 2 hours later, I was almost jumping out of my seat with excitement. I soooooooo wanted to tell DD, but DH made me stay quiet until we were at the Epcot gates!

As soon as we were standing in front of spaceship earth, we finally broke the news to DD that we were spending the next 4 days in Disney celebrating her birthday and that I had several secret surprises coming her way!!!
She was beyond happy! Her face expression was priceless. Here are pics of our arrival....

We exchanged our certificates and got our tickets and off we went for a fun filled day!

DD was wondering where everyone was and DH told her that because it was her birthday, we got to go in to epcot earlier than everyone else for breakfast.

Epcot was practically empty!

Wow! I was so amazed and enjoyed these moments because I knew it wouldn't be long until all these pathways would be full of people.

During our visit, the flower and garden festival was taking place, so I took several pics of some of the beautiful scenes throughout the park!

This was my favorite:

We made our way to Norway and checked in for the breakfast. There was a 10 min. wait. Once we were called, we had to line up on a long line to meet Belle and get our picture taken in the yellow dress.

Here are some pics I took while waiting on the line for Belle....

Belle was very nice and our pic came out great. Here it is again....

Right after our pic was taken, we were shown to our table. But, our server was taking forever to get to us, so DH and DD went to the buffet to help themselves while I waited with the baby.

She finally came by and explained that the hot plate would be arriving soon and we could enjoy the buffet until then.

Here are some food pics of the buffet food....

Some was good, some wasn't.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Next came the hot plate.....

The potatoes were outstanding. Everything else was just ok, nothing special. Once the hot plate arrived, the princesses started to come around.

First came Aurora....

Then Ariel....

(By now, my DS was starting to get very annoyed by all these strange women approaching him, and I didn't want him crying so we backed off on making him take pics with every single princess)

followed by Cinderella........

and my DD's favorite was last......Snow white!

I managed to snag a pic of Snow white talking to DS. I'm so proud of him. He didn't cry! Now remember....these are just face characters! You will see how he did with Mickey and friends later on.

Unfortunately, the princesses were very rushed. They only spent about a min. each at our table.

But it was very busy in there.

Breakfast took over an hour and cost me around $80, but we got the pic for free.

Once we got out, it was already way past 9am, so future world was open. On our way back, we took some pics before it got too crowded...

Our first stop after breakfast was test track. None of us has ridden this before. DH wanted to try it, and DD had always been too short, but this trip she was tall enough, and she wanted to go with him.

I was a little nervous about her riding this since I didn't know how bad it actually was, but I let her go and hoped for the best.....

I stayed outside with the baby.

DH and DD came out and she loved it!!! In fact, she wanted to go again! DH insisted I go with her while he stay with the baby, but the line got too long so we grabbed some fastpasses and we would return later to ride. I was very nervous about trying this since I am a total chicken....

Did I get on with DD? Find out in the next installment coming up soon!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Can't wait to read more. I'm taking my 10 month old in two weeks

I don't mean to scare you, but I honestly won't be going back to WDW until my DS is older! You will see why later in the TR! At one point, I think I may have actually said, I'd rather go home than stay here because of the baby!

I really thought that would never come out of my mouth because I really do love disney and would rather be there than anywhere else.....

Thanks for reading! More coming up soon.

but hopefully, your little one isn't as much a handfull as mine.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

So when I last left off, DD and DH had just finished riding test track and DD wanted to ride again so they convinced me to get a fastpass for later so that I could try it.

While we were waiting for the fastpass return time, I asked DH if he wanted to ride Mission Space but he said no, he'd rather do stuff together.

So, we went to innoventions....

We looked around and messed around with some exhibits. But, I remembered reading that "Wheres the fire?" was a good exhibit from allearsnet.com so we stopped there to try it....

While waiting, DH said he was tired of taking DS in and out of the stroller all day and he wanted to try the baby carrier I bought off walmart.com before our trip. Here is the baby in the carrier....

There were two sides/two teams for this exhibit. It was a game to see which team could spot fire hazards in a house. We were on the red team. Each side had its own rooms (kitchen, living room, bathroom, kids room, office) to search thru for fire hazards.

My team won!!!

This was kinda cool, but it wasn't a major attraction or anything....just a diversion.

Here is DD on the fire truck on the way out of Wheres the fire?

We still had time before our test track return to we headed to the seas with nemo and friends....

I love these guys (mine! mine! mine!)....

I took this pic outside and thought it was so pretty with the monorail going by...

Once inside, we rode Nemo. The line looked terrible, but it kept moving and we really didn't have a wait.

This was DS's first actual disney ride and he didn't like the dark, but he did ok. Just whined at some of the really dark parts.

From there, we headed to the land. We got fastpasses for soarin now that our return window for test track had opened.

We also had to stop for our first disney snacks at Sunshine seasons....

I had been waiting months to try the strawberry shortcake after seeing pics on the disboards so I just had to try it...

This was soooo good!

DD had the same and DH had this choc. chip muffin...

After our snacks, we headed back to Test track so DD and I could ride. I am such a chicken so I was so nervous!

DD and I got into line and I was literally freaking out!

The line felt like it was taking forever when it really wasn't and there were people everywhere and I really don't do good in a crowd...so I wasn't doing to well.

I actually felt some relief when I got into the car....

So, did I like it?.....................

I loved it!!!

It was great and I am SO going on again next trip!

DD and I screamed and laughed the whole way. I'm so happy that I did it and so happy that I got to spend that precious moment with my DD.

From here, DS needed a diaper change so we headed off to the baby care center in the odyssey center (located between test track and WS)

This place was great. There was a kitchen with sink, a room for feedings with high chairs and full size changing tables (which were very comfty for DS)....unfortunately, my DS gets very scared on changing tables, so I had to change him while he stood up because he wouldn't have it any other way.

While changing DS, I noticed he had a diaper rash and needed some diaper rash cream which I forgot in the car, so I asked DH to see if there was any for sale right here in the baby care center....

and there was!

It was only $6 for a big tube of balmex, so it wasn't too bad and I was so glad they had some!

While there I fed DS a baby jar so we wouldn't have to stop again anytime soon for a feeding and off we went to Mexico!

We rode el rio del tiempo. I love this ride. So relaxing and cool.

Next, we headed to Norway to ride maelstrom. This would be our 1st time on this ride. How did DS do? Did we like maelstrom? Stay tuned!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

So I'd been wanting to ride maelstrom since our 2006 trip but we never got to, so I was excited to try it - finally.

We walked up to the entrance and the CM told DH (who was pushing the stroller) that stroller parking was all the way by the water.....not to go off topic, but it is so annoying when you walk up to an attraction and stroller parking is like, all the way down there.....and you gotta go all the way back to park it! Can't they just find a closer spot? Most attractions are accomodating, but some feel like stroller parking is a mile away!......Ok, so back to the TR....lol

We headed onto the ride....

and got right on without a wait! I just love when this happens.

So, did we like it?

It was ok. DS didn't like the dark very much and the part where it looks like we will fall out backwards of the whole attraction was a bit scary cause when we got to the edge, the whole boat made a wierd noise and the people in the last row were like "whoa whoa, is that supposed to happen?" cause it looked like we were way too close to the edge and like the boat bumped into the wall but very gently.

But, we made it out safely into the exit area.

Unfortunately, we had to wait for the next show where they show the norway movie in order to exit which we didn't like having to do.

It took about 10-15 minutes before they opened the doors and let us out.
They really need to find a way to let people just leave instead of keeping us there waiting for the next movie. All I remember saying is that my precious park time is being wasted standing here doing nothing.

Well, we made it out of there (without watching the movie- just walked out the other end of the theater) and made our way to China.

DH and I loved the egg rolls they serve in the lotus blossom cafe so we stopped for our next snack....

They didn't taste as good as they used too...not sure why but they were by no means bad. We took a table and sat down and rested for a few minutes while we ate our snack.

From here, we took off to Italy. I'm italian so of course we had to stop here to explore.

When we arrived, who did we see?

This wonderful street performer...

His name is Sergio. He is a juggler/comedian!

I found my DH, DD and myself laughing several times during his performance. He was really entertaining!

It was really very hot standing there watching him, but so worth it. If you go to Italy and happen to catch him, make sure to stop and watch Sergio!

While walking to our next destination, I got some more pics of spaceship earth:

Our next stop: Japan!

I was really excited to go to Japan because I had planned to have my DD pick a pearl for her birthday!

So, we went inside the shop and found the pick a pearl area.

At first, we didn't understand the process as all we saw was a big crowd of people all around. After watching a while, we understood that we had to pay first, get a ticket and wait for our number to be called.

So, I purchased 2 because I wanted my DD and I to have matching stuff.

On ebay, I bought the cinderella coach pearl cages and they came with chains. Here is the link if anyone wants to buy one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/18K-WGP-PEARL-C...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ad95dd032

The settings are completely silver colored, not gold....

I'm so happy that I bought these online and didn't wait until I got to Japan to get a pearl cage. The prices were way too high for all the settings and the ones on ebay only cost a few dollars plus shipping.
Plus, they had no disney settings at all which was surprising.

So, when our number was called, the lady had my DD pick out our oysters....

and she opened them up found our pearls:

and she measured and cleaned them:

The pick a pearl costs $17 for each and for anyone who wants to know, if you make them set it for you, they will charge you extra. So, we just did ours ourselves. It was easy with the settings I bought.

Ours were 7mm and the other was just over 7 (can't remember exactly). They both fit in our settings perfectly and we both wore ours the rest of the trip. This took us around 45 min. from start to finish though so make sure you plan ahead!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

From here, we made our way to France. I wanted to watch the street performer here....Server Amusant!

He did not disappoint!

This show was very good and entertaining as well!

My DD loved it! Here are the pics....

It started like this:

Then this:

then higher...

until he was pretty darn high up and doing stunts up there:

I Love Love Love Epcots street acts!

While walking around, I took some shots of the flower and garden festival characters. Here are some pics:

and another pic of spaceship earth:

Coming up....

The rest of our tour of WS, Soarin and some awesome souvenirs I bought....

 

[mickeysgirl17]

More Random Epcot Pics:

 

[mickeysgirl17]

After France, we decided to start heading back to the hotel to get a break from the heat, but the exit was way on the other end, and we actually took forever getting there, because we kept making stops...

Here is DH in the phonebooth in UK:

and DD joined him:

We passed through Canada, stopped for a bathroom break and a bottled water and headed back to FW. On the way to the exit, we saw these fountains for kids to play in and just had to stop. It looked so inviting in the scorching heat....

So here is DD having fun...

Then DH thought the baby needed to cool down...

The water looked so good, and I didn't care if everyone stared at at me even if I was the only adult in this thing, but I just had to....

We stood here a while and loved it. Eventually, we left and headed over to soarin. We were drenched, but hey, it felt great in the hot FL sun!

DH and DD rode Soarin while I waited outside with the baby. I have always debated whether or not I wanted to ride this because I'm scared I'll get dizzy and not be able to do anything else the rest of the day....maybe one day.

They came out and DH and DD both said it was good, but DH would not do it again. It's just not his type of ride and he doesn't like swings at all. He gets sick. Not the reaction I was hoping for and doesn't want to make me want to ride any faster.

DD liked it, but she liked test track much better.

After this, we really were about to leave when I had reminded DH that I had to stop in mousegears when we returned at night. Then, I remembered that some stuff in FW closes at 7pm and I didn't know if mousegears would as well, so DH let me make one more stop to shop before going back...

This store was amazing! I was in Disney heaven! Thanks disers for recommending it!

DD bought candy and I got myself a very cut purse....

Since the trip, I have been using this purse and have gotten so many compliments. Everyone loves it and asks where I got it. It has 2 small pockets in the front that I love to use for my cell phone and my keys.

DD wanted to spend all of her money, but we made a rule, only $20 a day in advance. She had $80 that she saved up. ( I told her to save for her trip next year, but she had no clue it was for this surprise trip). She did really well the rest of the days and bought some toys I will show you in later posts.

I really recommend mousegears. There is something for everyone. Lots of character merchandise.

After shopping, we really did leave to take a break. We headed to the hotel. I unpacked while DH took a nap and the kids ran around the room! Soon enough, it was time to head back to Epcot for dinner and illuminations.

Coming up....our dinner at the Electric umbrella and did we find a good spot for illuminations at the last minute?

 

[lledman]

can't wait to read more. You are lucky to live so close - I love the way you surprised your daughter for her birthday. We are doing the Princess breakfast before the park opens and the mother/daughter pick a pearl on our first EPCOT day when we go at Thanksgiving time.