Does the Pixie Dust count if you don't KNOW about it? Finally Finished :( 11/24

[Tnkrbelle565]

I was just continuing my TR on the PreTrip report thread but decided it made sense to move it over here. If you would like to check out the beginning of our Adventure and read my PTR...here is is

The Smith's YES, we are going to Disney AGAIN PreTrip Report

I will copy over the beginning of my report. So if you've read this part before...I'm sorry

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Obviously I can't start/finish my TR until my Photopass CD is in. But don't worry...it's already edited and ordered! But I thought that I would do a teaser with a couple of pics.

Just spent a half hour writing this and it deleted some how. Let me try again.

General report is that the trip was fantastic. 9 days was absolutely perfect. We had great weather minus two horrendous rainstorms on Wed and Thurs nights that last about 2-3 hours. Due to one of these storms, I missed Karen (KareBear from Disboutique) but I did meet several DISEers including MistyMouse, LuccaDrake, Erin13178, and GMax (who I believe was with a bachelorette party of DISers). I met a couple of more and if I met you and can't remember your username...I'm sorry!!!

Ok how about some pics! Here is one from our flight down (btw, our flights were fabulous...we got in early BOTH ways...when does that ever happen?) We got plenty of attention for our matching tshirts. In general, I couldn't believe all the attention over the shirts and customs. But that is because they were rare. In our entire trip (over than MNSSHP) we only saw two other families wearing customs. During MNSSHP I did see a very familiar Alice in Wonderland custom

So being September...it was again DEAD in the parks. Just the way I love it. As always, we walked onto most rides. The only exception to that is Toy Story Mania. Seriously, if you are going to Disney soon...here is a tip. RUN do not walk to Toy Story Mania at Park opening. If there isn't a long wait ride it and fastpass it. This was the first time in 5 years that we have fastpassed a ride. We got to DHS at 10am and there was already at 50 minute wait. Our fastpass return time wasn't until 3:15pm. By noon, they were out of fastpasses for the day. When we rode it, the standby line was a 90 minute wait. Now, this ride is very cool (and way better than Buzz) but no ride is worth 90 minutes in my opinion.

How about we hop on Disney Transportation and have some fun?

A big moment of this trip was our first trip to BBB. DD has been excited about it all year. I'll detail the experience later but how about a before and after shot?

Before you think that I just have a girly girl on my hands...I should point out that she was equally excited to join the Army at DHS (with Puppy in tow of course)

Oh wait, I forgot about the big guy. I'm assuming you all want to see Mickey right? He was excited to see us too

Another big change on this trip was that we actually got to see Epcot. DD has never been interested in it before. But this year we spent two days there and saw it all. She got really into the Kidcot stations. As you can see, she puts a LOT of effort into her art (notice the tongue!)

Oh food. I went during free dining. I should mention food huh? I will say that we ate plenty (and had some yummy drinks too!) If you have been reading along and following my South Beach saga...I want you to know that I didn't think about carbs the whole time (which means that I have to start the hard part of SouthBeach over tomorrow). My lack of attention to carbs means I did look pregnant in some pics but that's ok...that's what photo editing is for!! We did O'Hana for the first time this trip. HOLY lots of food. If you like to eat (or Coconut Race), don't skip O'Hana's

And finally, the BESTEST part of the trip was MNSSHP. Seriously, I spent a year fretting about spending $150 on 5 hours at the MK. And you know what, in that 5 hours, I didn't think of that $150 once It was incredible. It absolutely was the highlight of our trip. We stayed the whole time and DD didn't have a single meltdown...which is pretty incredible in and of itself. I have tons of pics from that too but here is one to get you started (DD was Princess Leia but you can't really tell that from this pic)

Oh and before you think that I wasn't actually on this trip with DH and DD here is a pic of me. There are only about 5 pics of me on my cameras (I've downloaded the pics from my DSLR so far...I have to do my P&S tomorrow...where the other 4 pics are!) But I do appear on the Photopass CD so you will see me here and there!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Well here is the beginning of my actual Trip Report. We started this trip like we have started every trip since DD has started going with us...with a visit from Tinkerbell.

I got home from work on Thursday Sept 4th at 5:30pm but then I had an appointment at the spa down the street at 5:45pm. Luckily, I convinced DH that morning to drive DD to school so I could have a few extra moments to get the basket ready. So before work, I made the note and packed the basket up. After my spa time, I came home and sprinkled the pixie dust around DD's bedroom. Then I ran next door to my in-laws (where DH and DD were "having dinner" aka buying time until Mommy/Tink got home) I told DD that I was cleaning the kitchen and I had heard a noise upstairs. I asked her to come home with me and investigate. I had the camera ready to go and luckily DD was nervous to go first so I was able to get her reactions. There are TONS of pictures of this since DD really wanted a pic of each thing in the basket but I won't bore you with all of them. Here are a couple though.

The basket

OH can you feel the excitement??????

Isn't it amazing how something a small as little figurines can 1) thrill a child and 2) keep them amused for quite some time

Everyone loves Glow Sticks

I spent the rest of the night completing the "to do" list and finishing all the packing. I got into bed about 1am and of course, I was not alone. DD was completely unable to calm her body down at that point so I let her sleep with me (which was okay anyway because despite vacuuming, her bed was still covered in random pixie dust pieces). She didn't fall asleep about 11:30pm so I was really nervous for waking her up at 6:30am to leave for Logan. I had given her a bath and done her hair the night before so she literally just had to get up and throw on some clothes but sometimes something that simple is quite an adventure

BY THE WAY, WHILE I'M TYPING THIS...JON AND KATE PLUS 8'S DISNEYWORLD EPISODE IS ON...WEIRD


ANYWAY, at about 3:30am, DH strolled in. He works nights and normally works til 7am about 40 minutes from home. But since we had an early flight, he left early so he could catch a couple of hours of sleep. So now my queen sized bed had 2 large adults, a big almost 5 year old, a cat, a stuffed dog, a doll, and some remote controls.

I got up at 5am to shower and prepare last minute details (including checking JetBlue's website and the National Hurricane Center website about a billion times). I woke DH up at 6:15am. DD got up at 6:30am. Luckily, my inlaws had decided to come over to get keys and say goodbye so them being here completely let DD forget her overtired grumpy mood. She was just too excited to tell them that she was going to Disney.

My mom was here at 7am exactly. We said goodbye to Miss Buttercup (our kitty). She wouldn't even look at me...it was kinda funny. She gets really tempermental when she sees suitcases. DD thought she would solve her sadness by giving her some "toys" to play with while we are gone. So while we were gone, there was a collection of crappy McDonald's Happy Meal prizes (the ones I haven't tossed out yet ) on my coffee table for the cat to "play with"

After some rangling to get 3 adults, a child in a car seat, 3 large suitcases, a carryon sized suitcase, 3 carry on bags, a stroller, a laptop case, two purses, and one of those hot/cold bags full of food (that I gave my mom since it would go bad in my fridge) into an ACCORD...we were off!!!!


Next up...the real first day and how my family is like two ships passing in the night!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

So when I lasted updated you, were were cramming everyone and everything into my mom's car. Shortly into the drive, I realized that DH was giving my mom really weird directions to the airport. I should explain that we all know how to get the airport by 93-which is the main highway thru Boston. But my DH works near the airport and knows some shortcuts so he usually directs my mom that way so we aren't stuck in commuter traffic. I quickly turned around and asked "are you sending her to 93? She knows how to get to 93!" My DH's response was that they were doing construction on the other roads so we had to take 93.

UMMMM....you chose to wait until we were in the car to inform me of this??? My airport departure time did not factor in sitting in commuter traffic on 93! MEN I sat back and tried not to freak out. Luckily, I forget with all of our people and junk, we could take the car pool lane. So we cut off a good half hour/45 minutes of sitting in traffic. We made it to Logan only about 10-15 minutes than I had originally planned and still plenty of time to get checked in and through security.

Arrival at the airport was fun because we had a visitor. My DBro had flown the red eye in from LA and was hanging out at the terminal waiting for us. So a quick hello to my Dbro (and of course my mom had to snap some photos...which I will include later, they are on her camera) and we were off to check in. Check in went fine. Dragging 4 suitcases, 4 carryons, and a stroller is a little tough especially through those nice ropped off areas. As we were struggling going through the line like you are supposed to, some jerk and his lovely wife tried jumping ahead of us by just walking up to the counter. BUT, the super nice clerk at JetBlue's counter put an end to that immediately. He told him to get behind us. We thanked him when we got to the counter and he expressed that he couldn't believe that the guy pulled that.

As most people are aware, the airlines are going really overboard with the fees lately. We had booked our tickets in March so we were exempt from fees. I had all my information printed out from the website and I was ready for a fight. Did I get one??? NOPE Guy just said "when did you book these tickets?" WOW, this guy thinks that many Bostonians are honest

We got through checkin and security without incident. We did get a LOT of compliments on our matching Ts. Since it was my first day officially off of South Beach, I headed right to Starbucks for some Frappuchino goodness They even had the Pumpkin Spice one so I got that. DH got a Caramel one and I bought DD an overpriced OJ...that she had maybe one sip of. Why you may ask?? Because when I took out my book and started reading...this happened!

I can't tell you how many times a day I find myself thinking "thank God she is cute"

DD waited for the plane to arrive and checked out all the engines (my DH builds jet engines so she is fascinated by this)

Pretty soon we were on the plane and ready to go!

Nothing to exciting happened on the plane. Some of the stations didn't come in on the tvs (including the kids channels) but that was ok. DD was excellent and kept herself amused with her tink gifts and "homework" from school.

When we landed in Orlando it was cloudy and looked like it had just rained. We took the little monorail thing over to check in for ME. On the way, we helped a lot of newbies who were totally confused by the signs. In fact, there was one family who I think were sad that we weren't at the same hotel as them because they were clueless and followed us around until we got on our own ME bus.

While waiting for ME...and I mean WAITING (this was the longest wait ever for ME...it was 2 1/2 hours from landing to arriving at AKL )...the CM directing people noticed DD. Was it her "going on safari" shirt??? NOPE...it was her singing. I should mention now that DD sings constantly. Doesn't matter where she is or who is there...she sings. While waiting for ME, she alternated between the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme and the old Mickey Mouse Club theme. The CM thought this was so adorable that he pulled DD out of line and gave her ME stickers. YAY!!! The Pixie Dust has started!

Finally it was time to board the bus. We got a Disney Cruise Line bus.

I was a little nervous that the video wouldn't be "right" since it was a DCL bus but no fears...it worked. We had the front seats and I think I mentioned to DH a little too loudly that the volume was off because the bus driver immediately put it on.

Pretty soon the fun signs started!

We stopped at Pop Century and Coronado Springs first. While we were stopped at Pop, DD continued her musical performances. A CM from Pop who was hanging out near the bus heard her and came on the bus and gave her this

More Pixie Dust

After that excitement, we were FINALLY getting closer to AKL

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

We arrived at AKL and headed in to check in. Check in was relatively painless. The lobby was pretty as always

When I went up to check in, the first thing they gave me was our Anniversary buttons...YAY. Next they gave me our KTTW cards and a map showing me where our room was located. OK, here is one of biggest gripes about Disney hotels. Why do they let you request a certain area if the NEVER give it to you. I have never ONCE gotten what I requested. Usually, I just suck it up. But this time, I had to complain. Granted, I requested a prime location (4th floor, Zebra Trail) but I made the ressie literally a year earlier on the bounceback. Yes, I know they don't do "room assignments' until a week before you arrive but I swear they don't look at your requests. So where were we assigned? 3rd floor, Uzima Savannah, in the VERY last room (meaning as far away as you can get from lobby/pool/buses/food/etc). Are you kidding me? Oh and it's was 2:40pm at this point. Yes, I know check in is at 3pm. But the room they had assigned us to wasn't cleaned yet. OK, 20 minutes before check in and the room isn't clean? I could deal but I thought it was odd.

So, completely out of character for me...I said something. I simply asked "were there no rooms available where I had requested, I did make this ressie a year ago" The CM told me that he would check. He looked into the computer and couldn't find anything (again odd...this is Sept...it's DEAD at WDW...how is the entire hotel booked up?!?!) He went and talked to his manager. The manager checked the computer and said "ok, give her this one" Where did they assign me? 4th floor, Zebra trail, Arusha Savannah. AND it was already cleaned. I was a little unnerved at this point. If they had this room available why hadn't they just given it to us???

We went up to the room and it was great. I immediately noticed that they had done some renovations (or so I thought at the time). There were flat screen tvs, dvd player, and big comfy robes in the closet. There was also new curtains and fancier bathroom fixtures. It also seemed that the room was slightly larger.

Well we got all settled and headed down to swim

After awhile, I decided that we better start getting ready for dinner. We went up to our room and our beds had been turned down (complete with a card of African Art and chocolates) I figured it was an anniversary surprise and we continued to get ready.

At 7pm, we headed down to Boma for dinner. The waiter came over and asked what we would like to drink. DD promptly responded "Coke". Ok, this child has NEVER been allowed to have soda. I was so shocked that I didn't even tell the waiter that she couldn't have it. This started a trend for the week. DD kept asking for soda AND she started her overconsumption of mac & cheese. Up until maybe 6 months ago, DD wouldn't TOUCH mac & cheese. I don't know if mac & cheese is that good in Disney since I've never had it but I think she ate it every day!

I had this yummy drink

And this was the highlight of my meal: seafood stew. Seriously, if you ever go to Boma, you have to get this. They also had it at Tusker House at AK.

Here are some photos of Boma if anyone is interested. Boma really is a pretty restaurant. Even the bathroom sign is pretty!

Coins from Boma's Wishing fountain

Oh and they gave us a really nice card signed by the CMs in their native languages

After Boma, we headed upstairs and got into bed. And that was the end of Day 1!

Now, I am going to ruin a surprise for you. If you've read this far, you might be thinking...What was up with the turn down service and the robes? Seriously, I didn't think about this at all during our stay. That is, UNTIL we started talking to other AKL guests while waiting for buses and such. As it turned out...nobody else's room had robes or flat screens. Nobody else was randomly given turn down service...for all 8 nights. People with more brains than me might have figured it out. I didn't get it until I got home and checked the AKL website. YA, we were upgraded to Concierge Level. Yup, that's right, I was upgraded to concierge and never even realized it...meaning we never made use of the lounge. If you are a CM and reading this...PLEASE tell people if you are upgrading them. I'm sure that I'm not the only dense person out there...RIGHT??? RIGHT????

Up Next: Breakfast with Mickey and our first Park Day!

 

[sohappy]

Am I first? I am so excited to see all of your pics and hear about your wonderful adventure. Ash is seriously adorable!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Am I first? I am so excited to see all of your pics and hear about your wonderful adventure. Ash is seriously adorable!

You are first...YAY

 

[The Moonk's Mom]

Oh How cool! To be upgraded!!! That sounds great!!! Can't wait for more!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

What a great treat to be upgraded! I too am boggled by the Disney room assigning. Next time I'm thinking of asking for what I DON'T want.

I laughed when I read about your DH not telling you about the construction. Why, do they do that? Don't they realize we have planned out every moment and need crucial information like that?

I also think Disney needs to get better signage at the airport for the ME. We had our own tour group following us (I think our matching T-shirts were the five away there too). I didn't realize I had the tour group until I stopped to go to the bathroom and when I came out they were all waiting for me. Perhaps Disney would like to actually hire me to do it.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Oh How cool! To be upgraded!!! That sounds great!!! Can't wait for more!

Thank you! Yes, it would have been so much more exciting if I had realized it!

What a great treat to be upgraded! I too am boggled by the Disney room assigning. Next time I'm thinking of asking for what I DON'T want.

I laughed when I read about your DH not telling you about the construction. Why, do they do that? Don't they realize we have planned out every moment and need crucial information like that?

I also think Disney needs to get better signage at the airport for the ME. We had our own tour group following us (I think our matching T-shirts were the five away there too). I didn't realize I had the tour group until I stopped to go to the bathroom and when I came out they were all waiting for me. Perhaps Disney would like to actually hire me to do it.

Good idea about the room assignment. Seriously, I think they never even look at your requests.

Ya, they used to have the nice folks with the white Mickey gloves waving you to the right spot but they aren't there anymore. If you don't know that you have to take the monorail thingy it is quite confusing.

 

[mistymouse5001]

Getting upgraded is awesome! You should complain more often

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Getting upgraded is awesome! You should complain more often

Hey stranger! You need to start updating your TR!!!! I can't wait to see more pics!!!

 

[coteau_chick]

Subscribing.

I followed you here from Miss Camies trip report. I am enjoying it so far.

I also have PCOS. I have three children. Our last child took nine years to concieve because of PCOS. I also had some treatments from a fertility endocrinologist.


Your daughter is beautiful. I can't wait to read more.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Subscribing.

I followed you here from Miss Camies trip report. I am enjoying it so far.

I also have PCOS. I have three children. Our last child took nine years to concieve because of PCOS. I also had some treatments from a fertility endocrinologist.


Your daughter is beautiful. I can't wait to read more.

Thanks for reading!!!!

I was very lucky with getting pregnant with DD w/o intervention. I'm sure that lightening won't strike twice if we tried for #2 but I'll be happy for my fertility pixie dust the first time around. 9 YEARS???? I hope he or she is well-behaved and worth it

 

[STAYC18]

great trip report..can't wait for more.

oh, hubby must be happy the Red Sox are in the playoffs..I'm from Boston (well Taunton) too.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Hi...thanks for reading! Happy to have another Mass reader. We are in N. Andover.

Actually I'm the one excited about the Red Sox (although hubby is too!) I have a MODERATE (ok not so moderate) crush on Jason Varitek! DH "supports" my obsession since baseball is the only sport I enjoy!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I promise that I will work on my update soon (hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow). Life has been crazy this week!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Hi...thanks for reading! Happy to have another Mass reader. We are in N. Andover.

Actually I'm the one excited about the Red Sox (although hubby is too!) I have a MODERATE (ok not so moderate) crush on Jason Varitek! DH "supports" my obsession since baseball is the only sport I enjoy!

I didn't realize you were so close to me!
Jason Varitek is my favorite. Ahhhh.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I didn't realize you were so close to me!
Jason Varitek is my favorite. Ahhhh.

yes i am Now I have to convince you to come scrapbooking with me!

 

[Lady Lallie]

yes i am Now I have to convince you to come scrapbooking with me!

Hehehe. I am mighty tempted. I am sure it won't take that much convincing.