Former Commandos returned with our Kiddo! Updated 6-15-08(pics)

[duckyislost]

Index:
Pretrip - posts 1-8
Trip Report begins post 9
Day 1, Part 1: Arrival in the World - post 11
Day 1, Part 2: Lunch at Riverside Mill and Our POR Room - post 12
Day 1, Part 3: Ol' Man Island and DTD - post 14
Day 1, Part 4: DTD Lego store and water taxi back to POR - post 20
Breaking news! Booked our next trip!!! - post 21
Day 2, Part 1: Sunrise at POR and off to MK - post 22
Day 2, Part 2: Morning in the MK - post 23
Day 2, Part 3: POFQ pool - post 26
Day 2, Part 4: MK at night - post 29
Day 3, Part 1: Early EMH at MK - post 37
Day 3, Part 2: DMIL arrives, POR pool, EPCOT, and a little MK too -post 41
Day 4, Part 1: Rope Drop at EPCOT -post 43

Hi !

I’m new to the Disboards and I feel like I’ve come home. Everyone’s photos, trip reports, and advice have been great for getting me prepared and excited for our upcoming trip to the World. I think my friends and co-workers are getting a little annoyed with my joy. So here I am to vent my love of WDW to those who will not only understand, but celebrate with me!

WHO: The Cast:
Me: I grew up on Disney, having been raised in south Florida, made several trips as a child and teen after moving to New England in ‘84. As an adult I would count 3 trips, the last one being in 2000 with my DH. I’m a working mom, not at all crafty or an uber-planner. (Which is where I may need your help and encouragement!) While I like to do fun things on vacations, I also very much need to relax.

DH: He grew up in New England and has been to WDW 3 times: once as a kid and twice as an adult, the last time in 2000 with me. He is a go-go-go type on vacation, sort of Clark W. Griswold except he would prefer that I do all the planning. He likes to see all there is to be seen and do all there is to do. Reigning in this instinct, given the third member of our party, is going to be my biggest challenge!

DS: AKA “the boy” will be 4 years old in July and he has never been to the World. We haven’t taken him on a significant trip anywhere for almost a year and a half. (See puking through Vegas below). The boy loves trains, cars, pirates, climbing, playing guitar and negotiating. We are trying to expand his comfort zone and (finally) get him potty trained, he’s stubborn.

Here his is around the holidays playing pirate. He and DH have 2 treasure boxes that they hide on each other in the house, then draw maps for each other and go searching.

He’s a rough and tumble kiddo.

In case you are wondering, no I do not send him out dressed like this.

Don’t let the dimples fool you, he is not always this much fun.
Let’s hope this version doesn’t join us on our trip.

And last, but not least, DMIL (Guest star): She will be driving from Tampa and staying over with us for a day. She’s going to come to the MK with us and has offered to watch the boy so DH and I can have an evening to ourselves. (Should we go for a tranquil dinner or every thrill ride we can squeeze in? Decisions…)

WHEN: April 1-5 (Only 2 more weeks to go!!!)

HOW: Direct flight on JetBlue, then Magical Express. No rental car.

WHERE: We are staying at the Port Orleans Riverside. First time at this resort for all of us, in fact, effectively the first time staying onsite too. (I made camping trips to FW as a kid and had one rainy stay at the CR, but that was 20+ years ago.) We knew if we were going to go to WDW with DS that we wanted to stay onsite so we could take breaks mid-day. I’d love to say that I weighed all the options and made an informed choice on this, but the truth is we decided to make this trip about a month ago and POR was the only Mod available. (Prior to finding this board we had heard that the Values were noisy and crowded so we shied away from those.) Looking at the pics online we decided POR looked serene and that is what we wanted to come back to at the end of the day. Besides, I think DS is going to love the pool and the boat ride to DTD. Some things I am worried about are doing even more walking, depending on what room we get, and bus crowding. (Any reassurance out there? Tips? )

WHY: (Besides the obvious pilgrimage back to the world of childhood wonder and bliss.)
1.) We have had enough of this.

Yes, the Christmas lights came down months ago. Unfortunately the snow piled up several times after that too. We woke up to snow, again, on Saturday morning! Luckily it was too warm for it to stick and it changed over to rain. Even without snow all we have to look forward to in the near term is mud season. Only Fenway has a prayer of being green any time soon. OK, everyone is sick of winter so what else.

2.) OK how about stress? When we booked we were all sick with that wretched flu that was going around and I was one week out from a major deadline at work. I had been going full tilt on this project for 2 months. While I am relieved to have survived past the deadline, there is a follow up presentation in May so the fun is just beginning. This trip is meant to slide into the lull before I ramp up to face the next deadline.

3.) It’s about time. We haven’t taken a significant vacation for a long time. I don’t mean a string of days off in a row. I mean an away from home, out of driving range for more than 2 days vacation.

The last plane trip we took with the boy was the puking tour of Vegas ’06. (I will spare the pics here.) The boy was about 22 months then and we flew out to see my parents who are retired in Las Vegas. We get to Logan airport and are about to check in when the boy turns green and then BLAMO, all over me and him. We change clothes and figure, OK isolated incident, it’s over now. Well, not by a longshot. The boy proceeded to puke 6 more times en route. On the plane, in the connecting terminal (Shout out to Cleveland, sorry about the mess!), and again on the connecting flight. Poor kid kept crying for food, but he couldn’t keep anything down. We limped into the baggage claim and must have looked pitiful to my dad and stepmom. The next night my DH and I had booked a room for ourselves at the Wynn and my folks took care of the boy. All was fine until about 3am when both of us came down with the same daycare plague and took turns visiting the bathroom all night. It lasted about 24 hours and then was finally over. Aside from these lovely details the boy decided not to observe the time change and was wide awake ready to play at 3 am every morning. Serenity now!

So we’ve been just a little gun-shy…but it’s time to take him to meet the mouse. We’re staying in our time zone, there are TV’s on the plane, it’s only a 3.25 hour flight. It’s a daytime direct flight to Orlando. The plane will be crawling with more kids than a Horton Hears a Who matinee. He’ll be fine, fingers crossed. Once we get there I have no doubt that he’s going to have a blast….As long as we don’t overdo it.

More to come on shopping, preparing the boy, keeping our inner commandos in check, etc.

Thanks for stopping by! ~ ducky

 

[j_lehr]

Great start! "The Boy" is adorable!! I think you're going to have a tough time relaxing at Disney with the two men in your life!

Jes

 

[duckyislost]

Thanks!!!

The DH and the boy do love pools too, so I'm hoping to lure them back to the POR for a swim at Ol' Man Island in the afternoons. (Especially if it gets really hot. We're so used to thinking that 50 is warm!) Maybe then I can at least get a few minutes for a poolside beverage.

I keep reminding DH that the boy hasn't seen ANY of WDW and he's too small to go on everything anyway. We can't possibly cram it all in this trip and we should leave some things undiscovered for trips down the road. I am already mentally planning what to check out for our next trip. We've never seen a lot of the resorts, for example.

~ducky

 

[BrittBritt]

All I can say is poor Cleveland!!!
I know it's not right to laugh, but that was quite the trip you had cross country!
Oh, and drawing pirate maps for each other----too cute!

 

[duckyislost]

OK, some nostalgia for those of you who remember the World as it was.

Anticipation: When my brother and I found out there was another Disney trip coming up we would sneak into my parents desk and fish out the partially used ticket books. We would make piles for each ride we wanted to go on and trade them back and forth. E's were worth roughly 5 A's in our economy.

The ride to Disney was torturous. Always very early in the morning, for about 3-4 hours up the FL interstate. (I know that sounds like a picnic to some of you, but to a kid going to Disney it is forever no matter how long it actually is.) We used to haul a camper to FW which slowed us down even further. There is pretty much nothing to look at, until you hit the citrus groves and then they never seem to end. Our biggest thrill was getting semi’s to blow their horns. My folks got a CB so we could listen to the truckers, it was the 70’s afterall, on the heals of Smokey and the Bandit. Then all of a sudden we’d hit Kissimme, like a beacon on the horizon.

Magical moment: When my brother and I were little he got one of those toy rifles in Frontierland. We stopped at a counter service restaurant beside the CBJ. On the wall in the queue were 3 mounted animal heads: a bison, a moose, don't recall the third. My brother kept poking the rifle at the moose's chin, which my parents didn't notice. As the older sister I gave him the evil eye rather than ******* All of a sudden all 3 animals opened their eyes and started singing! My brother, who was probably 5 at the time just stood there in awe. I always wondered whether the CM's flipped a switch, but I'd rather believe it was just Disney magic.... He certainly believed he had woken them up!

What scared me as a kid: The train tunnel on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Riding the zipline at River Country, I was always convinced my suit would fall off when I hit the water.

Junior Commandos: At some point my brother and I had visited WDW enough to be bored with the kiddy stuff. When our parents let us cruise the MK by ourselves we became commandos. Upon entering the park we would skip the stroller brigade down Main Street and hop right on the Steam Train. We’d get off at Frontierland and head straight for POC. We knew what wall to stand next to in the HM preshow in order to be the first ones to the ride. We’d eat at odd times to avoid the crowds and would queue up at Space Mountain or BTMRR during the parades. Except the Main Street Electrical Parade, that one we’d always stop to watch. Our favorite break from the heat was “If You Had Wings”, now Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Although I think the update is brilliant, there was a certain value to an unpopular ride with great air conditioning. The people mover was a favorite as well. We even started skipping the then routine fireworks in favor of repeat rides as the park closed. It was a blast, but exhausting!

First trip with DH in 2000:
I had been at a conference in May for 4 days and my DH joined me in Orlando after. We stayed offsite and had infrequent shuttle service from our hotel. Day 1 – DH arrived and we went to DTD for dinner at HOB. He likes the Voodoo Shrimp. Day 2 – Animal Kingdom in the morning, hop directly to MK in the afternoon until closing. Day 3- MGM in the morning, hop directly to Epcot in the afternoon until closing. We were wiped out afterward. We both love roller coasters and we hit them all multiple times. (EE wasn’t there yet.) The crowds weren’t bad so we didn’t wait long on anything and more than once were the beneficiaries of fastpasses from people who were giving them away. I tried to take pictures, but I didn’t have a digital camera then and I ditched carrying my camera for the 2nd day. So no pics I can post from that trip. It was a blur, a great blur, but a blur nonetheless.

This time I hope to stop and look around now and then… when I’m not chasing the boy.

Up next some trip prep shopping, with pics! ~ducky

PS. Yet another "wintery mix" storm is supposed to hit us tonight. Can I start counting hours?

 

[duckyislost]

How about a little pre-trip shopping?

My sneakers and Tevas were beat so I went to DSW a couple of weeks back in search of new sneakers and walking sandals.

These are the new sneakers, they are pretty comfortable and lightweight. I bought some running socks to go with them and have been breaking them in at the mall.

I decided to try something new with the sandals, these Clarks felt great in the store. I haven't had much chance to break them in yet, but the straps are all adjustable. They look more black in reality, quite blue in the pic. I usually switch to sandals in the afternoon after walking the parks in sneaks all day. Note to self: Pedicure!

The hubby was sort of unimpressed with the shoes, not exactly shoeporn sexy. I reminded him how not sexy I am when I'm cranky from aching feet.

And some sandals for DS too! He lives in these in the summer. Since he'll be in a stroller most of the time we'll see how he does alternating these with his sneakers. Also pictured 2 for $5 sunglasses for him at Children's Place. Also my pocket tripod which I finally found.

Books I've bought. The polka-dot one is a blank journal that I started the day after booking the trip. Also my favorite Dwight Shrute pen. The Unofficial guide w/Kids has been great. I've never been to WDW with a young child before and it really is a whole different ballgame. Very helpful. The Imagineering guides have been fun although not as much info as I had hoped for.

Other odds and ends. I know the shutterbugs will laugh at the paltry storage capacity of the camera card, but its double what I had. I also got it for only $1.25 by using CVS extra bucks! Hopefully the blister kit will go unused, but better to be prepared with new shoes. Anyone ever use these?

Coming up next, Preparing DS for DW. Thanks for reading ~ducky

 

[duckyislost]

How do you prepare a preschooler for Disney?!

OK the experience is going to be overwhelming, hopefully in a good way, no matter what we do. Nothing else quite compares to it, but we’re trying to familiarize him with as much as we can so it isn’t a complete shock to his system. We keep marking days off the calendar and saying only 12 more days until we go to Disney! He keeps telling the kids at daycare he’s going tomorrow.

Potty training- this kid has been dragging his heals for months. We are making slow progress while trying not to put pressure on him. For the sake of this vacation I’m OK with putting potty training on hold. We don’t have time to acclimate DS to the big seat anyway and I don’t want any drama over accidents or auto-flushing toilets.

Air Travel – Thankfully, DS probably doesn’t remember his last plane flight (see the puking tour of Vegas in post 1). His previous plane trips were at night in the hope that he would sleep through it. This time we have a morning direct flight on JetBlue. I’m hoping the seatback TV and abundance of fellow kid travelers is going to keep him busy. No car seat on the plane this time, we won’t be renting a car. The noise and the confinement are the things that I think might bug him. We’re working on toys/books to bring along to distract him although I don’t want to carry a ton of stuff. Suggestions?

Characters – who are all these people with huge heads anyway? DS has seen the Easter bunny at the mall, Santa, etc. He is curious about characters, but keeps a distance. I think if DH and I approach them in the park and show no fear he might be more inclined to approach them.

These are the Disney movies DS knows in the order of most watched:
CARS, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, A Bug’s Life, Peter Pan, Jungle Book, Lion King. DH dressed as Jack Sparrow for Halloween and we watched the first 20 min of Pirates 1 so DS would know the character. (We pulled the plug before the attack on Port Royal since we didn’t want to scare him with the skeletons and such.) DS also watches Mickey Mouse Club House and My Friends Tigger and Pooh on TV. We rented Little Mermaid and Monsters Inc. within the last few weeks so he’d know those characters too.

Theaters – We had never taken DS to a movie before, so last weekend we took him to see Horton Hears a Who. He liked it, except the bright screen had his eyes watering at first. He got fidgety about 20 minutes or so into it and spent time on both our laps. Overall, he had a good time. Most of the theater style attractions we’re interested in seeing last less than 30 minutes so I think he’ll be fine. 3D may be another story, no idea how he’ll react to it or if he’ll keep the glasses on. Which is the best 3D attraction to start with? I’ve never seen Mickey’s Philharmagic and thought we could start with that one. I’ve heard It’s Tough to be a Bug can scare some kids.

Rides – We plan to take it slow and work our way up. (At least I am, DH may be tempted to run straight to Buzz Lightyear with DS he’s so excited to show it to him!) DS has been to some small town theme parks: Edaville Railroad in Carver, MA; York’s Wild Kingdom in York, ME; Clark’s Trading Post in NH. He loves train rides of all varieties so the monorail, MK steam train, people mover (I will always call it that.), and AK train to the Comfort Station are all definite to do’s for us. DH wants to take him on BTMRR. DS may pass the height requirement (barely) but I think that one will be just too intense. We can go watch it though, he sometimes gets more of a kick out of that anyway. He’s also been on a couple of Dumbo style rides, and carousels. I think we’ll see how adventurous DS is, he may surprise us and be a thrill seeker like his parents. Then again, he may want to hang out in the Pooh playground all day and that’s OK too.
DH and DS at the Fun house at York's Wild Kingdom

DS was more interested in the pedals than bumping anybody at this point.

Edaville

Last night DS and I sat and sorted all the shiny pennies out of our coin jar to save for pressed penny souveniers.

I ordered the Vacation planning DVD, but that has yet to show up. So we’ve been showing DS park pictures online and videos on Youtube. He really wants to ride that monorail!

~ducky

 

[alan_renfroe]

How was the trip? Hope it was awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed your pre-trip info. My family will be making our first WDW trip in May.

 

[duckyislost]

Hi! We had an AWESOME time! DS was an angel and enjoyed the trip so much that we are tentatively planning to return in late Sept!

I am only just getting my act together editing the 450 photos I took. I just finished with the photopass ones and don't yet have the CD.

I'm hopefully going to begin my full TR in the next couple of days.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great time on your trip in May!!!

 

[duckyislost]

Time to start the Full-on Trip Report!!!

Overall philosophy– take time to stop and smell the magic!
Suppressing the commando instinct proved easier than I thought. In looking through the Disboards I realized how many things in the world I had missed on past trips by being so narrowly focused on hitting all the cool rides. This was DS’ first trip so everything was new and exciting to him. In planning the trip DH and my nostalgia for Disney swelled and we already knew we would probably want to go back again within a year. Knowing that we would return completely took the pressure off seeing everything this trip. We decided to take our time and let DS suck in every minute of the magic and not stress about hitting everything on our to-do list. We certainly did not hit everything, or even come close, but we had a fabulous time and are already planning to return in the fall.

So why didn’t I post a pre-trip itinerary? Well, I just couldn’t nail it down.
We had a lot of unknowns going into this trip with DS. How would he do on the flight? Sleeping away from home several nights in a row? Would he like the rides? Would he like characters? How would his daily eating and napping routine work out? Rather than force DS through a regimented schedule we decided to sort of go with the flow. Having read the UoG to WDW with kids (and having witnessed countless mid-day tantrums in the parks over the years) I was a firm believer in the tour the parks in the morning, return to the hotel after lunch for napping and pool time, and set out to tour the parks again in the early evening. This strategy worked great for us!

OK, here is where the foodies toon out. I made NO ADR’s and we didn’t have a single TS meal. We didn’t want to be stressing about getting to ADR’s on time, especially since we were reliant on Disney transportation, and frankly didn’t want to spend a lot of time eating since we only had 3 park days. We were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the CS food we had and look forward to enjoying some of the TS restaurants in future trips when we have more time.

As for what parks which days - I was mulling over the park schedules, EMH, parades and fireworks, and crowd ratings even during the trip. The only definite items on the itinerary were to spend the evening of our arrival day at DTD and our first park day at the MK.

OK - On to the Trip Report, first up Arrival in the World!

 

[duckyislost]

Day 1, Part 1: Arrival in the World!! (4/1/08)

7:00am: 15 minute drive to satellite parking and a shuttle over to Boston’s Logan airport.

No line at the JetBlue check-in counter –WOOT! We had worked out this whole plan for one of us to keep DS busy while the other waited in the check-in queue.

We kept our carry-on baggage minimal since we didn’t know how long of a wait we would have to get into our room at POR. We packed our swimsuits in our carry-ons so we could hit the pool ASAP. We got to the gate with no puking – already an improvement over our last plane trip with DS! (See puking tour of Vegas above.)

Here are some shots of DH and DS plane watching while we waited to board.

Logan to MCO flight on JetBlue. I hadn’t realized that every JetBlue plane has a name, ours was “If the Blue fits”.

Our seats were in row 1 Yay! (No first class on JetBlue) DS hopped right up on the window seat and started playing with the TV controls immediately. It took a little wrangling to get the headphones to fit his little melon, but he was very content watching cartoons. The only toy we brought to keep him busy was the marker pad below, he really didn’t need it with the TV. I only felt guilty for about 2 seconds for letting him watch TV for 3 hours straight. He was quiet and content, and besides, he was on vacation.

After snacks we gave DS his blue blanket and thought he might have a nap, but he couldn’t quite get comfortable. In row 1 the armrests don’t fold up so there wasn’t much we could do to give him more room.

Arrival at MCO at ~12:30pm. DS loved the shuttle that takes you to the main terminal. Sort of his first train ride of the trip.

Magical Express could not have been easier!

With no bags to fetch, we just hit the red carpet and waited less than 10 minutes for our bus to leave.

DS finally had his nap on the bus ride. (This started a convenient trend of bus napping throughout the trip.)

Our ride only took about 35 min, not much traffic in the middle of the day. I loved the part where the whole bus cheers as you pass through the main gate! Goosebumps! The bus stopped at SSR, POFQ, and finally our stop at POR!

 

[duckyislost]

Day 1, Part 2: Lunch at Riverside Mill and Our Room at POR.

I waited in line at registration, DS watched cartoons on the little kiddo TV. We had to pull him away from it when we were finished.

We found our first pressed penny machine behind the concierge desk. Grumpy, the Wicked Queen and a MK/EPCOT/MGM logo.

Next up, lunch at Riverside Mill food court which was nearly empty.

DS had a chicken nugget kids meal

DH had a Roast beef sandwich and I had a pepperoni pizza. All good, but my pizza was a bit greasy on the bottom. We also bought 2 of the refillable mugs, very handy.

DS liked the lego table in the dining hall, we ended up sitting near it every time we visited.

On to our room! We had a standard room in Alligator Bayou building 39.

The view was looking down the hall and out to the woods. There was a quiet pool on the other side of the building, but we never used it.

We had 3 towel animals waiting for us – a duck, a bunny, and a doll.

We got a room with a trundle bed, although we hadn’t specifically requested one. DS was very content to have his own little bed, he sleeps on a toddler bed at home so this was very similar. Overall, we found this location be very convenient, close the North Bus Depot and the main pool and food court. Also it was VERY quiet. Only one night did we hear some rumbling as a group went down the hall to their room. Next time I do think we’ll try to get a first floor room, lugging a stroller up and down the stairs (sometimes with a sleeping 40 pound boy) got to be a pain even though it folded up.

 

[Nicole786]

awesome so far cant wait to hear more!!

 

[duckyislost]

Day 1, Part 3: Ol' Man Island and DTD

Our bags had not yet arrived (probably 1.5 hours after landing at this point) so we changed into our swim suits and headed back to Ol’ Man Island.

The pool was a lot of fun. DS doesn’t know how to swim yet, and we forgot to pack the water wings in our carryon. He started out in the kiddie pool, which is nicely shaded. (Although it also gets a fair amount of leaves and debris from the trees.) I loved the tilework with little frogs and alligators.

Then we ventured into the main pool. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the main pool, but they aren’t hard to find on the boards. DS liked to have turtle rides on DH’s back through the waterfalls. DS even tried the slide, I caught him at the bottom. Somehow he would start sitting up, but then came out face first on his belly. Somewhere in the middle he must have gotten flipped around and DH thought he heard him bonk on the first turn the second time he went down. Since you can’t ride together, we decided that was enough of the slide for the time being. We played in the pool for about an hour. There were plenty of pool towels available in case anyone is wondering. We headed back to the room and our luggage had arrived.

Freshened up and then we were off to DTD on the boat…..um was that thunder?

We headed back to the concierge desk to buy our park tickets before heading to DTD. I had priced out all the options in advance. Since we knew we’d be coming back, we decided on 10 day no-expiration park hopper tickets. A lot of $ up front, but more economical in the long run so we bit the bullet. (We did forgo the waterparks option. We’re going to wait until DS can swim to do that and we may come back when it’s too chilly anyway.)

Out to the docks to catch a boat to DTD. A boat showed up within a few minutes, but bad news. The boats were told to dock due to lightning in the area. So we headed for the buses instead.

I had heard good things about the Earl of Sandwich on these boards, actually rave reviews mostly, so we headed there for dinner.

I got in line to buy sandwiches: the Earl’s club and the Florentine, both yummy as advertised. Sorry, forgot to take pictures, because…. I came out to find DS completely soaked, frolicking in the popper fountains!

Now I had read the advice in the UoG to always carry backup clothes for your kids for this very reason. Ooops! DH went and bought a beach towel and T-shirt for DS for a somewhat staggering $52! Here is a pic of our lovely new towel.

He was out of luck on shorts. We wrung them out as best we could, I was hoping for a hand drier in the restrooms, but no dice. So DS had to wear damp shorts the rest of the evening. Lesson learned. DS rode the little train.

We stopped for a photo with the Buzz statue outside Once Upon a Toy.

(Note for later: Statue of Buzz = OK, Character Buzz = NOT OK.)

Then we heard a band playing in front of World of Disney and went to check it out.

DH and DS listened to the band, a high school orchestra, and I went shopping at World of Disney.

I was looking for a silver Mickey charm I could wear as a pendant and I found one! For $16 it came on the chain on the right with 2 other charms, I switched to the chain on the left that I had brought with me.

When I got out of the shops the boys were in line for ice cream at Ghiradelli, I nearly got spit on by Stitch on my way to join them! I didn’t get picks of the ice cream, but here’s the menu.

We had kids sized chocolate and coffee ice creams, YUM!!!.

 

[LaurenMic]

I am loving your report! Your son is adorable. Your pictures are great and I love all of the details...can't wait for more!

 

[Disneychix]

The picture of your DS on the plane watching tv is too cute!
I'm loving all the pics!

 

[VanniGirl]

Great pics - looking forward to more.

 

[bamaslp]

Great report so far! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[duckyislost]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I'm having fun putting this together and reliving the trip. We're still on the fence about when to go back, but definitely before the end of the year. I need another trip to look forward to now!

 

[duckyislost]

Day1, Part 4: DTD Lego Store and water taxi back to POR.

After Ice cream at Ghiradelli's we strolled over to the Lego store.

DS got right into the building area and started making stuff.

My DH thought the Lego "croupier" was funny, she had all the wheels in her pocket and was doling them out to the kids to make vehicles to race.

Inside the store, the Star Wars legos were what caught my eye. I couldn’t resist a pic of the Slave Leia keychain! The Darth Vader with the little cape was pretty cute too.

After that DS was getting cranky so we headed to the boat dock. It never did rain that night, maybe a light sprinkle. On the boat back to POR we saw the Illuminations fireworks over the water, nice bonus. Apologies to the family sitting behind us who probably got blinded by my flash when I attempted to take a picture of Fulton’s. Why I thought I could get a good pic, at night, from a moving boat, with a point-and-shoot camera is a mystery! DS fell asleep on the boat and we had a peaceful stroll back to our room.

I wish Bob had been playing piano that night, it was a Tuesday and he only plays Weds.-Sat. Unfortunately, the remaining nights of our trip we were at the parks late and missed him completely. On the to-do list for next time!