FINISHED! 7/2 The magic (and not-so-magic) memories Jan29-Feb4 Disney/Universal

[sarahcor]

-continued-

Last visit I had gotten a strawberry from the Main Street Bakery and it was really good. We got a strawberry/banana smoothie to share at Auntie Gravity’s. It was ok, but I preferred the all strawberry one. Westin really liked the smoothie, we took a bench break and soaked up some of the Tomorrowland atmosphere. Basically, we were all hungry and killing time before Cosmic Ray’s opened, that was our lunch destination.

 

[pixidustmom]

Joining in. Have to say, I have had those melt downs with my DH before too. He makes an *** of himself and leaves. My girls and I cried and moved on.lol Thankfully my last trip with him and our grandson, he grew up and has realized it's not good to do and makes some bad memories. I also grew up and realized it's ok to not follow a plan. If he wants to go back and nap or whatever he can. We are not going to ruin much by not being with each other for everything as we both have a different idea of vacation.
I look forward to reading more.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Westin is such a cutie !!

Congrats on making it to opening ceremony. I've yet to do that !

 

[sarahcor]

Joining in. Have to say, I have had those melt downs with my DH before too. He makes an *** of himself and leaves. My girls and I cried and moved on.lol Thankfully my last trip with him and our grandson, he grew up and has realized it's not good to do and makes some bad memories. I also grew up and realized it's ok to not follow a plan. If he wants to go back and nap or whatever he can. We are not going to ruin much by not being with each other for everything as we both have a different idea of vacation.
I look forward to reading more.

I'm comforted to know I'm not the only one who has an at-times crabby Disney hubby!

Westin is such a cutie !!

Congrats on making it to opening ceremony. I've yet to do that !

Thanks! Making it for opening works best for us, we normally take an afternoon break, so I like to do as much as we can in the morning before the big crowds get there.

 

[sarahcor]

Cosmic Ray’s was our lunch destination, we grabbed a table with Sonny Eclipse while Paul got the food.

I had a chili dog, it was ok but I’ll try something different next time.

Mia had chicken and fries

Paul had a burger

Gross out alert…


Mia kept complaining that she smelled something so I checked Mr. Westin and he had a major diaper leak! It was all over his back and leaked through his pants too. I cleaned him up in the restroom the best I could with the wipes and changed him into his spare outfit. Diaper disaster #1 repaired!
We finished up with lunch and went to do some meets. Unfortunately, the Rapunzel line was crazy long so I snapped a picture from afar, maybe next time.

While waiting in line we did some bird watching

Tiana! She was very nice and liked our “little tadpole” Westin. He was intrigued with her dress and kept trying to touch the flower on her side.

We heard some crowing so I knew that Peter Pan was nearby. Mia was embarrassed and wouldn’t come to meet Peter. The family before us had to crow as loud as they could and Mia did not want to do that in front of the whole park. Thankfully, he didn’t make us crow, was very nice and told everybody they should all have shirts like mine. ( I had my Peter Pan shirt on for this very occasion)

After Peter we continued to Adventureland for a little pirate action.

Mia, Westin and I got separated from the rest of the group because they exited Pirates on an elevator, since Rob was allowed to stay in his chair for the ride. Eventually we found them and decided to do Haunted Mansion.

This ride was tricky for Rob since the walkway moves. This time, Grace and Rob were the ones that got separated from the rest of us. They had to go off to the side to avoid the stampede from the stretching room while everybody else boarded the doombuggies. We met back up with them outside and were almost stampeded again by a large group of girls. We saw them all over the park, I think they were celebrating their 15th birthdays. They all had bookbags with quincenera (spelling?) on them and they were foreign, not sure from where.
Westin had fallen asleep again so he and I waited on the Splash Mountain lookout area while the rest rode. I took about 15 pictures of random people coming down the big drop and just before they came out Westin woke up crying hysterically. I missed the drop shot but got them coming around the bottom part.

Next up, most of us have a laugh with monsters while others have diaper problems again!

 

[sarahcor]

Westin and I did some shopping in the Splash shop while we waited for the others to come off the ride. I caved and bought a cute, red sweatsuit with the Cars characters. We met up and headed towards Tomorrowland.
On our way we did a little browsing in the Christmas Shop. I wanted to buy Westin a stocking but couldn’t decide between Mickey, Donald or Goofy so I didn’t get one at all.

And had a photo shoot near the castle, trying to be romantic

Mia does not approve!

One of the three of us

The castle show was on so we watched that for a while

Mia loves Carousel of Progress so that was next. Always a nice way to relax.
We saw Buzz but he had a long line so we skipped him.

 

[sarahcor]

On our last visit when we did Monsters Laugh Floor, Paul was chosen to “stand up and dance”
It was a great moment, and although he was slightly embarrassed he busted out an awesome move!
Mia wanted to try to text a joke for them to use during the show. She used “Why can’t animals take tests at the zoo?”


Answer:


Too many cheetahs!
I think she heard it on cartoon network. It actually got used in the show, she was so proud.
Unfortunately, Westin and I missed it. His diaper disaster from earlier…we had a second helping of diaper leak. This time it went through his clothes and onto the stroller seat too. YUCK! At this point I began to think he wasn’t feeling well.
Poor kid, I cleaned him up in the Tomorrowland bathroom near the smoothie place. He had to wear his new sweatpants, luckily I had bought them earlier or he would have been a weirdo baby not wearing pants!
We wanted to do something nice and easy, so to the TTA we went. No wheelchairs allowed on this one, Rob isn’t too good at walking, especially up a moving incline, so we decided against the TTA and started to exit.
We had a dining reservation to get to, so we decided to shop our way out, hitting up some of the shops on Main Street.
Pooh didn’t have a wait at all so we stopped to say hi.

Westin loved this meet! We have a Pooh and gang mobile in his crib. I really think he recognized Pooh and Tigger from his crib. His legs were kicking and he was smiling so big. It was a great memory.

 

[sarahcor]

Chef Mickey’s here we come!

Minnie was excited to see Mia’s dress

We have always had a great time at Chef Mickey’s. I love the scalloped potatoes, they are so so good.

 

[sarahcor]

After our delicious dinner we headed back to Magic Kingdom to see Magic, Memories and You / Wishes. Mia had been eying a bookbag the whole trip. It has Mickey and gang in their nerdy look. We went to buy that for her before finding a spot for the fireworks.

We found a spot right in the center hub. Grace, Rob and Westin saved the spots. Mia, Bridget, Paul and I went to ride Splash Mountain. I hadn’t gotten to ride earlier so I was happy to make it on at least once.

We made it back just in time. Westin had been sleeping but he woke up and was freaking out. He’s not the familiar with Grace. I got him calmed down and he fell back asleep. It was very sweet to watch the show with my little man asleep in my arms.

After Wishes we hung around for a while taking pictures, waiting for the crowd to thin out.
We tried for a nighttime shot at the castle.
Paul was trying to get Mia to have a daddy/daughter picture. Mia wasn’t into it and was making annoying faces.

We abandoned the daddy/daughter picture taking and tried to get one of the two of us. Mia didn’t want us to have a picture either so she began dashing into the shot. Paul held his arm out to her and she fell on the ground. It was semi-funny but he felt bad.
Honestly, it had been a long day with no hotel break in the middle. We were all tired and Mia was starting to act up. We finally convinced her to get in the picture with us.

Bridget and I wanted one too.

I love this one website run by a husband/wife. They stay at the parks until close taking awesome pictures. I wanted to try for some night shots like I’ve seen them do.

Here is a goofy picture of me and some tea

I love pictures where there aren’t any people around.

 

[sarahcor]

I took a few more crowd free pictures and we started towards the exit

I really enjoyed staying behind and taking a slow exit. It certainly beat fighting with the mass exodus and waiting in a long bus line.

We took one last look at Magic Kingdom. Today was my favorite day of the trip so far. Even with messy diaper disasters.

It was lights out when we got back to the room. Our next day was Animal Kingdom. Would we have more diaper issues or will it be someone else having a “bathroom” issue?

 

[sarahcor]

Animal Kingdom day! I must admit, this is my least favorite park of the four. Not to say I don’t enjoy visiting here, I just don’t get the magical feeling here.

We started our way to Expedition Everest.

Paul is semi-happy. As Animal Kingdom is my least favorite, it is his favorite, go figure!

I like the foot statue and have a picture of Mia from the past trip standing here. I’d like to get a picture here each time so I can compare past trips to see how much they’ve grown.
I should have taken Westin out of the stroller, but we were in a hurry.

Mia did ride this last trip and she was very brave until it got to the dark parts. She is very afraid of the Yeti, even though he is a machine he is still scary, that’s what she tells me.
So, Mia did not ride. It was just Paul, Bridget and me.

Bridget used to be scared of everything. She surprised herself and actually enjoyed the roller coasters, she claims she won’t do TOT ever again but I will still try to get her on when we do our next trip.

Bridget and I were riding with each other so we got in the waiting area right before you get on the train and Paul was in front of us. The train pulled in and Paul jumped in with a single rider. We had to wait for the next ride. He was in the seat and looked up at us and then over at his ride partner before realizing he had gotten on the ride with a stranger. It was funny, he did get out and wait with us, he was so excited to ride he didn’t even realize what he was doing.

We exited and met up with the others in the gift shop. Mia was such a sweetie and got me a bracelet while they were waiting.
It was at this point that I started to feel a little blah. It was probably just from riding Everest, right?

 

[sarahcor]

Mia had wanted to do Primeval Whirl in Dinoland so we headed in that direction. We said hello to some cute monkeys.

We did the fake Dumbo ride first.

Paul wasn’t interested in Primeval Whirl so he and Westin sat out while the rest of us rode.
Mia loved it so she rode again with Bridget. We browsed a little in the nearby shop.

I love Dinosaur so I was excited to get Bridget on this ride.

She liked it and managed to ride most of the ride without hiding her eyes. Mia, Grace, Rob and Westin sat out. Mia had a bad experience the first time we rode and she refuses to give it another shot. While we rode they did a bone activity in one of the booths, I think a puzzle of sorts.

 

[sarahcor]

We decided it was time for lunch to we did the Restaurantosaurus. I was still feeling kind of blah, hoping that getting some lunch would help.
Westin was very hungry, so I have no food pictures since I was feeding him and me at the same time.
The chocolate parfait cup was nice and chocolatey though.

We watched this guy for a while so everyone could have a bathroom break.

Westin was happy.

As was Paul.

We wanted to do Bugs Life next.

Mia is afraid of Bugs Life too. The first time we saw this she was sitting next to a stranger and during one of the scary parts the lady next to Mia grabbed her leg accidentally. This freaked Mia out and she will not go back, I guess I can’t blame her. She was four at the time, it really made an impression on her.

So Mia, Westin and I sat outside of Bugs Life and waited for them. Actually, we spent most of the time in the restroom. I definitely wasn’t feeling bad because of the rides, I began to realize I had the flu. What bad timing, right? After my third attempt to leave the restroom area we asked the castmember at the entrance of Bugs Life where the exit let out. We made our way over to the exit and waited for the others.
Mia tried on some hats to pass the time.

Westin decided to take a snooze.

 

[sarahcor]

We spotted the others and they came over. Paul could tell I wasn’t feeling well. We were supposed to do Festival of the Lion King next but I knew I wouldn’t make it.

I was actually worried I wouldn’t make it back to the room without having an embarrassing accident on the bus.
I’m sure you want to know, I visited the bathroom one more time before we exited the park. Bridget, Grace and Rob stayed for the Lion King show. Paul said he would take Mia and Westin swimming while I rested.

Mia told me that I must not really be sick if I am well enough to take pictures.

Possible TMI -
I rested most of the afternoon, not really able to sleep because my stomach was gurgling non-stop. I finally got some relief after spending a while in the bathroom. I’ll just say that I needed the toilet and the trash can at the same time, YUCK!
End TMI.

Tonight’s dinner reservation was for Whispering Canyon Café. Paul took Westin and Mia by himself and met Grace, Bridget and Rob there. The waitress brought Mia a giant mug of root beer and told her she better drink it all, and threw straws at her. Mia loved this and thought it was very funny. Paul brought me some leftovers but I didn’t want to even look at it. I still felt pretty sick.
What a bummer ending to our last day at Disney…but we had two days at Universal coming next. I hope I’m better in the morning.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Oh no .. Sick at Disney ?? What a bummer. I hope it was just a 24 hr bug.
My boys got traumatized their one and only time on Bugs Life and refuse to go back in it. Oh well ... Maybe one day !
Looking forward to hearing how Universal went.

 

[sarahcor]

Oh no .. Sick at Disney ?? What a bummer. I hope it was just a 24 hr bug.
My boys got traumatized their one and only time on Bugs Life and refuse to go back in it. Oh well ... Maybe one day !
Looking forward to hearing how Universal went.

Sick on any regular day is bad, but sick at WDW was the worst! I was mostly better the next day but I wasn't the only one to get sick.

I think Bugs Life traumatization is very common!

I really liked Universal, first installment will be up soon.

 

[sarahcor]

The next morning I woke up feeling much better. A little sore, but I think that was mostly from being in bed for so long.
Paul hauled all of our bags to the truck. If we ever drive again I am going to pretend we are flying. I way overpacked!
It was depressing to say goodbye to Disney, but we had more fun ahead at Universal. We’ve never been there so I was very excited to get there.

We managed to follow the directions I had printed out and we pulled in to our mansion. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for the last two days of our vacation.

They had all kinds of fancy cars parked at the entrance. I felt way out of my comfort level, this was way ritzier than I'd imagined.


We checked in and got our room keys. The room keys also served as our “express passes” so we didn’t have to wait in any lines. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we parked the car in the lot and followed the walking path to Universal.

We had pretty much skipped breakfast so the first stop of our day was lunch. This was when I really appreciated the dining plan from Disney. It was kind of a shock to have to pay for food after 5 days eating for “free”.

With lunch out of the way we began the walk to see Harry Potter.

I can see it!

Mia is a big Dr. Seuss fan and she was really excited to do these rides. So, before we could get to Hogwarts we experienced Seuss Landing.

I still wasn’t feeling 100% so Bridget did the rides with Mia.

 

[sarahcor]

We thought this was a cool statue.

Pay no attention to that annoying smudge, I didn't realize it was there until later.

If I had been feeling more ambitious I would have tried to eat here, at Mythos. The best theme park restaurant 6 years in a row, there was a plack in front that said so.

We were getting closer!

There it is, yay!

I have yet to read any of the books, but we are big fans of the movies. I really felt like I was in a different world.

The crowds of vacationers quickly brought me back to reality.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Weren't the crowds crazy ?? I found that if you go in the evening .. it's much better .. but I won't find that out until our second Universal day.

My boys had very little interest in Suess Landing .. even though they LOVE the books .. we sort of just breezed by it all !
I really do want to go back again and do it all at a slower pace !

 

[sarahcor]

Today was our day to look at the Wizarding World. I didn’t really expect to ride anything since we had gotten there late. Tomorrow morning we could get in an hour early since we were staying at one of the Universal hotels. I would have to wait until then to actually ride Forbidden Journey.
It was pretty crowded so we went to a different land. I sat out with Rob and Westin while everyone else rode Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls.

They really liked it. Paul said it was like Rock n Roller coaster on the water. At this point I was starting to feel nauseous again and my back was really sore. Mia stayed with Bridget, Grace and Rob. Paul, Westin and I went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.

We were impressed with our room. Paul needed to rock out.

The bathroom was a normal bathroom.

Danger, stay away from the counter. They had boxes of snacks sitting on the counter and they were expensive. I didn’t tell Paul that I had the key to the mini bar.

We slept for at least 2 hours. Mia came back to grab her suit and she did the pool with Bridget.

We woke up hungry and decided to head to City Walk to find a place to eat. Mia was starving, as we were getting ready to leave I looked on the floor and saw a black box sitting opened on the floor. Mia hadn’t been there when I announced no eating from the counter, she took a $10 box of chocolate covered cashews and was eating them. She said they were pretty good! They better be good!


We ate at Bubba Gump’s and it was ok. I’m not a huge seafood fan so I got a burger. Paul also got a burger and Mia had a platter that Paul helped her with. I don’t think we’ll need to visit again.

The nice thing about the Hard Rock was its location. It was a pretty short walk to City Walk/Universal or you could ride a shuttle boat. I found it was a little shorter to go through the pool area, but it was a little confusing.

We turned in for the night. Around 1:00 in the morning I woke up, Paul was in the bathroom and he wasn’t feeling well. Uh-oh.