Every-ONE is coming up DAISY!!! WDW & WWoHP w/ LOTS of pics - FINISHED 10/13, p 24

punkin413 · May 27, 2013

punkin413 · May 27, 2013

Greetings from Georgia! For those of you who know me, welcome back and I'm sorry I've been out of touch for the last few months! I will try to do better. And for those of you know don't me, WELCOME! :welcome:

To be honest, I almost didn't start this TR. I haven't been on the disboards in months (and I sincerely apologize to those whom have TRs I went AWOL on, I will try to redeem myself! :guilty:

). But I figured why not - I've had several people ask me if I was doing one, and I always have fun writing them. So here we go...join me for the ride! :thumbsup2

First off, a little about this trip and how it came to be. My sister-in-law, Terrie (my hubby's sister), asked me over a year ago when we'd be going back. I wasn't sure yet but then she told me that she and her son, Joshua, wanted to go to Orlando to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and of course she knew I couldn't resist heading to that area of the country given the opportunity. I also am a huge HP fan and wanted to see the WWofHP, so we started planning! Joshua is in high school, so we'd need to work around his school schedule. Basically, our choices were: summer vacation (no - too hot and crowded), Christmas vacation (no - too crowded), spring break (no - too crowded) or right after he got out of school. Since southeastern schools *generally* get out before the rest of the country, we decided to leave for vacation on May 18th, the day after Joshua's last day of school. I figured if we got in the vacation before Memorial Day weekend, we'd be good.

Now, my husband, whom I love dearly for being an awesome provider, husband, best friend, and the best daddy ever, is not a Disney nut like I am. He enjoys it but he doesn't want to go as often as I do. I'm happy with every-other-year. He, however, is happy with once every 4-5 years! So he was not ready for another Disney trip after our October 2011 trip. I try to torture him as sparingly as I can :rolleyes1

, so I told him he could sit this one out. But I also knew that Joshua and Terrie would probably not want to do all the things Seth and I were doing, and I didn't want to be there alone with Seth. My mom and I had played with the idea of doing a WDW trip at some point, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to do so. So that's how we got our cast, whom you will meet in just a couple of paragraphs.

Now, on to where we stayed. I prefer to stay on property, but we had essentially 4 adults and a 2.5-year-old. We needed SPACE. And since we were also exploring Islands of Adventure this trip, we didn't really NEED to be on property. So to save money and have more room, we opted to go with a condo about 5 miles from Disney World. I had rented this same condo in 2008 (see link to December 2008 trip below) and was very happy with it, so we went with that again. The owner is super nice and his condos are beautiful!

Oh, and a word of warning if you are a huge AK fan, you may want to stop reading. I opted for an extra morning at MK instead of doing AK this trip. I do love AK, but for this trip I wanted more time at MK for Seth, and I didn't want to miss EPCOT (knew my mom would love it) or DHS (Disney Junior, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror & Fantasmic! Enough said). Just wanted to make sure you guys knew you wouldn't be seeing AK in this TR.

Now to introduce the cast.....

I will go by age, with the youngest being first. Seems like the only logical solution in my slightly OCD'ed mind. ::yes::

First, we have Seth, who will likely be the star of this report. Seth is my 2-and-a-half year-old son. This was his 2nd trip to WDW, the first being in October 2011 when he was 13 months old. He took his first steps during that trip at EPCOT! Seth loves Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Mickey Mouse (and all his friends), Little Einsteins, Jake & the Neverland Pirates, Stitch, Rapunzel (who he calls Punzel) and Merida. Seth actually is the reason for the title of this TR....EVERY SINGLE TIME he'd see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald or Pluto, he'd yell DAISY!!!! :confused3

Now he knows the characters names and has for months. But for some reason this trip he was just fixated on Daisy. Since we stayed off property this trip, we passed under those famous Welcome to Disney World gates multiple times (of which I forgot to take a picture...doh! :headache:

), and every single time he'd yell DAISY!!! And we all know Daisy isn't there. I have no clue as to why he did this, but it was cute. :rotfl:

And thus it's my title. And what's ironic is that we never actually met Daisy....lines were too long at both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom (the details of which we will get to later).

Next there is Joshua, my 17-year-old nephew (my husband's sister's son). Joshua is very quiet and shy, but he's a good kid. He loves anything having to do with electronics, Japanese anime and Harry Potter. This was his 2nd trip to WDW, his first being when he was about 4 years old.

I fall in the middle as far as age goes. My name is Dawn and I'm a 36-year-old judicial assistant to a Superior Court Judge and part-time Disney travel agent. Obviously I love Disney - my favorite character is Alice, my favorite park is MK, my favorite ride is Tower of Terror, and my favorite resort is Wilderness Lodge. I do also love Harry Potter, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing WWoHP this time! I'm the planner, the packer and the navigator for this trip. This was my 10th WDW trip.

Next there is Terrie, my sister-in-law (hubby's sister). She's in her mid 40s and works as a customer service rep at a major stock market forecasting firm (same place my hubby works but he's in the IT department). She loves antiques and also is a HP nut like Joshua. I'm not sure how many times shes been to WDW b/c she and my hubby came every summer as kids. This is her 2nd trip as an adult.

Finally we have my mom, Elaine. She is an office administrator/HR manager at a factory in middle Tennessee and is an avid golfer. I hate that we live a state away from each other, especially since she doesn't get to see Seth as often as she wants. But she's a great Granny and she was really looking forward to this trip. This is only her 2nd trip EVER to WDW. :scared1:

She went once with my dad in 1973 before I was born and he made her ride Space Mountain - that scared her off for the next 40 years...haha! :lmao:

Needless to say, she's not a thrill ride fan, and this trip was long overdue for her!

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48518192&postcount=3

punkin413 · May 27, 2013

Now on to the trip!

Terrie and Joshua came over to our house on Friday, May 17th to spend the night, and Mom left from work to drive here around 3pm that day. It's about a 5-hour drive for her down here, but she hit traffic multiple times and didn't get here until around 10:30pm. We all got up on Saturday around 7ish and had breakfast, got packed up and hit the road around 8:30. Seth's ready to go!!

He entertained himself with my Kindle by pretending it was a phone....

Then he did a little trip planning himself....

He's actually a VERY good traveler. He watches movies on the iPad for the most part and naps here and there. I'm very lucky. :goodvibes

We stopped around Tifton to grab some lunch - wanted Chick Fil A but that place was CRAZY, so we ended up at Wendy's. A sign of things to come?? popcorn::

Back on the road and I started driving. A few minutes down the road I look in the rearview mirror to see this....

They both slept good for about an hour or more. Saw this sign not long after lunch....

We made it to the condo around 5pm. Love this place! Nice and roomy and clean...

This was the bedroom me, Mom and Seth shared. I rented a crib for him which you can see in the background (from A Baby's Best Friend). He still sleeps in a crib at home (I'm not doing the toddler bed thing until I have to - he sleeps well in a crib, doesn't try to get out, so I figure if it's not broke, don't try to fix it). And Mom and I had plenty of room in the king bed.

This was Joshua's room....

And Terrie slept here...

Here's the bathroom....

Mom and I also had a bathroom in the master suite, but I didn't take a pic of it. It didn't have a tub, only a shower, so Seth used the other one pictured above. He hasn't mastered the art of showering yet and he LOVES bath time.

After we got unpacked we headed to Publix to get (way too many) groceries for the week, then came back, ate dinner and hit the hay.

So that's there I'm gonna leave you for now. Next time...we head to - what else - a character breakfast first thing in the morning! :yay:

Thanks again for reading. I cant wait to share this trip with you all! :grouphug:

KatMark · May 27, 2013

I'm here...be back later to catch up.

VandyFan10 · May 27, 2013

I'm IN!!!

hlrababy · May 27, 2013

You know I wouldn't miss this!

Eventer98 · May 27, 2013

I'm here! So funny that your SIL got the kids room and your nephew got the nice bedroom...his mom totally should have had that room! :laughing:

Disneyfreak92 · May 27, 2013

Yay! I haven't been on DIS lately myself, but I'm excited for your report. :cool1:

Now, can you message me each time you update? :rotfl:

vamassey1 · May 27, 2013

Checking in. I'm going to try and keep up. Going back to read the intro.

princessjv · May 27, 2013

I too have been a titch mia from the DIS recently. I will try my best to keep up! I look forward to the details of the trip, and how it felt not being on property.

micandminforever · May 27, 2013

Checking in to another fun report. Seth is so cute with the Kindle and the MK brochure. :goodvibes

rentayenta · May 27, 2013

Hola.

MAGICFOR2 · May 27, 2013

Here! I'll be back to read! Seth is getting so grown up - where has the time gone? That's why you make memories now - right? :goodvibes

wsushocker · May 27, 2013

Wow, I haven't been here in a long time.

vamassey1 · May 27, 2013

I'm up to speed. Seth is such a cutie. Love those big brown eyes. Too bad he didn't get to meet Daisy. I'm sure she would have fallen for him. I'm hoping to one day make it to see Harry Potter world. We're big fans here but just haven't been willing to give up our DW time yet.

uncw89 · May 27, 2013

I'm here! I'll try to keep up!!

LMO429 · May 27, 2013

Hi Dawn! I am here looking forward to more

MeMom · May 28, 2013

I'll be along for the fun!

The house is great. We might try one out someday when there are lots of grandkids. Getting four kids in the one bunkbed room would be nice. ::yes::

DisneyLaura · May 28, 2013

I'm in !

lauren_elizabeth · May 28, 2013

Logged back on to the DIS just to read your trip report! :goodvibes

Looking forward to hearing all of the stories behind the pictures on FB!

Every-ONE is coming up DAISY!!! WDW & WWoHP w/ LOTS of pics - FINISHED 10/13, p 24

feel the magic, dang it!

feel the magic, dang it!

feel the magic, dang it!

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