First trip report, be gentle!!

[Willow25]

I love, love, love Twinkimama’s trip reports and when I really need a Disney pick me up I reread her old ones. I would like to tell you that this report will be up to her inspirational standards but I am just not that good!! In fact this trip report dates back to December of 2007. But hey my child was only 4 months on that trip and I did have another child since then so I have been very busy.

Well here goes the cast of characters

Myself, DW age 34 was a young vibrant 32 year old on that trip

DH, age 34 was also 32 on that trip

Our DD, age 4 mos

My mother DGM, age (will never tell) and my father, DGF

My neice, age 5.5 yr old DN

My husband is a born and bred Aussie who moved to the states when he was 20. He was recruited to play basketball at an American college. That is where we met, I am from Molalla, Oregon but was also recruited to play basketball in college. I grew up going to Disneyland and dreaming of one day making it to the BIG ONE Disneyworld. Once we were married I started ordering the planning video’s and getting DH on board with making the trip. We lived in the states after college for a few years and never made it. My DH decided that he had not played enough basketball so we moved to Australia so he could play on a team here. That is when we finally decided to make the trip. Silly I know considering how much more money it requires to visit there from Australia. We made the trip in 2004 and absolutely fell in love. I also became addicted to the planning component.

We got pregnant and had our beautiful baby girl Payton and decided that since I would be on maternity leave that we should make the trip to the states to introduce her to my family and to Disneyworld. That is when my parents jumped on board and also invited my neice, DN.

That is when all the planning started.

 

[Willow25]

When we go home for visits we always try to plan to hit the states Thanksgiving through Christmas but to save on flights we wanted to fly from Melbourne directly to Orlando. We booked our flights on Qantas to Los Angeles transfering to an American Airlines on a direct flight to Orlando arriving on the 1st of December. My parents would fly in on the 3rd of December, we decided we wanted a few days to hopefully get over the jet lag and get our 4 month old back on track.

Our flight from Melbourne to LA was pretty uneventful, we left at around noon and just tried to keep our daughter on her normal schedule, her naps were not the same length as it was easier to have her sleep on me. We were sitting in the bulkhead seats with another couple with a young baby. We were really happy to not be sitting next to a childless couple who potentially would not be as understanding. Once it was my daughters normal bedtime 7pm we put her in the cot and she fell asleep after about ten minutes. We felt so lucky because she slept all the way until we landed in LAX and in fact I had to wake her up to give her a bottle (EARS). Upon landing however she threw up what seemed like the entire contents of her bottle all over me. I had to wait for everyone to deplane then I changed my clothes (luckily on long hauls I carry extra clothing). We put our darling girl in a carrier at which time she fell back asleep and deplaned. We found our next gate got a bite to eat and waited. I love pulling into LA and just checking out the little convenient stores in the airport. The first opportunity to buy some of the food and magazines that I miss from home. I think this time I bought cheetos!!!

The flight from LAX to Orlando was over 5.5 hours long. My daughter was pretty good on this flight we tried to get her on a day schedule at this point. About an hour before she was due for a feed I buzzed for a FA and asked her to heat up a bottle for me. After 30 minutes I started to get nervous I asked if it was heated up and oops she had not done it yet and they were starting to serve the food. Another 30 minutes passed and my daughter is starting to make some noise. I ask if it has been heated, not yet! Now my daughter is screaming, I get up from the seat and I am getting dirty looks from the other passengers and a few snide comments. I said as loudly to the FA as possible that I asked over an hour ago to get a bottle heated up is it done yet. She said she did not know I then said I want the bottle in whatever form it is in. She gave it to me and informed me that she had it sitting in boiling water for over 30 minutes and she assumed it needed more time. It was still too hot to server to my daughter so I ran it under cold water in the sink.

Finally gave the bottle to my daughter and she fell fast asleep when she was done.

Not the best experience we have ever had. I tried to be proactive giving them an hour but come on!!!

We landed in Orlando it was about 9pm. My husband went to get the luggage and I want to check in at the rental car counter. When I got up to the desk they had a car ready but when I asked about the car seat we had reserved they had to locate one. Then they tried really hard to sell me insurance which I declined about five times. At this point they say that they will charge me $250.00 more to have more than one driver. I refused and said that my DH would be the only driver. Well then they had to completely redo the paperwork. We finally got a car seat and two hours later were on the road. Will not be returning to this car rental agency. We decided to stay two nights in an offsite condo as we wouldn't hit the parks until my parents got there. At around 11:30pm we pulled into the condo. I had asked for a Pack n play and it was not in the room. 45 minutes later housekeeping brought one up. I put my daughter who was exhausted to bed and my husband drove down the road to TACO BELL!!! Oh how I miss Taco Bell!!!

We all slept through the night with my daughter waking us all up at 8:30am.

 

[praisehisname]

Great start!

 

[amyren]

wow! Sounds like quite a journey. I'm excited to read more!

 

[Willow25]

Thanks Guys I just saw your pictures AMYREN of your daughters barbarshop haircut. SOOO CUTE!!

 

[Willow25]

DAY ONE AND TWO

We spent the next two days shopping and eating at all our fav restaurants that we missed so much from thes states. On day two we checked into our Old Key West two bedroom villa which we rented points for. Here are a few pics of the place.

After checking in we headed to downtown disney until it was time to head for the airport to pick up my parents and my neice. While there we went into Disneyquest and I hopped onto the computer to check our bank accounts etc. It always makes me nervous using our credit cards and lo and behold the rental car agency that gave us so much trouble triple charged our credit card while placing a hold on it and since we had the rental car for two weeks that was a lot of money.

We decided to get to the airport early and talk to the rental car agency. The agency initially said there was nothing that they could do and that it was just a hold not a charge. While we could have transfered extra money onto the credit card it was the point of the whole thing. After numerous calls to our overseas bank and numerous conversations with the manager they reversed the holds but it still took 48 hours. Seriously will not be using that agency ever again.

In the meantime my poor 4 month old daughter had a blow out diaper and I had to change her out of her perfectly planned outfit into something not as nice to meet her grandma and grandpa for the first time.

We headed upstairs to wait for my parents. I was so excited there is something about your parents meeting your child for the first time that is indescribable. Pretty soon I see my parents and neice looking very lost. Once they spotted us my mom was in total tears and of course my daughter was just starting to pick up on the whole stranger thing and would not let my mom hold her. I told my mom we have two weeks in DW to work on it and not to worry.

We headed to Walmart to stock up on snacks and some breakfast foods and then headed to OKW. My parents were very impressed with the accomodation and felt really special when they were welcomed home. We all went to bed early that night to prepare for MGM and later on Coral Reef and Epcot.

 

[praisehisname]

That had to have been such an emotional time for both you and your mom. I can't imagine being so far from family.

OKW is simply gorgeous! I really want to stay there some day!

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

Great report so far! That Jacuzzi tub looks so wonderful! I want to stay at OKW just for that!