Well, here we sit in wonderful Disney, and I thought I'd do a real-time trip report, because I just don't have the patience to sit and do it all at once AFTER we get home from our trip!
The players: The Brocks--me (the mom!), age 31, DH, age 31, DD, age 4, DD, age 10 months, and Grandma, age.....well, she'd probably I'd rather not say!!
The trip: 11/25 through 12/5. 10 nights of Disney bliss!
We drove (yes, drove!) from the St. Louis area, leaving on 11/24 and stopping overnight around Atlanta. What a fiasco! The baby just would NOT go to sleep in a hotel room full of people. Seriously. We all got about 4 hours of sleep, and that was broken up into 1-2 hour chunks at the most. We have since decided we would rather drive straight through than deal with that again (it's about a 16 hour drive), so on the way home, we're doing a marathon drive.
We arrived on Saturday, 11/25. We checked into our townhome at Windsor Palms, and it is just lovely. We stayed on-property at Shades last time, and I'm sooooooooooooo happy we decided to go with a townhome this time. See above referenced baby sleeping issue--this townhome has 3 bedrooms and a pull-out sofa. Baby gets her own room, just like at home. Everyone sleeps wonderfully again. Thus, everyone is happy! YAY! I shudder to think how miserable we would be had we stayed in a hotel room the entire trip.
Grandma and I hit Wally World to get some frozen pizzas, sandwich fixins, and whatnot while DH and the kiddos splashed around in the splash pool. Then we just ate dinner, relaxed, and got ready for the first park day--it was gonna be a biggie, otherwise to be known as.....
PRINCESSES GALORE, or My 4 y/o DD Nearly Dies From the Excitement of Her Big Princess Day.
So, Sunday, 11/26--we head out for our 9 am Bibiddi Bobbidi Boutique appointment for DD4. DD4 was all dressed up in her Aurora costume already, so we got the Crown package. She was the first one in the chairs, and boy are we glad we got there so early, because it filled up F-A-S-T! DH and I were almost in tears watching DD4 get her "royal treatment". It was so sweet and she loved it so much and looked so beautiful. She chose the pop princess hairstyle. It was truly worth every penny. My other DD entertained everyone in her baby Tinkerbell costume while we waited. They just ate her up, and she loved all the attention too. After we were done at BBB, we had her photos taken and then we headed over to Akershus for the Storybook Princess lunch.
Here's DD4 all dolled up:
We arrive at Epcot, and we got a little pixie dust first thing--don't know if it was just plain luck or a YOAMD thing or what, but the CM at the parking kiosk waved us through, telling us we were good to go and didn't make us pay to park! We were thrilled. It's the little things sometimes, ya know?
We enter the park, and everyone is oohing and aahing over DD4 all dressed up in her outfit and all prettied up. All the CM's kept calling her "princess". She absolutely loved it. When we got to Akershus, guess who was greeting the families in the lobby area--Aurora! Since DD4 was dressed up like Aurora, she got down and talked with DD4, commenting on her dress and hair. It was so sweet.
DD and Aurora:
And baby Tinkerbell:
Now, I have to digress here for a moment. I have read so many negative comments about Akershus as far as food, so I was a little nervous, but figured I was there for the princess experience, so what the heck. But we were all pleasantly surprised with the food. It was delicious and very fresh. My mom and I are notoriously picky eaters, and even we liked it! I got the pasta, and DH and my mom got the meatballs. Both were excellent. And the desserts were just delicious.
Ok, ok, I know--the princesses! We got to meet Alice, Jasmine, Belle (in her blue dress), and--CINDERELLA!!! I thought she was only supposed to show up at the castle? No matter--she was there! DD4 ate up every minute.
After lunch, we toured Epcot, and had a wonderful day. We returned to our townhome exhausted but happy!
On to Monday, 11/27.....grandma was feeling a little tired from Sunday, so she opted to stay home with the baby while DH, me, and DD4 went back to Epcot for Future World. We arrived at the turnstiles at 8:25 and waited and waited and.....what do you know, DD4 is chosen to open Epcot today! Wow! We got to be the first ones in the park, and she was given a wand, and when she waved it, everyone clapped and cheered and they opened up the park. They gave her a certificate naming her "Princess of the Day". She felt quite special after that!
We hurried over to the rope to position ourselves for Soarin'. While there, we chatted with some CM's, who were all very friendly. One was a YOAMD crew member, and DD4 pointed at his pins, commenting how she liked the Aurora one. I told her we'd have to go get some pins so we could trade for ones she liked. The CM then told us the best places to get pins, and explained to DD that she should be sure to buy pins she didn't like very much so she'd be willing to trade them away for ones she did like. He then proceeded to take off his Aurora pin and gave it to DD even though she didn't have anything to trade, telling her he didn't know if he'd see her again today so he was going to just go ahead and give it to her. What a nice guy! He was so sweet.
We managed to ride Soarin', Test Track twice, Nemo, and DH went back to Soarin' again while DD and I saw Turtle Talk, all by 10:45 am. Awesome! Then we did Character Connection, which is one of the best-kept secrets, IMHO, and cruised the World Showcase. Ate lunch at Biergarten, which was a big hit. DD loved the band!
Tomorrow.........Magic Kingdom, here we come!
The players: The Brocks--me (the mom!), age 31, DH, age 31, DD, age 4, DD, age 10 months, and Grandma, age.....well, she'd probably I'd rather not say!!
The trip: 11/25 through 12/5. 10 nights of Disney bliss!
We drove (yes, drove!) from the St. Louis area, leaving on 11/24 and stopping overnight around Atlanta. What a fiasco! The baby just would NOT go to sleep in a hotel room full of people. Seriously. We all got about 4 hours of sleep, and that was broken up into 1-2 hour chunks at the most. We have since decided we would rather drive straight through than deal with that again (it's about a 16 hour drive), so on the way home, we're doing a marathon drive.
We arrived on Saturday, 11/25. We checked into our townhome at Windsor Palms, and it is just lovely. We stayed on-property at Shades last time, and I'm sooooooooooooo happy we decided to go with a townhome this time. See above referenced baby sleeping issue--this townhome has 3 bedrooms and a pull-out sofa. Baby gets her own room, just like at home. Everyone sleeps wonderfully again. Thus, everyone is happy! YAY! I shudder to think how miserable we would be had we stayed in a hotel room the entire trip.
Grandma and I hit Wally World to get some frozen pizzas, sandwich fixins, and whatnot while DH and the kiddos splashed around in the splash pool. Then we just ate dinner, relaxed, and got ready for the first park day--it was gonna be a biggie, otherwise to be known as.....
PRINCESSES GALORE, or My 4 y/o DD Nearly Dies From the Excitement of Her Big Princess Day.
So, Sunday, 11/26--we head out for our 9 am Bibiddi Bobbidi Boutique appointment for DD4. DD4 was all dressed up in her Aurora costume already, so we got the Crown package. She was the first one in the chairs, and boy are we glad we got there so early, because it filled up F-A-S-T! DH and I were almost in tears watching DD4 get her "royal treatment". It was so sweet and she loved it so much and looked so beautiful. She chose the pop princess hairstyle. It was truly worth every penny. My other DD entertained everyone in her baby Tinkerbell costume while we waited. They just ate her up, and she loved all the attention too. After we were done at BBB, we had her photos taken and then we headed over to Akershus for the Storybook Princess lunch.
Here's DD4 all dolled up:
We arrive at Epcot, and we got a little pixie dust first thing--don't know if it was just plain luck or a YOAMD thing or what, but the CM at the parking kiosk waved us through, telling us we were good to go and didn't make us pay to park! We were thrilled. It's the little things sometimes, ya know?
We enter the park, and everyone is oohing and aahing over DD4 all dressed up in her outfit and all prettied up. All the CM's kept calling her "princess". She absolutely loved it. When we got to Akershus, guess who was greeting the families in the lobby area--Aurora! Since DD4 was dressed up like Aurora, she got down and talked with DD4, commenting on her dress and hair. It was so sweet.
DD and Aurora:
And baby Tinkerbell:
Now, I have to digress here for a moment. I have read so many negative comments about Akershus as far as food, so I was a little nervous, but figured I was there for the princess experience, so what the heck. But we were all pleasantly surprised with the food. It was delicious and very fresh. My mom and I are notoriously picky eaters, and even we liked it! I got the pasta, and DH and my mom got the meatballs. Both were excellent. And the desserts were just delicious.
Ok, ok, I know--the princesses! We got to meet Alice, Jasmine, Belle (in her blue dress), and--CINDERELLA!!! I thought she was only supposed to show up at the castle? No matter--she was there! DD4 ate up every minute.
After lunch, we toured Epcot, and had a wonderful day. We returned to our townhome exhausted but happy!
On to Monday, 11/27.....grandma was feeling a little tired from Sunday, so she opted to stay home with the baby while DH, me, and DD4 went back to Epcot for Future World. We arrived at the turnstiles at 8:25 and waited and waited and.....what do you know, DD4 is chosen to open Epcot today! Wow! We got to be the first ones in the park, and she was given a wand, and when she waved it, everyone clapped and cheered and they opened up the park. They gave her a certificate naming her "Princess of the Day". She felt quite special after that!
We hurried over to the rope to position ourselves for Soarin'. While there, we chatted with some CM's, who were all very friendly. One was a YOAMD crew member, and DD4 pointed at his pins, commenting how she liked the Aurora one. I told her we'd have to go get some pins so we could trade for ones she liked. The CM then told us the best places to get pins, and explained to DD that she should be sure to buy pins she didn't like very much so she'd be willing to trade them away for ones she did like. He then proceeded to take off his Aurora pin and gave it to DD even though she didn't have anything to trade, telling her he didn't know if he'd see her again today so he was going to just go ahead and give it to her. What a nice guy! He was so sweet.
We managed to ride Soarin', Test Track twice, Nemo, and DH went back to Soarin' again while DD and I saw Turtle Talk, all by 10:45 am. Awesome! Then we did Character Connection, which is one of the best-kept secrets, IMHO, and cruised the World Showcase. Ate lunch at Biergarten, which was a big hit. DD loved the band!
Tomorrow.........Magic Kingdom, here we come!
