A Pot Family Christmas Vacation (with pics)- NEW Page 2 (Day 3)

[Ginamarie]

Pre Trip Report

Let me start by saying we love WDW- most of us love WDW. Well, -I- love WDW, and I’m in the process of recruiting everyone I know to share in the magic. I’ve been WDW too many times to keep track, thanks to my theme park loving mom. For me, Disney World is like a drug. You get a little piece of it and you can’t seem to get enough of it from there on in. You just keep thinking about the next time you can get there. As I write this, I’m HERE. Here in a corner room at POFQ, with my window facing the entrance to the Sassagoula Food Court. Before I go any further though, I have to key you into HOW I got here and WHO came along.

Like I said, I crave Disney. I have a large family, most of whom also crave Disney. Our Disney habit is facilitated by my DH, who works for (you guessed it) Disney, through it’s TV station, ABC. Now as much as I love vacations, and Disney, I have a habit of being--- well frugal with my funding. This happens when you live in one of the most expensive areas in the U S of A, and you’re a young couple trying to make ends meet. So for our honeymoon, a hotel room with a 50% discount was the way to go. That was in 2002, and we’ve been back at least once a year since then- sometimes alone and sometimes with various family members and/or friends. On our honeymoon, we stayed at POFQ, and really loved it, so I’d been hankering to go back.

Dateline, summer 2005. DH and I were trying to start our family. We had a heartbreaking miscarriage the previous year, and took some time off, but we had a feeling things were going to be better this time around. In my mind, having a baby is an excuse for a trip to WDW. I introduced this idea to the facilitator (DH), and he seemed to go alone with it. Once I was getting into my second trimester and ready to tell the family, we told all our family and friends about the idea. Baby’s first trip to WDW! You can’t truly have a new member of the family until they’ve been christened in Disney World. They have to walk down Main Street and see the castle; they have to sit through dinner at the Cape May Café; and they must make it around the World Showcase at least three times.

Surprisingly, a lot of people were onboard for the idea, and we started making reservations. Well, I started making reservations for everyone. So now, without further ado, I present to you our cast of characters. Like the rest of this trip report, it’s long, and most probably it will be verbose. Once I’ve written it.

Me- GM, fearless leader, and the heroine of this adventure. Age: 28 You’ll hear lots about me later, I’m sure.
DH- (aka “Joshpot”) the facilitator, the self-proclaimed “walking discount”. Age 28. Wants relaxation a good deal more than the fearless leader does. Now there’s a reason we call him “Joshpot”. I don’t remember exactly how it came about, except that we were playing a game with my little siblings. DH would do this ridiculous robot impression and we started referring to him as “Joshpot Robot.” The Joshpot part has stuck, and we’ve taken to adding “pot” to the end of everyone’s name. This will come up later, but we’re not there yet.
DD- Olivia, aka Livvie, aka the Livvie Monster. Age: 8 months. Favorite activities- nursing and playing with her aunts and uncles.

That was the easy part. Here’s where it gets interesting.

DM- my mom. I’ll leave off her age for posterities sake. She tours commando style and likes it.
DF- My dad. He says he’s 29, that’s been going on for several years now. I’ll be “older” than he is soon. He hates to travel.
DBro1- He’s two years younger than I am, but I like to call him my baby brother. Recently, we’ve taken to calling him “hairy mommy” because he looks JUST like me, but with stubble. We’ve been mistaken for twins a lot. Plus my high school photo id looks more like him in a wig than it looks like me. Seriously, I should post the photo, but he’d kill me.
DBro2- We call him “Grant,” because that’s actually his name. Age: 3. He’s obsessed with “DISNEY PIXAR CARS,” which must be said exactly like that, loudly. He’s been to WDW twice before (at 6 months and 18 months), but this should be a great trip with him.
DSis1- Gillian. Age 16. Official PitA, but we love her anyway. Kinda. She loves the thrills.
DSis2- Giuliette (yes, we all have “G” names). Age 8. This is going to sound bad, but I mean this in the nicest, most loving way possible. Giuliette is an evil genius. She’s planning future world domination. I’m not kidding, just ask her.
GFDM- My brother’s fiancé. We call her “George’s Fiancé Dawn-Marie.” No, we don’t say the whole thing every time. It’s not “DISNEY PIXAR CARS.” What kind of a family do you think we are? This is her first trip to WDW.
DMIL- DH’s mom. She’s been to WDW before, but not with us. She’s looking forwards to spending a lot of time with the Livvie Monster. The Livvie Monster is sweet and cuddly, especially for a monster. Kind of like cookie monster, but not.
DFIL- Also his first trip with our crew.
DBIL- Name: Jake. Age 7. Partner in crime with Giuliette. Together, they have the potential to cause some serious damage.
DSIL- DH’s sister, Mel. She was a last minute addition to our plans, and we couldn’t be happier. Mel is cool, and fun, and kids love her (even evil kids).

OK, so there’s the cast of characters, and hopefully it doesn’t get any longer. I can’t make any promises though. I like to talk to people in WDW. It’s pretty weird. In real life, back in NY, I hate people. I mean it. I just don’t like people. It’s different in WDW though. I listen to everyone’s stories, even the people who are having a bad time (but then I laugh at them because usually they’re ignorant or easily irritable).

 

[Ginamarie]

Prior to leaving, I made a planned itinerary. I booked Hoop de Doo Review. I researched park hours and parade schedules. I made dining reservations 180 days in advance +10, and then I second guessed them and changed some of them. I read reviews. I spent WAY too much time on the Disboards, and finally, I typed up a detailed itinerary. The itinerary has pictures, and facts about WDW, and little quips from me. I have been teased mercilessly for the itinerary already.

Despite all the planning, admittedly, I packed the night before. Quickly, because I had no time and we had to load up the car. DD has outfits preplanned, and a list of each outfit with all components of the outfit, so nothing will be forgotten. Right down to the undershirt and socks. This is serious stuff. Me, I have a bunch of shirts and jeans thrown into a suitcase.

The car was packed, DH was asleep, and DD was laying in between us in bed trying to eat one of the blankets. So I decided it was about time I catch up on some movie watching, and watched the last 90 minutes of Mean Girls, because fearless leaders just don’t need sleep. Thereafter, I TRIED to sleep, but couldn’t stop worrying about the flight to FL. Normally I’m not even afraid of flying, but something got into me, and I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Fast-forward to 1:40 am Saturday morning. I’m in the bathroom feeling violently ill, except I’m not violently ill. I just feel like I might be, and that’s enough to leave me sitting in the bathroom pondering WHY I’m sitting in the bathroom at 1:40 am. So I started praying for strength and for piece of mind. Then I had a revelation of sorts. I’ve spent the last few weeks praying about finances, about job situations, about scheduling, but I’d been missing what was REALLY important in life- our family’s general health and well-being. Hearing DH and DD snoring in the next room, I knew I already had that, so then I finally had the piece of mind to sleep. Somehow, I didn’t feel so ill either.

Next up: Chapter 2, Our day of travel

 

[Ginamarie]

Once again, I feel I must explain a few things before I progress any further with my story. I have always taken the first possible flight I could get to FL (with the best price, because I’m ch—frugal). DH has implored me to take later flights. He loves sleep, you see, but I’ve always said: “It’s never too early to get to Disney.”

When we first booked this vacation, DH and I were still living with my grandparents. I booked the first possible flight to Orlando, which happened to be around 7 am. We’ve taken this flight at least three previous times without any problems. A couple of months ago, Jetblue decided to bump up the time of our flight to 6:15 am. DH was incensed. 7 am was crappy, but 6:15 was simply deplorable. He wasn’t having any of that! (except he really was). Then, DH and I bought a house. It’s a wonderful thing with I love and take pride in. It also soaked up every dime we’ve ever made and not paid back to the Disney Company. It also is another 10 miles away from the airport.

It was about 9 pm on Friday night, the precise time “Mean Girls” was starting to play on television when I realized DH and I needed to wake up at 3:15 am in order to make our flight. Read that again, because I assure you, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. THREE AM.

At three fifteen AM on the dot, DH’s phone alarm went off. I hid under the covers while he want into the bathroom. I wanted to go back to bed. I wanted *gasp* to take a later flight to WDW. Of course I could never reveal that to DH. It’s just between me and all my close personal friends of the Disboards community, ok? Up we got. We packed the rest of our stuff, turned off the water valves in the house, and got moving. We made it to my parents’ house right on time, at 4:15 am, and left for the airport shortly thereafter.

The airport was relatively uneventful, aside from the men taking 40 minutes to park the cars. Literally, it took a subway train and a bus ride to get from the /jetblue terminal to the long term parking lot. For some reason, everyone could print out their boarding passes at the kiosks except DH and I, but it worked fine at the counter. We got through security and made it to the terminal about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled takeoff. We were one of the last groups to get onto the plane. I’ve never been that late to a flight before. I’ve also never left my house at 3 am for a flight before. In any case, our timing was good, but I had NO time to take the “preflight photos” I planned to get at the terminal. So you’ll have to wait another chapter before any pictures show up.

We got on the plane and lo and behold, sitting right behind my mom was one of my dad’s clients. It’s a small world you know! The flight was great. Little to no turbulence. Livvie wasn’t a monster aside from about 2 minutes of screaming and two sessions of nursing. Of course no one slept, because we were too excited. Upon landing, Grant had to show us the “I’m going to Disney dance”, which was adorable and consisted of a lot of twisting and butt shaking. We were finally in FL, moments from Disney. It felt like mid afternoon and it was still before 9 am.

We took the fabulous tram ride to the main airport building, and attempted to find the Magic Express. I seem to remember more guides around last time pointed people where to go. No such luck this time. We had to ask at the information desk.

We then walked three miles to the new location for the Magic Express. There were about three people on line. SCORE! We took care of checking in and were sent to a line for our resort. Just a couple of minutes later, we were loading into the bus. I think the bus was about 1/3 full before we took off. Of course, they have to play a WDW DVD while you’re traveling, which advertises the resorts. Grant was wide eyed and loving it!

Next thing we knew, we were pulling into POFQ, unloading the strollers and carry-ons and attempting to check in. I say attempting, because we needed to sign in for four rooms. I also had to make sure our request for a crib was taken care of, and that an extra person was added to one of the rooms, but only for three nights. Our cast member was very patient and got through the whole process with us, even though it took a long time. The little guys settled in to watch a DVD in the lobby. Oh, to be a kid without any worries in the world!

We were starting to get a care though. A care called hunger. After all, we’d been up for a long time now, and only had a bag of four mini chocolate chip cookies on the plane. The time had come to head over to the food court and become MUG people.

I know this topic is discussed on the boards all the time, but what is it with people who fill up these oddball mugs which CLEARLY aren’t the ones you’re supposed to be using. Now, DH and I had a POFQ mug at home that we purchased on our honeymoon, but I didn’t bring it along with us. First of all, it would have been something else to pack, and I had little space to play with. Second of all, I just knew I wouldn’t feel right. Even though it’s a mug for the right resort, and no one could know the difference. Am I a goody two-shoes? Perhaps. I just feel like it’s already a good deal to buy the cup and be able to use it a couple of times a day for the rest of my fee. So having been provided with a good deal, the least thing I could do is follow the rules! We bought a couple of mugs. One for my dad, one for my brother, and one for DH and I. We also bought a bunch of breakfast food. Waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse’s head, muffins and omelets. It was a good morning. Food was basic, but it all tasted good, which was the important part.

We took our time eating, since we still had all our carry-on bags, and weren’t in a rush. DH called periodically to see if the rooms were ready, but no luck. We were starting to drag. It was getting late (well late morning), and we needed some rest, but no rest was to be found. It was going to be a LONG day.

Up Next: The Dream Team Finds the Pot Family

 

[nicolemarie]

Prior to leaving, I made a planned itinerary. I booked Hoop de Doo Review. I researched park hours and parade schedules. I made dining reservations 180 days in advance +10, and then I second guessed them and changed some of them. I read reviews. I spent WAY too much time on the Disboards, and finally, I typed up a detailed itinerary. The itinerary has pictures, and facts about WDW, and little quips from me. I have been teased mercilessly for the itinerary already.

Now that's my kind of Disney planning, right there. I guarantee that you will be the hero at the end of this report. All those people with no plan? That would never work.

Upon landing, Grant had to show us the “I’m going to Disney dance”, which was adorable and consisted of a lot of twisting and butt shaking.

My son is four and has a dance that I'm sure is similar. I always say he gets his moves from his Daddy. Read: neither have rhythm. But they both look cute trying!

Im enjoying your report. From one Disney nerd to another, keep it coming!

Nicolemarie

 

[CPer'sMom]

I'm envious that you are still there!! We just got home from WDW last night and I'm already tentatively planning our next trip ~~ can't come too soon!

Looking forward to hearing about your Dream Team experience!

 

[OhMari]

I had to re-read the ages of your brothers and sisters. I hope you post pictures, I'd love to see your family and your husbands family.

I hope you have a great time at WDW and thanks for posting a "Live Report".

 

[Ginamarie]

My son is four and has a dance that I'm sure is similar. I always say he gets his moves from his Daddy. Read: neither have rhythm. But they both look cute trying!

Oh yeah, rhythm is not a part of the dance, but we don't mind!

 

[Ginamarie]

I'm envious that you are still there!! We just got home from WDW last night and I'm already tentatively planning our next trip ~~ can't come too soon!

Looking forward to hearing about your Dream Team experience!

Actually, we've been back home for a week or so I just started writing the report while I was still there.

 

[50 years Too!]

Looking forward to more!

 

[pumba]

fantastic report and I am loving your way...

We love FQ too ......will be there in April soon enough....but we just returned a week ago........

Oh Yah we are up at two thirty and out the door at three and at the airport for four and in the air for six.......I am STILL EXHUASTED
Thanks again

 

[Ginamarie]

fantastic report and I am loving your way...

We love FQ too ......will be there in April soon enough....but we just returned a week ago........

Oh Yah we are up at two thirty and out the door at three and at the airport for four and in the air for six.......I am STILL EXHUASTED
Thanks again

I do not envy you- you'll hear about our exhaustion soon enough.

 

[LAS]

Great report! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[Ginamarie]

So in our last scene, we were hanging around the Sassagoula Food Court, tired, but now with our bellies full. Plus we had mugs, which we kept refilling. I was going to make sure we got good use out of that mug, even if it meant I had to keep drinking cokes and hot chocolates all afternoon.

As we were sitting there, we noticed a long table being set up with place settings, and then with plates of sugar cookies. We had no idea what was going on. It looked like a children’s birthday party. I was curious. Then one of the food court employees started to invite all the kids over to the table. Each child was dressed up in a chef’s coat and got to decorate their own cookie with vanilla icing and sprinkles. The cast member in charge of bringing kids to the table made sure that DH made a cookie for Olivia since she was sleeping. She also made sure we took a picture of DH making a cookie for Olivia.

My siblings in chef coats:

If you look closely in the background you can see the overly unenthused member of the dream team who had to write out the certificates. I assure you, this is as amused as he got. He was one of the unhappiest people I saw at WDW.

Decorating:

Annnnd- the finished product:

We were all quite stuffed from breakfast at this point, so we left our cookies boxed up for future consumption. Then we checked out the playground. The playground at POFQ is small, with one main climbing/sliding/playing structure, but it’s usually pretty empty, and there are benches around for the parents to sit on while their kids run themselves silly. It also has a great location, since it’s right across from the food court and right next to the swimming pool area. I spent about 5 minutes chasing Grant around the play area before I was completely exhausted.

I knew I had to get moving, or I was going to wind up curled up in my hotel room for the rest of the night. Clearly, that was not within the itinerary, so I wasn’t going to do it. I had, however, left in some time for resort wandering at this point, in case the rooms weren’t ready. I also knew that Mousefest 2006 was winding up, and that the MegaMouse meet was taking place that afternoon. So I found a couple of people interested in going, and we decided to go to the Swan/Dolphin. Gillian, Giuliette, Mom and I went to the bus stop. I had such fond memories of that bus stop from my honeymoon- how we used to sneak up from the back of the stop through one of the parking lots. I was all dreamy about it.

This is where my brain went to silly putty. I knew that the Dolphin was in the boardwalk area between Epcot and Disney Studios, so I figured we could just take a bus to either Epcot or the Studios and then walk (completely forgetting that I didn’t get my park tickets for the day yet, and couldn’t get from the front gate of Epcot to the international gateway). This is Disney-speak, I know, and I apologize to anyone who has no idea what I’m talking about. For the rest of us though—HELLO, what was I thinking. So we get on the first bus headed towards Epcot.

There I am, babbling at mom and the girls. “This is PO-Riverside; it’s a lot bigger than our resorts, but we share buses. These are the mansions… Oh, CRUD!” That’s when I realized I was on the wrong bus. What was WRONG with me. I was supposed to be the fearless leader! So we got to Epcot and immediately got on line for a bus to the Studios. It came rather quickly. Waiting for buses wasn’t so bad. The weather was nice after all, and none of my clients could reach me. I was in WDW. Breathe in, breathe out—ok, I was back to my normal-self. The bus got to the Studios and then we boarded the BOAT to the Dolphin. Geez, this was taking a long time. I like the friendship boats though. The Captains are usually fun, and sometimes you get a really HANDSOME one. DH still teases me about one of the Captains from a couple of years ago. He made me swoooony. OK, enough of that.

Finding the conference room for Mousefest took FOREVER. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of people around to guide you in the right direction, but you needed to take something like two escalators and walk down 8 corridors. It was like finding the Magic Express again, but three times as bad.

I’m not going to write a lot about Mousefest. It was ok. I got a couple of nice lanyards and pens. I wound up using my Allears lanyard to hold my room key for the rest of the vacation, and plan on using it to hold some of my pin collection at home, since the two Disney lanyard I have are now full. There were a LOT of people there though, and it was hard to get to the most popular tables. One person in particular was ticking me off. He was driving around in a scooter. Now I don’t have a problem with people using scooters. My grandparents used them the last time they were in WDW because they never could have done all that walking. What I have a problem with is that this guy would pull up to a table and park his scooter (taking up the whole length of the table) and then he’d GET OUT of the scooter and walk around, just leaving the scooter in the way. I wanted to get on the scooter and drive it into a corner, but I didn’t. I just thought about it- a lot. Giuliette was really into finding Hidden Mickeys on this vacation, so I tried to get her to talk to the author of the books, but she was too nervous to say anything.

By the time we left Mousefest I was really dragging. We opted for the boat again instead of walking. Then we bussed back to POFQ. In the meantime DBro called to say our rooms were ready and becoming inhabited by some tired men we had left back at the resort. He kept saying that the rooms were in all different locations and nowhere near each other, but I know better than to believe him. DBro likes to say things just to get me riled up, because he thinks it’s funny. It’s not funny btw!


OK, I know I haven’t added much today, but that’s all I can do for now!
Up next: Pandemonium at the Studios, but Cape May Café makes everything better

 

[justhat]

Your story about going to Epcot had me cracking up cause that's so something I'd do, Ginamarie!

Even though we were just in WDW last week, your trip report totally has me wanting to go back, I think cause I feel like I'm there with you. Can't wait for the next installment!

 

[Ginamarie]

According to the itinerary, I should have had plenty of time to rest before leaving for our “nighttime” activity, but our trip to Mousefest took a good deal longer than planned. So I didn’t have much time to hang out in the room. I will say a few things about it though.

We had one of the best room locations I’ve ever had at WDW. We were in POFQ building 4, second floor. DH and I had the corner room, looking out over the hot tub area on one side and the Sassagoula Food Court on the other side. I could see the entrance to the food court from my desk window, which was nice when trying to spy on how busy it was down there. It was about a 10 second walk from my room to the drink refills station! I couldn’t believe we had such a good location, and we weren’t even paying for “preferred” rooms. Right below us I know another Dis member was staying, since they had their room all decorated up.. so if you were right next to the food court December 9-19, hi there… I liked all your decorations!

The rooms at POFQ still appeal to me. It was spacious enough for DH, myself, Olivia and DSis(16), and 16 year olds take up a LOT of room! It was also nice to have a fridge for storing Olivia’s milk. The plan for our first night was to go over to the Studios to see the Osbourne lights, and then to Cape May Café for a big dinner. DH and I had seen the lights a couple of years ago, and were looking forward to showing them to everyone else.

We got a late start, but it was just a short walk to the bus stop and the bus came pretty quickly (again). The Osbourne lights were scheduled to open at 6 pm and we got into the park about 10 minutes before that. Of course en route to New York Avenue we had to make a pit stop AND a water fountain stop. This is what happens with a large group!

Now, I know this is the beginning of my report, and I want to warn you ahead of time that I am NOT a complainer. We had a wonderful time on our vacation, but there were a couple of big disappointments. I shoot straight from the hip, so I won’t sugar coat it. The Osbourne Spectacle this year was a disaster!!!

Last time we were there they had a standard path laid out for people to enter and exit the lights. This time there were just people pushing and shoving. You could not move, much less get a good idea of what the lights looked like. I thought that if we made it passed the main entrance area, where people all stop to take pictures it would be ok. Not so much! We got around to the first place we could exit the street and pushed our way out. In all my trips to Disney, I have never seen so much pushing, shoving and mass humanity as I did that night. DH and I always complain about how crowded it was when we went to Disneyland in August 2005, and that was crowded (180 minute waits for space mountain, 45 minutes just to get to the lunch counter at a counter service location), but the Osbourne lights that night were actually worse. I don’t know if they’re just that bad on the weekends.

I was heartbroken though. I had been talking about the lights at the Studios since we started planning our trip the year before. I felt like this may be an omen for the rest of the trip, that my planning would fail everyone. I almost (and again this is between me and my friends at the Dis) ALMOST started tearing up. It didn’t help that I was getting very hungry and as you know had been awake for the last fifteen hours with no sign of sleep in sight.

So there we were, a hungry, tired, unhappy pot family. There was one saving grace staring us in the face though, The MUPPETS! Kermit, Gonzo and Fozzy have never let me down. The Muppets are the perfect family attraction. No one is afraid of them, it doesn’t make anyone ill, it’s air conditioned and you get to sit in comfy theater chairs. This is an attraction to satisfy the grumpiest members of my family, and make everyone else happy too. There also was no line. Score!

The Muppets also have a special place in my heart. I remember watching The Muppet Show as a kid. My parents would let me stay up until The Muppet Show was over each week, and most of the time we would watch it together as a family. The whole Muppet cast makes me laugh and gives me warm fuzzies at the same time. Thanks to the DVDs, we introduced my little siblings to the Muppets too.

I was glad we got to wait through the preshow, because this is one of my favorites. Mr. Grant got excited each time a new character would show up on the screen. He was especially fond of Gonzo’s tap routine. He was NOT fond of the fireworks at the end. Grant was terrified of fireworks before we left for FL, so we knew we might have an uphill battle ahead of us.

Waiting for the Muppets:

After the Muppets we headed to the Great Movie Ride. This was another ride with a short line where I knew everyone could ride. I also knew I could nurse on the ride if necessary. It wasn’t necessary though. Our only other challenge was to convince BIL that there was nothing to be afraid of.. a difficult task, because he’s afraid of –everything-. He changed his mind about four times before we got on line, but we just kind of wrangled him onto the line, like sheep or cattle. He tried to back out, but we pretended we didn’t hear him. So we were glad that he got on. He did hide under his hood for a good portion of the ride, but was pleased with the Wizard of Oz at the end. Olivia wasn’t phased by any of it. Not even the alien that jumped down right at us.

With everyone starving, we decided it was time to move towards dinner, so we started to walk out of the park when we saw our first photopass photographer. DH and I knew ahead of time that we were going to purchase the photopass CD, so we were determined to take all the photopass pictures we saw. I’m glad we stopped and took this one, because it happened to be the ONLY photo for the whole trip where we got everyone together at once.

(That's me in the Old Navy Sweatshirt and DH behind me.)

Seeing the long line for the friendship boats, we decided to walk to the Beach Club. Oh the sound of starving children walking that short hike is enough to make a mother turn off her hearing powers. By now Olivia was getting ready to nurse, so we had to employ alternative stroller pushing patterns. Run with the stroller, swerve the stroller, shove the strolled really quickly in front of you and hope it doesn’t veer into the man-made river—I used them all. I also got sick of listening to “are we there yet” from the older ones, so I kept asking them random Disney trivia questions.

We were so happy to get to the Beach Club! I looked enviously at Stormalong Bay, even though it was 50 someodd degrees outside. Someday I will make it into that pool! I found a big comfy chair in the beach club where we fed Olivia some babyfood and then she nursed. So she was a happy camper again. It was a short wait for our table, and then we were escorted to the very back of the restaurant.

The Cape May Café was recently expanded to include more tables in the back and side of the restaurant. That’s where we were seated, but no one minded being a short walk from the food. We were going to need some exercise after eating all that food. Olivia did another short nurse and then fell asleep, so I was able to have my hands free for buffet!

Cape May is a special place for my family. It all goes back to that infamous honeymoon DH and I took. On the night we arrived in WDW (after two long days of driving from NY) we were supposed to go to the CA Grill for dinner, but we got in late and were tired. So knowing that DH loved seafood, I switched our reservations last minute from the CA Grill to the Cape May Café for later in the evening. We still haven’t been to the CA Grill to this very day!! DH loved the buffet so much that we made it into one of our standby meals, and every time we go, we wind up introducing more people to the deliciousness. In 2005, we took my brother George there for his birthday. George is CRAZY about the mussels at Cape May Café. He always “instructs” the wait staff on his mussel eating system and which plates they can take and not take. Our 2005 waitress was awesome. At the end of the night she announced to the whole restaurant that it was snookiebear’s 80th birthday. We just laughed our heads off. It wasn’t as amusing this time around, but the food was as tasty as ever.

George and his seafood:

On previous trip reports I could tell you exactly what everyone ate at each meal, but this time around it’s too tough with the large group we had. I can tell you what I had. A TON of peel and eat shrimp. The scrumptious cornbread dipped in the drawn butter for the seafood. It may clog your arteries, but it will taste SOOO good while clogging them. The surprise gem of the evening was the beef strips in brown sauce. I don’t remember them being there before, and they may never be there again, but I won’t forget how good they were. Of course I had mashed potatoes too. Everything was good and I had NO room for dessert. I did hear that the mini-cheesecake morsels were good though.

By the end of the meal everything became a daze. I could have fallen asleep right there in my dinner chair. It was too late to go back to the Studios for a bus, Epcot wasn’t admitting anyone else because the park was already closed, so we had to bus to downtown Disney and then back to POFQ. Luck was on our side though, because as soon as we got to Downtown Disney there was a POFQ bus pulling up.

It was somewhere around 11 pm when we pulled into the POFQ bus stop with a couple of sleeping babies, folded up strollers and very tired adults. When we got into the room I ALMOST told DH that there was such a thing as getting to WDW too early. I didn’t though, because I’m still not sure I believe that! Sad creature that I am, I checked out our internet connection (hooking my laptop to DH’s phone, which has unlimited internet) and went onto the Dis to check in and see how my WPASADI team was doing. I was up late--- late enough so that it was actually day two of our Disney vacation already.


Up Next: The Pot Family Goes to the Animal Kingdom

 

[tinawv]

You have my attention. Can't wait to read more.

 

[**eeyore**]

OMG! You're Osborne Lights experience is almost identical to mine from last year! DH and I went, just the 2 of us Dec 2001 - It was such a nice display, back where all the houses use to be. Now, they have it all crammed into one little space. I also had been hyping it up to my parents and siblings, who joined us last year on our trip. Unfortunately it was an absolute mob-scene and to top it off, we were trying to navigate a double stroller holding our 8-month old twins. I have to admit I was actually a little nervous while we were stuck in the crowd - at moments it seemed like we really would never get out! (That's just the worrier in me! )

Anywho, it's really to bad they had to change the "layout" of the lights - it is really difficult to enjoy them with it being so crowded.

Can't wait to read more of your trip report - you and your family seem so great! I can only imagine how much fun you must have had!

 

[Ginamarie]

OMG! You're Osborne Lights experience is almost identical to mine from last year! DH and I went, just the 2 of us Dec 2001 - It was such a nice display, back where all the houses use to be. Now, they have it all crammed into one little space. I also had been hyping it up to my parents and siblings, who joined us last year on our trip. Unfortunately it was an absolute mob-scene and to top it off, we were trying to navigate a double stroller holding our 8-month old twins. I have to admit I was actually a little nervous while we were stuck in the crowd - at moments it seemed like we really would never get out! (That's just the worrier in me! )

Anywho, it's really to bad they had to change the "layout" of the lights - it is really difficult to enjoy them with it being so crowded.

Can't wait to read more of your trip report - you and your family seem so great! I can only imagine how much fun you must have had!

Yeah, you can see in the picture, I had a double stroller and a single stroller, and no one could even see anything because we were so busy trying not to get stepped on. It's a sad scene when the New Yorkers are scared of getting stepped on!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Great trip report so far! Sorry the Osborne Lights were chaos. I love the family photo!

 

[gottalovethem]

Love the photos!! Thanks for sharing your story!