**COMPLETED 4/30**Life Is Way Too Short to Take It Slow - October 2013 TR

[princess_momma]

Hello!! I am back (sadly) from a wonderful 11 day trip to Florida (3 days), Universal Studios (1 day), Sea World (1 day) and Disney World for the rest! We were there from October 16th through the 27th. There were so many amazing moments and big surprises! Im sad to be back but very happy to re-live all those great moments with you guys!

Lets get started by introducing the cast!

Im Kimmy, and Im one dynamite gal! Im 23 years young (or maybe old after this trip!) and this was my fourth trip to Disney. I am an emergency dispatcher and love my crazy, unpredictable job! Nothing matches my Disney love, but some of my other obsessions include the Denver Broncos, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter. I am crazy for the Tower of Terror, like Im seriously in love with that ride no joke. (See this post for the full love story.) I love Wreck-It Ralph and Monsters, Inc. A LOT -- Ralph and Sulley being my favorite characters from those. I hadnt been to Disney World since June 2011 so I was so happy to be back! Will the next trip take as long as this one did? WE WILL SEE!! (Hmmm...possible foreshadowing?)

This is Garret. He gives me the honey glow something awful. He is my sweet, handsome, tall man. He measures up at about 66. He loves sports and thrill rides. We celebrated our second anniversary on this trip. I was so anxious before this trip about whether or not hed love Disney. He had been to Disney before as a kid, but didn't seem to remember too much.He would give me warnings about how we could go maybe every few years or so and seemed more excited for Universal because it has more thrill rides. All I wanted was for him to love Disney too! But youll have to wait and see how that unfolds!

Heres Landon, our sweet son. He was technically 4 on this trip, but we celebrated his 5th birthday, which is on November 6th. This trip (also Landons fourth trip) he was finally tall enough for most of the rides. Because I clearly like making you wait, Im not going to give away whether or not he liked them yet! Landon loves animals, super heroes, dinosaurs, and Peyton Manning. He is all boy through and through and if that little kid likes me, how bad can I be? (3 for 3 on Wreck It Ralph quotes in our introductions!)

There will be a few guest appearances in this trip report. First, youll see a lot of Garrets dad. Hell be referred to as Opa, which is the name he had Landon call him. We stayed at his house when we were further south in Florida. He also came to SeaWorld with us. The other one youll see is Brandon, our friend and soon-to-be roommate. We had a dinner with him and he also joined us in Universal.

Hope you stick around...its going to be a good one!!

The One Where We Ride a Plane
The One Where Landon Sees A Beach for the First Time
The One Where We Go to the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center: Part One and Part Two
The One Where We Take a Stroll Through Paradise
The One Where We're On a Boat: Part One and Part Two
The One Where I'm FINALLY Back at Disney World
The One Where I Love FastPass+
The One Where True Love Reunites: Part One and Part Two
The One Where Ohana Means Family Part One and Part Two
The One Where We Continue to Love the MK Mountains
The One with the Delicious Food
The One Where Our Plans Change on a Whim Part One and Part Two
The One Where We Dine at Artist Point
The One With Little Mermaids & Flying Elephants
The One Where I FanGirl Over the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Real Hard Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five
The One with the Rest of Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
The One Where We Love AK
The One That Ends in Drama
The One With Pizza and Sangria
The One Where We Feed Dolphins
The One Where We Wander Around SeaWorld
The One Where I Cry Sad Tears Over Polar Bears and Happy Tears Over Killer Whales
The One Where We Dine with Shamu
The One Where We Finally Go to the Food & Wine Festival
The One Where I Shop A Lot
The One Where Our Lives Change Forever
The One Where Its Our Last Night in Disney
The One Where We Leave

The Wrap Up
The PTR

 

[princess_momma]

Finally, the day had arrived. The bags were packed, the countdowns complete, the day was finally here. It was October 16th and I woke up at 3:00 am to finally set off on this adventure! And really, is there such a thing as “early” when you are waking up to go on vacation?

Also, can I just say how hard it is to be going elsewhere first? I always had two countdowns in my head - one for Florida, one for Disney World. But Florida was first and I just really wanted it to be Disney World so I’d often combine the two and it was really just a pain. I think I’ll have to get used to it though because we’ll probably always be visiting Garret’s dad first from here on out! C’est la vie.

So, as I’m used to in my household, I was up first. I got all ready, hair straightened, etc. (I always straighten my hair on the first travel day because that’s the only day it usually stays thanks to Florida’s humidity.)

Around 4:20, I finally woke up Garret and gave him a haircut. It felt silly giving a haircut so early in the morning, but he wanted it to be as short as possible so that’s what we did.

Landon was up at 4:45, as he doesn’t take long at all to get ready. Boy, was he excited!

Here he is with our luggage. 3 checked bags, 1 carry on. (Also I brought a purse and Garret carried the computer bag.)

Our ride picked us up at 5:30 and we were ready to go! We stopped at McDonald’s for some food. No pics until Disney though, sorry! But I got a Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddle with a hash brown and orange juice. I pretty much only eat McDonald’s breakfast and only on days I’m up super early. It was good enough.

Landon was cracking me up in the drive thru, trying to make sure I remembered to pack everything. He’d go “Do you have those things that go on my head?”, referring to headphones and then ask “Do you have those things that go on my wrist?”, referring to MagicBands. It was cracking me up! I was surprised he was thinking of things like that in all of his excitement!

We finally arrived at the airport shortly after 6!

Then we get our boarding passes and check our bags, and are through security by 6:30.

We get on our airport’s fake subway and head over to our gate and make it there by 6:40. Theoretically, we should have less than an hour wait but of course not. Our flight was delayed from 7:35 until 8:15! Then seriously, a minute later, it updates that it’s now delayed until 8:40. By 6:55, it was pushed back all the way to 9 am and I was so sad! I just wanted to go!

We head over to this little place in the airport called “Root Down”, that specializes in making everything from scratch with natural ingredients. Of course, we aren’t hungry so we can’t really enjoy anything but I get a cappuccino and the boys get lemonades. Landon thought his was way too sour.

Eventually we just go back to our gate and wait. There was this little kiosk selling all sorts of jerky - beef, elk, buffalo, etc. It was just tempting us the whole time. They had samples and everything seemed too dry (even for jerky lol), except the beef which was exceptional.

Garret requested hot, which I got but it was way too hot for me! The beef was very tender and high quality though!

One of my favorite picture traditions is taking Landon’s picture in the airport seats! So here he is over all his trips, so you can watch him grow!

His first trip!

From September 2009, when he was 10 months old!

His 2nd trip!

The second is from August 2010, when he was 1 year, 9 months.

His 3rd trip!

This third one is from June 2011, when he was 2 years, 7 months.

And now...

4 years, 11 months old on his way to his 4th trip to Disney! I can’t believe how big he looks now! He sure has grown since our last trip!

While we were waiting, he asked me where the “phone-heads” were! He must’ve been so concerned that we forgot those headphones we were bringing for him!

Eventually our delay got updated...it was moved up from 9am to 8:55! It’s the little things!

Finally our plane showed up!

Eventually we boarded. It was the usual Southwest madness. We had even signed up for “early bird check in”, which gets you into your group for you so you don’t have to wake up so early the day before your flight to check in and get your boarding group. Even with this, we were in the first group but about the 50th people on! Oh well...I can’t imagine where we would’ve been without that!

Before long, we were flying high above the clouds!

It’s over a 3 hour flight from Colorado to Florida, so we all settled in on our various devices (for me, a book) to pass the time. Unfortunately, I was unable to change our flight from MCO to an airport closer to Garret’s dad’s house, so after this flight, we had some driving to do!

Stay tuned, because we did manage to have a bit of fun on this drive!

 

[glennbo123]

Wow, I can't believe how grown-up Landon is looking. The kids in these trip reports are supposed to stay small! (Mine included!)

 

[klacey1]

Hi Kimmy! I'm here! Great start-- and yes, when you're waking up for Disney, it's always easy!
I can't believe how big Landon is!! Crazy to think how long you've been on the DIS! I remember your first TR, when he was tiny!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

ready to read along.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi Kimmy! Here and caught up to your delayed flight and 50th in line to board!! Loved the photo progression of Landon then and now. Looking forward to hearing about the fun on the drive.

 

[princess_momma]

Wow, I can't believe how grown-up Landon is looking. The kids in these trip reports are supposed to stay small! (Mine included!)

I agree!! So crazy when you can look back and see how they've grown!

Hi Kimmy! I'm here! Great start-- and yes, when you're waking up for Disney, it's always easy!
I can't believe how big Landon is!! Crazy to think how long you've been on the DIS! I remember your first TR, when he was tiny!

Hello! I'm so glad you are here!! It has been a while on the Dis now and I love it!

ready to read along.

Welcome!! I'm so happy you made it over!

Following along!

Thank you! Welcome!

Hi Kimmy! Here and caught up to your delayed flight and 50th in line to board!! Loved the photo progression of Landon then and now. Looking forward to hearing about the fun on the drive.

Hi Brenda! Thanks for joining! It keeps getting better from here!

 

[princess_momma]

So when I left off we had just left cold Colorado.

It gets pretty chily this time of year, so I was ready to be warm again! Luckily I got my wish when we landed!

The weather was great when we landed. I just love being warm. I don’t do well in the cold, even for being a Colorado native. Just...no. Give me heat!

Our landing wasn’t exceptionally bumpy, but as soon as we land, Landon goes “now that’s what I call a rollercoaster!” HA! I was cracking up...you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, kid!

We went to the bathroom, rode the fakeorail, picked up our own baggage - which actually wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. Our 3 bags were some of the first ones out and so we got out of there pretty fast. I still missed them magically appearing in my room, but seeing how that was a few hours away, I guess it’s a little too far for the pixie dust to carry.

Landon was starving so we stopped by a Wendy’s on the drive, around 3:40 pm. It was in some college town of a small college that no one had heard of and there were signs posted all over the Wendy’s that said, “due to lease restrictions, this location does not serve pork”. We assumed that maybe it was a Jewish college town or something? Can anyone else think of any other reason why that would be posted? Good thing we didn’t want anything with bacon! We just got drinks and a hamburger for Landon. Garret thought we shouldn’t get anything because we’d be eating as soon as we got to Opa’s house. (Opa is his dad, if you recall from the intro’s!)

So we continue our drive. Opa had brought his two dogs...a girl boxer named Harriet and a male greyhound named Penelope. Yep, the boy has a girl name! He was rescued and apparently wouldn’t answer to any name for months and one day Opa tried “Penelope” and he answered, so that was that.

That drive is a long trip for dogs, especially considering they had to be in the car twice as long as we did. So we stopped at Gemini Springs Dog Park in Debary, Florida. It's actually an AMAZING dog park, should you ever need one while you're in the area. Apparently, Debary is pretty historical as well.

Landon enjoyed stretching his legs too.

There’s Opa in that picture. The brown dog is Harriet and the white one is Penelope.

After everyone got some fresh air and a little exercise, we loaded back into the car. And drove a long time. A long, long time.

A few hours later, at 6:53 pm, Landon saw the ocean for THE FIRST TIME EVER.

That was just on a bridge though and we needed to get to a BEACH obviously. Landon said that he wanted to have a “sand-ball fight”. Silly Colorado kid...thinks you can just roll everything into a ball to throw at people.

We had to keep driving about 10 minutes further to get to a beach. We were passing street names like “Margarita” and “Mimosa” and of course, all the nautical and beachy themed ones and they made me so happy! I love even the street names in Florida. Here all the streets are named after trees or just random names like “Potomac” and “Iliff”. WHERE IS THE WHIMSY, COLORADO?!?!

ANYWHO...we made it to the beach at EXACTLY sunset. Aka when the beach closes. Oh well...we were going to try to enjoy it for a few moments!

How excited does this kid look?! WAY too excited to be taking pictures right now, Mom!

Beautiful. I love palm trees.

I just love the beach. And Landon loved looking for seashells! But it was getting dark and we sadly had to go.

We left by 7:11. And then had to drive some more. When we finally got close enough, we stopped by a Publix and I stepped into my first Publix ever at 7:33. It felt cool because I always hear about them but we don’t have them here so I thought it was a big moment. When we were walking in, they had a TON of inflatable alligators, killer whales, and other pool toys displayed outside. Yesterday, I went to a grocery store here and there were sleds and shovels displayed and I cried a little inside. I miss Florida. We also saw an “Otter Crossing” sign which was reason 9874398473 why I love Florida. We only have deer crossing signs here!

But enough with my whining about not being in Florida anymore!

We finally pulled into Opa’s house at 7:59 pm. WHAT A LONG DAY! We had some homemade lasagna and also italian sausage for dinner, followed by fruit tart and ice cream for dessert.

After that, Landon and I were ready for bed! Garret stayed up talking with his dad until who knows when.

Landon was obsessed with his shark sheets. A day or two later, he even told me he wanted to live in Florida because he had shark sheets there. The way children’s minds work!

Stay tuned...the next day, we start on our road to fame and have more fun at the beach!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Great start to your report. Forgot we were there at the same time. We were at SSR from the 18-26. Our daughter and 5 of her college friends were with us from the 18-22 for their fall break. I too am sad to be home.

I know what you mean about the weather. It snowed here in Ohio while we were gone. Brrrrrr

Looking forward to more!

 

[klacey1]

I love how well-coordinated you and Garret are! The family pic on the beach is too adorable for words.
Landon discovering the ocean for the first time is amazing. When you grow up with the beach so close, it can be hard to remember that most of the US is NOT on the coast!
Love the shark sheets and Landon's obsession with them!!

 

[jenny105]

I'm here!

Who doesn't love Peyton Manning? Landon and I have this in common and I'm not even a Broncos fan. I play fantasy football on Draftday and you pick a different team each week. Every week I pick at least one Bronco. Eric Decker is usually my favorite because he's the most affordable and puts up points every week. I think I'm a closeted Broncos fan lol. We even watched the Broncos/Colts game on our cruise ship! I'm kind of annoyed it's their bye week lol.

I hate when flights are delayed! My flights are almost always delayed coming back home because Newark airport is just so freakin busy all the time. But being delayed going to Disney is the worst!! Plus I hate sitting around airports. So boring.

Our town's main street names are North Ave and South Ave. How original!

Enjoying your TR so far! Can't wait to read about your Universal and Sea World days. That's different for you! You're usually so Disney focused.

 

[JessM]

Great start I'm in!

I love Landon's face in the pictures at the beach, he looks so happy!

 

[khertz]

Joining in! Our trips overlapped by a few days at the end of your trip. Looking forward to more updates!

 

[princess_momma]

Great start to your report. Forgot we were there at the same time. We were at SSR from the 18-26. Our daughter and 5 of her college friends were with us from the 18-22 for their fall break. I too am sad to be home.

I know what you mean about the weather. It snowed here in Ohio while we were gone. Brrrrrr

Looking forward to more!

I forgot we were there at the same time too!! You'll have to let me know if you start a tr!

It snowed while we were gone too! SO GLAD I missed that!

I love how well-coordinated you and Garret are! The family pic on the beach is too adorable for words.
Landon discovering the ocean for the first time is amazing. When you grow up with the beach so close, it can be hard to remember that most of the US is NOT on the coast!
Love the shark sheets and Landon's obsession with them!!

Haha...we were often coordinated. Completely accidentally, of course.

I wish we had a beach close! It's so crazy imagining people not having the same stuff you've had your whole life. Like I think it would be so weird not to have mountains.

I'm here!

Who doesn't love Peyton Manning? Landon and I have this in common and I'm not even a Broncos fan. I play fantasy football on Draftday and you pick a different team each week. Every week I pick at least one Bronco. Eric Decker is usually my favorite because he's the most affordable and puts up points every week. I think I'm a closeted Broncos fan lol. We even watched the Broncos/Colts game on our cruise ship! I'm kind of annoyed it's their bye week lol.

I hate when flights are delayed! My flights are almost always delayed coming back home because Newark airport is just so freakin busy all the time. But being delayed going to Disney is the worst!! Plus I hate sitting around airports. So boring.

Our town's main street names are North Ave and South Ave. How original!

Enjoying your TR so far! Can't wait to read about your Universal and Sea World days. That's different for you! You're usually so Disney focused.

YAY!!! I'm so glad you are here! It's hard not to love the Broncos right now, so I completely understand. I'm sad about the bye week myself. But what was more sad was that Colts/Broncos game!

I don't think I've ever had a flight that delayed, if at all. Spoiled, I know. It sucked being stuck there. At least it wasn't a Disney day I was missing out on!

I think we would be way better at naming street names. We often have street names that are also the names of the towns/cities. Hard to say which is more original, your north or south, or our "we can't think of a good street name so let's just call it the place we are".

My excitement for our non-Disney days was pretty crazy, thanks to Harry Potter and marine mammals. It'll be a good time.

Great start I'm in!

I love Landon's face in the pictures at the beach, he looks so happy!

Welcome Jess!!

Landon LOVED the beach sooo much, I just loved seeing his face light up!

Joining in! Our trips overlapped by a few days at the end of your trip. Looking forward to more updates!

Welcome! It was a great time of year to go!

 

[princess_momma]

Before I forget...I have a little tidbit that I forgot to include in the last update!

It actually happened while we were at the dog park...but of course, theres sand everywhere in Florida, which we dont have back home. So, when we get to the dog park, there is sand there and Landon yells out I FOUND SAND! just like Russell in Up! and it pretty much melted my heart because I love Russell so much.

ALSO...on a non-TR related note...Garret recently got the newest NHL video game and theres this song on it that goes The boys are back, the boys are back, the boys are back and theyre looking for glory! But of course, my little Disney kid thinks it goes The boys are back, the boys are back, the boys are back and theyre looking for Dory! I get a kick out of it.

But back to your regularly scheduled trip report!

So day two, we all woke up and got ready to go by 10 am. Opa had bought us a bunch of cinnamon buns and cookies and other pastry type things so we had those every morning.

Today we were going to the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center. Naturally, Landon had no idea what this meant so I explained we were going to a place with a sharks, fish, stingrays, and turtles. To which he asked, "DOES IT HAVE NINJA TURTLES?!"

Even though we would not be seeing any ninja turtles, Landon still had a great time. And when we got there we had to sign waivers because...they were shooting a commercial!

We got there just in time for the sting ray feeding.

Im pretty sure after this trip, Landons favorite past time is feeding sting rays. Or maybe just petting them. Im not sure he ever actually fed any. I did pet a few and even fed one but it did kind of freak me out. It literally feels like a vacuum cleaner but it just kind of freaked me out, I have no idea why. But either way, its hard to play pass the camera while playing in the water, so I only did it once and then dried off so I could capture the moments.

After that, there was an announcement for some turtle thing. So we headed over there.

It was really a turtle lecture. That never ended. It just wasnt presented in a very engaging way. Those turtles that Landon is standing by was the only visual the host ever had, and while it was very informative...it was still a lecture that was super awkward, because everyone was all antsy but didnt want to be rude and either just find the turtles themselves or leave. Also...it was in a gazebo, which was on the corner of the water where all the creatures were and she was standing on the other side so all of our backs was to the ACTUAL turtles.

While we were there, I saw this family where one of the kids was wearing a Broncos jersey and a Colorado Rockies (our baseball team) hat! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! We werent even in Disney World, a melting pot of people from all over, but in a little small town in Florida. I wanted to talk to them, but of course, I was still being lectured on how different species of turtles have different neck lengths.

I did manage to entertain myself by turning around and photographing the turtles myself. I rather enjoy the ones where they come up for breath. I love turtles! So...heres an abundance of turtle photos.

Yes, those are sharks with our turtle friends. Oh and if you look in the 3rd picture (where the turtle is angled and theres a shark coming towards him), you can see this white thing on his shell. This place was also a turtle rehabilitation center, so that white thing is actually glue that it holding his shell together after an injury from a boat or something of that nature.

Eventually, we were free to explore. Landon wanted to look at some turtles closer, so were showing him.

As we did that, THE CAMERA CREW CAME RIGHT OVER TO US AND CAPTURED OUR FAMILIES MEMORIES BECAUSE WE WERE JUST HAVING SO MUCH FUN THAT THEY WILL BE USED TO ENTICE EVERYONE TO DO WHAT WE DID! We are basically celebrities now. If anyone wants a autographed photograph or something, just PM me.

Eventually we waited in another area to watch the shark feeding.

Basically, they would throw food. All the creatures would freak out and splash about. Theyd throw more food into a different area, there would be more freaking out and splashing. Highly entertaining stuff.

Then Landon wanted to pet the stingrays some more so we headed back that way. But of course, I scoured the area for any great picture spot. There werent signs in the bushes that said Kodak Picture Spot so I had to do all that hard work myself. I was pretty successful though, I think!

There was also this starfish shaped touch tank, where every point of the starfish housed some small creature like horse shoe crabs or sponges that you could touch. But eventually we made it back to the stingrays.

Where, naturally, the paparazzi was waiting for us.

Thats right, I photographed the paparazzi! Two can play that game!

Landon loved it again, and probably couldve stayed there all day.

***CONTINUED IN NEXT POST****

 

[princess_momma]

***CONTINUED FROM ABOVE POST***

Besides those three main things (stingrays, turtles, sharks), there wasnt much else to do besides nature walks. So we did that.

I dont have any pictures of the journey, just the destination. But the journey made me feel so nostalgic. I have walked many nature trails in Florida. (Side note: at this moment in time while typing this, we just got our pre-order of Monsters University with lithographs in the mail! Woo hoo!) My grandparents used to live in Ft.Myers, Florida and we would go there just about vacation and every time we would go on various nature trails and it just made me so happy to be doing that same magical thing with my own family. I just love Florida.

Eventually the trail led to the ocean!

The above picture is funny because we warned Landon to not go into the water because hed get his socks wet, but of course he did. And of course he was shocked when his socks were wet the rest of the day.

We then walked the rest of the loop back to the Oceanographic Coastal Center. Now, if you remember Landon LOVED the stingrays most of all and wanted to spend the entire time with them, so we get to the gift shop and what does he pick out? A turtle. Kids are silly, what can I say? He picked a green sea turtle who we named Hank, after one of the actual turtles who lived there.

For lunch, we went to Shuckers Tiki Bar, which was inside of a hotel on the beach.

Notice they witchs legs sticking out of the sand. They clearly go all out for their Halloween decor.

I believe Garret, Landon and I all got burgers and Opa went with fish tacos. They were good, nothing special. Once we were done, the beach was just steps away!

Landon loved playing in the waves! At one point, Landon was watching his feet while walking towards the waves and somehow managed to just fall. It was probably one of the funniest things Id ever seen, and luckily, I managed to capture it on video so you have that to look forward to in the trip video! After that, he was a little timid, but then Garret gave him some great tips on how to stand/walk in the waves. Comical.

This is how sandy you get after falling in the sand.

After that, we went home. During the drive, we thought we saw a guy sitting in a boat being pulled...but then when he passed, he was actually driving a boat with wheels!! THIS IS WHY I LOVE FLORIDA SO MUCH! It all happened too fast for me to get a picture, so I apologize for that.

Once we were home, we washed off and relaxed. We watched the end of Oz:The Great and Powerful! (Is that the correct name? I cant remember!) It was pretty good. But dont you worry, this day isnt over yet! There was more fun to be had, so stick around!

 

[jenny105]

Feeding stingrays is definitely a weird feeling! I've done it in Sea World. What freaked me out is the people who couldn't pay attention to the guides or signs that say how to feed them correctly. No they'd dangle the food over the water and then all the stingrays would be trying to leap out! Some people....

I love Florida too. It's great isn't it?

I can't see any of your pictures because I guess work blocks whatever site you used to upload them. Bummer. But I saw most of them on facebook so it's all good!

I'm choosing to believe you named the turtle Hank after the New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Nickname - Hank. If I support the Broncos you support the Rangers - deal?

 

[klacey1]

I'm choosing to believe you named the turtle Hank after the New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Nickname - Hank. If I support the Broncos you support the Rangers - deal?

Haha, as soon as I read Hank, I thought our Hank!?! But I know Garret is an Avs fan so it couldn't be true!
It sounds like your day was fun! I love your white top-- super cute. Landon looks so happy and full of wonder at the ocean, like he had a blast!

 

[marDgreen88]

I'm here girlfriend! Looks like it's gonna be a fun one!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards