From the World of Adults to the World of Kids, Fifth Birthday Trip is Over!!

[kmedina]

If you saw a man with Jessica Rabbit tattoos on his legs, that would be my family.

I am sure I would have remembered that. Guess we did not see you or his legs were covered when we passed him.

 

[shan23877]

Happy Belated Birthday!!!

What a beautiful restaurant! I did the giant drop thing at the top of the Stratusphere when my mom and I went to Vegas about 10 years ago, but didn't get to check out the restaurant. Sounds like a great meal!

I am so sorry that you haven't gotten any answers from the doctors yet. That must be really frustrating. I hope that they'll get things figured out very soon for you.

 

[kmedina]

Happy Belated Birthday!!!

What a beautiful restaurant! I did the giant drop thing at the top of the Stratusphere when my mom and I went to Vegas about 10 years ago, but didn't get to check out the restaurant. Sounds like a great meal!

I am so sorry that you haven't gotten any answers from the doctors yet. That must be really frustrating. I hope that they'll get things figured out very soon for you.

Thank you.

It really was. I love that ride. It has been years since I've ridden it though. We were going to go up there after dinner. The meal started at 7:30pm and wrapped up around 10pm. My MIL was watching the boys. I needed to rush back to pick them up, since she watches my niece on weekdays while my SIL works.

Thanks. My frustration really is growing. I hope the lab results get me closer to an answer, since I did not get a referral.

 

[ronnmel]

Happy Belated Birthday!!

I would love to eat at that restaurant. The view looks amazing, and I think I would have enjoyed the filet mignon with mac & cheese a lot.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Sending best wishes your way, hopefully nothing but good news comes from your tests, if the docs can figure out what they're doing.

 

[kmedina]

I will do an update later today. We need to take the boys to swim class first and run some errands.

Happy Belated Birthday!!

I would love to eat at that restaurant. The view looks amazing, and I think I would have enjoyed the filet mignon with mac & cheese a lot.

Thank you. It was all quite nice. I highly recommend trying it if you ever come to Vegas.

Sending best wishes your way, hopefully nothing but good news comes from your tests, if the docs can figure out what they're doing.

Thanks you. I am hoping for the same thing.

 

[kmedina]

Originally, I booked dinner at Le Cellier on the 180 day mark. The morning the Candlelight Processional packages opened up, I stayed awake until 4am to change the reservation. Despite calling at exactly 4am, I did not get through until almost 4:30am. After a fifty plus minute hold, an agent came on the line about 5:20am. A few days earlier, I was bummed when I learned Le Cellier only had lunch packages (most likely due to the change earlier in the year to a two credit dinner). I booked a Candlelight Processional package at Teppan Edo to see Whoopi Goldberg. She was who I was hoping for, so I was happy when the schedule was releases. The package is basically the same as the regular meal only you pay two credits instead of one in exchange for preferred seating at the show. For those not on deluxe dining, you also get an appetizer.

My husband is against using a flash in most circumstances. Sorry for the lighting in the photos. He always feels like the flash will bother the other diners. This is part of the reason we do not take a lot of photos during meals. Surprisingly, he actually got a lot of pictures of this meal. It was the first time Xander or Connor had ever been to a Teppanyaki grill. Xander really enjoyed it. Connor nursed and slept through most of it. Pardon my creepy eyes. They get very dry and the smoke from the grill next to ours was killing my eyes. Unfortunately, it was our second restaurant of the day, and the second time Xander could not find much he liked to eat. The lovely family we set with volunteered to take a picture of our family shortly after Connor finally woke up from his nap. They turned on the flash, lol.

Dinner took longer than we expected. The show started at 8:15pm, and I was hoping to have a little time in between to look around Japan to shop for souvenirs. Epcot sells such wonderful things. I really wanted a kimono for each boy. By the time we left dinner and cleaned up the boys, the line for package seating was very long. We decided to fall in line (to get decent seats, since we paid a meal credit for them). This turned out to be a mistake, because we forgot to go back afterward and purchase them. I do not remember the exact time, but I do remember my husband saying at one point, “we’ve been in line over 45 minutes. It is almost 8:15pm. When are they going to let people in?” They finally let us in. My husband decided it would be best for the boys to sit in the front row. Since the package and standby lines were so long, they filled the seating pretty quickly. Minutes after the line opened up, the show was already starting.

We were off to the left of the stage as you can see. The view was obstructed by the orchestra. It was still pretty cool though. Since we were so close, both boys really enjoyed the show. Connor was actually awake and quietly watching most of the show. Xander never watched anything for that long when he was the same age. With 10 minutes to go, Connor did start nursing though. What an amazing show! As you can see by the pictures, Geena Davis was the narrator. Disney actually called me a few months before our trip to inform us about the change. The CM was very nice and asked if I wanted to reschedule. I politely thanked him, and said we would keep the reservation. Geena Davis did not disappoint either. She did a beautiful job. At a few points, I swear there were even tears in my eyes.

When the show wrapped up, Connor was still nursing. I allowed him to finish and headed off the restroom. The line was quite long, but I needed to go. After I used the restroom, I noticed Illuminations was going to start in less than five minutes. Part of the package did include preferred seating to the show. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to get there. Connor only nursed for a couple of minutes after the show, so there really was not a lot of time in between the two shows considering how far apart the seating was for each one. We found the only seating along the railing that was nearby and available. It was right behind a large tree, but at least we were going to watch the show. Well, the boys and I sat. Crap did not. Despite the tree, we were able to see most of the show, except for Connor who nursed again!

The park had extra magic hours, so we kept on going. I will wrap up Epcot next time. Thanks for reading along.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Happy Belated birthday! I wanna know how you get to the restaurant. We always go to the top. I would love to eat up there. I hope that meal was extra special.

When we went to the candlelight processional we had Mario Lopez, got great pics of him.

Nice pictures of you and your DH. Your kids do a great job where ever you take them. I love reading about Epcot! I am enjoying your TR.

 

[shan23877]

I'd love to to Candlelight Processional someday, it looks amazing. I'm glad that the boys were so well behaved during the show!

Teppan Edo is one of those places that's always on my maybe list, but never makes the final cut. We need to get there someday. It looks like lots of fun.

You guys were real troopers to keep going after Illuminations!

 

[kmedina]

Happy Belated birthday! I wanna know how you get to the restaurant. We always go to the top. I would love to eat up there. I hope that meal was extra special.

When we went to the candlelight processional we had Mario Lopez, got great pics of him.

Nice pictures of you and your DH. Your kids do a great job where ever you take them. I love reading about Epcot! I am enjoying your TR.

Thank you. It has a separate entrance. We went to a check in desk and told them about our reservation. We rode the elevators up to the restaurant.

I love Slater, lol. That must have been a good one.

Thanks again. My kids have their moments. When Xander was a baby, he was harder to control. We ate out less often. Connor is easier, so we eat out at least 10 times a month at home. There has only been one time where it took me more than a minute to calm him down during a meal. Xander is still the more challenging child at any given meal. He gets loud and has a hard time staying in his chair at times. Disney was different, because he was pretty good through all of our meals there.

I'd love to to Candlelight Processional someday, it looks amazing. I'm glad that the boys were so well behaved during the show!

Teppan Edo is one of those places that's always on my maybe list, but never makes the final cut. We need to get there someday. It looks like lots of fun.

You guys were real troopers to keep going after Illuminations!

I was glad too. We are always prepared to take them out if they get loud. It is nice when we can all sit together and enjoy a show though.

It was fun and the food was good. Until Xander's taste buds expand, we may not eat there again for a while. There are so many restaurants at Epcot, and they are all good. It is hard to decide.

Crap was ready to go as soon as Illuminations was over. Since we only had one day there, I wanted to keep going. The lines to leave are always so long right after a fireworks show ends anyway, so I try to avoid that whenever possible. The kids were not testy at the moment, so he agreed. I'll let you know how it went tomorrow.

 

[kmedina]

Our first stop after Illuminations was to get Xander some funnel cake. I had a little too. We did stop briefly in China to take these late night photos.

Then, we made our way over to the Norway Pavilion. Our destination was to ride Maelstrom. The ride was temporarily closed. A CM member mentioned that they planned on re-opening it shortly. Crap was already ready to go before that, so I did not want to wander around too much. I decided we would wait a little. If it did not re-open soon, we would just have to wait until next trip to ride it. It did open back up, so we got to ride it. Connor enjoyed the ride, so I was glad we waited.

Connor must have done his business in line or during the ride, because we noticed he leaked through his clothes at that point. He had been in the same outfit all day, so we still had a backup. I also packed pajamas in case the backup failed too. Since it was so late, I decided to put him right into his pajamas after I cleaned him up. After we cleaned him up, we stopped for this picture in front of the tree.

Next, we needed to get over to the Mexican Pavilion. Xander adores Mexican Donald. On our previous trip, we rode the Three Caballeros multiple times, because it made Xander laugh so much. Connor fell asleep while we were in line, so he slept through the entire ride. This was the first ride he ever slept through. Since Xander slept through so many as a baby, I am sure Connor will follow suit. I still remember us waiting over 45 minutes in the Peter Pan line at Dl when he was six months old, just for him to fall asleep a couple of minutes before boarding. He missed it. The ride was just as magical this trip for Xander. He enjoyed it, so I was glad we stayed.

Connor was out, Crap had been ready to go, Xander was looking tired, so I decided we would call it a night (after stopping for a few PhotoPass pictures of course).

Crap actually decided we should show the boys our Leave a Legacy Tile from our honeymoon trip. They are too young to understand, so I am sure he just wanted to see it. Last time we were there, they had a self-serve locator via a machine that looked like an ATM right near the tiles. This time, we were told we would need to get it from a CM inside the Camera Center. The machines were gone. It was past 11pm at this point, but the store was very crowded. There was not a separate line for this, so we had to wait behind everyone that was making their purchases. We debated whether we should just skip it or not. Ultimately, we decided to wait a long time to get the info on where it was located.

DH left it to me to find as he sat off to the side with the kids. I am horrible with directions. There were quite a few directions. After a bit of time, he decided to help me. It took him a while before he found it too, lol. When he found it, he blamed me for giving him the wrong information. I am still not sure what he meant by that, but I was happy to see it. Xander seemed happy to see it as well. Connor was still asleep although I am sure he would have been oblivious anyway. I blocked out his first name with my thumb, so I could post it for you.

Disney decided a few months before my trip that it would no longer run the monorail for more than an hour after the regular park closing hours. It was after 11:40pm by this point, which was over two hours after regular closing time. I still decided to ask a CM if it was just in case. He informed me that it was not but there were buses to take me back to my hotel. The good news here is it did not take too long for the bus to arrive. This was one of the rare times the whole trip that I can say that as it never came at all that morning and left us waiting a lot more to come. By the time we got back to our room, it was a bit after midnight. What a long day! Day Two is over and still no monorail. Will we ever get to ride it this trip?

 

[kmedina]

After sleeping in a little, we woke up for Xander’s most anticipated event, Chef Mickey’s. Our reservation was for 9:55am. We got moving a little earlier, since we had bad luck getting to our destination the day before. Around 9:20am, we arrived at the monorail station. I am happy to report that it was running. Xander loves all public transportation, but the monorail is his favorite. It arrived a few minutes after we got to the stop. He was excited to board. After a brief stop at the Magic kingdom, we were at the Contemporary. There was a bit of a wait, but we were still seated within 10 minutes of our reservation time.

This was my favorite restaurant of the entire trip for Connor. My favorite for myself was still Citricos. It was the only restaurant that had infant highchairs. The lovely hostess offered it. Since he was only five months old, he was not used to sitting in a high chair yet. That meant, I nursed him or we held him sleeping or awake through most meals. There were a couple that allowed a stroller in when he was sleeping, but a couple (like the Grand Floridian Café) did not even when he was. Connor started nursing as soon as we were seated, so he missed Donald and Minnie. They were the first and second to come around.

As you can see from the pictures, Xander was barely interested in the characters. It shocked me, because Chef Mickey’s was all he talked about when we were planning the trip. Maybe he was just really hungry, because he was ignoring them to eat. It was so different than how he pounced on them on our last trip. Connor was done nursing shortly after Minnie left. I placed him in the infant highchair, and he actually stayed in it. Goofy was the next one to come around. Xander kept eating, but Connor really enjoyed him.

Finally, the Big Cheese came around. Xander finally seemed a little excited. He actually got out of his chair and started telling him a story about the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I think. My son loves Mickey. When we transitioned him from the Pooh themed nursery to a big boy room, he requested a Mickey theme. Sadly, my husband has not done much, so I have no pictures to share. Everything has been purchased, and we are just waiting for him to do something. Connor enjoyed Mickey too. Mickey and Connor seemed to have a conversation of their own. It was a great greeting for both boys.

After Mickey, we were there for quite some time waiting for Pluto. He eventually came around. Xander was excited to see him and briefly got up to greet him. Connor liked him a lot. He kept trying to get his whiskers. It gave us all a laugh. I think Pluto leaned in closer, so Connor could get them. Pluto was so cute with my baby.

After Pluto left, our waitress had a special surprise for Xander. She brought him a cupcake and a card signed by all the characters. He was elated that once again they knew his birthday was coming. They did a mini celebration for the special guests, and Xander was excited to be one of them. It took him a while to blow out his candle. Since he was already full, he was unable to eat his cupcake. We left it there, since it was a buffet.

After breakfast, we looked around the hotel at the Christmas decorations. Xander was so excited to see the “chocolate” tree. The decorations were really beautiful and smelled delicious. It really looked and smelled like Christmas.

 

[shan23877]

All of your photos turned out really cute, but my favorites are the family one and the ones of Connor with the characters. Those are tooo stinking cute!

Chef Mickeys is such fun! My DH is the one that requests it in our house!

I can't wait to see pictures of Xander's Mickey room when it's done. I bet it'll be adorable.

Hooray for birthday cupcakes at breakfast!!

 

[glenquiny]

Very Nice

 

[usnuzuloose]

At least Connor isnt afraid of the characters. Great pictures. Cool, you have a little stone of some sort. Sorry, getting old, forgot what you called it. Sounds like you got much needed rest.

 

[kmedina]

I spent the day at the hospital, since my husband's grandfather is not doing well. We've all been praying for a recovery. I am about to do an update. Three updates in three days. I am on a roll. Hopefully, I can wrap this up before our next trip.

All of your photos turned out really cute, but my favorites are the family one and the ones of Connor with the characters. Those are tooo stinking cute!

Chef Mickeys is such fun! My DH is the one that requests it in our house!

I can't wait to see pictures of Xander's Mickey room when it's done. I bet it'll be adorable.

Hooray for birthday cupcakes at breakfast!!

Thank you. Connor did really well with all of the characters, so we got some great shots.

Xander usually adores it there. He had a slightly off day, but I think he still had a great time. It is fun for adults too.

I know. Hopefully, DH will do it before he grows out of it wasting all of the money we spent. Connor was 15 days early. We were planning on working on Xander's room right before his birth. DH was working seven days a week most weeks and slowed to six right around that time. The weekend before we bought all of the paint and stuff in store. Everything else was ordered online in advance. Crap had to drive home every night (I was there three nights including the first before he came out) to put away our deliveires. Everything I ordered arrived on those days, lol. He does not want me to paint, since I am nursing. Until it is painted, there is nothing I can do to finish it.

Even though he did not eat any, he adored the cupcake.

Very Nice

I have never seen a guest sign in before, so I thought this comment was from my husband at first. He assured me it was not, so thank you.

At least Connor isnt afraid of the characters. Great pictures. Cool, you have a little stone of some sort. Sorry, getting old, forgot what you called it. Sounds like you got much needed rest.

He really did a great job with the characters. We were very happy. It is called a Leave a Legacy Tile. What a hassle to view that thing though! Total time was over 45 minutes from the start of the line until we were gazing upon it. Yes, we were very tired and happy to sleep in a little that morning.

 

[shan23877]

I missed the Leave a Legacy update!

Love the PP pics in front of the lit up tree! So pretty! I really hope that we'll be able to go for the holidays one of these years.

My MiL has one of the stones at MK. She asks every trip if we visited it, but it's such a pain to find it that we rarely do.

Sending prayers and positive thoughts to you and your husband's family.

 

[kmedina]

After exploring the resort, we went outside to catch a bus to Downtown Disney. We watched bus after bus pull up and away. None of them were going to our destination. Now Disney claims that buses recycle around every 20 minutes, but I find that hard to believe. About 40 minutes after we sat down, a bus with four capital letters on the label pulled up. I was unsure what that meant, so I asked the driver. He said they make four stops. One of them was DtD. I do not remember the four letters or all of the stops. One was a waterpark. Finally on the third stop (the fourth was the other DtD stop I believe), we were finally at DtD. It was well over an hour after we first got to the bus stop.

As soon as we arrived, Connor was ready to nurse. We found some tables right near the water, and I was happy to see that the lady at the table next to mine was nursing her little one as well. The whole time we were there, I did not notice too many nursing Moms. Xander and Crap were anxious to get moving. Crap and I were hoping to ride Characters in Flight this time, since it never worked out on our previous trip. Xander went with him while I nursed Connor. They arrived back after quite some time, since it was a long walk from where we were. He told me that it was down due to high winds. It did not feel very windy, so most of the wind must have been above ground level.

After Connor finished nursing, we went to Goofy Candy Company for some snacks. We immediately went back to our table to consume some of them. I did not like the drink selection, so I went out in search of a drink. The lines at the quick service restaurants were extremely long, so I decided to stick to the bottle of water we packed for the day. Our next stop was the Days of Christmas. I was planning on getting quite a few things, including a stocking for Connor, some more first ornaments, some regular ornaments and a new tree topper. It was so busy inside the store that even moving through picking things up was difficult. Crap decided to take the boys and the large double stroller outside, since he kept getting pinned inside the store.

It did take a while to select everything. After I finished shopping, I fell into a very long line to pay. When I reached the register, the cast member only rang up some of my items. She said I would pay for the items that need personalization in that line. The only reason I fell into that line first was because I assumed you had to pay before you could personalize. I fell into the even longer (since there was only one) line to personalize the items. At that point, I had already been inside the store for a long time. DH was texting me for an update. Not too much longer I responded. That turned out to be false.

When I finally reached the front of the line, the CM informed me that I needed to go to embroidery to have the stocking personalized. That was on the other side of the store. She did at least help with the ornaments, so it was not a complete waste like the first line. I went over to the embroidery stand. There was only one person in front of me. Yes, I thought. I am finally almost done. The lady was by far the nicest one in there and told me, “You need to pay for the stocking first. Bring the receipt back and I can ring up the embroidery.” I had already gone through two lines where you were able to pay for merchandise and not one of them knew that stockings were the one item that had to be paid up front before the personalization.

I go back to the first line. After waiting quite a bit of time again, I get the same lady who rang me up the first time. Maybe, she did not remember me. When I told her that I had to pay for the stocking before I could get the embroidery, she said nothing and just rang it up. Wow. No apology for all the time she just cost me. Luckily, there was no line when I went back to the embroidery section. I paid for the embroidery and exited the store more than TWO hours after I walked in. My amazing DH sat with the boys outside the store for over two hours and never complained! At least I got everything I wanted even though I went a little over the agreed upon budget.

Since it had been almost three hours since Connor nursed, he was ready for another feeding. I finally got a drink from a stand and found a different table to nurse him. He did not nurse for very long. When he was done, we went into the Build-A-Dino store inside the Rainforest Café. On the last trip, we bought Xander a dinosaur. We informed him that at almost $60 (with all of the stuff we add to it), we would only be getting Connor one this time. I was very proud of him. Not only did he not complain, but he happily assisted us with making Connor’s. He picked out the dinosaur, added the heart inside, and picked out the outfit. The total was just under $60 and is still Connor’s only Build-A-Bear. Xander has six or seven.

Xander adores trains, so that was our next stop.

After the train, we all walked over to Character’s in Flight to see if the wind calmed down. It was still down. We headed back toward the World of Disney store. After a little shopping there, I decided to nurse Connor again. The last feeding was so short, and we would need to leave soon. Crap used that time to take Xander into some stores including the Lego Store where he spent quite a bit of his birthday money. They were gone a while, so Connor and I played while we waited for them to come back.

Once they came back, we all hung out for a small amount of time before heading to the bus stop.

 

[shan23877]

WOW!! 2 hours at the Christmas Store?? I would have probably given up before I got through the lines, and I KNOW that DH would have.

I've never read a TR in which anyone actually managed to get on Characters in Flight. It seems to be "down" a lot.

So sweet of Xander to help build Connor's dinosaur!

Maddie is saving up money (she thinks it's for stuff for her new bedroom-she thinks that her new room will need new toys ) for the trip. I wish that she'd get some legos, but if I'm being honest, most of it will probably get spent at WoD in the princess section

 

[kmedina]

WOW!! 2 hours at the Christmas Store?? I would have probably given up before I got through the lines, and I KNOW that DH would have.

I've never read a TR in which anyone actually managed to get on Characters in Flight. It seems to be "down" a lot.

So sweet of Xander to help build Connor's dinosaur!

Maddie is saving up money (she thinks it's for stuff for her new bedroom-she thinks that her new room will need new toys ) for the trip. I wish that she'd get some legos, but if I'm being honest, most of it will probably get spent at WoD in the princess section

I wanted to give up. The patience DH had with the boys and knowing that Christmas would be less than two weeks away by the time I returned gave me the strength to continue. We did not get home until late on 12-11-12, which made 12-12-12 the first day I was able to do anything when we got back.

I've tried to ride Character's in Flight a few times myself across multiple trips and have been unlucky thus far. Hopefully, next trip will be our time.

Xander can be so sweet to Connor. I still remember how great he was to help make it without whining for his own every time I see it.

Maddie is going to be so excited, and I think she will be getting a lot of new Princess items too.