First trip back to WDW in 16 Years!! Update 6/9 Magic Kingdom Here we come!

[ladylyons]

After reading numerous trip reports (TopDog, KathyRN, mrsksomeday and numerous others) and using these boards to plan my first trip back to the World in 16 years I decided to try my hand at writing a trip report.

Let me give you a little background on who I am and who joined me on this trip.

My name is Sandra and I’m a SAHM to my two beautiful children. I have been to Disneyland countless times and for the last 5 years I have gone every year for the Christmas season and last year for the first time also celebrated NYE (don’t know if I ever want to do that one again, Christmas Day – Yes; NYE – unsure). I have only been to Disney World once and that is because of my grandparents who took my sister, my cousin and me when I was 15. It was a trip I have never forgotten and now I get to bring my own children with their grandparent’s. I’ve also been to Disneyland Paris once due to my loving husband.

Here is who joined me on this adventure.

My DH Jeff who loves me dearly and puts up with my Disney obsession. If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t have gone on this trip. He also has been countless times to Disneyland. He also has been to Disneyland Paris twice.

Jeremy is 27 months old and has already been to Disneyland 5 times (two of the times I was actually pregnant with him). His first official trip was at 5 weeks old.

Sarah is 8 months old and has been to Disneyland 1 time when she was 3 months old. She is actually our Disney souvenir from our Christmas trip in 2007. We got home and 6 weeks later found out we were pregnant. So yes lots of magical things happen at Disney.

(This is a picture of us from Christmas 2008 at Disneyland.)

Teresa is my Dmom. She actually started me on this Disney obsession of mine by taking me to Disneyland for the first time when I was 6 weeks old. I’m not too sure of the exact number of times she’s been to Disneyland but she has never been to Disney World.

Al is my Ddad. He’s actually my step dad but has been there for me since the time I was 5 years old and is the only dad I have ever known. He also helped with this Disney obsession by taking us a few times to Disneyland while I was growing up. I also don’t know the exact number of times he’s been to Disneyland but he also has never been to Disney World.

Once I find a decent picture of my parent's I will add it.

Our dates were May 14 to May 21, 2009 staying at Pop Century. My DH and I were celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on May 15 and my Dmom was celebrating her birthday on May 19. We had a few ADR’s and Tours scheduled which I will get to when we get to those days. Hope you follow along as I figure out the best way to share our fun and wet journey through the World.

 

[MEK]

Nice start to your TR! Your kids are beautiful! Anxious to read all about your first family trip to the world!

 

[topdog]

I got an honorable mention on your TR. Let's get this party started!!!

 

[Raecheal]

I'm in...

 

[ladylyons]

Nice start to your TR! Your kids are beautiful! Anxious to read all about your first family trip to the world!

Thanks for the comments. Hopefully I can keep you entertained and keep you coming back for more.

I got an honorable mention on your TR. Let's get this party started!!!

Of course you would. Your report gave me inspiration to try and do my report. Now my pictures might not be as good as yours but nobody could top yours.

I'm in...

Thanks for joining us!! I'm hoping to have our travel day and day 1 up by tomorrow. Since my little ones and DH are in bed I have a little free time and will work on it now.

 

[ladylyons]

Now technically our travel day started on May 13 since we had to leave home at about 8 pm to arrive at the Sacramento airport in time for our midnight flight.

I was actually stressing over this part of our trip since neither of my kids had ever been on a plane. Yes I’ve taken them on very long car trips (Disneyland and Oregon to visit family) but NEVER a plane. We figured a red eye would be best since then they would be more likely to sleep. So we board our plane and get settled in for the 3 ½ hour flight to Houston, TX.

The flight takes off I hand my son his sippy cup (to help pop his ears) and I start to nurse our daughter (again to help pop her ears). By the time we reach cruising altitude DS, DD and DH are out like a light! YEAH, we succeeded in our plan!!! Now I tried to sleep but was way to excited. I was like those Disneyland commercials… I’m to excited to sleep. I’m going to Disney World!! We arrive in Houston and wait our 1 ½ hour layover between flights and then board for the rest of the way to Florida.

Again the kids slept the whole way!!! It was great!! We land in Orlando about 11 am and find our way to ME to hop on the first bus of our trip that will take us to the POP Century.

Then we saw THE SIGN for the first time. That is when we knew that we had truly arrived at The Happiest Place on Earth. That is when the reality hit that we had arrived.

We finally arrived at the POP Century. While my mom and I go check us in my DH takes some pictures. Here are the kids and my dad waiting for us.

Now we had paid for preferred rooms and had requested to have connecting rooms. Everything I have read said not to expect to get connecting rooms unless you are traveling with more children than adults. I check in and we got connecting rooms!!! Now my room wasn’t ready yet buy my parent’s room was. So we head up to drop off our carry-ons and to let DS run off some steam since he had been forced to sit in some sort of seat since 8 pm the night before. On the way up to our room my DH asked me “How did you pull that off?” I looked at him confused and asked what do you mean? He laughs and goes Lady is in front of our building. I couldn’t help myself but start laughing. Of all the Disney movies out there Lady and the Tramp is my absolute favorite movie of all time.

While my parent’s watch the kids DH and I head over to another Diser’s room to pick up the fridge from the fridge swap we were in. On our way back I get a phone call from Amy from We Go Shop saying she’s done early with our grocery order and wanted to know if she could bring them over now. At this time it was about 1:00 pm and she wasn’t scheduled to be there until 2 pm so we told her sure not a problem. We make it back to my parent’s room and call to see if our room is ready and it is!! We were in the 50s section Bldg 1 rooms 1306 and 1307. So by about 1:30 pm we were in our room with our fridge and grocery delivery all done.

Now it was time to eat. We head down to Everything Pop where I order the Chicken Nuggets and also get a refillable mug. Total cost was $22.03. My DH got the Chicken Alfredo (I think that’s what it was, I do know it was pasta for sure). Total $10.96. We shared a drink the first day. Sorry I wasn’t very good about getting food pictures.

After lunch the plan was to head back to the room and relax for a couple of hours then head to the MK where we would catch Spectro Magic and Wishes. Or do we just say forget resting we’re in Disney World and head straight to the Magic Kingdom. Oh what to do.

 

[MEK]

Yeah - you made it!!!!!! So, your kids and your DH slept on the flight - how about you? Did you get any sleep? When I read about cross country flights I am so glad I am a mere 2 hours of flying time away!

Can't wait to read about your first night!

 

[Rozz]

Loving it! What a wonderful way to start my day with your trip report and loralei's!
How magical to have Lady right outside your room. You got a great photo with her. Ahhh, I wish we were in Disney World!
Looking forward to more!

 

[ladylyons]

Yeah - you made it!!!!!! So, your kids and your DH slept on the flight - how about you? Did you get any sleep? When I read about cross country flights I am so glad I am a mere 2 hours of flying time away!

Can't wait to read about your first night!

Yeah we made it. I slept maybe 1/2 to an hour total over both the flights. It's really hard to sleep when your holding a sleeping 8 month old and after having a mopey husband who wanted the window seat I ended up on the aisle.

I have to agree I really wish the flights weren't as long as they are but I guess I'll take whatever I can get. But I do have Disneyland just a hop, skip and a jump away if we ever decided to fly. But with how much stuff we bring it's easier to just drive the 6 - 8 hours.

Loving it! What a wonderful way to start my day with your trip report and loralei's!
How magical to have Lady right outside your room. You got a great photo with her. Ahhh, I wish we were in Disney World!
Looking forward to more!

Thanks for joining us. I'm glad your enjoying it so far.

It was very magical to have Lady right there. Every morning I'd wish her a good morning and every evening a good night. I'm hoping to have another update up by tonight but with two little ones on different nap schedules I only have little bits of time here and there so if it's not done by tonight tomorrow night for sure.

 

[Raecheal]

For POP CENTURY... It's good to hear that the flight and the check in process went smoothly... and that you actually got two adjoining rooms.

Dbf and I love Everything Pop because its so convenient and quick!!

Love it.. I can't wait to read about the rest of the night.

 

[ladylyons]

I haven't forgotten about this TR but my 8 month old came down with a nasty cold and didn't sleep very well for a few days so of course I had to sleep when her and her brother would. But now we seem to be over the cold and hopefully I'll be able to get another update done in the next day or so. Please hang in there with me while I try get back into this. Thanks!!

 

[Raecheal]

I haven't forgotten about this TR but my 8 month old came down with a nasty cold and didn't sleep very well for a few days so of course I had to sleep when her and her brother would. But now we seem to be over the cold and hopefully I'll be able to get another update done in the next day or so. Please hang in there with me while I try get back into this. Thanks!!

ohh.. I'm so sorry to hear that your lil one came down with a nasty cold.. Hopefully you'll be able to update soon!!! I'm still here...

 

[heaven2dc]

Your little ones are adorable! Looks like you got pixie dust sprinkled on your vacation from the get go! (with the little ones sleeping on the plane, connecting rooms, Lady & Tramp icon). (I want to go back to Oregon to visit an aunt and cousin this fall - I grew up in Portland and I want to take my grandson but not sure traveling from Virginia how he would take that long of a plane ride. He flew down to WDW in December with my daughter and he was cranky but when I flew back with them he slept in my arms the whole 2 hours).

Hope the baby gets well soon - colds are so nasty for little ones! We are all waiting patiently!

 

[mickeystoontown]

What a lovely bunch you guys are! I love reading trip reports and looking at pictures. I often say that they are what keep me sane until my next WDW vacation.

 

[ladylyons]

Last time I posted I left you wondering if we were going to go nap or if we were going to head out to the MK with my parent’s. Our plan that was set up before we ever left home was we would eat lunch, go back to our room and rest for a few hours then head out to the MK so we could catch Spectro Magic and Wishes. But what actually happened was we decided to forget taking a nap the kids were happy lets head out to our first park on our first day of our trip. So out to the buses we go. We get in line and wait maybe 5 – 10 mins for our first bus and the excitement builds. We finally get to the MK and go through security and the gates with no problems at all. By this time it’s about 5 pm.

So we get through the gates and start to walk down Main Street with our first order of business being to get a family picture in front of the Castle. But as we are walking we start to feel rain drops every few steps. So forget taking the pictures let’s head towards Adventure Land so we can get our first ride out of the way. Pirate’s here we come!! Well we didn’t make it. The rain started pouring down and I seemed to have left the ponchos and stroller cover back in the room. OOPS!! We made it to the covered area near Aloha Isle and decided to try to wait it out. That was a mistake I think we stood there for a good 30 mins or so before we decided to see what was close and what we could get to quick without getting to wet. Off to the Enchanted Tiki Room we went. (Since I’m a Disneyland regular I had just seen the original in December 2008 so I didn’t really know what to expect with the changes here). Here are a few pictures of DD and me and of DS and my Dad waiting to get into the show. You can see that we are a little wet from the rain.

Now not to offend anyone I did enjoy them adding Zazu and Iago and the other changes but give me the original any day. (I’m not going to make this a comparison report between the two resorts because they should be different but there are some things that are sentimental to me and the original Tiki Room is one of them.) After the Tiki Room the rain seemed to slow down a little bit so we then headed off to the Country Bears. We have missed being able to see this show for a long time now so we were very excited to be able to share it with our son for the first time. He loved it!!! He would look at his daddy and say “dog” (our dog’s name happens to be Bear so every time we’d ask him if he liked the bears he’d answer back “dog” and grin). He’d clap along, laugh and point at everything that was happening. So a fun time was had by all of us.

After the show it was off to find that elusive Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. We did manage to find him and enjoyed our voyage through the Caribbean. We didn’t take many pictures right now because we just rushed from one place to the next and tried to stay dry. Once we managed to get off our voyage we decided it was time to head to Tomorrowland. Yes I know what were we thinking. We weren’t. It was time to head over and visit the city of Monstropolis. So we get in line and wait maybe 10 mins for the next show and it was time to enjoy our MC Mike Wazowski. Now this is another movie that my son loves so he kept calling Mike “Eye”. He kept wanting to see the “Eye”. We really enjoyed this and wish we would have done it again but alas timing just never worked in our favor. Then it was off to see Stitch. I have read reviews about Stitch’s Great Escape! But had to check it out for our selves. We left the kids with my parent’s and off we went. I enjoyed the show but could have done without the stench. I also would have enjoyed it better had we actually been able to see Stitch more often than we did.

My parent’s then used the rider swap and off they went to see Stitch. While they were gone I fed DD and got her to sleep. When they got back DH, DS and I went off to save the world from the Evil Emperor Zurg. Now I love the ride at Disneyland but have never gotten a score higher than about 150,000 or so while my DH always is above 300,000. This time I some how managed to max out the score and ended up with 999,999 and my DH got like 350,000. He told me we must have had a malfunctioning car because that just couldn’t be right. He demanded a rematch but again timing just wasn’t in our favor so we didn’t make it back. My parent’s then took our DS on the ride and I don’t know what their scores were. They also highly enjoyed the ride because the let my DS control the knob and he kept spinning them.

By this time I was just done with the rain se we decided to head out. It was about 7:30 pm or so. My parent’s decided to stay in the park and see if they could catch the parade and fireworks but I wasn’t starting to get tired and cranky so I knew it would not be a good idea for us to stay. On our way out of the park we did take a few pictures and walked through the Emporium so I could do some window shopping.

We did talk about trying to stay but by this time our DS was also starting to get cranky so I figured it was best to leave before the masses left and we had to wait forever for a bus. We actually made it back to our hotel by about 8:30 or so. Even though we ended up getting rained on we still had a great first day.

Up next……EPCOT, Anniversary Dinner at California Grill, Wishes and a Monorail Ride

 

[ladylyons]

I will be back later to respond to everyone. But I do have to get my kids ready to go to my DD 9 month check up so wish me luck that if she has to have shots I keep calm. I really, really hate needles to it's painful for me to watch them stick her. Hope you all enjoy the update.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Like I always say, "A rainy day at Disney is better than a rainy day at home!"

 

[ladylyons]

For POP CENTURY... It's good to hear that the flight and the check in process went smoothly... and that you actually got two adjoining rooms.

Dbf and I love Everything Pop because its so convenient and quick!!

Love it.. I can't wait to read about the rest of the night.

We were really excited that we got the connecting rooms after hearing that it's just a request not a gurantee.

We also enjoyed Everything Pop. We had a few meals there and a few trips to fill our mugs.

ohh.. I'm so sorry to hear that your lil one came down with a nasty cold.. Hopefully you'll be able to update soon!!! I'm still here...

Thanks! She just had a cold but is now back to normal!! But I really don't know how good that actually is because she can be a little demanding and she's only 9 months old!!

Your little ones are adorable! Looks like you got pixie dust sprinkled on your vacation from the get go! (with the little ones sleeping on the plane, connecting rooms, Lady & Tramp icon). (I want to go back to Oregon to visit an aunt and cousin this fall - I grew up in Portland and I want to take my grandson but not sure traveling from Virginia how he would take that long of a plane ride. He flew down to WDW in December with my daughter and he was cranky but when I flew back with them he slept in my arms the whole 2 hours).

Hope the baby gets well soon - colds are so nasty for little ones! We are all waiting patiently!

Thank you!! We seem to think they are pretty cute to but we could be a little biased though. We were very lucky they slept on the planes and I'm sure everyone around us was happy too. I think it helped that we flew a red eye so maybe fly when he should be sleeping that might help.

She's better now. Thanks!!

What a lovely bunch you guys are! I love reading trip reports and looking at pictures. I often say that they are what keep me sane until my next WDW vacation.

Thanks I appreciate it!! I have to agree about reading TR they sure are fun to read and to get others opinions on different things.

 

[ladylyons]

Like I always say, "A rainy day at Disney is better than a rainy day at home!"

I completely agree. Our trip to Disneyland in December also got rained on but we didn't complain because we were in Disney!!