ryan840
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2005
- Messages
- 2,432
Who we are: 
me (ryan840) 26, 
DH 29, 
DS 2.75, 
DS 9 weeks (at the time)
Where we were: Old Key West 4/30 5/5, Pop Century 5/5 5/7
What we ate- Lots and lots of yummy food. We did the dining plan and LOVED it!
As a heads up to anyone out there with mommy brain or any other brain malfunctions, Ill start my trip very early Saturday morning (the day before we arrive in WDW) where I make a devastating discovery. It seems that in my baby-hazed state of mind I almost threw an entire year of planning right out the window! I had been unable to pack until the last minute, so Friday night after the kids were in bed I got started. As I was gathering all the documents we would need, it hit me out of nowhere that since we were so wise to rent points at OKW for the first part of our stay and book a AAA package with 10 day non expiring park hoppers (to use on future trips) for the last two days, our tickets were linked to our Pop Century stay and were therefore unavailable to us until May 5th. My heart starts racing and I go wake up my husband to tell him that I messed up BIGTIME, practically in tears at my own stupidity. I mean, Im a DISer! How could I have done this???
Since it is around 3:30am and I cant do anything until CRO opens, I try to convince myself that Disney would never let something like this ruin someones vacation. In the meantime, I pop on the DISboards to find out if anyone else has done this. It appears as though Im the only one
I get lots of support that everything will be ok, and when 7:00 rolls around Im on the phone with CRO being told that nothing can be done by a rather unhelpful CM. Now I really am in tears as I call and speak to another CM who is more empathetic but since I booked through AAA they cant do anything to help- Ill have to call AAA. I ask to speak to a supervisor and get the runaround, and in the middle of it all my phone drops the call. Lovely. I try to contact my AAA agent and their office is of course closed on Saturdays but there is an emergency line for this type of thing. So I call the EMERGENCY number they give, and theyre closed on weekends too. 
Im now hysterical that two people have told me Im SOL and there is nobody left to talk to so my husband takes over. He calls CRO back and gets another empathetic CM, but same story cant help you. So he too requests to speak to a supervisor and after getting the same runaround that I got, insists that he still be able to speak to someone else. After speaking to the supervisor for a little while she agrees to issue our tickets early, but not without pointing out that this was a big favor and we should be more careful next time. Thank you, I will never make that mistake again! So now all we have to do is go to Guest Relations at any of the parks and pick up our tickets. 
Crisis averted. Now that things have settled down my husband and I just shake our heads and wonder whats in store for the rest of our trip. If you happened to have read last years trip report youll know what I mean. Basically, we cant take a vacation without multiple things going wrong. At least weve always been able to laugh it off
It is now around 9:00am and I havent slept or finished packing, so I send my husband back to bed and tell him he can deal with the kids later on and I get back to work. We still have a few errands to run before we are expected at my in-laws for dinner, and they live an hour away (my FIL will be the one driving us to the airport in the morning to help us out). I was so tired and unable to focus that I never did finish packing; we just gathered everything up and shoved it in a garbage bag to finish packing at my in-laws. We arrive for dinner about a half hour late (although it wasn't ready yet) and by the time we get finished packing and ready for the morning its 11:00pm and we pass out before our heads hit the pillow. After being awake for 30+ hours there was no Im too excited to sleep for me!
Less than six hours later were up and getting ready to leave. Our flight leaves at 8:05 and we have a layover in St. Louis before finally arriving in Orlando around 2:30. Getting through security with an infant and a toddler, two car seats, two carry-ons and a double stroller was NOT fun! Other than that, we didnt have too much trouble getting around- I carried the baby in a front carrier and we loaded his seat with everything else while my two year old rode up front, only occasionally being bonked in the head by something gone astray
. We got lucky and the plane wasnt full so we were able to use the babys car seat which made things much easier. The kids were great on the plane, it was a short flight and we had no issues at all. We had a nice lunch at the airport in St. Louis and I had just enough time to feed the baby before we boarded the second plane where we were again able to use his car seat. This flight was longer so we all took a nap to be rested for our arrival- if all went well we would be going to Magic Kingdom for the last night of POTC before it closed for rehab. We arrive in Orlando as scheduled and my husband gets our luggage as I feed the baby again, then we head towards Alamo to pick up the car.
Here is a picture of the boys at MCO with their wings
As were standing at the entrance to the Q***ksilver line a panicked look comes over hubbys face. I cant find my wallet. Ha ha I say, very funny- thinking he is mocking our vacation curse. Nope, hes not. His wallet is gone and the car rental is in his name. I stand there with the kids and all of our luggage (NOT fun) while he goes and traces his steps to see if he can find it. After talking to Southwest we realize that it is gone and for now there is nothing we can do but keep calling around.
The only saving grace in this situation is that I already had an issue with the car rental being in his name before leaving, and after many emails managed to get approval to put the car in my name when we arrived. They werent happy about it but we got the car (all that was left was a Buick Rendezvous- very nice and only $120 for the week!). Its now about 5:00 and we are quite a bit behind schedule so we decide to leave the grocery stop for another day and head straight to OKW to check in.
Entering Walt Disney World-
We arrive at our first floor studio with a view of the fairway, take a moment to admire it and feed the baby, then rush off to Magic Kingdom.
A few pictures or our room-
By the time we get our tickets and get through the gate its 7:30, but we refuse to be bummed- tonight is an EMH night and were ready for POTC! We headed straight over to Adventureland, giddy with excitement, to get in line and about 5 or 10 minutes later we were breathing in our favorite WDW smell- the cool crisp scent of the waterfall. The baby was a bit fussy and DS was scared of all the noises and the dark so we missed most of that ride. I knew he would love it if he saw it again so we decided to get back in line while it was so short. We calmed the baby down and prepared DS a bit, making it into a silly ride and puling out the laser pointer (dont worry, we kept it in our boat so as not to distract other riders) and he loved it. The laser pointer came in handy lots of times while waiting for rides and shows- I highly recommend it! Every time we walked into the store after the ride he walked straight to the sword barrels to look and play but wouldnt let us buy him one.
The details are already foggy from here out but I think after that it was about 8:15 or 8:30 so we got our EMH bracelets and headed over to watch the SpectroMagic Parade (it was our first time). It was so jam packed over there that I dont know where we ended up but we did manage to find a pretty good viewing spot. As we waited I fed the baby while DH and DS passed out glo sticks to some kids nearby, and we finished just in time. The parade started and DS got so excited to see the characters he recognized, calling out to them and waving hi. He really opened up on this trip- even the day before we left he wouldnt talk to anyone and was always shy around other kids. That totally changed as soon as we got down there which was great to see. We all watched with wide eyes, oohing and aahing at everything we saw. When it was over we tried to make our way through the sea of people with a double stroller, and it was NOT easy. Im proud to say that I managed not to run into anyone though. We finally made it through and decided that dinner might be a good idea sometime before midnight, so we headed to Pecos Bills and sat down to eat- I had a burger and fries, DH had the chicken wrap with carrots which he shared with DS, and we had the peanut butter mousse for dessert. It was good food but I didn't care for the dessert (DH and DS like it though).
I fed the baby yet again and we headed straight back to Pirates. At this point DS thought it was the only ride there and the CMs knew us
. I broke down and just bought a sword for DS anyway because he always plays shovel (thats what he calls swords 
) at home with anything he can find. By now Wishes had started and we watched for a couple minutes before DS decided he no longer liked fireworks.
The details are even sketchier from here but we went to Fantasyland and rode Pooh, Small World and Peter Pan. DS loved them all, and Its a Small World is now on his bedtime song list
. When we were done it was pretty much closing time so we decided to slowly make our way out of the park, stopping in a couple of shops on the way. We got home around 1:30 or so and DH and I finally got to sleep a little after 2:30 after showering and getting ready for MGM in the morning. After calling everyone we could think of all day, still no word on DHs wallet. Ill end here for now and work on the rest as soon as I can, thanks for reading! I'll try to remember the details better too, but I blame it all on mommy brain! 
Part Two (pg 2 post 18)- The PhotoPass Stalker and I ride ToT all by myself! Our first full day is at MGM.
me (ryan840) 26, DH 29, DS 2.75, DS 9 weeks (at the time)Where we were: Old Key West 4/30 5/5, Pop Century 5/5 5/7
What we ate- Lots and lots of yummy food. We did the dining plan and LOVED it!
As a heads up to anyone out there with mommy brain or any other brain malfunctions, Ill start my trip very early Saturday morning (the day before we arrive in WDW) where I make a devastating discovery. It seems that in my baby-hazed state of mind I almost threw an entire year of planning right out the window! I had been unable to pack until the last minute, so Friday night after the kids were in bed I got started. As I was gathering all the documents we would need, it hit me out of nowhere that since we were so wise to rent points at OKW for the first part of our stay and book a AAA package with 10 day non expiring park hoppers (to use on future trips) for the last two days, our tickets were linked to our Pop Century stay and were therefore unavailable to us until May 5th. My heart starts racing and I go wake up my husband to tell him that I messed up BIGTIME, practically in tears at my own stupidity. I mean, Im a DISer! How could I have done this???
Since it is around 3:30am and I cant do anything until CRO opens, I try to convince myself that Disney would never let something like this ruin someones vacation. In the meantime, I pop on the DISboards to find out if anyone else has done this. It appears as though Im the only one
I get lots of support that everything will be ok, and when 7:00 rolls around Im on the phone with CRO being told that nothing can be done by a rather unhelpful CM. Now I really am in tears as I call and speak to another CM who is more empathetic but since I booked through AAA they cant do anything to help- Ill have to call AAA. I ask to speak to a supervisor and get the runaround, and in the middle of it all my phone drops the call. Lovely. I try to contact my AAA agent and their office is of course closed on Saturdays but there is an emergency line for this type of thing. So I call the EMERGENCY number they give, and theyre closed on weekends too. Im now hysterical that two people have told me Im SOL and there is nobody left to talk to so my husband takes over. He calls CRO back and gets another empathetic CM, but same story cant help you. So he too requests to speak to a supervisor and after getting the same runaround that I got, insists that he still be able to speak to someone else. After speaking to the supervisor for a little while she agrees to issue our tickets early, but not without pointing out that this was a big favor and we should be more careful next time. Thank you, I will never make that mistake again! So now all we have to do is go to Guest Relations at any of the parks and pick up our tickets. Crisis averted. Now that things have settled down my husband and I just shake our heads and wonder whats in store for the rest of our trip. If you happened to have read last years trip report youll know what I mean. Basically, we cant take a vacation without multiple things going wrong. At least weve always been able to laugh it off
It is now around 9:00am and I havent slept or finished packing, so I send my husband back to bed and tell him he can deal with the kids later on and I get back to work. We still have a few errands to run before we are expected at my in-laws for dinner, and they live an hour away (my FIL will be the one driving us to the airport in the morning to help us out). I was so tired and unable to focus that I never did finish packing; we just gathered everything up and shoved it in a garbage bag to finish packing at my in-laws. We arrive for dinner about a half hour late (although it wasn't ready yet) and by the time we get finished packing and ready for the morning its 11:00pm and we pass out before our heads hit the pillow. After being awake for 30+ hours there was no Im too excited to sleep for me!
Less than six hours later were up and getting ready to leave. Our flight leaves at 8:05 and we have a layover in St. Louis before finally arriving in Orlando around 2:30. Getting through security with an infant and a toddler, two car seats, two carry-ons and a double stroller was NOT fun! Other than that, we didnt have too much trouble getting around- I carried the baby in a front carrier and we loaded his seat with everything else while my two year old rode up front, only occasionally being bonked in the head by something gone astray
. We got lucky and the plane wasnt full so we were able to use the babys car seat which made things much easier. The kids were great on the plane, it was a short flight and we had no issues at all. We had a nice lunch at the airport in St. Louis and I had just enough time to feed the baby before we boarded the second plane where we were again able to use his car seat. This flight was longer so we all took a nap to be rested for our arrival- if all went well we would be going to Magic Kingdom for the last night of POTC before it closed for rehab. We arrive in Orlando as scheduled and my husband gets our luggage as I feed the baby again, then we head towards Alamo to pick up the car. Here is a picture of the boys at MCO with their wings
As were standing at the entrance to the Q***ksilver line a panicked look comes over hubbys face. I cant find my wallet. Ha ha I say, very funny- thinking he is mocking our vacation curse. Nope, hes not. His wallet is gone and the car rental is in his name. I stand there with the kids and all of our luggage (NOT fun) while he goes and traces his steps to see if he can find it. After talking to Southwest we realize that it is gone and for now there is nothing we can do but keep calling around.
The only saving grace in this situation is that I already had an issue with the car rental being in his name before leaving, and after many emails managed to get approval to put the car in my name when we arrived. They werent happy about it but we got the car (all that was left was a Buick Rendezvous- very nice and only $120 for the week!). Its now about 5:00 and we are quite a bit behind schedule so we decide to leave the grocery stop for another day and head straight to OKW to check in. Entering Walt Disney World-
We arrive at our first floor studio with a view of the fairway, take a moment to admire it and feed the baby, then rush off to Magic Kingdom.
A few pictures or our room-
By the time we get our tickets and get through the gate its 7:30, but we refuse to be bummed- tonight is an EMH night and were ready for POTC! We headed straight over to Adventureland, giddy with excitement, to get in line and about 5 or 10 minutes later we were breathing in our favorite WDW smell- the cool crisp scent of the waterfall. The baby was a bit fussy and DS was scared of all the noises and the dark so we missed most of that ride. I knew he would love it if he saw it again so we decided to get back in line while it was so short. We calmed the baby down and prepared DS a bit, making it into a silly ride and puling out the laser pointer (dont worry, we kept it in our boat so as not to distract other riders) and he loved it. The laser pointer came in handy lots of times while waiting for rides and shows- I highly recommend it! Every time we walked into the store after the ride he walked straight to the sword barrels to look and play but wouldnt let us buy him one.
The details are already foggy from here out but I think after that it was about 8:15 or 8:30 so we got our EMH bracelets and headed over to watch the SpectroMagic Parade (it was our first time). It was so jam packed over there that I dont know where we ended up but we did manage to find a pretty good viewing spot. As we waited I fed the baby while DH and DS passed out glo sticks to some kids nearby, and we finished just in time. The parade started and DS got so excited to see the characters he recognized, calling out to them and waving hi. He really opened up on this trip- even the day before we left he wouldnt talk to anyone and was always shy around other kids. That totally changed as soon as we got down there which was great to see. We all watched with wide eyes, oohing and aahing at everything we saw. When it was over we tried to make our way through the sea of people with a double stroller, and it was NOT easy. Im proud to say that I managed not to run into anyone though. We finally made it through and decided that dinner might be a good idea sometime before midnight, so we headed to Pecos Bills and sat down to eat- I had a burger and fries, DH had the chicken wrap with carrots which he shared with DS, and we had the peanut butter mousse for dessert. It was good food but I didn't care for the dessert (DH and DS like it though).
I fed the baby yet again and we headed straight back to Pirates. At this point DS thought it was the only ride there and the CMs knew us
. I broke down and just bought a sword for DS anyway because he always plays shovel (thats what he calls swords ) at home with anything he can find. By now Wishes had started and we watched for a couple minutes before DS decided he no longer liked fireworks. The details are even sketchier from here but we went to Fantasyland and rode Pooh, Small World and Peter Pan. DS loved them all, and Its a Small World is now on his bedtime song list
. When we were done it was pretty much closing time so we decided to slowly make our way out of the park, stopping in a couple of shops on the way. We got home around 1:30 or so and DH and I finally got to sleep a little after 2:30 after showering and getting ready for MGM in the morning. After calling everyone we could think of all day, still no word on DHs wallet. Ill end here for now and work on the rest as soon as I can, thanks for reading! I'll try to remember the details better too, but I blame it all on mommy brain! Part Two (pg 2 post 18)- The PhotoPass Stalker and I ride ToT all by myself! Our first full day is at MGM.
Can't wait to read the rest! Oh, and your boys are cuties! 
We breathed a huge sigh of relief and called the airport to see what we would need to do to pick it up- they told us it wouldnt take long and if we wanted to we could wait until our departure day to get it, which we did since there was no longer anything in it that we needed. PHEW! 
I hate those straight drops but I really wanted to see the rest of the ride because of all the reviews and last year we didnt have time so Ive been contemplating it ever since. DH finally arrived with the food about a half hour later- I had a burger and fries and DH shared his chicken fingers and fries with DS, and we had the chocolate cake for dessert. It was good, although nothing special. Since it had taken so long to get the food, and because after we ate I called CRO to change a couple of our reservations (I had come to another realization regarding my Pop stay and the timing of my reservations) it was already about 2:30 and we were anxious to get going.
Hes still here today. I will say that he is still very well behaved and mindful of other people, but he literally changed personalities overnight! We were happy to see him come out of his shell though, even if he does give us a run for the money. When we got inside we found a seat near the aisle and waited for the show to begin- it was sooo uncomfortable sitting there on the floor, packed in like sardines with nowhere to move, while holding a fussy baby and having a toddler climbing all over you! 
It was worth it though just to see the kids reactions- DS always flips out for the bubbles. After the show let out the baby was making sure we knew how hungry he was so we found a shady bench outside the restrooms (they were behind the stroller parking I think) and I fed him. 
) but we didnt let it get to us. We decided to do the Backlot Tour and be done with that section of the park before Fantasmic. We were able to take the stroller with us until it was time to board the tram which was great because both boys were sleeping- they slept right through all the noise! 
