BLT -- A Sandwich or a Resort? Nov 09 TR (12/9 Lessons Learned)

[Marshay]

sounds like an eventful day, but you all made most of it

we all have our moments for sure

love the pic with wenches

The pic not posed with Snow white is priceless

I can't wait to see that castle all lit up. Looks gorgeous

yep, we did have fun...just had a really rough start and "poopy" finish (pun intended! )

Only 2 more days until you guys can see the castle all lit up!! It's breathless.

Forgot to add something....loved girls outfits....very cute

You are too funny that you picked out an outfit for Ellie in WTP store and it has no Pooh on it...

Love that Mickey that the custodial guy made..awesome

yeah, you could see elie's cinderella outfit better on the TTA shot. That's the outfit I wore when I was one year old.

I knew you guys would appreciate that Pooh story. All I was thinking as I entered the shop was, please, please have something {relatively} inexpensive and no Pooh on it!! I was so happy with the onesie I found. I got it in size 2T so hopefully she can wear it this spring/summer, too.

 

[praisehisname]

Even though your trip isn't going exactly as you planned, it sounds like you had a great time at MK. After our disappointing trip in 2007, I'm putting very few expectations on this trip!

 

[Marshay]

Even though your trip isn't going exactly as you planned, it sounds like you had a great time at MK. After our disappointing trip in 2007, I'm putting very few expectations on this trip!

I'm sorry you had a disappointing trip in '07 and really hope that your next trip will be better!!

I like to say 'a bad day at Disney beats a good day at home!' OK, so it's not exactly true but sounds good.

 

[mousescrapper]

Here is Rachel keeping Elizabeth warm with her skirt.

This picture is priceless

Oh Marsha, I say you guys had a very Wonderful and Magical day at MK...all goals met w/ the exception of the Fairies....it sounded like a great day (minus some spit up and angry faces)

I love the pictures of the castle, can not wait to see that!

I really hope the next day is a good one and Ellie is OK!

J~

 

[Marshay]

This picture is priceless

Oh Marsha, I say you guys had a very Wonderful and Magical day at MK...all goals met w/ the exception of the Fairies....it sounded like a great day (minus some spit up and angry faces)

I love the pictures of the castle, can not wait to see that!

I really hope the next day is a good one and Ellie is OK!

J~

Thanks! Jerry set up the picture -- it was really sweet.

Yep, we had a good day. Both Jerry and I really wanted to stay longer since Main Street and the castle were just so magical. I was just concerned since we were all in shorts and it was getting colder. Besides, better to end on a good note!

 

[raider97]

Loving your trip report! Looks like Day 1 was a lot of fun even being an unplanned down day! I love the family picture on the Mickey!! I am thinking about renting a Sea Raycer of some sort for dh and the kids to play on during our trip. Looks like they had fun!

Sounds like you had a great day at MK. The girls outfits are adorable and your castle shots are so beautiful!!

Stephanie

 

[Marshay]

Loving your trip report! Looks like Day 1 was a lot of fun even being an unplanned down day! I love the family picture on the Mickey!! I am thinking about renting a Sea Raycer of some sort for dh and the kids to play on during our trip. Looks like they had fun!

Sounds like you had a great day at MK. The girls outfits are adorable and your castle shots are so beautiful!!

Stephanie

Definitely get one of those Sea Raycers. I really wanted to do that too but of course one of us had to stay with Elizabeth so I figured that would be a good Daddy/Daughter activity.

Thanks for the kind words on the pics and the outfits.

 

[Marshay]

Today is Tuesday, November 17th and it's our last full day at WDW. WAH!!!

Original Plan -- DHS day. Get up early, do Toy Story Mania as much as possible. Also go to Playhouse Disney and Little Mermaid. Lunch at Hollywood and Vine Character Meal.

Reality -- read on!

The last we 'talked', we just spent a long day in MK, weren't dressed properly for the chilly evening and Elizabeth had a slight fever and nasty sounding cough. In fact she was coughing pretty hard that she ended up spitting up a few times.

We decided to have her sleep with us and gave her some Infant Tylenol. We had brought the temporal thermometer along so we took her temperature throughout the night when she woke up to nurse.

In the morning, her temperature was still holding steady around 99-101. It hadn't spiked higher. I think a night of sleep and nursing was good for her and she woke up, still with a cough, but she was happy.

So we ask Rachel where she would like to go today -- MK, DHS or Epcot. She keeps changing her mind. I really want to see the Osborne lights, but we don't have park hopper tickets and I really don't want to add on since we'd have to add for all 7 days. Also, the whole bus thing is just inconvenient with little ones and a stroller.

Jerry and I talk about it and decide that we aren't going to be early to DHS for Toy Story and there really isn't that many rides for E+R at DHS, so we can do a lot more at Epcot instead ... PLUS, we can take 2 monorails to get there!

We arrive at Epcot and there are only 3 people in front of us before we enter our turnstile ... and the computers shut down. They won't let anyone enter. ARGH!!

We wait and wait and wait. Finally the manager comes out with a "Crash Kit". Any guesses?? It's the old date stamps. So they finally let people in but they are putting a date stamp on the ticket.

So of course the very first thing I do once I get the ticket is wipe off the date! It didn't take much to do that since the tickets are kinda glossy ... there is no way the date is going to stay on.

The date stamp was a joke. Disney should have just let us all in ... call it magic. Instead we waited about 15 minutes or so...we weren't happy...

Anyway, we go to get a FP for Test Track and that's when I realize that we won't be able to get one since our tickets never went through the turnstile!

We tell the CM what happened and they issued us 3 FPs.

So then my devious mind says...well, then let's go to Soarin and pick up FPs there, too. No one is going to stop us!!

So this waiting 15-20 minutes actually worked out for the best -- we didn't have to use our tickets for entry and were able to get FPs whenever we wanted.

Jerry takes the girls to the Nemo area while I get FPs at Soarin.

 

[Marshay]

I forgot to post a picture of one of Elie's first monorail rides. You can guess the theme color for today...

 

[Marshay]

We ride Nemo and then explore the tanks. I nurse Elie and Rachel has fun in the shark.

and this was a cool tank

Then we head over to the Land for lunch. We try to get a ressie for Garden Grill for this evening but there is no availability. Rachel and I ride Soarin and then we childswap and Jerry and Rachel ride.

Rachel wants to ride the Land Boat Ride but I tell her we'll do it later and we should do the more popular rides.

Jerry wants to go to the Mission Space playground as this was one of his "to do" items. Rachel and I ride the Green, non-spinning version. This is her first time and she loves it. She's too small to really reach any of the buttons which is always fun to do but still enjoys it.

Then Rachel and Jerry play in the playground while I nurse Elie and she naps.

Then it's off to Figment and our Traditional Family Picture at Epcot Imagination Fountain. Look! A new addition this year!!

September 2007 (Rae is 2 yrs old)

Then May 2008

And this year's picture Nov 2009

Ok, there are actually two additions this year -- Elizabeth and Rachel's Disney Doll!!

Then we let Rachel play around the jumping water fountains, rode Figment, played a bit inside the building and played in the water fountains again.

By now it's getting to be early evening so we head over toward Test Track. But along the way, we see that the line for the Character Spot is hardly crowded at all and decide to meet the Fab 5. We haven't done this one before and although it's very quick, we enjoyed it. Well, most of us did:

First up is Pluto. Elie didn't really appreciate him.

But Rachel did

Mickey

Minnie really loved the girls' outfits! Here is Rachel trying to hold up her skirt like Minnie told her to do

I'm not thrilled about the backgrounds here...way too busy for me and my scrapbook

Donald and Goofy

Then we went to Mexico to go on the boat ride. Rachel wants to ride again and of course it's not crowded so they let us stay on.

We eat dinner at Mexico counter service overlooking the water. This food is nothing special but I like it and there is lots of it.

I want to go up to Norway and even get a pastry from France and do some shopping in China and Japan, but Jerry says we need to get back to the room. He's right as we still have to pack.

On the way out we use our FPs for Test Track. Rachel loves it and then we go on Spaceship Earth so I can nurse Elizabeth again before heading back.

Both girls fall asleep in the monorail. Thank goodness for the double stroller. We get back to the room, put them in bed and we spend the next 3 hours doing laundry and packing.

Oh, Sandra from the Survival Bag swap had called us earlier that evening and said she had FREE tickets to the Mickey Christmas Party that night!!!!!!!

Oh, how I wanted to go. I was so excited about it. But I knew we couldn't do it. Both girls were tired and we didn't pack...I was sooooo disappointed. FREE tickets!!!

Anyway, Jerry meets up with Sandra to give her the survival bags that night since she was staying late at the Christmas party.

We fall asleep exhausted about 1am.

 

[Marshay]

Today is Wednesday, November 18th

Goal: try to convince Jerry to stay another day or week!

Reality: go home and try not to cry


We get up, do the final packing and check out of our room. Magical Express is to pick us up at 11:50am for our 3:05pm flight. We arrive in the lobby at 11:15am. Too early for ME but too late to really do anything else.

I pay our room charges. I've been using the Disney Visa credit card for lots of bills prior to the trip, so we had built up a nice little reward of just over $300. Our bill for all the restaurants, snacks, groceries and souvenirs came to $381. So we only had to pay $81 which was basically the price of the Belle Doll Outfit, 2 Princess Christmas Tree ornaments and the Mr. Potato Head parts!! All of which are Christmas presents.

ME arrives and takes us to the airport.

On the flight home Elizabeth isn't happy and she's "that baby". She's crying and crying...I nurse her and that helps a little but she's just not happy. She falls asleep from exhaustion and stays asleep the whole time.

The next day Jerry takes her to the doctor and we're expecting her to have the flu or RSV .. nope! Just an ear infection. No wonder she was crying on the plane.

 

[Marshay]

LESSONS learned:

1) If you see something you really like or a picture you really want or something to do/see, you must do it then and there. Don't assume you will have time or the opportunity to do it later. (this is from my Sept 07 report but bears repeating)

2) Plan on doing laundry every day. In the past we did it every 2 days...but this time we took less outfits and just did a quick load each day. Of course, this is so much easier since there is a W/D in the DVC 1BR. Also, between 'diaper explosions' and spills, we had to do laundry.

3) I remembered to start saving toiletries that are nearly empty and brought them along for the trip to throw away.

4) Having one goal per person per park lets everyone enjoy the day more and feels like you have accomplished something when you make those goals.

5) The DDP is not good for us right now. We don't have a schedule anymore with a young child along and we didn't miss the extra food either. We saved a lot more money and didn't eat all the extra sweets.

6) I LOVE BLT -- it is worth the extra points!! All 3 of us can't wait until we go back to BLT. If we have enough points, I'm hoping to get a Lake View. That would be awesome but even if we just get a standard room like we had, I know the view will still be lovely.

7) Do On-line Check-in. When we arrived, we only had a choice of 2 rooms. I thought by waiting until we arrived to check-in, we might have a greater choice of rooms or at least could talk to the CM to get us a special room. However, they had assigned all the rooms available that day to those who checked in and I wasn't really given a choice. Might as well just do the on-line check-in next time.

8) We can still have a fun vacation together even though it doesn't go as planned. Although being sick at Disney is not fun, you can still enjoy your time. We learned that we can arrive in late morning and stay through until 8pm or so and still accomplish a lot.

9) Pack up your park "stuff" the night before so it doesn't take as long in the morning. I'm now aware that I won't be able to do the get up and out the door in 45 minutes any longer. It took us about 3 hours! YIKES!! But it is what it is.

10) Always have another Disney trip lined up ... it makes going home a bit easier!

 

[kaoden39]

I think number 10 is so true.

 

[praisehisname]

Love the updates and all the pictures. I can't believe your trip is over. Hope to see another report from you soon!

 

[betsywdw]

Hi Marsha! I just read your trippie and really enjoyed it! Love the tips...especially 1, 8 and 10...could not agree more! I was happy to see you report on BLT too since we are doing a split stay there in February! Glad that you enjoyed it so much! Btw...the girls are just adorable!

 

[Trentmom]

sounds like a diffferent kind of vacation, more slow paced

but sounds like you all still had fun

I definitely agree with number 10

give us details for your summer trip? is that July?

 

[Marshay]

I think number 10 is so true.

Yes it is. WDW is just so large, you can't possibly do it all...you just got to keep going back!

Love the updates and all the pictures. I can't believe your trip is over. Hope to see another report from you soon!

Well, since you mentioned it ... check out my siggie!

Hi Marsha! I just read your trippie and really enjoyed it! Love the tips...especially 1, 8 and 10...could not agree more! I was happy to see you report on BLT too since we are doing a split stay there in February! Glad that you enjoyed it so much! Btw...the girls are just adorable!

Oh, you are soooo gonna love BLT!! Make sure you definitely set aside a night to go up to the lounge and see the fireworks. I can't remember if I wrote that in my TR or not, but I did that one night and it was AWESOME! Just remember to bring a coat and hat, b/c it gets windy up there on the roof (if you don't want to go in the actual lounge).

Also the bridge connecting BLT to the Contemporary is NOT enclosed, only covered. I thought for sure this was going to be enclosed but once again the wind can whip through there and make it quite cool, esp in February.

sounds like a diffferent kind of vacation, more slow paced

but sounds like you all still had fun

I definitely agree with number 10

give us details for your summer trip? is that July?

Yep, I just started a new July 2010 trip report. It'll be a family reunion (parents, sister-family and us) and both Rachel and I will be celebrating our birthdays (she turns 5 and I turn 40 ).

Click the link in my siggie to join in.

Oh, and WELCOME BACK!!

 

[cherbear]

What a whirlwind of a day! It sounds like you all had a good time despite some mishaps. Elizabeth's faces are so funny with the Fab 5!! And Rachel just GLOWS when she is with the characters. She's at such a great age, you can tell she is in Heaven when she sees them.

I saw your new pre-trip and saved it in my User CP...I laughed at your "saved posts" I didn't want to post anything if you needed some more space. hehehe

 

[Trentmom]

Yes it is. WDW is just so large, you can't possibly do it all...you just got to keep going back!



Well, since you mentioned it ... check out my siggie!




Oh, you are soooo gonna love BLT!! Make sure you definitely set aside a night to go up to the lounge and see the fireworks. I can't remember if I wrote that in my TR or not, but I did that one night and it was AWESOME! Just remember to bring a coat and hat, b/c it gets windy up there on the roof (if you don't want to go in the actual lounge).

Also the bridge connecting BLT to the Contemporary is NOT enclosed, only covered. I thought for sure this was going to be enclosed but once again the wind can whip through there and make it quite cool, esp in February.



Yep, I just started a new July 2010 trip report. It'll be a family reunion (parents, sister-family and us) and both Rachel and I will be celebrating our birthdays (she turns 5 and I turn 40 ).

Click the link in my siggie to join in.

Oh, and WELCOME BACK!!

oh wow..that should be fun

the link in your siggie is cut off on my computer, but I found you

will be right over to join

 

[mousescrapper]

I understnad your decision to drop DHS in the end...on our last day of our trip in march we were headed there and the whole time I was thinking this is not how I want to end or trip and when we got there we turned around and went to MK instead and had a great day

I'm glad the crowds were so low for you that arriving late in the day worked out great! What a bummer on missing out the free tickets...but you are probably right in doing so...and I'm sure once your girls are older it will work out!

I agree on the backgrounds for the characters in Epcot...but very cute pictures and I love the girls matchy Minnnie dresses.

LESSONS learned:


2) Plan on doing laundry every day. In the past we did it every 2 days...but this time we took less outfits and just did a quick load each day. Of course, this is so much easier since there is a W/D in the DVC 1BR. Also, between 'diaper explosions' and spills, we had to do laundry.

I don't need to deal w/ the diaper thing anymore...but can't wait to have the flexibility of a W/D in our room w/ a fam of 6 this will be so handy

3) I remembered to start saving toiletries that are nearly empty and brought them along for the trip to throw away.

that is a great tip


6) I LOVE BLT -- it is worth the extra points!! All 3 of us can't wait until we go back to BLT. If we have enough points, I'm hoping to get a Lake View. That would be awesome but even if we just get a standard room like we had, I know the view will still be lovely.

I am so happy you loved it there...I get to make our ressie very soon in 10 days stop by my PTR if you'd like...just got it started


8) We can still have a fun vacation together even though it doesn't go as planned. Although being sick at Disney is not fun, you can still enjoy your time. We learned that we can arrive in late morning and stay through until 8pm or so and still accomplish a lot.

good for you!


10) Always have another Disney trip lined up ... it makes going home a bit easier!

LOVE IT!!!!!

I'll be by to visit you on your next trip too...

Scrappie J~