After the rocky start, it had to get better right? (updated info located on 1st post)

[dreamergirl78]

After months and months and months of planning now it is over, I am back to the "real" world and we are already looking forward to planning the next trip to the World! I honestly can't believe it is over so soon. It seems like everything happened so fast. So here I am on the trip reports board, writing our trip report. Here goes....
WHO: Tia (the Mom) 28, and Ryan (the Son) 8
WHAT: First ever Mom/Son trip to Walt Disney World!
WHERE: Orlando, Florida (no kidding right?) POP Century Resort
WHEN: September 30 - October 7, 2006
WHY: Well first of all because I Disney and we wanted to go. And Secondly, because this was a distraction for us. My husband is deployed (it's been 5 months so far) and I wanted to give us something to look forward to! He will be gone for AT LEASET another 15 months so I guess that means a few more trips to Disney right?
HOW: After lots of planning and saving and prepping we were ready to begin. We started our adventure on the 29th.....

I honestly had the best of intentions to be ready to hit the road right after I picked Ryan up from school. But you know how it goes. Life actually does continue to happen even when you are trying to get out of the door to start a vacation. Actually it was just an all around crazy day. I got a call that a good friend of mine passed away in his sleep. He was also in charge of watching my house and taking care of my animals. I was driving back from my last appointment before our vacation. Enjoying the nice day.... window down, enjoying a smoke when my Mom calls. She told me what had happened and I lost it. I pulled over and tried to make sense of it all, but yeah, that wasn't working. I made a call to another friend who said she would help me out. I considered canceling the trip, but I knew that Ryan would be heartbroken, so I decided to continue as planned. I also knew that by us staying home, nothing would help or change the situation.
3:10 eventually rolled around and I picked Ryan up from school. We ran back to the house and finished packing. I also had to mop the floors because I can't stand the thought of my house being a wreck and then having to come home to a mess. Right around 5 we were in the car on our way to Tucson. See our flight left at 5:30 the next morning. It was easier for us to get up to Tucson (about 1.5 hours away) the night before and not have to deal with it the next morning. I was already tired and crabby and the front desk clerk did nothing to improve my mood. The room was clean but the beds were extremely uncomfortable. We ended up ordering pizza and watching Deal or No Deal. The plan was to go to bed early, but when we finally rested our heads on our pillows and turned out the lights there was no going to sleep. We must have talked for an hour or so about what we were most looking forward to! We were "too excited to sleep!"
Fast forward to a 3am wake up call. I was shocked how alert I actually was. Took the shuttle over to the airport and made our way inside. Security at that time of day was a breeze. Got to our gate and onto the plane. It was a smaller plane and I was nervous but Ry was excited. We were officially on our way! Smooth flight to Houston. Had a short lay over so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Subway. The flight to Orlando was smooth as well. I wanted to sleep so badly, but my eyes just would not close. When the announcement came we were making our flinal approach into Orlando I think my heart rate went through the roof. We were so close!


Part 2 of Day 1 continued below, day 2 (MGM) on page 2, and day 3 (DTD & MNSSHP) on pg. 3, MGM & Mk on pg.4, AK part 1 & pics on pg. 4

 

[pumba]

it is the most wonderful heart flutters in the world......I love to come in for that final approach......
Sorry about the loss of your friend........but you were right......you and your son needed this
Thanks for the intro

 

[DisneyFan06]

Good Report.

 

[OhMari]

Wow, sometimes it is hard to make decisions so last minute with such an unexpected situation. I hope you and your son were able to relax and had a great time.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

sorry about the loss of that friend

it was fabulous meeting you though!! and keep on POPpin!!!

 

[dreamergirl78]

Yep, for the Magical Express. But it was Disney so that made it alllll ok! After finding it (finally) I ran outside for a much needed smoke break. It was pretty warm and the smell of bus exhaust was in the air. Children were running around, enjoying the break from their restraints of the airplane. Parents were busy trying to find all of their documents (I knew where mine was because I sniffed it earlier that day), and all I could see were lots of Mickey hands waving and ushering us to our proper places.
The line seemed extremely long but went rather fast. Our stop was first! WOOO HOOO! Ryan was literally bursting to get going. I was just happy to have made it in one piece. Our bus driver was a total nut. He spoke very broken English. And he was trying SO hard to make jokes. He even tried to lead us in a game of Disney Trivia. Oh yeah. We were supposed to shout answers, but nobody could understand the question so our answers were diverse and unique to say the least. We did understand one thing and that was "What does MGM stand for." I of course knew the correct answer but we were informed it was "Mickey Gets Money." So for the rest of the trip, we lovingly referred to MGM as "Mickey Gets Money." (hardy har har)
Arriving at POP was a thrill in itself. Seeing those larger than life icons, the bright colors and beautiful landscaping was well, fantastic! The line for check in was long as well. At this point Ryan was frustrated. So we had to have the "This is Disney, everything has a line." talk. Our CM's were wonderful though and had a blast teasing Ryan. A gift bag (thank you Timmy) was waiting for him and they tortured that kid by not giving it to him. But to be honest it was great to keep him busy while I did the adult stuff.
As we stepped outside to make our way to our room it really hit me. WE WERE AT WALT DISNEY WORLD! Everything seemed to have a shine to it. I know it was because of the rose colored glasses I was looking through but it just seemed magical to me.
As we approached our building, we heard the sounds of the 70's drifting towards us. We kind of did a little dance before making the trek UP the stairs. Yes 4 flights. You see I did not realize there was an elevator. I know, duh. But it was an honest blonde moment that my fellow POPpers will never let me live down! But that's for another part of the trippy.
Our room was nice. Very clean. We even had a towel animal. I felt like I was livin' large because of that. Silly silly girl.
My original intent was to hang out in the room for a few hours, but with an enthusiastic 8 year old that just was not an option. So.... we hopped the bus to the MK! Security was short and I immediately found a PhotoPass photographer when we entered. Got our pictures snapped then headed towards Tommorowland. It was hot (we wer ein jeans because the plane rides are always so cold) and decided to grab an ice cream! As we walked along eating and chatting, it just felt so darn good to be there. The first ride we came to was Stitch. I could have passed it by, but Ryan said "Let's do it!" so we did. Walked on and enjoyed our first attraction at WDW. We walked around some more and then made our way to the boat docks. We have a ressie for the Hoop Dee Doo at 7:15. The line was massive but we only waited for 2 boats. Got to Ft. Wilderness and went to check in. Of course the computer systems were down so everything had to be done manually. We were finally let in and we had awesome seats. Second table from the stage. Our server was Nancy and she was GREAT! The food was good as well. I had read so many bad reviews but I didn't experience anything those people mentioned. The show was cheesy but fun and lighthearted. Nothing too serious. At one point Ryan was freezing so Nancy brought him out a clean tablecloth and draped it over his shoulders. She also brought him hot chocolate and me hot tea. It was a perfect night! (so far)
We took a boat ride to the Contemporary and then monorail over to the MK. We got to ride up front. Our driver was a dud, would not even let us take a picture with him, but it was cool for us nonetheless. We even got to see some of Wishes on the ride which was very cool. After a bus ride back to POP we were at our hotel around 11:00. Our key did not work so we went back to the front desk and got it fixed then back up to our room. Our luggage was NOT THERE! I was shocked, but figured it was at the front desk so I called down there. Was on hold for 20 minutes and hung up. Called back and talked to someone who put me on hold for another 10 minutes. Called back and they said that there was a hold up and it would be to us before 3:30am! I was ticked. I can understnad the service being slow but over 12 hours after we landed at MCO was unacceptable. Ry was pooped so he fell asleep and I waited for our bags. They arrived around 2:15. I quickly threw on my pj's and was soooo thankful to be getting some sleep.

 

[dreamergirl78]

Arrival at POP. Ryan and his trusty travel companion Teddy Cliff.

Yummy eats at HDD!

Fun at the HDD!

Up front on the monorail.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

great trip report, waiting for more

 

[Msslaydbug]

Cute pictures. HDDR is one thing I need to put on my list for next trip !

 

[dreamergirl78]

great trip report, waiting for more

awwww thanks. I am pretty fond of him too. (most of the time )
I will work on more tomorrow!
I am THRILLED someone is actually reading it!

 

[dreamergirl78]

Cute pictures. HDDR is one thing I need to put on my list for next trip !

Lori, It is way fun. Not high society by any stretch, but worked for us! You saw where we lived... HDD could be considered off Broadway!

 

[ANTSS2001]

Up front on the monorail.

awww now I missed my Buddy!!!! Give him lots of hugs for me!!! I wish you two are just next door...

 

[blue_river]

It was sooo cold in there! Great pics.

Sorry to hear about your friend.

 

[dreamergirl78]

awww now I missed my Buddy!!!! Give him lots of hugs for me!!! I wish you two are just next door...

Now wouldn't that be fun?! It would be great to have all of us POPpers close by. It would be one huge non-stop party!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Great pics so far!!!

 

[pumba]

I LOVE THEIR CORN BREAD..........thanks for the memories........sounds like you and your ds are having an awesome time

 

[dreamergirl78]

So after the DRAMA that surrounded our night, we decided to sleep in. Ok, it was not a decision exactly more of a necessity. We had the best of intentions (general theme for our entire trip) to get up early. It just was not going to happen.

Let me take a moment for a side bar. You have to understand the extremem amount okf planning I did. Down to the nanosecond! I used a combo of the UG, TGM, RideMax, my TA, and of course the DIS. Staying up until almsot 3am was NOT factored into my planning. It completely threw off our schedule for the first day. I was heartbroken. Anyway.... back to our regualr scheduled programming!

So I get up before Ryan. I grab our room keys and step outside to have a ciggy. I can hear the sounds of happy families dashing off to the pool, or running to catch a bus. And I had a realization. I was in WDW! I took a deep breath and looked around. Why in the world was I going to let the night before ruin our trip? I decided that it was not worth it to get all bent out of shape about. This was our trip. And we would get to the parks when we got there. We would see what we wanted. And we would enjoy the moments we DID have for what they were and NOT what I thought they should be. We got our butts in gear and headed over to MGM!

Bus ride was good. We got seats which was a bonus! I think Ry sat on my lap though so we could free up a seat. We did this a lot. But it was all good.

Another qucik side bar.... DIS made me paranoid! I was on the lookout for DISers and I just knew that if I breathed sideways, it would end up somewhere on here. It was pretty funny, but I could just hear the comments now. "I saw this woman and her kid on the POP bus and they had some nerve to not get up and give their seats away!" Well instead of giving up both seats, my legs took some abuse and we shared a seat. Ok... anyway!

We got there and walked into Indy. Had seats up front on the right side. Would have preferred middle, but it really was all good. After that we did Star Tours (4 times!). No more than a 10 minute wait. Did a lot of walking around. Saw Lights, Motors, Action! WOW!!!! We thought this was one of the best shows we saw the entire week! Did the Backlot Tour. Neither of us were impressed. Sounds Dangerous was so so. Would have been nice if it would have lasted longer so we could take a nap! We had an ADR for Mama Melrose's at 3:50. We were starving so we went early. They seated us in about 5 minutes after checking in and that was around 3:15. The food was good. Service was fair. Nothing to brag about. (see photos below)

After lunch we had some time so we did a little bit of shopping. We did not do the 2 big thrillers and nothing else was really grabbing our attention, but it was great just to take it slow and enjoy our surroundings! In Ry's gift bag he had waiting at check in were several pins. So.... while we were shopping Ryan decided he needed to get in on the craze. Oh boy! I bought him the starter kit (stars and stripes). He said that was his choice because he wanted to show support for his dad! So that began his love of pin trading!

Since we had the Fantasmic! dining package we made our way to the theatre about 30 minutes before show time. Got right in and sat down. There were a ton of people there, but we had no problems getting to our seats. I think once the show started I barely breathed. It was awesome! I am sad we did not have time to go and see it again. LOVED it!!!

After the show the besses were VERY fast. We had 2 at a time coming to pick us up. Got back to POP and went to a POPpers meet. Ryan was thrilled to get to go to the pool and I was happy to have some adult interaction! What an awesome group of people! It was a lot of fun. My ankle was hurting really bad. I think it was bruised, but man oh man did it hurt. So I iced it while sitting by the pool. I was thankful that it started to feel better by the time we headed back up to our room!

Next day was DTD and MNSSHP!!! Oh yeah!

 

[dreamergirl78]

Cheesy tourist picture #1. EVERYONE has to have a hat picture right?

You will quickly notice Star Tours was Ryan's #1 ride!

This was my Carrie Bradshaw moment. All I needed was a Cosmo and a Marlboro and I would have been set!

Cute right?

Best interaction our whole trip!

Notice how the food gets more screen time than the other stuff?

L,M,A!!!

Our favorite nighttime show! FANTASMIC!

 

[DreamofDisney]

I LOVE your report - I am leaving for the world in 9 days with my DD (9) and DS (11) and have been laughing and crying over your TR - I think the side bar about being paranoid about fellow DISers is hilarious I have been coaching my two for weeks about queueing etiquette and giving up seats on busses

 

[dreamergirl78]

I LOVE your report - I am leaving for the world in 9 days with my DD (9) and DS (11) and have been laughing and crying over your TR - I think the side bar about being paranoid about fellow DISers is hilarious I have been coaching my two for weeks about queueing etiquette and giving up seats on busses

This made me smile! I am glad you are enjoying it. I SHOULD be done typing the longest trip report ever by the time you leave! Stay tuned!
It is very true about being paranoid. You watch.... you or one of your kids will have a meltdown and you will be looking over your shoulder wondering which DISser saw you.