Celebration with the Tiny Chaos Agent.

Footnotegirl

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Sep 12, 2004
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Though I've done a few Disney World trips and a handful of DCL trips, this is the first time I'm attempting a trip report, so bear with me! We're just returned, but I'll do three posts, our pre-trip info, then the trip itself, and final thoughts.

Pre Trip Info:
I'm always keeping an eye out for a chance to go to WDW, especially when we're having a terrible winter like this one (you know it's bad when the Governor of your northern, reputation for snow state closes all the schools because the weather is just that bad, and it hasn't even snowed!). The day before Christmas, I got an email advertising $999 for 2 days/3 nights + DDP. Oh my that looked good, but still a little rich for us right then what with getting windows replaced and such this past year.
And then my mother decided she didn't want to do Christmas shopping, so the day after we got a card in the mail from her with a sizable chunk of cash for each of us to do what we wanted to. Later that evening I realized... that would be a sizable chunk of that trip... maybe we can do it anyway!
So we got a price quote, and because we could go spur of the moment during the week, and our daughter was under 3, we got an even better deal! Less than $850 for 3 nights at ASM, +DDP, +tickets. We were booked and paid up on Dec. 30.
Which was good, because on the morning of Dec. 31 on the way to work, my car hit a patch of ice followed in swift and brutal succession by 2 cement barriers and a 5 foot high snow drift.
Now I REALLY needed this trip!

I'd read some of the hullabaloo about FP+ and Magic Bands, but I like pre-planning and I'm a late night internet addict ANYWAY so as soon as I could link our trip up to MDE and download the apps, I started making reservations. DH got daily updates about which reservations were working ("Great lunch time at Crystal Palace, hon!") and which were being more... difficult ("Rassin' Frassin' Be Our Guest... OH HAY LOOK I GOT A RESERVATION... though 9 p.m. might be a bit late for dinner with a 2 year old..."). In the end, due to the magic of a) regularly being up at 2 a.m. and b) people sharing links on the disboards, we ended up getting the much prized FP+ for BOG lunch. Everything else fell into place including being able to set up our fastpasses for times that would work with BOTH our meals and our daughters best happy, awake, and fed times. I also managed to get our color and personalization requests in just under the wire, so we had the band colors we wanted.
All of this while working + taking care of toddler + dealing with insurance + finding/test driving/purchasing new car once the insurance agency agreed it was totalled. We picked up my new car just 2 days before our trip! It still only has the paper license on it!
Now we had one last thing to worry about: Our toddler (aka Destroyer of Schedules, Chaos Agent, Mistress of Cute-Fu) loves Ariel, and Winnie the Pooh, and Mickey Mouse, and Nemo. But whenever we asked her if she wanted to meet these brilliant luminaries she had one, and only one answer.
"No! Meet Ponies!"
(Someone could make a MINT if they started a My Little Pony theme park, just from our family alone.)
 
Part the second: The trip itself.
Day One
Our present selves swore a lot at our past selves for making the 8:10 a.m. flight reservations on Monday morning. Then our past selves reminded our present selves that they'd also made banana bread the night before and so the selves kissed and made up. And went to wake up Tiny Cute Blonde Girl who was Not Pleased With This Change Of Schedule No Sir. And we got to hear about it all the way to the airport.
The flight actually went remarkably well, due in good part to not having much to carry (yay Magical Express!) and also having the forethought to rent MLP: Equestria Girls on my iPad (Thank you again, past self! Also, your banana bread was awesome!). Once off the plane we pretty much sailed right onto the bus for our resort, pausing only to hold our bands up to the little sensors. We were a bit worried to see that we had no line at all, but they directed us right onto a bus which pretty much took off the second we sat down.
Once we got to ASM, we were the only family on the bus. And the only family in the lobby for check in. We were immediately pounced by Sandra at the curb who led us in and got us to the proper cast member, which didn't end up mattering because pretty much everyone working at the check in had nothing to do and so came over to distract Tiny Cute Blond Girl. We may be a bit prejudiced towards her, but she was really being excessively flirty and gregarious and sweet. By the time we left the check in desk we'd been liberally sprinkled with Pixie Dust to the tune of a balloon, crayons, a coloring book, a birthday pin, and a stuffed Princess Minnie doll (which now resides quite firmly in a place of honor in DD's crib, but did not leave her presence during the entirety of the trip).
I'm not a fan of the Mighty Ducks, but the room we got was at the far end of one building, on the sidewalk facing All Star Music, which meant we had a choice of which bus stop to take every day. It was also very quiet and not heavily populated. Also, our room had a mini fridge, which I had been worried about. Yay fridge!
Hopes had been high that the little one would take a nap between check in and our first ADR at Whispering Canyon. High hopes were dashed. We hung out in the room for a couple of hours at least being quiet and relaxed and then took her to the playground to let off some steam for about an hour.
So of course she fell deeply asleep as soon as the bus pulled up to start the trek to the Wilderness Lodge. That's my girl!
Things went fine until we actually got to the lobby of WL, at which point she woke up SCREAMING for a banana. DH tried to get one for her in the gift shop, but got stuck behind two customers wibbling over which item they wanted to purchase just as our buzzer went off. So we ended up getting seated with a screaming toddler and looking like a very harried couple indeed (which is not normally our way!) I'm sure our poor server worried he was in for it, as his 'playful rudeness' quotient was way down to start with. But he rushed a bowl of fruit salad over to our table with great speed which immediately returned our daughter to her charming self and things went great from there on out.
After dinner we let her run around the lobby a bit, with about 2 kajillion circles of the spring and bridge. Waiting for the bus she stalked down and hugged every kid under the age of 12.
Bus ride back went much more smoothly. It was a bit difficult to get her down to sleep (her first time sleeping in a 'big girl bed') but she did eventually.
 
Day Two: The Park!
We decided that what with our daughter's age, and the things we wanted to do, and the need we had for relaxing (or as relaxing as a WDW vacation can be) we would just do two days in the Magic Kingdom.
Our plans for the first day all hung on a scaffolding of fast passes and adr's, with a soft 'head back to the hotel for a nap midday' plan.
We arrived at the park around 9:30, and had a "Meet Ariel" fastpass for btwn 10:30something and 11:30 (let's face it, it's already been a week, all times will be general). So we started the day just wandering around and letting Mistress of Cute-Fu get acclimated. Her first official WDW ride was on the Carousel (See? We promised you ponies! Sure it's not Twilight Sparkle and the gang, but it's ponies!). She was very excited about riding it like a big girl ("I do it! I do it 'self!"). Then we went to check out the Gaston's Pub area, where there were of course puddles. Which meant we got to watch her play in puddles for an hour... Middle of the Happiest Place On Earth, surrounded by some of her favorite characters, tons of stuff to do and see... and it was the puddles that fascinated her most. Toddlers are awesome!
We did manage to drag her away in time for her Ariel meeting. Our worries were brushed off by her wiggles and giggles when she saw her favorite mermaid, and so much yay for the fastpass, as we ended up with only 2 families ahead of us so well within her patience limits. Chaos Agent met fish-tail princess and the cuteness dial went to 11. There was hugging, and fisn noise pucker faces, and kisses and "Bye A-yell!" and .... I may have teared up a little bit, but I will lie on the stand if you try and make me testify to it.
We stopped and got a little snack and then went off to the next FP at Ariel's Undersea Adventures (I know I have that title wrong, but you know whereof I speak!). This was sort of my test for how she might do with Haunted Mansion later on that night, since though different in theme, they're very close in set-up after all. She was quite silent through the whole ride, but very smily afterwards, so we realized her silence had been Rapt Attention normally reserved only for new MLP episodes or the rare occasions when the cat that does not like her gets within possible lunging distance.
More pixie dust came at the Crystal Palace where we had our lunch. I mentioned off hand that our daughter's birthday was in a week, and when we came to our table it was covered in Mickey glitter. The first character to greet us was Tigger, who was VERY smart, as when he saw that the Chaos Agent was shying away, he went in to hug me, and after that he and DD were very best friends. She also very much appreciated the cupcake and signed card that she got, and successfully blew out her first candle.
While at lunch, I realized that we were in danger of missing our next/last FP, so I got on my phone and shifted the Haunted Mansion fastpass to 6 p.m. easy peasy!
After lunch, she spent a while asleep rolling along in her well-shaded stroller while DH and I played the pirate game (that and the sorceror game are GREAT for 'baby is napping' time wasters for parents!). She woke up a little fidgety about an hour and a half later, so we took her over to Tom Sawyer's Island to let her run off steam in the little playground there. Oh how I wish they had benches in that playground!
After Tom Sawyers, we decided to get a snack and a pop so that I could take a couple of excedrin (the change in climate from -2 to 82 was playing havoc with my migraine tendencies) and relax. While DH tried to get the snack rung up, the magic band system stopped working. A manager walked up to the cast member and said "The problem is with our system, not his band, so lets not inconvenience him further" and handed over the pretzel and diet coke for free. Awesome customer service there. The cost to them for handing over those items is negligible, and cuts frustration down for someone who is having an issue due to no fault of their own.
Also yay, free pretzel!
We let DD watch birds and boats for a while, then headed over for our Haunted Mansion fp. While it wasn't strictly necessary (the line at that point was listing at 15 minutes) it was nice to be able to just walk right in. Tiny Cute Blonde Girl cried a little at the sound and flash of lightning during the stretching room sequence, but quieted down immediately as we got on the doombuggy. She was silent and still through the whole ride and I was afraid she was petrified with fear, but no. Once again, just taking it all in. As we left, DH put her up on his shoulders and she clapped her hands and cheered "I did it! Yay! I did it!" and started giving high fives to random strangers.
It was getting dark now, and we decided that since DD was doing so well, we'd shoot for the fireworks. So we did some more park wandering, managing to get in a ride on It's A Small World with no wait and then puttering through Tomorrowland. We thought she would take another mini nap, but then she noticed the MUSIC AND LIGHTS OMG MUSIC AND LIGHTS MOMMA DADDA of the Incredibles Dance Party. After a moments hesitation, we unsnapped her from the stroller and let her delve into the crowd (with mommy in hot pursuit because DD has absolutely zero separation anxiety or stranger danger). She was a dancing machine, I tell you. Lots of cute video recorded. Mrs. Incredible seemed rather taken with her.
Shock of shocks, after the dance party we actually found a REALLY good spot for the castle show and fireworks. Sadly, the castle show (and yes, I know I'm not using the correct title, thhbbpt) got cut off at the dancing skeleton portion and they announced that it would not continue. But it was only about a 5-10 minute wait for the fireworks. These were also DD's first fireworks, so again with the silent and focussed, though there were a few minutes of squirming and "No! No! All done! Down! Go!" when the castle went all green and purple and the music was all minor chords, but as soon as that part ended she was fine again.
Rather than deal with more crowds and lines, we backtracked to Cosmic Rays for dinner and by the time we were done, it was smooth sailing out of the park. Due to advanced stages of tired, DD went down to sleep very swiftly, and slept through the night.
 
Day Three: Magic Kingdom Redux!
So, we slept in. We didn't MEAN to, but... oh my stars we were so tired.
So very tired.
There was a lot of rushing and bustling, because we had a 10-11 Meet Rapunzel FP and I had already tried to change it to get it set later but unlike Haunted Mansion, that was a no-go.
Luckily, the fates (and the bus drivers, and the crowds) were with us, and we made it to the Princess Hall with 20 minutes to spare. It was a walk right in for Rapunzel (Yay!) and Snow White (Oh.. no... we haven't shown her that movie yet...). Squirmy Wormy dropped down out of my arms and almost divebombed Rapunzel with kisses. They seemed to have a great rapport with eachother, and we got some awesome pictures. Luckily, even though she'd never seen the video, DD had apparently picked up knowledge of Snow White from somewhere, as she called out her name and ran to her, and happily sat in her lap.
Once we got out of that meet and greet, I noticed that the time stated for the other two princesses was only 20 minutes, and we had an hour until our Be Our Guest fastpass. The line actually took us less than 15 minutes before DD was cannonballing Cinderella and then made a (thankfully aborted) attempt to photobomb a family who was still with Aurora. Amusingly, once she had Aurora to herself, Chaos Agent was more interested in the lighting effects behind the curtains, though she did finally deign to come back and kiss Aurora's cheek.
I don't think I've had a more gleeful and yet also guilty moment than I did passing that huge, shadeless, miserable line for Be Our Guest and walking right up to the ordering station. We really enjoyed our lunch there and it was well worth staying up and figuring out the arcane test site to get those fastpasses.
I am not a fan of strawberry cupcakes, but theirs were AWESOME.
After lunch, predictably, DD fell asleep. This time we did the Sorceror game, and then hung out in the shade for a while listening to the Dapper Dans. She slept for about an hour and a half this time, and woke up just in time for the parade which she watched from DH's shoulders. Back off to Fantasy Land where we rode the Carousel again, followed by Small World, and then our FP for Winnie the Pooh followed immediately by another ride in the very short line for WtP (In there somewhere, we did Dumbo and Casey Jr., but my failing memory says that might have been the day before). DD got to meet Donald and Goofy in the Storybook Circus.
Dinner this time was at Liberty Tree, which was nice and low key when we went. We also managed to be there during the one gullywasher that came through the park that day, so good timing all around! So much Mac and Cheese was eaten and/or spread on cheeks but luckily not in the hair!
Back on the Carousel, then off to Peter Pan's Flight. We had a FP but ended up not really using it as the Magic Band system was down, so when we got up to the fast pass line they just asked if we had had one set up and when we said yes they waved us on through.
Rather than stay for the fireworks, we decided to get out of the park a little on the early side, picking up a few souvenirs for friends on the way out and getting to the line for the bus back to our resort just as the fireworks started.
Back at the hotel, they were showing Wall-E on the movie screen, but Mistress of Cute-Fu was quietly not interested ("Do you like this movie honey?" (quietly) "No. Watch ponies.") So it was back to the room, sending hubby off to get snacks and sodas for the two of us while I gave her highness a bath.
Unfortunately, it was the night of not good sleeping, as she wasn't quite tired enough and required an awful lot of lullabies and I ended up dozing in the bed with her which is something we never do at home.
 

Day Four: Departure and arrival
You know that you should have had a longer vacation when you hope the bus is going to be a bit late so that you can just stand in the warm air a few minutes longer.
We got up and packed up on time (just, barely,) ate a quick breakfast and headed back to the Magical Express. DD said her sad goodbyes to Pongo and Perdita. I said my sad goodbyes to a room someone else cleaned for me.
The flight home went fairly well. Actually, it went very well until we landed, at which point they stuck us on the tarmac for 30+ minutes waiting for our gate to open up. 30+ extra unplanned minutes in a tin can full of overstimulated children on their way home from Disney World is pretty much hell in a handbasket. Especially when it's done to a chorus of reminders that even though we're stopped stock still, you CANNOT GET UP and you CANNOT USE THE REST ROOMS for 'safety reasons'.
Ugh.
Still, we survived. It was very, very nice to get home even with the frigid temperatures and the less than welcoming cats. Even better, our daughter gave us the Best Present Ever the following weekend - In return for our taking her to Disney World, on Saturday and Sunday she slept past 11 a.m. AND SO DID WE.
 
Part the third: Thoughts and observations.

Pixie Dust: I'd been hearing it was in short supply. We actually got a lot of it. Every day, something nice happened that absolutely wasn't expected, from as small as stickers for the little one to the whole doll/crayons/book/balloon cavalcade of freebies. We never had a bad cast member moment.

Fastpass+ and Magic Band: We are apparently the only family who ADORES this program like whoa. It is the most awesome thing ever and I want to love it and hug it and call it George. I guess my thing is... yes, the rides are nice at Disney? But I don't go there for the rides. If I want to go to a park for the rides, I will take a much shorter and cheaper trip to Cedar Point and go on rides FAR MORE EXCITING than any Disney has. For me, Disney is about experiences, entertainment, and design/Imagineering. Of course I'd like more fastpasses per day, but I'm gonna guess that they'll be massaging the numbers as they get a feel for who is using system how, and I am HAPPY to give up a couple of fastpasses in a day in return for skipping the frantic run to get fastpasses from a bunch of different machines before the clock runs out.

Value resort: This is the first time we've stayed at a value resort, as in previous trips we've either gone with DVC member friends and stayed in their villa, or the one time previously that we went on our own, we got upgraded to the Contemporary. I found the Value Resort to be quite nice, certainly for the price, and the sound proofing and AC both much better than I had feared from other reviews. Would do again, though I think that we'd prefer doing Art of Animation as everyone in our family sleeps better if they have their own space.

Wish I Hadn't Missed: Getting another pack of Sorcerer game cards as we didn't do that until the second day. Totally skipped the Magic Carpets, which is sad because I love those. We were too hesitant to take her on Pirates of the Caribbean too. Also missed the Merida and Tiana meet and greets.

Wish Disney would improve by: Adding more themed/imagineered playgrounds. Casey Jr. is GREAT (though really, some shade would be nice!) but the Tom Sawyer playground really needs some additions like, perhaps, a slide? Also the line to get there and the boat ride can be difficult for a toddler that really needs to burn off steam. Much the same with the Dumbo playground, having to wait in line to get into it as it's part of a queue. It would be nice to have another place, especially one with a gate or something (or AC, but that's probably a dream too far) to be able to just let little kids run and play.
More 'surprise' elements, such as running into characters accidentally or more wandering unscheduled performances. I know, I KNOW that you can't have the big characters like the princesses just out and about and moving freely, as they'd immediately get mobbed. But please, more of the lesser known characters out and about where you might be able to have an unscripted interaction!
Having a separation curtain in the Value Resort rooms like the ones they have on the cruise ships so that parents/adults can watch TV or eat or the like while junior sleeps.
Adding more/bigger rides. If Cedar Point can manage a MAJOR new ride every other year, SURELY Disney can up their game on this? More 'e-ticket' rides would mean shorter lines for everything.
 
Our present selves swore a lot at our past selves for making the 8:10 a.m. flight reservations on Monday morning. Then our past selves reminded our present selves that they'd also made banana bread the night before and so the selves kissed and made up.

This made me laugh a lot. My present self and past self argue about this kind of thing a lot. Sometimes my future self tries to chime in but I know he's imaginary.
 















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