Babymoon and first Magical Gathering!! (*W/PICS!!*)

[bride03]

This is my first trip report so I'm going to try and make it as detailed as possible. I love reading all of your pre-trip and finished trip reports so I thought I'd "pay it forward". As you can see from my siggy, I have been a few times and with my hubby and I, this has become our tradition around Christmas or New Years. We are expecting our first child in March and we also FINALLY persuaded my Mom and her partner to take my younger brothers because Disney is so beautiful & magical at Christmas. I'm so excited that I will be pregnant and that my child will be exposed to Disney so early!! HAHAHA!! I also want to write some tips for pregnant women because I didn't see many things that helped with the questions I have! I hope to shed some light on walking around at 30 weeks in "the world"!!!!!

Trip Dates: December 26-30

Resort: Where else but Pop Century!!

Going on the trip:
Lane (My DH)
Courtney & "baby bump" Emily (ME & DD!)
Penny and Kristin (My Mom & her partner)
Karl (7)
Kyle (3)

It should be an interesting trip and I can't wait for the boys to finally experience what we have been telling them about when we come back from our annual trips! They will be so overwhelmed!! The countdown is on and I am going to start packing and taking pictures to show our pre-trip events! I hope that everyone enjoys this trip blog as much as I'm looking forward to updating!

 

[bride03]

Here are a few pictures from our past trips that I thought I'd share so you can see our faces and get a couple of tips as well!

Here is a kiosk picture that I believe we took right after we got out of Disney Quest at DTD. They are really cute but they are so small!! We paid $5 and it was a 4X6 size shot!!! YIKES! (Honeymoon December 2003)

Here is a picture from our 2004 trip I believe in Disney Quest at the Animation Academy where you can learn how to draw characters. We won't be doing it this year because I'm not going to pay extra to do Disney Quest. They also have an Animation studio at MGM where you can draw your own characters, we usually do that about 2 or 3 times!

Here I am in China at Epcot December 2005! This was a cool trip because we finally did MVMCP and it was great. This trip is too late for the Christmas party but I'm glad we did it once!! We still get to see the wonderful Christmas lights at MGM!!

My lovely husband at lego land in Downtown Disney! December 2005...only 14 days until we get to be here once more!!

 

[Blaynexox]

Oooh a babymoon!! Im cant wait to read all about it .. how fun! I love the pictures - they are so cute!

 

[bride03]

Well readers, I am starting to think that I should share a little what is on my mind and also show you my recent packing up until this date. Just to let you know, I'm dealing with a very hectic two weeks ahead of me and our family.

OH...and I must say that I didn't add my wonderful baby Jack, our Boston Terrier who has no idea what the next two weeks will be like! Here he is in our family Christmas picture which we aren't sending out because I had to wipe my computer and didn't save any of my addresses!!

Back to our hectic two weeks. This weekend we are going to be attending my husband's twin brother's college graduation. We'll be busy with out of town and in town family. Then we have a week of packing for the trip and for our big move. The 24th and 25th we are busy like most people ALL day with family (both our parents are divorced and remarried) then we go to Disney on the 26-30th and then we move on the 31st!!! We are crazy. I have to really get organized because I have to change addresses and deal with cleaning and packing. Here is what is packed so far. Looks like...so far...that the weather will be around 75 during the day and about 55 at night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this wonderful weather!! NO RAIN, NO RAIN!!

List of bag contents:
*Maternity swim suit
*One (and only) backpack...we never take more than 1 bag a piece.
*Toothbrushes (throw away before returning home)
*Travel container with face moisturizer (throw away before returning home
*Extra containers (don't know what we'll put in them yet, bought just in case)
*2 sets of Target gloves (under $2 for 2 pair)
*Ponchos
*Travel documents (along with OBGYN/pregnancy info)
*Bag-o-medicine in ziplock (vitamins/advil/tylenol/tums)
*Gum
*Extra 1 GB memory card for the camera
*Travel kleenex/toothpaste/mouthwash/face wash/lotion/shampoo/conditioner/q-tips/floss/deodorant/contact solution/anti-bacterial wet wipes/baby powder (ALL can be thrown away before getting on the plane again to conserve space)

 

[hjd0411]

WOW - I'm impressed!! Christmas, Disney and moving house!! Oh yes, and pregnant, too!! I'd be a mess!! Good for you - you enjoy every moment! I look forward to reading your pre-trip and trip report. And Merry Christmas and safe travels.

Heather

 

[bride03]

Well I called for ressies at Mama Melrose's for the Fantasmic package. There were no more seats. I guess that we are going to call from the hotel and just tell them that it's our 3rd anniversary and we want ressies somewhere cool and just see what we get. That way we don't have to decide!!

 

[bride03]

I will start writing this trip report just as soon as I can. I will start off by saying that everything that COULD have gone wrong on this trip WENT wrong! It was still a great trip though. From the long waits at the airport with delays to the long, long, LONG lines at Disney and finally the aching 30 week along pregnant body to lug around...it was a challenge. We still loved it though. More writing later, we have to get around to packing up this apartment to move on Jan. 2nd!!

 

[OhMari]

I heard on our local news, Milwaukee WI that WDW was experiencing record crowds.
I can move your Pre-trip down to the regular boards when you start reporting. Let me know.
OhMari-Trip Report Moderator

 

[bride03]

Our first day started with us dropping off our boston terrier, Jack, at a pet resort here in our home town. We always make sure our little family member gets a little vacation too. We then went by the bank and Taco Cabana to pick up breakfast. Since our trip is a Magical Gathering, we met at Mom's house to pick them all up. We took a taxi cab, in which I preordered, and got to the airport a little later than expected, but it was fine. Our boarding passes with southwest were already all printed out. The preboarding was on time at 10:35 AM that morning. We thought everything was normal until 35 minutes later when we FINALLY got the news that there was an onboard generator that the mechanics needed to check out. We had been standing in line with a crazy lady talking the heads off a family, a guy playing a game on his cell phone with the sound on and a woman on a cell phone giving out advice on God and how to be closer to him. It was frustrating. Meanwhile, Mom, Kristin and the boys had been sitting on a plane that was sweltering! When we got on, it was soooo hot in there. I can't imagine...well I can (insert last day airline story here!!!). Needless to say, we were supposed to get to Orlando by 2:45pm and we got there at 3:30pm!! Then we went to look for Magical Express and went to the wrong terminal and had to go walk to the B terminal. A little frustrating, but not a huge deal. We get to Pop Century after what seems like a 12 hour ordeal and the line at Pop's Check in desk were unbelievable. I told my Mom..."I have never seen them this long!" My Mom, husband and I stood in line to check in while Kristin took the boys to Everything Pop to get something to eat and then took them to the playground there. Mom, Lane and I got something to eat after check in and then just went to the room. My Christmas gift to My Mom, Kristin and the boys were their Pop Century refillable mugs and I thought that was a great gift since it was something they could keep after they used it all trip. When we finally settled in our rooms, we took the busses to Magic Kingdom. The bus lines were pretty long! Basically the whole trip was like this, depending on the time. Magic Kingdom was packed and we got to eat at Casey's, shop, eat some ice cream, watch Spectro and Wishes, then leave. We didn't do any rides since the waits were an hour to an hour and half. At about 10:30pm we came back to the room after grabbing a last bite to eat and drink!

Magic Kingdom looking down Main Street with a lot of hustle bustle!

Fuzzy picture of Cindy's Castle!

Spectro Magic Mickey!

Day 2 to come!!!

 

[bride03]

We decided the night before to wake up early (7AM) and meet for breakfast at Everything Pop. This was our MGM day and the busses weren't too bad since we woke up early. We did miss the first bus though because Kyle spilled stuff on his clothes. (Syrup and Hot Chocolate, I think) It was great until around 11:30 A.M. when all the other millions entered the park. It was then hard not to just utilize the fast passes and get through the swarm of people. I do believe that this year was probably record high attendance. I don't doubt that a bit and we won't ever again visit during this week, especially since we will have at least one child of our own with us from now on! We didn't take a break and just kept on until 6PM and then went back to the room to rest since my belly felt like it weighed 10 pounds alone, plus my heels hurt. Have I already mentioned that I do not recommend Disney for third trimester Moms????

By the way, before I post the pictures I wanted to share two things...

*There are no coffee makers in the rooms. I thought for sure that you could request to have them in the room, but there are not ones to go in the room.
*There are hairdryers already in the rooms and if I'm not mistaken, they are new ones. Last December there were cruddy ones, and this one was great! (Oh by the way, we were in 8203 in the 90's building)
*There is now a little bag with a cord in it for high speed internet in your room. (You can purchase and take the cord with you for $10) They now offer this for $10 for 24 hours.

MGM day!

We headed over to Playhouse Disney/Animation area where you can draw your own characters and meet some too!

Hubby before we went into the Animation portion

Mom, Karl and Kyle in the Cars picture postcard display

What character is Karl??

Hubby and I before drawing Goofy!

Kristin, Karl and Kyle with Mr. Incredible

Me with Mr. Incredible

Our lunching spot, Pizza Planet

The Motor Cars Parade, we actually got good seats for this.

Snow White got a big cheer out of the crowd.

Poor little Kyle by this point wanted a hand shake by any character at this point! He was so upset and held his little hand out to get a shake from Pluto and Pluto passed him right up. It broke my heart to hear him say "No one wants to shake my hand." I was glad to hear yesterday that their trip was going a little better. (Mom, Kristin and the boys are still in Florida!)

Narnia was awesome! I love that witch for some reason! This was the costume display inside the Great Movie ride though.

More to come!