A very overdue Holiday TR ~ A toddler, a reunion & Thanksgiving ~ Update 9/17

[tinkgurl]

Oh gosh, I know how stressful it can be when your little one starts worrying about something. I'm so glad he was able to enjoy the plane ride though.

It's so exciting arriving, isn't it?!

I'm guessing you guys decided to hang out around the Resort and call it an early night??

 

[LilAnn]

Yay for the arrival! Funny, we were in Partierre Place too, I think. I think we were in 8303 though. That would have been such a coincidence if we had been in the exact same room!

Love the TSA badge that Dylan got. for the unexpected upgrades on the flights! I think all we got were "wings" on the Jet Blue flight. She still loved it though.

Looking forward to see what you do with the rest of the night!

 

[pinkxray]

I'm in

Dylan is so cute. I admire everyone who travels with toddlers. The thought scares me but if we ever have more kids I would like to take them as toddlers. He did great though

POR is so pretty We stayed there last year and I really missed it this year. I can't wait to see the new rooms, the rooms were the only thing I didn't like about it.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Signing up!

You have a beautiful family and I have to congratulate your nephew for his great choice of destination!!

I totally understand your reluctance of writing a TR. I was only able to finish the TR from my May, 2010 trip a couple of weeks short of my MAY 2011 trip.

That means it took me almost a year to complete it but I am so glad I did it.

As for your son being the highlight of your trip... well... of course he was! I have a 3 year old girl and trust me the trip and, therefore, the TR end up being all about her.

Cannot wait to read more.

Q

Thank you so much and Welcome!

My last TR was my first one and it took me a long time. Not quite a year, but it felt like it! It's really had to do when you have a little one at home (as you know very well!). At the end of it though, I was so glad that I did it because I had a really detailed story of his first trip to WDW. That is what ultimately ld me to want to do this one too.

Are you going to do a TR for your trip from May 2011?

Even with the early delays, it sounds like it was a pretty smooth trip!

It was a VERY smooth trip. I was most worried about Dylan's ears from being sick. There was only 1 time that he complained of them and we gave him juice to drink and he said it felt better. It's just a long day when you fly all the way across the country.

Joining in! My son and I were there from 11/18 to Thanksgiving and stayed at POFQ, so curious to see if we were at any of the same parks on the same days. Your son is too cute! The picture of your family is so beautiful, it must have been nice to have everyone together.

Thank you for reading! That is so cool that we were there at the same time. We tried to go to the parks on the days leading up to Thanksgiving and then we took a few days off over the actual holidays because it would be so crowded.

It was so great to be there with my family. It is not very often that we get to be together. I have another brother who could not make it, but we were so happy that we were able to coordinate all of our schedule to be there together.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Nice start but it does sound like a very very long day between 2 flights and the huge delay. Thank heavens you didn't miss the connecting flight. Arriving late is such a challenge on the food front. I can't wait to see what you guys did, tough call when you are hungry and still on west coast time!

Really surprised at the lack of decorations. I stayed at POR for one night on the girls trip, looking forward to see what you think of it.

I would really like to try a red eye sometime. I never would have said that, but after seeing how it has worked for you...it's more interesting to me. I think we will have to wait until Dylan gets older to try it. It is always hard to land so late at night because no food places are ever open. We usually stop at a gas station & get a corn dog or something, just to make it to morning.

I was a little bummed about the lack of decorations but I knew that they would be done by Thanksgiving day. They do the parks first and if I remember correctly, they had POR's up the morning we checked out. lol. Figures.

Oh gosh, I know how stressful it can be when your little one starts worrying about something. I'm so glad he was able to enjoy the plane ride though.

It's so exciting arriving, isn't it?!

I'm guessing you guys decided to hang out around the Resort and call it an early night??

I'm so glad that he got over it. He was getting more & more insistant that he did NOT want to fly. I was so grateful for that little boy getting off the plane because I really used him to say "what a big boy" and "He's not scared". Thank goodness it worked!

Yay for the arrival! Funny, we were in Partierre Place too, I think. I think we were in 8303 though. That would have been such a coincidence if we had been in the exact same room!

Love the TSA badge that Dylan got. for the unexpected upgrades on the flights! I think all we got were "wings" on the Jet Blue flight. She still loved it though.

Looking forward to see what you do with the rest of the night!

I really liked the location of that building. It didn't feel like very far to anything. Although, I really enjoyed walking around the property because it was so beautiful. I wish I could be there right now...it was so calm & pretty.

The extra space on the flight was such a luxury. Isn't it sad how little room can make such a big difference? The TSA badge was a crack up, especially since they had such a bad reputation at that time due to all the bad press about the pat-downs. Dylan was so proud of it that it made me laugh when I saw it.

I'm in

Dylan is so cute. I admire everyone who travels with toddlers. The thought scares me but if we ever have more kids I would like to take them as toddlers. He did great though

POR is so pretty We stayed there last year and I really missed it this year. I can't wait to see the new rooms, the rooms were the only thing I didn't like about it.

Thanks for coming over to read!

We are very lucky with Dylan (and we know it). He is a very easy going kid about 90% of the time. We have traveled with him a lot and I think he got used to it early. The plane flights are usually the only thing that I get worried about, just because you never know how they are going to react.

We really loved POR. I wouldn't mind staying there again if we ever get a chance to stay on property. The style of the rooms was really not my thing, but they were a good size and I could not get enough of all of the buildings and the landscaping. Beautiful!

 

[Dugette]

Glad your travel day ended up working out okay, despite the delays and little hiccups. Nice that the gate agent upgraded your seats! Good thing Dylan decided he wanted to fly, after all. I can't believe how big he's gotten...he's grown up so much since your last WDW trip!

We stayed in Partierre Place on our Jan. 2010 trip (room 9911). Loved the location--convenient to everything and such pretty surroundings!

I can't wait to hear if you ventured out to the MK that night or not! I kinda hope you did, since late nights in the MK are so fun, but understandable if you skipped it too.

Oh, I noticed your signature has a DL trip...did you get APs again? On a side note, I actually found you had this new TR because I was looking for your DL one. We're talking about possibly visiting DL this fall (and visiting DH's brother in southern CA) and DH is interested in seeing the Griffith Observatory too, which I remembered you had visited. I will have to show him the cool pics from that! Thanks!

 

[eandesmom]

I would really like to try a red eye sometime. I never would have said that, but after seeing how it has worked for you...it's more interesting to me. I think we will have to wait until Dylan gets older to try it. It is always hard to land so late at night because no food places are ever open. We usually stop at a gas station & get a corn dog or something, just to make it to morning.

I would wait, I don't know if you remember my take of the flight from H**l but the E's were 4 & 5 at the time. It worked out really, magically, well but at the time was a bit excruciating. Though they might have been better had we not been on the same red eye as their cousins.



Still, the pain was worth it in terms of the time change. Last time we did a night arrival we had a garden grocer order delivered to our room so there would be something there. That helped a TON. Nothing was open anywhere.

 

[basketkat]

I'm in!!!

This sounds like a magical trip...looking forward to reading more!

 

[MEK]

Subbing, but have to come back when I can see your pix!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Glad your travel day ended up working out okay, despite the delays and little hiccups. Nice that the gate agent upgraded your seats! Good thing Dylan decided he wanted to fly, after all. I can't believe how big he's gotten...he's grown up so much since your last WDW trip!

We stayed in Partierre Place on our Jan. 2010 trip (room 9911). Loved the location--convenient to everything and such pretty surroundings!

I can't wait to hear if you ventured out to the MK that night or not! I kinda hope you did, since late nights in the MK are so fun, but understandable if you skipped it too.

Oh, I noticed your signature has a DL trip...did you get APs again? On a side note, I actually found you had this new TR because I was looking for your DL one. We're talking about possibly visiting DL this fall (and visiting DH's brother in southern CA) and DH is interested in seeing the Griffith Observatory too, which I remembered you had visited. I will have to show him the cool pics from that! Thanks!

We couldn't believe that the lady had upgraded our seats without saying anything. I wish we would have gotten her name so we could have thanked her through a positive feedback thing or something!

You know, I realized a couple of months ago that I never finished that TR from Disneyland. That is kind of crazy for me to realize that such a long time later. There is a link in my signature and I would definitely suggest going to the Observatory. It is really amazing to take it all in. I really wouldn't mind going back!

I would wait, I don't know if you remember my take of the flight from H**l but the E's were 4 & 5 at the time. It worked out really, magically, well but at the time was a bit excruciating. Though they might have been better had we not been on the same red eye as their cousins.



Still, the pain was worth it in terms of the time change. Last time we did a night arrival we had a garden grocer order delivered to our room so there would be something there. That helped a TON. Nothing was open anywhere.

Garden Grocer is a good option too. I've never thought of that, since we usually have a car and will make a run to the grocery store on our first full day of vacation. I will have to remember that for next time.

I'm in!!!

This sounds like a magical trip...looking forward to reading more!

Welcome! Thank you for reading!

Subbing, but have to come back when I can see your pix!

Welcome! Thank you for coming over to read. Were you having trouble viewing my photos?

 

[Belle83]

Our next trip will be the same time of year and at PO Riverside and/or Animal Kingdom Lodge, so I'm all in for a holiday TR with the same hotels!

 

[MEK]

Your son is adorable! I can't see pix at work because the computers all have restrictions on them. Sometimes I can work around it, but they just upgraded all the security, so no pix for me. And when I know the pictures are important to the story line, I just wait till I get home.

Long travel day. Makes me happy for my measly two hour East coast flight. So glad Dylan did so well and you are finally checked in. I am hoping the decorations go up soon.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Our next trip will be the same time of year and at PO Riverside and/or Animal Kingdom Lodge, so I'm all in for a holiday TR with the same hotels!

Welcome!! You are not going to be disappointed with either hotel. They are completely different and we liked / disliked things about both of them, but I don't think we could have had a better trip. Thanks for reading!

Your son is adorable! I can't see pix at work because the computers all have restrictions on them. Sometimes I can work around it, but they just upgraded all the security, so no pix for me. And when I know the pictures are important to the story line, I just wait till I get home.

Long travel day. Makes me happy for my measly two hour East coast flight. So glad Dylan did so well and you are finally checked in. I am hoping the decorations go up soon.

Ok, that makes sense about your work computers. Mine have the same problem at work. I was just concerned that there were broken links or something.

Yes, flying from the west coast is rough. Even though our trip was for 13 days, you really can't count 2 of them because you spend your whole day traveling. I'm just glad that this flight felt faster than usual.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

When I last left you, we had just checked into POR at 11:00 pm after flying all the way from the west coast. We had planned on joining my sister's family at the MK for EMH, since it was open until 3:00 am. After talking about it for a couple of minutes, we decided to go ahead and go. We wanted our first bit of Disney magic and since we were still on west coast time, we knew we could get a couple of hours in before we got too tired.

We literally dumped our stuff in our room, used the bathroom and ran back out the door. It was pretty comical once we made the decision. We went into turbo mode and were on the road in no time!

My sister’s family had gotten there earlier (not sure when), so she took a couple of pictures on the ferry ride over that I like.

My second very happy moment of the day came when we pulled up to the gates at the MK. We have always stayed off-property, so it takes quite a bit more time to make it from our room to any park. Not bad, but enough to make it be annoying when you need to get somewhere. I was so excited when I realized that it took us less than 10 minutes to get from POR to the gates of MK. Wooohoo, that was fast!

There was no one in the toll booths and no parking attendants anywhere telling us where to go, so we just kept driving as far forward as we could and found a spot in one of the front rows. We got Dylan’s stroller out & power walked to the TTC, and walked up the monorail ramp. The CM up there directed us to the resort monorail side and we told him we wanted to go to the MK. He said, “Yeah, you have to take this one.” So we had to ride the entire resort loop before we got to the main gate.

By this time it was almost midnight and it occurred to me that if we weren’t in the park before midnight that when we ran our tickets through the turnstile, it might go against the next day’s date, rather than the date before midnight. Normally that would not be a problem but we had chosen not to buy Park Hoppers, and we planned on going to DHS the next day. So if we checked in after midnight, would that mean we could only use our passes at MK the next day? By the time that we finally got to the monorail stop at the park it was 12:03. Grrrrr! So annoying.

I called my sister & told her what I was worried about. We went to Guest Relations outside the park and had to wait in a decently long line (at midnight!) to find out about the tickets. We finally got to the window to ask the CM, “Can we actually come in tonight as today’s date or tomorrow’s date?” He said that it checked in against the actual work date, so we were good to go! The group behind us overheard what we were asking and said they were in line for the same reason.

We finally got in the park…at 12:15 am. Who cares? We were so happy to be there after such a long day. Angelyn’s family had been eating at Casey’s at the end of Main Street so we headed there too since we were starving! Since Dylan was so young the last time he was around Angelyn’s family, we had been showing him a lot of pictures to get him ready for the trip. When we got to Casey’s, Angelyn met us at the street to give us a hug and immediately Dylan asked, “Where’s Bryan?” It was so cute! It kind of became one of the themes for the first part of the trip. Dylan always wanted to know where Bryan was, what he was doing, he wanted to show him stuff, etc. Very sweet.

We got to the table where Bryan & Elijah were eating and Todd went in to get us some food. It was so fun to hear about their day and realize that we had many days ahead of us together. Dylan was acting a little shy but I think it’s just because he was tired. Todd ended up buying a hot dog & fries and some nachos for the 3 of us to split. It all was decent tasting, nothing spectacular. We were finally ready for some rides!

But first, a picture of the castle.

And…our first Photopass photo! We all chipped in together to get a prepaid CD, so we wanted to get started.

We headed to Fantasyland because Dylan had been talking about the teacups for months. Of course, when we got there the first thing he saw was the carousel and he wanted to do that first. We all rode on it together and there weren’t a lot of other people with us.

I think this face says it all.

You can see Elijah up ahead in this one. Is it not cool to ride the carousel with your family?? lol

After that was done, Dylan insisted on the teacups so we headed that way. No one else wanted to ride it because they were all worried about motion sickness, so I was going to take Dylan by myself. Then Elijah mentioned he had not actually ridden them before, since he was always worried about getting sick. I told him that I don’t actually spin the cup since Dylan doesn’t know the difference at this point. So he decided to ride and conquer one of his fears!

I really like to ride them at night because of all the pretty lights & colors that go whirling by. For the record, no one felt sick and I think Elijah was really happy he did it.

Next up ….Autopia. There was actually a little bit of a line for this, so we spent the time talking and I gave my sister a bracelet for her birthday that I had made for her. I was happy that she put it right on because that meant I had picked the right style for her.

Finally on Autopia, Todd rode with Dylan and I was behind them. Dylan was all over the track but taking his driving responsibilities very seriously. Todd took some video and it is so cute to see his expression scrunched up in concentration.

Continued in next post.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

We headed over to the Peoplemover next. I hadn’t been on this ride in a long time and there was no line so we walked right on. Have I mentioned that aside from Autopia, we barely waited in a line all night? Now I can see why people love EMH so much!

The CM put us into 2 different cars right next to each other. We were talking back and forth over the cars while we were in the loading area.

All of a sudden, our vehicle took off….and they were still back at the loading area. The CM had put us in totally different vehicles! Ha, ha. I was so confused at first because I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t coming with us. Todd took this picture right as we started to pull away.

I thought it was so funny that there were no other people on the ride and it was obvious that we were one big group, yet the CM put us in totally different vehicles. We sat back and enjoyed the ride. The only part that Dylan didn’t like was the area going through Space Mountain that is pitch black. He got scared of “the tunnel” and this set up some future problems on the trip.

We walked back over to Fantasyland and walked right on to It’s a Small World, another of Dylan’s favorite rides. I apologized that we were doing all the kiddie rides, but they all said that they didn’t care what we did. I used to get so annoyed at this ride, but since I have had Dylan…I love it. He just usually sits with his mouth hanging open and takes it all in. Before this trip I had started teaching him the song, but he didn’t sing very much on this particular ride.

My only picture of this ride. There must have been something cool up high.

We were getting tired by now but when we got off IASW, we saw that Peter Pan only had a 10 minute wait so we jumped in line. After that, we were done. It was 2:30 am, which means we had ridden 6 rides in 2 hours & 15 minutes. Not bad at all!

We walked back to the front of the park and enjoyed the Christmas decorations that were up. Sorry for the blurry pictures. Our camera does not do well in this type of lighting.

We said goodbye to Angelyn’s family and they went to the resort monorail to go home to the Polynesian for the night. We drove back to our resort and made it there by 3:00 am. We walked in the door and realized immediately….no bed rails had been delivered. We called and they said they would bring them right over. I did not want to answer the door in my pajamas so we just sat and waited. After a few minutes, I thought I should be productive and take pictures of the room.

Our first Mickey towel!

I liked how big the bathroom felt because there were no closet doors.

Table & chairs

It was about this time that we realized there was a funny smell in the room. It almost smelled like formaldehyde. I assumed they had used a strong cleaner in the room and it would fade by the next day. At this point it was 3:45 am and we still did not have our bed rails and Dylan was fading quickly. I called again and they said they would be there in 5 minutes. I got Dylan ready for bed and he passed out immediately. Todd & I waited, and waited….and waited. By now we were both so cranky. We just wanted to sleep and were beyond exhausted. Todd said something like, “They are holding us hostage because we can’t go to bed.” LOL. That tells you his mental state at that point. He finally called again at 4:15 am and told them we didn’t want to wait anymore and to just cancel them. We asked if they could just be delivered after 12:00 the next day when we would be gone.

I stuffed a bunch of pillows all around Dylan and hoped it would be enough to keep him from rolling off the bed. Finally we got to go to sleep at 4:15 am. What a crazy, amazing, exhausting day it had been….and this was only day 1 of our trip!

 

[Dugette]

Great update! I'm so glad you guys got to experience a late night at the MK! Perfect time to hit all those Fantasyland rides! Love the minimal lines! (We did the same thing last August...showed up after midnight on the 3am night!) Even on west coast time, though, that was pretty late by the time you got to go to bed (bummer that they couldn't manage to bring you bed rails!). I hope that weird smell in your room goes away. So strange that they put you in separate trains on the Peoplemover! Maybe they thought each group needed some alone time? I hope that Peoplemover/Space Mountain tunnel didn't set up too many problems for Dylan later. Way to make the most of your travel day!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

fun start! I hope you got to sleep in the next day!

I appreciate your TR-we are going during Thanksgiving this year so I am looing forward to seeing your updates with crowd info, (etc.)

 

[MEK]

What a great first night. It must be fun to be on West Coast time when you first arrive. Makes 3am not seem quite a bad.

Bummer on the bed rails. Why do they keep promising something they can't deliver. I hope you eventually got them and there was no tumbling out of bed.

Good to know about the park passes.

 

[tinkgurl]

haha, For me, arriving at midnight to the park would seem so late, but you're on West Coast time! Isn't it great being at the MK that late with hardly anyone else around? I just love it!

We didn't spin the teacups either. I wasn't sure if Little Guy would get sick or not, so I didn't want to risk it. And you're right, he didn't know the difference anyways.

Aw, I love the IASW pic! Big eyes? Check. Mouth wide open? Check. I love watching little kids' reactions to things.

That's so funny you guys got split up on the People Mover. We always wait and see if that's going to happen to us when we get on. Sometimes it does, and we'll laugh and wave each other good-bye. Oh poor Dylan, getting scared during the Space Mountain part. I used to be the same way when I was younger! It was worse for me during the day because my eyes take forever to adjust to the darkness when coming in from the bright sunlight outside.

I hope you guys got to sleep in a little the next day! How did Dylan do sleeping even though you didn't have the bed rails?

 

[pinkxray]

Great update It's awesome that you headed to MK even when you arrived so late. We arrived at noon and my family still wanted to have some downtime in the room before doing anything

MK EMH at night look awesome. You got so much done in such a short time.

I would have never even thought about entering after midnight if you don't have park hoppers. Glad it turned out okay. I guess they must have dealt with this before.

Too bad you didn't get your bed rails. That would have really annoyed me but what can you do?